Fanfiction: The Tribe pairing drabbles (various) 11-20
So, next set of 10 pairing drabbles. As I said in the first post, they're not all meant to be of the romantic kind, but more like exploring different dynamics in relationships that were or could have been.
11. KC/Patsy
Set Post s5
The Techno guard was yelling, insults directed at any ‘virt’ in hearing distance. Usually this would make them angry, but with the thrill of getting one over on a Techno guard it only made them burst out laughing. Patsy felt free for the first time in a very long time. She wasn’t even sure how long she had been someone’s prisoner anymore. And it had been so long since she had any reason to laugh, she had forgotten how it made her stomach hurt. She had forgotten how loud it was. KC was shushing her, but unable to keep himself from laughing. She clamped her hand over her mouth, her laughter turning panicky because she just couldn’t stop and the guard was too close. When she noticed the look on KC’s face she realised she wasn’t laughing anymore, she was sobbing. She couldn’t understand it, it was all too much. KC put his arms around her and pushed her head against his chest to muffle the sound. He kept whispering things in her ear, she couldn’t hear what but just the sound of his voice helped her calm down. After a while she was calm enough for him to let her go. The guard was gone, having moved on to look for the perpetrators of the latest prank.
“I don’t know what’s wrong with me,” she whispered, a sound that was something between a laugh and a sob escaping her.
KC smiled at her, the kind of smile she couldn’t ever remember seeing on his face back at the mall. Gentle, caring, just for her. She smiled back, she always did when he gave her that smile. He brushed her hair out of her face, his fingers lingering a little too long on her skin. And then, right there hiding behind a dumpster in the Techno prisoner courtyard, as if it was the most natural thing in the world, he leaned in and kissed her.
12. Amber/Trudy
S3 "Missing Moment" type thing.
Trudy didn’t know how long she had been in the woods, though every day away from her daughter felt like a week. Every single day Amber would sit with her for several hours. In the beginning she just sat in silence as Trudy cried and screamed and pleaded. Twice Trudy had tried to run away and got lost in the woods, only to be found by the Gaians and taken back.
Trudy gave in and stopped fighting, she stayed inside on the bed made by leaves and grass. That’s when Amber started talking. She’d tell Trudy things about the mall, things Trudy already knew but seemed so vague in her memory. One day she started telling Trudy things she didn’t know, about Dal, from before the virus. They both sat there with tears in their eyes and when Amber broke down completely, Trudy snapped out of it and rushed over to comfort her.
The next day Amber asked her if she wanted to come outside, and Trudy said yes. The sun peered through the leaves on the trees, and she felt more alive than she had in a long time.
“Do you remember Martin’s funeral, Trudy?”
“Zoot,” Trudy replied quickly.
“No, Trudy, his name was Martin. Remember? Why don’t you tell me about him?”
Trudy began talking about the Chosen’s visions, holding on to the things the Guardian had hammered into her head. Amber stopped her.
“No, tell me about Martin, the boy you knew before the virus. Do you remember the first time you met him?”
Trudy tried not to, but all those things she had locked away in the back of her mind were becoming less vague, the haze around those memories disappearing. She started talking, telling Amber every detail she could remember about the boy who loved her. Gradually Amber moved closer, soon holding a crying Trudy in her arms.
13. Zoot(Martin)/Trudy
s3. Sort of a companion piece to the one above.
“Are you here?”
Trudy whispered into the darkness around her. There was only a faint answer, something that sounded like a whisper in the air around her. She ignored the voice in her head telling her it was just the wind. She knew it was him. It had to be.
“I feel like I’m losing you again. I try to remember everything the Guardian taught me, but it’s so hard when I know what he did. You wouldn’t want me killed, I know that. You wouldn’t want Brady to be an orphan. So he must have been lying when he said you told him that. If he lied about that, what else did he lie about? Did you ever really speak to him?”
She stopped, held her breath. Her body shook as she tried to stop herself from sobbing. When she spoke again her words were barely audible, coming out between sobs.
“Did you ever really speak to me?”
14. Dal/Jack
Late series 3.
The workshop had been his safe haven once. It was where he could be the geek he was, where he could escape the outside world and all its dangers, it was where he could provide something to the tribe. It was where he and Dal had worked. Then he returned home and everything had changed. Dal was dead, and every minute spent in the workshop was a reminder of him. He could swear the place still smelled of him, a blanket from Dal’s sleeping area still left behind that he couldn’t bring himself to touch, he just left it there on the floor. It was Dal who had tried to organize the drawers and boxes, Jack couldn’t even stand to look in the boxes that kept some of their unfinished projects. Sometimes it was like he was still there, right behind him, and Jack would catch himself about to start talking, bounce ideas of him, only to realise Dal wasn’t there. He would never be there again.
