Hey look, another chapter! I had an epiphany, a reshuffle and it fell into place. :)

Young had managed to fend off Telford and his scientists for another two weeks, before he was forced to allow a visit to examine the work that had been done mending the dome and also further examination of the Seedship and the manufactory. While they had been in FTL, Rush had been working with it quite intensively, and had managed to identify three spare parts that it could make from its existing library of programmed objects. Sadly only one of these was something the seedship actually had the materials to make.

Rush had however managed to get the seedship to create some very simple objects out of dome glass, including the objects Eli initially identified as "bowl and dildo" to Rush's disgust, which were the promised mortar and pestle for TJ.

He had also managed some equally simple bottles, more of a carafe shape, than a true bottle, but they worked well enough in the kitchen and TJ had taken some for the infirmary.

This had been enough to keep the scientists busy for the whole time they were on Destiny luckily. Young wondered if that had been Rush's intention, for as soon as they were busy troubling the science team about that, Rush had disappeared off and when Young tracked him down, he was deep in contemplation of schematics that Young recognised as the cold zone.

There had been other developments on the ship. Cloth woven by the crafts group had been finally presented to the crew. It wasn't very durable yet, not suitable for outerwear, but it was already being made up into sleepwear and underwear.

They had stopped at a further planet, a vaguely Earthlike planet, but with no life. The temperature had been comfortable, but the oxygen levels very low. However, it had been a good source of minerals, which promised the potential for more things created by the manufactory. With six working suits they had been able to do a reasonable amount of mining. Young was beginning to feel like they were actually beginning to use the ships in some small way like they had actually been intended for.

Rush was still sleeping in his bed more often than not. They had settled into a reasonably comfortable, if very clandestine routine of going to sleep together. Rush's sleep however had been disturbed on more than one occasion, waking Young in the night as he gasped for air, struggled against the covers or woke with a jerk. Young tried not to make a big deal of it, simply pulling the other man back down and wrapping an arm around him. It mostly settled Rush who seemed not to want to discuss it.

It was the crackle of the radio though that woke both Rush and Young out of a sound slumber, Rush squirming out of Young's arms and sitting up. Their radios were tuned to the emergency night channel. Any issue enough to make someone want to wake them was nothing Young wanted.

"Colonel Young, this is the bridge." Calvos' voice was worried.

Rush grabbed his radio from the side of the bed.

"Bridge this is Rush, what's the problem."

"We've had red warning lights pop up all over the bridge." Calvos replied. "I can't follow the detail of the warnings, but there's pressure issues in the cold area."

Rush scowled. "Read it off to..."

Calvos didn't get a chance to reply as Destiny dropped abruptly out of FTL with a shudder and whine.

Young grabbed up his own radio.

"Bridge this is Young. What's going on?"

"Unplanned stop sir." Calvos said. "We're looking into it."

"I'll be there immediately. Rush," Young said, raising an eyebrow at the man in his bed, "meet me at the Bridge."

Rush paused a moment, throwing Young his most sarcastic expression, before toggling his radio. "I'm already on my way, Colonel."

There was a shudder underfoot, like a small earthquake, and momentarily Rush's eyes widened. He threw his legs over the side of the bed and stood. "Come on!" He snapped at Young.

Grabbing up their radios from either side of the bed but not bothering to change from pyjama pants they both ran for the door barefooted. Rush hit the door release and they skidded out into the corridor outside Young's quarters and almost ran into Chloe who stopped with a shocked look.

"This is NOT the time to ask." Rush snapped at her. "Bridge now."

"Colonel Young, this is Camile, we appear to have dropped out of FTL, I wasn't aware we were planning a layover?"

"We weren't." Rush said sharply into his radio. "Don't worry, I'll tell you as soon as I know what's happening."

"Thank you Colonel Young." Camile replied acerbically.

"We're on our way to the bridge." Young said tersely into his radio.

Rush put his radio to his lips as they ran, Chloe following.

"Eli, Volker, wake up! Bridge, now!" he yelled into it.

Young lifted his own radio, but their radios crackled again then Greer spoke.

"Colonel Young, this is Greer, was that the ship shaking?"

Rush beat him to it.

"Yes Sergeant it was, now kick Park and Volker out of bed and get Volker to the bridge."

Young looked at Rush.

"Park and Volker."

"Didn't you know?"

No, he hadn't known. The radio crackled again.

"Ah, okay, Doctor."

"Evidently Greer didn't know that you know." Young said as they slowed to open a door.

"Volker has about as much control of his facial expressions as Eli." Rush said.

There was another shudder.

"That's not good." Young said.

"Tell me something I don't know."

