The Next Chapter (3/?)
Title: The Next Chapter
Character/Pairing: Maddy Shannon/Mark Reynolds, with hints of Josh/Skye
Word Count: 2,205
Genre: Romance/Family
Rating: PG
Summary: Maddy and Mark are beginning their lives together.
Authors Note: I hope you guys like this chapter! Thanks for all the feedback. I spent the day the day writing, instead of working on my science project...my partners are going to be extremely bitchy when they find out...
1 2
Maddy and Mark sat snuggled together on the couch of their home. It had been almost a month since their wedding, and Maddy had hooked her datapad up to a projector, and were looking at an old movie, from the twentieth century, called Titanic. When Maddy had learned about Mark’s fascination for old ships years ago, she had immediately put on the movie, which involved something that they would both enjoy.
Maddy knew that Mark’s interest to old boats came from the fact that his father had been in the American Navy back in the twenty second century. He had been a captain on one of the ships, before dying of lung cancer shortly before Mariella had been recruited for Terra Nova. She had come because of her wide knowledge of different types of plants, and that knowledge came in helpful when new vegetation were discovered, or when the Agriculture detail needed help with planting new plant life.
Maddy sighed. “This is such a tragically heartbreaking story, but definitely not as tragic as Romeo and Juliet.”
“Romeo and who?” Mark asked quizzically.
“You have to be kidding me,” Maddy said, in shock. “Romeo and Juliet? The most tragic love story of all time? How do you not know that!?”
“Uh... I’m a guy?”
“We’re going to watch it right now.” Maddy said, taking Titanic off the screen, and flipping through her video collection to find the movie. “Do
you want the 1968 version, 1996 version, 2074 version, or the 2107 version? I personally think the 1996 one is the best.”
Mark sighed. Another tragic love story that would have Maddy weeping about how unfair life was. “1996 it is.”
***
Maddy Reynolds woke up the next morning alone. She sighed as she glanced at the clock. 8 AM. It was Tuesday, so Mark had two shifts today. From 7 AM to 11 AM, and from 12PM to 5PM, both on perimeter duty. He usually did Tower Duty, which was a fairly simple eight hour shift, but on Tuesdays and Fridays he did perimeter duty, which had a more erratic time table, that seemed to switch every other week. On days when the Commander left the base, he was part of the group of soldiers that accompanied him, and it worried Maddy every time.
Maddy heaved herself out of bed, and walked to the bathroom. She brushed her teeth, and then jumped into the shower for a quick bath. When she came out, she dressed in a thin, long sleeved shirt, and a pair of beige pants, and slipped her boots on. She made herself a cup of coffee, and ate some fruit, before heading down to the research lab.
The sky was a light blue colour that day, with hints of gray, signifying that rain would arrive within the next few days. Maddy stopped at Josh and Skye’s house to pick Skye up. The two usually walked to work together, since their houses were so close together. Skye usually worked in Agriculture, but since she and Josh announced their pregnancy, she had been transferred to work as one of the office assistants in the Lab. Skye absolutely hated it, but she knew she couldn’t do her normal job while carrying a child. She was due to come off work in three weeks, as working at eight months pregnant was not easy.
“Hey,” Skye said, walking out her home, her hand braced on her back, “What’s up?’
“Not too much, how’s the baby doing?” Maddy said.
“She’s kicking a lot; my bladder seems to be her favourite punching ball.” Skye laughed. Though the couple had chosen not to know the sex of their baby, Skye was set on the baby being a girl, and Josh said that he didn’t care, as long as the baby was healthy, but Maddy knew that Josh loved the thought of having a daughter. He loved playing the role of overprotective older brother; she could only imagine how much
he’d enjoy being the overprotective father.
“I really can’t believe that I’m going to have a little niece or nephew in just over a month!” Maddy said excitedly.
“I’m the one who’s going to go through the horrible pains of labour to give you that little niece.” Skye said.
“I can’t wait to have kids of my own one day,” Maddy said.
“Jim already looks like he’s aging a mile a minute just because he’s going to be a grandfather, and the fact that his little girl got married, what do you think he’d do if you announced that you were pregnant?”
