#abboats

Summary:   Commander Caleb Shepard's warnings of the Reaper invasion have come to pass, and now Earth is in a fight for survival. While Shepard fights to unite the galaxy against the worst threat imaginable, those left on Earth do their best to hold on until help comes. Led by Major Ryan Coats and Lieutenant Commander Abigail Williams, two of Shepard's closest friends, Earth has a chance. But, if London falls...

Note: This is a side series to Giorraíonn beirt bóthar, Caleb Shepard’s series.

Tags:  Side Series, Mass Effect 3, Big Ben, War, London

Characters: Major Ryan Coats, Lieutenant Commander Abigail Williams

Chapter 5: Underground

Excerpt: 

Drowsiness stalks Abby like a rabid dog, annoyingly persistent and refusing to let go.  She’s been fighting against it for days now, five to be exact, and it’s beginning to win out.  Tilting her head, she can just see the short bristle of hair peeking over the end of the stretcher nearest to her.  The world around her slows, the welcome temptation of rest pulling her closer, but she pushes against it just a bit longer. 

Reaching up, she brushes a finger along his temple.  Don’t you die on me, you bastard.  I bet everything I have – and some things I don’t! – that you’d still be alive in that tower.  Don’t you dare die on me now!

Doc continues to work quietly, checking his vitals, replacing bandages, taking notes.  She’s humming too, something soft and warm that reminds Abby of home.  Of her own mother, God only knows where now, and her childhood growing up.  Of her sisters and her father. 

It’s in minutes like these, dark and dangerous, that emotions win out and she fights to swallow back a sob. 

Come back.  Please...come back.  I bet you’re just as stubborn as Sealgaire.  You have to be!  We need you!

~~~

Read Full Chapter Here // Read From Beginning // Read Series

~~~

Chapter 4: Voices In the Night

Chapter Summary: London is under attack by the Reapers and Coats is visited by three familiar faces during his time in the Tower.

tags: added a few for this chapter: blood mention, battle injuries, video game level violence

Excerpt:

Day eventually turns to night.  At least, Coats thinks it’s night.  With the skies now so filled with smoke, pollution, and whatever it is those giant reapers belch out, it’s difficult to tell.  He thinks it’s mostly smoke.  Probably. 

Hopefully… 

That’s when the voices come.  At first, hoary whispers against a background of bellowing horns.  He's too busy to focus on them, keeping an eye out for targets while trying not to worry how the Tower shakes evermore violently with each step of the larger reapers. 

The second night – or maybe it’s the third – they finally make him the target and speak directly to him.

Read Chapter || Read from Beginning || Read Series

Rules: post the first sentence of your last ten fics. If you haven't written ten fics, share as many first-sentences as you have. 

I was tagged by @dandenbo and @mtreebeardiles (yes, I have waaaaay more than 10! lol) - thank you, my friend! As for tagging, I'm going to leave it open to anyone who wants to share because you tagged my usual suspects! LOL *high fives*

All right, let's see what we have..

If London Falls (M, Mass Effect, Abby Williams/Major Coats (aka: Abboats) - set in London during the early days of the Reaper War)

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned…

2. Brain Freeze (G, Mass Effect, mClone Shep/Kaidan Alenko - a oneshot for Kaidan and Aubrey in which Aubrey discovers freezy pops)

The heat was a problem.

3. Tales From The Inquisition (T, Dragon Age Inquisition, William Trevelyan & Cullen Rutherford - small moments in the friendship of the Inquisitor and the Commander)

There weren’t many things William could say he enjoyed while growing up more than looking through stacks of books.

4. Under Covers (T, Mass Effect, Gianna Parasini/Kaidan Alenko - little moments from a pairing for whom I have a story but have yet to get it written)

“You know, when they said we would be going under cover together, this isn’t exactly what I had in mind.”

5. Bait & Switch (T, Mass Effect/Mass Effect Andromeda, AU/crossover, Kaidan Alenko/Reyes Vidal - The Alliance comes asking for Reyes Vidal's help. Part of The Golden Boy & The Shady Bastard series)(my SpecRecs 2022 piece written for @mallaidhsomo)

Of all the places in the galaxy to end up in a back-room meeting with an Alliance representative, the lower level of Afterlife on Omega wasn’t his first choice. 

