A/N: Hello! We're back! So, a few things:

1) Name change! Formerly Drummerchick7, I decided to change my fanfiction handle so I could streamline all my writing to be under the pseudonym I eventually hope to publish under. Nothing else has changed, I assure you.

2) It's been quite a long hiatus on this project, for which I apologize. Dragon Age: Inquisition took over my brain and would not let me concentrate on this, so I took a break - longer than I initially expected - and wrote a continuation fic of my DA headcanon story, O Seeker Still Seeking. But my enthusiasm for this has returned, and I am excited to pick up where I left off!

3) At some point I may go back and fix some things in the last 24 chapters. To get myself back into my characters, I went back and read what I've publish, and a big thing I've noticed is that I've gotten better in the last year. I write a little differently now. But I'm kind of okay with leaving proof of having gotten better over time, so I haven't decided yet.

4) I have a facebook page! Feel free to friend/follow me there: /drummerchick7fanfiction

5) If you are at all interested in my original works, I'm beginning to publish some short stories on a blog with fellow author Raven Sinead. You are by no means required to check it out, but if you like, the link is: .com

Okay, I think that's it. I hope you enjoy this as we push back into the thick of things with Samantha and Ashley in Mass Effect 3!

Samantha

"All hands to stations!"

The dreaded order in the middle of the night on a ship. Now it rang out, loud and clear, waking everybody up. Well, waking everyone who had not been awoken by the ship lurching and throwing them to the floor from their bunks.

I'm going to have to start sleeping in a safety harness.

Samantha barely got her uniform on the right way. She'd only been sleeping for a few hours, and had been having the loveliest dream about Ashley, taking place in her old tiny apartment in Vancouver, and she was having a difficult time leaving that warmth and safety behind. Grabbing a gorgeous cup of coffee that was being handed to those just waking up, she took as big a gulp as its steaming heat would allow and got on the very full lift.

She looked up at her reflection in the metallic door as it closed and nearly jumped. Jesus, is that my hair?! I'm going to have to work with my hair like that. No amount of hand-patting will flatten it. Dammit.

The door swished open as she took another gulp of coffee, and she stepped out of the lift to see the CIC a frenzy of activity. People ran here and there, every station was occupied, and incoherent shouting from one person to another filled the air. Taking a deep breath, Sam plunged right in.

"Halanz, status report," she ordered, going to the terminal that was usually Shepard's alone and pulling up the holographic interface. Typing in her credentials and allowing the retinal scan, she started the programs she would need, putting her earbud in as she took the last few sips of coffee. Hopefully that'll kick in soon. I feel like my brain is slogging through molasses.

"Cerberus is on Sur'Kesh," Halanz said, eyes not leaving her screen. "They're trying to hack into our communications. They haven't seized control, but they keep jamming our signal whenever they try. It's a nightmare to keep up with while also keeping an eye on the ground team."

"Damn. All right. You keep them out, and keep our signal clean. I'll take over with Shepard."

Halanz's tone was more than a little relieved when she answered. "Yes, ma'am. Thanks."

"Commander Shepard, this is Specialist Traynor. I'm taking over for Specialist Halanz from here on out," Sam said into her collar's microphone.

Shepard answered as Sam's video feed finally opened. On an explosion.

{We're getting hit hard by Cerberus, Traynor!} the commander ground out. {Comms keep cutting out! We need to get up to the highest level and get that female on the shuttle!}

"We're addressing the communications issue, Commander," Sam said, pulling up a map of the compound where the galaxy map usually resided.

{I also need Wrex and Steve on this channel! They've got the shuttle we need to rendezvous with! Also- gah!} Shepard shouted, and the camera view jostled. Sam knew enough by now to recognize that Shepard had needed to jump out of the way. Rubble raining down just confirmed it. The camera righted among a few grunts, and then Shepard's voice sounded again. {Goddamn motherfucking cocksuckers! That smoke is going to be a fucking problem! Sam! I need to know where to go! Where's the ladder or the stairs or something else we can use to get to the next damn level?! I can't see shit with the smoke they're throwing to mask their positions!}

"Try your infrared scope, ma'am," Sam said calmly, without thinking, remembering something Ash had once mentioned. "And I'm working on a route for you to take. I just need a moment to get a more detailed scan."

