Title: A New Year

Fandom: Terra Nova

Pairing: Lucas Taylor/Skye Tate

Characters: Skye Tate, Lucas Taylor, Nathaniel Taylor, minor appearences of Skye's friends

Rating: M

Chapters: One Shot

Setting: Alternate Universe, continuation of "Truth or Dare"

Additional Tags: Includes mild sexual content (thus the rating)

Note:

I was suggested to write a sequel to my Halloween AU story "Truth or Dare", so here it is :)

It doesn't really fit so much with the "ghost story" theme though I still tried to keep it a little mysterious. Originally intended as a Christmas story I turned it into a New Year's eve story because I knew I wouldn't be able to finish it until Christmas. I wasn't even sure I would be able to finish it before the new year starts but yay, I made it.

English is not my primary language, so I apologize for any mistakes in advance.

Feedback is always appreciated.

Thank you for reading and enjoy :)

Disclaimer: I don't own Terra Nova or the characters, only my poor imagination.

The New Year celebration was just around the corner. One of the few festivals inherited from the old world that was still being celebrated in Terra Nova and all of the colony was busy preparing for the feast. An evening full of joy and hope for the future with a splendid firework to welcome the year to come.

The large tarpaulin stretched across the market square was lined with fairy lights, lanters and torches. The last decorations were being hung up and the festive banquet was served on the market square. Even a Yule tree - or rather a yule palm - had been set up, adorned with colorful ribbons and wooden ornaments made by the children of the colony, and in the middle of the square logs were pilled up for the large bonfire in which the colonists would burn their new year's wishes.

In Terra Nova, the New Year festival was traditionally a costume party. Skye didn't know if this tradition also came from the old world. She barely remembered life before she came through the portal. Sometimes it felt like she'd always been living in the colony, as if this was the place where she'd always been destined to be. Terra Nova was her home, the colonists were her family and even though she lost her parents she'd never felt lonely... until recently.

The festive mood seemed to have taken a hold on each and every soul in the colony except for Skye. The holidays always reminded her of the loss of her parents three winters ago, but she was used to the nostalgic pain that accompanied this season of the year and it never stopped her from enjoying the evening with her friends and Taylor as her guardian before. But this year, something she couldn't pinpoint seemed to be missing, kept her from feeling the same level of excitement as the previous years.

Maybe she was still hung up on Josh Shannon not asking her to be his date, not that she'd been particularly interested in the boy since her adventurous night at the Sixers's camp on Halloween.

Three months have passed and she has kept her fateful meeting with Lucas Taylor well secret from the rest of the colony including Commander Taylor. The more time passed the less she could tell what had been real and what she'd been imagining, the memories blurring like the ripples of a feverish dream, yet they kept haunting her like the ghost stories the Commander's son played a prominent part of.

Maybe she'd bummped her head a little too hard when the Carnotaurus attacked and had been halluscinating the whole encounter. Maybe she scratched her neck on a branch while climbing up to the tree house instead of having been nibbled by Lucas...

Maybe...

"So what do you think?" Tasha asked, pulling Skye out of her thoughts as she presented her costume for the New Year's dance which was covered in bright flowers and feathers. Lots of feathers!

Turning her attention back to the other girl, Skye sat up straight on the couch in the living area of the small housing unit she shared with her friends and tried her best to keep a straight face. She chose her words carefully so she wouldn't hurt her friend's feelings. Tasha had put a lot of work into assembling her costume and the least thing Skye wanted to do was ruin the night with a careless comment. "It looks great. Very ... colourful."

Tasha beamed at the compliment and twirled around to show off her costume from all sides. "Thanks. It's supposed to evoke and reflect all the facets of the new year."

Skye pressed her lips into a thin line and nodded. "Well, it certainly evokes something. I'm sure Max will love it."

Her friend dugged her head with a coy smile, barely able to hide her blushing at the mention of their friend. Since Halloween, Tasha and Max have been growing a lot closer, barely hiding their infatiuation, yet both refused to call it dating.

"What about you?"

Skye stiffened, taken off guard by the question. "What about me?"

"You could still take up on Hunter's offer and go with him to the dance. You know, like together."

"Yeah... that's not going to happen," Skye replied, shifting awkwardly on the couch because her mind refused to let her sit still while discussing her potential lovelife since it made her involuntionarily remember her encounter with Lucas and she tried very hard to not think about him. "I don't want to lead him on."