6. Run Away With Me (M, Mass Effect, male Shepard & female OC - background story of how Earthborn Michael Shepard and his best friend leave the Reds and join the Alliance - part of the Biotic Pinball Wizard series)

Dimly lit, overly shadowed halls, even those that are supposed to offer safety, hold risks for those who enter unprepared.

7. Gaia's Chosen (M, Mass Effect/Werewolf: The Apocalypse crossover, set in Mass Effect world, Caleb Shepard/Kaidan Alenko - this story is set at the beginning of ME2)

The first rule of law for any soldier is that life becomes a constant assessment of risk from the moment they don the uniform.

8. May The Road Rise To Meet You (M, Mass Effect, Caleb Shepard - this is Caleb's story of Akuze)

Shannon’s grey skies weep readily across the city, a steady, calming rhythm during otherwise precarious times.

9. Nerf Gun Wars (T, Mass Effect, male Shepard - this is what happens late at night when my brain goes off the wall. Mass Effect + Nerf Guns + Assassination Game from back in the '80s when I was in high school)

It’s all fun and games … until the helmsman ends up in the medbay with a fractured toe.

10. As Cold As Ice (T, Mass Effect, Kaidan Alenko/Major Coats (aka: Alenkoats) - Kaidan and Coats face off with a Thresher Maw on Xawin)

@dr-vauclair - has done it again! She's knocked this one out of the ballpark, too! Thank you so very much, my friend! Your work is sooooo amazing and I just love how you've adapted it to my AU setting! <3

Major Coats from Mass Effect but in my ME/WWII crossover where he is a liason between the Normandy Group and a French Resistance cell run by Abby Williams. Part of the Something Wicked This Way Comes series. Their story will be called Dancing With the Devil.

“I’m…heading over to France,” Coats finally said, hoping his friend wouldn’t push for details. 

One of Shepard’s eyebrows arched.  

Coats huffed softly in response.  “Yeah, that was my thought, too.”

A day late, but here's a snippet I managed when finally getting started on Camp Nano today!

Setting: Post War London, Normandy SR2

Hehehe Somehow, I knew you'd ask for them! :)

On AO3 here

from this prompt list

~~~

London, England, Winter 2186

For the first time in what feels like years – and maybe it has been, who can tell what day it is in this bloody war when each one feels just like the day before – it isn’t a hoarse, harsh whisper in his ear, waking him just before reaper troops arrive to scour their location.  The shell of a building around him doesn’t shake, tremors induced by the giant forms of their alien overlords moving ever closer.  There isn’t a fight between civilians, scrabbling over scraps of rotting food and contaminated water.  And it isn’t the ice of winter’s breath hitting him full in the face and chilling him to the bone because not just the window, but the whole side of the building is shorn away.

No.  Blinking his eyes open to darkness that surrounds him – someday, he will sleep the night through again – it’s to find warmth instead of a chill.  Hope, such as it is, instead of despair.

Who knew the old, sappy songs had the right of it?

Movement against his hip paired with the softest, sleepiest, most adorable hum draws his attention.  Through the dark, Coats meets the chocolate brown gaze and lazy smile directed at him.  Despite the cold – the kind that seeps deep into the bones and refuses to relent all season long – she’s never once complained.

Returning the smile, he tugs the edge of his coat around Abby’s shoulders before taking her chin between thumb and forefinger, tipping it slightly upwards and brushing her lips with his.  “Go back to sleep, darlin’.”  He tucks a few strands of hair back around her ear.  “Morning’ll come soon enough.”  At least one of us can get some sleep.

Her smile tilts drastically to the right as she rests her head into the crook of his shoulder and curls into him.  “’S’at so?”

Chuckling softly, he tweaks her nose.  “Cheeky thing, aren’t you?”

Her eyes close, but her smile widens.  It is, he thinks, the most beautiful sight he’s seen in this living hell. 

“Took lessons,” she murmurs around a yawn, covering her mouth with the back of her hand.  When it lowers, her eyes pop back open, exhaustion still present but sparkling with amusement as she stares up at him.  “Learned from the best.”

“Hmm.”  He reaches beneath the coat and pulls one of her hands to his chest, covering it with his to hold it in place as well as warm it up.  “Does your mother have any idea how sassy you are?”

She snorts softly, but there’s a hint of an giggle mixed in.  “We Williams women are not ‘sassy.’”

It’s an old protest, one he’s heard many times in the months since they met; he believes her now about as much as he did before.  He tugs the coat more snugly around her before tipping his head to rest against her crown.  “Sleep, Abbs.  You’re exhausted.”

She yawns again, ducking her head to hide it from him.

As if she can. 

“Only if you do,” she says as she sidles up as close to him as she can, ducking beneath his other arm to hook it around her shoulders.  “We both need rest.  And I…”

Her voice trails off and he allows the silence to hang for almost a minute before he prods, “You?”

She’s still hesitant and won’t look directly at him as she whispers, “Stand watch in my dreams?”

Biting back a groan of dismay, he guides her to sit across his lap, tucking her head beneath his chin before wrapping both arms around her.  Still having dreams about Fulham, are we?  God, what he wouldn’t do to get her away from all this.  Too damn many close calls!

from this list

On AO3 here

Well, my friend, I know how you love ABBOATS, so here you go! Abby was quite insistent I write this for you! LOL

Setting: post-Reaper war

