Meanwhile in Boylan's bar,

"I am all for capital punishment. We can't throw him back out into the jungle but he's a drain on resources" Carter said before he and Kate threw back their shots. Kate had said one drink and one shot but somehow had been convinced into one drink and now two shots. With Boylan with a bottle she was pretty sure Malcolm was going to have to carry her home.

"Oh and you're going to become the Colony's executioner?" Kate asked sarcastically looking at Carter. She was glad Malcolm wasn't here. He would be displeased with the conversation topic.

"Kate you're not for Capital Punishment?" Boylan asked Kate diplomatically as he refilled their shot glasses and a third for himself. It was fairly quiet for the afternoon in Boylan's which was probably why the Australian was indulging in a couple of shots with Kate and Carter while Josh and a waitress tended to the other customers.

"I officially have no positive or negative opinions on the subject" Kate told him. They had been discussing the town meeting and drinking. Luckily the alcohol made the discussion bearable as Kate despised politics and discussions involving Lucas.

"Copout" Carter said as they are clinked their shot glasses and drank.

"That's right, I'm a dirty fence sitter. Deal with it" Kate told him as she placed her empty shot glass on the table. She personally would prefer to talk about the mating rituals of Carnos than talk about Lucas and the town meeting. She hated how she had been put on the spot.

Why was it that most of the time the colonist want her out of the colony and suddenly turn to her to say 'off with his head' when it came to Lucas. She wasn't a victim of his. She hated that terminology 'victim' like he had actually tainted her in some manner and meant she deserved pity. She hated pity. She preferred 'survivor' if she had to be labelled. Survivor meant you were strong, you lived and moved on.

"You're only on the fence because of Dr Wallace. You always compromise who you are for him. Hide parts of who you are" Carter told her. Boylan sat with avid interest watching the two as he continued pouring the shots and Carter and Kate drank.

"I'm allowed to keep my own secrets as he is." Kate said, she couldn't flatly deny the accusation as she did hold things back from Malcolm or compromised herself to be with him but that was between her and Malcolm not Carter who continued on his little tirade ignoring her comment.

"Your views and values are different to his, hell they are better. Yet you change to suit him. It's insane. Seriously the guy is a pacifist; why are you with him?" Carter asked her.

"You have no right to walk into my life and judge me or whom I choose to be with and deem them unsuitable just because they have different views on life to me. You have no idea what Malcolm and I have and frankly you've only known me for a couple of weeks." Kate told him. She took a long pull of her cider before she continued. "But since you believe you're the authority on me then tell me who the right guy for me is?" Kate asked Carter, he opened his mouth to answer but Boylan cut in before him.

"I would have thought it obvious Love" Boylan said with a mockingly serious tone ad expression as he leaned onto the bar and placed his hand over Kate's. She bit her lip trying not to laugh so she did the next best thing and went with it. She took his hand in hers and smiled at Boylan. "I told you from the first time we met that we were meant to repopulate the world with lots of little ankle biters of our superior Australian genes" he added.

"Of course I was so blinded by Malcolm and his pommy charms. Who knew a bloke like you was waiting for me all this time. Please tell me you forgive me and that there is still time" Kate told him, she laced her fingers with his and gave her best soap opera expression of 'I'm in love'.

"I know and it is ok. I forgive you. You're young, it's understandable you'd want to have a dalliance or two before we became serious. As for time? Well I got another good 20-30 years in me… plenty of time for us to start that cricket team of kids we dreamed about" Boylan told her as he placed a kiss on the back of Kate's hand who pretended to be coy. His eyes never left hers in their little rendition of 'Bold and Beautiful'.

"I think I gonna be sick" Carter said in a disgusted tone. Kate and Boylan looked at him before looking at one another and with a shrug the charade was over.

"Well no one asked you to watch Mate but thanks for spoiling a lovely moment" Boylan said as he released Kate's hand and they both returned to their previous positions and expressions. Kate smiling before she took a long pull of her cider.

"You Aussies are a weird bunch" Carter said before he took a long pull of his own cider.

"It's unfair to judge a whole culture on two people from completely separate time periods" Kate told Carter.

"Too right" Boylan said in agreement. "Now I'm going to go check to see where your lunch is at. Try not to have too much fun without me" he told the two. Kate picked up her cider and looked at Carter as she took a long pull.

"I'm not going to apologise for having an opinion" Carter told her.

"I didn't ask for an apology" Kate said.

"Then why are you looking at me like you want to kick my ass?" Carter asked.

