A New World

by Wesa

Series: War of the Worlds, The Equalizer, and The X-Files. Guest appearances in future parts from characters from Due South, The Man from UNCLE, and The Pretender; perhaps from others as the whim takes me.

Standard disclaimers apply. All characters belong to their various creators and the powers that be. Some of these characters belong to Chris Carter, Fox, and 10-13 Productions. I've just invited them over to play for a while, and I promise to send them home when the party's over. Others belong to Universal or Paramount, but it doesn't look like anyone is playing with them at the moment, so I'm going to let them stay as long as they want. Littlehawk belongs to Jan Harley. Thank you, thank you, thank you, Jan, for your wonderful story. I hope you don't mind if he comes over to help chaperone the party; of course, he can come home whenever you need him. Tierney, Lainie, and Kira are mine; they live here.

Constructive criticism is welcomed.

By Wesa.

"Now!" Jared cried, waving his arm as a signal to Stavrakos and Coleman, who bent low and pushed at the boulder on the edge of the cliff, sending it crashing down into the midst of the herd below.

Seeing that it had killed a good-sized animal, Stavrakos yelled jubilantly and thumped Kasey on the back. She grinned up at him, though her expression seemed a little strained. He frowned in concern. "You okay?" he asked.

"Yeah," she replied unconvincingly, her mouth firming strangely.

"Kasey?" he prodded.

"C'mon," she said. "Let's get on down there, see how the Mountie plans to skin and butcher that whatsit." She started down the cliff path, picking her way carefully instead of plunging down at her usual breakneck speed.

Stavrakos followed, still pursuing the question. "You don't act okay," he fussed. "Did you hurt yourself?"

"I think I pulled a muscle," she told him, working and flexing her shoulders. "I'll try to get a soak in the spring before bedtime tonight; I'll be fine."

Stavrakos remained unconvinced, but by the time they reached the bottom of the cliff, he had given up on learning exactly what was bothering his squad-mate. She would tell him when he needed to know.

The other hunters had gathered around the carcass, watching Benton Fraser cut easily through skin and flesh with a sharp-edged rock, though he had a little more trouble with sinew and bone. Kasey and Stavrakos joined them, but when Fraser opened the creature's belly, Kasey went pale and made a whimpering sound before she turned and dashed for the jumble of boulders at the base of the cliff where she retched again as she had twice already that day.

Derriman shook his head. "I would never have expected that of Kasey," he told Ray Vecchio. "Good soldier; could take out aliens with either a knife or a gun, and watch them dissolve without turning a hair. I find it hard to believe that she can't handle a gutted animal."

"For some people," Jared offered, "it's more difficult to see an animal harmed than a human. It seems to have something to do with the innocence of the victim."

"She's not pregnant, is she?" Ray asked. "Francesca can't move without puking."

Stavrakos and Derriman looked at each other, then at Kasey, where she was still bending over and spitting, trying to clear her mouth. "I don't think so," Derriman said doubtfully.

"Kasey can be discreet," Stavrakos told them, "but I'm pretty sure that she and the Colonel didn't resume their relationship after the war. First he was in the hospital; then after he was released, he was so..."

"Cranky," Derriman supplied.

"Yeah." Stavrakos nodded. "When he got back from his trip to Georgia, he seemed to be feeling better, but then we started getting ready to make the move to North Carolina, and I don't think they ever got together again."

Kasey approached the group, still making a face of disgust at having been sick. "What're you all staring at?" she demanded. "Can't a person puke in private?"

Kasey's temper was nothing to trifle with, and they had all learned to tread lightly around her during these last few weeks since they had found themselves in this place where sometimes as many as four moons floated overhead. She had raged at Derriman when he tried to soothe her anger at having been abducted. She had dumped the oh-so-superior Angela Parker on her ass when that woman had expected to be waited on hand and foot, then flatly forbidden any of their group to share anything but body heat with her. She had almost taken on Jared when she caught him giving Parker most of his food two days later, until Jared told her that Parker was pregnant, and wouldn't be able to build a healthy baby unless she got proper nutrition.

After that, Kasey had backed off, though still insisting that the "princess" should pull her own weight. Her vehemence had moderated a little over the last couple of weeks, however, and the two women were gradually becoming allies in their effort to survive with some degree of comfort and civilization.

Parker's discovery of the hot spring had done much to increase their creature comforts; everyone visited the springs almost on a daily basis.

All of the seven women in their group were strong, though not all were as hard-as-nails as Kasey and Parker. Francesca had been a police aide, and Alice Shepard and Marita Alonzo had been police detectives, though in widely separated places. Meg Thatcher had been an inspector in the RCMP, and Fraser's direct superior officer. And April Dancer ... unbelievably, the tall, elegant redhead had been a covert agent for an international law enforcement agency with the unlikely acronym UNCLE.

