Belle wasn't entirely sure what to expect when she woke up in bed next to Rush. She hadn't intended to doze off, but their exertions had sent both of them into a deep and contented sleep. It was a long time since she'd woken up naked with someone, and his arm was a pleasing weight around her waist, his stubble tickling the back of her shoulder. She could also feel something else, sticking into the soft flesh of her buttock, and she let out a giggle.
"Is that some sort of alien tech you're experimenting with, or are you just pleased to see me?" she asked, grinning as he started awake. He was wonderfully warm against her, his scent seeming to envelop her, and it was a pleasant way to wake up. Until he opened his mouth, that was.
"We really need to get up and check the systems, Doctor French," he murmured, his breath against her ear sending shivers through her.
"Screw the bloody systems," she said sleepily, burrowing further into the blankets. He pulled away from her, leaving her back slick with sweat from the press of their bodies. The loss of his heat made her shiver, and she rolled onto her back with a sigh, watching him dress.
"Rush, it's early," she complained. "You have another hour before you have to be on shift."
"Which is why we're leaving now," he said coolly. "The sooner I get there to stop people touching things, the less time I'll have to spend trying to undo whatever the first glorified third-grade winner of the school science fair does." He buckled his belt, not looking at her. The ship shuddered as it dropped out of FTL, and Belle sighed.
"You really are a spectacular arse at times, you know that?" she said flatly. "They're not completely useless, you know. It wouldn't kill you to trust them once in a while."
Rush grunted. "A charming notion, Doctor French, but perhaps we could hurry? I'm sure you can think of many more ways to berate me on the way to the control room." He was pointing in the general direction with one finger, one eyebrow raised, and Belle threw back the covers and launched herself out of the bed, stark naked. He blinked.
"If you call me 'Doctor French' when we're alone once more," she snapped, wagging a finger in his face. "So help me I will use the next time I seduce you to tie you to that fucking chair you're so fond of and beat the crap out of you. Get it?"
She started snatching up her clothes, tugging on her pants and boots.
"So, you think you seduced me, do you?"
She wasn't looking at him, but he sounded fucking smug about it.
"Of course I seduced you," she said airily, lacing up her boots. "We're in your quarters, what do you think?"
"I thought it was a – mutually beneficial encounter," he said, after a pause, and Belle chuckled.
"Leave it to you to boil a few screaming orgasms down to a 'mutually-beneficial encounter'," she said, amused. "Speaking of which, I guess I owe you one."
"One what?"
"Orgasm." Belle straightened up, turning to face him. "I'm one ahead."
"Ah." He looked momentarily uncertain, scratching the back of his head. "Well, given the peculiarities of the female body, I won't hold it against you."
Belle put her hands on her hips, her eyebrows drawing down. "Are you calling me peculiar?"
"Doctor – Belle!" he snapped impatiently. "The control room, now!"
He stormed out of the room and down the corridor, and Belle followed, scowling.
"Oh, hey, you're early," Eli said, as they marched into the control room. Belle was still glaring at Rush, her arms folded beneath her breasts, and Eli shot her a sympathetic look. The entire crew probably knew by now that she was on shift with Rush for the foreseeable future. She imagined that they were simply grateful it wasn't them. The man in question was already peering at one of the monitors, frowning at what he saw there.
"It's all quiet out there," said Eli. "Lots of jungle, but there seems to be a ton of stone structures. Must have been some sort of civilisation there at one point."
"Life forms?" asked Rush, and Brody shook his head.
"Nothing we can pinpoint as being human. Want to take a trip?"
"Indeed." Rush straightened up. "Call Lieutenant Scott and ask him to assemble a team. Doctor French?"
Belle nodded eagerly. The chance to visit these strange new planets was something that constantly filled her with awe. She hurried to ready a backpack with what she thought she might need, and before too long she was stepping through the Stargate onto an alien world.
The Gate had opened out in the midst of a forest. Insects whined through the air, and as Belle breathed in her lungs were filled with the scent of greenery and mulch and life. She could sense that the place was teeming with it. The air was moist, but fairly cool, and she was glad that she had decided to bring her jacket. Scott and Greer started quartering back and forth through the dense foliage, leaving Belle, Rush, Eli and Brody to follow with the packs and equipment. James stayed by the Gate, her eyes searching the undergrowth for anything hostile. Belle smiled at her as she followed Rush into the forest.
