Summer Nights (8/?)
Title: Summer Nights (8/?)
Author: Nytel
Rating: NC-17 (or at least it will be)
Spoilers: Nada. It's a pre-mini AU fic.
Pairing: Kara/Lee
Genre: Romance
Summary: Neither of them had been expecting anything other than a normal summer break.
Word Count: 5,422
Beta: The fantastic and absolutely amazing
nebakanezer!
Disclaimer: I am merely borrowing them. No copyright infringement is intended.
Previous Chapters
Chapter 8
It wasn’t a long walk to the lake at all, maybe ten minutes at the most, but in the scorching heat it felt more like an eternity to Kara. She just kept reminding herself that it would be more than worth it once they got there. Just thinking of how good the water would feel put an extra bounce in her step.
The moment she caught a glimpse of the lake from between some trees on the side of the overgrown trail, Kara looked over her shoulder at Lee, smiling. His responding grin told her all she needed to know: he had seen it too.
“First one all the way in wins,” Kara said playfully, before taking off as fast as she could, not even waiting to see if Lee followed her. But she knew he would, confirmed by the sound of his footsteps closing in behind her.
“Cheater,” she heard him say between panting breaths, but she just laughed and kept on running.
The path exited onto what she guessed would be called the beach of the lake, but really it was just an area of tiny pebbles leading up to the water’s edge. As she dashed across it she shed her shirt tossing it on the ground without a further thought, while at the same time she tried kicking off her shoes mid-stride. It didn’t really work and she had to pause for half a second to yank the two runners off, hoping awkwardly as the hot stones burned uncomfortably on the soles of her feet.
She was quickly losing whatever lead she’d had over Lee. He had stopped only a few feet away, and began unzipping his shorts at the same moment she began to unbutton hers. Soon they were both stepping out of their pants, clad only in their underwear, and were racing the final stretch to the water.
The water was freezing in comparison to the air, and even though she’d been expecting it, the difference still came as a shock. However, Kara kept running until the water was at hip level, and her strides were causing huge splashes of water to soak her entire body, and then she jumped into a shallow dive.
When her head broke the surface of the water a few feet away she caught sight of Lee not far from her, doing the same. They smiled at each other.
“Tie,” they declared in unison, still trying to catch their breaths.
***
Lee flipped so that he was floating on his back and stared up at the sky. He still couldn’t believe how cold this water was. On any other day it would be unbearable, but right at that moment it felt perfect lapping against his overheated skin.
He glanced over at Kara who was treading water not far from him, even though he was sure she could still touch bottom if she tried. He had to really force his eyes to stay on her face, and to not look down and try to see through the water to what it was covering up. It was ridiculous; he’d seen Kara in her underwear before, but he still felt the pull.
“This was a great idea,” he said, wondering if he sounded as in awe as his body felt.
Kara smiled. “Thanks.”
Lee watched as a bead of lake water dripped free from Kara’s hair and traced it’s way down the pale skin of her face, to her jaw where it finally let go and dropped into the water.
“If it wasn’t quite this hot, I’d suggest cliff diving,” she said, tilting her chin towards the other side of the lake.
Lee rolled off of his back and reached for the bottom, finding it was just shallow enough for him to stand comfortably flat-footed and not be fighting to keep his head above water. Glancing over in the direction Kara had indicated, he realized he hadn’t gotten a very good look at the place when they’d first come off the path-he’d been too preoccupied with beating Kara into the lake.
The body of water wasn’t huge, but it was a fair size. As far as Lee could tell the little beach the trail led to was probably one of the only spots a person could walk into the lake from. His eyes scanned the remainder of the lake’s perimeter and saw different slopes of varying heights and degrees of incline, including the very opposite side Kara was referring to.
There the lake was held in by a steep cliff face. It wasn’t high enough that someone might try hang-gliding off it, but it was high enough.
“People jump off that?” Lee asked, eying Kara skeptically, noticing at the same time that she’d stopped treading water and was now standing as well.
She nodded as she wiped her wet hair away from her face. “Yeah. It’s a lot of fun.”
“You’ve done it?” He phrased it as a question, even though he was sure he knew the answer.
Kara smiled. “Why, does that surprise you?”
Lee laughed, shaking his head. “No, it really doesn’t.”
***
Kara had lost all track of time and couldn’t be sure how long they’d been in the water for, but she suspected it was a couple hours at least. The water was cold and entirely perfect given the weather, making both her and Lee reluctant to get out at all. Not that she minded though.
She glanced over at Lee from where she was floating on her back. He was doing the same, but he had his eyes closed. Kara took the opportunity to admire the sight in front of… well, beside her. A smile crept onto her face as she stared. Lee was without a doubt an attractive man. She had to bite her lip to stop the laugh from escaping as her eyes traveled down to the boxer briefs. Some guys were just boxers guys, others were quite obviously briefs guys, Lee… well, he was definitely a boxer briefs guy. She didn’t know why, but it fit him.
Still biting her lip, Kara turned her head back to face the sky, closing her eyes against the bright sun that was beating down on her face. She figured she should probably play nice for the rest of the day, even if Lee hadn’t known she was playing naughty to begin with.
A few minutes later, or it might even have been as much as ten, Lee’s voice suddenly filled the silence. “Looks like it’s going to rain.”
Kara reluctantly opened her eyes and glanced to the west. Indeed, there were some rather ominous looking storm clouds there. “Yeah,” she said, “But it’ll probably take a while to roll in.”
“You sure?’ Lee questioned, moving so that he was standing up in the lake again.
Kara looked at him, making sure he was looking back before she rolled her eyes theatrically. “Sure enough that I’m not going to make a run for the shore for fear of being electrocuted by a vicious lightning strike.”
“Smart ass,” he replied.
She smirked at Lee, not realizing he had moved his hand until the water he’d displaced was raining down on her. Kara reacted instantly, standing up and wiping the water away from her eyes and her now gaping mouth. She had not been expecting that.
Lee looked a little ashamed and opened his mouth, presumably to apologize, but Kara had a better idea. She raised her hand and smacked it into the water, directing the spray directly at Lee. He spluttered as he inhaled water, and his look turned from apologetic to something else: determined.
Suddenly Lee was splashing her again and she was splashing him back. They were both laughing and she was glad the park was otherwise unoccupied, because she was certain their antics would look extremely immature to any observer. That didn’t mean it wasn’t fun though.
