Chapter 38

"The Bad-"

Jim shushed Elisabeth hurriedly and she lowered her voice.

"The Badlands?! Jim .."

"It's the only way. You know they'll come back. It's only a matter of time. This way, we get to see what they're up to first."

"But what if they catch you?! It's too risky."

"They won't. We'll stay far enough out of their way. It's just a reconnaissance mission."

"It's never just a reconnaissance mission."

"What are you two whispering about?" Their son had walked into the room unnoticed and was now standing near his parents, staring laughingly at them. "It was Maddy, wasn't it? I told you, Dad. That girl's-"

"Josh, go to your room."

The unexpected sharpness from his mother momentarily startled him and he blinked at his parents.

"What did I do now?!"

"Nothing." Elisabeth rubbed her forehead and turned to him apologetically. "Just .. please, your father and I are having a discussion."

Josh rolled his head back and sighed as he walked out of the room.

"That much is apparent."

As soon as he was gone, Elisabeth turned back to Jim and opened her mouth, but the second she did so, Josh was back. He walked into the room with his hands up and his youngest sister by his side.

"Just passing through. Don't mind us."

Jim frowned.

"Where are you going?"

Zoe looked up at Josh with a grin as he replied.

"Clean up. Colony's a mess. Boylan's putting a crew together."

His father's frown deepened.

"Josh, I don't know if taking your sister is-"

"Oh, she'll be fine. Relax. She can wash windows or something." Zoe's eager nod followed this suggestion and Josh continued. "I'll keep an eye on her. If a carno comes, I'll make sure he eats me first!"

This comment was hardly reassuring, but accompanied with a quick dig at his sister's rib cage and a resulting laugh from Zoe, their parents relented.

"Alright. But make sure you do watch her."

"Sure, Dad!" Josh swung open the door for Zoe, who nodded to him and walked through like she was going to a ball. He turned from poking tongues at her to throw a last remark over his shoulder.

"Good luck, Dad! Don't let mom roast you too badly!"

"Thank you very much, son." As the door closed, Jim turned guiltily back to Elisabeth. "So where were we?"

"You were about to tell me why this insane mission is so necessary in the first place!" Now that the children were out of the house, Elisabeth wasn't bothering to keep her voice down anymore. Jim hesitated and considered his next words carefully.

"Intel is invaluable. You must see that."

"So let someone else go! Let Guzman take a team!"

"Guzman will be taking a team, but as the Commander, I have to go. I can't just let them go on their own. It's my responsibility! Don't you see that?"

"No, quite frankly. I don't." Elisabeth folded her arms stubbornly and glared at him.

Jim sighed and put his hands on her shoulders gently.

"This is something that needs to be done." He pulled her into his arms and rested his head on top of hers. "But I won't be alone. I'll have Malcolm-"

"Malcolm?!" Elisabeth immediately pulled away a little and stared up at him incredulously. "Lot of good MALCOLM will be in the jungle!"

"More than you'd think."

Elisabeth's amused snort died away when she realised he wasn't joking. Jim grinned at her.

"He thinks he'll be just as useless as you do, if it helps."

"Yes, it's very comforting." Elisabeth studied her husband's face warily. "Who else is going?"

"Well, like I said, Guzman will lead the second team and take Curran and Irving, while I take Malcolm and Lucas."

"Lucas?! Taylor?!" Elisabeth had just started to calm down, but now she shook her head despairingly. "Jim, you can't be serious .."

"We'll keep an eye on him. Don't worry. He could come in handy."

"Very handy if he makes a racket and gets you all captured."

"He won't .." Jim grinned. ".. unless he wants to be dragged home unconscious through the wilderness. And somehow the thought of being completely at our mercy out there doesn't appeal to him!"

Elisabeth smiled begrudgingly and sighed.

"Just .. promise me you'll be careful."

"You have my word. I've never let you down yet, have I?"

"No." His wife laid her head against his shoulder and replied quietly. "You haven't."

"If you splash me with that ONE MORE TIME .."

Maddy glared at Josh as he stared very hard at the water running down the wall in front of him. Eventually, he glanced over at her with raised eyebrows as if he'd only just heard her.

"Hmm?"

His sister pointed her finger at him.

"Last warning, Josh."

"Woooowww." Josh widened his eyes. "NOW I'm scared."

Zoe and Mark watched the two combatants in between them and grinned. Josh and Zoe had arrived an hour or so ago, and had been immediately instructed to clean the entire outside of the houses closest to the Bar, which had apparently suffered the worst during the night and were covered with questionable stains of various descriptions. Maddy and Mark had come along soon afterwards and started on the opposite side of the house. Now they had finally met up in the middle, inevitably causing a certain amount of chaos.

