SECOND CHANCES

Writer's Notes: This is a work of pure fiction. I decided that I need to feed my Scotch addiction by finishing this story and making Scotch's (or TomChel for the more mainstream) fans out there happier in view that our favourite character, Dr. Rachel Scott, is no longer in Season 3. Yeah, I stopped watching after Episode 1 of Season 3 considering her loss and the storyline that made my eyebrows raise (what with the incredible geography and meeting between the helo, NJ and Green & Burk's dinghy somewhere in the big, big sea, eh!).

This story is AU and will have some references to S1 and S2.

Big thanks to all of those who have read and followed this story and my other stories! This is for all of you!

Kudos to all of Rhona Mitra's fans that supported her crowdrise fundraiser for her One Heart Farm endeavours. For those of you who are in the dark as to what the hell I am talking about, head to her Twitter page for more details.

Disclaimer: I do not own The Last Ship or any of its characters and those others that were mentioned here.

Reference: See previous chapters.

Cast: See previous chapters.

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CHAPTER 4 – BEGINNINGS

Washington, D.C.

Tom opened his eyes to look outside the plane's window in its approach to the military airbase near DC. He managed to hitch a ride from Florida to DC aboard a transport plane. He has been on a two-week furlough from his duties. He spent the first half of it with his children and father in Florida, doing every normal duty that a father like him does for his family. He also decided that he is going to use his remaining leaves to go to DC and be with Rachel. God knows it is long overdue considering that it has been nearly a year since that vidcon they shared with the children in their home.

He closed his eyes as he felt the plane taxiing. His mind conjured the vision of her beautiful face, her deep, expressive brown eyes and the magnificent smile that she bestowed upon him. I miss you, Rachel...and I am coming for you, my love...

His tours felt longer than their two months' duration. The Nathan James felt so different without her in it. He still feels the pang of loss and sadness whenever he passes her stateroom or the helo bay. They have had no exchange of communication for the past many months. Although he has heard news about her continued work with the CDC and her travels throughout the country in spreading the cure. The latest break that he heard was that she was able to develop a contagious cure. Much like how the red flu has spread like wildfire. He kept hearing that for the contagious cure, she has basically snatched the world from death's grip what with the cure vaccine having its challenges in terms of distribution on a global scale.

As he felt the plane finally stop and the doors started opening, he cannot help the excitement and longing flow through his veins at the thought of seeing Rachel, holding her and finally being able to express his love to her in the open.

He was more than ready to start where they left off and begin their second chance.

Sunrise has begun in Washington DC and he relished its welcoming feeling on his skin.

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Sophie was overseeing one of the laboratories that studies and monitors the various existing viruses, other than the red flu, that has remained on Earth while preparing for a presentation for a meeting that she will be attending with Rachel and the other scientists.

What with the post-apocalypse rebuilding efforts in the US, CDC laboratories were mostly installed within working military bases and thus enjoy a high level of comfort of safety and exclusivity. They cannot have a repeat of how Sean Ramsay decimated the laboratories across the mainland US by the click of a button nor have the laboratories ransacked by his fanatic immunes.

She looked at her calendar and noted that Rachel will be back in DC the following day. Although she has her own fair share of travels, she misses spending time with her BFF during their off days.

"Dr. Stevens," a voice from the intercom interrupted her musings.

"Yes, Katya, what is it?" she replied.

"There's a military officer at the receiving area looking for Dr. Scott..." Katya began.

"Well, we both know she's not here," Sophie replied.

"Yes, yes, I am aware of that too, Dr. Stevens. Our personnel also informed the gentlemen that Dr. Scott is away. But he is adamant that we tell him when she will be back. And we are not at liberty to discuss Dr. Scott's schedule with anyone outside of the authorized persons."

"Did the officer say what he wants from Dr. Scott?" Sophie asked, wondering who was looking for Rachel. They normally do not receive any guests in their offices.

"He just insists on talking with Dr. Scott or talking to someone who can answer his questions about Dr. Scott," Katya said in a rush. "He mentioned being a captain or something and that Dr. Scott knows him."

This brought Sophie up to her feet and looked at the intercom as if it was some sort of an oracle to discern the future. "Katya, did he say what his name is?"

"He said he is Captain Thomas.."

"CHANDLER!" Sophie continued. "I'm going there now, Katya."

Sophie hurriedly walked out of her office to the access doors towards the receiving area. When she reached Katya's desk, she looked over the various CCTV monitors and saw Tom Chandler, with his arms extended towards the receiving desk and frowning at the personnel behind the desk. If looks could kill, they would have been one assistant short already.

