So here´s the next part, spoilers for Instinct and What remains.
I don´t own anything, nor do I want to offend anyone who does.
MissCallaLilly, morningsong101, metube, proud to be imperfect, thanks very much for the reviews :)
MissCallaLily: Yeah, well, there´ll be some more digging of course and don´t worry, I´ll make Guzman hit on her in the near future ;)
morningsong101: Yeah, well, I wasn´t that happy with the first chapters, was all a little too superficial which made me decide to go more into the dark side of the characters, there´s a lot of potential for it in the series itself, Taylor´s secrets of course, him lying to Shannon in the beginning, withholding information, having the deal with Boylan etc.
Well, there´s no big mystery in here about the Boylan/Mira thing, it´s just that Taylor and Wash are trying to make sure he won't talk and up to now there´s no real harm in him communicating with the Sixers, so I´m assuming in here that they know and that he knows they know.
It´s their scheme to keep a record of things that can be used against influential people if the need should arise, for example in this storyline Wash will know about Josh Shannon stealing from the infirmary and she´ll let Jim know that she´s aware of him covering for his son so Jim covering for Taylor won´t be so much of a surprise.
me tube: Lol, thanks, I thought it was time for a little cuteness, they are still human after all and somewhere hidden deep inside they have soft sides- I think- naw, they do… Yeah, well, Taylor´s concept of talking is a bit lacking, if you ask me- or Wash…
proud to be imperfect: Sorry about that, the next one will be longer- still have a cliffhanger though, but since we all know how What remains ends, it´s not so bad… I think I´m understanding them better by now, I have this writing style where I just type as fast as I can without thinking, so usually when I read it through afterwards, things come as a surprise, so sometimes it works better than at other times and I sort of need to develop the characters as I go forward- ok, that´s confusing- anyway, here´s the next part.
Enjoy, everyone. 3
Taylor sent his lieutenant back up to command as he and Shannon prepared for their departure, making it an order when she hesitated to go.
She watched as the rover drove off, followed by the screeching reptiles, trying to keep herself from panicking, she had to stay calm and collected, as long as she was in command she didn´t have time for wayward emotions.
The night was spend checking up on the members of their unit, listening to their reports and making sure no one strayed outside, they couldn´t be sure that the attacks were really over, not until Taylor and Shannon would be back from their mission.
She had just talked to Mark Reynolds outside the Shannon´s house and send him off to bed when she was informed via radio that the rover was on it´s way in.
Elizabeth Shannon was pacing in front of the gate, the two women exchanged a glance and Alicia saw the sympathy in the other woman´s eyes but tried not to think about it too closely.
The rover was making it´s way towards the colony, Guzman yelling for the gate to be raised and when the doors opened, Wash hurried around to the commander´s side.
She couldn´t believe him when he brushed her off, his face was dotted with blood and all Wash wanted was to check on each of the tiny cuts and make sure he would be all right but of course he wasn´t having any of it.
The Shannon´s greeted each other, then there was an awkward moment after Malcolm´s comment about Malcolmus pterosauria, the silence broken by the commander announcing that he would go and catch up on some sleep.
He clapped Wash on the shoulder, smiling reassuringly at her and she waited until Malcolm had left and the Shannon´s were occupied with themselves again before hastening after her CO.
"Wash, I was actually on my way to bed- alone" he added, winking at her and she rolled her eyes.
"Not so fast, Sir, you can sleep after I´ve patched you up."
"Should have known that you wouldn´t let me off that easily, right, Wash?"
"I´d say so, Sir."
She followed him over to the barracks and into his home, closing the door behind herself before getting rid of her body armor and weapons and waited until the commander had done the same.
"I´ll go take a shower, you pour the drinks."
He made his way towards the bathroom while Wash collected a bottle of bourbon and two glasses from the kitchen area and settled herself onto the sofa and when he came back into the living room, she had poured their drinks and was flicking through some files on her data pad.
"Feeling better?"
She asked, looking up and almost dropping the glass when she came face to face with her CO wearing a pair of black sweatpants and no shirt, droplets of water glistening on his bare chest, chest muscles rippling as he toweled his hair.
"Yeah, I do- there´s a cut on my neck that needs stitching, the rest should be fine. You´re all right, Wash, you look flushed."
He looked her upside down and she quickly avoided her eyes and concentrated on closing the files down before reaching for the medic kit on the table.
"I´m good, let´s stitch you up."
He sat down next to you, dropping the towel carelessly to the floor before relaxing back against the sofa.
"Ready to go, Lieutenant."