Their water fight escalated until all Kara could see and hear was the water flying around. She wasn’t losing, but neither was she winning, so she decided to take things one step further. Kara slowly made her way closer to Lee, still assaulting him with lake water the entire time, until finally she was only a few feet away. She took a deep breath and ducked beneath the water, grabbing both of his legs by the ankles and pulling them swiftly out from under him.
When she surfaced, Lee was fighting his way back towards the air as well. She grinned at him when he regained his footing completely, shrugging her shoulders with fake indifference.
She was a little surprised to see him grinning back so eagerly. At least until he said, “You’re on.” Before her body could really catch up to her brain, Lee had his hands on her shoulders, pushing down, and all of a sudden she was under the water. That’s when it became an all out war.
At some point during the battle, and Kara couldn’t quite pinpoint when, the tone in the air turned from one of competition to something else entirely. She didn’t know what it was, but one minute they were splashing around, each trying to drown the other, and the next they were still splashing, but it was different. Hands seemed to linger longer than they should on skin, and bodies starting pressing more and more closely with each dunk, and eyes were wandering into areas most definitely not covered by the friendship grounds.
Kara wondered if she should be thinking something along the lines of ‘No, I shouldn’t, he’s my friend’, or ‘This maybe isn’t the best idea’, but somehow all she could think was that she wanted it. And she suddenly did want it, more than anything. Any and all reservations she might have, or should have had, flew completely out of her mind.
They had come to a standstill, facing each other, chest high in water, both breathing heavily from exertion. Lee’s hand was placed lightly on her shoulder and he was staring at her with those intense blue eyes, the ones that made her stomach tighten. And all she could think was that she wanted this, she wanted Lee.
So when Lee quickly averted his eyes, and removed his hand from her skin, Kara reacted on instinct. She closed the tiny existing gap between them and kissed him.
***
When Kara’s lips came crashing down on his, Lee was … shocked would have been an understatement. It took his brain a few seconds to catch on to what was going on. Kara, the woman he was insanely attracted to, was kissing him. The absurdity of their situation, that they were standing in glacial lake water, in their underwear, didn’t even register. All that his mind could think of was that Kara was kissing him.
By the time his mind caught up enough to think of kissing her back, Kara had pulled away. She looked at him sheepishly for a second before looking down at the water, and taking a step back. “Uh, Lee, I…”
But he didn’t let her finish her sentence. He had moved a step closer and then he was kissing her. Kara obviously had faster reaction times than he did, and in less than a second, she had her arms wrapped around his shoulders, pulling her wet body firmly against his.
Lee moaned at the delicious contact of their skin, and Kara took the opportunity to slip her tongue inside his mouth, exploring without hesitation. He responded in turn, and the next thing he knew the lake seemed to be almost too hot.
“Gods, Lee,” Kara said into his mouth while her hands clutched tightly at his shoulders. The sound of her voice moaning his name was indisputably erotic, and Lee felt himself harden instantly.
“Kara,” he whispered back, breaking his mouth away from hers so he could kiss down her jaw. The thin layer of water on her skin caused his lips to glide effortlessly all the way to the base of her neck, where he began to suck lightly, eliciting a sharp gasp from Kara.
Lee smiled against her neck, but before he had a chance to further explore the sensitive area, Kara had pulled his head back up to meet hers in another searing kiss. One hand stayed wrapped in his wet hair, while the other slid down his lower back and past the waistband of his underwear to grab his ass. Meanwhile Lee’s hands had found their way up to Kara’s breasts. As he continued to kiss her, his thumbs began rubbing tiny circles around erect nipples still covered by a wet sports bra. Kara made a tiny, yet interesting noise deep in the back of her throat, and if Lee’s mouth hadn’t been otherwise preoccupied he would have smiled smugly.
Then, the next thing he knew, he was the one making the sound of pleasure. Kara had moved her hand between them and was cupping him. Lee had to use every last ounce of concentration he had not to lose control at that moment. It had been an extremely long time since he’d last done this, and as much as he wanted to drag it out into something that lasted hours, he knew that wasn’t about to happen. Thankfully, Kara didn’t seem to mind.
Their kissing became more frantic and soon they were both pulling off what little remaining clothing they had on, tossing it into the water without a second thought.
Lee placed both hands on Kara’s hips and lifted her up, sliding into her as he brought her down to rest on his waist; her legs clasped around him tightly. As good as Lee had imagined it would feel, reality felt a million times better. His breath caught in his throat, and he thought Kara’s might have as well, but he couldn’t tell for sure, because he was trying too hard to remember to breathe.
Then Lee’s brain stopped working entirely. All he could manage to do was kiss her with everything he had while she moved against him.
***
Afterwards, Kara couldn’t quite seem to be able to get her body to budge. She knew that she should probably unwrap her legs from around Lee and try to stand, but it just wasn’t happening. She leaned her head against Lee’s shoulder while she struggled for breath, glad that he was still catching his as well. Her mind was whirling with several thoughts, but none of them had won dominance…yet.
Eventually, seconds or minutes later she couldn’t tell, Kara seemed to finally regain control of her muscles and slipped free from Lee’s body and his embrace.
They caught each other’s gaze, and then both immediately looked away. In doing so, Kara saw a glimpse of something white floating off to the side, and a better look recognized it as her sports bra. Quickly she reached for it, and pulled it over her head, not enjoying the feeling of the wet material snapping into place. She scanned the water for her underwear, but didn’t see them. When she turned to look in the other direction she saw Lee, holding them out for her.
“They were,” he started, pointing to his right. “Um, over…”
“Thanks,” Kara said quickly and quietly, not meeting his eye as she pulled the garment from his hand and put them on under the water.
Kara didn’t look up, but opened her mouth to say something. However, a second later she realized she was at a loss for words and her mouth fell shut. What conversation did this warrant exactly? ‘Hey, thanks for the awesome sex, let’s just go back to being friends now’? As the thought rolled into existence, Kara immediately rejected it.
No, she was pretty sure that’s not what she wanted, but she couldn’t tell for sure because she really had no idea what she wanted. Kissing Lee had seemed like the perfect idea at the time. She’d wanted it, and had gone for it, that’s how she worked usually. Plus, it definitely fit in with the living in the moment approach. However, living in the moment certainly did not cover how to deal with the awkwardness afterward.
She glanced over at Lee, and when their eyes met, they both looked away again. Kara wanted to curse out loud, but bit her tongue and settled for muttering the profanities silently in her mind. She wondered if this was really what it came to. She had wanted Lee, and the next thing she knew they were standing barely clothed in a lake, unable to even look at each other. If that was the case, what the hell was the remainder of the summer supposed to be like? Kara’s stomach twisted in upon itself, but not in the good way like before. No, this was definitely making her feel slightly nauseous.
