Author's Note: Set in the context of my other stories. The relationships are all established, the Sixers are re-integrated into the colony, and the Phoenix Group and Lucas are long gone. This is just a bit more with my OC from the past, Caroline. Doubt I'll be writing much, if any, more for this fandom, but I'd been reading over some of these, and I wanted to give one more look into BAMF and the Terra Nova family! Not sure how many chapters this will be - I intended a one-shot, but it morphed into something different. This is fairly fluffy and introspective, at least at the beginning, but it'll turn into my usual adventure story.
Disclaimer is as usual – no profit, not mine, just borrowing.
Through the haze of sleep, Alicia feels the bed dip twice, and she can't help but blink her eyes a few times, her hand slipping towards the nightstand to find a pulse pistol. After Gracie's birth (and the similarly-timed eradication of the Phoenix Group), she and Nathaniel both stopped sleeping with their guns under their pillows, but the weapons are still usually within arms-reach.
"Mama, don't shoot us, K?" Gracie mumbles, and Alicia feels a small form fit itself to her side.
Alicia opens her eyes fully to see what is going on. She's greeted by the sight of Gracie right next to her and Caroline, a sheepish look on her face, curling into Nathaniel's usual spot near Alicia in the large bed. Gracie is already asleep again, snoring softly as she clutches her stuffed dinosaur to her chest, smushing the poor creature between Gracie and Alicia.
After Alicia shoots her a questioning look, their adopted older daughter quietly explains, "She was upset that Papa is still OTG. I know we all explained that they just weren't finished in time last night and that nothing is amiss, but she still had a nightmare that gave her a fright. She was sleeping in my room, but I couldn't get her to settle again. I'm sorry we woke you, Mama."
Alicia nods. She'd actually been surprised when Gracie hadn't tried to sleep with her last night, and she's oddly comforted to know that even after less than six months, Gracie is so attached to Caroline that she went to her first. After peering at the clock and seeing that it's only half past four, Alicia rolls to her side, tucking Gracie closer. She then reaches out with her hand and brushes Caroline's hair from her eyes. "It's OK, Little One," she uses the nickname Nathaniel gave her, which, like "Bug" for Gracie, just stuck, "I don't mind. Go back to sleep."
Caroline smiles and snuggles into Nathaniel's pillow, her eyes closing and her body quickly relaxing into sleep. Alicia watches the older girl sleep, amazed at how much has changed in the last six months. Gracie recently turned four, and she follows Caroline around like a groupie – her carbon copy child worships Caroline, and Caroline seems to have similar affection for Gracie.
Alicia can't help but wonder if it was some sort of strange fate that brought the young woman into their time and sphere. She is highly protective of the girl, but Caroline is learning her way quickly.
Since taking self-defense classes from her, Caroline has become close friends with Reilly. Even though the soldier is just over thirty and Caroline only recently eighteen, they seem to have a kinship that no one would have predicted, particularly considering the differences in their backgrounds. Alicia has been quite amused to watch Caroline henpeck Reilly somewhat over Reilly's relationship with Dunham – Alicia knows the two soldiers are close, but she has never been able to discern whether they're just friends or more.
Turnabout being fair play, Reilly likes to tease Caroline about her ongoing "courtship," a word Caroline uses and Nathaniel approves of, with Josh Shannon. Alicia is endlessly amused by how smitten the young man is with Caroline, and she has to admit that he has been wonderfully and surprisingly respectful of her boundaries, imposed and imprinted mostly by her upbringing in Victorian England.
As she watches her two girls sleep, Alicia laughs softly to herself. Even ten years ago, if someone had told her where she'd be right now, she'd have laughed in their face. But here she is, mother of a precocious, blue-eyed version of herself and adopted mother of a teenaged orphan from nineteenth-century England. It's almost silly to her, but at this point, she can't even envision a life any different from the one she has now.
