AN: I tried to keep the dialougue intact and only add in form of emotions and thoughts. I hope it's not redundant. Enjoy!

2.

Two more years had to pass before he finally met with her face to face.

He had visited her mother's hut from time to time during those two years, managing to be there whenever she was there, watching from the shadows, listening in to their conversations, to their stories. It was his only pastime, his only diversion from his plans, his calculations, his obsession. He had been watching her as she grew up, filled out, becoming more beautiful each time he saw her. That inner fire she possessed that made her so fierce never waned, never faded. It seemed to be rekindled every time she saw her mother, as if the mere sight reminded her of her reasons, of her choices and why she had made them.

Reminded her where her true loyalties lied.

And every time he saw them together, Lucas too as reminded of his goals, his reasons. Something inside him warmed at the sight of her every time, because even though she didn't know it, the mere existence of her, the fact that she was under the same sky somewhere, made this world feel less lonely for him, less chaotic. It made sense that she existed, that he had found her; it was as if she had been created just for him – to remind him that no matter how much time he passed in solitude, somewhere not too far from him there was someone else in his exact same circumstances, doing the same thing. Feeling just as abandonee and alone.

In a way, knowing that helped. Ave him focus when his spirits tired from the never-ending frenzy of his hatred.

They shared so much, that the connection between them seemed meant to be, as if someone had orchestrated it carefully. They fit, like two pieces of a perfect puzzle - meeting was serendipity.

Sometimes Lucas had wanted to just walk up to her talk. Have her talk back to him for hours, have her eyes on him the way they never seemed to be.

But he had held off.

Timing had to be right. Other things were more important.

Like finishing his work.

Once that moment came, Lucas realized something important: it had to have been destiny that had guided him to discovering her that day, three years back. It was fate that had guided his work, because without even realizing or anticipating this moment, he was now in her hands. At the very end, when the only thing separating him from 2141 was a reconciliation of all his calculations – she appeared as the solution

That final step was something only she could do for him.

… it could not be something as insignificant as coincidence.

Lucas was glad, strangely amused even, if he really thought about it. Because it seemed fitting to him, that she would have to be the one to confirm his conclusions, all of the work of these past five years. It was right that she should be the one to put in the final piece of this puzzle. He wanted her to be the one to take that final step. She deserved it.

But she didn't know all that yet.

He watched her from the shadows for the last time, as she walked in and straight to her mother's bedside. Skye was so focused that she neglected to check corners.

"Bucket! My sweet Bucket." Her mother's voice was weak, punctuated by a cough.

He didn't see her smile, but it was in her tone, in her word.

"Hey mamma."

"I've been worried, it's been a week."

"I know." She answered regrettably, by without letting everything else drip into her tone. The way she kept things so well hidden was a talent he reasoned.

"You know I worry, I have always." Deborah spoke as if she was apologizing. She was a nice woman after all, but he had not been entirely nice with her. He knew she feared him, had feared him from the very moment she had seen him. Probably because she knew the truth of his banishment, what he was trying to do.

What he was capable of doing.

Her daughter was about to find out as well.

"Are they feeding you ok?"

Confronted with her mother's silence, she sighed, and moved into action, digging around in her purse. "I'll try to come by more often. I brought you some food and…"

She stopped, looking down.

"Where did you get that blanket?"

And that was finally his queue.

"Hello."

Skye turned around, startled by the deep voice – mostly because it was not supposed to be there. Nobody was supposed to be there, Mira had promised her mother would be left alone. She turned swiftly and saw him, sitting there looking at her from the corner, half eaten by shadows.

God he'd been there all along, how had she been so careless?!

He saw her brows pull together, that line between them etched deep. He had watched as she took him in, evaluated him in quick motions like only someone used to living on edge could do. He hadn't been able to help a small smile that tugged one corner of his lips.

Hadn't been able to control the way he had felt when her eyes for the first time had made contact with his.

Lucas had literally felt his insides move, shift and take life filling him with intentions long forgotten. He had not expected such a violent reaction, had not been prepared for it. But he had enjoyed it. Like everything about her, he had liked what she brought out in him. As he liked her propensity for danger, her coolness at handling it, her quick mind and endurance.

Her beauty…

Everything about her drew him in, and that moment when she finally looked at him changed everything.

It breathed life into the shadows of emotions that had long since haunted Lucas' mind. It made everything more real. The intensity of his own reaction surprised him, but not the reaction itself. It was not surprising that she should be the one to make him feel that way. She had been his only anchor to the world for almost three years, he had gotten to know her from the sides, using her as the only diversion he allowed himself.

He'd felt he had a connection with her from the very first time he was able to understand her. It was natural that he should feel this bond now so strong, when he was finally facing her.

"Who are you?" she asked bluntly, instantly on the edge. He noticed her mother trying to signal her to take it easier.

"Bucket, it's alright…"

He decided he would be the one doing the introductions for the night.

