A/N: Just a brief note on the way Australian people from the country do tend to speak, this is not a generalisation but speaking from my own experience (I grew up in the country although I now live in the city). Despite the transition to metric in Australia, quite a few country people tend to still use the term "mile" instead of kilometre, although they could be quite easily referring to a kilometre and not an actual mile. Likewise, no matter how many of them you've got, it's always singular "mile" not "miles." Just like it's always "math" and not "maths."

There's a lot of dialogue, actually, more monologue, in this chapter. If it doesn't always make sense, don't worry – it's not really meant to. It's more meant to convey how frantic and a little messed up Jack's head is at this particular moment.

Chapter 10

There was a spot just behind the obstacle course which perched over the sharp fall down to the snipers range. It was surrounded by trees and almost totally obscured from any sightline, yet from it, you could see out over almost all the Washington skyline. Schofield was sure he wasn't the only marine who had ever come here to think.

Currently, the only thought running through his mind was:

..fuck.

He'd been sitting there for nearly an hour now and it was starting to get cold. Beside him, the little chess box was balanced on a small rock.

Suddenly, his thoughts – if one could call them that – were disturbed by a crunching noise coming from behind him. He'd done enough tracking to recognise the sound of a foot falling on a stick and he was instantly set on alert. There were only a couple of people who knew he liked to come here and only one who, currently, knew why he had taken off.

He spun around as someone else entered the small clearing. Of the two possible options, it was the third and worst who was there. He turned back and deliberately didn't look at him.

"How the hell did you find me?" He asked Jack emphatically.

"Mother told me about this place," he replied, looking around slightly amazed. "It's beautiful."

Without looking back, he heard Jack take a couple of cautious steps towards him, so he spoke up in the hope that he'd take the hint and leave him well alone.
"Don't think your girlfriend would approve of this."

"What girlfriend?" A note of confusion was clear in his voice.

"The one back at your home at 3am with Jack Jr.," he said, not entirely successful in disguising a hint of bitterness.

He was surprised then, when Jack laughed loudly and dropped down to sit beside him with his legs crossed. "Joe," he said pointedly, "is my nephew and his mother, last time I checked, was my sister. Now, I might be from the country but we don't do that."

Surprise and embarrassment mingled across Shane's face as he looked up suddenly at Jack.
"Oh," he said.

"The phone call -" Jack began.

Shane nodded.

"And you thought -"

Kept on nodding, absent-mindedly chewing on his bottom lip.

"Oh," and then he laughed, full and rich, throwing his head back which in turn, provoked a small smile from Schofield.

He nudged him gently in the ribs, saying teasingly, "Jealous much?"

"Shut up," he replied bashfully but with a playful bite.

There were a few moments of slightly awkward silence that Schofield just didn't know how to fill.
After all, last time he'd initiated conversation – if that was the right word for it – between them, it hadn't turned out all that well and was the reason for their current predicament.

Not that he was particularly complaining. His treacherous body was happy, almost relaxed, to be with Jack, almost a little too close, in one of his favourite spots.

Jack, as usual, saved him from having to say anything.

"I knew," he said, breaking the tension and Schofield felt his heart stop. If this whole stupid conversation had all been for nothing then something was going to get broken.

"That you're gay," he qualified, when he caught Schofield's shocked expression.

"You said the corp didn't-" he began, but Jack cut him off.

"They didn't, I wasn't lying to you."

"Has someone written it on my back again?" He was only half joking.

"Mother told me," Jack replied, "Maybe my second day here. I think the idea was to explain that you weren't normally as much of a jerk as you were acting; that you'd had a real shit of a time and probably needed to take it out on someone."
Schofield snuffed a laugh and bowed his head. It was true, he couldn't deny it.
"Anyway," Jack pressed on, "Ever since then, I've been meaning to talk to you about something."

Shane perked up just a little, perhaps there was a glimmer of hope in that statement, even if he was a fool to think it.

"-About my childhood, where I come from-"

A fool he was then.

If Jack caught the way that Schofield's shoulders deflated a little, then he didn't say anything about it.

"Where I come from," he repeated, "is a tiny little backwater town beyond the middle of nowhere. I lived on a cattle ranch and the nearest neighbour from there lived nigh on fifty mile away. The main street looked exactly the same as the other road but it was called that because it was the one with the pub on it. It was a real rough and tumble little town with real 'traditional values.' Being gay there, it's not allowed."

He stopped and turned to look at Shane, who was trying to make himself as small as possible.

"You've got to follow the rules there, so I did everything they wanted me to. Learnt to drive a tractor before I could walk, didn't finish school cause my future lay on the family farm anyway, fucked the only girl in town my age on the back seat of the truck. If I'd have given them the chance, I'm sure we would've been married with a couple of kids by now. Her dad was talking to my dad at least, and I didn't think I'd have a lot of say in the matter.

It was suffocating; it freaked me out; and I convinced myself it was her, that she was just wrong for me. So I told my parents I had bigger dreams than this and off I went to sign up for the army. They were mighty thrilled. They had two other sons to help round the farm and one off fighting for the country, what more did any parents want.

Only, it wasn't enough either. I got to Duntroon in the great city of Canberra and I had my uniform, and my pride and my escape, but still no girl I wanted to take back to meet my mum.
Maybe I should've had an inkling then but instead, I just threw myself into being as good a soldier as I could be, so I didn't disappoint her too much."

He paused and took a deep breath, as though building up to something.

"The offer to join Special Forces came soon after and I decided I was too busy for a relationship anyway. That none of them were quite right for me. I was a great soldier and I didn't need anything else.

