Rest and Recovery, Part 4 - (Conclusion)

Posted on Fri Aug 20th, 2021 @ 4:06pm by First Lieutenant Bethany Harrison & Captain Jonathon Harrison
Edited on on Fri Aug 20th, 2021 @ 4:06pm

Mission: The Factions
Location: Private Island, Florida
Timeline: Present Day

Jon sat down as well, watching Bethany across the table as he started to serve out the food. The drink she had was definitely rum punch, very fruity and sweet, but definitely with the kick of rum.

Bethany flinched at the taste of the punch, her nose wrinkling. “This...this has alcohol in it,” she said, setting it down and giving the man that she loved, the recovering alcoholic, a confused look. “You know I don’t drink. And you know that you don’t have to get me drunk to seduce me or anything.”

“I know,” Jon said. “But you’re twenty-one. This is a rite of passage for someone your age,” he told her with a smile. “You’ve missed so many that a girl like you should have, I thought I’d give you this one,” he said. “Don’t worry. The sangria is just fruit juice.” He indicated the pitcher on the table, then poured himself a glass.

The young soldier looked at Jon, giving him a soft smile. “I appreciate what you’re trying to do, and I love you all the more for it, but I don’t need to participate in this rite of passage. I know what alcohol does to people, and I’ve worked too hard to learn how to control myself to lose it to something so avoidable. Besides, being here, in this place, with you, is intoxicating enough for me,” Bethany said, blushing faintly.

Jon smiled. “Fair enough,” he said, pouring a second glass of the sangria for Bethany. “It's a good punch, though,” he teased.

Bethany laughed and took the glass of sangria, and moved the rum punch to the side. “Maybe I’ll try some that doesn’t have alcohol in it,” she said, smiling. She nibbled at her food, as was her way, since she technically drew very little nourishment from it. The young woman simply enjoyed the flavors, as well as Jon’s company.

While there was still a worry about the bounties on her head, being on the secluded island did help to ease that. Besides that, she was tired and sore. Still, her gaze kept moving to the moonlit beach beyond the giant windows, and the glittering dark waters beyond. “Can we take a walk when we’re done eating? I...I want to put my feet in the water.”

“Of course, love,” Jon said. “Anything you want. We have as long as you need here.”

Bethany smiled at Jon and continued nibbling at her food, taking small sips of the sweet juice that sangria turned out to be. After some light conversation, and once Jon had eaten his fill, she began clearing away the plates, and putting away the leftovers. The kitchen was a bit of an enigma for her, as one wall was solid, while the rest was a long, curved glass wall of paneled windows that looked out on the pool and hot tub outside. “Are you serious? This place has a pool? Why? The ocean is right there,” she said, motioning vaguely towards the outside, seeming a bit confused.

Jon chuckled. “No salt,” he said. “No sand getting in uncomfortable places. And bubbles.” He helped clear the table and gave Bethany a kiss on the top of her head as he loaded the dishwasher.

“I guess that makes some sense,” Bethany said, grinning at the kiss on her head. “Sand is kind of annoying.” The young woman had seen plenty of that in her life. But the sea was new to her. “Is the water really that salty? Is it cold?” she asked, as she closed the refrigerator door. She was nibbling on her lower lip as her gaze was once again drawn out to the dark, nighttime water. “Are there sharks out there?”

“In the Caribbean, the water won’t be cold,” Jon assured Bethany. “It’s salty enough I wouldn’t go in with an open wound,” he said with a chuckle. “And shark attacks are rare. I would worry more about jellyfish.”

“Jellyfish?” Bethany asked, looking slightly confused, and feeling more than a little dumb. While she could tell you what everything was in the desert, water beasts were a new thing entirely. “What’s that?”

“A gelatinous organism that floats in the water and has long, dangling tentacles that catch prey. Hard to see a lot of times. Stings like hell. Won’t kill you though there is a kind in Australia that will. Other than that, sharp coral or spiny sea bottom dwellers will be the other danger. And the tides.”

Sharks, jellyfish, spiny bottom dwellers, tides. “You’re not selling this very well,” Bethany teased Jon, walking over to put her arms around him as he closed the dishwasher. “We should probably wait for swimming when it’s daylight. I just want to take a walk, maybe put my feet in the water a little. Then I want to go to bed.” She looked a bit pale and drawn as she reached up to brush her fingers gently through his mussed hair, but the idea of taking that walk seemed to sparkle in her emerald gaze.

Jon chuckled and touched Bethany’s cheek. “Love, you can fly. I don’t think you have to worry about anything,” he reminded. “Even if Jaws attacked, you’d just put a hole through him and we’d have shark fin soup for dinner.”

The tired young woman closed her eyes and sighed softly, leaning into Jon’s touch. It took her a moment to remember watching that movie with him. He said it was a classic, but it had made her think twice about swimming in the sea. “You’re right, I suppose,” she said softly, leaning against him. She looked up into his beautiful blue eyes and said, “Let’s go stick our feet in the water and see what happens.”