She was saved from having to think about it, at least at that exact moment, when a bright flash of light lit up the sky. Instantly Kara’s head whipped upward. The last fleeting glimpse of lightning flickered through the sky not far from them, and not even a second later the answering thunderclap shook the sky.
Momentarily forgetting about what had just happened, Kara glanced at Lee, only to find that he was looking at her.
“Let’s get out of here,” he said quickly as he began making his way for the shore, Kara following close behind him.
***
The timing was almost ironic; the second they were out of the water and onto the shore, the rain started. And it didn’t just drizzle, it outright poured. For a moment Lee’s body was confused, and he could have sworn he was still in the lake, except possibly a colder lake. Maybe the water from the sky was colder or else the wind that had just picked up was making it seem like it. Either way, Lee couldn’t help but shiver as he pulled on his shorts.
From the corner of his eye he saw Kara hurrying to pull on hers, as well as her tank top. He quickly looked away before she could catch him watching her. What had happened in the water had been… amazing. Lee was hardly a virgin, but he’d still never quite experienced anything like that, something quite so… intense. But in spite of that, at this exact moment he was wishing he could take it back. Wishing he could unkiss Kara, and that instead he would have made some stupid comment and they would have laughed it off. That would have been much more preferable to the awkwardness they were both facing now. Because as great as it had been, he much rather preferred having Kara as his friend, then as a friendship he ruined with a one time frak. His stomach twisted unpleasantly and he shuddered, having a feeling it wasn’t because of the weather.
A second later the wind picked up yet another notch, accompanied by a few rounds of lightning and thunder. Kara, who had just finished jamming her feet into her runners headed off down the trail towards the truck, and Lee followed her. They ran quickly, both wanting to be out of the rain.
When they arrived in the parking lot, Kara fought with the wet pocket of her jean shorts and eventually pulled out the truck keys, unlocking her door before climbing in. She reached over to his side and unlocked the passenger door too, but refrained from making eye contact. Lee thought he might have felt his stomach knot just a little tighter.
The ride back to the Thrace house was colder than the lake had been for sure. The heat in Kara’s truck was broken, and by the time they pulled into the driveway they were both shivering. Lee felt truly frozen, but he was almost positive Kara felt worse. Neither of them had uttered a word on the way back, but Lee had snuck a couple glances, and Kara looked so cold he was surprised her teeth weren’t chattering together.
They hopped out of the truck, and trudged through the mud and the rain to the back door of the house, still both completely silent. Again, Lee found himself wishing he could go back in time, just a couple of hours, and change things.
When Kara pushed open the back door and stepped inside, Lee followed right behind her, glad to finally be out of the weather. However, he very nearly ran into Kara since she had stopped, midway through the process of kicking off a shoe in front of him. Looking up, Lee saw why. Michael was sitting at the kitchen table reading the newspaper and drinking coffee.
“Hey,” he said happily as he looked up at them, his face turning more serious when he saw their half-drowned state.
***
“Where the hell were you guys?” Michael asked loudly as he dropped the newspaper onto the table and stood up, apparently forgetting about his coffee as well.
Kara tried to smile at him, but her muscles seemed frozen in place.
“We were swimming,” Lee said from behind her, and Kara felt a rush of relief.
“In a storm like this?” Michael asked angrily. “Do you have any idea how dangerous that is?”
Kara suddenly remembered she was midway through taking off her shoes and finished doing so, before stepping into the kitchen and letting Lee do the same. She still couldn’t look at him, but she hoped Michael wouldn’t notice anything. The entire situation was awkward enough without adding her brother into the mix.
“It wasn’t storming initially,” Lee explained. “Once it started we left, we just got caught outside making our way back to the truck.”
Michael seemed to relax. “Oh, okay.” Kara was surprised when he looked over at her, staring closely.
“What?” She managed to ask through shaking lips.
Michael sighed and appeared to be the fighting the urge to roll his eyes. “You do know that you can still get hypothermia in the summer right?”
Kara nodded, trying to stop her entire body from shaking. “Yes,” she said, barely managing to keep her voice from shaking too.
“Kara, your lips look a little blue. Maybe you should head upstairs and grab a warm shower.”
Kara nodded eagerly, grasping quickly at her escape route. “Yeah,” she told her brother. “Good idea.”
Michael laughed. “Of course it’s a good idea, it’s mine.”
She fought the urge to punch him as she walked by and into the living room, heading for the stairs. As she was passing by the couch she heard Lee’s voice filter out from the kitchen.
“So,” he said slowly. “How was your trip? I’m actually surprised to see you here, I thought I was supposed to be picking you up at the spaceport tomorrow.”
Her brother answered warmly. “It was really good. I came back a day early because there was a huge weather warning out. The spaceport’s probably closed now, and will be tomorrow too from the looks of the weather report.”
Kara stood there for an additional couple of seconds, listening to them begin to talk about Michael’s oh-so-important medical student society meeting, before heading upstairs and into the bathroom.
Her shaking hands could barely turn on the shower fast enough, and the second the water was streaming down into the tub, she shed her wet clothes and hopped in. A sigh of contentment escaped her lips and she closed her eyes. For a moment she simply enjoyed the feeling of the warm water caressing her skin. However, a moment seemed to be all that her mind was willing to give to her, because in no time at all it was replaying what had happened in the lake.
It was like she could still feel his fingers digging into her hips… Kara’s eyes flew open and she reached for the soap, beginning to scrub her body harshly. She could not obsess over this. It might have been great sex, but that’s all it was; it didn’t have to mean anything. With any luck this mess could somehow be sorted out and things could go back to the way they’d been that afternoon.
***
A few minutes after listening to Michael talk about the med student society meeting, Lee excused himself and headed upstairs, claiming the need for a change of clothes, and probably a shower. He hadn’t really wanted to hear about the meeting in the first place, but he’d figured it couldn’t hurt to pretend like nothing had happened, at least in front of Michael. The situation they’d landed themselves in was bad enough as it was.
Lee’s feet felt heavy as he dragged them up the stairs. He wondered if he had truly frakked things up. He certainly hoped not, but it was a distinct possibility.
Lee was so caught up in his own mind that he didn’t hear the shower turn off, or the door open. And the next thing he knew he had run into Kara in the hallway as she left the bathroom, wearing nothing but a fluffy white towel. Reacting instinctively he brought his hands up to her shoulders, steadying her.
