So sadly, today is the 12-month anniversary of the cancellation of Eleventh Hour. I thought you might enjoy this to cheer you all up a little, or make you cry. One or the other!
And I know you won't ever watch "Titans" in the same way again.
Soundtrack: This Life – Bruce Springsteen. This is a track from his latest album. Please listen to this on youtube if you aren't aware of it. It's a beautiful song (and the words make more sense with the music!)
A bang, then stardust in your eyes
A billion years or just this night
Either way it'll be alright
A blackness then the light of million stars
As you slip into my car
The evening sky strikes sparks
............
This life, this life and then the next
With you I have been blessed
What more can you expect
............
At night at my telescope alone
This emptiness I've roamed
Searching for a home
The stars, a brief string of shining charms
Rushing in red out of our arms
Into the drifting dark
............
This life, this life and then the next
With you I have been blessed
What more can you expect
This life this life and then the next
I finger the hem of your dress
My universe at rest
............
We reach for starlight all night long
But gravity's too strong
Chained to this earth we go on and on and on
Then a million suns
Cresting where you stood
A beauty in the neighbourhood
This lonely planet never looked so good
........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
'Tap tap tap - tap tap tap - tap tap - tap tap tap"
Her eyes sprang open and she snapped her head to the right, glaring at him.
"What?" he looked at her innocently, eyebrows raised.
"What - the - fuck - are - you – doing?" she hissed, not wanting to disturb the other passengers.
He shrugged almost imperceptibly, "It's the 1812 Overture."
"I can tell it's the 1812 Overture. Why are you playing the 1812 Overture when everyone else is trying to sleep? And what are you playing it on."
"My teeth, see," he flicked his teeth with his fingernails, demonstrating for her. "Tap tap tap - tap tap tap - tap, tap…"
She rolled her eyes "This is probably the most annoying thing you've ever come up with."
"Oh I didn't come up with this, Charlie taught me this."
"Charlie?"
"Yeah, I've told you about Charlie before. You met him once. LAPD, red hair, he gave you a mango, remember."
"Oh. Of course." She remembered now, he was an LAPD detective. Very charming, good looking in an impossibly bright LA sort of way, but a little bit eccentric. She never did work out why he'd given her a mango. She remembered thinking he was probably a perfect friend for Jacob. They couldn't look more different, but their minds seem to work in a similar bizarre fashion. It made perfect sense that Charlie Crews would have taught Jacob how to play the 1812 Overture on his teeth. Perfect sense.
"Now, be quiet," she whispered. "Everyone else seems to be sleeping. You could try to do the same."
He snorted. "As if I'm going to sleep here. You know I don't sleep on planes." His right leg jiggled with boredom.
"Well you can think then. About our problem. And I'll sleep, because I'm exhausted. This is the second time I've done this flight in 24 hours and I got no sleep at all last night thanks to you."
He smirked.
She lifted up the armrest between them, made herself comfortable on his shoulder and closed her eyes. "Next time you run away can you at least stay in the same country? These transatlantic flights are killing me. And stop with the leg thing."
He pursed his lips, stared up at the ceiling of the plane. "You know, this is the first flight we've ever been on together."
"Mmm?" she murmured. "We've been on plenty of flights together."
"I mean as a couple." He looked at her but her eyes were still closed.
"Be quiet Jake. You're going to disturb people."
He sighed. "Fine, fine, I'll just read." He leafed through the in flight magazine. He'd already finished reading the 300-page book he'd bought in the airport bookstore before they boarded. And there was still 4 hours of the flight to go. He wondered how long it would be until they turned the cabin lights back on. Being stuck on a long haul flight was bad enough without the lights being out and having to be quiet.
He flicked on the in flight entertainment console, slipped in the earphones. Played a couple of games, checked the weather in DC and Bethany, world news, the stock market. Scrolled through the TV shows and the movies. Nothing that he wanted to watch. Nothing that he wanted to listen too. He turned it off.
