First things first, morningsong 101, mercscilla and me tube, thanks very much for the reviews.
metube: I´m not writing one chapter per episode anymore, actually this is going to be the third on Instinct and there´ll be at least one more before I move on to What remains.
morningsong101: Thanks- I´ll be exploring a bit of his dark side from now on and of course there´s the interesting question how much Wash knows about his secrets- tension is still high and yeah, I suppose it summons up their relationship and she excepts it in this version, though that doesn't mean she´s always happy with it ;)
mercscilla: Uhm, ok, now I´m blushing ;) Well, actually when I began writing fan fiction, missing scenes were the most common thing to do, it´s gotten a bit out of style lately but I still love them and for TN they work very well.
It´s my favorite scene so far, too, though I also had to laugh about the while shower incident.
Well, you can hit him if you want, just don´t let Wash see, she might hit you back and really hurt you ;) He actually has a few reasons to act like he does, he´ll explain a little of it in What remains, about his wife and what she thought about his relationship with his second, will make for an interesting topic while Wash and Taylor area lone at command before Reynolds and Maddy burst in.
Oh, yeah, revenge, not revenge so much but she might just go out with Guzman for a few drinks after having gotten back in The Runaway- who knows… ;)
Wash had seriously considered to skip evening patrol but in the end her sense of duty won out over her wounded pride.
The commander was already waiting and she didn´t miss the relieved expression on his face at the sight of her, he obviously had considered that she might not turn up himself.
"Evening, Wash" he greeted her and she forced herself to meet his eyes.
"Evening, Sir- did Malcom find anything?"
"Not yet, he´s still looking but it doesn't look very promising."
They walked in silence for a while, occasionally halting to talk to a civilian or member of their security detail until Taylor stopped in the shadows of a watch tour, half an hour into their patrol.
"We need to talk- again" he told her quietly, glancing up to make sure no one was listening in on their conversation.
"Permission to speak freely, Sir."
"Granted, Lieutenant."
He adapted easily to the professional undertone she had set, looking at her expectantly.
"I don´t think these so called talks of your´s are doing us any good, I can´t do my job when every time I see you I´m half expecting you to wanting to have a personal talk with me."
His hands were buried in the pockets of his leather jacket as he observed her and she knew he was trying to decide whether or not to press the matter, then he nodded slowly.
"I´ll remember that, Lieutenant."
"Thank you, Sir."
They continued walking and finally they reached the gate again, both of them automatically stepping closer, looking out towards the dark jungle.
"Sometimes I still can´t believe this is real" Wash admitted, "it might not be paradise but compared to what we left behind it´s pretty damn close."
"We had some good times back there, too, didn´t we, Wash?"
She looked sideways at him, smiling lightly and nodded.
"Yeah, I suppose so, sometimes in between almost dying and almost watching the other die, we did manage to have some good times."
"You miss it, Wash?"
She shook her head.
"No, not really- there are people I miss, friends, comrades…"
Her voice trailed away, they both knew whom she was thinking about, she had been just as shocked when Lucas had betrayed him, betrayed them.
"It wasn´t your fault" he told her, his voice soft but Alicia shook her head.
"I does´t matter, he´s blaming me for being alive when his mother is dead, he told me once that if I still had enough energy left to survive, I would have had enough energy to keep fighting a little longer as well."
He didn´t say anything for a moment, she had never told him about her last conversation with his son before Lucas had turned on his father and Nathaniel had thrown him out of the colony.
"I´m sorry, Wash, you didn´t deserve him telling you that."
She shrugged.
"It doesn´t matter now, he´s hurting and he is trying to find ways to cope."
They were interrupted by Guzman who was walking towards the gate, followed by several members of his unit.
"Evening, Sir, Lieutenant."
Taylor nodded at the other man and Alicia smiled, glad for a change of topic.
"Hey, Guz, taking over the colony?"
"Only the watchtowers- if you don´t like it, you are welcome to do my shift for me, Wash."
"On second thought I think I´ll pass but thanks for the offer- how is Tasha?"
