Half-Life The teleporter accident

**The teleporter accident**

by Lynna

Disclaimer: This story is purely fictional. All credit goes to Valve for creating their wonderful game, including all characters used by me (except for Sarah who is OC).

WARNING:

This fic contains some pure mature content! Don't read this if you are easily offended or don't like erotic scenes!! No vulgarities, but I left nothing to the imagination.

I'm not responsible if you are not of legal age to read this kind of stuff!

(Romance – Oneshot – Alternate Universe – Erotic)

.oOo.

A/N: I've written this story with tongue in cheek so don't expect this one to be a serious attempt at writing a romance!!

I was in a mood to write something soppy and kitschy. I'm not making fun of the fandom or their fans, but even I was howling with laughter sometimes. And I'm sure you will be, too. :D

.oOo.

The reports were in all media - radio, TV, newspapers and also the Internet - for some weeks now. The yellow press was the first one which went to the public. But the strange occurrences increased over time and the more respectable reporters also joined in.

Many people didn't believe the reports and newspaper bulletins, however, and regarded everything as an agreed swindle and shameless lies. In turn others almost fell into panic. And the bawlers who always preached of the "end of the world" got loud again, too.

Sarah had taken all these reports with scepticism right from the beginning. Even if the newspaper "BILD" formulated her headlines particularly lurid, this slippery but popular trash newspaper wasn't the only one which reported about the occurrences.

In the end, not even a single day passed without a new fright report. Even if the events happened at different locations - often more than hundreds of kilometers apart from each other - the course of events was always the same:

"New occurrences in the Ukraine! Once again people disappeared yesterday in Odesa in broad daylight. According to eye-witness accounts the affected persons simply dissolved into air within a rainbow colored veil! This time a 58-year old and a..."

It happened in Russia, then in Czechia, in Romania or also in Poland. Oddly enough, only pure Eastern states were affected, though. The occurrences concentrated primarily on the former USSR and the Czechia. Those were the places where most of the people disappeared.

The population got more thoughtful within time and many which regarded all of this to be nothing more than sensation-seeking fakes started to revise their opinions. Primarily when the GU and the USA started to blame one another with growing fierceness.

Russia accused the United States to be responsible for the disappearance of all those peoples. The Americans would have marched in into Iraq just because of the oil deposits. This way, they would now try to bag Russia's oil reserves, too.

The USA denied this, however, vehemently. They tried diplomacy first and offered their help to solve those mysterious cases.

When the Russian counterparty pulled back more and more and their verbal attacks got sharper and meaner, however, the United States also reacted more frostily and more aggressively to those accusations.

The situation between the two great powers aggravated more and more and with any further person who disappeared. And the worldwide political situation was already soon enormously tense. It could be foreseen that both parties wouldn't stay much longer at verbal attacks.

Many people started to fear now that the cold war broke out again. Or that even worse would be happening...

This dangerous situation between the two world powers was it what Sarah finally convinced of the truth of all these newspaper- and TV-reports.

She didn't know exactly what made her driving to the southeast in the end. Was it childish curiosity? Or the desperate act of a looser?

Sarah was almost flat broke. She wasn't able to pay her rent the third time in a row, now and it was just a question of time when current and waters were turned off. She was still single with 45. She weighed almost 40 kilos too much and the merchant gave her no more loan meanwhile either.

When another couple of final reminders fluttered into her appartement this morning again, she acted in a pure panicked reaction. She overdrew her bank account as far as only possible, filled her little car up and drove off.

She simply wanted to go away.

And the further she went to the east, the calmer she got. She finally waited to see this phenomenon and she hoped to be captured, too.

...This iridescent light whirl which simply dissolved people into air...

But nothing such happened.

When she gassed up the very last time, despair arose inside her. The fuel would perhaps still be enough for 300 kilometers more - provided that she didn't drive too fast. Her money was used up and just a wretched rest of coins was left. And still nothing had happened.

She'd already passed Odesa meanwhile and drove along on a broad coastal road, directly along the sea shore. The glistening sunbeams glittered on the peacefully surging, blue water to her left and dazzled her a little.

The idyllic surroundings relaxed her slightly moved nerves again. She sighed and thought at least about her old life for a moment, that she would be leaving behind hopefully soon.

There was actually nothing that she was missing now. Apart from her computer perhaps. She was a passionated gamer and the Half-Life - Series was her all-time favorite... ... And the landscape surrounding her even showed a certain similarity with this game.

This only stirred up her arising longing for the familiar scenarios. And she thought of her favorite character...

At the same time at another place...

Doctor Kleiner checked all instruments once again while Alyx was waiting for the experiment to begin. She leant against the wall and watched her buddy since a whole while already. He stood at Dr. Kleiners desk and was reading a magazine with great interest.

That made her curious what kind of journal he could have found. The Officer wasn't interested in scientific professional magazines. And the old doctor would hardly leave a Playboy or Hustler lying openly around on his desk.

Alyx strolled over to her best friend. She leant forward to be able to see a bit better with what he was occupied.

He didn't react to her presence and turned another page over.

She pulled up her eyebrows when her gaze fell onto colored drawings and pictures the Security Guard was looking at.

"A ... comic book?" she wanted to know with growing amusement and slightly shook her head… Even after all this years he was still able to surprise her from time to time…

Barney looked up and smirked a little. "I LOVED those things when I was a little boy. I was mostly fascinated by those Japanese comic strips... As a ten-year-old I was completely enraptured with delight by those beautiful girls and their huge eyes ..."

Alyx smiled a bit wryly. "You apparently still feel enthusiastic about this stuff."

She took the booklet and scrolled briefly through.

"Call it ... err ... _sentimental__memories_ if you like_",_ he remarked with a trace of slight embarrassment.

"Alyx?" The doctor looked up from his console.

"I'm coming." She gave the Officer his comic strip back and went over to her own console. "I'm ready, Isaac."

He nodded a bit. "Excellent. We'll be beginning with a new series of tests, then. Keep your eyes to the readouts. The values aren't allowed to increase to more than 105 ."

Barney placed the comic book back onto the desk and pulled a chair close to himself. He turned the seat around, sat down and folded his arms on top of the back rest.

"I wonder how such a woman would be looking like", he thought loudly. "As a real person, I mean."

"Probably rather strangely", Alyx mumbled and corrected the phase expulsion at the same time.

He thought for a moment. "Well, maybe not. I still like women with big eyes... With delicate features... and a supple body filled out at all the right places." He sighed quietly.

She looked back over the shoulder after that and laughed a little at Barney's slightly absent and almost longing facial expression.

Alyx knew exactly, what the Officer was thinking now ...

It was an open secret that he preferred a quite certain type of woman. Besides brief sexual adventures and one-night-stands he still was without a mate and was still looking for someone who could be a permanent partner.

"Alyx! The readouts are too high!!" the doctor called out loudly.

"O damnit!" she gasped and turned hastily back to her console.

It was already too late, though. The teleporter activated itself and she wasn't able to cancel the start sequence anymore.

The hissing of displaced air could be heard, accompanied by a rainbow-colored phase shift. This changed into a glistening, bright illumination of the whole room. A shower of sparks came from the overloaded teleporter unit. The lights went down in the laboratory and flickered before they brought themselves back to normal hesitantly again.

"What happened?" Doctor Kleiner wanted to know and immediately came over. "The phase convergence was adjusted too highly. How could this happen, Alyx?"

She chewed on her lower lip in embarrassment. "This was my fault, Doc. I'm sorry. I was distracted for a moment."

The old man sighed and shoved his glasses a little up his nose again. "Great Scott", he groaned. "Well. Let's just hope that the unit isn't too much damaged by this unfortunate mishap."

"I'll immediately get down to work, Isaac", she offered.

"There's no need to hurry. There is certainly enough time to do so tomorrow. I will evaluate the data now. I still don't know whereto these strongly focused teleporter streams are disappearing. I won't carry out any real experiments at this time anyway."

He already tore off the paper strips filled with measurements and hectic needle rashes. "Perhaps I'll be able to follow those signals this time and find out about their destination and the focusing point..."

Barney and Alyx looked at each other briefly before their attention went back to Isaac Kleiner again. However, he was already busy with the evaluating of those test results and the preparation of his first analyses.

"And what about us? What can we do in the meantime?" the Officer wanted to know quietly.

"Is the buggy already fit for business again?" the colored woman mumbled from the corner of her mouth.

Meanwhile...

Sarah gasped when she noticed the sudden forming of a strange shimmering in the middle of the street. The whirl of light enlarged quickly, filled out the whole coast road and glittered in all rainbow colors. She took her foot slightly of the gas pedal and slowed down for a moment. Her heart was beating faster.

Then, with a grim, determined expression, she forcefully stepped down onto the pedal again and drove directly towards the whirl.

She had to pinch her eyes together when she was wrapped into blinding brightness. For a tiny moment she felt something like an undertow...a brief shaking and pushing whilst a most unpleasant, biting sharp pain - like a thousand bites of raging ants - were racing through her whole body.

Then everything was normal again. She blinked hectically to make those hesitantly evaporating afterimages on her retina dissapearing again. She saw in the interior rear view mirror how the last remains of the whirl collapsed and vanished.

Nothing spectacular had happened and she was disappointed. She was still on the same road and nothing seemed to be changed or different.

The sea-level had dropped by quite a number of dozens of meters, though. At least this could be said for certain. And the sun had disappeared behind a thick, hazy cloud layer, where only seconds before a radiantly blue, completely cloudless sky could've been seen.

A shudder went down her back. At least **something** had actually happened. But she couldn't assess the full extent of the change properly yet.

Sarah stopped and got out of her car. She was so distracted by her surroundings that she wasn't conscious how easily it was for her now to get out of the vehicle - instead of almost squeezing herself through the space between seat and steering wheel.

She approached the crash-barrier slowly and looked down into the depth. Round washed stone columns - more or less covered in mussels - jutted out of the cloudy water. Various junk - tires, bottles, even whole cars and parts of broken furniture - were scattered along the dirty beach so deeply below.

Just moments ago nothing of this could've been seen...

The sea had reached almost the upper edge of the steep face with the artifically widened burr, on which she still had been driving along. But the water-level had gone considerably back now and a stony, steep shore had formed in quite some distance... And this suddenly arisen, unfriendly beach was untiringly flooded with dirty waves - running slowly out and coming back again - constantly wetting the pebbles with their foamy surf.

After a while, she went hesitantly back to her car and drove on.

She always looked out of the side windows again - to look at her surroundings briefly whilst driving by. However, her attention went back to the interior rear view mirror once in a while, too. But the place where this most strange whirl had appeared was already left behind a sustained, easily sloping curve long ago.

Nevertheless she looked through the back window of her car again and again... Until she noticed the strange, copper-red glimmer from the corner of her eye.

That made her squinting into the rear view mirror even more often. Till she finally found out that the glimmer - which was almost rhythmically appearing and disappearing on the edge of her view - was actually hair.

Enormously long, copper-red hair.

Had anybody unnoticedly climbed into her car?!

She was frightened at this thought and turned the mirror slightly to herself. She cried out at the same moment. Instead of bright, small eyes within a round face - huge brown eyes stared back to her. She saw heart-shaped, completely foreign features... a young and slim face instead of her mature, too rounded one.

"O God! What is this?!" she cried out completely frightened and hardly managed to take her eyes off this unknown features which looked back to her through the small mirror.

A goose-flesh raced along her whole body. And she shuddered in a mixture of horror and shock.

When the right front tire received a blow and the steering wheel jerked forcefully in her hands, she immediately looked ahead - and yelled out in panic-stricken horror this time.

The steep face to her right hand came towards her at great speed. In her panic she changed the course far too hastily. The car got into forceful skidding, tilted and overturned several times. The old and infirm doors bursted open with the first impacts already and the centrifugal forces of the overturning vehicle flung her outside.

Before she knew what happened to her, she felt the hard impact on rough asphalt. The blow to her body was so awfully painful that she didn't even had the air left for a pained cry. Her small whimpering went down in the ugly noise of bending metal and bursting windows completely.

She slipped somersaulting along the ground and then laid still.

Her whole body seemed to be in pure flames. She wasn't able to stir even the pinky finger let alone breathing normally. She struggled forcedly for air and waited for the dreadful pain in all her limbs coming to an end again.

