The SSR had got wind of a new Leviathan sect in Russia, requiring another team to be sent over for a mission. Agent Thompson and Peggy were the obvious choice for the mission but, surprisingly, both of them agreed that they could handle it alone – after Agent Li's death on the previous mission, neither of wanted any liabilities. They would go in light, basic gear only, meet a tact-team at a bunker, complete the mission and then get out.

The drop put them just over ten kilometres from their rendezvous point, and this time Thompson did not demonstrate any nervousness at the prospect of another jump. All went smoothly with the drop and, after stowing their chutes, they started the hike through rough terrain.

After about an hour Peggy felt the wind shift. She paused and sniffed the air, looking at the white sky above them. "Do you smell that?" she asked Jack, who was on point.

He stopped as well and sniffed, then he frowned at her. "Fish cooking? There were no settlements in this area on the map."

She licked her finger, holding it up in the air to test the wind direction. "The wind's coming in from the East, that's that Baltic we can smell," she said heavily. Jack's mouth was set into a narrow frown, a crease between his brows; he was clearly remembering her words so many weeks ago back in Dooley's old office, when she had told him what the smell of herring in the air during a Belarusian summer meant. "How long to the rendezvous point?"

"An hour and a half," he replied instantly, squinting up at the sky, which was heavy with white clouds. One or two soft flakes of snow were starting to drift down around them. "Think we can make it?"

"No," she replied instantly, knowing from experience how quickly the storm would blow in.

"Shelter then," Jack said resignedly, holstering his rifle over his shoulder.

"Shelter," she agreed, starting to walk again. "Gather as much dry wood as you can along the way, we'll need it."

Half an hour later they were in a small, dry cave a kilometre or so off their intended track and Peggy was grateful that they had been travelling in rocky terrain; had they been in forest or plains shelter would have been considerably harder to find. She was kneeling on the rough floor of the cave, building a fire. She blew gently on the embers, coaxing them to life.

Thompson was standing at the mouth of the cave, watching the storm outside. The wind was howling and the snow was coming down in a blizzard, already coating the ground with well over an inch of snow. He came over to the fire, which was gradually growing to a steady blaze. "I've got to hand it to you, Carter, you're good," he said, stomping snow off his boots. "I wouldn't have known a storm was coming in until it was too late."

"I'm just familiar with the terrain," she replied, brushing off his praise and standing to walk over to their small packs. "I'm sure I would be on equally uncertain footing if we were to ever go to Japan."

Jack nodded, sitting down by the fire and warming his hands. There was a brief silence. "Think the others are okay?" he asked, staring at the flames.

"The rendezvous point was a bunker, I imagine that they are significantly warmer than we are right now," Peggy reminded him, searching through their bags to look for their provisions of food: she found herself unsurprised that Thompson had sneaked a small hip-flask of bourbon into his pack and tossed it in his direction, knowing that the alcohol would help them feel the cold less. He caught it easily.

"They might send out a search party," he pointed out, uncapping the flask to take a swig.

Peggy shook her head. "They know better than to do that in this weather, they'd loose more men than they would potentially save in looking for us." They had already tried their radios, but had found that the storm is giving out too much static for them to work properly. They would have to wait until the storm blew over before they would be able to give them their position.

She went to sit beside the fire with their food rations in hand - they were only meant to be over in Russia for a two day mission and had intended to stock up on necessary provisions at the bunker. As such, their provisions were very low. Jack jerked his head at the scant rations as he handed her the hip-flask. "If this storm lasts more than a day, we're in trouble."

"The hypothermia would kill us before starvation," she pointed out, accepting the flask and taking a sip herself.

Jack snorted. "That's encouraging, thank you," he said sarcastically. He nodded his head towards the other side of the fire, where she had laid out their two sleeping bags close together. "You anticipating getting cosy, Carter?"

She gave him an unimpressed look, already feeling the cold through her combat fatigues despite the warmth of the fire. "Within an hour or two the temperature will have dropped below freezing, the fire will go out and body heat will be our only source of warmth," she said matter of factly. "I would sooner sleep beside you than suffer the effects of hypothermia."

"Well, I'm flattered that I rate higher than hypothermia," Jack said, smirking as he accepted the flask back from her.

It was several hours later and the cave that that were sheltering in was nearly pitch dark, the only light coming from the faintly glowing, dying embers of the fire. Outside the wind was howling and the storm was showing no sign of abating. Jack was shuddering with cold within his sleeping bag, every muscle tense and his teeth clenched. Neither of them were dressed for extreme weather, wearing just combat fatigues, and the sleeping bags were standard issue, hardly designed for the cold.

"Jack," he heard Peggy whispering from the darkness beside him. "Jack, you're shivering."

"In case you hadn't noticed, its bloody freezing in here, Carter," he replied acerbically, his teeth chattering and making it a struggling to talk – goddammit, he hated appearing weak in front of her.

He felt her sit up beside him, then heard the sound of her sleeping bag being unzipped. "Oh, bugger me," she muttered to herself when the cold air hit her body. He saw the faint silhouette of her standing up and moving about in the dark, back-lit by the faint, orange glow of the coals.

