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 28: Trapped

"You're needed?"

"Yes."

"I thought we would have this weekend."

She was so disappointed she felt sick.

"You know it's not up to me. But hey, this will be the last time I go away. Then it will be only you and me, doing what we want with our lives without interference."

He stepped closer, but she stepped back, too upset for wanting a hug.

"I just wasn't prepared... not after these days. It has been so perfect, but so short and I'm not ready for it to end yet."

"It has been perfect and all I want is to stay, but I can't."

"Duty calls, right?"

She hoped she did not sound bitter or sarcastic because she did not want to, even if she could not help feeling it on the inside. She knew how much she herself had resented when Jamie was holding her back when she was going on tour. She did not want to be that person.

"Come here" he said and pulled her to the sofa, ignoring her resistance. He sat down and took her with him in an embrace.

"Duty calls... but maybe it will feel better when you hear what it is about."

"Are you allowed to tell?"

She was surprised, that had never happened before. Not with him, not with Elvis.

"This time I am because it isn't classified. I'm just needed for my expertise anyway, not going with the rest of the unit. Have you read in the news about the boys in Thailand who are stuck in a cave?"

"A bit. Why?"

"That's the mission. To help get them out."

On June 23, 2018, twelve boys from a Thai football team had gone on an excursion in the Tham Luang Nan Non cave together with their coach. But a monsoon rain came, and the entrance was blocked and now the group had been caught inside the 10-kilometer cave system for two weeks. A few days ago, they had been located but there was still the issue of getting them out and it was a fight against the clock as continued rain could flood the whole cave system and drown them.

"But why you?"

"It is a highly risky operation to get them out, both for the boys and those who will extract them. I don't even think they know how to yet, the only way in and out is to dive for hours and obviously the boys don't know how to dive at all. International teams with the most experienced people from all over the world are being sent there - and beside being SF soldier I'm a highly experienced diver."

Of course, he was, she thought. Why did he have to be so damn skilled?

"So, you will help with the extraction?"

"I will be part of the team UK sends there."

"Must you go?" she could not help the question slipping out of her.

"Georgie, it is children who are trapped in there while the whole world is watching. We must do whatever we can not to let them die in front of us and time is running out. If we don't do everything we can, we can't call ourselves decent human beings. And now that they have requested me, I feel I just must go. I think you understand, don't you?"

She did not want to, but she did. Of course she did. If they had asked her she would have gone without hesitation. She buried her face by his collarbone.

"I do, and I love you for being the one to do this, but I will count the days until you're back."

"So will I, but we still have the night."

He kissed her and then, with her still in his arms rose from the sofa and carried her to the bed, where he lay her down. He posed himself beside her, so he could reach all of her. Looking at her, he traced the contour of her lips with his index finger, then placed his lips there softly. He started kissing every inch of her body, first the already bare skin and gradually removing clothes and kissing the newly undressed parts.

"I don't want any part of you to feel that it has been forgotten" he whispered, lips pressed to her neck.

"Then I think you need to kiss me here" she pointed him in the direction of her breasts and he willingly closed his lips around her nipples, treating one at a time. Once they both were pointing stiff he asked: "Anywhere else that feels neglected?"

"Here…" giggling she guided his head further downwards and as he followed her command applying lips, tongue and fingers she could not think of anything but the intense pleasure building up like a wave and finally exploding inside of her as she was arching her body against him. He kept his fingers deep inside her for as long as she was shuddering around them, then slowly retracted them and swiftly undressed himself with the intention to come into her and extinguish his own need, but she stopped him.

"Now it is your turn" she patted the bed beside her with a sly smile and as he lay down, she too kissed him all over. Oh, how she loved to touch him and look at him. She loved stroking his broad back, where the muscles were playing as soon as he made the smallest move yet were slender rather than bulgy just as she liked them. She caressed the flat six-pack abs which was the first part of him she ever had touched.

"Washboard soldiers…" she whispered.

"What?"

"Washboard soldiers, that was what you said that you wanted us to be. You better not get too chubby yourself when you leave the army, because I love you like this", she teased.

"And here I thought you loved me only for my beautiful inside."

"That too, but not only."

She continued her administrations, first with feather light caressing touches using her hands and mouth, driving him mad as he already was so excited and soon she touched more teasingly, more enticing and she heard him groan. She loved to know she was turning him on and that he was close to the edge.

"Georgie, please" he begged. "I need to be inside you - now."

