Title: Could Be Worse
Author: DrawnToDarkness
Rating: K+/possibly T?
Pairing: Jess/Becker!
Spoilers: General knowledge for S4&5.
Summary: It could have been worse.
Dedication: For the lovely You Have Lovely Hair, on this the day of her birth! :) No naked Becker but, well, I hope you'll like it anyway!
It could have been worse.
Really.
Okay, so getting stuck in the lift wasn't an ideal start to the day. Nor was being one of the only people who knew enough about the ARC's computer systems to actually have stood a chance at getting herself unstuck... if she wasn't trapped in the small metal box instead of being at her station in front of the ADD, that was.
It could be worse, though.
Yes, Connor was still over two hours away – and thank god for small mercies that he and Abby hadn't chosen to go abroad for their honeymoon – and the ARC was in a state of electronic flux due to some glitch in the computer system but at least the matter was well in hand. Matt had assured her that one of the techs she'd been training up to occasionally cover her workload in case of emergencies was already manning the portable ADD on one of the laptops so, should the worst happen and an anomaly open, the ARC would still be able to deal with it.
That was something good.
And, really, it could have been worse. She could have been stuck on her own in the lift or, worse, Jess thought with a shudder, stuck with the new creepy scientist who'd apparently decided to take her lack of interest as a personal challenge to change her mind.
"You can't be cold." The incredulity in her companion's voice didn't quite cover the concern beneath it. "It's got to be over twenty degrees in here."
"I'm not cold." Jess gave him a reassuring smile but wrapped her arms around her middle anyway. More to keep herself from reaching for him than anything else; she couldn't help it that the sight of the normally cool and composed Captain Becker looking all flushed and frustrated was having quite a telling effect on her. "Just thinking."
Becker snorted indelicately, a glimmer of amusement appearing in his eyes momentarily replacing his ire at the situation. "Do you ever stop thinking, Jess?"
"Not really." Though she certainly wasn't going to tell him how often he was the subject of her internal musings. "We might as well make ourselves comfortable," she told him instead, wincing a little at the cheeriness of her own voice – she didn't want him to think she was actually enjoying being stuck in the lift with him. (Even if she kind of, sort of, really quite was.) "Until Connor gets here, we won't be going anywhere."
It was the wrong thing to say, as the amusement faded from his eyes and a scowl arranged his oh-so-handsome features. Honestly, Jess thought to herself, it wasn't normal for someone to look so good when they scowled.
And then of course Matt chose that moment to deliver some more bad news...
"Becker? Jess? You there?"
"We're here, Matt," Jess answered the team leader as Becker muttered under his breath about how they couldn't have gone anywhere else.
"Bit more bad news, I'm afraid."
"More?"
"Two bits, actually. There's been an anomaly alert so we're heading out. No incursion yet, though."
Becker swore under his breath and Jess fought the urge to join in, some of her joy at being stuck with the lovely Captain with the equally lovely hair fading at the thought of any of her teams being out in the field without her watching over them.
"What's the second thing, Matt?" Becker asked gruffly, reminding Jess there'd been two things.
"The second thing is that the power's gone out in this whole section of the ARC so Lester's ordered an evacuation to the beta site, just in case."
"An evacuation?" Jess felt a twinge of alarm and looked to Becker with wide eyes. "You mean there'll be no one else at the ARC?"
"Only a skeleton crew. There'll be a security team, obviously, at the checkpoints and a team in the menagerie but all non-essential personnel are being moved."
"But what if there's a problem? Another problem," Jess clarified after seeing Becker arch an eyebrow sardonically. "What if something happens, like the lift starts to fall or something?"
"If the lift starts to fall, no one would be able to help us anyway," Becker pointed out quite unhelpfully before Matt could answer. Her face must have gone as ashen as if felt as the soldier immediately gave her an apologetic look and opened his mouth to speak again but Matt beat him to it.
"That's not going to happen, Jess," the team leader spoke soothingly. "It's a problem with the power, not the cables. You're going to be fine. I'll keep you updated on what's going on. Sit tight."
She must have still looked worried after Matt signed off as Becker relented and moved to sit on the floor beside her, his arm brushing against hers as he did. "You really will be okay, Jess. I promise. I won't let anything happen to you."
A rush of warmth swept through her, both at his words and at the expression that accompanied them, but she fought to keep the inner glee she felt from showing on the outside. "No offence, Becker, but you can't promise that when you're stuck in here with me."
"I can..." His brow furrowed in a way she tried to stop herself from thinking was adorable. "I can distract you so you don't think about it!" He finished eventually.
She felt her cheeks grow hot at the distraction techniques her mind oh-so-helpfully-and-eagerly supplied and averted her gaze in the hopes he wouldn't see the flush rising in her cheeks. "And how do you propose to do that?"
How exactly did he propose to do that? Becker wondered.
