"So Lasky here," Garth laughed, "Lasky opens the door and bam! Giant bucket of syrup falls on her and Sam and I hit her with the bags of feathers from the chickens the town over had butchered the day before. You should've seen the look on her face. I think Sam was pulling feathers out of every orifice she could find."
"Something like that," Emma rolled her eyes as North laughed.
York squinted at Garth, "Wait..."
"What part of that did you misunderstand?" North chuckled.
"Um, the part where he referred to Sam as a 'she'..." York trailed off looking at Emma.
Emma shrugged, "Never said Sam was a guy."
"Sam was a chick?" York gaped.
Emma rolled her eyes, "Yes."
"Wow...things I did not realize about you," York chuckled scratching the back of his neck. He looked at North, "Did you know this about your wife?"
"Didn't need to because it doesn't really matter," North shrugged as Emma looked up at him.
"So you told them about Sam, but not that Sam was a girl?" Nick asked taking a swig of his beer.
"It never came up and it's in the past," Emma shrugged.
"Speaking of past," Garth nodded, "What the hell happened to you? We were all pulled in for investigation and you go and disappear on us."
Emma sighed, "My father pulled strings to get me out of it so that he could use me as a nanny. Once the Mother of Invention came down, Carolina was kept somewhere and was pregnant. The Director took the baby and gave it to my father since she was his grandchild because of York. I got to spend the next eight years raising her on his ship before York and Carolina showed up to get her. Then I got drug into their crap and this one here was very persistent in his pursuit and low and behold my current state."
"You make it sound like I forced you into this," North rolled his eyes as Emma leaned back against him.
"Yea Em, pretty sure it was both sides there," York added.
"Oh you shut up," Emma grumbled.
"So if all that was recent," Garth leaned forward, "when did you two find time to get hitched and pregnant?"
"No judging," Emma ordered. They both nodded. "Eloped right after everything when we all took vacation and yea, vacation."
"Jeez Las, way to not waste time," Nick chuckled.
"Hey, I said no judging asshole," Emma growled.
"Not judging," Nick smiled at her. "Just commenting."
"I don't want to hear it either," Emma smiled. She looked at Garth, "Especially from Mr. Silent next to you."
"I didn't even say anything!" Garth defended himself. "Jeez. You got bitchy."
"You haven't seen the half of it," York grinned as Emma turned to shoot him a death glare. The front door opened and Ally came running in, jumping onto his lap. "And here she is. Guys, this is Ally. Ally, these are Nick and Garth. They were in your Aunt's squad."
"Yea, Momma told me after she picked me up," Ally replied. She looked at Nick and Garth, "Hi Nick and Garth!"
"Hello," Nick smiled. "Aren't you a cutie."
Ally gave him a shy smile as she tucked her head against York, Carolina sitting on the arm of the chair they were sitting in.
"I know Wash said he had things to do tonight," Carolina said as York put a hand on her knee. "Is South coming?"
"I mentioned it to her," North shrugged. "She didn't give me an answer either way so I guess we'll find out."
"Who's South?" Garth looked between everyone.
"My twin," North answered.
"We...we thought she was dead," Nick added looking confused.
"To be honest, we thought York and North were dead too until we heard otherwise," Garth pointed out. "Maybe this was another one of those cases, Nick."
"Maybe," Nick agreed seeing the quick look that Emma and Carolina exchanged before Emma excused herself to go check dinner. "Who needs a beer?"
Emma didn't hear the responses, but was well aware when Nick came into the kitchen. She looked over her shoulder to see him bringing empty bottles over the sink. He leaned against it and raised an eyebrow at her.
"What?" Emma asked after placing a lid back down on the pot.
"You know what," Nick answered, voice barely a whisper. "I still remember your ticks, even if your new friends haven't learned them all yet. What's up? Do I need to look into something for you?"
Emma glanced at the doorway out to the living room before looking back at him. "As a matter of fact, yes. I need to know who's running cryogenics labs, legal or otherwise and if there's any orbiting near enough for an escape pod to reach here."
Nick nodded, "Done. Any news about your father?"
