Tom awoke to a knock on the door and looked at the clock. Eight am. It had only been an hour since a bleary-eyed Rachel had been summoned to talk to the president, taking Miller and Wolf with her. He was highly tempted to ignore whoever it was at the door, but then they knocked again.

"Tom, you in there?"

"Dad?" he pulled himself out of bed and opened the door to find his father and his (very sleepy) children there. "I thought your flight wasn't coming in until this afternoon."

"Got moved up." He looked at Tom. "I hear you had a rough night."

"Yeah. Uh, come in. Did they get you a room?"

"Yes – it even adjoins with yours."

"Good. Good." Tom said, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. Closing the door, he turned to see his kids staring at the gun on the nightstand. He wasn't worried about their safety – they knew better than to touch it – but they also knew, even in their tired state, that something was wrong. He had never left it out at home. He hurried over to put it away. "Why don't you settle in, guys, get some sleep?" he said, pointing at the adjoining doorway.

"Good idea, son." Jed agreed, herding the kids in that direction. "C'mon."

Tom had just finished putting his sidearm back in its case in the closet when he felt Ashley's eyes on him from the doorway.

"What is it, Ash?"

"Whose dress is that?" she asked, pointing. Ah, hell. Not how I wanted to break the news. But he made it a policy to never lie to his kids, so he was honest.

"Dr. Scott's. Do you remember her?"

"A little. She made the cure." She said. "Why is it here?"

"She stayed here last night. It wasn't safe to go back to her room."

"Why?"

"You remember how I told you some people didn't want us spreading the cure?" She nodded. "One of them came to the hotel last night, looking for her. That's why I had my gun out."

"Is he gone?"

"We have him locked up. But we're keeping a guard on her anyway."

Just then, the hallway door opened. Tom knew it was Rachel, and opened his mouth to introduce her, but the words died on his lips as he caught her expression. She looked…defeated, staring at the floor. It took a moment to come up with the term, because a defeated Rachel wasn't something he was familiar with.

"Rachel, what happened?"

"The president's sending me to Nebraska. Tonight."

"Like hell he is. It's not safe." He went to her, wrapping her in his arms, a fresh burst of adrenaline piercing his exhaustion. She leaned heavily against him, and he realized that she wasn't disputing the president's decision because she was fucking exhausted.

"He says he'll send a full security team." She said wearily.

"I don't care. And you don't have to do what he says, you know. You're still a civilian."

"I – " she started, but then surrendered to the comfort of his embrace, letting him simply hold her.

"Dad?"

Rachel stiffened in his arms, and Tom cursed at himself silently.

"Yes?"

"Is that Dr. Scott?"

"Yes." He turned to face his daughter, but kept one arm around Rachel. "Rachel, I don't think I introduced you properly last time – this is Ashley. And my dad." He added as his father came into the room.

"You can call me Jed. Sam's already asleep." He told her, gesturing to a bed she couldn't see.

"Hello." She said. "Nice to meet you." It sounded natural, but Tom could tell she was uneasy. Which, given the circumstances, was understandable.

"Why don't you get changed and go back to bed?" She shot him a look of gratitude and moved to get her things. He waited until the bathroom door was shut and turned to Ashley, expecting her questions. His father simply gave him a look and went to lie down with Sam.

"You like her."

"Yes."

"A lot."

"Yes."

She cocked her head at him, thinking. She was old enough to follow the implications – had seen it with her classmates in Norfolk – and cut right to the chase.

"Is she nice?"

"Generally, yes." Ashley looked at him. He moved to the empty bed in the other room, patting a spot beside him, using the time to phrase his words properly. Darien, for all her strength, had been a soft-spoken woman, calmly reasoning with the children (and himself) when they'd done wrong. Rachel, on the other hand, could make him feel like he'd been run over by a damn freight train. "Sometimes, though – she's so determined, so driven, that she's a little harsh with what she says. She's not necessarily wrong, but…"

"Like when grandpa gets mad."