It took them a while to make their way through the undergrowth, and by the time they reached the first of the stone structures Eli had identified, Belle was ready for something to eat. Unfortunately Rush had the food, and she wasn't in the mood to talk to him. She watched his back as they clambered over tree roots and brushed through thick ferns. He was an arse, she reminded herself. He was arrogant, and mean to everyone he knew, and she couldn't understand why he made her belly clench and her breath catch. Okay, he was incredibly clever, and she was proud enough of being a nerd to admit that clever was a turn-on. There was something terribly sexy about him as well, particularly when he was in a bad mood (which was most of the time). Belle couldn't quite put her finger on what it was, but there was a look in his eyes, a change to his aura, something dark and visceral, which seemed to call to her on a basic level. No doubt anthropologists would be able to make something of it, she reasoned. In the meantime she just wanted him to shove her against a wall somewhere and have him do all the things he'd done not eight hours ago. Her insides squirmed with pleasure at the memory. Arrogant, insufferable arse he might be, but he was at least generous in bed. She bit her lip as she watched his lean form shouldering its way through the forest, his pants stretching over his rear as he stepped over a fallen tree. Yep. Definitely not thinking about how attractive his mind was right then.
"You okay, Belle?" Eli's voice made her start, and she blushed.
"A little hungry," she admitted. "You got anything?"
He dug in his pack for something, pulling out a small protein bar, which Belle began to eat with little enthusiasm.
"What do you think we'll find?" she asked, wiping her mouth with her sleeve. Eli shrugged.
"Looks to be a pretty huge settlement," he said. "There was evidence of lots of buildings around the central pyramid. It'll be interesting to see how much of it is still standing."
Belle nodded agreement, and they walked on in silence. It took them perhaps half an hour to reach the larger of the stone structures, their way impeded by the encroaching forests. They had passed several small ruined buildings on the way there, worked stone pulled down by clawing vines and tumbled to the ground by the roots of trees. Rush had stopped to look at some of them, but there was nothing to suggest what the buildings might have been, and he soon abandoned them in favour of the large pyramid they were working their way towards.
Belle took a deep breath as the pyramid loomed over them, running her eyes up the massive structure. A shout from Greer made her look around, and she picked her way through the vegetation to where he and Scott were standing. Scott slapped his palm against the stone pillar in front of him.
"Looks like the entrance," he said, grimacing as he looked at the rubble piled inside the tunnel stretching ahead of them. "See those marks on the walls? That what you were looking for?"
Belle let out an excited squeak, shoving past him so that she could get closer. Greer chuckled as she flapped a hand at him to get him to move.
"Careful there, Belle," he said. "These stones have been here for what looks like centuries. I'm guessing they're not going anywhere just yet."
"Thousands of years, I should think," she said vaguely, looking avidly at the carvings. There was nothing particularly unusual there – Scott had been right, this was the entrance and the markings indicated that they would need to head down and to the right to reach anything of importance. She shared a look with Rush, and could tell that he had interpreted the Ancient in the same way.
"Flashlights out," he said, dropping his pack and digging around in it. Scott frowned.
"Not sure it looks too safe, Rush. You sure you want to go in there?"
"Thank you for your concern, Lieutenant," said Rush dryly. "Feel free to wait outside if you prefer."
Scott and Greer shared a long-suffering look, and Scott nodded to Greer.
"I'll wait out here," said Greer. "I'm giving you one hour, okay?"
"Three," said Rush automatically, and Belle nodded her agreement. Scott sighed.
"Okay, three," he said reluctantly. "But not a second more, okay? It'll take us hours to get back to Destiny if we're still here when it's dark."
He gestured to the tunnel, and Rush shouldered his backpack, handing a flashlight to Belle. They followed Scott down into the tunnel, Eli bringing up the rear.
They had been walking for some time when they came to a dead end. Rush shone his flashlight around the room, the warm light picking out carvings in the stone.
"Fascinating," he murmured, almost to himself. Belle had to agree. She set her flashlight down, ensuring that its beam was bathing the wall in front of her with light, and began running her fingertips over the carvings.
"There's a way out," she said excitedly. "That wall should open up if we find the code!" She gestured at a slab of rock to the side, and Rush stepped up beside her, his breath on the back of her neck as he leant in close to see the markings. She shivered at the proximity of him, and tried to concentrate on what she was doing.
"A code?" asked Eli, looking around. "Great, but how do we enter it?" He started brushing dust from some of the carvings, and let out an exclamation. Rush and Belle turned to him, and saw that he had uncovered a panel of small flat stones, each carved with a symbol.
"That's it!" said Belle, and leapt at the stones with enthusiasm.
"Hey, wait a minute…" began Scott, but Rush shook his head.
