To All: Sorry if last chapter was confusing at the end there, that was actually the goal, so I guess I succeeded? xD Anyway, here's cutesy little chapter before things get for serious. :P

"Lucas, get up!" Skye was shouting in his ear as the world finally came back into focus. His back was burning, but as he maneuvered into a standing position, he realized that it was because he had slid down the rough bark of a tree; the pain equivalent of rubbing his back on a cheese grater. He breathed carefully at the fresh source of pain, grimacing as he felt the scrapes start to bleed. The side of his face suddenly stung as Skye slapped him across the face. He clutched his cheek, his eyes flying open.

"What the hell are you doing?" He spat, twisting away from her.

"What am I doing? What the hell are you doing!" She fumed, hot tears running down her face. His shocked gaze softened as he saw that she was more upset out of worry than of rage. "Why didn't you tell me you were feeling funny? You can't just start falling over all the sudden and expect me to just think that's normal!" She hiccupped a small sob.

He cocked his head, still wincing at the pain from his back. "Why are you crying?"

She sighed dramatically, shaking her head before answering. "I knew it, I knew you weren't okay. I..I shouldn't have let you just walk away when you've got a bite on your hand. Actually, I shouldn't have even thought you were better at all; you still have two bullet wounds in your chest. A few days and you're good as new? Yeah, right. Good one Skye. He's Lucas Taylor, not Superman. You know, I-"

"Skye." He stopped her rambling, and her name hung in the air for a few moments as he searched her face. She looked terrified and overwhelmed. And it was his fault, as usual. Not that he could have even told her his body was going south, it happened so fast...one minute he was carrying her with a smile, then next he was on the ground with a hazy brain and muscles that felt like they were being traced with a blowtorch. He knew it was bad, but he wasn't a doctor. All he knew was that something was very wrong. It was probably all that stupid chicken-dinosaur's fault too.

"We're almost to the falls, we get there and we can try to figure this out..." He trailed off, unsure if he was effectively dealing with the problem.

Skye was still sucking in shaky breaths, but she willed herself to calm down, nodding quickly at Lucas's suggestion. He offered a weak smile and started off into the forest, leaving her by herself for a moment.

Knowing he was out of sight almost made her break down again. He didn't know it, but he was in big trouble. She'd never seen anything like what had just happened, and she had plenty of hours in the infirmary. He just..fell. His face contorted with pain, the same look he'd had when she found him dragging his useless body in the grass a few days ago. He needed professional help, and the only way he was going to get it was going back to Terra Nova; the one place he could not go. She could sneak him in maybe, Dr. Shannon would probably help her if she explained what was going on. Elizabeth was a good doctor, she would help him regardless of his status in the colony. Well, she hoped so anyway. If not, he would probably still get healed, but then get sent to the Brig and watched 24/7. But he wouldn't be dead. That was enough for her, she didn't know how much more of this emotional roller coaster she could take. Before this little adventure, seeing even her closest friend fall down out of sickness would probably call her into action, not send her bawling like a schoolgirl. She was tough. She used to be tough. No, she was still tough.

She nearly screamed as Lucas's arms wrapped around her, pulling her to her feet. He chuckled, and the familiar feeling of his rumbling vocal chords instantly calmed her.

"Time for daydreaming later, Bucket. We've still got a hike ahead of us."

She turned, looping her arms round his waist, a stern look in her eye. "Only if you promise to tell me when you're feeling bad. Woozy, nauseous, I don't care if its just your stomach growling, I want to know," She demanded, a smile playing on her lips. Lucas shrugged, playfully shoving her forward into the forest.

"So why'd you pick Snakehead Falls to draw on?" Skye asked after a bit of walking, "I mean, I know you wanted to mock the Commander, but why not somewhere else?"

A bit of darkness returned to Lucas eyes, and Skye felt a flush of regret for asking the question. "My father loves phenomenon. Storms, tornadoes, caves, anything that humans can't create on their own. He used to sit there reading books about tigers for God's sake. 'Boy, these creatures could kill a man with one swipe of their paw, whoosh! Dead before you knew it!' Please," Lucas rolled his eyes, "He would believe anything written on paper, if someone wrote a book about aliens, he believed every word, though he thinks that its just his little secret, ever since some guys in his squad called him crazy. He sits there thinking he's The One, the guy to whom all the world's secrets are revealed," He chuckled, remembering something from a long time ago, "But yet, he never believed science. Even after someone proved to him that you could shoot a man with a sonic pistol and not kill them, he still claimed that it was a fatal weapon. I bet he still thinks it's some optical illusion or something."

Skye managed to force a smile, feeling a tug of disappointment that Lucas still held such hatred toward his father. She could only take heart that he hadn't explicitly said he's hated him since his 'recovery'. "Did you have a lot of friends back in 2149?" She asked quickly, steering the conversation away from Taylor before Lucas's blood pressure made him pass out again.

"Did you?" He returned, and Skye felt her brain jump a little, not expecting the question.

She shrugged, "I had a friend named Harley. Her dad was in the military too, and we lived on the same base. She's where I got my boyish attitude on things. She took it as an insult to be called girly, and she was always dragging me into wrestling matches and fear contests with the guys around the base." She smiled fondly.

"Fear contests?" Lucas questioned, cocking an eyebrow.

"Yeah, they were the best entertainment on base. Usually we'd go by the pond in the back of the barracks dome, and we'd have to do something that scared us or grossed us out. Last person left standing was the winner. Harley always won, she was the definition of fearless, so much so that she nearly got killed a few times."

Lucas snorted, and Skye caught a bit of a smirk on his lips.

