Sam was glad that this time, Rebecca didn't look ready to topple over in a stiff breeze. Instead, she looked positively vibrant turning back towards the group. Sam let a mischievous quirk show on her lips when Rebecca got close so they could help each other out of their armor. That prompted a quizzical eyebrow raise, so Sam followed up with a chuckle. "I could listen to him read a dictionary all day long."

Rebecca opened her mouth to reply, but Laura interrupted from around the corner of the truck. "Or a phonebook, if you girls remember those."

Sam fought back an embarrassed giggle while Rebecca groaned and leaned to look past the rear corner's antenna mounts. "Yes, mother, thank you. I do recall sitting on one at the dining table for my birthday."

"Wait." Sam laid her hand on Rebecca's arm with gentle glee. "You used to be too short for something? This is the best news I've heard all week."

Laura walked into view, shadowed by Rufus now that he'd relieved himself after the ride. "Oh, yes dear. I had to keep her out of the half-used chocolate chips somehow."

Rebecca made what was clearly the early stages of her feeling-ganged-up-on face, so Sam apologetically kissed her on the cheek. "I'm sorry, sugar. Does it make you feel better if I stand on my tip-toes to do that?"

Rebecca harrumphed and played up the pouting tone her reply, but Sam knew that meant she was mollified and amused. "Well...a little."

Sam smiled, looking up into her eyes and enjoying the mirth therein, but was briefly distracted by the splash of lighter color in the middle of her irises. It always showed up better in the sun, and seemed to have grown brighter as the days lengthened. A reaction to increased cumulative UV exposure, perhaps? If it worked with hair...

The rattle of a small, unfamiliar engine saved Sam before her spiraling engineer brain could stretch the moment out into awkwardness. She turned to see one of those off-road utility vehicles that were so popular with local farmers and hunters, looking something like a cross between a two-seated Humvee and an angry golf cart. Landry was at the wheel, which was nice and all, but Sam felt an inch or two shorter than she already was at the sight of his passenger.

Maybe that was just from the stylish low-heel leather ankle boots that Amira Zaman somehow found to stroll fluidly through the apocalypse like she owned the place. The walking scion of confidence and profanity alighted from the small vehicle when it stopped, preceding Landry in their direction, but stopping short to look on with a smile as he rushed to embrace Sam and Rebecca.

He shook hands with Laura and they exchanged pleasantries, she thanking him for his part in aiding Rebecca's journey. Sam bit back any teasing about meeting Dylan working out nicely for him, especially in front of Amira.

She was kind of hoping the councilwoman's attention would remain on Rebecca and the newcomers, and appreciated that Rebecca didn't immediately jump to introductions. Instead, she left that to Laura and remained by Sam's side, hand lightly resting on her back.

Alas, wishes weren't coming true. After cordially greeting them both, Amira focused on Sam.

"I apologize for my impatience, dear. I've been quite busy with Captain Tierman and the new neighbors, and when I learned you were coming to perfect the resurgent electrical grid, I insisted to see all of it before your arrival."

Sam was a little confused, and even though Amira's early words were an apology, she still felt like she was right back on the spot again, the Queen's Magician solely responsible for miracle work. Maybe Rebecca felt some tension in the muscles under her hand, or perhaps it was just accurate empathy, but her thumb moved in small reassuring circles on Sam's back and offered a little grounding calm.

That brought Sam a brief flash of self-consciousness about how damp her shirt still was from wearing the body armor over it, but she kicked that aside with a mental note for a big display of grateful affection later. Later, when she wasn't quaking in her boots at this woman's presence yet again. In the nearer term, she urged herself not to say anything stupid.

"Oh, I hope it all looked okay."

Ugh, what part of...

Amira smiled at Sam, probably like she was a simple idiot. "Please, as if I could even tell, that's what you're for. I can put batteries in the right way and that's about it. But, I wanted to see state of things before someone who actually knows what they're doing cleaned up any idiocy, and to hear what kind of bullshit someone tries to feed the old bitch who reluctantly acts like she's in charge."

Bless Rebecca, she jumped in to help Sam out. "How'd that last part go, if I may ask?"

Amira replied with a derisive swish of her hand that wouldn't look out of place ordering someone's decapitation. "Somewhere between the tomfuckery a woman gets at a used car lot and a competent repetition of words I recognized from your sweetheart's original guided tour. But, I'm patient enough to wait for our professional's opinion—" She nodded in Sam's direction, making her fight to avoid gulping in response. "...so I can make an informed decision about whether I need to flay someone for trying to blow smoke up my ass."

Sam managed to get her wits together during the very appreciated reprieve Rebecca had bought her. "I'll take a look and let you know, but I'm sure they got the basics right."

"Yes, well." Amira's ongoing gaze made Sam feel like she was being appraised, evaluated again. Maybe defending one of her designs in a peer review session. "You'll be the judge of that, won't you?"

Mercifully, Landry had finished greeting the new arrivals and Amira turned to meet them herself without missing a beat. Sam carefully let out a silent sigh and slumped more of her weight against Rebecca's welcome hand, feeling very much like when the Eye of Sauron shifted away to a classmate during an intense verbal quiz.

