A kiss makes the heart young again and wipes out the years. ~ Rupert Brooke

After two days passed from the moment Shepard and Ashley shared a kiss at Apollo's Café, an opportunity arose that they could not ignore. The Normandy SR-2 was drifting in space, performing reconnaissance for the migrant fleet to plan their attack on the geth occupying Rannoch. Almost all of the maintenance work and calibrations were done while the Normandy was at the citadel two days ago, so the best thing that could be done was to wait while EDI gathered intel on the planet, and hope not to be hit by geth or quarian crossfire. With all this extra downtime, people turned to other things so that time would pass.

It all started with a visit to the captain's cabin. Ashley wanted to break the monotony of waiting around, so she took the elevator to the captain's cabin to see Shepard. Before she could even knock, the door leading to the cabin automatically opened for her, and as she walked in, she saw Shepard looking over several tablets worth of boring data. What surprised her was that Shepard was just in his N7 Boxers, although a set of clothes were on the floor next to his office chair.

"Hey!" Ashley stated, "You must be expecting company. I hope it was me and nobody else with how you're dressed."

Shepard dropped his tablet on the table and looked over to Ashley.

"Naw, I was hoping Wrex would say hi." Ashley was taken aback. "Heh, no, I was actually hoping you'd show up." Ashley was then relieved. "If I actually finished reading who cleaned the toilets…"

"Too much information there, skipper."

"How are you holding up?"

Ashley moved closer to Shepard and sighed, "Bored, just like everyone else here. I've had nothing better to do but clean my gear and stare out into space. So, Shepard, I really got to know: Are we going somewhere or not?"

Shepard moved closer to Ashley and gently took her right hand into his left hand.

"Ash…I wouldn't want to save the galaxy without you by my side. I need you. I love you. I couldn't even do this without you." Ashley's eyes began to water as Shepard's words comforted her mind and heart. "We're here now, with each other, and there's no way I would leave you behind again. I'll go anywhere with you. Will you go with me?"

Ashley's voice began to break up as she said, "Just…" but then was interrupted as Shepard and Ashley knew what they wanted from each other. Shepard and Ashley embraced and kissed each other with passionate love, and for one whole minute, they were oblivious to everything around them; the galaxy, the war with the reapers, their surroundings, all of it was lost to love. A tear seeped out from both of Ashley's eyes, but it was the good kind, the kind that says 'I'm mutually loved'. Memories of her flashed through Shepard's mind, reminding him of some of the countless good times they shared in a galaxy full of danger. When their lips parted from their faces, reality came to their senses, and Shepard asked,

"Will you stay here with me? Until duty calls?"

"Yes, sir." Ashley responded in a romantic tone. At that point, they both knew what they wanted: a roll in the haystack. Shepard walked towards the bed, with Ashley following suit and taking pieces of her armor off as she walked with him.

"They made the bed harder when they built the new Normandy, you won't be looking for a hard spot to lay on like you did last time."

Ashley made a noise with her lips and said, "Oh, please. You were the one having issues with the bed, not me."

As Ashley finally stripped off the last piece of her armor, Shepard commanded, "Get over here!" and Ashley pounced him onto his back as they began to have sex. What started as intense kissing worked to clothes-stripping, and then both of them exchanged favors, with Ashley getting a boob job, a good old-fashioned fuck, a facial, and even getting her toes sucked at one point. In the hour that they shared passionate, hot sex with each other, Ashley climaxed four times while Shepard climaxed twice. As usual, Ashley and Shepard flung both passionate and teasing comments towards each other, although this time, it was mostly passionate. On Ashley's fourth climax, they decided to cool down and eventually both of them took a three-hour nap, with Shepard spooning Ashley.