Rated M scene in the middle of this chapter. I will mark it off with asterisks if you want to skip it.
Chapter 18: I Am The Fire
December 9th, 2013 - 1800 (6:00 pm)
Deer Park did, indeed, have both hot water and a working shower, though Tom and Rachel didn't get to enjoy it until much later.
First they had over a hundred people to vaccinate, and then Rachel got caught up explaining the process to a pharmacist and a primary care doctor who happened to be in the safe zone. Rachel wasn't convinced that they would be able to make more of the cure themselves without a lab, but she was going to be able to leave over 300 doses with them, and they would be knowledgeable enough to inoculate any newcomers to the safe zone. Since receiving the equipment from Baltimore, they had been able to triple their output of the cure, and she'd brought almost 450 doses with her, just in case.
It was well after six in the evening when it was finally their turn to shower. Tex had come out from the one shower in the whole school (in the special services classroom) claiming that he felt like a brand new man.
He'd also made a pointed comment about sharing the shower to save water, at which Rachel had rolled her eyes. She hadn't, however, denied anything.
As soon as they were in the bathroom, Tom closed and locked the door.
"Just in case," he said, winking at her. She grinned, and began to peel off her soaking wet clothing as Tom reached to turn the shower on. He made it as hot as he dared, knowing that Rachel needed to be warmed up desperately. She had begun shivering about an hour ago and hadn't been able to stop, and her lips and fingertips were far too pale for his liking.
"In," he insisted once she was naked. She didn't need to be told twice, and quickly jumped into the shower. She yelped as the warm water hit her skin, but quickly relaxed under the spray.
She relaxed even further when Tom walked in behind her and pulled the curtain closed.
"Hello there," he whispered in her ear, pressing his body against hers. She sighed happily, and pressed back into him.
"Hi," she said, and breathed out all of the tension she had been holding in since they had begun their mission.
"I'm so proud of you," he said, reaching for the soap and staring to wash her body. He rubbed the soap onto a washrag, and then gently began to clean Rachel's neck, her chest, her legs. "You have saved so many people. You are so frustratingly good that you don't even consider your own safety sometimes, and I am hopelessly in love with you."
Rachel turned around in his embrace, resting her arms on his shoulders as she stared up at him.
"I love you, too, you big romantic," she whispered, and then he was kissing her gently, one hand cupping her cheek as he coaxed her mouth open with his tongue. His other hand slid down and settled on the small of her back, pulling her tighter against him.
It wasn't until his tongue was taking one hard nipple into his mouth and the fingers of his left hand were teasing between her legs that she remembered her little revelation from earlier.
With a gasp, she pulled back from him, settling her palms on his chest and pushing him away.
Tom immediately stopped, pulling his entire body away from her. He watched her with wide eyes from under the spray, as far away as he could get in the small shower.
She could see fear in his eyes, and she realized her mistake immediately.
"No, not that, love," she said, and approached him again, resting her head on his chest and wrapping her arms around him to reassure him that his touch had not alarmed her. "That's not... you didn't do anything wrong. You didn't scare me," she soothed him. "I just remembered something we need to talk about."
"OK," he said warily, tentatively reaching out to put his hands back on her. He ran the fingers of one hand through her hair and settled the other on her shoulder; both safe places.
"Seriously, Tom," she said, kissing him and running a hand up and down his back. "I swear on your children's lives that was not the reason I pushed you away."
Tom looked a little less wary, but still waited silently for her to talk.
"I just remembered... do you recall earlier, when I stopped suddenly in the middle of the road while you were teasing me?"
Tom nodded. She had scared the shit out of him; he wasn't likely to forget anytime soon.
"I remembered then that we didn't use any protection when we had sex last night and you did not pull out," she said simply. "I don't track my cycle, I haven't needed to in a very long time, so I'm not very certain of when I ovulate. But there's a chance I could get pregnant from that."
Tom stared at her with wide eyes. "Fuck," he said succinctly.
Rachel laughed, but nodded. "Yes," she agreed. "Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think there are that many condoms on the Nathan James."
Tom did not correct her.
"So we have a bit of a problem, because at this point any birth control we find at a pharmacy is likely to be out of date and therefore not very effective, and I for one don't think I can stop having sex with you now that we've started."
Tom nodded. He definitely agreed with that statement.
"So what do we do?" he asked.
"Well," Rachel said, her hand on the move again as they spoke. She was caressing his chest, playing with one of his dusky brown nipples. "For now we can use the pull out method. It's only between 78 and 96% effective depending on how quickly you pull out, so we either need to take some concrete steps to finding some protection, or expect that I will become pregnant eventually."
Tom was nodding along, though he was having trouble forming thoughts.