And whilst trying to regain her senses again - still fighting her monstrous pains - she heard the roaring noise of a tuned engine coming quickly closer.

Sarah wanted to lift herself up from the ground, but she didn't even succeeded in the simple task of raising her head or stirring in some other way. Therefore, she could only hope that she would be noticed by the driver on time.

She lay in the middle of the road and saw herself completely unable to change this condition even rudimentally.

Alyx and Barney were in the middle of a lively conversation.

While she was sitting at the steering wheel, the Officer had made himself comfortable on the passenger seat.

Although in his case - comfortable wasn't really the proper word to describe his posture... His legs were obviously too long for the quite compactly built vehicle and he had to squeeze himself - with his knees pulled up to his body - into the small, hard seat.

He, too, liked to drive, but he always left the buggy to Alyx. The miniature vehicle was simply too narrow and too small for him. He wouldn't be able to switch gears or even accelerating the little car properly.

"What do you think... will we - at some point - really be able to see the sun again? Not just some shiny small bits poking through the clouds from time to time", the beautiful colored woman wanted to know.

He raised his shoulders a bit. "I have no idea. If the Combine would be able to, they would probably change the solar system, to make it even easier for them to treat us **even****more** badly."

Eli's daughter sighed. "I already don't know any more how a sunny, radiantly blue sky looks like... Without those thick clouds...without this abominable haze in the air."

The Security Guard bent his legs a little to the other side now and squirmed a bit inside the bucked seat.

"One shouldn't waste just a single thought on something like that", he answered. "It just takes you down... thinking about things one wouldn't ever be able to change..."

He pressed his lips together. "...Or wanting something to happen_which__will__perhaps__never_ be coming true_"_, he thought woefully and let his eyes wander across the street right ahead.

A bright, indefinable something lay in the middle of the road and got closer at their speed quite quickly. And he soon recognized what this bundle - lying openly on the ground - actually was.

Barney went rigid in his seat almost instantly.

"Al! Stop!" he cried out loudly and frightened his companion with his unexpected outburst.

But she was quick-witted enough to be hitting the brakes almost instantly.

Jerking and stuttering the buggy grinded with jamming tires along the ground and came to an abrupt halt.

"What's wrong?" she wanted to know a little breathlessly. "Jeez, Barney! You scared me!"

"There's someone lying on the ground", the Officer merely said.

Alyx noticed the car accident at the same moment. Nevertheless, she needed a second to recover from the fright of the sight again.

Then, she whispered tonelessly: "O my God."

The two wasted no time, got out hastily and went over to the injured person.

It was a woman. She was lying on the ground like a lifeless puppet thrown away rudely. One of her arms was bent within a strange angle and at least some of her ribs must have been cracked, too. She breathed with extreme difficulty.

Her eyes were still some open but they doubted that she was still able to grasp her surroundings. Her body was in a bad condition.

"The accident must've happend just some time ago. Maybe even just minutes before our arrival", Alyx remarked with a stretched out hand, carefully touching the upright underside of the wrecked car. "The engine block is still hot."

"Help me, Al. We cannot simply leave her here", the Security Guard asked and went down onto his knees next to the red-haired woman.

"Can you hear me?" He extended his hand a bit but didn't dare to grasp the battered, bleeding body already, though.

Eli's daughter went into the squatting position on the other side of the casualty.

"You really shouldn't move her", she said quietly. "Perhaps she has internal bleedings, too and, if we grasp her, then we make everything worse. We can contact a couple of Medics and they would be here with us within half an hour."

Barney didn't react to her justified objection. He just bent some further down instead and lingered over the motionless shape.

"Can you move your legs?" he wanted to know. "Can you understand what I say?"

A weak, hardly audible whispering left the woman's lips. He couldn't even recognize in which language she tried to talk.

His knowledge of the Russian language was still very restricted and Barney was far too worried at the moment. He wasn't able to rummage around in his memory now, searching for all those shreds and bits he was able to pronounce. Therefore, he stayed with his mother tongue furthermore and talked to her in noticeable accented U.S. English.

He was trying to get a clear pronunciation now and formulated his words slowly and as clearly understandably as only possible.

"Try to move your legs", he asked her.

When one of her feet twitched slightly he breathed a sigh of relief inwardly and cautiously took hold of her waist.

"Please, be careful", Alyx said.

"I am as cautiously as only possible, Al", he whispered.

Barney turned the injured woman gently on her back and placed a supporting arm below her neck at the same time. All he needed to do now, was placing his other arm under her legs and then getting up carefully again.

She whimpered with pain whilst being turned around and he exchanged a very serious and deeply determined look with Eli's daughter.

"I won't wait for the Medics to arrive sometime", the Security Guard said. "I don't want to be twiddling my thumbs whilst she's suffering and in great pain. ...Just waiting for a couple of coarse paramedics driving her around with an old and inform pickup - taking all bumps and potholes along their way mindlessly. We can take her along just as well. That would noticeably shorten the time until she can finally be helped."

Alyx nodded after a moment of thinking. "All right, then. We take her along. But there's only room for both of us inside the buggy. You'll have to take her on your lap and holding her tight during the journey."

"No problem, Al", he hoarsely replied and looked down to the pain-racked face of the unknown woman. "Let's go back to the base as fast as possible..."

Sarah heard the sound of two different voices fading in and out of her consciousness. She was also aware of a conversation, at least partly. But she was hardly able to understand the meaning of those words.

She thought, however, that those two talked in English, but wasn't quite sure, though. She simply felt too bad and her mind was clouded with pain so much she hardly knew her own name at the moment.

She noticed, though, how she was turned around by someone or something and wanted to yell out whilst being moved. But nothing more than a miserable, whimpering moan left her open lips.

She was almost blind with pain and could hardly open her eyes far enough to recognize those two faces which seemed to float directly over her body.

Everything was completely blurred and she could see only two differently dark spots leaning over her.

Those spots moved and the sudden jerk which went through her body at the same time robbed her of her consciousness. But only very briefly, then her pain clouded senses were back again. Her head leant against something and whatever it was she was leaning against - it moved around.

The light swings moved her field of vision slightly to and fro. She could only guess what was going on, now.

Barney and Alyx went back to the buggy. Eli's daughter got in first and turned the little car whilst the Officer stood there, waiting, with the casualty in his arms and finally climbed into his seat as carefully as he was able to.

He kept her on his lap without holding her too tight and tried to keep her body as upright as possible. She was getting limp against his muscular frame. Her head sunk back against his shoulder. Her breath blew spasmodically along his neck.

The young woman felt around for his hands lying around her waist. But this was possibly nothing more than a blind instinct which let her search for his grip, though.

"Get going, Al", he asked her. "The Vorts probably will have a lot of work to do to patch her up again."

"I'm on my way, Barney", she mumbled.

Alyx accelerated hesitantly first, but then she was driving more and more faster, accelerating the tiny vehicle as much as possible - driving all the way back as fast as she could.

The two had just arrived with their additional passenger when Alyx immediately jumped out of the car and ran along.

"I just want to let my dad know what has happened", she called back over her shoulder. "And I'll be sending one of the Vorts back to you at once!"

In the meantime, the Officer got out of the vehicle circumstantially and slightly groaning. Then, he took the unknown redhead back into his arms again. She was unconscious now and hung heavily through within his grip.

He grabbed the lifeless body a little more tightly and accelerated his steps. His clothes were bloodied by now and with the unmoving, injured person resting against his chest - he offered a worrying sight which was accompanied by questioning and confused faces from other resistance members.

Here and there chatting people standing around within the corridors stared dumbfoundedly in his direction the moment he came along. Those looks were frightened and curious at the same time - whilst he went by with a grim face and tight lips, showing a severe expression.

He sighed when he saw one of the Vortigaunts behind the next corridor junction, moving closer to him and already crossing his path.

The scaly Xenian approached him and stopped right in front of him. The creature bent its head a bit and looked down at the injured woman for a moment.

"Ohh", the Vort grunted. "The Alyx Vance has already informed us."

That was all the being said.

It extended its two-fingered, long hands towards the battered body without touching it, however. Between its fingers a small, transparent distortion formed in the air whilst the Vort thoroughly scanned her and grasped her essence with its telepathic senses.

Barney waited impatiently for the Xenian to finish its conscientious check-up. But the creature took its time and refused to hurry - even when the Officer gave it a pressing, hard gaze.

But then, suddenly and with a hasty jerk the Vortigaunt pulled his arms away fastly. It looked at the unknown person with its middle, gigantic eye more and more strangely ... and blinked with confusion.

These creatures had an extremely scanty facial expression. If a Vort managed to look helpless and amazed and was able to make a most stupid face, then this was already something which wasn't ordinary.

And this Vort seemed to be extremely confused and finally made anenormously stupid face!

Under any other circumstances, the Officer would have laughed about this facial expression but he was far too tense at the moment to find those slack and baffled features the slightest bit funny.

"What's the matter?!" he snapped at the creature, coming very close at being rude because of his still growing unrest and nervousness.

"The... Sarah Gerber is ..." The Xenian broke off in the middle of its sentence and shook its head with confusion and growing irritation.

Then it helplessly gazed up to the Security Guard for a long time.

"Damn", he grumbled hoarsly. "Can't you heal her?! Do you need the help of your companions?!"

"Yes. Mo-dunh is able to cure her", the creature merely replied and looked down at the woman another time.

"Then do it already!" Barney stressed out.

Mo-dunh finally nodded and collected its strengths, breathing in deeply. A strange low frequencied growl seemed to vibrate through the whole corridor.

The being closed its eye and stretched out its arms whilst breathing out again. With an almost devout, gentle gesture it put its hands on the injured body and looked at her again.

It seemed to be passing an interminably long time until something finally happened. But only a couple of seconds could have passed just as well till the Vortigaunts healing abilities were waking up.

A bluish glimmer glowed between the creatures fingers. The air started to undulate around them.

Barney could watch how the bad grazes and bruises disappeared. The flesh regenerated in a matter of seconds, skin grew newly, bones snapped back into place and the ugly contusions in her face dwindled quickly.

He looked at her features and sighed a bit the moment a delicate face re-appeared under all those bad swellings. At the first glance he was too relieved to take note of the womans appearance.

But with her breathing becoming easier again and without any more difficulties, his inner strain decreased completely. And he looked her over more thoroughly.

Mo-dunh had mentioned her name.

Sarah.

The Officer looked down at the womans face and his attention lingered on her features. It was almost impossible for him to guess her age. He saw no clearly visible lines around her mouth or eyes. Nevertheless, she didn't have to be really as young as she looked like at first sight. Her body was obviously too well developed and very womanly.

No teenager had such feminine, fully matured curves…

Her gentle face... this well-formed body with its full breasts and the soft, slightly rounded belly... those firm thighs... her small, dainty hands... She really was a sight for sore eyes!

He looked into her face again, becoming more and more breathless and he secretly wished that she would be opening her eyes, returning his gaze.

But unfortunately, Sarah didn't do him this favor.

"Hey, Barney!" Alyx said right out of nowhere and he winced a bit.

He didn't notice her coming back and standing right in front of him, now.

"Wh... what?" he stuttered and felt his face getting warm whilst the Xenian stepped back with a slight bow.

She raised her eyebrows and looked at him thoroughly. Barney almost felt caught under her knowing gaze and was annoyed that he was blushing like some kind of school boy now.

The colored woman was trying to hide her smile a bit. But Alyx was hardly able to conceal her reaction. She clearly noticed the fascinated look with which the Security Guard was gazing down onto this young woman. And that he was finally completely unable to turn his attention away from her again.

Eli's daughter needed just one single look at the unknown person and back into the face of her buddy. She already knew that he would like to meet her again - getting a chance of becoming acquainted with her. And she seriously hoped that this cute redhead was still without a boyfriend or husband...

Mo-dunh took the peacefully sleeping form out of his arms and left quietly. Barney placed a hand against his lumbar vertebras, then stretched a little and tried to loosen his tensed up back muscles.

Even whilst being still fit and in a very good shape for his age - Sarah's weight surely had tugged at his form noticeably.

"Where does it take her?" the black-haired man wanted to know whilst following Alyx only hesitantly and he looked back to the Xenian several times.

"She needs her time to sleep, now", Eli's daughter remarked with a slight smile. "You'll be able to get to know her early enough. Come on. My dad would like to speak with you. I think he has another mission for you."

