A/N: Raven Sinead would like you to know how often I used the word "hard" and how it made her snicker every time because innuendo.

I would like you to know how awesome Raven Sinead is for being my beta and friend.

Ashley

Saying goodbye to Samantha was fucking hard. But left in her place was Timothy, and while that wasn't the same as having her fiancée around, it was better than nothing. He was a good kid. Ashley liked him.

Unfortunately she had no fucking clue what to do with him.

"Is the couch comfortable enough to sleep on?"

Tim looked up from his seat at the table, where he'd been staring absently out the ridiculous windows at the absurdly beautiful view. "Huh? Oh, yeah, it's fine. Hey, thanks for taking me in. I know Sam wasn't showing it, but she was ready to tear her hair out trying to figure out what to do with me. And I admit I had no idea, either. Maybe the Alliance would've given me a bunk in a barracks?"

Ashley shrugged. "Who knows? And it's no problem. We're practically family, right? Besides, this is way easier than shooting Collectors and getting paralyzed from their little bug-robots, and I've already got that one under my belt. This is cake in comparison"

Timothy chuckled, shaking his head. "Still, I appreciate it, even if you've done something harder for us."

"Like I said, not a problem. So… what do you wanna do? This is kinda my first day of freedom. I gotta take it easy, and I gotta go to physical therapy, but other than that… we can do whatever the fuck we want."

"Honestly? I really want to walk around and gawk a bit. This is my first time on the Citadel."

Ashley grinned. "Deal. Just let me change into real clothes," she said, already heading for the bathroom. As she rummaged through her solitary duffel bag, she called out to her future brother-in-law. "First stop, how about we get some clothes? All I got is a couple of uniforms, and that's gonna get old quick."

"Yeah, let's do it. That's all I've got, too, and they only gave me one extra one, since my program's disbanded. I… I don't have any money. My account is dry, and I can't exactly ask Mum and Dad for more…"

Ashley popped her head out of the bathroom to answer him. "Hey. I got it. And you know Sam's doing everything she can to find them. My family, too. She'll find them. And they'll be all right, watch. It's just the communications all around the galaxy being fucknutted."

He snorted a laugh. "It's a really good thing you don't talk like that in front of Mum." Turning his gaze upon her, his expression grew serious. "Thank you, Ashley. I really mean it. I'm realizing just how up a creek I would be if you hadn't taken me in. I'm sure I'll get a job and be able to contribute at some point, but for now… well. Thank you."

Ashley smiled. "You're more than welcome." Disappearing back into the bathroom, she started dressing. "And don't thank me anymore! It's super awkward!"

A laugh answered her as she shut the door.

Ten minutes later, they were walking the Presidium. The Wards were a lengthy walk, so they headed out for the cheapest public transit they could find when they spoke to Avina. There were a million shops of a million varieties, and that was only on the ground floor of the buildings. Stretching above them like great fingers were the high-rises of the Presidium, home of luxurious apartments, spacious offices, and Keeper tunnels that changed continually, defying all modern attempts at mapping and predicting the changes.

After walking and remarking on their amazing surroundings, they finally got in line for rapid transit. Unlike a more expensive cab ride, this line of cars did one thing: it took them to a shopping district, and it took them back to this exact spot on the Presidium from there. But it was cheap, and Ashley could use the exercise all the walking provided. She'd been continuing with whatever workouts and exercise her injury would allow, but doing squats in her hospital room was not the same as the bliss of merely being able to stretch her legs out and walk.

"So… you've had a big couple of days," Ashley remarked once the car had lifted into the air.

Timothy's eyes slid sideways to look at her. "I suppose you could say that…"

Ashley gave him a sardonic look. "Your space station academy was attacked by Cerberus so they could brainwash the biotics teacher, and presumably the students, and then you were rescued by the legend herself. After that, you were magically reunited with your sister. There's nothing to suppose; it was a fucking crazy couple of days, Tim."

He sighed. "Yeah."

"So…"

"What?"

