Rift 36
It is now one month later
"You're sure about this? It's not too late. I'm positive the town would love to have their sheriff back," Lex asked, making certain of their final decision before she searched for the door and opened it.
As a group they'd had a long talk. Rick had taken to everything in the 1870s far faster than Kate had – if she had at all. They'd covered every possibility that they could think of. However, the allure of leaving 1876 and going to 1999 was just too appealing. Kate wanted a hospital for her pregnancy. She wanted those conveniences that electricity could provide. She also wanted her old job back for various reasons.
Rick was interested in going back to writing books instead of the little pamphlets that he'd been writing. He was willing to admit that he wanted the conveniences that electricity supplied also. And he wanted his bed back. Plus access to all those other restaurants.
Rick and Kate were a little more unsure about it. Yes, she was going back to 1999 but her mother would still be dead. Her loss was hurting her more than the other Kate. The older woman had had longer to become resigned to her mother not being there.
Rick was willing but knew he was going to miss 2327 and what that year provided.
Jim was just happy to have a home again. Kate was happy, both of them. He was still adapting to not having his wife, but he didn't feel the urge to have a drink and thought he never would.
For her part, Lex wanted to be anywhere either of the Ricks and Kates were. Especially where her dad was. If that meant 1876 then that was where she was willing to stay.
"Yes… No… Just open the damn door," Kate told her nervously. Lex looked at everyone else and saw nodding heads.
There was one more thing to consider. Their bodyguard B-5s were down to half power and would need recharging soon. The other B-5s, because they had run down the retreating Indians and killed them, were down to quarter power. They needed to be recharged even sooner.
Lex opened the door, poked her head inside, and sent in the first B-5 followed by Edgar.
"Edgar? You named it Edgar?" Rick hadn't known this until just now.
She defended her choice of names. "I missed you, Dad and besides, we already had a Rick."
One by one everyone followed her and started down the stairs. They encountered their first potential problem when they saw something coming up the stairs.
Lex had never seen anything like them before. There were five all told. They varied in height but looked to be about 6 feet on average. They wore medieval-looking armor and had long swords in scabbards. They themselves looked wrinkled and were yellow in color. It made them look sick. An illness kind of sick.
They had attached feathers, beads, gems, and even bones in various locations. Their clothing, armor, weapons and even their stringy hair was also a little yellow.
Lex placed her back up against the wall and ordered the B-5s to do the same. "No combat!" she yelled, reminding everyone not to attack or do anything that could be perceived as offensive in nature. They had seen what happened if you did.
The creatures coming up the stairs had long since seen them since they were more adapted to this area. They were warriors that were also part pirate. They roamed the planes performing assaults, killing, and plundering. They'd heard the child yell out and it made them growl angrily.
The first one in line actually stopped in front of Lex and leaned way in until it was a fraction of an inch away; it grinned at her. She could smell the stink of its breath and could feel the light spittle hit her face. Lex had lived for over 300 years and wasn't a frightened 16-year-old any longer. She simply stood there and smiled back at him or her. It was hard to tell.
It grunted its disappointment at her reaction and started walking again, growling at everyone along the way. The last one in line, though, stopped at the B-5 standing behind Lex and reached out to touch it.
"NO COMBAT!" she yelled at it. It spun around and started talking to her in a language she didn't begin to understand. More like yelling, actually. It even drew its big sword that Lex could swear was made out of solid silver that had been buffed till it shined if not actually glowed. One of the others yelled out a single word, anyway that was what it sounded like. It sheathed its sword and barked at Lex. At least she took it as a bark. Thankfully it moved on.
They were several stairs away from the last of them when Lex finally let go of the breath that she had been holding and collapsed against the wall. She let her head tilt down and stared at the floor. She was startled and actually jumped when Rick touched her shoulder. "Nice work, Lex. I know a few ship Marines that wouldn't have taken that." He was very impressed with her fortitude.
"Thanks." Not that she was sure she deserved it. "We should go before they change their minds," Lex said, shaking from the adrenaline dump. She had to wait a moment before her legs listened to her command to move.
"What were they?" Kate called out from her place in their long line. There was no answer because no one knew.
Lex stopped at a door after counting each one on the way down. "What do you think?" she asked Rick and the others. "This is the door that leads to where we stayed for several weeks on the way up. The one with that Nazi patrol boat." She didn't want to decide for everyone.
"NAZIS!" Kate exclaimed, sounding concerned.
"We killed them and blew up their boat, although there may be another one by now. Or the place may be inhabited by this point. Plus we used up all the food that we found last time." Granted food wasn't a problem at the moment. They'd filled all of their backpacks with food when they'd left. Unfortunately all of it would perish soon since none of it came in cans.
