Author's Note: So, yeah, that last chapter was my first ever cliffhanger that was a literal cliffhanger! Onward and upwards? Or maybe downwards? Reminder – I'm not a rock climber, so I apologize for anything inaccurate here. I did my best with my imagination + Google.
Note, this is set in the context of my other stories, but relatively unnecessary to read those for this to make sense – just be aware that in my context now, Wash and Taylor are married and have a little girl named Gracie, and the Sixers have come back to Terra Nova.
Disclaimer is as usual – no profit, not mine (except Gracie, of course), just borrowing.
Left to themselves, things tend to go from bad to worse.- Murphy's First Corollary
Even as Alicia throws herself upwards towards Shannon, she knows she's falling. She reaches almost blindly for him. A moment later, she feels an iron grip on her left wrist. Her eyes meet Jim's, and then she looks at her wrist to see his right hand tight around it. She takes a deep breath and grips his wrist with her hand. Forcing herself to stay still and not make it harder for him to hold onto her, she looks back up at him, fear coursing through her.
His eyes are determined. "Alicia, I won't drop you. I swear to God I won't. Give me your other hand." He reaches his left hand towards her.
She pushes down the panic, her breaths coming fast and hard. She squeezes his right wrist tight and gives him a quick nod. Composing herself, she reaches her right hand up. He grabs her wrist, holding tight, and she again wraps her hand around his wrist. Being held in both of his hands, she breathes out a quiet, "OK."
"I'm going to pull you up, Alicia. Help me if you can."
She nods, and she feels him begin to lift her. When she can, she plants her feet on the underside of the ledge, giving her some steadiness and leverage to help him pull her up. A moment later, she's back level with the ledge, and he falls back, taking her with him. He ends up sitting on the ledge, her sprawled across the ledge and his legs.
Still fighting the remnants of panic, she scrambles away from the edge and towards Jim until she's nearly in his lap, hugging him. "Thank you."
He hugs her back, holding her to him in an almost vice-like grip. They stay like that for a while before he says, "Looks like I'm finally starting to pay you back for the whole you died to save my family thing."
She huffs out a laugh at that, but suddenly realizes that Carter has been silent. She looks around for him, and she sees him leaning back against the rock near the cave entrance. His eyes are closed, and he's holding his left arm close to his body. Releasing Jim, she crawls over to him, Jim following closely. "Carter? Are you all right?"
He groans a little. "Shannon, you are one heavy son of a bitch." He opens his eyes and looks at them. "When you landed on me, you knocked the air out of me and my shoulder came out again." He refers to his left shoulder, which he dislocated on an OTG mission shortly before his wedding to Skye.
Jim and Alicia both wince in sympathy. She reaches out and brushes some of the dirt from his face. "Damn, Carter."
As Jim apologizes and Carter shakes his head, they all are surprised to hear a voice from above, Reynolds yelling in a panicked voice. "Wash? Mr. Shannon? Carter?"
Alicia goes to activate her comm to find it gone, probably lost when she went over the edge. "Do either of you still have your comm?" Jim shakes his head no, but Carter removes his with his right hand, passing it to Alicia. She puts it on her ear and taps it. "We're all still here, Mark, down to one comm, though."
She hears him sigh in relief. "Wash, are you guys all OK?"
"We're pretty beat up, but we'll be all right. Is everyone up there still in one piece?"
After a moment of chatter, he replies, "Yes. Dunham twisted his ankle backing away from the ledge, but we're otherwise fine," he pauses before asking quietly, "Wash, the cliff is a mess, loose rock and a lot more sheer now. What are we going to do?"
She swallows hard. "Give us a minute, Mark. I need to talk to Carter and Shannon." She ends the call and stands up to peer at the cliff face. "Damn it."
"What's wrong?" Carter asks. She looks over and sees both of them watching her.
She shakes her head and inches towards the edge, peering down. The path below them is mostly unchanged. "We have to go down."
"What?" Jim sounds alarmed.
Carter asks quietly, "Impassable above?"
She walks over to them, crouching down. "It might as well be. If I was 100% and had full gear it would be a significant challenge. As it is, none of us are 100%, Shannon has never climbed, some of the gear is probably completely jacked and you have a dislocated shoulder. There's no way that we'd make it."