He turned his head towards her and kissed the top of her head as it rested on his shoulder. She was in the window seat and as he kissed her, his eye was caught by the view out of the window beyond her head, a crescent moon shining in the night sky. It looked so close he felt he could reach out and touch it. As his eyes focussed fully on the blackness, he could also see stars, what looked like a million stars stretching out for as far as he could see. It was a breathtaking sight. He wanted to wake her, to show her the beauty of it but he could hear her breathing steadily. He shouldn't really disturb her. It would only make her even more cranky.
He felt trapped and restless. He moved his toes. He could really do with getting up and stretching his legs. But that would disturb her as well.
He sighed. If he couldn't get up, he wanted something interesting to think about. Something to wrap his mind around.
A case. That's what he wanted. A case to work on. Something difficult.
CERN sure as hell hadn't been as much fun as he thought it would be. Pure research, lab work, analysis. It just wasn't his thing any more it seemed. It was all a bit mundane and drawn out.
Mmmm, interesting. The cogs of his mind were turning.
"Are you sleeping Rachel?" he whispered.
Silence.
Apparently so.
He looked out of the window again, thinking. He wanted something to really sink his teeth into. Something that would stretch him, challenge him. He wanted something with more pressure. Something with more, well, danger. Something more important.
"Rachel," he whispered again
He wanted to tell her.
His mind was finally working.
He already knew that he wanted to stay with the FBI. But he hadn't realised why before. Not with such clarity.
He wanted to make a difference. And he wanted to make a difference with her by his side. With - her - by - his - side.
He smiled. He started to laugh. It was so obviously simple; he couldn't believe he hadn't thought of it before. He tried to stop laughing so he didn't wake anyone around them but his shoulders began to shake.
She stirred.
"Rachel," he whispered urgently, still trying to suppress his laugh, "Rachel."
He was doing his best to keep quiet, but didn't think he could keep it up. And he needed to talk to her.
"Rachel," he turned towards her and her head fell off his shoulder,
She blinked drowsily, he leaned over to her.
"Come with me, I need you Rachel, I need you to come with me."
"What?" She mumbled, "Jacob?"
He stood up and pulled her with him, "come on, I need to talk to you. Come with me so we don't wake anyone up."
She looked a little confused, but stumbled up the aisle behind him, her hand firmly in his grip.
He dragged her up the aisle to the area in front of the toilets. Took her by the shoulders, looked into her face.
"Rachel."
She stared back at him a little blankly. "What, what is it?"
"I've worked it out!"
"What?"
"I've worked out what…"
"Sssssh," someone behind him said loudly.
He turned and saw an attractive red headed woman sitting with a sleeping child on her lap, in the seat closest to where they were standing. His observant mind registered the dark haired toddler, snuggled warmly into her lap, her hands holding him protectively, lovingly. He looked at her a second time. She reminded him of… no, he wasn't going there.
"Sorry," he mouthed to her silently.
She shrugged at him apologetically.
He smiled and she returned the gesture.
He looked around but there was really nowhere else they could go, other than up the other end of the plane to the galley or cockpit.
He tried the door of the toilet next to them. It was empty, and he pushed the still dazed Rachel into it and followed her in.
He caught the eye of the woman with the child as he did; she raised her eyebrows, smiled at him.
He shrugged at her, winked slyly.
He shut the door behind them, pulled the lock across. She was standing at the sink, facing the mirror; he was squeezed up behind her.
"Um, there's not much room in here," she said with concern. She still didn't have any idea why they were actually there, squashed in an airplane toilet together. Although she had a sneaky thought, and she quite liked it. 'I knew he would,' she thought to herself slyly. 'At least I came prepared.'
He held her by the hips, looked over her shoulder at her in the mirror, his eyes dancing with excitement. "I've worked it out Rachel."
She laughed, "you're squashing me Jake!"
She tried to turn around but there was really no room with his big body jammed in behind her. She watched him in the mirror as he looked around quickly, working out what to do to make them some more space. He reached down next to him and closed the lid on the toilet, sat on it and pulled her down onto his lap, facing him, his hands round her waist.
"This is cosy," she laughed. The sink was digging into her left arm so he scooted back as far as he could and pulled her closer into him.
"I hope no one knows we're in here, I'd be mortified to think people thought we were in here having sex." Although the fact that she didn't want people to think it, didn't mean she didn't want to do it.
