A/N: Based on a prompt for the Holiday Fic Battle at the Terra Nova Fic Challenge comm on LJ - tn_ficchallenge[dot]livejournal[dot]com.
The prompt was: We so often see fics about the men being gone and the women worrying. What would happen if all the ladies were gone?
This is painfully cracky and possibly OOC. Fun times!
Maddy hitched her backpack up as she shot into the main square of the colony, searching desperately for her targets. When she spotted them and saw how quickly they were packing up she pressed into a renewed sprint.
"Oh oh oh!" Maddy skidded to a stop beside her mother. "Did I hear you're going to Outpost Two?"
"Yes, Maddy." Elisabeth said, continuing to help Alicia Washington load equipment. "And we're going right now so if it can wait…"
"That's actually what I wanted to talk about." Maddy continued, hovering beside the rover anxiously. "I need some samples from right by Outpost Two for my research and I was going to put in a request for a survey mission but this would save all of that hassle - could I tag along?"
Elisabeth looked to Alicia, who in turn looked to Commander Taylor, the man loitering by the rover in what he clearly hoped was a supportive manner but which looked more like edgy concern.
He shrugged. "Don't look at me, it's your mission."
Alicia scowled at him before turning back to Maddy. "We might be out there overnight, do you have everything you need?"
Maddy nodded, patting her pack. "All in here."
Alicia looked down at the ground with a small smile, as if amused that she could have thought the young woman likely to be anything other than overly prepared. "Get in, Maddy." She said with a sigh and a wave of her hand.
Maddy grinned and did as she was told, slipping into the back of the rover as her mother took the front seat. They both watched as Alicia said goodbye to the Commander, the pair of them using the cover the rover afforded them for a little privacy as they did so. Taylor caught up her hand and pressed a kiss to the back of it and Maddy barely held in a little squeak of excitement at the sight; everyone knew by now that they were together but it was quite something to see evidence of it.
Alicia laughed and cuffed Taylor on the head gently at his display of chivalry. She leant in to let her lips brush against his cheek before dancing out of his searching arms and into the driver's seat of the rover.
"Raise the gate!" Taylor instructed and Alicia drove them out of it without looking back, showing a resolve Maddy didn't think she'd ever find herself capable of.
"Does Mark know you're with us darling?" Elisabeth asked as they entered the tree line.
Maddy winced "Uh… no? Not exactly."
Alicia laughed in delight as she steered them expertly through the jungle. "Good girl."
"I mentioned something about trying to get out to Outpost Two last week but I don't think I was particularly committal about it." Maddy said. "Do you think he'll worry?"
"Oh, undoubtedly." Elisabeth grinned. "It'll probably do him some good."
"I don't have the best track record OTG, Mum." Maddy sighed.
"All the more reason to come out with us." Elisabeth said, winding a hand back between the seats and patting her daughter's knee. "In the pair of us you've got one highly trained soldier and two medics, I think you'll be fine."
"Does Jim know?" Alicia asked, carefully bringing them over a small brook.
"No, I didn't have the time to tell him when you called for me urgently." Elisabeth replied.
Alicia shook her head, beaming from ear to ear. "This just gets better and better."
#
Jim made his way casually into the marketplace, pondering whether Elisabeth would forgive him for his lateness if he pointed out that he'd been working on something very important that he hadn't quite made up the lie for yet. In reality he'd just lost track of time, something he was particularly noted for doing - maybe constructing an elaborate lie that she'd see right through was too much effort anyway.
He stopped beside one of the food stalls and looked about for his wife, confusion growing when he didn't see her. Elisabeth was never late. It was almost something that was built into her DNA, a complete inability to be tardy to any meeting or appointment.
So where was she?
"Mr Shannon." Mark said, walking up behind Jim. "Have you seen Maddy?"
Jim frowned. "Don't know where your own wife is, soldier?"
Mark just about stopped the instantaneously scowl forming when he remembered exactly who he was talking to. "I'm afraid not. And who are you looking for?"
Jim looked a little guilty as he turned away to survey the marketplace again. "Elisabeth said she'd meet me for lunch." He said slowly.
"Don't know where your own wife is Shannon?" Taylor said as he approached the pair, and Mark bit his lip to hold in his triumphant smile at his father-in-law's words being used against him.
"Do you, sir?"
Taylor smiled, looking out beyond the gate and squinting in the light of the midday sun. "About three klicks out that way." He gestured.
"She's OTG?" Jim said, trying not to let his reflexive panic show in his words.
"Relax, Shannon, she's with Wash. Couldn't be safer." Taylor smiled. "We had a distress call from Outpost Two this morning, they needed urgent medical attention and your wife volunteered."
Mark sensed an argument brewing if the look on Jim's face was any indication. "If you'll excuse me, I need to go find Maddy." He said, starting to back away.
"You'll need a rover, son. She's out there too."