Kara looked up at him. The shock was evident on her face, as was two other things: sadness and hesitancy. Lee almost breathed a sigh of relief as he realized that maybe it was possible that Kara was just as uncertain about what to make of this as he was. He doubted that she’d been planning it either.
He smiled at her softly. “Hey.”
It took her a second, but she smiled back. “Hey,” she replied, her voice barely audible.
Lee wanted to say something else, but before he could come up with anything at all, he heard the distant sound of a chair scraping against the linoleum of the kitchen floor, and footsteps heading for the stairs.
Kara must have heard it too, because at the exact same second they both jumped apart, leaving a four-foot gap between them. Kara shifted nervously from foot to foot, rubbing her upper arm with the other hand. “I should…” she started, pointing towards her room.
“Yeah,” Lee replied, suddenly feeling unsure again. “I should…” he pointed towards the guest room.
Kara nodded and walked to her room, careful not to pass too close to Lee in the process. “You should shower,” she said suddenly, her hand paused hovering over the doorknob. “It’ll warm you up.” And with that she disappeared into her room, leaving behind a confused Lee.
***
Kara tried to sleep, she really did. But that damn thunder… at least it was partly due the storm outside. The rest was due to the fact that her mind would not stop thinking. Normally she never thought this much, ever. But here her mind was, replaying everything over and over, analyzing. And quite frankly she hated it. Sex was not supposed to be this complicated. It never had been for her before, and yet it was now.
But the worst part was, that the more she thought about things, the less sense it all made. After her shower she’d thought she’d maybe, sort of, almost straightened things out, but then Lee had smiled at her like that and… Gods. She wasn’t a girly-girl, but she didn’t know how else to describe the feeling in her stomach, except as butterflies. The fact that she was feeling something different, and new, and admittedly something she liked, was confusing the hell out of her.
Kara groaned in frustration and threw the covers down to the foot of her bed. She needed to get up, to do something, even for a few minutes, just to keep herself from going crazy. Finding an old, but warm sweater in her dresser, she pulled it out and put it on.
Silently, or at least as silently as she could, Kara slipped out of her bedroom and tiptoed down the stairs. Once in the kitchen she flicked on only the light above the stove and boiled some water for cocoa. After mixing the steaming liquid in with the powder, she wrapped her hands around the warm mug and headed for the porch.
Despite the chaoticness of a storm, she found it oddly calming to watch the lightning, and feel the fresh air on her face. She didn’t know that it would necessarily help her tonight, but it certainly couldn’t hurt.
***
Lee had seen the kitchen light turn on from where he was sitting out on the porch. He had watched through the kitchen window, as Kara boiled water and made what he was guessing was hot cocoa. Then the light had turned off, and Lee had focused his attention back on the storm, until he heard the door to the porch open.
He instantly looked to his left, just in time to see Kara step out onto the porch, mug in one hand while she closed the door behind her.
“Uh, hi,” she said quietly when she looked up and noticed him.
“Hi,” he replied just as softly, almost meeting her gaze.
“Sorry, I didn’t know you were… I’ll just…” she moved to go back into the house.
“No,” Lee said suddenly. “Kara, please, stay.”
Surprising him, she nodded and moved towards him, taking the chair on his left. She pulled her legs up onto the chair, tucking her knees in against her chest while she blew on the mug of cocoa, staring straight ahead.
He hadn’t known Kara for that long, in spite of the fact it felt like he’d known her for years, but he still never would have ever expected to see her so… timid. It worried him, and Lee knew he had to do something to fix things between them, or at least try.
“Kara,” he started.
“Yeah?” She answered hesitantly, still not looking at him.
“Look, Kara, about what happened today at the lake… It was…” Lee didn’t quite know where to go with this, but he figured the truth couldn’t hurt. “It was amazing, and great and I was not expecting it to happen. I’m just sorry that it, that I, screwed things up between us. If you want we can just call it a one time thing, and pretend it never happened.”
Lee held his breath, waiting for Kara to say something, anything in response.
Eventually, after what seemed like hours but was probably more like minutes, Kara turned her head to look at him. It was dark, but with the flashes of lightning he could see her face quite clearly. “What if I don’t want it to be just a one time thing?” She asked, the words so quiet he could barely make them out.
Lee released the breath he’d been holding and smiled. “I’d like that,” he said honestly, maintaining eye contact.
Kara grinned back, and in that moment it was like all of the initial awkwardness magically faded away. “Okay then.”
Lee laughed. “Okay.”
“So it was great?” Kara asked, a hint of teasing entering her voice as she cocked her head to the side, still staring at him.
Lee blushed. “I… what I meant was…” He sighed in defeat. “Yeah, it was great.”
“It was great,” Kara agreed. “I’ve never had sex in a lake before,” she added.
Lee laughed. “Me neither. A first for both of us.”
This time it was Kara’s turn to laugh. “I guess so.”
With all of the discomfort between them gone, they were both content to simply sit there and watch the storm.
Lee found himself grinning broadly, even though Kara wasn’t looking at him. Out of all the ways the day’s events could have ended, he was sure they’d ended up with the best one. However, there was one thing niggling at the back of his mind from much earlier on in the day that he was insanely curious about. After about twenty minutes of sitting there, he couldn’t help it, he had to ask.
“Kara?” He asked quietly.
“Yeah,” she said, turning her head to look at him.
“Will you tell me about your frakked up family?”
Kara’s look turned to one of surprise. “With everything that happened today, I can hardly believe you remember me saying that.”
“Of course I remember.”
Kara smiled. “Well, I did promise.” She shifted in her chair so that she was slouched down a bit more. “What do you want to know?”
Lee smiled at her. “Everything.”
TBC
~~~
A/N: I am finally (probably/possibly/theoretically) leaving for that extended field job this week. If you're wondering if this is the same job I mentioned several chapters earlier, the answer is yes. If it ends up we leave on the weekend, or sometime next week instead, I'll try to get another chapter in. I think this will be the last one before I go away, but I thought that for the last couple as well, so who knows. It's still going to be a long 3 week type thing, so let's just say this: at some point this story will not get updated for 3 weeks to a month. When this happens it's because my work finally got things organized and I'm gone, I will however be back and posting in the future. Meanwhile, while I am here, I will continute to write and try to update weekly. :)
Oh, and I apologize for not replying to comments from chapter 7 yet. It will happen, I promise. :)
Author: Nytel
Rating: NC-17 (or at least it will be)
Spoilers: Nada. It's a pre-mini AU fic.
