My Little Caboose II: Friendship is Fragmented!

by DarkWing


Chapter 65 - "For Every Problem..."

It took nearly ten hours for Church and the others to talk about nearly everything that has happened to them for the past few years before they rescued Church from the Epsilon unit. The aliens had actually finished installing the unit a few hours prior, but Carolina insisted that she hear everything before they leave. Several things stuck out to her during their story, most notably were all the times the AI fragments and Freelancers were around them, such as O'Malley's possession of Doc for a long period of time, their battle with the Wyoming army, them fighting and killing the Meta. With each bit of their story involving the pieces of her past, she felt slightly guilty, as if she was the one that brought it upon them.

"...And then after I went into the unit... well, you should know the rest of that..." Church said, finishing off the story. "Any questions?"

Caboose lifted his hand.

"Caboose, I was asking Carolina..."

Caboose kept his hand up, looked to Carolina, then back to Church. He then started waving his hand around sporadically.

"What is it?" Church sighed.

"Yes, hello, I was just wondering... why did you leave out the part where I was a superhero and saved everyone?"

"Because that never happened, Caboose. It was probably just a dream."

"Well, why didn't you tell her about my dream?"

"Because it was your dream, Caboose. I can't talk about it if I don't know what the hell happened in it."

"Oh..." Caboose said, nodding slowly. "Can I tell her about the dream?"

Church sighed yet again. He looked to Carolina, and she simply stared back at him.

"Just make it quick, I guess."

"Okay! This one time, in real life, I—"

"In your dream," Church corrected him.

"This one time, in my dream in real life, I was a superhero and I saved everyone. It was really fun and cool and the end!"

"Riveting," Carolina muttered, standing up on the sand. Looking in the horizon, she saw that the sun was nearly setting. Looking back to the ship, she waved her hand at the others to get up. "Speaking of dreams, it's getting late, so we should probably get in the ship and find out where we're supposed to go next. Then we'll grab some shut eye."

"Sounds good to me," Grif said, happy at the thought of having a nap, even though he slept through a good half of the story.

Carolina stood behind with Wash as the Reds and Blues began walking to the Pelican. Nodding at him, the two Freelancers followed them and they were soon all inside the ship, ready to leave. While Grif messed around with the Pelican, turning it on, Tucker went to the alien device and flipped it on and was soon talking in the alien language, asking Junior where they should go. While they were doing that, the others settled into their seats. Carolina hadn't said a word since they got in the Pelican, and only said something several minutes later when Tucker came into the cockpit to tell them where to go.

"Junior said that there's been activity in a few areas near here," Tucker said. "And not the fun kind of activity."

"What's the closest one?" Carolina asked quietly.

"The place Sarge and Donut wanted to go," he said.

"To Valhalla it is," Grif said, poking in some co-ordinates on the Pelican. "We should be there in about ten hours."

"More than enough time to flip this thing into autopilot and catch some sleep," Carolina said.

"Speak for yourself. If it were up to me, I'd sleep for twenty-two hours and eat for the other two," Grif chuckled as the Pelican slowly began to rise.

Once the Pelican was in the air and began to speed up towards Valhalla, Grif flipped on both cruise control and the autopilot and sat back in his chair. The others had done the same and were all getting ready to catch up on some much needed sleep. Before Grif fell asleep, Carolina told him to go back and sleep in the seating area, wanting to sit alone for a while. She stared out the front of the ship for nearly an hour in silence, thinking about everything that has happened to her, as well as everything that has happened to the Reds and Blues.

"What are you thinking about?" Wash asked quietly, leaning in the doorway to the cockpit.

"Lots of stuff," she replied.

"Thinking about what you're going to do to the Director when we find him?"

"No, it's just... I just realized something that I hadn't considered before," Carolina murmured. "I knew these people were sim troops, but I didn't think of what that really meant. These guys were just fodder for... anything. And the Director knew that. He put the Alpha with them and risked all their lives, just because he saw them as useless."

"Wasn't it just yesterday that you felt pretty much the same way?" Washington asked, reminiscent of the way she had been treating them.

"Yeah," she said quietly. "But now I realize that they have as much right to the Director as we do. If not more so. We willingly did things, Wash. They were forced into the Freelancer business. They've been through just as much shit as we have, but they still take the time to make jokes with each other. They might not see it the way I do, but I actually think that takes a lot of strength. They aren't broken."

"Carolina, you're not broken," Wash said quietly.

"Wash..." she grunted, hand gently rubbing her holstered pistol. "We both know what I am."

"Okay, you might be a little bit broken, but you can still be repaired."

"Some things can't be fixed. We can't heal the people we've hurt. We can't bring back the innocents we've killed. We can't just forget about our past and pretend it never happened. These guys get that."

"Get what?" a voice asked from behind them.

Turning around, Wash and Carolina saw Caboose standing by the entrance to the cockpit.

"What are you doing up?" Washington inquired.

"I heard you talking and I remembered that I liked talking with people, so I came here to join in the talking!"

"It's not exactly a good topic to talk about," Carolina said tiredly.

"What were you talking about?"

"We were talking about me and why you all hate of me."

"I don't hate you," Caboose said happily.

"What?" she asked with surprise.

"I said I don't hate you," he repeated, slightly louder.

"How can't you?" she questioned quietly, slightly confused.

"Because you aren't an angry person. You're just very sad, and being sad isn't something you should hate people for. It's something you should try to fix with being happy!" he explained. "And I like making others happy."

Carolina fell silent and stared at Caboose.

"Sometimes when I'm sad, I talk to friends. I tried talking to Tucker's rock when I was sad once, but it wasn't a very good friend. That's why I mostly just talk to Church, though."

"I don't exactly have any friends to talk to," Carolina murmured. "And making friends isn't one of my strong suits."

"I'll be your friend," he said after a few seconds of silence.

"Why? I wasn't exactly the nicest person to you and the others..."

"Because everyone needs at least one friend," Caboose stated simply. He then yawned and stretched his arms. "And everyone deserves a second chance!"

Carolina looked to Wash. He simply shrugged at her. Carolina took a few moments to consider what she was going to do. Getting off her chair, Carolina walked up to Caboose and held out her hand to him. He looked at it for a few moments, then looked back up to her. He then wrapped his arms around her and gave her a small hug. Releasing her, he let out another yawn and said goodnight and trudged back to his chair. Carolina simply stood there, watching as Caboose crawled into his chair like a dog and curled up, falling asleep in a matter of seconds.

"You should probably follow his lead," Washington grunted. "I'll watch out for anything on the radar."

"Alright," she said, turning around to sit in her chair behind the pilot seat. "Wake me up if you see anything out of the ordinary.

"Will do," Washington said with a nod, turning to look at the screens.

With a sigh, Carolina grabbed her helmet and took it off, placing it gently on her lap. Some stray strands of hair fell over her face and she gently pushed them behind her ear. After sitting there for a few moments, she leaned over and stared into the room with the others in it, listening to their light snoring. A small, confused yet happy smile crept onto the corner of her lips as she rolled back into her chair and shut her eyes.