Archive of Our Own ^beta

Jack sighed as another glob of blue gunk dripped from his hair to land on his pants. "Mind swinging by the bunker? I need a change of uniform and about three showers."

Jo, who was still snickering behind the wheel of the truck, nodded. "I told you to duck, Carter."

He gave her a half hearted glare because, to be fair, she had. It wasn't her fault that he'd been too focussed on berating the scientist responsible for the latest trouble in Eureka to notice that one of his experiments was going haywire. "At least it doesn't smell as bad as the last time I got gunked."

Jo took her eyes off the road long enough to share a commiserating look because she'd been victim of that particular incident as well.

"Shit!" She suddenly slammed on the brakes as something ran out in front of them.

Actually, as someone ran out in front of them. Jack stared as Taggart, dressed only in underwear and a pair of sparkly wings darted across the road with a large tranq. gun in his hands.

"You saw that too, right?" Jack said after Taggart disappeared into the bushes on the other side of the road.

Jo nodded slowly, still staring at the bushes. "Tag in fairy wings? I saw that."

"Yeah, that can't be good." Jack climbed out of the truck, quickly followed by Jo and they ran in the direction Taggart had headed.

"Anything?" Jo called over after they scoured the area for a few minutes.

Jack shook his head, spraying gunk on the surrounding plant life. "No. Come on, I'll shower this crap off and then we can head to GD to see if Allison knows anything about this."

Jack was barely out of the shower, and glaring at his reflection in the mirror which showed his hair had taken on a definite blue tinge, when SARAH announced that Allison was calling.

"Carter, we've got a situation," she said, cutting straight to the point.

"Anything to do with Taggart running about looking even crazier than normal?" he asked.

"You've got him?" Allison sounded surprised. "Is he at the station?"

Jack winced and then rubbed the back of his head as he admitted, "Actually, we lost him just off Rutherford Road. Me and Jo were about to come and see you."

Allison sighed. "Yeah, that did seem a bit too easy. Okay, I'll meet you in my office in fifteen minutes."

It didn't take that long for Jack to dress and get to GD so he and Jo were a little early when they walked into Allison's office.

"Going for a new look, Carter?"

Jack rolled his eyes at Stark, who was lounging on the sofa in the corner of the room, and tried to ignore how good the other man looked in jeans and a tight polo shirt. It was an unfortunate problem he'd been having ever since the day Fargo had been trapped in the force field, this sudden recognition of how attractive Stark was. Somewhere in-between watching the glee on Stark's face as he held the goo gun and the unusually playful banter they'd had once Fargo had been revived, Jack had realised that maybe his rise in heartbeat around Stark may not always be down to the man annoying him.

"I heard that you lost Taggart earlier," Stark persisted when Jack didn't rise to his previous jibe. "Tell me, Sheriff, how do you lose a half naked man in wings?"

"When that man is an expert in tracking and camouflaging himself in the environment," Jo answered and Jack grinned at the flinch Stark gave when he realised that he hadn't only insulted Jack with that comment.

"My apologies, Deputy, I didn't mean to imply that you're bad at your job," Stark said and Jo gave him an unimpressed look; suddenly Jack's day was getting better.

"Ignore Nathan, he's in a mood," Allison said as she swept into the room, catching the tail end of the conversation.

"I always do," Jack assured her with a smirk, causing Stark to mutter under his breath.

Allison sat down and then blinked in surprise. "What happened to your hair?"

"Gunk," Jack grumbled while Jo laughed. "So what's up with Taggart's Christmas fairy impression?"

"Cupid," Allison corrected with a sigh. "He believes that he's Cupid."

"O-kay..." Jack frowned. "Why does he believe that?"

"Fargo," Stark summed up succinctly.

"Of course it's Fargo's fault." Jack shared an exasperated look with his deputy. "I don't know why we even bother asking anymore."

"It wasn't Fargo's fault." Allison shot a look at her ex-husband. "Not entirely. His experiment with AI personalities somehow interacted with Dr Suenos' dream lab while Taggart was having his dream's analysed."

"Taggart has his dreams analysed?" Jack asked.