Wash carefully cleaned the wound on his neck before stitching it up, Taylor telling her about his mission while she worked, wincing occasionally when the disinfectant liquid burned on the raw skin.
"All done" Wash announced finally, satisfied that most of of his injuries had indeed proven to be superficial.
"Good job, Wash, glad I´ve decided to keep you around."
He teased, catching her hand in his when she punched his arm.
"No hitting an injured man, especially not your CO, woman."
"Easily avoided by keeping your mouth shut, Sir."
She shot back, pulling her hand out of his and making a mental note to avoid further body contact with him, in his current state of dress or rather lack thereof, touching him was even more distracting than usual.
Wash got up from the sofa, straightening her clothes and trying not to stare too obviously at the commander´s bare chest.
"I´ll go and wake unit three now, Sir, I send them off to bed after midnight so they would be ready to clean up in the morning."
"Good thinking, Lieutenant, we´d better get everything back to normal as quickly as possible."
"Yes, Sir."
"Tell Guzman to take a few men and get the supplies out to Outpost three, with Malcolmus pterosauria gone, they shouldn´t encounter any problems."
Wash bit her lip, shaking with silent laughter and the commander looked just as amused as she was.
"All right, Sir, I´ll see to that."
It had taken almost two weeks to get the colony back to it´s original state and by then another problem had occurred: After Guzman had delivered the necessary supplies to outpost 3 and gotten back to the colony without further complications, they had lost contact to the outpost, apparently their communication devices in the area had shut down.
Wash had been working all night in the command center, trying to find a way to contact the science team on work there while the commander had taken the night off, preparing to go out to the outpost with Elisabeth Shannon and a couple of soldiers for backup in the morning.
The sun had barely risen when Taylor entered the office, carrying two mugs of coffee and already wearing his shoulder holster.
"Morning, Wash- been up all night?"
"Yes, Sir-" she took the coffee and drank half of it before putting the mug down onto the desk.
"There´s nothing we can do, though, I can´t find any way to communicate, I´d guess the cables are broken somehow, probably the local wildlife, we´ve had that problem before."
"Well, if you can´t do anything about it, we´ll just have to go out and see if we can repair it- try and keep Shannon under control, he´s not pleased I´m taking his wife with me but I might need the Doc."
"You could just take a medic instead" Wash replied, shutting down her flex pad.
"Nice try but I need you here, we don´t know what we´ll encounter there so chance is I might not be coming back anytime soon."
She frowned, glaring at him.
"Don´t talk that way, I hate it when you do that, just try and keep out of trouble, I need you back here tonight, the Doc, too, Reynolds is having dinner at the Shannon´s tonight and the poor boy will die if he´s all alone there with Shannon glaring at him."
"I take it that Miss Shannon will be present, also" the commander winked at her and Wash rolled her eyes.
"All right, Sir, I´ll stop worrying and concentrate of keeping the colony running- now get out of here, it´s almost light outside."
She got up and accompanied him outside on the balcony where he briefly touched her arm in a reassuring way before making his way down the steps and towards the waiting rover, leavening Alicia to look after him, not feeling reassured at all.
"Taylor to Washington."
"Copying, Sir."
"We have a problem here, Lieutenant, the research team has encountered some sort of pathogen, they´ve all been infected, it causes memory loss, sets you back in time, makes you think you´re somewhere in the past- unless we know more, Outpost three is under general quarantine."
Wash closed her eyes, trying to suppress the upcoming feeling of panic.
"Are you all right, Sir?"
"Up to now we all feel fine, we´ve likely been exposed, though, Dr. Guagenti left a video message and some notes, he tried to come up with a diagnose, didn´t get far, the Doc is giving it a shot now."
Alicia sank back into the desk chair, trying to keep her voice from breaking.
"Any specific orders, Sir?"
"Try to keep it under wrap, at least until tomorrow, I´ll check in again as soon as there´s new information, don´t consider sending out a team before nightfall tomorrow, I don´t want to risk more people."
"Will do, Sir- Nathaniel?"
Her voice sounded far too soft for her liking but right now there wasn´t much she could do about it, he was in danger and she wasn´t with him, once again forced to sit idly and wait it out.
"What is it, Alicia?"
He was speaking quiet now, apparently now wanting to be overheard.
"Please, I need you to come home."
Later, once she would have time to reign her emotions in again, she would probably feel embarrassed by her outburst but right now she needed to tell him how she felt.
"I´ll do my best, now pull yourself together, Lieutenant, I need you to hold down the fort."
