Author's note: And the action just starts ramping up! Haha. This chapter was pretty tough to write, but it's definitely a...different one! You'll see what I mean ;)! Haha. Now! I know I keep saying it, but literally, you are all the best readers I could ever ask for! I had two AMAZING gifts yesterday. One from the lovely Vaarna, who made me some amazing fanwork for this story :)! I'm hoping this works, remove the spaces. . (com)/post/ 16183687667/ inspired-by-missjunies-fic-its-probably-nothing. AND the amazing ShellyStark created an amazing story based off some events in here. . (net)/s/ 7759086/1/Breakfast_Bound. Again, remove the spaces and if it doesn't work, just look her up. But, THANK YOU so much ladies! Literally, you are all the most amazing fans I could ever have!
Disclaimer: I OWN THE RIGHTS...To my bedroom, to my computer. Oh, but to Fox and Terra Nova? No. Sorry.
Skye huffed in annoyance, swatting at yet another branch. Her whole life seemed to be walking lately. Lucas had retrieved breakfast by the time she'd woken up, and had been silent the whole time, not looking at her, staring intently at the papers he'd retrieved as though they were the most important thing in the universe. He'd known as soon as she finished the last of her breakfast though, and with a muttered "Let's go," they were setting off back to the Sixer camp.
He seemed to have unlimited energy, even with his healing wounds and Skye glared at his back. He'd been giving her the silent treatment since she'd first arrived at the Sixer camp and while it was on and off, it unnerved her. She should be the one giving him the silent treatment. She'd done nothing wrong. Well, she'd shot him yes, but it wasn't as though he'd given her a choice. Now he was making her feel like she was in the wrong when he'd been the one trying to destroy so many people's lives.
Lucas was well aware of Skye's gaze searing into his back, and strongly resisted the urge to rub the back of his neck. He'd decided last night that that would be his last night of weakness. Ignorance was bliss. Soon enough, he would be healed, the portal would be reopened, and she would be gone. He ignored the clench of his chest at this thought. He could control his emotions. She was nothing to him. Nothing but a distraction, and distractions could be easily replaced.
They continued the rest of the journey in silence, both determined not to speak to the other unless the other broke first. They finally reached the edge of the camp and Skye sighed internally in relief. What she wouldn't give just to go and sit in the shade and be away from him for a couple of minutes.
"Dr. Taylor." Both Lucas and Skye turned, to see Carter approaching them.
Lucas frowned impatiently. "Yes?"
"Mira needs to talk to you."
"Now?"
"Now." Skye looked curiously between the two men, noting the intense looks passing between them.
Lucas turned to Skye, "You can go to the tree, I'll be there soon." Skye rolled her eyes, finally the idiot said something. Lucas scowled at this, and Skye saw Carter watching the exchange in bemusement.
"Of course, my dear Doctor," she said sweetly. "I'll be waiting with your bandages whenever the Doctor requires." She said sweetly, spun around on her heel, angrily stomping her way over to their house. Hold on, she stopped her thoughts quickly. Just when had she started to think of it as their house? She needed to get back to Terra Nova, and quickly.
Skye climbed the ladder to his treehouse, cursing the entire way. Who was he to act like she was in the wrong? She wasn't the one who was supposed to be being ignored, she was supposed to be ignoring him! And then he finally talks to her when he feels like it. Absolutely crap. She pulled herself over the platform and pushed aside the entrance, stopping quickly in shock. The inside looked like a mini-tornado had swept through it, everything out of its place, papers scattered everywhere. A hand suddenly slapped over her mouth and another clamped around her waist, and she screamed, sound muffled by the hand on her mouth, her elbow jerking back to the person holding her, flailing wildly, trying to hit her attacker. "Hmph." Came the grunt behind her, "Settle down, Beauty. I'm not going to hurt you." David crooned.
Skye gagged in revulsion. He smelled rancid, and his palm was slippery across her face. She tried to scream again, and lifted her legs up, causing David to let go of her mouth, wrapping both hands around her waist to stop her from falling, and she screamed as loudly as she could before he slapped his hand back on her face.
Carter turned to Lucas. "Trouble in paradise?"
Lucas grunted in response, not bothering to respond. "Where is she?"
"She's at the command tent."
"Do you know if she found it?"
"Yes, but she's not sure whether it's right."
Lucas rubbed his hand across his eyes. This decision could be instrumental for his plans, and he had to make sure that he wasn't being distracted by anything. A high pitched noise quickly sounded its way across the camp, and Lucas spun around, trying to identify it. Carter shrugged, "We've had a lot of Slashers in the area lately, it's probably just them." Lucas nodded slowly.
