Chapter Text
Title: The Lost Girls
Fandom: Falling Skies
Rating: T
Warnings: References to death.
Characters/Pairings: Zoe Maddison (OC), Jeanne Weaver, Zoe/Jeanne, Grace Mason (OC), Hal Mason.
Summary: Sequel to Not Dead Yet set between season 2 and 3 and focusing on my other OC, Zoe Maddison. Four months after the arrival of the Volm, Jeanne hears rumours about the location of her beloved Diego and the Lost Boys. She and Zoe embark on an unauthorised mission to find them, but will the road trip prove too much for Zoe, who harbours secret feelings for Jeanne?
FF.Net Link: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14386174/1/The-Lost-Girls
A/N: Zoe features in my other OC fics for Grace Mason. You don’t have to read them to make sense of the story but it might help for backstory.
Chapter One
Zoe Maddison knew how to fire a gun.
She knew the day she and Jeanne Weaver got separated from their Lost Boys and they had to flee for their lives.
She knew when the aliens invaded their camp and they had to find a new home.
She knew when the Skitters grabbed her and tried to harness her.
She’d known ever since Linda Weaver, Jeanne’s mother, found her over a year ago and insisted on teaching her. Linda’s ex-husband – Jeanne’s father – had served in the military, so she already knew how important it was to know how to defend yourself. She’d lost one young daughter and she wasn’t going to lose Jeanne as well.
When Linda died, Zoe swore she’d do anything she could to protect Jeanne.
So yeah, Zoe knew how to fire a gun. But she could not for the life of her master these Volm modified pistols.
Their new ‘friends’, the Volm, had arrived four months earlier, and while originally they had been met with fear and suspicion as soon as they dropped from the sky, their leader – known to humans as Cochise – had convinced the seniority at Charleston that they were allies.
Zoe didn’t know the specifics, but the Volm had been invaded by the Espheni a long, long time ago, and now they were seeking out allies to finally quash their reign of terror and get their home planet back.
The enemy of my enemy is my friend and all that.
The human resistance was clinging on, but they were still here and fighting damn hard. They were probably a good bet for an alliance.
Now the humans were using the Volm’s advanced technology, like their augmented weapons and electronics. It was a game-changer. Their power was breath-taking and it would give them a real leg-up in the war, but sometimes Zoe didn’t see what was wrong with a good old-fashioned rifle.
Heavy footsteps landed beside her and she craned her neck to see one of the majestic Volm towering above her.
They weren’t bad-looking – for aliens. Maybe that was a helpful factor when winning over the humans. They weren’t gross and insect-looking like Skitters. Zoe hadn’t really seen an Espheni in person but she had been told they were ghoulishly hideous and extremely intimidating. These guys – and they did all seem to be guys – were more humanoid in appearance. Two arms, two legs, maybe six and a half feet tall with muscular builds. They wore black armoured uniforms that clung tightly to their lean bodies, and had long necks to support their bald and bulbous heads.
Zoe joked with Jeanne at first that they looked a little like E.T. Now she saw them up close, their faces kind of looked like bats with reptilian skin. Zoe thought it was actually quite cute, with their beady, far-spaced eyes and small slits for noses.
Hell, they even knew how to smile. That was one way to show you were friendly, even if they didn’t speak English, which they did perfectly.
“Zoe Maddison. Your feet are too close together,” her Volm instructor informed her, a slight robotic flanging effect in his deep voice.
Dammit, he was right. The kickback on these things were far more intense than on a normal pistol. That’s why her aim was all off. She parted her feet a bit more, then the Volm raised her arm slightly with his three elongated fingers.
“Try again,” he smiled with his human-like mouth. If he had lips, they blended in with his grey-blue skin.
Zoe pulled the trigger, decimating the target in front of her as it exploded into an eruption of electric blue light.
She cursed loudly, making her Volm friend laugh in a funny, reverby way as he scratched the side of his head where his ear would have been if he had any.
“Much better,” he said before making his way down the line of training soldiers.
An impressed holler came from beside Zoe as Grace gave her a big grin.
“You’re getting the hang of this, Zo.”
A few spaces down the parking garage, Zoe could see Grace’s target was utterly destroyed, the smoke still smouldering from her modified assault rifle.
“Not as much as you are.”
“Practice makes perfect. The first attempt I almost took a chunk out of the ceiling!”
“Your dad wouldn’t be too happy about that.”
Grace rolled her eyes. “He’s had enough on his plate already. I don’t know why he even agreed to do this job. You coming to the forum tomorrow tonight?”
“And miss my chance to solidify President Mason’s reign of power? Wouldn’t miss it.”
