Disclaimer- I do not own Terra Nova or the characters. Either way, to own them I think I might have to come through that portal myself, and I don't have any Terra's :/
The story plot however is very much mine, as well as anything else my little mind conjured up :)
Enjoy!
.xoxo
Maddy Shannon waited anxiously by her window, listening both for the continuing pattern of Zoe's breaths that meant she was still sleeping, and for the footsteps she was excited to hear. It was fifteen minutes after one in the morning, and the only light that entered her bedroom came from the moon, casting a pale glow on the floor beneath her window, where she sat underneath the window sill. She didn't know what was taking Mark so long, he was supposed to have been here half an hour ago. To her relief, she heard his footsteps outside, the steady walk of a soldier who's just been released from duty. She stood up, and smiled when she met his blue eyes. Quietly, she opened the window, and with Mark's help, she crawled out.
Maddy melted into his embrace when he eagerly brought his lips to hers. She sighed contently into his mouth, and proceeded to lead a trail of kisses from his mouth to his jaw.
"Ready?" he said, hugging her closer to him.
"You're late" She leaned her head against his chest, hearing his heartbeat, and closed her eyes.
"Dunham was late to his shift, I covered for him until he got there. We've got to hurry now or we'll miss the beginning" Mark took her by the hand and led her away from her house, out into the empty street.
"The beginning? Mark, where are we going?"
"Do you trust me?" he smirked, and Maddy rolled her eyes afternoon, Mark had slipped a note into her pocket on her way to pick up some groceries in the market. When she asked what it was about, Mark told her with a playful glint in his eyes to read it in private. She had shaken her head and smiled, not knowing what the heck he was up to.
The note had merely said:
"Wait for me by your window at a quarter to one. No questions… Just trust me. -Mark"
"This better be good Mark, since you're getting me out of bed at ungodly hours of the night. It would be quite a scandal if anyone saw." she faked a yawn, and Mark laughed despite himself.
"Then let's hope they don't" he whispered in her ear, sending chills down her spine at his boldness.
They both knew her resistance was all for fun, because if it ever came down to it, Maddy would follow Mark blindly to the end of the earth, metaphorically speaking of course because since the earth is round, there really is no end, just like there is no beginning. This both terrified and enlightened Maddy because she knew she loved Mark and she knew she always would. She knew most girls her age said that about their boyfriends, and though they have only been together for a couple of months, she just knew deep down that feelings like these only came once in a lifetime, and she was petrified of the possibility of her getting hurt. That cloud always lingered above them, with Mark being OTG all the time and though the threat of the sixers was no longer there, (them being in the badlands and all) the sixers didn't take with them the many carnos, slashers, and any other man-eating dinosaur that roamed just outside the gates. She'd seen the faces of wives and girlfriends whose husband or boyfriend had gone missing, or killed in an OTG mission. She'd heard enough sobs and wails. She didn't want to become on of them.
When Wash was killed, she saw Commander's Taylor's face. That's all it took for her to tie all the loose ends between them. The countless shared looks, the private laughs… She had passed Taylor's office the other day looking for her dad, and saw him shedding a few quiet tears while looking at a picture of Alicia on his tags.
"Here we are" Mark announced, jolting her from her thoughts.
Maddy looked around, and saw nothing of the ordinary, just an empty garden in the back of Terra Nova, a few yards from the fence. "What's so special about this place?" She asked outright as Mark motioned her towards the bench on the outskirts of the garden.
"Look up" He answered, as the sat down.
Her eyes met the moon, it's large and spherical form hanging in front of them, beyond the fence and trees and many, many miles into the night sky.
Just like any other night.
"The moon. What about it?"
Mark smiled the grin of a man who has a secret he knows someone else would like to know, and looked up at the moon.
"There's a lunar eclipse tonight" Maddy almost smacked herself. Of Course! The Lunar eclipse! She had read about it on the daily newspage on her plex, but that along with the possible cure for breast cancer Malcolm had proposed, and the mentions of an upcoming OTG convoy that would be sending both soldiers and scientists to study the carnos in a "controlled environment" (whatever that meant anyways) and the very big possibility of Mark being in it had overwhelmed her and the lunar eclipse was forgotten.
"You're leaving for that OTG convoy tomorrow… Right?" she asked, hating the girlish fear that could be heard in her trembling voice.
Mark, looked down at her, and putting his arm around her small frame, and kissed the top of her head.
"I love you, Maddy. Isn't that enough? That we're here, together? Will that ever be enough?"
Maddy felt the tears stinging her eyes, and she felt them roll down her cheeks.
" No Mark… It will never be enough. I could spend an eternity with you and it wouldn't be enough. I love you so much.."
"Let's start with now then, and create our own little eternity" Mark tilted her face up to his, and for one slow second, with their lips barely grazing each other, everything changed.
Their lips met in heat, now not searching for comfort in each other, but rapidly craving everything from the other. Her mouth opened slightly, and he sighed against it as she nibbled on his lower lip. Everything he tasted was her. Perfect Maddy who tasted like nothing he had ever had. He put his hands on her waist, and her hands slid up his back and into his hair. He shuddered against her, and she pulled away, kissing him on the cheek, the neck, his shoulder.
"The eclipse is starting" she whispered brokenly, catching her breath.
Mark composed himself, and kissed her hair.
" I guess it is" Mark murmured.
The moon slowly faded into the darkness, and Maddy couldn't stop staring. She had never seen a lunar eclipse, only read about it in Ken Horton's book and such. She had never seen something so slow, be so captivating.
While Maddy watched the eclipse, Mark watched her. The way her eyes glinted in the moonlight, the soft waves of her hair cascading down her back, her small smile on her kiss-swollen lips. She was perfect, and one day, she would be his. Only his. He knew that coveting was a sin, but with Maddy Shannon, it didn't matter. He would never love another with the same tenderness, the same passion he loved her. As the light faded, and it became pitch-black with the absence of the moon, he felt Maddy snuggle up against him.
"Mark?"
"Yeah?"
"I'm never going to stop worrying about you, you do know that?"
"Permission to remain silent?" he joked, and Maddy nudged him.
"Permission denied" she laughed.
"Yes, Maddy.. . I know, I wish you wouldn't, but if I were in your shoes, I would do the same thing."
"Why are you a soldier?"
"For us. For your parents, for your sister, for your brother. Maddy, my family is gone. They're back in 2149, and I'm here, with you. I became a soldier to protect the people I care about. To help defend what is right and the reason why we came here, to Terra Nova. I love you Maddy, and that's why I'm a soldier. To protect you" Maddy stayed quiet for a while, and then asked the question that had been eating her inside all week.
"So is it true you're going to be the next lieutenant? Since Wash…"Mark closed his eyes, and said the frankest answer he could.
"I don't know" She nodded, and rest her head once again on his shoulder.
"We should be getting back, its almost four o'clock in the morning." Mark picked her up, and began carrying her towards her house.
She felt asleep in his arms, and awoke a few hours later, in her bed with the cover all around her, her window shut, and a note and small box in her nightstand.
She picked up the note, and the words scrawled on it nearly brought her to tears.
' I can't promise you an eternity, but I can promise you I want one. The ring shows that the promise is set in stone, literally. I promise to love you, and to give us a chance at an eternity, and I promise that I will do everything in my power to always come back to you. -Mark'
She opened the little black velvet box, to see a white gold ring with a teardrop emerald set in the center, and little diamonds dotting the edges where the emerald touched the band. In the inside of the band, he had engraved two words that meant more to her that she could ever fathom.
I promise…
Hoped you like it, drop a review on your way out ;) and maybe i'll make it a two-shot :3
.xoxo