"Better, I took her home earlier, the cuts have healed, it´ll just take some time for the shock to wear off, I hope she´s learned her lesson and doesn´t do it again."
"I´m sure she won´t, she´s a good kid, Guz."
"Cheers, Wash, your maternal instincts coming out?"
"I don´t have those" Wash protested, her hands on her waist as Guzman started to chuckle.
"Come on, you´d have beautiful kids."
"Guzman, shouldn´t you be up on a watchtower" Taylor asked, a slight edge to his voice and Guzman nodded hastily, smiling apologetically at Alicia.
"On my way, Sir- night, Wash."
He began to clim up to the platform while Wash looked at her CO.
"Thanks for the rescue, why is it that every guy around here can´t figure out when to shut up?"
"Spent time with Shannon today?"
He teased her before glancing at his watch.
"We should turn in, we´re on morning patrol."
They made their way towards the barracks and Taylor bid her goodnight before walking on towards his own house while Wash unlocked her front door, looking forward to a few hours of undisturbed sleep.
Cursing under her breath, Wash hastily threw on her clothes and hurried towards her front door, pulling her wet hair up into her customary ponytail as she went.
She opened the door just as Jim Shannon raised his hand for another knock.
"Stop it, I`m here, what´s up?"
"Josh and I got attacked by some birds last night, I think it´s the same specimen that attacked the soldiers."
"Great, why is it always you who gets into trouble, have you told Taylor yet?"
Shannon looked a little flustered.
"Uhm- no- I figured perhaps you could-"
"He´s not here, if that´s what you think and I´m not in the habit of waking him at the crack of dawn for hot steamy morning sex either, you people have to stop listening to every crap you hear around here."
She took a deep breath before closing her door behind herself and shooing Shannon away from her front porch.
"You go get Malcom, I´ll wake the commander, meet me at command in thirty, I won´t have that much time, there´s the funeral right after morning patrol."
Not looking back to see if he was following her orders, Wash made her way over to Taylor´s front door and entered the security code, letting herself in.
She boiled water and was looking for instant coffee when the bedroom door opened and Taylor stepped outside, still in a shirt and sweat pants, his knife loosely in his hand.
"Morning, Wash, are you cooking me breakfast now?"
"You wouldn´t want that, Sir- Shannon and his son got attacked by something last night, he thinks it might be the same species that killed our men- where´s your damn coffee?"
"Second shelf on the right- did Shannon wake you up?"
"Yeah, for some weird reason he seems to be less afraid of me than of you."
"You´re smaller, it´s a common mistake, he´ll learn his lesson eventually."
"If you say so, Sir."
Wash stirred her coffee, then took a sip, grimacing at the taste.
"Can´t you store something decent to drink around here, that´s disgusting."
"Wakes you up, though- I´ll go take a shower now, might be a good idea for you to go ahead, Shannon could incinerate command by mistake."
Still laughing Wash left the house and stepped back out into the cool morning air, the sun had barely risen and it simply was far too early, even with her morning patrol, that wouldn´t start until 0700.
She found the two men waiting for her at the bottom of the steps and motioned for them to follow her, leading the way up into the office.
"Make it quick, Shannon, I have to be at the gate in time for patrol."
She listened intently to Shannon´s tale, then turned to Malcom who was looking puzzled.
"You have no idea, have you."
"I´m afraid not- I´ll go and check my journals now, perhaps something has slipped my mind but-"
"Great, you do that, Shannon, go home and have breakfast, I´ll go and do patrol now, we all meet back here after the funeral."
"You´ve forgotten to add ´dismissed´ in the end" Shannon muttered, his eyes twinkling but Wash wasn´t in the mood for his silly jokes right now, it wasn´t even light outside and the day ahead of her seemed endless.
Shannon yelped when she shoved her elbow into his ribs on the way out, glaring after her.
"You´re supposed to protect us, not attack us, Wash."
"Your own fault, next time just hold your tongue."
She hurried down the steps and towards Taylor who was waiting for her by the gate, looking far more awake than she felt.
"Never leave me alone with Shannon and Malcom in one room ever again" she told him, falling into step next to him.
Taylor stopped, looking around to make sure no one was near enough to listen to them.
