"Didn't we tell them we were going running?" Emma chuckled as she and Carolina sat at a little beach-side coffee shop they had found.
"We did run," Carolina grinned. "And we can run back or down along the beach. We didn't exactly lie, we just didn't mention we were grabbing coffee and breakfast while we went running."
"Ok, you got me there," Emma grinned leaning back in the chair to watch the waves coming in. "I almost don't want this to end. It's so nice here."
"It is. You did an amazing job picking this place out," Carolina nodded sipping her coffee.
"Ally wants to do the snow one next," Emma sighed.
"Oh damn, I don't know how we'll squeeze in another vacation," Carolina sighed dramatically making Emma chuckle.
"York said you weren't much of the vacation type."
Carolina shrugged, "When there's things to do or work to get done, no. I'd rather stick around and get everything done." She stretched and leaned back, "Of course, this whole relaxing thing is really nice."
"That it is," Emma nodded. They sat back enjoying themselves for a while before Carolina saw the time.
"We should start heading back."
"Yea," Emma sighed. "Especially since Ally wants to go to the beach again."
Carolina chuckled as they got up and headed back towards the jogging path. Once they reached it, Carolina put them into a steady pace choosing one of the longer paths. When they reached their grouping of houses, there was no one around.
"Wonder if they left without us," Carolina commented.
"Probably. You remember how impatient Ally was the other day, don't you," Emma chuckled as they walked into the house.
"True," Carolina agreed. "Church?"
"Yea they left," Church replied popping up in front of her. "They said to join them when you got back."
"Got it. Thanks Church."
"No problem."
"I'm going to go change around," Emma replied before heading up the spiral stairs.
Carolina turned to go do the same. Church cleared his throat, "Not so fast. Lopez called from the ship. Grey should be touching down around dinner."
"Ok. We'll be back by then. Wash and I can go get her."
"I'll let him know."
"Thanks Church. Have I mentioned you're awesome?"
"Not lately."
"Good. Wouldn't want you getting a big head now would we," Carolina chuckled as he cursed at her.
"I hope she gets here soon, I'm starving," Wash complained.
"There will be plenty of food when we get back," Carolina chuckled. "York's mom was making a feast in our kitchen."
"Exactly. It smelled delicious."
"You're starting to sound like Grif," Carolina warned. Wash growled at her.
"In this case it's warranted."
"Well don't worry. Mei claims we're all too thin and need fattening up so I'm sure you'll be getting plenty of home cooking in the future."
"Good. So...they're coming with us then?"
"According to York," Carolina nodded. "We'll see what Grey has to say when she gets here."
"AGENTS WASHINGTON AND CAROLINA!" They both turned to see Grey bouncing towards them. "Oh my God, it's soooo good to see you both! This place is fantastic! How did you find it?"
"Emma did," Carolina replied. "It's good to see you too."
"Well she really knows how to find them!" Grey cackled.
"Yes she does," Wash agreed. "Did you have a safe flight?"
"Oh yes. Slept the whole time. It's the first quiet day I had since you all left!"
"Has it been that busy?"
"Oh you know," Grey chuckled as they started walking. "Just cleaning up the mess yet from all the fighting. Kimball was able to get everyone sorta gathered in one of the other abandoned cities and has guards and such up around the remaining temples."
"So everyone is still getting along?" Carolina asked.
"Surprisingly, yes. Oh! How's your daughter?"
"Ally is great. She's having an absolute blast," Carolina smiled.
"That is excellent!"
They continued to chat and catch up the rest of the way back. Once they arrived back, everyone else was just sitting down to start eating. They greeted Grey enthusiastically before Carolina made further introductions of Kai, Junior and York's parents.
"Grif, you're not eating," Simmons commented. "That's unusual for you."
"Yea, really. Normally we're fighting you off a second course by now," Tucker chuckled.
"If she's here, then that means Kimball sent her to fetch us," Grif huffed. "Which means this vacation is over and I'm going to be forced back to work."
"Grif, we've been here almost a week," Wash replied. "How long do you think vacations normally last?"
"I don't know, longer than that? A month or two?"