Aside from the five men taking part in the hunt, there were two others in their group, who had escorted the women going out to pick berries and dig roots. Both of them had also been covert agents with UNCLE. One was an American of Italian descent, though he had little in common with the Vecchio siblings; the son of an American ambassador to Greece, he had grown to adulthood surrounded by the best of everything. He had an undergraduate degree from UC-Berkley and a master's degree from Harvard. Napoleon Solo - he insisted that the name was a family tradition for which he was blameless - had developed a fine sense of good taste which was doing him no good whatsoever out here in the wild.

The other, Illya Kuryakin, was a Russian citizen, born in Kiev and the grandson of a colonel in the Red Army. He had also been the beneficiary of an unusually fine education at the University of Georgia in the Ukraine and at the Sorbonne in Paris, finally getting his doctorate in quantum physics from Cambridge in England. Although he appreciated the fine things in life, Kuryakin, unlike his partner, actually relished the challenge of survival in the wilderness. His place of birth, however, had caused him some difficulties during the first few days here with the remnants of the Omega squad, who shared their former CO's dislike of the Soviets.

Gradually the Omegans came to trust the small, lithe Russian, whose knowledge of arcane and otherwise useless facts was confirmed and rivaled only by that of Benton Fraser. Between the secret agent and the Mountie, the little group had food and shelter, though neither had been much help when Francesca started getting morning sick. And despite them now having hot water, thanks to Parker, no one in their group knew exactly how to make soap.

By the time the hunters got their kill back to their camp, they all needed baths, but Fraser volunteered to stay behind to finish butchering the whatsit - sort of a long-legged rodent the size of a small deer - while Kasey went straight to work scraping the skin to prepare it for stretching and preservation. Both tasks were hard work.

Kasey looked up when April crouched beside her, gently placing one hand on her shoulder and looking into her eyes. "Enough," April said softly. "You're exhausted."

"When did you get back?" Kasey asked, stretching and twisting to ease her aching back.

"Half an hour ago," Alice estimated. "You've been working like a robot on that thing. Completely zoned out."

"Fraser put a roast on to cook before he went to bathe," Ray said. "He should be about through by now. You can have the pool to yourself."

Kasey started to demur, then caught Stavrakos' eye. "On second thought," she said, "I could use a good soak."

"Just don't make it too long a soak," Francesca warned. "The meat should be done in about forty-five minutes to an hour."

Their camp was only about five minutes' walk from the hot spring. When Kasey got there, Fraser was almost asleep, lulled by the comfort of the hot water. Kasey stood still for a moment, silently admiring the near-perfection of the man's body. There had been nobody for her since Ironhorse had been captured by the Morthren, and she was hungry for the touch of a man. But sex alone wasn't enough for Kasey; she needed more from a man. The challenge, the thrill of the pursuit, the final ensnarement of her prey, that was almost more important than actual sex. Although, she mused, the Mountie appeared to be well-equipped for satisfying - maybe very satisfying - intercourse.

She couldn't use the same plan she'd used with Ironhorse; no gypsies. The direct approach seemed like a better option. Kasey stripped quickly and waded into the pool, saying, "Move over, Yukon, unless you want me to sit on your lap."

Fraser sat up sharply, grabbing his hat to cover intimate territory. "Miss Coleman!" he protested.

Kasey chuckled softly. "Too late, I've already looked," she said, settling into the water beside him. "Besides, you're getting your hat wet. That can't be in the Mountie rulebook." She leaned back, showing her body to advantage. From the expression on his face, she thought the hat would be out of the water soon even if Fraser didn't move it away from his lap. She smiled, pleased, and allowed herself a soft murmur of pleasure at the heat of the water. "You know a lot of things, Yukon. You any good at massage?"

"I beg your pardon?" he asked, his gaze fixed firmly on the far side of the pool.

"My back and shoulders hurt," she explained. "I wonder if you would rub them for me?" She turned away, offering her back to him. After a moment, she felt his hesitant touch as he began gently stroking around her shoulder blades and down either side of her spine, finding the knotted muscles.

Then he started rubbing, still gently, yet more firmly than before, and Kasey murmured softly in appreciation. He put the flat of his hand in the center of her back and pulled back on her left shoulder, then switched hands and pulled back on her right, each time popping a vertebra, eliciting a small moan of pleasure. She chuckled softly as he manipulated her neck. "That's it, Yukon," she said. "You're hired."

"Hired?" he repeated, rubbing firmly in small circles at either side of the base of her skull.

"Personal massage therapist," Kasey sighed. She moved slightly backward, until Fraser had to move his knees apart for her to sit between his thighs. "That feels so good ... You have great hands, Yukon."

Fraser's voice held amusement as well as uncertainty when he suggested, "Miss Coleman, if I'm to be doing something as intimate as this for you, do you think you could call me by my given nickname?"

"Oh, I don't know. I'm kind of partial to Yukon, Benny," she murmured. "How about if I call you Benny in public, and Yukon as a private little pet name?"

His hands stopped moving, and he stammered, "A - uh, a what?"

"Oh, no, don't stop!" Kasey objected.