"You know that´s impossible, I need you there when Shannon does his digging around."
"That´s just what I´m worried about, what if he digs too deep, say, underneath a certain tree for example."
Taylor´s face remained expressionless.
"I suppose in that case he might overstep his welcome here, don´t you think, Lieutenant."
She hooked her thumbs into the belt loops on her combat trousers, calmly holding his gaze.
"If you say so, Sir."
"Come on, Wash, lighten up, how should he find out?"
"Actually all he would have to do is make Boylan talk, I don´t like the odds, letting him run around wherever he wants is a risk you shouldn´t take."
"Can´t do much about it right now, he´s useful after all and like you say, Boylan knows and up to know he´s kept his mouth shut."
"Yeah, well, he knows we´d bring him down in a second, one footage of him sneaking outside to meet up with Mira and he´s gone from Terra Nova."
Taylor´s hands clasped around Alicia´s upper arms, holding her steady.
"You´ll have to trust me on that one."
"I do, Sir- I trust you with my life."
"Likewise, Lieutenant- now stop thinking about it, we need to bury our comrades and then figure out what to do about those things attacking us."
Wash followed her commander as he continued walking along the fence, still thinking about Jim Shannon and his knack for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
She wasn´t really worried, if the detective would start digging in the wrong places, she would be there to distract him from his findings, feed him false information if she had to, just like Taylor had instructed her when he had first assigned her to work with Shannon.
There wasn´t much, if anything, Wash wasn´t prepared to do when it came to saving Taylor, might it be his life or his reputation being jeopardized but Shannon had turned out a force to be reckoned with, he had a made friends quickly, he had a family and how could they be sure that the man didn´t share every single detail about his work with his wife.
What Alicia needed was to find something on Shannon that would motivate him to stay loyal to Taylor but up to now there was nothing that might be used against him if needed.
The funeral was a sombre affair and Wash was glad when they finally arrived back the the command center where Shannon and Malcom were already waiting for them.
Hovering by the door, Alicia kept glancing sideways at her CO who was standing by the window, looking tense while the two other men kept bickering.
Finally Taylor lost his patience and told Malcom to stop theorizing about interaction protocols and tell him how to handle the reptiles who were threatening them before sending Wash out to take precautions and she could hear Malcom beginning to argue as she hurried down the steps.
Hopefully the man would shut up quickly, Taylor wasn´t exactly in the mood to humor the scientist today.
Wash told Reynolds and Guzman to take a rover each and get everyone inside the colony´s gates before reporting back to Taylor.
"Everybody should be inside the gates within an hour, Sir."
"Good- Shannon just found out about Malcom recruiting his wife, keep an eye on them, I don´t want them fighting, we might need them both before the day is over."
Wash bit her lip, Malcom´s idiocy amused her to no end, the man kept his own personal record when it came to getting into tight spots though Shannon was probably up to give him a run for his money.
"We need to send another convoy out to Outpost 3, Sir, they are still waiting for supplies."
Taylor leaned back in his chair, arms crossed.
"I know, question is how are we going to do it without knowing what we´re up against."
"I´m sure with the proper equipment we would be able to-"
"Forget it, Wash" Taylor interrupted her, "you´re not going out there, no way."
Wash tried to keep her frustration under control, he usually was a sensible man and there had to be a way to get through to him.
"Sir, I´m by far the most qualified person for the job, especially if we actually were to come under attack, you can´t keep sending people out there who-"
"Stop it right there, Lieutenant, you don´t get to tell me what I can or can´t do, that´s for me to decide and for you to carry out."
Alicia stood up straighter, unwilling to let her irritation show.
"Yes, Sir."
They were interrupted by the sound of rushing wings and animals screeching, people started to scream and both of them ran down the steps and towards the market where chaos was reigning.
After the birdlike creatures had disappeared again, Taylor sent Wash to the infirmary where she waited for Elizabeth Shannon who informed her that thirty six people were wounded but would all make a full recovery.
Satisfied that for now nothing worse had happened, she made her way back over to the market place where Taylor was talking to Skye and Josh Shannon, Jim Shannon close by, looking worried.
