A/N: Final chapter folks! Thank you so much for all of your reviews/faves/alerts, they seriously mean the world. I am beyond grateful to you guys.

"It is far too early on a Sunday morning to be dealing with this." Taylor groused, sitting up on the edge of the dining table.

In reply Wash threw his jacket at his head. "Get dressed." She ordered.

"That'd be get dressed, sir." He retorted, but did as she asked anyway.

He watched as she stormed around the room, snatching up her clothes almost hard enough to tear them. "Okay. What's wrong?" He asked.

She gestured wildly at the door while simultaneously tugging her hair harshly up into a ponytail. "There are three people out there who know exactly what we were doing five minutes ago."

"Sure there are. What does it matter?" He asked, moving closer to her. "When have you ever cared what other people think of you?"

She spluttered but couldn't find an answer, instead settling for making a hash of fastening her belt. He stepped to within a few inches of her and she looked up at him, hands falling away in defeat.

"They stopped us making a big mistake." He said quietly, starting to fasten her belt for her. "No reason to be angry."

She sighed, knowing he was right. She felt oddly soothed by his words until she looked down at his hands and saw his index finger stroking over the exposed skin in the gap between her top and pants.

"You looked really good in my jacket." He said, eyes sparkling playfully.

Her breath hitched as she surged towards him again. "Stop." She groaned, nipping at his lower lip.

"Make me." He returned, arms sliding around her waist.

There was a knock at the door again. "Guys? We can get this all sorted if you can bring yourselves to find five minutes to spare." Elisabeth called through the wood, amusement in her every word.

Wash pulled away first, ignoring Taylor's grumbling as she walked to the door. "Ready?" She asked, knowing exactly what walking out of it could mean to the pair of them.

He took a deep breath and nodded. "Ready."

#

Elisabeth talked them through the discovery on the way to the hospital, her excited rush of words belaying the way she cautioned about all-out optimism. The initial test results on their blood samples had been positive, she said, but there was still no guarantee of effectiveness until it was tried on them.

"Me first." Alicia said when Elisabeth presented them with two hypos. She was unsurprised when Nathaniel immediately protested. "I was exposed first - if it doesn't work on me, it won't work on you. Besides, you're too important for it to go wrong."

He looked like he wanted to protest that as well but held his tongue and watched as Elisabeth carefully took one hypo and applied it to Alicia's skin. There was a hiss and then silence as they waited.

"How do you feel?" Elisabeth asked, when nothing outwardly appeared to change.

Alicia beckoned to Mark and, with a nervous look to Nathaniel, he moved over to her. She reached out for his hand and they all held their breath as she looked directly at him for several tense moments. "Nothing. I think it worked."

Elisabeth let out a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness." She took the other hypo and moved towards Nathaniel but Alicia jumped up, snatching it from her grasp.

"I'll do it." She said as explanation. "Trust me."

She took a deep breath as she turned to him, lined up the hypo to the application site with one hand and gripped his hand with the other. He looked at her with quiet confidence and she knew how much self-restraint he was showing in not attempting to throw her down on the table and have his way with her.

She held his gaze as she pressed the button with her thumb and saw regret there - for what, she didn't know. Regret that the situation had ever occurred in the first place? Regret that it was over? Maybe even regret that they hadn't taken full advantage of the situation while they had the chance.

His eyes shuttered over again and Alicia's only thought was that now she'd never know.

#

Elisabeth kept them in the hospital for observation for the rest of the day, which mostly consisted of making them regularly separate themselves to opposite ends of the building for minutes at a time. When they came back together there was always a moment of hope that, despite everything, maybe they weren't quite out of the woods yet. To believe that they'd lost the connection, no matter the inconvenience, made something inside of the pair of them ache.

When Elisabeth finally released them it was getting late, so they headed back to Nathaniel's quarters for Alicia to fetch her things. She managed not to blush when she had to duck her head under the sofa to retrieve her comm unit, gathering his at the same time and setting it on the table behind her.

He stood against the kitchen counter and simply watched as she walked around his quarters, picking up her things and stuffing them in her bag. Alicia knew he was committing her presence within his home to memory, just as she would be doing in his position. They had shared a life for a week, enforced or not - it was going to be a precious memory for them both.

She only received a nod and smile when she opened his front door to leave, and responded in kind. A small, idealistic and very uncharacteristic part of her wanted him to stop her, to pull her back and never let her leave him again. After that notion passed through her mind, the walk back to her quarters felt longer than it ever had before. She dropped onto her sofa like a stone when she was finally safely inside.

She wasn't sure how long she sat there, head tipped back to stare at the ceiling. In her head she replayed the day, starting with their breakfast before moving onto their post-meal activities. She pressed her hands to her suddenly overheated cheeks and couldn't hold back the pleased smile that formed at that memory.

