Val groans when a knocking on her door wakes her up. "Go away," she grumbles. She rolls away from the door and pulls her pillow over her head, hoping to drown out the noise. it doesn't work. The knocking get more insistent. 

"Rise and shine, Valkyrie." 

Val grumbles even more at the slightly teasing tone of her uncle's voice. She tries to curl in on herself and burrow further under the covers. Her ribs have a sharp pain shoot through them. With this, she remembers the events of the previous day. And remembers what the plan for today is. She groans again at the thought and rolls back onto her back with a little more force than needed. The impact sends another burst of pain through her ribs. 

"Ugh, why?" 

Apollo opens the door and pokes his head around the door. He smirks at the sight of his niece sprawled out on top of her bed. A small chuckle escapes his lips. "Rise and shine Sleeping Beauty. We have a lot of work to get done today." 

The teen groans dramatically at his words. This causes Apollo to laugh even louder. He enters the room and walks over to the bed. "Come on, kiddo. Time to et moving." 

"Ten more minutes," Val whines. 

Apollo shakes his head at the teen. The medic settles on the edge of her bed and rests a gentle hand on her shoulder. "Sorry kiddo. There's no escaping this." 

Annoyed by her uncle's teasing, Val glares at him out of the corner of her eyes. "You're not helping." 

Apollo chuckles again. "Come on. If you don't get moving I'll drag you out of bed." 

Valkyrie groans again and pulls the pillow over her head again. "You're so mean," she grumbles. It comes out muffled, but Apollo hears it well enough. He shakes his head to himself. he yanks the pillow out of her grasp. She pouts at this action which only draws another chuckle from her uncle. "I wasn't joking, kid." He grabs her forearms and tugs on them to pull her up into a sitting position. With a final frown Val takes his direction and allows him to pull her from the bed. "I'm a little offended you think I'm being mean. You know Meg offered to wake you up this morning.' 

Val stills in her movements. She looks at her uncle in mock horror. Memories of the last time Meg woke her up flood her mind. She bolts up from the bed and dashes towards her closet. "I'm up." 

Apollo chuckles and nods. "Alright. Be ready and outside in ten minutes." 

Val doesn't even notice him leave. She rushes around her room getting ready. After she gets dressed in some comfortable but durable pants and shirt that will breathe well she grabs her work boots. She laces up her boots and sits in front of her vanity. She debates what to do with her hair while she brushes it. Eventually she sighs and just braids it. She does her best not to dwell on how horrible the day is going to be while she finishes getting ready. 

Knowing she has to stop dragging her heels, she sprints down the hall to the exit. Apollo loops up at her as she exits the ship. A grin spreads across his face upon seeing her. He taps an imaginary watch on his wrist when he notices her looking towards him. She raises a brow in confusion. She doesn't have to wait for a response to her unanswered question for long though. 

"Good of you to join us, Val," her father calls sarcastically. "You're late." 

Deciding it's best not to respond, Val keeps quiet she moves to stand next to her uncle. She zones out a little listening to her father explain the plan. She's completely lost in thought until her father calls her name. 

The teen jolts back to reality. She does her best not to look as confused as she felt. The others are already splitting up to do their part. Val tries to look around casually, unsure what she's supposed to do. Apollo knows what's going on and elbow her to grab her attention. She turns to look at him. 

"You go help Meg and you mom." He gestures to where the two women are gathering materials. 

She nods, not fully registering his words but foes over to them anyway. The three women collect all the fallen tree limbs that are big and sturdy enough to be used for the fence. The guys are mapping out the fence and starting to make holes to put the posts in. 

The girls have made a dent pile of logs by the time Alex decides to call for a break. Val sighs in relief and wipes the sweat from her brow. She crumples to the ground rather ungracefully. Her aching muscles grateful for the rest. 

Apollo walks around the group and passes out canteens of water. Each crew member accepts the water gratefully. No one speaks during the break. The atmosphere of relative peace feels like a delicate bubble and none of them want to be the one to pop it. 

Alex checks his watch and looks at the sun climbing in the sky. He lets out a long breath before clapping his hands and standing up. Everyone looks towards him. When he sees everyone's attention on him, he sighs again. "Alright. Let's get back to it. I think we have enough posts to start using them. So we'll all start building the fence right now." 