Ashley sighed. "God, you're worse than a real marine about your damn feelings! Talk about it, fuckwit! You got shot at! Last year you were in high school! You can't just hold on to this shit, man. If we were in the field I'd send you out with a gun and then get you drunk, but I can't do either, so all I can do is get you to talk."

He sighed again, looking out the window instead of at Ashley. "I… it was frightening, but honestly it wasn't that bad for me. They weren't after the tech students. So we grabbed David and hid. Or, we tried to. Ended up taking refuge behind this barrier-generator we'd built for class. Then Shepard came up, and Sam talked to us through the comms, and that was that."

"Seriously? That's all you feel about it?"

He turned to face her, quiet, face twitching slightly as various emotions tried to overtake his visage. Finally, he spoke. "School has been… incredibly lonely. I miss my family. I'm used to sharing a brain with Rich. I got used to Sam not being around anymore, but my brother… it's like he's half of me, and without him… it's like I can't be myself, because part of myself is gone. I can't connect with people. I can't even flirt well with girls."

Ashley frowned. Poor Tim had never found his girlfriend after the Collector attack. And then he'd left Horizon altogether, leaving his family only six months after their entire community had been torn apart. And he was stuck inside his own head for the first time in his life.

"When I left home, it was fucking awful," she finally said.

"Oh?"

"Yeah," Ashley nodded. "My dad had died only a little over a year before. I left all my sisters, my mom, the girl I'd just started seeing seriously. But it was nothing like what you're describing. My sisters are good, but they're a pain in the ass and all younger than me. Nothing like having a twin."

Tim gave a noncommittal grunt, making Ashley smile.

"I do know what that loneliness is like, though."

"What? How? You just said you don't know what it's like to have a twin."

Ashley chuckled, shaking her head. "Because everyone does, dipshit. We all live in our own heads. You're just not used to it. We've been dealing with it from infancy. You're new to it now as an adult. Sounds awful and uncomfortable, but… the rest of us managed. You'll be okay. And you and Richard will probably be better able to live adult lives because of it. Hard to make a girl feel special when you'll always have a closer bond to your brother than to her. And just think of it? You've got some great stories to share with him when you see him again."

Timothy regarded her for a long moment before finally responding. "I'll keep all that in mind. It is comforting that other people go through it and make it out all right, though. Thanks, Ash."

"No problem, Tim."

"It's too bad you guys don't know what it's like," he said after a minute or two.

"Oh?"

"Yeah. It's… well, a lifetime of this loneliness? How do you stand it?"

Ashley smiled, looking at the view out the window. "Well, I don't actually know what it's like any other way… but your sister keeps a piece of me with her, and I have a piece of her with me. We… we usually know each other's mind. It's not perfect, but I think it's the closest thing most of us can get to what you and Richard have grown up knowing. That's how I stand it."

He nodded, keeping quiet. As the car touched down to the ground, however, he surprised her. "You're so good to her. I'm glad she found you."

Ashley paused after paying, looking up to see Tim's eyes – a dark brown that was a perfect match for Sam's – regarding her. "I'm glad she found me, too. C'mon. Enough weighty stuff. Let's go get some damn clothes."

Chuckling, he nodded, getting out of the car and joining her in another walk through the streets.

"Hey Thane," Ashley greeted as she stepped into Huerta Memorial.

The drell looked up from his customary spot looking out the giant windows on the view of the Presidium. "Hello, Ashley," he said, coming up next to her as she approached the reception desk. "I heard you were discharged."

She nodded, signing in for her physical therapy. "Yeah, I… I got an apartment. I guess all Spectres get one?"

"So you decided to accept the Councilor's proposal, then?"

"I haven't officially accepted yet, but… I think I'm going to, yeah."

He hummed, eyes blinking in their strange way as he considered her. "It is strange that he offered you the apartment before you accepted."

Ashley shrugged, moving away from the desk to make room for others. "I know. But the timing was amazing; the Normandy docked day before yesterday, and I got to see Samantha."

"Ah, yes. That is your intended wife, correct?"

"Yeah, my fiancée."

"How does she feel about your acceptance of the title of Spectre?"

