Chapter 21: Past Titles
Tali walked slowly into the engine room. She had missed it. She knew she shouldn't even be up and walking around, but the pain meds and antibiotics Dr. Chakwas had given her were doing the trick. Her side was still tender, but at least she had been able to eat and move around a little. She was amazed that she hadn't gotten sick. Maybe her immune system was much stronger than she thought. She kind of smiled at the idea. She had patched her suit, though the damage had put a permanent stain and a gnarled fix job on it. It would never look as good as it had before, but she couldn't very well just change into another suit. They weren't near the flotilla anyway.
As she headed to her console, Fitzer approached her.
"Hey Tali," he greeted. "Good to see you're okay." He smiled affectionately at her. She couldn't help but smile back. She knew he had a crush on her. She didn't understand it, but there it was. When they'd first started working together she'd found it strange and off-putting, but over the months she had come to find it somewhat endearing.
"Thanks, Elliot" She said. "I hear I slept through all of the excitement of the last few hours."
Fitzer scoffed. "You can say that again."
Tali frowned. "And I heard we lost Lieutenant Alenko. I wish there was more I could have done."
Fitzer sighed sadly. "Yeah Alenko was a good guy." He shook his head. "Sucks." Tali couldn't have agreed more that was exactly how to sum it up. He looked back at her. "You been briefed on everything else then? How we're headed into the shit storm and probably won't come back alive?"
"I...Chakwas told me a little bit. She didn't exactly put it like that..."
"It's funny," Fitzer said. "I'm not a soldier. Never really wanted anything more to work on engines for the Alliance, but... I'm on board with this. Feels like something we need to do you know?"
"I know what you mean."
The door to the engine room opened and Shepard walked in, headed straight for them. He nodded a greeting at Fitzer, who saluted back. "At ease, Fitzer" he said, even clapping him on the shoulder. Tali had noticed that things with this crew had gotten pretty casual, especially of late. It reminded her a little of the family like atmosphere of the Flotilla. She liked it. "Can you give me a minute with Tali please?"
"You got it, sir." Fitzer smiled once more at Tali and then walked out, leaving the two of them alone with the hum of the drive core. Shepard looked guilty, a troubled look on his face.
"Shepard? Are you all right?" It was then she noticed how exhausted he looked. The circles under his blue eyes were dark and he hadn't shaved in at least a couple days. The lines on his face, his scars, were just a bit more prominent. He was still the handsome human she'd met that day on the Citadel, but she could see how the entire journey had worn on him.
Shepard sighed. "How are you feeling, Tali?"
She shrugged. "Not bad for a person who's been shot. My head is a little swimmy, but I'm thinking those are the pain killers."
Shepard smiled. "You know you probably shouldn't even be up walking around, you know." he said.
"I know, but I was getting a little stir crazy in the med bay. I started messing with some of Dr. Chakwas' equipment and I think she finally got annoyed with all my questions and told me to take a walk." She chuckled a little. So did Shepard.
His face turned serious again. "I owe you an apology, Tali," he said.
Tali was confused. "What? Why? What for?"
"I gave everyone here a choice whether or not to come on this crazy mission. Everyone but you. I didn't give you a choice. So I dragged you along for the big fight anyway without you even knowing. I'm sorry."
Tali smiled big, even though she knew he couldn't see it. "Shepard, you don't have to worry about me. I joined your crew with the expectation that I would see it through to the end. And I plan to do that. Even if you had asked me, there's no way I would have abandoned you. I'm in this with you." She took a deep breath. "You've been a good friend to me Shepard. And that means a lot." A couple of weeks prior they'd taken out a geth patrol and acquired some data from a module that could be instrumental in learning more about the Geth. Shepard had sent it off to Alliance and hadn't even hesitated when Tali had asked for a copy. It had meant so much to her that he had trusted her enough. And now she had something amazing to bring back from her Pilgrimage.
Shepard smiled at her. "Thanks, Tali. Think I needed to hear that."
She stood up straight. "I'd like to go with you for the fight if you'll let me. Even if I'm not fully healed, I want to help."
"We'll see," he said. "Let's see how you feel in a few hours. We're on our way to Ilos now. Get some rest okay?" He nodded. Tali wasn't a physically affectionate person but she almost had the urge to hug him. He looked so stressed.
