Sorry if this chapter seems a little all over the place. Originally it was a bit longer but the file corrupted so I had to rewrite it from memory.
XXXX
Camile had loosely been filled in on the discovery over at the remnants of the Nakai ship but Rush, Chloe, Young and the others had all been far to preoccupied with Cressida and the young boy they'd found and rightly so, almost everyone had charged off to the infirmary or to aid Doctor Park as soon as the shuttle got back. That lack of complete understanding was what had Camile almost marching down the long halls towards the shuttle bay. She grounded to an unexpected halt as she turned into the shuttle only to jump quickly out of the way lest Airman Dunning run her over with a large glass tube.
"Oh my God!" She breathed in shock seeing the child encased in slowly blackening goo. "There really are others."
"I'm so sorry, I didn't see you there." Said Airman Dunning, seemingly unaware of anything Camile had just muttered before continuing moving the long tube via the Kino sled.
Camile took a breath and continued into the shuttle to find Greer stood surrounded by the smaller chambers and jars, six of them to be exact. None of which were very far into development, her heart went out to those infants, the Nakai had refused life to them, taken away any chance of ever having a childhood.
"Is this all of them?" Camile asked and actually startled Greer into spinning around.
"Camile." She could understand why he was on edge, the shuttle had become rather morbid in the last few hours; just when the Destiny crew thought they'd seen everything the universe threw something new and horrible at them. "Em, no, there are seventeen not including the boy that's alive."
"They created and hurt eighteen children just to make Cress sabotage the ship? They're just children."
"The Nakai are gone now, they can't hurt Cress anymore." He told her as he gathered two of the jars in his arms. "We're putting them into one of the storage compartments off from the cargo hold, away from prying eyes and somewhere safe."
Camile nodded in agreement. "I want to help."
She didn't wait for an answer, just gathered up two more of the heavy jars and followed Greer off in the direction Airman Dunning had gone in.
XXXX
Before leaving the ruined Nakai ship, Rush had transferred the data of both Cressida and the boy for TJ to peruse. As far as they could tell the boy had never been programmed with Downfall and he seemed to be just as healthy as when they'd discovered Cressida; yet that did raise the question of why the blue aliens had sent Cressida instead of him. Cress herself had finally been returned to Destiny and now lay in a bed with TJ in the infirmary, the blonde medic had pumped the oxygenated ooze from both children's lungs but neither had woken; Chloe had panicked at first before Tamara reminded her how long it had taken Cress to wake the first time.
It had taken a while but Colonel Young had eventually managed to convince Rush to go help Lisa Park in waking up Eli, they needed their friend back and Rush needed the distraction. Chloe had left of her own accord, TJ assumed it was to finally get some sleep but that wasn't the case.
TJ stood there looking down at the two children laying side by side on the beds, at least this little boy of proximity five years was alive. After all that loss that little boy represented what the crew had nearly run out of; hope.
"Remember to breath TJ." Said Young as he entered the room, slowly he walked to the blonde and snaked his arms around her waist, pulling her back against his chest. "They're going to be alright. You, Rush and Chloe have done everything humanly possible and now look at them, Cressida is alive and healed, the boy has a chance at being a child."
"They didn't deserve any of this, Emmett." She sighed.
"They're on board Destiny now. They're safe."
Nothing was said after that, nothing really needed to be, the two just stood there in a soft quietude watching over the Rush children.
XXXX
Chloe had been sat hunched over Nicholas' pilfered notebook with a pencil in the black storage room where Greer and Airman Dunning had put their other children for the better part of an hour when Rush finally found her. For a moment or two the Chief Scientist just leaned against the door frame watching her scribble something before crossing it all out and starting again. Her tears had finally stopped but it was clear how broken-hearted she was.
"I know you're there, Nicky."
"Nicky? Please tell me that's not going to stick." Chloe didn't answer as he came to sit beside her, legs tucked underneath him with one arm propping him up. "I came to tell you we're ready to wake Eli, once Doctor Park has finished double checking the data of course. What are you doing, Sweetheart?"
Finally Chloe sat up and looked at him - her back thanked her - there were dark circles under her eyes showing just how much sleep she'd missed; Rush had started to worry about that but chose not to say anything. During a long moment of silence Rush pulled Chloe to his chest knowing she needed to be held, her skin was chilled thanks to the cold storage room she'd been sat but her breath was warm against his green t-shirt clad chest.
"Gonna tell me?" He asked after a moment, chin rested on the top of her head.
"... The whole time we were over on that ship we just called them the children or them. They never got to live but they deserve names."
"That's what you're doing, naming them?" He said softly.
Chloe nodded. "Help me? They're yours as well." Her voice was so quiet.
This was what was important enough to take her away from their daughter and son, the blue aliens had taken away so much from their other children and Chloe was determined to give them something, she was right, they deserved names.
"Aye, of course. Whose been named so far?" He asked delicately unsure of the etiquette for the situation; not that Rush had ever really cared much for etiquette.
Chloe swallowed and sat up straight, the ebony haired beauty took a deep breath before pointing at one of the youngest foetuses.
