A/N: Good morning! I meant to post this yesterday, but time got away from me. I hope you're all enjoying it. Thank you again, to all those that left me wonderful reviews. It's pretty awesome for sure!

Thanks to my beta – she's awesome.

This, by the by, is the last pre-beta-ed chapter I have, so expect a gap until the next one. Having said that, I know my beta (who, as I said, is AWESOME) has already started on chapter 5.

-0-

Andy let her head drop back against the jacket she was using as a pillow. A team meeting had been called not long ago and they were gathered together in the little area they'd claimed as their own.

"Right, well, I suppose I'll start," Nigel said, sitting to Andy's right. She didn't turn to look at him, but she was listening nonetheless. "I think, as Miranda mentioned earlier, we need to know where we are, if we really are all okay, and what we have to work with."

"I agree. I think though we need to do another search of the plane for anything that we can use before we do anything else," Doug said, leaning over and brushing Andy's hair from her face. "Just like in Lost, huh?"

"I agree with Dougie, but I'm not quite up to helping just yet," she said, feeling sick with even the smallest movements.

"We can split into teams. Roy and Andy obviously can't move just yet, but if they stay here, maybe, Miranda if you think it's best, the girls can stay and keep an eye on them while we split up and search the plane?"

Andy didn't need to look at Miranda to know what she was thinking. One part thankful and another cornered. She would want her girls with her, but she wouldn't want them to enter that wreckage again.

"I think that's a good idea," Andy said quietly. "I need someone to keep an eye on me and the girls would be perfect."

"Alright, as long as you think so Andréa," she agreed softly, appearing by Andy's side.

"Yeah, they'll be fine," Andy replied, smiling even though her eyes were closed. "I'm pretty sure Roy is only sitting down because earlier I heard Claire threaten him quite violently if he got up."

The girls giggled as the big man protested, but Andy smiled as a hand squeezed her shoulder gently. Miranda appeared alright with the plan so far, so Andy nodded for Doug to continue speaking

"Okay, so Claire, how about you come with me, Nigel can go with Miranda, and Em and Serena can stick together."

There was a general murmuring of assent and the search parties were sorted.

"We'll head to the front of the plane and see if we can't find some maps or something. Hopefully not everything was on a computer," Nigel mumbled. "Doug, you and Claire head to where she and Roy were sitting and see if you can find the other bags. Em, Serena, start in the back of the plane, there was a kitchenette there before we, well -"

"We got it Nigel," Serena replied. "Are you two alright?"

Andy cracked an eyelid open to see Serena looking down at her and she smiled drowsily.

"I'm fine, think I'm concussed but I should be alright in a few hours. I've had worse headaches from Lacrosse."

Serena patted her shoulder lightly and got up, pulling Emily with her. Andy watched them go, before squinting up to see Miranda looking down on her, her hands on her hips, looking like she meant business.

"Girls, I want you to watch Andréa and Roy. If either of them looks like they're in pain, I want you to call for one of us. Knowing them as I do, I doubt they will tell you, so you watch them closely."

"Yes Mommy."

"Yes Mom."

Andy smiled at the responses and how similar they sounded to the tried and true 'yes Miranda'.

"Good. Roy, Andréa my girls have their eyes on you."

"Yes Miranda," Andy said, smirking as Roy followed suite.

"Good, we'll be back soon."

"Hey Miranda?" Andy yelled, not sure how far she'd gone before she'd had a thought. "See if you can find some water, I think my headache would go quicker if I could keep hydrated."

"I will. I'll be back shortly."

Andy didn't hear her go, but she gingerly moved her good arm over her eyes to block the sunlight, which was out in force, getting brighter as the day wore on.

"Are you alright Andy?" one of the twins asked. At first Andy thought it must have been Cassidy, but as she peered up, she found it was Caroline staring back at her.

"Hey, yeah I'm fine, just have a headache is all. Are you alright Caroline?"

