WHOO, I'M BACK, BABY!

To all my mates out there in Fanficland, I have no idea why I waited so long to put up another chapter, I guess I am just lazy, but that makes no difference.

Because here is another steamy chapter for my 'On the Beach' story!

After the Nightmare

Bombs. Gunfire. Explosions. The screams of the wounded and dying, both human and alien. Not even the Master Chief's helmet could filter out all of those sounds.

Where the hell was he fighting now? Jericho VII? Atlas Moons? Reach? Alpha Halo? Delta Halo? Earth? The Ark? Did it make any difference? Probably not; the Covenant would more than likely just glass the whole damn planet afterwards. Why did he even bother fighting anyway? Why bother doing anything when his whole species was facing extinction?

Steeling himself, the Chief slammed another clip into his assault rifle and vaulted the barricade. He then sprinted as fast as he could towards the enemy lines. The ground, once smooth and flat, had been reduced to a haphazard terrain of makeshift hills and dips due to constant bombardment from both sides.

Firing his rifle, the Chief dropped one enemy target after another. Grunts, jackals, elites, brutes, they all fell before him. From the edge of his consciousness, he could hear a feminine voice calling out to him.

"Chief… Chief…"

What? Cortana? It sounded like her, but it seemed to be coming from far away.

"John, are you there? Wake up."

The Chief, John, turned around just in time to see a mass of Flood forms, which he had not noticed before, leapt towards him…

"John!"

"John!"

The Spartan sat upright, breathing heavily. He noticed several things. Firstly, he was no longer on a battlefield surrounded by death and destruction. Rather, he was in his house, which had been given to him by the UNSC military in return for his lifetime of military service. That alone served to make him breathe a sigh of relief.

The second thing he noticed was the fact that he was coated with a light sheen of perspiration. Apparently the dream he was having, or rather, nightmare, had unnerved him so badly that he had broken out into sweat. He may have been a Spartan; an augmented super soldier, but even he was not immune to night terrors. He was only human, after all.

The third thing, the one that gave John the most relief, was the individual with whom he was sharing his bed. His former AI partner, who had provided much guidance and company during dangerous missions, and who was now a flesh and blood human being and his lover, Cortana

Clad in the simple t-shirt and soft shorts that she wore to bed, and her hair slightly tousled, Cortana looked as though she had been sleeping peacefully before John's night terrors had woken her up. Her eyes, a bright electric blue that shone even in the current darkness, showed her concern for the man she loved with her entire being.

"Did you have another nightmare, John?" The Spartan did not say anything; he simply closed his eyes and nodded his head solemnly. He would never hide anything from Cortana. He had never felt the want or need to, and even if he did it would have been a waste of time. Cortana knew him inside and out, and knew exactly what he was feeling even if he himself was unsure of it. It was a relationship that begun with her literally in his head, as an AI inhabiting a chip inserted in his helmet's neural interface. She was a human now, but even then there was nobody alive who better understood the man known as the Master Chief.

"John, that's the second time this week," Cortana said softly. "They're getting worse."

John actually let out a soft chuckle. "Are you sure you're not exaggerating?"

Cortana fixed him with a firm glare. "You know I don't exaggerate, John. I've always been an analytical person."

"Makes sense. You were originally a computer program."

Cortana chose to ignore that remark and continue with her train of thought. "First you had a nightmare once a month. Then it was once a couple of weeks. Then once a week. Now it's twice a week. I'm no psychologist, but something tells me you still have issues to deal with."

John groaned and flopped back on his pillow. "I shouldn't," he muttered. "I'm not some common rank and file soldier. I'm a Spartan, damn it! We're supposed to be the toughest bastards in the galaxy. It doesn't make sense as to why I'm bothered by nightmares."

Cortana looked down at her lover and gave him a look that clearly said 'quit fooling around'. "You are bothered by this because you are human, John! Humans have fears, and these fears often lead to nightmares. You could be the single toughest son of a bitch in the whole universe, and it would still not render you immune to having nightmares." She stopped, and when she spoke again, her voice was much softer. "Trust me on that. I have had more than my fair share of nightmares ever since I became human."

John cocked his head to look at Cortana. "You never told me that. In fact, I always thought that you were the last person to suffer from them."

Cortana gave him a sad smile. "Well, sorry to spoil your perfect impression of me." Her tone changed back into a more serious one. "Even when I was still an AI, I was plagued by thoughts and images that scared me. A lot of them had to do with Gravemind, and when he was holding me on High Charity. Afterwards, I began to experience flashes of him doing… horrible things… to the people I cared about. Particularly you."

John felt a slight churn in his gut, but he decided to let Cortana continue.

"Other things included us returning home to find absolutely nothing left. No people, just broken ruins. Other times, it was visions of human territories being completely conquered by the Covenant, and instead of wiping us all out, they enslaved us; using us for slave labour, and worse."

"Worse?"

"They would perform experiments on humans. Afterwards, they didn't look like people. They looked like… horrible mutations that I can't even describe."

It took John a few seconds to get over his shock at hearing all of this. "And, this was all in you mind? Even when you were just an AI?"

Cortana nodded. "It was very rare when I had these visions, and I simply put it down to part of my oncoming rampancy. Since I was still a program, I was able to remove most of these images from my memory interface, and the rest were just shunted to points where they would not bother me. After a while, they were no longer a problem. But then I became human…" she let the sentence hang.

John finished it for her. "And you started to experience it all over again."

The former AI nodded. "And it was worse than before. I was now a flesh and blood human being, and images like that were much more vivid and disturbing. I loved being human, but a couple of nights I would have those nightmares, I'd see myself among the victims, and I woke up with tears in my eyes." She stopped here, and the way her voice was starting to constrict made John think that she was on the verge of crying right there.

