The Perfect Weapon Ending 2 Part 1 section 10

[camillecarelli]

"Unless of course, you want me to check out .... how much champagne might have spilled elsewhere." He grinned and began to move his mouth down her body, making little stops here and there, making her moan with each warm lick, each sharp suckle that would turn gentle, then hungry again. This was...fun, he had thought. He hadn't expected this, he had thought they would just fly together, but this.... Could there be a better partner, he wondered, looking up at her, seeing the love and laughter in her face. Good, she needed to laugh again. A doubleplay. Always good. "I think," he said from the tip of her breast, "That strictly for the sake of scientific knowledge, that I need to verify that statement with empirical evidence."

"Really, Dr. Bristow, I didn't think that was your area of expertise," she laughed, then moaned as his hand slid between her legs.

"Oh, I read widely for my dissertation," Jack quipped, avoiding looking in her eyes. And luckily, there was so much else to look upon, displayed so enticingly before him as he bent his head and took a little nip from the skin of her neck. That's it, he told himself, bite her. That will be distracting.

"Read widely for your dissertation?" Irina asked slowly, her eyes narrowing, as she trailed a hand down the center of Jack's chest. 
"Um, yes. Of course." Jack nodded and bent his head to take a nip out of her shoulder. Instead he bit his own lip when she shoved her shoulder at him and banged him in the nose.

"Don't think about trying that tactic!" She stared at him, then twisted her fingers into a pinch, trying to find some spare skin. "Does this have..." Inspiration struck. "Does this have anything to do with that manual?"

"You know I truly believe that anything that came before us is irrelevant," Jack said firmly, pushing her prying fingers away with his free hand, the other still holding the chain. Well and he did believe that, after all. That was the truth. The best lie was the one closest to the truth. Not that it was a lie. He just didn't think it was to his benefit to tell her the truth. And maybe he should just keep his mouth shut because if she heard that bit of logic, his ass would be grass. He smiled. This was fun, this game with her.

"Do you? Then why won't you just tell me?" Irina asked, deciding to change her tactics. "If it's so irrelevant?"

"Because I'm not stupid?" He parried, hoping. Her logic was irrefutable -- thank god, she was back -- so all he could do was deflect and hope... Damn it, he thought at her next question.

"Does Dave know?" She shot at him, trying to catch him off guard.

"Know what?" He asked innocently. Then gave a small, smug smile as she growled at him.

"Did Arvin know about the manual?" Irina asked suddenly. She grinned happily as his smile faded. "Ha! Somehow...I'm coming to think this manual might be more interesting than any Rambaldi document."

"I don't know whether to be relieved or appalled by that statement," Jack said dryly, beginning to pray that today would go well, although a feeling in the pit of his stomach was telling him otherwise.

"What you should be is scared to death."

"I often was, around you," Jack said softly, as he opened his palm and recoiled the chain into rings within his hand.

"That's enough!" Laura had exclaimed, her voice hoarse as she sat up and pushed with all her strength on his shoulders. "Get down. It's my turn. My way."

"I can hardly wait," Jack said, lying down immediately. "But what would that involve what, exactly? Your way? Fill me in on the details of your game plan." Jack smiled as he lay on his back and looked up at her. He would never forget this, he thought. The way she should always look. Joyful. He wished he had a camera to capture this moment, her happy face, wreathed in smiles, hair falling around them, her hands curving over his shoulders, the warmth almost palpable between them. Not almost, he corrected himself; thinking once again that with her in his arms he would never feel cold again.

"Put your hands over your head." She swung a leg over his hips and sat down on him. Running her hands down his arms, she grabbed his wrists and tried to force them upward.

"No." He grinned, what would she do next? But geez, she was strong, he thought, as she struggled to raise his arms above his head. "No. I won't."

"What did you say?" She shrieked, then winced at the loudness of her voice. How could he do this to her? He drove her insane in half a minute, that's how! Bending down, she bit his shoulder in exasperation as she always did. She rested her head against his skin and shook her hair to cover the smile on her face. She had never, never had a better time than the time she spent with Jack. Even if he could press her buttons in half a second....speaking of which....she pressed down onto his hardness and gave him a suggestive smile. "C'mon..."

"No. I don't want to." Jack looked up at her hopefully as she sat up straight and squeezed his hips with her legs.