"Taggart's a big believer in the symbolism of dreams," Jo said, shrugging when they all looked at her. "He's visited a lot of tribes who place a huge importance on them. Don't you ever pay attention when he's telling stories to the kids at Cafe Diem?"

"You don't let him near Kevin, right?" Stark asked Allison with a pained expression and Jack chuckled before he could stop himself, surprised when he met Stark's eyes and saw genuine amusement reflected there.

"The point is," Allison said, dragging them all back to the problem at hand. "Fargo's AI programme caused Dr Suenos' equipment to directly influence Taggart's dream with the personality that Fargo was working on. As a result, Taggart awoke believing that he was that personality."

Jack stared at Allison for a long moment. "Okay, I'll bite. Why was Fargo programming a Cupid AI?"

"Because Allison banned him from making a Buffy one," Nathan answered, clearly enjoying the fact that he didn't have to deal with this stuff anymore.

"Thank god for that; otherwise he'd be running around with a wooden stake," Jack pointed out. "I'm assuming that it's too much to hope that this personality stuff will wear off on its own."

"Unfortunately, he needs to be put back to sleep in the dream lab for us to reverse the effects," Allison confirmed. "And we'll actually need Dr Suenos present for that. He's gone missing. We think that Taggart's taken him somewhere, along with Vincent, Dr Young and maybe Christopher Dactylos too; he didn't show up for his class this morning."

Jack pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration. "Okay, I don't know much about Greek Gods but I'm pretty sure Cupid didn't kidnap people."

"True," Jo mused. "But we're dealing with Taggart first and foremost, right? Taggart kidnaps people all the time."

"Right." Jack nodded, remembering his own experience with being shoved in the back of Taggart's truck on his first day in town. "So we'll try his place first; that's where he took the Senator that time."

Jo shifted awkwardly in her seat. Jack knew that she hated to be reminded of that particular occasion; which, of course, meant that he brought it up as often as possible. It wasn't like she ever let him forget the stupid things he'd done.

Jack and Jo headed to Taggart's lodge straight away but it was completely empty and eerily quiet. It did give them the chance to confiscate his numerous crossbows and arrows though, just in case.

"Why those four people?" Jack wondered out loud as they loaded the weapons into the truck. "I mean, Suenos was convenient because he was there when Taggart woke up but he didn't take anyone else from GD."

"I'm not sure he did take Suenos just because he was convenient," Jo said. "He took Vincent too and Vincent's had a crush on Suenos for years. I think Tag could be deliberately going after people he thinks should be together."

"Vincent and Suenos? Really?" Jack asked surprised. "Okay, what about Young and Dactylos?"

"Yeah, I've no idea about that one," Jo admitted.

"Alright, let's just hope that we can sort this out before anyone else goes missing," Jack said and then groaned when his cell went off, the caller ID showing Allison's number.

Jo pointed at him. "You jinxed it."

"Fargo didn't come back from lunch," Allison told him, "and neither did..." There was a pause and Jack heard keys clacking as she looked up the name. "...Dr Julia Golden. Have you had any luck finding Taggart?"

"There's nothing at his house," he replied. "Hey, do you know if there's anything between Young and Dactylos? Jo thinks that maybe this isn't random."

"Ahh, Vincent's crush; I didn't think of that," Allison said and Jack wondered how everyone always knew this stuff before he did. "Actually, Anne did mention something about getting roses on her birthday last month. She never found out who they were from."

"You were right," Jack told Jo once he'd hung up and she gave him a triumphant smile. "Young has a secret admirer which I'm guessing is actually Dactylos because, let's face it, he seems like the type of guy who'd like to drive someone crazy for his own entertainment before making a move."

Jo snorted in agreement. "Who else has gone missing?"

"Fargo," Jack told her wryly, getting an eyeroll in return. "And someone called Julia Golden. We'd know if Fargo had the hots for anyone besides you, he's hardly subtle, so the crush must be on her side. How the hell did Taggart figure all of this out?"

"Just because you're oblivious when it comes to this sort of thing, doesn't mean everyone else is," Jo said as she climbed into the driver's seat.

"What are you talking about?" Jack asked indignantly, getting in the other side. "I'm not oblivious."