She tries to go back to sleep, but after an hour, she realizes that it's futile. She adjusts her pillow against Gracie, who hugs it tight to her little body. When Gracie settles back down, Alicia slips out of bed and into the added-on private bathroom attached to hers and Nathaniel's bedroom. After using the restroom and changing into some workout clothes she keeps on a hook on the back of the door, she quietly exits the bathroom and then the bedroom, grabbing her comm, thigh holster, pulse pistol and running shoes on the way out.
She scribbles a note to Caroline that she went for a run, and she steps out into the pre-dawn morning, shivering lightly in the cool, damp air. She's in long running pants and a t-shirt with a hoodie over it, so she zips up her hoodie and sets out towards the perimeter fence. She's not actually doing the perimeter walk this morning; when either she or Nathaniel are OTG, the one remaining behind will assign the walk to another team, usually Guz and Mira or Carter and Shannon.
As she runs through the edge of the colony, she can see farmers and market vendors already emerging to start their day. She waves to all as she passes, her ponytail swinging in rhythm with her steps, but she doesn't slow. She doesn't really like running as exercise, but when Nathaniel isn't here, it usually helps to clear her head.
She would never admit it to Gracie and Caroline, but her heart flipped over when Nathaniel called and said they wouldn't be back last night. There was something in his voice that told her not everything was right, something she knows only she could hear. Hopefully, he'll call in this morning to say they're on the way back. He has some younger soldiers as well as Malcolm, Carter, Dunham and Elisabeth with him, as they'd been out to try to find a plant that Elisabeth wants for a medication she's working on.
They'd just said they couldn't finish gathering what they needed last night, but Alicia thinks it's more complicated than that. Nathaniel didn't have a chance to talk to her on his own, something that she found a little disconcerting.
Shaking her head, she tries to focus on other things. She smirks a little, remembering when Caroline arrived home from a date with Josh the night before. He'd had the night off from Boylan's, and he'd taken her for dinner in the market and then to read some history in the Eye. It's funny, even Josh jokes that he's learned more about history because of Caroline than he ever did in school.
Last night was the first time Alicia can remember that Caroline returned from an outing with Josh looking…rumpled. She chuckles. She's fairly certain that they've moved beyond the cheek-kissing phase, but she also could see that Caroline's clothing was intact – just a little wrinkled. Alicia isn't worried that it'll go any further than kissing, if only because of things that Caroline has relayed to her, completely scandalized, about other young people in the colony.
Alicia is frankly just waiting for the day that Josh proposes. She can see that he adores Caroline, and she also knows that he's been working on Boylan about starting a restaurant that will be open during the day. It will essentially be an expansion of the bar, and Alicia has heard that Boylan is seriously considering it. Josh has a friend from the market who wants a steady job cooking, and Josh wants a day job.
It would be nice for them to have another place to eat out during the day, and Alicia is actually hoping that Boylan goes along. Alicia has some favors saved up from construction crews and such - she'd never abuse her position in the colony to get her way, but there have been times she has helped people out with either manpower or supplies and a few of the crews owe her. If Boylan is amenable, she may call in some favors. She wants Caroline to be happy, and Josh with a regular day job might help to facilitate that.
Sighing, she scans the area along the fence and taps her comm to be sure it's on. She really wants Nathaniel to call. She's no good at not knowing what's going on, and she feels sure that something is going on. She's so distracted that she doesn't notice someone is behind her until they get shoulder-to-shoulder with her. She immediately whips out her pistol, powering it up as she does.
She skids to a stop and holds it in the face of a surprised-looking Jim Shannon. He blinks and uses one finger to move the gun away from his head. "Jeez, Wash. You're inside the fence. Who or what exactly did you think was sneaking up on you?"
Shrugging, she gives him an exasperated look. She powers down her pistol and re-holsters it. "Old habits die hard, Shannon. What's up?"
It's his turn to shrug. "Nothing really. Need company?"
She suddenly notices that he's clad similarly to her, running gear and a hoodie. "You worried too?" She nods at him and sets off again, and he keeps pace with her.
After a moment, he says, "Something was up last night."
"I know." Alicia nods. "I think Nathaniel wanted to talk to me alone, but Malcolm wouldn't shut up."