He didn't mention the red headed woman who had smiled to him knowingly as he closed the door. Anyhow, he didn't bring her in here to have sex; he needed to talk to her. Although, now they were here… 'Concentrate Jacob,' he thought sharply.
"Listen, I've worked it out. I've worked it out Rachel."
"Yes?" She stared at him, eyebrows raised.
"Now, do you remember saying to me in the middle of one night that it didn't matter what happened to us, whether we had to leave the FBI or move to the other side of the world, that you would always be with me?"
"Um, yes, I think so, vaguely."
"Vaguely? It was the first time you said you loved me. How can you only remember it vaguely? You told me that I was your world and that we would be together always."
"Ok…I mean yes, of course I remember saying that, but why are you asking me?"
"Well the answer to our problem was in what you said. That's why I knew it was in my mind. I just couldn't work out exactly what it was. So… do you remember?"
"Um, saying that we should move to the other side of the world?"
"No, not that bit, the other bit. That we should leave the FBI."
"Well yes, but how is that the solution? I thought we both wanted to stay with the Feds."
"No, but that's it Rachel. We want to keep doing the work we're doing don't we? It's fulfilling, it's exciting. It's making a real difference. We save lives, we save lots of lives. It tests us, it extends us, makes us really think, really work. Not everyone can do what we do. We're a fantastic team."
"Yes, but…"
"It's the work we love, it's not the Feds. Don't you see? We don't have to do it for the Feds. I don't really work for the FBI; I only contract to the FBI. In reality I could work for any government agency in any country, doing the same work."
He took her face in his hands. "Leave the FBI, Rachel and come and work for me. Work for me. If Frank still wants us he can contract both of us. He'll just need to give us an agent to work with…"
"Like Felix."
"That's right, someone like Felix, to give us access to FBI systems, authority, backup. And if Frank is going to be difficult," he shrugged, "well, we'll just contract to another agency, another government. This kind of crime is happening all around the world Rachel. Criminals are getting more sophisticated every year, using science for nefarious means…"
She raised her eyebrows, "nefarious means, who the hell says 'nefarious means'?"
He narrowed his eyes, ran his hands down to her waist "Don't you start with me, or I won't give you a job."
She frowned, "so if I'm working for you, I won't just be your handler, I'll be your employee. And you'll be my… boss."
"It's brilliant isn't it?" His face was beaming.
"So, just to clarify this, when I'm working for you, will I have to make your coffee and arrange your appointments and pick up your dry-cleaning?"
"Do you do that now?"
"No. Well not very often, sometimes I guess, but only if I'm picking up mine at the same time."
"Well, you aren't going to have to do anything more than you do now. I'm not going to suddenly turn into someone else. We'll keep the same working relationship as we do now. You gun, me brain." He shrugged, "that's it. It's brilliantly, ingeniously simple. Oh, apart from one difference of course."
She raised her eyebrows, questioningly.
He tapped her on the nose with his index finger. "We can have sex whenever we want. There will be no 'no sex on assignment' rule. In fact, as your boss, I might implement the opposite rule, 'sex on every assignment.' And we share a room. Every night. I don't want to spend one single night away from you for the rest of my life Rachel. I was so lonely in Geneva. I barely slept for ten days because the bed was so empty without you. And that's never happening again. I want to sleep every night and work every day with you right by my side. Can you do it though, will you do it for me?"
"Do what?"
"Will you leave the FBI for me Rachel?
She looked at him, slightly puzzled that he would even ask. "Of course I will. It's not the Bureau that I'm dedicated to, it's the work. And you. You do understand don't you, that in the end the work wouldn't win? It's you that I love Jacob. If it came down to it and I had to make the decision between work and you, you must know that I'd choose you. I don't want you to ever think that I would put work ahead of you. I love you."
He smiled at her. That's what he'd wanted to hear all along.
"But," she laughed, "now you've come up with it, I have to say that it's such a deceptively simple idea. It almost sounds too good to be true."
"I know. And why we hadn't thought of it before I'm not quite sure."
"Do you think he'll go for it though?"
"Listen Rachel, Frank's brief is to hire the best people and get the job done. If I come to him as a consultant complete with my own FBI trained handler, I don't see how that can be a problem. We have a 100% perfect clean up record to date. He'd be a fool not to."
