#crystallize fic

Tagged by @seraandthebees, thank you!

*

“So, they just put you right to work, huh?” said Ashley.

Shepard’s turned his head slightly, making sure Miranda and Jacob were still working on the second tower, well out of earshot. “They did. Still feels like I was jerked out of a long sleep, got a briefing and my armor slapped back on.”

“And … that’s all?”

Shepard’s fingers froze. For all the things he wanted to say to Ashley, the topic she was tiptoeing towards was not one he was ready to face himself. There was no time. “Ash, your sister’s high school graduation party still feels like it happened last week. Now she’s in university. You were anxious about your transfer, but now look at you.”

Ashley tilted her head, the beginning of a cautious smile. “Yeah? What about me? Do I look different?”

“You haven’t aged a day, if that’s what you mean.”

“Oh, no,” she laughed, a brief flourish on her face. “This doesn’t fade or crack.”

Shepard fully turned from the console. There was an uneasy silence, a rigid breeze against burned tree branches, ready to snap. A flap of bird wings far off in the distance. Two years ago, two days ago, this colony probably looked very different.

Not Ash, though. Same knowing smirk. Same brown eyes, flickered with gold in the sun. Eyes that knew his worth, knew his intent, before he even said anything. If not for the upgraded armor, he would hardly be able to tell a day had passed from last he saw her.

“You, ah, you look good,” he said. “A bit tired.”

“Yeah, well, I am tired.” The gold specks beamed as she squinted. “Your scars are all gone. You had one against the left side of your face, from when you first used biotics.”

“I nearly gave myself an aneurysm. It’s not a happy reminder, but it’s strange to be without it. To just be clean slate.”

*

Shepard marched into Miranda’s office, the frame in hand. He held it up so that Ashley’s face would illuminate the black screen. “What is this?” he said, his voice stern and expecting, like a parent who found Fornax under their kid’s bedroom.

Miranda’s attention remained firmly on her monitor. His entrance did not cause so much as a raised eyebrow. “It’s a photo in a frame,” she answered flatly.

Shepard scoffed, lips flared. “Oh, she has jokes, does she?”

“She has work to do, as I imagine you do, Commander. I suggest we both get back to it.”

“Yeah? What kind of work, Miss Lawson? Does the Illusive Man not have enough information on my personal life to wave in front of my face? Does he need you to find a distant cousin or an old teacher to threaten if I don’t do exactly as he says?”  

Miranda clicked her teeth, and her monitor blinked off. “It was a welcoming gift, Commander, to make you feel at ease in this difficult time. That’s it.”

“With a photo of a random marine from the Normandy?”

Miranda shook her head. “Commander, don’t insult me. You and Lieutenant Williams were seen together.”

“She helped me on my mission to stop Saren, of course we were together at times.”

“No, after that.”

Tagged by @shadoedseptmbr. Thank you!

*

An old friend, someone from before he left for the villa, made good on his promise. A picture of a family; a man, woman, two toddlers and a baby, all smiling for the camera. Shepard smiled, his friend had gone civilian, and they met for drinks to catch up, in this blip of free time before he was deployed again. A lot had happened in a few years.

Shepard turned off the picture and looked around his apartment. He had been living on Arcturus Station for years, but the Alliance insisted the first human Spectre get an upgrade; a high-end, private living space on the Citadel.

*

“Wrex went back to Tuchanka, Garrus is going to re-apply to be a Spectre so he’s on the Citadel, and I just saw Tali off last week.”

“I wish I could have said goodbye,” said Ashley, a smirk screwed on her face, a laugh pulled from the back of her throat. “I’m gonna miss Tali, and the others, and you a little, I guess.”

Shepard parted his lips to speak, but nothing came out. His hands remained tightly folded on the table.

Ashley’s second attempt at a laugh was smoother. “Skipper, I think it’s ok for you to miss them. Just a little.”

“I do have a reputation, don’t I?”

“Hey, I’m no snitch, your secret is safe with me. It’s weird though, isn’t it? We’re pulled together with all these people we never would have met otherwise, spend a few months together, and I don’t think we’ll ever see them again.”

“I guess there’s nothing to do about it, but appreciate the time we had.”

I like this because it emphasizes that she’s moving on like she always deserved, the way she always could, but unfair biases held her back.

And then there’s the drama of in this way she and Shepard could technically be in a relationship and it wouldn’t be an issue, I think, but Raph doesn’t want to hold her back. She has worked too hard to stop now, even if that means they probably won’t see each other again.

The one drawback is there’s less potential for drama during ME3 between Ashley and Joker. I always imagined some tension there; Joker thinks the VS turned their back on Shepard, but the VS knows they died in the first place going back to save him.