He rubbed his hand slowly across his chest, still lost in the contemplation of the stars. His feet were bare and his hair tousled. His eyes were as deep and stormy as the sea.

She moved closer, the wooden floor under her bare feet still warm from the heat of the day´s sun. He didn´t seem to be aware of her approach, but she knew better than that. He was always aware of what was going on around him, even when he was less than well. He was also always aware of her. It was one of the many things she loved about him, that focus, especially when focused on her.

She ran one hand over the curve of his shoulder, and he raised his eyes from the stars to look up at her. One of his hands gently caressed her face, the fingers running down her jaw and under her chin to her neck. She closed her eyes and sighed, still amazed at the reaction that he could elicit, even with the softest of feather touches.

He smiled up at her, and reaching up, pulled her into his lap. His arms curved around her, and she laid her head in the hollow of his shoulders, where she fit so well. In companionable silence they rocked backwards and forwards.

She slowly became aware of the light kisses he was placing on top of her head, and the way he was gently rubbing his face in her hair, breathing in the scent of her. She sighed deeply in contentment, enjoying the moment, knowing that it couldn´t last. This knowledge forced her to break the silence between them.

"You´re going back, aren´t you?" She didn´t need to hear his answer, and yet she did. Although she already knew what it would be, she needed him to say it to make it real, concrete. She felt his arms tighten around her briefly.

"Yes." His voice was a soft rumble against her ear. "I´m healed. I leave the day after tomorrow, as soon as the docs give me the all clear."

She squeezed her eyes tightly shut against the tears which threatened to fall, and pressed herself closer to him, wanting to be part of him in the short time they had left.

"Promise me you´ll be careful," she whispered into his shirt. His arms tightened around her once more.

"I´m always careful, Kitty. Especially now that I´ve got you to come back to."

She ran her hands over his ribs, feeling him flinch when she reached the spot where they were still tender.

"Always?"

"That was deliberate," he whispered. "I was missing you. It was the only thing I could think of to get to see you. See how much I love you? I get shot for you, and fall down a ravine breaking several of my ribs just so I can spend some quality time with you back on earth."

She had to laugh at that. "Really? Vansen told me that you were still hungover from the tequila contest you and Tee had had the day before. Told me she wasn´t surprised that you fell, just surprised that it took a bullet to bring you down. She thought you´d trip over your own feet first."

He groaned, and ran his hand through his hair, messing it up even more. Her fingers itched with the desire to smooth it down.

"That what she said? She´s got a big mouth. She´s just sore ‘cos she and West folded so early. And hey, we were on leave. No one expected to be called back from the Bacchus that soon. Still, I suppose that I should be glad that you two are talkin´ now, instead of bitchin´ at each other."

"She also said that Tee managed to drink you under the table."

"She said that too?" He moved his head to look into her face. "Maybe I shouldn´t be so glad that you two are talkin´. God knows what you are saying about me behind my back."

She snuggled deeper into his arms. "Oh, just comparing notes," she teased. She felt him stiffen. He still wasn´t quite sure about her reaction to the fling he and Shane had had when he was still sore at her. He was never quite certain if she had forgiven him completely, or even if Shane had. He knew it had been stupid, but he was hurting so bad, and Shane was there, and he could always be sure that Shane cared about him when he couldn´t, hadn´t been sure that Madi did. Although, until that incident in the shower, he never thought that Shane thought about him in that way. He´d given up hope about that months before, convinced that she thought of him as a brother at the best of times, and as a pain in the ass the rest of the time, when she thought about him at all. So he´d put his feelings for her aside, and gone on day to day with this empty feeling inside him, until he met Madi.

Madi. He still had difficulty believing that she loved him. Sometimes on the ‘Toga he woke up in the middle of the night, panicking, convinced that he´d dreamt it. That she was nothing but a figment of his overactive imagination, a creation of his loneliness. And always collapsed in relief when he caught sight of her photograph pinned above his bunk, along with those of the other ‘Cards that he´d finally found the courage to put up. The courage that in a way she´d given him.

She snuggled up against him again, stroking her palms down the arms wrapped around her. "I was only joking, Coop. We do talk a lot about you, and that´s because we both care about you, in different ways." She didn´t tell him that she was still convinced that Shane felt about him exactly the same way she did. They´d both decided that he didn´t need that guilt. Instead they´d drawn up an armed and wary truce, although Madi was well aware that the peace wouldn´t last long if she ever hurt Cooper again. ‘You´re ass will be mine, Gibson,´ Shane had said, and seeing the glint in her eye, Madi had not reason to doubt it.

"Besides," she continued, "you´d think that by now you´d know better than to try and keep up with Tee. She can drink anyone under the table, even you flyboy."

She felt him relax slightly and was relieved. Sometimes she triggered memories that caused pain in him, and didn´t know why, or how to make it better. At least this one she could put right. She still didn´t know what had goosed him the other night, while watching a political speech by Diane Hayden. She´d just made a sarcastic comment, something about America loving her citizens and felt him freeze, his eyes becoming distant, scared almost, as the memories flooded him. And judging by the way he shook, not good ones.