"Old habits" Kate stated with a wry smile.

A few days later the dust settled on the disaster of the town meeting. An unsettling calm fell over the colony as several OTG parties left the Colony for supplies and scientific ventures left. It was so quiet that Taylor and Alicia found the time and the infirmary empty for a proper baby check up.

Proper being the appropriate word as Alicia got to see a holographic projection of the twins displayed above her with sounds of the heartbeats and Taylor sitting beside the bed watching his face as he smiled at hearing the heartbeats. The ultrasound was still not much to look at but still Alicia enjoyed the full experience where she didn't have to hide her joy or worry about Lucas over hearing. She even had a small bump but she looked more like she ate too much food instead of it being a pregnant bump. Luckily her pants still fit but in the next few weeks they'd have to tell people as she was going to start showing in a big way.

"7 weeks and everything sounds and looks to be in perfect health" Elisabeth said as she made a copy of the results and filed them away. "I'll give you two a moment" Elisabeth added before she left them alone.

"Amazing isn't it?" Alicia asked him as he helped her off the bed and into his arms. She couldn't help the overflow of emotions in her as her eyes filled with tears. She was happy, it was like all the pieces were just falling into place.

"You're crying" Taylor said as helped her off the bed and into his arms.

"I know I hope it's not going to become a habit. Are you happy?" Alicia asked him as she wiped her eyes. She hated to ask but a small part of her needed him to keep reiterating this was a good thing to him and he was indeed happy.

"Of course I am" he told her in a husky tone as he tightened his arms around her. He leaned in about to kiss her when they heard the sounds of Kate cursing loudly and something breaking. He kissed her quickly as he heard Dr Haynes's voice both immediately knowing the two women were not a good mix.

"Who drinks their coffee at the temperature of the sun?" Alicia heard Kate say in a dark tone. Taylor stepped out of curtained off bed area first and Alicia waited a few moments preparing herself for what was going to be an amusing and aggravating 15 minutes of her day. She couldn't wait for when Jim finally took over his duties next week. Dr Haynes would be his problem.

"It was an accident. Don't be so dramatic" Haynes said dismissively.

"Dramatic!" Kate scoffed.

"Commander Taylor, what a surprise! Is everything alright with you? Did you hurt yourself?" Haynes asked Alicia rolled her eyes at the woman's obvious interest with her cooing voice.

"Hello!? I'm the one with 2nd degree burns!" Kate said. Alicia slipped out from the side of the curtained bed and pretended to walk into the infirmary. Alicia winced as Kate's shirt was completely saturated with coffee. The redhead held the shirt away from her body but was easy to see she was in pain and angry.

"Please it's just a little coffee spill it's nothing" Haynes said dismissively. Kate looked at Haynes incredulusly and opened her mouth to disagree only for Taylor to cut in first.

"Dr Haynes I assume the remains of the coffee have been cleaned up. I'd hate for someone else to have an accident" Taylor said as it was clear the woman was uninjured from the encountered.

"I can't go Miss Renshaw has my research specimen firmly attached to her. I need to make sure it is properly removed, decontaminated and put into an isolation chamber immediately for observation" Haynes stated adamantly.

"What specimen?" Taylor asked Haynes as Alicia moved to Kate's side and opened her shirt a couple of buttons with Elisabeth carefully. They both saw the little primate with his claws sunk completely into the skin on the left side of her décolletage drawing blood. The primate was currently trembling something fierce and from what Alicia could see he had some minor burns as did Kate whose chest and stomach were nasty shade of red and blistering.

"The monkey" Alicia answered.

"My monkey" Kate stated.

"It's a primate" Haynes corrected.

"Oh fu-" Kate's words were cut off when Elisabeth tried to look closer at the primate only for the little creature tighten his hold on Kate in fear. Kate hissed in pain and pressed her lips into a thin line as she paled from the pain.

"Sorry, he's got quite the grip" Elisabeth said to Kate.

"There is a reason why live specimens are kept in cages and not carried on our person. They are wild animals not pets" Haynes said as if chastising Kate like she was an errant child. Kate's eyes went wide and she pursed her lips looking to Alicia with a look of 'if you don't make her leave now I'm going to kill her'.

"Why don't we save the lectures until all parties have been tended to, Dr Haynes I assure the monkey will be looked after with utmost care so please be kind enough to relieve us of your presence" Elisabeth said tersely.

