Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

On board an Ark of 2000 some people - a glorified piece of scrap metal orbiting the once-habitable planet Earth - life for its citizens was limited.

It wasn't always that way. During the early years of refuge in the space station, people ran rampant, doing what they needed to do to survive. Happy to be up in space rather than on a radiation-soaked Earth. Happy to be alive. It was after the first Unity Day, when all the space stations in orbit joined together to create the Ark, that a real government was created. With so many different cultures, different languages, different specialties, it became clear that order was of the utmost importance.

Under normal circumstances, a new leading Chancellor was voted into power once every eight years. His or her Council was to be made up of six political figures, also voted in by the station heads and officers of the Ark. This structure was amended often, but ultimately would serve as the Ark's government for decades to come. It worked well because it was all they had. It had to work.

A team of engineers was constantly filtering through the ArK, receiving the best education and training that they possibly could, and a team was constantly monitoring their grand space station to ensure that everything was running as it should have been. That the oxygen reserve was full, that CO2 scrubbers were functioning, that all projections looked good. They made certain suggestions that would ensure the human race would go on. That meant babies had to be born. But not too many babies, lest they deplete their resources faster than they could create them.

For the longest time, there was a two-child rule per family. But the population grew quicker than anticipated, and after about fifty years, the rules changed to only allow one child per family. That was right around the time that the council decided that there would be no leniency in terms of the law. Their penal codes were strict and unwavering in almost all places. Every crime, no matter how small, was considered a capital offence and therefore punishable by death. That meant anything from murder to possession of contraband, to breaking the population laws by welcoming more than one child into this world.

As people adjusted to this new regime, executions skyrocketed. Wanting to avoid torturous methods or unduly cruel punishments, the security department worked with engineering to rig up what they called a flotation chamber. There was only one on board the Ark. A sealed chamber that opened up to the vast space outside the Ark. Prisoners were sucked from the chamber by the unimaginable vacuum of space where they were left to die a painful but quick death as the lack of oxygen and pressure of space stole their life. Their bodies floated aimlessly until they were reduced to stardust, billions of years later.

In the beginning, executions were public affairs that all were welcome to observe. This was meant to deter the other citizens from breaking the law, knowing what was waiting for them. But after a while, the council reviewed this code and decided that out of respect for the humanity of the prisoners and their families, only their loved ones could be present for the flotations.

The only exception to the rule was for those under the age of majority. Felons under 18 years of age were instead kept prisoner in the Skybox - a series of exactly 100 small cells with nothing more than a cot and a window - for the duration of their youth until their case was brought forth to the review board when they reached adulthood. From there, many things would be considered before a decision was made. How had the criminal adjusted to life during their time in lockup, had they caused problems, had they followed orders, did they seem rehabilitated? Not only that, but they considered the gravity of the original crime and weighed it against the general knowledge and decision-making capacities of a person their age at the time of the offence.

Now, most of the time these kids were floated anyways when they turned eighteen, but the Charter of Rights aboard the Ark still guaranteed them their review trial. And occasionally, the criminals were released back into life aboard the Ark. They didn't typically go on to have incredible careers, but at least they would survive. Only on very rare occasions did other criminal cases get brought to trial. Occasionally when circumstances were muddy or witnesses were unreliable, certain criminal cases were brought before both the council and the review board before determining whether or not the offence was floatable. Usually, this was only seen from those in the higher ranks.

Chief officers taking more than their share, sending out underhanded transmissions, getting caught with contraband. They were almost always granted a trial and usually they ended up stripped of their titles, but ultimately walking free. No one ever said it was fair, but all societies fall victim to power dynamics.

The fear of execution kept everybody in line for some time. But, as with any society, they all soon learned to adapt around the rules. All drugs and alcohol were strictly prohibited save for usage in the medical sector, and even then, there were limitations to how much medicine could be used per patient. But people would always be drawn to the addictive qualities of substances, and moonshine was not difficult to make. In the higher-ranking sectors like Alpha Station, some people were even permitted to keep alcohol like aged whiskey and brandy in their quartiers so long as they first registered them as collector's items. They were considered antiques past a certain age. Not that it really mattered – the Guard would always turn a blind eye to anything that happened in the higher ranks, anyways.

Things were different in the lower sectors. Farm and Factory Stations, specifically. Their occupants brewed moonshine and grew recreational herb drugs, some people even managed to cook more dangerous, highly addictive drugs. And somehow - in a world where the possession, distribution, creation, and usage of all drugs was illegal, there were still people suffering the effects of addiction. And though it should have been punishable by death, not even the Guard could float every offender. It simply wasn't viable. These weren't just addicts, these were working people. Farmers, janitors, aspiring technicians. They were necessary for the continuation of life aboard the Ark.

Not to mention, they all had children. And while there was at least one childcare centre per station, there was only one Family Centre. And in spite of its name, this was a space for children without a family. The vast majority of kids in that centre were orphaned due to illness - more often than not, this meant that their parents died of overdose or accidental asphyxiation - or flotation. Many were kids pulled from homes that had tried to sneak them in under the radar, as their parents had already produced the legal number of offspring.

The Family Centre in Orchid Station was almost always overflowing, and executing more parents than necessary did not help that particular crisis. So, the Guard learned to choose when it was beneficial to turn a blind eye. But that was a slippery slope, and it wasn't long before corruption began to run rampant. Those in need of extra cash and for the guard to look away from certain indiscretions - such as skipping quarters during surprise inspections or at least providing a warning - took to bribing certain more corruptible officers. Some offered to trade contraband goods, some did grunt work, and some traded their bodies. Regardless of how it happened, crime began to slip under the radar.

And it was during that time that the Everson family welcomed a baby girl. She was beautiful, with honey brown eyes and a head of light hair that they suspected would darken over time, just as her mother's had. Her father on the other hand, had dark brown hair that was doing just the opposite and lightening to a beige blond.

And while she was a happy baby during the day, she cried all night. And not just any infantile whimpering. She would shriek like a banshee for hours on end. The neighbours had filed noise complaints with the Guard, but nothing could come of it. There were noise laws, of course. After curfew, the Ark was expected to be silent in the living quarters, but there was not much that could be done for a crying baby.

Callahan and Mallory Everson were tired. As tired as any new parents of a fussy baby would be. But he was a strong up and coming environmental engineer and she was a culinary apprentice, and they both kept tedious working hours as they tried to climb the ranks and keep food on the table and the Guard off their backs. Not that they were suspicious in any way. They always followed the law. But once targeted by a member of the Guard or perhaps an entire squadron, it was difficult to remove that bullseye from one's back. It hadn't happened yet, but just about everyone in Factory Station lived with that fear whether they were guilty or not.

And in fact, that is precisely how our story begins. By two good, hard-working, unsuspicious people breaking the law.

Their daughter - little baby Genevieve Everson - did not settle until she was two years old. She did not settle until her sister was born.

By the time that Mallory even realized she was pregnant, it was far too late. She had always been a thin, rather underweight girl. She got enough to eat, but was always shivering against the cold of Factory Station. It was that cold that eroded away at any body fat she might have acquired. She had never experienced regular menstrual cycles because of this. Sometimes she would get a light period every now and then, but for the most part, she never expected one. This was just one of the many reasons that the medical staff suggested that she avoid having a contraceptive implanted like the majority of the population opted for. She was told to just be as careful as possible.

The doctors told her that it would be a miracle if she managed to carry Genevieve to term as it was.

It was five months before Mallory realized that she was pregnant again.

She hadn't noticed the nausea, but she did notice the bump that had began to grow at her middle. That's when she realized that the feeling inside of her was familiar. Motherhood. She had a girlfriend who worked as a medical technician, and she'd bribed her with extra rations to conduct an ultrasound for her.

That technician was the only other person who knew that Mallory Everson was pregnant with her second child. She was also the only person who knew that Mallory and Callahan were unwilling to give this child up. They were going to have the baby. And in return for a continued supply of extra rations from the culinary sector, she helped deliver the baby when the time came, and she kept her mouth shut from that point forward.

Only after the new baby was born did Genevieve finally grow out of her fussy stage. She stopped crying, she stopped screaming, she stopped throwing tantrums. Because she had a little sister now. A best friend for life. Even if she was only two years old and trying to understand why this baby had to stay a secret.

And by the grace of god, the new baby was perfectly happy to be born. Like she knew that she had been given a chance to live that she shouldn't have ever received. She did not cry nor fuss. Though they would never be irresponsible enough to do so, her parents could have left her alone for hours at a time and she wouldn't make a peep. They decided to name her Abigail. It was a name that, in many cultured, signified a cause of joy. Because that's what she was. She brought joy to her family, even if they knew that her very existence should have condemned them to death.

The Everson family did an excellent job of hiding their new baby. It wasn't difficult to do considering she was so quiet, so eager to please, so well-behaved. Callahan had rigged up a locker in their room to have a false back, where Abby would quickly hide whenever inspections rolled around. And in Factory Station, they happened often. The guards would demand that they open up the locker, and the family would do so to reveal a few personal effects, some paperwork, and a couple registered collecto'rs items. All things that one might expect to find in a safe. They didn't think to look any further.

The adults, of course, had no problem keeping this secret as they stashed extra rations during meal hours and provisions from the marketplaces. It was Genevieve that they had to remind to be secretive. She was the one who eventually began going to school. They reminded her never to talk about her sister to anybody under any circumstances. Not with her friends, not with her teachers, not with anybody. Not even if somebody asked.

That was when the novelty of having a baby sister wore off. Genny would always love Abby. She would always be her best friend, she would always be grateful that she was born. But as the years went on and the secret grew more difficult to keep, the weight of the crime they were committing began to weigh on her. Genny grew to be tall and blonde and beautiful. She had many friends and even went out on dates with attractive boys her age. But she could never be fully honest with them. She could never invite any over to her quarters. She could never be her full self, because her full self was a sister.

By the time they grew older, the two girls had become a rather well-oiled machine. Genny was sick of the pressure. She didn't enjoy school, she looked forward to going out with friends afterwards and hanging out in the Mess Hall. Occasionally, she even stirred up trouble or went looking for risks to take. It was a dangerous game, but one that all teenagers since the beginning of life experienced, no matter the century.

Abby, on the other hand, longed to go to school. She wanted desperately to learn, especially since she hardly ever experienced the outside world. Her parents would bring home old tapes and all sorts of books for her to read, which she tore through rapidly. It actually worked out perfectly for both sisters. Genny could bring home her schoolwork and leave it with Abby, who was happy to complete it while her older sister got to go out and have fun. Of course, Abby longed for fun too, but knew that it was not a possibility, so she was happy with hard work and the accumulation of knowledge.

Nobody talked about what the plan was when she grew up. Would she stay hidden forever? Remain a prisoner in her own home? She had a feeling that there was no plan, so she never bothered asking. She did not wish to upset anybody. Instead, she kept quiet and polite, she was grateful when there was something for her to learn or work on, and she dreamed big. Her parents attended spiritual sessions with a woman around their age named Vera Kane every Sunday where they spoke of faith in the human race and the longing to one day return to their home planet. She preached of a forgiving God, but people could take or leave that part. Most people chose to have faith in the ground rather than anything omniscient and invisible. They often brought these practices home with them, and sometimes there were even leaflets for Abby to read. Were it not for Vera Kane, she might never have even learned about the ground and a possibility to get to it.

And whether it was a mixture of Vera's faith, her parents' optimism, or Abby's natural instinct to look for the best in things, a feeling of unwavering hope was instilled within her. Genny didn't buy into any of it, and Abby wasn't one for religion in the traditional sense, but she found faith in the concept of hope and holding on to it in even the bleakest of times. She came to believe that even if her parents did not ever talk about it, one day she might be able to walk among the rest of the Ark. To have a place in this world. To help work towards one day taking the people back to the ground.

Medicine was where she flourished. Genny's biology lessons created the interest, and her father bringing home old medical journals and tapes for her to memorize fueled her passion. Her favourite part was when the surgeon would close up and step back, staring at their patient with a mixture of relief and satisfaction in their eyes. What a feeling that must be. To save somebody’s life.

In the end, she came to understand that it wasn't the practice of medicine itself that she loved, but the idea of helping somebody at their lowest. Saving their life or even just improving it in some way. That was what she wanted to do. So, she lived vicariously through the material that her father provided and held on to that steadfast hope.

And while Genny went out and broke curfew with boys who smuggled moonshine in their boots, rebelling against the law her only outlet to relieve the constant pressure that she felt holding such a monumental secret, Abby stayed hidden away at home and became a prodigy that could never be congratulated.

Abby had to keep a strong mind so as not to fall victim to depressive thoughts and feelings of being trapped forever, slowly suffocating in a set of small rooms that felt more like a prison than it did a home, not for a lack of love but for a lack of freedom.

Whenever her mind wandered towards darker notions, she thought of paradise. And how paradise was out there somewhere.

She'd read that word in a storybook once about a young man who went on a journey through the desert with nothing more than a treasure map and a camel in search of paradise. In the story, paradise was palm trees and cool water, an endless reserve of fruit and equal amounts sunlight and shade.

Abby understood paradise to be a utopia. For her, it might not be palm trees and sunshine, it might just be a world where she got to see the sun at all, to smell sweet breeze, watch the trees blow, never have to worry about rationing resources, upcycling clothing, going hungry. Less than that, paradise was no longer having to hide. Start there.

Paradise was the hallway outside of her quarters that she'd never seen before. It was out there, she just had yet to find it. And when she did, bigger and better paradises would only be another brave step away. It may seem impossible to her at the moment, but surely she couldn't remain hidden in that safe forever. She couldn't. Abby knew full well that she was alive for a reason and that she had things to do. Progress to be made and goals to achieve.

She had paradise to find.

~~~

“Recruits,” Commander Zwysig addressed his junior guard, pacing around the security team’s executive hall as he did so.

This year’s recruits were promising, consisting of young men and some women with a loyalty to the law aboard the Ark unlike any their commander had ever seen. They'd been raised by the generation that adhered strictly to the law, knowing how gruesome execution could be. It was the generation in between that taken it upon themselves to disregard the law thinking that so long as they had the right guardsman in their back pocket, they were untouchable. Zwysig hoped that with these new recruits, they could fix that problem.

Nineteen-years-old Marcus Kane proved to be the most promising of them all. He showed little remorse, which went against the grain of his religious upbringing having been raised by Vera Kane, the well-known spiritualist aboard the Ark. He took after his calculating, logical engineer father instead, who never subscribed to his ex-wife's musings. Already with a chip on his shoulder due to having one of Alpha Station's only set of divorced parents, Marcus was there to prove something. To hit the world before it had a chance to hit him first.

And though as a child he enjoyed his mother's practices and had even been named Tender of the Tree four years in a row meaning that he was responsible for sacrificing a portion of his rations to water the last plant form on the Ark - a little tree that had been salvaged and kept alive as a symbol of hope - Marcus had abandoned his own faith long ago. He understood why people needed religion, but always felt as though he was smarter than that. What he needed wasn’t religion, it was power. That was the only thing that could really keep him safe.

Around that same time, he realized that doing what he wanted and doing what was right according to the laws of utility were very different things. And he was somebody willing to give up frivolous desires if it meant guaranteeing survival. The way he saw it - black and white - it was very simple.

It did not take long for him to learn how to set aside his own feelings. Not just set them aside, but grow disdainful of them. To chastise himself every time he even allowed a sentiment. And it was very shortly after his completion of the initial academic studies required by law for children to attend that the Guard came knocking on his door, looking to recruit him. There was no hesitation in his acceptance. The Guard was precisely where he needed to be if he wanted to make a name for himself. Which he did, of course, because one day, Marcus Kane was going to be Chancellor of the Ark. And he was going to put a stop to all unruly behaviour, to all underhandedness that cost people oxygen and resources. He was going to make things right.

It was only about a month in when he witnessed his first real arrest. And unlike the rest of the kids on the Guard, who were usually pretty traumatized after witnessing their first criminal apprehension - whether they admitted to that or not - Marcus was not phased. He saw the world so clearly that he knew there was no room for empathy. It got in the way of doing what was right. And in terms of the law, arresting those guilty of crime was always the right thing to do. That's what he had been taught. That's what he forced himself to accept as the truth.

Today, the young recruits stood tall with their shoulders straight and their hands clasped behind their backs as their commander paced around the room before them.

“Thanks to a very generous tip received this morning,” Commander Zwysig continued, his face stern as the lines around his mouth creased with every word spoken, “we will be performing our quarterly surprise inspections one day early," he finished with a nod.

The commander never said too much, nor did he give away his informants, but he had made it a personal goal of his to crack down on families who broke population laws. Just last month he had busted somebody up in Tycho who had two extra children hidden away in their quarters. Factory Station was the worst for it. He suspected that there were upwards of twenty illegal children down there, but his inspections never managed to catch them at the right time. Today would be different.

"Your task," Zwysig continued, "is merely that of observation," he said, and watched a few faces fall. "You will be accompanying our guardsman during these inspections to observe protocol and procedure," he paused his pacing to stand before the line of recruits. "I suspect," he began, peering around himself, "there will be much to learn today."

Anyone could hear it in his voice. There was somebody that they were going to bust today. Nobody knew who exactly, nor which of the guards would manage to be the one to stumble upon whatever illegal activities or contraband they were obviously going to find today, but it was exciting nonetheless as a feeling of anticipation filled the room. It was a shame when somebody was caught breaking the law because it meant inevitable execution. But it was also exhilarating to see some action.

For Marcus, it was a pleasant thing. He did not wish death on anybody, but he knew that a flotation meant one less mouth to feed and use up oxygen. It meant that somebody was getting what they deserved. A satisfying feeling, really.

It was only the day after Abigail Everson's seventeenth birthday that everything changed. Mallory had brought home a special treat from the culinary department and tried to celebrate with her, but Abby despised her birthday. She was an optimistic young girl, but did not see the point in celebrating the day that her family's life was condemned to secrecy and fear. It was the one day a year that Abby was grumpy. That she didn't want to talk or socialize with her family. That she didn't want to acknowledge her own existence.

But the day had passed, and she woke up the next morning one year older and ready to embrace the day. Her parents had broken a record years ago now for keeping her secret. The last couple that got busted had a thirteen-year-old child hidden behind paneling in their closet. Abby had been a record setter for four years. The fact that she had not been found yet had to mean something, or so she thought. It had to be a sign that she was meant to live. Meant to do more than hide.

Commander Zwysig chose her quarters personally. He had been the one to receive the tip, and he wanted to be the one to ensure that everything was done by the book when they found what he knew they would. Today, the commander was shadowed by junior recruits Smithson and Harlow, and the three of them marched down to Factory Station prepared for something - two of the three not knowing exactly what. Kane was shadowing one of the older guardsmen alongside Kurtis Shumway this afternoon, but he had the luck of inspecting Section 17 out in Factory Station, so at least he might catch a glimpse of the show.

Being midday on a Thursday, Mallory and Callahan Everson were both long gone at work for the day. This wouldn't be the first time that an inspection had caught them off guard, nor would it be the first time that Abby was on her own when the Guard came around. She knew the drill. She would get herself in the hidden compartment and wait for them to stop knocking, when they would inevitably opt to use their master key to open the door. They'd rummage around a bit but eventually be gone. Abby knew to wait at least an hour after she heard the door shut behind them, just in case.

Even if today went that same way, Abby had no way of knowing that the chief of the Guard had been tipped off about her little faux-safe hiding spot. She would have been screwed regardless.

Even if her older sister hadn't decided to skip out on school today.

Genevieve hadn't been interested in furthering her education after her initial studies were completed two years ago, but it was Abby's insistence that she continue to bring home work for her to do that prompted her to sign up for extended courses. Medical biology, earth sciences, and technical engineering. Genny didn't enjoy any of it, but Abby sure did. And it was thanks to the younger of the two sisters that Genny wound up not only passing, but excelling to the point where she was being recognized for her high levels of intelligence.

Sick of it all, Genny had cut class early today to hang out with a boy that she had been seeing. A boy who had stolen her an expensive bottle of Gin from his parents. He was from Alpha Station, and his father had a near-endless reserve of liquor. He'd handed off a small bottle that Genny had quickly been working on throughout the course of the day. She'd only been home long enough for an argument.

"You know better, Genny!" Abby was saying, gesturing at the bottle of contraband in her older sister's hand - the one that she had stumbled home waving around as though she hadn't even been bothering to try and hide it out in the hallways. "You shouldn't have taken that!"

Abby was horrified. The last thing they needed was for Genny to start showing up on the Guard's radar. That would only mean more inspections and being kept under the microscope. That meant it would only be a matter of time until they found something worse than Genny's behaviour - Abby's existence.

"Oh, what do you know, Abby?" Genny slurred, her eyes glazed over as she swayed around the room. "You wouldn't know how to have fun if you tried!"

Genny only meant it that Abby was a bit of a stickler, but it was wholly unfair. How could she possibly ever have fun? Abby would never even be given the opportunity to do so. The accusation and the reminder felt like a knife through her middle, even if she knew that her sister did not mean to be hurtful. Still, she recoiled slightly and stared forwards, blinking as though she must have just heard her wrong.

It was in that moment of silence that there came a pounding at their door. Abby nearly jumped out of her skin. Her voice got stuck in her throat, but her instincts moved her towards the safe at the back of the room. Genny wasn't thinking, she was only mad. So mad that she must have forgotten about their circumstances, because she marched right up to the door, threw it open, and spat in the guards' faces.

"What?" she uttered.

Abby was still too shocked to speak. The younger sister's hand threw to her throat while the other one had been mere inches away from the door to the safe. Immediately, all colour was drained from her face, and she feared that her legs might give out beneath her. She couldn't believe what had just happened.

Genny moved aside as three uniformed guardsmen entered the room. They weren't here for her. They all had their sights fixed on the girl that they'd never seen before. The one reaching for something that was never going to help her.

When she realized what she'd done, Genny's eyes widened and she stepped backwards, clutching her own throat now as though she was trying to force down a scream.

"Identification," Zwysig demanded of the girl who never had any and they both knew it.

Abby didn't know what to do. She had never been prepared for this. They never talked about the unpleasant “what if” topics. Her eyes found her sister, wide and afraid, but saw no useful ideas from her either. She could do nothing but stand and stare as the commander repeated his demand.

"Harlow," Zwysig said without bothering to look over his shoulder, "take this girl into custody."

There was a second of awkward shuffling behind him, and Harlow cleared his throat. "Sir-" he began, and when Zwysig turned back, Harlow gestured towards Genny who was still holding a bottle of contraband gin and very clearly drunk off of it.

The commander nodded. "Smithson," he said towards the second recruit. "Take Genevieve Everson into custody."

The truth was that Genny had been on the Guard's watchlist for some time now, as a wayward youth turned reckless adult - if she could be labeled as such at only nineteen. Genny was surprised that the commander knew her name, but she shouldn't have been.

Now that they both had their orders, the two young recruits did as they were told and took hold of the girls. It was a good thing that Smithson was a large man, because Genny was throwing elbows. She was taller than her sister and already more violent, and Zwysig had to step in and help his recruit restrain her as they marched out the door.

Abby, on the other hand, was docile. She watched her sister kick and shove and thought that she looked rather noble, but did not have the courage to mimic her actions. In fact, Harlow didn't even have to put her hands behind her back or restrain her in any way. He simply took hold of her elbow and lead her out of the room. The poor girl was in a daze of disbelief and quite frankly just doing her best not to either throw up or pass out as she walked.

It was a strange feeling. Knowing that she was being marched to her doom was worse than anything she'd ever felt before, but she also could not put the glory of the outside world aside. It was just a hallway. Grey and mechanical. Empty save for a pair of young guards who must have been conducting inspections of their own, now standing off to the side to make way for the arrest that was taking place.

One was a young man of Asian ethnicity who looked angry. The other was taller, and he had a slightly hooked nose and floppy hair that he had obviously tried to gel back for work today but one stubborn curl fell over his forehead. That one looked inquisitive. Like he was taking mental notes of the situation and everything about it. Abby was merely amazed to be seeing two real life human beings who were not her mother, father, or sister.

Besides the guards that had just busted her, she’d never seen anyone besides her family in person. Abby blinked in their direction and tried to memorize their faces. They looked far more real than the people on her old medical tapes and recordings.

Marcus Kane and Kurtis Shumway had been just finishing up across the hall when they heard the screaming followed by a familiar face being dragged out of her quarters. They had both gone to school with Genny back in the day. The smaller girl behind her was one that neither recognized. It did not take much to realize what had happened.

Kurtis felt the same amount of disgust that he always felt when someone was caught breaking the law. It wasn't fair to anyone else who abided by the rules that they should have to share air and food with a criminal. His disgust was not wavered by the fact that the criminal had obviously not asked to be a criminal, and that she was youthful and beautiful and scared looking.

Kane appreciated the learning opportunity. When he imagined criminals upon arrest, he always pictured violent men with tempers, or bratty girls like Genny who kicked and screamed the entire time. The smaller girl - who he had to assume was Genny's illegal sister - was neither of those things. She looked innocent and fearful. She didn't say a word, didn't fight against Harlow, didn't even looked pissed off. Instead, beneath the immense fear that she had to be experiencing, she almost looked wide-eyed with wonder.

Kane could not understand until it dawned on him. She looked like someone who had never seen a hallway before because she was someone who had never seen a hallway before. And though she was illegal and deserved to be locked up or floated for her crimes, Marcus had to accept that every case might just be a bit more nuanced than he anticipated. Sometimes, he might have to arrest awe-struck people who hadn't asked for any of it.

"I wonder if she's over eighteen," Kurtis mumbled to Kane as the girls were led down the hallway.

It was a valid question. The girl looked somewhere between sixteen and nineteen, perhaps. Factory Station kids often looked younger than they were due to malnourishment. Kane swore that the cold over here actually stunted growth. But her age was important to know. If she was over eighteen, she would likely be floated. At least if she was younger, there would be a trial.

Kane shrugged his mouth, keeping his harsh brow low. "That has to be a record," he added, wondering how the family had managed to keep a child hidden for that long.

And it was. From that point forward - until humanity returned to Earth, in fact - 17 years was the record to beat.

Everything happened far too quickly after that. The Everson parents were taken into custody and floated after being allowed a joint goodbye to both of their daughters outside the flotation chamber. As is protocol, the chancellor stood by the chamber doors and gave the order for Commander Zwysig to push the button and steal two lives away that day, one right after the other.

Genevieve's flotation was set for the day after. She had been arrested on charges of possession and public intoxication. With her being over the age of majority, there was no way around this. Abby was grateful for the extra day to visit her sister, even if she only got a half hour with her. During that half hour, Abby was not emotional over the death of her parents yesterday, nor the upcoming execution of her sister. She got right down to business. She could go back to her cell and cry as long as she wanted afterwards, but she had to make the most of her limited time with Genny.

Abby preferred medical studies, abhorred mathematics, was intrigued by engineering, couldn't wrap her head around physics, but also quite enjoyed political sciences. And this particular discipline often walked hand-in-hand with studies of the law. Abby had read through the current charter many times over, and she also knew that there were options that Genny could appeal to before her flotation tomorrow.

Thanks to Abby's expert ideas, Genny had revealed to the Guard that she had experienced intense psychological trauma throughout her life what with the forced complacency of hiding her younger sister. She swore up and down that she struggled with her parents' decision and that too much pressure had been forced upon her as a child. She felt as though she had no choice but to turn to drink, and that was the reason for the alcohol that she was caught with.

Now, it wasn't entirely true, but it wasn't entirely false. And it had to be considered that she was not only arrested on charges of possession, but also as an adult who aided in the continued hiding of an illegal child. Still, her appeal managed to win over some of the guardsmen - Commander Zwysig specifically. And when the council remained divided on the matter the next day, they cancelled the execution and instead put the matter to official trial.

Chancellor Barney Xander may not have had a vote - much like a judge during a jury trial of old - but he was in charge of the process. His second-in-command, the young councillor Diana Sydney - the youngest that the Ark had ever seen at only twenty-five - along with five other councilmen made up the deciding voters. Commander Zwysig was invited to sit in on the trial but would not have a vote, and he took this opportunity to allow his new recruits to witness their very first trial on board the Ark. They were so far and few between, it was too good of an opportunity to pass up.

Besides, Zwysig believed that it was important for his new recruits to understand that arresting someone was only a small portion of justice aboard the Ark. Everything that happened afterwards was far more important. And while he wanted to encourage these recruits to bring down the hammer of justice, it was also important to know how their decisions while seeing out the law would affect peoples' lives. And how every now and then, there might even be a trial.

This particular trial only lasted a few days. Geneveive pleaded her case, but every defense had holes in it. She claimed to be an alcoholic dependent on substance and suffering from the mental maladies of addiction, but when they searched the quarters, they found no other traces of alcohol. She pleaded that she wanted to live, that she was exceling in her studies and that she had a promising career ahead of her, but when her teachers and professors were consulted, it was revealed that she hardly ever showed up to class and when she did, the work provided during those hours and on tests did not match up with her homework.

All it took was a simple handwriting analysis and it was concluded that as far back as her fifth year of general schooling, Genny's homework had been completed by her sister Abigail. A girl with no formal education, two years her junior, who was some sort of genius. By the end of the trial, it was Abby, rather than Genny, whose fate the council was more concerned with.

Now, typically in the case of illegal children, the child's fate would depend on their temperament and demeanour. The younger children were placed in the Family Centre, but the older children and teenagers were often quite troubled. Originally, they were moved to the Family Centre as well, but they were notorious for creating problems, being violent, stealing, and committing crimes that very soon had them locked up anyways. After years of such a pattern, the council decided that they would funnel illegal children over the age of thirteen straight to the Skybox where they would wait for their review at eighteen. Some were reintegrated after that time, most were floated.

In Abby's case - being only one year away from legal adulthood on top of something of an inexplicable prodigy - the trial ended in the unanimous decision to move Abby into the Family Centre for the last year of her youth, and have her continue to take Genevieve's original academic courses. So long as she remained in school and continued on the course towards becoming a medical officer, she was being granted a second chance at life. Or in her case, the first real chance.

The young recruits who had sat in on this trial either found it very boring or very interesting. Marcus Kane was torn. His instinct was to believe that it wasn't fair for this one girl to be saved the same fate as the rest just because she was smart, but another part of him wondered what fairness really meant in the first place. Because as far as he saw, the trial looked pretty fair. Maybe he was irritated because it felt like the girl was receiving special treatment which, really, she was.

And as torn up as she was over the loss of her family, Abby couldn't help but feel rather giddy at the opportunity to embrace life on the Ark and go to school. To have friends, to look out the windows, to learn things in person and with her hands, maybe even to kiss a boy or two. Of course, the guilt that came with knowing that in order to have a life, her entire family had to die was enormous, but she did her best to channel it all into her studies and make her family proud from beyond the cosmic grave. To prove that their deaths had not been for nothing.

It wasn't even half a year before it all became too much.

The Family Centre made her resourceful. There was only a handful of teenagers her age at the centre, and they had all been there far longer than she had. There were some very unfriendly characters involved in the Family Centre. Abby was warned that as a girl, she was going to have to take extra precautions when it came time for the weekly bedroom inspections. Though nobody had a bedroom so much as a broom closet with a cot that folded into the wall.

Sure enough, that first week, the chief officer of the centre came by after hours to ensure that all was in order and tried to put his hands on her.

Abby fought him off using the elbow throwing moves and screams that the other kids suggested and he backed off, but not until she had been emotionally scarred. The man had held her down against the cot and gripped her wrists so hard they left marks. His free hand fumbled somewhere near their middles – most likely attempting to undo his belt - and that was when Abby spat in his foul face and began to scream. He tried to put a hand to her mouth and she used her then-free wrists to claw down his cheeks.

The man shook himself off of her and muttered obscenities on his way out of the room, but he never came by again. Abby hadn't even known that such a thing needed to be worried about, but it never left her. Not even after she had scrubbed his blood and skin follicles out from underneath her fingernails. From that point forward, she moved through life a little bit differently. More guarded, more reserved, more ready to fight. She was protective of herself and the life that she lived, she was not about to let herself be taken advantage of in any way.

And she tried her best when it came to school - she really did - but there was only so much of her own pain that learning could distract her from. She completed her work quickly, leaving her with nothing to take home and far too much time on her hands. And when dark, unwanted thoughts started to creep in, Abby realized that she needed more to distract herself with. In the beginning, she would attend Vera Kane's spiritual sessions. But those only came around once a week and eventually, she started to feel like she had already heard it all and there was no more to learn about having hope and faith. She didn’t believe in God anyways. But she liked Vera – she felt like a mother.

And though she was a stand-up student at the top of all her classes - her professors’ favourite - Abby was also a young girl who had lost everything all at once. There was something instinctual inside of her that had been ignited the second that her parents were floated. And that instinct told her to fight the system that had killed them. That was a dangerous instinct, even she knew that. But she just couldn't help it. She saw injustice and it made her heart bleed as she thought of people in situations similar or worse. She wanted to change things but couldn't do so without breaking the law. So, she learned how to walk a fine line.

She had gotten everything she always wanted and everything she thought she would never achieve, but it had come at a great cost. She lost her family. From that point forward, Abby had been in search of one. She wasn't naive enough to think that anyone on board the Ark would adopt her at the ripe age of seventeen - adoptions were rare to begin with - so she figured that it would be up to her to create her own family.

That was when she met Danny. Nine and a half years her senior, Daniel Spencer was twenty-seven years old and somewhat of a magnet to those who knew him. He had originally run into Abby one day in the mess hall and he'd taken an immediate liking to her. She had always been pretty, but never celebrated for it for obvious reasons. Nobody ever saw her. Once he found out that she was the girl whose parents had hidden her for seventeen years, he was hooked on her story.

Now, Abby didn't have much time for dating once she started working for a seamstress named Jessalyn Blake, whose daughter Aurora became a quick friend to Abby. The girl was no older than she, but pregnant with a baby boy. There was no father in the picture, so she still lived with Jessalyn in Section 17 of Factory Station - where Abby had spent her seventeen years hidden. Between mending clothes and going to school, Abby had successfully distracted herself. That changed when she discovered the warmth and safety of romantic partnership. When she met somebody who made her feel like they were a family, no matter how unconventional. No matter how many years too old her was for her.

Danny sunk his teeth in hard. He saw a struggling young girl trying to keep her head above water in desperate need of a friend. A partner. Someone to offer some semblance of safety after a lifetime of danger.

Very quickly, Abby was in love. And nobody from the Family Centre tried to stop her when she packed up what little she owned and went to live with Danny in his quarters. Back to Factory Station she went – Section 22 this time - but she didn't care. At least she was going home.

Danny was a lanky boy. Tall but not strong. He had these pale blue eyes so light that they almost looked like the moon. But he had a temper and a violent side and what worried Abby the most - addictive tendencies. She loved him through it all and never asked questions when he wound up doing business with unseemly people or spending a little too much time in the backrooms with Nygel - a notorious young Black Market dealer who worked out of the culinary sector. Even Abby's mother had stories about Nygel.

And if Abby ever had any doubts, she chased them away by thinking about the first time she'd ever met Danny, and how stricken she was by him. A feeling that strong didn't leave room for second guessing. She had been laving lunch in the Mess Hall one Saturday afternoon with a very pregnant Aurora Blake. Abby had been invited up to the Alpha Station rec room to eat with Maryanne Benton and Ross Fuji - students in one of her classes - but opted out today, and boy was she glad that she did.

Abby had gotten up to take her tray back to the cart for cleaning when she noticed commotion behind the doors of the Culinary Centre. Before she could make out any voices, the skinny man was barrelling out of the room - being chased or shooed, it looked like - and straight into her. He caught her by the shoulders and steadied them both before uttering one single "woah," taken aback by her beauty.

This man looked more like a boy in his baggy clothing and light buzzed hair, but there was something about him that had intrigued her. Something that did not stop her when he asked if he could take her around to the shops later. By the looks of them, neither could afford to buy anything, but perhaps there were trades that could be made. It was a classic date for kids those days, and Abby shrugged her mouth casually before agreeing to meet him later.

They became inseparable from that point forward. Abby was drawn to the pain inside of him and the ways in which it mirrored hers. His father had been floated when he was a child for selling moonshine on the black market. As soon as he turned eighteen, his mother left for a better station to pursue a career of sleeping with officers for spare provisions.

The life of crime that Danny had to live in order to survive began innocently enough as just that - necessity. But that was a slippery slope for people like him who also enjoyed dabbling in substances such as alcohol and heavy drugs. Those were only meant to take the pain away, but soon became a necessity in themselves. And by now, he wasn't just hooked on survival or using drugs. He was hooked on the life of crime and all that it offered.

Under the table deals with crooked officers, illegally trading contraband with and for Nygel, spending his nights in rec rooms that him and the other wayward souls turned into speakeasies. Many of his crimes were small enough that the guards around Factory Station could either willingly turn a blind eye to, or accept a bribe in order to do so. But things only skyrocketed from there.

When Danny started to get his hands on some old-fashioned weapons - rifles that had been banned on the Ark long ago in favour of non-lethal electric batons - things turned dangerous. That was when he started experimenting with drugs. Not just herbal or even hallucinogenic, but hard drugs that should only have ever been used in the Medical Station as pain relief. And sparingly. He began dealing in medical-grade narcotics and using them freely.

Abby noticed - now too entrenched in that relationship to even consider leaving - that he was a different person when he used those drugs. It made him care less about who saw him doing what. It was dangerous. It also made him more violent. She used to suffer the occasional smack to the back of her head or spit in her face. Now, he was full-on hitting her whenever he pleased.

On occasion, he pressured her into trying out those substances with him. She did everything she could to resist and try to convince him that she really did not want to, but once he had an idea, there was no stopping it. And she instantly felt the pull. The bliss when the drug was in her system and the craving when it left. She recognized that dangerous pattern and did absolutely everything in her power to avoid those drugs from that point forward.

But she loved him. She loved him and she did not feel as though she could afford to give up the life that they had together. Maybe that's why she let him drag her into the world that she wanted nothing to do with. The dark world of crime and illegal trading. A world in which Abby Griffin now knew Nygel personally, and was being asked more and more by her.

At first, she thought that she was doing something wrong. Breaking the law had to be wrong, didn't it? After a while, she wasn't so sure. Days began to blur together and soon, she could hardly differentiate between her life hidden in her quarters and her life of crime now. Was she still that girl? Anxious and afraid, meek and muffled? No, she wasn't. She couldn't be. Because now she was trading with unseemly people and holding her own. Now she was using colourful language and choice words. But when Danny came around, she was reduced back to her old self. Hidden behind that safe.

There had been a time when Abby felt as though she could be an illegal child and still be good because she found worthiness in a sense of virtue, but not anymore. Her parents had always told her to be good. Be good, Abby, and everything will be okay. Be good and she would be protected, saved from injustice. She quickly realized that in their minds, good had been synonymous with hidden, and she wasn't hiding anymore. Being good for so many years had gotten her nothing, least of all the safety that they had promised.

She wanted to live, even if it meant leaving her hiding spots. No longer being good. She wanted to look out windows and watch the stars, see the Earth turn. She wanted to stand before an open vent and imagine herself down on that planet with the wind blowing through her hair. She would think of Vera Kane and how the woman saw a God in the back of her mind, but Abby only ever saw the Earth. That was the only God that had ever mattered to her.

Abby was alive and no longer hidden and now she was going to make what she wanted of her life. Even if it meant taking abuse from the man that swore he loved her. Even if it meant being forced into rooms with criminals who were always trying to take advantage in some way. Even if it meant sacrificing the time that she wanted to be spending in school and at work. She was going to live, if it was the last thing she did. And she could no longer live from down on her knees. Being a criminal made her feel strong. Like the world could throw anything at her and she could take it.

It was usually a matter of transporting goods to and from Alpha Station, where Abby spent most of her afternoons in the Medical Station after leaving her studies in Orchid. She was small enough to fly under the radar, and nobody would suspect her. Occasionally, Nygel pressured her to strike up a deal with her and accompany a lonely man to bed in exchange for more weapons, more drugs, better equipment - all of which only Danny would have use for - but Abby denied every time, flashing back to the Family Centre and the man who had tried to force himself upon her.

And around the same time that Abby began to lead a double life - bright, promising academic student who had just been accepted into their medical school by day, unwilling criminal by night - that the Guard got involved.

Abby was trying desperately not to lose everything she had gained. She wanted to be a doctor, she wanted to heal people, she wanted to learn more about politics and use her voice for good. But she also wanted to survive. She wanted to love and be loved. She wanted to stand by the man who had become her only family. It wouldn't take a genius to see that Abby was no partner in crime - she was a victim. Only someone looking hard enough.

Marcus Kane had finished his initiation into the Guard a couple of months earlier. He had always stood out to Commander Zwysig, right from the start. Perhaps that was why today, he stood in the commander's office, prepared for an opportunity.

"Kane," the commander began, handing the young man a file of papers consisting of photographs, security footage, and field journals.

At least one face in the pictures looked relatively familiar, but he could not yet place why.

"After witnessing your steady growth during initiation," Zwysig continued, "I feel confident that this case should be yours."

Kane stifled a smirk. He had been suspecting a proper assignment, but did not want to get his hopes up.

"Daniel Spencer, Factory Station," the commander nodded at the man in the pictures. Older than Kane by seven years if this file was to be believed. "He deals in contraband drugs, alcohol, weapons, you name it," Zwysig went on, gesturing with his hands. "He's a close acquaintance of Nygel in culinary," no further explanation was needed - anyone would have known what that meant. "There's already a team of upper guardsman working towards nabbing her, but we can't let those who do her bidding fall by the wayside."

Kane peered at this man. Though the photograph was grainy, he could confidently say that he hated this Daniel character. He looked slimy. Mean. Like somebody who thought they could do whatever they wanted to whomever they wanted and get away with it unscathed. Kane nodded his understanding. While those in the higher ranks looked to take down the kingpin, Marcus was assigned to the little prince. 

"And the girl?" He asked for clarification, noticing that a young female was present in many of these pictures.

"Abigail Everson," Zwysig said clearly. "You might remember her trial earlier this year. Her parents and sister were floated for keeping her hidden seventeen years."

Yes, Kane recognized her now. She was small and skinny but had a beautiful face. Long brown hair. He'd never officially met her during the trial, nor did he ever even hear her speak, but he was familiar with her and her case. She had been given a second chance at life, and he thought that it was unfair. He wasn't surprised to learn now that she was wasting that chance. He could have predicted it.

"Accomplice?"

Zwysig nodded. "Or victim," he said. "That'll be up to you to decide once you begin your investigation."

Kane nodded down at the pictures, now focusing on the girl. "Is she part of the trading?"

The commander was impressed - Kane was asking all the right questions. "She's been seen in and out of Nygel's centre," he revealed. "We can only assume that she's aiding or at least abetting." Kane nodded. "She's not your focus, but if you manage to catch her in the act, by all means, bring her in."

Kane looked back at the information on file for Daniel. "She was only seventeen," he recalled, looking up at his commander. "He has to be twenty-seven years old. Is this a romantic partnership?"

The commander shrugged. "Looks like it," he revealed, but did not have enough evidence to suggest as much. 

"Well, that's a crime in itself," Kane grimaced at the notion of someone nearly ten years her senior preying on this girl. "Can't we arrest on him on statutory charges?"

Commander Zwysig took in a breath. "Daniel Spencer is a menace to our society in many ways," he said formally. "I don't care which charges you manage to nab him on, I just want him out of the Black Markets and into the hands of justice."

Kane could understand this. "And her?"

Once again, the commander shrugged. "If you find that she's complacent in his crimes," he began, "bring her in, too."

He understood what that meant. Daniel was the perpetrator, and Abigail might wind up being the collateral damage. Kane almost chuckled to himself facetiously upon realizing that she had also been nothing more than collateral damage when her parents decided to carry her to term and bring her into this world.

With a feeling of growing pride blossoming inside of him, Marcus suddenly determined that he knew how a cat felt upon catching a glimpse of its very first mouse.

Much to his surprise, the first person that Marcus told was his mother. He knew that his father would be much prouder, and his friends would be jealous, but he headed to the Go-Sci Station and found her amidst a plethora of offerings and spiritual scribblings - as per usual. He didn't even know why they let her conduct her business up here in the ring. It had nothing to do with science.

“You haven’t been by in weeks, Marcus,” Vera chastised after weeks that felt like years of neglect.

She’d fed him, she’d clothed him, she’d loved him when no one else would. Vera figured that she at least deserved a few hours of his attention once a week or so. However, her son had been on a mission ever since he was old enough to understand the way of the world. He wanted to make a name for himself, to put himself on the map, on track to being remembered for centuries to come. He wanted to be Chancellor someday, and Chief of the Guard someday hopefully even sooner. Those big plans of his did not include worshiping a notion of returning to a planet that wouldn't even be viable in his lifetime. He did not like to obsess over the future or the past, only focus on the present. That's how things got done.

Marcus sighed as he paced around the room, staring down the tree that he used to sacrifice his rationed water to feed when he was a child. It used to make him feel important and like he was giving back to something bigger than him. Now it seemed like a waste.

“Mother,” he began, rather impatiently as he spoke with his hands. He was no longer able to relate to the woman who’d bore him. “I don’t have time for superstition, anymore.”

He was well aware that she’d been disappointed by his removal from her religious practices, but that life simply did not fit the bill for him. Not anymore. Much like his father in that way, but she was still disappointed. He turned to her with real excitement behind his dark brown eyes, and Vera was glad to see that he could at least still feel something.

“I’ve been assigned a case,” he lurched towards her, almost happily. “A real case.”

Vera narrowed her eyes. She was excited for her son – a newly initiated member of the coveted Guard – but couldn’t help questioning his integrity. She worried what this job might do to the once innocent boy she’d raised. She would have rather him pursued politics alone without involving security. It was a shame to say that she had watched that particular profession erode the souls of men and women who learned to see the world in black and white rather than right and wrong. 

“What kind of case?” She asked hesitantly.

“One that’ll put me on the map,” Kane nodded his head once, slamming his hand down on a nearby counter excitedly as he did so.

It was in moments such as this one that Vera feared she may one day no longer recognize her ambitious son.

“Mark my words," he continued, "the name Marcus Kane will go down in Ark history.”

Never one to jump headfirst into something without looking at it from all angles, gathering every bit of information that he could, and thinking it all over thoroughly, it took a couple of months before Marcus even put his boots on the ground in terms of his new case. He did not want to waste this opportunity. It was less about making his commander and his parents proud or rubbing it in the faces of his fellow recruits, and more about ensuring his future. This would be the first step towards a high-profile career with the Guard. Next came political power.

Abigail - the girl - her file wasn't big. She hadn't had a file since this year. She was from Factory Station, her parents were respected but often overlooked due to their station rank, her sister was a troublemaker but never had any real writeups. Abby was a keen student and excelled in Biology and Medicine. By the looks of her student records, she also enjoyed politics and took a particular interest in Earth Studies. Apparently, she used to be an avid member of his mother’s congregation.

Daniel never had a real job. He'd always worked in the culinary sector but according to most witnesses, nobody ever saw him manning the counters or preparing any meals. That told Marcus that he had been Nygel's runner since the beginning. He never finished his academics – a lot of Factory and Farm Station kids didn't - and his father was a floated criminal, his mother living up in Tycho. He was bad news, according to reports. But he knew how to stay away from security cameras and only surround himself with people who didn't wag their tongues.

Marcus observed Daniel to be untouchable. That meant that logically, the girlfriend was an easier target. Maybe he could get to her through observation or even conversation and she could lead him to something incriminating. Marcus imagined her - somebody unaccustomed to life outside of one room, naive, easy to maneuver, eager to please - and felt certain that he was making the right call by going after her first.

He hadn't expected to instantly observe a normal, extraverted, outgoing girl. Abigail looked stronger than she did months ago when he caught a glimpse of her at the moment of her family's upheaval. There was colour in her face, a smile on her mouth, she was not afraid of attention. She wore a pair of sheer tights that were ripping and fraying in many places beneath grey denim shorts and a little tank top striped black and purple. Faded, much like everyone's hand-me-down clothing on the Ark. She likely would have been cold were it not for the big navy-blue cardigan that hung off her arms.

Kane did his best to pretend as though he was not there for her. Instead, he was just a typical young guardsman assigned to the Mess Hall, maintaining the order and taking note of anything untoward. He stationed himself against the wall near one of the exits and clasped his hands behind his back, successfully observing the entire room but keeping focus on the table in the centre, a little off to the left.

What surprised him the most was that it appeared as though him and Abigail had mutual friends. That shouldn't have surprised him, considering they were only two years apart, but it did. He knew Maryanne and her boyfriend Ross from school. Him and Ross were both interested in politics. He did not recognize the lowly-looking girl with long, straight brown hair, working on some sewing project right there at the table. She must have come from Factory Station. And though Abby did too, she wore it better. She held her head up a little higher, combed her hair a little neater – today, it was braided down her back - spoke a little bit more eloquently. But she looked like someone from Factory Station. They all tended to be skinny and not as tall as they should be.

Nobody batted an eye at the tall, uniformed young man standing guard. Or so he thought. Abby was no fool. She knew when somebody was looking at her, but more importantly, she knew when somebody was watching her. Danny and Nygel had both taught her that. She may live every day like an average student of higher education working and learning in Stations Orchid and Alpha, but she knew how to play the game like a lowly criminal of Factory Station. Kane had underestimated her on both fronts.

He tried not to show up every day. Occasionally, he would stay away for one, two days at a time. But when he placed himself back against that wall in the Mess Hall, it was Abigail that he was always there for. And every time he saw her, he learned just how normal she was. Many friends came and went, many that he recognized. She could hold a conversation with anybody, she seemed to enjoy a good joke, it looked like she could talk politics just as easily as she could talk rumours and gossip. And she loved to laugh. That laugh was a rather beautiful sound, and Marcus had to think about the years in which nobody was allowed to hear it.

He found it strange. For a criminal who should have been flying under the radar, she certainly had no problem drawing a crowd.

Abby had already turned eighteen by the time she made her first contact with the man that had so obviously been assigned to trail her.

It was a few months after her parents' flotation that Marcus was put on the case, and it took him another handful of months at that before he stopped working remotely and started actually showing up to observe her. After that, she allowed him one month of blatant tracking before she stepped in.

That day, Marcus was stationed at his usual post, a permanent scowl etched onto his young, handsome face as he took in the room. There was a chess game happening over by the eastern exit, a group of teenage girls were gossiping nearby, most people were just there to eat and socialize during the lunch hour. Once again, Abby was at the centre of it all with a large group of friends, laughing about something that had been said.

This time, Kane recognized Callie Cartwig from his academic classes as a child. She had just recently gotten a job in Alpha Station. Her and Abby appeared to be close friends, and the two of them could often be seen with Aurora Blake from Factory Station. Marcus had learned that was the name of the seamstress girl.

The other three at the table were immediate friends of his. No fellow guardsmen, but Ryan and Astro from his section in Alpha and Jerome from his physical training classes. Jerome had been trying out for the Guard but wound up taking a better offer in the medical sector. Perhaps that's how he knew Abby. Kane knew them well enough to even receive a few nods and waves when he entered the room, and he did nothing but gently nod his own head in acknowledgement of them before he stood at his post.

That was all it took. Abby had noticed the familiar guard for a month now and was ready to get some information on him. She'd witnessed the brief interaction between him and her friends and pounced on it.

"Who's he?" She asked, as Aurora and Callie continued their conversation at the other end of the table.

Jerome - being the one who knew her best - shrugged his mouth. "That's Kane," he nodded towards the uniformed man who was doing his level best to avoid looking in their direction.

Abby placed her hands on her hips. "Must be a boring job," she began, "standing there watching everybody."

She wanted Jerome to say something that might allude to him being on a case, not just posted there aimlessly. That's what her gut was telling her, anyways. But Jerome did not know that, and he was already distracted by the old comic book that Astro had pushed in his direction. All he did was shrug when he noticed Abby still looking at him.

"His name's Kane?" She clarified, catching Jerome's eye once more.

"Marcus Kane," he nodded absently. "It's his first real year with the Guard."

Abby was gone before he could even finish his sentence.

Kane clocked her movements immediately - that's what he was there to do. And he grew surprised and rather wary when he noticed her coming towards him. And she wasn't just in search of an exit. No, she was looking right at him. Approaching him with little to no fear at all.

In the girl's mind, it was high time that she broke the ice between her and her watch dog. She figured that he was there observing her for the sake of getting to her boyfriend. She knew how these investigations went. Maybe before he could learn anything that she didn't want him knowing, she could get ahead of it all. Convince him that there was no reason to be watching her in the first place.

As she approached, there was a bit of a spring in her step and a mischievous glint in her brown eyes. Kane looked away for as long as he could, but once he was certain that she was indeed coming his way, he stared her down in anticipation. If this girl thought that she was going to take him off guard, she had another thing coming.

She cocked her head slightly, looking up at him. Kane gave her an unreadable look. Like staring right at a brick wall. That's when Abby sucked her teeth and moved to stand directly beside him, leaning against the wall. 

"You know," she began, and Kane did nothing but raise his eyebrows and shrug his bottom lip ever so slightly, waiting for whatever it was this strange girl was about to say to him – he did not yet turn his head to look over at her. "If you wanted to join the party, you could just pull up a chair rather than brooding over here against the wall."

The subtext was clear. She knew that he was watching them, but she had not yet accused him of doing so. She was smarter than he'd given her credit for. In fact, when he spoke with her now, it felt like he was talking to somebody who already knew him. That was dangerous. He hadn't expected to find someone in her who could match his wits, if that was what was really happening.

Finally looking at her sidelong, Kane wondered how he should play this. Now as up close and personal as he had ever been to her, he could understand why she drew such a crowd. She was beautiful. Well spoken. She dressed nice, for someone who had nothing more than the same old, worn clothes that they all did. And, he realized then, she even smelled good. He recognized the scent as jasmine.

In fact, Abby allowed herself this one luxury. She asked Danny to include her in his trades so that she could acquire a small vial of jasmine oil. She loved the way that it smelled, and it also made her skin soft and her hair smooth. Better than the chalky lotion and lackluster shampoo that Factory Station was supplied with.

Marcus looked away with a small nod. "Just doing my job," he said firmly, keeping up with his act of scanning the room.

Now, Abby was rather irritated. At the very least, impatient. She pushed herself off the wall and moved to stand in front of him with her arms crossed and her nose in the air - it was the only way that she could make the tall man's eye contact.

"I'm not blind, you know," she said, her voice lower than it had been but not as low as it should have been.

Kane looked down at her, intrigued. Hopeful. Anticipatory.

"I know when I'm being tracked," she finished sharply.

This was true. It wasn't just the mess hall observation that got to her. On occasion, she would see him down in Factory Station for no good reason. She knew every guardsman that patrolled Factory for the sake of keeping an eye out for them. He was not one of them.

Kane had to hand it to her, she was sharp. She was being tracked. And she did know it. Maybe - just maybe - she liked the chase just as much as he was enjoying it. Only he knew that it could only end in one victor. And victory for him meant seeing both her and her criminal boyfriend floated for their crimes.

He knew just what to say. Kane gave her a mocking half smile - like he knew something that she didn't - and looked away from her. She wasn't an idiot, she was right. He couldn't lie and say that he was here on post watch, because she'd know. He could, instead, put a little fear into her.

"It's not you that I'm after," he revealed coldly.

The look on Abby's face said it all. That had rattled her. Knowing that somebody - an actual guardsman - was onto Danny’s trail and actively observing her now that she was an accomplice, meant danger for the man that she loved. It meant a real investigation. Danny hated the Guard, he hated the council, he hated the chancellor. And he would hate Marcus Kane.

Abby's face fell and she took one rather timid step backwards, though she kept her chin up.

Kane was taken aback by her silence and finally looked down to meet her eyes once more. "Surely you didn't think he'd be untouchable forever," he said in a low, whisper-like voice that sent a worried chill down Abby's spine.

She swallowed dryly. "I don't know what you're talking about," Abby said with a frown.

Kane wanted to grin. This change in her demeanour felt like a victory to him. And he realized then and there that he liked this kind of victory. It tasted sweet. 

"Tell me," he narrowed his eyes, revealing that yes, he was here on assignment and no, he wasn't afraid to admit that, "where is your boyfriend now, Miss Everson?"

He watched smugly as Abby's face paled while she came to terms with this new set of circumstances. She did not like the fact that this guardsman knew her name. What else did he know?

She jutted her chin out, "He's at work," she responded sharply, as though she was under interrogation.

It was a lie, and they both knew it.

"Not that it's any of your business," she added for good measure.

For someone who had spent so many years hiding from the law, terrified of it, she certainly had no problem displaying her temper right in its face. Kane was surprised at this, and found that it made her easier to dislike. She claimed not to be stupid, but here she was taking that tone with somebody currently investigating her and her partner. She couldn't have been all that smart either.

Kane continued to pretend they were having a friendly conversation, keeping that irritating smirk on his face even as he regarded her with dark, unforgiving eyes. "I hope Factory Station's timeclocks say the same thing," he said, the sarcasm radiating off of him.

Abby continued to frown. She felt as though she needed to talk her way out of this but did not know how to do so without making matters worse. "They will," was all she managed to utter, rather flippantly.

Kane nodded before he lowered his brows as though he was coming to another realization. He leaned towards her slightly and both appreciated and disliked the fact that she did not budge.

"Is that..." his eyes traveled across her face, enjoying the show, "jasmine?"

If at all possible, Abby's face fell further. Now, she dropped her arms down lamely to her sides as she stared up into this menacing man's eyes. She did not dignify his question with an answer, and he did not expect her to. Instead, Kane straightened his shoulders, standing up tall once more and stepping back towards the wall - his post.

"Such oils cost a pretty penny around here," he spoke, pretending to be nonchalant while simultaneously launching another accusation at her. "I shudder to think what you had to trade to acquire it."

Abby's lips pinched together. So, he knew - or at least thought he did - that she traded on the black market. That was another notch against her. He felt smug as he leaned against the wall, crossing his arms. This went perfectly and all according to plan. He had waited for her to come to him, he let her incriminate herself - or at least think that she did - and he exposed the fact that he was onto both her and Danny. Next, she would be so rattled that she would run home and tell her boyfriend everything. Warn him to be on the lookout. Beg him to be more careful.

After their conversation, gone was the pleasant girl laughing with her friends. Instead, Abby did not return to their table. No, she went home and did just what Kane had hoped.

~~~

For the next eight months, Kane watched Abby and Danny, scrutinizing their every move. The former was easier to catch than her boyfriend, as he did his best to fly under the radar as she couldn’t possibly keep herself nameless while she also did her level best to keep up with her academic studies and political interests. Abby wanted to make a name for herself in the right areas, Danny was trying to keep his name unknown in those same places.

Against all odds, it became rather fun. Abby was everywhere. She was a bright, popular, pleasant girl with so many friends that Kane was always seeing her around whether he was investigating or not. The game of cat and mouse had officially become just that as the months went on. It was push and pull. One step forward, two steps back. He would almost catch her in the act of something but he'd find no evidence and she knew that she had evaded arrest. She would tease and taunt but never say anything incriminating. They developed a type of banter that sounded more appropriate for chummy rivals rather than hangman and death row prisoner.

Kane found a certain kind of exhilaration in almost catching her or Danny. And Abby began to love the chase, even if she was the one running.

During that time, she'd been introduced to the Factory Station speakeasies. Nobody bothered the people down in the hovels of that poor station, and the walls were soundproof. There were entire spaces that would be filled with smoke as people did various drugs. The floors were sticky with spilled alcohol. People were everywhere. As were Black Market items. And the music. It was unlike anything Abby had ever heard.

Heavy was the only word for it. The people that took to the small stage at the front of the room had voices that screamed more than they did sing, but there was something melodic and beautiful about the anger that it conveyed. Abby had seen guitars and pianos before, of course. Other instruments, too. But these were plugged into something called amplifiers and they were all electric. They made noises that she had never heard before and though she hadn't thought that music could ever sound like this, it made sense.

After a while, she got used to it, and realized that though it was unconventional and loud and could give her a headache, she liked it heavy. She also liked free alcohol that didn't have to be hidden. She tried to stay away from drugs, knowing that as soon as they were out of her system, she craved them, but occasionally, she partook in the festivities.

Kane soon learned about these places. Zwysig and the Guard always told their recruits to turn a blind eye to parties like this in the lower stations. They weren't hurting anybody, and it would be impossible to arrest everyone in those rooms without losing the majority of workers on the Ark. But he'd never seen it in the flesh until he trailed Abby to one. He had to admit, the music was indeed intriguing. Nothing like the musicians that crawled out of the woodwork up in Alpha Station to perform Unity Day ceremonies and weddings.

If he stumbled into one of these speakeasies and saw Abby in attendance, he'd drag her out of there like an angry parent hauling their rebellious teenager by the ear, chastising her about the use of drugs and alcohol, but every now and then, he'd linger in the room just to enjoy the music. To wait until someone could offer him something that he would not refuse.

As much as he wanted to see her arrested, Kane might have let Abby turn himself into a bit of a criminal. And he didn't hate it. Cutting loose, letting off some steam, not worrying about how he was perceived. It was relieving, to say the least.

But the days dragged on and as fun as the game was, it was bound to come to an end sooner or later.

A few months ago, Danny went dark. He stopped even leaving their quarters during the daytime hours and instead only going to Nygel after the culinary staff had been sent home for the rest of the night. He started taking note of Kane and even some other members of the Guard breathing down his back and had no other choice but to drop off the grid. What did he do instead? He let his girlfriend do the heavy lifting. And if she refused? That's when he would unleash his fists of terror upon her.

It was ironically lucky that Abby had chosen a career in medicine, because it meant that she could fix herself up expertly without having to consult Sick Bay. At home during the day, Danny locked himself up and had nothing better to do than inhale his narcotics, drink his moonshine, and play with his weapons. Then Abby would come home after a long day of school and hands-on learning, and he would demand that she run a few items for her. Either she did it right away and saved herself the argument, or she tried to deny him and was met with punches or open-palmed slaps. Once, he'd nearly broken her collarbone. Then he would leave for the night, and she would be granted a few hours of peace before it was time to wake up and do it all over again.

Hell is what it was. Abby Everson was burning in hell for no good reason. By the time that year's winter season was all but upon them, she felt as though she might be consumed by the darkness that this world had cast upon her. All she could do was hold on to hope that someday things would be better. Different. One day soon, she would be a doctor, and she could log as many hours at work as she wanted to, just to avoid going home. She could even sleep in Sick Bay if she really needed to. One day, she would be free. Soon.

The first day of November came two weeks after she officially graduated from medical school and was named a medical officer. A doctor, for lack of a better term. Dr. Everson - that's who she was now. Even if she didn't look much like a healthcare professional what with the bruises and cuts and bandages that she was always trying to hide.

Kane was still hot on her trail - though he had been rather distant and absent leading up to the winter season - and even he had started to notice her physical ailments. He'd put it in his reports and the last time Zwysig called him in for a progress update, the commander brought it up.

"We no longer have the capacity to forcefully remove her from a violent situation," he said. "Not since she became an adult."

Kane was standing alert, nodding his way through Zwysig's remarks. "She stays with him willfully, sir," he reminded him. "She's not eager to leave."

It was a narrow way of looking at things, and even Kane could admit that. There it was again - in black and white.

"There comes a point, Guardsman Kane," the commander reminded him warily, "when this girl becomes more a victim of physical violence than a perpetrator in any way."

Kane happened to think that outlook was rather soft. "Maybe not perpetration," he argued, "but still aiding and abetting. That's what you wanted her brought in on in the first place." He narrowed his eyes, watching Zwysig's face. "She's still a criminal, sir."

"And a young girl suffering at the hands of a man who's closer to thirty than he is to her age," he reminded Kane sharply. "Don't forget that in your endeavour to secure a charge, Marcus."

The young man nodded, feigning his acceptance of this, but did not believe it. The only reason being that he could not confirm that Abby was being physically abused. He noted bandaged arms and the occasional bruise, but thought that it could also look like somebody using drugs intravenously, which would fit her and Danny’s track record. Though, she never seemed to be intoxicated. But it had been about a month's time since he'd seen her up close.

Kane had a new girlfriend. Fiona Holloway was his father's assistant in the Engineering Centre, and they'd been introduced a few months back. He liked Fiona - maybe even loved her. And as a nineteen-year-old boy - even one who put his career before anything else - he still wanted to do what every nineteen-year-old boy wanted to do. Get laid. Marcus still worked hard on the Spencer-Everson case, but it had taken a backseat lately to more hedonistic pursuits.

For Abby, the month of November was nothing but grey. The colour had been drained from her life, her face, her clothing, her very existence. All she could do was keep working towards her goals, keep learning, keep healing, and keep her chin up and head down. She was getting better at dodging Kane, but it hadn't even been necessary recently - even he had no interest in her.

Danny had gone from always loving to occasionally loving to very rarely loving at all, and Abby was struggling to come to terms with the fact that she needed to get out of that relationship before it killed her, one way or another.

But every time she tried to leave, Danny brandished a weapon and reminded her that he was not afraid to use it, even if it meant getting floated for it. At least that would mean that they would be together in the afterlife. That thought made her shudder. To think that even in death, she could not escape him and his abuse.

By the time December came and the solstice rolled around, she was largely unrecognizable. She worked through the holidays, through the entire solstice, and as the month and the year drew to an end, she simply kept to herself and waited for it all to be over.

Today, she sat alone in the Mess Hall as life went on around her. Abby was off to the side, closer to the lineup of people in search of the holiday specials that were being brewed by the culinary team. Her friends were around here somewhere, but she had dialed herself down so low that they did not even see her. She had no interest in the festivities, in talking about how the holidays had been, in enjoying a warm treat. She had only wanted to be out of her quarters while Danny was home.

Abby tried to focus on a medical journal that she was reading but instead of absorbing any of the words, her mind played and replayed the last year and a half like a broken record that had gotten stuck on one song that grew more and more distorted as the vinyl continued to spin. Until it didn't even sound like music anymore. How had she let herself get here? How had been given a chance to really live and instead wound up trapped all over again? All in the name of love?

She couldn't go on like this. Scared at home that her boyfriend might finally kill her. Scared outside knowing that Kane and the Guard could be seconds away from arresting and executing her. She couldn't go on like this because she hadn't been able to so much as eat in three days.

Her problem may have lied with her heart. It was difficult to love somebody so abusive, but Abby held on to the good days. The early moments. The ways in which her and Danny had made each other a family in an otherwise lonely world. And regardless of her career, her politics, her opportunities, her truest desires, Abby Everson would always be led by her heart. 

But even she knew that her heart might just be wrong about this one. She'd read books, watched old films on tape, heard stories from her friends. She knew what love was supposed to look like. It should feel like freedom. Like something that sends wind through your hair and puts sun on your face, even if you’re trapped thousands of miles above the Earth in a cold, dank, little space station. Love should feel like living. Abby couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt alive.

Besides, she had to question why she felt safer when Guardsman Kane was around – the man actively hunting her – than when her own romantic partner was near. Surely there was something wrong with that picture if she would rather risk her own arrest than be alone with the man that she loved. But Kane hadn't even been around lately. He was never at his post in the Mess Hall anymore, never stumbling into a Factory Station speakeasy. In fact, she hadn't seen him up close in months. Not since before she had graduated from her medical studies.

It was three days after they celebrated the winter solstice and Abby was once again alone in her new spot at the Mess Hall, trying to disappear with her nose in a journal. This time, she was not thinking, she was actually reading. It was her only escape.

Marcus Kane was off duty. He'd spent the holidays alternating between visiting his father and reluctantly spending time with his mother, all the while vying to sneak off with Fiona. He still clocked in to work on time, still checked the logs for Danny or Abby's whereabouts and did his best to keep tabs, but he was distracted. What with Fiona and now his newfound political career - he was taking courses with a good friend of his Thelonious Jaha, an engineer a few years older than him.

Kane didn't even realize how long it had been since he'd seen or talked to Abby until that day in the Mess Hall. It was Thelonious that Kane sat with today, at a busy table, both of them charming a group of young ladies despite being in relationships that they cared about. Young men would always have their cake and eat it too, no matter the century.

Abby knew he was in the room, and wondered if he was more human than she gave him credit for. The man was like a bloodhound where she was concerned. He always knew when she was around, was always busy tracking her or keeping tabs. Surely today he knew that she was there but didn't bother with any of it because it was his day off. She could respect that about him, if it were true.

But it wasn't true at all. He had not seen her.

Marcus had excused himself a few minutes ago to stand in the lineup. Hot chocolate was something provided once a year, and only one cup per person. Even though he wasn't much for the flavour, he'd still drink it because he was owed it. And he now waited patiently to cash in his ticket and enjoy the steaming hot mug while Jaha kept the ladies entertained back at their table. Kane checked his watch. Fiona would be off work in little over an hour, maybe they would have dinner together back here after she'd gotten cleaned up.

Two things had him stepping out of that line. One, the fact that the wait promised to be a long one, and perhaps he could wait until later tonight with Fiona to enjoy his beverage. And the second being the confusion he’d suddenly felt upon realizing that he hadn’t even noticed Abby Everson sitting by herself over in the corner, her nose in some kind of magazine-looking book. The princess of denial herself.

Was he remembering incorrectly, or had it been months since she'd made a proper appearance somewhere? Yes and no. She was usually there, just not how she used to be. And he wasn't around enough to notice these days.

Kane remembered a day when her presence in the Mess Hall promised to never go unnoticed. Recently, he’d been cracking down on Danny with surprise inspections and such, and leaving Abby alone for a more high-stakes target. He hadn't had the time to notice the drastic change in her demeanour. Even after the warnings came from his commander. He was still too busy trying to work this case by the book, trying to be the one who finally nabbed Daniel Spencer, and trying to have a life of his own outside of it all. Abby had fallen by the wayside.

Marcus could tell that something was off. The way that she sat – practically cowering, demanding to go unnoticed, hoping to God that no one threatened her peace – it meant one thing. She was in no mood to fight. Perhaps he could have one last go at it with her and crack this case open once and for all, simply by approaching her when she was weaker than normal.

Sighing once, Marcus stepped out of the line.

Without his telltale black uniform, Abby hardly recognized the man who had sat down across from her. At first, she thought it might have been one of her friends. She looked up from her medical journal with only her eyes, and took in a breath when she realized who had just disturbed her peaceful solitude.

To his credit, Marcus didn’t look half as menacing as he typically did, today. Maybe it had something to do with the holidays. It had been forever since he’d attempted to shake her down to get to Danny, and she sincerely hoped that he didn’t try anything similar in this moment as she truly didn’t think that she had the energy to fight him. Hell, she might just tell him everything and pray to god that Danny wasn't correct about the afterlife. She might incriminate them both if flotation was her only chance at freedom.

Taking a closer look at her posture, Marcus realized that she wasn’t just rigid, it was more than that. She was on the edge of the seat, leaning slightly one way, wincing with every breath. Abby was in pain. Last night and through to this morning, Danny had taken out his most recent grievances on her. By now, she knew how to grit her teeth, clench her eyes shut and endure it until it was over and she could patch herself up.

Kane folded his hands on the table before him, clearly indicating that he wished she would look up from her reading material and give whatever conversation was about to ensue her full attention. 

Abby sighed once and gritted her teeth, but flagged the top of her page and shut the journal, finally raising her head to stare Kane in the eyes.

His face fell unexpectedly when she did so. Abby looked hollow, and not just because she had obviously lost close to ten pounds, but because there was no light, no joy, nothing behind her eyes. Those eyes that were basically black with bruises. At least the right one, anyways. It was no secret what had happened - she had taken a fist to the face. Multiple times and in multiple areas. Her eye, her cheekbone, her jaw, her upper lip. Abby looked beat to hell and there was no guessing why that was. It could only be one reason. The reason that Zwysig had warned him against. The reason that Kane should have paid more attention to.

Funnily enough, he hadn't really cared when it was suggested that Danny might be violent with Abby. He thought that criminals got what they deserved and that she should know better than to stay in a dangerous situation. He saw her face, and everything changed.

Every thought he once had about her, every hateful notion, every desire to have her floated alongside her boyfriend, it vanished. That being said, so did thoughts of the conversation he'd been having with Jaha, flirting with the girls, anticipating dinner with Fiona. Nothing else mattered but the state of this poor battered young woman that he should have been protecting when instead he was hunting. Adding to her pain.

He was horrified to realize that it wasn't just her face. Her left arm was also up in a sling, hidden by her cardigan. She'd used what looked like a torn-up sheet to fasten herself a makeshift sling - nothing like what came out of the medical sector these days. And based on the way that she was sitting, somewhere on her lower body was obviously ailing her too.

How long had it been since he saw her? How long had she been suffering like this?

Marcus was so disgusted with Danny, so angry at himself, even mad at Abby for not running while she had the chance. He was so filled with anger that he could barely even look at her.

Abby simply gazed on expectantly. She was aware of her physical appearance and what it obviously meant. She was aware that Marcus was here for another shakedown. She was aware that she was one wrong move away from being floated. But she couldn't find her voice. Kane wanted her dead. He'd been actively hunting her for over a year now. She assumed he was only happy to see that she was almost there. All on her own.

“That doesn’t look medical grade,” Kane finally stated in a low, private voice, nodding down to the sling.

Abby let a beat pass between them, immediately irritated. Funnily enough, annoyed wasn’t something that she’d felt in a very long time. Probably not since the last time she’d found herself alone with Guardsman Kane. She realized that it wasn’t even the worst feeling in the world, she almost enjoyed feeling something other than total numbness.

“I’m medical grade,” she mumbled in response, alluding to the fact that she had recently become a doctor.

“I heard,” Kane shifted in his seat, and to Abby’s consternation, the man almost looked relaxed as they spoke of her graduation status.

She hadn't thought that him existing in a casual state was even possible around her. And why did it feel like speaking to a friend or at least an ally of sorts when she knew that they both thought of one another as the enemy? Perhaps because even this enemy was safer than the man she loved. At least Kane never claimed to care about her before he tried to have her killed. She supposed it was only natural that they no longer felt like strangers. For the better part of the last year and a half, they had been a big part of one another’s lives. Even if Kane was plotting her demise and Abby was focused on skirting him.

"Congratulations,” he finished, still staring at her.

Abby was confused and there was no room in her world for such a feeling. Kane didn't sound half as sarcastic as he usually did, and he wasn't threatening anything. Was she missing something? Was he here to arrest her but first wanted to catch her off guard? Had they become friends somehow over the course of this investigation? Hell had a higher likelihood of freezing over, Abby thought.

“What do you want, Kane?” she questioned, and even her voice sounded hollow.

There was no bite behind her words, no temptation, no anticipation. She just wanted this conversation to be over so that the world could swallow her up once and for all.

Kane peered at her for a moment longer, letting his eyes roam her battered face which somehow remained beautiful through the mess that Danny had made, and let his silence do all the talking. She wore a long braid over her shoulder that was coming apart here and there, and he found himself wondering if that hair of hers still smelled like jasmine.

She stared at him with her eyes wide, frozen in place. She should have removed herself from the situation so that he wouldn’t get the chance to ask the questions that she knew he wanted to, but she couldn’t seem to move. Maybe, somewhere deep down within her, she hoped that Marcus could help her in some way. Maybe for a second, she forgot that he was the enemy at all.

“This could all be over,” Kane lowered his voice and leaned across the table, the whisper that he used almost seemed painful to him as he shook his head solemnly, “you know.”

Abby blinked away a bit of emotion and began to look anywhere but into his dark eyes. She was wrong before - Kane was still the enemy. And she didn’t need him, of all people, seeing the weakness within her. Not when all he wanted to do was use it against her.

“You’re the only one who can end this.” Kane said, and he was right, they both knew it.

Maybe she would have been more inclined to assist him in his investigation if even now, he didn’t sound threatening in some way.

With Abby covering for him, Danny was just too good to be caught and brought to justice. The only way that any of this could come to an end was if she came forward and turned him in. However, they knew that this would only lead to her own incrimination and eventual flotation. And despite it all, Abigail Everson still wanted nothing more than to live.

Marcus was no simpleton. He knew that her confessing was a pipe dream. She couldn’t be responsible for the death of anyone else that she loved. And she certainly wouldn’t let Danny go down for the crimes that she too, should be floated for. Abby was doing to do what she did best and sit on this information, covering for both herself and the person that she loved, until it got her killed or worse.

More than that, she couldn’t just leave. The threatening words that had been uttered in her face last night began to replay in her mind. She’d told Danny that if he kept taking those drugs that turned him into a monster, she might not have a choice one day, and she would be better off leaving. The minute that she’d said that, even she knew she was lying, and that she was in trouble.

Threatening to leave was something that Danny simply couldn’t handle. So, he grabbed a fistful of the hair at the nape of her neck and threw her to the floor until she was bloody and exhausted.

“You ever try to leave,” he’d said through gritted teeth, pointing towards a cannister of gunpowder that he’d acquired from Nygel a few days earlier, “I’ll lock you up in this room and blow the place to pieces.”

That memory was all it took. Abby knew that she had no more options. She kept her eyes down and used silence as her very last defense. Kane pursed his lips angrily once but kept his emotions within. She was going to be the cause of her own demise, even if it was at the hands of a violent criminal. It infuriated him. Kane sighed harshly and stood from his seat.

“You’re going to get yourself killed.”

~~~

Geoffrey Kane and Fiona Holloway – senior and junior engineers, Marcus Kane’s father and girlfriend – had been working on a project in Mecha Station, side by side. They had been doing this for the last three years now, nothing out of the ordinary.

On the afternoon of December 30th, Guardsmen Marcus Kane and David Miller accompanied the chief of engineering to the maintenance bay in which Geoffrey and Fiona were working in order to conduct a routine maintenance inspection. The chief insisted that everything was in perfect, working condition, as did Geoffrey, and therefore Marcus didn’t feel the need for further questioning. He trusted. Besides, the sooner that inspection was over, the sooner both him and Fiona would be clocking out. They were going to spend the evening together in the Alpha Station Mess Hall. One night just for them before tomorrow's New Year's Eve festivities would likely throw them into a big party of people.

Not half an hour after that inspection, Geoffrey Kane, Fiona Holloway, and three other engineers working in the maintenance bay were killed due to system malfunction. One that could have been prevented if proper precautions were taken during inspections And Marcus Kane never trusted again.

~~~

Things didn’t feel right.

Abby was living in limbo, waiting for her reckless boyfriend to either get himself caught and floated, or finally snap and beat her to death. Kane hadn’t been the same since his father and Fiona tragically passed. He blamed himself for not being thorough enough with his inspections.

He became ruthless. Life for him was now only about following and upholding the law, by whatever means necessary, with no exceptions. He now knew what happened if that didn’t get done. People died. His cases took ultimate precedence for two reasons. One, there was no longer anyone else to prioritize over such things, and two, because he had let someone else become a priority to him and it only ended in heartbreak.

To make himself feel better about constantly letting Danny and Abby slip through his fingers, Kane made twice as many arrests for the Guard by simply refusing to follow the rest of his colleagues and turn a blind eye to certain crimes that had become excusable over time. Anything for a little bit of satisfaction. Eventually, the rest of the Guard followed in his lead. Citizens of the Ark colloquially referred to this as Kane’s Reign of Terror. It would last two whole decades and only get worse with time.

It all came to a head in the new year. Midway through January annually, the medical staff aboard the Ark threw a small gala in Medical Station, hosting an evening to let their officers and technicians enjoy themselves and socialize. A chance to get dressed up and pretend to be real people for a night. They called it the Medic’s Ball.

This would be Abby’s first ball, and she’d been rather excited about it until, of course, Danny demanded that she stay home, unable to fathom the idea of her going to an event without him to watch over her. What if he needed something from her in the night? Or worse, what if this was the opportunity she needed to leave and never look back?

Abby didn’t know what had reawakened within her.

Perhaps it was the fact that she knew Aurora had already fixed up an old dress for her to wear, or maybe it was the fact that she hadn’t been given the chance to enjoy herself in a very long time. It could have been because she was utterly sick and tired of letting Daniel Spencer drain the life out of her. But Abby was going to that ball, whether it killed her or not.

She coordinated with a friend of Danny’s, someone to invite him out to the speakeasy on the same night of the Medic’s Ball. And while Abby promised to be at home with a journal or two, she intended to go out and maybe even let herself laugh once or twice knowing that she could be home before late and Danny would be none the wiser.

As per usual, Aurora had outdone herself. The dress was upcycled from something that her mother wore to a wedding years ago. It was out of style and old-fashioned, but she’d made it into something great. A deep plum colour with a v-neck top and loose skirt that hung around Abby’s legs all the way down to her toes, she felt like a princess from a book. The other girls at the party would be wearing nicer material of course, but at least she could feel beautiful for a night.

True to herself and her own style, she’d accessorized with a big leather belt that laced up at the front like a corset and black boots. Abby let her long hair down but pinned back the front pieces and used some old makeup to do her best to cover up the bruises that still painted her skin.

There was determination in every step she took away from Factory Station that night.

To her utmost surprise, the very first person that she happened upon at the ball was Guardsman Kane. Abby had heard what happened to his father and girlfriend just a couple weeks ago and felt terrible. When the bodies were brought into medical, there was hardly anything left for her and the team to salvage.

She hadn’t expected to see Kane here, standing guard, obviously assigned security detail tonight as he stood strong with his hands behind his back near the doors. The frown on his face looked permanently etched there.

The sudden eye contact between the pair took Abby by surprise, but Kane’s face did not flinch. For a moment, she considered that if it were her, she would want some time off to grieve her family. Then she remembered. She hadn’t taken any time when she lost her own family. She’d gone straight to school and threw herself into her work. Perhaps she understood better than she expected. She only hoped that Marcus and his mother were leaning on one another during this time. Vera had been somewhat inconsolable when she visited Medical to help identify the body.

Considering she hadn’t seen him since before the tragedy, Abby wasn’t sure what to say. What did one say to the person who was trying to have them arrested in order to offer condolences? Her name was being called at the back of the room, and she recognized her friends beckoning her over, but she couldn’t just run into Kane like this and not say anything. She had too big of a heart.

“Marcus,” she was saying before her brain could catch up to her words, and his eyes flicked over to her.

They were both surprised to hear his first name rolling off her tongue as if it belonged there. This would be the first time that she’d ever used it. Even more surprising was how natural it both felt and sounded.

He knew what was coming. She was shocked to see him working already, perhaps taken aback by the fact that he was here at her event instead of simply investigating her. Everyone else was surprised to see him back so soon, but Abby was the first to say anything. Realizing this, Kane’s eyebrows were sent lifting up on his forehead ever so slightly.

“I’m sorry,” she said in a pained whisper, giving him a knowing look as her amber eyes filled with genuine emotion.

Kane did not want pity, but that’s not what this felt like. It felt like deepest sympathies but not in a belittling way. In an empathic way. It felt like a truce amid a brutal war. In all honesty, it felt nice.

Quite frankly, he was surprised at her ability to set their differences aside and offer him such sincerity. He didn’t get used to it nor did he ever expect it from her again, but it spoke to her true nature. Even he had to acknowledge that.

Already opposed to it, Kane had recently vowed never to let himself be weakened by sentiment again. Never to let himself be opened up to the possibility of allowing his feelings to get in the way of survival. And so far, he was doing one hell of a job of it. He’d felt numb ever since the incident that took the lives of his father and girlfriend, and found himself tapping into the qualities within him that he had already been training towards with the Guard.

Though he appreciated Abby’s sympathies, he did not want them. And he did not want to be swayed by the look on her face now. He would have been fine if she hadn’t chosen to then reach her hand out towards him and place it on his bicep, just below his shoulder, and give it a squeeze.

“I knew Fiona,” Abby tilted her head sideways, still speaking just above a whisper as her own voice threatened to crack. “She was a lovely girl.”

Whether he should have or not, Marcus believed her. And it was times like this when he wondered what the hell he had been doing trying to pin crimes on her and ultimately press charges. She was lovely. She was kind, empathetic, big-hearted. And he wanted her dead. No, he shook his head. He never wanted her dead. He wanted justice to be carried out. He just didn’t care whether that meant she died or not.

Right now, feeling warm where her hand was still touching him, he might just care a little. He knew that it wasn’t her hands that were warm – those from Factory Station were perpetually cold – and instead it was the warmth that came directly from her spirit. That warmth radiated off her skin and melted down into his body.

Untrusting of his own voice, Kane did nothing but nod and give her a knowing look before Abby walked past him and joined her friends at the other side of the room. He happened to notice that once she got over there, she’d looked back at him. That’s when he realized that he had been watching her.

He mentally called himself a fool before swallowing away any and all emotion within him, lifting his chin up, and straightening his shoulders.

~~~

Abby had lost track of time.

She was a social butterfly who very rarely got to fly. It hadn’t been difficult for her to forget to watch the clock and before she knew any better, whole hours had passed. Hours and she hadn’t thought once about Danny. And though she knew that she was in for it now, she couldn’t help but feel as though the amount of fun that she’d had tonight was worth whatever beating she would receive when she got home.

Nonetheless, that did not slow her erratic departure from the crowded room.

The eight o’clock security bell was beeping faintly in the distance, and she realized her mistake. That was when she grabbed around for somebody with a watch and took off in a full sprint, desperate to get out of this room, across the Ark, and back to Factory Station.

Abby only rounded two corners – still in Alpha Station – before Danny found her. For some reason, she had not been expecting him to seek her out. She’d been prepared for one hell of an assault when she got back home, but hadn’t foreseen him meeting her here. Didn’t he know better?

She saw his pupils and noticed that his moon-white eyes were black. Right now, he didn’t know better. Not while under such a heavy influence.

Abby had no time to explain herself before his fists came down upon her. And for the first few seconds, the hallway had been empty. This allowed him to lay into her remorselessly, thinking that nobody would come along and put a stop to it.

He threw her against the wall first, just to disorient her. When she fell to her knees following the impact, he grabbed her by the shoulders and pinned her to that wall so that he could scream brutalities into her face. She winced and he eventually let her go, not before he’d bruised her shoulders by how hard he’d been holding them.

Danny had turned away just long enough for Abby to take in one deep breath before he reeled back around and hit her square across the face. That sent her straight to the ground, clutching her cheek. Abby was confused when she pulled her hand away and found blood, but looked up and watched Danny rubbing his knuckles. He was wearing a ring that must have caught her cheekbone as he hit her. Enough to draw blood.

From there, he did everything he could to keep her down. Hitting, slapping, punching, kicking. All the while, screaming. And it was the screaming that ensured he would not get away with this particular crime.

Abby couldn’t hear or feel anything as she lay there. It had felt like hours when in reality, the assault took less than a minute. Danny was likely still either kicking or hitting her, but she had gone numb to it. All she knew was that she was lying in something wet. Maybe she’d slipped in a puddle or something. Her eyes weren’t working well enough to know that it was her own blood.

All she could really think about were words said to her by a man that she was taught to fear. A man who, right now, didn't seem quite so bad. A man who had been right all along. This was how she got herself killed.

At that time, another young medic who had been leaving the ball stumbled upon the scene. Her shrieking overtook Danny’s, and it took no time at all for Abby to feel the oncoming footsteps as they vibrated the ground that she lay upon.

She shut her eyes. Help was on the way, but at what cost? It would also condemn the man that she loved to his death. Help would destroy her family, yet again. And what would they do to her? If there was an investigation – and she was positive that Kane would ensure there was – then she was going down too. Right now, she felt halfway okay with that. At least the suffering would be over.

The medic’s shrieking had shaken Danny to his senses, and he dropped to his knees and cradled Abby’s head in his hands, begging her to just stand up and be okay so that she could tell the guards that it was all a misunderstanding. That she had slipped and fallen. By now, he was screaming at her to wake up. Abby shut her eyes just to spite him but soon found herself slipping in and out of consciousness.

Still stationed by the door, Guardsman Kane was one of the first to hear the shrieks. He snapped to alert instantly and caught the eyes of Guardsman Shumway who was nearby, and the two men sprang into action as they quickly followed their ears.

Neither was sure what to expect when they rounded the corner, and at first, all that registered to Kane was the blood. As frustrating as it was, his brain was working a second or two behind his eyes. Someone was hurt, badly. Only after he took the shrieking medic by her shoulders and moved her gently aside so that he could really take in the scene did he realize what had happened.

He allowed himself one half-second to grit his teeth and curse aloud. This was his fault. He should have listened to Commander Zwysig. He should have seen this coming. He should have kept a better eye on the situation and known that Daniel Spencer was on the verge of murdering the only person in this world who loved him. He shouldn’t have been so focused on prosecuting that very person.

Because truthfully, this came as no surprise to him. It was only a shame that in order to finally take down Danny, it was Abby who had to suffer, yet again. Collateral damage as if it was her only purpose in this world.

Kane chased away the jolt that had visited his stomach upon realizing that Abigail Everson was laying on the ground in a puddle of her own blood, threatening to bleed to death, and took action alongside Shumway.

Danny pulled himself frantically to his feet and dodged Shumway who was trying to come at him with his shock baton. He flinched towards Kane who was attempting brute force to grab Danny and force him incapacitated.

The man – high on drugs and adrenaline – threw a punch and hooked Kane once in the lip, drawing blood again thanks to his ring. The guardsman recoiled viciously enough with a blow to Danny’s jaw that rendered him immobile. It wasn’t tough to do. Kane couldn’t remember a time he had been so angry.

Shumway wasted no time in grabbing Danny from the ground and forcing him into handcuffs. By now, two more guards had approached the scene and served as backup as they marched the violent offender off to Prison Station.

Kane’s eyes shot to the ground, where he found what he struggled to look at without feeling as though he might just cry. Something about this situation felt desperate in a way that he had never before experienced. For some strange reason, he likened it to the accident that claimed Fiona and his father. He had already lost them, he couldn't add Abby to the mix. But since when did he care that much about her? Perhaps he didn't. Perhaps this feeling wasn't about her at all and instead it spoke to his need for a win. His need to save somebody rather than see them dead.

“Medic!” He shouted backwards, hoping that someone a bit more capable than the shrieking girl would hear him and come to their aid. “We need a medic, here!”

Kane instantly kneeled down to the ground, praying that the poor girl was not already dead. The amount of blood that soaked through his knee pads worried him instantly. With much relief, he watched as Abby’s mouth began to move. She was desperately trying to eke out some kind of sentence.

“I am…” she said, her words coming out raspy and nearly silent, “…a medic.”

“Abby,” Kane sighed and took her face in his hand, glad to see that she was alive. “Abby keep your eyes open,” he added upon noticing that she was very close to threatening to have spoken her very last words. “You have to stay awake.”

She knew that he was right. Even as her mind clouded with fog that offered peace and painlessness, she knew that Kane was right. If she let herself close her eyes and slip away into that fog, she would very likely never come out of it. Is that what she wanted?

As memories of her life spent hidden in Section 17 came flooding back to her followed by good days spent with friends in Alpha Station, she knew that it wasn’t. She wanted to live. Abby Everson needed to live.

“Oh my god,” the voice of one of the medics from the ball said, upon seeing Kane holding Abby’s bloody, near-lifeless face in his hands, looking up with a desperate look on his face.

The young medic looked over his shoulder, thankful to see that another pair was coming around the corner.

Looking back at Kane, he nodded. “Get her back to medical!”

They would have had to wait for someone to come from Sick Bay in order to get a stretcher, but it wouldn’t have mattered. Kane didn’t even stop to consider this when he carefully picked her up off the floor – successfully bloodying his own hands as he did so – and carried her against his body, moving quickly towards the emergency medical bay.

She was slipping in and out of consciousness, based on what Kane saw when he occasionally glanced downwards at the battered woman in his arms. And it was as he felt Abby’s head resting against his chest, the scent of metallic blood and jasmine oil flooding his senses, that Marcus realized something.

It might never matter how hard he tried to prevent himself from ever feeling anything again. Some feelings were completely unavoidable.

~~~

Marcus Kane’s life began when Daniel Spencer’s ended.

He’d been right all along. This was the case that had put him on the map once and for all. He had been a guardsman for a little over a year now, but bringing such a notorious criminal to justice earned him a promotion.

In the end, of course, Danny hadn’t even been arrested for what Kane wanted to see him floated for. It wasn’t illegal trading or possession of narcotics and weapons. Danny’s violent temperament was what had incriminated him. Sacrificing Abby for the cause, Danny was locked up and floated for domestic violence. And though four hands wound up blood that night, it was only one heart that broke. Abby could endure any physical pain that came her way, but she hadn't expected to feel quite so emotionally wounded by the fact that the man she loved had tried to kill her.

The council agreed that a complete investigation should be done, and Kane was in charge of leading it. They tore the quarters in Section 22 apart from head to toe and found Danny’s supply of contraband and weapons. Drugs, gunpowder, bombs, you name it.

That’s when Kane was faced with a choice. Because there was a young woman – a girl, really – lying helplessly in Sick Bay, who had been fighting for her life for the past year and a half. A girl who was part of it all. He didn’t know how much of it Abby was involved in, but he did know that she couldn’t live in those quarters without at least knowing what was going on.

With his investigation concluded, he could easily report that she had aided and abetted the criminal since the moment they met. He could secure Abby a spot in the flotation chamber next to her boyfriend. Isn’t that what she deserved? She chose to live with someone who broke the law. She chose to help him in his dealings with Nygel.

In the end, Marcus told himself that sparing her was for his own benefit. Because he intended on being the person to take down Nygel once and for all and he could really use someone with insider knowledge. He told himself that one day when he was finally put on Nygel’s case, he would go to Abby for help. He told himself that because he was sparing her life now – and had ultimately saved it when Danny had unleashed his fury upon her – that she would willingly give up whatever information he wanted.

But there was more to it than that. Kane had failed Abby by allowing Danny to continue beating her senseless right before their very eyes, all because he had been too naive to see it. Too focused on arresting both of them to see that she was being victimized. Sparing her life made up for that, or so he hoped. Maybe it would help him sleep better at night.

Kane got what he wanted, after all. Danny was floated. He wanted to see both of them taken down for their crimes, but his perspective on it all had changed recently. Seeing Abby so beaten and broken. He no longer needed to see her prosecuted so desperately. He had won their little game of cat and mouse. No more blood needed to be shed.

It was a relief once Danny was floated, but Kane – newly minted Sergeant – couldn’t shake the feeling of disappointment within him. The game was over. And it might just have been the most fun he’d ever had. Bantering with Abby, going back and forth, appreciating the way that she’d given him one hell of a run for his money.

Without Danny, he imagined her starting a long career in the medical sector and minding her manners. And when he imagined his future – arresting criminals that did not challenge him – he felt bored. Kane worried that there was something rather psychotic within him as he mourned the loss of their little game.

Maybe it wasn’t the game that had kept him so preoccupied, that had offered such a sense of fun. Perhaps it was the player. He wouldn’t let himself even consider such a thing.

And even with his new rank and the arrogance that came with it, Kane was determined to finish what he’d started. To see the whole thing through. He couldn’t just leave Abby in that medical room and never speak to her again unless they inevitably ran into one another in Alpha Station. This case needed closure.

Still confined to her hospital bed, attached to an IV that administered her a very small amount of allotted painkillers throughout the day, Abby was surprised to see Guardsman Kane enter the room next time the doors hissed open. She was expecting her doctor.

Abby’s eyes looked up from the medical journal she’d been reading for the sake of passing time and keeping her brain busy – trying not to think of Danny being floated any time now. She hadn’t expected her eyes to well up at the sight of Marcus Kane, of all people.

The years of hiding, the months and months of torture, of fear, of being hunted, of being investigated, being abused at home, being threatened, it all caught up to her. She did not sob, she did not lose her composure, but she did have to hold her breath in order to avoid both things. Nonetheless, the tears fell down her cheeks.

Kane watched curiously as these emotions flashed across her face. He clasped his hands behind his back and gave his mouth a small shrug, meeting Abby’s eyes while slowly marching towards her bed, remaining professional.

Her hands were trembling, but her voice did not. And she was the first to speak. "Is it done?" She said in a small voice, trying to remain strong.

Tilting his chin upwards while he stared her down, now standing at the foot of her bed, Kane swallowed dryly, determined to do this by the book.

“Daniel Spencer was floated this morning at seven-hundred hours for charges of domestic battery and illegal possession of firearms and narcotics.”

Abby appreciated the way that Kane had kept his voice level and factual, suggesting that he was here for work purposes, until he listed the charges. The relief she felt was soon overwhelmed by the fear.

Danny wasn’t carrying a weapon when he attacked her, and he was never stupid enough to keep his pills on his body when he went out. The only way that Kane would know about such things would be if they’d searched their quarters. And if they’d done that, then she was in for it.

So, that’s why he was here. Not to offer her some peace and closure, but to arrest her. To let her know that as soon as she was well enough to get up and out of this bed, she’d be marched straight to the flotation chamber once and for all.

Knowing Kane, he wouldn’t let this one slide, no matter how much fun they’d managed to have together over the last year and a half. Well, she’d thought it was fun, anyways. In a bit of a sick and twisted way.

He watched all this cross Abby’s mind and she bit her bottom lip in surprise and fear.

“You...” she began, but her voice wavered until she swallowed and tried again, unable to meet Kane’s scrutiny, "...you searched the quarters.”

Pinching his lips together, Kane nodded. Though he was well aware that she had suffered enough, he rather enjoyed letting her think that she was going to die. Perhaps this would be enough deterrence to push her away from a life of future crime. Maybe that’s why he let the pause linger in the room just a second or two longer than he needed to.

“Turns out,” he began slowly in a low voice that sounded more like a whisper than anything else – Abby recognized this tone well. “Your boyfriend was leading a double life.”

She stared at him, wondering what his angle was. Surely Marcus Kane was not here to announce that he was letting her get away with it. She did not want to believe it was so until she knew for sure, so Abby held her breath as he continued.

“I’m sure you had no idea,” he finished in a voice that was both soft and strong, urging her not to blow their cover.

Abby pursed her lips as her eyelids slowly fell closed. The relief that she suddenly felt was immeasurable, and she owed it all to Marcus Kane. He was feigning naivety and allowing her the same. He was not arresting her today despite both of them knowing the truth about Daniel Spencer – he had an accomplice. Unwilling or not, she had still done it.

Kane was wiping her slate clean. A third chance at life. And Abby promised herself never to forget that.

The tear that streamed slowly down Abby’s cheek then told Kane that he’d done the right thing. That he’d made the right choice. It would have felt a lot crappier if he’d told her that she was being executed. Perhaps there would be a certain element of pride and victory to it, but he knew that ultimately, it would not feel good. Not like this. This felt golden.

Staring down at her, Kane was rather thankful to see that she was obviously relieved to hear that Danny was dead. She loved him, yes, but had also been held prisoner for the duration of their relationship. He knew how easy it was for someone vulnerable to fall victim to such a partnership, and was glad when Abby proved to be more resilient. To know better now that she had taken a step back and been removed.

“Get better, Dr. Everson,” he raised his voice strongly now, taking a few steps backwards. “You’ve got patients.”

This was true – Sick Bay was as overwhelmed as it always was this time of year. They needed all hands on deck.

As for Abby, she let herself smile. It wasn’t a big one, just the upwards tugging at the corners of her mouth. There it was again – hope. Hope inside of her that things would all work out, that it would be okay. Hope because of Marcus Kane and his uncharacteristic decision. Hope because she had prevailed and came out alive. Hope because her life could now go on the way that she wanted it to. Not the way that her parents wanted it to. Not the way that Danny had wanted it to. Not the way that Nygel wanted it to. Just her.

“Marcus,” she called out to him rather weakly as he approached the door.

Abby still didn’t particularly like him. She thought that herself and that man were incredibly different. She wouldn’t understand him. But she had to be grateful for him. She had to acknowledge that fact that he had saved her life by picking her up out of a puddle of blood and finally taken her away from the man that was slowly killing her. Not only that, but he had chosen not to press charges against her. She owed him something.

“Thank you,” she whispered, knowing that the words would never be enough.

He looked back at her and felt something swelling within him. Something that he knew better than to allow. That thank you wasn’t just about coming here today and updating her on Danny’s condition. It was about wiping her record clean. Maybe it was even about saving her life. For being the pair of hands that had rescued her. He got the feeling that it was rather all-encompassing.

He chuckled breathily, staring down for a moment before giving Abby one last look. Perhaps when they were sneering in one another’s faces casting threats and menacing comments, he felt like he was doing what was right. It felt like survival. But right now, the blossoming warmth within him that Abby had planted simply by offering her gratitude was enough to move mountains. It felt like being alive.

“That’s Sergeant to you, doctor,” he announced, realizing that there was no way she could have known about the promotion.

Abby gave him as cheeky a look as she could muster before Kane nodded once at her and left Sick Bay.

It felt like a chapter had closed. A dark prologue that hadn’t been altogether very pleasant for anybody. Abby smiled, settling into her bed and opening the medical journal. A brand-new chapter was on the horizon.

Chapter Text

The young had inherited the Ark.

Chancellor Xander was a leader who truly catered to the younger generation, knowing that their fragile little world up there in space would one day very soon lay in their hands. He intended to ensure that those were capable hands. This is why he was the first and only Chancellor to implement a Junior Council. His Senior Council, of course, was already filled to the brim with various officers and high-ranking political figures, but there was no reason why there shouldn’t be a similar table to give voice to the younger citizens of the Ark, as their needs and opinions were bound to differ from the generations that came before them. And isn’t diversity what democracy is really about?

Practice is what it really was. The groundwork for a new generation of strong leaders. And it had been some time since the youth of Alpha Station were quite so keen on politics.

Following the execution of Daniel Spencer, Abby was kept in Sick Bay for three days until her doctor – who also happened to be her supervisor – discharged her. From there, it was another half week before he cleared her for work. Abby’s expertise was needed and missed, even if she was one of their newest doctors and fresh out of medical school.

“You’ll want to speak with Officer Harden, Abby,” Dr. Gardner told her as he closed her file of charts and watched carefully as Abby emerged from the back changing room where she’d put some casual clothes on in place of a hospital gown.

The doctor raised a suspicious eyebrow upon realizing that Abby had walked into that room with long hair down her back and emerged now with it hanging just above her shoulders in thick waves. Abby herself hadn’t thought much of the impromptu haircut. She needed to leave this room a different person. Hair holds memories, that’s what Vera Kane was always saying. And it was time to leave those memories behind.

Dr. Gartner peered at her but said nothing. Instead, he watched her footsteps for any signs of pain while walking, her ribcage for any signs of pain while breathing, and he watched her fake her way through it all. Of course, she was still in pain, but he knew as well as she did that Abby was healing. There was no more that could be done for her here in Sick Bay.

However, Viola Harden – the Ark’s chief housing officer – was bound to be the young girl’s next ally as she would have to attempt to move herself out of Danny’s old living quarters in Factory Station, and into her own quarters in Alpha, so that she could be closer to the Go-Sci Station where she conducted most of her work.

“She’ll get you set up here in Alpha.”

Abby shifted the bag over her shoulder a few inches as it had been resting on a very painful bruise, but didn’t let herself grimace at the feeling. Instead, she tucked a strand of her now short brown hair behind her ear and smiled pleasantly at Dr. Gardner.

“Thanks Doc,” she said, doing her best to pretend that she was feeling good and ready to re-enter the world even though hers had just fallen apart around her. “See you Monday.”

As the young woman walked out of Sick Bay, she heard her boss call out from behind her.

“And not a moment sooner, Dr. Everson.”

Gardner knew just how eager the girl was and how likely it would be that she’d try to have herself back on shift before she was medically cleared just because she hated sitting idle when there was work to be done.

Abby’s smile faded as she came around the corner and entered the main medical terminal, where she blinked away her surprise upon seeing Sergeant Marcus Kane staring at his reflection in a nearby mirror. This was twice now recently that she’d seen him when she’d least been expecting it.

As she kept her distance but walked around him, Abby saw what he was examining.

When he’d arrested Danny, the violent man had hooked him in the bottom lip with a punch that had drawn blood. Abby hadn’t thought to notice any stitches the other day when Kane had come by, but by the looks of it, he’d just gotten some taken out and was now staring down at the mark that was left. Ironically enough, she’d been left with a scar of her own on her cheekbone from where that same ring cut her.

“That’s going to leave a scar, you know,” she said bluntly, and Kane’s eyes jolted upwards in the mirror to see her standing somewhere behind him.

He stared for a moment before his eyes went back down to his lip, and then he turned himself around. She was right, he would have a scar.

“A keepsake,” he said, and elaborated when she did nothing but stare back blankly. “Of the first case I ever worked.”

He hadn’t meant much by his words, small talk if anything, but the faraway look that had settled behind Abby’s eyes upon hearing them made him realize that they were rather insensitive, given the circumstances. A keepsake of his greatest victory but Abby’s greatest pain. He hadn’t thought of it that way until just now.

“Sorry, that was…” he let his sentence die off, with nothing to say.

He felt stupid, but wished that he didn’t.

Abby just shook her head, giving him a strange look that Marcus could not translate for the life of him. She was shocked to hear him apologizing to her, shocked that he wasn’t sneering in her face and promising to nab her next time she stepped out of line. She was surprised that the two of them could simply be human beings around each other.

“It’s fine,” she tightened her grip on the strap of her bag.

That bag held nearly all of her worldly possessions, which had never been much. She’d sent Aurora Blake to Danny’s quarters with a guardsman to accompany her and grab a few things – articles of clothing, books, old photos, jewelry – that she knew Abby would want with her. But other than that, Abigail Everson washed her hands of those quarters. She wanted to start brand new, with whatever she had on her back and in her bag, and that was that.

Abby’s restless thoughts had left her failing to realize that Kane had pushed himself away from the counter and taken a few steps towards her. He was staring at her now, letting his eyes fill in the blanks that words could not say. She read between the lines and figured that he was about to refer to something private between the two of them, something that still stood in their way.

“Good game, Abby,” he spoke vindictively, with a hint of teasing sarcasm behind his uncharacteristically alive eyes.

He was referring, almost certainly, to their grand game of cat and mouse throughout the past year and a bit – pushing and pulling, giving and taking, and finally, coming up short and coming out on top.

“You put up a good fight.”

It was clear based on his tone that Kane thought he had won. Danny was dead, wasn’t he? But Abby wasn’t. Even if that was only because he had let her get away with it, she was still alive. Perhaps he had every reason to feel smug about it.

As far as Kane believed, their story was officially coming to a firm close. With her busy in medical and him climbing the ranks in security, there would be little to no reason to run into each other save for the fact that the Mess Hall was a small space and they shared many mutual friends.

However, Abby knew something that he didn’t.

Earlier that morning, she had been visited by Councilwoman Meredith May, administrator of education in Orchid Station, and she’d given her a handful of papers. First, an acceptance letter into Professor Fleetwood’s Earth Studies class, and second, a list of other students in that class. Third, she’d been given an acceptance letter into Officer Water’s Political Sciences class, followed by another list. And lastly, a pamphlet of other options for academic furtherance that Abby would happily look into. The first thing that she did, was give both class lists a once-over, preparing herself for any friends or enemies that she may have in the classes. And right there, smack dab in the middle of both lists, was the name Marcus Kane.

She’d been initially surprised to see his participation, as she wondered what interest he had in the Earth – she couldn’t have known that it was a mandatory class for every member of the Guard to complete before they could lead their own command. However, she wasn’t at all surprised to see his name on the list for political sciences. He was a man who wanted to be in charge, politics was the perfect place for him.

“Save your goodbyes, Kane,” Abby grinned a little as she and Marcus fell into stride, side by side, on their way out of the room. “You’ll see me Tuesdays and Thursdays at thirteen hundred hours.”

She could feel him wavering for a second, as all she did to explain herself was hold up the sheets in her right hand, the ones that listed their names in the same two academic classes. Putting two and two together, Kane realized then that perhaps they were not yet finished with one another.

“You aren’t getting rid of me that easily," she added with a sly grin.

One Year Later

It was the year 2128, and nineteen-year-old Abigail Everson had much to live for, for the first time in her life. She had a large group of friends, academic aspirations, a promising career, projects to keep her busy coming at her from all angles.

But amid it all, her favourite time of any week, remained one o’clock on Tuesday afternoons. Because that time meant her Earth Studies class. And her Earth Studies class meant that she got to sit beside a handsome young man who she quite fancied, who made her laugh, who kept her challenged in class, who shared her interests, a man that she was very quickly falling in love with.

And that man’s name was Jake Griffin.

They’d met during Abby’s first Earth Studies class last semester, and were some of the few students who kept up with the class after it ended. Most others had dropped the subject and moved on to more important endeavours when the second semester rolled around. Jake shared Abby’s fascination with Earth, even if it came from a different place than hers.

He was everything that Abby deserved, and yet had never come close to. He was soft-hearted, he wanted what was best for everyone, he had ambition, he was intelligent, he cared for her, he offered her true safety, not the disguised version of it that Danny had.

But Abby had been scarred deeply by her previous relationship. In every way possible. She struggled to trust herself and Jake enough to actually pursue something with him until she was damn sure that it was really what she wanted. Therefore, she settled for flirting for an hour in between classwork on Tuesdays, and seeing him around the Ark here and there, sharing a friendly meal on occasion, and developing a friendship. He was a busy man, so Abby had to take what she could get, which wasn't much.

Jake had always lived in Alpha Station, and he worked close by in the Go-Sci Station centre. He’d been an environmental engineer since he was eighteen years old and had interest in taking his career to the next level. Being in the business for three years now, he knew that if he eventually wanted to become a senior officer in his field, he would need a better grasp on what it was that he was actually studying.

That began with understanding the Earth. And that’s why he sat there on Tuesday afternoons, learning skills and facts that he would likely never get to put to good use actually on the ground, but could incorporate into his work in space. He was not under the impression that there would be any hope for the ground for at least another few generations, but he was still happy to learn about it. Some people on board the Ark – Abby included – believed that the Earth might just be more survivable than the resource officers predicted.

And that was why Abby was in the class. Ever since Danny had been floated, she had been back to attending Vera Kane’s religious ceremonies weekly. Now, Abby had never been one for religion. She’d read about Christianity and Islam and Judaism and other prominent faiths from the past and couldn’t manage to wrap her head around some of the stories that were told. Not only that, but she’d also read the history books that depicted how people on Earth had killed each other time and time again in the name of those religions.

She understood the human desire to believe that there was more to this life beyond death, and she too held on to hope that they were all living for a purpose. And she had always been intrigued by Vera’s take on the concept of Heaven. In her preaching, Heaven referred primarily to Earth, and going home to it. She was a strong woman who proved to be very good at inspiring her congregation to hold tightly to hope and have faith that one day, humanity would return to Earth, and so long as they were good to the ground, the ground would be good to them.

It was Vera who really instilled the idea of getting back to Earth within young Abigail Everson. And she never lost that hope. However, if she was one day truly going to set studies into motion that could put people back on the Earth decades sooner than predicted, Abby figured that Earth Studies was the best place to start. Politics would be helpful in the end, but they fascinated her far less. They were more of a requirement.

Marcus Kane too, had sat in on the Earth Sciences class for but one semester as it was required by the Guard, but deemed the entire study pointless and a waste of time, and did not return to further his studies even as Thelonious urged him to. No one was surprised. After Kane left the group that his very own mother headed, his opinion on both Earth and faith was quite clear.

With only the Guard and one Political Sciences class taking up his time, Marcus could easily focus all of his efforts on being the best Sergeant the Ark had ever seen. His success did not go unnoticed by the higher ups, and he’d become a Major before he turned twenty-two, earlier than any guardsman ever had before.

And thus continued Marcus Kane’s Reign of Terror aboard the Ark, as he insisted on upholding the law to the highest degree, wreaking havoc on anyone who was anything less than innocent. Abby often thought to herself how she was glad to no longer be committing any criminal offenses or rubbing shoulders with the wrong people now that he was really hammering down.

Still, even as he floated people and made more arrests than necessary, and even as Abby saw this as fruitless and unduly cruel, evil even, there was this part of her that refused to die. The part that saw him as a hero. As truly kind-hearted and valiant. As the man who had saved her life in multiple ways. She told herself that it was just Stockholm Syndrome talking and she never had any trouble countering his villainous opinions and ideas, but still held on to that part of her.

Kane had blood on his hands, and she knew it, but she saw something different in him. She saw this immense capability for goodness. Sometimes she felt as though she looked at him and saw something different than anyone else was seeing. Abby worried that she might be crazy, but knew that all it really was, all it ever had been, was hope. Hope for Marcus Kane.

At times, she chastised herself for the utterly ridiculous crush that she undoubtedly had on him.

The young people aboard the Ark were indeed taking over.

With Kane as the youngest Major yet, Abby as the youngest medical surgeon the Ark had seen, even Thelonious one of the youngest engineers in the station, it was clear that this new generation was set to be a promising one. Potential lingered so thickly in the halls of the space station that a single spark might set the entire place ablaze.

And those promising young figures who were bound to become tomorrow’s leaders banded together in a circle around Alpha Station, becoming friends, allies, rivals, romantic partners, and everything in between.

It was a small Ark and an even smaller station. Friendships were blossoming everywhere. And at the centre of it all, was Abby – a bright, friendly personality who never turned a friend away. She was a beacon of light in a world of grey and cold. And it had to be said, for a generation that insisted on working themselves to the bone day in and day out, the young people always managed to find time for socialization in the form of dining together in the Mess Hall, sharing stories over games of chess or billiards, getting together to watch old films and sports games, and even commandeering various rec rooms on Friday nights for parties – even if they swore up and down that they weren’t partying.

Advisor Maryanne Benton, Officer Callie Cartwig, Major Marcus Kane, Dr. Abigail Everson, Guardsman David Miller, Officer Marceline Harrington-Love, Deputy Celine Tremblay, Engineering Officers Thelonious and Clementine Jaha, - they’d all become rather inseparable, believe it or not. Them and all the other young up and coming figures aboard Alpha Station enjoyed talking politics, challenging one another to battles of wit, and doing their best to cultivate friendships.

Even though some of said young people – Marcus Kane, in particular – believed that friendships were just something to entertain oneself with, and held no real substance. They liked him anyways.

Though Abby was technically the newcomer as the only one who hadn’t grown up with the rest, she had fit right in, somehow better than anyone else, and soon no one could remember a time without her.

When she’d first moved to Alpha Station after Danny’s flotation, everyone watched her curiously. Having heard all about her treacherous past, they were waiting for signs that she might become the unstable mess of a woman that she should have been, with all things considered. They waited with bated breath for her to fall apart or have some kind of psychotic break following the years of torture she’d faced, but Abby held her head up high, kept herself focused on her goals, and proved to be one hell of a good friend.

Perhaps, somewhere very deep down, she was at her weakest. Falling apart. Her parents, her sister, the man she loved, all dead – and somehow or another, it was all because of her. There were days when, yes, she feared that she was an imposter in her own field. She never imagined she’d ever find herself allowed outside of her parents’ quarters, let alone living in Alpha and working in Ark Station Medical as a surgeon, no less. However, she tried to keep these demons at bay and maintain her focus.

She had new goals now. Life was no longer all about hiding and keeping the law off her back. She wanted to become the head of Medical one day, perhaps a councillor as well. In fact, Abby wanted to be the Chancellor. More personally than that, she wanted to get married, have a child, and she wanted to do anything and everything that this fragile little world could offer her. Abby did not want to miss a thing. Abby wanted to live.

And on a night like that of Thelonious Jaha and Clementine Love’s wedding, anything was possible.

They were young, but had been dating forever. Everyone knew that they were going to be the first of them to tie the knot, and they both wanted to move on with their lives and have a child.

That wedding had been the start of everything. The solidification of friendships that would last an eternity, the start of a beautiful union between two big-hearted people.

Clementine’s father was on the Council, and therefore Chancellor Xander had offered to let the young couple use the Mess Hall for their ceremony, but Thelonious and Clementine had chosen to simply use the Engineering rec room, as they wanted a more intimate reception. Besides they were both engineers and had met right there in that room – it was only fitting.

The invites had been passed along to close friends and colleagues who were excited to be given the opportunity to dress up for an evening of moonshine and conversation that had real purpose, not just for the sake of letting loose.

Having become exceptionally good friends during their Earth Sciences class, Thelonious had asked Abby to stand up for him at his wedding, serving an interesting take on the typical role of a “best man,” and Clementine had her stepsister Marceline serve as her maid of honour. Some traditions never died.

Abby had to believe that those aboard the Ark with step-siblings – the only real, legal way to have a sibling – were among the luckiest of people. Her sister had been the best thing in her life for as long as she’d been alive. She would trade just about anything to get that relationship back.

And Abby was overjoyed for the happy couple as she stood at the front of the room during the ceremony, holding a bouquet of metal roses that Clementine’s friends in Mecha had fabricated for the occasion.

She’d been trying her best to keep her attention focused on the vows being said before her, wanting to remember the very first wedding she attended, but Abby’s eyes kept drifting.

Because there, in the very first row with Thelonious’ family, sat Jake Griffin. He was wearing a blue button-up shirt that matched his bright eyes. And though he did not look her way, Abby couldn’t help but stare at the man who held her heart, even if she was not ready to admit that he did so.

But even he couldn’t hold her attention captive entirely that day, because another man – this one dressed all in black, as if he was attending a funeral – sat in the middle of the room, demanding her attention. Marcus Kane was celebrating the death of a bachelor, and it showed. She stifled a smirk, thinking of how suitable that was. Leave it to him to find something to mourn during a time of celebration.

Over the year, Abby and Kane had become tentative friends. It was a surprise to everyone, though a shock to none. They were two of the smartest people in Alpha Station. It would be a shame if they couldn’t banter together just because they often differed in terms of opinion.

They often ended up in the same place at the same time, as they made friends with the same people and attended the same classes, shared many of the same interests. But the pair found themselves at polar opposite ends of very opinionated spectrum, often. It was usually entertaining for themselves and anyone else who got to see them bicker.

They’d sat through a semester of advanced political sciences together but sat at opposite ends of the room. This semester, however, they’d both managed to show up on the late side and were forced to take the only remaining seats on that first day – side by side at a shared table for two near the back.

Though they started showing up earlier and other seats became available, they never ended up choosing anywhere else since the beginning of that semester. And slowly but surely, they were warming up to each other. Abby did not find this difficult, considering that in her mind, this was still the man who had saved her life. The pigheaded, stubborn, very often wrong man but a hero, nonetheless.

And Kane would never admit it to himself, but he felt a certain way about Abby too. He didn’t have time for it, didn’t have the capacity, and told himself that he would never again feel that way for somebody after he’d lost Fiona, but it was there, nonetheless. Simply easier not to acknowledge.

Abby blinked and tried to pull her eyes away from Kane and back to the ceremony. Why he kept demanding her attention today, Abby wasn’t sure. Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that he’d let his facial hair grow out over these past few weeks, and looked absolutely ruggedly handsome sporting a dark shadow around his chin. She happened to wonder what he might look like with a full beard – in her opinion, it would rather suit him.

Whatever the reason may be, Abby couldn’t help but stare back at him often, whenever she felt his eyes resting on her from afar. Though, his vision was far less incriminating considering she was standing up at the front of the room with the wedding party.

Any time their eyes met, Kane looked away and should have been kicking himself for ogling her so remorselessly, as she was certain to notice. But he couldn’t even blame himself. Tonight, Abby wore a dark burgundy dress, tight at the top, showing off her curves, and sleeveless to give sight of her slender arms. The skirt of the dress hung around her loosely, all the way down to cover her feet at the ground. He liked the way that she had kept her dark hair at shoulder-length these days. Abby looked fantastic, and every man in the room knew it. Marcus would be damned if he tried to ignore that for the sake of his own pride.

After the ceremony, the guests cleared the chairs and altar away and took to the floor. They began to socialize around the room, dance to the old music coming from a recovered gramophone, indulge in the moonshine that someone from Farm Station had brought over for the event, and congratulate the newly married couple.

When Clementine was off with Marceline and Abby, chattering about how beautiful the ceremony had been and gossiping about what the wedding night might have to offer as they captivated the room with their girly giggling, Thelonious visited the makeshift bar cart, hoping for a mug of something to take the edge off now that he had said "I do."

Kane had been grabbing a new chalice of his own when the newly married young man approached him. The pair shared a congratulatory handshake and pulled each other in for a quick slap on the back before Marcus planted a hand on the groom’s shoulder and handed him a mug of moonshine.

“Congratulations, my friend,” he began, letting himself feel truly happy for Thelonious, even if marriage was something that seemed rather whimsical and unnecessary under such subpar circumstances, in Kane’s eyes. “You have a beautiful bride,” Marcus finished, gesturing with his cup over towards Clementine, where she still stood with her stepsister and Abby.

Jaha stared out at his wife, a serene smile forming on his face as he imagined his future all laid out before him.

“I certainly do,” he nodded, bringing his mug to his lips for a hearty swallow before peering sidelong at his friend.

Marcus hadn’t been in a real relationship since he’d lost Fiona, and even if he certainly hadn’t turned his back on the idea of taking various beautiful women to bed with him for a night of satisfaction whenever he felt the urge, he certainly steered clear from real, meaningful relationships, even if they wouldn’t be too hard for him to find.

Frankly, an entire group of them were certain that him and Abby liked each other, even if they often fought like cats and dogs. There was just something about them. A chemistry that even they could only ignore for so long.

“And what of you, Marcus?” Thelonious went on, now a rather teasing sentiment to his voice. “When are you going to start looking for your beautiful bride?”

Marcus scoffed once, but the crooked smile remained on his face.

“It’s not for me,” he shook his head, taking a swig of the same substance that he’d placed people under arrest for consuming. “I’m far too busy with more important things.”

Jaha could have been offended, but instead he placed his hand on his friend’s shoulder as they continued to stare at the trio of women in the middle of the room. Clemmie, Marcie, and Abby.

“Well,” the married man sucked in a breath, “you certainly have options.”

Thelonious paused for a second, wondering if he dared to confront the elephant in the room. Clemmie specifically loved to gossip over the possibility of Abby and Kane holding out for each other, and she’d even managed to convince Jaha that it might just be a thing. She’d kill him if he didn’t take this opportunity to at least test the waters. And if there was one thing that he did not want right now, it was to be murdered by his new bride.

“There’s a fine option right over there,” he gestured with his eyes towards the women.

Kane looked at Jaha, his eyebrows raised in unimpressed disbelief. There was only one person in that trio that Jaha would be referring to in that moment. Not his bride. Not his bride's step-sister who was already in a relationship.

“Who, Abby?” Kane looked back out towards the woman in question, who was smiling wide.

Wider than Kane had seen before. It was captivating.

She was just a criminal from his past, someone who he’d sacrificed and saved on alternating dimes in order to climb the ladder of his career path. He brought his glass to his lips slowly and took a deep, contemplative sip while he peered at her from overtop the rim.

“Not my type,” he wasn’t lying, but he also wasn’t being entirely truthful. He didn’t have a type.

Thelonious snorted once at the man’s ridiculous answer, but before either of them could continue, Jake Griffin had come up behind Abby and greeted her with what looked like a hug between two friends who were soon to become something more.

They watched as Abby bid goodbye to Clemmie and Marceline, and let Jake take up every last bit of her attention, staring up at him warmly. Jake had never really given her so much undivided awareness before, let alone shown an obvious amount of interest, so Abby wasn’t going to let this moment go unappreciated, even if she feared that it was only her low-cut dress and red lipstick that were drawing him in to her tonight. While their words and actions remained friendly and nothing more, Abby couldn’t help but get her hopes up, even if nothing ever came of it that night.

High hopes were kind of her thing.

“Well,” Thelonious began tentatively, taking one last sip as Kane raised his eyebrows, “she’s somebody’s type.”

And though it had been nothing but a poorly timed joke all along, Kane felt as though he’d missed out on an opportunity. An opportunity that he was certain he did not care for. It’s ironic how madly the heart can be compelled to pine for the things that it suddenly cannot have.

The night progressed in a natural fashion as the newlyweds took to the dance floor, and the rest of their guests were left to socialize with one another. Half the room was dancing, the other half was drinking, but all were laughing. Of course, with that many young people in a room, there was bound to be an altercation or two. Hormones and all.

Now, most people assumed that any arguments or fallout that evening was to come from either Kane or Abby, as they so often did during meal breaks or their political science class what with their opinions sitting so firmly at opposite ends of the same spectrum. However, the snide comments tonight had actually come from Marceline, who had drunk about two glasses of moonshine too many.

“I’m surprised to see you here, Major Kane,” she began, coming up behind Marcus, who’d been standing at the edge of the room, staring out a large window as the Ark passed over the Indian Ocean.

He raised his eyebrows and glanced backwards, wondering who had the audacity to disturb his solitary drinking.

He and Marceline barely knew each other. The most he knew about her was through Thelonious, and it wasn’t much at that. Her and Clementine’s parents had gotten together after they were both widowed during an epidemic a few years ago, and reignited an old teenage romance.

Typically, Marceline wasn’t a confrontational kind of girl, and she was a few years younger than everyone else at the party, making her the odd one out, but she’d been struggling through a tough time recently and was in search of someone to blame. Luckily, that scapegoat was standing right in front of her. And as her skin seemed to glow against the stars outside the window, Marceline sunk in her teeth.

“Figured you’d be too tired from arresting my boyfriend yesterday to attend a wedding,” she said firmly, launching the accusation at Kane even though he had just been doing his job. “Guess you’re looking to celebrate.”

Her words were venomous as she glared up at the man before her, who could have easily told her to back off, but needed to rack his brain momentarily to remember what she was talking about. He’d made two arrests yesterday, and upon further reflection realized that yes, one was that of a young man who’d been sentenced to the rest of his childhood in the Skybox following stealing a video from the pawn shop in Flint Station.

Unbeknownst to either of them, a third party had appeared a few seconds ago, just in time to witness the accusation and predict the outburst that was about to come from it. She did not intend to let anything ruin this perfect night for the happy couple.

Looking up to watch Kane’s face take on a bitter, unapologetic form as he opened his mouth - no doubt to respond just as viciously - Abby cut in.

“Go easy on him, Marcie,” she stepped up to the other side of Kane, who glanced downwards at her, surprised by her sudden and silent arrival. “He’s just doing his job.”

Abby reached out to place a friendly, calming hand on the younger girl’s arm, urging her to take a deep breath and walk away from ruining this evening by picking a fight that she would never win.

“Your sister’s asking for you,” Abby finished by gesturing sidelong to where Clementine and her groom stood among the chaos of the room, beckoning Marceline over.

Abby ignored the pang in her chest that she’d felt upon uttering the word sister.

When Marceline had left the scene, Abby and Kane both turned themselves towards the window and continued to marvel at the sights.

“I can fight my own battles, you know,” Kane muttered darkly, his mind now elsewhere.

