AN - Merry Xmas! Thought I'd try and get one more chapter in before the new year. :)

The character of Grace Mason of course belongs to Jem, and you can read Grace on it Jem's fic, Heartbeat Away From Death. Story ID: /10691430/

Chapter 20: Young Bloods

After only one day on the road, the 2nd Mass had pulled to a stop in what had once been a caravan park. Now it was an overgrown clearing with a half dozen rusted campervans littering the ground. But it was safe, at least for a night. Weaver had sent his scouts out in groups with maps to canvass the area. Their orders were to find the safest way to Charleston, and note any high alien activity locations on the map for the 2nd Mass to avoid.

After coercing Lourdes to watch Etta while the baby napped, Casey joined her group of Maggie and Lee and the trio headed East to investigate the roads out of town. Maggie took the lead, then Casey, then Lee. They were quiet as they walked, cautious that any sound could be a skitter. They were working well, Lee, Casey and Maggie, much better than Casey thought they had. She had expected that since Pope was gone, Tom would step away from the Berserkers. But he hadn't. Tom took the lead of the Berserkers and kept them together. They now operated, under Tom's leadership, as Weavers scouts. Without Pope around to infect everyone with his belligerence, things were moving along quite smoothly.

Casey had noticed a swift change in Maggie since Pope's departure. Maggie was quicker with a smile now, and much more comfortable around the Berserkers. In fact, the whole of the 2nd Mass were more comfortable around the Berserkers. There was still tension there, but there was also some acceptance. The Berserkers ate meals with the 2nd Mass now, and Casey had seen Boon and Tector chatting with Matt and his young friends. It was hard for Casey to believe that everything had changed so dramatically just without Pope around, but it was hard to ignore that that must be the reason.

Maggie suddenly stopped in front of Casey, bringing her out of her daydreaming. Ahead of their path was a small bridge covering a thing, shallow stream. It was only about the width of two cars and as long as a school bus, but there were skitters rummaging underneath it like trolls anyway. Maggie silently signalled to Lee and Casey to go left in a curve around the aliens.

When they got into position, Casey figured Maggie would just take the shot, but it turned out Lee sensed this as an opportunity to teach Casey some rifle skills. Casey knelt in the damp dirt between Maggie and Lee, the three concealed by a thick, fallen tree trunk and overgrown reeds a few feet from the water's edge.

"Revolver's no good for long distance," Lee said as she took her rifle off her back. "You wanna be able to patrol without getting face to face with these ugly bastards."

Casey tried to swallow her nerves and still her twitching foot while she patiently let Lee mould her hands around the rifle so she was holding it correctly. It was much heavier than Casey expected. The last time she'd held a rifle like that was back in Fitchburg in the post office. And she didn't feel any more confident with it now than she had back then. Plus, even though Casey knew Maggie and Lee meant well, their conflicting advice was causing Casey some frustration.

"It's deceptively heavy," Maggie said. "So careful not to drop it,"

"Well, you gotta grip it," Lee rearranged Casey's' fingers on the butt of the gun. "But not too tight."

Maggie looked over Casey's shoulder and straightened the rifle's aim. "The scope is your best friend right now."

"Just breathe into it," Lee urged Casey on.

Casey peered through the scope at the skitters. There were three of them gathered together under the bridge chitter-chattering at each other. Casey slowly panned the rifle from left to right letting the crosshairs settle on each skitters' head. Casey couldn't seem to move her finger to the trigger, the muscle had seized and cramped.

"Take your time," Maggie muttered into Casey's right ear. "But this is a great shot, so don't waste it."

Lee knelt down on Casey's other left side. "Tick, tick, boom."

Casey closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She opened her eyes, checked the scope was still trained on the skitters, and then pulled back on the trigger. The kickback sent her bullets straight into the side of the bridge. Not only did she not hit the skitters, but the noise gave the aliens a spotlight to where Maggie, Casey and Lee were hiding. Casey tried to catch the skitters in the scope again, but they were already galloping towards them. Maggie whipped out her silver handguns and emptied her guns into two of the skitters' bodies, and Lee pumped her shotgun and shot of the last skitters' head. Casey stared down at the dead alien bodies feeling her cheeks flush. Not only had her bullets missed the skitters, but she'd almost killed her friends.

Maggie came up next to Casey and leant against her shoulder. "That wasn'tâ€Ĥ too bad."

