Title: Blacklist
Rating: M
Pairing: Hicks/OC

Chapter 6

Ripley and the rest moved over the rocky surface with an agonisingly slow speed.

'Come on, pick it up.' Hicks instructed as himself, Hudson, Vasquez and Burke carried the stretcher which lay a still unconcious Lieutenant Gorman.
April walked beside Newt so she was between herself and Ripley but kept stealing glances at Hicks.

We stopped when Hicks said and they lay Gorman on the ground. Lighting a flare, Hicks walked over to stand beside April, 'you holdin'?'
April nodded and smiled, 'I'm holding. Are you?'

'Getting there.' He said, turning away he said, 'Dwayne.'
April looked temporarily confused and Dwayne chuckled, 'my name. Dwayne Hicks.'

She didn't know if it would be necassary to introduce herself even if he did know her name already. But nodding anyway, she replied, 'April McCanley.'
'Nice to meet you April McCanley.' Hicks said with a small smirk in her direction. April blushed and looked down, he was getting under her skin.

Ripley raised a hand to her head to shield her eyes from the flare and get a better image of the distance. April looked up too and furrowed her brows at what she saw. The ship, their rescue ship, looked slightly off balance. Like there was no control of it.

April stepped closer to Hicks who saw it too. Then it crashed into the rock, April flinched at the impact and heard Ripley cry out, 'Run!'
Ripley had already grabbed Newt so in the spur of the moment, April grabbed Hicks. He shook to attention and grabbed her around the waist shocking her utterly.

Ripley and Newt had taken shelter by a rock and April and Hicks jumped to the opposite side of it, Hicks conveniently landing right on top of her.
If it wasn't for the gushing urge to breathe she would have found it quite erotic but April gasped and Hicks quickly got off her.
'Sorry,' he mumbled. 'It's fine,' April said brushing herself off and then looking around to make sure everyone was okay.

Hicks then checked on Gorman, removing a piece of burning rubble that had fallen on him.
April then noticed his helmet had fallen off, or he had taken it off because for the first time she could clearly see his blonde hair.

She didn't have time to daydream though because Hudson was freaking. Quite frankly it was annoying her but she understood and kept her mouth shut.

'We're in some real pretty big shit now man! What are we gonna do now man?'
Hicks walked past but something must've clicked in him because he suddenly reached out, took Hudson's armor breastplate in his hand and tugged forcefully.
Glaring at him he snapped, 'you finished?'

Hudson went quiet and April walked over to put a hand on Hicks' arm. He looked at her and immediately let go as if he was embarassed.
Ripley was brushing off Newt and glanced in their direction, raising a dark brow she was curious. Was her friend and Hicks getting close?

April let go of Hicks who stomped on some fire and walked to her friend, 'hey Rip, you okay?'
Ripley nodded and April grinned down at Newt, 'and you sweetie? You alright?' Newt smiled back politely and put a thumbs up, her smile didn't seem to falter in the least when she spoke next, 'I guess we won't be leaving now, right?'

Ripley and April looked at eachother. What do they say to that? Yeah, everything is going to be fine, let us just build our ship back together or no, sorry,
looks like we're gonna die.
Ripley just looked down at the girl and rubbed a hand down her back, 'I'm sorry Newt.'
'It's okay. You don't have to be sorry. It wasn't your fault.'

April smiled at this and realized this girl must have manners. She was polite and friendly and didn't seem bothered at the situation. She seemed to have prepared herself for this when her family died and in many ways it was actually rather quite upsetting and sick.

'Oh, we're fucked! What the fuck are we gonna do now? What are we gonna do?' April was becoming more and more irritated by Hudson and turned around to watch him through his hands up in despair.

'Stop it Hudson.'
Hudson looked at her and shook his head, 'well come on man. What are we gonna do? We're so fucked.'
Rolling her eyes, the woman walked away annoyed.

'Well, maybe we could build a fire, sing a couple of songs. Why don't we try that?' Burke added rather maliciously. It was a sarcastic statement but April wanted nothing more than to go back to normal and do that.

'Hey.' Ripley called to us. Everone turned to face her. 'Let's head back.'
'Back?' April asked. 'We're going back? All this way and then.. I don't get it.' Ripley turned and picked Newt up off the rock and placed her on the ground, she had a hand on her head, 'Newt says they mostly come at night. I don't want to sit and find out.'

With that, they walked past everyone and began their journey back.
'This is bullshit.' Vasquez muttered but following behind. April turned towards Hudson who was still rather dejected and felt hopeless but he followed and Hicks, not far behind him although he did wait for her to come along too before moving forward.


Vasquez and April dropped another large box onto the table and Hudson and Hicks chose a weapon, 'that's everything?'
April nodded. She had volunteered to acompany Vasquez on gathering the weapons. She felt she had to overcome her purpose here. As Ripley would more than likely learn how to fire a gun, she had to keep herself useful.

A computer tech can only do so much when everything is working correctly.
'Okay,' Hicks began, 'this is absolutely everything we could salvage out of the wreckage.'

