Arrows (1/1)
Title: Arrows
Character/Pairing: Background Maddy/Mark, Josh/Skye, Wash/Taylor friendship.
Word Count: 5453
Genre: Angst, slight Romance
Rating: PG-13
Warning: Violence...sort of
Spoiler alert: None
Summary: A routine mission to Outpost Six goes horribly wrong.
Authors Note: This is the largest amount I've ever written, for a single chapter/one shot. I really hope y'all like it! I'd just like to point out that I'm a fourteen year old that has no medical training, unless you count standard training that you receive in a baby sitting course. For shippergal in the December Prompt post on the Terra Nova Fanfiction Community.
Spoilers for Finale: I can't say that I didn't expect what happened, I kinda stared at the TV, and then yelled a bit...I'm happy Mark wasn't killed off though, though Jim walking in on him and Maddy making out against a tree was funny. All in all, I thought that it was pretty good, it completes it, (sort of) but leaves room for a second season plot-line.
“I’ll be back soon, I promise.” Maddy murmured against her boyfriend’s lips.
“I feel as if I should be coming with you,” Mark replied, his arms snaked around her waist.
“I already told you, we’ll be fine. It’s just a quick routine check at Outpost Six, to drop off some supplies; I’m only going for the sample, you know that I need that sample from those lilies, and they only bloom near that specific outpost.”
“I know,” Mark sighed.
“I’ll be okay; I’m going to be with Skye, and Alicia. The Outpost is less than half a day’s drive from here, so we’ll be back by noon tomorrow.”
“You sure that you don’t need an extra gun?” Mark tried weakly to reason with her.
“Mark! We. Will. Be. Fine!” Maddy lifted her head up from its spot on his shoulder, looking mildly annoyed.
“Can’t blame me for trying,” Mark sighed again, “I love you, stay safe.”
“I love you too.” Maddy kissed him again.
They stayed like that for a few moments; kissing each other, and murmuring quietly, until the sound of a throat clearing next to them made them raise their heads.
“The rover’s ready to leave,” Jim said through gritted teeth.
His daughter had been dating the Staff Sergeant for almost three years. He grudgingly admitted (to himself, and no one else) that he was good for her; he had never seen Maddy smile so much when Mark was around, or look so...complete, was the best way to describe it. Elisabeth had pointed out that they looked like them when they were together; he had just stared at his wife with an incredulous look on his face when she said that. Every couple months though, he would get the urge to punch the kid squarely in the face, but he knew that Maddy would kill him, and Elisabeth probably would too; she treated the man who had stolen his oldest daughter away from him like a son.
A faint blush tinged both of their faces, as they pulled apart. Mark murmured a quiet good bye, and went to stand next to the Commander, who had a smirk set on his lips, to see them off.
Mark could still state, and was somewhat embarrassed to say, that he was scared shitless of his girlfriend’s father. The man always had a look in his eyes, as if he knew every single one of his deepest, darkest secrets. It didn’t help that he carried a gun, and kept it very, very close to his hands when Mark went for dinner at the Shannon household.
“Be careful out there Maddy,” Jim said, as he wrapped his arms tightly around his daughter.
“I will Daddy,” Maddy squeezed her arms around him.
Jim pulled away, “I just need to talk to Wash, and then you three can leave.”
“Okay Dad, Love you!” Maddy called as he walked off.
She walked to the rover, and slid into the back seat. She smiled at Wash and Skye as they jumped into the front seats of the vehicle.
“Expect us back around twelve hundred hours, if we’re not back within two hours of that time, and have not made contact, send a rescue team out. If we don’t make any of our check-ins, in fact, send back-up. Same drill as always, sir.” Wash told the
Commander curtly, nodding her head at him as she started the rover’s engine.
“Got it, Wash,” Taylor turned to the spotters in the towers, and signalled at them, “Open the gates!”
The gates opened, and Maddy took one last glance at the people waiting with the Commander; she sent one more smile to Mark, and turned her head to face the vast wilderness in front of her.
***
“We should be there in a couple minutes.” Alicia announced.
Maddy had been chipping away at an archive of Sudoku and word search puzzles for the past eight hours; she had close to ten thousand puzzles that she had downloaded back in 2149; she had made sure to download enough to last her a lifetime.
Maddy felt alert for some reason, as they approached the building, something felt...off. She couldn’t place the feeling specifically, but made sure to keep her hand near the rifle.
It was uncharacteristically quiet around them; there were faint sounds in the distance, of course, but nothing loud. Once they reached the short building, Alicia hopped out, and was quickly followed by Skye and Maddy. She too, had noticed the somewhat eerie silence that surrounded them and held her rifle tightly. Alicia immediately noticed that the soldier that was supposed to be waiting for them at the outer gate was not there; she tightened her hold on her gun.
Skye was the first to be hit; a single arrow flew through the air, and hit her upper arm. She fell to the ground with a strangled cry coming from her lips.
Alicia’s military training immediately set in, she pressed her back to the fence, and pushed Maddy behind her. Her gun focused on the area where the arrow had come from; nothing was there.
“Get inside!” She said hurriedly to Maddy, whose eyes were wide.
“But what about Sk-” Maddy tried to reach for her friend, who was trying to keep calm, even in her pain.
“Maddy. Get your ass inside the building; I’ll take care of Skye.” She shoved the girl inside of the fence.
She kept her gun poised and ready to shoot as she spoke, “How’re you doing?”
“The aim wasn’t perfect, so it missed the bone; it hurts like hell though,” Skye grunted, as some of her medical training set in,
“Once we get proper anaesthetics, you can just pull it out, and stitch the wound up; it didn’t go in deeply.”
“I’m going to get you inside, okay?”
“I can get myself inside,” Skye stood up warily, and started walking towards the door, obviously in pain, but screamed when she
saw the sight in front of her.
Maddy was lying face down on the ground, an arrow going right through her stomach; she wasn’t moving, or making any noise.
“Jesus Christ,” Alicia whispered before whipping into action.
Skye was already beside her boyfriend’s sister, and flipped her over carefully. With tears in her eyes, she checked for a pulse.
“Thank God, She has a pulse, but it’s weak, really weak. She must have hit her head when she fell, so she couldn’t scream.”
“We need to move her inside,” Alicia carefully placed her hands under Maddy’s body, careful to not to touch the wound.
Skye held onto Maddy’s feet, and moved towards the door. She winced as she reached for her key card to open the door with her
injured arm. She scanned the card, and the door opened; she immediately smelled blood.
“Oh God,” She whispered, as they moved towards the small medical room.
A soldier’s body was lying in the hallway, face up, and his caramel eyes wide open. Judging by the amount of blood, Alicia could tell that it was a bullet from a sonic pistol that killed him.
With her back, Alicia pushed the door to the room open. There was a biobed in the centre of the room, and a cabinet equipped with basic medicine. She set Maddy down on the bed carefully.
“Send a distress call,” the lieutenant thrust her comm at the nurse, who was frozen in place, “Now! I’ll take care of Maddy!”
Skye seemed to snap out of her reverie, and slipped out from her panicked frenzy, and immediately started transmitting. “Team Five to Terra Nova, come in,” static filled the air, “Requesting immediate rescue rovers to Outpost Six. Sixer attack, medical personnel needed!” More static was emitted.