She nodded back. "Will do, Shepard." He turned and walked out, leaving her alone. She considered messing with some of the systems a little, but then decided that some more rest would probably be a good idea. She was going to fight until there was no fight left in her.
Shepard returned to his cabin, closed the door and finally slumped just a little. He'd been standing tense for so long it was good to finally be alone and relax. He cracked his neck and headed to his console. He was restless. It would be about eight hours until they finally hit the Mu Relay, and then their last chance of winning this fight would begin. There was no turning back. The entire ship and everyone on it had gone rogue at his behest. They were mutineers. There was no telling what would happen to everyone when they got back.
If they got back.
Shepard knew this was risky, even for someone in his line of work. He thought of his crew then. Chakwas, Wesson, Fitzer, even Freddie, the housekeeper had barely batted an eye at the notion of disobeying direct orders and heading straight into the heart of the most dangerous mission imaginable. He felt a pang of guilt as he leaned on his desk and exhaled. All their lives were in his hands now. It shouldn't have been any different from any other ship, any other crew, but it was. And like everything else, it felt heavy.
He glanced at the holo monitor. He knew he had messages. There were surely lots of them, all from the brass, all no doubt asking what the hell he was doing. He wished he knew the answer. For the moment though, he was choosing to ignore the alerts. Fuck it, he thought. For better or worse it would all be over in a few hours.
And if it was going to be over, he needed to spend time with Ashley. It was that simple. He suddenly felt panicked, rushed, as if every second he stood there at his desk was a wasted one not being near her. He felt compelled to go to her before they got to Ilos. He thought of their brief non-kiss in the garage just before Joker had interrupted them. It was enough to send him resolutely striding to the door. No more hesitation. No more rules.
As he opened the door he came face to face with Ash, who looked a little surprised. She smiled at him. He smiled back.
"Hey," He greeted. "I was just coming to see you."
"What a coincidence." He stood aside as she entered and closed the door behind her. "Big day, huh Skipper?"
He scoffed quietly. "Yeah something like that." Then it really occurred to him. "You know you don't have to call me that anymore. I'm no more Commander than I am a Hanar. I probably shouldn't even be wearing this uniform." He felt a wave of sadness wash over him. He was Alliance through and through. To think he might not be after this was hard. He even found himself wondering what his mother must be thinking at this moment.
Ashley took a few steps into the room and finally turned to him. "We had to do this, Shepard. You know that."
"I know," he sighed. "Just wish it hadn't have come to this."
"But it did." She stepped close to him. "We'll get home again Shepard. I believe you'll lead us through." She smiled just a little. "And you'll always be the Skipper to me. O Captain, my captain." She smiled bigger then, prompting him to smile as well.
"Whitman right?" he asked.
"Ah, you know it." She beamed, his answer seeming to impress her.
Shepard's eyes narrowed. "Doesn't the….Captain die at the end of that one?"
She laughed uncomfortably. "Uh…hm… I guess maybe I'll stick to Tennyson." She smiled. "I'm not a word person Shepard. Other people say what I mean better than I do."
"I don't know, Williams," he teased. "You've never seemed to have a problem speaking your mind."
They both laughed softly and then she looked at him. "Death closes all. But something ere the end some work of noble note may yet be done. Not unbecoming men that strove with gods. There. That one better?"
"Are you saying I walk among the gods?" he laughed.
She smacked his chest playfully. "Don't go getting' a big head now." They shared a warm gaze for a moment and then she looked tense, like she needed to get something off of her chest.
"I was thinking about what you said," she started. "Earlier when you told me the past didn't matter and I needed to move on and realize some things about myself."
He shook his head. "Ash, that came out harsh." He stepped toward her and touched her arm. "Emotions were running high after... I didn't mean to sound like a jerk."
"But you were right," She admitted. "I have been letting it hold me back." She stood tall and took a deep breath. "My family's past...my past... it's been a weight I haven't been able to shake. It just seems to get heavier the harder I try to move forward sometimes." She fidgeted with the corner of the table. She was opening up and he could tell it was hard for her. "I've spent my whole life fighting to get what I want. To get it done," she paused and looked down for just a second. "Well I had to bury a lot of things. Maybe I'll tell you about all that sometime, but..." She looked at him. "In all that time...I never really felt like I was worth what I was fighting for. Not until now." Her eyes softened and she continued very softly. "You make me feel good enough."