John did not say anything. Instead, he wrapped his arms around Cortana and pulled her closer. She had always come across to him as very strong and independent, regardless of whether she was an AI or human. Despite this, both had been aware that she was not infallible, and that was why he would go out of his way to protect her in whatever way he could. It mirrored how she would always protect him.

But to hear how she had been so bothered by nightmares came as an outright shock to him, and although it was not really his fault, he still felt like kicking himself for not doing more to help her.

"It's not your fault," Cortana murmured, as if reading his mind. "I tried to deal with it myself."

John nodded. "I know. Just like I was trying to deal with my own nightmares." He turned her face to look at his. "But you know what? We're partners, in more than one way. Neither one of us should have to deal with things like this alone." He leaned forward and planted a gentle kiss on her lips.

Cortana smiled. "I agree," she replied before returning the kiss. "From now on, no more nightmares." She slid her form across so that she was lying on top of him. "And if we do have any, we help each other out."

"Fine by me," John said with a smile, and then he captured Cortana's lips in another kiss. This one was chaste enough, at least until John felt Cortana slip the tip of her tongue between his lips. It was a surprise, but definitely not an unpleasant one. Far from it, actually.

John pulled away. "What was that for?" he asked in playful innocence.

"Just continuing to help you forget the nightmare," Cortana purred, followed by a slight giggle.

John let out a soft chuckle, and then moved his mouth down to Cortana's soft and smooth neck. "Well," he said huskily, "I have to admit that it worked. I've forgotten all about it now." He started placing little kisses down her neck. "Can't remember what it was that I was dreaming about."

Cortana laughed. It always made her feel good when she could put her man in a positive mood. Even more so when that mood get him feeling amorous like this. She felt John's mouth move further down her neck, and she knew what he wanted. Things like that did not require a verbal response.

Cortana repositioned herself so that she was straddling John's waist. At the same time, she reached down to grab the bottom edge of her T-shirt and pulled it off in one quick movement. She saw the flash of appreciation and eagerness in John's eyes as he looked over her nude upper half, and at the same time, she could feel the hardness in his own lower regions. Leaning forward, John started to kiss and suck on Cortana's firm breasts. The former AI gripped the Spartan's shoulders and threw her head back as the pleasure started to run its course through her body.

Damn, it was times like this that she loved being human!

After a couple of minutes, Cortana pushed her lover back down on to his pillow, and she crawled backwards, pulling his shorts and briefs off as she did so, and allowing his hardened manhood to spring free. Moving back into position, she grasped his erection in one hand and started giving it a few gentle strokes.

John tilted his head back and revelled in the simple yet unbelievably erotic sensations that his lover was inflicting upon him. The nightmares that had recently plagued his mind were not even a distant memory at this point. Instead, all he could think about was Cortana and the feelings that she was giving him.

These feelings intensified immensely as he felt Cortana's lips wrap around the tip of his manhood and slowly descend, gradually taking the length into her warm and moist mouth. John started to groan softly as the former AI proceeded to give him one amazing blowjob.

Cortana worked John's erection with her mouth, swirling her tongue around the tip and humming softly to cause vibrations through the organ. This was a new skill that she had picked up, but if John's reactions were anything to go by, she seemed to be doing it just right. She wanted to please him, but not cause him to climax too soon. Not until both of them had experienced the full amount of pleasure that could be gained from the encounter. Fortunately, she knew him better than anybody else, and that included all of the physical signs when he was reaching his sexual peak.

After about a minute of oral stimulation, Cortana stopped and pulled her head back. John opened his eyes and watched as she removed the lower half of her sleeping garments and made herself as nude as him. She crawled back over his prone form, and positioned her womanhood over his saliva-lubricated erection, and slowly eased down, allowing him to enter her.

Cortana let out a soft moan as she took John's hardness into her warmth, all the way to his hilt. She then started rocking her hips back and forth, taking him almost all the way out, and then all the way in. As she increased her pace, she started to increase her moans and gasps of pleasure.

John simply lay back and let the woman he loved move up and down on his manhood, her blue eyes slightly glazed over in euphoria, and still shining brightly with her absolute passion and love for him. Reaching up, John placed his hands on Cortana's hips, adding to the thrusting sensation of her movements.

As their lovemaking continued, John moved his hands up Cortana's body. Starting at her hips, he slid them up her sides until they reached her breasts. Cupping the ample mounds, he started to thrust his hips upward, increasing the pace of their sex.

They continued with this position; Cortana straddling him and rocking her hips up and down on his manhood, and John leaning back with his hands on her breasts. Both of them moaned and groaned loudly as they reached their impending climax.

John reached his peak first, groaning loudly as he let loose a stream of his hot liquid into Cortana. The former AI continued, and John simply let her have her way with him, until she had her own climax. Both expended, she collapsed against him, panting from the exertion, and the attempt to catch her breath afterwards.

John moved his hands from Cortana's breasts and wrapped them around her back, holding her close to him. So close, it could have seemed as though they were one single entity. They fell asleep like that, with him still inside her.

And neither of them had any more nightmares.

I haven't written for a while, because I have been procrastinating, and I made myself sit my ass down and finish this, and then I decided, "Why bother waiting?" and I put it up right after I finished it.

As always, I would love to hear some reviews. To me, they are like food. Or better yet, my favourite energy drink! (That's MOTHER, by the way! If you don't know it, that's probably because I don't think it's sold outside Australia.)

I've been drinking it, so I'm on a bit of a caffeine-induced high right now.

See you next time, mates!