"Do you think Dad got away?"

Andy breathed a sigh and patted the ground next to her. Caroline hesitated for one moment before lying down on the piece of wreckage Andy was using as a bed and snuggled into her side.

"Your Dad lives in Manhattan, yeah?" she asked, stroking the girl's hair. "But he works in L.A.?"

"He only lives in Manhattan when he has us," Caroline explained.

"Well, I know, at least before all this happened, that the East Coast was in the most danger. The West Coast would have far longer to evacuate than we did. And your Dad could go down to that place he took you guys on holiday last year."

"Yeah I suppose," she said quietly, her arm creeping around Andy's torso. They were silent for a while before she whispered again, "thanks for saving us Andy."

Andy smiled and moved, despite the pain, to press a kiss on the young girl's head.

"You're welcome, munchkin."

They could hear Cassidy and Roy talking quietly, no doubt Cassidy was asking Roy about everything that could happen while they were out here in the middle of who knew where. In contrast, Caroline lay in silence and it wasn't until Andy had to move her arm that she realised she was asleep. Her headache was wearing off, although she knew she wasn't out of the woods just yet. A concussion could be a serious injury if it wasn't treated properly, but as it was easing, she assumed it would eventually be alright.

"Hey Andy, you okay?"

"Shh," Andy said, shushing Doug before he could wake Caroline. "I'm fine," she whispered back. "Did you find the bags?"

"Yep, yours is right here. Most of them were still in the luggage bins, but some of them tumbled open when they hit the deck. We'll take a stocktake once everyone gets back."

"Good, I'm so thirsty. Can you see if there's a bottle of water in my pack please? Everyone can have some, I just, I really need a drink."

"It's okay Andy, you go ahead, we found more in the galley. Just don't have too much though," Claire said, appearing on her other side and gently lifting her head and letting her drink.

"Oh that's better," Andy said, swallowing the water desperately. "The girls should have some too," she said, waving off the bottle. "Really I'm okay, just, maybe I'll have some more afterwards."

The water was dished out to the girls, even Caroline, who woke up reluctantly for a sip before snuggling back into Andy's side.

"Thanks Claire."

"You're welcome Andy," the quiet woman said kindly. "If you need to go to sleep my watch still works, so I'll make sure to wake you every hour."

"Thanks," Andy said gratefully with a yawn, closing her eyes and letting the rest of the world disappear. Her head was pounding, but she felt more like her old self. Perhaps after a sleep, it would all be better.

-0-

It was twilight when she woke up and she blinked as she tested the strength of her headache verses how uncomfortable she was lying on a piece of broken wing.

"Hey, what's happening?" she asked, sitting up very carefully.

"Andréa, what are you doing? You should be sleeping!" Miranda exclaimed, appearing at her side.

"I'm fine, I got plenty of rest even though I had to wake up every hour." She nodded thankfully to Claire, who was changing Roy's bandage. He was sitting up and talking to her, possibly giving her pointers, so she turned back to Miranda and the others and didn't interrupt them. "I'm feeling much better now. What's the plan?"

"We're not sure what the plan is yet. A few of our phones are working so we've turned on the GPS to check where we are," Nigel said, leaning over a pile of papers.

Andy smiled at Miranda, who was still hovering over her as she stood up shakily.

"Let's have a look," Andy said, hoping Roy would come and help once he was fixed up.

"Our phones say we're here," Nigel said, pointing to a dot on the map. Andy bent over and squinted as she tried to work out where 'here' was. The phone's light shone down on the map, and Andy saw Nigel indicating a little green area in the middle of nowhere.

"Well, we'll have a bit of a hike out of here then," Andy grimaced. "I know it's warm out, but I think maybe we should bunk down in the plane and check on it tomorrow. Roy might feel better then and there's nothing we can do tonight."

"I agree," Roy said as he hobbled over to their side. "Did anyone find any flashlights?"

