soon we'll be found: chapter one
terra nova, skye tate, tasha guzman, mark reynolds, jess ogawa, 1871
Note: All of these minor characters mentioned (Tasha, Bracco, and Ogawa) made brief appearance on the show. terranovawiki [dot] org happens to be a excellent guide. Looking over it, I find the prologue kind of cheesy and I'm not sure it's necessary. What do you guys think?
Nearly two full months had passed since the Sixers and the Phoenix Group vacated Terra Nova. To Skye it seemed like an unusually long time to go without any surprises from them. But then again without a functioning portal from either now or 2149 and without the help of Lucas Taylor's brilliant mind their attentions must have turned to something else. For once it wasn't Skye's business to care what it was and there was an immeasurable sense of relief in that.
"Mom," Skye called out. "Mom, I'm heading out." Skye glanced into the main bedroom to her mother's still figure. Deborah's eyes were half-lidded and Skye wasn't altogether sure if she had heard Skye speak or not.
Since returning to Terra Nova, Deborah's sickly pallor had improved remarkably. She was capable of staying awake longer and would even accompany Skye to the market every few days. However, Dr. Shannon had said these changes had more to do with anti-nausea drugs and better nutrition rather than any developments with the Sincyllic Fever antidote.
For the thousandth time Skye wondered if the past three years had been worth it or not. She swallowed thickly and then spoke again to the unhearing woman. "I'll be back in a few hours."
Skye looked out the window once. The rain was still unrelenting after three days, heavy enough to leave her drenched before she reached her internship at the infirmary. She grabbed a plastic poncho from her room and pulled it over her head before heading out. It took about twenty minutes for Skye to get from the residential units to her destination.
She stuffed her poncho and a small purse in a drawer the infirmary had given to the workers for personal belongings. Dr. Shannon wasn't on shift this afternoon, so she reported to Malcolm. He wasn't as familiar with what training Skye had so he sent her off to recalibrate the biobeds's settings if they happened to be unused. It may have been gopher work, but it kept her busy. Elisabeth would have probably had Skye shadow another nurse or doctor; she seemed peculiarly determined to keep Skye interacting with people, but Skye preferred the more solitary tasks these days.
Going through the biobed settings was an uncomplicated task, but it required a particular attention to detail. At her pace she could process six beds in one hour. She didn't take any breaks, but if there happed to be an active medical procedure in place nearby she would pause with her task briefly to observe it. By the time she was well into her third hour a flurry of activity broke her concentration.
Skye counted six officers come in. At least one was carried in on a stretcher and another needed to be supported in order to walk. Her eyes settled on one individual she was more familiar with than the others.
"Look, stop this. I'm fine! It's just a scratch," the woman cried. Skye had known Tasha Guzman well enough to recognize that she was both annoyed and embarrassed by the attention.
"I'm no expert, but you're going to need stitches, Guzman," Mark Reynolds helped her onto a free biobed. "Settle down."
Since her father's death in the resistance, Skye's former roommate and best friend had changed into something unrecognizable. The soft and delicate parts of Tasha's personality had given way to something fierce and impenetrable. She was still beautiful but it was of a different kind.
"It's Bracco they need to worry about!" She sat herself up, pretending the bloody slash on her thigh wasn't causing her pain. The other medical personnel happened to agree with Tasha. There was a growing crowd around Bracco's moaning form.
Mark tried to grab a figure leaving his table. "Ogawa! Nurse Ogawa, do you think we could get some help here?"
Skye pretended she hadn't seen Tasha come in and returned to her task hoping it would fill the remaining hours of her shift. Of course that wish went unheard. Looking back she should have left the area or taken a break.
"Skye, why don't you put that away," Nurse Ogawa approached her. "It's a waste of your time. I need you to do something." With an increasing sense of anxiety, Skye realized she was following Nurse Ogawa to Tasha's bed. "Look here, I've already done the disinfecting, I just need you to - "
"No."
Skye eyes finally met Tasha's. Her expression was furious and she glared daggers at Skye. Skye couldn't force herself to look away. Ogawa fell quiet and looked back and forth between Tasha and Skye. Mark shuffled uncomfortably next to them all staring down as if there was something very interesting about the floor.
"We don't have a wealth of staff at hand - " Nurse Ogawa began.
"Not. Her."
Then Skye tried, "Tasha, I - "
"Don't speak to me you Sixer whore!"
The force behind Tasha's words was akin to a physical blow. Skye unconsciously took steps away from Tasha and the plexpad she had been carrying fell to the floor. The room had fallen quiet with the exception of the handful of doctors and nurses working with Bracco. Her jaw fell open but Skye found she was unable to breathe.
