Alan walked out of the meeting room still barely able to collect his thoughts. A possible retroviral outbreak, two dead, another one infected – Peter. He couldn't wrap his mind around it.
"Hey."
He looked up at the sound of that familiar voice, warm and soothing; he'd know her cadence anywhere. "Hey," he greeted in return, an almost relieved breath leaving him as he looked at her sweet smile. They moved without hesitation. There was no need to wait for someone to move first, no awkwardness from the months they spent apart. There was no time between them. Her hands were around his back and his arms held her tight against his chest as they breathed in the feeling of home.
…
"What's Tristen doing here?" Doreen asked at the sight of the young woman standing beside Alan.
Julia turned to see them in the hall, glad Tris was able to make it there on short notice. At first glance it always amazed her how much Tristen looked like Alan; similar jaw line and nose contour, his hair was peppered with gray but even their hair color was similar. It was almost remarkable considering she was only his daughter legally. "I called her," Julia answered. "I figured we'd need a nurse whose primary focus was on the wellbeing of the patients while we focused on the pathogen."
Doreen nodded her approval, knowing Tristen would act as an advocate to all patients and require that every test given was run by her first. "That and Peter's her uncle," she added, seeing Julia's brief nod.
"That's Dr. Farragut's daughter?" Major Balleseros asked looking the woman over. She reminded him of a china doll; doe eyed, a little too thin, a little too sweet, and so delicately lovely it'd be all too easy for her to break.
"Don't be gettin' any ideas now," Doreen warned, seeing his eyes were trained on Tris, "that girl's off-limits."
…
"How have you been?" Alan asked, knowing she'd come back from a case – several bouts of severe food poisoning, a small team had gone out and traced it back to a restaurant. He kept tabs on her regularly, constantly worried in their line of work. What a father she'd made him.
She was well aware the close eye he kept and she smiled. "I've been good. Lot of vomit but hey, no deaths on this merry-go-round," she said brushing aside the sheer amount of bodily fluids that she'd had to clean off the patients and herself.
"That makes it better," he said with a short laugh, having seen his fair share of death to be grateful for the cases without fatalities. But as quickly as a brief smile had graced his face he was serious once more; as happy as he was to see her, as warm and calm as she made him, she solidified that this was really happening. "Have you been briefed?"
Tristen nodded feeling her own fleeting joy at seeing him slip away as reality settled. "Yeah, Julia told me everything when she called. You okay with us working together?" She'd shadowed him a few times when she'd been in her program, but now that she was an Intelligence Officer they'd never worked together when she had any sort of a say. This was an entirely new ball game for them, him being her father and her having authority over patient care.
A half-smile tugged the corner of his mouth. "If I remember correctly you were the one who declined my offer to work on my team," he teased as he turned with a hand on her back to lead her into the room.
Her laughter was a gentle hum as she stepped through the doorway. "Don't pull the dad card and I might reconsider," she teased in return, earning a warm smile from him. And for the moment, with the thought of a potentially dying Peter, it was enough.
...
Tristen sat between Alan and Doreen with a notepad in hand writing down the little information they had as they flew to the facility, wishing for more detail as to Peter's vitals and whether or not he was actually stable.
"Our primary goal is to identify this pathogen," Alan told them. "Sarah, you'll be with me and Peter on the deceased, establish the extent of the illness. Julia will determine the cause of the illness. Doreen I need you to swab every inch of Peter's lab, test every animal for the source of the illness." When he got an agreement from them, whether a quick nod or a quiet okay, he turned to Tristen. "Tris, for now I want you with Peter monitoring his vitals and keeping him stable until we find out what we're dealing with. I'm putting you in charge of recording the effects of the illness and how it progresses."
"Alright," she said with a nod, not needing to take note of that since it was primarily her job in every case.
Alan stared at her for several moments, seeing for the first time how much she'd grown up. No more were the days of her standing on the tips of her toes to peek over his shoulder, asking to be picked up so she could see in the microscope, needing his confirmation to know she was doing the right thing.
He looked at Julia briefly to see a small smile on her face as she stared at him. "She's good," Julia mouthed to him, seeing in his eyes the look of a father who realized he'd blinked and his daughter had grown up. Where Alan had never worked with Tristen before Julia had on several occasions, she knew how capable and qualified she was as a nurse.
He nodded knowing Tris was. She knew her job, she was prepared to do it, and she didn't need him. That's what struck him the most, seeing her eyes on her notes instead of on him seeking reassurance. She didn't need him anymore. She'd grown up. "Look, we have no idea what this thing is so we treat it like a hot agent: BSL-4 protocol, full suits and decontamination showers for every potential exposure."