She chuckled darkly, his ability to make silly jokes no matter how serious a situation was never ceased to surprise her.
"I´ll do you proud, Sir."
She could hear the smile in his voice as he answered her.
"You always do, Lieutenant- see you when I get back, Taylor out."
He hadn´t checked in again and finally Wash had called it a night and made her way over to her home, stopping briefly at Guzman´s house to tell him he was in commander while she tried to get some rest.
After a few hours of drifting in and out of a fitful sleep she couldn´t take it anymore and got up, getting dressed quickly and made it to the gate in time for morning patrol where she met Guzman.
"Morning, Wash, what are you doing up already?"
"Can´t sleep- any news?"
"None, I´m sorry."
"Not your fault- go get some sleep, I´ll do patrol."
"You sure?"
"Yeah, I need to do something, you know how I get."
He smiled, nodding before putting his hand on her shoulder.
"Don´t take it too hard, he´s tough, he´ll be ok."
She smiled gratefully at her comrade who squeezed her shoulder before walking away from her in the direction of the barracks.
Wash activated her radio set, starting to walk along the fence.
"Washington to Taylor, are you copying?"
There was no answer and she sighed, it could only mean that her CO already didn't remember his own radio anymore, hopefully it was only that and nothing worse.
"Washington to Reynolds."
"Copying, Ma´am, what do you need?"
"Are you up yet?"
"Having breakfast."
"I need someone to talk, any objection to doing morning patrol with me, soldier?"
"No, Ma´am, I´ll be there in five."
She waited, leaning against the fence and five minutes later she saw Mark hurrying towards her, pulling his jacket on as he went.
"Morning, Ma´am."
He saluted and she smiled, shaking her head.
"At ease- have you brought anything to eat?"
"Sure did."
He handed her two energy bars, then fell into step next to her as Wash unwrapped one of the bars and bit into it.
"So how was your date?"
She asked, smirking when the young man blushed.
"Uh- it was fine, I think- she´s wonderful, her father´s scary though."
"That´s his job, don´t take it personal."
"I´ll try- so what´s going on, you sounded worried- is the commander back yet?"
She shook her head.
"They are still out- it doesn't look as though they´d be back anytime soon."
"Is anything wrong?"
Wash bit her lip.
"I´m not supposed to tell you, so don´t tell anyone, ok?"
"Wouldn´t dream of it."
"I know, it´s just a habit to tell you- there seems to be some sort of pathogen affecting the memory of the scientists at Outpost three, the commander checked in with me after they had found out and told me, I haven´t head from him since."
"You think they are affected as well?"
"Most likely, yes- if they don´t check in I´ll send another team out tonight."
Mark put his hand on her arm, stopping her.
"I`m sorry, I know you´re worried."
"I´m fine, I just hate to sit around and wait, it´s not for me."
They walked on in silence, both lost in thoughts until they parted in front of the command center, Mark leaving for watchtower duty while Alicia climbed up the steps to the command center.
She had only just activated her desktop when Jim Shannon entered, asking for word from Outpost three.
Wash tried to make light of the situation but of course the man wasn´t fooled and when he stormed out again, she wasn´t at all sure if ordering him to stay put would have any effort but she couldn´t dwell on that right now, she had to inform the security detail of the crises and come up with a plan of action.
She tried to check in with Outpost three several times, finally loosing patience and deciding to try as long as it would take to contact anyone, only to come face to face with Jim Shannon, wearing a bio suit and looking awfully pleased with himself.
She slammed her hand on the table in rage when he simply put her offline, she would tell him exactly what she thought of him and his little stunts when he got back, right now she actually had to put faith in him and wait until he contacted her once more.
Wash got up and started pacing, feeling more and more frustrated by the minute.
The lieutenant spun around at the sound of the door opening, her breath caught in her throat at the sight of Taylor closing it behind him, his knife in hand.
"He was right, then" the commander hissed as she stood motionless, "you are in on this, it was all a trick, how could you, Wash?"
Trying to comprehend what he was talking about she slowly moved backwards, away from him, wondering if she might have a chance to knock him out with her sonic gun before he gutted her with the knife.
"Sir, it´s now what you think-"
"How did you do it, I saw you bleeding out, how could you fake that?"
Fighting the onslaught of memories at him mentioning the most severe injury of her career, she realized that he was thinking he was back at Somalia, more precisely back to the blackest time of his life.
Steeling herself for what was undoubtedly to come next, she tried to get through to him.
"You have been infected with something, Sir, your memory is failing you."
