"Need help moving her?" North asked quietly. York glanced over at him before looking down at Carolina. She had fallen asleep a few minutes in to the movie Ally had picked out and had shown no signs of waking anytime soon. Ally had drug Emma and Doc off to give them a tour of the ship, leaving the three freelancers in the common room.

"Nah, she's good," York answered. His arm had fallen asleep a long time ago, but he was ok with that. He didn't want to try moving her for fear of jostling her injuries. "She said Doc gave her morphine so it was to be expected. Any word from Church?"

"Emma had routed some extra power into the suit so hopefully he's resting too," North side. "She at least got the HUD working on the helmet before we got here. She was trying to reboot the rest of the armor, but I think the fall really did a number on it."

"Burnt out enhancements, yea," York nodded, "I can only imagine."

"It wasn't my fault," Church said appearing in front of them. "Well, not entirely."

"Speak of the devil and he shall appear," North chuckled. "Back to full power yet?"

"No, but I should be able to run the healing unit when she wakes up," Church answered. "I'm still waiting for the pissed off rage to be honest. It was kinda my fault she fell off the cliff. I couldn't stabilize her legs fast enough to keep her from stumbling."

"Don't beat yourself up about it," York shook his head. "I think she was more worried that you were gone. What happened? Why'd you run everything at once?"

"I panicked when she yelled at me to run everything," Church said, shrugging. "Looking back on it, it would've been better to prioritize and just run what she needed when she needed but I couldn't keep up."

York nodded. North had a thoughtful look on his face. "What's up North?"

"Remember the talk we had before I left?" North asked giving York a pointed look. York rolled his eye. "Carolina said this guy told her that Church was failing."

"Whoa, no, I just crashed, that's all," Church interjected. "I'm not failing and I'm not going rampant. I'm fine."

"Yea, but-"

"I'm fine," Church insisted. "In case you guys didn't know this, but I don't have all the special training your AI fragments did. They put me in Wash and took me out right away and locked me away for years before Caboose of all people, took me out of that storage unit. So I'm sorry if I'm kinda lacking a bit in certain things."

He flipped them both off before disappearing. North raised an eyebrow at York who shook his head, "I'd say someone's a little touchy."

"Will you both shut-up," Carolina grumbled from where her face was pressed into York's chest.

"Sorry babe," York chuckled. "I can take you to bed if you want."

"Whatever," was the almost incoherent reply along with he could barely make out about not calling her babe.

"Alright," York smiled, moving to get up. "I'll carry you back. It'll be quieter back there."

"Mmm…"

He propped her up into a sitting position until he could stand up to pick her up, being careful not to jostle her too much before carrying her back to his room. He laid her out carefully on his bed and covered her with the blanket.

"You staying?" she yawned cracking an eye open to look at him.

"I can if you want," he said sitting down on the mattress. She nodded her head slightly. "Let me go check on Ally quick."

"Emma has her. She's fine."

"I know," he chuckled. "Call it my dad instincts needing to be reassured. You just rest up."

She responded by closing her eyes. York chuckled quietly before pushing himself up and leaning over to kiss her forehead before leaving the room. He walked down the hall and found Ally in her room. Doc had what looked like a paper crown on his head and was sitting on the floor next to Emma while Ally played with her hair.

"You kids look like you're having fun," York chuckled.

"We're having a tea party daddy," Ally informed him. "Wanna come?"

"I'm gonna hang with your mom some more if that's ok?" Ally nodded. "Just wanted to come see what you were up to."

"Do you think Uncle North would want to come?"

"You'd have to go ask him," York chuckled. "He was in the common room last I saw him and I bet if you ask him real nice, he could probably provide real tea for your tea party."

"That sounds fantastic!" Ally said jumping up. "I'll be right back!"

Emma watched her run from the room before looking up at York, "How's Carolina?"

"Woke up long enough for me to at least take her back to bed," he shrugged.

"Does she need more pain medication?" Doc asked fiddling with the crown.

York shrugged, "Not sure. Didn't say anything about needing more. Church said he should be able to run the healing unit when she wakes up." Emma nodded. "Thanks for everything."

"Don't mention it," Emma shrugged. "Least I could do. At least my skills are getting put to good use."

