Chapter Two

Happiness and Uncertainty

Seven months ago…

"Morning, babe…"

A voice as soft as silk broke through the comforting sleep she'd dwelled in for the past few hours. She could feel the warmth of skin pressing to her back and with it a small smile spread across her lips. A moment later, she began to roll over under the warmth of her duvet and found herself looking up into a pair of wonderfully dark brown eyes. A sight she'd gotten quite used to in recent months ever since the last Unity Day celebratory dance, she never thought it would amount to much…

But here they were.

Daniella Williams, the girl had been working part time as a teaching assistant for the younger children when they first met. Three years ago, she was far different to the girl who currently shared her bed but in recent months she'd seen a small glimmer of that girl coming back. At first a smile or maybe even a moment when she was care-free and doing the things she used to do, that was the girl she hoped to see again and may have even been the girl she fell for to begin with.

But she loved her even still.

"What time is it?" the redheaded girl asked with a sleepy yawn as she finally felt her back settle on the bed, the girl beside her had scooted back a little to give her room but she was still laying on her side. She watched the brunette lift her head for a moment to look at the clock on the metallic panel wall across the way, soon enough she got her answer in the form of another tired yawn.

"Just past seven, I think…" the girl uttered after the yawn before she rested her head back on the pillow "…I have class in an hour…" she sighed softly, after a moment it was like a thought struck her as she rolled over and reached for something from under the bed. The redhead watched her brunette girlfriend slowly turn back to look at her with a small smile "…but I have enough time to give you this." She said as she handed her a small pouch that seemed to have been made out of some form of cotton, there was a small weighted feel to it as she took hold of it.

"What's this?" she asked with a small smile.

"One of your birthday presents…" she answered with a small amount of amusement in her tone "…Happy Birthday, AJ." The younger girl said as she watched the redhead open the string on the little bag and tip it upside-down into her palm. At first a small silver link chain fell through the hole before it was followed by a pendant no bigger than a coin, upon a closer inspection she realized that it was a coin.

It was a one cent coin, small and bronze in color. In the middle it looked like someone with a skilled hand had carefully cut out the shape of a heart, above that was a smaller hole for the chain to fit through. She could feel a small lump build in her throat as she looked at the thoughtful gift.

"Dani…it's beautiful" she smiled as she admired it for a moment longer before returning it to the bag for safe keeping, after that she put the bag on her bedside table "Thank you, gorgeous" she said softly as she leaned over and pressed a soft kiss to the plush lips of her lover, she tried not to focus on the angry looking cut to her temple that seemed to have been treated already if the butterfly stitches were anything to go by. It wasn't something that she had noticed the night before since darkness hid things quite well.

"You like it?" the younger girl asked almost surprised by this.

Of course she liked it, in fact she loved it. The pendant was something of the old world and that is what she liked so much – well that and the fact that it was a gift from the girl who owned her heart.

"Yes, I love it" she chuckled as she snuggled up to her knowing she'd have to let her go soon, she still had to wash and get ready for covering a lesson while the original teacher was stuck in bed with the flu "Do you really have to go in…?" she asked a little spoilt in her tone "Can't we stay in bed a little longer?" she offered a hopeful smirk.

"I wish we could…" the younger girl replied as she tucked a slither of her brunette hair behind her right ear "…besides, you can't have all your gifts in one go…" she smirked, just by hearing this, the redhead had gotten a hint as to what she meant by 'one of her presents' a few moments ago.

"Oh, really?" she offered a mirthful smirk "Can't I convince you otherwise?"

The brunette giggled lightly and shrugged.

"So it's not a 'no'?" the birthday girl asked with a grin spreading across her lips.

"It's not a 'yes' either" the brunette smirked as she leaned over and pressed a chaste kiss to those grinning lips, she soon found that to be a little mistake on her part as that kiss was followed by another and then another. Each kiss less chaste than the last "…now look what you've done…" she smirked as her lips began to travel down the curve of the older girl's neck.

"What have I done, now?" the birthday girl giggled before a pleased sigh escaped her lips.

"Being too god-damned sexy…" came the short reply of her brunette lover between kisses that traveled across her neck "…and making me late for class…but that I don't mind too much about…" she smirked against the soft skin. The next present was well underway to being received as the birthday girl reciprocated by unwrapping the brunette as she would a present…

Present Day…

She twirled the coin pendant between her fingers, her skin pressed against the cool metal that was warming slowly to her touch.

