RED vs. BLUE

REVIVE

CHAPTER 5: PLUS ONE

Virginia stood up from the table, feeling slightly uncomfortable from Caboose's sporadic question.
"Um, I'm gonna go hang this picture on my fridge." Virginia explained and disappeared into the next room, holding Caboose's drawing.
Everyone turned their heads to Tucker.
"Goddammit Caboose! She's a human. Not a pet!" Tucker snapped, feeling frustrated. "Don't put me on the spot like that. That's embarrassing."
"But, she's alone and I thought she could come live with us!" Caboose stated.
"Dude, we don't have room! It's already crowded with the 3 of us in our apartment." Tucker explained, looking over at Kaikana.
"Caboose, he's right. We don't have any extra room. Where would she sleep?" Kaikana spoke softly to Caboose.
"She can sleep in my room!" Caboose suggested.
"Um, does somebody want to explain to him or should I?" Grif said, looking at everyone.
"It's fine. She'll stay with Carolina and I." Wash interjected.
"What?" Carolina suddenly snapped. She looked at Wash, puzzled. Wash suddenly realized what he had done and suddenly grew nervous.
"Uh, well. If you're okay with it, of course." Wash quickly said.
"Uh oh. Wash is in the dog house." Tucker snickered. Caroline growled as she looked in Tucker's direction. Tucker slid down into his seat.
"I would be fine with it, if it's the last resort." Carolina stated with gritted teeth.
"I don't get the big deal. It's just putting a roof over her head." Wash said.
"The big deal, Wash, is that when you have one of your memory lapses, you may not remember her coming to live with us and suddenly freak out. What if you shoot her? What if-," Carolina began to ramble.
"That's absurd!" Wash threw his hands up.
"Guys, guys!" Simmons yelled, putting himself between Carolina and Wash. "It's okay. She can live with Grif and I."
"Um. What?" Grif suddenly asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Look, we have a guest bedroom. It is fine."
"Uh, that 'guest bedroom' is my storage room." Grif said angrily, using air quotations with his fingers.
"Yeah, so it's time for you to clean up the extra stuff you don't need." Simmons snapped. Grif groaned.
"Fiiine."
"You see? Problem solved." Simmons said proudly.
"Did anybody bother to ask her what she wanted?" Carolina asked, her voice still sounding bitter. Virginia slowly entered the room and returned to her seat, being silent.
"Did everyone enjoy breakfast?" Virginia asked quietly as she began to pick up the dirty dishes.
"Why yes, it was lovely." Sarge complimented.
"Virginia, how would you like to come live with Simmons and I?" Grif asked, leaning on his elbows. Simmons kicked Grif under the table.
"OW!"
"I was going to ask her." Simmons whispered angrily at Grif.
"Yeah, right. So you can stammer and trip over your words. We'd be here all day." Grif retorted.
"I hate you." Simmons growled.
"I hate you, too." Grif said and turned back to Virginia, who sat, stunned.
"Wait, what?"
"Yeah," Simmons suddenly coughed, trying to get the tickle out of his throat. "We have a spare bedroom and so, we figured, you'd like to come live in the city with us. That way, you don't have to… you know… live here… alone." Simmons twiddled his fingers, nervously.
"It was my idea!" Caboose stated. Virginia laughed lightly.
"I… I don't know what to say."
"Please, say yes!" Caboose begged. Virginia casted her eyes on the group that surrounded her. Wash gave a nod.
"Come on. You don't want to be a hermit forever." Wash said.
"You bring up a good point. How can I say no then?"
Caboose cheered and hugged Virginia, who accepted the hug happily. Carolina leaned toward Wash.
"You and I are going to have a talk later." Carolina warned, and Wash suddenly felt his stomach turn to knots.