"That's true," York nodded. "Were you able to see how Church is?"

"What do you mean?" Emma asked.

"Why he crashed, if it's gonna happen again?"

"I was more concerned at the time of getting him back online so we could get Carolina in her healing unit since it's the only working one we have," Emma sighed fixing a few loose curls that were in her face. "I could look in to it though if that little cockbite will let me."

"That could prove difficult as he thinks there's nothing wrong," York sighed. "But if you get a chance."

"I make no promises."

York nodded. "Understood. Well, you have fun with your tea party."

York turned and left the room. He heard Ally chattering at North down in the kitchen asking him if he had more cookies for the tea party while he headed back to his room. He opened and closed the door as quietly as he could, but it didn't seem to matter. Carolina was staring at the ceiling when he had walked in. She rolled onto her good side and patted the spot on the bed.

"Thought for sure you'd be asleep by the time I got back," he said as he obliged to her non-verbal request. She wrapped an arm around his waist and rested her chin on his shoulder to look at him. "Doesn't laying like that hurt your ribs?"

"A bit, but as long as I don't put too much pressure on them, they're not so bad."

"I'm sure the morphine helps."

"The morphine helps," she smiled. "So what's Ally up to?"

"She is having a tea party with Emma, Doc and I think North is joining. At least, I sent her to go ask North for real tea and on my way back heard her asking about cookies."

"Tea party huh?"

"Yea," York chuckled. "Doc was in a paper crown."

"Was he a pretty princess? And speaking of princess, your sister seems nice."

"I suppose."

"Really loves Ally."

"I've noticed."

"We should keep her around."

York gave Carolina a strange look, "She's not a stray cat or dog. It's not like we're adopting a pet here. She's a person. If she wants to stick around, that's her choice."

"I know that," Carolina rolled her eyes. "I'm just saying, it'd be nice to have her around."

"I agree."

"And North. He needs to stay around now too."

York chuckled softly, "Pretty sure no one is going anywhere."

"Good." She was quiet again. "You should totally get a cat."

"Why would I get a cat? Do I look like Wash?"

"No, but that would keep Wash around."

"Are you ok?" he asked giving her a strange look.

"Doc gave me morphine."

York rolled his eye, "Ah yes. That explains the rambling. Just go back to sleep, sweetheart."

"I could kick your ass if you use one of those stupid nicknames again."

"Yea, sure you could," York smirked. "You're ready to take on a whole army if you wanted."

"Course I can."

"Of course you can," York agreed.

She picked her head up and glared at him, "There was sarcasm in that."

"I don't know what you're talking about. I have full faith that you could take out an entire army," he replied giving her an innocent look. Her eyes narrowed. "I'm serious."

"You're not. You're just trying to stay on my good side so I don't kick your ass. Again."

"When haven't you kicked my ass?"

"Damn straight," she muttered before putting her head back on his chest. York smiled at her before wrapping an arm gently around her waist and putting the other behind his head.

Carolina let out a soft groan as her ribs panged. She had tried to rollover in her sleep and must've shifted wrong. She propped herself up slowly to see York asleep, his back to her. Checking the time, she decided she had probably slept enough and pushed herself slowly out of bed, testing weight on her ankle before heading to the door.

Unfamiliar with the ship's layout, she picked a direction down the hallway, hoping it was the way to the hangar and limped down it, steadying herself on the wall as she walked down the hall. Eventually she reached a junction and decided to take a break, leaning against the wall to catch her breath.

"Momma?" Carolina turned to look behind her and gave a wave to Ally who was rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, her hair all tousled. "Where you going?"

"To check on Church," Carolina answered. "I'm hoping he could run the healing unit in my suit for me for a little while."

"Need help?"

Carolina smiled, "I think I could use your help, yea. I have no clue where the hangar is if you want to take me there."

"Ok," Ally nodded, yawning as she walked to Carolina and held out a hand. "You're close. It's down this way a little. We can go slow."

"Thanks," she chuckled. "Not too slow though."

"Feeling any better yet?" Ally asked as they moved down the hallway.

"Not much," Carolina admitted. "But if Church has the healing unit going, I can heal a lot faster."

"But then you get to leave a lot faster too." Carolina paused as Ally looked up at her, "It's ok. I know you have stuff you have to do. Besides, the sooner you get it done, the sooner we get to be a family."

