Hi again. The next installment for Transitions, Underground. Please enjoy.
-----Chapter 14 – Transitions, Part 3 – Underground-----
Sierra rolled to the side as Cole's Bantos stick slammed into the mat inches from where her head had been a moment ago. Kicking her legs up into a crouch and shoving herself to her feet she jabbed at her teammate, catching him in the stomach. He grunted with the blow before deflecting her clumsy follow through from her other hand. They spun apart, Cole stumbling with his footwork and growling in frustration. The sticks felt heavy and foreign in Sierra's hands. Needless to say, neither of them was very good at the fighting style Teyla was trying to teach them.
With a sigh of frustration, Sierra straightened and called for a time out. Cole seemed to slump in relief, tossed his practice sticks aside and picked up his water bottle and towel.
"We just need more practice," she assured him. He cocked an eyebrow at her skeptically before taking a large swig from his water bottle. Yeah, that probably wasn't going to help, she agreed privately. Picking up her own water bottle she took a seat under the stained window in the gym. Glancing across the room, she saw her other two teammates spotting each other on the weights. Other than themselves, they were the only ones in the gym.
It was a day off for them, Sierra and her team. It had been over a month since Cole, Stackhouse and Markham had been released from the Infirmary with Pegasus Fever, as Beckett was calling it, and had been on two standard recon missions since. For the first time in a while, there had been no incidents on their missions and Elizabeth had decided to reward them with five days stood down. However, there was very little to do on the base, so they had taken to inhabiting the gym after hours.
Just the day before, Sierra had managed to coerce Teyla into teaching herself and her team some moves of the fighting style she was very adept at. Stackhouse and Markham had watched the demonstration and bailed rather spectacularly, claiming they'd forgotten to do their laundry. That had left Cole and Sierra to endure Teyla's tough tutelage. Sierra had heard John complaining occasionally about the brutal treatment the Athosian dealt him, and after experiencing it first hand, she vowed never to rag on him again.
Next to her, Cole threw down his towel and water bottle, and stretched his calf muscles against the bench. Subtly letting herself watch him for a moment she recalled how she had laughed at the shorts he had chosen to wear, compared to her sweatpants. Now she didn't think it was such a bad idea.
He had very nice legs. Perfect, toned muscles; overly pale, white skin; thick, curly blond hairs. His ankles were a little skinny, and it looked as though he'd had reconstructive knee surgery at some point, but all in all, they were nice legs. Taking a gulp from her bottle, she forced her eyes elsewhere.
Cole then stood straight again, shaking out his lumber limbs. "Would you care to try a bit of hand-to-hand for a bit instead?" he asked.
Sierra's eyes darted back to him, but they were distracted; Cole had taken to stretching his shoulders and was pulling his elbow behind his head, causing the hem of his shirt to rise above the waist band of his shorts. This action revealed a nicely toned and ridged stomach with a trail of darker hair splashed up to his navel. Suddenly realizing she was staring, she forced herself to look back to his face.
"Um, sure," she said as confidently as possible. Setting her water bottle aside, she stood and plucked her t-shirt from her sweaty back and shoulders. Blowing her arrant bangs from her eyes, she stalked him on the training mat, taking up a fighting pose opposite him. "I hope you know what you're in for," she jested, flicking her head.
Cole smirked at her, wiping the sweat from his chin with his sweat band. "Don't worry, ma'am," he said. "I know how to keep my eyes on my opponent."
Sierra narrowed her eyes. That was definitely a reference to the time she had fought John and ended up on her ass after she had beaten him already. Unfortunately, everyone on the base knew about that. Even Elizabeth had given her crap about it on Ladies Night three weeks.
"Let's see what you got," she goaded, darting quickly toward him, jabbing her first blow at his shoulder and dashing back again. The blow didn't land, but it put him on the defensive right away.
Sierra was a little smaller than Cole, and was lighter on her feet, so she darted at him again and again, dancing just out of reach each time he tried to make a grab for her. Smirking at him, she dodged inside the reach of his arms and, jabbing him in the ribs first, took hold of one of his outstretched arms, pulled it behind his back and knocked the back of his knees. He collapsed to the floor in a heap, with Sierra leaning heavily over him.
