He wanted to be angry. He really did.

On top of Janis not showing up for the morning meeting, leaving John to awkwardly try to come up with a speech he had had no intention of having to give in order to stir everyone up on the base, she had left him the night before, retreating—of all places—to his old quarters. Which John himself had not gone back to, unless he needed a change of clothes, for a week at that point. She had locked herself in the room the whole night and no amount of pleading would get her to come out.

John spent the night sitting against the wall next to the door and he believed he had passed out at some point. Which made having to give a speech all the more fun.

And, it seemed, she wasn't going to show up for the rest of this crucial first day, either.

As John walked from one end of the Bridge to the next, pacing like an inmate, he knew he was scaring the shit out of the crew. Someone had tried to ask him when they were going to head out and John just barely stopped himself from snapping at the poor young man who had asked it. Instead, John told him, in as soft a voice as he could manage, that they were going to wait another ten minutes before he would have to take formal control of their first operation.

When Tygan buzzed into his earpiece to inform him that they had waited longer than they should at the moment, it took a lot of John's hard won patience to tell the man that they weren't leaving yet. He wanted to say to the other man was to come up here and try to start XCOM on the right foot himself, along with a lot of expletives.

He took a seat in the Commander's chair and massaged his forehead. He couldn't believe this was happening. It wasn't supposed to go like this.

He couldn't guide the rest of the Initiative, he could barely guide himself into making semi coherent decisions.

"Hey, what's this?" John looked over at the source of the voice, felt his heart sink for a moment before he rose to his feet. He walked over to the man and let the technician explain what he found.

Goddamn it, Janie, where the hell are you?

They needed her. He needed her—

"Com—" the voice stopped, it was a female's voice, one he recognized as being one of the Bridge crew's members. As John turned to look at her he didn't censor the hostility in his expression until he saw the frozen look of terror on her face. As he sighed, relaxing the look on his face, she continued, saying, "C-Central, Shen wants to talk—seems there's a part she needs that recon has identified in a supply caravan—"

John silenced her with a wave of his hand, starting to pace in front of the hologram station as he called Shen.

As he expected given what the member of the crew had already told him, Shen sounded breathless as she spoke. "Central," she started. "I heard about what you guys found. I need to know how soon we can actually get moving, you have no idea what we can be capable of with it. We might be able to get what we need to fix this, get us in the air. I know you understand more than anybody how much of a target we'll be if we do this like the original Initiative. Now that we're operational, I really need to stress how much we're going to need to be mobile—"

John carefully controlled his voice as he interrupted, "I heard you, Shen, when we get the thing, you'll be the first to know." He had paced in front of the main display when everything stopped as the world flashed a panic red.

Attention. An unauthorized presence detected.

Instinct kicked in at first and John wanted to reach for his knife. Something—the body language of the men around him—drew John to turn, to look at the entrance on the Bridge.

That's when he saw her, late, but dressed for the part in the Initiative he had no desire to take. Hair bound up so that she looked, alluringly and respectably, unreachable, strong. Too beautiful for words.

She looked like the Commander, the rightful one.

For a split second, it felt like it was twenty years ago, only this time he needed to welcome her back on the Bridge of the base she commanded.

He saw the panicked expression on her face as she flinched. He held a hand out, and, remembering that even he had to obey propriety on the Bridge, he walked towards her, as he called out, "Commander. Give me a second." He looked up, addressing the ship—her ship—in as clear a voice as he could manage. "Execute Echelon protocol." The room was bathed in a blue light, and John could feel it, the emotion he had been too afraid to anticipate since the night before. Relief.

Attention. Senior command exchange confirmed.

She walked to him, dressed in the Commander's uniform that had been made for her, fitting her perfectly. She was dressed once more in Humanity's olive-green, a beret resting naturally on her head with her long black hair drawn up in a bun, giving her an edge that nevertheless did nothing to how goddamn beautiful she looked. Her expression was almost blank, but as she neared him, a smile seemed to itch at the edges of her lips. She looked wary, deep in those feral eyes of hers, but that wariness was something that he was sure that someone who didn't know her well enough would never be able to identify.

