Jason's breathing had become labored again. Mark got up from his pallet on the dusty floor, noted that the fire was nearly out, and sighed. Bone-weary, he stoked the embers as he shivered. He couldn't let the fire go out. He knew that he had to stay awake, had to push on, but he was so tired. It had been nearly three days since the crash, two days since Jason had first admitted how sick he really was. Holed up in an abandoned shack on this desolate, lonely planet, Mark had to keep trying to break his second's fever. Mark took the now-warm rag from Jason's forehead and replaced it with a fresh, cool one. He was surprised to find Jason's steel grey eyes glittering back at him, reflecting firelight. "Mark?" Jason hadn't spoken in hours, and Mark startled as he heard his voice now, raspy and uncertain. "I'm here, Jase." He took his second's hand. "I feel dizzy," Jason admitted, and with those words, Mark felt his anxiety mount. Jason never voluntarily offered any weakness. "It's the fever, Jason. You're running a very high fever." Mark squeezed his hand and dabbed the wet rag over his cheeks. "You've got to keep fighting, okay?" "Where are we?" This is bad. Jason couldn't have forgotten the mission, could he? The wild goose chase of a reconnaissance had sent them to the desolate planet of Aroica, only to be ambushed by Spectran forces. They'd been woefully underprepared without the rest of the team, but Anderson had insisted that he and Jason go in order to initiate diplomatic relations with the Aroicans before Spectra did. Little did they know that Aroica actually had no humanoid life of its own and that Spectra was planning to utilize the resources of this planet to fuel its galactic war of terror. Princess, Tiny, and Keyop, felled by the same virus Jason was suffering through now, had been diagnosed days earlier and were still being treated in Center Neptune's infirmary. At least, that was where they were as far as Mark knew. His wrist communicator only made contact with Jason's - something about this planet's atmosphere blocked long-range transmissions to Earth. Mark only hoped that the homing beacon he'd activated when he had realized they were going down had actually worked prior to impact. That they'd crash-landed near one of Spectra's abandoned outposts had been a stroke of luck. That he'd only sustained minimal injuries in the crash was lucky too. Mark flexed his wrist, noting that even the paltry amount of rest he'd enjoyed since then had allowed the implant to begin its repair work. But Jason hadn't fared as well. Mark noted with dismay that his second was no longer waiting for an answer - he had drifted back into a fevered sleep. The antiviral preventative Jason had taken prior to the mission clearly hadn't worked. Mark tried not to dwell on what that implied for his own health. He took the opportunity to check his friend's bandaged left ribs - no changes that he could discern - and studied the bruised swelling of his ankles. How Jason had managed to injure both feet in the crash, Mark didn't remember. Something heavy must have fallen on him. Mark had blacked out right after landing and only vaguely recalled dragging Jason and a paltry stash of supplies out of the ship before it had exploded in a massive fireball. That the explosion scared off the remaining Spectran fighters and that the ship they lost hadn't been the Phoenix were of small consolation - he and Jason were lost and alone on a remote planet with only a few day's worth of rations. Jason's implant had made little headway on his bruised body, implying that the device was spending all of its time dealing with the virus. Mark knew that he would have to leave his second soon in order to search for food and water - and hope that this planet had something to offer. The abandoned outpost itself was a good sign. If Spectrans had survived here, that suggested that he and Jason could survive too - if only Jason could fight off this fever. --- Jason heard Mark's voice as he drifted in and out of consciousness. "Please wake ... can't live ... mean the universe to me ... never told you ... love you." Mark loves me? The words rolled around in Jason's addled mind as he tried to make sense of them. He knew that Mark loved him - like a brother, like a teammate, like a friend. But this - something about this - something in the tone of Mark's voice implied so much more. Everyone knew that Mark belonged with Princess. But maybe, just maybe, everyone had been wrong. A smile crossed Jason's face as he reached for Mark in his delirium. "I love you, too," he whispered. --- Mark stared at the once-fitfully sleeping man, the one who now clutched his hand with a serene expression on his face. Had he heard Jason correctly? Or had he simply been up for too long and imagined it? Maybe he was delirious himself. There was no other explanation for declaring his true feelings to his second. It wasn't like he could ever act on them as commander anyway, even assuming the rare chance that Jason actually meant what he had said. Mark put a wrist to his own forehead, noted that he felt a bit warm, and wondered what the incubation time was for this virus. Was he already showing signs? He thought of the few remaining medical supplies, their meager stash of painkilling fever reducer. Mark hadn't bothered to break open the antibiotics, suspecting that Jason had contracted the same viral illness as the rest of the team, but maybe he should have considered secondary infection. Damn. Clearly, Mark realized, I'm not thinking straight. Will there be enough medicine to treat me when I get ill? He shook his head. I can't get sick. Jason can't even walk. There'll be no one to take care of him, of us. The specter of illness pushed Mark out the door with a large collapsible emergency flask to collect water and a satchel with a handbook of known edible plants of the galaxy tucked inside. He needed to lay in supplies in case he grew too weak to forage later. He reminded himself to stock up on firewood, or what passed for it on this planet. But before he left, he impulsively leaned down and kissed his second-in-command on the cheek. "Keep fighting, Jason," he whispered. "I'll be right back." --- Jason awoke abruptly, bathed in sweat, startled awake by something just outside of conscious thought. Something was wrong, desperately wrong, but he had no idea of what it was. He opened his eyes. The light in the room was dim; it must be early evening. Where am I? Glancing in every direction, Jason took in the small cabin, the crackling fire, the empty pallet on the floor near the door ... Something's missing, he realized. And then he heard it again. A cry for help. Not something. Someone. Mark's voice. Nearby and frightened.