"What the hell are you doing?" he demanded; it wasn't like they had any more wood to put on the fire so he didn't know why she had left the warmth of her sleeping bag.

"Your core temperature is dropping," she told him, her teeth audibly chattering as well as she tossed her sleeping bag over him. "We need to keep each other warm."

"Peggy -" he started to say in protest as she tucked the ends of her sleeping bag around him - but he cut himself off when he felt her unzipping his own sleeping bag, realising belatedly that she intended to join him.

"Shut up and move over," she demanded in her clipped, British voice, climbing in alongside him and zipping it up behind her. Her skin and clothing was cold even from the brief, few seconds exposure to the freezing air. For several long moments they were all elbows and knees as she wiggled to get herself properly in the sleeping bag, then they settled with her beside him, their arms wrapped around each other for warmth. "If I feel one single wandering hand I will cut it off, understand?"

Jack snorted in amusement, still shivering along with her. "You're the one clinging to me like a barnacle, sweetheart."

They lay like that for several long minutes, gradually warming up slightly. Her head was tucked under his chin and he could feel the scorching heat of her breaths on his throat. Another tremor racked Peggy's frame and Jack vigorously rubbed his hands up and down her back for a few seconds to try and warm her with the friction in response.

"You know ..." he said slyly, his hands slowing once more, but still drifting gently up and down her back. "I once heard that sleeping naked is a better way to conserve body heat."

"That's a load of bollocks and you know it, Thompson," she retorted into his neck, utterly unimpressed.

He chuckled. "Worth a shot," he muttered to the darkness.

Peggy woke slowly and sluggishly with a huge yawn, finding herself practically laying atop of Thompson with their legs entwined within the confines of the sleeping bag. She was surprisingly comfortable despite having slept on the cold cave floor and the grey, pre-dawn light was just touching the sky outside, the storm having passed. Jack's arms were wrapped around her, anchoring her to him, whereas both her hands had slipped up beneath his jacket during the night and were now resting on his warm, firm stomach. Still half asleep, she instinctively shifted closer to his warmth, her head tucked beneath his chin; she then felt him stirring in response to her movement, taking a deep breath as he woke.

He made a low, sleepy noise and one hand drifted down her back, as if it was the most natural thing in the world. "Storms over," he murmured into her hair, not quite awake yet.

Peggy lifted her head to blink sleepily at him, their bodies pressed together within the sleeping bag and her hands still resting on the bare skin of his rib-cage. He was looking at her with sleepy-eyes, a light dusting of stubble covering his jaw and one corner of his mouth tilted up.

Slowly, almost as if he wasn't aware of what he was doing, he bought one hand around from where they were resting on her back to touch her face, brushing against her temple as he pushed some hair out of her eyes. When she didn't protest, his fingers lingered on her cheek and then ever-so-slowly trailed down to lightly and curiously touch her mouth.

"We should ..." she started to say, but couldn't find the words when his thumb brushed against her lower lip.

"Yeah," Jack agreed, his voice rusty and his gaze focused on her mouth.

When Peggy made no motion to move from her position atop of him, Jack gently took her chin between his forefinger and thumb, drawing her slowly towards him. She instinctively closed her eyes, feeling his hot breath on her lips -

"Echo-base to Tact-team three, do you read me?" the radio beside her crackled to life.

They froze, their faces so close together that their noses were just touching. She could tell from the look in his eyes that she was not the only one seriously considering just ignoring the radio.

"Come in Tact-team three, this is Echo-base, do you copy?"

Suppressing a curse, Peggy pulled one hand from the warmth beneath Jack's jacket and grabbed the radio. "This is Tact-team three, we copy," she said brusquely, not moving from her position on his chest. She felt Jack let out a deep, shaky breath beneath her and he tilted his head back to rest it on the floor once more, looking up at the roof of the cave instead of her.

"Good to hear that you made it through the storm, we were worried when you missed the rendezvous point," the man on the other end of the radio said. "What is your location?"

Utterly awake now, Peggy rattled off the coordinates, grateful that Thompson had plotted their location the night before and that she didn't have to get out of the warm sleeping bag to examine the map.

"We have a team on the way out to meet you, they'll be with you in an hour," the crackling voice said.

"Roger that," Peggy replied curtly. She then tossed the radio away and looked at Jack. Whatever post-sleep spell that had snared them had been broken by the radio and there was now a distinct current of awkwardness between them. She didn't know what to say, despite being pressed rather intimately against him, one of her hands still lingering on the bare skin of his stomach, feeling it rise and fall with each breath.

There was a brief silence between them.

"Hey Peggy, I have a brilliant idea," Jack said; he was still looking up at the roof on the cave instead of her and there was a strange note in his voice. "Since the team isn't getting here for an hour, how about we just stay in the warmth?"

She sighed as the tension surrounding them broke and lay her head back down on his chest. He pulled the sleeping bag up to properly cover them again. "That is a fantastic idea, Jack," she said into his neck, feeling his hands running lazily up and down her back through her combat fatigues while her own fingers slipped back up to find the warm, smooth skin under his jacket.

Season finale soon ... :)

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