"What?" She prodded, smiling.

He shrugged, "Nothing, just imagining what you guys thought was scary."

Skye laughed, "The scary part never got me, I was always pinched by the grossout round, sometimes I could make it through that, but then the awkward round was impossible."

"Awkward round?" She was the twinkle of intrigue in his eyes.

"Yeah, I was always either pitted against Harley or Justin. But the scary rounds were always the most entertaining they-"

"What did you have to do?" Lucas asked, keeping his eyes on her as they hiked.

Skye shrugged, suddenly wishing she hadn't brought it up. "Just awkward stuff, like walking up to a random soldier and using a lame pickup line, stuff like that, no big deal."

"Then why did you always get out?" Lucas smirked, knowing he'd trapped her.

Skye laughed nervously, readjusting the shoulder straps on her backpack. "Are you feeling funny or anything?" She asked suddenly, blatantly avoiding his question.

"Skye..." His eyes glinted, demanding an answer, "What did you have to do?"

"I don't have to tell you, that's my business." She lifted her chin, smirking at him.

"Last time something was your business, you told me anyway." He countered, and she remembered sitting at Boylan's just before Josh gave him a knuckle sandwich.

She relented, knowing he was going to get it out of her sooner or later. "Fine. There was this bar at the edge of the dome, it had really crappy alcohol, but it was cheap so all the soldiers hung around. Some of the soldiers we knew, some of them we didn't. That was the awkward part. Chris, the guy who was always in charge of the game, would pick one of the new privates. Boy or girl, he didn't care. He'd take them out back and tell them that someone special wanted to see them. Meanwhile, we'd be waiting around the corner. When the private walked out, we'd have to basically attack them with a makeout session. The problem was, sometimes it was someone you knew, or even worse, someone your parents knew," She started blushing at the thought, "Both times I finally manned up and agreed to do it, Chris picked Darren Blake."

"And who was that?" Lucas asked with a sly grin.

"Lets just say he was very nice to look at...he also happened to be the golden boy in my dad's squad." She still felt the rush of embarrassment just thinking about it. That had been an awkward conversation when her dad got wind of it.

She laughed suddenly, "That wasn't even the worst part, when they finally broke it off-you had to wait until they broke it off or it didn't count-you had to rate them," She shuddered, "And it seemed the worse they were at kissing, the longer they wanted to go."

"Hmm, sounds awkward to me." Lucas replied, though his voice sounded distant.

Relieved that her embarrassing storytelling was over, she straightened, "So what about your friends? Or was Lucas Taylor a hermit back in 2149 too?"

A hint of a smile returned to his lips, "No, I wasn't a complete hermit. I had my group of friends, drinking buddies, PhDs, scientists, the usual," He chuckled, "The closest thing we had to fear contests was figuring out how to make rainbow shots with chemical reactions."

Skye could hardly imagine Lucas Taylor getting drunk with a bunch of guys, but yet she could see that Lucas hadn't always been so...dangerous. There had to have been some point in time where he wasn't totally focused on destroying his father, some time where he had his own life.

She didn't realize he'd stopped walking until she bumped into him, and found he was facing her. She blinked, wondering if maybe he wasn't feeling well again. He leaned in until she could feel the heat waves from his skin

"But you know, your game sounds a bit more fun,"

She didn't have time to respond before he captured her in a forceful kiss, hungrily pressing his tongue past her lips. She stumbled backwards, not expecting him to, well, kiss her like that. He caught her before she could fall, keeping their mouths linked in a tight battle. As usual, he took control, leaving her one step behind as she tried to match his masterful tongue movements. It was incredibly frustrating, but she felt a fizzy tingle of pleasure running through her bloodstream. She suddenly felt herself backed against the broad trunk of a tree, but Lucas kept coming, pressing himself wonderfully close. She gripped his back, and heard a grunt of pain as she touched the raw cuts from earlier. She lightened her grip, but not by much, getting swept away in his lips before she could do much of anything.

Just the taste of him was driving her mad, and she when took the time to savor it, the craving grew tenfold. She simply couldn't get enough of him. He was very quickly consuming her entire being, and she found that she could care less. But as she tangled her fingers in his hair, she became conscious of the heat of him. His skin was smoldering, but not the way it usually did, it was actually getting a bit smothering. Her eyes flew open, distractedly returning his kisses as she tried to place the feeling. He noticed immediately, and pulled away but still remained close enough that she could feel his breath in her throat.

"You're going to lose..." He murmured huskily, and resumed by tracing her throat with kisses. She shuddered at his touch, but the unsettling feeling remained.

"Bucket..." He growled, nipping her back into focus.

Just as their lips met again, it dawned on her. She pulled away, and his eyes opened, hazy with desire.

"You're lying." She accused, pursing her lips.

He cocked an eyebrow, gently kissing her again, "Really?" he murmured, tickling her jaw.

"Yes really, you have a fever." She scolded. She felt his breath as he exhaled, "Were you ever planning to tell me that?"

"I was planning on telling you a lot of things," He growled, giving her a long sucking kiss. She broke away abruptly, seeing through his plan.

"You can't distract me this time. We need to get you pills and get you some water before you go delusional again." She teased, but she wasn't joking.

"I don't want any pills," He protested, releasing her. She felt the chill on her skin where his touch had been and almost pulled him in again. "I'm sick of pills."

She smiled, grabbing his hand and leading him toward the Falls. She was containing herself, the electricity of his lips acted as a buffer, keeping her true fears from showing. He was getting sick again, and he could only recover so many times before he finally shut down.