So a little while ago Skye was frustrating me so I decided to write something involving Lucas and an OC. It's a challenge that I have wanted to do for a while and so this seemed like the perfect opportunity. The challenge was to write an OC who wasn't a Mary Sue type character. And so this idea was born. Now after having this sitting on my computer for months, I have added some scenes, edited it to within an inch of it's life, or perhaps mine (seriously, I have never done this much editing and editing drives me crazy) and I have decided that it is ready to post. I've gone for a rather untraditional approach with my OC and have added a bit of a psychological twist that I love so much. As always, I would love to hear your thoughts on this.

Disclaimer: I don't own Terra Nova, but I do own Rose.

Her name was Rose. She came to Lucas when he needed her the most, when he was alone in the jungle, injured and about to give up all hope. He wasn't sure where she came from, she just appeared out of the darkness. She wasn't Skye, no one could ever replace Skye in his heart, yet she was there; she was there to help Lucas through the long winter's nights.

"Rose," Lucas gasped as pain ripped through his body. "Rose!"

"I'm here," she whispered softly, reaching for his hand and gently brushing his hair back from his sweaty brow as the fever set in. She always seemed to know what he needed.

She wasn't Skye, yet she didn't shoot Lucas. Instead she tended to his injuries, nursing him back to health, bringing him back from the brink of death, a fate that he would have eagerly welcomed back then. She was there when he was bleeding out on the jungle floor and she stayed from that moment onwards. She was there when the inevitable infection came. She was there for the fever that threatened to drag him into the sweltering pits of hell and she was there for the midnight chills that racked his body, threatening to take him from this earth. She was there for the nights when sleep was impossible, always soothing him as he lay there. She was always there when the pain became too much, her hand firmly grasped by Lucas's as his screams ripped through the cold night. She wasn't Skye, but she didn't tear him down. Instead she gathered the pieces and built him back up, back to the man that he was before Skye had brought him crashing down.

"I know you can't forget about her," she murmured as she lay next to him. "But just try, for me." Lucas wanted to do as she said, he really did. It was just too difficult to forget Bucket. He couldn't forget her, not after what she had done to him and after the times they had spent together. But he would try, for Rose.

"She's not good for me," he admitted, thinking of all the times she had betrayed him, the time she had shot him, the lengths he had gone to for her only to have her betrayal rip him to shreds like a knife. He felt his chest constrict at his words, but he knew they were true. He knew that this was what Rose was trying to tell him, but she would never say a bad word against Skye, not when she knew it hurt Lucas so much.

Her lips grazed against his forehead in thanks. Lucas felt stronger than he had in a long time and it was all thanks to Rose.

She wasn't Skye and there were times that Lucas was glad of that; when she nursed him back to health, when she would sing him to sleep, every single time when she didn't betray him and when she would just sit and listen to him talk. She gave him direction in a time when he was otherwise lost. She wasn't everything that he had ever wanted and more, she wasn't Skye, yet she was everything he needed. He just needed somebody, somebody who would treat him right.

"Thank you," he managed to whisper amidst the pain as she tended to his wounds. The words sounded foreign to him, but he knew they needed to be said. He thought back to the last time he'd had thanked someone, back when he had finished his equations. He remembered the way that he had grasped Skye's face, the fear in her eyes, the way she stiffened at his touch, the way her heart raced. He had wanted to tell her that it was okay, he wouldn't hurt her. He wasn't the monster that everyone seemed to think he was. Little did he know, Skye was the one who was going to hurt him in the end.

She wasn't Skye. She didn't have that same adventurous streak that Lucas loved or that unique mystery about her that had him so enthralled. Yet she was loyal, fiercely loyal, never straying from Lucas's side. She was simple; she didn't play games, she didn't lead him on and she never betrayed him. Her eyes didn't draw him in, leading him to lose himself, yet she was special in her own way and she was there for him. She didn't have that same quality that Skye had that drew Lucas in, leading him to forget everything else in favour of her. But she was consistent, Lucas knew where he stood with her and it never changed. She wasn't Skye, yet she never lied, she was truthful with Lucas from the beginning right until the end.

