A/N: Sorry for the delay, I got caught up in writing Christmas fics for two fandoms and work. Please enjoy! Also for those who have read so far, I've edited chapter numbers for my own sanity, the story itself has not change :)

Also, Merry Christmas! Hope you all had lovely time with your family and friends this year!

A couple days later, Danny set Halsey up on the treadmill for his morning run. But Halsey was not being cooperative again.

"Come on, you need to exercise." he told Halsey who jumped off the treadmill and lay down on the floor with a sad expression. Danny unhooked his leash from the machine as he didn't want Halsey to be uncomfortable.

"Maybe he just needs some time off." Smith commented, he was on the other treadmill doing his morning run. The team always came to gym in the morning for a workout.

"Dogs don't get time off." Danny sighed, he just wanted what was best for Halsey and frankly to accomplish something other than avoiding the Captain. He knew the Captain and the XO were going to ask him to go get tested for immunity. He wanted to avoid that for as long as possible but he realistically knew he couldn't hold it off for another day. He just wanted to accomplish something today with Halsey but he could see today wasn't going to be the day.

"Maybe Jess could encourage him. She was always good with animals and he seemed more keen to follow her to the labs than you to the gym this morning." Berchem said as he was doing bicep curls with the weights a couple feet away.

"Is there anything that she isn't good at?" Smith asked, he slowed his speed on the treadmill.

"I can think of a few things." Danny grumbled.

"I hate to be that guy but you should cut her some slack." Berchem said.

"Really?" Danny asked him incredulously.

"She's been through a lot." Berchem said, Smith nodded and Danny tried not to feel like he was being betrayed as they were supposed to be on his side.

"You don't think I realise that?" Danny asked.

"I think-" Berchem stopped as Cruz came into the gym.

"Am I interrupting?" Cruz asked as everyone turned to note his appearance in the Gym.

"No, we were just talking about Gitmo, how are you faring?" Danny asked, he'd checked in Cossetti; the kid was a mess. He put on a brave front but he had admitted it was the first time he'd seen dead bodies and adding in his sister running around like wrath didn't help lessen the traumatic experience either. Danny talked with him for a while before he felt sure Cossetti would be ok. He had put Cruz on his list but luckily he was here now, saving him time in hunting him down.

"I'm ok, but I can't stop thinking about the hospital and those people. Just laying there with no one to bury them or give them their last rights. It's not right." Cruz said with a shake of his head, he joined their informal circle.

"Didn't take you for a religious man." Smith commented.

"Catholic born and raised." Cruz said with a faint proud smile, "As bad as it is for those who died, I can't imagine how the survivors are doing. They lived through that hell for months." Cruz said, he grew distant for a moment as he pondered on it.

"They are seasoned operators, they'll be fine." Danny said as he referred to Tex and Jess.

"They might be, but our families aren't." Cruz said, They all grew quiet for a moment as they thought of their loved ones. It was something they all tried to avoid as it was a dangerous distraction. One they could ill afford when they were in the field, but on the ship… in the lengthy downtime they had between missions it was all they thought about.

"Russians are still out there." Tom said as he poured Jess a cup of coffee. She needed it as she felt like garbage warmed over. Between her nightmares and blood donations to Dr Tophet, she was struggling to keep it all together, luckily she wasn't vital to the mission and that Tom was only telling her this as he wanted fresh eyes. She just wished she was in a better mental state to help.

"But how did they find you?" Jess asked, she leaned back on the small sofa in his quarters.

"We think they tracked us through the Doc's SAT phone or maybe when we broke EMCON." Tom answered as he sat opposite her in the single seater. The door to his quarters opened, they both watched as Mike stepped in.

"Still no sign of the Russians, satellites are no go with the could cover at the moment." Mike announced as he joined them in Tom's cabin.

"I was getting Jess up to speed." Tom said, Mike nodded as he closed the door behind him. It was clear to Jess that they compartmentalising what information they could. Something she found rather interesting given it was a small ship and people talked.

"I thought I had the shit end of the stick." Jess joked, it fell flat with the men as they continued on instead of acknowledging what she said.

"We're going to run into them again. We're only lucky they didn't blockade us in Gitmo." Mike said.