“I don’t want to have kids now, Mark and I decided before we got married that we wanted to wait at least a year before thinking about a baby.”
“Ha! That’s what Josh and I said when we got married last year, now look at me, I got pregnant six months in.”
The duo reached the research lab with Skye having said the last word. Maddy didn’t get to reply because Skye waddled off to ask Dr. Wallace something about a chart he’d asked her to file.
Maddy sighed as she entered the building, still mulling over what Skye had said. Cacey conveniently interrupted her thoughts by excitedly running up to her.
“Maddy! There you are! Dr. Cairns made a discovery in one of the plants we found last year; you know the one that she’s positive is the cure for something?”
“Really? Where is she? That plant really does have interesting properties,” Maddy exclaimed.
Maddy rushed over to the Lab#4 as Cacey filled her in. She was investigating what the properties did together for some time, remember?
She thinks that the plant, mixed with another root has the potential to be a cure for cancer!”
“A cure for cancer? Wow, we’ve been trying to find that for years. Do you mean the purple root I’ve been studying?” Maddy said.
“Dr. Cairns believes that it’ll definitely cure blood cancers, like leukemia, she isn’t positive on the other types of cancer though,”
“Oh,”
The two excited scientists entered the lab, where Dr. Cairns had everyone huddled in a corner discussing her discovery.
“...This is amazing! This discovery could prevent so many people from dying!”
“...The properties of Dr. Sha-, I mean Reynolds root, plus this plant, plus a possible hint of a flora from Dr. Chan’s Lab, could possibly cure cancer! There is a possibility that it could only cure blood cancers though...”
“Dr. Reynolds! Can you go get some of the root? I want to get started on testing the two together, and only you know the properties of that
root the best!”
Maddy’s head was spinning; she leaned on the counter for support for a moment, before agreeing with Dr. Cairns to retrieve the root. She walked to her lab purposely, and took the root out from the case it had been placed in. She rushed back to the lab, and handed her the root carefully.
“Out now! We need peace to work!” Dr. Cairns exclaimed to the inhabitants of the room.
The other scientists filed out, back to their own labs. Cacey left to return to Lab #6, where she studied different types of dinosaurs, particularly species that were mainly found on the coast. Cacey loved going out to do field work, since the settlement was so close to the shoreline, she got the chance every month.
It was after six o’clock by the time Maddy left the Lab. Dr. Cairns had decided to stay until much later, to continue to investigate the ground braking discovery. She walked home silently, because Skye didn’t walk home with her, since the people who worked in the office got off at five, while whoever worked in the labs had to stay to at least six each day, longer if they felt like staying.
She reached her home to find the lights on. That meant that Mark was home. Maddy sighed happily as she walked into the house. It was quiet inside, and the only light on was in the kitchen. Maddy found two plates of spaghetti waiting for her on the kitchen counter, inside the warming box. Maddy looked around for Mark, and saw a pair of feet sticking out from the couch that’s back faced her. She tip toed quietly towards the couch, and saw Mark spread out, his eyes closed. She smiled tenderly, and sat on the edge of the chair. She brushed a soft piece of dark brown hair out of his face, and ran her delicate thumb over his lips. She didn’t want to wake him, especially since he looked so tired. As she got up to leave, Mark’s hand pulled her down.
“Stay,” he murmured sleepily, pulling her down.
She looked into his tri-coloured eyes, and found herself saying, “Okay.”
She lay down on the chair, and snuggled into Mark’s chest. She sighed contently, inhaling his masculine scent of freshly cut grass, and clovers.
“Tough day?” Maddy asked quietly.
“Definitely. Some idiot decided to walk outside the gates, without a gun, or anything at all. We had bring him back, and by that time he was already a mile into the jungle, and hiding in a hallow tree.”
“Was he okay?”
“Pretty much; Just needed a couple of stitches; Alicia is still trying to come up with a suitable punishment.” Mark looked down at his wife.
“I actually feel bad for the kid. Alicia is a huge bitch when it comes to punishing people who go outside the gates without permission.”
