Title: Spring
Fandom: Terra Nova
Pairing: Lucas Taylor/Skye Tate
Rating: GA
Chapters: One Shot
Setting: After Season 1
Note: My 2nd writing attempt, this time not an AU. It's very short and very simplistic storywise. I'm still so invested in this pairing and have a handful of other ideas I want to write.
I also want to say how grateful I am for the few people who read, liked and commented on my first story. You have no idea how much this means to me. And feedback is always appreciated.
English is not my primary language, so I apologize for any mistakes in advance.
Thank you and enjoy :)
Disclaimer: I don't own Terra Nova or the characters, only my imagination.
Spring
Weeks, months after the occupation...
She didn't expect to see Lucas Taylor back in Terra Nova, even though she'd hoped he was still alive somehow. The selfish part of her that didn't want his blood on her hands despite knowing he might have deserved death for all his horrible deeds.
But why was he back?
He didn't come willingly. That much was obvious when he was brought in, from the shackles around his hands to the bloody bruises on his face, not as bad as the last time Skye's seen him though, the day she shot him twice to stop him from killing his father.
A handful of soldiers dragged him out of the Rhino, hands cuffed on his back. The colonists on the market stopped in their tracks, gathered around to stare at the scene as if the soldiers captured a rare wild animal. Which wasn't far from the truth, she guessed.
Lucas looked as feral as the first time they met at the Sixers' camp – covered in dirt, face unshaven, hair a mess, still wearing the same ragged clothes from the day she shot him, red-rimmed bullet holes and all plain to see.
His eyes dashed around, most likely scanning his surrounding for a way to escape, until somehow they found her in the crowd. Like a magnet they settled on her with familiar intensity. For a moment it seemed the world stopped spinning as they stared at each other across the marketplace, neither of them moving.
She couldn't fathom the emotions crossing Lucas' face as he took her in. Whatever positive feeling he may have harbored for her and made him stare at her in a daze passed quickly, probably as he remembered their last encounter, his expression hardened and Skye clenched her teeth, trying to look as every bit as unsympathetic as her opposite.
He kept his eyes looked on her, craning his neck as the soldiers dragged him out of sight towards the brig, jade green irises taunting her.
Begging her?
Or just more of his mind games.
She let out a breath she didn't realize she's been holding once he was gone.
A week passed.
And she didn't see him again.
Still Lucas's presense seemed to linger all around her, following her like a shadow through the colony, his unexpected return vibrating through Terra Nova like a morbid curse. He was the talk of the town with the colonists debating intensely what to do with him. She didn't know what Commander Taylor's planned to do with his son, but she knew they couldn't keep him in the brig forever. People were already starting to complain about precious resources being wasted on the man responsible for their shortage in the first place.
Technically, she knew it had been Taylor and Jim Shannon's decision to destroy Hope Plaza and by that to cut off Terra Nova from the future, but Lucas forced their hands. What else were they supposed to do? What was she supposed to do? She did help with the plan by luring Lucas into their ambush after all, didn't she?
As much as she tried she couldn't shut out the talking about whether they should banish him again or just hang him from the fence for the Carnos to have their share. Skye shuddered at the thought, disgusted by her neighbours and friends turning into a bloodthirsty mob demanding Lucas's death. Despite his actions that wasn't something she wished on anybody.
She tried not to think about it though.
Lucas' wellbeing was not her concern.
Why should she care?
For once her life was back on track and going well since she didn't have to spy for the Sixers anymore. She continued her internship at the infirmary, she had her mother back alive and well and her relationship with Josh was finally progressing into something serious after months of wondering if he'll every get over his dead girlfriend.
Why would she concern herself by what was happening to Lucas Taylor?
Still...
it bothered her...
A month passed.
Skye hasn't played chess with Commander Taylor since she was revealed to be the Sixers' spy. Despite having saved his life the Commander didn't seem to be able to forgive her completely. They had civil conversations, but the unconditional trust he once put in her was gone. She wasn't his protege anymore, she was just another citizen of the colony.
She was just Skye.
