She was so much like Wash and I, but at the same time, she was her own person too.
Sitting up, the young ebony haired girl looked around. It was quiet and dark in the commander's home, and she was still tired. The three of the adults stayed up most of the night, so as soon as they all walked in they just crashed. The older Commander was resting in the middle of the couch, Alicia on his left, her head resting on his shoulder and her nose pressed against his neck. Mary was pressed against his other side, actually feeling comfortable with him holding her as a parent would their child. Her head had been rested on his pectoral muscle when she heard a noise.
Tip toeing to her room where the noises were coming from her room. Opening the door, she found everything messy, but otherwise unharmed and the flyers gone. Reaching into her shirt, she grabbed the picture tucked in her bra and looked at it with a sad smile. Taylor had mentioned giving her a picture frame so she could put it on her bed side table.
She stepped in and a noise made her freeze. A flyer darted from the shadows and shooting straight for her, its claws digging into her hair, and attacking her delicate scalp before a set of large hands wrapped around it and its neck was twisted around until it snapped.
"Stop moving Mary, let me get it out of your hair." Taylor's soothing rumble eased her as he clumsily removed the dead thing. Another set of hands gently began moving her hair from the wounds.
"Let's go clean th-" Alicia was cut off when Mary dropped to her knees and gently collected the three torn pieces of her picture.
"Mary, we can fix it."
"No, I don't think we can. Well, shit." She showed him the pieces and he touched the already dying paper that had been crumbling. It wasn't salvageable, even he knew that. "Maybe this is the universe's way of telling me to let her go." Letting the pieces fall into the waste basket before walking with Wash to the kitchen to get cleaned up.
Nathaniel reached into the basket and grabbed the pieces. Maybe she had drawings of Melissa?
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Mary sat on porch, watching people clean up the damage as the sun shone brightly over head. Her hair hung wet around her after Wash forced her to take a shower before disinfecting the wounds and applying medicine, but now she was forbidden from pulling her hear back, so it hung past her shoulders and in her eyes.
"Mary?" Wash's voice was soft, she liked it when it was like this. "Nathaniel told me about Melissa." The girl saw the older woman sit by her through her peripherals and a tan arm wrapped around her shoulders letting her rest her head on the older woman's breast bone, just below the collar bone.
"I miss her." She whimpered, her pale, scared arm crossing over and encircling Wash's waist.
"Do you have another picture of her, or something we could put in the picture frame?" the older woman could feel her head nod and pulled her into a tighter embrace. "From what I heard from Nathaniel, she was perfection."
"She was my everything." They whisper was barely heard. Barely.
"Come on." Alicia stood, her hand laced in Mary's, "You had your magical adventure with Nathaniel, now you're going to have a magical adventure with me."
"Uh, yeah, remember last time we went out?" Mary asked as she was pulled along by the woman, "You almost died and I got chased by a Dinosaur, and I don't mean the Commander. It was a fucking disaster."
"Hush and smile." Alicia ordered, hearing Mary snort.
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"Are you a spoiled ass? Yes you are." Mary cooed to the slasher as he laid on his side, enjoying hands of the women on his chest and side. He was actually very soft, down like feathers covering his body.
"You're the one spoiling him." Alicia smiled as Mary huffed at her. She rose, her hand moving to her belt where a knife hung. "Let me see what you can do." Wash tossed her the knife, watching her snatch it from the air almost expertly.
"Get ready for the most beautiful thing you have ever seen."
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Page after page in this particular journal was filled with portraits of the blond young woman that Mary had loved. And some of them had such detail…these were far from simple sketches. She was a master with the pen and paper. However, Nathaniel had the Journal as reference for the recreation.
"So can you do it?"
"Do I look like an idiot?" Malcolm asked, actually irritated that he was being pulled from more important cases to fix a photo. A crappy one at that. "Leave it here and it will be done by three." Nathaniel shook his head and rubbed his face. He needed more sleep. However, there was a colony that needed running.
Walking down the street, he fell into a slow gate with Guz, the man using a cane to help himself along. "How are you doing?"
"Taylor," Guz said calmly, "If you ever told me that there would come a day where I would have to take heavy pain killers and still almost pass out when I take a leak, I would cuss you out. But now..." He slowly, like a young child, took a step at a time up to the command center.
"I'll tell Mary not to come near you." Nathaniel patted his shoulder, he truly pitied the man after knowing just how much power runs through the young girl.