"There are five boys, six girls and six too young to have even developed a gender." Her voice contained so much pain. "It's harder than I thought to name them. Only that one has a name so far."
Nicholas followed her finger to one of the smallest jars, on it was a page from his notebook held there by a square of duct tape.
Sacha Rush
He read in Chloe's neat handwriting, it was no longer the child or any other generic description, this was Sacha. Suddenly Sacha had an identity even if it was a tiny one.
"I tried to think of something for a boy or a girl since... you know."
"Unisex is a good idea, Sweetheart." Nicholas reassured her pressing a kiss to her forehead. "Any other ideas for them?"
There was a long pause as Chloe clung to Rush in thought while forcing back tears, she'd expected to one day sit with the father of her child and debate names but she'd always pictured it sat on a couch with a baby name book open before them, instead she was sat on a cold metal floor trying not to cry, their only option being to label them. Chloe and Rush were their parents and parents named their children, there was no way in hell Chloe would let the Nakai deny them that right as well.
"I always liked Misha." Chloe finally answered. "And Wren, you know, like the bird."
Chloe had never been one for popular names like Sarah or Jack, to be honest she didn't like how commonly used her own name was and that was clearly reflected in the three names she'd already chosen.
Rush nodded and took his notebook from the floor, writing the two names down before grabbing the black duct tape and pining the pages to the next two containers. He hated doing this, writing names and taping them as though they were memos but he understood what it meant to Chloe... and he needed it to be done as well.
"What about Quinn?" The Scotsman asked as he returned to Chloe and sat down. "I knew a Quinn when I was at school back in Glasgow, one of my closest friends, always rasing a wee bit of hell."
That made Chloe smile, he hardly ever talked about his life in Glasgow, she nodded before taking up the notebook and pen. Naming moved slower after that, they didn't want to just pluck a name out of thin air for the sake of providing a moniker. The emotion of what was happening slowly grew easier as time went on though, realising that what Chloe and he were doing was something good.
After two hours or so they'd named all the genderless children; Sacha, Misha, Wren, Quinn, Remy and Shiloh. Rush had also named two girls and a boy, while Chloe had named two other sons; Violet, Freya, Fraser, Aidan and Kade. Some they'd always liked and others came from people they'd cared for and befriended over the years. Over that time there had been long periods of silence followed by sudden bursts of movement. With each name came a new wonder as to who they could have grown up to be, would Aidan have been a scientist like his father and sister? Would Freya have had her mother's imagination and become an author? Maybe Fraser and Violet would have been inseparable, or perhaps Kade would have become a chef and opened his own restaurant with Misha. Each new idea a possibility that never stood a chance. Chloe started to get lost in those thoughts when Rush suddenly spoke.
"Jeremy."
"Hmm?" Chloe's beautiful blue eyes looked up at the man she'd fallen in love with.
"Jeremy." He said again. "It's my middle name, my Mother chose it."
"I like it." Chloe told him softly, a gentle smile on her beautiful face. "Sophia and Jessica are mine."
Rush nodded as he wrote down the new trio of names. "That leaves two more daughters and our son."
Another pause.
"... When I was a little girl I used to play dress up like most girls and I had this book, bright pink and only about four pages, a two-year old could have written it. I loved it though, made my Mom read it just about every night and I was determined to be a Princess just like her – I was five, a Princess was all I wanted to be – that book made me happy. The Princess in it was called Opal."
Rush smiled.
"It's cute, Cress would like it too."
"Is this what you've been doing all this time? Naming them?" Their heads snapped around to see TJ stood in the doorway much like Rush had when he'd first entered. "They deserve names."
Of course they did, no one was going to deny that.
"How are Cress and the boy?" Chloe asked gently, head tilted in curiosity.
"The same, they'll wake up though so don't worry. It took a while for Cress to wake up the first time." Chloe nodded and leaned further into Rush searching for comfort that she quickly found. "I always liked Daryl for a boy, I just like the way it sounds, Daryl. I would have named Carmen that had she been a boy. I like Valentina too, it means strong and it's just so beautiful. The sort of name that just makes you smile." TJ stared off into the other side of the room as memories ran through her mind."Anyway, I'll leave you to it, I just wanted to check you were both okay."
"I think that names our last son and daughter." Rush announced as he got up to add the last names to the remaining chambers.
TJ grinned, she'd not meant to go suggesting names, it had just come out and for a moment she wondered why Rush would accept her suggestions, however, Chloe and the blonde had grown rather close and she valued TJ's opinion. Valentina was indeed a beautiful name and bother had meaning to TJ.
Suddenly Rush's radio crackled to life.
"Doctor Rush, this is Volker. Are you coming back? Lisa has gone over the data twice already. Colonel Young is starting to grow impatient too."
Nicholas sighed, in all honesty he'd forgotten about waking Eli. That poor young man had been in his stasis chamber much too long and they had no right to leave him there any longer. Rush raised the raised the radio.
"We're on our way." He helped Chloe up to her feet. "Let's go get Eli."