"Of course" Dr Haynes said taking the dismissal in her stride. "I'll make sure my section of the lab is ready and the isolation chamber prepped" she added before she left the room.

"Geez she's acting like the monkey will turn into a gremlin and breed an army or something" Kate said after Haynes left. Elisabeth and Alicia helped her lie back on the bed.

"So what did happen?" Alicia asked for curiosity sake.

"I went in to see if Malcolm wanted to have lunch today and I had barely cleared the door when she jumped in surprise spilling her coffee on me. Just an accident" Kate said casually as she could. Her head was swimming and her chest was still burning from the coffee not to mention the pain of four sets of claws in her chest. Kate wished she had taken two pain killers that morning instead of one as right now she was feeling the pain. She wasn't in agony but she was distinctly uncomfortable and it burned.

"Ok, let's get this shirt off" Elisabeth stated.

"What not even a drink or dinner first?" Kate teased Elisabeth using humour to distract herself.

"Now that is over with I'm going back to work" Taylor said as he didn't feel the need to watch Kate be treated for burns when it wasn't necessary. "Wash, when you're done here meet me in the Command Centre" he added before leaving them.

"Did I break up the appointment?" Kate asked after Taylor left them.

"No we were finished" Alicia told her, Kate quirked an eyebrow at the impassivity of Alicia and Elisabeth's expressions.

"All good?" Kate asked.

"Perfect" Alicia said giving a soft smile. "But you are a walking disaster" Alicia told her in a disapproving tone. Kate gave a slight shrug and wry smile.

"Thanks, so one of you should call Malcolm as he should know how much sedative to give the little fella" Kate said as she looked down at the tiny primate, he was still shaking but had calmed down just not enough to let her go. She couldn't calm her racing heartbeat.

Half an hour later, Alicia walked into the Command Centre and waited for Taylor to finish signing a plex a soldier gave him. After he did the soldier left them alone and Taylor looked to Alicia.

"Wash, I assume Kate and monkey are doing well?" he asked with a glint of amusement in his eyes as he kept a serious face.

"Yes Sir, Kate is all healed. Monkey had minor burns on his arm and back but no open wounds. He's got tough skin. You should know Kate still has him in her custody" Alicia informed him.

"I guess I should look forward to Dr Haynes visiting me soon" Taylor drawled as he wondered when the woman would grace them with her presence.

"Should have approved her 6 month OTG request" Alicia drawled innocently as she moved to stand closer to him so she could speak to him in a low voice without anyone overhearing.

"You giving me cheek?" Taylor asked. Alicia shook her head coyly.

"No sir, just making a suggestion that it might be a good idea to allow maybe one or two outposts to be reopened" Alicia said.

"Just because some people don't get along with others doesn't mean we should reassign them" Taylor said with a wry smile as he could think of a few people he'd like to reassign to an outpost.

"Not even for a 6 month rotation?" Alicia asked with a hint of hope in her tone as they were both talking about Haynes again.

"No" he told her, Alicia gave a nod conceding she was not going to change his mind on extending their resources just to free themselves of Haynes and changed topic.

"Are you going to see Lucas today?" Alicia asked, it was becoming a daily event that Taylor would visit with Lucas. Usually it was in the morning but today Alicia had gotten preference which made her secretly happy. She knew Taylor and Lucas mostly sat in silence as she had watched the video feed from the brig. She couldn't help herself, she felt in her gut nothing about Lucas's change of heart was real. Jim didn't believe it and he had visited the brig a couple of times in the last few days himself.

Alicia couldn't bring herself to be in the same room. She liked to think it was loyalty to Kate that kept her from looking Lucas in the eye but it was also a fear that her gut was right. Lucas had spent too many years bent on revenge to just suddenly want to contrition, he had yet to reach his goal.

When Lucas did talk with Taylor he only asked about what was going on outside the brig, how Kate was. He asked after Kate's wellbeing a lot, he played the 'I want forgiveness' and asked for a plex to type a letter to her. Taylor didn't exactly no but placated Lucas by saying 'in time, just a few more days and we'll talk again'. Alicia always pretended she knew nothing of the conversations, she knew it was an invasion of privacy but she didn't want to be left in the dark.

"I will this afternoon after I talk with Malcolm" Taylor said.

"I'll make dinner for 7pm" Alicia told him so he knew not to be late.

"Is Kate going to be home tonight?" Taylor asked.

"No she's at Malcolm's right now I doubt she'll come home tonight"

"I don't know why he hasn't asked her to marry him yet" Taylor said mystified as he could knew that Kate and Malcolm had their issues to sort through but that didn't mean they weren't a good suit for one another and they were clearly in love with one another.