Rick pulled out a weapon and handed it to Kate, then another for Jim. Kate knew that Kate and her dad were actually good shots, plus Kate was used to shooting at people if she had to. So Lex did the same for them.
"We play it by ear, I guess." Lex opened the door and sent Edgar in first followed by herself, Kate, Rick, Kate, Rick, and then Jim, quickly followed by another two bodyguards. Alexis stayed with hers on the stairs while a B-5 held the door open.
Just minutes later Kate caught up to the others. "I thought you said you blew up a boat here?" She and the others hadn't seen anyone or any evidence of an explosion.
"We did." Even Lex was confused as were Kate, Jim, and Rick. "I'll get the others and see what we have." She headed for the door to get Alexis in here along with all of the B-5s.
It was almost an hour later. They had banded together and were comparing notes.
"So it's just like we found it the first time." Lex didn't understand it, but she wasn't going to fight it.
"Mommy, can I go swimming?" Alexis was standing with them right next to her B-5 and was pointing at the pool.
"Do you think it's safe?" Kate was willing to let her provided Lex and Rick approved.
"I don't see why not." Rick was willing.
"Okay, here's what we need to handle now: we don't have enough beds this time, but I'm sure we can manage. I'm going to try and find a way to plug in the B-5s again. If we stay here long enough we can recharge all of them. Someone want to start dinner?" Lex was done talking and walked away. She had things to do.
"I think that's my cue." Rick checked with Kate first before heading for the kitchen, followed by the other Rick.
"It looks nice," Kate was willing to admit.
"We stayed here for weeks last time and it was starting to feel like home. A little isolated but nice," Kate told her. "I'm going to go get Alexis changed and into the pool. Who ever wants to can join us." Kate took Alexis's hand and went to the room they'd used last time.
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Rick, Kate, and even Jim were satisfied to see Alexis becoming her normal self again. They had been in this house for 5 days and like last time, they were eating the food that they'd found here along with any perishables that they'd brought with them.
The Ricks were presently cooking while the Kates and Alexis were lounging in the pool. Since their town in the middle of Montana didn't have much in the way of lakes and certainly not a pool, plus the fact that Kate originally only had the clothes that she had been wearing. It left her to swim in her bra and panties, since skinny dipping was out of the question.
"Mommy?" Little Alexis had a question.
Kate opened her eyes and looked at her. "What, honey?" She didn't know what to expect.
"Is she Mommy, too?" Alexis asked, pointing at the other Kate. It was the only way she knew to ask her question. There were now two Mommies even if they did look just a little different.
"Kate?" Kate called, which in itself felt weird.
"Hmm?" Kate was content right where she was.
"I think Alexis has figured out that we look a lot alike. I'm Mommy and since you look like me – or are me – she wants to know if you are Mommy, too."
That had Kate opening her eyes and looking at the two of them. She moaned silently. It sounded a lot like a mommy moment and she just knew she was going to suck at being a mommy. It was why she was so glad to have Castle with her. He was a million times better at this than she ever would be, she was sure of it. Still Kate had to think fast. She stepped in closer. "This Kate is your mommy. I'm her sister, not your mommy. We just look a lot alike." Kate hoped a five-year-old was mature enough to understand that.
"Sister?" Alexis had to think about that.
"Yes, sister. The same mommy and same daddy...sister." Even if clone was a little more accurate. Just barely.
Alexis thought she understood and reached out her arms to Kate who reluctantly took her into her arms. Kate knew she was going to have to get used to this soon. Although she found that having Alexis in her arms was somehow calming and she hugged her a little tighter.
"Sister," Alexis said happily. Kate knew she had it wrong from her perspective. She was more an aunt than Kate's sister, but she went with it and just kept hugging her partly because it felt nice.
"She really knows how to wrap a person about her little finger." Kate chuckled since she knew she had been a goner long ago.
Kate just smiled. "Yeah." She was willing to admit that this little girl was going to get what she wanted whenever she asked for it. "I don't even know if mine is a boy or a girl."
"Lex might be able to fix that if you want to know. We're all alive because of her." Kate was more than willing to acknowledge that Lex was the leader of this little group and she certainly didn't have a problem with that.
Kate relinquished Alexis to Kate and found that as she was getting out of the pool that she kind of missed not holding onto her. She dismissed the feeling but it still lingered.
It took some searching but she found Lex with a B-5 unit out by the windmill. "What are you doing?" Kate was curious.