{Fast as you can, Traynor! That's the last living female krogan on this planet, and she's immune to the genophage!}

"Right you are, Commander." The fog of sleep had completely lifted. Sam had a Problem To Solve, and that part of her brain – and personality – was quickly taking over. Without thinking about the terror of the situation, Samantha switched the frequency so that she could communicate with everyone as they could with each other.

"I have found your way to the next floor," she broadcast. "Unfortunately, the majority of Cerberus's troops are between you and it."

{That at least gives us a direction to head, which is more than we had,} Liara's voice piped softly into Sam's ear. {Thank you.}

{Shepard, dammit, get up here!}

{I'm working on it Wrex! Kinda hard with bullets flying everywhere!}

This is the definition of a shit show, Sam thought to herself, knowing enough to stay out of the conversation until she was needed once more.

James's voice came next. {Díos, Shepard, I can't see a goddamn thing!}

{Shepard, how are you suddenly getting them through the smoke?} Garrus asked.

{Our illustrious comms specialist is engaged to Williams, Vakarian. She suggested I use my thermal scope on my sniper, and it's working beautifully. Thank Ash for me, will you, Traynor?}

Sam blinked, realizing she was being drawn into this conversation. This conversation that was happening in the middle of a battlefield. "I… I'll be sure to, ma'am."

{This primitive form of communication is irritating.} Samantha figured that must be Javik, the Prothean who looked remarkably like the Collectors. So far she had managed to avoid him altogether. She wasn't proud of it, but he creeped her out. He looked different from the Collectors, but still she remembered Ashley shooting one of those things, leaving it a gooey mess on her living room floor. Javik looked enough like them to bring the memory back every time she caught a glimpse of him. She didn't want to speak to him until the image had stopped burning itself on her retinas. Which meant probably never.

{I shall have to speak with this communications officer when we are back on the ship,} Javik said.{There must be an easier way to convey valuable data.}

Bloody hell. I don't want to talk to him!

Shepard's out-of-breath voice huffed out, {Head in the game, Javik! What you're using is what you've got, unless you were also a scientist who knows how to develop that crap?}

Her answer was a huff of air from the Prothean. Samantha silently blessed her commander.

Time passed as the ground team worked their way up several levels. At one point Samantha patched in the salarian doctor, who had the female krogan with him. She jumped in surprise when his voice started piping into her ear at lightning speed, but she grew accustomed to it quickly, continuing with her instructions to the ground team on where they should be going when they couldn't find it themselves.

Just when they seemed to be in the clear, a warning light began flashing on her screen. Selecting it, Samantha nearly yelped aloud when the big map zoomed out, showing a very large red blip moving at alarming speeds.

"Commander! Commander, there's something… bloody huge coming for you!"

{Where from?}

"Above you!"

{Above m-}

Wrex's voice sounded at the same moment. {Shepard, watch your ass!}

Shepard didn't get to finish her incredulous question, as at that moment there was a huge crash. Shepard's camera went flying to the ground. Scrabbling, yelling, and general chaos filled Sam's ear. The camera jolted, a giant piece of metal flashed into view, and then Sam saw what had come for them.

It was one of those Cerberus Atlas vehicles they had run into on Eden Prime and Grissom Academy, and it landed nearly on top of Shepard and her team.

{Shepard, I can't land until you deal with that thing! It's too dangerous!}

{Since when does a krogan think anything is too dangerous, Wrex?!} Shepard shouted, laughing as Wrex swore into the comms in response.

{Door broken, can't get through, Shepard!} Mordin exclaimed. Shepard's camera whipped that direction briefly before the commander lunged, scrabbling behind something metal and solid.

