fic: into the woods final part
FANDOM: PRIMEVAL
Into the Woods Final Part
Part One Part Two
They’d been going for about three hours when they came upon the creature. It happened very suddenly - Lieutenant Hollings stopped and held up his fist, and the others stopped as well. Jess couldn’t see anything over Holling’s shoulder, but she could clearly hear something in front of them, and she knew by the way Becker tensed that they’d found what they were looking for.
Becker beckoned the soldiers closer to him and Jess suddenly found herself in the middle of a huddle - Hollings kept his back to her, presumably keeping his EMD trained on the creature.
“Right,” Becker whispered. “We fan out and surround it - watch me for the signal to fire. “Adams, Wallis, you two go round to the right, Harvey you’re with me on the left. Hollings?”
“Sir?” Hollings replied quietly, not turning round.
“You stay here with Jess and keep down,” said Becker.
“Yes sir.”
Becker gave Jess a serious look, which Jess returned with a glare. He opened his mouth again but she cut him off. “Save your breath,” she hissed, “I’ll stay down.” Honestly, did he think she was going to go charging at the damn thing?
Becker just nodded, gave her one last tense look, and then gestured to the others to move out. They did so quickly and silently, and Jess suddenly found herself alone with Hollings. He stepped to the side, and Jess saw the rhino for the first time.
It was like a cross between a modern rhino and a woolly mammoth, which she supposed she should have expected, but seeing it in the flesh was very different to her imagination. It was extraordinary. Shaped like a modern rhino with thick and shaggy brown fur, it was standing with its back to them, chewing on the lower branches of a fir tree. It was about forty feet away, but the trees had thinned out a bit here and so they could see it pretty clearly. Jess leant against a tree and, at a look from Hollings, crouched down low. Hollings knelt down a couple of feet away from her, his EMD trained on the clueless rhino.
Becker and the other soldiers were creeping through the trees either side of the rhino, which clearly hadn’t noticed them yet. Jess swallowed hard and had to remind herself to breath properly. Angry as she still was at him, she couldn’t help but watch Becker more than any of the others as they got closer to the rhino, hoping that he wasn’t about to do anything stupid and heroic and get himself hurt.
She needn’t have worried, though. Becker raised his hand, which must have been the signal, and all four of them opened fire with their heavy duty EMDs. The rhino reared up, letting out a high-pitched bellow as the blue energy of the EMDs hit it from four angles. Its hide was thick though, and it took a couple of shots from all of them before it collapsed to the ground with a groan.
And that was that. It was easy. Too easy, really. Jess frowned and stood up as Becker and the others moved cautiously towards the unconscious rhino. She’d completely misjudged the distance - they were more like thirty feet away, if that… the rhino was a lot smaller than she’d expected. The reports had said it was about two metres long, but now she had the perspective of Becker and his men standing beside it she could see it was actually only about a metre long. Standing up she could also see that it didn’t have any horns on its snout, only nubs.
Jess gasped. “It’s a baby,” she whispered.
Hollings frowned and looked round at her. He’d lowered his EMD when the rhino had collapsed, but his grip tightened when he caught sight of Jess’ face. “What?”
“That’s a baby,” she repeated. “The sightings said it was much bigger - it must be a mother and its calf.”
Hollings stared at her for a moment before fumbling for his radio on his flak jacket. “Sir? We might have a -”
Hollings’ eyes widened fearfully, and Jess didn’t need to look round to know that she was right - she could hear the sound of something approaching to her right; something big.
“Jess, get down!” Hollings yelled out, his EMD coming up. Jess didn’t need to be told twice - she immediately ducked back down into a crouch next to the tree again, and Hollings leapt out and began firing. She heard a roar, similar to the one the other rhino had given out but much louder and much lower in pitch. She could hear shouting underneath the sound of rhino’s roar, but she didn’t look towards where she knew Becker and the others must be heading towards them. She peered out around the tree trunk to see what was happening.