"The Russians recalled their navy early in the pandemic. Then it was a complete media blackout, I had colleagues there who said the death rate was horrific. That was in July, I imagine their military forces are completely decimated by now." Jess said.

"Some of their military survived. Maybe we'll get lucky and it's one ship." Tom said.

"One that can carry 3 helicopters which makes it a big ship or at least two smaller ships." Mike speculated.

"I still think it's one ship, it's gotta be kirov class given the number of helos we encountered in the arctic which we can outrun and without their helos their radar is limited." Tom said.

"But they would have drones." Mike argued.

"I see you've discussed this a lot." Jess said, she felt superfluous to the conversation. But she also sensed some tension between the men.

"Ever since Paris was nuked by them, what happened to you?" Mike asked.

"I don't know where to start." Jess said confused.

"At the beginning." Mike said.

"Well, I was conceived on-" Jess started, but Mike cut her off.

"Don't be a smart ass." Mike said.

"You all left in early June, and all we had was word of a bad flu season then. It got worse in Europe and spread into the UK and Asia. The virus piggybacked into the US from returning civilians. They were isolated and put into quarantine, but it quickly spread. America dissolved into chaos." Jess said, she hadn't explained it to Tom yet, so now was the time.

"Why didn't you evacuate? Tex said that everyone bugged out." Tom said.

"Nonessential personnel bugged out in early August. The rest of us stayed behind to burn the classified records and comms in case the base was overrun by the civilian populace." Jess explained.

"Was it?" Mike asked, Jess shook her head.

"No, the virus hit the base first and spread across the island. One of the pilots from Florida was infected, it spread from her to one of the land crew. Basically a domino effect, that was the last plane out. After that, we were labelled a hotspot and abandoned by our government. The Cuban military rolled in and enforced a lockdown. Everything went downhill pretty fast after that, People started dying, soldiers and private contractors went AWOL, security in the detainment centres grew lapse. Detainees escaped and it was mayhem." Jess said.

"So you've been without comms since July." Mike said.

"I was still talking with my bosses and colleagues until late August trying to find my family, to know if they were ok. But no luck." Jess said.

"Maybe they are immune like you," Mike offered, he looked to Tom, "We should get Green tested. Having immune personnel would make going off the ship for supplies easier." he said.

"I already discussed that option with Dr Scott, she told me natural immunity would be very rare, less than 1% of the population and thus it would be a waste of time and resources to test everyone on the ship. I have to agree for the time being." Tom said.

"I'd argue that it would be in our best interests at least to test the VBSS team and Green's team." Mike said.

"I agree, but let's worry about that when we have to go ashore. Right now, we have the fuel and supplies to keep us going for another 4 months at sea." Tom said.

"Are we at EMCON?" Jess asked.

"Yes, and for the foreseeable future while the Russians are out there. Why?" Tom asked.

"There are backchannels I wanted to check to see if they were still operational. I know I can't communicate with the outside world. But I'd still like to see if any of my colleagues are trying to make contact." she asked, she could only hope that her friends were still alive out there trying to contact home.

"That shouldn't be a problem." Tom remarked.

"You know earlier about the satellites. I know of a satellite network over this area, it won't see the cloud cover but it's controlled by AI. So, it will be more reliable and should still be fully functional. It also passes over a good portion of the US while it orbits the Earth." Jess said.

"Assuming another satellite hasn't crashed into it." Mike drawled.

"Aren't you Mr Optimistic?" Jess asked Mike in amusement. Before he could give her a witty reply his radio garbled.

"Excuse me." Mike said, he left the cabin. Jess looked to Tom who looked exhausted as she felt.

"Trouble in Paradise?" she asked.

"He wants to go home and be with his family." Tom said.

"A sentiment that is widely shared by the crew." Jess said.

"I know, but what is the point if we don't have a vaccine?" Tom asked her.

"They want to be with their families for the end. I understand it." Jess said, playing devil's advocate. She understood the desperate need to rush home to one's family. She was just surprised by Tom's patience but she knew he was playing the longer game. Get a vaccine, then save the family. They couldn't really do one without the other.

"You think I don't?" Tom snapped.

"I know you do, it's just an untenable situation no matter what." Jess told him.