Carter nods, looking resigned. Jim looks more than a little freaked out. "So, what do we do, Wash?"
She puts a reassuring hand on his arm as she calls Reynolds again. "Mark?"
"Here, Wash. What's the plan?"
"I need you to get my big pack out of the rover. It's only partially full. Load it up with all the water and food you have, as well as medical supplies from the rover. In particular, I need suture kits, antiseptics, analgesics and something I can use to immobilize Carter's arm. I also need all of the climbing gear you still have up there and the extra space blankets. Go into Shannon's and Carter's packs and grab some extra clothes for each, put that in the small duffle that's in the rover, and send it down too. Use a rope to send it to us, then we'll take the rope too."
She hears Mark bark her requests to the two younger soldiers, and then he says, "Wash, what are you going to do?"
She hesitates before replying, "We're going down, Mark. There's no way we can climb up."
"Shit, Wash! We're close to two thousand feet to the plateau below!" Mark's voice is incredulous.
"Hey, it's only fifteen hundred from here, kid," she pauses, "But it's the only thing we can do. We'll go as far as our injuries allow today, bivouac somewhere on the path, then go the rest of the way in the morning." She tries to sound more confident than she really feels. "I'm going to give you to Carter. He'll have to try to tell you how to get to the plateau with a rover. We're going to need a lift once we're about fifteen hundred feet south of here."
"Wait, Wash!"
"Mark?" She keeps the comm on.
"How badly are each of you injured? We have to call this in, and the doc, the Commander and Skye are all going to ask."
She sighs. "Carter dislocated his shoulder again, and I wouldn't be surprised if he has some bruised ribs. Shannon is cut and scraped all to hell and he probably feels like one big bruise, but he's mostly all right." Jim nods at her, and she adds, "Carter, poor bastard, broke his fall." That earns a light snort from Carter. "And I'm pretty sore, hit my head on the rock and my hips and back are killing me from bouncing hard against my harness when I fell off the ledge."
"When you what?" Mark is back to panic.
"I'm OK, kid. Shannon caught me. Literally. It was really close, but I'm OK." She takes a deep breath. "Nathaniel, Elisabeth and Skye will be worried, but we really are all right, Mark. I promise. Now let me pass you to Carter."
"Yes, ma'am. Dr. Wallace is getting your pack loaded right now, by the way. We'll send it down shortly."
"Thanks, Mark." She hands the comm to Carter.
As Carter talks to Reynolds, Alicia looks at Shannon. He's standing near the cliff face, staring down at the path they'll have to take. She walks up behind him, dropping a gentle hand on his shoulder. "You'll be fine, Jim. You can do this."
He starts a little, and then he looks back at her with a wry smile. "You must be really worried. You just called me Jim." She just squeezes his shoulder, and he looks back towards the path down. "I hope you're right, Wash. I hope I can do this."
She doesn't know what to say to encourage him, so she just squeezes his shoulder again, standing there in silence with him while they wait for the supplies from above.
Half an hour later, they're ready to head down. She helped Carter pop his shoulder back in, and then she fashioned a sling from a sheet that was in one of the vehicles. He'll only be able to wear it during the safer parts of their trek down the cliff face; in the more treacherous parts, he'll need to forgo it for the sake of keeping his balance.
They've also managed to amass a decent-sized pile of climbing gear, including four ropes still in usable condition. They have a fifth, her rope from her first rappel, but it's thinning and worn from the rocks and her fall on it.
Alicia calls up to Reynolds once more before they start down. "Mark?" At this point, they aren't even attempting a pretense of formality.
"Hey, Wash. Are you sure…"
"Mark, we're sure. We're heading down. You go to the outpost, call in to the colony with information about the situation. We'll see you tomorrow at the plateau, OK?" She needs Mark to be relatively calm when he talks to Nathaniel. "But don't look for us too early. Your father-in-law is slower than Christmas." She catches Jim's eye, and he gives her a half-smile and a nod, clearly understanding that she's just trying to put Mark at ease.
After a beat, Reynolds says, "Copy that, Wash. One last thing, though. I know I'm going to have to give a sit rep to the commander. What do I need to tell him?"