Hollings was firing his EMD but he wasn’t standing still - he was moving towards where the other rhino was, drawing the creature away from Jess and towards the other soldiers. Some of his shots were hitting the rhino, but this one was more than twice the size of the baby, and the wool covering her hide was a lot thicker. Jess gasped with horror as she roared again and ran towards Hollings.
He stood his ground and kept firing, and one of his shots hit the rhino square in the face - the rhino stumbled slightly, shaking her head groggily, before letting out an angry bellow and lunging forward towards Hollings. Hollings jumped out of the way of the rhino’s horn which would have otherwise skewered him in the gut, but the rhino just swept her head into Hollings’ side, throwing her entire weight into the man.
Hollings was launched into the air and slammed into the tree next to Jess - she screamed and ducked instinctively, falling onto her hip and flinching away as Hollings slid down the trunk to land in a crumpled heap next to her. Jess shook herself and quickly knelt up next to him - he was unconscious, but still breathing - but the rhino let out another roar that seemed somehow louder than any of the others Jess’d heard. A glance told her why - the rhino was closer than she had been when she’d tossed Hollings, and was now facing Jess head on.
Distantly, Jess heard someone calling her name, but she could only focus on the massive prehistoric rhinoceros standing ten feet from her, looking like it was about to charge. She did the only thing she could do. She fumbled for the clip attaching Hollings’ EMD to his vest and quickly undid it. She hoisted the gun up - it was bigger than any other EMD she’d ever handled - and fired. Her first shot was wide but her second hit the rhino right between the eyes.
Jess could see other bursts of blue hitting the rhino’s side and back, but her wool was protecting her from the worst of those shots. She was clearly unhappy, though, and roared again, rearing back, and Jess fired off two shots in quick succession - these ones hit her chest, exposed as she reared up, and the rhino’s eyes rolled up into her head. She started to fall forward, and it seemed to Jess like she was falling in slow motion. Her eyes followed as the rhino pitched forward in an almost elegant arc, and Jess gasped and lunged forward just in time to pull Hollings’ leg back before the rhino’s head crashed down onto the spot where his foot had been.
The rhino shuddered and twitched for a moment before becoming very still.
There was a long moment where everything and everyone was silent, waiting to see if a daddy rhino was going to suddenly appear. It didn’t.
Jess let out a breath she didn’t even know she was holding, and then gasped in another one. She looked up, over the rhino’s unconscious body, and saw Becker and his men stepping out from behind the trees, EMDs still in hand. Jess looked down at the EMD still tightly clutched in her hand before carefully putting it down on the forest floor next to her.
Hollings let out a soft groan. Jess tore her eyes away from the EMD and scrambled onto her knees next to him as he started to shift, grimacing. “No, don’t move,” she said, putting a hand on his shoulder. “You took a nasty knock to the head.”
“Jess?” Hollings said groggily.
“Yep,” Jess said, carefully feeling the back of his head for a wound - there wasn’t one. “Stay still.”
“Okay,” Hollings said quietly.
“Jess!”
“Nice shooting, Jess!”
“You got it!”
Jess looked up again and saw that Harvey and Adams had skirted round the downed rhino and were hurrying over to her, EMDs hanging loose in their hands and looks of admiration on their faces.
“Seriously, that was pretty impressive,” Harvey said, grinning at her.
“Definitely,” Adams agreed.
Jess couldn’t help but feel warmed by their praise, but she only managed a small smile. “Harvey, Hollings is hurt - he might have a concussion,” she said. She knew that Harvey had the most medical training of all of them.
Harvey nodded, his face turning serious as he knelt down next to Hollings to check on him. Jess got unsteadily to her feet, reaching into her pocket for her satellite phone.
“All teams this is Becker - be advised there were two creatures, and we have brought them down - repeat, creatures are down. All units cease and desist search. Team Two return to your check point and await further instructions; Team Three continue course for rendezvous, Jess will send you our coordinates. Becker out.”
