7.

Josh kept screaming for his father as the guards escorted him out and practically threw him in Skye's arms. She felt her knees buckle against this weight.

"Josh…"

"Why did you get me out? I…"

But Skye didn't have time for his heroic streak right now.

"Hush." She whispered harshly, putting an arm around him and trying to drag him to his mother's clinic. "We have to get you to your mom, fix you up."

"I'm fine." He said stubbornly.

"Tell that to your face."

"What did you do? Why did he let me go?" Josh asked stiffly and Skye felt her already ripe temper flare. But she tried to contain it because it was not really him she was mad at.

"You shouldn't be asking me that." She said just as stiffly. Josh tried to support a little more of his own weight and she was grateful for it. This way the trip to the clinic would be faster.

"Did he hurt you?"

It was a whisper right by her ear, the concern, guilt, grief – it was all palpable in his tone and Skye felt her eyes well up, her throat constrict.

Oh Josh…

"No. No I promise, he didn't hurt me. I just asked him… nicely. He has a thing for me, I think." She added then, because it would make her previous words credible and because it would have been pointless to deny it. Josh could see the fascination Lucas had for her,it wasn't like Lucas tried to hide it. And Skye wanted to use that knowledge Josh had against him. it would be easy, Josh didn't know the inner workings of Lucas's mind well enough to realize that Lucas ever doing anything to get in anybody's good graces was a ridiculous notion. Lucas didn't milk favors. He took what he wanted using more conniving, nefarious ways.

And if that didn't work… he simply took.

Skye shuddered at the thought.

Josh gritted his teeth. "I saw what kind of a thing he has for you in the bar." He almost growled. "You need to steer clear of him, he's dangerous."

Skye snorted. Nobody knew how dangerous Lucas Taylor could be better than she did.

"Really? You think I don't know that?"

Yes, that was precisely what Josh thought. He thought Skye didn't really understand the nature of the danger Lucas Taylor could be for her. That man – that psychopathic sadist – looked at her like a starved carno looks at its fresh prey. He tracked her like a predator and Josh feared that Lucas would stop playing with his food sooner or later and actually go for the kill.

The mere thought of Skye at his mercy made Josh's blood boil with uncontrolled rage.

When they entered the clinic, Skye called out for Doc Shannon and the woman came running towards them, paling when she saw her son's state.

"Oh god…"

Her hand were shaking, but the doc got herself under control in a matter of moments, quickly going about the best way to stitch her son up with the minimal amount of pain. But Skye was a little more taken by the fact that Alicia Washington was right behind doc Elisabeth, as if she had been there the entire time.

Skye's eyes met Wash's and the she girl tried to read what was going on without having to ask for it, but Wash's face gave nothing away. Not while Skye was still in the room. It broke Skye's heart that even after all that had happened these past few days, even after knowing her reasons for her betrayal, they didn't trust her anymore.

Just like Lucas had said...

Skye gritted her teeth. She was not going to let him grit into her head. she was smarter than that. she was stronger too.

"He baited you." Skye said softly, looking at Josh.

Josh looked up at her from the bed – and so did his mother, both unable to understand what she was talking about.

"Back at the bar, he hurt me to get you riled up, so that you'd attack him. Then he'd have the perfect excuse to hurt you, because he wanted to get to your father." At the silence that followed her words, Skye explained herself further.

"Don't you see, it was all a plan. I was not the target, Mister Shannon was because he can tell Lucas where the Commander is." Skye looked at him, doc Elisabeth and Wash with wide eyes, trying to make them understand.

"Where is Jim now?" Elisabeth asked, trying to keep her voice steady.

"Lucas has him." Skye replied, knowing that she did not need to give too many details over what was going on there in the brig, not after Elisabeth had just finished stitching up her son's wounds. She was a smart woman, she would use her imagination.

"He thinks my dad is contacting Taylor." Josh concluded.

Skye huffed – Josh still didn't get it, he didn't even try to track the way Lucas' mind worked.