Taylor asked her to update the watchtowers and Alicia went over to the gates where she found Mark Reynolds on duty, she briefed him quickly, then headed back to help with the wounded.
"Hey, Wash" the commander beckoned her over, "Malcom thinks that things are about to get rough, let´s go up to command, see if we can find anything."
Shannon followed them back up towards the office in silence, for once not trying to lighten the atmosphere with his usual silly jokes.
Malcom met them at the bottom of the steps, looking worried and after they had seen the mass of birdlike creatures flying out of their hiding places underneath the canopy, Alicia felt rather worried herself.
After they had established the fact that they had to expect a massive invasion of hostile and aggressive reptiles, Taylor put Wash in charge of clearing the market place and instructing people to stay inside their houses, the last point on her list being Boylan´s bar.
"Lieutenant, what a nice surprise, missing me?"
"Stop talking, Boylan, I don't want to hurt you- well, maybe I do but right now I´m busy."
The barkeeper approached her slowly, letting his eyes roam over her body, a sleazy smile on his face.
"Aw, one of these days you´ll admit that you dream of me at night, Lieutenant, now what can I do for you?"
Fighting the urge to slap him, Wash concentrated on the task at hand.
"I want everybody out of this bar in ten minutes, Boylan, send them home, tell them there´s an emergency evacuation of all public places."
"You´re closing me down for the day?"
"For the day, for tomorrow, probably longer, how ever long it takes."
"I hope I´ll be compensated for this- we could talk about that later, at my place."
Wash ignored him and turned around, motioning for one of her soldiers to stay and for the other´s to follow her.
Finally she was satisfied that everyone was inside their homes or another secure building and went back to the command center where she found the commander standing on the balcony, looking out towards the woods.
"Everyone is inside, Sir."
"Thank you, Lieutenant- Malcom and Doc Shannon think they can find a way to stop these things, if we can provide them with a few living specimens."
"Shouldn´t be too hard, Sir."
"No, Shannon will go hunting tonight, Guzman will stay at the gate as backup if something goes wrong and you make sure to make things as hard as possible for these things, pull every trick you know, Wash, netting, sonics, lights, whatever you can come up with."
"Will do, Sir- Shannon will only have to go to the tree line, they´re likely to attack him as soon as you approach, anyway."
"Suppose so- I don´t like this, sometimes it seems we weren´t prepared for anything when we got here, makes you feel a bit out of control, doesn´t it."
Wash smiled, putting a hand on his upper arm.
"Might be a nice challenge for you, Sir, being out of control."
Taylor turned towards her, his eyes dancing with amusement.
"It´s not that rare, Wash, there are certain people who can make me loose it rather quickly."
"Anyone in particular, Sir?"
She asked innocently, then drew in a sharp breath when Taylor took a step towards her, coming to stand so close their bodies were almost touching.
"You one of them, Lieutenant- now go and get dressed up for battle, we´ll start preparing as soon as the sun is down."
He turned away and she just stood there for a moment, nerves tingling and blood pumping through her veins, she shouldn´t let him affect her in this way, it was madness but she couldn´t help herself, when it came to Nathaniel Taylor, Alicia Washington was hopelessly lost.
Not listening to Malcom´s instructions, the commander beckoned Wash to follow him down to the rover.
"Shannon will go out now- he´ll be back inside as soon as possible, I´ll keep you updated via radio and Guz will be close to the gate if anything goes wrong. I´ll be monitoring everything from the office and come up with a strategy for evacuating Terra Nova if things don´t go as planned."
She nodded while running her hands over his body armor, like usual making sure everything was securely fastened.
"You know, I used to get dressed by myself for a few years before you were old enough to join the army" he joked, shaking his head in amusement when she pouted.
"I´m horrified to think how that might have looked, Sir."
Taylor reached for her ponytail and wrapped it around his hand, tugging lightly before running his fingers through the dark strands.
"Promise me something" he was sounding serious now, "if these things attack before you´ve finished securing the colony, you´ll get back to command as quickly as possible, I don´t want you in the thick of things, getting hurt."