“Nothing’s coming in, just static.”
Alicia took a deep breath, before turning to her, “I guess we’re on our own for now, then.”
***
Mark had sitting in the security centre for what seemed like days. He stared at the screens, looking for any abnormal activity, but saw nothing. He had responded to two radio calls during his long, ten hour shift. His ears were trained to hear even the slightest amount of static, so when he heard faint voices coming from the comm link he shot up, and towards it.
“Team Five to Terra Nova, come in!” Skye’s voice filled the room.
Mark heard the panicked tone in her voice, and immediately responded, “Terra Nova to Team Five, what’s your status?”
She didn’t seem to hear him, “Requesting immediate rescue rovers to Outpost Six. Sixer attack, medical personnel needed!”
Mark’s heart stopped. Maddy was at Outpost Six with Alicia and Skye. He could hear Alicia’s voice in the background, but not his girlfriend’s. With a sinking feeling, he responded, “Rescue rovers being prepared, more information?”
Static. Nothing but static.
“Skye? Come in! Terra Nova to Team Five, do you copy?”
Nothing.
Mark grabbed his own comm, and sent out a call. “Reynolds to the Commander, do you copy?”
“What is it Reynolds?” a gruff voice replied.
“A distress call from Team Five just came in, there was a Sixer attack, and they’re requesting immediate medical personnel and back-up.”
“Did you get who was injured?” He could hear the Commander running down to the garage to start preparing the rover.
“They stopped responding after the request.”
“Get Guzman on it, explain the situation, he’ll know what to do. Out.”
Mark immediately called the head of security, and explained what was going on, doing his best to keep calm. It took Guzman less
than two minutes to get to the centre, and start working on the connection.
“I’m going to hack the signal,” he explained quickly as he worked, “The connection is spotty there, so that’s probably why they’re not hearing us; if I do this, it’ll basically turn on the device, as if they were transmitting, but they won’t be able to hear us. This is the best I can do until the rover gets there, or signal is restored.”
Mark knew exactly what to do next, “Reynolds to Shannon, come in.”
“What Reynolds?” Jim’s agitated voice responded.
“We got a distress call from Maddy’s team, and they’re not responding.”
“What?”
“We got a di-“
“I get it Reynolds; who’s injured?”
“Skye made the call, and she didn’t say who was hurt, or the status of anyone stationed at the Outpost. Lt. Guzman is hacking the
signal, so we can hear what’s going on.”
“I’m heading over to the Centre now. Out.”
“Out.”
Mark went back to standing behind the Lieutenant. He felt...he couldn’t describe what he felt; he knew something was wrong, very wrong, he knew, but didn’t want to admit that Maddy was the one hurt.
“Rescue rovers are now being dispatched to Outpost Six.” Taylor’s voice crackled from the comm.
Jim arrived at the security centre within minutes, his wife, and his son trailing after him. The Commander was right behind them.
“Anything?” Jim asked.
Mark shook his head.
“I’m almost done cracking the signal,” Guzman said.
“As fast as you can Guz,” Taylor said, resting his hands down on the desk.
“Got it!” the lieutenant shouted victoriously as voices came through the comm link.
“Did you find anyone?” Alicia said.
“Yes, they’re all knocked out, and tied up in the rooms, they won’t be waking up anytime soon, and I can’t untie them with a
damned arrow in my arm.” Skye replied.
“Is the anaesthetic working?”
“My arm feels numb, so no pain. How are you doing on Maddy?”
“The arrow missed her vital organs, but is still very close. I’m prepping her for surgery; I’ll have to do it now if she’s going to survive. The last time I did surgery was in Somalia, so you’re going to have to help me out here. I’ve got her stabilized right now, and I can get that arrow out of your arm, and you can help me.”
“She’s going to be okay, right?” Skye’s voice wavered.
“I’m going to try my best to get her back to her family.”
“Oh fuck.” Josh said as he sank into the nearest chair. He didn’t just have his little sister injured, but he had his girlfriend, whom he loved, injured as well.
Nobody chastised him for his language. Elisabeth was crying into Jim’s chest; it was too much for her, Maddy was her oldest daughter, and Skye might as well be her daughter. Nathanial looked just about ready to run out of the building, and all the way towards the outpost, without stopping. Mark had a shine in his eyes, and was obviously trying to keep it together, and not break down in front of his CO’s.
“Breathe in and out,” Alicia soothed Skye.
“Just get it over with before I get complete feeling back in my arm.”
“If you insist,” And with that, she pulled the arrow out.
“Ow!”
“I thought you said you didn’t feel anything?” Alicia said as she started stitching the wound.
“That was five minutes ago.”
“I’m almost done; just give me a minute...there! Finished. Now, get out some of the tools, I’m going in the old fashioned way, because of how close in proximity the arrow is to her organs. Wrap your arm first though.”
They heard shuffling in the background, and drawers being opened urgently.
“I’ve got it, there’s already sanitized surgical tools in a compartment. Let me wrap my wound first.” Skye said, and there was silence for a few moments as she did so.
“Done? Hand me the scalpel, and monitor her vitals carefully.”
So quietly, the group almost didn’t hear it, Alicia whispered to the unconscious girl on the other side of the comm link, “Don’t worry Maddy, I’ll get you back to Mark, your parents, Josh, Zoe. Everyone.”
Mark seemed to be having an even harder time keeping himself together now. His girlfriend, from what he knew, could die within the next few hours. The woman who had practically taken him in when his father died was operating on her, and to top it all off, one of the first friends he had made in Terra Nova just had an arrow removed from her arm.
“Alicia? There isn’t a lot of sedatives left; she’ll only be under for half an hour, to an hour tops.”
“Oh Christ, this is going to take time, definitely more than an hour. Listen to me, when she wakes up, you need to calm her down;
she’ll be confused, disorientated, and scared. Calm her down, and administrate anaesthetics to her immediately; it’ll numb her lower chest area, but she’ll still feel something, since the medicine here isn’t as strong as what we have at the Infirmary. Most of all, keep her still, the slightest movement while I'm in there could possibly cause her death.”
Elisabeth let out a strangled cry, and Jim closed his eyes, and willed the tears in his eyes to keep back. Why, why, had he not insisted on tagging along with them, being the extra gun? Why had he let Maddy convince him that they were okay with just the three of them, listening to her when she said that they were fine since they all knew how to handle guns, and aim properly. She was his daughter; he supposed to always be there, whenever she needed him; he promised her that the day she was born, the first time he held her in his arms. By just standing where he was he was breaking a promise that he had sworn to keep.
“I’m starting Skye, remember, the moment you notice her having signs of waking up, tell me, so I can prepare.”
“Okay.”
A steady beeping sound was heard in the background as Alicia pierced the young woman’s skin.
“Wash? Do you think they’re going to get here in time?”
“I hope so, Skye, I really do. Sixers have probably taken the rover by now, and anything else that they could get their hands on.
They purposely hit Maddy so that the injury would be life threatening, and force us inside.”
“I don’t want to die out here.”
“I promise you, we won’t.”