Sarah woke up at sometime and opened her eyes hesitantly. She tensed up in the expectation of new pains and blinked surprised when these feelings failed to appear completely.

After a moment she looked along herself and noticed with growing confusion that she wasn't wrapped in any kind of bandages at all. She'd expected to be virtually packed into gauze bandages and plaster casts. But only the rips and holes in dress and blouse... the dirt and bloodstains on her clothes... those still visible traces revealed to her that her car accident really had happened...

There was no drip next to the bed and she wasn't in a hospital either.

She lay in a foreign bed inside an unfamiliar room. The furniture and all her surroundings already indicated that this seemed to be an inhabited accommodation. Pullovers, trousers and jackets - all of them folded neatly together - faced the cupboard shelf right in front of her.

Sarah could still remember vaguely that somebody had to have come to help her right after the accident. But what had happened furthermore, she had no more memory of. Everything was like being buried below an inpenetrable foggy vail and she had been as good as unconscious at that time with murderous pain.

But someone must've taken her along and then cared for her substantially. It astonished her, however, that her injuries seemed to be gone without a single trace! She wasn't able to discover just one wound.

Nevertheless, she raised her arms and looked at them thoroughly. And at her hands and fingers as well. Her skin was completely spotless. Without grazes or even scars.

Sarah still looked at her limbs and sled with her fingers gently along the skin. She felt the touches quite considerably... but these weren't her own arms!

Instead of plump arms and stubby fingers - she looked at slim, dainty limbs and soft, small hands.

She lifted herself up in bed and after a moment's hesitation, she got up completely. She walked around the room and searched for something that was able to show her a reflection of herself.

She remembered that strange face now again which she had seen in the interior rear view mirror of her car. Her heart was beating faster with the idea that those features could actually have been really her own ones.

At the other end of the room directly besides the small basin, a narrow, if also long mirror hung on the wall. It was nothing more than a broken off, overlength fragment, but for her purposes it was completely sufficient.

She hesitantly went in front of it.

And looked at herself...

Sarah needed a whole while to really understand what she saw. She finally raised a slightly shaking hand and went with her fingertips gently along the shard. Then, she touched her own cheek and the full-length copy opposite her did the same.

The huge, brown eyes of her reflection got moist. An astonished, unbelieving expression looked back to her and turned into a small, trembling smile, baring shiny white, small teeth.

"Is... is this really me?" she breathed and listened to the sound of her voice.

It was, however, actually her very own voice and her own facial expressions, too... but everything was transferred to a completely foreign body.

"This must be some kind of ... afterlife", she whispered and went with both hands slowly along her slim and supple frame. "Have I died... am I in heaven, now?!" she whispered with wonder. "O my god. I don't believe this!"

She went along her flat belly with spreaded fingers and touched her full breasts. She even still wore her own clothes! But she was no longer looking grotesque. Somehow everything shrunked, too - fitting her changed body quite well...

Sarah turned around and looked at herself from all sides. Then, her turning motion was getting more sweeping and her completely changed enormously shriveled up weight made her stumble. She tripped over her own feet and fell onto her botty. But instead of a pained yelp a snorting left her lips. And then, she laughed brightly.

"What a wonderful place!" she cried out, still laughing. "This is so wonderful! O God! I still can't believe this..."

She placed both hands onto the naked wooden floor and leaned slightly back - still looking along her frame, showing a broad smile of sheer joy.

"I'm never leaving this place again! NEVER again", she sighed.

A slight knocking at the door made her looking up. Sarah went up from the ground again still smiling about the unfamiliar easiness of her movements.

The knocking recurred. A little louder this time.

"Yes please?" she called out, since she hadn't seen the door yet.

To her right hand, behind the offset with an old iron stove in front of it, a dirty brown, blunt door opened to the inside.

"Hello? May I come in?" The voice of a woman.

"I'm here", she answered in English, too, stepped a little aside and watched the other womans approach.

"Hi. You are already up and about", her visitor said and left the shadow of the niched lobby.

Sarah's gaze went along faded, tight fitting jeans, small feet within heavy, threadbare footwear and along a worn leather jacket mended with gray insulating tape along her right shoulder.

But when she saw her face, her own features were getting rigid. She could hardly believe whom she saw in front of herself!

The face of the colored woman was extremely familiar to her. …Those dark, almond shaped eyes, the unruly hair with the broad headband...the full lips ...

But it was no longer a computer generated picture but a living and real person this time! And she recognized the woman at once!!

"I'm Alyx Vance", her visitor made herself known and stretched out a bandaged hand.

She even roughly had the same voice...

Sarah looked down to the dirty dressing to hide her confusion and intense excitement. Then she took those stretched out fingers and twitched a little at the other womans firm, resolute handshake.

"_Alyx... Half-Life... Eli and D.o.g. ... The combine... Vortigaunts... But... but this is just a ... a game!"_ The thoughts still swirled around inside her head fastly and seemed to be somersaulting.

"Is something wrong?" Eli's daughter wanted to know.

"Errr", she stuttered with a slightly quivering voice and had to pull herself together forcefully because her knees were already wobbly and trembling. "No. No... I'm fine..."

"Are you sure? You make a face as if you're goint to faint any moment", Alyx mumbled. "Perhaps you should sit down. Are you dizzy? Weak at the knees?"

_"You don't know __**how**__ dizzy I actually am now",_ Sarah thought, but remained silent.

She went back to the bed and sat down on the mattress whilst her visitor was sitting down on a chair opposite her.

"Can you remember something apart from your accident?" Alyx wanted to know.

Sarah slightly shrugged her shoulders and didn't know whether she should be mentioning this strange phenomenon or not. Then, she decided that she could tell this story some later. ...She had completely different things in mind right now...

"The last thing I remember ... well... I think there were two people with me at some point. I'm not exactly sure, though", she began quietly.

"My companion, and I, we've found you on the coastal highway just some hours ago", Alyx said.

"Thank you", Sarah whispered and smiled. "...for your help."

"Why certainly! You can be glad that nothing too bad had happened to you. The Vortigaunt which healed you..."

Sarah didn't listen any more. Her thoughts were still in a mess and she was getting agitated, now. "_When Alyx and those creatures were becoming real... then HE must be alive, too. __Whilst looking like a stuffed whale - I would have never dared coming close to him. But with this pretty body everything is quite different, now. I want to find out where he is... Alyx knows, perhaps. In the game, those two seemed to be friends... or at least they knew each other... Too bad that I can't ask her directly. If I would be doing this, she would like to know how I know about him. And I don't think that they would believe this strange story - with me coming from some kind of a parallel universe - or what else has happened to me... I need to plan my next steps carefully. I don't want them asking questions about my intentions – or how I ended up here. I must find a plausible explanation for knowing him already. At least __he'll__ want to know about why I'm looking for him of all people…" _

The growing silence within the room suddenly became very conscious to her. Sarah raised her head jerkily and blushed with embarrassment. The other woman was looking at her for quite a while now, waiting for any kind of reaction or answer without getting one.

"I am sorry, Alyx. I was miles away."

Eli's daughter smiled a bit. "I noticed that", she laughed and with a thoughtful gesture she pulled a strand of hair back behind her ear.

Sarah almost got goose-bumps at this familiar gesture. She still couldn't believe properly what had happened to her. But it needed just one look into Alyx' face to convince herself again that she wasn't dreaming in one way or the other.

"Listen, ahm... ", the colored woman began within the next moment. "My_buddy_ would like to see you. He was worried about your condition..."

Sarah chewed the inside of her cheek. She didn't have the least interest to get to know Gordon Freeman of all people actually. However, Alyx would well hardly mean another man. First - because she had stressed the word _buddy_ so conspicuously and second - because she was together with Gordon non-stop in the game in the end. Therefore it couldn't be different in the reality either.

Nevertheless, Sarah tried to keep her features a little under control. Alyx was a nice person and she didn't wanted to be rude, simply declining her request...

Eli's daughter noticed already in the middle of her sentence that the small redhead apparently wasn't interested to get to know the Officer. Those slightly dropping features were already like an alarm signal and she sighed inwardly. _"Bummer!"_ She thought_. "Barney probably would have been completely enraptured by her... " _

"Err", the small woman was stuttering at the next moment. "I don't want to be impolite but can we reschedule your friends visit to some other time?"

Alyx cleared her throat some and tried to hide her own disappointment now. She'd wanted to help her best buddy getting a date – again! Provided that this redhead was a nice person - this time it could've been something more long-lasting. But apparently this simply shouldn't be happening...

"I'm looking for someone", Sarah began.

Eli's daughter sighed inwardly another time, when she noticed the sudden gleam in those huge eyes and how her face started to glow with treacherously redding cheeks.

_"What a pity"_, she thought again. _"Barney will be disappointed but it would be the best to tell him already on his return that our "guest" is indeed having a boyfriend..." _

"Here, in our base, there are living more than 500 people and unfortunately I don't know everybody personally", Alyx said.

The next moment a knocking could be heard at the door again. A Medic looked into the room.

""Hi, Miss Vance. Am I interrupting something?"

"Just a moment, I come at once."

"My concern isn't that important", Sarah fended off when Alyx turned round to her again. "At first, I must fix my clothes anyway before I'm trying to find him on my own. But that would be a good occation for becoming acquainted with at least some people and I can look around this place. IF I'm allowed to do so."

"Sure, why not?" Alyx merely remarked after a slight hesitation. "Have a look around. If you're bored or would like to drop over... at the end of the old bunker equipment is a secret gateway hidden behind one of the old soda machines. And if you're getting lost - just ask for Dr. Kleiners laboratory. Ok?"

"Sure thing! Provided I'm not disturbing you at work."

"No. You won't do that. But it would still be the best time for a visit within the evening hours. Then, we're just sitting together for a chat mostly."

Alyx' mind was miles away for the remaining day. She'd promised Dr. Kleiner to repair the teleporter immediately and not to wait until tomorrow but she could hardly concentrate on this task.

She wondered how she could break the bad news to the Security Guard without throwing him a curve.

She startled a bit when the laboratory door opened unexpectedly.

"Barney", she said surprised. "You are extremely early!"

The Officer hadn't made even the effort to get himself changed first. He still wore his combine uniform and Alyx noticed a small wound along his temple.

"I've gotten everything back in control sooner than I thought", he said and knocked the street dust off his jacket.

He seemed to have come back just this moment...

"What about Sarah? Has she already woken up? Did you talk to her?" he practically bursted out in one breath.

Alyx sighed inwardly. The moment of truth had apparently come... Barney was looking at her so expectantly now; she almost didn't manage to tell him everything.

"Ahhh... yes. I visited her this afternoon", she began very hesitantly.

The Security Guard drew his eyebrows together and slightly frowned. His face lost the small smile and was getting serious when he noticed her strange facial expression.

"What's wrong, Al?" he wanted to know quietly and slowly came closer.

She sighed another time. "I don't like to tell you this... but..."

Barneys face was falling. He pressed his lips together. "She... declined... then? That simple? Without knowing me, yet?"

"It's not that simple anyway. But she... You said her name's Sarah?"

He quietly nodded a bit.

"Sarah already has apparently somebody. She's looking for him around here", she mumbled conflictingly.

"It would've surprised me if, sometime, I actually would be lucky in getting to know a woman who's at least interested in me. I'm beginning to wonder what I'm doing wrong", he grumbled hoarsely.

Then he turned away from her, went over to the back part of the laboratory and stopped next to Lamarr's cage.

Alyx looked after him. "I'm sorry, Barney", she said sympathetically.

"It's okay", he mumbled tonelessly, leaned himself against the wall whilst crossing his arms over his chest.

In the weak gloom of the back laboratory area she couldn't see his face any longer and the Officer's dark uniform merged almost completely with the shadows.

Nevertheless, she knew that he was extremely disappointed now. Apparently he had already fancied his chances with Sarah and her couple of words had destroyed everything.

A slight knocking could be heard from the laboratory door and after a moment Sarah shoved herself in of all people

She almost timidly looked around before she saw Eli's daughter and came closer.

"Hi Alyx", she immediately welcomed the colored woman. "You'd said that I could come here if I would like to..."

Alyx gazed briefly over to her buddy, but the Security Guard didn't look back at all. He didn't even turned his head when she adressed their guest by her name.

"Hello, Sarah."