"He knows you father is in contact with Taylor. What he wants to know now is the Commander's whereabouts, and he's not going to stop until he gets what he wants. Lucas is not a patient man Doc, the situation get more dangerous for your husband by the minute." Skye looked from Alicia to Josh finally Elisabeth.

"You have to find a way to get out of Terranova." She said finally, and it took all of her courage not to stutter. It wasn't her place to make those kinds of suggestions: whoever even neared the gates was shot on sight… but Skye had a feeling that the alternative was going to be just as bad for the Shannon family of they didn't get moving. Skye locked eyes with doc Elisabeth, trying to make her realize the importance of these words.

"If Lucas doesn't get a word from your husband, he is coming after each and every one of you, until the sheriff breaks and gives him what he wants." She said slowly and knew that the doctor believed her. And why shouldn't she, it was the pure truth. Skye did not need to see it happen to know that was the way things were going to go.

When the two women in the room gave no reaction, she decided she might as well be thorough.

"It was what he was going to do with Josh." Sky murmured, feeling lower than dirt as the words left her mouth when she watched how doc Elisabeth paled at hearing them.

"Did he tell you that?" Wash asked in a breath, eyes wide as saucers, the dread in them making her appear more human for once.

Skye steeled herself. "I guessed. He confirmed." she answered quietly.

Nobody spoke to contradict her for a moment, Josh was staring at Skye with wide eyes.

"She is right." Wash finally said, coming to stand side by side with Skye. "You always knew that this may have to happen at some point Liz. Your family was always too much of an easy target but now, with Jim in the open, it's only a matter of time before Lucas comes for you."

"Alright." The doc said, nodding and breathing hard. "Alright then. We need a plan and I think I know what to do. Josh, can you walk?"

"Yes." Was his prompt answer.

"Good, get your sister ready."

"But…"

"No buts. I want you all ready to go in 10 minutes."

"I want Skye to come with us." Josh said firmly, the same resolve in his eyes that had been present in his mother. Elisabeth looked at him in surprise and then she turned to look at Skye in silent contemplation.

Josh continued.

"She's not safe here, Lucas is after her and you both know that. He's obsessed with her or something… he's going to hurt you at some point Skye."

Josh's eyes stared deep into hers and between the two of them the truth was pain, it didn't even need her confirmation. Skye knew that he was right. Maybe not in the way Josh thought he was right, but that didn't matter. She knew Lucas was dangerous and she knew that he could and would hurt her – exactly how he was going to do that was inconsequential in the long run.

Skye swallowed hard. Truth was that she wanted nothing more than to pull herself away from Lucas Taylor's grasp and leering eyes… but she couldn't do that. There was an untamable anger that boiled in her blood, a dangerous feeling that had been locked into the depths of her soul for three years and that now wanted out. She wanted to let her feelings loose for the first time and she wanted to unleash every single hurt and painful scar that the Sixers had branded on her through the years.

She realized with a start, that she wanted revenge.

For a moment her heart seemed to stop.

She was not like him… was she?

No! No, she was not.

Because it wasn't really blind pain she was after, not really revenge, no. It was retaliation and there was a difference. She could have let go of all the suffering she endured a the hands of the Sixers through the years, of all they made her do. She could move on and forget it, because it had been her voice after all. But now, not only count she let go of the past, but she had to put up with them invading her home and destroying it. Destroying everything her parents had fought for, everything she had ever loved. After all the suffering, she had to stand there and let them ruin everything?

No, she couldn't let them do that. Not when she had given up three years of her life protecting her home and the future her parents had wanted for her even when her life was on the line… as well we her mother's life. Every time she decided not to tell Mira something, every secret she held back, all those times, she had risked her life. And every lie she ever told, every information she gave away had cost her another piece of her soul.

No, Skye had fought too hard, sacrificed too much to chose the easier way out now, just because Lucas Taylor was a sexually repressed phyco.

She would not give him the satisfaction of seeing her give up.

Besides…

She still had so many amends to make. If there was anyone in Terranova that deserved to get the short stick, it was her. She had been betraying her home for years after all, she owed it to her city to fight hard and fight well.