“The Sixers know how close we are to the colony; Maddy the Sheriff’s daughter, and she dating Mark, a soldier who is close to the Commander, and will definitely be Lieutenant one day. Your Taylor’s second, his lieutenant, not to mention the sexual tension between the two of you, and-“
“The Commander and I are merely old friends, why can’t anyone accept that?”
“Let me finish! And I, I’m dating the Sheriff’s son-“
“You won’t be dating for long; you’ll be married within the next year,”
“How many times do I need to tell you to shut up? I’m dating Josh, and if they kill me, they’ll get to him, which will get to Jim, and
then, ultimately the Commander. It would present the perfect opportunity to ruin Terra Nova.”
“Maddy’s on the table; and you’re talking about the perfect way to capture the colony?”
“Sorry. I just...left so many things unsaid when we left.”
“Hand me the clamp. What things were left unsaid?”
“Here. Josh and I had a fight before we left, hence why he wasn’t there to see us off,”
“About what?”
“Family; I asked him what he thought about a baby.”
“You asked your boyfriend if he wanted to have a kid. Are you crazy?”
“No! I just asked if he wanted any kids, and he said ‘Someday in the distant future,’”
“Clamps again. How is that a fight?”
“Here you go. I freaked out, and stormed off.”
“Why would you do that? Unless...”
Elisabeth gasped. Jim’s eyes widened considerably. Taylor raised his eyebrows. Josh and Mark looked confused.
“Yep.”
“Why the hell are you OTG? Does he know?”
“Do you honestly think that Josh would let me go OTG if he knew?”
“Do I know what?” Josh said, panicky.
Guzman shook his head, as if to say, ‘He’s stupider, and slower than he looks.”
“We’re going to be grandparents!” Elisabeth exclaimed quietly.
“Wait, what? Maddy’s pregnant?” He turned to Mark, “I’m going to kill you, you son of-“
Jim shook his head, “Josh, I thought that you had more sense in you. Skye. Is. Pregnant.”
“What?! She’s-She’s...Oh God.” His head sank into his hands, “Why is today so damn eventful?”
“I thought I reminded you to have safe sex before you got married?” Jim told his son.
“You did.”
“Then why is she pregnant?”
“When was the last time I listened to you?”
“...Never.”
“Exactly.”
“She’s waking up!” Skye shouted.
“Shit, I’m going to have pull out until you calm her down and give her the anaesthetic.”
“I’ll only take a few moments; I’m preparing the hypo as we speak.”
Gurgling sounds, and a quiet, thick voice was heard in the background.
“Who are you?”
“Maddy, it’s me, Skye.”
“Skye? What happened?”
“There was a Sixer attack, you were hit, we’re operating on you right now, and I'm giving you a painkiller right...now!”
A hiss was heard, as Skye injected Maddy with the numbing medicine.
“There, done. Now, do not move, stay absolutely still, don’t even nod your head to acknowledge that you heard this; Alicia is going
back in, this will take another half hour or so. You can talk, as long as you don’t move.”
“I’m not going to die, am I?” Maddy’s voice wavered slightly.
“No, you’re not,” Skye said, but her voice lacked conviction; Maddy thankfully didn’t notice.
“Good, there are still a lot of things I want to do.”
“Like what?”
“Get married, have a baby, grow old.”
“With a certain soldier, perhaps?” Alicia’s voice cut in.
They could practically hear Maddy blush.
“I love him.” She replied simply.
“If it makes you feel any better, he asked me where the best place to buy rings from is.”
“Really? He has been acting a little weird lately...”
“Uh huh; he hasn’t asked your father yet, I think, since Jim hasn’t stormed into the Command Centre angrily recently.”
“You two have been dating forever, it’s about time. Remember, stay still.”
Jim turned to Mark, slowly, purposefully, and dangerously. “What did Wash just say?”
“Uh...Sir...Well...You see...” Mark rubbed the back of his neck, and avoided Jim’s gaze furiously.
“Well?” Another step towards the soldier.
“I love Maddy, and I already told you that I want to make her my wife one day, and I think that one day should be soon, I was going to ask you next week, after the ring came in!” Mark explained quickly.
“I-“Jim started.
“Jim! We don’t have time for you to argue with Mark about marriage! Maddy’s in surgery in the middle of nowhere!” Elisabeth exclaimed.
“...Sorry?”
“You only want me to get married because it might get Josh to propose!”
“That boy is denser than a tree sometimes,” Alicia said.
“Hey!” Josh exclaimed. “I’m not dense!”
The room’s occupants exchanged quiet looks with each other, not responding to his question.
“I love him, but he is quite dense sometimes, he can’t pick up the smallest hints. I said a ring was pretty, and I showed it to him,
and he just blew it off!”
“That’s my brother for you.”
“I always wondered what she meant by that...any ideas?” Josh rubbed his head.
Taylor turned to him, “Son, she showed you a ring, do you remember what type it was?”
“It had a diamond in the centre!” he supplied.
Taylor was silent for a moment, as Jim looked like he was giving himself a mental face plant “You know what son, I’m going to let you figure that one out on your own.”
“Are you almost done?” Maddy asked.
“Another half hour, and then we’re going to have to keep fluids running through your body until the rover gets here.”
“You’ve done surgery before, right?” Maddy asked.
“I’ve been trained as a medic in the military. The last time I did such an impromptu surgery like this was on the Commander.”
“Oh?”
“Somalia. 2139. Grenade by the Russo-Chinese, things flew all over the place, since the explosion was so large, the damage was
for clicks around, and Nathanial managed to get a piece of wood jammed into his chest. The hospital was too far away; he would’ve died if we hadn’t operated when we did. Thankfully, I had the emergency surgical kit, and we were able to seal up the wound, and stop the bleeding. The shard hadn’t hit anything, and was much less worse than yours; the only reason he would’ve died was of blood loss.”
“That must have been hard.”
“It was...but thing was, he wanted to die, he didn’t want me to save him. He was already broken because of Ayani’s death, and Lucas turning on him, and he didn’t really see any reason to live.”
“But you saved him anyways?”
“Of course, I told him that there was no way in hell I was letting him die, and then I knocked him out.”
“With what?” Maddy asked.
“My fist.”
The Commander chuckled, and touched his head. He remembered that day, he had wanted to die, and he had seen no reason to
live. He was glad Wash hadn’t listened to him, and saved him; he wouldn’t be standing where he was right now if it wasn’t for her.
“Ouch.”
“Ouch indeed.”
“How long has it been since we got here?” Maddy asked.
“About an hour?”
“Really? It seems like less.”
“You were knocked out for half of it.”
“Oh, yeah.”
“Skye, do me a favour. I’m almost done here, I just need to stitch up the wound properly, just go check to see if anyone’s woken up as yet.” Alicia said.
“You sure?”
“Yes.”
Shuffling was heard, and a door click sounded, signalling that Skye had left the medical room.
“Is anyone...dead?”
“One. My soldier, Davis. Good man.”
“Oh God, how are you going to tell his family?”
“That’s the part I hate the most; he has a young wife, and a nine week old son. Telling the family is the hardest thing to do. I’ve only
had to do it twice here, but that was because of Slashers, now, I have to tell his wife that he was murdered.”
“...Oh Maddy, don’t cry,”
“I’m sorry...I’m just thinking what she feeling, I don’t want to think about if someone came to my door, and told me that Mark...”