Ripley came to get a better look but April stayed well clear. She instead, walked round the table to stand beside Hicks who was leaning against a counter and began to explain their supply. 'We got four pulse rifles with about 50 rounds each.' He shot a look at the woman beside him then back at Ripley, frowning.
'That aint good I figure?' April said. Hicks sighed and picked up a small metal object, 'we got 15 of these M-40 grenades.'

He placed one in front of Newts place who felt compulsed to touch it. She couldn't however, when Hicks said, 'don't touch that. It's dangerous honey.'
April inwardly smiled at the pet name. Whoa, good with kids.

Ripley pointed at a large gun, 'is that the only flamethrower?'
Hicks was tired, it was evident in his voice. He was exhausted and leading a group of soldiers, a rogue 2 females and a kid aint so easy. Not to mention orders are completely random considering their damn Lieutenant is out cold.
'Yeah,' he said running a palm down his face, 'it's only half full but it's functional.'

He pointed to another one, 'I think that one is damaged. And,' he stopped in front of the last one, 'I don't know about that one.'
April looked down at Newt who had what she could only assume was Hicks' helmet. It almost completely covered her face and April laughed out loud.
Newt grinned at her with amusement.

'The good news is we got four of these robot sentries,' Hicks walked over to a few boxes with Ripley and Vasquez and opened the lid, 'with display and scanners intact.'
'They kick ass so I think they'll come in handy.'

Ripley was nodding and listening to all of this and spoke, 'how long after we're declared overdue can we expect a rescue?'
Hicks and Vasquez looked at eachother guilty. April took Newts hand and breathed. Wow, this definitely cannot be good.

'Seventeen days.' Hicks concluded. Hudson was back on call after this and swirled around to snap, 'seventeen hours? I hate to rain on your parade but we're not gonna last seventeen hours!'

April flinced. He was right but his negative way of going about things was beginning to bug her out of her wits.
Hudson didn't stop there though and added, getting more riled up by the second, 'those things are gonna come in here just like they did before and get us and eat us and come in-'

'Hudson! Hudson!' Ripley shouted over his panicked state of mind. Hudson quieted down long enough for her to say, 'this little girl survived longer than that without any weapons or any training.'

April looked at him to see how he would respond to that, he did surprise and anger her when he cried, 'well, why don't we just put her in charge?'

That was enough. In April's mind, he'd crossed the line and she rushed at him before anyone could talk. She managed to swipe a pulse rifle from the table before she did though.

Everyone watched in shock and amazement as she pinned Hudson to the wall, a rifle in his face resting against his chin. Nobody could move to stop her.

'Hudson, you better start fuckin' dealing! Because I swear to God, I need you focused.' April spoke sofly as if she wasn't pointing a gun at a soldiers face.
Hudson swallowed, his adams apple bobbing and April lowered the gun. Then she looked at it for a moment, 'hey, this one has a grenade launcher.'

Everyone seemed to be holding their breath because when she smiled, everyone sighed and let out an exasperated breath. Ripley stepped forward and took the gun cautiously from her friend and turned to Hudson, 'can you get on a terminal and draw up some kind of floor plan?'

Hudson took one look at Ripley and back at April who was eyeing the guns newest addition and then nodded and stood.
'Blueprint for construction. Anything that shows this layout. Are you listening to me?'

'Yeah,' Hudson said actually seeming to concerntrate on her words. He was shocked, scared and surprised. But he nodded along and listened carefully to the older woman as she continued, 'I need to see air ducts, electrical access tunnels, sub-basements-'
'Every single possible way those fucks can get into this complex.' April finished.

'Okay.' Hudson said. He didn't seem too gobsmacked about April's whole gun-in-your-face thing anymore. He seemed calm enough to understand the basic instruction.
'I'm on it.'
'Hudson,' Ripley called, 'just relax.'

April and Hudson looked at eachother, the anger gone from her eyes and she exchanged a small smile as an apology.

Someone then made their way past her causing her to jump in the air, startled. This set everyone else off and Hicks had even made a step forward as if to protect her.
Bishop looked around, 'sorry for scaring you.' He picked something up, 'I'll be in Med-Lab. Check on Gorman and continue my analysis.'

April narrowed her eyes, she had a hand on her heart and wasn't sure if she trusted this guy yet.
'Fine,' April sighed placing her hands on either side of the table and bending slightly over in pure exhaustion. Ripley didn't seem to trust him either and said, 'you do that,' and watched him leave until he was out of sight.


Okay, I am so tired right now it's not even possible. I am getting ready to sit down and watch CSI and eat ice-cream and then I am going to watch Copycat!
A classic movie I bought for 1 today. I think it's possible to say I am falling in love with Sigourney Weaver but she's a terrific actress, she was so bad ass in Avatar too when I heard her voice I was like, 'shit yeah! Ripley has come back to fight mother fuckin' BLUE aliens now.'
So yeah, hope you had a nice weekend and enjoy the rest of your Sunday night.

~ Noxin