A/N May 4, 2019: If you currently are reading this story, note that all chapters have been updated. See author's note for chapter 1.

Thanks to everyone taking the time to read my story and for the reviews! I'm thrilled to have someone reading my writing. In this chapter I have invented a name for Bones because I never noticed one in the series. If anyone else did, please let me know and I'll update. Hope you like this chapter.

Chapter 5: While it was raining

Outside, the rain was still pouring down, and it was getting darker by the minute.

"I need to head back to barracks" Georgie said.

"You can't, not tonight. Not in this rain and also, you should not be out alone and unarmed in the dark. I can't come with you, even if I normally would walk a girl to her door after a date like a gentleman."

"You call this a date? Then you really are delusional", she snorted.

"No, I don't, and I don't call myself a gentleman either."

He raised a sardonic eyebrow and she suddenly felt the need to break eye contact.

He seemed to think for a moment, going through different options in his mind.

"Send a text to Maisie and say you were caught in the rain and a woman you know from the clinic offered you shelter", he finally suggested.

The idea of spending the night here in this room alone with him was in some way intimidating, but she realised it was the best option at this point and sent the text.

"Are you hungry?"

"Yeah, but I don't see a kitchen here?"

"Sorry, no but I have some fruit and water at least."

He brought it out and they ate sitting on the bed, as there was nowhere else to sit in the room. Georgie placed herself cross legged facing him, rather than beside him. She did not want to be too close to his half-naked body, even if he now had wrapped a blanket around his waist in sarong-like style. She wondered how they would sleep. The bed was quite narrow. Did he intend for them to sleep next to each other or would he gallantly offer to sleep on the floor? As he just had admitted he was no gentleman it didn't seem likely.

"How come you joined the army? he asked out of the blue. "If I had seen you in civvies it wouldn't have been my first guess that you were a squaddie."

She laughed and took a bite of an apple, chewed before she answered.

"That's just prejudices... Some army recruitment people came visiting my school and I was intrigued... I have always been this nice girl from a nice family and with good grades, even a scholarship for university and my path seemed so clear, all the stepping stones neatly laid out. I thought I would be a doctor like my dad, but when I heard about the army, I was all exited and it got me thinking. Everything I had done and planned to do seemed so predictable and a bit boring. Settled. I realised I wanted something more, wanted to go my own way. Sometime later I decided to join the RAMC, enlisted for basic training and then went on. My parents were horrified at first, especially mum, but later proud of my choice. I love my family, and in the end, they have been really supportive, even if I know they hope I will leave the army one day, preferably in one piece and settle in a nearby house and have a bunch of kids, you know."

While she talked he had looked like he was listening with genuine interest and now he nodded.

"So, this crazy profession was truly your own choice?"

"I guess so. It must mean I'm mad, though" she smiled. "And you, Bones?"

She knew almost nothing about him. Would he tell?

"You can call me Jack."

"What?"

"My name, you can call me by my name - Jack. Bones isn't my Christian name if you thought so."

Of course, she knew that was just a nickname like the ones many of the soldiers had, but his seemed to fit him so well so she had never considered what else he might be called. She liked to think of him as Jack, this man she was scraping a little bit on the surface of.

"Why Bones?"

He was quiet for a moment, as if he hesitated to share it but finally decided to.

"You know the army slang 'bone', meaning pointless or stupid? I picked that name to never forget that I need to prove every day that I'm not."

"Pointless or stupid? Of course, you aren't. You may not win any popularity contests but you're not any of those things. Surely you must know?" she said, confused.

"My father would disagree with that."

His expression was blank, but she noticed the clenched jaw and a flicker in his eyes, telling her they were on mined ground which he did not want to explore further, so she changed subject.

"Okay... Jack then, what about you? How did you end up in the army?"

"For me it was almost the contrary... It has always been expected that I join the army, but I didn't want to. My family is... kind of well-off and a bit on the posh side."

He registered the look on her face. "You could look less surprised you know..."

"Sorry, but you seem to be made for army life and you don't seem very posh, that's all. You said yourself, you're far from a gentleman."

"I thought we had established you shouldn't believe everything I say. But true enough, most of the time I'm trying hard not to be... Jokes aside, we sort of have a family business and the tradition and expectation is that the eldest son takes over that, and the second son becomes an officer in the army. It has been like that for generations."

"Really? Seems a bit old fashioned with so limited choices. Are you the second son then?"

"Yes, but unfortunately I wasn't ideal material for an officer. As a child and teenager, I was small and weak. I was often ill and had asthma. I grew out of that, but I was still this guy who avoided fights and if I was forced into one, I was always beaten up. Mostly, I liked to read, build model planes and hang with friends who were like me. My father and brother were not very understanding or supportive. Dad used to say that he longed for when I would start my officer training at Sandhurst, so they would make a man out of me. All I felt was horror, wondering how I would ever make it."