"Lucas Taylor." He said getting up to his full height. "The honor's all mine."

And she couldn't know what he meant by those words or how much he meant them. But his name struck a chord with her – as it should. After all, she was his father daughter, his own little sister, Lucas thought not without a tinge of disdain tainting is thoughts.

The confusion in her face only got thicker, as she looked at him from her crouched position by her mother bedside.

"Taylor's son?"

He smiled at that nomenclature. The hatred in his chest contorted, but it came out as a smile that distorted his features into something dangerous.

"Yeah. I've been told I have his eyes."

But with every word, instead of relaxing, she got tenser and looked even more reluctant. "You're supposed to be missing…"

His words weren't cutting it, she was suspicious of him. Well, that was not going to change anytime soon. But her words this time made him wipe his face free from the expression his hatred for his father brought forth and looked at her serenely, almost wanting to smile a real smile.

"You found me." He said simply, and watched her eyebrows pull together again, not understanding his meaning at all.

This time though, her mother managed to get her attention: she was holding on to her hand so tightly that for once Skye was reminded of her old grip back when her mother had had the strength to give a real handshake. Skye looked away from the man professing to be Lucas Taylor and down onto her mother.

It took her one moment to read her expression.

Deborah was terrified.

Lucas watched her as she quickly got up and protectively put herself between him and her mother, as if she was intent on being the shield between whatever he was and the one person she would be ready to die for protecting.

"What do you want?" She asked harshly.

He took slow steps towards her, deliberately trying not to scare her too much, thought he was aware that intimidation was needed. But he had watched her for a long time now, knew her weaknesses well. Violence rarely worked with someone as stubborn as Skye Alexandria Tate. Words were a much better option.

"I want us to be… friends." He said smoothly, smiling even though he was aware that there was nothing he could do to make himself less threatening to her. She was high strung like a cable. When he was a few inches from her, already in her personal space, he looked down at her mother with a smile.

"Your mother and I are friends, right Deb?"

She looked away from him and to her mother.

Deborah really was such a good mother. Even in the face of a tangible threat she was trying not to alarm her daughter.

"Lucas brought the blanket." She clarified, as if to defend him. But he knew Skye didn't buy that. When her eyes turned to him again, they were promptly full of distain. The feeling was so barely hidden that he knew she was not even trying to keep her thoughts a secret. She wanted him to know she despised him and had seen right through his little game.

He smiled.

"Your mother needs her rest. Let's talk outside." He said softly, as if he was confiding a secret. She looked back at her mother, undecided, unwilling to follow him. Instinctively she knew that he would want something from her. Everyone here wanted something from her. More information, more secrets, more betrayals. She loved her mother, but the lies were starting to thicken the air around her and Skye was starting to choke on it every time she took a deep breath.

She didn't want to talk to this man. Whatever he wanted it was bound to be trouble. She had been weary of him right from the start. Because he was a stranger, because he was twice her size, armed and looking every bit as brutal and dangerous as he probably was, even when he leaned casually again the rails of the bridge like he was doing now.

"How sweet. Mommy doesn't know you're a spy does she?" he asked, taunting her to her face. The only response he got was her crossing her arms over her chest protectively, steely eyes staring right back at him fearlessly.

It was that expression on her face that convinced him. He looked away from her and down at the distance from the railing to the floor of the forest, considering it. He wouldn't enjoy doing this, but it was the only way to get her to cooperate and he had known that from the very beginning. She would never bend otherwise, he could see it in her eyes, in the stubbornness there, the resolve. It burned in her cornflower irises like a blue flame, alive and defiant.

He looked back into her eyes, pushing her, trying to figure out her limits.

"My guess is she has no idea what you've had to do to keep her alive."

"Don't talk about my mother." She snapped, not blinking an eyelash.

Ah, his dear little sister... So stubborn and unrelenting. So protective of her mother, and because of that, so easily manipulated.

He smiled. "Why don't we talk about my father then. How is the great commander? Has he walked on water yet? Has he…"

She went very close to rolling her eyes at him. "What do you want?" she bit out, annoyed, irritated as if he was wasting her time. Right down to business, just the way he liked her. She had no patience for bullshit.

So he'd make it quick and easy for her.

His eyes sobered. "I have a job for you."

Immediately she tried to get out of it. "I work for Mira."

Not this time Bucket. "And who do you think she works for?"

Her expression staggered, her eyes hardened. She was battling between two different impulses: anger, which gave her the strength to be hard in front of him and not to let her fear of him show. And the dread that made her want to crawl into a corner and scream her lungs out. But even thought she refused to give in to the second and grasped at the first like a lifeline, her body language spoke of her underlying emotions: the way her arms were still so tightly crossed over her chest like a shield told Lucas that she feared him.

But the things was, her fear might very well be not of him personally, but of what he would ask her to do.

"The Sixers can't do anything without me. I need you to do something; believe me, Mira will understand."

