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“John, Maureen, do you read me?” Don calls over his radio and only gets static back.
Again.
They’ve been tucked away in the Resolute’s maze of interior maintenance tunnels for less than an hour, but it feels like a lifetime while they wait for Maureen and John to come back into range.
Judy quirks an eyebrow and then presses her lips into a line, clearly holding back as she paces back and forth in front of him, while Penny leans against the wall, knees pulled up to her chest.
Don can read Judy’s expressions better than he can repair modern marvels of intergalactic space travel, which is saying a lot. They spent seven months on that water planet trapped in a couple of thousand square feet with no one but each other, the lightning and John’s corn field for company. He knows what every twitch of her jaw and blink of her eye means, her stoicism that fascinated him when they first met isn’t that at all, just control.
A superhuman amount of it.
But he knows that just beneath the surface, under the breathtaking beauty matched only by her continually stunning competence, Judy feels. So much so that she has to keep it all pushed down where no one can see that vulnerability.
Except, occasionally, her family.
And now, him.
“Say whatever it is you’re thinking, princess,” he says.
“How can we be sure they’re not tracking your radio too?” she asks in a rush, glancing over her shoulder even though they’re still secluded in the inner walls of the ship.
He smiles at her, wide and a little cocky, which just makes her roll her eyes, but the question is still there.
“I have my own private broadcast channel. Completely locked down and with a few special codes, I can contact anyone, untraceable and totally private.”
“Is that how you…”
“Ran my smuggling operation?” he finishes for her. “Yeah. It was part of it. Easier to conduct business when you know no one is listening in.”
She nods and then lets out a sigh of relief. Good. He reassured her. Now they just have to get within range of her parents, haul their savior complex asses back into the ship and…figure out how the hell to get to Will, down on the planet below.
Fuck. That one might be beyond him, but he’s sure as shit gonna try.
And not just for her. These Robinsons, they’re his family now, in so many ways. He can’t imagine his life without all of them. Yeah, even the Robot.
So he tries again.
“John, Maureen, do you read me? Come in.”
“Don!” Maureen’s voice echoes back. “Don, we can see the ship coming up on us in orbit. We need you to…”
“Keep the intake valves open. Yeah, I know. I’m working on it, but it’s gonna be tight.”
“Don, is that you?” John echoes in after him, likely having just gotten into radio range himself.
“Yeah, John, I’m here and I’ve got Judy and Penny too.”
He has them. They’re safe. And he’ll keep them safe, no matter what. He hopes John knows that.
Judy told her dad about them before he left to find Maureen and Don can’t quite believe that the former Navy Seal was as okay with the idea of his eldest daughter taking up with a guy like him as Judy seemed to think, but right now, they’ve got bigger problems.
He knows he’s in for it a little bit once the other man gets back onto the ship, but he’ll do his damndest to make that happen. He can handle a shovel talk from a man who is, if not quite a father figure, something of a brother-in-arms, family.
And this family sticks together, no matter what.
“Where’s Will?” Maureen asks, her voice up in pitch just a notch, just like Judy’s does when she’s worried and can’t quite keep it contained.
Judy steps closer and then slides between his body and the wrist he was holding aloft to talk into his radio. She wraps her hand around his radio and pulls it in close, so close that he’s practically embracing her as she leans back into his chest and presses the call button.
“Mom?” she says. “The last we heard from Will he was heading down to the planet. Rumor on board is that he went down with Ben Adler.”
“And the Robot?” John asks, sharply, switching into military mode like he does when he’s worried.
“Still on board the Resolute as far as we can tell. We think Hastings has him,” Judy says. “We can’t really walk around the ship right now. They’re looking for us.”
“One problem at a time though,” Don cuts in, leaning around Judy’s shoulder and covering her hand with his to press the comm. “We need you to get through those intake valves. Can you maintain your speed from before? That’s the only way you’ll make it in before those doors close. I’ll try and buy you some more time, but it’s possible they’ve restricted access and my usual tricks won’t make it past their security.”