She hesitates, but then she sighs a little. "The truth, Mark. Just tell him the truth. But you can also tell him that I said he's in deep trouble with me if he attempts to disobey any orders from Elisabeth or if he leaves Gracie."
"Ma'am…"
"Tell him, Mark. Consider that an order." Her voice is firm.
With that, it's Reynolds' turn to sigh. "Yes, ma'am. Be careful, Wash. All of you."
"Will do, kid. And good luck with my overly-excitable husband. I have a feeling you'll need it. Washington out." She nods to Jim and Carter. Jim has her large pack on, carrying the heaviest load. She's got her small pack from earlier, with the small duffel that Reynolds sent down to them strapped to it.
Carter is unencumbered. He tried to fight them on that, but neither Alicia nor Jim would back down. Alicia and Jim are both sore, but Carter's shoulder is in bad shape. Alicia knows it's killing him, even immobilized, and she isn't going to let him injure himself even further. "Ready to go, boys?"
Carter just gives her a quick nod of acquiescence, and Jim just mumbles, "As I'll ever be." Carter takes the lead, heading off the ledge down a narrow path they will navigate for the first part of their arduous journey to the plateau below them.
**WT**WT**WT**
Terra Nova
"They what?" Over the radio, Nathaniel knows his voice must sound a little terrifying to Reynolds, but he doesn't care.
"Sir, there was some unexpected seismic activity. It caused a slide, and, like I said, Wash, er, Lieutenant Washington, Mr. Shannon and Carter are having to descend to a plateau about fifteen hundred feet down from where they were." Reynolds' voice sounds nervous, and Nathaniel knows he's holding something back.
"Corporal, you tell me every detail. That is an order." Nathaniel shifts in his chair in the communications room at command.
Reynolds takes a deep breath and recounts the events of the morning. By the time he finishes, he seems to notice that Nathaniel is uncharacteristically quiet. "Sir?"
After a moment, Nathaniel asks in a soft voice, "She fell off the ledge?"
Reynolds' voice is equally soft, as if he's still upset himself about what happened. "Yes, sir. According to the lieutenant, Mr. Shannon caught her, literally. But sir, she said she really is OK, and I believe her. Both she and Mr. Shannon are worried about Carter, though. I could tell."
Nathaniel's head is already racing over the things that need to be done. As he wonders to himself whether Elisabeth will watch Gracie for him, Reynolds says, "And sir, I have a message to deliver from Wash. I apologize now for how insubordinate it might sound, but she ordered me to pass it along."
Nathaniel furrows his brow. "Go ahead, son."
Reynolds takes another deep breath, clearly afraid of Nathaniel's reaction. "Sir, she said, and I quote, you are 'In deep trouble with her if you attempt to disobey any orders from Dr. Shannon or if you leave Gracie.'"
Nathaniel feels a flash of irritation at that, but he restrains himself from taking it out on Reynolds. "Did she now?"
"She did, sir, and she sounded serious."
Reynolds sounds so nervous that it actually makes Nathaniel quirk a half-smile. "Well, Corporal, I'll take that under advisement. Now, is there anything you need?"
"Sir, we're going to head over to the plateau in the morning to wait for them, and then we'll be going back to the outpost for the night, because there's no way we can make it back to the colony safely as late as we'd be leaving."
"OK, Reynolds, you're leading up to something."
Now that the minefield of the message from Wash has been navigated, Reynolds starts to sound more confident again. "Yes, sir. I was talking to Dr. Wallace, and we're both worried that our only medics out here are Wash and Carter. If they're both injured…"
Nathaniel finishes for him, "You need a doctor or a medic."
"Yes, sir, we think that would be the safest bet."
"OK, Corporal, I'll rustle one up for you, and they'll head for the outpost and meet you there tomorrow. Is that all?"
"Yes, sir."
Nathaniel nods. "All right, son. Call us back if you think of anything else you need. Otherwise, I expect to be hearing from my wife tomorrow afternoon."
"Yes, sir. Reynolds out."
As the connection ends, Nathaniel leans back in his chair, running a hand through his hair and eyeing his booted foot. He knows he'd only be in the way if he insisted on joining the team that will take a medic or doctor out to them tomorrow. He also knows that Alicia really will be upset with him if he shows up at the outpost tomorrow.