Didn't Lucas warn her it would be like this? Speaking of the devil, he was still held captive in the brig against people's protests. She had no clue what Taylor was doing with him down there but she heard from Josh that he visited his son frequently, maybe in futile hope to fix their broken relationship. She doubted it would work that way. Not after Lucas hating his father for so long. Though a tiny part of her - the part that still marveled about all the wonders in this world despite its equal prominent horrors - hoped they would find a way to work things out.
For Taylor...
...and Lucas' sake as well.
The first thing she noticed when she entered the infirmary were the soldiers guarding the entrance, making her wonder what happened that required additional security. She didn't know. And she missed being in the know!
When she got her coat from the locker to get ready for her shift she spotted Malcolm behind the closed glass door to the lab area. He didn't look very happy. In fact, he looked very annoyed talking to someone hidden from her view. The look felt familiar.
She shifted her position to peek around the corner in hope to catch a glimpse at the person he was talking to, overwhelemed by the desire to know what was going on.
Old habits die hard.
Even harder than Lucas Taylor apparently who was standing on the other side of the glass in handcuffs.
She was taken aback, having not expected to see him outside of the brig. He looked better than she expected too. Clean, collected, with a blank stare, bored to death listening to Malcolm as if the older scientist was telling him something he already knew since being a toddler. He survived five years in the jungle, surely a month in the brig was nothing but an inconvenient setback to his genius mind.
Skye crept closer to the glass, trying to catch bits of their conversation, involuntary hugging herself tightly. The movement must have caught Lucas' attention and his eyes shifted in her direction. She felt like being caught in headlights, captivated by his penetrating stare. His expression stayed neutral and didn't change as if he'd expected to see her, but couldn't care less. Like her presence had become insignificant to him.
Meaningless.
She shivered, suddenly feeling cold despite the comfortable temperatures in the building.
A moment or two passed.
Nothing happened.
Then he dragged his eyes lazily away from her, turning his attention back to Malcolm who just kept talking to Lucas gesturing on something displayed on his plex, oblivious to the younger man's temporary distraction.
Skye frowned and went to work, but couldn't shake the feeling of Lucas' eyes following her for the rest of the day.
Days, weeks passed.
The weather was changing.
Slow but steady the temperatures dropped with each day gone by. And it was getting more and more difficult for Skye to avoid him.
Every day the soldiers would bring him to the lab for a few hours to work with Malcolm before returning him to the brig. And every day she caught him stealing glances at her when she wasn't looking, his gaze varying between hateful, repellent and sometimes, very fleeting, full of the unidentified longing she'd noticed on rare occasions during the occupation. On the balcony of the command base, at Boylan's bar...
It was like playing a game she didn't know the rules of. It was unsettling and she bet he did it on purpose to mess with her head, to get back at her for betraying and shooting him.
She shouldn't, didn't want to give him the satisfaction of getting a reaction out of her, but that didn't stop her from sneaking into the research lab against her better judgement when she'd finally had enough.
Malcolm left a few minutes earlier but she knew he would be back soon and if the guards stationed outside the building caught her in here she would be in deep trouble.
She kept a safe distance, knowing very well from personal experience how unpredictable and dangerous the man in front of her could be despite his more civil looks. A syringe filled with a strong anesthetic was hidden in her lab coat's pocket just in case.
Lucas sat at one of the tables, intensively studying some calculations far too complicated for her brain to decode, seemingly lost in his thoughts. With his feet propped up on the table he looked more like he owned the place than the prisoner he was despite the heavy cuffs still binding his hands together.
It used to be his lab.
"Bucket," he greeted her, his voice thick with smoothness, making her skin crawl for multiple reasons she refused to name. She groaned inwardly about his insistence to still use her old nickname. She'd expected him to have gotten bored of it by now but no such luck.
"What a sight for sore eyes," he continued. He wasn't even looking at her. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"
She didn't bother with false courtesy and got straight to the point. "What are you planning, Lucas?" she asked.
Now he looked up, pale green eyes fixating her in confusion. "I'm working on reopening the portal to the future," he explained, his voice flat. "As my father wishes."
"No, that's what you're supposed to work on, but I know you."
