A/N: Thank you to everyone who have followed/favorited this story, and especially everyone who have reviewed. It is wonderful to hear from you. :-D

LSLSLS

Their lips met.

It seemed neither had made the conscious decision to take this beautiful moment in time to its next logical place of significance, but joy mixed with bliss for both when they arrived there.

Their first real kiss was leisurely and slow, an exploration that held such promise.

They were both feeling the not so gradual emergence of strong arousal when a change from outside their little bubble started to bring them both somewhat back to reality.

They slowly and with obvious reluctance drew apart, their heated gazes longing to reconnect. But that would have to wait as they were promptly introduced to the reality that they were in fact not actually alone at all, as both had hoped and wished. The more viable situation for the uninterrupted continuation of the journey they were rapidly building towards that it was.

They were in fact very not alone.

They were the Captain of the ship and the savior of the human race and they had just been caught standing in a crowd of their shipboard family, making love to each other with their mouths. And quite obviously someone had seen and betrayed them. For a moment ago, all had seemed to be just as lost in their own celebrations, now all eyes were on them, and the volume of their cheering, now also direction at them, had increased ten fold.

Rachel was sure that the fact that she was still held high in the Captain's arms added great effect to the moment for all the crew. With effort she stayed strong and laughed with them all for a good moment, but soon her proper British upbringing betrayed her and she blushed heavily, hiding her face in the Captain's neck. She only blushed and laughed harder when it became obvious by the even more raucous cheering from the crowd that they liked her show of shyness even more.

Tom knew he should have felt the need to chastise himself, at allowing himself to slip so far from the proper etiquette for the Captain of a ship, and in front of his entire crew too. But try as he might be could muster nothing but pride, joy and love at this moment in time, witnesses or not. Besides, as he let his gaze travel from the brown tresses that had hidden his love's face from him, as it disappeared into his neck, he looked out on all the faces of his people, and nowhere was a jot of censor to be noted.

Far from it, unrestrained delight emanated from every face he met as his gaze traveled the crowd, their smiles broadening as he met their eyes, head held high, and smiling… for how could he possibly be ashamed of the woman in his arms or their actions together? From the unanimous approving cheers and calls emanating form all quadrants of the crowd surrounding them, his entire crew seemed to agree.

He was happy they were happy, though at this stage he wasn't sure that even their disappointment in him, something that would have affected him strongly, would have been enough to cause him to sever the beautiful new connection he and Rachel were creating between them.

Speaking of the beautiful woman in his arms, he looked down to find she had retreated from her hiding place but her head still rested gloriously on his shoulder. Their eyes met and mischief played in them. He felt his love grow as he took in her shy and yet rascal-like face. She was not running, not by a long shot. She was daring him to further action.

Oh well, his crew were grown ups, most of them anyway, and they'd already seen a lot and seemed unfazed by it, might as well commit...

With that last thought, his head dived. With his hands delectably busy holding their precious cargo, that left only his head free to seek to bring them together again. But the wildcat in his arms was no shrinking violet, despite the blush of shyness she could apparently not prevent. She met him half way and they were again joined in a glorious exploration of promise as the cheering surrounding them rose to just this side of deafening.

This kiss was more fervent than their first and quickly heated further along with the crowd's applause. The passion rose along with the pleasure, both the experienced and promised. Their mutual arousal was tangible between then and echoed in their heavy breathing the few times they did indeed briefly part in traitorous need of oxygen.

With every second that passed their well meaning audience became less and less welcome as the urge to take further, and a hell of a lot less less publically acceptable actions, grew.

Finally their albeit glorious connection became simply not enough to sake their growing ardor for each other, so before either of them lost their connection with reality and embarrassed themselves, something that was very much a danger, Tom took action.

He briefly considered addressing the crowd before making their departure, but quickly decided it was pointless and he couldn't bring himself to make the time or frankly form the words, his rational thought processes were disappearing very fast in his current state. Besides, it wasn't like anyone was going to be in doubt of where he was taking Rachel and for what purpose, no matter what he said, so why bother? A waste of all to precious time that could be used far more enjoyably.

So with a brief nod to those around him, a glance that barely withheld the lighthearted mischief he felt at doing something so unlike him or is position, he gathered the small form of the amazing woman in his arms even closer to him, turned towards the nearest hatch and made towards it with haste.

The crowd erupted in raucous laughter, cheers and catcalls. He didn't care, and this was hardly the time to give lectures about 'appropriate behavior'. It seemed the rules had been thrown out the window for tonight and he knew at least one rule that was going to stay out too. There was no way he was going to have Rachel, but have her for only one night.

No way in hell.

She was his now, just as he was hers.

With that last thought, he smiled, appreciated what a lucky son of bitch he was and took his woman home.

LSLSLS

A/N: Still can't stop apparently, working on another part…please let me know what you think of this so far. Reviews are love, and fabulous writer fuel. ;-)