She took his face in her hands and kissed him. "You are a brilliant man Jacob Hood. I knew you'd work this out for us."
He was on a roll now. Mind clicking ideas into place without him even thinking about it. "The possibilities are endless Rachel. We could set up on our own. A private science based investigation business. The contacts I have are endless. We could just travel and…"
She laughed. "We could be science superheros, can you think of some names for us?"
"Aaah, there we go, you have to take the piss out of me every time don't you," he joked, an evil twinkle in his eye. "I think it might just be time to show you who's going to be the boss in this little arrangement of ours."
With his hands around her waist, he buried his face in her cleavage and began to undo the buttons of her shirt with his teeth.
"I think you're forgetting who's on top here," she laughed. "I think I'll be controlling the action not you."
He continued with the buttons, running his hands down to her ass. He gripped her butt and slid her across him.
"I don't know about that," he growled.
She felt him harden rapidly under her groin.
"He's baaack," she teased. She ran her hand down to his pants and started undoing the buttons on his jeans. "Do you think my friend here might be the silent partner in our business?"
"Your friend?" He groaned slightly at the feel of her hand stroking him through his jeans, closed his eyes.
"Mmmm, my friend. He's a very hard worker you know. Always turns up when he's needed and sometimes when he's not."
"Is that right?" he murmured distractedly. He was more interested in working out how he was going to get her underwear off in this cramped space than he was in her bizarre conversation about his cock.
"Of course, if he's going to be the silent partner he'll need a name."
His eyes snapped open. "Ah, you can stop right there. No name. No way. Don't you dare go down that path. That's just creepy." He closed his eyes again and nuzzled at her neck.
"Shame," she murmured, as he ran his tongue from the hollow at the base of her throat, down to her cleavage. "I always named my toys when I was a little girl."
"Your toys?"
"Mmmm, and now I've got a new toy that I can play with whenever I want."
"Is that right? Whenever you want?"
"Oh yes, whenever I want. I might have to make that part of my employment contract."
"You're scaring me now"
"Just scaring you?" She finished with the buttons and slipped her hand inside his trunks, gripping the already slick head of his hard cock. "You don't feel scared to me."
"OK, I'm not really scared. I'm kind of turned on."
"Kind of?"
"Ok, I'm turned on. Really, really turned on. I'm 30,000 feet above the ground, squashed in an airplane toilet with the sexiest woman in the world, and she has her hand down my pants. And if she doesn't let go I'm going to come in her hand."
"God Jake, you are turned on aren't you?" He was thick and rock hard.
"Fuck yes." His eyes rolled back in his head. "I love you so much Rachel. Do you realise that we don't ever need to be separated again. And that turns me on more than anything."
She wound the fingers of her other hand through his hair and kissed him hard. He said the most amazing things to her sometimes. She loved to kiss his sexy mouth, but sometimes it was the words he formed with it that really aroused her.
He ran his hands under her skirt and up her thighs. She had surprised him by wearing a skirt on the plane, he had assumed that she would wear comfortable pants, and even he was prepared to accept that pants were much more practical to wear on a long flight. But she had chosen to wear a long warm velvet skirt and knee length boots, and he noted with pleasure as his hands slid slowly up her legs that she was wearing stockings and, yes, the garter belt that she had worn to his room the previous night. Sexy, very, very sexy. But most sexy of all, no panties. He groaned with desire at the discovery.
"Jesus Rachel, did you forget to put something on when you left the hotel this evening?" he whispered, his fingers exploring her nakedness.
She squirmed under his intimate touch, gasped as he caressed her, slipped his fingers inside her.
"Well, I was kind of hoping that we might end up here and I thought it would just be easier." She arched her back under his sensual fingers. "God Jake."
"Fuck, if I'd known that, we would have been in here as soon as the plane took off. I didn't know you were hoping to have sex here," he whispered, his voice rasping with lust in his throat. "Jesus Rachel, have you had this fantasy for a long time?"
"Oh, yes," she murmured as he fingered her, "for months and months. Ever since that day."
"What day?"
"Owen's birthday party."
"I'm confused," he murmured, tweaking her nipples through the lace of her bra with his teeth.
