Title: Heat
Author: Lisa M
Pairing: Hawkeye/BJ
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Nope...don't own anything. Don't sue...no money.
Archive: Anywhere...just let me know.
Feedback: Would be appreciated.
Spoilers: Yes, small ones for "No Sweat".
Summary: The heat, the sweat, it's all too much to take.

A/N: My answer to the 10-minute fic challenge of "The heat was unbearable...", though I changed it for tense purposes.

The heat is unbearable...

I lay in my cot, staring at nothing, tossing and turning, and trying to force my eyes to close. The warmth of the air is suffocating. I can't fall asleep. My clothes, my mattress, my flimsy pillow - they are all soaked through with my sweat.

Glancing around the darkness of the Swamp I see Charles sleeping. He has figured out a way to rest. I'm not sure how. Maybe I should ask, though, I'm not about to wake him up right now. As much as I'd love to, I don't know that I can deal with one of his lectures at this particular moment.

BJ is laying on his bunk. His light is on and he keeps reading and sighing and reading and sighing. It's making me crazy. That damn letter from Peg. The stupid gutters. He's been doing this for a week and I'm about ready to jump out of my bed and punch him. But I won't. Just the other day, we were in the showers and he was complaining about the gutters and Peg and making those ridiculous statements about her getting a neighbor to help her with them. I told him to stop being such a jerk. So now whenever he brings the subject up, I get a little tense. Just the sound of him rattling that paper makes my blood boil slightly.

I wonder why he doesn't get so worked up - so unnerved - when I'm out putting moves on random nurses? I guess I'm just not as important to him. Since I'm only his lover, not his wife. I feel my muscles tighten as a green streak of jealous floods me. My fists clench at my sides. My gut begins to coil inside of me.

And the angrier I get - At Charles for sleeping? At BJ for reading a letter from his wife? Maybe at being second in a line of importance? - the hotter it becomes around me. It's almost oppressive. Finally I realize that the heat, the sweat, the thoughts, it's all too much for me to take. I stand quickly and leave the tent. I hear BJ's startled voice trailing after me.

"Hawk? Where're you going?"

I don't answer. If he wants to talk to me, he'll find me. And I'll talk, as long as it's not about those damn gutters! I stomp through the dark camp to the showers. I hear footsteps trailing me and I know he's following. I don't turn back, I keep walking briskly, closing my ears to BJ's voice behind me.

I throw open the door and enter the shower tent, discarding the few clothes I'm wearing. I submerge myself into the stream of thankfully cool water. I swear I feel steam - from the heat? or the anger? - floating away from my overly-tense and tight body.

Hands are in my hair. On my body. When his lips touch my back, I know he doesn't want to talk.

And I feel better already.

The End