TITLE: Weathering the Storm
DISCLAIMER: I don't own, you don't sue.
AUTHOR'S NOTES: I'm back! This is the sequel to my story "Stronger." If you haven't read that one first, you might be a little confused. Fair warning: this story is very AU, with a different background for Rachel than in the show (I made it up before the Season 2 went into it). The plot centers around Rachel/Tom and the Chandler family, with appearances from other major characters. If that's not your cup of tea, hit the back button now instead of flaming me later.
One late August night, Rachel was awakened by the sound of a knock on the hatch. "Daddy?" Ashley's timid voice came from the p-way.
Rachel sat up in bed, trying to wipe the sleep from her eyes; she was alone in the captain's cabin and hoped that she could be an adequate stand-in for the girl's father. "Come in, luv," she called.
Ashley had a slight, wary frown on her face when she entered the room. "Where's Daddy?" she wondered while climbing up to join the scientist on the bed.
"He got called away," Rachel explained as they laid down together. "What's wrong? Did you have a bad dream?"
She nodded. "It was about Baltimore. Everything was really confusing, loud and a mess. The ship was out in the water, and I think we were trying to get there, but I couldn't find Dad. And then I did find him, but… he was bleeding really bad and he wouldn't wake up."
Rachel wrapped Ashley up in a hug, trying to comfort her. The nightmare had been frighteningly close to reality. When Jed, Ashley, and Sam had arrived on the docks and met up with the tactical teams from Granderson HQ, Tom had been on the edge of bleeding out and in desperate need of medical attention. The fact that he wasn't available now to reassure his daughter was likely making her dream seem even worse. "It was just a bad dream," Rachel promised. "Your father is perfectly fine. He's just working; hopefully he'll be back soon."
"What happened?" Ashley wondered.
"I'm not completely certain. Something with the engines." A member of the engineering team had come to wake the ship's captain around 0230. Rachel had heard some of what they'd discussed, but she'd still been half asleep.
Ashley frowned. "Are we going to get stuck out here?" she worriedly asked.
"Not if the Chief Engineer has anything to say about it," Rachel replied with a little smile. Lt. Cdr. Garnett likely had her entire team out of bed and working the problem. No one who was subordinate to her was brave enough to try getting in her way.
Ashley giggled in agreement. "Yeah, she can fix anything."
The thought occurred to Rachel that Garnett was just one of many incredible role models for Sam and Ashley that were living onboard the ship. They were unbelievable examples of what could be accomplished with dedication, teamwork, and sacrifice. However, she knew that the Nathan James's crew shined brightest when the ship found its way into situations that young children shouldn't have to be worrying about.
"You haven't dreamt about Baltimore in a long time, have you?" Rachel softly asked, soothingly running her fingers through Ashley's hair. She shook her head. "Were you thinking about something last night that might have caused your nightmare?"
She looked away. "I dunno…"
Rachel knew that meant the exact opposite. "I see… Are you worried about something?"
Ashley bit her lip. "Did you know it's been almost a year?" she quietly wondered.
"I did. Just about ten months, now, hasn't it?"
The young girl nodded. "Sometimes… sometimes it feels like it's been much longer."
Rachel could agree with that. "A lot has happened since then."
Ashley's lip trembled. "Sometimes I almost forget that I'm never going to see my mom again."
Rachel held her close and let her cry on her shoulder. "You'll see her again," she whispered as she stroked Ashley's long brown hair. "She's looking down on you from heaven."
"But she won't be there when things happen," she argued.
"Not in person, no. But she'll be there in your heart whenever you need her… I felt the same way when my father died."
Ashley looked up, surprised. "You did?"
Rachel nodded. "It's okay to still be sad sometimes. And you're always going to miss her. That's normal, luv, and it's perfectly fine."
Ashley sniffled, starting to calm back down. "You believe your dad is in heaven, too, right?"
"I do." Rachel confirmed with a nod. She hadn't grown up very religious, but took comfort in that concept. "My mother, too, now."
"Do you think that they've met my mom?" Ashley wondered.
Rachel frowned slightly; she'd never considered that idea before. "I'm not sure."
"I just… We're not alone here, so I don't want my mom to be lonely in heaven."
She smiled. "Maybe they have. Maybe they all watch over us together."
The sun was rising over the horizon by the time that Tom was finally able to make his way back to his cabin. The ship's engines were all functional again, and hopefully the shoestring repair would hold until they got back to Portsmouth Naval Shipyard later in the year. It was nice to know that they had somewhere to turn to in an emergency, although the crew was well aware that they needed to do everything they could to let the ship accomplish its goals before they took the option of just running for port.
As he passed a porthole, Tom paused for a moment to take in the beautiful morning. The sun had lit some low clouds in beautiful shades of orange and pink. The weather that day was supposed to be hot and humid; August in Long Island Sound was a far cry from the weather they'd experienced the previous summer in the Arctic. So far, since leaving Portsmouth in early May, they'd been all along the New England coast - New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and now Connecticut. They'd known that the dense population along the Atlantic seaboard would mean large numbers of casualties, but there'd actually still been an incredible number of survivors. Rachel and Bertrise had therefore been staying very busy in the lab producing batches of the cure. Things were closer to normal than Tom had been able to imagine back at the beginning of the year. They were truly making a difference in the world, they had a home port to operate from, and they were back under a semblance of military structure. Life was pretty damn good, all things considered.