Jack had thought Ellie would be his escape from it all; from the guilt over how he had treated his best friend, all the things he had said and all the things he had never found the courage to say because he just wasn’t very good with that sort of thing. But then there was Luke, and now Jack had lost everything.
So he left. He went to Dal’s grave and said goodbye, although he knew it wasn’t good enough to say it to a pile of dirt, and then he walked away from the city he had lived in his whole life.
15. Ram/Trudy
Post s5
One day he had appeared in front of the tribe without the Techno uniform, his trousers went from black to dark denim and the lycra top was replaced with something more loose-fitting. He stopped putting gel in his hair and let the spikes down, and the T on his forehead disappeared. It was far from a perfect look, but Gel had quickly offered to give him a full makeover to fit his “new image”.
The most important change she noticed though, was that he barely touched a computer anymore. He would work with Jack on planning alarm systems and explain to him how the Techno database worked (at least the things Mega hadn’t changed) but Trudy noticed that unless he absolutely had to he barely touched a computer himself. When she one day found him staring longingly at the laptop Jack had left behind on a table in the cafeteria of their new home, she confronted him about it. His gray eyes looked anywhere but at her, through the fringe he now had (and needed to cut), and he sighed deeply.
“I don’t trust myself with one of those anymore. I know what I’m capable of.”
His body was slumped forward, his voice and whole attitude screaming that he had given up, and although she found it difficult to forget the cold and ruthless Techno leader, she couldn’t help but be scared for him. She had been there herself.
“It gets better,” she said quietly. He looked up, finally meeting her eyes.
“What?” His eyes narrowed.
“It gets better,” she repeated, a bit more forcefully this time. “It’s hard to face up to what you’ve done and try to make things right, but it gets better. You’ll find something new to live for, and then it gets better.”
She could see the tears forming in his eyes. “Thank you,” he said, his voice barely more than a whisper.
“You’re welcome,” she said back with a smile.
16. Cloe/Patsy
Post s5
It was so unreal, like something out of a dream. Even after two weeks Cloe found herself staring at her best friend, not quite believing that she was really there. Sometimes she found herself reaching out and touching her, just to check. Brushing her hair aside, putting a hand on her shoulder, and sometimes pulling her in for a hug. Patsy would look at her funny when she did that, but with a smile on her face. Their beds had been pushed together and at night they would lie awake talking until they were so tired they couldn’t keep their eyes open. Sometimes they would cry, talking of all they had been through and all they had lost. But when she woke in the morning with Patsy’s light snore in her ear and their shared body heat keeping them both warm, then Cloe felt for the first time in so long that she would finally be alright again. Everything was a little easier with your best friend by your side.
17. Amber/Lex
Post s5
Amber had read many of those kind of love stories where the lovebirds seemed to hate each other before they suddenly realised it was only out of burning love they were arguing so much. She had never really liked those stories. Zandra did though, she had joked once that if Lex wasn’t hers she would have suspected their arguing being because of unresolved sexual tension. Well, it had been half a joke and half a warning. Amber hadn’t taken it seriously, it was just Zandra going on about her TV-shows again. It wasn’t how it happened at all. She had really hated him and everything he stood for. Yet at some point she learned to respect him, as he learned to respect her. Somewhere in all of the things that had gone on she had even come to care about him, they became friends. It had been a long process, and Amber had assumed friendship was what it all lead to.
She had been wrong. And all those movies, and TV-shows and books had been wrong. It hadn’t been passion or lust or any kind of unresolved tension that led them together. It had been grief. Coming to a new city had been stressful enough. Finding out that the Technos had a labour camp in the city and that this was where most of their friends had been taken, led to long and tedious work to find out what had really happened to them all. Amber had argued constantly with Jay, over herntrying to find Bray, over how considerate they should or shouldn’t be with Trudy, why he was letting Ebony flirt with him to make Slade jealous. Amber felt she should have known from the beginning that it would never last.
Then came the day they had been working towards; finding the truth about the one they loved the most. Tai-San and Bray were both dead. And this time it came from a crying Cloe, not some computer screen. Little Cloe, that once so innocent little girl, telling them how she herself had buried two of the people she loved and admired the most. Jay had tried to comfort her, but Amber didn’t want to know. Not when he had Ved back.