Jess looked over at Becker for the first time and saw that he was standing a little way back behind his men, covering the mother rhino. She could see Wallis further behind him, covering the baby. As she watched him, Becker cut the transmission on his radio and looked over at her. Where the looks his men had given Jess had been admiring, impressed and pleased… the look he gave her was nothing but grim.
It seemed it would take more than bringing down a fully-grown phrehistoric rhino to impress Captain Becker.
Jess turned away from him and switched on her satellite phone, waiting for it to calibrate and ignoring everything and everyone while it did. Okay, ignoring Becker while it did. What was his problem?
The phone came to life and Jess put through a call to the ARC to tell them they had the creatures, and to rearrange the transport for the creatures now that there were two of them. In her other hand she calibrated their coordinates and sent them through to George. Matt came on the phone and she spoke to him briefly about what happened, and he told her Abby had the menagerie ready for the rhinos.
Getting the rhinos to the menagerie was going to be a different matter entirely. The containment unit would be leaving the airbase right now, but the nearest helicopter drop point was a good three hour trek from here. Once they got to them they would have to clear the canopy as much as possible and fit harnesses around the rhinos so that the chopper could come back and airlift them out. They would have to stay with the rhinos until the containment team got here, and that would likely not be until after dark… and it would be extremely foolish to attempt the extraction at night.
Becker seemed to have reached the same conclusion, because he was ordering his men to set a perimeter around the area.
Jess shuddered the thought of spending another night in her freezing tent - it was already so much colder than this time the day before. Still, there was nothing to be done about it so she threw herself into handling the logistics of the creature transport, liaising with George at the ARC and the team back at the airbase.
Team Three, who had been closest to their own team when they’d got the rhinos’ coordinates from the cameras, arrived at their site within an hour, and Becker assigned men to guard the rhinos - one on the baby, two on its mother.
Once again, Jess’ tent was put up for her while she was on the phone, and once again it was right next to Becker’s. But this time she didn’t feel any qualms about sitting by the large fire the soldiers lit - she wanted to stay warm as long as she could. And this evening the soldiers weren’t avoiding looking at her; in fact they greeted her with big grins and made room for her close to the flames.
“So Jess, how does it feel to be the hero of the hour?” Adams asked her as she sat down next to him.
“Heroine,” she corrected him with a wink, making the others laughed. She shrugged. “It was nothing, I just took the shot.”
“Well from what I hear it was a pretty damn good shot,” said Sergeant Innes, who’d arrived with Team Three.
“It was,” Harvey confirmed. “Hollings couldn’t handle it but Jess just pointed her gun and bam.”
“Hey,” Hollings protested from where he was sat next to Harvey. He was still a bit light-headed and had a hell of a bump to the head, but it didn’t look like he had a concussion. Everyone chuckled as he glared at Harvey.
Harvey shrugged. “I’m just telling it like it is,” he said.
Hollings snorted. “Yeah, well, somebody had to help out with the grown up rhino, what with you four all being busy with the baby,” he said.
They all laughed again, including Jess, but her laughter died when she caught sight of Becker’s face. He was sitting on the other side of the fire, looking straight at her, and he looked positively pained. Her eyes widened but he blinked and looked away, and when he looked back his expression was back to the grim one he’d worn since Lester had suggested she go on the mission.
Jess sighed, and reminded herself that she didn’t care what he thought.
The containment unit arrived about four hours after they’d found the rhinos, and they affirmed Jess’ belief that attempting to move the rhinos in the dark would be asking for trouble. They’d bought heavy-duty tranquilisers with them which they injected the rhinos with, so they didn’t have to worry so much about them waking up. They also set up some small floodlights they’d brought with them so they could all see if the rhinos were waking up.
Jess stayed where she was by the fire - though the men all had a new appreciation for her, there wasn’t really much she could do to help with setting perimeters and keeping watch… they were professional soldiers after all, so she was a bit superfluous here.