"Yield?" she puffed in his ear.
"Yes, ma'am," Cole gritted out. Sierra chuckled lightly before releasing him and helping the lieutenant to his feet. Cole's face was carefully schooled, but she could tell that he wouldn't underestimate her again. A quick glance over at their other teammates showed that they had stopped in their weight training to watch the bouts unabashedly.
Sierra turned her focus back to Cole who was readying himself for another go at her. She mirrored his stance, aware that she had shown him just what she had in her.
Cole circled around her, seeming to try and find an opening in her defense. They circled for a moment, before Cole rushed at her. Sierra, her reflexes sharpened by years of flying planes, ducked around him as he came at her, intending to get a shot at his unprotected back. But he was prepared for that and brought his elbow down on her shoulder as she passed by, sending her spinning away. She stopped before she reached the end of the mat and turned to face him in time to see his fist come for her face. Again she ducked out of the way, throwing up her arm in time to catch his other fist before it landed in her stomach.
Cole was a lot faster than someone of his build should be, and Sierra was hard pressed to deflect all his blows and get her own blows in to turn this fight so that he was the one on the defensive. The best thing was that he wasn't holding back, and her opinion of her 2IC went up a notch.
Sierra grunted in pain as three well-placed strikes slipped past her defenses; one to her cheek, and two to her solar plexus. She danced out of his reach while she caught her breath again. Sweat trickled down her face, stinging on the small cut just below her eye. Sucking in a breath, she prepared herself for Cole's next attack.
He came at her with a slight smirk on his face. Sierra frowned with determination and knocked aside his left handed jab at her catching his other hand as his came for her kidneys. But his sweat made his arm slippery, and at the same time that she struck out at his stomach, his arm came free of her grip. Quick as lightening, he caught her arm in the same manner she'd had his and, with a free hand in the middle of her chest, flipped her onto her back, slamming down onto the mat, while using her own arm as the pivot.
From her position on the floor she looked up at Cole as he leaned over her. "Yield?" he asked pleasantly arrogant.
Sierra grumbled up at him. Smirking, he helped her to her feet.
"How about this," she said, bending over to rest her hands on her knees while she caught her breath; she wasn't as young as she used to be. "Two out of three buys the other a drink." Out of the corner of her eye she saw Stackhouse and Markham shake hands, no doubt on some kind of personal bet involving herself and Cole.
The lieutenant cocked his head, and said, "We don't have a bar here, captain."
She shrugged her shoulder. "So? It's a figure of speech," she said, rolling her shoulders to loosen them. "Come on, what d'you reckon?"
Cole tipped his head slightly, agreeing to the wager. "You're on," he said, raising his hands in front of him in a fighting stance and letting Sierra take the offensive.
They circled, yet again, and Sierra struck out at Cole, every now and then feeling one land on his sensitive spots. Something told her that Cole was playing her, letting those few through to give her a false sense that she had one up on him.
If she wanted to win this, then she had to tread carefully. Cole was strong and fast, and more dangerous than he looked. But she was just as quick and had a handful more years of experience behind her.
The bout was intense, quick-paced and forced Sierra to concentrate fiercely. Within minutes she was covered in sweat, her muscles working overtime to keep up with the pace that Cole had set without her realizing it. She could feel herself tiring and could see that the same was happening to Cole. And both of them knew that they couldn't hold out forever. Sierra realized with amusement that Cole must have decided the best way to beat her was to tire her out.
Sierra stepped around him again, ducking under Cole's arm, trying to get at his back; but unfortunately she'd used that move before and Cole anticipated it. Spinning around after her, he wrapped both of his arms around her, pinning her arms to her sides and compressing the air from her lungs in his strangle-hold from behind. Sierra roared in frustration, pushed both her feet off the floor and throwing her weight up until Cole was holding the whole of her body weight. She hoped the sudden additional weight would overbalance her opponent. Cole would either topple over backwards or be forced to step back to compensate. Which is, unfortunately, exactly what he did.