_"This could be ending up in a most unpleasant situation at once"_, Eli's daughter thought, _"I don't think that I'll be able to keep her from talking about her lover. She hasn't noticed Barney's presence yet. But it wouldn't make much of a sense to introduce them with each other, now, I think." _

"And? Have you looked around a bit?" she began carefully.

The redhead smiled. "Sure! I've met some really nice people." Then, she grinned and could hardly keep back her laughter. "But also a couple of extremely queer birds, too. This is really a wonder that those strange guys are part of the resistance, too. They don't know just the simple meaning of the word Black Mesa..."

A longer silence arose in which Sarah allowed her gaze to wander around the laboratory.

"Not everybody who's supporting and helping us also knows the origins and the true backgrounds which has led to the combine oppression", Alyx began to explain. "And we haven't considered it a necessisity to draw the attention of all those people to the fact, that we're to be fully blamed for all what has happened within the last decade."

"Yes, that may be so", the redhead sighed and stared thoughtfully into space. "But with so many people who didn't know just one thing about those research facility... this doesn't simplyfy my search at all, though. I don't need to ask them at least one single further question."

Alyx was a bit confused now. "You really should be able to describe your boyfriend sufficiently. Even if you don't have any pictures of him."

"Oh!" Sarah blushed. "He... he's not my boyfriend", she said. "I don't have a... I mean, I'm still..."

Eli's daughter saw how her buddy raised his head now and slowly pushed himself off the wall. Why had she been interpreting Sarah's reactions so wrongly? Her face had shown intense feelings for someone... but if it wasn't her mate she was looking for - who was it?! A family member?

"You don't know by chance which Security Guards survived that accident at that time, don't you?" The small woman changed her topic so spontaneously Alyx wasn't able to follow her thoughts any longer.

The whole situation was getting too weird and inscrutable for her. Why didn't Sarah just say what she **really** wanted? She was beating around the bush instead, confusing everyone with her strange questions.

"I really don't know how I could be of any help... You should at least mention a name. But even then I hardly think that I would actually know him in person."

"Well, but perhaps you can still help me. The man I'm looking for..." Sarah's slightly trembling fingers intertwined with each other, but they were still shaking a little. "His name is Barney Calhoun."

Alyx was so dumbfounded now she just blinked.

It was so quiet one could have heard a pin drop.

All of a sudden a male, slightly drawling voice broke the stunned silence.

"You don't need to search any more." The Security Guard went closer. "I'm Barney..."

A strange twitching ran through Sarah's features the moment she heard this familiar voice. Her body was getting rigid for a moment before she relaxed again. The blood rushed into her cheeks whilst she slowly turned round to him.

Alyx really didn't understand anymore what was going on!

She shook her head with confusion and went through her unruly hair.

"This is NOT my day", she sighed and went back to the large array of computers and monitors.

But even now she had the feeling that her help wasn't needed anymore. She was just glad that, at long last, Barney was getting his longed-for date, yet. She wondered, though, what Sarah wanted and where she actually knew him from. Particulary because she even seeked him out.

He gazed down into her face with a flabbergasted and questioning look at the same time - whilst Sarah was looking along the considerably taller Officer with a breathless expression.

How she was looking at him now! This expectating shimmer in her eyes... this darkening emotional gaze...

_"God"_, he thought, _"she does have beautiful eyes... I wonder, though, what she wants from me - because I can't remember her anyhow. And I would never forget such a cute face." _

"Hi, Sarah", he whispered with a hoarse voice and held out his hand to her at the same time.

"H...hi", she only breathed and returned his handshaking almost mechanically.

She didn't even notice that her fingers were still resting inside his warm grip. She was almost losing herself in his eyes and was hardly able to avert her gaze from his face.

_"He is a lot taller than I thought... He must be around 6'__ 3" ..." _She swallowed with a dry throat and looked him over a bit more thoroughly._ "And as a real person… I never thought him to be this handsome…"_

The longer she looked him into the eyes, the hotter her head was becoming. She hardly felt his grip at her fingers and was already getting so excited that she hardly knew what to think anymore. And this gaze with which he looked at her! She was feeling slightly dizzy with growing expectation and nervousness at the same time.

"Err..., do you have time for me?" she asked quietly.

"Sure thing…"

Sarah looked over to the door and then bit herself on the lower lip.

"We can go somewhere else if you want", he suggested and let go of her fingers gradually again.

"That would be nice… I don't know this place very well, yet. Perhaps you know a place where one can talk." She broke off. "I mean... talking undisturbed and in private... if you don't mind." She was blushing fiercely.

Barney wasn't able to believe what was happening to him, now.

_"This is too good to be true",_ he sighed inwardly. _"I really don't know where she knows me from. But her gazes... her body language... she already seems to be glowing with affection... but maybe she's just incredibly shy and would blush and stutter with __**any**__ man whom she would be talking to..." _

The only thing that came quickly into his mind was taking her outside - to the workshop. The outbuilding was a bit off the beaten track of the real hurly-burly of the base and they surely wouldn't be disturbed here... although he hardly dared to think about her intentions now - why she wanted to be quite alone with him...

Sarah looked around and then approached the heavily-build muscle car which stood in the middle of the room.

"I'm tampering around with that thing already since a whole while. The damned jalopy just doesn't want to drive", he explained and began picking up tools scattered everywhere.

"Please, you don't have to clean up", she replied. "A couple of spanners and tongs are not going to bother me."

With her arms folded behind her back, Sarah bent slightly forward. She looked around inside the engine compartment.

"Well, you still have a lot of work to do, I think", she mumbled and picked with her fingers at pulled off cables and plug leads.

"Don't. You'll make yourself dirty", he replied quietly - if also close behind her and she almost twitched with surprise.

Sarah turned round to him. She shivered a bit when he reached for her hand. Her fingertips were smeared with oily dust and he gently rubbed them between his own fingers to remove the dirt.

Her heart was beating madly, now. And she thought that he must've been almost able to hear that hard and fast thumping on his own.

Here, in the bright light of the workshop, she could look at him really thoroughly... those smile-wrinkles at the corner of his eyes... the deeper lines around his mouth... the already graying hair. She even noticed the old white scar along his cheek... She saw thick eyelashes... sensually curved lips... a slightly tanned skin...

She was almost getting weak at the knees when he raised his eyelids a little and looked her in the eyes. Sarah returned his dark-green, shimmering gaze and swallowed with a suddenly bone dry throat.

"T...that l...l...little bit of dirt isn't so b...bad", she whispered hoarsely and was annoyed about the treacherously trembling of her voice.

Her face almost seemed to have to melt, the longer she returned his gaze. She had never expected that his immediate proximity would have such an intense effect on her.

He let go of her hand hesitantly and looked to and fro between her eyes. Sarah was feeling queasy at the stomac whilst their eye-contact was becoming a lot deeper. Time seemed to be at a standstill.

Her heart was in her mouth and she sucked in a bit of air. Finally, she had to turn her gaze away from him and to look around the room.

Barney stepped back again and she didn't know whether she should be relieved or should be sorry for his slight retreat. She somehow did both at the same time.

He went over to the workshop table and took a screwdriver into his hands. The Officer leant against the piece of furniture with his back and turned the tool between his fingers back and forth.

"You certainly don't have much time for the car...", she began after a couple of moments, since nothing better came into her mind, yet.

"It could be more time, you're right", he replied with a slight shrug. "But I'm quite pleased with this diversion. When I'm done with my shift I'm tampering around with the car... so... if you should look for me again..." He smiled a bit awry. "And that's the real topic I wanted to talk to you about... where do you know me from, Sarah?"

She had this question foreseen and dreaded also. Just one single answer was able to make a sufficient sense... She just hoped that it wasn't just a shot in the dark...

But there was a person - apart from Gordon Freeman - who had a longer contact to him, and whom she also knew about.

"Doctor Rosenberg", she therefore answered and held her breath inwardly.

The Security Guard made a face. "That arrogant a..." He kept back the four-letter word at the very last moment. "Don't tell me now the old bastard is still alive."

"I have no idea. The _pleasure_ of his acquaintance wasn't that long", and in her mind Sarah added: "_It WAS nothing more than a puny add-on with just 15 hours of gameplay..._"

Nevertheless, she began to sweat. She didn't wanted to become entangled in a spiteful net of lies and hoped to take Barney off the subject as unobtrusively as possible.

"He'd probably told you a hair-raising story", the Officer continued, however.

"Roughly", she just mumbled.

"With him being the hero in the leading role, I bet", he grumbled.

"That's not quite true", she replied carefully and hoped to have made no mistake now when he looked at her surprised and also a little doubtingly, yet.

"Hey, otherwise I would hardly be here asking for you, don't you think?" she tried to banter and hoped that he wouldn't be seeing through her game. Or, that he would be trying to dig deeper.

He smirked just a bit, though, if also obviously flattered, and put the screwdriver down beside himself again. "I guess you're right."

"I would like to help you", Sarah suggested the next moment.

"Helping? How, then? And with what?"

She looked significantly behind herself. "With the car..."

Two hours later, on his way back, Barney ran into Alyx.

"Hey. There you are", she began.

The officer strolled along the corridor, hands in his pockets. His face showed a content smile and he was looking into space almost dreamily.

She turned round and followed him, walking beside her buddy until he finally noticed her presence.

"So?" Alyx wanted to know.

"So what?"

"Well… about your… date? Tell me. What happened?"

His smile turned into a grin.

"She's… really nice… friendly… …pretty…", he mumbled. "You won't believe this, Al. Sarah had met Dr. Rosenberg some time ago. The guy I was helping to escape from Black Mesa… with me traveling to the border world and activating the transporter unit at that time, **if** you remember."

She frowned. "Huh? Dr. Rosenberg?! Are you sure?"

"Of course I am! Sarah told me things no one else could have known. Except him… and me. Maybe that dork was trying to give me some credit after all."

Alyx tried to hide her somewhat growing irritation. But the Officer was so absent-minded he didn't notice her slowly changing expression... And how she suddenly stopped and stared at his back thoughtfully.

The next moment, she caught up with him again.

"When do you meet her again?"

"Sarah? Tomorrow. She's going to help me with the car."

She blinked. "Really?! I never thought her to be enthusiastic about engineering of all things…"

He lifted an eyebrow. "What's the problem, Al? Even if she's just staying with me, sitting on top of the workbench and chatting happily away whilst I'm tempering around. I wouldn't mind! I just … like to have her around."

"Dr. Rosenberg?!!" Eli was baffled.

"Well. That's what Barney told me", his daughter replied.

"That's impossible!" The old man got up from the couch with some difficulty and went over to the small stove. "Dr. Rosenberg died within the first days of the Combine's conquest already."

Alyx looked at him gaping. "Then how could she know about all those things? She told Barney a lot of the events of that time. Just to prove the truthfulness of her words, maybe. But she did tell him a lot. And if he believes her… why shouldn't we be doing the same?"

The aged scientist put the teapot down onto the stoveplate. He slowly turned round on his artificial leg.

"Maybe she wants everyone to believe."

"You mean…?" she gasped.

He shrugged. "I'm not sure. But something is amiss, here. Sarah seemed to be too young to know Dr. Rosenberg herself. He would never ever talk with a child… And that arrogant and narcissistic idiot would **never** share his fame with someone else, too. And certainly not with a _dumb and ignorant_ Security Guard. He always looked down on them."

"But where from **did** she know all those things?" Alyx wanted to know. "And… what about Barney? Why was she looking for him of all people?!"

Eli scratched his beard. "I don't know, honey. Barney is a nice guy but he isn't important for the resistance. The only possibility I could think of, that would be trying to reach you… through him. He's your buddy. And you are my daughter…"

"The Combine?" she whispered. "Do you think Sarah is some kind of Combine friend? Trying to infiltrate or even harm us?"

"I don't know. But I'm going to talk with Izzy tomorrow morning. You found Sarah just some time after your desastrous test run, you say? Maybe that's where we should begin…"

After several steps, he turned round to his daughter again. "Oh… and Alyx…"

She looked at him.

"Someone should have an eye on her. Just to be sure. And you should be helping Isaac, if possible. Find out what really happened and as fast as possible. If Sarah isn't a threat for us – or everything is just a misunderstanding after all - we can leave her alone again. Until then… be alert."

Within the next three, four weeks, Sarah almost spent more time in the workshop than in the other areas of Black Mesa East.

At first, she was terribly excited and nervous. But soon, she felt completely comfortable around Barney and talked with him more and more casually.

