Karl watched her wrap her long arms around him and a wave of jealousy consumed him. He sat back on his haunches, his jaw tightening, barely able to avoid the subconscious shake of his head as he observed them. With Sharon's back to him, her arms tight around the Chief, Helo was almost positive he could see her smile. Not the smile she'd shown him the minute she'd landed back on Caprica. Not the smile she'd shared when they'd holed up in the bunker and he'd let her sleep another hour in the hammock. Not the smile that parted her lips right before they'd made love. This was a smile that she'd only shared with Tyrol back on The Galactica.

Helo's jaw flexed as Sharon held her embrace a little too long; this was his Sharon. His turn! Bile and envy rose inside of him at an unprecedented rate. It took everything he had not to get up from the ground, pull her to his side and make her remember what they had shared. But Helo wouldn't do it. He wouldn't mark her that way. Not in front of the entire frakking crew. No. That would have to wait.

The sun had set and the heat had slightly dissipated. The evening sounds of small talk began to drown out by the steady humming of insects in the trees. Helo sat next to Sharon, the two of them splitting a days rations – warmed beans and protein bars. The silver wrappers shimmered in the clear moonlight, unabated by the surrounding cover.

It was Kara that had suggested they each take turns bathing in the small lake not more than a klick away. They had waited for everyone else to finish up, and while Helo was sure no one was going to trust him alone with the Cylon, the events of earlier had seemed to bring about a strained calm.

Helo pushed up from the ground, reaching down to take Sharon's hand and pull her with him.

"Easy there Mister," she said with a smile, his smile… the one she only used with him. Helo's eyes narrowed, memorizing the blueprint of her mouth. His look grew so deep, Sharon so impossibly aware of his savoring her that he was able to watch the blush creep across her cheeks and down her neck before it disappeared beneath her flight suit.

They were both aware of Tyrol following them, his steady footfalls a meter or two behind. Helo didn't care. When they were near enough to the clearing his fingers began to work at Sharon's suit, carefully sliding the zipper down before stripping the shoulders over her arms.

Cylon or not, her body responded just as he'd always imagined it would and the sweat that lingered on her skin was cool to the touch. His fingers traced the abandoned path where the material had fallen away and she responded, shivering underneath the contact.

"What are you doing?" she whispered, but he didn't answer – at least not with words. His fingers sought the wringing wet tees that molded to her breasts, stripping them up over her head before tossing them to the ground. They landed heavily, but Helo's eyes were focused on nothing but Sharon Valerii.

A slow masculine smile crept across Helo's lips. Gently and with only the tips of his two fingers, he lazily circled the areola of her breast, enjoying her sudden and stilted breathing and her willingness to let him touch her, to seduce her.

With gradual finesse his fingers abandoned the tiny, tight buds of her nipples, cupping her breasts in both his hands just to feel their weight. Just beneath them and slightly lower his child was growing inside of her. His child… not Tyrol's; the product of his love for her, and even though she'd told him she was never what he'd thought she'd been, somewhere deep inside him he understood that she was everything he'd hoped.

All of these thoughts were born out of love and desperation; need, want and pure yearning, as Karl's hands slid past her ribs and clutched her possessively. "Mine," he whispered huskily.

She barely thought she'd heard him, but that didn't matter as he worked the flight suit lower, pulling with it the last vestiges of clothing that still covered her. Stepping forward he put his foot down over the pool of material at her feet and literally pulled her from it.

"Mine!" This time it was louder, rougher. This time she heard him. Once more his words echoed into the distance and Boomer was positive this was meant for the Chief, but before she had any chance to answer him his mouth was on her. His tongue was prying her lips apart and searching out the indescribable taste that was only hers.

Boomer moaned, feeling it carry across his skin. It was good, what she wanted, more like what she'd needed. His hands grabbing against her, flexing, releasing, prying her to form herself against him in whatever ways he desired. She was naked and gasping and Helo was relentless as he carefully lowered her to the ground. His arm fell behind her neck, cradling her with an unimaginable grace she'd only ever witnessed in him. He was an incredible specimen, if she stopped to think like that. Agile, gentle, hardened like a warrior, but frail in his humanity.

She wasn't thinking about any of that though. She could process a thousand things at once, but living felt so much better when she did it like they did – focusing on sensations, one at a time. Helo's mouth as it ate passionately at hers, his fingers sliding through silky fluid between her thighs, his hard length rapidly stroking her hip.

And just as lithe as he was agile, his flight suit disappeared. No more barriers separated their flesh. Nothing more was necessary as he drove between her thighs, her legs wrapping around his muscle-hardened ass. Boomer's fingernails dug into Helo's back, her eyes rolled shut and squeezed tight against the pressure when he entered.

"Mine," he groaned low, followed by a soft and shaky pant. "Say it," he shuddered.

"Yours," she whimpered quietly, far too soft-spoken for all his yearning.

"Say… it…" he ground out through clenched teeth, fucking himself up inside her quivering body. "Now!" By all the Gods of every system in the entire Universe it was a command that ripped right to the very center of her. His body thrummed violently, raggedly bending over hers, trying to find a way to fuse them together in lust and love.

"Yours!" she croaked, emotion welling and orgasm following. "Yours, Helo. Oh God, Helo. Yours."

Sharon Valerii came apart into a thousand brightly colored filaments of … whatever she was. In that moment her body and her mind were all women, were his woman; loved, needed, and held high within the heavens where pleasure surpassed all pain. And Helo's body still throbbed inside her, slowly breaking down her resistance for yet another pass beyond the threshold.

His arms began to shake as he held himself above her and looked down into her eyes. The moon was still the perfect oracle to see her by. She'd given into what he'd longed for; she'd told the world that she was his. In her eyes he saw their future and one last need – Sharon's need for him to let go.
"I love you," he whispered, his lips closing in on hers, romancing his love for her carefully across her soul. "I love you…"

She shook beneath him with his admission and as his hips rolled once more, his voice broke, his body ruptured, and he emptied every feeling within his version of forever.

When he fell forward, trembling and out of breath, Sharon simply held him. She knew that soon he'd gather her up and that they'd bathe under the moonlight; that he'd caress her tummy and bend at the waist to kiss the place his child grew. But she couldn't help but wonder, even though she loved Helo beyond words, if Tyrol sat somewhere in the darkness, tears glistening in his eyes.