Jon smiled and removed his sandals, his metal leg glistening in the moonlight. “Let’s go, then.”

Not so long ago, Bethany and Jon had spent some time at a ranch in Oklahoma. He had lost his leg and fallen off the wagon, so she had taken him there to recover and sober up. As difficult as some of that had been, those memories were some of her best. It had also been the last bit of peace and quiet that they’d had since joining the Underground.

As she put her bare feet onto the sand, she marveled at how soft it felt. “This isn’t like desert sand,” she said, her small hand slipping into his larger one as they walked down a small sandy path that led from the pool deck, down to the beach.

“No,” Jon agreed. “It’s softer. The water wears it smooth,” he told her. It was strange walking on the sand with his prosthetic. He couldn’t feel it in his toes like he could with his real foot.

As they drew away from the lights of the house, Bethany’s skin shimmered, then she began emitting a soft blue glow that lit their path. As they got closer to the water, the young woman was almost giddy, partly curious, partly worried about what Jon had told her earlier. As they got up to the water’s edge she stopped, carefully scanning the area to make sure there was nothing lurking.

Then she stood there for a moment, watching the tide lap at the shoreline, listening to the rustling sound as the waves gently broke on the shore, then rolled away. She could swim well enough to keep from drowning for the most part, but it wasn’t her best trained skill. Still, she reached down and gathered up the extra length of her sundress, and pulled Jon along slowly with her, clutching to his hand tightly.

Jon chuckled. “Do I have to throw you in?” he asked her, taking Bethany’s hand and looking at her glowing form in the moonlight.

Bethany shot Jon a playful warning look, then gasped sharply as a bit higher of a wave rose up over her waist, soaking her dress, and pulling the sands out from under her feet as it rolled away. She spun and threw her arms around Jon’s neck to avoid landing on her backside in shallow water. “This is weirder than trying to stand up on a boat,” she said, the light she was emitting turning slightly red in her embarrassment.

Jon laughed, holding Bethany in his arms. “You just have to move with the waves,” he said. “I checked, though. There’s no undertow, so you should be fine.” He set her upright on her feet again.

Standing there in the water, feeling Jon’s arms around her, she remembered the first time that they had danced. At the time, it had been strange for her then, but they had danced many times since then. Soon she had relaxed, feeling the rhythm of the waves, his steadiness, and Bethany smiled up at him. “I really wasn’t expecting to get soaked, though,” she said with a soft laugh.

“Clothes can be changed,” Jon said with amusement, his own shorts and the bottom of his shirt soaked as well. “Or ignored.” And he kissed Bethany.

The young woman moaned softly as Jon kissed her, and she gladly returned it, her wet clothes instantly forgotten. Bethany was tired, but something about standing in the ocean for the first time in her life, being held by the man that she loved, was almost electrifying. Nimble fingers stroked the back of his neck as her lips parted for him, eagerly deepening the kiss.

Jon’s tongue tangled with Bethany’s and his hands slid over her wet dress, caressing her young curves as the waves splashed around them.

Bethany thrilled at Jon’s touch, and his roaming hands served to stoke her fires higher. It had been a couple of weeks since they had been intimate, just the demands of the job, and all of her pent up desires threatened to overwhelm her. Just as her head started spinning, she groaned softly and broke the kiss to whisper against his lips, “I want you so badly.”

“Shall we go back to the house?” Jon asked, his voice husky with desire.

The nimble fingers that had been caressing his neck ran down his brightly colored shirt, undoing the buttons. She pulled his shirt open, then drew her nails gently down his muscled chest. “No. I want you to take me now,” Bethany answered, her voice shaky with her own raw desire, barely audible above the waves.

“On the beach?” Jon asked in amusement. “You sure?” He was shrugging out of the shirt already.

Bethany helped him to peel the shirt off, then pressed herself to him again, and the hungry look that she gave him, as well as the swell of lust along their soul bond, left little doubt that she was serious. Again her fingers trailed up his neck, and into his hair, grasping at it and pulling his head back. She kissed his throat, his neck, then nibbled gently at his ear.

Jon’s fingers deftly opened Bethany’s dress, pulling the light material from her body, leaving her in wet bra and panties as he kissed her, throwing it with his shirt up onto the beach.

As the passion continued to build between them, Bethany cared little that she was standing on a beach in her underclothes. She drew her hands down Jon’s chest, then trailed down his taut stomach. Deft fingers grasped at his belt, easily working the buckle, and the button behind it, too lost in her desire for the man that she loved to realize that she was about to drop his shorts right into the water.

Jon kicked the shorts up onto the beach, his boxers straining to contain his manhood. He slid his hands behind Bethany, expertly unclasping her bra and tossing it onto the beach with the rest of the clothes as well.

*Fade to Black

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FIN
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Captain Jonathon Harrison
“Rook”
Mutant Underground

1st Lieutenant Bethany Davies
“Fractal”
Mutant Underground