“We’ll make it,” Maureen says, her voice firm and sure, like it always is when she's done the math.
“We’ll meet you at the back of the maintenance bay,” Don matches her tone. No sense in talking about if they don’t. “There’s a wall there labeled C23 with a fire extinguisher mounted on it. Knock and we’ll open up.”
“Copy that,” John says. “We’ll go radio silent until then.”
“See you on the other side,” Don answers and then feels Judy sag against him, her shoulders collapsing, all of her weight suddenly pressed into his chest and he tucks her even closer, his arm keeping her upright. He presses a kiss to her hair and tightens his hold on her. “They’re going to be okay. They always are.”
“Until the one time they’re not,” Penny says under her breath, but the metal floor and walls don’t allow for much privacy.
Judy straightens up at that, strong for her sister, if she can’t be for herself.
“They’re good pilots and Don did the math…”
Don laughs because a mathematician he is not, even if he did do okay enough in astrogeometry to get this gig. “...and Judy checked it and your mom had already had the idea before we spoke to her. I’m pretty confident that the three of us can get it right, kid.”
Penny nods and loosens the grip she had around her shins. “So what do we do until then?”
Don clicks his tongue. “We’ve got about fifteen minutes until they’re within range to make their move. Not much time to do much of anything.” If you know what I mean. That last part stays in his head, though maybe his expression gives him away because Penny laughs and Judy squeezes his arm before finally moving out of his embrace.
“Enough time for a conversation though,” Penny says and now her eyebrow is quirked, but it’s so unlike Judy’s, full of mischief and not a little bit of glee. “When did this happen because I know it wasn’t happening back at the water planet. The Jupiter is too small for me not to have noticed.”
“It wasn’t,” Judy says, softly, but she’s looking up at him. “I mean it was, but it wasn’t.”
“What does that even mean?” Penny asks, standing now, but her back still to the wall, arms crossed in clear annoyance.
“I…” she begins, but then stops, biting her lip and he reaches for her hand.
She’s right.
It was, but it wasn’t.
The first sparks of attraction and connection he can trace all the way back to the first time he saw her, marching past him into the Wantanabe’s Jupiter like she owned the damn place and it was like the most powerful magnet in the universe was pulling him in behind her, making him say whatever shit came into his head to impress her, already too far gone to save himself.
Don doesn’t believe in love at first sight.
But he knows it started there.
And then it just grew, from his attempts to keep it light and casual, prom night jokes and rock anthems blaring as they sped across the alien planet to doing stupid shit like risking his life and his livelihood only because he couldn’t stand the thought of her disappointment in the kind of man he’s always chosen to be.
Then, trapped together for months, he’d catch her eye across the hub or in the garage and a jolt of attraction would fire through him like that lightning show they watched play out every twenty-three days or their hands would brush while they worked together maintaining the rapidly declining Jupiter infrastructure against the methane atmosphere and it’s unpredictable weather. Or sometimes it was more deliberate, a hand to his forearm while they sat beside each other at dinner and she wanted to draw his attention or his fingertips at the small of her back when she’d have to slip past him in the too tight spaces of a ship not meant to be much more than a shuttle bus and not a home for six people.
He doesn’t know when it started for her. He hopes she wasn’t too far behind him, but he knows by the time they were well and truly lost on that water planet, she was there with him.
And she was right earlier when she said he didn’t think this was on the table. He was so sure that it wasn’t. That she was attracted to him and liked him well enough, but that she never planned to do anything about it.
Don’s never had a self-confidence problem, but guys like him and girls like Judy? Maybe in a different life he’d have been a quick fling she had in college with a mechanic in town or a guy she picked up in a bar celebrating getting into medical school. Or maybe…maybe this would have happened no matter what, maybe she was meant for him and he was meant for her. Maybe it would have happened anyway, or maybe it took stranding them together on a middle of nowhere planet with her family and a psychotic fake shrink and then not being stranded anymore, for them to fully understand that.