"You let Maddy go OTG?" Mark cried, then winced. "Uh… sir."
"She asked permission to tag along and get some samples for a project she's working on, said samples happening to be a short distance beyond the Outpost. Figured it would kill two birds with one stone to send her off with them." Taylor shrugged. "I feel I should repeat my earlier statement - she's with Wash, she'll be fine."
"Yes sir." Mark said reluctantly, scuffing his boot into the dirt.
"I should get going, lots to do when you can't delegate." He grinned, slapping both men on the shoulder. "You two look like you could do with a drink, stop by my office after your shifts." He offered, before walking off and leaving them standing awkwardly together.
"She'll be fine, right?" Mark asked, thoughts of every disastrous OTG visit Maddy had ever made flitting through his head.
"Of course, of course." Jim said with a bright smile that was nowhere near meeting his eyes. "You heard the Commander."
"I did, sir, loud and clear." Mark said quietly. "I'll see you later Mr Shannon."
#
They managed to solve the crisis quite easily in the end, Alicia reflected, as she made her perimeter check. Scientists, she scoffed. Always freaked at the first sight of blood.
It turned out to be nothing that needed more than a dozen or so stitches per member of the outpost team which, in her opinion, was barely worth mentioning. They'd even managed to fix the malfunctioning piece of equipment that had caused the injuries at the same time, thanks to a comm linkup with Malcolm. Alicia considered this a massive check in the win column.
She looked over at Maddy and Elisabeth setting up for the evening and smiled. In the end they'd chosen to remain OTG overnight and not risk darkness falling on them on their way back, but had decided to camp out on the floor of the main room rather than force still-healing scientists out of their beds. Considering they hadn't planned on it they had a nice little setup going on. It appeared the three of them made a good team.
"This is quite fun isn't it?" Elisabeth said happily, laying out a few more blankets as Maddy went to fetch their dinner from the outpost's small kitchen. "I wonder how the men are doing back at the colony?"
"Jim and Reynolds will be pacing furrows in the floor of central command." Alicia said, smiling. "Taylor will be about as amused as I am at that."
Maddy gasped as she entered the room, three plates of food precariously balanced in her grip. "Oh my god, Mark! I didn't even say goodbye this morning!"
"I know it's easy to say but you really mustn't worry, sweetheart." Elisabeth said, helping her daughter with the food.
"What if something goes wrong?" Maddy continued, as if she hadn't even heard her mother's calming words. "I couldn't live with myself if something happened out here when he wasn't around and what if something happens at the colony when we're stuck OTG?"
"Maddy, breathe." Alicia said, abandoning her patrol to place a calming hand on the younger woman's shoulder. "Nothing's going to go wrong. We're going to camp here tonight, grab your samples at first light and then head straight back to the colony. Nothing crazy, just exactly what we came out here to do, okay?"
Maddy nodded shakily. "Okay, of course. Yeah, great." She grinned, and it was nearly genuine. "Let's eat, before I start panicking again."
Alicia laughed, settling on a stool and pulling her plate towards her. After a mouthful she chuckled to herself. "This is pretty great, Maddy. Nice job."
"Thanks! I didn't have much to work with, but it turned out okay."
"No wonder Mark's rep times have been increasing recently, you're feeding him too well."
Elisabeth snorted into her drink. "I've been doing a lot of the cooking since Josh and Maddy moved out. Jim's not that great at it, bless him, I think it comes from his days in the force when he never bothered eating properly."
"Looks like it's dinner for three at the commissary tonight." Alicia added. "It was my turn to cook tonight."
Maddy laughed, raising her glass. "To the men of Terra Nova. Our men."
"May they never take us for granted again." Elisabeth said.
#
"I'd forgotten just how awful commissary food can be." Mark muttered, walking beside Jim up the stairs of the central command building.
"I hope you're not making my daughter do all of the cooking, Reynolds." Jim said.
"Oh! No sir, not at all. It was actually my turn to make dinner tonight but Maddy was going to get the groceries on her way home." Mark said, stumbling slightly over his wording in an attempt to make it sound as reasonable as possible.
Jim laughed, knocking at Taylor's office door and then entering when permitted "Stand down Reynolds, I'm just messing with you."
"Ah, there you two are. Thought you might have worried yourselves into temporary insanity." Taylor said, standing and walking over to the table holding his liquor. He set up three glasses and poured an equal measure into each, before handing one to each of the men.
He watched as they stood awkwardly in the middle of the room and couldn't hold in a small chuckle. "I find there are two ways of successfully waiting." He started, heading back to his desk. "You can pace all night, achieving very little. Or you can sit the hell down and try not to think about it."
Reynolds hid a smile by taking a sip of his drink as Jim paused mid-pace. He looked a little surprised to have been caught doing so, and seated himself in a chair opposite Taylor before he could resume his nervous movements.
"You could have warned us that they were going to be out overnight." Jim said, perilously close to sounding like a petulant child.