"She knows what she's doing," he said. "Open the door, Doctor French."
Belle quickly picked out the symbols she needed, and pressed two of the stone tablets at the same time. There was a grinding noise, and the slab of rock that Belle had identified as a door slid to the side, revealing yawning darkness.
"Shall we?" Rush went through first, closely followed by Belle, despite Scott's protests. It was colder in the tunnel; Belle shivered as she followed Rush down the passageway, wondering where they would come out. They passed through several areas with similar carvings and panels of stone tablets, but there were no more dead ends, and eventually Rush drew to a halt.
"Let's study this one more closely," he said, running a hand over the wall beside him. "Eli, could you look at the panel we just passed? I'd like to know if there are any material differences between them."
Eli and Scott shuffled back up the passageway about ten yards, and Belle became engrossed in looking at the symbols.
"I'm not familiar with some of these," she admitted, and raised her voice. "Eli? You see anything interesting?"
"I think so…" He sounded vague, as though he were concentrating. "Matt, could you press that symbol there – no, not that one!"
There was a horrible grinding noise and Belle watched in horror as a huge slab of stone crashed down from the ceiling, cutting off her view of Eli and Scott. She slapped her hands against the stone.
"Eli? Matt? You okay?" she yelled.
"Fine." Scott's voice was faint, the stone blocking most of it out. "Eli can't shift the stone. It sounded like something broke when it fell."
"This is going to make it difficult to stick to the three-hour deadline," remarked Rush, sounding way too happy for someone who was stuck in a small stone tunnel under the earth. Belle shot him a look.
"We'll try to find another way out," she shouted. "Get back to Destiny, see if you can find something to move this stone in case we don't."
She heard a faint acknowledgement, then nothing, and leant her head against the cool, dusty stone with a sigh.
"Let's look on the bright side, Doctor French," said Rush, already working his way along a line of carvings. "Now we get to concentrate on our work without any interference. I'm guessing Destiny will jump to FTL before they manage to get us out of here." He grinned as he said it, and she rolled her eyes.
"There's no need to sound so happy about it," she grumbled, but couldn't help grinning at his enthusiasm.
Four hours later she was less than amused. They had managed to interpret quite a number of the carvings, and this had led to them finding their way to a small room which Rush believed to be towards the centre of the pyramid. It was another dead end, and they were currently arguing over the interpretation of one particular symbol. Belle was tired, hungry, and in no mood to deal with Rush's attitude.
"It clearly indicates that we should find the central control panel through that wall," he insisted, jabbing a finger at the slab of stone behind her. Belle folded her arms.
"You said that about the last one, and we nearly ended up falling into a pit," she pointed out. "Or perhaps that was part of your brilliant plan. How about you just listen to me for a change? That symbol doesn't mean 'left', it means 'towards', and if you think otherwise you're a crazy person. A crazy person who can't read Ancient."
"It means 'left'," Rush snapped, for the third time. "That little hook at the end completely changes the context."
"Like this?" Belle gave him the finger, and he frowned at her.
"Focus, Doctor French."
"What did I tell you about calling me that when we're alone?" she demanded.
"I hardly think this is the time to be discussing personal matters," he said dismissively, and she glared at him.
"I'm not being 'personal', I'm just saying you don't have to be cold and stand-offish when we're on our own. I know the face you pull when you come."
Rush was momentarily speechless. Momentarily.
"Yes, as I recall I've seen the one you make as well," he smirked, and Belle rolled her eyes.
"Look, Rush, can we just take a break for half an hour, okay?" she pleaded. "I'm tired, my feet hurt, and I'm hungry. A little rest and sustenance will make us more effective, don't you think?"
He hesitated, then pushed away from the wall, turning to look at her.
"Perhaps you're right," he acknowledged, and Belle leant back against the wall with a sigh, sliding down until she was sitting on the floor. After a moment, he joined her, and she shuffled a little closer until she was pressed against his side. It was cold in the tunnels, after all. Rush pulled a protein bar from his backpack and broke it in two, giving the larger piece to Belle. They ate in silence for a while.
"Do you think Destiny's back in FTL yet?" asked Belle, and Rush nodded.
"I'd say we have at least twelve hours to wait before they get back to us," he said. "Are you warm enough?"
"Not really." Belle rubbed her arms briskly. "I guess we can't really make a fire in this place." She shot him a glance. "There are ways we could keep warm, you know."
He was giving her a wry look. "Doctor French, we are trapped in a dark tunnel in the bowels of the earth, with no way of knowing when or if we'll get out. I hardly think this is an appropriate time to be screwing our brains out, do you?"