Whatever it was, either way, he’s not going to question it.
If she wants him, he’s hers.
“Actually,” Don says, his eyes moving from Judy to Penny, a grin spreading wide across his face, “it’s mostly your fault.”
“My fault?” Penny asks, her arms dropping to her hips and her head tilting in both confusion and protest. “How can the two of you being incredibly gross in the middle of all this be my fault.”
Judy picks up where he left off, her eyes dancing at him before she turns to her sister. “He saved your life and got arrested for it, so I went to thank him and…”
“And she jumped me,” Don finishes for her, shooting Judy a wink. “Cornered me in my quarters where I couldn’t leave without being jolted and for a minute there, I gotta tell you, I was afraid for my virtue. Truly.
“Ugh,” Penny groans, but can’t fully hide the laughter behind it. “Forget it, I’m sorry I asked.”
Don laughs, which makes Judy let out a chuckle, which finally breaks Penny and she joins in.
“Okay, what do you say we rescue your folks, hope Maureen has a plan to get Will back on board and then finish our nice, easy, not at all almost a year behind schedule journey to Alpha Centauri? Ladies, watch and learn.”
He opens up a console hidden within the wall and a screen appears along with an old school keyboard, the manual override that exists within every interior of every part of this ship. And as he works, he tries not to think about what might happen once they do get there. He’s sure they will now. What he’s less sure of is his place in all this.
His contract with the Alpha Centauri program was clear. Every journey from Earth to humanity’s best hope for survival was a round trip. He’s not supposed to get off on the new planet, but head back to the dying one with the obscene amounts of money the company paid him to maintain their galaxy jumping spaceship. He’d live out his days in comfort, but with no hope for himself or the people around him.
But on Alpha Centauri, he could have a life…a future, something he never allowed himself to dream about before. At least, not until Judy.
Shit.
When the hell did he get so sentimental?
Probably right around the time she gently took his face in her hands, lulled him into a sense of security with her soft palms and gentle fingers before cracking his nose back into place.
Yeah, that was definitely it.
And Alpha Centauri is a problem for another day. He has enough to deal with right now.
“Okay,” he says, bypassing the security with a ghost account and wondering how long it’ll take before the geeks in IT realize it’s him. Probably not very long. “We’re in. There’s only so long I can keep those intake valves open before they notice, so let’s hope they’re…”
“Don? Come in?” John’s voice crackles through.
“Close,” he finishes his thought with a grin. “Yep, I’m here and I’ve got the doors open.”
“Maureen’s out of fuel, so it’s going to be kind of a rough landing. I need to guide her in.”
“Shit,” he mutters and then looks behind him at the girls. Judy’s bottom lip is caught in her teeth. She knows what it means too. Nodding to her, he opens up the comm again. “I’ll clear out the left side of the bay. You gotta thread the needle though, John.”
“I’ll do my best,” Judy’s father grits out, annoyed to be taking advice from him…or maybe anyone, but probably especially Don right now.
Yeah, he’s really not looking forward to that conversation. But not having it means that Maureen and John don’t make it and that is not an option.
Typing furiously into the security computer, he quickly loops over the maintenance bay security footage just like he used to when he needed to grab some inventory he’d carefully hidden away down here for a customer.
With a final keystroke, the video loops and he closes up the console.
“Okay, I need to go out there,” he starts and immediately Judy’s shaking her head.
“What? No.”
“I need to clear out the left side of the bay. There’s a bunch of vehicles in your parents' way and we can’t risk someone coming in and finding you two.”
“It’ll be faster with two,” Judy argues.
“I’m not a genius mathematician, but three is even better than two,” Penny says and Don doesn’t even have to look at her to know she’s rolling her eyes.
“No,” he and Judy say together, but he gestures for her to continue, knowing they’re on the same page.