Pairing: Kara/Lee
Genre: Romance
Summary: Neither of them had been expecting anything other than a normal summer break.
Word Count: 5,422
Beta: The fantastic and absolutely amazing
nebakanezer!
Disclaimer: I am merely borrowing them. No copyright infringement is intended.
Previous Chapters
Chapter 8
It wasn’t a long walk to the lake at all, maybe ten minutes at the most, but in the scorching heat it felt more like an eternity to Kara. She just kept reminding herself that it would be more than worth it once they got there. Just thinking of how good the water would feel put an extra bounce in her step.
The moment she caught a glimpse of the lake from between some trees on the side of the overgrown trail, Kara looked over her shoulder at Lee, smiling. His responding grin told her all she needed to know: he had seen it too.
“First one all the way in wins,” Kara said playfully, before taking off as fast as she could, not even waiting to see if Lee followed her. But she knew he would, confirmed by the sound of his footsteps closing in behind her.
“Cheater,” she heard him say between panting breaths, but she just laughed and kept on running.
The path exited onto what she guessed would be called the beach of the lake, but really it was just an area of tiny pebbles leading up to the water’s edge. As she dashed across it she shed her shirt tossing it on the ground without a further thought, while at the same time she tried kicking off her shoes mid-stride. It didn’t really work and she had to pause for half a second to yank the two runners off, hoping awkwardly as the hot stones burned uncomfortably on the soles of her feet.
She was quickly losing whatever lead she’d had over Lee. He had stopped only a few feet away, and began unzipping his shorts at the same moment she began to unbutton hers. Soon they were both stepping out of their pants, clad only in their underwear, and were racing the final stretch to the water.
The water was freezing in comparison to the air, and even though she’d been expecting it, the difference still came as a shock. However, Kara kept running until the water was at hip level, and her strides were causing huge splashes of water to soak her entire body, and then she jumped into a shallow dive.
When her head broke the surface of the water a few feet away she caught sight of Lee not far from her, doing the same. They smiled at each other.
“Tie,” they declared in unison, still trying to catch their breaths.
***
Lee flipped so that he was floating on his back and stared up at the sky. He still couldn’t believe how cold this water was. On any other day it would be unbearable, but right at that moment it felt perfect lapping against his overheated skin.
He glanced over at Kara who was treading water not far from him, even though he was sure she could still touch bottom if she tried. He had to really force his eyes to stay on her face, and to not look down and try to see through the water to what it was covering up. It was ridiculous; he’d seen Kara in her underwear before, but he still felt the pull.
“This was a great idea,” he said, wondering if he sounded as in awe as his body felt.
Kara smiled. “Thanks.”
Lee watched as a bead of lake water dripped free from Kara’s hair and traced it’s way down the pale skin of her face, to her jaw where it finally let go and dropped into the water.
“If it wasn’t quite this hot, I’d suggest cliff diving,” she said, tilting her chin towards the other side of the lake.
Lee rolled off of his back and reached for the bottom, finding it was just shallow enough for him to stand comfortably flat-footed and not be fighting to keep his head above water. Glancing over in the direction Kara had indicated, he realized he hadn’t gotten a very good look at the place when they’d first come off the path-he’d been too preoccupied with beating Kara into the lake.
The body of water wasn’t huge, but it was a fair size. As far as Lee could tell the little beach the trail led to was probably one of the only spots a person could walk into the lake from. His eyes scanned the remainder of the lake’s perimeter and saw different slopes of varying heights and degrees of incline, including the very opposite side Kara was referring to.
There the lake was held in by a steep cliff face. It wasn’t high enough that someone might try hang-gliding off it, but it was high enough.
“People jump off that?” Lee asked, eying Kara skeptically, noticing at the same time that she’d stopped treading water and was now standing as well.
She nodded as she wiped her wet hair away from her face. “Yeah. It’s a lot of fun.”
“You’ve done it?” He phrased it as a question, even though he was sure he knew the answer.
Kara smiled. “Why, does that surprise you?”
Lee laughed, shaking his head. “No, it really doesn’t.”
***
Kara had lost all track of time and couldn’t be sure how long they’d been in the water for, but she suspected it was a couple hours at least. The water was cold and entirely perfect given the weather, making both her and Lee reluctant to get out at all. Not that she minded though.
She glanced over at Lee from where she was floating on her back. He was doing the same, but he had his eyes closed. Kara took the opportunity to admire the sight in front of… well, beside her. A smile crept onto her face as she stared. Lee was without a doubt an attractive man. She had to bite her lip to stop the laugh from escaping as her eyes traveled down to the boxer briefs. Some guys were just boxers guys, others were quite obviously briefs guys, Lee… well, he was definitely a boxer briefs guy. She didn’t know why, but it fit him.
Still biting her lip, Kara turned her head back to face the sky, closing her eyes against the bright sun that was beating down on her face. She figured she should probably play nice for the rest of the day, even if Lee hadn’t known she was playing naughty to begin with.
A few minutes later, or it might even have been as much as ten, Lee’s voice suddenly filled the silence. “Looks like it’s going to rain.”
Kara reluctantly opened her eyes and glanced to the west. Indeed, there were some rather ominous looking storm clouds there. “Yeah,” she said, “But it’ll probably take a while to roll in.”
“You sure?’ Lee questioned, moving so that he was standing up in the lake again.
Kara looked at him, making sure he was looking back before she rolled her eyes theatrically. “Sure enough that I’m not going to make a run for the shore for fear of being electrocuted by a vicious lightning strike.”
“Smart ass,” he replied.
She smirked at Lee, not realizing he had moved his hand until the water he’d displaced was raining down on her. Kara reacted instantly, standing up and wiping the water away from her eyes and her now gaping mouth. She had not been expecting that.
Lee looked a little ashamed and opened his mouth, presumably to apologize, but Kara had a better idea. She raised her hand and smacked it into the water, directing the spray directly at Lee. He spluttered as he inhaled water, and his look turned from apologetic to something else: determined.
Suddenly Lee was splashing her again and she was splashing him back. They were both laughing and she was glad the park was otherwise unoccupied, because she was certain their antics would look extremely immature to any observer. That didn’t mean it wasn’t fun though.
