Obligatory A/N: More stuff I wrote for fun over the summer! I thought I'd share it since I've been writing on it a little here and there. All of part one is written, so it'll go up at the speed at which I can edit it. This has been betad by Diablo Kades, in that she read it and told me to add stuff. It didn't get read again, because I have been sending her way and she is way too busy for that shit (my words, not hers - she's British. She's way too polite for that). I just thought someone here might wanna read it. If not, oh well.

This just sort of came out of loving stories which mix timeframes, and AUs where it's set in modern times, or more modern times (like those episodes of Xena where it would be set, like, during the 30s at an archaeological dig? Anyone else know what I'm talking about?). I was thinking in those terms, and came up with this. I was thinking World War II, what with my love of swing dancing and pretty much all things vintage, as well as my love of Mass Effect and science fiction in general. This is what I ended up with...

So... yeah. Let me know what you think, please? This is one of those random ones...

PART ONE

Chapter 1

Awareness came to her slowly. She floated in a world of shadows for quite a while before it suddenly occurred to her that this wasn't normal.

As soon as she realized it, she began to be aware of a different world, one she couldn't see, but could hear.

"Remarkable… only a broken arm… shattered knee… replaceable…"

She wasn't sure what they words meant at first, but as she listened, the grey shapes faded to black, and then she was aware of a light behind her eyelids. She stopped focusing on the sounds and started trying to move. Her eyes felt heavy; her limbs, her hands and feet, even her fingers and toes felt like they were made of lead. But with some concentration, she was able to crack open an eyelid. It stuck for a moment, and when it opened, all she could see was something yellow caked along her eyelashes.

"Her eyes are opening."

A hand on her shoulder, a woman's voice asking her if she could hear her. The voice had a British accent.

She tried to nod, hoped it worked.

"You poor dear, you can't see for your wounds, can you?"

A warm, wet cloth was pressed over her eyes for a moment, and when it disappeared she could see. The sight before her took her breath away.

Skin the color of barely-creamed coffee. Hair as black as night. Eyebrows knit in concern. Lips pouted just slightly. Her breathing hitched, and she could barely think straight, not even noticing that holding her eyes open for so long was becoming painful.

"Is that better?"

She tried to find her voice, but couldn't. She tried to move, but couldn't. She could only blink. The third time she closed her eyes she couldn't open them again, and without being aware of it she slipped back into sleep.

This time awareness came to her right away. She lay still for a moment, concentrating hard on everything she could perceive. The sounds in the room around her (nothing but quiet machinery); the feel of her arms, legs, fingers, toes; the parch in her throat; the heaviness over her eyes. After a moment, it became clear that she had something solid over her eyes. She reached up to feel it and found that it was bandaging.

She also found that one arm was bound in a cast. Feeling it with her good left hand, she found that it was fixed in a position bent almost double, her hand up by her shoulder. She could feel it all, and it was painful – must have broken. What happened to her that she was like this now?

She tried to find her voice. "Hello?"

No answer.

"Hello?"

Still no answer.

"Is anyone there? I can't see anything. Where am I?"

"Hold on, I'm coming!"

The voice… she remembered waking up to it, catching a glimpse of a beautiful face before sleep claimed her. She'd thought it had been a dream.

"Ah, you're awake. Lovely." She felt a hand slip into hers, and she instinctively gripped it, her only anchor in a world she was used to being able to see. "Sorry about the bandages. You had a nasty burn that got infected. It should only need to be on for another day."

Her voice was still scratchy, hurt her to speak, but she spoke anyway. "What happened to me? Where am I?"

Sympathy. "You're in the veteran's hospital, dear. Do you remember your last mission?"

Explosions. She had a rifle in her hand. Her best friend and commanding officer shouting at her to run. But she wouldn't. She couldn't leave Shepard.

She nodded. "We were routed. I was supposed to get out of there, but my CO had been injured, and I couldn't leave her behind…"

"Well, you were injured, as well. Burns, a broken arm, and your kneecap had to be replaced – it was shattered by a bullet. But you should recover fully, which is more than most who end up in here can say."

