Don't own T:SCC.

Timeline n

Afterward, Mom sighs that she doesn't even know why they're fighting so much. Lauren knows. Mom is having an affair with Roger and Dad is lying about something at work and this makes them tense and angry towards each other. Lauren knows lots of stuff. Including the value of keeping silent-- she doesn't respond.
Mom's still mad when she answers the door and the man standing there asks "Mrs. Fields?"
Lauren's parents have different last names because her mother was kind of a feminist back when they got married. When Mom's feeling nikpicky she tells people "No, I kept my maiden name" but usually she just answers "Yes?" Today she must still be mad about the fight, because she snaps out a "No." and closes the door in the guy's face.

Lauren knows lots of stuff, but she hadn't realized Mom was pregnant. Mom is forty two. She had Lauren when she was twenty seven. Aren't I too old to be a sister? Lauren wonders while Dad is still gaping in surprise and happiness. Mom was having an affair with Roger. Half-sister?

When Sydney is born, Lauren looks at her baby (half?) sister's face and, in the middle of searching her features for a clue towards paternity (she likes to know things) falls head over heels in love. Even the subsequent diapers and colic and babysitting aren't enough to erase it.

"Do you think you could watch Sydney Thursday afternoon?" Mom asks during one of their frequent phone calls. Lauren considers. She has a test on the 24th, Monday, but if she brings her bio textbook over to the house she can probably get some studying in. And she barely ever gets to see her baby (half?) sister now that she's going to UCLA.

"Sure."

When the first bomb goes off, Lauren spills the apple juice she was pouring into a sippy cup all across the counter . It is the least of her problems.

By Sydney's eighth birthday her hair has darkened to almost black. Her face is narrower than Lauren's, her mom's, or her dad's, and it's not just the malnutrition. Roger's kid, Lauren thinks. Half-sister after all. It hardly matters. She and Sydney are the only family either has left in the entire world.

When news arrives about the plague Lauren loses even that. Sydney was supposed to be safe there.

Apparently there was one survivor. A soldier has been dispatched to rescue this person so that Lauren and her colleagues can manufacture a cure. She tells herself there's no point in hoping (itmightbeSydneyitmightbeSydneyitmightbeSydney) and does her best to drown in work.

She is wearing a quarantine suit but her vision through the glass is perfectly clear. She sees the staggering soldier. She sees the swaying, stumbling woman. She sees the girl. Dark hair. Narrow face.

Timeline n+1

Mom's pregnant? I didn't know that. This is the least of the things Lauren didn't know (time traveling killer robots!), and she puts it aside for later (if there is a later).

Neither she nor her dad ever ask Mom who the father is. When Mom calls Roger, though, Lauren can guess. It's kind of unfair, she thinks a few hours later, while they're waiting in the warehouse for Sarah Connor to arrive, that Dad died to save a kid that wasn't even his.

Both she and her mom had birthdays while they were in hiding. Lauren is sixteen. Her mom is--was-- 43. The baby (Sydney?) is a little past zero. I'm too old to be a sister. The guy is saying something about how it's hard, but he's sure she can do it. In fact, maybe she can live with them?

Sarah Connor is a huge target, Lauren realizes. She's always on the run and that's not safe for a baby. If it's just the two of us, we can disappear.
Plague, Lauren thinks. I should start stockpiling medical supplies and books on infectious diseases. And guns. And food. And... Oh God.

Lauren Fields is too old to be a sister. She is too young to be a mother. Neither of these facts really matter, because now she's both.

Please, please, PLEASE review. Constructive criticism is especially appreciated.