"He's been pacing back and forth and threatening not to leave the building until he talks to someone," Katya explained.

Sophie patted Katya's shoulder as she went towards the receiving area, "I'll take it from here, Katya."

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Tom was preparing himself for the long haul of waiting for Rachel to arrive from wherever she is or waiting for somebody to talk to him. He is aware that his countenance has started from friendly, to confused, to mad, with the girl's refusal to give any more information about Rachel except to say that she was out of the office. Repeatedly. As if he did not understand it in the first place.

He was staring at a picture of Rachel with a group of other scientists with his arms on his hips when he heard a soft whoosh of a sliding door.

"Well, if it isn't Captain Thomas Chandler, as I live and breathe!" a woman's voice with a distinct British accent said behind him.

He turned around and saw Rachel's friend, the one she picked up from Deer Park and left the Nathan James with...her name...Sophie... "Sophia, right? Rachel's friend from Deer Park?"

Sophie smiled into the face of Tom Chandler with his piercing blue eyes crinkling and smiling at her. He moved towards her with his right hand extended. She took his hand for a hearty handshake and turned towards the girl behind the desk. "And this here, Emily, is Captain Thomas Chandler of the Nathan James. You know, the ship where Dr. Scott discovered the cure? Ring a bell?"

"The Nathan James does ring a bell, Dr. Stevens, of course..." Emily was blushing profusely as she looked between the smiling faces of Dr. Stevens and the handsome Captain.

"I can't help it that my ship is more famous than me...but of course, we can never eclipse the fame of Dr. Scott," Tom proudly stated.

Sophie looked at Tom and noticed a suitcase standing nearby.

"Is that yours, Captain?" she queried.

"Yes, Dr. Stevens, and please, my friends call me Tom," he offered.

"And mine call me Sophie," she returned, "I think we should continue this conversation in a more private setting."

Tom followed Sophie to another door that she opened with her access card. It led to an empty corridor with glass panels on both sides. She turned to a door on her right, flashed her card and in they went to a small meeting room. As Tom sat down on one of the chairs arranged by the table, Sophie got two bottles of water from the side and gave him one.

"Welcome to CDC and Washington DC, Tom!" she raised her bottle to him before drinking. "I probably missed the announcement that the Nathan James is in town."

Tom was quiet before he slowly replied, "You didn't miss anything. The James is not here. I'm the only one here."

Sophie's lips pursed into an "oh!" at hearing his answer. "Is it duty or something else that brought you here?"

Tom placed his palms flat on the table before steepling his fingers while considering the woman before him. "Before I give you any reply, Sophie, I hope you won't mind me asking some questions in order that I may be clarified."

Sophie tilted her head to one side in a sign of acquiescence and motioned with her hand for him to go on.

"From the brief time that you were on my ship, it was my understanding that you're a close friend of Rachel. Is this correct?"

She nodded and gave him a thumb's up. He smiled.

"The last time I saw Rachel was through a vidcon nearly a year ago and nearly two years since I held her in my arms. I am assuming, and I fervently hope to God that I am assuming correctly, that Rachel may have made mention about me...about the two of us to you?" Tom said softly, keenly looking at Sophie's reaction.

Sophie held his stare and flatly declared, "Rachel did tell me about her time at the ship, how mad you were at the beginning for her secrecy, your decision to help her in the search for the cure, yeah, she told me about those..."

At hearing those words from Sophie, Tom's face fell and his eyes became hooded.

At seeing this, Sophie decided to release the Captain from the funny torture that she was inflicting on him, "And yes, Tom, she told me about your relationship...or lack of it!" she said with a snap of her fingers in front of him.

That brought him out of his stupor and the twinkle to his azure orbs returned and a grin started to form on his lips, "She did, did she?"

"Yes, Captain, Rachel and I have been BFFs since our freshmen year in college. I did manage to get yours and hers story from her when we arrived here in DC. And so I guess I will be answering my own question then. It is Rachel that brought you here and not duty. Correct?"

"Yes, Sophie, I am here for Rachel. And I would like to see and talk to her."

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"Too bad, Captain. She's not here."

"Well, yes, that was what Emily has been telling me for the past thirty minutes since I've been here. I already know that. Tell me something I don't know," he invited.

Sophie smiled at him before saying, "One advantage of a BFF is that I know Rachel's schedules. She's due to arrive tomorrow afternoon from her trip. How long will you be in town, Tom?"

"I have five more days to stay here before I hitch a ride back to Florida. I managed to get a furlough long enough to make it here."

