Mass Effect No Soldier left Behind

A bit of a different ending as I was not happy, as was most of you, with it. I did not spend six years playing a video game and romancing Ashley for THAT ENDING! Anyways this sounded a lot better in my head... But anyways enjoy!

* * *

><p>NO! Ashley screamed, or at least she thought she did. There was so much noise going on that it was hard to even think. She only had a second to take in Shepard's falling form as the beam ripped across the earth and sent her flying backwards. Her back connected with something very solid and her head rattled inside her helmet causing her vision to blacken just as she finally landed in a heap on the broken earth. All she could think about in that moment was not about her own safety or life, but that of Shepard's. After all the man had been through in the last three years he didn't deserved to be cut down while mere inches from his goal. He had given up so much for this god forsaken war.<p>

"Shepard." Ashley whispered his name as her vision began to clear. The pain nearly had her going under again. She could taste blood in her mouth and feel it running down her face from the shards of the glass of her helmet that had been blasted out by the beam. Groaning, Ashley tried to stand and after a couple failed attempts managed to stand on shaking limbs. Her entire body screamed in pain as she reached out to steady herself on what was left of a building. Her blue armor was cracked and was completely gone in some places revealing mangled tissue, muscles, and god knew what else along her torsos, arms, and shoulder.

Ashley fumbled with the release on her helmet. There was no use wearing it as it was cracked and mangled like the rest of her gear. A loud groan from a Repeater shook the LC back to the hell in front of her. There was so much chaos with retreating units as they tried to navigate through ruins of buildings and the beams of the Reapers above.

"Shepard's down! Fall back! I repeat Shepard is down!"

The report came through Ashley's com and her heart sank straight into her stomach. "No No No." Chanting the single word, Ashley stumbled from the rumble and through the sea of retreating soldiers until the beam came into view. What the hell were they doing? How could they just run and leave him behind? She wanted to shout at them, but her throat was so tight with fear that she couldn't get a word out. Someone tried to grab her and her response was a right hook to the face. There was no way in hell she was going to leave Shepard behind.

The closer she got to the beam it seems like the closer to hell she was. There were charred bodies left and right, explosions going off every step from both sides, dying Alliance soldiers crying out for both god and their mothers, and the enemy was everywhere as they were spawning from the ground itself. A person had to be barking mad to go into it willingly.

"Hang on Skipper." Panting, Ashley bent to retrieve an abandoned weapon and rushed into hell with gun blazing.

She got a few feet before a slug caught her in the leg and took her down. Cursing as the earth bit into her already torn hands, Ashley struggled to breath. Her body just wanted her to lie down and just quite, but she refused.

_It's good to know where I stand with the galaxy, where do I stand with you? _Shepard's voice flashed through her mind as the memory came into full view. They were standing in the armory of the SR1 after one of their countless missions. She remembered how the question caught her so off guard that her answer was some stupid witty remark, but he smiled all the same. The smile that had heart beating like a teenager.

"Come on Williams get your ass moving." Ashley scolded herself as she pushed through the pain, but couldn't get the message from her brain to her legs to move.

_I couldn't do this without you, Ash. When I first met you I saw a woman who never gave up. _Ashley let her lover's voice fill her head as she recalled the warmth of his touch as he spoke to her. She recalled the way he took her chin in his callused hands and they way his breath fell over her face when he spoke those three words. _I love you._

AS the battle raged around her, Ashley started to crawl towards the beam knowing Shepard would be in that direction. She didn't care how suicidal this was as she moved at such a slow pace it made her a prime target. There was no way in hell that this was it for them. That they had their last smile. There last kiss. Ashley refused to let that kiss on a battle torn London street corner be their last. No, she was a survivor. Shepard was counting on her to pick him up like she had so many times before.

"I'm coming Skipper." She mumbled finally dragging her ass up and forward. Time seem to slow for her as she squeezed off rounds to take down the oncoming husk, pop a heat sink, and continue her firing. Ashley cursed when she felt another round hit her shoulder, but she kept pushing forwards. Shepard was there not ten feet away in a heap in the middle of ruins and not moving. He wasn't dead! She refused to allow it to be true. She already lost him once so there was no way in hell she was going to again.

With strength she didn't know she processed at the moment, Ashley grabbed the commander by the collar of his armor and dragged him away from the battle. There was a deafing sound coming from above and by the grace of god Ashley was able to reach an enclave of safety before hell came raining down on them.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

"Again dad. But higher this time Daddy!" The five year old squealed as he played in the swallow surf of the beach. His blue eyes were dancing under a mop of chestnut curls.

