AN: Several people wanted to see what happened after the end of What She Deserves so here you go. I hope you enjoy it!

Disclaimer: I do not own SGU or OUAT.

He was avoiding her.

It had been two weeks since Nick and her had blown up at each other and since then she had barely seen him. Normally the would end up spending most of the day working together, even if they didn't speak for hours it was comforting knowing he was there. When they were both on the on the brink of collapsing from exhaustion she drag him away from the control room and and force him to join her for something to eat. They could talk for hours, sometimes about what they were working on before and other times just about life before Destiny. Most times this would end up with her dozing off and him suggesting she go to bed and she would insist that he did too. He'd growl and protest but eventually he'd walk her to her room, which was only around the corner from his own, not that she planned that at all because that'd be creepy and stalkerish.

That's how things normally went but the last week hadn't been so easy. When she had stormed off after their argument she didn't realize things would change so much between them. Now when she went to get him to force him to eat breakfast he was already gone, Becker telling her he had already picked up his morning ration. When she'd get to the control room he'd linger for a few minutes before citing some emergency in another part of the ship and leaving. At first she thought it was only a coincidence, Destiny did tend to have issues a lot, but when it happened every single day she had to face the facts. He was purposely avoiding her.

She knew she had pissed him off that day but not this bad. She had even thought that this would have been behind them by now. It was hardly the first time they had got into a shouting match. It didn't happen often but it was hardly worth this matter of avoidance. She had figured when they had both cooled down it would all blow over, apparently thy wasn't the case this time. Two weeks later and he had still barely said two words to her. The last time he had treated her like this it was when she had first come to Icarus base. Back then she had understood. He didn't know her and she was the person who had been brought in to possibly replace him in doing his life's work.

When Camille had found her teaching at University of California, Santa Barbra and offered her a position working for the Stargate program she hadn't hesitated in accepting. For years rumors of a program working on a way to link galaxies and other planets had had circulated but no definite proof had been published, at least not to the general public. Some intellectuals thought that contact had already been made but was being kept secret by the government, a very likely event, but nobody knew for sure. Now she was being offered a chance not only to learn more about it, but to actually help make it happen!

It wasn't until she had been debriefed on the program, she thanked her lucky stars for doing independent research into Ancient lore, and had been beamed to the Icarus Base that she even thought to ask who she was going to be working with. When Camille had explained that she had been brought in as a possible replacement for Dr. Nicholas Rush she had been stunned.

She knew Dr. Rush, or at least knew of him. He was a genius, a bit of a hard ass from what his reputation said, but an absolute genius! When she had been attending Santa Barbara as a student he had come up a few times from Berkley to give guest lectures. He had always been so passionate about his work. After his first lecture she had been so intrigued by his points and theories she had started looking into Ancient lore and how it could connect to this universe. By the time she had read all his papers and seen his second lecture she had, to her slight embarrassment, developed an academic crush on the man. She had hardly believed they wanted her to possibly replace him.

The next week she had spent practically sequestered on the base reading, and rereading everything there was to know about the Stargate Program. Dr. Rush had some very interesting theories, some she had considered before and some she'd have never come up with on her own, and she had quickly grown nervous at the thought of actually meeting him. When the moment finally came and she actually faced him, after cutting him off and correcting him in front of Homeworld Command, she had to keep telling herself not to lose her cool. She had felt like a teenager meeting their favorite singer or something. This man was her academic idol and she was actually going to work with him. She could barely remember what she said to him before she all but ran away so she didn't embarrass herself. After that day she grew more use to his presence and despite his attempts at avoiding her she found he became more used to her.

They had grown quite close during their time at Icarus, they'd stay up all night discussing not only the Stargate program but their lives. She knew he had been married at one point but had lost his wife to cancer. He didn't tell her but she could tell he regretted not spending more time with his wife during that time and now threw himself into his work because he had nothing else to live for. She had tried to change that. She wanted to be his friend. Wanted him to know he had someone who'd be there for him. So she sought him out, tried to help him the best she could, tried to show him that he wasn't alone in the world. It didn't hit her until almost a year into her time at Icarus that her academic crush had grown into something more. She had fallen in love with Nicholas Rush.

She still loved him.

But now that was ruined because the bastard was avoiding her.

It had gone on for two weeks now and she was sick of this. She was going to figure out just what the hell his problem was. That's how she found herself stalking down to the control room to confront the man. She knew he had been there for a several hours now, because Lisa had already come to find her once to bitch about how he was being an intolerable ass, more so than usual apparently, and so she was sure he was completely absorbed in his work by now. If he was as annoyed as Lisa made it sound then he wouldn't want to run off. Oh she was bound to get snarled at but that was part of being in love with a misanthropic ass.

When she walked into the control room she found him bent over Dale's shoulder apparently ripping the poor guy a new one for something that wasn't up to his standards and he didn't notice her. Eli and Lisa were both giving her pleading looks, and she waved for them to leave. There was a chance this was going to get ugly and they didn't need to see it, plus it looked like they were at the ends of their rope. Once the two of them were gone and it was just her and Rush, and poor Dale who was still getting yelled at, she spoke up. "Dale why don't you take a break?"

