Ok. This one was tough. I tried to do the kiss justice, but it's just SO LOADED that it was hard to do. I struggled with whether or not to have them talk about it, but I kind of felt like with everything that happened afterwards, that it just wouldn't have been Tom's priority. Also, I'm trying to stay canon compliant through season 1, and I just have a hard time imagining them talking about the kiss without affecting their subsequent relationship. So I think I'm going to save it for later. Thoughts?


It had actually been Foster's idea. As Rachel sat there, arguing with Slattery, trying to convince him to let her go rescue the Captain, it had been Foster that piped up in the long silence.

"Why don't we just take Ruskov out, now, if we know where he is? The Doctor's right, he's not just going to give up on us."

"How? The Captain and Tex are on board," Slattery had asked, but Green had understood her question. Rachel watched the SEAL's eyes light up.

"It has to be a covert operation. Get to the ship, rescue our guys, and blow it down to the bottom of the ocean. Cossetti has EOD training. We can sink the Vyerni if we can just get him on board."

Foster nodded. Slattery looked tempted, but shook his head.

"The risk is too high. Ruskov will be expecting us to try something like that to avoid giving up Doctor Scott."

"Then send me," Rachel had said, inserting herself into the conversation. "You can just rescue me too." They were standing around a table and she looked straight into the XO's eyes. Slattery locked eyes with her for a moment before looking away.

"No," Slattery replied. "That's just more risk. Too much risk."

"Look, you said it yourself, they'll be expecting something until they get me. Once I'm on the ship, they'll let down their guard." Rachel crossed her arms across her chest.

Slattery was still shaking his head and was about to speak, but Green interjected before the XO could get in a word. "It's perfect. She can demand to see the Captain and pass him a note. He'll be ready for us. We'll be in and out in minutes."

Slattery's head stopped shaking. Well, Rachel thought, that was a good sign. Green had taken up her position, and Rachel knew better than to open her mouth.

"How the hell is she going to pass him a note? They'll all be captives." Another good sign. At least he was considering it.

Everyone paused, presumably stumped by the question. But Rachel had the answer.

"I'll kiss him."

"WHAT?" Slattery and Green both exclaimed, turning to her like she had just suggesting killing the Captain instead. But Foster smiled.

"That's perfect. Ruskov will assume that's why you came to the ship."

Rachel nodded. Thank god there was another woman here, because the men just looked absolutely flabbergasted.

"Exactly. I'll demand to see that they're alive before I do anything. I can pass him a note when I kiss him. Ruskov will think I love the Captain and that it's why I came. He'll let his guard down even further." Rachel's stomach flipped when she made the comment about being in love with the Captain, but she pushed the thought back down. Not the time.

Green seemed to be considering it. "It could work," the SEAL mused. He leaned forward against the table in front of them, resting his palms flat against the metal surface but looking up at the people across the table. Yes, Green was on her side now too.

Slattery's head was back to shaking. "No," the XO said firmly. "Tom is married!"

"I think Ms. Chandler will understand, just this once, to save her husband's life," Foster said, looking pointedly at the Captain.

"Why not Tex?" asked Slattery to Foster. He wasn't even focusing on Rachel in all of this. Just how she liked it.

Green answered. "Tex is head over heels in love with the Doctor. He'll think it's real and take the note for the Doctor's bubblegum. No, whoever she kisses is going to have to know what's going on in a split second. And that's the Captain."

Slattery's lips were pressed tightly together, and his face clearly broadcasted that he did not like the plan. But, looking at him, Rachel could tell that they had won. He didn't like it, but he didn't have anything better.

"Fine. I'll call Ruskov and tell him we're sending the Doctor. Foster, make sure that we set a course to the Vyerni. Green, I want you to make sure that the doctor takes a gun. Hide it somewhere they won't find when they search her."

They all nodded. Rachel's stomach had butterflies in it, excitement at getting to rescue Chandler mixed with nerves at the danger of it all. She knew, however, that this was the right thing to do. Now that they had the vaccine, Chandler was probably more vital to the mission than even she was.

The group of four went to scatter, but Slattery stopped them. "Wait, one more thing. I want a blade with that note. The Captain will want a weapon."

"Yes sir," Rachel responded. This was about to get very interesting.


Standing next to Tex in front of some mystery door, all Tom could think about was how the hell was he going to get out of here? He was tired and sore and hungry, and the Russians were keeping a very close eye on him. His hands were cuffed, wrists chafing against the metal. Yeah, this looked bad, and he wasn't happy.

