Here, have a bit of fluffy sweetness. This is placed waaaay in the future where most of the Freelancers are really alive, and they all live together in the Mother of Peace (previously known as the Mother of Invention). Lots of romance, and of course a pairing you will /never/ guess. Enjoy!

Church's hologram stood on the counsel as he stared up at some photos from a file marked CLASSIFIED and entitled The Blood Gulch Case. In it he found photos of a gang of idiot sim. troopers who had partnered up with Freelancers. Ex-agents Washington and Carolina to be exact. As he went through the photos and certain reports that perked his interest, he came to the final photo and report at the end. The photo was of the reds, blues, and Freelancers standing in front of the Mother of Peace all arguing. The Freelancers included were Carolina, Wash, Maine, York, North, and South. He let out a soft, happy sigh and was about to read the report when he heard his name being whispered in a tired fasion. Church's hologram turned around to see a little girl with blonde hair and brown eyes.

"What are you doing up, sunshine? It's almost midnight," Church said, his hologram sitting criss-cross. the little girl smiled and rubbed her eye with a yawn. She looked over at the shadows and gave Church a look he knew all to well. He nodded and looked over as well. "Come on, I know you're there." As he spoke these words another little girl, she carried a blanket and dragged a pillow behind her. The girl had dark red hair and dark hazel eyes (she was very picky about them being hazel)."All right, what's the matter?"

"We couldn't sleep," the red head said as she sat down, the other girl joined her on the right side. Church nodded, waiting for her to continue. The red head put the pillow down behind them and spread out the blanket between the two. "And, well, we wanted to hear a story." Church sighed and shook his head a bit. The little girls leaned toward him a bit. Church looked up at them. His hologram shut off, leaving the room dark besides the few lights actually lit on the counsels on the bridge. The blonde, also the youngest, yelped quietly in surprise and pulled the blanket up. Church then appeared in his full-sized holographic form and sat down in front of all.

"It's midnight you know," he told them. They looked down. "But on the other hand, it is Friday. Eh, what the heck, why not?" The girls both smile and huddled closer together. "Anything you are really eager to hear?" The two looked at each other, then back at him.

"We want to hear about Blood Gulch," they told him together. Church chuckled.

"Of course you do," he said. "Well, it was always hot there, and the sun never moved so that made it hard to tell what time it was, but we made due. There wasn't really much to see. There was some grass, a few rocks, a tree or two, some caves, red base, and blue base. And that was it. Of course it was an unspoken rule that we never fought on Sundays. We were never quite sure why though. Anyway, most days were quiet and went by without much turmoil. Of course there were also days when Tucker and Caboose work me up with their arguing. And I tell you, these guys would argue the ear off God!" The two girls giggled at this and listened as Church went on and on about Blood Gulch, the two teams, and a few funny times.

"Uncle Church," the red head said, raising her hand. Church nodded and stopped his talking to hear what she had to say. "What really happened on 'The Day that Everything Changed'?" Church became completely silent. That was what they called the day Tex came. Church took a fake deep breath and looked down at them.

"Well, it started out as a normal day. I was watching the reds through my sniper scope, and Tucker was asking me what they were doing every five minutes. The reds got a warthog and we got a tank, and both of us got rookies. Donut and Caboose. Of course that was also the day that Caboose shot me with the tank, and they brought in Tex. Of course I didn't know I was an AI at the time, so I figured I was a ghost. And of course there was the whole O'malley thing we had to take care off. We also ran into Wyoming and his AI Gamma." The two girls looked at each other, and where about to ask another question when something walked into the light.

"Well, well, lookie what we have here," came York's voice. All three looked up at the soldier and Church snickered as his crazy bedhead. "Yeah, Connie's here too." South walked into the light as well and over to the two girls, York instep with her a few paces behind.

"You two should be in bed," she said, picking up the blonde girl. Both pouted.

"But mom, he was just getting to the good part!" Connie said. Both ex-Freelancers looked at each other and glanced back at Church as he stood up. "Can't he at least finish? Please?!" York gave South a funny look and looked over at Church, who chuckled.

"Well, let's just say it involved a lot of time travel, and was the most exciting thing I had ever gone through. And I doubt anthing could top it," Church wrapped up. The two girls smiled and walked away with the Freelancers. Once they left the bridge Church turned back to look at the photo he had not yet taken down. His hologram shrunk and appeared in front of it. If he were human, he would have smiled. "And a lot of good friends." His hologram shut off.

...

"Church, Church! Wake up man!" Church's hologram showed up and he saw Grif standing there. He did the AI version of a yawn and stretched his hologram. "By the way, you missed it." Church tensed, dropped his arms and stared. "Happened about twenty minutes ago. Doc's bringing it out right now if you wanna see." Grif them walked away. Church shut down his hologram and projected it in the med bey.

"You're late," Tucker accused. Church huffed and glared at Tucker, getting him to laugh in return. Church's hologram moved once again and he watched at Doc came back in, a blanket in his arms.

"Well...?" Church looked at Wash, he had never heard nervousness enter his voice before. He was always so sure of himself, so confident. Church gave a light chuckle, but didn't say anything. Doc smiled at Wash warmly.