She was silent as she realized that there was no higher power whose authority she could claim here. She as stuck. Her heart started beating faster.

"Do you know what this is?" He asked her, showing her the little device in his hand. She didn't answer, she didn't even look at the thing. He hadn't expected her to.

"My life's work. How to make the time portal go both ways. Almost solved."

"Congratulations." She deadpanned so flatly that he had to smile.

"Thank you." He answered without missing a beat. Then the humor vanished from his eyes. "But the equation needs to be factored and reconciled. I could do it by hand, but it would take weeks, maybe months. In Terra Nova, in the Eye…" he watched her breath freeze in her lungs. She looked away from him, as if breaking eye contact was a way to make him disappear.

He was a more stubborn bastard than that.

"… it could take less than an hour."

There was a beat of silence.

"And you want me to do it." She mumbled looking down to her feet.

"I'll give you a day." Which in his opinion was very generous.

"No." She said resolutely without missing a single beat of the conversation.

Ah, the inevitable stalemate. He smiled ominously as he took a few steps closer to her, invading her personal space, breathing in the faint scent of her shampoo. He had known this moment would come, known it as well as he knew her.

She didn't flinch when he came closer, looked at him right in the eyes defiantly. It send a jolt down his spine and with derision to his own actions, he thought that this move of intimidating her by stepping closer her backfired, because he had probably been more affected than she had.

He took her hand in his, put the device in between in her palm.

"Just plug it in, the Eye will do the rest." He said softly, looking at her with the most serene expression possible.

"What if I don't?"

His expression didn't falter, not one muscle in his face moved. He just stared at her for a moment, the blankness of his look chilling her to the bone.

"It's a long way down. You'll do it - or, I'll toss you mother over the side and she'll find out how far down it really it."

And this time she did flinch away from him, took her hand back, her fingers holding on tightly to the device he had given her, the metal biting on her skin. He saw the hatred shine ice cold in her eyes, barely concealed as his softly spoken words laced with the promise of violence that was written all over his face.

Hiding her thoughts and emotions was second nature to her, but with him she didn't have to pretend. All could be in the open with him, because they both knew she hated him.

Lucas didn't mind too much. She would get over it soon enough.

"You better get moving… Bucket." He smiled as the word left his lips, as if her nickname amused him.

It sounded distorted from his lips, ugly, and just like that he irreversibly tainted a good memory she had from her childhood.

He left her there, standing near an edge that she couldn't cross but had to jump over anyway. Skye grabbed the railing for support and held on tightly. Two fat tears made their way down her cheeks as she closed her eyes and hung her head. Her shoulders trembled.

He watched her from the shadows, away from her line of vision, as she allowed herself that moment of weakness. It didn't take long for her to gather herself thought. Three or so tears later, she was whipping her cheeks clean and trying – and succeeding – in composing her facial expression into something decent before she went to her mother.

As he watched her, Lucas wondered why was it so difficult to for her to do this one simple thing. Was it because she dint want to betray her home, or because she didn't want to betray his father?

He could deal with her fighting for Terra Nova, but the thought of her loyalties and love for his father itched him in a new, yet familiar way. Thinking of her as someone who was also devoted to his father, she who Lucas felt so close to in such a complicated, intimae way… well, there were few things that irritated him as much.

But Lucas could understand it though, as always, he could understand her: The great commander was indeed like a father to her.

But what his dear little sister didn't understand was that her feelings her empty. Lucas didn't take her love for his father seriously, didn't consider it sound, because it was built on lies. She had it all wrong. She was, like everyone in Terra Nova, blinded by the image that his father had build for himself, and as a result, she was incapable of seeing his father's faults, his true nature, the despicable weaknesses that made him nothing more than a mediocre man reaching too high and justifying every choice by claiming higher morals.

Lucas would make her see all that, in time. He had no doubt that she would succeed with this task he had given her and then, after that he planned to let her get to know him. He wanted her to know him, to speak with her, hear her speak of herself. He had known her for three years now. Time had come that the connections became mutual.

He longed to make her see how much alike they truly were, how much they shared, make her understand that she was not alone, that for as long as he existed, she would never be alone.

And neither would he.

And when she understood that, making her see the truth about Nathaniel Taylor would be easy. It would come naturally.

And if she didn't see it, then Lucas would force her eyes open.

She would understand how flawed his father was once she fell out of his good graces. She would see his cruelty when he refused to forgive her for her 'betrayal'. Nathaniel Taylor didn't know forgiveness and in that lied his true ruthlessness. His values and morals were a very thin cover for the naked truth: his father was as much of a monster as he claimed his son to be. The only different was that Lucas was honest about it.

Once his dear sister understood that, their father would lose that special place in her heart. Once she felt the true nature of Taylor's punishment, that knew no boundaries, that didn't recognize extenuating circumstances, she would turn to him.

And he would be there for her.

TBC