"Carter...okay, tell me who Seth is dating," Jo looked at him expectantly.

"Uh...Seth's dating someone?" When Jo just shook her head at him, Jack protested, "Oh, come on! It's Seth. You can hardly blame me for being surprised; he's not exactly friendly. He's mean...to everyone."

"Not everyone," Jo said. "You haven't even noticed the way that Allison's been throwing herself at you lately, have you?"

Jack pointed a finger at her. "Ha! Now, I know you're lying. Allison's far too classy to throw herself at anyone...okay, except that one time but she was under the influence of those flowers and it doesn't count."

Jo gave him a sympathetic look. "Carter, she's asked you to dinner five times in the last month."

Jack nodded. "Because we're friends and that's what friends do. Me and you have dinner all the time."

Jo snorted. "Yeah, at Cafe Diem. I don't offer to cook for you."

"That's because you could burn water," Jack retorted automatically but his mind was slowly going over all the times Allison had invited him to dinner and she had offered to cook for him; more than once. Plus, now that he thought about it, she'd been smiling at him a lot more lately and touching him; it was like she always found an excuse to rest a hand on his arm or squeeze his shoulder... "Oh my god!"

Jo smiled at him knowingly. "There you go."

"How did I miss that?" Jack was honestly perplexed.

"Because you're oblivious," Jo reiterated, shaking her head. "It's sad, it really is."

"Oh, shut up," Jack grumbled. "Let's go and look around some of those empty labs on the edge of town; they're remote enough to hide people in."

Jo laughed but did as instructed and turned the truck towards the first of the empty labs.

While they drove, Jack drummed his fingers against his leg and thought about Allison. When had he stopped paying attention to everything she did, looking for the slightest hint that she was interested in more than their usual light-hearted flirting? When had he stopped being interested in more than their usual light-hearted flirting? He could blame it on his newly discovered attraction to Stark but he recognised that it had been going on for longer than that. If he was totally honest with himself, Allison reminded him of his ex wife; which was both the source of his initial attraction to her, because he'd always loved strong, competent women, and the reason why that attraction had apparently waned, because it hadn't worked out too well with Abby.

"Huh," Jack muttered to himself at the revelation that he hadn’t actually wanted Allison for a while now and then waved Jo off when she gave him a quizzical look.

The two of them continued the hunt for Taggart and the missing people for the rest of the afternoon with no success. On the plus side, no one else had disappeared and Jack and Jo managed to shut down an illegal robot fight club that some of the teenagers from the school had set up in one of the abandoned labs. Jack acted stern as he'd confiscated the robots and called the parents but, after his years living in LA, was secretly glad that this was what passed for juvenile delinquency in Eureka.

"There's still no answer at too-much-gel kid's house," he told Jo, snapping his phone shut.

"My name is Wesley," the kid told him, his arms crossed and radiating attitude. "And my mom is probably still in her lab, she's close to a breakthrough on her project. Too bad, I guess you'll just have to let me go."

Jack snorted and Jo hid her own smirk as she studied the kid.

"Your mom's Dr Riley, right?" she asked and waited for a nod before turning to Jack. "I'll call Allison, get her to pass the message along to Riley and Wesley, here, can spend some quality time in the cell at the station while we wait."

Wesley immediately dropped his arms and looked at Jo in horror. "You can't drag my mom away from her work; she'll kill me!"

"Should have thought of that before you decided to do a little breaking and entering on GD property, kid," Jack told him. "Emo-girl is the last one left so I'll wait for her dad to show up and then I'll get him to drop me back at the station," he added, ignoring the girl's protest of 'It's Emily' from behind him.

Jo nodded. "I hope someone else has spotted Taggart while we’ve been stuck here because I've no idea where we should look next."

"Me either," Jack admitted with a sigh.

It was starting to look like he and Jo would be searching late into the night at this rate so he quickly called Zoe while waiting for 'Emily's' dad and told her to sleep over at Pilar's just in case he didn't make it home. By the time he finished listening to her berate him for arresting half the senior class and severely damaging her 'rep' at school, Emily's dad had arrived and Jack had to put up with more complaints about how Jack was working for 'The Man' and stifling the creativity of the younger generation. That lasted until Jack helpfully pointed out just how much damage had been caused to the high tech security system on the lab and that GD would likely be sending a bill to each of the parents the next day. Then the man had visibly paled and dragged his daughter to his car.

