Character: Lloyd Milowsky
Setting: Norfolk, Virginia - Solace's arrival mid-season 2 (AU)
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Doctor Lloyd Milowsky stood on the deck of Solace as the hospital ship drew closer to shore. The Captain had announced that they would arrive in Norfolk within the hour, and Lloyd was not the only person up here watching for that first glimpse of land. Four long months ago his team had begun working in isolation, retrofitting Solace to contain a fully functioning laboratory capable of manufacturing thousands of doses of a vaccine. Just under a month ago they had put out to sea in the hopes of finding Doctor Scott and helping disburse the cure. Now they were limping home, lab destroyed, half their personnel dead, without having disbursed a single dose of the cure.
In other words, it had all been pointless.
Four months ago, Lloyd kissed his wife of thirty years goodbye as he left for work, not knowing that it would be the last time he saw her. Although her daily texts and emails stopped months ago, he had chalked that up to problems with the telecommunications network. After all, Judy was smart. And she had promised to barricade herself inside their house. To be careful. To avoid all people. Apparently it was a promise that she was unable to keep. When a search of his home revealed that it was empty, Lloyd had clung to the faint hope that Judy was in a safe zone. But then the Naval team at Norfolk found Judy's name on the intake list at Mercy Hospital. The possibility of there being two Judith Ruth Milowskys in Norfolk too implausible for Lloyd to seriously consider.
A green haze began to appear on the horizon and Lloyd glanced over at Warren Brauer, one of the younger scientists, who was impatiently pacing back and forth across the deck. There had been no word about Warren's wife and three small children, despite Lieutenant Yates searching both the Brauer home and the hospital records, leaving Warren yo-yoing between hope and despair. In some ways, Lloyd realized, he was fortunate to know what happened to Ruth, despite the crippling pain the knowledge of her death brought with it.
As the green smudge turned first to a clear line and then to brown and gray as ships and buildings came into sight, Lloyd began to map out his plan of action. First was creating a functioning lab here at Norfolk, something that Lloyd thought he could do by scavenging local hospitals. Although the output would not compare to a fully functioning laboratory, it would be enough to get started. Next would be retrofitting Solace, a much more intensive process as there was little point to moving the ship around if there was insufficient output. Over the past few days, Lloyd and the other surviving doctors and scientists had examined every piece of equipment onboard to determine what could be salvaged and what was completely destroyed. Unfortunately, the latter far outweighing the former and locating replacements would be challenging. Even more problematic, assuming that he was able to get Solace's lab up and running at anything close to maximum output, there was the problem of staffing the vessel, with both medical and Naval personnel in short supply. Doctor Scott had confided that the Nathan James' call for doctors, sailors, scientists and pilots upon reaching Norfolk had resulted in only two dozen responses. Certainty not enough to staff Solace for an Atlantic crossing. And given the Nathan James' own losses over the past few months, Captain Chandler could not spare a single person to assist.
The optimism that Lloyd felt only two weeks before, upon learning that Doctor Scott had achieved the impossible, was now gone. Crushed by the reality of the task before him.
Solace slipped into the harbor and Lloyd was surprised by how different the port looked from the last time that he was here. Several of the vessels had been moved so that the docks closest to base command sat empty. All except for the one where a ship bearing a Red Cross flag was in the process of unloading pallets of what Lloyd could only hope was the cure. Captain Chandler had indicated that Lieutenant Yates was a solid man who would help Lloyd with whatever was needed and, for the first time in days, Lloyd felt a glimmer of hope. His gaze moving from the palates, Lloyd noticed the small crowd that had gathered on the next pier, the one where Solace was apparently headed. A few uniforms, but mostly civilian garb. Families, he wanted to believe, of those who were on board.
"Have you heard anything about Kevin?" Shelley Jacobs asked as she stopped next to him at the rail.
A fellow scientist, Shelley too had lost her spouse, although he had died in the early days of the virus, while they were still in isolation on the base. Lloyd glanced at her. "No. We told him to stay where he was. Traveling was too dangerous."
Kevin. His twenty-six year old son who was, or at least had been, working on a graduate degree in aeronautical engineering at Purdue. When the outbreaks began, Lloyd assured Kevin that the best thing to do was to stay put and hunker down in Indiana. It was advice that Lloyd almost immediately regretted, as colleges quickly became the prime source of the virus's spread, but by then it was too late. There was no way for Kevin to safely travel to Norfolk even if he had wanted to.
And, given what happened to Judy, probably pointless as well.
"I think that I see Kathy," Shelley said, pointing to the crowd.
Squinting, Lloyd confirmed that Warren's wife was there, holding onto at least two children. He took a step back, calling out to the man. "Warren! We see Kathy!"
His head jerking around as though on a string, Warren charged towards the rail, his eyes darting everywhere until they landed on his family. Tears rolling down his face as he waved his arms back and forth like a windmill, three children waving back. And, despite his melancholia, Lloyd felt a smile form. A life saved, a family reunited. Wasn't that what his job was about, after all?
Solace jerked to a stop as the engines ceased, the ropes thrown over the side. Lloyd watched as the plank was lowered and Warren raced down to collect his wife in his arms. Then Shelley grabbed his arm, her hand squeezing him tightly. "Lloyd, is that Kevin?"
Only then did Lloyd tear his gaze from Warren's family to look at the other people gathered on the dock. A few of the civilians were tying off ropes and helping to secure Solace, clearly there for work. The remainder of the crowd was splitting into groups surrounding various scientists or sailors, presumably surviving friends and family. But towards the back of the group stood a single man, hand up to his eyes as he searched Solace's deck. Their eyes met and Lloyd's heart almost stopped. Not bothering to respond to Shelley, Lloyd broke into a run, dashing down the gangplank and darting around people until he reached his son.
Lloyd threw his arms around Kevin, tears streaming down his face. "You're alive. I can't believe that you're alive."
After a moment, Kevin managed to extract himself. His own face was wet with tears, despite the smile that stretched from ear-to-ear. "Hi Dad. I'm home."