“Don’t you even think about that. I go on almost every mission OTG that he goes on, and there’s no way in hell I’m letting my little brother get killed.”
“Little brother?”
“Little brother, the-kid-that-beat-me-in-a-fight, same thing.”
“Still nothing!” Skye exclaimed, charging back into the room.
“Okay.”
“Uh...Wash?”
“What Skye?”
“Her vitals...”
Alicia turned her head to look at the small screen that was up, her blood pressure was dropping.
“Oh fuck.”
“There isn’t a lot more rounds of O positive left Wash,”
“I’m almost done,”
“Wash! Alicia! She’s arresting!” Skye practically yelled.
“Oh, God, no,” Elisabeth cried out, “When is the rover going to get there?”
“Its night Elisabeth, they’re going as fast as they can.” Taylor replied.
“Make them go faster! My daughter’s going into cardiac arrest, it could kill her!” She cried hysterically, clinging to her husband.
Taylor pulled out his comm, “Taylor to team three, do you copy?”
“Team three copies,”
“Are you going to reach the Outpost any faster? We’ve got a girl going into cardiac arrest, with only a few rounds of blood left.”
“Sorry Sir, we have to take the safer routes until daylight comes, to avoid the dino’s,”
“Got it, Taylor Out,”
“They’re going as fast as they can Elisabeth,”
“Skye,” Maddy said hoarsely, “Tell...Tell my family that I love them,”
“Oh God, don’t say goodbye Maddy! You’re going to pull through!”
“...Tell Mark-” She closed her eyes slightly, “-Tell him that I love him, and tell him not to spend his life mourning me and to move
on-” She choked out.
“Maddy! We’re going to get you back to Mark! Hang in there, don’t close your eyes, oh Christ, please don’t close your eyes!” Skye
cried.
Mark stopped worrying about what his commanding officers would think, and let the tears he had been holding in go. He sat down, and cried with his head in his hands. Taylor looked at him pityingly, but felt his soldier’s heartbreak; he was hearing his soul mate die.
A loud, flat beeping sound filled the air, causing Elisabeth to drop to the floor, a strangled cry emitting from her throat. Jim wrapped his wife in his arms, with his own tears streaming down his face.
“Out of the way Skye! I need to shock her!” Alicia shouted. “One, two, three! Oh come on Maddy!” Alicia pressed the CPR button on the bed again, and again.
A quiet, steady replaced the nonstop wail of beeps, causing every person in the room to do something in relief; all of the members
of the Shannon family cried out, as well as Mark, the Commander seemed to be thanking God, and Guzman looked lost.
“We got her back! Skye, keep doing what you were doing, I need to finish stitching up the wound.”
“She’ll be unconscious for the next few minutes.”
The duo seemed to work in complete silence from then on, only with the occasional order.
“I think my heart stopped beating when she flat-lined.” Alicia murmured, “Not only because I think of her like a little sister now, but
what would happen if I had to tell Mark that she was dead.”
“It scared me too.”
“I was the one to tell Mark that his father had been killed while on a mission OTG. I never want to see such pain in his eyes again.”
She took a deep breath before continuing, “He’s lost everyone; his mother, his grandfather, his father. He was in a dark place before Maddy came, he was angry at the world; he wanted to take on the most dangerous missions; he never came out of his house anymore, unless it was to work, not even his friends could get him to do anything. He was spiralling down the dark road of depression. When Maddy came he...woke up, I guess. He made an effort in the things he did, he stopped applying for OTG missions, unless they were short, and he went to Boylan’s with his friends. All in all, Maddy saved him.”
“Everyone knew that he was depressed, but I never knew it was that bad...”
“Well, he’s good now, better than good, he’s so whipped it isn’t funny. Maddy could tell him to act like a monkey in the market, and he’d do it.”
Laughter could be heard from the other side of the comm link.
“There, I’m done. Just keep those fluids flowing now. I’m going to go clean up.” Alicia said.
Jim turned to Mark, “Is what she said true?”
“About me being depressed? Yeah, I did some stupid things.”
“No, about Maddy saving you.”
“...Yes,”
“Where do you think you’d be today if we hadn’t come?”
“Dead.”
Jim’s eyes widened.
“What Alicia said is right, If Maddy hadn’t come, I probably would’ve ended up getting myself killed.”
“I'm going to try to make contact with the colony again now.” Alicia said, “Pass me my comm?”
“Here.”
“Team Five to Terra Nova, come in please.”
Taylor pressed the button to respond, “Terra Nova to Team Five. Wash, can you hear me?”
“Hello? Terra Nova please repeat,” Alicia said, and then shouted excitedly to Skye, “I think they’re getting our signal!”
“Wash? Its Taylor, can you read me?”
“Yes sir, you have no idea how good it is to hear from you,”
“Are you three okay? Rescue rovers have been dispatched, but they won’t be there for another few hours, so you need to keep
Miss. Shannon alive until then, can you do that?”
“Sir? How do you know that Maddy was hurt?”
“I got Guz to hack the comm link after Skye made the call, we heard everything. The surgery, Miss. Shannon flat-lining, bringing her back, everything,”
“Is her...”
“Yes. Along with Reynolds. Mr. Shannon is quite...let’s say terrified, at the prospect of becoming a father.”
“Wash! Hand that thing to me!” Skye shouted, “Josh? Are you there?”
Josh shot out of his chair, and ran towards the comm. “Skye? Oh God, are you okay? Is the baby okay?”
“We’re fine. I so sorry I didn’t tell you! I was going to tell you last night, but I freaked out! I-”
“Don’t worry, don’t stress yourself out. We can talk more later, just keep safe, please. I love you.”
“I will! I love you too.” Skye said.
“Now, where was I,” Wash said, “We’ve got one soldier dead, and the scientists are tied up, and are going to be passed out for God knows how long, if you don’t already know.”
“We know that.”
“Okay, what’s the ETA of the rovers?”
“Long time, just under seven hours. You guys won’t arrive at the colony until ten AM, or so.”
“You’re going to stay on with me the entire time, right?”
“Anything for you, Wash.”
***
Exactly as the Commander predicted, it was ten in the morning by the time two fully equipped rovers charged through the gates. Doctors were already waiting near the gates, ready to rush Maddy to the Infirmary. From the reports the rescue team, they had Maddy stabilized. Skye was given painkillers, to ease the pain in her arm.
Elisabeth grabbed her daughter’s hand the moment she saw her, and hung onto it tightly as the nurses wheeled her to the intensive care unit. Mark followed after them quickly, only stopping for a few seconds, to make sure Alicia was okay, but she had immediately shooed him away, and told him not to worry about her.
Skye and Josh had a tearful reunion, filled with ‘I’m sorry’s’, and the word ‘baby’. One of the nurses practically had to pull her out of Josh’s arms, and into the infirmary for a mandatory check-up.
Two soldiers had stayed at the Outpost, to stay with the frazzled scientists, and to secure Davis’s body until another rover arrived to take it back to the colony; Taylor had already organized a full military funeral, with medals, and twenty one gun salutes. He had gone to his widow’s house to deliver the news personally, and held the young woman in his arms as she sobbed.
The day had changed them all; the simple routine check had turned into something much more important. It made them realise how much family meant, how no matter what, family was always there to help you pull through.