"That's very true," Carolina smiled as they started moving again. "Have you been having fun hanging out with your dad?"

"Yea," Ally nodded. "We watch movies and Grifball and he shows me fighting stuff and tells me stories. There's the button for the hangar." Carolina pressed it and followed Ally in. "You can hold my hand to get to daddy's ship if you need to."

"Thanks," Carolina chuckled. Ally helped her walk across the open space to the ship and up the ramp. She sat down in York's computer chair when they got there, her ankle throbbing a bit. "Wanna do me a favor?"

"Sure!"

"My under-armor is in the bedroom I think. Could you go grab it for me?"

"I can do that no problem," Ally nodded heading into the room.

"Church?" Carolina called. His hologram appeared on the table.

"Oh, hey Carolina," he greeted. "How ya feeling?"

"Much better if you tell me you can run the healing unit on my suit."

"Then I say you'll be feeling much better then," he chuckled.

"Great," she nodded as Ally came back out.

"Hi Ghost-man!"

"Hey kid," Church laughed. "You helping your mom out?"

"Yea. She needs it whether she'll say so or not," Ally told him as she handed Carolina her under-armor. "Which according to daddy, she'll never actually say she needs help so we should just help her without her asking."

"Your dad would be right," Church agreed.

Carolina rolled her eyes, "I do not do that."

"Yes you do," Church said. "What else does your dad say, Ally?"

"Lotsa stuff," Ally giggled.

"What kinda stuff?"

"All sorts of stuff," Ally shrugged as she sat down at the table.

"Yea, but what kind of stuff?" Ally gave Church a suspicious look. "You're not going to tell me?" Ally shook her head at him, giving him a big innocent smile. "Fine. Where is he anyway?"

"Sleeping," Carolina answered. "If he weren't, I'm sure he'd be in here lecturing me."

"Only cuz he loves you," Ally added.

"Which is why I haven't killed him yet," Carolina joked making Ally giggle. She pulled on her under-armor and limped over to where her armor was piled and started slipping on the pieces, moving carefully so as not to jar her ribs too much. Ally had come over and helped by handing her some of the pieces she could manage to lift. As soon as everything was on, not including her helmet, Church started running her healing unit. She let out a sigh of relief as the coolness set in on her shoulder and her ankle. Her ribs still hurt, but it wasn't as bad. "Oh that feels wonderful."

"Ribs are gonna take a bit to get healed up," Church advised after checking over her himself. Carolina stretched her shoulder out. It was stiff, but at least now she was able to move it a bit more than she had been. "I'd still take it easy for a bit though."

"Can't do that," Carolina said limping off the ship to where she had more room to move around. Ally hopped off her seat and followed her.

"That really wasn't a suggestion," Church replied appearing next to Ally. They both watched Carolina as she stretched, watching how she moved so as not to aggravate her injuries too much.

"If I wait any longer, things are going to get stiff. You're running the healing unit, I'll be fine," Carolina grumbled.

"Has your dad mentioned how stubborn she is?" Church huffed to Ally.

"Yea," Ally giggled. She put her hands on her hips and gave Carolina her best stern look she could muster, "Don't push yourself too much, momma. You're still hurt and need to rest."

"I won't."

"Daddy says you push yourself all the time."

"Your dad isn't always right."

"Yes, but I think he's right this time," Ally sang as Carolina rolled her eyes. "I can go get him and he can yell at you himself."

"No, that's quite alright," Carolina shook her head before falling forward and catching herself in prep to start doing push-ups. She let her shoulder adjust and mentally checked over her ribcage before lowering herself to the ground. When she felt her shoulder was going to hold up well enough, she started doing them quicker.

"Momma-"

"Ally," Carolina paused, "Enough. I know what I'm doing."

"Bu-"

"If you're not going to stand there and be quiet, then go find something else to do," Carolina said as politely as she could through gritted teeth. She heard a huff and small footsteps stomp off, the hangar door slamming shut.

"She does have your temper," Church chuckled.

"Shut up."

"She's right."

"Shut. Up."

"You know she's probably going to get York now, right?"

Carolina ignored him, gritting her teeth in frustration, "Just run the healing unit."