Their water fight escalated until all Kara could see and hear was the water flying around. She wasn’t losing, but neither was she winning, so she decided to take things one step further. Kara slowly made her way closer to Lee, still assaulting him with lake water the entire time, until finally she was only a few feet away. She took a deep breath and ducked beneath the water, grabbing both of his legs by the ankles and pulling them swiftly out from under him.
When she surfaced, Lee was fighting his way back towards the air as well. She grinned at him when he regained his footing completely, shrugging her shoulders with fake indifference.
She was a little surprised to see him grinning back so eagerly. At least until he said, “You’re on.” Before her body could really catch up to her brain, Lee had his hands on her shoulders, pushing down, and all of a sudden she was under the water. That’s when it became an all out war.
At some point during the battle, and Kara couldn’t quite pinpoint when, the tone in the air turned from one of competition to something else entirely. She didn’t know what it was, but one minute they were splashing around, each trying to drown the other, and the next they were still splashing, but it was different. Hands seemed to linger longer than they should on skin, and bodies starting pressing more and more closely with each dunk, and eyes were wandering into areas most definitely not covered by the friendship grounds.
Kara wondered if she should be thinking something along the lines of ‘No, I shouldn’t, he’s my friend’, or ‘This maybe isn’t the best idea’, but somehow all she could think was that she wanted it. And she suddenly did want it, more than anything. Any and all reservations she might have, or should have had, flew completely out of her mind.
They had come to a standstill, facing each other, chest high in water, both breathing heavily from exertion. Lee’s hand was placed lightly on her shoulder and he was staring at her with those intense blue eyes, the ones that made her stomach tighten. And all she could think was that she wanted this, she wanted Lee.
So when Lee quickly averted his eyes, and removed his hand from her skin, Kara reacted on instinct. She closed the tiny existing gap between them and kissed him.
***
When Kara’s lips came crashing down on his, Lee was … shocked would have been an understatement. It took his brain a few seconds to catch on to what was going on. Kara, the woman he was insanely attracted to, was kissing him. The absurdity of their situation, that they were standing in glacial lake water, in their underwear, didn’t even register. All that his mind could think of was that Kara was kissing him.
By the time his mind caught up enough to think of kissing her back, Kara had pulled away. She looked at him sheepishly for a second before looking down at the water, and taking a step back. “Uh, Lee, I…”
But he didn’t let her finish her sentence. He had moved a step closer and then he was kissing her. Kara obviously had faster reaction times than he did, and in less than a second, she had her arms wrapped around his shoulders, pulling her wet body firmly against his.
Lee moaned at the delicious contact of their skin, and Kara took the opportunity to slip her tongue inside his mouth, exploring without hesitation. He responded in turn, and the next thing he knew the lake seemed to be almost too hot.
“Gods, Lee,” Kara said into his mouth while her hands clutched tightly at his shoulders. The sound of her voice moaning his name was indisputably erotic, and Lee felt himself harden instantly.
“Kara,” he whispered back, breaking his mouth away from hers so he could kiss down her jaw. The thin layer of water on her skin caused his lips to glide effortlessly all the way to the base of her neck, where he began to suck lightly, eliciting a sharp gasp from Kara.
Lee smiled against her neck, but before he had a chance to further explore the sensitive area, Kara had pulled his head back up to meet hers in another searing kiss. One hand stayed wrapped in his wet hair, while the other slid down his lower back and past the waistband of his underwear to grab his ass. Meanwhile Lee’s hands had found their way up to Kara’s breasts. As he continued to kiss her, his thumbs began rubbing tiny circles around erect nipples still covered by a wet sports bra. Kara made a tiny, yet interesting noise deep in the back of her throat, and if Lee’s mouth hadn’t been otherwise preoccupied he would have smiled smugly.
Then, the next thing he knew, he was the one making the sound of pleasure. Kara had moved her hand between them and was cupping him. Lee had to use every last ounce of concentration he had not to lose control at that moment. It had been an extremely long time since he’d last done this, and as much as he wanted to drag it out into something that lasted hours, he knew that wasn’t about to happen. Thankfully, Kara didn’t seem to mind.
Their kissing became more frantic and soon they were both pulling off what little remaining clothing they had on, tossing it into the water without a second thought.
Lee placed both hands on Kara’s hips and lifted her up, sliding into her as he brought her down to rest on his waist; her legs clasped around him tightly. As good as Lee had imagined it would feel, reality felt a million times better. His breath caught in his throat, and he thought Kara’s might have as well, but he couldn’t tell for sure, because he was trying too hard to remember to breathe.
Then Lee’s brain stopped working entirely. All he could manage to do was kiss her with everything he had while she moved against him.
***
Afterwards, Kara couldn’t quite seem to be able to get her body to budge. She knew that she should probably unwrap her legs from around Lee and try to stand, but it just wasn’t happening. She leaned her head against Lee’s shoulder while she struggled for breath, glad that he was still catching his as well. Her mind was whirling with several thoughts, but none of them had won dominance…yet.
Eventually, seconds or minutes later she couldn’t tell, Kara seemed to finally regain control of her muscles and slipped free from Lee’s body and his embrace.
They caught each other’s gaze, and then both immediately looked away. In doing so, Kara saw a glimpse of something white floating off to the side, and a better look recognized it as her sports bra. Quickly she reached for it, and pulled it over her head, not enjoying the feeling of the wet material snapping into place. She scanned the water for her underwear, but didn’t see them. When she turned to look in the other direction she saw Lee, holding them out for her.
“They were,” he started, pointing to his right. “Um, over…”
“Thanks,” Kara said quickly and quietly, not meeting his eye as she pulled the garment from his hand and put them on under the water.
Kara didn’t look up, but opened her mouth to say something. However, a second later she realized she was at a loss for words and her mouth fell shut. What conversation did this warrant exactly? ‘Hey, thanks for the awesome sex, let’s just go back to being friends now’? As the thought rolled into existence, Kara immediately rejected it.
No, she was pretty sure that’s not what she wanted, but she couldn’t tell for sure because she really had no idea what she wanted. Kissing Lee had seemed like the perfect idea at the time. She’d wanted it, and had gone for it, that’s how she worked usually. Plus, it definitely fit in with the living in the moment approach. However, living in the moment certainly did not cover how to deal with the awkwardness afterward.
She glanced over at Lee, and when their eyes met, they both looked away again. Kara wanted to curse out loud, but bit her tongue and settled for muttering the profanities silently in her mind. She wondered if this was really what it came to. She had wanted Lee, and the next thing she knew they were standing barely clothed in a lake, unable to even look at each other. If that was the case, what the hell was the remainder of the summer supposed to be like? Kara’s stomach twisted in upon itself, but not in the good way like before. No, this was definitely making her feel slightly nauseous.