"Hey, my deputy had to take that Wesley kid back to the station so I was hoping that you would give me a lift back to...town..."Jack trailed off and sighed as the car drove off; the furtive look that the father had cast out of the rear window showing that he'd only pretended not to hear Jack.

"Really?" Jack muttered to himself as he began fishing his phone back out of his pocket. "Daughter yelling at me, people deliberately stranding me in the middle of nowhere; all for doing my job. I get no appreciation in this town."

"Oh, I wouldn't say that, Sheriff."

Jack spun around at the familiar voice and found himself on the wrong end of Taggart's tranq. gun.

"There's actually someone who appreciates you very much," Taggart continued with a friendly grin. "You just need me to show you who."

"Uh...Taggart?" Jack eyed the gun, trying to ignore just how skimpy Taggart's underwear was. "You've been affected by the dream machine thingy. I need you to tell me where you've taken all the people you've kidnapped today and then come back to GD with me, okay?"

"I haven't kidnapped anyone," Taggart said, affronted, then paused. "Okay, maybe I did but it was for their own good. There's so much love in this town but everyone's just too busy to see it. Someone needed to put that right and I'm the man for the job."

"No, Taggart, you're not. You're just..." Jack started but Taggart shook his head.

"It's Cupid, mate," he insisted. "Or Eros if you want to be formal."

Jack sighed and prayed for strength. "Okay, Cupid...God, I can't play along with this. You're wearing fake wings, Taggart; I can see the elastic. And just listen to yourself for a moment. You don't even sound like a Greek God; you're Australian!"

Taggart frowned as he thought about that for a moment. "I'm blending into the territory."

"You're in Oregon not Adelaide!" Jack practically yelled and then took a breath before continuing to try and appeal to Taggart's common sense. "Come back to GD with me, I can show you Fargo's AI programme and prove to you..."

"Aha, Fargo! He knows that I'm Cupid," Taggart suddenly said, jabbing Jack with the end of the gun. "And I'm betting he's feeling pretty appreciative of that fact right about now, if you know what I'm saying."

"Oh no; I really didn't need that image of Fargo in my head," Jack whined, wincing at Taggart's waggling eyebrows and the way he was sort of shimmying so that the wings flapped a little.

"It's the most beautiful and natural thing in the world, Sheriff," Taggart told him. "You've been alone for too long; grown cynical but, no worries, Cupid's got the cure for that problem."

Taggart shifted his hold on the gun and Jack held a hand out. "No, wait! Don't...dammit, Taggart!" he cursed as a tranquiliser dart hit his shoulder.

He stumbled backward, the drug working quickly and making him collapse to the ground almost immediately. He blinked up at the sight of Taggart twirling around him like a demented ballerina and heard "You'll thank me in a few days, mate" before his eyes fluttered shut.

He woke up with a groan, his hands automatically going to his head which felt far too heavy as the effects of the tranquiliser wore off.

"You know, I kind of thought that it would be Allison that he locked in here with me," came a conversational voice.

Jack forced his eyes open and swallowed another groan when he spotted Stark watching him from the other side of the room.

"Sorry, to disappoint you," he sniped as he pushed himself up enough to lean against the wall behind him and did a quick check to confirm that, yes, his cell phone and gun belt were missing. "If it's any consolation, Taggart's completely lost his mind so I wouldn't take it as an insult against your masculinity or anything."

Stark threw him a bottle of water. "Drink that, it'll make you feel better, and who said anything about being disappointed?"

Jack stared at Stark for a moment and then shook his head before taking a long drink from the bottle. "I'm going to hope that was you messing with me and not that Taggart's put some kind of hallucinogen into the tranqs. If he's done that I'm going to let Jo use him to test all her favourite toys."

Stark chuckled. "No, no hallucinogens or anything else that I can tell."

"Good," Jack said and pushed himself to his feet to examine the room they were in.

"The door's locked and far too solid to break through," Stark informed him and Jack nodded his agreement as he studied it himself before moving on.

