It took a few weeks. to get the Normandy up and running again, even more to get a route to Earth. Comms were down, even longer before Tali got her three -fingered hands on it. Tali, as good with technology as she was, was only able to set up a good signal for about two hours, Ashley let everyone contact their families first, then when it was her time she shot off a very quick four worded email to her family. The 'i'm okay, love you' she sent was definitely going to get a little scolding from her mother, but Ashley had more important emails to send. Like perhaps, Admiral Hackett. The response was almost instant, she sent word that the Normandy was just up and running, that they were en route to Earth, Comms were shitty and she wanted information on Shepard. She didn't expect an email back, but when the Comm beeped she immediately clicked and read the following.
To Lt-Commander Ashley Williams, SSV Normandy SR2 (19:40 EST)
From: Admiral Hackett, London, England, Earth. ( 19:58, EST)
The Reapers are down, all of them, bodies here in London are being cleared as we speak. It's not pretty, Lt-Commander. It's nasty, the crucible decimated city blocks for miles. The FOB is currently being moved farther into the city, hopefully to provide for some moral booster.
It's good to hear the Normandy is running and on our way as we write, we're going to need more help than you could imagine. Comms here are okay, steady and holding but not up to par. I'm going to make this short and sweet for you Williams. Shepard is holding together, barely. We have much to discuss in person.
Admiral Hackett Alliance Fleet.
The rest was verification coding, but the part that caught her attention was that Shepard was barely holding on. It made her sigh and another weight seemed to balance on her shoulders. As if things could get any worse, Joker called her to the bridge, and all Ash wanted to do was sleep. She was dead tired, pooped, barely walking. She never understood how Shepard could put on such a convincing face, even when he got a good night's rest. Even if he was as tired as Ashley was, he found a way to make the crew and its members to feel... enthused.
That was the major difference between the two. Shepard was fit for leading, commanding, being the hero. Ashley felt as if she wasn't, she longed for the times of just being a grunt, sleeping in lumpy cots and reporting for shitty drills in the rain. She would trade almost anything to go back to a simpler time, where she followed orders instead of giving them.
She groaned as she stood, keeping one leg completely straight due to it being broken. Her right leg broken, her left arm in a sling, a nose with stitches in it, she must've looked terrible. Not to mention, she had a very hard time trying to shower in ice cold water, so she probably smelled terribly too.
She couldn't help but grimace when she looked at the damage. Just on the Normandy alone, hulls were barely holding together, the normally cheery atmosphere replaced with a tense, rather hostile one, and Ash couldn't help but cringe. Literally twenty minutes after Shepard was listed as MIA, the crew fell apart. Shepard was the glue, and without him, nothing worked. Garrus was obviously depressed, Traynor actually tried cheering him up only making him lash out at the poor specialist. Vega stayed in the shuttle bay alone, Cortez's death hit him hard. Even Ashley, and she was supposed to be the leader, couldn't help but lock herself away and not even give a second glance to the crew.
She knew she shouldn't, that she should take control, call a stop to the madness. But she couldn't, she felt herself not care, she felt herself just dismiss it with a wave. It seemed as if the only people that cared were Tali and Trayner, and even they were getting near the end of their rope.
Before she knew it, she was at the bridge still deep in thought
"Hey Ash, serious question here." Joker asks, turning his chair around to face Ashley.
"Yeah?" Ash starts, "Serious huh? Ask away." She also felt terrible, Joker had lost EDI and no one knew why. One minute she cracks a joke with Joker, the next, no response. It broke Joker, the helmsman, for he was in some sort of relationship with EDI.
"How'd you..." his voice cracked, "deal with Shepard dying," He said, putting a heavy hand to his face.
Ashley was taken aback by the question. "I-I, Uhm, Why are you asking?" Ashley settled on asking.
"'Cos I just lost EDI! God are you blind! EDI helped me, I miss her." he said, his voice cracking more often.