"Skye is needed here Josh." Wash said firmly, startling the young girl who looked up at their lieutenant with something a lot akin to confusion, even shock. "You are the only one in the colony that can move as you like without any restriction. When Jim leaves, I want you to be the inside contact."

Sky almost bucked under that information, because of the weight it carried, the danger in involved… and because it showed that finally, Alicia was ready to trust her again. Which meant that laterally, Taylor was beginning to trust her again too.

The fact that Alicia herself could never be the one to keep contacts with Taylor went without saying. They watched her like hawks – in fact, in most cases she had served as a diversion, acting suspicious on purpose to draw their attention away from the real trouble.

"No! She can't stay here! She's risking too much already." Josh almost yelled, but Skye's hand on his arm stopped him and he looked at her with wide blue eyes full of desperation. But the steadiness in her own eyes, the firm expression on her face told him more than he needed to know.

She had already made up her mind.

"I can't leave Josh." She said softly. And then, she added with more strength, with unwavering determination. "I won't. I'm going to stay where I'm most useful that right now, that is here."

The pain in his eyes welled so fast that she felt her heart break all over again for him and the urge to have her arms around him was undeniable, a strong pull she did not want to fight, something that she felt she could not resist, because if she did she risked being torn apart from the inside in ways she had never experienced. When Skye put her arms around his chest and pulled him tight, she had expected him to be tense, to refuse to give in to her because of what she had said… but he didn't.

He melted right into her, arms pulling her into his frame strongly, almost curling around her as if he was trying to absorb her under his own skin. She kept a firm hold on him as he buried his face in the crook of her neck, his desperation, need, his love - hot and intense and undiluted by anything else - rolling off him in powerful waves, overwhelming her… comforting her.

When Josh left, Skye felt strangely void and numb, as if she had been drained of all emotions and strength.

When she looked up and saw Alicia staring at her intently, she remembered s half forgotten thought she had had before.

"He hates you." Skye managed to get out, thought with her sudden deflation even the simple act of talking seemed to take up too much energy. Alicia's focus sharpened so visibly that for the first time Skye was curious about all the back story to her and Lucas.

"He told you that too?"

The disbelief in the older woman's voice was mixed with another emotion that flashed briefly in her dark eyes, as if the lieutenant couldn't quite believe that Lucas had actually talked about that with the unassuming teen in front of her.

Skye shook her head and at the girl's denial Alicia felt a little disappointed. The Lucas Alicia had known had always been like a high security vault: nothing casual ever left his lips. Hie every word, his every gesture always served a purpose. But Skye seemed to be able to get the most peculiar information out of him, going so far as knowing personal things that Lucas would rather die than admit out loud.

"I could tell by the way he reacted when I mentioned you." Before Alicia voice the question behind her eyes and frown, Skye volunteered the explanation. "He asked who taught me to shoot."

Alicia nodded stiffly. She waited a beat, took a deep breath and then started taking.

"Elisabeth is going to need a diversion. You and I are going to provide that… if you want in."

Skye's breath froze in her lungs as she looked over at the other woman.

Alicia had never been a mother figure, she had never been Skye's best friend. But she had always been there, always. She was simply Alicia, the woman that her mother had been best friend with, who took Skye swimming, who showed her the cool spots to hang out near the colony's perimeter. She was the one that was always there when Skye needed someone to just be there – not to talk, not to vent, but just to counteract solitude, and those moments had been very frequent in the last years. Growing up Skye had gotten less talkative during their meetings, so much that sitting under the big tree at the edges of the fields and watching the sun go down in silence had become a tradition that brought them together every now and then.

Alicia never asked, never tried to fill the silences with small talk or questions. They both enjoyed each other's silent company and it had always been that way so Skye never had to worry about Alicia being suspicious.

And now the woman was asking her to risk her life to get a family out of Terronova.

Skye smiled.

"I'm in."

AN: Im sorry for the long delay and for the crappiness of this chapter. My life has been really crappy itself lately and that kind of soiled my writing. I hope to add another chapter soon, and i'm going to try my best to make it good.