AN:: This is a relatively lengthy chapter compared to the rest, almost double. Some of it was originally in chapter 7 but I didn't like how that worked out so I moved it back over here. Hopefully you guys don't mind too much
Ashley rolls her shoulders as she waits for her call to her sister to connect. Udina had ordered her back to the Citadel for a Spectre matter and while Ashley calls total bullshit, she is too new to this to renegade on some stupid orders. She just prefers to be on Bekenstein kicking some Cerberus ass with Shepard than talk politics with someone she thinks is a misguided fool.
Being so close to the Citadel at least meant she could make a call to Sarah in real time instead of leaving messages like she usually does. She would prefer to wait until shore leave to talk to her sister in person but seeing as how that keeps getting pushed back, now seems like as good a time as any. Her sister just needs to actually pick up the damn call.
She chews on the bottom of her lip in worry. There is so much going on and it all seems connected one way or another, but she is having a difficult time sorting it all out without all the pieces. The distance between her and Shepard still persists and it hurts, but she also knows she is the one who needs to bridge the gap. Shepard has tried multiple times and Ashley just goes and shoves it right back in her face. The first time she was too hurt and now she's just too damn stubborn and scared, thinking she's just going to let Shepard down again.
Hell, no one even really knew why Ashley had been so hurt when Shepard arrived on Horizon. It worked well that they all believed her hatred for Cerberus was the breaking point. She really wants to talk it out with someone, but she is too ashamed to speak to any of her current friends who all have forgiven Shepard easily. None of them could understand why she still held on to her anger.
Fresh faces and new friends appeared and Ashley had thought that maybe she could divulge her secrets to one of them. The clumsy, adorable, rambling communications specialist was high on that list. Only any time Ashley tried to speak to her, Sam would find some excuse to vacate her presence. The few times she didn't leave, Ashley would notice how tense and distant she became.
Originally she thought that maybe Sam had heard about her abandonment of Shepard. It wasn't until she overheard Joker and Tali teasing Sam about her previous attraction to EDI and Sam's current love interest that Ashley started to think it was something else entirely. Something she could deal with a lot easier than partially true rumors about her previous times on the ship.
Which is exactly why she needs her sister to answer the damn call because this was driving her nuts. Ashley almost wishes she called Lynn instead of Sarah. However, Lynn isn't fully aware of the situation, unlike Sarah who found out the real truth behind Shepard's death and Ashley's feelings when she found Ashley, drunk as a skunk, on her porch.
"Did Shepard fuck up again and do something to hurt Liara?"
Ashley jerks in surprise, cursing as her sore shoulder smacks into the paneling beside her, "Shit," she hisses, glaring at her sister's fuzzy features. "I told you that was a long time ago," Ashley says, annoyed that she can feel her face turning red.
She's met with silence and Ashley can feel the warm sting of tears in her eyes, "Goddamn it!"
"She'll understand, Ashley."
"I don't even understand it!" Ashley croaks out, furiously rubbing at her face. She didn't realize how much distance she had been putting between herself and her personal problems until now when just looking at her sister makes her shatter into pieces.
"Sweetie, you tried to take care of your best friend's girl after she died. Someone you were reluctantly crushing on. It's only natural for anger to be your first reaction when that friend comes back from the dead. You were there to see Liara fall apart and you focused on that instead of your own feelings. Tell her that." There's a pause and then a sigh, "have you ever thought about how Shepard feels? Everyone mourned her for two years and she comes back thinking only weeks have passed. Comes back to find that everyone she loves and trusts has left and the only people staying around are…" her voice cuts out, but Ashley doesn't need to hear the rest to know what Sarah is getting at. "—sure she also knows about your little crush on her and her girlfriend."
"I can't believe I ever told you that," Ashley grumbles, unable to keep the smile off her face. Relief washes over her and she leans back, Sarah always made things simple and clear. Things Ashley knew but couldn't straighten out in her head, "I'll... I'll talk to her when we meet up on the Citadel."
"Wow, don't sound so excited about it," Sarah teases.
