A/N: I just want to send a big shout out thank you to Pandora576 for the amazing vid she created for this fic! Search 'Tom/Rachel - Little Do You Know' on YouTube to watch it and I highly recommend everyone does! She did an amazing job and the song is just so absolutely perfect for this fic. Pandora, thank you so much! :-D

LSLSLS

Tom collapsed down on the couch in his office with a heavy sigh that seemed to reverberate through his whole body. He was weary to his very bones, even at this still early hour. He had just returned from Rachel's lab. They had talked a little more before he had made his leave, at her behest. She had claimed she had work she needed to get back to, that she had left unattended to long. He knew it wouldn't have been a complete lie. Knew she had been squeezing the ship's production capacity for every drop of the cure she could make while still onboard, ever since Baltimore had turned out to be such a vast disappointment for them in that department. And they had fast become so very hesitant to trust anyone they met on land or sea in this new world.

But he also could see how emotionally drained she was after the conversation…and the admissions, that he had forced upon her. He hadn't wanted to leave her in such a fragile state, but at her insistence that they both had work to get on with, he had been forced to respect her wishes.

More needed to be said, but he would give her time, he would give both of them some time, just not too much. It probably wouldn't be a bad idea if he gave himself a little time to adjust to this new and fraught situation either, it was still only just this side of utterly unbelievable. And his mind was still playing catch up with the new fate that was their current reality.

He had not got much else out of her before he left, nothing except specific clinical answer to his questions. What he had really wanted was for her to open up to him on a personal level on what she really felt, what she really wanted. Because if it was in his power he would do it. Anything.

He already had a fair idea of what did need to be their next step, not that he was looking forward to it. But move ahead they must, he had let his anxiety for his people's safety cause him to be overly cautious in the continuation of their mission after Baltimore, but continue it must. Someone was already paying the price for the time he had wasted…maybe two someone's, only time would tell.

Tom was slumped on the couch, his head leaning back against the wall, his eyes closed, his mind and body feeling eminently heavy and weighted down under the breadth of contemplations to previously unknown and very undesirable knowledge, when he heard a sharp short knock on his office door.

Tom knew who it would be. Not many people knocked on his office door uninvited…if you disregarded civilians there were only two, but his money was on Mike. He had known he was going down to the lab to see how Dr. Scott was getting on, and he knew he wasn't only talking about how she was going with the vaccine production. The clear distress both woman had been impotently trying to hide from them had been a constant source of worried speculation between the two of them from the get. While he had not been planning on hurrying the timing of this conversation, now that it had arrived anyway, he knew he would have to share what he had learned. Knew he had to bring at least one other person out of the dark to help him deal with this properly.

"Come." He called with as strong a tone as he could muster on his dwindling energy reserves of the day.

If was enough, the door opened and shut and again, and as he predicted it was Mike that sat before him when he finally mustered the energy to lift his head and open his eyes.

"Christ, you look like you've just come off the battlefield. There an emergency in engineering that for some reason required you to stick your hand in another fuse box that I didn't hear about?"

"Not engineering…the lab. And it was more of an emotional battlefield." He was still reticent to delve into it all any further. After just going through and learning it all for himself, he was not enthralled with the idea of immediately going through and getting into it all again. But here they were. Another thought struck him then.

"Did you need something?" While he could admit that he was entirely preoccupied with what he had learned that day, he did just remember that he was supposed to be commanding a ship. His XO's visit to his office could easily have been for official reasons, he belatedly realized.

"No, nothing to report on that front. A crewman who just reported for duty on the bridge said he saw you come in here. I wondered how it had gone with the Doc…you were down there awhile." That was the most surreptitious way he knew of to ask what the hell was going on.

Not bad if he did say so himself, it wasn't like politics and being politically correct at all times was his strong suite, it was one of the many reason he was the XO and Tom was the Captain. Still he knew his newfound diplomacy would fizzle out pretty quick if he didn't get the answers that were grating on him pretty damn quick.

Tom had learned something, that was clear, and he wanted to be read in. He was at his wits end churning over what the hell had happened to those women back in Baltimore. The Doc had lost her spark and Lieutenant Granderson just wasn't the same person anymore. Obviously terrible things had happened, there was no denying it. But hell, instead of starting to move ahead, it looked they were both damn well getting worse. Tom making the same judgments was a large part of what had prompted his impromptu visit to the doc this morning, he was sure of it.

Now that he thought about it there was one, still slightly related, matter he should mention.

"Actually there is one thing I should probaly check, you authorized Dr. Scott to remove Lt. Foster from her post in CIC today, correct?"

Tom let out a weary humorless laugh at the question. Eventually he answered. "Let's pretend I did. I did know about it in real time at any rate."