I cannot believe this is combat, Sam thought, eyes wide as she watched her video feed. This isn't even controlled chaos. It's just chaos.

A red blip on the galaxy map display caught her eye. "Commander, it's not just the atlas," she said, mentally counting the red dots. "I'm counting at least eight individual Cerberus troops on the ground."

A heavy exhale. {Fine,} the commander said quietly, pulling up her omnitool. {They wanna play it like this? Fine. I got my own little surprise for these fuckfaces.} At a louder volume, she began directing her forces on the ground. {All right, folks, listen up! Take out that atlas just like the last one! I'll take care of the troops on the ground!}

{You're going to be invisible, aren't you?} Garrus's voice finally joined the chatter.

{Yeah, so don't shoot me.}

{What? Lola can be invisible?!} James shouted, incredulous.

{Don't catch any flies with that open yapper, James,} Shepard said calmly, her fingers working nonstop over her omnitool. {Just because your commander is smart and can program, too.}

Suddenly Shepard was up and moving, her gun stowed in favor of the knife all marines kept in their boot. Samantha's heart slammed up into her throat, but as she watched, nobody seemed to notice her. Not a single head turned in her direction. What the bloody hell?

Garrus said something about being invisible. What did he mean? Wait…

Samantha opened another screen, the one monitoring Shepard's vital signs, and did some quick hacking to see what was going on.

Jesus. Christ. She has a light-bending invisibility field?! I thought those were illegal…

It didn't really matter, Sam supposed. The woman was a Spectre. They operated outside the law all the time.

Shepard was nearing a Cerberus trooper, sequestered behind a pillar. The knife flashed, and then he was on the ground, gurgling. Samantha flinched as the camera moved away from the rapidly-spreading pool of blood beneath the man. Watching shots land and troops die from a distance was definitely a different experience from this. Samantha wasn't sure what to think as Shepard moved quickly from person to person, quietly and efficiently dealing death and then moving on before those left alive knew where to find her, though some of them tried.

Shepard was a techie geek like Sam. She was a flirt, and apparently a very loving, and very lovely, person.

And she was an efficient dealer in death.

We're so alike. She and Ashley are so alike. How… am I capable of such things, as well?

"Woo hoo!"

Sam looked up at the exclamation. She was surprised to find the CIC full of people, some cheering. She'd been so in the zone that she'd utterly forgotten everyone else. Glancing to the galaxy map display, she saw that the atlas had been taken down, the source of the whoops and shouts of celebration surrounding her. Looking back to Shepard's video feed, she saw the last of the enemy troops at Shepard's feet.

{Sam, I need you to tell me something.}

Samantha blinked. "Um, yes, ma'am?"

{Can you see me?}

"Um… what?"

A chuckle. {I can see myself when I use this hardware, but others have a hard time. So. Can you see me right now?}

"Oh, um. Yes, ma'am. I could see you that entire time, ma'am."

{Interesting. Wanna do the science research on why?}

Samantha blinked down at her view of Shepard's camera. "You're asking me? I have the right to refuse?"

{I'll take that as a no, then,} Shepard said with a chuckle. Then her voice rose for the whole squad. {Let's go! Get everyone on the shuttle and let's get back to the Normandy! Now!}

Samantha sighed. Good. Maybe I'll get to get some more sleep.

Samantha couldn't sleep.

"Bloody coffee's too good at its job," she murmured to herself. Finally, she gave up, rolling off of her bunk, pulling on her sweat pants over her shorts (Ashley's shorts. God, I'm such a sappy little girl, wearing my fiancée's shorts to sleep in), and walking out to the mess.

The female krogan, named Eve for now, was safely on board, sequestered in the medbay. The windows of the room were opaque for privacy's sake. Samantha couldn't blame her. She was a curiosity – female krogans never made it off Tuchanka, so most people had never seen one. In addition, the woman had been on display on Sur'Kesh, as far as Samantha could tell from what she'd seen and heard. A little privacy was more than understandable for the poor, sick krogan, last hope for her entire species.