"Yes, I'm so excited that I need to tell my commanding officer and best friend that the reason I abandoned her was because I was too upset that she hurt Liara and I couldn't be there for her the way I wanted."
"I knew you'd understand! Don't forget to mention the three—"
"I will never talk to you again if you continue that sentence!" Ashley cries out, covering the screen as if that could get her sister to stop. She breathes a sigh of relief once Sarah laughs and drops that part of their conversation.
They chat a few minutes longer, mostly about Sarah's life, when silence settles over them again.
Ashley still doesn't quite know how to bring up what's been happening, especially since she's just now started to piece it together.
"Who's the lucky girl this time?" Leave it to Sarah to bring it up for her.
"How do you know it's a girl?"
"Because guys are easy for you and you have no issues with them saying yes. Girls somehow confuse the hell out of you and you forget which way is up." She can hear laughter despite the quality of their call degrading rapidly. She's going to have to report it once they dock.
"Whatever," Ashley mumbles, hating how right her sister is.
"Well?"
Ashley sighs and leans back, closing her eyes in embarrassment, "don't laugh."
"Oh sweetie, you know that's not possible."
Ashley grins, knowing it was futile to ask, but she had to try, "Ok, just promise not to call me an idiot too often."
"Holy shit," Sarah breathes through her guffaws, "she's been crushing on you for a while and you didn't even notice!? Am I right? How did you finally figure it out!?"
"Sarah! I— well it's not like—"
"Tell me everything. "
Ashley starts to think back on all the times she ran into Sam, all the times that Sam would just happen to be in the cargo bay while Ashley was working out. The flustered actions that Ash just took for nerves... and then their latest conversation replays itself.
"Oh."
"Figured it out, did you?"
"Oh my god, I am an idiot. Oh my god!" Ashley leans forward, staring at Sarah in horror, "she was crying, something that had to do with Liara and EDI and she—"
"Wait, Liara made someone cry?"
Ashley continues, ignoring Sarah's question, "— didn't want to be compared to my sisters and I didn't get it! Oh my god!"
"Wait, seriously? I knew that soldier stuff would get you hit one too many times in the head."
Sarah sits through a few more of Ashley's repeated shocked words before she leans forward, eager, "I think the real question is, is she cute?"
"God, yes!" Ashley blurts out, "shit…"
Sarah blinks in shock, "Well, damn. It's never that easy to get you to admit that."
"I— she's just…" Ashley pulls at her hair, "she's got this accent and I've overheard her ramble about things I don't even understand and she has the corniest jokes sometimes. Shepard mentioned something about her enjoying strategy games too…"
"Ashley?" Her sister's voice cuts in and out just before the screen turns to static.
"Sarah?" she hits the monitor a few times in frustration and heads for the pilot. The view that greets her has her quickly putting on the few armor pieces she'd taken off. She doesn't bother to check if the connection to Sarah has comms to the Citadel are eerily quiet.
Ashley punches the wall beside her and tells the pilot to land anywhere, she watches in anger as a dozen or more Cerberus ships take over the main landing area.
Sam is on her way to being blindly drunk. Enough so that she starts to blame herself for not catching the Bekenstein Cerberus ops as a distraction for their almost successful takeover of the Citadel. If she were sober she might not be blaming herself as much as she is right now, but this asari bartender keeps plying her with alcohol, and she is going to jump to as many conclusions as one possibly can.
Like this bartender obviously wants her, why else would her drinks keep coming, even before she finishes the one in her hand?
She snorts, her own thoughts amusing her, but she fails to remember the drink she just took and chokes on half of it as the other half shoots out of her nose.
"Attractive, " the bartender muses, "might want to stop accepting the drinks, babe."
"Why do you keep giving them to me?" She manages to get out. She's attempting to flirt, however the alcohol is all over her now and she can hardly hold herself steady with her own arms.
"Just a game I like to play. See how many drinks a human can put away before falling on their ass. "
Sam tries to glare but her hand slips and the only thing stopping her from smacking her face on the bar is the light flare of biotics, "What in the bloody hell is in this?"