"Like you're one to talk" Alicia scoffed with a chuckle. Taylor looked at her oddly until he understood what she meant. They talk about marriage but he hadn't actually asked her nor had she asked him officially it was just an understanding that it was envitable.

"We will be tying the knot as soon as you pick a date and we make an announcement" Taylor countered defending himself. He espoused to his men to be traditional in the regards to courting women and he was failing to set a good example.

"Didn't exactly ask me though" Alicia said with a teasing smile.

"You want me down on one knee with a ring in hand?" he asked.

"Loses the romance if I have to tell you to do it and it's not necessary but we should make the announcement soon as I don't think I'll be able to fit in my pants soon. I was thinking we could inform the soldiers and senior staff as it's necessary for them to know. Let the information disseminate from there. I don't want to make a big town meeting of it. If you don't mind?" Alicia asked him.

"I don't and I think I should make an honest woman out of you before we inform the others. I'll talk with the Chaplin" Taylor said.

"Ok how about in four days? We both have the afternoon free. I want it to be small and private" Alicia said. He made a mental note to talk to Kate. He would need help to make it special and not a run to the chapel and a hasty exchange of vows. It would also win him some brownie points if he made it special and Alicia deserved her wedding day to be special even if it was going to be private and small.

"So you, me, the Chaplin and a couple of witnesses?" Taylor said.

"Is that ok? I know as head of the Colony you'd be expected-" Alicia started but Taylor cut her off.

"Wash, I want you what you want. You just take it easy and look after yourself and my girls. I'll take care of everything" He assured her, Alicia looked relieved and he wished that they didn't have the 'no PDA in the Command Centre' rule as he really wanted to pull her into his arms and kiss her. She looked so beautiful even though she had dark circles under her eyes and still suffering nausea, he read it should pass in the next few weeks as her hormones settled down.

He personally couldn't wait as he had found the last few weeks that Alicia was a little more emotionally volatile than normal. He hadn't noticed at first but then she had been severely ill but the last few days with Lucas back in the colony had been a rollercoaster ride. He learned not to bring up Kate and Lucas in the same sentence, that he should always leave leftovers from dinner for Alicia and to get used to her 'happy' crying. Alicia normally wasn't a crier unless something was really wrong. So when she had cried during one their sessions of making love he thought he had hurt her but luckily she was fine. It didn't stop him from having a mini heart attack and the crying from listening to the ultrasound today with the heartbeats.

"See something you like Lieutenant?" Taylor asked her as he looked at Alicia who was currently looking at him like he was her catnip, she had even bit her bottom lip. Another by product of her hormonal upheaval was that it turned her already hyped sex drive into overdrive. She had informed him it comes and goes in waves when he found her staring at him rather intensely.

"Mhmm but it's business hours" Alicia said shaking her head and trying to pull her focus back to business instead of what she'd rather be indulging in. Taylor took a step closer and bent his head closer to her ear and she shivered in pleasure just from his closer proximity to her.

"We could have an early lunch, go over those reports and schedules in bed" Taylor offered he added 'in bed' in a low seductive voice.

"I scanned all the papers into the database. I even used his hand opened the device and plugged in the data as Lucas instructed. But the Eye doesn't have enough information to finish the calculations and it is a little out of my depth. I wouldn't know where to start if I were honest" Malcolm confessed as he rubbed his face with his hands exhausted as he reclined back on his couch next to Kate. Since he couldn't go any further with the repairs of the Terminus, he turned his attention to the calculations.

"Have you told Taylor this?" Kate asked as she was lying on the couch with her legs over his lap. He had been working from home this morning when he was disturbed by Haynes and then Elisabeth. Malcolm couldn't believe the absurdity of the situation and how Dr Haynes was getting up in arms about the primate. He helped sedate and removed the primate taking it to the lab to be cleaned and scanned. While he was there he explain Haynes very clearly that the primate was no longer a 'specimen' she could study as it was 'tamed' and any behaviour patterns she observed would just be conditioned behaviour patterns learned from Kate thus not a reflection of the species itself. As such it was Kate's responsibility and no longer hers and that she should move onto finishing her other research.