As soon as the bridge hatch opened, Calvos was getting out of the captain's seat and Barnes relinquished the navigation chair to Chloe. Young let Rush seat himself in the captain's chair without comment, standing beside him to look over his arm at the consoles. He waited for Rush and Chloe to read the consoles in front of them before he started asking questions.

"Where are we?"

"About a third of the way to our next projected stop." Chloe said.

"What caused us to drop out?" Young asked as Brody entered, closely followed by Volker and Greer.

"The leak in the cold zone finally caused a rupture in one of the major power conduits which knocked out a bank of the shield emitters supplied by that conduit." Rush said tersely. "Destiny dropped out of FTL to prevent the ship being pulled to pieces."

Volker and Brody sat themselves in the remaining two chairs.

"Brody, we need to broaden the spread of the existing shield emitters to cover the damaged zone."

"We already did that once already," Brody said, sounding worried, "when your party went through to the cold zone. Spreading the power available is going to leave the shield pretty thin."

"Well we don't really have much choice Mister Brody, do we? We're hemorrhaging coolant fluid and energy at the moment and we need to get to the nearest star system we can repair and refuel in."

"It's going to cut our speed significantly." Brody pointed out.

"Halve it." Rush agreed. "Eli?" He said into the radio.

"Almost there." The reply came immediately.

"Get yourself to the core room. I need full diagnostics of the damage."

There was a huff in response. "I'm changing direction."

Rush looked over at Young queryingly.

"Continue." Young replied to the unspoken question. "It's yours till we have a full idea of what happened and how to fix it."

"Brody, get there with Eli, we need a repair schedule immediately." Rush continued. "Volker, finish with the shield emitters."

Brody gave Rush his normal long suffering nod and stood. Before he had even moved away Rush was gesturing Calvos into the empty chair.

"Chloe, what's the nearest star system we can refuel in?"

"There's one two days away with our in-system drive, probably four to five with the speed cut. I think this was the closest Destiny could get us without risking further damage."

"Plot the course." Rush instructed. "Avoid any areas likely to put strain on the shields, Keep a firm eye on the sensors Calvos. We're going to need to review the course if we come near any significant hazards."

"Hazards?" Young asked.

"At the moment, a small dust cloud could punch through the shield there." Rush looked up from the console, meeting Young's eyes. "It's barely holding."

"Great." Young said. "Just great."

xxxoooxxx

"So what's the damage?" Young asked.

He, Rush, Brody, Scott and Eli were standing around the console in the Core Room. Young had left Camile on the Bridge with Volker, Calvos and Chloe.

"We have another hole in the hull." Brody pointed to a point on the schematic of the ship in front of them. "Here."

"More problematic, we have a rupture in one of the major power conduits from the front to the back of the ship." Rush added. "As well as the pre-existing coolant leak in that area."

Young scanned the schematic.

"The conduit is here," Brody said, zooming in and running his finger along a line, "and this is the cold area that we had closed off with the coolant leak here."

"So what is our next move?" Young asked., looking up at Rush.

"We need to reroute power away from that conduit." Rush said. "Then fix it. To do that though, we're going to need to fix the coolant leak."

Brody nodded. "Once we've done that, we can start trying to fix the shield emitter and the hull."

Young scanned the schematic again, recognising the area from the previous disaster of a mission there.

"It's gonna be really hard to do it though." Eli said. "There's no atmosphere in there, there's leaking coolant fluid and there's probably no gravity, or like really low gravity, if there's no power to the whole area."

Brody nodded.

"It's lucky we've got six suits now then isn't it gentleman." Rush added, with the twist of his lip that was almost a smile.

Young gave him a look. "Always looking on the bright side aren't you Rush?"

"You know me so well Colonel." Rush replied. "Well, lets get on with it then, we have a power conduit to bypass."

Young stepped away. "I'll go back and report the news to Homeworld Command. I'll be as quick as I can. Don't start anything further without me."

"Of course." Rush said. "We couldn't do it without you."

"Or without sarcasm." Young noted.

Rush just chuckled and Young left.

xxxoooxxx

By the time Young got back from Homeworld Command, Scott was able to inform him that Rush and the science team had diverted the power such that there was no energy leakage, but the shields were still down.

"If we redirect it through there," Eli was saying as Young re-entered the Core Room, "we can get these four shield emitters back up."

"Presuming that that section of conduit is also intact." Brody replied.

"Yeah." Eli nodded. "We could send a low charge down it, see what happens? It's not like we can go out there and take a look."

Rush let out a huff of breath, then looked up, spotting Young.

"Telford and his scientists will be here tomorrow to help you." Young told him.

"Just great." Rush snapped. "Just fucking great!"

"Hey, I did my best." Young said. "But I can't actively turn them down when it genuinely appears they're offering to help. At least two of them have zero-G experience though, so even if you just get them moving stuff and welding things they're an extra couple of sets of hands."

