Disclaimer: Terra Nova is not mine.
"That's who we are, Maddy - children who had to grow up in the shadow of our father's failures. It isn't fair or right, but that was the lot we both were cast. We have to live with the punishment that someone else incurred. It doesn't matter what we do or where we go - that specter will hang over our heads every day of our lives. There's nothing we can do to change that. We just have to keep living with it. You understand, don't you? You know what it's like even if you don't want to admit it."
She was getting used to his tendency to monologue. It was a part of the background noise of her days, and she had learned to keep her attention half tuned in case something was said that required a response on her part. (That was usually not the case. He seemed mostly content that she had to be present to hear whatever it was he was saying on any given day.) She listened while she worked on whatever project she currently had in front of her - giving whatever it was and whatever thinking she was dedicating that section of the day to the majority of her attention. The topics of his talks shifted (sometimes multiple times in the same conversation), but the theme that she should understand him was underlying in them all. She had listened to the fundamental unfairness of the Terra Nova system, how the Terra Nova system had never really been intended to be a permanent system anyway, how much better off everyone would be if they used Terra Nova as a resource instead of an escape, and lots and lots of ramblings about fathers in general and attempts at comparisons between his and hers in specific.
She might not dedicate a lot of her attention to what he said at any given time, but that did not mean that she did not roll the words around in her head and consider their implications in quiet hours (hours when he wasn't standing over her shoulder or hovering in her vicinity and adding to her constant state of edginess). She did not have an opinion on Terra Nova any longer. It had been a fairy tale of a dream once, but she no longer had time for fairy tales of that nature. Maybe it was better to find ways to use the resources in the most responsible and efficient way possible. Those hadn't been considerations back in the days that it had been a one way only trip. That was different now. Maddy was different now.
The most important aspect of the fact that the portal now went in both directions to her was that she could still get back to her family. That was what mattered. That was what she considered important. That was what she had to find a plan for using.
"Me?" He was saying. "Well, I found something deeply satisfying to occupy my time - revenge. I didn't take the petty, personally directed kind either. I made it an art. I've bided my time and bled and suffered for the cause and here it is at last - a destruction of a philosophy. It is a final failure delivered by my hand and so all-encompassing that an intelligent man would understand that he was beaten and concede the point gracefully. Alas, we've never pretended that I inherited my brains from my father."
"Now you," his voice shifted to a strange mix of chiding and amused, "wouldn't like that, would you? Revenge just isn't your cup of tea . . . yet . . . maybe never. You still think things should be fixed. You still think that you can fix things. Some things are beyond fixing, Maddy." He sounded almost sad for a moment as if he was regretting that these were things that he felt he needed to say to her. It did not last long before his voice changed again to something hard and pointed with the intention of wounding.
"There are things that can't be fixed. There are things that can't be changed. Life isn't fair, and it most certainly isn't rainbows and sunshine and happy endings all around. You'll have to get over that sooner or later. Don't frown at me, little girl," his voice shifted again to a tone that was almost teasing (or would have been if it didn't still sound vaguely dangerous). "If you are determined to be a fixer, then I'm all for it. You are just going to have to learn what can still be fixed. This is a gift for you, Maddy," he said making an encompassing gesture with both hands that indicated the whole of the lab. "There is a treasure trove of items at your disposal here for you to explore and manipulate and find utterly brilliant uses for. Think of all the things back in the real world that you might be able to improve. Think of all the people that you can help have a happier ending than they otherwise would have. You'd like that, wouldn't you? To make a difference? To make the world a better place? You can do that here. I can make that happen for you. There might even be some sunshine and rainbows after all."
A sound from the far corner of the lab as two objects not intended to meet clanged against each other interrupted his speech. He snickered under his breath and spoke to the woman that was mopping that section of the floor. She was around quite often, but Maddy had never seen anyone actually acknowledge her presence before.
"Uh-Lee-Cee-Uh," Lucas drawled slowly. "Did the eavesdropping get in the way of your concentration?"
Maddy had the distinct impression that she was seeing the human version of a long ago read story about someone poking a sleeping dragon, but the woman didn't reply. She simply ducked her head down and continued to work.
"So stubborn," he sighed before turning back in Maddy's direction. "People always let you down. You need to learn to stop thinking that it will ever be different. Isn't that right, Alicia?" He tossed over his shoulder. "She could tell you all about that, but she won't. She's too disgustingly loyal for that and just look where that's gotten her." He shook his head. "All of the women in my life are always disgustingly, trustingly loyal to the same man. And he isn't worth it. Really, he isn't. He's never there for them when they really need him to be. Except for you, of course, Maddy dear. I don't have to share you, now do I?"
He brushed a hand over her head smoothing down her hair in something of a possessive gesture that she wasn't sure was directed more at herself or at Alicia. He left the building without further comment.
The woman paused a moment in her cleaning as if waiting for Maddy to say something, but Maddy did not. She turned her head and went back to her work - everything she had experienced was screaming at her that it was far too much like being set up. She did not know whether this was a test or a game or anything of the sort, and she was not going to walk blindly into whatever it was.
She needed to add all of whatever that had been to her observations and asset/liability assessments.