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.

Chapter 21: Does he really care?

The remainder of that week, 2 section spent at the regiment and now they were all counting down the days until they would get to see their near and dear ones, the short encounter when they had been welcomed back at Brize was far from enough. Georgie could not stop herself from unconsciously looking for Jack, in the passageways, in the mess, on the parade ground, just in case he would be based at home right now. Sometimes she thought it was him when she saw a broad-shouldered figure from behind or a dark hair that reminded of his, but it always turned out to be someone else.

One day, she spotted Spanner walking across the yard and it sent her pulse spiking. If he was here, Jack was probably not far away.

"Hi Spanner, thanks for last time" she said smiling when he stopped in front of her, wondering what it was with these SF men and their weakness for non-regulation facial hair as Spanner sported a bigger beard than ever.

"Our pleasure Georgie and thanks to you too. You did well, maybe you should join special forces?" he smiled in return.

"I honestly don't think I would be either tough enough or motivated enough to pass that arduous selection."

She knew that few soldiers passed it and very rarely women. It was called Special Forces for a reason.

She was not sure how she felt about seeing Spanner. It probably meant that Jack was around, but it also meant he was in UK without having contacted her. Had she misinterpreted him in Estonia, about actually wanting something more this time? He had not said but it had felt like it. She had not thought it possible to feel so physically bonded to someone as she had to him that night unless there was something deeper underneath, but maybe he was so incredibly skilled at pretending that he was capable of it even in such a situation. It was obviously impossible to know where she had this man.

"Are you stationed in UK again?" she said, casually she hoped.

"Not really, we are just lingering here meanwhile the boss is on compassionate leave."

"Bones? Why?"

"His father passed away unexpectedly."

She knew Jack did not have the kind of loving relationship with his father that she had with her own, but she had sensed that he grieved that he never was close to him or felt appreciated by him. Now it was too late for that to ever happen and she wondered how he was taking it. She wished she was with him and could not help hoping this was the only reason why he had not contacted her despite being in the country.

- OG -

The following day she departed from the regiment for the planned leave, but before heading for Manchester she took a detour to London without telling anyone. She had another interview for med school, this time for King's College. The one for Manchester University she had already completed before Estonia, but she wanted to maintain all back-up options until she knew if she was accepted anywhere. These were final interviews and in May she would get to know if she was offered a place or not.

Georgie still had not shared her future plans with her family and intended to wait until she knew the outcome, knowing well that her parents would jump with joy when she told them. She did not want to disappoint them if she in the end was not admitted. Truth was that she did not know what to do if she was not, because she was so set on leaving the army now, the events in Estonia had strengthened her resolve. Therefore, she gave her absolute best during the multiple mini interviews that was part of the selection and afterwards felt quite good about her performance, but she had no way of knowing if she had made it and suspected she might get a nervous breakdown in May before she finally got to know the result.

The mentally draining interviews were followed by the 2-hour train ride to Manchester and when she after the long, exhausting day arrived home and dropped off her bergen on the hallway floor, she realised how good it felt to be there, in her own home. For each time she was away now she missed it more and more. She needed a fixed point, not a vagabond life. Right now, though, she was too knackered for any deeper thoughts and just hit the shower, moved on to the bed and fell fast asleep.

- OG -

She woke up abruptly, to a noise resounding through the flat and identified it as the doorbell ringing. She fumbled for her phone and the screen told her it was nearly 10 am. She did not even remember when she last slept that long. Shit. She did not feel like having visitors, not even her family. She was not expecting anyone, maybe it was just kids selling cookies for a school trip. Dazed she got up, stretched, and yawning threw a quick glance in the mirror before going for the door. Her hair was a bit messy but otherwise she looked proper, dressed in a white lace trimmed cotton tank top with matching shorts. She decided it had to be good enough for whoever the visitor was. If they saw she was still dressed for sleeping it might even send them away.

When she finally opened the door a few minutes had passed since the bell rang and she saw the back of a man who already had turned to start walking away. At the sound of the door opening, he turned around again, and she met a pair of blue eyes, the colour of a summer day sky, familiar but unexpected here.

"Jack!?"

She could not believe he was here at her doorstep.