His appearance would also likely trigger the look she gets on her face when he has disappointed her, and leaving Gracie behind would definitely disappoint Alicia. A lot of people in the colony fear inciting her wrath. He fears letting her down, and that by itself is enough to keep him inside the gate this time.
Shaking his head, he grabs his crutches and pushes himself up, and he heads to the infirmary to kill two birds with one stone. He needs to get a medic for tomorrow, and he figures he'll find Skye and Elisabeth there to let them know about Carter and Shannon. He isn't looking forward to this visit, especially Skye's reaction, but he knows he has to do it.
As he slowly makes his way across the plaza towards the infirmary, he can't help but wonder just how many lives Alicia has. He swears that his wife is like a damned cat. She's got nine lives, and she always seems to land on her feet. All he can hope is that continues to be the case and that he hears from her tomorrow afternoon. Well, that, and he can hope that their OTG missions stop being so disaster-prone.
**WT**WT**WT**
OTG Team
"How are you doing, Carter?" Alicia calls to her friend; he's taking point as they descend. For now, they're on a path, one that is treacherous but passable. She's on the six with Jim between them. She considered taking the lead herself but really wants Jim in the middle, and she knows she's better able to help Jim right now.
She hears Carter deadpan back, "I'm fine, Mom."
Shannon snorts audibly at that, and Alicia rolls her eyes. More quietly, she says, "And how about you, Shannon?" His shoulders stiffen a little, but he nods at her.
She's actually pretty happy with how Jim is doing. The path is narrow, very dangerously so, but he's managing it well, particularly considering the pack he's carrying. As they've been walking, she's been considering how to handle the few times they're likely going to need to rappel. When she'd first gotten to the cave and peered over the ledge, she'd seen two or three spans of sheer drop off that will likely require them to rappel.
The good news about the spans is that, at least from above, they'd appeared to be relatively short. She estimates that, in just over an hour, they've already descended close to 150 feet. That might not sound like much, but on foot, loaded down and all bruised and battered, ten percent of the distance they have to cover done in an hour isn't that bad. Seeing that they're about to pass a vantage point where the path widens and she can actually lean down and check out their progress, she says, "Water break, guys?"
They both stop, Carter actually dropping into a sitting position against the rock wall. Jim just shoulders out of the pack and grabs water out of pack for himself and Carter. Alicia is carrying her own in her small pack. After looking down and assessing, she walks over to Carter and crouches down. He looks up at her. "What's up, Wash?" He sounds exhausted, even though he seems to be trying to hide it.
She rubs a hand on his good arm. "We're going to need to rappel soon, maybe twenty minutes from now. Will you take a painkiller?"
He shakes his head. "No way, Wash. Even if you make me go down first, you know I need to be as sharp as possible."
"OK. But I had to offer. And you're right – I'm making you go down first. I'm going to need you to set the line for Shannon to go down while I belay. I also want to lower the packs to you before Shannon and I come down." She hesitates, knowing he hates to appear weak. "Carter, it looks like the area we want to get to for the night, a wide area with some wind protection, will at least be another hour away. I need you to tell me the truth here – can you make it?"
He bristles slightly, but then he tries to roll his shoulder and winces. "Yeah, Wash. I can make it. But honestly, I doubt I can do much more than that. Between my shoulder and my ribs, I'm doing the best I can to not flinch with every step."
"I'm really sorry, Carter." They both look up to see Jim looking dismayed.
Carter levels a look at Jim. "Shannon, I told you up on the ledge – don't worry about it. You were falling. As much as I feel like crap right now, I'm not sitting here wishing it'd happened another way, because most of the alternatives include you splattered across the plateau. So stop apologizing."
Sighing, Jim holds a hand out to Carter. Once he's up, he turns and starts down the path again. Jim and Alicia shoulder their packs and follow. As promised, they get to the point where they'll need to rappel just under twenty minutes later. They all gear up with the equipment Reynolds had provided, and Alicia helps Carter get set. He's clearly not crazy about the idea of her having to belay Jim, but he's also clearly aware that it's the best plan.