When Lex had shown up in her room with a green bottle in his hand, red eyes and his face contorted in something between anger and pure sadness. Amber had taken the bottle, knowing it would do no good to drown her sorrows like this, knowing she should be stopping Lex from drinking. But she was so tired of being responsible, so tired of hurting. Lex ranted and raved about the injustice of Ved, that brat Ved, being alive when Bray and Tai-San deserved it more. Amber had no strength left to argue against any of it, not when a voice in her mind was agreeing wholeheartedly with every word. How they ended up in bed together was anyone’s guess. Neither of them could remember it, and Amber suspected nothing much had actually happened. Not the first night, anyway. When Lex returned the second night it was without the alcohol, and it still led to the same thing.
After two months it had become a pattern. Sometimes they would just fall asleep in each other’s arms afterwards, other times they stayed up half the night talking. Lex was the only one who understood, the only one she could talk to or simply not talk to, if that was what she wanted. She had a feeling that she was the only one he opened up to. In a way it felt like talking about Bray and Tai-San made them more alive. Amber didn’t know if a relationship based on grief could ever work, but apart from her son it was the only thing making life bearable.
18. Jack/Tai-San
AU Series 1
She had been sitting completely unmoving for over an hour. He hadn’t moved from the computer in several hours. His eyes were sore, and his stomach was growling. With a sigh he pushed back and stood up. He moved towards the cupboards and found himself some tinned food. When he turned around Tai-San had stopped her meditating and was standing right behind him. He jumped, annoyed that she could move so silently.
“You want some?” He asked, holding the tin towards her. She shook her head, a small smile playing on her lips.
“I’m fasting, Jack. I need to heighten my senses so I can help you find what we’re looking for.”
“Right. Well, I need food before I pass out.”
“Then you should eat.”
“Thanks!”
He didn’t mean for it to come out so sarcastic, but Tai-San didn’t seem to notice. He sat down with his food, and started eating.
“Thank you, Jack, for staying. I know saying goodbye to Dal wasn’t easy, but if your friendship is strong enough then you will meet again.”
Jack just nodded, keeping his mouth full of food so he wouldn’t have to reply. He tried to ignore the image of Dal’s hurt face that kept flashing through his mind. Suddenly Tai-San’s hand was on his shoulder. Once again she had moved closer without a sound. When he looked up into her smiling face, he figured this wouldn’t be so bad after all.
19. Amber/Danni
Post s5
It was like some bizarre mix of déjà-vu and worlds colliding all at once; familiar, but also new and strange. Two spaces in time had collided, and it left a strange impression on the Mallrats who had been around for both. Amber and Danni both stood in the middle of the room, the rest of the Mallrats gathered around them, the eyes looking at them either critical or expectant.
Salene noticed the differences in Danni. How much weight she had lost, the bags under her eyes from sleepless nights due to nightmares, how her face was only just starting to lose that look of hollowness now that she’d had a few weeks out of captivity. Salene already felt closer to Danni this time around, she had after all been the one spending so much time at her bedside the first few days when she recovered. Danni had latched on to Amber pretty quickly, needing the leader to help her take the Technos down once and for all. Salene couldn’t help but feel scared, she had tried to warn Amber, that the fire in Danni’s eyes was a lot darker than the passion she had shown back at the mall. Danni was motivated by revenge this time.
Trudy couldn’t help but think back to their beginnings. They had started out at the same point, trying to lead a group of misfits to change the city they loved into a functioning society again. Their motivations might have been different, but their drive and ambition and goal had been the same. Amber had changed through the years, softened with the birth of her son, though also more determined of what kind of world she wanted him to grow up in. Trudy had always admired her strength. She had done the same with Danni, but back then it had been with a grudge. She had lost her friend, and there was a new girl trying to fit into that place Amber had left. Fitting in with Bray. Danni was different now; hardened by the time she’d spent in captivity. First with the Chosen, then with the Technos who had passed her on to those slave traders. Danni was starting to get back to her old self, speaking up and demanding to be heard, demanding to be followed, and as usual having to work much harder for it than what Amber ever did. Amber was a natural at it, even when she didn’t want to be a leader. Danni hadn’t had the same ability, but this time everyone listened without objection because the Mallrats felt guilt and saw the scars, emotional and physical, all over the girl they hadn’t looked for.