"My memory is fine, you are the one who´s failing me, I lost precious time staying there with you, couldn´t leave you when you were dying."
"Sir-"
"Shut up- you know what was the last thing I said to my wife? I told her I was in love with you, she asked me, said she´d seen the way I was looking at you, wanted to know if I was sleeping with you or if it was worse."
Wash watched him in horror as he tightened the grip around his knife, apparently trying to get back in control of his emotions, the situation was getting more dangerous by the moment, there was no way she could alert anyone, she had to convince him all by herself.
"This isn´t true, you loved her, Ayani, not me, this is in your head."
"I told her I loved her but I loved you, too, I thought I knew you, I thought you were my soulmate, Wash- how can it all be a lie, how long have you been working for them?"
"Sir, I-"
The sound of voices outside caused Taylor to shrink back into the shadows next to the door and then then door opened and Maddy Shannon entered the office, followed by Mark Reynolds and before Alicia could get the seriousness of the situation through to the young man, Taylor had his knife at Mark´s throat.
She could tell that Taylor´s comment about not being good at following orders was directed at her by the look he gave her as he pressed the blade into Reynolds´ skin.
Desperate Wash began to trigger Taylor´s emotions, using his believes, his morals to convince him to believe her, keeping Maddy behind herself and feeling relieved for a brief moment when Taylor let go of Mark.
He accused her of lying again and she played her last card, telling him that he knew she would never lie to him and finally he seemed to believe her, pushing Mark away but keeping his knife trained at her throat.
Trying hard to hold back the tears threatening to spill over at any moment, Wash told him that he was home, her hand hovering over her sonic gun when she had to tell him that his wife was gone, dead and when he lifted his knife to his throat, too emotionally exhausted and confused to be able to comprehend what was happening to him, she was ready and her shot made him fly several feet across the room.
She kneeled down next to him, frantically checking for a pulse, yelling at Maddy to get help.
The girl ran out of the room as Mark crouched down next to her, putting a comforting hand on her shoulder.
"Quiet a shot, Ma´am" he told her, sounding shocked and she looked up, tears now running freely down her face.
"It´s what got me into his unit, being the quicker shot" she sobbed, her fingers trailing down Taylor´s cheek, she needed to touch him, make sure he was still alive.
Mark wrapped her arms around her shoulders and pulled her against his chest and she allowed herself to relax for a moment, grateful for his warm, nonjudgemental presence, he had just gone through hell himself and yet he was comforting her, she had never made a better decision than claiming Mark Reynolds for her own unit.
"Thanks" she whispered, straightening up again and he nodded, handing her back the sonic gun she had put onto the floor to check on Taylor.
"Don´t mention it."
The door flew open again and the medic team crowded in, sedating Taylor and putting him onto a stretcher to transport him to the infirmary.
Wash got up and followed them outside, activating her radio on the way.
"Washington to Guzman."
"Guzman copying."
"Could you come up to command, I need you to stay there, the commander is in the infirmary."
"On my way, Wash, keep me posted."
Taylor was put down on one of the beds and Wash turned to Maddy and Mark.
"I´m afraid you guys will have to stay here, we need to put the infirmary under quarantine as well."
Mark led Maddy away to a quiet corner, the girl looked thoroughly shaken and Wash felt sorry for her but just then one of the guards was carried in and she instantly realized that it had been Taylor who had knocked the man out.
"Everyone inside here is under quarantine" she ordered, "close the doors, try and stay calm, we have to wait for help."
She personally restrained Taylor´s wrists, gently caressing his arm before asking a nurse to clean the earth stains off his face, then she made her way over to the bed where Mark was sitting with Maddy.
"I´m sorry you got in between" she began, giving the girl a rare smile.
"It´s ok" Maddy was still sounding agitated, "next time you tell me to get, I´ll just get out, I didn´t know your life was quite so exciting."
"It usually isn´t, most of the time it´s paperwork" Wash joked, then turned to Mark.
"Are you hurt?"
"No, Ma´am, just a bit shaken."
"That´s to be expected, having a knife to your throat isn´t a pleasant experience."
"Has it happened to you, too?"
Maddy asked and Alicia couldn´t help but hope that the girl´s innocence wouldn´t corrupted too soon, this was exactly what Terra Nova was supposed to be about, young people able to believe in peace, love and trust, who couldn't even imagine what horrors human kind was capable of, Maddy Shannon had no idea that at her age Alicia had already been at war, fighting for her life, being wounded, watching her comrades die.
"Yes, Ms. Shannon, I´m afraid it has- now try and relax, we have to wait for your mother to get back here."