"Well that's the first day we had mind sex."
"Mind sex? I'm really confused now."
She arched her back, eyes closed. "Well, foreplay was the little demonstration you gave of the green orgasm in a glass at the party, then you seduced me with that sexy exploding bottle of ginger beer, teased me with your cute comment about making a sandwich in the galley, and then had me hard and fast against the wall with your throw away line about not knocking sex on a plane 'til I'd tried it. That was the day my perception of you changed. I nearly jumped your sexy ass then and there."
"God Rachel, I had no idea," he said lustily, dark head bent, kissing her belly. "You should have said something earlier. We've been on plenty of plane trips since then."
"Mmmm, and I spent each and every one idly thinking about you introducing me to the mile high club."
"No, no, no, what did I tell you?"
"Ok, the six mile high club."
"The mile high club is completely different," he murmured, his tongue lapping a wet path to her ear. "I'll introduce you to that one another time."
"Mmmm, I can hardly wait Jake. So, do you do this all the time?"
"I wish," he snorted. "It's not like I get the opportunity very often. But everyone should do it at least once in their lives. The slight dehydration acts to make everything so much more intense and the artificial air pressure effect on the body has much the same result as opening that bottle of ginger beer, believe me. And then of course there's the psychological effect, the danger factor. Sex on a plane is good, very, fucking good."
"You certainly seem to be enjoying it." Her hand was still down his pants and he was without doubt as aroused as she'd ever felt him. And his hard, heavy erection never failed to turn her on. "I want this in me, now," she whispered.
He groaned, "Well seeing as you asked so nicely, and wore no panties especially for me, it seems the least I can do…"
She shoved his pants down a little for him and he moved her against him 'til his tip was just bathed in her.
Then he stopped. Look her in the face. His eyes narrowed and he looked suddenly thoughtful. His lips twitched.
"Rachel, if you started thinking of this after the ginger beer, are you telling me that you were having erotic thoughts about me long before I took you to the beach house?"
She smiled slyly, "why of course Doctor Hood, how could I have not had erotic thoughts of you. So big and handsome and clever and sexy." She wound her tongue around his ear. "I wanted you for a long, long time, I just never thought I could ever have you. Never let myself even consider it. A Special Agent never lets their mind wander down such dangerous paths."
He gripped her hips and pulled her down on him hard. She gasped as he stretched her, burying himself to the hilt.
"Jesus Christ, do you mean we could have been having sex months earlier Agent Young?"
She gasped, he was thrusting up hard into her and she didn't know what it was, but she felt incredibly sensitised, she could feel every minute movement of him inside her. God, he was right about sex at 30,000 feet. "Oh, but Dr Hood," she murmured, "don't you know that it's not all about the destination, that the journey is the most important part."
"Fuck that," he groaned, burying his head into her breasts. "I would have given anything to take you hard and fast on one of those plane trips sometimes. You made me so hot for months and months. And any case we had involving sex just made it worse. Do you know what that bends case was like for me? Having to talk to you about the drugs that boy had bought, that supposedly made sex incredible by increasing the blood flow around the body. I already thought sex with you would blow my pathetic desperate mind, without any drugs to make it better. The blood flow around my body was already working well enough. It was fucking killing me."
"My heart bleeds for you baby," she mocked. "How do you think I felt? I would have slept with that Blake Miller if I'd had the chance; you were making me so horny. I never recovered from the exploding ginger beer bottle. You know that's every girls fantasy don't you."
"No," he gasped, as she rode him, harder and harder, "taking him deeper with each thrust, I had no idea. But I'm going to do a damn good impression of that ginger beer bottle very, very soon."
"God Jake," she was on the edge, this is fucking fantastic, "I had no idea."
"Stop, stop for a minute," he gasped. "Stand up."
"I can't stand up, there's no room."
"Here," he slid her left foot down to the floor next to him, in between the hand basin and the wall. "Now put your right leg over my shoulder."
"Jake!"
"Just do it Rachel," he winked, "I'll make it worth your while."
She felt a strange knot of anticipation in her stomach as she took her weight on her left leg and lifted her right over his shoulder. She was exposed and open to him.