John found that he had to fight back his own smile. "I had wanted that to be a little more... ceremonious," he gave her a knowing look and he could swear he could see her looking—somewhat—ashamed. "But we got something." He pointed to the main display and told her about where the power converter had been discovered, all the while marveling at the fact that this was happening; it was really happening.

Janis had spent the night going from one extreme, both emotionally and with the decision she would have to make. She made the decision last night and had meant to enter on time and declare her choice to return to the XCOM Initiative as the sitting Commander... except she must have fallen asleep.

When she awoke in a panic, saw what time it was, Janis shook as he got her uniform on, taken from her room as she decided she would spend the night in John's old room—or, well, his correct room—and figure out what she needed to do the next day, shoving her hair into a presentable bun with shaking hands.

Getting to the Bridge, she hesitated as her eyes fell on John, who wasn't aware of her presence. Everyone seemed to be in a beehive of energy and she realized that something had happened. Still, she couldn't unlock her eyes from John, standing near the center. Looking like this was exactly where he belonged. When she walked up and watched in horror as the room flashed red, Janis nevertheless looked at John for guidance, watched as he made the command switch over. Saw the warmth in his eyes as he beckoned for her to come to his side. Right where she belonged, as though this place, the base of XCOM, were their true home.

Four Months Later

"Ooh, that's right," Janis cooed playfully. "come to mama."

The squaddie gave Janis a look of disbelief before he cracked into a loud peal of high pitched laughter. "Oh my god, Commander—"

She ignored the man, who had disintegrated into a laughing fit, shaking with it. She took the mic from him and gave her thankfully unbound hair a toss for effect before she pressed her finger on the song choice on the holoscreen. Clearing her throat, Janis prepared as the first bumping beats of Chromeo's "Old 45's" blared on the speakers. Suppressing her own laugh, Janis started to sing, dancing in a bob to the beat.

After all, this wasn't just a chance for her to have fun. She had to do this, for the good of the morale of the soldiers and crew.

It had been a rough week. Janis had known that things wouldn't be easy, as they were up against a literal fascist Alien regime, but even she would have to admit to feeling like they would never complete a mission without losing someone or some artifact they could have desperately needed. When she had come into the bar, the place felt more like a funeral.

As she got to the song's bridge, Janis located her target in the bar, sitting in his usual bar stool, watching her sing with all of the gusto she had in her too-tall frame. Snapping her fingers towards John, she watched as his eyes widened. She could see the displeasure on his face, the plea for mercy. There was no mercy to be found for the Lieutenant, who was going to have to bear the burden of moral boost alongside his Commanding Officer.

As he rolled his eyes and got to his feet, those seated around him clapped. It made John turn a very tempting shade of red, and Janis watched him as she sang a song effortlessly from memory, walking with his pronounced limp to her. He had, months ago, referred to himself and everyone in the bar as a misfit toy. It gave Janis pleasure to think of him that way, a fellow, strange thing that didn't belong anywhere else but together with her and with the rest of the other misfits.

Janis, who knew she didn't have a voice for singing, nevertheless sang out, "...you only see schmucks, and you've really had enough. It's not adding up, and you just don't understand. Straight shooter, he's a straight shooter—Cut to the chase, and he asked if he could do her—P.S., he had a ring on his left hand..." Loud laughter followed that verse, and if Janis were capable of shame she should have been embarrassed at least a bit to sing it.

As John walked up to her, a look in his heavy brown eyes that told her this had better be worth it, Janis handed him the mic. As she hoped, John wrapped an arm around her—a wonderfully possessive gesture, even in a room of their co-workers—and he sang along.

"If you think romance is dead and go-o-ne, find an old jukebox full of 45's, pop a nickel in it and it all comes back to me..."

They took turns at the mic, John aiming it at Janis and Janis swerving it back to him as they finished the song, both barely able to contain their laughter. As the song ended, both discovered that the sudden decision to turn the karaoke machine on worked. Everyone in the bar laughed and clapped them at the end of the song, and both saviors of the bar's morale walked back to the bar to indulge in a celebratory drink. Janis hardly noticed that John had not removed his arm from where he had held her to him until he leaned over and stole a kiss from her as she had ducked her head to laugh at a joke an engineer told them.