Ellie took notice of the little things. How Danni’s new outfit seemed custom-made to cover up the scars on her body. How her eyes never lingered anywhere, she was constantly looking around as if she just didn’t want to look too long at anyone. Her hair had been put in a style that seemed to constantly cover part of her face, and her hand was constantly touching the necklace she was wearing when she talked to people. There was so little left of the confidence Danni had once had. Ellie also noticed that Amber was behaving differently when Danni was with her. The other woman’s presence made her uncomfortable. Amber seemed to avoid Danni when she had her son with her, almost as if she worried the baby’s simple presence would hurt Danni in some way.
Jack listened to the women as they outlined the plan, thinking hard about his own task in the whole thing. It would take a lot of work and planning, but in the end he was sure it could be done and he told them so, earning a very rare smile from Danni and a thank you from Amber. When Ellie later commented on the tension between the two women, he just looked at her in confusion. Ellie rolled her eyes and told him to just get back to work.
A few weeks later it was all done. The Technos had been beaten and their last headquarters burned to the ground. Danni and Amber found themselves sitting on the roof of their new home, looking out onto a city that wasn’t theirs. It all felt strangely anti-climactic once the battle was over, the elation if victory had died down pretty quickly. There was still so much work to be done, so much damage to try and fix. Amber only had to glance at the woman next to her to see it. Danni was crying, silent tears running down her face. Amber reached out and took her hand.
“It’s gonna be okay, Danni.”
Danni looked at her and nodded. And for the first time since the Chosen had surrounded them on the beach, Danni felt like it would.
20. Lex/Trudy
Another rewritten excerpt from the same unposted Next Generation fic the Salene/Lex drabble was based on. I rewrote it so it would make more sense out of context, and removed some stuff that would give too much plot away, in case I ever take this up again and want to post it. The original wasn’t really a finished scene in the first place, more just a basic idea written down. Anyway, moving on. This is set 15 years post-s5, where Brady was kidnapped by the Chosen three years earlier due to Lex screwing up the plan to protect her. The Mallrats have just gotten a lead on where Brady is, and are planning to attack.
Lex busied himself with shining his boots, trying not to think too much of the battle ahead. It was all in vain though, when Trudy stood in the doorway. She leaned against the frame, arms crossed over her chest.
“Sal’s not here,” he began, wondering if Trudy had somehow forgotten that Salene spent every day at the school.
“I came to talk to you, Lex.”
Lex tried not to let his nerves show, just working harder on his boots while making a motion for Trudy to come inside. She stayed in the doorway.
“I need my daughter back, Lex. I need to get her home. And I need to be able to trust you. That you won’t screw up this time.”
Lex dropped his boot to the floor with a thud, finally looking up to meet her eyes. With a sigh he reached into the pocket on his sheriff’s vest, pulling out a necklace that he held out towards her. Trudy stepped closer, her mouth slightly open as she stared at the necklace.
“That’s Brady’s!”
Lex let the necklace fall into Trudy’s outstretched hand. “I found it in the sewers that day. Must have come off in the struggle, the lock is broken. She put up a fight.”
They both fell silent, battling the tears. Trudy caressed the heart-shaped locket, pressing it to her lips.
“I should have given it to you, I just… I had this idea that I’d find her and bring her home and then give it back to her. Three years later and I still have the damn thing.”
Trudy had given up fighting the tears by now. She reached out and took Lex’s hand, carefully putting the locket in his palm and closing his fingers around it.
“Keep it, you can give it to her when we get her home.”
Lex nodded, a determined look on his face. “We will. I’ll get that girl back home even if it kills me.”
Trudy looked at him, a sad smile on her face before she closed her eyes. She finally let go of his hand, taking a couple steps back.
“But then, that’s why you came to see me, isn’t it?” Lex asked, a hint of bitterness in his voice. Trudy pressed her lips together, looking away, only confirming what he suspected.
“You need someone with you to cover you as you go find her while everyone else is fighting, someone as desperate as you to get Brady out. And you can’t ask anyone else, because you don’t want them to die.”
“I don’t want you to die, Lex.”
“No, but I’m the only one you’re willing to risk, right?”
Trudy opened her mouth to speak, but there was nothing she could say to that.
“Would that be enough, risking my life? Would that be enough for you to forgive me?”
“Would it be enough for you to forgive yourself?” Trudy shot back angrily, visibly stopping herself from saying more. She turned around, walking towards the doorway again. Before she left she stopped, halfway out of the room.
“I just want my daughter back safe, away from them. You understand that, don’t you?”