She was saved from having to think about it, at least at that exact moment, when a bright flash of light lit up the sky. Instantly Kara’s head whipped upward. The last fleeting glimpse of lightning flickered through the sky not far from them, and not even a second later the answering thunderclap shook the sky.
Momentarily forgetting about what had just happened, Kara glanced at Lee, only to find that he was looking at her.
“Let’s get out of here,” he said quickly as he began making his way for the shore, Kara following close behind him.
***
The timing was almost ironic; the second they were out of the water and onto the shore, the rain started. And it didn’t just drizzle, it outright poured. For a moment Lee’s body was confused, and he could have sworn he was still in the lake, except possibly a colder lake. Maybe the water from the sky was colder or else the wind that had just picked up was making it seem like it. Either way, Lee couldn’t help but shiver as he pulled on his shorts.
From the corner of his eye he saw Kara hurrying to pull on hers, as well as her tank top. He quickly looked away before she could catch him watching her. What had happened in the water had been… amazing. Lee was hardly a virgin, but he’d still never quite experienced anything like that, something quite so… intense. But in spite of that, at this exact moment he was wishing he could take it back. Wishing he could unkiss Kara, and that instead he would have made some stupid comment and they would have laughed it off. That would have been much more preferable to the awkwardness they were both facing now. Because as great as it had been, he much rather preferred having Kara as his friend, then as a friendship he ruined with a one time frak. His stomach twisted unpleasantly and he shuddered, having a feeling it wasn’t because of the weather.
A second later the wind picked up yet another notch, accompanied by a few rounds of lightning and thunder. Kara, who had just finished jamming her feet into her runners headed off down the trail towards the truck, and Lee followed her. They ran quickly, both wanting to be out of the rain.
When they arrived in the parking lot, Kara fought with the wet pocket of her jean shorts and eventually pulled out the truck keys, unlocking her door before climbing in. She reached over to his side and unlocked the passenger door too, but refrained from making eye contact. Lee thought he might have felt his stomach knot just a little tighter.
The ride back to the Thrace house was colder than the lake had been for sure. The heat in Kara’s truck was broken, and by the time they pulled into the driveway they were both shivering. Lee felt truly frozen, but he was almost positive Kara felt worse. Neither of them had uttered a word on the way back, but Lee had snuck a couple glances, and Kara looked so cold he was surprised her teeth weren’t chattering together.
They hopped out of the truck, and trudged through the mud and the rain to the back door of the house, still both completely silent. Again, Lee found himself wishing he could go back in time, just a couple of hours, and change things.
When Kara pushed open the back door and stepped inside, Lee followed right behind her, glad to finally be out of the weather. However, he very nearly ran into Kara since she had stopped, midway through the process of kicking off a shoe in front of him. Looking up, Lee saw why. Michael was sitting at the kitchen table reading the newspaper and drinking coffee.
“Hey,” he said happily as he looked up at them, his face turning more serious when he saw their half-drowned state.
***
“Where the hell were you guys?” Michael asked loudly as he dropped the newspaper onto the table and stood up, apparently forgetting about his coffee as well.
Kara tried to smile at him, but her muscles seemed frozen in place.
“We were swimming,” Lee said from behind her, and Kara felt a rush of relief.
“In a storm like this?” Michael asked angrily. “Do you have any idea how dangerous that is?”
Kara suddenly remembered she was midway through taking off her shoes and finished doing so, before stepping into the kitchen and letting Lee do the same. She still couldn’t look at him, but she hoped Michael wouldn’t notice anything. The entire situation was awkward enough without adding her brother into the mix.
“It wasn’t storming initially,” Lee explained. “Once it started we left, we just got caught outside making our way back to the truck.”
Michael seemed to relax. “Oh, okay.” Kara was surprised when he looked over at her, staring closely.
“What?” She managed to ask through shaking lips.
Michael sighed and appeared to be the fighting the urge to roll his eyes. “You do know that you can still get hypothermia in the summer right?”
Kara nodded, trying to stop her entire body from shaking. “Yes,” she said, barely managing to keep her voice from shaking too.
“Kara, your lips look a little blue. Maybe you should head upstairs and grab a warm shower.”
Kara nodded eagerly, grasping quickly at her escape route. “Yeah,” she told her brother. “Good idea.”
Michael laughed. “Of course it’s a good idea, it’s mine.”
She fought the urge to punch him as she walked by and into the living room, heading for the stairs. As she was passing by the couch she heard Lee’s voice filter out from the kitchen.
“So,” he said slowly. “How was your trip? I’m actually surprised to see you here, I thought I was supposed to be picking you up at the spaceport tomorrow.”
Her brother answered warmly. “It was really good. I came back a day early because there was a huge weather warning out. The spaceport’s probably closed now, and will be tomorrow too from the looks of the weather report.”
Kara stood there for an additional couple of seconds, listening to them begin to talk about Michael’s oh-so-important medical student society meeting, before heading upstairs and into the bathroom.
Her shaking hands could barely turn on the shower fast enough, and the second the water was streaming down into the tub, she shed her wet clothes and hopped in. A sigh of contentment escaped her lips and she closed her eyes. For a moment she simply enjoyed the feeling of the warm water caressing her skin. However, a moment seemed to be all that her mind was willing to give to her, because in no time at all it was replaying what had happened in the lake.
It was like she could still feel his fingers digging into her hips… Kara’s eyes flew open and she reached for the soap, beginning to scrub her body harshly. She could not obsess over this. It might have been great sex, but that’s all it was; it didn’t have to mean anything. With any luck this mess could somehow be sorted out and things could go back to the way they’d been that afternoon.
***
A few minutes after listening to Michael talk about the med student society meeting, Lee excused himself and headed upstairs, claiming the need for a change of clothes, and probably a shower. He hadn’t really wanted to hear about the meeting in the first place, but he’d figured it couldn’t hurt to pretend like nothing had happened, at least in front of Michael. The situation they’d landed themselves in was bad enough as it was.
Lee’s feet felt heavy as he dragged them up the stairs. He wondered if he had truly frakked things up. He certainly hoped not, but it was a distinct possibility.
Lee was so caught up in his own mind that he didn’t hear the shower turn off, or the door open. And the next thing he knew he had run into Kara in the hallway as she left the bathroom, wearing nothing but a fluffy white towel. Reacting instinctively he brought his hands up to her shoulders, steadying her.