"No pressure or anything, Eve," Samantha murmured to herself, running her hands through her hair as she sat at a table in the mess.

"Can't sleep?"

Sam jumped in surprise, trying to turn and regain her feet at the same time. Unfortunately, at an immoveable bench seat, this was an impossible maneuver, so all she accomplished was to trip and land right back on her arse. "Bloody hell," Sam swore, trying to untangle her own feet.

"Whoa, it's okay, it's okay!"

Sam stopped trying to get up, turning to find it was the attractive reporter woman, Diana, who had snuck up on her. "Sorry," Sam murmured, shaking her head. "I'm a hot mess when I'm tired, apparently."

The woman sat opposite her at the table. They were the only two in the room. Diana was no longer in the slinky dress that seemed to be her uniform when she recorded her news segments. Instead, she wore simple black yoga pants and a white tank top, and in Sam's eyes, it raised her attractiveness quite a lot to see the woman with her hair down, so to speak. Not that it matters one whit, she thought to herself.

"Don't worry about it," Diana said, smiling. "I get it. Tired but wired from caffeine, right?"

Sam nodded, resting her forehead in her palms once more. "It's… blimey, is this what it's always like on board a ship?"

"No," Diana said, shaking her head firmly. "Shepard's ship is special. But it would be. She's a Spectre, and besides that…"

Sam nodded. "She's Shepard. No one quite like her in the galaxy, I expect."

"Something like that, yeah. So, I take it you were called to your station for the fight down there?"

"Yes. Only a few hours' sleep necessitated coffee when I woke up, but now… I can't bloody sleep. So I got up."

"Trying to contact someone?" Diana asked, gesturing to Sam's data pad.

"Right again. Unfortunately, my brain's a little fried. I never even made it to the extranet." She sighed, looking up into Diana's hazel eyes. "I really need to at least relax, even if I'm not going to get any sleep. It was… intense down there. I feel like I have a wire coiled tight inside me."

Diana smiled. "Why don't we grab a drink? I'm awake because of Joker's flying. Adrenaline rush hasn't worn off. I could use a little liquid relaxer, too."

Sam agreed, doing a much better job of getting her feet under her this time and following Diana to the lounge. A few minutes later, she was sitting, looking out on the void of space with a drink in her hand.

"You know, this is perfect. You were right. Thank you."

Diana smiled, sipping her own drink. "You're welcome. Though, it's not like I paid for the drinks."

"Fair," Sam said with a chuckle. "But you did fix it for me. I appreciate it."

After a few moments of silent stargazing, Diana opened with an observation. "So, it's been quite a day. Between busting that guy you worked with yesterday, and the drama with Cerberus today, I'd say the Normandy's lead communications specialist has seen at least a week's worth of action."

Samantha snorted lightly. "I've already seen more action than I ever guessed my military career would show me. I expected to work in a lab until I retired from the Alliance." She sighed, sobering. "Hardly something to complain about, that the Reapers messed up those plans, but… well. There it is."

"What would you have done when you retired?"

"Oh, I don't know," Sam said, eyes wandering to Diana's before drifting back to the stars. She thought of Ashley, of what their lives might have been like thirty years from now if the Reapers had never attacked. She kept the relationship to herself for the time being, however. She didn't need it known by this woman, reporter that she was, that Sam was engaged to a superior officer, and the second-ever human Spectre. She was not stupid. This woman was friendly, but they were not yet friends, and that was a juicy enough story that she ought to be careful with it. "It's a little late to think of all that now, anyway, isn't it?"

"C'mon. Just humor me." Diana's eyes sparkled with her half-smile. "It's okay to pretend the shitty stuff didn't happen sometimes."

