A/N:Sorry for the late update, writing all those papers the last couple of weeks was a nightmare but it's over for the moment so I hope to post a new chapter more frequently! As always, thanks for following/favoriting/reviewing! 3

ryekerb: Thank you for leaving me a review! I'm so happy you enjoyed that little lizard joke, I can just imagine Taylor saying that very sarcastically but with a poker face and Malcolm not getting that while Hera does, don't know about you but I find a man with a sense of humor that much more attractive too hihi ;p And yes, you're on the right track there, those 'bad guys' would've needed someone on the inside who's got at least high enough security clearance to tamper with the cameras. I'm glad you like Lennox, she's secretly one of my favorites OCs I've ever written because she just turned up at my doorstep one day like a mystery guest and now I'm intrigued to write about her and find out who she is! Hope you'll enjoy this chapter too!

EFBT: Haha I love the stream-of-conscious style of your reviews, gives me that rare and very useful insight into the reader side of things! Good, I'm glad you approved and I quite enjoy throwing in a bit of Malcomus now and then, happy to have been of service in any case ;) And yes, the robberies are the symptom of the bigger, underlying problem… Lennox totally surprised me as a character, she wrote herself really unlike Hera who's hard work for me, even Nathaniel's easier to write…don't tell her I said that hihi ;p Anyways, she'll be making a few appearances along the way and I might just be tempted to write a shorter fanfic with her as the lead character or just create more room for different povs in the sequel.. oh so much decisions to make and not enough time! Thanks for reviewing!

Disclaimer: I do not own Terra Nova, this is purely a non-profit fan-made story.

Chapter 6

POLISHING her pulse pistol after a long day of standing guard, Hera looked around at the others gathered inside the amphitheater-shaped arsenal adjoining the training grounds. All of them sat on upturned crates and were busy cleaning their own weapons; Miller and Scott chatting now and then while Hernandez seemed too absorbed in his assignment to notice anything else going on around him. Even Evans, normally not too keen to focus on the same task for long, was painstakingly trying to get rid of an impressive scratch on the pistol's barrel. Screwing up his face he seemed to be waging a very hard, and very personal, battle.

Hera knew it was hardly the perfect ending for a slightly boring day, but their weapons had gathered a lot of dust and dirt this week. They'd run a couple of provision runs to outpost three now Nathaniel had ordered to get it up and running again. It was close by the colony and focused on researching alternative energy sources. Seeing the colony was cut off from the future they'd have to start to rely more on discovering new ways to provide them with enough energy. The findings of the scientists starting to work again at outpost three were going to be a vital contribution to that. Though the mission hadn't exactly gone off without a hitch.

Small and smart as they were, a group of hypsilophodon had managed to enter the facility, crawling through a hole in the fence and a rusty old ventilation shaft. A tiny and harmless herbivore, they fortunately hadn't done a lot of damage. They'd merely jumped around and squeaked a lot in an indignant sort of way when Hera had stumbled upon them on first entering the facility. By the looks of it they hadn't done much more than chew on some chairs and sleep in the exposed cable work as if they were their modern version of nests. With their perfectly green camouflaged body not being of much use to hide away, as they were won't do to in their natural habitat lying between the ferns causing them to be pretty impossible to detect with the naked eye, locating them hadn't been a problem. The hard part had been to chase all of them out. Incredibly agile and fast as hypsilophodon was it had taken Hera and her squad some time to get them out of the facility and outside the perimeter fence. Constantly slipping and falling in the mud in the process as the dinosaurs had managed to escape capture again and again with one swift turn of their slippery bodies. It was why their weapons had ended up so dirty. And not just their weapons. Hera was still scrubbing away some deep stains on her uniform that she'd find even now, days later.

Nevertheless, the mission had been a welcome break from standing guard over the Sixers. Even though they'd only had to do it for a couple of days so far, there was something incredibly oppressing about watching them work with a certain cold detachment and following orders with an unsettling sort of passive reluctance. Combined with the straining work of mending the fence and the dangers that held, it didn't exactly make for a relaxing work atmosphere. Hera imagined it must be the same, or worse even, for the Sixers themselves, but she didn't care enough to want to think about that side of things too much. In the end, there was no point in complaining. With the lack of evidence Nathaniel hadn't had much of a choice. The Sixers were needed as workers and so he'd released them again.