A second door led to a tiny bathroom containing a toilet, sink and the smallest shower Jack had ever seen. There were no windows, the light was coming from a single bulb above them and the fairy lights which had been strung up everywhere. There was a complete lack of sound coming from outside, which told Jack that either they were alone in the building or the room was soundproofed.

Only when he'd finished his circuit of the room did Jack allow himself to roll his eyes at the large bed decked out in red blankets with rose petals scattered over it.

"Lost his mind," Jack repeated to himself quietly. "Any idea where we are, Scientist?"

"I'm guessing we're in one of the bunkers near the bridge," Stark told him and when Jack looked at him in surprise he explained, "They were the earliest bunkers to be built but proved to be too far out of town for a quick evacuation so they fell out of use. Not many people know that they are here."

"Great." Jack sighed. He nodded towards a big cardboard box near Stark. "Taggart said that I'd thank him in a 'few days' so I'm really hoping there's food in that box because we may be stuck here until Jo catches him or he lets us out himself."

Stark nodded. "Food, water, wine and some other...supplies."

"Oh god!" Jack covered his face with his hand to hide the blush he could feel rising and fell back against the wall. "Do you know what's really disturbing about all this?"

"Just one thing?" Jack could hear the amusement in Stark's voice and that made him chuckle too.

He dropped his hand and used it to indicate the room. "Taggart only got whammied this morning and he still managed to do all this; to at least four rooms. That means he must've already owned all this stuff. Including the fairy wings."

"Okay, having seen what's in that box, you're right; that's very disturbing," Stark answered.

Jack groaned. "I really don't want to know."

“Are you sure?” Stark asked, that glint of amusement in his eyes again. “You may find it enlightening.”

Jack pointed an accusing finger at him. “You should not be enjoying this so much. We’re at the mercy of Taggart right now.”

Stark shrugged. “And there’s not much we can do about that. I figured I may as well find some form of entertainment to pass the time.”

“Tormenting me?” Jack glared at him but there wasn’t much heat behind it.

“I have always enjoyed that,” Stark grinned at him unrepentantly. “You’re so easy to get flustered, Sheriff.”

“I don’t get flustered,” Jack huffed. “I’m not a teenage girl.”

“No, you’re definitely not that,” Stark murmured quietly, running his eyes over Jack’s body.

Jack frowned at that, something Taggart had said suddenly coming back to him; ‘There's actually someone who appreciates you very much’, followed by Stark claiming that he wasn’t disappointed that Jack was here instead of Allison. Then there was the fact that the two of them were here in the first place.

“Oh my god!” Jack pointed his finger at Stark again, his eyes wide.

“There you go,” Stark echoed Jo’s words from earlier. “Only took a year and getting locked in a love shack with me for you to get it.”

“A year?” Jack gaped at him.

Stark chuckled as he slowly got to his feet. “Do you think I have half naked conversations with everyone I’ve just met, Jack? I’ve wanted you since the moment I saw you.”

“But...Allison...?” Jack tried.

“Really should have known better than to compete with me,” Stark smirked. “Can’t blame her for trying though and she actually did have me worried for a while there.”

Jack’s mind ground to a halt so quickly that he swore he could hear the squeal of brakes as his love life just got tipped on its head. He and Stark hadn’t been competing over Allison. Allison and Stark had been competing over him.

"You sound awfully sure of yourself, Stark," Jack managed to say although his voice wasn't as steady as he wanted it to be.

"Are you telling me that I'm wrong?" Stark countered, raising an eyebrow at him.

Jack wanted to snark at him, maybe come up with something witty, but when he opened his mouth all that came out was, "No."

Jack blinked in surprise at his own answer but Nathan's face lit up with a genuine smile that made Jack's heart stutter. He immediately crossed the room and pushed himself into Jack's personal space.

"I wasn't sure that you'd actually admit it yet," Nathan mused as he brushed the back of his knuckles down Jack's cheek. "You've been driving me crazy, Jack Carter. All that flirting and yet being completely unaware that you were doing it."

"It's recently been pointed out to me that I'm kind of oblivious to this sort of thing," Jack told him with a rueful chuckle. "I didn't realize that Allison was actually asking me out on a date until Jo..."