"Captain Grif isn't wrong in any case," Grey commented.
"Kimball wants us back?" Wash asked turning to look at her.
"Well, she's requesting it," Grey answered. "The UNSC is arriving in a couple of days with supplies and more troops. She has to meet with them upon arrival and requests that you and Agent Carolina be there with her to back her up."
"Have they mentioned what they're going to do with the planet?" Carolina asked.
"Now that they've been reminded about it, they want to try re-inhabiting it and taking it back, sending in more science teams to check out the alien artifacts, along with a few alien ambassadors of course."
"Doesn't sound too bad," York commented.
"Kimball's worried they're going to push us all out of the way," Grey continued. "She wants to make sure we all have a say in what happens with our home and she's not a hundred percent certain the officials from the UNSC that are coming to talk with her about it will have the current inhabitants' best interest at heart. Kimball, as well as the rest of us, would feel a whole lot better about it if you all were there to back her up when she goes to argue our case. Chorus has been our home for years and even with all the fighting nonsense, it's still our home and we want a say in what happens to it." They were all quiet around the table. "I know it's not your home and you only sorta got thrown into it, but I can't help but agree with General Kimball on this."
"Weren't we already planning on going back?" Simmons asked.
"There was talk of Wash and I going back," Carolina nodded. "I wasn't entirely sure if you all wanted to or not. You do have your own home to get too."
"Well if there's going to be aliens included in this, then you definitely need me and Junior," Tucker replied. "We are ambassadors after all."
"Bad ones…" Grif mumbled under his breath to Ally who giggled.
"What about everyone else?" Carolina asked looking at the reds. She knew Caboose wouldn't really care one way or the other as long as he was with his friends.
"Like Simmons said," Sarge piped up, "Pretty sure we were planning on going back anyway. Ain't there a saying about home being wherever you want it?"
"Since when are you sentimental, Sarge?" Grif chuckled.
"I'd say it's safe to assume we'll all be coming back with you," Wash chuckled as Sarge cursed at Grif under his breath.
"Excellent!" Grey clapped her hands together excitedly.
"When does she needs us back by?" Carolina asked.
"Um I think you can spend a day or two here yet. There's more she can catch you up on once we get back," Grey answered. "Nothing too dire. We are currently establishing base in one of the other cities that was abandoned. It's not too bad a place really. Bit more spacious than Armonia was, not everything is on top of each other. The hope is that if we're not all crammed together like sardines, that there hopefully won't be fighting again amongst the Feds and News. Others have also looked in to establishing living spaces in the other abandoned towns and there's definitely guards on the temples just in case. The hope there is to have a firm grasp on as much as possible before the UNSC tries to intervene, to show that we can handle things without too much interference."
"Especially at crash site Alpha with that tractor beam?" Carolina asked.
"Oh yes. The plan for that is to deactivate it as soon as possible, but I'm going to need Tucker's sword in order to do so," Grey sighed.
"I can lend a hand too if need be," Emma offered.
"I would love that! The more the merrier," Grey squealed. "Then I can pick your brain on the way there!"
"Pops, it'd be right up your alley too if you'd want to hitch along with them," York chuckled. "Grey is a bit of a science genius while Emma's got the computer smarts down."
"Sounds like a lovely field trip," George agreed.
"Pops worked in the science field back on Earth. Was a professor at one of the local schools," York explained to Grey.
"Oh that is awesome! Science field trip!"
"Can I go with?" Ally asked looking at York and Carolina.
"We'll see," Carolina smiled. "There might be more fun things to do back in the city when we get there."
"Yea, like picking out a house and decorating," York suggested.
"That sounds fun too, but not as much as sciencey stuff," Ally giggled.
"Like I said, we'll see," Carolina repeated.
"But Aunty Emma will be going," Ally started, a whine in her voice.
"Ally, don't start."
"Fine," Ally huffed and continued to pick at her food.
"Hey Ally," Emma glanced at her. Ally looked up at her, "I'd check the attitude real quick and not give your parents a hard time. Know what's coming up?" Ally nodded, her eyes widening. "And look at all the family member you get to invite this year. So best behavior is your best course of action from hence forward is it not?"