“I was one of those kids. I snuck out from the east side because I was mad at my Mom. Ended up with the same punishment Josh got when you guys first came. Mom grounded me for a month, and yelled at me about how much I had scared her, and then promptly burst into tears.”
“How could you have done that to your mother?”
“She told me I couldn’t go to a party, and I wasn’t happy with her decision. I was a stupid idiot back then though,” Mark shrugged.
“I agree.”
Mark smirked at her answer, and looked into her chocolate eyes. “Do you think I’m a stupid idiot now?” he kissed the corner of her lips
teasingly.
Maddy’s breath hitched. “N-No.” They’d been together for five years, and he still had this effect on her.
“You sure?” Mark placed petal soft kisses down her jaw line.
“Positive.”
Mark finally placed his lips on hers, and she sighed against him as he pulled her closer. Maddy ran her hands through his hair, as he wrapped his arms around her waist. Maddy felt herself slipping away from reality as he trailed kisses down her slender neck. But then, of course, someone had to interrupt the moment.
Ding Dong. The doorbell went, as Mark groaned. Maddy sat up, and made her way to the door. She opened it to reveal Josh.
“Hey. Do you think that I can crash here for the night, Skye kicked me out.” Josh ran his hand through his hair sheepishly.
Maddy sighed, “Again? What exactly did you do to get kicked out this time?”
“I said that her stomach was getting bigger, and she thought that I was implying that she was fat.”
Maddy shook her head sadly, “Joshy, Joshy, Joshy,” Josh winced at the unfortunate nickname. “What on earth possessed you to say
something like that? You remember what Mom was like when she was pregnant with Zoe.”
Josh winced yet again at the memory of his mother yelling at his father one night after he had made the same mistake as Josh. Except her
father had gotten a vase thrown at his head, which thankfully missed. Elisabeth had promptly burst out in tears after.
“Come in.”
“Thanks sis,” Josh walked into the house, and into the guest room. He decided to give his parents at least two weeks break of him coming into the house in the middle of the night.
“I’m tired. Night.”
“Goodnight.”
Maddy walked to the kitchen. “We should eat dinner, I guess.”
Mark sat up from the chair, “Dinner it is.”
Character/Pairing: Maddy Shannon/Mark Reynolds, with hints of Josh/Skye
Word Count: 2,205
Genre: Romance/Family
Rating: PG
Summary: Maddy and Mark are beginning their lives together.
Authors Note: I hope you guys like this chapter! Thanks for all the feedback. I spent the day the day writing, instead of working on my science project...my partners are going to be extremely bitchy when they find out...
1 2
Maddy and Mark sat snuggled together on the couch of their home. It had been almost a month since their wedding, and Maddy had hooked her datapad up to a projector, and were looking at an old movie, from the twentieth century, called Titanic. When Maddy had learned about Mark’s fascination for old ships years ago, she had immediately put on the movie, which involved something that they would both enjoy.
Maddy knew that Mark’s interest to old boats came from the fact that his father had been in the American Navy back in the twenty second century. He had been a captain on one of the ships, before dying of lung cancer shortly before Mariella had been recruited for Terra Nova. She had come because of her wide knowledge of different types of plants, and that knowledge came in helpful when new vegetation were discovered, or when the Agriculture detail needed help with planting new plant life.
Maddy sighed. “This is such a tragically heartbreaking story, but definitely not as tragic as Romeo and Juliet.”
“Romeo and who?” Mark asked quizzically.
“You have to be kidding me,” Maddy said, in shock. “Romeo and Juliet? The most tragic love story of all time? How do you not know that!?”
“Uh... I’m a guy?”
“We’re going to watch it right now.” Maddy said, taking Titanic off the screen, and flipping through her video collection to find the movie. “Do
you want the 1968 version, 1996 version, 2074 version, or the 2107 version? I personally think the 1996 one is the best.”
Mark sighed. Another tragic love story that would have Maddy weeping about how unfair life was. “1996 it is.”