Oh, yeah. Tom Mason was president. Well, acting president. Nobody had voted him in yet, but they were about to. They were going to discuss it tomorrow night where they’d put it to a formal vote whether to make it permanent or not. Zoe knew where her vote was going. If there was one man she trusted to lead them, it was her best friend’s dad. A man she’d known since childhood, who’d bandaged her up when she busted her knee tumbling off her bike, who’d served her cremated bacon for breakfast after a slumber party, a man whose inflatable pool she once peed in – alright, she was pretty young when that last one happened. The point was he was kind and empathetic, smart and brave. A lot like his daughter, and she trusted them both with her life.
Grace stifled a laugh. Zoe thought she looked a lot like her mother when she did that. She took after her dad a hell of a lot, but the bright eyes and facial features were all her mother’s.
“President Mason. Still getting used to that.”
“You better get used to it, ‘cause I’m predicting a landslide,” quipped the handsome Sergeant Wray who had already completed his Volm weapon training. Of course, he was great at it.
Grace smiled at him, but her brows pinched together unsurely. “People are still pretty sketched out by the Volm being here.” She sighed. “I don’t blame them.”
Zoe leaned in, keeping her voice down so the passing Volm soldiers wouldn’t hear her. “You don’t think it was a mistake, do you?”
“No,” Grace replied. “I think it was smart. The US didn’t want to work with the Soviets in World War Two, but it was the most effective partnership against Germany, and it worked.”
“Well, hello, professor Mason,” laughed Zoe. “She is her father’s daughter.” She looked at Miles who laughed softly.
“She is.”
Grace cleared her throat, blushing slightly as Miles smiled at her.
“Are you free for lunch later?” he asked her.
Grace’s brows flew to the top of her head. “Uh, actually, me and Zo…”
“...were just talking about how she has no one to lunch with today,” Zoe interrupted. “Yeah, I promised Jeanne I’d help her with something so Grace is all free.”
Grace gave Zoe a confused look before smiling at Miles. “See you then.”
“See you then.”
Another quick, heart-stopping smile and he walked away.
Grace released a sigh like she’d been holding her breath for the entire encounter. “Why did you do that?”
“Are you kidding me? Why wouldn’t I do that? He’s clearly into you.”
Zoe couldn’t remember the last time she saw her friend turn bright red like this. It was times like this she felt like she was still in high school and maybe the past year had never happened.
“How can you be so sure?”
“Girl. I can tell. He thinks you’re hot. You think he’s hot. What’s messing you up?”
“It’s not that simple,” she groaned. “We’re friends. I’m fine with how things are.”
Zoe raised an eyebrow. “Really?”
“Really... Anyway, you can’t talk. Have you told Jeanne how you feel yet?”
Zoe felt the colour drain from her cheeks. “No.”
Jeanne Weaver. The girl she swore to protect. At first she thought it was out of fierce loyalty and friendship, and to pay back Jeanne’s mother who took such amazing care of Zoe after her own parents were killed in the initial invasion. But before the Volm arrived, she finally admitted to Grace - and herself - that it was more than friendship. She just couldn’t admit it to Jeanne.
“Why not?”
Zoe huffed. “You know why not. That’s totally different. I’m not going through this again.”
“I just want you to be happy.”
Zoe nudged her playfully. “Same. And there’s a hunk in camouflage I know would make you very happy.”
“Stop!” Grace begged, though she was giggling.
“Seriously, I’m here to help. I’m the opposite of a co*ck block. What’s that word again? Wing-woman. I’m your wing-woman, babe.”
She and Grace continued giggling like schoolgirls when Jeanne approached, frustration diluting her otherwise stunning features. There was a storm brewing in her striking blue eyes. Zoe could see it right away.
“Are you guys done gossiping? We need to nail this.”
“We will!” Zoe assured her. “We’re getting there.”
“The Volm said they would help us get Diego and the boys back. They’re out there right now. We could get them tomorrow if we wanted.” She pushed back her long, brunette hair. “But we’re not ready. No one’s ready.”
And there was the number one reason Zoe couldn’t admit her feelings to Jeanne. She was crazy in love with Diego, who had been missing for months now.
“We’ll find them, Jeanne,” Grace said gently. “But we don’t know where they are yet. We can’t risk going out there with nothing to go on.”
“You sound like my dad,” Jeanne scoffed. “We’re not gonna find them stuck down here either. We should be out there searching for them.”
Zoe chewed her lip. She hated seeing Jeanne like this. She wanted the boys back too, but she also couldn’t forgive herself if Jeanne got hurt. They had asked the higher-ups several times if they could spare a rescue group to search for the boys, but the answer had consistently been ‘no’. Then the Volm came and distracted everybody. A lot of everyone’s time had been taken up by the Volm. Meetings with the Volm, meetings about the Volm. Briefs and examinations on the alien technology, and now training to learn how to use their advanced weaponry. It was one thing after another and the rescue mission kept getting pushed aside.