~~~

She awoke with a start, breathing suspended, a familiar ache in her chest that had nothing to do with her feelings for the man she lay over.  Something had woken her.  A sudden sound?  A change in the wind outside?  A wisp of memory that still haunted her to this day?

The easy solution would be to snuggle in closer to him, soak up the warmth and love he offered like a sponge did water, but something flittered uneasily just beneath her skin, the sensation like so many bugs.  It was all she could do to carefully to pull herself free of tangled limbs and slip off the bed without waking him when all she wanted was to scream it out of her system.

Somehow, she stumbled her way to the door where she hesitated, her eyes falling upon him in the darkness of their room. 

He worried about her; he tried to hide it, but it was as obvious to her as the love that shone from his eyes for her alone whenever he glanced her way.  She ought to wake him, she really should – she’d even promised to do so after the last time – but tonight was one of the bad nights, where the memories were just a little too real and the fear a little too close, and so she silently padded out into the hall. 

She chastised herself the entire length of the hall from the bedroom to the living room.  It wasn’t like he didn’t suffer from bad dreams as well.  He’d spent the entire war here, on Earth, facing whatever God-awful creature the Reapers could think up and throw at him next – nightmare fuel, to be sure – while she’d left in the middle of it, heading out to help with the coordinated counter attack to chase the Reapers out of the galaxy once and for all. 

After one bad night months ago, she’d tried to explain it to him, calling herself a coward, but he’d cut her off, denying her claim as fiercely as he’d defended Shepard after his return at the hands of Cerberus.  She’d cried in his arms afterward, content that he loved her enough – hell, she had proof of it on her finger, didn’t she? – even if she wasn’t certain she deserved it.

The lights of London flickered and danced against the late-night sky outside the living room window.  Habit had her easing into the shadows and folds of the curtains as she peered out to watch, observe, evaluate.  When in doubt, fall back to training.  Somehow, she wasn’t certain that was what Sergeant Mack meant back in Basic all those years ago. 

Eventually, the tightness faded enough that her breaths came easier.  The skittering settled.  The images and memories faded back into the recesses of her mind.  Several minutes passed as she simply stared unseeing in the distance, repeating over and over in her head, The war is over.  The war is over.  The war is over…  She didn’t bother to count how many times it took before she finally believed it.  At least the time between was getting shorter.

When finally she blinked herself back to the present, she noticed a hint of lighter blue on the horizon to the east, stars fading one by one as morning crept ever closer.  Peace was an illusive concept after the horrors of the battlefield, but she believed it was possible.  Had to believe, or what she and everyone else who had survived had done had been for nothing, and that was unacceptable.  If she looked closely, she could find hints of it as the galaxy rebuilt itself. 

Then, of course, there was the safety and security she found in the arms of someone who made it worthwhile.