Lucas smirked. "Do you now?" He seemed intrigured by her claim, raising his eyebrows in challenge. He lay the plex aside, gracing her with his undivided attention. It was ... unsettling being the sole center of his attention again, remembering all too well how it felt during the occupation, yet she didn't retreat.
"I know that you're planning something," Skye insisted, rising her chin.
"And what would that be? Enlighten me, dear sister." He took his feet off the table and leaned forward. Involuntarily she took half a step back which didn't go unnoticed by Lucas' observant eyes.
Skye bit her lower lip. She didn't know. She suspected, feared, but had no proof.
Maybe he was waiting for a chance to attack Taylor in his own house. Maybe he was biding his time until the Sixers or the Phoenix Group would rescue him. So many possibilities one more alarming than the other and Lucas probably planned all of them ahead.
She crossed her arms in front of her chest as if trying to protect herself from his knowing gaze that made her feel stripped to the bone. "Why would you help us reopen the portal?" she asked, avoiding to answer his previous question. She could tell he took her evasion as a win.
Lucas chuckled. "Why wouldn't I? I'm the one who made it go both ways. It wasn't my bright idea to close the fracture. Old man should have known he can't sustain Terra Nova without assistance from the future. Now, as much I missed our little talks, I have work to do. You can leave now." He tried to dismiss her with a wave of his cuffed hands like someone would wave off an unpleasant fly.
His stuck-up attitude grazed on her nerves.
"You know what's the best part of the situation, Lucas? I don't have to do our little talks. I don't have to talk to you at all if I don't want to!" she snapped back at him smugly, but her face fell when her words didn't create the reaction she hoped for.
The man before her looked unbothered by her low blow, even more he looked amused by her losing her temper when it used to be him throwing temper tantrums when things didn't go according to his brilliant masterplan. She huffed, having enough of his arrogant attitude and turned to leave without another word.
"You're right about the best part," he called after her, making her pause at the door, feeling a shudder crawl down her back. She knew she shouldn't, really shouldn't take the bait, yet she couldn't stop herself from turning around once more.
Curiosity killed the cat.
And Lucas looked like a cat ready to pounce, his eyes gleaming dangerously, grinning from ear to ear. She shivered, regretting having stepped into the lab in the first place before he continued, "You don't have to talk to me if you don't want to, but you just did, meaning a part of you wanted to talk to me even if it was just to accuse me of something you have no proof of. It's nice to know you still care... Bucket." His grin grew wider if that was even possible. "As for me, you know I wear your scars across my chest." He pointed at his chest near his heart where she'd shot him, almost killed him.
She wet her lips, searching for words to get back at him and finding them all insufficient. "Maybe I just wanted to see if it's possible to have an honest conversation with you without your mind games," was the best her puzzled brain could muster up.
"Maybe," he mused, clearly unconvinced. She didn't even convince herself. "But I've never been anything but honest with you since we first met. I never lied about my intentions regarding my father. You on the other hand have been quite the little deceiver, so who's playing games here?"
His eyes stayed on her, teasing her, challenging her to prove him right. Slowly she moved backwards out of his orbit, the glass door separating the lab area from the rest of the infirmary sliding shut between them, separating them, yet his eyes were following her without mercy.
She stormed out of the building, passing a bewildered looking Malcolm on her way out, releasing the breath she didn't realize she'd been holding once she was outside and the fresh air cooling her heated face.
It felt like running.
It felt like defeat.
Another month passed.
There was no progress on reopening the portal. And with every passing day people grew more and more impatient.
Skye wondered if that was Lucas' plan all along. If he stalled on purpose and waited for the colony to crumble under its own pressure, so that he could dance on the fallout of his father's failure. They were running out of supplies, medicine and ammunition. Most importantly they were running out of time. How were they supposed to survive in a world set out to extinguish them? Sticks and stones wouldn't keep them safe from the oversized predators lurking in the jungle right outside the fence.
The temperatures have dropped signifiantly over the past weeks, frost biting in the air. After months and months of seemingly endless summer, winter arrived at last.