She watched the fury spark in Jeanne’s gleaming eyes as she shook her head and pouted her pink lips.
“It’s like you’ve forgotten about them. You loved them as much as I did.” She narrowed her eyes at Zoe. “You’ve given up.”
Zoe’s jaw dropped, but no words would come out. She wanted to snap. Of course she hadn’t given up. Diego. Those kids. They were important to her too. They were her family. But she couldn’t bring herself to argue with her. She let Jeanne walk away without another word.
“She’s upset,” Grace comforted her. “I get it. When Dad was missing, I did everything I could to find him. I felt alone, like everyone had given up except me. But I was going in blind. I put myself and others in harm’s way, wasted resources that could have been put to better use.”
“She’s right,” Zoe admitted. “I have given up. A few months ago I was willing to break the walls down of this place to find them, but now…”
“A lot of things have changed since then, Zo. We don’t even know if Diego is still alive.”
“That didn’t stop you trying to find your dad.”
“True…”
Zoe shut her eyes as the guilt slammed into her. “What…what if I don’t want to find him?” Her stomach turned at the realisation. “What if I don’t want to jeopardise the life we have here?”
“That’s ridiculous.”
Zoe sighed. She liked their life here, or perhaps she just enjoyed having Jeanne all to herself and she was terrified what having Diego back in their lives would do to their relationship.
Holy crap, she was selfish! Diego and those boys were their family, no matter what. She had got so complacent here. It wasn’t right. The boys deserved better than that. In any case, it would make Jeanne happy, and if Jeanne was happy then Zoe was happy.
“I know that look,” Grace observed Zoe’s changing expression. “Last time I saw that, I ended up in a tattooist chair.”
“Babe, four shots of tequila got you in that chair. I merely steered you in the direction.”
Grace gave her a shocked, amused look. She liked to think she was a golden girl, at least before all of this. Daddy’s little book nerd, following in his footsteps. But Zoe knew her better than that. This rebel had existed all along, she just came out more when Zoe was around.
“Whatever. Just don’t do anything stupid, okay?”
“Me?” Now Zoe was the one to look shocked. “I would never.”
Zoe hoped to spot Jeanne on the way to her next errand, but instead she saw Hal rolling down the halls. He still looked hot in a wheelchair, though the toll of the past few months had aged his handsome features. He looked tired, and Zoe had never seen him with so much stubble on his face. He no longer looked like the strapping, fresh-faced fighter he had been before the incident with Karen. He was almost…broken. No one could tell what Karen did to him, just that he was unconscious for days and once he woke up, he was like this.
“Hey, Hot Wheels,” she cooed from across the hall. “What’s new with you?”
Her lame attempt at making him smile seemed to work as he wheeled towards her.
“Oh, you know, apart from being paralysed from the waist down, not so bad.”
“Ohh. That’s what the chair’s for? I thought you were just being lazy.”
He gave her an adorably confused look before laughing.
“How was training with the Volm? Grace said it’s going well.”
“Yeah, it’s okay,” she said, rolling her eyes. “Your sister already has it nailed, of course. I’m sure you’d both be competing for top position if you’d been there.”
A forlorn look crossed his lovely brown eyes. “I wish I could. Maybe soon. Right now I’m concentrating on physiotherapy.”
Zoe nodded, remembering Grace saying something about Hal learning to walk again. “How’s it going?”
“Let’s just say I better get used to Hot Wheels for the foreseeable future.”
She shook her head. She didn’t want to give him the tilted-head, pity look. He must be sick of that by now.
“Could be worse,” she offered. “You have family and your girlfriend for support.”
“Yeah,” Hal agreed, half-heartedly. “Though Dad is busy with all this election stuff and running Charleston. I haven’t seen him much lately.”
It didn’t sound like Tom Mason, but the man had spent less time with his people and more time in non-stop meetings since he agreed to be interim president. It would only get worse when he was voted in officially tomorrow night. With another baby on the way, you’d think he’d prefer to be less involved in the politics of it all. But then Doctor Glass was just as busy as he was. Almost half-way through her pregnancy, she was constantly in the infirmary, fixing people, learning the new de-harnessing technology that the Volm had introduced – though they had yet to see it in action. And as close as Hal was to his siblings, they were all busy with training and fighter duties – even little Matt. It was all important stuff, but it meant Hal’s recovery was being pushed to the wayside a bit.
“Lourdes has been amazing, helping me through this. She thinks I’m making progress, even if I don’t feel like it.”
Lourdes had been helping Hal with his physio sessions the past few weeks. It made sense, as Doctor Glass was busy and Lourdes was the Second Mass’ trusted medic, but she also knew from gossiping with Grace that the young medic used to have a crush on Hal. Understandable – he had the Mason genes for being incredibly attractive. But he also always seemed to have a girlfriend.
