swaps. talk to me about Sam's relationship with Ashley.
What an EXCELLENT question.
Because I think it's a little complex in ways he doesn't quite clock. Ashley is his kind of soldier - bold, brash, willing to do the hard things, eager to prove herself. Just like him, she's taken it on the chin from the Alliance and keeps coming back for more.
She's also a powerful personality like he is, and putting two very powerful personalities in the same room can create some friction. I imagine she reminds him a little too much of himself sometimes, and he has to do a little work on his end to keep that his problem, and not make it hers. But he would recognize she is worth doing that work for.
I think her closeness with Kaidan would get in the way of Sam developing a deeper rapport. As more responsibility sits on his shoulders, and as the Saren/reaper threat becomes so dire, he has less time and opportunity to be Sam. He'd have less downtime with his crew than he did on the 'Yang, and less time with Kaidan.
That would really gnaw on him when he saw that free time Kaidan now has more of going to Ashley. While some of it would be jealousy he just isn't going to examine very closely, I think it's more the realization that his time on the 'Yang showed him how good it can be to just be Sam rather than Commander Shepard, but the career path he has chosen means he can't really have that. He's seeing that now, firsthand.
Is he making some of it up in his head? Probably yes. Kaidan, of course, never has any intention of letting him just do what he does alone, but with the beacon vision eating up his brain, the responsibility of having to define what a human Spectre is, and the stress of Saren and the reapers, he would regress a little and try to isolate himself more than he did on the 'Yang. I think he forces some distance between himself and Kaidan, then feels sorry for himself when Kaidan fills that void with Ashley. Or rather, Ashley never gives him the opportunity to NOT be her partner in crime. XD
So, professionally, I think he would rave about Ashley, go to bat for her to get anything she wanted from her career, trust her with his life, and give her any opportunity he could find.
Personally, I think he holds her at arm's length, for reasons that have nothing to do with her, and everything to do with him.
