A/N: New chapter a day early because the rest of this week is insane! I'm hoping to have the final part out this weekend, but it's going to depend on how well Christmas shopping goes...Anyway, enough of my rambling about that! I can't believe I've gotten to (nearly) the end already! It's probably a good thing, because I've started writing new material again, and would love to be able to focus on that. I had another Primeval story started about a year ago, and then hit horrible writer's block, so I left it. Earlier this week, I had my 'Aha!' moment with it, and figured out how to get it flowing again. So while I don't think those updates will be quite as quick as these ones, I hope that I can start getting new stuff out soon. Thanks to everyone for all the lovely reviews! Enjoy chapter 14!

********** As Long As You're Mine **********

"You look more like yourself already." Jess jumped at the unexpected (yet familiar) voice, and looked at the doorway using the mirror's reflection.

Becker stood leaning against the doorframe, and easy smile on his face. She tucked her hair behind her ear and shot him a soft smile back as he pushed off from the wall and walked towards her, one hand in his pocket, the other behind his back.

"I hear we had a bit of an EMD issue?" she asked casually, despite the fact that her heart had started to race the second she saw him standing there, watching her.

"Nothing that my soldiers couldn't handle, but they wanted me to be aware of what had happened and see how it had been fixed," he told her, coming to a stop directly in front of her. She could feel the heat radiating off of his body as his eyes bore into her own. He made a sudden, fairly small movement, and she glanced down.

In the hand that had been behind his back, he was holding two roses: one yellow and one blue.

Her eyes lit up, and she looked back up at his face as he gently pressed them into her hands. "You didn't think I'd give Abby and Emily one, and not you, did you?"

"Well, technically, you already gave me two," she teased.

"Yes, but those were more 'break a leg' roses," he said, leaning in towards her a bit.

"And these?" she asked, tilting her face upward.

"These are 'I told you so' roses."

" 'I told you so' roses?"

"Well I did say that you'd be amazing, did I not?"

She laughed lightly and nodded. "That you did."

"See?" he said, closing the gap between them to catch her lips in a sweet kiss. She sighed into it, and rested her hands on his chest as she continued the kiss. His arms held her waist loosely as he teased her mouth open with his tongue, deepening the kiss further.

A moment later, they both felt a buzzing from his pocket. He slowly pulled away from her and reached for his cell phone as Jess turned back to the mirror, gently placing her roses on top of her wig.

"It's a text from Connor," he told her. "They're going over to the pub and asked if I wanted to meet them." He smiled as the second message came in. "He also says that if I'm still here in half an hour, that he's coming back to get me away from work."

Jess chuckled softly. "Abby said pretty much the same thing to me."

Becker pocketed his cell phone again, and moved to stand behind her, hands again at her waist. "So why aren't you there already?" he whispered into her ear.

She shivered at the near contact, but fixed him with a pointed look in the mirror at his question. "Because I don't want to go looking like Kermit the Frog, thanks." He laughed, and she smiled. "I told them I'd be over as soon as I get some of this green off me."

"Need a hand?" he asked, his fingers dancing around her ribs. She shivered again.

"Well it would be easier to get my shoulders from where you are," she said, holding up one of the cloths and her makeup remover. He poured some of it on the grey fabric while she pulled her hair up into a clip and off her neck. Becker's breath hitched a bit at her exposed neck, but be forced himself to stay calm. Handing her back the bottle so she could use it on the other cloth she had, he gently started to rub it over the backs of her arms.

Jess forced herself to stay calm as she felt his soft touch. His strength could be felt, but he was treating her with such care that it threatened to overwhelm her mind. Her heart was still beating furiously, and she had no idea that his was too. Jess worked at the front of her shoulders and arms. "Why aren't you just having a shower to wash this off?" he inquired, trying to make small talk and distract himself. Unfortunately, as soon as the words left his mouth, a vision of her doing just that flashed through his mind…only he was in there helping her.

