It was two days after they'd found Shepard that Ashley finally got her break. It was less of a miracle and more of a tired turian, but she wasn't exactly in a position to be choosey. Shepard had been asleep ever since they brought her off the Citadel and aside from Liara, who hadn't budged from her bondmate's room on the medical frigate Pasteur, the rest of the crew had been coming by in shifts, keeping a vigil over their wounded commander.

"Hey Garrus." Ashley looked up from the worn copy of Wordsworth she'd been flipping through. She was exhausted from the events of the last few days, but still more awake than Liara. The asari had finally collapsed after days of running on adrenaline, worry, and caffeine, and Ashley took Garrus back out into the hallway so as not to disturb her. "I didn't think you were going to be here for another hour or so."

"I'm wasn't. But I found something you need to see right now."

The Spectre felt her fatigue start to melt away. "What is it?"

"So, Tali and I have been trying to recover the security tapes from the Citadel, to see if we could find coverage of the evacuation, but the Crucible fried them pretty thoroughly. But then today, I talked to an old buddy of mine from C-Sec who made it out and he told me something interesting. You remember how Kai Leng released that VI that deleted all the footage of him?"

She nodded and Garrus continued. "Right. So my friend told me that afterwards, they set up a system that would back up the footage automatically to prevent that from happening again, and after a little digging, I found this." He pulled out a data drive and handed it to the Spectre. "That right there should be the last 6 hours before the Reapers took over the Citadel and shut the system down. It'd be a nightmare to go through by hand, but a good VI program running facial recognition software should be able to pick out anyone you want."

Ashley threw her arms around Garrus, having never been quite so tempted to make good on her promise to Shepard to kiss a turian if so ordered. "Thank you," she told her old friend. "You don't know what this means to me."

"Hey," Garrus reminded her, returning the embrace, "Don't mention it. What are friends for?"

Four Weeks Ago:

"I don't see what the big deal about inviting Sha'ira to this party is," Shepard teased, pouring out drinks for the two of them. The bar was only one of the many impressive features of the commander's new apartment, and she was clearly planning to have the crew christen it in style. "I mean, its not like you two haven't already had a lot of sex."

"I know." Ashley rubbed her forehead, trying to think of a way to explain her problem in a way that wouldn't be offensive. "It's just, I'm not really sure exactly things where stand between me and Sha'ira. Yeah, we've slept together, but we haven't done a lot of regular, 'couple' things yet."

"So? Now's your chance to start."

"I'm not sure if this is really the best place for that," she protested, deciding to go with honesty. "I love you guys like family, but sometimes, your idea of a good time can be a little intense for a civilian. I mean, you've hung out with Wrex on shore leave. And from what Garrus said about this Jack…"

Shepard smirked, sipping her drink. "You don't know the half of it. But don't worry. I'll make sure everyone plays nice and besides, Sha'ira's a big girl. She can handle it and you can too. Now get off your ass and ask that nice asari out."

Once Shepard made up her mind about something, there was seldom much of a point in arguing with her. "Very well, ma'am," Ashley conceded, "But if this ends up with me getting dumped, I'm going to blame you."

The Present:

"I really appreciate you doing this," Ashley told Liara as her friend plugged the hard drive Garrus had recovered into the computer systems in her cabin. "I know you didn't want to leave Shepard."

"It is all right," the Shadow Broker told her. "Doctor Chakwas says that she's out of immediate danger, but that it will still be a little while before she will be awake. Besides," she added with a rueful sniff of her own sleeve, "It will be good to take a shower and change while I'm here. These clothes have seen much better days."

"You're fine," she reassured Liara. "When she wakes up, Shepard will be thrilled to have you there no matter what you smell like."

The asari entered a few commands into her system. "This should not take long too. The Shadow Broker's systems are designed for precisely this sort of work." Liara smiled at her and Ashley could see the bone-deep relief in her eyes. The asari had been living and dying with each new development since they were separated from Shepard during the final push to the beam and now, at long last, she could finally let herself relax a little bit.

Three years ago, Ashley had been suspicious of Liara's interest in the commander but today, all the marine could think of was how lucky Shepard was to have her for a partner. As opposed to Sha'ira. Much of the time they'd spent together had been wonderful, but between the things she'd left unsaid and the things she had said but shouldn't have, Ashley was having a hard time forgiving herself.

