Ashley felt like a thief in the night.
Casting furtive glances towards the dining area where the crew currently eating didn't even cast her a look it felt a bit awkward to be moving to the med-bay. A marine never visited it unless she was hurt...or with issues of a more...personal problems.
One of the men looked up...only to stare down at the table as Ashley glared at him...she caught herself smirking. Good, the entire crew is sufficiently whipped...
The smirk quickly died however as she crossed the last distance to the med-bay. She did not like the idea of leaving Michael alone with that...that...minx...that trickster of a Quarian...slut. Nor did she really like the idea of going to comfort Liara. While the Asari clearly wasn't a traitor or anything, hell she hadn't even tried anything with Michael – which put her a step above Tali at least – Ashley didn't really know the woman...and she was just so...odd...and weird.
But Michael had asked her for help...and she couldn't refuse him. His gratitude was something to cherish after all...and despite her feigned bravado – sometimes she feared the Quarian would see right through with those alien eyes – Ashley was worried. Tali seemed to see things in Michael Ashley didn't...the many times they had spoken before their split it had been Tali that had told her so much about the man...and if she made use of such an ability to seduce him...it was a frightening thought.
At first she hadn't been worried, Tali had been disgusted with Michael, or at least acted like it...but now...now Ashley felt a worm of fear.
Alien or not...suit or not...she's dangerous...
I should do something...push things...can't let Tali win like this...
She shook her head as the door of the med-bay opened, pushing the thoughts aside. Later, now to help Miss Blueberry...
The med-bay was empty save the usual beds and Chakwas' desk and computer...and the doctor herself sitting by it as she tapped away.
Ashley moved forward, watching as the doctor turned, the old woman smiling calmly at the marine: "So Michael sent you? Good, I tried myself but it was no use...I'm..." She moved a hand up to her greying hair. "...too motherly I suppose." She nodded towards the door at the other end of the room. "She's in the lab."
"Of course she is..." Ashley shook her head. Grieving a family member in a lab? Only Liara I suppose...bet she's working, damn ice-queen...
But then again she's supposed to be upset...
She reached the door...and hesitated.
Fuck it.
Two steps forward...and the door opened and let her into the next room.
The lab was small, the Normandy was a fighting vessel and not a lab-ship after all...more a place for safe storage of dangerous items found during scouting missions and the like...and developing the odd chemical the doctor might need.
It was also dark.
Ashley blinked, momentarily taken aback as she stared around herself while the door slid shut behind her.
To her right there were shelves riveted to the wall, numerous bottles with various liquids lining them...a few pieces of lab equipment dominated the top shelf.
And to the left there was a desk along the length of the room, a single computer...before which Liara sat, the back of the Asari's head the only thing visible as she slowly typed away.
Ashley hesitated, unsure how to begin. If it had been one of her sisters she would have come with a blanket, perhaps a favourite stuffed animal...soft words along with a good smack to the head...but what did one do with an Asari? One that was basically a calculating machine dedicated to science?
Hell, Ashley was even a little worried that a smack would hurt those strange blue...things on the Asari's head.
A slight cock of Liara's head, her typing slowing: "I told you Shepard...I...am okay."
Again, Ashley hesitated. Then a shrug. Just get it over with. "Yeah, I'm not the giant super-man, sorry."
Liara flinched, but didn't turn. "Ah..." Then the clicking of her fingers on the keys of the computer. "...sent you did he? I'm not surprised, though I find it quite needless, I am well."
"Yeah..." Ashley turned her gaze around, looking at the room with an arched eyebrow. "...because people love to stay in a pitch-black room when they're okay."
The clicking ceased.
Liara turned her head, blue eye flashing at Ashley: "I told you, I'm well, now please leave, I have work to do and you're in my way." A small sigh...and she turned back to the screen. "Besides, you do not care much for me, so go back to Michael and tell him you did some good...and that I am well, because I am."
"Yeah...that's not how I play." Ashley muttered, arms crossing over her chest. "Marines don't leave anyone behind, no matter what kind of battlefield."
"I told you..." Liara's shoulders bunched up in her seat as the Asari hissed the words. "...I am well...now please leave." She shook her head.
"You know..." Ashley hesitated, taking a step forward. "...it's odd, I remember your teasing back in Flux, scared the shit out of me...I'm no lesbian after all..."
The tiniest of chuckles escaped the Asari, her taps on the keyboard slow as she lowered her head.
"...yet I haven't seen that woman since then." Ashley nodded to herself, it was true, she hadn't thought about it...but it was true. "No, all I see is that polite scientist that tries to analyse things to death...too polite to be liked, hell, too cold to be seen as anything but a Geth."
"I'm sorry if I've given you such an impression." Liara replied, polite as ever, yet not turning... "I'm aware I can be a bit distant, cold even, at least in how I'm perceived. It's an issue I've tried to look into, but I'm afraid that it's just the way-"
"You can't help it can you?" Ashley smirked as she interrupted, but the smirk died swiftly as she took a step closer, watching the way Liara's hands shook as they slowly moved between digits on the keyboard before her. "Control, analyse, data, it's all about that isn't it? So when something like this happens...you don't get it, you can't wrap your head around it."
"I...don't know what you're talking about." Liara muttered back, the Asari...shrinking in her seat.
"Back at Eden Prime..." Ashley grimaced, the name still making her chest tighten. "...my entire unit was killed, and I couldn't really...accept it, and I was trained to be able to do just that. I don't know how it works for an Asari...but I hope grief can still be felt by you...or it's just scary."
"Grief? It's not productive." Liara shrugged. "And why should I grieve? I hadn't met my mother in five decades, you heard it yourself...she was just a stranger."
