Part 1
"So, did you hear Shepard brought another new squad member aboard?"
Sam looked up from her terminal, eyebrow quirked.
"I got a request to send a bunk up to Starboard Observation, but the commander didn't give me any details. Who is it?"
"That new Spectre, Williams?"
"Ashley Williams? The one who shot Udina?"
"That's the one. Apparently she was with the commander all the way from Eden Prime."
"Huh. Interesting."
Sam filed the information away and returned to work. There was always work to do on the Normandy, and she liked that. If she was working, she wasn't remembering Earth, or Tuchanka, or any of the million terrifying things that had happened to her since she came aboard. Nor was she thinking about her parents. That was always a plus.
Samantha kept working through shift change, until her eyes felt grainy and strange, and her feet like they were just big balls of pain at the ends of her legs. Then she went down to the crew deck, silent in the middle of the night shift, and slipped into the showers. The water pressure was shit, and there was no privacy to be had, but Sam had found that late, late in the night shift, there was generally nobody around.
She was shampooing her hair when the door hissed open, but ignored it.
Only to jump nearly out of her skin when someone spoke right behind her. She may have also screamed a little. And…fallen down. Turning around and jumping into the air at the same time on a soapy floor ended up being a bad idea.
"Oh, God, I'm so sorry," the newcomer said, staring down at her. "I didn't mean to scare you."
Sam stared right back. Ashley Williams was pretty much instantly recognizable, with skin the colour of honey, flashing black eyes and an aquiline nose. And bee-stung lips and the body of…something that had a really, really great body and that voice…
"Are you okay?" Williams asked eventually, as Sam kept staring. "Did you hit your head or something?"
Sam blinked twice, hard, then stuck her hand in the air, waving it imperiously. Always best to seem like you knew exactly what you wanted.
"Can you help me up?"
The second Alliance Spectre grabbed the proffered hand and yanked. She was surprisingly strong. Or maybe Sam was lighter than she looked. Either way, Sam ended up crashing into her, nearly sending them both to the floor.
They stood that way for a second too long before Samantha leapt back, grabbed her towel and made a run for it.
She could worry about the shampoo later.