"You have to be quiet though," he warned raising his eyebrows at her as he took the hem of her skirt and lifted it over his head.
"Dr Hood," she gasped as he buried his tongue in her. 'Fuck.' She'd always found him amazingly skilled at oral sex, which he assured her was purely due to his advanced knowledge of anatomy, but which she suspected had a good deal more to do with years of dedicated research and his amazingly talented tongue. But she didn't really give a shit why he was so good, she just adored that he was. And he was killing her with it right now, lapping at her tantalisingly with his broad tongue.
She was trying not to scream, as he was sucking her with a slow gentle pressure, his mouth hot and wet, his fingers gripping her ass, supporting her, holding her into him. "Yes, yes, yes, Jake" she was trying to keep her voice down, tried to whisper, "right there, yes, right there."
She felt it building deep in her groin, she wanted it, she needed it and with a final skilful stroke of his tongue he gave it to her. Exploding and pulsing, she felt every throb of every muscle, from her toes to her nipples. Jesus Christ, if Jess could see her now.
He moved her foot from his shoulder and seated her forcefully, fully back down on him, his fingers digging desperately into her hips, and as she pulsed around him he thrust hard up into her. "God, you feel fantastic," he groaned.
"Not as fantastic as you feel. You are such a beautiful sexy man Jacob. I cannot believe what you do to me."
He pulled her face to his and kissed her desperately, sucking her bottom lip into his mouth. She tasted herself on his lips. "I want to slam you up against that door Rachel," he said into her mouth, "I want the whole plane to hear what we're doing. I want the whole plane to know that I'm fucking the most beautiful woman in the world."
"You have such a dirty, dirty mouth, Dr Hood," she wound her tongue around his, sucked it, bit it gently.
His hands moved to her thighs, pulling them wider against him, trying to get deeper. Pressing her onto him hard.
She found his desperation for her powerfully erotic.
"Explode for me Jacob. I want to feel you come like that bottle of ginger beer."
"Fuuuucccccckkkkkkk," he groaned, and he did.
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
When she came out of the toilet, he was waiting for her. She'd expected that he would have gone back to their seats so that their re-emergence didn't look quite so suspicious, so she was surprised. "Jake" she hissed. "You were supposed to be sitting down. What if someone notices?"
He shrugged. "Who cares?" His eyes were liquid and sated. He looked loved up and boneless; she could tell by his face that he was still aroused. He looked the way that she felt. "Look, I want you to see this."
He turned around to the exit door and looked out of the little window next to it. He pulled her over in front of him so she could look out. He stood behind her, his mouth resting on the side of her face, close to her ear. "Look at that Rachel, have you ever seen anything like it?"
He was breathing heavily in her ear. His lips touched her. His hot breath was turning her on. She wanted to have sex with him again, then and there. And then her eyes focussed on what he was trying to show her. "My god Jake."
The sky was pure black, as black as ink, touched with pure silver. And stretched out below it in every direction, was a thick blanket of cloud for as far as the eye could see. The cloud shimmered like silver; it looked like the sea, ethereal and endless. And up above was the black, black sky lit by a brilliant glowing crescent moon, and thousands upon thousands of stars.
The sight sent a shiver up her spine. It was unbelievably beautiful. She felt as though she could open the door of the plane and walk out onto the cloud. As though she could run and laugh and fall on it. Roll on it like a thick soft blanket. Make love on it with him forever.
It reminded her of the first night they had arrived at the beach-house. The first glimpse she had of the sea through the vast picture windows. He had stood behind her, and held her and told her that it was ok to cry. That if she didn't know why she was sad, it was because her soul was crying. Right at that moment, as she stared at the vision before her, her soul wanted to sob and sob. It welled up in her chest. Her eyes filled with tears.
He slipped his hands around her waist from behind and hugged her close into him.
"Do you know what we're looking at Rachel?" he whispered to her slowly. His velvet voice was as slow and soft and sensual as the blanket of cloud. Her knees felt weak. "We're looking at eternity, my beautiful girl. Stretched out before us for as far as the eye can see. Timeless. Endless. Eternal."
Her tears spilled out of her eyes and rolled down her face. She had never felt more at peace, never felt more loved than she did at that moment. He was right. It truly felt that she was looking at eternity itself. "We're not alone anymore," she murmured.