He was very nice and friendly. And she felt that he, too, had feelings for her. Nevertheless, she never would've approached him with unmistakably intentions. She wanted to leave the right time for this to himself.

... Even if it costs her quite an effort not to be stretching out on tip-toe in front of him and just simply kissing him...

She wanted **him** to begin. That it was him showing his interest quite openly and reacting accordingly to his wishes. But the Officer always left it at deep gazes and seemingly coincidentally slightly lingering touches.

Sometimes, both of them were flying off the handle and were fooling around like children. But none of them overstepped the mark. Not even in the moments, they were hurling playful remarks into each others faces... When Sarah irritated Barney so much with her joking, till he grabbed her suddenly and punished her with a severe tickling - until she was laughing so hard she was almost screaming.

It would have been so easy for her to simply hug and kiss him then...

But she had never made use of his proximity for such approaches! She didn't want to be wiggling around in his arms, squeaking and squealing whilst having tears of laughter in her eyes in one moment - and suddenly nestling into his embrace within the next minute...

This developing friendship was far too valuably for her. She would never rush his fences...

This early evening, both of them brooded over the open engine compartment and were untiringly looking for a fault.

"The distributor could be damaged", she thought loudly.

Barney shook his head slightly. "I've already changed this one."

He stood beside her, playing with a spanner and tipping the tool into his open palm until it slipped from his oily fingers and fell rattling to the ground. Both of them bend down to pick it up simultaneously and bumped into each others heads.

"Ouch" exclaimed Sarah and rubbed her hairline along her forehead with the back of her hand. "Your skull is hard like a rock."

"Yeah... ditto", he mumbled and went with the ball of his thumb back and forth between his hair whilst trying to ease the throbbing.

He looked at her with his eyes pinched together. But his slightly painful expression suddenly twitched more and more until he started to grin broadly.

Sarah looked at him questioningly.

"You have engine oil on your nose." He laughed softly.

She crossed her eyes and squinted down to the tip of her nose. Then, she wiped at the dark spot and went with the forefinger of her other hand along the engine block at the same time.

"You of all people say that? Whilst looking like a litter bug yourself… ", she told him and drew a black line along his cheek with her finger within a flash.

"Now wait!" He gripped the cloth hastily, to wipe hands and face while Sarah was already moving back from him, laughing. "When I'm getting hold of you..."

She darted around the car, squealing with glee. The Officer was, however, clear in the advantage by his size of almost one ninety and his long legs. Therefore, she ran directly to the door. But Barney cut her way off skillfully and forced her to turning back thus again.

Her escape ended next to the old soda machine - at the backmost end of the workshop.

Sarah stood between the machine and the workshop corner and found herself directly in front of the wall and immediately turned round.

"Now I got ya!" he said and placed his palms against the wall - supporting his weight and having a hand at each side of her head now.

She was breathing heavily. That was more excitement than actually from the effort of her flight through the whole room. Barney stood closely before her and seemed to be waiting for her trying an attempt to escape.

She waited for her panting to subside and looked up into his face at the same time. He returned her wide gaze with a waiting smile.

"And? What now?" He whispered. "You can't get away..."

"Perhaps I wouldn't like to get away", she answered softly and almost caressed his face with her eyes.

His expression changed from the slightly triumphantly smile of a successful winner to looking at her very thoroughly and aptly.

She swallowed. His eyes lingered longer and longer at her face. He was looking back and forth between her shiny eyes... down to her slightly opened mouth...

Her face was getting hot and her heart was beating faster.

His immediate proximity made her skin tingle with expectation. She could hardly bare any longer to be physically separated from him. Like never before, she longed for him making this final step closer to her... slightly bending forwards and coming much, much closer...

She sucked her upper lip between her teeth and furthermore tried to keep back her plea... tried to control her insatiable yearning for his kiss...

Her palms lying against the cool wall went along the bricks more and more restlessly, stroking up and down. Her cheeks were burning, now. She could hardly breathe with excitement.

He swallowed and looked even more deeply into her eyes. She noticed the ever so slight blushing that went up his cheeks... the still darkening shimmer of his eyes... how his pupils dilated even more...

Sarah's spreaded fingers went up and down the wall behind herself with growing unrest. She yearned for his touch, yet. Her whole face was glowing now and the heat crept gradually down her neck.

Barney already stood slightly bent, but now he was slowly leaning forwards. She raised her chin a little and felt his hot breath on her skin.

Sarah was almost wheezing with expectation and excitement. He leant more and more forwards, slightly tilting his head now.

She was at the brink of drawing him closer and closed her eyes abruptly. The heart was in her mouth... pounding wildly...

"Barney..." she finally breathed.

"Yes?" He whispered hardly audibly.

His lips almost touched her mouth already.

"Kiss me", she whispered tonelessly.

"That was my intention", he breathed.

Then he placed his mouth onto her lips... quite gently and almost gingerly... caressing her mouth with tender lips and slow, gentle kisses.

A heat rush went through all her limbs.

She answered his soft touches with a longing and dedication that he detached his hands from the wall behind her and enclosed her shoulders.

She felt for him. Her fingers went up into his back and she embraced him with both arms. He sled with the tip of his tongue along her lips and went in-between.

Sarah moaned softly. Her shaky fingers stroked through his hair.

That small, aroused and excited noise directly at his mouth made him open his lips some further, sliding with his tongue gently into her oral cavity. Her fingers sunk into his broad back. She nestled so tightly against him for a moment that she could hardly breathe anymore.

His deep kiss was tender and sensurally at the same time. Their tongues were playing so pleasurably and at the same time deliberatly with each other, she could hardly hold on to herself.

His kiss was unbelievably erotic... slow... gentle... pleasurable... How would it finally be if they slept with each other? Would he be as gentle and tender, then, too?

Sarah pressed herself more intensely against his body again. She enjoyed to taste him, sucking in his scorching hot breath... to smell him...to feel him against her own body... how he pulled her still more closer to himself.

She heard his breathing getting heavier and heavier... how he softly moaned inside her mouth at once. Their lips parted only hesitantly. She nestled her burning hot cheek against his own and embraced him so longingly that he pressed her still more heartily against himself.

His lips went gently along her temple and he breathed soft kisses along her forehead... her eyelids... before he enclosed her glowing face with both hands, placing a tender kiss onto her lips.

"I miss you so much when we can't be together", he whispered breathlessly and moved.

Sarah quietly moaned his name.

"I'm longing for you... your closeness... your tenderness... your touches", she breathed and stroked with trembling fingertips along his soft, damp lips and looked deeply into his eyes.

"I need you ", she whispered, "more than anything else."

His gaze was getting dark with emotions.

He kissed her so passionately now, she started to whimper and clung to him.

She stroked along his burning hot face... she caressed his chest... went along his back... churned his hair up with restless fingers.

Sarah longed to sleep with him. She wanted to feel him… his hardness... his desire...she wanted to feel him deeply inside her... how he filled her... hearing his groaning... watching the aroused expression on his face the moment he penetreated her... when he took her...

Her lap pulsated already with desire and she felt that Barney also was aroused. Their bodies were pushing so tightly against each other now, she felt his erection quite clearly... she even felt how the hard shaft was slightly twitching from time to time.

Nevertheless, he still tried to hold himself back. His kisses became more sensually and provoking, though - just like the playing of his tongue inside her mouth... and the sensorily stroking of his hands along her body... But he didn't hurry and gave her all the time she needed.

Their lips parted again and they looked each other into the eye. Both of them were already wheezing with desire.

"We… we should better stop now", she whispered.

"Yeah… we should…" He caressed her mouth with his lips and the tip of his tongue. "…stop…" He suckled at her bottom lip. "…indeed…" He pressed her against his loins whilst moaning softly into her mouth, searching her own tongue again.

Sarah was dizzy with lust and longing when he placed wet kisses along her neck and nibbled at her earlobe.

"O god… Barney", she gasped. "Let's st…stop… please… You drive me crazy with need."

She laid her head against his chest and waited for both of them to calm down again. His heart was thumping madly – just like her own. She sighed whilst he stroked along her back and caressed her cheek. She closed her eyes, snuggled into his embrace and enjoyed their mutual closeness.

The next day, Sarah was outside. She knelt on the ground beside the back entrance and tried to save one of the small and already half-dead, paltry scions which were still trying to grow all over the place.

Alyx stood inside and was busy with one of the distributor boxes placed evenly along the walls. D.o.g. was sitting beside her holding armfuls of thick cables whilst she tried to attach another circuit into the already existing energy supply.

Not far away from her, Moira and Boomer were leaning against the wall, looking outside, too. Both of them were watching the small redhead and talked with each other.

Alyx tried to get some closer and moved some steps to the left, trying to be eavesdropping.

"What the hell is she doing there?" the Asian woman wanted to know.

Moira just shrugged her shoulders. "Ask her."

"Very funny. I don't like her just one bit. That little bitch is running around here as if the whole place would be hers."

"Jealous?"

"Pah!"

"She's spending all her time with Calhoun." Moira grinned. "Maybe you're just envy. He really likes her. And you're still angry with him. Because he threw you out of his bed because you tried to jump him like a whore within the first minutes already."

Boomer glared at her companion.

Moira wasn't impressed. "You behaved like a slut and he treated you like one. So, where's the problem?"

Boomers glare was getting murderous. "As if **you** still know how it feels like to have a man inside", she shot back.

Alyx rolled her eyes and shook her head, before she stretched out a hand. Her huge robot put another cable into her waiting palm.

"Have you ever looked into her face?" Boomer said after a while.

"Why?"

"Those eyes of her are giving me the creeps", the Asian spit to the ground in front of her feet. "She's like some kind of a living hentai doll."

"A... a what?" Moira asked puzzled.

"Girls from the Japanese comic books, you know."

Alyx dropped her screwdriver in sheer surprise, then and inhaled sharply. The tool was fastly grabbed by an enormous artificial hand and she sighed a bit.

"Thanks, D.o.g." she whispered.

The robot answered with a muffled howl.

"Good god! Look who's coming." Boomers voice again.

The slight sputtering and chugging of a car coming closer could be heard and Eli's daughter looked out of the open door, too.

"I don't believe this." The Asian snorted.

"Barney!" Sarah called out loudly. "Great job! You did it!"

A male laughing could be heard. "Are you in for a ride, then?"

"Sure thing!"

She jumped up and ran to the waiting car. The Officer grinned when her hands sled along the door of the offside.

"You are my hero", she laughed.

"That's something you can say quite more often", he joked. "I love the sound of that."

He lifted his head some and Sarah bent slightly down to him, kissing his lips.

"Get in, doll. I'm having a surprise for ya."

"Another one?"

"You'll see what…" The other half of his answer was drowned with the sudden roaring of the engine and the squealing of turning tires whilst Barney went off with a racing start.

The Security Guard drove along the broad street a whole while until he reduced the speed and turned into a thick forest belt.

Sarah looked around curiously and smiled when the bizarre rock structures of a mountain range could be seen between the trees.

The two got out.

"It is beautiful here", she breathed and cuddled to him when he put his arm around her shoulders.

"It gets even more beautiful", he replied mysteriously.

Alyx snatched shut the distributor box and picked up her tools again. Together with her robot she made herself on the way back.

Already on half the way Dr. Kleiner approached her with blowing lab coat laps. This was so unusual that she was pausing at once.

"Doc, what's the matter?"

"I am not quite sure whether the data are really correct, Alyx. But I think I have found a solution", the old man started excitedly.

"For which of the two problems?" she wanted to know.

"For both, I think. You should certainly have a look."

Barney and Sarah had made their rest at a small river bank. The Officer had brought a blanket and they made themself comfortable onto the ground.

He lay on the blanket with his arms folded behind his neck and looked up to her. The sun broke partially through the thick clouds at the moment and made his eyes sparkle. She sat besides him with pulled up knees and her arms twined around them whilst he was talking with her.

He went quiet at some time and looked her into the face.

His eyes glittered in the sunlight.

He began to smile broadly. His enrapturing smile changed to an almost boyishly smirk with slightly pinching eyes. ... Just like a content, repleted cat...

He stretched himself substantially and she looked at him thoroughly. Her gazes went along his broad thorax and how the faded, green shirt tightened along his muscular chest and his upper arms, yet. At the belt hem the shirt drew itself more and more and threatened to slip out of his jeans' waistband.