She looked so vulnerable then, her eyes fixed on his. It was a side of her he knew few people were lucky enough to see. It was beautiful. She was beautiful. His response to her admission felt as natural as anything as he moved in confidently to place his lips on hers, his hands finding the sides of her face and holding her there gently. She returned the kiss with equal affection, her own hands quickly finding their way to his chest to rest there. After letting themselves indulge in the gentle movements of something long anticipated, their lips finally parted and Shepard pulled back to look at her.
"About damn time," She whispered, smiling. He took a short moment to look at her, to run his thumb gently over her cheekbone as his other hand found her waist. The air changed. It felt charged, thick with something more than their sudden sweet affection for each other. She felt it too. Her eyes had changed, mirroring his own and her pillowy lips formed a mischievous smirk he'd come to love. Her hands traveled over his shoulders, her fingers finally grazing the back of his neck. It sent an ache through him from that smacked all his tactile senses to life. Pressing her body lightly to him, she placed a teasing, soft kiss on his lips. They grazed his lightly as she whispered, "You're not gonna stop there, are you?"
"Wasn't plannin' on it," he replied simply in a quiet tone before kissing her again and wrapping both his arms around her.
They pulled each other close, falling into a steadily escalating rhythm of kisses and caresses finally manifesting in the crescendo of breathless stages of partial clothing removal. She felt good in his arms, exciting, comforting. He let himself enjoy the whims of her aggressive nature as she eventually steered him backward toward the bed. He appreciated that she wasn't shy about what she wanted, and he certainly hadn't expected her to be. Before he knew it he was on his back looking up at her, her soft hair, now free of its bun, falling elegantly forward as she kissed him again. He buried his fingers in the soft dark curls, pulling her mouth to his own once again. He took a moment to enjoy her weight on him enjoyed the feeling of the soft skin on her shoulders and back under his palms. In a smooth motion he rolled them over, hearing her sigh softly beneath him before he went in for another kiss.
It was a culmination of months of mutual want of each other, their time together transforming often, an ebb and flow of frenzy, gentle connection, playful competition and places in between that made Shepard feel dizzy and coaxed breathless affirmations from Ashley. At the close of their session, and after a few long moments of close kisses, ragged breath, and quiet recovery, they parted, finding a position on their sides, facing each other.
As they lay there, Shepard closed his eyes for a moment and enjoyed the stillness, the quiet of the room. The lately constant noise in his head had been replaced by the sound of the hum of the ship. He found her eyes again when he opened his and he let his fingers trail over her shoulder and arm, prompting a smile to spread to her flushed cheeks.
"That was-"
"Yeah," he cut her off. They shared a breathless laugh before she kissed him sweetly, settling into his arms more.
"We're breaking all kinds of regs today," Ash whispered.
"It's funny," he joked. "I don't seem to care right now." She giggled then, a rare and beautiful sound he thought. He smiled.
"Me neither," she agreed.
He pushed an errant strand of hair away from her cheekbone. "God damn, you're beautiful," he stated simply. She smiled a little, her brown eyes catching his in an appreciative smolder for a moment.
"Gettin' all mushy on me?" She smiled.
He smiled. "Maybe just a little. That so bad?"
She shook her head. "No. I like it." She took a breath. "I meant what I said you know," Her hand rested on his chest. He felt her tracing a scar there with her fingertip. "About believing we'll get through this, about believing we'll come back."
His fingertips trailed down her side and over the curve of her hip. "I know," he said.
She closed her eyes at his touch and smiled. "That feels nice."
He half smiled at her, continuing his light strokes at her encouragement. "I'm glad you're here," he said simply.
She smiled again, then chuckled and opened her eyes. "I think you made that pretty obvious."
"I like to get my point across," he quipped, adding a playful barely here wink.
"Mmm," she cooed. "Repeatedly it seems." She gave him a sultry kiss and ran her hand teasingly down the side of his stomach. He snatched it playfully just before it reached its intended destination.