"Nope," Lee rested her shotgun against her shoulder and grinned at Casey. "It was actually very bad. But, hey," Lee nudged Casey. "You gotta start somewhere. And trust me, you'll get used to that kickback."

Casey, Lee and Maggie spent two more hours scouting but didn't find any more skitters. The path was clear but shielded by enough trees that Maggie thought the 2nd Mass could use it as a thoroughfare. As the sun dipped on the horizon, the three women made their way back to the 2nd Mass to tell Weaver the good news.

The 2nd Mass were in good spirits when Casey arrived back. Even Etta was happy when Casey collected her from Lourdes. The baby drooled and waved her arms – two signs Casey was learning meant "happy". There was even music travelling through the camp. After fixing Etta a bottle, Casey followed the strums of a guitar to where Tector and Boon were sitting and drinking with a couple of guys and girls from the 2nd Mass. Well, Tector was sitting with an acoustic guitar in his lap - Boon was on his feet, rapping. Matt was with them, sporting a red baseball cap and nodding his head along to Boon's rap.

"Casey!" Matt brightened when he saw her and rushed up to greet her. "I lead two skitters so Tector could shoot them!"

Casey couldn't herself from smiling, Matt's excitement was infectious, but she was confused. "Wait, what? What were you out there for?"

"Dad let me be a runner," Matt said. "It was so awesome! The skitter was, like, right here!" He held his open palm up against his nose.

"Don't worry, Case," Tector stopped playing guitar. "We got permission from the boss."

Casey raised her eyebrows at Tector. "Oh, yeah?" She highly doubted Tom fully knew what his youngest son was up to.

"Yo, check it out," Boon cleared his throat and starting up with his rap again. One of the guys drinking by Tector started to beatbox. "Yo, our homeboy Matt, went down the alley, and was like, oh, snap!"

Casey, who didn't get rap and wasn't even sure that's what Boon was doing, bit her lip to stop herself from giggling. Tom was making his way over to them, grinning, and waited dutifully for Boon to finish.

"Finna put these Skitters in a trap," Boon sang. "Make them feel they the mack, till we hit them in the back with a tick tick boom! And those Skitters went splat!"

Casey applauded lightly along with everyone else when Boon finished. Boon took a swig from his beer and handed the bottle to Matt.

"Hey, hey," Tom stretched forwards and snatched the bottle from his sons' hand.

Boon laughed. "Yo, what gives, mason jar?"

"He's nine years old. Beer?" Tom gave him a look. "Use your head."

"Little man's just on cup-holder duty," Boon said. "We're celebrating."

"Yeah?"

"Two more kills this morning, boss." Tector said with a pleased grin.

"Dad, it was so awesome!" Matt said to his father. "I led two Skitters all by myself into Tector's field of fire."

Tom's smile vanished and his face darkened. "What do you mean you "led"?" He turned to Tector. "He was just supposed to be a runner and report back to camp if you saw any alien activity."

Boon shrugged. "We saw an opportunity, seized the initiative."

Tom smashed the beer bottle on the ground and stood forwards to Boon. "And used my son as Skitter bait?"

"They were boxed in, man," Boon said with a laugh. "It was fish in a barrel."

"Dad, it's not a big –

"Matthew." Tom shot his son a dangerous look.

Boon didn't back down. "Look, Tec and I have killed more Skitters than anybody else."

"Shut up, Boon." Tector stood up and set the guitar at his feet. His expression was suddenly sheepish. "The man's right. We screwed up."

"No, we didn't!" Boon sneered. "A screw-up is if we miss."

"What if you had missed?" Tom asked.

"Our job is not to miss." Boon argued.

Tom strode forwards and gave Boon a shove. "Hey, you're 20 years old! You were selling cellphones a year ago! What if you had missed?!"

"We don't miss –

Tector got in between them and pushed the young man back. "Boon!"

"My orders were clear!" Tom yelled at Boon. "Man an observation post, not paint a target on my 9-year-old's back!"

Etta made a whinging little noise and then broke out into a cry. Casey shifted the baby in her arms to try and soothe her.

Tom reached out and roughly yanked the gun that was slung off Boon's shoulder. Then Tom looked to Tector. "You can take that Barrett rifle and give it to the second team. You're off sniper duty." Tector didn't argue, and gave a firm nod. "And you can both go join the sanitation crew until further notice." Tom finished. "Dismissed."