"You don't want to." She heaved a sigh of exaggerated patience and loosened her grip on his wrists. She fought back a smile, as his eyes dropped to her breasts at her sigh and his hands automatically went to her waist and began to play with the chain.

"Nope." He said it absently, then licked his lips as his hands began to creep up from her waist.

"I could make you." She poked her finger at his chest, then began to drag her nails lightly across his nipples, just to see him shiver.

"I'd like to see you try." All she had to do was ask. But then again, he was enjoying her demands quite a bit too. Quite a bit, he decided as he raised his knees and pushed her forward a little, then urged her back with his hands. "Go on. Try. I'd like to see it. Or even better...feel it."

"You'd...!" She spluttered and dug her nails into the hard muscles of his chest. She was going to....her eyes lit on the small bottle of champagne so helpfully placed nearby. Payback. He just needed a little distraction. That wouldn't take much. Men were so easy, she thought, taking a deep breath and rubbing one calf along his leg.

He began to smile as her eyes narrowed, then dropping his eyes to her breasts asked hopefully, "Am I irritating you?"

"Am I irritating you?" She asked sweetly as she upended the champagne bottle over him.

Gasping, laughing, Jack sat up with a start. Laura balanced herself with hands on his shoulders and by wrapping her legs around his waist. "Well...." Jack commented, looking down at her spread legs. "A nice view.... Which is especially helpful given how cold that champagne was. I wouldn't want to disappoint, after all."

"I feel no evidence of a shrinkage factor, Doctor Bristow," Laura had commented, knowing how much it irritated him to hear that honorific title, her eyes alight with laughter as she wiggled against his erection pressing against her bottom.

Jack had laughed as he lay back again, "I think it requires further investigation. But first, we need to clean up...the lab surface."

"I agree---" She began, sliding down and bending her head to lick at the champagne pooling in his abdomen, then gasped with shock as he pulled her up and flush against his wet torso. "That is cold! And wet!"

"Liquids usually are. Wet, that is." He grinned smugly, laughing when she slapped at him. Catching her hand in his, he brought it to his mouth and licked between two fingers. Lifting his gaze, he said, his tongue flicking out to tickle her palm, "But then again, I prefer my liquids warm.... "

"Oh do you?" She asked, taking her hand back and sliding free to lick at the champagne on his skin over and over. Hearing him moan, she sighed with pleasure as his warm hands flowed over her body, she hitched a breath when he began to speak. 
"Oh, yes, I do. Let's see, which is better? This champagne warm from your body?" Jack asked licking his fingertips. "Or...." he paused to slide his hand slowly between her legs while she froze, waiting.... "Yes, this....Warm....honey?" he asked bringing his hand up to lick it again.

"Oh!" She stared at him, seeing the heat in his eyes begin to escalate to that level she had been waiting to see for....months! Finally. A good game. "I'm...getting all sticky," she protested, pointing at his hands as they smoothed the champagne into her skin.

"One can only hope," Jack said dryly. "But in the interests of thoroughness...lie back and let me clean you."

"With what?" she asked, slyly, leaning on her elbows and looking up at him as he bent over her.

"My tongue, what else?"

"What else?" she moaned as he began licking her at the base of her neck. Slowly, so slowly, she thought she could actually have timed the increase in her heart rate in minutes instead of seconds, he laved every inch of her with his mouth and tongue. "I think..." she gasped, as he seemed to linger on the curve of her neck. "I think that you've gotten everything there."

"Mmm, no, not yet..." he disagreed as he bit her softly, listening for her moan.

"But what about here?" She pouted, cupping her breast in her hand. Flicking her finger across her own nipple, she saw the flare in his eyes and did it again. "It feels very wet to me and it's just waiting for you to clean it up."

"If you insist," he murmured, his eyes never leaving her hand. Then putting his large hand on her upper chest, he demurred, "But there's so much other skin to cover. I wouldn't want to be remiss in my duties."

"I'll tell you your duties, Jack Bristow---"

"Hmm, let me see. You could be right...." He cupped his hand over hers and touched the hardened tip with the edge of his fingernail. "This looks awfully cold and wet and needy."

"It is..." With her hand, she cupped her breast up higher.

He leaned down and touched just the tip of his tongue to the very tip of her nipple and held it there. "Mmm, it's getting warmer," he said softly, raising his eyes to her. "Warmer...." Laying the flat of his tongue this time against the tip of the nipple he waited until she used her hand to try and push it into his mouth before saying, "But I know! I bet it wants to be better than warm. I bet it wants to be hot..."