A thin blanket of snow crunched underneath her feet as Skye hurried to the infirmary in the evening, not wanting to be late for her shift. She didn't mind working the late shift as she didn't have other plans. She hasn't seen much of her friends since moving in with her mother and all of them working in different departments of the colony. They just didn't have time to hang around and do stupid stuff anymore. They weren't kids anymore. They had responsibilities.
And Josh...
She couldn't recall the exact moment when they started to drift apart again and realized they were better off as friends, but one day she woke up after having slept alone in her bed for the first time in weeks and just knew it was over. She hasn't seen him in days either and wondered if she was avoiding him or the other way around. She wasn't Kara and she wasn't going to be her substitute.
Josh moved on while she got used to Lucas' presence as best as she could.
She wasn't fearful anymore with him working in the lab close by, knowing soldiers watched his every step but she was still on edge whenever he invaded her personal space, testing her limits, just to see how she reacted, but never actually doing something.
No touching.
No threats.
Treating her almost... civil.
It drove her nuts more than when he would have acted like his unpredictable obsessive old self and she was sure he knew it.
It wasn't right and it wasn't fair for him to be able to slip under her skin so easily. She thought she was better at handling him after besting him at his own game. He was the one in shackles, yet it felt like he was holding all the cards. They needed him to reopen the portal. And he knew that too.
She looked out the window as she prepared a new dose of antibiotics, lost in thought. Sincyllic Fever was on the rise in the colony again and the situation brought back unpleasant memories. At least they got the Sixers' medicine to keep the fever at bay this time, but she couldn't help but worry about her mother getting sick once again.
After everything her mother's been through.
After everything she's done to keep her alive.
She watched snowflakes drift down in front of the window, following their path to the ground with her eyes, as she waited for the machine to finish the manufacturing process. There was consoling stillness filling the infirmary during the night shift with most personal at home and patients sleeping soundly in their beds. It was... peaceful.
"I'm not a huge fan of winter."
Lucas' low voice caught her by surprise. She thought he'd been brought back to the brig but apparently she wasn't the only one working tonight. He was leaning casually against the door frame separating the lab and the infirmary with his hands tucked into the pockets of his pants. At some point during the past month, he had been allowed to work without handcuffs. She couldn't decide whether that meant progress or a disaster waiting to happen.
"My first winter in the jungle after being banished," he continued, his eyes glazed over as if lost in memory, "I had no warm clothes, no food, no real place of shelter. Sixers weren't there yet. I was completely alone. I thought I wouldn't make it."
"But you did," she said, the softness in her voice sounding foreign to her own ears as she tried to fight off the wave of unwanted sympathy towards the man standing in front of her and waited for the inevitable sledgehammer that would shatter any positive feelings she might habor for him. It's always been like this since they first met – whenever she felt an ounce of compassion he would say or do something to remind her of his cruelty and leave her wondering why she did care at all.
He looked at her face, his expression somber. "Guess that shows you can survive purely on hate."
Skye rolled her eyes at his theatralics and focused her attention back at the sample in front of her. She expected Lucas to return to his work as well or leave for the brig, but he remained standing by the door, watching her in silence for a while.
"What about your first winter?"
She looked up in surprise at his question, the honesty sparking in his eyes taking her aback. It was one of those rare moments when he actually asked out of genuine curiosity, not to gain some intel he could use against her. She considered not answering as she didn't expect opening up to him would make him more reasonable or make him become a better person. But what harm was there in telling him?
That's what she thought when she told him the Bucket story and look how that turned out...
"I don't remember the future very well. Life before stepping through the portal... but I remember I always wanted to see snow. Real snow, not the fabricated stuff. It was... it was this magical fascinating riddle I created in my mind. When I first saw snow here with my own eyes it was absolutely wonderous. But then..." She trailed off, her throat constricted by the painful memories overwhelming her.
"Then what?" Lucas asked eagerly, almost childlike in wanting to know every detail just like when he'd inquired about her nickname.
"The next winter my parents got sick with the Sincyllic Fever. My father died, my mother almost too and... I guess snow just lost its magic."
The device in front of her bleeped, catching her attention as she blinked away the memories. Another sample done.