Skye drummed her heels backwards on David's shins, hands clenched into fists, hitting as much of himaas she could behind her while David struggled to keep one arm around her waist and the other hand lifted to her mouth again, trying to silence her screams. "Shut up!" He growled, trying to keep as quiet as he could, repeating himself until she calmed down somewhat. "I need to know where the papers are. Where are they?" He hissed loudly.
Skye stopped squirming for a second. "I'm going to take my hand off your mouth for a second and so help me if you scream!" He said warningly. Skye nodded quickly, and David slowly took his hand off her mouth, and she let out another ear-piercing scream. He quickly let go of her, spun her around and punched her in the face, knocking her out, watching the quick look of surprise before she slumped to the floor unconscious.
Lucas paused, hearing the noise again. He looked at Carter, who was looking back at him. "Probably a Slasher." Carter shrugged at him, and Lucas held up his hand, indicating silence.
The sound came again, a high-pitched scream that time, and Lucas knew exactly who it was, his face turning pale, and quickly spun on his heel, racing to the treehouse, Carter following him.
Lucas climbed the ladder to the top as quickly as humanely possible, just in time to see David punch Skye out cold. His mind filled with rage and he rushed forward, left arm cocked, as David turned around hearing the noise, and using every ounce of his strength, punched David full in the face, noting with cold satisfaction the sound that the punch had made and the look of pain as the bastard slumped unconscious to the floor. He shook his hand, feeling the skin across his knuckles had split open, blood slowly oozing out of cuts, and stepped over the bastard to Skye, tenderly touching her forehead where David had hit her. He turned to Carter who stood behind him, eyes filled with revulsion and hatred staring at David. "Get him out of my sight, and into the brig." He said dangerously.
Carter nodded quickly, and leaned over the balcony, called two other Sixers to the bottom of the ladder. He grabbed David's arms, dragged him to the edge of the balcony, and pushed him over, barely letting the two at the bottom catch him in time. "We'll take care of him."
"See that you do. If he ever see's me again, it'll be the last time." Lucas said quietly, anger underlying his calm voice. He focused his attention back on Skye, flinching at the open cut on her forehead made from that bastard. Through all the violence in his life, everything that he had done, he would never hurt a woman. He had seen enough of that with his mother, and no matter what a woman did, he had never raised his fist to a woman, he was better than that. In that instance, Lucas realized he would never do anything to hurt this woman though again. When he had knocked her out, he had literally had no other option, but now? It would have been impossible for him to do. The woman who had betrayed him more than any other person he had ever known. The woman who had attempted to sacrifice his life for the very person he hated the most in the world. He couldn't ever hurt her, she was too important to him, he knew that there was no point lying to himself anymore. His good intentions from last night flew completely out the window.
She had got so far under his skin that cutting her out would be cutting a part of himself out. When he had recognized her scream, his stomach had curdled, knowing she was in danger. The few seconds that it had taken him to reach her where agonizing, and when he had seen David knock her out, he had wanting nothing more than to punch the bastard to a blood pulp and then feed him to the Slashers. And while he knew that she would betray him again, there was no chance in their situation that she wouldn't, he would forgive her over and over, even at the cost of his own life. He admitted it to himself, he'd fallen in love with her, as much as someone like him could.
He carefully placed his arm underneath her back, curving to swing back under her legs, lifting her as gently as he could into his arms, ignoring the pull at his stitches, and lay her down on his cot. He pulled off her boots, and arranged the blankets over her, knowing that even with the heat of the day, whenever she was asleep, she always liked having a blanket over her, no matter how hot it was. He grabbed one of his shirts, wetting it under the small sink and carefully cleaned up the blood from the cut on her head. It wasn't deep enough that it required stitches, but enough that she would definitely need a bandage when she got up, and probably a lot of ice, not that he could get it around here. Instead, he soaked his shirt for as much as he could and held it to her forehead, wetting it every few minutes until her forehead was cool to the touch.
He sat on the edge of the cot, watching her for a few moments. His gaze flicked up to the cut on her head, fists clenched in the desire to go and punch the life out of David for daring to harm Skye. He knew that he was completely in over his head, and that as much as his head was screaming at him to get as far away from her as possible, it physically wasn't an option for him. She had wormed her way into his life through her Mother, and then cemented her position with all their further encounters. He knew there was no point denying it, she'd become entrenched under his skin, and he didn't know how to get her out.
He tried to change his focus and looked around his tent, standing up gently to avoid rocking the cot, and walked around, straightening his belongings. He was used to living like a nomad, but he was proud of this little treehouse he called one of his homes, and it set his blood churning that the little bastard had come through his home, going through his belongings. Lucas knew that the Phoenix Group was still trying to find another fracture to get back to 2149 and they needed his research to do so. But he didn't know why David would try and steal it, if he even was working for them. His equations wouldn't make sense to them without him, so why would he steal them?
