A/N Ha! Look, look it's here! After months of planning I finally got it done.

Important note: I did make a slight change to the timeline in Chapter 1. Instead of heading to the Quarian conflict, they were going to the Ismar frontier for a random side mission. It still doesn't quite match the in-game timeline perfectly, but I've always thought that Sam and Shepard shared their first night between the attack on the Citadel and the Quarian missions. This story will mirror that as closely as I can manage.

And without further ado, onto the next chapter!

Chapter 2

The shuttle banked suddenly, and Sam was hard pressed to stay in her seat as she was thrown sideways. Cursing quietly and struggling to reorient her equipment, she sent out another hail to the ground team.

"Shuttle to ground team. I repeat, shuttle to ground team. Can anyone hear me?" Only static greeted her. "Damnit, where are they?"

"Any luck?" Despite piloting the shuttle through extremely hostile air, Cortez remained calm; his gentle tone reassuring her as she chased the barely-there communication signal of Shepard's party.

"No. Whatever this static is, it's more than just your basic jammer. Every time I think I've managed a lock the IP shifts and I lose it." She typed furiously at her keyboard, scarcely managing to locate the signal once again. " It's like it's actively moving their signal around and throwing in enough junk data to make a connection impossible."

An explosion rocked the shuttle, the shockwave momentarily distracting her and causing her to drop the tentative connection. "And these conditions are just perfect for concentration." She grumbled, fighting to find the elusive address for the tenth time in as many minutes.

" Well we did know the lab's security was active. Still I was hoping the ground team would have those defense cannons down by now, or at the very least destroy that jammer" Cortez's hands flew across the controls, the shuttle veering sharply to avoid the shots of the anti-aircraft guns.

"Got to admit, this facility is pretty impressive for being the Salarian equivalent to high school."

Sam hummed in response, her full attention back on the radio channels. Time was starting to run out. It had been a solid thirty minutes since they had suddenly lost contact with the ground team, an event that had sent the Normandy into near panic. For what was supposed to be a quick stop in to grab some interfacing technology for the Crucible, this mission had turned to hell quicker than a drunkard to alcohol. Sam could still remember the sinking feeling in her stomach as she had watched Shepard's and the other's vitals vanish from her screen, all communication disconnecting in an instant.

That in itself hadn't been terribly unusual. But in the following moments as Cortez reported the cannon's activation, and Edi announced the presence of Reaper troops, that sinking feeling had steadily grown into full-blown fear. But Sam had shoved it down, and continued doing everything she could to get the comm channels back open. After several failed hails from orbit, the specialist had suggested that she try from a closer proximity to the facility, serving as a sort of go-between between the ground team and the Normandy. It had only taken very little to convince LtCdr. Williams that it was their best chance to reach Shepard, and a short while later found her seated inside the Kodiak.

Scanning the data streams, Sam caught sight of a familiar code and quickly zeroed in on it. "Hold on, I've got something." she said, negotiating the static around the IP and locking in onto the address. "Yes! There, 30 degrees west of our current location, I've got friendlies."

As Cortez steered the shuttle to the coordinates, she opened a comm line. "Shuttle to ground team. Do you read?"

It took a few seconds, but a garbled voice answered back. "Rooks that you? Aren't you supposed to be reading emails or something?"

Sam laughed in relief. "Something like that Vega, just had to come find a couple of scatterbrained marines first." If Vega was joking around like that then the situation must not be too severe.

A second voice chipped in. "Is Shepard with you?" On the other hand…

"You mean she's not with you?" The sinking feeling was back again, now even stronger.

"Nope," Vega grunted. Distantly Sam heard the sound of gunfire.

"We were separated from her shortly after the defenses activated." Garrus chipped in, voice muffled by the shots of his sniper rifle. "She hit the wrong damn button and sent the whole place into lockdown. Since then we've been trying to find the jammer and shut it down."

"Do you have any idea of her location?" Cortez asked.

"Last we knew she was going to continue into the facility and retrieve the data. The idea was that we would have the jammer down by then, but you can see how well that is working out." Garrus let out a grunt of effort, and a grenade exploded in the background.

"Then we have some idea of where to start looking. Traynor, see if you can get a fix on her; Garrus, Mr. Vega, I've got a visual on you but we've gotta take these AA's down before I can do a pickup." Cortez continued to rattle off orders, and Sam tuned him out as she once again lost herself in the data stream in front of her. The boys would handle the cannons; she needed to focus on finding the commander.