No one had spoken out to Skye so directly. There were whispers, glances and a comment or two, but Skye supposed her former closeness with the Commander had kept them from becoming anything more. She could understand if they hated her or even if they blamed her for some of the lives lost in the occupation because she hated and blamed herself too. However she hadn't expected this. Is this what everyone had been thinking? That she and Lucas had been... Her mind immediately stopped. She didn't like to think about him.
Dr. Shannon had been so completely and utterly wrong in encouraging Skye to come back. What was she even doing here? She shouldn't be allowed out. She should be in exile. It was only through the Commander's grace she was even allowed to exist in Terra Nova.
When the tension broke, everyone spoke at once.
"Private Guzman! If you expect to be treated in our infirmary now or at any time in the future - "
"Skye - "
"She is not coming anywhere near me - "
Skye fled the room and headed straight for the exit. Her scrubs were soon soaked under the torrent. At one point, she stopped, closed her eyes and turned her face to the sky. That would have been a perfect moment to scream and let out her anguish, but Skye had had three years of telling herself what emotion and in what range was appropriate to let out. Even now when that control wasn't necessary anymore she still couldn't let go.
Instead she covered her face and let out a quiet sob before resuming her walk back home. Hopefully her mother would still be dozing and Skye would be able to jump in the shower without her mom catching a hint of her mood.
"Skye!" A hand clamped down on her shoulder and she jumped around.
"Mark!" Skye cried out. "What are you doing out here?" He tugged her lightly by the crook of her elbow and led them to the porch of a nearby housing unit giving them relief from the rain.
"She didn't mean it," Mark said with some urgency. "She didn't mean what she said. Tasha's still... angry."
"And with good reason." Skye looked around at the physical damage that the base had yet to repair. Would they be able to fix everything without new supplies from the portal? "Is that what everyone is saying about me? That I... fucked Lucas?" She didn't like saying his name, but it seemed necessary at the moment.
"No, no one is saying that." Mark shook his head.
"Everyone hates me though." How juvenile it sounded when she said it out loud, but Skye was sure it was true and it hurt.
"They know you know you made a mistake."
"I ran a program for him in The Eye. If I knew what it was going to lead to, I never would have - maybe - I don't know. He said he was going to hurt Mom if I didn't do it." Mark guided her to a chair then because that was the type of thoughtful thing Mark would do. Mark was unerringly kind.
"Ever since then he would watch me." In her mind, she saw Lucas's eyes so clearly and felt the strange mix of fear and something else she had when he would stand next to her with his eyes locked on her expression. "He called me his sister," she glanced up at Mark's concerned look and added in explanation, "because of the Commander.
"But then, then... he would touch my hair." Skye looked away from Mark again as she said this.
It felt wrong to be saying these things out loud. She felt an immediate urgency to stop. She didn't like to think about Lucas and her responsibility for his death. Yet there was a part of Skye that yearned to be believed and wished for someone to see that she wasn't all rotten. She knew there was a good possibility of getting that kind of validation from an old friend like Mark.
"I just decided to act as if these things weren't happening. Like he wasn't there. Like he wasn't a breath's distance away from me."
Being the object of Lucas's attention had been nothing less than terrifying for Skye. She would have rather not been acknowledged by him at all. He was unstable and capricious. Every word he spoke to her had been laced with a promise to help her if she succeeded or threat if she failed him, but each time his hints of madness left her feeling she was entering into an agreement where she wasn't being told all of the terms. At least with Mira things had been straightforward.
There was also the matter of how his gazes differed from the sweet admiring looks that she sometimes received from Josh and Hunter. Her reactions to the two younger men could be labeled and managed. When she realized that Lucas's smiles and watching were bordering on genuine affection, there was a tiny thrill before an awful panic flared within her that simply told her she must be rid of him.
Then an terrible thought came to the front of her mind, "You don't think the Commander believes I - "
"He's the last person who'd jump to that kind of conclusion. And like I said, Tasha's angry. You're not the only person she's lashed out at lately." Mark shrugged.
Skye wanted to believe Mark, but she wouldn't know for sure what was on the Commander's mind unless she spoke to him directly. Of course that wasn't going to happen any time in the near future.
She finally brought herself to look at Mark's expression searching for any indication of disgust or disbelief and found neither. Her outburst had alarmed him of course. She had typically been a reserved but happy young woman; she wondered what exactly he thought of her now after all these years of knowing each other. In the end he offered to walk her home.