Chapter 1

A single note rang out, plucked from a small stringed instrument. The woman with the instrument frowned, adjusting the tuning peg before plucking the string again. A satisfied smile pulled at her lips, and she continued to tune the small wooden instrument. The officer watching from across the small passenger hold of the shuttle was intrigued. As the coffee-skinned woman began to actually play, the officer remembered the name of the small instrument, indigenous to her home planet of Earth: it was a ukulele.

She didn't play loudly, nor did she play anything remotely complicated, just a series of chords in a major key. The officer knew enough about music to know that much, at least. She hummed to herself, some vague melody. It sounded happy, but also a little melancholy. It was only the two of them on the shuttle. The officer wondered why the woman would play with an audience of a military officer. Was she trying to show off? Just couldn't wait the ten minutes until they touched down planet-side?

As if drawn by the officer's thoughts, the ukulele-player trailed off, looking up to the officer guiltily. "Sorry," she said, her British accent cool on the officer's ears. "I'm a bit nervous about going home, and playing helps relax me. But I didn't even stop to consider you might not want to hear-"

The officer held up her hand. "Please, it's fine." Tilting her head to the side, she couldn't stop herself from asking. "This is home?"

The ukulele-player nodded, setting the instrument flat on her lap. "My family lives here. I'm on leave, and I thought I'd spend the time visiting them. Not like I have anywhere more exciting to go anyway."

"Leave?"

The woman smiled slightly, a quirking of her lips that pulled them up at the corners. "I may not look it, but I'm every bit as much a part of the Alliance as you. I just design new communications tech, instead of wielding a gun. I work in R&D on Earth."

The officer's face flushed slightly, though she knew it likely didn't show thanks to her dark skin. But she also got a bit defensive. "Well, like you say, you don't look the part, especially in your civvies."

The ukulele-player grinned, looking down at her tight jeans and loose, flowing blouse. "I suppose you have a point there." Looking back up, she held out a hand to the officer. "I'm Communications Specialist Samantha Traynor. Though please just call me by my name – my title is such a bloody mouthful."

The officer smiled, taking Samantha's hand. "Lieutenant Ashley Williams. Ash for short."

Samantha smiled slyly. "Well, Ash. I look forward to finding out why you're coming to Horizon. And with such a shipment," she added, gesturing to the large amount of crates they could see through the passageway to the hold of the shuttle. "I hope you'll be staying long enough to grab a drink with me in the next few days? I'll need to escape my parents and my brothers to have real, grown-up conversations soon enough."

Ashley smirked. "One of those families, huh?" Samantha nodded, rolling her eyes. "So, uh… why you nervous about going home?"

"Oh… I'm supposed to have dinner with my ex-girlfriend tonight. I didn't know how to get out of it. Mum is hoping things rekindle… it's just nerve-wracking."

Ashley furrowed her brows. "I take it you don't want things to rekindle?"

"God, no… I haven't spoken to her in three years! We broke up when I graduated university, and I haven't looked back once! But she moved out here to work in ag-tech and Mum got friendly with her, and that led to her getting a dinner invite for tonight."

"Well, uh… good luck with that?"

Samantha had the good grace to look sheepish. "Sorry. You didn't ask for my life story, yet here I am, rambling on about it."

Ashley smiled. "Hey, it's cool. I did ask about it. Sorry if I made you uncomfortable. It's not like you know me or anything."

They were interrupted from further chat by the VI pilot announcing their arrival, followed by a slight thud as the shuttle touched down. Samantha stood, ukulele in one hand, her duffle bag in the other, an apologetic smile on her face. "Well… I suppose that's our cue. It was good to meet you, Ashley. I hope I get to see you around while you're here."

She sauntered away, hips swaying deliciously in her tight jeans, drawing Ashley's eyes until she was no longer in sight. Sighing wistfully, Ashley got to work unloading her supplies.

A/N: Hi! So I've been wanting to write a real Sam-Ash piece for a while now. Like, since I started writing fanfiction a year and a half ago. But the right angle on it never really occurred to me. Not until the other night, when it finally just popped into my head. Samantha was home visiting during the Collector attack, and Ashley was there, too. They're both in the Alliance. Of course they met! So I brainstormed an idea and ran with it!

I have the next chapter ready to go, so that will go up pretty quickly, if the site is working (I was actually ready to post this last night, but the site's Doc Manager wasn't uploading things). Let me know what you think! This will be along the lines of my normal M-rated smut-ridden fun, at some point. And it may develop into a re-telling of ME3 with these two as the main focus. We'll see.