Four Weeks Ago:

"So this is the famous Consort? Muy actractivo. You're a lucky woman, LC."

As James starred at Sha'ira with ill-disguised lust, Ashley could only nod in agreement. All the time she'd spent stressing over Shepard's party had been for nothing. The Consort knew how to charm people like Ashley knew how to shoot a rifle and right now, she had Jack eating out of the palm of her hand.

"I find your people's customs with regard to marking their skin fascinating," she told the convict as she examined the tattoos on her neck and arms. "It is as if your story is written on your body but in a code, only accessible to those you allow to know it."

"Wow," the biotic told her, "I never thought of it that way. But, yeah, that's pretty much me right there. We're not the only ones though," she added. "Turians put those markings on their faces and shit."

"They do," the Consort agreed, "But they are not personalized in the same way. They represent a turian's clan and colony, not who they are as individuals."

"Heh, what else would you expect?", Wrex laughed, "They're just a bunch of bony little soldiers with sticks up their asses anyway."

"That's not… that's not true," Tali objected, the quarian clearly having had a number of adult beverages that evening. "Turians are lots of fun."

If Ashley didn't know it was physically impossible for his species, she'd swear Garrus blushed at that. Sensing a opening, Wrex and Jack pounced, needling the couple over their new relationship and while the crew bantered, Sha'ira came back over to Ashley's couch, sliding down pleasantly close to the Spectre.

"I like your friends," she told her, a warm smile on her lovely face that was causing a similar warmth to spread through the Spectre's body. "I have seldom met such a collection of strong spirits."

"They are that," she agreed. "I'm not totally sure how Shepard keeps us all from killing each other sometimes, but once you get past that part, it's a hell of a team."

"She is a remarkable woman. As are you." The Consort slipped an arm around Ashley's shoulder and leaned over, making the Spectre's lips quiver with anticipation. Sha'ira began a long series of kisses that started off chaste but gradually heated up and as the asari's tongue caressed her own, Ashley moaned into her lover's mouth. She should have worried about who might be listening, but in that moment, she was too drunk on her lover's scent to care, nothing seeming to matter but the beautiful asari in her arms.

When she finally looked up, she realized she needn't have worried. Much of the rest of the crew was too preoccupied to pay attention to them, teasing having given way to other activities. Tali had moved into Garrus' lap and was stroking the turian's mandibles, Joker was blushing as EDI whispered something in his ear, and Shepard was leading Liara off to the upstairs bedroom while a series of smoldering glances passed between them.

Even many of the uncoupled members of the crew seemed to want to remedy that situation. Zaeed was trying his best to charm Samara, Specialist Traynor was getting better acquainted with Yeoman Chambers, and Kasumi's hands on James Vega's chiseled chest seemed to have gotten the lieutenant to forget his earlier fascination with the Consort.

Sha'ira caught her glancing around the room at the various displays of affection and she smiled approvingly. "It is only natural to want companionship at times such as these."

"I think they want a little more than companionship," Ashley smirked, but she had to agree. With peace having been brokered on Rannoch and the crew leaving for Thessia in the morning, the end of the war was fast approaching and it felt right to spend what time she could with the asari who she… She stopped her train of though, not sure of what she was feeling or if she should even be feeling it.

Instead, she focused on the very pleasant reality in front of her. Her hands encircled the Consort's face, kissing her once more, and this time, she let her fingers drift down, stroking the asari's curves through the silky fabric of her dress. The asari let out a breathy little whimper when Ashley brushed against the swell of her breasts, and the Spectre forced herself to pull back. "I think we better find a room."

Even as Ashley was locking the door to the spare bedroom behind them, she felt deft hands unzipping her dark blue bodysuit and roaming over the skin beneath it. Kisses started to run down the length of her spine and the Spectre gasped, lust pooling in her sex at every touch of Sha'ira's lips. No one had ever thrilled her as effortless as this asari could, and by the time her lover peeled off her panties, Ashley was already soaking wet. She couldn't even make it to the bed, slumping back against the wall and massaging Sha'ira's crest as the gorgeous woman beneath her went to work.