Character/Pairing: Background Maddy/Mark, Josh/Skye, Wash/Taylor friendship.
Word Count: 5453
Genre: Angst, slight Romance
Rating: PG-13
Warning: Violence...sort of
Spoiler alert: None
Summary: A routine mission to Outpost Six goes horribly wrong.
Authors Note: This is the largest amount I've ever written, for a single chapter/one shot. I really hope y'all like it! I'd just like to point out that I'm a fourteen year old that has no medical training, unless you count standard training that you receive in a baby sitting course. For shippergal in the December Prompt post on the Terra Nova Fanfiction Community.
Spoilers for Finale: I can't say that I didn't expect what happened, I kinda stared at the TV, and then yelled a bit...I'm happy Mark wasn't killed off though, though Jim walking in on him and Maddy making out against a tree was funny. All in all, I thought that it was pretty good, it completes it, (sort of) but leaves room for a second season plot-line.
“I’ll be back soon, I promise.” Maddy murmured against her boyfriend’s lips.
“I feel as if I should be coming with you,” Mark replied, his arms snaked around her waist.
“I already told you, we’ll be fine. It’s just a quick routine check at Outpost Six, to drop off some supplies; I’m only going for the sample, you know that I need that sample from those lilies, and they only bloom near that specific outpost.”
“I know,” Mark sighed.
“I’ll be okay; I’m going to be with Skye, and Alicia. The Outpost is less than half a day’s drive from here, so we’ll be back by noon tomorrow.”
“You sure that you don’t need an extra gun?” Mark tried weakly to reason with her.
“Mark! We. Will. Be. Fine!” Maddy lifted her head up from its spot on his shoulder, looking mildly annoyed.
“Can’t blame me for trying,” Mark sighed again, “I love you, stay safe.”
“I love you too.” Maddy kissed him again.
They stayed like that for a few moments; kissing each other, and murmuring quietly, until the sound of a throat clearing next to them made them raise their heads.
“The rover’s ready to leave,” Jim said through gritted teeth.
His daughter had been dating the Staff Sergeant for almost three years. He grudgingly admitted (to himself, and no one else) that he was good for her; he had never seen Maddy smile so much when Mark was around, or look so...complete, was the best way to describe it. Elisabeth had pointed out that they looked like them when they were together; he had just stared at his wife with an incredulous look on his face when she said that. Every couple months though, he would get the urge to punch the kid squarely in the face, but he knew that Maddy would kill him, and Elisabeth probably would too; she treated the man who had stolen his oldest daughter away from him like a son.
A faint blush tinged both of their faces, as they pulled apart. Mark murmured a quiet good bye, and went to stand next to the Commander, who had a smirk set on his lips, to see them off.
Mark could still state, and was somewhat embarrassed to say, that he was scared shitless of his girlfriend’s father. The man always had a look in his eyes, as if he knew every single one of his deepest, darkest secrets. It didn’t help that he carried a gun, and kept it very, very close to his hands when Mark went for dinner at the Shannon household.
“Be careful out there Maddy,” Jim said, as he wrapped his arms tightly around his daughter.
“I will Daddy,” Maddy squeezed her arms around him.
Jim pulled away, “I just need to talk to Wash, and then you three can leave.”
“Okay Dad, Love you!” Maddy called as he walked off.
She walked to the rover, and slid into the back seat. She smiled at Wash and Skye as they jumped into the front seats of the vehicle.
“Expect us back around twelve hundred hours, if we’re not back within two hours of that time, and have not made contact, send a rescue team out. If we don’t make any of our check-ins, in fact, send back-up. Same drill as always, sir.” Wash told the
Commander curtly, nodding her head at him as she started the rover’s engine.
“Got it, Wash,” Taylor turned to the spotters in the towers, and signalled at them, “Open the gates!”
The gates opened, and Maddy took one last glance at the people waiting with the Commander; she sent one more smile to Mark, and turned her head to face the vast wilderness in front of her.
***
“We should be there in a couple minutes.” Alicia announced.
Maddy had been chipping away at an archive of Sudoku and word search puzzles for the past eight hours; she had close to ten thousand puzzles that she had downloaded back in 2149; she had made sure to download enough to last her a lifetime.
Maddy felt alert for some reason, as they approached the building, something felt...off. She couldn’t place the feeling specifically, but made sure to keep her hand near the rifle.
It was uncharacteristically quiet around them; there were faint sounds in the distance, of course, but nothing loud. Once they reached the short building, Alicia hopped out, and was quickly followed by Skye and Maddy. She too, had noticed the somewhat eerie silence that surrounded them and held her rifle tightly. Alicia immediately noticed that the soldier that was supposed to be waiting for them at the outer gate was not there; she tightened her hold on her gun.
Skye was the first to be hit; a single arrow flew through the air, and hit her upper arm. She fell to the ground with a strangled cry coming from her lips.
Alicia’s military training immediately set in, she pressed her back to the fence, and pushed Maddy behind her. Her gun focused on the area where the arrow had come from; nothing was there.
“Get inside!” She said hurriedly to Maddy, whose eyes were wide.
“But what about Sk-” Maddy tried to reach for her friend, who was trying to keep calm, even in her pain.
“Maddy. Get your ass inside the building; I’ll take care of Skye.” She shoved the girl inside of the fence.
She kept her gun poised and ready to shoot as she spoke, “How’re you doing?”
“The aim wasn’t perfect, so it missed the bone; it hurts like hell though,” Skye grunted, as some of her medical training set in,
“Once we get proper anaesthetics, you can just pull it out, and stitch the wound up; it didn’t go in deeply.”
“I’m going to get you inside, okay?”
“I can get myself inside,” Skye stood up warily, and started walking towards the door, obviously in pain, but screamed when she
saw the sight in front of her.
Maddy was lying face down on the ground, an arrow going right through her stomach; she wasn’t moving, or making any noise.
“Jesus Christ,” Alicia whispered before whipping into action.
Skye was already beside her boyfriend’s sister, and flipped her over carefully. With tears in her eyes, she checked for a pulse.
“Thank God, She has a pulse, but it’s weak, really weak. She must have hit her head when she fell, so she couldn’t scream.”
“We need to move her inside,” Alicia carefully placed her hands under Maddy’s body, careful to not to touch the wound.
Skye held onto Maddy’s feet, and moved towards the door. She winced as she reached for her key card to open the door with her
injured arm. She scanned the card, and the door opened; she immediately smelled blood.
“Oh God,” She whispered, as they moved towards the small medical room.
A soldier’s body was lying in the hallway, face up, and his caramel eyes wide open. Judging by the amount of blood, Alicia could tell that it was a bullet from a sonic pistol that killed him.
With her back, Alicia pushed the door to the room open. There was a biobed in the centre of the room, and a cabinet equipped with basic medicine. She set Maddy down on the bed carefully.
“Send a distress call,” the lieutenant thrust her comm at the nurse, who was frozen in place, “Now! I’ll take care of Maddy!”
Skye seemed to snap out of her reverie, and slipped out from her panicked frenzy, and immediately started transmitting. “Team Five to Terra Nova, come in,” static filled the air, “Requesting immediate rescue rovers to Outpost Six. Sixer attack, medical personnel needed!” More static was emitted.
