Author's Note: Fill for a couple of LiveJournal Friday one word prompts "Dead" for Carter/Skye and "Enraged" for Wash/Taylor. I've become quite enamored of the notion of Carter and Skye together, but I have a feeling that would leave Taylor quite unhappy...
Note, this is set in the context of my other stories, but definitely not necessary to read those for this to make sense – just be aware that in my context now, Wash and Taylor are married and have a little girl named Gracie, and the Sixers have come back to Terra Nova. Normal disclaimer - they aren't mine (well, Gracie's mine, but the rest of them aren't) - I'm just borrowing them for a bit of fun.
"Wash!" Skye Tate's voice catches Alicia's attention. A few moments ago, Nathaniel had stormed past, a look on his face that she hasn't seen in a long time. The look had honestly prompted her to shiver a little in sympathy at whatever poor bastard had pissed him off that much. Alicia motions Skye over to her.
Alicia leans down to her daughter, Gracie, whose two-year-old fingers have been trying to touch every flower at her favorite flower vendor's cart in the market. "Bug. Pick one, no more touching. The next one you touch is the one you get."
"Mama!" As usual, Alicia is amused at her daughter's flair for the dramatic, no doubt gotten honestly from her father. She raises an eyebrow at Gracie, trying not to show her how much it still takes her breath away to see Nathaniel's startling light blue eyes staring at her from a younger, smaller version of her own face. Gracie pouts a little, putting her hands on her hips.
Almost able to see what's coming, Alicia sternly says, "One foot stomp from you, and you don't get any flowers at all."
Gracie huffs out a breath and looks as outraged as a two-year-old can manage, and then she goes back to looking at the flowers. This time, she keeps her hands to herself.
As Alicia straightens back up, an out-of-breath Skye gets to her. "You have to stop him! He's going to kill him!"
"Who do I have to stop, and who is going to kill him? And who is 'him?'" Alicia shoots Skye a confused look.
"Carter!" Skye says, still breathing hard.
Alicia muses that Skye must have run to find her as fast as she could. Not a good sign. "Why do I have to stop Carter, Skye?"
"No," the young woman shakes her head, finally managing to catch her breath, "You have to stop Taylor. He's going to kill Carter."
Still confused, Alicia asks, "Skye, why would Nathaniel want to kill Carter? He actually kind of likes Carter these days. I mean, he'd have to be doing something really out there to make Nathaniel mad enough to…" Then, all of a sudden, it's like a light goes on over her own head. Alicia drops her face into her hand. "Shit. Skye, are you the girl Carter has been seeing for a while? And did Nathaniel just find out?"
Skye looks down meekly. "Yes. To both."
"Shit." Alicia shakes her head. "You're right." At that, it's Skye's turn to look confused, so Alicia explains, "Nathaniel's going to kill him."
Before Skye can even try to beg her further to intercede, Alicia is tapping her comm. "Washington to Carter, Carter, come in." Silence. "Goddamnit, Carter, answer your comm!"
A moment later, Carter's voice, laughing, comes through. "Jeez, Wash. Sorry. I'm here. What's the problem?"
"Carter, where are you?" Alicia ignores his relaxed laugh.
"Why?" He suddenly sounds suspicious.
"Carter. Where. Are. You?" Her patience is running out.
This time, he sounds serious, as if he realized that something might be wrong. "I was helping to repair one of the fence towers, out on the north side of the colony."
"You need to hide, Carter. Now." Alicia is deadly serious herself.
"Wash, what the hell is going on?"
"Nathaniel just found out, Carter. He just found out about you and Skye. You need to hide, and you need to do it now. He probably knew your assignment, so he knows where you are. Hide. Now." Alicia is truly concerned for her friend.
"Damn." His voice is low and nervous now. "Was he mad?"
"Enraged Carno, Carter. When he came stomping by, he reminded me of an enraged Carno."
"I'm dead." Carter actually sounds like he's freaking out, something that might entertain Alicia under almost any other circumstance.
"Indeed. HIDE. NOW." Alicia rolls her eyes. "I'm going to try to catch Nathaniel and talk him down. I'll let you know when and if the coast gets clear. Washington out."
Checking to make sure Gracie is out of earshot, Alicia turns back to a very distraught Skye. "Is it serious? Or are you two just banging each other?"
"Wash!" Skye looks mortified.
"It's an important question, Skye. Is it serious?" Alicia needs to know, because she has to know how to play this with Nathaniel. She gives Skye a hard look.
"At first, no. It was just fun. But then, well…" Skye blushes a little. "I love him, Wash."
Alicia's face softens. "What about him? What does Carter think it is?"
Skye's blush becomes full-blown, but her eyes light up with happiness. "He told me he loves me and told me he wants to marry me when I'm ready."
Alicia does her best to hide her shock, but she knows her eyes widen. "OK, Skye, you stay here with Gracie." Alicia leans down. "Bug, Mama needs to go take care of something. Will you stay with Auntie Skye?"
Gracie gives her a toothy grin, and with a flower that loosely resembles a daisy clutched in her hand, she trots over and grabs Skye's leg. "K, Mama. I stay with Aunt Skye. She looks scareded. I be bwave for her."
Alicia grins and leans down to press a kiss to Gracie's forehead. "That's my Bug."
Before Skye can protest, Alicia says, "You will stay here. Seeing you with Carter will not help right now, Skye. Trust me."
Skye looks for a moment as if she's going to argue, and then she sighs in defeat. "I know. I'll stay here with Gracie. Thanks, Wash."
