Maybe the shuddering of her shivering body had jarred her brain, but Sarah felt for certain she had missed something. Somehow, Becker had not only caught her in one of her rare, most vulnerable moments, but he had coaxed her into confessing her troubles with nothing more than a few softly spoken words and a concerned look. If he had smiled at her, she would've agreed to anything. God forbid he ever realized that.

OH! It was so, so cold. Was she dead? Couldn't be...death would be a sweet, sweet release from this horrible discomfort. She wasn't a masochist, but at least with agonizing pain, one was likely to pass out sooner rather than later. The cold just ate away at your nerves and soul. The calming, numb relief of hypothermia would've been a blessing compared to this perpetual chill.

It seemed like forever between when she heard the footsteps crunching on the snow and when the handsome soldier reappeared, torch in hand, and an all-too-coy smile upon his lips. The tent was quickly sealed behind him before he began to slip off his boots and parka.

"What are you doing?" Sarah asked warily, because it sort of looked like he was-

"Make room," he ordered. She grabbed the slide as he leaned down to claim it, denying him access while keeping herself safely inside. She just didn't have the willpower to tolerate such plutonic intimacy that appeared imminent.

"C'mon, Sarah," he pleaded, thankfully without all his charm that would surely have done her in. "I know there's room. All that space is one of the reasons why you're not warming up as you should be. I can fill it."

"Lester would definitely refer to this as 'inappropriate behaviour for the work environment'," she deflected her own hesitancy at being so familiar with the man.

"Don't think of me as a coworker," he argued. "Think of me as giant hot water bottle...one that is rapidly cooling, might I add."

Considering how much heat a man of his size and metabolism likely emitted was rather tempting, but "Shouldn't you be on watch or patrol or something?"

"Just switched off," he shot down her second deflection.

And then he smiled that accursed little boy grin that melted her insides. Its power was not reduced by the sub-par lighting.

She let him in, but for the sake of her own sanity couldn't allow him to get away with such manipulation so easily. Taking him by surprise, he was unable to suppress a yelp as she snuck her icy fingers under his shirt and pressed them to the hot skin along his spine. Satisfied, she snuggled into his comforting warmth, no longer caring about the impropriety of the situation.