Seeing how grumpy or uneasy it made some of them, Hera was glad that, even though her squad didn't know it yet, they were in for a rare treat. Apparently, they'd been working practically non-stop on long shifts for the last two months. Being constantly busy Hera had failed to notice it, but Nathaniel hadn't. Brooking no opposition he'd immediately ordered her to take the day off tomorrow. No reason to oppose him she'd agreed almost instantly. Seeing the rest diligently cleaning their weapons, Hera grinned at the prospect of handing them a very proper reward soon. Judging by the increasingly embittered expression on Evan's face as he stared down on the stubborn scratch, it had been high time too..

A somewhat mischievous curve around her lips, Hera grabbed a towel from the shelf above the bed, fondly recalling the reaction on Nathaniel's face. He'd smiled, rather amused and a tad mysteriously, when she'd asked permission to take a shower. Even on her down time, which she increasingly spent together with him in his quarters though she was always careful not be seen sneaking inside, she sometimes couldn't help but slip back into work mode and address him as her CO. She suspected a part of her liked the teasing reprimands this usually received from him a little too much to have her try harder to kick the habit.

Now he was bound to head over to the Command Center for a meeting she didn't need to attend she'd thought of making use of that time on her own to freshen up a bit. She'd babysat Zoe that afternoon, and the girl had insisted on climbing trees in the orchard in search of the perfect spot for her treehouse. With her recent still rather painful experience falling down one in mind, Hera had accordingly spent the greater part of two hours making sure the same fate wouldn't happen to the sweet little girl. Finally she'd dropped her off at the Shannon's place, bones unbroken, almost entirely scratch free and definitely all limbs accounted for. She was however, and Hera hadn't found this out until she'd already come by Nathaniel's place, covered in green smudges; No doubt a souvenir from the mossy barks of the trees in the orchard.

While Nathaniel was getting ready to go to his meeting, going through some reports on his portable plexpad, Hera started to undress in his bedroom, stopping halfway to remove the hair elastic at the end of her braid. Busy untangling her hair, her body tensed up at once when his strong arms suddenly embraced her from behind. She hadn't heard him approach; Stealth was definitely the most useful skill he'd received in his military training. Hera slowly turned around, hands resting on his arms which he seemed unwilling to unlock and kept firmly wrapped around her waist. She reached out for his dog tags, entwining the chain from which they hung in her fingers and gently pulling him closer.

"Permission to kiss you.. Commander?" She asked him in a soft whisper, playfully emphasizing his rank on purpose. There was that familiar tug at the corner of his mouth before he answered her in a low commanding tone which was considerably softened by the myriad of little lights in his blue eyes.

"Granted, Sergeant." He gave her his permission, giving in when with a last tender tug at his dog tag she reeled him in and pressed her lips against his. Wondering why he had to taste this good when she knew he had to leave her any moment, she pulled back when he'd started to passionately kiss her back. The longing expression on his face only had her wanting more of him. Hera briefly attempted to free herself from his embrace but he wouldn't let her.

"I thought you had a meeting?" She reminded him teasingly, but even though he'd heard her and couldn't deny the truth of her words he didn't make to go.

"Still got some time.." He assured her, stroking the back of her head possessively. Relishing their tug of war, Hera couldn't resist reaching out with her fingers and lovingly caress his lower lip. Seeing the predatory glint in his eyes she knew he was tempted to softly bite it but she had already retreated her hand out of the danger zone before he could.

"First time I've ever had a bad influence on someone." She told him, resting her hands on his chest instead.

"First time I let someone have a bad influence on me.. And I don't think I mind.." He told her, greedily pulling her closer to him again. She parted her lips as he leaned in to her, all thoughts of meetings instantly forgotten in the long kiss that followed.

As he pensively looked out over the colony from the Observatory Tower above the Command Center, Nathaniel realized once again how the place harbored about just as many good memories as bad ones. Wishing to hold on to the former, this morning's in particular, he couldn't escape from the increasing weight of the latter. First of all, there was still the unsolved case of the break-ins. An entire week of digging through video footage, covering every inch of the crime scenes and checking in with vendors in search of the stolen terras; None of it had yielded a shred of tangible evidence. Despite all of their effort they still had nothing to show for it..

Nathaniel had already made sure to compensate the robbed families for their losses using the colony's emergency funds. He hadn't wanted them to have to wait until whoever was responsible for the break-ins had been identified and forced to return the terras. The fact that they hadn't caught them yet, was not just unacceptable, but downright inexcusable. It didn't sit well with him that these criminals could get away with an act like this. He'd always known there'd be hiccups now and then on that long and winding road on which mankind had set itself to someday reach betterment, but the petty crime of thieving was not something he was going to allow.

