Let the Games Begin
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Author's Note: Apparently several of my readers thought Becker would be rushing to confront Matt, and yes, that would've been a way to get rid of SOME of his frustrations; however, I decided to have him address his OTHER frustrations first! Hopefully you'll enjoy it! And I promise, you will find out what's going on with Matt (though with their jobs, you never know what might interrupt their best laid plans, so yeah, it won't be for a few more chapters!)
Also, I started posting this story exactly three months ago! 25 chapters in three months is pretty good, yeah? And I'm currently in the middle of the first draft of chapter 46 (and there's still several exciting things yet to happen that I haven't even gotten to yet!), so barring catastrophe, I'm hoping to continue to post chapters approximately every 3 or 4 days. :) Hope you continue to enjoy!
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Chapter 25 - RECLUSIVE ROLE-PLAYING
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Jess could hear Becker storming about in the dining room all evening, but she dared not go check up on him. She knew he was angry about Matt - and about their failed date - so she figured it was probably best just to leave him be, to work out his anger issues in private, even it if made things a bit uncomfortable for her and the others.
Of course, that wasn't the only thing making them uncomfortable. And the moment Emily went upstairs to use the toilet during half-time, Jess was pounced upon for answers.
"What the hell's going on?" Abby asked, and the others leant in anxiously to hear her response.
Jess wasn't sure what to say. She didn't want to betray any of Emily's confidences, but obviously she needed to give some sort of explanation. "Well, apparently Matt's been keeping something from the rest of us, something about the anomalies."
"What?" Lester asked, instantly worried.
Jess shook her head. "We don't know. But whatever it is, he said...some unkind things to Emily this evening which rather upset her, so she ended up coming to dinner with us."
Abby gave a knowing nod. "So that explains why Becker's in a temper."
"Well yes, that, but I think he's quite upset with Matt as well. Hopefully tomorrow we can-"
"Hey, did you hear we took a gold medal in Rowing today?" Connor quickly blurted out, and Jess realised Emily must've come back downstairs.
"A gold?" Jess repeated.
As Emily rejoined the others, she asked, "Which event?"
Connor shrugged. "Not sure. But I think we won a bronze, too."
Jess smiled, relieved not to be discussing the awkwardness anymore. "I'll have a look at the medal table," she said, flashing Connor a grateful smile, but he'd already turned back to the match.
After watching Uruguay beat Team GB in Men's Football, Jess realised just how emotionally exhausted she was. She made her excuses and hurried upstairs to get ready for bed. Changing into her pyjamas, she sensed something was different in her room, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it. Deciding it was nothing, she went to the toilet and brushed her teeth. When finished, she opened the door and was surprised to find Becker standing in the corridor, wearing only his pyjama bottoms, obviously ready for bed himself.
"Come with me," he said, taking her hand and leading her down the stairs. He took her into the dining room and gestured past the boxes stacked high atop the table, saying, "So what do you think?"
But Jess was thoroughly confused. "About what?" she asked. About Matt? About Emily? About his strange, anti-social behaviour all evening?
He sighed, gesturing again. "About...?" But he stopped, frowning, before mumbling to himself, "Oh, no wonder."
And then suddenly, without warning, he squatted down, pulling her down with him, causing Jess to emit a squeak of surprise. Once again he gestured, asking, "So what do you think?"
Now at the proper level, Jess finally understood the question. Instead of being cluttered with moving boxes, the floor beneath the table had been cleared away, replaced instead with a bed-like nest of pillows and blankets, topped by her grandmother's quilt - so that's what had been missing from her bedroom.
As she had not yet responded, Becker was clearly starting to get nervous. "I just thought... I mean, since we never got our kip yesterday nor our date tonight, I thought we could... But if you don't want to..."
Falling asleep in Becker's arms would be the perfect way to redeem this evening. "No, I want to," she said, smiling as she leant over to give him a kiss. Unfortunately, she wasn't very stable in her crouched position and lost her balance, falling against him and toppling them both to the ground.
"Sorry," she said, trying to extract herself from the tangle of limbs they'd created.
"I'm not," he said, pulling her close for a kiss.
When they came up for air, she teased, "Before we go any further, perhaps we should move onto the bed...since you did go to all this trouble."
He smiled and reached over to pull back the covers. As she crawled under the table, she realised there was something soft beneath the sheets, and she pulled them back to reveal his sleeping bag, unzipped and folded out to provide a cushion from the hard floor.
She rolled over to face him, ready to compliment him on his preparedness, when he caught her in another kiss. She kissed back, but something wasn't...
Becker pulled back. "You want to switch sides, don't you?"
Jess laughed. "Am I that predictable?"
Becker nodded, smiling. "At least it's easily fixed."
She nodded and began to ungracefully crawl over him to get to his other side. However, mid-straddle, Becker pulled her down to his chest, kissing her passionately.