Oh, he had no shortage of ideas but they weren't exactly appropriate given the situation – not to mention the mere thought of some of them caused him to shift a little uncomfortably where he sat in such close quarters to Jess. Thankfully, the woman with a starring role in those inappropriate thoughts seemed preoccupied with her hands – 'don't think about her hands, Captain', he told himself firmly – and didn't notice his discomfort or the beginnings of an unmanly blush as it crept slowly up his neck.
It wasn't as if they could play 'I-spy', was it? Their sparse surroundings left them with very few choices. And there was no way he was going to suggest a game like 'truth or dare'; that was just asking for trouble, especially with the direction his thoughts had seemingly chosen to take. Besides, they weren't teenagers, no matter how much he sometimes felt like one when Jess was around.
A tongue-tied, hormone-driven teenager in the throes of his first heady crush. That was how he felt sometimes. Not that he'd allow it to show, of course. God no, he'd never live it down. He worked hard to project a professional demeanour at all times and he was aware that sometimes that made him come across as distant and aloof. It didn't mean he didn't care, just that he didn't really know how to show he did. Emotions and feelings had always made him uncomfortable, and the years he'd spent in the military had done nothing to change that.
"Becker?" It took him a moment to realise she was talking to him, a moment more to register the concern in her voice and worried expression on her face. "Is something wrong?"
There were many things that he could have answered with – being stuck in the lift while his men and half of the team were dealing with who knew what an anomaly site for one. Somehow, though, he couldn't get his brain to engage and say that. And, as the answer that immediately sprang to mind was 'yes, you're beautiful and I can't think straight when you're this close to me', Becker thought it was better to keep his mouth shut.
Or maybe not.
Keeping his mouth shut meant her concern grew. And as it grew, Jess moved even closer, her impossibly blue eyes locking with his. When her lips parted to ask him again, her face so close to his own, Becker's brain short-circuited and he gave in to the first impulse that sprang to mind.
Closing the gap between them, he slanted his mouth over hers before she could speak. When she didn't push him away – and instead let her eyes close as her own lips parted beneath his – Becker let himself relax into the kiss. He moved one hand to the back of her head to steady her, the other lifting to rest on the curve of her waist.
Quite how she'd come to be sitting across his lap – straddling it, really – as she was snogged senseless by the very Head of Security she'd been dreaming about for far too long, Jess wasn't entirely sure.
She had no complaints about it, though. Not really. Nope.
And she'd revised her position on the whole 'it could be worse' thing, changing it to 'it couldn't really get much better.'
Well. Other than them being somewhere more comfortable. With a bed, maybe. And more privacy. And no chance of being interrupted...
... which of course they were, almost as soon as the thought had formed in her mind.
"Hey, guys! The cavalry's arrived!"
Connor sounded far too chipper for someone who probably had a very short lifespan if the murderous expression on Becker's face was anything to go by, Jess thought as she tried to catch her breath.
"Hi, Connor. Sorry to interrupt your honeymoon." She hoped she didn't sound as flustered as she felt, her cheeks burning as she tried to climb rather ungracefully from Becker's lap.
Not that she managed to get very far.
The determined Captain tightened an arm around her, keeping her close to him as he lifted a hand to his own comm. link. "How long will it take to get us out of here, Temple?"
"Nice to hear you, too, Becker." Connor still sounded far, far too cheerful. "Shouldn't take me long. Ten, fifteen minutes to reboot the system, maybe?"
Ten minutes was long enough to resume their earlier activities, Jess thought quickly, shaking herself mentally almost as soon as the thought had formed. Ten minutes was certainly not long enough to do everything she wanted to do with the man currently holding her so close.
Ten bloody years – lifetimes even – probably wouldn't quite be long enough.
"Make it five, Connor, and not a minute more." Becker removed his earpiece even as Connor began to protest at the order. Without a word to Jess, he reached up and removed hers, too. "Go out with me tonight."
"Out?" Jess repeated, her brain taking a little longer than usual to process the request.
"Or we could stay in. Have Chinese?" He sounded a little flustered – and a little desperate, the latter of which she could certainly identify with.
Jess grinned. No. Beamed. She knew it, but couldn't help it. "Chinese sounds good." How she could feel so shy after how they'd spent the last few hours, she wasn't sure. "If you really want to, that is. Don't feel like you have to invite me over or anything. I mean, we're not... I don't... I won't hold you to anything. This doesn't have to mean..."
"Jessica." His voice was low, sending a delicious shiver along her spine. "You can hold me to anything you want to." As if to prove his point, he tightened his hold on her, drawing her even closer. "I want you to come home with me tonight. Stay till morning. Hell, stay as long as you want. Forever. This means something. You mean something. Everything."
It took every ounce of willpower she had not to kiss him senseless again right there and then. Every. Single. Ounce.
"It means everything to me, too," she admitted quietly but just as seriously.
As she and Becker smiled at each other and edged closer again, will power be damned, Jess couldn't help but thinking that it absolutely, without a shadow of a doubt, could have been worse...
End... for us, anyway ;)