Nigel produced two of the needed devices and Roy nodded, pocketing one and switching the other on.

"The best thing to do is switch off those phones and conserve the batteries for now," Roy instructed, smiling as Caroline huffed. "Then we need to get everything inside the plane, just in case it rains. And tomorrow we'll get up and start planning what we're going to do. Andy's right, the light's gone, it's dark and we can't do anything more tonight."

With an immediate plan formalised, everyone who was able got up and started carrying their bags into the plane. None of them, not even Miranda, wanted to stray too far from the group and distributing the blankets the group had found earlier one by one, they lay down to rest. As Claire and Nigel helped Roy into the fuselage, he mentioned leaving a guard to watch over the group in case of intruders, or wild animals.

"I'll go first," Andy said, "I got enough sleep earlier that I can afford to lose some now."

"We can do it, we slept on the plane," the twins piped up, causing a cacophony of resistance from the entire party.

"Darlings, we appreciate it, but the adults will do it for now," Miranda said, smoothing Cassidy's fringe from her face. "You two need some sleep as well. Go and lay down, I'll be there in a moment."

The rest of the group moved closer, talking quietly as they discussed who was going to take their turn and when.

"Emily and I will take second shift," Serena said. "It makes more sense for us to take over together, that way we can keep each other awake."

"I believe that I should do the pre-dawn shift, I often wake early," Miranda offered, surprising everyone except Andy, who knew deep down that Miranda would be as involved as she could be, if only for the safety of her children.

"I'll join you Miranda," Roy said, pushing Claire towards their bags. "Now everyone else should try and get some shut eye. Andy - wake Serena and Emily in two hours."

Andy nodded, thankful that she was still wearing her watch. She made herself comfortable, watching the makeshift door they'd cobbled together from plane parts as the rest of their bedraggled group settled down to sleep. She could already hear Doug snoring, and while she would usually smack him with a pillow, tonight she let him, taking solace in the somewhat familiar noise. She could hear Emily and Serena whispering, glancing over at them as they fell silent, smiling as she saw them cuddled up together under a blanket, their arms wrapped around one another. She glanced around the rest of the group, smiling as she saw Claire snuggle into Roy's embrace and Nigel and Doug sleeping back to back.

There was no doubt that the day had been difficult for everyone, as they all seemed to drift off almost as soon as they laid their heads down. She could tell that one of their party had not fallen asleep though, one whose gaze burned her skin even as she sat. She wished she could think of something to say, anything that would perhaps ease whatever was troubling Miranda, but she could think of nothing. It was a warm night, but Andy pulled the blanket around her shoulders tighter, wincing at the pain in her arm as she did.

She stood, checking how solid their makeshift door was, before making her way between the bodies of her sleeping friends, to where Miranda was laying, her two daughters curled up against her front.

"How are you doing?" she whispered, sitting against the wall of the plane, keeping one eye on the door and one ear on the surrounding area.

"I thought, after reading your articles, that your intelligence had improved somewhat," Miranda sniped, her voice perhaps a little more frightening when it was a whisper. "How do you think I am doing, Andréa?"

Andy sighed; it was inevitable that Miranda would finally need to vent at someone - just as she had done on the plane before the crash. Of all the people she had ever met, Andy had never met one that had as much trouble dealing with her emotions as Miranda. She shrugged with her uninjured shoulder and remained silent, letting Miranda work through her feelings as best she could without fear of judgement.

"I, I apologise Andréa, I -"

Andy leant forward and took Miranda's hand, thankful for the dark night covering her blush as she remembered their last moments together before the plane went down.

"I accept your apology Miranda. I know you, I know how you cope with things you don't like. I can't say I enjoy being insulted but I do understand," she whispered, rubbing her thumb over Miranda's knuckles. "I know something else as well," she continued, letting Miranda take in what she had said, as well as work through her own thoughts and feelings. "I know we're going to be alright."