Jason stumbled to his feet from his own pallet and abruptly collapsed with a yelp of pain. Swearing, he drug himself across the floor toward the door of the cabin, cursing as he accidentally put pressure on his left side. Slowly, and with great effort, he managed to get to his feet just long enough to turn the knob and fling the door open before he collapsed again. "Mark!" he yelled simultaneously into his wrist communicator and out to the forested dusk beyond. "Mark, can you hear me?" "Jason?" Mark's voice came over a great distance, not through the communicator. It was tinged with a fear Jason had never before heard from his commander. "What's wrong? Are you hurt?" Jason found himself wishing for his cable gun, but he was in his civvies and he wasn't sure where it was. "No ..." Mark's voice was uncertain. "I don't know where I am." This made no sense to Jason. "Activate your wrist communicator to locate me." "I can't." The desperation in his voice made Jason's heart pound. "What's wrong?" When Mark didn't answer, Jason shouted in frustration, "Mark, I can't come to you! I can't walk. Talk to me!" "I don't feel so good, Jase. I can't ... Everything's blurry ... I don't ..." The vague description brought everything back to Jason: his teammates having the flu, Anderson dispatching Mark and him on this ridiculous excuse for a mission, the firefight with the Spectrans, a spectacular crash, immense pain, a reluctant admission to Mark that he didn't feel so good ... Mark has the virus, Jason realized. t must have hit him fast. "Listen to me, Mark. Just listen to my voice, okay? Walk toward the sound of my voice." Jason peered into the darkness, trying to spot Mark in the heavily wooded area. He had to be close by. "Can you see me now?" "No ..." "Mark, I'm right here. I need you to come this way." "It's hard ... I can't even ... can't think straight." A man stumbled out of the woods, as if in a drunken stupor. Even at a distance, Jason could see that Mark was shivering. "I can see you now, Mark. Can you see me?" Jason waved from his spot on the floor in the doorway of the cabin. Mark stumbled up the incline and dropped a satchel of berries and a flask of water at his feet. "Yes," he whispered, just before collapsing. --- Jason spared a moment to cling to the doorframe and relieve himself while he was facing outdoors. The effort it had taken to get himself across the cabin and to the door wasn't likely to be replicated any time soon. He dropped back to the floor, panting, and used his arms to crab crawl over to the pallet by the door where Mark had collapsed. He didn't have to place a hand on Mark to know that the man was burning up with fever. Mark's teeth were chattering so hard that the clicking was audible. If I looked like this when we arrived at the cabin, Jason thought, it's no wonder that I don't remember getting here. Jason stripped off Mark's number one T-shirt, wet a corner of the material with the water from the canteen, and began to dab the dampened fabric over his commander's skin. It was only then, as he looked at Mark's chest glistening with a mixture of sweat and water, that a fragment of memory came back to him. Mark told me that he loved me, and I ... Jason paused in his ministrations. I told him that I loved him back. I love Mark? It was as if two Jasons were warring in his mind: the sometimes surly, unloveable persona that he knew and had grown accustomed to, and this gentle, frightened stranger who simply wanted to love and be loved in return. Jason shook his head in order to clear it. He had to set this puzzle aside for the sake of the feverish, shirtless man. Regardless of his own confusion about his sexual orientation, he held Mark's life in his hands. It would have helped if Jason had any memory of the cabin prior to waking up. He had a sinking feeling that any kind of supplies were extremely rare, given that Mark had wandered off into the woods so desperately ill. The gunner tried his wrist-comm but heard nothing but static. He wasn't surprised. If it had been that easy to contact the Phoenix, Mark would have done so days ago. Jason took a deep breath and stamped down hard on the part of his consciousness that was screaming in agony over his own injuries. He had to hold it together, he had to take care of Mark, he had to get his friend's fever down. There was no one else. As he lay Mark back down and removed his shoes, Jason was relieved that the man's body seemed slightly cooler to the touch. Surely, we have something for a fever around here? Jason spied a soot-stained rucksack near the pallet and began to rifle through it. It quickly became apparent why Mark had gone off for food. Their supplies had dwindled to nearly nothing. He found a bottle of fever-reducing painkiller and counted the remaining tablets. Shaking three out, he swallowed one dry, and somehow managed to get Mark to take the other two with a sip of water from the canteen. He prayed to any deity within range that the water wasn't tainted. It was bad enough that Mark had been felled by the virus, but at least it was Earth-based and he had some hope of treating it. A foreign contaminant or infectious agent in the water or berries ... Jason didn't even want to consider it. --- Jason awoke with a start. The room was bitterly cold and he realized, much to his dismay, that the once crackling fire had been reduced to embers. When did I fall asleep? was quickly replaced in his mind with How is Mark? He stood, gingerly, relieved that he could finally put some weight on his ankles. That the implant was finally making progress on his injuries implied that he was good and truly on the mend from this dreadful virus. Jason stumbled over to Mark's pallet near the door. To his surprise, Mark looked back at him. "Hey," the blue-eyed man rasped. "You're up." Kneeling down, Jason placed a wrist on Mark's sweaty forehead. Warm, but not burning with fever. He released a sigh that he hadn't even realized he'd been holding. "Thank God," he whispered, not caring for once that his words were audible. Mark's forehead crinkled in confusion. "But you're the one who's sick." Jason gave him a wry smile. "I take it you don't remember your little excursion into the woods?" His commander's dark eyebrows knotted further. "Sure, I do. I found the creek and the berry bushes and then ..." Mark frowned. "I woke up here?" he finished lamely. "Right." Jason shook his head and patted his friend on the shoulder. "You keep on telling yourself that." At Mark's puzzled expression, he chuckled. "Don't worry. You heroically brought back a flask of water and a knapsack of berries before you collapsed on the floor." Mark flushed, adding a tinge of color to his pale cheeks. "Got any of that water handy?" he asked as he struggled to sit up. Jason handed him the flask. When Mark was done, Jason drank a slug himself. "Vile stuff," he commented. "Like drinking water thickened with lard." "Better than dehydration," Mark said, sliding back into a prone position. "Wait, Mark," Jason ordered, and his commander's eyes popped back open. "You need to eat a little and take some medicine before you fall asleep." "Wasn't sleeping," Mark grumbled, but he swallowed a few berries and two pain pills to appease his second. "Did you leave me some firewood around here?" Jason asked, noting that Mark could barely keep his eyes open. Mark pointed toward the door as his eyes slid shut. "Just outside," he mumbled. By the time Jason had returned with the firewood, a task that reminded him his ribs were still tender, Mark was fast asleep. As soon as the fire had been stoked and was burning merrily, Jason flopped down wearily at Mark's side. Chewing a few berries, he studied his commander as the man slept. Mark. The Eagle. Fearless leader of G-Force. A man I have admired since we were kids and Mark outscored me on every test, outperformed me on every skill. Jason knew that he was being overly critical of himself, but the fact that Mark was amazing wasn't a secret. Everyone in the known universe knew it. He carried his magnetic charm and power everywhere. You could see it in the way he addressed a crowd, his skill in commanding the team, how he could stare down the enemy and make them quake in their boots without ever saying a word. But Mark's gentle and kind, too. Jason thought. So damn good in every way. Mark seldom raised his voice without reason and he cared about those less fortunate. He was like a walking poster boy for the Ten Commandments. And this man, this amazing person who could be with anyone he wanted, has said that he wants me. Jason shook his head as he sipped from the flask. It was too good to be true. It would be like winning the lottery, or pulling three 7's the first time you ever touched a slot machine. It had to have been a dream, a bizarre fantasy that he hadn't even realized that he wanted, a deliriously happy daydream brought on by fever and a fear of being alone. He'd never been that lucky in love. I've never been that lucky in anything, Jason thought sourly. He rose to walk over to the other pallet and almost shrieked at the feel of a wrist grasping his still healing ankle. "Stay," Mark whimpered. "Please stay with me, Jason. I need you." Jason's heart melted and he felt his eyes prick with tears. Before he could question himself or his actions, the gentle lover inside G-Force's gunner took a leap of faith and joined his friend on the pallet. Only when Jason was spooned behind Mark, his long limbs wrapped tightly around his feverish friend, did both men fully relax. ---