Mike studied the other man, there was a story there. But if Tom said leave it, he could leave it. He was far more curious about other things anyway, and he knew that Tom knew it too, so he waited. He didn't have to wait long.

"I found out what happened to them. What really happened to them. All of it. It's bad."

"Can't be worse than what I've been imagining looking at both of them, especially the Lieutenant."

Well, Tom knew it very much could be. It had even been worse than his imaginings, and none of them had been going in any rosy directions. Taking inventory, Tom decided it was better to pull this Band-Aid off fast.

"Best guess, based on the intel we have now, is that Granderson was running a breeding program, in conjunction with her extermination camp. She wasn't just killing those she deemed unworthy of living, she was also forcing those she did deem worthy, intellectually, to reproduce."

Mike's face only showed sheer shock for the first millisecond after Tom shared the immense revelation, but pure unadulterated anger soon replaced it.

"Goddamn it!..." He paused then, he was using the time to valiantly try to get his roiling emotions and anger under control, but he also didn't have a clue what to say at this particular point. This revelation…and its implications, were just too massive absorb quickly. He eventually took the seat opposite his friend, took another deep breath and responded.

"I stand corrected, it's worse then I was thinking. So does this mean both of them were…?" The question was clear if left unfinished, His face was red with what he was still holding back.

Tom wished he could put his friends mind at ease with his answer, at least in that regard, but unfortunately the news was mixed.

"Rachel thinks that artificial insemination was the probably the standard practice...it's what she thinks they used on her. But apparently Granderson had a point to make to her daughter…you know her orientation?" At Mike's confused but positive nod he continued. "She had one of her men assault the Alisha instead."

Again shock, silence and a stare of disbelief were his initial reactions to the terrible facts he was being read in on, but again anger came hot on its heels, and burning even redder than before.

"Goddammit! Ok, it's defiantly worse than I was imagining. How is that even possible…? Her own daughter!?"

"You're not the only one asking that question, Mike. Thing is, we are probably never going to get the answers we want now."

Mike made some kind of noise, of acknowledgement or an agreement, Tom wasn't sure. Shock was still the overriding emotion playing on his features…but as he watched, it gradually lost its place in first, a deep burning rage overtaking it. Tom could understand the feeling. He also knew it wasn't going to get better when his XO realized what he already had…that there wasn't a damn thing they could do about it now.

"That evil bitch, I tell you if the woman wasn't already dead…" That sentence didn't need to be finished either. They both knew. They both agreed.

"I'm right there with you, Mike."

There was silence for several moments. Tom knew what Mike must be psyching himself up to ask about. Tom knew he couldn't share what he had and not have the coming question as the first one on the other man's lips…after shock and anger of course. Although Tom knew the question, he waited for his friend to ask it, as a sign he was somewhere close to being ready to hear the answer.

"So they're not…? Are they?" Again, it seemed finishing emotionally trying sentences was not in anyone's wheelhouse today. Not that it mattered, they were usually emotive enough that their entire meaning could be communicated in a few short syllables.

Tom let out a long resigned sigh and uttered the dreaded confirmation. "Yeah."

"Both of them?" Disbelief.

"Yeah." Tom said again. Again he could predict what would be the next question…again, after the shock and anger of course…after all, he had held the same confusion.

"Hell…this really isn't going away anytime soon, is it? Not that I thought that was very likely looking at the Lieutenant's progress since we got out of that hell hole. But how the hell is this even possible? Both of them get knocked up? That bitch had them for less than twenty-four hours! I'm no Gyny but I had a wife and kids. I was under the impression it took a lot more time than that? What the hell are the odds that what they did would take with both of them in such a short time?"

"According to Rachel, especially given her, and I'm quoting here 'advanced maternal age' and the fact that the Lieutenant, like all active service woman, was on birth control…the odds were somewhere below 2%...optimistically."

"So?… Do we have a theory on what the hell changed that figure? The explanation we're going with can't be that both of them just got spectacularly unlucky?"

Tom sighed, suppressing the urge to put the other man off a more complete explanation till a slightly later time. The impact of going over this yet again in as many hours was taking its toll on him, but he couldn't to that, not for Mike, for him, or for these two women involved. It wasn't like time was really going to prepare him for this any better and actions had to start being taken, and for that a certain level of disclosure, at least amongst this ships leaders, was required.

"No, it's not. Apparently they were both injected with something, an unknown agent that seemed to have no effect at the time, when they were first detained. Looking back now it is evidence of how very premeditated the actions Granderson took really were. They didn't have a clue what was in the syringes, not then or later. But looking back now, after recent developments, finding out about both of their conditions, some pretty damn powerful fertility booster seems the only logical explanation…according to Rachel."