The asari laughs and reaches out to steady Sam, "Just a little asari alcohol to give it a kick."
"I'd like to give you a lick."
Sam's luck certainly flew out a window a long ago as the asari lets her go and laughs, Sam's face finally meets the gleaming top of the bar, "fuck! Ow, shit! Why... " she whines, the tears forming quickly and she's horrified to know they're not at all because she smacked her face.
"Fuck the goddess, you've got a lot goin' on don't ya, babe?" She lifts Sam's chin to check her face and Sam quickly switches from pain to a goofy grin.
"Do this often?" she giggles. Somewhere deep down she's horrified but she's too drunk to care.
The asari is staring, and it's kind of freaking Sam out, "You're one of Shepard's."
"I thought the whole asari with other asari was a bad thing?" Sam says, her mind jumping to only one reason why this asari would say something like that.
"What the hell are you talking about?"
"I'm not Shepard's. Liara is Shepard's so you totally tried to hit on Liara at one point, right? Oh, I don't know how to feel about this," Sam slurs, the world around her is spinning a lot more than it should.
"Athame's tits, Liara's going to flay me alive, " the asari mutters, shoving a glass of water into Sam's hands.
"How do you even know Li- Lara… that poo-head anyway?" Sam stares at the glass before lifting it up and smelling it. She nods to herself that there isn't anything weird in it and drinks.
"The what? If you must know, I'm her father."
Sam blinks several times, but says nothing.
"I somehow expected a different reaction, " Aethyta murmurs, handing Sam a third glass of water.
Sam isn't able to process what was just said so she glances around to see if anyone else can break it down for her, she spots Liara, Ashley, and Shepard a deck away at the tables, none of them looking very happy.
"That," Sam points out, or tries to. Aethyta snorts as she watches Sam's arm just sort of flop around in the air before landing with a dull thud on the counter, "All that, over there, all their fault. Liara's fault."
"Usually I ignore the drunken sob stories of my customers but since yours seems to be about my kid, I need you to sober up so you can tell me what your issue is with her," Aethyta grumbles, wishing she hadn't given Sam so many drinks.
"She doesn't like to share!" Sam shouts, "So what if I was totally checking Shepard out, how can you not!? " Sam flails her arms and Aethyta has to reach over to stop her from falling backwards. "It was just some harmless flirting, totally harmless," Sam hiccups and squint her eyes; the spinning is getting a lot worse. "Now I'm half in… In love with that damn woman and It's her fault!" Sam ends on her declaration with slamming her glass down and watching helplessly as it slips out of her hands and rolls off the counter. It shatters when it hits the ground, "Oops."
"Messing with you humans was bound to bite me in the ass one day, " Aethyta sighs, forcing one of her absent-minded coworkers to clean up the mess. Sam continues to ramble about what Liara and an EDI had done and with further prodding, Aethyta is able to breathe a sigh of relief that Sam is talking about the soldier Ashley and not Shepard or Liara.
As proud as she is for her daughter pulling of a stunt like this, Aethyta knows it went too far. She's been keeping an eye on Liara and grins when she notices her kid continuing to glance their way over the last ten minutes.
Aethyta smirks at Sam and leans over, nearly cackling as Sam's eyes stray from her face to the cleavage she's purposely put on display, "ever meld with an asari before?"
"Uhh…" Sam has to force her head up in order to focus, but she is unaware of just how close Aethyta is. Her face is flush from more than just the alcohol, "No?" she squeaks.
Aethyta reaches forward, her eyes darting to the side to see Liara gaping at her, but also Shepard and the other human as well. The latter looking slightly dejected.
"Not so one-sided after all. "
"Hmm?" Sam mumbles, her eyes practically glued to the lips very close to her own.
"Come on kid, let's get you a place to sleep this off. Something had to have survived the destruction the more idiotic of your species attempted." Aethyta makes a show of slipping her arm around Sam and leans in close, as if she were whispering dirty things to the human who amazingly plays right into it by flushing the moment Aethyta gets closer. The floundering her kid is doing right now is something she wants to frame, Shepard's shock is just an added bonus. Oh she's going to pull some strings and get the footage from today to hold over their heads for a long time coming.