She closed her eyes for a moment, enjoying the feeling of his fingers playing with her hair, then she looked back up at him, defiantly.
"With all due respect, Sir, I can´t just hide somewhere if things don´t go as planned, I´m a soldier and I have the duty to protect-"
"You have the duty to keep alive and well because I can´t run the colony without you, so try and be reasonable, Wash."
He let go of her hair and clapped her shoulder in a reassuring way, then walked over to Guzman, just as Shannon and Malcom began descending the steps and Wash marched over to the empty market place where her own unit was waiting for her.
"All right, guys, I want every civilian domicile secured, windows and doors shut, one armed man standing guard outside or being inside if the inhabitants ask you to, nobody is to go outside without being told otherwise, the water systems and the energy grids need sealing and netting, I want you all to be polite but firm when interacting with civilians, people don´t tend to function well in a crises- dismissed."
The soldiers went off to carry out her orders and Alicia stopped Mark Reynolds, beckoning him over to her, out of earshot.
"Jenkins is standing guard outside Jim Shannon´s house, go relieve him in the morning, you might want to tell anyone who might listen that there was a mix up with the duty roster."
Mark smiled gratefully at her.
"Thank´s, Ma´am."
"That´s all right- stay save, Soldier."
"Yes, Ma´am- you, too."
They smiled at each other, then Mark hurried off to help with sealing off the water system while Wash made her way along the fence, instructing the guards on watchtower duty, she spend the next few hours overseeing the preparations and when dawn came she was satisfied with the results, they might actually manage to last for a while now.
Shannon arrived just as she was on her way to report back to Taylor and she accompanied him to the lab where Malcom was waiting with Elizabeth Shannon, both of them looking determined to find something that would help them fight the reptiles.
When she asked the commander how long he thought they could last, he seemed even more optimistic that Wash, telling her that if they got lucky they might actually make it until the next morning.
Dr. Shannon and Malcom came up with a plan to hopefully lure the animals away from the colony and Taylor approved, telling Shannon to get a transport ready and sending Wash out to once again make sure that Terra Nova was completely shut down.
She arrived back at command an hour later to inform her CO that everything was in order and all they could do now was hoping that their scientists would hurry up with mixing their pheromone cocktail.
"I take it you´re going yourself, Sir?"
She asked, trying to keep her tone as neutral as possible but Taylor wasn´t fooled.
"Indeed I am, Wash and before you get any ideas, Shannon will come with me and you will act as commander in my absence."
There was silence for a moment, then Wash turned away from him, looking out of the window.
"It hurts to be replaced, you know" she said, sighing softly when he stepped up behind her, his hands finding her upper arms as she leaned back against his chest.
"No one could ever replace you" he told her sincerely, then added "besides Shannon isn´t half as easy on the eyes as you are."
She laughed softly, turning her head to briefly touch her lips to his cheek, then brushed past him and slipped out of the office.
The reptiles started their attack shortly afterwards and Wash was glad for her body armor and sonic gun as she hastened from house to house, making sure doors and windows were closed.
She met Taylor again outside the infirmary where he was wrestling a large ton that previously had held fertilizer, already clad in full body armor himself.
"Hey, Wash- how is everyone holding up?"
"Fine, Sir, up to now the seals are holding."
"Good- I´ll try and put a little fear in Malcom now, make him hurry up" he winked at her, causing her to shake her head in exasperation.
"You´re impossible, Taylor, can´t you be serious for just one minute in the middle of a full blown crises?"
"Not when you have that look on your face, Wash."
"What look?"
"That look that tells me you´re going to rearrange my armor and fuss over me dying somewhere" he told her, straightening up and extending his hand to her.
When she took it he pulled her to him, holding her tightly against his chest for a moment before dipping a kiss to her forehead, letting his lips linger before releasing her.
"Now go, woman, I don´t have time for you to get all teary eyed on me."
"I never get teary eyed, Sir."
"Could have fooled me there for a moment, Wash- stay safe."
"You, too, Sir."
He picked up the ton and Wash made sure none of the reptiles could follow him inside before closing the door behind him.