"You bet? Let me tell you--- Ah....." She called out loudly as he slid his entire mouth over her nipple and began to suck ravenously at it. Then groaned as he suddenly pulled back just as she slid a hand into his hair.

"Well, I think that one is nice and hot and clean," Jack said, forcing his breathing to even out as best as he could. "But...luckily for me, the other one...." he drew circles around her other breast and they both watched the nipple tighten with every touch. "Looks like it might need some warming as well."

"Yes..." she moaned and with her hands in his hair, drew his mouth to her skin. Lying back and arching under him, willing to offer him anything he wanted just as long as he never stopped--- She opened her eyes suddenly at the uncompleted thought....as long as he never stopped loving her. She swallowed hard and closed her eyes for a moment, then forced them open to the present. Memories, she told herself. Gather memories. Memories like this... his face, so beautiful to her, eyes closed, lashes against his cheekbones as he used his mouth to give her pleasure, to give them both pleasure. That dark hair, curling onto his neck, in wild disarray from her hands. She wished, she thought, looking up at the stars, that she had the courage to... to take a photograph of them like this.

Or like this, she thought as he reluctantly released her nipple, returning to give it one last lick. Then another. Then a quick little suckle. Than a much longer suckle that made her cry out, made him moan when she cried out.

Or like this, she thought as he moved between her breasts to lick her skin, every last little bit of it, before softly kissing the skin over her heart. Reaching her hand down to touch his, then his left hand where it rested on her waist, she whispered, "Mine, mine."

Or like this, she thought as he made circles around her navel with his tongue, before dipping inside and flicking it with a look of devilment on his face that made her laugh, even as her body continued to hum along, pushing her to push him into her.

Or like this, she thought as she opened her legs and tried to nudge him between them. As he laid a large, warm hand on her abdomen and began to feather his thumb downward and kissed her thigh over and over, making little circles with his tongue.

Or....like this, she thought, as he looked up at her and whispered, "I love you." This was, she thought, a perfect moment and stared at him, wide-eyed until she began to laugh from sheer joy. In that moment, he bent his head and while she still laughed, fastened his mouth to her and began to suckle so that in just a moment her laughter mixed with cries of joy and release.

"I love you, Jack," she called out finally and with a swift movement of her legs, urged him to his back. They lay there together, each stroking the other's skin with hands that could not seem to get enough, never enough, Jack thought as he pulled her onto him, wanting to feel her soft weight against him.

"I didn't finish my job..." Laura had whispered, pulling her hair over her face so that he would not see what she thought might be too revealing, the need. No, no, not need, she thought. Defiantly, she pushed her hair back over her shoulder as she began to trace her own patterns on his skin with her mouth and fingertips, smiling at him as he held her hair back with one hand when it began to continually slide forward to cover her face.

"I want to see your face..." Jack whispered, running his free hand's fingertips along her profile. "See you. Memorize the moment."

"I'll never forget you, Jack," Laura whispered silently, as her lashes lowered and she licked the base of his neck. Mine, she thought, that is my spot. For me. Moya. Then she bit her lip, she must not think in Russian or she might blurt out... She blinked, this was...too much, the warmth in his eyes, the feel of his body under hers, the strength in the hands that held her and urged her onward. Rubbing her face into the firm skin of his chest, she began to make her way across his body with her mouth and fingers, waiting until he moaned before moving on and on and on. Finally, feeling the trembling in the muscles of his legs as she ran her lips down the long muscles in his thighs, she whispered, "Tell me what you want."

"You. Now, Laura, now," Jack said on a groan, pulling at her with his hands. "What you've been doing tonight is... too much after so long, I...."

Smiling, she shook her hair free and looked out from under it. "But I was having such a good time."

"Me too, but---" 
"Surely, you can wait a little longer," she teased, running her fingertips up the length of his hardness and watching with satisfaction as he swallowed and shook his head.

"Surely, I can't---" He bit his words off as he saw the devilment in her eyes. "But then again," he said, putting one hand over hers to show her the movement he wanted. As she looked down and watched their hands together and licked her lips, he began, "Maybe I can wait. I think, well, I hate to say this, and after all, it has been a while, but..." He dropped his voice to a whisper and looked from side to side as if afraid he might be overheard.