"Well, I mean," Ash started, deciding to be honest with her old friend. "I read poetry, laid in bed until the afternoon and avoided all contact with people." Ashley stated bluntly. The look of shock on Joker's face was priceless, making Ashley decide she should explain. "Then I realized that, maybe it wasn't exactly healthy, it's not good to go into depression like that. It affects the people around you too." She sighed and put a hand on his shoulder. "I strained my relationship with my family for months. I-I regret it, now. So, what i'm trying to say is, there isn't a set way to deal with the... loss, of a loved one. You just do, it's in our nature." Ashley finished heavily.
"Right, I guess you're right." He turned his chair around, "We have about three hours until we reach Earth, so uh, be ready." Joker said, moving his hands around and opening new tabs, closing old ones and looking like he was being productive.
"Joker," Ashley whispered, "for what it's worth, EDI was a perfect fit for you, and i'm sorry to see she's gone." Ashley turned and stepped away from Joker, sending him a wave over her shoulder.
"Yeah well, she didn't like you." Joker stated bluntly. Ash stopped mid-step.
"Wait a minute? EDI took over the body of the rouge computer thing that tried to kill me," Ashley felt her voice raise slightly and get a bit pitchy. She couldn't help but her hands moved with her words. "and I was okay with it after some time, but she didn't like me?" Ashley asked in a somewhat angry tone. Ashley wasn't angry, per se, just confused, and while she did feel like smashing Joker over the head with a fist or seven, she held it back. Fights were not going to help, or bring back loved ones. That was something Ashley learned the hard way.
"Well yeah," Joker stated, only turning his head, "You hurt Shepard pretty bad a on Horizon, she asked me some time ago why Shepard even forgave you, I told her I didn't have the answer," Joker shrugged, "Then she continued to state that she didn't like you, in that smart way of saying things, all intelligently."
Ashley was stunned to silence, and desperately wished she knew this before. She just bit her tongue and clenched her jaw mumbling that she'd be in the Captain's Quarters if anyone needed her.
She passed by all sorts of people, tall, short, fat, aliens, not aliens, for as they escaped Earth they picked up some distress signals, they all worked to try and get the Normandy up and running. She acknowledged them with nods and waves, but she never looked them in the eye. When Ashley made it to the elevator she tucked herself in the corner after pressing the button to the Captain's Quarters.
She made it to her quarters fairly quickly. She entered the bathroom after checking on the hamster Shepard had. The mirror revealed a very sickly looking Ashley Williams. Her eyes had bags under them, her face was sunken in from lack of sleep, and her worry lines on her foreheads became more defined. She hated this, she was once lively and joking, now that was replaced with the burden of leading. She scowled at her reflection and turned the water on. Even though there was no hot water, she still turned it on. Instead came frigid, ice cold water. Ashley cupped her hands and splashed the water on her face. When she looked back at herself in the mirror, she saw the same grim face, with only one change, it was wet.
Shepard inhaled deeply and let it out slowly, trying to get his emotions in check. Leaving his parents was going to be difficult, but he had to do this. He stepped closer to Kaidan whispering an 'I'm ready' to his biotic friend. Before yet another voice called him. He couldn't help the annoyed sigh that came from his throat.
"You are the great Commander Shepard?" A somewhat raspy voice questioned. Whoever it was, that person was someone Sheard felt he should know. When he turned the frown that flitted across was barely noticeable, until he realized who cares if he offends someone, he's going home.
"Substitute great with bastard and yeah, that's me." Shepard said, easing his frown off his face and rubbing his neck.
The man smirks and gives a laugh, moving to clap Shepard on his shoulder, but his hand slides right through.
"Never got used to that," The man scowles at his hand before raising his eyes to meet Shepard's. "You don't know who I am?" He asks, to which Shepard shook his head slowly. The man rubbed the small beard he had grown with a frail hand.
"Should I?" Shepard asked.
The man grunts, "Yeah, you should. Ashley said I'd like you," the man trails off with an arched brow.
"Holy-" Shepard whispers, "I um, sorry sir, You are Mr. Williams, I feel like an idiot." Shepard said rubbing his temples slowly.
"It's alright to feel stupid, just don't go and do anything." Mr. Williams said.
"Ah, Y-yeah." Shepard suddenly stood straighter, his eyes wide with awareness, this was the father of his lover. He did desperately want some sort of 'yeah you can date my daughter' kinda thing. I mean he had relationships, things that got serious, and he asked permission like a gentleman, but this, this was something else.