Tasha gave her a pointed look and sat down beside her. "You used to. You used to flirt with a lot of boys. Now it seems like you're waiting for something, who knows what. Are you still hung up on Josh?"

"Josh? I don't know what you mean," Skye lied even though she knew exactly what her friend was hinting at, yet she refused to aknowledge it. Her initial crush on Josh felt like decades ago, like a faded photograph she could barely remember. She rolled her eyes, tried to fake a laugh. "Maybe I have just started to act like a real adult."

Tasha didn't seem convinced by her statement, her forehead turning into a deep frown, and seemed to want to press on but then changed her mind smiling which Skye was grateful for. "Well, it's a masquerade ball. Plenty of fine gentlemen in disguise to take you dancing for the night," Tasha suggested with a wink at Skye and they both started giggling.

"I'll probably just stick to the buffet."

"Or that could be your New Year's wish," Tasha suggested, her dark eyes sparkling with excitement as she clutched Skye's hands. "Wishing for true love."

"Who's wishing for true love?"

The girls were interupted by Max and Hunter entering the housing unit, both wearing their costumes which were decorated with even more feathers than Tasha's dress. Their faces were painted as well which made them barely recognizable. They looked like they fell into a pit of tart and then were thrown into a Gallusaur nest.

Both girls gaped at them, temporarily speechless, the sight almost too much for Skye to keep a straight face.

"What are you supposed to be?"

"What? We're the alpha predators kicking out the old year." The boys posed to show off their costumes which made them look even more ridiculous.

"More like puffy roosters."

Skye and Tasha exchanged an amused look and burst out laughing and for a moment all the nagging thoughts of her Halloween encounter vanished from Skye's mind to be replaced with some good old fun with her friends.

The celebration was already underway when Skye and her friends arrived at the marketplace. The sun had set and the colony was lit up with countless shimmering lights and torches, casting an devine glow across the command base and the housing units. At Tasha's insistence, Skye had agreed to wear her costume from the previous year, though it was nowhere near as fancy as most of the other costumes the colonists had been working on for months. Beneath all the feathers and masks most colonists were unrecognizable in their costumes on first glance. The commander was the only exception, dressed in his usual black uniform when he entered the stage to give his annual speech and lit the bonfire.

Skye barely listened to the Commander's speech. Her attention kept slipping to the fence and the jungle that lay beyond, wondering how difficult it would be to sneak OTG during the dance. Most soldiers were off duty and with all the hustle and bustle going on she didn't think anyone would notice her absence. Max and Tasha had long slipped away to the dance floor, as had Josh and his girlfriend Kara who had arrived on the recent pilgrimage unexpectedly and made Josh lose any interest in Skye. And Hunter was busy drowning his misery in Boylan's infamous eggnog at the buffet, still sulking over her rejection.

More than once during the last three months Skye had toyed with the idea of going back to the Sixers' camp to look for Lucas, but each time she considered to leave she recalled Taylor's disappointed face on Halloween and changed her mind. She hasn't been OTG since Halloween and part of her started to feel restless, like being tormented by an itch on her back she couldn't reach to scratch.

Skye noticed the Commander heading in her direction as he made his way across the square with a cocktail in his hand, his dark figure a stark contrast against all the colourful costumes, smiling politely, greeting people and shaking lots of hands. On first glance the Commander appeared relaxed and in a good mood, but Skye knew him well enough to be able to see behind the mask he presented to the rest of the colony to keep the spirit up. She saw all the little cracks in his armour - the worry lines, the doleful look, the grinding chin, the forced smile that didn't reach his eyes giving him away. It looked like she wasn't the only one with her mind in trumoil tonight...

"It was a wonderful speech," Skye said despite not being able to recall anything he said and gave him a chaste kiss on the cheek.

"Thank you. I like your costume."

"You already said that last year. It's the same one," Skye chuckled, slightly blushing over the compliment while smoothing out a few wrinkles on her costume. It was little more than an old white summer dress draped with a few extra ribbons and a matching mask. Certainly not the eye catcher compared to most of the other costumes.

"It's lovely," Taylor assured her. "Are you enjoying yourself? Have you thrown your wish into the bonfire?"

Skye shook her head and stiffened. "Not yet. I'm not sure what to wish for to be honest."

"Good health and good fortune? Can't go wrong with the classics."

"Noted."