“Nothing’s coming in, just static.”
Alicia took a deep breath, before turning to her, “I guess we’re on our own for now, then.”
***
Mark had sitting in the security centre for what seemed like days. He stared at the screens, looking for any abnormal activity, but saw nothing. He had responded to two radio calls during his long, ten hour shift. His ears were trained to hear even the slightest amount of static, so when he heard faint voices coming from the comm link he shot up, and towards it.
“Team Five to Terra Nova, come in!” Skye’s voice filled the room.
Mark heard the panicked tone in her voice, and immediately responded, “Terra Nova to Team Five, what’s your status?”
She didn’t seem to hear him, “Requesting immediate rescue rovers to Outpost Six. Sixer attack, medical personnel needed!”
Mark’s heart stopped. Maddy was at Outpost Six with Alicia and Skye. He could hear Alicia’s voice in the background, but not his girlfriend’s. With a sinking feeling, he responded, “Rescue rovers being prepared, more information?”
Static. Nothing but static.
“Skye? Come in! Terra Nova to Team Five, do you copy?”
Nothing.
Mark grabbed his own comm, and sent out a call. “Reynolds to the Commander, do you copy?”
“What is it Reynolds?” a gruff voice replied.
“A distress call from Team Five just came in, there was a Sixer attack, and they’re requesting immediate medical personnel and back-up.”
“Did you get who was injured?” He could hear the Commander running down to the garage to start preparing the rover.
“They stopped responding after the request.”
“Get Guzman on it, explain the situation, he’ll know what to do. Out.”
Mark immediately called the head of security, and explained what was going on, doing his best to keep calm. It took Guzman less
than two minutes to get to the centre, and start working on the connection.
“I’m going to hack the signal,” he explained quickly as he worked, “The connection is spotty there, so that’s probably why they’re not hearing us; if I do this, it’ll basically turn on the device, as if they were transmitting, but they won’t be able to hear us. This is the best I can do until the rover gets there, or signal is restored.”
Mark knew exactly what to do next, “Reynolds to Shannon, come in.”
“What Reynolds?” Jim’s agitated voice responded.
“We got a distress call from Maddy’s team, and they’re not responding.”
“What?”
“We got a di-“
“I get it Reynolds; who’s injured?”
“Skye made the call, and she didn’t say who was hurt, or the status of anyone stationed at the Outpost. Lt. Guzman is hacking the
signal, so we can hear what’s going on.”
“I’m heading over to the Centre now. Out.”
“Out.”
Mark went back to standing behind the Lieutenant. He felt...he couldn’t describe what he felt; he knew something was wrong, very wrong, he knew, but didn’t want to admit that Maddy was the one hurt.
“Rescue rovers are now being dispatched to Outpost Six.” Taylor’s voice crackled from the comm.
Jim arrived at the security centre within minutes, his wife, and his son trailing after him. The Commander was right behind them.
“Anything?” Jim asked.
Mark shook his head.
“I’m almost done cracking the signal,” Guzman said.
“As fast as you can Guz,” Taylor said, resting his hands down on the desk.
“Got it!” the lieutenant shouted victoriously as voices came through the comm link.
“Did you find anyone?” Alicia said.
“Yes, they’re all knocked out, and tied up in the rooms, they won’t be waking up anytime soon, and I can’t untie them with a
damned arrow in my arm.” Skye replied.
“Is the anaesthetic working?”
“My arm feels numb, so no pain. How are you doing on Maddy?”
“The arrow missed her vital organs, but is still very close. I’m prepping her for surgery; I’ll have to do it now if she’s going to survive. The last time I did surgery was in Somalia, so you’re going to have to help me out here. I’ve got her stabilized right now, and I can get that arrow out of your arm, and you can help me.”
“She’s going to be okay, right?” Skye’s voice wavered.
“I’m going to try my best to get her back to her family.”
“Oh fuck.” Josh said as he sank into the nearest chair. He didn’t just have his little sister injured, but he had his girlfriend, whom he loved, injured as well.
Nobody chastised him for his language. Elisabeth was crying into Jim’s chest; it was too much for her, Maddy was her oldest daughter, and Skye might as well be her daughter. Nathanial looked just about ready to run out of the building, and all the way towards the outpost, without stopping. Mark had a shine in his eyes, and was obviously trying to keep it together, and not break down in front of his CO’s.
“Breathe in and out,” Alicia soothed Skye.
“Just get it over with before I get complete feeling back in my arm.”
“If you insist,” And with that, she pulled the arrow out.
“Ow!”
“I thought you said you didn’t feel anything?” Alicia said as she started stitching the wound.
“That was five minutes ago.”
“I’m almost done; just give me a minute...there! Finished. Now, get out some of the tools, I’m going in the old fashioned way, because of how close in proximity the arrow is to her organs. Wrap your arm first though.”
They heard shuffling in the background, and drawers being opened urgently.
“I’ve got it, there’s already sanitized surgical tools in a compartment. Let me wrap my wound first.” Skye said, and there was silence for a few moments as she did so.
“Done? Hand me the scalpel, and monitor her vitals carefully.”
So quietly, the group almost didn’t hear it, Alicia whispered to the unconscious girl on the other side of the comm link, “Don’t worry Maddy, I’ll get you back to Mark, your parents, Josh, Zoe. Everyone.”
Mark seemed to be having an even harder time keeping himself together now. His girlfriend, from what he knew, could die within the next few hours. The woman who had practically taken him in when his father died was operating on her, and to top it all off, one of the first friends he had made in Terra Nova just had an arrow removed from her arm.
“Alicia? There isn’t a lot of sedatives left; she’ll only be under for half an hour, to an hour tops.”
“Oh Christ, this is going to take time, definitely more than an hour. Listen to me, when she wakes up, you need to calm her down;
she’ll be confused, disorientated, and scared. Calm her down, and administrate anaesthetics to her immediately; it’ll numb her lower chest area, but she’ll still feel something, since the medicine here isn’t as strong as what we have at the Infirmary. Most of all, keep her still, the slightest movement while I'm in there could possibly cause her death.”
Elisabeth let out a strangled cry, and Jim closed his eyes, and willed the tears in his eyes to keep back. Why, why, had he not insisted on tagging along with them, being the extra gun? Why had he let Maddy convince him that they were okay with just the three of them, listening to her when she said that they were fine since they all knew how to handle guns, and aim properly. She was his daughter; he supposed to always be there, whenever she needed him; he promised her that the day she was born, the first time he held her in his arms. By just standing where he was he was breaking a promise that he had sworn to keep.
“I’m starting Skye, remember, the moment you notice her having signs of waking up, tell me, so I can prepare.”
“Okay.”
A steady beeping sound was heard in the background as Alicia pierced the young woman’s skin.
“Wash? Do you think they’re going to get here in time?”
“I hope so, Skye, I really do. Sixers have probably taken the rover by now, and anything else that they could get their hands on.
They purposely hit Maddy so that the injury would be life threatening, and force us inside.”
“I don’t want to die out here.”
“I promise you, we won’t.”
“The Sixers know how close we are to the colony; Maddy the Sheriff’s daughter, and she dating Mark, a soldier who is close to the Commander, and will definitely be Lieutenant one day. Your Taylor’s second, his lieutenant, not to mention the sexual tension between the two of you, and-“
“The Commander and I are merely old friends, why can’t anyone accept that?”