Lucas kept studying her in silence. She could feel his eyes on her skin and it was starting to make her feel anxious. Her heart started to beat a little faster and she got more agitated the longer he studied her without saying a word.
"Don't you have stuff to do? Plan your revenge? Ruin people's lives?"
"Like you ruined mine?" He smirked at her sharp intake of breath. She gave him the stinky eye, but he just kept grinning.
"We've actually never talked about it," he added after a moment, his tone casual yet poignant as he moved into the room with seemingly carefully calculated steps, circling her slowly. "You betraying me. You foiling all my plans. You shooting me."
"Yeah? How about you slamming my head on the truck?" she snapped back as she turned to face him. The edge of the table stung her back.
Or hurting Josh. Or threatening her mother. Or killing Wash.
The list seemed endless...
Lucas' face twisted into an angry grimace, his eyes darkening, his familiar short temper rising to the surface. She didn't know why she felt bolt enough to challenge him. Sure, there were guards waiting outside to step in if necessary, but Lucas has proven to be as swift and deadly as a serpant. He could hurt her before the soldiers set one foot inside the infirmary and he wouldn't even need a weapon. He could hurt her with the sharp tip of his tongue.
He was standing so close now that she had to crane her neck to meet his eyes, reminding her of the time they'd stood on the balcony of the command base, when Lucas had stroked her cheek with tender fingertips while threatening her so casually like it was no big deal. She waited for him to repeat his threats. Surely he was more than eager to repay her for betraying and shooting him...
But just as quickly as the anger claimed him he seemed to calm down again. His chest rose and fell with deep breaths, his features smoothed. A soft chuckle fell from his lips.
"So... does that mean we're even?" Lucas suggested, catching her off guard with his offer whether it was sincere or not.
"N-no," she sputtered with a frown, confused by his inconsistent reactions. She didn't know what happened to him during all that time in the brig, but it felt like there was something different about him... though she refused to believe he's had a change of heart. More likely it was just a new approach to win the upper hand. People like Lucas Taylor did not change like that...
...did they?
She fought off the confusion and steadied her voice. "We'll never be even."
Lucas dropped his gaze with a nod, then he bend forward, invading her personal space once more, but she managed to stand her ground, wondering why none of the guards have stepped in yet or why she hasn't called for them to interfere.
His voice was close to her ear, his warm breath tickled her neck as he whispered, "You're making this really hard for me, Bucket."
"What do mean?"
He leaned back gradually to look at her again. Skye held her breath as she waited for his next move. Trying to read his eyes she remained captivated in his magnetic pull, how long she couldn't say, but she was snapped out of it by the soldiers bursting into the room all of a sudden with their sonic pistols drawn and Malcolm's concerned voice reaching her ear above the noises.
"Lucas, step away from her now! We have work to do," the older scientist warned with pronounced urgency. Lucas didn't even bother to look at the other man, neither at the guards ready to shoot him if he dared to make one wrong move. He kept staring at her like she was the center of gravity rooting him to the ground. Like nothing else mattered...
Not Malcolm, not the soldiers or the guns pointed at his head.
Neither the crimes he had committed nor her betrayals.
Maybe not even his father and his thirst for revenge for once.
"I'm done," he said, his steady voice in sharp contrast to her heart pounding frantically against her ribcage as if trying to escape her own body.
"You can't skip out of it. The deal is..."
"I said I'm done," Lucas repeated more sternly with a slight tilt of his head in Malcolm's direction to address the other man but his gaze never left her face. "With the equations to reopen the portal. They're on your plex. I factored and reconciled them. It'll work."
"Really? That-that's fantastic," Malcolm mumbled with his thoughts already elsewhere as he stumbled into the lab, leaving them alone again except for the soldiers still pointing their guns at Lucas.
He looked at her pointedly, raising his eyebrows. Skye frowned in confusion. Was he expecting a 'thank you' for doing the decent thing for once? Was he expecting for her to not suspect ulterior motives?
"It doesn't change anything," she whispered more to herself, to assure herself as Lucas was pulled out of the room and ascorted back to the brig, a wistful smile playing on his lips. But the words rang hollow in her ears.