"Ok, I'll be good," Ally replied. Carolina looked at Emma who mouthed birthday at her.
"How about you start thinking about what you want to do our last full day here?" Carolina suggested.
"I can do that," Ally nodded.
"So mum is making phone calls in the morning to have their things start getting settled up back on Earth," York said as he walked outside to sit with Carolina after putting Ally to bed. She was sitting on one of the lounge chairs while North and Emma took up the other. They could hear Wash inside the other house yelling at Tucker about something. The sound was too muffled to make out what though. Kai had convinced Grey to go out to the club with her as well as Doc and Donut this time around. Grif, Simmons, and Sarge appeared to be locked in another round of cards outside while Caboose sat nearby.
"What are they going to do about getting their things to them?" Carolina asked.
"I'm sure mum has her ways," York shrugged. "Couse I'm sure once the supply ships start coming regularly to the planet, they will have no problem what so ever getting their things."
"That's good," Carolina nodded. "I think I'm going to put in a request for Kai to get stationed out there as well."
"Sure Grif would love that," Emma chuckled.
"I'm sure he would," Carolina smirked. "Whether he says it or not, he cares about his sister and it's important to have family close. Same with Junior. I'm glad they're thinking about including the aliens in on this as well and as long as Grey can keep up with everything, she'd have no problem dealing with that part of it."
"Sounds like you have a lot worked out in that head of yours," York commented as he sat down on the edge of her chair.
"Well, if Grey wants Wash and I as back up, I'm going to need some form of working idea that the UNSC will agree with," Carolina sighed. "Course, I'm just going off what Grey told us. I'll be able to form a better plan when I get with Kimball on it."
"And already she's back in work mode," York huffed.
Carolina rolled her eyes, "I think I relaxed plenty thank you very much."
"You did," York agreed. "I just wish you wouldn't be so ready to jump right back in the frying pan the second you think there's work that needs to be done."
"York, this is Carolina you're talking to," North chuckled. "You realize this right?"
"Course I do," York grumbled. "I was just hoping she'd stay in vacation mode until we're on the ship to head back. We have a whole other day here yet, let's just enjoy it and not think about what we're going to be walking back into."
"And look on the bright side," Emma added, "There's no fighting this time around."
"Exactly. Just re-establishing and re-evaluating which can certainly wait until the ride back," York pointed out. "How about we change the subject? What's this you hinted to Ally about now?"
"Oh," Emma sat up a bit. "Her birthday's coming up."
"Already?"
"York, it's not like we picked her up just as she was turning eight," Carolina chuckled.
"I just thought you would've mentioned it to me."
"It's not like I knew the date," Carolina sighed. "I didn't have any clue of time inside where they had me. Not until I was out and even then, it's not like I could remember that I had given birth, let alone when."
"Ok, ok," he patted her knee. "Don't get hostile about it. I was just teasing." She rolled her eyes. "So nine…and it's her first birthday with us. That means it's going to have to be a big one."
"Just as long as you make it clear to her that not every birthday she has from here on out will be as big," Emma pointed out.
"Of course it will be," York grinned making her roll her eyes. "And I have a pretty good idea what to get her."
"Oh yea?" Carolina asked raising an eyebrow at her.
"Oh yea," York nodded. "Will need a bit of help from North and some time to sneak away tomorrow."
Carolina rolled her eyes, "You going to share?"
"Nope," York smirked at her.
"You will tell me though, correct?"
"At some point."
"It better not be something-"
"Don't worry, C," North chuckled. "I'll veto any craziness he comes up with that I know will get you mad."
"I'm glad you all have such faith in me as a father that you think I'd do something that would need vetoing," York grumbled.
"We just know you a little too well," Carolina chuckled.
A/N: Might be wrapping this segment up...actually probably definitely within the next chapter, maybe two if I can squeak it out, but most likely just the one cuz I'm sick and my brain is like onward with the next arc! So yea, heads up there! But the next segment should be really fun as well, bit more action-y than this one, so yea...I'm gonna stop rambling now...stupid sick brain...