Out of the three of them, Liara guesses that she had the most sleep the previous night after Cerberus attacked the Citadel. It isn't saying much since she spent most of the night going over her Shadow Broker duties and comforting Shepard. She can only guess from Ashley's haggard appearance that she didn't get much sleep either, having stayed with her sister the night before instead of back on the Normandy.
When Liara had finally shut down for the night and gone to the captain's quarters it had surprised her to see Shepard lying on their bed, staring up at the ceiling. She felt ignorant then, realizing that while Cerberus nearly annihilating the Citadel was tragic, Shepard would have focused on the one thing that could have cost Shepard part of her sanity.
Liara had been there, watching silently as Shepard and Ashley faced one another, guns raised and ready to shoot. It had almost been a surprise to Liara when Ashley turned and shot Udina, nearly missing the relieved sag in Shepard's stance.
"I really thought I was going to have to shoot her," Shepard's voice is hoarse from crying and Liara curses herself for not having arrived sooner.
"You did not," Liara reminds her. She wants to say more, but knows Shepard needs to get it all out. It is how she functions, needing to vent out to someone before getting passed it. It was no wonder Ashley's first betrayal had left Shepard so shattered, she had been on a ship full of unknowns and Tali and Garrus had been the last ones Shepard grabbed and by then she had buried it all and focused on their suicide run to the collectors.
Liara sighs, she has so much to make up for.
"I would have, should have really," Shepard let out a rough laugh, "some friend I am."
Liara had crawled into bed at that point, gathering Shepard in her arms. Instead of protesting as she normally does, Shepard wrapps herself around Liara, hiding her face in Liara's neck.
Liara can feel the hot sting of tears that roll down Shepard's cheeks. "I was trying to fix things and then I had to go and put a gun in her face."
"She did the same to you," Liara tests. It is difficult at times to say where Shepard's mind lay. More often than not she can easily take the logical road, but there were times where Shepard just needed to let out her frustrations no matter how ridiculous Liara thought they were.
Shepard is silent, and Liara can see the muscles of her jaw working. She runs her hands through Shepard's hair, still fascinated by how soft it is after all this time.
She can feel Shepard relax and Liara figures the hours she'd been working that Shepard had already tormented herself enough. There was a soft poking at her side that draws her out of her own thoughts. Liara looks down, "Yes?"
Shepard sighs, clearly not wanting to ask, "What happened with you and Ashley earlier this week? Did it have to do with the Sam thing?"
Liara closes her eyes in shame, "I—yes, I believe so."
Shepard lets out a tired sigh, "How much does she know?"
"I…" Liara paused to think, "I do not think she knows the details. Just that I…" she sighed again, her breath hitching momentarily. "Just that I hurt Sam somehow."
Shepard snorts, "I bet Sam just loved that over-protective sister thing Ash does."
"I was unaware you were keeping track of Samantha's feelings or that there were any involved," she says the last part as an afterthought, forgetting she isn't alone.
"Liara, you can't suspend a carrot in front of a full rabbit without it wanting to eat it anyway."
Liara stares at Shepard, not understanding.
"Darlin'" Liara smiles, sometimes Shepard fell into a strange accent when saying certain words. It is endearing, and still manages to confuse her with all the complexities of the human language. "She likes women and I'm sure you've noticed that Ashley is very nice to look at," Shepard rolls her eyes at Liara's look, "She can also be very helpful and nice and other things that would attract someone."
"Very descriptive," Liara teases.
"Hush," Shepard lightly head-butts Liara's chin. "Does it make more sense?"
"Yes," Liara says soon after. "I suppose listening to Joker was not the smartest thing I have done."
"No, probably not."
It hasn't occurred to her until now that Shepard hasn't fully forgiven her for the mess with Samantha and it's made more apparent as the three of them sit around a table in the Presidium, not speaking.
