AN: I feel like this chapter is all over the place, but I got in some really important stuff that I've been thinking about for awhile. I was planning on saving it for a later chapter, but it felt right here. Hopefully you guys like it! :)
miaparker: Welcome! Thanks for stopping by to read! I know what you mean about getting distracted from studying...happens to me all the time. At least as a creative writing major, I have an excuse to read and write. ;)
flimmer: Already I break my resolution. Ack. Well, I tried to make this one a little longer to make up for not having it up yesterday. I got called in to work an extra shift, so I didn't have a chance to upload.
Skye watched him warily as he stood in the middle of a stream, his hands held motionless in the water, waiting for something edible to come swimming towards them. Skye had to admit she was hungry for something with meat, but she was reluctant to accept anything from Lucas. Her lips were sore and swollen from his attack on them, and every time he looked at her she could see his eyes darken from something other than anger. It scared her and confused her. After all that she had done—playing him and then shooting him—he still wanted her. Only a madman would be such a masochist.
Her tongue ran over the cut on her lip and she shivered. The last time she had kissed anyone was with Josh, and it hadn't been like that. In fact, she didn't think she had ever been kissed like that. Not that she had heaps of experience: there weren't a ton of viable options in Terra Nova, and very few of those she was interested in. Josh was the first guy she had ever really considered that way, and he didn't reciprocate the feelings.
And did he mean he loved her?
Lucas suddenly thrust his hands down and pulled out a thrashing creature, about the size of her thigh, which was frantically trying to fight free. He threw it to the bank, where it landed with a flop, and splashed through the water to swiftly cut its head off with a knife. He looked up at to where she stood a few feet away from the creature and grinned triumphantly.
"Hungry?" he asked.
She crossed her hands over her stomach, glaring at him. He didn't say anything else as he proceeded to clean the fish. He had built a fire before getting into the stream. He said he didn't cook anything near the house in the tree in case the scent attracted predators. Skye couldn't help but compare him to his father, who he resembled greatly. Of course she didn't point this out to him; if she did, he would probably cut her head off just like the strange fish.
He impaled the fish on a wooden spear and laid it over the fire.
"It won't take very long," he said, sitting down next to the fire to dry his soaking clothes.
After a few minutes, Skye sat down across from Lucas. While the fire between them provided some comfort, she wasn't positive it would be enough of a buffer. The smell of the cooking fish was making her stomach growl loudly.
"How is your shoulder feeling?" he asked, not looking at her.
"Sore," she groused. "Yours?"
His lips lifted amusedly and he rotated his shoulder without hesitation, "Perfect. I guess carrying you for four days really helped."
Skye frowned. There was a crunch from the jungle behind them and she jumped, frantically looking around them to see what had made the noise. She didn't want to encounter any more of the pterosaur that had attacked her.
Lucas cocked his ear towards where the sound had come from.
"Passed on," he said, returning his attention to the fish over the fire. Skye wasn't so easily assuaged; she looked back at every sound or rustle of wind.
"You know, you aren't armed," Lucas commented after a few minutes. Skye snapped her attention back to him and glared: of course she wasn't armed—hostages weren't usually given weapons.
"So if anything was to jump out of those bushes," he continued, pointing to the brush behind her with a knife he had been sharpening against a smooth rock. "You wouldn't be able to protect yourself. And I probably wouldn't be able to reach you before it dragged you off to its family."
She didn't say anything, though his words made sense.
"Plus, it is safer to sit with your back to the water. Predators have a more difficult time sneaking through water."
Skye slowly and grudgingly got up and went to sit beside him, still keeping at least a foot of distance between them, not that it would really matter. There could be a mile between them and Lucas would still find a way to run his hands over her skin.
"There are only a few more hours of light left," Skye pointed out, looking up at the sky.
"We aren't going back tonight," Lucas shrugged, pulling the smoking fish off the fire.
"What?"
"Makes more sense to catch a few fish and cook them here," Lucas said, using the side of his knife to slide the fish off the stick. "Besides, I want plenty of time to make it back."
Skye took a deep breath, trying to swallow her anger and annoyance, and her fear. Not that she would ever admit to him, but she was scared to sleep outside with no protection from all the crawlies in the night. She could just imagine waking to find a Slasher looming over her.
"And where are we supposed to sleep?" she asked. "You have another treehouse somewhere?"
He handed her a chunk of the meat, "No, but I know a spot that will work. Just about an hour walk from here."
As soon as she had the meat in her hands, it was all she could do from stuffing it in her mouth all at once. Not that her diet in the colony contained a lot of meat on a regular basis, but her body needed the extra protein to help in the healing of her shoulder. She bit off pieces of the fish greedily, holding back her groan of appreciation. It didn't have a whole lot of taste, but she didn't mind; it was the best thing she had ever eaten.