Abby glanced at him sidelong, wondering if he was being serious or sarcastic. She couldn’t really tell. She crossed her arms and let her eyes wander across the continents below her. Something in her bones years to see that planet up close and personal. But this would have to do for now. After seventeen years in one room, Abby would always be grateful for windows.

“That’s what we all tell ourselves, Kane.”

She hadn’t meant for it to sound so serious, but the tone of her voice left little room for facetiousness.

After letting a comfortable silence pass between the pair, Abby couldn’t help but let her thoughts drift down to her newest dream – planting her feet on the Earth.

“I take it you heard the news?” She asked, remembering what senior Councilwoman Grover had told Abby about an hour before she’d left for the ceremony today.

“What news?” Kane looked at her, his eyes dark and unmoving.

He hated being out of the loop.

“As of this afternoon, there’s an open seat on the Junior Council,” she revealed. “Chancellor Xander gave both our names.”

Kane stared at her in confusion, how hadn’t he heard of this? At first, he thought she might be lying just to get a rise out of him, like the good old days. But she showed no signs of leading him on in any way.

As the reality of their situation set in, Abby turned her gaze out towards the crowd of happy dancers. They would soon be competing – ferociously, if she knew Kane – for a seat on the Junior Council, and it was likely to get ugly.

After letting a reasonable amount of consideration time pass, Abby sent one last glance upwards at Marcus.

“The game’s back on, Kane.”

When he looked down to meet her eyes and saw a fiery glint within their chestnut colours, Kane felt something reignite within him – excitement. He’d been longing for something like this to make him feel alive ever since he floated Danny Spencer.

“May the best councillor win,” she said, giving him one last cheeky little grin before turning herself around and making her way back across the room, letting her wine-coloured dress drag on the floor behind her.

Behind her, Marcus downed his glass of moonshine and prepared for battle. Knowing Abby, she wouldn’t give up the fight easily. And that was precisely what he wanted.

~~~

The process of selecting a new representative for the Junior Council was a painstaking one. Of course, it all came down to Kane and Abby. Every other name in the ring paled in comparison to the political promise that those two young individuals showed.

The rest of the Council often joked that if they could only morph into one person, they’d be perfect. With Kane’s drive and high respect for the law mixed with Abby’s knowledge and ambition, they could create the perfect politician.

However, they would instead have to decide which of those qualities would benefit them more, and it was proving to be an impossible call. Kane had the ability to make decisions based on logic alone, but Abby’s heart was too strong to ignore. And her instincts were often unignorably impeccable.

With every good point made and shot fired during a debate came an award-worthy rebuttal that couldn’t be overlooked. They were simply too perfectly matched. And when they went head-to-head, in front of the entire Council, it was a sight to behold. They redefined the art of debate as they practically predicted the other’s next move, knew precisely what to say to perfect their points, and created magic while they debated.

Anyone with eyes could see that the chemistry between those two polar opposites could not be wasted. However, a decision had to be made. Luckily, the Chancellor was going to give them months to make the decision, so that a proper candidacy run could be completed.

As seriously as they both took their debates, Kane and Abby did their best to keep things civil, and not get too personal or hurtful so as not to jeopardize the fragile friendship that they held. They were both socialites, it would be a shame to create an awkward atmosphere surrounding them all thanks to letting their political rivalry get in the way of their humanity. They’d both seemingly agreed on that before delving into their candidacy, even if they hadn’t uttered a word about it.

It was almost as if the harder they fought each other for the seat, the more respect they grew to have for the other, as they became worthy opponents, and their friendship began to develop as they navigated the strange new waters that they found themselves trying to keep from drowning in.

Abby knew how uncharacteristic it was for Kane to walk her home after their weekly Political Sciences classes. He was no gentleman, specifically not when it came to her, and yet he still made sure that she got back to her quarters safely after every single class. Even if Abby knew full well that he had other places to be.

In fact, it had very little to do with safety at all.

It had begun simply because Kane had been insistent upon continuing whatever argument that they’d began earlier in class, but by the end of the walk, they were talking like old friends, sharing smiles and quick glances that neither one of them let themselves consider to be anything other than friendly.

Miraculously, the pair developed a rapport, and they were stuck at a stalemate – neither one of them taking the lead of their rivalry as they were too evenly matched. Therefore, they’d apparently decided to enjoy themselves in limbo as they stood in the eye of the storm.

Though their opinions very rarely matched up, their level of drive and ambition was so evenly matched that it was the only thing keeping them blind to the danger all around them as they held on to their feeble friendship while they still could.

Knowing that there was no way it would last – one of them would have to bite the bullet and get their hands dirty in order to win the seat on the council – they let themselves enjoy this glorious period of peace.

They even sat together in class.

If anyone had told Marcus Kane even two years ago that he and the criminal girl that he’d been actively trying to have arrested in order to kickstart his career would become inseparable for a couple hours a week, he would have done anything but believe that particular prediction.

Or he would have called himself a failure. Having fallen victim to the trappings of friendship and sentiment. While he refused to get very close to his other friends, while he refused to rub shoulders with anyone else on the Guard as he only allowed himself to see them as competition, Abby seemingly didn’t count. Kane could allow himself to feel warmth for her, so long as he did not admit that to himself.

One day, months after they’d fallen into the routine of arguing their political points in one another’s faces in class, Kane found himself snickering after Abby had slipped up accidentally while answering a question that Officer Waters had posed during the open discussion portion of a class, and he didn’t have to look at her to know that her face had likely turned a becoming shade of red as her lips probably puckered sourly.

Waters had dismissed the class to talk amongst themselves and spend the rest of their time focusing on the worksheet he’d just handed out, and Abby grew rigid knowing that Kane was laughing at her. No matter what their relationship had grown to become, he could still manage to turn her to stone whenever he rubbed her the wrong way.

“Don’t be embarrassed, Ab,” Kane began, his voice dripping with a teasing sarcasm that Abby wanted to smack right out of him. “I’m sure you’re not the only person who doesn’t know the definition of an aristocracy.”

She’d made one mistake – in front of everybody, yes – but all due to a slip of the tongue, not because she genuinely meant what she’d said.

“I know the definition,” she hissed under her breath, but didn’t fight too hard because she knew that Kane was aware of her knowledge.

Still, she hated seeing him getting such a kick out of her public falter, just because it put him in the lead of their competitive rivalry for the day.

Refusing to even glance his way – difficult, as the impossible man had shifted in his seat beside her entirely so that he was facing her while he rested his clean-shaven chin in his left hand, propped up on the table beside her by his elbow – Abby bated her breath.

The two students that always sat at the table in front of them – Lyla and Felix – turned in their seats briefly to chat with their fellow classmates. Kane and Abby typically drew a crowd to them; they were older than the rest of the class and well-known members of the Ark.

Kane and Felix began to make easy conversation, discussing the lecture that they’d just sat through while simultaneously keeping their voices light enough to listen in on Lyla and Abby.

“Abby,” Lyla began, almost timidly.

She was a few years younger than Abby, and sometimes looked at the older girl like she was a bit of a God around the Ark. Somebody to look up to, at the very least. Abby was the smartest girl in any class she was in, and with her beauty and easy friendship added into the mix, she was the girl that everyone wanted to either be, befriend, or be with.

“You did surgery on my mother’s best friend on Saturday,” Abby smiled as Lyla spoke, twirling her pen around in her hand absentmindedly while listening.

She remembered the procedure – a simple appendectomy – it had been her very first solo surgery back in the day. By now, she could complete that operation with her eyes closed.

“She said that you did such a good job, there’s hardly even a scar.”

Appendectomies used to leave a large, gash-like scar across the lower abdomen, but thanks to both technological advances in medicine as well as Abby’s steady hands and careful approach, she’d been given the resources and skill to do her best at minimising the scarring.

Abby could feel Kane’s dark eyes on her and hazarded to describe his gaze as rather proud as he reached his left hand up and began to fiddle with the end of the braid that Abby had been wearing over her shoulder. He did that sometimes. They both told themselves that it was nothing. Just a politically charged rivalry that sometimes looked like friendship.

“Well,” she sat herself up straighter as she spoke, the feeling of Kane physically toying with her hair did not faze her - that’s how common of an occurrence it was these days. “No one wants a big scar reminding them of their pain.”

Upon hearing Marcus scoff near silently beside her, Abby gave him a quick look before her gaze fell upon the right side of his lower lip, where a familiar scar remained. He was clean shaven these days, and anyone looking at his mouth would notice that thin scar. It was not unbecoming – it looked rather rugged.

That scar was intimate to her, though he was the one who wore it. In this case, his mark was a reminder of her pain. For some strange reason, she let herself smile almost tenderly upon gazing at it. She thought of the matching one on her cheekbone and often wondered if that meant they would forever be connected in some way.

Kane knew what she’d been looking at, and never knew how to react when she got pensive over their past. They didn’t talk about it. As if they’d both agreed never to utter the name Daniel Spencer and instead just pretend that he never existed. That Abby had always been a part of Alpha Station.

But with her looking down at the scar on his face, Kane felt a mixture of warmth and frigid coldness develop in the pit of his stomach. She looked forlorn but also melancholy and he realized that she was just as conflicted as he was.

It was a reminder that he had saved her in the face of physical danger. It was also a reminder of that horrible time in her life. Whenever he saw that scar in the mirror, he felt both the pride of rescuing her and taking down a criminal, and seeing her in that puddle of blood. Feeling the helplessness, the fear, the warmth of her blood on his hands.

“Have you always wanted to be a doctor?” Felix interjected, a quizzical look on the young man’s face.

Kane and Abby blinked away from each other, shaken from their trance.

The naivety behind Felix’s question urged Abby and Kane both to believe that he must have been oblivious to Abby’s past. It was almost a relieving feeling for her, knowing that there were still people out there who didn’t know how she was born and raised and the life that she subsequently fell into. People that held no prejudice against her and the decisions that she’d made leading up to this moment. She was still fresh and new in the eyes of some people around her – just her present self and nothing more.

Abby swallowed once, shifting in her seat and sharing another knowing look with Kane before he removed his eyes and began to scribble a few thoughts down onto the paper before him, never one to procrastinate a given task.

“I–” Abby began, stuttering a bit as she explained her academic pursuits and interests, though they’d always been something that she’d simply been certain of, regardless of contemplation. “Yeah, I guess so. I always liked medical science and the idea of…I don’t know, I guess just helping people ease their pain is something…” she’d never been the best with words whenever it came to herself, “…something almost magical, to me.”

She swallowed and Felix nodded, wishing that he had something that he was passionate about.

“It’s the closest thing we have to miracles,” Abby added.

Beside her, Kane gave her a look, wondering if she was serious or not, but saw nothing but genuine hope behind her sparkling eyes. She was a dreamer, yes. Overdramatic, sometimes. But she was truthful about it. He chuckled a bit to himself before going back to his work. That was one aspect of her personality that would always keep him from her. He couldn’t relate to those thoughts in her head, and certainly did not respect her for them.

“Gosh,” Lyla shook her head, “I wish I knew what I wanted to do so certainly.”

“You have all the time in the world to figure it out,” said Abby, giving Lyla a comforting look as she pulled her eyebrows together.

Kane raised an eyebrow.

“That’s terrible advice,” he said bluntly.

The three pairs of eyes snapped to him, as if they’d all been waiting for him to say something cynical. As they awaited expectantly, Kane sighed once before leaning back in his seat to elaborate.

“Nobody has all the time in the world,” he reminded them with an arch of his brow. “You could die tomorrow.”

Abby scoffed from where she sat next to him, never one to settle for the pessimist’s approach to the world. The rain cloud that he insisted on dragging around with him wherever he went often got on her nerves.

“Life is short, better to figure it all out now before it’s too late,” he added just for good measure.

Before their two acquaintances could grow too horrified, Abby nudged Kane on the arm once, an attempt to lighten him up.

“Not everyone is as obsessed with their own mortality as you are, Kane,” she said rather teasingly, though she was being serious. “Yes, you could die tomorrow, but the probability of that is low.”

As Abby shook her head and urged Lyla to take her words to heart, Kane had turned his focus back to his work, refusing to let her waver his views.

“You should never let yourself rush through life without taking the time to enjoy it,” Abby added. “That’s no way to live.”

Someone vaguely familiar had approached Lyla and Felix’s table, asking for a hand on some questions, and the pair’s attention was turned around, leaving Kane and Abby to linger in the silence between them as they attempted to do their own work.

“Your optimism scares me, you know that?” Kane teased in a mumbled voice, his eyes down on his papers.

Abby smirked, also looking downwards at her own work.

“I thought nothing scared you.”

She felt him peering at her out of the corner of his eye, but remained focused on the task before her even as she grinned.

“Now you’re telling me that the thought of enjoying life’s little moments is a fearsome concept?”

Kane shook his head. She’d always been so good at twisting his words around and using them to render him useless. He couldn’t help but give her a half smile.

“Nothing scares me but you, Abby,” he gave her a look, and she felt her lips pulling into a thin smirk.

“Me, and the little moments.”

“Hey,” Kane got his back up a bit, but did nothing more than raise an eyebrow as he continued to work, “I can enjoy the little moments,” he mumbled downwards, chuckling through their witty banter as they both attempted to navigate their workbooks.

“Is that so?” Abby egged him on, though half of her mind was buried deep inside the open textbook before her. “Why do I find that hard to believe?”

“This is a little moment,” he suggested, finally raising his head up to meet her eyes just as she’d done the same.

Kane shrugged as he stared at her.

“I’m enjoying it.”

Abby felt a small, uncontrollable smile form upon her closed lips after hearing his words. So sweet and he didn’t even know it.

She didn’t have the time to attempt to decipher the feelings that Marcus Kane often pried from her, especially given their history. She’d hated him, she’d feared him, he’d hunted her, he’d saved her life, he’d spared her. The fact that they now sat together in classes like this and even hung out in the same circles after hours was unprecedented.

Somehow, against all odds, they’d become not only friends, but friends that spoke so easily to each other, that felt so comfortable in one another’s presence, friends that could play with each other’s hair and tease one another during class. Friends that looked at each other a little too long. Friends that found each other insufferably attractive.

And though Abby disagreed with so many of his policies and knew that he could render her positively fuming against him as easily as ever -especially now that they were both fighting viciously for the same seat on the Junior Council – she couldn’t help but realize something during that that little moment that they’d shared. A small part of her might just adore a small part of him.

How ridiculous, she though to herself, looking away before her cheeks could flush. But something told her that if she let herself, she’d be head over heels for the man in an instant. Now that was a thought that she wouldn’t let cross her mind if she could help it. It was too complicated. It would never work. He was everything that she would never be and vice versa. Everything that she would never want to be.

It had always been Jake Griffin that she’d been reserving all of her adoration for. He was the one that she gossiped to her friends about, the one that she wished would just look her way, he was the one that she loved from afar. Perhaps there’d been something right under her nose all along that she had somehow failed to acknowledge simply because Kane, too, liked to pretend that there was never anything there.

A large part of Abby hoped that she was not wearing her heart in her eyes today. She was a proud woman and was far above begging for the attention of a man, but this man did something inexplicable to her. She couldn't quite decipher her feelings for him but would be mortified if he knew that she felt any way at all for him. Still, a morbid sense of curiosity wanted so badly to know if he felt the same way.

What would he do, she wondered, if she were to be honest with him? If she were to act on her own attraction? Would he reciprocate her feelings, or would he pull away and shield himself from them? She could imagine that Marcus Kane was not somebody interested in anything real, and Abby on the other hand, had no time for meaningless hookups. It would never work and she knew that, but she still treasured these moments with him. She still revelled in the way that he made her feel challenged and irritated and nervous and giddy all at once. Like a naive schoolgirl with a crush.

Marcus peered over at her as Abby returned to her schoolwork and could have sworn that he saw a pink blush on her cheeks. Did he even want to know what that meant? He now had to wonder himself. What would he do if she ever initiated anything between them? He certainly wouldn't be the one making the first move, but Abby was a bold, brazen, confident woman. She might just take him by surprise.

He didn't know what he would do, but it was as he was pondering it that she glanced over at his textbook and swallowed dryly.

"You're on the wrong page," she said quietly.

Kane arched an eyebrow, still staring at her face. He wondered if she'd meant something intimate by that and suddenly felt a tightening in his chest, preparing for awkwardness and disappointment that never came. Because she wasn't talking about them at all. 

"What?"

Abby raised her eyebrows and gave him a pointed look before she reached over and flipped the page of his textbook upon noticing that he’d been reading the wrong section for the worksheet that they were completing. Kane let out a brief sigh that sounded a bit like the ghost of a laugh before they both began to work in comfortable silence.

 ~~~

Things went on that way for months. Kane making arrests, leading the Guard into a new era that consisted of positively no leniency. Climbing the ranks politically and meeting people in Alpha Station that would help him get to where he wanted to be. Abby slaving away in Ark Station Medical quickly becoming one of the best doctors that the Ark had ever seen. Both of them still making time for friends and fun after hours when they had nothing better to do.

Abby and Jake learning about the ground and bonding over their compatible temperaments. Abby treasured the way that he felt so stable and secure, so safe. Like a man who would never put her through the same turmoil that she had been victim to previously. He felt like a best friend, and she so desperately wanted to make him something more than that. But Jake was a busy man. He spent nearly all his time in the Earth Monitoring Station learning what he could about the planet and how to mimic its resources. He was not under the impression that he would ever get to see it, but he took what he knew about the Earth and factored it into the knowledge he had about the Ark and sustaining life. He wanted to become a resource officer in the next few years.

And in between all of that, Abby and Kane learned about politics, side by side. It was a little ironic considering how differently they both felt about it. Abby saw politics as lessons to learn from, opportunities to do better than the past, room for improvement. Kane saw it as some kind of prophetic text and adhered to the rules like he might be personally smited if he did not. He saw ways to control, to harness power, to ensure survival. Abby wished that there were more chances to just live. And as safe as Jake made her feel, Kane made her feel electric. On fire. Like she never knew what to expect. Him and her complicated feelings for him kept her on her toes, even if she knew that neither thing would ever keep her particularly stable. It was fun and exciting in its own way.

She thought of the last time he'd walked her home after class. Just the other day. Was she crazy or were they flirting? Their banter hadn't been any different than it always was, but she had been a little bit more aware of it.

Sometimes Abby felt as though she was staring straight ahead at Jake Griffin - locked in on a target. But she couldn't stop seeing Marcus Kane in her peripheral and it was throwing off her aim.

They both supposed that between the fight for the council seat, days in class, and occasional conversation in the Mess Hall or one of the Alpha rec rooms, Kane and Abby were actually reduced to the little moments that they had been joking about earlier. They never made any actual plans to see each other beyond what was necessary. They weren't even sure if they could be classified as friends. 

And in terms of work, they really had no reason to run into each other. On rare occasions, the Guard would bring in somebody either coming from or heading to Prison Station and sometimes Kane was the member of the Guard who accompanied that prisoner, but it was abnormal. And Abby certainly never had any reasons to find herself in the Security Station. Frankly, the Guard still made her nervous.

So, the little moments is what they had. Asides during class, banter when he walked her home afterwards, not much more. Still, it was just enough to ignite a romantically charged friendship. That's all young twenty-somethings were good for in terms of relationships, anyways. Not quite old enough to settle down, a little too scared to jump into anything risky, in the uncertain period in between dating for fun and dating to marry.

In fact, they were a rather beautiful series of months that passed. Abby would reflect on such days in the years to come and think of how peaceful it felt to be off the Guard's watchlist, out of Factory Station, doing something she loved, and learning while surrounded by people she enjoyed. Kane would remember pleasantly the way that her smile could make him feel a certain way inside. A little bit nervous, a little bit wary, but mostly just glad that he was the one who got to look at it.

It was bittersweet, because they both knew that there would be an end to it. Kane and Abby were too different to make something real of their feelings. They would have killed each other before they married each other. Abby would eventually be snatched up by someone willing to commit to her and give her the life that she deserved, and Kane would be happy to slink back into the shadows and do his best to avoid any real romance.

They made do with what they had while they had it. That was what life aboard the Ark was all about.

Abby and Jaha were getting closer with every passing day, and the two of them sometimes did their best to drag Marcus down for Sunday mornings in Go-Sci with Vera. Even if he had no time for her preaching, Kane should still visit his mother far more often than he did. Jaha and Abby both worried about him. If he wasn't careful, he would become a bitter old man who had sacrificed all his relationships in favour of political power. What they failed to consider, however, was that he actually strived for such a fate.

One of Abby's favourite little moments was when a prisoner in the Skybox contracted the respiratory syncytial virus and the entire Guard - along with anyone else who might have contact with the prisoner - were marched down to Medical in order to get themselves caught up on their vaccines and boosters. Abby had been so busy preparing the inoculations, trying to coordinate a schedule with the commander, sorting through charts, and of course keeping up with all her other patients, that she remembered being exhausted by the time Marcus Kane came by for his shots. He was one of the very last ones to do so.

Despite him being a friend - or whatever he was - Abby treated him like anyone else. She prepared his chart and flipped through it when he arrived and got settled, she gathered up the material that she needed for the inoculation, she asked him the generic questions. How was he feeling today? Had he eaten anything? How much water had he consumed?

She wandered around the room with her head down and her hair up in a ponytail as she got down to business, failing to take any notice of Kane's monotone responses. He stared at her, finding it more than strange to see her in such a professional environment, somewhere where he was not in charge, but she was. He rather appreciated the way in which she robotically rattled off the questions that she'd clearly memorized by now. At least he trusted that he was in the right hands.

After covering all the bases, Abby snapped the chart shut and placed it down behind her before approaching the table where Kane sat, his head still above her eye-level. Squeezing her hands into a pair of blue latex gloves, Abby frowned and kicked over the small stood near her feet so that she could reach his arm comfortably – she often had to use the stood for the taller patients but hated the blow to her pride that she suffered over it. She wasn't particularly short - average by the current circumstances of the station that she'd been born to - but Kane was tall.

“Okay,” she began, her voice still professional. “If you roll up your sleeve we can– what’s wrong?” She interrupted herself upon finally meeting his eyes and realizing that he looked just downright weird.

Like he was suspicious of her, waiting for her to do something wrong. Not only that, but there was sweat on his brow, and a sour look on his face as he tried to cover up the fact that he was breathing a little heavier than normal. She could see his pulse racing at his jugular. Then she thought back to the way that he had rigidly answered her questions and realized quickly that something was wrong. He was being more abrasive than usual.

She had never treated him for anything before, and Abby had to assume that her humble beginnings had tainted the way that Kane viewed her medical abilities. He was doubting her. Of course he was.

Kane's eyes widened slightly as she called him out. He thought that he had been covering his anxiety up better than that but apparently, she'd seen right through him. In reality, his wariness had nothing at all to do with Abby's abilities as a doctor. In fact, he was quite certain that she was the best there was. Everyone else in Medical couldn't be wrong about that, could they?

No, Marcus Kane hated needles.

He always had and he didn't know why. As a toddler he kicked and screamed his way through the initial round of vaccines that were administered and though he grew more stoic about it as he got older, the feeling inside of him never changed. He knew that it was perfectly safe and usually quite painless, but it still made him lightheaded. He pictured the medic hitting the wrong spot on his arm and bleeding to death. He imagined the tip of the needle breaking off into his skin and getting stuck there. He imagined the wrong vaccine being administered and him growing a third arm.

It was out of character for him to be so afraid of the impossible, but it was a fear that persisted, nonetheless. And not even the presence of a familiar face in the Medical Bay could take those nerves away.

Kane shook his head slightly.

“Nothing,” he said, unconvincingly.

Abby lowered her eyebrows, not buying it.

“You’re clearly uncomfortable,” she noted, an agitated tone to her voice, still assuming that he did not trust her medical expertise and was about to give her a hard time. “If you’d rather someone else–”

“No,” he waved her away, lowering his brows. “No, it’s not you.”

She gave him an unconvinced look but began to ready the vaccine from the vial into the needle. That's when she watched all the blood drain from Marcus' face and realized what was going on. She'd seen this before. Typically, in kids, but she'd still seen it before.

Kane's stomach tightened as Abby cracked a cheeky smile. He'd been caught.

“Marcus, are you…” she began, staring over at him for a moment as she paused just enough to let a small, mischievous smile grace her lips.

Kane’s eyes snapped up to her, and he gave her a stern frown - this was no time for poking fun.

“You’re scared of needles,” she exclaimed, still smiling as if it was the funniest realization in the world.

Kane shook his head, instantly on the defensive. “I don’t see how that’s funny, Abby,” the tone of his voice told her that he was dead serious, and it merely added to her amusement. “Could you just get it over with?”

She cast her arms out to her sides. She certainly wasn't the one dragging this process out. Realizing that Kane had still yet to do what she'd asked and roll up his sleeves, Abby was reminded why she hated when the guards came in with their uniforms on. It almost always meant undressing them in order to find a good vein. She did not like the way that it made her feel unprofessional considering how much of a sucker she was for a man in uniform.

“Are you going to take off your jacket and roll up this sleeve or am I going to have to undress you myself?”

As soon as she'd said it, Abby's eyes widened. Kane's lifted up to meet hers with an arch of his suspicious eyebrow. She hadn't meant it the way that it came out, but there was no burying her words now. All she could do was clear her throat, shake her head, and pray to god that he didn't comment on the way that her cheeks were currently blushing.

“Tactful,” Kane deadpanned, but did as he was told and shook off his uniform jacket before rolling up the sleeve of his right arm.

Abby knew that she had to recover from the humiliation of her own mouth before she tried to administer this vaccine. If her hands shook and it ended up hurting more than necessary, Kane would never come back for a booster.

She took in a deep, regulating breath and steadied herself upon the stool, beginning the process.  She had to forcibly ignore the fact that she was now working on one of the nicest biceps she'd ever seen. Marcus was a fit man, but the Ark was a cold ship. She'd never seen him in a t-shirt. On occasion in class or around the Ark when he was clocked out, he would roll up the sleeves of his sweater or shirt and she would feast upon the sight of a chiseled forearm, but this had caught her off guard.

Remaining processional, Abby sterilized a small spot on the outside of his bicep and tried to continue their conversation as a means to distract him. She often took the same approach with nervous children.

"Marcus Kane," she was muttering to herself, making a joke. "Afraid of me, little moments, and needles," she continued, looking up briefly to meet his unimpressed eyes.

Before Kane could even offer a rebuttal, Abby was inserting the needle into his arm. He wished he hadn't been watching her face, because the way that her eyes widened had instantly scared him.

But she did not react out of fear or panic, but instead of pleasant surprise.

"Wow," she said, raising her eyebrows. "That was a nice muscle," she was now muttering to herself considering the ease of the administration. "Such easy entrance."

Kane instantly arched a brow of his own in utter disbelief of her words. He realized that she had meant them in no particular way, but they sounded as incriminating if not more so than when she had all but threatened to undress him right there in the Medical Bay.

Because the needle was coming out now and she'd placed a small round bandage over the injection sight, Marcus felt well enough to tease her this time.

In a low voice - he didn't need to be too loud considering she was so physically close - he began to taunt. "I'm fairly certain that you're not supposed to ogle your patients," he reminded her teasingly, "Dr. Everson."

Instead of being embarrassed, Abby smiled at him. She would rather him be teasing than nervous, all things considered. Even if she had successfully made a right fool of herself today.

Rolling her eyes good-naturedly, Abby snapped the gloves off her hands and folded them inside each other, preparing to throw them out.

"Cut it out," she retorted, gently rolling down his sleeve and trying not to have it brush against the injection site and making him sore. "Or I'll bring out a bigger needle."

As she did so, Kane couldn't help but hold his breath. Though it was all professional and mere moments ago he was so nervous that he feared losing his lunch, this moment between them felt strangely intimate. Her eyes were trained on his arm as she expertly moved the fabric of his shirt. She was so gentle, so careful, so determined not to hurt him, that it made him feel rather warm inside. Strangely enough, he was currently having more of a reaction to her covering him up than he would to her taking his clothes off. He blamed that damn smell.

Jasmine. It was sweet and subtle, rather intoxicating if he was being honest. By now, that smell was synonymous with Abby, and it managed to excite him.

When she noticed the trail of goosebumps on his suddenly sensitive skin, she glanced upwards and realized what was happening. When their eyes met, they both felt locked there into that eye contact. Abby stopped breathing all together. She was close. Too close. The stool allowed her to be right there by his face. His face which was now turned towards her, his eyes boring into hers uncertainly, closer than it had ever been before.

Her fingers lingered on his arm and Abby's breath hitched once in her throat before she broke free from the trance.

Abby cleared her throat and took a half step backwards, forgetting that she was on the stool. Because of this, her foot was sent slipping, and she very nearly tripped right to the floor had Kane not reached his hand up to steady her. 

The best she could offer him was a half smirk as she shrugged her lips awkwardly, letting a breath out through her nose as she used the grip she now had on his forearm to balance while stepping down from the stool and taking another step backwards, attempting to put some distance between her and the patient that she was a little too attracted to for her own good.

Kane took in a breath of his own, wondering what the hell had just happened. Him and Abby weren't those people. Hell, they were hardly even friends. They weren't the kind of people who shared tense silences and grew awkward. Whose touches could send electric shocks down the other's body. They weren't sexually charged while around each other. Were they? Right now, they most certainly were.

Abby chucked her gloves in the nearby trash bin and shook her head slightly, having similar thoughts.

"What are you waiting for," she began teasingly, gesturing towards the exit, "a lollipop?"

Kane stared at her a minute longer before the sides of his eyes crinkled slightly. On his way past her, Abby caught a glimpse of that mocking, crooked, half-smirk of his. It was only ever used when he was teasing, but it still made her weak at the knees. Marcus Kane was sinfully attractive, that was the problem, wasn't it? If he were homely, she wouldn't be facing such difficulties right now.

Abby did not move from her position as he passed by, allowing her an up close and personal view of him raising his eyebrows mockingly and brushing past her almost close enough to touch. Maybe he just wanted one more hit of that jasmine.

“Thanks, doc,” Kane mumbled and left Med Bay.

Abby had no other inoculations scheduled for the next half hour. She tried to keep her hands busy by reorganizing some supplies and taking this down time to prepare for the rest of the afternoon, but her thoughts could not stop wandering. Marcus Kane was such a strong presence. Even when he left, his aura lingered in the room. Occasionally, she had to turn over her shoulder just to be sure that he hadn't lingered and was watching her. She wondered what the hell that was about.

She also wondered why she could have sworn that sometimes they flirted with each other. That their banter sounded teasing and always had certain undertones. They were so pedantic with each other, so evenly matched, every word spoken was thick with chemistry and mutual understanding. Or perhaps it was mutual confusion.

It did not make for a steady conscience, especially not when Abby was so smitten with Jake Griffin. She knew that he was the stable choice, and had been biding her time waiting for him to realize the same about her. But these days, when she thought of Jake, it was Marcus whose face inexplicably popped up in her head. Not erasing Jake, but standing once again in her peripheral. Serving as a roadblock.

A tall, handsome, stubborn, obtuse roadblock.

It was an unfair comparison in the first place. Jake was someone that Abby knew could make her happy, and he did so whenever they found themselves alone together. She felt peaceful and at ease, unbothered. He never quite tiptoed around his feelings, he’d always made it clear to Abby that their relationship was flirtatious, he was merely waiting for the right time to make a proper move, once the stars aligned.

Kane, on the other hand, was like a closed book. He’d told everyone that he wasn’t interested in relationships, however he so often took home beautiful women to spend the night in his quarters, only to toss them out with the trash the next morning. Him and Abby’s relationship could never really be defined by a single, easy word, because it had begun under such difficult circumstances in the first place. She’d just been a case to him. A criminal deserving of justice, and now that their dynamic had changed and she was no longer but dirt beneath his boot, what had blossomed between them was merely a rivalry, littered with flirtatious remarks and little moments that they held on to in the midnight hour.

She never felt peace or at ease around Kane. She felt electric, up in arms, alert. He kept her on her toes, she never knew what to expect. Quite frankly, she felt alive. And in the end, it wouldn't matter whether she would prefer to feel peace versus excitement. Stable versus deep. Because the choice wasn't hers to make. Marcus could feel any which way about her, and he'd never confess that. Abby was well aware of this. There was no competition between him and Jake because Marcus refused to fight for her. Didn't want to have to admit to anything that might make him look weak.

Some days, she wished it was a choice, even if she would have picked Jake.

No matter who dared to ask – Jaha and Vera, mostly, as everyone else was too afraid of either party – both Kane and Abby would insist that they were merely friends, not even good ones, at that. Though anyone with eyes could see the truth about their developing relationship. They had endeared themselves to one another, but were far from ready to admit that.

And Abby could ignore just about anything and chalk it up to willful oblivion, but something had been tugging at her. Maybe since she'd met Marcus for the first time but certainly since they'd gotten closer.

It kept tugging in the back of her mind. Telling her not to look away from that person. Sure, she thought he was handsome and well-spoken. Sure, she was glad now that he was no longer actively trying to have her arrested. But it was more than that. Something - an inkling or an instinct perhaps - was telling her that she might just be able to fall in love with him if neither were careful.

Even better at ignoring what he did not wish to acknowledge, but Kane felt the same thing. But while Abby slowly came around to the idea of looking that notion in the eyes and facing it head on, Kane would go on opting to ignore it.

And therein lay the problem. Because Abby would always see love as a positive thing even if it crashed and burned and hurt in the end. She would always choose love over indifference. She would choose pain over numbness. Choose to have it all and lose it all over never having anything in the first place. 

But Kane didn't see it that way. So, while Abby would welcome the love with wary but open arms, he would swat it away and pretend as though it did not exist. 

She knew it was a bad idea. By now, Abby could spot those from a mile away. Falling in love with Marcus Kane would either be the very best or very worst thing that could happen to her. She'd give it all to him. She'd bet everything she had on him, even if she knew full well that she would end up losing it all. She'd allow herself to wind up with nothing for the chance at getting to love and be loved by him.

Neither could quite explain the tugging or the strange sensations that they had no definition for. They were too young, yet. It was chemistry is what it was. That gut feeling. The spark that had been there as long as they'd been looking at each other, made brighter by the fact that they now lived in the same station, ran in the same circles, and were otherwise romantically unattached. Pure, unadulterated chemistry.

It didn't mean love right off the bat, it meant a connection and a desire for one another that could not be denied. And in this case, it was one that could have snowballed into love if either of them had let it.

But Kane had a bad habit for biting his tongue when he should have spoke. That being said, he also had a bad habit of speaking when he really should have kept his mouth shut. Saying too much and not enough at the same time. Leaving a certain young woman in his life to feel as though she knew less and less with the more than he said to her. It wasn't fair, but he couldn't help it. It was just how he was instinctually bred.

Sometimes she'd look at him and she'd think maybe. Maybe he was on the verge of telling her how he really felt. Maybe she was on the verge of saying something herself. Maybe, maybe, maybe. When they were alone together and their banter fell away leaving them with nothing but a tense, heavy silence that required of them words that they had not yet said, something was triggered within both of them that wasn't particularly pleasant.

It was a fight or flight reaction. Fear. A good sign that their love or the potential for it was doomed to begin with - it scared them. On the days that Abby wanted to stand there and fight for their connection, Kane had a stronger urge to flee. And the rare days that he was the one who wanted to throw caution to the wind and cast aside his fears, she was the one taking flight.

So, she allowed herself the subtle things. She could be intrigued by the handsome man who had saved her life in two separate ways. That was easy. To fall in love with Marcus Kane would only be a step in an uncharted, uncalled for direction.

Now that she was allowed to, Abby had real plans for her life. In fact, she had it all laid out. Becoming a senior doctor, maybe heading the sector one day, sitting on the Council, working on Project Exodus, and marrying someone safe and loyal like Jake Griffin, who shared her opinions on most things. Having a child, raising a family, settling down and growing old while changing the world for the sake of the generations to come. That’s what she wanted.

Marcus could only ever offer uncertainty. He was the dangerous option. She battled him constantly. To gain respect, to take away one another’s power, vying for the seat on the Council over the course of almost one full year, vexing each other over their political differences, he was one big fight. And though that might be exhilarating, though it might spark a fire within her like nothing else could, she wasn’t sure that it was enough. Because he’d never so much as made a move on her. He insisted that he had no feelings for anyone, he did not want a relationship, he did not want children, nor a family relying on him, he wanted to become a cold, harsh, powerful ruler. Someone like that simply did not fit the design that Abby had in mind for her life. He was far too untouchable for someone like her.

Even if a naive, hopeless little part of her thought that if he only let himself love her and be loved by her, she might just be able to change all that about him. To prove that this life was worth living, not just surviving. She was confident that he could learn that there was more to the world than upholding the law. She knew that he could be compassionate and kind and generous. She only wished that he would let her accentuate those feelings. Instead, he disavowed them. Tried to pretend they didn't exit.

And despite the fact that Abby had all but removed her heart from her body, wrapped it up in a perfect little bow, and handed it over to Jake Griffin, she couldn't help but wonder. Wonder if one single word of interest from Marcus Kane would send her running to him. To her saviour. Her hero. The man that she would always hold in her peripheral vision whether she wanted to or not. One word from him and she just might leave everything else she thought she wanted behind in the dust.

Still, she appreciated the time for what it was. The calm before the storm of real adulthood. Before the hard decisions had to be made.

On Tuesdays, Jake walked her home after Earth Studies. They talked about the ground, they talked about the people on the Ark and their potential for all sorts of goodness, they talked about Project Exodus. And Abby felt safe.

On Thursday, Marcus walked her home after Political Sciences. They bickered about the concept of good and bad, how every decision was circumstantial and not a definition of humanity’s moral compass. And Abby felt alive.

Chapter Text

Abby and Jake weren’t close friends. They had only ever been attracted to one another with romantic intentions. They had a friendship, of sorts, but the crux of it was clearly more than platonic. And for that reason, they weren’t entirely comfortable with each other. Always a little nervous, putting too much thought into their interactions. Though altogether feeling safe and warm, still not friends.

And though she really didn’t like to compare the two men – because Abby did not have romantic feelings for Marcus Kane – she often found her mind wandering to how different it was with Kane. Theirs was a friendship, and because of that, she was more comfortable. She didn’t put her most perfect foot forward, because she wasn’t too worried about how she would be perceived. It was made easier by the fact that he had already seen her at her worst.

It was the one and only gesture of grace that Kane would ever give her. Not bringing up her past. Not treating her like the criminal that she once was. Never talking about how he used to be determined to float her. About how he’d watched her dragged into a life of crime, beaten to a pulp behind closed doors, spiralling into near madness by the end of it. He offered her silence while she reinvented herself.

And Abby appreciated that about him. She also appreciated Friday nights in the rec room. When Jake would show up, usually with a couple of his own friends in tow, Abby was turned into a nervous, stuttering mess. She wasn’t able to have as much fun as she would usually have because she was too preoccupied trying not to make a fool out of herself. Thinking up ways to force an interaction with him but have it seem natural.

Though it racked up her anxiety, Abby wished that he came by every week and gave her something to look forward to. But he spent most of his time in the Mess Hall, socializing with the entire Ark. He wasn’t a direct member of the little group of friends in Alpha Station who were always joined at the hip in some way or another.

And once again – though she shouldn’t have – she compared it to Marcus. He was always there, unless he was working a night shift. And though she was comfortable with him and not vying for his attention, not trying to impress him, knowing that he was in the room made her nervous in a similar way, just less. She still watched him, still looked forward to their interactions. She was simply more unwilling to dig deeper than that.

The group of friends had their staples. Tonight, Celine had brought her camera and was snapping pictures of them all in their natural habitat, trying to be discreet. Miller was passing around the moonshine and him and Kane were jostling each other, jokingly threatening to have the other arrested for the contraband.

There was a table at the centre of the room upon which a forgotten chess game was being had, the pieces had long since been jostled around by the careless crowd and Abby and Jaha were no longer bothering to play.

In the back corner, the record player was blasting out their favourite songs. Last year over the solstice, a group of them had watched Footloose, an old classic film from Hollywood back in the day about a town that had outlawed dancing. There were very few films that remained famous on board the Ark after so many years had passed, but certain classics such as Footloose had stood the test of time.

It had been Clemmie’s idea to watch the movie, and the girls had crowded onto the couch, enthralled by the music and the dancing. The men had all turned their noses up and scoffed, talking about how they’d rather be watching sports or maybe a good war movie, but by the end of the night, their conversation had migrated closer and closer to the television set, and they all wound up watching the ending.

The next week, Thelonious had been through his father’s old collection and found a dusty old vinyl record copy of the entire soundtrack. That’s about the time that they all became obsessed with the song Almost Paradise from the movie. They’d listen to it on repeat until they had all memorized the lyrics.

Clementine had then burned them all a tape with a mix of their favourite songs and ensured that Almost Paradise was on it, somewhere in the middle. Now, they all loved Clemmie’s music because she included the songs that they all loved, but it became tradition that when Almost Paradise started playing, they dropped what they were doing and sang along at the top of their lungs.

The song wasn’t anything special, just a track from a movie that none of them could much relate to, but they latched on to whatever they could.

Even the most stoic of friends, even those that were shyer than the rest, those that hadn’t a musical bone in their body, they would raise a fist to their lips pretending that it was a microphone and belt the song out with the rest of them.

Maybe that’s what that time together felt like. Almost paradise, but not quite. Because true paradise would have been Earth. With real, breathable air, a cool breeze, trees around them, water to swim in, sunlight on their skin. But together in the rec room was as close to that as they were ever going to get. Almost paradise was happiness, even if it wasn’t utopia.

Burning those CDs and tapes was a good call on Clemmie’s part, for the room would so often burst into arguments over what they wanted to hear. There were some fan-favourite albums, of course, but most people didn’t want to sit through an entire album of one artist. That’s when she started taking requests and putting them all together on one mix to soften the arguing.

She herself was a big fan of Pat Benatar, but Thelonious on the other hand never wanted to hear anything but The Who. Kane enjoyed The Cars but would often pretend as though he was above it all and that music was for simpler men. Callie liked the lighter, happier songs from ABBA, and David was all but obsessed with KISS. Abby had taken inspiration from Almost Paradise and grew to adore the band Heart, appreciating both the powerful vocals and the expert guitar playing from both women frontmen.

Though they all enjoyed rock and roll more than any other genre, Abby had to think that even these rock songs were nothing like the music that she had heard in the Factory Station speakeasies back in the day. That was a different kind of rock. The instruments sounded like gunfire and the singers would scream rather than sing. Nothing had since managed to scratch that itch, but this music came close.

And in that rec room, something was always playing. Something was always being drank. A movie was always on in the background being drown out by the music. And someone was always arguing good-naturedly. Laughter could be heard from down the hallways, beckoning newcomers and old friends alike.

Tonight, as Celine went around taking pictures and lighting up the room with her flash, nobody paid her much mind as they went about her business. Jaha had his arm thrown around Clementine’s shoulders as they stood next to each other, laughing with Jacapo Sinclair about something that had happened earlier in Engineering.

Behind them in the living area, David and Kane were lounging on the sofa, watching a movie on mute. It was a decidedly bad film in terms of both writing and acting, and they were making fun of the script and adding in their own improvisations, talking about the historical inaccuracies.

Beside them, Callie was on the armchair filing her nails into points, stinking up the room with the polish that she was coating them with. Maryanne was sitting on the arm of the chair, pointing and laughing along with the boys as they picked apart the movie.

Abby was behind the couch sitting on a stool that she had dragged over when her and Thelonious decided to ditch the chess game once and for all. She was leaning forwards, resting her forearms on the back of the couch, propping herself up somewhere between Kane and Miller. But David was shifted closer to the end of the couch so that he could help Callie by passing her the things that she asked for while her nails were wet, so Kane was really the only person close enough for Abby to make any conversation with.

Just to piss him off, she had been trying to point out the positive points in the movie and claiming that the acting wasn’t that bad. He had begun to argue with her until he glanced over at her face – which had been closer to him than expected – and realized that she was egging him on. That cute little smirk on her face left little room to believe otherwise.

Somewhere in the background, Marceline was getting drunk with her new boyfriend, and people continued to filter in and out of the room. It was a normal night like any other, but they had all been feeling sweeter than usual lately.

“She’s not that bad of an actor,” Abby was saying, despite Kane giving her a look of disbelief. “The only reason you’re not believing her is because of all that Botox in her forehead,” she explained, pointing at the screen. “Her eyebrows aren’t moving like they should.”

Kane didn’t know what Botox was, but he did know that Abby was wrong. “It’s not her eyebrows that make her a bad actress, Abby,” he insisted, indulging her in the argument.

Abby’s mouth flew open, about to defend the actress on the screen yet again just to piss him off, when a squeal rang out through the room. It was Almost Paradise time. And as all arguments were abandoned while people congregated in the centre of the room to sing their lungs out with one another, they realized that perhaps there was nothing almost about it. Maybe this was it.

~~~

Today was Thursday, which meant that Abby was going to be accompanied home by a friend rather than a romantic prospect. That was what she told herself, anyways.

Her and Kane had been bickering about legal practices their contradiction of hedonism until they turned the second last corner before Abby's quarters. Something had caught her eye and sent Abby flinching towards that window, pointing outside at the vast array of blackness and faraway stars. She gasped and it caught Kane's attention enough to have his argument cut short as he joined her at the glass.

"Look," she was saying excitedly, her eyes wide in awe, "a shooting star!"

Kane scoffed; he saw dozens of those a day. They all did. This was nothing special to anyone but her.

“What,” he began with a sarcastic scoff, “don’t tell me you’re going to make a wish.”

Abby stared up at him quizzically, wondering what he was referring to.

“A wish?”

Kane glanced down at her, realizing that she was obviously unfamiliar with the concept of wishing on shooting stars. His mother had taught him all about old human practices back on the ground. He used to think they were charming, but soon outgrew that notion. Nowadays, he found it foolish. Wishes didn't change anything in this world. Hard work and doing what needed to be done was what really got a person somewhere. He didn't need to wish for anything; he just needed to act.

But as foolish and childish as he now found it, he was suddenly pleased to be the one to explain this to her if for no other reason than he knew this was the kind of thing that Abby would love. And sure enough, she ate it right up.

He shook his head but couldn't fight off the smirk. "It's an old wives tale," Kane began to explain, and Abby glanced up at him, hanging on to every word that left his mouth. "People on Earth used to make wishes on falling stars."

Abby looked away back out the window now, her gaze following the tail of the comet. It was never really a star in the first place, was it? Just a romantic notion. That made more sense now.

Kane eyed her sidelong and noted her captivation. He didn't believe in any of it, but went on for her sake. Once again, just because he knew she'd appreciate it.

"They wished on all sorts of things," he continued to explain in a voice that sounded older than it really was. Abby was looking at him again now. "Candles and coins and wishbones. Certain times of the day, flower petals, fallen eyelashes-"

"Fallen eyelashes?" Abby interjected with a wide smile of disbelief.

It was a laughable notion, but she adored it instantly. Humanity finding hope in mundane things. It was beautiful.

That laugh of hers rang out like a chiming bell in a dead night, and Kane couldn't help but stare. There was a time when he only ever got to hear that laugh from afar. And it irritated him, because she was a criminal who shouldn't have been having fun. Shouldn't have been joyful. It irked him because he wanted to bring her to justice. He should have been angry that he never did, but looked at it differently. This was justice. Because he knew that she was good. She deserved the second chance.

Perhaps Abby Everson was the only exception in his mind. Everyone else was black and white. Those who broke the law deserved to die. But not her. Because he knew her and felt her warmth. He had held her bloody face in his hands, and it had changed everything. And right now, he would do anything if it meant he got to keep hearing that laugh for the rest of his life.

She turned back to the window and shook her head, the lights outside sparkling in her dark eyes.

"I'll make a wish if you do," she gave him a teasing look, glancing beside at him. 

Maybe she really was being transparent this time. Blatantly begging him to share a romantic moment with him, even if she had her sights set on another man. Begging him to make that move and wreck all those plans of hers. It wasn't smart and it wasn't self-protective, but it was what she wanted. And she was also quite certain that Kane wouldn't throw caution to the wind and surprise her.

She stared at that star and wanted to wish for a million and one things - all of them somehow involving him. She wanted to wish that he would kiss her, that he would tell her she was beautiful, that he would admit he liked her just a little. 

Peering over at her skeptically, Kane gave her nothing more than a look of disbelief. He was obtuse but he wasn't blind. And while he couldn't quite believe it, he knew that Abby felt a certain way about him. Likely a similar way that he felt about her. And right now, she was laying something down for him to pick up on. He didn't know what to do with that. He knew what he wanted to do with it, but would not allow himself.

He couldn’t make a wish, but he could make a move. Not a real one, of course. He couldn’t be certain that Abby would reciprocate. Actually, he couldn’t be certain that he was even feeling the way that he suspected he might be. They were friends, weren’t they? Besides, even if he didn’t bring it up and shove her face in it, she was still below his station. She had been born a criminal and then spiralled into a life of crime. She had a past that he could not look past.

But he squared himself to her suddenly as she stared up at him with wide eyes and happened to realize that she was holding her beath. Those wide eyes of hers never left his once as her lips parted and she wondered what was happening between them when the air turned electric.

Kane had lifted a hand to place it on the wall beside the window, mainly to stop himself from leaning as close to her as he wanted to. Abby stood stock straight making no move to back away, to indicate that she did not appreciate his proximity. No, if he wasn’t mistaken, she was leaning closer.

There was no doubt about it. They were two people of the same relative age, attractive and attracted to each other, standing mere inches away from one another, speaking in low tones about something that they had previously been unable to acknowledge, and they were angling in towards each other as if they were about to share a kiss.

Kane knew that there was no mistaking it when she sucked in a quick breath and her eyes darted down to his lips, focusing on his scar before flicking back up to his eyes. And in turn, his own eyes began to wander over her face. From her sharp accusatory eyebrows to her beautiful amber brown eyes, the long eyelashes that were batting up at her. Down the slender slope of her nose and then falling upon her thin but tempting lips. He wondered what it would taste like to kiss her.

Abby felt her heart racing when he came forward slightly, just enough for their current situation to be undeniable. He did not grab her by the face; he did not draw her lips towards him by placing a hand on her chin. He did nothing of the sort. He only moved in slightly until their breath mingled in the small space between them. Until the tips of their noses almost brushed.

And then he denied himself.

"I don't wish for things, Abby," Kane reminded her honestly, keeping his voice low and steady.

If he couldn't give her what she wanted to hear, he could at least say his next words in a tone of voice that meant something. Abby noted the intensity and felt a chill run up her spine. He wasn't giving in, but he wasn't giving her nothing either.

Was she a fool for not seeing it sooner? That she was falling – or perhaps had fallen – in love with Marcus Kane? It didn’t feel like love. It didn’t feel like Danny. It didn’t feel like Jake, either. This felt almost wrong. But did it feel wrong because it was wrong, or because she never would have thought that it was a possibility.

It burned, whatever it was. It burned inside of her chest, on her lips, her very skin. It felt as though she was on fire.

And though Kane wasn’t yet willing to sacrifice everything he’d been working for to take a chance on a criminal whose intentions he’d never been certain about, he certainly felt the same burning in this moment.

He wanted to give her everything. He really did. He'd never met anyone like her before. Abby made him feel alive. She fed the fire within him. She spoke to something that went beyond professional obligation and legal duties. She was real and tangible and a part of his life whether he'd asked her to be or not.

But he couldn’t. For what reason, he wasn’t sure. He didn’t deserve her. He felt as though he didn’t deserve her light and her compassion, and he also knew that she was holding out for Jake Griffin anyways. But at the same time, maybe she didn’t deserve him. Not because she wasn’t a good person, but because she was a flight risk. A former criminal. Someone who didn’t see the law in the same way that he did.

It would never work, they both should have been able to see that. Their opinions differed so greatly and as they got older, they would only become set in their own differing ways. They wouldn’t be able to have a future together if they didn’t agree on the basics. They’d never be able to be happy in a relationship, to navigate a marriage. And imagine the fighting if they happened to have a child.

The only safe thing to do was back away now and pretend that it wasn’t happening. To appreciate the little moments for exactly what they were and never let them become anything bigger than that. But still, as Kane straightened himself and backed away from her by taking one single step, squaring himself back to the window, he knew that he might just be haunted by that look in her eyes for the rest of his life.

Because he could no longer play the fool and pretend that he didn’t see it. That look was devotion. An adoration that he had never expected to see from her. It was an admission that would never reach her lips. She did not look away for a few seconds after he did, and even after she saw the denial and remission in his eyes.

She didn't care. Abby did not care if Marcus Kane was too pigheaded and scared of emotion to let himself hope for a future that might just include her, she was going to do it anyways. She could make a wish for the both of them and just hope it came true. If she couldn't tell him how she really felt, she could at least tell this meteor.

"I do," she said in response to his pessimism, refusing to apologize for having hope.

Abby shut her eyes tightly, making a wish that had something to do with the man standing beside her. Jake Griffin aside, in that moment, Marcus Kane was her biggest wish. She took it as a sign that he was here with her when the star passed by. It had to mean something cosmic, didn't it?

Maybe this was her way of letting him go. Of asking the universe if it was really meant to be. If nothing ever came of it, she would move on with somebody safer and get on with the rest of her life. But right now, she needed to make that wish.

"What's the point, Abby?" He asked, once she had reopened her eyes. "It's just folklore."

"It's not folklore, Marcus," she countered, grateful that he had at least let her finish her wish before interrupting. "It's hope."

Hope, Marcus thought to himself, giving a brief scoff. A pointless, useless, downright dangerous concept.

They stayed at that window for some time after Abby's wish, watching the Earth turn beneath them. And though Kane remained as stoic as he always did, he knew what he would have wished for had he allowed himself. And in the years to come, whenever he reflected on him and Abby's romance-coloured friendship, he would come back to that moment and wonder if he had made a mistake by not making that wish.

Whether it would have changed anything or not, they both would have wished for the same thing.

~~~

All too soon, the semester ended. Jake finished his resource internship which meant that his time in earth science was coming to an end. That was when he made things official with Abby, not wanting to lose her place in his life. Their careers were taking them in separate directions, and Alpha Station didn't feel quite as small to him as it did to her because he did not often have time to frequent the rec rooms. Jake opted to log overtime hours.

Until, of course, they started dating. Then, Jake was introduced to the rest of the gang, and he started coming around. At first only when Abby was there but eventually on his own, as her friends became his friends.

Abby didn't let herself wonder why it often felt as though the day that her and Jake started officially seeing each other would also be the day that she lost Marcus Kane for good. She told herself that it was because their political science class was also over, and she was losing those few hours a week with him. That's all.

For the man himself, the days were long and filled with patrol shifts and training. Abby's world now consisted of medical rounds and surgical procedures. Somewhere in the midst of it all, they found time for the political debates that were going to secure one of them a spot on the junior council. And Fridays were still spent in the same way as they always had been – the young overtook the Alpha Station rec room and made it their homeland, if just for but one evening a week.

They all had a part to play. David Miller – originally from Farm Station - always came by with leftover desserts that his culinary officer mother had remaining from the earlier dinner rush and sometimes smuggled some moonshine in. Clementine brought the music tapes that she put together in her spare time for some background noise - Thelonious had showed her how to burn mixes of her own. Callie provided the gossip among officers. Maryanne brought news from the junior council that her boyfriend sat on, Thelonious brought philosophical or scientific conversation, Celine brought her film camera and tried to capture their happy days, Kane and Abby, both being the busiest among them, never really brought much.

Kane brought the eye candy, some said. He always showed up looking rugged after a day of hard work and offered some quick flirtation or a story or two. Abby brought her smile. She brought a warmth that without her, the room lacked. She brought this feeling of safety and maternal warmth, even if they were all the same age. Abby took care of them all.

Through the organized chaos of a typical Friday night in Alpha Station, the group of young people navigated the evenings with grace and friendly chatter. Tonight, a table in the middle of the room was being visited often for refills of punch or moonshine and to grab a dessert or two. Thelonious and Clementine had seated themselves down at said table, having decided that tonight, they were here for the food, as they kept their conversation light and personal across the table. Abby had been standing beside that table, setting up a row of cups that she was filling with punch so that it would be easier for people to grab one and go.

People were flirting around the gramophone as an old singer said something about being in love with his best friend’s girlfriend through a chorus of electrical guitars and drums, folks gathered on the couches to watch an old hockey game, imagining what it must be like to glide across a rink on a pair of blades like those Canadian athletes were doing, and a few new faces had been thrown into the mix tonight and welcomed eagerly.

The space was full of live and chatter as Kane came up behind Abby, grabbing one of the cups that she'd just filled from overtop her head and resting his foot up on the base of the chair beside the table.

"You know, Ab," he began casually, following up on a conversation that had come up during their council debate earlier today, "I almost like your idea of broadening the council," he took a swig of the punch as Abby looked over her shoulder at him, wondering if he was about to make fun of her. "Having a seat for every sector head."

She had brought this up earlier during their debate for the junior council, and Kane had rebutted it firmly in front of everyone else.

Abby scoffed. "Would it have killed you to mention that earlier?" She gave him a sharp look that was mostly good-natured.

Kane was shaking his head. "That's what we have station reps for," he reminded her. "And a larger council means less unanimity."

Now, she rolled her eyes. "Unanimity isn't the point," she muttered as Kane reached over and grabbed a handful of cashew nuts from the bowl on the table.

Kane gave her a shrug and crunched on a nut as Abby finally grabbed a cup of her own and turned around to face him.

"Councillor Sydney seems pretty keen on Project Exodus, hey?" She asked, hoping to get Marcus' thoughts on the matter though she was quite certain that she already knew them.

Diana Sydney still sat on Chancellor Xander's senior council, and she was one of the most vocal members. Some of her ideas were spilling over into the junior council, and that's where Abby and Kane came in.

Now, Kane wasn't surprised to hear that Abby was intrigued by Project Exodus. Not a huge fan of Diana Sydney herself, but an avid believer that Earth was livable, Abby hoped that someday in her lifetime, the project would be put to true motion. Though the noble parts of her wanted to allow her future child and generations to come to live on Earth, she wanted to be there to.

She'd seen the artwork, the tapes, the old photographs. Abby wanted to feel the sun on her face, the wind in her hair. She wanted to see mountains and water and trees. She wanted to see the stars from the ground.

Kane knew that if projections said Earth wasn't livable, then it wasn't livable. And he was far more concerned with ensuring that life aboard the Ark - their only salvation - could go on.

Nonetheless, some like Diana Sydney shared Abby's foolish ideas. They were currently working on putting together an Exodus Charter for the day that humanity returned to the ground.

"Don't get excited," he responded, stepping on some of Abby's anticipation. "Diana's alright, but I don't think her head's screwed on properly."

Ignoring his pessimism, Abby raised an eyebrow and nudged him teasingly. "Oh," she taunted as Kane glanced down at her, "it's Diana now, is it?"

Instead of rolling his eyes and changing the subject - as he would have done if there was actually anything going on between him and the councilwoman - Kane smirked downwards and took another sip of punch.

"What can I say," he teased right back, "she's not bad."

Now, Abby grimaced with a chuckle. "She's like thirty."

Kane thought that she might just be looking at it differently than he was. Sure, Diana was older than them by a bit, but she was tall and blonde and beautiful. Most men his age wouldn't care.

Besides, didn't Abby once date a man who was in his mid-twenties before she even came of age?

And in truth, him and Diana did flirt. She had a sultry way of speaking to him and Kane was certainly not above reciprocating, even if he couldn't be bothered to pursue anything. It would be fun, and it would probably help him climb the ladder, but it would get old fast. And complicated.

He crunched another cashew between his teeth and met Jaha's eyes from across the table. The other man gave him a pointed look that said - yeah, she's hot - and his wife elbowed him with a scoff.

"Age is only a number where good-looking women are involved," Kane continued, just to tease Abby. He nodded towards Jaha. "He knows what I'm talking about."

Now, Abby and Clementine both shot Thelonious a look that forced the man to chuckle nervously and raise his hands in a mock surrender.

Clemmie could deal with her husband later, but Abby did not blame the innocent man for being dragged into the mess of the guilty provocateur.

She turned towards Kane and poked him in the chest with an accusatory index finger. "You," Abby began, "are a terrible influence, Marcus Kane."

He did not respond to her, but shared one last maniacal grin with Jaha before Abby turned away.

Suddenly, Kane remembered a conversation he'd had with Vera earlier that day. One that had left him feeling aggravated, hostile, and ready to never return to the worship sector of Go-Sci.

"Mm," he grunted in reminder, finishing another cashew. "What have you done to my mother?"

Abby and Jaha - but mostly Abby - were always trying to entrap Kane into going down for worship on Sundays. He found it rather rich considering Abby didn't believe a word of the religious stuff. Jaha was agnostic but believed in God, but Abby was too scientific to subscribe to the notion of an all-powerful being in the sky. And Kane himself was too logical.

But Abby liked the ground, and she liked what his mother said about it.

Recently, any time he ran into his mother, all she could do was talk about Abby. Apparently, she was staying after prayer meetings to ask all sorts of questions about the earth and traditions. Perhaps his tale of shooting stars and wishes had ignited something within her.

"She won't shut up about you," he finished nonchalantly, though Abby sensed some true hostility in his words.

It would have been easier if Kane wasn't Abby's immediate rival. Vera would go on and on about how little Abby Everson was destined for greatness and she had a heart that was one day going to lead them to the ground. She would express how wonderful she thought it was that her and Marcus were friends, and that's when Kane would remind her that they weren't friends. They were political rivals and casual acquaintances.

"She misses you, Marcus," Abby said as Callie came by for some punch and smiled at the pair of argumentative acquaintances. "You should really get over there to see her more often than you do."

Abby didn't expect an answer. She knew that the relationship between Kane and his mother was a touchy subject. But Vera was a wonderful woman and Abby thought about how she would do anything to get one more minute with her own mother. She didn't want Kane to have any regrets.

Kane was waving her away, saying something teasing to Callie. Realizing that particular conversation was over, Abby cast a glance over her shoulder. There was a semi-new face here today. Jake used to come around every now and again - nobody in this room was a stranger to him - but recently, he'd been spending more time here with her.

Abby and Jake had been tentatively dating for the last two weeks. Most of her friends knew and were happy for her, but they hadn't had time to tell everyone officially. She didn't think it was necessary. Half the people there thought they'd been together longer than they really were anyways.

She felt good about it. Like it was the next step of her great plan. Which it was. She also felt a bit melancholy for reasons that she wouldn't let herself ponder over too hard. She liked Jake. She knew just how easy it would be to love him. And she loved how he felt like home. Like safety.

Abby was back to filling up cups of punch as she'd noticed a few more people come into the room, and Callie and Kane were good-naturedly bickering over some incident that had happened earlier. Callie was a public relations officer but often treated her job as though she was a gossipmonger. She was desperately looking for information about an arrest made this morning and Kane was refusing to budge. Both because it was against protocol and to piss her off.

While they were going back and forth, Abby felt a familiar arm snake itself around her waist and a warm pair of lips planted a kiss to her cheek.

"Hey," she smiled sweetly up at Jake, but never stopped filling those cups. "Where've you been?"

This was the first time he'd seen her since they arrived together, but Abby wasn't mad about it. She was glad to see him bonding with her friends and having a good time outside of work. Jake sometimes didn't know how to do anything other than work and worry about the Ark. He was the one who wanted to become a resource officer, but knowing every little potential for what could go wrong with the ship took its toll.

"Can't talk, babe," Jake said in a joking voice, grabbing one of the cups that she'd just filled up. "Miller's about to get his ass kicked."

Abby glanced over her shoulder to where Jake and David had been sitting. Thankfully, she saw a chess board that looked awfully close to reaching a checkmate and realized that he was not serious.

"Come watch," he suggested, already backing away from her.

Shaking her head with a scoff, Abby said, "you don't know how to play chess." She could have sworn that they'd had that conversation before.

Jake feigned hurt by clutching his chest, still backing away. "You think you know everything about me, Abigail Everson," he teased, turning around and heading back to his game.

Abby was still smiling when she realized that two pairs of eyes were on her curiously. She supposed that she hadn't had a chance to tell Callie about her new relationship, and Kane certainly did not know.

Now, Callie and Jake weren't very familiar with one another, but she was just happy for her friend. As she reached across the table for a snack, Callie gave Abby a casually congratulatory look.

"I didn't know you had a boyfriend, Ab," she said, biting into a small piece of dessert before her name was called from across the room and she gave a friendly look before excusing herself.

For some reason, Abby had a hard time turning towards Kane.

The man himself was not completely unaffected, though he told himself that he was. He knew that it would only be a matter of time before Abby and Jake made things official, and now here they were.

Sure, a strange part of him felt as though his world had just gotten colder, but he did not acknowledge that. He pushed that feeling down inside of him until it drowned and died and left him numb. He promised never to dig that feeling up and decipher it.

Instead, he casually reached around Abby to grab yet another handful of cashews and gave her a sarcastic raise of his eyebrows. "I was going to say, I didn't know you had a brother," he muttered, but obviously meant for Abby to hear it.

His subtext was clear - Kane was commenting on the lack of chemistry that he'd witnessed between Abby and her new boyfriend. But the quip itself was mean-spirited considering Abby never had a brother, but she sure did have a sister.

Abby stopped what she was doing only long enough to give him an unimpressed look as Thelonious and Clemmie stifled snickers from their seats at the table. Chemistry could come later, and it wasn't important to Abby. She wanted safety and comfort. Even if her friends didn't see the passion, she didn't care.

All she could do was lightly smack him on the arm and give him a scolding glare.

"Kane, you know Jake," Clemmie cut in, still chuckling cautiously. "He was in Earth Studies with us."

Clemmie had been in that first semester course with Abby, Jake, and Kane as well. Her and Kane had sat together while Abby and Jake flirted at their own table.

Nodding curiously, Kane was doing his best to remind the group that he did not care who Abby was seeing. 

For some strange reason, Abby herself felt a strong urge to change the subject.

“Those are for everyone, you know,” she chastised, gesturing down to the cashews that Kane continued to hoard.

There was a feeling lingering within her, upon realizing that her and Jake had gone off the deep end, hand in hand, without looking back. A remanence of something that was in the process of slipping through her fingers, though she did a disastrous job of attempting to hold on. Suddenly, she felt as though it was not wise of her to be standing here with Marcus Kane.

And as she felt the memories of something that had never been defined slipping away from her, Abby’s heart grew melancholy as she realized that she’d never had anything to call hers to hold on to in the first place.

She knew that she'd made the right decision with Jake. She may not have felt it in her heart - she'd never really been able to trust her heart in the first place - but she did trust her bones. That this was going to be the man that she spent her life with. That she married. The man that would give her a child. And she wouldn't want that man to be anybody else.

Later in the evening, when Abby noticed Jake and Marcus holding a conversation and even laughing together, she didn’t quite know what to make of it. She was glad to see them bonding, but it also worried her.  She liked Jake because he was nothing like Marcus. She only hoped that her boyfriend wouldn't be corrupted.

Unbeknownst to her, she was witnessing the birth of what would prove to be a close friendship, even if political differences would ultimately lead to its inevitable end. Abby nearly scoffed to herself as she watched the unlikely pair from afar. Marcus Kane and her boyfriend, Jake Griffin – friends. It was bound to be interesting, if nothing else.

Abby couldn’t help but wonder if she was doing one or both of these men a grave injustice. Hurt followed her everywhere, as did trouble, pain, and drama. She was like a walking hurricane, and the perils that stalked her were sometimes of her own doing, or sometimes brought on merely by fate.

Everyone she loved thus far had died, merely for loving her. How could she let that happen to yet another innocent victim? Shouldn’t she, by all means, turn into the likes of Marcus Kane and shut herself off from the people that she cares for most in order to protect them from the violence of her life? Was she being selfish? If she was so dangerous, wouldn’t she be better off alone?

 Abby tried to remind herself that she was going to change the world, and then it wouldn't matter. Her past, the pain, the hurt, none of it would matter. Because she had a job to do and a life as everyone knew it to change.

~~~

Abby knew she'd made the right decision a few weeks later.

She had been sitting in the rec room on a quiet Thursday night sifting through the chart of a patient with a strange illness, trying to make sense of it. Somewhere behind her, Jake and Kane were involved in a near-silent game of chess. Unlike when Jake played Miller, this was intense rather than for fun. It's why Jake enjoyed playing games like this with Kane - he took them seriously. In anything that he did, he wanted to win. And while Kane was a strategist who always thought three moves ahead, Jake used these opportunities to test out his instincts and intuition. Sometimes he won, sometimes Kane won. But the games were usually very close.

When the game was over, there were never any hard feelings. Both men appreciated the learning opportunity. Afterwards, without bothering to move their pieces or clear they board, they often indulged in pleasantly political conversations. Thought experiments, opinion-based ideas, ethical dilemmas. Jake was fascinated by the way that Kane saw the world, and Kane appreciated the fact that unlike his combative girlfriend, Jake never tried to change his ways of thinking. Jake believed in the value of an opinion that differed from his own. They both typically walked away from their conversations feeling as though they had learned something.

Jake and Abby moved quickly. They were already talking about applying for a joint quarters in Alpha Station. Jake had been the one to mention ensuring it had an extra sleeping chamber for when they inevitably welcomed a child. Instead of scaring her, it warmed Abby's heart. Finally, a man who wanted the same things in life as she did. A man who wanted those things with her.

Since then, there was no room for uncertainty. No more second guessing. Wondering if she'd made the right choice. Wishing on stars. From that point forward, it was all about Jake Griffin and the beautiful life that they were starting together.

Beside her, Callie had been quietly reading an old magazine - one that she had likely already memorized - ensuring to give Abby the silence that she needed to do her work. Abby wouldn't have minded the noise; she was aware that she had decided to bring her work to a place usually filled with life. And the men behind her didn't seem to realize that she was working on anything, because here came their conversation.

This one was something about the hypothetical Exodus Charter. If humanity was to return to the ground, how would the laws look? Would they continue to execute people now that it wasn't necessary to save oxygen and resources? Did criminals deserve to die or was there another form of punishment more suitable? Abby tried not to listen. While Jake could take Kane's misguided opinions and work with them, Abby could only fight him. And if she were to really let herself listen, she'd shoot up out of her chair, storm over there, and tell him that he was an incredibly cruel man indeed. Power hungry and trigger happy.

She was glad when Callie piped up.

"What's on your mind, darling?" Her friend said, glancing over.

Abby realized then that for the last few minutes, she had been sitting with her eyes forward, staring off into space rather than looking down at her work. She blinked away her trance. She could have shaken her head and insisted that nothing was bothering her, but the truth was that Abby had been worried for some time now. Not because her and Jake weren't perfect - they were. That's what worried her. He was perfect. But she wasn't.

"I just..." Abby began, looking backwards once at Jake only to find him speaking with his hands about something as Kane looked on pensively.

Callie followed her quick gaze and realized that this conversation would be about Jake. Abby turned back and sighed.

"I don't want to hurt him," she revealed, almost as though she was humiliated by the sentiment.

Callie lowered her brows. "Jake?" She clarified and Abby nodded softly. "What do you mean?"

Abby took in a deep breath, keeping her voice low to avoid eavesdroppers. "Look at him, Callie," she shook her head slightly. "He's so...so perfect," she explained. "Look at his life, and then look at mine and tell me that you don't think he deserves better."

"Abby..." Callie began, prepared to reassure the woman who was quickly becoming her best friend. "Just look at how far you've come. You’re smart, you're kind, you're a great friend, you work harder than anyone else I've ever met," she listed. "You deserve everything you've ever dreamed of. And I think Jake might be just that."

Abby pinched her lips together. "He is, Callie," she admitted. "Sometimes it just feels like..." she continued warily, "...like disaster follows me around." She shifted in her seat, trying not to become emotional. "I just don't want him to get caught in the next one."

Callie sighed and patted her friend's knee. Everything that Abby did, she did it strongly. That included loving. She loved Jake with her whole heart, her entire being. And that love was strong enough to move mountains in space.

"Let your past go, Abby," Callie said with a bit of a sigh. "Don't you think it's finally time for you to find some peace?"

"Peace," Abby repeated sarcastically, but her voice was sad. "I don't think that's something I'm cut out for."

And perhaps, that was true.

~~~

He didn't miss her. Of course he didn't. How could he miss something that he never even had? Kane and Abby were never romantically involved, so how could either of them miss one another? Well, if that were truly the case, then how could either of them explain the subtle ache that lingered within them both when she started going out with Jake? It was supposed to be a happy time for her, and it was - it really was - but even Abby couldn't ignore what felt like a missed opportunity. She was falling in love and excited to start her life with the man that she had a feeling was going to last a lifetime, but felt something lingered in the back of her mind. Similar to the way that Kane existed in her peripheral vision earlier.

And he ached too. He was happy for her and he liked Jake, in fact, they quickly became closer friends than he and Abby ever were, and he wished them all the best. He also knew that his own life had no room for romance or commitment of that sort, especially not to somebody that he would have no choice but to fall deeply and life-changingly in love with. It wasn't what he wanted, it was only how he felt. And Marcus Kane was by now an expert at ignoring his own emotions.

Still, there was that ache. He supposed that somebody like his mother might tell him that feeling that ache was a sign that he was a human being with functioning emotional systems. That it was better than feeling nothing. That it meant that he cared enough to love and feel pain when it didn't work out. She would probably say something along the lines of the true opposite of love being indifference. That was why he never went to talk to her about it.

Because he didn't want to be somebody with a functioning emotional system. He wanted to be somebody hardened and calculated, able to make whatever decision was necessary without his feelings getting in the way of that. So, yes, he ached, but he also felt satisfied in knowing that he had dodged a bullet. He had prevented himself from becoming somebody that he did not want to be. He stayed the course and though he could ignore the ache, he couldn't ignore the pride that came with knowing he was strong enough to walk away from something that would have made him weak. Would have given him vulnerabilities that he could not afford.

Still, some days - nights, mostly - he did miss the way that she made him feel. Not her, particularly, or so he told hismelf. But the way that he felt when he was around her. Lighter, happier, like there were jokes to be found on this Ark and laughter to be had. He missed the fun that came with teasing her flirtatiously, the electricity that came with allowing himself an extra moment or two of looking into those beautiful brown eyes of hers, lightly grazing her body wherever it was appropriate. He knew he shouldn't have, but he did miss those feelings. He almost envied Jake for no doubt getting to feel all that and more when she was around. Even better, Jake didn't have to feel guilty about it. He wanted it. He didn't have to hide it away, swallow it down and pretend it wasn't happening. Jake didn't have to hate himself for it.

Now, Kane really tried not to think about it at all. Having the situation weigh on his mind in any way would only be an admission that he cared. Which he didn't. Still, when those thoughts came he made his excuses.

Maybe if he could have been positive that she returned his feelings, he would have been braver. That's how he made it her fault. If he knew, he would have made a move. But it was a boldfaced lie. If he knew for certain, he would have been even less compelled to act on his feelings. Because then something really would have had to happen, and he couldn't reconcile that. It wasn't in his plans. He didn't love himself enough to allow himself to love another person and wreck every one of his well-defined plans of self-promotion.

And if she wasn't to blame, then there must have been something else.

Bad timing, large-scale differences, fight or flight instincts, but more chemistry than they knew what to do with. Two hearts that beat in tandem whether they beat for the same things or not. An invisible string between them, connecting them no matter the distance or the disagreements. No matter how far they would end up straying from each other. A string that was never severed, so it remained loose and knotted in places, unnoticed but growing tighter as the slack was stolen from them.

But really, they were both at fault. They were too proud, the two of them. Neither willing to admit that they had feelings for each other, neither able to give the other person a win even if it meant mutual victory and happiness. They were both too proud to make the first move, so nobody ever did. Still, that string would remain between them until one day it forced them face to face, right up against each other, forced to confront everything that they had never acted on.

Kane pretended he wasn't mourning whatever had transpired and fizzled out between him and Abby, and for once in her life, she did the same. She did not acknowledge it so as not to allow the grief to overshadow the real and intense feelings of love and happiness that she experienced with Jake and their new relationship. It wouldn't have been fair to him and their life together.

Her and Kane had existed like two ships passing in the night. Two bright lights, alighting a stormy, dangerous ocean for only the brief moment in time that they slowly churned through the waves passed one another. Beautiful but fleeting. Close but never touching.

But pretend as she might, Abby ached fervently within a small portion of her chest reserved for that impossible man.

After Kane had told her about wishing on stars, she had gone down to the archives. It was a shoddy excuse for a library - most people had a better time finding old books at the markets - but she found what she was looking for. An old dusty book on tokens and symbols of luck. Inside that book - among four-leaf clovers and rabbit's feet - she had indeed found what Kane had mentioned. People did wish on stars all those years ago when they were down on the ground. Not only that, but they would also wish on the very first star that appeared in the night sky. Abby hadn't considered that they would slowly come into view one by one. She only ever visualized the Earthly night sky as dark and already full of stars.

There used to be celebratory holidays in certain parts of the world that insisted on baking a turkey and sharing a meal with friends and families. On these occasions, it was ritualistic to keep the wishbone of the animal aside and dry it until it would be brittle enough to break in half. From there, two participants would both make a wish before taking hold of each side and  pull until one person - the lucky winner - was left with the bigger half. It was said that the winner's wish would come true.

Birthdays came with similar traditions. Back when resources were plentiful, a cake would be baked and iced for the birthday person. Then, the amount of candles would be placed into the cake for the amount of years that they were celebrating alive. Abby raised her brows at the thought of people with twenty or more candles on one cake, but assumed that people modified the tradition for practicality's sake as the years went on. They were to make a wish and blow out all their candles. A wish for the new year of their life.

She spent an entire night reading that book, looking for things to wish on. People used to hold their breath and make a wish when the time on the clock showed 11:11. They would make a wish if they happened to find a lucky four-leaf clover amid the usual three. In late summer when the yellow dandelions completed their lifecycles and turned to tufts of dozens of white seeds, they would be plucked and a wish would be made before blowing the seeds away into the wind, scattering themselves far and wide for next season's growth. The most ridiculous of all - and the most intimate, she found - was that Kane had been right, if and when somebody had an eyelash fall out and get stuck somewhere on their cheeks, they were to place the lash on the tip of their finger, make a wish, and blow it away.

After that day at the window with Kane, Abby never made another wish. Not even after she learned about all the things that one could wish upon. Not when Jake caught an eyelash on her cheek and held it up for her to examine. Not when her birthday came around and she considered lighting a candle. Not whenever she saw another shooting star trailing past her in the sky. Nor when she happened to glance at the clock just in time to see the four ones aligning.

There were things that she could wish for, of course, but it felt wrong. Like she had used up her one and only opportunity on somebody else. How could she wish for her husband's health and happiness when wishes were meant to be shared between her and another man. A man who hardly existed anymore. The man who had taught her how to wish in the first place.

She wondered what he had been thinking at that window. When she wore her heart almost on her sleeve and she could have sworn that he'd been moments away from kissing her. But Abby already knew. She'd always been good at reading people. Even him.

He didn't have to make a wish and she couldn't force him to. But he could read between the lines. He could acknowledge that she was putting herself out there and in need of a response of some kind, at the very least. He could confess what she suspected to be true or he could cut her lose and remind her that he wasn't cut out for romance. At the very least, he could act on their yearning and kiss her just once. Maybe more. Abby would be willing to leave it at that, if she only got to experience one moment with Marcus Kane.

She would never hound him, never hold it against him, never cast any expectations upon him, never even talk about it. She wanted more than that, but she was willing to be his one-time lover if it just meant that she got to do it. That was degrading and not the kind of person that Abby wanted to allow herself to be, but it also spoke to how strongly her heart beat for that man.

And Kane couldn't do it. He knew that he could. He could have made a move and they could have shared intimacies. She likely wouldn't refuse him for he could tell that she was just as attracted to him as he was to her. But he couldn't do it.

Not because he was unwilling to compromise her that way. But because if they did it, he would fall in love. And he couldn't do that for a multitude of reasons. He wouldn't be good at being in love. She would become unhappy very quickly. Either that or it would change him in ways that he did not want to be changed. It would distance himself from his true goals. And in his mind, he had to hold true to the fact that love wasn't worth that. She wasn't worth it.

Abby shed no tears over nothing ever coming from that wish on the shooting star, but she was saddened. Even with new love in her life, she was. She did ache because of it. She wasn't a fool who believed that anything between her and Marcus would have been particularly easy, but she also thought that they had shared something larger than a suggestive comment at a window. She felt as though they had more to lose than that. Apparently, she was wrong.

And she was happy with Jake. Happier than she'd ever been, in fact. She knew that her heart was in the right hands and that her future was coming quickly and adorned with a golden hue. But she still saw Marcus around. He didn't walk her home anymore and their classes together had ended, but he was still in the Rec Rooms and Mess Hall and everywhere that she was during her down time. And for the first couple months, she had to look away when she saw him.

She would look at him and see somebody that should have been nothing more than a memory. The way that his hair curled over his forehead when it got too long. The dashing way that he started to look when he infrequently allowed his facial hair to grow out, those piercing dark eyes. She did not need to see him in person because he burned inside her memory like an image left too long on a monitor screen. He burned so well in her own mind that she could smell him without being near him - the fresh scent of his soap and whatever it was that he wore that made him smell sweet and spicy at the same time.

She didn't miss him. She couldn't. She'd hardly even known him. But he was stuck in her sweetest memories and there was nothing she could do about that now. Abby focused on filling her mind with new memories as a means to cover him up. If he wouldn't disappear, she could at least hide him. Jake made that easy.

Kane found himself burning similarly, unable to put her from his mind. Jake also made that easier. Seeing Abby with another man didn't evoke as much jealousy as he would have thought but instead it reminded him that she had never been his to lose in the first place. She'd liked Jake for well over a year now. She was always his. Jake's. Anything else did not add up.

Seeing Abby and Jake together made so much sense that it was easier for Kane to forget that there had been a time when she looked at him with stars in her eyes or when he would have given anything to kiss her lips or even just hold her hand. To hold her against himself and breathe her in.

Now, none of that made any sense to him. That made it easier.

~~~

Just as inevitable as the union between Abby and Jake was the falling out between Abby and Marcus. That friendship was never going to work. Not while their strong opinions differed so drastically and neither had the capacity or willingness to even consider the other's outlook. And certainly not after the flirtation and tension that fueled their rivalry died. Now, it didn't particularly die so much as it was pushed aside after Abby got into a relationship, and perhaps that was the biggest problem.

Forgotten, ignored, pretended it never existed, but not gone.

And in the end - just as everyone predicted that it would - it all came down to that seat on the junior council.

It was such a close race. Every month, both candidates would take the current table by surprise. That was a large reason why it took so long to make a decision. But inevitably, the time came. And there could only be one winner. That winner would be crowned as soon as one of them decided to bite the bullet and be the first to drop the gloves. Some predicted that it would be Abby, as she'd never really liked Kane. Most were just surprised that Kane was being so diplomatic about it in the first place. Abby was a former criminal, and he was allowing the council to forget all about that juicy little tidbit.

They wanted that seat for different reasons. Kane wanted the power to make big decisions on board the Ark and be the one responsible for keeping them all alive. Abby wanted to be there as an ethical obstacle. She didn't want to let their humanity fall by the wayside. She wanted to ensure that life abord the Ark deserved to go on. And in the end, Kane wanted it more.

Thus far, they'd both been respectful in their debates. Careful not to cross any lines, keeping their tentative friendship in the back of their minds, being driven but cautious. They both knew that they couldn't walk that fine line forever. Even so, when Kane dropped his gloves, Abby was taken by surprise. Once again, she'd been deceived by her own hope. Hope that he was better than that.

And when he decided to air her dirty laundry for all to see, everything between them changed. Abby was reminded of how it felt to be hunted by Kane rather than to be his cautious friend. Sparring partner. Respected rival. The object of his occasional flirtation.

He was bringing it home in front of the current junior council one afternoon - the same day that they had asked both him and Abby to provide their closing arguments. A decision was on the horizon. Abby had given a wonderful speech, highlighting her medical knowledge, her interest in the Exodus Project, the desire to further her political career by first sitting on the junior council with the hopes of moving up to senior in the future. She spoke of ethics and how important they were to consider when making the important decisions that affect life as they all knew it on board the Ark.

Then Kane spoke.

And he gave the opposite kind of speech. His was heavy-handed, calling upon the hammer of justice and the restraint against leniency. Upholding the law, following procedure, living by the book to ensure that life continued. And though Abby's bright-eyed speech had registered within some of the junior councilmen, Kane's fear mongering won over the other half.

Just to be sure, he had to get personal. Near the end of his speech, he gestured lamely towards Abby.

"Dr. Everson's platform of ethics is a noble one," he said, but there was something underhanded in his voice. "And if we weren't trapped in space orbiting an unlivable planet, we might have time to consider her bleeding-heart ideals."

As he spoke this sentence, Abby's eyebrows lowered from across the room. His speech had been as she expected up until now, and she suddenly felt as though she did not recognize the man speaking. 

"In such dire circumstances - just barely generating resources faster than we can consume them, never knowing when the Ark might experience the bug that forces station-wide shutdowns," he was fear mongering now, and Abby crossed her arms over her chest, “would you rather that those with power make the necessary decisions to keep life aboard the Ark sustainable," he offered, "or aim to spare feelings before all else?"

That got the crowd thinking. Fear tended to do that. A few murmurs traveled around the circle were produced as people came to understand Kane's point. He let a beat pass before he continued.

"I think it's important that we don't neglect to consider where and how Dr. Everson grew up," he said.

Kane was careful to use her professional title for two reasons. One, it made him look decent and like he wasn't trying to belittle her. Two, because he could pretend that he was just talking about some random medical officer rather than Abby. He met her accusatory eyes for a split second before looking away - she knew what was coming.

"She was raised to have no respect for the law," he continued, and Abby felt a knot forming in her stomach. "Her parents didn't concern themselves with the rules when they brought her into this world illegally. How could they have raised a child to believe that following the law was important, let alone a necessity?"

Abby could no longer look at him. Kane hadn't ever brought up her parents or her past since Danny was floated. It had all been left in the past. She thought that he'd given her the grace that she wanted by neglecting to hold it against her. Now, she knew that he had only ever been biting his tongue.

She felt betrayed. Humiliated. Like she was stupid for forgetting who he was and how ruthless he could be when he decided that somebody was his enemy. She was a fool for having hope - only Marcus Kane could ever remind her of such a fact.

"Even if we had the luxury of looking to morality for guidance over law," he continued, pacing slightly in the same way that he had seen politicians do on old tapes, "how could somebody of her upbringing know the first thing about ethics?"

Abby felt that one like a smack to the face. Not because it offended her, but because she knew then and there that Marcus had won. His statement had thoroughly discredited her entire platform. She ran on ethics. He could disprove the necessity of ethics themselves and prove that Abby had none to speak of, all in one breath.

She glanced at the faces around the room. She knew that some of them wanted to side with her and believe that goodness should prevail over the black and white of the law, but even they couldn't ignore Kane's beautiful argument.

Kane knew that this would probably turn Abby against him once and for all. Professionally, politically, and personally. It had been rather miraculous that they hadn't grown cold with each other given his extreme political opinions up until now. But there was no coming back from this. And he was ready to move on. To leave his past - one where he afforded himself friendship and the occasional sentiment - behind, once and for all. He was more than willing to do whatever needed to be done in order to come out on top. In the end, the human race would thank him for it. Even while humanity wept.

He was going to win that seat on the council and then he was going to move up to the senior council. At that point in time, he should already have full control of the Guard as Chief Security Officer. From there, he could run for chancellor. He had a feeling that Diana Sydney would make it there before he did, but given the fact that she was older and more experienced, that was only natural. 

She knew how to run on a pretty platform, but people would get tired of her quickly. Kane couldn't see her putting in more than a term. Looking around the faces on the junior council - Jaha, Fuji, a few others that he'd gone to school with - and he saw a few worthy competitors, but not many. He hoped that Thelonious might get too busy with his engineering career and let politics fall by the wayside, because he'd make an exceptional chancellor one day. So long as Abigail Everson never saw that title, he would be happy.

Kane strongly believed that someone like her - emotional, soft-hearted, easily swayed yet stubborn at all hell - wearing the chancellor's pin would be detrimental to their society. It might make people happy, and life might even be better for a while, but it couldn't last. With Abby in charge, he was certain that life on board the Ark would fall to chaos and ruin.

That's what he told himself as he successfully destroyed their friendship. He was sacrificing it for the greater good. Besides, he was quite positive that by now, Abby knew a thing or two about being reduced to collateral damage.

The attack - as far as Abby saw it - was both done out of self-promotion and personal vendettas. Kane had never liked her approach to things, and now he was using it against her just to prove a point. Beyond that, he wanted that seat and was willing to stoop to ruthless levels in order to get it.

Abby was horrified to see him stooping to such levels, but tried not to be too surprised. After all, it was her own fault for thinking better of him. She supposed that she'd gotten him wrong. He wasn't valiant, he wasn't heroic, he was just a selfish man who loved a good power trip. Who had a sleeve full of words to kill that he never minded using. She stared at his emotionless face and wondered how he could say such things with ease. Did he even feel anything at all? She was no longer sure.

He said a few more words that were largely inconsequential considering the fight had already been won, before the speaker of the council gestured over towards Abby. Finally allowing himself a glance in her direction, Kane knew that he should have felt remorseful when he took in her wounded frame, trying to appear strong, but didn't actually feel much of anything.

"Dr. Everson," the speaker prompted, "your rebuttal?"

It wasn't necessary to provide one, but Abby knew that she had to if she wanted to save face. Who knows? Maybe someone at the table would feel bad for her and vote in her favour.

Taking in one deep, regulatory breath, Abby stepped forward off the wall. "This council is meant to give voice to all young people aboard the Ark," she reminded them calmly. "From political students in Alpha Station to the hard-working people in Factory," she continued. "And even to those whose parents made legally questionable decisions far beyond the control of their children."

A silence fell upon the room like a heavy cloud of dust. She was right about that, and luckily, the people at that table knew it.

After a moment, Abby went on. "As I'm sure you can all imagine, I was given many opportunities to question the morality of certain decisions that were made around me while growing up,” she continued strongly. “And between being raised outside of the law and now living in Alpha Station and working alongside guardsmen and politicians, I believe that the duality of my experience has given me a well-rounded view of the way that things are, all over the Ark.”

She swallowed, just hoping that she was appealing to somebody's better judgement.

"Not only that," Abby added, "but the way that things could be."

Kane rolled his eyes, but the rest of the table hung onto her words as though they were laced with gold. Back to square one - neck in neck. 

"And I think that so long as we have people on our council that can see hope for the future," she said and Kane winced at the word, "we can finally start moving in better directions."

Abby stared firmly at Kane, wondering just when he had decided that their friendship and the respect that they had for one another paled in comparison to the idea of sitting on the junior council. She never would have stooped to that level. Not first, anyways. But now that he had - and he had done so quite emotionlessly, like it hadn't meant anything - she felt as though he deserved to at least be treated in fairness.

"Major Kane often struggles to see nuance in this world," she added, for good measure. "I think the sheer volume of arrests and executions made under his command speak for itself." Across the room, Kane's lips etched themselves into the whisper of a scowl. "I'm sure you've all heard that people all across the Ark are calling it his Reign of Terror."

This was also true. The councillors nodded at each other. Kane felt nothing but pride and a sense of accomplishment. Regardless of how people felt about it, he knew that he was doing what needed to be done. That he had the strength to do so, because he didn't subscribe to emotional narratives.

"I can promise you now, that should you choose to elect Marcus Kane," Abby finished strong, "you will be contributing to the rise of a dictator."

There was no coming back from the final battle. It had taken names, shed blood, burnt a bridge that never really had a strong foundation in the first place. But it wasn’t the worst thing that happened between those two people. The worst was yet to come. Not long thereafter. In fact, almost immediately thereafter.

Abby had stormed out. Not at first. She gathered herself, thanked the council, cleared her throat, and left the room. Only when she heard Kane following behind her did she begin to truly storm.

She didn’t want to talk. Didn’t want to even look at that horrible man who had said all those nasty things about her. She wanted to take all this anger for him and be alone with it. She wanted to go back to Medical and maybe take it all out on a piece of fake flesh, practicing some stitching while she muttered under her breath.

Medical was maybe the only place that she could be this angry. She couldn’t go home because she didn’t want Jake to know about any of it. Besides, he’d only talk her down. He’d remind her that she couldn’t take any of it personally and that she still had a strong chance of winning the seat. But she didn’t care about any of that, not even if he was right. She just wanted to be mad. And nobody made her mad like Marcus Kane. Maybe that’s why she whirled around after turning a corner and allowed him to nearly plow right into her.

“What was that, Kane?” She demanded, her eyes narrowing as her voice rang out against the empty hallway.

“That was politics, Abby,” he immediately gave it back to her, matching both her tone and the volume of it, “it’s not always pretty!”

She shook her head, dropping her arms down to her sides. “None of that was necessary!” She argued. “You could have kept it above the table but no,” Abby went on, suddenly on a tangent even as he opened his mouth and tried in vain to interject and get a word in edgewise. “Is that the only way that you thought you had a shot at winning this? By using my past against me?”

“I told the truth, Abby!” He bit back, standing up straighter as they fought viciously, their raised voices luckily drawing no crowd.

“So did I!” She snapped despite not knowing if he had more to say or not. “You have no place at that table.”

“I sure do,” he argued, “and in a matter of hours, I bet I will!”

Abby wanted to throw her hands in the air out of frustration. She wanted to tear her hair out and smack this impossible man across the face. He drove her crazy like nobody had ever managed to do before.

“You,” she jutted a pointed finger out and into his chest in an accusatory manner, “are an egomaniac!”

That was when the shouting really started. Choice words all around, all overlapping and none of them really heard. Kane insisted that she was too soft for politics, Abby called him a liar and an arrogant something or other. Colourful language painted that hallway and the heat rose between them until it became barely tolerable.

Now, as they stood there shouting at each other, launching accusations and nasty rebuttals back and forth, Kane’s friend Jake was far from his mind. But later tonight, his warm smile and happy blue eyes would creep back in alongside a feeling of dread and guilt.

Kane liked Jake. Maybe that was the worst part of it all. He liked Jake for his easy personality and pragmatic mind. The way that he was always open to various opinions and could argue – unlike his new girlfriend – without getting his emotions involved and taking anything too personally.

More than that, he thought that Jake and Abby made sense together. They had chemistry, they had plenty in common, they were both popular and friendly and full of new ideas and ambition. They made a beautiful couple – if not a little bit annoying – and everyone knew it, even him.

And it didn’t feel like a betrayal when he did what he did. He didn’t yet know Jake well enough – though they were quickly becoming good friends – to feel as though he owed him anything. And Abby? Well, she still confused him. Because parts of him still hated her but parts of him never really did. Other parts of him didn’t know how they felt about her and knew full well that she had no idea either.

The problem was that Abby was still talking. Not just talking, she was shouting. Spouting off at the mouth and calling him names that he didn’t appreciate. More than anything else in this moment, he wanted to shut her up.

And perhaps this fight was the culmination of everything that they had been through together over the last year and a bit. The cat and mouse game that they played while he tried to have her arrested. The friendly rivalry that they had created in classes. The friendship tainted by physical attraction that they’d formed during that time. The rec room singalongs. The touches that seemed a bit more than platonic. The moment at the window with the shooting star.

When Abby stared dating Jake, all of that just ended. Right when it was about to crescendo. It’s like they got stuck on the apex of a mountain and stayed there. Not snowballing down either side. Well, they could stay stuck on that peak forever. An avalanche had to either push them over the other side or shove them back down where they came from. Only then could they really forget and move on.

“It’s a political argument, Abby,” Kane was saying, shaking his head in anger and frustration, “it’s not personal!”

Abby’s eyes widened immediately. “It sure sounded personal to me, Kane!” She argued loudly. “In fact, everything you do is personal! You play with peoples’ emotions and then fall back on pragmaticism and make everyone else seem crazy just for feeling something! It’s not our fault that you don’t seem to have emotions!”

He looked as though he was going to argue something back at her. In fact, it looked like he had something really hard-hitting up his sleeve. In truth, he supposed he did. Because suddenly he was looking at her as though she’d said something shocking, allowing one split second of heavy silence ring out between the two of them, and reaching out for her.

At first, Abby didn’t know what was going on. She only felt the hand at the back of her neck drawing her closer. She only saw his body moving towards her. She only smelled the scent of his soap more strongly. Then she felt his lips.

And for one brief moment, she forgot about Jake Griffin. Her boyfriend. The man that she’d fantasized about and pined over for a year before he finally asked her out properly. The man that she’d decided she was going to spend the rest of her life with. The man that she was already incredibly committed to, even if it didn’t quite seem like it in this moment.

He was so perfect. Always saying everything that she needed to hear, getting along with her friends, showing her the ways of a true gentleman. He made her feel loved and listened to and cared for and just fine. But he didn’t make her feel like this. Like she was ready to explode just being around him. Like every time they were in the same room she didn’t know if she was in for a screaming match or a flirtatious remark.

No, it wasn’t healthy. It wasn’t stable. It wasn’t something that any smart girl should want to settle down with. But it was thrilling. Marcus Kane thrilled her. Jake Griffin calmed her. She knew which she needed more than the other and she’d already made her choice, but it had been so long since her and Marcus had gotten into it like this that she’d forgotten just how invigorating it felt. Like a mixture of adrenaline and dopamine and raw emotion.

She’d made a slight noise of surprise upon being kissed – once it registered that she was indeed being kissed – and then her willpower fell apart. Because she forgot about Jake. All she knew was that Marcus Kane – the man that she’d fantasized about kissing for longer than she’d like to admit – now had his lips on hers.

Right in the middle of their worst argument yet. This should have happened one of the hundreds of times that he’d walked her home after class and she’d given him every opportunity to kiss her. It should have happened back when she was single and unattached and waiting for him. Of course, leave it to him to wait until the worst possible moment to reveal that he’d reciprocated her feelings all this time.

Despite knowing that she should have pushed him away, slapped him across the face, shouted at him, she did none of that. Instead, Abby leaned into the kiss. She reached a single hand out and entangled it in the fabric of his sweater near his chest, grabbing a fistful and keeping him close to her as the kiss deepened.

Instantly, her head swam. They had just been fighting so brutally and now she was feeling the tenderest of kisses against her lips. Tender or not, it burned. It burned like an acid rain that she wanted to drown in. It burned from her head to her toes. It made her feel utterly alive.

For Kane, it nearly stopped his heart. Then, it restarted it. It proved that no matter what he told himself and no matter the distance that he swore he was keeping between himself and his friends, he couldn’t pretend forever. She’d gotten under his skin. He held her closer than the rest. He liked her. No, he didn’t just like her. He wanted her. He might even love her. But that wasn’t what this kiss was about. This kiss was about unfinished business and saying goodbye to someone that he’d never dated but certainly felt a relative amount of attraction for.

Abby knew that the second it was over. Her heart pounded in her chest, and she hated herself for realizing that she wanted more. Her eyes clouded as they pulled apart to stare at each other and their argument died. But this wasn’t the kind of kiss that asked someone to break up with their boyfriend. This wasn’t the kind of kiss that promised any more. This was goodbye.

He let out one final breath and looked at her with a pair of unreadable eyes. Still mad. Surprisingly passionate. Somewhat sad. And despite her having the perfect man at home whom she very much loved, Abby found herself still wishing that Kane would give her more. Just so that she could be sure.

“Maybe it was personal,” he said in a low, whispered voice as Abby stared up at her, her wide eyes filled with shock and longing and sheer confusion. “It’s not anymore.”

And he left her there. He left her standing there in that hallway shuddering against the thought of his lips. Against the coldness that she suddenly felt standing apart from him, watching him give her one last unreadable look before turning from her and walking away.

Abby didn’t breathe a word of it to anybody. She didn’t even talk about the council fight with Jake. She felt terrible. Terrible for kissing another man but even worse for liking it so much. So, Abby allowed herself one last secret before promising that she would never keep another. And everybody moved on.

She became surer than ever that her and Jake were the stable choice and that she couldn’t afford a romance with somebody like Kane who obviously couldn’t give her what she wanted anyways. And he hardly looked at her afterwards. Like it never even happened. Like nothing personal ever existed between them at all.

It was a shame that either one of them had decided to fight dirty and take things too far. Not only because it cost them their friendship, but also because it had been in vain. Completely unnecessary. That very night, Junior Councilman McRae's father had been diagnosed with an uncurable illness and placed in the palliative care unit. McRae stepped down from the council to spend as much time with him and the rest of their family as possible.

There were now two seats up for grabs. And the vote was unanimous. By morning, Junior Councillors Kane and Everson were sworn in.

It was far too late to take back the brutalities of war. The words that were said. Kane had all but called her a criminal and Abby had called him a dictator. Those accusations would hang there in the air between them for the rest of their lives.

And while Abby was wounded and even felt herself mourning not only for their friendship, but for the version of Marcus Kane that had previously existed in her head, the man himself was too busy basking in his hard-earned victory to give Abby another thought. It was a shame, sure. But that friendship wasn't built to last. He could make more friends - not that he was interested in that.

So, while Abby longed for the little moments with a man who no longer existed to her, Kane put a plan into motion. First, win the favour of the junior council. He could do that. In fact, he had already done that. He was quite certain that even without McRae's seat opening up, he would have won the vote. And if Abby wanted to call him a dictator, then that's precisely what he would become. At least this dictator would know how to do what needed to be done in order to preserve the human race.

Initially, it had tainted the friendship between Kane and Jake. Abby hadn't told Jake exactly what was said during the debate, but she had been pretty upset. Jake wondered if he should end his friendship with Kane out of loyalty to Abby, but she insisted that it was not necessary. The way she saw it, the more logical, feeling people that Kane surrounded himself with, the better. She didn't want to see him actually succumb to a life of numbness and evil.

Besides, she had always been a graceful person. And while she never forgave Kane for what he'd said, she could offer him the grace of ignorance. She hardly looked at him anymore, but at least they could be in the same room. She tried not to pick a fight unless he was clearly asking for one. She didn't get angry or jealous when their other friends still included him in their activities and conversations. But she had grown cold to him.

Though the battle was over, it quickly became clear that the war was only just beginning. Because now they both sat on the council. They both had their say in decisions that needed to be made. That meant that whenever the junior council met, Kane and Abby could finally talk. Though they didn't talk so much as they did just fight from across the table, shooting down the other's ideas and contradicting their ways of thinking. Sometimes Kane thought that Abby countered whatever he said just for the hell of it, even if she didn't believe in her own argument.

And as far as the Alpha Station rec room went, the rest of the friends were just thankful for the fact that Kane and Abby had obviously taken to avoiding and ignoring each other. That was as close to peace as any of them were going to get.

The spark of potential still lingered in the air as everyone in Alpha began to feel a change coming. Between Abby's strong insistence upon supporting Project Exodus and Kane's demand for more arrests and executions in order to ensure that only the purest of humanity remains alive to use up resources, big things were coming for the future. There was no doubt in anybody's minds that both of those two people would one day be voted onto the senior council, and then the real work could begin. They would hold actual power.

And though Abby still didn't trust Councillor Sydney, she still paid close attention to the Exodus Charter that was being created. It was far more ethical than the current charter they were using on the Ark, and Abby liked that. She liked the idea of not having to live on borrowed time.

She happened to feel as though she was in the right spot. Keeping an eye on the projects that mattered to her, romantically partnering with an environmental engineer who specialized in Earth monitoring, keeping close with Thelonious Jaha who would no doubt be chancellor one day. Abby knew that her work outside of Ark Medical suddenly had purpose and potential. She wasn't the only one who though that Earth might be survivable. Even if the boyfriend in question disagreed.

That all mattered greatly because while Abby loved to heal and help those in pain and need, she also wanted more than that. She wanted to do more that that. She wanted to heal the ultimate suffering that came with life stuck in space.

Abby intended on taking the people of the Ark to the ground.

Chapter Text

Abby Everson was a person who gave credit where credit was due - to everyone but herself. Despite being strong and determined, faring just as successfully alone as she did with anyone else, she always told people that it was all because of Jake Griffin that she became who she was meant to be. His love and support, his optimism that matched her own.

Perhaps she said this not to discredit herself, but because as keep on being the best doctor on the Ark and a prominent member of political society as she was, she knew full well that she was more important things that that. She was a wife because Jake had made her one. She was a mother because Jake had made her one. And being a wife and a mother were far more important to her than being anything else.

But Abby was neither thing yet.

In fact, she was still just a junior councillor and second-in-command of Ark Medical. She had come a good long way but still had so far to go.

And between all the politics, the young people still flourished. Callie had gotten married to her guardsman boyfriend. Celine and David were hooking up. Kane still only ever pursued casual relationships with girls who obviously only liked a man in uniform and did not know him that well. Thelonious and Clementine were trying for a child. And, of course, Abby and Jake became the "it" couple of Alpha Station.

So in love, so proactive, never fighting. They were the paragon of good relationships, and everyone was happy for them albeit a little bit jealous. Only when Abby got bored of their perfectness did she crave a fight every now and again, but never went off in search of one. She knew that it wasn't healthy.

At the end of the year 2128, Jake begged David Miller to have his mother - the culinary tech - help set up a private dinner for him and Abby. Miller's mom could only get them forty-five minutes, and she wasn't able to secure anything gourmet, but at least it was something. And forty-five minutes was more than enough time for Jake Griffin to propose to his future wife.

Their friends were happy for them, but not surprised to hear the news. The "it" couple was getting married. They were mostly excited for the wedding. The party was sure to be one for the books.

That Friday night in the Alpha Station rec room, congratulations were uttered by those who had yet to see the happy couple since the big news was revealed. David brought extra moonshine up from Farm Station for celebratory purposes. This was the only room on board the entire Ark that Major Kane didn't arrest anyone caught with contraband. Only because the young man enjoyed a drink or two every now and again. He was no exception to corruption.

Everyone was getting married, it seemed. They were all young, but life on board the Ark moved quickly. Life expectancy wasn't at its highest and people were eager to settle down and start their families before they got old or sick. Clemmie and Jaha started it, with Maryanne and Ross Fuji quickly behind them. Then Callie and now Jake and Abby.

This evening, the ladies were busy talking about marriage while the rest of the room milled about. Jake, Jaha, and Kane all brooded together off in one corner discussing the politics of the week. Jaha was a romantic at heart, but him and Jake had already talked about the proposal. Jake preferred to keep things private, and Kane obviously had no interest in affairs of the heart, so they let the girls talk about love while they stuck with what they knew best.

Maryanne had put an old film into the VCR machine. A re-run, but everybody loved Dirty Dancing, didn't they? It didn't much matter, nobody was really watching it. The three men at the back of the room were busy with their own conversation, the girls in the lounging area were enthralled hearing Abby's story, and everyone else in the room was doing their own thing.

Abby sat at the middle of it all on one of the uncomfortable couches - the springs jutting out here and there. Callie was on her left, Clemmie and Marcie were on the other couch nearby, Celine and Maryanne were on her right, and Abby was in the middle, doing her best to explain that there really wasn't that much to tell anyways.

She told them about the dinner that Jake and Miller had planned and how David's mom had even smuggled them some hot brownies for dessert. But Abby didn't want to give too much away. Her business was just that. Everyone started to gasp and squeal when she showed them the ring. It was just a piece of metal. A thick silver band with one small, round, white stone in the middle. It was meant to replicate a pearl - something that people on Earth used to find in oyster shells washed up on the ocean shorelines. But this was just a polished stone. 

“Was he nervous?” Callie tugged at Abby’s arm, her black eyes wide with curiosity as she pictured the scene.

“No,” Abby said with a smile, remembering the moment. “No, if I didn't know any better, I'd say it was the easiest thing he'd ever had to do.”

Upon hearing her romantic response, the rest of the girls sighed and exclaimed, nudging her as they did so. Abby chuckled, but attempted to bring an end to their ridiculousness.

“Oh, my God, you guys,” she shook her head with a grin. “What are we, twelve?”

“Come on, Ab, just indulge us,” Callie sang sweetly in her ear,

Abby could be quite tomboyish these days. Likely engrained within her having to compete in two traditionally male-dominated fields to make a name for herself. Politics and medicine. Sometimes she forgot what it was like to just be a girl and talk about boys or fashion or the latest gossip. She forgot how much she enjoyed it.

“Yeah,” Marceline urged from one couch over, “when’s the wedding, anyways?”

Unsure how to answer, Abby glanced backwards over her shoulder in search of her future husband. She hoped that one glance at him - even from far away - would steady her. But Jake was too engrossed in whatever he was currently saying and did not notice her gaze. Instead, it was Marcus Kane whose eyes she found, and he gave her a rather numb if not otherwise unreadable look.

But what he'd seen from her, on the other hand, might just haunt him a lifetime. It was a gaze clearly meant for another. For the man who had put a ring on her finger and promised the rest of his life to her. Abby's eyes had been expecting Jake, hence why they were filled with love. With devotion, adoration, loyalty. To such an intense degree that Marcus had never seen anything like it. That was the look that a woman gave to the man that she loved, and it hit him like a ton of bricks. Mainly because he knew full well that he would never experience that look from anybody, and to be seeing it from somebody like Abby - who he knew despised him so - shook him off balance.

As if in slow motion, Kane watched Abby's face change slightly when she realized that she gazed upon him rather than Jake, and Kane only grew more confused. He expected her expression to morph into unbridled hatred, disgust, maybe an element of arrogance. But no, a different kind of adoration remained in her eyes. Protectiveness over a past that only him and her shared. Warmth, attraction, a hint of awkwardness, and one hell of a lot of wonder. He knew where the wonder came from. It was one question - what could have been?

Kane swallowed dryly when Abby looked away.

He knew full well that the majority of unpleasantness that he currently felt was stemming from the fact that another man had gotten something that he wanted. Not that he wanted her, he reminded himself. And he had brought this all upon himself anyways. He chose a future with the Guard and on the council. He chose power over a warm life with beautiful, kind-spirited woman. Right now, after seeing those eyes, he had to wonder how he'd let himself choose anything over those circles of amber brown. Over a head of dark hair that smelled like jasmine. Over a pair of strong, warm hands, a beautiful laugh, and the prettiest smile he'd ever seen.

Marcus Kane only allowed himself that one singular moment of regret. Strangely enough, he hadn't felt it until then. Not when Abby and Jake started dating and not even when he initially found out about their engagement. Not until Abby looked over her shoulder and met his eyes.

“Oh, I don’t know,” Abby was saying, but found herself suddenly and inexplicably distracted. “Sometime next year, I guess.”

“You guess?” Clementine exclaimed in disbelief. “Girl, when Thelonious proposed, I started planning the next day!”

Abby now raised her eyebrows in concern, she suddenly felt as though she was in over her head.

“How much planning was there?” She asked, worried.

“Oh, don’t worry,” Maryanne giggled beside her. “Knowing you, everything will be perfect.

With changes as substantial as an engagement ring suddenly weighing down a finger, a new headspace had to be embraced. Meaning that an old one had to be left behind. And while Abby was quite familiar by now with the changing tides of her fast-paced life, she couldn’t help but feel a certain struggle as she forced herself into this brand-new world of commitment and promise, for she still felt inexplicably tethered to something immovable – her past and the people in it, was what she assumed. Little did she know that this something happened to be someone. Someone who she saw nearly every day, spoke to a bit less but still frequently, someone that couldn’t possibly become just a part of her past, when he was still littering her present. Poisoning the well of her new world.

If she had allowed herself a moment of introspection, Abby might begin to wonder at how strongly unfinished business could linger. Clogging up her path forward, slowing her down as she did her best to blindly push through.

But that beautiful ring on her finger – fabricated, no doubt, by Jake’s friends in Mecha – gave her a sense of irrefutable clarity each and every time she felt it upon her finger. Staring into its stone, it was as if she now looked down on her life from above, and witnessed every truth, every mistake, every previously missed moment. This was just another one of her inevitable reinventions.

Abby was a woman who was constantly changing, always growing, becoming the very best that she could be through her hardships, experiences, and wrong turns. And though it all, remaining true to herself and what she knew to be right. Marrying Jake was just another stepping-stone upon the ocean that was her life.

And miraculously, she’d managed to transform all of her pain. When she thought of the past, of her hidden life, of the fear, the grief that she’d felt upon losing her family, Abby no longer merely found darkness and suffering within her, she found strength. The strength to embody her sorrows and grow from the ashes that had settled around her. When she thought of Danny and their toxic love, their life of crime, their being hunted by Kane and the Guard constantly, she no longer felt fear, anxiety, embarrassment, and she didn’t feel trapped by those experiences nor defined by them. She instead, revelled in how strong they had made her, and how resourceful that life had allowed her to become. The ways in which she had made it out alive and was determined to do better with the chances she was given.

Even when she looked back upon her more recent endeavours – her battle for the seat on the Junior Council and her time spent alongside Marcus Kane, for example – she could see their story for what it was, and she was learning to accept the harsh realities. The strongest truths were often only found in the subtle things.

Abby believed that somewhere deep down, she had fallen in love with Kane. Such an occurrence was so unlike her, and such an obvious mistake, that she could hardly admit it to herself, let alone anyone else. The worst part of it all was that she would never know if Kane ever reciprocated, nor to what extent. The whole notion had been foolish of her, of course, but passion was something that no one had any control over. If it was a matter in which she had no choice whatsoever,

As she considered their unspoken affair, Abby realized that he had made her happy indeed, but the happiness that came with Marcus Kane was very different from that which she found with Jake Griffin.

It had never been enough, with Marcus. It had always offered far too much danger. Happiness or peace, two concepts often misused, as they rarely went hand in hand. One or the other, never both. If Kane was happiness, it was fleeting. But if Jake was peace, it was lasting. And happiness could be found anywhere, especially with a man that she loved peacefully, who promised to keep her safe and warm for the rest of their fragile lives.

That was what Abby needed in order to thrive, and the feeling in her stomach – her instincts – approved of her love for Jake whenever she looked into his eyes. They were always brimming with kindness. He shared her belief that everyone should be doing what was truly right, not what they were told. He knew that humanity could do better, and he tried to urge them in that direction.

His love was everything that Abby deserved, and she was finally starting to believe that.

The next six months moved by as if they were set into fast motion.

The Junior Council made headway on many decisions and projects nearly every time they met, all thanks to both Kane and Abby, who were driven unlike any young officials anyone had ever seen before. Jake spent countless hours of overtime in his labs as he was taken under the wing of the chief environmental engineer, determined to teach the young man everything he knew, whilst Jake also took on the responsibility of becoming a Resource Officer. Abby had only just turned twenty-one and she’d already been assigned a group of young junior medics to train while also balancing her own patients and surgeries. Major Kane was now in charge of his own group of deputies and guardsmen to keep busy and ensure that they were doing their jobs properly, while he had also been recruited by Diana Sydney to help her and Chancellor Xander work on the Exodus Charter, as they believed that a member of the law enforcement on board the Ark likely had much to say about the rules at be on the ground.

Kane very much saw it as an immediate waste of his time considering he knew full well that they wouldn't see the ground in his lifetime, but it made him look good. It got his name brought up in all the right circles. And it earned him a spot closer to Diana Sydney, somebody who often flirted and confided in him.

Through all of this, Abby did her level best to plan for a wedding. And yes, Clementine had been right, it proved to be far more work than she’d anticipated.

There was a guest list to be decided upon, applications to be submitted, invitations to be sent out, a meal plan to be requested, a suitable space to be found, a dress to be made, a suit to be tailored, and no time to spare. Jake and Abby both seemed to agree that their careers had to come first, the wedding could wait, but after setting an official date and getting the go-ahead from Officer Harden to commandeer use of the Engineering Mess Hall, just as the Jahas had a year earlier for their own wedding, certain parts of their planning could no longer be postponed.

Abby did her best to stay in touch with her old friends from Factory Station, but she didn't often find time to visit. Her and Aurora Blake - whose son Bellamy had just turned four - was even busier. Her and Abby tried to catch up once ever few months, but their friendship became one that was known more in their hearts by a bond of sisterhood rather than in truly seeing one another face to face.

Still, Abby couldn't forget her friend's talent when she went out in search of a wedding dress. Traditionally, brides wore white. On the Ark, there weren't many gowns to be acquired, but dresses came and went, often altered and repaired by the various seamstresses around Factory Station. Aurora was the best of the best these days, having learned from her mother, and Abby wasted no time in asking her to fix up an old dress

The girls of Alpha Station had been wearing one wedding dress for years now, passing it along to whichever bride came next. But every time a new woman acquired it. They had it altered so that it at least fit them and their personal style better. Of their immediate friend group, Clemmie had worn it first. She had long sleeves added. Then Maryanne had the sleeves removed and a vail made by the strip of dress at the bottom, thus raising the hem to her ankles. When it was Callie's turn, she'd had Aurora cinch it up at the waist so that it wasn't quite so flowy.

Abby didn't know what she wanted done with it. All she'd asked for was puffy sleeves. As a child, she'd read an old picture book about Cinderella and loved the way that her silver-blue sleeves puffed up like bubbles on her shoulders. Other than that, she only asked that Aurora have it tailored to her own measurements.

It was while Abby was waiting around for Aurora to bring out her finished dress, entertaining her son, that she realized just how badly she wanted a child of her own. Little Bellamy was so even-tempered, so polite, so eager to please his hardworking mother. It warmed Abby's heart and made it yearn for motherhood. 

In no time at all, the day of the wedding was upon them.

Abby knew that she was making the right decision, and she also knew that she was head over heels in love with Jake Griffin, so she did not heed her friends' warnings. They all warned her not to be alone before the wedding. They said that a bride alone with her thoughts could only lead to nerves and cold feet. But Abby didn't think it was true. She had been nervous or second guessing up until now, so why would that change just because she was left in solitary? If anything, she wanted a few minutes to herself to think about how beautiful the day would be, and how perfectly their life together would unfold.

Though it was her wedding day, Abby didn't wake up feeling as though she needed to be treated specially. Vera had told her that there was some old tradition where the bride and groom were supposed to sleep separately and not see each other at all before the wedding, but most people on the Ark didn't participate in that. Where would they possibly have slept? Besides, Abby wanted to wake up beside Jake as his girlfriend one last time.

Jake had pulled some pretty impressive strings and gotten approved to use the Mess Hall for the ceremony and reception. Under Chancellor Xander, all formal events could also apply for a prohibition exception, which the Griffin party was also approved for. They only had the space until midnight and they had to adhere to the approved amount of alcoholic contraband, but it was set to be quite the night, nonetheless.

Abby spent the entire morning in the Mess Hall - that had been closed to the public for the event - getting everything set up. Various friends came and went as their schedules permitted. Some dropped off baked goods that they were contributing, some donated decorations, clothes for anyone who needed something nicer to wear tonight. Some helped Abby tidy up the dust and dirt that had settled around the hall.

Jake was working this morning. His supervisor in engineering was walking him through a new software system, and he did not want to miss out on the opportunity to learn it. Besides, all he needed to do was quickly wash, comb his hair, and get into his formal outfit for the wedding. It's not like he needed much time.

Abby, on the other hand, had happily taken the entire day off from Medical. She didn't want people having to sit in dusty chairs. She also wanted to monitor who and what was coming in so that she could direct everything to the best possible location. She was the kind of person who would rather ensure everything was done right by doing it herself rather than leave it to somebody else. That way she could be the only person to blame if anything went wrong.

She stayed in that room setting up until the very last minute. Less than an hour until the wedding was set to begin - guests would be arriving at any second now.

And with all of her other helpers off getting ready, Abby did find herself alone with her thoughts. Then came the nerves, just as her friends had warned.

Something felt off, and she decided that it had to be something in this room. She was missing a patch of dirt, one of the decorations was askew, something wasn't set up right. It was as she was rearranging a faux bouquet of metal flowers and trying to remember the feeling of Jake's warm hands, the sound of his laugh, that the door slid open with a hiss.

She was still trying to shake the feeling of something being off - almost as though she was forgetting about something important that would come back to bite her - as Major Kane and Guardsman Miller came into the room, bantering to themselves lightly as they did so. 

Abby was shaken from her trance but still stuck in place standing at the table, holding one singular metal flower, jumping once as if she was surprised to see the interruption. Things started to feel more normal when both men gave her a quick look of recognition - David's friendlier than Kane's - before the latter barked an order to the former and David got busy inspecting the room.

Kane was coming towards Abby now with a hint of confusion on his face. She had a wedding to be getting ready for and instead she was standing here basically slack-jawed, alone, and with dirt on her forehead. Currently, she was doing her best to suppress a wave of memories - both good and very bad - that washed over her as soon as that man came into view. Sometimes, she felt as though his existence was forced upon her.

And though she had never seen or felt real ice, Abby suddenly felt as though she was standing on the world's thinnest piece of it, and that one wrong move might send her falling into cold, biting waters below. Water that would sweep her away and freeze her to death before she could even get where it was taking her.

He gestured outwards with his hands slightly as if to ask a question, and with every slow-motion step that Kane seemed to be taking towards her, Abby could feel the pressure of his proximity growing like a thick tension in the air. It made her skin crawl, but not yet in an unappealing way. More like the space between them was live with electricity that one stray spark might ignite into an explosion.

For a reason that she did not let herself consider, the words "unfinished business" were currently bouncing around Abby's head.

Kane saw the strange pleading in her eyes and wondered what that was all about. She hadn't looked at him like that since...had she ever looked at him like that? Occasionally, yes. When she was having bad thoughts about wanting him to wreck all of her plans. It would send her entire life crumbling around her and ruin everything she thought she wanted, but at least she would know. At least there wouldn't be any questions left unanswered.

He finally got close enough for a conversation, his eyes scanning the room slightly as him and Miller conducted their inspections. He took those very seriously.

"Shouldn't you be somewhere else by now?" He said casually.

Abby looked confused. "I," she began, but all she could do was stutter, "um..." she trailed off, wondering why suddenly it felt like she had been caught in a lie of some kind.

Kane saw her faltering in real time and at first, it squeezed against the heart that he pretended not to have. Mainly because Abby was such a certain person - especially when it came to Jake - that he hadn't expected to see the nerves from her. He had to wonder if she was imagining some kind of alternate reality. He didn't let himself do so, of course. But maybe she did.

Abby cleared her throat. "I'm just finishing up," she said, coming back to herself. "What are you doing here?"

Gesturing towards David, Kane shrugged slightly. That's when she realized that they were both in uniform. Of course they were here for inspections, that was protocol. She only hoped that this was their last assignment for the day because they too had to go get ready for the wedding. David was a guest, of course, and Jake had asked Kane to stand up as his best man.

“Officer Harden has us doing last minute inspections,” he began, and felt the need to lighten the mood.

Believe it or not, there had been a time when Marcus Kane had a sense of humour. Dry and sarcastic, but still humour.

"You know," he shrugged, and Abby failed to see the smirk in his eyes as he stood before her, "just in case."

She looked up in surprise, falling for his teasing.

“Just in case?”

“You never know...” Kane continued to chaff at her - he couldn’t help it, “...someone might want to stop the wedding.”

He began to chuckle at her upon confirming that the dark smudge on her forehead was indeed not a shadow, but dirt or dust of some kind that she likely acquired while she was setting the place up. She was going to have to clean herself up before she said her vows.

Abby scoffed at his joke, glad that he could make her laugh in her moment of panic.

“Who would want to do that?” She mumbled facetiously, placing the flower back into the vase, finally in its perfect place.

Kane had been pacing around the table before them, but stopped before her to give Abby a teasing look upon hearing her words.

“I don’t know,” he mocked. “Jealous ex-lover?”

Abby let herself laugh, feeling better already. Perhaps all she needed was a friendly face, even if that face had been far from friendly lately.

“Yeah,” she scoffed, “right.” The only ex-lover she had was floating dead somewhere out in space.

Noticing him chuckling at her for no good reason, Abby gave Kane an impatient look. If he was about to make fun of her for something, she’d prefer that he got on with it as she was on a bit of a time crunch.

"You've got..." he began, and Abby's world instantly stopped turning.

Because he had this look on his face. A softness in his eyes as he gazed down at her, a certain kind of familiar amusement. And his voice was rich but low, for her ears only. Not to mention the fact that his hand was suddenly - and very tenderly - coming up towards her face. Abby had no idea what was happening or what was about to happen, she only knew that time stood still.

"...Dirt..." Kane said, suppressing a chuckle while he used his sleeve to wipe something off her forehead, "...on your face."

Maybe he shouldn't have done that. That's what Kane was telling himself when he watched Abby freeze in place and stare up at him with wide eyes, still giving that look of pleading. Begging for what, though? He didn't know.

Abby took in a deep breath and shook her head. "I was under the table," she explained, gesturing lamely with one hand that still held a dirty cloth.

She had been beneath the table a few minutes earlier after dropping a package of napkins.

"Of course you were," Kane muttered, taking in a breath and looking casually around the room. "Looks nice in here."

Despite his opinion not meaning much to her, Abby still felt a sense of pride and validation. She had been working hard in here to ensure that everything would be as perfect as she wanted it to be. If even Marcus Kane could see that, then she must have done a good job.

"Thanks," she muttered, wandering away from him as she noticed a spot on the table that needed wiping. "I guess I'd better get going," she began, but her sentence sounded unfinished.

Uncertain why, Abby suddenly looked up at him and stared, waiting for words that would never come. They were a table apart now, and Marcus only looked confused and rather amused at her spacy state.

"Right?" She asked, her voice threatening to crack.

One final plea. One last opportunity perhaps not to do something, but to at least say something that would shed some light on why things felt so unfinished between them. Abby didn't want to know, but she felt as though she couldn't possibly move on with her life unless she did. Still, she figured that Kane would remain obtuse and rather oblivious, acting like he didn't know what she was talking about.

Quite frankly, he couldn't bring himself to theorize on what she was doing. That's when things got dangerous. Instead, all he let himself believe was that a nervous, cold-footed, anxious bride stood in front of him, forgetting what needed to be done today. He saw the same look on the faces of new recruits who were going in for their written exams. 

He gave Abby a funny look, raising his eyebrows as if he was silently asking "what's wrong with you?" Abby saw a certain amount of amusement behind those dark eyes of his and it made her angry for reasons that she did not understand.

"Yeah," he nodded towards the door behind her.

Kane glanced to his left to see Miller logging something on his tablet device, and when he turned back to Abby, he was surprised to see her still standing behind that table, staring at him as though there was more to be said. Nerves, indeed.

"Y'okay?" He said, stifling his smirk but wearing it in his eyes.

She shook her head slightly, wondering why on earth he would even be asking that.

"Yeah," she responded quickly, completely forgetting where she was and what today meant. "Are you okay?"

Lowering his brows, Kane realized that she was worse than he feared. She wasn't even making sense anymore.

"Abby," he said firmly but the chuckle stayed in his voice whether he tried to fight it off or not.

The full tone of his voice snapped her out of it.

Now, Abby heard the teasing. She saw the light chuckle, noticed the amusement in his eyes. Kane could see her nerves, and he was laughing at her. He probably thought that she was bordering on hysterical and was just hoping that he could see himself out of this room before it came to that. Marcus Kane was the last person who should be talking down anybody having a panic attack.

Blinking in surprise of herself, Abby came back to reality all at once. She had less than an hour to go get ready for her own wedding. She wanted to quickly eat something, to bathe, to put some darker makeup on. She had to get the hell out of here.

Kane cracked a real grin when he watched Abby come back to this realm, and her face heated up slightly as she bunched up the cloth in her hands.

"Are you freaking out?" He teased from across the table, that half-smirk threatening to undo her.

She stifled a groan but knew that his teasing was well-deserved. Gritting her teeth, she threw the cloth at him which he caught with both ease and a chuckle while Abby wiped her hands together and bolted out of the room.

He laughed as she left, but the room felt emptier without her in it. Kane supposed that was the last time he'd ever see her before she became a married woman. He knew that he should have felt something - melancholia, longing, disappointment, maybe even happiness for his best friend Jake - but he felt nothing but numb. If he let himself, he would have felt it all, and that wouldn't do. That would only force him to drink his face off and try to forget the way that his life had been shaped into something he did not recognize. So instead, he fell into stride beside David and let him go over all that he had found during his inspections.