She stayed by the fire until she was nodding off where she sat, and finally conceded that she should go to her tent. She said goodnight to the few soldiers who were still by the fire and walked away. Becker had taken the first watch and was standing on the other side of the site, with his back to Jess as she skirted round the big rhino and made her way to their tents. The tents were all dotted in large circle around the rhinos, and hers and Becker’s were next to each other, a little apart from everyone else’s. She had to wish that he’d put them up a little closer to the fire, but she wasn’t going to say anything.
Jess went straight to her tent, trying to ignore how cold it had got tonight. The tent was on the edge of the pool of light from the floodlights and they lit up the inside of her tent just enough so she didn’t need a torch. She toed off her boots and got straight into her sleeping bag in the hope that some of the warmth she’d gained from the fire would get trapped within it.
No such luck. Within minutes she could feel the cold seeping into her bones, and soon after that she started shivering.
XXXXX
Jess was still awake and still shivering two hours later. She knew it was two hours because that was when the watch was due to change, and she could hear Becker talking quietly to one of his men and then his footsteps as he walked over to his tent. Jess clenched her jaw to stop her teeth from chattering as he went past, but it made her jaw ache and she soon let her teeth start chattering again.
She heard Becker reach his tent, and then the sound of a zip being undone. There were rummaging noises, and then the zip closed again. Jess closed her eyes, determined to fall asleep, and but a second later she heard the sound of footsteps again, and she was sure they were Becker’s. Her eyes flew open.
The zip on her tent started to pull up, and Jess tensed in her sleeping bag, staring at the opening as it got wider. Her instincts told her it was Becker, but she wasn’t entirely sure. And anyway, what did he want? To sit there glaring at her in sullen silence? Or to snap at her some more?
“Jess?”
It was Becker. Jess relaxed a little, but was frowning as his face appeared in the gap. “Is s-s-something wr-wrong?” She said through chattering teeth, hating herself for letting Becker see how cold she was.
Becker unzipped the flap further and pushed his shoulders through - she could see his face clearly in the filtered light, and he looked grim as ever. “I could hear you shivering from the other side of the camp,” he said.
“I’m f-f-fine.” She tried to make her voice sound indignant, but it just came out stammering again. Damn it.
Becker’s face disappeared for a moment and then, suddenly, his sleeping bag filled the gap as he pushed it into the tent.
Jess pushed herself up onto her elbows - or as far as she could swaddled in her sleeping bag. “B-Becker!” She protested. “You c-c-can’t give m-me your s-sleeping b-b-bag!”
“I’m not,” he said calmly, pushing the rest of it in.
Jess frowned again. “Who’s-s-s is it-t-t-t?”
“It’s mine,” Becker said. He was now following his sleeping bag through the gap, climbing fully into her tent. He must have seen her confused expression, because he shrugged at her. “I’m not giving you my sleeping bag - I’m just going to sleep in here tonight.”
“What?” Jess demanded, her shivering ceasing in her shock.
Becker was zipping up the tent behind him, and when he looked back at her his face was determined. “You’re freezing, Jess,” he said flatly. “You need body heat. So. Move over.”
Jess was frozen, but out of shock, not cold. He couldn’t be serious, could he? He’d basically ignored her for two days - stayed close to her, yes, but pretty much ignored her unless it was to have a go at her. Now he wanted to share her tent? Before this mission she would have been ecstatic at the idea - now she was too angry with him to want him anywhere near her.
She opened her mouth to tell him so, but he chose that moment to take matters into his own hands. Literally.
He was crouching next to her, stretching the fabric side of the very small tent behind him, and when she didn’t move he slid his forearms underneath her body - one under her shoulders, one under her thighs - and pushed her away, as far as she could go.
“B-Becker!” She exclaimed.
“No arguments, Jess,” he said sternly, sitting down next to her and starting to sort out his sleeping bag. “You need to get warmed up.”