Nick stiffened at the sound of her voice, his angry tirade cut off mid-sentence, but didn't turn to face her. Not that she expected him to, he had avoided her for two bloody weeks she hardly expected him to face her now. Volker however was staring between her and Rush as if determining if he should stay and get yelled at some more, or anger the Scotsman more by leaving. She made the decision for him. "Dale, take a break." Belle repeated again more forcefully, leaving no room for argument. Dale glanced once more at Rush, who still hadn't said a word or so much as looked her way, before quickly leaving. When the door wooshed shut behind him they were finally alone.

He still didn't look at her.

"Dr. Rush"

He didn't turn around, he simply stayed staring at the monitor in front of him.

"Dr. Rush."

Still nothing.

"Rush!"

She saw his fingers clench tightly on the back of the chair Volker had vacated moments ago, but still he didn't look at her.

"God dammit Nick would you look at me!"

She saw his shoulders rise and fall in what must have been a silent sigh before he straightened up and turned to face her finally. When she finally got her first good look at him in two weeks her gut clenched in despair. He looked horrible. Deep purple bags hung under his eyes which where bloodshot and watery, his already thin frame seemed even smaller, it looked like a permanent furrow had been carved between his eyes, he looked like he hadn't slept in nearly a week. Forgetting her anger momentarily she stepped up to him stopping short of touching him when he flinched back. "What happened to you Nick?"

"I'm fine Doctor French. Now is there a reason you sent the rest of the team away?" He still wasn't looking at her, he was staring at the wall behind her, even facing her he wouldn't look at her. Her anger returned and she crossed her arms and glared at him. "You've been avoiding me Rush." He opened his mouth to reply but she cut him off, she didn't want to hear his attempts to pretend he hadn't, they both knew he was avoiding her, and she wanted to know why. "Don't deny it, we both know you have. What I want to know is why."

He didn't answer her. The bastard still wouldn't answer her. He still wasn't even looking at her! His eyes flicked over to the door and she quickly put herself in front of it. "Damnit Rush! What the hell is your problem? You're avoiding me, you wont talk to me, you look like absolute shit, and you're being an even bigger ass than normal, so something has to be wrong. Why wont you just tell me?"

"Because it's none of your business Doctor French!" His shouted word reverberated in the big room, practically echoing, as they stared at each other. He was finally looking at her. Part of her was happy that he was finally looking and speaking to her, the other part was irked by his response. "Like hell it's not my business. This is the longest you've been near me in two bloody weeks. If I did something wrong let me know! You owe me an explanation at least!"

"I don't owe you anything Doctor French. As you said before you have your own responsibilities and I was simply letting you do them without my interference." His voice was tight and each word was clipped and professional. Even the way he held himself was different. He was standing rimrod straight, arms crossed tightly across his chest, and that furrow between his brow was deeper than before. That's how he talked to Young, Greer, and others that he didn't trust. He had always been so open with her, relaxed and loose limbed. It was like she was a stranger to him.

"That is bullshit Nick and you know it!"

"Doctor French I-"

"Belle! Stop with the Doctor French crap!" She wasn't Doctor French to him, she had stopped being Doctor French a long time ago. He was distancing himself from her even more. It was killing her. "Nick what the hell between us? I thought we were friends? We were happy and now you don't even talk to me. What the hell happened?"

"You don't need me to be happy." The words were murmured under his breath and she almost missed them. But she had. "I do need you Nick. You make me smile and laugh, you challenge me and aren't afraid to tell me when I'm wrong, even when you piss me off and I want to strangle you I still need you. I love you Nick." She had said it. There was no taking it back now and even if she could she wouldn't. If he was going to ignore her for the rest of their time together she might as well let him know while she had the chance.

He was silent again, staring at her in what she assumed was shock. For two weeks she had tried to get his attention, now she had it fully and she wished he would stop staring at her like that. She wished he would say something. She didn't want to face his rejection, or harsh words, but anything was better than him just staring at her. After several moments of this she sighed and turned around. "Just forget it. I'll leave you alone. Goodbye Doctor Rush."

Her footsteps were tremendously loud in the room, echoing back at her as she retreated. She was just reaching the door when he finally spoke again. "Say it again Belle." His voice was rough, barely loud enough for her to hear it from across the room, but it had lost it's clipped professional tone. It was the most "Nick" sounding he been since this had started. She stopped in front of the door but didn't face him.

"Say what Doctor Rush?"

"You know what Belle."

She did. She knew what he wanted to hear, she didn't know why he wanted her to repeat it, but she knew what he wanted her to say. "I love you Nick."

"Again."

Belle spun around and faced him, angry that he was making her say this."I love you. I love you. I love you! Are you happy? I love y-"

She didn't remember him crossing the room. She didn't remember him coming to a stop in front of her. She didn't remember him grabbing her. She did remember his lips crashing down on her's effectively cutting her confession off. The kiss was hard and desperate, his hands sinking into her hair and holding her close, her own arms wrapping around his shoulders as she kissed him back. When the finally broke apart they were both panting heavily. "I love you too." Rush whispered the words to her before bringing his lips down onto her's again.

There were still so many issues they needed to work out. She still needed him to confess to why he had been such an ass the last two weeks, and promise that he wouldn't do it again, they needed to figure out what exactly the hell this was between them, they needed to talk about everything. But all of that was going to have to wait because she loved him, and he loved her and he was kissing her again. She had what she wanted right now. The rest could wait.

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