***
Maddy Reynolds woke up the next morning alone. She sighed as she glanced at the clock. 8 AM. It was Tuesday, so Mark had two shifts today. From 7 AM to 11 AM, and from 12PM to 5PM, both on perimeter duty. He usually did Tower Duty, which was a fairly simple eight hour shift, but on Tuesdays and Fridays he did perimeter duty, which had a more erratic time table, that seemed to switch every other week. On days when the Commander left the base, he was part of the group of soldiers that accompanied him, and it worried Maddy every time.
Maddy heaved herself out of bed, and walked to the bathroom. She brushed her teeth, and then jumped into the shower for a quick bath. When she came out, she dressed in a thin, long sleeved shirt, and a pair of beige pants, and slipped her boots on. She made herself a cup of coffee, and ate some fruit, before heading down to the research lab.
The sky was a light blue colour that day, with hints of gray, signifying that rain would arrive within the next few days. Maddy stopped at Josh and Skye’s house to pick Skye up. The two usually walked to work together, since their houses were so close together. Skye usually worked in Agriculture, but since she and Josh announced their pregnancy, she had been transferred to work as one of the office assistants in the Lab. Skye absolutely hated it, but she knew she couldn’t do her normal job while carrying a child. She was due to come off work in three weeks, as working at eight months pregnant was not easy.
“Hey,” Skye said, walking out her home, her hand braced on her back, “What’s up?’
“Not too much, how’s the baby doing?” Maddy said.
“She’s kicking a lot; my bladder seems to be her favourite punching ball.” Skye laughed. Though the couple had chosen not to know the sex of their baby, Skye was set on the baby being a girl, and Josh said that he didn’t care, as long as the baby was healthy, but Maddy knew that Josh loved the thought of having a daughter. He loved playing the role of overprotective older brother; she could only imagine how much
he’d enjoy being the overprotective father.
“I really can’t believe that I’m going to have a little niece or nephew in just over a month!” Maddy said excitedly.
“I’m the one who’s going to go through the horrible pains of labour to give you that little niece.” Skye said.
“I can’t wait to have kids of my own one day,” Maddy said.
“Jim already looks like he’s aging a mile a minute just because he’s going to be a grandfather, and the fact that his little girl got married, what do you think he’d do if you announced that you were pregnant?”
“I don’t want to have kids now, Mark and I decided before we got married that we wanted to wait at least a year before thinking about a baby.”
“Ha! That’s what Josh and I said when we got married last year, now look at me, I got pregnant six months in.”
The duo reached the research lab with Skye having said the last word. Maddy didn’t get to reply because Skye waddled off to ask Dr. Wallace something about a chart he’d asked her to file.
Maddy sighed as she entered the building, still mulling over what Skye had said. Cacey conveniently interrupted her thoughts by excitedly running up to her.
“Maddy! There you are! Dr. Cairns made a discovery in one of the plants we found last year; you know the one that she’s positive is the cure for something?”
“Really? Where is she? That plant really does have interesting properties,” Maddy exclaimed.
Maddy rushed over to the Lab#4 as Cacey filled her in. She was investigating what the properties did together for some time, remember?
She thinks that the plant, mixed with another root has the potential to be a cure for cancer!”
“A cure for cancer? Wow, we’ve been trying to find that for years. Do you mean the purple root I’ve been studying?” Maddy said.
“Dr. Cairns believes that it’ll definitely cure blood cancers, like leukemia, she isn’t positive on the other types of cancer though,”
“Oh,”
The two excited scientists entered the lab, where Dr. Cairns had everyone huddled in a corner discussing her discovery.
“...This is amazing! This discovery could prevent so many people from dying!”
“...The properties of Dr. Sha-, I mean Reynolds root, plus this plant, plus a possible hint of a flora from Dr. Chan’s Lab, could possibly cure cancer! There is a possibility that it could only cure blood cancers though...”
“Dr. Reynolds! Can you go get some of the root? I want to get started on testing the two together, and only you know the properties of that
root the best!”
Maddy’s head was spinning; she leaned on the counter for support for a moment, before agreeing with Dr. Cairns to retrieve the root. She walked to her lab purposely, and took the root out from the case it had been placed in. She rushed back to the lab, and handed her the root carefully.
“Out now! We need peace to work!” Dr. Cairns exclaimed to the inhabitants of the room.
