CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR - LUCKY
Late that night, after his kids were in bed, Tom stopped by the lab to see Rachel. She'd gotten away from her work at dinnertime, but now felt like the time she'd taken off that day had put her behind.
"You work too hard," Tom told her as he leaned against the end of her table.
"Is that because you'd rather have me in another location tonight?" Rachel asked with a mischievous smile.
"Perhaps... and because you do work too hard."
Rachel sighed as she looked down at the samples in front of her. "I suppose this more habit than necessity now," she told him. They were sending teams ashore again in the morning, and her routine while traveling the East Coast of the United States had been to spend the last night before a landing ensuring that they had as much of the cure available as possible. The lack of survivors so far in Europe meant they still had plenty on hand. "Maybe I shouldn't bother."
"Hey, we can't start thinking that way," Tom told her. "If we start giving up, the whole ship is going to give up. And trust me, that's not something we want to see."
Rachel slowly nodded. "You're right… Did the children get to bed alright?"
"Yeah. Sam was asking for you - something new and different."
She smiled, warmed by the thought. She wanted to be close to Sam, wanted to see how their relationship developed with time. Maybe things would have been easier if he was more like his sister, but learning the children's individual needs and fears and personalities was part of what Rachel was looking forward to about life with the Chandlers. "I think we had a bit of a breakthrough this afternoon."
Tom raised an eyebrow; that was news to him. "Oh, really?"
"Mmm-hmm." Rachel recounted the tale off their conversation. She knew it had been a private discussion, but thought Tom needed to know what had been going on with his son.
"Wow," was all he could say when she was finished. "That's... damn." He felt terrible that Sam was so worried about losing the people he was close to, although he was happy that Rachel had finally gotten to the bottom of things.
"I know. It broke my heart."
"He used to have nightmares about being alone," Tom realized, thinking back to when his children first arrived on the ship. "Having everyone leave him. I... I wasn't much of a comfort to him originally," he regretfully admitted, "But I thought the bad dreams tapered off with time. Looking back now, though, I guess this makes sense."
Rachel nodded. "I just hope he believed me, hope that finally talking helped him."
Tom leaned over and kissed her. "I'm sure it did. You're so amazing with them."
She smiled. "I'm just making it up as I go along."
He chuckled. "What do you think I'm doing? There's no magic instruction guide for how to be a good parent. There's a lot of prayer and winging it involved. Mainly, I just hope they're happy."
"That's what I want, too."
"I think you came into their lives at the most perfect time. I mean, it was the worst possible circumstance, but... I think they're remarkably well-adjusted now, despite what they went through, because they had someone to take care of them like their mother had: comfort them and encourage them and love them. Their world crumbled, but they still had the most important things in life. I can't thank you enough for that."
Rachel smiled. "You don't have to. Honestly, they helped me, too. Worrying about them right after we left Baltimore kept me from thinking about all that had happened and totally breaking down... I guess we all needed each other. And that's still true now, more than ever."
Tom grinned. "Well, I hate to admit it, but I think what I need right now is some shut-eye. You sure you can't be convinced to join me?"
Rachel chuckled. "No, I should keep working. We might be lucky tomorrow."
They'd been picking up a lot of radio communication from the western coast of France, even more than they'd gotten from Portugal or Spain. Everyone in the CIC was cautiously optimistic as a tactical team headed ashore the following morning.
"We're on the beach," Lt. Burk, who was leading the team, reported back to the ship. They could hear the sailors giving each other directions as they secured the RHIBs and took stock of their surroundings.
"Any sign of a greeting party?" Tom asked. They'd landed by a resort town, which they'd learned from radio chatter was a refuge for survivors.
"No, sir," Burk replied. "This place is like a ghost town."
They made their way into the village, finding empty street after empty street. As they listened in from the CIC, Tom and Mike looked to each other in confusion. Finding infected bodies would be a blow, but at least it would make sense. Finding nobody at all didn't make any sense.
"Should we continue inland, sir?" Burk wondered. There was supposed to be another town about a mile east down a small canal.
Before Tom could reply, a loud noise came through the transmission - a gunshot. The landing team scrambled for cover as four more shots followed the first. Then there was silence. "Status?" the Captain barked.
"Shots fired from the forest. Unknown number of combatants."
"Casualties?"
There was a pause as Burk checked with all of his men. "None, sir. We're good. Looks like they were aiming over our heads."
"Warning shots," Mike realized.
"Think we found the locals?" Tom murmured to him?
One of the members of the landing team actually spoke passable French. He yelled out to whoever was shooting, "Ne tirez pas! Nous sommes le marine militaire des États-Unis! Nous sommes là pour vous aider; nous avons un remède!" Don't shoot! We are the United States Navy. We're here to help you; we have a cure.