One thing she's grateful for is that this first drop is only about sixty or seventy feet. It'll cover a decent amount of the descent, but it's not too scary for Jim to deal with. She lets Jim belay Carter, and a few short moments later, Carter is standing at the bottom. He waves at them to lower the packs, and once they're down to Carter, Alicia turns to Jim.
She gets set up to belay him and tries to give him one more pep talk. "Just like I told you, Jim, you don't have to go fast. Lower yourself over the edge, straighten your legs, keep them at waist level and slowly walk your way down the cliff. Take it easy feeding the rope, do it nice and slow. You can do this."
He swallows hard as he steps up to the edge and turns around. "OK. What was it you said earlier?" She gives him a quizzical look, and he offers a game smile in return. "Now I remember. Don't drop me."
She snorts and rolls her eyes. "See you down there, Shannon."
He nods and calls out that he's on belay. Slowly but surely, he manages to follow her instructions and walk himself down to the ground next to Carter. Once he's clear, she follows, making it down with just a few pushes off of the wall. The only thing she doesn't like is that she has to leave some of the equipment behind, the anchors up top. But, they should have plenty to get down, so she puts it out of her mind.
A little over an hour later, Alicia is relieved to see the path widen out into a broad, flat area. There's a small overhang that will provide a little cover, something Alicia's glad of, given that the wind has picked up a little. They're basically on a small shelf, and the next part of the trip, which they'll take in the morning, is another rappel, this one a lot longer than the first. She just hopes his first go round helped Jim build a little confidence.
Also, for the first time today, they get a really lucky break. There are a few small, dead trees in the clear area, enough for them to hack up and make into a small fire. As dusk settles, she feels a slight chill creeping into her bones, and she's looking forward to a little warmth and some food, even if it's just the Terra Nova version of military rations.
She hasn't seen any predators, or any dinos at all, for that matter, but she and Jim are each going to sit up on watch for half of the night. She wants Carter to sleep. He may try to fight her on that, but she thinks she can bully him into taking it easy.
After they eat, she and Jim put together a makeshift little tent, a space blanket strung up along one of the ropes. It's not much, but it's a wind break. Alicia is taking the first watch, so she gets Carter settled down and gives him a shot of pain medication. It's telling to her that he doesn't protest at all. It's probably nine hours to sunrise, so she tells Jim to get some sleep and that she'll wake him in about four-and-a-half hours.
As she sits by their small fire, all she can think about is how much she misses Nathaniel and Gracie, something she knows is a little sad, given how recently she saw and talked to them. Even when OTG, she's become used to being able to talk to at least Nathaniel every day, and it feels strange not to talk to him tonight.
Not quite four hours later, Alicia goes tense at the sound of someone or something stirring. Her hand goes immediately to her thigh and whips out her pistol before she sees that it's Jim. She puts her gun away. "What's up, Shannon? You have another half hour."
He shakes his head. "You should sleep. I think Carter is cold, but as much as I care about the guy, I just can't make myself do the whole shared body heat thing with him."
Alicia has to laugh softly at the grimace of disgust at the very idea of having to get too close to Carter. "OK, Shannon. Let me know if you get too tired, though."
They bid each other good night, and after slipping off to the corner of their ledge that they designated as the latrine earlier, she moves up into their improvised tent. Carter is there, curled on his good side. From where she stands, she sees that Jim was right – Carter is shivering slightly.
She sighs and gets another blanket. She places it over Carter, positions her small pack next to him to use as a pillow and she pulls the blanket gently from his back. As she slides under the blanket, tucking up behind him, she feels him stir a little. "Wash?"
"You're freezing, Carter. Just go back to sleep." She curls herself up into his back, pressing herself against him.
He mumbles, "Jeez, Alicia, I can't believe you're getting fresh with an injured man."
"Shut up, Carter."
"Yes, ma'am."
Even as they banter back and forth, she can feel him relaxing. "Do you need another shot, Carter?"
"No, I'm OK. But you're right. I'm cold." His voice is laced with fatigue and pain. Instead of replying, she just tucks in as close as she can behind him, one arm slipping around his waist.
"Sleep, big brother." She listens to the sound of the wind as she feels his breathing even out again. Before she closes her eyes and succumbs to the tiredness that has crept into her, she tosses out a prayer that tomorrow is easier and less trouble-fraught than today was. That's her last thought as sleep takes her.