Virginia stood outside of the mountain, looking at it for one last time.
"I'm so glad you had a shortcut out of that death trap." Grif commented as he stood next to her. As the group began to walk towards the Pelican, Wash and Carolina kept several feet ahead of them so that they could talk privately.
"I don't get why you're so mad." Wash whispered.
"I'm mad because you just volunteered us for a roommate, rather than asking me first!" Carolina snapped in a harsh whisper. Wash sighed.
"I… I get that. I'm sorry. But she's one of us. We couldn't just leave her here to rot, could we?" Wash took pity on Virginia. Carolina huffed and looked at Wash. One of the qualities she always liked about him is how he always put others first. He was selfless.
"And I understand where you're coming from. And you're right. She is one of us. She's lucky to be alive, when the rest of them are gone-," Carolina's voice trailed off. "She lost someone important to her."
"Just like you did." Wash said. His hand brushed close to hers.
"She deserves to start over, like the rest of us." Carolina smiled and squeezed his hand.

"Get a room!" hollered Sarge from the back of the line.
"Oh shush, you ruined the romantic moment!" Donut yelled. Carolina and Wash quickly unhooked hands and looked over their shoulders at their friends.
Tucker and Kaikana were cackling with laughter.
"We can leave you on this planet, Sarge." Carolina warned.
"Um, no ma'am." Sarge realized his mistake and quickly apologized before they all began to board the Pelican.

Simmons sat in a seat, having Grif sit next to him. Grif leaned over to Simmons and whispered, "So, how are you gonna feel about a girl living with us? Hmm?"
Simmons heart began to race as he looked across the Pelican to Virginia, who was in a discussion with Donut.
"I-I-I…," Simmons began to stammer.
"That's what I thought. You didn't really think it through when you volunteered our place, now did you?"
"No." Simmons lowered his head.
"It's a nice gesture. Maybe having her live with us will actually help you get better to talking to girls!" Grif laughed and slapped Simmons on the back. Simmons felt queasy to his stomach.
"..Oh, boy.." He began to feel the ball of anxiety grow in his chest.
The Pelican rose in the air and the group found themselves taking off; heading home with a new comrade.

Donut rambled off during the ride about all the fun stuff for Virginia to try once they reached the city.
"Chorus is a nice place. We were supposed to be shipped home, but we decided to stick around a little longer after the ordeal with time traveling and—," Virginia was nodding along with the conversation.
"We can go the movies!" Caboose suggested from his seat. "They made a movie about us."
"Oh yeah, I remember seeing previews about that." Virginia recalled.
"Jaxs is still working on it." Simmons stated.
"It's going to be epic." Sarge chuckled.
"We're getting ready to land!" announced Carolina from the cockpit.
"At least Grif's not driving. We won't crash." Tucker laughed.
"Fuck. You." Grif glared at Tucker.

The Pelican landed upon the platform, and everyone stood from their seats.
"See? Wash is able to land smoothly." Tucker said to Grif. Grif mocked Tucker back.
"Enough, children." Carolina groaned as she rolled her eyes. Everyone stepped off the Pelican and Virginia gasped as she looked at the towers that reached up to the sky. The city lights mesmerized her.
"This city is so beautiful!" she said as she whirled around. "This is nothing like Ambrosia."
"And the plants don't attack you here, either!" Donut added.
As everyone began to walk away from the platform, nobody noticed the shadowy figure that stood atop the Pelican's nose.

Simmon's unlocked the door and entered into the condo first. He was happy that he cleaned the place before they left on their adventure.
"Ta-da!" he announced as he held out his arm to show off the room. He quickly felt foolish and began muttering to himself that he was an idiot as Virginia entered their place.
"This place is cute!" Virginia complimented. "And very well kept."
"Yeah, well… don't go into Grif's room." Simmons warned.
"Yeah, my room is off limits." Grif said as he entered behind them, carrying Virginia's box of stuff. "I'm glad you decided to bring only one box of stuff. This shit is heavy."
"Well, I figured I wouldn't be needing anything from that place anyway. Just some clothes and a few memorabilia." Grif dropped the box on top of the dining room table.
"Easy, Grif! You could scuff the paint!" Simmons snapped.
"It's fine. The table's sturdy-," Grif slammed his hand on the top of the table, only to have it buckle and collapse onto the floor. "—I stand corrected."
Simmons groaned.
"Dammit Grif!"
"Well, that's what you get for buying cheap furniture!"
Virginia began to burst out laughing. Simmons and Grif both turned their heads to look at her.
"You two are hilarious." Virginia said as she held her sides. "I haven't laughed this hard in so long!" Simmons and Grif chuckled.
"Glad to oblige." Grif said. "I guess I'll go clean out the storage roo—I mean, guest bedroom." He wandered off down the hallway and into the first door.
"I think we'll just order food." Simmons stated. "Would you like pizza?"
"I would love some pizza." Virginia said. "I haven't had a good pizza in ages." Simmons smiled.
"I'll change that."