"But what?" she said with exaggerated patience, as he thrust into her hand.

He firmed his lips and said, "Well, this hasn't been your best effort. It's been---"

"Been what?" She growled and sat up, trying to decide the best way to force those hands up over his head.

He sighed, "Good enough. Good enough. So let's get on with this, why don't we?"

"Is this good enough?" she asked, pushing their hands aside to rub her wet softness against him teasingly, allowing him to come so close, but no further as his hands gripped her hips and tried to pull her onto him.

"Okay," Jack groaned eventually, pulling at his wife as undulated against him . "That's good enough. You were nice and warm and willing and what more could I ever want?"

"Good enough is hardly good enough." She stopped moving and planted her hands on either side of his shoulders.

"Oh, that's right. Laura Bristow must always get an A." He smiled as he put his hands into her hair and absently began to wind it around his hand and tried to pull her down to him.

"Yes. I must. I must..." She smiled down at him, as his hands combed her hair into a curtain surrounding them, the way he always liked. "I must be perfect."

"I see. And what would be perfect in this situation?"

"Put your hands over your head. Now," she ordered, shoving at his shoulders with her hands as she straddled his hips. She wanted what they'd had that night of the jewelry, when she had seen into him. When she'd fallen into his openness.

"So bossy. In a minute." He put his hands on her waist and hauled her up so that his hardness was pushing against her soft wetness. "Kiss me. That's what would be perfect."

"So bossy." She shivered and arched into his hand as it traveled up her spine to rest at the back of her head. Rubbing her head against his broad palm, she tilted her neck toward him. In a second, his lips were on her skin. Kissing and licking his way up her neck, he feathered light licks on the edge of her chin. She shivered again, inexplicably finding this caress unbearably erotic as he licked up her chin and near her lips, never quite touching them. "This is... new," she whispered trying to angle her mouth so that she could capture his evasive lips.

"It's always new between us," Jack whispered back. "Isn't it?"

"Yes...." Laura agreed. "But one truth always remains."

"Which is..." He whispered the words against her neck and then exhaled sharply as she rubbed her breasts against his chest and pushed against his hardness. Smiling, he put his hands on her thighs and rubbed the skin, moving upward until they rested on her hips, the thumbs rubbing the pearlized marks left behind by pregnancy. Looking at her face, he was surprised by the intensity in her gaze and asked softly, "The truth is what, honey?"

"I will always love you, always. Always, Jack. Don't forget..." Again, Laura had said the words loudly, her voice escalating with each syllable, causing a commotion in the trees as startled birds flew up and away into the night sky. They both started, then looking back at each other, began to laugh in relief.

Pulling her forward until she tumbled down to lie fully on top of him, Jack whispered, sensing her need tonight to hear it repeated, "And I will always love you." Lying there, he had put his hands all over her skin, thinking that he would never get enough of touching her, feeling the connection between them. Her hair shining in the moonlight, her skin glowing with good health and flushed with desire... he shook his head. He had never seen anything so beautiful in his life.

"'Love indeed is light from heaven; A spark of that immortal fire With angels shared,'" he whispered, running his hands across her body, coming to light on her heart, where his fingers rubbed a gentle circle on her skin.

"Byron," she whispered back, in utter shock. "You just... From the night you proposed."

"You hold my heart right here," he told her, as he touched her heart. Touched her heart, she thought, with an internal clench of something deep within. "Do you know that?"

Looking at him, seeing the need, the want, the love, she felt powerful too. The power, she thought, it was one endless circle surrounding them. Love, the power of it.... but it made no sense, no logical sense. How could giving make you powerful? But that night of the jewelry.... How could love be so powerful? "Jack..." she began to ask if he knew the answer, then bit her lip.

"You're infinitely more beautiful than that..." Jack whispered, motioning toward the large angel statue over her shoulder.

"Why?"

"Because you're real. And so warm." Reaching up, he ran his lips up and down her neck, nuzzling into it. She smiled and rubbed her cheek against the tousled curls of his hair.

"Are you cold?" she asked, running her hands up and down his arms, wrapping her legs more tightly around his hips.

"Not with you. Never with you..." He pulled her down so that she lay flush against him.

"Let me warm you so well that you will never be cold again," Laura whispered, her lips against his neck to feel his heartbeat. Just for me, she thought, digging into his arms with her fingers as she sat up once again.