Jess glared at him, completely unwilling to admit that he was right. “I was f-f-fine last-t-t n-night-t-t,” she said.
“It’s a lot colder tonight,” Becker said matter-of-factly.
This was true, of course - Jess had felt the drop in the temperature, and lord knows she’d been cold enough as it was the night before, and that had been with heat packs… but no, this was ridiculous.
Becker had removed his boots and was now stretched out next to her, his sleeping bag arranged so that the open zipped side was facing her, and he suddenly reached for the zip of her own sleeping bag and started pulling it down.
“What-t-t are you d-d-doing?” Jess demanded.
“Warming you up,” Becker said firmly. He had her sleeping bag open now, and Jess was too cold to move away from him or try to close it again. He tugged on the edge of her sleeping bag to drag it closer to him, shifted towards her and then reached out and pulled her into his arms, so her face was tucked into his shoulder, and closed her sleeping bag over their sides before pulling his own sleeping bag over the both of them. He sat up and somehow pulled the zip of his sleeping bag mostly closed around them before lying back down next to her.
Jess immediately felt the warmth from Becker’s body and the double layer of their combined sleeping bags start to warm her chilled limbs, but she felt she should say something else in protest for the sake of her dignity. “This is c-completely unnec-c-cess-s-s-s-sar-ry,” she said, her voice muffled against the fleece of Becker’s jumper.
“Right,” Becker said, sounding entirely unconvinced. He ran his hand up and down her arm, and Jess couldn’t help but snuggle closer to him, into his warmth. She really was very cold… she closed her eyes and let herself be warmed up.
After a few minutes, when she had stopped shivering and was warm enough to think straight, Jess started to feel uncomfortable. She and Becker were lying on their sides facing each other, and Jess was pressed closely against his torso, his arms wrapped tight around her and her arms squashed between their bodies, pressed against his chest. Their legs were tangled together. It was the closest Jess had ever been to him - she could feel the muscles of his chest moving against her hands every time he took a breath.
She was so annoyed right now. She should be lying her completely happy, enjoying the feel of his arms around her. But she wasn’t. Instead, because of the way he’d been treating her she just felt completely resentful of the fact that he’d had to warm her up like this. Any other time she wouldn’t feel ashamed of getting too cold in a situation like this, but right now that’s how she felt - ashamed. Like she wasn’t good enough, not tough enough for the mission. He made her feel like a useless little girl.
She didn’t know what more she could have done. She’d kept up with them and, as far as she could tell, hadn’t slowed them down or got in the way. She’d handled the logistics of the check-ins and coordinating the teams perfectly. They’d found the creatures with her help, and she’d even been the one to shoot the thing! What else could she have done?
“What else could I have done?” Jess said out loud.
Becker started slightly - Jess didn’t know if she’d woken him up or whether he’d just thought she was asleep. “What?”
“What else could I have done?” She repeated, lifting her head to look at him. He looked a little wary, but mostly confused. Jess suddenly felt nervous - they were alone in a tent, so he couldn’t get out of this conversation easily… and neither could she. But it had to be said.
“I don’t know what more I could have done,” Jess said quietly but firmly. “I kept up, and coordinated everything, I even shot the rhino.”
“Of course you did,” said Becker.
Jess blinked. “What do you mean, of course I did?”
“You’re you,” Becker said with a shrug. “I knew you’d handle everything perfectly with the logistics.” He rolled his eyes. “And I should have known you’d be the one to bring it down.”
“I -”
Becker shrugged again. “Seriously, I’ve seen you shoot far more accurately than that… and you were half conscious at the time,” he said matter-of-factly.
Jess was so confused, and lost, and angry… she spluttered, unable to articulate what she was thinking. “I don’t… you… urgh!” Giving into an impulse she’d had since the meeting the other day, she punched him on the shoulder as hard as she could.