“Let me finish! And I, I’m dating the Sheriff’s son-“
“You won’t be dating for long; you’ll be married within the next year,”
“How many times do I need to tell you to shut up? I’m dating Josh, and if they kill me, they’ll get to him, which will get to Jim, and
then, ultimately the Commander. It would present the perfect opportunity to ruin Terra Nova.”
“Maddy’s on the table; and you’re talking about the perfect way to capture the colony?”
“Sorry. I just...left so many things unsaid when we left.”
“Hand me the clamp. What things were left unsaid?”
“Here. Josh and I had a fight before we left, hence why he wasn’t there to see us off,”
“About what?”
“Family; I asked him what he thought about a baby.”
“You asked your boyfriend if he wanted to have a kid. Are you crazy?”
“No! I just asked if he wanted any kids, and he said ‘Someday in the distant future,’”
“Clamps again. How is that a fight?”
“Here you go. I freaked out, and stormed off.”
“Why would you do that? Unless...”
Elisabeth gasped. Jim’s eyes widened considerably. Taylor raised his eyebrows. Josh and Mark looked confused.
“Yep.”
“Why the hell are you OTG? Does he know?”
“Do you honestly think that Josh would let me go OTG if he knew?”
“Do I know what?” Josh said, panicky.
Guzman shook his head, as if to say, ‘He’s stupider, and slower than he looks.”
“We’re going to be grandparents!” Elisabeth exclaimed quietly.
“Wait, what? Maddy’s pregnant?” He turned to Mark, “I’m going to kill you, you son of-“
Jim shook his head, “Josh, I thought that you had more sense in you. Skye. Is. Pregnant.”
“What?! She’s-She’s...Oh God.” His head sank into his hands, “Why is today so damn eventful?”
“I thought I reminded you to have safe sex before you got married?” Jim told his son.
“You did.”
“Then why is she pregnant?”
“When was the last time I listened to you?”
“...Never.”
“Exactly.”
“She’s waking up!” Skye shouted.
“Shit, I’m going to have pull out until you calm her down and give her the anaesthetic.”
“I’ll only take a few moments; I’m preparing the hypo as we speak.”
Gurgling sounds, and a quiet, thick voice was heard in the background.
“Who are you?”
“Maddy, it’s me, Skye.”
“Skye? What happened?”
“There was a Sixer attack, you were hit, we’re operating on you right now, and I'm giving you a painkiller right...now!”
A hiss was heard, as Skye injected Maddy with the numbing medicine.
“There, done. Now, do not move, stay absolutely still, don’t even nod your head to acknowledge that you heard this; Alicia is going
back in, this will take another half hour or so. You can talk, as long as you don’t move.”
“I’m not going to die, am I?” Maddy’s voice wavered slightly.
“No, you’re not,” Skye said, but her voice lacked conviction; Maddy thankfully didn’t notice.
“Good, there are still a lot of things I want to do.”
“Like what?”
“Get married, have a baby, grow old.”
“With a certain soldier, perhaps?” Alicia’s voice cut in.
They could practically hear Maddy blush.
“I love him.” She replied simply.
“If it makes you feel any better, he asked me where the best place to buy rings from is.”
“Really? He has been acting a little weird lately...”
“Uh huh; he hasn’t asked your father yet, I think, since Jim hasn’t stormed into the Command Centre angrily recently.”
“You two have been dating forever, it’s about time. Remember, stay still.”
Jim turned to Mark, slowly, purposefully, and dangerously. “What did Wash just say?”
“Uh...Sir...Well...You see...” Mark rubbed the back of his neck, and avoided Jim’s gaze furiously.
“Well?” Another step towards the soldier.
“I love Maddy, and I already told you that I want to make her my wife one day, and I think that one day should be soon, I was going to ask you next week, after the ring came in!” Mark explained quickly.
“I-“Jim started.
“Jim! We don’t have time for you to argue with Mark about marriage! Maddy’s in surgery in the middle of nowhere!” Elisabeth exclaimed.
“...Sorry?”
“You only want me to get married because it might get Josh to propose!”
“That boy is denser than a tree sometimes,” Alicia said.
“Hey!” Josh exclaimed. “I’m not dense!”
The room’s occupants exchanged quiet looks with each other, not responding to his question.
“I love him, but he is quite dense sometimes, he can’t pick up the smallest hints. I said a ring was pretty, and I showed it to him,
and he just blew it off!”
“That’s my brother for you.”
“I always wondered what she meant by that...any ideas?” Josh rubbed his head.
Taylor turned to him, “Son, she showed you a ring, do you remember what type it was?”
“It had a diamond in the centre!” he supplied.
Taylor was silent for a moment, as Jim looked like he was giving himself a mental face plant “You know what son, I’m going to let you figure that one out on your own.”
“Are you almost done?” Maddy asked.
“Another half hour, and then we’re going to have to keep fluids running through your body until the rover gets here.”
“You’ve done surgery before, right?” Maddy asked.
“I’ve been trained as a medic in the military. The last time I did such an impromptu surgery like this was on the Commander.”
“Oh?”
“Somalia. 2139. Grenade by the Russo-Chinese, things flew all over the place, since the explosion was so large, the damage was
for clicks around, and Nathanial managed to get a piece of wood jammed into his chest. The hospital was too far away; he would’ve died if we hadn’t operated when we did. Thankfully, I had the emergency surgical kit, and we were able to seal up the wound, and stop the bleeding. The shard hadn’t hit anything, and was much less worse than yours; the only reason he would’ve died was of blood loss.”
“That must have been hard.”
“It was...but thing was, he wanted to die, he didn’t want me to save him. He was already broken because of Ayani’s death, and Lucas turning on him, and he didn’t really see any reason to live.”
“But you saved him anyways?”
“Of course, I told him that there was no way in hell I was letting him die, and then I knocked him out.”
“With what?” Maddy asked.
“My fist.”
The Commander chuckled, and touched his head. He remembered that day, he had wanted to die, and he had seen no reason to
live. He was glad Wash hadn’t listened to him, and saved him; he wouldn’t be standing where he was right now if it wasn’t for her.
“Ouch.”
“Ouch indeed.”
“How long has it been since we got here?” Maddy asked.
“About an hour?”
“Really? It seems like less.”
“You were knocked out for half of it.”
“Oh, yeah.”
“Skye, do me a favour. I’m almost done here, I just need to stitch up the wound properly, just go check to see if anyone’s woken up as yet.” Alicia said.
“You sure?”
“Yes.”
Shuffling was heard, and a door click sounded, signalling that Skye had left the medical room.
“Is anyone...dead?”
“One. My soldier, Davis. Good man.”
“Oh God, how are you going to tell his family?”
“That’s the part I hate the most; he has a young wife, and a nine week old son. Telling the family is the hardest thing to do. I’ve only
had to do it twice here, but that was because of Slashers, now, I have to tell his wife that he was murdered.”
“...Oh Maddy, don’t cry,”
“I’m sorry...I’m just thinking what she feeling, I don’t want to think about if someone came to my door, and told me that Mark...”