"Yes..." He nodded. Then groaned, "Yessss...." as she slid down onto him, slowly, so slowly he thought he would groan loudly enough to wake the dead. But then again, why not, he thought, as he allowed another loud exclamation to escape his throat as he felt her wet warmth envelop him. There was no one here but him, Laura and the ghosts. No one at all to hear him so close to losing it with just one movement, one...perfect moment of connection. "Perfect...love you..." he whispered, he thought. Then heard the sound of his own voice resounding in the night air, but did not care. She gasped as his head went back and his spine arched under her and slowed her movements even more. 
"More..." They said together. His eyes flew open and his hands tightened around her waist.

"We still fit," she said, then laughed at her own foolishness. Laughed in sheer happiness. No, she thought looking into his eyes and saw the joy within. Laughed again in joy. "We still fit. What was I thinking?"

"I'm sure I don't know," Jack groaned as her laughter sent vibrations down her body, feeling his heart suffuse with happiness as he felt hers.

"We fit...." Laura said huskily, as she began to move on him. "As if we wouldn't."

"As if we wouldn't," he echoed. "We have always fit. Right from the first time we met. I felt..."

"Felt what?" she asked, trying to quell the urge to move, when his fingers curved around her buttocks and began to press her forward.

"What did you feel?" he asked as he arched up under her.

"I felt..." She hissed as he bent his knees and his thighs bumped her buttocks to move. "Connected. Always... And," She smiled down at him. "I thought you were interesting and shy--"

"I am not shy," he groaned, and pulled her down to take her mouth. Cupping the back of her head in his hand, he held her still for his urgent kisses, timing the movements of his tongue to the movements of his hips. "Not shy... but you're right. We are connected, everywhere, every way," he whispered, when she lifted her head to gasp for a breath.

"And this fits again," Laura had said, putting her hand over his, where it had slid inside her chain.

"I told you that you'd fit back into this chain again," he said softly, his fingers teasing it against her skin.

"So you did." Laura smiled and ran her hands through his hair. "Although I did enjoy all the inventive ways we found to use it once it didn't fit around my waist anymore. But then again, you've never lacked for ideas. Show me another one." She gasped as he did just that, weaving a pattern with his fingers in her moistness that sent her so close to the edge, if only she could just... let go, she thought frantically, but she had to hold on, hold on to him or.... "Jack, come into me, come into me, I need you," she called out, needing to feel him now.

"I need you to come around me, I want to feel your body wanting mine," Jack whispered, one hand pressing between them, the other circling her nipple in the way she always liked. He parted his lips in a silent groan when she arched her back and tilted her head up to the stars and called his name over and over, more and more frantically.

"Jack..." she moaned. "I can't...." She felt as if her voice were coming from far away and called out loudly. "Jack!" She shook her head, feeling the blood pounding in her veins, hearing that thrum, thrum, thrum taking over everything, until she could barely hear, could barely see anything but the warm pools of his eyes looking up at her, filling her, his body filling her, everywhere with love and need. "I feel..."

"What?" he asked, watching her face, seeing the shivers and shudders that shook her. Why was she holding back? "Let go, Laura, let go."

"I feel like I'm going to fly away."

"Go ahead." He urged her with his words, with his hands and then raising up onto an elbow, with his mouth on the skin he could reach. "Come for me, let me feel you." 
"No... I... Hold on to me." She looked down at him, feeling the danger of her feelings rising up within. She wanted to hold on and never let go. She needed...No, no.

"I'll catch you." He thought for a second, then hooked his index finger inside her chain. "See, I've got you. It's safe. You're safe with me. Go." With his finger, he tugged her down on top of him, melding their mouths together as his other hand slid between them.

"I'll hold on to you too," she gasped as he moved his fingers traveled so slowly in circles around and around, the movement making her writhe as she felt her skin flush with heat, starting on the soles of her feet and licking flames undulate against her skin, making her feel as if a fire must be burning nearby, but it was... "Jack, you're...." She groaned, her hair suddenly feeling too hot, too heavy on her skin, her skin feeling too heavy, she wanted to.... She clenched her fingers around his upper arms, feeling his strength, holding on. "I'm going to ..." she called out loudly. "I need to..."

"You need me the way I need you," Jack whispered fiercely, sensing some extraordinary need she felt tonight, some need to connect. "The way I'll always need you. Over and over until we can't tell where I begin and you end, until we are one again...." Jack whispered as his body moved, his fingers moved and his mouth moved until neither of them could tell

"Yes, yes...Mine," she moaned.