"Easy, Chief" He rolled her onto her back, pinning her with half of his body, the delightfully trespassing hand now pinned next to her head. He interlocked his fingers with hers. "Tryin' to kill me?" he asked huskily.
She smiled up at him defiantly. "Just pushing the limits of physical training, sir." He laughed. She couldn't fool him. He knew she was exhausted. He was exhausted. Aside from the most recent, most happy reason, Shepard knew neither of them had slept more than a few hours in the last 48 at least. The last few days had been unduly harsh on both of them. He finally released her hand and moved his to her stomach. His lips found her neck, then her upper chest. She sighed happily as she relaxed under his touch. "This room needs a skylight," she breathed.
"I'll talk to the brass," he said between a couple more light kisses below her ear and on her jaw.
She laughed. "And why not? You can make whatever demands you want now."
He laid on his back next to her, joining her in staring at the ceiling. "Yeah I guess so," he sighed. "Didn't really see my time with the Alliance ending like this."
She paused a moment. "I probably should have seen this coming for me..." She chuckled, but he got the sense she was overcompensating for her sadness at the whole thing. He decided not to ask for further elaboration.
"Guess I never really thought about how it all would end. My career I mean." He put one arm behind his head to rest on it, still staring at the ceiling, suddenly wishing that it did actually have a skylight.
"Never saw yourself behind a desk or hanging in the officers' lounge?" Ash asked.
"No," he answered simply. "Hard to imagine it actually."
"Same here. What do you think will happen when we get back?"
"Depends on how we get back I guess. Come back the conquering heroes and maybe we'll just get a slap on the wrist. Blow it all to hell and we'll either end up dead or... maybe we can all... start a band or something."
They both laughed. "Oh god," She said. "Trust me, you don't want me to sing anything."
"You can't sing and I can't dance. Guess our only option is to win this fight." He turned his head to look at her. She did the same.
She propped herself up on her elbow, hovering over him, a smile on her face. "Then I guess that's what we'll have to do," she said. She leaned down to kiss him, letting her lips linger for a few seconds. Then she sat up, stood and padded barefoot toward the bathroom. He watched, his attention grabbed by her curves in the dim light and then he laid back on the bed and closed his eyes. His relaxation didn't last more than a minute before he got antsy. He started thinking of Ilos again and turned to see his omni tool sitting on his desk. He sighed, defeated by his need to work and stood. He took a few steps toward his desk, picked it up and activated it, the orange glow showing a multitude of messages he'd gotten. He took a few minutes to scroll through, lamenting the stupidity of everyone involved in the politics of it all. The Council could kiss his ass. He and his crew were doing the right thing. He felt sure of it. And at the moment he wasn't at all sorry. He sighed again when he felt Ash's arms wrap around him from behind.
She kissed his shoulder. "Back to work already?" She asked.
He turned to her, putting the omni tool down. "Habit," he said simply. He put his arms around her, pushing her hair back behind one of her smooth shoulders. She smiled up at him, her arms firmly around his middle.
Then her smile faded slightly. "How long until we hit the relay?" She asked.
"About seven hours." She nodded, looking up at him. "Should try to rest," he said, though he knew he wouldn't sleep. He hoped she would.
"Okay," she said quietly. He led her back to the bed, turned down the rumpled sheet and blanket and they climbed in, positioning themselves so that his arm enveloped her and her head rested on his chest. The physical comfort of her body pressed to him was enough to make all his muscles relax for the first time in what felt like weeks. He placed his hand over hers on his chest and squeezed with his other arm for a second. After a quiet moment, she spoke again in barely a whisper. "This is gonna be a hard fight," she said.
He paused a moment, then responded in an equally quiet whisper. "I'm glad to have you at my back, Ash. Means a lot."
"All the way to the end," she whispered sleepily. He could tell her eyes had closed. Her body had taken on the relaxed weight of someone who was just about to go to sleep. Rather than respond with words, Shepard simply used the next few minutes to relax in this temporary bliss. After a few quiet minutes of listening to her breathing, he could tell that she'd finally slipped into a restful sleep. He finally closed his own eyes, not expecting to sleep much if at all. His last thought was one of pleasant surprise as exhaustion overcame him and he found himself slipping into a much needed slumber.