~~~

As soon as Abby stepped up to that makeshift altar in the Mess Hall and met the eyes of Jake Griffin, all her nerves vanished. Of course this was the right decision. There was no other choice but this. Anything else was ridiculous and a step in the wrong direction. This was her life, and she could not wait to begin this new chapter with somebody that she loved. The thought that she was ever nervous about this decision suddenly seemed laughable, as she uttered the worlds, "I do."

Nothing else mattered. She didn't care that Jake's parents thought they were rushing into things. She didn't care that there likely wasn't enough food to go around to her guests tonight. She wasn't worried about a hypothetical future where her and Jake fell out of love and headed for a disastrous divorce. She didn't care that her arch nemesis was in her sightline behind her new husband as she married his best friend. She didn't care that despite Aurora doing a beautiful job on her dress - and her sleeves - she didn't feel as beautiful as the princess from her picture book. Maybe it was the fact that she refused to wear any shoes besides her black boots. But in that moment, Abby only cared that she was doing the right thing. Following her heart and her head.

Vera Kane was officiating their ceremony upon Abby's request. Jake wasn't much for spirituality, but Abby wanted her there and adored hearing her speak. Lots of people opted to have her lead them through their wedding ceremonies, and she had been more than happy to agree. Behind Abby, her maid of honour Callie was stifling happy sobs, and even the best man seemed pleasantly quiet today. He may not believe in love, he may not agree with weddings and marriage, he may not want it for himself, but he could appreciate the fact that this union was a joyful one, and that Jake and Abby made sense.

While Vera stood at the front of the room leading the happy couple through their official union, she couldn't help but sneak a few glances at her son who was nearby to her left. She was proud of him. Not because he had come so far with the Guard, not because he was ruthlessly ambitious and political, but because he had a beautiful friendship. Jake Griffin liked him enough to ask him to stand up at his wedding. It warmed her heart to see that Marcus had not successfully alienated every human emotion in the book. She was proud of him for being a friend.

As per tradition, the rings were held on to the by the wedding party until it was time for the big exchange. When Abby turned around to grab Jake's ring from Callie, she gave a small chuckle at the tears streaming down her friend's face. Jake saw no tears from his best man, but Kane was glad to have that ring out of his pocket. It had been weighing him down. He found it rather strange that he should be carrying Abigial Everson's wedding ring on the day of her ceremony.

Griffin, he reminded himself. She's Abby Griffin, now.

Once the bride was kissed, the real party could begin.

The crowd had erupted in cheers as Jake nearly swept Abby off her feet to dip her down and kiss her, People were out of their seats in an instant, shoving chairs aside and making tables with seats around them. Clementine Jaha was giving Jake a congratulatory hug while Abby turned around to thank Vera for the lovely ceremony.

As Vera took Abby's face in her hands and admired her sweetly for a moment, the young woman experienced a pang through her chest. She so very badly wanted her mother here on this the day of her wedding. But since that was not a possibility, she was happy that Vera was here with her.

Within the hour, food was brought out. There was no arranged seating, everyone sat at whichever table they pleased. And the guests all knew not to take more than they needed to ensure that everyone got a taste of the wedding food. The busiest table consisted of the bride and groom, his parents, Vera and Marcus Kane, and Callie Cartwig. Abby only wished that the table was slightly bigger so that the Jaha's could fit themselves in somewhere. Then her family might feel complete even if she didn't share a drop of blood with anyone at that table.

What with the perpetual lack of food on the Ark, the meal was finished quickly. People were eager to get to the drinking part. Four musicians had been offered the job of playing the Griffin's wedding, and they dusted off their instruments and went to town up at the front of the room while people filtered happily out of their seats and onto the dance floor. The tradition of a first dance between the man and his wife was long dead. Abby was still making her rounds - speaking to her guests and thanking them for their presence - when the band started up and people began to hoot and holler on the dance floor.

After an hour or so, the entire room was abuzz with drink and adrenaline-fuelled excitement. Abby and Jake had taken to the dance floor for a couple songs here and there in between making their rounds and talking to friends and family. Marcus had been off on the sidelines lounging in his chair, smiling at his mother as she tore up the dance floor with her carefree spirit. The pair may have had their differences, but their love for each other was something that would always bind them.

When the next song began - slower this time - Marcus even forced himself out onto the floor and offered her a dance. Abby smiled in Jake's arm, peering at the mother and son duo from overtop his shoulder. 

When the party was at its peak, there wasn’t a smile that could not be found.

Abby had been twirling in circles, one hand in Aurora’s, the other in her son’s, as they danced around together in circles, the boy’s laugh ringing out through the room. Celine and David were flirting over glasses of moonshine over at their table, the Fujis were laughing together as they danced in perfect synchronicity, the Jahas held each other close, the scene was pure happiness – something that they all should’ve learned to hold on to while it still existed.

A new song began to play, and Abby felt her husband come up behind her briefly, giving her a kiss on the cheek as she laughed at his behaviour. She could barely hear him over the volume of the room, but she made out the word “tradition” as it fell from his lips, and waved away the rest of whatever he’d said, because he was now leaving her to make a beeline for their table, where Callie and Kane had been chatting with Marceline.

Abby laughed aloud as she watched her husband drag her best friend out reluctantly onto the dance floor for a relatively slow song with a very upbeat sound, and Abby realized that Jake must have been referencing the age-old tradition of dancing with the best man and the maid of honour. A specific kind of joy filled her heart as she watched Callie and Jake laughing together like family. It had always been very important to her that her friends got along with the person that she was with romantically, as Danny had once forced her all but cut ties with anyone else in her life. This change was something that Abby felt good about, and watching the two most important people in her world bond over a friendship of their own satisfied a certain emptiness within her.

She took in a deep breath and crouched herself downwards, kissing the little boy once on the cheek before bidding him farewell. The boy turned as red as a tomato before his face broke out into a grin as he grabbed his mother’s hand. Abby laughed to herself and made her way over to their table, where she knew she would face a challenge in the form of a dark figure, who had been sitting down for all but one song thus far.

Sensing what was coming next after watching Jake run off with Callie, Kane had been on the lookout, and spotted her determination from afar as Abby approached the table. Kane had watched what happened to Callie and knew what was coming. He was unsure whether or not Abby would push the tradition considering their recent relationship fallout, but he spotted her coming towards him with a mischievous look on her face.

Immediately, Kane began to shake his head, though a slight grin blossomed uncontrollably on his stern face. Noting his refusal already, Abby smiled and nodded her head - there wasn’t going to be any escaping this. When she reached the table, she held out her hands, reaching out for the man that maintained the ability to irritate her like no one else could. Today was a good day, though. Their differences could be put aside with this new union, if only for a night, and tradition had to be upheld.

Kane couldn’t help himself but chuckle as he held up his hands in defence, repeating the word “no,” over and over again, though he knew it was all in vain.

Abby merely shook her head and grabbed at the hands that he hadn’t quite offered up in anything other than defense, before pulling him up out of his seat. Kane was happy to see her happy, he was happy to see Jake happy, he was happy to see them all happy. For one night, even he was happy. Tomorrow morning, he could go back to feeling nothing at all.

Abby wasted no time, dragging him out onto the dance floor, but he didn’t end up putting up much of a fight as Kane closed his hand around hers. The music had become quick, but the pair had always been so evenly matched that falling into rhythm was nothing for them. Still, it took Kane a certain amount of internal reconciling to dance with her here on this perfect night, wearing a wedding dress. If he were to show himself this scene years ago - months, even - would he have assumed that it was his and Abby's wedding instead? Maybe if he'd wished on that damn star.

He’d held her around the waist whilst their other hands were held up by each other, leading them around the dance floor as Kane managed to take them in a wide circle. Abby was surprised when they ended up dancing right beside Jake and Callie when they’d started so far away, and gazed upwards in surprise. So, he was a relatively capable dancer. The wonders would never cease.

Jake and Callie both let out cries of excitement upon seeing Kane and Abby suddenly beside them. The fact that those two had managed to stay off of each other's last nerve long enough for a dance tonight was a miracle in itself, and something that was important to Jake in the same way that Abby could understand. Positive relations were something to be cherished on board that small little station.

The evening went on, lights dimming and flickering around them, music filling out the sharp space. And they all laughed. Oh, how they laughed.

The night came to a slow just before midnight. They had to clear out soon, and half of the crowd had already thinned out. Before they shut the place down, the band played a few more songs for the lingering couples, who wanted to spend more time in one another’s arms on the dance floor. Abby and Jake were at the centre of it all as a slow, beautifully romantic ballad filled all corners of the large room. They danced around a few other couples scattered here and there, but paid them no mind whatsoever.

From across the room, back at their original table, Marcus Kane sat alone, nursing his fourth glass of moonshine, his hand resting on his chin in content thought. The look on his face was unreadable as he stared at the happy couple from afar. He couldn’t help it - they were such a sight to behold. Two people so utterly in love. Kane always thought that love was something more or less made up by the hopeless romantics of the world, or maybe by the ancient authors who needed to make a living selling romance novels. Abby and Jake defied the odds. A love so strong, a bond that had tethered them to each other so strongly, a family in the making, it was all so foreign to Kane that it rendered him utterly agape.

Something else lingered within him that kept him staring, but he was far less than willing to dissect that particular feeling.

When he felt someone come behind him and begin toying with his hair lovingly, Kane wasn’t surprised to hear his mother’s soft, familiar voice pipe up.

“A lovely couple,” she spoke warmly, though there was something bittersweet about her tone. “Don’t you think?”

Kane didn’t answer, his calm silence did all the talking. More often than not, when him and Vera actually got to speaking, there was nothing to be done but argue. So, he kept himself quiet to show his agreement.

“She makes a beautiful bride,” Vera added.

Now, Kane couldn’t help but nod. Vera watched her son meticulously as she sat herself down in the seat beside him. He never took his eyes off the newlyweds. He didn't look particularly moved, but at least he did not look numb either.

“I have to say,” Vera said, and Kane tensed.

He could tell simply by the inquisitive tone of his mother’s voice that he was about to be prodded about something that he had no interest in talking about.

“I always kind of thought…” her voice drifted off, unsure how to state her case without Marcus throwing a fit, "...you know,” Vera insisted pointedly, when he finally met her eyes to try and decipher what on earth she was getting at.

Nodding towards Abby one last time in obvious gesture, Vera blinked in the direction of her son’s oblivious face.

“You and her?”

Kane was taken aback, but didn’t let himself visibly recoil. What a ridiculous assumption. He shook his head instantly, but kept his demeanor calm and casual. Not only were him and Abby public rivals who didn't happen to agree on anything. He was his best friend's girlfriend. Wife, now. Besides, she was a former criminal. He couldn't forget that fact. A relationship between him and somebody like her would never have been possible. He wouldn't even dream of it.

There wasn’t much to be said on that particular subject, or so Kane had convinced himself. Even if, as he stared back out at Jake and Abby, he could have sworn that she’d looked at him a few times.

“No,” Kane stated with a grimace, “of course not.”

Now, he lowered his voice and let out a facetious breath. The thought of him and Abby sharing anything in common let alone a romantic interest in one another was far-fetched at best. But his mother had always been a dreamer.

When the night came to a bittersweet close, Abby and Jake remained tucked up against one another as they bid farewell to their last remaining guests. It was time for tonight to end so that their lives could begin.

The band played them out as the wedding party was all that remained. Abby gave Vera a quick kiss on the cheek and thanked her again for officiating, Thelonious and Clementine lingered hand in hand. Callie pulled Abby into a warm hug while Jake and Kane did the same - but in a more masculine way.

Jake turned himself around to hug Callie, and Abby and Kane faltered for a second before they got caught up in the camaraderie the atmosphere and shared a quick, meaningless embrace. Aurora had lingered but Bellamy was yawning now, and she gave a quick wave to everyone before heading back to Factory Station to put him to bed. 

Abby and Jake Griffin went home. They had previously moved into larger quarters and Abby just knew in her heart that those would be the five little rooms in which she would grow old alongside her family. As soon as she came of age, she'd had medical set her up with a birth control implant to avoid any mistakes before she was ready, but perhaps in the morning she could talk to Jake about having it removed until they welcomed their first child.

She knew that he wanted a child, but wasn't sure how soon. Seeing Bellamy was all it took for Abby to know that she wanted a child of her own sooner rather than later. Abby wasn't aware of her mother's reproductive difficulties until she'd taken it upon herself to look up her old file and read some of her charts.

One Year and 6 Months Later

All Abby could think about was having a child.

Her and Jake had been trying for one since they were married last year. It seemed to happen so easily for some people. Like as soon as they decided they wanted to start a family, they did. Abby should have known better, considering her medical expertise. She had modified her diet, her daily routine, she was taking hormonal supplements, tracking her ovulation, doing everything she possibly could and still without fail, she came up barren month after month.

Nonetheless, time flew by, and she tried not to feel too beaten down by disappointment. Her career was skyrocketing, Jake was working towards one day becoming a respected senior officer, and she was still sitting on the junior council, still working on Project Exodus alongside Diana Sydney and Marcus Kane. Two of her least favourite people, but with a shared interest - at least on Diana's part - in the ground. Kane was only there to give insight on the charter.

Her smile had only faltered once, and she hated herself for it. They had no way of knowing about Abby and Jake's fertility struggles when Thelonious and Clementine announced to the entire group of friends one Friday night that they were expecting a child. Jake hadn't been present - he was putting in some late hours in the resource lab - but Abby took the news with a gasp and immediate tears.

Thankfully, it just appeared as though she was happy for her friends when she stifled sobs that came out like hiccups until she ultimately had to leave the room. She had tried to slip out under the radar but Callie and Kane both noticed her as she left and happened to think that she didn't look altogether thrilled for the happy couple. Those looked like painful tears, not joyful ones. They were too wrapped up with the baby news to think too hard about this.

She held no hard feelings and was of course very happy for her friends. Clemmie, Thelonious, and Kane all came over every Tuesday night for whiskey and football, though the first of that group had obviously stopped indulging in the contraband. Abby couldn't wait to meet their child, but also felt a certain element of horrible sadness and envy as she noticed Clemmie start to get bigger with pregnancy. Eventually, her morning sickness started presenting in the afternoon and she cut out of the football viewing parties, leaving Abby alone with the three men.

She rather enjoyed Monday afternoons. That was when she would leave Ark Station Medical and sit down at the council table alongside Diana Sydney, Marcus Kane, and Councillor Bruno Vaughn from hydro station - a resource officer. Between the two senior councillors and the two juniors, they were working on the Exodus Project. They each had a different task. Kane was working on the charter, Vaughn on farming and resource maintenance, Abby on medical practices, and Sydney overseeing it all, but they worked alongside each other and often bounced ideas.

Diana needed the distraction. There was a big election coming up at the end of the week. One that would either see her as Chancellor of the Ark or a graceful loser. She hoped against hope that it would be the former. She was running on a platform that supported the workers on board the Ark. Those in lower ranking stations who kept the ship turning without the recognition of those in Alpha. The people who really mattered. It was a noble platform, to be sure. But nobody who knew Diana saw it lasting. She was susceptible to corruption and power tactics.

Still, the Exodus Project was something that she was bringing with her to the table, so she needed to get working. 

This most recent Monday, they had been discussing capital punishment. Even Kane agreed that considering they were no longer dealing with the Ark, constantly worried about sparing resources - there was no reason to sentence anybody to death on the ground. He pushed that if someone had taken the life of another, that was a different story, but Abby held firm that they shouldn't get to decide who lives or dies, even if someone else took that choice away from another. They should not sink to the criminal's level. They could argue about that later.

"Prisons don't offer adequate deterrence, Abby," Kane was saying across the table.

They had all been discussing how to punish criminals and Abby had been the first to suggest a prison system, much like the Skybox.

Kane shook his head. "Prisoners get locked away and never thought of again."

Abby arched an eyebrow. "You don't think they're missed by their families?"

"The consequences aren’t felt far enough," he responded firmly, having made up his mind. "Punishment should send a message. It needs to be displayed."

"Displayed?" Abby grimaced, picturing torture chambers right in the centre of town. "All that does is strip somebody of their humanity, Kane.”

"And deters anyone watching from trying anything similar," he reminded her, arching a brow as Sydney and Vaughn both remained quiet, letting the young people hash it out. "Punishment needs to serve a greater purpose than locking away one person."

"Do you want people to be scared of the law on the ground?" She asked sharply, narrowing her eyes. "You know full well that breeds corruption."

He gave a shrug. "It works up here."

Abby shook her head. "We execute people up here," she said. "For crimes so small they may as well have been accidents."

Diana watched as Kane drew in a sharp breath and leaned over the table. She spoke before he could lash out.

"How do you suggest we display these punishments, Kane?" Diana asked.

Finally, Abby bit her tongue and let him talk.

Kane eased back into his seat. "Public floggings, for example," he suggested.

"Floggings?" Abby's eyes widened in shock. "You mean to tell me that you'd chain somebody to a post and whip them in front of their family?"

Suppressing a roll of his eyes - he would forever be irritated by her hysteria and drama - Kane's lips twitched as he spoke. "It gets the message across."

Abby shook her head again. "It leaves wounds that rarely heal properly," she insisted, calling on her medical expertise. "Not to mention lasting psychological damage."

Now, Kane really did roll his eyes. When was Abby going to stop sympathizing with criminals? It did not bode well.

"That's the point, Abby," he reminded her through gritted teeth. "It's punishment. It's not meant to be pleasant."

"It's torture," she corrected.

"What do you suggest then?" He demanded harshly. "We let people run around doing whatever they want without any repercussions?"

She opened her mouth to argue that obviously she hadn't meant such a thing, but once again, Diana Sydney beat her to the punch.

"Dr. Griffin," she interjected diplomatically, "can you recommend any methods that may not be as damaging as flogging?"

Abby crossed her arms. She did not want to contribute to this conversation. She did not want to give Kane any ideas as to how he can best torture human beings. But she knew that if she did not at least compromise, she would be kicked off this project, and she did not want that. She was far too passionate.

After a beat and a long sigh, Abby blinked. "An electric shock would be more humane," she finally said. "The pain is intense but over quickly, and so long as it isn’t applied in excess, it shouldn't wound or scar."

Kane watched her, surprised that she had offered any insight at all. She sounded despondent even to be suggesting it and he figured that she was likely sacrificing a few of her precious morals in order to do so.

"Major Kane?" Sydney nodded, obviously asking for his opinion.

He too sighed once. "Shocklashing could be appropriate," he confirmed. "But it still needs to prove a point," Kane added. "Public deterrence. It can be humane, but it should still put on a good enough show to deter people from going down the same path."

Diana nodded and scribbled something down onto her pad. "Public shocklashing, then, for major crimes," she said confidently. "The number of lashes dependent on the gravity of the offense."

Kane nodded his approval, but Abby did not more or say anything more. And when they adjourned for the day, she left the room and promptly found the closest lavatory where she lost her lunch, hoping that if they ever made it to the ground in her lifetime, she didn't piss off Marcus Kane.

That day, she had assumed that she'd been disgusted with herself for contributing to methods of torture. But when the nausea and vomiting persisted through the week, she realized that perhaps there was more to it than that.

Abby always hoped that she would have her first child at least before she turned twenty-five. It didn't need to happen immediately - that's what she told herself every time that she experienced a menstrual cycle, anyways - but so long as it happened before she was on the wrong side of her twenties, her life plan remained intact. Only slightly delayed. But despite her struggles both physical and emotional, it was that very week that Abby found out she was finally pregnant. At the perfect age of twenty-two. She found out on the very same day that Diana Sydney was named chancellor.

Actually, that happened to be the same day that Marcus Kane was also appointed Commander of the Guard. He was yet to turn twenty-five - the youngest commander in Ark history. People may have raised more of an eyebrow if his victory wasn't overshadowed by the new chancellor.

It was Callie Cartwig who started the rumour that Kane had been sleeping with Sydney in order to ensure him the promotion. Though she'd meant it as one big joke, she had been right on the money. Kane saw the way that Diana looked at him and tried to lure him into bed with promises of grandeur. Everyone knew that the commander would one day become Chief of Security. Kane too was well on his way to getting exactly what he wanted.

Abby didn't care too much about news of the new chancellor. As long as they weren't condemned to a dictatorship, she was satisfied. Today, she was too busy with other things. She ran the bloodwork herself in the lab after her shift, wanting to be completely positive before she told Jake. Her hands shook with excitement as she gripped that little piece of paper and ran down to the Alpha Station rec room where she knew her friends would be. She hadn't even thought to abandon her denim lab coat.

By the time she reached her destination, the paper was crumpled in her excitement, and her lab coat was flapping annoyingly at her legs, but she didn't care about either thing. The room was warm and alive with friendly chatter as the group of friends congratulated Kane on his big promotion. The man was at the centre of it all acting humble. Jake had his hand clasped on his best friend's shoulder, having just given him some words of proud encouragement.

Abby certainly had no intention of telling everybody all at once, nor of stealing Kane's thunder, but she did manage to pull her husband aside just long enough to share in the good news.

Folding the paper so that nobody else could see what it was, Abby wrapped an arm around Jake's waist and gazed up at him lovingly, about to ask him to step aside with her. Before she could share the good news of her own, Abby reached a friendly hand out and brushed Kane on the arm.

"Congratulations, Kane," she said genuinely, and Marcus was once again impressed by the endless reserve of grace within her.

He nodded and gave her a brief half-smirk before Abby turned back to Jake and tugged him aside.

"I need to tell you something," she was saying with a wide smile as Jake accompanied her back out the door and into the hallway.

A few of their friends took notice of Abby's beaming face and wondered why they were leaving the party so soon.

“What’s she so happy about?” Maryanne questioned from back inside, taking a swig of the drink in her mug.

“Are you kidding?” Callie snorted - she could read her best friend like a book. “Did you see that grin? She’s pregnant.”

A gasp fell across the room as conspiracies flew. Of course, they were all well aware that Callie was merely making an educated guess, but they also knew that she was very rarely wrong, especially when it came to Abby. The next time the door opened to welcome new guests, a few of them noticed Abby and Jake still out in the hallway. Now, he was picking her up into a big hug and turning her around as Abby laughed happily.

Whether it was true or not, nobody would find out that day, because Abby and Jake were then gone. Back down the hallway, likely to their own private quarters to celebrate together. A few whispers remained, but the rumour was largely forgotten about as the friends continued to celebrate Commander Kane.

~~~ 

Abby spent most of her pregnancy in bed.

She resisted this fate every step of the way. She had work to do, a council to sit on, patients to see, and a baby to prepare for. Nothing good could come from her bored out of her mind, confined to Med Bay. But Dr. Gartner made the official call. It was what was best for both mother and baby. And Abby wouldn't let anything bad happen to her baby.

She continued to work for a few months, but eventually gave in to her better judgement and listened to her doctor. At first, she reluctantly stayed in bed at her own quarters. That was better than Med Bay, at least. 

Never wanting to appear weak, she tried to work through it all. Even when she agreed to become bedridden, she kept up with her patients' files and asked for minutes from every council meeting. Unfortunately, there was nothing that could be done about her participation on Project Exodus. Marcus Kane had completely usurped her in her absence. Especially not that he was quite literally in bed with the chancellor. Abby hated him for it - but she hated him for a lot of things. Still, it stung that she so desperately believed in the survivability of the ground and Kane couldn't care less for it yet he as the one getting to work on the project.

The pain that she began to experience every day quickly overshadowed her irritation. Jake was beside himself with worry, but far too busy to take any kind of leave of absence from work and stay by her side. Abby insisted that he do no such thing anyways. There was nothing that his presence could do for her condition. Frankly, it was easier for her sanity if she didn't have to watch him worry about her and the baby.

Abby grew restless after the first month of being sentenced to bedrest at home. She stared trying to get up and walk around, to take herself down to the Mess Hall for meals, swinging by Medical for updates. Jake had to task his friends with keeping her occupied whenever they could just so that she didn't have a chance to get and overdo it. They had gotten used to sending her straight home if they ever saw her wandering around.

Kane was the best at this - he had no problem telling people what to do.

Callie was over more often than not, delivering insatiable amounts of gossip from all over the Ark. Vera made sure to come by as often as she possibly could so that her and Abby could indulge in deep, meaningful conversation. Thelonious still came over to hang out with Jake and would usually spend some time sitting with Abby and catch up. Even Kane popped his head into her room every Tuesday to say a quick and reluctant hello before tuning back into the football game.

At the beginning of her third trimester, Abby nearly went into a premature labour that would have more than likely killed both her and her unborn baby. That's when Dr. Gardner insisted that she be sentenced to finish her pregnancy in Med Bay. Jake was sad to see her go, but also relieved that he no longer had to worry. The doors in Medical had alarms. She no longer had the opportunity to go wandering around and put them at risk.

It was a nightmare for Medical. Every time a doctor or apprentice came by to check on her, Abby hounded them relentlessly for information on her patients and updates in the station. She even tried convincing them to let her help when things got busy. Her closest colleagues learned how to ignore her persistence.

Right around that same time, she had heard through the grapevine that Clementine had given birth to a beautiful little boy. Ever since the day of his birth, she noticed that visits from her friends had become far and few between. She didn't hold that against them - she too would want to spend as much time as she possibly could with a newborn baby. Jake had told her that Clemmie named the baby Wells, but there was something strangely melancholic in his voice as he spoke. Something that prevented Abby from asking too many questions.

It worried her, though. Maybe Jake was having second thoughts about this. Maybe he was getting scared that this pregnancy wasn't the right thing to do. Abby didn't feel any different, but he suddenly did. She could tell, even if she never explicitly asked him.

After a couple of weeks, she stared to feel like there was something they were not telling her. Abby asked Jake where everybody was and he shrugged, explaining that they were all probably busy. She asked why either of the Jaha's hadn't been by with the new baby and he told her that they were probably tired and still settling in at home.

She finally pried it out of him one night after he'd worked a long, strenuous shift. Clementine had died during childbirth. Right there in Medical. Probably only a few rooms away from her. She had died doing what Abby was about to have to do in a matter of weeks.

Abby had sobbed for two days straight. First, she mourned the loss of her beautiful friend. Then, she mourned the loss of Thelonious' wife. She knew how much he loved her and her wonderful their marriage had been. Finally, she mourned the loss of little baby Well's mother. The one that he would never get to know. She wasn't quite done mourning when the fear struck her. 

She did not want to suffer the same fate as Clementine. Funnily enough, even throughout her tumultuous pregnancy and even after she'd learned that her mother had suffered similarly, Abby hadn't been too worried about giving birth. She delivered babies all the time and it almost always went perfectly. Suddenly, she was realizing that if her strong, healthy friend Clementine could fall victim to a fatal childbirth, so could she. Even easier, actually.

The doctors began to consider sedating her as Abby worked herself into a grief and fear-stricken panic day in and day out.

Two weeks before her due date, that fear and panic turned into a sheer terror that not even Jake could calm. It was taking a toll on the man himself, who was trying to be so strong for his wife.

That Tuesday, he had been so wrought with exhaustion and fear of his own that he could hardly concentrate during the football game with Kane. He tried to explain that Abby was breaking down and scared out of her mind, and that he was just as fearful but trying not to show it, but Kane never gave him much sympathetic conversation. Not that he didn't care, but he knew there was nothing that could be done about it. If Abby was panicking, he was the last person who would know how to help her. He reassured Jake that she was strong and that everything would be okay, but it was hollow and semi-meaningless. 

And the very next afternoon - a week and a half too early - Abby went into labour. The doctors warned Jake that based on the circumstances, she may never come out of it.

He wasn't allowed in the operating room as an emergency c-section surgery was performed, but instead he paced outside with his head in his hands, wishing he could control this outcome. He was terrified that a doctor was going to come out and tell him that only one could make it, and he was going to have to decide which one. What would he do? He loved Abby more than he loved himself. He needed her. But he loved and needed this child more. Being a father was going to be the most important thing that he would ever be.

Kane came by to sit with him during this time and witnessed his thoughts aloud. Jaha wanted to come help, but it was too hard. Kane sat rigidly as Jake tried to reconcile the fact that he was willing to sacrifice his wife for the life of this child, even though nobody had asked him to.

Kane thought it was rather noble, the way that Jake had made the decision just in case. He wasn't sure who he would pick in similar circumstances. But based on how he had seen Jake and Abby throughout their relationship, he was rather surprised that Jake wouldn't do anything to keep her alive.

The surgery took close to five hours and by the time it was all over, Kane was long gone - he had to clock into work. A beautiful baby girl was born, and Abby woke up feeling more exhausted than she ever had before. Until she set eyes on her daughter. From that point forward, no other feeling mattered. She cried as Jake kissed her forehead and stepped forward, holding the little baby in his strong arms. When Abby held her child, she could not remember a time when things had before felt so perfect.

 While she was out, Jake had named her Clarke. He insisted that she could change it if she didn't like it, but Abby shook her head. It was perfect. The perfect name for the perfect baby. 

Abby thought about everything she'd ever wanted - peace, political power, knowledge, romance - and how all of it paled in comparison to this. She could have nothing else in the world but as long as she had this child to love, she would have everything that she'd ever need.

As Clarke got older and Abby's friends witnessed the way that she cared for her daughter, they would all come to realize that they had never seen anybody love anything the way that she loved Clarke.

They gave the family one night to be together and rest before the visits came. Callie was by first, and she spent hours with Abby and meeting Clarke. When it was time for her to head off to work, Jake had to drag her out of the room. Vera showed up with a blessing for Abby and a few words for the child, which the parents appreciated even if they didn't necessarily buy into the religion. Jaha - understandably - kept his distance.

Kane and Miller came by together after a shift, but they didn't care much for the baby. They spent their entire visit catching up with Jake, talking about politics and what was new on the Ark. Abby didn't mind, she was thankful that Jake wasn't losing touch with his friends as she rested behind them.

Jake bounced Clarke in his arms lightly, holding her up once to give his friends a good look. The two men smiled down at the cooing child, noting the healthiness of her skin and eyes, taking that to be a good sign. Mother and child were both in good condition, that was all they really needed to know about this baby.

David had scoffed once, taking note of the baby’s fair skin, big blue eyes, and light blonde hair already forming at the top of her head.

“Sure looks like her dad, hey?” Miller joked, noting that practically every single one of the child’s physical features belonged to her father.

Abby perked up from her bed behind them, lowering her eyebrows. She hadn’t noticed before.

“You’re right,” Kane leaned downwards towards the child and took a good look at her, chuckling as he did so. “I mean,” he breathed before straightening his back and raising his voice so that Abby could hear him without having to turn around and look at her, “jeez, Ab, is the kid even yours?”

“Kane–” Abby began with a sharp intake of breath, ready to chastise the man for how he was clearly going out of his way to offend her.

“He’s right, babe,” Jake chuckled, bringing the baby towards Abby, where he was to hand her off. “She doesn’t look much like you.” He wasn't being mean, but it was true. "Isn't that a bitch?" He continued to tease, forgetting that he was going to have to modify his foul language with this child around. "You do all the hard work, and I get the credit."

Abby felt something stir within her as Jake and the men joked, but she waved them away good-naturedly, hoping that they would drop the subject. She was likely being overly emotional, but hearing that the baby that she’d just spent the better part of a year carrying around inside of her looked nothing like her rather hurt her feelings. Shoving those emotions aside, Abby took Clarke in her arms when Jake offered her and stared down into those bright blue eyes.

She didn’t care what colour they were, she only cared that they were looking at her.

Chapter Text

It was a flammable bridge that traversed the spaces between the young people on board the Ark. And there was a wildfire burning beneath that bridge. It could only withstand the heat and the flames for so long. 

It felt like the world had settled into place. Everyone was married, having kids, growing comfortable in their careers. Marcus Kane was the only one who didn't seem to have any interest in marriage and babies. Instead, he allowed himself to want for nothing but hedonistic pursuits and things that would encourage the betterment of his career. Perhaps things had been so peaceful for so long that nobody really realized how much had changed between them. Nobody could sense the growing tension that would soon lead to an inevitable snap.

There was too much work to be done.

The year was 2134, and sparks of ambition lit up the halls of the space station. Maryanne was still a legal advisor to the junior council and had been offered the same position but for the senior council, which she declined because she preferred to hear the opinions of young people. Her husband Ross Fuhi had also recently been elected to sit on the senior council.

Callie had been working for the public relations sector for some time now, Kane was now the Chief of Security but maintained his position on the junior council as well as being a close advisor to Chancellor Sydney.

Abby was being trained to take over for Dr. Gardner as Chief Medical Officer and she was also spending plenty of time working with the engineers in Earth Monitoring Station as her passion for earth and one day returning to it remained.

David and Celine had gotten married and had a baby boy - not in that order - Kane had appointed Shumway his own command, Jaha sat on the Senior Council,  and Jake was still balancing his work as both an environmental engineer on the verge of greatness, and a resource officer monitoring the Ark’s needs.

In between all this, four toddlers ran around Alpha Station, as their parents did their best to give attention to raising the rambunctious children despite their ruthless work schedules. While Maryanne had taken a step back from her workload to stay at home more often with her daughter, the Griffins, Millers, and Thelonious were forced to utilize the Alpha Station Childcare Centre. Abby had struggled with this decision, remembering how unsafe the Family Centre had been when she was forced to live there, but she knew the officers who ran Alpha's Childcare Centre and trusted them.

Clarke was a child who did her best to make friends with everybody. But there was no one closer to her than Wells Jaha. Those two - what with their parents' close friendship - were always destined to be best friends.

It had taken time, but Thelonious had learned to successfully grieve for his late wife and still go on with his life. He took a brief leave of absence from the council, but returned shortly after. HE saw the future in his son's eyes and knew that he needed to contribute to making this world a safe one. For Wells. For Clementine's only child.

And as the young people of Alpha Station got older, their differences were illuminated. There had been a time when they all wanted the same thing. Success, moonshine, fun, romance. These days, more nuances were found. Abby wanted a liberal future, Kane wanted a restrictive one, and Jake wanted a happy medium. Jaha wanted to do what was best for everyone but willingly turned a blind eye to corruption. Ross was more liberal leaning while his wife Maryanne had been drawn in by Kane's fear mongering. The Millers just wanted to make ends meet after Celine lost her job in Mecha Station. 

The Alpha Rec Room had been abandoned by the familiar faces and now welcomed new ones. Younger ones. The kids we once knew were parents now with careers to think about. No time for messing around with games or wasting away their free hours. Moonshine no longer tasted anywhere near as good as some properly aged whiskey or scotch or even the ale that was brewed in Farm Station.

Jaha was the one who tried to hold everyone together. What started as routine dinner parties in his quarters once every three weeks between the close friends soon became relatively lavish affairs that everyone wanted an invite to. Jaha knew the Station heads, councillors, even the chancellor. Anyone who had a knack for politics wanted to get in on the action.

Dinner was usually meagre. There are rules about provisions, after all. But it was never about the food. They went to Jaha's for the atmosphere. Arguing over the dinner table, lounging around in the living area furthering the conversation and drinking away the sharp edges of disagreements, parting ways wishing that the night never had to end.

Beyond those dinner parties, he would invite Jake and Kane over for drinks on Friday nights, he would take Wells down to his old stomping grounds for a meal in the Engineering Rec Room at least twice a week, him and Abby often went for walks around the Go-Sci Station talking philosophy. Sundays were his favourite day - he and Wells would spend the afternoons in the Griffon's quarters watching old, recorded English football games.

When Thelonious Jaha had been in primary academics, he had read a book called The Great Gatsby. Then, he read it again. And again. Even now, he read that book once a year and never tired of it. Now, the great parties of the Roaring Twenties were not something that could ever be replicated on the Ark, but Jaha always ended up feeling a little bit like Jay Gatsby when he threw those dinner parties.

He would sit at the head of the table stoically, offering a topic and leaving his guests to launch into a heated conversation much like a fisherman dumping a bucket of fish into a pool of hungry sharks. Then he would sit back, clasp his hands together, and watch. Most people argued - it was easier to become impassioned in the fact of contradiction than agreement - but some nodded in solidarity. Some dug their heels into their own opinions, some appeared moved by a novel way of thinking. When conversation grew stale or found a lull, Jaha would interject with another point and the whole thing would start up again.

Jake usually was one of the few people to stay out of the political debates. Some people accused him of playing both sides because he never took a firm stance, but he always thought that life was far too complicated to be able to find one singular stance and stick to it, thinking that there was no room for argument. Politics didn't bother him too much, but he enjoyed watching his wife and best friend get riled up.

Speaking of Kane, he was different these days. Being the commander was one thing, being Chief of the Guard was a whole other story. He stood a bit taller, walked around with a certain element of arrogance. How could he not? He had almost all the power that he hoped for. Not to mention, he was esteemed as the youngest Station chief in history. Those on the Guard reveled him, those on the Ark feared him, and the woman? They adored him.

Abby truly no longer recognized him now, though she could still sometimes catch glimpses of the young man that he used to be. She shrugged it off and chalked it all up to being a sign of the times. This was the life that he had always been destined for, and she would never have been able to stop it. Not even if she tried.

He would show up to Jaha's events first. Kane never wanted to miss out on an opportunity for success, so he didn't want to miss a single conversation. He had it on good authority that Thelonious Jaha would one day be Chancellor, and he intended on keeping that man as close to him as he could. Thelonious' mother Georgina was usually the only other person present at that time, and while she did not care for politics - especially not those of arrogant young men - she did love her grandson. She would show up just to care for Wells and Clarke and whichever other family decided to bring a little one with them.

The Griffins were famously the last to arrive. Their busy lives typically kept them from remaining on perfect schedule no matter how hard they tried. They were chaotic people. But when the three of them finally came bustling through the door – usually out of breath and apologetic – Kane would roll his eyes and finish his drink, while the others would welcome them with warm smiles and beckoning laughter. He still couldn't see how somebody like Abby Griffin - he made an exception for Jake, being his best friend - could deserve to climb so high while being so disorganized and unprincipled.

It was like walking the razor's edge, Kane had come to learn. Being close friends with a man whose wife he could not stand.

Of all the former friends, it was those two who were proving to become more and more different with every passing day. Not particularly different from who they had always been, but different from each other. Gone were the days when they could have a proactive conversation about something even If they disagreed. Now, Kane ventured down a dark path of ruthlessness and remorselessness. He lived his life in search of enemies and if he could not find any, he created them. Abby, on the other hand, turned towards the light, but in a rather extreme sense. Wherever she went, she only saw hope and optimism and blind faith. Still, her determined spirit ran deep. She was unwavering and above anything else, she wanted to get her way.

They both constantly thought they were right about everything to the point where no other opinion mattered a wit. Toxic on both ends, but their friends quickly started to pick and choose whose opinions were more tolerable than the others. It was usually a pretty even divide.

Kane saw her as a spark that had not yet caught, but when it did, she would cause an explosion that would destroy life aboard the Ark. If she ever gained enough power to have people - the real voting people of the Ark - blinded by her optimism and determined beliefs, she would lead them all to ruin. Marcus Kane looked at Abby and saw danger. He saw a false light that needed to be snuffed out before people could be drawn to it like moths to a flame. A flame that would burn them alive.

The two of them were the sharks that Jaha most enjoyed feeding. While others could conduct themselves respectfully during conversation and some chose not to speak at all, preferring a calm meal over a political war, Kane and Abby just couldn't help it. They would sink their teeth into each other and refuse to let go until they drew blood.

Abby saw Kane as dangerous too. Obviously. He was dead set on executing as many people as he possibly could in his lifetime, or so it seemed. He claimed that it was in the name of preserving resources for the deserving people of the Ark, but she happened to think that there was something more evil about it. She used to pretend that she didn’t see that in him, but couldn’t look away anymore.

She did not like the way that he saw the world in black and white instead of just and unjust. She didn't like his way of approaching things, his heavy-handedness, his ability to strike fear into the hearts of innocent people. And someone like her? She wouldn't want to let him get away with his Reign of Terror. Yet, it had gone on for this long.

More than that, she was disappointed in him. She had always seen sparks of this ruthless man, even in his younger days, but she had also seen his capacity for true goodness and generosity. To make decisions that sometimes even spoke to his heart. Now, all that was gone and in its place the shadow of a once good man. This shadow had no emotions, only a carnal need to survive.

Sometimes, she thought of the months that they had spent together as close friends, silently leaning towards something more. She thought of the shooting star and the wish that had never came true. It used to pain her. Now, she was grateful that nothing had ever come of it. Even being around Marcus Kane, let alone loving him, was something of a death wish.

But at these dinner parties, sometimes Abby swore that he played the contrarian on purpose, even when he didn't mean it, just to piss her off. Once, she'd even tried to call him on just the thing. He had smiled at her sweetly - mockingly - from across the table and just said, "I don't know what you mean, Abby."

Abby always left dinner feeling agitated, Kane feeling proud, and Jake drunk. He enjoyed the show with enough booze to keep him listening. Those dinner parties were his favourite day of the month.

One night, in the late Autumn season - still acknowledged despite the fact that the Ark was on a controlled climate - Jaha had introduced Ella Gerolstein to the party. She was a tall, slender, redheaded woman with eyes so pale that they looked more grey than they did blue. Abby remembered a boy with similar eyes but thankfully, Ella shared no relation nor further similarities.

Thelonious had made her acquaintance earlier that month, as she stepped into the position of junior public relations officer, after Callie had been promoted. Now, Callie couldn’t make it that evening, and without another friendly face to fall back on, Ella found comfort in the warmth that Dr. Abigail Griffin had welcomed her with. Abby had always been good at that – making people feel at home and protected even if they were utterly out of place. Her daughter would grow up to possess the same talents.

After dinner, while the crowd took to the restrictive living area to continue their personal conversations, Ella had found a seat on a couch next to Abby, without a second thought. The older of the two women didn’t mind, she knew that Jake was off making sure that Georgina was keeping well with the children, and everyone else seemed to have a conversational partner but her.

Ella seemed a bit more immature than the officers that Abby was used to, but that likely came with the fact that she was a few years younger than everyone else, just starting out in a new position, and suddenly finding herself in a room full of the next generation’s up and coming political figures. It wasn’t hard to tell that the young woman was more than star-struck, especially by the tall, dark, brooding figure standing off to the side of the room nursing a whiskey who vaguely looked like the Chief of Security aboard the Ark. Only a bit more laid back and devilishly handsome.

Kane rarely let himself lighten up these days. If he'd at least gotten a few drinks in him, he would be almost tolerable to be around. Still, Abby tended to avoid him like the plague. There was just something about him that made her skin crawl. Fear, perhaps. Disgust at his actions. Horror upon thinking that there had been a time she thought he was the greatest thing since sliced bread. A time when she had wished on a star that he might feel the same way about her. Seh had to remind herself that she was younger then and more naive, but still couldn't forgive herself.

It irritated her that this pretty young woman insisted on talking her ear off about someone that she despised, but Abby had yet to interject. Instead, she silently sipped on her own alcoholic beverage and followed Ella's eyes, carefully watching Marcus Kane, making conversation with her husband who had just returned on scene.

"I don't know how you do it, Dr. Griffin," Ella was saying, leaning back into the couch beside Abby, who arched a brow. "Sitting on that council," Ella explained. "I'd get lost in his eyes."

Now, Abby rolled her own eyes. "You can call me Abby," she said rather flatly, though her bad attitude was not directed at Ella. "And I don't have a clue what you're talking about."

"Marcus Kane?" Ella sat up, missing Abby's sarcasm. "Chief of the Guard?" She continued. "Abby, I know you don't like him, but you have to admit he's dreamy."

Abby was secretly amused by this conversation. There was a time when she had been Ella Gerolstein. Just much less vocal about it. Silent, actually.

She made a noise that was a perfect hybrid between a laugh and a snort. "I don't think dreamy is the word I'd use," she deadpanned.

"Are you kidding?" Ella didn't take her eyes off him once - worried that if she did, she'd miss an opportunity for some fleeting eye contact. "The uniform, the hair, he's tall..." Ella listed the ways in which Marcus Kane was a new-age Adonis, "...he's all us girls in Go-Sci can talk about."

Abby took in a breath. She remembered being a few years younger and gossiping with her girlfriends as they all decided which man was the epitome of all things sex appeal. Funnily enough back then, they'd also settled on Marcus Kane.

"He's the topic of discussion these days, is he?" Abby said while sucking in a sarcastic breath.

She wished that people wouldn't celebrate him so. Didn't they know how many atrocities he was responsible for? How could all that cancel out just because he was tall and good-looking? One day, Kane might have to answer for his crimes, and his looks would have nothing to say in his defense when that time came.

As much as she accused him of being a contrarian, perhaps she was guilty of it herself. Because as soon as everyone else claimed to want something, she turned up her nose.

She wondered how long it would take all those Go-Sci girls to realize that they'd found only pyrite when out searching for Gold. She sighed to herself that upon realizing even if it was not valuable, fools gold was still beautiful.

And Abby didn’t like the idea that he was valuable – more valuable than anyone else who looked at him. That was no way for a romance to being. The nervous looks, electric touches, racing heart. She was happier with what her and Jake had – something stable that didn’t scare either of them.

For some reason, a moment in Med Bay was playing back in her mind. A moment with a needle, a stool, and a charged moment that left her and a ghost from her past staring down at one another’s lips, unable to breath.

It had been thrilling in the moment and awakened something within her that she didn’t know existed, but it had also been terrifying. It came with such a great risk. Jake did not make her feel that way. He only made her feel safe and certain.

Ella scoffed and tossed a lock of hair over her shoulder. "Don't tell me you never thought about it," she accused Abby teasingly, giving her a sly smile.

Abby swallowed dryly as if Ella could read her mind and see her thoughts. Abby had thought about it. And she was remembering a clear moment of thinking about it as they spoke. There were a hundred memories that she could call upon. Good days and bad days, little moments and bigger ones. Shooting stars, lingering eye contact, the brush of a hand. 

But Abby had never been a liar. She couldn't. She was bad at it. And it was then and there that she realized she simply could not answer Ella's accusation without lying.

"Regardless," she held up a hand instead, evoking a fit of stifled giggles from Ella, who saw right through her protective language, "he's no prince charming," she said firmly, speaking from more experience than anyone could have known. "And those of you that fawn over him won't do his already inflated ego any favours."

The clock on the wall beeped once, alerting the crowd that it was nine o'clock. Time for most parents to consider getting their kids to bed, and three hours before curfew.

Abby glanced at her husband, hoping that Jake would have heard the clock and gathered Clarke, but he was too busy speaking with Kane. Abby wanted to grimace. Everyone was enthralled with that man these days. Clarke was but four - still a toddler. She probably should have been in bed an hour ago. Despite the fact that the girl was probably having tons of fun with Wells and Georgina - who she had started calling Nana too, mimicking Wells' language - she would be a wreck in the morning if she didn't get to sleep soon.

Bidding Ella goodnight, Abby pushed herself up off the couch and slowly made her way towards Jake and Kane as a classic old ballad played from somewhere in the room, almost swallowed up by the din of chatter and laughter.

When she reached her husband, she placed a tender hand on his arm.

“Hey, honey,” Jake smiled down at her absently.

That glassy look in his eyes made him seem calm. Abby had no problem with him drinking at these events. Often, they drank the same amount, but Abby’s past had left her with a much higher tolerance than him.

She smiled but could feel Kane staring daggers at her, as though her mere presence had offended him. Luckily, she wasn’t there for him.

“Your daughter should be in bed,” Abby said pointedly in a warm voice reserved for her husband.

Jake winced once and looked back and forth between her and Kane. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to ese that he was disappointed to be leaving the party early for the sake of putting Clarke to bed, and Abby sighed silently once when she realized that.

Considering she wasn’t overly eager to stick around, she might as well leave him to enjoy himself while she took their daughter home. She preferred when they all did things together, but wasn’t about to put up a fight over something so trivial. Besides, her and Jake did not fight, they certainly wouldn’t start now.

“Why don’t you go and get her home,” Jake softened his voice, attempting to prevent himself from coming off as demanding.

Abby had been about to offer anyways.

“I’ll be there shortly.”

Kane stared at the couple momentarily before looking away, feeling as though he was eavesdropping even while they were all standing within a few feet from each other and were going to no effort to keep their conversation private.

He thought that an interaction like this would send a typical couple spiraling into an argument. Abby had never seemed like the type of woman who would leave an evening early without her husband to run home with her child and play the doting housewife, but perhaps she was just destined to surprise him.

He knew that there wasn’t anything she wouldn’t do for the goodness of her daughter. He knew that she was the most important thing in Abby’s life – even over Jake. He supposed that in the end, he wasn’t surprised when Abby kept whatever rebuttal she’d had to herself and simply nodded up at the man that she loved.

“Okay,” Abby’s voice was low as she continued to smile softly. “I’ll see you soon,” she finished, raising up on her toes to kiss Jake on the cheek.

After bidding farewell to her husband, Abby knew that she had to be polite to his best friend, as she turned to Marcus once and their cold, dark eyes met one another. Absolutely nothing passed between those two pairs of eyes – no emotion whatsoever.

“Kane,” she acknowledged, her voice level and empty.

“Abby,” Kane nodded, his lips pulled together in a thin line.

After watching his wife walk away, Jake turned back to Kane, snickering as he shook his head. As much as it could sometimes irritate him, he would always get a kick out of the volatile relationship that Abby and Kane had always shared. He found it funny that the two people who knew him best could not stand one another.

Even funnier than that, he could remember a day when the two of them were better friends than he ever hoped to be. She’d known him first and had been the one to introduce them in the first place. In fact, he used to think that the two of them were a secret romantic item, and it had prevented him from making a quicker move on Abby.

“You two are funny,” he said absentmindedly, and Kane glanced over at him with an arched eyebrow. “Hard to believe you were ever friends.”

Kane shook his head and took a swig of his drink. “Were we ever friends?” He said sarcastically.

“Sure seemed like it to me,” Jake shrugged. “Actually, I can remember a time when she thought you walked on water.”

Now, Kane sent him a look of disbelief.

But it was true. Though she bickered and bantered her way through their entire friendship, Abby had truly admired Kane. She saw a hero in him. The way that he had made a respectable rival, his intelligence, his self-awareness. And, of course, what he had done for her.

“What?” Kane even uttered, sure that he must have heard Jake incorrectly.

“She tells me you saved her life,” Jake lowered his voice now, but it still didn’t sound all that serious one way or another.

Kane couldn’t say anything. Instead, he stared at Jake and wondered if he was making some kind of a joke.

“Abby doesn’t talk about her past,” Jake revealed, shrugging the side of his mouth. “But she did tell me that.”

Kane blinked and looked away. That should mean something to him, right? Sometimes he wished he didn’t turn off all his emotions, because he might know how to feel about that piece of information if he hadn’t. Now, it felt like something, he just didn’t know what.

“It was a long time ago,” Kane finally grumbled, his voice low and serious.

Jake didn’t know what he was witnessing from his friend, but Kane was doing an impressive job of attempting to look like that information wouldn’t haunt him.

“Besides,” Jake spoke louder now, hoping to chase away some of the discomfort that Marcus was clearly now feeling. “Look around you, Kane,” he gestured over to where Ella still sat on the couch, pretending like she wasn’t staring. “The majority of women look at you like you hung the stars. Even my wife admired your ambition back in the day. She’s just always been too stubborn to admit that.”

As Jake tried to make excuses for Abby’s behaviour towards Kane, the man in question fixed his eyes on Ella. She was young, beautiful, and clearly attracted to him. Perhaps tonight he would spend some time chatting her up. With any luck, she’d take him back to his quarters and they could pass a pleasant evening together before he inevitably snuck out in the early morning.

Jake sighed once, halfway wishing that Abby and Kane had a better relationship – it would make the days that he came over to the Griffin’s quarters more pleasant – but figured that whatever happened between them was unfixable.

Kane took another swig of his whiskey and raised his eyebrows facetiously, scoffing once to himself as he reflected.

“She sure had a funny way of showing admiration,” he began, “if that’s the case.”

“Yeah,” Jake agreed with a calm nod, “that’s Abby.”

“Hell of a pride on her,” Kane said, his eyes still on the redhead across the room.

He tried to only think of Ella and the potential for physical romance tonight, but Kane couldn’t shake what he’d learned. Abby and Jake didn’t speak of the past. Kane always assumed that Abby put on that façade around her friends because it was easier than rehashing the past. He would have assumed that at home with the man she loved, she might be more open.

Not only was that untrue, but he had learned that the only piece of information she was willing to share and discuss was that he had saved her life. Frankly, he thought that by now – and after all the bad blood – she had forgotten that little tidbit. Guess not.

One last swallow of whiskey finally chased such thoughts away. He had no use for them.

“Be that as it may,” Kane now said in a normal, sarcastic tone, placing one hand on Jake’s shoulder. “I like my women a little bit easier.”

Jake chortled once as Marcus passed by him and made his way over to Ella on the couch, where he offered her a charming smile and began working his magic.

~~~

By the end of the year, Marcus Kane had turned himself into something that no one quite recognized.

They’d all seen it coming, but had hoped against it. It was Diana Sydney and her pillow talk that prompted Kane to realize that he now had the power of practically dictating who lived and died, and for what reasons. He knew very well that population control was something that he could not let get out of hand, especially on an Ark so small with such limited resources. That was a weight that he bore on his broad shoulders, and worked to maintain it before anything could become dire.

That was how he slept at night. By telling himself that he was doing the best thing for the sake of the greater good. Killing a few to spare the many. It didn’t take long to convince himself that his mantra was completely true. Marcus Kane then became sure that whatever he thought was right was right. That nothing could trump his own opinions.

And what did that mean? It meant that lives on board the Ark became expendable. Why keep a criminal on board, using up perfectly good resources that could be going to someone who remained on the right side of the law? Now that was justice, in his mind.

His Reign of Terror had been progressing over the years, and eventually Kane made a name for himself by breaking a Chief Security Officer for most executions during his command.

Some officers still turned a blind eye, but he couldn’t. And if he ever caught any of his guardsmen doing so, they were stripped of their rank and fired. Marcus Kane no longer made any exceptions. That was when people realized that the previous years had been nothing. This was terror. That had been manageable.

Kane was not swayed by emotion or empathy. He thought only in black and white terms. It was not difficult for him to condemn so many to death, because he thought that it was the right thing to do. Not to mention the power that it gave him. Besides, it wasn’t him killing people. It was the law.

But a man like that – robotic and calculating – couldn’t possibly have friends. Not anymore. There was no room for connection of any kind in his life or with his schedule. Certainly not in his heart, which had by now dried up into something hard and black.

In his opinion, anyone with half a mind would feel the same way about relationships. There was no point to any of it. Love was weakness, and it led people to making bad, desperate decisions. It made people crazy like nothing else could. And in a world where life was about surviving – nothing more and nothing less – they couldn’t afford that kind of weakness. He had seen it destroy too many people.

Dinner parties with Jaha were something that he could still grin and bear, especially when Thelonious was very likely to become the Ark’s next Chancellor when that election finally came around. But watching films with Jake, messing around with Miller, chatting with Callie, arguing with Abby just for the hell of it, that all became useless to him. Everything he did was either for the benefit of the justice system, or the sake of his own political standing.

In fact, the only time that he and Jake – or any of his other friends, for that matter – saw one another these days, was if Thelonious was involved. Typically, they could still get together in the evenings for hard liquor and politics, but it was now driven by Kane’s innate need to remain on the good side of the people that would one day make the calls. He did what he needed to do in order to maintain his own power, and nothing more.

It was natural for friends to grow apart as they got older and had kids. Their priorities were naturally shifting from hedonistic pursuits to more responsible ones. But what was happening to Kane was different. He was alienating himself by refusing to have warmth for anyone, including himself. Including his friends. Including his own mother.

Of course, it was a shame to watch him walk down that dark path, but he did it to himself. They all tried to remind him of what was really important in life and he argued with them. He chose that path. He wanted it. But it sure was arrogant.

It was arrogant because the night before he stood up tall in his uniform and ruthlessly floating somebody for getting caught with moonshine, he could be chuckling and drinking contraband alcohol with Jaha after curfew. That was corruption, and he no longer said anything about it.

He didn’t see anything arrogant or corrupt about it, of course, because he was right and nobody could tell him otherwise. He was ruthless for the sake of humanity. Every life he took made him more of a hero. A hero who saved as much oxygen as possible. He was quite certain that one day all his hard work and good deeds would pay off.

Abby often thought that the higher up Kane stepped on the ladder of politics, the faster he also spiralled downwards. She watched with a sick feeling in her stomach as the man was drained of life and empathy. As he became a monster.

Kane didn’t care how he was perceived. He cared about getting to the top so that one day, he could make the final decisions without having to jump through hoops. He also didn’t care if he lost every single friend he’d ever had in the process. Hell, he didn’t even care if he had to float the people that he once rather liked. He had floated friends before. It only made him number.

Now, Abby couldn’t help herself. She wasn’t like the rest of them who knew how much power Kane had and just how dangerous it was to get on his bad side. Those who knew he wasn’t afraid to execute his own acquaintances. She had to fight for what was right. What she thought was right. Even through the darkest days of his Reign of Terror, she never stopped countering him.

By 2139, Marcus Kane finally found himself setting on the Senior Council as the youngest member to ever have before. He was getting used to that accomplishment. Kane had only just turned thirty-two a few months ago, but had always been wise well beyond his years. That was why they voted him in. That, and the current political climate on board the Ark. Even the workers were learning towards more conservative methods in those days.

With his savage ambition and his ruthless desire to sit in a position of power, no one was surprised to see him leave the Junior Council after years of spitting verbal abuse back and forth between himself and Abby Griffin, for a bigger pond.

This, of course, left him reeling with anticipation. If sitting on the Council wasn’t already something that he could be exceedingly proud of, he’d managed to leave his old political rival behind in the dust, to boot. And even if he had no doubt that she would soon join him at that table, he revelled in the fact that he’d gotten there first.

And it proved to be a year of firsts, all around.

Abby and Jake Griffin began to fight, for the first time.

They’d been married for ten years already, and blissfully so. They stayed up late talking and laughing as if they were meeting each other for the first time, they sat down to meals together, they ran around their quarters playing games with their daughter, they were the best of friends and the most honest of lovers, keeping their wedding vows on their tongues each and every day that they spent together.

But they were both busy people. And ever since Clarke was born, they had both decided that the position of “most important person in each other’s lives” had been filled by another.  A little girl that they both treasured more than anything else in the world.

It was when Clarke wound up being the perfect Molotov cocktail mixture of the both of them that the strings of their union began to fray. Jake and Abby always seemed so suited to each other, but they were very different people from each other. Their daughter illuminated those differences.

They hadn’t really seen those differences before.

The differences were in the way that Abby kept her ultimate loyalty with her family while Jake’s lay with the people of the Ark. The greater good. He had always been capable to doing whatever was best for the largest amount of people, while Abby was admittedly more selfish. She wanted a good life for herself and her family. That was the priority for her.

Where Jake was willing to take risks, Abby was cautious. While he was satisfied with the knowledge that they were going to live and die on this Ark, Abby still had hope for the ground. While Jake wished that she would stay out of politics, knowing how it stressed her out, Abby knew that she had to be a part of something stressful if it meant doing what was right.

Jake had been granted the title of senior environmental engineer after his mentor had retired, and the literal weight of their fragile little world suddenly found itself on his sinking shoulders. And when Abby became the head of Ark Station Medical, she too, began to feel pressure unlike anything before.

Jake realized that their Ark had the potential to malfunction in an infinite number of ways, and did so often. This now being his responsibility, meant working late and coming home tired. It meant sacrificing meals with his family for saving the Ark. And where Abby used to find this noble and like she was married to a hero, she grew to wonder if her husband was sacrificing the wrong things in life. Their daughter would only be young once.

Not to mention that with him away at work so often, Abby had to be the parent that Clarke relied on more heavily. And Abby was busy running an entire station. She had surgeries and patients and outbreaks and progress in the laboratory. And she also had a curious daughter with many friends and passions, who so often needed guidance.

Clarke spent much of her childhood in Medical, sitting in a corner reading books while her mother worked. She listened in to a lot of the work that was done, and Abby tried to keep Clarke from getting bored by teaching her about medicine and healing.

But Jake was still the favourite. When he was home, that is. Clarke would run and jump into his arms and tell him all about her day. He was the hero. Abby loved to see it, she really did. The relationship between Clarke and her father was just as important to Abby as it was to Jake. But sometimes it could sting.

Their arguments were impossible. Abby wanted Jake home more often, as did Clarke, but that wasn’t going to happen. If Jake didn’t run off every time that he was paged, the world as they knew it might just come to an end. The bigger picture had become far more important than the little family he’d created in those small quarters.

Abby didn’t like that he spared no feelings when indulging in Clarke’s incessant questions, either. She asked about the Ark and its precariousness, and he told her without cutting out any of the scary parts. She was still a child – a wise, articulate child, but a child, nonetheless. Abby didn’t think that she needed to know that life was constantly on its last legs. She always reminded Clarke that despite what her father told her, it was important to have hope for a better future.

And that was where Jake took issue. Abby would rattle off ideas about the ground and how it was possible that projections were wrong, and they might even get to go home to Earth in their lifetime. Jake was no stranger to the Earth. He had studied it for years. He had it on good authority that his wife was wrong and providing their daughter with false hope. She should have hope for life on the Ark, not the ground.

Surely somewhere in their arguments, there was a middle ground. A happy medium. They just couldn’t seem to find it.

As the years continued to progress in similar fashion, the Griffin family did their best to stay happy. And for the most part, they succeeded. Every couple argued, after all. It didn’t mean that things weren’t still happy.

Each day consisted of far more smiles than tears, but it was the tears that stuck with them, at the end of the day.

Things began to change in 2141 when Abby was nominated for a seat on the Senior Council, after Thelonious Jaha was elected chancellor. It was a happy day overall - the people had been tired of Diana Sydney’s mindless rants and false promises for years at that point.

Her nomination was just that – an opportunity. Despite the fact that she was close friends with the chancellor, it did not guarantee Abby a seat at that table. In fact, their relationship would likely have people wary of favouritism, and she would have to work even harder during her candidacy. More than that, she faced one very large obstacle in Councillor Marcus Kane. He was going to do everything in his power to keep her away from that table.

But she needed that seat. A place on the senior council was far more monumental than the junior. She would actually get a say in the real decisions being made. The important ones that would affect everybody’s lives. Maybe she could even push for Project Exodus to be reconsidered after Sydney had let it fall by the wayside and Jaha put it on the backburner.

It was important to her to win that seat. Even moreso after she’d seen the last few years fall into questionable practices that obviously reflected Kane’s position on that council. She needed to be there if for no other reason than to balance his radical politics out a little bit.

The Reign of Terror needed to end. They were going to lose everything they had to it, and Kane didn’t seem to see a single problem with that. She didn’t want the people of the Ark to be scared of the law. She wanted them to trust it.

Abby hadn’t even seen Kane properly in years now. Here and there and from afar, but nothing intimate like in the past. He didn’t come by their quarters to spend time with Jake, he never showed up to the little events that happened around the Ark except to work them. She knew that he had drifted off down a dark and dangerous road, but she wondered if she still might find some kind of humanity behind the robot. He was far too young to be so numb.

And though Abby and Jake argued now where they used to be perfectly pleasant, the Griffin quarters were still a warm, loving, happy place. Their marriage was still strong and the love they had for each other still warmed their family. Clarke grew up knowing that her parents loved each other. That they would do just about anything for each other. She grimaced and covered her eyes when they kissed but knew that it was better than having parents who hated each other – like Nathan Miller – or worse, one parent who was missing the other – like Wells Jaha.

And as much as she loved her family and would still treasure private moments at home with them more than anything in the world, Abby realized something as she ran her candidacy in front of the council and the station representatives. She realized that she felt alive in ways she hadn’t for years. Something to fight for did that to her.

But it certainly wasn’t easy.

Marcus Kane and Thelonious Jaha had become closer over the years, even as the former had pushed away the rest of his friends. They shared similar opinions but different views, just enough to keep their friendship interesting but never volatile. It was one day deep into candidacies for the empty council seat, that Kane realized Abby might actually win. That was when he tried to take matters into his own hands.

“Forgive me, sir,” Kane remarked as he and the chancellor marched through Alpha Station.

Jaha was on his way to engineering, where he still spent most of his time. He may be chancellor, but he was still working on projects. That had been the platform that he ran on, after all. That he was a hands-on worker of the Ark who knew her inside and out. Right now, he was planning on stopping by Jake Griffin’s lab to see why the man had once again paged him down there claiming it was urgent. Jake was always finding little bugs that he swore would mean the end of mankind but would be solved by morning.

“I just don’t see how she’s a good fit for the council,” Kane finished.

Jaha smiled to himself. He knew immediately who Kane was referring to, and he was not surprised by the man’s resistance. In fact, he was surprised that it had taken Marcus this long to officially plead his case.

“And why might that be?” Jaha humoured him, using his key card to earn them access into Mecha Station.

Kane shook his head. In his mind, the answer to that question should have been obvious.

“She’s far too impulsive, for one,” he began, a scowl on his face. “She makes decisions with her emotions, we both know that.”

They turned a corner.

“Snap judgements lead to the worst consequences, sir,” Kane insisted coldly. “We’ve seen that before.”

This was true, Jaha thought. Although, he didn’t really see how it was relevant. Sure, Abby might make quick decisions that are often based on thoughts lead by her heart rather than her head, but she had instincts that nobody could deny. In his lifetime, he didn’t think he’d ever seen the woman wind up wrong about something. Except, maybe, Project Exodus.

“Perhaps that’s what makes a good decision,” he countered passively so that Kane couldn’t tell if he meant it or not.

That was something Jaha was good at – remaining impartial. Letting the people figure it out for themselves but leading them both in the right direction. He happened to believe that the right choices were inside of everyone, just waiting to be decided upon.

“That’s what makes a shallow decision,” Kane corrected in his unmovable way. “We don’t have a place for her on the council,” he continued firmly. “What we need is someone structured. Someone who isn’t swayed by whatever they happen to be feeling in the moment.”

Jaha peered at his old friend sidelong. He even spoke differently these days. No more sarcasm, no more banter, just business. Kane had lost all of his colour.

“Well, we already have you for that, Kane,” he sighed softly in response, noting the irony. “Every good group of leaders is diverse,” Jaha added. “You can go on being the head of the operations.” They paused at the doorway of the lab where inside, Jake looked stressed. “Maybe it’s time we bring in the heart.”

Jaha gave him a firm look – one that said, “stop talking” – before he headed into the lab, leaving Kane outside.

The tall man sucked his teeth in irritation before turning around and leaving Mecha. Jaha hadn’t swayed his way of thinking. The council didn’t need a heart. They didn’t need Abby’s blind faith and toxic optimism. They needed more calculation, if anything else. And Abby had never been good at that.

Whether Jaha approved or not, Kane knew that he wouldn’t stop himself from doing whatever it took to keep Abigail Griffin away from that table. Not to mention, out of his hair. For the minute that she fastened that pin and took that seat, he knew full well that she would make it her mission to undo all the progress that he had painstakingly made over the years. She was convincing when she wanted to be. Full of “hope will prevail” speeches and visions of some kind of utopia that didn’t exist in the real world.

When Kane imagined a Garden of Eden, he saw order and consequence. He saw nobody stepping out of line. He did not see a realm where people ran around doing whatever their hearts desired.

The next week, when Abby was set to give her closing candidacy arguments, Kane was prepared to bring down the hammer. And Abby was prepared for a repeat of the past. She braced herself for it, but did her best, nonetheless.

She was running on a platform of ethics – as per usual. Relying heavily on her medical expertise and respect to gain her talking points. It was true, they could use someone like her on the council. She had a unique way of looking at things, so often brought forth points that others had failed to realize. But she was a bit of a wild card.

Kane happened to think that the people were forgetting one very important detail about her past. One thing that should have kept her out of Alpha Station and its politics forever.

Abby stood before both the table and a room full of sector heads and station representatives. That table was still full save for one seat. The seat that she knew in her heart belonged to her.

Admittedly, she’d done a superb job of stating her case. She remailed eloquent and logical but not unfeeling, intelligent but also instinctual. Good-natured, driven, confident. Kane could see that the case was all but won.

However, he had something up his sleeve that nobody else seemed willing to use – her dirty past. And now – unfortunately for Abby – he had the floor.

“I’m sure you’re all aware,” he began formally, pacing the floor.

Abby tensed. She could see the performative element here and realized what Kane was doing. He wasn’t pleading a case or offering a rebuttal, he was putting on a show. And he could be quite convincing in front of an audience. She held her breath as he slowly passed by behind her, moving about the room.

“My role in Alpha Station extends beyond sitting on this council,” he was saying. “As chief of the Guard, I oversee our justice system. I ensure that everyone on board the Ark is following the law.”

Swallowing dryly, Abby had to wonder where he was going with this. She had a suspicion, but held on to hope that it was not true. How far would he go to keep her off the council? How much pain was he willing to inflict for what he saw as the greater good?

“I’ve been working with the Guard for sixteen years,” Kane continued, keeping his voice level and calm. “That’s sixteen years of arrests, trial cases, executions, sixteen years of seeing justice from the inside.”

Abby felt like she might be sick. Her blood ran cold minutes ago.

“I can even remember the day that we arrested Dr. Griffin’s parents over in Factory Station for raising her illegally and outside the arm of the law.”

He wasn’t looking at her face, but could imagine that it had gone rather pale and colourless. He didn’t care. Kane knew that he had no argument to combat the pretty words she’d used during her speech. He couldn’t exactly stand there and try to tell everyone that she was just wrong, and he knew it. They liked her too much.

He could, however, air some dirty laundry.

“Now,” he finally looked at her, and Abby only saw a stranger who was acting his way through a speech. “We cannot fault the child for the crimes of the parents,” he said with a fake half smirk.

Abby was taken back to the time when she had been fighting him for the seat on the junior council. She had made the same argument. Obviously, he had taken his own words and learned from them. Learned how to be even more cutting while also appearing fair and nonjudgemental. She saw right through it all.

“It’s inspiring to see how far Dr. Griffin has come,” he continued, and only Abby could see the sarcasm and underhandedness in his words. “I think we’re all surprised to see that a former illegal child is now responsible for our entire Medical Station.”

Abby knew what he was doing. More fear mongering. The thought of a criminal being in charge of medicine on board the Ark was not only laughable but worrisome. She knew how it sounded. And he had the audacity to frame it as a compliment to her.

She wished that he would drop the gloves and draw some real blood without hiding behind formalities and pedantic speech. Show the people who he really was and how he really treated people.

“Now, in my time, I’ve investigated and prosecuted more criminals than you can imagine,” Kane recommenced his speech. “Some more dangerous than others.”

He paused and Abby held her breath, staring at the man who refused to meet her eyes as he dragged up her past and held it up for everyone to gawk at its ugliness.

“None quite as dangerous as my very first assignment,” he said in a softer voice, meant to draw in the crowd and leave them begging for more.

When Kane did look at her, he might as well have been looking at a stranger. Gone was any familiarity or even friendly competition in his eyes. Abby didn’t even see the fire that she had expected upon hearing him make such a compelling case. She saw Chief Guard Kane. Marcus was gone.

“Daniel Spencer was the criminal who's case I was assigned to,” he said.

Kane watched as Abby’s face changed. She had been attempting strength and emotionlessness as he readied his weapons. Now, she morphed with a horror that she could not contain or fight off. Her jaw slackened but her mouth stayed shut, her eyes raised themselves up to look at him in a mixture of surprise and terror.

Abby hadn’t heard that name since Kane had shown up in the Medical Bay to tell her that Danny had been floated. She had left him and the abuse that he had inflicted upon her behind, in the past. Now, here he was again.

She blinked and Kane was not alone.

Now, a figure lingered behind him. And when that figure stepped out from Kane’s shadow, Abby realized who it was. Tall and thin thanks to a lifetime of drug abuse. Pale with one silver canine tooth. Eyes like moondust, hair that clung to his forehead. Daniel Spencer. Eyeing her up from across the room.

Abby shuddered once, shaking her head. Then, he disappeared.

“A young man from Factory Station notorious for Black Market trading and dealing in contraband,” Kane continued, rather enjoying the fact that Abby had obviously been rendered incapacitated. “He specialized in narcotics. Creating, trafficking, using, you name it.”

A few murmurs traveled around the room as he spoke. Perfect, Kane thought to himself. The audience knew who he was talking about.

“His was a high-profile case. I’m sure some of you even remember his execution,” he continued, wondering why Abby kept looking behind him and widening her eyes. “What you couldn’t possibly know is that there was a second name attached to that case.”

Silence fell upon the room. The council was intrigued, and Abby was horrified. Kane felt like what he was doing made him a bit of a villain, but remained emotionless as he did so.

“His girlfriend at the time,” Kane continued, drawing this out for drama’s sake, “a young woman with a criminal background. She worked the markets with him. She traded, she moved contraband, she aided and abetted his criminal practices.”

Abby swallowed. Everyone knew what was coming.

“Her name was Abigail Everson.”

Despite it being obvious, some people now let out stifled gasps and exclamations of surprise.

Abby was shaking her head, trying to chase images of her former abuser away and keep the tears out of her eyes. She was racking her brain for a rebuttal but found nothing but memories of broken bones and blood.

“Long before she became the respectable Dr. Griffin,” Kane continued, staring at her harshly, “she was just a criminal from Factory Station.”

The room settled down when Chancellor Jaha raised his hands and motioned for them to quiet. He knew that Abby came from Factory Station and from criminal parents. He used to see her hanging around with that loser Daniel Spencer. But that was back before he knew her. He had no idea that she had ever been wrapped up in his crimes.

Abby knew that’s what her friend was thinking. And any other friend in this room, for that matter. Even Jake didn’t know what had happened to her in her youth. He didn’t know that Danny used to hit her and force her to use drugs and to do his dangerous bidding. He didn’t know that she used to deal with Nygel on a regular basis.

She told him that she had a rough upbringing in Factory Station, but had never been able to talk about the rest. Not the Family Centre. Not Daniel Spencer. Not Nygel. She told him that back in the day, Kane had saved her life. Pulled her out of a nasty situation. But that’s all she ever said. And he never pried.

Suddenly, she was thankful beyond belief that Jake was not in this room. Still, she knew that word spread quickly around the Ark – especially Alpha Station – and he would catch wind of it somehow.

“It may be difficult to look at the woman before you and see a former felon who used to trade on the Black Market and make deals with drug lords,” he continued, really dramatizing  the events. "But I can assure you, that’s who she was. That’s who she may still be, for all we know.”

Abby let out a breath. That was a reach, but she knew just how far fear mongering could go. On the other hand, Kane was being unduly cruel, and Abby felt as though at least some people in the room could see that and still swing in her favour.

He might have been going down, but he was sure as hell taking her with him.

A silence lingered in the room as Kane stood strong with his mouth shut, allowing the news to settle.

The speaker of the table – one of the councillors – raised his hand and cleared his throat. “What is the point that you’re making here, Councillor Kane?” Though he was speaking to Kane, he was peering at Abby as though she was the enemy.

Kane took in a slow breath and casually took a seat in his chair at the table, sending a pointed look at the rest of his fellow councillors.

“Having a former criminal spared on a technicality is one thing,” Kane said, looking at Abby as he did so. “Refraining from pressing charges and allowing her to remain on board the Ark was perhaps more grace than she deserved,” he continued, and Abby’s face twisted into a grimace of surprise that she really shouldn’t have been experiencing. “But to have her sit at the most important table in this space station? To give her a say in the most cardinal of decisions?” He looked around, smiling as though it was funny. “It’s unthinkable.”

That heavy silence lingered around the room. It was so tense that Abby could hear her heartbeat in her ears. At least Danny’s strange form had vanished. She couldn’t see him, but Abby had this horrific sense that he was right behind her. There were two reasons that she didn’t turn around when she felt the ghostly tingling at her shoulder. One, she was too afraid to face him. Two, it would make her look undeniably psychotic.

Her pulse raced and her palms sweat as she stood there trying to fix her posture so that she didn’t look wounded, Abby couldn’t do much for the lack of colour on her face. Her past was a cage. Built by those who made the rules on boar the Ark. She might never be able to break free from that cage but perhaps she could change their ways so that no one else needed to grow up in one.

She refused to let Marcus Kane get the better of her. Emotionally, he had. But maybe she could still keep her head up high and turn this around. At least she could walk out of this room with dignity.

“Dr. Griffin,” the speaker was saying, bringing her back to reality. “Your response?”

Abby should have known that the opportunity would come, but for some reason she was surprised by being given the chance to speak. She was more expecting the Guard to come through the doors and arrest her for crimes that she had already been absolved of. All because Kane had changed his mind.

At least now she knew what she had always wondered – did he regret his decision? Yes, it was clear now. He did.

“My past has never been a secret,” she began rather tentatively, searching for the right words. “I may be…reticent…in the face of it,” she lifted her eyes and glanced around the room, “but I’m sure it’s understandable why.”

Abby wished that she could stare her attacker in the face while she rebutted, but could not bring herself to meet Kane’s eyes. He made her feel weak and exposed. Now, she was doing all that she could to pick up the pieces of her dignity.

“What Councillor Kane has strategically neglected to mention is the fact that he himself had investigated that case and decided to refrain from pressing charges,” she revealed, and a few more murmurs were heard around the room.

Kane frowned and shifted in his seat, narrowing his eyes as he stared at her.

“I wasn’t a young woman,” she reiterated his original words, “I was a child.”

That truth reverberated around the room, undeniable.

“Daniel Spencer…” Abby forced herself to say his name, and it burnt like acid on her tongue, “…was a twenty-seven year old man who pursued me while I was still under the care of the Family Centre.”

Abby was just doing her best to remain eloquent as the unwanted memories came back to her. Everything that she had been trying to forget.

“He used weapons and physical abuse to force me into whatever aiding and abetting Councillor Kane thought he saw,” she practically spat those words out, clearly offended by his accusations and inconsistencies.

Finally, she looked at Kane. Abby could only meet his cold eyes for a second before she glanced at Jaha for some comfort. On his face, she saw pity. She had to look away from him too.

“A child was held hostage,” Abby continued strongly, “and it’s now being used to prevent her from being taken seriously sixteen years later.”

The crowd shifted then, realizing that it was unfair. Still, Abby knew that Kane had successfully ruined the respect that some of these people had for her, whether they wanted to let it impact their opinions or not. The fact could not be unlearned. That’s what she hated him for the most.

“The things that happened to me as a child have nothing to do with my candidacy for councillor,” she continued, her hands balled into tight fists at her sides. “Please instead continue to consider my medical expertise,” she would not plead, but she would ask. “My political experience. My work in the Earth Monitoring and Engineering stations.”

It sounded like she had more to say, but Abby could no longer find her voice. Instead, she stood there stoned-faced and trying not to breathe. When she was dismissed, she could break down in whatever way she deemed necessary. Right now, she needed to be strong.

The chancellor struggled to watch his friend in pain. She had made her statement and given a response to Kane’s accusation. They didn’t need anything more from her. Besides, he could tell that she wanted to run out of this room and forget any of it ever happened.

“Thank you, Dr. Griffin,” he said in a rather sad voice, nodding towards the door.

Abby wasted no time. She kept her head up high but all but sprinted for that door, which closed behind her with an unforgiving hiss.

Kane’s words rang out in Abby’s ears for the next hour. She knew that the vote was happening in that moment and that the other candidates were likely waiting in the Alpha Station rec room, preparing to be summoned to read the results, but she couldn’t bring herself to face any of them.

She also did not want to face her family. Jake was in the lab and would welcome her with open arms if he saw that she was upset, but she didn’t want to break down. She didn’t want to have to explain it all. Now was not the time to finally come clean about the things that haunted her.

So, Abby was in Medical and thanking whatever god might be out there that it was quiet. Most of the staff were out in the Mess Hall for lunch hour and there were few patients in Med Bay.

She was in one of the private terminals doing whatever she could to keep herself busy. Right now, that involved dumping out the entire contents of one of her medical kits – sending the contents sprawling out over the examination table before her – and sorting it all back in a more tactful manner.

As busy as she tried to keep her hands, her thoughts could not be controlled. She had been visited by a ghost today and it scared her more than she wanted it to. Not only that, but she had been humiliated in front of the entire council and the representatives. The people responsible for voting her onto that table. She didn’t stand a chance now.

People were going to look at her differently. They were going to treat her like a criminal. Perhaps they would even see her out of her job, fearing that she could not be trusted. Jake would catch wind of it and treat her differently. Clarke would start getting teased at school. Abby wondered if she should just up and quit now. Take her life back to Factory Station and fly under the radar.

Kane was a monster for bringing that up and throwing it in her face. She had trusted him for so long. Not with much, but with the fact that he never used her past against her. She must have been wrong about him all along. He had never been a friend to her. He had only been an enemy waiting for the right time to strike.

Abby tried to compartmentalize her thoughts and emotions in the same way that she was sorting through the previously disorganized med kid, but it was easier said than done. And in the end, she went through three kits before she was interrupted. Her tears came and went but were never acknowledged.

She did not look up when the door slid open and shut behind a newcomer.

There was no need for Abby to glance up and look in order to know that it was Marcus Kane who had just entered her safe space. The one person that she never wanted to see again. She recognized the sound of his footsteps. The pace at which he walked when he was uncertain about something. Besides, she could feel him like a plague in the room.

Because she knew it was him, Abby forced herself to keep her eyes down and focused on the task at hand, unwilling to give him the grace of her eye contact. She was done giving that made any grace at all. Not after he’d thrown her under the bus like that for the second time in their joint political careers.

Kane stared for a moment, watching as her hands moved at lightning speed as she angrily shoved medical tools into a kit. He could tell that she’d been crying. Her eyes were smudged faintly at the corners with the black pigment of her eyemakeup and the remnants of one single tear still lingered on her left cheek. Right across a familiar scar.

She was clearly trying to avoid his gaze. To pretend like he was not there. He didn’t blame her, but it didn’t appeal to his sense of pity either. He didn’t regret what he said, even if he knew that he had jeopardized everything that had ever existed between them in. That hadn’t mattered to him in over a decade.

After thirty seconds of silence, Abby found herself furious. He had done something unthinkable to her. Now, he had shown up in her workspace only to stand there saying nothing? Waiting for her to speak first?

“How could you do that to me, Kane?” Abby said with her head still down, between gritted teeth.

When he didn’t answer immediately, she threw her hands down in frustration and picked up her head to stare into those empty eyes of his, yearning to find the friend that she once had.

Though her words were sharp and her tone accusatory, her eyes were filled with sorrow. That’s when Kane wavered. Only slightly, of course. He could match her in a fight any day, but he’d never liked seeing her truly sad.

Abby’s face began to crumble as she spoke, but she did not give him the satisfaction of seeing her cry.

“You didn’t have to–” her voice broke and interrupted her, and Abby was forced to look away.

Her gaze fell back upon the tools and her hands recommenced their sorting. Marcus Kane had no right to see her like this. Not after he had caused it. She wished that he would leave.

The man gave a sigh and fiddled with something in his hands, staring at her relentlessly as he tried to figure out how the sight of her made him feel. Only around her did he ever feel remorse for becoming so emotionless that he didn’t know how to properly feel.

When he spoke, it was softly. There was no remorse in his voice, but at least it was softer.

“I’m sorry if you thought that was harsh, Abby,” he said, giving her a half-apology that he hardly meant.

Abby’s mouth twitched and she looked up from the med kid but only far enough to stare at the wall on the other side of the room.

“It’s cat and mouse,” Kane added, keeping his voice to a low whisper that Abby recognized well, “remember?”

Now, she finally looked at him again. She stared at him for a moment and found herself conflicted. He looked so similar to the man that she knew. The man that she trusted. Liked, even. So similar that it was like a trap baiting her in.

Facetiously, Abby shook her head and let out what sounded like a humourless breath of laughter. “You know,” she whispered sadly, “there was a time when I would have considered us friends.”

Kane stared down at her. Though he knew that she had a point and that their friendship was undeniable no matter how hard he tried, he no longer believed in such things. It had only ever been a weakness that he couldn’t afford.

“That’s your own fault,” he responded after a pause that felt like forever. “For thinking that anyone on board this Ark can afford themselves the luxury of friendship.”

Abby’s face twitched with something. He was putting on an act; she was sure of it. But perhaps he had gone too method. Started to really believe it. Maybe now he couldn’t snap out of it, even if she wished that he would.

“Jake wasn’t your friend, then?” She bit back in a sharper tone. “Not him, Jaha, not David? Not me? Nobody?”

As she spoke, Abby narrowed her eyes. She was angry. Not just as what he had done to her earlier that day, but that he had abandoned their friendship and was now acting as though it had never meant anything to him.

“I could’ve sworn that there was a time when you had lots of friends, Kane,” she added harshly. “Before your allegiances ran so thin.”

Kane had been expecting a sharpness about her, but he still hated when she tried to get personal like this. He would rather her remain factual in an argument than dig up the graves of the past. Everything that he’d buried he’d done so for a reason.

“Your husband and I are friendly acquaintances,” he responded, unable to back down from her argument. “Sergeant Miller is my colleague and Jaha is my chancellor,” he reminded her.

Abby was peering up at him with accusation behind her amber brown eyes. He was forgetting someone on that list.

“And me?” She asked without warmth.

In an instant, Kane was back in political sciences class. Sitting beside her, resting his arm casually on the back of her chair, toying with her hair. Today, she wore it in the same braid that she used to back then. It was that little detail that brought him back to the present.

“You and I are familiar,” he stated solidly but kept his voice low, like he didn’t want anyone else to hear.

Abby shook her head as tears threatened her eyes again but this time she didn’t know why.

“That’s all?” She said, her voice cracking as she did so.

Abby was staring up at him with such wide, pleading eyes. As if she was trying to will his conscience back into existence. It would never work.

“That’s all?” Kane raised his voice, repeating her words sarcastically.

She was playing dumb now, and he didn’t have time for it. This was no time to ask him to define the relationship that they’d had fifteen years ago. When they were hardly more than children.

“You and I have never been friends, Abby,” he said firmly, stressing the word as if it should have meant something to her. “And you know that.”

She pondered his words for a moment and couldn’t help but wonder why it felt as though there was some kind of subtext that she couldn’t quite make out. It was the look in his eyes, she realized. Finally, they weren’t completely emotionless. The only problem was that she still didn’t know which emotion they were showing. It looked like anger but felt like melancholy.

But Kane was not done yet.

“And in this case, yes,” he continued, staring down at her harshly as though she had personally offended him in some way, “that makes ‘familiar’ a hell of a lot more than just friends.”

Abby could tell that she had made him mad in some way and for some reason. Frankly, it was refreshing to see. She didn’t expect an apology because she knew that he’d meant every word he’d said. That he would do it all over again if given the opportunity. But at least right now his numbness wasn’t on full display.

She stared as Kane took one ruthless step forwards and stifled a sneer as he placed something small and metallic down on the examination table before her.

“Congratulations, Councillor,” he began.

Abby stared in disbelief at the councillor’s pin that he had just offered up.

“I guess the table appreciates a tragic backstory,” he finished.

Kane’s voice was harsh and unapologetic, making it very clear that he had not voted her. Not only that, but he would not be making her time at that table a pleasant one.

Marcus Kane might have been winning their little war for years now in his head, but Abby Griffin had just drawn an ace.

~~~

It was during Abby’s first year as councillor, about eight months after she joined the table, that Marcus Kane had given himself a new assignment on the Guard. Nygel.

She was still operating out of the Mess Hall, corrupting various culinary technicians, conducting the trading of contraband and worse on the black market. It was no secret that she could move anything from mechanical parts to narcotic drugs to the prostitution of people both old and far too young.

Having gone without a real investigative case for some time as he allowed Commander Shumway to assign cases to guardsmen, majors, and sergeants as he saw fit, Kane knew that he felt more alive when he was actually out in the field.

His methods never really changed. He studied Nygel from afar for months gathering intel and trying to learn her ways before he ever put his boots on the ground. But when he did, he didn’t get far. Much like Abby had back in the day, Nygel almost seemed to have fun interacting with him. But she never incriminated herself. She had an alibi and a reasonable explanation for everything.

Nygel had been operating under the radar for far too long. She had gotten just as good at doing her job as Marcus had at his – that was the problem. And before long, he realized that he was going to have to ask for help. From somebody that he really didn’t want to have to ask.

“It was over fifteen years ago, Kane,” Abby said, wandering around medical as he trailed her.

Kane had shown up a few minutes ago asking if she could provide any kind of testimony that would help take down Nygel. She had been surprised but he’d caught her at a busy time and she couldn’t stop what she was doing to march down to the security sector and sit down with him.

Abby shook her head, putting a patient’s chart back on the shelf. “I hardly think I have anything that could help you.”

Kane stopped walking and placed his hand on his hips.

They were no longer friendly since her council candidacy, but they were at least no longer at each other’s throats. They were professional and cold with each other. Occasionally – on days like today – they were forced to work together.

“She doesn’t change, Abby,” he said, shaking his head. “She’s still operating out of the same places. Still moving the same contraband.”

Now, Abby turned around to face him. “Is this some kind of ploy to incriminate me somehow?” She demanded, folding her arms across her chest.

Kane stopped his rambling and sighed. He should have seen that one coming.

He took a step towards her, staring at her with importance in his eyes. “I have lost guardsman to her corruption," he said firmly, indicating that this was not a personal attack against her. "I need to bring her in. Once and for all.” He watched as Abby blinked, uncertain. “And I think you might be the only person who can help me do that.”

Knowing that it must just be killing him to admit to it, Abby finally let herself believe that he was not currently out to get her. Nygel was a specific kind of monster, she knew that. And Abby would love to see her put away for good, even if that meant executed. She took advantage of vulnerable people in need and squeezed them for all that they were worth. She drained people of their humanity.

Kane watched as her face changed to reflect the atrocities that Nygel had inflicted and knew that she was in. When she looked back up at his face, it was confirmed.

“Please, Abby,” he said, clearing his throat. “Come to Command at sixteen hundred hours,” he said, knowing that was when her shift in medical ended. “You can look at the case.”

Abby had spent the last couple of hours steeling herself. She wasn’t doing this as a favour to Kane, that was for sure. She was doing it as a favour to her seventeen-year-old self. And for any young girl or boy in similar situations who felt as though they couldn’t say no to Nygel.

Her lab coat was long gone but the ponytail in her hair remained. She felt as though it kept a professional air about her. And so long as she felt as though she was still at work, she might be able to get through the next few hours with Kane, going back over the worst time of her life.

Kane treated her like any other witness. They were alone in one of the questioning rooms in Security Station and he had placed a class of cold water before her. She looked around the room, bouncing her knee nervously. She couldn’t help it. The last time she was in a room like this, her parents had just been arrested. The Guard was drilling her with questions about her childhood. She sat there knowing that her entire family was about to die.

Marcus had been busy laying out his case files for her to examine when he noticed her demeanour. He saw the same nervous behaviour from most of the people that he questioned in this room.

“Relax, councillor,” he said, taking a seat across from her. “We’re here for Nygel.”

He must have known what she was thinking. Abby let out a breath that seemed to help as she leaned forward and began to read his notes. She had to hand it to him; he had done a stellar job of observance. Better than she had expected him to be able to. Not because he was incapable but because she knew just how good Nygel was.

But there were holes in his plan. Even if he knew at which hours she operates, even if he had a guess as to which people abord the Ark were her clients and which were her runners, the charter prevented him from overstepping without reasonable evidence. And though the entire Ark knew what she was up to, the evidence was sparing.

“How exactly do you plan to get her, Kane?” She asked sarcastically after she’d finished with the file. “You can’t even get into the Culinary Station without a permit.”

Kane shook his head. “Let me worry about the permits,” he shut her down coolly. “I need you to me what she had you doing.”

“Me?”

He nodded. “Her patterns haven’t changed,” he said, sifting through a few notes. “I have to assume that her methods haven’t either.” Kane lifted his head and leaned across the table to look at her. “So, tell me, Abby,” he said, “what did she have you do?”

Abby’s eyes flicked to the camera on the wall. The green flash reminded her that she was being recorded and that she was talking to the highest-ranking member of the Guard.

Kane watched these thoughts cross her mind. He didn’t want her in the ways that she worried he did. He wanted Nygel more.

With that in mind, he slid a piece of paper across the table to her. It had two signatures on the bottom. The Chief of the Guard’s – his – and the chancellor’s – Jaha’s. It was an official letter absolving her of any crimes committed before the year 2027. When Daniel Spencer was floated.

Swallowing dryly and eyeing him as if this was some kind of trap, Abby did not say a word.

“I promise you, it’s real,” he insisted but sounded rather cold about it. “Don’t let it be for nothing.”

Abby stared at him for a moment longer. Just long enough for his words to register.

She fixed her posture. “She had me doing whatever she wanted me to do,” Abby explained in a calm voice, struggling to meet his eyes as her face took on a faraway look. “Once you got in with her, she decided what she wanted you for.”

Kane made a note in a scrawl that was barely legible and looked up. “How old were you when she first came to you?”

Abby shook her head, looking away. “She didn’t come to me,” she revealed in a voice that sounded broken. “I went to her.”

Kane blinked. He had not realized that. He hoped that he didn’t regret having Jaha sign that document.

As a sign that he was waiting to hear more of her story, Kane sat back in his seat and crossed his arms over his chest.

“It was…” she trailed off, unsure if she would be able to utter the name that she needed to, “…it was Daniel who asked me to. To go to her.” She watched Kane nod with a frown. “I was seventeen.”

“But he had already been working for her,” Kane lowered his brows. “Isn’t that, right?”

Abby shook her head. “You don’t…you don’t always work for her,” she explained. “Sometimes you work with her.”

He shifted in his seat, picking up his pen. “So, Daniel worked with her, then?”

She let a beat linger in the room. “It was a mutually beneficial relationship,” she explained, her voice rather hoarse. “She got him the things that he needed. He did her dirty work.”

“What kind of things did he need?”

Abby shook her head. How she wished that she did not need to be sitting in this room having this conversation. She reminded herself that she was doing it for the sake of a safer future for the people of the Ark.

“Drugs, mainly,” she admitted. “Medical grade stuff that he couldn’t get out of Farm Station. Weapons. She also gave him weapons.”

Kane nodded. He could remember searching Danny’s quarters after his arrest and finding pistols and gunpowder, the material to make a bomb. A few shocklashing batons that were reserved for the guard.

“And where did Nygel get medical grade drugs?” He asked.

Now, Abby took in a breath. “We keep it under strict inventory in Medical,” she explained. “But Nygel did business with everybody. She had customers everywhere. I’m sure she still does,” she continued. “I have to imagine that someone on the medical staff had smuggled her whatever she needed.”

“In exchange for something, I’m sure?” Kane added and Abby nodded.

“Maybe in exchange for some other products,” she said, looking at Kane. “But maybe in exchange for protection. It wasn’t always tangible goods that she dealt in.”

A moment of silence fell upon the room. Kane hadn’t really considered that before. Sometimes he turned a blind eye to the corruption on board this Ark.

“Is that what she offered you?” He asked in a softer, quieter voice. “Protection.”

Abby could have laughed. Instead, her face remained stoic and principled as she shook her head slowly.

“She didn’t offer me anything,” she revealed. “It was all for him. I guess in a way, it was protection.” Kane didn’t say anything, and Abby figured he did not understand. “If I didn’t do what he said, he would…” she trailed off and was forced to look away. “I had to do what he said.”

Kane understood now. Abby worked with Nygel for the sake of protection indeed. Because if she didn’t, her boyfriend would kill her.

“I know you ran goods for her,” he sat up straighter, reminding himself of the large file he used to have on Abby and Danny. “What did she have you running?”

“Anything,” Abby shrugged. “Drugs and weapons mainly, but sometimes it was smaller things. Things that weren’t even illegal,” she revealed. “Messages, food, books.”

“And who did you deliver these things to?”

Abby licked her lips. “She usually sent me to Alpha,” she explained. “Because I already worked up there. So that it wouldn’t look suspicious.”

It hadn’t looked suspicious. That was why Kane always struggled to nab her back in the day.

“Alpha,” Kane repeated, making a note. “You were dealing with officers?”

She nodded, squaring her shoulders. “I bet if you look hard enough, she’s still dealing with officers in Alpha Station, Kane,” Abby said with a sharp arch of her eyebrow. “It isn’t always Factory Station, you know.”

He knew.

Kane let out a sigh as he flipped over his page. “What’s the worst thing she gave you?”

Abby shook her head. He was missing the point.

“The running wasn’t the dangerous part,” Abby revealed, and Kane narrowed his eyes as she looked away. “It was when…” she swallowed, “…when you needed something but couldn’t offer her anything in return. That’s when-”

“When, what?”

Abby sighed and her breath shook. She hoped Kane did not notice.

This entire conversation felt like a betrayal. To herself. To Jake. Jake who she’d never told any of this to. He had obviously heard of what Kane had said during the council battle close to a year ago now. She knew he had to have heard something. But Jake never asked her about it.

He trusted his wife. He knew that if she wanted to tell him, she would. He figured that some things were better left forgotten.

Now, here she was, spilling all of her secrets to another man. It never felt like it counted with Kane because he had been there. He had been the only person besides maybe Aurora Blake who really knew about her past. And she never had to tell him anything. Even now, she didn’t feel as though she was saying anything that he didn’t already know.

But still, she was telling him things. Things that she'd never told anyone else in her whole life. Telling the very man who had helped build the cage that was trapping their entire civilization in his Reign of Terror.

“That’s when she would try to trade you.”

The words hung there in the air like a knife waiting to fall. Kane knew what she meant, and he felt a rock forming in his stomach. He knew that prostitution and sexual favours were exchanged in places on the Ark. He didn’t know that Nygel was involved. Nor Abby.

“She-” he began but found himself unable to sort through his thoughts. “Did she-”

“Not me,” Abby answered before he had to ask. “But she tried.” Her eyes found the wall somewhere behind Kane. It was easier to look at it than him. “She tried so hard that…” she winced, remembering how desperate she had been in those days, “…sometimes it felt easier to say yes than to keep fighting her.”

She looked back at Marcus, who looked stoic but pained.

“Almost,” Abby reassured.

Recalibrating, Kane shuffled through more notes. That suddenly felt like priority number one. If Nygel was luring in innocent, vulnerable young people who felt like they had no other choice and selling their bodies in exchange for the bare necessities, that was where he needed to start. Drugs could wait. Weapons could wait. Blatant sexual extortion could not.  Besides, Abby had been a minor in those days. Nygel probably thought that the younger, the better.

Marcus grimaced in disgust. “How can I stop it?” He asked mainly to himself, but Abby obviously remained in the room.

She swallowed. Stop executing people, she wanted to say. They needed to stop making life unlivable on certain Stations. Then people might stop being impoverished in a place that was supposed to promote equality for all. They might stop falling victim to corrupt guardsmen and black market pimps like Nygel.

“You can’t, Marcus,” she said.

His eyes snapped up to her. She had stopped calling him Marcus many years ago. He hadn’t even really noticed it, but it had happened. This was the first time he was hearing his first name roll off her tongue in over a decade.

“Go spend some time in Factory Station. Farm, Hydra,” she explained, shaking her head rather sorrowfully. “The people in those stations will always be needy,” she finished.

It was a sad but true fact that nobody could do much about save for the complete restructuring of the Ark.

Marcus was shaking his head. “I’ll get to her somehow,” he said firmly. “She can’t take blatant advantage of vulnerable people and get away with it.”

Abby inhaled and looked away. She wondered if Marcus had any idea just how many of his guardsmen took bribes. How many of them exchanged sex for goods and the turning of a blind eye. Not to mention, the Family Centre.

“If you’re worried about vulnerable populations,” she spoke, recrossing her arms, “you should start in the Family Centre.”

“The Family Centre?”

Abby swallowed and looked at him. This time, Marcus saw a pain unlike any other on her face. One that she was desperately trying to cover up. She could only meet his eyes briefly before she looked away.

“There’s…” she began but her voice threatened to give out on her, “…there are kids in there, Marcus.”

He stared at her as she spoke. This sounded incredibly important to her. And in this moment, it was important to him, too. But he needed more information. He wished it didn’t look like it hurt for her to provide it.

“And there are officers there that…” this time, her voice did crack.

Abby looked away again as one tear fell down her cheek. Marcus felt that tear like a knife to his otherwise numb heart.

She swallowed away her pain. “The kids in there aren’t always strong enough to fight them off,” Abby said, hoping that her insinuation was clear enough and she did not need to speak the words aloud.

Now, Abby may not have ever been victim to a true assault, but that was not for a lack of trying. Sometimes she still flashbacked to the night that large, old officer entered her room and grabbed her wrists. She could still feel the weight of him as he pressed her down onto her bed. The helplessness.

When those flashbacks would occur, she would have to walk over to the nearest sink and scrub her hands until they were raw otherwise it would feel as though she still had flakes of his skin stuck under her nails from when she had fought him off.

Kane watched her face and knew that she was no longer there with him. She was years away. And she was white as a ghost. He suddenly felt sick for not doing more to protect her, even if he hadn’t known her back when she was in the Family Centre.

Right now, in this moment, he was not sitting across from Dr. Abigail Griffin in this moment. He sat across from seventeen-year-old Abby Everson. Hiding in the length of her long hair, trying to look strong and amicable but scared for her life underneath. Hiding bruises and cuts and broken bones with long sleeves and pants. Flinching whenever somebody made an unexpected movement.

He sat across from the girl that he had been programmed to hate. To hunt. To kill. The girl that he soon learned to respect and want to protect. And as much as he hated the woman that she had become, he still wanted to protect that girl. The one who he had picked up out of a puddle of her own blood. The one who had rested her limp head on his chest and felt his heart beating against her temple.

Perhaps he was a different person to her now. But so was she to him.

And from that point forward, Kane decided that Nygel could wait.

One of the very few times that Abigail Griffin and Marcus Kane managed to put their heads together and work on a project together, they’d managed to prosecute officers both current and former on charges of child molestation and assault while operating out of the Family Centre.

Abby insisted on being present for every flotation and Kane didn’t fight her on that. He should have, based on protocol, but knew how important it was to her. He also didn’t feel as though such monsters deserved anonymity.

An Ark-wide message was spread with that series of high-profile executions. Sexual assault would not be tolerated. Most certainly not the exploitation and abuse of minors. In a space that was meant to provide them with safety.

Councillors Kane and Griffin recorded a message sitting side by side that was broadcasted around the Ark as a public service announcement where they denounced the crimes that had been committed and urged anyone that was a victim of sexual abuse to come forward. They explained that the Guard operated on a twenty-four hour basis and crimes could be reported at any time.

Over the following few months, they saw a rise in the reporting of sexual crimes that climbed 13%.

It was a testament to what the two of them could accomplish when they actually put their heads together and worked on something compatibly. It did not happen often but when it did, it was akin to magic. Just like the good old days.

And at every one of those executions, Abby stared them in the eyes as they were floated. And Kane stared at her. Feeling like even if he couldn’t protect her when she needed it, he could do it retroactively.

She cried every single time that flotation button was pressed. Not out of sadness, but out of joy.

Chapter Text

The new age of politics aboard the Ark proved to be an eruptive one.

Despite their brief alliance taking down the sexual predators aboard the Ark, Councillors Kane and Griffin were back to solidifying their rivalry as they publicly opposed one another on just about every decision that was brought forth. They went head-to-head once a week but didn’t enjoy it the same way that they had when they were kids.

They were too different now. The stakes had changed.

Kane was still trying to nab Nygel, but continuously came up short. He was more focused on politics and the council these days as Chancellor Jaha finished tabling Project Exodus. It was now up to his council to decide whether or not they were going to continuing funnelling resources into the project.

Marcus was, of course, vehemently opposed to it. They’d even brought in an environmental engineer to comment on the status of Earth and the viability of the project – it happened to be Jake Griffin – and he had explained that even he thought it was pointless to waste time on the project as the Earth was more likely than not still livable.

Abby had been largely humiliated for the entire council to see that even her own husband did not support her beliefs, but held true, nonetheless. She had hope for the ground. Faith that they would get home to it one day. She didn’t care if it made her sound like an idiot, which Kane insisted that it did.

Theoretically, the Ark still had plenty of wear left before they needed to start worrying about getting back down to Earth, which wasn’t even set to become livable for another few decades. They had time, but some members of the Council argued that they should begin preparing now, for it wouldn’t hurt to be ready before the clock started ticking against them. Some scientists – the ones that weren’t brought in to comment - believed due to recent research that the Earth may become livable earlier than expected, and wanted to know more. And others believed that they were doing nothing but wasting time thinking about that irradiated planet.

The council discussed many things on a weekly basis. How to advise different stations, revisions to the charter, justice among criminals, the disbursement of resources as quantity and necessity changed. It always came back to Earth. To how long they could eke out an existence aboard the Ark and what they would do if that ever became impossible.

Eventually, when Abby refused to shut up about it, the council voted to let her take on Project Exodus and work on it as she saw fit. Most of them knew that it would never actually come into the picture, but she was so passionate about it that it was easier to let her think that she was doing important work than to have her sit there and argue about it.

She worked with a team of engineers as they worried about communications and how they were going to keep in contact with somebody who was, for example, on Earth. She worked with Earth Monitoring Station on projects that could potentially test the survivability and radiation levels on the planet. She would even pick Jaha’s brain about whether or not he thought it would be best to give people the choice to go back to Earth or stay on board the Ark so long as it was still a viable option.

She tried to solve the biggest issue that had arisen with the Exodus Project – the fact that there were not enough dropships on board the Ark to take all two thousand plus of them to Earth. The Exodus Charter was something that she largely ignored because she knew that Kane would never indulge her and that they would never agree on anything anyways. She was forced to accept the charter that him and Diana Sydney had created and leave it at that.

It was Jake’s work that worried Abby the most. It seemed like he was being called away more often these days because of bugs and trouble in the system. She had the strangest feeling that they were living on borrowed time, they just didn’t know it yet. Maybe that was why she doubled down on the Exodus Charter, even if Jake didn’t think it was necessary.

He had taken a tentative step back from engineering when things ramped up in the department of resources, as he realized that the Ark very frequently malfunctioned, and it would be up to him and his colleagues to both determine whether or not that malfunction was merely a harmless glitch, or going to provide them with their doomsday. Not to mention, he would then have to go about fixing that particular malfunction, which was rarely easy. This was a stressful job, and Jake hadn’t realized how much worry becoming an officer would entail. Knowing that the fate of not only his world, but the world of his family and all the people that he loved, rested in his hands and could fall apart at any given time was not something that allowed him to sleep soundly most nights.

There was a new youth aboard the Ark, a new group of young people to form the Junior Council of Alpha Station and call the world their oyster. The generation that came before them had quickly learned just how fast time can move when you aren’t thinking about it. The idea of one day inheriting the Ark was officially upon them, no longer just a faraway theory.

Jaha was Chancellor, Kane was Chief Guard, him, Abby, and Fuji sat on the Council, their job titles all traded out the word “junior” for “senior,” their time was at hand. And it was a lot more trying than they had expected it to be. No wonder things no longer felt fun.

In four months, Jake Griffin had caught eleven different glitches.

The Ark was indeed acting up. Far more than what was considered usual. He was called into the lab at the rawest hours of the night, time after time. He skipped meals with his family or drinks with his friends to put his head down and iron out the creases in the ship’s systems, and him and his colleagues were growing worried.

For decades now, officers had predicted enough oxygen and resources for at least three more generations of Ark people, but Jake couldn’t help but feel as though a countdown had begun, and they would all soon find themselves on the wrong end of an hourglass.

~~~

It was mid-spring of the year 2142.

Our protagonists – if we could still call them as such – were in their mid-thirties, and navigating brand new waters.

Jake and Abby had celebrated their thirteenth wedding anniversary, Callie had gotten divorced, Clarke and Wells had just turned eleven, Nathan twelve. Maryanne and Ross Fuji were in marriage counselling with one of Abby’s psychologist colleagues attempting to salvage their crumbling union. Jaha had become a beloved Chancellor to his people, and Marcus Kane still headed the department of security, in charge of all arrests and flotations. Recently, been named second in command to the Chancellor. That would make him Chancellor Pro Tempore were anything to happen to Jaha that might incapacitate him or if he were to step down.

Kane had done it. He had gotten to precisely where he’d always intended to be. One more step and he would be chancellor. He claimed that it was because he respected Jaha too much that he did not ever threaten to run against him in the next election, but really it was because he wasn’t an idiot. Nobody would vote for him over Jaha. Hell, nobody would vote for anybody over Jaha.

But among politicians, politicians, officers, and councillors on board the Ark, disagreement ran rampant. It seemed as though half the population took similar stances to Kane in thinking that obeying the law was the most important thing in life, and anyone who strayed was to be fairly executed, while the other half of people longed for a bit more freedom than that, and felt that the Ark was headed down a dark path. Others were workers from lower stations that felt as though they were being ignored by those in Alpha and treated as less important despite doing all the heavy lifting.

Even aboard the Ark, systemic rot could be found.

Still, the Reign of Terror went on. And while Kane was busy executing people left, right, and centre, Abby was still busy with Project Exodus. Any time that was not spent in Medical caring for patients or performing surgeries, she spent in Earth Monitoring Station, conducting test after test, coming up with one hypothesis after the other, as she tried her best to convince the rest of the engineers that the earth was livable, all thanks to a hunch. She believed that the best thing they could do for humanity was return it to its home planet.

She successfully balanced weekly council meetings with her busy medical workload, as well as running tests in Earth Monitoring, spending time with her family, and working on mentoring Clarke to become a junior medic, something that her daughter had been fighting for ever since she’d read her first medical journal.

The glitch that Jake had been working on fixing for the past week and a half now had started to take its toll. While the girls that he loved got home from their busy days and chatted happily among their quarters, sat down to eat together, let themselves separate their work and school lives from their home lives, Jake would come home exhausted and late, and all he wanted to do was rant about the hardships that he was facing at work, though neither Abby nor Clarke could ever understand the concepts that he dealt with enough to grasp what he was saying, let alone to offer any input or advice. Sometimes he felt like an outcast in his own home, though he knew that was just the stress talking.

Abby telling him to keep his chin up and stay positive used to be something endearing to Jake, something that reminded him of why he’d fallen in love with her hopeless optimism and bright promises of hope. But they now fell upon deaf ears. He did not want to hear that all he needed to do was trust himself and his systems, that was useless to him. In fact, when the best advice she could offer began to revolve around the concept of hope, it nearly drove him up a wall, and the happily married couple had started arguing far too often.

Abby couldn’t understand why Jake let himself become sick with worry over the things that he could never control, and he couldn’t understand the ways in which she often let herself wish on stars for the best positive outcome and throw herself in harm’s way just so that she could continue to do what she thought was right.

Constantly offering up a naïve, sometimes laughable opinion in front of the entire council without fear of the consequences, countering nearly every single rule that the ruthless Chief of Security was trying to implement, lodging herself under the Chancellor’s skin so that she became untouchable, and spending hour after hour working on a project that had nothing to base itself on. Jake began to worry that one day, his flighty, headstrong wife would get herself floated, and there was nothing he could possibly do about it.

Sometimes, that fear consumed him more than the end of days aboard the Ark did. And with Chief Guard Kane running the show, it was more of a possibility than any of them liked to admit.

Nonetheless, Abby’s strong will and determination had insisted that she become extremely well known and highly respected. Head of Medical, a known figure around Earth Monitoring, working with engineers, a senior councillor, close friend to the Chancellor – the name Dr. Abigail Griffin was one that everyone knew, for all the right reasons. A far cry from only being known for her crimes.

While Marcus Kane instilled fear, Abby Griffin ignited hope.

This afternoon, right after the lunch hour, Abby had been teaching Clarke how to suture using a piece of artificial skin, as she’d found herself ahead of schedule and surrounded by an empty Sick Bay. She was about to remark what steady hands her daughter had been gifted with – a quality she certainly didn’t pick up from her mother as it had taken Abby years to maintain the steady hands that she now had during surgery – when she heard the pager on the wall begin to alert an incoming message.

“This is Dr. Griffin,” she answered quickly, knowing that there was likely a patient coming her way.

Clarke read the room and moved the supplies off the table that they were using to make way for whatever emergency had presented itself.

Abby wasn’t surprised to hear the voice of Eric Jackson on the other end. He had just graduated from his primary academic education in Orchid Station and was now taking medical classes. Abby had gotten him set up in the front of Medical when he came to her with an interest in such a field.

He didn’t quite have the grades to get through medical studies, but after hearing how desperate the young boy was to make the world a little bit better since losing his mother to a terrible cancer, she’d decided that she was going to make him a doctor, no matter what. For now, the best she could do for him was to have him check patients in and out and gain a bit of experience before he became a surgeon under her guidance.

“Councillor Kane and Commander Shumway just came through with a patient,” Jackson’s voice crackled through the comm. “He says that they’re keeping him under Guard watch while you work on him.”

This did not alarm Abby. She had never been afraid of prisoners. Mainly because she knew that the majority of them were not even dangerous. Besides, she treated them often. She figured that it was potentially a kid from the Skybox in need of some medical attention. That was the most typical instance.

“I sent them your way,” Jackson added.

“Thank you, Jackson,” Abby nodded before hanging up the pager phone.

She was impressed by the young man lately and knew that she had made the right choice in taking him under her wing.

“Clarke,” she began, snapping on a pair of latex gloves, “I’ve got a patient from lockup coming in. You might as well head home for the rest of the afternoon.”

There was nothing else here for the girl to do, and she knew that Jake was expected home early tonight what with it being Unity Day, so giving the two people she loved more than anything in the world some father-daughter time was something she’d be happy to encourage.

“Aw, Mom,” Clarke immediately whined.

She longed for the true rush that came with working in Medical, and this would be the perfect opportunity.

“Can’t I stay and help?”

“Clarke–” Abby shook her head.

“Or even just watch,” the young girl continued to beg, her blonde hair bouncing over her shoulders as she pleaded. “I promise, I won’t even say a word. You won’t know I’m here.”

“I’m sorry, honey,” Abby couldn’t help but smile at her enthusiasm. “I don’t even know the situation, but I can guarantee Kane won’t like you staying to watch.”

“Oh, but you hate Kane!” Clarke insisted, hoping to appeal to her mother’s sense of natural rebellion when it came to Councillor Kane.

Clarke only knew that him and her mother hated each other, and that he used to be friends with her father. She didn’t sense any animosity between Jake and Kane, but between him and her mother, however, was another story entirely. She didn’t quite understand where the hatred came form, nor why one of the framed photographs from their wedding that they kept on the coffee table was of the two of them and Kane, of all people, smiling and laughing like the best of friends.

Why keep such a cruel reminder of a man you hate? There were certain things that she would never understand about her mother. But she also never asked. She didn’t particularly like Kane either, based on what she’d heard about him.

Abby let out a breathy laugh and practically pushed her daughter out through the door at the back of the room, so that she wouldn’t have to walk down the main corridor and get in the way of the Guard and their incoming prisoner.

“As much as you know I would love to piss him off,” she said, reaching for the hair tie around her wrist, “you’re going to have to sit this one out.”

And with that, Clarke was gone with a pout. Abby was sure to hear all about it later tonight over dinner.

Hitting a button on the side of the wall that allowed the automatic doors to slide open, Abby met Kane, Shumway, and the prisoner in the main hallway.

“Oh, my God,” Abby muttered as she took in the unfamiliar man’s swollen face and bloody hand that Shumway was holding behind his back to prevent from running. “Can you not hold his arm like that? It might be fractured,” she demanded.

Abby gathered up her hair and working on tying it back into a ponytail so that it would be out of her way when she got down to business.

Kane instantly let out a sharp sigh and moved himself between Shumway and Abby, rolling his eyes as he did so.

“He’s restraining the prisoner, Dr. Griffin,” he jabbed sarcastically, rather impatient given the circumstances.

Abby shook her head, equally as impatient, as she attempted to get around Kane to get a better look at the hand that was dripping with blood. He wished she would at least wait until they got into the Med Bay. There was nothing that she could do for him out here.

“What happened?”

Wanting to get this over with without having to trample over her as she continued to try and get around him, Kane placed an urging hand on Abby’s side to keep her moving in the direction of the medical chamber, where they could get some real work done.

“Let us worry about that part,” he said firmly.

Abby did as she was urged and got her legs moving, but she couldn’t help but take frequent glances backwards at the prisoner. It looked like he must have been in a fight of some kind. And judging by the fact that both Kane and Shumway’s knuckles were free of bruises and blood, she had to assume that it was a domestic disturbance of some kind, rather than resisting arrest. She was familiar.

“Just clean him up,” Kane demanded when they got into the room.

Following that particular demand, Abby sent him a sharp look, and Kane almost looked as though he regretted taking that tone with the exacting woman before him.

Growing irritated by his constant orders - even in her area of expertise - Abby bit her tongue and got down to business as the prisoner was led to the table, where he sat silently as he let Abby clean him up. Instantly, she knew that he was not dangerous

Shumway and Kane had positioned themselves on either side of the table, and watched the man’s movements impeccably, knowing that they couldn’t exactly tie him down by his hands when they were the very issues that needed attention.

Doing her best to cancel the two members of the Guard out of her thoughts as she worked, Abby tried to remain focused on sterilizing the wound. The man’s face would need treating first and foremost, as there was a laceration beneath his eye, which was purple and swollen shut. She cleaned the wound thoroughly and gave him some numbing cream before moving on to suturing. Kane wished that she wouldn’t waste painkillers on prisoners.

The tense silence was broken by a staticky message coming through Commander Shumway’s shoulder pager. Abby couldn’t make out the words, but him and Kane shared a look of acknowledgement. Clearly, Shumway was needed elsewhere.

Kane took a long look at his prisoner, sitting defenselessly on Abby’s table, fully at her mercy. He knew violent criminals, and this man wasn’t one. He’d merely been defending himself, and now he was done, and complicit. He nodded at Shumway.

“Go ahead,” Kane stated, standing up taller as he clasped his hands behind his back.

Abby felt something tighten inside of her and later placed the feeling as dread. She hated being alone with Kane. It had been some time since it had happened.

Shumway mumbled something into his pager before leaving the room, just as quickly as he’d entered.

After a few minutes, Abby leaned backwards to take a look at her handiwork before reaching out to take the man’s bloody hand into consideration. She winced when he winced, knowing how painful his injury looked. He appeared to have a few broken fingers in addition to his knuckles, which were cut and bruised. Whoever this man was, he was not an experienced puncher.

Taking his hand into hers to begin the same examination process, Abby began to realize that things were not adding up, so she figured she’d give it another go.

“What happened?” She asked again, wiggling the man’s fingers to check for motor functions, which left him wincing.

The prisoner sighed once, shaking his head solemnly.

“It wasn’t my fault,” he muttered gruffly, a certain element of passion behind his sorrowed eyes showing that he really meant what he said.

Kane cleared his throat harshly. “Don’t talk to her,” he ordered.

Abby’s eyes snapped up towards the impossible man. Why he insisted on doing his job a little too well under all circumstances, she would never understand. He let a silence pass between them, and it became clear to Abby that she was not going to get an answer from either of them.

She dropped her hands to her sides. “I can’t treat him properly if I don’t know how the injuries were sustained.”

Finally, the Chief of the Guard gave in. He usually did, where she was involved.

“He took a punch, he threw a punch,” Kane nodded curtly. “That’s all you need to know.”

There really wasn’t much reason to keep things so secret. The prison records were open to all councillors. She would find out the minute that he was floated, which he very likely would be. However, Kane knew very well that her opinion on what was currently happening to the man would be a strong one, and it would counter everything that Kane was in the process of having pan out.

The man was a worker from Factory Station. He’d caught a colleague of his stealing his supplies and attempted to take matters into his own hands when, unfortunately, a fight broke out between the two men. The original culprit had been taken off into custody, and his wounds weren’t even taken into consideration, as he would be floated for his crimes in the morning.

However, the man at Abby’s table was a different story. Technically, brawling was enough to get someone floated, but because he was attempting to stop an even bigger crime, his case would have to be reviewed by the Guard, and if they couldn’t come to a unanimous decision, it would go to the council. And Kane knew that if Abby had anything to say about it, she’d do everything in her power to have the man walk free. She was too soft-hearted, which is precisely why he had no interest in discussing the matter with her now, for she’d likely just chastise him for even taking him into custody. When it was time to fight about it, they could.

Kane could hear her sighing as she worked and knew that he was being particularly difficult, but he hadn’t a care in the world beyond ensuring that this man was brought to proper justice. If he had to endure the cold shoulder from the head of Medical in order to do so, that was a very small price to pay. Typically, she didn’t need a reason.

Once she was finished stitching up what she could on his hand, Abby bandaged two of his fingers together tightly and snipped the extra material off.

“You have two broken fingers and some very badly bruised knuckles,” she spoke directly to the patient, treating him like the human being that Kane refused to.

Speaking of whom, it took everything inside of him not to ask how she knew of his broken bones without so much as an X-ray, but knew better than to attack her medical abilities, which were more than competent.

“Try to rest that hand and do your best not to sleep on this side of your face,” she finished by gesturing to his right side, which she’d just stitched up for him.

Wanting to thank her verbally but afraid of risking punishment from the brutal man standing to his side, the prisoner merely nodded his appreciation and kept his mouth shut as he let Kane order him up to his feet and start to usher him out of the room.

Abby had turned herself around to discard of the jar of numbing ointment she’d been using that had now run dry, but when she felt Kane nearing her from behind her back, she flipped back around to snidely bid him farewell.

“You’re impossible to work with,” she glared up at him as she muttered, previously unaware that he’d come so close to her before she turned around.

As he’d been on his way out, Kane stared down at her in displeasure, as he’d wanted nothing more than to leave her presence without any more words passed between them.

He sneered in her face once, casting a bitter shadow over her as he brooded.

“Happy Unity Day, Councillor,” he muttered, but fled the scene before she could retaliate and really start a fight.

~~~

No matter the political climate, no matter how meagre of a year it had been, no matter how many families had fallen apart, everybody loved Unity Day. Various holidays were celebrated around the winter solstice depending on the religious beliefs of the members of the Ark, but everybody celebrated Unity Day. Together and in the same way. While it wasn't feasible to give everybody the whole day off, workstations closed at the midday point, allowing workers to take the rest of the day off and spend it with their families.

For station representatives, councillors, sector heads, and chief officers, the annual pageant was performed in the Mess Hall, and a speech was made by the chancellor. It may not have been possible to fit all two thousand plus Ark citizens in the Mess Hall, the ceremony was recorded and broadcasted live all over the Ark. Children in primary academics over in Orchid Station performed the pageant, which wasn't much to write home about, but it was all they had. It was their story.

Marucs Kane was in a right foul mood all day. He wasn't one for days of celebration. According to experience, crime went up. People grew more politically unsettled, drug and alcohol consumption skyrocketed leading to, of course, bad decisions made by intoxicated people. He often ended up working long hours of overtime on Unity Day and remaining stressed out for the duration of those hours, just waiting for the next disaster.

Today, Shumway was on the late shift. Kane trusted the commander and luckily did not feel as though he would have to worry after he clocked out and left it all in Shumway's capable hands. In the evening, he would attend the gala for the high-ranking officers right back here in the Mess Hall and not think about work. Until then, he was grumpy. He'd already stopped the brawl earlier down in Factory Station and it hadn't been pleasant. The trip to Medical had been even more unpleasant.

This morning, while the group of fifteen or so young children dressed up in their costumes, held their flags, and turned in a large circle while telling the Unity Day story of how all the stations of the Ark came together to form the society that they know and love today, he stood on the outskirts wearing a frown, his hands clasped behind his back. Kane was in full uniform as he paced slowly around the room, taking in every person and every entrance.

If there was one other thing that political holidays were known for it, it was acts of revolution. The Ark had never seen anything catastrophic, but unrest grew larger with every year that past. There were a few radicals from the lower stations who tried things every now and again. Kane had no interest in seeing a group of children caught in the crossfire.

So, while the rest of the room smiled tenderly down at the children, remembering when their own kids were small like that, Kane continued to frown. Even when his mother smiled at him from across the room. Even when Jaha gave him a friendly nod. Even when Callie tried making eyes at him. Even as he moved to stand somewhere behind Councillor Griffin and he watched as her entire body tensed just because he was there. He did not lose his frown even then, but he did stop to wonder how there had ever been a time when him and Abby did anything other than loathe one another.

Kane did not relax even when the pageant was finished without incident and the rest of the Mess Hall applauded for the children, giddy with pride. Guardsman Miller and Commander Shumway followed the children out of the room as they were led back to Orchid Station by their teachers, as was protocol. But Kane and the rest of his squad remained in the room. The crowd always lingered in here longer than it needed to - considering there were no refreshments offered, or further speeches made

Most people knew that if Marcus Kane was in uniform, it meant that he was working. Nobody bothered him when he was working, because he was more of a robot than a human being. If he had been in plain clothes today attending the pageant as a councillor and chief officer, old friends and acquaintance might have tried to make casual conversation. Today, it was only his mother who had tried, and Kane had to wave her away, muttering, "I'm working, mom."

Vera instead stood over on one side of the room chattering with Abby, who still wore her lab coat - meaning that she too was working and had only stepped away long enough to watch the ceremony, but would always have time for a friendly conversation. This would always irritate Kane to see. His mother forming an unbreakable alliance with his enemy. It was insulting and it only reminded him of days long ago when he was a weaker man.

He had no idea what they were discussing - nor did he care - but he had a feeling that it had to do with him, because Abby kept warily glancing over at him. When Chancellor Jaha joined the conversation, Kane only continued to ignore them all.

Abby, however, did look over at him every now and again. Not because she wished he'd come over here, but because she could remember a time when he would have. When her, Vera, Marcus, and Thelonious could all catch up with each other like any other mother and her son's friends. Marcus had always been reluctant about it, but at least he spent some time with his mother, who was aging before their very eyes. She wouldn't be young forever.

Today, she stared at him because she pitied him, though Kane had done it all to himself. He had no love in his life. His thirties would soon be behind him, he had no wife, no child, no passion, and the only real family had had left, he ignored. All he had was political power. Abby pondered this and realized what he had done. He had traded his whole life away for it. His love, his time, his heart, all traded away for the sake of shaking the right hands and learning as many inside truths as possible. It was because he had no love that he had gotten as far as he had. But Abby had to wonder just how much farther he'd be if he did let himself love. Maybe he wouldn't need to execute so many people just to feel like he was accomplishing something.

~~~

The Mess Hall had been decorated in typical fashion for tonight's gala. Flags of the former twelve stations hung like a banner around the ceiling, and a table was laid out with delicacies that were only indulged in once a year. Celebratory foods, fancy beverages. One day, they wouldn't be able to do this anymore. They would run out of supplies and be condemned to the tasteless grains that they ate throughout the rest of the year. But for now, the treats remained. As did champagne, which came from a 92-year-old reserve in Farm Station.

Every station had their own gathering with similar goodies and festivities. Though down in Factory and Farm Station, things tended to get a little rowdier. Considering Alpha Station lodged mainly officers and politicians, almost the entire station itself was in the Mess Hall. Still, their rec room would likely be used for a smaller gathering of those who were tired of rubbing shoulders with the higher ranks.

The officers and representatives usually did their best to get dressed up for the event. Typically, folks wore the same suit or dress every year - most people on board the Ark only had one nice outfit that they reused for as long as they could. There were few musicians around the Ark, but the same group of them was hired every year to play some nice, classical, familiar music.

Station representatives and sector heads adored it. It made them feel luxurious, celebrated, fancy. Kane enjoyed standing tall as somebody that everybody knew, Jaha loved trying to show his people a well-deserved good time, but Abby though tit was all superfluous. She didn't like how hoity toity it made Alpha Station seem - to commandeer the entire Mess hall while the other stations had to party in their rec rooms and get busted by the Guard for doing so.

Maybe that's why she was not in attendance today.

Kane did what he did best and made obligatory conversation and the chancellor did the same, though he at least seemed more genuine about it. But Callie Cartwig and Maryanne Fuji stood together in the corner, sipping on champagne and trying not to talk to anyone but themselves. They were sick of politics. David and Celine Miller sat at a small table with Marceline Love, looking as though they were trying to disappear from the scene entirely. And where were Jake and Abby?

It was no doubt what the group of friends, scattered separately around the room longed for. The rec room. The old days when it was just them listening to music, sneaking moonshine, flirting and laughing together. Back before they had to look their best and present themselves without a weakness at these events.

It wasn't unusual that the Griffins hadn't arrived yet. They were still usually late. Abby had been home since earlier that afternoon getting ready for the party, helping Clarke with some homework and doing her hair. But Jake had worked late, despite promising that he wouldn't. And though it was done through gritted teeth and minced voices - sparked out of love for one another, as usual - the married couple had begun to bicker about it.

Things had been better between Jake and Abby. What with Clarke now in medical training, it meant that Abby too spent more time at work. It was easier to forget how long her husband spent doing the same if she was able to keep herself preoccupied. There was no time to argue because they were both so busy and tired. Instead, they'd kiss one another on the cheek when they got home and settle in for a quiet night together with their daughter.

Tonight was a different story. Because Jake had promised that he wouldn't be late. That Clarke and Abby wouldn't have to show up without him and really raise suspicion. Fighting with Jake was different than fighting with anyone else Abby knew. Now, she didn't have much experience in the realm of romance, but she had known fighting.

When her and Danny would fight, it would scare her. Because it was usually followed by a painful physical blow or some kind of psychological torment. Kane had never been a romantic experience - she told herself, anyways - but she could remember fighting with him too. It used to make her feel invigorated, alive. Nowadays, it filled her with a rising dread and a true, bitter hatred. Fighting with Jake hurt. It hurt in a more intimate, personal way than either other man. It hurt because she cared. Because she only ever fought with him out of love, and to try to convey to him that he was hurting her. It hurt because she knew that she was hurting him, too. That was love. It hurt.

And while the Griffins bickered as Jake finally got home two hours later than promised and dragged his feet getting ready for the party, Chancellor Jaha had noticed the unrest among his friends in the room. Ninety-five percent of the people at that party were overjoyed just to be there. A dwindling five percent looked like they couldn't wait for it to be over. That's when he got the ball rolling. And Thelonious knew just how to do it.

Callie Cartwig couldn't keep a secret if her life depended on it. In fact, he worried that one day it just might. But he knew that all he'd have to do is put the bug in her ear and soon enough, she'd have everyone else involved caught up to speed. He told her that they should inconspicuously peel out of here and head back to Alpha where they could reconvene in the rec room. There, they wouldn't have to listen to this beautiful but rather boring classical music. There, they could enjoy moonshine over tasteless champagne. They could relax.

It took no time at all for the rendezvous to happen. The friends were eager to get away from that party. Though they still hadn't arrived yet, Wells had sent a message to Clarke's tablet telling her not to bother heading to the Mess Hall, as the real party was taking place in the rec room instead. Jaha stole a tray of desserts and did a once over of the room. His friends had all successfully snuck off. With the tray behind his back and a devilish grin on his face, Jaha did the same.

They felt out of place in the rec room, but not to the same extent as they had in the Mess Hall. The memories began to come alive as soon as the room filled up. Days long ago, much younger years. Back before they all got married and started having kids. When the world was at their feet and none of them knew exactly what to expect, but they all had big hopes and dreams. The future was here, and for most people in this room, it did not look quite how they had imagined.

While Celine had ducked out to grab something, Jaha hooked up the old gramophone and selected one of their old favourites. The same old records were still stored in the table upon which the gramophone rested. Wells could do nothing but bide his time waiting for his friend and her tardy family, but Sergeant David Miller was making polite conversation with him. His son Nate was in Wells' class, but they weren't friends. Nate was a bit wayward. David wished that he would spend more time with kids like Clarke and Wells, who could point him down a better path.

Already having indulged in their share of champagne back in the Mess Hall, Callie and Maryanne found themselves drunk no sooner than the moonshine was introduced into the mix. They still sat together on one of the couches now cackling like parrots in a language that only they seemed to be able to understand. Callie was known to be a bit more wild - as a public relations officer, she could always clean up her own messes - but Maryanne usually had to be a bit more careful. She was the wife of a councillor, after all. But Ross had insisted that he wouldn't dare leave the event in the Mess Hall, so she had gone on without him.

Everyone was taken aback when Marcus Kane showed up, his nice suit jacket folded over his arm. If anyone should want to stay in the Mess Hall for the sake of image alone, it was him. But even he must have grown tired of the obligatory atmosphere and decided to take a walk down memory lane. There had been a time when even he had been happy here. Making friends, sharing stories, being himself.

As usual, it took a while for the old group to warm up to him. Almost everyone had been affected by Kane's Reign of Terror in some way. Be it losing a loved one to a flotation or having their reputation brought into question all because he had countered them somewhere along the line. Nobody was safe from the emotionless man. But there had indeed been a time when he was a friend. They were all trying their best to remember that tonight.

But Kane endeared himself to the room by taking over the refreshments. He had smuggled in a bottle of aged whiskey from his own quarters - some took it as a peace offering. Proof that tonight, he understood that prohibition was lifted, and he could still have just as much fun as the rest of them. He was making drinks by mixing the whiskey with some moonshine - a relatively lethal combination - and only he knew the perfect amounts to combine.

Kane didn't even notice the Griffins' absence until Celine returned and with her an old photo album. Back in the day, she had always been taking pictures of them using her camera. Not many people around here had one and she was more than happy to catalogue her friends' lives as they all grew up. She took to the couch in between the two girls and the rest of the friends squeezed in beside or around them as she opened the book. Kane and Jaha both stood stoically behind the couch, looking down over everyone's heads.

It being Celine's camera, most of the pictures were of David. It was clear who she loved the most. But scattered throughout the book were photographs of a different time. Not particularly better, but certainly different. Jaha felt his eyes welling up as pictures of his late wife Clementine could be seen, Callie hid her face in her hands as she could be seen with various questionable haircuts that she swore were all the rage at the time, they poked fun at Kane for the frown that he always wore. There were lots of Abby with her hair all shoulder-length and slowly growing. She was always laughing and smiling.

That's when Kane realized that her and Jake never showed up tot he Mess Hall, nor were they here now. He didn't care enough to wonder what was going on with them, merely observe their absence. He did feel the whispers of something within him when he saw those old pictures, he just never let it come to any true fruition within him. He tried not to think of the brief period where him and Abby couldn't define their relationship if they tried. After her move to Alpha and before her dating Jake. But pictures of that time spoke for themselves.

The two of them could be seen in the background arguing over something trivial, jostling one another back and forth. But more than that, sometimes he'd catch glimpses of her being caught smiling up at him secretly or gazing over at him from afar. Those were the pictures that he did not want to see. Because it all spoke to something that people had told him. Something that even his gut had told him. That back in the day, Abby had wanted him. In a romantic sort of way. She wanted him and because he never thought he had a real chance, he'd bitten his tongue. There was more to it than that, of course, but had he known that she was interested, would things perhaps be different?

Kane allowed himself only that brief moment of questioning. When Celine turned the page and the picture disappeared, so did his thoughts. It wouldn't have mattered. Even if he had made a move on her, it was for the best that he didn't. He couldn't have somebody like her corrupting his mindset, getting in the way of his goals. He had always known that he would choose political power over his heart. Even if he'd held all the cards back then, even if he could read her mind, he told himself now that he still would have chosen the same path. Kane turned away from the whole thing then and carefully began to nurse a glass of moonshine.

Wells appeared - bored without his friend - and struck up a conversation about joining the Guard when he was older. Kane was more than happy to answer the boy's questions. He would love to one day pull some strings and get Wells onto the guard so that his father would owe him a favour. Jaha joined in on the conversation not long after and knew what Kane was doing, but indulged, nonetheless.

A commotion over at the entrance finally brought forth the Griffins' arrival. Jaha and Wells had been chatting with Kane over on that side of the room, so they were the only ones who could really hear what was going on. It surprised even them.

Once Clarke came through the door - rather briskly - there was no use in making any more conversation with Wells. His attention had been completely stolen. The girl wore a beautiful dress the colour of light blue like the way that people on Earth used to see the sky during the day. It had little yellow stars all over it and her eyes were dusted with a makeup the same pigment as her dress. But as nice as she looked, the girl was clearly upset about something.

The two older men shared a look as they watched Wells begin to ignore them once Clarke had come into the room. They knew what that was all about and both raised their glasses to their lips, taking a swallow as they mentally narrated the ways in which boys never changed. Not where girls were involved, anyways.

"Woah," Wells said when Clarke fully arrived - it certainly didn't take a genius to see that she was clearly upset. "What's wrong?"

Jaha looked on curiously, but Kane's attention was drawn to the doorway when Clarke had subconsciously glanced back at it. The door still hung open about halfway - giving a perfect view of her parents who were obviously in the middle of a spat of some kind. Rolling her eyes, Clarke looked away with a sharp sigh.

Her parents weren't perfect, she knew that. She had a loving childhood, and she knew that they both adored each other, but they bickered and fought just like any other couple. The most irritating part was that they assumed Clarke didn't notice. Of course, she did. Any child would.

"Nothing," she said firmly, "come on."

Clarke took Wells' arm and dragging him over to the little table in the corner so that they could sit down to their usual game of chess. Jaha had just taught him to play, and Jake very quickly did the same for Clarke so that Wells couldn't beat her without a fight.

At this point, it was impossible for Jaha or Kane to unsee what they saw. They could, however, pretend that they never did. Neither could think of a time when they had ever seen Jake and Abby fighting or even bickering. It felt as though they had just witnessed an intimate, private moment. The couple itself didn't seem to think about the fact that anyone else might be listening inadvertently. 

Were their body language and words not quite so tense and sharp, they would have looked perfectly suited to today's occasion. Jake was wearing his old denim button up shirt paired with his only black pants. Abby still wore the same dress that she'd been wearing to Unity Days since she was hardly twenty years old. It was a medium blue slip beneath a piece of sheer black material that darkened the look of the dress and had some darker black designs embroidered around the hem and by the neckline. Aurora's old handiwork. None of the Alpha Station residents had even seen Aurora Blake in over ten years now. Abby looked cold even if the exposed portion of her legs were covered in sheer tights - fraying in places - and she pulled a grey shawl tighter around her upper body as her and Jake argued.

"Is this just how things are now, Jake?" Abby was saying, hurt evident in her voice. "We can't even have a normal night together as a family?"

Kane and Jaha glanced at each other once - just long enough to awkwardly confirm that they were both seeing and hearing the same thing - before their eyes went down and they tried their best to strike up a conversation that couldn't seem to stick.

There was a certain kind of tightness to Abby's voice that told even the most obtuse of listeners what was going on. A tightness that suggested she was walking the fine line between sorrow and anger. Regardless, she was holding back tears that, knowing her, were likely unwanted.

It was Unity Day. It was a party that the family - or so she thought - had been looking forward to all year. One night where they didn't have to think about work or life or any worries. And getting Jake to that party had been like pulling teeth. He'd come home late, took his time, made it clear that he was distracted and disinterested, and now he was telling Abby that he really had to head back to the lab, as his apprentice had paged a few minutes ago. He figured it would be fine, especially considering they weren't even going to the important party anyways. But they were going to the one that was important to Abby, Jake just didn't seem to realize that.

Abby didn't care about showing up alone to this party because she worried that her friends might wonder where Jake was. She wanted him there to be with him. To spend so much needed time together outside of their quarters, like they used to. Now, he couldn't even indulge her in that. And even if he did, she knew that she would stand there beside him unable to enjoy herself because she knew that he was only there to please her and that he'd rather be back at work. She wasn't sure how long she could go on like this.

“Abby, honey,” Jake insisted, giving her an unmovable look. “You know–”

“I know,” she interrupted, and Jake dropped his expression. “I know that the world we live in is a fragile one and that certain sacrifices need to be made in order to keep everything functioning, I know, Jake," she said.

The truth of the matter was that Abby did not want the same fate for her husband as she had seen Marcus Kane condemn himself to. She did not want Jake trading any of his time for anything. She wanted him to live. With her. With Clarke. Just live and remember what was important in this life.

"I get it," Abby continued to insist, and really meant it. "I do."

“So, you know why I have to go,” he tried to interject in a low voice, but Abby was not finished making her point yet.

"But you're not the only one in that lab," she reminded him sharply. "You don't always have to be the one who goes running every time there's an alert. Let somebody else deal with it sometimes so that you don't waste so many good days on work that any other engineer could be doing."

Abby raised her voice now not because she was angry but because she was desperate. And oh, so tired. Tired of watching her husband choose his work over everything else. She did not feel as though she was asking for the impossible, but her and Jake tended to look at things differently these days.

Jake and Kane shared another uncomfortable raising of eyebrows from back within the room. 

Meanwhile, Jake gritted his teeth and raised his own voice. His wife was being more unreasonable that usual tonight, or so he happened to think. Did she not understand how high the stakes were? Did she not understand that in the end, all the work that he put in was for the greater good. Their greater good. So that her and Clarke could go on breathing clean air and not worrying about rations. Couldn't she see that?

"It's Unity Day, honey. It's the same every year," he explained to her. "I can miss one night at some frivolous party, but I can't miss one glitch in the Ark's system. I can't just not correct it and let things malfunction for the night," his tone sounded harsh now. "Where's your head, Abby?" He added, despite it not really being necessary.

They both knew that this argument was not being made with Abby's head, but instead with her heart.

She blinked back an expression of hurt and pinched her lips together, worried that she might cry. Abby knew that this was just one bad night and soon enough her and Jake would be back on Cloud Nine as though it had never happened, but she also knew that there would continue to be one-off nights like this. One day, she would be back here in this moment fighting for her love. Hurt by the man that she loves. All because they could not longer see eye to eye.

The worst part of it all was that Abby understood. Jake was right, the Ark was the bigger picture, and it was more important. He had to monitor the world in which they lived, of course he did. But what about the family that she always wanted? What about the life that she was promised the day that she took his last name? She could understand and still not agree with his choices.

"Jake," Abby said, pleading now. "I know how important your job is. You know that you have my support on this, but-"

“Do I, Abby?” Jake demanded suddenly, leveling his voice as if he was tossing out some kind of accusation.

His wife lowered her eyebrows and narrowed her eyes, wondering what he was asking her. He was certainly doubting her, and that wasn’t something that their marriage could afford.

“What?” Abby asked, but feared his answer.

“Do I know that I have your support?”

Jake knew that he was being ridiculous. Abby truly did give him her best. She let him wander off for hours in the lab without raising too much trouble, she doted on him and always greeted him with kisses on cheeks and hugs from behind while asking about his day. She nurtured the relationship between him and Clarke and even let the girl go on believing that Jake was the fun parent because he wasn't around often enough to do any of the discipline. But there were things that unsettled him about their marriage. And all sorts of sunken oddities could rise to the surface of a poisoned lake after the waters turned rough.

Abby steeled herself, leveling her voice. "You have my support," she confirmed, staring up at him with a certain element of coldness behind her eyes. "Until you put your own life at risk."

"My life isn't at risk, Abby," he said in a low voice.

"I don't mean your survival, Jake," she retaliated firmly. "I mean your life. Your time. That's what you're putting at risk."

Jake - much like she did - understood. But still had to disagree. His tone shifted, no longer angry. "We're always at risk, honey," he reminded her, shoving his hands into the pockets of his pants. "We don't always have the luxury of time."

Abby fought off a grimace. Her husband sounded like Marcus Kane. Someone that she never wanted him to sound like.

She nodded - realizing that there would be no changing Jake's mind. "We're not getting any younger, Jake," Abby said as a closing remark. "Neither is Clarke."

After a faint crackling of static, a voice registered through Jake’s pager.

“Jake,” the muffled message sounded, “you on your way, boss?” Abby recognized the voice of Jake’s laboratory apprentice.

She gave him a look that he couldn’t read. Abby was waiting for him to make a final decision, waiting for him to twist the knife that he’d accidentally already wounded her with.

“I’m sorry,” he said, shaking his head as he took a few steps backwards, away from Abby and the warm scene through the doors behind her. “I’ve got to go.”

Abby let herself stand alone for nearly an entire minute as she watched the man that she loved turn away from her and flee the scene, making his urgent way down to the lab that he’d only just left a few hours ago. She felt one bitter tear stream down her cheek and hoped that it hadn’t stained any of the makeup she’d applied earlier, back when she was actually excited about attending the festivities tonight.

By the time she had pulled herself together, let out a ragged sigh, and tilted her chin upwards, Kane and Jaha had lingered, but done their best to angle their bodies towards each other, so as not to indicate that they’d been eavesdropping well enough to hear every word. It would appear as though nobody was safe from the tension of trying to survive on a space station. Kane felt rather smug thinking that if she had taken his lead and now allowed herself the luxury of love and connection, she wouldn't be crying in the hallway right now.

The woman whose marital struggles they suddenly knew far too much about arrived on Jaha and Kane's scene shortly thereafter, acting as though everything was fine. Now, Abby was good at smiling. But she was not good at faking it. Tonight, she didn't even bother. Even if it meant that both the Chancellor and the Chief of the Guard would know that she was miserable. She could hold her head up high all she wanted, the look on her face was unmistakable. Besides, they'd witnessed the whole altercation anyways. Kane was at least thankful for the fact that he still knew and trusted Jake, even if they weren’t particularly friends. He didn't have to worry that he might snap and hit his wife, the same way that he used to have to worry about Abby with a different partner.

As he usually did, Kane clammed up when Abby approached. Not because he was uncomfortable but because he didn't trust her. She was always looking to start arguments. He shrugged his mouth and made a point of ceasing his conversation, but Jaha offered only a warm, knowing smile.

“Abby,” he welcomed her warmly, and her eyes softened upon landing on a friendly face. “You look like you could use a drink.”

She glanced upwards at him, wondering how bad of a job she must have been doing at pretending everything was okay if the chancellor did not hesitate to make such assumptions.

“Lucky for you,” he placed his left hand on Kane’s shoulder, who now raised his eyebrows and looked over at his Chancellor, “Kane's been making doubles.”

Kane did not want to indulge Dr. Griffin with a drink tonight. The olive branch was for the rest of the room, not for her. But the chancellor had all but ordered it. And he couldn't be rude. He gave Abby a relatively blank look and nodded towards the table a few years away, which the pair approached tentatively, just hoping that they wouldn't be forced into any conversation.

It was strange being back in this room with these people. Following Marcus Kane towards a table full of contraband. It was so utterly familiar to her and yet nothing about this felt recognizable. Abby stood quietly as the man found her a cup, and she found herself staring as he did so. He didn't look at that different from when he had been young and someone that she considered a friend and perhaps even a bit more. But something about him was now so foreign to her. Maybe there was too much bad blood between them for Abby to see clearly.

She was different to him as well. Her face looked the same, her smile the same, eyes the usual brown. But she was different from the headstrong young girl that he once knew. Now, she was a headstrong woman who fought against him no matter the circumstances. But that's not why she looked different to him. She looked different because now she was a wife. A mother. A senior officer.  She, too, was foreign.

And where Abby was once comfortable around Marcus Kane even though he intimidated everyone else, she was now strangely nervous. The Reign of Terror was real. He was known for executions and arrests and practicing little to no discretion. He was a ruthless hangman is what he was, and it was only a matter of time before he started taking the people that she cared about Again.

Today, as he made her a drink, Abby looked up at the man and found herself unable to meet his eyes. As though if she even so much as looked at him wrong, he would have her sentenced to death. Now, not only was he a stranger to her, but he was a dangerous one.

He noticed her staring and wasn't going to say anything, but he had been drinking tonight too. He wasn't drunk, but it had loosened him up. He couldn't read the look on her face. Typically, if she was staring, it was vengefully. Right now, he couldn't decipher it.

She was desperately trying to recognize him, that’s what it was.

Abby didn't seem him often these days. From across the council table or occasionally around Alpha Station. But he was always working. And when he wasn't, he certainly wasn't choosing to spend his time socializing with her. Not even with Jake, anymore. There hadn't been a falling out of any kind between her husband and Kane, only a fizzling of their friendship. It was too difficult to ignore Kane's turn towards inhumane practices. Even Jake could no longer make excuses for him.

And in fact, Abby had been so busy staring up at his face, searching for any traces of the man that she once knew and respected, that she failed to even that he was looking back. Kane's face twitched in confusion and Abby blinked away her humiliation.

When Abby averted her eyes and s slight blush flooded her cheeks, Kane peered downwards at the drink that he was making and cracked a half-smirk.

"Why are you staring at me?" He asked coolly, still looking downwards.

There was something so casual about his tone that it led Abby to believe there was nothing she could say in response that would matter in any way let alone take him by surprise.

"I'm not," Abby muttered, mentally kicking herself for the indiscretion.

Her eyes flicked back up to him momentarily and she almost saw something that she recognized, but it soon vanished. That's when she realized just how strong he was currently making the drink that she was supposed to consume.

"Jesus, Kane," she winced with widened eyes. "Are you trying to kill me?"

The amount of alcohol in the glass that he was working on was generous, to say the least. Kane stopped pouring and gave her a tentative look.

"Go easy," she added as an afterthought in a low, soft voice.

It was that smirk. That's what Abby recognized. And it was back on his face now almost with an undercurrent of teasing. He was making her a strong drink because him and Jaha both thought she needed one. Abby must have realized that they had been close enough to hear every word of her and Jake's argument, hence why she was over here at this table in the first place. He did not think that she would want him to take it easy on her tonight.

"You want me to?" He asked, wondering if she meant it or not.

Abby was surprised to see the strange innocence behind his dark eyes when she finally looked up to meet them. For all the hateful, vicious threats and accusations that he launched at her from across the council tables, for all the ways that he insisted upon hating her, at least she knew for certain that he was not trying to give her alcohol poisoning against her will tonight. As soon as she had indicated that she might not want so much to drink, he had stopped pouring, and he was now making it clear that he was not going to continue unless she explicitly asked him to.

Nonetheless, his words sounded provoking in just the way that told Abby he was challenging her. Challenging her to admit that her and Jake had not had a good night and that she needed alcohol to take the edge off it.

Abby was about to scold him for even alluding to the fact that she might be looking for the world's stiffest glass of whiskey tonight when she realized that he wasn't trying to egg her on at all. He was just trying to scope out what she needed. What she wanted. He was here on an obligatory mission from Jaha, after all. This had nothing to do with them. That, at least, allowed her to relax a little bit.

"I-" Abby began but quickly grew uncertain. "Well," she conceded, "maybe not."

She did not want to get drunk tonight, but it would be great if something could at least round out the sharp edge that had become of her evening. Make it somewhat manageable even if she knew that her daughter was upset somewhere and her husband was likely cursing her name back in the lab. Not to mention her own feelings.

This time, the smirk was not lost on her. Abby had always loved that smirk. Sideways, crooked, teasing, like it was creeping onto Kane's face against his will. It was incredibly charming and had indeed contributed to the way that she had once felt about him. It was nostalgic to see it now, after so many years of nothing more than a bitter scowl.

“From what I recall,” Kane spoke openly as he held the glass out to her, and Abby felt something change in the air between them.

Maybe it was something about being back in this room, back at this table, back bantering over a glass of alcohol, that lowered their inhibitions and sent them back in time about fourteen years. She stared up at him, awaiting his next words as she carefully took the glass in her hand. There had been something rather electric about the way that their fingers had brushed, but neither allowed themselves one single thought for it.

“Abigail Griffin does not back down from a challenge.”

Her eyes snapped to his in surprise. So, it was a challenge. Not only that, but he was currently teasing her. She had long ago accepted that as something that would never happen again. Now here it was, before her very eyes. The good, old Kane sense of humour that she feared had long died. This was at least some of the man that she had been straining her eyes to see seconds ago when she stared at him. Not quite recognizable, but at least somewhat familiar. 

Abby arched one eyebrow. “Since when is this a challenge,” she gestured lightly between them.

Kane actually chuckled then and picked up his own glass of replenished whiskey and moonshine, standing up straighter as he did so. 

“Between us?” He asked rhetorically, keeping his voice low and rather gruff.

Abby’s eyes did not leave his as he spoke down to her, wondering why she’d felt a spark of electricity jolt through her body as he spoke.

"When is it not?" He finished before taking a sip of his drink and walking away.

~~~

It was a rough night for most. Jake was indeed back at the lab barking orders when typically, he wouldn't. His wife had pissed him off. Not because she had been so stubborn and angry, but because he had the sinking feeling that she was right. No, he didn't like missing out on time with his family. But he had no choice. He had responsibilities on this Ark that he thought she would be able to understand, being a doctor and all. He never grumbled when she was pulled away from dinner for an emergency surgery.

Clarke had indeed been upset and trying to mask it with a ruthless game of chess, until her mother came over and asked for a second alone with her.

"Clarke," she began, crouching down beside the girl who was sitting at a table. "I'm sorry that you had to hear all of that."

She patted her knee and Clarke looked up into her mother's eyes.

"Your father and I have both been a little bit stressed out," she explained carefully. "And sometimes we don't say things the way that we want to. it's not fair for you to have to hear it."

"What did you want to say?" Clarke asked innocently.

Abby took in a breath and shook her head. "I wanted us to have a good time tonight as a family," she continued. "But your father was needed back at work."

Clarke's face twisted. "Then it must have been an emergency."

Abby smiled but it seemed a little hollow. "I know, Clarke," she nodded. "I know that he had to leave, but that doesn't mean that I won't be upset when he does." Abby peered at her daughter, hoping she was understanding. "Our emotions don't often care about the facts."

Clarke still wasn't completely understanding. "It looked like you were fighting," she said.

"It can sometimes look a little confusing," Abby tried to explain. "But when you love somebody, you want to fight for them. Sometimes it looks like you're fighting with them."

Finally, Clarke seemed to understand that arguments did not mean that her parents did not love each other, and since they had cleared the air, at least they both felt better. Clarke went on and enjoyed her night with Wells and Abby didn't feel particularly changed, but she did feel relieved knowing that at least Clarke's night wasn't ruined.

It was no doubt what everyone was trying to do tonight. Here in the rec room, drinking moonshine, celebrating Unity Day. They were trying to relive the past and outdo a memory. But there was nothing that could compare to those golden-laced days of their youth. They had all changed too much. They had grown too far apart. And some of them could no longer handle their liquor.

All in all, it felt more melancholic than it did nostalgic, and everyone just got a little bit sad about the fact that they could no longer be who they once were. Maryanne was expecting an argument with Ross when she got home because she had left, Callie was reeling from her recent divorce, Thelonious was up to his elbows in unrest that didn't go away just because it was Unity Day, and the Griffins spoke for themselves. All in all, Kane was the least affected by the evening. He didn't prescribe to the idea of melancholia.

They tried. They really did. And bittersweet was the feeling in the air as stories were shared and friendships were re-opened, but they could not seem to reconnect as strongly as they once did. No matter who spoke, it was like speaking to a stranger that they used to know like the back of their hand. It felt wrong. Imbalanced. Like they were trying to squeeze into a mold that they had long outgrown, but their bodies still remembered the shape of.

Callie was the one who snapped them all out of it. Who reminded them that they were too old for some of these indulgences and that perhaps they should quit while they were ahead. That sometimes the graves of the past should be left alone rather than dug up.

There was no doubt that Callie had too much to drink tonight. Kane stopped making drinks for her – despite her irritating insistence – but no one fully cut her off. She was 34 years old, surely, she didn’t need her old friends telling her how much she could drink and when – especially not when prohibition was temporarily lifted for the celebration tonight.

She’d been on her way across the room when she tripped over her own feet and fell to the floor, dropping sending her glass of moonshine from her hand. It spilled on the ground and, of course, the glass shattered with a loud crash that turned everyone’s head.

Abby had been the first to respond. She was used to experiencing less shock than the rest of the room in emergent medical situations. Her and Clarke had been on their way over to the set of couches on one end of the room, but Abby quickly forgot why they were heading over there in favour of helping Callie, who didn’t look like she was in a hurry to get up even as she sat among broken glass and spilled alcohol.

Kane and Jaha stared over their shoulders momentarily before joining the scene, as the did the Millers. The rest of the room seemed to know that it was all under control and turned themselves away for the sake of offering Callie the privacy that her sober self would surely want in this situation.

Abby crouched down and placed a hand on Callie’s shoulder but couldn’t seem to get a good enough grip on her. There was no use – Callie was already down. Abby wondered if she was going to have to spend the night tediously picking glass shards out of her friend’s shins.

Clarke was lingering around curiously, but this was no scene for a child. Not because Callie was hurt – Clarke could handle that – but because she was drunk. Abby didn’t even want to see it; her child certainly shouldn’t have to.

Craning her neck over her shoulder, Abby looked at her daughter with a warm, motherly smile. “Clarke,” she caught her attention, “they’re probably handing out dessert in the Mess Hall now. Why don’t you and Wells head over there?”

Always intrigued by sensitive situations, Clarke wanted to stay and see what was happening with Callie, but she knew that her mother wouldn’t stand for it. She was using that tone of voice that was not particularly demanding, but her statement hadn’t been a question. It was an order masked by a maternal warmth.

Biting her tongue – she could ask about the grizzly details later – Clarke did as she was told and took Wells’ hand, leading them out the door.

Abby could feel bodies behind her, but was now too busy trying to examine Callie for signs of injury.

“Has she cut herself?” The voice was Jaha’s.

She shook her head in response and tried to crouch lower to meet Callie’s eyes but didn’t want to get herself caught in the mess of glass and moonshine on the floor. Abby was just thankful that she didn’t appear hurt in any way.

Callie’s head was down, and she was shaking a bit, making strange noises. At first, Abby worried that her friend was sobbing or crying in some way and she brushed some of her hair back in an attempt to see her face better.

“Callie,” she began in a strong voice that was still low enough to maintain a semblance of privacy.

When Callie still did not meet her eyes, Abby placed a gentle hand on her cheek and lifted her face only to find that her friend was indeed not crying. She was laughing. Silently but rather hysterically, as though this was the funniest thing in the world. Abby wouldn’t have been so concerned if she did not also see the tears leaking down Callie’s face.

“Callie, are you alright?” She asked, in vain, while she continued to examine the scene.

Callie hadn’t cut herself on any of the broken glass, and her knees seemed fine but would likely be bruised in the morning.

“Can you stand?” She asked, after her friend had done nothing but laugh and wipe at her eyes.

Now, Callie nodded and fumbled towards Abby’s outstretched arms, attempting to use the other woman to pull herself up, which did nothing but send them both back down to the floor as Abby had not been prepared for her aggressive movements. Now, the entire bottom of her dress was soaked, and she could feel herself kneeling on broken glass that hopefully was not lacerating her.

Kane and Jaha had both reached for the women, but could do nothing to prevent their graceless tumble. Characteristically, the former had been thinking two steps ahead before approaching the scene a minute ago, because Kane had with him a small bucket for the class and a cloth for the liquid on the floor in his hand. Yet another reason that he could not do much when Callie pulled Abby down to the floor with her.

Always in tandem even when they were at odds, David and Celine Miller both moved to take Callie gently but forcefully by the arms and help her up into a standing position between them, noticing immediately that she needed to lean on one or both of them in order to maintain her balance. She was too far gone at this point to keep herself upright without a crutch or two.

Jaha clearly wanted to help in some way, so Kane handed the bucket and cloth off to him with a nod. Now that his arms were free, he offered Abby a strong hand up, which she surprised even herself but not hesitating to take.

She hadn’t even really had time to consider who that hand belonged to, and likely would have made a big show about turning down his help and standing up on her own if she’d been paying more attention.

At first, her mind was too far away to realize that Marcus Kane had helped her to her feet and that he was now examining her with is eyes - subtly, as if he did not want to admit that he was doing so. She wiped her hands on her dress and muttered some kind of thank you.

His brows had lowered over his face. "Are you hurt?" He asked pensively, looking down at her legs which were stained in places thanks to the moonshine, but the tights were not ripped so he had to assume that she had not been cut.

"No," she shook her head and spoke in a very small voice as a strange feeling poked at her. "I'm okay."

Kane nodded and appeared almost solemn. That's when Abby knew exactly what he was thinking of. There had been a time - seventeen years ago now - when he had found her on the floor, injured. Only that time, she had been covered in her own blood when he picked her up off the floor. Kane was likely thinking of that traumatizing moment and thankful to learn that she had not bled this time.

He chased the thoughts away, quite positive that she wasn't thinking the same. Kane didn't even know if Abby remembered those days. They never spoke of it. And she had been in such a state when he found her all those years ago - almost unconscious on the floor. Did she even know that he had been the one to find her? To hold her head in his hands? To pick her up from the ground and carry her to Medical? Did she even know that there had been four bloodied hands that day - Daniel Spencer’s and his? It didn't much matter now.

But he caught her eyes then. She glanced down at the scar on his lip. She only ever did that when she was thinking of the day that he had earned that scar. Then her eyes flicked back up to his as if she had been caught looking at something she shouldn't have been, and she averted those eyes entirely with a clearing of her throat. Then he knew. Yes, she remembered. And yes, she knew what he was thinking of.

In order to chase away the discomfort, Kane gestured lamely down at the hem of her skirt. "Your dress isn't," he pointed out.

Abby looked down to see her entire hem coated in moonshine. The laundry technicians were going to have her head.

“Well, there’s much I can do about that now,” she only shrugged, glancing back up at him. “Unless you’re offering your shirt.”

She’d only meant it as a witty joke. She’d been annoyed by the fact that he thought she would even care about the state of her dress over worrying about the state of her friend, but she realized too late how her comment could have been taken in a suggestive manner. Something about her present humiliation felt familiar.

Kane could tell by the remorseful look of brief humiliation on her face that she had heard the innuendo a second too late. Now that, he was familiar with. He didn't hold anything against her, knowing that her mouth often worked a couple of seconds ahead of her brain, and that she hadn't meant anything truly suggestive by her comment. All he did was send her a funny look before their attention was demanded by the Millers, who were now on either side of Callie, holding her up.

"We're going to get her home," Celine was saying, keeping her voice low and private. "She could use some sleep."

Abby shook her head. "She should be taken to Medical," she interjected. "They can give her fluids so that she doesn't have to sleep like this."

Miller and Kane shared a look from afar.

"She's okay, Abby," Celine interjected before either man could. "She didn't cut herself."

Abby was still wary. "It isn't safe for her to fall asleep alone," she said, but everyone in the room knew that she was being dramatic for the sake of her worry. "Let me take her to Medical, I don't want her accidentally asphyxiating in her sleep."

"Abby," David gave her a knowing look, "you know better than I do that they aren't going to waste fluids on a hangover."

The woman bit her tongue. He was right. She was about to open her mouth to argue but found nothing useful to say.

"We'll swing her by Medical if it'll make you feel better," Celine promised. "See what the doctors say."

Abby was a doctor. She knew what they'd say. They'd say put her to bed on her side, have some water by her bedside table for the morning, and let her sleep it off. But this was somebody that Abby loved dearly, and she often found herself partial to those particular people.

For whatever reason, she found herself glancing backwards at Kane. She didn't trust nor want his opinion, but his calm demeanour had steadied her nonetheless when he gave her a quick nod.

"Okay," she sighed. "I'll go with you."

"Stay here, Abby," Celine shook her head. "We'll be fine."

Abby blinked, prepared to insist that she come help them out despite it not being ow she wanted to end her Unity Day. But Celine knew Abby. She knew how hard she worked, how infrequently she let herself enjoy an evening, and she also knew that she was here without Jake. If she had to guess, the poor woman was already not having that great of a time. Her and David had been ready to head home and pick up Nate from Orchid Station moments ago and had no problem stopping Callie by Medical on their way.

"We're on our way out anyways," David confirmed this. "Stay and have fun."

"Thank you," Jaha's voice interrupted before Abby could do any more arguing. He agreed with the Millers - she needed a night off. "And happy Unity Day to you all."

Ever since Callie had left, everyone turned away from the alcohol. Reality had crept up on them this evening, and it was colder than anticipated. In the rec room, a handful of people milled about one side – drinking carefully, playing chess or cards. Of the original group of friends, only Abby, Jaha, Maryanne, and Kane remained. None of them wanted to go home.

Abby and Maryanne weren't keen on expediting the inevitable marital arguments that would continue when they got home, and Jaha had seen one too many pictures of his late wife tonight. Unity Day had been her favourite holiday. He would give anything to be going back to their quarters and kiss her smiling mouth. But instead, he knew that he would only find a motherless son and an empty bed. As for Kane, perhaps the stoic man was more nostalgic than even he knew. Maybe there was something about this room that tethered him to a past that he had long since denounced but never really let go of. Or maybe he just didn't want to leave Abby and Jaha alone. He knew that she was his closest competitor when it came to the chancellor's political alliances. If Kane was his second, Abby was his third.

The scene grew rather intimate, despite the company being an unexpected group of allies and rivals. It had been a long time since the days of Abby, Jaha, and Kane being an inseparable trio, and Abby was glad that Maryanne was here to keep her conversing so that she did not have to sit there and fake her way through niceties with Councillor Kane.

Abby was sharing a couch with Maryanne, and the two of them had been talking idly of motherhood and how their daughters continuously surprised them, while Jaha relaxed in an armchair. Kane had been pacing - he wasn't one for sitting down and letting the world turn around him. The pair of men had been discussing politics. That's what they did best. Still, Abby tensed every time Kane paced the space because despite them having two separate conversations, she worried that he was eavesdropping. Not that she thought he cared enough about her life - or at all - to do so. But because she did not want that man knowing a single thing about her anymore.

"I can't really explain it, Abby," Maryanne was saying after their conversation morphed from their daughters to their husbands. "We used to agree on everything but nowadays..." she trailed off momentarily, "...it's like we can't seem to see eye to eye on anything. Even the small things."

Abby nodded in understanding. At least her and Jake were still on the same page about most things. Their disagreements weren't particularly rare, but they never led them to places that they could not return from. Still, she knew what Maryanne was feeling.

"Well, you've been together for, what, twenty years?" Abby reminded her friend that her and Ross had been seeing each other since they were teenagers. "Your opinions were bound to change over time. There's no rule saying that they have to change together."

"I suppose you're right," Maryanne nodded once. "I just wish he'd realize that there was more to life than sitting on that council."

Now, Abby really did wince. If Kane's attention hadn't been piqued before, it surely was now. He wanted to know everything there was to know about his fellow councillors. He may have been saying all the right things and nodding along to his conversation with Jaha, but Abby feared that he was keeping one ear open for her conversation.

"Take a page out of your book, for example." Maryanne continued, gesturing towards Abby. "You do a fantastic job as a councillor," she said, "but you also have a job that you're passionate about. Not to mention you're always spending time with Clarke. With Jake."

Abby had to avert her eyes.

"You guys really seem to have it all figured out, you know?" Maryanne continued, and now Abby felt as though she was lying to her friend without having uttered a word. "You balance it all. You're so...so perfect."

If they were so perfect, then why would Abby jump at the chance to have Jake take a step back from his work and be present at home more often. Why would Jake happily take the opportunity to make Abby more understanding and less stubborn. Blame the Ark for lowering the life expectancy of people and making everyone feel as though they had to rush through life. Blame the Orchid Station education system for treating eighteen-year-olds like they were adults who needed to decide on a career path and make other permanent life choices. Blame the fact that everyone on the Ark seemed to settle down and get married when they were far too young and not yet done growing. Of course, their opinions changed over those years. As they all grew, they became different versions of themselves. It was no wonder that some wives felt as though they did not truly know their husbands and vice versa, but still felt an innate desire to ensure that things work out.

"Nothing's perfect," Abby finally said in a hoarse voice that sounded barely above a whisper. "Least of all a marriage."

It was such a common error made. People expected love to fit into their lives like a puzzle piece. A perfect fit. But Abby was right, nothing was perfect. So often, love did look like that puzzle piece right off the bat. But then the puzzle changed, and the pieces morphed. And soon they didn't fit the way that they used to. It was always a better idea to build around the piece itself than try to squeeze something deformed into a puzzle that was already nearly finished. Because as one builds around their piece, they will often realize that they lack the pieces to finish their puzzle.

"But," Abby shook her head, hoping to backtrack her rather bleak words, "at least there's always hope," she said. "So long as you have love, there's hope."

"Maryanne," Jaha's loud voice interrupted the women's conversation, and the blonde woman turned away from Abby to face Jaha who was just beside her in the armchair.

Abby hadn't notice Kane take a seat in the other armchair across the coffee table from Jaha, now diagonal from where Abby sat on her end of the couch.

"Ross tells me that Sarah's taken a keen interest in engineering?"

Sarah was their daughter, and what with Jaha's engineering background, he was more than intrigued to hear this. He wanted to offer words of wisdom, perhaps some techniques to practice. To help steer her in the right direction. Maryanne was thrilled to hear the chancellor take interest on his own as she really did not want to have to ask her old friend for his help. It felt like nepotism. 

Abby was happy to hear of Sarah's opportunity, but she wished that Jaha hadn't interrupted. Now, she was left alone in an awkward, heavy silence with the man that she hated.

One by one, Kane and Abby looked towards each other, and averted their eyes uncomfortably once they both silently acknowledged the stalemate that they’d reached. If they had ever been friends, it felt like a lifetime ago. Now, she couldn't believe that she was ever friends with the man who had broken execution records with pride. The man who was willing to sacrifice anything and anybody in order to climb the ladder. The man who traded all his time for power.

Abby understood the need for survival. It's why she kept looking to the ground for sanctuary. But she did not understand the way that Kane seemed to be doing whatever it took to not only survive, but come out on top. Even when circumstances were not life or death. And even when nobody had been fighting him in the first place. His formal rigidity, his lack of compassion, and, of course, the fact that sometimes he still looked like the friend that Abby once had, all compiled to make one hell of a confusing, complicated mess in her mind. And at that point, it was easier to just call it hatred.

It was ironic the way that they had always matched one another's ambition and spirit of competition, but had been since driven in such differing directions. Abby towards nuance and empathy and hope and Kane towards power and cruelty all for the sake of a greater good that might not be as forgiving as he thought.

Abby was surprised to hear her own voice.

She blamed it on the proximity, the alcohol, the melancholy spirit that lived within the walls of this room. She made whatever excuses she needed to in order to explain why she spoke first. Why she felt the need to break that silence.

"I don't think I've been in this room since..." she was saying, craning her neck to look around the space and try to remember where she used to enjoy doing what in this room, "...god, it's probably been over a decade."

Kane raised his eyebrows in slight surprise upon hearing her make conversation with him. Obviously, she had forgotten who they were and what they did. They did not speak. They only ever argued across a table. They no longer respected one another enough to hold an actual conversation.

Kane took a slow sip of his drink before meeting her eyes. There was a clear sense of certainty behind his own dark eyes. Gone was the flickering of anticipation that came with mutual attraction and unattachment. Now, it was only years of personal certainty. His own self-promotion had given him that confidence.

"That's because," he began in his usual voice - low and clouded by a whisper, "rec rooms are for children, Abby."

He hoped that she didn't get all nostalgic on him but wouldn't put it past someone like her. He had no use for this room anymore. Sure, it had been a fun place to gather back in the day when it was appropriate, but he didn't miss any of that. Kane did not live in the past. He only concerned himself with the present and how it was going to shape the future. Besides, he had come too damn far to be stuck on something from years ago. He was right where he always wanted to be and that was all that mattered to him. Not what could have been.

Abby could never quite find the right words to describe what had become of her old acquaintance, Marcus Kane. A selfish man suffering from a callous lack of empathy was what she wanted to say, but it didn't really fit. Not when he genuinely thought that he was doing what was best for humanity. In the end, she settled on just admitting that he had grown into everything that he had always intended to be. There was never any surprise about who he had become, even if she had always hoped for better.

That spirit in the walls now felt more like a mischievous poltergeist as it haunted her by playing tricks. Making her eyes picture a young man of twenty-two years old, banting with her in this very room, flirting with her often, arguing with her more. A man that she recognized.

Abby couldn’t help but stare at him these days, much like she had when he made her a drink earlier. The time that they’d spent together as close friends – or whatever the hell they were – had tasted so sweet to her. It had been some of the best times of her life. Far different than being a wife and mother, of course, and not nearly as rewarding. But still beautiful.

And as much as she wished he didn’t, the man to her left diagonal burned inside her memory in perfect detail. The sweetness, the uncertainty, the unpleasantries, everything. She remembered it all vividly as if it had been just yesterday.

Despite his argumentative words, Abby smiled thinly and settled back into the couch, refusing to let him put a damper on what this room meant to her. To all of them. He could change himself all he wanted, but he couldn't change the memories.

Kane turned to look at her, though he’d deny any curiosity with respect to her silence. He’d been surprised to watch a smile grace her tired face, and was reminded that, no matter how he morphed himself in order to fit the person that he needed to be, Abby Griffin never changed. Her mannerisms, her motives, her heart, her spirit – it always stayed the same. If he was being honest, he might admit to himself that he found a calming sense of safety in her reliability, in the fact that he would never know any less about her. Even if he didn't like who she was, at least it would never change.

"Maybe," Abby finally gave in, but the smile did not leave her face. "But we did good back then," she blinked against the memory of his arm casually thrown over her shoulder as if it meant nothing at all. "We made a good start here."

When she met his eyes, a silence lingered. Kane had done everything in his power to push away anybody who might persuade him away from the path that he knew he needed to follow. That included Abby, that included her husband, and it included the rest of their close friends. He wasn't about to sit here and let her bring back old memories that forced him to waver. To contemplate the futility of his decisions. To weigh everything that he'd lost - everything he did not have - against everything that he had.

He shook his head, furrowing his brow. "We were nothing, here," he countered her, allowing his eyes to take on a faraway look as he considered the past. "Nothing that we did in this room ever mattered."

Abby stared and had to imagine that she knew what he was getting at. Back then, they had no power. They just followed their schedules, did their jobs, went to their advanced academic classes, and then showed up here to joke around and play games. To listen to music and flirt with each other and tease and watch movies. None of that got them anything, as far as he was concerned. It didn't earn them power or respect; it was just fun. And fun did not matter. Not to him.

Now, however, they had real influence. They sat on the council and others headed their own sectors or had power elsewhere. Now, they were changing the world.

“Now,” Kane mimicked her thoughts, “we’re important.” He reached across and placed his now empty cup of water on the coffee table before them.

Abby looked away, trying not to be swept away by the memories of the past. She thought of his original thesis – that nothing that happened in this room ever mattered. But it was where Miller and Celine had met. It was where Jaha and Clementine used to spend all their free time. It was where him and Abby used to continue their political arguments and ethical debates. It was where she had introduced the group to Jake for the first time.

Just because they weren’t making the official decisions that would change life aboard the Ark didn’t mean that nothing here had mattered. What about the love? The friendship? The nights spent in the warm arms of camaraderie?

She had to realize now that Kane hadn’t only traded his time for power, but he had also sacrificed his memories. Because she knew that even he had fun here once.

A question tugged at the back of Abby’s mind. A question that she hadn’t posed since her wedding day. And it had been unwillingly posed on that day anyways. Before that, it hadn’t occurred to her since she started dating Jake. But she used to ask herself at least once a day, back when it mattered.

Today, she ignored the question. It was no longer relevant.

Instead, she did her best to avoid an argument and continued to keep her voice theoretical and faraway, so that he knew she wasn’t being aggressive. Nonetheless, she disagreed with him so fundamentally that she couldn’t help but keep the conversation going.

The reminiscent smile remained on her face as she shook her head. “We had fun here, Kane,” she reminded him. “It’s where we all figured out who we wanted to be.”

“No,” he said immediately, his voice devoid of emotion. “No, we wasted time on things that got us nowhere.”

Abby could have snorted. His definition of wasting time was clearly skewed. But Kane had spent so many of his good years trying to differentiate the man that he’d become from the boy that he had once been. It had been necessary to do so in order to climb the ranks.

If he were still that boy, he wouldn’t be here. He couldn’t do what needed to be done. He had been a stoic young man with unwavering opinions, yes, but he had also been weak. He let people get under his skin and in his head. He made exceptions for the people that he liked, he valued their opinions. None of that mattered now. It couldn’t.

He couldn’t look someone in the eyes and care as he was floating their loved one. Or them. And he needed to be able to do what the Guard asked of him if he wanted to keep his power. Not only that, but if he wanted to one day become the chancellor that guaranteed their survival. His remorselessness was all for the greater good, and his friendships had been the collateral damage in that fight. He no longer allowed himself liberal attachments.

All the fun that Abby claimed they had in this room had only distracted him. Prevented him from rising sooner. It never mattered.

Realizing all of this, Abby sighed and only hoped that he didn’t fully believe it. Hopefully it was like some religious mantra that he was now programmed to spit out but didn’t really mean. Maybe he had only memorized it into existence.

But Kane wasn’t done.

“This has always just been a room full of kids wishing on stars when they should have been making their own reality,” he concluded.

Now, Abby knew. He had traded his memories. Because he never would have said that if he remembered the moment they shared. But she did.

Her eyes snapped over to him instantly only to find no recognition. Until, of course, Kane lowered his brows in curiosity as to why she was now staring at him wide-eyed and almost nervous looking. That’s when it all came back to him.

The two of them, standing at a large window a corner away from her old quarters. Watching a shooting star get caught in the Earth’s comet. She’d never heard of wishing on stars before, and he had enjoyed telling her all about the old superstitions.

Abby looked away, relatively embarrassed. It was ever so clear now. Gone was the ambitious young man driven by his own passions. Here sat the cold, rigid man who had turned himself into an unfeeling robot. And this particular robot’s success came with no emotional validation.

And in truth, she didn’t know if she believed in wishes. It was impossible to know what truly accounted for their individual successes. Was it because people were working hard, or was it because wishes were granted. She knew the logical answer but also knew how important it was to have hope. To believe in something bigger than all of them. Why couldn’t it have been a little bit of both?

She’d made a wish that day and it never came true. Of course, she was glad that it didn’t. That was no life for her. But it could have been.

Kane kicked himself after she looked away. He should have chosen his words differently. She looked irritated with him. Mad and hurt that he would throw that memory back in her face, unwittingly or not. He only hoped that she wouldn’t comment on it.

Maybe he should have wished on a star that she didn’t say anything, because Abby was opening her mouth to mutter only seconds later.

“You could’ve made a wish,” she said under her breath, refusing to meet his eyes.

Now, Marcus did wish. He wished that he didn’t know what she was talking about.

He continued to stare at her momentarily as something jolted within his stomach at the motion of their past being ripped wide open against his will, but Abby still did not look at him.

It shouldn’t have been so easy to access those memories. He thought he had done a better job of barring them from his mind. But no, that box in his head had been ripped open like a gnarly wound that hadn’t healed properly.

She shook his head. Abigail Griffin had needed a wakeup call as long as he’d known her. He used to indulge in her foolish ways because it made her happy. And that made him just as foolish. Nowadays, he resented her for it. Because she prevented them from doing what needed to be done. She looked away from anything ugly. Life was hard, and she wanted to make it soft despite that not being viable.

If this woman still believed that their entire lives could have been changed with one single wish on a comet, she needed reality shaken into her.

Finally, she met his eyes when he shifted menacingly in his seat to speak towards her without risk of eavesdroppers. She was surprised to see the coldness in his gaze, but shouldn’t have been.

“You think anything would be different if I’d wished on that star?” He asked rhetorically in a voice that was dark and accusatory and made her feel attacked. “Wishes aren’t real, Abby. We work to get where we are. Life is what you make it to be, that’s it.”

Abby blinked but could not look away, even as Kane’s eyes darted in between hers with a certain amount of intensity that she wasn’t sure she’d ever seen from him.

“It was never even a star anyways,” he continued harshly. “Just a rock that the Earth burned.”

She longed to see a little bit of humanity within those eyes but instead found nothing but darkness.

“Life,” Abby corrected, shaking her head, “is about choices, Kane,” she said.

He narrowed his eyes but did not look away from her.

“Every choice we’ve ever made has taken us to where we are right now,” she continued before averting her gaze and lowering her voice to something softer, more human. “You didn’t have to make a wish, you just had to make a choice.”

He blinked and tried to fight off a hint of surprise. What was she saying? Was she saying that he had been right in thinking that when she asked him to make a wish on that star all those years ago, she was asking him to choose her? To throw caution to the wind and make it official between them? To act on the attraction that they both had always felt?

He had spent the last fourteen years telling himself that he had been wrong. That him and Abby were never anything, so he didn’t lose anything when their friendship fizzled, and she moved on. That was what had helped him become so emotionless. Now, she was lifting the veil on his reality to reveal that yes, she had wanted him all those years ago?

He was angry now. This was just another test. And he wasn’t about to fall into this trap.

“There’s no such thing as choices here,” he said sharply. “Not for us,” he said again, trying to lean back in his chair so that he did not seem quite so intense. “Just actions that need to be taken in order to maintain the world that we have up here.”

Abby stared at him, feeling strangely hurt as he spoke. She felt foolish for putting herself out there – alluding to the fact that she remembered one stupid moment from an afternoon years and years ago when she had all but asked him to choose her.

“We do what we have to do to survive,” he continued harshly, as though this was some kind of lecture. “Whether it’s what we would have chosen or not.”

In this moment, Abby knew that she hated what Kane had become. Not him, perhaps, because that young man still existed somewhere in there. But she hated what he was today. What he had forced himself to become. The choice that he had made.

She sat bitterly as their past came flooding back to her. There were not many times when she would let herself wonder what would have become of her and Marcus Kane if Jake Griffin had never finally asked her out officially. But right now, after a bad night with her husband and enough alcohol to take the edge off her mind, she was plagued with what ifs and unanswered questions.

She loved Jake more than life itself. She loved that he was her home, her family, and she loved that together they had created Clarke, the most important thing in her life. They were the only two people that she would do absolutely anything for, and she wouldn’t trade her life for the world – not even on a bad day.

But she was well aware that Kane was wrong. Everything could have been different. And maybe there was a universe out there where they had made different choices and she was happy in a different way. There were an infinite amount of possibilities, or so she believed, and though she was glad that Kane had never swallowed his pride back in the day, she couldn’t help but wonder what would have become of them.

All it would have taken was a little official interest on his part. Abby was no fool – she liked to think that she knew when she was being flirted with. But Marcus had always walked such a fine line. He never incriminated himself. But if he wanted her back then in any way that went beyond platonic, he really should have just showed it.

Instead, she would be left with a hole in the memory of that particular time. A hole that could never be filled because she would never know what it was that had lingered between them. He always refused to define it and she’d never been sure that she wanted him to define it. But she did know how desperately she wanted him to make that wish.

Abby, for all her vast intelligence, had failed to realize just how deeply the lack of closure can affect a person. Even a very happy person, fourteen years later.

But she couldn’t be completely wrong, could she? No, nothing was ever directly displayed. But it was felt. It just lingered in the air between them as something unnameable but also unignorable. Back when he would casually run a hand through her hair or when she would reach out for him in a crowd. Back before they both catered themselves to different desires within them.

Instead, they’d only been a story never told. A film never made. A song never written. But it existed out there somewhere. And Abby instinctually felt as though if it was a story or a film or a song, it would have been one of the greats. Like Almost Paradise.

With a facetious look on her face, it dawned on Abby that in a way, her wish had come true. She had wished for love, at the bottom line, even if it had been aimed at the man now sitting darkly before her. She’d gotten love. And look at Kane. Alone. He would continue to wake up alone each and every day until the end of time, she predicted.

They’d both gotten what they wanted. They were both winning at their own nasty little game.

She thought of what had become of them both and found herself disgusted by the way that he lived. Things hadn’t changed too much, considering they still couldn’t see eye to eye on anything. But at least, back in the day, their arguments had been fun and competitive. Nowadays, they just bickered semi-professionally across a council table, hiding behind formalities and pedantry. It no longer made either of them feel alive.

The explosions had been eventful; the bombs were strategic. Now, they were caught in a cold war that made them both feel dead inside.

But Kane’s logic had always been flawed, and Abby had never once backed down from the opportunity to suggest that. Something that remained true today.

She let out one sharp sigh and shifted her position, indicating that she was seconds away from pushing herself up off this couch and finally heading home.

“You choose to believe that all we have left is surviving,” she argued. “When we should really be living.”

“We live in space,” he said harshly, resting his elbows on his knees as he peered hatefully at her face. “Two-hundred and fifty nautical miles from an irradiated planet that for some reason you think is going to save us all.”

Kane nodded and gave her a facetious smirk, indicating just how foolish he thought her to be.

“Look around you, Abby,” he continued despite the stony look on her face. “We’re not going to Earth. We’re going to live and die on this Ark, whose society threatens to collapse around us with one wrong move,” he straightened his back, shaking his head. “We don’t have time for anything besides basic survival.”

Abby rolled her eyes. To an extent, what he was saying made sense, but she’d heard this spiel from him a hundred times during Council meetings, and it was getting old. She was tired of watching him pretend that saving the world gave him an excuse to avoid having a life of his own and taking accountability for his ruthless actions.

She took in a deep breath. “If that’s what you need to tell yourself in order to answer for your empty life, so be it, Kane,” she said bitterly, falling victim to some vindictive beast within her that only he seemed to poke to life. “But don’t act like the rest of us who choose to hold on to our humanity are inferior to you just because we don’t sacrifice our lives to the fear of our own mortality.”

Kane remembered one thing about her. When she felt particularly hurt, she could be awfully eloquent. Sometimes, he was impressed by the number of words that she could fit into one biting remark. Usually, it only pissed him off. Proved that she indulged in flourishment that none of them could afford, no matter what she was doing.

He had the strangest sense that she was prodding at him tonight for the sole purpose of starting an argument. Why? He didn’t know. Maybe she missed the explosivity of the atmosphere between them. Maybe she needed an outlet. He didn’t much care. He had no interest in even speaking to her let alone indulging her.

“I don’t have to explain myself to you, Abby,” he pushed himself up off the couch before she could get the jump on him. “These are high-risk times and I sit in a position of power. I’m not surprised to hear that you’re against my decision to be responsible, Councillor.”

Now, Abby blinked. He was hitting below the belt. Suggesting that if she had it her way, all the decisions would be made without careful consideration. Suggesting that she didn’t know the first thing about the responsibilities of being in charge. And, of course, knocking her down a peg by using her professional title. Reminding her that they were no longer friends. That the only relation they now had to one another was purely political.

Jaha and Maryanne were staring now as Kane did his best to stalk out of the room, but nobody said a word. Abby let out one sharp sigh before trailing him. He clearly wanted to be done with this conversation, but she just couldn’t stop.

She couldn’t fight like this with Jake, and sometimes she wanted to. But more than that, she wanted to be loving. He would hurt her, she would fight back but carefully, and they would just walk away feeling imbalanced and in pain. With Kane, it didn’t matter. She could be as mean as she wanted to be, and he wouldn’t hold back in return. She wouldn’t feel hurt because he could no longer hurt her.

Was it fair? No. Was it electrifying? Not anymore. Was it another sign of the times? Perhaps.

“I beg your pardon?” She was saying before he could get away.

Kane had offended her purposefully, and she wasn’t going to let him get away with that. Even if he was now at the doors, desperately trying to leave this room.

“Have you ever stopped to consider that maybe we have a greater responsibility to the people on this Ark than just survival?” She caught up to him and Kane fought off a roll of his eyes. “To ourselves?”

“Enough, Abby,” he said firmly, losing control of his temper for just one moment of weakness. “I don’t have time to pretend that you don’t live in a fantasy world.”

He turned away but quickly realized he had more to say to this impossible woman and turned back around, closer now. Staring down at her as he drilled his point in.

“I choose to see the world for what it is,” he revealed harshly. “It would be irresponsible of me as a councillor not to. And if that means that I can make the harsh decisions necessary for the sake of survival, then I’m doing something right.”

He let the words hang there between them momentarily as Jaha and Maryanne sighed from across the room. Those two…

“That is the one choice that I make,” he finished darkly before finally leaving the room, allowing the door to slam shut behind him.

Abby stood in the wake of his words for a split second before shaking her head and following him. She wanted to fight. And she was on him within another second, despite Marcus doing his best to make his way through the now empty hallways of the station.

It would have been easier if they weren’t going to the same sector.

“You used to have morals, Kane,” she called after him, trailing him like a spirit that he couldn’t seem to shake.

Haunted by the one person that used to threaten everything he knew. Never able to shake her, no matter how far he went, no matter how many years had passed.

“You used to be more than an emotionless utilitarian.”

Kane let out a sigh as they turned a corner, Abby still hot on his heels and running her mouth.

“Doesn’t that bother you?”

Now, Kane stopped. He stopped and turned around sharply, causing Abby to flinch once as she came to a halt. It was lost on neither of them that they ironically stood before the very same window out of which they could have made a wish all those years ago. But tonight, there was no shooting star. Just a sick sense of déjà vu and impending doom.

“Do you know what bothers me, Abby?” He sneered in her face, allowing a pause to register between them but she knew better than to try and answer his rhetorical question. “Someone who would let mankind fall to ruin because they’re making decisions that spare the most feelings.”

Narrowing his eyes as he spoke, Kane left little to the imagination in terms of how he felt. Abby was just relieved to finally see a spark of passion behind those dark eyes of his.

“You know what else bothers me?” He continued harshly. “Thinking that we have any room on board this Space Station for romanticized ideas of the way that life should be lived.”

Kane was on a bit of a tangent now, finally responding to everything that she’d said tonight.

“This isn’t a hundred years ago, Abby. We aren’t on the ground,” he continued. “We don’t have forests or oceans or an endless supply of resources.” Kane stood taller. “What we have is an expiry date. One that we can prolong if we make the necessary decisions.”

Abby nodded carefully, taking in his argument. “And what gives you the right to play God, Kane?” She asked, a bite to her voice.

“The people did,” he answered quickly, tapping the button on his lapel that matched the one she had at home but did not put on tonight. “When they voted me onto the council.”

She crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes. “And you really think that you’re just doing what’s best for everyone?”

“Yes,” Kane said, leaning towards her so that she did not mistake the certainty on his voice. “And if you want to make me the bad guy for that…” he glanced between her eyes, trying not to see her fourteen years younger, “…that’s an easy price for me to pay.”

Abby narrowed her eyes, simultaneously wishing that he would take a step back and keep this argument going. She wondered now if he was really this man now or if he was just wearing a mask that wouldn’t crack.

He was right. He was the bad guy in her story. But he wasn’t always. And he didn’t always have to be. This man needed salvation, one way or the other, but he didn’t want it. Abby had to wonder if he would never find it and continue on this way forever or if one day he might just need that salvation. She wasn’t even sure where he would find it.

Slowly, she nodded. He may have thought he was right, but she knew he was wrong.

“And the people who stole medicine to save their loved ones?” She asked, narrowing her eyes. “People who took home extra rations because their children were starving,” she continued. “The people that you executed. What about them?” Her eyes darted between his. “What was best for them?”

It was an impossible rhetoric, and Kane didn’t have time for it. Not when they both already knew how he felt. He kept his mouth shut, suspecting that she had more to say.

“Weren’t they brave enough to do what they needed to survive?” She continued to peer at him, knowing that she was making sense but also that he would never see it that way. “And you killed them anyways.”

In that moment, as Kane eyed her darkly, he realized something that he had not yet thought of.

He was right all those years ago. Abby was going to get herself killed. Not the way that he had originally meant it – at the hands of an abusive partner that she refused to walk away from – but in a new way. An inevitable way.

She couldn’t seem to understand why flotations were necessary, nor did she agree with most elements of the law. He knew full well that if she were in similar desperate situations, she too would steal medicine and food for her family. She was just lucky that being in Alpha Station, she’d never be needy that way.

Until she was. Until something happened that she could not control. Because Abby didn’t think in terms of the law, she thought in terms of what she thought was right. One day, Abby would break that law. And on that day, Kane would get to execute her.

How did that notion make him feel?

Certain, for one. But he couldn’t decide if it scared him for her or if it excited him. The thought that one day she might be out of his hair and off her platform for good. There would be no more angel on everyone’s shoulder begging for human decency that they couldn’t afford.

His life would be easier if she was gone. The council would make better decisions. Hell, it almost sounded like the perfect answer to his largest problem.

Besides, wasn’t she always destined for that life? She was born illegally and should have been put into lockup and floated when she was of age. She slipped through the cracks of the system instead. She should have been floated again for assisting Daniel Spencer, but Kane himself had granted her leniency.

But destiny was destiny. He suddenly felt as though all he had to do was sit back and wait for Abby to inevitably incriminate herself and then he would have no choice but to float her. It wouldn’t even be his fault. Then that irritating, unwavering, ethical voice in the back of his head might finally die with her.

Kane peered at the naturally rebellious woman before him and knew it to be true and inevitable. He would float her one day. Not by choice, but because it was the law. She had only ever postponed her fate, never truly escaped it.

Utopia is what would remain. There would be nobody left to oppose him at the council table. And when it was finally time to run for chancellor of the Ark, she wouldn’t be there to stand in his way. Then, the real work could begin.

And while Abby’s personal mission statement included getting to the ground, Kane’s had everything to do with population control. They could do it in a controlled, humane way. But the numbers would inevitably need to be culled. He felt as though he was the only one strong enough to take such matters into his own hands but also knew that when the time came, Abby would fight him every step of the way.

But if she wasn’t here…

Kane didn’t even stop to wonder when the beautiful, untouchable rose in his life had become nothing more than an inconvenient thorn in his side.

He was sick of this argument because he had found something to look forward to. The day that Abigail Griffin was executed.

“The laws are harsh for a reason, Abby,” he said in a low whisper, still staring at her face. “We all have to answer for our crimes.”

Abby swallowed dryly and blinked. His face had changed. Gone was the passion. Now, he looked rather satisfied despite the fact that they were arguing. It no longer felt like a fight. It felt like he had won somehow without her noticing.

She watched as he straightened out, still staring at him as if she did not want to miss a thing on his face.

“And in the next life,” Abby said slowly with a relatively haunting edge to her voice that kept Kane listening even when he wanted to walk away, “we may have to answer for our sins.”

Kane walked away then. He couldn’t keep listening to her fairy tales. He had a reality to get back to.

But Abby stayed at that window, staring down at the Earth like she did every time she got the chance. A chill ran down her spine when she felt a presence at her side. She looked over and Marcus was back. But this time, he was barely twenty-three. Just as tall, wearing an easy smirk, pretending he wasn’t glancing at her sidelong. Giving her that look that Abby just couldn’t decipher for the life of her but felt it like something drilled deep into her bones.

She blinked at that young man was gone. She was left alone in a cold, empty hallway with no star to wish on and a million things to wish for.

Chapter Text

Abby knew that things were going to be bad on that very first day of March.

She thought nothing of the first case of strep that came in. Telltale signs – fever, cold-like symptoms, body aches, hallucination and delirium if the fever got high enough – and she sentenced the first patient to a quarantined section of Sick Bay where he was fed antibiotics, painkillers, and fluids. She did the same for the second case. And by the time there was a third case before the first hour of her shift was up, Abby grew worried.

From there, they just kept coming. She hadn’t had time to take a break and talk to anyone else about what they could do to slow the spread – security could lock down sectors, engineering could close air ducts, the council could initiate official quarantine procedures – because even with every available doctor, nurse, and technician called in to work overtime, Abby hadn’t had a chance to sit down. All she could do was hope that her and her fellow doctors were resistant enough to care for these patients without catching the virus themselves.

Finally, she had a chance to page for an emergency council meeting that she barely made it to. They were all sitting down waiting for her by the time that she finally arrived, out of breath and exhausted. Her hair was tied back into a loose ponytail that was coming apart around her face, and she still had her lab coat on. Her hands were raw from sanitizing after every patient and the circles under her eyes were about as dark as the deep plum coloured shirt that she was wearing.

She looked like hell. Which is where she had been all day.

“Dr. Griffin,” Chancellor Jaha began, folding his hands atop the table as he peered at her worriedly, “what is the nature of this meeting?”

Abby let out a breath, trying to relax into her seat but feeling unable to knowing that as soon as this was adjourned, she was going to race back to Medical and continue helping her technicians sort through their Sick Bay which had turned into a quarantine zone. She suspected that more cases would come in overnight and did not plan on sleeping.

“We have an outbreak of strep,” she said, her voice relatively hoarse from using it all day. “I predict that it began in Hydra Station based on patient demographics.”

“You predict?” Councillor Kane interrupted from his seat directly across from her, taking the tone that he so often did when she brought an issue to the table. “Shouldn’t you know?”

Abby stared at him with little forgiveness in her tired eyes. “I haven’t exactly had the chance to stop and investigate, Kane,” she snapped. “Patients have been coming in at a steady rate since this morning. I have all hands on deck in Medical.”

The chancellor nodded, hoping that Kane wouldn’t butt in again and offend the hardest working doctor on the Ark.

“How many cases?”

“Upwards of twenty-five so far,” Abby confirmed with a nod. “I suggest that we initiate epidemic procedures.”

“It’s the first day,” Kane interjected again. “If we can pinpoint the source, we can avoid an epidemic.”

She stared at him coldly. “Are you suggesting that I’m overreacting?” Abby demanded bluntly.

Kane gave a shrug but said nothing.

Jaha shook his head. “Has anything been done to limit the spread?”

Abby swallowed. “This is quite literally the first time I’ve been able to leave Medical all day,” she explained, harsher than she would have liked. “I hardly had the chance to call this meeting.”

Nodding, Jaha understood that Abby was not exaggerating when she tried to explain how bad the situation was. She was their chief medical officer. Assessments and predictions like this were her job.

“Alright, Abby,” he said reassuringly, “we’ll initiate protocol.”

Abby let out a sigh of relief as Councillor Fuji raised his voice. “Sir,” he began, “what is to be expected of the other stations?”

Jaha had memorized all emergency procedures when he became chancellor. “First and foremost,” he looked towards the councillor on his left, “Kane, you’ll need to lockdown travel between stations,” Jaha said with a nod. “From there, lock down individual sectors until we can afford to send someone from Medical in to test for the virus.”

Biting her bottom lip, Abby thought about the manpower that she would have to spare in order to conduct the testing so that the infected people could move about freely and get back to their jobs. All hands on deck was no hyperbole, and she wondered how she was going to do it.

“Once we have a clear picture of the infected stations and sectors, we’ll send in a janitorial team for a full disinfection,” Jaha continued firmly. “I’ll have Engineering close the air ducts for now to limit the spread of the virus, only to be reopened after specific sectors have been cleared.”

Kane shook his head. “This is a big interruption, sir,” he stressed. “People won’t be able to do their jobs.”

“Which is why we need it done quickly, Councillor Kane,” the chancellor responded. “The quicker we isolate the virus, the sooner the healthy can get back to work.” He looked over at Abby. “How are your inventories looking?

She took in a deep breath. “They’re stocked but for everyday use, not an epidemic,” she said worriedly, “we’ll need to increase the creation of antibiotics, painkillers, fluids, medical supplies,” she listed all the ways in which they were unprepared, “not to mention, our Sick Bay is already close to overflowing, and my staff will eventually need to take breaks.”

The chancellor nodded. “Let me worry about space,” he said merely to lessen the load upon her shoulders, but he had no idea how he would resolve that particular issue. “If the workload continues to increase, we can send in volunteers.”

Abby nodded but didn’t feel much better. “You’ll want to lock down Orchid Station first,” she suggested. “This virus isn’t fatal but it’s going to target children and the elderly. Anyone with weaker immune systems will have a lesser likelihood of recovery.”

Suddenly, a quiet fell upon the room.

“Do you predict fatalities, Dr. Griffin?” Councillor Kaplan – who had a young daughter at home who was already prone to infection – asked.

Swallowing dryly, Abby tried not to appear grim. “I do,” she revealed. “It’s a risk with any epidemic.”

Knowing that they had no more time to waste, Jaha sat up straighter.

“I assume your technicians are logging the cases appropriately?”

“Of course,” Abby nodded, hoping that throughout this mess, the files weren’t all over the place.

“Then we should be able to pinpoint the origins and places of infection,” Jaha continued, “I’ll have the data analyzed tonight. Kane-” he turned to his left, “please see to the lockdowns.”

Sighing, the Chief of Security pushed himself up out of his chair. “Yes, sir,” he mumbled, preparing for a very long night.

“Brace yourselves, ladies and gentlemen,” the chancellor said, “it’s going to get worse before it gets better.”

And Jaha was right; it had gotten worse. Much worse. They had close to two hundred cases of strep despite the quick lockdowns. The Ark was small and people were everywhere. Mingling between stations, going to work, congregating in the Mess Hall. The lower stations were hit worst as the people there had naturally weaker immune systems.

Kane was working to the bone trying to keep everyone in line after the lockdowns went into effect. People disliked being told what to do, where they could and couldn’t go, and some of them even fell victim to a conspiracy that there was no virus at all and the council was making people sick as a move towards population control.

Everyone was angry. Those who were cleared for work didn’t want to go back to work and risk getting infected. Those who weren’t cleared for work did want to go back. Some people who swore they were not symptomatic wanted to bypass testing because they didn’t enjoy getting swapped.

Unrest was at an all time high, and him and his guards had their work cut out for them as they patrolled late into the night. Eventually, as they were the only ones around, they started being the ones to help people limp their way to Medical once they had tested positive and the effects of the virus hit them all at once.

Abby was right. It was worst in the kids and the elderly. The Ark had seen fifty fatalities in five days. Mainly infants and toddlers, some older kids. The old folks didn’t stand a chance, but they were rare to begin with. Life expectancy on the Ark was only around 65 years old.

They were one work week into the epidemic with no end in sight and Abby had slept for a total of maybe ten hours that entire week, combined. If she was lucky. Jackson was running on about the same. Her technicians were overworked, her doctors here exhausted, a quarter of her staff had gotten sick and were now quarantined, even the volunteers – though they were plenty – could use a break.

A few days into this mess – it felt like weeks ago – Abby had started taking what she could get and putting the guards to work when they arrived with patients either on stretchers or leaning up against them. They were eager to get out of Medical and back to work, but Abby would ask for their help before they could get away and soon enough, they were coordinating with her technicians in finding space for the patients, blotting cool cloths on foreheads, updating families on conditions.

Kane was livid when he caught word of it a couple of days ago.

“You can’t pirate my guards, Abby,” he shouted at her one day when she had dared to set foot outside of Medical to check in with Sinclair in Engineering.

Marcus had caught her in the hallway making a beeline back to her own station and wasn’t about to let her get away that quickly. He was tired, she was exhausted, they were both scared for their people, for themselves, and the yelling happened quickly.

“We are in a crisis, Kane,” she responded, not bothering to turn around and face him – if he wanted to talk, he was going to have to keep up. “Medical needs all the help it can get!”

“You don’t think I know that?” He spat back bitterly. “My guards are working overtime trying to keep people from killing each other in lockdown. I can’t afford to lose them every time they have to take a patient to Medical!”

When they reached the terminal bay, Abby finally whipped around to face him.

“I’m trying to keep people alive, too,” she said harshly before allowing the terminal to swallow her up and put her to work.

Instantly, a patient who had been waiting for a bed nearly fell atop her as she passed, desperate to get her attention. Kane watched from safely behind the glass, still simmering with anger, as Abby struggled against this patient’s heavier weight and gently led him to a cot before barking an order over her shoulder, obviously calling for help.

He had to admit, it looked like a warzone in there. Not enough room, not enough beds, not enough medicine, not enough doctors, and Abby in the centre of it all. He wondered if she was even sleeping these days. He wasn’t. Because he was working a front line of his own, all the while desperately trying to ignore the tickle in the back of his throat that made him feel as though he was swallowing nails.

~~~

Abby thanked god every day that working with the sick on such a regular basis had made her relatively immune to viruses. Especially as her other doctors were down for the count.

They were over a week into the epidemic now and she couldn’t remember the last time she’d left Medical to do anything other than shower and immediately come back. She hadn’t eaten anything more than the quick snacks that Jackson would force into her. But as she powered through and held it all together even as beds continued to fill up and doctors continued to fall, Kane was not so lucky.

By the time he reached Medical – forced there by Sergeant Miller, who had the man draped over his shoulder – he was both feverish and combative.

“Abby,” David said weakly upon coming through the doors, “Abby, we need another bed.”

She turned around and was surprised to see the Chief of the Guard not looking so great. So, he was human after all. She had never even seen him sick with a cold before. Now, he was pale, sweating, weak, and could hardly stand.

Abby glanced over her shoulder and spotted an empty cot that was going to have to do until she could get Kane set up in a real bed. There were some empty ones along the side of the room that she had been saving. She didn’t want to have to use them because they weren’t exactly secluded.

“David,” she pointed over to one of the cots, “could you wheel that over?”

Without speaking, they shifted roles so that David could go grab the cot. Kane hadn’t been leaning that heavily on him, and Abby wanted to check his vitals sooner rather than later. She wasn’t expecting the man to nearly take her down to the floor when David shrugged him off onto her.

“Abby,” Kane said in a low voice, in pain but with his wits about him, “I’m fine,” he insisted.

Trying her best to keep him held up, unfortunately having to get up close and personal with the man that she despised, Abby blinked up at his face and noticed the beads of sweat rolling off his forehead.

“You’re not fine, Marcus,” she argued, glancing backwards to see that Miller had gotten the cot over to them and was now helping him sit down on the bed.

Abby wasn’t surprised that Kane had let it get this bad. Leave it to him to ignore how he was feeling until it blew up in his face and became undeniable. She didn’t have to test him to know that his fever was dangerously high, and she suspected that delirium would set in soon. That would be fun.

“Thanks, David,” she nodded, excusing him as she knew full well that without Kane, the Guard was going to need as much help as they could get.

Abby only wished that there were more beds to spare, and Kane wouldn’t have to lie there off to the side but somehow still in her face. Close enough to bark at her as though she didn’t have enough to worry about.

Jackson had come by and offered to get him set up for fluids, but she turned him away. If she knew one thing about Marcus Kane it was that he was terrified of needles. Getting that IV into him was going to be a hassle and a half, and she wouldn’t put that on Jackson.

But that wasn’t it at all. Jackson could handle it. She opted to do it herself for the sake of Marcus’ comfort.

“Abby, come on,” he said in a tense whisper as she got close, holding the IV in her hands, “I need to get back to work.”

“Marcus,” she shook her head, unable to believe that they were once again having this conversation, “you have a fever of 104,” she said bluntly. “What you need is sleep.”

He looked down at the contraption in her hands. He had never needed an IV before, but he knew what they looked like.

“And fluids,” she added, following his gaze.

“No,” he said quickly, attempting to sit up straighter in the bed and Abby was forced to place a firm hand somewhere near his shoulder on his chest, “I’m fine,” he insisted.

Shaking her head, she arched a brow at how easily she was able to stop him from moving. “You’re weak,” she pointed out, “if I have to hold you down, I can, and I will.”

Kane glanced up at her and saw no teasing on her face. Now was not the time for it anyways. She was dead serious. And if he wasn’t already afraid of needles, he would most certainly be afraid of them if he was being held down while it was inserted.

Resigned, he let out a heavy sigh as he leaned back into the pillows that were propping him up. “Just be gentle,” he said sourly under his breath.

Abby prepared the IV. “Aren’t I always?” She mumbled absently.

Kane winced as she expertly inserted the IV into his forearm. He had heard horror stories of doctors being unable to find the right spot for insertion and patients winding up bruised and bloody as they tried repeatedly jabbing them with the needles, but Abby was the best at what she did.

She had inserted the needle on the first try and as gently as possible, setting up the IV and keeping it in place with a small piece of medical tape before she smoothed his sleeve down over the contraption so that he wouldn’t have to look at it and grow queasy.

“Look at that,” she continued to mutter, attempting to give him a good-natured look, “you were almost as brave as that kid over there,” Abby gestured once over her shoulder to a young boy who was asleep in a cot a few yards away.

Kane was unable to find the humour in this situation. “How long do I have to stay like this?” He asked, looking up at her as though he was a prisoner and her his jailor.

Abby threw the used needle into the discard container by his bed. “At least until your fever breaks,” she said.

“When will that be?”

She pinched her lips together and gave him a sympathetic look. Something about seeing him in this vulnerable position and giving herself the power made her feel less disdain towards him. It wasn’t quite pity, but it was sympathy.

“You heard what Jaha said,” she continued, referring to over a week ago now. “It’ll get worse before it gets better.”

Kane’s face fell. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

He was already feeling so poorly, he couldn’t imagine that it would get any worse. He certainly didn’t want it to.

Abby grabbed the small container off his bedside tray and gave him a rather cheeky look. “Just wait until the delirium sets in,” she teased, turning away and heading back to make her rounds about the room.

Things had been slowly getting better. Less cases and when they did turn up, the medical staff knew by now how best to treat patients. People were being sent home, beds were clearing up, the light at the end of the tunnel was getting closer. But the epidemic was far from over. They were simply on the right side of it.

Marcus had been admitted sometime that morning and pestered Abby with demands of getting up and back to work for the first hour and a half of his residency in that hospital bed. He had quieted down once she got the IV in him, drifting in and out of sleep.

Good thing, too, because they had just lost a patient behind a nearby curtain and Marcus would have grown grave picturing his own fate as they wheeled that covered body to the morgue.

Hours later, Abby was briefing the nocturnal staff on the day and their tasks ahead. She wasn’t doing shift work, she was determined to work through this entire epidemic until it was over. With this in mind, she had packed up a few toiletries from her quarters and started showering in Medical.

Working with so many sick people, she did not want to risk bringing the germs home with her and infecting her husband or daughter. She missed them with all her heart, but knew that she was doing what was best. Keeping them safe. She only hoped that Jake was taking Clarke to the Mess Hall for regular meals instead of feeding her junk food and letting her stay up late. The girl was probably having the time of her life.

“Woah, Marcus,” she was shaken from thoughts of her family as a shadow suddenly appeared behind her and she whirled around to see Kane stood from his cot, attempting to take a step in her direction despite still being hooked up to an IV. “What the hell are you doing?” She demanded, reaching out to take him by the forearms.

The man was unsteady and sweating, wavering on his feet right before her very eyes.

“I’m going back to work,” he muttered, his eyes glazing over as he looked seemingly right through her.

“I don’t think so,” Abby responded, trying to move him backwards so that he could sit back down on the cot.

Kane shook his head. “I’m fine, Abby,” he insisted.

The woman was surprised to hear that he even knew her name or who she was right now. He was ripe with fever and descending into a typical madness.

“You’re burning up,” she said upon reaching a free hand up to his scalding forehead.

Abby had to lean backwards slightly against the weight of him, now that he realized he could use her as a crutch. She wasn’t a fan of the way that his head was somewhere near her shoulder, it felt a little too intimate for her liking.

“Besides,” she said in a strained voice, trying to maneuver him back to bed, “you can hardly stand, how are you supposed to walk?”

Kane tried to roll his eyes but was unable to comprehend what exactly he was frustrated about at this moment in time. “Hm,” was all he said in response, and Abby took a firmer hold on his arms.

“Alright,” she demanded, “back to bed.”

It was a struggle considering her was putting much of his weight on her, leaning against her as though she was a pillar of support, but Abby was able to finally get him back into bed without tampering with his IV.

Her hair had come loose from the clip that had been holding the front pieces of her hair in place thanks to the relative intimacy of their contact, and she stood up straighter when she was satisfied with his position on the bed, reaching her hands behind her head as she tried to clip her hair back in place.

“You still smell like jasmine, you know,” Kane had mumbled, his eyes closed as he leaned back into the pillows.

The clip was secured and Abby’s mouth fell into a frown. “What?” She demanded.

Kane opened his eyes briefly, just enough to catch a glimpse of her face. A very small, crooked smile crept its way onto his mouth as he raised an eyebrow.

“You heard me,” he said in a low voice, closing his eyes once again as though he was feigning sleep.

Abby let out a sigh, “Marcus-”

“You know, Abby,” he shifted slightly, his eyes flitting open as he interrupted, “I’d never say this to your face, but..." he looked about himself as if taking an inventory of the people in this room, "...you’re the best looking doctor here.”

Pinching itself into a thin line, Abby tried not to find amusement in his words. He was saying it to her face, and it nearly made her chuckle. The man’s words couldn’t be trusted due to the fever that he was running, and she knew that he would be furious with himself if he knew what he was really saying to her. Still, it was amusing and relatively confusing to hear where his subconscious took him when his brain shut off.

“You’re delirious,” she said flatly, adjusting the IV in his arm to ensure that he was not cutting off the flow of his fluids.

“I’m observant,” he corrected her, “and you’re a beautiful woman…”

The last of his sentence was lost to an incoherent mumbling, but Abby managed to piece together something about pissing him off. She wondered what he was really trying to say.

“Now I know you’re delirious,” she rolled her eyes, knowing that he would never say such things to her soberly.

Abby removed one pillow from behind his head, wondering if he might sleep if he had less propping him up.

“Lay back,” she muttered.

“Don’t flatter yourself,” Kane argued, doing as he was told and closing his eyes. “I must just be hallucinating.”

Rolling her eyes, Abby shook her head. “That’s more like it,” she muttered.

Kane opened his eyes and arched a brow in her direction.

“Sleep, Marcus,” she demanded of him. “You won’t remember any of this when you wake up.”

Marcus slept for thirty-six hours, in and out. Abby had checked on many times – once every three hours – and was pleased to see that his fever had broken while he slept and his vitals were looking up. Him and the rest of the room, or so it seemed. She had a good feeling that this epidemic wouldn’t last more than another few days at most.

Good, because she was exhausted. When this was all over, she was prepared to take a couple of days off and just sleep. She couldn’t wait to get back to her quarters, to let Jake massage the tension from her shoulders, to hold Clarke in her arms.

By the time Marcus regained consciousness, he was intrigued to see that the room was relatively empty. Even next door, he could see through the glass that the quarantine area was not as full as it once was. Things must be looking up. He wondered how long he had been out for.

“Welcome back to the land of the living,” a familiar voice said from somewhere beside him.

Abby was one cot away, separated by an open curtain, folding up a blanket and setting it down on the now empty cot. He was one of the only two patients left in this terminal, and there were doctors and staff resting their heads on cots in between shifts.

“Your fever’s broken,” she said almost pleasantly, moving towards his bedside. “You’ll be discharged if you can keep it off until tomorrow.”

Kane shifted in his cot, grateful that his body no longer ached. “Cleared for work?” He sat up, stronger than when he lost consciousness.

Abby gave him a look of disbelief, keeping her voice down as she gave him back the pillow that she had seized before he fell asleep so that he could prop himself up better.

“Yeah, right,” she said sarcastically.

A broken fever was one thing. A full recovery would take some time yet.

“Come on,” he bartered with her, “it’s got to be anarchy out there.”

Abby shook her head. “You’ve been out for a day and a half, Kane,” she explained to him, “things have calmed down,” Abby continued. “In here and out there.”

“A day and a half?” He lowered his brows, unable to fathom sleeping for that long.

“In and out,” she confirmed. “You don’t remember?”

Kane caught something in her voice that forced him to glance up at her face. Teasing is what it was. Mocking, maybe. Like she knew something that he didn’t and was making fun of him for it. Holding it over his head.

“What’s with the look?” He asked quietly, suddenly worrying for himself.

Abby shook her head slightly. “What?”

Kane shut his eyes and leaned back, rubbing a tired hand over his forehead. There was only one reason that she would be making fun of him now. The last thing he could remember her saying to him before he passed out was that delirium would soon set in. He hadn’t thought it possible.

Reluctantly, he kept his eyes shut with a wince as he asked the question that he really did not want to know the answer to. “What did I say?”

Abby fought off a smile. “I don’t know what you mean,” she refused to give in.

Kane opened his eyes and dropped his hand. “Was I delirious?”

Now, that smirk sprung to her face without forgiveness. “You could say that.”

“So, what’d I say?” He demanded, disliking how difficult she was making this.

Abby shook her head. “You said a lot of things, Kane,” she tried to wave him away, gesturing around the room. “You and everyone else.”

He didn’t care that he was the only one speaking while delirious. He cared that he had obviously spoken to her. And now, she was smirking at him like that. Like he had something that he couldn’t take back but that she would remember for the rest of her days. Something that he’d never know.

“Anything I should be worried about?” He asked, knowing that she wasn’t going to give.

Abby patted his leg through the sheet atop him and gave him a wry look. “Nothing floatable,” was all she said before she turned and slowly walked away from him, approaching Jackson who was just clocking in for his shift.

Kane wondered just how badly he had put his foot in his mouth, and his gaze followed Abby to where she now stood with her apprentice.

“Abby,” Jackson was saying, “you need to get out of here,” the boy insisted. “Go home. Sleep. Eat."

The doctor shook her head, her ponytail bouncing down her back. “I will, Jackson,” she lied. “Let me brief you.”

The pair disappeared from the terminal for about half an hour. Kane figured that they still had many patients elsewhere and only hoped that they were finally on the right side of this battle.

When Abby returned, Kane had nothing better to do than watch her. She looked exhausted, but her hands were still strong and unwavering. Her voice was growing hoarse from doing so much talking lately, but she remained asymptomatic with her outstanding immune system. And he was surprised when she never left.

It was the middle of the night, and she hadn’t been out of this room longer than 45 minutes at a time. Certainly not long enough to sleep. Now, he had gotten enough sleep to last him at least three days, and his eyes followed her around the room as she moved from cot to cot, going through charts, giving orders to her staff.

Finally, she came to check on him and was happy to see his vitals maintained and his body temperature still reading normally.

“How long have you been here?” He asked in a low voice as she fiddled with his IV.

Abby’s eyes flickered up to him, and he got his answer.

She had been here when he arrived. She had been here when he passed out the first time. She had been here when he woke up delirious. She had been here when he fell back asleep. She was here thirty-six hours later when he woke up. And she was still here now. He wouldn’t be surprised if she hadn’t slept all week.

“As long as I’ve been needed,” she said strongly. “Your fever’s still gone, but you’re not out of the woods, yet.”

She adjusted something on the IV.

“I’m keeping you on fluids for the night.”

He knew that in the morning, he could leave. That was what she promised, and he had things to do. He would be getting back to work whether she cleared him or not.

“You should go home, Abby,” he urged despite knowing that she wouldn’t listen to him.

Abby smirked thinly, keeping her eyes down on the task at hand. “You must be feeling better,” she teased, “you’re back to telling me what to do in my own station.”

True to her word, Abby released Marcus from the Medical terminal in the morning. He was eager to get back to work and pleased to see that she had even cleared him. It was premature and she knew that, but she also knew how much the man hated feeling useless. Getting back to work might be the best thing for him right now.

And not even an hour later, he had sent her the best thank you gift anyone had ever given her.

Fifteen guards. All at her disposal. They came up reluctantly but eager to help, telling her that Chief Kane had sent them all to help out in Medical until the epidemic was officially over.

Abby smiled to herself as she watched them take her orders seriously and allow some of her staff to rest themselves up. Maybe Marcus Kane wasn’t so bad after all. Maybe, after all this time, he could still display his humanity.

Chapter Text

It was in the dead of the cold, bleak night that one bridge was about to be burned once and for all. A bridge that everyone thought stable and strong. Indestructible. But somebody was on fire, nearly burning to death, and a spark was about to catch.

~~~

The year was 2147 and life on board the Ark was still lived in asceticism.

By now, everyone was not only settled into but stuck in their ways. Friendships ran thin as life became about family and work, doing what was best.

Thelonious Jaha remained chancellor – voted in for a second term last year – and he was respected by his people. There was always unrest – usually in the lower stations – but he tried his hardest to keep everyone if not happy, at least satisfied. Willing to grin and bear it.

He had been very good at ignoring threats when they appeared right there under his nose. During his first term, Jaha had been very active in the lives of all people on board the Ark. They liked that he was an engineer who continued to work through his leadership role. The trusted that he really understood the way that the Ark functioned.

Then, he stopped visiting Farm and Factory Stations. Then, the workers fell by the wayside. Then, people felt as though they weren’t being listened to. And then, systemic rot was harder to ignore. And Alpha Station was not immune to the mold.

Marcus Kane and his Reign of Terror persisted, though by now people seemed to have come to terms with the fact that if they were breaking the law for any reason, he would find them and he would float them.

The people were angry that Jaha not only let this go on, but continued to keep Marcus Kane as his second. The man who would take his place if he abdicated or became incapable of leading. That did not bode well for anyone.

Not even Callie, who had been sleeping with Kane for the last couple of months but still found his politics ruthless. However, she had yet to be directly impacted by them. Perhaps that was why she still found herself attracted to the man. Able to go to bed with him.

It was purely physical for him. He told her this before they ever struck up the intimate relationship. And Callie was no fool, she knew that he didn’t feel anything for her. Luckily, she didn’t feel anything either. But she’d been single for a long time and appreciated the warm body.

Abigail Griffin was as unsettled as anyone else as executions went skyrocketing and political unrest tore through the lower stations. What she did to feel better about it all was counter Marcus Kane at the council table – roadblocking the worst of his ideas – and save lives in Medical. She tried out experimental procedures and did everything she could to save even the hopeless of cases. And she saw a concerning number of people – specifically children – presenting with symptoms that sure looked like oxygen deprivation.

She had brought that up to the council one day, but they told her to come back when she had conclusive evidence. Of course, she never found it. But she had a feeling.

For the last few years, Clarke had been continuing to assist her in the Medical Station. By now, the girl was almost sixteen years old and Abby had even let her sit in on a few minor surgeries. Clarke may have taken after her father in lots of ways, but Abby saw lots of herself in her daughter as well. And she was pleased by Clarke’s interest in the medical field.

Abby pictured a beautiful, happy future for her daughter. Of course, her heart wanted Clarke to get to the ground and live among the trees and the rivers, but if that was not possible – as Kane and Jake both separately insisted that it wasn’t – then Abby would settle for a happy life on the Ark.

One day when she retired, Clarke could take over as the Chief Medical Officer. She could sit on the council and use her big heart and foolproof instincts to guide the decisions that affect all citizens of the Ark. Maybe by then Kane too would be retired and there would be a new era of peace and safety aboard the Ark. Maybe Wells would step up to the plate and use what his father taught him to promote better legal practices.

Abby could picture Clarke and Wells leading the Ark together, side by side. Both pragmatic, thoughtful children sure to be intelligent adults. Clarke was realistic and principled, Wells more heartfelt. They could balance each other out nicely, she happened to think.

But for now, the young had yet to inherit the new world. Abby and her old friends – now either coming up on forty or just passed it – were putting in the necessary work, growing tired as they did so but never losing that sense of resilience.

Jake Griffin felt as though he was holding life as they all knew it together with his own hands. He was trying to do better at leaving his work behind and spending less time in the lab, which was made easier because the glitches were far and few between these days, and his marriage was altogether more peaceful.

There was never any doubt that him and Abby would make things work, but they needed to stop arguing and present as a united front as Clarke reached her teenaged years. She would naturally want to go to war against one or both of her parents, and they would need each other’s support during that time.

So far, she was proving to be the most respectful, loving, perfect of teenagers. And life in the Griffin household felt as though it sparkled with golden hues. Love abound. Arguments decreased. Everything was perfect.

Except that it wasn’t. Because beneath the surface tests and routine inspections, the Ark was dying. Jake just didn’t know it yet. Because he was happy. Him and Clarke. Him and Abby. All three of them together. They were happy.

The only person who hadn’t been surprised in the least bit that the last five years of peace and so-called happiness on board the Ark came to a catastrophic end was Kane. He knew better than to expect things to go according to plan and he was the only one who hadn’t gotten lost in the sickly sweetness of the happiness that everyone else seemed to be experiencing.

He felt as though he was in the best position possible. He wasn’t foolish like the Griffins. He didn’t have a loved one or a child to worry about. He only had himself. He could make tough decisions so long as he was his only worry. That’s what he’d been preparing for all along, after all. And he watched for so long as people like Abby tried to do what was best for her child, for her marriage, to set a good example, and she only ever led them down dangerous paths that they could not afford to even humour.

Soon, that time would be over. He was certain of it.

The people would realize that they needed someone like him when shit hit the fan, so he just waited for that inevitability. Abby wouldn’t know what to do because she’d be too worried about her family. Jaha would have lost control, and the people would no longer turn to him. It would be his time to shine. He only wished that it didn’t have to happen due to an emergency, but he had a feeling it would. An outbreak, a system glitch, a rebellion. He was prepared for it all.

He had always been breaking records, but by now, Kane had executed over two hundred souls. Of course, he didn’t think of himself as an executioner, because he rarely put his own hand on that button. Still, he was in charge of it all. He was the bringer of justice. And justice meant dead. Frankly, he patted himself on the back for ridding the Ark of unseemly criminals and saving more air for those deserving of it.

He didn’t really mind that folks around the station cowered at his presence. It was safer that than trying to combat him.

Marcus Kane supposed that even he had been on the top of the world lately. That councillor’s pin always lifted him up rather than weighed it down and he had even started to learn how to properly combat Abby so that she wasn’t always getting under his skin at those meetings. He no longer felt much of anything for her. There was no attraction, no curiosity for a past that was long gone, no passion. All that simmered within him was a certain amount of hatred that he couldn’t seem to get passed. At least it seemed awfully mutual.

A past where little moments mattered and they held some sort of affection for one another no longer mattered. In fact, the only time that Kane and Abby ever saw each other these days was at council meetings, which were often turned into either political soapboxes or unwarranted debates. They would hardly do more than nod to each other in the hallways.

Kane and Jake hadn’t considered themselves friends for years now, but they still respected each other. They did not agree on much, but sometimes found themselves spending time together. Only if Jaha was involved, of course. The chancellor would sometimes invite them both over for drinks on Friday nights. Marcus went religiously – desperate to stay on Jaha’s good side – but Jake’s attendance was intermittent.

He was home more often now. More eager to get there. Less willing to sacrifice his time with the girls that he loved.

Until the hourglass ran out.

****

Abby hadn't thought anything of it when she'd ran into Joseph Bennett as she'd clocked out of work that day. He was a resource technician that Jake worked with often and a familiar face to Abby.

It was early afternoon mid-autumn, and the Ark was orbiting close to North America. So close that Abby could see the colours of the Earth changing as they always did this time of year. It was her favourite time. All day, she'd been daydreaming about what autumn must be like on the ground.

She had read books and seen movies that depicted it. A bite in the air that hadn't been present for the past half a year, the bright colours fading to warm colours as the leaves turned and the wind blew them around, the palpable feeling of change upon the world. One day maybe she’d experience it for herself.

The week had been a long one, but well enjoyed. A few days ago, Abby had celebrated her thirty-eighth birthday surrounded by the two people that she loved more than anyone in the world, and yesterday, Jackson had retaken his medical entrance exams and passed with flying colours. Her apprentice was officially a doctor, and she couldn’t be prouder for the young man.

Today, she left Medical through the clinic with a smile on her face that had been relatively ever-present lately. That was when she ran into Bennett – literally.

After the initial collision, the pair shook themselves off politely.

“Forgive me, Dr. Griffin,” Bennett was saying, startled by their encounter.

“Sorry, Joseph,” Abby said at the same time, “I should have been watching.”

They didn’t know each other well, but he lived in Alpha Station and had a daughter around Clarke’s age.

“Are you-” he began, and Abby’s face fell as she realized that he was not startled by the encounter, he was startled in general. “Are you heading home for the day?”

Abby knew he was asking for a reason beyond small talk, and she couldn’t help but worry for the man and the concerned look on his face.

“I am,” she nodded and checked her watch.

By now, the Jahas would already be over, and she would be late for the European football match that they were all supposed to watch before dinner in the Mess Hall tonight.

Bennett nodded in acceptance and looked a bit relieved but still worried. “Could you tell your husband that I ran the systems analysis that he’d asked me to and…” he trailed off, shaking his head in a disbelief that Abby had yet to understand. “Just tell him it’s ready.”

Abby turned and watched a Bennett immediately took off in the direction of Engineering, moving quickly. She had to assume that maybe he was late for a meeting or working on a tough project. She tended not to let other peoples’ worries consume her.

She got home and used her keycard to buzz herself in to the quarters that were filled with warmth, laughter, and friendly competition. Jaha and Jake didn’t officially bet on sports games – it was illegal and not always fair considering these games were played over a century ago and the final scores were easily accessible – but they did take these viewing nights seriously.

She wasn’t surprised when nobody looked over their shoulders as she let the door close behind her.

This game took place in 2047 between the Australians and the Americans, and Abby could have sworn that they had watched this one already, but enjoyed seeing her family and friends so happy and enthralled.

Discarding her medical bag by the door, Abby ran a hand over the braid in her hair before approaching the scene.

“What’d I miss?” She questioned from afar, immediately feeling the physical warmth of the living room as she came closer.

Without so much as a glance in her direction, Thelonious was the one who managed to give her an answer. “Your husband and daughter being obnoxious,” he said sarcastically.

Abby smiled knowing that Clarke had gotten her competitive spirit from her mother, whether Jake agreed or not. Speaking of whom, Abby leaned over the back of the couch and rested her hands on her husband’s shoulders.

He raised a hand to meet hers but did not stop what he was doing – yelling at the television as if the players could actually hear him and might change their ways.

She kissed his cheek, and he finally acknowledged her but soon returned to the game.

“Hi,” Abby responded with a teasing look, suggesting that she might feel owed a bit more attention than she was currently getting.

She almost forgot about Joseph Bennett until her thoughts wandered back to autumn on the ground and the window that she’d seen it from before crashing into the poor man.

“So,” she continued, and Jake was doing his best to listen to her, “I ran into Bennett when I was leaving the clinic, and he has that systems analysis that you asked for.”

Considering she had no idea what it means, Abby had posed it like a question. She had expected her husband to smile and nod and deal with it tomorrow when he was back at work. She hadn’t expected him to go rigid beneath her hands and ponder her words with traces of a frown on his face. She certainly hadn’t expected him to push himself up off the couch with a certain amount of conviction in his movements.

“Okay,” he was saying, giving her a half smile.

Abby knew him better than that. That was the look he gave when he was trying not to worry her about something.

“What,” she dropped her hands, eyeing him in confusion, “you’re going now?”

It was his day off, she had just gotten home, they had guests over, and now he was running off to the lab. Not only was it rude, it was something that they used to argue about. Something that he no longer did. Abby knew that he wouldn’t slip back into old ways unless it was important, and that rather worried her.

“Just for a few minutes,” he brushed her off casually, indeed doing his best to appear as though nothing was wrong.

Now, they had caught the attention of their nearby guests.

“Everything okay?” Jaha asked over his shoulders, obviously realizing that Jake was on his way back to work for whatever reason.

Abby felt her insides twist as the scene unfolded. Jake was worried about something, and he was covering it up for the sake of the rest of them. For a split second, she went back over his recent behaviour and came to find that he had stopped telling her about his days at work for the last few weeks. He’d been going to bed early as if he was overly tired. He had been wearing that reassuring mask for some time now and she had been too stupid to see it.

“Oh, yeah,” Jake lied again, readying himself to head out the door. “You know this old boat. It’s always something.”

By the time Jake returned for the night, Abby was already in bed. He’d left hours ago and she had not heard from him. Now, Abby was too good of a wife to ever worry that her loving husband might be straying. Jake wasn’t the type. She did, however, think that her loving husband had found something in that lab of his that worried him enough to run out on guests and stay out past curfew.

Despite lying there with tired eyes and an exhausted mind, Abby was far from sleep. Something was wrong. A mixture of instinct and failed observations now told her that. And if Jake was being this secretive, she knew that it was bad.

She could not tell if she was filled with relief or dread when she heard the door to their quarters click open and close.

He didn’t come to bed right away and her dread only grew. Jake took his time peeling off his jacket, taking off his boots, sitting down at the kitchen table and resting his head in his hands for close to an hour. Abby wanted to go to him in the other room and see what he was doing, but a certain amount of fear kept her glued to that bed where she sat awake, waiting.

 When Jake finally entered the bedroom, he hadn’t expected to see his wife fully conscious, clearly waiting for him. He sat down dejectedly on the other side of the bed, feeling too tired to lie but knowing that it was what was best for her.

Jake could not meet her eyes but tried to keep his voice normal and positive as he spoke. “You’re up late,” he said.

Abby just stared. She had expected him to go on trying to cover up whatever this was but clearly, something big had happened. They needed to get through it together. That’s what they did.

And the truth was that Jake was dying to share this news with someone else. Dying to allow someone to bear half the load and lessen his burden. But it was a big burden. And one that he really did not want to have to put on the woman that he loved.

“What’s going on, Jake?” She finally asked in a voice that told her husband she knew it was something, so there was no point in trying to lie to her.

Taking in a deep breath, Jake prepared to offer her the easy way out which was not talking about it.

“It’s nothing, Abby,” he said in a low, tired voice. “We can talk about it in the morning.”

Abby shook her head definitively. She knew full well that in the morning he would purposefully be long gone before she woke up. Then he would work late and come home too tired to talk. Whatever this was, he obviously did not want her anywhere near it. But she couldn’t let him walk through fire alone.

Finally, Jake looked over his shoulder to see if his wife had bought it. She hadn’t.

If Abby had been standing, she would have been floored by the look in his eyes. A seriousness that she very rarely saw from him. That look was gruesome. As if he had just been sentenced to death. Abby knew then and there that this couldn’t wait until morning.

“What was in that systems analysis?” She asked, putting two and two together once she remembered Bennett’s strange composure earlier.

Jake turned away from her again and sighed, his shoulders falling a few inches. Truthfully, he was relieved that Abby was allowing him to give up the façade. She was bound to find out sooner rather than later anyways. Very soon, this matter would be turned over to the council.

Once and for all, he shifted in bed so that he could make her eye contact as he delivered the bomb that was set to detonate and destroy them all.

“The Ark is…” Jake paused, realizing that this would be the first time he said the words aloud.

He didn’t want to say them. Maybe if he never said them, they wouldn’t be true.

“It’s dying, Abby.”

Her eyes darkened with realization as soon as Abby realized that no, she hadn’t heard him wrong. That solemn look in his sky-blue eyes never wavered. He was dead serious, and this was about to consume them. This would become their whole lives. Abby realized that in this very moment that nothing would ever be the same again.

“The…” she tried to stutter her way through a response, unwilling to linger in the heavy silence, “…what do you mean it’s dying?”

She only hoped that he could explain this to her in layman’s terms so that she could fully understand. Maybe she could even help him come up with a solution or find where he went wrong.

“We got the data wrong,” Jake was saying now, shaking his head. “This whole time, we projected decades of air left. We always assumed that in those decades we might finally learn how to make more,” he continued, and Abby felt the fear all the way down at the tips of her toes. “I don’t know how the hell we missed this.”

Abby blinked away her confusion. He still hadn’t told her what was happening and why he knew it for certain. He was talking to himself in a code that she had no time to crack.

“Missed what?” She demanded now, desperate to be let in on the big secret.

She was positive that she could fix it, whatever it was. She was often given a set of circumstances and rejected it. Changed reality. This time, she was certain that she could do it again.

Jake was wringing his hands together as the events of the day came flooding back to him. The past month. The numbers that were ran and reran until they were confirmed. The heavy feeling of dread that consumed his entire being.

“There was a glitch in the oxygen supply system,” he finally revealed.

Abby felt the consequences of this as though it was a heavy being laying on top of her. Making her chest heavy, pressing down on her stomach, turning her blood cold within her veins. Perhaps this was what people on Earth felt like when they heard about the apocalypse.

“We won’t see another four years,” Jake concluded.

In fact, four was the generous end of the projections. He had said so just to make his wife feel better but if he was being honest, they likely had little more than two years left on the Ark.

Abby had been expecting bad news, not detrimental news. Not world-ending news. Four years left them with nothing. She knew that Project Exodus could save them all, but she was going to be hard pressed to convince anybody to believe that the Earth was survivable on what little proof they had. Besides, it wasn’t enough time to figure out how to properly take everyone back down to the ground and what they would do when they got there.

That was a ten-year project and because it had never been given the official go-ahead, it had been dormant for the last seven.

“Four years?” Abby whispered in gut-wrenching horror as the fear momentarily sank in.

A few tears immediately stung at her eyes, but she knew that now was not the time for a natural reaction. She shook her head and gritted her teeth, snapping back into business mode as she tried to sort through this mess.

Jake nodded again. The poor man looked exhausted, but Abby knew full well that he wouldn’t be able to sleep after what he’d learned. Neither would she. Coming to the realization that they could do more than just lie there awake in bed shaking with dread, Abby tossed the covers from her body and swung her legs around the bed, pushing herself up into a standing position and placing her hands firmly on her hips.

“Show me,” she demanded.

Jake looked over his shoulder at her, his brows lowering. “What?” He asked.

Abby raised an eyebrow and reached for the dark purple cardigan that she’d thrown over the bedpost earlier, pulling it over her arms.

“I assume you brought everything home,” she said, suddenly feeling very awake. “Show me.”

With a sigh, Jake understood her need to see it all for herself. She was clearly under the impression that if she could just help him go through it, she might find something that he didn’t. But she wasn’t an engineer, and she wasn’t a resource officer. She wouldn’t find anything that he hadn’t already seen. Nonetheless, he indulged her for both of their sake’s. Besides, everyone was going to have to come to terms with this in their own way. This was Abby’s.

Out in the kitchen, they put a pot of coffee on and worked through the night.

When morning came - far sooner than they had both anticipated - they had gotten nowhere. But at least Abby had a semblance of understanding of what was going on and Jake felt better after having talked through it with his wife. Yes, it was detrimental. But they would figure it out. And while they weren’t able to come up with a solution then and there, they at least had a plan.

Jake gathered the paperwork back up into his work bag and prepared to face the day as Abby sat at the table with her head in one hand, nursing her third coffee since one o’clock that morning.

Clarke bustled out of her room quickly, barely tossing out a good morning or a goodbye as she raced off to Orchid Station so that she wouldn’t be late for school, and her parents were left smiling sadly in her wake.

They had to figure this out. For Clarke. For Clarke’s future.

Jake looked better than Abby did this morning. Apparently, he could operate off less sleep than she could. His wife had dark circles under her eyes and a heaviness about her limbs. She was thankful that her work in Medical would have to wait today in favour of an emergency council meeting, because she didn’t trust herself in the operating room on such little sleep.

Jake had made a beeline for the Chancellor’s office as soon as Clarke was out the door, but Abby lingered long enough to clean her teeth and run a brush through her hair. She couldn’t bring herself to braid it today – her arms were too tired.

Her and Jake had gone through nearly their entire yearly coffee allowance last night, so she didn’t bother making herself the fourth cup that she so craved. Instead, she sent a page out to Dr. Jackson instructing her to postpone her appointments and go about his day without her, but that she would be on call in the event of an emergency.

Then, she waited. When Jake was done with Jaha, surely he would bring the council in for a meeting as soon as possible.

When it took longer than she had anticipated, Abby took it upon herself to head down to the council room anyways for one of two reasons. One, last week she had left a folder there that she’d been looking for since Monday. Two, if the meeting was an inevitability, she’d feel better getting there sooner rather than later.

It took Jake one hour to convince Jaha that his numbers were correct and that the Ark was dying. Being an engineer, it was a lot easier for the Chancellor to realize what had happened than it was for Abby, but it was just as difficult to digest.

Sure enough, within the hour, the council table was full.

It didn’t take a rocket scientist to understand that something heavy lay upon the room that day. While most emergent meetings usually meant nothing good, this one felt more drastic than usual.

Councillor Kane was the most intrigued. He’d shown up only second to Abby, who refused to meet his eyes as she sat across from him at the table, even when it had been just the two of them. Even now as the table filled up and the meeting began; he couldn’t help but notice that both Abby and the Chancellor were acting as though they already knew what was going on.

Soon, Kane would realize why.

“I’m afraid,” Jaha began slowly, in a tone of voice that was reserved for the most solemn of situations, “that we are not gathered here today under fortuitous circumstances.”

Councillors Cole, Kaplar, Muir, and Fuji all stared at the Chancellor with wide, uncertain eyes. Councillor Kane looked at Abby and was suspicious to find Councillor Griffin’s eyes still down on the table. She knew. Whatever this was – she knew.

“A resource officer has made an alarming discovery,” Jaha went on, careful to leave all names off the table.

Once this was unleashed and the name Griffin was tied to it, Kane would be out for blood, and he knew that. They didn’t have time for that right now.

Jaha took in a deep breath and looked around his table, bracing them all for the inevitable. “The tests are conclusive,” he said slowly, as though even he himself couldn’t believe it. “The Ark is not prepared to last as long as we once predicted.”

A gasp was shared between unknowing councillors and Jaha stared at them. If they were already worried, they would be floored by what he had to say next in terms of timeframes.

Now, Kane no longer cared that Abby wasn’t surprised. He could worry about that later. For now, his eyes jolted over to the Chancellors, hoping to be told that this was all one big joke.

“Our engineers can confirm that we don’t have more than three years of oxygen left in our reserves.”

Now, even Abby was surprised. Jake had told her four. Maybe he had managed to sugarcoat it for her, even if it hadn’t made much of a difference.

Chancellor Jaha could not possibly have been more eloquent, but there was no good way of narrating the end of their world. There weren’t enough words in the English dictionary.

“Three years?” It was Councillor Cole who winced in disbelief, lowering his bushy eyebrows as the shockwave traveled around the room once and back again.

Nodding solemnly, Jaha remained stoic. “We are now faced with decisions that are…” he looked around in search of the words, “…well, they are nearly impossible.”

Staring at their leader, the councillors all couldn’t help but feel as though they were severely unprepared for whatever this meant. For whatever decisions would come next. All but one, of course.

“Where to begin?” Jaha said, asking himself as much as the rest of the room, but continued after a breath. “The officer responsible for the discovery suggests that we inform the people and let them decide for themselves.”

Now, the table grew worried. Sounds of disagreement traveled around their circle at the notion of handing this information over to the public and watching chaos unfold before their very eyes.

Now, Abby was truly surprised. Jake had not mentioned that to her when they spoke. Maybe it was because she had mentioned bringing the item to the council’s attention and letting them figure it out that Jake had been dissuaded from telling her how he really felt. Nonetheless, she felt rather betrayed that he had kept his true feelings from her. Maybe sometimes he saw her as a councillor before he saw her as his wife.

Questions began to fly, and Jaha raised his hands wince a wince in an attempt to silence the small crowd of six unruly councillors. Despite his better efforts, it was Kane whose demanding voice brought an end to the panicked chatter.

“Who exactly is this resource officer?” He demanded, wondering if they were going to have to put him in lockup just so that he wouldn’t run around spilling his guts to the whole Ark.

The pause told Kane everything that needed to know. As did the split-second glance Jaha gave Abby across the table. In that moment, Kane’s anger increased but he kept it under wraps.

Jaha nodded and Abby braced herself. “Deputy Officer Jake Griffin,” he announced.

Now, every pair of eyes at the table found Abby, who couldn’t look at any of them. This was going to get personal very soon, she feared.

She was happy to hear Councillor Cole raise his voice again.

“He can’t be serious,” Cole said loudly, obviously coming to his own conclusions about this entire affair. “Going forward with this level of information would cause riots,” he said sharply. “There would be anarchy.”

“I agree,” Kane sat up straighter as the information digested within him, trying to keep his head on straight. “Unless we want to see the world end faster than it needs to, we can’t release this.”

The people of the council feared him and often denounced his harsh decisions, but appreciated Kane for what he was. A voice that never wavered. A lighthouse in a storm, even if that lighthouse was dangerous and covered in rusty nails and broken boards.

“We need to be tactful,” he added in a strong, certain voice.

Even Abby couldn’t help but feel reassured that he was here on this council right now. She wouldn’t agree with him on much, but she did agree with what he was currently saying. However, she knew better than to bother opening her mouth right now. This entire room would denounce her opinion as biased towards her husband, even if she was agreeing with them.

Councillor Fuji shook his head, the first to disagree. “How would we like it if this information was kept from us?” He tried, giving Jaha a mournful look. “If the world was going to end, I’d want to know how much time I had left with my family.”

“I’d also want to stop showing up to work, Councillor Fuji,” Cole said in his loud voice, obviously worried that this decision would not work in his favour. “We need life to go on normally while we sort this out.”

Councillor Muir spoke up. She had a rough voice and always favoured conservative approaches to situations. She was one of Kane’s closest allies.

“Well, they certainly can’t know now,” she agreed with Cole. “At least not until we’ve gotten a handle on this.”

Cole nodded, glad to have an ally at the table.

Abby shook her head. She knew that it would not be that simple, but still did not speak. Across the table, Kane was impressed by her ability to read the room. One word from her and the rest of this council would light their pitchforks.

“And when will that be?” Ross countered. “How does one get a handle on the end of life as we know it?”

Muir took in his words and allowed them to register. When she found no answer within her, she turned her head to Councillor Kane. Surely, he would have a response. An answer. A solution. She had worked with him since Diana Sydney’s chancellorship and in that time, he had yet to lack the solution to even the most intricate of problems.

And Kane did have an answer. In fact, he knew the answer immediately. But he also knew that he was the only one willing to say it.

The rest of the table followed Muir’s gaze and instead of looking to the chancellor for their answers – Jaha was attempting to let them all hash it out for themselves – it was now all on Kane to deliver them from the apocalypse.

He took in a deep breath. “If what Jake says is true then we have no systemic solution to this problem. Correct?” He looked at Jaha, who finally nodded his assent. “So, we’ll need a logistic one, then.”

A lull fell upon the table. He sounded certain. He sounded like he was on to something. And none of them were going to like it.

“If we can’t create resources,” he said slowly, ensuring that everyone followed, “we’ll have to do everything we can to spare them.”

It took a minute for the realization to set in. Kane did not want to have to explain further, but it was not an easy concept to come to terms with. Abby felt immediately sick to her stomach. She’d seen this coming a mile away. It had been Kane’s thesis for the last decade now. Population control.

“What exactly are you suggesting?” Demanded Councillor Kaplan, who had been otherwise silent until now.

She had never been Kane’s biggest fan and found herself siding more frequently with Abigail Griffin on other council matters. She wished that Abby would speak now, but the room was slowly realizing that she must have taken some kind of vow of silence before sitting down at this table.

Kane eyed them all harshly. He feared that the rest of this council might not have the guts to do what was necessary. But the answer was in front of them all. Cole would be all for it and he could convince Muir, but Ross wouldn’t go for it. Abby and Kaplan would be against it. That would divide the table, and then what? They would get nowhere.

This is what Kane had been preparing for. And he was ready to pull whatever plug needed pulling for the greater good. He could do it and still manage to sleep soundly at night because he was not swayed by emotions. He was ready.

“Reducing the oxygen levels around the Ark would be a start,” he suggested, beginning with the easy solutions. “It’ll buy us enough time to come up with a real solution.”

Cole shook his head. “What kind of resolution do you expect us to find?” He demanded, his fear seeping into his voice. “If our chief engineers can’t even fix this?”

The air in the room grew tense. Suddenly, everyone became very aware of the breaths that they took.

Cole threw his hands down on the table, continuing. “I don’t see us left with many options, here.”

Kane swallowed dryly. He knew what needed to be done, but would the people at this table have the guts to do it?

“Well,” he began slowly, fully prepared to play the devil’s advocate if nobody else was willing to do it. “The hard truth of the matter is that we have too many people and not enough oxygen,” he simplified it all and gave people a glimpse of how his brain worked. “And if we can’t do anything to increase the level of oxygen…” he looked around the table as they all prepared for his inevitable next words, “…our only other choice is to decrease the number of people.”

A hush fell upon the table. It had been expected and not surprising, but it felt worse to hear than it did to think. Could they really do that? Carry out a culling of their own people and still go on living? It was an extreme that they never thought they would have to consider, but it may be their final destination.

Abby still found no words to say as she glared at Kane with a hint of understanding behind her eyes. She didn’t like the way that he was thinking, but she understood it. Still, she was going to fight him on this. Death was not the way. Choosing who lives or dies had never been the way. She was going to come up with a solution to all this, she just needed to get her ducks in a row first.

“I see,” the Chancellor finally whispered after the silence had grown unsettling.

There were no more suggestions.

“Like I said,” he continued slowly, “an impossible situation.”

It was clear that even the Chancellor did not know what to do. Luckily, that was precisely why he had a council. Together, they would come to a conclusion.

Kane saw the uncertainty lingering and wanted to add something. They had no time to lose. The longer they waited, the more people that they had to kill. And believe it or not, he did not enjoy mass murder. He saw it as a means to an end.

“We need to act quickly,” he added in an urging voice, leaning over the table. “We have no other option.”

In his head, he knew that culling the population was the right call. It was the hard call. The one that nobody wanted to have to make, not even him. But it had always been the right call. He knew it.

He was glad that Abby had been so silent on this matter, because she was usually pretty persuasive. He didn’t know how she felt about any of it, but he was about to find out. Because she chose that exact moment to break her silence.

“We have the ground,” she said in a small voice.

At first, the council was not sure who had spoke. Because she still hardly raised her eyes and her voice had been so timid and tired. But soon, they all turned to look at her, and she slowly met the chancellor’s eyes.

Up until now, the ground had been a fallacy. Some people believed in Project Exodus, others did not. Now, it proved to be the only option they had that did not involve a culling.

Kane gave his usual facetious half smile and shook his head. “We have a planet unable to sustain human life for another generation at least, Councillor,” he rebutted firmly, doing his best to belittle her ideas in front of the rest of the room so that nobody could grab hold of them. “And we have an Ark that has less than three years left. Be reasonable.”

The fight had sparked within Abby, and she raised her voice as her eyes snapped towards Kane.

“We don’t know that for sure,” she reminded him sharply. “Every test that we’ve sent to the ground for the last twenty years has come back inconclusive,” Abby said. “Every scientist in Earth Monitoring will tell you the same thing…” she continued, shaking her head, “…it’s possible that Earth is livable right now.”

She was choosing her words wisely. Yes, it was possible. But they would also tell anyone that it was possible that Earth wasn’t livable. It was fifty-fifty. Abby was just trusting her gut.

“You can’t be serious,” Kane muttered as hushed chattered passed around the table.

The other councillors did not know who to believe. Kane and Abby often did this to them – divided. But this dilemma was perhaps the most important they would ever face.

“We’re not sending ourselves to the ground on a hunch,” Kane finished, looking at Jaha to ensure that the chancellor was not seriously considering this.

“Then let us work on it,” Abby also looked towards Jaha, now striking up an insisting tone of voice. “Initiate Project Exodus and we’ll come up with something. But we’ll need all hands on deck.”

Jaha nodded slowly, taking into consideration all that everyone had said today. The reactions had been split, as predicted. Nobody’s more drastic than Kane and Abby’s. Also as predicted. Kane wanted to commit mass murder, Abby wanted to drop them down to an irradiated planet. Who was he to say which ridiculous notion was the best course of action?

“All in due time, Abby,” the chancellor finally said softly before clearing his throat to address the room once and for all. “First and foremost, we need to decide what we do with this information,” he continued to look around himself. “How much do we share?”

It was Cole who spoke up first. “If we release any part of this, they’ll only want to know more,” he suggested. “The people won’t rest until they do.”

“He’s right,” Muir agreed with a nod. “It’ll have to be all or nothing.”

“I agree with you, Councillor Muir,” Jaha said, taking in a deep breath.

That was that. To share or not to share? The first of the many impossible decisions that would befall them. Jaha nodded towards Cole who was the speaker of the table, wordlessly asking him to begin the voting process.

“All those in favour of releasing the information to the public?” He asked immediately.

The table did not hesitate.

There were only two ayes. Uttered by Councillors Kaplan and Fuji.

“All those opposed?”

The nays came from the rest. The entire room grew surprised to hear Abby voting not only against what they predicted, but against her own husband.

Now, she was an emotional person, but she knew how to be logical. No, she did not find it fair that the council got to know about the issue and the people did not. Yes, if she was back in Factory Station working for a living, she would want to know how much time she had left. But perhaps she wouldn’t. Perhaps there would be a certain amount of bliss in the ignorance. Hell, she’d give anything not to have to know about it right now.

But that was what they had a council for. And she was quite positive that if their silence could just buy them some time, she could help be a part of the solution. She could come up with something.

Kane kept it all in the back of his head. It wasn’t usual to see the two Griffins on opposing sides of something. He had to wonder which one he was going to have to be more wary of in this situation. He strongly opposed Abby’s foolish notion that life on the ground might be possible, but he certainly didn’t trust Jake’s longing to tell the people of the Ark what was going on. Why did he have a feeling that both things were suddenly about to become his problem?

“That settles it, then,” Jaha’s voice broke the silence. “I’ll spend the day in the resource lab. We can reconvene as soon as I know more,” he looked around the room. “For now, we keep this matter to ourselves.”

“And what about Jake?” Kane bit back.

Jake wanted to go public, that had been his suggestion. Did they really trust that he was just going to sit on this information? Abby’s eyes fell back down to the tabletop.

Jaha sighed. “Officer Griffin understands that we make the final decision,” he nodded. “Meeting adjourned."

And so, it began - the beginning of the end.

Everything changed when the Griffins found out that they were working on borrowed time. Jake was furious when he was told that the council had forbidden anyone from going public with their discoveries, but he knew that there wasn't much he could do about it.

He thought that they were doing the public a disservice. They deserved to know that they were breathing borrowed air. They deserved to hold their families a little bit closer every night. They deserved to live the last of their days however they wanted to. Besides, intelligence did not only live in Alpha Station. What if a complete stranger came up with the perfect solution to their problem?

The happy days of the Griffin household were gone.

Abby and Jake officially disagreed on something at a fundamental level. Jake spent nearly every waking hour working in the lab and Abby could no longer say a word about it because she too had kicked into overdrive. Now, she was spending her days in Medical and her nights between Engineering and Earth Monitoring, looking for solutions that might never present themselves.

They both wanted to quit working altogether and spend as much time at home as a family as possible, but Abby was so damn determined that they were wrong. That they did have a chance, and if she didn’t find it, all her hard work would be for naught.

When they were home together, they could do nothing but argue. The tension upon worrying over the end of the world could not be ignored. Throw into the mix the fact that they disagreed on something so monumental and it made for an eruptive living situation.

Jake did not respect the fact that Abby wanted to keep things quiet. He thought that the council had corrupted her and that Kane’s words were swaying her. He thought that because she sat up on the council and got to be privy to everything she wanted, she no longer had to worry about the people.

But Abby knew she just needed time. And she couldn’t keep up her work if the public was prying in on this, demanding answers and trying to make their own plans. For that reason, she wanted silence. She wanted to play god just a little bit longer. And Jake wouldn’t stand for it.

Since the oxygen issue had been brought to the table, the council was meeting every second day to discuss any updates on the matter. The resources department would bring forth new ideas only for Engineering to shut them down. Jaha had indeed given Project Exodus the go-ahead but there were many hoops to jump through. It wasn’t a perfect solution – it was a Hail Mary. They didn’t have much to lose.

In Kane’s mind, this was a waste of manpower and resources, but he had bigger fish to fry. He was still pushing for a culling. If they started soon, they wouldn’t have to kill quite so many people. He also vouched for mandatory birth control that prevented any births going forwards, but Abby reminded him that it was against their charter.

Tonight, Abby had been staring out the only window in their quarters with her eyes fixated on the vastness of the large ocean she was on the Earth below. Jake, having just recalculated their projections and realized that they had closer to two years than four, was coming home late from a meeting with the chancellor.

“How’d it go?” She asked quickly with her arms crossed, leaning against the wall.

Clearly, Jake had every intention of heading straight to bed and not talking about it. He was sick of having to deliver bad news. But Abby was lingering and had other ideas.

“Hey,” he muttered carefully upon realizing that she was standing there waiting for him.

He hadn’t seen her until she spoke.

She hadn’t expected him back so late but wasn’t entirely surprised. In reality, the reason that Jake’s impromptu meeting with Jaha had run so late was because Councillor Marcus Kane happened to be present, and Jake shared the news with both of them over a glass of whiskey.

Kane had, of course, grown argumentative almost immediately. As soon as Jake suggested it was finally time to go public with this information.

“Well, I told Jaha it’s definitive,” Jake said tiredly. “The Ark’s got a year of oxygen left. Maybe two.”

Abby nodded, unwavering. Between Jake’s work in the lab and her efforts on Project Exodus, she was still confident that there was a way out of this. Frankly, it still didn’t feel real. Just another puzzle for them to solve.

“You’ll fix it,” she reassured him, truly believing her words.

Jake loved her and he kept his tone light, but was growing tired of her relentless optimism. There came a time when they had to face reality and just try to do their best with the time that they had left.

“Not this time,” Jake said solemnly, shaking his head. “I’ve tried, Abby,” he reminded her. “This isn’t a glitch. It’s a system failure.”

Now, he didn’t want to fight, and he knew precisely where his wife stood on the following matter, but he still hoped that he could appeal to her sense of humanity. He had been taken by surprise when Abby remained so steadfast in support of keeping the public in the dark. It didn’t feel like a decision that the woman he married would have made.

“People need to know,” he said despite knowing that it would start an argument.

“No,” Abby responded with no hesitation in her voice – she was well versed in the art of this particular fight. “They’ll panic.”

Jake let out a facetious scoff. He had heard those words over and over again earlier in Jaha’s quarters from Kane. The thought of the irony in the fact that there had been a time when he used to beg his wife and his best friend to try to see eye to eye on something so that the three of them could spend time together without a fight. Of course, they chose now to start agreeing with each other. Now, when he couldn’t stand with either of them.

“You sound like Kane,” he accused, hoping that it would spark disgust inside of Abby and she might recalibrate.

Instead, she only pinched her lips together. “Because he’s right,” she admitted against her own pride.

“No,” Jake shut her down.

If either parent had known that their raised voices had woken their daughter who now stood on the other side of the wall listening to their every word, they may have bitten their tongues.

“We can’t avoid the truth,” Jake insisted harshly. “We have to let everyone on the Ark put their minds to a solution.”

Abby shook her head. She refused to budge on this particular issue.

“What, and risk anarchy?” She asked rhetorically, knowing that they could not have both truth and peace. “No, it’s too dangerous.”

There had been a reason that Abby remained so firmly against Jake’s wishes. She was scared. Not only of risking anarchy in the public sectors, but because she could see that look in his eyes. The dangerous, rebellious look that she so often wore before she stirred up mischief.

This was different from running one’s mouth in a council meeting or sneaking around after curfew. This was treason. A capital crime if ever she’d seen one. If Jake did what she worried he was going to do, he would be floated before he could ever bring that whistle to his lips.

But they butted heads so firmly and felt their disagreement and disappointment so deeply in their bones that Abby also worried for their marriage. That this might be the last nail in their coffin. She knew that Jake didn’t look at her the same since she told him that she would not support his wishes to present the issue to the public. Since she revealed that she had personally voted against the motion on the council.

But frankly, she hadn’t been looking at him the same since either.

Abby saw that look in his eyes now and felt that same old panic rise up in her chest. She knew her husband. She knew that he wasn’t afraid to risk himself for the greater good. But she also knew that she did not want to go on without him. She didn’t want Clarke to have to move forward without a father. She needed him here.

“Promise me that you’ll obey the council’s orders,” Abby begged him, knowing what he was seconds away from deciding on, “that you’ll keep it quiet,” she continued, staring up at him as if his life depended on it – which it did. “Promise me.”

Jake saw the desperation behind his wife’s eyes. Had he been around the corner, he would have seen the worried understanding in those of his daughter, too. But he couldn’t bring himself to sacrifice what he knew was right for Abby’s wishes. He had to think of the greater good. Of Clarke’s future.

Abby had never felt anything like when Jake uttered his next words.

“I can’t,” he breathed, and Abby almost fell to her knees.

She didn’t know what to do in this situation that she had absolutely no control over. The man that she loved was going to get himself killed and there was nothing she could do about it without betraying him. Abby could no longer breathe.

“For Clarke,” Abby tried again as her wide eyes filled with tears.

She couldn’t go through this again. She lost her entire family. She lost the first man that she’d ever loved. Now, she knew that she would survive losing Jake, but it would take a piece of her. But she couldn’t let Clarke lose her father.

“Do it for Clarke,” she begged.

A miserable tear fell down Abby’s cheek, and she stared up at her husband. He looked like a stranger, and it felt like he had just twisted a knife into her stomach. But this was the man that she loved. The man that she wanted to do whatever it took to keep safe. The man that she couldn’t protect if he made the wrong choices.

“They’ll float you, Jake,” Abby whispered, terror spilling out of her voice. “If you do this, I won’t be able to stop it.”

A seat on the council was no match for treason. Her pleading for the man that she loved was no match for Kane’s Reign of Terror. Jake would be floated, and he would never get to live in the world that he swore he was saving. His daughter would have to live potentially the last of her days without a father.

Abby watched as her husband decided to condemn himself to death. Calmly and without reservation. She, on the other hand, shook with fear. How could the man that she started a life with even consider trading his life as a father and a husband for this impossible cause?

Jake had always been her lighthouse. Her light in a storm, in the same way that Kane served as the council's lighthouse whenever she couldn't. When Jake and Abby first got together, when their relationship and their marriage was new, it was so golden and shiny and devoid of any imperfections. She never thought that twenty years in she'd be begging for a do-over, asking herself how the hell they'd managed to end up this way. Had she missed the signs all along? Small incompatibilities between her and her husband that were now illuminated by this drastic situation. She had hoped that during times of crisis - like this one - her and the man that she loved would band together of one mind and hold each other through the uncertainty. Instead, they only added to one another's pain.

It was no longer golden. Now, they were grey. Had those been her and Jake's true colours all along? No, of course not. They had been golden and full of life and love for so many years. Their marriage had been happy and fruitful. Only now it was falling apart and Abby was forced to wonder if she had been living an illusion the entire time. Questioning everything that she thought she could hold true and untouchable. All she could do was fight. Fight so that their story would not end prematurely. Because she was certain that hers was not over, that her life was not ending any time soon, but had this sickening feeling that Jake was about to sacrifice his.

****

It had been almost three weeks since the council originally met to discuss the timeline that the Ark had left. A week and a half since Jake all but told Abby he would be going public with this information if the council continued to hide it.

Every day she woke in fear that today would be the day, and her husband would be taken from her. She had been so consumed with her own premature grief that she hadn’t even noticed Clarke acting strange.

The girl was shaken over what she had overheard between her parents. Not only was the Ark dying, but her father was going to blow the whistle and wind up dead. And as much as she wanted to save his life, she simply could not agree with her mother. What Jake was doing was a noble thing, and Clarke wanted to support him.

Maybe once the public learned what was really going on, they wouldn’t let the Guard float Jake. She had to believe that there was a world out there in which her father got to do what was right and keep his life.

Clarke hadn’t heard anything since, but it consumed every waking moment of her life. It didn’t help that things at home were so tense. Her parents hadn’t argued this badly since she was a kid, and they were both spending most of their time at work.

She couldn’t go on like this. She didn’t want to open up to anybody for many reasons. Mainly because she didn’t know who to trust and she also didn’t want to have to put this on anyone else. But she couldn’t help herself from telling her best friend.

Wells had seen something wrong in Clarke from a mile away. She’d been distant, worried, pale and refusing to eat. He hadn’t been expecting what she told him – that the Ark was dying and her mother was desperately trying to convince her father not to obey the council’s orders and go public – but he was glad that she allowed him to bear some of the burden.

And while Clarke worried about her parents, Jake came up with a plan, and Abby worked herself to the bone. She hated herself for the way that she was acting, but felt as though she was doing the right thing. But she had potentially very little time left. And she was choosing to spend that time locking herself away in various stations, fighting with the man that she loved, and pushing away her daughter. Shouldn’t she have been dropping everything to pull them closer and cherish every moment.

But she had this unwavering hope that the world was not ending. And if she let herself stop working towards saving life as they knew it, she would be accepting the fact that there was nothing she could do.

Nonetheless, she was one step away from total madness. She had never known fear like this. Not knowing if or when Jake was going to go public. Not knowing how he was going to do it. What would happen after. Whether she would get to say goodbye.

After that third week, Abby got desperate. She couldn’t live like that.

In similar fashion to her daughter, Abby had been distant recently during council meetings. She had been short and abrupt with those that she worked with. She wasn’t seeing any of her friends.

Kane was the only one who had taken notice because ever since his meeting with Jake and Jaha, he was on high alert for treason. Especially from that particular family. He knew that Jake was one step away from incriminating himself and he also knew how much Abby loved him. She was likely going to do whatever it took to help him, even if she seemed to oppose his methods.

She was acting like a nervous traitor and, to his knowledge, hadn’t even done anything yet. He didn’t know what that meant, but he knew that he had to be prepared.

Jake was a loose canon and his wife was headstrong. If he had a plan, she knew about it. He tried to pay extra attention to her during council meetings to try and decipher what exactly she knew, but she had retreated into a shell of herself. He recognized the person that she was becoming. He’d seen it when Daniel Spencer made her do his dirty work.

As for Abby herself, she felt as though she was a child again. Illegal. Right back where she started – living with illegal secrets, hiding her every move, worried that every day might be their last. She couldn’t believe that Jake had put her back in this position and she wondered if perhaps it was the destiny of everyone who had ever loved her. To place burdens on her that she had never asked for.

Kane had signed himself up for afternoon-evening patrols in Alpha Station for one reason alone – he wanted to catch the Griffins in the act of whatever they were planning. Instead, he stumbled upon something just before curfew one night that left him questioning everything. He was finishing his final rounds this evening before heading to Jaha’s for their usual glass of whiskey when he checked the rec room.

Callie and Abby sat together on the couch. The latter had her head in her hands, and the former was rubbing her back in a consoling manner. Kane’s presence in the room had yet to be acknowledged, but he lingered despite it being a personal scene. He wanted to know what was going on, just in case it incriminated somebody.

But instead of anyone confessing to treason, Abby had lifted her head and weakly began to explain to her best friend that she worried her marriage was over.

That’s when Kane slipped out.

Was that what he had been seeing from Abby during council meetings? Her and Jake were on the rocks, headed for divorce? Had the stress of all that they knew taken its toll on their marriage and now Abby was falling apart at the seams? Maybe he wasn’t looking at treason at all, maybe he was just looking at domestic catastrophe.

As he marched around the station that night, it was all he thought about. Abby and Jake. Jake and Abby. Divorcing or committing treason?

Then, he landed on something as close to the truth as he could get. They disagreed on how to handle things. He knew as much because Abby had opposed Jake’s wishes to go public on multiple occasions. Maybe that was why they were falling apart. Divorce and treason.

And in fact, Abby had been sent over the edge that day because of what Jake had told her. He knew that she was opposed to his thoughts on the matter, but wanted to be transparent with her nonetheless just in case she wanted to change her mind and help him.

Jake told her that he was going to film a video explaining what Engineering had found in terms of the Ark’s life support and publicly broadcast the message around the entire space station. She knew that given his engineering skills, he’d be able to hijack the Ark-wide station in less than an hour’s time.

He did not tell her when he was planning this, but she had to assume that it would during his day off tomorrow when he was home. By the time he told her, it was too late for him to broadcast the message that night. Nobody would be awake or watching. He would likely wait until midday tomorrow to record and share it.

And they fought. Oh, did they ever fight. Abby was grateful that Clarke was out of their quarters spending the evening with Wells because she yelled and she screamed, and she wanted to pull her hair out and start throwing things.

But no matter the tears or the begging that she did, Jake did not waver. He never once told her that he was sorry, because he wasn’t. This was the right thing to do, and he would not apologize for that.

They fought for hours before Abby ducked out, unable to be at home with him anymore. She needed to unload her worries and her fears on somebody, but obviously couldn’t tell them everything. She was just glad when she found Callie in the rec room, and she offered a shoulder to lean on.

Callie was the only one that Abby felt comfortable crying in front of. While she felt a certain relief finally being able to disclose her marital problems to a trustworthy source, Abby was careful to avoid mentioning anything about what had caused the breakdown, knowing that Callie was not approved for disclosure and also refusing to make her best friend an accomplice to treason.

All Abby had ever known was fighting. Even when she thought she found peace with Jake, it quickly turned to a whole new fight. Different than with Danny, not like her and Kane, even bigger. Bigger because she loved Jake with most of her soul but not enough to sacrifice her life. She loved being alive more than she loved Jake. She loved being a mother more than she loved Jake. But still, she thought she needed to fight because it was all she'd ever known.

To fight for the things that she loved. That she believed in. That she wanted to protect. But now she was learning that sometimes it was important to fight, and sometimes it was important to walk away in order to survive.

And that's when Abby knew for sure that it was over. In one way or another, her marriage was over.

 ~~~

Abby felt stronger after talking to Callie. Jake was stubborn and he was doing what he thought was right, but so was she. That was why this was such a monumental fight for them. Because it was something worth fighting over.

But Abby knew that there was something she could do. There was one more person that she trusted. Somebody who knew and loved Jake and could help her get through to him. She had to try, even if it meant betraying the man that she loved.

When she got back home, she was happy to find Jake asleep and in bed. That meant that she could take some time and sit there at the kitchen table with her head in her hands, thinking it all through. There was a video camera in the living room set up and pointed at one of their chairs. Abby couldn’t even look at it. Jake had been telling the truth. He was going to record a video. Hell, maybe he already had.

She could not believe that this was her new reality. Abby’s heart raced as she felt the fear that the man that she loved had instilled within her drilling itself coldly into her bones. Fear of losing him. Her family. The only man who had ever loved her the way that she wanted to be loved. Jake. Jake who was never supposed to leave her on her own. Jake who still had duties as a father to fulfill. Jake who Abby would never be able to replace in the eyes of their daughter.

Abby couldn’t even think as she breathed manually, her mind racing. Every conscious thought was painful, and every unconscious thought was a nightmare. She couldn’t remember the last time that she’d slept through the night. Or had a proper meal, for that matter. This could not continue. Not while it was only a matter of time before the man that she loved sacrificed himself and ultimately their family for this greater good that she didn’t even believe in.

Abby dug her nails into the palms of her hand as she squeezed them together tightly. Why couldn’t support Jake on this? Why couldn’t she do what he’d asked of her and just take his side, back him with the council, support him while he committed treason? Because she loved him more than she loved the people of the Ark. She did not want him to die. Was it selfish? Absolutely. But she also happened to believe that she was right. And if she could just get a little bit more time to work on Project Exodus, then Jake wouldn’t need to go public.

How did they get here? Spending extra time at work because yes, they needed to, but also because they didn't want to go home and fight. Avoiding each other, timing their appearances in the Mess Hall so that they wouldn't be forced into the obligatory matrimonial conversation that would inevitably lead to a fight in front of everybody. Saying goodnight to their daughter at different times. Heading to bed at different times, waking up at different times. No more kisses on the way out the door.

What would she tell people if they somehow made it out of this alive? If Jake managed to keep it together and not get himself floated. If he didn't take her down with him. Would they learn to grow back together or would this quiet resentment turn to an unignorable banshee shriek? Jake was almost as headstrong as she was. Would he ever be able to forgive her for not having his back? For sitting on the council and staying quiet instead of giving him a voice. He held grudges and he didn't forget about anything. Abby feared he would never look at her the same.

She could see them a year from now after having fixed the oxygen problem, everyone alive. Jake would kiss her in public but he wouldn't hold her at night. He would put his arm around her in front of their friends but not in private. Contempt would breed misery and there was nothing they could do about it. They would stay together reluctantly until Clarke was old enough to get her own quarters and find a semblance of her own life, and then they would call it quits quietly and without arguing. Jake and Abby Griffin - the it couple - would divorce. And then would come the quesitons. How did it end? Why did it end? What would she tell people? Surely not the truth.

The Ark was dying and we disagreed on how to handle it. Guess it doesn't much matter anymore now that it's not dying and we're all still alive. But we haven't been able to look at each other the same since.

It didn't do them justice. It wasn't something that should have broken them. It was an utter waste of their unconditional love for each other. Abby grimaced and shook her head to clear her thoughts upon realizing that as good of a man as Jake was, he had put her in positions that she swore she'd never let herself be put in again. He had risked her life. He refused to fight for their relationship when things got hard. He left her feeling alone and sorry for herself. He put it all on the line to commit a crime that he couldn't look back from.

And did she ask for any of it? Of course not. In fact, she'd begged Jake against it all. She'd pleaded with him to put her and their family above his tiresome crusading. She'd promised that they could find a solution together that the council would be happy with. One that wouldn't endanger anybdoy. But he wasn't listening. And as sad as she was, she was also madder than hell. She adored the life they had together and the family that they'd created. The safety of it all that proved to be nothing more than an illusion. He was threatening to take all that away simply because he could not wait. Abby had to admit, she had convictions that she was willing to die for too, but she would have listened to him if he begged her to take a step back and think of their family. 

Her legs took her up out of her chair against her will.

No, she thought to herself. No, he’s going to hate you.

But she was already walking on shaky legs towards the door.

If their marriage was going to crumble regardless, then she may as well save his life in the process of destroying their relationship.

She couldn’t remember arriving at the Chancellor’s door, but she knew full well that it was the only place for her.

It had been too long of this. Too long of being choked to death by a fair of hands that belonged to a man she loved and trusted. A pair of hands that were slipping away from her. Jake and his secrets had taken Abby to her limits and that glass ceiling of hers was cracking under the pressure.

There was a certain element of anger within her that had remained unchecked, and she wouldn't be able to address it for over a year from now. But Abby was angry. Angry that Jake would take this risk. That he would endanger the people of the Ark, that he would incriminate himself knowing that the risk was getting himself killed, taking her with him, and making an orphan of his daughter. That being said, she was also angry that he was trying to take her with him in the first place. 

She hadn't asked for any of this. She was on the council, she had voted against telling the public, and that was that. If Jake wanted to make this the hill that he was going to die on, so be it. She was angry about that, but more angry that he was continuously trying to make it her hill, too. Why had he dug her grave when she was fighting against it?

He could he do that to her? To look her in the eyes and ask her to commit treason with him and successfully throw away her own life when they had a daughter to raise. When they had people to save, work to do, solutions to be found. He may have been suicidal over his cause, but she wasn't. She had hope all around, she just needed time to put that hope to good work, and he wasn't giving her that time.

Perhaps it was the anger that kept her legs moving that night. She didn't want to see him dead, but she couldn't have him tell the people. And she was sick and tired of being asked to die with him. Jake had been drifting away from her ever since this problem was discovered and there was nothing she could do to tether him back to the mainland, back to his family, to her. She felt as though she was under an impossible amount of pressure, to the point where her bones were going to begin to crack and her spine would split under the pressure of keeping it all together.

She was not ready to be more collateral damage. Not ready to give up the good fight. She knew that she could do more good alive rather than dead, and who was he to ask her to jump on board a sinking ship? Jake was going to accuse her of abandoning that ship, she just knew it. He'd never say it aloud, but she'd see it in his eyes, hear it in his voice. But if she didn't abandon this ship now, she was going to go down with it. And she couldn't do that.

Abby cursed inside her own head. Jake was supposed to be the safe choice and now here she was.

Jaha was inside his quarters with Councillor Kane when they heard the incessant pounding on his door. At first, they ignored it, thinking that it was just the usual creaking of the Ark. Then, it got louder.

Abby knew that she was making a ruckus, but she didn’t care. If a member of the Guard wanted to come by and arrest her for being out past curfew, she was confident that Jaha would come to her rescue and talk them through the misunderstanding.

This was the right thing to do; she told herself as she shivered against the frigidity of the night air on the Ark. They always reduced the temperature after hours in order to conserve energy.

Jaha would know what to do. He always knew what to do. The worst was behind them, so long as Abby did this tonight before Jake could do anything drastic. She knew that Kane could smell blood in the water, and he was going to come after them sooner rather than later, so Abby felt it right that she was enlisting Jaha tonight. The two of them could fight Kane and the council off, she was sure of it.

But out there in that hallway, worried for the life of her husband, isolated by the secret that he forced upon her, Abby had never felt so alone. It was worse than anything she had ever known. She had had it all. Everything she never thought she would get. And now it was all coming crashing down around her. She had flown too close to the sun and now she was going to lose it all.

And she had been so happy. So happy with her husband and her daughter.

Now, there was nothing but suffering. Suffering in every step that Jake took away from her. Every step closer to his own execution.

Jaha and Kane shared a look within the chancellor’s quarters upon realizing that there was somebody very clearly at the door. Kane immediately assumed that it was a threat – given the veracity with which the pounding came – and he held out a hand, insisting that Jaha stay back as he opened the door.

Abby’s heart nearly fell out of her body when that door opened, and she was met with the familiar dark eyes of Marcus Kane.

Instant panic consumed her as her heart tightened.

She had gone to the wrong door. In her state of panic, she had somehow gone to the wrong door. And now she had opened the door to her own doom. She was out after curfew, and she was coming here with treasonous information. Now, she was going to die. Kane was going to execute her.

This was it. They both thought it would be years ago, but this had been it all along. This was how she got herself killed.

And throughout her immense dread and disappointment, Abby felt a strange sense of relief upon just seeing his face. Maybe he could help her. Maybe he would take her by surprise. Or maybe death would be a relief from it all.

Kane blinked in surprise, unexpecting Abby. He had never seen her in such a state of frantic worry. She was breathing heavily, white as a ghost, her eyes wild and brimming with unshed tears.

“Abby?” He stated blankly, his breath hitching in his throat, suddenly feeling as though he was not supposed to see her like this.

It was a floatable offence. Pounding unceremoniously on the Chancellor’s door after curfew. He could sentence her to death right now. Maybe if she wasn’t here crying her eyes out, looking as though something was chasing her, he would have been quick to clap her in irons.

She could not speak, still in disbelief that she had gone to the wrong door.

“Abby,” Jaha finally revealed himself, and Abby blinked away her surprise. “What’s the matter?”

She was not at the wrong door. It was Friday night – Kane was here for a drink. Jaha was right there behind him.

Abby spared no more eye contact for Kane and instead placed her hands on his chest only love enough to shove him out of her way so that she could enter the Chancellor’s quarters and approach Jaha.

She may not have been at the wrong door, but her plan was still thrown off by Kane’s presence. He wasn’t going to let her get away with anywhere where Jaha might be able to use his discretion.

Now, she stood there in the centre of the room, unsure what to say. If Kane hadn’t been looming behind her, perhaps she would do things differently. But now, her hands began to tremble as she brought them up in front of her in an unconscious gesture of self-preservation. When she opened her mouth, no words came out.

"You know," Marcus said dryly, closing the door behind her and moving onto the scene, “curfew applies to councillors too, Abby.”

If that were true, then what was he doing here outside of his quarters? She didn’t even have the wits about her to interject with such a comeback tonight.

And if Marcus Kane possessed a wit of empathy, he might have backed off. Taken her panic-stricken state as a sign that she needed help rather than hounding. But he had always managed to come up short in that area where she was concerned. Whether he was nineteen or forty-one years old.

He simply could spare no sympathy for this woman. The one that he was certain he hated with everything inside of him. In fact, he felt a strange sense of pride welling up inside of him upon seeing her in such a state. She was human, he was not. That was the simple truth of it all.

Hope, too. He found hope, strangely enough. Hope that this was it – the moment that Abigail Griffin finally incriminated herself. Maybe she’d take that loose canon of a husband with her and Kane could finally be free.

“Thelonious, I need to speak with you,” she managed to say in a voice stronger than she had anticipated, even if it wavered. “Privately,” she added sternly.

It was clear that Kane’s presence had suddenly become unwanted now that Abby was here, but he wasn’t about to let her get away with it that easily. He had been there first. And she’d better have a damn good reason for breaking curfew.

“Abby,” Jaha began, shaking his head in confusion.

He held up his hands to her as if she was a wild animal that he was trying not to spook. But instead of calming her as intended, the gesture frightened her off. Like a wild horse, Abby was send backing up blindly, trying to put distance between her and the chancellor.

As soon as her back found something warm and strong – the body of Marcus Kane – her blood ran cold and she flinched away, now glancing behind herself as though she was worried that Kane might strike her.

“What’s going on?” Jaha asked, stronger now.

Abby turned as Kane came around her side, and she now found her eyes darting between the two men. One that she trusted, the other that she did not. But she did once. Could she trust them both now? No, she reminded herself. No, she could not trust Marcus Kane.

Jaha was too busy worrying about Abby to see the bigger picture. Kane didn’t possess the ability to worry, so he could see it clearly for what it was. He saw the facts.

The Ark was dying and Jake wanted to tell the public. Abby was against this notion so vehemently that she had actually voted as such during the council meeting. Now, their marriage was crumbling or so he had overheard earlier in the rec room. He had to think that the reason for that had everything to do with their difference in opinion.

Now, Abby could handle being disagreed with. She took it poorly, but she was no stranger to it. Kane knew that. What she wouldn’t be able to handle was her husband threatening his own life. Maybe that’s what he was doing now. Maybe he was threatening to go public, and Abby was here because she didn’t know what else to do or who else to tell.

Kane wouldn’t even be surprised. He’d watched Abby clam up over the last few weeks and he’d also watched Jake grow argumentative. In fact, he’d wager a bet that he was right on the money.

Now, as much as he’d grown accustomed to disliking this albatross of a woman, Kane couldn’t help but take a certain amount of pity on Abby, who had obviously been dragged into this mess without any consideration as to what it might do to her. If she was willingly a part of it, she wouldn’t be here crying in the middle of the night like somebody with nowhere else to turn.

Surely, she knew what Jake was up to. Kane had it on good authority that she did not agree with it. But she was not here to turn her husband in, she was here to have the sense knocked into him. And if she couldn’t do it herself, maybe the chancellor could. That was what Kane saw.

“Jake’s going public,” he stated coldly, allowing his hollow voice to ring out against the walls of the otherwise silent room.

Abby turned around as if the sound of his voice had physically assaulted her. Her eyes were wide and fearful, her lips parted as though she wanted to say something but didn’t know what.

“That’s why you’re here,” Kane added, but this time it sounded like a mixture of both a question and a statement.

Like he knew it for a fact but also wanted to see her confirm it.

The woman tried not to waver. She did not want to give Kane any ammunition, but she also couldn’t stop her face from flinching when he said the words. It was why she was here. Begging for help.

“Kane,” Jaha interjected, attempting to persuade the man into coming off a bit more gently.

Abby was in pain. If she was here because of Jake – which they all knew that she was – then the poor woman had involuntarily been caught in his crossfire. Now, she was attempting to balance doing what she thought was right, following the law, saving the Ark, and trying to save the man that she loved.

More impossible situations.

The chancellor knew that this situation was dire if Abby felt the need to be here. Especially if she hadn’t turned on her heel and fled as soon as she saw Kane in the room. Abby was delicate right now but not in the same way that a dead flower’s dried petals threaten to fall and turn into dust at the smallest moments, Abby was delicate in the same way as a bomb that had just landed in their hands. Defusing that bomb was going to take precise movements.

But Kane did not listen to Jaha. There was no time for mincing words. If this bomb was going to go off, let it explode here. Where the only person who could be caught in its shrapnel was Abby herself.

“Abby,” he stepped forward, invading her personal space just to make his point, “if your husband is on the verge of committing treason, you are obligated to tell us.”

Abby wondered how things might be different if this was twenty years ago. If Kane still had a whisper of humanity within him. Of empathy. Would he understand her situation better? Would he want to help her protect his best friend? Would the three of them work together to dissuade Jake from committing treason and sacrificing his life to this cause of his?

She wondered how they had managed to get here.

Abby snapped inside all thanks to Kane’s harsh tone. That wasn’t what was needed right now and even she knew that. He was trying to incriminate as many people as he possibly could, and she was here to save them all.

“I’m not telling you anything, Kane,” she uttered harshly, her own voice feeling like coming up for a cold breath of sharp air.

The man narrowed his eyes, preparing to take her down if this was what he needed to do.

“Kane,” it was Jaha who once again interrupted by placing a hand on the man’s shoulder, “give us the room.”

Kane looked at the chancellor who seemed insistent but understanding. It was clear that Jaha was wordlessly promising to update him on the situation once he was filled in properly, but that Abby wasn’t about to spill her guts with him in the room.

Marcus sneered once more and found himself reveling in what could only be described as a sick, vile anticipation. The end was near for the Griffins, and he couldn’t wait to see if he could manage to prosecute both of them out of existence. Then the real work could begin. Then they might have a hope of saving humanity.

“Need I remind you both,” he said slowly, in a cold, eerie voice, “that being an accessory to a crime is a floatable offence.”

Abby took in a breath but tried to keep her back straight and her face strong. Jaha did not need to do the same, for Kane was not threatening him, even if it sounded like he was. Kane was staring straight at Abby. And if his eyes could kill, she would have bled out right there in the chancellor’s quarters.

Kane shook his head once and kept his head low, giving Abby an incriminating look.

“I’m not surprised you still haven’t learned that.”

Now, Abby had to blink his accusations away. Luckily, the man was turning around and leaving them alone in the room, allowing the door to slam behind him.

It wasn’t a fair accusation, but Abby couldn’t see that right now. Because what if Kane was right? What if all she was born to be was somebody’s collateral damage? Covering for the people that she loved seemed to be all that she ever did, even if Jake had given her a beautiful period of reprieve for the first seventeen years of their marriage. Here she was again. And this time, Kane wasn’t going to show her any mercy. He was not the same man anymore. But she was still the same girl.

“I’ll take care of Kane, Abby,” the chancellor tried to reassure the flighty woman before him and placed a careful hand on her shoulder, ushering her towards the couch where she could have a seat and finally get it all off her chest.

Out in the dark hallways of Alpha Station, Marcus Kane brought the reckoning.

He felt rather villainous as he stormed through those halls, cursing in his head. He was happy to finally get this opportunity. Abby Griffin had been a stain on his life since they’d met. A criminal who tested his sense of justice. A victim that he failed to protect. A rival that he grew fond of and let get under his skin when he should have remained defensive against her.

And now she sat across from him week after week at council meetings and stood directly in the way of everything that he tried to propose. She didn’t allow them to make any progress at all because she was so determined to roadblock every one of his propositions. Even the ones that she would have been okay with, she blocked.

Kane was no idiot. He knew that there was a personal side to it. She hated him personally while he only hated her professionally. Personally, he felt nothing. But she still held grudges. It was childish the way that she refused to agree with him on anything, and it was also an obstacle to the greater good.

Abby being in Jaha’s quarters so late could only mean one thing. Jake was going public. What Kane did not know, was how soon that was. Perhaps Abby had fled her quarters because Jake was inside preparing his mutiny right now. Kane didn’t know how he intended on going public but knowing the engineer, it was likely using the broadcasting system.

Now, Kane was dead set on getting there and sorting through this issue before Jake had the chance to blow the whistle. That was why he did not wait until Jaha briefed him on what he had learned. He took matters into his own hands. And as the chief of security, he had every right to.

While he made his way to Jake’s quarters, Marcus used his tablet to send out an emergency appointment reminder to the other four members of the council. They would be meeting first thing in the morning. Before Abby and Jaha had a chance to get their stories straight. Kane was positive that he would know all he needed to know after tonight.

He didn’t want the chancellor to sweep this one under the rug. He wanted Abby gone. Floated if that’s what needed to happen. He wanted justice to be served and he wanted the council to back him on that, considering they would not be happy that anything underhanded between one of their fellow councillors and the chancellor was occurring.

Kane had to fight off a sense of sick excitement that sprung forth as he realized that without Abby’s vote, there would be no split decision. The stars were aligning.

But before he could make any accusations and even think about pressing charges, he needed to hear it all for himself. Maybe he was wrong about it all. And if that were the case, then he would cancel the meeting. But Abby hadn’t corrected him when he accused her of the truth. He knew what was going on.

Despite recent accusations, Marcus Kane was not a robot. And despite less recent accusations, he did make choices. Every day he made a choice. And right now, as every corner turned provided a memory of happy times between him and Jake cultivating their friendship around Alpha Station, Kane chose to ignore them. It’s not that they weren’t there. He was not a machine. They were there, but he chose what happened with them. He chose whether or not to feel them.

Jake almost slept through the knocking.

He hadn’t had a good night’s sleep in so long and he had finally been in the middle of a deep one when loud knocking finally shook him from his slumber. He didn’t want it to wake up Clarke, so he quickly pulled on a shirt and stumbled to the door.

Jake predicted one of his lab assistants or technicians with some kind of breakthrough information. Maybe they were all wrong and there was nothing to worry about. Or maybe they were all wrong, and the oxygen was running out tomorrow rather than a year from now.

He was surprised to find Marcus Kane at his door. Even without the Guard’s uniform, it was clear that the man was here standing on business. He stood tall and gave him that look that Kane gave all his victims. The look that told them that he already knew the truth, held all the cards, but wanted to play the game anyways.

Like a cat with a mouse.

“Kane?” Jake grumbled, wondering what on earth would bring the Chief of the Guard to his door at this hour.

Of course, Jake had been expecting this very man as soon as he sent out that video, but he hadn’t planned to even record it until tomorrow. He glanced down at his watch.

“It’s the middle of the night.”

Marcus nodded from the dark doorway and clasped his hands behind his back. “We need to talk,” he said.

Just like that, Jake was wide awake. Kane’s tone left little to the imagination. He had heard something. And Jake was in for it now.

He knew that there was no getting out of this. Jake had two options. Either he could refuse to give Kane the information that he was looking for – considering he was off shift, and this wasn’t proper procedure, he could get away with it. Or he was honest with his old friend and tried to talk some sense into him one last time.

Jake reluctantly stepped aside, allowing Kane entrance into his quarters.

Kane had not been in this room in years. Not since him and Jake were friends. He tried not to remember all the sports games they’d watched, all the card games they’d played, all the times that Abby would snap at them to lower their voices because Clarke was down for a nap.

It would have been easier to chase those memories if it didn’t smell so familiar in here. Jasmine. Wherever Abby went, that smell followed. Nowadays, he knew that she no longer had to trade for the oil on the black market. Small victories.

Suddenly, Kane felt sick as a lethal mixture of excitement and dread reacted within him. It was the sight of a familiar purple cardigan left haphazardly over the back of one of the kitchen chairs that brought him back to the task at hand. It was Abby’s, he knew that. And Abby was currently trying to make a plan with the chancellor that would allow treason to go unpunished. Marcus Kane could not stand for that.

“Well,” Kane let his hands fall to his sides, “is it true?”

He had lost the professionalism that he came here with. He intended on treating Jake like any other accused person under interrogation. But immediately, he was talking to a friend. His friend. And he had dropped the mask.

Jake did not want to incriminate himself. He had no idea how Kane would have gotten word of his plans. He had been so careful. The only person he had told was…

“Where’s Abby?” He finally demanded.

Earlier when he had gotten up, Jake had failed to even realize that her side of the bed was empty. Now, it could only mean one thing.

There were two things on Jake’s face. Concern and accusation. Worried for his wife that someone might be torturing the information out of her, but more realistically quite accusatory that she had done this on her own volition. Turned in her own husband.

He thought back over the last three weeks. Should he have seen this coming? She was so against his wishes to go public. She had been so vocally argumentative about it. They had fought so viciously after he told her of his plans just earlier today.

Kane saw the mixture on Jake’s face and wondered if any trust remained in the Griffin quarters. Neither husband nor wife could trust each other. Quite frankly, he hadn’t seen this coming from them. The two of them were so solid as a pair, so in tune with one another. It was rare to see them disagree at all. Now? Now they had nothing left to agree about.

He snapped himself back into it and placed his hands back behind his back, pacing ominously around the room as an attempt to maximize his presence here. Intimidation tactics that he’d learned throughout the years.

“I just had a very interesting conversation with your wife,” he said, mincing no words and refusing to outwardly answer Jake’s question.

He knew what he was doing – alluding to having more information than he really did. More than that, he was also trying to further divide the couple. If Jake thought that Abby had betrayed him, maybe he would be more inclined to talk. Maybe he would outsource his allies and confide in Kane.

“Where is she?” Jake demanded again, keeping one hand on the back of a chair.

“She’s with the Chancellor,” Kane said simply.

He let a pause pass between himself and the owner of these quarters as Jake’s blood ran cold. Jake looked so tired. So tired, so beat up, so despondent, and now, so disappointed in the woman that he loved.

Kane had to take the mask back off. Seeing his old friend in such a state was speaking to his better angels. Not only that, but little hints of Abby Griffin lingered so vastly in this room that it was throwing off his game.

What he could not have known, was that a teenaged girl now lingered in the hallway, concealed by shadows. She had been awoken by Kane’s knocking and was now about to gather more information that she really didn’t want.

Kane dropped his hands.

“Tell me I don’t already know what they’re discussing,” he said.

For only the second time in his entire career, Kane was welcoming the benefit of the doubt. Hoping that Jake would not incriminate himself. Hoping that there was a logical explanation for all of this and that he would not have to float his best friend.

Jake said nothing. His eyes fell to the floor in a reluctant expression as he shrugged his shoulders and sat down in his kitchen chair. And with that lack of defense, Kane had his answer.

“You know they’re going to float both of you for this, Jake.”

Now, Jake’s eyes snapped upwards, but only a facetious look crossed his face. “By they, you mean you,” he reminded him. “Don’t you, chief?” Jake almost sounded teasing – he had very little left.

“I’ll have no choice,” Kane shook his head, maintaining a particular edge to his voice.

He had expected a man run dry. Weathered by the weight of his discoveries and weakened by the fact that he was putting the woman that he loved in such a treacherous position. Instead, Jake was tired but full of life. He didn’t regret any of it. He had taken the information that Abby was elsewhere likely falling apart and only flinched once before recalibrating.

“You’re breaking the law, aren’t you?” Kane continued, raising an incriminating eyebrow that told him and Jake both that he already knew the answer to that question. “You know how this works, Jake. Treason against the council is a capital crime.”

“The council doesn’t always know what’s right,” Jake fought back adamantly.

It was ironic. He had had this fight over and over again with his wife.

“You can’t make every decision by the book,” Jake shook his head, relatively impassioned. “The law shouldn’t be black and white, and this is exactly why!”

If the knocking hadn’t woken his daughter, the shouting would have anyways.

“I think, deep down, even you know that, Kane.”

Kane took one step forward. “What I know, Jake,” he rebutted with detachment, “is that going public with this information would spark anarchy. And then what?” He gestured outwards. “Then instead of an Ark full of people putting their heads together like you think you’ll be getting, we’ll die in a revolution before we can even run out of air.”

Jake looked away and shook his head, gritting his teeth.

“To burden the public with information like this is not only stupid, but it’s selfish,” Kane continued, his voice still lacking any true emotion. “And I’m surprised that you can’t see that.”

Jake shook his head again. “The people will come together,” he insisted, but his point fell by the wayside.

Kane had already made his own views on the matter very clear. Yes, the people would come together. To revolt.

"Your own wife doesn't even believe that," he said harshly, despite knowing that it was overly cruel.

"Abby knows that," Jake argued quietly. "She's just scared."

"You're damn right, she's scared," Kane raised his voice now, picturing the woman that he had just seen white as a ghost with tears in her eyes. "But not of this oxygen problem," he lowered his voice now, shaking his head. "She's scared of you, Jake."

A silence passed between the two men as they stared at one another. Kane did not want to make this personal but now here they were. It didn't get much more personal than this. And he was not yet finished.

"She's scared that you're going to get yourself killed," Kane continued to spit out his words as if they burned upon his tongue. "And she's probably scared that you're going to take her down with you."

Jake frowned, offended by Kane's words but more upset that they were probably true.

"She's scared that you're going to make an orphan out of your daughter," Kane added just for good measure.

Kane had always seen Abby’s intense love for her daughter. The way that as soon as Clarke was born, nothing and nobody else mattered as much as it once did. Kane didn’t see much of Clarke and Jake together, but he had to assume that he took on the same mindset.

Besides, hadn’t Kane been there in the delivery room while Jake was monologuing the decision to save the child over the mother if it came down to it? Kane thought back on that day and remembered just how intertwined his and Jake’s lives used to be.

He used to go over to these quarters to watch sports games, to have a nightcap before curfew. He used to stomach Jake’s wife because he respected the man so much. He stood up at their wedding. He wondered if there was still a picture of them in the living room.

It was now that he realized he did not want Jake to die. Maybe he didn't want either of them to die. Despite how eager he had been for it mere minutes earlier, when he was on his way over here, maybe he didn't want to have to kill his friends. Even if it would make his life one hell of a lot easier.

What Kane couldn't have known, was that Jake was dead set on this. He had made his decision as soon as the council turned him down for a second time. He always knew he was going to go pubic. And he had never asked his wife to help him, but he wished she would. Even if it was selfish. Even if he knew that it would get the both killed. He wished she would.

And it was selfish, wasn't it? Even Marcus Kane could see that. Because even without asking for Abby's help, Jake had incriminated her by telling her anything. He gave her a choice that she should never have had to make. Kill her own husband or be floated as an accessory to treason. He had dug two graves when really, he was the only one who needed to be buried. It was selfish.

As a meager afterthought, Jake suddenly realized that he should have better tried to clear her name. She hadn't asked for any of this. He couldn't really blame her for following the law. They couldn't change anything if they were dead.

"Abby doesn't know anything," Jake mumbled obligatorily.

He knew it was no use. If Jake was going down, Abby was going with him. Perhaps not if she turned him in, but Jake happened to know in his heart that wasn't what she was currently doing. If he knew his wife as well as he thought he did, she had probably gone for help. Tried to save both of them. And if he knew Kane, the man wouldn't stand for it. Somebody needed to pay for the crime.

Kane was already shaking his head. "I think we both know that she knows just enough to seal her fate alongside you," he said darkly, disapproving of Jake's choices.

Marcus then found himself rather angry. At this whole situation. And he was back in the interrogation room in an instant.

"Tell me," he demanded darkly, staring down at Jake, "did she ask to be dragged into this?" He narrowed his eyes. "Is this the hill that she's willing to die on too, or did she beg you not to do this?"

Kane didn't quite know why it suddenly mattered to him, but he later realized that it was because he had an obligation to uphold the law. He had sworn an oath to protect all people of the Ark and that included Abby Griffin. He needed to know whether or not she was innocent before he condemned her to execution alongside her guilty husband.

Jake was silent and it granted Kane the answer to his questions. But as silent as he was, the man did not look remorseful. Instead, he looked as though he would insist that he was doing the right thing until his dying breath. That given the choice, he would do everything the same all over again.

It was clear now that Abby's silence had only ever been out of marital obligation. And even then, Kane wondered how long she had even sat on this information. It couldn't have been that long. But it was all out on the table now, even if Jake had yet to confess to anything. Kane was quick enough to understand what was happening.

This was the bomb blast. And now it was up to Kane to decide what deserved his helping hand during the fallout.

Jake was shaking his head again. "The people deserve to know the truth, Kane," he said solidly, attempting to make excuses as to why he was dragging his wife to her death. "Doing the right thing sometimes requires sacrifice,” he added quietly.

Now, something changed in the room. Kane's eyes snapped to Jake as if to ask him if he was being serious or making some kind of a sick joke.

Sacrifice? Was that all that his wife's life was worth to him? Even Kane was rubbed the wrong way by Jake's crusade. All he had ever seen was Abby love Jake with all her heart. Even through the ups and downs, through the uncertainties, she was his biggest defender and his greatest advocate. She loved him more than anything in the world second only to Clarke. There had been a time when Kane - as a much younger and stupider man - had been jealous of that love. Now Jake was trading it all in for what he thought was the bigger picture. The greater good. He was betting everything on a fight that he could never win.

"I have to be willing to cut my losses, Kane," Jake continued to explain upon seeing no understanding in his old friend's eyes. "Abby understands that. She would do the same."

Maybe that was true, but Kane still did not like it. And it didn't make his job any easier because now it blurred the lines between prosecutable offences.

Nodding his head in slow acceptance, Kane stared down as he spoke. "Collateral damage," he said in a low voice, "that's what you're going with?"

Jake looked back up at him and to his credit, the man did seem remorseful. But unwavering.

"It's my only option," he revealed.

Kane fixed his posture and nodded, realizing now that there was no changing Jake's mind. He couldn't be the one to tell Abby this, so he was going to let her figure things out with Jaha on her own.

"You'd better hope to whatever god you might believe in that the chancellor is partial to favouritism," he sneered before leaving the room.

Despite the fact that no confession was secured, him and Jake had spoken between the lines of truth, Kane now had enough proof to plead the case with the council during the early morning meeting and hopefully order the Guard to search Jakes quarters. Or better yet, arrest him on sight. 

For now, he felt as though he needed a shower. To wash the feeling of domestic betrayal off his skin.

~~~

Abby had spent hours with Chancellor Jaha.

She told him everything. What Jake was planning, how he was going to go about it, and what he hoped to achieve. She expressed over and over again that she was not turning him in, but instead that she trusted Jaha to talk some sense into him. To convince him not to go public. To come to some kind of agreement that satisfied them both. Because it was officially out of her reach. She could not say or do anything to convince her husband not to commit treason, but maybe Jaha could. Abby was begging for his help.

She walked out of that room earlier than expected, but an emergency situation in Medical was beckoning her with the dawn. A Zero-G engineer experienced a terrible accident first thing that morning and required emergency surgery that only Abby could perform. She did not want to leave the chancellor's quarters, but she knew that she had a greater obligation to save a life.

Besides, her and Jaha had all but come to an agreement. While he made no promises and told Abby again and again that if he could not change Jake's mind, then there was nothing for it, Jaha had agreed to try. He was going to head down to the Griffin quarters as early as realistically possible and sit down with Jake once and for all. He was going to try his best to talk him out of going public and getting himself killed.

Abby was still scared, but she could live with that. She trusted Jaha to take care of it.

She had no way of knowing that the ball was already rolling. Chief Guard Kane had not slept either. And he had presented his findings to the council during the meeting that Abby couldn't have made even if she had been invited. The emergency surgery was an unfortunate disaster for some and a blessing of good timing for another. And Kane was the last person on Abby's mind as she worried for her husband, wondered what Jaha was saying to him, and tried to focus on saving this mechanic's life.

She had forgotten how ruthless he could be. And that she had been altogether too transparent when she'd run into him last night. Still, Abby worked through that surgery relieved that she was at least trying to do the right thing. Protect the people and save her husband. She trusted that Jaha wouldn't let him float. Maybe they could make an exception for him if he refused to give up the good fight. Maybe they could see the value in his expertise and keep him in lockup. Maybe her husband could go on breathing their borrowed air. They made exceptions all the time for people in Alpha.

Abby scrubbed out of that surgery and people were just waking up for the say. Most people had just clocked into their workplaces, so the hallways were relatively empty. Medical was still buzzing from the accident last night.

She let out a heavy sigh and threw her gloves in the trash, taking off her scrub cap and with it the messy bun that had been holding her hair in place at the nape of her neck. Abby had saved that mechanic's life, and it felt sweeter than usual. It felt like the first win in weeks. Now, she needed a break. She'd already worked four hours before she was even meant to be on shift, and she could really use some breakfast. Abby took off her lab coat and left it hanging on the back of the Med Bay door before they sealed behind her. 

It was with a great sense of hope that Abby approached the terminal. Hope that Jaha had come to an agreement with Jake. Hope that she would walk into a council meeting later today and they could all recalibrate based on the new circumstances. Hope that from here, they could continue working towards saving the human race.

That hope was trampled by the Guard. Five of them, all armed and in uniform, running towards Alpha Station. At first, Abby thought nothing of it. There were always Guards making arrests. Kane made sure of that. But not in Alpha Station. 

Her face dropped then and so did her stomach. Abby's heart began to race in her chest as she realized what was happening.

Violently, she surged through the automatic doors that allowed her to exit the Medical Terminal. Once Abby was in the hallway, she watched the Guard as they turned a distant corner and new for sure. They were heading to her quarters. They had to be. Alpha was right around the corner, and her and Jake's quarters had been close to the corner of Alpha and Medical. If they were going anywhere else, they would have entered Alpha through Tycho station on the east side, closer to Security.

She only hesitated for a split second before she stepped forward with every intention of following those guards and doing everything in her power to stop them. But when she stepped, she did not move. She was hitting a wall, prevented from moving.

One day in the future, Abby might find herself grateful for the pair of strong hands that had grabbed her firmly by the shoulders and stopped her from incriminating herself alongside her husband. But today, she could not see his actions for what they were - protection.

Councillor Kane was wearing his Guard's uniform. Abby had not seen that in a while. She knew what it meant. He was responsible for overseeing whatever was currently happening. And for the Chief of the Guard to be involved, it had to be a high-profile arrest. Abby took note of this when the man spun her around to face him.

Once again, Kane nearly pitied the desperate look in her wide brown eyes. But nearly was not quite enough. 

"Don't," he demanded strongly, his voice registering in Abby's ears a second or two after he had uttered the word.

She searched his face for something. Anything human. Something that would tell her what was going on, what to do, how to fix it. But this face was not capable of such things.  Abby grimaced and pried herself free from his grasp by turning back around, unwilling to take her eyes off the hallway. Kane's hands were back on her shoulders before she could even realize that she was free.

"You'll be floated if you get in their way," he hissed in her ear under his breath.

Abby wanted to break free from his clutches and run to her husband. To fight off the Guard and tell them that they had it all wrong. That they couldn't float Jake for doing what he thought was right. But Kane was absolutely correct. They would float her for it. And while Abby could live with that, she couldn't live with orphaning her daughter. So, she let Kane hold her back as her eyes scoured the hallway waiting for the return of the Guards to prove what she was already expecting.

Her heart continued to race as she searched her mind for any clues as to how this could have happened. Her and Jaha had come to an agreement. Had he already spoken with Jake and was unable to dissuade him? Or had he been lying to her and never planned to talk to him at all, instead sending the Guard first thing in the morning? No, Jaha wouldn't do that.  So how did this happen? Maybe Jake had told someone else in the lab of his plans, and they turned him in. No, the timing was too suspicious.

It dawned on her all at once. Abby slowly turned around.

Less than half an hour ago, Kane had met with the council. He had told them of Abby's encounter with the chancellor and of his own conversation with Jake afterwards. For whatever reason, he left Abby's culpability out of it. He had been right about everything when he spoke to Jake - Abby hadn't asked for any of it. And her going to Jaha that night was as good as her turning him in. Kane was doing something he promised never to do again - letting her walk. But her husband would not be so lucky. The council approved the arrest and Kane rallied up his troops.

With narrowed eyes, Abby stared at the man who still had her by the shoulders as reality sunk in.

"You did this?" She asked harrowingly, her face twitching with pain and betrayal even though she really should have seen this coming.

No, Abby, Kane wanted to correct her, you did this. She was the one who had pulled Jaha into it last night. She was the one who had let him walk out of that room without denying any of it first. She hadn't intended on turning Jake in, but she had. And now they were here.

He should have known that Abby would need somebody to blame. She had gotten the ball rolling and now he was forced to do his job and carry out what the law required him to. This was her fault, but she was going to make it his because it would be his call. His charges. His flotation chamber. She forgot that traitors made their own beds. This was Jake's fault.

A beat passed between the two rivals and Kane's stoic silence revealed that yes, he was responsible for this arrest.

He stared down at her bitterly. "Don't look at me like that, Abby," he said in a low, emotionless voice. "I'm not the traitor, here."

Kane understood her strong emotions and her need to place blame, but he had to wonder if one day she might see this interaction for what it was - him saving her life again. Him refusing to incriminate her when he had every right to. Him utilizing his very last thread of discretion. Bending his last rule. Refusing to let the wife pay for the crimes of the husband.

"You know what going public will do," he added harshly, so that Abby did not forget that anarchy was the real enemy here.

The worst part? It was true. She did know what it would do. That was why she hadn't gotten on board Jake's traitorous train and supported him. It was why they had fought. It was why she had gone to Jaha. And now, it was why this was all happening before Jake had the chance to send that video out.

She didn't care. "You didn't have to do this!" Abby said through tears that refused to stop spilling from her eyes, glistening in the light directly above her. "Jaha was going to talk to him! He was going to convince him not to go public!"

Kane shook his head rather solemnly.

Still holding her by the top of her arms, Kane leaned forward and stared Abby in the eyes in an important manner. "You and I both know that Jake wasn't going to back down," he whispered, attempting to drill it into her head, "no matter who tried to convince him otherwise."

Abby winced and whirled back around when she heard the footsteps.

In Jake's world, everything happened all at once.

One minute he was finishing up with his video and pulling the chip out of the recorder, the next second he was being ambushed by his teenaged daughter who somehow knew everything. Clarke was begging him not to disobey the council's orders and then the Guard was there, tearing apart their embrace and dragging him off. The last thing he heard made him nearly sick. Clarke promising to finish what he'd started. Jake only hoped that he had yelled loudly enough to ensure that she would never try such a thing.

 It was all over. He knew that as he marched down the hallway, unresistant to his own arrest. There was no coming back from this. His message would not be broadcasted by his own hands. He only hoped that he got a moment to say goodbye to his wife and that he could ask one last favour of her. Ask her to die for him once and for all. Clarke couldn't finish what he started, but Abby could. He could live with that trade. He'd promised it in the delivery room, after all.

Abby gasped and instinctively tied to lunge towards her husband as soon as he came around the corner surrounded by guards, but Kane still had her in a vice. "Don't," he hissed once more into her ear, growing tired of her insistence upon dying this morning.

Jake gave his wife an understanding look as he passed but there hadn't been time for him to say anything. He wasn't surprised to see Kane beside her, all dressed up for the occasion. He wouldn't put this arrest past anybody else. It almost looked as though he was restraining Abby. Maybe she was being taken in after him.

All Abby could muster was one pathetic whimper before she melted backwards into Kane's hold. He realized quickly that her legs were threatening to give out beneath her and that she was not only counting on him to hold her back, but also to hold her up. This was the most broken he'd ever seen her. Even when he sat across from her twenty years ago and could hardly make out her face amidst the cuts and bruises. Even when she'd been nearly beaten to death. She had always kept her chin up and remained strong. Right now, she was hopeless.

An unmistakable word was shouted from somewhere down the hall.

"Mom!" The voice was shouting, glad that the guards had marched her father through medical so that maybe she could find her mother and continue to trail them at the same time.

Abby did not hear the word at first, but Kane sure did, and he knew who the voice had belonged to. In a matter of seconds, Clarke Griffin would come bounding around that corner. He tightened his grip on her arms and muttered her name, snapping her out of this trance.

She was broken, yes, but her daughter could not see that. Not when it was already harrowing enough that obviously the girl had been home when Jake was arrested. Minutes later and she might've been gone to Orchid Station for school. Instead, she had to witness something that would haunt her for a lifetime. Abby wanted to cry but instead she wiped her tears away and tried to stand up tall.

Kane loosened his grip on her shoulders, about to let go, but one of Abby's hands flew up and rested atop his hand, urging him not to let her go for she still did not trust her own feet. The gasp that she gave as she did so told him as much.

Not a second later, Clarke came flying around the corner, continuing to shout for her mother.

"Mom!" She cried upon finally seeing Abby. "Mom, they're..." she hiccupped once, "...they're taking Dad! We have to go-"

"Clarke, no," Abby finally found her strength when her headstrong daughter lunged to follow the guards.

Just as Kane had prevented her, Abby was now leaving behind the surprising warmth of his grasp and restraining Clarke, taking her by the arm.

"Let them go," she said, her own voice filled with emotion even as she attempted to be as strong and unwavering as possible for the sake of her daughter. "We can't do anything for him right now."

As Clarke shook her head, she finally took notice of Councillor Kane standing a few feet away wearing his Guard's uniform. She remembered the way that he had been restraining her mother a few seconds ago and felt a new sense of dread sinking with her.

"Wait," she tightened her grip on her mother's hand and stared now at Kane, "Mom, are you-"

Clarke interrupted herself when she realized what was happening. Kane was arresting her mother too for her involvement in the treason. He knew that Abby had been holding on to information and was choosing to include her in his charges. Immediately, Clarke grew frantic thinking that she was currently on the verge of losing both of her parents.

"Are you taking her away, too?" She demanded now of Kane, moving towards him with tears glistening in the bright blue eyes that she had inherited from her father. "It's not her fault!" She continued despite Abby's attempts to hold the girl back and talk her down. "She wasn't part of it! She didn't want him to do this!"

"Clarke-" Abby and Kane both attempted her name at the same time, the latter holding up a firm hand to try and stop her rambling, but the girl only persisted stronger - like mother, like daughter.

"No," she shook her head, "you heard my dad! He told you that she didn't know anything and that he was sacrificing her for the greater good! You heard him! She didn't want-"

"He was what?" Abby interjected, pulling back once Clarke's words registered within her.

Kane shot her a look but quickly turned back to Clarke, who was seconds away from going off the rails and taking them all with her.

"I'm not arresting your mother, Clarke," Kane finally said, his voice cutting through the ceaseless chatter.

Clarke's eyes widened and she looked back at Abby. "You're not?" The girl uttered.

Shaking his head darkly, Kane gave Abby another sharp look. One that she returned but did not quite know what it meant.

"No," he confirmed, clearing his throat. "You should both go back to your quarters."

Abby wasted absolutely no time in taking Clarke by the shoulders and guiding her around the corner, casting one tentative glance over her shoulder where she once again met Kane's stoic eyes. Along their way, they passed Commander Shumway who had obviously just finished locking up the Griffin quarters once they were finished their search. The two girls went inside their home and sat in silence, trying to come to terms with what had just happened.

Abby wanted to ask Clarke what had happened, but she couldn't bring herself to. Clarke wanted to enlist her mother in her crusade to carry on her father's work, but she couldn't do that either.

Shumway paused when he noticed Chief Kane standing in the hallway looking pensive with his hands behind his back. Almost as if he didn't know whether to follow his guardsmen to Prison Station or see Abby and her daughter back home.

"Sir," Shumway commanded his attention, approaching the man.

"Commander," Kane acknowledged him, straightening his shoulders. "Is the search complete?"

Shumway nodded. "It is."

Kane shook his head. "And?"

"We couldn't find anything but this," he handed over a small video camera. "He was recording a video and planning on broadcasting it Ark-wide."

Kane flipped open the camera and saw Jake's face on the little screen. "The footage is all in here?"

"Yes, sir," Shumway confirmed, but grew rather hesitant.

Kane noticed that the commander was now biting his tongue, but clearly wanted to say more.

"Is there something else, Commander Shumway?"

With a sigh, the commander lowered his voice. "The girl, sir," he said, leaning towards Kane to avoid any eavesdroppers. "She said some concerning things during Officer Griffin's arrest."

Kane frowned. Clarke was a child. Of course, she would spit fire upon watching her father being dragged from their home and marched to his inevitable death.

"What kind of things?" He demanded to know more.

Shumway cast a glance behind himself and kept his voice quiet. "She made it clear..." he began, "...that she intends to finish what her father started."

Now, Kane felt something else sink into him. Dread. He was floating Abby's husband, and now he was going to have to imprison her daughter. He was robbing her of everything she cared about all at once. But it was the law. He had to.

"She said she was going to warn the public," Shumway finished.

Kane glanced up at him curiously but knew that his commander would not exaggerate such claims. Besides, Kane wasn't surprised. He should have seen this coming. Clarke Griffin was raised by two of the most headstrong people he'd ever known. People who would have taught her that doing what was right was more important than following the rules. Throw in the hormones of a teenaged girl who thought she could play the untouchable hero to avenge her father and Kane was certain that Clarke was indeed going to try something.

He was unable to show his face when he sent the Guard for her.

This time, it was Abby who had to watch as Clarke was dragged away by the Guard. She did everything in her power to stop it, but Commander Shumway showed her the warrant signed by Chief Kane. Clarke was being arrested on suspicion of sedition. Threatening treason. Clarke was taken away from her, and Abby was left behind the closed door of her now empty quarters, sliding to her knees where she broke down in tears.

She had lost everything. In a matter of hours. Was it all her fault? Because she'd gone to Jaha?

When Abby was done crying, she wanted to storm down to the Chancellor's quarters and demand to know what had happened. How had they agreed on something only to find her family all arrested this morning? Then, she thought of the warrant signed by Kane. The way that he had authorized the arrest of not only her husband but her daughter as well. Then, she wanted to find Kane and throw her fists against him until he was bloody beneath her hands. She wanted to scream and cry and demand that he reverse everything. She wanted to know how he could possibly hate her enough to destroy her family.

But she didn't do any of that. Because Abby was on her own now. And if Jake was arrested, she had to stay strong for Clarke. Because Clarke was going to be released. She would turn eighteen in less than two years, her case would be evaluated, and she was going to come home. Abby could not afford to think anything otherwise. And she was going to be here when she returned. Strong, certain, keeping their home warm and welcoming for her.

Jake Griffin was floated later that day. 

For acts of treason against the council and the Chancellor of the Ark, he was condemned to pay the ultimate price. As Abby waited 

Abby put on a brave face for her husband's sake. She was already shattered inside, but she did not want him to draw blood on her broken pieces. She couldn't help but notice that Marcus Kane was notably absent from the scene. He had been present for every floating since he became the Chief Guard. But not this one.

As stoic as he always promised to be, he couldn't witness this one. Instead, he was currently in his quarters drowning himself in a bottle of whiskey. Wishing that tomorrow would come faster so that today could officially be over.

Abby was already heartbroken when saying goodbye to Jake, but her last exchange with her husband hadn't been what either of them wanted. They embraced and held each other close, but he had ulterior motives. She wanted to hear how much he loved her, what their life together had meant to him, how he was sorry for leaving her behind during this terrible time, but instead he had once again insisted that she take matters into her own hands and warn the public. He asked her to die for him as he, too, was dying. Then, Abby fought back bitter tears.

“You have to warn them, Abby,” he said while she was already shaking in his arms.

They hadn’t pulled away when Jake slipped something into her pocket. She knew not what it was, but could tell that he did not want the Guard or Jaha to see, so she asked no questions.

“Oh, Jake, stop,” she’d whispered in return.

“The Ark’s dying, there’s no choice.”

“Yes, there is,” Abby said, still holding on to the man that she loved for the very last time. “There’s Earth.”

When she reminded him that there was always hope in the ground and returning to Earth, she knew based on Jake’s silence that he still thought her naive for believing in a fantasy before she believed in the world around her.

“We’ll at least have a chance,” Abby added before the flotation chamber doors were opened behind him.

She certainly hadn't wanted Clarke to see any of it, but one of the guards had been escorting her from the interrogation room to the Skybox and she'd broken free to watch the floating. Jaha allowed it. Abby wished that he hadn't. She didn't want to have to stand there and watch her husband float. She didn't want that image burned into the back of her mind for the rest of her days. But she certainly didn't want Clarke haunted by it.

Not enough tears were shed before Clarke was once again being ushered away, back to the Skybox where she would live out at least the next year and a half. Where she would celebrate her seventeenth birthday. Her eighteenth.

The scene afterwards was tense and quiet - exactly as Abby remembered. Nobody kenw what to say. The guards nodded and gave her and the chancellor some privacy. Jaha had brought his son along. Abby thought it happened to be a tactical move. So that Jaha could hide behind Wells if need be.

Luckily, Abby wasn't in the mood.

"Abby," Jaha began softly, stepping towards her.

But Abby only held up a hand and stopped him from saying anything more. "Tell me this wasn't you," she asked, her voice merely more than a whisper. "Tell me this was Kane."

Her shoulders relaxed when Jaha nodded once. "He called an emergency council meeting this morning," Jaha revealed. "The decision was made before I even had a chance to talk to Jake."

Abby believed him. He had no reason to lie to her. Besides, it added up. Jaha wanted Jake alive, and Kane saw him dead. However, Jaha certainly did not stop it. Abby also couldn't fault him for that. There would be riots in the stations if traitors got to walk free just because they were friends with the chancellor. Thelonious Jaha was a just man even when it hurt him. And it did hurt him.

"Where is he?" Abby winced now, referring again to the man responsible for all of this.

Jaha shrugged. "He clocked out early tonight," he revealed.

Abby didn't care to hear any more. Kane made the choice to execute her husband - his former best friend - and he couldn't even be bothered to show up and face the realities of his decisions. He disgusted her.

But Kane disgusted himself, too. This was one of the few executions that actually haunted him. He was glad that he had decided not to attend. He didn't want to watch Jake as the life was sucked out of him, and he was cast out into space. He did not want to see Abby break down in tears but have no one left to hold on to. He did not want to see the disappointment in Jaha's eyes. He didn't want to stand there in the execution chamber with his old group of friends and pretend as though he could do his job like it was any other day.

Little did he know that after Jake, it would get easier. Kane would truly shut himself off once and for all. He figured that if he could float his best friend, he could float anybody. He was prepared to sentence Jaha to death if it meant following the law. Abby too, for that matter.

Kane didn't feel much of anything from that point forward. Abby, on the other hand, felt it all twice as much.

Jake Griffin had left his mark on the two of them. Stolen a piece of both of their souls when he left this world. And Kane was grateful that this had been what it took to finally feel nothing for any other person, because it put him in the best possible position for what was to come.

The real apocalypse.

Chapter Text

~~~

Marcus Kane quickly realized that life was easy numb.

He could do whatever needed to be done without thinking about anybody's emotions or how it might make him look. He went full utilitarian, only doing whatever was best for the greatest amount of people. Somehow, execution rates climbed even higher. And Jaha let them. Because even he wanted to save some oxygen.

He hardly saw Abby since Jake's execution months ago. For the first few weeks after his flotation, Kane was still working evening patrol shifts. Almost every night he would find Abby in the Alpha Station rec room siting there in the dark on the couch, staring at the wall with a forgotten mug of something that used to be hot in her hands.

The first night he found her in there, he'd stood in the door and tried to rouse her. She hadn't been asleep, but far away nonetheless.

"Abby," he tried, loud enough to break the icy silence within the room, but she never moved nor even looked at him.

That was when he sighed and stepped closer, lowering his voice to a more familiar whisper.

"Ab, you can't be in here," he uttered beneath his breath, and Abby would finally stir and take in a deep breath, mustering there rest of her energy to pull herself up off that couch and slowly walk back to her quarters, pulling a cardigan or sweater tight around her.

From there, he found her practically every night. Eventually, he stopped saying anything. He'd ensure that he did the rest of his rounds before checking that room - subconsciously allowing her more time to grieve in solitude - and somewhere near midnight he would click the door open and just hold it there, allowing light from the hallway to spill in. Abby would glance over and slowly get up and leave without a single word needing to be uttered.

It took her some time before she was able to sleep. She went from living in a home that was filled with life and love to nothing. Jake's side of the bed was empty, as was Clarke's bedroom. Abby used to lie awake in that bed for hours willing her to sleep. She'd be rolled over facing the wall and suddenly stricken with an unshakeable fear that if she rolled over, Jake would be in his place lying there. And he would tell her that time was running out. That she had to grant him his dying with. On worse nights, his ghost told her that he hated her. That she killed him in cold blood.

He had slipped her the hard drive of the video that he'd made warning the public before he was floated. Abby had forgotten all about the small item he'd placed in her pocket while they said goodbye until she was preparing her clothing to be sent to the laundry technicians and she'd pulled it out. She knew what he wanted her to do with that.

Then, his ghost started telling her that she needed to finish what he'd started. That she needed to prevent his death from having been in vain. She needed to grant him this one dying wish.

That was when Abby moved herself to the living room. But that couch was extremely uncomfortable and hardly had any cushioning. Besides, Jake's ghost had followed her there, too. The only place, she learned, that he didn't follow her, was in the rec room when it was nice and dark. Hence why she had taken to spending as much time as legally possible in that room until she was inevitably chased away by whichever guard was on night patrol.

Things were bleak at home during the evening periods, but Abby snapped out of it every day at work. She had a job to do. She had lives to save in Medical, work to do in Earth Monitoring and Engineering now that Project Exodus was their only hope, and council meetings to sit in on. That was especially important now that Kane was on the downward spiral thinking that it would take him upwards.

Some called him thoughtless, most called him heartless, but all called him ruthless. The problem with that was that half the people on the Ark now saw that as a good thing. The other half hated him for it.

It was why Abby had to stay strong. Why she had to keep going to council meetings. And why - even if it had taken her time -she had to be able to look him in the eye. For the sake of her husband. For the sake of her daughter who was now rotting away in the Skybox. For the sake of taking her people to the ground before he could execute them all.

The reason that Wells Jaha allowed Clarke to think that he had been the one who turned in her father was simple. It was easy, for one. Clarke had revealed to him Jake's plan to go public mere days before the Guard came. The timeline added up. More importantly, because Wells had grown up without a mother. He'd only ever seen her in pictures. Only ever heard things about her when his father was willing to talk about her, which was not often. He would do anything for just one minute with his mother. And now her mother was all Clarke had. He couldn't take that away from her. So when Clarke originally accused him of it the first time that he'd gone to visit her - special treatment given by his father as mot prisoners were not allowed visitors of any kind - he let her believe it. And he hadn't been back since.

Around the Ark, Abby was on thin ice. Kane knew that it was dangerous to leave her unattended after her husband and daughter had both been found guilty of treason. But there was no evidence against her. He had no legal rights to arrest her. So, he watched her like a hawk. Just waiting. Waiting for her to step out of line, to say the wrong thing, to lose herself in the heat of the moment. He was quite certain that it would happen, and he didn't want to miss it when it did. Kane had every intention of floating her just to get her out of the way. And now that he no longer felt things, he was positive that his emotions wouldn't stop him from being able to do so.

He had finally nabbed Clyde, now it was time for him to bring Bonnie to justice. It had been high time, considering he should have floated Abby years ago. When she was eighteen years old and an accessory to capital crimes. But he couldn't forget that she had been officially absolved of such crimes, so he was going to have to bring her down on other charges. New charges. And once she was gone and there was no longer that pesky voice on the council preventing him from being allowed to do so, he could begin the population control measures that would buy them all more time.

Abby had other plans.

The first time her and Kane really spoke since Jake's death was to argue. She had spent an entire council meeting pushing for Project Exodus, and Kane had tried to shoot down her ideas. Sure, Jaha had given her the go ahead to work on the project, and they were starting with things like earth monitoring and communications, but they still had no semblance of a plan as to who was going to go down to Earth.

"You're wasting everybody's time, Abby," he sneered one day after the rest of the council meeting had cleared out but she remained to gather up some of the files that she'd been presenting.

Of course, Kane sat in his seat across from her, one elbow on the table and the side of his face resting between his fingers.

"All this nonsense about going to the ground..." he gave her a facetious smile, "...when we should be focused on what we can accomplish right here."

Abby shook her head, failing to meet his eyes. Kane didn't understand. She couldn't let Jake's death be in vain. And if she couldn't carry out his dying wish and broadcast his message, she could at least make damn certain that human life was saved. In order to do that, she was going to need the ground.

"I'm not going to stop fighting for this, Kane," she said simply, standing up in her seat and finally raising her eyes to meet his. "I won't let you destroy the last thing that the human race has left."

Kane's eyes crinkled humourlessly. "The ground isn't all that we have left."

"Not the ground," she shook her head, staring at him and feeling everything while he looked at her and felt nothing but numbness. "Hope."

The word froze time in that room. She was always going on about it and Kane hated it every single time.

"Hope that there's an answer to all of this," Abby continued.

Kane looked down, still chuckling to himself. "And what do you expect then, Abby?" He looked back up. "We all just load into a dropship and plummet down to a planet that - last time anybody checked - wasn't capable of sustaining human life?"

The sarcasm wasn't necessary, but Abby was being obtuse. He didn't like her, but he knew that she was a smart woman. She was a doctor. And his biggest competitor in their post primary classes. Yet, she held on to this idiotic concept as if her life depended on it.

"Of course not," she responded quickly, adding some fire to her words as she snapped. "I want to initiate a test run. Send a few people equipped for radiation just in case and go from there," she snapped the folder shut with a click. "If you hadn't interrupted me earlier, I could've said as much."

Kane did not acknowledge her quip. Yes, he had shut down her ramblings for the sake of the council's time. But now, he couldn't ignore the way in which she was desperately trying to make this work despite grasping at straws.

He nodded slowly, peering at her. "And who exactly are you sacrificing?"

That word was a sore spot between them. It was what Clarke had said when Jake was arrested. That her father had referred to Abby as some sort of sacrifice for the greater good. Abby didn't trust the girl's adolescent ears not to have been deceiving her or misinterpreting things, but she was also aware that Kane had been there for some kind of conversation. Either way, Jake involved her as a sacrifice. That was what she had to deduce from the situation, and she didn't know how it made her feel. It didn't make her love him any less, but maybe it meant that he loved her less. Regardless, she hadn't had a chance to ask Clarke about it before she too was arrested. Now, she was glad. She never wanted to have to ask her daughter that question.

She blinked herself back to reality before shaking her head and peering downwards, grabbing the lab coat that she had removed and folded over the back of her chair.

"Why do you insist on being so closed-minded about this?" She muttered just loud enough for him to hear. "You just can't let yourself believe in anything that you didn't come up with yourself, is that it, Kane?"

Now, the man gritted his teeth. But he wasn't going to give her the satisfaction of standing. He couldn't let her get a rise out of him.

"I'm trying to be sensible, here," he said coolly, staring at her from beneath a pair of stern, furrowed brows. "Your plan has flaws."

Abby's eyes snapped towards him. "And what about your plan to float everyone who so much as looks at you wrong?" She demanded sharply, obviously making things personal between them given her most recent loss. "What happens when you're the only one left here because you've executed the rest of us?"

Kane dropped his hand as he stared at her, but nothing registered on his face. Not thoughts, not emotion, not even a flinch.

"I understand your need to blame somebody other than yourself for what happened, Abby," he said coldly, his voice revealing that he didn't understand it, he only knew it to be true. "It doesn't bother me," he said honestly.

Abby blinked again, surprised to hear that he had seen right through her so easily.

"You can make me the bad guy all you want," he continued stoically, revealing nothing. "But we both know what killed your husband."

Abby didn't bother shoving her arms into her lab coat. She just wanted out of this room and away from that man. She held her folder tighter to her chest, gave him one last look - as sharp as she could muster - and left him alone to sit at that table, reveling in his inevitable victory.

As much as Abby hated to ever admit it, Kane was right. Her plan did have flaws. She wanted to send a team to the ground but had no volunteers and certainly wasn't going to force anybody against their will. Now that was something that Kane would do. It was a little bit too close to deciding who lived and who died, and that was something that Abby would never be able to reconcile in her head.

She spent an entire week with Kane's words bouncing around her mind, trying desperately to come up with a solution. She had even fallen asleep in the Earth Monitoring lab once or twice as she worked tiresomely for an answer to this problem. She would go down herself if she had the option, but she was the head of this entire project. She couldn't monitor it from the ground. Couldn't keep the council in line.

It was Friday afternoon when the answer presented itself.

Abby had been in engineering working with Sinclair and Jaha. Recently, Abby had decided to scrap the idea of trying to wire radios that would withstand re-entry into the atmosphere and stay connected to the Ark's comm systems. Despite being the only person in the room who was not an engineer, the wristbands were her idea. That was what they had been working on tiresomely that afternoon when Kane came by with a message for the chancellor.

Jaha had been to busy to agree to a private meeting and instead told Kane to just come by Engineering and brief him there.

Abby had been trying to stay focused on her own work with Sinclair as the other two men spoke, but couldn't help but overhear.

Instead of explaining, Kane had handed over his tablet. Jaha took the screen in his hands and saw the picture of a girl's face - a juvenile delinquency profile by the looks of it. It showed her statistics, that she was in for a crime coded to JD.PEN-THF.

"Who is this, Kane?" He asked quickly.

Kane took repossession of the tablet. "Harper McIntyre," he revealed, swiping the screen to reveal the rest of Prison Station's statistics. "She was just arrested on two counts of thievery."

Jaha was shaking his head, still working on an open circuit board with which they were going to use to figure out how to properly wire the transmission wristbands.

"And why is she important to me right now?" Jaha asked again calmly, wondering why this young girl required his immediate attention.

Kane looked around the room and caught Abby's eyes before she quickly looked back down at her work, trying to pretend as though she hadn't been listening.

Kane took a step towards the chancellor and lowered her first. "Because she's our one hundredth juvenile prisoner, sir," he said firmly, as though there was blame to be placed somewhere.

Immediately, Jaha looked up. "The Skybox is full?" He said, and the timbre of his surprised voice piqued Abby's interest.

She also raised her head from the nearby station, suddenly becoming part of this conversation whether the other two liked it or not. She took special interest in the Skybox considering it was where her daughter was sentenced to live out the rest of her childhood.

Kane gave her a sharp look, wanting to chastise her for eavesdropping but knowing that it was not his place considering this conversation was happening in a public space. 

Jaha lowered his brows. "Can we extend the northwestern quadrant?" He wondered aloud. "It might extend into the Mecha maintenance bay."

Lowering his voice again, Kane stood tall as he peered at the chancellor from beneath his stern brow. "Is this really the time to be investing in a capital project?" The way that he spoke told Jaha that Kane already knew the answer to his own question. "It would take months of manpower."

The subtext was clear. Why bother wasting the resources if they might not even be here to utilize them. Even Jaha knew this, and he pulled back slightly in understanding. Abby's eye widened. That meant that the floor was Kane's, and he always had some kind of merciless extreme idea.

" What other choice do we have?" Jaha asked, and Kane took in a deep breath.

"I would suggest expediting review dates," he said firmly. "Reducing the age of majority by say a year."

"That's against the charter."

The two heads turned to look at Abby, who had just chimed in despite not being invited to contribute to the conversation. Kane stared at her sharply while Jaha suddenly had an idea that he kept to himself.

"This doesn't concern you, Abby," Kane said sharply.

Jaha stared at the woman, wishing that she would realize that it most certainly did concern her. 

Project Exodus had shifted lately. The actual project of preparing the dropships aboard the Ark to take the entire population to the ground had been put on hold in favour of trying to figure out how to drop just a few people. Who, when, how, where, that was what Abby was currently working through with Earth Monitoring and Engineering. The project itself was on hold until they learned whether or not the ground was even survivable. If it could be their salvation after all.

Kane followed Jaha's gaze and pretty soon, both men were looking at Abby as realization washed over them. Finally, a solution to their problem. A test run. Kane narrowed his eyes in thought. Abby's unending hope was about to be put to the ultimate test.

"Prepare the table, Councillor Kane," Jaha said slowly, setting down his tools. "We have much to discuss."

He gave Abby one last look and she had to think that she knew what it meant. He thought that she was going to back out. That after all this, she would reveal that she had less integrity than it seemed. She wanted boots on the ground but she wasn't willing to allow her daughter to be those boots, even if it was their only option.

Jaha too gave Abby one last look before him and Kane left the room. Abby could hear her tablet over on the counter buzzing as the emergency council meeting was scheduled but she could do nothing more than look down at the schematics before her.

How far was she willing to go? She'd put her own life in danger by testing out the ground, but would she do the same to Clarke? Could she? Abby shook her head. This was no time for wavering. It was merely a test of her faith. Finally, Abby went over to her tablet to see that there was a quick fifteen minutes before she was expected in Go-Sci. She made one stop first.

Vera Kane had always been a figure of unwavering faith aboard the Ark. And while her congregation used to fill large rooms, she now preached to a meagre crowd of fifteen or twenty. But Abby had never lost her own faith, even if she could hardly make time to attend a session in this room.

Today, Vera was alone, watering The Last Tree. Abby lingered in the doorway looking paler than usual before Vera turned around and saw her standing there.

"Abigail," she said with a warm smile. "To what do I owe the pleasure, my dear?"

Abby smiled softly, coming into the room and pacing around. Obviously something was troubling her, and she moved to stand at one of the small windows before saying anything.

"How..." she began, but her voice was so quiet that it was nearly lost, "...how do you keep your faith, Vera?"

When Abby finally turned around, she had tears in her eyes. Vera let out an empathetic sigh. She'd known Abby since she was barely an adult. She used to be good friends with her son. Vera had even officiated her and Jake's wedding. Now, the woman was no stranger to the amount of pain and tragedy that coloured Abby's life. She once only knew her as the case that her son had been assigned to. She grew up poor and illegally, her family was floated, she'd been terribly abused by an older boyfriend to the point where she had almost lost her life.

Now, of course, her husband was dead and her daughter was a prisoner. Vera was not surprised to hear that Abby's faith was wavering.

"It isn't always easy," Vera finally revealed. "Sometimes our lives become so complicated, so far from what we wanted, that it can be nearly impossible to have faith," she shook her head.

Abby swallowed back her tears now, knowing that the clock was ticking and that she could not look weak in front of the council.

"Now, I know you've never been the religious type," Vera continued. "But you, Abigail, have never lost hope, as long as I've known you."

Abby looked at the woman. This was true. Her faith may waver but it was far easier to have hope than it was blind faith.

"And at times," Vera went on, "I think that having hope is far more important than real faith."

Letting out a sigh, Abby looked back out the window. "Do you have faith in the ground, Vera?" She asked plainly. "That it's going to save us all one day, if it ever comes to that?"

Now, Vera turned to the window as well. It was an easy question to answer, but Vera was of the understanding that they would not be returning to the Earth in her lifetime. Probably not in Abby's lifetime either. But the woman was here for a reason, and Vera was going to reassure her the best way that she knew how.

"Sometimes, it's all I have."

Abby glanced over at the clock on the wall and knew that she needed to get to the meeting. She let out a sigh, feeling slightly better, and gave Vera a quick nod before moving to the exit.

"Abigail," the woman called after her, prompting Abby to turn back around in the doorway. "Don't ever let fear overshadow hope."

Nodding again, Abby finally left the room and as she abruptly turned down the hallway, she very gently collided with somebody going in the same direction.

Marcus Kane shrugged off her soft assault as they bumped into each other. He cast a glance inside the room from which Abby had just left and raised a wary eyebrow. He did not like when his mother conspired with his enemy. And though it no longer happened as often as it used to, he still felt as though it was something that he should keep an eye on.

Sharing one look, Abby swallowed and stepped backwards rather awkwardly, averting her eyes.

"Councillor," Kane said with a nod, gesturing forward as an indication that he was obligatorily allowing Abby to go first.

She could barely hazard a nod. "Councillor," Abby mumbled in response before they both very quickly entered the council meeting room and took their usual seats at the table.

Chancellor Jaha began slowly, looking around the room as he did so. "Ladies and gentlemen," he began slowly, and hands were clasped atop the table. "I've gathered you here today because as of this afternoon, our Skybox has reached maximum capacity."

A few murmurs of understanding were passed around. Kane and Abby already knew this, but the latter was doing her level best to avoid the accusatory eyes of the former.

"Now," the chancellor continued, "we could extend Prison Station, but it'll take time and it'll take manpower," the chancellor continued and Kane nodded. "We could reduce the age of majority and review any prisoners beyond the age of seventeen."

Abby's heart tightened at that one. Clarke had just turned seventeen not even a week ago. They didn't review traitors - they said that they did but it was always a futile endeavour. They floated them. The ground was Clarke's only hope, even if it was dangerous.

"Or," Jaha peered around his table, hoping that they would all pick up on his subtext, "we find another use for one hundred capable bodies."

His tone made things clear. The chancellor was suggesting that they send the Skybox to the ground and let the prisoners test out the Earth. They were already wards of the Ark. They had lost their legal rights when they committed their crimes. It wasn't even against the Charter.

It was a hard truth. Because it was easy, but to some it may feel wrong. But it truly was a perfect solution that would make everyone happy. Abby got her boots on the ground, Jaha solved the problem of the overcrowded Skybox, and Kane got 100 less lungs to share the dwindling oxygen with.

But it was a risk. A big risk.

 "I'm sure you can all see the opportunity that has presented itself before us," the chancellor added.

Now, the table shared knowing looks. Just earlier this week, they'd waved away Abby's progress on Project Exodus because she still had no test subjects. One hundred just offered themselves up on a silver platter.

"Dr. Griffin," Jaha teepeed his hands on the table and looked over at the councillor, "this is your project," he said. "Could we send the hundred juvenile prisoners to the ground?"

The room fell silent. Abby stared downwards at the table, trying to piece her thoughts together. Her instincts were to keep Clarke safe, but she couldn't possibly keep her safe if she was on the Ark when she aged into adulthood. Kane would float her. Further to that, what if Earth was her best shot? Her conversation with Vera had helped, and Abby knew what needed to be done.

"With all due respect, sir," it was Kane who spoke when Abby hesitated a moment too long. He directed his respect to the chancellor rather than the woman he was speaking for. "I think we all know that she'll oppose that idea."

Abby raised her eyes to finally look at Kane. She was unsure what he was playing at here. Whether he was challenging her or being truthful.

"There's one too many kids on that list that she's not willing to risk," he finished in a lowered voice, hammering his point down deeply into the ground.

Abby couldn't even blame him for the accusation. No, she did not want to risk her daughter. But she also couldn't risk keeping her here to face his consequences. Add that to the fact that they would pull the plug on this entire project if it looked like the only person who vouched for it didn't even trust the ground enough to send her own daughter there. Abby had no choice.

Jaha was going to chastise Kane for his presumptuous comment. It was inappropriate and bordered on a personal attack. But the chancellor too found himself curious as to Abby's final decision. Instead of coming to her defense, he looked at her expectantly. 

 Clearing her throat, Abby steeled herself as she spoke. "I agree that we can't waste this opportunity," she said, much to everyone's surprise.

Kane stared at her, watching harshly as Abby swallowed some fear and nodded.

"I propose that we send them to the ground," she confirmed.

Jaha nodded as the room digested this information. "Counsillors," he gestured outwards around himself, "the table is yours.?"

Councillor Fuji was first to shake his head. "It's too dangerous," he insisted.

Muir also shook her head, but with different thoughts. "We knew it would be dangerous," she reminded the room. "Hence why we're in need of expendables."

Abby shot her a sharp look and the rest of the table did not appreciate her language, but they knew what she meant.

"They're children, Councillor Muir," Fuji reminded her.

 "More than expendability," Kane shook his head as he spoke. "We need privacy." He picked up his head, looking around. "We need to send people that won't be missed by the general population."

"Councillor' Kane's right," Muir agreed, "this needs to be handled discretely," she stared at Abby. "The public can't know."

"We could launch a dropship from Prison Station," Kane added, thinking it all through. "Nobody would be any the wiser."

"Are we forgetting that Earth Monitoring projects unsuitable levels of radiation on Earth?" Fuji interjection. "We shouldn't even be considering this for another fifty years at least."

It was Abby's turn to butt in. She was the one with the information. "Those are old projections," she interjected, keeping her voice relatively small as she did so. "Earth Monitoring now projects that the ground might be livable."

"Might being the key word, Councillor Griffin," Fuji - who was usually in agreement with her - argued.

A silence ensued. Abby noticed that Fuji was the only one arguing. The rest of the council - even Kane and Muir, who remained extremely skeptical about Project Exodus in the first place - did not argue against her idea.

"It's a suicide mission," Fuji said, growing nervous.

Abby swallowed dryly.

Kane let out a sigh and lowered his voice. "Then it's an suicide mission, Councillor Fuji," he said softly. "But it'll be informative."

That was the truth of the matter, they all realized. Even if the ground wasn't livable, it was a move towards population reduction. Abby's heart sank as she realized that the only reason she was going to win the votes today was because at least two - probably three - councillors wanted to see mass deaths.

"The majority of those kids will be floated when they come of age anyways," Muir added. "At least this way they die paving the way for the rest of us."

Abby grimaced but said nothing. She couldn't. Because they all wanted the same thing - the hundred kids on the ground.

"Councillor Griffin," Cole spoke up for the first time, "how long until we could make the drop?"

Abby thought about this for a moment, drawing in a pensive breath. They would need to make one hundred wristwatches, prepare the dropship, start the kids on a supplementary diet that could best support them when they lose the easy resources that they have aboard the Ark. It would take time, but if she got down to business, not too much of it. Not more time than they had.

"It won't happen overnight," she warned the table. "But we could be ready before the Ark runs out of oxygen."

"You'll have to be, Councillor Griffin," Cole reminded her sharply. "Do you project longer than a year?"

"No," Abby said quickly. "Engineering could confirm, but I predict we won't need more than ten months."

It was already an impossible ask. Doing in ten months what they had originally planned to accomplish over the span of ten years. Crunch time was upon them.

"And then what?" Cole raised his voice again. "Say by some miracle the Earth Is survivable." he continued, "what do we do then with one hundred criminals on the ground?"

Muir nodded her head. "They could survive the radiation and die by the elements shortly after."

Kane - who had been staring down deeply in thought for the last few minutes - agreed with her. "Dropping them this time next year means that they'll hit winter awfully quickly."

"So, we'll prepare them," Abby's voice picked up as she found her confidence. "These are resourceful kids we're dealing with, here." She glanced around the table, hoping that they could find the logic in her argument. "We can implement mandatory Earth Skills classes for all prisoners. I'm sure Professor Pike would volunteer his teachings."

Kane's eyebrow twitched - that wasn't a half bad idea. "We'd disguise it as rehabilitative efforts," he added, speaking to the fact that they had to remain inconspicuous.

If kids started asking questions about what they were learning and why, they might catch on to what they were really preparing for. Abby suspected that her own daughter would be the first to put the pieces together if they did not take the necessary precautions.

"And from there, we work as quickly as possible," Abby added. "As soon as we conclude that the Earth is survivable, we commence Project Exodus and get to the ground with resources."

Cole was shaking his head. "Project Exodus isn't set to be initiation-ready for another ten years," he reminded her sharply.

Abby stared straight ahead. "I have been working on Project Exodus for ten years, Councillor," she responded with confidence. "We have a launch plan, we have a comprehensive list of necessary resources, we have a charter, and we have a field plan," she continued. "Project Exodus is ready when we are."

This was true. Over the years that Jaha had tentatively let Abby and the engineers work on the project - not to mention all the time that Diana Sydney spent on it - they were ready to go. They had one small issue that Abby refused to mention, for it would damper everyone's hope. They didn't have enough dropship for their growing population. Hopefully within the next eleven months, she could solve that problem.

"It's a solution to overcrowding in the Skybox," Councillor Kaplan spoke for the first time, "and we can spend the next year preparing the kids for the ground. It feels irresponsible if we refuse to try it."

The council nodded, but Fuji still hesitated.

"At least this way we aren't risking the entire population," Dr. Griffin added, feeling the shift in the room.

Kane realized that she was forgetting one thing. "And what do we do with future prisoners?" He asked her almost facetiously. "Do we really foresee a year of no crime among juveniles?"

Abby looked at Jaha, who sighed before speaking. "We'll have to hope that prisoners are reviewed and released faster than they are committed."

It wasn't a perfect plan, but Kane projected at least 30% of the Skybox prisoners as turning eighteen in the upcoming year. Inevitably, they'd be reviewed and either released or floated, and then cells would open up. It wasn't perfect, but it could work. He may just need to begin using his discretion.

Jaha could feel based on the quick silence that ensured that the vote was upon them. It was Councillor Fuji who needed one last reassurance.

Fuji looked at his old friend and raised his eyebrows in concern. He needed to be sure. "How confident in the ground are you, Abby?" He asked.

Abby flashed back to when she had nearly asked the same thing of Vera. She didn't need to know the truth, she only needed to have hope. Now, she needed to give that hope to Ross.

"I'd bet my daughter's life on it."

The vote was unanimous.

When the table was dismissed, the room dispersed unevenly. Kane and Abby were both heading through the East corridor and found themselves once again awkwardly walking side by side as they made their way. Unbeknownst to her, Kane had done this on purpose. He still didn't like the idea of the ground, he only voted in favour of sending the children because he so desperately needed space in the Skybox. And he also knew that Abby wasn't going to shut up about Project Exodus until she saw cold hard proof that the ground was not survivable.

"That couldn't have been an easy decision, Abby," Kane said but his voice was not as friendly as his words were.

She wished he wouldn't bother with conversation. Abby glanced over at him and gave him a sharp look. He was not being sympathetic nor was he aiming for small talk. No, his tone said it all. He was egging her on. Taunting her with something that she could never have - her daughter's freedom and safety.

"I'm surprised that you would risk your daughter's life so freely," he continued just to get a rise out of her.

As they had reached the doors to the Medical Bay where she was about to scrub in for rounds, Abby turned herself around to face Kane with a strong, disapproving look on her face. She knew what he was trying to say, and she did not appreciate it.

"I'd rather send her to the ground and give her a chance at life than keep her here just so that you can execute her like you did her father," she responded sharply, narrowing her eyes as she spoke.

Kane seemed to take a slight amount of sick amusement in her accusation. He stood up straight and fought off a smile. He would hold firmly to the fact that Abby had more to do with Jake's death than he did, but he knew that any argument he might have was pointless. Kane hadn't even been there for the execution. He hadn't made the arrest, he hadn't pushed the button, he hadn't been the chancellor who did not appeal the case, and he hadn't been the one who turned him in. All he did was follow the law and press the charges that he was obligated to.

He did not answer, but Abby was not yet finished. "You voted for it too, Kane," she reminded him with a mumble, wishing that she could leave this conversation alone.

"I voted for it to spare the oxygen, Abby," he said coldly, lowering his voice. "It'd be a miracle if those kids aren't irradiated the minute that they step out of that dropship."

 ~~~

Political unrest was one of the most uncontrollable things on the Ark.

The oxygen problem was kept under strict lock and key. Only the council and the chancellor's closest staff knew about it. Even the engineers and officers working on the modified version of the Exodus Project were not given the real reasons for its sudden approval.

Nonetheless, the people knew when they were being lied to. The council was hiding something, and people had been suspicious of that for a while now. But the unrest was not apparent to the chancellor and his council because they worked in the ivory tower that was the Go-Sci Station. All the way at the other end of the Ark lived the workers. Factory Station. Farm Station. Hydro Station. The people who did the work and reaped very few of the benefits.

And in those lower stations, a revolution was being stoked. All it took was a familiar face. Someone different. Someone that they felt as though they trusted. Diana Sydney. When her term as chancellor ended, she had been voted out by a primarily Alpha Station majority and the workers weren't happy about it. With that in mind, she ran for chancellor against Jaha after his first eight years on a platform that catered again to the workers of those three stations primarily. Promising to end corruption and destroy the systemic hierarchies that plagued the ark. Still, she lost her candidacy.

That was when she turned directly to the people. She didn't need a seat at the table, she just needed supporters. And she knew exactly where to find them.

It started with a few supporters rallied from the working stations and quickly snowballed into a full blown mutiny. And because the council was so busy with other things - it was easy for Diana to convince the workers that Jaha and his councillors' heads were simply too far up their own asses - they didn't notice the unrest. Kane had seen a spike in arrests made on political crimes or terrorism, but he too had been so preoccupied with the oxygen problem that he didn't think much of it. He only increased the Guard's presence in those stations.

And Sydney had something to say about anyone who served as a threat.

Chancellor Jaha was too concerned with making glittery speeches and big promises but never followed through. He claimed to speak for the entire Ark but consistently favoured Alpha and Go-Sci. He let his workers toil away in dangerous conditions and still sent them home hungry at the end of the day.

Councillor Kane was a tyrant in the shape of a guardsman and when the people needed him most, he didn't protect them, he arrested them. Folks caught stealing because they were in need, desperate to save family members, suffering from maladies and addiction. He executed them all ruthlessly like old dictators of past horror stories.

And as for Councillor Griffin? She came from Factory Station but hadn't bothered to be back since she left. She all but ignored any affiliation to the lowly station and instead paraded around Alpha like she had always belonged there. Now, she never seemed to concern herself with the conditions of Factory Station despite knowing firsthand how bad they were. She was only concerned with herself.

Those three accusations were what Diana Sydney solidified her uprising atop. Then, she let the unrest simmer. She knew that one day, the people would no longer be able to take it, and that was when they would look to her to make the move.

Unity Day - 2148

The first holiday since Jake's death.

One week after deciding that the hundred juvenile delinquents in the Skybox were going to the ground before this time next year.

An entire year of unrest in the lower stations ignored by the chancellor and his council.

Tonight, they were set to celebrate in the usual way. That meant that everyone else got their meagre little parties in the rec rooms and they claimed that prohibition was lifted but the Guard would start floating people as soon as the clock struck midnight. That was Marcus Kane's legacy. All the while, the man himself and the rest of the Station Chiefs, representatives, and council - most, no doubt, Alpha citizens - would be attending a luxurious soiree in the Mess Hall featuring better food, more alcohol, and no rules.

Sometimes, it was difficult for those in Alpha to realize that there was indeed a gap aboard the people in the Ark. A resource gap. A power gap. Tough to see because even things on Alpha were so restrictive and needy. But there were needier.

Unity day had become something relatively prestigious over the last few years. Jaha still threw his big banquet in the Mess Hall, and people were now expected to really tog up. People stopped wearing the same nice clothes year after year but actually turning to the seamstresses to round up nicer fabrics and create something new. Jaha claimed that this generated more work in the lower stations, which was always a good thing. But the stations were already working themselves to death.

Abby refused to do it. She couldn't bring herself to do it. The only seamstress she trusted was Aurora Blake, and she had just recently been floated. The Guard had discovered that she had been hiding an illegal child underneath the floorboards of her quarters. 16 years, she hid the girl. Almost but not quite Abby's record. Aurora had been floated and little Bellamy - who was now twenty-one years old - lost his place on the Guard and was now working as a janitor. So instead of asking anybody else to work on some clothing for her, Abby went to the markets and found some old hand me downs that would be suitable. She used to have quite the knack for fashion back in the day. She could make just about anything look stylish.

But before the main event of the day, the same people from Alpha would take a break from their already shortened workdays and meet in the Mess Hall for the annual pageant.

Kane made a point of being there in plain clothes. Typically, he would be officially working such events, but today he wanted to keep an eye on things from the inside. Without the uniform to set him apart. He had been receiving tips from his guards down in the working stations that political unrest was at an all time high this year. If anyone was going to try anything - for whatever reason - it would be today at one of the events.

Now, he had taken every precaution. He had conducted extra inspections before anyone was brought into the Mess Hall and he would do the same after it cleared out and before everyone returned for the gala tonight. Nothing was going to take them by surprise today. Still, he was on the lookout.

The pageant went on, filling the room with smiles as the familiar words were recited by new children this year.

Kane didn't see it as something touching. Instead, he counted the number of kids in this primary class and took note of how the number had increased since last year. The population was rising when they needed it cut in half. He gritted his teeth as the pageant continued.

The councillor stood at the very back of the room. He wound up there after making his rounds, but he was then forced to stand with the only two people who had arrived rather late - a mere minute before the pageant began. Councillors Griffin and Muir.

If Kane were Abby, he would have at least gone to stand on the other side of the room. Abby knew that Muir couldn't stand her and that Kane's feelings for her spoke for themselves, still she liked to think that nobody could be hateful on Unity Day. And today, she stood between the two other councillors with a small smile on her face, trying to pretend that her husband was not dead and that her daughter was not in prison unknowingly awaiting a monumental risk to her life.

She could remember when Clarke and Wells had shared the Unity Day story. She'd cried while Jake filmed it.

Kane also happened to think that Abby was an incredibly foolish woman. Not only because she believed so vehemently in the ground - to the point where she was willing to risk the life of her last living family member on it - but because she never seemed to acknowledge or care how it made her sound. Crazy. Obsessed. Like a bad scientist.

Not only that, but she seemed to completely ignore the political unrest that was sparking up the halls of the Ark. The other councillors tried to address it during meetings, but all she ever wanted to do was talk about the ground. Especially since they'd decided that the prisoners were headed there in less than a year.

Now, every councillor was hated by the public for something. If they were too liberal, they were hated by the more conservative citizens and vice versa. They were hated for being granted power for seemingly no reason.

And there had been a dramatic politically ideological shift towards conservativism over the last few years. That put councillors like Abby, Fuji, and Kaplan at the forefront of the hate. If somebody was going to make a political statement of some kind, it would be against one of them.

Kane didn't necessarily care about the lives of any of his fellow councillors, but he knew how one successful act of political terror could spark a mutiny. He didn't want to see death around the Ark unless he himself was the one with control over it. Not only did Abby not seem to notice this, but she didn't care. She continued to run her mouth, spreading false hope and impossible notions that the poorer people on the Ark simply wouldn't have time for.

They would hate her for having the privilege to even consider such fantasies while they would have to spend the rest of their miserable lives working and having the higher ups of the Ark cater to only themselves. Besides, Kane had it on good authority that people from the lower stations didn't appreciate the fact that Abby paid them no mind despite coming from Factory herself.

Kane did his best to warn the table that they had to be delicate these days, but Abby naively chose to ignore any threat that wasn't explicit or verbal. She was too focused on the ground and Project Exodus. Everything had changed since they decided that they were going to start really looking into it and setting a plan in motion. Abby's hope had skyrocketed. It suddenly made anything possible to her.

As the children went on, Abby crossed her arms with a dreamy sigh, shaking her head and smiling.

Forgetting that she was among enemies, she spoke under her breath thinking that this particular room could only be filled with peace today. "Just think," she began, evoking a raise of Kane's eyebrow as he was surprised to hear her speak. "Next year we might get the hear the Unity Day story on the ground."

It was a harmless statement but utterly out of touch, given Abby's audience. She had been too caught up in a dream to warn herself against speaking of such things in front of these two particular councillors.

Now, Councillor Kane had years of practice in the art of biting his tongue around Abigail Griffin. Sometimes he was more successful than others. In public surrounded by people was usually one of those times. Councillor Muir, however, had never interacted with Abby outside of the mandatory council meetings.

While Kane only stared at her sidelong, wondering if she was being facetious or honestly that stupid, Muir let out a full scoff. Abby was supposed to be one of the most intelligent people on the Ark. Oftentimes, her fellow councillors - the ones who disagreed with her viewpoints - found her to be insufferable and naive.

As Muir did not share Kane's familiarity with Abby's ways, she shared a look with the man, who did. The two councillors were taller than the one who stood between them, and that look passed easily overtop of Abby's head.

"Yes," Councillor Muir hissed in response, "as we all plummet to our deaths thanks to your ludicrous plan," she finished sarcastically.

Now, Abby turned her head. Just last week, Muir had voted in favour of sending the hundred to the ground and initiating Project Exodus as soon as it was safe to do so. Recently, Jaha had agreed that they were cutting it far too close to the end of their oxygen supply by waiting until September of next year to send the hundred to the ground. He recently reassured the council that he would also be open to any ideas that might come their way during the course of that time. Even if it meant Kane's population control.

"Excuse me?" She begged Muir's pardon, alerting Kane beside her who suddenly grew both tense and intrigued.

"Let me ask you this, Councillor Griffin," Muir continued, still staring ahead at the pageant as she minced no words, "if your traitor daughter wasn't on the list of kids we're sending to the ground, would you be as enthusiastic about joining them?" Slowly, Muir turned to Abby. "Would you still be prioritizing Project Exodus or would you be putting your efforts towards maintaining life abord the Ark like the rest of us who refuse to fall victim to delusion?"

Abby was insulted by her words and accusations, but had been expecting them. People did not always agree with her. She only hoped that today could have been more pleasant.

"Your insistence on this ridiculous project is what's going to kill us all. Before the lack of oxygen even has a chance to," Muir added harshly, sparing absolutely no feelings as she spoke. "And I'm far from the only person who thinks so." She turned her head to the left where she met Kane's eyes atop Abby's head. "Kane?" She said, obviously indicating that Marcus Kane agreed with every word she said.

He did. He absolutely did. He probably felt it stronger than Muir did. But this fight felt unfair. Abby hadn't meant any harm by her comments and even if they had irritated him, even he wasn't picking a fight. 

Kane's face remained unchanged as he watched the pageant, refusing to meet the eyes of either woman who had just glanced over at him. It felt like picking a side between them was asking for trouble, even if he knew who he would side with.

?Raising his eyebrows slightly in acknowledgement, Kane met Muir's eyes. Then, they flitted over to Abby's and he had to look away. Back to the pageant.

He shrugged his lips and shook his head lightly. "Now's not the time, Councillor," Kane said.

Abby was relieved that she was not going to have to defend herself in front of both councillors, but felt disgusted with herself uncontrollably. She always did whenever her and Kane happened to agree on something. She never wanted to be reduced to his opinion. Besides, the last time they agreed, it was about Jake's idea to go public with the Ark's limited oxygen. Look where that had gotten her.

"I see," Muir lowered her voice but kept it sharp. "You'll only take her one-on-one, is that right, Councillor Kane?" She added, now turning her ire to the man who hadn't taken her side. "Wouldn't want to rig the playing field."

Perhaps Kane hadn't seen much of Councillor Muir beyond the table either. Neither him nor Abby were familiar with her rude, exacting ways.

"Leave it to you to value discipline over your own opinion," Muir muttered as an afterthought.

Abby and Kane were both dumbfounded into silence, but Muir was not finished with either of them, yet.

"I wonder if you realize, Councillor Griffin," she turned to the other woman, "that you are no longer the people's favourite?"

When Abby had first made councillor, she'd been knowing for being the favourite. For having a broad enough opinion to speak to all people about the Ark. They liked her spirit, her heart. Now, Muir was alluding that she had fallen from her amicable pedestal.

"And I'm sure that their actions will begin to speak for themselves."

Immediately, Kane looked back over at her. It sounded an awful lot like a threat. Of what, he wasn't sure. Would people take up arms against Abby for disappointing them on the council? Did Muir know about some kind of act of terrorism that was coming her way. Kane didn't care because eh was interested in a personal sense, but because as Chief of the Guard, he was obligated to put a stop to it. 

Muir saw the accusation in his eyes as well as the undeniable offence in Abby's and she let out a sigh.

"Voting," she corrected herself sharply. "I only mean in terms of voting." Muir shook her head and looked away, crossing her arms. "Stand down, Councillor Kane."

She was egging them both on. Despite Kane agreeing with her that Abby had no place on the council, he also was obligated to take threats against anyone - especially political figures - seriously. If he wasn't so obligated, he'd be making them himself. But it did bring his integrity into the mix. Some people were willing to do whatever it took to make their point and do what they thought was right. Others were bound by self-discipline and the black and white of the law.

Muir had left the room then, getting back to work before the pageant was even finished. The kids were just about to give the Traveler's Prayer. Abby stood in her wake, unpleasantly surprised by the interaction. Kane clasped his hands behind his back and lingered - he, on the other hand, did not seem surprised in the slightest.

He watched out of the corner of his eye as Abby brushed off Muir's comments and returned to her sunny ways, refusing to even take them into consideration. Kane respected what Muir said. He agreed with it all. He wouldn't have done so to Abby's face in a public setting, but he admired Muir's forthright attitude. He was not irritated by the rudeness, he was now irritated by the fact that Abby was choosing to ignore it. As if the words had ricocheted and never bothered to register with her.

Abby was setting herself up for a grotesque failure, he happened to think. Forgetting that while she might believe strongly in the choices that she was making, there would come a day when she had to convince everyone else to believe in them too. And if everyone else already didn't particularly like her let alone trust her, she was going to have a difficult time with it.

Not only that, but Muir had been right back when he had originally thought she'd been threatening. The people were unhappy. Terrorist attempts and threats came from Factory or Farm Stations once in a blue moon, and they were overdue for one. The people were unhappy and the only place that they could display that was in politics. But because the politicians wouldn't easily listen to them, they had to act radically. Abby was putting herself at a massive risk by being so outspoken and so willfully ignorant of the state of the Ark.

There were many people unhappy about the fact that a former criminal was sitting on the council and practicing medicine. Someone who used to aid and abet notorious criminals. Someone who was spared by the discretion of the Guard twice. Someone whose husband and daughter had been arrested for treason. At the very least, she should have been removed from the council then as a precaution. A conflict of interest. But still, her power remained. Someone living in one of the lower stations would never have been able to get away with that.

"You know, Abby," he angled slightly towards her and lowered his voice so that the words could only be heard by her, "for somebody that so many people think should have been floated years ago," now, he dropped the niceties and his tone turned more personal, more mean, "you should probably think twice about who you choose to piss off around here."

Abby raised an eyebrow but did not look up at him. So, he could make threats against her, but Councillor Muir couldn't? She would never understood where that man drew certain lines.

Wasting no time, she turned to him without a trace of fear on her face. "And for somebody that many people wish to see out of power," she snapped back, "you should probably refrain from telling me what to do so often."

She was dead serious in her remark, but by the end of its utterance, Abby couldn't stop herself from practically grinning up at him cheekily. She knew that he hated when she poked back at him because she had much more fun with it than he did. Besides, he had killed her husband. They both knew that she could say whatever the hell she wanted to him. But not with immunity, of course.

When the words left her mouth, Abby was going to move away from the horrible man and watch the rest of the pageant from elsewhere - or perhaps she would head back to Medical early and avoid the crowds on their way out, but something had stopped her. As she eyed him sidelong, she spotted it. The hints of a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. He still possessed that devilish smirk but he rarely displayed it. Today, it was almost shining through the cracks in his strong armor.

He wasn't looking at her, was hardly giving her the time of day, certainly not going to dignify her retort with any sort of response, but she saw that smile. It was a grin that told her he might just appreciate her quickly argumentative ways more than he let on. It was tough to find a good sparring partner these days and the two of them used to be so good at it. Back before Kane made himself numb and their arguments became pragmatic and formal. Back when they teased each other just for fun to see who could come up with a faster rebuttal.

Abby felt guilty as soon as she found herself appreciating that smile. She could not do that. Not anymore. The man beside her had her husband killed and her daughter taken away from her. He was trying to cull innocent people from the Ark just so that he could save more air for himself. He was evil. Or, at least, he had made himself evil. His practices were evil. She refused to let herself consider anything else about him for that was the only part that really mattered.

Despite knowing that the man would have no problem seeing her dead with the rest of them - in fact, he was probably vying to catch her on floatable charges - she still stood there beside him. She still found fascination in that little crooked smile of his. She still remembered the good years back when his heart may have been on the cold side, but at least he had one.

*****

There was something in the air tonight at the Chancellor's Unity Day Gala in the Mess Hall. Something that felt a little bit chaotic. Indescribably so. Messy.

Perhaps it was because the room was filled with councillors and chief senior officers. Many of them knew about the oxygen problem. And those same people likely thought that this might very well be their last Unity Day. Not - as Abby thought - on the Ark, but at all. The Station Representatives and other sector heads may not have shared those fears for they had no information, but they could feel the electricity in the air coming off of the others who were perhaps extra stressed out tonight.

Whatever it was, it cranked the atmosphere up to eleven. There was more drinking than usual, more fighting, more flirtation, and more carelessness. It was difficult to inform a group of people that the world was ending and then expect them to go on minding their manners let alone caring about much of anything.

Even Marcus Kane - who did not see the oxygen problem as a surefire sign that his time was running out and he should quit wasting it but instead as an opportunity to seize power and make more radical decisions - wasn't working tonight. And despite the fact that he still felt numb through it all, he was allowing himself to enjoy hedonistic pursuits this evening. Whiskey, women, a nice new suit, a spritz of cologne from an ancestor's collection that he only sprayed once a year at most. 

The women showed up one by one, all dressed to the nines. Or, as close to it as the recycled fashion on the Ark would allow them. Some wore dresses that had been in their family for generations with big puffy sleeves and tassels of pearls and beads. Some had obviously visited the markets and pair flashy outfits together that certainly did not speak to any sense of fashion old or new but showcased the fact that they had been able to acquire such fabrics and accessories. Others - the more sensible ones - wore the same old dresses that they always did but had them altered by Factory Station seamstresses to appear as something new.

And without fail, they all squeezed themselves into pointy high-heeled shoes. When Jaha deemed an event as formal, it had recently become a common acceptance that it meant suits and ties for the men and high heels for the women. Those shoes were seen as a luxury around the Ark and there was only one day a year for any of them to show such things off.

Abby felt ridiculous as she got dressed up, even if she had remained modest and only purchased two articles of clothing from the markets. The top was the colour of olive green and it was a combination tank top built underneath a sheer piece of fabric the same colour that clung to her middle but hung around one shoulder and down her arms in sleeves. It looked second-hand and imperfect considering it revealed the strap of the tank top by sliding down one shoulder, but she had no interest in trading away any savings for something more elegant.

The skirt may as well have been an old tablecloth. In fact, Abby was convinced that it was at one point in time. It was the same colour green but featured an old-fashioned pattern of brown that matched the green so well that from afar, her outfit may have looked more like a dress than a skirt and shirt. Abby hadn't worn a skirt in years. But she hadn't worn high heeled shoes like this in decades. In fact, she was surprised when her feet still fit the dainty little things.

Beneath the skirt she wore the only pair of sheer tights she owned that were not filled with rips and frays from past parties, and she added a thick black belt. She had to - the skirt would fall off her otherwise. She was able to tuck the fabric beneath the belt so that instead of falling around her like the tablecloth that it was, the skirt clung to her body nicely to highlight her small waist and slender legs.

The shoes were going to be a problem. She knew that as soon as she'd buckled the things up. They were small and black and were pointed at the toe, secured by a small strap and a clasp at either ankle. The heel itself couldn't have been more than two inches, but it was enough for Abby to feel as though she was going to fall off balance. 

She took her hair down, added a hint of colour to her lips, and realized that was the best she was willing to do tonight. She didn't have any interest in donning a gown and parading around like some wealthy baron in the 1700s while the rest of Frence starved. Abby looked once in the mirror before she left and happened to think that with her legs covered by tights and high heeled shoes on her feet, she looked like one of the ladies in the magazines that she used to see for trade in Factory Station. The women weren't naked, but some of them wore old-fashioned office clothing but were in various states of undress. A blouse unbuttoned, the woman bent over a desk. She hated those images for the sexual caricatures that it portrayed, and now felt stupid for wearing anything other than her usual jeans and boots.

Nonetheless, she practiced walking in the shoes when she swung by Callie's quarters to collect her and they bantered while meandering to the Mess Hall. Callie - unlike Abby - had gone all out. First, she'd visited the markets and bought fabric. Then, she'd enlisted the services of a seamstress to sew her a beautiful dress made from that fabric. It was a midnight blue velvet - replica, of course, not the real material - and it clung to her body as though she had been poured into it. Her hair was straight and her makeup was done darkly, she looked like something out of an old movie.

When they arrived, they found themselves of the last guests. They'd just barely made it in time for Jaha's speech. The girls shared a drink before Callie ditched Abby to flirt with the Mecha Station Representative. She did so to make Kane jealous - he hadn't been by her quarters in over a month and she'd taken the hint that their temporary physical relationship was over - despite claiming that she never cared for him in the first place.

Abby didn't mind, she had many friends. Maryanne found her side quickly - always eager to avoid having to spend time with her husband at these events - and they began to tour the room laughing and slowly sipping on their drinks. Abby wished that it wasn't quite so typical to walk around during these events, her feet were killing her.

She tried to have a good time with Maryanne and whichever other acquaintances came her way, but something felt rather unsettling tonight. There was something wary in the air. Beyond that, this entire evening felt incredibly tacky. Out of touch. She felt as though she should be in the lab working on the oxygen project or perhaps celebrating in one of the rec rooms like the rest of the Ark had to do. Why should she get to don fancy clothes and eat better food than anyone else?

Perhaps this was why there were rumours of unrest in the lower stations.

Abby had said her obligatory hellos to her fellow councillors - all of whom were impressed to see her dressed at least semi-formally, thus reminding the world that she was indeed a woman - but had not lingered. Instead, she spent the evening with Callie and Maryanne, her closest friends. But between Callie's navy blue and Maryanne's frilly pink - faded over the years but still far more brilliant than her muted green - Abby felt rather underdressed. She'd never been one to care about such things and that still rang true tonight, it was a mere observation.

And though her friends did indeed sparkle, Abby cleaned up nicely. She was such a strong force to be reckoned with around the Ark. Such a well known political figure, a parent, and everyone's doctor. It wasn't difficult to forget that she was also a woman. And tonight, she was a single woman. Certainly not available as she still reeled from the death of the man that she loved, but as Abby toured the room and impressed everyone by revealing the fact that she indeed had legs beneath her lab coat, the single older men in the room remembered that she was unattached and relatively beautiful. In fact, when they had all been young, many of them had taken a liking to her.

Even Kane found off a curious chuckle as he noticed she'd gotten rather dressed up for the occasion. Not like the rest of the girls, of course - because Abby was still Abby - and he was brought back to earlier days when he found her charming. There had been a time when he had been attracted to Abby, but those moments were long gone now. So far away that they felt like another lifetime. But as numb as he was, Kane was not blind. She was a woman with strong hands and quick steps who always wore practical working outfits and kept her hair back in some way, but tonight she was rather feminine.

With her long hair that almost looked gold beneath certain lights, those amber brown eyes, long dark lashes. And of course, all the right kind of physical assets that drew men to women in the first place. In fact, when she'd passed by him earlier, Kane happened to think that she looked rather pretty. He remembered finding it ironic considering how naive, how ignorant, how irritating she was. Of course, leave it to fate to make the one woman that he would rather see dead and out of his hair, the most beautiful woman in the room tonight. And leave it to fate to force him to realize that now, when he had been doing so good for so long. Would this make council meetings difficult? Would he waver just because he thought Abby was pretty?

Kane finished his drink, chalking his ridiculous thoughts up to the liquor. No. Abby could be pretty and it simultaneously mean nothing at all to him. When he took a moment to reflect and check himself, Kane was pleased to find that he still felt numb. These were only thoughts. Thoughts were safe. Feelings were not.

About an hour and a half into the evening, Abby was left alone to wonder just how much more fun the rest of the Ark was having in their rec rooms with their more intimate parties. She didn't even like this music. The instruments were too slow, too formal. She enjoyed the fiddling and acoustic guitar playing that she remembered from live music in Factory Station. Maryanne had been pulled away by her husband for one obligatory dance - just so that the rest of the room wouldn't think they were on the rocks - and Callie was soon after asked by the Chief of Hydro who was perpetually single but rather ruggedly handsome.

There were other single, suitable men in the room, but nobody dared asked Abby. In fact, most people didn't bother getting close enough to even try. They all knew how Jake and Abby had loved each other, and his flotation had come as a shock to everyone who knew of him. Nobody knew exactly what had happened - the word treason got thrown around every now and then - and nobody was brave enough to ask. Just like nobody was brave enough to see if a grieving widow might want to dance. She didn't. Abby was grateful that nobody asked her any questions that she couldn't come up with an answer for if she tried.

Callie had left her with her half=full glass of champagne and Abby now found herself alone, fading off onto the sidelines, a drink in each hand while she waited for Callie to finish. Without the distraction of pleasant conversation, Abby realized just how badly her feet ached. She had no idea how some women a hundred years ago used to wear these shoes every day. Her soles were sore, her ankles ached, her toes were pinched, there was absolutely nothing becoming about them. Yet, for some reason, society still thought they looked good.

In search of somewhere suitable to rest her feet, Abby spotted an empty seat across the room next to a woman in a long black dress with a bundle of blonde hair piled up atop her head. Abby knew even from behind that it was Diana Sydney, and she didn't necessarily feel like spending time with her this evening, but she needed a seat more than she needed to keep her sanity. Besides, she could always sit down and keep to herself. Conversation was not mandatory.

While on her way there, a laughing couple that had been walking hand in hand nearly walked right into her - drunk and unobservant. And while Abby was bumped out of the way, stumbling backwards a step or two thanks to the stupid shoes she was wearing, she found her back pressing into somebody else.

Kane had been facing away from the room, chatting up a senior officer from Orchid Station with a flirtatious air about him - it wouldn't be Unity Day if he didn't get laid - when he felt somebody small stumble backwards into him. They both turned around at the same time.

Abby was mumbling some sort of apology that got cut short as soon as she realized that it was only him, and Kane arched a curious eyebrow. To Abby's surprise, she didn't see much of anything from him. She'd been expecting the usual disgust, hatred, inconvenience that he typically greeted her with. Perhaps a scolding or a lesson in watching where one was going. But instead, she saw nothing.

"One wasn't enough for you, Councillor?" He said in a tone that happened to be rather teasing.

It took Abby a moment to realize what he'd meant by his comment until she remembered that she was holding both hers and Callie's drinks. It did make her look rather greedy. 

Kane's eyes lingered only long enough for Abby to give him a snarky look in response and then he was back over his shoulder, returning to more important things like luring this nice woman from Orchid into his bed. 

Abby continued away from the scene, aching with every step she took, and braced herself for some pointless, likely aggravating conversation with ex-chancellor Diana Sydney.

Taking the only empty seat, Abby sat at one side of the table kiddie corner to Diana who sat diagonally and to her right. On Abby's left was a man that she vaguely recognized. Harlan Frederickson - station representative from Factory. He had brought various matters forward to the council throughout the couple of years that he had been the acting representative, and Abby remembered his as relatively unhappy with the way that the council had been running things. Vocally so. To the point where Kane had to speak to him personally and issue him a formal warning that his actions in Factory Station bordered on sedition. Abby could remember a scandal a few years back where Harlan had been accused of attempting to poison his ex-wife but the investigation didn't find suitable evidence.

When Abby recognized him in the seat beside her, she tensed. Tonight was not about politics and she certainly had no intention of becoming this man's verbal punching bag. She had no answers to his questions and was not solely responsible for the solutions that he was in search of. She considered removing herself from the seat at this table entirely and sentencing herself to a standing position even if her feet were killing her, but decided to tough it out. If Harlan wanted to give her a good fight tonight, she'd have no problem countering him. But perhaps they could both sit peacefully.

To her utmost surprise, he did not seem even remotely displeased when he turned to her, recognition flashing across his face. Abby braced herself for abuse but instead found nothing but a warm smile.

"Doctor Griffin," he said openly, "it's nice to finally see you outside of the council chamber."

She hesitated, wondering if he was about to segue into the most recent council meeting that he had submitted a memo for.

"Mr. Frederickson," she responded tentatively with a nod, "happy Unity Day."

Harlan took a sip of the lager that Farm Station had supplied for the occasion. "Please, call me Harlan," he insisted pleasantly, fully turning in his chair so that he could continue the conversation. "Forgive me for saying so," he continued with a smile, "but you look positively beautiful tonight, Dr. Griffin."

Abby blinked once in surprise. Jake was the only man who had ever called her beautiful before. It felt like a betrayal to even hear it from another mouth. But it also felt good. Abby felt guilty for appreciating the compliment, but it was always a nice thing to hear. Especially when she knew full well that just about everyone on this Ark saw her as a doctor and nothing more. It was tough to romanticize the woman whose hands had sewn up various wounds on your body and who had analyzed samples of your urine. But all it took was Harlan calling her beautiful and just like that, she felt beautiful. Which was something that she rarely felt.

Now, it did not bother her that she was seen as a medical professional first. She much preferred it. Abby knew that despite it being 2148, women were still taken less seriously in high ranking roles than men were. Besides, she would rather be kind and smart and loving than beautiful anyways. But tonight, it still felt nice. Suddenly, she was glad that she wore the shoes.

And maybe that was why - despite feeling guilty and like every word was a step towards cheating on her late husband - Abby sat there and let the man flirt with her. A man that she never thought would take interest in somebody like her in a million year. Politically, he hated her. But tonight perhaps personally, he enjoyed her.

Now, Abby was not flirting. She wouldn't even know how to do that nor would she want to do that while she was still reeling over the loss of such a great love. But she was drinking and she was feeling just as stressed and uncertain as the rest of the room who were aware that they were breathing borrowed air. She had recently decided to send her daughter down to a planet that she couldn't promise would keep her alive. She went home to empty quarters every night and reached for a warm embrace that no longer lived. She sat on a council and tried to make decisions that were going to affect the remainder of her species for the remainder of its existence. She fought against a man who insisted that the best way to save the many were to murder some.

So, she did not flirt, but she did know that she was being flirted with. More than that, she let Harlan flirt with her. He never crossed any lines - did not reach out to touch her, did not become too suggestive in his conversation, and did not ask anything of her that she was unwilling to give - but he flirted and she let him. She let herself feel desired and beautiful even if just for one night. Even if the man that she wanted to make her feel such things was slowly turning to space dust,

People came and went around the table. Callie returned for her drink but her and Maryanne didn't stay long before they were being whisked away elsewhere. Someone had arrived on scene and the table had inadvertently shuffled chairs, so the newcomer now sat closest to Abby while Diana was on his other side. Abby had taken note of the new arrival and his familiarity but had been too distracted by her conversation with Harlan to dwell on it or tense up. She was too busy being pleasantly surprised by the man that she thought hated her and the ways in which he could hold a proper conversation.

Kane too was unbothered by Abby's presence. They were used to sharing spaces and not acknowledging the other's presence, let alone speaking. Besides, his friend from earlier had too much to drink and was heading home early, and Kane was still looking to keep up his Unity Day tradition. He didn't want to complicate things by going back to Callie -she'd become a little too friendly for his tastes - but he knew that Diana Sydney - as complicated as that could also prove to be - never turned him down. They used to sleep together when she was chancellor, but they were never an official item. Still, it came with its own professional benefits.

After being at the table for some time, Kane had realized that Abby was being flirted with beside him. He knew this only because he had clocked Harlan Frederickson's presence immediately and instinctually kept an eye on him. That man loved to cause trouble for the council. He must be drunk tonight if he was actually hitting on one of the councillors. Still, it evoked a raise of Kane's curiously surprised eyebrows. Not because Abby wasn't a beautiful woman, but because she was a mourning widow. It was rather tasteless of Harlan to be flirting so shamelessly with somebody who was obviously nowhere near interested.

And to her credit, he noticed quickly that Abby was polite and pleasant but never reciprocated Still, he knew men like Harlan. They didn't need more than a smile and polite conversation to feel as though their actions were reciprocated. Though Kane didn't feel much of anything by the end of Jake's life, he never hated the man. And he certainly wouldn't want his legacy stained by the fact that his wife was running off with another man so soon after his death. Not that he expected Abby to. She wasn't that kind of person and she'd loved Jake with her whole heart - save for the slightly larger piece that was reserved for Clarke. But Marcus was momentarily relieved for his late best friend and simultaneously angry at Harlan for no good reason.

When Kane shook his head and reminded himself that Jake had been dead for over a year now and that Abby was a grown woman who could do whatever he wanted because he did not care about Jake nor his wife anymore. Once again, he checked himself for emotion and found none, just to be sure. Then, he turned his attention away from the woman on his left and instead focused on the one to his right who was wearing a plunging neckline and a little too much perfume.

It took no time at all to remember why he'd grown tired of her all those years ago. She was snaky. Always seemed suspicious about something or like she was plotting behind even his back. He never cared about her much, but they'd had their physical fun together and he had reaped the benefits while that lasted. Tonight, if he could just put up with her janky politics and voice that she never seemed to get tired of using, he might be able to get lucky after all.

It took close to an hour at that table before Abby glanced over her shoulder, shifting slightly in her seat so that she was more forwards at the table rather than turned fully towards Harlan. Noticing the movement in the corner of his eye, Kane did the same, and the pair wound up making a brief moment of relatively heavy eye contact upon finally realizing that they'd been sitting next to each other for some time now.

Abby looked surprised and - as she usually did when he surprised her with his untimely presence these days - like she was about to say something but quickly shut her mouth and looked away. In truth, she was always instinctually going to nod hello to him or tease him with some kind of taunting remark, like she would have years ago. Then the memory of her executed husband and Kane's signature would remind her who he really was. Who he had become and what he had done to her.

Kane glanced over her shoulder to confirm what he already knew - that she was talking with Harlan Frederickson - and immediately looked away with a frown. But not before catching Abby's eye one last time and giving her a relatively disapproving look.

Abby did not know if it was because she was allowing herself to be flirted with or if it was because she spoke with Harlan at all. More than he disliked Abby's politics, the man despised Kane's. And after the chief of the guard had issued him that formal warning, things turned personal. Not for Kane, who refused to get personal with anybody, but Harlan had it out for him ever since. To the man's credit, he covered his sneer upon noticing that Kane was at their table.

And though none of it felt innocent - flirting with the wrong people, wearing clothes that they had no business even owning, breathing air that they couldn't afford - it started off innocently enough.

When the evening started to come to a close, people shuffled around. Kane and Diana had decided to leave together and he was helping her up out of her chair while casting one last tentative glance backwards at Abby and her new friend. Diana placed a hand on his arm and whispered something about going to the back bay to collect her coat, and Kane straightened his shoulders and surveyed the room.

Jaha was still there at the centre of it all, making conversation with Maryanne and Ross. Most of the room was starting to clear out but some people would insist on partying well into the night. Kane noted all the right people standing guard at their posts including Commander Shumway who was in charge of security detail for this room tonight. Abby, too, had been standing from her seat. She was talking about leaving but Harlan had convinced her to stay for one more drink, which he promptly left to grab for her from the table across the room.

Kane suddenly found himself preparing for an awkward silence when Abby absentmindedly sighed and turned around only to find him standing behind her, pushing in the chair that he had just abandoned. She glanced up in surprise once before looking away. She hadn't been able to meet his eyes very easily since Jake's execution and that had not been lost on him. He didn't care.

Abby cleared her throat. "Diana Sydney?" She hissed under her breath sarcastically, taunting him about the fact that she'd clearly noticed his chosen company for the evening. "What year is it?"

Kane smirked down at her but there was no humour or affection in that expression. "Keeping tabs on me now are you, Councillor?" He mocked in a similar tone.

That smile stayed on his face for purely mocking reasons when Kane suddenly became amused by the fact that Abby was squirming. He knew it had to do with the shoes. She never worse heels and they were likely quite the burden on her after a long day in Medical. Not only that, but it bemused him that even with the extra couple inches, he could see right over the top of her head.

Abby turned around to face him and her eyes jerked upwards so that she wasn't forced to stare somewhere near his chest where her eyes landed. She didn't usually notice just how tall Marcus Kane was until she was standing face to face with him. And with that realization went her rebuttal.

Kane only continued to smirk at her annoyingly upon realizing that Abby had nothing up her sleeve to defend herself with, and he slowly walked away from her, heading to the door.

Abby let out a sigh of relief when he left but found herself unable to sit down. She would take Harlan's drink, but she would likely leave this table in favour of saying goodbye to some of her friends and heading home for the night. She didn't know when her heart had started racing, but it was slowing with every step that Kane took away from her. Abby didn't want to be here anymore. She missed Clarke. She missed Jake. She just wanted to go home and wait for morning.

Kane now lingered by the door, still holding his glass of whiskey. At this rate, he was going to finish it before Diana came back with her coat. She had it in her hands and was coming his way, but stopping to talk to everyone that she encountered along the way. In his solitude, he had nothing to do but once again check the posts. Everyone was alert, everyone was where they should be, and Shumway was slowly making circles around the room, keeping everyone in line.

Kane's gaze lingered on Abby for a moment and noted that she looked uncomfortable at the table without anyone to talk to, and that she had not sat down. She was shifting her wait from foot to foot likely due to the pain that her shoes were bringing her. He shifted his gaze. Harlan was over at the refreshment's table, as promised.

Suddenly, a feeling of intensity registered within him. As he slowly brought his cup of whiskey up to his lips, the gulp burned more than it should have. Something had alerted him, he just didn't know what it was yet. But he did know that he wasn't about to take his eyes off Harlan for a second.

With time moving just slow enough to allow for proper realization from his unknown observer, Harlan took a small vial of something liquid out of his lapel pocket and poured it into the second glass of champagne in his hands. Kane knew instantly what it was, because everything came back to him at once. Harlan's poison scandal had been strongly overshadowed by his recent sedition attempts. But Kane could remember it vividly. He was certain that Harlan had poisoned his ex-wife back in the day, but he couldn't find proper evidence. Abby had managed to save the woman's life in medical and confirmed poison in her bloodstream, but nothing more ever came of it. But Kane had been positive that Harlan had did it. He felt it in his bones.

And watching him pour that poison into the drink so clearly meant for Abby created quite the conflict within Marcus Kane. A battle between his head and his heart.

His head knew full well that he was obligated to act to condemn the crime that he witnessed unfolding before his very eyes. He was chief of the guard. He had to step in and save a life before it could be taken. Arrest the guilty. Protect the innocent.

That's where his heart came in. Because Abigail Griffin was not innocent. She was a former criminal who he regretted not floating when he'd been given the chance. He couldn't go back and execute her for her crimes now that she'd been formally absolved of them by himself and the chancellor. He regretted stopping her from resisting Jake's arrest. He regretted not including Abby on the treason charges just because he couldn't find any evidence. Had he known how much of a thorn in his side she would prove to be, he would have gone back and floated her at every given opportunity.

Kane didn't necessarily want her dead, he just wanted her gone. If that meant off the council, so be it. Somewhere that her voice could no longer be heard and her opinion no longer mattered. The only way that he saw that being a possibility was if she was dead. And knowing her, she'd incriminate herself in some way soon and be floated anyways. But he wanted it done sooner rather than later. No, he did not want her dead. But should the opportunity present itself, he wouldn't be upset. He didn't feel anything for anyone, but he did feel something for this woman. He felt immense and utter inconvenience. His life would admittedly be made at least ten times easier if she was gone from this world for good.

Now, here was the opportunity. Harlan was willing to fall on the sword and everything. Poison her and provide her with - if memory served him corrected - an extremely painful death. And this one would be public. Abby would drink the tainted champagne and it wouldn't take long before she would begin to choke. Then, she'd fall to the floor and the convulsions would begin. She would grasp at her throat and try to cough but nothing would come out. Eventually, she wouldn't be able to breath. The most ironic part? The only one capable of saving her would be herself. Once she was unable to breath and inevitably lost her life, Kane would arrest Harlan, say something about wishing he'd been a few odd seconds earlier, and look like the hero.

And Abigail Griffin - his greatest opponent - would be gone. A very sick sense of excitement overwhelmed him as he imagined the scene like something out of his greatest fantasies.

That was what his heart told him. That he wanted her dead and gone and out of his hair forever. But Marcus Kane always listened to his head. And his head reminded him that he had a legal responsibility, even to this woman.

In the end, his body made the decision for him. Not his head, not his heart, but his gut instincts. A part of him that neither his mind nor spirit had any access to.

Marcus shot back the last of his drink, cursing himself once as he realized that he never had any control over this decision in the first place.

He slowly moved towards the scene, keeping an eye on Harlan as he cast a glance over his shoulder before tucking the now empty vial back into his pocket and moving back across the room towards his target.

Kane wasn't surprised, he thought to himself as he maneuvered through the busy sea of people, trying not to lose sight of Harlan. The man never liked Abby. They all should have thought it suspicious that he had been talking to her so kindly tonight. If Abby wasn't so blindly trusting and foolishly naive, she might have realized that she was being romanced. Harlan Frederickson hated the council, he had been involved in dangerous scandal in the past, political unrest was at an all time high, the man publicly hated Councillor Griffin - and the rest of them for that matter - and Kane had sat there for half the night letting him chat up a fellow councillor without thinking anything of it.

Perhaps if anything happened to Abby, it was his fault after all. And he wanted her dead, yes - when had he started admitting to himself that he wanted her dead? In the last thirty seconds, apparently. He wanted her dead, but he didn't want it to be due to his own negligence.

Kane attempted to keep a level mind as he took one more sip of whiskey, inhaled sharply - irritated by the cruel irony of the situation that he now found himself in - and began to walk towards the scene. Keeping an eye on Matthew and Abby, Kane's strides were cool and collected, no one else even noticed that there was a problem. No one but Commander Shumway, of course, who had been working security for the banquet, and had been trained to pick up on his chief's smallest of signals. Noticing Kane's purposeful attention to a specific situation, the commander, too, began to walk towards whatever was unfolding.

He still wasn’t sure what he was going to do. Approach the scene and try to interrogate Harlan, he suspected. But Kane knew by now that his head and heart had clocked out of this one. He was running on pure instinct and necessity.

And when Harlan handed the new glass to Abby – still standing from her seat and obliviously wishing she could think up a proper excuse to leave – she took it with a naïve, distracted smile.

Then, Abby absentmindedly raised the glass of poison to her lips.

It was suddenly and without warning that Kane’s heart began to race. The disappointment of having to interrupt what could have been a beautiful moment for him – the violent death of his greatest enemy – combined with the sudden urgency he felt to ensure that poison did not reach her bloodstream. He wasn’t sure what he felt, but it wasn’t nothing. For the first time in years, it wasn’t nothing.

His legs worked faster than anything else, and Kane suddenly appeared out of nowhere, reaching over with a scowl and swatting the glass from Abby’s hand just as the rim had touched her bottom lip. When it shattered on the ground, everyone’s attention was piqued.

Commander Shumway was on them in an instant. If Kane was involved, his efforts were required. An arrest would need to be made tonight.

All at once, Abby’s mouth fell open in surprise, Harlan backed away, Shumway appeared on scene with two guards as backup, and Kane’s frown increased. He was angry. Not because Harlan had almost poisoned one of his fellow councillors, but because he had been so close. So close to the perfect answer to all of his problems. So close to having that thorn finally plucked from his side once and for all. And his own duty prevented that from panning out.

Abby wasn’t sure what to make of any of it. Her instincts told her to be angry with Kane for whatever this was, but then she spotted the look on Harlan’s face. Gone was his charming flirtation. Now, he was covering up a sneer.

Kane stepped in front of Abby as if she wasn’t even there and stood before the guilty man. “What was in the drink, Harlan?” He asked slowly, hoping to evoke a confession so that they could make an arrest.

“Champagne,” Harlan spat in defense.

Kane narrowed his eyes and grabbed hold of Harlan’s lapel, jerking the man forwards in an unforgiving manner before tearing out a small vial of something that was now empty. With one hand still holding on to the criminal, Kane’s eyes flicked back at Shumway.

“Commander Shumway, take this man into custody,” he demanded.

The commander nodded and did as he was told, leaving Kane to turn to the younger guardsman who was still at his side, waiting for orders.

Kane handed him the vial. “Bring this to the lab for analysis,” he muttered, brushing off his suit jacket as it had gotten rather bunched in the altercation.

“Rohypnol, sir?” The guardsman asked out of curiosity, and Kane’s attention was brought back to the young man as he shook his head once.

“Poison.”

Blinking away her confusion, Abby finally realized what had happened. Harlan was trying to poison her. He’d buttered her up all night and when she finally trusted him enough to think nothing of him getting her a new drink, he attempted to poison her.

She had been so foolish.

Foolish for thinking that any man on board this Ark might think of her as someone beautiful and for the taking. Not that she wanted them to. But she also didn’t not want them to. It was a complicated feeling when you lose the only person who’d ever made you feel beautiful and desired.

Harlan had always been outspoken in his hatred. He’d all but threated the members of the council and Abby knew that he had a specific dislike for her. She should have seen this coming. She shouldn’t have been so naïve. And now, her pretty little shoes were wet with poison near the tips of her covered toes.

Without wasting time, Kane turned back around to face the woman that had just suffered an attempt on her life.

“Did you drink any?” He demanded urgently, staring down at her with those cold, dark eyes of his.

Abby shook her head quickly, looking down at the shattered glass on the ground and the liquid that had spilled from it.

“What’s going on?” She uttered in confusion, still trying to piece it all together.

It was beginning to add up, but Abby couldn’t believe that someone would try something in such a public space on such a big night.

Kane shook his head rather impatiently. “What did I tell you, Abby?” He chastised, recalling their conversation from earlier. “There’s people out there looking for blood,” he snapped under his breath. “A second later and you would’ve been poisoned.”

She blinked again and took in a deep breath, folding her arms across her chest as if she was trying to hold herself together. She wished Jake was here so that she could wrap herself in his arms rather than her own.

“Harlan…” she pieced it all together uncertainly.

Kane nodded and beckoned to one of the guards across the room to join them. He noticed that Diana Sydney was nowhere to be found – she hadn’t been since she said that she was getting her coat – and assumed that his chances for physical satisfaction tonight were dwindling.

What he failed to realize himself was that she had been in on it from the start. She’d been meant to keep an eye on everything as Abby showed up to their table and Harlan worked his magic, but had no choice but to get involved when the chief of the Guard, of all people, sat down next to her. Then, she had to ensure that he was suitably distracted so that they could carry out their attack on Abby.

It hadn’t been successful tonight, but it was not for a lack of trying. And the radicals in the lower stations would only grow stronger as they got closer and closer. With Diana Sydney’s help, they would one day be able to infiltrate the council and start running things in a way that catered to them. Not just the officers of Alpha Station.

“Yeah,” Kane muttered, turning his attention back to her, “you sure can pick ‘em.”

An abusive criminal, a traitor, and now an attempted murderer. Quite the track record for one woman.

She shook her head when she felt Kane’s hand on her back, urging her towards the table that she’d been sitting at earlier. She tried to resist, wanting to put her emotions together on her own before she’d be forced to sit down.

“Come on,” Kane said formally, “you need to give your statement.”

This was an act of political terrorism, whether Harlan admitted to that or not. They needed to get as much information out of Abby as possible. The guard from across the room had joined them quickly and handed his tablet to Kane before returning to his post, urging people to leave the room.

But Abby froze in place, forcing Kane to turn back and look at her. “You…” she began, peering at him as though something wasn’t quite adding up. “How did you know?”

Kane shook his head, wishing that she would just sit down so that he could take her statement. “I saw him do it,” he said simply, refusing to give too much information.

“And you…” Abby was still confused, now shaking her head and peering up at him with a strange look on her face, “…you didn’t…” she tried to spit out her sentence, but couldn’t find the right words without accusing him of wanting her dead, “…I mean, you…”

Kane understood. She was surprised that he’d seen that happening and still chose to save her life. She wasn’t sure if she should have expected such a thing or not. On one hand, he hated her. He wanted her out of his hair. On the other hand, he was disciplined and principled, even if those principles weren’t always morally sound.

The truth of the matter was that saving her life hadn’t meant anything to him. It was his duty. He would have done the same for anybody else. But to Abby, it felt almost jarring. Because while he still refused to feel anything at all, she couldn’t seem to feel anything small.

“It’s my job, Abby,” he said in a small whisper, looking down at her as though he was mad about something. “It’s also my job to take a statement,” he urged her once again to take a seat.

“It’s so late, Kane,” Abby grimaced and looked away. “Can’t we do this in the morning?”

Abby was tired, she was scared, humiliated, she wanted to go home and pretend that her family was there to comfort her after such a close call.

If Jake was alive, Abby knew that he would take matters into his own hands. He would see to it that Harlan Frederickson was verbally reprimanded for attempting to poison his wife. Kane, however, was going to see Harlan Frederickson dead. Abby didn’t know if that made her feel better or not.

“This was an act of political terrorism,” he said under his breath, “not to mention an attempt on the life of a prominent councillor,” Kane straightened out and nodded at the chair that he had pulled out for her. “We need to know what happened.”

Abby knew this was true. They needed to gather information immediately to ensure that there were no future attacks that could be prevented based on what she’d learned. There was only one problem. She hadn’t learned anything other than the fact that she was a fool. A fool because a man had paid attention to her. A fool because she trusted that someone could disagree with her and still be interested in her.

After fifteen minutes of trying, Kane realized that they were getting nowhere, and Abby was growing tired and irritated.

“I told you, Kane,” she snapped, crossing her arms again, “he didn’t tell me anything.”

Kane shook his head, biting back some choice words of his own.

“He didn’t say why he chose to start a conversation with you?”

Abby felt rather embarrassed by his words, not to mention offended. Harlan had been flirting. That was why he spoke to Abby. But Kane was now making it seem like that wasn’t good enough, that he couldn’t have just been speaking to Abby because she was unattached and wearing a pretty outfit.

“Well, I obviously know why now, don’t I?” Abby said sharply before shutting her eyes and sighing, reigning in her anger. “He was talking about Factory Station,” she finally revealed, “he knows that’s where I’m from.”

Kane arched a brow and leaned across the table. “And you didn’t find that suspicious?”

“Everyone knows I’m from Factory Station, Kane,” she snapped again, rigidity in her posture and voice. “I thought he was just making conversation.”

“What did he say about Factory Station?” He urged impatiently. “Did he mention unrest? Political dissatisfaction?”

Abby grimaced – he was being ridiculous. “Do you really think he would be talking about any of that with somebody like me, Kane?”

“Fine,” he snapped, setting the tablet down on the table. “Give us nothing.”

Abby stared forward at him, understanding his frustration but also unable to give him any of the answers that he was looking for. After a moment of tense silence, Abby sighed and looked away.

“He didn’t give me any information,” she insisted now in a more mild tone, “I just wasn’t thinking. I should have seen it coming.”

Her tone was not self-pitying but instead one of admission. Revealing that she’d been played for a fool and it was as simple as that. Kane finally understood. She hadn’t fallen victim to a political scheme tonight; she’d fallen victim to a charming man who gave her the time of day.

Abby had leaned back in her seat now, keeping her arms crossed and her eyes focused on something in the distance so that she didn’t have to look at Kane who still stared at her from across the small table.

“What made you trust him?” He asked again, but his voice was far more subdued this time as he leaned across the table, wishing she would meet his eyes. “Why did you let him get you a drink?”

She let the smallest, most facetious, self-loathing of smiles grace her small lips for a split second before Abby lowered her voice to a humiliated tone and kept her eyes unfocused.

“He told me I looked beautiful,” she muttered, wishing that she did not have to admit that to this man, of all people.

Kane sat back in his chair now and stared at her as the realization continued to cross his mind. He blinked and softened his face, shrugging his bottom lip in understanding.

“Can I go now?” She asked again, making her humiliation clear as she shifted in her seat.

He stared for a second longer before giving her one nod, blinking towards the exit. That was good enough for her. Abby was up out of her seat and back on those sore feet of hers in an instant, turning her back to him as she made for the exit.

“Abby,” his voice broke the silence.

He sounded tired. He sounded reluctant. He sounded disappointed. She turned back around, and Kane was standing now, picking his tablet up off the table and readying himself to obviously brief the guards who were still standing at their posts.

“You do look beautiful,” he said, raising one eyebrow as if he was more concerned about teaching her a lesson than he was about truly complimenting her. “That’s not something to let yourself be poisoned over.

Abby stared at him in disbelief momentarily. It sounded like a compliment but didn’t feel like one, meaning that it hadn’t been meant as one. But still, he was the third man now to call her beautiful in her entire life. Two on the same night.

But tonight, only one had meant it.

He was moving past her before she could do herself the favour of turning away and leaving the room.

Kane still felt nothing. He could tell her that she looked beautiful and feel nothing. He could mean it and feel nothing. He could save her life and feel nothing – perhaps a hint of disappointment.

Could have let her die and felt the same?

Chapter Text

The year flew by.

Abby had been busier than ever between running the Medical Station and dealing with far too many patients experiencing varying stages of oxygen deprivation, trying to assist the council in keeping on top of the political unrest that was dividing the Ark, working alongside the engineering team as they prepared the comms for the 100 Project, not to mention of course toiling away in the Earth Monitoring lab while they all geared up.

While the other councillors stayed out of it and only touched the project during meetings when progress reports were shared or votes were necessary, Kane was elbow-deep in it. Not as far in as Abby, who had many personal ties to the project, but he kept an eye on it for other reasons.

While Abby was so desperate to solve the problem of the depleted oxygen tanks aboard the Ark and send them all down to Earth – not to mention hoping and praying that she was not sending her own daughter down to die – Kane wanted to make sure that she was not overstepping.

He already believed that she was. Putting all of their eggs in one basket and uttering a desperate Hail Mary when they should have been taking the drastic measures necessary in order to buy them all enough time to truly solve the problem. He didn’t believe in miracles, he was quite certain that the Earth was just as irradiated as it had aways been. He also knew that they had some brilliant engineers aboard the Ark. A solution could be found if only they had enough time to do so.

But Abby was distracting them all with her visions of impossible grandeur and blind hope. If she was going to do this, he was going to ensure that it was by the book. And that when kids started dying from the radiation, the reports were accurate, and the project was deemed a failure.

As the year passed by, Abby tried not to think too hard about the radiation. Instead, she chose to have hope. Her daughter was among the hundred kids that were going to the ground, but even if she wasn’t, Abby would have done everything in her power to ensure that those kids would be safe.

She made comprehensive lists of the resources that should be sent down with them and sent requests out to the officers to ensure that it was all collected and ready to go before the drop. She’d been over the schematics with Sinclair over and over again until she finally understood all there was to know about the radios and video communication devices that were rigged into the dropship. Abby had been the one to spearhead the added wristbands that would be used to monitor vital signs from afar. Just in case comms failed, at least they would have the wristbands. However, there was a chance that communication was lost during the drop.

That’s where Professor Pike came in. He was a prominent teacher in Orchid Station who taught many classes but specialized in Earth Skills. Ever since last Unity Day, the kids of the Skybox were attending specialized courses with him. Neither students nor teacher knew that they were being prepared for the real thing and Abby only hoped that the kids were taking it seriously.

At least once a week she stopped by Orchid station to badger Pike about what he’d taught them that day, whether or not people were paying attention, how her own daughter was doing in the classes. Pike liked Abby but she had become so persistent that after a while, Kane had to step in and tell her to leave the poor man alone so that he could do his job.

That’s when she instead started to pick on the mechanics that were working on the dropship. Abby was not cruel nor rude, but she was demanding. And she wanted to know everything. Even while somebody was up to their elbows in grease and faulty parts, she wanted to know exactly what they were doing and why. Abby wanted full control over this project – it was the only way that she could justify risking her daughter’s life like this.

The dropship was ready exactly when Abby told the council that it would be. At the end of the summer season in the year 2149. At that point, things started to feel real. Everyone started to get a little bit excited about the project, even those who were insistent that it was going to fail. Abby noticed that Kane started lingering around the Engineering and Earth Monitoring labs and instead of casting his shadow of doubt and pessimism, he pretended as though he was not curious.

While Sinclair put the finishing touches on the wristbands, Abby worked with a team of geographers and engineers to determine their landing site. What with the war bunker hopefully full of supplies, she knew that the kids would need to be dropped as close to the old Mount Weather military facility as possible. Inside, they would find nutrition, blankets, clothes, potentially a water reserve, and maybe even weapons. Not to mention, a place to brave the winter.

What used to be northern Virginia wasn’t known for its brutal winters, but it would still be cold. The meteorologists did not foresee snowfall, but the ground would freeze, and they wouldn’t be able to plant crops until it began to thaw. And the wind that came with the lower temperatures might be worse than any snow could be.

But the Ark could not spare too many resources. For one, they didn’t have many themselves and for two, Kane wouldn’t allow it. He could not approve of overstocking the kids for many reasons. They were wishing on a star that this plan would even work and there would be a winter on Earth to survive, and they were still criminals. Even if the people knew the truth, they wouldn’t be happy that their yearly resources were dwindling because everything was being given to a group of prisoners.

Still, Abby did everything she could to give those kids the best possible chance at survival. She did not let herself think about the possibility of radiation. She couldn’t. She was too concerned with them surviving the landing, getting to Mount Weather, and surviving on the ground long enough for them to join them.

That was what she told the council during their last meeting before the drop. They were pleased with the progress and all still in favour of sending the hundred down to the ground, one year after their initial decision.

Abby was the first one out of that meeting. Even if she was confident, she was still worried. If this failed, it would be her fault. 100 children dead because she was wrong – including her own. She had to get out of that meeting so that her own doubt did not creep in.

The rest of the council shuffled out shortly after. Jaha and Kane noticed that Abby had not gone far. She was staring out one of the windows with her arms crossed, deep in thought. Neither had any intention of interrupting her. They knew what she was thinking.

Sending the hundred was a risk to them all. If it didn’t work, they’d wasted an entire year of time, manpower, and resources and were no closer to solving the oxygen problem than they were when Jake first discovered it. They would be back at square one with no ideas and one less dropship.

But nobody else on that council could understand what Abby was going through. She suffered all the same risks as the rest of them plus the fact that her daughter was among the guinea pigs. Her daughter who she loved more than anything else in this whole world and everybody knew it. Abby’s only remaining family.

And this Saturday, every ounce of hope that she’d put into this project was going to be put to the test.

Jaha thought of Abby and Clarke when he was back in his quarters that day, waiting for Wells to get home from school. Thelonious and Abby had both already lost the people with whom they thought they would spend the rest of their life. He knew that Clarke was all Abby had left in the same way that Wells was all that he had left.

Perhaps that was why he did what he did.

“How was school today?” The chancellor asked when his son came through the doors and dropped his bag by the entrance.

Wells used to be a wonderfully happy child. Obedient, positive, full of life. Ever since Clarke’s arrest last year, he had been drifting farther and farther from himself. Jaha knew what it was like to be in love, he also knew what it was like to love the person that you love.

“The same as usual,” Wells muttered, sighing as he entered the room. “What is it?” He said suspiciously when he noticed that his father was standing in the living room, paused at their window pensively.

Jaha took a deep breath. “I notice you haven’t been to visit Clarke in the Skybox in some time,” he said slowly.

This was an understatement. Wells hadn’t been back since that first unofficial visitation that his father had swung for him. Since Clarke told him that she never wanted to see him again.

“I only saw her once, dad,” he explained tiredly. “Like a year ago now.”

Nodding slowly, Jaha turned to his son. “Would you like to see her again?”

Now, Wells blinked in confusion. “She doesn’t want to see me.”

There was something he was missing. Wells might have only been eighteen years old, but he could tell when he was missing a vital piece of information. And right now, he was.

“Why are you asking me this?”

Jaha nodded again. He should have known that his son would see right through his attempts.

“There have been some changes to our Skybox policies,” he explained vaguely, hoping that he did not have to lie to Wells. “I just thought that you might want to see her again before those changes came into effect.”

Wells shook his head as confusion set in while he simultaneously tried to understand what his father was telling him. “What do you mean changes?” He demanded, taking a step forward. “Is she being floated?”

“No,” Jaha said quickly, holding up his hands before Wells could spiral. “No, she’s not being floated, son.”

“Then what the hell is going on?”

Jaha knew he shouldn’t have told him. It was against policy, and it was dangerous. But Wells deserved to know that he had one last chance to see the girl that he loved before she was sent down to the ground with no promise of survival.

“Sit down, son,” he said calmly.

Wells balled his fists up at his sides and stared forwards coldly but eventually did as he was told and lowered himself down onto their grew couch.

“The Skybox has been full since last year,” Jaha explained carefully. “We’ve decided to use the one hundred prisoners on a test run of sorts.”

“A test run?”

Jaha nodded. “They’re all being sent to the ground.”

Wells’ eyes widened and he immediately tore himself from the couch and stood up. “The ground?” He demanded quickly. “You can’t do that, it’s full of radiation!”

Jaha now sat down on the couch. He looked reticent. No, he did not want to send those kids to the ground either. But Abby was right, it was their only hope. They needed to know if the Earth was survivable. If it could save them all. The one hundred kids was an ultimate sacrifice.

“We don’t know that for sure,” he said softly. “Sending them down will confirm that.”

Wells again shook his head. “So, you’re risking one hundred people?”

Jaha knew that his son would not understand without all the information. Maybe not even then. But he couldn’t give all the information. For the same reason that Abby and Kane did not want the rest of the population to know about the oxygen problem on the Ark, he did not want Wells to know.

“It’s happening, son. Tomorrow morning,” he continued to explain. “I can get you in to visit her tonight if you’d like.”

Wells was angry again. His nails threatened to draw blood from his palms as he gripped his fists. “She won’t see me,” he said quietly with an element of sorrowful certainty to his voice.

“Wells,” Jaha tried to call after him once his son began to stalk down the hallway off to his bedroom.

"Leave me alone."

And if Thelonious Jaha would live to regret one thing, it was ever saying anything to his son about what was happening to Clarke.

~~~

Abby didn’t sleep Friday night.

Her entire team had been in the Earth Monitoring lab late working on last-minute changes, running tests, conducting final inspections. She had been at the centre of it all, of course, insisting that every engineer talk her through their findings and inspections thoroughly.

People filtered in and out all night as their shifts came and went but Councillor Kane was the only one who had been consistent in the room. He showed up in the evening with statistics from the Skybox. Abby’s medical officers had been sent out to run quick vital exams on the children that those in the Skybox thought nothing of, and Kane was finally back with results on his tablet.

She had been standing at the main monitoring table side-by-side with Sinclair who was walking her through the wristband process for the morning, and Kane came by to slide his table towards her.

“These are the results?” She inquired, looking up at the man who had just joined her table.

Kane nodded. “You’re seeing the ones that were flagged.”

Abby began to swipe through the profiles. Of the hundred, only thirteen of them were flagged with potentially problematic conditions that might make them at risk during landing or life on the ground.

“Jackson–” Abby turned around, absentmindedly calling for the young man despite not knowing if he was present or not, “is Dr. Jackson still here?”

Someone at a nearby table pointed towards the other side of the room, where Eric heard his name and was already making his way towards Abby.

Meanwhile, Kane had picked up one of the wristband prototypes and began to turn it over in his hand, examining it. “How indestructible are they?” He asked curiously as Jackson joined them at the table, and him and Abby began to go through the list of flagged kids.

“They can withstand heat, cold, and water,” Sinclair explained to the Chief of the Guard, “and the only way they’re coming off is with some pretty extensive struggling.”

Kane lowered his brow. “We’re going to have a hell of a time getting the kids into them tomorrow,” he said in a low, muttered voice.

Sinclair sighed. “You think they’ll resist?”

“They won’t know what they’re for,” Kane replied, leaning forward against the table slightly. “They’ll resist for that reason alone.”

Abby’s eyes flicked over momentarily but quickly she returned to her work with Jackson.

“Heart murmur, allergic to penicillin,” she was listing off the conditions absentmindedly, “these are all non-life-threatening.”

“Diabetes,” Jackson pointed to the next profile that they scrolled to, “that could be a problem.”

“She keeps an insulin kit on her at all times,” Abby nodded – she could remember that young girl as one of her patients before she was arrested. “It’ll be sent to the ground with her?” She now raised her voice in order to ask the man in charge of the children before they got into the dropship tomorrow.

Kane raised his eyebrows, realizing that she was speaking to him. “It will be,” he confirmed diplomatically.

What he did not say was that while the insulin kit would be provided to the girl who needed it, it wouldn’t matter. She was going to die from radiation before she’d even get the chance to use it for the first time on the ground.

Abby and Jackson finally reached the last flagged inmate, and they’d concluded that there were no conditions that should threaten anybody’s lives too prominently on the ground. Jackson was eager to return to his station where he’d been trying to familiarize himself with how radiation would present against vital signs, and Abby returned the tablet to Kane.

“All clear,” she said calmly, looking at the wristband that he had dropped in order to retrieve his tablet from her grasp.

Kane watched her carefully for a second – ensuring that she was not covering up some horrible medical condition found in somebody that might prevent this drop from going smoothly – and shrugged his mouth once. He did that when he was trying to cover up an emotion. This one happened to be anticipation.

He didn’t believe in this project. Not for a second. He knew full well that those kids were going to find nothing but radiation and that when they did, he was going to be livid at Abby for allowing them all to waste an entire year on this hopeless project, but he had to admit that tomorrow was going to be an exciting day. Besides, maybe he would be proven wrong. Maybe they’d find some utopic paradise on the ground, and they could all go home to Earth before Unity Day.

“In that case,” he said slowly, glancing over at Sinclair before attempting to make eye contact with Abby who refused to look anywhere than down at the screens on the table, “we are a go for tomorrow morning at seven-hundred hours.”

It was early, but the geographers had advised them to make the drop before eight o’clock tomorrow morning for the trajectory’s sake. With that in mind – accounting for any problems that one hundred criminals might give them – Kane had decided to wake them all up and get them into their wristbands at seven so that they could have the hour to prepare.

Abby still did not look up. Because now while even Kane was excited, her dread set in. She was glad that she was no longer holding anything for the tremble in her hands would be evident, and she was everyone’s vote of confidence around here. She had so much hope that the rest of them started to too. If they looked at her only to see her wavering, they would all begin to question this decision.

But neither Sinclair nor Kane were foolish enough to believe that she had no doubt amidst her otherwise unwavering hope. One man was more empathetic than the other. Kane took a small amount of pride in her worry and found himself rather relieved to know that she was indeed human and not immune to the risks that came with this project.

But Sinclair placed a warm, friendly hand on Abby’s shoulder. “Charles Pike tells me that Clarke’s his best student,” he said in a reassuring tone. “She’s going to do great on the ground, Abby.”

His words were nice to hear but did not change Abby’s anxiety. Still, she gave the engineer a weak smile and watched him leave as he excused himself having been beckoned over to the control panel by his apprentice.

When Abby turned back, she was surprised to see that Kane had lingered, but he wasn’t there for her. He was not standing with a worried but reassuring smile, lingering solely so that she did not have to stand there alone. He was still there because now he was busy pressing a few buttons on his tablet and he just happened to hang around.

He finished and glanced up only to realize that Abby was still standing wordlessly at the table, looking relatively lost as she fiddled with one of the wristbands that she had all but masterminded.

“You should get some rest, Abby,” he said unemotionally. “Tomorrow’s going to be a big day.”

His suggestion seemed to snap her out of a trance. She cleared her throat but shook her head, straightening out her shoulders.

“There’s still a lot to do,” she lied, holding out her hand. “Can I see that again?”

Kane raised his eyebrows and hesitated.

“I’d like the comprehensive list,” she added. Not just the flagged kids.

He knew full well that she was just looking for reasons not to leave this room, but handed his tablet over anyways after pushing a button that brought up the test results for all one hundred children.

Abby didn’t even thank him. Instead, she snatched the tablet from his hands and began to scroll through the list while walking away, heading towards a workbench where she took a seat, crossed her legs, and spent the next hour and a half memorizing all one hundred charts.

Kane grew relatively impatient knowing that he couldn’t leave for the night without his tablet, but as he began to make his rounds about the room, he realized that there was still much to learn. He came and went throughout the night – back and forth from Prison Station and Earth Monitoring – to check in on any updates or progressions.

Jaha hung around until just before curfew, but he didn’t want to waste too much of his energy tonight. It would be an early morning, and he needed his wits about him for the big drop tomorrow. Eventually, he had to leave Abby to burn the midnight oil.

Kane finally retrieved his tablet close to midnight – though by then, Abby had long finished with it – and he clocked himself out for the night. Abby, Sinclair, Jackson, and their late-night team were still hard at work. A team of engineers had been scheduled for the overnight shift to monitor the Earth’s conditions at the coordinates of the drop, but everyone else really should have gone home.

Abby didn’t stay there because she was needed, she stayed because she couldn’t go home. There was no point. She wouldn’t be able to sleep so she might as well hang around here and offer her services.

And when morning came, the rest of her team noticed that she must have gone home at some point because she was wearing new clothes and had re-braided her hair, but nobody was under the impression that she had slept. Still, she was sharp and alert as she stood at the entrance of Prison Station with the rest of them.

Sinclair was in charge in the engineering lab, Abby was heading up things in Earth Monitoring, Jaha was the face of this project, but Kane was in charge this morning. He had two hundred and fifty guards on shift this morning. Two assigned to each prisoner with fifty on standby just in case.

Their job was to wake the kids up, administer their wristbands, and guide them in an orderly fashion to the dropship. No questions would be answered, and violence was to be kept to a minimum.

Kane stood before the large doors of the station and looked at the small team in front of him. Abby was there from medical just in case anyone got hurt, and she’d brought about fifteen technicians with her as backup. They were also responsible for administering the wristbands and had all been taught how to do so by Sinclair and Abby earlier today. Jaha, of course, stood tall in the room, attempting to project an air of confidence as he oversaw the operation. Commander Shumway and Sergeant Miller were there as Kane’s right-hand men, and a few others hung around.

“The process is set to begin in five minutes,” Kane was saying, pacing before the doors after he’d finished explaining what his guards were going to be responsible for. “We have to expect pushback.”

The rest of the room stayed quiet as he took charge.

“Some of these kids are violent, they’re not going to let us take them in without a fight,” he said with a stern nod. “And if they see each other fighting, it’s only going to get worse.”

This was true. It was mob mentality.

“We’re starting from the top down,” he continued. “The more dangerous criminals will be dealt with first as a means to minimize that pushback.”

Clarke was somewhere in the middle, Abby thought to herself. A close eye was kept on traitors, but Clarke wasn’t violent, so she wasn’t top floor material. Abby began to shake at the thought of seeing her daughter for the first time in a year. Would she hate her? Would she be scared? Would she scream and cry?

“We can expect to see injuries,” Kane said strongly. “Abby, your team will need to be on standby. You’ll be paged as needed in order of priority.”

She took in a deep breath upon being addressed directly and tried to do away with some of her fears. She was scared for her daughter, but that was not the most important thing about today. This needed to go smoothly.

As soon as Kane finished and those doors opened, it began.

And just as quickly as it began, it all went to shit.

Kane was meant to observe and oversee, but he was quickly pulled into the mess with the rest of his guards as they realized that the top floor was not going to be easy to deal with. Despite not being in uniform or properly armed, he stepped in and assisted in ushering the violent criminals -who were indeed pushing back – to the dropship.

It took them half an hour to deal with that top floor and eventually Kane had to direct the other guards to just start on the bottom floor and work their way up. At least he was confident that he wouldn’t have to step in because the kids that were in on charges of minor crimes wouldn’t likely try to fight back as vehemently as the others.

He was right, and they soon had the two bottom floors into the dropship without losing too much time.

Halfway in, the action all came to a head on the third floor. Out in the main hall, there was plenty of shouting and crowding.

Abby was manning the floor alone in terms of medical aid – the rest of her assistants were still upstairs tending to the wounds that both prisoners and guards had received. Two guards had come by with an unconscious prisoner on a stretcher at the same time as Kane had made his way downstairs with a stern look on his stressed face. He had a smear of blood on his cheek.

“Wait,” Abby was saying, moving quickly towards the prisoner on the stretcher whose hands were bloody, and the guards stopped for her. “He needs his wristband.”

Kane approached the scene, looking for Commander Shumway who for some reason was absolutely nowhere to be found. Kane had to assume that he was stuck on the first floor dealing with the violent delinquents, but he hadn’t seen him up there.

He watched as Abby struggled on the tips of her toes to gain the leverage required to snap the wristband onto the kid’s thick wrist and it invoked an irritation in Kane. He had such a well-ironed plan for this morning, and it was just falling apart all around them.

“Why are you doing that?” He demanded sharply, moving beside Abby as she finally heard the snap that indicated the wristband was in place. “You have a team for that.”

This was true. Abby’s medical technicians were supposed to be in charge of wristbands. Her and Jackson were supposed to be tending to any potential wounds which there were plenty of upstairs.

Abby didn’t even look up but she did grit her teeth. “They’re all busy, Kane,” she snapped impatiently. "Your guards bit off more than they could chew, if you haven’t noticed!”

“Then you should have brought more people with you!” He argued sharply, obviously looking for somebody to blame for the rough start they were having.

Then, everything started to happen at once.

Abby turned to him, inhaling sharply, with every intention of putting him in his place, and she also realized out of the corner of her eye that the prisoner had woken up when she’d struggled with his wristband. Now, he was sitting up quickly and lunging at her with a growl. He swiped at her and caught her by the hand before she yanked it away, but the prisoner’s blood was left streaking her hand and wrist.

Kane watched her flinch backwards and nearly stumble over her own feet. He also watched as his two guards nearly dropped the stretcher upon experiencing the unexpected upheaval. It was up to him to spring into action and restrain the prisoner.

He grabbed the boy – who was luckily short and skinny – by his wrists and kept him restrained as he practically fell out of the stretcher and continued to lunge for Abby. He didn’t have any personal vendetta against the doctor, only knew that she was responsible for whatever contraption was now around his wrist. Abby herself only continued to stumble backwards, desperately trying to stay out of Kane’s way as he struggled against the prisoner until the two guards were able to drop the stretcher fully and step up to take hold of the young man and march him off to the dropship.

Now, Kane was just downright angry. Abby should have brought more people. He should have scheduled more guards. Shumway should be here doing a better job of managing it all. He turned on his heel to give Abby a chastising look.

“Get your technicians down here!” He demanded, and Abby didn’t have time to argue that it wasn’t possible considering they were all busy stitching up his guards, because the chancellor was now coming up behind them both.

"We planned for resistance," he said strongly, trying to reassure his second and third-hand men that they were not yet in over their heads. “Abby, I have a team of engineers coming down to take over the wristbands for your technicians.”

“Sir,” Sinclair jogged up, holding a tablet in his hands as he addressed the chancellor. “We’re at half capacity, only five minutes behind schedule.”

“Good,” Jaha said with a nod, “thank you, Sinclair.”

As the two engineers spoke, Kane let out a sharp sigh and tried to regulate his rising emotions. He did not like feeling out of control, and right now, everything seemed to be spinning off course while he desperately tried to hold it all together.

Realizing he may have been too harsh with Abby, he cast one cold glance beside himself to see her brushing herself off after the close encounter with the prisoner but getting caught on the fact that she had his blood on her hand. She paused her movement to examine that hand of hers and Kane shook his head, clenching his jaw.

“Are you alright?” He asked because he had to, and Abby glanced up at him and shook away her own emotions.

Swallowing dryly, she looked away from him. “I’m fine,” she said, matching her tone.

That’s when Shumway finally appeared. He came through the main doors and made a beeline for the group of coordinators on the landing, swimming in a sea of prisoners who were all being reluctantly transported downstairs.

Anyone could see that there was something wrong, and the commander sent a worried look at the chancellor before approaching Kane.

“Sir,” he said quickly, “there’s been an altercation just outside the terminal.”

Kane shook his head impatiently. “Sergeant Miller’s handling the rest of the station,” he reminded him that nothing outside of this Skybox currently mattered to him until the doors were closed on that dropship.

Shumway shook his head. “There’s been another juvenile arrest,” he spoke fast, hoping to get all the facts out there.

They were all listening. Not just Kane, but also Jaha, Abby, and Sinclair. And now the commander found himself at a dreadful loss.

“Sergeant Miller wasn’t sure if you’d want the criminal included in the drop,” he said.

Kane shared a look with the chancellor. “That was the plan,” he said.

“There are extra seats on the dropship for that reason,” Jaha cut in before deferring to the only woman in the group. “Isn’t that right, Abby?”

“Five,” she confirmed with a nod, wiping the prisoner’s blood from her hand onto her lab coat.

“Then there’s no reason we can’t include this prisoner with the rest,” the chancellor confirmed.

But Kane knew that look in the commander’s eyes. There was more. “What’s the problem, Commander Shumway?” He demanded.

Shumway stifled a sigh before handing his tablet over to the chief. “The prisoner, sir,” he said rather nervously.

The tablet was open to the usual profile that was automatically created for a prisoner upon arrest. But this prisoner was a familiar face. Wells Jaha.

Thelonious had been peering over Kane’s shoulder, and Abby and Sinclair had both been close enough to see the young man’s face.

It was indeed a problem. Now, they didn’t know what to do. Would an exception be made for the chancellor’s son or did they follow the law? Kane knew what he would do, but it was Jaha’s ultimate decision. He only hoped that he decided one way or the other quickly and didn’t waste time.

“My son…” Jaha uttered in quiet disbelief.

Abby turned to look at him but didn’t know what to say.

Commander Shumway, predicting that Jaha would instinctually want to insist that his son was to be kept out of that dropship, brought forth yet another problem.

“Sir, he assaulted Sergeant Miller just outside the terminal,” he explained. “There were dozens of witnesses.”

Jaha let out a breath of understanding. Now, it was about optics.

Wells had it all planned out. He punched Nate Miller’s dad outside of the Prison Station terminal first thing in the morning while the halls were busy with various people walking to their posts for the day. By now, word of the chancellor’s son’s unruly behaviour was traveling like wildfire around the entire Ark.

He knew that his father would want to make an exception for him so he ensured that this assault was public so that he couldn’t. If he did, his own people would be furious far and wide. Then, he would be arrested and sent to the ground with Clarke. He could keep an eye on the girl that he loved. Be with her. Follow her to the ends of the Earth. Protect her.

And his plan was going to work. Because it left the chancellor with no choice.

Sinclair excused himself from the situation knowing that while the rest of the project heads were busy dealing with this personal incident, he was going to have to pick up their pieces, and Shumway awaited an answer.

“Thelonious,” Abby said his name softly, hoping to offer him a way out, “you’re the chancellor. You can make an exception.”

She suggested it because that’s what she would do for her own daughter.

Kane shook his head. “Sir,” he interjected firmly, “think of the optics.”

He reminded him because that’s what mattered most to him.

“I am thinking of the optics, Kane,” Jaha snapped before shutting his eyes and letting out a slow breath, turning to Shumway. “Commander Shumway, my son will have to join the hundred,” he said, feeling a rising nausea growing within him. “Take me to him before you put him on the dropship.”

When Jaha followed the commander off this floor, Kane and Abby shared one hostile look before Abby jumped upon hearing something. Kane didn’t know what had caught her attention at first, but it had certainly drained her of all colour, and sprung her into action.

All the kids were yelling as they were dragged off, but Abby recognized this particular shouting voice. As Kane watched her turn around and take off down the hallway, he recognized Clarke as the next prisoner being pulled from her room. Someone tried to enlist Abby’s help for a different prisoner on her way over, but she’d held up a hand and told them to wait there for her.

Clarke was putting up quite the fight. Much like Kane had witnessed from Abby’s older sister Genevieve back in the day. He looked away in impatience and irritation as Abby hugged her daughter from afar and tried to calm her down.

Thinking of the horror that Abby and Jaha were currently dealing with, Kane took a second to pat himself on the back for making the decision to never have children.

Things finally seemed relatively under control has he approached the railing and looked downwards onto the first floor, where the more docile prisoners were being loaded into the dropship. The one prisoner that he could see most clearly was the young girl he recognized as an illegal second child.

She walked nervously with only one guard restraining her lightly. The girl looked around herself in wonder, eyes widening at the sight of the dropship. That was how he remembered Abby. Herself being a second child and docile in the face of retribution.

Kane couldn’t help but wonder if they were leading every child that disappeared through those dropship doors to their imminent doom.

“They’re killing us all, aren’t they?” A desperate Clarke demanded of her mother, who was still holding her by the arms. “Reducing the population to make more time for the rest of you?”

This unexpected upheaval was scarier for Clarke than anyone else. She knew that the Ark was running off borrowed oxygen, and she hadn’t received any updates from anybody in the year that she’d been in lockup. Not that she expected to. Frankly, she’d been waiting for someone to realize that they had one hundred expendable pairs of lungs in the Skybox and float them all just to save the rest of the population.

“Clarke, you are not being executed,” Abby said, her eyes alight with hope and anticipation. “You’re being sent to the ground. All one hundred of you.”

Saying it aloud reduced Abby’s worried. Her hope was back, and she was ever so grateful that she got to hug her daughter one last time before that hope sent her down to the ground.

“What?” Clarke squinted, trying to understand. “But it’s not safe. No, no…” she rambled.

Abby pet the girl’s head, shushing her as she held her close and made eye contact with the guard over Clarke’s shoulder who was clearly preparing to sedate her daughter. Abby did not want to it to come to that, but knew that was little choice. The least she could do was hold her daughter as she went down.

“We get reviewed at eighteen,” Clarke continued to stutter her way through a loophole that she’d never find.

“The rules have changed,” Abby explained softly. “This gives you a chance to live,” she looked deeply into her daughter’s eyes, stressing the importance of what she was about to say. “Your instincts will tell you to take care of everybody else first, just like your father, but be careful,” she squeezed her hands. “I can’t lose you, too.”

Abby reached out and touched Clarke’s face before once again looking at the guard behind her and pulling Clarke into the hug that indicated that she was restraining the prisoner.

“I love you so much,” she whispered into her daughter’s hair as she felt her go limp as the tranquilizer dart sedated her and she lowered her softly to the ground. “Earth, Clarke,” Abby said as the girl was fading, “you get to go to Earth.”

After getting the violent criminals on board and sedating those who needed to be, things went smoothly. Eventually, the swarm of extra officers headed back to their stations and allowed the guards to escort the more docile prisoners to the dropship.

Abby stood on the ground floor, watching them march by, her heart clenching inside her chest. Beside Councillor Kane, of all people. Somebody that she wished the circumstances wouldn't keep pushing her towards when all she wanted was to have nothing more to do with him.

He stood there frowning, stern, disapproving somehow. With his arms crossed and no remorse on his face, Abby felt colder just being there next to him, even if they were careful to keep a safety net of a yard or two between them.

And while he seemed thoughtful yet stern, ready to get this over with and find out if Earth was livable, Abby was holding back tears. The kids passing by them looked terrified. Not sure whether they were going to live or die. Desperately reaching out for each other. Asking about each other. Looking for their friends. She watched as David Miller's son passed by and nearly broke down. The last time she'd seen Nate, he was shorter than she was.

Her body reacted before her brain did when Clarke was brought by on her stretcher.

"Wait-" she said with a desperate gasp as Kane eyed her sharply sidelong.

The guards paused just long enough for Abby to secure Clarke's wristband and give her daughter a tender, tearful goodbye, holding her head and caressing her cheek. Wishing that she was awake so that Abby could tell her that she loved her once more and at least have it be heard.

There was nothing she could do. Nothing but stare at her daughter - the greatest thing that had ever happened to her - and wish her the best. Spare another half second with her child.

"Abby," Kane said coldly, stepping up behind her, "it's time."

She ignored him. If she didn't, she might just turn around and smack him. He might be heartless, he might not have somebody that he cared about enough to utter a mournful goodbye to, he might not feel a single thing in this moment other than a sense of determination to get everyone in that dropship on time, but she was nothing like him. She felt it all. And she was going to take this time with her daughter if it was the last thing she did.

With a kiss to Clarke's head and a whispered utterance of the final words in the Traveler's Prayer, the girl was gone. Taken away with the rest of them.

Abby couldn't help the desire to blame somebody. And much like Jake's death had been just as much her fault as it was Kane's but she still chose to give the man more blame than herself, she turned around to face the tall imposing man.

He shifted towards her, expecting a rebuke of some kind, especially when he saw the tears in her unforgiving eyes.

"I'm sorry, Abby," he said, but became unable to meet her eyes by the end of that sentence.

He wasn't sure if it was because he didn't mean it and didn't feel right about lying to her face, or if it was because he couldn't stand the sight of her crying with all that blame in her eyes.

She took a step closer to him, her eyes darting in between his in search of a long lost humanity.

"You got your extra air," was all she hissed, a sharp tone in her whispered voice.

When she walked away, he watched her go, feeling cold. Kane was glad that he could not be reduced to an emotion the way that she was. So quick to blame. So easily swayed. She was right. He got what he wanted. He got what they all needed.

Extra air.

As soon as the kids were all loaded into the dropship, the main team hustled back to Earth Monitoring. Abby was there first – still no sign of the chancellor – and Sinclair soon joined her. Between those two and Jackson, they were closely monitoring the vital signs of all the kids that were being projected on the large screen at the front of the room.

Kane showed up not long after with Shumway at his side, who had relayed a message that Jaha needed some time to himself after Wells’ arrest. Last the commander saw of the chancellor, he was heading towards Alpha Station.

Things went off keel almost immediately. The ship launched with no issue, but soon veered slightly off course. That was, of course, before Sinclair announced that they were no longer receiving a signal at all from the ship.

Initially, Abby flew into a panic but had nobody to panic to. After fifteen or so minutes, she’d talked herself down and sentenced herself to standing off to the side of the room at one of the monitoring panels, going through the wristband telemetry individually.

Kane wasted no time in searching for a briefing from Sinclair, who was in charge around here. With Shumway at his side, the Chief of the Guard approached the centre of the room in search of an official update.

Callie had entered and the doors closed behind her with their usual hiss. She was in a rush, obviously looking for some guidance. As the public relations officer assigned to this project, she had to be able to tell the curious people something. One of them was bound to have seen a dropship launch.

She made a beeline for Kane and opened her mouth, but he only held up an arm, hoping that it would silence her.

“Not now,” he said sharply, and Callie suppressed a roll of her eyes at his arrogant ways.

Sinclair was shaking his head. “Total system failure, that’s what we’re looking at,” he said quietly, looking up from his tablet. “All we know for sure is that they were off course when we lost contact.”

Kane gritted his teeth. Even if there was no radiation to harm them, the kids landing anywhere other than Mount Weather wasn’t going to do them any favours.

“Tell me about communications,” he demanded, centering himself in the room.

“Other than the telemetry from their wristbands, we got nothing,” Sinclair said dejectedly. “No audio, no video, no computer link. Everything that we programmed in to help them is gone.”

Abby experienced a familiar sinking feeling in her stomach but tried to hold on to her hope. This was just a minor obstacle.

“They’re on their own,” Sinclair confirmed with a nod.

The rest of them could do nothing but peer at the vital signs before them and hope that they might be enough to draw proper conclusions about life on the ground.

Kane looked around the room. Callie was watching his every move, the engineers were flying around communicating in layman terms that he did not understand, Abby simply refused to look his way as she went from a commanding figure in this room to somebody trying to face into the shadows of the sidelines, and Sinclair was too busy to offer any more information.

This development required the chancellor’s attention, and though Kane did not want to bother Jaha on this personally terrible day, he paged him anyways.

Twenty minutes later, there was no answer.

And though Kane wanted to get to Security to check on his guards and read through their reports, he had to stay here as the chancellor’s second. It was his duty.

Finally, the dropship was showing up on their radar. On the ground.

Abby stood jittery at her monitor, still saying nothing. Meanwhile, Kane stepped to the centre of the room. Everyone was waiting for him to address them all with an official update that, as of right now, only Kane and Sinclair were privy to.

“There it is,” he said, staring at the screen.

The room looked up, waiting for the man’s words.

Abby felt a multitude of things. She felt so much that she could hardly look at Kane. She hated him, couldn’t stand looking at him, despised the way that he made her feel, but she felt as though this was his victory as much as it was hers.

“We know they’ve landed, but communications are down,” Kane began to explain, speaking loudly so that the entire room could hear, “which means we’re still blind to conditions on the ground.”

The representatives on the outskirts of the room had been waiting for this address. None of them were sure how long they’d need to monitor the kids before they could officially get to work on Project Exodus. Abby had suggested that they wait at least one week after any deaths that may occur, just to be safe.

She was snapped back to reality when she noticed Kane now looking over at her, and speaking her name.

“Thanks to Abby’s wristbands, at least we know how those conditions affect the human body, which is more than we’ve had for one hundred years, so…” he looked around the room with a half-smile and nod, but Abby noticed that he no longer looked at her directly while congratulating them all, “…nice job.”

The room began to chatter excitedly, and Kane watched as various people started to head out, satisfied with this update. Glancing over to where Abby was still hiding behind the white panel, he moved towards her with Callie still lingering beside them.

“Now,” he commanded, “what are they telling us?”

They could transmit all they wanted, but without the eye of a doctor, those readings meant nothing.

“Two dead kids,” Abby looked up at the screen tentatively, knowing that Kane was no doubt peering at the two faces that had gone dark. “Dark tiles,” she confirmed.

Kane squinted at the two faces. Their tiles went a shade darker and the words “transmission terminated” blinked across their screens.

“Dr. Jackson,” Abby took in a breath and turned to her apprentice, who was showing his true flying colours throughout this project, “please share our theory with Councillor Kane.”

“Of course,” Jackson said softly, approaching Abby’s terminal. “Granted, they’ve only been on the ground for seven minutes,” he began, “but as of now, we believe the fatalities are due to the landing, not radiation levels.”

Kane could accept this, but he had a feeling that Abby and her team were going to try and explain away every death. She watched that doubt flicker across his face and felt the need to step in herself.

“Both boys died at the same time that we lost contact with the dropship,” she explained.

Kane looked at her. “Rough landing?” He asked for her confirmation. “That’s your theory?”

Abby gave a slight shrug. “The dots connect,” she confirmed.

Giving a nod, Kane peered back up at the screen. “Would you agree that if it was radiation, we’d see fatalities climb fairly quickly now?” He pointed towards the tiles. “Because I’m noticing a lot of red on that board.”

This was true – the kids who were experiencing spiking signs were coloured by a red border. Abby, however, was not fazed by this. In fact, she’d been expecting it.

“Spiking vital signs,” she explained, and Callie turned to look at her. “Two possibilities. One, injuries sustained during landing.”

When the woman paused, Kane crossed his arms and looked back over at her. “And the other?” he asked in a softer voice.

Abby cocked her head, giving him a look. Kane peered at her, noticing the slight amusement on her face. For a split second, it was twenty-five years ago. They were back in political sciences class, bringing a joint project home.

"They’re excited to be there,” she said with a small smile.

Looking away from her, Kane almost smiled. Maybe this would work after all.

~~~

Simultaneously, the day dragged on and flew by. Abby took no breaks, but neither did Kane or Callie. Sinclair was coming and going from Engineering and Jackson took off for Medical every now and then, but Abby was glued to her monitor. Though she had been expecting spiking vitals on the first day, she still closely monitored each one for anything abnormal. And, of course, she would take a peek at Clarke’s every now and then just to be sure.

But when things calmed down, there was nothing for her to do but monitor and hope that they were all having fun. She envied her daughter getting to see the Earth in all its glory but also knew that someday soon, she would join her.

Abby only wished that Jaha would come by and relieve Kane of his duties so that the man could excuse himself from the room. His pacing was driving her crazy and the way that he would come and loom over her only made her nervous.

He wanted full control over the situation on the ground in the same way that she did and perhaps even for the same reasons, but their intentions were very different. Abby held tight to the hope that she would see success while Kane knew they would find failure.

But it was getting late now and Abby considered excusing herself to go find Thelonious and talk to him. They were going through similar experiences today, only he hadn’t been prepared for it. Perhaps he needed a friend. She was this close to taking a break when Callie slowly approached her monitor.

“Hey, darling,” she said warmly in a quiet voice reserved for her friend.

Abby had been going hair straight back not only this morning, but for an entire year working on this project. Callie knew that she hadn’t slept last night and was likely worried for her daughter more than anything in the world right now.

“How’s Clarke?” She asked.

Abby smiled slightly, gesturing to the screen where Clarke’s face appeared among the other hundred.

“Her vital signs are strong,” she explained. “Blood sugar is low. She hasn’t eaten.”

Callie looked up at the screen and smiled, noting how Abby’s hope was infectious around here.

That’s when the phone rang.

“This is Dr. Griffin,” Abby said quickly, cradling the receiver between her cheek and shoulder.

“Abby,” the voice of one of her medial technicians was coming frantically from Medical. “Chancellor Jaha’s been shot. We need you here as fast as possible,” the woman said quickly, still recovering from the shock of seeing the chancellor brought into the emergency terminal, held up between the arms of the two strangers that had found him lying in a pool of his own blood.

Kane’s attention had been drawn in as soon as the phone rang, and he now raised an eyebrow as she watched Abby grow rigid.

“On my way,” she said quickly, slamming the phone down and all but sprinting away from the table. “Jackson,” she found the young man’s eye contact on her way out, “put it out there – we need blood,” they began to walk together in tandem. “A neg. And a lot of it. And then get your ass to the O.R.”

When they reached the terminal doors, Jackson took off in a sprint, but Abby turned around when Callie had called her name.

“What’s wrong?” She asked.

Abby turned slowly and noticed that Kane was standing somewhere between her and Callie. She couldn’t help but give him a strangely suspicious look.

“The Chancellor’s been shot,” she said.

The doctor only had time to monitor Kane’s reaction for one split second before she followed Jackson to Medical. Kane had been on a power-hungry tirade for years now. He wanted Jaha’s job and he wanted it badly. Abby had always wondered just how far he would go for that job. Was this it?

She shook her head, trying to put it from her mind as she got to Medical and scrubbed in.

Kane wouldn’t do that. Not even someone as bloodthirsty and cutthroat as he was would shoot his own friend. Besides, she’d been with him practically all morning. He hadn’t left Earth Monitoring since he got there.

But what about Jake? He had floated Jake without a second thought. And who’s to say that he wouldn’t have enlisted someone else to have the chancellor shot while he had a perfect alibi? Suddenly, she worried for Callie’s safety in that room with him.

Thoughts of how this had happened could only bounce around Abby’s head infrequently as she operated on the chancellor. Her friend. She wasn’t about to let him die, but he was giving her a run for her money.

“The Chancellor has lost a lot of blood,” she muttered, trying to get a handle on the bleeding where the bullet had lodged itself in the large intestine, just beneath the stomach. “If only they found him sooner,” a pool of blood formed precisely where she’d been suctioning. “Damn it,” she hissed.

Abby realized that the blood was coming faster than it should have because Jaha was moving. She cast a worried glance at his grimacing face and came to the realization that his anaesthesia was wearing off.

“He’s waking up,” Jackson – who was assisting the surgery – noticed just a second later.

Abby gritted her teeth. “Increase the anaesthesia,” she said firmly.

Jackson hesitated. They’d been operating for over three hours now. There were rules. Rules that Abby sometimes bent but never this far. She’d been over the limit for an hour now, and this one wouldn’t go unnoticed.

“We used way too much blood and anaesthesia,” Jackson reminded her. “We’re way over the line.”

Abby sharpened her tone. “Your chancellor is going into shock.”

Jackson stared at her, shaking his head. “You’re asking me to break the law,” he reminded her.

“Fine,” Abby shook her head.

Jackson was right. It was unfair of her to ask him to commit the crime that only she was willing to. He didn’t ask to be her accomplice. She moved around the table.

“I’ll do it myself,” she said and pumped up his sedation.

But it wouldn’t come without a price. Kane was going to come down on her hard for this, she just knew it. He watched everything she did obsessively. Not for any sort of personal or romantic reasons, she knew that well. He obsessed because he was determined to catch her in a criminal act and have her floated. She’d been sure of that for the better part of a year now.

She was confident that as soon as she stepped out of this surgery and provided him with a mandatory update, he was going to investigate the resources that were used. Abby envisioned him waiting, barley able to contain his anticipation, hoping that the chancellor would die and finally grant him the promotion that he’d been awaiting.

Then, he’d float her anyways. For trying to save his life by whatever means necessary. Jaha would be dead, she’d be floated, and Kane would get to do whatever he thought was best. She could not let that happen.

“Let him come after me,” she muttered, putting her full determination into this surgery.

If this was how she got herself killed, so be it.

The doors slid open but Abby did not turn around.

“Dr. Griffin,” one of the young medics called from the doorway. “Councillor Kane is asking for an update.”

Abby rolled her eyes. “Of course he is,” she muttered under her breath, attempting a precise maneuver inside Jaha’s body cavity. “He’ll get his update when my hands aren’t literally holding our chancellor’s intestines!” She snapped.

She had no intention of losing her patience with her staff, but Abby’s emotions were cranked. She didn’t want to be here trying to save the life of one of her closest friends. She didn’t want her daughter on the ground without her protection. But if anything, she wanted to at least be monitoring Clarke’s vitals religiously.

More than that, she did not want this responsibility in her hands. She was the only thing standing in between Marcus Kane and the power to become a dictator. With that in mind, she had perhaps many lives in her hands right now.

“Well?” Kane met the technician halfway when she came through the terminal doors.

He himself was stretched thin between waiting for an update on the chancellor’s condition, waiting for Shumway with an update on the shooter, and trying to get back to Earth Monitoring for an update on the ground.

The technician shook her head. “I’m afraid there’s no update, Councillor.”

He sucked his teeth. Abby was likely being unnecessarily difficult.

“She didn’t say anything?” He asked impatiently.

Puckering her lips, the technician hesitated. “There were some choice words, sir,” she revealed before watching Kane roll his eyes and dismiss her by turning away.

Abigail Griffin was impossible. Even now, she was standing in his way. All he wanted was an update on the chancellor and she was unwilling to provide him with one likely just to piss her off.

Kane reminded himself that it wouldn’t matter in the long run. As much as he hated to see Jaha wounded or potentially dead, he knew full well that a golden opportunity had fallen into his hands as Abby operated.

Abby didn’t make decisions with his head like he did. She led with her heart. And her heart was going to tell her to save her friend by whatever means necessary. But Kane knew there were limits. Limits to the resources that they were legally allowed to spare on one surgery. It had been three hours now and knowing how much this operation was likely taking in terms of resources, he had to believe that she was well over the limit.

This was how he was going to finally get her. Not for trading with Nygel or associating with a criminal. Not for treason or breaking curfew. For saving her friend’s life. Perhaps that would finally be an ultimate lesson for the woman. That she couldn’t just run around doing whatever she wanted without facing the ramifications. She couldn’t make exceptions just because Jaha was a friend.

With that in mind, he exited the medical terminal and headed back to Alpha Station. Shumway was leading the investigate efforts but was currently busy questioning those who were unaccounted for at the time of the crime. Kane thought that perhaps he could busy himself taking a look around the crime scene.

When another hour went by, Kane was sure that Abby was using too many resources. And though he was horrified for his poor friend on the operating table, a sick feeling of excitement began to well up inside of him. By the end of the day, he might finally be rid of Abby Griffin once and for all. And the chancellor. Then, he could start to make some real decisions.

“Excuse me, sir,” Shumway spoke, shaking Kane from his thoughts. “You asked to be notified if there was news.”

Kane straightened up and squared his shoulders to the commander as he approached.

“The Chancellor is still in surgery,” he confirmed, “but we have IDed the shooter.”

Taking the tablet that was then handed to him, Kane was met with the face of a tan young man with curly black hair and a face full of freckles.

“Bellamy Blake is the only person on the Ark unaccounted for.”

Kane nodded. This meant that the boy was in hiding somewhere.

“Who is he?” He asked, furrowing his brow.

“He’s no one. A janitor,” Shumway said with a shrug. “We’re still working up a profile. But his motive for going to Earth is clear.”

The commander reached across and swiped the screen, pulling up a second profile for Octavia Blake. The girl that he’d seen earlier not resisting as she was taken into the dropship.

“Sister,” Kane said softly. “I remember.”

He became slightly remiss as he remembered the arrest. Aurora Blake had been desperate when she was taken into custody after her second child was found and taken to the Skybox. Kane could remember that the poor girl was confused and weepy and that Aurora had gone practically unresponsive in her cell the night before her execution. Bellamy - the brother – had lost his job on the Guard for his involvement. Kane was still relatively unaffected by this arrest, but never enjoyed breaking up a family like that.

Besides, Octavia had reminded him so much of another second child that he knew. Of course, he didn’t feel as though he knew her anymore, but he’d once watched as she was taken from her quarters and ushered through the hallway, seeing the outside world for the very first time.

“Her mother kept her hidden for almost sixteen years,” he spoke softly, looking down at the girl’s profile.

Octavia may have been on the screen, but the face that he saw was Abby’s.

“Nearly a record,” Kane said, looking back up as he let the moment wash over him and pass quickly.

Nearly. Abby had been hidden for seventeen years. That was still the record to beat.

Now, Kane knew that Bellamy Blake wasn’t just unaccounted for and in hiding. He was on the dropship. With his sister.

The commander said nothing, but clearly wanted to. Kane had seen the same look on his face earlier before he alerted the team in the Skybox that Wells had been arrested.

“What is it, Commander Shumway?” He pressed, lowering his voice. “Spit it out.”

Kurtis swallowed dryly, hoping that he was not speaking out of turn. “We could start now,” he said quietly.

Kane stared at him. He knew what he was getting at, but almost wished that he didn’t. Kurtis had been by his side as his second nearly his whole life. They both wanted the same things. If Kane could see the golden opportunity that had presented itself with this surgery, so could Shumway.

“As Chancellor Pro Tempore, you can give the order to start reducing the population,” he said.

Kane straightened out. Yes, he could. But not like this. There were still hoops to jump through. He couldn’t just tell the public that he was in charge because the chancellor was open on an operating table and because of that, over a hundred of them had to die. That would never fly.

He scanned the commander’s face and just hoped that he wouldn’t do or say anything stupid. “Not yet,” Kane said quietly.

“Sir, we’re wasting time,” Kurtis pushed, leaning forward. “Removing the hundred from the population only buys us another month,” he reminded him. “Engineering needs more than that to fix those systems. If they can fix them at all.”

This was the argument that Kane made on a weekly basis to the council. The hundred project was a waste of time. More oxygen needed to be saved, and a real solution needed to be found. But Abby had been there to counter him every single time. Where was she now? Where was Jaha?

It was a tempting situation.

“You have my answer, Commander,” Kane said firmly. “Enough,” he uttered, eyeing somebody who had innocently passed by in the hallway. “If we’re going to kill hundreds of innocent people, we're going to do it by the book,” he said with certainty in his cold voice. “Is that clear?”

Shumway didn’t nod, but Kane saw the reticence in his face and was satisfied by it. He turned back to the tablet.

“In the meantime, I want to know who helped this janitor get on that dropship,” he glanced back up. “Because he sure as held didn’t do it by himself.”

The two men straightened out as Kane’s voice returned to its usual pitch.

“Seems we have a traitor in our midst, Commander,” he said, returning the tablet. “And the hundred have an assassin in theirs.”

~~~

By the time Abby scrubbed out of the surgery, her hands were shaking, and her legs were weak. Twelve hours. The surgery had taken twelve hours. She’d sent Jackson home to bed and now she wanted nothing more than to take a seat right there in the medical terminal bay and close her eyes, but she couldn’t. Not today.

On her way out, she had asked their technician to alert Councillor Kane that Jaha was out of surgery and recovering in Med Bay. She didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of an update but knew that he was going to come down on her for the resources. Maybe if she did him this favour, he wouldn’t do it immediately.

Promising her failing body that she could sit down as soon as she knew that Clarke was safe for the night, she pushed herself back to Earth Monitoring and hoped that people would ignore the fact that her legs were shaking as she entered through the terminal.

Callie strolled in beside her as soon as Abby entered the room. “Hi Ab,” she said softly, falling in stride as they both approached the screen. “How’s the Chancellor doing?”

Abby breathed when she saw Clarke’s tile light and ringed with green. She was alive and she was stable. So, now she could breathe. Even if she could feel Kane hot on their heels, lingering somewhere behind them. Obsessed.

“Ask me again if he makes it through the night,” she muttered in response.

If Abby could do one thing, it was compartmentalize. While she was in the operating room, nothing mattered besides saving Jaha’s life. Now that she was back here in Earth Monitoring, nothing mattered besides those tiles.

“Who else did we lose?”

It was nearing on midnight now and the room had thinned out before dinner and all but died after curfew. Still, the usual suspects remained, and an engineer that Abby had worked relatively close with was now taking over the graveyard monitoring.

“Murphy and Mbege,” he said, pulling up the profiles. “Both named John.”

“Neither was injured during landing.”

That voice was like nails on a chalkboard. Abby knew that Kane was back there but had been praying he wouldn’t speak up and annoy her after the day that she’d had. She turned to him with irritation clear on her face and met the man’s eyes as he stood there behind her cross-armed and frowning, looking for the worst.

“I concur,” the engineer confirmed, and now Abby’s annoyed eyes met his. “Something else killed those two.”

Flicking her eyes over to Kane, Abby wanted to throw something at him when the smugness registered. She could see it even if he wasn’t looking at her.

“One second they were fine, and the next, bang,” the engineer explained.

“Then it isn’t radiation,” she insisted firmly, still turned over her shoulder to combat the two men.

Kane narrowed his eyes, finally looking at her. “Come on, Abby,” he said condescendingly, “wishful thinking isn’t good science.”

“It’s not wishful thinking,” she said sharply, clearly annoyed.

Eyebrows went up around the room as she took that tone with the Chief of the Guard. All the councillors had seen it in action, but anyone else was usually surprised by her brazenness.

“One second, fine, the next, bang isn’t how exposure to radiation presents,” she insisted, maintaining her snippy tone before turning sharply back to the screen.

Kane wasn’t finished. “Well, it could be if there was enough of it,” he said strongly, unwavering in the same way that she was but for different reasons.

Beside her, Callie looked guilty. Most day she regretted sleeping with the man that her best friend hated, but even since they’d called it quits on that over a year ago now, she’d still found herself inadvertently attracted to the man. Even if he was horrible.

Abby had whipped herself back around without forgiveness. “If there was enough of it, they would all be dead,” she snapped.

Kane met her eyes once, narrowing them but allowing Abby to turn around and hold on to her hope and her bad mood without saying anything.

That was all it took for him to decide. That woman had to go. She was a danger to this very room. Preaching false hope as if it was as strong as science. He couldn’t stand by and watch as these kids all died from radiation, but she convinced her peers that they were being taken out by other things.

The Earth wasn’t survivable, and he knew it. They all knew it, but Abby was clouding their judgement with her hopeful preachings and insistence. And they were wasting time.

He knew her angle. She’d been up all night, she was the first one in the Prison Station terminal this morning awaiting instruction, then she spent every possible minute in Earth Monitoring. When Jaha was discovered, she’d spent twelve hours in surgery. Now, she was here. With no break, no rest, no food, probably hardly any water.

Kane knew that she must have been exhausted because even he was tired after such a long day, even if he had been anticipating it. Abby was a doctor, she knew better than to stretch herself thin like this, but she was here for the same reason that he was here. While he was keeping tabs on her, she was on him.

Well, no more. Now, it was time to take matters into his own hands. Ridding the Ark of her dangerously optimistic ways and toxic hopefulness was the only way to move forward. And god knows she deserved it. That was what he told himself as he marched out of the room and to the Medical Station, preparing to conduct a post-surgical investigation.

When Kane left, Abby felt his absence like a weight off her shoulders.

She wanted to cry. Today had been more impossible than she had predicted. Seeing Clarke off and watching her as she cried and struggled. Spending every possible moment staring at her tile and waiting for it to go dark. Almost losing one of her best friends. Holding his life in her hands. Standing in between Kane and the future of his dreams. It was all too much.

Now that he was gone and she could finally waver, she wanted to break down and cry. But she couldn’t. All she could do was stare at that screen and pray to a god that she’d never believed in.

It didn’t take Kane long. He’d been to Medical and requested a comparative analysis of their current inventory, which was to be compared to the resources that they’d accounted for yesterday, before the surgery.

The results came in within the hour and despite it being just past midnight, he paged a team and braced himself, fighting off a prideful smile as he waited for the Guard.

The day had finally come. He would admit, he hadn’t expected that it would be today. But Abigail Griffin would float. He would see to that. And from there, his life would become at least ten times easier.

The thorn in his side would be extracted. Sure, the Ark would be losing a great doctor, the council would be losing an ethical vote, and the hundred project would be losing its mastermind, but he knew that this was all for the greater good.

He knew it.

There was no doubt in his mind that the people of the Ark would be better off if she no longer had a voice. And he had learned quickly that the only way to silence her voice was to get rid of her entirely.

He would take no pleasure in it, but he would see her dead. The best part? It wasn’t his fault. He wouldn’t have to lie or coerce or incriminate. She had done it all to herself by making choices that went against the law. And he didn’t write the law.

Abby’s night turned around when Jackson returned to the room. He’d tried to sleep but was unable to and felt more useful in Earth Monitoring by Abby’s side. A few bodies lingered around for the night shift, and though Abby was tired beyond belief, she and Jackson stood at the screen and smiled up at the results that they were suddenly seeing. The tiles had been turning dark at an alarming rate, but suddenly vital signs took a turn for the better.

It was raining on the ground.

Neither had any way of knowing that, but they did see positive feedback from the wristbands.

“Abby,” Jackson nudged her, pointing up at the screen, “look at plasma osmolarity. It’s going up across the board.”

With a smile, Abby grabbed his hand. This was the hopeful feeling that she’d been looking for. The feeling that was going to get her through this hard time.

“They found water,” she said excitedly.

Then, her good night ended.

Abby didn't turn around when she heard the commotion in the terminal bay. Not even when she heard the doors slide open. Nor when she heard Commander Shumway uttering her full legal name.

"Councillor Abigail Griffin," he began in a booming voice.

She winced. Abby knew this was coming. She knew that Kane would investigate the surgery because it was personal. To both of them. She knew that if Thelonious died, the chancellorship fell into Kane's hands, and she couldn't live with that. He must have suspected that was where her insistence upon the overuse of resources came from.

Sure enough, when the crowd of five guards parted, she caught a glimpse of the man who was determined to see her executed once and for all. Abby turned and suppressed the emotions that she currently felt. Fear, dread, horror, nothing good, really besides hope that this was all going to work out for the best. A little bit of disbelief at the arrogance of thinking five whole guards were necessary for this scene. She was one woman. Kane could easily overpower her himself if it came to that. But no, he'd brought five people plus himself to carry this out. That was also personal, she felt.

"You're under arrest for exceeding the maximum medical supplies allowed for a patient," the commander continued, and Abby's stomach tightened into a knot as she tried her keep her face stoic.

This was really happening. She knew it would, she didn't know why she was still surprised.

The crowd of guards parted like the Red Sea to clear a path for their chief, who approached Abby while standing tall and feigning an air of true disbelief and confusion, as if he hadn't expected her to do such a thing. Even though he knew what was going to happen as soon as Abby told the room that the chancellor had been shot. Even though he'd been looking forward to this moment for years. Decades maybe.

When he stood directly before her, invading her personal space as he often did with criminals that he wishes to intimidate, Abby stared up at him and blinked. She was doing her level best, she really was. Her face was relatively unreadable as those brown eyes of hers bore into his.

"Sorry this has to be public," he said in a low, almost whispered voice. “The policy in these matters is very clear -"

She looked from one of his eyes to the other, searching for the man who once had a soul, and Abby realized quickly just how much he was enjoying this. He wasn't disappointed in her choices, wasn't remiss that he was being forced to do this, he wasn't even angry with her for breaking the law. In fact, if Abby didn't know any better, she might just say that this was the very best day of Kane's life.

He leaned in closer and revealed his true feelings in both his tone and eyes. "No special treatment," Kane finished.

Now, it was his turn to search her eyes though he wasn't sure what he was looking for. Remorse, perhaps. Fear. Any sign that this retribution was doing its job. In all honesty, he wanted her to beg. In front of all these people, he wanted her to drop her professionally stoic image and beg him for her life only so that he could watch the life go from her eyes as he ignored her pleas.

He found her eyes vacant and hollow, temporarily staring past him, until they finally looked back at him. At that point it was clear, there would be no begging today. That was all he needed from her. He'd wanted to be the one to deliver the news - as was procedure when a high-ranking officer was arrested - and now he could leave the room and allow his guards to escort her to lockup where she would spend the rest of the night while they awaited a suitable time for flotation until morning came and she would be ushered into the flotation chamber.

With this in mind, Kane sneered coldly once before turning away from her with every intention of heading to the door. But he wasn't done with her. She showed no regret, and it bothered him. He wanted to know why she did it, how she justified it, what the hell she was thinking. That's why he turned on his heel and reeled back around on her, stepping even closer this time as he looked down his nose.

"How much blood did you use, Abby?" He asked coldly, his voice laced with venom.

Abby didn't flinch, but her apprentice did. "Don't answer that," Jackson said quickly, and Kane didn't even look in the boy's direction.

The woman that he was about to execute had friends and supporters everywhere. He was prepared for the backlash that would follow. It would all be worth it. It had to be.

"I used whatever it took," Abby finally answered, finding her fire.

Kane sucked his teeth and accepted this. Of course, she'd done whatever it took because that's what she wanted. And Abby Griffin always did whatever she wanted. That was why this had to happen.

She wasn't going to say anything more but just couldn't stop herself. She wanted Kane to know why she did it and she wanted to offend him before she might never get another opportunity to do so. Before she could even stop the words from leaving her mouth, Abby was incriminating herself.

"Breaking the law to keep you from becoming chancellor was the easiest decision I've ever made," she said simply, her voice pinched by anxiety.

An impressed hush fell about the room as anyone who heard Abby's comment found themselves both impressed and horrified by her brazenness. But Abby had not surprised herself nor Kane. They'd known each other far too long to expect anything otherwise.

Kane paused for a moment, taking this in. He wondered if she was that stupid. He couldn't imagine that she'd neglected to realize that she had just offered up a confession without him even having to ask, No, she wasn't that stupid, she was that determined. That convinced that she was doing the right thing. Kane would take more pleasure in proving that she was not untouchable than he'd previously predicted. Now, if only he could shake some fear loose in her. It would make his day - or his night, rather - to see some real fear in her eyes. Proof that she understood he was above her and now held her life in his hands.

In the moment, he had to fight off a satisfied smile. Instead, he just nodded, accepting her statement, and finding satisfaction in the fact that this arrest really wasn't going to be his fault at all. She'd committed a crime and now was confessing to it. It was almost too easy.

"In that case," he said slowly, keeping his eyes trained on the woman before him who now existed as nothing but a criminal in his eyes, "given your confession," he squared himself to her. "In my role as Chancellor Pro Tempore," he continued, and Abby's face finally twitched as she realized just how much power he had. "You leave me no choice but to find you guilty."

She knew that Kane was second in command, but Jaha was not fully incapacitated. She knew that he would never let her float for saving his life, but Kane certainly would. Abby had forgotten that given Jaha having not woken up from surgery yet, Kane was going to capitalize on the opportunity. She could not let this waver her. She was doing the right thing, and she knew that, even if he floated her for it.

"We always have a choice, Kane," she said simply, her voice showing no signs of true fear.

Abby narrowed her eyes now. This was personal and they both knew it. That was why she felt as though there was more to say. Kane glanced away from her, wishing that she would just shut up like any other prisoner would in her position.

"You chose to press charges against my husband," she reminded him.

Now, Kane's eyes shot back to her. Were they really going to do this here? Now? He was forced to steel himself as Abby brought up the only flotation that had really affected him, even if he'd never admit that. Still, he did not interrupt her as she spoke.

"Your friend," Abby reminded him persistently that he could pretend all he wanted, but he had cared about Jake, "even though you knew he would get floated for it. You chose to include my daughter in those charges," she continued, her voice taking on a more personally hurt edge to it, "and now you're choosing this."

Kane stared down at her with his eyes cold and stone-like as she continued to search for his humanity. She saw right through him, of course. He wanted Jake dead because he threatened the peace. Not because he was breaking the law. He wanted Clarke arrested for the same reasons. Now, he wanted her out of the way so that he could push his agenda, not because she'd committed a crime. It was only a handy excuse that she had, because he now had a reason to execute her without admitting that he just wanted her dead, plain and simple.

"Hiding behind the law absolves you of nothing," she added just for the sake of letting him know that she couldn't put this one past her.

Now, Kane was angry. Her attitude told him that he was absolutely doing the right thing. Abby was a loose canon with a belief system that excused her bad behaviour. There was no room for that on board the Ark right now and certainly not at a table making important decisions. If this was the only way that he could get rid of her once and for all, so be it. He would gladly push that button and rid himself of her for good.

"Be that as it may," he said - Abby noticed that he hadn't denied anything she'd said, "in accordance with Penal Code One, because all crimes..." he took one menacing step towards her despite there not being much room left to do so, "...committed by those above the age of majority are capital crimes," he paused, wanting to savour this moment, “...you are hereby sentenced to death," he finally said, though that last word came out softer than he would have liked.

Now, Abby's mouth fell open ever so slightly, almost unnoticeably so. Knowing it was a possibility was one thing, hearing the words was another. If Jaha didn't wake up and stop this, she was doomed. Doomed by an old friend.

That's when Kane finally saw it - the fear. True, unbridled fear in Abby's eyes and all over her face, even though she was clearly doing her best to muffle her reaction. It was unmissable. And for some strange reason, it did not taste as sweet as he'd expected. It was all he wanted to see from her since he entered this room but now that he saw it, he just felt sick to his stomach. She was doing this to herself, he reminded himself. She'd broken the law, she'd confessed to it, and now she was facing the consequences. Besides, she didn't even seem sorry.

Still, him and Abby had seen each other through so much that it would likely feel relatively bittersweet. She had become the person that she was always going to become, he knew that, and he had braced himself to really start to dislike her, which he inevitably did. He knew that she hated him in return for everything that she blamed him for. Death was the only way to solve this power struggle, but that didn't mean that he necessarily wanted to kill her. He wished there was another way. But this was the easiest, quickest option.

"Execution is set for the morning," he added, almost turning away but deciding that he had more to say to her.

She was so full of accusations and so unwilling to take a good long look in the mirror and ask herself what she'd done to contribute to her current misery. They both wanted the same thing - to save humanity. He just didn't think that hoping and praying was going to cut it, and she was too soft to allow him to make the more difficult choices. Sacrifice was vital to salvation. Only he seemed to be able to understand that.

But he could recall another time in the past where she'd accused him of never being able to choose one way or another. Certainly, she could see by now that he was constantly making choices. She just didn't like them.

"And I choose..." he leaned in closer, stressing the word in her face, "...at every turn and at any cost..." his eyes darted between hers as Abby held her breath in fear, "...to make sure that the human race stays alive."

For the third time now, he tried to walk away from her. But Abby could breathe again as soon as he'd gotten out of her face, and that's when she found her words.

"That's the difference between us, Kane," she said simply, watching as he turned back over his shoulder, "I choose to make sure that we deserve to stay alive."

He stared at her for a moment, wondering if he was delusional or perhaps really had a death wish all along. Maybe she was tired of living and just wanted to join her husband. No, that wasn't her. She was persistent and stubborn and determined to see this through. She was convinced that she was going to see her daughter again, convinced that she was going to see the Earth and save them all.

She was delusional. That was what he landed on as he gave her an unreadable look and left the room, allowing his guards to escort her to Prison Station while he took a much-needed break. It was after midnight, he was exhausted, and he had an early-morning execution to prepare for. He wondered if this one would be easier or more difficult than Jake's. He wondered if Jaha was going to hand his ass to him on a silver platter when he woke up and heard the news. If he woke up. Kane wondered how he might feel when he finally wore the chancellor's pin, pulled the plug on Project Exodus, and finally solved the oxygen problem and saved his people.

Kane poured himself a drink and paced around his quarters, feeling the intense satisfaction begin to sink in before that button could even be pressed. He actually wondered if he should bend the rules and press it himself just so that he might feel the relief and pride wash over him when he finally got rid of that nasty thorn in his side. Sure, he felt relatively villainous for reveling so freely in this premature victory, but he had wanted a solution to his Abby problem for so long now.

He hadn't been able to keep her away from the junior council, nor the senior council, nor the chancellor's right hand. But now he could finally take matters into his own hands and get rid of her. Her and her false promises, her naive optimism, her blind hope, they could never hurt anyone again. He was doing the right thing.

He felt the burn of the whiskey. He felt the pride of his accomplishment. He felt the anticipation of the big day tomorrow. He felt the relief of executing a criminal. He felt anything to avoid letting himself sit down and picture the face that he was floating.

The eighteen-year-old girl that he'd hunted and then saved. The girl whose limp head had rested against his chest as he carried her to safety, bloodying his hands. He did not want to picture the young woman that he'd later met and developed a friendship with. The one who teased him in class, who debated him across a table, who sometimes looked at him as if he had hung the moon. He really did not want to picture that girl. The one whose shoulder he used to casually throw his arm around. The one whose lips he would sometimes look too long at. The one who challenged him with an attractive fire in her eyes. The one who'd asked him to make a wish.

It was easier to picture her as the woman that she'd become. Older and weathered by a life full of loss. A little bit too stuck in his ways. Someone unmovable that Kane could never seem to get around. Well, now he would be able to. This was all for the best.

That's what he told himself when Callie showed up. They might not be sleeping together anymore, but he must have forgotten to change his door codes, because she flew right in. He wasn't surprised that she'd heard the news. Word travelled lightning fast around here.

"Are you out of your mind?" She stared off strong, storming up to him with tears in her eyes. "You can't just kill everyone who disagrees with you."

That's what he wished people would understand. Yes, he was killing those who he disagreed with. No, it wasn't personal. It was for the greater good. Well, maybe this one was a little personal.

Kane sneered. He'd seen this coming from her; he only hoped that he wouldn't have to deal with it.

"Now, you all think I'm a bad guy," he turned away from her, pacing over towards the window to set his glass down. "But I'm the only one..." he turned back to her sharply, pointing firmly in front of him, "...who's willing to do what it takes to save us."

Callie stood firmly as he stalked towards her, but did grow frightened of the cold look in his determined eyes. Staring at his face, she wavered but did not crumble.

"She's my best friend," Callie said weakly, her voice cracking with emotion.

Kane narrowed his eyes. "So, what do you want me to say? I'm sorry?" He sneered. "I'm not. Friendship is a luxury we can't afford," he said truthfully, clenching his jaw as he did so. "And if I have to take us down to a cosmic Adam and Eve, I will do it."

Callie peered at him, wondering when he had let himself get so heartless. He had always been stoic and principled, but he used to have friends. Used to be willing to bend the rules for those friends. He used to have a heart and if she remembered correctly that heart had space for Abby Griffin. For Jake Griffin. Maybe even for her.

"Please, show mercy," she said quietly, pleading.

Kane nearly scoffed upon realizing that this was the begging he had been wanted to get from Abby earlier, but she'd remained too strong. Coming from Callie, it didn't feel like anything. From Abby, it would have been sweet.

"If not for Abby," Callie continued, her eyebrows pulling together on her forehead, "then for me."

This was why he had stopped sleeping with her. Because Callie started to get the idea that she meant more to him than she really did. The woman was good at setting herself up for disappointment.

Kane only shook his head. "We can't afford mercy either."

She left when she realized that she wasn't going to get what she wanted from him, but not after muttering a few choice words of her own while storming out. Something about a heartless murderer if Kane heard correctly. He didn't care. These people could call him whatever they needed to call him. He didn't mind playing the villain in this story if it meant survival. He wasn't being selfish here.

He didn't want Abby dead just because she stood in his way. She stood in everybody's way. He wanted her dead because it was the best thing for the most people. If Callie didn't understand that then it was her own problem.

~~~

Abby spent the night in the daughter's cell. She didn't know if it was chance or if Kane had personally decided that she was going to have to suffer through more pain that night than she already had to. She wouldn't put it past him. But Abby recognized the drawings on the walls instantly. She had enough of Clarke's old sketchbooks back home to memorize the girls' careful strokes.

It felt like salt in the wound. Like a cruel reminder that she was responsible for getting her husband floated, getting her daughter locked up, and now getting herself floated. A reminder that she wasn't able to save any of them. There was no chance that Abby would sleep tonight. Not when death was inevitable come morning. She didn't want to waste the last few hours she had left on sleep. Instead, she sat down in the cell, closed her eyes, and tried to feel closer to her daughter.

When that didn't work, she opened her eyes and stared out at the Earth. They were orbiting over Asia, nowhere near where the kids had been dropped, but Abby still felt closer to Clarke by looking at the planet. At least she was down there somewhere.

Would Kane have the decency to allow Earth Monitoring to allow her to be notified if Clarke's wristband went out? Did she even want to know, at this point? Maybe it would be easier to just meet her daughter in the afterlife. Still, Abby couldn't help but feel a terrible horror rising up in her throat. She didn't want to die. Hadn't made peace with her death. There was still more that she needed to do, more that she wanted to accomplish, more people to love. If she died now without being able to carry on his legacy, Jake's death was in vain. He died for nothing and now she would too. And Kane - having been left in charge - was going to cut contact with the hundred and cull half the Ark only to realize that no Engineer alive could solve the problem.

Morning came quickly and so did Abby's second day without sleep. Not that it mattered, because it was going to be her last day alive anyways. That hadn't quite sunk in yet. She had a feeling that it would all hit her at once as soon as those flotation chamber doors closed

Kane hadn't slept much either, but the whiskey had taken the edge off last night. Now, he awoke with the alcohol out of his system and feeling perfectly well-rested. That was ideal. He wanted to be completely sober for this flotation today. Wanted to remember every word said, every look cast his way, every feeling of satisfaction that he received. He arrived early alongside Commander Shumway who looked as though he was just itching to push that button.

Standing tall, he awaited the prisoner. And when she finally came around the corner with her two witnesses in tow - Dr. Eric Jackson and officer Callie Cartwig - that satisfaction started to creep in. Along with a racing heart that Kane had yet to experience during flotations, but he chalked it up to how high-profile this one happened to be.

She looked scared as she came around the corner, but put on a brave face. When the guards tried to take hold of her and usher her forwards, she fought them off with a shrug, clearly insisting that she wasn't going to let anyone march her into that chamber besides herself. Abby was exercising the very last of her control.

And as Kane watched her shrug his guards off, he thought of the girl that he once saw be lead from her quarters, docile and gazing in wonder despite knowing that her entire world was changing. She should have been taken to prison that day where she would remain until she turned eighteen, when she would be floated. She should have fought the guards off back then with the same spunk and vigour.

Finally, here was the illegal child fighting her way through her arrest. Twenty-three years too late. Kane had to look down so that he did not crack a satisfied smile at the irony. It wouldn't be appropriate to express his true joy right now. Not while Jackson's heart looked broken and Callie was stifling sobs. Not while Abby's hands were shaking as she tried to pretend as though she was unaffected by what he was making her do.

She was saying her tearful goodbyes and Kane blocked it all out. That part was not important to him. He discussed the usual procedure with Commander Shumway as the pair of them stood on either side of the chamber, both prepared to get this execution over with so that they could move on with the rest of their busy days. The end of Abby's life was just a slight inconvenience in his schedule, and he'd rather do it quickly with no frills.

Kane expected that he might feel remorseful when he heard Shumway flipping the switches on the control panel, but he still felt nothing. Even as Abby took a step forward and turned her head to stare him in the eyes, silently demanding justice for what he was doing to her, he didn't feel as much as he knew he should have.

Abby felt it all. She felt the years of her life slipping away and wondered when they would start to flash before her eyes like it was supposed to before death. If not out here, then perhaps in the flotation chamber. Or maybe not until she was sucked out of it into the vacuum of space. She felt the loss of her childhood, hidden away in those tight quarters. The loss of her parents, her sister, Clementine, Aurora, Jake. The loss of Clarke as she was taken away and locked up and now on another planet.

And as she stopped and stared at Marcus Kane, she felt the loss of a friend. Of a man that had once been perhaps not warm but at least familiar to her. And though it had been decades since, she trusted him once. In fact, there had been a time when she had stupidly wanted a life with him. Those feelings felt more and more impossible as he drifted farther from himself, and Abby felt that loss. The loss of Marcus Kane's humanity.

At least she knew that if he was not already haunted by Jake's execution, perhaps he would be haunted by hers. Maybe it would shake something loose, and he wouldn't rise to become the dictator that everyone thought he would. But as she stared into the cold dark eyes, she didn't see much of anything. And it was Marcus who had to look away first. Instead, he looked over at Callie only to see that she was still crying.

The lack of hesitation surprised even himself as Kane glanced over at Shumway immediately after Abby had stepped into that chamber. He did not take a second to consider what he was doing, to pause in mournful silence for the woman that had once been a friend, or to consider the fact that if the chancellor woke up, he was in for it. All he did was nod at Shumway, indicating that he could close the doors.

If this was easy, then he had done something right. If he spared no hesitation for this very personal flotation, then he had successfully numbed himself to everything in this world that might stand in his way of gaining enough power to save humanity. Pure satisfaction is what he felt when Shumway hit that button.

Abby's life did not flash before her eyes, but she did have one final thing to say. One last plea that had everything to do with ensuring that someone was around to keep her daughter safe now that it couldn't be her. The reality had set in, and Abby realized in horror that she had more loose ends than she would have liked.

"Jackson," she said quickly and urgently, because it would be the last thing that she did, "use the wristbands."

Surprised at her sudden outburst, Kane raised his eyebrows and looked over at the woman behind the glass. Despite being numb to what was happening, he hadn't been sure whether or not he would be able to actually watch this floating.

"There may be a way to reverse engineer them for communication," she exclaimed, remembering the theory that she'd come up with during her night in the prison cell. "Talk to Sinclair in Engineering. Nod if you understand!"

The doors shut then, and Abby gasped once, grateful to see Jackson nodding his head through the glass, before everything went silent. Suddenly, Abby became hyper aware of every breath that she took. They would be the last ones. Why wasn't her life flashing yet? She wanted to get to that. To the part where all the good things that she'd done and everybody that she loved visited her for one split second before she was lost to this world forever. She wanted it over and done with.

Kane stared through the glass as Abby waited. It must have felt like an eternity and a split second all at once. And despite really not wanting that man to be the last person she ever saw, Abby couldn't look away from him. She hated him and he was the one doing this to her. He was her murderer. But she couldn't look away. And in order to reconcile that in her head, she could pretend that he was who he used to be. A friend. A protector. A tentative ally and a respected enemy. Marcus Kane.

She couldn't peel her eyes away from his as Abby's widened and she tried to breathe through the fear. It took everything in her to swallow one last time and brace herself for impact when she saw Kane turn to nod once at Shumway before returning her gaze. Was he really going to stand there in front of her and hold her eye contact while she was floated?

Did he really hate her this much? She couldn’t imagine that they had fallen so far from the kids that they once were. But no, he didn’t need to hate her to float her. That’s who he had trained himself to become. That’s why he needed to be emotionless. All he needed was to believe that she was a threat to the Ark’s survival. That’s all it would take to float her.

This was not an act of war, rage, or revenge on his part. It was still numb and cold, calculated. It was methodical. He had been patient, and he was now convinced that removing Abby from their population was a necessary sacrifice. Not even for power. For order. While everyone else made him out to be the villain, he knew himself to be the guardian.

And the woman in that airlock chamber – with all her hope and her heart and her refusal to bend – is the crack in his system that needed to be dealt with.

He stared and prepared himself for a brief moment of aftermath when she was gone and everything went quiet. It was that quiet that he’d been in search of, for her voice was dangerous. Just like her husband’s had been. Just like her daughter’s was.

But he had to prepare himself for silence to haunt rooms where somebody used to speak truth.

Abby's breath started to shake as she stood there and wondered where the hell those memories were. Why wasn't her life flashing before her eyes? And more importantly, what was going on outside the chamber? Being airtight, she couldn't hear anything, but she'd watched as Shumway took his finger off the button and Kane spun around. Something was happening.

Right now, all that mattered to her was the fact that Shumway had backed off that button. Abby watched as Chancellor Jaha came limping into view looking furious and weak, holding up a hand and barking an order that she couldn’t hear.

She did not know what to expect. Part of her imagined the guards turning on the chancellor and floating her anyway. Another part of her expected Kane to lunge over and hit the button himself before Jaha could say another word about it. But the largest part of her hoped that her friend – her chancellor – would save her.

Inside her chamber, she watched as Jaha stared at her as he spoke. Kane and Shumway were casting cautious glances back at her, and Abby could have cried then and there in that moment. She still couldn’t hear what he was saying, but she watched as Thelonious’ lips formed the word “pardoned.”

“Open the door,” Jaha demanded darkly, standing at the chamber doors as he ordered the commander to fulfill his pleas.

Instead of obeying his chancellor blindly, Shumway glanced at Kane. He waited for Kane to nod slightly. That’s when Jaha knew that he was in trouble.

“Open…” he said louder, more slowly this time, “…the door.”

With a hiss, the airlock doors slid open. As she exited the chamber, trying to keep her chin up as though she had never been scared in the first place, Kane stared at her with a strange look on his face. As if he was looking at a ghost. Probably because by his calculations, she would have been dead by now. She should have been dead by now, if all went according to plan. He now stared at a woman from beyond the grave who was something still full of life, walking and talking and moving past him leaving a scent that was so positively alive with jasmine essence.

She stood before her chancellor but could not thank him. Not here. Not in front of all these people. Abby was too filled with fear and anger and now a good amount of trauma to trust herself, even though she wanted to crumble and break down and cry. She wouldn’t give Kane the satisfaction.

Instead, she gazed up at Jaha with a strong look in her eyes. “I spent twelve hours putting those intestines back together,” she snapped, looking past him at Jackson. “Get him back to bed now.”

Those were the only words that she trusted to say as she brushed past the chancellor and fled the scene, Callie taking her hand as she did so.

Abby went home. She held Callie’s hand for as long as she needed to and then insisted that she just needed a moment alone in her quarters.

That was where she paced around her small space and tried not to break down. The tears that were streaming down her cheeks did not count. Not so long as they were not accompanied by sobs and weak legs. Right now, all she had were silent tears, shaky hands, and a racing heart.

Abby allowed herself one glass of water and then sat down at her table where she waited for this feeling of panic to subside. But it didn’t. Every time she shut her eyes, she was back in that airlock chamber waiting for her flotation. And with a gasp, her eyes would fly open.

She only let herself spend half an hour gathering her composure. There was work to be done. And she couldn’t go another second not knowing how Clarke was doing.

With the same speed and veracity that she’d left Prison Station, she now tore through the hallway towards Earth Monitoring, and flew through the doors as they hissed open.

“Talk to me, Jackson,” she demanded, coming into the room and taking the wind created by her fast movements with her.

“Rumours are spreading,” the young man said with concern in his voice. “Witnesses saw a dropship launch.”

Abby bit her bottom lip. She didn’t care about that part. Maintaining the public was Callie and Kane’s jurisdiction.

“It’s only a matter of time until the people figure out that we sent the hundred to the ground,” Jackson finished.

“Let the council worry about the people,” she waved him away.

But she shouldn’t have. For not worrying about the people was going to prove to be just as problematic as not keeping a close eye on the kids.

“I need you focused on re-establishing communication with those kids,” she approached the front of the room, staring up at the screen. “How many dark tiles?”

Jackson gave her a reticent look. “Twenty-three,” he said, crossing his arms. “We’ve been losing them at a steady rate all day.”

Abby let out a breath, shaking her head as she prepared to search for a reasonable explanation that didn’t have anything to do with the obvious.

“Abby, these are different,” he said with a lowered voice, urging her to listen. “Vital signs spike for a longer duration before flatline,” Jackson explained.

In reality, the kids on the ground were torturing each other before removing their wristbands, just to keep Earth Monitoring on their toes. But from here, it looked all too incriminating.

Abby’s first thought was of Clarke, and she was relieved to see that her tile was still bright with life. Wells Jaha’s was not so lucky. Her heart clenched when she realized that his transmission had been terminated and she had no idea what it really meant.

“It looks like a pain response,” Jackson added. “This is what we’d expect to see with exposure to radiation.”

“I know what it looks like, Jackson,” Abby tried not to snap, but her hands were still shaking, and she wanted nothing more than control over this moment. “But there’s another explanation. We just haven’t found it yet.”

Jackson was about to argue, but heard the doors open and close behind somebody else and immediately straightened his posture, announcing, “Chancellor on deck.”

Jaha was up and moving, without too much pain or so it seemed, and Kane was trailing him as he always did. Abby wished he wouldn’t come here. Either of them. Jaha made her feel weak and Kane now made her feel nervous and afraid in ways that she promised herself she’d never allow him to.

In fact, she couldn’t take her wide eyes off the chief of the guard now as she remembered how easily he had made the decision to end her life.

Kane could only meet her eyes briefly with that ever-present scowl, and then Abby was able to finally look away, remiss and feeling as though her heart was trying to crawl up her throat.

 Jaha stepped forward to stare at the screen as Abby stood somewhere beside him, her body not squared. Instead, she peered at him from over her shoulder, knowing exactly what he was seeing.

“My son…” he said weakly.

Abby nearly cried then. If this was Clarke, she had no idea what she would do. She only knew how desperate she was to keep seeing that bright tile. If it went dark, she might just lose herself. And now, it was Jaha’s turn. She had to stand there and watch as Thelonious lost his son. The last thing he had connecting him to his wife. Clementine.

Even Kane and Abby shared a remiss look. She may have been too busy locked in a hospital room to remember the day that Wells was born, but Kane could. He remembered it was both one of the best and worst days of Thelonious’ life. The day that his wife died and the day that his son was born.

Abby closed her eyes for a moment, and Kane glanced at her, not sure what anybody could say in this moment to comfort the chancellor.

Jaha stared, his heart falling lower and lower until it lodged itself somewhere deep in his stomach.

“We sent them down to die,” he whispered hoarsely, regretting every single decision that he’d made as chancellor.

“No,” Abby stepped in front of him, refusing to allow him to carry on the downward spiral. “We sent them down to live.”

That was ironic, from where Jaha now stood. Because his son no longer lived. Abby had said herself that’s what the wristbands would transmit. Vital signs. His son now no longer had any vital signs.

Lingering behind them both, Kane opened his mouth wanting desperately to say something that might stop her. Jaha had lost his son. Right here in this moment. And all she had to offer him was relentless ramblings of blind faith. But he had nothing to say.

“To go to Earth to see if it was survivable…” she continued, urging Jaha to see the possibilities, “…so that all of us could live.”

Now, Kane could not let her go on. “Abby, stop,” he said, stepping forward.

As he did so, he happened to notice that the woman was eyeing him as though he might just hit her or something. He supposed that he deserved her suspicion. He had tried to kill her less than an hour ago. If he ever hoped that she might trust him, that was out the window now.

The Chief of Security turned to Chancellor Jaha and lowered his voice. “I know this is hard,” he said before strengthening his tone sharply, “but we don’t have time for false hope,” he gave Abby a reprimanding look, wishing that for once in her life, she would just stop talking.

He had seen the screen. Over twenty dead kids. Spiked vital signs. It was radiation, plain and simple. They no longer had time to waste on this project.

“This space station is dying,” he continued, hoping against hope that one of his pleas might be heard, “and Earth is not survivable.”

Abby bit her tongue but knew that she had the means to defend her thesis if he continued to stomp all over it.

“That is what the wristbands are telling us–” he began, gesturing outwards before he was interrupted.

“We don’t know what they’re telling us, yet!” Abby snapped before turning to look at Jaha. “Thelonious, listen to me. Please, trust me,” she insisted. “For all we know, those kids could be perfectly fine. Including Wells.”

Narrowing his sorrowful eyes in her direction, Jaha held up the hand that was not tied up in a sling and wordlessly begged her to stop. There was no use. His son was dead, and he couldn’t make any decent decision until the shock of that had worn off. He didn’t know if Kane was right or if Abby was right, but he did know that by all scientific accounts, his son was dead. And he needed to leave this room.

“I need some time,” he said weakly, failing to meet anybody’s eyes as he silently left the room.

Abby didn’t like seeing him like that. Not only because he was her friend and he was now struggling with something unfathomable, but because excessively negative emotions could stunt his healing process, and he was still recovering from a surgery that had lasted half a day.

To his credit, Kane knew better than to trail the chancellor now. Even though he wanted to. He wanted to use this opportunity, this fresh wound, to convince Jaha that Abby was wrong. That the hundred project had been a waste and that it was now time to start making decisions that would preserve life right here aboard the Ark. They no longer had time for the fantasy world that she was living in.

Instead, he allowed Jaha his space. He sighed sharply and looked back up at the screen, unable to look away from Wells’ dark-lit face. Abby swallowed dryly but could not follow his gaze. She didn’t want to see it again. Instead, she looked down at the ground and awaited whatever demands he was about to make of her as she tried to forget that he had just tried to have her killed.

“You’re not helping anybody,” he finally said in a low whisper, stating his case while looking at the screen but turning to give her a stony look as soon as he was finished. “Giving him false hope is cruel.”

Abby met his eyes then and a trace of unmissable anger flashed across her face. Cruel? Was he really going to lecture her about what was and wasn’t cruel when less than an hour ago he had nodded away her life?

Before she could get the jump on him, he continued. “Dark tiles mean dead kids, you said so yourself,” he reminded her, keeping his voice low. “And dead kids mean an uninhabitable Earth. And we’re back to square one,” he continued, his voice pinched and curt.

Abby clenched her teeth, trying to swallow down everything that she currently felt about that man so that she could have this argument without sacrificing her credibility.

“If we don’t cut this project loose now,” he stared at her, “we are wasting time that we don’t have.”

Fighting off a roll of her eyes, Abby crossed her arms for the sake of putting some protective distance between herself and this horrible man. She stood straight and sucked in a breath.

“This isn’t some kind of delusion, Kane,” she said, obviously picking up on the fact that he thought she was crazy for having hope. “We don’t know what a lost transmission really means yet,” she reminded him. “Anyone will tell you that good science requires keeping an open mind, and that’s all I’m doing.”

She turned away from him then, staring up at the screen just to glance at her daughter’s face. He eyed her from behind, staring at the pleats in her braid as he wondered why fate seemed to work against him. So close to being rid of her forever and now here she was standing in front of him. If he was a lesser man, he might try to take matters into his own hands here and now. She stood there with her back to him, vulnerable and unprotected. If he was violent, if he was desperate, if he was willing to break the law, he could put an end to it right here.

“Feel free to join me,” she muttered under her breath, and he was brought back to reality.

A reality where he was not a murderous villain capable of killing a fellow councillor with his bare hands. Perhaps there were times when he lived in a fantasy world of his own, too.

“You’ve lost sight of what we’re trying to do here, Abby,” he said darkly, moving to stand beside her as she turned to look at him, maintaining her cross-armed posture. “You prioritize hope over science and it’s going to kill us all.”

Abby sucked her teeth once and looked away from him. “I’m prioritizing hope, Kane,” she reminded him.

By now, that word sounded like nails on a chalkboard to him.

“I have to,” she added under her breath in a voice no stronger than a ragged whisper.

Kane didn’t care that she was hurting. That she had a dead husband and a daughter that she’d poured her whole life into. He didn’t care that she was still reeling from her would-be execution this morning. He didn’t care about her feelings. Jaha tiptoed around them, the council humoured them, her medical and engineering colleagues worshiped them, but he didn’t care for them.

“Changes have to be made,” Kane continued harshly, sparing no sympathy. “I’ll see to that. We can’t keep wasting time.”

Abby peered at him sidelong before shaking her head and staring back up at the screen, growing immensely tired of standing here with him.

“Your personal belief system isn’t high up on the list of things that I need to protect,” he added for the sake of rubbing salt in the wound.

He knew this was important to her. If it wasn’t, they wouldn’t be standing here in this room. He understood why she personally needed to have hope. But that was her problem. And she couldn’t keep affecting the rest of the Ark with her insatiable longing to protect her daughter.

“That’s funny,” she began in a harsh tone, pulling her arms unnoticeably tighter around herself. “I thought that as Chief of Security, protection was your whole job,” she snapped.

Kane was not going to stand for her accusations. He turned himself square to her and leaned in menacingly as she turned her head to meet his eyes.

“We are living through an apocalypse,” he sneered harshly. “Your feelings are going to have to be sacrificed for the greater good.”

There was that word again. Sacrifice. It had been haunting her ever since Jake’s death. Ever since she was supposed to be just another sacrifice to his cause. It was a fate that she had escaped, but the word still followed her around.

Kane watched as a flash of something came across her face. He didn’t have the desire nor the time to wonder what it was, but had a feeling that word might just be a bit of a sore spot within her. When that look vanished, it was replaced with accusation. He saw it before he heard it.

Abby pulled her face away from him and stared forwards at the screen. “There doesn’t seem to be anything you’re not willing to sacrifice,” she said sharply, though her voice was lowered and more personal than it had been before.

He knew what that meant. He knew what she was referring to. Taking in a deep breath, Kane straightened his posture. He wouldn’t take back what he did. Even knowing that it wouldn’t work out. He would make that decision over and over again because he knew it was the right one. Still, he couldn’t ignore the fact that she was an old friend. A current colleague. A familiar face.

Kane lowered his voice. “That wasn’t personal, Abby,” he began.

Now, she whipped her head towards him in disbelief. “That was the most personal that we’ve ever gotten, Marcus!” She snapped at him, hoping to god that her voice did not waver the way that it wanted to.

He held his breath, fighting off a comment of retaliation knowing that it would only make things worse. Kane stared at her face as she looked away from him and saw a tear drip down her cheek. Impressive, really. He wouldn’t have known that she was crying otherwise. She did a good job of staying strong when she was crumbling inside, he had to give her that.

She didn’t dare reach up and wipe that tear away because she didn’t have any intention of drawing attention to it.

“You’ve wanted me dead for years now,” she whispered, truly believing it. “And it’s the first thing you when you finally got the power to do so.”

It wasn’t like that. She was reading too far into it. Once again making it personal when it did not need to be.

“You stole medical supplies, Abby,” he reminded her coldly. “Resources that were to be shared evenly between the people who need it. Not hoarded for the people that you care about,” Kane continued.

Abby looked back at him now. It had been a judgement call made out of many different necessities that she had already explained to him. But much like Kane, she would do it all over again even knowing the risk.

“You’re not above the law,” he said sharply. “I don’t care what kind of pin you wear or which stations you’re chief of.”

Abby let out a breath that sounded like a sigh and turned from him. “We pass limits in the operating room based on discretion all the time and you’re well aware of that,” she hissed. “You only rushed to prosecute this time because I pissed you off.”

Once again, there was more to it than that. She was right, but she was also missing the bigger picture. The bigger picture that Kane thought only he could see.

“If you truly believe that I should have been killed for–”

“This has nothing to do with what I believe, Abby,” he snapped, and her eyes went back over to him. “This is about the law. Right and wrong. Not my beliefs and certainly not yours.”

Shaking her head, Abby looked away from him again. “Say what you want about my beliefs, Kane,” she said in a low voice that dripped with real hurt. “I never would have forced you into that airlock chamber.”

An unexpected beat passed between them because Kane believed her. He glanced over at her hardened, disturbed face and knew that she was telling the truth. Even though she hated him just as much as he hated her. She would never have done that to him. And he had no words for her.

“You don’t think that my job here would be easier without you watchdogging me?” She peered over at him again, her eyebrows pulled together tightly on her forehead.

He met her eyes but said nothing. He only gave her a stoic, emotionless look.

“But I wouldn’t take your life just to get you off my back,” she could no longer meet his eyes as she spat out the words. “And if it had been you on that operating table, I would’ve used the same amount of blood to save your life.”

One more bitter tear fell from her eyes and she worried that she was feeling too strongly. She had no choice.

“I wonder if you’d still be executing me then.”

Kane stared as he pondered her accusation. Would things have been different if he respected her more? If he liked her more? If they were still friends? Was she right and he was not nearly as impartial as he thought he was? Would he have made an exception for her? Would he had woken up from surgery only to execute the woman that had saved his life?

They were all hypotheticals that did not matter, but he had a feeling they might just keep him up tonight. He knew that she wasn’t expecting a response, because they both already knew the answer to her questions that now remained floating there in the dead air between them.

Kane shook his head and wished that the tear on her cheek wasn’t making him feel sharp inside.

“I’m not going to apologize for doing my job, Abby,” he said darkly, watching as she tried to keep her face steady and not looking at him. “Do you know what happens if we start making exceptions for people in the upper ranks?”

He looked at him in disbelief.

“That’s how we create uprisings.”

Blinking, Abby retreated back into herself. Where she would typically fight fire with fire and argue his point, she now took a half step away from him and cast her eyes down on the ground, re-crossing her arms.

She continued to move away from him and finally looked up when she had gotten herself behind a monitor screen. When she met his eyes, Kane was surprised to see less anger than he did hurt.

“That’s not what this was about, Kane,” she said softly.

There was no room for any more commentary from him. Not while she was wounded like this. He knew why. He recognized the look. She was hurt because she now knew that he hated her enough to kill her. Maybe not even that. She was hurt because she now knew that he cared so little about her that he was willing to kill her. And that had hurt her in a more personal sense than either of them expected.

Nodding as something tightened within him, Kane marched himself out of that room with his head high. He wasn’t finished with her yet. Not by a long shot. She could be hurt all she wanted, but she was going to slip up again soon. And this time, Jaha wouldn’t be able to save her.

Chapter Text

Chancellor Jaha didn’t know what he had to come to terms with.

Whether it was that Kane was right and there was no hope for the ground. That they were wasting time and manpower on the hundred project when the Earth was not an option, and they should have been focused on how they could prolong life on the ark. Or whether it was Abby’s insistence that they really didn’t yet know what a lost transmission meant, and that his son – and the rest of the hundred – might be alive and well down there.

He was caught between the battle of head and heart. In his head, Kane was right. In his heart, Abby’s words were true. That’s why he always kept them both close as his advisors. Because they balanced one another out so well. They balanced out the dichotomous thoughts in his head. But it wasn’t just balance anymore, it was division. And a choice needed to be made.

Thelonious allowed the entire day to pass him by. Nobody from Earth Monitoring paged him, nor did anybody from security. He knew that he had made himself clear earlier today that he needed time and nobody was going to bother him unless there was some kind of immediate crisis. But perhaps he could use a little bothering.

He was almost relieved when there was a knock at his door and Abby showed up with a med kit, demanding that he sit down so that she could check his wound.

Jaha was no fool. He knew that Abby was concerned and a friend to him, but that wasn’t the only reason she was here. There was something that he did not know. And considering he’d had the whole day to himself, he had a feeling that there was much going on right under his nose as if he’d never returned to his chancellorship.

Abby was terrified. She’d never let it show, and it did nothing to overshadow the terror that she’d felt earlier today in the flotation chamber, but she had been scared all day and that terror only grew when the whispers started.

It was Jackson who told her what he’d heard in the Mess Hall over lunch. Kane was with the other councillors. And though his exact words couldn’t be heard, Jackson had it on good authority that he was telling them exactly how many kids that they’d lost. Warning them that Abby was not reporting the deaths properly. Telling them that Earth was not livable and it was time to take the drastic measures that they should have earlier.

When she didn’t see him for the rest of the day, her suspicions were confirmed. Kane was always in and out of Earth Monitoring, checking up on her, keeping tabs, making sure that everything was going according to plan. He had been so meticulous about being a part of the hundred project and so determined to watch it go up in flames right before his very eyes that he had to be right in the room where it happened. The only thing that would be more important to him than that was population control.

Abby knew that. She also knew that it was why he’d been absent from her laboratories that day. And that was why she redressed the chancellor’s wounds in silence that night, paying him a visit to his personal quarters.

Jaha had studied her face while she changed his bandages. She looked calm and didn’t say anything, but her jaw was clenched. Her breathing was manual. And she didn’t know how to break this ice.

“Why are you here, Abby?” He finally said weaky, the image of his son’s terminated transmission flashing once more through his subconscious. “We both know that you could have sent an apprentice to do this.”

Abby sighed and finished with the tape that she was using to keep his bandages down.

She looked at the chancellor. “Kane’s planning a secret council meeting to vote on the culling,” she revealed, but Jaha was not necessarily surprised.

Kane was the kind of man who did what was necessary, not what was easy. He wasn’t afraid to be the bad guy if it meant saving humanity. And right now – now that he had nothing left on the ground that he loved – Thelonious happened to think that was exactly what they might need.

“I need to know where you stand,” Abby finished, looking at him.

He shook his head. “I don’t have a vote. You know that,” he sighed.

“They listen to you, Thelonious,” she reminded him, leaning forward so that he could see just how important this was to her.

He glanced in her direction. “Well, you don’t,” he winced once as she taped down his wound.

Abby gave him a small, thin, half-smile. “I do when you agree with me,” she muttered.

He stared at her for another moment, wondering if she would be able to keep her faith if Clarke was not alive and well down there on the ground.

“Now, Abby,” he said in a low, serious voice, “the CO2 scrubbers are already failing. The symptoms of oxygen deprivation are everywhere, and worst of all in the children. They’ll die first.”

She glanced up at him as images of her weakest patients flashed through her mind. “You don’t have to tell me that,” she reminded him that she was on the front lines of that particular war.

“Obviously, I do,” he raised his voice slightly, sitting up. “Unless we act to reduce the population, everyone on board this space station will be dead in four months.”

“We have acted,” Abby insisted. “We put a hundred kids on the ground. We need to give them time.”

The chancellor held up a hand as his eyes took on a faraway look. “There are 76 kids on the ground, Abby,” he said in a sobering voice. “24 of them, including my son, are already dead.”

Abby paused for just a moment, knowing that she was being overly persistent and perhaps even sounded crazy, but had to be heard.

“I don’t think so,” she said quickly.

“But you have no proof.”

She opened her mouth to argue, but he held up another hand that stopped her in her tracks. He was wounded. He was hurting. He was a father without a son. He had to do what should have been done years ago.

“Please,” he said softly, “stop.” Abby bit her tongue. “I understand your need to have hope for Clarke, but I am the chancellor of the Ark. And hope isn’t enough.”

His words stung, but Abby did not let them wound her as she heard the door open somewhere behind them.

“Not when the end of the human race is at stake,” Jaha finished.

Abby knew that it was Kane who was in the room now. She knew not because she recognized the tread of his footsteps or the scent of his soap, but because she felt uneasy. As though there was a predator in the room, and she needed to flee before blood could be shed.

“You wanted to see me?” His voice echoed through the otherwise quiet room and her suspicions were confirmed.

She did not flinch as the chancellor held up a hand to ask for a moment before Kane’s approach to the scene. She did not flinch when the man’s voice filled the room. She did not flinch at her would-be killer looming somewhere behind her, out of sight. She was ready for this fight, and in fact, it wasn’t even between her and him. It was between her and Jaha.

“Hope is everything,” she insisted with a knowing shake of her head. “And the chancellor that I voted for…” she packed up her things, “…he knew that.”

Abby stood then and gave her chancellor a firm look of disappointment that only made him feel bad but did not change his way of thinking.

“I’m done here,” she said firmly before moving to leave the room, passing by Kane who watched her go rather curiously as he kept his arms clasped behind his back and closed the door after her.

The man did not approach. Instead, he stared. He stared for likely a multitude of reasons. To try and figure out what Abby had just said to him and if it had swayed him. To decide whether or not he was out of the woods and going to make it or if he was going to once again take on the role of chancellor pro tempore.

“Stop studying me, Kane,” Jaha finally said with a sigh once he grew tired of it.

Kane entered the room fully, approaching the chancellor.

“Who shot me?”

Swallowing, Kane prepared to tell him what he knew. “Bellamy Blake,” he said in a low voice. “A janitor from Factory Station. He stowed away in the dropship,” Kane nodded. “We’re still investigating who helped him.”

Jaha sat with this information. It was precisely what he had feared.

He would have preferred to know that a known political figure had shot him. Or someone whose family he had recently arrested. Someone that would make sense. If it was some random person such as Bellamy Blake the janitor from Factory Station, then he knew that it was one of his own people hiding behind a hit man. And that was when things got dangerous.

Because his prime suspect was now standing before him.

“Who benefits most from my death?” He asked, suddenly worried that Kane might be here to finish the job and simultaneously wishing that he would so that he could go and join his son in the afterlife.

Kane had never been one for mincing words. Politics was full of half-truths and double meanings, speaking between the lines and subliminal accusations. He didn’t care for any of it. He fully understood Jaha’s current accusation, and he wanted it said aloud.

“If you have something to say,” he jutted his chin out, “just say it.”

Jaha swallowed. “You rushed to execute the woman who saved my life,” he said, and Kane knew that it didn’t look good. “And if I were dead, you would be chancellor now. And Abby wouldn’t be here to oppose you.”

Kane had to admit, the dots connected. And if he was in Jaha’s position, he likely would have accused himself far earlier than now. The only problem with the theory was that it was wrong. And that he had ordered Commander Shumway to head the investigation with vigour and priority.

“I followed the law,” he said firmly. “I did my job.”

“You were the acting chancellor,” Jaha reminded, looking at the man with a concerned brow. “And this job requires more than simply following the law. It requires knowing when not to.”

That could never ring true to Kane. He had spent his entire life following and upholding the law, ensure that there were no exceptions made unless the circumstances were drastic. Unless council approval was required and given. He knew nothing of discretion or fine lines. It was black and white. It always had been. And it was that attitude that he thought would one day make him an excellent chancellor.

With this in mind, Kane stepped forward. He was offended for his reputation as Chief Guard, but not personally wounded. Still, a defense was necessary.

“I had nothing to do with the attempt on your life,” he stated firmly. “But I’m not surprised that it happened.”

Jaha looked up at him. Kane did not usually take this tone with him. He was respectful and though he expressed his disagreement during council meetings, he didn’t usually defy him right to his face.

“You’re too weak to do what now has to be done,” he said, clearly referring to population control. "And I'm not the only one who knows it."

He made for the door then. He didn’t have to stand in this room and listen to accusations thrown at him when he had only done his job. He followed the law, he arose to the challenge, and now he was going to cull the population to save the masses. That was the kind of person who deserved to be a leader, not somebody who fell victim to notions like false hope and unwavering positivity.

Once again, he pictured in horror the vision of Abby ever rising to chancellorship. God help them all if she did. Surely the people wouldn’t be stupid enough to vote for that, nor would anybody be reckless enough to pass the pin over to her willingly.

“Kane,” he called after him once the man reached the door and went for the handle. “A word of advice?”

Reluctantly, Kane stopped and turned around to look at the chancellor.

Jaha sighed. “You’re right,” he admitted, “we do need to start making the hard choices. And you are better than me at doing that.”

Perhaps Kane would have taken his comment as a compliment if he did not suspect a “but” coming his way in the near future.

“But,” there it was, “it’s important to recognize that there’s more to life than just surviving.”

Kane sighed. He’d heard this before. From Abby. Every time he let himself listen to her incoherent ramblings about how life was beautiful, and everyone needed to hold on to their humanity. He didn’t have time for her, and he didn’t have time for Jaha now.

But the chancellor was worried. Kane was a friend. An old friend who had become a cold, robotic man capable of making horrifying decisions without even batting an eye. Now, he was correct, it was important to be able to make these decisions. But it wasn’t healthy to make them without feeling any of the consequences.

Kane would make a good chancellor one day. But a chancellor had to have heart as well as ambition and drive. He had to understand how his actions would affect everyone. He needed to feel.

“You need to be able to feel the effects of your decisions,” Jaha continued, worrying that the man was unreachable. “If we survive, what are we left with?”

Kane clasped his hands behind his back. “A human race, sir,” he said immediately. “That’s what we’re left with.”

“And what will you have, Marcus?” Jaha said, hoping that he could. “Will you be able to live with everything that you sacrificed for salvation?”

His monologuing was pointless. There was no changing the way that Marcus Kane saw the world. If nothing had done it yet, Jaha certainly couldn’t. And every time someone urged him otherwise, he only dug his heels in deeper.

The chancellor did not expect a response, and he kept that in mind as he continued to press on.

“Every choice that we make – even the ones out of necessity…” he said, shaking his head slowly, “…they all have consequences.”

Finally, Kane took in a breath and squared his body towards where the chancellor still sat. “I know you all think that I’m heartless,” he said coldly, “that I have no feelings,” he continued. “But that’s how I have to be. That’s how I’m going to be able to make these decisions.”

“I know you have feelings, Marcus,” Jaha said calmly. “You might not think you do, but I know better.”

Kane stared at his old friend and realized just how long they’d known each other. Jaha had always been a bit older, but he’d taken Kane under his wing early on and they’d become an inseparable duo. Back when they were just friends. Not a chancellor and his second. He could remember the young man urging him to take an Earth Science class. Then pushing him to continue taking political science classes. That was where he met Abby.

“If you did put the gun in that janitor’s hand,” Jaha said slowly, and Kane narrowed his eyes. “How would you have felt if I had bled to my death?”

A silence filled up the room. That hypothetical did not matter because it wasn’t true. It wouldn’t have been his fault. He would have felt sorrow over losing an old friend, but that sorrow would be transient, and it wouldn’t prevent him from moving forward. He would be relieved that he could take command and start doing things his way.

“If you had actually floated Abby this morning,” the chancellor continued, “how would you feel once she was gone?”

That hypothetical stung a bit more, but not enough to waver him. Because that one really was true, and it would have been his fault. But again, the sorrow wouldn’t have lasted longer that it would take to start turning things around and erasing her influence. Besides, Kane had a feeling that she would be able to piss him off even from beyond the grave as her legacy refused to die alongside her.

“And if you make this decision to reduce the population…” Jaha let out a breath as he said the words, “…how will you feel once those souls are lost?”

Kane blinked. Feeling wasn’t important. What was important was that it happened. That it was the right thing to do. The only thing that might just save them. He didn’t know why it was so important to save the human race even at the cost of his own humanity. Perhaps he was trying to save his own skin, perhaps he was trying to be the man who saved them all. Perhaps it all came down to the two people that he couldn’t save, back when it was easy.

“Feeling is irrelevant,” Kane revealed darkly. “I will happily bear whatever burden it takes to save humanity.”

“But it’s not humanity that you’re saving, Kane,” Jaha interrupted him. “It’s just a species. In fact, you’ll be sacrificing your own humanity to do so.”

Kane let out a bitter scoff. “I don’t need this from you too, sir,” he saved himself with the professional title just so that he didn’t sound completely out of line. “There’s already one too many people on this Ark who believe in fairytales.”

“It’s not a fairytale,” the chancellor said, shifting in his seat. “It’s hope. It’s love. It’s very real, and it’s the one thing that might just push people enough to save their own kind.”

Shaking his head, Kane couldn’t believe his ears. “Love?” He whispered tensely, wondering if this was all some joke.

“Yes, love,” Jaha nodded. “At our cores, it’s all we have. Especially if the ground is not survivable, if there is no answer to the oxygen problem, if we only have four months of life left. We are left with nothing but love for one another.”

Another fairytale, that’s what it sounded like to Kane, who was now crossing his arms in bitter sarcasm.

“And if this is the end…” the chancellor continued, “…then you could die tomorrow, and you’ll have wasted your remaining time in this world trying to float your friends and cull your people.”

Jaha found his own current outlook rather ironic. When Abby pushed him against it, he saw the use in the culling. When Kane pushed for it, he wanted to turn the idea down. He still didn’t know what to do.

Kane lowered his voice and leaned forward. “Love isn’t going to save us, sir,” he said in a dark, insistent voice.

“You don’t know that,” Jaha turned his head, now staring up at the ceiling as he pictured the face of his late wife – the only woman that he’d ever loved. “Because you’ve never had it.”

He’d been around for Kane’s entire adult life. He remembered his first girlfriend Fiona Holloway, and he remembered how her and Kane had only been dating for a few months. They fooled around, they had fun, but they did not love one another deeply.

And throughout the years, Kane had made his rounds in terms of women. Diana Sydney, Callie, he slept with anyone who he found attractive and willing, but it had never been about feeling. Not emotionally, anyways. It had only ever been sex. In fact, when Jaha thought about it, the most feeling he had ever even seen from Kane back in the day was towards Abby back when the two of them were flirting during their classes and their fight for the junior council. But that flame burnt out quickly, before it had time to catch. To this day, Kane and Abby both insist that nothing ever even happened between them.

But Jaha knew for a fact that Kane had never loved. He even pushed his own mother away, and she was the last of his remaining family. No wife, no children, no real friends, Marcus Kane would be the last of his own bloodline whether humanity was saved or not. Was that really all he wanted to do with his life? Save the human race? There was so much more to it than that.

Kane stared forward. The accusation did not wound him. Not even when it rang true. No, he did not know love. Because he never wanted to. He had avoided it at all costs. Even when his first girlfriend had told him that she was falling in love with him, he never said it back because he refused to let him go to that level with her. Even when his friends would hug him at their weddings and express their gratitude for his friendships, he kept them at arm’s length.

Even when a woman that made his heart feel as though it was beating out of its chest looked him in the eyes and asked him to make a wish. Even when that woman looked a hell of a lot like one who wanted to be kissed. Even when his mother tried to run her fingers through his hair like she used to do to comfort him when he was a child, he pushed her away. And even now as an old friend worried for his humanity, he felt nothing. Marcus Kane was not at risk of love because he had built up the necessary defenses against it.

“I hope you can save us, Kane,” Jaha looked back over at him, but still sounded more peaceful now as if the very image of Clementine had soothed him. “And I hope that one day you do get to experience it.”

“Experience what?” Kane snapped with a blunt sigh.”

“Love,” Jaha said calmly with a small smile. “I hope that it knocks you right down to your knees.”

Kane didn’t feel like arguing with him. Like telling him that kind of love didn’t exist. Even if Jaha thought that he’d had it with Clementine, she died. His parents might have had it once, then they got divorced. Just like David and Celine ended up doing. Like Callie and her ex-husband whose name Kane couldn’t even be bothered to remember. Just like Maryanne and Ross. In fact, everyone that he’d ever seen in love was now in pain.

Even Jake and Abby who were so in love that everyone looked at them like the pinnacle of romance. By the end of their marriage, he was begging his wife to aid and abet his treason, and she was sobbing with her head in her hands in an empty rec room. And now he was dead. Why would Kane ever want to open himself up to the possibility?

Right now, all he could do was nod – unconvinced – and turn away.

“And–”

Kane sighed as the chancellor demanded his attention once more. He turned around.

“Cut her some slack,” he continued softly.

No name was needed in order for Kane to know exactly who they were talking about. The woman that had just been here. The woman whose jasmine still lingered in the air. The woman that he had tried to kill this morning.

“She’s doing what she thinks is right,” Jaha said, “same as you.”

“She…” Kane stressed the word, the very notion of Abby filling him with anger, “…is jeopardizing the existence of mankind.”

“She saved my life, Kane,” Jaha said simply.

Kane was brought back to earlier days when he had been the one saving lives. Hers, actually. It really did seem simpler back then as he now looked upon those years. It seemed hard. It seemed like life was difficult when he was trailing suspects and making arrests, tracking her from one speakeasy to the next. It was nothing compared to the hell that they now lived through.

“And one day,” the chancellor continued, “she might just save us all.”

As he left the room, Kane was haunted by notions of love and devotion. A hellscape in which he allowed himself either thing and wound up doomed in so many more ways than he even thought possible. Sure, love sounded nice. It sounded beautiful and peaceful and positively foreign. It was for simpler people.

Jaha acted as though Kane didn't know what love was just because he did not allow himself to feel it. But he'd seen it. Firsthand. He saw his parents struggle to love each other and be themselves at the same time. He felt himself slowly fall for Fiona before she was ripped away from him and he was left with a hole in his heart.

In fact, he had watched them all fall in and out of love. Callie with just about every man she meets, Jake and Abby, Maryanne and Ross, Jaha and Clementine, David and Celine. Marriages, divorces, new love, old flames, he had seen it all from the people around him. But Kane had never done anything more than accidentally sleep with the same woman for more than a month at a time. His heart had never felt love strong enough to make anybody his wife or even his monogamous lover.

And for all the love that he saw, he still couldn't believe that it truly existed, because he'd still never felt it. The closest he ever came was Fiona. But he was hardly more than a child back then. What did he know of love? He had been excited to win the affections of a young lady, glad to have a steady source of intimate relations, but he hadn't necessarily been head over heels in love. And thank god for that, because he couldn't imagine her untimely death hurting any more than it already had.

Only one other woman came close. Shortly after Fiona's death. Kane had liked someone. Really liked someone. But not enough to give up his life goals. His other plans. That couldn't have been love. Or was it? Was he so scared of love that he made certain he pushed it away? It was so long ago and the memories had become so foggy that he no longer knew. Since then, he'd struck up a relationship with Diana Sydney, but it was mainly spawned by the desire to be in bed with somebody powerful and the certainty that she would move him up the ladder. There had been no love involved. A little bit of respect at most. He slept with Callie regularly for a year or two straight, but even then couldn't feel anything for her. If anyone, he expected to fall in love with her. A friend, someone that he'd been close with his entire life, a beautiful woman that he took to bed on a regular basis. But nothing. No feelings whatsoever.

By now, Kane knew that he was immune to it. Maybe love did exist - everyone else seemed to think so - but it didn't dare touch him because he had already built up his defenses and was now immune to the disease that could eat away at his heart. Good. He was glad. That meant that when the time called for it, he wouldn't have emotions and loved ones getting in the way of making difficult decisions. He could do what needed to be done without the added worry of a wife or a child to prioritize.

As he grew distant and looked at other peoples' relationships from the outside in, he knew that he was making the right choice. Especially when he watched how Jake and Abby had fallen apart. He thought that Celine and David had been bad when they broke up. The inability to compromise, the changing of personalities and beliefs, becoming different people than they were when they first met, trying to navigate their failing relationship without affecting Nate who would inevitably wind up wounded by it anyways. A traditional divorce was bad enough.

Then he watched Jake go off the treasonous deep end and try to take his reluctant wife with him. He watched as Abby struggled between the man she loved, her own life, and maintaining order on the Ark. He watched as she was pulled in a hundred different directions and tried to listen to her heart but even her heart didn't know what to do. He watched as she stopped sleeping, stopped eating, grew silent in meetings where she would have been otherwise bold. He watched her try to hold on to normalcy as if she knew that Jake was not long for this world and she wanted to cherish every minute with him and Clarke. He also watched as Jake threw away his last minutes and hid out at work or pleading his case to the council instead of spending it with his wife and daughter.

He watched Abby disagree with her husband but also try not to have that disagreement get him killed. He watched as she tried to save him even after he dug her grave and tried to blast her with the same gun he was using to kill himself. He watched her broken in tears with her head in her hands in the rec room late one night revealing to a friend that her marriage was over. He watched her put the last of her energy and courage into asking Jaha for help despite knowing that it might end up with Jake killed. He saw her white as a ghost, shaking, unable to catch her breath, trying to remain resilient, but aware that not only was her marriage over, but Jake's life was in danger. He watched as she feared for her own life, uncertain whether or not Jake would take her with him.

Kane hadn't been present at the execution, but Jaha told him that even when it all came down to it, Jake had urged Abby to finish what he started. He was staring down the barrel of a figurative executionary gun because of his actions and knew that if his wife had followed in his footsteps, she would be too. But even then, he wanted her to sacrifice herself. Jaha had been the one to then see how Abby's face had crumbled, how her shoulders shook with betrayal. She wanted to say goodbye and was instead reminded that Jake would rather see them both dead than his crusade come to an end.

Jaha told him this because he worried that they should be keeping an eye on Abby, but even Kane knew that if Abby hadn't committed treason to save her husband on his death bed, she wouldn't do it after the fact. She chose life. She chose to live and be a mother to her daughter. But Kane had watched it all unfold and he watched how Jake's actions had nearly killed her. He wouldn't wish that on anybody. After seeing that, he decided that love was best kept as far from him as possible, whether it existed or not. Love ruined lives, it tore people apart. 

To change his ways now was not only something that Kane had no interest in, it was something that he felt was altogether impossible.

~~~

The next day, Raven Reyes came into the picture.

Finally, Abby had slept the night before. Not long, for she was awaken before dawn by a nightmare that featured the flotation chamber and couldn’t fall back asleep afterwards, but she had gotten more sleep than in the past week. She awoke feeling refreshed and ready to face yet another impossible day.

Kane had big plans today, she knew that. The council vote was tonight just before the dinner hour. There was a quick thirty-minute briefing followed by a vote that hopefully would not be divided. Neither knew which way Jaha was going to vote if that was the case.

Abby spent the morning in Medical, after checking in on Earth Monitoring and seeing Clarke’s transmission alive and well. She requested that Sinclair page her if there were any changes, but she couldn’t spend all her time in that station. Not while there was an overwhelming number of patients filling up Sick Bay.

It had been a trying morning, but she remained positive. Even through the mass effects of oxygen deprivation. Even after she had to relay a troubling cancer diagnosis to a patient that she’d known all her life.

She was in good spirits when her and Jackson went down to the Mess Hall for their midday meal. The boy had been pestering her all day about getting out there and trying to win the council. He insisted that he could handle Medical if she wanted to talk to the other councillors and try to plead with them to vote against the culling.

But Abby knew that it wasn’t true. They were overwhelmed, and Jackson couldn’t handle it alone. Besides, she didn’t know what to say. She didn’t want to have to convince these people that it was wrong to cull their population. It should have been a no-brainer. She had no argument against it because it was not something she would ever consider giving the time of day.

More importantly, she didn’t want to run into Kane out there. He loomed around the Ark like some kind of menacing monster lurking in the shadows that only she could see. Something about his very presence frightened her now after he tried to have her floated, even if she would never admit that to anybody.

And today in the Mess Hall, there he saw. Sitting at a table with two of their other councillors, obviously trying to butter them up and twist their arms.

“Kane’s lobbying for votes,” Jackson said from behind her while they stood in line, but Abby had already spotted her fellow councillor and knew what he was up to. “We should too.”

She got her tray and shook her head. “We’ll have our chance at the briefing.”

Abby didn’t want to waste time on lobbying. She wanted to trust that the council would do the right thing and instead spend her time in Medical this morning so that she could quickly get down to Earth Monitoring and finish her day there, trying to sort through terminated transmissions and what they really meant. She would love to be able to present Thelonious with proof that his son was not dead.

“Excuse me!”

A young voice called out before the girl came bounding into the picture.

“Dr. Griffin,” she said, earning the woman’s undivided attention. “I have a question about the quarantine.”

Abby’s mind began to race with what the girl meant until she remembered that Callie had put out a memo indicating an outbreak in the Skybox that resulted in a quarantine. It was how they were covering up the lack of visitations while the hundred were on the ground.

“My boyfriend’s in lockup,” the girl continued, “I went to go see him.”

This girl couldn’t have been any older than eighteen, maybe nineteen, and she wore her hair up in a ponytail. Abby felt Jackson come up behind her and appreciated the boy’s constant protection of her, even when it was not always needed.

“Instead,” the girl continued, and Abby suddenly recognized her as Raven Reyes, a mechanic, “I saw an open air duct.”

Abby remembered diagnosing her with a heart murmur during her physical exams, and Sinclair had gone to her asking how serious the defect really was, for she was the most promising zero-G mechanic they had in the apprentice class. Abby could remember telling him that the probability of it ever affecting her work were slim to none.

“Now, if there really was a virus,” Raven cocked her head, “wouldn’t you move to contain the airflow?”

Abby gave a half smile. She was a smart girl. Just as smart as Sinclair had said last year.

“The virus isn’t airborne,” Abby said flippantly, refusing to give more information than necessary. “That’s why the ducts are open.”

Raven’s face fell. She understood that she wasn’t going to have her questions answered, but love was at stake.

“Can you tell me if he’s okay?”

Now, Abby felt something tighten within her. She could tell her if he was okay, if Raven gave her his name and she checked his vital signs. For the sake of this young girl, she hoped that he was one of the ones that had not been terminated.

“I can’t,” Abby insisted, “I’m sorry.”

“No, you’re not,” Raven shook her head, immediately growing defensive and slightly aggressive. “First the dropship, now this.”

Abby blinked and Jackson tensed. Yes, the people were talking. Callie had said as much. They saw a dropship launch, now they were being told that there was a quarantine that did not add up in the Skybox. She feared that it wouldn’t be long now, and they would all put two and two together.

“The council’s hiding something, and I’m going to find out what it is,” Raven said before bounding away.

Instead of chasing after her and insisting that she stop asking questions, instead of reprimanding the girl for her bad attitude, instead of turning to Jackson and worrying, Abby only smiled. Thin and crooked, like she didn’t really want to smile.

Raven was turning a corner with determination in every footstep and Abby saw Clarke.

“Ballsy kid,” Jackson scoffed from behind her.

“Yeah,” Abby muttered, “reminds me of someone.”

They chose the table furthest from Kane and ate quickly. Well, Jackson ate. Abby had no appetite and instead sat there staring at the wall, trying to come up with a solution. She had nothing to take to the council. That was why she wasn’t lobbying. And if her hope fell through and they didn’t vote to do the right thing, it was going to be her fault for not trying to persuade them otherwise.

But she had nothing. Kane was right, her hope was starting to sound like a false promise. She knew that she needed to deliver results. And right now, the results were that the kids were dying from radiation-like symptoms.

It was only five minutes before Abby realized that Kane’s lobbying included her. She suspected that she should have seen that coming. He’d already spoken with the other councillors, and she had to believe that he had plead his case to Jaha after she left his quarters last night. She was the last loose end.

Kane waited until Jackson was gone from their table in the corner of the Mess Hall, taking their trays back to the counter and excusing himself to the washroom. Kane had no problem with the young doctor, but he so often trailed Abby like a watchful guard dog. It might be easier to get her alone.

As she sat there taking up very little space at that table, resting her chin in her hand, her eyes staring blankly at the wall, he thought that there might just be a chance that he could get through to her.

When the figure suddenly sat down across from her, leaning slightly across the table so that their conversation might be private, Abby didn’t even look at him. She expected Jackson back from the washroom. It wasn’t until she looked down at the hands clasped on the table, jutted towards her and knew them to be the hands of an older, taller man that her eyes snapped upwards and she was met with the intimidating, unwavering face of Councillor Kane.

Abby pulled back instantly, dropping her own hands and fixing her posture. He frightened her but she wasn’t scared of it. Still, she didn’t like being caught off guard.

Kane was pleased to see that he had surprised her. It was always easier to knock somebody down when they were not expecting an assault.

“That young mechanic you were talking to,” he began in a low voice, wasting no time. “Her boyfriend is one of the hundred.”

Kane didn’t care about any of the arrests that he made, but he did remember them. Raven Reyes was the girlfriend of the boy who had famously gone on an unauthorized spacewalk, wasting over a month of the Ark’s oxygen. The people had been outraged. Finn Collins was his name. And Kane knew his girlfriend as combative and persistent, especially when she was denied access to visitation.

Abby didn’t say anything, but her mouth pulled together in a thin line as if to ask him what he cared about Raven Reyes.

“She’ll be asking questions that she can’t know the answers to,” he eyed her harshly, as though he was disciplining her for something that she hadn’t even done yet.

And Abby knew what he was getting at. He was reminding her that it was important to keep everything under lock and key as if she didn’t already know that. She wished that she could have one single conversation with someone on this Ark without him knowing about it.

“What do you want, Kane?” She snapped suddenly, putting an end to his beating around the bush.

Kane sat up straighter as he was reminded of decades ago. Right here at this very table. The same woman sitting across from him, same braid in her hair. Only that woman was more of a girl than anything, and she had been beaten to a pulp so recently that her face was bruised and her arm was in a sling. That woman was years away.

“I want you to be smart, Abby,” he said condescendingly. “We can’t have sensitive information falling into the wrong hands.”

Giving a sarcastic half smile, Abby shifted slightly in her seat. “That’s not why you’re here,” she said firmly, seeing right through him. “You’re here to change my mind.”

Kane sighed and shook his head slightly. “I’m well aware that there’s no changing your mind,” he corrected her. “I’m here to see if there’s still a scientist in there somewhere.”

Now offended, Abby lowered her eyebrows. “I beg your pardon?” She demanded coldly, her voice unwavering.

“I know that your priority is with your daughter on the ground,” he continued, leaning forwards and speaking low so as not to be heard by anyone else, “but you need to think of your people now, Abby. The people right here in front of you.”

She blinked. He was a terrible lobbyist.

“We can’t do anything for Clarke from up here,” he continued, trying to use her daughter against her. “But we can save the people on the Ark.”

Abby scoffed. “What, by killing them?”

“Through sacrifice,” Kane hissed at her, trying not to stoop to her level. “I know it’s hard, but it’s necessary.”

The pair did not break their harsh eye contact. Four brown eyes boring into each other unwavering and relentless. Unwilling to hand over the upper hand that they both thought they held.

“And I’m not going to let you stand in the way of this decision,” he said firmly.

Abby’s lips twitched and her eyes shifted from his left to his right. This time, she wasn’t in search of anything at all.

“Maybe you should have me floated,” she said sharply, very clearly not over what he had tried to do to her yesterday.

Kane narrowed his eyes and sucked his teeth. He had a thousand rebuttals on his tongue, some harsher than others, but a voice stopped them both in their tracks.

“Abby-”

It was Jackson, both eager to get over to Earth Monitoring and wanting to pull Abby away from the monster that had tried to end her life. He would never stop looking out for that woman even if she didn’t need it. She had appeared to him when he needed her most – when his mother died. And she’d taken over for the woman seamlessly. She was the closest thing that Jackson had to a mother, and he wasn’t going to let anything happen to her.

Kane glanced over at Jackson and once again noted the man’s protectiveness over Abby, but thought nothing of it. She had heard his words, that was all that mattered.

Jackson was nodding towards the exit and Abby nodded once before getting up to join him, trying not to look at Kane as she walked past him with her head up and her steps quick.

Her and Jackson spent almost six hours in Earth Monitoring. They had been spit balling off one another in search of any theory to bring to the council to prove that a lost transmission did not mean a dead kid. To prove that there may be no reason to believe that Earth wasn’t survivable and they did not need to cull the population just to appease Kane and his pessimism.

But the hours went on, Sinclair came and went to offer his own advice, and they got nowhere. Eventually, they had to give up. The longer they spent in here, the less time Abby would have to present her case to the council. But she couldn’t walk in there with nothing. Kane would tear her to shreds and get his population reduction.

“Abby, we have to stop,” Jackson finally said as his head began to pound. “The council vote’s in thirty minutes.”

“Then we have thirty minutes,” Abby insisted, crossing her arms. “Anything from Engineering?”

Jackson shook his head. “Nothing good,” he glanced down at his tablet. “According to Sinclair, even if we sent a signal down, the wristbands weren’t designed to receive, so the kids wouldn’t even hear it.”

She knew that. She had designed the wristbands. She knew that they only interacted with vital signs and that’s where the transmission started and ended. The wristbands weren’t the way to go, here. She just didn’t know what was.

“There’s got to be something we missed,” she said, shaking her head. “Something that we haven’t thought of.”

That’s when they heard something in the walls. The Ark creaked and groaned on a daily basis, but it usually wasn’t loud enough to be heard when the room was buzzing with people milling about and working. This one didn’t just come and go. This particular clanging sounded like somebody or something climbing in through somewhere they really shouldn’t have been.

Abby turned around as soon as she realized that something was amiss and pressed the button to open the door to the ventilation shaft. Sure enough, she saw a pair of legs scrambling up the ladder and reached up on her toes to grab hold of a familiar red jacket and yank it down to the ground and into the room.

“Apparently,” she said, crossing her arms as Raven Reyes frowned before her, “you have a thing for air ducts.”

“I’ll call security,” Jackson rolled his eyes and turned away.

Abby didn’t necessarily want that. Raven was over eighteen, she would be floated if Kane was involved. But she couldn’t have this information spreading either.

“They’re not dying.”

Those words stopped Jackson in his tracks and had Abby narrowing her eyes. All at once, she realized what they were missing. The mindset of a teenager. Someone who could think like the kids on the ground. The one hundred juvenile delinquents. Raven Reyes was that person.

“What are you talking about?”

Raven looked over at the screen. She had been listening in the air duct long enough to realize what had happened. Finn and the rest of the Skybox was on the ground. And the wristbands that were transmitting their vital signs were going out, leading Abby and Jackson to believe that they were dying. Obviously, they were looking for signs of survivability on Earth.

“All that’s being sent from the ground?” She asked.

Abby took in a breath but knew that this might be a blessing in disguise. She handed over a wristband.

“Transmitted by these,” she explained calmly.

Raven examined the thing, turning it over in her hands. What would she do if she was sent to the ground from jail with a wristband cuffed to her? What would Finn do?

“They’re taking them off,” she confirmed, tossing it back to Abby.

“What?” Jackson lowered his brow in disbelief. “Why would they do something so reckless?”

The boy was innocent and naïve. He had been the perfect son, perfect student, perfect doctor, he had never disobeyed a rule in his entire life. Of course, he couldn’t understand why the kids on the ground might want to scoff at their direct orders. Abby, however, knew better.

She had been raised a little bit differently and everybody knew how she felt about rules. In fact, as soon as someone told her not to do something, it still made her want to do it a little bit more. Especially if that person had authority over her.

With a small grin, the realization set in.

“Because we told them not to,” Abby finished simply, sharing a knowing look with Raven.

Perhaps it wasn’t Clarke that the girl reminded her of, but a younger version of herself. Clarke was only disobedient when she was following a cause. Beyond that, she was as straight as a pencil, just like her father. Abby had never been that way. She had always been a rebel, with a sharp tongue and a choice word for anyone she felt deserved it. She had a feeling that Raven might just be the same way.

And just like that, because a young girl had broken the law determined to find out the truth about the boy that she loved, Abby had her notes for the council.

Twenty-five of those minutes were spent gathering data and information based on Raven’s theory, and Abby finally put the figures together just in time to spend the last five minutes scrambling from Earth Monitoring to Alpha Station where she arrived just in time for the council meeting.

Kane was disappointed to see her. He had hoped that she might not show up at all and that he would win this vote by a landslide.

“Councillor Kane,” Jaha opened the meeting. “You called this emergency meeting. Please…” he gestured out, giving him the table.

Kane nodded. “Information from Earth Monitoring Station has indicated that the ground is not survivable,” he said matter-of-factly, trying not to look at Abby’s argumentative face as he spoke. “As difficult of a decision as it may be, it’s time that we seriously consider population reduction as a means to buy us the time that we need to come up with a permanent solution to the oxygen crisis.”

The table was silent. They all knew why they were here, but it felt different to hear it aloud. Especially when they knew that at the end of this meeting, a vote was going to be called. They were going to have to have an opinion, once and for all.

The chancellor nodded and looked at Abby whose wide eyes and fidgety posture signified that she had something to say in defense of the hundred projects.

“Councillor Griffin,” he nodded at her, “is this true? Your findings suggest nonsurvivable levels of radiation on Earth?”

“No, sir,” she said immediately.

Kane rolled his eyes and let his hands fall down onto the table. “The wristbands are going out, Abby,” he said sharply, giving her a rather mocking half-smile that seemed to indicate that he thought he was of higher intelligence than her. “Dr. Jackson himself confirmed that with vital signs spiking before the transmissions are lost, it’s a clear picture of radiation.”

Abby swallowed and braced herself. “All data indicates that the violent criminals in the group are eight times more likely to have terminated signals,” she explained, looking at Jaha instead. “We believe that this means that the kids are taking off the wristbands by choice.”

Kane, realizing what she was now trying to lobby for, sat back in his seat. “So, how do you explain Wells?”

“Kane is right,” Jaha nodded, and Abby felt the one weak spot in her argument become vulnerable. "My son would never take his wristband off voluntarily.”

Abby did not want to point out that he was among violent criminals who likely held a personal vendetta against him for being the chancellor’s son, and might have tortured the thing off him. She did not want his mind to go there even if hers had and it was very likely true.

Instead, she gave him a knowing look. “Both our children have done things that we could never have predicted,” she reminded him before turning back to the rest of the table. “The point holds. These children need more time.”

Kane leaned forward from across the table. “We don’t have time,” he reminded them all sharply. “Engineering needs six months to fix life support. And we’ll be out of oxygen in four.”

His point held true as well. That was the problem. He looked around himself, once again knowing that he was the only one willing to play the Devil’s advocate.

“Nobody wants to do this,” he said. “But the inescapable fact is that for every day that we delay…” he heard Abby sigh, and she looked away from him, “…ten more people will need to be sacrificed."

 Her eyes went back to him when she heard that word. Now, from across the table, he was talking only to her. His words were for the entire room, but this point was for her. He stared at her as he spoke.

“So today it’s 209, tomorrow it’s 219, the day after that is 229,” he drilled his point in firmly. “We’re the ones who need more time,” he continued, his voice loud and passionate. “I move that we vote now.”

Jaha looked over at his friend. His second. The man that he once understood but now had trouble relating to. He was so passionate. He had a heart, and a big one. If only he used it for other things, he might just be unstoppable.

“I second that,” Councillor Muir nodded.

Councillor Cole – the speaker of the house – took in a breath. “Very well,” he began loudly. “The matter before us requires a four-majority vote to pass,” he nodded. “A vote in favour is a vote to cull 209 citizens of the Ark from the supply grid in order to extend life support for those who remain by six months.”

A silence was passed around the room. Abby wanted more time. Not in general, but right now. More time to make her point before they were brought to a vote. More time to plead with these people to avoid making this mistake. More time to shake some sense into Councillor Kane who once had emotions.

“All those in favour?”

The hands of Councillors Kane, Cole, and Muir went up, as expected.

“All those opposed?”

A perfect split. Abby was merely grateful that at least half of her fellow councillors still had hearts.

“Three votes to three,” Cole confirmed with a nod. “The chancellor will break the time.”

Jaha stared down at the table, considering all that had been laid before him. He could feel the eyes of both Abby and Kane on him. The fiercest of competitors. The biggest of hearts. Both wanting desperately to do what they thought was right but on completely different pages when it came to what that really was.

He respected them both. And quite frankly, he still didn’t know which of them was right. Finally, after what felt like forever, he knew that this table required his commentary.

“We didn’t ask for this,” he said slowly, a certain sense of mourning in his voice. “Ours was to be a transitional generation. Ensuring that three generations from now, mankind could go home.”

Abby had heard that spiel a thousand times. She used to imagine what it would be like if she was born three generations later and going to Earth was a promise rather than a dream. She pictured animals, maybe survivors, maybe even cities. When Kane pictured the Earth, he saw a desolate wasteland. Not even plants.

“But everything has changed,” Jaha went on.

Kane looked at Abby, putting the blame for the chancellor’s doubt on her.

“And we will either be the generation that sees the human race return to Earth…” he looked around, “…or upon whose watch it finally ends. My son is already down there. I sent him.”

Abby looked down, still unable to imagine what Jaha was going through now that Wells wristband went out.

“And the truth is, I don’t know if he is alive or dead,” he looked over at Abby who finally met his eyes. “But I still have hope.”

There it was – the magic word. Abby’s eyes lit up as soon as she heard it, and she knew that she had successfully gotten through to the chancellor, even if he might not be able to give her exactly what she wanted.

“How does the chancellor vote?” Cole demanded now, disliking the wasted time.

Playing with her necklace, Abby held her breath and awaited his answer.

“I don’t.”

Kane saw red. He shook his head. He should have seen this coming. He shouldn’t have let Abby in to see the chancellor last night. He should have tried harder to undo her influence.

“Sir, if you abstain, the vote ends in a tie to be automatically taken up again in ten days,” Cole reminded him.

“That’s ten more dead for every day,” Kane added.

Cole raised his voice. “I ask again, how does the chancellor vote?”

Jaha turned to look at him. “The chancellor abstains,” he said simply.

Abby could breathe again, but Kane was still fuming. Now, he slammed his hands down on the table and stormed out before the meeting could even be adjourned. The entire room was somewhat surprised. They knew how he felt about this issue, but even the matters that he was most persistent about, he never got fired up like this. He always remained professional and numb. Right now, he was downright passionate.

Jaha looked at Abby, who he had done this for. Because of her and her incessant hope. Because of Kane and his lack of love.

“You have ten days,” he said.

Any way that she looked at it, Abby was going to have to go to Earth. Alone. And without approval or warning.

They needed to make contact with somebody down there. They needed a signal. Any way to show that the hundred were alive and well and that Earth was survivable. And those kids probably needed a doctor by now. Not only that, but this signal needed to come from somebody credible. Like a councillor. More than that, she wasn’t willing to risk anybody else. She could ask someone else to commit a felony and plummet to their potential deaths.

Most importantly, she needed to get to her daughter. She couldn’t watch from up here while their population dwindled. Even if Earth wasn’t survivable, at least she could spend her last days down there with Clarke instead of up here with the likes of Kane and Cole and Muir and everyone else who couldn’t see the value in humanity.

She had slept on it. Well, she had tossed and turned on it. But every answer she came up with involved her going to Earth in order to save the human race and see her daughter again. Besides, if she stayed much longer up here on the Ark, Kane was going to try again to have her floated. And she could only get lucky for so long. Next time, he would succeed.

But Abby did not want to incriminate anyone who wouldn’t willingly help. She didn’t want to drag Jackson into this. The Ark needed a doctor. Sinclair had a wife and baby on the way; she couldn’t risk him. And she didn’t trust anyone else enough to help her. She trusted herself alone. And that’s why she brought Raven in.

Raven who could spit fire and dodge the law. Raven who didn’t mind a little dangerous excitement. Raven who was just like she was at that age. Raven who had somebody that she loved on the ground.

“Did someone call for a mechanic?” The girl said, arriving at the Sub3 terminal bay after a page was received.

Raven was surprised to see Abby on the other side of the door. They were along way from Medical. In fact, they were in the part of Mecha Station that someone like Raven was unauthorized to access.

“You’re the one who called in the work order?” She questioned.

“We need to talk.”

Raven entered the room and looked around, sure that she was being reprimanded once again for climbing that vent shaft.

“Look, I told you,” she said, trying to get ahead of it, “I’m not going to say anything, okay?

“I believe you,” Abby reassured her with a nod, turning away. “And you’re not in trouble. Follow me.”

Raven dropped her bag and took a look around. “Not in trouble yet, you mean,” she muttered. “This level’s off limits for people like me,” she said, crossing her arms.

Abby smiled. “Not anymore,” she paused. “You know that we sent the hundred down to the ground. What you don’t know is why.”

Raven blinked, suddenly intrigued.

“The Ark is dying, Raven. Life support is on its last legs,” Abby revealed, and Raven’s jaw went slightly slack. “I have ten days to prove that Earth is survivable or they’re going to start reducing the population. 320 innocent people will be killed.”

Raven tried to take this information in, but couldn’t quite digest it. “I don’t get it,” she shook her head, wondering how she fit into all of this. “Why are you telling me this?”

“I looked up your file,” Abby revealed. “You’re the youngest zero-G mechanic on the Ark in fifty years.”

“52…” Raven corrected, shaking her head… “but, so what?”

“So…” Abby moved towards a machine and yanked a draping away to reveal a rusty old dropship. Probably the last of it’s kind. “You have nine days to get this ready so I can survive a drop.”

Raven’s eyes widened as she inspected the machine, circling it and tapping its pieces. “God, what a piece of junk,” she was muttering to herself, narrowing her eyes. “They must have found this thing when they salvaged Mir-3 in 2102.”

She stopped her pacing to look at Abby and cross her arms. Surely this wasn’t for real.

“You want me to get a 130-year-old escape pod ready to stand up to the inferno of re-entry in nine days?” She asked.

Abby took in a breath. “Can you do it or not?”

Raven looked at it again. It was doable, but it wouldn’t be easy. Abby’s daughter was on the ground, she knew that much. The Chief Medical Officer of the Ark couldn’t have a daughter locked up for treason without that particular word spreading like wildfire. She understood why Abby wanted to get down there. And Raven felt the same way. She wanted to get down to Finn. That was why she said yes.

“Hell yes I can do it,” she confirmed, fiddling with her necklace in the same way that Abby usually fiddled with hers.

“But I’m going with you,” she added strongly. “You’re not the only one with someone you love on the ground.”

Abby was going to interject, to tell her that it was too dangerous, that she shouldn’t risk her life, but she had no leg to stand on.

“Those are my terms,” Raven straightened her back. “Take it or leave it.”

Peering at her, Abby knew that the girl was telling the truth. “Alright,” she said with a nod, “you can come with me.”

Raven smiled. “You got yourself a mechanic.”

~~~

Abby Griffin had secrets. She always had. She was born as one big secret. She then helped to keep that secret for years. And while she went out into the world and tried to become a doctor, she secretly ran with an underground group of criminals lead by her boyfriend. She kept his secrets. She did his bidding. She kept the secret of his physical abuse, though it was painted all over her skin.

When she got older and became a prominent medical and political figure, she kept her past’s secrets. And then when Jake asked her to, she kept his secret.

But it was no secret that she had been the one who went to the chancellor and revealed her husband’s plan to go public. She had never denied that. Clarke had merely thought so much of her mother that she refused to even consider it. And when Wells presented as the perfect sacrificial lamb, she sunk her teeth in. Abby didn’t even know that Clarke thought it was him. She never would have let that lie continue if she did.

In fact, Abby hoped that Clarke didn’t think about it. She hoped that she didn’t know that it had been her who had gotten her father killed. Stupidly, she hoped that Clarke might understand even if she did know. It was for Clarke that she had gone forward anyways. To protect her. To protect the rest of their people.

Down on the ground, Clarke was just learning that truth. It spilled out like gunpowder that the girl then shot at, sparking a wildfire.

Betrayal was the feeling. Betrayal that the only other person who loved Jake Griffin like she did had killed him. Clarke didn’t blame the Guard, she didn’t blame Kane, she didn’t even blame the chancellor. It was Abby’s fault. Her own mother. The rest of them were just doing their jobs.

When she learned the truth late that night, she disengaged her wristbands for two reasons. One, because she wanted to hurt her mother in the same way that she had hurt her. And two, because if they could take it off carefully, Monty was convinced that he might be able to use the thing to send a message back to the Ark.

It had been such a peaceful night. Abby spent the morning in Medical as per usual, and had snuck off over the lunch period. She’d only arrived in Earth Monitoring a few hours ago, and now she was asleep at a monitor. The day of the culling was upon them, and she still didn’t have the conclusive evidence that they needed to stop it, but her and Raven were getting close. Soon, she could be down on the ground, and she could signal back and stop it all.

Jackson smiled at her as she slept, knowing that she didn’t get enough these days, and that’s when the beeping sounded. It woke her up immediately. That beeping was heard in her nightmares, and now it was real.

Clarke’s transmission was terminated.

“No,” Abby said, nearly falling off her chair as she pushed herself up into a standing position. “No, no,” she was muttering, walking up to the screen to stare at her daughter’s face.

She didn’t see the seventeen-year-old juvenile delinquent up on the screen. She saw a little blonde toddler. Smiling up at her with big blue eyes and the cutest smile she’d ever seen. And Abby couldn’t hear anything as she covered her mouth in shock.

“No,” she repeated, “this isn’t right.”

She was stuttering as she spoke, unable to find a grasp on reality. She had been so certain that Clarke would make it through. That she hadn’t sent them down there to die. She had been so filled with hope. Now, she knew how Jaha felt.

Jackson was saying her name, trying to comfort her, to reassure her, to assist her in getting a handle on reality, but Abby just kept repeating herself. Eventually, she pulled herself away from the tablet.

“Okay,” she said breathlessly, talking herself through this impossible situation. “It’s not conclusive,” she rambled, shutting her eyes. “Just because her wristband went out doesn’t mean…”

Jackson watched her spiral and did not share her same beliefs, but trusted her. He had faith in her. She was where he found her hope. And he knew why she needed to convince herself that it wasn’t true, so he let her.

“Ok,” she repeated, “it’s the first terminated signal in over a week. We can still assume that things are stabilizing on Earth,” she nodded. “We should assume that.”

Her legs took her out the door, where she stood aimlessly, unsure of where to go.

“I need an analysis on Clarke’s vital signs for the past two days,” she said, still talking to Jackson who was inside the room.

“Abby…” he tried to stop her with a sad look on his face, but it was no use.

She held up her hands. “Just have it ready for me when I get back.”

From there, she fled down the hallway. Her legs were taking her home, but she didn’t want to go there. She didn’t want to be alone. Didn’t want to sit in those quarters with Clarke’s empty room haunting her.

Her mind was racing, and her breathing was coming in heavy, ragged spurts when she was nearly knocked off her feet.

She gasped and pulled back, thinking that she had hit a wall while she had been too distracted and upset by Clarke’s terminated transition, but quickly realized instead that it had actually been a warm body.

Councillor Kane had been walking down the hallway alongside Commander Shumway. The pair had been discussing the investigation into Chancellor Jaha’s shooting, but the commander had found nothing tying anyone else to Bellamy Blake.

Kane had bigger problems. He wanted to know who had shot the chancellor just as much as the rest of the Guard, but they were now dealing with a serious HR problem as Callie Cartwig had been fired from her position as public relations officer. She had fallen victim to pillow talk and revealed to her current boyfriend that there were people on Earth. She didn’t tell him who, but it didn’t take a genius to put it all together.

Now, she was fired, and the council was trying to clean up her mess so that the rumour didn’t get fed all around the Ark. She should have been floated for it, and Kane pushed for it, but Jaha denied.

But Kane had a headache tonight because of Callie, and when someone had come flying down the hallway and unceremoniously nearly knocked him right off his feet and down to his knees, it only aggravated him further.

He took hold of his assailant by her arms beneath her shoulders if for no other reason than she had been physically affected by their accidental collision and would have fallen if not.

Abby blinked up at him as if surprised to see him here. It was late, yes, almost curfew, but he’d been working the same hours as her these days. Nobody slept around here.

Kane wasn’t surprised to see her, but he was surprised that she’d run into him. As oblivious and flight as she was, she usually remained put together in public. Right now, she was like a deer caught in headlights. Her eyes were wide, and he lowered his eyebrows upon realizing that they were brimming with tears.

“Abby,” he said without a particular emotion in his voice, and cast a look back at Commander Shumway who stepped aside as if he wanted to give them a moment.

She swallowed dryly and pulled herself out of his grip, shaking her head to clear it.

He was about to ask her if something had happened, if she was alright, what was going on, anything, but he was at such a loss upon seeing her so scrambled that he didn’t get the chance to before she was brushing past him and down the hallway.

She had obviously just come from Earth Monitoring, and now he was relatively determined to know what had happened. Maybe she’d gotten in a fight with someone in there. It was easy to do nowadays. Everyone was on edge and there were many different opinions out there. Abby was an easy person to get mad at.

“Keep up the investigation, Commander Shumway,” Kane nodded back at the commander, clearly sending him off to continue his work.

With a nod, Shumway turned on his heel and allowed Kane to continue through to Earth Monitoring. He walked through the doors with a look of confused expectation on his furrowed brows, wondering what he was about to find in this room.

Dr. Jackson was lingering about with a few engineers burning the midnight oil. The young man was hunched over a monitor that had Clarke’s face on it, Kane noticed. Not her usual wristband profile, but what looked like a conclusive report of past activity.

The man looked up and nodded at Kane when he came into the room, but quickly turned back to his work.

“Dr. Jackson,” he called his attention back. “Are there any updates on the conditions on Earth?”

It had been a few days since Kane had been in here properly, and nobody had briefed him. Abby was avoiding him like the plague, and he had been too busy to check in himself. They were two days away from the culling and so far, they hadn’t lost any more kids. That was all he knew. At this rate, there might not even be a culling.

Jackson swallowed and looked up.

“Only, um…” he faltered once, shaking his head, “…just one lost transmission in eight days, sir.”

Kane furrowed his brow deeper as Jackson nodded up at the screen. That’s when Kane saw it. The most recently lost signal had only happened minutes ago by the looks of it. Clarke Griffin.

He let out a heavy breath of understanding when he realized that would explain Abby’s flighty behaviour in the hallway. The tears in her eyes. The way that she had looked lost in a Station that she practically lived in.

“I see,” he said softly, feeling genuinely sorry for the woman but also somewhat relieved that kids were still dying and their plan was still a go.

Jackson shook his head, looking down at his monitor. “It’s not conclusive,” he muttered.

Even Jackson was feeling this lost transmission more than the others, and Abby’s reaction had nearly broken his heart. His breathing was coming in shaky as he mourned for the young girl and threw his empathy towards the woman who was like a mother to him.

And surprising to even him, Kane felt this one. Abby’s incessant hope had been drilled so deeply into him that even if he didn’t believe it, he recognized it. And it came in the form of Clarke and her bright face still lighting up that terminal. The face that had now gone dark. Abby must be beside herself.

Kane stood up at that screen and stared at Clarke’s face for a moment before sighing and turning his head. He couldn’t quite see Jackson over his shoulder, but the boy wasn’t far. He was nearby at a terminal. Kane didn’t need to speak overly loudly to be heard.

“Is she alright?” He asked quietly, as though he was almost embarrassed to be asking about her at all.

Jackson looked up from his terminal, sure that he had heard him wrong. But when he saw Councillor Kane looking over his shoulder, no hatred or animosity on his genuinely mournful face, he was surprised.

Him and Abby had always been at odds. And because of that, Jackson hated Kane by proxy. They were always bickering, always on opposite ends of certain fights, he had tried to float her. Now, he was worried for her? Perhaps not worried, but he was asking about her. He didn’t get it.

Taking in a breath, Jackson shook his head. “It’s Abby,” he said knowingly, nearly whispering his response. “She’s strong.”

Kane stared at the young man a moment longer before nodding once and looking back up at the terminal. He didn’t agree with Abby’s beliefs or her methods, but he didn’t want to see her daughter dead. He didn’t wish pain and suffering on her. Yes, he had wanted her dead, but that plan had failed. It had always been too easy. What he really wanted was her out of the way. But even he was beginning to realize that the people looked to her because they naturally gravitated towards hope, and he couldn’t fault them for that. He could fight her every step of the way, however.

But tonight, he would only mourn her daughter's loss from afar. Kane was brought back to the waiting room with Jake as he tried to decide between saving his wife and his daughter though nobody had asked him to. When Abby had nearly died during childbirth and how relieved their friends had been when both mother and child came out of surgery healthy.

He remembered going with David Miller to meet the baby for the first time and they all noted how she looked so much more like Jake than Abby.

It was strange for him to have all of these semi-fond memories with his old friends that still obviously occupied a special place in his heart, but now meant nothing to him. Now Jake was just a dead traitor. Miller was just a sergeant under his command. Abby was just a thorn in his side. And Clarke was just a dead girl.

Some nights. He might just think that he was doing things wrong. Tonight was one of those nights.

~~~

Abby had gone home to her quarters last night but could not stay there. Her heart raced too quickly for her to sleep or even try to. After settling herself with a cold glass of water and a series of very deep breaths, she was reminded that if she was asking the rest of the Ark to have faith in her and the ground, then she had to have faith too. Wells’ dark tile did not mean that he was dead and neither did Clarke’s.

It was around four in the morning when she clocked into Medical and assisted the graveyard staff with the lineups of patients that had been swarming for the last week. She was thankful for the extra work. In fact, it was the only thing that kept her going while she was in pain.

Abby thought of herself as a young woman being abused and forced into dangerous markets. The only thing that had kept her sane was by working as much as possible and going to school. Now, with Clarke on the ground with a lost transmission, she wanted to spread herself thin between Medical and Earth Monitoring and Engineering and the council and now working with Raven on the escape pod.

Perhaps that was why this morning as she walked down the hallway after already spending hours in Medical despite everyone else just waking up, she was no longer crying over Clarke’s wristband. In fact, she held her chin up high and she marched through the halls like she had somewhere to be. Which she did.

As soon as she saw Councillor Kane, something tensed within her. If anyone was going to spoil her hard work, it was him. What she was doing was illegal and he would not only put a stop to it but float her for even daring to consider this ludicrous plan. He was the only one who tried to stop her from doing whatever she wanted, and now here he was, walking past her with that suspicious look about him.

Knowing that she couldn’t look too eager to get where she was going – considering that her work had no business in Mecha Station – she slowed her quick steps and tried to appear casual as they passed by one another, nodding and muttering the word, “councillor.”

She held her breath but knew deep down in her bones that behind her, he had stopped and turned around.

“Are you headed to Mecha Station?” He asked, and her heart stopped.

Now, Abby had secrets. Abby was used to covering things up. But Abby was a crappy liar. And this man sought secrets – especially illegal ones – like a bloodhound.

She turned around, bracing herself for this interaction.

“Yes,” she said calmly, keeping her head up high, “as a matter of fact, I am.”

Kane narrowed her eyes and cocked his head, indicating that he was on to her. “You’ve been down there nine times in the past week,” he revealed. “Is there something I should be made aware of?”

Abby couldn’t help the sarcastic grin that sprung to her lips. Gone were the days when he pretended as though he wasn’t trailing her, looking for any signs of illegal activity. Now, he was willing to come right out and admit that he was watching her. It was refreshing, but it was also revealing.

“Are you tracking me, Kane?” She challenged, keeping that small grin on her face but the narrowed eyes indicated that she was rising to this challenge and willing to fight.

Matching the grin, Kane took a few steps towards her. They weren’t particularly menacing because they didn’t need to be. Instead, he sauntered towards her like he already held all the cards and knew that she was bluffing her way through a bet.

“I’m tracking everybody, Abby,” he said in a challenging tone, refusing to wipe that miniscule smirk off his face. “Mind if I join you?”

“Not at all,” she said quickly, searching her brain for any kind of excuse that might get her out of this without looking suspicious.

Quickly, they both turned in the direction of Mecha Station, and she felt as though they were walking too close together. With their shoulders all but brushing, he was sure to see the lies from this close up.

Finally, she landed on gold. With a sly crooked grin that Abby was doing her best to cover up, she was reminded of Marcus Kane’s only weak spot. It wasn’t people, it wasn’t emotion, it was needles. She’d never seen him combative and argumentative like she had when it was time for booster shots.

“But you’re going to have to be inoculated,” she said simply.

Kane stopped in his tracks. When Abby turned back to him, she really had to fight off that smile. It wasn’t a particularly dangerous weak spot, but it was going to save her in this very moment.

“Inoculated?” He asked, lowering his brow as he pictured himself rolling up a sleeve and taking a needle.

“A mechanic came down with strep last week,” Abby explained, lying through her teeth. “She’s fine now, but I’m still tracking the bacterial levels in the station,” she continued, ironing out this lie with perfect modulation. “We don’t want another outbreak.”

It was perfect. Kane was scared of needles so he would not join her. The outbreak would now explain her frequenting of the station. And the outbreak that they’d suffered through five years ago that had left Kane sick and Abby working a week straight without hardly any food or water was enough to scare him into allowing her to continue.

Abby turned as if to continue their stroll, thumbing towards their direction. “Stop by Sick Bay on the way,” she suggested casually.

“It’s alright,” he said, staying right where he was.

She turned back to him, feigning a look of confusion and surprise. In reality, she knew full well that after all that, he wasn’t going to be joining her.

 “I don’t want to slow you down,” he said with a nod, and Abby felt herself begin to breathe again. “Just…” he narrowed his eyes, still skeptical, “…keep me informed.”

Gritting her teeth, Abby narrowed he own eyes as she gave him a facetious smile. Perhaps she was being over the top, perhaps she was becoming too transparent, but she just couldn’t help it. This man made her want to fight.

“Absolutely,” she said before turning around.

Kane watched her leave and hoped that he wasn’t being lied to. He knew that a simple trip to Medical to consult the files would answer his many questions, but didn’t have the time for it today.

They had two days before they would vote once again on the culling and this time, Kane knew that it would be swayed in his favour. That was because of the time he had spent on lobbying and the fact that Abby still had nothing to show for herself. He knew because she was clearly busy with other things. In fact, he hadn’t seen her in Earth Monitoring as much as he used to.

When she turned the corner and left his eyeline, Kane sighed and turned around. Maybe this time, he was the one exercising hope. Hope that she was telling the truth about the outbreak and wasn’t up to anything underhanded in Mecha Station. Hope that she wasn’t planning anything stupid. Hope that she wasn’t going to make him arrest her again.

Abby came through the doors of their Sub3 terminal and saw Raven hard at work. The girl had been growing excited as Abby grew nervous. Now, the drop wasn’t about saving the Ark, it was about necessity. About getting to her daughter to see if she was really alive and well. About leaving before Kane could float them all.

“How soon can you get this thing ready to drop?” Abby asked, like she did every day.

Raven wiped some grease off her forehead. “I’m still scraping up parts to fabricate a pressure regulator,” she furrowed her brows. “We got two more days, right?”

Abby swallowed and pushed that deadline out of her mind. “Can we launch without that part?”

Raven shook her head. “We can launch, but we’ll be dead before we get to the ground. And I mean bad dead,” she began to ramble, “ruptured lungs, air bubbles in the brain. We need that part.” She paused momentarily, catching the worried expression on Abby’s face. “Why, what’s wrong? Has something changed?”

Abby’s throat became dry. This would be the first time that she was saying the words to another person.

“Clarke’s wristband signal went out,” she revealed, a waver to her usually strong voice.

Raven came out of the pod to look at her. “Yeah, but that doesn’t mean anything, right?” She tried to be reassuring. “She took it off like the rest of them.”

The pair shared a knowing look that spoke measures. Abby did not believe that Clarke would take her wristband off without something terrible happening. Either that, or she really was dead. She needed to get to the ground yesterday, and Raven knew that now.

“Okay,” the girl nodded in acceptance. “I can get a pressure regulator today.”

There was only one way that would be possible. Nygel still ran parts out of the Mess Hall, fronting as a culinary technician. In Raven’s younger more desperate years before her and Finn started dating and protecting each other, she used to have to go to Nygel for things like extra food, medicine, resources. The woman always wanted something nefarious in return, but Raven never let her sell anything from her that would steal her soul.

Raven hated dealing with Nygel, but she would do it. For Abby, who was trusting her on this project. For Finn, who needed her on the ground. For the greater good, she would do it.

Abby lowered a brow. For Raven to go from scraping up spare parts to suddenly being certain that she could get this contraband part worried her. That sounded an awful lot like the life that she used to live.

“How?” She demanded, hoping that Raven wouldn’t endanger herself.

The girl only cracked a smile. “The less you know, the better.”

But Nygel was no help. Raven was older now, and had grown into a beautiful young woman. There was nothing she could offer Nygel in return for this black-market part besides her body. And Raven Reyes was unwilling to stoop to such levels. Perhaps if she was more desperate and respected herself less. But not now.

As disappointing as it was, she knew that she had to update Abby, who had left Mecha Station shortly after their conversation earlier having been paged by medical. Now, as Raven approached the terminal, she could see why. Sick Bay was full and there was a lineup down the hallways of patients coughing and wheezing and half passed out against walls.

Abby noticed her immediately and knew that she wouldn’t be here unless there was trouble of some sort. With that in mind, she put her Hippocratic oath on pause for the five minutes that their conversation would take and pulled Raven into the terminal so that they could speak privately.

“All those people out there?” Raven asked despite already knowing the answer.

Abby gave a sigh. “Oxygen deprivation. It’s just the beginning,” she revealed, and Raven was once again reminded of yet another reason that they needed that pressure regulator. “Why are you here?”

“I messed up,” Raven said dejectedly, “I can’t get the part. Nygel wants me to–”

She did not need to finish her sentence. If she had gone to Nygel, then Abby already knew what the slimy woman wanted Raven to do.

“You went to Nygel?” She interrupted, narrowing her eyes in worry and shock.

Raven looked up at her and saw the disappointment and anxiety in Abby’s eyes. “Yeah,” she said quietly.

Abby’s mind began to race. She felt poorly for leading Raven to believe that going to that criminal was her only option. She was also presented with a million and one memories of Nygel asking her to run parts or other contraband items when she was Raven’s age. And yes, the constant coercion into sexual favours. Abby hoped that Raven held as strong to her own sense of self as Abby had back in the day and refused.

“Kane’s being trying to get her for years,” Abby muttered, thinking of the help that she once provided him in taking down the black market that actually led to them squeezing the pedophiles out of the Family Centre. “Did anybody see you?” She demanded then, thinking more of Kane and his tracking.

“I don’t know,” Raven shook her head. “No,” she looked at the woman. “Abby, I’m trying to tell you…we can’t launch today.”

Abby looked up at the wall, staring firmly ahead. Raven was young and beautiful and had nothing to offer but her body. Abby was past her prime and firmly unwilling to sink so low. Abby had something else to trade.

“Are you sure Nygel has the part?” She asked.

Raven lowered her brows, wondering what Abby was planning. She couldn’t imagine a chief officer and councilwoman like her knowing the first thing about how to deal with the likes of Nygel. Perhaps there was more to her than Raven thought.

“She can get one, yeah,” she nodded.

“Okay,” Abby said with a nod of her own, knowing what needed to be done. “I’ll take care of it.”

Raven shook her head. “What are you going to do?”

“The less you know the better.”

As soon as Abby heard that familiar voice from the other side of the Mess Hall counter window, her blood ran cold. Her breath caught in her throat. Her hands began to shake and the skin on the back of her neck crawled.

She hadn’t spoken to Nygel since it was necessary to do so. Twenty some years ago. Since then, she had avoided her like the plague. As soon as Abby was finished with that life, when Danny was floated and she moved to Alpha, she had left Nygel behind too and just hoped that her past never caught up with her.

“Hello, Dr. Griffin,” the woman gave her a toothy smile.

Abby felt as though she was dealing with a crocodile. “Nygel,” she said dryly.

As the tray was passed through the window, Abby stopped it where it was, lifting her hand briefly to reveal the vial of medical grade drugs that she was offering up quite literally on a silver platter.

“Morphine,” Nygel said in a low voice, surprised that after all these years, Abigail was back and willing to trade.

Abby’s already anxious state only grew when she saw that Councillor Kane was now in the room. Always tracking her, he had spotted her from a mile away and began to frown. He hadn’t seen her dealing with Nygel in decades. And even if it was usual to speak with the culinary technician throughout the day in the Mess Hall, he noticed that Abby usually went out of her way to avoid having to speak with her. That was when the alarm bells began to ring out in his head.

“What do you want for it?” Nygel asked.

Abby kept her eyes down. “Pressure regulator.”

Nygel straightened out. This was the second time today that she’d been asked for that part. Abby and Raven must be in on this together. And when she wouldn’t give up the part to Raven, the girl had gone crying to someone who could flex a little muscle.

“I underestimated Raven,” Nygel trilled, a spark igniting within her dark eyes. “How does a girl like that get such a well-connected benefactor?”

She was stalling and Abby didn’t appreciate it. Besides, she knew what Nygel meant by a girl like “that.” A girl like how she used to be.

Abby’s eyes flitted over to where Kane was crossing his arms and slowly making his way towards her. Leave it to him to try and keep an eye on even the food that she was receiving from the Mess Hall.

“You have three seconds to decide,” Abby demanded, still keeping a grip on that trap. “Do we have a deal, or not?”

Nygel finally nodded and buzzed the door open. Abby slipped in holding her breath, just as Kane had arrived behind her. Now, she had a feeling that she was going to have to answer for whatever business she had with someone like Nygel later when she emerged and he was no doubt waiting for her, but that didn’t matter right now.

Sure enough, when Abby left the culinary terminal a few minutes later with an illegal pressure regulator weighing down the pocket of her lab coat, Kane was waiting for her.

The Mess Hall was empty now, as were the halls around it. The lunch hour had just let out, and everyone had gotten back to work. Everyone but him and her, or so it seemed. Abby spotted him as soon as she closed the door behind her but turned on her heel and made a beeline for the hallway, trying to pretend like she didn’t know she was still being tracked.

He was on her in an instant.

Kane approached her quickly and matched her pace, trying to act as though he wasn’t interrogating her when he absolutely was. Dealing with Nygel was unlike Abby these days. Something was up and he was going to find out what it was.

She didn’t acknowledge his presence beside her, but Kane knew that she knew he was there.

“What business do you have with Nygel?” He demanded in a low voice that left little room for guessing what he was accusing her of.

Glancing up at him annoyed, Abby kept walking. People dealt with Nygel every day. Granted, they weren’t often given access into her back room. But still. Once again, Abby was forced to think on her feet and just hope that she was selling the lie.

Abby blinked away the faraway look in her eyes and fought off the unwanted memories that had come rushing back to her as soon as she walked through that door. This was no time for flashbacks. Not while she had to convince Kane that she was innocent.

"She supplies Medical with product, you know that, Kane,” Abby stated flippantly, looking away from him and now staring forward as they walked side by side.

She only hoped that he left her to her own devices soon, for Abby had to get this part to Mecha Station and Kane surely wouldn’t let her head down there once again without joining her.

“Product?” He scoffed, standing tall as they walked. “You haven’t traded with Nygel since–”

“Herbs,” Abby snapped, cutting him off before he could drag the skeletons from her closet and taunt her with them.

They turned a corner that was once again empty. Abby wished that someone would come along and she could recognize them and insist on a conversation just to lose her trail.

“Not only are people not responding to our regular methods of treating oxygen deprivation,” she said tiredly, thinking of the lineup back in Medical that she really needed to get back to, “but we’re burning through resources faster than they’re generated.”

That sounded true. Kane paired the tired look on her face with the exhaustion in her voice and the loaded Medical Terminal and knew that it all added up. But he knew when Abby was hiding something, and she wasn’t doing a great job of covering it up. In fact, her hand was still in her pocket, gripping the pressure regulator as though she was afraid someone might take it away from her.

“And herbs are the solution?” He demanded, not buying it.

Suddenly, Abby stopped in her tracks. She had reached her wits end with this man and she really needed him off her trail. He matched her posture and turned to stare at her, narrowing his eyes.

“I wish we didn’t have to get creative right now, Kane,” she said, feigning honestly. “But we’re running out of options.”

Now, Kane blinked. Even she could see that they needed more time right here on the Ark, not on the ground.

His lips pulled together in a thin line and despite the hall still being empty, he lowered his voice. “Maybe if you hadn’t been wasting so much time on the hundred project,” he began, “you would have been able to better predict these shortages.”

Abby opened her mouth to object but he’d gotten the jump on her.

“And maybe instead of focusing on a planet that can’t sustain human life, we could have been using the time and manpower to come up with a better solution,” he narrowed his eyes now as a bitterness flooded his face and voice. “Then you wouldn’t have to be dealing with Nygel of all people just because you need a Hail Mary.”

“My business is my business, Kane,” she snapped, crossing her arms as she finally pulled that one hand out of her pocket. “How I choose to head Medical is none of your concern.”

“My concern is with surviving, Abby,” he sneered, getting down to the root of the problem. “And yours should be too.”

Abby shook her head. “My concern is with living,” she corrected him. “Something you wouldn’t know the first thing about.”

Kane blinked once and straightened out as Abby shook her head and turned around, trying to walk away. But she had opened a floodgate now. And despite knowing that she should take this opportunity to be rid of him and get this part to Raven, she couldn’t help but turn back around and continue this fight.

“Have you ever stopped to ask yourself what you would be living for if we do survive this?” She asked, now a couple feet away from him.

Kane rolled his eyes, uninterested in her fantastical ramblings.

“I don’t need to live for anything,” he shut her down coldly.

“Yeah,” she scoffed under her breath. “That’s been painfully obvious for the last twenty years, Kane.”

“Hey,” Kane hissed, suddenly irritated as he stalked forward towards her so that they were not shouting across the hall. “What I live for isn’t going to matter if we can’t save our population.”

It always came back to that, didn’t it?

Abby shook her head. “You’re not living, Kane,” she said coldly, her voice revealing that she knew him better than he would have liked to think. “You’re going through the motions.”

He took in a breath, giving her a dark look of confusion and disdain. “What do you care, Abby?”

Now, she blinked up towards him. She didn’t. Or did she? She would have, once. And if he hadn’t pushed her away all those years ago, they might still be friends today. Then, she would really care. Despite the fact that she hated who he had become, she still didn’t want to see him turn into a robot. If not for his own good, then for the greater good. For the people of the Ark that he wanted to cull.

“I care because the decisions that you insist on making are going to strip us all of our humanity.”

Kane shook his head. “I am trying to save humanity,” he reminded her, eyeing her sharply. “From it’s own extinction.”

Abby blinked as he stared in between her two eyes, searching for a reasonable person behind the hopeful front.

“The same thing that your husband died for,” Kane added and watched as the hurt flashed across Abby’s face. “What have you done other than rely on false hope and misinterpreting data?

Abby swallowed once before shaking her head in anger. “I put one hundred kids on the ground,” she reminded him harshly. “Where they might have a chance to not only survive, but really live.”

“You don’t know that,” Kane turned away, shaking his head.

“Yes, I do,” she stopped him by taking a step forward. “I know it in my heart.”

As she spoke, she reached out and placed the palm of her cold hand overtop Kane’s chest, directly over his heart. Perhaps she was desperate to know whether or not he even had one. Perhaps she wasn’t thinking. Either way, the sudden physical contact between them froze Kane in place and even stopped his breathing.

She hadn’t really been thinking when she touched him. It wasn’t something that they did. They used to be freely affectionate – but not too affectionate – with one another when they were young and flirting and friendly. But since then, they shared no physical connection whatsoever. Not even the occasional handshake.

And when that hand was placed on his heart, Kane felt the warmth of it despite knowing that it was likely just as cold as they used to be. Abby ran cold, that probably hadn’t changed. But every argument he had died on his tongue when that little hand found his heart.

The warmth started there in his chest and soon flooded his entire upper body. But Abby was not finished with him yet.

“Maybe if you had one,” she sneered, keeping her hand on his chest, “you could feel that, too.”

Kane stared down at her. For one single moment, he allowed that warmth to radiate. To stare at that hand and wonder what the hell it meant. But then that moment ended. And when he chased the warmth away, he felt even colder than he had to begin with. Now, he steeled himself against her and her touch, her warmth, her ramblings, her hateful speech, her beautiful eyes. He hardened himself and leered at her, a frown etching itself onto his face as she stared up at him.

“I am not interested…”  he began slowly, a sharp edge to his low voice, “…in hope, Abby.”

Swallowing, Abby let that hand fall away from his chest, but neither moved from their positions in close proximity to one another.

“I’m looking at facts,” he continued. “And the facts are telling us that Earth is not survivable,” he still peered down at her. “And in order to give us the six months of oxygen that we need to survive we need three hundred pairs of lungs gone from this space station.”

Blinking, Abby found herself struggling to meet his eyes but instead peering at his face. How could he say that so easily? How could be he so blinded by his own convictions that he was willing to turn into a monster?

“If you want to cling to fantasy and blind faith, that’s your choice,” he continued darkly, “But that’s not going to stop me from doing what needs to be done.”

He turned to leave her now, brushing past her rather harshly as their shoulders bumped and Abby was now spun around to watch his back.

“Do you feel anything anymore, Kane?” She asked in a smaller voice, genuinely concerned for his mental state.

She watched as the tall man before her stopped and let out a heavy sigh before the turned around to meet her inquisitive eyes.

“I feel…” he sneered, “…a responsibility to my people. To save the human race.”

Abby shook her head. “And what about a responsibility to yourself?”

He blinked away from her, wishing that she would just stop. He had basically heard this same spiel from Jaha last week before the vote. The chancellor hadn’t managed to get through to him, Abby certainly wouldn’t either.

“What if we’re stuck on this Ark for the rest of our days and you’ve wasted them feeling nothing?”

Abby was of the mindset that it was better to have loved and lost than never loved at all. And she had a feeling that Kane might be a healthier personal mentally if he could allow himself to believe that.

“Even if it doesn’t help anything,” Abby continued, “are you going to just keep killing people until the air runs out? That’s how you want to spend your last days alive?”

Kane took a threatening step towards her. This woman didn’t know the first thing about his feelings, nor would he want her to. Her accusations were unfair and inaccurate.

“I’m not killing people, Abby,” he said darkly, “I’m doing what it takes.”

“You’re turning yourself into a robot,” she interrupted before his sentence had even landed in the space between them. “And you know what the most ironic part is, Kane?” She peered at him, her eyes darting in between his. “You don’t even realize that it’s because you still have hope yourself.”

He squinted, unable to find her logic. “What are you talking about?” He muttered low.

Abby swallowed and tilted her chin up. “You’re doing whatever it takes to save the human race because you have hope that it can be done,” she leveled with him. “So, you don’t get to judge me for doing the same just because my hope looks different than yours.”

He let out a heavy sigh, straightening his back. He knew that Abby thought she was right about this and didn’t have the means to explain why she was wrong.

“No wonder you’ve been so unhinged lately,” she began to mutter, and her voice took on a sharp, teasing tone that he didn’t quite recognize from anything recent. “You’re just as hopeful as the rest of us, you just won’t let yourself admit that.”

Frustrated now, Kane shook his head. “Abby,” he said harshly, staring down at her, “I don’t feel anything but dread. Dread and responsibility,” he finished, straightening out.

Abby mimicked his posture and tilted her head up to meet his eyes relatively defiantly. After staring at his face for a moment that felt like it lasted forever, she allowed her eyes to look in between his and found a crack in his armour. They weren’t black and filled with numbness and hatred. He was not evil. He was just a man desperately doing what he thought needed to be done to save the human race. She could resent him for what he was doing, but not why.

“You should really let yourself feel more than that,” she said quietly, still staring up at him almost as if she actually cared. “These decisions that you’re making…” she trailed off momentarily, shaking her head, “…I know it’s easier to make them without feeling, but it’ll all catch up to you in the end.”

Kane suddenly darkened, realizing what she was saying. Abby was alluding to the fact that sometime in the future, the floodgates would open, and he would feel it all. Every flotation, every arrest, every friendship lost, every death, he would feel. She was threatening a reckoning, and he didn’t believe her nor appreciate it.

“I don’t remember asking to be psychoanalyzed,” he said coldly, pulling himself back from her. “We have a real crisis on our hands, or have you forgotten?”

“I’ll say,” Abby continued, crossing her arms over her chest and meeting him with that same teasing tone of voice that rattled him so. “The ever-stoic Chief of Security might actually be experiencing emotion.”

“Would you stop?” He insisted, finding no humour in this situation. “Of course I have feelings, Abby,” he said in a low whisper, leaning towards her so that she could see the seriousness in his face. “The world is ending. How could I not feel that?”

Abby shook her head. “I am well aware that you have plenty of feelings about doomsday, Kane,” she reminded him, “you’ve made that very clear.”

He straightened out again, wishing that the air between them didn’t feel so dangerously electric.

“It’s everything else that I’m worried about,” she was still relatively teasing, for Marcus knew full well that she didn’t really care.

She cared that his lack of empathy was often taken out on her and unlike everyone else in Alpha Station, he didn’t make any exceptions for her. He hadn’t tried to spare her life, he hadn’t looked the other way when she broke the law, he didn’t prescribe to the pedestal that she sat upon.

“Keep it to yourself,” he demanded darkly. “It’s not your job to worry about me.”

Abby bit her bottom lip, wishing that he could let himself lighten up just a bit. With wishes in mind, she also wished that she didn’t still have a piece of contraband material in her lab coat.

“It’s my job to worry about everybody,” she reminded him, “I’m a doctor.”

Kane gave her a curt nod, still scowling at her. “And what are you diagnosing me with?” He demanded, humouring her.

Abby’s eyes lightened as she looked at him. If he didn’t know any better, he might think that she was almost smiling at him.

“A chronic inability to seize the moments that we have left,” she said simply, not meaning much by it.

Kane tried not to read into anything. He didn’t have time for it. There were moments all around him that could be seized, and he did not do so. That’s all she meant and that was the truth. He couldn’t argue with her about it, but he also didn’t feel as though it was a bad thing.

He took one step towards her and Abby realized that once again, she stopped breathing.

“I do what needs to be done, Abby,” he said, his voice low and barely above a whisper as he spoke down to her. “Not what I want to do.”

With that final sneer, he was glancing between her eyes once more before turning around and storming off, desperate to get away from her and her insistence upon living like real people who could afford to do so.

Abby watched him go momentarily and appreciated the fact that at least she had gotten him off her back. But she couldn’t help but also feel as though something was slowly snapping. Perhaps in her, perhaps in him, perhaps in both of them at the same time. Their disagreements were going to come to a head once and for all.

And for his own sake, she hoped that she could prevent the culling. Because he wasn’t going to be able to live with himself once it was done.

Nothing bothered him. Nothing but criminals and irresponsible people. Those who jeopardized the safety and longevity of the majority. The enemies of their community. They bothered him but not enough to lose sleep at night. Recently, after years upon years of numbness, Kane realized that he had a sudden itch that he could not scratch. Something had gotten under his skin. And he knew exactly what that something was. In fact, it had a name.  It was Abigail Griffin.

Abby and her endless needling, today's included. Her reminders that she knew who he was and what he had turned into. Reminders of her disapproval. Callbacks to a past that he tried to distance himself from. The way that she argued in meetings, the way that she constantly disobeyed him even when her life was at risk because of how convicted she was to her cause, the way that she would jut her chin in the air and look him in the eyes whenever she defied him, the way that she called him a dictator and a heartless monster and an unfeeling tyrant. It was starting to get under his skin whether he wanted to let it or not.

How did he sleep at night? That's what she asked of him and he knew it. After floating so many citizens. Executing friends and strangers alike. Pushing to cull even more innocent people without their knowledge. Failing to allow himself to believe in the ground despite there already being one hundred kids down there. Betraying friends, turning away lovers, overstepping in his duties. How did he sleep at night? Peacefully, or so he had to admit. Peacefully knowing that he was doing everything he could to save the most people. Himself included. She and his other friends were only included in that number when they deserved to be. And recently, she didn't.

Still, he was sleeping less and less these days. Not because he had regrets or was second guessing. But because her voice wouldn't shut up in his head. He'd close his eyes and see those piercing brown eyes of hers launching an accusation that he would need to lower himself to her level in order to rebut. He'd hear her sharp, exacting voice asking how he could live with himself after committing such atrocities. He was trying to sleep at night, and she wasn't letting him.

While Kane was marching back to Prison Station, he heard a quick whistle. He paused momentarily upon realizing that it was Horatio. One of the culinary technicians that worked closely with Nygel but once again someone who covered their tracks so well that Kane hadn’t been able to nab him on any real charges.

Slowly and with a sigh suppressed inside of him, Kane approached the window that Nygel used to occupy.

“She wants you to meet her in Sector 52,” Horatio muttered under his breath.

“Farm Station?” He narrowed his eyes. “Why?”

Horatio shrugged his shoulders and disappeared from the counter.

Kane was always playing cat and mouse. First, it had been with Abby. Occasionally, Danny got involved. After he was floated and she moved to Alpha, it came to a head between him and Nygel. She was his main target and Abby had been right; he’d been trying to get her for years. Every now and then, they would meet, and he would get one step closer.

But Nygel wasn’t looking to play today. No, she was looking for immunity. To prove to Kane that she could be of more use to him alive than she could be dead. Because if she kept feeding him the information that he so desperately wanted to hear, he wouldn’t rush to prosecute her.

And as soon as Abigail Griffin appeared at her counter with that morphine, she knew that it was a blessing in disguise.

There was only one thing that could drag Marcus down to the pits of Farm Station in order to meet with her. One person left that he somewhat cared about. And Nygel was desperate to prove that she still had her influence around the Ark. That not even that one person was safe from her clutches.

That was why she had moved Vera Kane and her preachings from the Go-Sci Station all the way down to the bottom of Farm Station. And when Kane came through those doors and saw her leading a session of much fewer people than he remembered up in Go-Sci, he was reminded that Nygel was an unstoppable force. Much bigger than he.

“Your mother’s inspired today, Markus,” Nygel mused over in the corner upon noticing Kane’s arrival. “I remember when you were tender of the tree,” she said, shifting in her seat as Kane approached her. “You were a cute kid.”

Kane wasn’t here to play. “Why did you bring her down here, Nygel?” He demanded coldly. “What do you want?”

Nygel gave a quick smile. “It’s about what you want,” she said in a cheery voice. “I have something for you.”

Kane sighed. His going after her had taken a backseat to the oxygen problem lately. “Unless it’s a signed confession,” he breathed, “I’m not interested.”

He was turning away when she landed the blow that would keep him intrigued.

“Not even if it involves your friend Abby Griffin?”

Indeed, Kane was frozen in place. He turned back towards her, blinking as he realized that Nygel was obviously willing to share whatever Abby had really been in to see her about earlier.

He stepped closer, intrigued. “What about Abby?” He demanded in a calm voice, almost desperate to hear the incrimination of Abigail Griffin once and for all.

“She and a girl named Raven Reyes asked me to get them a pressure regulator,” she revealed simply, playing up her angle. “As a lowly culinary tech, I didn’t feel I had a choice when one of your fellow councillors asked me to help her break the law.”

Kane was no fool. He knew full well how Nygel operated. Desperate people went to her when they had no other choice. Abby used to be one of those people on a frequent schedule. She knew how Nygel worked too. And Nygel didn’t deny her customers. If someone came to her with a good enough deal, it didn’t matter who they were, she would jump on it. Nygel was in control here, not Abby. That’s how it always had been. And Kane was also well aware that she had no reason to spill her guts without getting something in return.

“And since when do you give up your customers?” He asked in a low voice, unwilling to be led down this garden path no matter how beautiful it looked.

“I don’t have customers, Marcus,” she shook her head, feigning innocence. “I am a citizen of the Ark, and I don’t believe anyone should be above the law,” she paused, looking at him. “Do you?”

He didn’t know what her angle was, but he wasn’t about to let her lead him on like this. She was trying to appeal to his sense of hatred towards Abby, his disdain for her untouchable ways and the exceptions that were made against her. Maybe it would help if the smell of her jasmine scent wasn’t lingering on his clothing after she had touched him earlier today.

Kane leaned forwards, narrowing his eyes. “You’re a plague on this ship, Nygel.”

He took a piece from the chessboard that she had been toying with and moved the king into a checkmate.

“And even if what you said is true, it’s your word against a member of the council,” he reminded her harshly. “Who do you think the people will believe?”

Nygel shrugged. “You know,” she began, calling him back, “you should thank me.”

She had one more trick up her sleeve. One more way of proving that she was telling the truth and she could even help him towards the answers that he was looking for. She held up the vial of morphine and Kane took it in his hand.

There was no doubt that it was from Medical. And there was also no doubt who could get this. The chief.

“With Abby out of the way…” Nygel continued, sharper than even Kane had thought, “…your agenda should sail right through.”

Kane thumbed the vial in his hands and knew many things in that moment. One, that Abby was going back to jail. Two, that Nygel was going to want something in return. Three, that she wouldn’t ask for it now, but likely when it inconvenienced him most.

Looking at her, he shook his head unconvincingly. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Nygel shook her head, glancing over at Vera who was still leading a child through the watering of the tree. “You’re almost as convincing as your mother,” she said.

Kane looked over. He could remember being the child that sacrificed his rations to water the tree. It had made him feel good. It had given him something to believe in. The hope that Abby was always talking about. Even he once had hope for the ground and yes, in a perfect world, he would love to get there one day and feel the sun on his skin. Perhaps Abby was right and part of him did have hope. But there was no space for it.

The rest of the people in this room, Abby, everyone in Earth Monitoring, they could have their hope. He could not. He had to do what was right and necessary. And that was why they could have their hope. Because he burdened the reality.

“Waste of water if you ask me,” Nygel mumbled.

Kane looked at her momentarily. “Not to them,” he reminded her, and truly meant it.

As he marched up to Mecha Station from Medical where he had just finished getting the confirmation that he needed, Kane finally understood what Abby had meant when he arrested her over a week ago. When she had reminded him that they always had a choice and that he was choosing to press charges against her.

It was right and he knew it. In terms of the law, he was adhering to it. He was doing the right thing on paper. But was arresting this woman a second time the right thing to do in the grand scheme of things? Or was he doing it because he had to?

At this point, he didn’t know.

Abby was inside pacing while Raven tried to install the part. She paced so furiously that the girl had gotten mad at her for it. That was when Jackson called her tablet.

“Abby,” he said, a worried look on his face. “Did you take morphine from the clinic?”

Abby’s heart fell. “They inventoried already?” She asked in a small, uncertain voice.

She thought that she would at least have more time between stealing the morphine, getting this part, and the inventory that would prove her guilty. By that time, her and Raven should already be on the ground and away from it all.

But she’d forgotten that of course Kane wouldn’t let it go. He saw her in and out of Nygel’s and he wasn’t going to let it slide. Not even after their argument earlier.

“No, Kane was just here,” Jackson confirmed her suspicions. “He’s on his way to Mecha to arrest both of you right now.”

Abby’s stomach tightened as she lowered the tablet. They had to do this now. Not tomorrow, not the next day, not even later today. Right now.

Raven peaked her head out of the pod. “You gave Nygel morphine?” If only she had something of such quality to trade, maybe Nygel would stop trying to sell her body.

“She turned me in,” Abby whispered to herself in disbelief, moving towards Raven. “How much longer?”

Raven shook her head. “Twenty minutes.”

“They’re going to be here in five.”

Walking away from the scene, Abby took a breath. Everything changed in this moment. She was going down for Clarke. To see her, to make sure she was okay after her wristband went out. But that wasn’t all. She had broken the law and needed to leave the Ark before she was floated for it. She was also going down to prove that Earth was survivable. To stop the culling. And even though she wouldn’t choose anything over protecting her daughter, Abby knew that her duty now was with her people.

She didn’t need to be the one on the ground, she wanted to be. She didn’t need to see Clarke, she wanted to. Someone needed to be on the ground, and that was it.

In this moment, the drop was no longer about Clarke. It was no longer about leaving the Ark to save herself from flotation. It was about saving the 320 people that Kane was going to cull.

Realizing this and saying goodbye to her dreams of seeing her daughter, Abby sighed and turned back around, moving to Raven.

“No matter what happens, you launch that pod,” she said firmly. “Do you understand?”

Raven’s eyebrows pulled together on her forehead. “I’m not going without you.”

Abby moved forward and put a warm hand on Raven’s shoulder. “Only one of us needs to get to the ground, Raven,” she reminded her, accepting her own fate. “The second you find those kids, you radio back. 300 innocent people will die if you don’t.”

Those were the stakes, and that was why she was willing to stay. In this moment, she realized how Jake must have felt. Willing to die to save his people. Finally, she was right there with him. Two years too late.

Looking down, Raven was overwhelmed with a sadness. She had lost her mother so young and had been on her own for so long. This last week with Abby felt like home. Like having a mother.

“Abby,” she whispered sadly, “they’ll float you.”

The woman looked on reassuringly, promising Raven that this was the right thing to do despite the risk. “Then they’ll float me.”

Pulling the girl into a hug, Abby placed her hand on the back of her head lovingly and held her close before pulling away and taking her hands, staring into her face.

Not only was Abby scared for this poor girl that she was growing to love, she was also realizing in this moment that she was sacrificing herself for the greater good. She was never going to see Clarke again, but Raven would.

The pod would launch, and Raven would save them all, but Abby was going to jail where she would be floated by tomorrow morning. This was it. Her death wish. Her final sacrifice. For Clarke. For her people. For Raven.

Abby choked back a sob.

“Tell Clarke I love her.”

That was all Abby said before she left the terminal and went out into the hallway. Raven needed time. Twenty minutes of it. Now, Abby was well aware that she couldn’t give her twenty minutes, but she could give her an extra few. All she had to do was distract the Guard long enough to keep them looking at her rather than Raven.

She paced momentarily, waiting the few minutes that it would take. This is how I get myself killed, she thought to herself, over and over again. It wasn't being discovered hiding in her parents' quarters. It wasn't her life of crime when she was an adolescent. It wasn't her ex-boyfriend beating the life out of her. It wasn't Jake threatening to sacrifice her to his cause. It wasn't even Kane rising to his chancellor pro tempore-ship. It was this escape pod. This plan. This was how she got herself killed.

And sure enough, Kane showed up with his guards in tow. Abby turned to face him head on but could not meet his eyes. This time, she knew what was going to happen. She did not expect immunity or for him to avoid pressing charges. She knew what was coming and she couldn’t look it in the face.

Kane, however, approached her differently. Instead of looking determined and proud, anticipating her execution, he was disappointed. Genuinely disappointed that she would once again do something so reckless.

Slightly out of breath from the quick pace of their steps, he looked up and down her face a few times before tilting his head in to speak low to her.

“I’m hoping…” he began, and Abby’s eyes met his when she heard the inexplicably honest tone of his voice, “…there’s a logical explanation for all this.”

Abby’s lips twitched. There was a logical explanation. Just not one that he wanted to hear. She couldn’t explain it all away within the law. She had broken it. She had done something floatable, but it was all for the greater good. And if it wasn’t for Clarke’s wristband going out, she wouldn’t have done any of it.

“My daughter–” she choked out, unable to go on.

Kane’s face changed when he realized what was happening. When Clarke’s transmission was terminated, Abby must have gotten desperate. She still stared down, unable to look at him, and he had a feeling that there were tears in her eyes.

He felt for her. As much as everyone – including her – accusing him of having no feelings, he certainly felt for her right now. Not enough to change his ways, but enough to feel sorry for her. To understand her pain and why she did what she did. But it wasn’t going to save her.

Nodding slowly, Kane took in a breath and blinked. “I know,” he whispered, and Abby stared up at him now. “I’m sorry,” he said genuinely.

Abby was surprised to hear that he even knew that Clarke’s wristband had gone out, but even more surprised to hear the truth dripping from his expressive voice. With it low and whispered, it was only for her. It was the man that he used to be, speaking to the woman that she had always been. Revealing that he still had emotions and that he still cared, even if he didn’t always show it.

Then, the moment ended.

“We all knew it was a long shot,” he said, raising his voice.

When that moment vanished, Abby was left angry and wishing he would come back. He had almost been so kind and understanding and was now rubbing salt in the wound by flippantly waving away her daughter’s death as a statistical probability.

“I still believe–” she said again in a choked voice, unable to say anything else.

Kane stared at her. She was defiant and culpable. Remorseless for what she had done and unwilling to deny it. He blinked once and nodded, realizing that he still had an investigation to complete.

Looking away, he began to pace the room.

“What’s the pressure regulator for, Abby?” He demanded in a voice reserved for his interrogations as he clasped his hands behind his back and continued to pace.

When it became clear that she was not going to offer him any sort of explanation unless he tortures it out of her, Kane moved back in front of Abby and narrowed his eyes, failing to realize that she was stalling.

"There's no bacteria is there?" He added in reference to their conversation about Mecha Station's strep case.

Blinking slowly, Abby wasn't really looking at him. She was too busy hoping that his questions spared Raven enough time to launch her pod and accepting her fate. Kane was never going to let her walk away a second time. She was going to be thrown back in a prison cell and floated and there was nothing she could do about it. She could not come to terms with that while looking her hangman in the eyes.

"Your infected mechanic," Kane raised his eyebrows, continuing, "Raven Reyes..." he paused, searching between her two eyes for the truth, "...what's she up to?"

Looking up slowly, Abby finally met his eyes but continued to say nothing. She wanted to tell this man that he was a tyrannous dictator who executed anyone who he disliked along with a few other choice words, but she knew that would only get her dragged away faster and Raven would be exposed. 

But Kane was on to her. Perhaps not her stalling, but at least on to what she was doing with Raven. He had done his own digging and found good reason why Abigail Grifin and Raven Reyes might have an interest in Sub3 Mecha Station. He only hoped it wasn't true.

"Did you know that her boyfriend, Finn Collins..." he watched as Abby closed her eyes and flinched ever so slightly, as though he might just be hitting a nerve, "...was one of the hundred?"

Though there wasn't much space between them to begin with, he stepped forward. Intimidation tactics. She needed to understand that she wasn't the only one on this Ark. The consequences of her actions affected them all.

He lowered his voice, "your obsession is now going to get her floated, too."

But Abby did not flinch. Because she had faith in Raven. Hope in this moment. She knew that if she just stood there silently and let Kane talk himself in a circle, Raven would have enough time to launch and then it would all be worth it. But if she was found out now and they both went to jail, it would have been all for naught.

"If you don't tell me what you're up to..." Kane tried to appeal to her sense of empathy and unwillingness to let Raven - who was barely an adult - be floated for something that she had dragged her into, "...I won't be able to save her."

Abby shook her head. Kane didn't want to save anybody but himself. If she came forward now and told him everything, he might pretend as though he was going to absolve Raven of her crimes because she'd only been helping a member of the council, but he wouldn't fight as hard as he needed to. Raven would be floated. She would be floated. And 320 people would be killed despite there being hope left on the ground.

"You still don't understand..." she finally said, wishing that he had more of his humanity left that she might be able to appeal to, "...I'm trying to save all of us."

Kane blinked when he realized that a tear had fallen down her face. She hadn't cried when he arrested her the first time, despite the fact that he knew she was scared. It couldn't be fear now that she was feeling because Abby Griffin usually showed fear in a cautious, held back kind of way that only someone looking close enough could see. She must be upset about something else. Which meant that there was more going on than he could have expected.

Whatever it was, he didn't have time to figure it out. He knew that he had to arrest her and then find Raven and what she was working on. And now, because of Abby, he was going to have to float the both of them. With a scowl, he turned away.

"Arrest her," he demanded coldly, with little to no emotion present in his voice.

He couldn't look at her anymore. The woman whose obsession with the ground, whose blind faith in seeing her daughter again was going to kill them all.

"Continue to search for Raven Reyes."

By now, Kane was nearly out of the terminal and down the hallway, clearly eager to get on with better things today. Once again, arresting Abigail Griffin was a mere inconvenience in his otherwise busy day.

As her hands were grabbed, Abby didn't fight back but boy, did she want to. The sound of an airlock chamber opening inside the terminal was like music to her ears, and Abby glanced over her shoulder to look back at the door in momentary disbelief. That tear on her cheek still stung her heart but it was sweeter now. She could die now. She could go to jail and be floated, even if it meant never seeing Clarke again. She could die because Raven did it. Raven was going to go to Earth, stop the culling, and save them all. And now she was too far away for Kane to catch her.

"What was that?" One of the guards demanded, pressing his earpiece firmly into his ear.

Abby let out a breath of relief as Kane nearly plowed right through her to get to the terminal door. Now, she didn't care that there were two guards pawing at her nor that she was on her way to her imminent death. She didn't care that Kane would likely see to that personally now. Raven was going to save them.

"Sir," one of the guardsmen spoke up, receiving a message in his ear, "a pod launched."

Abby knew that Kane would be positively furious like nothing she'd seen before, and was almost grateful that his other two guards were now leading her away from the entire scene. But he was not yet finished with her.

"Abby," he said firmly, taking a few long strides towards her.

Kane took hold of her arm and twisted her around to face him, now the only guard restraining her.

"What have you done?" He demanded.

A pod launch was unexpected, though he should have seen it coming. Abby believed in Earth, she would do whatever it took to prove that it was survivable. And right now, the only thing that might prove that is another pair of boots on the ground and a method of communication.

Abby didn't say a word to him as he leaned in towards her, sneering in her face. She knew that look. She knew it well, actually. Kane truly believed that he was doing the right thing, and she was the one dooming them all. She could hardly fault him for sticking to his convictions, she only wished that they didn't so often get her arrested. One day, he would see. One day soon, considering Raven was on a mission.

After a few seconds of threatening eye contact, Abby finally gave. "We have to know the truth," she said, confirming Kane's suspicions about what was happening.

He searched her face for reasonability and found none. Raven Reyes was plummeting to her death. To join the hundred kids who were slowly dying. She was not going to save us all, and they would likely never know the truth. Abby had wasted another young life for nothing. But she too thought that she was doing the right thing.

Abby felt him squeeze her arm slightly firmer for a second before shaking his head with a mixture of disappointment and anger on his face and storming off. The Chancellor would need to be notified of this new development. And he had no interest in accompanying Abby to her prison cell.

"I'm not executing her, Kane," Jaha said later that day, when Kane came by to update him on Abby and Raven's illegal plan.

The Chief of the Guard was beyond frustrated, and the chancellor's words did nothing to ease his troubled mind.

"Sir, she obtained illegal machinery through the black market," he stared fiercely at Jaha, urging him to listen. "She shared sensitive information about the Ark's life support and the hundred project to an unauthorized mechanic, and put her to work in an off-limits terminal bay," he continued. "She sent that mechanic to the ground in an unauthorized drop."

He stared at the man before him, who appeared unwavering.

"She deserves to be floated, sir," he insisted. "Anybody else would have been a long time ago."

"But she's not anyone else," Jaha said calmly.

Kane had to wonder momentarily if the chancellor harboured some affectionate feelings for Abigail Griffin that went beyond platonic. He knew that they were friends and while nobody wanted to see a friend floated, Jaha's persistence seemed bigger than that. Maybe he had fallen in love with her over the years and wasn't willing to see her dead. And it was such weaknesses that reminded Kane had had done the right thing by refusing to feel or get close to anybody. Because he had nobody left that he loved - save for perhaps his mother - there wasn't anybody that he couldn't float.

"She is our Chief of Medical," the chancellor reminded him, "the best doctor we have. Not to mention, she's leading the hundred project which we have yet to write off."

"We have yet to write it off due solely to her delusional persistence," Kane sneered, raising his voice. "Now Clarke is dead, and she got desperate," he continued coldly, "and now we have a missing escape pod."

Jaha nodded slowly, taking a small sip of the tea that he had brewed for himself. "I understand that you believe she should be floated," he said.

"I think floating is the least that she deserves, sir," He was nearly shouting now as he spoke. "Over and over and over again, she breaks the law, and you make an exception for her," he paced around the room. "It doesn't look good. You can't just absolve the people that you care about of their crimes. We have a bigger picture to worry about."

Jaha was about to argue - something no doubt vague and philosophical - when Kane's paget began to beep. He pulled the thing out of his pocket to see that he was being summoned immediately to the Earth Monitoring station.

"What now?" He muttered under his breath, leaving the Chancellor's quarters without so much as an excuse.

Kane was expecting to be met with angry engineers who had caught wind of Abby's arrest and were ready to take it out on him personally. He was expecting to see Raven Reyes' escape pod pinpointed somewhere on Earth and the scientists asking him what to do about her now. He was expecting some kind of transmission, good or bad. He was not expecting to see every last wristband suddenly go out all at once.

It didn't necessarily mean radiation, and if Abby were here, she would remind him of that. It wouldn't suddenly kill them all just like that. But something did. Maybe they were caught in some kind of natural disaster - though the engineers couldn't see anything that might back that up - or maybe there were animals on the ground out for blood. It didn't matter why, but the hundred were dead. There was no more hope for Earth, and it was time to start making the necessary decisions aboard the Ark.

He spent hours that night speaking with the various scientists and doctors who remained at a loss in terms of explanations. Sinclair mentioned that it was almost as though something had blown the circuitry connecting the wristbands all at once. It was possible that one of the techy kids was messing with them. He could see Raven trying to rig up some kind of two-way communication if she had indeed made it to the ground, or even someone like Monty Green. But it was, of course, inconclusive.

It was well after midnight by the time that Kane decided the hundred were in fact dead or at least unreachable. Radiation or not, they had to move forward. And the only way to give life support the time that it needed was to reduce the population. Immediately.

The council met at three o'clock that morning, dragged from their slumbers and scared into submission by the harrowing news of the hundred lost transmissions. Nobody asked where Dr. Griffin was or why her seat was empty. In fact, at the moment, she was suffering against the effects of a pressure headache, a sore throat, and burning lungs, because Prison Station's oxygen had been reduced to half-air for the last six hours.

Her vote wouldn't have mattered. Numbers from Medical Station and the environmental engineers were brought forward during that meeting, just before the vote. The dwindling oxygen, the growing symptoms of hypoxia, and the lost wristband transmissions were all enough to sway the vote one way.

The second vote wasn't unanimous. After explaining why Abby wasn't in her usual seat, Kane very happily explained all that she had done. Over half the council was horrified, but the parents who sat at that table understood. If their child was part of the hundred, they would be desperate to make contact with them too. But Medical needed her. The lines and patient intake numbers had been growing steadily over the past two weeks and if the environmental projections were to be believed, it would only get worse.

It was almost another split vote for Abby's work release. Kane fought hard to keep her in that cell where she could do the least amount of harm, and Muir felt strongly in the same direction. The rest knew that their top doctor was going to be needed now more than ever. The only way that Kane would shut up about it is if Jaha promised that it would be taken under review and that she was standing on thin ice.

If she did anything to threaten the peace or break the law again, she'd be floated without so much as a second thought.

Chapter Text

Abby wasn't surprised when Jaha appeared in her cell that morning, nor was she surprised that he did not seem to be putting his friendliest foot forward. He needed her, his council needed her, Kane needed her to be the voice of reason, and she was abandoning them to follow reckless missions and stupid ideas.

He was angry that his son was dead. Angry that his wife was dead. Angry that over one hundred kids were dead on the ground because of him. And he was angriest that now he was going to have to kill 320 more of his people.

"Environmental numbers?" She asked upon taking the tablet that he handed over.

Instead of seeing information about Raven's descent as she had originally assumed, she was met with a terrible reality. One that she might have seen coming if she'd been paying closer attention.

"As of this morning," Jaha nodded solemnly. "Oxygen is down 16%. CO2 and methane are heading to red levels."

Abby shook her head. "Our projections said that we wouldn't be critical for another three months.”

That's what Jake had told her, anyways.

"Your husband's projections were wrong," he said with a hint of coldness in his voice. "The council has granted you work release pending review"

She glanced at him, happy to hear that once again she was avoiding execution.

"Medical is overwhelmed," the chancellor explained, "Dizziness, fatigue, vision problems..."

"It's pulmonary toxicity," Abby said quickly, though that was a surprise to nobody. "I know how they feel."

Jaha noticed the slight heaviness in her breathing and knew that she had been experiencing symptoms of it herself. "The prison section has been on half-air since midnight."

Abby watched him as he began to unload a small bag on the counter. Quickly, she realized that he had brought an oxygen machine and was going to offer her some clean air.

"No," she said immediately, shaking her head, "I'm not going to take more than my share," Abby blinked through her conviction. "We start choosing who gets extra O2 and we're one step closer to choosing who lives and dies."

Jaha looked remiss. Speaking of that...

"Abby," he began cautiously, stepping forward, "the council approved Kane's population reduction plan three hours ago."

Her eyes snapped upwards. "You voted without me?"

"We followed the rules of order," the chancellor explained, shaking his head. "It wouldn't have mattered," he continued. "Their approval was unanimous. We start in twelve hours."

Abby felt the weight of that realization hit her like tangible heaviness. "How many?" She asked weakly, staring down at the ground as she tried to sort through the information that she had just learned.

"320 people will be excised from the grid."

Kane had done it. He was twelve hours away from getting everything that he wanted, everything that he had pushed for since the beginning of all of this. They were barely over two thousand people - one hundred less now that the kids were on the ground. Could they afford to cull over 300 more of themselves? What were any of them thinking.

She didn't want to be any part of it. But knowing that the council vote was final, all she could do was hold on to hope that Raven would radio back. That her plan would work. And because of that, Abby knew that she couldn't give up yet.

Though she was tempted to beg Jaha to just float her instead of force her back to work with dying patients, she had to have hope. She had to go on. Wells may be dead. Clarke may be dead. Or they may all be alive, every last one of them. She knew which option her heart had to believe.

"No," she turned around slowly, "murdered, Thelonious. 320 people will be murdered."

Jaha understood her frustration. It was a horrifying decision to have to make. But Kane was right, it was necessary. They had to think of the numbers. He turned away from her then, disinterested in her judgement.

"We need to wait for Raven to report back."

Storming forward, Jaha grew angry. He was sick of sacrificing kids. Sick of letting Abby convince him to do so. Grabbing his tablet off the cot, he forced her to look at the calculations glaring on the screen.

"Look at those numbers," he demanded harshly. "Every hour that passes, we put more people in danger."

Abby shook her head, holding strong to her beliefs. "She risked her life for those people."

"No," Jaha said coldly, "you risked her life," he stared at her, but Abby did not budge. "When you let her believe that loving a boy somehow meant trusting her life in a 100-year0old metal coffin."

Abby blinked then. Was he right? Did Abby see so much of herself in Raven that she was now forcing her into similar circumstances that she had lived through at her age? Blinded by love, wiling to break the law, to risk her life for the man that she loved? No, this was different. Their entire population was at stake and Raven was a brave girl.

"And that trust is going to kill her," Jaha added coldly. "Another child dead. Just like all the others," he stared at her. "Just like our own."

She stared up at the chancellor who no longer felt like her friend. Jaha was slipping. And she understood why. He was tasked with making impossible decisions and had Kane in his ear swaying him towards pessimism and desperate measures. But she wished that he was able to keep his hope. Clarke's wristband was out too, and she knew in her heart that her daughter was not dead. That one day, they would meet again.

"Take this," he demanded, handing over the oxygen mask. "People are suffering. You can help."

That was what it came down to, wasn't it? It was why she'd been granted work release rather than floated. It was why she was now being offered oxygen while others were not. Abby had to wonder if she would have been dead long ago already if she was not a doctor. Was that her only utility? She merely chose a lucky career path?

"Raven will make it to Earth," was all she could say, giving a strong nod of her head. "I know she will."

"Godspeed to her."

~~~

Abby had spread herself thin.

Though she was grateful for the workload as it kept Clarke's terminated signal off her mind, she was overwhelmed and emotional. She dreaded the culling, and it was all she could think about. It felt like her own clock was running out with every hour that passed. And while she worked herself to the bone manning the Medical Station as patients came in and out with depressing symptoms - the children were the worst, as usual - all she could think about was Raven. Raven and her radio. The radio that had only a few hours to save them all.

Abby hadn't slept properly in weeks - not since the kids were sent down and certainly not since she'd been spending the occasional night in lockup awaiting her execution - and today her body felt as though it was running on fumes. Not enough oxygen, not enough sleep, no food, barely any water, and certainly no love. Nothing but hope in a dying world. Everything was slipping from her control. She would have been alright with that if it wasn't being transferred from her over to Kane. She didn't trust him.

In her mind, he wanted this. He wanted people dead. She failed to realize that he thought it was their only hope. Much as she did about Earth. They were two sides of the same coin. And perhaps these next few crucial hours would reveal that.

After demanding that Jackson go back to Earth Monitoring and listen for Raven's radio like his life depends on it, Abby was running Medical by herself. It wasn't as bad as the epidemic that hit a few years back, but she was swamped. By the time the Chief of the Guard came by looking to speak with her, her feet were sore, her lungs still burned, and her stomach felt sick as the time ran out.

Kane didn't know who else to go to. Not after what he had learned.

The chancellor had confirmed based on Kane’s plans that the culling as a go for tonight, and that the technical software was all in place. It would require the push of a button in engineering. He also revealed that he did not plan on living past tonight. He was going to die with his people. It was the only way that he could reconcile this within his head. He couldn't cull 320 innocent souls and go on living. Kane was better suited to that. Kane had been right all along. The fewer emotions and connections a person had, the easier it was to make the tough decisions and live with them.

But Kane revealed then and there that he was not emotionless. Because he did not want his chancellor to die. More than that, he did not want his friend to die. One of his very last friends. Even if this meant that he got to be chancellor in his place and finally have the run of things around here, he did not want it this way. Some things were not worth sacrificing. That was the first crack in his armour.

Kane had asked him not to do this, begged him even, but Jaha wouldn't hear it. His mind was made up.

"You..." the chancellor had said, staring solemnly into his old friend's eyes, "...you have a strength that is not weakened by sentiment. And that's exactly what it is going to take for us to survive."

A strength not weakened by sentiment.

Those words bounced around Kane's head until they no longer sounded like English. It's what he had worked towards, wasn't it? No attachments, no difficulties, nothing but freedom. Freedom to make the hard calls, to sacrifice whatever needed to be, to do what had to be done. And yes, it had been easy for him to see that they needed to reduce the population and come up with a plan for the culling. That didn't mean that he wanted to do it. He wanted to be chancellor and have the authority to get things done; he didn't want their current leader to die for it.

He wasn't emotionless because he wanted to be, he was numb because he had to be. Because he would rather die this way that be forced to feel the effects of the 320 lives that he would be taking. Of all the people that he had floated. All those that he failed to protect. He couldn't feel that. But to have no sentiment at all? Was that just as dangerous?

He certainly didn't feel emotionless right now. He felt angry. Madder than hell about Jaha's decision. And it wasn't political, it was personal. The same way that he was angry when Abby broke the law. Not because he necessarily wanted her dead, but because he thought it irresponsible and unfair of her to try and get herself killed right now. They were all needed. Even if he would have an easier time with her out of the way. He needed her voice in the back of his head. He needed Jaha's final decisions. He needed the rest of the council to advise them. He did not want to be the one making these decisions on his own.

He did not want to be chancellor. Not if it meant losing a friend. For the first time in his life, Marcus Kane could say that with confidence. He did not want to be the chancellor.

Maybe that was why he decided to go find Abby. He wasn't thrilled with her, all things considered, and he knew that she was going to be difficult. But she was the only one left. The only one of their original friends that might be able to talk some sense into Thelonious.

She looked beat. He wasn't surprised. He'd been by Medical a few times today for updates on the symptoms that were going around, and she'd been too busy to ask. He had to speak with a technician every time and it only seemed to get grimmer. Abby had always been inside bouncing from patient to patient, prescribing things that they did not have. More air. More sleep. More water. Less stress. She couldn't save these people, and it was killing her.

Things seemed to have settled down relatively and while she was in between patients, sighing and running a tired hand over her braided hair, Marcus met her eyes from across the room. She knew what that look meant - either she was in trouble or somebody else was. And there was no avoiding it.

The pair met up along the side of the room where Abby busied herself folding up a blanket that had been left on an empty cot.

"The chancellor has lost his mind," Kane said under his breath, standing beside Abby with his hands clasped behind his back, leaning towards her slightly so that he could be heard without alarming the rest of the room.

She continued to fold the blanket but raised her eyes. Not to meet his, but instead to stare straight ahead.

"What are you talking about?" She muttered, wishing that she didn't have to speak to the man who was always arresting her.

She would have preferred to at least not have to stand so closely to him. He smelled nice and it bugged her. He didn't deserve to smell nice.

"We've chosen Sector 17 for the culling," he revealed, and watched as Abby's eyes suddenly darted up to him as if he had wounded her.

That's when he realized that she'd been born in Sector 17. 

He had failed to even consider this when he made the arrangements. Sector 17 merely held the correct amount of people and did not contain many vital workers in its population. There were a couple medical technicians, some engineers, but mainly labourers and blue-collar workers. And though they were all just as crucial as the rest of the Ark, a doctor’s skillset would outweigh a factory worker’s.

Once again, Abby thanked God for her career choices. Had things gone differently, she would be killed tonight.

Kane brushed past this realization as Abby glanced back down, also putting it from her mind. “Jaha has decided…” he said slowly, staring down at her as he wondered how she might react to this news, “…to join them.”

Abby blinked once before her hands stopped moving. That’s when she looked upwards with lowered brows and frantic eyes.

“What?”

Kane swallowed, nodding. “He insisted.”

She shook her head. “No,” she said firmly, as though she was Jaha’s parent denying his wishes. “No, he can’t do that. It’s absurd.”

“I agree,” Kane said quietly, and Abby peered at him curiously. “He would not take no for an answer.”

Narrowing her eyes, she wondered what his angle was. Kane didn’t seem as though he was gloating, though he had technically just won himself a chancellorship without the hassle of a campaign and election. He also didn’t seem to have the answers that they both needed. A way to stop him.

“You have to stop him,” she continued to insist, staring up at him urgently. “Tell him it’s not right.”

“You don’t think I tried?” Kane said, and Abby pulled back instantly.

Oh, he thought to himself. No, she didn’t think that he tried. She assumed that he would be happy to have power transferred over to himself. She expected him to be celebrating. Here to rub her face in his victory.

“I tried, Abby,” he confirmed coldly, angling his head down so that he could stare her in the eyes. “He’s not thinking straight.”

She threw the blanket down on the cot. “Well,” she said quickly, “I can’t let that happen.”

That was all she said before she was storming off, leaving Medical in the hands of the apprentices and lower doctors. At least now that it was quiet, they could handle it. Kane watched her go and knew that he had done the right thing by telling her. Somebody had to change Jaha’s mind, and Abby was the best person to do it.

“Tell me it’s not true,” she demanded, bursting into the Chancellor’s quarters.

Jaha had been expecting her. The door was unlocked. He knew that her and Kane did not like each other, did not enjoy each other, did not see eye to eye, were not friends, but he also knew that up here, they were all the other had. Besides himself, of course. He had been expecting Kane to go running to Abby and tell her the news hoping that she might be able to put a stop to it all.

“Today,” he began slowly, “there are so many things I wish weren’t true.”

Abby grimaced. She wasn’t here to be lectured, and she wasn’t here to watch Jaha justify his suicide.

“Spare me the noble speech,” she snapped, “you know what I’m talking about,” Abby stared at him as though he had grown a second head. “You joining Section 17.”

Jaha did not have to think about his decision. It was already made. People could take it or leave it, but within a few hours, it would not matter to him anymore. It would be Kane’s problem. His and Abby’s. He only hoped that the man didn’t float her. She still had work to do.

“How could I ask anyone to make a sacrifice that I am not willing to make myself?” He asked honestly, walking away from Abby.

The woman trailed him like a persistent shadow.

“So, you’re gonna die peacefully and leave humanity in the hands of Kane?” She asked, and Jaha nearly laughed. “Chancellor Kane?”

No, they were not friends. Abby was not only here to save his life, but to prevent a dictator from rising. That was all she saw when she looked at Marcus Kane. But Jaha could see more. He could see a big heart that hadn’t been put to good use lately. He could see difficult decisions and a man who wouldn’t lose sleep at night over them. After the tough calls were made, maybe Kane would learn to listen to his heart.

“Yes,” he said, turning to her. “He won’t hesitate to do what needs to be done.”

Abby shook her head as he put his jacket on. “Thelonious, this is all happening too fast.”

“We’ve waited as long as possible.”

“There are things that we can do to buy us time,” she insisted, desperate to keep the 320 souls alive. “We should reconsider forcing an algae bloom to boost oxygen production.”

That solution had been brought to the table over a year ago. The engineers in Hydro Station had shot it down.

 “You’ve read the studies,” Jaha shook his head. “That would only contaminate the water supply.”

“We can induce people into comas to reduce their resource consumption,” she continued to press, but it was no use.

They had heard it all. Seen it all. Tried it all. The only thing that they needed was more time. And there was but one way to get that.

“We’ve gone through all the possibilities,” Jaha confirmed what she already knew to be true. “This is the only solution.”

Abby could not accept that. “No,” she insisted, “it can’t be this.”

He took a step closer to her and only hoped that she wouldn’t grow to hate him the same way that she hated Kane. “I am doing what its right,” he said slowly.

She narrowed her eyes. “You’re running away,” she whispered in an accusatory voice. “You think what you’re doing is right, but you’re a coward,” she moved past him in anger before turning around once. “How are you going to explain it to Wells?”

Jaha stared at her, his heart pulling apart within him. Wells was dead. As much as Abby felt Clarke’s life in her heart, he felt Wells’ death in his own.

“How would you tell your son that you let these people die without doing absolutely everything in your power to save them?” She finished strong.

It wasn’t fair, and Abby didn’t want to have to use his son against him, but she felt as though it was a necessary evil. She needed to get through to him. If she were in his position, she would condone somebody using Clarke to shake the truth into her too.

As she left that room, Abby had a troublesome feeling brewing within her. She hadn’t changed his mind. Jaha was going to kill himself alongside 320 people in Factory Station tonight. Tomorrow, Chancellor Kane would rise. Maybe he wouldn’t wait. Maybe he would kill another few hundred people by morning just because there was nobody left to stop him. He would have her floated before dawn, that was for sure. He would stop looking for signs of life on the ground, he would pull the plug on the hundred project, not to mention Project Exodus. He would spare them a few more months of life before everyone died anyways.

And she couldn’t let that happen.

Suddenly and without warning, she became her late husband as she tore through the halls towards her quarters. She understood how Jake had felt. Before, she had sympathy for him and could understand his desperation to do something, but she hadn’t understood how coming forward with the problem would solve things.

Now, she knew.

If the people knew what was going on – what was really going on – they would not let themselves be culled secretly in their sleep. They would not allow their chancellor to abandon them at their most vulnerable. They would put their heads together and come up with a solution. There were other parents on board the Ark who would be desperate to get to their children on the ground.

And with all this in mind, Abby now knew that Jake had been right all along. And that his message – the one that he had died for – was the only thing they had left that might just save them all.

She knew that it was a suicide mission. But Jake had been willing to sacrifice her back when he first decided to go public. He knew that it would be worth it. And now, she finally agreed. Her life was not worth more than the other 320 peoples’. Not more than the hundred’s. Not more than Thelonious’. She had to do this, once and for all.

Kane would see her dead for her crimes anyways. What was one more?

That was what she told herself as she grabbed Jake’s flash drive – the one that he had slipped into her pocket when he was saying goodbye to her outside the flotation chamber before his execution - and fulfilled his dying wish.

She told the people.

Or rather, he did.

Kane shouldn't have been surprised. She was a criminal who could not stop breaking the law. Yet, he had been surprised when Nygel had said her name. He'd been surprised again to find out that she had assisted a zero-G mechanic with an unauthorized drop. And he was surprised now, to see the face and hear the voice of her husband being broadcasted no doubt all over the Ark from station to station, sector to sector.

Jaha, however, was not surprised at all. For a split second, perhaps, then he realized that he had been expecting it. Even from beyond the grave, Jake Griffin did the right thing. And he had been correct all along.

"Sir," it was Commander Shumway who brought the matter to his attention out in the hallway, handing over his tablet, "have you been on the network?"

At first, Kane was confused. He knew that Jake had made a video, he had never seen this video. He had also confiscated the camera that had been used to record it. Obviously, there was a backup version somewhere. But how was it being broadcasted now?

Abby, he realized with a grimace. His no-good wife. The criminal that the council had voted to free. And now they were all suffering the consequences.

And now here was Jake Griffin, telling everybody that the Ark was dying.

"It's playing everywhere," Shumway explained. "Tech's trying to shut it down."

Kane let out an exasperated noise of frustration. His surprise was misplaced. He should have seen this coming from a mile away. That woman would stop at nothing.

"We should never have let her out of the cell," he cursed before rounding up his available guards and tearing down the hallway.

Engineering was the only place that she could broadcast such a video from, and that was where they were headed now. Kane thought they might be able to salvage this. To chalk Jake up as a delusional man who had lost his mind and was floated because he was trying to broadcast false information. He could still control this.

As soon as Abby appeared on the screen, all hope of reeling in this narrative went out the window. He was not at a screen and could not see her face, but he heard her voice. There was obviously a terminal somewhere nearby that was relaying everything she wanted.

Kane cursed himself as he strode towards Engineering. At this point, he blamed himself more than he did her. He should have been more insistent that she remain under careful watch when outside of Medical. Shouldn't have allowed her respite in her quarters. Shouldn't have told her about Jaha's plan and maybe she wouldn't have gotten so desperate. Abby only makes rash decisions like this - the ones that risked her life - unless she was desperate.

He was feeling rather desperate too with everything happening, but at least he kept his head.

They were too late. By the time Kane's men began to bang on the terminal doors that had been locked from the inside, Kane knew it was no use. Abby had already ran her mouth about the culling. From somewhere down the hall, he heard her say the words 320 people, and he knew that there was nothing more they could do to contain this information.

It was treason, that's what it was. Plain and simple. But in this moment, his top priority wasn't even floating her. Doing away with the woman that he'd been trying to kill for close to a month now. No, he was still desperate for control.

"Dr. Abigail Griffin," one of his guards was shouting, but even Kane knew that it was futile at this point - he damage was done. "Open this door!"

Kane didn't hear her closing remarks. Something about the future belonging to all of us. It sounded awfully traitorous. He wondered if Jaha was going to keep himself alive long enough to finally float her for her crimes.

When the doors opened, he walked in slowly. There was no use rushing to the scene - the scene was already over. There was no use exercising force - Abby would go easily now that she'd accomplished what she wanted to. There was no use in acting surprised - he should have seen this coming.

"What the hell are you doing?" He demanded, his arms falling down at his sides in a gesture of accusation.

He could have been more professional about it, but she didn't deserve that. This was a woman who had clearly lost her mind, and he was going to treat her as such.

Abby swallowed, standing behind that counter as though it could protect her from what was coming next. 

"What I should have done a year and a half ago," she said strongly, clearly feeling nothing if not triumphant in her actions.

He glanced once behind himself, nodding to his guards. "Sweep the perimeter," he asked half of them before looking in the other direction, "find out how far that was broadcasted."

He already knew the answer - it would have gone out everywhere. Abby would have made sure of it. If she was going to go out, it would be with a bang. The biggest bang that she could produce. That was who she was.

"Sir," the Guards nodded before doing as they were told, "the chancellor's called an emergency council meeting," Shumway mentioned on his way out. "He's asking that you bring the prisoner."

Abby grimaced at the word. She was standing there freely with her hands unbound and her legs unshackled. She certainly didn't feel like a prisoner. And with the guards now all filtered out of the room leaving her alone with their chief, she didn't look like a prisoner either.

She shook her head downwards, letting out a sigh as Kane stepped towards her, coming around the console so that he could take her by the arm. He was still going to have to detain her, but likely would have grabbed her even if that was not the case.

"Are you out of your mind?" He demanded in a low, sharp voice, peering down at her as though she had personally offended him in some way.

Abby blinked up at him, unwavering. "It had to be done, Kane," she insisted coldly.

He shook his head. "You've just unleashed anarchy," he argued. "People are going to die because of what you've done."

Abby nearly scoffed.  "More than the 320 you were planning on killing yourself?"

Once again, the same coin. Trying to prevent mass casualties. Kane with uprisings, Abby with the culling. 

He sighed sharply, knowing that it was no use arguing with her. "You can't take this back, Abby," he said, just above a whisper. "You do realize that?"

Something about his voice provoked goosebumps as a chill ran up her spine. Perhaps it was the finality of it all. Perhaps it was the staring contest that she was once again forced to have with the man who insisted on trying to take her life.

This, Abby thought to herself. This is how I get myself killed. It wasn't the surgery, it wasn't the black-market trading, it wasn't the escape pod, it was this. The legacy of the man that she loved. And she didn't know for sure that it was the right thing to do, but it was the only thing left. And Jake was usually right about things. One last time, from beyond the grave, she was just going to have to trust him.

Keeping his grip on her arm firm and unforgiving, Abby allowed Kane to forcefully lead her out of the room. He knew that she would go with him willingly now that her work was finished, but he didn’t want to take any chances. He had let her out of his sight before and look what happened.

He didn’t care that she was clearly struggling to keep up with him. He didn’t care that he knew he was grabbing her harder than necessary. He didn’t care that she was making slight noises of discomfort as he yanked her along. He cared about getting to that council chamber with this woman in tow – his prisoner.

Already as they walked through the hallways, people were leaving their quarters, their workplaces. It was only a matter of time before they began to riot.

“You–” a voice rang out when they turned a corner in between Engineering and the Go-Sci Stations.

A belligerent looking man with a kerchief over his head came barrelling through a door, pointing at Abby who looked over at him with concern on her face.

“What the hell are you talking about?” He demanded, clearly rattled by her great announcement.

Abby flinched when he got too close to them – especially since Kane did not loosen his grip on her. He merely kept her at an arm’s length while he used his free hand to grab the collar of the belligerent man’s shirt and yank him towards himself.

“Get back to your quarters,” he demanded before the man could make any kind of break for it or try to take his aggressions out on the woman that had caused them, “wait for further instructions.”

Kane shoved him back not harder than necessary, but enough to put the man right back where he came from. Then, he kept his grip on Abby’s arm firm as he pulled her to his side and kept her there with the strength of his hand.

He didn’t have utter the words on the tip of his tongue. She already knew what he was thinking. You did this to yourself.

Finally, and with a few more disturbances along the way, Kane pulled her into the council chamber where Jaha was waiting with a few other officials including the rest of the council who were discussing in hushed tones off in the corner.

Commander Shumway was already there, and Kane finally let Abby go – knowing that she couldn’t get away from this crowd if she wanted to – and met him for a briefing before taking his information to the chancellor.

“We’re posting riot teams in all public areas,” Kane explained to Jaha, who stood beside Abby looking nervous.

The chancellor nodded. “Any reports of unrest?”

Kane stood taller. “Not yet,” he said sharply, “but people are gathering. There’s a crowd of 400 strong right outside–”

He sent a sharp look towards Abby, clearly aggravated at her for all that she had caused.

“That’s what you’ve done,” he snipped, and in response all she could do was blink at him.

Jaha let out a sigh. “All we can do now is determine our best option,” he said.

Kane knew where this was going. He could see it clear as day. Once again, Abby was going to be absolved of her crimes. This was the worst yet, and she wasn’t going to see a single punishment for it. The chancellor did not have to officially tell him this in order for Kane to understand it. It was why she was allowed to stand here in this room unrestrained among professionals instead of being sent away to Prison Station.

“Options?” He blinked in frustration. “We have no options,” he reminded them sharply, wondering if any of them ever considered how Abby’s actions fell back on him. “We need time. Or everyone in this station is going to die. Either in an uprising or by suffocation,” he glanced back at Abby. “Those are the options she’s given us.”

She grimaced and nearly reminded him that she was standing right there and didn’t appreciate being spoken down to, but one of the guards had come by and began to whisper in Jaha’s ear. The chancellor then nodded his assent. The time for action was upon them.

“The people outside are sending someone in to talk,” he began before fixing his gaze upon Abby unexpectedly. “To you.”

They were all surprised. Based on what she’d seen in the hallway, Abby would have assumed that the people would hate her for being the bearer of such grim news. The angel of death. But perhaps it had endeared her to them. Made her seem real for telling the truth when nobody else would. Maybe it separated her from the rest of the council and the likes of Kane.

“His daughter’s a patient of mine,” Abby muttered upon realizing that they had sent in Tor Lemkin.

Just earlier today, she had treated his young daughter Reece for optic nerve damage. Wasting no time, Abby moved to meet the man near the entrance. Jaha and Kane trailed slowly behind her. One relieved, the other irritated. Both surprised.

Kane did not appreciate the fact that she had committed a crime against their council and now the people only wanted to talk to her. She wasn’t their saviour. She was the one who would lead them to their deaths. He wished they could see that.

That’s when everything changed. Even for him. That’s when Jake Griffin was proven right.

“I’m sorry you had to hear it like that,” Abby was saying to the docile looking Factory Station man after he had opened with an acknowledgement of her video.

“No good way to hear it, right?” He tried to make light of the situation as Jaha and Kane lingered nearby, moving in on the conversation. “Anyways, I…uh…” the man continued, intriguing the trio, “I’m here to volunteer, I guess you’d call it.”

Kane and Abby knew what was coming, but Jaha had yet to understand. Just as he had when Jake insisted that going forward was for the best.

Jaha never understood what he believed the people would do. Abby understood but couldn’t be sure. Kane understood but was certain he was wrong.

“Volunteer?” Jaha interjected. “For what?”

Tor nodded. “Section 17, sir,” he stated firmly.

Blinking in surprise, Kane shifted to look at Abby, who looked as though she was about to cry. Either cry or deny this man. Tell him that he wouldn’t be doing that. That was the thing, Abby didn’t want anybody to die. Kane knew that 320 of them were going to have to.

Perhaps the only happy medium they could come to was the agreement that at least the deaths could be voluntary.

“Any way you do the math, some of us are gonna have to jump ship for all of us to make it,” Tor continued, accepting his fate, “so, I’m gonna jump.”

Abby stared up at him, wishing that he wouldn’t say such things. “You’d leave Reese without a father?” She asked in earnest.

Tor swallowed and gazed at the doctor. “This morning you told me my daughter was going blind and there was nothing I could do to help,” he reminded her, and Abby’s heart began to bleed. “Turns out there is. Count me in,” he nodded.

One by one, people came in after Tor. Leaving their identification cards as a token of their volunteerism.

Jaha watched in wonder and Abby was brought to tears but forced to stand strong. Jake was right. He had been right all along.

Kane, however, was more affected than the others. Because yes, Jake was right. Jake who he pushed to execute. Jake whose own wife didn’t even believe him. Jake whose chancellor refused to save him. Jake that the three of them killed in a joint effort had been right since the beginning. He had killed his best friend for nothing.

Standing behind Jaha and Abby, keeping an eye on things and ensuring that nothing got out of hand, Marcus Kane experienced a soul-changing realization. There was so much good in this world. So many people willing to trade their lives so that their loved ones, their people could go on living. It was selfless, it was compassionate, it was empathetic, and it was so utterly human that he didn’t even know what to do with this newfound knowledge.

It meant that not only was Jake right, but Abby was right. She had been wrong here and there, but she was right about humanity. Perhaps him forcing away any and all feeling and sentiment was never the right thing to do. Perhaps Jaha was right – he could kill 320 people without flinching but at what cost? He had sold his soul to uncovering the inside truths of this world and now he was facing the repercussions of that.

Because his soul was coming back to him. Slowly but painfully. He thought of all the people that he’d floated for trying to save somebody they loved. Abby was almost one of them. He thought of the desperate parents that had cried and screamed when he arrested their children. Or vice versa. He thought of every pitiful face that shed tears as they were floated at his command.

He thought of his Reign of Terror and how he used to think that was a prideful title. He thought of his mother and how he pushed her away because she believed in something bigger than all of them and wanted him to see the light. He had done the same to Abby back in the day because she saw something in him that he didn’t think was a useful quality.

How much had he sacrificed? How many years had he thrown away for the sake of numbness? Of pollical gain and power trips? What was he doing? And why wasn’t he on the list of people that were lining up to die?

Abby turned away to wipe her eyes halfway through the volunteering process and Kane watched her. The world was moving in slow motion as he realized right then and there that he had been wrong about so many things. That he had pushed so many people away. That he had nothing right now. Nothing but the people in this room, anyways.

But Abby had never played those games. She was the same person that he met decades ago. It’s why her tears right now were typical and to be expected. She felt things with her entire being. And he had villainized her for it. Made her out to be weak and unwilling to do what needed to be done.

She was just a widow mourning her husband. A mother chasing after her child. A councilwoman desperate to save her people. She was a woman who wanted to go to Earth. How could he hate her for any of that?

When she had to excuse herself, worried that she would be reduced to tears in front of the people who were making a much harder decision than she was, Kane felt the strangest desire to follow her.

She was leading them through the darkness with the light of her hope and now even he wanted to follow. Strangely enough, he didn’t even feel the need to keep her restrained or locked in this room despite having just committed treason.

An hour ago, that was the most important thing in his mind. The rule of law. Now, everything had changed. Because he had been reminded of the humanity that existed all around him. The humanity that he had ignored for so long because it was easier that way. The humanity that people like Abby and Jaha and Jake had never lost.

But he didn’t follow her. Instead, he stayed in that room until the very last volunteer came forward, nodding at each of them, and fought off tears.

The feeling hit him like a physical blow. He felt it in his chest with a shortness of breath that had nothing to do with a lack of oxygen. He felt it in his hands as they went rather numb. He felt it in his heart as it pounded in his chest, reminding him that it was there and it was beating. He felt it in the headache brewing at the back of his skull.

It had been so long since he’d felt anything beyond stress or frustration or anger. This wasn’t new but it was nearly unfamiliar.

He had been wrong about so many things. He still knew that this population reduction was necessary, but he had been wrong about how to go about it. And he was wrong for not giving Abby the credence that she deserved in Earth Monitoring. She was right, the kids could be alive. And Raven was a resourceful kid. He had half a mind to believe that she might just make it.

The other half – the more logical side – knew that it was doomed. But something had changed in him. It now wasn’t important who was right and who was wrong. All those volunteers did it because they had hope. Hope that by sacrificing their lives, the people they loved could live on. Hope that Engineering would take their extra six months and solve the problem.

And there was only one person who came to mind when he thought of the word hope.

Abby had been the one insistent on it. And she had been right. Look what hope had accomplished today. He now understood why she needed to have that hope and did not want to be the person to take it away from her. In fact, he refused to be that person.

With that in mind, he went by Earth Monitoring on his way to the chancellor’s quarters. He had three missions left tonight. Stop Jaha from condemning himself to death alongside his people, carry out the culling, and give Abby back her hope.

He paused just before the terminal doors when he saw that inside, he could only see the back of her. Abby and Jackson were wrapped in an embrace with the young man’s head over her shoulder, facing him. He couldn’t see Abby’s face or front but knew based on the slight spasms of her back beneath her lab coat and the solemn expression on Jackson’s face that she was crying. Sobbing, probably.

Sobbing into the arms of her second in command because she had been touched by humanity today. Or because she was still reeling from the loss of her daughter? Or maybe she was worried for Raven? Herself, perhaps. She was scared that she was going to be floated at the end of all this. Or maybe she was just sad. Stressed out, sad, exhausted, worried for her people, and trying to have hope that it would all get better.

Whatever it was, it prevented Kane from walking through those doors. He didn’t hate her. He knew that now. He didn’t hate her by a longshot. But she likely still hated him, or at least she thought she did. And this moment wasn’t for him. He was the last person that she would want to see right now.

Instead, he went straight to Jaha’s quarters and handed him the final numbers.

“This is more than enough,” the chancellor said with a nod, looking at the upwards of 500 volunteers.

“We rejected almost 100,” Kane explained. “Essential personnel and minors.”

Jaha looked at him, surprised by the sheer quantity of people willing to die for their loved ones. Kane ultimately had to concede this one. He was wrong and he could admit that.

“Abby’s announcement proved to be very convincing,” he added.

Shaking his head, Jaha looked away. “I don’t think she or her husband convinced anyone,” he expressed. “They spoke to something that was already inside of them.”

Letting out a sigh, Jaha squared himself to Kane and looked in his eyes.

“The new chancellor should remember that,” he said before grabbing his jacket and moving towards the door. “I better get to 17. Don’t want to be late for my own funeral.”

Kane shook his head. “Sir, you don’t need to do this now,” he said firmly.

“I know what I’m doing is right for my people,” Jaha sounded peaceful as he spoke. “They’ve inspired me.”

It wasn’t right. Kane could feel it in his bones. They needed him.

“No, they volunteered because you inspired him,” he fought.

“Jake Griffin inspired them,” Jaha reminded him, and the two men shared a look. “And I executed him. I executed my friend.”

If Kane had not suffered the intense realization today that there was more to life than just surviving, he might not have bothered to try. He might not have been able to find the words. But he felt new. Like waking up out of a coma. Coming up for air after decades of drowning.

“One decision does not define a man,” Kane insisted. “Jake Griffin is gone. You’re here,” he reminded the chancellor firmly. “Our survival depends on having a leader who can inspire people to self-sacrifice.”

Looking into his eyes, Kane hoped that Jaha knew he was telling the truth. He hoped that the chancellor could see how important this was to him. He couldn’t be the man who got the job just because Thelonious had sacrificed himself.

“You’re that man,” he said in a low voice. “Not me.”

~~~

Nobody wanted to be there tonight.

Not the people who filed in, loading into the bay that would bring them their deaths.

Not Kane, who meandered around the room keeping an eye on things despite knowing that he was committing mass murder for what he could only hope was the greater good.

Not Jaha, who shook the hand of every man and woman making the sacrifice that he could not.

And certainly not Abby, who had been fighting off more tears ever since breaking down in Jackson’s arms earlier. They still hadn’t heard anything from Raven, and she was starting to wonder if they ever would. Having hope was hard sometimes, even for her. It dwindled. Especially on nights like tonight.

She had fought against this night. Tooth and nail. She never wanted to let it get to this point, but Kane had insisted. And even though she couldn’t blame him as furiously as she wanted to, she still hated him for it.

It was a miracle that Jaha was here, agreeing to live another day, and Abby was taking the victories as small as they came.

She watched from afar, back by the wall with her arms crossed over her chest as if to shield her from the scene before her featuring the chancellor shaking the hands of his genocide victims.

She was duly surprised to glance over and realize that Kane was now standing beside her, directly to her right.

He wasn’t here to harass her, or so it seemed, and that was where her initial surprise came from. The second wave of it was produced by the fact that she’d felt someone there but would have guessed it was anyone else. Because it did not feel as though a cold, unfeeling monster was looming beside her. It felt as warm as the rest of this melancholic room. Marcus Kane was radiating warmth.

Kane felt her glance up at him but then suffered a similar surprise. He hadn’t known that it was her. Hiding over here on the sidelines, keeping her mouth shut, watching it all from afar.

“Have we heard from Raven?” She asked, knowing that he had been in Earth Monitoring after her earlier.

Kane glanced down at her, surprised to find out who he had been accidentally standing beside. When he gazed upon her, things only grew curiouser. She no longer infuriated him. Not in the same way. He saw her for who she was now – a desperate woman. Someone who might’ve even been right all along.

All he could do was shake his head no and follow her gaze to where the chancellor was still shaking hands with the hundreds of volunteers who came forward.

“What changed his mind?” Abby asked under her breath, unsure if it was rhetorical or not.

Kane swallowed and felt strange. It was strange to be standing here with her as though they were old friends who shared a secret, gazing out at their other old friend, conspiring about him.

“Just the truth,” he said simply.

Things changed then for Abby, just as they had earlier for Kane. It became clear based on his words – and his nonthreatening presence in this room – that he had done what she couldn’t. He had convinced Jaha not to join the culling.

Abby blinked up at him, pondering this for a moment. He had sacrificed his own chance at chancellorship and power – the thing that she knew he had always wanted more than anything in this world. And he had done it to save his friend.

Maybe this was Jake’s effect after all.

But it made her realize that Kane was still human too, beneath it all. She may not agree with him, but she did know him. And what was it that he had said to her once? Familiarity was a lot heavier than friendship? Maybe she finally knew what he meant by that.

Her heart began to warm little by little. It didn’t take much to start seeing Kane as the man that he used to be. It had been in there all along. She knew that because right now, she didn’t feel scared or sick to be standing beside him.

 “I reminded him that transitioning to a new chancellor would be destabilizing,” Kane whispered to her, but Abby saw through it.

He hadn’t said any of that and they both knew it. He had appealed to his friend using sentiment and emotion. That was that. Abby looked at him utterly surprised and unrevealingly pleased with his behaviour.

“No,” she said, matching his low tone, “we can’t.”

Kane paused momentarily, remembering his third mission for the night. Abby was losing hope, and he could feel it. He felt it because she was no longer beating him over the head with it. And if she was right and her hope was not misplaced, they were going to need it.

“I left two men,” he revealed, looking over at her with a plain, genuine look on his face, “monitoring the radio.”

He looked away as she stared at him, wondering if she was hallucinating or if he really meant what he said.

“If there’s any word from Raven, they’ll call down immediately,” Kane added.

He looked at her and saw it all. The surprise, the gratitude, the way that this kindness of his had touched her. He knew how important it was to her and for once, instead of scoffing at it or using it against her, he obliged.

And he hadn’t done it because he had hope himself or because he honestly thought that Raven was alive on earth with anybody else. He had done it for her. That should have worried him, but it didn’t. It made him feel good. Maybe he didn’t always want to be the bad guy.

Knowing that he had made her feel some type of way, Kane gave her the faintest whisper of a smile, shrugging his mouth and nodding, giving her a half smirk that for once wasn’t mean spirited.

All she could do was stare. Her eyes left his and instinctively found the scar on his bottom lip. The one that he had gotten while saving her life over twenty years ago now. The scar that reminded her of who he used to be. A ruthless man serving with the Guard, but one with emotion. One who would rather protect than prosecute. One who had gotten his hands bloody for her before he even really knew her.

“I gave clear orders,” he added with a whisper, looking away from her momentarily.

He hadn’t done it to be a hero in anybody’s eyes, because it wasn’t a heroic act. It was simple, really. Anyone could have done it. But not him. Not him three hours ago, anyways. He had done it to give her back her hope. To prove that through it all, he did care. About her, about her feelings, about the crisis that they were living through.

Abby stared and felt her stomach begin to lurch. Had she been wrong about Kane? Had his humanity been there beneath his desperation all along and she had just missed it? Because right now, the decades worth of hatred and ruthlessness had been washed away with this one simple gesture.

It was foolish and she knew it. She could not forget about the atrocities that he had committed not just against her but against their people. But right now, they didn’t matter. All that mattered was the warm look in his eyes. The scar on his lip. The whisper in his voice. What he had done to reassure her, to make her happy. And the choice that he had made.

Neither warmth nor sentiment should have been coming off of either of them. They hated each other and had for many years now. Sure, they had a past riddled with chemistry, but it was also tainted by burnt bridges, bad blood, and personal attacks. Just recently, Kane had tried to have her killed. Now, she was filling him with warmth. That was strange for both of them to experience. Abby was more shaken by it than anyone. Her would-be executioner and she suddenly felt warm inside because he had done the bare minimum and extended an olive branch. Was she really so easily won?

Foolish or not, Abby knew in that moment that Marcus was coming back to himself. It might be against his will, and it wouldn’t be pretty. It would hurt him, and it would put him on trial. But he was coming back.

“Thank you,” she whispered in earnest, still staring up at him.

Now, it was Kane’s turn to once again be surprised. He hadn’t done it for her thanks. But now that she had offered it, it changed him yet again. Filled him with warmth. He caught her eyes and held that beautiful moment of gratitude between them.

It was a strange feeling that came about when he looked at her. Those honey brown eyes were so familiar to him that it almost felt nostalgic to see them looking back. Why he began to feel warm was momentarily lost on him as Abby uttered her soft, meaningful gratitude. Almost as if she knew she was lingering too long in an uncharacteristically tender moment, she pulled her eyes away and focused them forward once more, coming to terms with the ways in which he was surprising her.

Kane’s did not budge.

He continued to look at her, worried that if he looked away, he might lose his train of thought. And he was really hoping to figure out exactly what he saw in those eyes.

Beyond the obvious – seeing the years of memories both good and bad that existed between the two of them – he suddenly realized where the warmth was coming from. For the first time in years. Perhaps well over a decade but certainly since the death of Abby’s husband, she looked at him with something other than hatred and disdain in her eyes.

Neutrality would have surprised him enough. Genuine gratitude and subtle admiration as Abby longed for a shared past that now felt like a lifetime ago? It nearly floored him. Could have brought him right down to his knees if he was a weaker man.

He tried not to stare at her but just couldn’t help it. She was so familiar to him. Was he accidentally yearning as he looked at her sidelong?

It wasn't an easy thing - to cull over three hundred souls. Of course it wasn't easy. But Kane had turned his emotions off successfully years ago, and he hadn't felt much of anything save for irritation and inconvenience ever since. Anger, lately. Pressure, most times. But nothing else. With that in mind, he figured that he'd set himself for success today. It would be hard to watch and even harder to know that he had been the one to bring this idea forward, but Kane knew that this was the right move. It's what the facts said.

The facts did not say that the Earth was radiation free. The facts did not say that they could suddenly fix this oxygen problem with a snap of their fingers. The facts said that Earth was not survivable, oxygen was running out, there were too many people on board the Ark, and they needed more time. These were the facts. He could do this while feeling solemn for the culling volunteers and their family, but also knowing that it was the right thing to do. He could do this without feeling too much, as he did everything else.

But then Abby had said thank you. And she looked at him like that.

And woah, what a feeling. It hit him like a ton of bricks straight to the chest, knocking the wind out of him and blurring his vision. Kane was frozen in place as he experienced this feeling - warmth beginning somewhere in the middle of his chest and spreading out throughout his entire body. Up his spine, down his arms all the way to his fingertips. He hadn't felt anything like this in years. Probably decades.

He had no problem with Abby hating him because he hated her. Well, hate was probably too strong a word. He didn't care enough to hate her. How did that old saying go? The true opposite of love is indifference. He had never been particularly indifferent to Abby as she constantly made choices that he disagreed with and he took personal issue with her personality, but he never cared enough to hate her for any of that. He simply wouldn't have cared if she lived or died.

This feeling was unexpected, but it was familiar. Somehow stronger than he used to feel it, but he was no stranger to this feeling. Doing something kind for someone out of the goodness of his heart. Not because it benefitted him in any way, not because he believed it was the right thing to do, but because it would make somebody else happy. And though she hadn't smiled or expressed it verbally, his gesture had not only shocked Abby, but it had made her happy.

That's when he realized why the feeling was familiar. Because it came from her, all along. It felt like the way that things sometimes were between them back in the day before all the bad blood and burnt bridges. Only sweeter now somehow. Like he was discovering the feeling for the first time.

Not only was he reminded what it was like to truly feel something, but he was reminded what it felt like to feel something good. This wasn't an easy hedonistic pleasure, either. This came from compassion. Heart. It also reminded him that underneath the layers of uniform and professionalism, of worrying about survival and remaining stoic, he was just a man. A man who had done something nice for a woman.

Abby? Since when did he consider Abby to be anything more than a nuisance? She hadn't been a woman to him in quite some time. But as he stared, he realized just how wrong he was for not seeing it. She wasn't just a woman, she was a beautiful one. One with skin that seemed to glow, long hair that always smelled nice, eyes the captivating colour of amber. A thin little nose, strong hands, long eyelashes, a smile that could make your heart stand still.

Kane thought of that smile for a moment and realized that he couldn't remember the last time he saw it. There wasn't much to smile about these days. But he knew that it changed Abby's whole face as her lips pulled apart and her cheeks dimpled. Her eyebrows came together on her forehead, her perfect teeth revealed themselves, her eyes sparkled, and that laugh.

When he looked away, Kane had to swallow dryly and steady himself. That truly was quite the feeling. It came with reactions both physical and emotional. It came with flashbacks. It came with the crippling realization that this whole time, he'd been fighting Abby and roadblocking her, hunting her and trying to have her killed. And it hadn't made him feel anything at all. Now, he did one compassionate thing for her, and she expressed gratitude rather than general disdain, and he experienced his first real feeling in decades. And it felt good. He wanted to keep experiencing that feeling over and over again, because he made her happy. He realized that he would rather please Abby than disappoint her. And that was a very dangerous thing to suddenly realize.

Because he had the mans to please her. He could forget everything he held true and genuinely work with her through this hundred project, catering to any of her crazy ideas. And it could mean the death of it all, just because a woman had thanked him. Just because Kane glanced over at his greatest enemy and suddenly saw the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen. Just because he'd fallen victim to his typical male tendencies and suddenly felt that woman tugging at heartstrings that he didn't know he had.

Steeling himself but keeping it in the back of his mind, Kane knew that it wasn't feasible to change his ways now. He still had an agenda, and they were still culling the 320 people today. From there, his agenda could continue, and Abby would likely go on opposing it. But that didn't mean he would soon forget about this feeling and the way that he now looked at her. The way that she had looked at him.

But things changed for him. He wouldn't admit it, he wouldn't dare to hope that they would change further, and he would not modify his behaviour and beliefs because of it, but things had changed then and there because of that feeling. He no longer wanted her dead. It wasn't much, but it was a start.

He did not go in the room when it was over. In fact, he'd glanced over and seen the tears streaming down Abby's face as she choked back stifled sobs and realized that this was likely the saddest scene he'd ever had to witness.

It was harder to watch than Kane expected. He was saddened by their circumstances. As much as Abby sometimes begged to differ, he did not want to see anybody killed, and certainly not innocent volunteers. It tugged at the heartstrings. He hadn't expected it to sting. Likely because he hadn't felt a sting like that in years.

As it turned out, when Abby gave him his first sentimental feeling in decades, it broke the latch off a gate. Kane was displeased to find out that now on top of feeing the positive sentiment radiating off of her earlier, he could also feel the negative ones.

Instead of heading inside, he stood off to the side and gave orders only in the form of reassuring nods and sharp, melancholic eye contact as the rest of the room worked around him and his cross-armed stance. Was he a coward for avoiding the aftermath? Likely. But he'd been worse things.

Inside that room was no place for him. Kane would have walked around those bodies and reconciled their deaths against his good intentions. If he was forced to reflect upon his decisions, he wouldn't find many good intentions at all. He would find a power-hungry man who had let himself be clouded by numbness and control. He would see a man who was warned against committing a mass suicide-sacrifice but did it anyways.

Those thoughts would need to be confronted but that could all be done later tonight when he was alone in his quarters with a strong glass of whiskey and a couch to sink into when it all became too much. He couldn't do it right here while there was still work to be done.

The thoughts began as soon as he left for Alpha Station.

Did he ever really believe that it was the right thing to do, or did he just want to get his way? Did he strive to kill and commit murder because it was all he'd ever known. Was he addicted to killing? Sucking the life out of peoples' souls?

Kane would rather not know the answer to that.

Chapter Text

In Abby's mind, everything changed when her and Jaha saw those flares. They were undeniable. Coming from the right geographical location, she knew that it was a message from the hundred. Something must have happened, and Raven wasn't able to radio back as per the plan. But knowing that she was on a time crunch, Abby had no doubt the brilliant young girl could come up with something. Especially if her own brilliant daughter had anything to do with it.

But Abby was left in her cell as Jaha flew out of there, demanding that she stay there and wait for an update. She had yelled after him, demanding to come along, but he was still the chancellor and there were still rules to follow. She had been granted work release, not full release. If he started letting prisoners out of their cells just because they wanted updates on sensitive information, he would soon have a mutiny on his hands. In some respects, Kane was right about certain things.

Speaking of whom, Kane had locked himself in his room for the night. The chancellor had invited him over for a drink to take the edge off, but he refused. He was experiencing something that he hadn't in a very long time. Decades, probably. Feeling. True, emotional sentiment. He didn't sit there in his room and cry, but he did have a single drink of his own and stare at the wall, reflecting on the night that they'd all just had.

320 people dead. Because he thought it was necessary. Now, they played the waiting game. They take the time that him and the volunteers had bought them, and they pray to whatever god they might believe in that Engineering could fix the problem. That they wouldn't have to cull more of their population five months from now just to do it all over again. And tonight, he was feeling each and every life that had left them. More than any flotation or juvenile arrest. More than any family he had torn apart. He felt the lives leave the Ark, but the souls remain.

It was complicated and confusing and unwanted and it had opened the floodgates. Perhaps Abby and her "thank you" had started it all. After that, he started to feel just about every feeling that came his way. Kane still felt his numbness, but he now felt it as a burden. As twenty wasted years feeling nothing when he could have been experiencing love and compassion. For his friends, for his family, maybe even for one of the many women that he had bedded throughout the years.

Abby and Jaha had been right. Now that the culling was over and he had been successful, he was left with nothing.

Kane was glad that he hadn't had more than the one drink because his pager was soon going off, beckoning him to the Go-Sci Station's council chamber. At that point, it was very early morning. He didn't know what they could possibly need to discuss that couldn't wait until the sleep periods were over. But like the dutiful Chief Guard that he was, Kane obliged.

"Please excuse the early hour," Jaha said as the council gathered around the table, some still wiping sleep from their eyes. "I wanted to have a verdict for Dr. Griffin by morning."

Kane furrowed his brows somewhere beside him. "Dr. Griffin?" He asked, wondering why they were having yet another meeting to determine her fate.

"Yes," Jaha said plainly, "we can't keep her locked up forever."

Swallowing, Kane shook his head and wished that he could just go to sleep. "She's on work release," he reminded them.

"Pending review," Jaha confirmed. "This is her review."

Now, Councillor Cole - the designated speaker of the house - raised his voice. "At five o'clock in the morning?"

The chancellor took in a deep breath. "There has been a development in the hundred project," he revealed but was not willing to say more than that, even as his councillors lowered their brows and peered on in curious consternation. "Abby will want to be a part of it."

Cole was shaking her head. "After everything she's done?" He said sternly. "She shouldn't be allowed to touch Earth Monitoring with a ten-foot pole."

"This new development..." Muir inquired, "...how does she know about it?"

Jaha looked at the councilwoman. "She saw it," he stated.

"What are we dealing with, here?" Kane finally asked, needing to put an end to the beating around the bush.

Jaha folded his hands over the table. "A few hours ago, a series of flares could be seen coming from the hundred's general direction," he revealed. "I saw these flaires, Abby saw them, and anyone else who had been looking out a window at that point in time would have seen them."

"So, questions will be asked," Muir confirmed with a sharp nod of her head.

"Not only will questions be asked," the chancellor continued, "but Abby will fan that fire into flames if we allow her work release to Medical but not Earth Monitoring."

"You're joking me..." Cole breathed in anger, "...so you're saying that if we don't let her work on the project, she's going to continue to commit treason until we give her what she wants?" He looked around the room and saw understanding faces. "I move that we float her. Immediately."

Kane had to agree with him, but even he winced when Cole said those words.

"Have you seen the Medical terminal, Councillor?" Kaplan rebutted. "What do you propose we do without our best doctor?"

That particular fight was personal to her. Kaplan's young daughter had been in and out of Sick Bay experiencing oxygen-deprivation-related illnesses for the last year. Abby had been giving her the best care that she possibly could. The oxygen was going to get worse before it would get better, and Abby's expertise would be needed. 

"We have plenty of capable doctors, Councillor Kaplan," Cole fought back. "Plenty who aren't guilty of committing treason."

Jaha only hoped that the council would vote in Abby's favour without him having to step him and override them. He did not want to be unfair, but he couldn't float that woman for what she had done. He floated her husband prematurely and he could have saved them all well over a year ago now. He could not make the same mistake twice nor could he lose another friend.

"Abby saved my daughter's life three times this year," Kaplan insisted, "three times she was on the verge of death and Abby nursed her back to help. Councillor Muir, she saved your wife's life after the accident in Tycho a few years back. If I recall correctly, she even saved her legs when the other doctors suggested amputation.”

Kaplan stared at the harsh woman, reminding her that they had all been touched in some way by Abby and her medical abilities.

"Councillor Cole, Abby treated your father until the end of his life," Cole looked away, "Councillor Kane, she even kept you alive when you fell ill during the strep epidemic."

One by one, the councillors looked away. Kaplan was right. Abby saved their loved ones. It was her job, yes, but she did it with more heart than most. In some way or another, they all owed her something. They couldn't sit at this table and condemn her to death.

"Not to mention you sir," she looked at the chancellor. "Risking her life to save others is what she does. And whether or not we agree with her methods or beliefs, we can't afford to lose somebody like her."

Cole was still shaking his head firmly. "She is no more necessary to us than our other doctors," he insisted. 

Somewhere along the line, the table looked to their most opinionated member. Now that Abby was gone, he could wear that title without a challenger to oppose him. But Kane had no answers for them.

"I agree with you, councillor," he nodded to Cole. "releasing her is dangerous," he continued. "But we have to consider the optics. The people know about life support. They know about the culling, it'll only be a matter of time before they know about the hundred, too."

Kane looked around the room as he spoke, watching as people indeed looked to him for guidance and leadership, perhaps even more than the chancellor himself.

"They look to her during this time," he reminded them that after her video, people saw her differently. "They'll riot if we float her."

"She's a symbol of treason!" Cole argued strongly, letting his hands fall down on the table as he did so. 

"You're right, councillor, she is a symbol," Kane nodded, "and a martyr is the most dangerous thing that we could give to people on the forefront of unrest."

"Well, I'm not about to float the Ark's best doctor," Fuji finally chimed in, shaking his head as he thought of his estranged wife and her old friend Abby Grifin. "It's self-sabotage."

"Fine," Cole snapped, getting on with it. "A vote in favour is a vote to grant Dr. Abigial Griffin continued work release." He looked around himself. "All those in favour?"

To his chagrin, it was everybody else. Kaplan, thinking of her daughter and the desire to avoid more death. Muir, thinking of her wife's salvaged legs. Fuji, thinking of the people still lined up outside of Medical and the overwhelmed doctors within. Kane, not sure what he was thinking. Was it logic that moved him to vote to save her life? The fact that she was a good doctor and a pseudo-engineer in Earth Monitoring? Was it that she was of more use to him alive than dead? Or was it that feeling he got last night when he looked at her. When she looked back. When she thanked him with no hatred in her eyes.

"The aye's have it," Cole said with a roll of his eyes, not bothering to call for the nay's as he knew that he would be the only one.

Jaha breathed a silent sigh of relief and looked towards Kane. "Councillor Kane," he nodded, "have your guards bring her in."

When Abby entered the room, flanked by two guards until she reached the table and was left alone, Kane took control of the meeting. As Chief of the Guard, it was his job to inflict criminal charges, or the lack thereof.

Now, he had experienced an emotion or two last night, he had indulged in a moment of weakness while gazing at the face of a beautiful woman, but he was not completely changed. Not in the way that he felt about the world, not in the way that he felt about her. He still disapproved of her choices, and he made no apologies for how he had treated her of late. He still didn't believe that her talk of miracles had any place on the council. He had voted to spare her life, not to indulge her.

And in keeping with such notions, he did not spare her feelings when she stood there behind her empty chair. He enjoyed this part the most. Watching the accused squirm as he performed a long, drawn-out spiel that danced around the point of whether or not charges were being lain.

While everyone else sat in their usual seats, he paced behind Abby who stood straight. Kane read from his tablet and moved slowly like a shark in the water.

"Theft of medical supplies, illegal salvaging," he listed off her charges, "unauthorized ship launch, pirating the Ark comm systems," Kane continued, glancing up at her as he rounded the table to his seat. "Each of these crimes is punishable by death," he stared at her, watching as Abby tried to stand strong and pretend as though this wasn't both humiliating and terrifying.

After a beat of heavy silence, Kane nodded his head.

"But that will not be your fate today," he finally said.

Abby didn't even have time to relish in this revelation. Because something was coming through the comms. Static, it sounded like, and nobody else thought much of it. Somebody had asked, but Kane waved them away. Abby's first thought was Raven.

"It was argued...convincingly..." Kane continued, and Abby did her best to focus on him and the task at hand as he slowly took his seat, "...that your medical expertise is still required."

Abby was plainly surprised.  She figured that after her pervasive breaking of the law, she had turned even the most sympathetic of councillors against her. That had to mean one thing - the chancellor had stepped in and spared her.

With this in mind, she turned to look at Jaha. "Thank you," she said, staring at him.

"It wasn't me," the chancellor revealed. "The council vote was nearly unanimous."

Abby looked around the table and wondered where the nearly came from. She already knew - Kane. Most likely, anyways.

"Apparently, Jake's message woke their better angels as well," he said rather flippantly, and Abby grabbed at the back of her seat, eager to sit down and discuss what her and Jaha had seen last night through the window. "Not so fast," he stopped her.

Her grip tightened. "We need to talk about those flares," she insisted sharply.

"No," Jaha shook his head, "we don't. "

Finding herself in a state of disbelief, Abby peered at the chancellor. "You saw them, too," she reminded him, "we can't just ignore what we all know it means."

"We don't know what it means," Kane interjected coldly.

"It means," Abby said in his direction, sharper than before, "that there is someone alive on Earth," she sated firmly, looking back to Jaha. "It means that our children might still be alive."

Now, Kane had enough. "More false hope," he said with a sardonic smile, wondering when she would give it a rest. "Abby, those flashes could've been anything," he sounded relatively belittling as he spoke. "Lightning, radiation in the atmosphere..."

Abby knew that it wasn't either of his two desperate attempts to explain it away. Lightning didn't work like that and neither did radiation. These were messages. Signals. Just like whatever was trying so desperately to come through the comm system right now, still crackling around the room.

"In any case," Jaha began strongly, "whatever they were, that's a matter for the council to discuss," he stared at her, "and you are no longer on the council."

He stood and slowly moved towards Abby.

"Your life has been spared," he said slowly, "but you've been stripped of your seat at this table. Effective immediately."

Abby was surprised to find no remorse, no wavering, no friendliness in his eyes as he stared down at her. Jaha was acting more and more like Kane every day and it was throwing her off.

"Your pin," he demanded.

Keeping her head up high and a strong bottom lip, Abby stared him down as she removed her pin and placed it in his hand.

But the transmission was back, and this time nobody could ignore it.

"Calling Ark Station," a grainy voice was saying, "come in Ark Station."

And just like that, Abby was proven right. Just like her husband had been. Far too late.

"Raven," she said, "she's still alive."

The council was intrigued, Aby was relieved, Jaha was skeptical, but Kane was sick to his stomach. Because he knew that Abby was right. That little, panicked voice was unmistakable. Raven had survived her drop and now she was alive on Earth. The flares had been her. Probably working alongside the rest of the hundred. What he thought was impossible was suddenly fact. And that meant one thing - he had done the wrong thing. He had made the wrong call.

He only pushed for the culling because he knew in his bones that Earth was not survivable. He didn't allow them to wait a full day for Raven's transmission. He insisted. And now 320 were dead. Needlessly.

"Are you there?" The voice crackled through once more. "Please come in."

Abby was out of the room immediately, making a beeline for Earth Monitoring where she knew that the Engineers would be trying to pinpoint a frequency. Without hesitating, Kane and Jaha trailed behind her, desperate to know what was going on.

Kane didn't wish the hundred dead. Nor Raven. But he did hope to god that this was a mistake. That Raven was still floating somewhere in space and transmitting from a hopeless escape pod. He hoped that he hadn't killed over 300 people for nothing.

"This is a restricted channel," Sinclair was on the other side of the transmission, trying to get her off the Ark-wide channel. "Who is this? Please identify yourself," he commanded through the radio.

"Please, you need to get Dr. Abby Griffin," the crackling voice continued, ringing throughout the Ark. "Dr. Abby Griffin, now!"

Kane cursed as he trailed behind Abby, who had successfully lost him and the chancellor. The more that the people heard her name ringing out throughout the station, the more likely she was to become the one that they looked to for guidance during this time. And he didn't trust her instincts. Maybe he should have voted to float her and just risked the martyrdom.

Abby burst into Earth Monitoring and wasted no time in sliding in next to Sinclair who was trying to localize the channel.

"Can she hear me?" She asked.

Jaha and Kane filtered in next, and the chancellor had more pressing questions. "Can you confirm the signal's origin?" He asked.

"Yes, sir," Sinclair said, fighting off an excited smile, "it's coming from Earth."

Jaha could have cried. He wasn't thinking about the culling, he was thinking about his son. Abby was relieved but not surprised, for she had known it all along. Kane went ashen. Confirmation that he was wrong. Not only was he wrong, but his inability to see Abby's hopeful side of things had cost 320 of his people their lives. That was his fault. No, hearing from Raven was not a miracle. It was the worst thing he could have possibly heard today.

"Raven," Abby spoke into the small speaker that Sinclair had given her, "are you there?"

The next word that came through the radio stunned them all into silence.

"Mom?"

It was Clarke.

After a moment of heavy silence, the long-suffering mother choked out her daughter's name as tears sprung to her eyes. She had known it all along, but this moment still felt miraculous. Abby's heart raced inside of her chest as she lacked the words to speak to her daughter. Kane and Jaha watched from somewhere behind her as every one of the woman's beliefs were vindicated right before their very eyes. Jaha was relieved for his friend and hoped this mean that his own son was alive and well, but Kane still struggled to find the positivity in this development. Raven's voice - Clarke's voice, for that matter - all they did was tell him that he was a murderer.

"Mom, I need your help," Clarke continued, cutting to the chase. "One of our people was stabbed by a grounder."

Jaha and Kane shared a look. A grounder? As in another human being living on Earth?

"Clarke, this is the chancellor," Jaha stepped forward. "Are you saying there's survivors on the ground?"

That was what they needed to know, and Abby was glad that he stepped in. Once that was confirmed, they could begin working on Project Exodus for real. She was too wrapped up in hearing her daughter’s voice to ask the important questions.

"Yes, the Earth is survivable," she said, and Kane only grew queasier, "but we're not alone," the girl added in a serious tone before lowering her voice, wishing she could speak only with her mother. "Mom, he's dying," she said, her voice shaking slightly. "The knife's still in his chest."

"Okay," Abby nodded, snapping herself back to reality and focusing on the task at hand, "can you patch me through to Medical?" She asked.

Sinclair nodded. "Of course," he said.

"Clarke," Jaha's loud voice rang out urgently, "is my son with you?"

The silence was telling. Before Clarke could even confirm it, the rest of the room knew her answer. Jaha hoped that it wasn't true. Abby pulled back and held her breath.

"I'm so sorry," she said. "Wells is..." she stuttered, "...Wells is dead."

Everyone turned to the chancellor, incredibly sorry for his loss. Abby wouldn't wish it on her worst enemy, but she was growing gravely concerned about how serious and mature her young daughter sounded. She shouldn't have had to deliver that news. Kane felt the loss of Wells Jaha like blood on his hands. Add his name to the list of people that were killed because of him.

She didn't know what else to do. Abby reached out and touched Jaha's shoulder, knowing that it could in no way provide the warmth that he needed uring this period of unthinkable grief. 

"Clarke needs you," Thelonious said, standing up straight and pushing aside his feelings. "Patch her in to me when they're finished."

The chancellor left without another word. Nobody tried to stop him. It wasn't their place. Nor would they know the first thing about what to say. They hadn't known what to say when he lost Clementine, but at least he had also been graced with a beautiful baby boy. Now that boy was dead. There were no words in the English language that could help him through this time.

Watching him go, Kane's thoughts were with Jaha as he turned the corner and vanished from view. What could he do? How could he possibly make up for all that he had stolen from his people? From his friends? He turned back to Abby who was now speaking to Clarke.

"I'm going to talk you through it step by step, Clarke," she was saying. "Just give me five minutes to get to Medical."

With a hurricane on top of the kids, a stab wound infecting the abdomen of a boy, and not enough medical supplies to save him, Abby and Clarke had their work cut out for them. Now, Clarke had always wanted to become a doctor. She had been training with Abby in medical for years, observing and even assisting on many surgeries including those that were more trying and difficult than others. She could do this. But if the boy died because they didn't have the supplies, it wouldn't be her fault. Knowing Clarke, she would carry the burden of his death anyways.

Kane watched her leave too and wished that there was something he could do to help. He was not given the task of grieving father. He was not given the task of worried mother turned expert doctor trying to save a life on another planet. All he could do was stand there and consider what it meant.

He could have hung back and used Abby's five minutes to speak with Clarke about conditions on the ground, how many survivors were left, what kind of resources they needed, but he didn't. Kane couldn't do anything useful in that moment. Not when his entire ideological world was crashing down around him. He had been so certain. He hadn't let anything stand in the way of making that decision. And it had been needless.

What he could do was go back to his quarters and finish that whiskey that he'd been working on throughout the night. And this time, he did not stop after one drink.

~~~

It was a beautiful occasion. The hundred, alive. Raven, alive. Other life on the ground, even if it sounded as though they were a violent people. Earth was survivable and that was all they'd been waiting for. Jaha had promised Abby and the council that as soon as they knew it was safe to survive on Earth, Project Exodus would be initiated. And instead of wallowing around his quarters thinking of his dead son, he knew that he had a job to do. When this war was over, he could grieve for those that were lost. But he had to get his people to the ground first.

Now, Project Exodus had sounded delightful right from the start. Imagining a utopia on the ground where they could land and create a community mixing their advanced technology and farming knowledge. They could be self-sustaining. They could build houses. They could raise children and livestock. He may not have family left to share his life with, but he would have his people. He could watch Abby reunite with her daughter. Kane become the man that he could be without the constant worry of dwindling resources. The council could vote on things like infrastructure and weather resistance.

There was just one problem. The dropship issue. Not enough room for their entire population. It was supposed to be a problem that they would have years to solve. And perhaps the fact that he hadn't been looking into it throughout the course of the year spoke to the face that even he hadn't much hope for the ground. Now, it was the only thing keeping them from it.

Jaha had been dwelling on this issue, wracking his brain for a solution, when there came a knock at his door. And of all the people that he was expecting to see, former chancellor Diana Sydney would not have made that list.

Knowing her, Jaha assumed that she was there for political gain. After her chancellorship, the people were tired of her. It's what got her voted out in the first place and allowed him to rise. But ever since, she'd been fighting tooth and nail to get back in on the action.

"If you're here to talk about Abby's council seat," he began, making assumptions, "now is not a good time." He sat back down in his seat.

"Trust me," the blonde woman nodded, "you need to hear this."

As she entered the room, Jaha couldn't help but feel as though he was a bird in a cage that had just allowed a viper to slither into.

Diana shrugged her mouth. "I remember these quarters being bigger when I was chancellor," she muttered.

Jaha knew the games that she played. "What do you want, Diana?" He demanded.

"We need to talk," she moved to stand before him. "My people are angry and confused."

His eyebrows went up. "Your people?"

"Yes", she nodded, "the workers."

Diana never had a real platform. She catered to whoever promised to get her the most votes. And when she was running for chancellor, it was the working-class citizens.

"They're coming to me with dangerous questions, Thelonious," she explained, and Jaha couldn't tell if she was being truthful or not. "Many of them lost loved ones in the culling," she went on. "The belief that your administration let people die when there was another way has taken root."

Of course it had. What with Abby's broadcast, the culling, and now Raven's transmission circulating the entire ship, the people were bound to be confused. And he had a feeling that Diana Sydney was fanning their anger into flames.

"I don't suppose you're trying to convince them otherwise," he snipped, knowing exactly how she operated.

She ignored his quip. "If you don't try to get in front of these rumours, things are going to get ugly fast," she explained, as if he didn't already know. "That's what I would do in your position."

"You're not in my position, Diana," he reminded her, seeing through her tactics. "My people voted you out."

It hadn't been close, back in the day. Most people had been very tired of the way that she had been running the Ark. Some say that she was also personally responsible for Kane's Reign of Terror consider she had appointed him Chief of the Guard at a younger than usual age - all because she'd been sleeping with him.

Jaha should have done a better job of keeping things under lock and key. He had his tablet sitting there on the table for all to see. Maybe a small part of him wanted her to see what he was working on. Maybe he wanted her help. The expertise and opinion of a former chancellor. The one who had made that project what it is.

"You've activated Project Exodus," she said in disbelief upon seeing the project open on his tablet.

Jaha reached forward and shut off his screen. 

"Congratulations," Diana said, though there was an edge to her voice, "you will forever be remembered as the man who brought us back to the ground."

Eyeing her warily, he only hoped that she didn't go running her mouth before he had a chance to iron out the kinks first. "You know I can't talk to you about that, Diana," he reminded her with a shake of his tired head.

As much as he could see through her, she could see through him. They had been direct opponents in his first campaign. That taught a person a thing or two about their competition.

"It's true, we've had our differences," she trilled, "but I'm here as an ally. The decisions that you must now make implementing Project Exodus are unimaginably difficult," Diana continued, hoping to appeal to his sense of overwhelming dread and need for support. "The Ark needs unity now more than ever," she said, and it felt like a rather thinly veiled threat. "I hope that you can trust me enough to let me help you this that."

Jaha stared at her momentarily, wondering if he was in trouble of some kind. He knew that there had been unrest over the years, and he knew that all this secret-keeping from the council was going to prove an effective catalyst. He only hoped that he had taken the right measures to keep anarchy from unleashing.

"It's sensitive information, Diana," he said seriously, "you can't spread this."

Feigning hurt, Diana raised her troubled brow. "I would never," she said, convincing no one. "I only hope that you keep me in mind during rollout," she continued. "My name was on the project before yours, after all. I may be of use to you."

He wanted to argue with her. To tell her that he knew what she was up to and that it wasn't going to work on him. Instead, he let out a sigh and nodded. "I will," he said reluctantly.

Happy to have gotten the answers that she was looking for, Diana gave him a sickly-sweet smile and left his quarters.

Meanwhile, Abby was stuck in medical. She had every intention of going to the memorial service today or at least visiting Sector 17 at some point and paying her respects, but she had never faced such a challenge as operating on a patient hundreds of kilometres away. Clarke was a steady hand, but she was just a girl, and Abby hated that she had to operate on someone that she clearly cared about. Getting the knife out had only taken a bit of time, but she had talked her through the aftercare procedure which used up more of it.

Something felt off. Abby chalked it all up to the stressful situation and figured that once it was all over, Clarke would come back to herself. She had failed to realize that by sending her daughter down to the ground, she was also condemning her to change. Taking away the safety of a roof over her head, food on the table. Clarke's innocence was stolen as soon as they landed on Earth, and she was only growing older with every tough decision that she was forced to make as a girl of seventeen.

But there was more to it than that. Something was wrong. Abby felt it as soon as Clarke took a breather and excused herself from the room before she had to spend a moment alone with her mother and a radio.

She wanted to go to the memorial but more than that, she wanted to talk to her daughter. To continue hearing her voice. Even if Clarke clearly didn't want to talk to her. So Abby sat there in Medical and waited. Her and Raven chatted intermittently but the girl was too worried about Finn to say much. It was with a heavy heart that Abby had to explain that they hadn't seen her flares soon enough and the culling had taken place.

Speaking of which, Sector 17 was probably the last place that Marcus Kane should have been today. Especially not three whiskeys in.

The crowd fell silent save for whispers of his name when he walked through those doors. After the culling last night, Abby and her medical team had been sent in to retrieve the bodies, but he had left the room. Not because he couldn't look at it, but because he did not want to have to. Now, standing here where it had taken place, he remembered why. 

 Hs mother was there, as she always was at memorial events or funerals. She had likely led the ceremony and was now standing by the offering table allowing people to come and go and give a blessing to the Last Tree. She was the first to approach him.

"Marcus," she said worriedly, smelling the alcohol on her son, "you shouldn't be here."

He looked up from the offering table. Three hundred plus meaningless little nicknacks that somehow contained human souls. Human souls that he had culled because he thought it was their only option. Because he refused to listen to anyone else. Three hundred human souls that he had disposed of for no reason. That could hvve gone to the ground.

"You're wrong, mom," he said in a soft, low voice that revealed the extent to which he was broken, "this is exactly where I should be."

He wasn't surprised when the fighting started. Neither was Vera. The man responsible for needlessly wasting the many lives should have issued a formal apology in the form of a transmission and waited for this grief to blow over. He should not be walking among the mourners, looking wounded and hollow. He would have been able to see that had the alcohol not tampered with his judgment.

He tried to give his feeble apologies as people came at him, demanding to know that their loved ones hadn't been put to death for nothing, but there was nothing he could say. Because they were right. He was wrong. He had been wrong all along and it had cost people their lives.

"Then it's true," one of them was saying angrily. "You knew those kids were on the ground. That the Earth is survivable."

"You were supposed to protect us," another one said.

And that was the crux of it all. He had sworn an oath to protect and defend all citizens of the Ark and what did he do? He killed them. Over and over and over again. He killed criminals because he thought that the law had to be right. He killed his people, he didn't protect them. He thought of Jake in that flotation chamber. The one execution that he hadn't been able to be present for. He thought of Abby just recently in that same chamber, looking her in the eyes and feeling nothing because he was doing what he thought was necessary. How could he have done that? Stare at her, see the fear, the horror in her eyes, and feel nothing?

Things got physical quickly and Kane's inebriated state prevented him from being able to defend himself. He wouldn't have even if he was sober. These people deserved to shove him, to kick him, to hit him, spit on him. He wished that they would kill him. He wished that they would take his life and make him just another soul lost in this Sector. He wanted it all to be over and he was madder than hell when Jaha came in and put a stop to it all.

"I don't need you to defend me," Kane insisted, standing with Jaha's help as someone shouted, calling them both murderers.

Jaha looked around. The people were upset and looking to take their anger out on somebody. Kane was trying to get himself killed. And his guards were armed and ready to fight them off. This was the unrest that Diana had warned him against. Right here before his eyes.

"Put that away," he demanded of the guards and their shock batons, "don't make this any worse than it already is."

"We want answers!" Somebody shouted.

Another voice added, "we want our people back!"

Jaha knew that he had no other choice. They weren't going to stop until he gave them something. Besides, maybe Diana was right.

"The least we can give you is the truth," he said finally, sighing once before turning to a free guard. "Sound the signal for a general assembly of the station representatives," he said.

Kane shook his head. "What are you doing?"

Thelonious looked at him, his dark eyes thick with worry. "No more secrets."

The two men lingered as the rest of the room filtered out. Kane was the last person that Jaha expected to see down here, much like Diana had been the last person that he expected to hear knocking on his quarter doors earlier. He wished that Abby was here. She was betting in situations like this than he was. But she had her hands full in Medical and would likely be busy all day.

He turned to Kane, who was now leaning with his hands flat on the offering table, staring down at the objects as if his scrutiny could bring their previous owners back to life.

"You've been drinking?" Jaha asked quietly, noting both the subtle scent of alcohol in the air and Kane's uncharacteristic actions.

Kane ignored his meaningless question. Drunk or not, he would still feel this way. And the emotions were hitting him harder than usual because he hadn't felt one in so long. To go from feeling the warmth from Abby's gratitude last night to now feeling the emotional weight of 320 souls was not a pleasant transition for a man who had been numb for two decades. A man who had told himself he would die that way because it was safer than having to feel everything. Well, now he was feeling it. All of it.

"Three hundred and twenty people," he uttered quietly, scoffing in disbelief of himself. "If I'd waited a day, two days, they'd still be alive."

It was Abby's insistence in the back of his head that haunted him. She told him, and he didn't listen to her. She'd warned him about all of this and maybe if he'd heard her, he wouldn't be feeling this way. Families wouldn't be falling apart. He wouldn't be drunk midday during the week because he couldn't take the pain. In that moment, he vowed never to ignore her again. To always hear her. Even if he didn't want to.

Jaha shook his head. "You didn't make that decision alone, Marcus," he reminded him gently.

"Maybe not, but I pushed. I was..." he winced with anger, "...I was so sure." Kane looked up then, wondering what had become of himself. "I swore an oath to protect and defend these people," he glanced at his chancellor, "instead, I killed them."

Jaha had warned him. Abby had warned him. That making such brutal decision would have personal consequences, even if he thought that he had mastered the art of numbness. But it had caught up to him faster than any of them expected, and now was not the time. They had to answer for what they had done and look to the people in terms of what to do next.

"Pull yourself together, Kane," he demanded in a low voice, "and then get your ass to the Mess Hall."

~~~

The emergency meeting was a mess.

Diana Sydney was the one who had pulled it all together. Like clockwork. Jaha couldn’t see that. All he saw was his own people losing faith in him, questioning him, and a woman that they trusted. In a sense, she reminded him of Abby. And he knew how important it was to have somebody that the people trusted in power or at least with a seat at the table. So, when the people turned against him and she stepped in to both defend him and talk her people down, promising a better future, Jaha knew there was only one thing to do.

"Then trust her," he told the people who were now staring at Diana Sydney as though she was an angel set to save them all. "As of this morning, there's an open seat on the council. Mine to fill until the next election," he turned to the woman, offering an olive branch. "We need unity now more than ever," he parroted her words. "What do you say, Diana?"

Jaha may have been blinded by this coup, but Kane saw it all. He watched as Diana allowed her people to rage and then swept in, as if it had been planned. Even if it hadn't been, she knew what she was doing. And he knew her like the back of his hands. This was a common trick up her sleeve. He also watched as she pretended to consider Jaha's offer as if there was any question that she would accept it.

He might have been drunk - coming down from it now - and he may have been upset, but he was not blind. Nor was he as desperate as the chancellor. He knew that as Diana smiled and accepted the offer to take Abby's seat on the council, things were about to get interesting.

And while Jaha looked at Diana and now saw an Abby-like figure - somebody that the people could turn to during dark times - Kane saw the exact opposite of Abby. The people looked to both women, yes, but for different reasons. Abby offered them honesty out of desperation. She gave them hope in the darkness. Diana offered them political gain. She gave them anger in that same darkness. Both light, both sparks, but only one dangerous.

He shared a look with one of his guards. He wasn't sure why, but this entire spectacle felt suspicious. He had talked Jaha into staying instead of joining Sector 17 - and thank god he did - because he didn't want to lose his friend, but also because now was not the time for a transferring of power. And if he knew Diana Sydney, he knew that's what she was after.

Sobering up quickly, Kane realised what had to happen here. He couldn't break down. Not while things were changing so quickly. Their council was morphing, Project Exodus was being brought forth, the ground was survivable, the people were growing unhappy and belligerent. He couldn't drink himself into a stupor and allow his sudden feelings to hinder him. He had to face them head on.

Perhaps that was why he went to his mother. Kane's father had not been a man of many emotions. One more death that he had been responsible for. Him and Fiona, the first girl that he ever considered maybe one day letting himself love. Those were the first of his casualties, although those deaths had been due to his own negligence rather than brute force. Jake was his fault. His best friend. Abby was almost his fault. Jaha tried to do away with himself. Every man and woman that he had ever floated. Every child that he'd ever stolen from their family and locked up. And now, every soul that participated in the culling.

His mother was all he had left. And he had pushed her away too. 

The first thing he did when he got to Sector 17 was water the tree. It was one step towards the person that he used to be. One step towards a hope that he hadn't allowed himself to hold on to in many decades.

"You haven't done that in years," his mother appeared behind him, thankful that this room was empty and her son faced no outside threat. "It's healing, don't you agree?"

Kane tried to look at her, he tried to respond, tried to be strong, but he couldn't. Not in front of his mother. For the first time in longer than he could remember, he crumbled. His face fell, his breath threatened to lodge itself in his throat, he felt. He felt everything that he had neglected to over the years. No wonder he found it easier to turn to drink. But he wasn't drunk now.

"I don't know who I am anymore," he whispered weakly, searching his mother's face for guidance.

Her brows pulled together empathetically. "You're my son," she reminded him.

For years, Vera had warned him against his actions. She didn't even want him signing on with the Guard. She had urged him to keep coming to prayer sessions, to keep close with people like Jake and Abby and Thelonious who urged him towards the light. She advised him against being so ruthless in his charges, so free in his executions. She warned him against the monster that he had become but now that it was here rearing its ugly head, she did nothing but reassure him.

"God will forgive you, Marcus," she promised. "The question is, will you be able to forgive yourself?"

He had already asked himself of this. The answer was no. And that was why he wished that another unruly mob would come and beat him to death. To take him away from it all. Give him the death that he deserved. As his mother reached out and held him in her arms, Kane wished that it would make him feel better. It was nice to be held, to feel warm, but it did not erase what he had done.

After a moment, she pulled away and brushed the hair off his face. "Sit down," Vera gestured towards a row of empty chairs, planning on finding her son a glass of water to calm him.

Marcus did as he was told and sat off to the side, resting his forearms on his knees as he leaned over himself, staring at the ground, wondering how on earth he was going to live with what he'd done. And that's when the door opened and shut, announcing a newcomer.

He didn't turn around at first. He assumed it was somebody there to pay their respects and figured that they would be coming and going throughout the day. It was his mother's voice that sent his neck craning behind him.

"Abigail?" She said, surprised to see the doctor bustling into the room in search of her. "Are you alright?"

Lowering his brows, Kane realized that Abby was crying. She was not just tearful, she was sobbing. Her breath came in hiccups and whimpers as his mother wrapped her arms around the woman. Was it the culling? Was she just as affected as he was and that was why she was here? Or did something else happen? Maybe the surgery hadn't gone according to plan. Whatever it was, it was enough to send Abby to her breaking point as she now searched for the only woman who had been like a mother to her since her own was floated and cried into her arms.

Vera was tsking and patting Abby's hair, smoothing out her braid and whispering to her. The two women stood like that for a few moments, Marcus uncertain whether or not Abby was saying anything or just continuing to cry. He tried not to stare but didn't have it in him to pretend as though he was not curious.

"Sit down, dear," Vera led Abby cautiously towards the chair beside her son, who had arrived not quite so emotional on the outside but in the same boat on the inside.

Taking a shaky seat and letting out a breath, Abby allowed herself to sit in the chair and calm down. She was aware that she was not alone, and she knew that it was Marcus Kane who sat beside her with his forearms on his knees, looking remiss. He had no right to be upset. That's what she told herself. He had gotten them all into this mess and if he was here upset about the culling, he had no right for it.

That thought quickly vanished. It was not right. Kane had been misguided in his beliefs, but he had only ever been doing what he thought was right. It's not his fault that he came out of it wrong. And she didn't wish the devastation that he must be feeling on anybody. Still, she didn't even have the capacity to mourn for the 320 souls. Not since she knew what Clarke knew.

Abby had no idea what Clarke must have thought when her father was floated. She hoped that the girl didn't think too hard about it but figured that was a pipe dream. Her daughter was always thinking. Abby couldn't have known that Clarke had spilled her guts to Wells before Jake was floated, and the girl assumed her friend sold them out. Abby also had no way of knowing why Wells allowed Clarke to go on believing this, but was reminded of what a big heart the boy always had. He would have known that Clarke needed her mother and was willing to make this sacrifice.

As for the woman herself, Abby felt as though the floor of her world had just been unceremoniously ripped from beneath her.

The pair of solemn, emotionally raw people sat side by side in a sector that had, just last night, been used as a death camber. Surrounded by signs of lives that were lost. Relying on the only spiritual guru on board the Ark merely because she felt like a mother to both of them. Breaking down as though they were children again in need of her love and guidance.

Kane hadn't said anything, but Abby felt him studying her, wondering what was wrong. Not out of concern - she wasn't naive enough to believe that - but out of morbid curiosity. Surely, he would ask if she did not offer the information.

Staring downwards and gripping the side of her chair beside her thighs, Abby spoke in a low tone. "Clarke told Wells that Jake was planning on going public," she said slowly.

It took a moment for Kane to catch up. He assumed that she was upset about something more recent. He had no idea that this was a personal issue between her and her daughter who was indeed alive and well.

"When he was arrested..." she trailed off, and Kane looked away in understanding, "...she thought that..." Abby's voice wavered with emotion, "...she thought that Wells had told Thelonious."

Swallowing, Kane was now able to put it all together. He was not slow. Clarke told Wells, Jake was arrested. Clarke blamed Wells.

"This whole time," Abby continued, stressing her words, "she blamed him."

Kane peered at her sidelong, noting the tears on her cheeks and the lines around her eyes. They didn't make her look old, necessarily, but tired. And aged. Older than she was when they met, that is. He tried to picture her as that pretty little eighteen-year-old and found the same spark. He tried to see the feisty twenty-year-old and found the same heart. Once again, he was reminded that even as Abby grew older and her hair lightened and her skin creased, she never changed.

"And now?" He asked in a low voice, following her story but still feeling the need to ask if for no other reason than to keep her talking.

Abby let out a shaky breath. "Now..." she began, still staring down at the floor, "...she knows the truth."

She didn't care who he was. Didn't care that he was just as responsible for Jake's death as she was. Perhaps that no longer mattered. Or perhaps that was precisely the person that she should be talking to about this. The only other person who might understand. Right now, he was not Councillor Kane the ruthless leader of the Guard, the man who opposed her at every opportunity, who had tried to have her floated. It was just Marcus. Her old friend. Somebody who was suffering today, just like she was.

"That..." she tried to continue, "...that I..."

Kane peered at her, watching her bottom lip tremble as she struggled against the words that didn't dare leave her mouth.

Suddenly, Abby knew that she didn't need to say any more. That he understood what she was getting at and she needn't make herself sick by saying it aloud. She knew that he saw her pain, he felt it, and he was going to sit here in it with her.

Because he had taken her hand. Not in a romantic way, of course. In a way that suggested there was nothing more for it. Nothing else that he could do. He took hold of the hand closest to him and held it firmly in his own, balancing it on her knee. And Kane was surprised when Abby did not yank that hand away in disgust or hatred, but instead let out a shaky sigh and allowed one more tear to fall down her cheek. When she held tightly to that hand and used it to steady herself.

In truth, it helped him too. It steadied him in return.

Vera was returning with two cups of water - half full, it was all they could afford - but stopped when she saw Abby and Marcus side by side, hand in hand. Her eyes were closed as though she was in pain, his were open but still staring out into space. Vera knew then and there that they didn't need water, they needed whatever was currently happening between the pair of old friends. The kids who used to laugh together, to study together, challenge each other. The kids who had grown up and moved on, Abby getting married and having her daughter while Kane prioritized his career. When she looked at them now, she saw those kids. And she knew that they could do more for each other now than she could for them. Only they understood how heavy these days were.

It didn't change anything, Abby told herself. It didn't erase what he had done to her. Who he was. As she blinked her eyes open, Abby realized that she was indeed a fool. Of course it changed things. Marcus was trying. He wasn't sitting here pretending that everything was okay. He wasn't still trying to float her. He was a man coming to terms with the monstrosities that he had committed. A man feeling remorse. Feeling being the key word. Abby hadn't seen him feel anything in years.

Maybe that's what prompted her to pick her chin up and peer at him through her tears. Yes, she could see the man that he once was. And that's all the mattered. She couldn't let him sit here in his own misery. Not after he had so humanly taken her hand just so that she wouldn't have to bear this alone. It wasn't his cross to bear. Her relationship with her daughter. Why should he care? And maybe he didn't. Probably, he didn't. But he had still taken her hand.

Kane knew that he was looking at her, and felt her eye contact like a sweltering burn upon his cheek as he refused to glance her way. He knew what was coming. He knew how she felt about him. About the decisions that he'd made and the man that he had become.

He could be remorseful and it still wouldn't be good enough for her. Rightfully so. She'd been calling him a villain long enough for him to grow numb to the term only now to realize that she'd been right all along.

He couldn't deal with her scrutiny right now. He'd been wrong and he knew that now. He hadn't had faith in the ground when he should have. He had culled 320 innocent souls when he shouldn't have. He had floated his best friend when he shouldn't have. He had turned his back on his mother when he shouldn't have. He had tried to kill Abby herself when he really shouldn't have, for she was the only one capable of saving them all.

He knew that he was wrong, He had already come to terms with that and his heart was now trying to catch up to the two decades that it had spent frozen as every emotion in the book flooded in. He would no longer sleep at night. He couldn't even look himself in the mirror without seeing the anti-Christ. The only thing that calmed his aching nerves and sorry head was alcohol and he was too smart to rely on such a crutch for longer than a day or two during a time like this.

Kane now knew that Abby had been right all along. He had told himself over and over again that sentiment of any kind was weakness and nothing more. She saw it as a power. And she had been right. Now as he stepped back from the carnage, he realized that his lack of sentiment had only allowed himself to be merciless and cold and nothing more. What had he accomplished? He floated people devoted to their families. He killed friends. He pushed for unnecessary cruelties. He hadn't taken one step towards saving his people despite using that notion to excuse all of his poor behaviour.

Needless to say, he did not need Abby to look at him with her daggers or to take in a sharp breath and tell him that he was wrong and a monster for what he'd done. That was why he didn't bother looking at her. He was positive that all he would find was justified malice. He was already getting that from everybody else, he couldn't get it from her. Maybe their friendship had persisted harder than he'd thought and when the floodgates of his emotions opened up, friendly feelings for her were revealed to have never left. Maybe he did hold her just a little bit closer than the average stranger, and her scrutiny would wound him deeper.

When their silence persisted and he felt too caught up to drop his hand from hers, Kane knew that he was going to have to face the music. When he finally did meet her eyes, it was strained and pointed. He knew that his struggle and his regret was plain on his face, and he wanted to beg her to just go easy on him. He understood that he was wrong and he might never be able to atone for any of it, but go easy on him. He was working through it.

Kane was surprised to realize that he hadn't needed to display any of that at all. She hadn't been watching him because she was desperate to chastise. He had been watching him carefully because she was worried about him, or so the look on her face said. He found no accusation, no lingering animosity, just a mild curiosity mixed with a deep, genuine concern that she would never bring herself to verbalize.

And boy was it odd. Like seeing something out of place that you know wasn't there before but somehow fit into the scenery like it might as well have always been there. A perfectly adorned centrepiece on a table that didn't realize it was missing something. An atrifact dragged out of a dusty closet because it probably should have been displayed all along. It felt weird but also not so weird, that was the only way that either could describe it.

In fact, he had to look away from it. It felt too good for him. Far more grace than he deserved.

"Don't blame yourself for this, Marcus," Abby said in a low voice, her oration taking him by surprise.

He glanced over at her for just a split second, wondering if she still meant the situation with Clarke. He could tell by the way that she now looked around herself and the room, taking in the harrowing scene of death, that she was talking about the culling now.

Abby shook her head, appreciating the way that his hand was warming her cold one. "You thought you were doing the right thing," she added.

But it didn't help. She was right - he thought that he was doing the right thing. What did that change? The lives were still lost. There was no changing it. Maybe that was the point.

Kane didn't want her pity. He didn't want to be reminded that she was that much more gracious than him. That much better of a person. That even now while she was at her lowest, she could sit there and comfort the man who had tried to ruin her life over and over again. He didn't want her grace. He didn't deserve it.

All he could do was look at her and hope to god that she saw the genuineness on his face. "I was wrong," he said plainly, the pain evident in his voice. "I killed 320 of our people, Abby," he reminded her solemnly.

She shook her head. "You didn't make the final decision, Marcus," Abby whispered in return.

Abby didn't quite know what she was doing. She had been so vehemently against the culling. She had been willing to risk it all to stop it. She hated Kane for pushing for it. And now she was trying to comfort him? Redemption, she reminded herself. People could achieve it. And Kane was no longer quite as remorseless as he had been for so long.

"It was my suggestion. I wanted it to happen," Kane continued to beat himself up, lowering his brows. "We both know Jaha didn't want to have to do that," he glanced at her. "You tried to stop me."

Abby's eyes took on a distant look as she stared forwards at the wall, her own heart freezing over with pain.

"I sent my child down to a planet that by all proof should have killed her," she said hollowly, trying to relate to his agony over making poor decisions. "The very last of my family. The one person that I'm always supposed to protect," Abby continued, looking over at him with such depth behind her eyes that he could feel it in his bones. "We all have our convictions, Marcus," she added. "And we've both had them put to the test."

That was an understatement. At least Abby hadn't been wrong about Earth. She held his eye contact as he searched for redemption in those deep brown pools.

"All we can do now is move forward doing the best that we can do with what we've learned."

He shook his head and let out a breath but remained tense and quiet. "You make it sound so simple," he whispered.

"I have to," Abby confirmed. "Otherwise I might actually have to think about it."

So, she was faking it. He wouldn't have guessed. She's always so certain in her convictions, so courageous. But beneath it all, she was breaking. Perhaps she had been for longer than he would have thought. For some reason, he was remembering a period of time when her and Jake were on the rocks and nobody would have known had they not overheard an argument or two. Maybe she'd always been good at faking it.

Abby swallowed and held his eye contact before she was forced to blink and look away. Kane felt himself letting go of her hand not because he wanted to but because he was convinced that if he didn't, she soon would. Instantly, Abby felt colder.

"I hear that you filled my seat," she changed the subject, her voice still hoarse with emotion.

Kane could only nod. "We needed someone familiar with Project Exodus," he revealed more than he should.

What was he doing? This woman was famous for leaking sensitive information and now here he was offering it up on a silver platter. Maybe he could see that she had done all that she could. He might as well indulge her.

He expected her to turn to him in pleasant surprise. As long as he'd known her, all she wanted was to go to the ground. Now that the news was finally being delivered, she didn't even flinch. In fact, Abby only looked away from him with a chagrin expression on her face.

"Still not enough dropships?" She asked, already knowing the answer.

Kane shifted in his seat, leaning back slightly. "Not even close," he revealed in a gruff voice, clasping his hands together in his lap.

Abby was shaking her head and letting out a sigh. She had hope. She would always have hope. But Diana Sydney was not the answer to their problems. She only hoped that she didn't wrap Jaha around her finger the way that she once had Kane.

"I have to get back to Medical," she muttered before pushing herself up out of her seat and taking her leave.

Chapter Text

Finally, it was back to work and life. Diana's presence seemed to calm the workers and prevent riots. The council strived to solve the dropship problem. Sinclair and his team had worked with some of the kids -namely Monty and Raven - to create a two-way video feed between the Ark and the ground, allowing kids to talk to them back and forth without worrying about radios. And for the first time all year, Abby had been avoiding Earth Monitoring.

Clarke didn't want to talk to her. Abby couldn't handle that. She was busying herself in Medical and refusing to even show her face around the terminal, much to everyone's surprise. Kane wasn't surprised, however, and he hoped that he had not been overstepping when he told the chancellor what had happened between Clarke and Abby as a means to explain away the strange behaviour.

The adults could understand why Abby had gone to Jaha. Why it happened the way that it did. Clarke - Jake's only child - would never understand.

Kane and Jaha were both pleased to have this communication to distract them. From the culling, from Wells' death. It made them feel useful.

"We're doing everything we can to prepare here," Clarke was explaining in terms of winter, which was fast approaching. "We're gathering nuts and berries, curing meats, digging for roots," she continued, "but the truth is, we'll freeze before we starve."

Kane leaned forward. "There's good news on that front," he said strongly. "According to civil defense plans from before the war, there's an old emergency aid depot not far from the landing site. Here are the coordinates," he said as they were sent through their machines. "In addition to the supplies, it could provide shelter for the hundred and for the citizens coming down from the Ark."

Project Exodus was in full swing. The council was preparing for boots on the ground in a month's time. Real, adult boots. The plan, as it stood, was to send as many people to the ground as possible and see about fabricating another dropship. Enough to take the other 1300 odd people to the ground. It wasn't perfect, but it was all they had.

Diana Sydney had made It her mission to take her people to the ground, even if Jaha's name was on the project. Right now, she was petitioning Abby to leave Medical and instead focus her efforts in Earth Monitoring. With the council in their chamber where they had set up the monitors to speak with the kids, the other station was largely forgotten about, and they still had work to be done. Diana had been in contact with Raven on the ground who was setting up testing devices using what they could salvage of the wristbands. They were sending signals back up to the Ark that reflected radiation levels among other things. As the mastermind behind the wristbands and a trusted ally of Project Exodus, Abby was the only person that Diana wanted monitoring and interpreting those results.

So, while Kane and Jaha and the others spoke to her daughter, Abby had ditched her lab coat to instead spend a full day in Earth Monitoring among strangers, considering everyone else was busy in line waiting to talk to the hundred. This did nothing to take her mind off of Clarke and what had become of their fractured relationship, but at least it kept her busy.

"It was designed to withstand nuclear warfare," Kane explained how he was positive that the aid depot was intact.

"Alright," Clarke nodded, "it's worth a shot."

Kane realized something lately. He liked Clarke. She was a smart kid with a solid head on her shoulders who knew how to use both her head and her heart when making a decision that would affect the greater good. She was a leader. Quite frankly, he respected her. She seemed night and day from the girl that he once arrested. It was a testament to both of her parents, he had to say. He saw so much of both Jake and Abby in her that he was destined to like her.

And Clarke realized pretty quickly that Kane was not the villain he once was either. He had been doing his job when he arrested her father, which she now blamed her mother for more than anybody. It was strange to feel a sense of alliance with that man, but undeniable, nonetheless. He wasn't so bad.

"Chancellor, I have to object," the objection came from Diana, who was shaking her head. "Project Exodus is underway. The kids should sit tight in their camp until the first dropship launches."

Rubbed the wrong way, Jaha would not stand for her suggestions. "Even if everything goes without a hitch, the hundred will die from exposure before relief arrives," he reminded her before looking around. "I'd like a moment with Clarke alone, please," he said, giving a knowing nod. "And I know there is a line of parents waiting to talk to their kids."

When Kane filtered out of the room, he had to wonder what it was about Diana that made his skin prickle. He used to desire her. He never appreciated her fantastical ideas nor her underhanded drive, but he admired her. He appreciated what she could do for him. He desired her, and he hated Abby. So why did he feel as though he would much rather have Abby back in her seat at the table than Diana. Maybe because there was something suspicious about her. Or maybe it was a simple case of preferring to side with the devil that one knows.

With her in mind, Kane's legs took him to Earth Monitoring. Diana had mentioned that she'd had to drag Abby from Medical and put her back to work on the surveillance project, and he was curious as to what exactly that meant. He was almost there when he heard the explosion. Afterwards, the screaming was all he could hear.

Sabotage wasn't on anybody's minds. Not in Earth Monitoring. Not when they had been tasked with the lowly job of surveilling the Earth's radiation levels based on the technology that Raven had rigged up. It was boring work, and certainly not anything worth killing over. It didn't cross Abby's mind that she was one of the only high-ranking officers in this room where she was surrounded by apprentices and novice technicians. Sinclair wasn't even here. The only reason that Jackson was here was because it was his lunch period and he had decided to spend it catching up with Abby.

But Abby was in that room for a reason. Diana Sydney had put here there, up to a meaningless task, just so that she could be within the bomb's blast range. She had plans to take out the entire council but couldn't be sure that Abby would be with them when that time came. And despite no longer sitting on the council, she was still a target. Perhaps a more dangerous one than any councillor. Abby was good, and she would never go for the mutiny that Diana was setting up.

Today was supposed to take care of that. Diana was trying to clear the chess board, and she was looking for the queen first.

But when that computer screen exploded, sabotage didn't cross Abby's mind. Probably because it didn't take any fatalities. She had been working on that old, outdated monster of a computer all morning but had been pulled over to the side due to Jackson's unexpected visit. Not fast enough to avoid being hit by the blast entirely, but with just enough luck to spare her life. If she had still been standing there, she would have wound up dead.

The monitor of that old computer had exploded, sending bits of glass and shrapnel around the room. And though nobody had been immediately in front of it - as Abby was supposed to be - there were still plenty of pretty deep injuries and shock around the room. Abby sprung into action, wasting no time on trying to figure out why or how the monitor had exploded, only that there were people with injuries that needed tending to. There was a large piece of glass lodged deeply in her arm - she wouldn't have noticed were it not for the rather excruciating stinging - which she yanked out relatively unceremoniously and hoped that her long sleeved shirt would do enough to stop the bleeding while she worked on those that needed more help than she did. In a perfect world, she would have left the glass in until she could be sure, but it would only hinder her upcoming efforts.

Grabbing a first aid bag off the wall, Abby glanced around quickly and attempted to triage in her head. There were people that had been closer to the blast, and they were not only hurt but also badly shaken. The sound of the explosion still rung out in peoples' ears as they began to scream and wail. Over at the monitor, exposed cables now snapped and sparked, adding to the terror of the scene.

Out in the hallway, Kane picked up his page and put out a call to his guards that backup was needed in Earth Monitoring. He was harrowed by what he walked into when those doors hissed open and closed behind him.

There weren't as many people in the room as there usually would be and Kane realized that after doing a quick once over, he recognized only a few faces. People were lying about the place or running around trying to help. There was blood, there was shrapnel, there was smoke, and there were only two doctors at the centre of it all. And though Abby hadn't thought anything of it, Kane was wired to wonder what happened here. Why was Abby the only chief officer in this room when a blast just happened to occur? What was the bigger picture here?

The panicked voices filled the space in the room amidst the moaning and groaning and Abby's orders getting lost beneath a blood-curding scream that somebody was letting out rather relentlessly. It sounded like shock rather than pain. Probably a bit of both.

Somebody - an uninjured engineer - had thought to take a fire extinguisher to the computer that had still been sizzling with flame until it was no longer a threat and thank god for that. In a place like this, fire caught quickly. And what they certainly did not need was flames ripping through the last of their remaining oxygen.

Kane needed to be briefed on the situation, but Sinclair was not in this room. In fact, he didn't recognize any of the engineers and knew that they had to be lower ranking. The highest rank in the room was Abby, even after she'd been stripped of her councillor's pin, and he wasted no time in approaching her. She was tag-teaming the injured with the help of Jackson who kept promising that he had paged down to Medical and that help was on the way. The young man was bandaging and ushering people towards benches, calming people down. Abby stepped in and was aiding the more critically injured.

People were shouting at her, begging her to help them first, but Abby's top priority right now was the noise. Either the screamer - who was a younger woman curled up into herself on the ground, hugging her knees - was brutally injured or she was in shock. Either way, she couldn't work with that noise traveling around the room in such a relentless manner. With this in mind, Abby knelt down before the girl, feeling a crunch of glass beneath her knee as she bent

Abby didn't know many of the people in this lab today, but she had been slowly getting to know them over the last few hours. This particular girl was an intern on her second week in the lab, hardly older than Clarke. She had been sitting at a different computer station when the blast hit, but the monitor was somewhere behind her, and a large fragment of glass had lodged itself in the back of her head. The bleed was so profound that it had turned her light brown hair a rusty red.

Trying to speak to her gently and assure her that everything would be alright, Abby took one look at that wound and knew that an emergency surgery was going to be needed if they were going to save this girl's life. She had to finish triaging here but could have a different doctor start the surgery and wait for Abby to come take over when she was ready if things got too difficult.

"Jackson!" She was shouting, realizing that a couple doctors had finally made their way over and had brought with them some stretchers and extra supplies.

Kane had taken in the moment for a split second before finding his bearings and realizing that this was some kind of sabotage plan and the perpetrators were still out there somewhere, perhaps plotting more. The main monitors of the room were perfectly fine. That told him that this attack was meant to do harm to a person or people in this room rather than any of the data. When Jackson brushed past him on his way to Abby's side, Kane realized that the young man was ushering the injured towards Medical despite looking like they could hardly walk.

With that in mind, Kane paged an order out to his guards to stop by Medical and help them bring supplies over. They would need more stretchers, gurneys, more manpower. Wondering why his head hurt suddenly, Kane realized that the screamer persisted. He saw that Abby was now beside her, doing her best to keep her head straight and calm her into silence, and he approached the scene with purposeful steps and a stern brow, peeing down at the doctor that had somehow gotten caught in the middle of all this.

It was strange to see Abby tending to medical wounds without her lab coat. She usually wore it everywhere she went whether it was Medical or Earth Monitoring or even council meetings, just in case. Right now, it was nowhere to be found. She wore a light grey shirt that was tight over her upper body and - he kicked himself for even noticing this during such a terrible time - it was low cut. The ponytail that she quickly threw her hair up into must have been done recently because there were slight blood smears around her hairline that must have been from her hands while she was pulling it back.

"What happened?" He demanded at around the same time that Jackson appeared on scene and assisted Abby in examining the wound.

Kane had crouched himself down to mimic Abby's position and hear her better over the din of the crowd, and Abby had no time to acknowledge the fact that he was now here and likely had security questions. Her mind was only on the task at hand, which was all medical.

"She was closest to the monitor," Abby said absentmindedly, trying to breath her shaky hands away. "She can't walk, she'll need a stretcher," she said, looking at Jackson for his help.

"No," Kane shook his head, realizing that Abby had misunderstood his question, "what happened?"

Now, Abby realized who she was talking to. Kane wasn't asking about the triaging or the sustained injuries, he was asking what the hell was going on, as head of Security.

She looked over at him as though she had previously not even known who he was and started to say something but remembered what was most important. Cutting herself off before she could begin, Abby quickly glanced back at Jackson.

"Abby..." Jackson said hesitantly, "...that looks bad."

Her eyes snapped to him. Now was no time to be commenting on the gravity of this poor girl's injuries. It was time to get her to Medical.

"She needs surgery," Abby confirmed quickly, leaving no room for argument. "Take her to Dr. Jameson in Medical.

Jackson and Abby helped the poor girl to her feet before she was propped against Jackson's shoulder, and he took her away in search of a stretcher. Kane rose to his feet in suite and peered at Abby. He had seen her in emergent medical situations before, and she was always calm and collected. An anchor in a storm. And though her mind was solid, and she did what needed to be done, her hands were indeed trembling, and every now and then, her eyes would fill with tears.

Perhaps her body knew that it had been an attempt on her life, but she was not allowing her mind to acknowledge that yet. Not while there was work to be done first.

"One of the computer monitors exploded," Abby explained, knowing that Kane was still waiting for his answers.

As she tried to give him a rundown, Abby knew that there was no time for her to pause and talk. She had spotted an older, balding man with a gash on his forehead so deep that it was going to need stitches right now if the man had any hopes of being able to stand without passing out. Abby made a slight noise of inconvenience that suggested she really wished that she could be in multiple places at once and grabbed a suture kit out of the bag beside her before making her way over to the injured man.

Kane knew what this meant. If he wanted answers, he was going to have to keep up.

"All this from one single monitor?" He asked, trailing behind her as she placed a firm hand on the man's shoulder, indicating that she was here to help.

He watched Abby's hands as they quickly began to stitch the man's forehead, always impressed by doctors and how precisely they managed to sew up somebody's skin. Abby was known for having the gentlest touch and making stiches feel painless even without any numbing cream.

"It was one of the older ones," she explained, making a knot in the stich, "so there was more glass and hardware than there would be in one of the newer monitors."

At least that explained the sheer amount of shrapnel, but still did nothing to answer that bigger picture question that Kane was still trying to figure out.

"Luckily nobody was using that monitor at the time," she continued to explain, multitasking as she finished her stitches and stood up, looking around, "the explosion would have been fatal."

Kane swallowed and furrowed a brow as he watched Abby pinpoint her next patient and make her way quickly over to the middle-aged woman with a bleeding shoulder blade.

"Was the monitor in use at all today?" He asked, trying to clarify whether or not the machine was even turned on at the time. Maybe it was technical difficulties after all.

He watched Abby's face twitch with something that she quickly ignored as she checked herself for a pack of gauze and an alcohol wipe, which were in her free hand, and made her way towards the woman.

"It was in use all day," Abby said matter-of-factly, and Kane continued to trail her as she knelt down and cleaned up the woman's wound. "The only reason it wasn't at the time of the blast was because I walked away."

Kane froze. "You were using that monitor?"

That changed things. Targeting this rom was an attack on Project Exodus. Targeting Abby herself was an attack on a political figure, even if she no longer had as much power as she once did. It changed the way that he perceived this threat. It changed his list of suspects.

"Sarah," Abby shook her head, trying to keep pressure on the woman's arm that would not stop bleeding, "you'll need to get to Medical," she explained with a sigh, "keep pressure on the wound until they can dress it properly."

She helped the woman to her feet before sending her on her way, realizing that Kane was looking around this room as if the assailant might still be here.

"Kane," she sighed again, "spontaneous combustion isn't impossible with technology that old."

He nodded but didn't take the bait. With everything going on right now, he had to believe that this was an attack. A personal one, most likely. And after he had just lost 320 people due to his own actions, he wasn't about to let anything go unpunished when more lives were at stake. Surveilling, he was about to leave her alone as Abby reached across one of the terminals for another bottle of rubbing alcohol so that she could move on to the next patient, but he spotted something on her that she had perhaps failed to consider.

Abby had blood all over, but most of it was drying and old - somebody else's. The blood coming from her arm was fresh and bright red, soaking through the lighter fabric of her shirt and forcing him to realize that she was actively bleeding. Relatively profusely. Without thinking, he reached out and touched her side, attempting to stop her from moving.

"Abby..." he said absentmindedly, furrowing his brow.

She looked down and stared at the hand that had brushed her side, wondering what more he could possibly need from her in this busy moment, before her eyes darted up to his face and found concern. Those staring eyes of hers became wide and expressive as she silently wondered what was wrong. But he wasn't looking at her face nor meeting her eyes. He was gently lifting her arm by her left wrist, unsure where the bleeding started and stopped.

"You're hurt," he finished.

Abby stared at him as though she could not understand the words that he was saying. If the truth could be told, she was taken aback by his uncharacteristic moment of concern for her well being and trying to figure out if he had been body snatched. Shaking her head, Abby tried to wave away his concerns.

"Hardly," she said strongly, getting a grip on that bottle. "I'm fine, I need to-"

She knew that her injury - while it was causing her to lose enough blood that she was indeed getting lightheaded - was not fatal. She knew that she could wait until this triage was finished before tending to her gash, but Kane obviously had other plans. When Abby attempted to pull her arm away from him, he lowered his eyebrows and tightened his grip on her, getting down to business, leading her back towards a different table where an unused first aid kit was calling their name.

The other medics had arrived, and his guards were here helping out, too. They could take a minute to debrief and clean her up without it hurting anybody.

Abby was surprised by his ability to perform first aid on her, though she shouldn't have been. The guards all undergo first aid training on a four-year basis. She led them through it most years. And this wasn't an intricate wound. But she found herself watching his stoic face as he rolled up her sleeve carefully and used an alcohol wipe to clear the blood from her arm. She bit her bottom lip when the alcohol stung her cut. It was right around then that the pain set in. She had been so preoccupied with everybody else that she hadn't let herself feel it. Now, it felt as though someone was trying to saw through her arm.

"Was there sensitive information on that computer?" He asked in a low voice, still trying to play the whodunnit game.

Abby shook her head. "This whole place is one big computer," she reminded him curtly, "it's all connected."

Kane nodded. That much was true. Anything transmitted from that particular terminal would have been automatically backed up into the main frame. And nobody had targeted the main frame. Once again. Leading him to believe that this attack was targeting towards a person rather than any piece of information. Maybe it was a message, a warning. Or maybe it was just meant to kill her and look like an accident.

Kane watched as she flinched slightly and he paused what he was doing to look up at her and meet her eyes from beneath his quizzical brow. "Does that hurt?" He asked in a low voice, his eyes suddenly looking relatively expressive.

Abby blinked her pain away and shook her head, but he could tell that she had stifled a whimper by biting her lip.

From there, his eyes returned to the task at hand, but Abby continued to stare at his face, failing to ignore the smirk that he was trying to cover up. He wasn't enjoying the fact that she was in pain - as he perhaps would have weeks ago - but instead making fun of her for always acting so brave even when she was in pain.

"And you were the only person using that monitor today?" He asked again.

Abby shook her head. "Kane, I told you," she said, tilting her head, "it was old."

He was not convinced. "So, you're telling me that it looks like an accident?" He asked, guiding her thoughts with his tone of voice.

Now, Abby glanced back up at him, tearing her eyes away from the bandage that he was relatively expertly wrapping around her arm. They could use him in Medical. She understood what he was getting at. Somebody had carried out an attack and now Abby was falling for the way in which they were making it look like an accident. Kane had more experience in this realm, and she had to trust that he knew suspicious activity when he saw it.

"You were stationed at that monitor all day," he spoke low, reminding her of their circumstances, "and it just so happens to explode?" He stared down at her and watched as she began to waver under his accusations. "The timing's suspicious, to say the least."

Abby stared at him uncertainly. "You think someone did this on purpose?" She asked, wondering if he was being overly cautious or genuinely suspicious.

"Computers don't just blow up, Abby," he said sternly, taping the bandages but keeping a gentle grasp on her wrist. "Somebody was responsible for this."

Abby almost found it touching that for once, he wasn't immediately suspecting her.

"And you think that they wanted somebody here dead?" She asked, still not convinced.

Kane shook his head. "I think they wanted you dead," he revealed darkly.

Abby blinked, trying not to let this register any fear within her. "Who would do this?" She shook her head, looking around herself at the damage that was done to so many unsuspecting people.

Kane leaned in slowly, ensuring to keep his voice down and his face stern. "Who put you at that computer?"

Abby's face twitched as she realized what he was saying. This was political, he thought. And that was clear now. But, of course, nobody had any evidence of that. And quite frankly, Abby didn't really believe that Diana Sydney would do this. Not only that, but they might never find any evidence to suggest otherwise.

"I'm shutting this room down until we can conduct a thorough investigation," he said with a nod, straightening out and looking away from her.

Abby pulled her arm back and rolled down her own sleeve, peering up at Kane as he continued to survey the room. Abby was about to open her mouth and say something, but a pinging from Kane's tablet directed their attention elsewhere.

"It's Jaha," he said, furrowing his brows before he paused and looked at Abby, staring as though he had just learned something that he could not yet explain. "He knows who shot him."

Kane felt as though things were coming apart at the seams, and he was trying to hold it all together. Finally, a lead on the shooting of Jaha. An attack on Abby. A council divided. An Ark on the verge of riots. And no oxygen. How was he supposed to manage all that? He couldn't watch over everybody all at once, especially not when he didn't know where these attacks were coming from or who they were going to target next.

Commandeer Shumway. His very own closest colleague. He had made him commander after himself. He had trusted him to uphold the law and protect his citizens. And he had been responsible for giving Bellamy Blake a gun and a guard's uniform and instructing him to shoot the chancellor. It wasn't adding up. Kane had spent hours questioning him, but he wouldn't budge. His story made no sense, and Kane had to consider that he might be covering for somebody. He just couldn’t figure out who. And Shumway was giving him less and less.

He had asked him about the shooting. About why he wanted the chancellor shot. When he didn't budge, he then asked who had instructed him to have the chancellor shot. Who he was working with. Was it Nygel? Was it the black market? He asked if Shumway had anything to do with the bomb in the Earth Monitoring computer or if he knew something about it. If he had any idea who would want the chancellor dead, who would want Abby dead, who they were going for next. When it got late, he had to give up. In the morning, Shumway would be questioned again. And if he still gave them nothing, he would be floated.

But when morning came and Kurtis Shumway was found dead in his cell - glass broken and his wrists slit - Kane knew full well that it was not a suicide. It was a coverup. Somebody with a key to that prison section was working against the council. Somebody had his own guards in their pocket. He only wished that he knew who.

~~~

Days had passed and Abby and Clarke were still not talking. Not for a lack of trying on the mother's part. But after a while, even she had to take the hint and stop asking. Today, while a live feed was transmitted between the Earth and the Ark, Abby knew that her daughter was somewhere in the crowd watching, but she did not show her face. Today, she couldn't let it get to her. Once she got to the ground, Abby and Clarke could make things right. They could talk through what happened and learn to understand each other. They could forgive. On Unity Day, anything seemed possible.

Until, of course, the blasts went off.

To detonate a bomb during the pageant was dangerous - there were kids in the room who could have gotten seriously hurt. But it was the only time that all the councillors plus the chancellor were together in one room. That Mess Hall had become the chess board. If they were lucky, they could get Abby too after the failed mission last week.

Kane had been investigating but even his efforts were proving futile. There was much to be done. Project Exodus did not allow them a moment of rest, and he could not run a proper investigation on a time limit. Nobody had tried anything else, and Abby's life remained unharmed for the rest of the week, so he had eased off his search. He had accepted Commander Shumway's suicide. He had let Diana Sydney continue to sit at that table in Abby's chair and poison the waters that she had spent so long filtering.

The kids on the ground had no idea what happened. They assumed that it was just a shoddy transmission that had been lost. Raven informed them that they weren't working with the most stable of connections anyways and it was only a matter of time before the feed cut out. They went on enjoying their Unity Day. Drinking, celebrating, making the most of their last few weeks before the adults would get there and no doubt put an end to all their fun.

Abby had been smiling. Up in the Mess Hall, watching the children, surrounded by friends and colleagues, she stood off to the side by herself, cross-armed but applauding in all the right places, with a small smile on her face. And perhaps she should have paid a bit more attention when Diana Sydney appeared at her side.

"Hello Abby," she said in that underhanded way that she always spoke.

Abby glanced at her, wondering how the woman always managed to make people feel like she was lying when she spoke to them, even if she was just saying hello.

"Diana," she said with a nod.

The two women had worked together for years and had known of each other forever, but had never been particularly friends. Abby always enjoyed the way that Diana was keen on Project Exodus, and she had appreciated getting to work on it with her back in the day, but they faced plenty of personal conflict. Abby didn't like her ways, and Diana didn't like Abby's. They most certainly were not friends.

"I hope there are no hard feelings about me taking the council seat," Diana said, noting the chilly tone with which Abby was addressing her.

Abby could have been snarky despite not having the right to. But instead, she only continued to smile and think of Clarke and Wells performing the pageant when they were kids. Thinking about how she would fix things when she got to Earth. How everything would work out.

"No hard feelings about anything at all today," Abby said sweetly, burying the hatchet in the name of unity.

Diana eyed her sidelong, wondering where Abby's good mood was coming from. She was a nice woman, but if she didn't like you, she made it known. She did not bother with pleasantries. Diana had to assume that it was why her and Marcus Kane stayed on opposite sides of the room today.

"That's right," she realized what had kept Abby so positive, "you'll get to see your daughter soon."

When Clarke and Jake were both arrested, the entire Ark knew about it. Especially those who had anything to do with Alpha Station or Go Sci politics. Diana had been shocked at the time but remembered how headstrong and stubborn Abby was and soon attributed the same qualities to the husband and daughter that she had only ever met in passing. She stared at the shorter woman sidelong momentarily, wondering if Abby would grow desperate after Diana's plan was carried out. If all went accordingly, Abby Griffin would never be reunited with her daughter. And in fact, nobody would. Nobody save for Diana herself and her people. Those loyal to her mutiny.

"He's cutting his remarks short," Diana mumbled, catching Abby's curiosity.

She peered over at her. "What's that?"

Diana shook her head and crossed her arms, moving backwards. "Oh, nothing," she said. "I helped him with his speech. He's leaving the best part out."

Abby tried to think nothing of it as Diana disappeared somewhere behind her, obviously needing to be somewhere else. And it all happened quickly after that. The pageant. The live feed. The explosion. At this rate, Abby was experiencing an explosion a week. That had to be a record of some kind.

When her ears stopped ringing, Abby was one of the first people up off the ground. She grabbed a med kit from the spot on the wall and got to work quickly as the smoke cleared. By now, she felt like an expert on bomb blasts and how to clean up after them.

She wasn't unharmed - she had a cut on her forehead from something that had hit her in the face upon explosion, and she could feel that something had nicked her lip too, but she wasn't lightheaded, she wasn't profusely bleeding, and she had been far enough away from the blast to hardly even have any damaged hearing. There were six others who were not so lucky.

Kane searched around himself in desperation. Another bomb? How could that be? There was a list of names in his head. People who were here that he needed to make sure were safe before anybody else. First on that list was the chancellor. Kane spotted Jaha being tended do by Abby and was relieved to find them both unharmed. The second name on that list surprised him. His mother. Not his fellow councillors, not the chief officers, but his mother. That name came from love rather than duty.

He knew that she was here because she was always here on Unity Day, and because they had been speaking just a minute ago.

"They tell me you'll be on the first exodus ship," she had said, stopping him from making his rounds about the room.

"Yes," he nodded curtly, "I'll be overseeing security on the ground."

Kane had learned that weeks ago and was relatively excited about it. New, uncharted terrain, novel threats, power. It was all right up his alley.

"Would you take the tree down for me?" She asked.

He stared at his mother's earnest, hopeful eyes. He didn't like to disappoint her, but something about her blind faith had always seemed to aggravate him. Political differences and all that. The things that she had time for, he did not, and vice versa.

"Mom, I have a job to do," he said, trying not to come across too coldly.

"At least come to the departure ceremony," she insisted. "You could give the Traveller’s Blessing. Think of it as a goodbye gift for your mother."

That was the part that Kane was trying not to think about. His mother was not high up on the list of people making it to the ground. He would be among chief officers, the chancellor, the rest of the council, Abby, Sinclair, everyone who ranked high enough. And they would be on the ground while the problem of the dropships arose. There weren’t enough for everybody, and Kane was quite positive that there wasn't room for his mother. Obviously, he didn't want to talk about it.

"I don't remember it," he lied because it was easier. "Excuse me."

And now his mother was lying on the ground, her breathing coming in ragged, shallow waves. He couldn't see a wound but knew that she had been caught in the blast. Based on the way that the shrapnel had settled, he had to assume that she had been standing almost directly in the line of fire. If he hadn't moved away from her, he might have been killed.

Abby was demanding that the chancellor be taken to Medical, Jaha himself was barking orders at Kane to find out who did this, but all he could see was his mother. At the end of her life. One more person that he could not protect.

While the dust settled, Abby stood strong at the centre of it all. Anyone with medical or first aid experience was helping out, but what she really needed was triage supplies. More hands. Abby could see at least five dead bodies near the impact zone, maybe more. Then, her eyes landed on Kane. It was unusual to see him so scattered. She expected him standing tall and commanding like he had been after the first bomb went off last week. But today he was crouched on the floor, desperately holding somebody who had been badly hurt. Abby's eyes darted down and realized that it was Vera.

Her heart clenched within her. She did not want to have to see this. Did not want to have to watch as the life was drained from Vera Kane, the woman who had been like a second mother to her. The woman that she really should have spent more time with throughout the years. And she especially did not want to have to be the one to tell Marcus Kane that his mother was not going to make it. She had a hard enough time encroaching on this intimate scene as it was.

Gently, Abby knelt beside Kane and felt around for Vera's pulse. Kane's eyes were on her, wide and desperate. Abby was the best they had. Surely, she could save his mother, couldn't she? But the doctor only gave him a reticent, apologetic look, and Kane knew that there was no hope. Abby quietly backed away from the situation, allowing Kane his final moments with his mother, but even as she moved on to the next person in need of assistance, her eyes kept darting over to him.

He gave the Traveller’s Prayer.

"In peace may you leave the shore, in love may you find the next. Safe passage on your travels until our final journey to the ground," he stared at her, fighting off tears as she left this world. "May we meet again."

People aboard Ark Station often had trouble saying, "I love you." Instead, they said, "may we meet again."

That prayer was Marcus' final goodbye gift to his mother.

He only allowed himself a moment of mourning before he remembered that there was no time for that. He could grieve once this was all over. Once everybody was safe and he figured out what the hell was going on. Jaha was back now, offering meaningless condolences that nobody had time for.

"We need to get you out of here, sir," Kane was saying, rising to his feet and gesturing towards the chancellor. "This was a coup," he hissed when the realization dawned on him.

From her position nearby, kneeling before an injured man as she tended to his wounds, Abby's eyes flicked over. She was listening now.

"Councillors Cole, Kaplan, Muir, and Fuji are dead," Kane announced under his breath urgently. "If you hadn't cut your speech short..." he trailed off, the subtext was clear.

Jaha would have been caught in the blast too, because he would still be standing at the front with the rest of his councillors. Even Kane was supposed to be closer than he had been.

"Where's Councillor Sydney?" Jaha demanded, noticing how one name had been saved from the list of fatalities.

"She left before the bomb blast," Abby said suddenly, revealing that she had been listening.

This was true. Diana had left her post at the front of the room and suddenly started making conversation with Abby over on the side. She hadn't thought anything of it. Now, she knew better. Jaha might have been able to trust Diana enough to welcome her onto his council, but Abby knew better. Kane did too, he merely didn't have the power to keep her away from the table.

"I'll find her," Kane began, but Jaha had another thought. 

"You do that," the chancellor said. "And double the guard at the dropship. I'm putting the Ark on lockdown," 

His thoughts were clear. Diana was created a coup meant to wipe her fellow councillors off the board. The next natural step was to go for the exodus ship. To seize it for herself and her mutiny and take her people to the ground, leaving the rest of them up there to die in space.

"We are not missing that launch window."

~~~

Kane hunted for Diana and struggled to find her. With the Ark on lockdown, it was even more difficult. As an afterthought, he paged out to his guards and tried to keep a semblance of order on the people who were left. Former councillors, for example, who already had a target on their backs.

"Ma'am," a guard approached Abby back in the Mess Hall as she attempted to leave and head towards Medical. "Chief Kane wants you at the exodus ship," he said upon receiving the page with the order.

"The exodus ship?" Abby narrowed her eyes, angry that they were preventing her from being useful. "I need to get to Medical."

The page had mentioned that she would try to fight him on it, but the guard needed to insist that it was an order. "I'm afraid it's an order, ma'am," he kept his chin up. "He wants you packing medical supplies."

Why? Because the exodus ship was the safest place that she could possibly be. Diana was behind everything, and he knew it now. The shooting of Jaha, the bomb that was meant to take Abby's life in Earth Monitoring, the suicide coverup of Commander Shumway in Prison Station, and now this. The explosion that took the lives of four councillors and Vera Kane. The chancellor and Abby needed to be aware that they were next. That the king and queen had yet to fall from the chess board and their knight was doing everything in his power to keep them protected.

Diana wouldn't risk the exodus ship. Not when it was the only thing standing between her and the ground. It was the only place where he could be sure that there were no more bombs waiting to be triggered.

So, Abby huffed and puffed and spent close to an hour with the engineers and mechanics who were working on the dropship, trying to pack as much medical supplies as she possibly could into the various storage deposits. She only hoped that somewhere out there, Kane had found Diana. That she was being brought to justice. 

But when he showed up with that stern, unimpressed look on his face, she knew that he had no leads. He had demanded that they sweep the entire dropship just because it was the last place that he had to check.

Abby had been standing off to the side with a sour look on her face and her arms crossed over her chest as the sweep was conducted. Kane ventured towards her. He didn't know why, but he felt a certain sense of alliance with her. A common enemy would do that to people who had been at odds for so long. Out of nowhere, she became one of the people that he would rater work with and protect than float. He no longer wanted to see her dad. He understood her value.

"I should be in Medical," she spoke as he passed by her with his hands behind his back. "Not packing medical supplies."

He had been trying to move past her and head into the dropship for an inspection of his own but turned to her. To Abby's surprise, there was exhaustion and reluctance on his face. A man who was reaching his wit's end. He wasn't belligerent, wasn't mad at her - for once, and wasn't even trying to give her orders. He was tired.

"The injured have been taken care of," he looked up at her, thinking of his mother's face and the way that she had turned cold so quickly. "And we can do nothing for the dead," he added in a quiet, broken voice.

Abby could see him trying to be strong. She could see how he would blame himself for this too. And to her surprise, she didn't hate him. Not in this moment. He wasn't the man who had tried to float her, wasn't the man who locked up her daughter, who killed her husband, who culled 320 citizens. He was an old friend, and he was in pain. 

She gave him a solemn look - one that made her look younger than she was - and he tried to continue walking past her. 

"Marcus," Abby said, speaking quickly as though the word had left her mouth before her brain had a chance to filter her actions.

He looked at her, surprised to feel her hand on his upper arm. It was meant to be a soothing gesture, and he recognized it from her. He recognized the look in her eyes. The sound of her voice. This wasn't performative, it was real.

And when Abby spoke his first name, it felt like relief. Like forgiveness.

"I'm sorry," she said with a wince, "Vera was an amazing spirit."

Kane stared at her weakly and was reminded one again that despite the bad blood and burnt bridges, they were old friends. He could remember a time when she had reached out and taken his arm in the same manner, spoken in the same tone of voice, and expressed her genuine condolences when he had lost his father and girlfriend. 

That hand on his arm and the real, emotionally vulnerable look on Abby's face did not fix the hole in his heart that had been left by his mother, but it did feel nice. It felt as though he could lean on her for a moment and allow himself to be human. To remind them both that amidst the bickering and the barking of orders, the performance of their relationship, they were still just people. And they had very few friends left. 

Kane could have lingered in that moment forever had Diana Sydney not chosen that very second to reveal herself, running through the doors holding a tablet.

"This launch should be delayed!" She said suddenly, bringing attention to everyone in the room.

Abby's hand dropped lamely from Marcu's side as eh man turned himself around, surprised to see the former chancellor here.

"At least until you've questioned the terrorist that sent that bomb," she went on, but was not a very good actress. "I put word out to my people and just heard back. His name is Cuyler Ridley," she handed Kane a tablet showing the face of the accused. A man from Factory Station with fading red hair. Kane recognized him. "He's a mechanic who lost his wife in the culling."

That was where Kane recognized him. He had shoved him at the memorial. He had lashed out at Jaha during the emergency meeting. And now, he was being framed for Diana's murders. Kane did not buy a word of it, and he knew full well that the woman now standing just behind Diana and to her left was too smart to fall for it either.

"Yeah, I recognize him," he said in a low voice.

"So, what makes you think he did it?" Abby asked.

Instead of shutting her down and insisting that this was none of her business - as Kane would have done weeks ago - his eyes flicked towards Abby. She had raised a good point. And this most certainly was her business. Maybe she would see something that Kane didn't. 

Diana turned around and stepped down the small, raised platform to approach Abby. "He turned himself in," she revealed.

From behind, Kane was not watching Diana. He was watching Abby's reaction to her words from over her shoulder. Skeptical. He stepped towards them both and his eyes quickly flitted between the two women before him. One tall and prone to lying to cover her own ass. One shorter and also prone to lying to cover her own ass. But Kane only trusted one of them. Somehow, out of nowhere, he trusted Abby Griffin. She was his only ally in this room. And he watched as she peered at him, waiting for his response, waiting for him to trust her. He could see it in her eyes - she trusted him too.

Kane stepped closer. "Where have you been, Diana?" He asked in an accusatory tone that was masked with friendliness. "Why did you leave the pageant early?"

Abby watched silently. So, this was what it was like to watch from afar as he dressed somebody down. Usually, she was the accused. Not today.

"Well, thank god I did or I'd be dead right now," Diana continued to perform. "I guess we're both lucky."

Kane understood what that meant. If she'd had it her way, he would have been caught in the blast too. But here he was, a loose end. Threatening to be her reckoning. He shared a look with Abby over Diana's shoulder.

"Stay where we can find you," he demanded, but had no evidence to bring her in on yet.

Diana dropped her arms to the sides. "Where am I gonna go, Kane?" She asked.

He had to question this scapegoat of hers. He only hoped that he didn't live to regret it. He turned to leave, giving Abby one last look. The woman's eyes weren't exactly wide, but they sure were pressing. From afar, she was urging him not to trust Diana. To give her some kind of a sign that he had not fallen for her act. He couldn't give her that confirmation, but he could promise to keep an eye on Diana.

"Be careful," Diana called back after him, causing Kane to turn around slowly. "Ridley's dangerous."

Abby's teeth clenched together when she realized what was happening. Kane and Diana used to sleep together, she had to assume that they had cared for one another somewhere along the line. And now, Diana was appealing to his sense of attraction and intimacy, trying to pretend as though she cared. Abby knew that Kane was cold and calculating but recently she'd learned that it had all been an act. A believable one that even he had fallen for, but an act all the same. Maybe last month he wouldn't have fallen for Diana's tricks, but today he would. She couldn't be sure.

Then, his eyes flicked to her. And it was just enough to issue a silent agreement. A promise that he didn't believe it, but he had to question the suspect anyways. He nodded once before leaving the room.

~~~

Cuyler Ridley was indeed but a scapegoat and a distraction. Kane learned that as soon as he got his ribs kicked in and wound up semi-conscious on the floor while his own guards untied Ridley and took off, leaving him locked in the prison cell. It did not take Kane long to realize that the coup was still afoot. The power was cut to Prison Station and he knew that because he began to freeze with the dropping temperatures. And based on what Ridley had said to the others when they attacked, it sounded like they were going to be taking the Exodus Ship.

And with none of his guards there - or at least not enough of them - to put a stop to it, they would likely succeed. He thought of how it was really just mechanics, engineers, and Abby over there in the dropship. They certainly couldn't fend off Diana Sydney's entire mutiny. Abby. He thought of her with a jolt of ironic realization. He had put her on that dropship to keep her safe. He assigned her to packing medical supplies rather than getting back to what she really wanted to do. And now because he had tried to keep her safe, she was going to get caught up in the war.

Jaha and Sinclair were in Engineering, and they were on the situation quickly when they noticed the change in the air and began to pant. Instantly, it became clear that power had been lost to multiple stations. In search of his right-hand man, they wondered where Kane was only to find Prison Station completely out of power.

"Marcus," Jaha breathed upon getting the door open and helping the shivering man to his feet.

Kane stood, trying not to let his teeth clatter. "It's a mutiny," he revealed breathlessly, "Diana Sydney," he said, "she's diverting power."

Jaha sobered instantly, wondering how he had managed to let things get so utterly out of hand. "She's taking the Exodus Ship."

They wouldn't miss the launch window after all. Diana planned to launch the ship one way or another. But without the rest of them on it.

By the time they reached the Exodus Ship, it was very clearly too late. Diana Sydney was inside with various members of her munition - mainly folks from Factory, Farm, and Hydro. A familiar mechanic named Red greeted them with urgency.

"Everything happened all at once," he explained quickly. "They're trying to launch the ship but I'm pretty sure we've still got people on board."

Kane had a thought as they approached the doors. "Sir," he said, leaning towards the chancellor, "Abby was here."

Now, Jaha looked towards him with wide eyes. He hadn't realized they had people inside, let alone their best doctor. One of his very dearest friends. That got his blood pumping a bit faster.

"Was Dr. Griffin inside?" He asked in a rather panicked tone, looking at Red who only cast a glance over his shoulder and shrugged.

"Last I saw," he said, unwilling to provide an answer one way of the other.

Jaha and Kane shared a look as they reached the doors. Kane had a feeling that yes, Abby was still inside. If she wasn't, she would be out here fighting with the rest of them, trying to get the doors open. Although, there was a good chance that she had decided to defy his orders and go back to Medical before any of this could have happened.

And in fact, Abby was inside. She had heard the commotion and watched as people pirated the ship, hiding myself away behind the bars of the storage bay as she tried to put it all together. Abby had breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing the words "chancellor on deck" and expected Thelonious to interrupt whatever was happening and re-establish order. Her stomach dropped with dread and realization when Diana Sydney appeared in his place. These were her people, and they had made her their chancellor.

They were taking the ship for themselves. Abby had been on quite the roller coaster lately. She went from thinking that her daughter was going to rot in jail and be floated as soon as she turned eighteen to finding out that there was a possibility that Clarke could live, but she'd have to be dropped on a potentially irradiated planet in order to do so. Then, Abby became desperate to see her. And with Raven's help, she was certain that she was going to get to the ground. Then Kane interrupted them and Abby came to terms with never seeing her daughter again. Now that Project Exodus was underway and she was pardoned - and her name was on the list of first travellers to the ground - she had been teeming with excitement. And now, because of Diana Sydney's munition, she was realizing that she might never get to Clarke after all.

She stayed hidden even as she watched the doors seal and the terminal fill with angry people including the chancellor and his chief of security.

 Jaha had turned back to Red and took a demanding tone. "We need to know who's still in there," he said firmly.

"I told you," Red shook his head, "it all happened very fast," he swallowed. "I'm not even sure if Dr. Griffin was inside at the time, I'm sorry."

That wasn't good enough. Not by the chancellor's standards. And while Sinclair was also worried for his friend, they had bigger fish to fry.

"Sir," he jutted in, holding a tablet, "the Exodus Ship is fully charged, and they've begun their launch protocol."

Jaha furrowed his brow. "It won't launch when the door's open, that's correct?" He inquired seriously. 

"It is," Sinclair confirmed.

The chancellor gritted his teeth. "Then get the damn door open."

"We can't," the engineer tried to explain what he knew his fellow colleague already understood. "It's already pressurized, and we can only open it from the inside."

Hell, even Kane knew that. As soon as he realized those doors were sealed, he knew it was hopeless. Those doors wouldn't be open. If Abby was inside, she was doomed. Diana wouldn't risk throwing her out and having the rest of them pry the doors open. She'd either be killed or taken hostage. Either way, she was dropping with that ship. It was a shame, in his mind, as he allowed himself a split second to think about it.

He had been just starting to like her again.

Kane had spent so long locked inside the towers of his mind, determined to remain calculated and emotionless for the rest of his life. The only person he'd been truly loyal to was himself. She had come along - or rather, he started noticing her again - and was just starting to change the way that he thought about things. She was just starting to show him how his otherwise black and white life could be colourful. And now she was headed to her doom. He had to expect such an outcome. Marcus Kane had never been altogether lucky, and Abby Griffin far less.

But that wasn't his main priority right now. He could mourn the loss of Abby - the woman that he thought he hated but perhaps had been starting to enjoy - after this was all over. For now, his main concern was with those sealed doors and the dropship.

Someone had the big idea to grab a crowbar and start trying to jam the door open, and shouts of encouragement could be heard throughout the terminal.

"How long until launch," Kane asked soberly.

Sinclair gave him a grim look. "Two minutes."

While Kane was disappointed over the loss of his old friend turned rival turned enemy turned...whatever she was now...Jaha was beside himself. "Diana, open the door!" He shouted when one of her engineers brought forth an update.

Unlike the flotation chamber doors, this one wasn't soundproof. They were preparing for launch, and Diana was ignoring the chancellor's pleas.

And while the group was trying desperately to jam the crowbar between the two doors, Sinclair stared at the harrowing signals on his tablet, and Kane and Jaha stood at the glass staring into the ship, Cuyler Ridley found a stowaway. He grabbed her forcefully and dragged her to the front of the ship. Abby.

Jaha held his breath.

"Diana," the smaller woman tried but feared there would be no reasoning with this particular evil, "don't do this."

"It's already done," Diana said through gritted teeth.

Ridley gestured backwards at one of their guards. "Get her out of here," he demanded, and somebody had come up behind Abby and grabbed her, forcing her arms behind her as he tried to drag her off deeper into the ship. Jaha placed his hands desperately against the window and even Kane was watching the scene with a careful eye.

"Wait!" Diana called back.

Despite her orders, Abby still felt the need to fight the man off of her. She did so utilize her elbows and was soon released from his grasp. She'd never enjoyed being restrained.

Diana approached Abby. "We could use a doctor on the ground," she began to explain in the tone of voice that warned Abby not to trust a word she was saying, "come with us," she added. "You owe Jaha no loyalty."

Now, two men in the crowd outside froze. This was Abby's ultimate trial. The true test of her character. All she wanted was to go to Earth and be with her daughter. She'd done everything in her power - even illegal things that nearly got her floated - to get there. And now, she was being offered that opportunity. And, considering they were stealing their dropship - it might be her only opportunity. Either join the mutiny, betray her people, and see her daughter, or stay behind and never take her little girl in her arms again. Never look into those sky-blue eyes. Never see the Earth. Be stuck here with the likes of Kane and Jaha while they all spiralled off each other coming up with a solution.

One option seemed admittedly better, but Abby could not do that. She paused, staring Diana in the eyes, and Kane had to assume that she was considering it. Knowing how desperate she was to get to her daughter, she'd likely take the opportunity anyways. Then, he was reminded who Abby was.

She couldn't do that. Not to her own people. It wasn't right.

Well, she thought to herself, guess this is it. This was finally how she got herself killed. All along she knew it would be by doing the right thing. Death by conviction.

"He's killed your husband and betrayed you. You're just like us," Diana kept trying, using everything she knew about Abigail Griffin to win this fight. "Think of your daughter, Abby. You can see Clarke again. Today."

Kane let out a breath, positive that was the only argument needed in order to convince Abby to go with this ship to the ground. Then, he watched as her face hardened.

"I'm nothing like you," she said firmly before seizing the element of surprise and lunging forwards, grabbing at the level on the wall and pulling it so that the doors unsealed.

Instantly, everything started happening all at once. The doors were easier to pry open and the crowd outside was able to get the crowbar in between and start to really do some damage. Abby was zapped with a shock-baton by one of Diana's guards and she fell to the floor before she was dragged off to the back of the ship. Jaha and Kane stared at the scene, wondering if she would be killed somewhere beyond their eyelines or taken hostage. The chancellor shouted her name as she disappeared, but it was no use.

If she was to be killed, then her dying act had been to help her people. To sacrifice herself once and for all for the sake of getting those who deserved to survive back to earth. That was the important part, wasn't it? That was what she told Kane when he arrested her the first time. That she was worried about ensuring that the human race deserved to survive. Well, the people on this ship did not deserve to see the ground before the hard-working people outside. That was why she had opened the doors despite knowing that it would probably get her killed.

And as she was fading in and out of consciousness after the shock from the baton, Abby had to wonder. Was this it? Was this finally how she got herself killed?

With the doors now slowly opening, the shouting grew louder. The taste of victory was right there, if only they could keep the doors open long enough to delay the launch and make arrests.

"Where's Abby?" The chancellor was shouting, his friend still his top priority. "Send her through!"

"I will if you let the doors close," Diana lied through her teeth and everyone knew it.

Meanwhile, Sinclair had discovered something less than ideal. "No, no, no," he shook his head frantically, "they haven't decoupled."

Kane furrowed a brow, still worried about the bigger picture. "What does that mean?" He demanded.

The engineer shook his head. "It means the dropship's still tied into all of our major systems. Power, water, air," he explained, "if it launches, the Ark will be cripped and everyone left on board will die."

It wasn't the best news they'd received all day. Kane felt something inside of him tense as he, too, faced his ultimate test. How to save the human race, once and for all? How to save the people of the Ark. He had no answers.

"Can we do it from our side?" He tried.

"Yes, but it takes hours and they're not waiting!"

"Diana, please," Jaha pleaded, his voice now coming through crystal clear what with the doors opening inch by inch, "you don't want to be remembered like this."

"I won't be," she bit back, pushing past one of her men in order to get to the front of the ship so that she could rub her victory in the faces of those that she was killing. "Because you brought this on yourself, Jaha!" As she shouted, her true colours were revealed. "You promised the people truth and all you gave them were lies!"

"You had me shot!" The chancellor shouted back, unforgivingly. "You detonated a bomb in a public meeting killing six innocent people! And now you want to kill everyone on this space station to satisfy your ego!"

That was what it came down to, wasn't it? When she was chancellor, Diana Sydney wanted to be the one to see her people to the ground. But it hadn't been an option back then, despite all the work that she'd put into Project Exodus. Now, Jaha was reaping the benefits that should have been hers. But while he saw a desperation to save humanity and do right by his people, she saw an opportunity to go down in history.

"He is still lying to your face!" Dyana said, now speaking to the people trying to pry the doors open. His people. "There aren't enough dropships to get everyone down too the ground!"

That shocked them into a momentary silence. Of course, Kane and Jaha already knew this. Everyone else, however, was hearing it for the first time. While the information registered, the doors shifted once the wrong way. People were letting go. Others didn't care and still kept pushing.

"What is she talking about?" Red demanded, keeping his grip on the crowbar but no longer actively pushing on it.

Jaha cursed in his head. He should have told the people right away. It's what Jake would have done. "Trust me," he said loudly, "we will figure this out," he insisted. "We will survive; we always do~" Jaha looked around his people. "Go, come on!" He demanded them to keep prying.

"You can't trust him," Diana wasn't finished yet. "More than 1000 people - most of them workers like you - are going to be left behind to die!" She shook her head. "You can still save yourself!"

And save himself, Red would. He was the first and only to make a break for it. But when he got himself through those doors and shoved the crowbar down to the ground, allowing them to close and be sealed behind him, there was no saving anybody else. Just as Abby had, Red had made his decision. Unsure who to trust but desperate to get to the ground rather than be left up in space with no oxygen and no resources.

People swarmed as the main generator went out and the ship began to launch. Nobody knew where to go from there, but Sinclair did know that they needed to get away from those doors first and foremost, lest they all be sucked out into space when that ship detached.

"Sirs, we have to go right now!" He demanded, urging everyone backwards "Everybody out! Get back behind the containment doors!"

Kane had to nearly drag the chancellor away from the doors as he stared at Diana Sydney. She had once been his electoral competition, now she was the person who was going to kill all his people. And Abby was still on board. Kane knew that was the largest reason why the chancellor was lingering at the doors. He was saying goodbye to a friend who had been so desperate to get to the ground that the universe was now going to put her there against her will. If they didn't kill her before they touched down. If she wasn't already dead.

But Kane knew that there was nothing they could do for Abby now, nor any other hostages on board. He yanked Jaha backwards urgently until they finally got behind the containment doors. There was a mob outside. Those who had just come from the terminal, everyone who was concerned about the failed generators and the commotion, people swarmed from left and right, and everyone dispersed as they were swept away in the flood of people.

Jaha and Sinclair went north towards Engineering, but Kane was caught in the mob and taken south. When he turned a corner, he found himself alone in a dead-end hallway and thankful for the momentary reprise even if they were all going to die. He wondered if he knew when the ship launched but soon found out. It was like a bomb going off. Kane wound up alone and thrown to the floor when it all went dark, thinking of an old friend that had been ripped away from him at such an inopportune time.

It was a selfish thought, to consider all the ways in which she could be useful to him and use that as reasons to be sad about their separation. But as Kane faded from consciousness, he was left with the concerning realization that he might just need Abby. To show him the light, to paint his world colourful, to keep him human. To ensure that he deserved to survive.

Chapter Text

Marcus Kane registered only a few things when he opened his eyes. He was still in the hallway. He was still alone. He was incredibly hot. He could hardly breathe. Abby had been taken hostage on the Exodus turned pirate ship and was plummeting to earth with people who would very likely execute her. And he was still alive. Sinclair said that they would all die but he was still alive. Was he the only one left? He crawled towards a ventilation outlet and gasped in breath after breath of cool, refreshing air.

The pieces hadn’t yet come together when his brain produced a single image. A person that he recognized. Kane didn’t know why she was the first thought in his head but certainly didn’t have the time nor the desire to truly decipher it. But she was there.

Disorientation, realization, pain, then a flash of her face. The sound of her name. Abby. He hoped that she was on the ground. He hoped. Wasn’t that what she would want him to do?

His brain caught up to him all at once and her imaged faded but did not vanish. It only took a step back. He had survived. He had no idea how long he was out for because the power to the clocks on the walls was still out. That ship might be on the ground already. Some systems had to still be working if this vent was providing air flow. Air conditioning, too. Lights were flickering here and there down the hallway, suggesting power somewhere. As soon as he realized that someone had to be alive in Earth Monitoring, Kane became determined to survive.

Not because he wanted to live. In fact, he was still pretty determined to die up there in that Space Station to atone for the souls that he had stolen, but he needed to survive in order to save the rest of them. Then, he could die peacefully. He hoped that Abby was enjoying the ground, even if they had her locked up. He hoped that Diana hadn't killed her.

With the help of Kyle Wick from Engineering that Kane began to make his way through the familiar hallways that somehow looked foreign to him what with the dim lightning and the emptiness, picking up survivors as they went and clearing debris from doors. Wick thought he was crazy for believing that there were survivors in Earth Monitoring - likely engineers based on the fact that the systems were rebooting - but went along anyways, desperate to avoid being left alone during this uncertain time.

It was the mixture of hypoxia and stubborn determination that Kane found his way to the terminal. He might not have been able to do so lucid, working with full oxygen. It might not have seemed worth it. 

Perhaps it was the beginning of Kane's desperation for redemption. To make up for all the lives that he had taken. He had to save everybody now, and there would be no stopping him unless he was met with his own death. Something that no longer scared him, by the way. He was no longer desperate to survive, only to ensure that others - those that deserved to - would.

Wick tried the paging system as a joke. Because Kane insisted that somebody was inside and would be able to hear them. The young engineer was floored when he could hear the voice of Chancellor Jaha speaking back to him.

"We read you," he said, breathlessly. "Who is this? Where are you?"

Kane's heart was beating again, but it had been empty when he woke up. His mother, fellow councillors, Wells, Jake, Abby, Jaha, so many people had been taken from him. Hearing Jaha's voice filled one small portion of that emptiness in his heart.

"Sir," he said with a bit of a disbelieving laugh, "it's good to hear your voice."

Inside Earth Monitoring, Jaha shut his eyes with relief. "Of course it's you, Kane," he said affectionately, "you're too stubborn to die."

Feeling suddenly as though everything might just be alright, Kane allowed himself a small smile. "I could say the same for you."

"What is your situation?" The chancellor asked.

"We have about a dozen survivors."

Survivors. The word could have brought a tear to Jaha's eyes. He hadn't expected any survivors, he had only hoped. Thank god somebody like Kane had been out there to round them up. Marcus had been villainized for some time now over doing what was necessary. And while it was true, he had made decisions that did not need to be made and he chose the wrong thing so often despite thinking he was doing what was best, he'd had a heart of gold all along. He just hadn't been using it. Jaha knew this from back when they were kids and from certain times in the past when Kane had shown his true colours. NOw was one of those times.

"That's good work, councillor," he breathed a sigh of relief before glancing back at the man with whom he shared this abandoned station. "Sinclair is rerouting power and air to the Mess Hall. Lead your people there."

Kane shook his head. "After we get you," he insisted.

The man was beginning to understand the importance of leadership dynamics on board the Ark. Kane himself was heavy-handed and pragmatic, he opted for utilitarian decision-making and logical thinking. Abby was so full of heart and it's what she always led with. She thought of how people would feel, what was best for everybody, she would always remind the people to hold on to hope.

Jaha was a mix of the two of them, but he had something that the others lacked - image. He was the person that remained calm in a crisis, that everybody looked to for guidance. Now, they'd already lost Abby, Kane couldn't afford to lose Jaha too. Not only because he didn't want to mourn more friends, but because he did not want to be chancellor.

"No," Jaha said quickly.

Him and Sinclair had already been over their options. They were going to do what they could for everyone else from where they were and wait for their own air to run out. It was an easier decision to make now that Kane was alive and well. He could lead the people through this time.

"A fire burned through most of our oxygen," he explained. "We put it out, but we don't have very long. All access is blocked," he continued, referring to the shrapnel that was barricading all entrances to Earth Monitoring. "We are reviving as many Ark systems as we can before our oxygen runs out."

Kane shook his head. "I won't leave you to die," he said certainly.

Jaha should have known that he'd be stubborn about this. For a man who was once so keen on being chancellor, he was now doing whatever it took to prevent the crown from falling upon his head.