A/N: Thank you for everybody that is reading this. I love all of you. Please leave me a review. I take constructive criticism and any advice.

Disclaimer: I love the show and the characters but I don't own the show.

We rushed into the med bus with Dad in tow. Anne took him and put him on the operating table. Matt and I sat next to him and cried over what had happened and what may happen. Eventually Anne had to have us taken out of the room for surgery.

"No! I won't leave him until this is over. I won't go!" I yelled out.

"Hal, Ben. Take your sister and brother out of here. They don't need to be here for this." Anne said.

"Come on, Elizabeth. Dad will be fine. I promise." Hal said as he took me, Ben, and Matt out of the room.

I heard Anne bustling around getting her equipment and I kept pacing.

"Liz, stop that, you are making me dizzy." Hal said tiredly.

"Sorry Hal, but what if he isn't okay. What if he is hurt. What if something bad happens and it is all my fault. This is all my fault." I replied.

"Come over here right now." Hal instructed to me.

I walked over and Hal put me on his lap. "Now Dad will be just fine. Anne is taking great care of him and none of this is your fault. How would you have known he was behind the skitter? How would you have known he had come back?" He told me.

"I...I don't know but it feels like it is."

"I know but everything will be alright. I promise."

I kissed Hal on the cheek and hugged him tight. He tensed up not prepared for the affection I gave him but he relaxed into it and squeezed me tight.

TOM'S POV

I flashbacked to my time on the ship with Karen and the Overlord. It was horrifying. I remember one moment more vividly than the others.

~FLASHBACK~

The skitters kept zapping me with their version of cattle prods but a hundred times worse. I had burns all over my body from the zaps. Karen would intervene sometimes but that was only when she needed information. Today wasn't any different.

She walked into my prison cell and told the skitters to leave.

"Hello, Tom." She said in her dreamy, far-away tone.

"Hello Karen or is that even you anymore." I spat at her.

"Oh, Tom you know I am still Karen. Just better." She said.

"What do you want?"

"My master wants to talk to you and ask you some questions." She replied.

Two skitters came in and grabbed me from behind and lifted me up. They took me through a series of hallways that opened up into a humongous room. The Overlord was sitting a throne-like chair high above everybody. It looked down at me and spoke through Karen.

"Hello, Tom Mason. I have been looking forward to our talk." It spoke to me when I came in.

"What do you want? Fishhead." I spat out.

"I have been studying your human history to understand why you humans are resisting so much."

"We resist and fight so much because this is our world. If you have studied our history, you would know that in every war we have been in was to protect our own land."

"It doesn't matter. Once you humans surrender we will place the ones that survive in a protected area just like in Nazi Germany."

"That didn't end very well, you know." I pointed out.

"Well, isn't oppression in your nature." It said.

The Overlord then told me that I need to lead the 2nd Mass to a neutral zone that they had set up for us. I told them you shouldn't base everything on history. I grabbed a weapon from a skitter nearby and hit it, blinding it in one eye. I shot at the Overlord but a skitter knocked me out from behind.

I woke up in a field with other resistance leaders. Something didn't feel right. The mech that was with us turned around and started to shoot at all of the leaders around me. The Overlord was trying to teach me a lesson. I started walking around to see if I could find out where I was.

I came upon an old convenience store and walked in. There was a map that said 'The Beautiful State of Michigan.' I am in Michigan. I walked back outside and saw these train tracks. I walked over to them and figured out which way I needed to go. I went down the tracks that led to Boston, that led home.

I had been walking the tracks for a few days when I came upon an alley in abandoned town. There was a young girl and a man. The man was trying to steal from her. I went to attack the man and took his gun. I pointed it at him and he took off like a little scaredy cat. I looked at the place where the girl was and saw she was sitting near a body of another girl.

I walked towards her,"Was that your friend? Did the man kill her?" I asked her.

She nodded and I could tell she was scared out of her mind. I looked over her shoulder and saw a bike. It was a beauty.

"Can I look at your bike?"

She nodded no and she said that she didn't trust strangers.

"I was wondering if I could borrow your bike to get to Boston. You can come along too. I live in a survivors camp. You can live with us." I told her.

"I will come with you but we need to bury my friend."

I nodded and helped her bury her friend. It was grueling work. We finally finished and I got on the bike. She hopped on the bike and wrapped her arms around me to secure herself. She looked at the homemade grave we made and buried her head into my rode off towards Boston.

We drove past a lot of trees and I remembered something that Matt and Liz used to do when they were younger. We would go on trips and if we passed a lot of trees my two little ones would move their heads with the trees and say,"tree, tree, tree, tree", until their sides hurt from laughing too much. Those were the good days with all of my children laughing together and my beautiful Rebecca laughing with them because their laughter was contagious.

We reached the edge of the city and I knew the 2nd Mass wouldn't be at the school anymore.

"Tom, my friend we buried was actually my mother. We were all alone and we were headed to the mountains where a group of survivors where located. We stopped to get some supplies when a man appeared out of nowhere and shot my mother. He then tried to rape me. I fought back until you came along. My Mom and I promised each other that if something happened to the other that the one who survived would go to the mountains. I have lost all hope and I need to go to the mountains for my mother." She told me.

I got off the bike and gave her a hug. She rode off. I kept walking to the city and heard the voice of Weaver. I walked toward his voice and came upon a skitter. I shot at it and skewered it with a rebar. I was trying to take control because it was still fighting when I heard it cry out and felt cold, hard metal go through my skin. I let go of the skitter and fell down.

I heard my daughter scream out my name and I felt Dai try to patch up my wound. I heard Elizabeth sit down and cry over me and she asking me to stay with her. She squeezed my hand.

~FLASHBACK OVER~

I woke up in the med bus and saw Elizabeth sitting in a corner with her hand in her head. She looked really tired like she hadn't slept for a few days. Her hair was a mess and her face was pale and she looked like she had been through a lot, which she had.

"Elizabeth, sweetie. Can you hear me?" I asked her.

She sat up like she was waiting to hear my voice. She looked around to see if it was her brothers and then she looked at my bed. She saw me awake and ran over to my bed.

"Dad, Dad. I am so very sorry. I didn't mean to shoot you. It was an accident, I swear. I thought it was just a skitter." She told me. She was crying.

"It is ok, baby. I know you didn't mean to. How were you supposed to know that I was there behind it? None of this is your fault." I told her. I wiped at her tears and she leaned into my touch.

She ran out to go get Anne. I heard her yell out to Anne and the boys to come in. They all came in at once.

"Hal, report to me what has happened."

"Well the skitters are now able to locate us by heat sensing in the trucks, but Jamil fixed it. There were some mechs nearby but they walked right by us. We are in the clear for now." He told me.

"We are just glad you are back, Dad." Elizabeth said to me as all of the kids hugged me.

I am finally back with them. I wrapped my good arm around them and smiled. I am back with my children. We can get back on the right track. I remembered what Ben said to me on the ship and Liz's last words to me before I left.

It will take a lot for her to get back to me. I know she is still angry even though she has been here waiting for me. She probably felt guilty. I know once I heal she will most likely go back to hating me. I need to get some alone time with her so we can talk.

Pope's POV

I wonder how Daddy Mason got free. The cooties wouldn't just let him go free without a reason.