Pulling up Vega's and Garrus' vitals she integrated them into the shuttle's systems and then sent out an inquiry to Shepard's armor's VI. Since the three suits were transmitting on the same channel, she should be able to extrapolate Shepard's location by using the signals from the other two. However, the inquiry came up blank, the error message reading that the suit was currently offline. Again she tried, mind racing to find a solution when screen continued to flash red.

Even with the jammer blocking the suit-to-suite radio, the inquiry is still going through. So the problem's not that the signal isn't reaching Shepard, just that the rebound isn't strong enough for our systems to grab ahold of. She was so concentrated on finding an answer that she heard neither the shouts of "Booyah!" and "Alright!" as the AA cannons exploded, nor the whoosh of the shuttle hatch as it opened. What we need to do is somehow strengthen the initial connection so that the rebound can be picked up just like a…

"That's it!" She exclaimed, bolting up from her seat and nearly crashing into Vega as he entered the cockpit.

"Woah there, what's the rush?" He asked as she ducked underneath his elbow and headed for one of the control panels.

"I think I know how we can find Shepard." Pulling the casing off she reached inside and tugged a few wires free. Swapping them around, she used her free hand to enter new protocol into the shuttle's systems.

"Hey what are you doing to my ship?" Cortez asked.

"Nothing that can't be undone, so don't start whining." After a few more lines of code she closed the panel back up again. Activating her omni-tool she synched it to her scanning equipment and opened a comm line to the Normandy.

"Edi, you there? I need some help with this." A test run confirmed her changes were working. Pushing past a confused Garrus she moved to the shuttle's comm screen and aligned it to the same channel as Shepard's hardsuit.

"How can I be of assistance, Specialist Traynor?" Edi's voice echoed throughout the shuttle, and, despite the situation, Sam felt herself smile a bit at the silvery tone.

" I've just finished configuring the shuttle to pick up on the ultrasonic waves of a resource scanner. I need you to send a pulse, using the shuttle as a probe marker." Tapping at her omni-tool she opened a continuous inquiry loop to Shepard's hardsuit.

"The UT-47A Kodiak is not designed to handle that type of transmission. There is a 37% chance it will overload—"

"It'll be fine Edi. We just need it to work long enough to find Shepard." Preparations complete, Sam reopened her communications screen. "I'm all set, this should be powerful enough to bypass the jammer and let me locate her signal."

"Very well. Activating probe in 3…2…1." Keeping a close eye on the screen, Sam tracked the progress of the pulse as it swept through their channels. Ignoring Cortez's whispered curses as the shuttle shivered in protest, she scrutinized every piece of data, praying that one of them would be the commander's IP. Seconds passed, then a minute, still nothing appeared.

"Probe has failed." Edi announced.

"Do it again." Sam demanded

"That is not recommended. Shuttle efficiency has dropped 15%. Chance of overload has increased to 48%." The AI said.

"I said again Edi." Even thought she was technically the lowest rank present, Sam's tone brooked no argument. This would work, it had to work; she didn't know what they would do otherwise.

"…Understood. Standby for probe activation in 3…2...1."

Holding her breath Sam again searched the endless stream of data for any sign of the commander. Once more the pulse faded, precious time slipping by as she looked for any sign at all that they had made a connection.

Heart pounding in her chest, she was just about to order another pulse when an abnormality in the data caught her attention. It was almost nothing; a fragment that she would usually just scroll past, but her gut was telling her it was what she was looking for. Locking in on the stream she pinged it, and nearly jumped for joy when the line cleared to reveal Shepard's vitals.

"Found it! Her location is reading as 2 clicks south of here, near the upper level of that tower. It looks like she's moving in our direction." Sam said.

"All right Rooks! Now there's a squint who knows what she's doing." Vega clapped her on the shoulder, nearly sending her toppling.

"Easy there Mr. Vega, we still need her to get in contact with the Commander." Cortez chastised as he piloted off in the direction Sam had indicated.

"And we're not out of the woods yet. There are still Reaper troops around, and if I know Shepard she's probably neck deep in them by now." Garrus added, popping one thermal clip and loading another.

"I agree, which is why it would be wonderful if you all would shut up and let me focus on opening a communications line to her." Sam said. Getting Shepard's location was a huge step forward, but she still had to find a way around the jammer like she had earlier.

"Uh-oh. We've got a problem." Cortez's warning interrupted her work, and she glanced over at him.

"Another one? Really, do all our missions have to be like this?" Sam let out a frustrated sigh.

