OK – where did this story about a fairly unlikely couple come from? I'm not sure, maybe because I'd gone back to watch the early episodes of season 4 – and that made me think about all the other ways the Tony /Jeanne story-line could have played out. This idea just wouldn't get out of my head – and now I've written it out I probably need to write a lot of Jen/Jethro to make up for it.
Author: Morgan72uk
Rating: T
Pairing: Sheppard/DiNozzo (yes, really!)
Summary: He finds her in the darkness and it worries him how drawn she is to the shadows.
Disclaimer: Don't own the characters; don't have any money - and I probably shouldn't be doing this.
The End of the World
He finds her in the darkness and it worries him how drawn she is to the shadows. The only light in the study is the flickering glow from the fire and so, of course, he tugs her gently towards it – ignoring for the moment the resonance of the act and concentrating instead on the way the firelight plays across her features, the way it burnishes her skin. He follows its path with fingertips and then with his lips – hearing her sigh, loving the fact that he can draw such a sound from her, can make her melt.
He pulls her down with him, again not thinking too much about what it means that they are sinking. Instead he focuses on the knowledge that he is kissing her desperately, lips plundering, arms clutching, as though at any moment he expects to be pulled from the warm cradle of her body. He puts too much emotion into each caress – but she holds him, soothes him, her long, sensitive fingers stroking away all of the desperation, if only for tonight. Neither of them mentions the fact that hours ago he was in another woman's arms, in her bed – or that she was the one who sent him there.
He slides the clothing from her body, enjoying the act of removing the expensive and austere garments. He quiets her instinctive protest, half-hearted though it is, because the one thing he is sure of is that he does not want to move this to her bedroom.
As she unfastens his tie and fumbles over the buttons of his shirt he remembers that she tried to send him away, that having drawn him into this web she tried to set him free. Even now he is not sure why he said no to the promotion and the team of his own. Was it this mission that made him want to stay? Gibbs, to whom he knows he owes a debt of loyalty? Or the woman lying beneath him now? He wonders who she was trying to save and is not sure he wants to know the answer – because as he dips his head to taste her skin, his teeth drawing a gasp from her, he knows it is far too late for salvation.
Just for a moment he thinks about Jeanne, who is all the things he always thought he ought to want – beautiful, compassionate, clever and funny. She is the innocent victim in all of this and he knows his betrayal will hurt her, that the defence that he was doing his job will not be enough.
But he can't help that it is fire and ice that draws him, that what he wants now is a woman as flawed and compromised as he is. He knows he will never find the words to tell her how important she is to him, even if he made the attempt it is unlikely that she'd believe him. They don't talk about this, don't analyse it; the first time it happened it seemed as much of a surprise to her as it was to him. But he knows he can't stop, that she has marked him, indelibly, though there is little chance he has done the same to her.
He wants to breathe words onto her skin, to say things that neither of them will ever forget. She is his downfall – he can feel it in every place her hands touch him, hear it in the breathy moan that escapes her lips when his lips find a spot that makes her tremble. There is no way to tell her how much this means to him – except in the way their bodies move together, in the way she gives herself to him as long as they can hide in the shadows. This can't exist in daylight, their future does not hold mornings in bed or afternoons in quiet, out of the way places. It is another one of the secrets she wraps herself up in and, of all the things he is sure of about her, it is that she always keeps her secrets.
This is dangerous – the game he is playing isn't one that can be ended easily, or without damage. But he can't stop, can't give her up. She is the only thing stopping him from becoming too drawn into his relationship with Jeanne, the only reason he remembers that his quarry is a man who treats life as though it is a commodity. Sometimes, when he is with Jeanne it is not her name that he cries out and, at such moments, he knows only the similarity of the words saves him from being discovered.
But it is not his obsession that might yet destroy them all. He can tell that she is close to being swept away by it and he doesn't know if he can save her. He isn't even certain that she can save herself, or that she wants to try.
She breathes his name into his ear, her voice low and sexy. Her is body tight and warm and feels so damn good around his. For a few breathless minutes there is only this – the two of them and the fire casting shadows across their bodies. He knows that if disaster does overtake them, if this is the end of the world then there is nowhere he would rather be.
The End