There were days when Ashley Williams wondered if transferring to the SSV Normandy was worth all the trouble.
It wasn't as if she was trying to sound ungrateful or anything. A posting on the Alliance's new flagship was something most people would have given their firstborns to have. A few months ago, Ashley herself would have gladly volunteered for the position of janitor for a chance to serve on this amazing ship.
And now. . . well, now she was serving as Armory Chief on the Normandy under the direct command of the Hero of Elysium herself! And she didn't even have to clean any toilets to get there!
Still, she groused as she cleaned out the last remnants of Thorian slime from her armor, it would've been nice if there were no crazy turian Spectres with armies of robots hell bent on genocide involved.
Seriously! Prothean beacons, crazy visions, mind-controlling plants, asari archaeologists. . . .
She sighed as she reached for a bottle of cleaning fluid. This stuff is way above my pay grade.
Still, she wondered, things weren't so bad.
Shepard's exceptional leadership meant that all of their missions so far had been rather successful, even if the collateral damage was a little high sometimes. Being on the Normandy under the command of humanity's first Spectre meant that Ashley was one of those lucky individuals who got to see history in the making. God, people were going be talking about this stuff for decades to come; and she, Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams, would be able to say that she had been there, by Commander Shepard's side, when humanity would go on to make its mark on the galaxy.
Wish Dad could see me right now. Old man would be proud.
She nodded. Yeah, things were definitely good on the Normandy. Heck, even the aliens on the ship would probably agree with her.
Speaking of the aliens, Ashley stole a glance at the sleeping form of Wrex, curled up on the floor near his usual place in the cargo hold.
She would be the first one to admit she'd had severe doubts about letting the aliens aboard the ship. The Normandy was a first-of-its-kind Alliance prototype vessel, for God's sake! Who knew what kind of secret, experimental technology was involved here? It just didn't seem right that they were being given free run of the ship and its systems.
Still, the Commander had assured her that she trusted them, and frankly, who was Ashley Williams to argue with the Hero of the Skyllian Blitz? Heck, she was just a grunt who shot things, while the Commander had spent practically her whole life aboard spaceships. No doubt Shepard knew what she was doing, and Ashley wasn't stupid enough to annoy a CO who seemed to genuinely care about her so much.
It helped that Shepard had been proven right in the end. Far from being a liability, the aliens had turned out to be a blessing from Heaven. Tali was probably the most skilled engineer Ashley had ever seen, the old krogan had long since earned her respect on the battlefield and even Liara, who Ashley had initially dismissed as a useless nerd, was quite the biotic powerhouse.
The turian on the other hand. . . .
She glanced over at the Mako, where Garrus Vakarian was busy fiddling with the suspension systems, as usual. The turian had been the biggest surprise of them all.
Her initial impression of the C-Sec officer hadn't been all that great. Even though he had been the one to get them the evidence on Saren, Ashley had doubted his abilities. When he had requested Shepard to let him join the Normandy, she had been suspicious of his intentions (part of her still was). Either way, she hadn't been too concerned. She'd doubted a mere police officer would be able to keep up with the rest of them on the field.
She had been so wrong.
On the battlefield, Garrus Vakarian was a force of nature. She watched him do things with a sniper rifle that would've put the best snipers in the Alliance to shame. His sheer skill and tactical prowess on the field was only matched by Shepard herself, and the way he fell in sync with the rest of the team showed an adaptability she'd seen only among Special Forces.
It was enough to make her feel glad he was on their side.
If Ashley had to be perfectly honest with herself however, she had come to think of the aliens as more than just fellow soldiers. Tali reminded her so much of her own younger sisters that Ashley started to feel protective of her sometimes, Wrex was something of a grumpy old grandpa/mentor figure to the whole group and even Liara had started to grow on her (when she shut up about the Protheans anyway). She even got along with Vakarian well enough, pain in the ass that he was sometimes.
Yep, she nodded, there were plenty of good things about being on the Normandy.
"Hey, Ash."
And speaking of good things. . . .
"Hey there, LT," Ashley grinned at the biotic alighting from the elevator.
"You can call me Kaidan when we're off duty, you know" Alenko said as he walked up to her station. "Late night?"
"Just finishing up some work on the armor, Kaidan," she replied, fighting a sudden urge to giggle. Christ, get a grip, Ash! You're a marine, not some teenager chatting with her first crush!
Alenko peered at the mess on her work station. "Hmmm, yeah. You should probably think about getting a new set. That thing looks like it's pretty much done."
"Yeah, I was going to ask the Commander about getting a new set. But with all that business with the Thorian and that asari mumbo jumbo, I just didn't feel like disturbing her."
"I'll put in a requisitions order for you," Alenko promised.