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"And where did you learn that?" Alicia was quiet surprised by the young girl. She had excellent flexibility and the older woman wanted to see her in a real fight. One of the advantages Mary had was that she was smaller, which meant she could move faster, but she also had to get closer to an enemy.
"You know, here and there, after getting into a few fights. Melissa knew this old army guy who taught me more, and I kinda just went from there." Sitting on the ground, the girl smiled up at Alicia. "Hey, why does that Boylan man think you and I are related?"
"Well, you cuss like a sailor." Wash started, her dark eyes looking over the smaller and younger version of herself. "Boylan was one of the few that came to Terra Nova and Knew back when I was a fresh. He has a picture of me the day I met him. You look a lot like I did." Taking the young girl's hand, she petted the soft skin of her scar. "Mary, I don't want you to become like me."
"Why? You're cool."
"Because," Wash laid back in the grass. "The road to wisdom and the road of pain are one in the same. Taylor knows it better than anyone, and so do I, but you are like a pretend daughter for me and the boss which means you will never be in the position I found myself over and over again."
"WHOA! When did this conversation turn to sex?" Mary's eyes were wide. "I don't want to know what positions you two use! Oh Fuck, my brain, my I. Q. is dropping by the second."
Alicia sat up as she rolled around in the grass, clutching her skull and crying about broken brain syndrome. Reaching over she thumped Mary, before her fingers started dancing down her ribs, eliciting high pitch laughter. "Get your head out of the gutter girl."
"I'm sorry, but I like to keep things happy, plus you make it really easy." She grinned as Alicia's eyes narrowed. Letting out a squeal she jumped up and started running as the older woman chased her. Running to a large knotted tree, the slasher started after them at a lazy gate.
Finding hand holds, she started up the tree, a big smile on her face until she got about ten feet up, where she could find no more hand holds.
"What are you doing?" Alicia asked as she started up after Mary.
"This tree is amazing. Think it would make a good house." She dug her knife into the bark. "Throw me your knife. I want to see the top." Alicia shook her head.
"Come down, we can get a ladder and come tomorrow." Alicia watched with a chill up her spine as the girl remained above the Lieutenant. She finally made a slow descent back to the forest floor where Alicia slung an arm over her shoulders. "Let's go home, plus your dino's going off." She nodded towards the creature that was stomping away with its tail high, a sign that the animal was hungry.
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Taylor took another sip of the hard scotch, sitting on the couch and waiting for his women to come home. He stopped for a moment, thinking, he was beginning to fall into the family man role again, the last time this happened, it was in Somalia-
"Commander," Alicia walked into the house, Mary behind her. They both looked happy, and sun kissed. "Sir, do you want to go out tonight? For dinner, the market is still open." His chilly blue eyes flicked between the two smiling women. They could be sisters, or mother and daughter. It was kinda scary. He leaned back against the chair as Mary ran into her room.
"Sure." Rocking forward to stand, a ninety pounds of a person collided with him, forcing him back. "Oh." His brows rose in surprise as his hand came up to pat her back. Mary shifted her head so she could whisper in his ear.
"How did you bring her back to me?" He felt a wetness on his neck and it took him several moments to realize she was crying. He couldn't help the smile as she squeezed him one last time before leaning back.
"I'm Commander Nathaniel Taylor, what can't I do?"
"Okay, Taylor Almighty." Alicia laughed, "So what has he done to earn the devil's favor?" Mary twisted around and ran to her room only to return with a picture frame. In the frame was a photo or a fourteen year old blonde beauty with the most arresting blue eyes. The entire photo had the color strengthened which made the girl in the photo look healthier.
"How did you do it?" Mary asked again as Alicia looked at him with the slightest upturn of her lips and eyes filled with mirth.
"I had one of mine fix it. Otherwise what would I do with that frame?" She smiled at his lame excuse and hugged him again.
"Thank you so much." She whispered before running to her room.
"Looks like I am making dinner here." Alicia walked forward and laid a kiss on his white haired head.
"Hey." He looked at her, knowing this platonic form of affection in their relationship. She had never gone further than kissing his hair.
"Shut up, it was a peck and no one saw-"
"Or so you think." Mary said, leaning against the hallway wall. "Yeah, yeah, I know, go to my room." She turned on her heel and left as Alicia started in the kitchen, a smile on her lips.
"And who said you can't teach an old dog new tricks."
"What's a dog?" Mary asked from her room, pulling a surprised laugh from Nathaniel.
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