"I was hoping you could tell me if you'd heard anything cuz I know I haven't," Emma sighed.
"Anything for you," Nick smiled. "How far are you?"
"Twelve weeks," Emma put a hand on the small bump she had.
Nick pushed off the counter and kissed the top of her head before walking to the fridge to grab beers. "Really happy you found someone, Em. Sam would be too."
"Thanks. How bout you and Garth?"
"Well, when we're not out on assignment, we share a nice little rancher back on Earth that requires zero upkeep thankfully."
"Who gave in first finally?" Emma asked giving him a wicked grin.
"Sam would've won that bet," Nick chuckled. "Took Garth a whole other year after you were gone. In fact, I think the fact we didn't have you around anymore really opened his eyes to my way of thinking."
"Sure it did," Emma rolled her eyes following him back out to the living room.
"How's dinner?" North asked when she joined him.
"Almost done."
"What are you making?" Carolina asked trying not to sound too curious.
"Chili. I've been craving something spicy."
"Ooo good. Me too."
The alert on her data-pad went off. Emma grumbled quietly before rolling over towards the bedside table where it was sitting. Squinting at the screen, she sighed when she saw it was Church. She sat up and folded the blankets off of her before crawling out of bed.
"Everything ok?" North mumbled.
"Yes," Emma answered walking around to kiss his forehead. "I'll be right back."
"Where are you going?" he asked sitting up slightly.
"Have to go check something quick. Ten minutes I'll be back. Go Back to sleep and keep the bed warm," she left the room before he could respond and grabbed her light jacket off the rack near the door before heading out to the Facility. Two minutes later she was unlocking her office and turning on her computer. Church appeared while she was waiting for it to boot up.
"Sorry for waking you," he replied.
Emma shook her head, "Don't worry about it. I want to get to the bottom of whatever it is and if that means you waking me up then so be it."
"Yea, but you're pregnant. You need your sleep."
"Hey better now than when I'm farther along," Emma shrugged as she started tapping on keys. She finished running the code and pulled up the results, scanning over them. "That's weird..."
"What?" Church asked disappearing and reappearing over her shoulder. "Oh. That is weird."
"I'm going to have to set up a security scan," Emma sighed. "If it's something internal like this says it is, then I need to fix it now. Was there anyone in here at all? Like in the Facility itself, not just the computer room."
"Um. A few of the recruits were here late, but that's it," Church replied. "At least as far as I'm aware. I don't know how long I blacked out for."
Emma nodded, "Which recruits?"
"Um...Piper, Diaz, Miller, Jensen and Palomo," Church rattled off.
"I'll talk to them in the morning," Emma sighed. "If I don't get back, North's going to come looking for me."
"I'll up security temporarily until you come back in the morning."
"It'll have to do. I don't know when I'll be in. Nick and Garth stayed at our place instead of back at the base."
"Just go get some sleep," Church replied. "I'll be ok until the morning."
Emma closed everything down before saying goodnight again and heading home. She had been surprised to see that North had actually listened to her and stayed asleep. She crawled back in next to him and found out he had only half-listened when he rolled over and wrapped an arm around her.
"Everything ok?"
"Course."
"You going to tell me what couldn't wait until morning to go check?"
"Church is having a problem. I told him to let me know the next time it happened so I could track it right away," Emma sighed figuring she might as well tell him.
"And it couldn't wait?"
"No. When I went to look for it, there was no trace. I needed to check for it immediately after it happened. Can I fall back asleep now or are you going to keep talking to me?" Emma yawned.
"Yea, sorry," North sighed.
"Now you are to contact us the second that little sweety pops out of your special place, understood?" Garth asked as he rubbed her small bump.
"I've forgotten have eloquent with words you are," Emma laughed.
"You've missed me," Garth wrapped her in a hug.
"Course I have," Emma smiled releasing him and hugging Nick next. "You two better keep in touch and take care of each other."
"Don't have to tell us that," Nick winked. He lowered his voice, "And I'll look into what you asked me too."
"Thanks, I appreciate it," Emma nodded crossing her arms. "You don't know how awful I feel keeping this from North. He's going to be so pissed off at me."
