A/N: Part of the smut circle, following on from the prompt of breaking Malcolm's DNA computer in Inu-midoriko's Keeping It Cool.

"You know, I can help you make that go faster."

Alicia looked up from her considered watching of the DNA analyser screen to find Malcolm sidling up to her with a broad, hopeful, smile on his face. "No!" She said quickly, but regretted her outburst immediately. "I mean thank you, Malcolm, but it's nearly done."

Malcolm watched her carefully for several moments before sighing. "Jim bet you couldn't do it on your own, didn't he?"

Alicia grinned. "That obvious?"

"I know the look of someone terrorised by that... man very well, Lieutenant. He's only having a go at you because he couldn't do this himself."

Alicia's already wide grin turned wicked. "He's going to regret it. Three months of paperwork off my desk when I get the results."

"Far be it for me to interfere with such an important colony agreement." Malcolm joked, holding his hands up and stepping back slowly. "Only, I kind of have somewhere to be."

"Hot date Malcolm?" She teased. When he remained silent and nodded her eyes widened. "Oh, right! Well I can close up after myself, don't worry. You can go now."

"Thank you." He said, and he sounded so sincere it tugged at her heart a little; the man deserved his chance at happiness.

"No problem, have a good night."

Alicia turned her attention to the screen to see it tick over to ninety-seven percent and couldn't help the bubble of laughter that escaped. She'd managed this all on her own, from the sample DNA extraction to running it through the computer and despite Malcolm's anxious hovering she hadn't had to ask for assistance – something he would vouch for should Shannon not believe her. She leant forward on her elbows as the status bar ticked onwards, daydreaming about what she could do with all her spare time now she didn't have to deal with pointless forms and requests.

The computer beeped and drew her out of her thoughts, bringing up the file of the man both she and Jim had originally thought responsible for their investigated crime. She resisted the urge to bounce a bit in happiness (very unlike her) and instead transferred the results to a plex to be used later. She saved the search to the mainframe just in case it was needed again – and, sure, okay, so that she'd have permanent proof of her victory – and started about clearing up after herself.

She was making a pile of dirty apparatus when she sensed a presence behind her.

Well, sensed was a bit vague. Smelt, would be better. Three days OTG wouldn't do much for a person, but this was far worse than usual.

Guz was on gate duty tonight since she was on the job with Shannon, and was supposed to alert her when Nathaniel came back from OTG. It appeared her request had either slipped his mind or, more likely, been overridden by the man behind her now. She didn't turn around, much as she wanted to, but did allow herself a smile.

"Everything go okay?"

He remained silent – and not the good, calculating kind. She turned to find him leaning against the partition, bare forearms crossed over the remains of his shirt. He was stained with blood right up to his elbows and it was smeared over the side of his neck, turning one side of his beard red. He must have looked a sight stalking through the colony in search of her. The bottom dropped out of her world until she catalogued no obvious wounds to his person.

"Nathaniel?" She asked in a pitifully small voice.

"We nearly lost Dunham. Reilly's in surgery now. It was bad, Wash."

"And you?"

He shook his head. "Not my blood."

"Do they need a hand at the infirmary?" She asked, her hands itching to be doing something more useful than winning a stupid bet.

"No, they have it under control. They're going to be fine, Wash. No need to worry." His words and tone were lighter than they had any right to be (and she knew it would hit him hard, later) but she felt her nervous energy dissipate none the less.

He slowly approached her and her nose wrinkled in response. "That bad, huh?" He laughed.

She shrugged. "It's been worse, believe me. But you're not especially fragrant, no." She licked her thumb and brought it up to his cheekbone to wipe away a smear of blood, a completely pointless act that still made her feel better. "Just let me shut down the computer and we can get home, you need a shower."

She turned her back on him to grab the plex and felt her breath leave her in a rush when his hands grabbed her hips and forced her pelvis into the table. "I have a better idea."

"Nathaniel, no. Not here. Malcolm would kill me."

He hummed against her skin as he trailed chapped lips over the back of her neck, exposed by her ponytail. "Malcolm doesn't need to know."

She groaned when he pressed his very obvious arousal into her ass. He got like this, sometimes, often after bad missions (once he'd ambushed her in the women's changing room in the barracks late at night – once, more embarrassingly, he had dragged her up to the unoccupied upper level of Boylan's and he'd had to force her to be quiet with a hand over her mouth). He wouldn't, couldn't, rest until he'd had his satisfaction in her body. He always made sure she was suitably rewarded for indulging him but sometimes she wished he had better timing.