The same idea had pitched itself through Jess' brain as well, and she had to close her eyes briefly as a blush started to stain her cheeks. "If everyone wasn't already at the pub, I would. But it'd take too long to do that and then get myself ready. Plus, it's a bit cold out for wet hair at the moment."

He smiled, nodding. After a short pause, he looked at her reflection in the mirror. "You really were spectacular tonight." She met his gaze and gave him a brilliant smile. "Truly, Jess. I had no idea you could sing like that."

"Well it's not something I go around bragging about," she told him. "Honestly, I don't even think I'm that good, but when Emily asked me to do this, I couldn't say no."

"You don't think you're good?" he asked in disbelief.

She shrugged. "I've only ever done it for fun. I'm nowhere near as good as the people who have private training."

"Sometimes those people end up wasting their money because they don't even have half of your talent." His eyes had never left her reflection, even though hers had dropped in shyness. But now she raised her head and looked back at him in the mirror, gracing him with the sweetest smile he'd ever seen on her face (and he'd seen a lot).

They lapsed back into silence, trying to focus on the task at hand. Unfortunately, Becker's hands on her skin were causing problems for both of them, as the gentle friction of his movements was all they could focus on. They'd finished with her upper arms, so he carefully slid one of her dress straps over her shoulder so he'd have better access to the painted skin underneath. She let out a quiet gasp as he did so, and forced herself to focus on trying to get the green off of her collarbone.

Then, without warning, something happened that threw them both for a complete loop.

Becker was working the cloth over her shoulder blade with a bit extra force, because he knew that despite her calm demeanor she had been under a fair bit of stress over the last little while. So he decided to add in a bit of a massage to ease some of the tension that he could see. Over the cloth, his fingers stroked her skin gently but firmly, and he could see her eyes drifting shut as he did. If he hadn't been so focused on her, he might have missed the single word to slip past her lips as she sighed.

"Hil…"

Never in a million years had he ever thought his name could be said with such desire. He'd hated his name since he was young, but now, hearing it come from her in such a way, it was one of the best sounds he'd ever heard. While these thoughts went through his head, he happened to hit a knot in her back, and Jess let out a strangled moan as she tilted her head away, further exposing her neck to him.

That's when he snapped.

Without thinking, Becker leaned in and pressed his lips to the newly reachable skin, letting them linger with just the slightest amount of pressure. Jess froze, eyes whipping open. Her heartbeat tripled again, and she tried futilely to stay calm. His lips grazed the side of her throat, moving so very slowly towards her ear. She could feel his teeth nipping softly, and felt the tremors start inside of her as her eyes slipped shut again.

Without breaking contact with her neck, Becker placed the damp cloth on the counter and brought his hands to her waist to pull her closer to him. She felt her own cloth drift out of her grasp as she leaned into him. He trailed his fingers along her waist and around her stomach as his mouth continued to tease her neck. When he finally reached her ear, he bit down on her earlobe and she gasped at the sensation.

Taking the initiative once he had released her ear, Jess spun around on the spot and kissed Becker. Hard. Her arms flew to the back of his neck, holding him close as she raked her fingers through his thick hair. He groaned into her mouth, pushing her back against the counter as the kiss intensified. His hands had stayed at her hips when she turned, and now they slid up her ribs, agonizingly slow. Eventually, they came to rest at the top of her ribcage, holding her in place as he continued to ravage her mouth.

Jess was getting dizzy already, and clung to him like he was her lifeline. She could feel the hard planes of his body as he held her tight against him, and leaned in as close as she could. The kiss was indescribably good, and she wanted nothing more than for it to last forever. She loosened her hands a tiny bit from his neck to move them to his back, but felt her knees weaken as she did.

