Beautiful Tragedy

Eighty-five

Kayleigh POV

"Hey, guys," Monty says appearing in the screen before us, looking much the same since we had last seen him, "it's been about a year since you all went to bed. Not much to report, really. My algae farm is awesome. No surprise there." He says with a small chuckle. "Oh. I'm able to monitor conditions on the ground using the ship's geologic equipment, so, I'll know when it's safe for us to go back down. Gets a little lonely sometimes without the rest of you, but the peace and quiet is what--

"Monty, I've been waiting." Harper's voice drifts through, and Montys head quickly jerks away from the screen.

"Harper, wait. I'm in the middle of --

"You promised me. We have another 40 staterooms that---

It wasn't until her back was bare to the camera that she realized he was filming.

"Why didn't you tell me?" She squeals jumping back and away from sight

"Uh...not a lot to do in space." Monty says trying to recover. "Ahem."

"I so didn't need to see that." Jordan calls out with a small look of disgust, that made the corner of my mouth twitch

"Hey, again. Today's the two year anniversary of the long nap,"He says just as Harper appears in the screen. "Harper's been eating a little too much algae."

"Hilarious." She says rolling her eyes even as her hands rub gently against her swollen belly. "Hey, guys, um, surprise. We picked a name today. Boy or girl-- Jordan."

"I think Jasper would like that. Anyway, still no sign the ground is coming back. I wouldn't expect it this soon, so, I'm not worried. We'll check back in next time there's news."

"Meet Jordan Jasper Green." Monty says looking a little worse for wear, but couldn't deny the love shining through his eyes. "Shh." He gently coos at the infant in his arms. "That's all for now. Harper's resting. We're both good, though. Oh, shh."He tries soothing the baby once again when he begins to fuss. "He'll be eight when you meet him, Apollo will finally have another boy to play with.. I can't wait to see your faces."

"Things didn't go as planned." Jordan says solemnly

"Happy wake-up day." Monty says but his voice is anything but happy.

"10 years. And since you're watching this sometime in the future, you know now that...that I didn't wake you up. That's because there's still nothing down there. I'm working the problem. I've told Harper it's to be expected, but, um...well, that's a lie. This is gonna take a while. Jordan is doing great, though. He's a happy kid. Guess it made things easier since we already had practice with Apollo and Persphonie." He says and his eyes glaze over with emotion.

"I took a page from your parenting book." He says with a nod and for almost a moment I could pretend he was really there speaking to us. "He knows all about you guys. Believe it or not, Murphy's his favorite." He says with an eye roll. "What's with these kids and Murphy being their favorite?"

"It was a rebellious phase." Jordan quickly defends himself while Bell lets out a soft snort.

"Anyway," Monty continues. "It's gonna be a while. I'll let you know if things change."

Things didn't change for us- couldn't while we in cryo-

"Hey, guys."

-but it changed them.