Title: One night growing to the future

Fandom: V

Pairing: Jack & Erica

Word count: 1390

Rating: T tends to M

A/N 1: Set in the night after the series finale.

A/N 2: With the beta help of Susan as Christmas gift for my friend Suzanne.

Summary: Erica brings a blessed Jack at home. Together they find a reason to go on with the fight.

Disclaimer: I earn no money from this thing, nor do I profit in any other way from it. Involved persons are only borrowed and always go back to their owner.

~One night growing to the future~

Erica took another short look toward the passenger seat. Jack's coloring went from glowing pink after the bliss to more and more nausea green during the ride back to her home. Erica couldn't wake Jack, but she had been able to guide him to her car. Now it looked like he was slowly regaining consciousness.

"E…rica, pull over," Jack choked, and she stopped the car at the roadside. Hardly anyone was driving in Manhattan and it was calm - haunting in a metropolis like New York City. But everywhere people stood on the streets looking up to the huge mothership, hovering over everything, receiving Anna's bliss.

Jack grasped the next pole of a road sign, bent over and vomited heavily. Was that a side effect of the alien influence over the human body and soul, Erica asked herself as she rushed to her friend with a water bottle in her hand. With soothing words and careful back rubs, she maneuvered him back in the car. Erica didn't want to be directly under the extraterrestrial ship when the invasion started and which point in time would be better than now, when nearly everyone was high or sick? To get at least a tiny chance, she needed a familiar surrounding to fight.

Twenty minutes later they were at Erica's house. After Hobbes had completely cleaned the bunker, she had invited Jack to move in until he could find a new place to live. Erica was happy to share the big building again with someone after Tyler had left her to start the pilot training. But she also felt a little guilty giving Jack her son's room. What would he say when he found the man, the priest, the opponent of the visitor in his bed?

"I'll take a shower to clear my head," Jack said, and stumbled up the stairs on shaky legs.

"All right, I'll check the news," Erica responded with another worried view toward her friend. "Call, when you need help or are feeling sick again."

Jack looked over his shoulder, with a small smile on his lips that didn't reach his eyes and nodded.

He couldn't persuade Erica, who never had seen her friend that agitated. It broke her heart. But she didn't follow him, giving him space to order his thoughts and feeling. Erica switched on the TV. There was no news of an invasion but again Anna's fake gracious smile. She spoke about a new gift for mankind. Erica shook her head. "Making all people into zombies is only a gift for you, reptile bitch," she murmured to herself, and slipped out of her leather jacket. She badly needed to tell Jack about Project Aires and the new plans for the Fifth Column but first they both deserved a little sleep. They needed to be fresh and well-rested to organize the next echelon.

~oOo~

The shower was still whooshing as Erica climbed up to the dimly lit first floor, passing Tyler's…Jack's room with the half open door. He didn't change an item, the perfect guest. Only Erica's dark red leather-bound family bible lay on the night table. During the first evening of Jack's visit he found the old and dusty book in a bookshelf of the living room and asked to borrow it for soothing studies.

Erica entered her room and removed her boots and sweater. Her gun disappeared into the bed table drawer – out of sight, but reachable. Erica took a deep breath and her adrenaline level decreased here in her den. As she turned back, Jack leaned at the door frame. She hadn't heard him coming, but she was glad that he hadn't gone to bed without saying good night. His tousled hair was wet and he had removed his shirt and brown jacket. He had changed into a white tee and dark blue slacks.

"Will tonight be the end of the world?" he asked, tired, but with his sparkling eyes noticeably resting on Erica's bare arms.

"Who knows?" Erica stepped to the window and looked up into the cloudless sky. Jack understood the invitation and came closer, entering Erica's privacy. "How do you feel, Jack?" she asked, feeling backwards for her friend's hand, "blessed?"

"No, not really," he tried to laugh. "It wasn't warm or peaceful. It's not like my love for God or for…for you."

Erica turned her head slowly toward Jack, seeing his Adam's apple dancing nervously but his face beaming with confidence and determination.

"Love for me?" Erica whispered.

Jack didn't break the eye contact, showing that his words were the truth. He got closer, stroking his friend's beautiful and strong face, as he had done earlier, but now with completely different intentions.

"Maybe it's our last night on earth and this is my only chance to show you how much you mean to me."

"I heard Mars shouldn't be worse this time of the year," she tried to joke, but Jack's soft lips stopped her. Erica responded to the gentle innocent kiss, which grew to passion. She moaned breathlessly due to his careful touches of her skin. Jack set her on fire and calmed her at the same time like no man before. Erica knew the following hours wouldn't be like the quick animal thingy she had with Hobbes. She confessed that she needed it that way at that moment, but now after Kyle's betrayal she felt dirty. Another thought hit her. Would it be Jack's first time? But his knowing lips and playful hands under her tank top indicated something different.

"Are you sure?" Erica spoke under her breath, and started to lick Jack's earlobe. As she pressed her thigh against his swelling and pulsating bulge, a jerk captured his whole body. He gasped into Erica's hair and lost it. With a tight hug, she stabilized her friend, whispering naughty promises.

"S…sorry," Jack stuttered out of breath, after the last languorous billow ebbed away.

"No, oh no," stealing a few more kisses.

"It's been a long time."

"Good," Erica responded with a big smile, tugging at his shirt. "Let's get you out of your wet pants."

"You first or…or I'll maybe have again fun alone."

"Okay," Erica said, and placed Jack on her bed. She sank on his lap and pulled the top over her head. Jack realized it was the same gray top she had worn during their boxing lesson. There also was again a simple black bra and skin, skin, skin. 'Lord' He was again ready to go. Erica felt it, too and a prurient and knowing smile slipped on her face. She bit her lips and wanted to unfasten the clip at her back, but Jack's short gasping let her pause.

"Are you really sure, Jack?" Erica asked, and touched gently his cheeks. Jack relaxed a little and responded with a slight nod. "Yes." He wrapped his arms around Erica's warm and soft body. Together they sank into the mattress Erica hadn't shared with someone forever. She was leading first through their sensual night, but with every new delightful discovery, Jack lost his shyness. He got more confident in the game of lust he hadn't played in more than 20 years and he never played with an adult woman who knew exactly what she wanted.

~oOo~

Overwhelmed and exhausted they watched the black night turning to dawn. Erica felt groggy but happy, the perfect result of good sex. She pressed her sweaty backside against Jack's athletic frame, spooning, holding hands. She wanted to hear his thoughts, wanted to share her own feeling but the man behind her kept quiet.

"E…everything all right?" she asked unsurely in the silence. Their togetherness had been wonderful for Erica. She knew and had seen in the ways Jack had held her, had stroked her, had talked to her and had looked at her that he had enjoyed it as well. But the thoughtful man had lost his white collar and the promise to God to be celibate only a couple of days before. She needed to turn around, seeing his face that he didn't regret their intimate moments.

Jack smiled and gently put one of Erica's honey blonde strands behind her ear.

"Everything is perfect. Now I really know it's worth it to fight. I want to have a future, Erica. A future together with you."

The end