Wash pulled off his helmet and grabbed at the pill bottle on the counter. He poured out two pills into his palm, threw back his head and downed the pills. He swallowed and turned, finding Carolina handing him a water bottle.
"Thanks." Wash took the bottle, opened it and swigged some water.
"How's your head?" she asked.
"It hurts here and there, still."
"This mission didn't seem to exhaust you too much." Carolina said as she took off her helmet.
"Yeah, I definitely feel like I'm gaining my strength back. Not all of it, but some." Wash walked off towards the bedroom, slipping off his gloves.
"It's crazy that Virginia has been alive all this time." Carolina said as she followed him into the bedroom. She stood at the door way, watching as he removed the armor piece by piece.
"You're telling me. I didn't think we'd ever see anybody ever again."
"You think she'll be okay living with Grif and Simmons?" Carolina asked as she began to remove her armor. Wash chuckled.
"I think she'll whip this boys into shape if things get out of hand. Besides, maybe she'll help Simmons break his nervousness when it comes to women." Wash turned to face Carolina, who was completely out of her armor. He smiled at her as she walked to him. "And again, I'm sorry for voicing up so quickly."
"It's okay. I'll forgive you." Carolina kissed his cheek. "But do it again, and we'll have a problem."
Wash put his hands on her hips.
"Mm, I love when you threaten me. It's so hot." Wash laughed, and then Carolina laughed with him. "Tell me how you'll break every bone in my body."
"Oh, I'll do worse than that."

Simmons sat at the dining room table, nibbling quietly on a piece of pizza. He glanced up occasionally, looking at Virginia, who was now dressed in shorts and an oversized T-shirt. Her hair was pulled up in a messy bun. She wolfed down on a piece of pizza.
Grif stumbled into the room, panting.
"Ugh! My back hurts." He was wearing a pair of gym shorts and a shirt. "But I got all the stuff out of the room." He fell into an empty chair.
"Good. Now you may have a piece of pizza." Simmons said as he pulled out the pizza box and handed it to him.
"Yes!" He flipped open the box. "You are a savage, Simmons." Grif glared and happily took a slice out of the box and began to eat it. Virginia giggled. "So Virginia, how boring is Simmons?" Grif asked after he took a bite out of his slice.
Simmons nearly choked on his bite of pizza; feeling his face get hot with embarrassment. He pounded on his chest.
"He is not boring at all." Virginia smirked, raising her eyebrows at Grif. "Troublemaker."
"Well, he does get boring. He rambles on about science-this, and science-that, and the moon landing conspiracy and hypothesis and boring shit. 'Look at me, I'm a nerd'. Blah blah blah." Grif rambled on and then took a few more bites of his slice.
Simmons glared angrily at Grif as he finally controlled his coughing.
"Actually, I have a thing for nerds. I think they're kinda hot." Virginia smiled, looking down at the table bashfully.
Grif paused, having a string of cheese extend from his slice of pizza to his lips. His eyebrows rose in confusion.
Simmons felt his heart begin to race as his cheeks burned red.
"Um, yeah. Maybe then you can help Simmons lose his V-card." Grif snickered. Simmons eyes widened and he leaped from his seat, pinning Grif to the ground in one swoop and began to punch him repeatedly. "OW! THE FRONT OF MY FACE!"
Virginia blinked, and then continued to eat her slice of pizza.

Across from the condominium, standing on top of the neighboring rooftop, was the shadowy figure from the Pelican.
The figure narrowed its eyes, peering through the scope of its weapon, as it looked into the window of the condo. The figure could just barely make-out the figure of Virginia, sitting at the table.
"….Soon…"