“Ow!” Becker exclaimed, though it was more in the way someone might do if they get a paper cut rather than if they’ve been punched. Jess growled and punched him again, both her fists pounding against his chest, hitting any part of Becker she could reach. She only managed to get in three or four punches before Becker grabbed hold of her wrists, pulling her hands tight against his chest and thwarting her attack.
He didn’t look angry at her for attacking him - he looked incredibly confused. “Jess, what are you doing?” He demanded.
Jess was still too angry to talk properly. “You are the most - I just - what is your problem?” She exclaimed.
Becker raised an eyebrow at her. “My problem - you’re the one hitting me!”
“I just don’t get you, Becker!” Jess hissed at him. “You say these things, like you have all this faith in me, but the past two days you’ve made it clear that nothing I do will prove to you that I can do this job…”
Becker blinked at her. “Prove?” He repeated blankly. “You don’t need to prove to me that…” He shook his head for a moment and then looked at her intently, his hands tightening around her wrists. “Jess, I do have faith in you,” he insisted. “How could you think I don’t?”
Jess swallowed. “You didn’t want me to come on the mission,” she said.
“Of course I didn’t,” Becker said firmly.
“Becker!” Jess growled, trying to hit him again. She failed, of course, so she kicked him instead, finding his shin with her foot and jabbing as hard as she could.
“Ow, stop that!”
Jess went to kick him again, but in a move Jess did not think he’d be capable of in the confines of a sleeping bag, Becker got one leg under hers and the other on top, pinning her lower legs between his and leaving her completely immobilised.
Jess glared at Becker and he looked back at her with a bewildered expression. Then his eyes widened as he seemed to realise something. “Wait - you thought that - that wasn’t because I didn’t think you could do the job,” he said. “Of course you can - you’re you.”
Jess just stared at him, and Becker rolled his eyes. “Jess, I don’t know how many times I need to tell you this - you’re brilliant,” he said earnestly.
Jess felt like she was going to get a migraine, she was so confused by this point. “Then why didn’t you want me to come?” She demanded, once and for all.
The look Becker gave her was the very definition of sardonic. “Jess, we were hunting a prehistoric rhino,” he said as if the answer was obvious. “It came five feet away from gorging you to death!”
Jess rolled her eyes. “It was more like ten feet…”
Suddenly, Jess was flat on her back with her wrists pinned either side of her head by Becker, who had rolled with her and was now looming over her, propped up on his elbows and staring down at her with a look of such intensity that Jess shivered… and it was nothing to do with the cold.
“Do you have any idea how much I worry about you?” He demanded in a hoarse whisper. “How many nights I wake up in a cold sweat because I have nightmares about you getting torn apart by some monster because I can’t get to you in time?”
Jess swallowed and opened her mouth, but Becker ploughed on before she had the chance to say anything. All she could do was stare up at him as he continued, his voice growing more terse and his body getting tenser and tenser with every word.
“We have a dangerous job, and I accept that there are risks, but the only thing that keeps me sane is knowing that you’re behind your desk at the ARC watching what’s going on through a camera, and that you’re safe from whatever we’re out there hunting. And even then it’s not right, because I know that anything can happen to you in the ARC too. Like future predators, or deadly future insects. But I put up with it, because most of the time you’re safe. So yeah, I didn’t want you to come on this mission. I don’t want you to go on any mission. The thought of you out in the field… it terrifies me. More than anything - way more than that giant rhino that’s out there. Because anything can happen, and I know that one wrong move, one wrong decision and that’s it - I’d lose you. And I can’t lose you, Jess. I can’t.”
Jess’ eyes had gotten wider and wider with every word Becker said, and by the time he was finished they looked like saucers.
He was in love with her.
He hadn’t said it, he probably didn’t even realise it, but everything he had said… oh my god. Jess stared at him, and he stared at her, his gaze as intense as she had ever seen it. And considering that he was laying almost entirely on top of her, pinning her flat with both his torso against hers and his hands still clamped around her wrists, his face no more than three inches from hers, it was pretty damn intense.