Both fell quiet and a tense and awkward silence spread between them as they watched the festivities around them. Almost like an invisible rift was separating them that seemed to grow bigger and bigger since Halloween. Before, she'd always confided all her worries to the Commander, but maybe that was part of adulthood that everyone withheld a part of themselves, building masks and walls.

Skye fidgeted with the leather straps around her wrist as she searched her mind for something to say. The Commander emptied his drink, cleared his throat and turned towards her, his gaze locked on her with a stern expression.

"Skye, I know I've been very strict with you the past couple of months, but I hope you understand that I'm just trying to do what's best for you and the rest of the colony," Taylor told her, his deep voice soothing and sincere. "I am your guardian and I care about you like a daughter. Even though you are no child anymore I will always feel responsible for your wellbeing."

She nodded a little uncertain, tears pricking at the corners of her eyes about Taylor's unusual heartfelt sincerity and she felt a sting of guilt jabbing at her chest about not having told him the truth about Lucas, even though he had asked her several times about the night at the Sixers's camp. She straightened her spine and took a deep breath. "Can I ask you something? About … your son?"

"Skye," Taylor started gravely with a clear warning flashing in his eyes and his shoulders tensing, but she cut him off, not willing to back down this time. She tried to question him about his son as subte as possible before, but never got anywhere with the Commander immediately shutting down as soon as Lucas was mentioned. Whatever had happened between father and son still seemed to haunt the both of them, but Skye couldn't keep living in uncertainty. She needed to know the truth about Lucas.

"You keep asking me about the night at Sixers' camp, but avoid answering any of my questions or to tell me why it's so important for you to know. I know it has something to do with your son... that you hope I did see something relating to Lucas. People say that he was banisched for having lost his mind and that he killed the Sixers. I don't know if that's true, but I deserve to know what's really going on. I need to know the truth. You're my guardian. How am I supposed to trust and be open with you when you're not honest with me?"

The Commander sighed while scratching his beard. "Maybe you're right." Maybe it was the effect of the New Year's eve spirit but the Commander seemed more indulgent, softer, amenable. When Taylor started to speak again, his voice low and brittle, she peeked at him from the corner of her eye, listening attentive to every word of his tragic tale.

"My wife died when Lucas was still a kid and he has blamed me for what happened ever since. Maybe he's right and it's my fault because I couldn't protect her like I should have. What's a man good for if he can't keep his family safe? Lucas had to watch her getting killed. It changed him ... and me as well." He paused, crossed his arms behind his back and gazed into the distance. "We've never been close again. It's the reason he worked with the Sixers. He wanted to punish me. But the Sixers weren't what they claimed to be and working with them didn't bring him the satisfaction or amends he sought. My son may have done ... a lot of things I don't approve of but don't believe everything you hear."

"Does that mean the stories have been exaggerated?" Skye asked, holding her breath while studying Taylor's reaction, every twitch in his expression, noticing with unexpected clarity how much she was yearning for his answer to this particular question that's been weighing on her mind for so long. She had to know if she'd just been lucky the night on Halloween...

"It means he's still my son, no matter what he may or may not have done."

Skye nodded and let his words sink in for a moment. She felt a touch of relief that made her breathe easier despite Taylor's non-committal answer. Maybe Lucas wasn't the nice boy next door, but maybe he wasn't the monster the stories claimed either...

"What if Lucas is blaming himself the same way and believes for you to blame him? Maybe that's why he's thinking that he can't come back," Skye mused, picturing Lucas's face in her head with devouring detail – the slope of his mouth, the shade of his eyes, the scars along his neck. "If you got the chance to talk to him... what would you say?"

Taylor shook his head. "I tried. I've looked for him everywhere, but he doesn't want to be found."

"Maybe he does. At least part of him. Maybe he's just afraid."

The Commander shuddered, his eyes glassy with unshed tears, a rare sight to see the Commander so emotional open and vulnerable. "I think I would listen first. Because I don't think I ever really did listen to him. I wasn't there for him when he needed me. Like a father's supposed to."

Feeling her chest constrict with pain, Skye reached for his hand and squeezed it tightly to give him some of the comfort he had provided her when her parents died, to let him know he wasn't alone. "Maybe it's not too late," she assured him, clutching his hand firmly. "He's still out there."