Freddie felt useless at the moment as she headed to the mess hall. She wasn't a soldier. She wasn't an engineer. What was she even doing here? She hadn't even hesitated when the Commander had asked so much of the crew. She hadn't even been afraid. He had that effect on people. But she was afraid now. She thought maybe cleaning something would help her calm down. She knew how stupid that sounded, but she didn't care. She was freaking out, very quietly. What would happen to her mothers and sisters who depended on her? The Alliance paid her well for a housekeeper, particularly since she was on the Normandy. She hoped her mother wouldn't be too disappointed in her.
In the mess hall she found Wesson, sitting alone with a cup of tea. Her eyes looked red. Freddie wasn't stupid. She knew that Wesson and Lt. Alenko had liked each other. She didn't know to what extent they had been involved, but clearly Wesson was hurting. Freddie forced a smile.
"Hi Lisa," She said.
Wesson looked at her and smiled back. "Hey Freddie." She took a breath. "Crazy day huh?"
"You can say that again." She sat down next to her. "You okay?"
Wesson nodded. "Yeah. Just the stress of everything is getting to me. This whole plan is so crazy. How can we even win this?" She sipped her tea, as if there was some kind of calm in the bottom of the cup she was trying to suck up.
Freddie sighed. She decided to default to her positive and chipper demeanor. "It'll be okay," she said, not really believing it. "You'll see. We'll all get out of this."
Wesson paused. "Not everyone got out of this..."
Freddie cringed just a little, then nodded. "Yeah...Lieutenant Alenko... It's terrible."
"Yep," Wesson said simply.
"You two...were close weren't you?" Freddie almost regretting asking as soon as it came out.
Wesson shook her head. "No. Not really." She messed with the string of her tea bag. "He was tough to gauge sometimes. But I think we both…wanted to be closer." Freddie sat quietly for a moment not really knowing what to say and then Wesson stood. "I gotta get some sleep. Some of the others are down in the garage playing cards and drinking if you wanna join them. I think they even got the Krogan in on it."
Freddie smiled. "I may wander down in a bit. Maybe take my mind off things."
"Yeah I guess that's the point." Wesson sighed. "I'll see you later."
"Bye." After Wesson walked off, Freddie looked around. No one was on this level of the ship it seemed, the majority of them either sleeping, or working or getting drunk in the garage. She knew they were all preparing for the worst in their own way. It had been a glum couple of hours. She didn't even notice she was crying until the tears ran down her cheeks, and then she just let herself cry it out alone at the mess hall table. She'd never been so scared in her life. After a few minutes she managed to calm herself down and take a few deep breaths. Crying wouldn't help anything no matter how scared she was. She had a job and she was going to do it. She stood and headed to the crew quarters. It was time to sleep and then see what she could do to help in a few hours.
Corporal Haines hit the ground with a thud. He looked up at Garrus, his eyes looking like they were trying hard to focus on the Turian looming over him. Garrus extended his rough clawed hand down and offered it to Haines. He took it, allowing the Turian to help him up.
"I told you," Garrus said. "You're leaving your side open too much. If I'd had a standard military issue knife you'd be cut to the core right now."
Haines bent and caught his breath. "Good thing we're friends then. I think I'm out for the count after that one. Between you and Williams I've had my fair share of getting my ass kicked sparring."
Garrus chuckled and patted him on the back. "Fair enough. Who's up?" Garrus had noticed the mood of the entire crew after they'd left the Citadel. They were tense, edgy, and anxious. There was no good way for them to blow off steam or keep from focusing on the impending fight. And they were still hours away from Ilos. Garrus had dragged the sparring mats from the gym into the larger garage area and told everyone to meet him there. Several of the crew had shown up. Haines, Fitzer, Tang, the guard from the CIC. Garrus thought his name was Rob but he couldn't remember. He hadn't talked to him much. Even Pressly had come down and Wrex was watching and occasionally laughing to himself over the no doubt pathetic display of hand to hand maneuvers.
"I'll take a crack at it," Pressly said standing up. The rest of the crew let out a series of whoops and hollers as the older man stepped forward to the mat. Garrus was surprised to see him do so.