Liara had tried to nudge Shepard into saying something but her stubbornness had kicked in long ago and Liara knows she isn't going to be starting the conversation that needs to happen.
She is about to nudge Ashley when movement catches her eye.
She gapes in horror as she watches Sam lean over the bar counter-top to get closer to her father. "Oh by the Goddess, please tell me I am hallucinating."
Both Shepard and Ashley look towards the bar; Shepard struggles to choke back a laugh while Ashley looks bewildered, if not disgruntled as well.
Noticing, Shepard hisses, "That's Liara's dad."
"What!?" Ashley nearly shouts, her head switching back and forth trying to find some kind of similarity.
"What is she doing!?" Liara nearly shrieks, causing Shepard and Ashley to jump at the unexpected shout.
Liara jumps up but Shepard quickly stops her and holds her back as they all watched in horrified fascination as Aethyta leads a willing Sam towards the apartments.
Aethyta shakes her head at Sam's pathetic state.
Sam is face down on the bed, snoring something fierce, half out of her clothes. Her shirt is tangled around her neck, one arm still in a sleeve, her pants almost made it to the floor but they'd gotten stuck on the shoes Sam had forgotten to take off. Aethyta didn't even bother trying to help, she was too busy laughing at how hard Sam was trying to get them over her shoes.
Aethyta sighs to herself, annoyed at the soft spot quickly growing for this human, and turns Sam to her side so she doesn't suffocate on the pillow. "Stupid kid, getting one over on my own kid should be apology enough for the way you're going to feel when you wake up."
Aethyta leaves after leaving a glass of water and pain killers next to Sam. When she finally makes it back to her bartending, an hour has gone by and Liara is sitting at the bar, Shepard and the other human no where in sight.
She lets the smug look on her face linger as Liara stares at her, "Hey, kid."
Liara gapes at her and straightens her back, an impassive look falling on her features, "What do you think you are doing!?"
Aethyta pauses in grabbing a clean cloth, "I'd say I'm working, " she states, knowing it will irritate Liara.
"That is not what I am talking about and you know it," Liara hisses, leaning forward.
"Ah, saw that did you?" Aethyta continues her charade, smirking internally at this silly form of revenge the passed out human isn't even aware of, "just another human curious about the depths of asari melding." Aethyta's voice lowers even further at the implication.
Liara's expression turns horrified and Aethyta can't hold back the laughter, "how did my kid turn out to be such a prude? I was sure Shepard would have kicked you out of that habit by now," Aethyta leans forward, eyeing Liara as a parent would, "she is taking care of you, right?" she growls.
Liara blinks at the quick change of emotion and nods, "Of course she is! This is not about Shepard! This is about Samantha and you taking advantage—"
"Samantha, huh? Cute name."
"You did not even know her name!?"
Aethyta shrugs and starts to wipe down the bar, normally she would have taken off by now, but they were pretty much the only place open after all the destruction from Cerberus' failed take-over.
"Don't need a person's name when all you want is some good fuck—"
"No! Nono, just please, stop talking, for the love of the goddess," Liara puts her head in her hands, clearly exasperated. "How did mother deal with you?"
Aethyta knows it isn't said in anger but it still stings, "Your mother was far less of a stuck up than everyone thinks," Aethyta grins.
Liara cuts her off, knowing where her father was going to take their discussion, "Stop! Goddess, you are impossible!"
"It's the krogan in me."
"You know that is not how it works."
"So you've said, kid. Doesn't mean you're right."
"Goddess, this is mortifying," Liara mumbles.
"Isn't it?" Aethyta says, giving Liara a disapproving stare and Liara briefly wonders how her life would have turned out had Aethyta been around the first hundred years.
It doesn't take long for her analytical mind to catch on to what her father is implying, "you know?" She sounds more upset than Aethyta would have guessed.
"Next time you want to fuck around with human customs, you better talk to the one you're in love with."
Liara nods and sighs, "It was all just a ruse then?" She lets out a relieved breath.
Aethyta smirks and says nothing.
"Dad!" Liara hisses, the horrified look on her face is one Aethyta will be laughing at for decades.