"You're going to owe me one, Skye. And I will collect. Likely in the form of free babysitting." Alicia grins at Skye and then heads off in the direction Nathaniel was headed earlier. She knows that he was well aware of where Carter was working today, so she actually cuts north, hoping to catch him before he finds Carter. She guesses that he might've gone by Carter's house first, so she might have a little time to get ahead of him.
After weaving through some housing units and cutting through some of the agricultural fields, she gets to the northern tower where Carter was working. She peers back towards the main part of the colony, and as she suspected, she sees Nathaniel approaching, still looking highly pissed off. She sits down on the steps to the guard tower to wait for him.
When he gets there and sees her, he blinks in surprise. Then, a knowing look comes to his face. "No, Alicia, I know he's your friend, but she's just a baby, and I'm going to kill him."
"She's not a baby, Nathaniel." Alicia gets up and walks over to him, crossing her arms over her chest.
"She's a kid, Alicia. He's taking advantage of her."
"Seriously?" Alicia snorts. "Have you met Skye, Nathaniel? She isn't some naïve innocent. If this was Maddy Shannon, then yes, I might buy that he's taking advantage of her, but Skye is neither stupid nor innocent. She has lived an awful lot for such a young girl."
"And this is living way too much for such a young girl." He puts his hands on his hips and looks outraged, and suddenly, it's all Alicia can do not to burst out laughing, because he looks just like Gracie did when she scolded her earlier.
He can clearly see her amusement, and he tries to reason with her. "Alicia, he is nineteen years older than she is!"
"Are you really going to go there, Nathaniel? Really?"
"What do you mean?" He actually looks confused.
"How old are you, Nathaniel?" She pins him with her eyes.
He looks at her like she's crazy. "Fifty-seven."
"And how old am I, Nathaniel?"
"You're thirty-nine, Alicia, but what does that have to do with anything?"
She shakes her head, waiting for him to get her point. "Do the math, Nathaniel. What's fifty-seven minus thirty-nine?"
He blinks at her. "It's not the same. She's young!"
She arches an eyebrow at him.
The moment he realizes what he said, he tries to back track. "I didn't mean it like that. I just meant that she's still a kid, and Carter is much older! He's forty, for God's sake! Forty! He's old enough to be her father! Forty is a lifetime older than twenty-one!"
"And how much older than twenty-one is thirty-nine, Nathaniel? Am I also a 'lifetime' older than Skye?" She advances on him as he backs up. She can tell that he's trying to formulate a way to placate her, so she just holds her hand up. "Nathaniel, the best thing you can do when you're already in a hole is stop digging."
He looks briefly as though he might argue. Then, with real contrition in his eyes, he says, "I'm sorry, Alicia. She's like another daughter to me, and the very idea of this is making me nuts. And really, why are you protecting him here?"
"I owe him one, Nathaniel. He saved me once. This is me saving him back." His face darkens when he's reminded of the day that Carter protected the then very pregnant Alicia and therefore, by extension, protected Gracie from Lucas.
She closes the space between them, putting her hand on his chest and meeting his eyes. "He loves her, Nathaniel, and she loves him. At least give him a chance to prove to you that his intentions are honorable."
At that moment, they both jump at the sound of Carter's voice. "I promise not to hurt her, Taylor. I could never hurt her."
Nathaniel levels a glare at Carter, and Alicia smirks because Carter actually shudders a little. "See that you don't, Carter. You think I'm scary now? Hurt her, and you'll find out just how scary I can be."
With that, Nathaniel takes Alicia's hand and they starting walking back towards the market. Alicia motions to Carter with her head. "You better come with us. Skye is flipping out." Carter nods, following behind them but still giving Nathaniel a wide berth.
They find Skye sitting at a table in the market. She's holding Gracie in her lap, and Gracie is clearly trying to keep Skye entertained with one rambling toddler-style story or another. Nathaniel approaches them, and before taking Gracie from her, he leans down and hugs Skye, making a relieved look come to her face.
Carter stands back with Alicia, watching Nathaniel and Skye. After a moment, Alicia reaches over and whacks Carter on the back of the head as hard as she can. He stumbles a little before looking at her in confusion. "That's for not giving me a heads up so I could've cut this off at the pass."
He chuckles a little and starts to head over to Skye. "And Carter?" He looks back at her, his eyes questioning. "If you hurt her, Nathaniel will be the least of your worries. He's scary. But when I'm truly pissed off, trust me," she gets right in his face, and she can actually see him swallow hard, "I'm not just scary. I'm Goddamned terrifying."
She gives him an almost feral grin, and then she goes over to Nathaniel, Skye and Gracie. Gracie spots her, running over and hugging her legs. She scoops her up and blows raspberries on her neck, making her squeal and laugh.
As Carter passes by, she hears him mutter, "Well played, Wash," and he joins Skye.
Nathaniel returns to Alicia's side. "Alicia, he looks like he might wet himself. What happened?"
She grins at him. "Let's just say that you and I just played good cop-bad cop on Carter. And believe it or not, Nathaniel, you were the good cop."
He grins back at her. "I love you, Alicia Washington Taylor."
She reaches up and kisses his cheek. "I know, Nathaniel Taylor."
Chuckling, he takes Gracie from her and they head home. As they walk, with the arm not holding Gracie, he takes her hand. "Alicia?"
"Hmm?"
"I'm really glad we're on the same side."
Her bark of laughter is probably heard all the way back to the market.