"Recharging this B-5. So far it's taking one day per B-5. This windmill just doesn't put out that much power so it takes close to all day to just recharge one of them. I'm just plugging in number six." Lex actually hated how long it was taking. Still it was better than nothing at all.
"And you have 16 of them." Kate had noticed just how many they had. "How long was it till that Nazi boat showed up last time?" Kate was suspecting it would repeat this time.
"About a month give or take. We used up every scrap of food this place had last time. With two more people it'll go even faster. And yes, we'll be cutting it close if history repeats itself."
Kate thought a bit. "How easy was it to sink it last time?" More people might mean a better chance of someone getting hurt.
"We waited till they fired first. After that it was easy. Are you suggesting that we fire first this time?" Provided that it showed up at all.
"No, I'm suggesting that we leave the second your last robot is recharged." Kate didn't even want to be here when or if that boat showed up. Let alone find out why it showed up.
"We can do that. Was that why you're here?" Lex wasn't sure but the Kate she knew usually had more than one reason for anything.
"Kate, the younger Kate, suggested that you…that you could tell me the sex of my baby." They hadn't talked about trying to find out the sex because it was impossible in 1876. She and Rick hadn't talked about trying to find out or if they even could.
Lex could've kick herself. She could do a whole lot more than that for her. "That and more, give me a minute." She wanted to finish hooking up the B-5.
"Okay, don't move," Lex told her. Then she took out a device and ran it over Kate from head to toe.
"What is that thing?" Kate had never seen one before.
"This is an Alliance scanner from 2327. It was my stepfather's as were the wristbands and everything in them," Lex explained then looked at the data. Fortunately for her, it was easy to read. "You could use some more vitamins, but it looks like you've been eating well enough. And you've picked up a virus from 1876 that we're going to need to take care of. You're not feeling any symptoms yet but you will be soon. I'll need to scan everyone else just in case. If I don't it might affect the baby.
"As for the baby…" Lex ran the scanner over her baby bump once and looked at the data. "He looks perfectly healthy. You're a good mother." Lex liked what she saw.
"HE? It's…it's a boy." Kate wasn't sure what she wanted. Rick had done so well alone with Alexis so she was sure he would be great again. But she really did want to give him a son.
"You and Dad are having a boy." Lex's face lit up. "A baby brother." She suddenly found that she couldn't wait.
"A boy," Kate repeated to herself again.
"I'll let you tell Dad. I'm going to go scan everyone else and start working on an injection for you and everybody." Lex started to leave. "Congratulations, Kate." Lex held her arm for a moment before walking away.
Lex left a Kate in her wake whose mind was in a whirl. She had to plan a way on how to tell her husband. First she had to find out if he even wanted to know.
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Alexis had been running around happier than Rick and Kate and even Jim had seen her since leaving the ship. Lex hated to bring it up but she had just disconnected the last B-5 unit from the windmill. All of them were recharged now and since none of them actually even moved much, even the first one was still fully charged.
She brought it up anyway. "We can leave anytime we please." The sad faces told her all she needed to know. "We have maybe a week, maybe, before that German patrol boat shows up. They'll send someone to find out what happened to it." That was a given.
"MOMMY!" The sound of Alexis laughing broke the silence as Alexis came running in with Kate hot on her heels, till Kate saw everyone else.
"What's up?" Kate just knew it was something bad.
Rick intercepted her and hugged her. "Time to go. That German boat is going to show up soon."
"Damn." Kate knew they were using up the food and needed to do something. Their attempts at fishing hadn't gone any better than last time had.
"Alexis isn't going to like this." Hell, Kate wasn't going to like this.
"It really can't be helped. We don't know exactly where we are this time anymore than we did last time," Rick pointed out. Kate let her head fall onto his chest.
"It feels weird watching this. Watching them…us," Rick murmured to Kate who nodded. Seeing their younger selves had been weird from the beginning, let alone now. It also made them wish they were that age again. Then Kate moved in close and actually duplicated what the younger Kate was doing with Rick.
"It's a boy," she whispered softly. She'd spent days trying to find the right time, but never came up with anything. It felt like it was now or never.
"What?" Rick wasn't sure he had heard right. And Kate said it like she knew for certain.
"Lex told me. She found out at the same time she found out she needed to give all of us those shots. I've spent days trying to find the right time to tell you." She hoped he'd forgive her for not telling him earlier.
Rick was far too happy to worry about what she knew when. "A boy!" His voice cracked but the sound of it lifted Kate's spirits. Enough that she lifted up on tiptoe to kiss him. He held her tighter and kissed her. He still loved her. She was still the luckiest woman on the planet.