isamazed

Title: Hug it out
Author: isamazed
Word count: approx. 2,100
Characters: Connor/Matt Rees, Becker/Matt Anderson (kind of), Becker/Jess, mention of Danny and Lester
Rating: T
Warnings: N/A
Disclaimer: I don’t own anything, just the plot idea 😉
A/N: Kind-of sequel to Improper Behaviour; with a bit of good will it could be counted as a delayed contribution to Becker/Jess and Connor/Matt R month 😉 Matt Rees is telperion_15’s. Thanks to the wonderful fififolle for the beta, you're a star! However, I claim all remaining mistakes as my own ;)

It actually is cuddle pollen. No bacteria, fungus or mysterious future life form. Plain old pollen. What Matt’s (Anderson, Matt – the Ice Prince – not Rees, Matt – too-good-to-be-true Matt, Connor’s Matt) analysis hasn’t answered, though, is the exact type of plant they had to watch out for in the future to avoid more incidences. So, Connor is going to find out.

Nodding to himself, he glances to either side of the corridor and when he is sure he is still alone, he quickly holds his access bracelet to the scanner next to the door to Matt’s lab. Of course, Connor doesn’t have access rights to that room. He snickers when the door slides open silently. It definitely has its perks being a tech geek.

He puts on a protection mask and goggles and makes quick work of opening the sealed container that he knows is holding the pollen, and carries the small plastic bag over to the desk and shelves holding the lab equipment he’s going to need. Rummaging through the cupboard, he muses about potential areas of use for cuddle pollen. Maybe it would be an effective means to deal with a pack of raptors? Or scary human-sized piranhas? Perhaps they could slip the minister some before the next budget meeting? They’d get all the funding they could ever dream of.

Connor grins and sets a petri dish onto the desk and lifts the bag with the pollen to extract a small sample. Oh, wait – he’s got the perfect idea: They’d fight Helen Cutter with it! At the image of her being forced to hug out all the violence and insanity – preferably with Lester, Connor’s mind helpfully supplies - he chuckles helplessly.

The lab door opens and Becker’s voice carries into the room, quickly followed by its owner and Ice-Prince-Matt. The door closes.

“All I’m saying is, Matt, that if we’re going to work on a new EMD model anyway, we might as well design a hybrid with a traditional rifle. I’m really not comfortable with relying on a battery. What if someone gets stuck and there’s – Connor!”

“Connor?” Matt chuckles. “I don’t think he’s that much of a threat that we need to actually shoot him.”

“No, Connor, he’s here,” Becker points at him.

“What the… CONNOR!”

Connor startles (being yelled at just for being there is a bit unexpected, okay?) and the plastic bag slides out of his hands. It lands on the desk and a small cloud of yellow dust puffs out of it. Oops.

“Oops,” he says and looks up at the captain and his team leader with wide eyes.

Matt’s gaze drops to the plastic bag and Connor’s guilty expression. He groans.

“Connor, please tell me that is not the cuddle pollen?”

“Uhm…” Connor offers.

Becker’s face morphs into something resembling horror. His eyes dart between Matt, Connor and the bag, slightly panicked.

“No,” Becker declares. “No, this is not the fucking cuddle pollen. Is it? Connor?”

Connor wishes the certainty carrying in Becker’s first sentence would make the statement any more true but considering Connor’s track record, he might have fucked this up a little bit. A tiny little bit. Barely noticeable. Right?

“Uhm…” he says again and shrugs helplessly.

Becker’s chin drops towards his chest, he squeezes his eyes shut and inhales and exhales slowly and carefully. Matt huffs exasperatedly while he steps back towards the door and hits the quarantine button. A second later, the door is locked, the alarm’s blaring and a red light outside in the hallway is indicating the crime scene to every passerby.

Becker visibly forces himself to stay calm and grounds out, “How long until it kicks in? And more importantly, how long until it wears the fuck off?”

“Uhm…” Connor answers intelligently. He’s a bit overwhelmed right now, okay?

Matt rolls his eyes. “We only have Rudolpha as a rough indicator, but considering she’s a reindeer it might not exactly be a reliable source. I think maybe 30 minutes before we’ll… before it takes effect, and maybe four or five hours until we’re back to normal. That’s my best guess. It will depend on how much of it we’re actually breathing in.”

“Great. Jess is going to kill me,” Becker mumbles and sags down heavily on a lab stool. He runs a hand through his hair.

***

Two hours later find Connor in the control room. He wore a protection mask after all, and once they set up a washing tunnel in front of the lab door, he was free to leave. As opposed to Matt and Becker. If looks could kill, Connor might be a little bit dead by now, because it was not pretty when those two realized that they’re the only ones who were going to suffer through a few hours of inane hugging.

The camera feed of Matt’s lab is pulled up on the display before him. There are three cleaning people in protection gear in the lab working to disinfect every inch of the room. They’re carrying air tanks and also Matt and Becker have been equipped with those. Lab quarantine always involves a complete shutdown of the air ventilation, after all.

Matt sits on the floor with his back to the wall. Becker lies next to him, on his side and head resting in Matt’s lap and a hand on his shin. One hand of the Irishman plays with Becker’s thick locks, while the other softly rests on the soldier’s waist, the thumb sliding back and forth in sweet caress. Becker has a small, slightly dopey smile on his face and blinks lazily from time to time or rubs his cheek against Matt’s thigh. They’re adorable.

Danny, standing beside Connor, has the fucking time of his life. He’s taken already about 1,000 screenshots for future blackmail and if he follows through with only half of his ideas about how to tease the living hell out of Matt and soldier boy, Connor is pretty sure that both himself and Quinn will die a very slow and painful death very soon. So much for getting past the death glares earlier. He did not survive the cretaceous to find his end like this. Connor lets his head hang lowly. This is not what he was trying to achieve.

