Shepard lost track of time as he thought of the ways to end the day well. Almost all of them involved Ash, some form of sex with her, and ways to make both of them happy. The thoughts were teasing him, even as he harbored them in his mind for months, if not years.

"Hey skipper. Place looks different. You doing alright?"

Shepard snapped out of his thoughts as he focused on Ash and said, "Had to get something to drink after dealing with this mess."

"Uh-huh." Ash walked over to Shepard and sat down next to him. "Man, I could use a drink too." Ashley went into Shepard's stash and took some dark-blue champagne out. As she poured a glass for herself, Ashley motioned if Shepard wanted a drink, and after accepting, poured him a glass as well. They toasted and had a nice drink. As Ashley was finishing her drink, she asked,

"Hey, that wasn't broken when we came back in, was it?" Ashley gestured towards the broken display glass that was by Shepard's desk. Shepard replied,

"I…lost my temper. James's fault. His sorry ass cleaned it up."

"Wow, what a dick. I'd make him do more than that if it was me."

"He will. He knows it and he doesn't know it."

"My kind of thinking." Ashley giggled as Shepard leaned in to give her a quick kiss on the lips.

Ashley asked, "Got any plans for tonight, hero-man?"

"Why don't we try something different? I loved how wild and energetic our fun was yesterday, let's try something relaxing today. I was thinking we could watch a vid in bed. Drama, actually."

"Don't you have enough drama here?"

"I do. Some drama is more bearable than others. And funny, too."

"Ok…so what is it?"

"Ever hear of Grunts?"

"Ummm..."

"It's about guys like C-Sec busting people for stupid things. Most of the time, they talk about how stupid people are, but sometimes security slips up, and when they do, you know what happens…"

"Seriously? We're going to watch a bunch of morons get their asses handed to each other?"

"Well, unless you got a better idea…"

"Screw it, im in."

"We'll need popcorn and drinks for this…"

"Hell yeah, Shepard."

As Shepard went to bake some popcorn, he was unaware that Ashley stripped down to her underwear as she laid under the covers, waiting for Shepard, a movie, some popcorn, and more alcohol. Shepard heated up 2 bags of popcorn, put it in a huge bowl for them to share, and braught it to Ashley. As he gave the bowl to Ashley, Shepard noticed she stripped down and said,

"Hell-oooo, what am I missing out on here?"

Ashley giggled and said, "Shut up and get in bed."

"One moment, I gotta get us something to drink."

Not wanting to take chances on not getting the good stuff, Shepard decided to mix things up and bring all of his alcohol alongside his bed once he handed Ashley the bowl of popcorn. As Shepard took his armful of Alcohol to his bed, Ashley replied,

"If we're gonna drink all that, I better wake up by you and not on the floor."

"You will." As Shepard set all the bottles of alcohol by the head of the bed for easy access, he realized he had one more thing to do. As soon as the last bottle was set, Shepard flung his shirt off and quickly jumped out of his pants so he could share his skin and sexy boxers with Ashley.

"Wow, quite a show your putting on, Shepard."

"You ain't seen anything yet." Shepard quickly went under the covers with Ashley to feel her nice, warm body under the covers. Both of them enjoyed the feeling they shared and if they weren't intoxicated from the alcohol, they were intoxicated from their touch. Both of them watched 'Grunts' and got a real kick out of watching security beating up criminals and the occasional criminal taking on security.

"Seriously? He was right there, how did you miss him!" Ashley exclaimed as an human criminal gave C-Sec the slip by taking an elevator.

"Aw, come on, even Conrad could've kicked his ass!" Shepard exclaimed as a Volus beat up a Turian patrol officer.

"Seriously, even my sisters wouldn't try that." Ashley said in disbelief as a group of Salarians was arrested for selling illegal mods in public.

"What is this, high school? Krogan Testicles never sell for that low," Shepard stated as a STG agent and his men arrested two krogan for trying to buy implants.

Surprisingly, Shepard appeared at one point in the movie. As soon as he appeared, both of them reacted in different ways.

"Oh god, do I have to look at this again?" Shepard said as he facepalmed himself.

"What!?" Ashley exclaimed as she sat up and looked closer at the vid, "Your in this too? Ha, this has gotta be good!"

Khalisah al-Jilani was seen bugging Shepard for an interview, asking about the Destiny Ascension; Ashley quickly realized who she was and said,

"Her? Again? What's she up to?"

Then, on the vid, Shepard said, "I've had enough of your disingenuous assertions," and as soon as Shepard punched her square in the face, Ashley reacted,

"Ha! Bitch deserved it!"

The segment mentioned how C-Sec was called after this incident and that they could find no trace of a man named 'Shepard' or a motive to the assault. Ashley noted,

"I wish you did that the first time. Everyone in my family would get a thrill to see you do that."

"I can't believe this is the first your hearing of it. I thought everyone on the Normandy..."

Ashley made a renegade interrupt and said, "Wait, shut up, there's more!"

