A/N This was supposed to be with the last chapter but it winded up being WAY too long so I had to split it up. Enjoy!
Zoe picked out a sterling silver chain and handed it to Mark. He looked at it, thinking how amazing this kid is at picking out jewelry. He smiled at her, and paid for it. With the ring and chain picked out all that was left was to get the tags. Mark reached out his hand, opening and closing it so she would hurry, and Zoe understood and ran over to him and took his hand. "Where do we get the tags, though?" Zoe asked as they walked off toward the command center.
"We are going to go talk to Alicia. And see if she can help us." Mark replied. "Yay! I haven't seen her in forever and I miss her!" Zoe exclaimed. She started skipping after that and they made their way up the stairs to Commander Taylor's door. Mark knocked and the door opened to reveal Commander Taylor. "Good afternoon sir. Is Lieutenant Washington around? I need to speak with her." Mark asked his commanding officer. "Yes, she is right here come in." Taylor replied. He glanced down and noticed Zoe, who was waving excitedly at him.
"Zoe Shannon." The commander nodded his head toward her. "Hey Commander!" she said and he stepped aside so they could come in. Washington peeked around the screen she was looking at. "Mark…Zo," She said, "how's Mad?" "Hey Licia!" Zoe said walking over to sit in her lap. "She's sleeping now, so I brought Zo here out to get some food and go shopping so Mads could sleep." Mark said. At that she glanced down to his hand to see a bag in it. "And what did you get?" she asked with more curiosity in her voice than she wanted him to hear. He smirked and walked over to sit by her.
"Licia we got Maddy a ring and a chain! You should look at it, I helped pick it out!" Zoe said, making Alicia laugh at the girl. Mark sat down and got the presents out and put them out on the table. Taylor, letting his curiosity get the better of him, walked up and sat down on the table. Mark pulled the ring out of the little box. Alicia gasped and grabbed it from him as she said, "Oh my gosh! It's gorgeous! Good job Reynolds. Zo did you help?" "Yes I told him he should get it because it matches his eyes and Maddy loves his eyes." Zoe reiterated what she had said earlier.
Alicia laughed and the commander grabbed the ring and looked at it while Wash got the chain, she tilted her head a bit. Mark noticed and asked, "What?" "Where is the pendant?" Alicia said. "Well that's actually why we are here," he said getting nervous, "Is there any way I could get some old tags that no one uses anymore?" The commander looked up from examining the ring and said, "Now, soldier, you know that tags are only issued to soldiers." "Yes sir I know. But Zoe came up with the idea so Maddy could have pictures with her all the time. Mostly for when I'm OTG for long periods of time because Zo worries about her a lot when I'm gone. She is kind of like me, she would be fine if she could just see us together." Mark said.
The commander looked at Alicia, who gave him a look and he knew he was outnumbered. But what really changed his mind was when he looked at Zoe and she just nodded her head with a look in her eye, that he knew she worried. And there was something about the youngest Shannon, no one in the colony could take it if she was sad. He looked back and Wash and sighed, "Ok, fine, but only if they are modified to not look like tags."
Alicia had a huge smile on her face as she stood up fast and ran downstairs to her locker. Mark, Zoe, and the commander looked at each other confused. She came back a few minutes later with a small pendant in her hand, and handed it to Mark, who looked at her curiously. It was beautiful, and perfect because it was carved to look like a dayflower, and most of all it would look great on the chain. He handed it to Zoe, who gasped and kind of screamed when she saw it. "It is a tag that I, I guess you could say, remodeled. I saw these flowers one day on my plex when I was just looking through pictures and loved them." Wash told them. "Wash it's perfect you have no idea! Thank you so much! It's still like the tags though, right? It can hold pictures and music and everything?" Mark showed more excitement then he wanted to in front of his superiors.
"Yes, the camera on it is even better than our tags though because I modified it too," She said proud of herself, "and I would love for Mads to wear it since I can't." "Thanks Alicia, I don't know how I will repay you for this!" Mark said getting up and hugging her. "Well you can start by not scre...messing things up with Maddy." She said, changing her sentence because of Zoe being in the room. "If I do it definitely won't be purposely. I couldn't imagine me without her anymore. Or this little one." He said hugging Zoe, who just laughed and hugged him back.
After a few goodbyes, Zoe and Mark were on their way back to the Shannon house, Zoe holding on tight to Mark's hand. Suddenly she looked up and said, "You know the tag Licia gave us? It looks like the flowers in our field. Mad will love it!" "I know Zo, and it's all because of you." He told her. "Hey Mark." She said. "Yeah?" he replied. "Do you think one day you will marry Maddy and you will actually be my brother?"she questioned innocently. "You know Zo, if I had anything to say about it we would already be married. But we are too young right now and I don't think your father would even want to hear that the thought has crossed my mind."
Zoe thought about it for a second and said, "Well I think you should get married." Mark chuckled and they walked up the porch of the Shannon house to find the door unlocked. "Zo stay here. I'm going to see what's going on." Mark told the child. Right as he reached for the doorknob the door swung open to reveal Elisabeth, home from work early. "Mommy!" Zoe screamed as she leaped up to hug her mother. "Zoe! I was so worried about you. I came home to find Maddy asleep and you gone I was scared to death." She said hugging her daughter tight.
"I'm sorry, I should have stopped by the infirmary to let you know I had her," Mark said apologetically, "I came by this morning and found out that Maddy was sick, so I called Wash and got someone to cover my shift so I could watch Zoe while Mads rested." "Mark, honey, it's fine. Calm down," Elisabeth said rubbing his arm to calm him down, "Where have you been?"
"We went out to eat and shopping for a present for Maddy. I've been saving money so I could get her something." He replied. "Mommy you should see what we bought her! Mark let me help pick it out and everything!" Zoe stated so excited to show the jewelry off. "Well then come in and let's have a look." Elisabeth stepped aside so Mark could come in. They walked to the living room and sat down as Mark got the items out of the bag.
"Mark! This is beautiful! I've never seen anything like it before. Maddy is going to love it," Elisabeth exclaimed looking at the ring then picked up the tag, "What is this?" "It's a tag that Wash remodeled and gave to us earlier to put it on this chain we got. It's just like my tags, it can hold pictures and music, even has a camera. A better one than mine actually." Mark told her as she studied the flower pendant.
Elisabeth almost dropped it when Maddy walked out of her room and started toward the living room. She handed it to Mark really fast and he put it back in the bag not wanting to give them to her yet. "Hey babe. How did you sleep?" Mark asked patting the seat beside him for her to sit down. "Amazing. Thank you for taking care of Zo so I could rest. I feel so much better now." Maddy said sitting down, grabbing his hand and intertwining their fingers.
He gently kissed her temple and rubbed soothing circles on her hand with his thumb. She put her head on his shoulder and just sat there in his arms being soothed, the only place she felt safe and wanted to be right now. Elisabeth and Zoe looked at him questioningly. He simply shook his head and mouthed over Maddy's head, "Not now. I'll surprise her later when she feels better." They nodded agreeing but kind of disappointed that they didn't get to see her face and would have to keep this a secret from her for now.
This is probably one of my favorite chapters so far, to write and read. I hope you agree. Review! Ok so quick note, though, I've become almost obsessed with writing this story so I wanted your opinions on if in the next few chapters do a time jump (which I already have ideas for) or do the slight time jump for a few chapters then do a sequel. Ideas?