He lolled himself pleasantly and sighed, breathing deeply. She could even saw the bulge of his member within the folds the trouser fabric now drew along his crotch. His manhood stood out more clearly with his still stretching body movement and she swallowed. Sarah wanted to take her eyes off his lap but wasn't able to do so. He wasn't erect but already the sight of his shaft pressing into the fabric was already stimulating.

She looked at his slim, edged hips and how his pelvis sunk some down whilst he was curving his back even more up. That made the t-shirt jump from the waistband and up along his belly. Sarah sah a handbreath of naked skin... dark, lush body hair... tight muscles playing below the skin, tightening and relaxing in the rhythm of his breathing.

His breeches slipped a little with his loll and she got a glimpse of the broad elastic of his briefs and the slightly prominent curves of his hipbones.

Sarah swallowed with a dust dry mouth.

His sight was very erotic.

She was getting aroused whilst looking at him, now - with him lying beside her like this... spreaded out... an almost seductive smile on his face and with her looking along his well-built body. Showing just a bit of skin to stimulate her imagination... and how she was stimulated, now!

Showing everything and nothing at the same time of himself. Making her appetite for more...

Alyx rested her chin in the palm of her hand and studied the data with wide open eyes. She looked at pictographs, analyses and evaluations and shook her head slowly again and again.

"Amazing", she mumbled off and on. "This is really amazing..."

"As I said, Alyx. I am not sure whether these evaluations are really correct. But this is the only useable explanation which I have found for this phenomenon."

The colored woman looked aside and took one of the full scribbled memo pads into her hand and went through the measurements and notes another time.

"But this would explain why we had such difficulties to pursue the teleporter signal to its destiny for all this time...", she answered.

Sarah sat with closed eyes, resting her weight on both hands behind her back. A small smile lay on her face which even then didn't want to vanish when she felt a soft tickling along her auricle.

She raised a hand and went sluggishly after the insect.

After a couple of moments the nuisance was, however, back again and crawled with an almost infernal tickle along her ear once again.

She was hitting after the bug once more.

When the insect got annoying the third time, she didn't just tried to chase it away - she looked around for the bugger with the hope to find and smash the little creature.

But instead of an insect she looked at the long panicles of a blade of grass which was drawn hastily away.

"Barney", she laughed and turned round to him. "You are incorrigible!"

He grinned from one ear to the other and started to laugh quietly the moment she turned around and sat down onto his belly without further ado.

The Security Guard sank completely back onto his back. He grunted and twitched when she sank her thin fingers into his ribs, pinching and tickling him intensely.

"Stop", he finally panted, still laughing. "I can't any more!"

"You asked for it", she just replied and bent forwards.

She rested her hands to the two sides of his head and looked down to him smiling. He wiped the moistness from his eyes and still laughed a little.

When Sarah was completely relaxed and without suspecting anything wrong, he grabbed her suddenly and turned both of them round until he was lying on top and she was beneath him.

"And now?" he grinned. "What shall I do with you now?"

Alyx got up from her chair. "I think I know somebody who can help us along now."

With those words she went over to the laboratory door.

"What are you going to do, Alyx?" the doctor called afterwards her.

"I'll fetch Mo-dunh. If someone can give us concrete answers, then it's this Vortigaunt."

Sarah could feel the weight of his body quite considerably although he supported himself with both elbows on the ground... They didn't fool around anymore and went over to mutual tender stroking... to gentle kisses and loving cuddles.

At first, both of them had been a little restrained and exchanged hardly more than soft, brief kisses. Nothing more than a gentle touching of their lips. Both of them knew that heartier cuddles would arouse them too much.

And they didn't want to go too far without finally finding release.

Nevertheless, their kisses had gotten more passionate soon ...

Sarah simply couldn't control herself as soon as she felt his mouth on hers. The desire to spoil his lips with her own mouth longingly was simply too strong. And Barney reacted to her always more heartily kisses just as excitingly. Soon, the playing of their tongues was so lustful and provocatively that she moaned again and again against and into his mouth quietly.

Finally, he opened her legs with his knee pushing gently in-between. That erotic gesture heightened her arousal even more.

Their mouths parted with a wet smacking almost hastily. He moaned softly and pressed his abdomen against her lap. She could feel his erection... the hard bulge of his shaft pushing into her crotch.

"Aaahh!" She panted intensely whilst the blood rushed into her head because of overwhelming desire.

She wrapped both legs around his loins within a lustful reflex and dug her fingers into his back. She pushed his loins more tightly against herself and Barney gasped with relish before he bit himself on the lower lip and tried to regain the upper hand over his desire.

She stared up into his heated face, wheezing breathlessly and quietly moaning at the lust she saw in his eyes.

"I can't stand much more of this, Sarah", he wheezed.

His voice was quivering and hoarse with sensuality.

Her body twitched below him when he shoved his hips a little forward and started to rub himself at her hot lap.

"I ..., I ..., " she only panted and felt how the sensual heat crept even more intensely into her face. "I am crazy for you..."

Her hands went restlessly up and down along his back. Her heart was pounding madly.

"I want you", he panted and pressed his hard length even more into her womanhood.

Their opening mouths mixed once more with a heated, intense kiss.

This time, their deep kiss was that lustful they wheezed more and more hard and hastier. Their lips had to separate a little again and again but without quitting their kiss whilst they were breathing into each others faces, panting shakily and highly aroused.

Sarah shuddered when the movements of his tongue - playing so sensually and thoroughly with her own - became even more erotic. She heard him groan softly and repeatedly and answered his excited sounds with trembling wheezes and sustained moaning.

She was close to be sobbing with need the moment he raised his head again. The sensual hunger within his eyes made her groan. She raised her own loins and sled with her womanhood along his swollen, rock hard member, moving her pelvis slowly and erotically. His face twitched and distorted into an ecstatic, voluptuos grimace and he panted lustfully.

"O God!" he moaned and answered the up and down of her hips with heated countermovements of his own abdomen, rubbing back and forth between her opened legs. "You should stop if you don't want to drive me crazy."

The Vortigaunt bent its head and then got closer with determined steps. "The Isaac Kleiner and the Alyx Vance need Mo-dunhs help?"

"Quite right", Eli's daughter stretched her hand out.

The Xenian wrapped his overlong fingers around her wrist.

"Doc, for making the telepathic connection work, you should touch me, too. This way Mo-dunh needs us to show everything just once."

With early dusk, they returned to the base. They stopped repeatedly on their way to the back entrance, kissing. Finally, they stood on the ramp which led up to the back door but still went no further inside.

They were caught so much in their passion that they didn't notice how the door opened behind them at once. They didn't hear either how Alyx came out and stopped abruptly when she saw the couple, nestled into each others arms whilst kissing passionately. She didn't want to disturb Barney and Sarah but there was no way around.

She cleared her throat a bit.

And then a little louder.

Those two finally parted if also very hesitatingly.

The Security Guard looked around for the source of this sudden disturbance.

"Alyx…, now of all times..." he complained with a hoarse, slightly strained voice.

"I'm sorry, Barney. But Doctor Kleiner would like to see you. Both of you. And as fast as possible."

Sarah sighed now and cuddled heartily into Barney's embrace whilst he brushed her forehead and cheeks with his lips.

"We come at once, Al", he mumbled.

"However, don't forget this, please. It is really urgent", she just replied and went back inside again.

"Doctor Kleiner", the redhead whispered. "What does he want?"

"I have no idea" the Officer whispered and lifted her chin with his fingers to place soft, caressing kisses on her mouth again.

"Perhaps somebody killed Lamarr and that thing is flat as a pancake, now", she thought loudly and Barney couldn't help but laugh softly.

"That would be ok by me."

"You're welcome. This... slippery thing is just horrifying. One never knows whether she wants to jump into one's face or not."

After that, he merely mumbled "Amen to that."

The two had hardly entered the laboratory when Sarah started to feel an unpleasant premonition. Doctor Kleiner, Alyx and also several Vortigaunts were present. With a growing nervousness she squinted over to these telepathic creatures and felt for Barney's hand spontaneously. He took hold of her fingers and squeezed them softly.

She would liked to be gone again and almost had to force herself to be going farther into the room.

It made her a little quary how the Xenian were looking at her now, before they looked at each other gargling and grunting in their own language, nodding.

Maybe she reacted too severely and was imagining things. Nevertheless, she preferred to be alert.

"Splendid. Then we can begin already", the old man immediately started. "Alyx and I found out by now, whereto the teleporter streams are vanishing every time we are making test runs."

Sarah felt really unwell, yet. She squeezed Barney's fingers almost fiercely and finally clasped his hand with a very tight grip. He pulled her closer.

"Our teleporter beam reaches back in the past." The doctor announced. "And to be more precise - it's some kind of parallel dimension of our own earth!"

"Such nonsense", the Officer said after that and looked down to Sarah slightly confused.

She nestled tightly against his body, now, looking for protection whilst squinting with an expressionless, stiffened face back and forth between the Vortigaunts and then again back to the scientist with a restlessly flickery gaze.

He frowned. She seemed very worried... nervous... But he didn't manage to mention it. Doctor Kleiner turned his attention back to himself again.

"Well... I wouldn't call this exacly _nonsense_, Barney. On this other earth world more than hundred people disappeared because of my tests", the doctor raised his voice a little. "The Vortigaunts have never been mistaken if supersensory things are involved. They confirmed my theory. ...And Sarah, too, knows quite exactly what I'm talking about... she also knew of the serious crisis that takes place at her time ... The forthcoming war between the United States and Russia. And just because of my tests!"

Nevertheless, the Security Guard shook his head with disapproval. He was coming close in tapping his forehead. Only his friendship to Isaac and also his respect for the old man stopped him from this impolite reaction.

"I still don't believe this! A... a mirror world of our earth? I believe a lot of all those things you always talk about. But this is too much for me and can't be true. What is this?! Some kind of… Star Trek?!!"

He looked down to Sarah. But no further word left his lips.

She'd gone white as chalk.

"I'm not going back again", she said.

"Sarah...", Alyx began, too.

"I'm not going back again!" She was wrought-up and very tense.

Barney turned her round to himself and searched her flickering gaze until she looked him in the eye.

"Sssht", he whispered. "Nobody is going to force you if you don't want to go back", he tried to calm her.

She looked at him with a tormented look on her pale face. "I'm so happy in this world", she breathed. Tears welled up in her eyes. "I don't want to go away again."

"We must find a way to find everybody whom I've teleported here by mistake", the doctor mumbled and searched around his desk for an empty sheet and a pen at the same time.

"The Vortigaunts?" suggested Alyx and the creatures nodded in agreement.

"I don't want to be responsible for a second war", Isaac Kleiner grumbled. He tried out a ballpen and put it to the side again. "Therefore, we simply must send all the people back again."

"Hey!" Barney called out and let go of Sarah at the same time. "And what about her? She doesn't want to go back, Doc. And I don't want this either!" He was obviously outraged now and with a darkening face he went closer to the scientist. "I won't allow this."

"B…but Barney!" the old man called out, too and gazed at him with a confused sidelong glance. "She **must** go back to her own dimension again!"

"One single person really can't be that important", the Officer hissed in growing anger.

The professor went a step backwards in fastly growing irritation. He never saw the Security Guard that annoyed! Particularly since the tall man drew himself up to his full height and blocked Isaac's path almost threatingly.

Barney went around on his heel when he heard the sobs behind his back. He just saw how the redhead swirled around, drowned in tears and ran out crying.

"Sarah!" He called out and ran after her. "Sarah! Wait!"

She cried out an incomprehensible answer fading away in growing distance, whilst the Officer answered just as intensely and loudly.

A door slammed shut at the corridor outside... followed with another hard slam when Barney, too, ran outside immediately and followed her.

"Alyx", the scientist mumbled quite dumbfoundedly after an almost endless minute's silence. "I... errr… I really don't know what's going on here. Can you explain to me what just happened?"

"Come along, Isaac", Eli's daughter whispered after that.

"B... but where? My researches...", he protested.

"Perhaps you should look at some things from another persons view, sometimes", Alyx began and pulled him along with herself...

"Sarah! Wait!" Barney caught up with her at the ramp which led down to the Old Canal.

"I don't want to go!" she sobbed and clung to him the second he hugged her. "I'm so happy with you... I don't want to go away..."

