YEAR FOUR

Sophie had received a phone call.

And a call at four in the morning was never a pleasant one.

"Hello?"

"Dr. Benjamin, come to the lab immediately."

It was Dr. Forrester, sounding more neurotic and frantic than usual.

"Sir, I don't work in you department anymore-"

"Never mind that; Robinson's gone AWOL and you need to track the rocket-"

She was already out of bed by the time that mentioned Joel's name.

Sophie arrived to the lab thirty minutes with a lab coat thrown over her pajamas and rushed down to Dr. Forrester's lab to find that it was empty. The room was filled with flashing red lights and deafening sirens ringing within the walls, but Sophie persevered in order to get past the security systems and to call Cambot.

She held her breath as the phone rang.

Ring. Ring. Rin-

"JOEL! JOEL! JOEL! Wait who the hell are you?" she stopped her cries when she saw a blond man sitting before her, peering into Cambot as if he had never used it before.

"I'm Mike Nelson, we've met befo-"

"Never mind who you are!" she said, waving him out of the way as she saw Tom strolling around the bay. "Tom, where's Joel?"

"You just missed him, baby," Tom replied casually, ignoring the chaos and the sirens.

"What?" Sophie asked breathlessly, sitting back in the chair.

"Funny story, he just escaped through that escape pod over there after he found out that Dr. Forrester was going to kill him," Crow explained, laughing a bit at the last part as he realized how nuts it all was.

Mike popped into frame again and added," According to the tracking chip that we have on the ship here, I'm sure you have it too, I think he landed somewhere in Australia."

Tom nodded once and said," All in all, it's been quite a day for Joel and I hope he uses his new found discoveries to shape himself and the wor-"

"That idiot!" Sophie slammed her hands on the desk in front of her. She chewed her lip as her eyes flicked around the lab, her mind moving at a hundred miles per hour.

"I know, you'd think Dr. Forrester wouldn't even put an escape pod on this ship, but-" Mike was cut off again by her ranting, though it was mostly to herself.

"He doesn't even have his passport! He doesn't know anything about Australia and the climate and the aggression of Kangaroos…I gotta go!"

"Wait! Don't go! I need to get off this crazy thing!" Mike said, gripping the sides of Cambot's monitor.
"Never mind that, whoever you are, Joel's in trouble!" she said and reached for the button to end the call.

"Don't do it-"

Click.

"I didn't think Dr. Benjamin was so fired up; I didn't even know she and Joel knew each other!" Mike exclaimed, leaning against the counter and running a hand through his hair.

He looked down when Tom laid a white hand on his arm, saying," Son, since you'll be here a while, do I have a tale to tell you…"

One Year Later (YEAR FIVE)

Sophie staggered across the Australian tundra, the hot sun beating down on her as she continued her trek. Her backpack weighed at least thirty pounds with her camping and six months worth of clothing packed into it. As soon as that transmission ended a year ago, she had packed up and abandoned her life in pursuit of a man who may be alive or dead.

While it was good for Joel that the escape pod only gave out a short lived signal of its location, it was bad for both the Mads and Sophie. She was forced to comb the continent of Australia with only a hyper metal detector and her sheer determination to find him. The Mads initially wanted to track him down, but once they figured they could use Mike as their new guinea pig, the immediately forgot about "Joke Bobinson".

She settled herself down on the dirt to take a sip from her depleting canteen only to find it empty. Sophie groaned loudly and tore off her sunglasses to wipe the dust and frustration out of her eyes. She jerked her head up when she saw a bunch of kangaroos hopping over to her.

"Get out of here," she said, waving her arm as they tried to approach her. They cocked their heads to the side and one hopped up and started sniffing around her back pack.

"No, Joey, get out of here-Hey!" she said, keeling over as the same one punched her in the stomach. It used the distraction to take her back pack, rummaging through her goods. She rolled off the rock onto the ground, gripping her stomach.

"What did I do to deserve this?" she asked, looking up at the vacant, blue sky. "Do you think it's funny that I've been hiking around the outback? So you send kangaroos to tell me that I should just give up, huh? DO YOU THINK THAT'S FUNNY, WHOEVER YOU ARE?"

She jabbed a finger up at the sky accusingly before letting her arm drop over her eyes, finding she was too dehydrated to cry.

"Well, I've heard funnier jokes."

She removed her arm and sat up on her elbows, squinting her eyes as she looked ahead.

"Joel?"

There in front of her was Joel Robinson. He had his red jumpsuit unzipped at the top and tied around his waist, leaving him in a tee shirt that was more dirt than white.

"Oh hey, Soph,"

"But-but how did you survive?" she asked, rising to sit cross legged.

"Well, that's a funny story. You see, the pod crashed next to these kangaroos and at first they didn't like me, but once I fixed my jumpsuit," he said, motioning to his outfit," I fit right in since they thought my pouch was just on backwards. So I've been hanging around with them for a while," he replied in his usual, nonchalant manner.

"A year."

"Oh wow, a whole year? I did pretty good then! So how've you been, Soph?" he asked, extending a hand to help her up.

"How've. I. Been?" she asked, no longer just glaring at the sun.

"Yeah, that's what I said wasn't it?"

"How've you been? HOW'VE YOU BEEN?! IT'S BEEN TWO YEARS SINCE I LAST SPOKE TO YOU, AND I JUST GOT MY BACK PACK TAKEN BY YOUR KANGAROO GANG AND YOU WANT TO KNOW HOW I'VE BEEN?!" she demanded, scrambling to get to her feet.

"I knew you'd understand," he said with a grin.

She screamed and charged towards him. Her small fists beat into his chest as he scooped her up into a hug.

"JOEL ROBINSON, I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!"

"Well, it is until till death do we part, right?" he asked.

She blinked several times, stopping her abuse of her beau. Her hands flew to cover her mouth as he set her on the ground. He dropped to one knee, dirtying his red jumpsuit further in the Aussie terrain and fished a gum wrapper out of his pocket.

"Sophie," he began as he started to unwrap the foil," it's no secret that I'm crazy about you and how could I not be? We've had quite a wild ride. I've known you for nearly five years and half of it was through Cambot, who was a pretty good sport for being a third wheel, but I digress."

He finally found what he was looking for and produced a single stainless steel nut, like the one from a machine and held it up for her to see. "I know this isn't much, but I swiped it from Tom and the one I'm wearing is from Crow; they don't know that, of course, but I'm sure they'll be happy for us."

Joel rose, wiping his forehead across his sweaty brow once and messing up his sandy brown hair in the process. He removed one of the hands from her mouth to slip the nut onto her sweaty, slim finger.

"So what do you say, Sophie?" He asked, swallowing the lump in his throat.

"I have been talking to you for a long time," she said, searching his blue eyes with hers.

"Yup."

"And I haven't dated anyone or been seeing anyone in those five years; I've basically been married to my work."

"You could say that."

"So you tell me something, Mr. Robinson: why in the hell would I come all the way to Australia on my own dime, quit my job, and move out of my apartment with the nice balcony? It wasn't just for some guy, it was for you and I almost feel insulted that you would have to ask me if I wanted to marry you; of course I want to marry you," she said and smiled as he swooped down and kissed her.

He drank from her like water on a hot day, and considering how long they had been stranded in Australia, that wasn't far from the truth.