The pendant on the necklace that she'd received on her birthday twirled in between her fingers, it was the only thing stopping her from becoming a nervous wreck. Her azure eyes hadn't even left the screen since she entered the tech center, with no delinquents left to keep in line she'd clocked off early today to observe the landing. She'd tucked herself out the way of those who were still working, making sure things ran smoothly and that the prisoners would make it to Earth in one piece. She didn't want to hinder that.

She had far too much invested in this.

"They should be reaching the atmosphere within the next three minutes…" a voice seemed to catch her attention, she briefly tore her eyes from the screens as she looked for the voice's origin. It was the voice of Doctor Eric Jackson, he was speaking across the center over the quiet hubbub of his co-workers to Doctor Griffin. "…shall I patch in the Chancellor's message?" he asked her.

"Yes please, Jackson" the older doctor nodded to her colleague as she monitored another screen for a moment.

As soon as she'd taken note of what was going on, it didn't take her long to take her eyes from the doctors and find their way back to the screen. She didn't want to miss a single moment, there were sixteen screens across the room and each of them contained six sets of vitals with a picture of each of the teens beside them. Even as she stood almost twenty feet from them she could still see that one picture and the vitals next to it, the feisty brunette to whom her heart once belonged.

She'd tried not to think about her in the past few months after they'd broken up, even going as far as to avoid anything that would bring them into the same room. It wasn't because she disliked her in any way, it was the fact that she couldn't let whatever the girl had gotten herself into bring her down too. If she was asked to honestly answer how she felt about Dani, she would tell them that she still held feelings for her and tell them how much it crushed her to know the brunette lied to her – lied to her about the bruises and the cuts, lied to her about why she sometimes came home to her in the middle of the night and most of all where she got the rations from.

It angered her, she'd not lie about that and in some way that's probably why they argued that night a few months ago.

Dani had come home with a busted lip and scraped up knuckles, it seemed she was hoping to clean up before the redhead saw her but instead she got caught out this time. The first time they had ever really had yelled at each other like this, all the anger had melted down into tears and feelings of betrayed trust. For days she wanted to go and see her but she hoped that losing her would make Dani change her ways in an effort to win her back – but it seemed the girl was just too stuck in her ways.

The lesson didn't work.

And now, she might never see the girl again.

So lost in her thoughts she failed to notice a familiar figure come to stand beside her, until she heard that voice.

"You're here too?"

Again she took her eyes from the screen, glancing long enough see who the voice belonged to before her eyes returned to the screen once more.

"I am, sir…" She replied quietly "…probably for the same reason you are?" she asked not really wanting to assume too much. Out the corner of her eye she saw him briefly glance at her, for a small moment she thought she'd overstepped the line but soon she'd hear his voice again.

"I am only here to oversee the project's progression" he told her while it seemed he was trying to keep an impassive voice "My daughter's being there has nothing to do with this." He added in a slightly less cold tone. She was hearing this but there was still something about his voice, like he was trying to hide something behind it. From what she'd known of Marcus Kane, he rarely showed emotion when it came to work even now.

"Right, sorry sir…" she responded quietly as a small sigh escaped her lips, there were a few more moments of silence before she heard footsteps leaving the space beside her. Her eyes must have left the screen once more to see the man clad in a black leather jacket and jeans wandering away, his steps much slower than his usual brisk pace. Though they'd never really seen eye to eye on most things, she did feel bad for the councilman having lost his ex-wife no more than two years ago – and now his only child had been sent down to Earth, to her own possible demise.

Part of her wanted to speak out but the rest of her knew that was a bad idea, the last thing she wanted to do was pester someone like him.

Suddenly, a god-awful sound blasted through the room as it echoed off the walls all around. It was as though a siren of the old world had gone off, an ear-splitting shrill leaving many in the room stunned.

*BEEP-BEEP-BEEP! BEEP-BEEP-BEEP! BEEP-BEEP-BEEP!*

A cold chill flowed down her spine, she wanted to look at the screens to see what was going on but the possibilities scared her. She didn't want to turn around and see that they were all dead. Had the ship exploded? Had it crashed and killed them all? These were all questions in her mind, the most morbid ones her fears could bring to her.

"Somebody give me a Sit-Rep, now!" a voice spoke out above the sudden flurry of confusion, it belonged to a man but that was about all she could grasp at the moment. The young guard watched the Councilman who had also frozen in place at the horrid sound, he turned on his heels and brought his eyes to the screen. The color drained momentarily from his cheeks and he swallowed while his dark brown eyes stay fixed on the screens, it was only at this point she returned her eyes to them with a new fear installed within her.