The father again. It seemed like they had a complicated and far from loving relationship.

"What happened?"

"My mother is the best" he smiled warmly. "She always understood and loved me the way I am. I was supposed to go off to Sandhurst directly after university, but she managed to persuade my father I should wait another year and go live with my uncle. He is also the second son, so naturally he is an officer too. He is great, very different from my father. Besides being an officer, he runs a farm. Not by himself of course, but it is his and he lives there when he is home. That's where I was sent, and he set me to work. Really hard physical work and at first, I hated it. Then I realised I was quickly growing stronger. He had me start training boxing and martial arts too and when I joined the army one year later I was up for it physically. I still didn't think I would like it but once I was at Sandhurst I sort of found my place. I found that violence was not the core of the army - serving our country and saving lives is. And I have made many of my best friends in the army. Surprisingly, I came to like it."

"But why did you have to do like your father wanted? Why go through with all that just for some family tradition?"

He shrugged his shoulders.

"Hard to explain. It felt like I had to at that age. He is very authoritarian, and I wasn't so tough then. That's a shield I have worked on later I guess. It's different now. I feel I could leave if I wanted to, but as I said, I quite like it. It is also a great way to keep away from my father." He smiled wryly. "I joined the Special Forces just to annoy him. I knew that was not the kind of officer he wanted me to be. He would have liked it if I was more like the Brigadier, minus the drug trade."

Georgie realised that before this evening she had not known him at all. It was difficult to picture this strong man who had often been so rough, as a small weak boy who preferred reading to anything else. She would sooner had guessed that he had never picked up a book. Prejudices again, now from her side.

He looked way, almost as if he suddenly felt he had revealed too much about himself and felt exposed. She sensed she wanted to give him something of her in return.

"My parents have never stopped me in my career, but I have felt that I didn't fulfil their expectations on my love life", she offered.

"Your love life?! What do they have to say about that?"

"I have made some choices that maybe weren't for the best. You know I was with Elvis. They didn't have anything against him the first time around even if I know they would have preferred a husband that was not army. Then he dumped me on our wedding day… and they had to see me devastated. I won't go into details, but it wasn't pretty. Anyway, life went on, I scraped up the pieces and put myself together and after some time I met this doctor, Jamie and we started going out. My parents were thrilled of course and so excited when we planned to get married. The day I told them I had cancelled the wedding and wanted to stay in the army… the disappointment in their faces. In that moment I felt I had failed them, but I just couldn't go through with it."

"Why?"

"Jamie was the sweetest guy and he loved me, but I felt like he never knew or understood all of me. When we first met he thought it was intriguing I was an army girl but later on he just wished for me to leave the army and be his wife at home. Not a housewife maybe, but to be there for him always and not run off to the battlefield during some obscure deployment. He could never understand how I was drawn to it, how that could be more important than coming home to him every day. I knew I would feel captured and would have to pretend to be someone I'm not. I couldn't do that for him, or for my parents."

"I see... but what happened when you got back with Elvis? You mentioned your parents were less than thrilled?"

"When he came back into my life again, we were not a couple although he wanted us to be. First, I didn't want to have anything to do with him, but he persisted, showed me he wouldn't disappear again, and we gradually became friends. My whole family made it very clear they thought I would be a complete fool if I got back with him after what he had done to me. I thought so too, but there was just this undeniable chemistry between us. I'm not sure I ever really trusted him fully again, but I forgave him, and we reconciled just before he was killed in Afghan. I grieved him so much and maybe mostly what we could have been if he hadn't let me down the first time. After his death my family was there for me, but I felt they could not really understand it, understand how I felt. I think they felt he wasn't worth being heartbroken over a second time, you know, and that put some distance between me and them. Sometimes following one's heart means making choices that are not logical and not always for the best, but I had no choice."

Bones looked at her and there was nothing of the usual sarcasm or cheekiness to his expression, only attention and sympathy.

"I think you are right, sometimes the right choice is clear only to yourself and no one else. It makes it harder, but you still have to make it... "

"Exactly."

"How do you feel about Elvis now? It's nearly a year ago since he passed away, isn't it?

"Yes, 11 months, 1 week and 3 days, not that I'm counting." She gave him a bleak smile. "I'm not sure how I feel. I guess I will always grieve him, but he is fading away. He feels like a promise never fulfilled, and truth be told we never got to pressure test our relationship the second time around. Maybe it would not have lasted long. I think it's time for me to move on but I'm not sure how. My life will never be the same again after that day, that much is for sure. Can I be happy again? I hope so, but I'm not sure it will be in the same way as before because I'm different."

"I think you can, if you allow yourself to be", he said sincerely.

To her own surprise a tear ran down her cheek. She had not spoken to anyone about Elvis like this, maybe not even worded her doubts about their budding second relationship to herself as it had felt like a betrayal to him. Saying it out loud now, she knew it was true. If he had lived she could not know if they would have been a couple now or if they had parted anyway.