"Skye," Taylor sighed, squeezing her hand back, "you're a good person and I admire your hope and optimism ... but some things are broken and cannot be fixed. Even if I saw my son again, he would never forgive me. But that's nothing for you to worry about, young lady. Try to have a little fun with your friends and stop thinking about any of this."

He ran a hand over his face to wipe the moisture from his eyes and straightened his spine and Skye could see the mask of the invincible Commander who carried the world on his shoulders and puts everyone elses' needs above his own slipping back into place, leaving no trace of the vulnerability she just witnessed and which he would never allow anyone else to see. He patted her shoulder in a fatherly gesture before he continued his stroll across the square.

Skye's eyes followed him until his figure disappeared among the celebrating colonists, the heartbreak she felt for him still freezing her chest. Her gaze wandered on, lingered on the bonfire in which the colonists burned their wishes. Captivated by the hypnotic dance of its fiery tongues licking at the nightsky Skye watched in wonder and felt a new decision bloom in her mind.

She made her way through the crowd to the fireplace in firm stride, grabbing pen and paper to write down her wish. Tossing the little piece of paper into the fire, watching it get devoured by the flames to a pile of ashes, she prayed to the universe to make her wish come true...

Skye kept watching the festivity from the sideline, feeling no desire to parttake. Her gaze swept gaze sweep across the marketplace and the dancing crowd swirling around the bonfire. The sight filled her chest with a touch of sadness and envy. None of the joy and heat seemed to reach her. Goosebumps spread across her skin. Rubbing her shoulders against the cold she wished she'd brought a jacket for the night was getting chilly.

Her restless eyes spotted Josh dancing with Kara. Their jolly faces were glowing almost as bright as the glittering lights lined over the square, emitting a lightheartedness she couldn't muster. Her mind recalled her conversation with the Commander, the pain in his voice etched into her memory like a fresh wound and she wished she could do something about.

She thought of Lucas again, wondering if he was still hiding at the Sixers' camp or roaming through the depths of the jungle like a restless soul. Could he see the lights of the colony in the distance or hear the music? Did he feel as lonely and broken as the Commander did tonight?

All of a sudden she felt a shiver run down her spine, felt like she was being watched though looking around, she could not pinpoint the source of this strange sensation. At first she thought it was just her imagination or her friends playing tricks on her, but the feeling lingered on her skin, clutched her chest with invisible force. She felt something caress the back of her neck like a featherlight touch, but when she whirled around there was no one there. The strong fence of the colony loomed up in front of her and behind it, the seemingly endless jungle, dark and full of dangers. A soft breeze stirred some loose strands of her hair, made the leaves rustle like a hushed whisper.

When she turned back to the party she found herself face to face with a tall cloaked figure. The costume looked poorly assembled like thrown together from several different rugs in a rush. A hood hang low over the eyes, obscuring them in shadows. The rest of the face was hidden behind a black mask.

"Curran?" Skye tried to guess. Height and build would fit the young soldier, but there was something about the figure's posture that seemed off, yet eerie familiar. She squinted her eyes and felt her heart skip a beat, thinking she caught a glimpse of flashing green beneath the hood. She knew those orbs. His eyes.

Wordlessly the figure took her hand and lead her into the shelter of the bamboo structure of the lower level of the command base, away from the celebration and unwanted prying eyes. Tentatively her hand reached out to take off the stranger's mask.

"It is really you," she gasped in a hushed tone, no more than a breath, not daring to speak his name in fear it would make him disappear again. A delicate smile settled on Lucas's lips, his eyes sparking as they held her gaze with familiar intensity.

"Bucket," he called her by her old pet name she'd told him on Halloween.

"How did you get inside the colony?" Skye asked bewildered, still not trusting her eyes.

"My father's security system is not as perfect as he likes to think."

More questioned rushed into her head. "Why did you come here?"

He moved closer, cornering her with her back pressing against one of the wooden pillars. Her fingers curled into the front of his shirt, feeling his solid form beneath the fabric. His eyes searched her face, his voice lowered. "I wanted to see you. I thought you would come back to see me but you never did."

"I couldn't... I thought it wasn't real what happened that night. Just another ghost story."

"You thought I was a ghost?" he asked with a shake of his head. His eyebrows rose in amusement. Skye felt her cheeks burn with humiliation. She avoided his eyes, feeling the urge to pull away, get some space.

"I don't know what I thought."