"How can you possibly know that?" Miranda hissed, sounding almost lost in the quiet of the aeroplane.

"Because every one of us has something to fight for. Everyone," she said quietly, leaning a little to her left so she could see Miranda's beautiful eyes in the moonlight. "And because of that we will keep each other safe; we're all tied together you see, and none of us, no matter how big and tough you think you are, will let anyone get hurt, if only to spare the hurt from someone else," Andy said, hoping she was being clear. "I will not let anything happen to you, or your girls, Miranda. Whatever it takes I will do it and we'll get to my grandparent's cabin."

She felt rather than heard Miranda sigh. Shifting to ease the pins and needles developing, she leaned forward, pressing a kiss to Miranda's hand as she settled in for a boring watch.

"Sweet dreams Miranda. I'll watch over you for a while."

She waited until Miranda's hand went slack in her own, happy that she could be there for Miranda when she needed to be. Serena was right in saying that a shift with two people keeping watch would be better than one, but Andy knew how hard everyone had worked through the day while she had been resting. She could tell that Roy felt the same, and though she'd have to keep an eye on her wound to make sure it didn't get infected, her headache was virtually non-existent now, so tomorrow she would help as much as she could.

She pulled out her trusty notepad and pen, and made her way back to where she'd started her watch post - leaning back against the comfortable private jet seat while she made a list of things to consider tomorrow. They would need to find food and water first. The plane's refrigerators were a no go, and besides what snacks everyone had in their bags, there was not a lot to go around. The water situation was slightly better, having found a few bottles in the cabin during their search. They would need to take stock of what people had that would be useful in their bags, and work out what had to be left behind so that they could hike out of here.

She hadn't had too much time to study the map, and although she had some experience using them, she was no expert, and thought she should leave that to Roy. If Miranda was right and he really was ex-Marine then he should be a great help in getting them all out of the forest and to the nearest civilization. There, hopefully, they'd have something to bargain for a ride over the border. She thought that would be the best place to regroup and work out whether they would go onto Europe, or whether they'd stay.

Andy smiled as she thought of her grandparent's guesthouse. It served as a lodge during the ski season, but her parents had insisted that whoever Andy brought with her would be welcome once they made their way there. There would just be enough room for them all, especially as her grandparents had a small house not far away where they could stay if all the rooms were full. Their holidays there as a child were some of the best memories that Andy had. Her grandparents were getting on now, but her parents had married young and had Andy ten months later. She knew without a doubt that once they got to the Lodge, Andy wouldn't want to leave. She would though, if Miranda wanted to.

It was strange sitting there in the dark, with only the moon illuminating her notepad. After so long running from base to base in some of the most god-forsaken places in the world she'd come to accept her own company. The first year had been the hardest, and her work had suffered for it, but once she'd stopped missing the people who didn't miss her back she settled into her assignment, becoming one of the more well-known war correspondents.

She glanced down at her watch, starting when she saw that nearly an hour had passed while she was deep in thought. She wandered around their group, checking everyone was alright, tucking Nigel's blanket higher and smoothing the frown on his forehead. She knew very little about Nigel even though she considered him a close friend. By avoiding Miranda, she'd had to leave New York, and that meant everyone else. They had exchanged emails whenever they could, and even met up a few times when she was stateside, but ultimately they had simply been polite friendly updates on each other's lives. She made a mental note to get to know him a bit more.

Doug she knew was on his own. His father had split long ago, and she and Lily had held his hand through his mother's funeral. They'd been best friends since their first day at Northwestern together, meeting purely by accident when he ran into her on the quad . He'd bought her a vanilla iced latte and chatted her ear off until they had nearly missed their classes. Lily had been in her class, but Doug had begged her number and they'd gotten together not long after for dinner, laughing and carrying on, both of them picking up boys.

