Annie stood up awkwardly and brushed the snow off her behind for what felt like the millionth time. She turned toward the top of the hill, eying Liam angrily; convinced he hadn't given her appropriate directions and was just enjoying watching her repeatedly fall on her ass. She unclipped her board and lifted it, carrying it as she trudged back up the hill warily.

"Are you sure you told me everything I need to know?" she asked as she approached him.

"Yes. Come on, Annie! I'm hurt you think I want to see you fall down all the time." He couldn't quite hold back a chuckle at that and Annie hit him with her board, nearly causing him to fall over.

He gave her an "en-garde" look and bent down to unhook his board.

Annie saw what was coming and backed away quickly, grabbing a handful of snow and packing it in her gloved hands.

He stuck his board in the snow as he would a surfboard in the sand. As he looked around for Annie she chucked the snowball at him with all her might from her hiding place behind a picnic table.

Liam took the snowball right in the face, just above his nose. It stung like a mother and his eyes immediately started watering. He tried to blink the blurry from his eyes, and he spied her running awkwardly across the bunny slopes to a clump of trees.

"You're dead!" He yelled, chasing after her.

She turned toward him as she ran, a wide smile across her face, her cheeks flushed. Annie darted into the trees as Liam crossed the slope quickly toward her.

As he entered the patch of greenery he stopped to let his eyes adjust. It was much darker in the wood and the sky seemed to be darkening quickly.

He took another dead on strike in the chest and he heard Annie laugh from somewhere to the right of him. He walked quickly, trying to listen for her.

He heard her giggle and run out into the open again. Liam turned on his heel and quickly caught up with her, grabbing her waist and tackling her, throwing them both down into the snow.

Liam rolled onto his back, his arms still around Annie, pulling her on top of him. They were both laughing hysterically and Annie absently picked snowflakes off Liam's eyelashes.

Her beanie had fallen off in the scuffle and Liam grabbed it off the snow, shaking it out and pulling it down over her eyes. He looked happily at her giant smile and batted her hand away as she tried to push the wool further up her head.

Finally giving in Liam folded the beanie up, revealing her eyes. Her expression was mischief and laughter and happiness. It was the happiest he'd seen her in a while and she was just...so...fragile and beautiful. Her eyes were wild and he found himself unable to look away from her.

Annie watched Liam passively at first but understanding slowly blossomed in her chest. His arms around her, the playfulness and the way he was looking at her.

Quickly she stood up and threw snow down onto his face, needing a distraction...needing something to diffuse the situation.

"That was for tackling me and...and blinding me!" She exclaimed, somewhat more desperately than she had intended.

"Ok, ok! Enough with the violence!" He yelled, putting his hands up in mock surrender. He looked over her shoulder toward the gathering clouds in the distance. "Well that's enough for today. You actually did well. It's hard for people to pick it up, I promise. We should get something hot to drink and then call it a day…looks like a nasty storm is blowing in."

Annie turned and looked for herself. "Yeesh. Yeah, we should book." She helped him up, and they walked back to their boards. She nudged him with her shoulder, speaking more quietly then she had before. "Thank you for doing this…it's just what I needed. With my family, and the truth about the accident…and Dixon….just, thanks."

Liam looked at her face, trying to catch her eyes, but he could see she was blinking quickly, trying to prevent tears. He put his arm around her tentatively and gave her a slight hug. "Not a problem, Annie. I knew you needed to get away. I'm just glad I could be here to help."

After a beat Annie looked up at him and smiled that little-girlish crooked smile that he loved so much and wrapped her other arm around his waist. "Come on. I need cocoa and a fire, my ass is ice."

Liam laughed and they walked up the hill toward the lodge arm in arm.

A little while later Annie and Liam walked out of the main entrance on their way to the parking lot, armed with warm beverages, ready to brave the long drive home. They were surprised to see snow falling, a thin layer already spread upon the ground.

"Shit." Liam said, dismayed.

"What?" Annie asked.

"I don't have chains. It wasn't supposed to snow up here today, this storm came out of no where."

"Meaning?"

"I can't get down the hill without chains."

"Oh." Annie said, troubled that she felt brief elation at the thought that they would be stuck on a mountain together.

Liam leaned against the railing leading away from the lodge and sipped his cocoa. He was damned sure he wasn't going to suggest anything. He was already in enough trouble with this girl.

"Well...um...we could sleep in the car right?"

His head shot over to her, a quizzical expression on his face. "If we want to freeze, sure, we could do that."

"Oh...right. I'm an idiot." Her pulse was galloping in her ears. "Well...they have cabins or whatever here, right? You drove and paid...so I could rent us a room?"

"Annie!" Liam asked, playfully. "Are you propositioning me?"

She looked at him disapprovingly, unwilling to give in to his flirty attitude. "I'm sure they have rooms with two beds, Liam."

"I'm hurt." Liam mocked. "Yeah, well that's cool if you'd do that. I appreciate it. Should I call Dixon and tell him?"