He hears heels clicking on the floor and in a flurry of colour and motion, Jess swoops inside the room and makes for her workplace, where Connor and everyone are gathered watching the once-in-a-lifetime events in the lab. Connor rubs his hands over his face. Maybe if he hides between them, she won’t see him and won’t ever find out it’s his fault? Please?

“Oh, what’s going on? Why is everyone standing around here? What is it? Cute baby dinosaur in the pens?” She’s trilling and shuffling through the bodies towards her seat. Her gaze falls on the displays in front of her and she freezes. Her eyes narrow and she presses her lips into a tight line.

“Oh, the bastard! He swore there’s nothing going on between them. I’m going to kill him and it’s going to hurt,” she pushes out, turns on her heels and stalks out of the room again.

Fuck, Connor thinks.

Mouths are hanging open in shock and everyone is staring after her. This was… unexpected, to say the least.

***

It’s a mess. It’s a fucking mess. Everyone and everything.

Matt and Becker are still a tangled mess confined in the lab, still… cuddling. The whole ARC is a mess of gossip after Jess’s appearance. Jess herself is probably the biggest mess, even after Lester sat her down and filled her in on the events. He’s still comforting her like a father would. Everybody knows now that she and Becker have issues, that she’s not trusting him, and worst of all, that she suspects him cheating on her with their team leader. She’s torn between feeling guilty, feeling relieved, being unable to shake off the last bit of suspicion that there might be more between those two, being devastated she aired their dirty laundry in front of everybody and last but not least, fearing for Becker’s reaction when he hears all about it. He’s a private man and has always tried to keep their relationship not mingling too much with their work life. Jess is bawling her eyes out. By now, even Lester is a mess because of the migraine he’s gotten out of sympathy for the team coordinator. He hasn’t even yelled at Connor (yet).

Connor is a mess of his own. He’s been feeling guilty even before Jess came in, and ever since it’s only gotten worse. If Becker and Jess break up over this, it will be his fault alone. He can’t bear the thought and curls in on himself on the floor of the server room where he’s fled to about two hours ago. The blinking lights and buzz of the machines in the dark make him feel like being surrounded by friends.

He only meant to do good. He was trying to make sure things like that wouldn’t happen and maybe come up with a brilliant plan about how that pollen could even be of help. Instead he’s caused chaos and everyone is going to despise him for it. He sniffles.

The door swooshes open and closed again. Matt – his Matt, too-good-to-be-true Matt; not Anderson, Matt, the Ice Prince – quietly calls out for him.

“Conn? You hiding somewhere in here?”

Connor sits up, sniffles again and drags his sleeve over his eyes to hide the evidence.

“I’m here,” he croaks.

There’s a rustle of clothes and the quiet sound of steps and then Matt pokes his head around one of the ceiling-high server cabinets.

“There you are,” he says softly and comes to sit down next to Connor. He brings one arm around Connor’s shoulders and drags him close. Connor lets his head rest against his wide, comforting shoulders.

“My, you caused quite a bit of turmoil out there.” Matt chuckles quietly.

Connor shoves out of the embrace. His bottom lip quivers. “It’s not funny,” he hisses. “They’re going to hate me.”

“Oh Conn,” Matt looks at him with sympathy. He snags his boyfriend’s hand and squeezes it gently. “They won’t. They might be a little upset for a while, but they’ll get over it in the end.”

“You don’t know that. What if Becker and Jess… I could never forgive myself!” Connor rubs away another tear lingering in the corner of his eye.

“I’m pretty sure they won’t, baby.” Matt puts his arms around Connor again and rubs his back slowly, soothingly, for a moment. Then he sits back, a smirk on his face. “Matt and Becker are already coherent enough to have had a decontamination shower and get moved to the infirmary. They’ve been blushing all the way down there but wouldn’t stop holding hands.” Matt chuckles. Connor groans. So not what he was hoping to hear.

“Wait, hear me out,” Matt still smiles and places a quick peck on Connor’s cheek. “Jess and Lester immediately went to see them, and Becker latched on Jess the second she stepped inside the room, and wouldn’t let go again. I got the distinct impression he’s not acting all that different when they’re at home. They’ve talked about it, even though I don’t quite know how. I think he squeezed all the air of her lungs. They’re fine, though. They’ve hugged it out. Literally.”

Connor lifts his head with a hopeful expression on his face. “Yeah?”

“Yes, Conn,” Matt reassures him. “They’re still cuddling while the effect of the pollen wears off. They look so sweet.” Matt basically has hearts in his eyes. For a soldier he has a romantic streak a mile wide. Despite everything he’s seen and lived through as a soldier, he’s still so gentle and caring and good. Connor loves him for it.

“You should have seen Matt, though. Despite all the cuddling going on, he looked absolutely terrified at the idea of him hooking up with Becker. It was priceless! He was so disturbed, he practically jumped Lester seeking comfort. I think he’s still awkwardly patting Matt’s back. Danny’s having a field day!”

Connor huffs out a cautious laugh despite himself, because really – the image of Lester and Matt snuggling is one he’s never going to get out of his head again. There’s probably footage somewhere. He’ll need to look it up.

For now though, he burrows into the warmth of Matt and enjoys the strong arms closing around him again. Matt just holds him. After a few minutes, Connor feels a bit more stable and extracts himself from the embrace to sit up.

“Ready to face the world, baby?” Matt asks.

“Yes, let’s hug the shit out of them all, so they can’t be mad at me!”