Shepard gently woke up and looked at his clock to see how much time had passed. Unfortunately, he didn't remember exactly when they stopped watching the movie, but he remembered when they started, and he guessed that a little over 12 hours had passed between then and now. Ashley was sound asleep around his arms, snoring slightly but in a cute fashion. Because he did not see the ship in FTL or heard from any of the crew about the recon being complete, Shepard had no reason to get out of bed yet.

Shepard noticed that there were some tablets he left on the side of the table from yesterday's cleanup, and carefully picked up a tablet without disturbing Ash or taking his body heat away from her. He looked through the tablet and went down memory lane once again as he saw pictures of their past. The majority of memories were pictures, some on the Normandy, some on the citadel, some even at exotic locations, such as a beach on Nevos. Ensuring that Ashley remained asleep, Shepard unlocked a hidden data file on the tablet to look at pictures of Ashley all fleshed out. He had pictures of every inch of Ash everywhere, and as he looked from her toes to her head and all in-between, he stopped. He exited the hidden files and blacked out his tablet, realizing that while the pictures are nice, the experiences he shared with Ash fortified his resolve. Shepard had successfully shared his dirty secrets with Ash, satisfied every fantasy that he could think of with Ash, and did so much beyond his expectations that he would do better to relive these moments in his mind. The smell of her feet, the sound of her breath, the feeling of her insides, the taste of her breasts, and the look of her facial expressions all combined to give Shepard memories and fantasies that were better than looking at a picture.

Shepard thought about the war, and was confident enough that he would try and win this war, and confident enough to believe that if he and Ash were going to die, it would be together and at once. He knew it would not be easy, and he knew that there would be more sacrifices to make, but he had to try and he had to get the help he needed to win this war. Shepard decided to lay back down and fall asleep, not wanting to disturb Ash and content with sharing each other in their sleep.

After some time, Shepard awoke to the smell of eggs, toast, and…bacon? He had no idea why he smelled bacon, but he instantly knew Ash was cooking breakfast when he realized she was no longer in bed with him. To his surprise, Ash had already cooked breakfast, and put it on a table tray next to his bed.

"Morning, Shep. I was just about to wake you up, but it looks like the breakfast did. Hmm, smell waking you up…"

"Do I want to know what's going through your head?"

"No Shep, you really don't. Now, eat your breakfast, and you can thank James later for bringing some bacon in, no idea how he got some."

Shepard smirked and said, "He thinks he'll get off easy by bribing me. He has no idea just how much trouble he's in."

"You go get him later, skipper." Ashley pulled up a tray of her own next to Shepard's and sat alongside him in bed as they ate breakfast. Fortunately for Shepard, Ashley had dressed up and put on her casual uniform before cooking breakfast, so the secrets of her flesh were still safe with him. They both enjoyed a wonderful breakfast, and Ashley did not exaggerate when she said Shepard tasted nothing until she had her bacon; it was so good that even 3 platefuls of her bacon wouldn't be enough to sate his appetite. But he had to take it slow and easy, as much as he wanted to scarf it down, because there is truly no way to savor divinely gracious bacon. To his surprise, they both finished breakfast at the same time, and both of them still had room for more breakfast. Shepard did the honors for Ashley and cleaned up their breakfast, squaring away the trays and putting the dishes away to be washed later. As soon as Shepard put away the dishes and walked down the steps, he heard,

"Commander, EDI's all done doing her reconnaissance. I think your gonna want to come down here and check it out for yourself, it's not good." Joker announced to Shepard.

"Alright Joker, im on my way."

As Shepard got dressed and prepared to head down to the war room, he said to Ashley,

"Well, duty calls. I know, same old saying, but we're pros at this, Ash. The crew wouldn't last 5 minutes taking on the reapers without us."

"And you wouldn't last 5 minutes taking them on your own. I'm glad we fight together, Shepard."

"This war couldn't be won without each other and the crew. I'm proud of what they've done so far, and more importantly, I'm proud we're back together and better than ever."

Ashley quickly laughed as she replied, "Oh Shepard, you and your words. You want me to come with you to the CIC?"

"Sure. If EDI found something bad, I'll take all the tactical options I can get."

"Aye aye, commander." Ashley saluted Shepard when he fully dressed himself and both of them walked down to the war room, where the quarian admirals awaited to be briefed by EDI and Shepard about their findings on Rannoch.