The warm hand in hers was pulled away. She instinctively reached for it, sitting up to follow it. Immediately a pain radiated up her leg, presumable the one that had been shot, and she doubled over with it.

Those warm hands were immediately on her back, her shoulders, easing her back to be lying down. Soothing words were murmured, and then the pain was being replaced by the desperate need to sleep once more. She fell asleep to wonderful thoughts of beautiful voices and pretty faces.

The next time she opened her eyes, the bandages were off. Her eyes snapped open, and she blinked several times as she adjusted to the light. She looked around, turning her head this way and that as she took in her surroundings.

She appeared to be in a private room, with one other bed next to hers. She couldn't see who was in it from this angle, but there definitely was someone under those blankets. She turned her head to look in the other direction, and almost did a double-take.

Standing across the room was a blue-skinned woman.

That must be an asari. She'd heard of them. They were their allies in this war. But as a marine in active-duty combat, she had never actually met one; so far, they kept to their own ranks, fighting on their own front, or working as consultants out of the fray. The woman in front of her had tentacles coming out the back of her head – weird! They didn't seem to move at all, making them somewhat less disconcerting, but just the fact that they were there, that the woman had no hair. And her skin was blue.

It wasn't displeasing, she supposed. In fact the color, the curve of her hip, the angle of the tentacles sweeping back were all very beautiful. But it was a very alien beauty, and it made her uncomfortable to think of the woman as beautiful at all.

Her musings were cut short by a human woman walking in to the room. Her heart nearly stopped when she saw that it was the same woman from before. She was in a white uniform, a white hat on her head. She knew the uniform. The woman was a nurse. She was at a veteran's hospital. She'd been injured.

The flashes came back to her. She'd lifted Shepard bodily and tried to run with her, but she hadn't quite made it out of the area before a shell exploded far too near. She had been on fire, quite possibly literally, and she'd only been able to take a few more steps before she was down. The world had gone dark, and she had known nothing until she'd opened her eyes to find that woman, that beautiful woman, staring down at her with concern in her eyes.

Shepard. What happened to Shepard?

"Did someone say my name?"

Crap. Did I say that out loud?

"Hello?"

"Ah, you are awake. I did not realize."

The asari had a soft voice, and she spoke very precisely. But she wasn't mousy-sounding, just quiet, which was utterly appropriate for this room. She was just unused to anyone knowing anything about volume-control outside of a combat situation.

"I heard someone say my name."

"You did?"

"Yeah. It sounded like Ash. She awake?"

The dusky-skinned woman came into her field of vision, smiling immediately. "Indeed, she appears to be. Lieutenant-Commander?"

"Yeah?" Her voice croaked out of her, making her sound like she'd spent a lifetime smoking.

"Ash, you're awake! Thank God, I thought I was gonna be stuck staring at your sorry ass and listening to you snore until I got the Hell outta here!"

"Sorry to disappoint, Skipper." She coughed, immediately finding a hand under her shoulder, guiding her to sit up. After a minute her coughing subsided, and she found a cup of cool water at her lips. She drank gratefully.

"Easy," the British voice cautioned. "Slowly, or you'll just cough more. Sip it. There, that's it."

"Ha, like Ash knows how to do anything slowly."

"Screw you, ma'am." She looked up to the nurse. Brown eyes, darker than her own, looked right back, and she was momentarily entranced. "Thank you."

"You are more than welcome, Lieutenant-Commander Williams."

"Can you stand, Ash?"

She looked down at her legs under the blanket. It occurred to her that she might not be able to walk? The thought struck terror through her, and she looked back up at the nurse with wide eyes.

"Relax, please. You're going to be fine, remember? If you'd like to see your friend, I can help you to your feet in a moment. I just need to finish something with the doctor."

Ashley's eyes slid to the asari woman, who she'd forgotten about after the woman had left Shepard's side. The asari – apparently their doctor? – was standing once more at a bank of equipment on the other side of the room.

"That's Doctor T'Soni. She's here at the hospital to share her expertise with our doctors. She's responsible for your replaced kneecap." Ashley looked back up to the nurse. "You'll be alright while I finish up? Stay put this time, okay? I don't want to have to put you to sleep with morphine again." She nodded, settling back on her pillows, watching the woman get up and walk back to the asari. She had a remarkable ass in that uniform.