"Okay, but last kiddo." Shepard panted, "I'm getting to old for this."

"No you're not." The child argued taking position as a blue wave flared around his father. His laughter echoed down the beach as he was carefully tossed deeper into the water.

Grinning, Shepard watched his son surface with the biggest smile on his face. "All right, Kaiden, time to eat." He looked down when he felt a tug on his board shorts o find his three year old daughter smiling up at him wanting a turn. "Oh no little girl. Not just yet."

"But daddy-."

"Don't daddy me, Riley." Shepard swept her into his arms trying to ignore those brown eyes that always softened his resolve. "Your mother will kill me and I've already done that and don't want to go it again."

The three year old giggled not knowing that it was the actual truth, "you're silly."

"So you keep telling me." He moved the girl to his shoulders and started back up towards the beach. His smile only grew when he approached Ashley who was busy unpacking the contents of the basket. "Something smells very good."

"No doubt you worked up an appetite with that little display of Bitoics." Ashley grinned standing to help their daughter from his shoulders.

"What can I say, he can talk me into anything. Just like his mother." Shepard beamed as his mouth met hers. "How are we feeling today?"

Ashley laid their joined hands atop of her slightly swollen stomach, "We are just fine, just like when you asked two hours ago. You shouldn't worry so much." She reached up to smooth the line that had formed on his brow. "It's been six years, Shepard. We're okay. We're safe."

"Shepard?" He echoed confused, "You haven't called me Shepard since we got married."

0o0o0o0o0oo0o

"Come on, Shepard."

The man in question groaned in response. Pain. So much pain. Shepard tried to shift only to find doing that hurt a hell of a lot more. He wanted to go back to the peace and serenity of the beach with his wife and kids.

"Come on Roman." Ashley softly pleaded. "Can you hear me?"

"Ash." He opened his eyes only to see blackness and began to panic. "Ashley."

"I'm right here." She assured adjusting his weight to find relief from her own pain. She had managed to find cove just as more concrete came crashing around them, but now they were trapped and she had no strength left to dig them out. "I'm right here."

"I can't see." His voice was full of panic as his good hand groped helpless for her.

Ashley flicked on her Omi-tool and it gave them a little light. Shinning it on his face, Ashley had to hold back a gasp. The left side of his face was so mangled that she could see the synthetics that Cerberus had put in. the wound went all the way down his neck and shoulder where his armor had been melted away. She couldn't see the rest of his injuries but knew it had to be just as bad as his face or worse. "Can you see now?"

He blinked, trying to clear his vision, but he couldn't make anything out but a slight glow through a haze of red. "Not so much. God everything hurts."

"Well that's what happens when you try to take a reaper head on." Ashley tried to joke.

"I did?" Shepard tried to get his mind to clear. He remembered rushing to beam trying his best to dodge the Reaper laser and then it all went a little fuzzy. There was one thing that entered his mind, Ashley came for him. He vaguely remembered the order of retreat and he had made damn sure that she followed that order. "You didn't listen to me."

"Of course I didn't. You think I was going to leave you behind?" Ashley pressed her battered face into his hair struggling to hang onto consciousness. "We're in this together, Roman. You and I, we're either going to live or die together."

Tears burned the back of his throat, "I didn't want this for you, Ash."

"I know, baby." She felt his bloody hand close over hers, "But I can't live without you. I tried it already and it didn't turn out so great."

"But your family-."

"Will know understand. We are a military family." Ashley reminded. "They'll know that died along Commander Shepard with a united Galaxy to defeat the Reapers."

Shepard felt his body to start to lax as the blackness threatened to take him over again. "You being by my side is how I wanted this to end, just not like this." He took a deep breath, his voice full of tears and regret. "We were going to get married. I was going to give you my mother's ring. Then we were going to move out by some beach and have a dozen kids."

"A dozen?" This made Ashley laugh, "Don't I get a say in this?"

"Well at least enough to fill a baseball team."

"That sounds perfect." Ashley clung to him desperately.

"We were suppose to have so much more time. I thought- I thought-." Shepard struggled to string words together and knew he was going under. There was regret, oceans of it, but there was no fear this time because he was in the arms of the only woman he ever loved. "I love you Ash."

"I love you too Skipper." She whispered her arms losing grip as she followed him into the unknown.

* * *

><p>umm so yeah hopefully some one liked it!<p> 


End file.

Mass Effect, Drama, Romance