"We'll get to the bottom of it. Honestly, I think it suspicious enough she's stayed hidden the entire time we've been here," Nick replied looking around the lobby.
"Plus he'd be an idiot to be mad at you for long," Garth added. "If you need anything else, call us, message us, etc. We'll get on the first shuttle here."
"I am beyond happy you two showed up. I was just about ready to see about tracking you down to be honest," Emma smiled.
"Sure you were," Garth winked. "Cuz I'm sure that tall drink of handsome wasn't occupying all your time. He does realize you're a workaholic right? That he may have to just show up nude to pull you out of that office of yours, right?"
Emma rolled her eyes, "Sam never actually did that. She just told you that to shut you up."
"Damn, you just ruined one of my fantasies..." Garth huffed. "Still, I may have to message him that option should he ever need to use it."
"Alright, come on Garth," Nick chuckled. "Las got work she has to get back to."
Garth gave her another hug before they both turned to leave the Facility. Emma watched them leave before giving a sigh and turning to go to her office. Carolina was sitting in one of the chairs picking through a bag of trail mix she was holding.
"Ya know, they need to put more chocolate in these things," Carolina replied thoughtfully as Emma walked around to sit at her computer.
"Or just buy a bag of chocolate and eat that," Emma chuckled.
"York won't let me," Carolina sighed. "And he has Church on alert for any hidden in my office."
"You're going to let some silly AI stop you?" Emma asked.
"It's not the silly AI I'm worried about…" Carolina grumbled. "Your friends seem nice. You guys seem like you were really close."
"We were. There were five or us and they had us shoved basically in the same quarter of the base so we were around each other a lot," Emma replied. "I asked Nick to look in to a few things, see if they can find anything I can't."
"You trust them?"
"With my life," Emma nodded. "They were the best back-up any of us could've had and we all knew it was a mistake when they sent Sam and Parker without any." Carolina nodded. "Plus there are certain things I don't actually have access to without setting off major alarms in the UNSC database and I figured we'd prefer to keep this quiet."
"Definitely," Carolina chuckled.
"So do we have any idea where the subject in question is hiding?"
Carolina shrugged, "She's been floating around. I think I saw her out with Wash this morning running through drill with the recruits. Besides, shouldn't you be able to get that information from the AD you gave her?"
"You would think," Emma scoffed. "There's some kind of interference with it anytime I go to check it."
"That doesn't bode well."
"No it doesn't."
"How soon do you think they'll have information for you?"
"Nick was always quick about things, so hopefully by the end of the week."
Carolina nodded, "We may have to let North know what we've been doing depending what they come up with for you. We're going to have to question South and we won't be able to do that without him in the know about why."
"I know," Emma sighed.
"Is that something you're going to be ok with or should I have York do it?"
"Let's wait and see what happens. He's going to be pissed at me no matter who tells him about it."
"Hey C, question," Wash asked walking in to her office.
"What's up?"
"I know you said Tucker said they were going to stop at one of the cities, but what if I took a small team out and met up with them somewhere? It could be a weekend thing and get some of the recruits more experience out in the field."
Carolina leaned back and thought about it for a moment. "Who would you want to take?"
"I'm thinking Miller, Ross, Smith and Bitters," Wash answered.
Carolina nodded, "And would there be any way possible I can convince you to take South with?"
"South? Why?"
"Emma's waiting for some information to come back to her and we need to sit down with North," Carolina sighed.
"So you want South out of the way so you can deal with him in the meantime?" Wash asked.
"Yup. Then hopefully that would give him time until you got back for him to calm down and be rational so we can question her if need be."
"You sound like this information you're waiting on will probably not be in everyone's best interest…"
"There's other things going on right now that have cause for concern," Carolina replied.
"Got it," Wash nodded. "Yea I guess."
"Will you be alright with her going?"
"I'll have the recruits to worry about so yea, I should be fine. I'll shove her in the warthog with the girls if anything," Wash shrugged. "Ross and Miller both can take her."
"Call back here first thing if there's a problem."
"Of course," Wash chuckled.