She smiled and gave a short nod. His need for taking command asserted itself and he nimbly pulled her up to come level with him, flipped them around so he came on top of her, into her and they moved together, faster and more intense with each push until he climaxed, and she a second time.

They lay silent for a long while, catching their breath, their skin glued together by the thin film of perspiration that covered them both.

"Jack McClyde, you are forgiven for leaving me" she sighed.

"Are you sure? Otherwise I have something else that might cheer you up."

"What then?"

"Nah, you seem content as it is. I don't need to tell you know."

He rolled of her to lie on his back, next to her, with a mischievous grin.

"Jack!"

"Georgie?" He continued grinning even when she threw a pillow on his face.

"Please, tell me."

"Okay, as you are asking so nicely. Thing is, there is something I have been wanting to ask you for some time."

"Okay?"

"We have only been seeing each other a couple of months and I know you're very independent and all that... but would you like to move in with me when you move to London?"

She had not been expecting this and felt her heart jolt.

"Are you sure you would want that?"

"I think I can fit in one poor student in my house."

"You can fit in twenty poor students if you want to, but do you really want me to move in?"

"Otherwise I wouldn't ask. I'm thinking I will be working quite much, getting up to speed with the family business. You will have your studies, and everyone knows that med school is no walk in the park. This means, we will be away from each other a lot, and then I would love if we came home together - to our home."

His expression was nonchalant, but his blue eyes were pleading, and she realised this was not just making amends for leaving, he really wanted her there.

"I want to move in with you, and not because you have such an extremely beautiful home, but I want to be with you too."

She was not sure that Jack McClyde was the marrying kind, but on the other hand she was not sure if she was either with two cancelled weddings behind her, but she felt in this moment that she wanted to spend the rest of her life with him. It just felt a bit premature to tell him that much.

Before they fell asleep, happy about the decision they just made, he ordered a cab for the early morning hours. They slept tight together with him as the large spoon, her as the little one. She was still lying there as he kissed her goodbye and closed the door at dawn. Silently, tears were running down her cheeks wetting her pillow, as she felt the sheets getting cold in the now empty space beside her.

- OG -

Even though she wished he did not have to go she was not worried initially, thinking this last mission of his could have been something much worse but as she followed the intense news reporting she changed her mind. She got increasingly anxious when she understood the complexity of the operation. Soon she was following the news in an almost obsessive manner. She was not sure which was worst; before, when he had been away for covert ops that she knew nothing about, or now when it was almost like reading the tabloids for gossip.

One morning she had routinely turned on the news and listened to the reporter whilst brushing her teeth.

"This cave adventure has now demanded its first casualty. A special forces soldier helping in the efforts to extract the boys has been reported dead. Apparently, it was lack of oxygen..."

Georgie had dropped the toothbrush and stood frozen, a chill going through her entire body and a shrill sound ringing in her ears. The familiar and horrible pressure over the chest was there, she could not breathe, and it was worse than ever before. Casualty. Lack of oxygen. It was him. She could feel in her whole body that it was him. He was gone, and she was alone again. Then she did not remember more because everything around her was just in a haze.

Lulu found Georgie when she came by to pick her up for the jog they had planned together. She was sitting in a corner of the sofa, rocking from side to side, hugging a pillow, staring into thin air. She had no idea how long it was since she heard the news, how long she had been sitting there. It was as if time both stood still and had stretched to be endlessly long. Seconds seemed like hours, hours like years. Time did not matter anymore, if Jack was not there to share it with her.

Without knowing what had happened, Lulu could easily see that it was bad. Really bad. They used to joke about the psychology class she had taken but never passed, but one or two things had actually stuck, and she realised Georgie was in shock and had some kind of panic attack. Now she tried to connect with her.

"Georgie... Georgie? What has happened?"

To Georgie it was like someone was talking to her from afar, through a thick fog, but after a while her focus shifted from infinity to actually looking at and seeing Lulu.

"Lulu... what are you doing here?"

"I came to pick you up for our jog. What's happened?"

"No jog today. Jack is dead..."

"WHAT?!"

"I saw it on the news..."

"They said his name?"

"No, they said it was a special forces soldier, died there in those caves, but I know it's him. I can feel it. I feel it in my whole body. I know his gone, I know we won't be happy together. It has happened again."

"But you can't be sure, not if they have not said. Have you called him? Texted him?"

She had not, panic had crippled her logical thinking. Lulu helped her to dial the number on the phone, Georgie's own hands were shaking too much, but on the other end it went directly to the recorded answering message. Hearing the message in his familiar, cheeky, loved voice broke her heart. She would never hear it again for real.