"Ah." Ashley swallowed, it was such an obvious lie...and she'd seen it with her sisters. She knew how to get them out of it though, how to shake them out of the lie they were telling themselves. Tough love, always works. "I guess that's it then? Just more data to analyse? Her final words meant nothing I'm sure, she never did finish that sentence of hers...but I guess it didn't matter?"
"That's...correct." Liara flinched, the Asari's hands gripping at the edge of the desk as Ashley came closer.
"Yep, just another traitor, filth to be killed. I guess it would have helped restoring your name if you had pulled the trigger..." Ashley advanced closer, so close she could touch the backrest of Liara's chair. "...bet you wished you had, huh? Killed that traitor? Perhaps even drawn it out a bit? For what she did to you? Made her suffe-"
"Shut up!" Liara flew to her feet, her body aglow with biotic energy as she whirled to face Ashley, eyes afire as she sent the chair hurtling past the marine and into the shelves with a crash of breaking glass. "You will shut up!" She moved forth...and Ashley stepped backwards as the glowing Asari bore down at her. "SHUT UP!"
A thump of her back against the wall...and Ashley found Liara's forearm pressing against her throat as the Asari glared up at her, her other hand on Ashley's shirt and her eyes glowing with the energy coursing through her.
A moment she was taken aback...then she forced a wide grin: "Ah! So there's some fire there after all! You want to defend that traitor!"
Pain shot through her as the Asari pulled back and then smashed her back into the wall, face twisting into a grimace of rage: "That was my mother!"
"So? What do you care! You hadn't seen her for fifty years! She never cared for you! And you never cared for her!" Ashley bared her teeth at Liara, forcing herself to grin even as she felt a pang of sympathy in her heart: "And why would you! She was evil! You would never have seen her if we hadn't hunted her down!"
"I care!" Liara roared, the grip on Ashley's shirt tearing back and forth as she shook Ashley. "I cared dammit!"
"Why! Why did you care!"
Liara's eyes blazed with rage: "Because she was my mother! Because I hoped she would..."
And the fire in her eyes died.
The Asari's gaze went distant and she looked downwards as her shouts turned to a mutter: "...because I hoped there was still a chance...that we could...that..." The biotic glow faded, the arm against Ashley's throat dropped down...as the Asari's shoulders slumped in defeat, gaze downcast as she whispered: "...we perhaps could...mend..."
And Ashley felt her own shoulders drop as she softly replied: "Things usually don't go as planned...it sucks but there you have it."
"Yes..." A shudder ran through the Asari, voice low: "...sucks..."
"My grandfather did the right thing back in Shanxi...yet he's still marked as a traitor...and people like us..." Can't believe I'm making myself similar to an alien... It was a dim thought though, weak compared to the sympathy digging in...the understanding. Ashley's hands were suddenly on Liara's shoulders: "...we carry those marks, fair or not...we do."
There was no answer from the Asari, Liara's gaze fixed upon the floor between the two.
"But the worst thing is..." Ashley swallowed down the sudden lump in her throat as gripped Liara's shoulders tighter. "...that we can't agree with the others condemnation, we can't...because they're our family a-and...despite everything...w-we love them."
A shudder ran through Liara...and the Asari was suddenly leaning her forearms against Ashley's chest as she shook, tears in her voice: "I n-never s-said t-that..."
Oh...
The sympathy had pushed at the brim...now it flooded over and Ashley's arms wound round Liara's neck as she pulled the Asari closer. "Come here..." Liara buried her face in Ashley's chest...and she felt the Asari's head shake as she wept. "...she knew, they always know..."
A meek shake of Liara's head, the Asari's arms around Ashley's waist as the woman struggled not to topple under the emotions raging within her. And her voice, muffled in Ashley's shirt: "I should h-have...h-have s-said something...do-done...more..."
At first Ashley thought Liara meant about her mother being a traitor...but then she realised the Asari simply meant their relationship years ago...and felt her eyes screw shut as she held Liara tight, voice a comforting whisper: "You were a kid...it's not your fault...that's the worst thing...it's never someone's fault, it just...is."
And Liara whimpered, the Asari shaking as the dammed feelings burst forth: "I...w-we ne-never sp-spoke...ne-never...t-took ti-time..." An angry shake of her head, arms around Ashley's waist winding tighter. "She's g-gone...s-so m-much le-left...unsaid...I'll never...I c-can't...f-forgive..." Another shudder, the grip slackening. "...myself..."
"Oh Liara..." Ashley slumped downwards, dropping onto the floor with Liara still attached to her, clutching at her like a life-raft even as Ashley's left hand brushed the Asari between the shoulders and the right moved up her cool scalp...and pulled her head back so Ashley could look into the big blue eyes, now tinged red with tears. "...I'm afraid you have to."
Liara's lower lip wobbled...and then her head dived back into Ashley's chest as the Asari shook with grief.
"Hush...hush..." Ashley leant her head back against the wall, left hand slowly moving up and down Liara's back, her right carefully brushing against her head-fringe...and closed her eyes as she let the grief and sympathy run free within her. "...it'll be okay...it will..."
For Liara wasn't some ally to help, nor some crew-member, or a strange alien Ashley couldn't understand.
She was simply a woman that had lost what little family she had...
A girl that didn't feel as if she had anything but guilt left...
A weeping child in the dark...
Grieving.
Asari or human, it doesn't make a difference...
And Ashley began to gently rock Liara to sleep as she whispered words of comfort she'd whispered to her sisters countless times before...
8
8
8
Thanks to Abydos Jackson for not killing me and dumping my body in the river.