Lex nodded, and Trudy gave him a small smile before she walked out. With a sigh Lex picked his boot up from the floor again.
11. KC/Patsy
Set Post s5
The Techno guard was yelling, insults directed at any ‘virt’ in hearing distance. Usually this would make them angry, but with the thrill of getting one over on a Techno guard it only made them burst out laughing. Patsy felt free for the first time in a very long time. She wasn’t even sure how long she had been someone’s prisoner anymore. And it had been so long since she had any reason to laugh, she had forgotten how it made her stomach hurt. She had forgotten how loud it was. KC was shushing her, but unable to keep himself from laughing. She clamped her hand over her mouth, her laughter turning panicky because she just couldn’t stop and the guard was too close. When she noticed the look on KC’s face she realised she wasn’t laughing anymore, she was sobbing. She couldn’t understand it, it was all too much. KC put his arms around her and pushed her head against his chest to muffle the sound. He kept whispering things in her ear, she couldn’t hear what but just the sound of his voice helped her calm down. After a while she was calm enough for him to let her go. The guard was gone, having moved on to look for the perpetrators of the latest prank.
“I don’t know what’s wrong with me,” she whispered, a sound that was something between a laugh and a sob escaping her.
KC smiled at her, the kind of smile she couldn’t ever remember seeing on his face back at the mall. Gentle, caring, just for her. She smiled back, she always did when he gave her that smile. He brushed her hair out of her face, his fingers lingering a little too long on her skin. And then, right there hiding behind a dumpster in the Techno prisoner courtyard, as if it was the most natural thing in the world, he leaned in and kissed her.
12. Amber/Trudy
S3 "Missing Moment" type thing.
Trudy didn’t know how long she had been in the woods, though every day away from her daughter felt like a week. Every single day Amber would sit with her for several hours. In the beginning she just sat in silence as Trudy cried and screamed and pleaded. Twice Trudy had tried to run away and got lost in the woods, only to be found by the Gaians and taken back.
Trudy gave in and stopped fighting, she stayed inside on the bed made by leaves and grass. That’s when Amber started talking. She’d tell Trudy things about the mall, things Trudy already knew but seemed so vague in her memory. One day she started telling Trudy things she didn’t know, about Dal, from before the virus. They both sat there with tears in their eyes and when Amber broke down completely, Trudy snapped out of it and rushed over to comfort her.
The next day Amber asked her if she wanted to come outside, and Trudy said yes. The sun peered through the leaves on the trees, and she felt more alive than she had in a long time.
“Do you remember Martin’s funeral, Trudy?”
“Zoot,” Trudy replied quickly.
“No, Trudy, his name was Martin. Remember? Why don’t you tell me about him?”
Trudy began talking about the Chosen’s visions, holding on to the things the Guardian had hammered into her head. Amber stopped her.
“No, tell me about Martin, the boy you knew before the virus. Do you remember the first time you met him?”
Trudy tried not to, but all those things she had locked away in the back of her mind were becoming less vague, the haze around those memories disappearing. She started talking, telling Amber every detail she could remember about the boy who loved her. Gradually Amber moved closer, soon holding a crying Trudy in her arms.
13. Zoot(Martin)/Trudy
s3. Sort of a companion piece to the one above.
“Are you here?”
Trudy whispered into the darkness around her. There was only a faint answer, something that sounded like a whisper in the air around her. She ignored the voice in her head telling her it was just the wind. She knew it was him. It had to be.
“I feel like I’m losing you again. I try to remember everything the Guardian taught me, but it’s so hard when I know what he did. You wouldn’t want me killed, I know that. You wouldn’t want Brady to be an orphan. So he must have been lying when he said you told him that. If he lied about that, what else did he lie about? Did you ever really speak to him?”
She stopped, held her breath. Her body shook as she tried to stop herself from sobbing. When she spoke again her words were barely audible, coming out between sobs.
“Did you ever really speak to me?”
14. Dal/Jack
Late series 3.
The workshop had been his safe haven once. It was where he could be the geek he was, where he could escape the outside world and all its dangers, it was where he could provide something to the tribe. It was where he and Dal had worked. Then he returned home and everything had changed. Dal was dead, and every minute spent in the workshop was a reminder of him. He could swear the place still smelled of him, a blanket from Dal’s sleeping area still left behind that he couldn’t bring himself to touch, he just left it there on the floor. It was Dal who had tried to organize the drawers and boxes, Jack couldn’t even stand to look in the boxes that kept some of their unfinished projects. Sometimes it was like he was still there, right behind him, and Jack would catch himself about to start talking, bounce ideas of him, only to realise Dal wasn’t there. He would never be there again.