But when that door opened to reveal Rachel Scott on the other side, Tom went from unhappy to absolutely furious. He saw her for just a moment, standing in front of him, looking straight at him with those dark eyes.

"What the hell are you doing here?" he asked. This was outrageous. This was nuts. What the fuck was Mike thinking?

Tom barely even noticed that she had lunged at him until her lips met his, her hand coming up to his neck, her fingers in his hair, her body against his. For a second, Tom's mind just went blank, but then, then he felt something hard and plastic pressing against his lips. He opened his mouth, and her tongue shot into his like they were high schoolers. But with her tongue came that plastic something, and suddenly, Tom knew exactly what was going on.

She kept kissing him. He wanted to bring his hands up, to touch her waist or to run his fingers through her hair. He knew that was wrong, and he felt guilty for a second, but he couldn't help it. She was warm and feminine and pressed against him, and all he wanted to do was take her into his arms.

She didn't stop until the Russians yanked them apart. It must have been seconds, but it felt so much longer. Tom secured the package under his tongue and kept his eyes locked with Rachel's. It just felt wrong to think of her as Doctor Scott so soon after a kiss like that. She was looking straight at him, eyes locked, filled with emotion. Tom stared straight back at her, willing her to know that he understood, he knew what had just happened.

He was immediately escorted out of the room, Russian hands rough on his shoulders. He could feel Tex's gaze on him but he didn't have time for that right now. He needed to know what was in that message, and damn it, he needed to talk to Rachel Scott. But the second one would have to wait.


Rachel had done what she could for Cossetti on RIB, but it hadn't been enough. Her cold fingers had fumbled under his jacket, and she'd felt the warm blood pumping out against his skin even as she tried to stop it. After a few minutes, still bumping over the waves on the RIB in the dark, she had turned to the Captain just shook her head.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, the admission painful on her lips. The wind carried the words away, but he understood her meaning. The Captain winced. Rachel couldn't see his eyes in the dark, but she could imagine that they were sad. Chandler handed her bandages from the first aid kit next to him, and she bandaged Cossetti's side, did the best job that she could. It wouldn't be enough.

Cossetti died minutes later, his head cradled in Green's lap, the Captain next to his side. Rachel wished that she could have done more, but she had known that it was futile before she had even touched him.

When they got back to the ship, it was even worse. Rachel watched Green carry Cossetti out, and she followed right behind the Captain. She gave her best smile to Slattery, thankful that they had been able to save Chandler, but also knowing what they had sacrificed. When they got inside, Green took Cossetti into the aft bay, and most people followed.

Chandler, though, took Rachel by the wrist and directed her into another room. It looked like an unused bunk room that had been converted into a storage closet, boxes and canisters everywhere. Rachel had never been there before.

"Sit," Tom directed, pointing her to a singular office chair a few feet from them.

"Why? Rachel asked, but she sat as she had been directed. Tom didn't answer. He walked over to one of the canisters, a first aid canister with a big red cross, and he started going through it. Rachel just watched him. She didn't know why he had brought her here, but she wasn't going to fight it. As much as she hated to admit it, she liked the idea that he had taken her to be alone with him, liked the idea of spending time with him, even if this wasn't the time for those thoughts.

Tom pulled a packet out of the of the first aid canister and ripped it open with his teeth. Rachel watched him curiously. The Captain took a wet wipe from the packet and fastidiously cleaned his hands. He threw the wipe in a small trash bin by the door and then walked over to Rachel, the wipe packet still between his teeth.

"Hands," he muttered, crouching in front of her on his haunches. Rachel held out her hands to him. They were filthy and still had Cossetti's blood on them.

Tom took her hands carefully, pushing her sweater sleeves up to her elbows, and then he slowly started to clean her fingers with the wipes. He focused intently on his cleaning, starting with the left hand. He cradled it in his own hands, so much bigger than hers, cleaning each finger separately. Wherever he touched, Rachel's hands burned like they were on fire. She couldn't tell if it was from his touch or the antiseptic.

Rachel watched the top of his head as he switched his focus to her right hand. She had never expected this, and honestly, she didn't know what to think. The man in front of her was just full of surprises.

When he finished cleaning her hands, Chandler tossed the wipe into the bin a few feet away from them and grabbed a towel on the desk, handing it to her. She guessed it was for her to dry off her own hands. For a second, she felt sad that he wasn't going to do it.