Sierra grunted, before hurling her feet toward the floor again and throwing her upper body after it, hoping to unbalance him that way instead. The moves they were now using weren't exactly standard fighting techniques, but they seemed to have crossed the fine line between training and grappling some time back.
Her feet hit the floor, but one also landed on Cole's foot, pulling a pain-filled grunt from him. Sierra curled into a tight ball again, but he didn't let her go; his body curled down over hers, trapping her firmly against him. In a slightly dirty move, she threw her head back. She felt her skull connect with Cole's face followed quickly by his frustrated howl of pain. His grip on her relaxed slightly and she managed to break free from him. But he was still quick, even if his eyes were watering slightly.
His hand caught her upper arm and her strike to his head, pulling both her arms down to her sides, trapping her once again.
Damn it! Sierra thought, frustrated that she simply couldn't get away. Thinking quickly she flicked a foot to hook around one of his ankles. Leaning in toward him and pushing with her arms she managed to overbalance him and he fell backwards. Unfortunately, Cole hadn't released hold of her arms so she was pulled over, too.
Landing heavily on top of him, Cole huffed in pain as her knee accidentally found his crouch.
"Oh!" she cried out. "I'm so sorry – I didn't – Argh!"
Her apology was cut short as Cole suddenly rolled under her, flipping both of them so she was on her back, pinned beneath his weight. She was suddenly aware of how… intimate their position was.
He was heavy, she hadn't expected that. Drawing in air to her lungs, she felt his torso press firmer against her and she suddenly appreciated how contoured those abs of his were. His hands pinned her wrists either side of her head and she had lost fair and square. All because she had lost her concentration again. She huffed in frustration just as his cobalt-blue eyes met hers.
Suddenly, those eyes looked like someone else's and she found herself lost in the emotions that played there. Another set of pale, blue eyes became overlaid with Cole's and Sierra's memory sent her to a hospital room that smelt of antiseptic and 'get well' bouquets, and an all too familiar pain settled itself in her chest. Her breath caught and she bit harder on her lip; anything to distract her from the aching hole in her chest.
Using all her strength, and a well placed shove from her knee, she pushed Cole's weight from her and rolled onto her hands and knees. Pressing her face into the vinyl cover on the mat, she huddled in a small ball, curling inward on herself. She refused to let the tears in her throat progress any further than that and forced herself to take a deep breath.
"Captain?" she heard Cole say just to her side, moving closer to her. She closed her eyes tight for a moment, letting his British accent remind her of who exactly he wasn't. She breathed deeply another few times, waiting until the pain was just a dull ache before raising her head to look up at Cole. Markham and Stackhouse had hurried over and were standing over the lieutenant's shoulder, looking concerned.
She nodded at them and waved them off, getting shakily to her feet. Picking up her towel and gym bag, she turned back to Cole. "Looks like I owe you a drink, Lieutenant," she said with a smile she didn't feel. She didn't wait for his reply before turning and leaving the gym.
Once she was safely inside the confines of her quarters, she let herself fall apart. It had been months since the pain had been at this magnitude – she'd been able to quash it down every day, but it was always there like a splinter under her nail. It had become a familiar pain that she had grown to live with.
But that glimpse of his eyes in Cole's dredged up all those feelings she had worked so hard to bury. Sitting on the floor, in the middle of her room, Sierra wrapped her arms around her knees and just let the tidal pull of need and guilt wash over her.
Memories swarmed around her; the main subject of all of them: Cameron Mitchell and the very few times they had been together. Why that one glimpse had drawn such a strong reaction from her body, was a mystery to her. Sure, she had finally accepted that she may be in love with him, but she had also accepted that she may never see him again, nor be with him if they ever were to return to Earth. Accepting this fact had been followed by a couple of sleepless nights and hours of depression.
It took her a while to pull herself together and push the pain back down into its steel box that sprang open every night when she went to bed. By the time she was composed enough for human interaction, she registered that someone was trying to get her attention on the radio.
"This is Sheppard," she said in a hollow voice.
"Captain," came Peter Grodan's voice, etched with concern. "We've been calling you for three minutes now. We thought something had happened–"
"I'm fine, Grodan," she said, standing and stretching her cramped limbs. She hadn't stretch out her muscles after she bolted from the gym to have her episode in private, so she was going to cramp like hell.