After his talk with Haynes he returned to the Infirmary and helped Elisabeth before taking responsibility of Kate and the primate from Alicia as Kate had been given a light sedative and was a little dazed but other than that fine as her burns and wounds had been healed. She had a quick shower and been given a scrubs before they returned to his house. Kate changed from the scrubs into one of his soft cotton shirts before retiring to the lounge. Malcolm continued his work while Kate dozed on the couch and the primate slept on a pillow near the couch so he could keep an eye on both of them.

Kate had woken up after an hour and thus here they were discussing what he was up to. He had missed the intimacy of talking with Kate even if she didn't understand his work most of the time. The last few days they had been meeting up for lunch and a couple of dinners taking things 'slow'. It reminded him of when they first started dating but instead of her sexually teasing him and getting hot and heavy. It was him doing all the teasing and taking the initiative with Kate setting the stops. He knew she wasn't freezing him out as punishment but as her self preservation.

"I will this afternoon" He said as he ran his hands slowly up and down the smooth skin of her calves in a soothing manner while he observed her carefully for a few moments. He wasn't blind to the uneasiness in Kate when it came to anything Lucas or Portal or time fracture related. "Do you want to talk about this?" He asked Kate quirked a questioning eyebrow.

"How I feel about the portals and Lucas is irrelevant" Kate said with a dismissive shrug.

"It affects you and what affects you affects me. So it's relevant to me, talk to me" he said. Kate looked at him for a moment before she lifted her legs off his lap. He thought for a moment he had pushed her too much or said something wrong until she straddled his lap and wrapped her arms around his neck. He slid forward on the couch to allow Kate more space as she pulled herself to him tightly. He felt her lips and her hot breath against his ear as she took a slow breath. He slowly circled his arms around her as he felt her body tremble.

"I hate that I'm pulled into these discussions where what I feel doesn't matter or make a difference. I hate Lucas and I wish he had died, so that we could all move on and heal. I don't want to be dragged into his world I don't want anything to do with him as his presence makes me remember things I just want to forget" She whispered in his ear. He heard the pain in her voice and felt her body tremble even more in his arms that he instinctively held her tighter. Getting Kate to talk about something she didn't want to talk about was like pulling teeth. He'd given up many a time trying to get her to talk about what happened during the occupation in any serious manner where she would acknowledge the toll it had taken on her.

She was forever downplaying everything that hurt her to protect herself. It annoyed him that he couldn't reach those parts of her but then he had proved her right in one respect. She feared if she ever acknowledge or talked about some of the horrifying things that happened she would scare him and she didn't want him to look at her like she was an unrecognisable monster. He had looked at her that way when she came for him in the Phoenix camp. He had lost her trust something he would have to earn back. Hence he knew it was trite to tell her she could tell him anything. So he kept his mouth closed and held her as tightly as he could without hurting her hoping it comforted her.

Later that afternoon in the brig,

"I spoke with Malcolm, he says the calculations for detecting a fracture and opening it aren't complete. If I give you a plex with the calculations would you continue the work?" Taylor asked Lucas.

"Yes, of course anything to help" Lucas said a little too eagerly. He was bored out of his skull sitting in the brig twiddling his thumb. He spent most his days when his father wasn't in the room he would pace the room formulating plans to escape all of them were fraught with problems and ending with 'if only I had two hands' other times he would reminisce his time in the brig when he was King of the Colony.

The brig had been cleaned but they could wash all the blood from the concrete where Kate had been tied to during their 'special' time together. Sometimes he could still smell the blood, sweat and burnt flesh but it was just a memory.

The memory irked him and gave him pleasure as he couldn't wait to see the psychological damage he had done to Kate. He had learned a lot of things from Escher, many things that made him sick to his stomach but the rest was educational. He doubted Escher believed he would survive or that his body would be found as the man talked to him for days on days. He did remember Escher saying that the greatest pleasure was seeing the fear in a strong woman's eyes the satisfaction that you were the one who made her weak and put her in her place.

"Good" Taylor said as he watched Lucas carefully. A silence lapsed between them before Lucas spoke.

"I was wondering how long it would be until I could ask for more visitors" Lucas asked carefully.

"Am I boring you?" Taylor asked with an amused tone.

"No, but I do have friends. Mira being one of them" Lucas said casually as he could. He needed to talk with Mira, he needed to know what was going on outside the brig and she was the only person who he knew would help him. He had a bargaining chip with the Calculations as she needed him to finish them to see her daughter again.

"In time. I need to know I can trust you before I extend privileges. Earn my trust and then we will talk about privileges" Taylor said, Lucas nodded as that was his father's standard answer when he asked for something.

TBC~ See you all next week!