Chapter 4: The Truth Comes Out

"So, Commander. It's been two days since the Chief left. How ya holding up?"

"Joker, are we seriously talking about this now?"

"What'd I do?" Joker responded, "I was just asking a question, sir."

"I'm standing in front of Udina, Joker…" Shepard told him before glancing back towards Udina who was watching intently.

"Oh!… Uh… Sorry, Joker out." Joker hastily replies before ending the transmission.

"Nice one, Joker…" Doctor Chakwas chimed in from behind him.

"Hey, I didn't know!"

"Next time be more careful with things like that," she continued. "We both know what would happen if Udina found out about Shepard and Williams."

"I got it, Doc."

"I hope so, the last thing we need is for those two to be taken off the ship and we get handed a rookie still trying to earn his way." Wrex added from behind both of them.

"I agree with Wrex, just not in the way he put it." Chakwas added.

"Listen, I'm sorry alright?! Geez!" Joker yelled frustratingly.

{2 Hours Later…}

"What the hell, Joker?!" Shepard yelled at his pilot. "Are you trying to get me stripped of command and rank?!"

"I'm sorry, Commander…"

"Goddamn… Udina heard what you said and grilled me on just what you were talking about."

"But you got out of it, so what's the problem?"

"The problem is that he wants to send over a replacement while she's away."

"So?"

"You want someone new to be a rank over you?"

"So?"

"A new person that just shows up out of the blue and can outrank you and order you around if she wants?"

"S-" Joker starts before being cut off by Shepard.

"Joker… If you say 'So' again… I swear you won't like the results…" Shepard tells him.

"Commander, I'm sorry I didn't know Udina was there. Besides, having someone pick up where Chief left while she's gone will be good, right?" he asked which Shepard responded by simply walking off, visibly upset.

"You're gonna get it, Joker."

"Oh shut up, Garrus…" Joker told him before returning to focusing on the ship's controls.

"Sir, can't you do something about this?" Shepard asks. "If Udina gets someone else onboard it's just probably going to be someone just sent to keep tabs on us."

"Shepard, I've already said that I can't do anything or it'll look like I'm playing favorites and I can't do that."

"But sir-"

"No buts!" Anderson interjects. "Do you even know who this mystery person is?"

"No sir."

"Then why are you getting all worked up over something like this?" Anderson asked, "It's not like you to let something as trivial as this get to you so badly."

"I just have a bad feeling about this is all I'm saying, sir."

"Then have a bad feeling, there's not a law around that says you can't. But don't start making conspiracy theories about everything you don't happen to like."

"Yes sir."

"I know how much you care about Chief Williams, but we both know she'll be back. So just deal with having someone new around to help pick up her slack, it's that simple, Shepard."

"Why do I feel like a child who's getting reprimanded by his father?" Shepard asks, a smirk appearing on his face which seemed to have spread to Anderson's as well.

"I'll be looking forward to our next 'heart to heart', Anderson out."

Back on the Bismarck, Ashley had been taken to a glorified holding room. It looked roughly like a regular room that a member of the crew would stay in.

"Why in the hell would he put me in a room like this?" she wondered as she looked at the well-furnished surroundings. "I'm a hostage… and he puts me in a room like this, something's not adding up…"

She sat down on the bed and began to think about the circumstances. She had been tricked into coming onboard and was now their hostage yet she didn't even know why they even needed a hostage…

"Wait, do they know?!" she yelled out in her head as her hands started to move towards her stomach but were stopped when the door opened up and Adam walked in.

"Hello, Ms. Williams." he commented before sitting down on the desk in her room. "Wondering what I'm doing?"

"Actually, I'm wondering how long it'd take for me to kill you, given the chance."

"Someone's fiesty, well even if you had the chance I doubt that you could catch me anyways." he told her with a smirk, "Looks like someone's been eating their way to maternity leave."

"You asshole…" she responded and began to rise from the bed.

"What? I'm just saying that if you keep it up, people might start to think there's a bun in that oven." he mockingly explained before motioning to his gun which got her to sit back down.

"There's really no need to be rash and try anything, Ms. Williams. After all, you could be down with the rest of the trash."

"Why aren't I? I'm a prisoner, right?"

"No, no… You're more like a bargaining chip. You see, as long as you're onboard I'm like a Spectre."

"Meaning?"

"I'm untouchable by the law, the only ones that can take me down are Spectre's. Namely one…" he told her before making his way out of her room.

"You mean Shepard, don't you?"

"A Commanding Officer never tells a secret." he replied in a sing-song tone before he shut her door behind him.

"Son of a bitch… This was all to get Shepard…" she told herself before turning back to the window and looking into the deep depths of space. "Can't believe this…"

A couple of days had passed and it was now the day that Williams was supposed to be coming back aboard the Normandy. Everyone waited anxiously for her return, especially Shepard. He had taken to waiting in his quarters so nobody would see just how impatient he was.

Another person that was very anxious to see her return was Liara. Her reason for wanting her to return soon was a very different one than Shepard's. She wanted her back to make sure that she didn't come of harm while on board the Bismarck since she felt it was her idea in the first place to send her there. She trusted Adam that Ashley would be fine and returned in about a week so Liara could try and get Shepard's attention.

In the time that Ashley was away, Liara had managed to add another five pounds to her frame. None of it was really all that noticeable to anyone, except for Liara. Her clothes had hell trying to fit around her a little more than before all of this started.

"I might need a new attire before long." she told herself as she saw the damage in a mirror. Her shirt stopped just shy of reaching her pants which now looked like had less space in each leg as well. The only part of her that she could unmistakably tell had grown slightly was her thighs, the other parts of her weren't really visible even to her.

After a few more hours of waiting, Shepard had told Joker to get in touch with headquarters to see what's taking them so long…

"This is Commander Shepard of the U.S.S.V. Normandy, we'd like a status check on a ship known as the Bismarck. We sent a member of our crew to supervise them on their Shakedown run and we've yet to hear from them today.

"Commander, this is headquarters. The ship named Bismarck was not scheduled to make a shakedown run, are you sure you didn't mean the Maelstrom?"

"What?" he answered, suddenly getting a chill up his spine.

"The Bismarck made it's shakedown run months ago, the Maelstrom is the only vessel in the Alliance fleet that is scheduled to perform a shakedown run."

"Son of a bitch!" he yelled at the speaker before slamming his fist down on top of it.