When they separated, she smiled down at the handsome soldier...and realised that the dining room light was still on. "If we're going to actually get any sleep, I should probably turn the light off, yeah? So we don't have to...you know...get up later."
Becker raised an amused eyebrow, as if to remind her that he was already "up", as it were, and she blushed, quickly sitting up from where she was still astride him and promptly hitting her head on the tabletop.
"Careful!" He attempted to pull her back down to him, suggesting, "Let me kiss it and make it better."
She laughed. "Not until I get the light."
She very carefully crawled off of Becker and over to the edge of the makeshift bed, putting a precautionary hand upon the tabletop as she stood to ensure she didn't injure herself again. She made her way along the narrow path between the boxes and the table to the far wall and turned off the switch. Luckily there was still a faint light from the front room reflecting down over the stacks of boxes so Jess could see enough to make her way back to the bed. Crawling in next to Becker, he put his arms around her and pulled her close.
After a quick kiss, he stated, "I have a question for you."
"What's the capital of Uruguay?" she joked.
Becker rolled his eyes. "What's your opinion on...um... role-playing?"
"Role-playing?" Jess repeated nervously - she somehow didn't think he was referring to D&D.
She saw him nod in the dim light. "Since we didn't get our real date tonight, I thought we could...you know...pretend."
Jess breathed a sigh of relief. "I'm game," she agreed.
"Good." In the darkness, Jess could barely see him smile as he asked, "So, what took you so long?"
"What took me so...?" she began before realising he was referring to her being late to the restaurant. "Oh, right. Um...sorry, I just got busy with work stuff."
Becker nodded, giving her a quick peck before indicating, "I ordered us some wine."
"SOME?" she teased, thinking back to the excessive amounts of alcohol he and Emily had managed to imbibe tonight. However, she quickly amended, "I mean, wine sounds lovely."
"So...um...let's see...," Becker stammered, clearly trying to think of something to say. "Uh...how's your chocolate souffle?"
"Souffle? Don't we get dinner first?"
Becker shook his head. "To hell with dinner - I want to get to the cinema."
Jess laughed. "Then the souffle's lovely, thanks - would you like a bite?"
Becker frowned. "You didn't offer me a bite tonight," he complained.
"Because I didn't think I'd be snogging you," she replied honestly. "Besides, it's far easier to share an imaginary souffle than a real one."
Becker shook his head and gave her a kiss. Instead of souffle, he tasted of toothpaste, with a hint of wine, but she didn't mind.
"All right," he said, "so now we're at the cinema. Back row centre - perfect, yeah?"
"Actually, can you move over one? My armrest is broken."
"Jess! What the hell?"
"It's supposed to feel real, yeah? And I always seem to get broken seats at the cinema."
"Fine," Becker said, clearly annoyed as he pretended to adjust. "Better?"
"Awfully, thanks." She gave him a kiss. "So how soon until the film starts?"
As if in answer to the question, they were suddenly enveloped in total darkness as the light in the front room was extinguished.
"Perfect timing," Becker laughed, and although she now couldn't see him at all, Jess felt his breath on her face as he leant in to kiss her.
However, Jess pulled away. "What adverts are playing?"
"Jessica..." Had her eyes already adjusted to the darkness, she surely would've seen an eyeroll.
However, she was quick to defend herself. "Hey, I have to have details, yeah?"
"Fine. It's all the Olympic sponsors."
"First Coca Cola then." Jess kissed Becker, imagining the Coke advert playing as they sat in the back row, snuggled up together.
When they came up for air, she said, "McDonalds would probably be next, yeah?"
"Whatever," Becker said, obviously not as fixated on the details as she. Not that that made his kisses any less intense.
After hearing the whistled McDonalds theme song in her head, Jess pulled away, trying to think of another advert.
Becker must've noticed her struggling for he helpfully sang in her ear, "Let's get it on."
The condom advert from the other night suddenly popped into her head, and she was grateful for the darkness for she could feel her cheeks warming. "I think that's enough adverts," she quickly said. "Now it's time for the trailers. Let's see - Les Mis perhaps?" Becker sighed, and she quickly amended, "Only with you in Hugh Jackman's role, of course."
He kissed her passionately, making all thoughts of the talented Australian actor flee her mind.
All thoughts but one, that is.
"Except...maybe without your singing," she teased, remembering his attempt at the condom advert.
"Well, if you're going to be like that," he said, his hand starting to move around towards her stomach.
"No, I didn't mean it!" she frantically insisted, grabbing his hand to prevent him from tickling her. "You can sing all you want! Really! I won't stop you!"
"Actually," he began, starting to trail kisses down her neck, "my lips...," kiss, "...are otherwise occupied...," kiss, "...at present."
Jess closed her eyes, letting herself simply feel for a moment, before returning briefly to their role playing.
