Thanks for all of your comments people! Enjoy …

Mark follows Maddy around for the rest of the day. He feels pretty stupid about overeating early, so he gives Maddy a little more space which seems to make her relax slightly. By the time they start walking back to the house, Maddy waits for him to catch up. "Are you okay?" he asks.

Maddy rolls her eyes slightly. "Yeah, am I not allowed to walk next to you?"

Mark smiles slightly. "You can, I was just surprised."

"My brother always practices with his band after school. I don't usually have anyone to walk with," Maddy says with a shrug.

"What about your friends?" Mark asks.

Maddy stiffens immediately and narrows her eyes at him. "No one from school lives in the same building," she says.

Mark nods quickly, whishing he hadn't mentioned it. By the time they get to the house, Mrs. Young is just leaving. Both she and Mark look at each other suspiciously as they pass one another. Maddy stifles a laugh as Mark closes the door. "Sorry," she says when Mark glances at her. "I just can't figure out who distrusts the other more." Mark looks guilty but Maddy quickly shakes her head. "You're fine," she says. "I know it's weird, but most shelters are only open at night and since she couldn't get a job anywhere, we figured why not give her a safe place during the day."

Mark smiles slightly; this family is incredibly sweet. "When does your family get home?" he asks.

"It depends," Maddy answers. "Josh spends as much time as possible with Kara, especially now. Mom's been working longer at the hospital since we found out she was recruited at the end of last week. She said she wants to give back to the people here one last time. Dad gets home whenever his latest case lets up. He's on narcotics. Well, he's not," Maddy corrects as an afterthought, "that's what he investigates."

Mark laughs easily. He declines Maddy's offer for a snack and sits on the sofa. Maddy joins him a second later with her Plex. She pulls up a fresh page on it and stares at the digital clock on the wall in front of them. "Are we waiting for something?" he asks uncertainly.

"Uh huh," Maddy mummers. "Just wait …" The clock changes from 2:58 to 2:59 and Maddy starts scribbling on her Plex with a Plex Pen. By the time it is 3 o'clock exactly, she seems to be finished her work. "There are now exactly 21 days until Terra Nova," she gushes. "That's equivalent to 504 hours, 30,240 minutes, and 1,814,400 seconds."

Mark raises his eyebrows in surprise. "Wow."

"I just wanted an even time stamp to start a stoichiometry formatted problem. I used it to convert the day to hours to minutes to seconds instead of particles, mass, or volume to moles."

Mark shakes his head, trying to digest what he just heard. "So you are looking forward to Terra Nova?"

"Yeah," Maddy says. "I mean, I'm nervous of course, but I'm also ready for something new, a new start. And I think it's just incredible to have the opportunity to see what the Earth was like so long ago. A real version of the planet, you know?"

"Do you think there's still hope for this version?"

Maddy bites her lip. "Hope? I don't know. Scientifically speaking it seems awful unlikely that much can be done for this place. Like we've fallen too far in the whole to climb back out." Suddenly the light changes in her eyes and she backtracks. "I mean," Maddy stutters. "Not that the people who are here should be hopeless. There are probably a multitude of things just waiting to be invented that help with air filtration and food production and-"

"Maddy," Mark cuts her off when he understands the root of her rambling. "You don't have to do that. That – I didn't mean for … I wasn't asking for my sake; I was asking because I wanted to know what you think."

Maddy blushes. "Most people don't want to know what I think. Even the teachers at school just look for a yes or no answer. Besides, I've been told I ramble too much so I don't usually even get asked that."

Mark has been steadily learning that it's a true sentiment – she rambles when she gets started on something but it doesn't annoy him in the slightest. They spend the rest of the evening talking, mostly about Terra Nova, then general current day things. Mark, who knows only what he's read while studying for Terra Nova security recruitment exams, feels entirely inadequate most of the time, but he still enjoys talking with her, and Maddy seems content with their conversation. She's had to have read everything written about Terra Nova at least once.

The conversation moves to careers and work – school related or otherwise. Eventually, Elisabeth, followed by Reilly, gets home early, around six, and is surprised to find her daughter sitting on the couch laughing her head off. "What in the world is a lunar accountant?" Elisabeth asks, picking up on the tail end of the conversation.

"Someone who counts things on the moon, mom," Maddy says, "duh," only causing herself to laugh more. Elisabeth shakes her head mostly confused but pleased to see her daughter so happy. Reynolds, however, seems quite pink in the face.

"And you were counting things here on earth," Elisabeth assumes, "when you forgot to start on dinner?"

"Oh my god!" Maddy jumps up. "I'm so sorry." Elisabeth simply smiles slightly and begins getting things out herself.

Maddy quickly reaches to help, and Elisabeth narrows her eyes. "What happened to your hand?"

The smile immediately leaves Maddy's face. "Locker malfunction," she smirks. "You know me, clumsy as always."

Reilly glares at Mark. "And where were you?" she asks accusingly.

"It's not his job to protect me from my own locker," Maddy speaks up. "It happened before I went to the bathroom; Mark wasn't there because we determined I deserve at least five feet of privacy at all times."

"Mark?" Maddy turns to see that her father has arrived.

"I'm not allowed to be on a first name basis with the guy who's following me around for the next three weeks?" she snaps. "I'm so sick of people overhearing my conversations. If I want to talk to you, I will address you." With that, Maddy snatches up her coat and rebreather and storms out of the house.

Jim looks at Elisabeth incredibly confused. "What is with her all of a sudden?" he asks.

"I don't know," Elisabeth answers. "I guess she's just acting defensive as a front? She seemed nervous about something today. Maybe school's just stressful right now. We shouldn't hold it against her. You know there's been a lot of change recently. It's a lot to digest." Jim shakes his head as though that explanation didn't really help much.

Reilly gives Mark a meaningful glance and he quickly gets up. Maddy is his responsibility. He runs out of the apartment and practically trips over her on the stairs. "Sorry," she says. "But at least I'm not stupid enough to run off anywhere. Makes your job easier, right?"

"Maddy what's wrong?"

Maddy looks at the ground instead of answering. After a moment she stands up. "Nothing. I'm just tired. It's been an exciting few days." Maddy walks back into the apartment, forcing herself to remember that Mark isn't her friend. He isn't her brother. He's being paid to make sure some crazy doesn't take out jealousy on her, to make sure no one prevents her from fulfilling her agreement with Terra Nova.