"It's a perfectly healthy boy," Doc assured him. "Nothing to worry about." Wash let out a long breath. "So, what are you two going to name him?" Wash watched as Doc handed the baby to Kai, both shared a smile. Church looked between the two. Who would've guessed, eh? Of course the only reason Grif 'ok'ed this was because it was either him or Tucker. But to Wash that didn't really seem to matter.

"Simmons," Kai said. Everyone went perfectly silent. Kai looked up at her brother, who was staring at her as he swallowed hard. Grif gave a light smile and watched as his sister looked back at her son. Wash looked up at Grif, who had walked out of the room. Wash started to get up but stopped as he saw Sarge had beaten him too it. Wash continued to stand and walked over to Kai, who smiled up at him.

As this happened Grif had walked down to the mess hall, having his head in his hands. Simmons had saved Kai's life the day they found her, but it cost him his own life. He had gotten crushed by the rockalanche. Grif never forgot that deed, and he never would. His best friend, the only guy who could joke about shooting him and Grif could be one hundred percent sure he was really kidding. Simmons could tell Sarge that he'd happily shoot him, and Grif could joke back and really mean it. With Sarge and everyone else, though? They made him uneasy. He felt comfortable with him, he knew that-Grif jumped as a hand clasped his shoulder.

"Mind if I join ya?" Grif looked up at Sarge and shrugged as he gestured to the seat behind him, not really caring about it much. Sarge sat beside the soldier and looked at his face as he stared down at the table. Sarge sighed and looked down at the table as well. "Simmons was a good soldier, you could really count on him. A little too perky for my taste, but that's what made him Simmons I guess. He was a good friend, someone you could really admire. He would've made a great leader, but I guess that-" Sarge stopped talking as Grif pounded a fist onto the table and slowly turned his head to glare at him.

"Stop talking like that," he said sourly. Sarge raised an eyebrow, had he said something wrong somehow? "First off, Simmons was only perky around you because he wanted to be excepted by you, but you couldn't even do that, could you? I bet you didn't even know that he's an only child, that his parents divorced and his father died. You never cared about him, or me, or anyone! If you did you would've known that!" Sarge stared at Grif as he stood up and walked towards the door. Sarge jumped up and jogged towards him, grabbing his arm. Grif growled and turned to look at him.

"I did know that," he said in a low, almost cold, voice. Grif just stood there, listening. "I also know that your father was a marine and was killed by an Elite. That your mother never did join the circus, she was raped then shot, you told your sister she left for the circus because, come on, how do you tell a four-year-old girl that her mother was murdered?" Grif stared at him, not knowing to to do or say. Sarge let go of his arm. "I also know that you couldn't protect her forever." Grif looked away.

"Yeah, thanks," Grif muttered, putting his hands in his coat pockets and walking away. Sarge sighed and followed him, stopping as he did. "Sarge, can I ask you something?" Sarge gave a light smile and nodded. "Do you really think I'm worthless?" Sarge's smile faded and he gave Grif a serious look for a long moment, but the smile creeped back and he walked over, wrapping an arm over his shoulder.

"Yeah, I did," he said truthfully. "But after what you did with York and North back in the base, I don't anymore." Grif smiled and the two walked out of the mess hall and stopped only when they saw Connie running down the hall. Grif grabbed her and lifted her up onto his shoulders. She laughed a little as they walked down the hallway. Sarge chuckled as well.

...

"Hey, Church?" Church's hologram appeared and he looked over to see Wash walking over to the counsel. Church's hologram sat down and watched as Wash pulled up a seat and sat on it backwards, his arms resting on the back of the chair and his chin resting on top of them. "I wanted to-um, ask you a personal, question." Church nodded and was silent, listening and waiting for him to start. Wash sighed. "I know how much Grif cares for his sister, and I can understand it too. And I also understand that he trusted me with his sister. But somehow I feel like he hates me for marrying her. Am I right, or just paranoid?" Church thought about this a moment, not having expected this.

"No, you're right," Church said truthfully. "Well, sort of. He doesn't hate you, he just doesn't completely trust you. But that's because you shot their teammate at one point and were a blue as well. He doesn't hate you, you just make him uneasy." Wash nodded and stared at the floor. "But don't worry about it. He's not going to kill you in your sleep or anything." Both laughed a little, not noticing Carolina watching them from the shadows and they didn't hear her slip out either.

...

They're not so bad once you get used to them Wash's words rang out in Carolina's head as she looked out the ship's window. She smiled. He had been right. When she came back the second time she couldn't help but feel at ease with all the stupidity. And they helped her get the good people of her team back together. Not only that but now she had a child with York, South had a child with Maine, and now even Wash and Kai were parents. She chuckled a bit. She hadn't been this happy since her mother had been around. She looked down as someone tugged on her pantleg. She smiled and picked her daughter up.

"Hey there sweetheart," she said with a smile, getting on in return. "What are you doing up? You should be back in bed."

"Daddy said I could come and say goodnight to you," she said with a yawn. Carolina chuckled, turned, and headed back to her daughter's room. After a long walk in the halls she opened the door to her room and set the young child out on her bed. She tucked her in and kissed her forehead before turning and walking out. "Night mommy." Carolina smiled and turned out the lights.

"Good night, Allison," she said, and then left.

And fluffy fluffyness! ^-^

Thanks for reading, please review, and have a bow chicka bow wow day!
Perla: And may it be the best one ever, of all time