If the singing had done something to revive the moods of the people in the bar at least for the night, a kiss from John felt like it did the job for her. Laughing as she broke the kiss off, Janis knew deep in her bones that they would be continuing from where they left off earlier that night. The connotation of future intimacy left Janis with a shuddering anticipation from the continued weight of her lover's arm around her.

Sure enough once it was time to head back to their quarters—John's old room now turned over for much needed space for someone else—they hardly made it to the bathroom for a much needed shared shower before John had pinned Janis to the wall and was kissing her as though she were his source of oxygen.

"Ho-hon-honey," Janis managed to barely pant out between rough kissing. "We need to get our clothes off if we're gonna take a shower—"

John nodded, his hands clasped around her thighs. "You're right. We need to take our clothes off." Before Janis could get prepared, John maneuvered her torso, had pulled her uniform out of where it had been tucked in. She shrieked as the shorter, albeit stronger, man picked her up by her ass with one arm and had pulled her shirt and camisole off with practiced ease with the other.

"Bambi, we've done this almost every night for the past month—"

John sat her feet back down on the ground and resumed his earlier kissing, leaving Janis' mind a buzzing catastrophe. Finally he pulled away, breathing heavily as he said, "What, you getting bored?" When Janis shook her head, he panted, then asked, "Feeling sore, Commander?" When Janis reached forward and nipped him playfully on his rough, stubbly chin, he let out a groan. "Must not be feeling sore or tired, you wanna tease me."

She helped him get undressed—as she had once told the man, there was no point to being naked in the cold recycled air alone—and they somehow got to the shower stall. Once they got inside, John started to resume kissing her before he broke it off, gently bracing her chin with his hand.

"We have the luxury of a full night tonight." That was true. They were headed back to a comm station where they would be waiting for intel from a skilled network of informants. "I think we can do better than a quickie."

Janis couldn't resist the grin that stretched, Cheshire-like, on her face. "What did you have in mind?"

"If you're up for it—I mean, if it's alright—"

"Spit it out."

She saw it in his eyes, the moment his entire being transformed. John, not a man who was taller than her, nevertheless exuded a persona in the confined space that was totally male, dominant. A smile, one that felt somehow sinister, slipped along his mouth. "You might have to use that safe word." He said it softly, his voice nevertheless a warning.

Janis had to suppress a giggle. It wasn't funny to her; to the contrary, the sound was more from a promise of danger was both nerve-inducing and irresistibly dangerous. The safe word, chosen on a whim based on a momentary, anxious slip on John's part when he was trying to tell Janis how he felt about her, was "Sectoid". To this point, Janis had never had a chance to say it... but she had, on one occasion, left John hoarsely crying it out well over a week ago when she had decided that it was time to make his ass her plaything.

Some part of her had wondered when it would be her turn to face the music for finding one of John's thresholds of pleasures. It had been a day she had been anticipating.

"Promise?" She almost forgot the danger she could see in John's eyes, reaching over and sliding her hand along the harsh edge of his chin as she liked to do whenever she had the chance. She was surprised when John grabbed her wrist in a gentle but firm grasp. He almost tricked her; the firm, stern look on his face nearly made Janis' heart stop in her chest.

Not letting go of her wrist, John pushed her, pressing until he guided her to turn her back to him, maneuvering her wrist until he held it against the small of her back. From behind her, John growled out, "You did a miserable job in training today."

It took Janis a moment to understand what he meant, but when it clicked it sent a shiver down every part of her body. "Did I? I wasn't aware you were my C.O—"

John tightened his grip on her wrist, just enough to get her attention, never to hurt. When she stopped talking, John trailed the fingers of his other hand down her spine, past her bound wrist. "You're anything I want you to be. Understand that?" Janis wanted to moan in response, but immediately started to play along as if by instinct, nodding. "I watch your form. Think I have an idea for an... exercise I can show you."