Rachel wiped her hand with the towel as Chandler reached over behind him and grabbed a big canister, dragging it a few feet so that he could sit on it right in front of her. The canister was smaller than her chair and when the Captain sat down on it and looked at her, their eyes were level.

Rachel finished drying her hands, but she held on to the towel. She looked up and met the Captain's eyes. What were they doing in here?

"Ok," Chandler said, breaking the silence. "We need to talk."

"Ok, but don't get mad at Mike. He didn't want me to pass the note by kissing you but I insisted. It's not his fault." Rachel felt like a little kid trying to defend against a parent's accusations, but she didn't want Chandler to be mad at Slattery for something that the XO had opposed. And, a small part of her mind interjected…don't you want him to know that it was your idea to kiss him? Just in case…?

"I'm not here to talk about the kiss," Chandler replied. He was sitting on a bright orange canister, knees awkwardly high, hands resting on them. He was still looking at her, and Rachel went to meet his eyes. They were icy.

"Oh."

"Yes. I'm here to talk about the fact that despite what I have been saying for this entire mission, despite my repeated efforts to keep you safe, you continuously disregard your own safety and the entire mission. This cannot keep happening, Rachel."

Rachel shook her head, avoiding his eyes. She couldn't even bear to face the disappointment in them. "It was the only way, the only way to save you."

"I told you not to save me. The mission can keep going without me, but it cannot keep going without you. Why is this so hard for you to understand?"

Oh, if he only knew why that was so hard for her to understand. Rachel knew exactly why she was willing to put her life on the line for the Captain, and to be honest, it wasn't really all about the mission.

"That's not true anymore. The mission can keep going without me too."

Tom looked incredulous. "And how is that now? How can we keep going without the scientist that insisted a month ago that she was humanity's only hope?"

"Because I made a vaccine." Rachel let that hang in the air for a second. She watched the Captain's face go from anger to shock to something else, something softer. Rachel continued. "I taught Rios how to make it before I left. If I didn't make it, you could have kept going. You're more important than me now. We have a vaccine, we can produce it, and now we need to distribute it."

"You have a vaccine?"

"Well, a prototype. I still need to test it on people, but the monkey lived."

The Captain looked torn between two emotions, between his existing anger and his happiness about the vaccine news. For a second, Rachel thought that she was going to get off of the hook, when the Captain smiled for a heartbeat and mouthed "a vaccine?" But just as quickly, like he remembered why they were there, he turned back to her.

"Even if you do have this prototype, you tested it on one monkey. What if it was the Bertrise of monkeys? What if it was immune? What if you were wrong?" The icy anger was back in his eyes and he was leaning forward toward her, not letting her avoid his gaze.

Rachel didn't even know what to say. She had known that was a risk, of course she did, but it was worth it to save the Captain. Obviously, the Captain disagreed.

"Quincy could have…"

"No!" Tom cut her off, his voice booming, and Rachel actually flinched. He didn't react at all to her fright. "You don't get to put yourself at risk because we have Quincy. He sold us down the river, and he'd do it again. You ARE NOT TO EVER DO ANYTHING LIKE THIS AGAIN! Do you understand me?"

"Ok, ok," she said. "Yes, there were risks, I know, but they were calculated risks. I'm not an idiot."

Tom shook his head. "I'm not sure about that. You don't even know what you risked! Did you know that Ruskov was raping Kelly Tophet? Did you know that I watched him kill his own men? He could have killed you, or worse, the second that you stepped on to that ship, just to keep us from the cure. Did you think about that?"

Rachel had to admit that she hadn't. She started to shake her head, chastised, but the stubborn part of her wasn't willing to give in just so quickly. She knew that the Captain had wanted to be a martyr, but he couldn't actually ask that of them. So she looked back up at him, fire back in her eyes.

"I knew exactly what I was risking, and you're not going to make me feel like a child just because –"

Rachel was cut off when Chandler stood up abruptly, sending the metal canister on which he had been sitting careening across the room.

"I'm NOT listening to this. I'm tired of trying to protect you. Fine, kill yourself if you want, but I hope you think about the people on this ship and their families that are waiting on your vaccine!" the Captain yelled, slamming the door behind him as he left.

Rachel was left sitting in the empty room, the towel that he had given her still in her hands. That had not gone the way she had expected.