Jack had thought Ellie would be his escape from it all; from the guilt over how he had treated his best friend, all the things he had said and all the things he had never found the courage to say because he just wasn’t very good with that sort of thing. But then there was Luke, and now Jack had lost everything.
So he left. He went to Dal’s grave and said goodbye, although he knew it wasn’t good enough to say it to a pile of dirt, and then he walked away from the city he had lived in his whole life.
15. Ram/Trudy
Post s5
One day he had appeared in front of the tribe without the Techno uniform, his trousers went from black to dark denim and the lycra top was replaced with something more loose-fitting. He stopped putting gel in his hair and let the spikes down, and the T on his forehead disappeared. It was far from a perfect look, but Gel had quickly offered to give him a full makeover to fit his “new image”.
The most important change she noticed though, was that he barely touched a computer anymore. He would work with Jack on planning alarm systems and explain to him how the Techno database worked (at least the things Mega hadn’t changed) but Trudy noticed that unless he absolutely had to he barely touched a computer himself. When she one day found him staring longingly at the laptop Jack had left behind on a table in the cafeteria of their new home, she confronted him about it. His gray eyes looked anywhere but at her, through the fringe he now had (and needed to cut), and he sighed deeply.
“I don’t trust myself with one of those anymore. I know what I’m capable of.”
His body was slumped forward, his voice and whole attitude screaming that he had given up, and although she found it difficult to forget the cold and ruthless Techno leader, she couldn’t help but be scared for him. She had been there herself.
“It gets better,” she said quietly. He looked up, finally meeting her eyes.
“What?” His eyes narrowed.
“It gets better,” she repeated, a bit more forcefully this time. “It’s hard to face up to what you’ve done and try to make things right, but it gets better. You’ll find something new to live for, and then it gets better.”
She could see the tears forming in his eyes. “Thank you,” he said, his voice barely more than a whisper.
“You’re welcome,” she said back with a smile.
16. Cloe/Patsy
Post s5
It was so unreal, like something out of a dream. Even after two weeks Cloe found herself staring at her best friend, not quite believing that she was really there. Sometimes she found herself reaching out and touching her, just to check. Brushing her hair aside, putting a hand on her shoulder, and sometimes pulling her in for a hug. Patsy would look at her funny when she did that, but with a smile on her face. Their beds had been pushed together and at night they would lie awake talking until they were so tired they couldn’t keep their eyes open. Sometimes they would cry, talking of all they had been through and all they had lost. But when she woke in the morning with Patsy’s light snore in her ear and their shared body heat keeping them both warm, then Cloe felt for the first time in so long that she would finally be alright again. Everything was a little easier with your best friend by your side.
17. Amber/Lex
Post s5
Amber had read many of those kind of love stories where the lovebirds seemed to hate each other before they suddenly realised it was only out of burning love they were arguing so much. She had never really liked those stories. Zandra did though, she had joked once that if Lex wasn’t hers she would have suspected their arguing being because of unresolved sexual tension. Well, it had been half a joke and half a warning. Amber hadn’t taken it seriously, it was just Zandra going on about her TV-shows again. It wasn’t how it happened at all. She had really hated him and everything he stood for. Yet at some point she learned to respect him, as he learned to respect her. Somewhere in all of the things that had gone on she had even come to care about him, they became friends. It had been a long process, and Amber had assumed friendship was what it all lead to.
She had been wrong. And all those movies, and TV-shows and books had been wrong. It hadn’t been passion or lust or any kind of unresolved tension that led them together. It had been grief. Coming to a new city had been stressful enough. Finding out that the Technos had a labour camp in the city and that this was where most of their friends had been taken, led to long and tedious work to find out what had really happened to them all. Amber had argued constantly with Jay, over herntrying to find Bray, over how considerate they should or shouldn’t be with Trudy, why he was letting Ebony flirt with him to make Slade jealous. Amber felt she should have known from the beginning that it would never last.
Then came the day they had been working towards; finding the truth about the one they loved the most. Tai-San and Bray were both dead. And this time it came from a crying Cloe, not some computer screen. Little Cloe, that once so innocent little girl, telling them how she herself had buried two of the people she loved and admired the most. Jay had tried to comfort her, but Amber didn’t want to know. Not when he had Ved back.