Without breaking the kiss even for a second, Becker, feeling Jess' sudden loss of strength, grasped her waist a bit firmer and lifted her to sit on the counter behind her. She let out a soft cry at the movement, but that cry turned into a deep moan that was swallowed by his kisses as he stepped closer to her. Her skirt bunched up a bit closer to her waist as her legs wrapped around his hips, pulling him flush against her and causing them both to let out a groan. From her new angle, she managed to start fisting his shirt at his shoulder, digging her nails into the hard muscles beneath the fabric.

Oxygen was becoming an issue for both of them, but neither wanted to pull away. Jess finally blinked first, raising her face from his to pull in a large gulp of air. He took a quick breath of his own before latching his lips onto her still-green neck, sucking hard on her pulse point. She let out a whimper and grabbed at his hair again. When he was satisfied that he'd marked her well enough through the paint, his lips travelled down to her collarbone as he leaned her back towards the mirror. He kept one hand on her back the whole time, while the fingers of the other drifted over her heated body: skimming her waist, up her chest to tease her throat and then back down to stroke the lovely bare legs that her hiked-up dress was showing off.

Becker kissed all the way down to the low neckline of her dress, and then ran his tongue along the edge of it, forcing a gasp from Jess' mouth. She then leaned down and in for another fiery kiss. He gladly obliged and the hand on her back wrapped around her even tighter as he did. The feeling of her crushed up against him was thrilling, and something that he definitely wanted to repeat over and over again. He groaned as she gently rocked her hips towards his, and pushed his own hardness back against her luscious body.

They both let out a sharp yell as Becker's phone suddenly buzzed in the pocket that was pressed intimately between them. The shock slowed their kiss a bit, and they gradually pulled their lips apart, still keeping their bodies in close contact. Becker took one look at Jess' face (lips red and puffy, cheeks flushed through her slightly faded green makeup and her blue eyes almost black with desire) and nearly forgot why he'd pulled back when the phone buzzed again. Jess' cry snapped his attention back up but did nothing to ease the lust coursing through his body at the feel of her in his arms.

Her eyes met his as he brought one hand around from her hip. He let his fingers trail along her heated skin over her dress, watching her the whole time. He slipped his hand down for the phone in his front pocket, and smirked as it brushed the inside of her thigh, causing her eyes to slam shut as she moaned for him again. Pulling the phone out and flipping it open, he read the text message and then turned his wrist to check the time.

"We have to go," he said softly. Her eyes opened again and she gazed at him longingly with darkened eyes. He held up the phone in response as she tried to calm her breathing. "Connor just texted me to see if I was on my way yet. Apparently Abby's getting ready to come back looking for you too."

Jess let out a deep sigh and nodded. Looking back up at him, she let a small laugh escape her. He looked at her quizzically, and she shifted her position on the counter a bit (delighting in the groan she elicited from him at the movement) so he could see his reflection in the mirror over her shoulder. His hair was mussed and there were traces of green paint all around his mouth. Becker laughed at the sight, and at Jess' devilish giggle before leaning in for another soft kiss. Still with her legs around him, he replied to Connor by saying that he was just finishing up a few things at the ARC and would be there soon. Within a minute, he'd received another text from the scientist. Becker chuckled as he read it, helping Jess off the counter in the process.

"Apparently I'm to check and make sure that you're finished too. Abby figures that'll be easier than her coming all the way back."

"Well at least we know they aren't going to burst in on us here," Jess said, smiling as she grabbed one of the cloths and gently rubbed it over the green on his face. He took up his own, and they made relatively short work of what remained of the de-greening process. When Jess was her normal shade of blushing pink again, she quickly washed her face and neck and dried off.

Ever the gentleman, Becker left and waited outside the locker room so she could change. She emerged looking very happy, wearing a loose-necked turtleneck sweater, jeans and a pair of heeled boots on her feet. When he eyed her legs, she gave him a shrug. "It's too cold for heels and a skirt," she said matter-of-factly, and he chuckled as he pulled her close. One long, gentle kiss later, and they headed for the ARC exit with his arm draped casually around her shoulders and all four of her roses dangling safely from her hand.