Lucas chuckled and tilted his head to the side to study her. "Can a ghost do this?" he asked as he took her hand and placed a soft kiss on the inside of her wrist. "Or this?" He placed another kiss in the crook of her arm, then moved up further in a trail of soft kisses until he reached the junction of her collarbone, leaving a tingling sensation where his lips touched her skin. "Or this?" His lips latched onto her neck, close to her fluttering pulse, right above the faint mark she'd been carrying since Halloween.

"M-maybe you're a vampire," she blurted out, eyes fluttering, suppressing a moan by biting on her lip.

"A what?"

"You bit me ... on Halloween."

"You enjoyed it."

There was no denying that she did. She shivered at the memory replaying in her head, her body preparing for a rerun with searing expectations as his teeth grazed across her skin in delicious torment before biting down, but not very hard, more like a lover's nip to tease her.

"Where have you been?" Skye asked in attempt to keep her mind straight. Her head was starting to spin, overwhelmed with the rush of sensations created by Lucas's proximity. Wasn't she supposed to talk to him about something...?

"Here and there. It's not safe to stay in one place for too long. You never know what's lurking in the shadows of the trees." His answer sounded nonchalantly like they were talking about the weather and not about potentially getting eaten by a dinosaur. She remembered the Carno attack and shuddered, but quickly shook off the unpleasant memory.

"Lucas... your father-"

"I don't want to talk about him," Lucas replied, his voice muffled, trying to distract her by sucking harder on her skin. His fingers started to play with the straps of her dress, tugging them loose one by one.

"But I talked to him and he said-"

"I said I don't want to talk about him," he growled. His voice grew somber, his touch a little rougher. His eyes hardened, flashing with unpredictable anger. He pulled away with a snear and started to walk away.

Skye took a moment to catch her breath, shaking her head to clear her thoughts, before she hurried after him, fearing he would run back into the jungle. She couldn't let him slip away without having talked to him about his father no matter how much it would upset him. A part of her called her crazy for setting off after him, still feeling his teeth against her skin, still unsure about how much of the stories about him was true, but she was the girl prone to do stupid things - running through the jungle, jumping from waterfalls and falling for dangerous strangers.

When she rounded the corner of the command compound she saw Lucas hovering next to Boylan's bar, just long enough for her to spot him before disappearing behind the next corner, making her realize that he wanted her to follow him. That he was playing with her like some sort of game of hide and seek.

She followed him through the maze of housing units towards the construction area on the other side of the colony with growing anticipation tickling down her spine like little sweat drops. The area was deserted with most of the houses unfinished and it felt like walking into a ghost town, the noises and lights from the marketplace barely reaching this part of the colony. It was just the two of them, just like back at the Sixers' camp.

Rain started to pour from heavy buckets, the silvery shining droplets almost looking like snowflakes in the headlights of the fence, drenching Skye from head to toe and making her loose sight of where Lucas had disappeared to. She turned in circles, tearing off the drenched mask from her face and trying to figure out where he could have gone, but all she could see was pours of rain. A yelp escaped her lips when a hand shot out of one of the houses' dark entrances and pulled her inside. A firm body pressed her flat against the wall.

Lucas looked down at her, his profil lit by the wisps from the spotlights that punctured the house in a jigsaw of light and darkness. Droplets of water cascaded from strands of hair falling into his eyes which were wild and dark, his short-boiled anger replaced by rekindled passion. It was a look that made her breath catch in her throat and recall all the steamy memories she'd tried to push away in vain since their first meeting.

Fire licked at her nerves. Not feeling the cold from the rain anymore, her skin tingled with the raw sensations created by his touch, burning hot through the fabric of her sopping costume as his hands ran up the sides of her body in sinful pleasure, evoking the same aching need inside her she'd experienced the night at the Sixers' camp, but so much stronger after having missed him for months.

His head lowered to capture her lips, kissing away any lingering thoughts of wanting to talk to him about his father which surely could wait until morning. Their mouths met in a breathless dance of hungry lips and ravishing tongues, devouring each other. Scents and tastes intermingling, their bodies pushing and pulling at each other in growing haste, making her insides coil with heat, making her crave more of what he was offering.

Her hands started a journey of their own, tracing the scars down his neck, further down over his chest and stomach, feeling every plain and every ridge of his well-defined physics, branding them into her memory.