"Do you already have a place to stay?" she inquired.

"Yes, they gave me a room here in the Base. Since Rachel's due back tomorrow, I have enough time for a meeting with the Chief of Staff until lunch for some business. I got the orders as soon as I landed on the tarmac," he said wryly.

"Well...I don't expect that you can come and go silently in DC without the powers-that-be knowing about it. I sure do hope, though, that they would not hog your free time with Rachel..." Sophie said with a questioning look in her grey eyes.

"Oh no! The Navy owes me this much. If I don't have to sleep to be with Rachel, that's fine with me. I want to spend as much time as I can with her. I did not travel all this way to have a tete-a-tete with them!" Tom declared.

"Good to know, Captain. Good to know that my friend will not be falling in line for your time here," Sophie said while looking at Tom straight to the eye.

"She's the reason why I am here, Sophie," Tom replied solemnly.

"Well...I think you had better get some rest as I have to get back to my office," she said as she stood up. Tom stood up too and gathered his luggage.

"What time do you get off? Can you accompany for dinner later and show me around, maybe?" he asked eagerly.

"Yeah, why not? I finish here at five o'clock. We can both have dinner and keep each other company," she agreed.

"Thank you, Sophie, and I'll see you later," Tom said. She saw him out and returned to her office.

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"This is nice," Tom commented as he pulled a chair for Sophie in the diner where she took them.

"Thank you. I'd have brought you to our office mess hall but I thought you'd appreciate some real home cooking while you're off-duty," she said, "this also happens to be one of Rachel's favourite diners in town."

Tom smiled, "Really? I have never known her to love food. She ate like a bird while she was in the ship."

"I am sure you can imagine the pressures of finding the cure. Not appetizing at all," she mocked. Sophie ordered for the both of them. Some salad for starters, a pot roast for Tom and grilled fish for her.

"How's Rachel, Sophie?" Tom started the conversation after she placed their order.

Sophie took a deep breath before answering him. "The last two years have been...challenging to Rachel, Tom. I guess that's the best word that I can use to describe the past months that I have been with her."

She went on to tell him how Rachel convinced the government to look for Niels Sorenson when she got wind that he survived the sinking of the Russian ship where she saw him last. Apprehending Niels posed a challenge as he was with the Immunes and the vaccine then was not yet widely distributed. When he was finally captured and put in a containment facility, he refused to disclose how he made the red flu so potent. Tom looked in horror at Sophie when she told him that when Rachel found out that Niels was attracted to her, how Rachel had to use her feminine guile on Niels for him to confess enough information for Rachel to work out the virus' potency.

"Is the bastard still alive?" Tom growled.

"Fortunately, he no longer walks the face of the Earth, Captain. When he consented to give a part of his lungs in order for us to extract the virus from him, he died in the process. We don't know why. Rachel was investigated by the military for any foul play but was eventually cleared of any wrongdoing," Sophie shrugged. She opted not to tell him that for a time, it was thought that the suspicion surrounding Niels' death at Rachel's hand will eclipse her discovery of the cure. But the cure and the eventual contagious cure prevailed.

Tom breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing Sophie's words. Although the food before him was very good, he could not summon the appetite to really enjoy every bite. His craving for information about Rachel overcame his need for food.

"I heard that she made the cure into a contagious cure, much like how the flu spreads," Tom shared to Sophie, "Rachel never ceases to amaze me."

"That's true," Sophie affirmed. "But before we knew that the contagious cure was a success, everyone here, and I mean EVERYONE who works with her nearly died when we found out how she tested it."

Tom's eyes grew wide and panicked, "Why?!"

Sophie reached out and covered one of Tom's clenched hands with her hand. "Because your Rachel, my BFF, tested the prototype on herself, Tom! She self-tested it first before we found out that there was even a prototype!"

Tom's mouth opened but no words came out and his face was frozen in shock.

"There, there, Tom," she patted his fist, "We had the exact same reaction you're having now a few months ago...but we all lived to see Rachel's second miracle cure...and yes, your Rachel is alive and kicking well...kicking very well, in fact.." she added with some humor.

Tom opened his hands and clenched them again. His eyes tightly closed as he took several quiet breaths.

"I don't understand why she has to keep sacrificing herself, why she has to put herself in danger," he whispered with his eyes closed. He opened them and looked across to Sophie, "I don't know if she told you that when she was in my ship, I had a number one rule."

Sophie shrugged and said, "No, I don't remember her mentioning any rule on the ship. What was it?"