"Better listen to her, Josh. I don't think you want to see her angry."

Josh dropped his sponge arm and smiled sweetly at Reynolds.

"Mark, this may be incredibly hard for you to believe, but-"

"Stop, stop." Maddy interrupted with a roll of her eyes and grabbed Josh's arm, lifting his sponge up and placing it back onto the wall. "Just get on with your cleaning."

A few seconds later, a suspiciously large glob of soapy water landed on the side of Maddy's face. Josh stared at it in horror.

"I am SO. SORRY."

Maddy pursed her lips firmly and shook her head.

"Alright, that's it."

With surprising swiftness, she planted her soggy sponge firmly in the middle of Josh's face. Her brother spluttered and pushed away the unexpected assault, shaking his wet fringe like a dog. Maddy shielded herself as best she could from the flying droplets as Zoe quietly picked up her small water bucket. Just as she prepared to fling it at her brother from his other side, a loud voice barked indignantly from behind her.

"Oi!"

Zoe slowly lowered the bucket and all four of them looked around guiltily - even Mark, who, as of this moment, hadn't yet done anything to warrant rebuke. Boylan, coming to stand beside Zoe, looked down at her disapprovingly. Zoe squirmed under his gaze.

"I trust you're all working hard at the task I entrusted you with."

Maddy and Zoe nodded silently while the boys simply watched him.

"Good!" Boylan beamed around at them all before turning back to the smallest member of the group. He bent down to her seriously, took her small bucket and placed it to the side. He then proceeded to hand her his own larger water-filled bucket.

"Try this one instead. Bigger splash zone."

After a mischievous wink at the youngest member of the party, Boylan walked away. He had not gone 5 steps before the sound of Josh's undignified screeching pierced the air behind him, followed by the merciless laughter of the other three.

Jim and Elisabeth, wandering down to the market a little while later, were greeted by the sight of their very drenched and dripping children laughing uproariously on the equally soaked grass.

"Working hard, I see!"

At the sound of Elisabeth's laughing voice, Maddy and Mark looked up in alarm.

"Mom! We were just .."

"You see, sir, we .. uh .."

Jim waved his hand at them dismissively and turned to his other two children. Josh and Zoe were still preoccupied with wringing the last content of the sponges out on each other's heads.

"Looks like we missed an interesting afternoon."

"Daddy!" Zoe finally noticed her parents nearby and immediately abandoned her brother, dropping her sponge into his lap on the way past. Ignoring his ".. thanks.", she ran to Jim and clutched his legs, thoroughly wetting his pants in the process.

".. thank you." Jim muttered, closely echoing his son, who had now forgiven the betrayal and was watching them with enjoyment.

"You're welcome!" Zoe pulled away and smiled up at him innocently, before shooting a mischievous grin at her mother and running back to Josh. Chaos soon broke out anew and by the end of this battle, not even Jim and Elisabeth escaped unscathed.

By twilight the next day, preparations were well and truly underway for the "mission". Jim had retreated to the Command Centre to survey the available supplies. He sighed as he dumped a heavy wooden box onto the table in front of him. If they were to be off in the morning, he should really see exactly what they had in terms of portable ammunition. Radios - helpful, but not ammunition. Dusty old boots - didn't look like they'd fit any existing human. Straps - from what?! What kind of junk was Taylor keeping in here?

"Oh, please tell me no massive prehistoric insects have taken up residence in here .."

He only heard the quiet footsteps behind him a moment before their owner spoke up.

"Looking for something?"

Jim continued rifling through the decaying crate.

"Just my sanity."

The voice behind him laughed and fell silent. Jim continued his search, awaiting the inevitable question. After a few moments it came, veiled in a deceptively careless tone of voice.

"What's going on? Lucas was acting cagey all afternoon."

Jim snorted as he proceeded to rummage through a large box on his left.

"Really? I can't imagine Lucas acting suspicious."

Skye fell silent. After a few minutes, Jim glanced over his shoulder at her. She was watching him seriously.

"You're going after them, aren't you?"

"Who?" Jim abandoned his boxes and went to the cupboard.

"You know who."

Jim frowned and shook his head innocently before it disappeared behind the cupboard doors. When he resurfaced, Skye was still in the room. She appeared to be studying an old radio transceiver and didn't look at him.

"That thing looks like it's been around since the Dark Ages."

Skye smiled at him then, but her next question had nothing to do with the ancient piece of equipment beside her.

"How long will you be gone?"

"Depends."

"On what?"

"On how long it takes."

Skye nodded slowly and resumed her scrutiny of the transceiver. Jim turned to the table behind him and shuffled a couple of boxes around. Finally, he sighed.