"Lucas?" Lucas spun around to see Skye staring at him groggily, leaning on her elbows on the bed, lifting one hand to tenderly touch her forehead. She hissed as she felt around the lump that had formed under the cut. He walked carefully over to her. "Where's David?"
"He's gone." He said carefully. He knew that David at that moment would be being hauled into the Sixer's version of the brig. It was safe enough until a few days later, when he would be exiled, driven deep into the jungle and left with a knife and a small bag of food. It was too good for him, and Lucas would have happily fed him to the Slashers, but it wasn't his choice.
"What happened? I remember him punching me, but after that…?" She trailed off, shrugging slightly.
Lucas cleared his throat apprehensively. "I heard you screaming, so I came here, saw that, and we, uh, we restrained him."
Skye eyed him skeptically. "You restrained him?"
Lucas nodded slowly.
"Then why is there blood on your knuckles?"
Lucas smirked sheepishly. "His face may have somehow connected with my fist." He sobered. "Bucket, I'm so sorry. It was never my intention to get you hurt, or to get you involved in any of this." He sighed heavily, rubbing a hand over his face.
"Lucas, this wasn't your fault," she said, slightly angrily. "Yes, it's your fault I'm here, but you didn't tell him to hit me. Or did you?" She raised her eyebrows at him.
He stood up angrily, "I would never tell someone to attack a woman-"
Skye held her hand up, "Woah, woah, kidding." Skye paused slightly. "But, what about Wash?" She whispered painfully.
Lucas sighed and looked at the ceiling. "Still alive." He muttered.
Skye gaped at him.
Lucas walked silently across the room and grabbed the gun from his bag, walking back over to her, and flicked it to the lowest setting, and handed it to her. "Great things about these guns, you can put them to whatever setting you'd like. Stun is always a great option." He suggested dryly.
"You stunned Wash?" She said skeptically.
He held his left arm out in front of him and shrugged, "Go ahead, try it. I'll wake up in about 2 and a half hours, with a big headache, but nothing else." He sighed again. "This has always been about my Father, no one else. I thought that if he saw she was in danger, he'd reveal himself. But dear old Dad never follows plans does he?" His voice twisted slightly. He shrugged again. "Go ahead. Shoot me."
Skye raised the gun, pointing it straight at him. "Ever had a gun pointing at you before?" She queried, voice steady.
"Quite a few actually, more than you'd probably think." He smirked slightly.
"Well, I guess I'll trust you then." She flipped the gun around, holding it out for him to take. She felt like a giant weight had been lifted off her chest, which was astonishing considering the events of the day. But more than that, she realized she felt safe. She had known when she had screamed that Lucas would come for her. She didn't know how, she didn't know why, but when she was screaming, it was for him. It wasn't for anyone else to come rescue her. And as much as she hated to admit she needed rescuing, when it was against a man who was easily three times her weight, the odds were slightly unbalanced against her favor.
When she had woken up, she had known instantly she was safe, and that scared her. She shouldn't feel safe here. It was with Lucas, and yet she did. She didn't know why, but she couldn't just blame it on taking care of him anymore. He had wormed himself into her emotions. When she had first met him, she hated him with a blind rage for daring to threaten her Mother. From each subsequent interaction, she couldn't help but feel sorry for him, feel pity for the harsh circumstances life had dealt him. She couldn't help but feel slightly attracted to him, with his devil may care attitude and admittedly handsome, if rugged, features, but he was the enemy. When he had taken over Terra Nova, he had protected her from both colonists and Phoenix Soldiers alike, and while she didn't need it, it had been oddly comforting at the same time as she had hated it.
Then, she had shot him, and before she pulled the trigger that first time, she had felt her heart skip a beat, and she had had to physically force herself to shoot, chest heaving with emotion. The second time she had tears running down her face, feeling a part inside her die, which she had convinced herself had been because she had just killed someone. When she had been kidnapped and forced to heal him, she had thought she would be given redemption, but she had come to see his good side, had slowly coaxed it out of him. His stubbornness to give into something so human as a bullet wound shot, his protective nature of her even when he was almost dead standing on his feet. His intelligence, humour, wit, and their constant battle of wits. He had wormed himself under her skin, and she knew that when she had screamed, it had been for him to come to her aid, no one else. He was under her skin and she didn't know how to get him out, and that scared her like nothing else.
Aaaah, so much angst! I'm sorry. And tomorrow mark's the two week anniversary of this story, wow! This was probably the most difficult chapter to date, but hopefully it went well! As always, drop me a line :)!