Her body was wrecked with sobs and he embraced her almost fiercely, now.

"Nobody sends you away", he whispered into her hair and stroked gently up and down her back.

"Doctor Kleiner..." she panted.

"To hell with him", the Security Guard grumbled. "I won't allow this."

He sat down with her on the heavy lead directly besides the broad ramp and pulled her on his lap.

Alyx opened the exterior door and indicated the doctor to go to the threshold. He pushed his glasses up his nose and looked over to the couple sitting outside, slightly taken aback.

Sarah had cuddled up to the Officer and embraced him with both arms whilst her head was resting against his chest. She looked into space with unseeing eyes. One of his arms was placed around her shoulders. He stroked up and down her back and along her cheek.

"They are in love with each other", Alyx whispered, as if their intimate closeness wouldn't already show this.

"I'm probably getting old that I don't notice such things by myself any more", the scientist sighed and discreetly went inside again.

"Perhaps you simply spend far too much time in your laboratory", the colored woman smiled.

"And if all the other people also no longer want to be going back? What shall we do then, Alyx?"

She sighed a bit. "I think we should mainly concentrate that our teleporter doesn't intrude into their dimension again. The situation in this other world will surely relax over time when no more people are disappearing."

"Looks quite that way as if we still have a lot of work to do." Once again, Doctor Kleiner looked back to the door which had closed behind them already. "I didn't notice that Barney and Sarah... since when?"

"A whole while already. At least more than a month... But they are an item since only today or yesterday, I think."

"This at least explains why you demanded Barney's presence during our conversation", the doctor sighed.

When it was getting dark, Sarah sighed and raised her head.

"Should we go in?" he wanted to know quietly.

She nodded a bit.

"Then come."

The two rose and went back inside.

They finally stopped at the threshold to Sarah's room. However, she hesitated to go in and looked up into his face.

"Barney..."

"Yes?"

"I wouldn't like to be alone, tonight", she whispered.

"I stay with you", he replied and opened the door in her back at the same time.

She went forward, directly towards the little sofa. He took off his jacket, placed it down onto the chair beside the little dining table and then sat down next to Sarah.

She was still in low spirits, nestled slowly against his body and embraced his waist.

"I would like to cuddle up to you tonight", she mumbled and leant her head against his chest. "I would like to lie in your arms..."

He stroked with his knuckles gently along her cool cheek and stroked her soft skin tenderly with his thumb.

Barney felt how she finally relaxed more and more. She closed her eyes and her embrace was no longer that tense and tight. She even breathed more deeply and calmer again, too. She was getting that calm and quiet that he finally thought she'd already fallen asleep.

He was just thinking about whether he should put Sarah on her bed or not, when she let go of his waist with one hand and placed the palm onto his chest. Her fingers started to stroke him gently.

He brushed her forehead with his lips and she raised her head to be able to look him into the eyes.

He touched her cheek gently with his mouth... the tip of her nose and then her lips. His soft kisses weren't meant as a seduction. He just wanted to give her a little comfort with his deliberate and very delicate cuddles.

Sarah finally sighed a bit and stroked along his cheek. She lifted her chin a little further. He took is head some back again and looked to and fro between her eyes. Her fingers went through his hair and slid up into his neck.

She slowly drew him towards herself and kissed him softly on his mouth. Her lips opened after a moment and he started to caress her mouth with his own lips a little.

When he felt how the tip of her tongue slid forward, he paused till he felt how she gently parted his lips and searched a deeper entry into his mouth.

Sarah sat more upright when the slow and almost slightly hesitant playing of their tongues was getting hartier and also more devoted in time.

She sighed through her nose and answered his deep kiss with a passion that was growing more and more quickly. Her hand stroked and caressed him more longingly, whilst he pulled her some closer. He stroked and caressed her just as tenderly, too.

Their lips parted repeatedly if also only short. She didn't get enough of his sensory kisses and searched his mouth with her lips again and again... she searched his tongue with her own... until he began a deeply erotic, gentle french kiss.

Sarah breathed more heavily. She felt around for the ribbon on her shoulder and pulled the straps slowly apart with two fingers.

Barney took his head back a little. He gazed onto on her shoulder and how the soft, rosy fabric was gliding open. He looked her into the eyes almost questioningly, then.

She pulled the other ribbon open, too, with a movement just as slow and inviting.

He swallowed and without taking his attention away from her face, his fingers searched the zipper behind her back and pulled it slowly down.

"Yes", she just whispered.

With a slightly metallically noise the smooth row of tiny teeth parted from each other until he had to take his other hand to finally separate both halfes completely.

She took her thin blouse off and took hold of his fingers.

"Stroke me, Barney... caress me", she breathed and placed his warm, strong hand on her collarbone.

At the same time, she leant against his body and sighed quietly when he kissed her once again.

He stroked along her naked shoulders and her collarbone. The tender caressing of his fingers was becoming full of relish already soon and he started to investigate the upper part of her body completely. He sled with his hand deeper and finally closed his fingers gently around one of her breasts.

She moaned softly in his mouth and sucked at his tongue when he stroked along her hard nipple, sensually circling the stiff bud with the tip of his thumb.

Barney spreaded his legs apart at the same time and slipped on the sofa back and forth... until he placed his other hand between his thighs. The trouser already pinched him unpleasantly. He grabbed the fabric in his crotch and pulled a little till the folds of the garment weren't pressing into his swollen shaft anymore.

Their lips parted out of necessity again, because both of them were already too aroused, now. His sligtly opened mouth touched hers whilst breathing shakily and unsteadily. She stuck out her tongue a bit and licked along his lips, wheezing hard and fitfully.

Her fingers went down along his body. She pulled the shirt out of his waistband and slid with her palm slowly below the fabric.

"I want to sleep with you", he whispered with a breathless, quivering voice directly at her opened lips and returned the provoking stroking of her tongue with his own - sliding with the wet tip along her lips sensually and slowly.

She answered his lustful wish and the stroking of his tongue with an aroused moan.

Sarah sucked in some air sharply and with a sensual shudder, the same moment, she felt his burning hot skin at her palm... the slight tickling of his body hair.

"Mmmh..., this is marvelous", she whispered at his still opened lips.

"What's marvelous?" he wanted to know, breathing quite heavy.

"This", she wheezed and caressed his belly with prowling finger motions.

He straightened up a little after that and looked significantly along himself. "Why don't you undress me, then?"

Sarah pulled the neck strap of her short dress over her head. She still held the fabric with her upper arms close to herself, though and grabbed his shirt. Shoving the garment along his body, he took hold of it and pulled it without further ado over his head

Without taking her eyes off his heated face, she stroked gently along his belly... along his chest and caressed him thoroughly.

He watched her expression. How her face twitched slightly with excitement when she stroked through his chest hair. She moaned softly and caressed him so substantially and delightfully that he stared at her with a desire-clouded gaze.

"You like this?" he breathed and enclosed her hand, leading her fingers slowly along his half-naked body.

She gave a shuddering sigh. "Ohhh... I **love** this", she whispered pleasurable and stroked through his fur. "This is so... so manly..." The sides of her nose quivered.

She let go of her dress at the same time and pulled it with one hand slowly down. The fabric stretched over her full breast and suddenly slid downwards.

"Mmmh", he sighed and looked at her bosom.

He enclosed her boobs with both hands and stroked them gently, slightly suqeezing with his fingers and finally pushing her breasts together. He bent forwards and enclosed one of her erect nippels with his hot, damp mouth and started to suck softly.

Sarah panted and went with all fingers through the hair at the nape of his neck. His mouth went over to her other nipple and his damp tongue was circling so slowly around the tight bud, a flash of pure sensuality went through her lap.

She moaned loudly. Her head sunk back. She breathed out intensely shuddering and sustainedly whilst her fingers went deeper and were gliding along his broad back.

"I can hardly stand much more of this", she wheezed and moaned aroused whilst he pushed her back onto the sofa gradually.

Sarah lay down and raised her botty a little. His fingers reached for her dress and pulled it over her hips.

Barney knelt between her legs now. He placed wet, slightly smacking kisses along her boobs... he licked her nipples and sucked them into his mouth one at a time whilst his fingers still kneaded and stroked her soft flesh.

She moaned quietly again and again and caressed his hot, velvety skin more restlessly and more longingly. She stared along his body and started to pant with excitement when she noticed his erection... the already damp, dark spot forming at the highest point of the prominent, hard bulge tightening his trousers.

Her shaky fingers went along his belly and still deeper. She fiddled with the heavy belt buckle and tried to open it. The Officer straightened some up again. He looked at her desire ridden, hot face whilst opening belt and fly. She watched the movements of his fingers and sled with the tip of her tongue slightly along her lips.

This sensory, small gesture aroused him only more. He shoved his breeches down over his hips and watched how Sarah fiddled with her sneakers meanwhile. In her panties was a big, damp spot already soaking through.

He sat down next to her, to open his boots. Suddenly, he looked over to the door.

"Wait", he whispered, undressed himself except for his briefs and got up.

"I don't want us to be interrupted..."

He turned the key round and then came back to her again.

She shuddered in voluptous expectation at the remarkable tent with which his erection strained the fabric. Sarah looked at his almost completey naked body with hungry eyes and wheezed when he noticed her looks with a lecherously glittering gaze of his own.

She took off her shoes and stockings hectically. She got up and went slowly over to the bed. When she looked back over her shoulder seductively, he could hardly control himself any longer.

Both of them stopped directly in front of the matress. Barney turned her around to himself, pulled her gently closer and against his hot body again. She wrapped her arms around his neck with a small groan and searched his mouth longingly with her lips.

He shoved her slowly closer to the bed and pressed her down onto it, whilst they shared another heated, deep kiss... Sarah moaned inside his mouth when he opened her knees with his leg until he was able to slip between her thighs.

"Ohh... yeah... come to me..." she whispered breathlessly.

She moaned with arousal when he placed himself between her legs and pushed his loins against her seething lap. He supported his weight on one elbow whilst his other hand went along her fierly burning cheek... along her neck… down her throat.

Wheezing, he followed with his eyes how Sarah leant herself into his stroking touch. How she deeply looked him into the eyes and groaned with desire. Her legs enclosed his hips. She moaned passionately, when he shoved his pelvis some forward and his erection pressed into her sopping wet crotch.

Her hands went up and down his back till she shoved his briefs down his bottom. He helped to get rid of the last piece of cloth and pulled her panties also down... quite slowly... pleasurably.

Instead of the expected, pale-red curly hairs Barney looked at clean-shaven, silky and rosy skin. He groaned softly at the sight of her naked glistering-wet womanhood.

Her lap was swollen with arousal; the velvety folds gaped slightly open. He slipped slowly down along her body and gently opened her legs with both hands. She rested her weight on both elbows and looked down onto him. Her thighs were spreading more and more with the tender pressure of his hands, pulling her legs even more and much wider apart from each other.

Sarah panted intensely when she recognized his intention and immediately placed a hand behind his head.

"Oooohhh... yes", she moaned and curved her abdomen some up.

Her head sank back into her neck when she felt his kiss on her mound... the soft pressure of his slightly opened lips.

She gasped and groaned with desire the moment his tongue sled along her smooth skin. He opened her womanhood gently with his fingers and looked up along her body briefly. Sarah stared down to him and looked him into the eyes. Her open lips trembled, her nostrils too. She was breathing fitfully and intensely.

She sucked in some air hastily when he kissed her softly between her opened folds. Then, she felt how his tongue sank sensually and slowly into her wet heat.

"O God!" she moaned deeply in her throat and curved her hips some more up and against his mouth.

He sighed and answered her moaning with a sustained and pleasurable "Mmmhhh".

His tongue stroked her stiff bud and circled around the sensible pearl.

Sarah stared with breathless panting along herself and watched what his skilfull mouth was doing with her... How he delightfully and tenderly stroked her with his tongue. She began to whimper excitedly.

She felt how more and more watery drops rolled down along her botty. She also felt how he went deeper in her open lap, tasting her substantially from time to time. Her arousal was rising that steeply she almost couldn't bear the soft stroking and caressing of his tongue anymore.

Barney pulled his mouth away and looked at her enormously swollen, stiff pearl. Whilst squinting up along her body and into her face, his flattened tongue went slowly along her clit, from the bottom up. She groaned intensely and watched his lecherously lick along her hard bud.