"No need to stutter, you are the Saviour of The Citadel, all that stuff i'm too lazy to reiterate."
"I didn't save the Citadel, innocents died and it was partially demolished." Shepard said.
"Close enough is good enough right?" Mr. Williams said with a smile on his face. His face, as wrinkled as it was, seemed carefree and happy.
"Not in all circumstances, sir." Shepard said with a bite to his words. He knew that close enough wasn't good enough for a lot of things in life, like love, or even making mass relay jumps, if you're off just a tad, well you'll spend times drifting stars with a hole in your heart, for both.
"Yeah well," the man grunts, looks up and sighs. "I aint got much time, I already asked for too many extensions, but, My Ash loves you damnit. Sadly I don't want her to love anybody but her family, though i'm not that naive." the man states bitterly. Then his tone softens, "I just want her happy. Ya' know, when she came and read poetry to my grave while you were gone, it wasn't very... heartfelt. She didn't enjoy it, it reminded her of reading it at your grave or something."
"Wait, she read poetry to my grave?" Shepard said astonished.
"Something like that, or your casket, I dunno." Shepard blew out a breath of hot air, realization hitting him. 'I was dead,'
"Anyways!" The Williams man exclaimed to get Shepard's attention. "Anyways, she's my daughter, as her father I get final say over important things."
Then a dumb idea broke the surface of Shepard's mind. He thought back to the time his parents told him of the time his father proposed.
"Listen, I mean no disrespect, sir." Shepard said interupting the older man with palms out. "I do love Ashley with everything I could, every fiber of my being. Now that the threat of the Reapers is gone, I would like permission, sir." Shepard said, taking a deep breath while the other man stood tall with a frown on his face. "I would like permission to marry your daughter."
"What!" Williams hollered.
"I uh," Shepard breathed in deeply, he could solve this with words. If he could talk Wrex into destroying the cure for the Genophage first time 'round he could talk down a very pissed looking Williams... he hoped.
"You want to marry my Ashley?"
"Yes, sir, maybe not right away, down the line when all this is said and over, when we could lead normal lives without trouble from the brass, down the line." Shepard continued "I was thinking, I might as well ask now, I know where I want Ashley to be in my life. I am absolutely, one thousand percent sure I want her to be my wife." Shepard said with the Commander gleam in his eye, and his chest puffed out.
"Well..." Williams was silent for a long while, his hand on the growing gray stubble. "It's not my place to say no. My wife should be the one you should ask, outta respect. But if it was up to me," The man waited for a nod from Shepard. When he received it he continued, "Then yes, I would proudly give my blessing." With a smile, the old man clapped his hands together.
"Thank you!" Shepard said, a wide grin plastered on his face.
"Just treat her right, she deserves it." Mr. Williams said, holding out a hand. Shepard moves to grasp it but he pulls back. "You can't actually shake my hand, it's uh, it'll pass through." Williams, smiled sadly and just barely touched Shepard, moving in a shaking motion. "One last thing though," he said, as he stepped back. "Don't get her pregnant, at least not yet."
"I uh, wow," Shepard felt his cheeks redden, and his eyes bulge slightly, first his father and now this. He could only take so much embarrassment.
"Well then, I was kidding, sort of there is something though I want you to do, seriously." Williams said with a slight smirk.
"Anything," Shepard responded immediately. He got what he wanted, he wanted someway to pay this man back.
"I have a poem, I uh, wrote for my daughters. Ashley is the one you have to worry about though," He smirks and suddenly, the calm man that stood before Shepard moments ago vanished and was replaced by a nervous, worried statue of himself. Shepard stood, hands behind his back, at attention and listened intently as the man recited the poem.
A/N Sooo Im making a habit of being late on my expected updates. Leading Guy in my life came down with the flu, so I get the pleasure of caring for him... I feel bad for him, but he's really cutting into my writing. ANYWHO, thanks for the reviews guys, I read all of them and they made me smile like a fool at work. :) I proofread this one... kinda, towards the end I just didnt have the time, so sorry for any mistakes .