Janis' mind felt like it was drowning in anticipation, in surprise. Fantasies of John taking control like this had formed in her mind throughout the weeks they had spent together, but she had started to wonder if the man would ever feel comfortable enough to play along with a too willing partner. To boot, she felt the undeniable implication of this fantasy he was indulging them both in. Recalled how he had once told her that his feelings for her had begun back when he was a young man who had come as a half-willing, directionless recruit ten years her junior.

Biting her lip to keep from moaning or whimpering, Janis asked, "What did you have in mind?"

John's loose hand dropped to her ass, fingertips lightly dragging across one cheek. As Janis realized what he was about to do, she let out a shocked gasp. No sooner than she was about to jut her ass out than John pressed up against her, speaking in a husk whisper.

"Are you sure you're okay with this? 'know you said you were okay with "rough stuff", said you're not made of glass—"

Instead of perhaps whimpering out "Sectoid" as he might have been expecting, Janis pressed back against him and cried out, "Oh fuck, spank me, daddy!"

The only vocalization John let out was a heavy intake of breath as he drew away from her. In what felt like a second, Janis' cry was answered by a full hand swat on her right ass cheek.

Not quite expecting the assault on her ass, Janis drew forward instinctively, thighs squeezing together tight. Fuck! Back when Janis had fucked women and had the very occasional girlfriend, she had not been shy about telling them that she had a propensity for pain, both giving and taking it. Any that had the guts to spank her were often rewarded with Janis turning into a mewling mess. Nothing like seeing your boyfriend squeal like a girl.

Behind her, John stuttered, again dropping the facade it seemed like he had been so eager to take on. "I didn't—didn't hurt you, did I—"

"God-damn it," Janis snarled between clenched teeth. "If you're going to hit me, you need to do it harder."

Nearly breathless, the man behind her proceeded to slap and spank her protruding ass in a frenzy with either side of his fingers and his open palm, all while maintaining a grip on her wrists with his other hand. Janis didn't know who was howling, until John had to stop to reach behind them and turn the shower on, shushing her, having to finally shove his fingers into her mouth when she didn't obey.

Thank fuck he didn't think she said Sectoid.

He reached forward then and started to roughly kiss the side of her neck until he made her squeal around his fingers as he latched his teeth against her neck and sucked, hard. As he pulled away, John said, beneath the sound of the hitting water, "You can't be yelling like that..." He almost sounded calm, if not for how breathless he sounded. Or the fact that he had surely just left welts on her ass and neck.

The too cold water felt like icy blows falling on every part of her flesh it hit except for where it soothed the reddened flesh that was surely present where John had abused her ass. Her nipples, pressed to the cold glass wall, were so painfully hard whenever she rubbed against it it was as agonizing as the water.

Around his fingers, Janis struggled to say, "Yeah, gonna have to put a gag in my mouth, gonna slap me around like that..."

John let out his own groan, removing his fingers from her mouth. "This feels dangerous—afraid I'm gonna hurt you or—" Panting, Janis felt as his saliva-slickened fingers traveled down her back, slipping between her relaxed thighs.

Janis almost jumped, feeling John bury his face against the nape of her neck. In a hoarse whisper, he said, "My god, Janie, you're so wet..."

"Well, it is a shower—" before she could get any more words out, John thrust his hips forward, letting go of her bound wrist, pressing her hand until she had braced it against the sliding glass. Janis realized what was coming only a few seconds before John had grabbed onto her hip with his other hand and she felt something too familiar pressing into her pussy.

Surprised, Janis let out a choked groan and reached her hand down to rub at her stiff clit in time for John to thrust all of himself inside of her and pull out. She felt like everything in her was electrified and she realized she was close to cumming.

"Ah—gonna, gonna—" She let out a squeal as she felt John rear back and with a loud, ragged release of breath, he brought his hand down across her ass with a hard slap. As he jerked his hips forward, hard, Janis felt it, a rare orgasm earned almost solely through insertion.

"Oh, fuuuuccckkk," she cried, turning her face until she pressed it into her wrist, where she sobbed in relief at the unexpected release.

As she came down, Janis felt John thrusting hard inside of her, felt him pounding so hard that the ring he kept in a chain around his neck struck her back. The ring that Janis kept in a chain around her own neck bounced helplessly, hitting either curve of the breasts it hung between as John released his grip on her wrist, groping her chest with seeking, roughly using fingers.