Rush did not look mollified at all, but gave him a sour look and went back to the console.

"I'm going to brief the crew." Young said.

"You do that Colonel." Rush muttered.

xxxoooxxx

Rush woke in the night, bolt upright in terror, sweating and shaking. The feeling of muddy water against his face had morphed into visions of blue glass, water and claws which still floated in front of his mind's eye. He wiped his face with his hand, feeling it coming away dripping.

He reached out and grabbed the canteen of water by the bed, uncapping it unsteadily and taking a swig. He put the cap back on and lay back in the bed, canteen still in his hand, waiting as his heart rate and breathing came back down to a normal rate.

It would have been long past the point Young had gone to sleep by the time he had left the Core Room, and he had stumbled back to his own quarters, aware that Young would no doubt be taking Rush's own bridge shift the next day as well as his own. Exhaustion weighed heavy on him, but they had finally managed to partially reroute the power from the conduit and get another six shield emitters online as well as closing up the leakage of power and making the area possible to enter. Rush lay there, drained and worn and eventually sleep claimed him again.

He woke panting, struggling against the covers, face wet, throat hoarse and dry. He fumbled in the bed for the canteen again, dragging it out from a fold of the blankets, uncapping it and gulping down a few mouthfuls not caring as water spilled over his chin. He deliberately slowed his breathing, making it calmer and deeper, although it shuddered as it drew slowly in and out.

Rush's eyes slammed open at the sound of a scream which drowned out the clicking of the aliens in front of him. The soreness in his throat made him realise the scream he had heard was his own. He blinked in the darkness, shaking and terrified and it took him almost thirty seconds to really grasp he was in his quarters.

He couldn't stay in here, couldn't be here alone. He rolled out of bed, his clothes were drenched and he caught up the black under vest and boxers and made for the nearest bathroom. He pulled off his wet sleepwear, relieved himself then used his t-shirt, doused in what was left in the canteen to wipe the sweat from his body. Once he felt cleaner shrugged into the under vest and boxers.

He couldn't go back to bed. Not again. Couldn't take the visions of claws, medical equipment, blue glass and cold metal. It wasn't cold in here but he was shivering. Christ this was ridiculous, he was too old to be afraid of nightmares, too old to be scared of the monsters in the darkness. But they were waiting for him, waiting for his eyes to close, muscles to relax and sleep to drag him down into another terrifying vision.

He let his feet lead him, creeping through the deserted corridors like a ghost, bare footed and still shaking, soaked clothes in his hand. The door opened under his hand, waking Young who blinked at him, coming up to awareness fast as he realised something was wrong.

"Rush?" he said, sounding confused.

"I'm…" Rush faltered, not knowing how to explain how something as simple as nightmares had reduced him to this. He gave up, stepped into the room closing the door behind him. "Nightmares." He said shakily, dropping the wet clothes.

Young looked at him, then twitched the covers back. "Get in."

Gratefully Rush slid in, moving into the warmth. Young flung an arm over him.

Despite being in Young's bed Rush's sleep was still restless and he tried unsuccessfully to relax enough to sleep, trying not to toss and turn too much. Young in his customary, and in the current circumstances damn annoying way, simply wrapped arms around Rush, tucked his head into Rush's neck and went straight back to sleep. Rush lay there hoping the warmth that Young was radiating would relax him enough to sleep.

Young woke as an elbow caught him a glancing blow in the ribs. He rolled backwards away from the attack, off the bed and to his feet in one move. Rush was still yelling and lashing out in his sleep, incoherent and terrified. He lunged forward and grabbed the man by his upper arms, giving him a swift shake.

"Rush!"

Rush struggled and yelled, beyond a nightmare and into night terrors. Young had seen it before in soldiers with trauma.

"No!" Rush's voice was hoarse.

"Nick!" Young shook him again harder and Rush's eyes slammed open, wide and terrified. "It's me."

Rush's breath was coming in hard panicky pants, muscles shaking and his face and hair were soaked with sweat and tears. He hauled Rush to sitting and into his chest, wrapping arms round him and realising as he did so, Rush's undershirt was soaked through with sweat. Rush slumped against him until he began to breathe more normally. As Rush finally pulled back, Young caught the hem of his top and hauled it up over his head in one go, dropping it in a soggy mess by the bed. Rush looked askance at him as he turned back to where the man sat next to him.

"You could have wrung that out." Young said. "It was soaking through onto me. More blue alien nightmares?"

Rush nodded. "They tend to come in a bunch." He whispered apologetically. "I can go back…"

"No." Young cut in. "It's fine. I…"

I'm responsible, he wanted to say. I left you to die and they captured you and tortured you. I wake myself at night with visions of you unconscious on the dirt.

"It's fine." He said again. "Stay."