Maggie had been a lifeline for Hal during all of this. Despite Zoe’s constant flirting getting on her nerves, Maggie had been by Hal’s side as the dutiful girlfriend since the coma. So it piqued Zoe’s interest as to why he hadn’t mentioned her yet.
“And your girlfriend…? You’ve practically moved in together, right?”
Hal caught himself. “Uh, yeah. Maggie’s been so supportive. It’s just…it’s like we’ve skipped the honeymoon phase, you know? All that fire and romance we had at the start, now it’s like she’s my carer. It’s…it’s…embarrassing.”
Zoe couldn’t help the pitiful look this time. “You’ll get through this. The fact she cares about you so much to do those things for you…that’s love, man.”
He scoffed and looked away from her. “You sure? She’s getting pretty cosy with that Lars guy. He’s not going to be a burden like I am.”
She punched his shoulder, light enough not to bruise but hard enough to surprise him. “You, Hal Mason, are not a burden. No one thinks that. You’re a kind, strong person and you’ll get through this.”
He smiled at her, though it was tinged with sadness. “Thanks, Zo. I needed to hear that.”
She grinned at him. “You’re welcome.” Folding her arms, she sighed dramatically as she drank in his (now quite rugged) features. “Hal Mason, why’d you never ask me out?” she asked, only half-serious.
He raised his eyebrows at her. “Pretty forward of you, Zoe.” He chuckled. “I was far too afraid of my sister’s reaction to ask out any of her friends.”
She rolled her eyes. “Right. Guys like you are hardly single for long anyway. Missed our chance.”
“Dammit,” Hal teased, giving her a wink.
“Ah well. You’ve found a keeper now, Hot Wheels. You’re a lucky man.”
“I am,” Hal admitted. “I don’t know where I’d be without her.”
“I know that feeling,” Zoe mused, more to herself than Hal.
Jeanne had managed to avoid Zoe for the rest of the day as they attended their daily chores and duties. Days like that could be dull, but at least no one was getting hurt. Jeanne still hadn’t got back to their room by the time Zoe went to bed.
She thought about going to look for her, but it was after curfew and if she was caught she would be cleaning latrines for weeks. Besides, if Jeanne was still pissed at her, maybe it was best she left her to it.
It was hours later when Zoe awoke to sniffling sounds in the bed opposite. She was usually a heavy sleeper, but apparently her subconscious couldn’t ignore the sounds of Jeanne crying.
“Jeanne?” She sat up, wiping her sleepy eyes and seeing a dark mound curled up under Jeanne’s bedding. “Where have you been?”
“Nowhere,” Jeanne snapped, though her voice wobbled. “Go back to sleep.”
“What’s wrong?” Zoe got up to check on her, but Jeanne turned away and hid her face. Zoe could see the dampness on her cheeks. “Oh, babe.”
Without hesitation, Zoe slipped into the bed and gently held her. Since President Mason managed to wrangle them their own room, they had done this a lot. When one of them was feeling down or worried, the other would simply hop in and cuddle them. Admittedly, Zoe was usually the big spoon initiator. She hated seeing Jeanne upset. She got the feeling Captain Weaver hadn’t been the warmest dad growing up, especially after he and Linda divorced, but Zoe was a big cuddler. It was how she showed affection, and if there was anyone she was affectionate towards, it was Jeanne. She wished her hugs could heal the pain and fill the void Jeanne felt in her heart, but it was the best she could do – for now.
She snuggled into the curve of Jeanne’s back and wrapped her arm around her. Her hair was soft and smelled like the sea breeze. Her skin was smooth, her body warm against her. Sometimes, Zoe yearned for them to do more than just cuddle. Sometimes they’d talk, sometimes they’d sneak a drink, but they never did the things that came into Zoe’s head.
“Jeanne? Where were you tonight?”
Jeanne swiped at her eyes and sniffed. “I was with some of the Charleston soldiers. I knew they’d been scouting and I just wanted to know if they’d seen or heard anything.”
Zoe rested her head on Jeanne’s bare shoulder. “What did they say?”
“They heard something about some harnessed kids near a stadium in Athens, Georgia. They described one that sounded just like Diego.”
“Georgia? That’s hundreds of miles away.”
“I know, there’s no way they’d send out a rescue mission based on hear-say. But Zoe, what if it’s them? What if it’s our boys?”
“What are you suggesting? We sneak out for a day and hope no one notices? Your dad will kill us, then Grace’s dad will kill us.”
Jeanne’s voice wobbled again. “I know, but I can’t sleep. I can’t eat. I can’t live with the guilt. Zoe, I need to find them.”
Zoe felt a lump in her throat as Jeanne sobbed and she held her tighter. She thought about Hal’s words, about not knowing where he’d be without Maggie. She felt the same about Jeanne and, well, Jeanne felt like that about Diego.
She knew what she had to do.