There is a collective groan from the others at the thought of getting back to work so quickly. Alex rolls his eyes at this family and friend. "Come on. The sooner we get back to work the sooner we can finish." 

The grumbling winds down to a minimum. The others get up and follow Alex's directions to begin to assemble the fence. The longer they work the harder it is for all of them to keep their complaints to themselves. Their growing frustration causes tension to rise between all of them. 

Alex does his best to ignore the mounting tension. Getting the work done is more important. When Will stumbles into Meg, who then bumps into Apollo and an argument breaks out, he knows another break is required. 

The entire crew splits up to take their break. Alex rolls his eyes at their childishness. He joins his wife where she is sitting on the ground. 

"This isn't working." 

Artemis looks over at him. her expression softens at seeing his frustration. "You're being too hard on them" 

"We have to get this done." 

She nods and takes a sip of water. "I know. But pushing them too hard is not going to help us get it done. Not everyone is you." 

Slowly his frustration fades and the tension in his shoulders melts. He knows she's right. He takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly. "you're right. What should we do?" 

She smiles at her husband and places a gentle hand on his arm. "Well, for starters, how about you let us have breaks that last more than two minutes." A guilty expression settles on his face. She continues with barely a pause. "And maybe we can switch things up a bit. Not all of us work together well. And forcing them to work together like this is clearly not helping." 

Alex nods in thought at her words. She could be onto something. But only so many people on the crew know how to build a fence. That doesn't leave a lot of options for how to split up the crew. 

"What do you suggest?" He asks her, realizing he would get farther if he asks for help. 

Artemis looks around at the other. Meg has wandered over to Will, the two chatting amicably. Apollo is between the two and val, glancing between them. Artemis smiles knowingly at the scene before her. "I think they may have decided for us." 

Alex turns to see what she is talking about He nods in agreement, his own grin forming on his face. 

Artemis glances at the wood pile they had been using. It had almost completely disappeared. "You should send them to get more wood. We can continue working here." 

Alec nods in silent agreement with her. He gives them all a few more minutes before calling their attention back. "Apollo, you take Meg and Will to get more wood. Val, you stay here and help your mother and I continue building the fence." 

Apollo sighs and nods. Meg and Will share a glance before getting up and following him back into the ship. They search through the different storage compartments in search  of something to help them cut down tree limbs to use for the fence. After a few minutes they find an ax and a small saw. Meg is a little surprised they even have manual tools anymore. Then she remembers that Alex always insists on being prepared and her surprise disappears. 

Apollo takes the ax and she takes the saw. The three of them stride out fan towards the trees. With very little verbal communication, the two adults get to work cursing down branches to use for the fence. Will busies himself by taking the cut down branches to the wood pile. 

Val get sup and joins her parents. She follows their instructions. 

With the two groups working diligently together they continue making progress on the fence. 

A huge sigh of relief passes through the entire crew when Alex announces the fence is finished. Alex watches as they all settle onto the ground. They didn't even do that much work. His wife's words pass through his head and all his annoyance leaves. 

After a few minutes of just relaxing the crew slowly starts to get back up and head back into the ship. Val makes a mad dash to the room that has become her temporary office since the crash. Meg does the same. Bolting in the direct route to the engine room. The two of them clearly glad to be back in their element. 

Alex and Artemis watch the two women sprint back to their work stations. They share a look. Communicating silently to each other. "I'm going to go help Meg," Artemis announces. She marches down the corridor towards the engine room. 

"Apollo, you should go see if Val needs any help," Alex suggests. 

The medic looks at his brother-in-law in confusion. "Why? She'll ask if she needs help. And that kind of work isn't really my skill set." 

Alex sighs and gives him a pointed look. "Just do it." 

Apollo's eyes widen a fraction but he silently goes down the hall to look for Val anyway. Alex turns to Will to tell him what they should do. Only, the teen isn't there. With a sigh, Alex makes his way down the hall towards the teen's room. 

These parings might seem a little strange. useless even. But they lost three days of work on repairs to build the fence. They have to get home. The longer they're there the larger their footprint. And they can't risk making changes to the timeline. They have incentive from that and their own desire to be home. He hopes this will be enough motivation to get these pairs to work together. Especially the ones that don't have the best history of working well together.