Through the Storm

by spacecats

AU. Set in another galaxy where stars are dying. To complicate matters, women are dying out from a genetic disease that scientists are desperately trying to cure. Isabelle French finds herself involved with Col Nicholas Gold and PVT Killian Jones; both would risk it all before letting anything happen to her. Characters based on their OUAT selves, but not exactly the same.

1. Prologue

Prologue

"Shit."

A woman in a crisp white lab coat looked up at her companion in surprise. "What's wrong?"

Her partner waved his hand at his computer screen. "Not one of these tests came out negative. Not one." He sighed and leaned back on his chair. Worry set up camp in his features.

They had been at it for the last sixteen hours without much more than a bathroom break and ten minutes to cram down some food. Click after click, sample after sample that had been catalogued into the system, became one long chain of disappointments. The hope that at least some of this batch would come out in their favor kept them going, but now the realization that their hopes were nothing more than that was dawning.

"I think it's getting worse," said the woman in a low voice as she came to stand behind his chair. She bent lower to view his screen.

The man snorted. "So glad we spent all that time and money and man power on those vaccines."

"There was no way to know if they would work," she scolded, straightening up. "If they had worked… well, that would have been one less problem for all of us."

He didn't reply. She turned back to her own computer screen and shut it off. Grabbing some tablets from her desk and her coat, she came back to him and laid a hand on his shoulder.

"Come on. There's a drink with your name on it next door," she coaxed.

"OK. Just a minute," he relented. Looking back at his screen, he clicked on a few files to download them onto his own tablets. Shaking his head, he almost whispered, "JM…NH…KR…IF…Just one sad story after another." He shrugged as the computer screen died. Linking his arm with his lab partner, he managed to chuckle. "Maybe it's time for a new line of work?"

"Well, I hear the circus is in town. You could apply," she teased.

"I'd make a great bearded lady," he replied.

Laughing, they made their way out of the lab and locked the door behind them.

His tablets, fresh with newly-inputted files, seemed innocuous enough. But their contents would change the lives of many young women who did not yet know that their lives were changed.