Maddy could feel the sun, warm on her skin, and released a sigh of contentment as she woke. She smiled when she saw Mark's face, sleeping peacefully, a scant three inches in front for hers. She basked in her morning after glow for a few moments for realization hit. It was morning. And they were still outside the gates! Her parents were gonna freak!

She reached out to wake Mark, noticing a purple smudge on his nose for the first time since waking. Next she noticed the shiny new addition to her left hand.

Holy crap! Did she get engaged last night?

…Oh yea, that's right. She did. She smiled as she remembered that was why Mark brought her out here in the first place. To commemorate their first date spent OTG. This time things had gone a lot more smoothly due to some apparent prior planning and a nice bottle of wine. And the evening had ended a lot more pleasantly than a night spent in a tree, she recalled with a blush.

She looked back at Mark to find him watching her with a satisfied smile. She tried to give him a dirty look but it wouldn't take. "Come on, get up, we gotta get back! Oh, and you have to tell my dad…" she groaned.

"Or we could spend the rest of the day right here…" he said hopefully. She gave him a 'look' but he only shrugged. "It seemed wiser to ask you mother's permission."

Maddy rolled her eyes and went to get up. That's when she noticed she was half stuck to the ground. She made a disgusted noise and peeled herself away from the earth, leaf litter clinging stubbornly to her skin with the same purple goo she had noticed on Mark's face. "What is this?" she cried, leaping to her feet and trying unsuccessfully to wipe the stuff from her skin.

Mark really did try, but he couldn't keep from laughing as he watched his beautiful, intelligent, and naked fiancee try to look over her shoulder to inspect the mess on her backside.

"Mark! Why are you laughing? I'm all… sticky!" she whined, finally giving up on wiping the goop off and standing there with her hands on her hips, glaring at him.

"I noticed," he said with a chuckle. "Looks like we picked the wrong place to, um… celebrate, last night."

Maddy's brow furrowed as she took a closer look at the mess of crushed plant life they had been sleeping on. "That's the sap Malcolm uses in his insect traps. It comes from crushing the stems of these plants."

"And we seem to have crushed quite a few…" Mark threw her a sly grin and she blushed again. Last night had been a bit… exuberant.

"So, I know what'll take this off if I can find the trees around here," he said, taking stock. He had purple all down the side he was sleeping on as well as his feet, knees, forearms and hands. Maddy was similarly coated down the side she had slept on, but took the brunt of the goo on her back, shoulders and in her hair. Yea, definitely no way to go back with that kind of evidence all over them. Mr. Shannon would kill him on the spot.

Maddy shooed him off into the trees and then followed the trail of clothes back to their picnic blanket. As she was gathering the last bits up, trying not to get everything else sticky, she heard a hoot of success. Eager to get cleaned up she followed Mark's excited shouts to a clearing near a tiny stream. "What's so exciting?" she called, looking for Mark as she carefully dropping their things to the ground.

He came out of the trees carrying an armload of fruit. "I hit the jackpot! There's an entire grove of trees!"

He tossed her one of the large fruits. It was similar to an orange, or grapefruit, she knew. These ones tasted horrible, but the thick skin, segmented interior and high citric acid content made it likely they were some distant predecessor. She weighed it in her hands a moment before giving up and looking to him for advice. "Alright. What do I do with it?"

Mark gave her his crooked grin before peeling off a section of the fruit's skin and crushing it in his hand. He then proceeded to wipe as much of the fruit oil on Maddy as he could. She couldn't help but smile and roll her eyes as she realized that this situation had a lot more in common with their first date than either of them had planned. Mark obviously noticed the same thing from the grin on his face as he worked.

It took the better part of the morning, and a lot of scrubbing and rinsing, before the pair started to come clean. Fortunately, the inside of the fruit skin had an excellent texture for removing the purple sap, and the fruit oil itself was and amazing solvent. Unfortunately, neither did anything for the purple stain.

Maddy was furiously scrubbing at Mark's palms when he finally closed his fingers around hers. "I think its time to give up."

They had already gotten dressed when she decided one final attempt was in order. She threw her head back with an angry exhale. "Caught purple handed. How am I supposed to explain this?" she threw the peel down in disgust.

"We were picking berries?"

Maddy gave him a hopeless look in reply, to which he pulled her into a hug. "You are the smartest person I know. You," he kissed her forehead, "will think," he kissed her nose, "of something," he grinned confidently and kissed her lips.

Maddy softened and smiled back, hoping he was right. But as they crossed the gates to Terra Nova she still hadn't thought of anything better than 'berry picking.' She really hoped her mother had the presence of mind to hide her dad's gun.