"You don't have to. . . ."
"It's no problem, Ash. I need to get some things for the others anyways."
"Thanks, Kaidan," Ashley said gratefully. She had to struggle to prevent herself from batting her eyelashes at the handsome soldier. Goddamn it!
Alenko smiled at her as he opened his locker and started rummaging around for something. "Damn it," he cursed. "Why does my pistol always end up at the very back?"
Ashley slowly licked her lips. She didn't have the heart to tell the good lieutenant that she was the reason his pistol always ended up in the hard-to-reach areas of his locker. Girl's got needs and all that.
She sighed softly as the biotic bent over into his locker, giving her an ample view of his backside. What wouldn't I give to get a chance to hit that? Or maybe get some alone time with him in the showers?
She turned back to her station reluctantly as Alenko finally emerged from his locker, pistol in hand. He bade her goodnight and strode back to the elevator.
She watched him walk away with a soft sigh on her lips, eyes doing their very best to soak in the view of his assets. She wondered if it'd be worth getting a mark on her record for fraternization, if it meant getting a chance to tap that booty.
Maybe if I get him drunk enough. . .
She heaved a long-suffering sigh and turned back to her workstation, intending to wrap up everything and get a few hours in the sleeping pod. . .
. . . only to find herself standing practically nose to nose with a tall mass of armored turian.
"Gah!" she yelped, jumping backwards in surprise.
"Hello Williams," Garrus Vakarian said smoothly.
Why that spiky, scaly son of a. . .
"Dammit Vakarian!" she snapped. "You nearly scared the crap out of me! What d'you want?"
"Who me? Nothing," he said. Then in a move so casual, you could barely see it, "Wasn't that Lt Alenko you were speaking to just now?"
Ashley narrowed her eyes at him suspiciously. "Yeah, it was. Why do you care?"
"Nothing. Just making some small talk, that's all," he shrugged.
"Yeah? Go somewhere else then," she muttered, turning back to her workstation. She had a cold shower waiting for her.
"You're the only one awake over here," he pointed out diplomatically. A heartbeat later, "Say, you wouldn't happen to know why the lieutenant always seems to have problems with his locker, would you?"
She froze. He knows. The bastard knows!
She slowly turned around to fix the turian with her trademark Williams-glare. Just because she respected the scaly asshole on the field didn't mean she trusted him. Ashley would be the first to admit that Vakarian was one hell of a sneaky bastard, constantly using the dirtiest of tricks to take down his opponents. Anyone who was stupid enough to buy his 'innocent turian' act deserved to get shot.
"What the hell are you on about, Vakarian?"
"Who me? Nothing at all." Butter wouldn't melt in his mouth (if there was such a thing as dextro-butter). "I'm just curious as to why your vitals go haywire whenever the lieutenant is around, that's all."
Ashley blinked. "My what?"
"You know," he tapped his visor with one talon. "Increase in heart rate, rapid breathing, pupil dilation, increasing heat generation from specific regions of the body, particularly erogenous. . . ."
"All right, fine, I get the point!" she cut him off, fighting hard to conceal a blush. She then took a deep breath. "Look Vakarian, it's not whatever you think it is. Just drop it, okay?"
"Come now, Williams," Ashley was no expert on reading his expressions, but even she could tell he had the turian version of a shit-eating grin on his face. "There's no need to hide stuff like that from me. After all, we're battle-buddies, aren't we?"
She pinched the bridge of her nose in exasperation. "It's none of your business. And since when the hell did you become so perceptive about this kind of shit, huh?"
"Seriously, Williams," he pretended to buff his talons on the plate of his armor. "'Awesome C-Sec detective', remember? Or did you think I got the job because of my good looks?"
"Oh, I very much doubt your 'looks' had anything to do with it, bird-brain," she muttered under her breath. Aloud she said, "Assuming there even was something going on, there's no way I'm going to act on it. Alliance has a ton of regulations against fraternization on the ship."
"Ah yes, 'regulations'", he flicked his talons to make air-quotes. Seriously, where the hell did he learn to do that? "Pesky little things, aren't they? Besides, it's not as if they really do a good job of keeping people from actively looking for relationships."
"What the hell are you getting at?" she growled.
"Well," he leaned forward conspiratorially. "Rumor on the ship has it that our lieutenant has a soft spot for a certain Commander, if you catch my drift."
Ashley felt her heart sink. She knew only too well what he was talking about. Scuttlebutt on the ship had pretty much confirmed a while back that Alenko was openly smitten with Commander Shepard. It was subtle as hell but anyone who knew what to look for could figure it out pretty easily. Ashley herself had never joined in on the gossip though. She found it exceedingly rude to openly postulate on what her superiors may or may not be doing; plus she didn't want to give Shepard any excuses to kick her off the ship.