Face set he turned away from the magnificent view now other, darker thoughts threatened to spoil it. Slowly pacing up and down the platform, Nathaniel thought back on the decision he'd made yesterday evening, trying to feel less uneasy about it. At the crack of dawn Corporal Reynolds and his squad had left on a mission he didn't want too many people to find out about yet. Running into the Phoenix soldier that had apparently survived on his own all this time, had him worry more than he wanted to admit to himself. As a precaution he'd sent Reynolds to investigate, find out if there were more hiding out near the Bone Marshes. After all, like vermin, there usually tended to be more than the one lucky bastard who'd gotten away.

An uncomfortable knot tightened in his chest at this thought. He knew it was too late but all the more now did he regret his decision to leave the few that'd managed to escape during their attack on the quarry to the jungle, so it could do the dirty work of cleaning them up for him. At least now, even though he had no indication any of the possible Phoenix survivors could be tied to the break-ins, he had to know exactly how many survived. And they'd have to be eliminated. Not a job he was looking forward too, scouring the jungle for heartless bandits and, no matter how necessary, to finally purge their world of that filth. But it was the only action available to him. The only way he could remedy his choice to let them go in the first place. And now, even though he didn't fit the part one bit, all he could do was wait and hope it wouldn't prove to be an irreparable mistake; He'd made too many of those already..

Clenching his jaw, it took him some effort to push back the resurfacing image of that obstinate box that seemed set on refusing them to have its secrets pried from it. He wouldn't be surprised if it ended up as nothing more than a seemingly worthless memento of his son; Serve as a relic of his failure as a father. Nathaniel abruptly turned, pacing at a brisker pace now, not wanting to revisit that dark place in him he'd been heading to, above all not wanting to remember the agony he'd find there. Even though it'd belonged to Lucas, the box didn't matter to him. Shouldn't matter to him. It was locked up someplace safe and secure in the science division building, and that's where it would remain for the foreseeable future. No matter how much of a thorn in his side it wasn't a priority. The meeting he'd had with Sergeant Baker an hour ago, though, definitely was.

Coming to a halt, he looked out over the colony once again. Nathaniel took a deep breath, filling his lungs with the fresh air he'd come up here in search of after the man had shared his concerns with him. Seeing this involved effectively complaining about a superior officer, it had taken him some time to reassure the dutiful man he could speak freely and none of his words would cause him any trouble. Still hesitant to speak up at first, after applying some pressure Baker had eventually told him something he hadn't known about the carnotaurus incident. Though aware of the event itself, it had taken place when he'd been away to the Badlands. It seemed Jim's account overlapped the greater part of his Sergeant's, however, there'd been one significant detail he hadn't known about previously.

Both Sergeant Baker and Major Croft had been on an OTG mission close by the colony when the moody carnotaurus had decided to ram the fence to get to some snacks. Receiving the colony's distress call when the sonic canons on the watchtowers had been down, Baker had appeared first on the scene. Taking care of the carno in a display of first rate heroics that by all rights could earn him a statue in the center of the market, Nathaniel had assumed the only reason Major Croft hadn't seized the opportunity to earn herself some legendary glory was because she'd had to cover more distance to reach the colony under attack of the vicious predator. According to the additional information although somewhat reluctantly provided today by Baker, it seemed his Major could, or should, have been the first to help out with chasing off the carnotaurus.

Unwilling to directly accuse the Major, the man, after some necessary pushing, had only admitted seeing her rover parked not far off from where the hungry dinosaur was busy taking down the fence. Nathaniel appreciated his Sergeant's efforts to place the blame on Croft no doubt not having received the emergency call on time due to some technical error or other, but it didn't stop him from coming to a conclusion he should've arrived at some time ago. Regardless of what had really occurred to prevent Croft from doing her bit in saving the colony he understood the story was symptomatic of the lack of faith his men had in the Major. Apart from the dozen men who'd served under her at Outpost Eleven for the greater part of a year, he just wasn't sure she had the trust of the other men. And if he was honest with himself, he wasn't even completely sure she had his..

The market was its usual bustling collection of vendors and buyers. Everywhere people doing their groceries flowed across the square, meandering from one stall to the next as their owners promoted their produce in loud, booming voices. Weaving her way through the crowd Hera purposefully headed for one of her favorite food stalls, urged on by a grumpily growling stomach. After her shower she'd lied down for a quick powernap that, due to her sheer exhaustion of working long days for over two months, had stretched into a deep sleep. She'd been out for a solid four hours before she woke with a start and a very hungry stomach. The mouthwatering scent of grilled pineapple had her increase her pace when she already bumped into the last person of a very long row of people standing in line to get themselves the same delicious treat.