Tom exhaled and said, "My number one rule in the Nathan James when Rachel was with us was that her safety was paramount above all else, above everyone else's. As the only person alive who knows the virus and the cure, her continued existence will ensure mankind's continued existence as well. Therefore, she was almost never allowed off the ship. The only exception was her excursion to Deer Park. I only agreed to that provided that she has full security from my men. Why did she self-test the contagious cure on herself? Would you have any idea, Sophie?"

Sophie leaned towards the table and said, "Tom, I asked her the very same question. She told me that the vaccine was taking too long to manufacture and distribute. That people are still dying. And with Niels' suspicious death, she felt she cannot afford to make a mistake. Of course, she also realized her rashness but then, that was rendered moot and academic as she pulled off another miracle."

Tom grimaced and told Sophie, "Thank God for miracles then."

There was some silence as they returned to eating the food before them before Sophie glanced at Tom.

"What's your plan, Tom?" she asked point-blank.

"I plan on collecting from Rachel her promise to give us a second chance. When she left the Nathan James with you, our relationship was in a...difficult situation... I think... I found myself vacillating on making it public or keeping it still under wraps. Rachel never said anything, but I felt that when she and my kids were growing closer to one another and we're spending more time together, it was proving difficult to keep it under wraps," Tom said softly with a faraway look in his eyes.

Sophie remained quiet opposite him and waited for him to continue.

"At that time, I thought that it may be too soon for me to be seen in a relationship, in any relationship for that matter, as I have just lost my wife and the no fraternization rule that I imposed on my ship."

"But she's a civilian, not military..." Sophie interrupted.

Tom raised both of his hands as if in surrender and continued, "I know, I know. But as Captain of the ship, I am expected to follow my own rules as well and just because the other half is a civilian may not exactly cut a clean excuse. But...but it was really the death of Darien that made me straddle the fence between going public or keeping it private. And I guess, looking back, I did not give Rachel enough assurance of my feelings for her. And when Deer Park happened, we were both caught by surprise. I cannot stop her from continuing her mission off the ship much less to expect her to stay behind on the James. The timing for the red flu was perfect but it was a disaster for our relationship. I know we cannot end at that day and before you left the ship, I asked her for a second chance. I asked her to promise to me that she will give us a second chance."

Tom took a drink of his water before continuing his story, "Even though Rachel granted me her promise, I still felt very unsure. Our relationship then was still in its beginning stage and yet, we will be parted already and God only knows when we can be together again. A few months later, when we had that vidcon at my home, I assured her of my feelings and started telling her about my plans for us. She still promised me our second chance and as soon as I got enough time to travel to DC, I took it. In a way, you can say that this is my way of showing her that I am intent on pursuing her promise and starting our second chance together. The time apart from her only showed me the true depths of my love for her. Being on the Nathan James without her was bittersweet. It is the place where we found our love for each other and it is also the place where we parted. You cannot imagine being on the same ship without her. To walk along the p-ways expecting to meet her at a turn or to not see her working at her lab in the helo bay."

Sophie observed Tom's face as he narrated his story. She saw love, hope and yearning in his eyes. She was happy to know that there is a man who loves her friend this much and longs for her. While she may feel a tinge of envy, she can never begrudge Rachel of the love that comes her way knowing how she has devoted her life to science and sacrificed everything for it.

Tom leaned forward and asked Sophie in a conspiratorial manner, "So, BFF of Rachel, do you think I have a chance with her?"

Sophie looked at him and blinked several times before giving her answer.

"First of all, I am happy to know that you love Rachel very much. When she told me about you, I thought that the feelings may have been one-sided on hers. But good to know that it's not true. However, I have a free tip to give you. You are correct that the time when the two of you were together is shorter than the time that you've now been apart. I think, Captain that you have to show your love to Rachel indisputably. Your vacillation will not do you any favors. As brilliant Rachel is in science, that brilliance does not extend to her emotions. Already, she was at odds with how she viewed your relationship when she was in the ship as against when she was out of it. I cannot divulge more as it is not mine to say. Long and short is, you cannot show her uncertainty and if you want to have your second chance, you have to erase any insecurity she may have towards you or the relationship you had with her on the ship or any plans you have for your future with her," she declared.

Tom had a serious look on him as he listed to Sophie.

"I understand everything you're saying, Sophie, and thank you. I do not see my future without Rachel in it. I promise you that she will not have doubts over me, my feelings for her or our relationship and its future," he affirmed, "I cannot fathom my future without her in it."

Sophie raised her glass to his, "To promises!"

Tom followed suit, "To promises."

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