"Ma'am, Major Sheppard has asked for your assistance on his mission to the Genii homeworld." Peter then filled her in on her brother's plan while she changed into her uniform.
"OK," Sierra said once he had finished. Listening to his voice had somehow calmed her down a lot. "Thanks, Peter. I'll be there in two minutes."
Picking up her vest and berretta where they were slung across the back of her chair, she headed directly to the jumper bay, where her team was waiting at the hatch of Jumper 2.
As she approached, her teammates stopped their hushed conversation and watched her come towards them. She nodded grimly to them as they saluted as she passed them. While she may have gotten her pain out of the way, it always left her void of all emotion for a while.
Striding into Jumper 2, she took the pilot's seat and started the pre-flight checks. Cole joined her in the cockpit, taking the co-pilot's chair, while Stackhouse and Markham took the bench seats in the back with an extra four marines, just in case.
Once they were cleared for flight, the jumper descended into the Gate Room where they proceeded through the open 'gate to the Genii Homeworld, where they waited for the Genii to betray them.
-----XXX-----
It was quiet in the cockpit, with the doors to the rear compartment shut. Sierra could hear the quiet mummer of conversation through the bulkhead. Beside her in the co-pilot's seat, Cole watched the country scenery out of the front view screen. In the short time they had been sitting in the jumper, waiting for John's return from their mission to the Wraith Hive ship, Sierra had managed to reign in the maelstrom of emotions that had been released barely an hour before.
She knew Cole was trying very hard not to glance at her every five minutes in concern, but she simply ignored him. Eventually he got sick of it.
"Captain," he said with a tinge of frustration in his voice. "May I ask you a difficult question?"
Sierra was pretty sure she knew what the question was going to be about but she nodded anyway.
Cole was silent for a moment before he finally voiced his query. "What happened during our training session," he began, "Did that have anything to do with Antarctica?"
Sierra knew that what he was really asking was, "Did it have anything to do with the CO you risked everything to save?" She contemplated the question for a moment, wondering if she should answer, and how much she should tell him. Cole was a good guy, she knew this, but she didn't really know yet if she could trust him with the secret she'd kept buried for months.
The silence stretch on and Sierra glanced over at her 2IC. She saw genuine concern in his face, his blue eyes watching her like a hawk. Taking a huge gamble, she finally answered him.
"Yes," she said simply, her voice very soft.
"With all due respect, ma'am," Cole said, swiveling the chair toward her slightly. "May I ask what brought on your… incident… in the gym?"
Sierra sighed and looked over at him, her eyes on his. "Your eyes. His are blue as well. Not the same shade, but… it was enough." She looked away again to the view out the front. She chewed on the inside of her lip wondering if she'd done the wrong thing.
That time on their first mission in Pegasus, Sierra had been extra careful not to reveal to Cole that there was anything going on with her and Mitchell. She snorted softly and shook her head; recent events had made her sloppy.
Cole was silent for a long while, and Sierra could all but see the cogs turning in his brain. "I'm sorry," he said.
Sierra blinked and stared at him. "Why?"
"I didn't mean to – I mean, it wasn't intentional," the lieutenant stuttered. "I never meant to remind you of… I only wanted to–"
"It's OK, Harry," Sierra said, cutting him off. She cleared her throat. "I'm normally able to compartmentalize my personal life from my professional. Today, I kinda let it slip a little." Cole nodded. He seemed to understand what she meant.
"Look," she said, glancing over at him again. "Can we keep this between us, please?" Cole looked up at her, their eyes locking again. "I'd also rather not talk about it again. Like it never happened."
"Of course, ma'am," he replied. He smiled at her lightly, comfortingly. "Your secret is safe with me."
She smiled lightly at him, but an uneasy feeling settled in the bottom of her stomach. She had been lucky so far, but she could tell that one day her luck was going to run out.
-----XXX-----
A/N: I'm not that good at fighting sequences, so I hope I've got it close to right and that I've gotten the fights across OK. Please, let me know what you think! Cheers.