"Actually, I think it's the best time to be screwing our brains out," said Belle, with a shrug. "What if Destiny doesn't come back for us? You could be stuck with me for a long time, Doctor Rush." She nudged him with a grin.
He rolled his eyes, but he was smiling at her, and there was a look on his face that she hadn't seen before, almost a tenderness. He reached up to cup her face, and tilted it towards his, bending his head to kiss her. Belle was surprised, but responded eagerly, her fingers sinking into his soft hair and pulling his head down on hers. His arms went around her, pulling her into his lap, and his tongue pushed into her mouth, making her let out a tiny hum of pleasure. She slid a hand inside his jacket, running her fingertips over his chest, wanting to feel his skin, and he deepened the kiss, his stubble scratching pleasantly against her cheeks, his lips soft and moist on hers. She shifted her position, straddling him, pressing up against his groin. His hands left her waist, sliding up her body and inside her jacket, thumbs scraping over her nipples and making her gasp.
Belle pulled her mouth from his briefly to gently bite his lower lip, before sliding her tongue back inside his mouth and making him groan aloud. She cupped his face with her hands, her body undulating against his, trying to get some friction where she needed it, but her clothes were getting in the way. She could feel him though, hard against her pelvis, and wanted him inside her.
"Let me go for a second," she whispered, and pulled away, hurriedly unlacing her boots and kicking them off. Her pants followed, and she shoved her panties down her legs before turning back to him half-naked. Rush was breathing heavily, his eyes dark with want as he looked at her, and she straddled him once more, her fingers tugging at his belt as she kissed him. He helped her, his fingers unbuckling the belt and tugging open the button of his fly, and he threw his head back with a gasp as Belle reached inside, grasping his cock in her hand and pumping it firmly.
"God, Belle!" he panted, reaching for her. His hand cupped her, fingers gently parting her folds, her sweet wetness coating his fingertips as he stroked her. Belle shuddered, her mouth falling open and her tongue darting out to lick her lips. He slipped a finger inside her, making her purr with pleasure, and her grip tightened on him. He clenched his jaw.
"You need to stop that," he said, sounding a little strangled, and she smirked, pushing his hand away, lining him up and sinking down onto him in one quick movement. He let out a low growl and pulled her close against him, his arm snaking around her waist and holding her tight. Belle pushed her fingers through his hair as she began to move, her hips rocking back and forth, her lips finding his. He was moving with her, perspiration beginning to form on his upper lip despite the cool air, and she swept her the tip of her tongue across, tasting his salt, pleasure building in her loins as she rode him.
"God, Rush, that's so good!" she breathed, and he moaned, his hands sweeping up her sides to tangle in her hair as his tongue ran down the pale line of her throat. He sank his teeth into her flesh, worrying at it pleasantly, and Belle let out a tiny cry, increasing her pace.
"That's it, beautiful," he rasped, his grip tightening. "Come for me, Belle."
She threw her head back, crying out, her hips pumping against him and her fingers digging into his shoulders as she came, her face flushed and her lips full and red from his kisses. Her movements began to slow, and she braced herself against the wall behind him with her hands. Rush let himself enjoy the feel of her, the heat and wetness surrounding him and the softness of her flesh gripping him tightly, the firm roundness of her breasts filling his hands. Belle had caught her breath, and was increasing her pace again, her hands pressing against the stone behind him. She had a look of determination on her face, a somewhat unfocused expression, a hint of wildness in her eyes, and he could scarcely believe that she was there, half naked and taking her pleasure atop him.
He kissed her again, his mouth warm and wet and urgent against hers, loving the feel of her tongue stroking his. She was tilting her hips again, rubbing up against him, and he smiled, pulling back a little and slipping his thumb into his mouth. Belle watched him with eyes grown dark with desire, her mouth open as he reached down between them and began to rub against her. She let out a moan, quickening her pace, and Rush felt as though his head would explode at the sensation. He could feel it building, a wave of pleasure about to wash through him, and he let himself go, thrusting up inside her with a shout as he came hard. Belle shrieked, following him over the edge, the noise she was making almost a sob, and suddenly fell forwards against him as the wall she was leaning on disappeared with a grating sound. Rush collapsed back himself, panting for breath, dust settling on the sweat covering his face as Belle slowed to a stop and leant against his chest, breathing hard.
His hands ran slowly over her, drawing patterns on her perfect skin, and she lifted her head wearily, kissing him messily before looking behind him at the opening that had appeared.
"How about that?" she said breathlessly. "It really did mean 'left'."