Parting of the Ways

Allers: I'd say from what you've mentioned that you saw Tali as a younger sister.

Ashley: Yeah I did. Coming from a family like mine it wasn't hard, being brought up with three sisters. I just unconsciously saw Tali as a sister. All innocent out to see the galaxy for the first time.

Allers: You were aware of the Quarians back then?

Ashley: Of course I was. It was just how I felt about Tali back then. I didn't see her as a Quarian, I saw her for the woman she was.

Allers: But you didn't feel the same way about Garrus Vakarian or Urdnot Wrex.

Ashley: No I didn't. I didn't really know Garrus and I'm still weary around Wrex, he is a Krogan after all.

Allers: Good point. Now you were currently waiting for the then Captain Anderson and Councillor Udina.

Ashley: Yeah after Wrex and Garrus had left, me and Tali started talking about anything. We learnt a lot about each other in those two hours. By the time they arrived it felt like we'd known each other for years.

"Williams meet me at the Captains Quarters."

Was all that came over the intercom. It was like being called to the headmaster's office.

"You'd best go Ash, come find me afterwards. I'll be in engineering."

"Yeah, I will do Tali."

Being left alone in times like these isn't the best idea. Your mind always seems to take over and you over think things. On one side this could be the Commander finally realising you who I am and telling me to get off the ship, or who am I kidding there is no or. That was the only reason. That elevator ride was the longest I'd ever been on and it was only going up one floor. Serious design flaw. As it came to a halt I walked out and walked towards the Captains quarters, stood outside waiting was the Commander.

"Williams, we need to talk."

"Ma'am."

She led the way into the Captains quarters, if I'd have been paying attention I would have noticed the name on the door. But my mind was in turmoil and I was lost.

"We've been given our orders Chief. Anderson has stepped down as Captain of the Normandy and handed her over to me. We've also been given three different leads, Noveria, Feros and Therum. On Noveria Saren owns Binary Helix which has currently gone dark, no communications in or out. On Feros a company called Exogeni are under attack from the Geth. And on Therum we can find Matriarch Benezia's daughter, Liara T'Soni. If you had to choose where would you go first?"

"Therum, it's the only logical starting place."

"Why?"

"Binary Helix going dark could be anything doesn't mean it's specifically Saren. Exogeni being attacked by the Geth is bad but unrelated. If we find the Matriarchs daughter then she might be able to give us an insight about her mother."

"Good call Chief, the Captain did give me something else as well. Dossiers on everyone under my command and a verbal warning about one of them."

This wasn't sounding good.

"Your dossier was the most interesting. It was the first one I read, especially after Anderson's warning. He told me to leave you on the Citadel because of who you are. I'll admit when I met you I didn't think about who you were there wasn't any time. Since then you've been a credit to your uniform. But Anderson's warning worried me, so I read up on you. Let's get this clear now. I don't care who your Grandfather is, you are not him. I've told the Captain exactly what I'm telling you. Your here because of what you've done not because of what your Grandfather did. Your merit is what counts not your heritage as long as you don't go surrendering yourself to Garrus you'll be fine."

"Thanks Commander, I needed to hear that. Don't worry I'm not going to surrender myself to Garrus."

"One more thing Chief, Private Crossly's funeral has been arranged for tomorrow. The Normandy will be staying docked. We leave the day after. Now tell Tali I'd like to see her. Dismissed."

I walked out feeling much better than when I went in. The Commander actually defended me to her superior. Even after hearing everything from Anderson first, she stuck to her guns; if I was good enough for the Commander then I wasn't going anywhere. But I needed to find Tali, she must be the next dossier she read. True to her word Tali was in engineering, being taught through the engine by Adams.

"Sorry to interrupt Tali, but the Commander wants to see you in her quarters."

"Her quarters?"

"Yeah she'll explain when you get there. Come on I'll take you."

The mask hid her emotions, but anyone could tell she was nervous about seeing the Commander on her own. She'd been quiet on the way up and I left her at Commanders quarters.

"I'll be in the mess if you want to talk afterwards."

With a quick nod of her head she walked into the Commanders quarters and I turned and headed to the mess. Noticing Garrus and Wrex sat together I walked over and joined their group. From their conversation I quickly established they were talking about different battles they'd both been in. Wrex definitely won when it came to the bloodiest and most brutal.

"Ash, we're comparing battles we've been in care to join?"

"I've not been in that many not compared to the ones you two have been rounding off. But I can tell you about my Grandfather he was a General in the First Contact War."

"Never heard of it, couldn't have been that impressive. Garrus?"

"Me neither Ash, was it bloody."

"You must call it something different then Garrus. The First Contact War was when we first found ourselves in a galaxy full of life. We encountered this vile race that decided to destroy a group of people that didn't understand us. We had a name for them, we called them skull faces. Now we call them Turians."

"HUH-HUH-HUH, that is brilliant. Garrus how could you not know this?"

"We know it as the Relay 314 Incident. It didn't last very long. Who was your Grandfather in this?"

"General Williams was the man who surrendered to the Turians on Shanxi. You had the high ground and could easily have wiped out every man and woman in the colony. So to save them he surrendered."

"Yes and later your second fleet under the command of Admiral Kastanie liberated Shanxi from us. Shortly after that the Council stepped in and negotiated a peace between us. It only lasted three months. With a small amount of casualties.

"Six hundred and twenty three human lives were lost in those three months. Our first contact with an alien race and you attacked us."

"You were reactivating the mass effect relay that led to the Rachni home world."

"How were we supposed to know that? That was our first time out in the galaxy. So instead of approaching us and telling us this, your people opened fire."

"We made mistakes. We paid for it with Turian lives and money. We're still paying for the vessels lost in that war."