Grimly, she wondered if Vakarian was telling her this just to mess with her mind. She was therefore about to tell the turian gossip-queen where exactly he could shove his rumors when he spoke. "Personally, I think he's wasting his time though."
She blinked. "What're you talking about?"
"Well," he drawled. "Rumor also has it that Shepard's been spending a lot of time with a certain archaeologist these days."
Ashley was outraged. "The Commander is not a xenophile!"
"She's not a xenophobe, either," Garrus pointed out. "Besides, there's a reason asari are so popular all over the galaxy, you know."
She shook her head stubbornly. "She's probably just discussing that Prothean stuff with Liara, Vakarian. I'm pretty sure Shepard doesn't look at her that way."
"Probably not. But you can't tell me Liara doesn't look at her that way."
Ashley scratched her chin thoughtfully. It was no secret that Liara was openly crushing on the Commander. The signs were all there. Her eagerness to accompany them on every single mission, the way she blushed whenever Shepard complimented her, the way she stammered when the Commander brought up any sensitive topics for discussion, the way her eyes lit up whenever Shepard talked about the Protheans. . .
Even an idiot could tell that she had feelings for the Commander.
Too bad Shepard's more than a bit of an idiot in that department.
For all her strategic brilliance and quick thinking, the Commander tended to be woefully oblivious when she was being hit on. Even some of the most obvious gestures seemed to go right over her head. It was almost painful to watch sometimes.
Probably explained why Liara reacted the way she did at the last party.
After the gang had gotten Liara drunk, the young asari had proceeded to tell everyone who'd listen that Shepard was an avatar of the Protheans and an answer to all her prayers to the Goddess Athame. Then, to the delight of all the males (and even quite a few females) in the vicinity, she had moved to pull the surprised Commander into a steamy kiss and would probably have gone further if she hadn't passed out on the floor.
Heck, even someone as thick-skulled as Shepard would've figured it out after that performance.
Ashley shook herself out of reverie and glanced at the sly turian standing beside her. "I still find it hard to believe that Shepard would choose Liara over the LT."
"Well, you know what they say, Williams, 'Once you go blue, nothing else will do.'"
"Yeah. . . I'm pretty sure they weren't thinking of asari when they said that."
"That's not the point," Garrus waved a long talon under her nose. "The point is, when the good lieutenant eventually gets his heart broken, don't you want to be there to help him pick up the pieces?"
"That's. . . ." Ashley sputtered. "That's none of your business! And since when did you start caring about my love life, anyways?"
"Come now, Williams. Don't be like that. If we soldiers don't watch each other's backs, then who will?"
Ashley folded her hands and glared at him suspiciously. She still had no idea what his game was and she was not going to fall for his tricks.
But, what if he's right? said a small voice in her head. Would it really be so bad if I could get Kaidan to be interested in me?
Being from a military family meant that Ashley's dating prospects were severely limited. There was no way she could hope to date or get settled down with a civilian, she was just too much of a marine. Plus, relationships between soldiers in the Alliance were not that uncommon. Shepard herself was the only child of two Alliance officers.
Kaidan was cute, and he was an officer to boot. He was kind, sensitive and a nice guy overall, even if he could be a bit of a dork sometimes (walking around with toilet paper trailing behind him, seriously). Given his skills and his intelligence, his rise in Alliance ranks was practically guaranteed; and now that Ashley had a CO like Shepard, she could probably say goodbye to the old Williams family curse, and get a couple of overdue promotions herself. If what Vakarian was saying was true, then she had a good shot at having a real, meaningful relationship, and get a chance to tap that perky bottom!
She bit her lip and looked at Vakarian, who for some reason looked inordinately pleased with himself. "I don't know. . . doesn't seem right, taking advantage of him like that."
"I believe you humans have a saying: 'All is fair in love and war'." he reminded her.
"It's a heavy risk. . ."
"But the priiiiiize," he insisted.
She shook her head and gathered her things. "I'll. . . I'll think about it. Goodnight, Vakarian."
"Sweet dreams," he called out to her as she hurried to the elevator.
'Sweet dreams?' Right! More like wet ones.
If Ashley Williams had chosen to turn back at that instant, she would have seen something truly horrifying.
Watching her leave with a predatory gleam in his eyes, was a turian with a most evil smirk on his face. A smirk so very evil, in fact, that had Sovereign seen it, he'd run back screaming to Harbinger and the other Reapers.
Indeed Williams, all is fair in love and war. . . .
And this was a little bit of both.
AN: Next up, our favorite turian takes a trip to his least favorite place in the galaxy. . . Noveria.
Stay tuned, folks :)
Remember, reviews are most welcome.