The other scientists filed out, back to their own labs. Cacey left to return to Lab #6, where she studied different types of dinosaurs, particularly species that were mainly found on the coast. Cacey loved going out to do field work, since the settlement was so close to the shoreline, she got the chance every month.
It was after six o’clock by the time Maddy left the Lab. Dr. Cairns had decided to stay until much later, to continue to investigate the ground braking discovery. She walked home silently, because Skye didn’t walk home with her, since the people who worked in the office got off at five, while whoever worked in the labs had to stay to at least six each day, longer if they felt like staying.
She reached her home to find the lights on. That meant that Mark was home. Maddy sighed happily as she walked into the house. It was quiet inside, and the only light on was in the kitchen. Maddy found two plates of spaghetti waiting for her on the kitchen counter, inside the warming box. Maddy looked around for Mark, and saw a pair of feet sticking out from the couch that’s back faced her. She tip toed quietly towards the couch, and saw Mark spread out, his eyes closed. She smiled tenderly, and sat on the edge of the chair. She brushed a soft piece of dark brown hair out of his face, and ran her delicate thumb over his lips. She didn’t want to wake him, especially since he looked so tired. As she got up to leave, Mark’s hand pulled her down.
“Stay,” he murmured sleepily, pulling her down.
She looked into his tri-coloured eyes, and found herself saying, “Okay.”
She lay down on the chair, and snuggled into Mark’s chest. She sighed contently, inhaling his masculine scent of freshly cut grass, and clovers.
“Tough day?” Maddy asked quietly.
“Definitely. Some idiot decided to walk outside the gates, without a gun, or anything at all. We had bring him back, and by that time he was already a mile into the jungle, and hiding in a hallow tree.”
“Was he okay?”
“Pretty much; Just needed a couple of stitches; Alicia is still trying to come up with a suitable punishment.” Mark looked down at his wife.
“I actually feel bad for the kid. Alicia is a huge bitch when it comes to punishing people who go outside the gates without permission.”
“I was one of those kids. I snuck out from the east side because I was mad at my Mom. Ended up with the same punishment Josh got when you guys first came. Mom grounded me for a month, and yelled at me about how much I had scared her, and then promptly burst into tears.”
“How could you have done that to your mother?”
“She told me I couldn’t go to a party, and I wasn’t happy with her decision. I was a stupid idiot back then though,” Mark shrugged.
“I agree.”
Mark smirked at her answer, and looked into her chocolate eyes. “Do you think I’m a stupid idiot now?” he kissed the corner of her lips
teasingly.
Maddy’s breath hitched. “N-No.” They’d been together for five years, and he still had this effect on her.
“You sure?” Mark placed petal soft kisses down her jaw line.
“Positive.”
Mark finally placed his lips on hers, and she sighed against him as he pulled her closer. Maddy ran her hands through his hair, as he wrapped his arms around her waist. Maddy felt herself slipping away from reality as he trailed kisses down her slender neck. But then, of course, someone had to interrupt the moment.
Ding Dong. The doorbell went, as Mark groaned. Maddy sat up, and made her way to the door. She opened it to reveal Josh.
“Hey. Do you think that I can crash here for the night, Skye kicked me out.” Josh ran his hand through his hair sheepishly.
Maddy sighed, “Again? What exactly did you do to get kicked out this time?”
“I said that her stomach was getting bigger, and she thought that I was implying that she was fat.”
Maddy shook her head sadly, “Joshy, Joshy, Joshy,” Josh winced at the unfortunate nickname. “What on earth possessed you to say
something like that? You remember what Mom was like when she was pregnant with Zoe.”
Josh winced yet again at the memory of his mother yelling at his father one night after he had made the same mistake as Josh. Except her
father had gotten a vase thrown at his head, which thankfully missed. Elisabeth had promptly burst out in tears after.
“Come in.”
“Thanks sis,” Josh walked into the house, and into the guest room. He decided to give his parents at least two weeks break of him coming into the house in the middle of the night.
“I’m tired. Night.”
“Goodnight.”
Maddy walked to the kitchen. “We should eat dinner, I guess.”
Mark sat up from the chair, “Dinner it is.”