A/N: These past couple of chapters have all been fluffy and plot-less. Whilst they're (hopefully) cute and quite fun to write, I suppose at some point I shall have to return to actually advancing the plot. It should move faster from here…

Also, I should admit, my research for this chapter was less thorough than it normally is. I did do a fair bit of reading into HALO jumps but couldn't actually find anything about where they normally land, so the stuff about them landing in water is possibly completely wrong but I did see it on TV once… so I'm gonna go with that.

And it's been a couple of chapters since I last thanked my most wonderful reviewers; SCRW, Darkhunter643, GreenEyedSparrow, I am Cheese and Cheese is Me. You are all incredible people, thank you very much for your encouragement and feedback!

Chapter 17

No matter how many times you do it, throwing yourself out of a plane is never easy, and if you've never done it before then it's downright bloody terrifying. By the time the actual jump rolled around, the entire team was a little on edge but one noticeably more than the others. Schofield, already HALO qualified, was wandering around the room double checking everyone's prepped gear before they got ready to head out to the airfield. He nearly did a double take when he passed by Skip.

"Harper," he said quietly, using her first name and crouching down in front of her. "Are you crying?"

"No, sir," she replied stiffly but the red lines tracked down her face told him otherwise.

Holding onto her elbow and almost lifting her to her feet, he said, "Come with me, I could use a cup of tea."

He steered her out the noisy and messy room and toward the small tea room at the end of the hall. When they got there, he deposited her gently into a chair and grabbed the nearest tin of biscuits he could see, holding them out to her. She took one gratefully and he smiled warmly at her.
"Do you want to talk about it?" He said as he filled the kettle and set it on to boil.

She shook her head and he just shrugged, turning around to rummage in the cupboards for some teabags. He didn't particularly like the stuff but his grandmother swore by it. 'There's nothing you can't fix with tea,' she often said.

"It's just," Skip began but cut herself off so Shane turned back to look at her. "You'll think it's silly."

Having found the tea bags, he dropped them in a pair of cups before dropping himself into the chair opposite hers.
"Try me," he said.

She looked at him appraisingly for a moment before saying with only a hint of a blush, "It's just boy trouble is all."

He could've laughed.
But he didn't.
"Well in that case, you've come to the right place," he chose to say instead, "Unless you'd rather talk to Mother."

He was pleased that he managed to make her smile as the kettle went off and he stood up to make the tea. He left his own strong and black whereas he knew Skip liked hers milky and sweet. She began to talk, cupping her hands around the warm mug, as soon as he set it in front of her.

"Do you know I'm getting married?" She began and he shook his head, surprised.

"No."

"Well, I am, been engaged for a bit over a year now so we'd better get on with it soon. My fiancé's not a marine and the thing is he doesn't think I should be either. We had a huge fight over it this morning and as stupid as it sounds, if I died in some freak accident today, I'd hate it if the last thing I said to him was an argument."

"Right," he replied seriously, "Forgive me for being a touch over-cautious but for some unfathomable reason I've got a problem with throwing people out of planes when they're feeling anything less than wonderful."

She laughed at him, holding the cup of tea to her lips.
"No," she said firmly. "I want to do this."

"Are you sure?" Schofield asked. "You can take the day off if you want, go home, work things out with him?"

Skip was silent for a moment. On one hand, she didn't want to let down the team and not doing the jump would just back up her fiancé's argument that she shouldn't be a marine anyway.
But on the other hand, she really wanted to make things right as soon as possible.
She drained the last of the tea and when she spoke, it was resolute.
"No. Thank you but I'm jumping."

Schofield just nodded and picked up the empty mugs, rinsing them quickly in the sink and hanging them up to dry. "If you're sure," he said.

Skip hesitated for a moment as he held the door open for her. She looked slightly shy when she asked, "Can I have the night off?"

Shane just smiled at her.
"Of course," he said. "Now come on, we've got a plane to catch."

Schofield gave her a reassuring sort of nod when they re-entered the fray. Looking calmer – or at least, as calm as everybody else preparing to jump out of a plane at thirty-five thousand feet can – Skip returned to the final preparations of her equipment whilst Schofield double checked everyone else's. When he reached Jack's, he nearly had a heart attack.
It was small, so very small that if you weren't paying two hundred per cent attention you would miss it.

There was a slit on the O-ring seal of his oxygen canister. He only noticed it when he ran his fingers around it and felt them catch faintly on the miniscule tear.

If he hadn't caught it, the bottle would have malfunctioned, leaving Jack stranded with nothing to breathe.

Jack would have died.