Shannon snorts. "What else is new?" He pauses. "Taylor looked annoyed, more annoyed than usual. And Elisabeth was too quiet. Something was off."
"I was afraid you'd say that. I was hoping it was just my imagination." She heads back towards the colony, planning to stop by the command center before going home to shower and dress for the day. Caroline will already be getting Gracie ready for school and herself ready for a day helping out there. She has thus far declined Maddy's offers to join science. She's still not comfortable with this new world, but she loves helping out with the children at the preschool.
As they close in on the command center, Alicia begins to feel a knot forming in her stomach. Something just isn't right. She can feel it. Sure enough, before they get there Alicia's comm goes off. "Lieutenant Washington, come in?"
Alicia taps her comm to respond to the corporal in communications. "This is Washington, go ahead."
"Ma'am, I have a call for you from Outpost Three. Are you nearby?"
She swallows hard. That's where Nathaniel and the team are, the same outpost where he and Elisabeth once succumbed to the memory-loss illness. There aren't significant predators there, so she's hoping it's nothing serious. "I am, Corporal. I'll be there in under two minutes."
True to her word, Alicia arrives at communications about 90 seconds later, Shannon right on her heels. She grabs the mike at the comm station. "Nathaniel?"
Her heart drops to her shoes when Carter responds instead. "Wash, it's me. We need a rescue team out here on the double."
None of Carter's usual joking demeanor is present. "What the hell, Carter?" She flips on a camera. "On visual, Carter. Now."
He sighs, and a moment later his face pops up on the screen in front of them. Before she can demand an explanation, he says, "Wash, Shannon, we've lost contact with Dunham, the doc and Taylor. We were having trouble getting the doc's plants due to some sinkholes out here. We thought we'd found a clear route to the plants, but we didn't go until this morning. I was on the six, Taylor in the lead and Dunham with the doc. I heard all three of them yell, and then they were just…gone."
Alicia blinks, and she hears Shannon take a sharp breath behind her. She holds her hand up to keep him from exploding at Carter, who looks honestly distressed. "What do you need, Carter?"
"You, Wash. We need you and as much climbing gear as you can get together. And we need a deep surface scanner, one with sonar capability. I can't see the bottom of the hole, Wash, but if we're going to find them, it's going to be you and me going down. No one else can do it."
Before she can reply, Alicia hears a commotion in the background. Carter yells, "Doc, not now. I know what we need."
When he turns back to the screen, he looks exasperated, and Alicia is very briefly amused. "Malcolm?"
Carter rolls his eyes. "Got it in one. He's flipping out. As soon as we disconnect, I'm going to put him to work trying to amp up the comms. There are some mineral deposits screwing with the signals. That's honestly why we think we can't raise them, Wash."
She nods and reaches over to squeeze Jim's arm. "Carter, this isn't going to be like regular climbing or rappelling. Isn't it soft?"
Carter frowns. "It is. That's why it has to be you and me. No one else is skilled enough to manage it. I'm sorry, Alicia. I know you don't like to leave Gracie with neither of you there."
Alicia shakes her head. "It's OK, Carter. I'll send her and Caroline to stay with Shannon and Zoe." She looks at Jim and he nods. "They'll be OK – she's older now and bonded like crazy to Caroline. That will help a lot."
"Understood, Wash. Can you let Skye know what's up? I have a bag of climbing gear – she knows where it is. I need that."
"Will do, Carter," she gives him a brief smile. "Do you have a helmet in there?"
"I do. Just add a metric shit-ton of line and anchors and some harnesses." He frowns again. "Hurry, Wash. I'm worried as hell."
Her stomach flips over again. It scares the crap out of her to see Carter so serious. "It's only a few hours out there, Carter. I'll be there as fast as I can."
"We'll be waiting, Wash. Be careful. Outpost Three out." Carter gives her one last nod and flips off the connection.
As the screen goes dark, Alicia looks up at Shannon. He looks vaguely ill, but he gives her a game smile. "Never a dull moment, right?"
"Right." She runs a hand through her hair, falling loose from her ponytail. "Here we go again."