When Lex had shown up in her room with a green bottle in his hand, red eyes and his face contorted in something between anger and pure sadness. Amber had taken the bottle, knowing it would do no good to drown her sorrows like this, knowing she should be stopping Lex from drinking. But she was so tired of being responsible, so tired of hurting. Lex ranted and raved about the injustice of Ved, that brat Ved, being alive when Bray and Tai-San deserved it more. Amber had no strength left to argue against any of it, not when a voice in her mind was agreeing wholeheartedly with every word. How they ended up in bed together was anyone’s guess. Neither of them could remember it, and Amber suspected nothing much had actually happened. Not the first night, anyway. When Lex returned the second night it was without the alcohol, and it still led to the same thing.
After two months it had become a pattern. Sometimes they would just fall asleep in each other’s arms afterwards, other times they stayed up half the night talking. Lex was the only one who understood, the only one she could talk to or simply not talk to, if that was what she wanted. She had a feeling that she was the only one he opened up to. In a way it felt like talking about Bray and Tai-San made them more alive. Amber didn’t know if a relationship based on grief could ever work, but apart from her son it was the only thing making life bearable.
18. Jack/Tai-San
AU Series 1
She had been sitting completely unmoving for over an hour. He hadn’t moved from the computer in several hours. His eyes were sore, and his stomach was growling. With a sigh he pushed back and stood up. He moved towards the cupboards and found himself some tinned food. When he turned around Tai-San had stopped her meditating and was standing right behind him. He jumped, annoyed that she could move so silently.
“You want some?” He asked, holding the tin towards her. She shook her head, a small smile playing on her lips.
“I’m fasting, Jack. I need to heighten my senses so I can help you find what we’re looking for.”
“Right. Well, I need food before I pass out.”
“Then you should eat.”
“Thanks!”
He didn’t mean for it to come out so sarcastic, but Tai-San didn’t seem to notice. He sat down with his food, and started eating.
“Thank you, Jack, for staying. I know saying goodbye to Dal wasn’t easy, but if your friendship is strong enough then you will meet again.”
Jack just nodded, keeping his mouth full of food so he wouldn’t have to reply. He tried to ignore the image of Dal’s hurt face that kept flashing through his mind. Suddenly Tai-San’s hand was on his shoulder. Once again she had moved closer without a sound. When he looked up into her smiling face, he figured this wouldn’t be so bad after all.
19. Amber/Danni
Post s5
It was like some bizarre mix of déjà-vu and worlds colliding all at once; familiar, but also new and strange. Two spaces in time had collided, and it left a strange impression on the Mallrats who had been around for both. Amber and Danni both stood in the middle of the room, the rest of the Mallrats gathered around them, the eyes looking at them either critical or expectant.
Salene noticed the differences in Danni. How much weight she had lost, the bags under her eyes from sleepless nights due to nightmares, how her face was only just starting to lose that look of hollowness now that she’d had a few weeks out of captivity. Salene already felt closer to Danni this time around, she had after all been the one spending so much time at her bedside the first few days when she recovered. Danni had latched on to Amber pretty quickly, needing the leader to help her take the Technos down once and for all. Salene couldn’t help but feel scared, she had tried to warn Amber, that the fire in Danni’s eyes was a lot darker than the passion she had shown back at the mall. Danni was motivated by revenge this time.
Trudy couldn’t help but think back to their beginnings. They had started out at the same point, trying to lead a group of misfits to change the city they loved into a functioning society again. Their motivations might have been different, but their drive and ambition and goal had been the same. Amber had changed through the years, softened with the birth of her son, though also more determined of what kind of world she wanted him to grow up in. Trudy had always admired her strength. She had done the same with Danni, but back then it had been with a grudge. She had lost her friend, and there was a new girl trying to fit into that place Amber had left. Fitting in with Bray. Danni was different now; hardened by the time she’d spent in captivity. First with the Chosen, then with the Technos who had passed her on to those slave traders. Danni was starting to get back to her old self, speaking up and demanding to be heard, demanding to be followed, and as usual having to work much harder for it than what Amber ever did. Amber was a natural at it, even when she didn’t want to be a leader. Danni hadn’t had the same ability, but this time everyone listened without objection because the Mallrats felt guilt and saw the scars, emotional and physical, all over the girl they hadn’t looked for.
