A/N: I've had this one in my head for a while, it just came down to writing it out, I'm not sure how long I'm going to make it but I will do something I assure you, It's set in an AU where (Spoilers for seasons10-11) all the freelancers remain together and take the director down together whilst the reds and blues have already crashed on Chorus, the Mother Of Invention also crashes on chorus and all the freelancers join forces with the reds and bus (who's ship also crashed after caboose got to drive) to get a communication out, not sure how it's going to play out, this is also going to be a little test for romance writing as I will explore the relationship between York and Carolina as I felt it wasn't explained enough in RVB, we got that they knew each other before the project and that they met in club errera but that's about it, so I thought I'd try and tie up the loose ends but it will probably suck because I'm not the best writer, so if you have any pointers, please leave them in a review, also, I got the name for this fix from the song "now that we've come so far" because I think it explains the concept well enough, with that, enjoy and please leave a review.

Chapter 1: after the fall

Mother of invention recovery area

"Wake up Carolina, please... don't go..." York said as he clutched Carolina's hand,

she was unconscious after the impact onto chorus, "How long is he going to stay there?" Washington said as he looked in from the observation room,

"He's committed, I see that and it's really quite touching." North said as theta logged on,

"north, what's wrong with her? Is she going to be ok?" theta asked,

"I'm sure she will be... doing worry theta." North said as Texas entered the room,

"How is she?" she asked, her arms folded,

"she's been out for 3 days now, this could get worse, but I hope it doesn't, and he's been there the entire time, I'm more worried about the effect it'll have on him if she dies, then again, that'll have an effect on all of us, but we have found some others, the reds and blues I believe they call themselves..."north said,

"Wait, reds and blues, aah crap..." Tex sighed,

"you know them?" North asked,

"Yup... biggest bunch of idiots in the galaxy, complete morons, but, also my friends, so I guess we can't kill them, crap" tex said as she left to 'greet' them,

"I best stop her from choking them to death on their own intestines... I'll be right back." North said as he left, C.T entered the recovery room with York,

"still sleeping huh?" C.T said,

"Y-Yeah." York bluntly replied as C.T removed her helmet,

"I'm sure she'll be fine" she said, resting a hand on his shoulder,

"But what if she isn't, I'm really worried, I don't want to leave her" York said,

"come get something to eat, she'll understand" C.T said,

"ok" York said, he paused and left his lighter in her hand, then removed his helmet and placed it on the chair next to her,

"Be back soon" he said as he left

Surface of Chorus

"Hey reds!" tax yelled,

"SHIT its tex! Run!" Simmons yelled as sarge him and grif leapt into the warthog and floored it,

"Hey I'm not here to...ah forget it" tex sighed as she slowed to a halt, north then caught up with her,

"hey tex wait up!" North yelled,

"What do you want north?" tex asked bluntly,

"I was hoping you'd go with wash to help fix the comms array the reds and blues have here." North said,

"Fine, but I won't hesitate to hurt someone if they get in my way,

by the way, how's Maine doing? Is he adapting to the synthetic vocal chords, how're they working?" tex asked

"Maine is adapting to them fine and they work, he sounds like he never got shot to begin with, still is weird to have him talk from time to time again, I'm really not used to it, I suppose none of us really are." North said as he walked with Texas over to the array

Mother of invention mess hall

"So what's the deal between you and Carolina?" C.T said as she took a sip of her coffee,

"well, it's a long story... we met about 5 years before project freelancer started, in club errera, I was flicking my lighter on and off, all my buddies had left to go do something else, and me, I didn't want any part in it, so I stay at errera, drinking on my own, still flicking the lighter and then Carolina comes in and takes the lighter and asks, "why are you here all by yourself?" So I say, "my buddies all left to do something I want no part in, so I stayed here", after that she says, "well, want a little company then" and that's about it, we've been close friends since then, she even kept the lighter she took, and then gave it back to me when she joined project freelancer, or rather, when we joined project freelancer, together and that's where we are now." York explained

"judging by the way you were next to her near on constantly for 3 days and the way you spoke as you left, you have feelings for her, is that true?" C.T asked,

"w-well, sort of, she never returned them it seemed so I haven't told her yet, well, as far as I know she doesn't feel the same way, ah well." York said as he got up

"I'm gonna grab a coffee and go back to Carolina." York said as he walked over to the coffee machine "I'll talk to you later, bye" York called as he left the room,

"But... ah great" C.T sighed.

Surface of chorus

"I still don't see why you let caboose fly the ship for a while! It's a stupid idea!" tucker yelled as grif stayed in the warthog, not paying much attention to him,

"How was I to know he would take the auto-pilot off, I left it on so he wouldn't do this, but he did, it's not my fault!" grif called as tex approached the signal antenna

"oh shit!" grif yelled as he punched the warthog's throttle again and attempted to take off, forgetting it had run out of fuel "SHIT!" grif yelled as tex approached,

"Hey, I'm not here to hurt you, I'm in the same boat as you, trying to get a communication out" tex said,

"and why should I believe you?" grif yelled back

"Because if you look up there you'll see our ship has crashed as well assface!" tex yelled as she stormed over to the communication array that had been set up, grif flinched as she walked past, she then turned back and spoke "oh and by the way, this is for yelling at me" tex said as she punched grif in the groin, then walked over to the communication array

"aaaahahahahaooow, Fuck you!" grif yelled in pain,

"Right, agh this thing is fried to high hell and back, it will take me a while to get it working again, and I'll need tools and parts, we could get the parts from the array of the Mother of invention, the tools, I don't know... this thing's fried, North! I'll need you to get York; he'll be able to help on the technical end." Tex ordered,

"might be a problem, York's refusing to leave Carolina's side until she's recovered." North replied, "well, then we're stuck here until Carolina wakes up