Lieutenant Washington looked down at the piece of paper that she held in her hands as she studied the instructions upon it, it had been a more than a few months since she had been rescued with young Ryan Marshall from the cave system where she herself had been a prisoner for almost a year of the Phoenix group mercenaries that had come through the portal and taken over the colony but who had eventually been beaten back and the colony returned to its rightful owners, the colonists who had made the place their home.

Alicia glanced once more to the instructions on the paper telling her to go to a certain place by a certain time, it was one of Taylor s little games he had started playing of late with her and she smiled as she thought of how their relationship had blossomed in the last few months. Not only her relationship with him she mused but her relationship with her son Ryan, still there were times when she found it hard to believe that she was now living on Terra Nova with the child she had given up so may years ago and now in an open relationship with the man who had fathered him, it was something that she had never imagined in her wildest dreams would have happened.

There had been a few hiccups along the way of course, young Ryan though he got on well with her still did not get on so well with his father and there was times when Alicia felt like banging their heads together as both moaned about the other.

Gabriel and her team had integrated well within the colony once it had been established just who she and her men were and who had sent them. Alicia's smile widened as she thought of the 'friendship' between Gabriel and Boylan though the two of them denied anything was going on between the two of them no one in colony seemed to believe them and she knew that there was a book going round with more than a few people putting money on when Boylan and Gabriel finally made it public knowledge as well as admitting to themselves that the two of them felt something for each other.

Young Ryan also had been vindicated in the eyes of the colony when it was discovered that there was a traitor in their midst, a man who had been passing information to the Phoenix mercenaries and it had taken a careful plan to catch him. It had been a shock to most often especially young Ryan when it had been discovered just who the traitor was for they were sure that it was one of the soldiers who had made life hard for Ryan at first after he had been removed from the security force but after the traitor had been caught it was discovered to be Tom, one of the men he worked with in the hydroponics section. A man who Ryan had thought was a friend and for a short time it had dented his trust in people but he was slowly beginning to trust again.

"ALICIA!"

Washington heard her name being called and she looked up to see Taylor coming towards her smiling as he watched the emotions flit across her face at the sight of him. He moved forward reaching for her and kissed her deeply as he held the woman who had given him so much and who now meant more than life itself to him a woman who he now had an important question for and he prayed in his heart that her answer would be yes.

THE END.

XxX

A little taster for you from the sequel to this story called 'At Last'.

Alicia sat staring into into the mirror on her dressing table as she thought about the day and what was happen, she was marrying Taylor, a man she had loved for most of her adult life and with whom she already had a child a young man who until recently she had not got to know too well as she had given him up for adoption when he had been just a few hours old and it was not until a few months before that they had got to know one another and bond as mother and son something that she had never thought she would have ever been able to do when she had given him up so long ago and now she had her family together again.

Living in a place that no one had ever imagined existed a decade ago and that in a few months their family would be not just the three of them but four as she pressed her hand gently to her stomach and smiled at the thought of the one she carried inside.