It felt like they were trapped in their own heaven, as Janis' mouth hung limply open. She wasn't sure if she came again, but she experienced an earthquake-like tremble that filled her whole body and lead to her letting her own roar, rocking back against John as she rode him just as hard as he slammed into her.

Not a typical talker when they got this close, with John surely close to cumming, Janis nevertheless heard him ranting, low, under his breath. "Yeah, like that... my cunt... fuck..."

Janis loved hearing him spit out profanity when they fucked. It was like she had unleashed some part of him that the man, nowadays at least, kept safe, tucked inside of himself. A remnant of a very bad boy who liked to steal cars for fun. Didn't help that she enabled it.

"Y...yeah? Sh...show me. Show me whose cunt this is." God, the words leaving her mouth, filthy, made her clench tighter around him.

Without warning, John reached forward, forced her against the wall, stilled her from thrusting back against him.

Janis' eyes rolled back in her head, unable to think about something as silly as the bruises she might get left with on her body—especially the telling one that she would be sporting on her neck. She was eager to feel John lose control inside of her, behind her.

It was like a bad nightmare, the sound of the siren blaring in the bathroom, bathing the room in a panic-red.

Janis gasped, dragged out of the fantasy that she had been living. "Ah—"

John grabbed the side of her neck, then his fingers again found their earlier place, sliding into her opened mouth with shocking ease. She moaned around the fingers, feeling the tell tale rock hard quality of John's cock inside of her. Couldn't believe that he was actually going to cum inside of her as they were being summoned onto the Bridge for an emergency.

About to either give into her own pleasure and desire to feel John lose himself inside of her, or cry out "Sectoid!", Janis felt as the conundrum was solved, seconds after the alarm had sounded.

The feel of John cumming in her erased, for a brief moment, the panic induced by the alarm sounding.

Janis came out of her own haze, wondering if the pleasure of feeling completely full of John had made her cum again. It seemed as though she became aware of the alarm anew as John drew out of her, leaving her feeling empty. Then he clutched her arm, turning her around.

John, his face freshly rosy and with a familiar gleam in his eyes, said, "Well, I think that's our cue."

Nodding, Janis opened the shower, heard as John turned the shower off. Having only a brief moment allowed to swab the remnants of their coupling from her thighs and inside of herself, Janis watched as John strode out of the bathroom, looking as emboldened and strong as though he were an animal sauntering through his territory. She made sure to spend a brief moment admiring the curves of John's naked ass as he walked away.

He called out, over his shoulder as he pulled his trousers on without any underwear, "Planning on joining me any time soon, Commander?"

Janis chuckled, shaking her head as she muttered under her breath, "Someone's getting too comfortable after indulging in certain fantasies."

John, who she watched zip up his trousers, turned to look at her. "What's that?" Luckily, Janis knew he couldn't hear her over the damned alarm.

She smiled at him and entered the main area, wondering if she had a chance to pull on any underwear herself before deciding to follow John's example and threw her uniform on without anything underneath. As Janis was getting into her boots, she was very much aware that her Lieutenant was waiting next to the door, ready to go for who knew how long this would take to deal with.

Already anxious by the alarm that wouldn't stop blaring, Janis hurried as John held the door open for her. As they jogged down the hallway to the short distance to the Bridge, Janis remarked to John, "Haven't had one of these in a while."

John answered back, "All we can hope is that some time sensitive resource was found." He was right; the potential, unthinkable alternatives were what had Janis' heart racing in her chest.

When they reached the Bridge, both were greeted by a familiar sea of red light bathing the whole room. As soon as both walked in they were greeted by a member of the Bridge crew. "Hopefully you're both—" she stopped talking, her gaze seemingly stuck on Janis' head. Janis realized too late that her hair was likely wet—almost certainly, dripping wet with cold water.

Clearing her throat, Janis said, "I think we're feeling straight—sober."

John added, "We got our mind clear when we had a shower." Although suspiciously close to a joke, Janis thought that John had not meant it to be one on purpose. Nevertheless, she had to fight to not burst out laughing.