Tector turned Boon around and knocked him forwards. "Let's go." The group around them quietly dispersed leaving Matt and Tom alone with Casey and Etta.

"You're gonna sit out the next couple of missions, Matt." Tom told his son.

"That's not fair!" Matt cried. He looked over at Casey. "Tell him," His eyes were teary. "Tell him it's not fair."

Casey clenched her jaw. "Listen to your Dad, Matt." She said sternly.

Betrayal crossed Matt's sweet face. "Great," He said, shooting daggers at Casey and his father. "You've ruined everything." With that, he stormed off.

Casey hated seeing Matt so upset, but she agreed with Tom on this. Even with her limited knowledge of kids, Casey knew not to take Etta out scouting. She couldn't fathom why Tector, who seemed the most reasonable of the Berserkers, thought tossing Matt into the thick of things would be a good idea.

"Did you know about this this?" Tom suddenly barked at Casey.

Casey gave him a withering look. "Why do you always assume I'm keeping something from you?"

Tom closed his eyes, his shoulders drooping. "Sorry."

"Anyway, I tell Matt not to do stuff just as much as you do."

"I know," Tom looked down at the weapon in his hands, and then raised the butt end of it towards Casey. "Here. Be easier for you to learn to shoot without borrowing Lee's gun."

Casey appreciated the gesture, but didn't take the weapon. "Really? I'm holding a baby, you hand me a rifle?"

Tom gave her a half a smile and slung the rifle over his shoulder. "I'll drop it in your tent. Safety on."

"Tom?" Weaver strode over to them. "I just saw Matt run off in a huff. Trouble in paradise?"

Tom shook his head. "Discipline issue, nothing I can't handle."

The sound bike engines suddenly groaned through the camp. "Must be Hal, Grace and Ben," Tom said.

Casey followed behind Weaver and Tom as they made their way to the bikes. Casey spotted Hal, Grace and Ben, but they weren't alone. There were about ten dirty, skinny children of various ages standing with them. They all looked exhausted and visibly became scared as the 2nd Mass enclosed around them.

Weaver glanced over the kids. "What do we have here?"

"Found them holed up in a warehouse," Hal replied. "Half-starved. No adults."

Grace had a hopeful smirk on her face. "Maybe we can help them out?"

From behind Hal, a girl climbed off one of the bikes and pushed her way to the front of the group. She looked about Hal's age, had long, dark hair, and the most beautiful pale blue eyes Casey had ever seen. The girl stopped in front of Weaver, and her eyes glistened with tears.

Weaver stared at the girl and his eyes widened. "Jeanne?"

"Dad!" The girl lurched forwards and threw her arms around him.

"Jeannie?!" Weaver enclosed his arms around the girl, and then pulled her back to look at her face. He seemed not to believe she was there. "My girl," he tearfully pulled her to him again. "My Jeannie."

A gasp of awe hushed throughout the crowd, and even Casey found herself smiling. She'd known Weaver had daughters, but he assumed they had died long ago. Tom had told Casey that the girls had been with Weaver's ex-wife, and Weaver hadn't seen any of them since the invasion.

Hal and Ben herded the kids towards the food tent, and Weaver walked off with his arm around his daughter. Etta started to whinge in that way she did when she was tired, so Casey left the group and made her way back to her tent.

Casey knelt down and set Etta in her basket. The baby kept fussing, so Casey sat on the tent floor beside her and reached into the basket to rub the baby's tummy. With her free hand, Casey grabbed her shoulder bag from under the cot and ferreted through it looking for Etta's pacifier. But her hands enclosed around something else.

Her pack of playing cards.

The pacifier was in the front pocket of her bag. After she placed it in Etta's mouth and the baby calmed, Casey found herself flipping the pack of playing cards over in her palm. She hadn't touched them since she last played poker with Pope. She was keeping it on hand to teach Lyle how to play Magic Number Five, like he'd asked, but they hadn't found the time to start yet. He was placating her, Casey was almost sure of that. Making her feel not-so-bad about Pope being kicked out and about her losing a poker buddy. She doubted Lyle really wanted to learn to play; it was just something he could do to pass the time. They could play cards, and poke fun and another day would be over.

When Casey was a young girl, her father would tell her about his football training days. He'd tell her of the hideous drills he would do, the constant laps of the field and weights he would lift. He'd tell her how pained his muscles were, burning with every step, and how he felt like his heart would explode. "It was hell on earth," he'd tell Casey. "But Lord, I miss it."