She coiled up in the sofa again, sobbing, finding it hard to get enough air.

"Georgie don't do this to yourself. We must find out more before we can be sure."

"I feel it" she just said and shut out she world, trapped in grief and panic.

Lulu was devastated to see her sister like this, but it was not easy to find out more details at this point. She did not want to have the TV on for Georgie's sake but googled all that she could. So far, the scarce information was identical from all sources: a special forces soldier had died, but there was no mentioning of name or even nationality. She tried calling Jack again and this time left a message. "Jack, it is Lulu. If you hear this, call back to Georgie as soon as you can. Please!"

But it remained silent.

Lulu called their dad and Max came, taking care of his daughter in the best way he could but he realised that the only thing that could help get her out of this black hole right now was a miracle. He heard her whispering the same phrase again and again, like a charm "Come back to me, I love you."

And then, after almost 24 hours of nothingness, the miracle happened. Georgie's phone rang. Lulu picked it up, checking the display

"It says it's Jack."

Light of hope returned in Georgie's eyes, but she almost did not dare to answer.

"Are you there, love?"

It was him, his voice.

"You're alive!"

Then she could not say more, choking with tears and emotions.

"Why wouldn't I be?" he seemed confused, not at all understanding how come she had worried in the way he could hear she had.

"They said a special forces soldier was dead... and you did not answer."

"I'm here! I'm alive! I have only been working. I was in that cave the last twelve hours, couldn't answer the phone. It is a bloody sad story about the dead guy, but he was a Thai former marine. Didn't they say? I never occurred to me you might think it was me. Georgie, for how long did you think I was dead?"

"Since I heard it. I don't know how long, a lifetime. It's been a lifetime without you and I felt I couldn't make it. Come home."

"Oh, baby. I will, soon. I wish I could come now but now we're all set up to extract the boys over the next days. We will take care."

"But one died."

"And we learned from that. It won't happen again, and I promise I will call you every time I'm out. I will be home in no time. I love you."

"Come back to me."

"I will."

Lady Luck had been smiling at them this time. He was not Elvis and maybe she was not jinxed after all. Maybe they would be allowed to live happily ever after. She sunk into the couch again, completely exhausted but endlessly happy. They talked a while longer, he told about everything that was going on over there and when they said good bye she fell asleep and slept like a baby.

No doubt, all available resources were needed over there in Thailand. Using pumps, the water levels had been reduced in the cave, but new rain storms were expected and if they did not manage to extract the boys in the next three to four days they might be caught inside for months or drown or die from the air quality getting worse by the day.

Over the next days, the rescue operation was launched, and reports came that successively small groups of boys had been successfully extracted, accompanied by divers and then transported to hospital. One of the divers was Jack and Georgie was nervous, knowing that he faced an 11-hour round trip diving – on the way back being responsible for guiding one boy. But all went well. On July 9, eighteen days after they first walked into the cave, the last boys and the coach were rescued. There were no more casualties and the dead Thai marine soldier was honoured for having sacrificed his life. Georgie was immensely grateful it was over, and her Jack was alive.

- OG -

She was now back at the regiment for her final weeks before leaving for good and impatiently waiting for the phone call from Jack, confirming he was back home. She was walking over the parade ground with Maisie, who just asked if she had heard anything from him, when she heard a harsh voice shouting behind them.

"Corporal Lane! Halt, and turn around!"

She was not the only one turning to the sound of the commanding voice, but probably the only one who got butterflies in her stomach from it.

There he was, standing in the bright sunlight with a giant smile on his face and open arms. For a second, she just took in the sight, then rushed towards him and leaped into his embrace. Quite a few jaws dropped as many still had not known about this unlikely couple. Georgie and Jack did not care that everyone could see them or that this was not proper army behaviour at all, they kissed, and kissed and kissed - until someone had the nerve to shout, "Get a room!"

"Sod off!" Jack shouted back but the interruption made them gather themselves somewhat.

"I'm freakin' happy to see you."

"Me too, freakin' happy to see you and now I'm home for good. From tomorrow my services belong to you only and the Queen can go... well she can go pull an old blanket over herself or whatever because now I'm not running away on her account ever again."

"Never thought about that she was the woman I was competing with" Georgie giggled.

"Well, Her Royal Highness really lost the fight long ago. All I want is right here in my arms."

As they kissed again, Georgie knew that was true for her too.