"Jesus, Taylor," he almost yelled, loud enough that the entire unit stopped what they were doing to look up, "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"Your O-ring's faulty," he said at an only slightly more sedate volume, holding up the offending oxygen tank.

Jack paled instantly.
"Shit," he breathed as he took the canister from Shane.

"Damn right," Schofield replied.
Whilst Jack went about hurriedly replacing the seal with a fully-functional, triple-checked one, Schofield ushered the remaining marines into the transport to take them to the air base. They sat silent and serious with game faces on. Nobody said a word the whole journey there.

Schofield was the first out of the truck the second they arrived at the base. The huge C-130 plane they would do the drop from was already sitting on the runway, engines running and raring to go.

"Let's go people," he called as they ran across the tarmac and under the enormous outstretched wings. As he sat himself down, he shook his head almost imperceptibly at Jack, who had tried to sit next to him. It wasn't that he was really angry at Jack per se. It was, after all, an easy mistake to make and that was why they had people to double and triple check their equipment before any accidents happen; but it would look odd enough for Jack to choose to sit next to him given that the remaining members of the unit were all under the impression that they barely tolerated each other's presence. It was also hard enough not being able to touch him – not a gentle touch on his knee or even a brush of hands - or do anything that might give the game away under normal circumstances. Given how very close things had come to going very wrong, he wasn't sure he could stop himself. If Jack were close to him right now, he was afraid he might not let him go.

So he was much relieved when Skip, exuberance reinstated, dropped into the empty seat beside him. As the plane took off, climbing into the clear blue sky, she tore her eyes away from the window and the ground growing ever smaller to turn to him.
"You okay?" She asked, "Not so good with heights?"

"I'm a Pilot, remember," He replied, "So no, no problems with heights."

"Then what's the matter?"

He thought long and hard about how to answer truthfully but discreetly.
"Before, you were talking about not going home to your loved ones," he said eventually, "and then Jack damn near goes and does exactly that. It rattled me."

He looked at her in consideration. Coming to the conclusion that he was probably going to regret this but she had been honest with him and the least he could do was be honest in return – mostly.

"Can you keep a secret?" He said and she immediately perked up with interest. "I'm seeing someone."

She squealed in her excitement and he quickly shushed her, not that it was necessary. The belly of a cargo plane is actually an excellent place to hold a private conversation because no matter how many people there are around you, they can't hear a word you're saying over the roar of the engines unless you're saying it right in their ears.

"Ooh, who is he?" Skip asked immediately.

"Nobody," Schofield replied evasively but Skip was never one to be easily put off. Shane suspected that with time, she might become Mother's protégée and that he was going to regret ever introducing them.

"Does Nobody have a name?" She prodded.

His only response was to give her the look and she knew that line of questioning was going to be useless, so she tried a different track.
"Is it serious? How long have you been together? Where did you meet? Do I know him?"

"Anybody ever told you, you talk too much," Schofield replied, laughing. "That's a lot of questions."

Skip said nothing, just looked at him expectantly and he couldn't help but smile. He really should suggest her for officer training, he thought, because the look she gave him was eerily reminiscent of himself.

"I hope so. Not long. On base. Probably. Happy now?" He said and she grinned at him.

"Oh my god, Is it a marine?"

Shane tried to nod discretely but it was absolutely useless when Skip's mouth fell open in shock.
"Wow," she mouthed silently and finished the sentence aloud, she said, "Well, hence the secrecy. No wonder you wouldn't tell me who he is. Is he out?"

He just shook his head a little and she continued, "That's gotta be hard on you."

"It's hard on both of us."

She snorted a little laugh and he looked at her quizzically, obviously missing something.
"Pun not intended," she explained giggling, from behind her hands.

Then it was his turn to drop his jaw with surprise but also a slightly amused smile.
"You cheeky little…" he said teasingly and she just smiled as innocent as pie.

"Well are you?"

"What?"

"Sleeping together?"

"I'm gonna refuse to answer that question," he replied, trying to appear dignified but unable to hide the pink tinge creeping across his cheeks.

All of a sudden it seemed, the red light above the loading door flicked on and the ramp began to open with a groaning rumble. When that light turned green, it was time to go. They all started to unbuckle and strap on face masks, oxygen tanks and altimeters. As the bustled about, excited and nervous all in one go, Shane was surprised when Harper was suddenly standing in front of him with her arms wrapped around his neck.

He returned the hug and heard her say over the roar of the wind, "I'm really happy for you."

The light flicked to green and the first person – Rebound – ran off the ramp and disappeared into the wide open skies.
"Thank you," he managed to mouth back at her before the light flashed green again. It was her turn and a second later, she was gone.