AuthorNote: Just a short drabble I wrote while waiting for the best 2011 Fall television show to start….
Jim's Second Chance
Jim Shannon was lying in bed waiting for the welcomed drowsiness that preceded a good night's sleep – but it was an illusion. Since coming to Terra Nova with the Tenth Pilgrimage (illegally of course) he hadn't had one good night where he slept without nightmares.
It seemed that one day he's in prison 2149 AD, praying for a fresh rebreather so he could simply make it through that day and the next, his brilliant wife gives him the tools to escape the hell hole he's confined to. An escape to the past of 85 million years ago was the only way to keep his family together. Well, and safe from the dinosaurs!
Zoe, his illegal daughter, had been stuffed into a backpack only to be smuggled through the portal. In his most vivid nightmares, the police of 2149 are taking his daughter and killing her for spite. A Chicago cop should know better than to break the law and the current police chief has no qualms about making Jim's family an example for all.
The child population law was not to be tested.
Jim slid out from between the sheets and stepped on the cool stone floor of his bedroom. The wafer thin walls could barely contain the soft snores of his sleeping children. He pulled on a pair of sweatpants and padded to the window – the moon was a huge white globe hanging in the dark sparkling sky. In his other world, a night sky like this could only be scene in history books.
A sliver of moonbeams crossed the comforter of his bed and Elisabeth smiled in her sleep. Jim could feel his heart catch just looking at her beautiful face. How did a no good cop like him ever catch such an intelligent talented surgeon like her? Those two years in prison never lessened his love for his wife.
His oldest son Josh was talking in his sleep. That little run-in with the winged reptiles and a couple of lost "sixers" reminded his son that leaving the safe fence of the compound could kill him. As if Josh didn't know there were cameras everywhere…the kid still snuck out with a pretty girl – just like his old man did many years ago with a beautiful doctor to be!
Jim looked in on Maddy and Zoe. His beautiful Maddy was a smart as her mom and just as beautiful. He had to keep an eye out for all those single guys out there! That intelligence would get his daughter a long way here. Back home she would just be another kid – well until there was no longer any breathable air!
Little Zoe was not much more than a baby when the "population police" busted into their small housing unit and arrested him for having the "extra" child. It would take some time for the relationship with his little daughter to be rebuilt. Those dark eyes were so trusting….the feather soft eyelashes resting on little tan cheekbones.
He was blessed with a wonderful family who loved him despite being a nobody – okay so maybe saving Commander Taylor's life gave him back some dignity but his family…they were his life.
He was given a second chance.
A second chance at love.
A second chance at life.
Here in the past.
In Terra Nova.