Ryan…

Quietly retracing her steps, she padded her way back to the bedroom, pausing in the doorway only briefly.  A smile slipped across her lips as her gaze fell upon him, tangled in the sheets, one arm thrown up over his head, the other resting across his stomach.  This time, breathing was difficult for an altogether different reason and the ache in her chest came from the swelling of emotion rather than memories of horror. 

The last few steps were both the easiest and most difficult for her, but she made it to the bed.  Crawling up onto the mattress, she inched her way up across his body and settled across his chest.  Outwardly still asleep, his arm lowered to wrap around her shoulders while the other hooked her waist.  You’re always watching out for me, aren’t you?  Ghosting a kiss to his pulse on his neck, she whispered, “I love you.”

A sleepy huff escaped his lips.  “Love you too, darlin’,” he murmured into her hair.  One eye cracked open just enough to meet her.  “Everything all right?”

“Better now,” she promised as drowsiness began to reclaim her.  “Just…hold me?”

Because I have awesome friends who drop prompts when my muses talk to THEM! lol

@scarletthalloran messaged me with the prompt: “I’m only going to say this once, so you’d better listen – I love you.” and requested ABBOATS (Abby Williams/Major Coats). Well, darlin', here you go! These two are gonna be the death of me, I swear! lol Thank you for the prompt!!!!!

Setting: 2186, London, after the Reaper invasion

from this list

On AO3 here

~~~

“We’ve got to split up.”

Abby drops to her knees behind a pile of debris blocking them from direct line of sight from the street then reaches for his arm and yanks…hard.  Coats falls to his knees in an instant, biting back a groan as he lands.  Turning on him, dark eyes narrow and a scowl marring her face, she hisses, “What the hell are you going on about?”

“We need to split up.”  He hurts – aches through and through, not because she pulled him to the ground so roughly, but because of the hit he’d taken about two miles back – and he’s slowing her down.  He knows it; she knows it.  Only, she’s too stubborn to accept the fact, and he senses the argument he’s been wanting to avoid bubbling up between them.  “Abbs, we have to.”

“No.”

Her voice is insistent, resolute, determined.  But it isn’t going to change the fact he’s got his mind set on this.  One of them has to survive, and she’s in the best condition at the moment to succeed. 

Cupping her cheek with his good hand – the other one’s gone numb – he catches her gaze and holds it.  “Abbs, I’m no good to you like this and you damned well know it.  You have to go on!”

“Haven’t you ever watched those old twentieth-century horror movies?” she demands in a hoarse whisper, somehow sounding even more fierce than if she’d been bellowing at him.  “Played any of those old-fashioned tabletop RPG games?”  She pauses, curses, then adds just as fiercely, “Dammit, Ryan, you never ever split the party!  Not if you want to live!  And if I’m not gonna do it in a game or watch it in a movie, I’m sure as hell not gonna do it when we’re on the run from fucking reapers!”

Biting back a grimace, he manages to lift his second arm enough to reach her shoulder.  It lands awkwardly on her shoulder, but it’s the best he can do.  “I’m only going to say this once, darlin’, so you’d better listen,” he says in his best I’m the instructor-voice.  At least it seems to catch her attention because she doesn’t look away.  “I love you.  I’m going to see you again, I promise, but right now I’m holding you back and –”

An exasperated sigh fills the air between them as she leans close enough to kiss him.  Soundly.  “You idiot,” she mutters, but there’s a fondness in her tone, “I know you love me.”

Blinking back surprise, he pulls back.  “You do?”

She nods.  “Have ever since you said it in your sleep two…three weeks ago.” 

A hissing roar not very far distant shuts her up and brings her hand around to cover his mouth.  They both slip back against the wall of the building, deeper in the shadows, praying they go unnoticed. 

A minute passes.  Two.  Three.  Time slowly creeps by, and, eventually with it, two cannibal type reapers.  They wait for the pair to round the end of the blook before Abby rises to her knees, frames his face with her hand this time, and leans in to whisper, “Which is why we are not going to split up.  Now, come on, Hopalong, times a-waistin’, and I’m looking forward to snuggling up next to you once we get back.”