“When Will gets back we can’t all be held by security. Someone has to stay back,” Judy says.
Penny’s shoulders drop at the logic of it.
“Fine, go, but I swear to God if either of you get caught I am not hauling that massive blow torch thing across the ship again.”
Don grins at her and nods. “Deal.”
He counts out the panels and finds the one he’d made into his personal backdoor to the maintenance bay and motions for Judy to get behind him as he gently eases the door open and inches out giving her cover to slip through at his back.
Penny closes the panel behind them and they creep out from behind one of the many parked maintenance pods.
He turns to let her know all she has to do is switch a pod into neutral and that’ll be enough juice to help clear the far side when a loud clank that sounds an awful lot like the bulkhead door being opened and shut echoes into the massive space.
Shit.
And now footsteps, approaching, slowly, but definitely headed in their direction. He turns a panicked gaze to Judy, but her lips are pursed in sheer annoyance. He knows that look. It’s been directed at him more times than he can count.
“We don’t have time for this,” she mumbles.
Don can’t quite make out who it is, but there’s a flash of orange maintenance jacket, so one of his own, hopefully someone he doesn’t owe a shit ton of smuggled merchandise.
But before he can get a better look, Judy’s hand is wrapped in his t-shirt, twisting it to get a good grip and then pulling him into her as her back hits the side of a maintenance pod. He catches himself before he crushes her against it, a hand on either side of her head and he tilts his head in question and her withering look combined with a lift of her eyebrows is enough to let him know exactly what she wants.
And they really don’t have time for that…wait…oh. Right.
His smiling is still forming when she takes his bottom lip between hers and nips at it before carding her fingers through his hair and lets her hand get trapped between them when he wraps his arms around her and presses her back into the maintenance pod, not letting her rule the kiss for long, his mouth opening and urging hers open as well, chasing her tongue with his. He swallows down a tiny moan from her, answering it with a deep gravely rumble from his throat and he’s just starting to lose himself in it, in her, when a muffled curse flies out behind him.
He wrenches himself away and keeps her tucked into his chest, looking over his shoulder at the intruder. “D’you mind?”
It’s one of the guys from A-Deck, assistant mechanic, his first trip as far as Don can remember. Hell of a maiden voyage. He vaguely recognizes him from down in the OGS today. Young, lanky and, clearly unsure of himself.
“Oh, shit, you’re…you’re Don West right?” the kid stutters at him.
Huh, the kid sounds…nervous? Intimidated? Grateful, maybe?
Excellent. He can use that.
“Yeah, I am and I’m a little busy right now,” he says, his tone suggestive as he nods his head down to where Judy’s still pressed into him and he can feel her shoulders start to shake a little. Is she laughing? Fuck.
“Sorry man. Ava told me I needed to come down here and check all the pods are secure before we make the jump.” He looks genuinely chagrined and Don struggles to keep his face straight.
“It’s alright,” he says, with his best effort at magnanimity, “don’t worry about it. I’ll check everything over after I, uh, finish.”
Judy snorts, but it’s muffled by his chest that the other guy doesn’t hear her.
“Of course, sorry, I, uh, didn’t mean to interrupt.”
“Not your fault,” Don says, “do me a favor, lock the door on your way out!” The kid nods and then makes a hasty retreat through the bulkhead door, securing it behind him with another satisfying clank. .
And Judy’s finally free to let out a burst of laughter, collapsing down into his chest.
“You’re a menace,” he mutters, but leans down to press a kiss against her forehead. “C’mon, we gotta get this done before your dad crashlands into a bunch of heavy machinery.”
With a steadying breath, Judy nods, her laughing fading, but not her smile.
And he plans on spending the rest of his life keeping it there. Whatever it takes. Right now that means keeping her parents safe. And later it means making sure he gets to stay on Alpha Centauri and after that...well he can't wait until they can figure it out, together.