Her feelings for Miranda had confused her once. Especially remembering the fun she'd had with Doug. She had never been attracted to women, not even remotely, until she'd seen Miranda pause mid-sentence in her office as she looked her up and down one time. Andy had been wearing the Chanel boots Nigel had lent her and the look Miranda had given her made her insides burn. She felt sexy, powerful even, to make Miranda stop talking to whomever she was and look at her, really look at her. After that, there was no real hope for Nate. Where once he'd enchanted her, made her laugh, he now annoyed her, made her feel less than beautiful in his company. He wasn't wrong when he said she could have done her job with some credibility, but she was already in too deep. She'd come to care for Miranda, and she wanted nothing but to matter to the Devil in Prada.

And then Paris happened.

It was the best and worst decision she'd ever made. She'd needed to leave, that much was clear, but the way she'd done it was childish and completely unprofessional. Her ego was smarting from Miranda's comments about what she'd done to Emily and her heart was broken from Miranda's direction to just 'do her job' the night before. Coupled with the tremendous catastrophe that was Christian Thompson, Andy couldn't do anything but leave in a tantrum. It had taken her ten minutes to realise what she'd done, so she calmly and collectively returned to her hotel, written a letter of apology to Miranda, forwarded everything she had to Serena and Nigel and left on the next flight out. It had taken some doing to reason with her friends, but she'd refused to apologise. Doug took it best, having understood at least a little of why she had acted the way she had. Lily took longer, and while her romantic relationship with Nate was beyond repair, they'd managed to part as friends.

She sighed, dropping her head gently back against the seat. It was nearly time to wake Serena and Emily. She took one more walk around the plane, checking the windows and their makeshift door, nodding to herself when she found it sound and secure.

"Serena? Em?" she whispered, shaking them gently. "Emily?"

"Was' wrong?" Emily said, rolling into Serena and snuggling under the taller woman's chin.

It was cute for sure, but Andy needed to get some sleep.

"Em, Miranda needs you."

"WHAT!" she sat up so quickly that Andy fell back, luckily landing against a pile of bags as Emily looked around for her former boss.

"Andy, bloody hell are you insane?" she hissed, blinking the sleep out of her eyes.

"I'm sorry, you weren't waking up, and it's your turn for watch duty."

Emily glanced around, flagging a little as she looked back.

"Not a dream then?" she asked, looking down at her girlfriend.

"No, not a dream," Andy replied, squeezing her shoulder.

"Alright, I'll wake her," Emily said, waiting until Andy had moved away to lean over Serena and whisper something in her ear.

Andy grinned as she prepared to get some sleep, taking up residence against the wall where she had sat not two hours earlier.

"Andréa?"

Andy looked over to find Miranda's tired eyes looking back at her.

"Hey, you okay?"

"Emily woke me," she said quietly, not turning to look at the woman in question. "Why are you not sleeping, I assume your watch is over?"

"Yeah, I was just going to sleep here. I didn't want to intrude, but I wanted to be near, you know?" She grimaced at her abysmal explanation and bit her tongue to stop herself from babbling. She'd gotten over doing that last year, at least that's what she told herself.

"Lie down Andréa, you'll be useless tomorrow if you don't get some proper REM sleep."

Andy grinned, rolling her eyes.

"Yes, Miranda."

"As it should be," Miranda said. Andy could hear the smirk in her voice and settled down on the other side of the twins, pressed up against the wall with a foot of space between the twins and her.

"Andréa, what are you doing?"

"Oh, I just didn't want to crowd you?" she asked, rather than said. There was a part of her that didn't like what Miranda did to her self control. It was like her mouth ran away with her whenever the woman spoke to her or even looked at her.

"Andréa, come here," Miranda whispered, and now that Andy was laying down, she could see Miranda's hand outstretched in her direction, poking out from underneath one of the twin's heads.

"Do you want me to move her?" Andy offered, shuffling closer. "Your arm will go dead."