Her recollections were interrupted by her comm unit's alert and she scrubbed her hands over her face before answering.

"Just checking in Wash, how are you doing?" Came Nathaniel's voice and she ignored the resulting flutter in her chest.

"I feel fine, sir." She said, trying to make her words sound as true as possible.

"Are you sure?" He asked.

She frowned at his tone. "Sir?"

"I said, are you sure?" He repeated, and she cottoned on to his meaning.

She wondered if he could almost see her smile. "No." She said quietly.

"I'll be right over." He replied, cutting the connection almost before the words had left his mouth.

She was waiting for him at the door when he walked up her steps.

"You know we can only use this excuse once?" She asked.

His response was to put his hands on her hips and walk her slowly back into the house. "Better make it count then."

#

He was gentle with her this time - as if attempting to reassure her that he was here because of her and not the pollen. His mouth caressed her skin instead of biting, hands roamed gently over her curves instead of grasping desperately.

But he didn't seem to realise one important thing - tonight, Alicia Washington didn't want gentle. She wanted to reaffirm their connection, to convince them both that the pollen only built on feelings already long-present.

She let him move her backwards through the house but her feet controlled their direction, moving away from the nearest flat surface and towards her bedroom. They were at least going to do this properly.

#

Taylor was well aware of his Lieutenant's actions. He wondered if she knew the power she held over him in this moment, her hands busying themselves with removing his clothing as her lips moved over each exposed inch of his skin.

Right now, he'd follow her anywhere.

She stopped moving when she reached the foot of her bed, raising her arms when prompted to allow him to pull her top over her head. He reached behind her and removed the band from her hair to release her ponytail, welcoming her affectionate smile with one of his own. He tangled his hands in her dark hair and guided her lips to his, easing his weight forward until she relented and lowered herself to the bed

He dragged her trousers down her legs for the second time that day, easing up off of the bed to pull his off also. He grinned at her petulant moue of disappointment, the expression so alien to her face that he couldn't help but find it funny.

His amusement faded as she propped herself up on her elbows and her gaze lowered, her eyes flashing with an urgent burning desire. He moved to kneel beside her on the bed, leaning over her to press her back into the bed.

He trailed his hand down her body as his lips ran along her shoulder, teeth nibbling at the nape of her neck as she gasped and writhed beneath him. His fingers played over her aimlessly, circling and delving inside in response to her breathy groans and whimpers. He watched her face, eyes screwed shut against the sensations he was creating. She bit her lip but the corners of her mouth were turned up in a triumphant grin which he couldn't resist the urge to kiss.

It was Wash who ended the kiss, tearing her mouth away from his to gasp in air as she hurtled towards completion. He took the opportunity to drink her in this time as she shuddered, a keening cry falling from her lips.

He'd seen more than his fair share of stunning vistas, striking displays of nature and the power of their planet since coming to Terra Nova - but to him (hopelessly sentimental though the thought was) none of these matched the beauty of Alicia Washington at that moment.

#

"One." He whispered in her ear as he moved to cover her body with his own.

The word barely penetrated the fog of pleasure surrounding her, and she was stopped from asking his meaning by the movement of his hips, a forceful thrust that buried him deep inside her, stealing her breath away again.

That morning, before the interruption, they had been close to such a moment. The delay only served to make it even more perfect.

She raised her leg to hitch it over his hip, scratching her nails over his back as he moved within her and bowed his head to rest in the curve of her neck. She grinned against his cheek as his rhythm stuttered at her action and repeated it several times as a result.

He reached down to lift her other leg and allow himself deeper; she tipped her head back with a gasp at the new angle. He moved his head to allow his mouth a path along her neck, sucking hard at her pulse point. The unexpected sharp mix of pain and pleasure sent Alicia over the edge once more.

She ran her hands down his back and dug her nails in hard, urging him on with soft words in his ear until he followed her into oblivion.

"Two." Nathaniel breathed; the deep rumble of his words vibrated through her and sent another ripple of pleasure over her body. He smirked as he looked at her. "And a half." He added with a smug little twinkle in his eye.

"What." She huffed, struggling to catch her breath. "Is with the counting?"

"If you don't make it to at least five tonight, I haven't done my job properly." He said, dipping his head to capture her lips briefly.

She laughed as he broke away. "Five, huh? What about you?"

"It's not about me." He shrugged.

She tutted, rolling them so she was straddling his thighs, hands stroking slowly over his chest. "Then let's make it about you."

He grinned, looking entirely too pleased with himself. "Five? Good luck with that."

Alicia smirked as she scooted down the bed, lips caressing and hair tickling his skin as she moved. "You know me sir, I love a challenge."