She got it now, why he hadn’t wanted her on the mission. It didn’t excuse his behaviour, but her anger was swept aside for the moment by the almost unbelievable realisation that he felt that way about her. He loved her.
He was still staring at her, but Jess saw a glimmer of embarrassment or something like it in his eyes, and she knew he was about to pull away.
“You’re…” In love with me was what she’d planned on saying, but she stopped herself. She didn’t know if she was ready for that. But she did know Becker, and he definitely wasn’t. Instead he’d spent the last two days snapping at her because he’d been so worried she was going to get hurt that he couldn’t think straight.
“…An idiot,” she finished.
Becker sighed and looked away from her. He let go of her wrists and shifted as though he was going to roll away, but as soon as her right hand was free Jess wrapped it round the back of his neck and pulled him back down to her. She saw his eyes widen again but he didn’t resist.
It was a slow kiss, soft and searching. Jess kept her hand on the back of Becker’s neck, and he braced himself with his free hand. At first he didn’t move, but then his lips parted over hers and he was kissing her back. For a moment.
He pulled away a little after a few seconds - only far enough to part their lips - and rested his forehead against hers. Jess’ eyes fluttered open and she could just about see that his eyes were still closed.
“You know,” he said, his voice low and husky, “this isn’t going to help me stop worrying about you.”
Jess grinned and slid her hand up into his hair. “Shut up,” she said. “Don’t make me punch you ag -”
Her threat was unceremoniously cut off by Becker swooping down to kiss her again. He seemed to sink into her, and Jess moaned in the back of her throat at the feel of his body pressing her down into the hard ground. His hands, no longer needed to brace himself, went one under her shoulders and one down her side to rest on her hip, pulling her even closer to him. Becker tilted his head and deepened the kiss, and Jess moaned again, meeting him kiss for kiss as her hands found their way under the collar of the three or four layers he was wearing to allow her to dig her fingernails into the taut muscles of his back. His hips rocked into hers, seemingly of their own accord, and Jess grinned against his lips, hooking her heel over his calf to lock their hips together. Becker paused for a moment, a very short moment, and then he sucked her lower lip in between his teeth as he rocked his hips against hers again, deliberately and very slowly.
Jess groaned, and tried very hard to remember that they were in a tent, with lots of other people not very far away. Then Becker moved his mouth down her neck and started to suck on the pulsepoint on her throat, and her chief concern became how many layers of clothing currently stood between her skin and Becker’s, and how difficult it was going to be to remove them in a sleeping bag.
The one thing she definitely wasn’t worrying about was the cold.
XXXXX
It was late when Jess woke up. Well, not by any normal person’s standards - late in that the sun was up and she was pretty sure that everyone else in the camp was already awake.
Including Becker. He was gone, his boots were gone, and if it wasn’t for his sleeping bag still tucked around her Jess would have convinced herself that she’d imagined what had happened the night before.
Jess grinned and stretched. She was reluctant to leave the warmth of her sleeping bag(s), but she needed to find Becker. She didn’t think that he was going to regret the night before, not after what he’d said to her, but it was Becker, and there was no telling what kind of craziness he’d talked himself into apart from her.
Which reminded her; she still needed to berate him for acting like such a prat for the past three days. Worried about her or not, he had no excuse. But she could wait until they got home to punish him…
Still grinning to herself, Jess shucked off the sleeping bags and, shivering slightly in the sudden cold, pulled on her boots and unzipped the tent. It was a bright, very cold morning, and there was a layer of frost on the ground and over the tents. Her eye was immediately drawn to the adult woolly rhino fifteen feet away, still out cold but surrounded by four soldiers.
They all looked over at her as she stood up next to the tent. She waved and they nodded back, smiling. No, not smiling - smirking. Those were definitely smirks. Jess frowned slightly and turned away, thinking that she must be imagining it. She couldn’t see Becker anywhere so she started for the perimeter of the camp. She saw Hollings sitting up against a tree a little way away, Harvey and Adams standing next to him. They caught sight of her and waved, but again they weren’t smiling, they were smirking.