Her gaze settled on the falling snowflakes once more, washing out the colours of the jungle beyond the fence and covering the world in white.
A few days later...
As it turned out he told the truth.
The calculations were sound and they were able to establish a new portal to the future. Just in time when winter hit the colony hard.
It's been only a year for the colonists since the occupation but in the future a lot more time had passed as it turned out both ends of the fracture weren't in sync anymore thanks to the destruction of Hope Plaza and the cataclym effect the explosion had on the quantum fabric... at least that's how Malcolm explained it.
Things had changed in the future.
A lot.
After weeks of heavy negotiations Commander Taylor agreed to a new deal with some new rules applying to both sides and a new pilgramace expected to arrive in a few weeks with much needed supplies. Skye didn't know all the details, didn't even know if Lucas' old employers were still in charge in the future and she didn't really care as long as there was no new army coming to destroy Terra Nova.
She didn't see him the next few weeks while the colony was busy preparing for the new arrivals, making her wonder if he was still around at all. Maybe that was his part of the deal. He would reopen the portal in exchange for being allowed to go back to the future and never return...
The thought of never having to deal with his sudden mood swings, his demanding attitude and manipulative personality again should have made her happy... she should have felt a lot of things she wasn't feeling anymore about him. Her previous aversion having been buried by the snow some time during winter. Now all she felt was...
She didn't know what she felt, but she knew it was more complicated, more entangled than what she'd felt before, trapped between conflicting notions pulling at her strings.
Her boots left deep traces on the muddy ground as she crossed the colony towards the marketplace. The temperatures were on the rise again. It was getting warmer every day and the sky getting clearer after long days of thick dark clouds looming over the colony.
Skye looked up at the rebuilt command base as she passed the tall building. She faltered in her steps when she noticed Taylor and Lucas sitting on the balcony bend over a game of chess.
They looked almost like any other father and son playing together.
Almost...
She felt her heart constrict remorseful. A part of her wished she was the one up there playing with the Commander like old times, but this was better than both men ripping each other apart and destroying the colony in the process. If the price of a second chance between father and son and keeping the colony safe was her remaining on the outside looking in she was willing to pay it.
She kept walking to meet her mother at the market, increasing the distance between herself and the two men who didn't even notice her presence with each step, but couldn't help glancing back over her shoulder once.
The weather was starting to change again, slow but surely, and a tiny fragile part of her wondered if Lucas Taylor was changing as well, shedding his skin like a caterpillar after years of being stuck underground to enter a new phase of life.
A month later
More than a year after the occupation though it felt like a lifetime ago, the 12th pilgramace arrived.
People were still wary of the new arrivals, the soldiers lining the gate on guard,
But maybe this time it would all work out...
The world 85 million years ago was still a crazy place full of unpredictability and danger lurking all around them. For all they knew the Sixers and the Phoenix Group - or at least what was left of them - were still hiding in the Badlands. And all kinds of dinosaurs still wanted to eat them but it felt like a new start. Like new hope was breathing through the colony, vibrating through the rebuild houses and rebuild foundation.
Skye stood among the crowd welcoming the new colonists to their new home, blinking against the bright sunlight streaming down from a clear sky.
"I bet half of these idiots won't make it till next week." The unexpected voice drew her attention away from the turmoil and made her glance over.
Lucas was standing a few feet away from her watching the new arrivals as well with a composed expression. No shackles. No armed guards following his every move. He turned his head in her direction, unblinking, his eyes lighting up in the sprouting sunlight, something akin to a genuine smile tugging at his lips, but he didn't say anything else. As he slipped past her with his arm accidentally brushing hers – or maybe deliberately - he gave her a wink.
She looked after him heading towards the research laboratory, puzzled, an unfamiliar fluttering feeling in her stomach. Shaking her head she focused back on the colony around her seemingly coming back to life after a long deep slumber.
It would be a long time until the colonists would trust him, accept him, maybe even forgive him.
But maybe...
who knew...
Skye took a deep breath, smiling, tasting a promising hint of sweetness in the air.
It was spring.
The end
*** I took some creative liberties with the climate during the cretaceous period for aesthetic reasons.