"Chances on you already being pregnant?" he asked after several long moments, not meeting her eyes.
Rachel bit her lip, thinking. She'd had her last period right before everything had happened aboard the Vyerni, so it had been a little over two weeks since the last day of her last cycle, which meant there was a fairly good chance that she was currently ovulating.
"Um, somewhere between slight and moderate, based on my last cycle? Blood tests are around 99% accurate a week from the last date of unprotected sex. I can run that test on myself when we get back."
Tom nodded again, and Rachel could feel his heart beating wildly in his chest.
"Tom?" she asked, nervous by his silence. She could spout all of the percentages and facts about pregnancy and sex that she knew, but it did very little to calm her nerves. "What are you thinking, love?"
He dropped his head to her shoulder, finally letting his hands fall back around her. He pulled her closer, and she could feel his warm breath against her skin.
"I'm thinking that right now is a terrible time for you to be pregnant, but if you are, then... " he paused, and looked up to meet her gaze. She could see tears dancing in his bright blue eyes as a huge smile spread across his face. "Then I would be happy."
"You would?" Rachel asked, shocked.
Tom nodded, his smile growing. "Rachel. I love you. I will love any babies that we make together. Now, obviously, making a baby on purpose right now is a horrible idea for many, many different reasons. But if it happened, then it happened, and I will love this baby with my whole heart." He pressed his hand against her abdomen, and she found herself smiling, too, unable to help herself.
"I would be happy, too," she whispered, as if it were a secret. "I have always wanted to be a mum."
"You'll be an amazing mother," he said, and captured her lips with his again. "Whether it happens now or in five years. Any child would be lucky to have you. Sam and Ashley are so lucky to have you."
Rachel didn't think her heart could take any more of his sweet words without bursting, so she stopped him by kissing him again, whispering, "God, I want you so much," against his lips.
Tom groaned, his hands winding around her body once more. One hand went to her breast and the other traveled back down to where it had been exploring between her thighs before she had suddenly put a stop to it.
"Anything you want," he groaned as she pushed her breast more firmly into the hand that was playing with her nipple. "What do you want?"
"You, inside of me," she said, and he chuckled against her skin.
"Didn't we just talk about this?" he said, and Rachel hummed in response.
"I am not in the business of denying myself pleasure," she said simply, pressing him back against the shower wall. "Just make sure you pull out."
Tom nodded eagerly, and planted his feet firmly on the floor of the shower before his hands traveled down her thighs, encouraging her to wrap her legs around his waist. She obliged, and Tom realized that their new position put her breasts at the perfect level for him to take one into his mouth, so he did. Rachel cried out, her hands digging into his scalp as he laved attention on one breast, and then the other. He tugged her nipple with his teeth, causing a bolt of arousal to flow through her body, and then nipped the soft, creamy white skin on the top of her breast before soothing the ache with his tongue.
"Tom," she gasped, and he pulled back from her breast to let his eyes travel down the rest of her body. He moaned deep in his chest when he spotted the marks he had left on her thighs the night before. He wanted very badly to lick each one, to deepen and darken them, but knew he couldn't manage it while they were in the shower. Another day, then, he thought, and instead asked Rachel to hold on to him so he could free one of his hands.
He grasped his length in his own hand, groaning at the contact, before lining himself up.
Fuck, she was so wet.
She cried out as he slowly pushed inside of her, her forehead falling onto his, her breath puffing hot and moist over his face.
"So tight," he whispered, searching blindly for her lips with his own. She obliged him, kissing him deeply as he bottomed out inside of her.
After a few seconds to let her adjust to his size, Tom gave a small, experimental thrust, and Rachel broke the kiss, throwing her head back.
"Fuck!" she screamed, and he felt himself grow even harder inside of her.
God, she was so hot like this, he thought, and repeated the motion.
"That feel good?" he asked, and she nodded vigorously.
"Yes," she said. "You fill me up so well. This position - oh god."
She pressed her face into his shoulder, biting hard on his skin to muffle the noises she was making. He gasped, his next thrust harder in his surprise, and the noise she made was definitely one of appreciation, so he repeated the motion, thrusting quick and hard several times in quick succession.
"Yes, just like that," she encouraged him, and he placed his hands on her hips to help her move against him.
She loved the feel of him inside of her, they way he stretched her. It was right on the edge of being too much, and she basked in the feeling.
It didn't take long until she was close
"I'm gonna come," she moaned into his ear, her cheek brushing against his as she placed open mouthed kisses on whatever skin she could reach.
"Fuck. Yes, do that," he encouraged her, reaching between them to rub at her clit. She keened loudly into his ear, and came around him hard.