Mike processed that. He didn't have a clue how a drug could do something like that so fast, but then he wasn't a doctor. Better to focus on the parts of this he did have a chance to wrap his head around.

"Have they only just found out? Is that why this has all finally come to light now?"

"Yeah, the Lieutenant a few days, Rachel even less."

"Are they both sure it happened then? I mean I guess the Lieutenant is…but what about Dr. Scott? She's sure there are no other…explanations?" He asked in a falsely optimistic voice. He really hadn't been expecting a situation to arise today that would requite him discussing the Doc's sex life with Tom, but here they were! Mike wasn't blind; he could see the way his near counterpart looked at the admittedly pretty amazing and easily desirable woman down in their helo bay. And it had first started long before they had learned that Darien had fallen to the virus too…that was probably a large reason for his continued tense restraint. Tom was a man of honor and when he thought he had failed in the high standard he set for himself, he wore the resulting guilt like a form of self-flagellation.

At a later date he would have to strongly communicate to the other man the difference between thinking and acting. And Mike would bet any money that there had been no acting. Not a chance, nope this continuing forced resistance to a connection with another human being he craved, was simply a self punishment for the perceived betrayal of his mind…not his body.

Tom gave him a hard and enquiring eyebrow raised look that clearly said 'You're going there? Really? Only a Captain could successfully pull off that look to an XO. But he did choose to answer. "Yeah, Mike, she's sure. No other explanations."

"Sorry. But you got to admit fraternization would be a whole lot better answer to this…besides, how you so sure about that? You asked her the same thing, didn't you?" And he would bet Tom had not liked the idea at all, regardless of it being a far more palatable explanation for the Doc's current condition.

A silent staring match was held, before Tom changed the subject, and Mike had his answer.

"Needless to say neither of them are taking the news particularly well."

"I can imagine." Understatement.

"The Lieutenant a lot worse, a lot worse. Given the very personal role her mother played in events, I don't think any of us can truly even imagine how bad this is for her…and I don't know what we can do about it. But Rachel's reaction is worrying me too, it's like she's just skipped over the natural anger part of this and is now just worryingly accepting."

"Well, she's had the time since Baltimore to come to grips with what happened to her…"

"That's just it, she hasn't! Rachel didn't even know that they did this to her until she found out she was pregnant too…this morning! She didn't have a clue this could be coming. She was apparently rendered unconscious at the same time they took the Lieutenant away for…for what was too happen." He couldn't say the words or stop himself from gritting his teeth as he said their replacements. He forced himself to calm as he continued.

"But the point is she woke up in the same place, fully clothed, she didn't know anything of the same nature as the Lieutenant had happened to her until her own positive test came back, or so she steadfastly claims. Not until after the Lieutenant tested positive, did she realize she had symptoms too, and on a whim run the test on herself as well. Apparently not remotely expecting that it could actually be positive."

Mike took that news in with a hard gulp. "Damn. So her reaction is probably more shock that anything… Tom, we could very well still be waiting for the other shoe to drop here…with both of them."

"I know. Unfortunately it gets worse."

"Now how the hell is that possible?" Truly, he was clueless to how that was possible…

"Alisha doesn't want to keep it."

"Well that's hardly a surprise! You can't be telling me you think that's the problem? The woman was raped for crying out loud!"

"No, Mike! That's not what I'm saying. Jeese…" Ok, now he could really understand why Rachel had gotten so upset with him when she had though he was implying the same thing. In an effort to dissuade Mike of his misinformed conclusion, Tom proceeded to explain.

"No, the problem is we can't accommodate her…literally. Not on this ship. We've known we were running pretty low on stocks in Medical for some time, but apparently we've reached a critical low point on almost everything now...supplies that we still have any of at all that is. A fully stocked Medical department would have been able to handle this, not remotely ideally, but still with reasonable safety. Such is not the case right now. Anything that could be tried right now runs far too high a risk of side effects that we also don't have the supplies and equipment to counter. According to Rachel it's just this side of a suicide attempt to do anything right now."

Mike noticeably absorbed the Captain words. "Well that changes things…"

"Not for a Alisha apparently…She still wants to do it."

"What? Even though there's a high likelihood she could die?!"

"Yep, and that is the problem. Rachel was very concerned about her emotional state even before this. The fact that the situation has further devolved and she is showing such little care for her own wellbeing and survival…it's made her worry more. For the moment, until we come up with a more viable and long term solution, the Lieutenant is not to be left unattended."