"And now," she began as she felt him slowly making his way back up towards her mouth, "our feature presentation."
...
Becker was underwater, in the dark, and the creature was attacking. Several tentacles were already entwined about his legs, and another reached out, ripping free his regulator. Becker struggled, thrashing and kicking, trying to extricate himself from the creature's grasp, but it continued to pull him down, deeper and deeper, farther and farther away from the shimmering lights of rescue. Even if he were to get free now, he'd never be able to make it to the surface in time. Finally, unable to hold his breath any longer, Becker gasped, his lungs filling with water...
And he awoke in a cold sweat. Or more like a warm sweat, for he felt as if a furnace were pressing against his chest. He inhaled several deep breaths, trying to slow his racing heart, and was almost relaxed, almost awake, when his still disorientated brain reminded himself that his legs remained entangled with the creature. With another surge of adrenaline, he automatically kicked, trying to free himself from the vile limbs. However, instead of escaping, his legs seemed to become more entwined, caught up in some sort of fabric as well, as the furnace squeezed his hand and gave a quiet moan of displeasure.
Jess.
Becker gave a sigh of relief as he awoke fully, remembering where he was, who was in his arms, and how exactly they'd gotten to be so entwined. He smiled, thinking about their "role-playing" and wondering if they might do more of the same tonight. And even though they'd slept together, they hadn't "slept together", but Becker wasn't complaining.
Although he had hoped for a bit more skin-on-skin contact.
"Becker, there's no door," Jess had insisted. "I'm not taking my shirt off."
"Why not? Mine's off," he'd teased. "Besides, everyone else is asleep," he'd continued, hoping to persuade her. "No one's going to walk in on us."
"Well, yes, they're asleep NOW."
"Oh, that's right," Becker had teased. "I forgot - you're a screamer."
Jess had swatted him, not even addressing his comment but instead insisting that any of their flatmates might have a bad dream at any moment, and she didn't want her "naked chest to cause them any further nightmares". Becker had countered, suggesting that breasts that felt this good would surely only inspire happy dreams, but she'd refused to give in. However, she hadn't objected to him exploring under her pyjama top, although she'd made him promise not to go near her stomach, and since he was eager not to awaken the others, he'd agreed.
And now here they lay, entwined together in the dim morning light. He gave a sigh of contentment and gently kissed her hair as she slept in his arms.
Or so he thought...which is why he jumped when she spoke.
"Did you just kick me?" she mumbled groggily.
"No," he said, shaking his head. "Must've dreamt it."
"Liar."
Becker smiled, having known he wouldn't be able to get away with it. "Say that to my face," he challenged.
Jess laughed and rolled over. "Li-" she began, but he stopped her with a kiss. It wasn't as heated as the ones last night, but it was a nice way to wake up.
But when Jess pulled away, she was full of apologies. "Sorry - morning breath."
Becker shook his head. "I didn't even notice," he said, leaning back in to kiss her again.
"I didn't mean me," she said with a grin.
"Oh, well, I see how it's going to be," he said, starting to roll away from her.
"I'm kidding," she insisted, and he turned back to her with another kiss.
As their lips parted, he gave her a tender smile. "You know," he began, "I think I figured out your problem." Jess frowned, and he quickly went on, "I mean, why you get so cold when you sleep."
"Oh yes?"
Becker nodded. "Because you generate heat like a furnace, leaving no heat for yourself. Whereas I, on the other hand, am DYING here." He threw back the quilt, allowing refreshingly cool air to rush over him...as Jess shivered and snuggled even closer.
"Now THERE you are!"
Becker jumped as Abby's head suddenly peered under the table.
"You do know how late it is, right?" she asked with a knowing look.
Becker quickly looked at his watch and gave a frustrated sigh. "Dammit!" He'd once again forgotten to reset his alarm.
"I'm late? Again?" Jess sat up quickly, crashing her head into the tabletop.
"Careful!" Becker said, reaching over to give her a comforting pat.
"I don't have time to be careful," she insisted as she frantically scooted out from under the table, hopped to her feet, and bolted out of the room.
"Oh, hey, Jess," Becker heard Connor greet before Jess could be heard scampering up towards her bedroom.
Becker got up as well, and Connor seemed surprised when the soldier emerged from behind the wall of boxes. "Wait, was you in there all night?"
Becker merely nodded, heading for his kit in the far corner of the front room.
"So I was the only one sleeping out here last night?" Connor asked as he realised the implications. "Abby, we could've slept together."
"We'll discuss it in the car," Abby said, shooing him towards the stairs. She then popped her head back around the corner, letting Becker know, "FYI, Emily's riding in with us."
Unfortunately this was just the cold shower he needed. The mere mention of Emily's name instantly brought back the unpleasant memories of what she'd told them last night...and a reminder of what he must do this morning.
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to be continued