Title: Firsts

Category: Terra Nova

Ship: Elisabeth/Jim, Maddy/Mark, Alicia/Nathaniel

Genre: Romance

Rating: PG-13/R-ish (maybe)

Word Count: 1073

Summary: Moments of firsts for Elisabeth, Maddy and Alicia: the first time after so long, the first time ever and a first that's a long-time coming.

I

Elisabeth

They've been married for over eighteen, dated for two before that. They've done this many times over, but as Elisabeth Shannon leads her husband by the hand past their sleeping children and into their bedroom, it feels like the first time. She thinks after the two years they spent apart while he rotted away in a horrible prison that it might as well be their first time. This place is new. Fresh and clean. It's supposed to wash away old hurts and fears, and replace them with hope and promise. She hopes dearly that's true because they've lived a lifetime of hell in a few short years and they need to be done now.

She stands in front of him as they close the door with him smiling down at her and she has to bite her lip to stop a girlish sigh from escaping her mouth. Even years later, his playful grins, his eyes lit with humor and affection still make her feel as excited as she was when she first met him—a had been woman, barely. Completely mesmerized by this man that could make her brilliant mind a puddle of love-struck mush—she's a woman of science, a woman of logic—but Jim and her reaction to him has always been the exception.

"Hi," he whispers as he leans down, she feels the barest hint of lips as his mouth moves over hers leisurely. She returns the response breathlessly, rolling her eyes at him, amused as his smirk widens. He always was a cocky one, always endlessly amused at his effect on her. She remembers the first time she laid eyes on him in a bar her friends had forced her to go to in celebration of her finalizing her studies. She could see him there with his own friends—cops all like him. His eyes had found hers across the room and like some romantic comedy, her heart had skipped a beat as his eyes trailed up and down her body before settling on her face. The barest hint of a smile on his lip, he had winked at her when he was sure he had her attention. Her friends had looked down at him, a common cop, pedestrian in the mist of their collective brilliance. She had seen something completely different, she had seen a man that looked at her and made her feel like a woman instead of a brain on legs. Where she had been shy and meek, he made her bold, his smiles teasing but supportive, his touch igniting parts of her she hadn't even realized were asleep until he woke them, like now.

She closes the gap between them, her body pressing intimately against his and it's her turn to smirk as she feels her effects on him pressing between them. She looks up at him with a raised eyebrow and a quirk of her lips. He shrugs unapologetic as his hands reach down and cup her buttocks, pressing harder against her, making sure she feels every inch of him in the apex of her thighs. He never really was embarrassed by how fast or how little it took to get him going.

"What do you expect, Lis?" He murmurs against her skin, chuckling as it breaks out in goose bumps, his lips pausing here and there—her cheek, her temple, her hair line. "You always had a gift when it came to me."

She laughs at the comment, pulling back to look at him, his expression turning tender as he studies her.

He lays her down onto their bed, his body hovering over hers as his hands seek to open the strings holding her blouse closed. "You are so beautiful, Elisabeth," he whispers as he places his hand, now inside her blouse, over her heart.

It's a beautiful sentiment that has tears welling behind her eyelids. Because she missed him. She hasn't allowed herself to think about it in all the time he's been gone. She had Josh, Maddy and Zoe to think about but she has missed her husband. She has missed the way her pulse races when he's near her or when he touches her and she wants to sob in relief to finally have him back, to finally be able to feel his skin against hers but she doesn't because they've wasted enough time. To waste anymore on tears and, more to the point, Jim is pulling her to sit up, pulling her tops off, quickly losing his own almost frantically.

Greedy hands seek his warmth and suddenly all that skin isn't enough, it's nowhere near enough as they madly tug on belts and zippers, pushing pants out of the way with their legs and feet as their lips fuse together in kisses that are made of tongue and teeth, longing with hints of desperation. It really has been too long.

She's not sure when but soon they are bare to each other; she intertwines their hands together before Jim can touch her between them. There will be time for foreplay later, she thinks as she tilts her hips to find the right angle. Later, when she had her fill of him and they can go slow and make love; right now it's anything but. She shuts her eyes tight, seeing stars behind her eyelids as he surges forward. It's cliché to say but for her there isn't a better feeling in the world than having Jim inside her. Feeling every ripple as he sets a rhythm. This one is hard and fast, desperate. She presses her face against his neck, her teeth sinking into his skin, loving the way it makes him thrust harder, deeper but also because she thinks if she has her mouth free right now the whole colony is going to know what they are up to.

"Elisabeth," he whispers brokenly in her ear, his hand clenching her thighs higher on his waist.

She purrs as it changes the angle, touching her in all the right places.

"I love you," Jim tells her softly, a contrast from seconds ago, his eyes now dark finding hers. She smiles; her aching cheeks tell her how wide and her heart full as he returns the gesture.

As he brings them to the edge and over, she echoes his words with her heartbeat thundering in her ears. She finally feels at peace for the first time in over two years.