Lara watched the men in front of her and tried to keep her legs from shaking. Bloody Hell, she was tired! She took a deep breath and focused. She had to fight because Daniel was still out there and he needed help.

"Lara?" Jack whispered. "I can't take much more of this."

Lara heard the exhaustion in his words. "I know how you feel. We could do with a bit of luck right now."

The Chief stood up, and spoke. This caused Lara to look sharply at him before replying. Jack could here the tiredness, irritation and anger in her tone and - not for the first time - wished he could understand what they were talking about. But he couldn't, and once again asked Lara what they were saying.

"The Chief told his men to stop." She said. "He extends his hospitality to us."

"Wasn't he just trying to kill us a few seconds ago?" Jack asked, a little confused.

"Yes."

"And now we're his guests?"

"Yes."

"Why doesn't this seem like good news?" Jack asked dryly.

Lara smiled. "Now, now. Don't be rude." She teased.

He smiled back. Then the Chief spoke again, and gestured to the ledge everyone was sitting on. "He asks us to join him." Lara said.

"Well, we might as well." Jack said, smiling. "I could do with a sit down."

* * *

The Chief watched the pair of strange warriors walk tiredly towards the ledge. He still felt surprised and shocked at the way they had fought his two best warriors - one of which was his son. They had danced around for so long before showing their true colours, and the Chief realised they hadn't wanted to hurt his son - because it would mean death for them if they had killed him.

And the Chief wasn't sure what to think about that. These strangers were obviously intelligent. They were also good fighters, as they proved in the fight - and also in the ease they had avoided his best trackers. The Chief also knew that they were more that partners of circumstance. They had fought together before and trusted each other.

The Chief smiled speculatively. They were probably lovers too. There was too much attraction between them for them not to be, and they had a certain tenderness that meant they cared for each other. They truly were worthy of defeating his son. And for that he would not kill them. They had acted with intelligence, care and honour and he could show them no less.

He would give them food, shelter and medical care, and whatever aid he could. No more than that, but no less. The Chief nodded in satisfaction. Yes, that was what he would do.

* * *

Lara glanced behind her, to see several women running towards Tyr and Alvis, cloth bags in their hands. They were soon cradling injuries and taking out bandages, and Lara smiled at the similarity between them and an emergency medical team on Earth.

Jack and Lara soon made their way to a corner of the ledge where two of the tribe were waiting for them. The man stepped forward with Lara's backpack and their weapons and beside him a woman stood with a platter of food. Lara nodded to them, and the man inclined his head in return before retreating.

Gingerly Lara sat down, and leant against the rock wall behind her and opened her pack. Jack looked at the variety of exotic fruits and breads on the rough wooden plate he was holding. He selected something that looked almost like an orangey brown pear and sniffed it. It smelt sweet and kind of like a citrus. He shrugged his shoulders before biting into it, and was delighted to find it tasted almost like a very sweet orange.

"You should try this." Jack said. "It's good."

"In a minute." Lara replied absently.

She was carefully peeling back the edges of the material of her trouser leg from around the wound on her thigh. She gasped softly as a piece of material was ripped free from where it was stuck to the wound by dried blood.

Lara then used the knife from her boot to cut the rest of her trouser leg away. Jack looked concerned when he saw the large gash on Lara's leg, which was still seeping blood. "Do you need a hand?" he asked her.

Lara looked up and gave him a small smile. "No thanks," she said.

Expertly, which only came from having done this type of thing many times before, Lara cleaned and bandaged her leg. When she was done, she stood up carefully and handed Jack a blanket. "What's this?" Jack asked, as he put the platter of food on the ground.

"A blanket." Lara said dryly. "You use it to sleep."

Jack gave her a look of annoyance mixed with dry humour. "What's it for?"

"I need to change. Hold it up for me, would you?" Lara replied.