Ellie took notice of the little things. How Danni’s new outfit seemed custom-made to cover up the scars on her body. How her eyes never lingered anywhere, she was constantly looking around as if she just didn’t want to look too long at anyone. Her hair had been put in a style that seemed to constantly cover part of her face, and her hand was constantly touching the necklace she was wearing when she talked to people. There was so little left of the confidence Danni had once had. Ellie also noticed that Amber was behaving differently when Danni was with her. The other woman’s presence made her uncomfortable. Amber seemed to avoid Danni when she had her son with her, almost as if she worried the baby’s simple presence would hurt Danni in some way.
Jack listened to the women as they outlined the plan, thinking hard about his own task in the whole thing. It would take a lot of work and planning, but in the end he was sure it could be done and he told them so, earning a very rare smile from Danni and a thank you from Amber. When Ellie later commented on the tension between the two women, he just looked at her in confusion. Ellie rolled her eyes and told him to just get back to work.
A few weeks later it was all done. The Technos had been beaten and their last headquarters burned to the ground. Danni and Amber found themselves sitting on the roof of their new home, looking out onto a city that wasn’t theirs. It all felt strangely anti-climactic once the battle was over, the elation if victory had died down pretty quickly. There was still so much work to be done, so much damage to try and fix. Amber only had to glance at the woman next to her to see it. Danni was crying, silent tears running down her face. Amber reached out and took her hand.
“It’s gonna be okay, Danni.”
Danni looked at her and nodded. And for the first time since the Chosen had surrounded them on the beach, Danni felt like it would.
20. Lex/Trudy
Another rewritten excerpt from the same unposted Next Generation fic the Salene/Lex drabble was based on. I rewrote it so it would make more sense out of context, and removed some stuff that would give too much plot away, in case I ever take this up again and want to post it. The original wasn’t really a finished scene in the first place, more just a basic idea written down. Anyway, moving on. This is set 15 years post-s5, where Brady was kidnapped by the Chosen three years earlier due to Lex screwing up the plan to protect her. The Mallrats have just gotten a lead on where Brady is, and are planning to attack.
Lex busied himself with shining his boots, trying not to think too much of the battle ahead. It was all in vain though, when Trudy stood in the doorway. She leaned against the frame, arms crossed over her chest.
“Sal’s not here,” he began, wondering if Trudy had somehow forgotten that Salene spent every day at the school.
“I came to talk to you, Lex.”
Lex tried not to let his nerves show, just working harder on his boots while making a motion for Trudy to come inside. She stayed in the doorway.
“I need my daughter back, Lex. I need to get her home. And I need to be able to trust you. That you won’t screw up this time.”
Lex dropped his boot to the floor with a thud, finally looking up to meet her eyes. With a sigh he reached into the pocket on his sheriff’s vest, pulling out a necklace that he held out towards her. Trudy stepped closer, her mouth slightly open as she stared at the necklace.
“That’s Brady’s!”
Lex let the necklace fall into Trudy’s outstretched hand. “I found it in the sewers that day. Must have come off in the struggle, the lock is broken. She put up a fight.”
They both fell silent, battling the tears. Trudy caressed the heart-shaped locket, pressing it to her lips.
“I should have given it to you, I just… I had this idea that I’d find her and bring her home and then give it back to her. Three years later and I still have the damn thing.”
Trudy had given up fighting the tears by now. She reached out and took Lex’s hand, carefully putting the locket in his palm and closing his fingers around it.
“Keep it, you can give it to her when we get her home.”
Lex nodded, a determined look on his face. “We will. I’ll get that girl back home even if it kills me.”
Trudy looked at him, a sad smile on her face before she closed her eyes. She finally let go of his hand, taking a couple steps back.
“But then, that’s why you came to see me, isn’t it?” Lex asked, a hint of bitterness in his voice. Trudy pressed her lips together, looking away, only confirming what he suspected.
“You need someone with you to cover you as you go find her while everyone else is fighting, someone as desperate as you to get Brady out. And you can’t ask anyone else, because you don’t want them to die.”
“I don’t want you to die, Lex.”
“No, but I’m the only one you’re willing to risk, right?”
Trudy opened her mouth to speak, but there was nothing she could say to that.
“Would that be enough, risking my life? Would that be enough for you to forgive me?”
“Would it be enough for you to forgive yourself?” Trudy shot back angrily, visibly stopping herself from saying more. She turned around, walking towards the doorway again. Before she left she stopped, halfway out of the room.
“I just want my daughter back safe, away from them. You understand that, don’t you?”
Lex nodded, and Trudy gave him a small smile before she walked out. With a sigh Lex picked his boot up from the floor again.