"It wasn't definite - why make you worry over something that might not happen?"
"With all due respect sir, it might have been nice to be prepared for the possibility." Mark said, still standing. He looked down at the contents of his glass curiously, surprised that he'd been so forthright.
"Have a seat, Reynolds, we're not on duty now." Taylor said with a smile. "If you're both telling me you could have gone about your duties today with any more composure if you had known, I promise to make sure you're fully informed next time."
"Next time?" Mark blurted, nearly shooting back out of the seat he was lowering himself onto.
"I think that we might have to talk quite carefully about that prospect." Jim said defensively.
"I think the pair of you need to calm down and have another whiskey." Taylor said, offering Jim the bottle.
"That's a little unfair, don't you think?" Jim asked, yet still took the liquor. "You're the only one here with any experience of this."
"And you think that makes it easier?" Taylor asked, rocking back in his chair and fixing the man with a curious glance.
"Well it has to, right?" Jim said, sliding down in his seat a little more. "You know what to expect."
"Doesn't change a damn thing, Shannon. She's still out there without me, on my orders. Something goes wrong, that's on my head."
Jim considered this for a long moment, putting himself in the older man's shoes. "Sorry, I see where you're coming from."
Taylor just nodded, looking down at his drink. He'd already had two glasses before the other men turned up - he'd have to ease up on it soon or he'd start spilling all his innermost feelings.
"I understand where your overprotective nature comes from, I do." Taylor said after a moment's silence between the three men. "But you're not giving them nearly enough credit. Your wife and daughter got through two very hard years without you back in 2149, Wash made it through a goddamn war. You're married to survivors, men. Act like it."
#
It was still early the next morning when Wash steered the rover back under the gate, bringing it to a rest next to three very weary-looking men. She smirked at Taylor as she cut the engine and Elisabeth barely avoided being pushed out of the rover by Maddy.
Maddy flew into Mark's arms, kissing him as if she hadn't seen him for a week, rather than a day. "I'm so sorry I didn't say goodbye!" She cried, peppering small kisses over his face as he twirled her around briefly.
"Don't worry about it, I knew you'd be okay." Mark said, earning himself a raised eyebrow from his wife.
"Oh really? Funny, you don't look like you spent the night sleeping like a baby."
"Actually, you two look like hell!" Elisabeth said, running her hand over her husband's forehead. He flinched away from her touch and she gasped. "You're hungover! Jim, is that really the only way you could cope? What about Zoe?"
"Zoe stayed with Leah and can you please stop shouting?" Jim groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose.
"I'm not shouting, Jim." Elisabeth said, getting closer to him. "But I certainly will if you do this again."
Jim's response to this was to pull her in for a kiss, ignoring Elisabeth's wince as she got to taste the alcohol still on his breath.
"Avoidance should be your middle name, Shannon." Alicia called, laughing when he flashed her a rude gesture.
"Did it all go okay out there?" Taylor asked, hand gently gripping her elbow to turn her attention back to him.
"No problems at all." She confirmed. "Just need to write up my report."
Taylor looked around the assembled group and leaned in a little, lowering his voice. "What do you say we get the debrief out of the way now?"
Alicia grinned up at him, unable to keep the flirtatious gleam out of her eyes. "It would save time, sir."
With a smirk he increased the pressure on her arm and pulled her in the direction of his office.
Once Jim finally released her, Elisabeth looked up to see Alicia and Taylor disappearing into the command building; before the door had even shut she had jumped into his arms, wrapping her legs around his hips as she brought their lips together.
Elisabeth hoped no one would be needing the pair of them for a while.
Maddy and Mark were nowhere to be seen as she turned back to her husband, slipping her arm through his after he had picked up her bag and leading the pair of them back home.
"So how come the Commander looks perfectly fine and you two smell like the floor of a brewery?"
"After Taylor kicked us out, it seemed like a good idea to go and pay Boylan a visit." Jim said quietly, free hand shielding his eyes from the sun.
"Aww, did you two bond?" Elisabeth teased.
Jim looked a little uncomfortable about answering. "As much as one can bond after what would probably amount to a bottle of whiskey each, sure."
"Good, it's about time. Thought you would have accepted by now that he's not the devil incarnate."
Jim grinned down at her. "Nah, just one of his minions."
Elisabeth rolled her eyes but couldn't help the little chuckle that escaped. "Come on you, you need a nap. You're so lucky you're not on duty today."
Jim stumbled through the entrance of their home, heading straight for the bedroom. He stopped in the doorway, leaning heavily against the wall. "Elisabeth? Promise me you won't go OTG anymore?"
Elisabeth simply smiled. "Of course not, dear."
"I love you."
"I love you too." She watched as he carried on into the room and fell face first onto the bed. "It's such a shame you won't remember this conversation when you wake up." She said to his unconscious form, grinning to herself before setting about tidying up the mess her errant husband had made in her absence.