He got no further than that because Nathan grabbed his chin and dragged him into a forceful kiss. Jack froze for a split second and then opened his mouth to Nathan with a groan. His arms came up to wrap around the other man and pull him closer while Nathan explored his mouth with a thoroughness that left Jack panting and a little dazed when he finally pulled back.

"No more Allison," Nathan growled at him lowly. "You're all mine, understand?"

Jack nodded and Nathan relaxed a little which caused Jack to smile. "So...not as sure of yourself after all, huh?"

"Oh, I was," Nathan assured him smugly. "But that doesn't mean that I liked watching you and my ex-wife dance around each other for the past year." He leaned down and nipped at Jack's ear before giving it a soothing lick. "I'm a possessive and selfish bastard, Jack. You'd better be prepared for that."

Jack tilted his neck to allow Nathan to kiss his way down it. "I think I can handle it."

Nathan hummed thoughtfully against his skin, the vibrations causing Jack to gasp a little. "I hope so because the next time I see you flirt with her I'm going to put you over my knee and spank you until you see the error of your ways."

Jack had never thought of himself as being particularly kinky but that threat sent an image to Jack's brain that had his hips bucking into Nathan's.

Nathan stopped what he was doing to Jack's neck and studied his face before suddenly smirking. "I thought so. I'm really going to enjoy having you, Sheriff."

Jack opened his mouth to protest that it had just been an involuntary reaction but Nathan's hand suddenly cupped him through his pants and that protest turned into a moan as his head thunked back against the wall. Nathan's mouth latched onto a spot next to Jack's adam's apple and began to lick and suck a mark while his hand continued to massage Jack to full hardness.

Jack blindly reached out to return the favour but his hands were batted away.

"Now now, Jack," Nathan chided. "I won my prize so let me play."

He quickly undid the fastenings on Jack's pants and reached in, taking him in a firm grip and stroking experimentally a couple of times.

"Nathan..." Jack groaned, his hands gripping onto Nathan so tightly that he'd probably leave bruises.

Nathan leaned forward to give Jack another mind blowing kiss. "I've got you, Jack," he murmured against Jack's lips before pulling away and dropping gracefully to his knees.

Jack looked down at the sight of Nathan Stark, with mussed up hair and kiss swollen lips, on his knees for him and almost lost it right there.

"You don't have to," he said, running a shaking hair through Nathan's curls.

"I want to," Nathan countered before lowering his head and proceeding to drive Jack out of his mind with that intense focus and extremely talented mouth.

Jack was a writhing mess, babbling incoherently as that hot wet suction drove him closer and closer to the edge. When Nathan's tongue wrapped around him in a particularly indecent way, Jack's grip tightened in Nathan's hair.

"Nathan, so close...gonna..."

Nathan hummed appreciatively around him and Jack moaned loudly before a sharp swat to his thigh made him look down in surprise. As soon as his eyes met Nathan's; pupils blown with only a thin ring of green showing and hunger burning deep within them, Jack came with a cry.

His knees buckled and Nathan helped him to the ground, holding him while Jack's chest heaved and he tried to regain his bearings. When he finally managed to lift his head from Nathan's shoulder, he pulled the other man into a deep kiss, chasing the taste of himself in Nathan's mouth.

Jack pulled back and smirked as he shoved Nathan onto the floor and straddled him. "My turn."

Nathan laughed and spread his arms. "Have at it, Sheriff."

"Oh, I intend..." Jack started before there came the sound of the doorknob rattling. "Shit!"

He quickly climbed off Nathan and helped pull him to his feet before both men straightened out their clothing as best as they could. Seconds later the door swung open and Jo stuck her head in.

"Got Carter and Stark," she yelled back over her shoulder and then walked into the room. "We found Taggart hiding in the bushes outside Henry's garage and..." She broke off, wide eyed, as she took in the two of them.

"Don't," Jack said, pointing at her.

"Wasn't going to say a word, Carter," she replied, getting over her surprise and giving him a smirk. "Anyway, we caught Tag and, after promising that we weren't going to get in the way of his love connections and only wanted to confirm that you were all okay, he told us where you were."