He liked Pressly, though the two of them had clearly had distaste for each other in the beginning. Pressly had even said that he didn't like Turians right to Garrus' face and Garrus had bitten back with a few choice comments of his own. Over the months the back and forth barbs had seemed to take on a more jovial tone and Garrus had no doubt now that Pressly sort of enjoyed his company sometimes. They'd even gotten drunk one night in the mess together.
They'd talked about the First Contact War, debated on politics and interspecies relations. It had ended in a bit of a fight, but after that Pressly had seemed much less hostile to Garrus.
"Don't hurt yourself, old man," Garrus joked.
Pressly put his fists up. "I'll try not so scrape my knuckles on your leather face."
"Haa…" Came a low rumble of a laugh from Wrex. "Good one."
Garrus was surprised at how quickly the old man could move. He dodged and rolled with the agility of a much younger man. Each of them landed a few pulled punches to their bodies, their somewhat inebriated audience cheering them both on.
"You move fast for a chubby human," Garrus quipped.
"I have to," Pressly said with some effort, blocking a punch from Garrus. "You move and look like some sort of cricket dinosaur bird thing."
"At least I'm not bald," Garrus grunted, delivering a punch to Pressly's ribs.
"You're still an ugly son of a bitch."
They continued back and forth in this manner until Garrus felt his muscles burning. He hadn't anticipated Pressly being so spry. He lost his concentration for just a moment and felt a hard jab to his mandible. Before he could think about it he responded in kind with a hard punch to Pressly's mouth.
"Ow!" Pressly howled and held his face. "All right Vakarian you win god dammit!"
Garrus hadn't really meant to punch him that hard in the face, but now Pressly's lip was split and bleeding.
"Sorry Pressly."
Wrex laughed again. "Looks like you scraped your face on his leather knuckles."
"Shut up, you overgrown hunchback," Pressly said with great effort, his lip now swollen.
Garrus felt pretty bad. "I really didn't mean to do that, Pressly."
Pressly waved a hand dismissively. "Eh don't worry about it. It'll heal."
Haines was up and looking at his lip now. "Looks like you'll need a stitch or two."
Pressly sighed. "I'll head up to the med bay and get Chakwas to do it."
"Oh that's not an option," Sheshi said, swigging from her bottle of whiskey. "I went in a little while ago and she and Dr. Tsoni were through pretty much a whole bottle of booze already. Both of them were wasted. And giggling."
Garrus laughed to himself. "I can't picture either one of them giggling or even drinking for that matter."
Sheshi shrugged. "It's a weird day."
"They're probably sleeping it off already," Haines said. He clapped Pressly on the shoulder. "Come on. I'll stitch you up."
Garrus watched them walk off and then the rest of the bunch seemed to stand up all at once.
"I should probably get some sleep," Fitzer said.
"Yeah me too," Sheshi got up and put her arm around him. "Thanks Garrus. This was fun."
Garrus smiled at all of them as they turned and walked out. He supposed it was time to get some rest himself.
"Only a few hours until we get to go break things for real," Wrex said, approaching Garrus. "I'm saving my energy for that." He grabbed the bottle of Turian liquor that was sitting near the edge of the mat and took a long swig. Then he handed it to Garrus. "Here's to getting Saren's head and putting it on a spike."
Garrus took the bottle. "Here's to that," he said putting the bottle to his own mouth. He glanced at his unlikely brother in arms then and nodded before walking off to get to sleep.
Ash's eyes reluctantly creaked open. She felt like she had just had the best sleep of her life. As she stirred a little, she made sure she hadn't drooled on the pillow, and then she remembered where she was and smiled. She rolled slightly under the sheet to the empty spot next to her where Shepard had been. As she sat up she saw him, leaning against his desk, fully dressed and looking at her. She stretched her neck, holding the white sheet up to her chest.
"Hey," She greeted.
"Hey," he said back.
She raised an eyebrow. "Just how long have you been sitting there watching me sleep?"
He smiled. "I only got up a few minutes ago." He walked toward her and sat on the edge of the bed close to her.
"Did you sleep?" She asked.
He nodded. "Yeah. I did. Feels like the first time in days."
She grinned. "Guess we found the perfect sleep aid."
He smiled. "I guess so. You were really out."