"We belong..." Jack moaned as well. "Connected forever, forever with you."

She looked up at the stars as the heat between them scorched her, she had thought, to her soul and in the moment, she was sure she had one. Sure that she had a soul and that it had flown away with his. Winding her arms around his neck, she held on and closed her eyes as his mouth sought out hers.

Then she gasped again, as he came into her, calling out her name, warming her, she thought forever. Warmed forever too, she had decided when he pulled her against him and whispered, "We share a spark of that immortal fire, don't we, honey?"

"Yes, yes," she whispered back and fell onto his chest, wrapped in his arms and smiled as he automatically slid his fingertips inside the chain. As he had always done. Always would do, she told herself.

Are you sure..." Jack began, wanting to make certain that she was certain. "You don't want the chain as..."

"Some kind of talisman?" Irina nodded. "I thought about it too. That if I could touch it, if I were...having a problem... But the truth is, my strength has to come from within, not from some object."

He blinked, surprised, she could tell. "Either---" He bit his words off.

"What?" She thumped his chest with her open hand.

"You know, if I come back with all sorts of bruises, it might make people wonder just what we were doing in this hotel room," Jack drawled, as he watched her hand smooth over his skin.

"Clearly I'm supposed to fly off the handle and ask just what people would be seeing you without your clothes on. But I'm not that stupid."

"Too bad," Jack muttered. He wanted her this way, sharp and discerning, but, he sighed, she was not easy to distract now that she was seeing clearly. Too bad. "It was going so well, before, too." 
"Shut up. And tell me what you were about to say---"

"I cannot both shut up and--"

"Jack! I said something about not using the chain as a lucky piece, needing to find my strength from within, and you started to say, 'either.'"

"Okay." He nodded. Might as well just say it. After all, her ever-so-sharp brain was set to slice through the veils separating them this morning. "There's no third option this time. Either you're putting on the best facade of someone wanting a reconciliation I could imagine just to play me or...you're sincere."

"I could say the same of you!" she snapped. Then staring at him in shock, she abruptly closed her mouth as she realized that her carelessly spoken words could be the truth. Looking into his eyes, seeing the wariness he tried to hide, she wondered if this was just some step in a game of vengeance. It would be perfect, really, to use this reconciliation, to use the love that had been between them to trap her. Logic told her that the betrayal she had visited upon him was not one anyone could easily forgive, let alone someone who admitted holding grudges. Logic told her that deep love could be the most dangerous weapon in the world. Logic told her she should be wary. And yet, and yet....this time her heart, her inner voice was telling her to take that leap. To look deeper. What if.... that little voice was saying, what if this is a second chance? Can you afford to pass up that opportunity? This is it, she knew, listening to that little voice, seeing the truth in his eyes, as she blurted out, "There is no option c, is there? Just a yes or no."

"Yes." He sighed as he saw the realization in her eyes as they clung together on the tightrope of faith they were so gingerly walking on. "But the truth is quite simple. I loved Laura with everything that was in me. I want to love like that again. No, that's wrong. I want more than that. I want everything and I can only have that if you give everything in you, the real you. Can you do that?"

"Can you?" she asked softly, cupping his cheek in one hand and standing on tip toe to see into his eyes.

Putting his arm around her waist to steady her... No, that was a lie, he realized. To steady them both, he knew. He looked into her eyes, willing her to see the truth. The truth was he was going to give this everything he had. One last time.

She realized suddenly, but no, again, that she had never completed the task Dave had given her to do. That she had never given everything. Never. Never chosen to make a sacrifice of anything truly important. Her modesty, yes. And why not? In so doing, she had gotten to see, given to Jack, who had given back to her. So, give up her modesty, her desire for him to always have control and she received. But...when it had mattered, when she would have had to truly sacrifice....the game, a chance for control...she had given into temptation instead. Had made a foolish, foolish choice. By not sacrificing what she thought was important -- the game -- she had sacrificed what was truly important -- love, her family, their...trust. She had thought herself so logical. And perhaps it had been logical. But it had not been particularly wise. It never was wise to fail to listen to the heart. Down that path of emotional deafness there lay traps for the unwary and the foolish and the cowardly, paths that led you far from home. Looking into his eyes, seeing another path, she saw something else. Wisdom and logic were not, always, the same thing. Wisdom required hope and faith and love and courage and imagination and....help, sometimes.