After they had finished their meal, Lucas caught three more fish and cooked them over the fire. He told Skye to go find a certain kind of leaf that was big enough to wrap the fish in and would also flavor it. She was shocked that he would let her walk away from him so easily, but she knew she didn't have a chance if she tried to run. She was wounded and didn't have a clue which direction to go back towards Terra Nova. She could try to follow Lucas' tracks back, but she was hopeless at tracking and she didn't know what else could have crossed the path, creating its own. She would easily get lost, and even though she had plenty of survival training with Lieutenant Wash, she doubted she would last very long on her own. So she walked the banks of the stream, now widening to a river, searching for the tree Lucas had described to her. She felt very naked without a weapon to protect her, but Lucas had assured her that she could jump into the river and out-swim a dinosaur or pterosaur if necessary.
She located the tree after about thirty minutes of walking. The tree was spectacular looking—one of the largest she had ever seen, with leaves almost as long as she was tall. She grabbed an armful of the gigantic leaves; if it rained that night, they could sleep under one of them. It would also be an extra level of protection.
She hurried back to Lucas. The sun was starting to set and she didn't want to be left alone without a weapon. She was nervous even being in unfamiliar land with a weapon. Lucas was just finishing the fish when she returned and he carefully wrapped up the cooked pieces in the leaves and put them in his pack.
"Let's go," he said, kicking dirt over the fire. He led her through the stream, which was freezing cold, and into the dense jungle where the setting sun barely reached.
Skye wanted to point out that they were going even further away from his house, which seemed contradictory, but she knew this would just annoy him. Of course he would know they were heading away from the direction they came, so he must have a reason for it.
They walked in silence for the most part. Skye stumbled once and caught her elbow, asking in a quiet voice if she was ok. She flushed in embarrassment—she wasn't clumsy and she didn't need anyone taking care of her—but she said she was fine and they continued on. She knew Lucas was listening intently for any sounds of creatures sneaking up on them. She didn't hear anything, but he would be more experienced from years of living out in the jungle.
"Did you live with the Sixers?"
He looked back at her briefly, not slowing his pace. "No. I just visit occasionally, checking to make sure they haven't done anything stupid."
She could hear the sourness in his voice. "You don't like the Sixers?"
He shrugged, his back still facing her. "They are just a means to an end."
"How could you ever want to go back to 2149?" she asked. The question had been bugging her ever since she had met Lucas. She could understand Mira's reasoning: someone was using her daughter as leverage in 2149, it made sense that she would do whatever it would take to get back to her daughter. But Lucas? How could he possibly want to go back to that filthy future, where one would have to live in a plastic bubble if they wanted to live?
He was silent a few minutes and Skye had almost decided that he wasn't going to answer her, but then his quiet response came.
"This time and place belongs to my father," he said resentfully. "I refuse to live somewhere that is his."
"Terra Nova isn't about your father," Skye said, her voice raised. "It isn't about any one person. It is about second chances, about starting a new life. Why can't you see that?"
Lucas halted and whirled to look at her with unsteadiness in his eyes.
"His little speeches? Lies!" he yelled, the noise causing a few birds in the canopy to fly off. "Don't think for one moment that Terra Nova isn't about him being in control."
Skye wanted to shout at him, shake him, do anything to make him see reason, but she knew that words were the only thing that he would understand.
"Commander Taylor would give up everything for us," she said, putting her hands on her hips. "Just like he gave up everything for you."
Some of the anger drained from Lucas and was replaced with shock.
"What's that supposed to mean?" he asked in a shaken voice.
"Your father loves you, despite everything you've done," she said grimly. "You even killed Lieutenant Washington, the closest friend he had. You shot her while he watched, I saw it. You shot her while she stood there helpless, and you didn't feel any remorse. You are a monster, and still your father forgave you. You say he isn't a god? Only a god could forgive someone like you."
Lucas' jaw twitched, but he couldn't say anything. He turned on his heel and kept walking. The jungle was starting to thin and she could tell they were nearly at their destination, but she wasn't done talking. She continued on mercilessly.
"Mark Reynolds told me that he tried to kill himself when he had lost his memory due to a virus when he found out your mother was dead," she yelled loud enough so he could hear her as she stormed behind him. "He loved Iyanni so much, he couldn't bear to live without her, but he still chose you over her in Somalia. Why do you think that is, Lucas? You're a genius, surely you can figure it out."
Lucas' shoulders were tense and she could see his fists balled up. She was close to crossing the line, but she refused to give up. He could hit her or even kill her, but she was going to make him see the truth.
"Because he loves you more, Lucas! He loves you—don't you get it?"
They had reached a small clearing near a great sheet of rock. There was a small opening in the side of the cliff, which looked like a small cave.
Lucas slammed his pack onto the ground and looked at her, his eyes burning with fury.
"Stop talking." he said in a deadly quiet voice.
She could tell she was getting close to making him crack.
"You say you hate your father for choosing you over your mother?" she said the words slowly, making sure they sank in properly. "You don't hate him, you hate yourself. You blame yourself for what happened, and you want everyone to feel the pain that you've felt for all this years."
His hand came up immediately and smacked her in the face with a force that knocked all the breath out of her body. It hurt, but she knew her words had hurt him even more.