That was true, the Council had ordered the Turian Hierarchy to pay humanity for the loss of the alliance vessels during the war. As much as I don't like talking about my Grandfather this was fun, it was a verbal battle and neither side was willing to back down. However Wrex had different ideas.

"As fun as this is, there's no action. He surrendered. Any in depth stories of battles something that will interest me."

"Not from me Wrex. My Grandfather was the only story I had."

"I have several more for you Wrex and some you might enjoy."

And they were off again. Telling each other more stories, with me just sat there listening. They were like a bunch of old woman. Reviling in the stories each trying to outdo each other at every corner and I was the child in the situation taking in every word. It came as a surprise when Tali silently sat next to me and interrupted the conversation.

"Sorry to interrupt, but the Commander wants to see you Wrex."

"Hmmph it's about time."

"What were you talking about?"

"They were comparing war stories."

"Yes and now that Wrex is gone so is the conversation. I'm going to go find the Lieutenant."

Such a charmer because the conversation between him and Wrex was over, he decided to go find the company of another male instead of sitting here with two woman. His loss, since we'd both been in to see the Commander we both had a lot to talk about.

"How did it go in there Tali?"

"It went okay, the Commander wanted to know about the fleet and the specifics of my pilgrimage. I couldn't tell her everything but she understood why. She also wanted to know where I thought we should go first out of the three mission parameters."

"Same here, she also told me something that I really needed to hear. How she was going to go of my merit instead of my heritage to judge me."

"I take it that's good."

"It's very good. I told you about my Grandfather and because of this most of the alliance brass don't hold me in high regards. To be told that for once I'm not going to be judged because of this is a blessing. It's never happened before. Did you talk about anything else with the Commander?"

"I did, she's given me permission to send anything back to the fleet if I think it will help us in any way. It's more than I expected from anyone. You don't see me as a suit rat like most of the council races and you haven't turned me away. You've actually welcomed me and thanked me for the help that I've given. Well apart from that bosh'tet Udina. Did the Commander have anything else to say to you?"

"I told you about Crossly didn't I. The only thing I didn't tell you was how close we were. We had plans to settle down after our tour had finished. But she was killed on Eden Prime, it's her funeral tomorrow, would you mind coming with me. I'm going to need a friend."

"I would be honoured to."

The rest of the day just sailed by after a while of talking Tali wanted to get back to engineering. So she left me to myself and I went to the armoury to be where I would be welcome. I spent the day there sorting the weapons out making sure they were in pristine order. Other than that it was rather mundane.

The next day found me and Tali at the funeral of Crossly. Due to the nature of our relationship we were sat at the front next to her immediate family. They knew of our relationship and had welcomed it. They had been very friendly towards me and considered me family. They even understand about me bringing Tali, that she was there as a friend. Some people wouldn't have been as understanding. The service commemorated everything that Crossly had stood for, even the preacher seemed to know her on some level. As the Commander had promised full military honours were given towards her. It came to the end of the service and the preacher was asking for anyone to come forward and share memories about her. No one moved, no one had the courage. But I did. From the front it was a whole different ball game talking to all the people gathered.

"I'll share a memory; from the first time I met Crossly I knew she was special. We met on Arcturus Station during training and instantly became friends. We went through everything together training, assignments and downtime. We even managed to get deployed to the same places. There was never a time when we were apart. Even when she was in the hospital due to breaking her leg during training I was there. It didn't take long for our friendship to evolve into something else; before we knew it we had become romantically involved. A couple of years passed and we were still going strong, that was when we started to talk about settling down together, retiring from the Alliance and living on the Citadel. We'd actually put a deposit down for a flat. Unfortunately before we could do anything about it we had been deployed to Eden Prime. Our deployment was only due to last a couple of months. A few weeks into that deployment was when it went bad. You know about the attack on Eden Prime, not many survived that day. Even up till her last moments I was with her. She didn't die alone, she died fighting for what she believed for the protection of our colonists. I'm Ashley Williams, I'm proud to have served with her and I'm extremely lucky to say that I loved her."

I needed to do that. Normally I was the type of person to hold everything inside and not let anything out. But this time it just felt right to open myself up to a room full of strangers but with one thing that connected us. Crossly. They understood the pain that I was going through, some more than the others. It didn't take me long to get back to my seat and as soon as I was sat down the preacher carried on with the service. No one else needed to come up, I'd pretty much summed Crossly up in one speech. When the service was over Crossly's parents came over and we talked about everything. They were even nice to Tali as well, being the only non-human at the funeral. I promised that I would keep in touch with them and that they would do the same. If I needed anything all I needed to do was ask and they would be there. Like a second family. But I had to leave and when I did Tali led me back to the Normandy. Upon reaching the Normandy we headed straight to the quarters that we shared. Once there I wept for all eternity and Tali let me. With my head leaning on Tali's shoulder it was all I could do to stop me from falling. After a while the tears stopped and we just sat there talking about Crossly. As we talked I managed to lose myself in the conversation so much I didn't realise that the Commander had come into the room.

"You okay Ash?"

"I will be Commander. Thank you."

"I know how important she was to you. You needed this more than you'd like to admit."

"Your right Commander I did. I'm just glad Tali was there with me. I don't think I could have done it without her."

"Yes you two have become fast friends. I'm glad she was there for you Ash. Now get some rest, it'll help. We're setting of first thing in the morning."

"Thanks Commander."

I have to admit this is my favourite chapter so far. From the banter with Garrus to Crossly's funeral. The way that Ashley manages to get Garrus at his own game and bring up the First Contact War without him knowing and Wrex loving every second of it. Also the funeral, I've never wrote anything like it before. It's quite sad but it was needed, everyone needs closure and it brought two friends together.

As always comments and views are always welcome so are any suggestions as to what comes next.