#yes: anderson tears up when she calls him dad. yes: kahlee never lets him live it down.

[niriaveil]

[we preface this post by saying: narratively, death holds a great portion of character depth in the original trilogy and i accept that, however for this purpose of thought, we are in a everybody lives au.]

considering a very self-insert fic of the spectre trio polycule (ash, kaidan, and hayley) post-reaper war and kaidan insisting on hosting a holiday party so they can have peaceful memories associated with the holidays rather than all the fighting they've gone through the years, and it would be a great chance to see everyone's family.

kaidan invites his mom and his dad, ashley invites her parents and all her sister's (and their partners), and hayley... well, she doesn't really have family to speak of. jokingly, she says to ash and kaidan in passing that, maybe she should send the invitation to anderson since he's basically raised her - but then shrugs it off, moving on from her very hidden insecurity of being an orphan.

so: the holiday party. hayley does well with being pleasant and handling all the attention as the savior of the galaxy (she resents this title and reminds people, at every opportunity, that their victory was only because of unity. not solely her.) but after a while, she has to step away. she claims kitchen duty. if she keeps herself busy with washing the mountain of dishes that a dozen plus people create, then she doesn't have to deal with her internal turmoil of not having a family.

(hayley had never let it bother her before. there was no time when she was on the streets working with the 10th street reds, there was no time to think about it when she was in the alliance, and definitely no time during the reaper era of her life. but sometimes, there's an intense yearning in the chasm of her heart that was left vacant by absent parents. parents she has no recollection of at all.)

the doorbell rings. she raises her head, confused. as far as she's aware, she's met everyone and everyone is here. but kaidan answers the door before she can think about it, and anderson's voice rings through the corridor in a hearty greeting. it takes her a moment, but then kahlee's voice joins in the greeting. by the time hayley has dried her hands and walked into the living room, she's surprised (and slightly horrified) to see anderson, kahlee, and motherfucking joker and edi.

"what," she says, stunned.

"it's your family," ash nudges her with her elbow. "that's your dad and your dad's wife," then she gestures to joker and edi: "and your brother and his girlfriend."

"brother," hayley repeats.

"better than the guy who chauffeurs you around the entire galaxy and saves your ass frequently," joker chimes in. "besides, we're basically siblings."

anderson moves in, ignoring their banter. he's before hayley and he looks─better. much better than what had happened in the crucible, both of them bruised and bloody and bleeding; here he is solid, firm, standing tall and shoulders squared. he's even smiling. he settles a hand on her arm like a warm greeting, then forgoes that to pull her into a full-on hug that hayley has never had really.

"merry christmas, kiddo," anderson says.

her eyes sting. stubbornly, hayley refuses to cry. "merry christmas, dad."