"Apparently so. We've reached Shepard's coordinates, but the wall is collapsed, so we can't do a pick-up from here. I can see another possible EZ, but it's on the other side of the building."

" But she's headed in the opposite direction, and I still haven't gotten in contact with her." The comm specialist was seriously getting tired of the game of cat-and-mouse she kept playing with Shepard's IP address.

" Maybe you don't need to get a response in order for her to hear you." Vega said from his position behind her.

"What do you mean?"

"Well when we were still trying to make contact there were a few times when we heard your hails, but they were severely distorted." Garrus continued. " I bet it's the same for Shepard."

Thinking on it for a moment, Sam decided that it was worth a try and so she entered the most recent place she had seen the IP, and opened a line. "Go ahead and get us over to the veranda, Cortez, I'll do my best to reach the Commander."

"Understood, I'll move us into position. ETA one minute."

Taking a deep breath, Sam calmed her raging nerves and spoke into the mic. "Shuttle to ground team. I repeat shuttle to ground team. Commander Shepard we have a fix on your location and are moving for a pick-up. The balcony closest to you is a no go. I repeat, you need to turn around and head to the opposite side of the building. Approximately half-way there is area suitable for pick-up."

Pausing for a moment, she watched in dismay as Shepard's locator continued to move away from them. Thinking fast, she activated the shuttle's power cells and re-routed all extra power to the comm channel. "Cortez I'm stealing your backup power to amp our signal. Hopefully it'll get through this time."

A few keystrokes later and she had the newly powered line open. "Shuttle to Commander Shepard. Commander we have your location and are preparing for a pick-up. There is a large veranda opposing your current position. If you turn around now you should reach it the same time we do. I repeat..."

Over and over she repeated the message, desperately hoping that Shepard was receiving despite getting nothing but static in response. Then, just about the same time the shuttle reached the EZ, the commander's locator paused, and slowly, started to move in the other direction.

Relief washing over her, Sam began to announce the good results. "She's turning around, I think she….oh you bloody wanker." The specialist wasn't sure if it was a glitch in the system, or just her fantastic luck that caused her to lose sight of Shepard's IP, but either way it sent her scrambling to reconnect.

"What's wrong?" asked Garrus.

"I've completely lost her signal, tracker and all." Grasping at straws, she was forced to give up when the scanner in front of her completely blanked out, all data points corrupting into nonsense. "Damnit, now I'm not even sure what I'm looking at." Sam slammed her palms against the panel in frustration.

"It would seem that the jammer has evolved to counter your work around, Specialist Traynor. Apparently the Salarians programed it to adapt against any attempt to communicate with those within the walls of their facility." Edi added after running a scan of her own.

"Looks like we're just going to have to trust that Shepard's on her way. Come on Vega, it sounds like we have some fans waiting to meet us outside." Priming the Kodiak's Gatling gun, Garrus took the control seat, and nodded at Cortez to open the hatch.

Sam had barely enough time to retreat to the safety of the cockpit before the air lit up with enemy fire. Fortunately the shields held, sparing the Kodiak any damage, and she watched in fascination as the turian expertly aimed and fired the bulky machine gun. Not to be left out of the action, Vega took up her previous position, periodically leaning out of cover to fire shots of his own.

They continued for several minutes, and just as Sam was starting to doubt that her message had gotten through after all, Vega called out. "Hold up. There's unusual movement back by the doors." Sure enough, no sooner than Sam had looked out the window, then she saw a violent pulse of blue energy light up the battlefield.

Racing onto the balcony, the armored figure slammed directly into a group of cannibals; biotics flaring outwards to send them flying over the edge. Vaguely Sam was aware of Garrus retracting the Gatling gun, and Vega providing cover fire, but most of her attention was on the N7 as she blew through the Reapers.

After dealing with the cannibals, Shepard came face to face with a growling brute. The turian-krogan hybrid nearly swept the commander off her feet, but a well-timed dodge followed by a biotic lash thwarted its attempt. Somersaulting around the beast, the N7 slapped a grenade onto the beast's unprotected backside, and then bolted forward to get clear of the blast range.

Continuing towards the shuttle, the Alliance marine had just cleared an onslaught of husks when she was pushed into cover by several marauders. Pinned down on all sides, she was forced to try and take them down one at a time with her pistol.

"Come on Shepard, let's go!" Garrus shouted as he joined Vega at the door to the shuttle.

"We ain't got all day Lola!" Vega added while firing at the marauders surrounding her.

