#tdf grace

There was never quiet, anymore.

Dani Ramos remembered the concept well. Quiet nights walking home from the factory, long after Diego had punched his card. She remembered the stillness of her apartment complex, sitting at the kitchen table with a cup of coffee in the misty morning hours. The way the rural expanses of road around her hometown seemed like another world, contrasted against the gleaming machinery of the auto plant.

But after Judgment Day, a truly new world emerged, and Dani wondered if she’d ever know that peace again. Legion never slept, and even if they weren’t aware of the Resistance’s exact locations, the Terminators and their ships were constantly roaring across the sky, with no need for subtlety. They were the dominant sentients in this world, after all. Explosions and the subsequent earthquakes from Legion’s quest for metals to replenish its armies were nearly as constant, whether shaking debris loose from walls or just a low, distant rumble. And on the worst days and nights, the notes between the battles were filled with the sounds of human suffering, pain and hunger and grief alike.

Tonight, Dani almost felt like joining them in the plaintive groans and wails. The day had been as loss-filled as any other, but there was also a rare win. It’d been a long time coming, hanging over the Commander’s head like a guillotine blade... Well, not exactly over Dani’s head.

She was sitting near the fire in her quarters at Resistance Base 473. They had safe areas all around the region, but never stayed in them for more than one night, to avoid a large-scale attack. In 473, which was mostly underground in old subway tunnels, Dani took rare advantage of her position for the private space, which looked to have been some sort of control room in a past life. It had a table, the fireplace, and a straw mattress piled with thick wool blankets... currently draped over the impossibly tall, sleeping form of Grace, whose feet were endearingly sticking out of the covers and touching the floor. She didn’t sleep often, after the augmentation procedure, and so Dani was watching her from her chair, enjoying the rare sight of Grace’s delicate features when her guard was completely down.

For years, Dani had managed to avoid telling Grace about the crisscrossing timelines. She knew that the Grace who’d shown up to save her life before Judgment Day was somewhere in her twenties, and augmented. So in her desperation to keep Grace safe, Dani had tried to stop her from joining the engineering division. She’d tried to keep her away from combat, to put as many barriers between Grace and herself as she possibly could... but just as dauntless as she was in the face of a REV-9, she was unstoppably dedicated to the Commander. And no other fighter, no matter how desperately Dani wanted them to succeed, had shown that they had what it took to be the Protector. Most of those whom Dani began to hope could be sent back had quickly been killed, in fact.

The sleeping Grace sighs and rolls slightly, the blankets falling away from her pale shoulder and exposing the even-paler scars from her augmentation. Technically speaking, she had already died once for Dani, whose whole plan to trick destiny had fallen to pieces when she took that head injury. The rest... seemed inevitable now. Sand, falling through her fingers.

And it threatened to hurt worse than the first time, when Grace had been a stoic stranger who’d shown up just when Dani’s world got turned upside-down. This time, Dani knew Grace as so much more. She’d seen the way those blue eyes could light up with joy, the crew joking together over dinner, and memorized the stutter of her laugh. They’d suffered meager victories and deep losses together, and Dani had never trusted a human being, other than her father and brother, as much as she trusted Grace in all things.

When she’d woken up from her head injury, confused and hurting, Grace hadn’t been there, and the disappointment and fear that stabbed at her heart had been almost enough to knock her out again. Eventually, she glared at the doctor long enough to be told about the crash, and the augmentation. It’d been weeks before they were well enough to regroup with the main forces, and Dani had unleashed on Grace the moment they were alone. She’d been so overcome with grief that she didn’t quite remember what it was she said, but the message had been clear: I didn’t want this for you.

The newly-enhanced Grace, of course, had stood at attention, spine straight, and weathered every word without flinching, until Dani demanded of her, Why?

“Because protecting humanity is my duty,” Grace had said, quietly. “And because nobody is going to protect you like I do.”

“Morales, Dinh, Ahmed—I have the best fighters in my unit.”

“Would you have rather I died that day?”

There was a heavy, dark moment where Dani almost said yes. For Grace to find peace. For Dani to not have to make a choice, when the time came, and send Grace to a third death. But the most human part of her, the messy, selfish bits of being a person that they were fighting to save from Legion’s machine coldness... wanted as much time with Grace as she could get. As much of Grace as she could get.

She didn’t quite remember who leaned forward first, but Dani was suddenly giving in to more of her mortal feelings, rocking up on her tiptoes as Grace’s arms folded over her waist, and their lips connected. It felt so good to give in, after all the worry and fear and withholding, and it wasn’t long before she was panting against Grace’s mouth, pulling at the buckles of her uniform, impatient and near-frantic at the feel of Grace’s tongue licking into her mouth, the strong hands lifting her cleanly off the floor to press the Commander into the wall, with one of Grace’s knees pushing between her legs.

They’d managed to keep their furtive, late-night “meetings” mostly quiet, if for no other reason than to not be a distraction to their operation, but before long, Grace was sleeping in the same bed with her every night, and Dani... Dani hated how much she’d come to find solace in it. Not just the physical activity, but also the after, falling asleep with Grace curled around her, Dani’s head on her chest. Waking up to Grace’s ridiculous bedhead, and the precious minutes between sleep and wakefulness, when they could be lazy and sluggish and cling to each other for just a few seconds longer.

But like the crocodile who followed Captain Hook, the team working on their one-way time travel device were getting ever-closer to unlocking the secret, racing against Legion. Grace knew someone needed to go back to protect Dani, and she’d volunteered herself dozens of times, though the Commander had always answered with, “We’ll see.”

The missing part of that was Dani’s great shame. Grace hadn’t asked, and probably considered it a possibility... but Dani knew. The Grace that would go back to save her would die, and despite all her efforts to stop the world from reaching this point, it seemed ever clearer that the loop would proceed as she remembered it. For all the times Dani had stood up to her own death and defeated the odds, for all the stories people told about her... She couldn’t tell Grace what would happen. The words would fail on her lips, every time.

Dani tore her eyes away from Grace when a synthetic log in the fire popped loudly, nearly startling her, and when she looked back, sleep-reddened blue eyes were blinking open and sharpening with consciousness.

“Hey,” greeted the Commander when Grace’s eyes found her.

“Hey. What are you doing over there?”

Dani shrugged, but got to her feet and shuffled over to the bed. “Couldn’t sleep. The engines are loud tonight.”

“I can’t believe I slept,” muttered Grace, sitting up and rolling her neck. “I need to talk to Chopra about my cocktail.”

“You deserved a good sleep.”

Grace grinned up at her, in that way that was so absurdly contrary to her status as an apex killer, and Dani felt heat pull at the back of her eyes. The blonde’s brow furrowed immediately. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. Other than the usual. Impending total annihilation.” Dani sniffed, and she let Dani tug her down into the bed, resting her head against Grace’s shoulder.

“Mmm. Well... might I suggest you let me distract you, for a little while?”

The Commander’s mood was dour enough, that she almost protested, but Grace pulled her into her lap, kissing along her jaw as her hands dropped to stroke across Dani’s thighs.