Jack narrowed his eyes at the snickers Jo gave as she said 'love connections' but Henry barrelled in the door before he had a chance to tell her off.

"Great, you're okay. You had us all...oh, my." Henry blinked at them and Jack covered his face with his hand while Jo collapsed into giggles.

"Henry, good. Where are we on removing the AI influence from Taggart?" Nathan asked. Cool, calm and collected as if nothing was out of the ordinary.

"Uh..." Henry gave one last look between Jack and Nathan before focussing on the question. "We've got Taggart locked up at GD and Dr Suenos and Fargo are outside discussing how to reverse the effects."

"Well, let's join them before Fargo does something even more stupid," Nathan replied and moved towards the door, giving Jack's ass a hard smack as he passed and causing him to jump about a foot in the air, much to Jo's increasing amusement.

Jack's mind instantly went to the whole spanking threat from earlier and he felt the blush rising on his face even as he glared at Nathan who just smirked and gave him a cheeky wink before leaving the room. Henry followed him, a smile threatening his lips and Jo was laughing so hard that Jack thought she might fall over.

"Alright, get it all out of your system now." Jack sighed, crossing his arms.

"That really made up for a crappy day, thanks Carter," she said when she finally calmed down.

"Always happy to be your entertainment, Josephina," Jack replied dryly, shaking his head over the fact that it was always Jo who was witness to his embarrassing incidents.

"You may want to cover up that hickey though," Jo commented as they made their way outside.

"Crap," Jack cursed and tugged at his collar.

When they got out of the bunker a GD security team was milling around in the dark, apparently bored that there hadn't been any more action and there were a group of medics checking over all the couples that Taggart had kidnapped. Jack had to smile at the sight of Paul Suenos talking to Nathan and Henry while Vincent was wrapped around him, both of them looking blissfully happy. Fargo was also standing with the group but he obviously wasn't paying any attention, instead he looked dazed and very dishevelled as he kept stealing glances and waving at, an equally dishevelled, young woman who was obviously Julia Golden.

Jack walked towards the third couple to begin taking statements but stopped when he heard Ann Young ranting to one of the medics about 'male chauvinist pigs'. A quick glance revealed that Young had bruised knuckles while Dactylos was sporting a rather impressive black eye. Of course, that was somewhat undermined by the hickey on his neck which Jack suspected rivalled his own. As he watched, Dactylos winked and blew a kiss at Young, causing her to flush and stumble over her words for a moment before continuing even louder. Yeah, Jack was going to stay out of that one.

He changed direction, figuring Jo could handle taking all the statements instead, and was headed to join the discussion with Henry and Nathan when he heard his name called. He turned to see Allison walking towards him and swallowed a groan.

"Carter, you haven't seen a medic yet. Just because you're the sheriff doesn't mean that you get out of being checked over." Her sharp words were undermined by the concern on her face and the gentle hand she placed on his arm.

"I'm fine, Allison. Just a little embarrassed that I got taken down by a man in tightie whities," he told her, trying to subtly move his arm away and glancing to the side.

He wasn't subtle enough, judging from the slight frown Allison gave him before she followed his gaze to Nathan who was openly smirking at the interaction. Her eyes flew back to Jack, landing on the mark on his neck which she'd apparently missed before.

"I'd hoped Taggart was wrong." She gave a resigned sigh. "But I should have known you'd picked Nathan when you kept misunderstanding my dinner invitations."

Jack winced. "If it helps, I didn't. Not until about a month ago and even then I thought it was just one sided."

Oh, Jack." She patted the side of his face. "Always so clueless."

He rolled his eyes. "Yeah, that's been made abundantly clear today."

“Well, perhaps now he’ll stop spending all his spare time in my office in case you show up.” She chuckled and took a step back. "Come on, I'm still making you get checked out."

He grumbled but still followed her, knowing that she'd just do something worse like stick him in the GD infirmary for the rest of the day.