Mike didn't need to have that intimation spelled out to him. Damn. "She's that bad? The Doc thinks she really could try to…"

Official confirmation was not required. The precautions he was authorizing spoke for themselves. "Lt. Foster will be her main care person for the time being. That was why she was removed for CIC today. They share a cabin and they're friends. He constant presence should not be such a noticeable intrusion, so hopefully it won't further aggravate her emotional state. And it was getting time to reduce Lt. Foster's official workload anyway due to her pregnancy." As he spoke, it was like he only just, with those words, truly acknowledged consciously that the number of pregnant woman on his battleship had just tripled. Hell… well that was their reality now and they would deal with it as best they could. It wasn't like this even came close to some other new realities they had discovered and endured in recent months. In fact if you compared this to what had started this new journey for them to begin with…this was nothing. Didn't mean he didn't feel for his young Lieutenant though. And it certainly didn't mean they didn't have to act, and not just for her either.

"This situation has called our now extremely limited medical capabilities into stark relief. I know we have known about this for a while and investigated ways of resupplying our medical capabilities and none of them are ideal…but I think its time to face facts and accept that they are never going to be. It's not just for this situation that we need to act now. This just happened to be the first medical situation to arise that we are all but helpless in because of our supply situation. It won't be long before it's something else and then something else after that. And it wont be long before someone dies because of it, if they don't because of this… We have to act, now. With it still looking like our permanent return to land is still unsafe, our mission on this ship is set to continue indefinitely at the moment, we have to prepare for that. I dare say medical supplies are not the entirety of our shortages list…in truth that list includes just about everything!"

"Yes Sir, it does." Mike wasn't going to argue. He'd be reporting their ever-dwindling reserves on a daily basis, and pushing for more extreme action in resolving it. It looked like the Captain was finally getting onboard with the more radical, and admittedly dangerous, methods needed to resolve it. Mike had been inpatient with Tom, but he also understood him. In the wake of Baltimore, their disappointments and their loss's, he knew well why he had been reticent to rush headlong into another possible firefight. The loss of even more of their people…

"Doctor Scott will want some things for her production work too, if we're going to be hitting a hospital anyway, she has been filling up a wish list for awhile with things she could use to raise shipboard production. Look on the bright side, at least you have a good chance of keeping her on the ship and out of harms way in her condition." Mike tried to elevate Tom's mood just slightly with the crack. It didn't work.

Tom speared him with one of the hardest looks he's ever received form the other man.

"Let her so much as out on deck when we are near trouble and I will gut you." And he spoke every word with dead seriousness too. Mike knew Tom still hadn't 100% gotten over him sending her to the Vyerni to rescue him. He had accepted his reasoning and the positive results of the mission, but he hadn't entirely accepted it, would never had sent her himself, under any circumstances.

If it hadn't been for those positive mission results and the Doctor coming back from that mission basically unscathed, Mike very much thought that the gutting would already have occurred. He had known it before he had sent her really. Her survival had meant his survival…just, he had still gotten one hell of a tongue lashing and dressing down. It was the very minimum he had been expecting…if Tom survived…when he made the call, so he called it a win.

"Heard, Sir."

Mike acknowledged the directive but not with nearly enough chagrin for Tom's liking. He eyed the other man suspiciously for a moment. After the vyerni, when it came to Rachel's safety, he could admit that he had lost complete confidence in his XO. But he better damn well understand that he was deadly serious this time.

Mike, apparently figuring that particular topic was over, went on.

"So we're doing this, firstly, so the women can have a choice in continuing in their condition or not, and I imagine the sooner the better too. I guess there's not much doubt as to what decision he Lieutenant will make, when we are finally able to provide her with a realistic one. What about the Doc? Did you get a feel on where her head is at in all this?"

"She's being far too analytical about the whole situation, disturbingly so. Despite only finding out about her condition this morning she has, with our lacking medical situation in mind, adament that she will obviously be having the baby. On the surface she isn't letting on that she if either happy or sad about the prospect, just blandly accepting. But that is why I want her to have the choice too, if she chooses to go through with this, I want it to be because she had a choice and she made it. I want to give that much control back to her, back to both of them."

Mike knew there was a whole lot more to say on the subject of the Doc being pregnant. It was right to give her the choice but if she did choose to keep it, it would have some pretty significant implications for Tom and his family's future too. Decisions and actions he had not yet given himself permission to make would have to be made, sooner rather than later. He certainly couldn't see Tom acting as if the woman he was falling in love with having a baby was an act irrelevant to him…despite his non-technical ownership of the child paternity. But that conversation would come later, or sooner if Mike didn't see Tom getting his act the hell in gear.

"I completely agree. So what's the plan?"

TBC

A/N: I hope everybody liked this chapter. Just a reminder, it means a lot to get reviews. Even if it's just a few lines or even words, it is great to hear from you! :-)