“Don’t you even think about that. I go on almost every mission OTG that he goes on, and there’s no way in hell I’m letting my little brother get killed.”
“Little brother?”
“Little brother, the-kid-that-beat-me-in-a-fight, same thing.”
“Still nothing!” Skye exclaimed, charging back into the room.
“Okay.”
“Uh...Wash?”
“What Skye?”
“Her vitals...”
Alicia turned her head to look at the small screen that was up, her blood pressure was dropping.
“Oh fuck.”
“There isn’t a lot more rounds of O positive left Wash,”
“I’m almost done,”
“Wash! Alicia! She’s arresting!” Skye practically yelled.
“Oh, God, no,” Elisabeth cried out, “When is the rover going to get there?”
“Its night Elisabeth, they’re going as fast as they can.” Taylor replied.
“Make them go faster! My daughter’s going into cardiac arrest, it could kill her!” She cried hysterically, clinging to her husband.
Taylor pulled out his comm, “Taylor to team three, do you copy?”
“Team three copies,”
“Are you going to reach the Outpost any faster? We’ve got a girl going into cardiac arrest, with only a few rounds of blood left.”
“Sorry Sir, we have to take the safer routes until daylight comes, to avoid the dino’s,”
“Got it, Taylor Out,”
“They’re going as fast as they can Elisabeth,”
“Skye,” Maddy said hoarsely, “Tell...Tell my family that I love them,”
“Oh God, don’t say goodbye Maddy! You’re going to pull through!”
“...Tell Mark-” She closed her eyes slightly, “-Tell him that I love him, and tell him not to spend his life mourning me and to move
on-” She choked out.
“Maddy! We’re going to get you back to Mark! Hang in there, don’t close your eyes, oh Christ, please don’t close your eyes!” Skye
cried.
Mark stopped worrying about what his commanding officers would think, and let the tears he had been holding in go. He sat down, and cried with his head in his hands. Taylor looked at him pityingly, but felt his soldier’s heartbreak; he was hearing his soul mate die.
A loud, flat beeping sound filled the air, causing Elisabeth to drop to the floor, a strangled cry emitting from her throat. Jim wrapped his wife in his arms, with his own tears streaming down his face.
“Out of the way Skye! I need to shock her!” Alicia shouted. “One, two, three! Oh come on Maddy!” Alicia pressed the CPR button on the bed again, and again.
A quiet, steady replaced the nonstop wail of beeps, causing every person in the room to do something in relief; all of the members
of the Shannon family cried out, as well as Mark, the Commander seemed to be thanking God, and Guzman looked lost.
“We got her back! Skye, keep doing what you were doing, I need to finish stitching up the wound.”
“She’ll be unconscious for the next few minutes.”
The duo seemed to work in complete silence from then on, only with the occasional order.
“I think my heart stopped beating when she flat-lined.” Alicia murmured, “Not only because I think of her like a little sister now, but
what would happen if I had to tell Mark that she was dead.”
“It scared me too.”
“I was the one to tell Mark that his father had been killed while on a mission OTG. I never want to see such pain in his eyes again.”
She took a deep breath before continuing, “He’s lost everyone; his mother, his grandfather, his father. He was in a dark place before Maddy came, he was angry at the world; he wanted to take on the most dangerous missions; he never came out of his house anymore, unless it was to work, not even his friends could get him to do anything. He was spiralling down the dark road of depression. When Maddy came he...woke up, I guess. He made an effort in the things he did, he stopped applying for OTG missions, unless they were short, and he went to Boylan’s with his friends. All in all, Maddy saved him.”
“Everyone knew that he was depressed, but I never knew it was that bad...”
“Well, he’s good now, better than good, he’s so whipped it isn’t funny. Maddy could tell him to act like a monkey in the market, and he’d do it.”
Laughter could be heard from the other side of the comm link.
“There, I’m done. Just keep those fluids flowing now. I’m going to go clean up.” Alicia said.
Jim turned to Mark, “Is what she said true?”
“About me being depressed? Yeah, I did some stupid things.”
“No, about Maddy saving you.”
“...Yes,”
“Where do you think you’d be today if we hadn’t come?”
“Dead.”
Jim’s eyes widened.
“What Alicia said is right, If Maddy hadn’t come, I probably would’ve ended up getting myself killed.”
“I'm going to try to make contact with the colony again now.” Alicia said, “Pass me my comm?”
“Here.”
“Team Five to Terra Nova, come in please.”
Taylor pressed the button to respond, “Terra Nova to Team Five. Wash, can you hear me?”
“Hello? Terra Nova please repeat,” Alicia said, and then shouted excitedly to Skye, “I think they’re getting our signal!”
“Wash? Its Taylor, can you read me?”
“Yes sir, you have no idea how good it is to hear from you,”
“Are you three okay? Rescue rovers have been dispatched, but they won’t be there for another few hours, so you need to keep
Miss. Shannon alive until then, can you do that?”
“Sir? How do you know that Maddy was hurt?”
“I got Guz to hack the comm link after Skye made the call, we heard everything. The surgery, Miss. Shannon flat-lining, bringing her back, everything,”
“Is her...”
“Yes. Along with Reynolds. Mr. Shannon is quite...let’s say terrified, at the prospect of becoming a father.”
“Wash! Hand that thing to me!” Skye shouted, “Josh? Are you there?”
Josh shot out of his chair, and ran towards the comm. “Skye? Oh God, are you okay? Is the baby okay?”
“We’re fine. I so sorry I didn’t tell you! I was going to tell you last night, but I freaked out! I-”
“Don’t worry, don’t stress yourself out. We can talk more later, just keep safe, please. I love you.”
“I will! I love you too.” Skye said.
“Now, where was I,” Wash said, “We’ve got one soldier dead, and the scientists are tied up, and are going to be passed out for God knows how long, if you don’t already know.”
“We know that.”
“Okay, what’s the ETA of the rovers?”
“Long time, just under seven hours. You guys won’t arrive at the colony until ten AM, or so.”
“You’re going to stay on with me the entire time, right?”
“Anything for you, Wash.”
***
Exactly as the Commander predicted, it was ten in the morning by the time two fully equipped rovers charged through the gates. Doctors were already waiting near the gates, ready to rush Maddy to the Infirmary. From the reports the rescue team, they had Maddy stabilized. Skye was given painkillers, to ease the pain in her arm.
Elisabeth grabbed her daughter’s hand the moment she saw her, and hung onto it tightly as the nurses wheeled her to the intensive care unit. Mark followed after them quickly, only stopping for a few seconds, to make sure Alicia was okay, but she had immediately shooed him away, and told him not to worry about her.
Skye and Josh had a tearful reunion, filled with ‘I’m sorry’s’, and the word ‘baby’. One of the nurses practically had to pull her out of Josh’s arms, and into the infirmary for a mandatory check-up.
Two soldiers had stayed at the Outpost, to stay with the frazzled scientists, and to secure Davis’s body until another rover arrived to take it back to the colony; Taylor had already organized a full military funeral, with medals, and twenty one gun salutes. He had gone to his widow’s house to deliver the news personally, and held the young woman in his arms as she sobbed.
The day had changed them all; the simple routine check had turned into something much more important. It made them realise how much family meant, how no matter what, family was always there to help you pull through.