A scene showed Shepard confronting Khalisah al-Jilani again, this time with security footage from C-Sec in addition to the news reporter's camera. As Khalisah was berating Shepard about running away while the Reapers attacked earth, Shepard mouthed, "I've had enough of your tabloid journalism," and tried to punch the news reporter, only for her to duck and avoid the blow. Just as she was about to strike back, Shepard grabbed her head, headbutted her and watched as she flew back into a sign and slowly fell down.

"Your getting a little slow, Shepard. She almost had you." Ashley teased.

"Yeah, yeah, lucky miss."

The segment talked about how they believed C-Sec turned a blind eye to this incident and that several officers under Commander Bailey's command were investigated, none of whom were fired because they believed C-Sec had a grudge against reporters. They mentioned that this man was very dangerous, was targeting female news reporters, and that if anyone were to see him, they should not confront him and should call C-Sec immediately, contradicting their beliefs.

"Yeah, like they can get there before the pizza guy does. How the hell do they not know who you sure? Either C-Sec is really dumb or someone's covering for your actions."

"Probably both. I don't know who though."

Ashley rolled her eyes and said, "Uh-huh. Sure you don't."

The movie continued on, showing more criminals doing stupid things and a human officer pulling off a hilariously bad sting. A few seconds after she sold them illegal goods, they had disappeared around a corner before she realized she had to arrest them, and when she ran around the corner, they were nowhere to be found, even after she called for backup.

"UN-BE-LIEVABLE!" exclaimed Ashley, "I wish they did more than fire her ass."

"Put her in general population?"

"Nah, put her in solitary for a few months, and leave the lights off."

"Brutal. I like that."

The movie finally ended, with Shepard and Ashley quite excited with how the whole movie turned out. They were in high spirits, and they surprisingly were not overly drunk, despite all the bottles of alcohol Shepard braught to her bed. Between them, they probably drank no more than 1 whole bottle worth of alcohol, and while they could have drank much more alcohol and passed out drunk in the middle of the movie, they didn't. Shepard decided to do one more thing before wrapping up the night on a positive note.

"Ash," Shepard said as he looked towards Ashley, "Have you heard of a poet named Mary Fye?"

"Doesn't ring a bell?"

"Really? I thought you heard of them all. I wanted to tell you one of her poems. I actually wanted to say it back on Horizon, but things didn't go well. Wanna hear it?"

"Sure."

"Do not stand at my grave and weep
I am not there. I do not reap.
I am a thousand winds that blow.
I am the diamond glints on snow.
I am the sunlight on ripened grain.
I am the gentle autumn rain."

Ashley held back tears in her eyes while Shepard continued,

"When you awaken in the morning's hush
I am the swift uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circled flight.
I am the soft stars that shine at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry;
I am not there. I did not die."

Ashley truly and valiantly tried to avoid what she was feeling, using all of her training, all of her instinct, and all of her fortitude, but that was not enough. Tears flowed from her eyes as she cried, for perhaps the first time in 2 years, as Shepard finished the poem. Shepard did not need or have any more words for Ash, and Ash could not use words to describe how blessed she truly is to have Shepard back in her life.

Neither of them held back as they fully embraced and kissed each other, softly, passionately, smoothly, and with tears. Shepard gave in and sacrified tears for Ashley, knowing that the road ahead would not be easy, but that in the end, it would be worth it, and they would do it together. Ashley saw Shepard's tears, and tightened her grip on him both with her arms and with her lips. They couldn't count the actual minutes that passed, but it was longer than several days' worth of kisses in a row. Shepard massaged his fingers up and down Ashley's back as she rubbed his upper back and the back of his head while they were kissing. They were heated, but passionate, in their kissing.

They had nor needed no other words for their night, just earthly moans and groans of pleasure. After stripping off their underwear, Shepard decided to reward Ashley first by fucking her slowly at first, then faster, than slower to catch her breath, than faster so she could finish with an orgasm that could probably be heard all over the Normandy, even without intervention from EDI or wiretapping from any of the crew. Shepard saved his libido so that Ashley's first orgasm would also be his; the rounds he had with Ashley many times before enabled more control over his body's ability to orgasm. It was strange how out of all the many times they had sex, including the times on the SR-1, this moment was the best both of them ever shared, even better than their sex in the fish tank.

Ashley decided to reward Shepard with the jobs of his choice. Shepard started by giving Ashley a boob job, than a foot job, then gave her a facial, where he climaxed, back to a boob job, where Ashley climaxed, than a foot job, and then finally finished by fucking her, where he sacrificed the last drops of his semen inside her. Shepard was exhausted by the time he fucked her for a second time, and wanted to fall asleep on top of her with him still inside her, but managed to stay awake until his last push of sperm made it inside her. Ashley was exhausted from having to position herself over and over again as Shepard went from top of bottom then back up and back down; she was relieved when he finally gave the last of his energy to her. They both collapsed to sleep from pleasure, exhaustion, and from the alcohol that wasn't filtered out of their bloodstream.