Kara looked up at him. The shock was evident on her face, as was two other things: sadness and hesitancy. Lee almost breathed a sigh of relief as he realized that maybe it was possible that Kara was just as uncertain about what to make of this as he was. He doubted that she’d been planning it either.
He smiled at her softly. “Hey.”
It took her a second, but she smiled back. “Hey,” she replied, her voice barely audible.
Lee wanted to say something else, but before he could come up with anything at all, he heard the distant sound of a chair scraping against the linoleum of the kitchen floor, and footsteps heading for the stairs.
Kara must have heard it too, because at the exact same second they both jumped apart, leaving a four-foot gap between them. Kara shifted nervously from foot to foot, rubbing her upper arm with the other hand. “I should…” she started, pointing towards her room.
“Yeah,” Lee replied, suddenly feeling unsure again. “I should…” he pointed towards the guest room.
Kara nodded and walked to her room, careful not to pass too close to Lee in the process. “You should shower,” she said suddenly, her hand paused hovering over the doorknob. “It’ll warm you up.” And with that she disappeared into her room, leaving behind a confused Lee.
***
Kara tried to sleep, she really did. But that damn thunder… at least it was partly due the storm outside. The rest was due to the fact that her mind would not stop thinking. Normally she never thought this much, ever. But here her mind was, replaying everything over and over, analyzing. And quite frankly she hated it. Sex was not supposed to be this complicated. It never had been for her before, and yet it was now.
But the worst part was, that the more she thought about things, the less sense it all made. After her shower she’d thought she’d maybe, sort of, almost straightened things out, but then Lee had smiled at her like that and… Gods. She wasn’t a girly-girl, but she didn’t know how else to describe the feeling in her stomach, except as butterflies. The fact that she was feeling something different, and new, and admittedly something she liked, was confusing the hell out of her.
Kara groaned in frustration and threw the covers down to the foot of her bed. She needed to get up, to do something, even for a few minutes, just to keep herself from going crazy. Finding an old, but warm sweater in her dresser, she pulled it out and put it on.
Silently, or at least as silently as she could, Kara slipped out of her bedroom and tiptoed down the stairs. Once in the kitchen she flicked on only the light above the stove and boiled some water for cocoa. After mixing the steaming liquid in with the powder, she wrapped her hands around the warm mug and headed for the porch.
Despite the chaoticness of a storm, she found it oddly calming to watch the lightning, and feel the fresh air on her face. She didn’t know that it would necessarily help her tonight, but it certainly couldn’t hurt.
***
Lee had seen the kitchen light turn on from where he was sitting out on the porch. He had watched through the kitchen window, as Kara boiled water and made what he was guessing was hot cocoa. Then the light had turned off, and Lee had focused his attention back on the storm, until he heard the door to the porch open.
He instantly looked to his left, just in time to see Kara step out onto the porch, mug in one hand while she closed the door behind her.
“Uh, hi,” she said quietly when she looked up and noticed him.
“Hi,” he replied just as softly, almost meeting her gaze.
“Sorry, I didn’t know you were… I’ll just…” she moved to go back into the house.
“No,” Lee said suddenly. “Kara, please, stay.”
Surprising him, she nodded and moved towards him, taking the chair on his left. She pulled her legs up onto the chair, tucking her knees in against her chest while she blew on the mug of cocoa, staring straight ahead.
He hadn’t known Kara for that long, in spite of the fact it felt like he’d known her for years, but he still never would have ever expected to see her so… timid. It worried him, and Lee knew he had to do something to fix things between them, or at least try.
“Kara,” he started.
“Yeah?” She answered hesitantly, still not looking at him.
“Look, Kara, about what happened today at the lake… It was…” Lee didn’t quite know where to go with this, but he figured the truth couldn’t hurt. “It was amazing, and great and I was not expecting it to happen. I’m just sorry that it, that I, screwed things up between us. If you want we can just call it a one time thing, and pretend it never happened.”
Lee held his breath, waiting for Kara to say something, anything in response.
Eventually, after what seemed like hours but was probably more like minutes, Kara turned her head to look at him. It was dark, but with the flashes of lightning he could see her face quite clearly. “What if I don’t want it to be just a one time thing?” She asked, the words so quiet he could barely make them out.
Lee released the breath he’d been holding and smiled. “I’d like that,” he said honestly, maintaining eye contact.
Kara grinned back, and in that moment it was like all of the initial awkwardness magically faded away. “Okay then.”
Lee laughed. “Okay.”
“So it was great?” Kara asked, a hint of teasing entering her voice as she cocked her head to the side, still staring at him.
Lee blushed. “I… what I meant was…” He sighed in defeat. “Yeah, it was great.”
“It was great,” Kara agreed. “I’ve never had sex in a lake before,” she added.
Lee laughed. “Me neither. A first for both of us.”
This time it was Kara’s turn to laugh. “I guess so.”
With all of the discomfort between them gone, they were both content to simply sit there and watch the storm.
Lee found himself grinning broadly, even though Kara wasn’t looking at him. Out of all the ways the day’s events could have ended, he was sure they’d ended up with the best one. However, there was one thing niggling at the back of his mind from much earlier on in the day that he was insanely curious about. After about twenty minutes of sitting there, he couldn’t help it, he had to ask.
“Kara?” He asked quietly.
“Yeah,” she said, turning her head to look at him.
“Will you tell me about your frakked up family?”
Kara’s look turned to one of surprise. “With everything that happened today, I can hardly believe you remember me saying that.”
“Of course I remember.”
Kara smiled. “Well, I did promise.” She shifted in her chair so that she was slouched down a bit more. “What do you want to know?”
Lee smiled at her. “Everything.”
TBC
~~~
A/N: I am finally (probably/possibly/theoretically) leaving for that extended field job this week. If you're wondering if this is the same job I mentioned several chapters earlier, the answer is yes. If it ends up we leave on the weekend, or sometime next week instead, I'll try to get another chapter in. I think this will be the last one before I go away, but I thought that for the last couple as well, so who knows. It's still going to be a long 3 week type thing, so let's just say this: at some point this story will not get updated for 3 weeks to a month. When this happens it's because my work finally got things organized and I'm gone, I will however be back and posting in the future. Meanwhile, while I am here, I will continute to write and try to update weekly. :)
Oh, and I apologize for not replying to comments from chapter 7 yet. It will happen, I promise. :)