Almost as surprising as him being here at all, was hit outfit. She had never seen him in civvies before, except when he was posing as a mercenary in Nigeria. That relaxed rough style had suited him, so she had unconsciously imagined that was what he looked like in private as well. What he was wearing today was completely different; a navy coloured trench which fit over his broad shoulders as if it were tailor made, underneath it an equally well-fitting crisp shirt in a blue colour that matched his eyes perfectly, paired with slim dark jeans. He looked extremely smart but almost like another man whom she never had met before. Bones/Captain McClyde/Jack was apparently a chameleon in many ways. She certainly had nothing to complain about, like this he was a strikingly handsome man, but she did not know what to expect from him now. She did not know this version of him at all. He looked a bit tired though, and maybe slightly insecure. That was also a new look because Bones had always seemed inexhaustible and never unsure of himself.

"Tell me if I am wrong to be here, and I will leave" he said.

She stepped closer and raised her palm to his cheek, held it there and saw relief flash in his eyes. She did not trust her voice not to break with nervousness when she spoke but had to say the words anyway.

"You're not going anywhere but in here with me"

She grasped his hand and pulled him with her inside. Door closed, they stood in the hallway just staring at each other for a few seconds.

"I needed you", he offered as an explanation for being there.

They moved simultaneously to close the space between them. She put her arms around his neck and he placed his hands on her hips, pulling each other closer, lips crashing together. When she felt the intense, unmasked need in his kiss, she was not the least sleepy anymore and certainly did not feel like sending him away. His hands roamed over her body, pressed her even tighter to him and he involuntarily groaned in to her mouth.

She pushed the open trench off his shoulders, tugged it down his arms and he dropped it on the floor.

"You're wearing far too much clothes Captain McClyde"

"Don't call me..."

"Hush, we can talk later."

She placed her fingers to his lips and he kissed them, nodding with a smile.

"Too much clothes, definitely."

He moved her hand down to the buttons of his shirt and she started to unbutton it slowly, button by button, like a reversal of his actions when he dressed her last time they met. When the shirt fluttered open she kissed his chest softly while her hands grazed over the ridges of his abs, moving downwards to where his jeans were tenting out and she heard him gasp. The shirt joined his coat on the floor. She was not even sure how the rest of his clothes disappeared, but she loved to feel how he was shivering with excitement when she touched him. They pressed their bodies against one another with the feverish feeling that they could not get close enough. She felt her feet leave the floor as he lifted her with strong arms, turning her so her back was up against the wall and she wrapped her legs around him and they ground against one another. Her loose sleeping shorts were still on, but he just moved them aside and with the tip of him found her wet core, rubbed against her folds, driving them both mad with desire and they merged into one right there in the hallway. He filled her so perfectly, hitting the perfect spot as he thrust harder and harder, as if he needed to let out some built up frustration or anger, or perhaps grief. She sensed it was not directed towards her. On the contrary he needed her to get rid of it and he did not hurt her, his long hard strokes were sheer pleasure to her. As if he realised himself how intense he was, he paused to look into her eyes with open vulnerability and desire in his own.

"I need you so fucking much."

She nodded and pulled him to her to kiss him, wrapped her legs harder around him and beckoned him to move again. Showed him she wanted him with all that she was, met him, followed his moves until they came undone together. After that final deep thrust, their lips met desperately, then slowed and softened to a gentle kiss as they were catching their breath.

Finally. Finally, he was here, in her world. No longer just an illusion on tour.

When he could hold her no longer, they collapsed into a pile of arms and legs on the floor, laughing. He leaned his forehead to hers.

"Sorry about that, if I made it too much about me?"

Smiling she traced the outline of his lips with her finger.

"Nothing to be sorry about, it was my absolute pleasure." Then she added with a giggle; "If you came here for a shag, you were successful. That is the fastest anyone has ever gotten me into bed, without a bed even."

She said this partly because even if this had been amazing, she did not know for sure why he had come all the way to Manchester and she was desperate to know.

He held her to him, now touching her silky hair.

"I didn't come here for a shag. I came here because I want to be with you. I can't help that you didn't even let me in properly before you ripped my clothes off."

He answered jokingly, but she understood he was truthful in that he wanted to be with her and that made her feel both giddy with joy and somehow safe.

"Uhum, that's actually true. I'm not a very good hostess, am I? Should have offered you a cuppa first."