The Phoenix was en-route. As much as Jason was relieved to have re-established communications with the rest of the team, he felt a pang in his heart that this time alone with Mark would soon be over. Once they went back to their daily lives, Jason knew that this new-found intimacy with Mark would have to be put on hold. Or it might end, Jason feared. There were some things he just had to know before the others arrived. He reached out to his commander and shook him by the shoulder. "Mark, how long have you known you were gay?" "Always." The raven-haired man opened one sleepy blue eye, yawned, and stretched. The surety of his response startled Jason. "But what about Princess?" "What about her?" Mark sat up and looked at him. "Aren't you guys ... weren't you ...?" "Dating?" Mark supplied. "No. She's seeing the drummer in Jill's house band." "But why ..." Jason could tell that Mark was amused by his confusion. "It keeps Zark from spying on Princess if he thinks she's chasing me." He shook his head trying to puzzle it out. "So she knows?" Mark smiled at Jason. "Yeah, she knows. She thought I should have told you a long time ago." "What?!" Mark reached for Jason's hand and held it. "I don't date because it didn't seem right to go out with someone else when I knew who I wanted. But I knew you weren't ready and it didn't make any sense to tell you now." He dropped Jason's hand. "I didn't plan to have this conversation with you until after the war." Jason shook his head. "But how did you know that I was gay? I didn't even know." His friend laughed. "It's not like you have a stellar track record with women, Jase." He flushed as Mark continued. "I knew you'd figure it out one day." Mark squeezed his shoulder and Jason let himself relax into his commander's embrace. "This is really confusing for me," Jason admitted. "I always wondered why I never felt more connected with women but I just figured I hadn't found the right one yet." "You hadn't," Mark whispered in his ear, hugging him close. Jason let Mark cuddle him for a minute before pulling away to face him. "I'm going to need some time to get used to this. I was raised Catholic, you know. I was taught that homosexuality is a sin." Mark drew him close again, very gently. "Does this feel wrong to you?" Jason sighed and yawned deeply, the tension draining from his body. He suddenly felt exhausted. "No," he murmured, resting his head on Mark's chest. "No, it feels really nice here next to you. Complete. Like I've found something I didn't even know I was missing." He closed his eyes and before long, Jason had drifted back into a deep and restful sleep. --- Mark smiled a sleepy smile and cuddled his boyfriend tight. Finally, he thought happily. He couldn't wait to tell Princess. THE END