"Don't leave me," Lucas whispered as he lay with his head in her lap.

"Never," she replied, soothing him as she gently stroked his hair.

And Lucas knew she meant it. He could trust her words. She had never lied to him.

Lucas knew that she wasn't Skye. She didn't have the ability to send his heart racing from one glance. She wasn't able to leave him dazed and confused with one look. Her touch didn't set his body on fire and leave him to burn in the sweet fiery depths of paradise. Her scent didn't intoxicate him and lead him to what could only be described as heaven, but she was enough. She satisfied him and loved him, and Lucas loved her too in his own way. It wasn't the same sort of gut wrenching, heart racing, breath stealing need that he felt for Skye, but it was enough. It was simple. Perhaps it was better this way, safer and healthier certainly, and maybe even better.

"Lucas," she murmured softly in his ear, her lips grazing his flesh before her head fell back in pleasure, her mouth open in a silent gasp.

"Bu..." He caught himself just before he made the mistake that he had made on many occasions.

"Rose," he whispered, sounding almost dejected. Her name didn't bring the same satisfaction that that other name brought. He didn't say it with the same affection that he used when he said her name. Yet she was there as he tried to lose himself in her, banishing all thoughts of Skye from his mind.

Lucas knew that she knew she wasn't Skye. It was painfully obvious. She knew that he still loved Skye, she accepted and understood that. She also knew that he had even come to love her over the course of the time that they had spent alone in the jungle. She loved him too; she was willing to do whatever it took to make him happy. This was much easier than Lucas had expected. It seemed that the simple things made the biggest difference; the squeeze of a hand, the companionship, the brush of lips, the warm body pressed up against him in the middle of the night. She knew that she wasn't Skye; she just hoped that in time Lucas could forget about Skye, not for her sake, for his. She could see how much it pained him to think of the girl that had very taken everything from him, to think of Bucket, but she wouldn't let this girl take Lucas's last chance to experience love from him.

"I love you," she spoke as her fingers trailed across his bare chest. Lucas took a second to reply, thinking over his words carefully.

"I know," he finally said. She didn't reply. This wasn't the response that she had been waiting for, yet she wasn't angry at him and she held no grudge against him.

He hated that he was hurting her after everything that she had done for him.

"I love you too" His words didn't hold the same depth and meaning that they could have if they had been said to her, to Skye, but they were true.

She wasn't Skye and Lucas was well aware of it. There were times when he would like to pretend that she was; when she whispered sweet nothings and I love yous in his ear, when his hands ghosted over her skin, when she called his name, when she held him as though she would never let go of him, when she lay next to him and everything was just simple. But deep down he knew that she wasn't Skye.

He wound his fingers through her long hair as she pressed her body closer to him, seeking out the pleasure that she knew he could bring. She broke the kiss, moving to bring her lips to his neck as her hands explored the planes of his chest. A sigh of contentment left his lips, but it was exactly that – contentment, nothing more. She was neutral. She was safe. Although, Lucas had learnt to acknowledge that this was all life had to offer to him anymore. He understood this now and it was enough, she was enough. He could live with this. He could live with her.

She wasn't his Bucket, but he was learning to accept that. Her only shortcoming was that, as Lucas held her in his arms and closed his eyes, she seemed to fade away, disappearing out of his embrace and leaving him with nothing, just the silence that surrounded him and the darkness that threatened to swallow him. He was alone once again.

Lucas squeezed his eyes shut, determined to bring her back. If he could just concentrate on her, if he wished hard enough, then she would have to return to him. He wanted to hold her again, to touch her again, to tell her how grateful he was for everything she had done, to tell her he loved her. She was all he had left. He would not accept that she had disappeared from this little world he had created. He wasn't going to go back to reality, he couldn't. He needed her.

"Don't leave me," he called into the night as a tear rolled down his cheek, an air of desperation in his words. Yet there was no reply. It was too late. He had lost her to the vindictive bitch that was reality. She was gone. The illusion had been shattered.