"Sorry" she sniffled. "I don't mean to be such a mess."

"Don't apologise. I think you have been amazingly strong through all this and I think you will know when the time is right…to move on I mean. It would have been tough for anyone. I can't even imagine... I think I haven't even been in love for real."

He confessed that with a hint of sadness and looked away. That and the fact that he was not judging her actions or feelings stirred something inside her. Driven by a sudden impulse, she reached out her hand and placed her palm on his chest, let it run down his flat stomach in a caress. He flinched from the unexpected touch and with cheeks heated from embarrassment she withdrew her hand.

"I'm sorry! I don't know why... I wasn't thinking... maybe I just wanted to feel that you're really real, not a ghost".

She knew that was not the reason.

He caught her hand in the movement and to her surprise laced his fingers with hers.

"I'm not sorry" he said with low soft voice.

When her eyes met his again, she saw something she had not seen there before, not even the time when he suggested that she would join him to his room. Desire combined with... longing... and a question. She knew her own eyes answered the unspoken question with a silent "yes". At the same time as she was thinking 'This can't be happening' she could not stop her whole body, which had somehow been asleep since the death of Elvis, from awakening.

The air between them suddenly seemed electrified and the distance between their bodies far too wide. He pulled her towards him, up on his lap where he was sitting on the bed. His hands felt warm and strong through the fabric of the t-shirt as he easily moved her. He hesitated when their faces were only a few inches apart to check if he had really read her right. For a moment they just stared at one another and she noticed how incredibly blue his eyes were, with a darker circle surrounding an iris blue as a clear summer day sky. Their breaths mingled and fell into the same pace and Georgie's heart was pounding so loud she thought he must hear it. Then she moved that last distance and their lips met. The first kiss was soft, exploring. The second one was more intense, getting eager.

What she felt next was a confusing but amazing mixture of emotions. She was like fire and jelly at the same time, like she no longer had control but at the same time was doing exactly what she wanted. It was crazy, and yet so natural and completely unstoppable. They kissed for what felt like half an eternity, making out like teenagers. Lips grazing softly and bruising hard, his tongue swivelling in her mouth causing the most exhilarating sensations. She ran her fingers through his dark hair which had grown into longer locks over the last weeks. She caressed him down the neck and his broad shoulders, pulling him towards her. He held her in a firm yet gentle embrace, let his hands nestle under the hem of the t-shirt but to begin with only to find her back, willing her to him. It had been so long since she had been with a man like this and even though she wanted it, she hesitated to take the next step and wanted to stay in this very moment. It almost seemed like it was the same for him.

She felt his lips smiling next to hers. He paused the kissing, seriously looked into her the eyes.

"Are you sure you want this? I mean, I don't want it to be any question of that... me being your superior and all that", he asked with ragged breath, mirroring her own.

She did not say anything, but those words removed her last scrap of hesitation and she stroke down his chest, touched his muscular stomach down to the lining of his boxers and felt him shiver. She pulled her t-shirt over her head and for a second felt conscious about him seeing her more naked than he had before, but he let his gaze wander over her, now in only bra and knickers, and he pulled in a deep breath of air. When his eyes met hers again they were filled with awe as he raised his hand to gently touch her cheek.

"I wondered for so long... what you look like under those clothes... but you're even more beautiful than I could have imagined."

By that, her bashfulness over being nearly naked disappeared.

"I want you" she said. "You don't have to doubt that. I wouldn't know how to stop now."

It was true. She had not felt it before, but now she wanted him with every fibre of her body. There had always been tension between them, but when he approached her the first time, the timing had been wrong, and it had not really been serious either, just fishing to get laid from what she could tell. Later, he had been so distant and hard to them all. This new man tonight which she had not known before, she could not resist him. She wanted him to be hers.

He looked almost ridiculously happy at her words. He kissed her again, on the mouth, down her neck, softly touched her breasts, which made her giggle.

"What?" he breathed next to hear ear.

"Nothing, just if anyone had told me yesterday you would be touching me like this today I would have said they were mental."

"And now?"

"Now I don't want you to stop."

He did not, and she said nothing more, just allowed herself to respond to his touch and pressed herself closer to him, straddling him. The only sound was the rain outside and their breaths becoming shallower and more rapid. He lay down on his back, pulling her with him, on top of him. Continuing to kiss her, he unmade her hair and made her feel beautiful by the look he gave her when the dark strands fell down her shoulders. Both were only in their underwear, but now even that felt like one layer too much between them, which just had to be removed. Now.

Skin to skin and with eyes locked into each other, movements were first slow but quickly building up to a faster, intense pace and it felt so good she almost did not know how to stand it. Everything around them disappeared in a lovely, lovely blur and there was only now.