Awwwwwwww! Snuggly condor and eagle is awesome!

Hmm ... I wonder what Chris' prompt might have been?

Aw, this is really sweet. Somehow I can see Princess not wanting Zark to spy on her! No one could possibly be surprised at what my prompt was. *snicker* I'm sure the recipient didn't take 2 milliseconds to go "I know who this is for!"

Very sweet indeed!

Originally posted by ChrisW Somehow I can see Princess not wanting Zark to spy on her!

Totally agree with that! Surprised that the thought of Mark dating her would stop him though....

Originally posted by ChrisW No one could possibly be surprised at what my prompt was. *snicker* I'm sure the recipient didn't take 2 milliseconds to go "I know who this is for!"

We know you too well!

Originally posted by Redbird

Originally posted by ChrisW No one could possibly be surprised at what my prompt was. *snicker* I'm sure the recipient didn't take 2 milliseconds to go "I know who this is for!"

We know you too well!

Yup.

Sometimes when you fall in love, its not with who you would expect. I'm, not big on M/M, but this was very well done.

Yep...definitely have no doubts about what Chris asked for...LOL! Like Becky, I'm not a yaoi fan, but this was very sweet!

I was really general, which might have been helpful or very NOT helpful. I just said Ken/Joe or Mark/Jason. Last time I thought maybe I was a little too specific so this time I hopefully didn't leave it so wide open that I stressed out my poor gifter, but I enjoyed the sweetness of this.

What a tender story. Nothing brings couples together quite like illness/injury huh?

Yes, and here, the hurt/comfort is mutual, not one-sided. Trying to decide if the planet's name, Aroica, reminds me of "heroic" (a la Beethoven's Eroica) or "erotica."

Interesting observation, lborgia.

This was great -- one of the very fics that could make me accept a Mark/Jason pairing -- as others have said, this is much, much easier to see in Gatch than in BoTP! And I really liked the little detail about Princess and the drummer

Yeah, that's teamwork, Mark helping Princess cover for her dating and keep Zark from keeping a pervy eye on her.