He did it another time. With closed eyes, now. To make the most of the touch and the intense feeling of her womanhood against his tongue with this slow, licking movement.

Sarah moaned again. She gasped loudly the moment he pulled his hands between her legs away and turned slightly round until he lay almost fully on his side. She looked along his body and panted lustfully. His erection pointed steeply up and almost touched his belly. He wasn't huge but still a lot bigger than she'd thought him to be... and he was cut...

He sighed through his nose and whilst tenderly sucking and licking her bud, he slowly stroked his shaft with one hand, whilst spreading her folds with his other fingers again. The circling and stroking of his tongue was getting gradually faster. Just like his fist sliding up and down his length...

She looked down onto his lap and back to her own loins again. Her arousal was getting stronger by the minute. She was already gasping fitfully and pressed her lap more and more against his lips. She moaned when he suckled at her clit and rubbed along the swollen pearl with his tongue, stroking her with growing pressure and faster movements.

He wheezed breathlessly, giving a muffled, soft moan from time to time. His fist was moving faster... His shaft seemed to swell even more... the tip was almost glistening wet. A big, clear drop ran slowly down and he smeared it along the glans with his thumb.

Sarah gasped and watched the up and down of his stroking hand even more thoroughly. How his fist circled around the head, slightly rubbing the bulge and gliding up and down along his length again. The movements of his tongue became even hastier and outright greedy. She was close... and he felt it, too.

His aroused wheezing changed to hard and fitful gasps. How he pleasured himself now... with growing speed and sensuality... He also was getting close... She lifted her pelvis a bit, pressed her crotch against his mouth and moaned in sheer lust.

Just seconds before she reached her climax, he gasped and gave a muffled, highly aroused moan and stretched his pelvis forward. His fingers - still stroking along the swollen tip - grasped the shaft just below the glans... and squeezed slightly.

"O God!" she gasped loudly. "Don't stop! ...Don't stop... now! ...O God!... Aahhh... Barney!"

Whilst gasping out his name, she saw him coming.

How thin, cloudy liquid oozed out and began to flow with pulsing intervals. She groaned intensely.

"Don't... squeeze... let it... come... freely..." Her voice faltered.

She moaned loudly whilst reaching her own orgasm. And she moaned even randier when he loosened the grip around his shaft and came with long, hasty spurts.

She moaned again and again... felt, how he pressed his trembling tongue into her intensely twitching and jerking slit... whilst watching his eruption and how much was coming out.

His body was getting slack and he leaned his head against her trembling thigh.

"God", he groaned, still breathless and wheezing hard. "I always wanted to do that with you..."

He looked down along his body and loosened his grip around his still erect but slightly dropping shaft. Drops fell from his stained fingers and he searched for something to wipe his hand off with.

"O my", Sarah breathed. "What an experience..."

He found a handkerchief unter her pillow and cleaned himself up a bit. Then, he stretched himself out beside her. She kissed him on the damp lips and tasted herself. Their tongues played briefly, but heatedly with each other whilst he placed her hand around his length.

"Are you in for another round?" she wanted to know almost unbelievingly. But he was still hard and firm within her grip.

"Sure I am", he merely mumbled.

Sarah looked him into the eyes and watched his lustful expression whilst stroking his manhood and exploring his shaft substantially. He was almost too big for her small fist...

His member twitched in her grip and she looked down to his length, before she licked her palm hastily and enclosed the exposed head again with spittle slicked fingers, moving her fist up and down along the tip.

Barney moaned softly. He was already getting harder and hotter inside her hand again. She panted aroused and stroked him so pleasurable, that he moaned again and slightly pushed his loins up.

"Aren't you too sensitive, now?" she wheezed.

"Not at all... just... loosen your grip some... ...ooohh... yes..." His soft groans showed her, how much he liked what she was doing.

She looked into his face. He had closed his eyes and enjoyed the circling and stroking motion of her hand with all his senses. His face got more and more rigid. She moved her fist a bit more quickly.

He breathed in through his teeth and let it escape slowly and shuddering again. Then, he removed her hand and straightened up a little further.

Her legs opened when she felt how his palm slid down into her lap. He went deeper and penetrated her gently with two fingers. She curved her abdomen slightly up and into his hand, moaning with lust when he shoved his both fingers slowly back and forth inside her.

"Do you like this?" he wheezed with a voice sounding breathless and agitated.

"Go on", she whispered, panting.

Sarah looked up into his face slightly bent over her's and stroked with her palm along his hot, reddened cheek. His hand moved a little faster in her lap. She moaned. Heat waves rushed through her whole underbelly.

Barney knelt down beside her. She stared onto his erection and pulled him a little closer to herself... till he knelt next to her head. Both of his fingers went in and out of her... with a lustful ryhthm getting faster and entering her much deeper, too.

She gasped enraptured and shoved her opening mouth over his manhood. He moaned lecherously when she started to suck and suckle, moving her head back and forth... licking along his rigid shaft almost from the base and up to the tip before taking him back between her lips again.

His hand between her legs was moving faster. He pushed his fingers harder in and out of her and wheezed intensely. Her sucking at his member got increasingly firmer...

She shoved a hand between his spreaded legs, gently squeezing his balls, before she enclosed his already rock hard member with her fist, moving the thin, silky skin along his shaft back and forth...

"I want to feel you", he gasped and she twitched panting whilst his fingers were sliding very deep into her now. She let him slip out of her mouth again and caressed his burning hot hard-on with her fist.

"Aaa...aahhh", she moaned loudly and enclosed his hard length tighter.

The extremely sensual expression of his face, slightly distorted and rigid with arousal, excited her only more.

"Take me ", she panted intensely. "I want to have you inside... I want to feel you in me."

She wound restlessly and panting when he knelt between her opening legs. Her lap moved up and down restlessly whilst he placed himself between her thighs and supported his weight with one hand beside her shoulder.

"Yeah... let me feel you...", she wheezed.

Her legs spreaded even further.

He looked into her eyes and sled with his glans gently deeper inside her seething slit. She looked at his face whilst he watched her expression, too, pushing slowly into her at the same moment.

Sarah's hands went down to his waist and placed themselves at his hips. She bent herself into his body the moment he penetrated her.

"Aaahhh!" she moaned loudly. "O God! ... You... are so... hard." She pulled him even closer to fasten his movement.

He started to wheeze and resisted his urge to push inside with one fast stroke. He wanted to feel her... how she enclosed his engorged shaft... whilst sinking deeper and deeper into her wet heat.

He entered her gently and slowly, sliding along her G-Spot. Sarah suddenly began to pant intensely. She clasped his wrists hastily at the next moment.

"AAAAHHH!!" She groaned deeply in her throat.

Her gaze went glassy.

"I... I'm... coming! I'm... coming", she moaned.

Barney paused at once and looked at her orgasmically distorted face. He could feel her... pulsating quickly, strongly around him and he felt the rhythmical contracting of her lap quite clearly.

Overwhelmed, he closed his eyes and felt her lecherous twitching even stronger. He enjoyed how she moaned and whimpered at the same time whilst her hot, damp vagina still pulsated around his shaft in now slowly fading intervals.

He gasped breathlessly when Sarah still moaned and was winding in lust beneath him. Her body twitched ecstatic... her cheeks a glowing red... she looked into his eyes, panting with unbearable desire now whilst he slipped deeper into her body again.

She bent her legs and pulled them close to her chest... making it possible for him to enter her really deep. He moaned with the feeling to fill her out completely... how his pelvis touched her mound whilst he was buried up to the root into her small body.

Her hands stroked along his chest and then went down over his back again. She pressed him even more tightly between her legs... her knees wide open and steeply bent.

He twitched inside her. Sarah moaned.

He pulled slowly out and slid back in just as gently.

She watched his face constantly... his aroused expression... whilst he was doing just the same. His gentle thrusting... the slow and steady back and forth of his loins made her wheeze and gasp with sensuality.

Barney answered her deeply erotic noises with a heavy, shaky breathing and still went gently and slowly in and out of her. He could feel her so intensely... slipping inside her hot, supple canal. He groaned with ecstasy and thrusted faster into her.

Sarah clasped his forearms. Her burning hot face distorted into a sensual grimace.

"Aaahh... yeah... take me", she panted.

He was so big inside her, that she wasn't able to stop her lustful moaning anymore. And the more she groaned, the harder his thrusting became. He watched her expression whilst moving his loins faster.

Their shaky panting and wheezing mixed with each other. Again and again, Barney moaned breathlessly. He gave her his big shaft with sensual thrusts and penetrating her very deeply, now. Sarah yelled out with ecstasy.

Her fingernails sank into his forearms.

"Aaahh! … O God!" she gasped loudly. "Yeah... take me... fuck me! It's a wonderful... feeling... having you... inside... ...so… deeply... inside..."

Her breathless panting changed to deep, randy, unrestrained groans. He rammed himself still faster and harder into her body. Her lustful groaning turned to an inarticulately, hoarsley whimpering.

"I can't… hold it... much... longer", he panted and closed his eyes, moving his loins a bit slower again. "God", he gasped with a shaky, breathless voice. "This feels so good... to be inside you..." He moaned intensely.

Again and again, Sarah wheezed his name, whilst he answered her with hasty panting and trembling gasps. Their sensual wheezing mixed with the slight slapping of their bodies... how his pelvis hits her lap more and more eagerly.

All of a sudden, he stopped... breathing fitfully and pushed his hips between her wide open legs. Sarah panted hectically and sighed when he bent down to her and kissed her mouth breathlessly.

While his tongue was still playing in her open mouth, his abdomen moved back and forth again. Fundamentally slow, now. He pulled out as far as possible and sunk back in, penetrating her deeply.

Until he paused another time.

"I'm getting close..." he panted at her hectically wheezing lips.

She gasped when he slid into her with short, hasty thrusts and his pelvis slapped against her swollen womanhood. The short, hard thrusting shook her whole body.

He stopped another time and straightened up over her again. Sarah crossed her heels behind his sweaty back and shoved her hands into his neck.

"Give it to me", she wheezed.

A drop of sweat rolled down his temple. He panted intensely when she gazed at his distorted, reddened face and watched his lustful expression so thoroughly.

His loins moved almost timidly back and forth again. He was so hard that she moaned deeply in her throat with ecstasy. His rhythm got increasingly faster.

She stared into his eyes... how he was groaning now whilst thrusting with quicker and quicker movements.

"Give it... to ... me", she panted. "Let me... feel... how you... come..."

He let himself go.

He looked down to her... saw into her eyes... watched, how Sarah returned his passionated look with excitement and pleasure... how she moaned whilst his hips jerked faster and harder.

This time, he didn't pause again. The back and forth of his shaft was getting erratic... incredible lacivious... She sank her fingernails into his shoulders.

She answered every single one of his hard, impetuous thrusts with breathless, intense gasping... with whimpering groaning... until she felt that he would climax any second.

"AAAHHH!!" she moaned loudly "Yeah... don't ... stop!"

"Now", he panted wildly. "Aaahh... now!!"

His hot, sweaty face distorted to a sensual grimace. He pressed himself deeply into her belly and started to moan like crazy.

Sarah fell into his highly lustful noises just as unrestrained and moaned, too. She clearly felt how he pulsated hastily inside her... how the hard shaft twitched and jerked.

She moaned his name and gasped, enjoying the intense feeling of his orgasm deep inside her... He sank down onto her, dropping to his elbows... panting and breathless.

Their hasty wheezing was the only noise in the room. How both of them panted breathlessly and got only quite gradually quieter again.

Barney slipped slowly down from her and pulled her close when he stretched himself out beside her. She cuddled up to him and put her head to his still erratically rising, damp chest.

Until he raised her chin gently and kissed her wheezing mouth with gentle lips. She nestled still more heartily against him.

"Are you happy?" he wanted to know quietly when their lips parted again.

"Yes", she sighed and stroked his red, hot cheek and along his sweaty chest. "And what about you?"

He looked at her face and sled with his hand gently up and down her back. "Me too. Very much so, indeed..."

She laid back and snuggled even more closer to him.

The next time she raised her upper body some, she could see that he was chewing over something. He turned his head round and looked her into the eyes.

"Will you tell me about your _other_ life?" he asked her.

"Sometime" she promised without meaning this, however, too seriously.

That life was in the past for her now. And she wanted to live now... in the present... at the place where her most ardent dream came true.

End


End file.