The vital signs of all the delinquents on the screen had shown spikes in their heart rate. However there were three of whom showed a significant change.

One of them, a boy called Glen Dickson had flat-lined already. There was no doubt about it, he was dead. While another boy who looked to be called Dustin Carter, his vitals had shown a brief spike but were growing weaker by the moment. It looked as though he'd been hurt and was fighting for his life, sadly in moments he'd join the fate of Dickson.

A sickening twist filled her gut as she looked at the third set of vitals, a sharp but brief rise in heart rate like the other two but instead of flat-lining they grew faint instead. She could feel the tears wanting to well in her eyes as the world around her hand muffled for a moment, a dryness in her mouth as her heart almost fell into her gut.

The vital signs for prisoner 382, Daniella Williams had dropped significantly lower than they should have been. A fear was creeping up her spine as her mind began to present her with terrifying uncertainties. She looked to her side once more as she saw the councilman's reaction to the sight of his daughter's vitals, his eyes glistened slightly and he cleared his throat of the lump that built in it. Soon enough he set forwards as the hiss of the automatic doors grabbed there attention, an Asian woman walking through and making her way over to him ready to speak.

"Not now…" he told her in a short and abrupt tone, it momentarily left the woman speechless as she followed him across the room to the chief engineer. AJ was close behind as she didn't want to be left out of the loop "What's going on?" he asked in as much of a collected tone as he could.

"Total system failure, that's what we're looking at…" the voice of the chief engineer she only knew as Sinclair spoke up "…all we know for sure, is that they were way off course…" he explained to the cluster of people who now surrounded him looking for answers, the young redhead didn't want to believe what she was hearing "…when we lost contact, so-" he was explaining but she'd heard enough already.

"We've lost contact with them?" she spoke up interrupting the engineer as all eyes turned to her for that moment "…you can't be seri-" it wasn't long before she herself was interrupted by Kane.

"Tell me about communications…" he asked as he gave the young redhead a small look out the corner of his eye.

"Other than the telemetry from their wristbands, we know nothing…" he explained to them all whilst looking between the main two to catch his attention "…no audio, no visual, no computer link…" he told them "Everything we programmed in to help them…is gone" he sighed as he looked down at his screen "They're on their own."

It was that last part that pained her heart.

It really hit home, ninety-eight teens were now down on earth with nothing but a few days' worth of earth skills knowledge and a rust-bucket ship with some pointless wristbands. It took all she had to keep calm and not say what she wanted to say. She shook her head and curled her hand into a tight fist, she needed to get out of here but part of her wanted to stay and keep watch over the screens.

Her attention was swayed for a moment when she heard a sigh come from Kane, she glanced up to see a slightly numbed look cross his now pale features before he looked over at the screens.

"Excuse me…" he said quietly before he turned on his heel and made a swift exit from the room, the Asian woman who she could have sworn was named CeCe or something alike glanced to the younger girl. She gave the redhead a small nod before she then followed the councilman out through the doors. The redhead looked back at the engineer.

"Will they be alright?" she asked him.

"I honestly don't know…but we'll do all we can to try and find a way to reach them" he told her as he could see something about her. Did she really care that much? "Until then they're on their own…" he repeated the only part that could strike fear into her.

"I understand" she said quietly before giving a short nod of thanks to him.

In the following moments she turned and began walk away back to the place she'd been standing in for all that time, each step felt heavier as she turned her attention back to the screens. She'd hoped to see some change in Dani's vitals, they were still different to the others but at least her heart was still beating for now. She'd wondered what caused such a thing.

Was she hurt? If so, how bad? Would she survive?

She didn't know the answer to any of this other than the heart-rate had slowed down far more than the others. Maybe she'd just hit her head? Maybe, she had nothing serious to worry about? The tightness remained in her gut as she stood vigil looking at the screens above. She couldn't be there with Dani but she would sure as hell keep watch for her.

A quiet mutter slipped through her lips as she watched and waited.

"Please be safe, Dani…"

Hey guys! Here's the latest chapter, sorry it has taken so long to write out but at least it's here. I wouldn't have gotten here without the help of my ever vigilant beta-reader and friend Arizona Green, thanks hun for all your help! ^_^ I would also like to say a huge thank you to all who have reviewed, followed and favorited this story so far! It means a huge deal to me that you guys like this too so thanks for giving me what I need to write this story.

Let me know what you guys think!

Thanks
xS19x