"Didn't say that. I think you're an excellent hostess" he grinned, for a moment the cheeky Bones again, then turned serious and caressed her cheek. "But honestly, even if this was a lovely welcome it was not the only thing I came for. Far from it."

She grasped his hand and kissed first his palm, then his fingertips. "I think I have understood that by now."

For a moment they were just watching each other, locking eyes. His blue, her brown, equally sincere and open. She felt like he for the first time let her see inside him for real. Then dropped his gaze and she broke the silence.

"Come, let us have a shower and some breakfast and I will show you the rest of my little place. Maybe even the bedroom if you're lucky."

"Who needs a bedroom?" he murmured with his lips against her neck.

After a long shower together, they sat down by the kitchen island with toast and tea.

"When did you come here?"

"Drove from London this morning. Early. I was lying awake tonight, I have been doing that a lot lately, and then I realised what I wanted most was to see you. I knew from Spanner that you, or rather the entire section, just left for permission so I took a shot and went here."

She wondered how he knew her address but nothing surprised her when it came to the SF boys.

"I met Spanner the other day. I heard about your father. I'm so sorry."

He sat quiet, looking down on his own hands clasping the mug and then she realised he was crying. She understood why and left her bar stool to come and stand between his legs, wrapped her arms around him, rocked him and kissed away his tears. Silent, they stood like that for a long time.

"It's so stupid" he said at last, his voice breaking. "I thought I was way past caring about the old man, but now he is gone. He will never like me, approve of me for who I am, there are no more chances. It just feels so...fucking empty. I have been home with my family for some days, preparing the funeral and supporting mum, and all I could think of was that I wanted to see you. That I needed to be with you."

His shirt was on again but unbuttoned and she nestled her hands inside, to stroke his back.

"I can't tell you how happy I am that you're here. I have been longing for you since you left that morning. If you want to talk, I'm here."

"I want to talk, at some point but right now I just want to be close to you."

They kissed again and the love-making that followed was filled with both solace and passion. This time they made it to the bed and in contrast to the raw passion before, this time was slow and beautiful and after he fell to a much needed sleep in her arms, whilst she was stroking his hair.

Jack stayed for two days. Georgie told her family she had a bad cold and had to wait to see her. The first 24 hours they did not leave the flat and were seldom more than a few inches apart. If he sometimes had been distant before, it was like he had opened a gate and wanted nothing more than for her to enter, to know him for who he really was. They spent hours and hours cuddled up and talking and when he fell asleep she tried to stay awake because she could not get enough of looking at him. When she finally did she slept like a baby, feeling happier and safer than she had done for many years.

They did not yet speak of the future. They spoke of the past, shared memories that had shaped them, both happy and painful ones and used their bodies to heal one another. The only thing she dreaded was that he would have to leave soon, leave her behind once again.

"Georgie, there's something I'd like to ask you..." he said in the afternoon of the second day.

"Yes?" she was fearing what may come as she did not want to leave this bubble of happiness and intimacy. As much as she wanted a future with him beyond these days, she was unsure what that might look like. If it could be the life she needed.

"Can I take you out for a date tonight? Like a proper date?"

"Yes, I would love that", she beamed at him.

It felt surreal but fantastic to go on a date. Before, t had only known each other on tour, unequal in rank, and as lovers, but during these days they also took the first steps to knowing each other at home; learning what the other liked for breakfast; her cooking dinner and him learning she was pretty shitty at it; brushing teeth side by side looking at each other in the mirror with mischievous toothpaste grins; throwing his only change of clothes into the laundry machine and then giggling jump into bed as there was nothing they would rather do when he anyway was naked. Going on a date was another such step to knowing each other in a non-Army setting. To have a romantic meal in a restaurant, hold hands in public, chat about anything over a nice meal, have fun together and stroll back home with his arm around her shoulders and hers around his waist.

She loved the relaxed normality. The dates with Matt had been either contrived or slightly dull, she could see that now when she compared it to this easiness mixed with ever present attraction.

"This is the best date I have had in a very long time", she told him with a content sigh.

He pressed his lips to the top of her head.

"This is the best date I ever have had."

When he left next morning, to travel back to London for his father's funeral, Georgie knew for sure there was no turning back. She was utterly and madly in love with Jack McClyde.