She rubbed her hands up and down his warm arms in time to the rocking of the chair. She´d always loved this chair. It reminded her of safety somehow. Of being small and held in her grandmother´s arms while rocking to and fro, just like this. Only she didn´t recall her grandmother feeling, or smelling, so good.

She sighed again, wriggling slightly to get more comfortable. She felt him chuckle in her ear, and then he spoke, his breath warm in her ear and stirring the hairs on the back of her neck, making her shiver. "Comfy, Kitty?"

"Mmmm." He laughed again.

"You must be. You´re purring." He began to nuzzle against her ear, causing her to shiver again. His voice dropped seductively. "I think you were purring last night too." His lips traced fire down the side of her neck, and over the parts of her shoulder revealed by her loose dress. His fingers caught hold of the fabric, and pulled it down slightly to allow him greater access to her creamy skin.

"Was not," she protested weakly, made breathless by his kisses.

"Were too," he teased. "Definitely purring." His fingers stole to the buttons on her dress, sliding between the gap between buttons to lightly stroke the skin beneath. She gasped. "You made that sound too."

Even more breathless she asked him, "What other sounds do I make?" The sound of the desire in her voice inflamed him further. He started to undo her buttons, one by one, as he considered her question.

"Well, sometimes you make this other noise," he breathed. "When you really like what I´m doing." He´d undone all of the buttons now, and slowly eased the dress off her shoulders, kissing the bare flesh as it was revealed to him. She gasped. "No, you already made that one." He eased the dress off further, opening it to reveal her breast encased in wisps of white lace. As he did so, his thumbs lightly brushed over her hard nipples through the fabric, causing her to whimper. "That´s the sound."

As usual, his voice was driving her slowly out of her mind. How could a seven year old sound so seductive? Even this seven year old.

He pulled her into his embrace, twisting her round to kiss her thoroughly. She completed the movement, turning to face him completely, straddling his legs and sitting in his lap. She wrapped her arms around his neck, deepening the kiss. She stroked her thumb over the nub on the back of his neck, feeling him moan into her mouth as she did so. She smiled in satisfaction. She could feel him growing hard against her, and the thought of that made her feel incredibly powerful.

When they broke the kiss to draw breath, his eyes were dark with desire. He ran his fingers lightly down over her neck, and her cleavage. She arched her back, pressing herself harder against him. He buried his head between her breasts, licking and teasing and just breathing in the scent of her, which aroused him further.

She managed to catch her breath long enough to speak. "Bed?" In the moonlight she could see him shake his head.

"No, here."

He eased the dress further off her shoulders, pulling it down her arms until it slid with a silken rustle to the floor. He kicked it away with his feet. Her hands weren´t idle either, working on the buttons of his shirt. He sat up and released his hold on her long enough for her to ease it off. She took her time about it, sensuously sliding it down his arms, luxuriating in the feel of his skin under her hands. Eventually it joined her dress on the floor.

They continued to rock, as once again he buried his face in her breasts. His tongue grew bolder, flicking across her hard nipples through the fabric, driving her crazy and making her twist in his lap. Every time she did one of those sexy little wriggles, it inflamed him further. Eventually he couldn´t take it anymore, and with a primal growl, finally ripped her bra off her and licked and nipped his way across her breast to catch one nipple between his teeth. She cried out as he rolled his tongue around and over it. His hands caressed the other breast, the combination of movements driving her insane.

She reached for the buttons on his jeans, undoing them and sliding her hands through the gap to caress the length of him. She raised herself up on her knees on the chair, one hand holding onto his shoulder for support, the other tugging at his jeans, trying to drag them off him. He raised his hips to help her, catching hold of her knickers at the same time and dragging them down.

He kicked his jeans and boxers off, and then pulled off her pants. They joined the growing pile of clothes on the floor, and then, at last, it was bare flesh against bare flesh.

He positioned her carefully above him, and then eased her down onto him. She arched her back as she felt him fill her. He caught hold of her knees, and pulled her legs around so that once again she was straddling him. The movements of the rocking chair eased him in and out of her, in a slow and steady rhythm. It wasn´t the wild sex she was used to with him, but in a way it was almost even more erotic.

He held her close to him, each movement of the chair creating a delicious friction as their bodies rubbed together. Her orgasm built so slowly, that she was almost caught unawares when at last the shudders began to shake her body. Slow in building, it was also slow in passing, and she seemed to come forever, each delicious slow and shallow stroke increasing the fire in her groin. She arched her back even further, until her hair almost touched the floor. She felt his thumb rub against her clitoris, increasing the sensation, replacing the closeness of his body, sending her even higher.

The sounds she was making drove him over the edge too. Unlike her normal wild cries, these were gentler, softer, more in keeping with the slow gentle rhythm of their lovemaking. He felt her vagina contract around him, and he shuddered in release.

When she felt him jerk against her, she straightened up and wrapped her arms hard around him, covering his face with grateful kisses. As their breathing slowed, they continued to rock back and forth, holding each other and kissing gently.

She loved this chair.