#1 left

1 month until touchdown.

The rest of the journey was mostly uneventful, possibly due to the show of strength from V and Uzi to the most vocal complainer, but without the spoon to stir the pot, people settled in for the long haul.

A role call revealed who was lost… and who remained.

Hal and his family were gone. As was Guy, and a good portion of the internal police force, thier lives given to get others to safety. N was particularly broken up about it… Hal, not Guy.

Those from Uzi's mothers group were alive, though Martha had lost her husband, and Ginger was still reeling from the loss of her brother and his wife, spending a lot of time silently looking after the children. Clover, being already a single mother, was less effected, but she was still there by her friends sides, nonetheless.

There were many, many, that were lost, there wasn't a single person on the ship that hadn't lost someone.

Lizzy mourned her father. Mrs. Rayn was no longer, her bum leg having not aided in her escape, though… somehow all the pillbabies under her care had made it unscathed.

A vigil was held for them, a remembrance of their lives, a simple solace for those that were grieving. It helped the overall morale, made people less uncomfortable sharing such a small space.

N and Uzi shared a sleeping pod, Uzi having taken an empty one and spliced two together for it. She laid essentially on top of him, him holding her from behind, arms wrapped around her, head nuzzled into her shoulder while thier kits played on Uzi's chest.

Bishop crawled around, gripping Uzi's loose purple shirt to make progress, his tail limp behind him and being drug around. He chirped every few feet, and more often then not, bumped into the walls of the sleeping pods or Uzi's arms and legs.

N chuckled when he bonked his head against Uzi's hand, peeping like a kitten.

Tera on the other hand, was far more focused on escaping the sleeping pod entirely, staring at the top corner of the sleeping pod with determination.

She reached up to grab the edge, still sitting, and pulled herself up with momentus effort, she squeaked as she stood, legs wobbly as they weren't used to holding her entire weight.

Uzi's tail watched her closely.

“Mmm. Mmmm.” Small noises of concentration left her. Her tongue stuck out as she made small delicate movements with her feet.

And then, with the maximum strength of a toddler, she hoisted herself up, climbing out of the sleeping pod and-

Uzi's tail clamped around the back of her shirt and pulled her away from the edge, where there was at least a four foot drop to the floor.

Tera squeaked and flailed, trying to get out of the tails grasp. “Mama! Let play!”

“Stay in here Jellybean. It's nap time.” N hummed, his tail hanging out the side of the sleeping pod and flicking lazily.

“Not tired…” She grumbled, crossing her arms and pouting as the tail holds her up.

Uzi's tail placed her right next to Bishop, who had dozed off using her hand as a blanket. “You should still try, maybe you're more tired then you think” Her mother's voice calls back.

“mm…” Tera grumbled again, giving her mother her own glare, which she just fondly laughs at.

“Sleep, Baby Bat.” Uzi pets her head, scratching through her hair.

Tera's eyes flutter shut. And she purrs softly, beginning to kneed her hands like a kitten.

N laughed at how easy that was. “That's not gonna be so easy soon.” He kissed the side of Uzi's head.

She nodded. “As soon as she gets too heavy for my tail, she's going to wander everywhere…”

N sighed deeply. “Look forward to it.” He smiled, pulling his family in closer. “All of it…”

“Can't wait to get back on solid ground…” Uzi admitted, smiling when Tera yawned and snuggled in with her little brother.

“Oh. Me too, is space sickness a thing?” N asked, purring deeply.

“As in I am sick of space? Yes.” Uzi replied back snarkily, making N chuckle.

…

“How are you doing?”

“With?”

“You know what with…”

Uzi sighs heavily, her body tenses slightly.

“We're a star system away and I still feel like he'll walk back through the airlock or just… appear behind me talking about what his team was doing or-" She stops suddenly. “I spent so much time angry at him… and now…”

N pulls her head near his core, holding her close. “I know.”

“Sometimes it'll just… sneak up on me. I'll be feeding the kids and I'll suddenly remember he's gone. And it's like that moment all over again.” Uzi said softly. “I didn't… think it would effect me so much.”

“He's still your dad… and you two were patching things up.” N replied.

Uzi nodded, leaning further in to her chosen partner….

…

Thad smiled as he fed his new little charge from the oil reserves, the little pillbaby gurgling with happiness as he took the oil.

“There ya go little dude.”

He didn't notice Nico behind him until he spoke. “I was not aware you were a parent.”

Thad jumps.

“Oh sh- dude you need a bell.”

Nico laughs. “Sorry. I didn't want to frighten the little one with big loud footsteps.”

“Its alright man. And I wasn't, until recently. Lizzy was ecstatic but I think V wondered what was wrong with me.”

“Ahhh, you adopted?” Nico sat down next to him, smiling.

“Yeah. He needed somebody so… I took him. I didn't realize it would be so uh-" He blinked at Nico, tired lines under his eyes. “Sleepless"

Nico nodded “Mmm. Babies are needy. Babies that have a new parent are more needy.”

“You're telling me…”

“Advice… talk to them more. Get them used to your voice. He will not understand… but it will be comforting.” Nico suggested.

“Huh… yeah I can try that.” Thad nodded before looking at the other man curiously. “How'd you figure that? Aren't you like… 16?”

Nico's eyelights went hollow for a split second before he hid it under a chuckle. “Research for my Abuela, she likes knowing the newest care routines so she can pretend she is smarter then every other mother.”

“Oooh, I gotcha.” Thad smiled and laughed. “Your grandma sounds cool.

Nico smiled back. “She is. Though perhaps slightly mean…”

“Nico! Need your tall ass!” A voice called to him, stretching and struggling to reach something on a higher shelf.

“Coming Nellie!” Nico looked back at Rad. “Good luck amigo.”

…

“All our friends have kids noooow.” Lizzy whined as she clung to V like a bee to a flower.

“Since when is Uzi considered your friend?” V replied, drinking out of a oil can deeply.

“Since she adopted an unfairly cute kid, let us babysit, and saved all our asses so being her freind is like… all the popularity points.” Lizzy replied with a flip of her hair.

“All heart Liz.” V chuckled back.

“I'm serious! It's unfair that all our friends have kids before w-I do!” She whined again, crossing your arms.

“Okay, whining to me usually would get me to cave to get you to stop ‘cause it's annoying as fuck- but not this. I know what you want and it's not happening.”

“Damn. Cold, V.”

“Okay one, we don't even know if this hunk of junk will finish this journey, last week one of the thrusters stopped working and Uzi just kicked it and it came back on.” V began, putting down the oil can.

“And two, we dont know if the surface of the planet is even safe. There could be a giant monster as soon as we land that kills us all.”

V continued, sentences getting faster and her tail flicking with anxiety.

“And three, I-I'm not… I have no idea how to be motherly. The only experience I have is training N to not be shit at killing, which is not the same thing-”

Lizzy placed a hand on hers. “Jesus. You could've just said you weren't ready, did not need the partial breakdown.”

Despite the sass, Lizzy was smiling softly. And V's features softened. “Thank you”

…