Rush shuddered and Young realised he was damp and sitting in his underpants, no wonder he was cold. He reached for him and pulled him down to the bed, dragging the covers back up, pulling him towards him. Rush shuddered again as he wrapped himself round the man, and he could feel how chilled Rush's skin was already.

"I'm sorry." Young said without thinking, almost into Rush's ear.

Rush pulled his head back. "What for?"

Young stared at him helplessly. Christ, he couldn't say it. "Just…sorry." He said.

Rush stared at him, Young began to feel uncomfortable. Then just when Young was on the verge of pulling away, Rush's hands tightened on his shoulder and back and he kissed Young firmly before leaning back again.

"Apology accepted." Rush's voice was still unsteady.

Rush hauled him in again, Young could feel Rush's heart thumping in his chest still as Rush pulled his face down to kiss him hard. The kiss didn't end like the others had though, and then Rush's tongue was dipping between his lips. Young started, then as Rush's lips and tongue became more insistent Young allowed his lips to slip open against the concerted assault and Rush was pressing and exploring Young's mouth insistently with his tongue.

Rush's fingers tensed in his shirt and reflexively Young ran his hands upwards, one skating up Rush's shoulder blade and the other sliding over Rush's chest, and he suddenly realised how naked Rush felt under his hands. He pulled away from the kiss.

"You're so warm." Rush breathed, accent thick and voice breathy.

"What are you doing?" he panted.

"Forgetting a nightmare." Rush's voice was still tense. "All I can feel is cold and claws."

Goal oriented, always so goal oriented. Rush leaned in again, kissing him, tasting him. Young let him, let Rush push him back into the bed, trapped against the pillows as Rush chased sensation to drive away the dream. Rush's fingers were digging into his hip and gripping his shoulder rhythmically. He found himself responding, tongue pushing back to dip into Rush's mouth, hands rubbing up and down Rush's spine, massaging fingers into Rush's bare back.

Rush was lying across his body at an angle, chests pressed together, but hips side by side, which was good as involuntarily Young's hips tightened slightly upwards and his fingers clenched into Rush's shoulders. The tightness pooling in his groin was disturbing and somewhere he was not prepared to go. He was not meant to react like this. He pushed Rush away a little, panicky, feeling the continuing tension in the man.

"I can't do this." Young told him gruffly.

Rush rolled back and moved away, the covers falling away from him.

"I'm sorry." Young said. "I…"

Rush sprawled out on his back. "It's fine." He said.

It wasn't fine. Young sat up and looked at him, guilty. He was getting turned on but on the other hand it was obvious from Rush's position and state of undress that it had just been a kiss for him. He put a hand on the other man's shoulder. Rush looked at him and Young saw his face close down, expression tightening to an emotionless mask. Damn, he knew what Rush needed, it was just touch and closeness to take away the memory of claws and cold.

"Roll over." He said abruptly. Rush blinked at him. Young reached over him and grabbed the arm on Rush's other side, pulling and rolling Rush towards him, over onto his front. He had done this before, this he could do.

He reached out to the counter for the tub of TJ's medicated hand cream, opened it and scraped out a dollop, warming it between his hands. He straddled Rush's butt, sliding the waistband of his underpants down just a little. Rush craned his head round to look up at him, as Young settled his weight evenly across his buttocks and upper thighs so as not to crush him.

Rush sighed and his head relaxed back onto the pillow as Young ran his hands down his spine, then back up, fanning out over his back to spread the cream. He started with Rush's shoulders, pressing thumbs and fingers into the muscles, squeezing and manipulating, feeling as Rush relaxed into the bed. Rush's skin gradually warmed under his hands and his breathing evened.

He continued working over Rush's back, pushing Rush's hair up and out of the way, systematically massaging into every muscle from the base of his spine to his neck until the man was softened and almost boneless under his hands.

Rush's skin was soft and smooth where the cream had soaked in. Young found himself rubbing over it just for the tactile sensation. Rush hummed in pleasure as Young just stroked the palms of his hands down Rush's back. Young caught himself, hands stopping as the ran outwards over the smaller man's hips.

He took a deep breath and finished by catching up another handful of cream and smoothing it down Rush's arms, taking his hands one by one and rubbing cream into them manipulating each finger pressing his thumbs in between the knuckles and into the palms, along the fingers still a little marked from the frost bite, the slightly paler patch where he had worn the splint.

He finished, sitting back on Rush's thighs. Rush's eyes were half closed, face calm, breathing even.

"Better?" He asked.

"Mmm hmm." The affirmative noise from Rush was sleepy.

Young lay down next to him, throwing a leg over and pulling up the covers. Rush mumbled something. Young leaned in. "What was that?"

But Rush was practically asleep, and Young gave up, turned the light out and wrapped round him to keep the warmth in. Much warmer like this, he thought, and slept.