Luck of the Draw
Plot? This thing has a plot? Shouldn't someone notify the writer?
…oh.
Mom was always good at faking a smile. Her smiles, no matter faked or real, were always pleasant. She could ease into a smile of good will even if the recipient of good will was undeserving. Her lips would lift at the corners, her round face would glow, and the crow's feet at the edges of her brown eyes would pull taut. If needed, she could crank up the smile to a million credits and dazzle the recipient with straight pearlescent teeth.
The elder Williams faked such a smile so well that Ashley had gotten into a habit of studying her mother's face for that tell-tale twitch of her nose when her left nostril did an almost imperceptible flare every so often. It was so minute that none of the other Williams sisters had ever noticed and usually called Ashley crazy or weird or "whatever, Ash" for bringing it up.
But judging Mom's mood was what the eldest sibling of the Williams clan did best –besides kill geth, memorize her favorite poems for instant recall when the time called for it, free-fall into atmospheres of gas giants by accident, and organize the Normandy's armory so well the quartermaster and requisitions officer had both written letters to the Naval promotion board recommending her, much to her chagrin, for a quartermaster rating (the OSDs were currently hidden within the depths of her locker under and or amongst four months of accumulated, yet vaguely organized, garbage).
Yes, Mom was excellent at faking her smiles. In fact, she was excellent all around at faking her mood – unless she was angry. Then Ashley was very glad to be stationed Elsewhere Specifically and Away From Amaterasu In General, thank you very much. Angry Mom was not a pleasant mom. Angry Mom – God bless her heart –was a bitch.
As it was, Ashley sat at a public comm terminal in a long distance comm linkup staring at her mother's pert nose while simultaneously trying to pay attention to the conversation and get a feeling for Mom's mood. Going home to Angry Mom wasn't something she wanted to do. But so far, Mom had been nothing but chatty and pleasant about the whole thing. Ashley thought something was off about Mom's smile though and was determined to find out if she was Faking It. Luck would be that Mom wanted Mom Time and Sarah was staying with friends until Mom Time was over.
Every once and again the holo would flicker or Ash's eyes decided, God forbid, they needed to blink, and she had to start all over in balancing judging Mom's mood and paying attention to the words coming from Mom's mouth. But damn if her smile wasn't infectious even if Ash thought Mom was hiding something.
"I can't believe we get you for two weeks," Mom said as the holo flickered for the umpteenth time. Ash grit her teeth to keep herself from glaring at the holo and upsetting her mother. If Mom wasn't happy she was coming home, then Mom wasn't happy. There wasn't anything Ashley could have done about the timing. She was going home, damn it.
"It'll be nice to see everyone," she said with a smile of her own.
There. There it was! That little flicker of Mom's left nostril. Ashley knew she wasn't going crazy!
She struggled to keep her smile pleasant and not look too smug in her finding.
"Abby won't be able to make it," Mom said, and then her smile faded, surprising the vaguely-smug smile right off Ashley's face. "She's gone to Earth. A fast packet flight from Earth will be too much for her to afford right now."
Ashley frowned, wondering when, if ever, Mom had been planning to drop that particular piece of news on her. And why hadn't Sar said anything? Sar usually told her everything. "Earth? When did she go to Earth? I thought she was enrolled at the Academy of Performing Arts on Terra Nova?"
"Oh, a few weeks ago," Mom said, worry stealing into her expression. "You know how flighty she can be sometimes – and don't you repeat me, Ashley," she added in a tone that brooked no argument. "She wants to be a famous actress in Hollywood, so she saved every last credit she could and just upped and moved. I've been meaning to tell you. It's just… it's been so hectic here. Sarah's in her last year of high school, you know, and she's signed up for everything the school has to offer in the way of extracurricular activities: Honor Roll, Who's Who, Homecoming Royalty, Galactic Honor Society…"
"Those things you don't sign up for, Mom," Ash told her.
"Soccer?" Mom asked, a well-groomed eyebrow lifted.
"Yeah, you've gotta sign up for that one."
Mom frowned and nodded, her opinion reaffirmed. "Well, she signed up for everything the school has to offer in the way of extracurricular activities."
Ashley chuckled and shook her head. "Oh Lord." A thought occurred to her. "Mom, does Abby have enough credits to live in Hollywood?" Travelling to Earth was expensive outside the military. Colonial Affairs usually regulated transit from the colonies to Earth. One had no luck if they weren't military personnel or merchants.
"I don't know, Ashley." She put the matter aside with forced good cheer and a minute flicker of her left nostril. "Bandwidth is almost at a maximum at this terminal, and there's a queue behind me. Sarah and I will meet you at the space port tonight." Before Ashley could say anything, she continued, "Oh! Would see about bringing some off-world junjun repellant? They're mating like crazy this year and local shops can't seem to keep their stores stocked. We're having trouble keeping them out of the house. I found a cluster of eggs under the housing unit yesterday."
"Yes, ma'am," Ash told her, the smile that had been forming freezing on her face.
Oh my God. Ew.
She was suddenly not looking forward to going home, and she was still suspicious that Mom's initial happiness to Ashley's sudden shore leave was an act. It was just her luck that it was fricken junjun mating season during the only leave she'd gotten in the last six months and was close enough to home that she wasn't penalized for the distance.
After saying her good-byes and logging off, she quickly found a shop that sold junjun repellant and purchased the maximum amount allowed by Alliance regulations. The last thing she wanted to find was a basketball-sized, blood-sucking space flea in her bed.
Winning a game of Skyllian 5 Poker required equal parts skill and luck. Winning against the humans and Garrus was not only satisfying, but damned fun.
Garrus seemed to be convinced that Tali was cheating somehow. He'd scanned the solid-state aerogel cards three times with his omni-tool after Tali showed her hand. Gun Dog re-examined his hand and eyed hers suspiciously. He'd dealt the cards.
Tali knew no one could see her face, but that didn't stop the huge grin from forming. She wanted to crow, "Got your credits! Got your credits! Quarians rule! Humans and turians drool! Woo!" but refrained from doing so lest she seem all the more suspicious.
"How did—" Gun Dog began but quickly looked at his hands when Garrus' beady blue eyes zeroed in on him. Tali's grin was beginning to hurt her face it was so wide. Gun Dog had stacked the cards using a program so easily hacked it was child's play – a quarian could hack it in her sleep given the right amount of wetware and cabling.
Garrus scanned Fredericks' omni-tool, his mandibles fluttering as he concentrated on hacking the system. Tali had made sure the program the human had used had been disabled and relocated to the junk folder under a false path name and extension so Gun Dog couldn't use it again. She'd even re-written the metadata by using a specialized quarian blinking code.
Hardy crossed his arms and looked back and forth between turian and human, then cast a look in Tali's direction. "You two really expected her not to count the cards in her head?" he asked in a tone that practically pointed to her and yelled: "HellooOo! Quarians can count without moving their lips. Duh."
Tali's smile quickly transformed into a glare as Garrus squawked indignantly and Gun Dog looked scandalized.
For clarification: Abby is the "weird" Williams sister who likes corsets and big hoop skirts and fighting with swords.
My goal is to finish this sucker before the next game comes out. There's only about twenty-one weeks left before then (if I counted right, and, ah, counting's not my forte). Tentative update schedule will be Mondays and Fridays.
Wish me luck, yeah?