CHAPTER 64 – LIFE AS THEY KNEW IT

John followed her out of the conference room, head clouded with a thousand questions, unable to connect a thousand dots. He strained to make connections, to follow the thought process that these two women had been working on the for the better part of the week. He understood action. Strength and might. He did not understand the intricacies that threaded this complicated web that continued to spin out of control around them.

Time and distance. Conundrums and paradoxes. Ripples...

Gina walked silently beside him down the hallway, knowing he was lost in his thoughts and wondering when he would come to the same conclusion she did. And saw the moment that he did as he stopped in the hallway and turned anguised eyes towards her.

"She can't stay here, can she? Carlie is also this child... " and he placed his hand on her stomach as it sunk in. "She can't stay in this dimension because she already exists here. And she cannot exist in two timelines and two dimensions at once for any length of time...ah crap Gina. I can't send her back. How do I send her back? To life as an experiment?"

"I don't know John... I've tried my best to work everything out so far.. but I get stuck on this one. I need help, help from Callandra... I don't know where to go from here..."

"You've done your best Gina, you've been amazing. But you need to take care of yourself and our baby for now. You need to sit back and let others handle all the details and the problems. I need to take care of you, of you both. I need to know you're safe."

He moved forward to fold her into his arms and he heard her sigh and felt that tilt and shift of his world and he realised that in his arms now, he held his whole world.

"We don't have a lot of time to work it out John. Tomorrow Sam is going to attempt to close the portal. That's Carlie's way home. Either she goes or she stays and accepts the consequences, as we all do – of whatever decision gets made."

"I know. For this moment I just want to hold you and think about us. Selfish, yes.. but I need that moment."

"Then take your moment, me? I need more..." and gripping his face she pulled it down to bring his lips in contact with hers and kissed him with so much passion and heat that he felt his brain begin to boil.

"Go easy.. hmmm? My insides feel like they're burning.. damn, I want you."

In response she took his hand and led him to the nearest transporter and once inside, pushed him hard against the wall. Her small hands fumbled to get under his shirt and touch his skin and he trembled slightly at her touch, aroused immediately and wanting desperately to feel her heat, to slide slowly in and out and see the look on her face as she neared her peak. He dropped his head to her neck and brought his hands up to graze roughly over her already hardened nipples, fully erect through the black base tshirt, the abrasive material causing stimulation to the point of pain and she moaned.

"God, I hope the ancients didn't rig these transporters up with security cameras... or we're going to be the feature for the next movie night.." He took his mouth away from her neck and moved back to her lips, moving his lower region away from her questing hands. "Greedy girl... wait... we're nearly there."

The transporter reached it's destination and he dragged her out none too gently, registering her disheveled hair and flushed face and smiled to himself. And hoped that they would run into no one in the hall between the transporter and his private quarters. One look at Gina and it would become more than obvious where they were rushing off to.

Another stolen moment in time. Just the two of them and it gave them the clarity they needed to be able to go on and make bigger decisions. Bigger decisions that would affect a six year old girl who had become a part of their lives. Gina pushed all demands out of her mind but one. John's needs and his fierce desire to feel himself inside her. She needed it to, needed him to complete her and fill the hole that threatened to suck her under if she thought about it any more.

Amidst tangled sheets there was only the two of them. In this moment in time. Their time, their dimension, no ripples. Together, limbs tangled in sweaty disarray and his hand stoked her inner thigh to calm the tremors that still rippled under the skin. He was still inside her, buried as deep as he could go and if he just closed his eyes now, they could stay here – their moment in time. Just the two of them.

She moved then, suddenly restless and he felt the stirrings of passion begin to fill his resting manhood, stretching to fill her with the ease of a perfect fit. She moved against him, needing the friction, demanding the action and he chuckled softly, letting her take the lead now as she rolled him over and pushed herself up. His hands spanned her small waist, and his thumbs stroked over her stomach, still flat but filling slowly with new life. His life. Their life. His eyes closed almost sleepily and he watched her beneath lowered lids, raking slowly over her perfect body, hair in disarray around her face, blue eyes looking down at him as they clouded slowly as passion began to build again. His hands moved upward to stroke her breasts and she smiled then and he felt he could have looked at her like this forever. Then thought nothing at all as he came, hard and fast – as though this was the only way he could keep her beside him.

Head on his chest she idly played with his chest hair while he cupped her bottom, keeping her pressed tightly against him.

"We need to send her back Gina... don't think there's a way around that one. I won't risk you or our baby. In this dimension. We can't cloud the two dimensions. Our goal here is to close the portal so that they stay separate, distinct. We let her stay? That breaks the rules. It's gonna break a lot more to do it, but I don't see that we have a choice."

She didn't answer, just kept her cheek pressed against his chest, listening to him breathe, listening to him talk.

"Gina?"

Still nothing and concerned now he peered how into her face. Sound asleep, resting, at peace for this moment in time. And he sighed. Things were about to go spinning out of control again.