There was an agonizingly long pause, but then the landing team could hear rustling in the bushes. They carefully looked out from their hiding spots to see a few men walking into the open, guns held above their heads in peace.
"Vous êtes Américains?" one asked. You are Americans?
"Oui."
"Vous n'êtes pas malades?" You are not sick?
"Non. Nous avons un remède," the sailor repeated before he picked up the protective case of vaccine doses to show them.
A few more men came out of hiding in the woods. Then a few women and children. Then a few more, and a few more…
Back in the CIC, Tom didn't know what exactly was going on, but hearing one of his soldiers say, "Holy shit," didn't help his nerves.
"What's your status, Lieutenant?" he asked Burk.
"Um… I think we're going to need to send one of the RHIBs back to the ship, sir. We're going to need more doses of the cure."
Tom blinked in surprise. "How many locals are there?"
"Seems like there's gotta be 200 here, sir. They just keep coming!"
Mike let out a startled laugh of relief. "Looks like we picked exactly the right spot."
Tom nodded. "I'll have Dr. Scott pack up everything we've got," he told Burk. "Hopefully you'll have the same luck at the next town over, too."
That night, Tom and Rachel celebrated privately in his room. The last of his soda stash and a few pieces of chocolate made for a perfect treat. Almost four hundred lives had been saved that day, and they'd proven that at least part of France was thriving even after the virus and the nuclear strike. It gave them more hope for the rest of Europe.
As they curled up together on the bed, Tom gently started playing with Rachel's hair. "So what comes next?" she wondered.
"We continue north. See who else we can find. I got two little requests at bedtime that we head for London 'so Dr. Rachel can go see her house'."
A smile crossed her face. "Your children are very sweet."
"When they want to be," he replied with a chuckle. "You know, I never thought I could do this," Tom told her as he rested his chin on her shoulder.
Rachel rolled over slightly to look at him. "Do what?"
"Balance raising my kids and running this ship. I never thought I'd have to, but I never thought that I could, either."
"You're managing."
"Yeah. And then you... you are the cherry on top of everything."
She grinned. "Well, I do like being on top..."
Tom laughed heartily. "Oh, yeah?"
Rachel shifted up to kneel on the bed and straddled him as she turned around. "Yeah."
His hands gripped her waist, helping her keep her balance as their lips met. Her hair was loose and fell over her shoulders, almost creating a curtain around them. "God, you're beautiful," Tom whispered.
At that moment, there was a sudden knock on the hatch. "Daddy?" Sam's voice asked from the p-way.
Rachel gave a little bemused laugh. "Timing is everything," she whispered as they reluctantly separated.
They were both still decent, so Tom called, "Come in, pal," to his son. Sam looked upset as he entered, eyes wide and fearful. "What happened, Sammy? Are you okay?"
He quickly came over to the bed and climbed up with them. To Tom's surprise, Sam actually curled up with Rachel, almost ignoring his father. The Captain might have been put out if it wasn't so adorable.
"You're here again," Sam commented to the scientist.
"I am, luv. Did you have a bad dream?"
He nodded. "It was scary. I was running around in a city at night, and there was somebody chasing me..."
As he continued to tell the story, Sam started yawning more and more. Finally, his eyelids began to droop. "That does sound scary," Rachel whispered, "But it was just a dream, and you're safe here. Your Daddy would never let anything happen to you."
"WE'd never let anything happen to you," Tom softly corrected her.
A little sleepy smile crossed Sam's face, although his eyes were closed. "I... know..."
"We love you, buddy," Tom quietly promised, rubbing his son's back. Sam didn't answer, and his eyes didn't reopen. He was finally asleep, comfortably lying on his stomach between them with one hand on Rachel's arm and the other fisted in his father's t-shirt. Tom started to try to gently disconnect him. "I'll take him back to bed," he offered.
"No, wait," Rachel whispered. "Leave him."
Tom raised a questioning eyebrow. "I thought we were gonna..."
"We were. But I knew from the start that you were part of a package deal. There will be nights just for us - hopefully many wonderful nights - but... he's comfortable here. I know the children are constantly growing and changing and we should enjoy every minute with them that we can."
Tom smiled. "Yeah?"
"Yeah."
He reached behind him to turn out the light, then laid down with them on the bed. "You know Ashley's going to be jealous in the morning, right?" he whispered.
Rachel grinned. "Well, she'll be more than welcome to join us for a lazy morning in bed."
He smiled and leaned over his son to kiss her. "I love you."
"Love you, too."
TBC...
A/N: This took longer to get out than I'd intended; sorry! There's one more chapter to go, just in time for Season 2.