She saw Miranda smile gently and brush a strand of hair from the twin's head, nodding reluctantly and flexing her hand, which was now rather close to Andy's cheek. Leaning nearer and using her good arm for most of the heavy lifting, Andy shuffled her own arm underneath the young girl's head, allowing Miranda to remove her own. Andy couldn't help but giggle when the very twin she was trying to lower back to the floor, rolled over and cuddled into her middle, mumbling in her sleep.

"Cassidy did always like you," Miranda said, stroking what could only be Caroline's hair, as she was curled around Miranda's middle.

"I think we have similar temperaments," Andy whispered, mirroring Miranda's movements over Cassidy's head. "Did you sleep for a while?"

"For a time, yes," Miranda said, almost reluctantly. "I -"

Andy smiled, reaching over cautiously to hold Miranda's free hand in her own.

"It's okay."

"No Andréa, it's not okay, nothing is okay anymore. What the hell do I know about anything out here, of our situation? You know who I am, you know what I am capable of. How am I supposed to care for my daughters, for my friends, for my -" She stopped, making Andy wonder what she was going to say. "I cannot do this, I'm not strong enough," she said in a voice that was so shaky, Andy shifted closer, squashing the twins between them slightly.

"Miranda," she paused watching the woman blink rapidly in an effort to clear her eyes of the tears gathering there. Spying an escapee, Andy leaned forward and wiped it gently from her skin with her thumb. "You're right, I do know you. I know that you are the strongest woman I know, doing what you do in an industry so caught up in image. You get dressed every morning and become a woman who has to go to her office and command her ship with the tightest iron grip because a room full of men think you can't do it. You have to put yourself, the part of you that is a mother to these beautiful girls, away in a box somewhere, so that you can do the thing that you love to do. You have dealt with designers and models and," she chortled, "hapless assistants wearing polyblend jumpers."

Miranda chuckled morosely, and sniffed delicately, but didn't say anything.

"I know you Miranda. I know when you need coffee and I know when you don't. I know when you wish you were at home, and how hard it is for you to balance work and family. I know how much you love your daughters and how much you didn't love Steven. I know when you find a design that you know will work and I know that you don't actually like carrots, despite you eating them because you want to set an example for the girls. I know how you take your tea, and yes you drink tea, and I know when you laugh, your eyes light up like they have millions of tiny lights in them. I also know that right now, you're scared," Andy said quietly, looking straight into Miranda's eyes. "I am too, we all are. The truth is, nobody knows what they're made of until they have to test themselves. Tomorrow, we're going to take a look at that map, we're going to take a stocktake and then, we're going to get on out of here, find us some transport and make our way to my grandparent's cabin."

Miranda took a deep breath and nodded, not taking her eyes off Andy's.

"And I'm going to make sure you remember how strong you are, and I'm going to make sure that you, and your girls get there in one piece. That I promise you."

"Andréa, I -"

"Mommy?"

They broke eye contact and looked down at Caroline who had stirred, no doubt from their talking, and had rolled over to see her twin cuddled into Andy.

"Are you staying Andy?"

"Yeah Caro, I'm staying."

"'kay," she mumbled, curling back into her mother's embrace.

Andy watched until the little girl's breathing evened out, and lifted her gaze to find Miranda watching her with avid interest.

"What?" she asked, looking down at herself to make sure she didn't have anything on her.

"I," Miranda paused, "thank you," she said quietly, resting her head on the bag she was using as a pillow. "Don't pull that face Andréa, I've thanked you before."

"Yes, but -"

"Go to sleep Andréa."

Andy nodded, resting her own head on her bag which she'd pulled over, while still looking at Miranda.

"We'll be alright. I know we will."

"I believe you," Miranda whispered, finally closing her eyes.

It wasn't until Andy eventually settled further under her blanket that she realised Miranda had kept hold of her hand throughout the whole exchange, and it didn't look as though she was going to let go now. Smiling as she fell asleep, Andy dreamt of taking Miranda home, one twin under each arm as they walked down her grandparents driveway, to safety at last.