Title: Should the Unlikely Happen
E-mail: eli @ popullus.net
Spoilers: Right before Alias' third season starts.
Rating: R
Posted: Sept. 21, 2003
Summary: Comfort has always been a possible answer.
Disclaimer: I own less than nothing. Read.
A/N: Completely AU. Just so much smut going around that I couldn't help myself. So. Something more along the lines of what I first thought when I heard about Lauren Reed and couldn't help wondering about her and Mr. Sark. Mucho thanks to Rez and Amy for the beta.
1. Discovering
"That's it then. It's actually happening."
"Yes."
**
They watch, test, exercise their paranoia to the edge of incapacitation. And they are right to do so.
It is unusual to be so deep for so long. The relationship she was positioned to establish is, oddly enough, the least problematic portion of her life. The scenario has been played so many times that they can't believe it would be possible any more. She isn't playing. She is living her life, nothing more.
It has been enough.
They have all played so many games within games that even a score sheet wouldn't prove helpful. It's instinct or nothing now, and they no longer trust their instincts. Even she sometimes distrusts the voice that tells her there are things beyond where she is, who she is.
Then there is a postcard from an aunt in Tuscany. The gold of the sunflowers waving their faces at the sky changes her day. A picture bright enough to place on the refrigerator and be noticed. A never-to-be-forgotten message.
Now there will be more.
2. Wondering
"Do you mind my going back to him?"
"Would it matter if I did?"
**
He seems to have been doing this a lot, even though it's only been twice. That's two times more than any man should have to tell the women in his life that their lives are over.
It has to stop.
She looks surprised when she enters, although he knows that she is prepared. Perhaps not to see him, but this day was going to come; no point in pretending otherwise.
She came to the hotel and perched in the seat under the trellis, arriving at five minutes before the hour and checking her watch every minute after that, annoyed that the other party didn't have the courtesy to be early as well. At ten past, she motioned to the waiter and he handed her a room key to go with the bill.
He watched this from the balcony, watched her. Now that she's here, he waits to see what her surprise will morph into, unsure of what reaction he himself would prefer.
When she accepts the file, she gives it a glance that sends her eyebrows up even further. The lost has been found and she is their chance to recover what is so precious to so many. Then she hands back the file. Remembering her reaction of more than five years ago, the pain of another only two years past, he braces to stand against her protest at losing herself again.
Her hard kiss, teeth clashing before tongues stroke, is a shock. Her soft touch on the nape of his neck makes the world stop.
3. Knowing
"...No."
"Then why bother asking?"
**
She remembers the hard but smooth feel of his hands, the oh so sweet taste of his mouth. One time to remind her. That is all that she needs in return.
What his reasons are, she doesn't know. It shouldn't matter. That he is as willing now as he was in the past, despite all that has changed, is also enough.
Comfort has always been a possible answer.
So different. Never harsh, but power can overwhelm. The power that has her fighting and losing to the buttons on his shirt while he pushes down her zipper, her dress, everything that stands in the way. Her fingers clench and rip the last button from its threads as her back hits the bed and his tongue runs down her neck to circle a nipple through lace, making her gasp.
Nails chase shivers up and down skin that can't bear to be touched. Fingers, tongues start driving, darting, seeking to push sensation to the limit. She almost manages to muffle his groan by pulling his head closer between her thighs. He barely rises over her in time to swallow her cries in his throat. Then he drives in, she arches up, and the merging, the coming together is all there is for now.
4. Accepting
"So what now?"
"You go home."
##
Return to my Alias stories