She felt his hand insinuate itself between her and the lab table, lowering her zipper and pushing a hand inside her underwear. He teased her to readiness with his fingers and his lips on her throat. "If we don't do this now I will explode, and it won't be pretty."

She ducked her head with a laugh. "Can't have that, sir."

He removed his hand from her and lowered her pants just enough; placing his hands on her lower stomach he pulled under her ass was canted towards him, her hands pressing hard on the top of the table. She sensed him lower his own pants but didn't watch, waiting for his hands on her skin once more. She heard as he passed a hand over himself a couple of times in preparation but soon enough he was pushed up against her as he slowly slide inside.

He drew out just as slowly; she felt a moan catch in her throat as he thrust back in much quicker a second time, sending her hands skittering forward on the shiny surface, spreading wide. Her right hand connected with the pile of glass she'd been organising as he turned up and sent a couple of empty beakers rolling onto the floor. The resulting crash of breaking glass didn't manage to drown out the sound of his skin on hers, nor the huffed out groans of them both as he worked them into a fulfilling rhythm.

He shushed her with a chuckle. "They'll hear us next door."

"Your idea." She replied, pushing back against him.

In response his hand left her hip and snaked around her stomach, up under her tank to squeeze her breast. She looked down to see blood-covered fingers poking out of the top of her tank and moaned at the bolt of arousal that it sent coursing through her. There was something seriously screwed up with her if that was a turn on.

As his hand left her upper body and pushed into her folds she pictured the same red-stained fingers playing over her slick skin and the mental image alone was enough to break her, her muscles pulsing around his length as she shouted her release into the empty lab.

"That was quick." He observed and she reached around to swat him, before her hand gripped the sweat-sticky skin of his ass to urge him on.

"Missed you." Was all she said in reply – he'd know she was lying and get the truth out of her later, but all she could focus on now was the force of his hips against her, and the fresh coiling of heat low in her body. She really was alarmingly responsive to him tonight.

He continued to teased over her clit as his thrust became more erratic, his touch on her hypersensitive skin sending her reeling. She drew her hand around to press against the lab table once more but knocked the computer screen on her way back. She couldn't bring herself to care when Nathaniel altered his angle and hit her just right, the tip of his length brushing over the perfect spot twice more and drawing her along with him into orgasm as he spilled inside her with a long groan of pleasure.

He pulled her pants back up after withdrawing from her, patting her ass. "Looks like you need to shower too now."

She rolled her eyes at him, pressing what was meant to be a chaste kiss to his lips but quickly spiralled when his tongue darted between her lips. She pulled away with a grimace pretty quickly, wiping the back of her hand over her mouth. "Jesus..." She muttered as the bastard laughed.

She started on clearing up the mess of the glass, handing him the remains of each vessel so he could carry them over to the garbage disposal. She was just righting everything else on the surface when she heard his voice.

"Uh, Wash?"

She moved to stand beside him in front of the computer, which was now flashing red at them with the message 'CONFIRM DELETION OF COLONY BACK-UP FILES? YES/NO' She hurriedly hit the 'no' button and the flashing stopped. They both breathed a sigh of relief until the screen flickered several times and then, horrifyingly, appeared to shatter before their eyes.

Running her fingers over the surface she found the screen in tact; the appearance of it being broken must have been a dramatic reaction on the technology's part. She tapped a few times, nothing happened. She hit the top of the screen hard with the palm of her hand. Nothing. Twice, still nothing.

"Can you fix it?"

"I don't know..." She breathed. "Not sure it matters, look." She said, pointing at the small flashing light on the screen's base. The on-call tech expert had been alerted to a serious malfunction and was on their way. Whoever that might be, she hoped it wasn't Malcolm for, oh, a multitude of reasons.

"Make a run for it?" He suggested.

She grumbled, running a hand over her forehead. "Maybe..."

At that moment Malcolm came rushing back into the lab, horror painted across his face when he saw Wash by the broken computer and Nathaniel with a tray full of broken glass in his hand. "What the hell happened?"

Nathaniel smirked at her. "I'll just get rid of these and see you at home, you can handle it from here, right?"

He didn't wait for an answer before sauntering off and she scowled at the back of his head with enough force to make him spontaneously combust.

"Lieutenant?" Malcolm asked, pushing past her and peering curiously at the screen.

She grimaced, wondering how well she was going to be able to craft a cover story on the fly. "Well, Malcolm, it went a little something like this..."