Tom ignored the snort from the other bed.

"Sort of." He smiled, struck by an inspiration of how to explain the biggest difference between Darien and Rachel. "You know that mug your mom had?"

"With the writing on it?"

"Yeah, that one. About serenity and courage. I know she explained it more than once."

"Yeah. She said it was important to have both."

"Well, your mom was sort of in the middle there. Rachel has a lot more courage to change things than serenity to accept them." He hugged Ashley to him tightly. "Which isn't always a bad thing. She'll do – she did – whatever it took to make the cure, even risking her own safety when I didn't want her to. It saved my life, your life, and everyone else's. But there are times I need to tell her to take a moment and relax."

"Okay."

"Okay? That's all?"

"Dad…most of my classmates lost a parent…and a bunch of them have stepparents now. It's not that surprising."

"Well, just so you know, I'm not trying to replace your mother. And Rachel understands that, better than you might think." Her eyebrow rose at that last bit. "You have more in common than I'd like – you both lost your mothers around the same age. She knows that it hurts, even if she doesn't talk about it much."

Ashley nodded, then yawned.

"Why don't you go to sleep? We'll talk more later. I'm going talk to the president. There's no good reason he can't send Milowski, honestly." He watched Ashley crawl into her bed before heading back to his room to change; Rachel was already sound asleep in theirs. He was pulling on his shirt when he looked up to see his father.

"Here." Jed said quietly, handing him a small box. "Probably going to need these." Tom opened it, confirming his suspicions – they were his parents' wedding rings.

"Thanks, dad. How'd you know?" They hadn't actually discussed it on their short three vid calls since leaving Norfolk. There hadn't been time.

"Your smile when her name came up." Jed said. "Hadn't seen it in a while."

"And that was enough to put it in your carry-on bag?"

Jed smiled.

"Well, I had my suspicions. But my hunch was confirmed when I ran into a fella named Tex in the lobby. Sang her praises – then told me you outbid him. So you'd better seal the deal soon, son. You've got competition."

Tom chuckled.

"No I don't. She was never into him like that."

"You're sure?"

"The entire damn ship knew how he felt months ago – Tex is not a subtle man. If she wanted him, she'd have had him."

"Then you're a lucky man."

"I know, dad. I know."

. . . .

"Dad?"

Tom woke up to see Sam's face, and it took him a second to gather his wits. The clock said it was two o'clock in the afternoon, and Sam was looking at him in confusion. Further cognition resulted in the realization that he was rather well wrapped around a sleeping Rachel, who was not going to Nebraska anytime soon thanks to a very contentious conversation he'd had with President Michener.

And Sam hadn't seen her since his last exam aboard ship in Norfolk.

"Hey Sam." He said quietly, slowly pulling his arm from underneath Rachel.

"…Tom?" she murmured.

"Shh, sleep." He said, getting up and pulling the blanket over her, aware that Sam was running back into the other room. He followed his son, finding him shaking his sister awake. He paused to close the door behind him.

"G'way, Sam."

"There's a woman in dad's room!"

"Yeah, I know."

"Is she – "

Ashley, awake now, nodded and shrugged.

"Dad says she's nice."

Sam turned to his father.

"I'm sorry for surprising you like that, Sam. I'd meant to introduce you tonight at dinner."

Tom watched him process that information for a long moment.

"As long as she's not like Steve's new stepmom." Sam decided.

"She's not." Ashley assured her brother before turning to her father. "Steve's stepmom is a real – " she stopped at a look from Tom. "Anyway, Dad would never do that to us."

"No, I wouldn't." he said, sitting on the bed and reaching out to Sam. "You met her before, aboard ship. Do you remember Dr. Scott?"

"She made the vaccine – she examined me a couple of times." He thought back. "She seemed okay."

"She's better than okay, bud." He said, ruffling his son's hair. "How about you take a bath and get dressed and we'll all go out to lunch?"