She held out her hand, palm up. He took it and made a promise. "Yes, I can give everything. Not at once, not all at once. But...."

"But you can, you will, you promise. As do I." She looked at his hand, that held within it that chain. 
With his free hand, Jack touched her cheek as he opened his hand once again. Nodding down at it, then up at her, he said hesitantly, "It's...just a piece of jewelry, you know."

"Liar." Then she jerked her head up and asked, "What does it mean to you? Really? I'm curious."

"It's...." He paused and looked down at it, seeing it around her waist endless times. "It's...like my memory book. So many memories are tied up within that chain. Happy memories. All of them happy. Many of them intimate memories, since you didn't wear it visibly in public." Then he smiled. "Except... this one time, when I may have lost control when my wife did the one thing I'd asked her not to do..."

"And it turned out so well, didn't it?" She smiled back. "That one time. When...." She reached out and took the chain and held it up by one end of the clasp and watched it swing back and forth like a pendulum. "When the connection this symbolized, symbolizes -- present tense--"

"Yes, Ms. English Teacher. Present tense," Jack said firmly, grabbing one end of the chain in his hand.

"When the connection became real. Became flesh. Our child." She looked down at the chain extended between their hands and gave a slight tug on it.

"A gift we gave each other." He looked down at the chain, then his eyes seemed to notice something behind her.

She looked over her shoulder, the nightstand with the ubiquitous Bible. He must have some quotation he was thinking about using. She nodded. "What is it?"

Then he looked up at her. "You gave me something that night...like the night of the jewelry. Freedom," he said as he put his index finger part way along the chain, closer to her and folded it over his finger.

Curiously she took the second end in her other hand. "And...you gave me something those nights, the real you. Truth. And...I found part of me in the truth between us, which...gave back to you...." she said. Seeing the leap in his eyes, she knew she had somehow found the right words. He looked down at the chain and nodded. "Just tell me what you want me to do, Jack," she demanded, knowing that this would be something she would say often in the future. "Don't make me guess, damn it! We will start as we mean to go on. No hiding! We cannot afford it. Especially right now, when time is precious."

"Time is always precious," Jack said softly. "Fold it back toward me," he told her. She did so, then he folded it again, the two of them holding the chain, folded to look like a golden "M". "Three folds. You gave me freedom, I gave you truth and...."

She did as he asked, then looked down at it. "Three folds, this way? You, me and Sydney? I gave you freedom, you gave me truth and together we found...everything, including Sydney?"

Jack nodded. "We can find everything. I know it." Tugging on his ends of the chain, he looked at her and recited softly, "'Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall, one will lift up his companion. But woe to him who is alone when he falls, for he has no one to help him up. Again, if two lie down together, they will keep warm; But how can one be warm alone? Though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him. And a three-fold cord is not quickly broken.'"

"This time, this time," she said with all the passion she felt, "Jack, the cord will not be broken." Then she shook her head. "No. That's wrong. That was passive voice. Here is active voice. I will not break this cord, this connection. I will not. Will you... Will you make the same promise? Will you promise not to break this?" She dropped the end of the chain to touch his chest. 
He looked into her eyes. "The ball is in your court, here. Irina. Truth?"

"Truth."

"I will give you my trust one last time."

She looked at him and nodded. Gently gathering the chain up in her hand, watching him relinquish it easily, she looked at it, in a pile of gold in her palm. "One last chance." She handed it back to him.

"Yes." Then he smiled, that crooked half grin. "Don't screw up."

Touching the corner of his mouth with her fingertip, she wondered again who saw that smile these days. Did anyone? "I won't," she promised, rubbing the curve of his bottom lip with her finger before reaching up to plant a firm kiss on his mouth. "I won't."

"You're sure you don't want it now?"

"I'm sure. Put it back in -- you did save the box, didn't you?" She asked. Jack nodded. "Put it back in the box, just like I left it? Please."

"Of course," Jack said and put it down on the bureau.

She nodded. "You're right, there are so many happy memories in that little circle of gold. In so many of those pieces of jewelry."

"But not in that ring from that night. Am I right?" Jack asked, taking her hand in his and looking at her bare fingers.

"You know?"

"I know the look of guilt. And I saw how your eyes flickered earlier tonight when I mentioned that sapphire ring."