"Yeah, it is." Tom sighed, he paused for a long moment and looked at her. "You look like hell, are you ok?" he asked her.

"Tophet took a lot of blood this morning, too much in my opinion. But I'll be ok, I just need to hydrate and get some sleep." Jess sighed, she rubbed her face.

"Bit of a broken record there." Tom mused.

"I know. I also know it's gotta be hard for you, if you ever want to talk, I'm a good listener." Jess offered, she was not really a part of his chain of command, so he had the luxury of talking to her without it affecting his role as Captain. They both knew it.

"There's nothing to say." Tom said with a shrug.

Danny passed the guard and walked into the lab, he knew Jess was currently in a meeting with Tom and had been for over 2 hours. He could only imagine what she was telling him. It was why he came to lab, to take preemptive action. Volunteer for testing before he was asked.

"Dr Scott, may I have a moment of your time?" Danny asked Rachel.

"Is it important?" Rachel asked as she didn't look up from her computer.

"Jessica Morley is my sister." Danny said, that made her look up from her work.

"I had no idea." she said.

"Yeah, it's not big news. But I figured, you're looking for immune people right?" he asked, he knew the Captain or XO would ask him to submit for testing and decided to do it before they asked. Taking the initiative would look better than him delaying it any longer.

"It's not high on my list of priorities at the moment. But you believe you could be immune?" Rachel asked, she sat back in her chair and sized him up.

"I don't know, I figured you'd want to test me to see if it's something hereditary or not." he said.

"It's highly unlikely that you're immune." Rachel remarked.

"Why?" Danny asked, he felt slightly annoyed at the fact that Rachel wasn't jumping out of her seat excited and ready to use him like a pin cushion.

"Because you and your sister might share DNA, but how they express themselves is very different." Rachel explained.

"So, you're not even going to test my blood?" Danny asked, as it hit a nerve that Jess was still considered a cut above him.

"I didn't say that, I just don't want you to get your hopes up." Rachel told him, Danny relaxed somewhat.

"Well, run the test." Danny said.

"Ok, have a seat." Rachel told him as she directed him to an empty chair.

Danny parked himself in the chair and pulled off his BDU jacket and hung it on the back of the chair. He looked at Tophet in the lab, he seemed to be injecting mice with what looked like blood.

"It's your sister's blood. We're testing vaccine prototypes, if the mice survive, then we move onto Monkeys. Then humans." Rachel said as she returned to his side with a medkit and pulled out the equipment she needed to do a blood draw.

"It's that quick?" Danny asked.

"No, it will take time. But your sister's immunity was key to us understanding how to fight the virus. She has very strong immune receptors which means the virus can't attach or reproduce itself in her body." Rachel said, she put a tourniquet on his arm. She pulled on surgical gloves.

"So, you're going to replicate those receptors." Danny said.

"We're trying, it's a delicate and complicated process. Make a fist." Rachel told him, Danny did as instructed. Rachel found a vein and put in the needle. Danny was surprised at how adept she was as he barely felt it.

"When will you know the results of this test?" He asked as he watched her fill three vials with blood.

"In a day, so come back here at the same time tomorrow and we'll talk." Rachel said, she pulled out the needle and covered the wound site with gauze and applied pressure.

"Ok." Danny said.

"But there is no guarantee you'll be immune." Rachel repeated, she replaced the gauze with a bandaid.

"I you Doc." Danny said, he pulled on his jacket and left the lab and went in search of his sister.

As much as he hated how small he felt with Jess on board. How old resentments surfaced, he regrettably needed her help with Halsey. He was losing focus with each passing day, Danny knew Jeter or the XO would notice. They'd most likely want to dump Halsey at the closest port as they didn't like having the dog on board to begin with. Danny couldn't lose him.

A couple minutes later, Danny stood in front of the door to Jess' quarters. He knew she shared with Rachel, but he highly doubted the doctor spent much time in her bunk as people rarely saw her outside of the lab. He knocked on the door and waited, after a minute of no response he pounded a little harder. He leaned in close and heard movement, he stepped back as the door opened to reveal his sister. She looked exhausted, her hair was mussed from sleep or seemingly lack thereof given she had dark circles under eyes so dark it looked like she had two black eyes. He still hadn't become accustomed to this unkept version of her.

