Welcome to Gaia! ::

She tasted like pineapples.

Nevada wouldn't have to work very hard to push him down onto the blanket. His thoughts immediately turned from those of a consuming blackness to something more vibrantly passionate. He could handle dealing with this, this meeting of lips and the pressure of her hands on his shoulders. He could deal with the simplicity of it all - though there had been consequences to their first night together, since then things had become so uncomplicated.

Those dark thoughts were so tangled and weblike that to sort through them meant to become lost within them - something better handled alone. Nevada didn't need to become involved in all that. He had his own demons, and the were really never far from the surface. It was easy to keep them at bay, to detach himself from them.

It was easy to allow himself to be distracted.

Tuck's hands cupped her hips, and though there was a flash of something in his eyes it was soon extinguished by the surge of passion that flared in his hazel eyes.

Almost forty-five minutes later Tuck finished thoroughly showing Nevada exactly what he'd do.

It took some time for him to catch his breath, but when he did, Tuck pressed a kiss to Nevada's forehead as he settled her against his chest. The air was still warm and the deep orange sun cast a glow across the beach.

Everything felt perfect.

"You're somethin' special, Nevada, you know that?"

Tuck lazily brushed his fingers along her spine as he nuzzled her temple. He gave a low rumble that sounded much like a very satisfied purr.

"You gonna get burned if you stay like this," he chuckled softly.

If there was a Heaven, Tuck had to bet it was something like this. Pristine, endless beaches. Fathomless water. Clear skies. Great food, great sex, a beautiful woman to share it all with.

His favorite animal? It was hard to think straight with all that skin and hair everywhere, but Tuck forced himself to focus.

Kind of.

"Banana splits," Tuck replied in a dazed sort of way, still drugged up on the afterglow that followed certain activities.

He grinned at Nevada.

"Dogs. My ma always had them yappy little things, but I wanted to have one of them retrievers or somethin'. My turn?"

Tuck didn't wait for her to answer.

"What's your favorite flower?"

You know. For reasons.

"I love books. Of Mice and Men was one of my favorites. Ain't read them books a lot of people like to read - them Harry Potter books, never touched 'em - but I read Tolkein off and on through high school and college."

Tuck paused to run his fingers through her long hair.

"I like fantasy books, but my real favorite is them murder mysteries, or those thrillers. James Patterson, Dean Koontz. I like some Crichton, too. Guy who wrote Jurassic Park."

He tucked one hand beneath his head while the other traced along the curve of her jaw.

"You like books? An' what kinna music you like?"

Tuck tapped a finger against the bottom of her chin, urging Nevada to look up at him. He was grinning, a fond little smile. This was fun, he was having a good time - and there was no way in hell that he was going to tease her about anything she said.

"I'ma tell you a secret - an' right now, only one person on the island knows it. Ain't even my sister. I read the first two books of Twilight - not 'cause I liked it, but because I was tryin' to find the sexy parts."

He chuckled.

"I like the old old school stuff. Al Green. Brother could sing his a** off. Here I Am, Let's Stay Together. I mean, I love newer stuff, too, but I got this fondness for the old and slow classics."

Tuck fell silent and idly traced his index finger along Nevada's jaw.

"What would you do if Alaska woke up tomorrow?"

"s**t no. None in the books I read. Still ain't sure what all the damn fuss was about. Some scrawny little vampire an' a skunky werewolf. Pretty ri-goddamn-diculous if you ask me."

He was silent as she spoke, always listening and attentive - especially on topics as serious as the one he'd breached.

When it was his turn to speak, he remained silent for a moment longer.

"When I first signed on to join the Army, it wasn't so bad," he began, settling Nevada against his chest, "I could send letters an' videos, talk to them on the phone. After things went south an' I was approached to come here, I never had no plans to get involved with anyone. I jus' wanted to come on an' do my job. Protect, defend, keep things simple. Keep to myself. Don't get involved, don't get in too deep. Professional. Jus' because that's what it was. That's how I felt when I signed on. Mentally I had prepared myself that I wasn't never gonna see my family again - that I wasn't never gonna see Natasha again. An' I had convinced myself that it was gonna be okay, and that what I was doin' was important to the rest of the world, even if they didn't know what I was doin' to keep 'em safe."

He was quiet for a moment.

"An' then I woke up here, an' there was Gnat, and I almost cried. I was so mad at her, at first, for leavin' behind our parents. But, you know, I'd done the same damn thing. An' havin' her here made it a little easier. I love her more than she probably knows. Then you start goin' around and you meet people an' you let them in - Stormy, Evan, you, Candace, Heidi - an' they become real important people in your life. An' then you realize that it's okay to let that happen, because life is too short not to care."

Tuck stopped briefly, an intensely thoughtful look on his face.

"An' there ain't no sense in lyin' to people, Nevada. Ain't no sense in hurtin' people more than we should. Your sister always gonna be your sister, an' no matter how complicated things get, she always gonna be there for you - but at the same time, we're just a big family unit on the island, an' we gotta stick together. Do that make sense? Why would you make someone want to hate you, baby? It's like a poison. It spreads. It infects you."

Tuck kissed her chin.

"You ain't second choice to me. Nobody is. People I care about are people I care about. Ain't a contest. An' that's okay too, least to me. An' just because Alaska wakes up don't mean you gotta give anyone up. We just draw her in to the fold, because she gonna be a part of the crew, part of the family."

He cleared his throat and gave her a sheepish look.

"Sorry. I got a lot of feelin's about all this, I guess."

"I think you should talk to him. An' just explain. If he gets angry, you walk away - but any man who loves a woman an' then gets his heart broke deserves an answer. Deserves the truth. Might surprise you how much better it makes you feel, too. Let him know about the guilt. Honesty is important. I know I promised we'd keep it secret, but the cat's out of the bag an' there ain't no reason to keep him hurtin' - an' I'm sayin' this, but even now I got a lot of hate in my heart for him. Got a lot of anger towards him."

As Nevada moved off of his chest, Tuck rose to a seated position and situated himself before he continued. With his knees drawn up and his arms draped across them, Tuck took a long time to speak. The ocean, the sand, the sky and the woman next to him all helped to keep him calm. It might not have been the right time, but he was in the right place, surrounded by so much beauty and life that it made his chest hurt when he thought about it.

"I was out on patrol with a small group of guys. We was all pretty close. We weren't real sure what we was there for, only that we had orders to wait for the big guns to roll up. I was," his voice broke and he took a moment to clear his throat.

"I was makin' a video for my sister, somethin' that I could send home to her. We was laughin' like we always did. An'.. we heard somethin'. Next thing we know, JJ's dead an' then the rest of us took off runnin'. Whatever it was, it wasn't human. Whatever it was had wings."

He paused again, rubbed his hand down his face.

"Whatever it was killed all of them. I watched 'em all die. I couldn't do nothin' to save them. I just ran until my legs gave out, an' then I ran some more."

Tuck didn't turn to face Nevada.

"JJ. Big Sexy. Sherman and Hoolio. Dollface. Good men."