He pulled the strings of her dress lose, stripping her of her clothes like he stripped her of any doubts left to lay her out on the hard floor, to fill all the empty spaces inside her with his presence. Her body was arching, rising, willingly opening for him. Moaning, grunting, trembling, pushing deeper into the core of her very being and taking root, they made love in the dark and as Lucas made her climax with a cry of blissful rapture, Skye vaguely heared the dull shots of the fireworks crashing into the nightsky above the colony to welcome the new year...

When Skye woke in the morning with the first rays of the sun warming her face, he was still there, asleep, holding her in his arms and she couldn't help but wonder if her New Year's wish would come true after all.

She sat up carefully so she wouldn't wake Lucas and stretched her stiff limbs, testing how she felt on this first day of the new year, both body and soul forever changed by the man laying beside her softly snoring. Recalling the memories in her head of every touch and every feel from the previous night, she felt Lucas shift and stirr, his pale green eyes fluttering open and immediately setting on her, filling her with the same heat and gravital pull she felt whenever he looked at her. The corners of his mouth lifted upwards. He sat up beside her, running a hand through his dishelved hair, and placed a soft kiss on her bare shoulder.

"You're still here," she pointed out, melting against his sweet caresses. Fingers traced along her spine, making her shiver.

"You sound surprised. Did you think I would turn into dust come sunrise?"

"No," she blushed, her voice betraying her that she might have harbored that thought for a fleeting moment. "More like ... run off into the jungle."

"I've thought about it," Lucas admitted and paused his cuddles to look at her, his eyes somber. "I'm still thinking about it. Every fiber in my body is telling me to leave."

"So... why haven't you then?" Skye ask, holding her breath while she waited for his answer, hearing the sounds in the distance of the colony slowly stirring to life. It wouldn't be long before the maintenance crews would arrive at the construction area to continue working on the unfinished housing units.

Lucas reached out to tug a piece of hair behind her ear. "I wasn't sure I would get another chance to see you if I disappeared again without at least saying goodbye." He nudged her shoulder with his nose, breathing in her scent with a sigh. "You could come with me," Lucas suggested in a whisper, his voice growing softer, lulling, his breath hot against her ear, full of unspoken promises. She couldn't deny how alluring the idea was to just run off into the sunset with him – no fences, no expectations, no rules - and for a moment she surrendered to such foolish dream, imagining her life in the jungle like an endless adventure...

But what about her friends and the Commander? The life she'd build at the colony?

Sobering up, she shook her head slowly. "I can't leave. This is my home ... but you could stay." She turned her head to look him in the eye. Her hand reached out to cup his stubbled cheek. "This was your home once. It could be again."

Lucas pulled back with a sneer. "You don't know what you're talking about." He put his arms on his knees and hung his head, refusing to meet her gaze any longer like a petulant child. She watched his still frame for a while, waiting for a reaction that didn't come, waiting for a sign that he was at least considering her suggestion to stay. Her heart sank with every passing heartbeat.

Glaring one last time at Lucas, she stood, picked up her scattered clothes from the floor and started to dress. Lucas awoke from his stupor and did the same, none of them saying a word. Skye moved towards the door, ready to step into the new year, but hesitated on the doorstep. She cast a look back at Lucas, half expecting him to be gone, but he was still there, watching her with undefinable silence, and she realized she couldn't leave him like that, knowing with unbearable certainty that if she stepped through that door now she would not see him again.

"Lucas, things can change."

"Change is not in peoples' nature, Bucket."

"You have changed," she insisted, recalling how he left on Halloween without a trace, yet was reluctant to leave her now, even risking getting caught to spend some more time her. "You're father is not the same either. On Halloween you told me he wouldn't risk searching for me before dawn but he did and I don't think came looking just for me. He asked me so many times if I had seen you at the camp and last night he told me how he wished for things to be different between you two. Terra Nova has always been about second chances so why not for you? Don't you think it's time to bury the past and move forward?"

"Bucket-"

"Skye. My name is Skye," she told him. If they had to part ways forever, at least she wanted him to know her real name.

"Skye." He let her name roll of his tongue in tender delight, making her pulse quickening, making her throw away caution for one last chance to change his mind. She held his gaze as she held out her hand towards him, waiting, feeling like she was taking the biggest risk she's ever taken in her life. Bigger than sneaking out of the colony or facing Carnos or jumping down waterfalls.

Lucas's gaze fell upon her outstretched hand, then rose back to meet her eyes. She waited, counting the seconds in her head.

One, two, three...

Then he took her hand...

The End