In spite of the unceasing alarms, the Bridge member stared at them, blinking, then numbly said, "You had... a shower."

Not in the mood for this stunned reaction—frankly, Janis was just surprised that anyone, even the new people, had no idea about the "special situation" that the Commander and the Lieutenant had together—she reached forward until her hand rested on the woman's upper arm. "What's the situation?"

Only then did she have to wonder if she reeked of sex. Too late to worry by that time.

Blinking, the woman came to her senses and pointed to the main display. Both Janis and John moved briskly, walking past the obviously newer member of the crew, approaching a more senior member of the staff who was looking at some coordinates on the display.

John spoke out first, forever Janis' mouthpiece, or perhaps more accurately, her guard. "Tell me what I'm looking at, people."

As both were cued into the details of the new opportunity that had appeared only a few minutes ago, eventually the alarms went off and the decision was made to leave select members of staff to help with people who were still on the ground. They would have no choice other than to set off a day away to the location described in the intel they had just gotten. After all, XCOM didn't get where it was by not taking calculated chances.

Nevertheless, Janis hovered over the personal holographic display, reading the report that had come in, detailing the resources that they would supposedly find at the site: as long as they arrived in no more than a few days. Else risk everything getting seized by ADVENT.

It would be a day before they reached the site, but to Janis, it never got any easier. She rode a shot of adrenaline, left over from the blaring alarm and the same fear that took hold of her at times like these. The fear, always present in even situations like a drop, was that they would end up in the snare of some trap.

As she stared at it, always wondering in the back of her mind what was real or an ambush, she felt the brush of a familiar touch on her hand. Glancing over, Janis saw John's hand grazing her left hand, sliding until it fit against her own. Before she could ask what he wanted, John leaned in close and softly whispered to her.

"It's cold in here and you've chosen not to wear a bra."

"So?" Janis, realizing what he must have meant, looked down and saw the twin peaks that poked out of her uniform. "Oh, my god."

John, his voice barely perceptible to most, but to Janis she could hear the note of humor as he spoke, said, "Don't worry. I'll go get your jacket."

Janis winced, grabbing onto his wrist before he left. "No, I walked out like this—"

John freed himself of her grasp, saying before he left, "They need their Commanding Officer. I'll be right back." In spite of his kind words, Janis didn't miss the warm, humored smile that started on his mouth.

Janis sighed as she turned, watched as John left, drawn for a brief moment by the sight of his now familiar, uneven gait. Instinctively, she crossed her arms over her chest, mortified by the thought that she was standing on the Bridge like Barbarella, in front of much of her staff with her nipples exposed as hard points in her uniform. Great.

Some of these days were honestly easier than others. She could remember too easily how once commanding XCOM had felt like a second nature to her. Had, in truth, reveled in the wild danger of it, felt like their continued existence was a gamble that she just kept doubling down, rode like some pirate queen as they fought back an alien menace that had been an invasion. Now, Janis often still had to struggle to keep her inner turmoil from feeling like it was pouring out of her, obvious surely to anyone who looked at her.

The fear, that they would once again lose, this time as the last vestige of hope for humanity, was not her only fear. In truth, Janis had never lost the fear that ADVENT had somehow left her as a booby trap meant to be found, would either explode from some device left planted in her or that she would lose her will, once turned on like some automaton, and would proceed to kill anyone who happened to be near her.

Likely, she knew, that person would be John.

As she felt her breath speeding up in her chest to think about it, a familiar refrain entered her thoughts. Intrusive thoughts. Yes, as the therapist they had picked up had taught her, such things were never going to go away all at once. As the (mostly) bi-weekly sessions had taught Janis, she could learn to contain and deal with the old, horrible memories and the fears of what she was capable of in order to put on a facade to the outer world. The hope was that, one day, Janis would grow to believe in it herself, that it wouldn't be just a mask.

As she struggled to continue reading the report, Janis became aware of the still wet, cold weight of the chain inside of her shirt. Glancing around for a moment, Janis reached under the collar of her shirt and drew out the chain, and the ring that was attached to it.

