The Big Reveal

Later on in the day after everyone had returned to the Normandy, Adam contacted them just like he promised Liara he would.

"Commander Shepard, we have a call coming from an alliance vessel called the… Bismarck. You wanna patch it through?" Joker informs Shepard who's in the COMM room by himself.

"Sure, go ahead."

After a few seconds worth of waiting, static comes across the COMM followed by a voice."Commander John Shepard, you read?"

"Five by Five"

"Good, My name is Adam Levine, I'm the Commander of the Bismarck and I'd like to make a request of you."

"The Bismarck? I don't recall hearing about that vessel, you new?"

"Yes, initiated two weeks ago. We haven't even made a trip in it yet. That's where the request comes in."

"Well what's this request then?" Shepard responded as he shifted his weight in the chair.

"Well, we need to go off on our first mission, but to do that the Council required us to put in a request to veteran crew to borrow a member of their crew to evaluate us on the mission. We were hoping we could use one of your crew members since… Well, who wouldn't like to be evaluated by someone from the crew of the Normandy?" Adam told him trying to sound in awe of all the accomplishments the crew of the Normandy are responsible for.

"Well, I guess we can spare a member. Does it matter who I send?"

"Well, I think we'd be better off with someone who's very stern and isn't shy about voicing their opinion." he explained to him remembering what Liara told him about Ashley's demeanor.

"Hm, you almost described one of our crew to a T"

"Really? Who?"

"Lt. Commander Ashley Williams, her personality was the one you almost described perfectly. She's our second-in-command."

"Oh, well would it be alright if she came along with us? You'd be doing a great service to us, Commander Shepard." Adam asked pleadingly.

"Well, I'd have to talk it over with her first. But I'll get back to you as soon as I find out if she's alright with it. Normandy Out" and with that, the wheels were sent back into spinning inside the brain of Adam Levine.

"He's falling for this easier than I thought, perhaps the great Commander John Shepard isn't as highly touted as the Council makes him look from afar…"

After a few hours of waiting for Ashley to return to the Normandy, she was informed that Shepard was waiting for her in his quarters. On the way there, all sorts of thoughts bubbled up to the surface of her mind…

"…What if this is for what I think it is? What if he really does want to be with me that bad even though as far as he knows I've gained weight?" She begins to think while waiting on a door to open.

"I guess before I really start thinking of weird things I might want to see what this is all about first…" she resided to herself as the door to his room opened and she steppedin.

As he saw her figure appear in the doorway and walk in, Shepard's face softened into a warming smile to her as he looked at her softened figure. True she had gained weight from his point of view, but she still was absolutely gorgeous in his eyes. Something that happened to catch his eye was the fact that about an inch or so of the bottom of her stomach had come into view underneath her now-untucked shirt. Also he noted that she had developed a slight muffin top effect from what he could tell, overall her whole attire had become increasingly difficult to wear as the pounds crept on. Deep down inside, he wondered how he felt about it himself, but right now he was in love with the sight before him.

"You wanted to see me, Shepard?" she asked after the door slid shut behind her.

"Yeah, I did, glad Joker relayed the message. Sit down" he told her, not in a stern way, but in a welcoming way which prompted her to make her way over to the edge of his bunk and sit down on it.

As she did so she felt her shirt come untucked in the back, she wanted to reach behind her and tuck it back in but she was afraid it would draw unwanted attention to her growing waistline.

"What did you need?" she asked after getting settled.

"Well, there are a few things that I wanted to talk about. For starters, I was contacted earlier today by a ship called The Bismarck. They wanted to know if I could send over a crew member to grade them on their maiden voyage and first mission. The guy I talked to said they'd prefer someone who's strict and opinionated to come with them on their shakedown run."

"Oh ok, and I take it you selected me for it?"

"Well, I suggested you since your personality fit what they asked for. If you don't want to go then I could possibly ask Garrus or maybe even Liara to go instead."

"Well, I think it'd be a good thing for me to do this. Maybe some time away might help us all?"

"Well if you want, I can contact them again and tell them that you've agreed to go with them on the shakedown. But first things first… I want something to linger on while you're away with them…" he told her with a smile on his face as he stood up and walked over towards her.

"Oh, is that right? More fraternization, Commander?" she responded with a smile also on her face while she slowly leant back on her elbows.

"Hey, nobody has to know…" he tells her before she lays back on the bed and he straddled her hips on his they begin to interact with each other.

Ashley, at first, seemed reluctant to take any of her gear off in fear of ruining the moment for them. After a few minutes of unsuccessful clothing removal on Shepard's part since Ashley seemed to nonchalantly move his hands away from her when he started removing her clothes, after a few minutes of this he got a little agitated and brought it up.

"Ash, why does it seem like you don't want to do anything?" he asked her while moving from his position of straddling her to sitting next to her on the bunk.

"Ah damn… Gotta think up something…" she thought to herself, eventually she decided to come clean with her worries."Well, it's just that I've gained weight. And I wasn't sure if you'd noticed and I didn't want to make you sick by taking my clothes off and stuff." she replied while sitting up.

"She can't be serious… She doesn't think anyone's noticed her weight?" he asked himself."Oh, well sorry to say, Chief, but I've noticed. And to tell the truth it doesn't gross me out at all. You're still pretty damn beautiful if you ask me"

After hearing his approval of her looks, she smiled and kissed him on the cheek.

"If you feel that way than I guess that also means that you won't mind waiting on my return from the Bismarck to finish up this violation of Code of Conduct, right?"

"What?"

"I'm just saying, if you still approve me. Then why do a rush job right now when we can have all the time we want when I come back?" she suggested while rising from the bunk and straightening her clothes and hair.

"I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, but since you do love me… You wouldn't mind one bit about waiting for me, right?"

"Well of course I'd wait for you, but wha-"

"Then it's settled, I'll go on The Bismarck's shakedown run and we'll continue this when I get back." she told him with a smirk on her face as she exited his room, leaving him slack-jawed.

"Uh… What in the hell just happened in here?" Shepard thought aloud while looking around and blinking.

******On The Bridge******

"So, you heard?"

"About Ash going aboard that ship for their shakedown?"

"Yeah, apparently Shepard gave it the green light. So we'll be without number two for a bit."

"I'm sure we'll manage, I just hope that she doesn't end up scaring them out of continuing on after the shakedown run. She has a way with words you know."

"Well Garrus, if I didn't know that by now I'd have to be crippled AND deaf." Joker replied with a chuckle.

"Either deaf of just plain stupid." Garrus told him and they both got a laugh out of the conversation.

"What's so funny?" Liara asked as she made her way to behind Joker's seat.

"Ah, just talking about the Chief." Joker told her.

"And about how we hope she doesn't scare that that new crew out of continuing their services after the shakedown she's accompanying them on." Garrus finished.

"Oh, I see."

"Yep, she has a certain way of… uh, how should I say this, Garrus?"

"She can be a bitch." Garrus finished before looking over to Joker who winced at his choice of words before giving off a long sigh and shaking his head.

"Man… I could've said that. I was trying to think of a softer word than that." he told Garrus.

"How was I supposed to know that you didn't want me to say something when you hadn't told me anything?"

"Tch… Never mind, just remember that if you-know-who comes asking, you're the one that called the Chief a bitch…"

"Um, I think I'll take my leave now." Liara chimed in before waving as she walked away from the two of them.

"Man… she's letting herself go." Joker said quietly as he saw her leave out of the corner of his eye.

"Letting herself go? I take it that's another one of those human phrases?" Garrus asked, which resulted in Joker placing his face in the palm of his hand and sighing…

"God, Garrus..."