He pressed his mouth closer to her ear. She could hear his breathing; she could feel his hot breath scorching the side of her face.
Her legs wanted to give way. She desperately needed to hear his voice again.
"Marry me." He breathed the words against her cheek.
Her body collapsed against him. He held her close.
"Marry me Rachel," he whispered, breathily. "I need our lives to be entwined. I need to be bound to you. Share this eternity with me. I love you."
She turned towards him. The view was too much for her to take any longer. She buried her face in his chest. 'No Rachel,' she thought, 'don't cry. Don't spoil it.'
But she couldn't help herself. She sobbed. The intensity of the love she felt for him, the stress of the past weeks, the mind blowing sex they had just shared, the beautiful timeless view from the plane window, the thought of spending her life in his arms, everything they had shared over the past months, just hit her in the heart, she couldn't help but sob.
He pulled her face up to look at him, held it in his hands, kissed her tears, kissed her eyes, kissed her face. His eyes were deep and green, brimming with emotion. "Ssssh, ssssh," he said softly, "please don't cry my beautiful girl, I don't ever want to make you cry, I love you. Marry me, let me make you happy."
She kissed him. "I am happy Jacob, I'm happier than I've ever been in my life. You overwhelm me. I just can't express how much I love you. How much I want to be with you for all time."
He hugged her into him tightly. Held her to his chest, one hand on the back of her head, stroking her hair. The other across her back.
They stood wrapped around each other for a long time. Eventually he whispered to her. "Come and sit." He guided her back towards the aisle, started to follow her. He glanced towards the woman in the first seat, holding the sleeping child. She looked back at him, her eyes shining with tears. She raised her eyebrows questioningly and he nodded at her, smiling. She smiled back broadly. As he passed her, she touched his arm. "Have a wonderful life," she whispered. "I wish you well." He took her hand as he passed, the touch of her skin burning a memory into his mind that would stay with him forever.
They sat back down in their seats. He took the window seat this time and she curled up her legs in her chair and snuggled up to his chest, his arm around her. Every now and then she gave a small sob as she slowly gathered herself together. Eventually she became quiet and he could tell she had finally drifted off to sleep. They were still 2 hours away from landing, but he could see the sky beginning to lighten and change. They were flying back in time, so the hint of sunrise would follow them across the Atlantic without ever catching them.
He felt calm and at peace. He stroked her hair, stared out of the window. He hadn't planned to propose to her, the words came to him out of the black of the night sky. But nothing had ever felt so right to him before than it did at that very moment he spoke them.
His body was relaxed and languid, his mind still drifting on the burst of prolactin floating through his system after his fantastic ginger beer orgasm. His eyelids felt heavy and drooping. His stomach growled, he was hungry; he was always hungry after great sex.
Her skirt was draped over his thigh and his fingers idly played with the soft fabric. The view from the window was subtly changing all the time. The scene they had witnessed had gone, but he didn't mind. That had been a scene that marked a time & a place; it was a scene that he would never forget.
The world seemed to have slowed down. He no longer needed anything to do, he didn't want to read, didn't even want to think. He was content to sit there holding her in his arms for all time. His universe at rest.
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Sigh........ I miss you Eleventh Hour..........
If you're so inclined, go back and listen to the soundtrack song again and you will see that yes, I did blatantly steal a line from the song for the last line of the story. It just fitted. And I know Bruce wouldn't mind, coz he's just an old romantic.
And for a bit of a laugh, there is actually a clip of Damian Lewis as Charlie Crews playing the 1812 overture on his teeth. It's on the outtake reel from the first season of "Life". Type "TV Show Life Bloopers" into the search engine of youtube and you will see it. Sorry I can't give you a direct link.
Along with Moonlight and of course Eleventh Hour, Life is another in my list of the world's best shows that were cancelled by stupid TV executives. Fingers, toes & thighs crossed that The Mentalist gets renewed by the Eye today, as Grigsby is the only thing sustaining the pathetic TV fangirl in me right now.
And don't forget that if you want to help out with the Eleventh Hour Resurrection campaign, please call in at Planet Hood!