Confused by the urgency in their tone, Sam peeked around the corner of the cockpit's partition. She was startled to see the Reapers much closer than before, clearly trying to prevent the commander's escape.

Apparently she wasn't the only one concerned. From behind her crate, Shepard's omni-tool lit up, the brief flicker momentarily followed by the sizzling sound of the marauder's guns overheating. Taking advantage of the brief pause in fire, Shepard leapt from cover; her entire body lighting up with biotics as she focused.

"Oh shit. Get down!" Vega yelled as he jumped away from the door, his huge form moving to block the cockpit. Moments later Sam found out why.

Charging into the shuttle, Shepard's form was little more than a blur of biotics. The blue power filled the enclosed space, knocking Vega forward and sending Sam flailing into Cortez's chair. An instant later there was a loud thud as the commander collided with the opposite wall; the heavy metal doing it's part to stop her movement.

Surprisingly unfazed by the near explosion in the Kodiak, Cortez closed the hatch door and powered up the jets. "Shuttle to Normandy, we have the Commander on board. Preparing ascent now."

"Holy hell Lola, you sure know how to make an entrance." Vega said. Recovering from her stumble, Sam walked into the body of the shuttle and joined him.

"Yeah well you said to hurry it up. Not my fault you can't handle a little friendly fire." Waving off Garrus' offer of help, the commander chose to remain sitting on the floor of shuttle, not far from where she had impacted with the wall. Reaching up she began to unclasp her helmet.

"Hah, you wish that was enough to take me down. I was referring to Rooks and Esteban over here, its not like they go wandering about with heavy armor like us." Vega shrugged in Sam's direction, leading Shepard to give her a confused look.

"Traynor? What are you doing here? I heard you over the comms, but I thought you were back on the Normandy."

Sam was about to reply, but paused as the commander finished removing her helmet. Unsure of what to say, she was spared when Garrus spoke up in her stead. "Uh Shepard, you've got a little something leaking out of you nose."

"What?" Shepard swiped a gloved hand across her face. Seeing a gleam of red on the black metal she cursed and brought her hand back to her nose. "Shit." Leaning back she attempt to stop the stream of blood by tilting her head into the air. "Shit shit shit. Looks like I overdid it. Chakwas is going to kill me."

"Hang on Commander." Empathizing with Shepard's situation (she was no stranger to nosebleeds) Sam moved to kneel next to the N7, pulling out a clean handkerchief from the pockets of her fatigues. "Leaning back like that is only going to make it worse. Here, move your hand." Giving no thought to the fact that Shepard was her superior officer, Sam bundled the cloth around her hand and then pressed it firmly to the other woman's nose. Gently gripping the marine's head with her other hand; she encouraged her to lean forward until her chin was pressed against her breastplate. "Now just breathe slowly through your mouth. It should stop soon." Hearing chuckles behind her she turned to glare at the men present.

"What?"

"Nothing, nothing. Just thinking about how it's a good thing you came along. Otherwise we would be lost in that maze of Salarian hell, and Shepard would be bleeding to death." Garrus said while doing a poor job of controlling his guffaws. Next to him Vega wasn't even trying to hide his amusement.

"Shove it Vakarian." Snapped Shepard, though the retaliatory effect was largely ruined by the nasally tone her voice had taken. Sending the turian a scathing glare instead, she turned back to the specialist. "Though he is right. Looks like you've saved the day again Traynor." She gave as much of a smile as she could manage in her current position.

Seeing Shepard's grateful look, Sam felt a blush rise over her cheeks. The commander's lips brushed against the cloth bundled around her hand, and she became acutely aware of just how close the two of them were.

Suddenly nervous, she stuttered out a reply. "Just returning the favor, Commander." Fumbling with embarrassment, she started to pull away.

"I think it's slowed down, here just hold the cloth like this." Grabbing Shepard's hand she replaced her own with it and then retreated to a safe distance. With her back turned, she missed the look of disappointment on the commander's face as she severed their contact.

An awkward silence fell over the group, but before it could get too uncomfortable, Edi called to them through the comms. "Commander Shepard, were you successful in retrieving the data?"

"Yeah Edi, the bypass that the scientists provided worked like a charm. The data is loaded on my omni-tool. Transmitting now." Shepard inelegantly activated the orange screen and Sam nearly laughed at the sight. She really should take a photo, because it wasn't everyday that you got to see the great Commander Shepard sprawled out on the floor of a shuttle, one hand holding a bloody handkerchief to her nose, and the other alight with her omni-tool as she jabbed at it with her elbow.