Sam sighed again, deciding to tell her a partial truth. It was what Sam thought she might do before she met Ashley. "Well, I always thought it might be nice to settle down again on the colony where I grew up. Maybe bring whatever woman I might marry, help my parents and my brother with biological engineering for the crops. It…" Super nerd, Sam.

"What?"

Sam felt her cheeks heat slightly. "I was about to say that it would be a fun challenge, to do something so different from what I'm doing now. And then my own brain called me a nerd, so I stopped myself. God," she groaned, burying her face in her hand. "Just hearing that out loud made me think I'm mad. I can't imagine how it sounded to you. I apologize. I swear I make more sense when I'm awake and alert."

Diana giggled. "Don't worry. I get it. You might not know it from my chosen profession, but I've dabbled in farming tech, myself."

"You have?" Sam was truly surprised.

"Yes, I have," Diana nodded, taking another sip of her drink. "I'm a colony girl, too. Where'd you grow up?"

Sam hesitated. It couldn't hurt anything to tell Diana, could it? "Horizon," she said, glancing momentarily at Diana to see how she reacted.

The woman's eyes widened briefly, but that was it. "Ouch."

"Yes, that's a rather succinct way of describing it," Sam said, nodding. "I was actually home visiting when the Collectors hit. We were lucky. My family bunkered down in our house with all the locks engaged, and we managed to miss the worst of the attack." Again, she left out Ashley. She knew she ought to tell Diana she was spoken for, especially if Diana did have her eye on Sam. But every time she thought of mentioning it, Sam couldn't help but picture the headlines Diana might write. Not about Sam, but about Ashley and inappropriate conduct.

She couldn't subject Ashley to that. She'd seen some of Diana's pieces since the two officially met the day before. She was fair, but didn't hesitate to criticize, even officers of the Alliance. Likely the only thing saving her when she did scathing opinion pieces was her ratings.

"Lucky Shepard got there when she did," Diana mused, nodding.

Sam gave her a look.

"Oh, don't worry. I don't know anything above my security clearance. That was on the news vids. Plus, I am officially a contractor with the Alliance – I have my own special security clearance and everything."

Sam nodded. It made sense. They needed to vet the people who disseminated the news to the public. Only way to keep a handle on things. That way, if they got out of line, they could be court-martialed.

"So, I'm curious, then. What's your access to the krogan female like? And Javik?"

Diana sighed, leaning heavily back in her seat. "Can't touch 'em. Don't want the Reapers to know any of it, and we know they intercept our news – it's broadcast wideband, for every race and every planet." She paused before clarifying. "I mean, I can know about them, of course – you'd have to if you're on this ship. But I can't write a single fucking thing about them. The biggest stories in our time after the Reaper attack itself, and I can't say a peep! But… at least I get to know about it. It's all happening on this ship. I know that sounds messed up. People are dying out there. But… if there's a good chance I'll die, too, then at least I get to know all that's happening to try to stop the Reapers, you know?"

Sam nodded. She got it. At least they weren't lying in the dark, alone and afraid, with no one to tell them what efforts were being made to try to save them. Her heart panged. That was likely what her parents and Richard were going through. She downed the rest of her drink, ripping her thoughts away from her family. It would do no one any good to sit here and worry about them. She would certainly never sleep if she let that anxiety overtake her.

They sat quietly for a time after that. When Sam started to feel a pleasant buzz, her eyelids beginning to close against her will, Diana shook her awake. "C'mon, Samantha," she said, gloriously not using her nickname and immediately ingratiating herself with the comms specialist. "Let's get you to bed. I know you need to be up and at your post again in another few hours."

Sam nodded, letting the other woman help her to her feet. Her hands were warm, like Ashley's. But Sam resisted the urge to melt into those arms. They were all wrong. There were no defined muscles, no calluses on the palms, and a ridiculous manicure on the nails that would have no place on a marine. Instead, Diana's hand on her bare bicep to help steady her, Sam weaved her way in her pajamas and bare feet to the crew quarters, bidding the woman good night at the door and heading gratefully for her bed.