Jess’ eyes widened and she stumbled backwards, straight into something too warm to be a tree trunk.
“Good morning.”
Jess spun round to face Becker, who was smiling down at her, all traces of that horrible grim expression gone. Jess was too embarrassed to even feel relieved that he seemed to be okay with what had happened - she just looked over her shoulder at the soldiers nearby, who were all pointedly not looking at her and Becker.
She looked up at Becker with wide eyes. “I think they all heard us,” she whispered.
Becker raised an eyebrow and then looked over her shoulder with narrowed eyes - Jess didn’t look round again, but she knew he was looking at Hollings and the others, and the soldiers by the rhino.
He looked back at her with a calm expression, and then nodded. “They definitely did,” he said. Then he smirked too.
Jess immediately jabbed him in the side with a finger. “It’s not funny!” She hissed. She covered her eyes with her hands. “Oh god,” she said. “Oh god, I’ll never be able to look at any of them ever again.”
“Jess - Jess it’s okay, I’m only joking,” Becker said, obviously trying not to laugh as he pulled her hands down. She glared at him suspiciously, and he nodded. “Seriously, they didn’t hear anything. They just saw me coming out of your tent a few minutes ago and they’re drawing their own conclusions. That’s all, I promise. And I told them I was just keeping you warm.”
Jess looked at him for a long moment before letting out a relieved breath. “Good,” she said. “It’s not that I’m… you know, that I think it was a…”
Becker nodded. “It’s okay,” he repeated.
Jess nodded back, a little thrown by the unexpected role reversal. She was looking for him thinking she was going to have to calm him down, but instead the opposite was happening. It wasn’t that she regretted what had happened, because lord knows she didn’t at all… she just preferred to keep her private life private. Most of the time.
“Right,” she said. She glanced into the woods and nodded her head in that direction. “I’m just gonna…”
“Jess wait,” Becker said, reaching out to take hold of her elbow. “About last night…”
Jess looked up at him, wondering if their roles weren’t so revered after all.
Becker gave her a very serious look. “I’m sorry,” he said. Jess’ heart plummeted, but he carried on before she could think to say anything. “I thought about what you said and you were right.”
Jess frowned, suddenly very confused. Becker took her confusion as his cue to continue.
“I was really thrown when Lester said you should come on the mission,” he said. “I was already worried about it, I knew it was going to be a hard one, and then suddenly you were coming too and I didn’t handle it well. You out with me on a normal mission is difficult enough to think of but something like this is a nightmare. But I shouldn’t have acted the way I did. Looking back on it now I can see how you must have thought that I didn’t think you were good enough to be here, but please believe me that that isn’t the case. You really are brilliant - at your job, at everything. But even so I hate the idea of you in danger more than anything. Still, I was a prat and I’m sorry.”
Jess forgot that there were a dozen or so soldiers nearby probably watching them closely. Or, rather, she didn’t care. She rocked forwards onto the toes of her boots, grabbed Becker’s collar in both hands and kissed him. Becker caught on quickly, and wrapped both his arms around her back to steady her and keep her close as he kissed her back. She could feel him smiling against her lips, and she smiled too as she pulled away. His arms around her didn’t let her get far.
“Does that mean I’m forgiven?” Becker asked, starting to grin.
Jess glanced over Becker’s shoulder and saw that Hollings, Harvey and Adams were staring at them. When they saw her looking at them they quickly looked away, but Jess could see them grinning. She grinned too and pulled away from Becker. He let her go, and she shrugged at him.
“I’ll leave you to draw your own conclusions,” she said.
THE END (YAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!)
So the prompts were huddling together for warmth, and for Jess to be awesome out in the field and for all the soldiers to be impressed but Becker be all 'whatever' because he already knows she's brilliant. My attempt to combine the two directly led to this 16,000 word long monstrosity; it is in no way seren_ccd's fault.