Falling
Jack/Irina, mid-"A Dark Turn"
Jack and Irina, "A Dark Turn." You know the scene I'm talking about.
Inspiration: "Falling" by Michelle Featherstone
~*~*~
She turns to him. "We need to be up early."
"Yes." He bids himself not to run his hand along her soft, smooth shoulder; not to do the things he's been dreaming of for twenty years. Stay away, Jack. Just stay away. But the fact of the matter is, he's stayed away from this for too long. Everyone needs a reason to survive. Just one thing to keep them going. For better or worse, she, them, what they had between them, was his reason.
She smiles slightly. "We should get to bed." A war is waged inside her. One side screams for his touch once again, for the love that she never quite learned how to live without. The rest of her wants him to leave now and never look back, to run from the hurt that she knows he will feel tomorrow. It would kill her to hurt him. Again.
His eyes flash. "Yeah, we should." And with that his lips are on hers. He's holding her in his arms like he doesn't intend to ever let her go. And together they're falling. Falling to the bed. Falling into the past. Falling back into each other.
His lips linger on hers for several moments before he slowly pulls away. He looks down into the face of his devil, his angel, his heaven and hell. "Irina, this isn't right." Even believing this, he can't force himself to leave the bed, leave her embrace.
Her hands reach under his sweater and caress the taught muscles of his abdomen. "Probably not." She lifts up her head, places a soft kiss on his jaw line. "But Jack, after twenty years without this, is that really what you want to think about now?"
He pauses. "Good point." They lean up together, and he lets her pull his sweater off over his head. His arms encircle her waist, his hands making circles on her back as their mouths meet again.
He tastes her, feels her, and it's everything he's remembered and more. How could he have thought he could live without this?
Time stills. In the moonlight, bodies press against each other, hands link together. No words are spoken. None are needed. Hearts link. Love grows.
Unexpected tears come to her eyes when he calls out in a ragged, breathless voice. "Irina. Irina." Not Laura. Her. She thinks this is as close to heaven as she will ever need, or deserve.
Hours later, they lie facing each other, legs intertwined, tangled in the sheets. She snuggles her face into the curvature of his neck, breathing in the scent of him. He tilts her chin up, forcing her to look at him. "Irina. No matter what happens...no regrets."
"Jack."
"No, I mean it. I will regret many things in my life forever. But this will never be one of them."
She nods. "Nor for me." And she knows it is the truth. She may regret what she has to do tomorrow. She may regret abandoning Jack, abandoning Sydney, for the second time. But being with him would never be anything but a blessing to her.
She watches him as his eyes slide closed, his breathing grows even and deep. She knows that it may be the last time she ever sees it. Resting her head against his chest, she weeps softly and wonders if there will ever be a time when falling for him won't tear her heart in two.
end
Posted by Carrie on 12:36 PM