Naturally, Julia found an objection; "That could eat up a lot of time."
Tris sighed as she jotted down a few things she needed to know about that level protocol. And then brought a hand to her temple feeling a headache coming on when Alan responded; and then of course Julia offered a remark that Alan would be forced to reply to and on it would go. And all the while they were pretending to be pleasant when in truth they were uncomfortable and unhappy to be around each other. To make it better Doreen was on her right answering the new girl's questions about Alan and Julia's relationship – Tris thought she'd left this behind and now she found herself right back in the middle again. They hadn't even gotten to the facility and she already regretted coming.
"This is gonna be the most frakked up family reunion ever."
"You're telling me," Tris said with a sigh as she turned to Doreen, knowing she'd end up in the middle of it. It's what happened when Alan first found Julia and Peter in bed; Julia had called her crying saying Alan probably wouldn't tell her and that he'd need her, Peter suddenly dropped by to visit, and she'd gone to see Alan to find him a wreck. And god forbid when Alan found out she'd taken a case with Julia after she'd turned him down to work with his team as their nurse.
Doreen smiled at the moping irritation on her face well aware that she'd be put between them all, and it'd end in her finally losing it and saying everyone was an asshole before she stormed off to find some quiet. "Don't worry monkey, if they start up again you can help me with the animals."
On the other side of Doreen Sarah watched the two share a smile. "How long have you known each other?" she asked quietly, knowing she was interrupting a moment between friends.
"I've known this one," Doreen started as she slapped a hand on Tristen's knee, "since she was in high school. She'd come down to the lab when she was bored, or a cold war started between those two," she motioned to Alan and Julia who sat still bickering. "She'd help with all the animals 'cept the monkeys. Hence why I call her monkey," she said turning to Sarah with a wry grin.
"They're like babies that can rip your face off, I'm completely justified in my aversion to them," Tristen said in her defense.
Sarah smiled at their easy ribbing. "She's right. Even at half our size a chimpanzee's arm strength is equal or greater than an average man. Macaques aren't as strong but they are still wild and can lash out unpredictably, making them more dangerous than an average man."
Doreen snorted as Tristen hummed her agreement to what Sarah had said. "Gettin' on the daughter's good side," Doreen said disapprovingly, knowing that'd been Julia's tactic as well – it never worked. Tristen either liked someone or she didn't. And the unliked party would never know.
"Shut it," Tris said elbowing her, making the other woman give a short laugh. Tris looked to the woman on the right of Doreen, having caught the moon-eyed way she stared at Alan. "I'm Tristen," she said holding out her hand.
Sarah smiled as she shook her hand. "I know, he talks about you all the time. I'm Sarah." Sarah watched the small smile Tris and Doreen shared, an inside joke she wasn't yet apart of. It was true that Alan did talk about her, maybe not as much as most fathers but when he did mention her it was clear he loved her.
Sarah, who'd once thought it was charming, hadn't realized his daughter would be the same age as her – nearly the same height as well. The only real difference between the two, because they were both thin and narrow, was that Tristen seemed effortlessly comfortable in her own skin. They might've both been twenty-six but Sarah felt younger and more out of place when it was clear Tristen had known Alan's team for years. It didn't help that Tristen was hopelessly beautiful, at least as Sarah saw her. She was all cheekbones and elegance, her voice husky and her smile alluring and kind. And then there was Julia, who was somehow even more beautiful in her maturity. Sarah suddenly felt so small, out of place.
Tristen was in fact comfortable in her skin; she knew who she was, she knew where she was going. What she didn't know was where her place was in the world, or even where she wanted to be. Her solid ground had crumbled almost twenty years ago, and Alan had done his best to give her a place to call home but the fact remained: she was lost.
"Lock everything down and secure your safety belts; we'll be landing momentarily."
I discovered Helix two weeks ago and blew through the first season. It wasn't until the 12th episode, when it was already too late, that I realized how much I'd come to like Daniel's character - he really grew on me. And then this idea happened, and thoughts of the show started to bleed into my daily life, and basically demanding me to write it. I'm starting this story how the show did, in that my character and her past will be fleshed out as the show progresses - which is something I've never done, so I hope to rise to the challenge. Thank you very much for reading, and I hope you enjoy.
Fun Fact: the title of the story is taken from a song of the same name by Laura Marling.