When Tom got back to his cabin, the sight that awaited him made him smile. Rachel and Ashley were curled up together in the bed, fast asleep. Having his family with him was so incredible.
"Hey," he whispered to Rachel as he gently shook her shoulder.
She smiled sleepily when she opened her eyes and saw him. "Hey, yourself. You just get back?"
"Yeah. There's an extra lump in my bed," he pointed out as he knelt beside the bed.
Rachel lightly ran a hand along Ashley's back. "Yes. She had a nightmare, about Baltimore."
Tom sighed and placed a sympathetic kiss on his daughter's forehead. "Jeez. That's a heckuva way to start a birthday."
"Mmm. I think that may be part of what triggered it. It's her first birthday without her mother."
He nodded; each of his children had celebrated nearly half of their birthdays without him there, but their mother had always been a fixture in their lives. Sam had gotten through his special day okay in February, and he'd hoped Ashley would be able to focus on happy things instead of her sadness. However, he knew each of the kids were different and handled things in their own way. "All we can do is make sure she knows she's still surrounded by love."
Rachel smiled; Tom was such a loving father. Seeing him with his kids always made her love him even more. "She knows. Should we wake her?"
Tom nodded with a smile. "Ashley?" he quietly asked as he laid a hand on her shoulder. "Wake up, sweetheart."
She grumbled lightly and turned over, burying her face against Rachel's shoulder. "Don't want to, Daddy."
They chuckled. "Happy Birthday to you," Tom softly started to sing. Rachel joined in. "Happy Birthday to you. Happy Birthday, dear Ashley. Happy Birthday to you." By the end of the song, Ashley had rolled back over and was smiling as she listened to them. She reached for each of them in turn to give them hugs. "Happy Birthday, sweetheart. We love you."
Ashley grinned. "Thank you. I love you guys, too."
"Twelve years old," Rachel commented. "Such a young lady."
Tom sighed, putting his face in his hands with a loud mock sob. "What's wrong, Daddy?" Ashley wondered.
"Only one more year before you're a TEENAGER," he moaned.
Ashley giggled. "Yep. I can't wait."
Tom gave another exasperated sigh. "Just promise to go easy on your old man, okay?"
"You're not THAT old," Ashley pointed out. "Just kinda old." Rachel put her hand over her mouth to stifle a laugh at the look of indignation on Tom's face.
"Okay, I see how it is," he told his daughter as he lightly tickled her. "Go wake up your brother and wash up and then we'll all have breakfast. In here, just with us." Tom knew that Ashley liked having family moments just with the five of them, away from the rest of the crew. He had to agree that it did make things feel a little more like home.
Ashley rewarded him with a bright grin. "Okay," she agreed before climbing out of bed. "We'll be back soon!"
Tom gave Rachel a playful glare once they were alone. "What are you giggling at over there?" he asked her. "Are you amused to be shacking up with senior citizen?"
She shook her head, giving him an innocent smile. "Your daughter's right; you're only kind of old." He was all of four years older than her.
Tom snorted. "Gee, thanks. Actually, right now, I feel ancient." He stiffly got up from his knees and sat on the edge of the bed, trying to stretch out the muscles in his back.
"You look tired," Rachel pointed out as she sat up and started massaging his shoulders. He'd been running himself ragged recently. Both of them had been very busy throughout the summer, but lately she'd been getting more rest than he had. Middle of the night wake-ups by the crew had been disappointingly frequent. "Are you really alright for breakfast?"
"Yeah, I'll be fine," Tom replied. "I'd rather spend the morning with you and the kids than sleeping. I can sleep when I'm dead."
Rachel lightly smacked him on the shoulder. "That's not funny," she chastised him with a glare.
Tom craned his neck so he could bring his lips to softly meet hers. They lingered together for a long moment, their foreheads touching. "Sorry," he quietly apologized. "Don't worry, I'm not planning on dying anytime soon."
"You better not," she replied. "Do you want me to go put the request in for breakfast?"
Tom shook his head. "No, I can do it. You get a shower and get dressed."
"You're sure?" He looked exhausted, and Rachel wished they could just have a peaceful morning in bed together.
"Yeah. I haven't gotten to do things for the kids' birthdays very often. Even when I wasn't on deployment, Darien usually took care of it. So I'm grateful to be with my daughter for this birthday instead of adding it to the list of ones I've missed."
She nodded. "I know Ashley's glad, too."
What Rachel wasn't aware of, however, was how close Tom had come to not being there for this birthday. The base commander at Portsmouth had initially not been pleased to find that a handful of civilians, including children, called the Nathan James home. The admiral had wanted all of them off the ship immediately, but Tom had lobbied hard to keep them together. Having Rachel and Bertrise onboard allowed the ship to go on longer missions than Portsmouth's other vessels; they could make the cure themselves instead of needing to get resupplied by the base. The children were well-behaved and actually raised morale onboard. The admiral had eventually agreed to a trial run over the summer, but Tom hadn't felt that was something Rachel or his children needed to be concerned with. He was very accustomed to shielding his family from the details of Navy life.
Tom gave Rachel a quick kiss as he got up. "I'll be back in a bit," he told her. "You want eggs and toast?"
She nodded. "And tea."
He chuckled. "Of course, babe. This isn't my first rodeo."
TBC...