"Well." He folded his arms and turned around to face her. "Spit it out."

".. what?" Skye frowned at him in mild confusion. She kept up the act for a few moments before relenting.

"Fine. I want to come."

"No."

As if that put an end to it, Jim turned again and surveyed his packing with satisfaction. Unfortunately, Skye wasn't about to let the matter drop so easily.

"Please! I'd be helpful. I could .. carry things." She grimaced at her own lack of eloquence. "I could keep watch at night. I've got good eyesight; I'm a good shot."

"And yet, the answer is still no."

"But why?!"

"Because." Jim turned to face her with a steely glint in his eye. "I don't want you out there. You're too young and inexperienced - not to mention your mother would kill me." He added the last part with a grin, but Skye wasn't in the mood for jokes. She stepped toward him.

"You don't understand. I have to see it for myself. I have to know what's .. what's going on out there."

"In the Badlands, you mean."

"Yes!"

"No."

"But-"

"Skye." Jim's voice was uncharacteristically sharp. "The answer is no. I've explained my reasons for not wanting you to go, and I'm not going to change my mind any time soon. There is no reason for you to be out there. You're staying."

Skye said nothing for a few seconds before visibly relaxing. She smiled up at him.

"Alright. Sorry."

Jim watched her warily.

"It's okay."

He tried to shake off his growing feeling of discomfort and resume the task at hand, but it was no use. Something about her swift submission had set alarm bells off in his head. As Skye began to walk towards the exit, Jim took a couple of steps toward her.

"Skye, I need to know you're going to obey orders and stay inside the colony while I'm gone. No running off. Can I trust you?"

Skye halted abruptly and blinked at him, as if his insight had caught her slightly off-guard. An uncomfortably long silence followed as the two of them stared at one another. Finally, Skye backed down with a smile.

"Yes. Of course."

"Good."

As she disappeared down the steps, Jim turned back to finish his packing. Somehow he didn't feel any better.

"I'm just saying, Elisabeth, you didn't see the look on her face."

"But if you can't trust her to stay behind, how can you possibly trust her out there?! She might decide to sneak off and spy out the enemy camp by herself!"

"I know, I know .." Jim pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration. "And yet, maybe I should bring her. Maybe it'd be good for her."

"Jim .." Elisabeth shook her head with a smile. "You've already chosen the teams! If you're bringing Silas Irving, you do not need another young soldier to look after. Skye can stay here, and if she has a problem with it, she's certainly old enough to deal with it!"

Jim sat down on the table, not looking at all comforted.

"It's just .. Now that Taylor's out of the picture, I feel like the responsibility's fallen upon me to watch out for her. How can I look after her if I'm not here?"

"Jim!" Elisabeth laughed outright now. "She's not a child. And besides, she has Deborah now."

With a glance into her husband's miserable face, Elisabeth took on a more sympathetic demeanour. She leaned on the table beside him.

"Jim. Don't worry about Skye. We'll look after her here, and if you like, you can take her next time when she's had a bit more experience." She put a hand on his shoulder. "Just make sure you bring yourself home safely."

Jim sighed and finally smiled at her.

"That .. I can do."

After much tossing and turning overnight, Skye had finally come to the conclusion that she must honour her word and stay put, no matter how much it grieved her to do so. Having made her decision at last, she slept fitfully for a couple of hours until she was woken by an unexpectedly loud knock on the door just before dawn. She slipped out of her room and opened the door tentatively, frowning when she saw the owner of the knock.

"Oh! Hi, Mr. Shannon. I-"

"I've talked it over with Reilly and you're in. But you better pack quick." He didn't mention that Reilly's reaction to the proposal had been a resounding no.

"But you said-"

"I know what I said." Jim seemed incredibly anxious to be off. "Silas has a fever of 104 (40C), and Elisabeth won't let him leave with us as he can hardly get out of bed without wobbling around the room like a drunk puppet."

As much as Skye wanted to burst out laughing at the mental picture, Jim was in no laughing mood.

"Get ready quick. I'll be back to pick you up in half an hour. We have to leave at first light." He began to walk away, but swiftly came back, running his hand through his hair in irritation. "Are you going to tell Deborah, or shall I?"

Skye swallowed. She hadn't thought of that.

"I'll do it."

"Good." Jim nodded. "Good. Right."

Skye nodded in agreement.

"Well, see you soon."

"Yes." Jim frowned, looking somewhat bewildered. "I'll be back for you soon."

He turned to leave and began to mutter to himself.

"Pack the Rhino, brief Reilly, check the gate .."

After a few seconds, his voice faded so she could no longer hear it. Skye watched him walk away for a few moments before turning herself and bolting inside.