The procedure to turn Taggart back to Taggart turned out to be relatively painless and the man was pretty apologetic about his actions as Cupid. Right up until Fargo tackled him from the side yelling 'Thank you, thank you, thank you' and Suenos slapped him on the back promising to buy him a bottle of scotch. Even Nathan had a quiet word with him, which Jack couldn't overhear no matter how much he tried, but it ended with Taggart staring at Nathan with undisguised glee so Jack really hoped that Nathan hadn't just approved one of Taggart's crazier projects.

Trying to write up the reports of the incident in a way that didn't cause too much mortification to any of the people involved took up the rest of the morning and it was almost lunch by the time Jack finally made it home.

"SARAH, when Zoe gets home from school tell her that I'm asleep and to go ahead with dinner," he said as he walked up the stairs. "And wake me in time to watch that stupid show with her if I'm not already up."

"Noted, Sheriff," SARAH replied. "Although I will refrain from telling her that you called 'The Vampire Diaries' a stupid show."

"Thanks, SARAH." Jack smiled at the fact that the AI was always on his side. He immediately took that back when he entered his bedroom. "SARAH? Something you forgot to tell me?"

"Dr Stark insisted that his presence here be a surprise," SARAH replied, sounding a little put out at that fact.

"Thank you, SARAH," Nathan said. "Privacy mode, please."

"Of course, Dr Stark," the AI replied in a snippy tone before the bedroom door closed on its own.

"Surprise." Nathan grinned as he walked over and pulled Jack into a kiss.

Jack melted against him, all tiredness forgotten, but pulled back in surprise when he felt something close around one of his wrists and heard a familiar click. He looked down at the handcuffs Nathan had snagged from his belt while he'd been distracted and raised his eyebrows at Nathan.

"I thought it was my turn," he commented. "I did kind of leave you hanging earlier."

Nathan chuckled and leaned in to nuzzle against Jack's neck, his beard scraping over the sensitive bruise he'd left earlier and causing Jack to gasp.

"I figured that you deserved a reward for being so well behaved with Allison," he said lowly into Jack's ear. "Besides, I get to fuck you through that very comfortable mattress of yours so consider us even."

Jack shuddered at those words and closed his eyes as Nathan continued to kiss his neck. "Yeah okay, that sounds like a good deal to me."

"Good," Nathan replied. "Now, strip and get on the bed with your hands holding onto the headboard. We've got three hours before Zoe gets home and I intend to make the most of them."

"Three hours?" Jack groaned even as his stomach clenched in anticipation. “Just cool it on the hickeys, okay? I don’t want to tell my daughter about us while I look like I’ve been attacked by a vampire...well, more than one anyway,” he added, rubbing his fingers over the one that was already there.

Nathan looked at him in shock. “You’re going to tell Zoe about us?”

“Of course I am; I wouldn’t hide something like this from her,” Jack told him. “Did you think I was going to make you sneak out before she got home?”

Nathan didn’t answer just kept studying him as if trying to tell if Jack was serious or not before rewarding him with one of those heart stopping smiles.

“I’d like that, her knowing,” he said then suddenly frowned. “I don’t think she likes me very much though.”

“That’s because you’re mean to her dad,” Jack pointed out. “You’ll just have to start being nice to me.”

“I think I can manage that.” Nathan wrapped his arms around Jack then paused. “You know, I’m pretty sure that Tesla’s Science Fair is coming up. Maybe I can help her with her project, score some points that way.”

“Nah uh,” Jack poked him in the side. “No turning my daughter into one of you people.”

Nathan smirked. “I don’t know, Jack. From where I’m standing, you seem to like ‘us people’.”

He slowly walked Jack towards the bed. “Now, how shall I start being nice to you?”

“I kind of liked the plan you had before,” Jack told him as he was pushed down onto the bed.

With a chuckle, Nathan took hold of Jack’s wrists and looped the cuffs through the headboard before fastening the second cuff around Jack’s other wrist.

“I do make very good plans,” he agreed as he sat back on his knees and gently stroked a hand down the side of Jack’s face. “You’re mine, Jack.”

The look in Nathan’s eyes warmed Jack from the inside out. “Yes, I am,” he agreed.

Jack finally gave in and his mind began racing through the possibilities of what he could get Taggart for giving him this. The man may not actually be Cupid but Jack was now pretty convinced that he was a genius; fairy wings and all.

Fin.