**

Laura felt a distinct pang of sympathy for her almost-daughter-in-law. The difference in Sam's behavior was subtle, just a slight damper on her usual exuberance with an undercurrent of anxiety. Maybe Laura only picked up on it because of noticing how Rebecca immediately moved in support - an act she definitely felt a tinge of parental pride over.

No doubt this new woman that had unbalanced poor Sam so much was the councilwoman Rebecca had referred to as 'terrifyingly awesome'. The florid profanity certainly matched up with the descriptions. Laura wasn't intimidated yet, maybe because the woman didn't tap into her motherly insecurities about leaving her daughter to fend for herself during the apocalypse quite the same way meeting Rebecca's Marine mentor had.

She put on her polite 'No ma'am, our return period is fourteen days and you do need a receipt' smile and extended a hand to meet her head on. "Madam Councilwoman, I presume. Laura Clinton."

The other woman scoffed with amusement and seemed to eye her with contemplative respect. "I see my reputation inevitably precedes me. So you're the one these young ladies and their companions wrecked a very good car to find."

"We certainly apologize for the unfortunate condition it was returned in. But while it's possible I'm biased since I taught Rebecca to drive, she's always been very responsible. Perhaps the fact we were being shot could earn her a little leniency?"

"Mmm." The resident HBIC turned slightly to glance at the younger ladies and the massive thing they'd all driven over in. "I suppose, given their contributions to the community. It's a shame their own transportation wasn't discreet enough for the journey." She turned back to Laura. "At least it was for a worthwhile cause. Please, call me Laura. Mister Landry, I'll leave them in your care."

Laura made eye contact with Rebecca and allowed herself a little smug satisfaction at her daughter's impressed expression. Much like the time she could definitely be heard through the high school principal's door and all the office door gawked at her wide-eyed on the way out.

Point, Mom.

Landry, the burly fellow that was roughly Laura's height but had arms as thick as her thighs when she was Rebecca's age, started to gather the heaviest looking pieces of their baggage train. It seemed he was waiting for Amira to get some distance before glancing around and speaking again. "Granted, I just work here, but I thought she was drivin' pretty good during the car chase."

Dismay hinted on Rebecca's face — she probably didn't want her mother reminded of just how many times she had been under fire during the journey. Laura decided to respect that and refrained from even the slightest of protective muttering. She just lifted one of the bags for Landry with a smile then slung a smaller one over her shoulder as he started to lead them towards the miniature flatbed pickup / cart thing he'd arrived in.

"Don't worry," he called back over his shoulder as Rebecca clearly started to ask him where they were all going to sit. "There's a few more behind all the big trucks, for zipping around the farm and across the street. This is just so you can take a load off and walk easy."

Laura chuckled. "I like the way you think, Mister Landry!"

**

Rebecca laughed quietly to herself at the idea of going from a five-or-more ton brute to a tiny offroad cart that proudly advertised "50 horsepower!" on one of the stickers nobody had bothered to remove yet. She hoped that someone had backed a trailer into the John Deere dealership up the road a ways and loaded the small fleet of green utility vehicles onto it for the trip to the base. Otherwise, that meant they'd all been driven down one at a time, and the idea of an entire convoy of them driven by serious-looking soldiers and Marines made it even harder to avoid grinning like an idiot.

She even saw one with a miniature dump-truck style bed and another with a snowplow. But, most of them were straightforward two or four seat passenger and cargo transports like the one she and Sam rode in, with Rufus happily taking up the second row. Laura followed behind, chauffeuring Tania and Nate in the back seats, with his chair on the small cargo platform behind them. Rebecca wished theirs had a windshield and was grateful they only had a half mile to drive, as her hair was threatening to turn into a mess even with the tie Sam had dug out and tossed her. At least the plastic canopy roof was keeping the sun off of them and out of her eyes.

On the subject of wind, she also appreciated that the dust cloud rising from the farm wasn't blowing their way. The base might have well been under corporate sponsorship, as the tractor breaking ground in an as-of-yet unplanted section of the field shared the trademark verdant color scheme as the little carts. In the sections that had been sown, she saw a mix of crops - some broad-leafed and bushy, others sprawling vines, and stretches of grasslike shoots that could have been grain.

The sight was profoundly comforting, and at their low toodling speed on an open road, she and Sam caught glimpses of each other looking at the view.

Sam commented first. "Nice promise of 'normal' someday, huh?"

"Yeah. Just like someone helping the lights come back on." Rebecca gave her a playful, lopsided grin and reached over to squeeze her hand.

"Flatterer."

Rebecca shrugged and returned her focus to the road and Landry ahead of them. He slowed for the turn onto a side street, stopping at a checkpoint with sandbag walls and a crude open-sided booth for shade.

It seemed they'd taken the entrance to an existing 'gated community' and upgraded it with a certain "military apocalyptic" chic. The original decorative brick walls and black steel fence had been enhanced with much less aesthetically pleasing razorwire and chain link, which in turn vanished into the shrubs lining the road. The original gate was sturdy-looking, but had construction plates like those on the barricades back at Broadway bolted and welded to the vertical bars.

"Wow," Rebecca muttere. "I bet the home owner's association would love what they've done with the place."