She wrinkled her nose. "Was I snoring?"
"No. No snoring. Do you normally snore?" Their hands instinctually found each other on the bed and clasped. She looked down at them and ran her thumb over his knuckles.
"Not that I know of, but I don't normally do a lot of things I've been doing lately."
He nodded and looked serious. "Well if you continue doing some of the things you did last night every once in a while I'll be a very happy man."
Ash laughed. "Yeah I bet." She leaned forward and kissed his lips, the smell of his skin filling her nose. "Gives whole new meaning to 'on the floor and give me twenty' huh?" She chuckled.
He kissed her, his words muffled by her lips. "I think it was more like three or four," he joked, though the number wasn't inaccurate. Her body shuddered happily at the memory as she finished her kiss.
"Well we were tired," Ash smirked and then giggled as she saw the corner of his mouth turn up - Her favorite one of his smiles. "How long did we sleep?" she asked, her smile suddenly fading. She had unrealistically hoped the clock would have magically stopped.
Shepard's smile left as well. "We should be there any minute. You ready for this?"
"You know it." She took a deep breath. "Shepard..." She wasn't sure she really had a thought beyond that, but it didn't matter as Joker's voice rang loud and clear over the comm.
"Bridge to Commander Shepard. We're five minutes out from the Mu Relay. Just thought you'd like to know."
"Be right there," Shepard said. He looked at her, his blue eyes softening to an affectionate sadness, a clear reluctance to leave her. They each leaned forward then for a long last kiss, her hand finding the stubble on his face. Eyes closed, she put her forehead to his then reluctantly pulled back from him.
"Better go..." She forced a smile.
He nodded. "I'll see you up here." He broke eye contact, stood, and walked toward the door. She watched him leave then took a long deep breath. This was it. The team had to be ready. They had to be focused. She needed to be focused.
She threw the sheet off of her and went quickly searching for her uniform, various parts of it scattered throughout the cabin. When she had collected it, she took it to the bathroom, dressed and smoothed her long hair back into her signature bun. After splashing some water on her face she took a long look at herself in the mirror.
"All right. Let's do this, Williams." She turned then, and walked out, headed directly for the bridge with renewed purpose.
By the time she got up there everyone was already yelling. Ilos was in view out the window and they were approaching fast.
"Have their sensors picked us up yet?" Liara asked.
Joker turned to her. "No. Stealth systems are engaged. Unless they look out the window they won't have any idea we're here."
Ashley glanced around the room and then out the window. There was Ilos and several geth ships in its orbit. She looked at Shepard, who looked to be thinking. She turned when Pressly spoke.
"Picking up some strange readings from the planet's surface," he said.
"All right take us down Joker," Shepard ordered. "Lock in in those coordinates."
"Negative on that, Commander," Pressly interjected. "The nearest landing zone's two klicks away."
Ashley spoke up then. "We'll never make it in time on foot. We have to find something closer."
"There is nowhere closer! I've looked!" Ash noticed the stitches in Pressly's lip but had no time to wonder how he got them.
"So we don't land," Shepard said firmly. "Drop us in the Mako."
Pressly let out an aggressively exasperated noise. "You need at least a hundred meters of open terrain for a drop. The most I can find near Saren is twenty."
Ash's heart sank. "Twenty meters? No way we can make a drop in there."
Liara looked at her. "We have to try!"
Tali spoke up then. "The descent angle's too steep."
"It's our only option." Liara insisted.
There was silence then for a moment as everyone looked to Shepard, realizing it was pointless to argue among themselves. He looked like he was about to say something but Joker interrupted.
"I can do it," Joker said behind gritted teeth. They all looked at him. Ash's stomach turned a little at the thought, but there was a part of her that wanted to believe he could drop them without killing them.
Shepard looked at Joker. "Joker?" He asked.
"I can do it," Joker repeated.
After a tense moment, Shepard finally nodded and bellowed. "Gear up and get down to the Mako. Joker, drop us right on top of that bastard."
Without a moment's hesitation the rest of them went running for their gear and the garage. Ashley thought she'd never moved so quickly in all her life. This was it. It was finally happening. They would either die on the descent or make it down and come face to face with Saren. It all came down to this. And she was ready.