"Danny, what's the time?" she asked, she winced at the bright light of the hallway.

"About 5pm. Are you ok?" Danny asked.

"Do you really care?" Jess asked in amusement.

"Not really," he admitted, as he knew she'd appreciate the truth over him pretending for the sake of wanting something from her.

"So?" She asked, she gestured for him to get to the point.

"I need your help." he said.

"My help? With what?" Jess asked, she leaned against the open frame.

"Halsey, he responds to you. He'll follow me for food and bunk down for the night but he's losing focus in the field, won't follow orders as sharply as I know he can." Danny told her.

"I'm not a dog trainer." Jess stated.

"No, but animals listen to you. I just need you to work with him, he won't exercise or train with me or the others. If he doesn't, then he'll be removed from the ship." Danny sighed, "I can't lose him." he pleaded in a soft tone.

"Ok, but I can't promise anything." Jess said.

"I know." Danny said, an awkward silence lapsed between them.

"So, how long have you been in love with what's her name?" Jess asked.

"What?" Danny asked, he looked around the p-way grateful it was empty.

"I saw the way you looked at her the other night. Then at Tex and I, maybe trying to figure out how it could all work out for you." Jess said, Danny glowered at her as this was not the time or place for them to discuss this.

"We're not together, it's against the rules." Danny told her.

"I wasn't suggesting you crossed a line physically. But clearly there's something there." Jess said, Danny saw the faint smile on her lips and knew she didn't believe him. But she was smart enough for both their sakes to not say it out loud.

"It's none of your business." Danny told her.

"Well, if you want to talk about it. I'm here for whatever that's worth to you." Jess told him.

"Hmm, yeah. So, Halsey will still have to bunk with me, but you can take him after breakfast, then I take him back after dinner." Danny told her.

"Sounds doable, but Halsey will have to be with Tex when I'm in CIC or Comms." Jess said.

"Why would you be in either of those areas? they are restricted." Danny said, Jess looked at him for a long pointed moment. "Of course, CIA." he said, answering his own question.

"How long are you going to be hung up on this?" she asked.

"I don't know." Danny told her honestly.

"Well, maybe if you talked about it, then we could work through whatever your issues are with me." Jess offered.

"You mean, the lying, sorry, the obfuscating for years, the marrying some random guy no one in our family has ever met. How about just how wherever you go, or how many rules you break everything magically works out for you, you're loved by all." Danny said pettily, he hated how he felt like a sullen teenager around her.

"Well, there is a lot to unpack here. You want to do it now in the hallway?" Jess asked him.

"There's no privacy on a ship." Danny replied in a tart manner. Jess looked away and pursed her lips, Danny assumed she was gathering her thoughts.

"Fine, you need to grow up and let go of this weird notion that I'm somehow better than you. That I am loved by all and live without consequences. Cause if I did, we wouldn't be standing here having this conversation." Jess told him.

"Fair point." Danny conceded, silence lapsed between them.

"Look, we're just different, the expectations placed on us were different. Our lives are different, so why are you trying to compare them as if they are the same?" she asked him, Danny said nothing, he didn't know what to say. "I'm sorry that I hurt you, that I made you believe that my life was perfect when it wasn't because I'm not perfect as you can see but I'm in a place where I'm ok with that." she told him.

Danny nodded as he didn't entirely have the words to say what he was thinking. But he knew her apology was genuine and it strangely soothe some of his bitterness and resentment. It didn't resolve anything, but it was a start.

"We put way too much pressure on ourselves to be the best and at the 'top' of our game. As if there is some reward at the end of the finish line. But there's nothing because the race never freaking ends, Danny." Jess said, she looked so desolate and distant, her gaze unfocussed as she looked in no particular direction. "Nothing I ever did was good enough for our parents. The sad thing is that it took me most of my life to realise it. That all those years of hard work amounted to very little in their eyes, and it ended up with you standing here resenting me for it." she told him, a wry smile played on her lips. She gave a sad huff and shook her head.

"I-" Danny started but Jess cut him off.

"It ok, I deserve it. Now, I'm going to go back to sleep. I'll see you in the morning at breakfast." Jess said.

"0600 hours." Danny said.

"See you then." Jess said, she disappeared back into her room and closed the door.