Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters from Earth 2.

Summary: Bess has some ruminations of her own.

Waterfall–Chapter 2

Not until later that night, when Morgan had rolled off her and gone to sleep, did Bess allow herself to think about him, stepping into the firelight, big and solid and safe. Danziger. John. In her own mind she could call him that; she just had to watch herself in public. They weren't on a first-name basis. She'd been physically attracted to him since the first time she'd seen him aboard the ship, but the attraction was something she had shrugged off. She loved Morgan. She was loyal to Morgan. Trouble was, it wouldn't go away. And the more she saw of him, the stronger it got. The safest thing to do was avoid him, but she found that impossible since True had taken such a liking to her. Understandable, since she had been the only one who believed the girl when Julia had been uncovered as a traitor, so True had imprinted on her as someone worthy of trust. It flattered her, and she couldn't deny she loved the little girl. Due to the pollution and radiation on earth, Bess would never have children of her own, so her makeshift mothering of Danziger's daughter was all she could hope for. And she could hope for nothing at all from him. Bess accepted that and tried to push him out of her mind as she went to sleep.

She lay on her stomach in the bed, cheek pillowed on the back of her hand. Morgan had risen earlier, telling her to get a couple more hours sleep, but she found it impossible to doze off again, so she hovered in a limbo between sleep and waking. Bess heard motion in the room and a smile curved her lips. He had slipped back into their quarters to make love before the entire encampment woke up for the day. Her smile broadened when she felt his hands on her body, pushing the sheet down until he bared her entire torso. Then his hands dug into her back, into the soreness work had left into her muscles, and began kneading. She couldn't suppress a moan of mingled pleasure and pain. His touch gentled a little then, but kept working on her back for minutes until the muscles were limber again. It surprised her a little, because Morgan wasn't a man who spent a lot of time on foreplay, but maybe coming to New Pacifica had changed him somehow, made him more aware that they were all the other one had. Maybe she was more important to him now. She knew beyond doubt that he did love her, but he displayed affection as seldom as he spent time on touching her before sex. It hurt her a little, but it was just his way.

When Bess tried to roll over, he held her down with a hand between her shoulder blades and swept her hair off her back, baring the nape of her neck. An instant later she felt his mouth there, hot and demanding, his tongue against her skin. She groaned as she felt his weight cover her, his body hard with need but not crushing her. He must have kicked the sheet down, because nothing separated their bodies. They rolled over until she was lying on her side, his arm wrapped loosely around her waist as the other one explored her flesh. Bess let her head fall back onto his shoulder as his fingertips moved lightly over her breast, hesitating as her nipple hardened under his touch, circling its pebbly surface as she moaned and arched into his hand. His other hand moved across the sensitive skin of her stomach and lower as he dropped kisses over her shoulder. Arousal spiked higher in her and she moaned, "Morgan."

"I'm not Morgan," he replied. Instantly Bess recognized the voice.

A gasp escaped her and she tried to pull away. His arm held her fast, forcing her to remain pressed tight to him, feeling his hardness rubbing against her. "Danziger, what are you doing?"

"John." His breath warmed her neck and she shivered. "I want to hear you call me John. You know how long I've been waiting for that?"

Even while he spoke his free hand kept moving between her legs, driving the fire there higher and higher. Oh, God, it had never been like this with Morgan, never this heat and need. The disloyal thought faded as she dug her nails into the arm around her waist. Bess didn't know if it was an attack or an embrace. He groaned and sank his teeth into her shoulder, sucking hard enough to bruise her, and his loss of control broke her resistance. "John, John," she moaned.

"That's it," he whispered. "You like it?"

Bess was beyond lying. "Yes. Please don't stop." If only the real world didn't exist...

"I won't." Her body squirmed under his ministrations, moving helplessly. John held her still as much as he could and she felt him moving her ass against his stiff cock. "None of this has to end, Bess. This can be more real than the real."

Desire spiraled through her until she lost herself in it. Nothing existed but her flesh and his. His name left her lips in strangled gasps as she felt herself closing in on ecstasy. A few more moments, just a few more moments, and she'd be there. He'd take her there.

"Want that, Bess? Do you want this to be real?"

"Yes!" She screamed as the pleasure burst over her, pulsing through every pore, and through a haze she felt him climax, the heat of his come spurting over her back. I want this, I want this...

The convulsions of orgasm jolted her awake. Raising herself one on elbow, she looked around. Darkness still shrouded the camp and Morgan still slept the sleep of the ignorant beside her. Bess tried to get her breathing back to normal as she fought the drugged bliss of afterglow. What had that been? What in the hell had that been? A dream, clearly, but she had never had a dream like that before. Sex dreams, yes, even rare orgasms in dreams, but nothing like this. She lay back and reconstructed it in her mind. What made it different was its absolute realism. Textures had been just as real in the dream as the blanket which touched her skin, Danziger's body as warm and there as her husband's was now. For every moment she was dreaming, she had believed absolutely in its reality as she believed in the reality of herself lying in bed beside Morgan, pondering this experience. Of course she couldn't talk this over with him. He would take it as a tremendous blow to his ego and sulk for weeks. Danziger–now that was even more out of the question. He'd never shown the slightest spark of interest in her. Maybe joining the Eden Advance party had been a mistake and her mind was going? But that didn't feel right either. New Pacifica was everything she'd dreamed of back on polluted, dying Earth, despite the convicts and the Terrians. No, this had been the right choice. And why was she so bothered by what amounted to a hiccup of her subconscious mind? So she wanted to fuck John Danziger–big deal. Never going to happen. The dream was just wishful thinking, nothing else. That made her feel a little better. When she checked the chronometer, she found she still had three hours before she had to rise and went back to sleep. No dreams came this time, vivid or otherwise. Bess didn't know whether to feel disappointed or not.