Jack grinned and nodded, holding the blanket out so no one else could see Lara from the chest downwards. When Lara caught his grin, she shook her head. "No peeking." She said.

Sighing loudly, Jack made a big show of forcing himself to turn away, and heard Lara chuckle softly from behind him. He smiled in reply, and continued to hold the blanket until Lara had finished. When he turned around again, she was wearing a pair of very short shorts - a part of her usual tomb raiding attire Jack remembered.

"All done?" he asked.

"Yep."

Then Lara dug out something black from her backpack. "Here you go."

Jack caught the material as Lara tossed it at him, and realised it was his spare black T-shirt. Gratefully, he pulled it on and suddenly felt a lot warmer, despite the sun that was beginning to peak through the grey clouds.

Lara sat down again, and Jack joined her. Since she was ravenous, Lara grabbed some of the fruit and bread from the plate and was surprised to find it tasted like a very sweet orange. "This isn't bad." She said,

"Told you." Was all Jack said, as he munched some of the bread. "The bread's not bad either."

"Mmm." Lara agreed.

In no time at all, the plate was empty and Lara and Jack were feeling a little bit fuller. "We'd better get started." Jack said.

"What do you mean?" Lara asked.

"Well, Daniel's still out there."

"I know that, Jack." Lara said. "But we need our rest or we'll be no help to him."

"Alright, we'll stay for half an hour."

"Half an hour?" Lara said, turning to look at him. "Jack, we need sleep. We should grab a couple of hours while we can." Annoyance began to creep into Lara's tone.

Jack glared at her. "We have to find Daniel."

"Daniel's a big boy, Jack." Lara said in an angry tone. "I'm sure he can look after himself for a few more hours!"

It was probably the lack of sleep and draining couple of days they had just had, but both Lara and Jack had really short tempers. Over the course of a few sentences, their voices had risen until they were almost yelling at each other.

Jack got to his feet. "We need to find Daniel. We can rest later." He snapped.

Lara jerked herself to her feet, angrily glaring at him and ignoring the pain her abrupt standing had caused in her leg. "Jack, are you TRYING to kill yourself?" she snapped back.

"What the hell do you mean?"

"Running off, while barely being able to stand is not exactly a smart thing to do, you know!"

"Yeah, well at least Daniel will still be alive when I find him!" Jack yelled.

"Daniel can take care of himself!" Lara yelled back.

"He's an archaeologist!" Jack snapped as if that explained everything.

That made Lara even more furious. "So am I!" she yelled. "Stop being such a . . . a . . . mindless soldier and think for a minute!"

"I am thinking!"

By this point, most of the tribe was watching Lara and Jack with interest. Even though they didn't know what was being said, the argument was loud, animated and just as much an entertainment to them as the fight had been. They were a passionate people, and because of that they enjoyed a good fight - whether it was with weapons or words.

"Are you implying I'm not?" Lara continued.

"Look, Daniel's out there and . . . "

"Oh, shut up!" Lara retorted.

And then suddenly Jack was kissing her with all the frustration, annoyance and tenderness that they both felt for each other. Lara slipped her hands up his chest and felt the warm, hard flesh beneath his T-shirt. Jack hands cupped her waist and pulled her hard against him while his mouth took what he wanted - as did Lara's.

They finally broke apart minutes later, out of breath and decidedly hot under the collar. "We still need some sleep before we go after Daniel." Lara said flatly, Jack's arms still around her and her mouth inches from his.

"I know." Jack said softly. "You're right. I just can't help it."

"We'll find him Jack." Lara said.

* * *

The Chief watched the pair know standing in each others arms. He smiled, as he remembered many an argument he had had with his wife like that, before she had died. There was nothing like a good argument to stir the blood, and a good kiss to stir everything else.

The pair walked back to where they had been sitting and laid out the blanket they had brought. The Chief gestured for someone else to bring them another one, as the two warriors lay down curled in each others arms.

Authors Note: Well, what do you think? ~Cheeky.