Then, this came up and I was flying halfway across the world in the hope that somewhere out there I'd find that damn elusive girl that was right. Only, when I get here, and Mother's telling me about you and everybody's telling me about you and I'm realising what a major mistake I've made coming here, trying to escape only to land myself right back in it."

Schofield, listening in stunned silence, noticed his breathing had sped up, almost to the point of hyperventilation, so he placed one cautious hand on his back to try calm him.

It didn't seem to help as the other man's voice was raised when he spoke again.

"And damn you," he said, "damn you if between breakfast and chess and you being a fucking idiot I didn't go and fall in love with you."

He stopped suddenly, as if he wasn't sure of what he'd said. For that matter, neither was Shane.

All he was aware of was that they were very close, too close even. That he already had one hand on Jack's back and that one of Jack's hands was coming up to cup his face and slide through his hair, the touch almost reverent.

Their faces were suddenly brought so close in one simultaneous movement but stopped jarringly, the hand in his hair was still, and Jack's eyes were so incredibly blue.

"You know," he said and Schofield felt the words ghost over his face, against his lips, "You're a good listener. Most people would've told me to shut up and kiss them a long time ago."

"Shut up and kiss me," he replied.

When their lips finally crashed together, it was like nothing he'd ever experienced before; rough and distinctly unfeminine. His face burned where stubble was irritating it. He could feel the chaps on his lips as he ran his tongue across them. Cautiously, curiously, he sank his teeth into that lip. Felt them open, felt the moan leak into his own mouth. He slipped his tongue inside the warm cavity and plundered it, tangling with another incessantly strong tongue pushing back against him. Teeth clashed with teeth. Someone moaned again and it could have very well been him, he didn't really care anymore.

Neither one was quite sure how or when, but they somehow pulled themselves together, closing the distance between their bodies, awkwardly half sitting, half kneeling. It's a position they couldn't hold however and they're not sure which one, but one of them, slid over a slightly and knocked over the little chess box with a crash that was loud enough to startle them both back to reality.

"Stop," Shane managed to stutter out, "We've got to stop."

The majority of his body and brain seemed to disagree with him however as he leaned in to steal another quick kiss in between words. It was far more effective when he succeeded in squeezing an arm between their bodies and physically forced them apart. With his hand on Jack's shirt, pushing him away but still hanging on tightly to the fabric, he brought his forehead to rest against Jack's, savouring the contact.

"You do understand the irony of this situation, don't you?" He asked quietly.

Jack groaned at him a little, before dropping to the grass and reclining on his elbows.
"You really want to talk right now?" He asked with a roguish smirk.

"Yes," Shane replied, trying to act indignant but giving himself away by laughing when Jack grabbed his collar and pulled him down to the ground beside him.
"Or, at least, a little," he modified.

"Fine," Jack said, humouring him. "Yes, it is very funny that they threw you out because you're gay and replaced you with me. It's even funnier that we're kissing on their base. Now, can I continue?"

He wasn't really asking permission as he'd already begun to run his hands slowly up Schofield's torso, feeling each ridge of defined muscle through the thin cotton t-shirt.

Shane agreed entirely, there would be plenty of time to talk later.

When he kissed him again, it was everything the first one wasn't. Soft and careful discovery. They tasted every crevice of each other's mouths and explored the lines of their bodies with surprising tenderness. Shane was particularly delighted to find out that Jack was seriously ticklish on his sides. By running his fingers up and down them with only the slightest pressure he managed to reduce him to a suitably quivering mass and managed to steal his mouth back for a couple of seconds to ask, "What on earth happens now."

Slapping at the hands still teasing him and trying to recover his breath, Jack answered, "I'm no expert but I do believe this is the happily ever after part."

"You're an optimist," Shane retorted as Jack leant down to attack a particularly sensitive spot where Shane's collarbone met the edge of his neck, successfully distracting him. The hands attempting to push him off were at complete odds to the way he had tilted his neck, allowing him better access.
"You had better not leave any difficult to explain bruises."

Schofield slapped him across the shoulder as he felt teeth sink in to that spot anyway. No matter how good it felt, it would not be worth it tomorrow if Sanchez, Mother or heaven forbid Rebound saw it.

Jack stopped and leaned up on his elbows again to look at him. Shane took advantage of the momentary lapse, saying, "It was a serious question."

Jack pressed a swift kiss to his lips before rolling off him and standing up, brushing grass off his pants. Without his warm weight, Schofield immediately felt the night's chill. He accepted the offered hand and let Jack haul him up.

"I believe," he said as he brushed a couple of blades of grass out of Schofield's hair, "that generally the next step – or perhaps more often the previous step – is for me to buy you dinner, we decide if this works and if it does, then it's on to the happily ever after."

"Hey," Shane stopped short, playfully indignant, "Why do you get to buy me dinner?"

"Because," Jack retorted, swing am arm across Schofield's shoulders and bringing them close again, "I'm taller than you."

It was true. The extra two inches Jack had on him made Shane fit just about perfectly under his arm.

Where naturally, he dug his fingers into the newly discovered ticklish spot.

"We should go back," he said reluctantly.

One final, hurried kiss and they let go. They allowed their shoulders to brush against each other as they began to walk back to the barracks but as soon as they were within sight of any buildings on the base at all that might potentially contain someone who might see, there was a distinct foot between them. Just in case.

But then again, if someone was only to look closely, they would only need to see the flush in their cheeks, their ruffled hair and the look in their eyes to know exactly what had gone on between them tonight.