Looking at the simple gold band, Janis turned it to the side until she saw the inscription engraved in the inside of the ring. A familiar, too important phrase in latin, engraved specially by Shen herself down in the tech lab three weeks ago, felt like it filled Janis with a warmth to look at. Vigilo confido. Always vigilant, that was indeed a desire that was more personal to Janis than it being just the creed of XCOM.

As she looked at the ring, one of a pair which had been given to her by the man who was currently grabbing her something to wear, Janis felt an excitement start, low in her chest as she thought about the promise of the rings that both she and John had promised to not wear on their fingers. Not until the day, not "if", but when, ADVENT was gone, and their jobs, a vengeance for many who had died so they could be where they were, was complete.

The ring was a reminder that ADVENT, as well as the intrusive, obsessive thoughts that she knew John also dealt with in his own ways, were impermanent things. That a love that lasted for over thirty years in some way or another had outlived the invasion and would continue, once ADVENT was a thing of the past.

She was busy rubbing the ring between her fingers when she was startled by the sound of boot-clad feet hurrying up to her. Janis almost managed to put the ring back underneath her uniform when she felt someone clap a jacket over her shoulders.

"Here," John said, coming to stand next to her. "I'll—" he paused, and Janis could feel his gaze on her hand as it touched his gift to her.

As Janis, embarrassed, tried to put the ring back, she watched as John reached inside of his sweater and pulled his own chain and ring out.

He held it in his hand, gazing down at it. Chuckling softly, he said, "Sometimes, I can't believe it's here, either. When I'm alone, I end up pulling it out, looking at it. It's like a reminder that my nightmares are in the past. That there's only blue skies ahead for us, one day." He turned, looking at Janis with soft, warm brown eyes. "Can't believe I'm actually wearing it some days. It feels... alien."

Before he could realize what he said, Janis felt a smile stretch on her lips. "The good kind, I hope."

John's expression broke as he almost laughed, grinned. "You're goddamn right it is."

Before anyone could say something more, they were interrupted by someone calling out to them. Janis, almost feeling guilty for what always felt like a brief respite of joyous pause from a world of otherwise coldness, hurriedly put her ring back under her uniform and drew her jacket tighter around her before she turned to look at the approaching crew member.

As they spoke, Janis was very aware of the presence of the man standing next to her. An anchor, a savior, a set of wings all her own, John Bradford was all of those things and more. At the moment, acting only as Central, the hard-nosed and thoroughly pragmatic Lieutenant of the Initiative, John was a comforting presence for a Commander who knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that she would never have accepted the role if not for him.

At some point everyone moved to separate, work on different aspects of executing the new plan. As they moved, Janis obviously surprised John when she reached over, grabbing him by the back of his head. She kissed him deeply, remembering too easily, even in their circumstances, the time they had shared only twenty minutes before.

John kissed back, as always, seemingly eager to keep kissing her as long as she wanted, only stopping when Janis pulled away from him, panting softly.

John smiled at her, a slightly wicked, lustful reward for the unexpected show of intimacy. Propriety be damned, everyone on the ship either knew what they did when they were alone or would soon know. After all, Janis was not about to waste any more time she had with the man she loved.

John, whispering in a husked voice as he ducked his head close to hers, said, "You have to watch yourself, Commander. I'm already distracted enough tonight after the time we shared." He pulled away, then, hesitating, leaned back in and whispered, "If we're stuck up here all night, we can sneak away for "coffee" once we know things are fine." For emphasis, John reached out, lightly dragging his fingers down Janis' jacket-clad forearm. "Would you be in the mood for coffee?"

Janis felt an unintended giggle burst out of her. Not worried about it being heard, Janis leaned closer and with her own grin, said, "I don't care if we're stuck up all night. You know I'm always up for the coffee you make."

Before either could continue the ridiculous conversation in weak euphemism, Janis was called over to look at the plans for take off. As soon as she had a chance to, she found herself searching the room for her Lieutenant, found him standing in front of the globe display. Was only partially surprised when she realized he was looking at her, a look of warm recognition on his face as he lightly smiled at her.