Before her thoughts could go any further, though, Shepard interrupted them. "Seriously, I'm glad you're okay, Ash. I thought we were dead for sure when that shell exploded."

Ashley was in a bit of a daze, and didn't really want to remember what had happened. "Yeah, me, too. Are you okay, Skipper?"

"Thanks to my LT who can't take a damn order when I give it to her, yeah, I'm okay. Not perfect. But I'll live."

Ashley narrowed her eyes, looking back to the bed that she now knew contained her CO. The divider was pulled halfway, so she couldn't see the woman's face, but she looked over as she spoke anyway. "What happened to you, Commander?"

"Do me a favor and drop the 'Commander' crap while we're in here, alright?" She breathed in, sighed. "I'm not gonna walk again, Ash. We both got burned really badly, but you were carrying me on your shoulders – I took the worst of it. They had to amputate my leg. And the arm you fell on top of is ruined. They can amputate it, or I can have a useless arm. I haven't decided yet – I just woke up a few hours ago."

"Fuck. I'm so sorry, ma'am."

"Can it, Ash. You saved my life. I'll deal with the rest of it. It's better than being dead."

"That is an excellent attitude to have, Commander." The nurse walked over to her bed, handing her something. Looking up, Ashley saw that the doctor was gone. "Most people come in here and wish it had ended on the field."

"Yeah, well. I'm sure I'll find something else to do once I'm healed up. Besides, if you can replace Ashley's kneecap, then maybe something will be available for me later on. Who knows?"

The nurse came to Ashley's bedside with a smile on her face. "That's the spirit, Commander." She looked down at Ashley. "Are you ready, Lieutenant-Commander?"

"Yeah. But just call me Ashley, or Ash. No need for titles in the hospital, is there?"

"As you wish, Ashley. Are you ready to try standing?"

She nodded. The nurse had her sit up, pulling back the blanket to reveal her legs. Her right leg was bandaged from ankle to mid-thigh, keeping it slightly bent. "Don't try to bend it, it's still healing. The cast will allow you to put a little weight on it while it heals, and you can move the whole leg from the hip, but you're going to mostly have to hobble. I'd give you crutches, but with your arm like that, they wouldn't do you any good, unfortunately."

"No problem," she murmured, eyes still transfixed by her legs. Her left one she could move just fine, so she tried to shake off whatever it was she was feeling and allow the nurse to pivot her so her left leg was draped over the side of the bed. Pulling Ashley's good arm over her shoulder, she helped Ashley to her feet.

"My. I didn't quite realize how tall you were," the nurse commented, looking up at Ashley from under her arm. "Hard to tell when someone's lying down."

"We tend to be a tall bunch," she murmured, wondering at how weak her leg felt. She wasn't used to feeling weak.

"Right, well. Come along, and I'll get you in a chair by the Commander's bed."

"Please stop with the 'Commander' shit. No matter what happens, I think we can agree that that's done."

"Right you are, Shepard."

Ashley was impressed. A normal person might take umbrage to Shepard's tone, or take pity on the poor, sad soldier. This woman just took her attitude in stride. "Don't take her personally. She's always a pain in the ass." The nurse chuckled.

"You gonna take advantage now that I've given up rank? Because I could always pull it, Ash."

"Wouldn't dream of it, Skipper."

She was hobbled past the sheet, and nearly fell out of shock. Shepard was lying there, arm heavily bandaged, head bald, eyebrows gone, scabs running down her cheeks and neck.

"What?"

Ash closed her mouth, then grinned. "You look like shit, Skipper."

"Yeah, I'm sure I look a good deal better than you, Ugly."

The nurse deposited her into a chair next to Shepard's bed, shaking her head as she went. "The both of you are absolutely wicked!"

Shepard snorted. "I thought you said I had the right attitude?"

The nurse gave her a look before rolling her eyes and shaking her head. "Did you two need anything, or can I leave you alone for a few minutes?"

"I'll be fine," Ashley answered, then looked up to her. "But what's your name?"

"Samantha. Samantha Traynor."