"Tom!" she cried, and he used every ounce of his self control to hold himself back so that he could gentle her through the aftershocks of her orgasm. He lazily pushed in and out of her body until she stopped trembling against him, and then slowly pulled out.
She looked up at him with hazy eyes, and grinned, kissing his lips before looking down.
"You didn't come," she observed, and he gritted his teeth as she reached out to touch him. She wrapped her petite hand around the base of his cock, and quickly dropped to her knees to take him in her mouth.
Tom groped blindly behind him for something, anything to hold on to. There was nothing, so he ended up with his fingers gripping her hair as gently as he could manage, still letting her control the pace. She looked up at him and popped off for a second to say, "You can pull my hair if you want," before taking him into her mouth again.
He didn't even get a chance to try it out, or even to warn her, before he was coming hard in her mouth.
"You can't say things like that," he gasped, his head thumping painfully on the wall behind him as she sucked and licked away any evidence of his orgasm. He finally had to gently push her off when he became too sensitive. She grinned up at him, positively glowing with satisfaction as he gasped against the wall.
*
"I need washed again," she said as she stood up, running her hand from where it was still settled on his hip to cup his cheek. She kissed him softly, and then turned around to find the shampoo, seemingly unaware of the fact that she had turned his entire brain to mush.
"You are a demon," he gasped, and she laughed, turning around to dump some of the shampoo in his hair.
"In the best way," she agreed, and then, "But we need to hurry up in here if we want to leave any hot water for anyone else."
"I could give a flying fuck about anyone else," he said, finally peeling himself away from the wall. After holding her up the entire time, and then coming so hard he saw stars, his legs were a little unsteady. "But I do need to find a horizontal surface before my legs give out."
Rachel giggled, and then started the very serious task of helping Tom wash his body. She ran the rag over every inch of his skin, being considerate of parts of him that were more sensitive than others, and he quickly returned the favor before reaching over to turn the shower off.
Rachel stepped out of the shower, searching for a towel. She found a stack by the sink, mismatched and worn, but clean. She grabbed two of them, handing one to Tom before using the other to quickly and efficiently dry herself off.
They quickly helped each other dress in the borrowed clothes they had been given. They didn't fit quite right, but they were dry, and that was the most important thing right now.
"Ready to face Tex's knowing smirks and inappropriate comments?" Rachel asked, and Tom snorted.
"Can't avoid him forever," he said, and then playfully smacked her bottom before walking to open the door to the bathroom.
December 9th, 2013 - 21:30 (9:30 pm)
The rain had yet to let up by the time that the camp began to settle down for bed. Their team had been given a section near the gym doors with some thin mats, blankets, and pillows for sleeping, and Rachel could still hear the rain pounding against the windows and roof as they settled down.
"Think we'll be able to make it back to the ship tomorrow?" she asked, casting her eyes across the survivors in the room. They would be leaving them with enough of the cure to sustain any new additions to their safe zone for a good while, and Mike's family would, obviously, be coming back to the ship with them.
"Worst case we walk," Tom said, pushing two of the small mats together to create a sleeping area big enough for him and Rachel. Normally, while on a mission, they would sleep separate. But he didn't feel like it tonight. They were safe (though he still kept his knives close by), so he didn't feel the need to keep distance between them.
"Helluva walk," Tex grunted from his mat a few feet away. He had given them plenty of shit when they had come out of the shower, but had been quiet for the past while.
"We can do it in a day, day and a half if we need to," Tom said, and Rachel winced at the prospect of walking almost thirty miles.
Then, as she sat down on the mat beside Tom, she winced for an entirely different reason.
Tom smirked over at her, knowingly, and she glared at him. She muttered something under her breath that sounded a lot like 'this is your fault' and he couldn't help but chuckle. He laid down on his back, and pulled Rachel to lay next to him before spreading one of the blanket they had been given over the both of them.
When she settled her head on his chest as she normally did, he leaned over and kissed her on the temple. "Your body will get used to it," he whispered into her ear, and she felt her cheeks flame. "Just been a while."
"Tom," she hissed, and glanced around to make sure that no one was listening in. He chuckled, tucking her head into the spot between his shoulder and neck as he ran his fingers through her hair.
"Go to sleep," he said, and she sighed, closing her eyes and relaxing against his warm body.
"Fine," she muttered. "But not because you said so. Just 'cause I'm tired."
"Oh my god, you're so stubborn," he groaned, and she laughed.
"You're both sickening," Tex interjected, and Rachel felt her cheeks warm again as Tom laughed. "Go to sleep both of you and leave those of us sleeping alone to our misery."
"Goodnight, Tex," Rachel said laughingly, and then laid her head back down on Tom's chest to let the soothing sound of his heartbeat lull her to sleep.