"She's… supportive," Ashley answered. Sam was supportive, right?

"You seem reticent with that answer," he observed.

He really was a rather astute observer of her tone. As was Samantha. Is it just me? Do I wear my feelings in my tone of voice?

"She was more pissed that I hadn't said anything to her yet. I emailed Shepard, talked to you, but she had to find out from Shepard's email."

"Shepard's email?"

"She monitors all communication on board. If it's marked confidential, comes from someone outranking Shepard, then she leaves it. Other than that, she screens it for viruses and content, lets her CO know if it's urgent."

He nodded. "An important function on a stealth ship."

Ashley smiled. "I keep telling her that. But I think she feels inferior to the people who go on the ground."

"It is a common feeling among non-combatants. Uselessness. They fail to see that the ground team doing 'all the work' would not be able to do their jobs without all of the intel the noncombatant support provides."

"Yeah, I know, and I tell her that, and I think she believes it, most of the time. But… I also think it's hard to shake that inferior feeling. She'll get there. This is also the first ship she's served on. She'll get used to how it works."

"Much of it is likely that you are part of the ground team," Thane said. "She watched you get injured, yes? Her job is important, but she is not in nearly as much danger as those on the ground; as you are. As she sees you become healthy, I am sure her confidence will grow."

"I'm sure you're right. But listen, I gotta go, or Dr. Michele is gonna check me back into the hospital until the day I die."

A small smile appeared on his lips. "That was her threat if you did not show up for physical therapy? Clever woman," he said with a chuckle.

Grinning, Ashley nodded, leaving him in the lobby as she hurried through decontamination into the hospital proper.

Three hours later, she was pleasantly sore and limber. Thane was nowhere to be seen in the lobby, but she noticed right away that Councilor Udina was.

"Councilor Udina?" she called, getting his attention as she approached his turned back.

"Ah, Lieutenant-Commander Williams," he said, shaking her hand in greeting. "I saw you were discharged and took up residence in your apartment. I trust it is comfortable?"

His voice was greasy as ever, but Ashley had worked with him enough over the last three years that it no longer grated as it used to. She knew the man, as much as anyone could claim to know him. She still thought he was a slimy politician, but no worse than anyone else.

Not that she'd really met that many politicians.

"It is, sir. Thank you for the offer of it. I was glad to open up some room for others who are less mobile than I am. And it ended up being good timing, as I now have someone near and dear who needed a place to sleep staying with me."

Udina's expression softened into a smile. Ashley liked his scowl better. "I'm glad it all worked out then. Can I assume this means you will accept our offer? Second human Spectre? First useful one?"

Ignoring the prickling she experienced at his dig at Shepard, Ashley cleared her throat, wanting to place some amount of importance on this. "Yes, sir. I would be honored to join the ranks of the Citadel Council's Special Tactics and Reconnaissance Team. I look forward to representing humanity among the elite, sir."

"Excellent!" he exclaimed, shaking her hand once more. "Let me know the moment you're recovered, and I'll make the arrangements for the ceremony. In the meantime, if there's anything you need?"

"I was hoping I could have Spectre access to communications, sir."

He gave her a knowing look. "Someone you're looking for, Williams?"

She nodded. "Yes, sir. My mother and sisters, as well as the rest of my fiancée's family."

He got a shrewd expression as he regarded her. "I'll see what I can do, Commander. If you feel up to it, come by my office tomorrow after your therapy, and we can discuss it. It'll give me some time to see what I can arrange. Have a good afternoon, Commander Williams. I look forward to working with someone who is more agreeable."

And, like that, with that one last little dig at Shepard, he was gone. Her entire life was changed, with little-to-no pomp and circumstance. Shouldn't she feel different? She didn't know what to feel, but she sure didn't like that niggling little voice in the back of her head that perked up when Udina insulted Shepard, the voice that thought he was right, the voice that was so quick to go through all the things Shepard had done that Ashley disapproved of. Running her hand through her hair, she left the hospital, heading home to see what Timothy had gotten himself up to in her absence.