"Transmission received, downloading now. Commander, I also have a message from Dr. Chakwas. She requests to see you immediately after you return to the Normandy."

The soldiers on either side of Sam began to snigger, and even the specialist covered a soft giggle with her hand at the downtrodden look on Shepard's face. "I'll give it consideration Edi, I have other things to attend to."

"Chakwas wishes to inform you that this visit is not optional. Her exact words were, "Tell Shepard that I'd better see her the instant she gets off that shuttle or I'm going to chase her down and sedate her with the largest needle available. You would do well to remind her that I still have some of Mordin's supplies from when he was working on Eve."" Now Sam did break down into full-on laughter, joined heartily by everyone but the N7. Seems like even Commander Shepard could be cowed by threats of massive hypodermic needles.

"Understood," Shepard groused. "Let Chakwas know I'll report to the medbay first thing."

Disconnecting, she turned to scowl at her crew. "Yeah, yeah. Laugh it up. See if I help the next time she drags one of you in for a check-up."

"I don't know Commander, my visits to the medbay are always very pleasant. Perhaps there's another reason why you hate check-ups so much." Sam teased, unable to get the image of the commander's face at the mention of Mordin's needles out of her head.

"Oh you want to go, Traynor?" Shepard lifted her free arm. "Then come on over here, I got some dust in the vents of my suit, maybe you can clean it out for me?" The glint in Shepard's eye let Sam know she was joking, and she shared a smile with the marine.

"I think not. Otherwise, who would be around to find your arse the next time you go and get yourself lost in a high school?" The specialist shot back. Shepard's eyes softened at her jest, and Sam found herself meeting the gaze of kind, blue eyes.

"Guess we'd be in a bit of a pickle without you. I've said it before, and I'll say it again; I'm glad to have you aboard Specialist Traynor." Shepard said, voice calmed with sincere thankfulness.

Sam flushed red. About to refute the compliment, she stopped herself upon remembering Shepard's earlier chastisement. Instead she grinned back and replied. "It's my pleasure, Commander."

And then, just as the shuttle finished docking in the cargo bay of the Normandy and everyone moved to exit, Sam could've sworn she saw a light blush cover Shepard's cheeks. Watching as Vega helped the commander up and out the hatch, a single thought crossed her mind:

Well, that was interesting.

A/N

Well there you go, chapter 2. I was hoping to accomplish quite a bit in this chapter, and I really do like the way it turned out.

The first thing was addressing Traynor's position on the Normandy. I know her job is actually really complicated engineering stuff, but it can be hard to incorporate it in a story, especially for someone who has minimal knowledge of communications. As such I spent hours researching terms and functions of scanning/communication equipment, and I'm still sure most of what I've written above probably doesn't make sense if you know anything about communications. Still, I really wanted to give Traynor's skills a chance to shine, and I hope I did her some justice. If you happen to know more on the topic, or where I can find more info, please send me a message.

The other point of sending her out onto the shuttle was to give credence to her being a really important member of the Normandy. Without her around, even Edi would have trouble breaking down the barriers to communication, not to mention figuring out what information is important, and what is not.

Finally, it's another chance for Traynor and Shepard's relationship to get a bit more complex. Here, Shepard really gets a look at what Traynor is capable of, and Sam gets to see a side of Allie most don't normally notice. Also, our wonderfully blockheaded N7 might finally be catching on to her attraction to the Comm Specialist, but you'll have to read more to see how she handles it.

Just some fun side notes:

Those of you who also read my 100 drabble fic might have noticed my fondness for sticking grenades to brute's butts. This mostly comes from my experiences in multiplayer, where I found that doing this can get you some pretty easy kills. It's also rather fun to do.

Like I said last chapter, Allie is a Sentinel, and acts mostly according to the game version of her class. However, I like to think all biotic Shepards can use techniques like charge and lash, it just takes a bit more out of them. This is why Allie gets the nosebleed, and why (as you'll see) she needs some recovery time after this mission. Trying to rush forward like she did really put a strain on her body, and she'll suffer for it later. Also a fun note, she's a fairly crap shot, not as bad as my Adept Shepard, but certainly not any good like my Soldier and Infiltrator.

And that's all. I hope you enjoyed it, and remember feedback/discussion is always welcome.

P.S. For those on , just review or send me a pm. And for those visiting from tumblr, leave me an ask on my blog, because ff doesn't let me reply to visitor reviews. For anyone who would like to know, my tumblr is here: