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Mom and Doc catch them
They weren’t sure how it happened, they had almost nothing in common. Karlee had a horrible history with religion and was perfectly fine fading into the shadows to be left alone. Prophet on the other hand was the complete opposite, finding his calling in religion and preferring to be at the front of things.
But here they were, hiding just outside the fort in a closet, Karlee sitting on a table while Prophet kissed her neck, “Did I ever tell you how beautiful you are Karlee?”
“Every day. You seem to tell me that every chance you get.”
“Well, I must remind you! Ya never seem to remember my darling, therefore I must tell you every chance I get.”
“Oh shut up and kiss me,” Karlee laughed as she pulled Prophet closer, into another kiss. When she had first kissed him the Irishman didn’t know what to do, after all, they were barely hidden from the other cleaners and both were covered in blood.
Karlee hadn’t known what to do either, pulling away and avoiding him until a week later when he finally managed to talk to her.
The rest was history.
“Holy shit!” They jumped apart when they heard the screech, looking to see Doc and Mom in the doorway, Mom recovering from her girlfriend's shocked yell.
“Well, this certainly is a surprise hun,” Mom crossed her arms and laughed, “How long has this been going on?”
“Mom I-” Karlee stammered, keeping a grip on Prophet's arm, “Do not tell a soul. Either of you.”
“We won’t Karlee,” Doc smiled, jumping to sit on a table near the two, “I do want to know when this started though.”
“A few months ago,” Prophet looked at Karlee with a lovesick smile, “My little rebel.”
Doc and Mom shared a knowing look once Karlee returned the smile Prophet was giving her, Mom taking hold of Doc’s hand.
Karlee bit her lip before turning to the other two, “I’m serious, don’t tell anyone.”
“We won’t Karlee, trust me,” Mom held up the hand that was holding Doc’s, “We know the feeling.”
Prophet chuckled a little, “Ya worry too much Karlee, gonna make yerself sick with it.”
“One of us has to worry! You’d be perfectly fine with walking around as if there were no ridden and get yourself killed. If I don’t worry you would be dead.”
Prophet just laughed at her.
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Chenda finds them
Karlee blinked as the light hit her eyes, turning her head to stare at him. Dan carefully brushed her hair out of her face and smiled, “Good morning Karlee.”
“Good morning. What time is it?”
“Don’t know, don’t care.”
Karlee laughed, forcing herself out of bed and to the kitchen. The pair had found an old cabin not far from Fort Hope, boarding up the windows and setting up a small garden on the back porch.
It was small but they had made it into a home. Karlee looked around at it as she grabbed a pack of crackers, at the sunlight filtering in through the cracks in the boards covering the windows.
Her boyfriend walked out of the bedroom with a crazed grin like he always did, spinning her around in the room, “Dance with me my darling.”
“Dan, let me eat my breakfast,” she laughed as he spun her in another circle, “Oh my god.”
“Conas atá tú mo ghrá?” (how are you my love?)
“Tá mé go maith.” (I’m well)
“So you’ve been practicing your Irish!”
“Of course I have. It makes you happy,” Karlee took a bite of her cracker, “Now let me eat.”
“May I have some?”
Karlee held up a cracker, giggling when he bit it, “Not going to grab it?”
“Why would I when you’re feeding me?”
“Oh my god,” She handed him the cracker before turning, freezing, “Oh shit.”
Chenda crossed her arms and leaned on the doorway, “Ah come on, don’t stop because of me.”
“I forgot you were coming over today. Fuck, do not tell anyone.”
“I won’t!” Chenda closed the door and put her hands up, “Have some faith in me, Karlee. Nothing will be said unless you want me to, I’m just here to ask for something before I head to Fort Hope.”
“What do you need?”
“A kitchen knife.”
Karlee pulled one out of the block and held it up, “Like this?”
“Oh yes,” Chenda took the knife and grinned, “This will do the job nicely.”
“Hm,” Karlee leaned her head back before frowning, “Wait, what is the job exactly?”
“To kill Phillips.”
“Driving you mad is he lass?” Dan slipped an arm around Karlee’s waist as Chenda began to walk out the door.
“Not for much longer!”
The couple laughed, Karlee leaning on Dan as she tried to contain her laughter. Dan just pressed a kiss to her head, “Well, I pity the general. Chenda seems like quite the spitfire, wonder what he did to piss her off.”
“Oh, I’m sure we’ll find out eventually. I just want to see his reaction to getting threatened with a kitchen knife.”
“We can go there if you want and watch.”
“Yeah,” Karlee pulled away and grabbed Dan’s sweatshirt off the chair, pulling it on, “I think we’ll do that.”
Dan looked at her, his features becoming soft as she tossed his jacket and bag to him. When his girlfriend tilted her head at him, he took her hand and kissed it, “I like you wearing my sweatshirt.”
“I-um,” Karlee blushed, resolving to lean up and kiss his cheek, “I’ll be sure to do it more than.”
Both smiled, Karlee snapping herself out of it and dragging him towards the door.
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Holly catching them
Fort Hope was dark, and in the corner of the shooting range sat Karlee and Dan. Normally they were careful and stayed far away from the fort while together. But after that mission, Dan wasn’t sure he could let her out of his sight.
So here they were, Karlee leaning against the wall while Dan kissed down her neck and moved his hands up and down her sides. Karlee wasn’t sure if it was meant to reassure him or himself.
“Yer alright darling. Everything’s okay, I’ve got ya.”
“I know,” Karlee smiled shakily, “I know you’ve got me.”
“Guess I’m not the only one shaken up from the Ogre,” Holly was quiet and she raised a hand in greeting, “How are you two?”
“I’m fine,” Karlee leaned her head on Dan’s shoulder, “Sore as fuck, but fine.”
“You were thrown into a wall by the Ogre Karlee,” Dan placed a hand on her head, “That’s got to have hurt.”
“Doc wouldn’t have let her out of the med tent if she was truly injured Prophet, don’t worry,” Holly rubbed her bandaged wrist, “I’d be more worried about what you two are doing.”
“Holly no.”
“You doing the do?” Karlee groaned at the tease, “Havin’ a good time, playing with a lightsaber…”
Karlee snorted, “That last one… I-no Holly, no.”
“Well, it seems like you want to so….”
“Holly Forrester I swear to god-”
Holly put her hands up, revealing the cigarette in her hand, “Chill. I’m just teasing and to be honest, don’t really care. I just wanna smoke and hide from Mom until the smell goes away.”
“You sure you should be smoking lass?” Dan had come to think of Holly like a little sister, “With your wrist and the medicine that Doc has ya on it doesn’t seem safe.”
“It’s a cigarette, not weed so it doesn’t matter.”
Karlee laughed, “You smoke?”
“Once in a while, mainly when things go to shit,” Holly lit it and leaned against the wall, “I steal one from Mom, hence why I have to hide from her.”
“Promise not to tell anyone about us?”
“Don’t want people to know yet?”
“Not yet,” Karlee looked up at Dan, “It’s nice to have something that’s just ours.”
“I get the feeling,” Holly offered the cigarette to Karlee, “I probably won’t be able to resist teasing you two when we’re alone though.”
Karlee took the cigarette and sighed, “I know.”
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Heng catches them
Karlee sighed, pulling the blanket higher and shuddering. It seemed the cold that had been going around Fort Hope finally hit her and for the past few days, she’d been sitting in bed.
Currently, Dan was out looking for something to help, some tea or cans of stew(they had some, but he was insistent on finding her favorite) that might make her feel better and stave off nausea she was feeling.
The front door opened and closed, but the normal greeting didn’t come. Slowly Karlee lifted her head and watched Heng poke his head in the bedroom door, “Hey Karlee, how are you feeling?”
“Fine. Tired and cold, but that can’t be changed. What are you doing here?”
“I ran into Prophet while he was scavenging, asked if I could check on you. He seemed worried.”
“He’s protective.”
Heng smiled gently, sitting down on the edge of the bed and patting her knee, “Are you sure you’re feeling fine? You don’t look okay.”
“Feels like all my energy has exited my body. I don’t feel ill, just like something’s sitting on me.”
“Well, Prophet will be back soon. Until then I can take care of you.”
Karlee gave him a small smile before closing her eyes, letting herself drift off into a light sleep.
Occasionally she could hear Heng hum to himself or move, at one point it sounded like he was walking around the room but she couldn’t be sure.
After what seemed like an hour, the front door opened and closed again. Again she raised her head, spotting Heng still sitting at the edge of the bed, this time hearing the greeting.
“Baby are you okay?” the nickname was a new one, one of the many ways Dan showed his love was to call her an assortment of nicknames.
“I’m fine, just tired,” Karlee put her head back down as Dan walked over to kiss her head, “I promise.”
“As long as your sure darling.”
Karlee smiled before realizing, “Heng-”
“Not a word I know. I’d already figured it out before I came in here but figured you didn’t want anyone to know.”
“How’d you figure it out?” Dan looked around the room, looking to see what could’ve given them away.
Heng for his part, just laughed, “When my daughter threatened Phillips with a kitchen knife and Karlee showed up with you, wearing your sweater. The others might not have noticed or written it off as you had let Karlee borrow it, but I saw how close you were.”
The two looked at each other then at Heng, Karlee closing her eyes, “Fuck it. Just don’t say anything. I’m going to bed.”
Heng chuckled, standing and speaking to Dan for a moment as Karlee went back to sleep.
—------------
They didn’t try to hide it
Karlee bit her lip as the general briefed the team on the new mission. She had arrived at the fort to see Dan, to tell him what she had discovered, but now she sat listening to the new mission the general was sending him on.
“I won’t lie, it will be risky. But if we secure this space we may be able to set up a central location in town for both the KSC and Hope to use,” the general didn’t look particularly hopeful about this mission, a sign that didn’t bode well, “Do the best you can, but if you think it’s going to get too risky, get out of there. This is important but not important enough to lose you four.”
The team, consisting of Dan, Holly, Evangelo, and Doc, nodded. Dan looked over to Karlee and gave her a reassuring smile.
Karlee for her part just shook her head, separating from the crowd a bit to stand near Mom. The older woman placed a hand on Karlee’s shoulder, in a similar position to the young woman, to try and comfort her.
All it took was a split second for her to make her decision, to walk up to him and pull him down into a kiss. Her hands, hidden by his red and black sweatshirt, were shaking and Karlee tried to hide the emotion in her voice when she said, “Come home to us, okay?”
His eyes lit up, looking down to where she had moved his hand for a split second before asking quietly, “You’re pregnant?”
Everyone heard, most reacting with varying levels of shock, only Hoffman seemed unsurprised, looking more proud than anything. Karlee nodded tearfully, “I am. So you better come home to us.”
“Oh I will,” Dan gave her one more kiss before raising his arms and shouting, “We are blessed by god my darling!”
“You’re insane,” Karlee laughed, stepping back to stand by Mom, “Absolutely insane.”
“You love it,” Dan winked and turned to leave with the team.
Mom placed an arm around Karlee, squeezing her shoulders and pulling her into a hug. Karlee rested her head on Mom’s shoulders and laughed through her tears, “He’s fucking crazy.”
“So are you, perhaps that’s what brought you two together,” Phillips placed a gentle hand on Karlee’s shoulder, “He’ll be fine. Doc’s with them, she’ll keep anything stupid from happening.”
Karlee nodded, looking over to Hoffman who just grinned at her, “I told you that it wasn’t a cold.”
“Oh fuck off, Hoff,” Karlee laughed, remembering the conversation they had the week prior after she had recovered from her illness. She shook her head and stared at the closed gate, wondering about everything to come.