"That ring..." she said, looking down at her hand and shaking her head. "Almost made me lose it...."

"Tell me," Jack urged as he sat down on the bed and pulled her down next to him.

"I have to tell you..."

"Tell me something first," he said when she looked down at her hands and hesitated. "If you want. What happened to your rings?"

How, she winced, did he do that? Go straight to the sore spot? Sense the danger?

"My rings..." she stalled.

"Wait here," Jack said softly, kissing her nose. She rolled off of him and lying on her stomach, propped her head on her hands, watching him. Bounding to his feet, he began to walk toward the car, then stopped to grab his pants and pull out his car keys. He stopped midmotion, when she let out a whistle. "What?" he asked turning to look at her.

"Nice ass," she shrugged, then spoiled the nonchalance by grinning widely. Then began to giggle, when he reached over swiftly and grabbed her butt.  
"Nah, you're the one...." He began to laugh as she wiggled away from him and in trying to evade his hand, rolled over. "Bad tactical move there, Bristow. Far more territory to defend."

"Who says I want to?" She asked huskily, surprising him when she lolled on her back and slowly spread her legs apart. "Jack?"

"What were we talking about?" he asked absently, looking at her body gilded in the moonlight, spangled from the leaves filtering the grey light. "You're so beautiful, Laura."

"So are you," Laura said softly. "Come back to me. Whatever you want to do can wait---"

"No, no. I want to do this. We can't stay here forever, much as I wish we could. Arvin and Emily are waiting and---"

"They won't mind." She held out her hand and wiggled her fingers to beckon him back to her, enjoying the sight of the diamonds catching what light existed, as she always had.

"I... No. Not now." Not now, not ever would she tell him. It hurt too much. Although being honest with herself, she wondered if it hurt her more than it would hurt him. Sitting there, she threaded her fingers through his and staring at his bare hand this time. Trying to delay the inevitable hurt of another kind with a question that she only now could bring herself to ask, she lifted her head and said softly, "Jack, where is your ring?"

"I..." He hesitated, then plowed ahead. She might as well know. "I buried it at Laura's gravestone." Her rings had no doubt been sold to fund some Soviet bureaucrat's toilet paper imports.

"When?" Irina asked, stroking his fingers with her free hand. "After I.. died? Or you found out the truth? Or much later? Or..."

He shook his head. "I buried it in the cemetery the night I had my breakdown. Arvin was with me---"

"Arvin... was the one---" She stared at him. Arvin had seen Jack in extremis and still... He really had to die. Knife? Gun? Poison? Slow torture? The possibilities were endless. How fortuitous, as Jack would say.

"He found me. The next day. He got me to the hospital and..." He looked away.

"What happened?" Irina lifted her hand and putting it gently on his chin, turned him back to face her. "You don't have to give me the details now. But I read in the portfolio that Dave was not happy with your care, but what, how could that happen? You were such a valuable agent---"

"Yeah. So valuable, how many KGB swallows were sent after me?" Jack asked dryly.

"Shut up. I was the only one who succeeded. And I know you're using humor as you do sometimes, to mask discomfort."

"Damn it." This time, he thought, she was not going to allow him to hide. And he would return the favor. This time... He smiled suddenly. This time, the real man and the real woman would find each other.

"I...Know you. I know you, Jack," Irina said with a glad smile. "I...didn't really realize how well I knew you. And I know that you're not the same man. But here..." She lightly touched his heart. "But....back to the point. Or a related point. Arvin. It was Arvin that prevented you from getting the right treatment, wasn't it?" 
"Got it in one," Jack admitted, putting his hand over hers, wondering what connection she had been trying to make between her touching his heart and Arvin. He tensed. Something...

"I knew it!" She slammed her hand down on the bed. "He. Must. Die."

Jack laughed and slammed his hand down in laughing imitation. "So melodramatic."

"Are you arguing with me?"

"Me, argue with you? What a novel concept." He smiled, she rolled her eyes. "For the record, is there anyone who argues with you these days?"

"Sark, of course."

"Ah, the flying monkey has more balls than I expected."

"That's a...disgusting visual."

"Who, Sark? Or the monkey?"

She burst out laughing. "Jack..."

"Frankly, I can just see Sark in the little costume... Hmm. A new form of torture..."

"How about this..." Irina offered. "You torture Sark any way you like and I'll kill Sloane."

"I'll kill him."