"Aren't you the lucky one.." A voice close to her suddenly announced, and with it came the tantalizing sweet scent belonging to what she was craving for.

"I owe you.." She promised Malcolm solemnly, a broad grin splitting her face as he approached her holding out one of the two grilled pineapple sticks in his hands.

Together they sauntered across the market, savoring their treat in mutual silence. Hera was glad with their chance meeting, and not just because of her now saturated appetite. Their tight schedules had left little room for meeting up lately and she appreciated the opportunity to catch up. Stomachs satisfied and no longer growling, they left the square behind and walked through the colony, talking along the way and ending up in the sunbaked farmlands.

As they sat down amongst the gnarled roots of a majestic oak tree, its leafy branches providing a wonderfully cool shade, Hera could tell by the subtle change in his expression that Malcolm had finally decided to allow his inquisitiveness to voice the question he'd been waiting to ask.

"So.." He began, making her repress an amused smile as he no doubt thought he was being very tactful in changing the topic. "How are things between you and Commander Taylor?"

Hera allowed for a silence to follow that on purpose then shrugged, adding innocently. "Don't know what you mean by that, Malcolm."

"Right.." He lifted his brows and snorted. "You don't really expect me to believe that, do you?"

She eventually shook her head, lowering her gaze now blood rushed to her cheeks. It still felt weird talking openly about her feelings for Nathaniel to someone else. She'd kept it to herself for such a long time, she'd simply gotten used to it being a secret she didn't share.

"You haven't told anyone, have you?" She inquired carefully, hoping she didn't sound as if she doubted his discretion. In fact, if there was one person in Terra Nova she trusted, it was Malcolm. Their long-standing friendship was about the only good thing left from her past.

"I haven't, as a matter of fact. Wouldn't enter my wildest dreams to tell anyone.." He reassured her, though her appeased conscious was soon rattled when he added in a sudden afterthought, "Elisabeth almost guessed it the other day, though.."

Hera sat up with a jolt, "What..?!"

"Something Jim mentioned, about late night debriefings.." Malcolm explained and his mouth quirked, seemingly diverted by her genuinely startled look of surprise.

"Ah.." Was all Hera could say, losing herself in her whirling thoughts afterwards as she tried to gauge how she'd feel if word got out she was romantically involved with the leader of the colony. She could hardly fathom the confusing jumble of feelings this produced inside of her.

"You're okay with keeping this a secret? I mean, it doesn't have to be.. Does it?" Malcolm probed carefully upon seeing her increasingly pensive mood that was threatening to cloud her face.

"No.." She admitted slowly, figuring out her thoughts on this as she went on, "I-I suppose not.. It's just.. It's only been three months and I want him- Well, us, to be entirely sure that what we're doing is the right thing. I wouldn't forgive myself if it came out and it hurt his reputation."

"How could being in love be harmful to his reputation?" He argued as an incredulous frown creased his forehead.

Hera picked at her shoelaces and swallowed hard before answering him, "He's still my commanding officer, Malcolm.." The moment she'd said it, she realized it had been the source of her worries; the reason why she felt no one could know about their relationship. And the fact that it made her feel sad was simply something she'd have to learn how to live with.

Malcolm first simply blinked at her words. Her reluctant but honest confession had him open his mouth to say something, then, perceiving her troubled expression, he changed his mind and nodded in understanding. "Of course, if it's this important to you, I won't breathe a word of it to anyone.." He promised, kindly squeezing her shoulder.

"Thank you."

Malcolm leaned back against the tree, almost startling her when he suddenly exclaimed in apparent victory, "Ha..! You know, I do think this makes me the only person in the whole of Terra Nova who knows our sturdy Commander is very much a man of flesh and blood, just like the rest of us petty mortals.."

"Hey, who are you calling petty?" Hera retorted, narrowing her eyes in pretended indignation. When the witty comment she'd expected in return failed to come she turned to look over her shoulder.

"Malcolm?" Something about the look on his face instantly alarmed her. "What's the matter?" She pressed him as he remained eerily silent. He hastily got to his feet without a word and looked up at the tree in something so close to horror it instantly send shivers down her spine.

Thanks for reading & I'd love to know what you thought of it! :)