**********

Nearly to the top of the trail leading to the hot spring, coming to call Kasey and Fraser to dinner, Ray and April paused and looked at each other. "Um, maybe we should wait a few minutes," Ray suggested.

April smiled at him. "That's sweet, Ray," she murmured, catching his hand. "You're looking out for your friend."

Ray stared down at their joined hands. "Yeah, well, Benny would do the same for me. I think," he replied. He looked at the woman whose hand he held. "Uhm, April?"

"Yes, Ray?" she asked softly.

Slowly, giving her the chance to back away if she wanted to, he lowered his mouth to hers.

**********

In the spring at the crest of the hill, Kasey tossed the Mountie's Stetson on top of his clothes and drew him after her into the deeper water. "You never went skinny-dipping?" she asked him, laughing. The expression on his face as he tried to keep his eyes averted was priceless. The water buoyed her up enough that the two of them were almost eye-to-eye. She only had to lift her mouth a little to nibble on his lower lip. She put her arms around his shoulders and bit gently at his earlobe.

Fraser moaned softly as his erect penis rubbed against her belly. "Miss Coleman," he protested half-heartedly. "We shouldn't ... do this ..."

"Kasey," she corrected, her eyes closed in pleasure as she rubbed her breasts against his chest. "Why not, Benny? ... You feel so good ... It's been so long ..."

"Kasey," he said in a strained voice.

She drew a long, sensuous lick up the side of his throat, then stuck her tongue in his ear, following the curves of the ridges, and wrapped her legs around his waist, asking, " Don't you want to, Yukon?"

"I don't have a condom," he protested unhappily.

"I'm clean; so are you," she assured him. "You don't breed unhealthy stock. Even those stupid Quo'Tarans should know that."

"Breed?" he worried.

"Don't worry, I'm not fertile right now," she said, her hand between them guiding his cock to where she wanted it, pressing the head into the opening in her flesh. She gave a sigh of pure pleasure as she sank down onto his shaft. "Oh, fuck me, Yukon!"

Fraser blinked, a little disturbed yet surprisingly aroused by her unladylike use of the Old English monosyllable. Still, he'd been raised to give a lady what she wanted, and this one very obviously wanted him to make love with her. Trembling despite the warmth of the water, he gave Kasey his full cooperation, lifting her almost off his cock, then slowly lowering her back down until the base of his flesh rubbed firmly against her swollen clitoris.

Kasey moaned and bit his earlobe; her nipples rubbed against his as she rode him. She couldn't believe how turned-on she was. Sure, the Mountie had a body to die for, almost as good as the Colonel's, but she'd seen more men's bodies in the last several weeks than she had ever hoped to, and all of them were lean and muscular. But his cock ... It wasn't so awful long, though it wasn't exactly short, but it was thick at the base, stretching her wonderfully at the full extension of each of his thrusts. He wasn't being gentle about it anymore, either. Wonderful. Perfect. "Harder," she moaned.

Fraser hadn't counted on her screams of satisfaction when she orgasmed, just seconds after he filled her with his cum. "Kasey!" he warned urgently in a hushed voice, trying to get her to be quiet. "They'll hear!"

"I don't care," she told him when she could talk again. "I'm staking my claim here, Yukon. If they know we've been together, the other women - oh," she said as she realized. "Did you want someone else?"

"No!" he protested. "I mean, I didn't even know I wanted - I wanted ..." His voice trailed off in uncertainty.

"Yukon," Kasey said tenderly, stroking his cheek, "I seduced you. Hell, I practically raped you. You are not required to feel anything for me at all. But if you want to repeat the experience, I'd certainly be happy to help."

"I ... don't know what I feel," he said, "but I don't feel raped." Experimentally, he kissed her, exploring her mouth now as she had not given him a chance to do before.

A few feet from the edge of the pool, Ray cleared his throat. "Time to eat," he told them, turning away and hurrying back to where April stood at the head of the trail before they could respond.

Kasey watched them go, then turned back to Fraser, grinning. "Well," she said, "I hadn't intended to put on a show, but ..."

"You don't seem very upset," Fraser observed, his own deep blush slowly fading.

Kasey shrugged, a movement made fascinating by the way her breasts bobbed in the water. "Maybe I have some exhibitionistic tendencies even I wasn't aware of," she murmured. "If we sleep together tonight, we could explore those tendencies ..."

Alarmed, Fraser moved away from her. "I don't think so," he said quickly, turning and wading out toward the pile of his clothes.

He didn't hear her wade out behind him, didn't know she was there until she caught his arm and turned him to face her. "Fraser," she warned, "don't disappoint me. If you don't come to my bed tonight, I will be in yours. We don't have to have sex, if you don't want to--"

"That's not what I meant!" he assured her quickly. "Sleeping together sounds wonderful, whether we sleep on the women's side of camp or the men's side. Sex is wonderful. It's just that I don't want to do it in public."

Kasey smiled, running her finger down the middle of his chest. "Okay, then," she murmured. "Let's go eat."