She came with almost embarrassing speed. The heat of Sha'ira's mouth, the deft movements of her tongue, and almost more than that, the unbearably sexy look in her eyes as she pleasured Ashley were too much for the Spectre to last long. When her body finished trembling though, she found her energy, carrying the Consort to the bed and tearing off her clothes so hastily she feared she might have torn the expensive garments.

The asari was panting with need by the time Ashley entered her, her mouth lavishing kisses on her wonderfully smooth teal skin even as her fingers probed inside her azure. The soft sounds Sha'ira made as the Spectre took her were almost enough to make Ashley peak again by themselves and when they at last melded, it took only a few strokes of the Consort's hand on her sex before she was joining her lover, the two women tumbling into an incredible climax together.

Afterwards, as they lay under the crisp sheets, stroking bodies still glistening with sweat, there had been so much that Ashley had wanted to say. Most of it she did. She'd told the asari how incredibly sexy she was, how good she made her feel, and how glad she was that Sha'ira had come with her to the party. But she'd still been a coward. It wasn't until the asari had drifted off to sleep that Ashley was finally able to give voice to the thought that had been growing in her mind that night, the thought that now, she couldn't get out of her head. Placing a soft kiss on the Consort's crest, she had whispered, "I love you, Sha'ira."

The Present:

"I have found her, Doctor T'Soni." The sound of the drone's voice, cool and unemotional, pulled Ashley out of the daydream she'd been having and back to a far more tense reality.

"Show us," she insisted to Glyph and seconds later, a piece of security video was being displayed on the screen in front of the two women.

"This footage is from Docking Bay 21 and begins 26 minutes after the Reapers appeared in the system and 19 minutes before all Citadel defenses were disabled."

The scene was just as chaotic as Ashley would have imagined, a sea of panicked refugees pushing and shoving their way through the docking bay, trying to reach the few ships available to evacuate the station. In the center of it all, was Sha'ira, the Shadow Broker's system having highlighted her face and focused on the footage that showed her passage most clearly. Ashley's lover was making her way towards a medium-sized ship named the Attitude Adjustment. In spite of the chaos around her, the asari maintained her usual calm facade but Ashley couldn't help but believe that beneath it, she must have been terrified and her heart hurt once more that she couldn't have been there with her.

Suddenly, the sound of gunfire rang out and a large krogan wearing the red armor of the Blood Pack and holding a sizeable rifle appeared, towering above the crowd of refugees. "Hold it right there, you maggots!", he roared. "This ain't no charity. You can't pay the 10,000 credits, you can find another way out of here."

Ashley shook her head. "The world was crashing down around them and these assholes wasted time trying to make a profit. Unbelievable."

"Once, I too would have found it hard to fathom," Liara told her, "But working as the Shadow Broker has given me some insight into people such as these. To them, desperation is only an opportunity to be seized. They risk death all time; spending a few minutes to make sure that if the war is won, they come out of it wealthy seems to them a good bargain."

Operating with brusque efficiency, a few of the krogan's mercenary's associates collected the payments and though most of the refugees too poor to afford it fell back, looking for another way to escape, a few of them made a frantic attempt to force their way onboard. The krogan didn't hesitate. He fired his weapon into the crowd and Ashley winced, watching as the unfortunate souls were ripped to pieces, their blood spraying over the rest of the crowd.

Mercifully, Sha'ira wasn't one of the ones who fell. The asari paid the usurious fee demanded of her, and as she disappeared onto the ship, Ashley unclenched her fists, relieved that she had at least made it that far. "Glyph," she heard Liara ask, "What information do we have on the Attitude Adjustment since the fall of the Citadel?"

"According to the available reports," the drone began, and Ashley feared that her heart was about to burst out of her chest as she waited to hear what came next. "It successfully reached the Mass Relay and travelled to the Omega Nebula. After that, I have no further information as to its whereabouts. However, that system is not know to have fallen to the Reapers prior to their destruction."

"She's alive," Ashley said quietly, daring to speak her hope aloud for the first time in days. But probably not safe. Those mercenaries hadn't exactly seemed like the most trustworthy people to be flying with, and with Sha'ira's ship having vanished after reaching Omega, Ashley knew that waiting around here for the Consort to reappear wasn't an option. She had to go after her.