"Yeah...that would go over better actually. And tell him your phone's about to die and mine already did. I don't want to deal with my mom calling me all hysterical. I'll go get the room. You get us squared away with family."

"I'm on it."

Annie came back after having to shell out $90 for a cabin. The key was on a wooden chain shaped like a moose. At least they had a sense of humor, she thought to herself.

"Expensive?" Liam asked?

"Ninety bucks. I think we're about even. We good with parents?"

"Jeffrey's pissed, my mom is fine and Dixon has a plan for your mom. Don't ask me what it is. He was very weird on the phone when I said we were stuck up here."

I'll bet he was; she thought silently. "Ok, well I'm beat. Let's go hit the cabin and turn on the heater." She looked down at herself pathetically. "So, you got any spare clothes in that beast of yours?"

"I might actually. You go start up the home fires. What number?"

"Three. The girl said it was right at the top of the hill."

"Alright, be right there."

Liam sat flipping idly through channels trying to keep himself distracted. Annie was showering and she was going to come out of the bathroom wearing his favorite plaid shirt and sweat pants. He heard the water turn off and the curtain slide across the bar. The door wasn't all the way closed because there wasn't an exhaust fan, which he had learned the hard way when he showered. It had taken him ages to get dry.

He fought the urge to steal a glance at the partially open door.

"Oh my God that feels better!" Annie called from the bathroom. "Did you feel this good after your shower?"

"It was nice." He replied, forcing himself not to wonder if she was still wearing just a towel.

Suddenly everything went black. The TV died, the lights went out. They'd lost power. Liam heard a thunk from the bathroom.

"Are you ok?" Liam yelled, jumping off his bed and going to the bathroom door. He almost walked right in before he caught himself.

"Aw, hell. Yeah, I'm fine, my hand just slipped off the towel bar and I rocked my head. Did we lose power?"

"Afraid so."

"Shit...that means the heater too." Liam hadn't thought of that. "Hey, can you reach in here with your phone on? I'm not dressed and I need some light."

"Um, yeah sure." Liam said, angling his hand into the bathroom opening the door as little as possible and flipping open his phone.

He saw Annie dimly in the reflection from the mirror. She had his shirt on and was buttoning the last few buttons. Her hair was damp from the moisture of the shower and she drowned in his shirt, it fell nearly to her knees. She took his sweats off the counter and stepped into them, rolling them over at the waist a few times.

"Thanks, I'm done." She said, opening the door and absently putting her hand on his chest as she walked by. "Well, I know from experience that it will get real cold in here real quick." She said, rummaging around the room in the moonlight.

"What are you doing?" Liam asked, sitting on the corner of his bed.

"Places like this lose power all the time. They always have candles somewhere—aha!" Annie pulled out two small cathedral candles and a box of wooden matches.

She set one on the table in between the beds and put the other by the TV so they could see the room.

"Who are you, MacGyver?"

"Oh please, you're from New York, you know this stuff."

"Dixon told you that?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"And you remembered?"

"Yes. Was I supposed to forget?"

"No it's just…never mind."

"Okey dokey. Weirdo."

"You just said 'okey-dokey' and I'm the weirdo?"

Annie threw her head back and laughed. The candle light bounced off her neck and flirted with the hints of collarbone that were peeking out from his shirt. She walked around and switched off the lights that had been on and unplugged the TV. Liam just watched her, impressed that she didn't really care how she looked, which was kind of ridiculous and definitely adorable.

"I'm just doing this so that if the power comes back on in the night we won't be scared half to death." She blew out the candle by the beds and crawled into her bed, burrowing so deeply under the covers Liam could barely see her copper hair.

"So, what time should I set an alarm for?" Liam asked, getting into his bed.

"I would say seven…we can see how the weather is then and if they've ploughed. Thank God it's a weekend and we won't miss school."

"Yeah, whatever; I like missing school."

"Go to sleep." Liam heard Annie's mocking muffled whisper. "You're a bad influence on me."

"Yeah, yeah." Liam said, pulling the covers around him. "That's what everybody says…Goodnight Annie."

"G'night Liam."

Liam awoke slowly, wondering why his arm hurt; he tried to move until he stopped himself and remembered what had happened.

Around two am he had woken up, freezing cold. Annie was all the way over one the far side of her bed, a tiny little bump in the sheets. The beds were queens and Liam had stayed lying in his bed for a bit, to make sure she was really out. After about 10 minutes he still hadn't heard any change in her soft breathing, so he pulled the blankets off his bed and crept into hers.

Lucky for him the beds were quality and didn't squeak much as he slipped under her sheets and slowly layered his on top of them. He got as close to her as he could, so that they're combined body heat would keep them warm for the rest of the night.

But, all that still didn't explain how he was where he was now.

They were in the middle of the bed, blankets pulled into a little mountain around them and Annie was lying on his left arm. His hand was beneath her pillow and his right arm wrapped entirely around her. Her left leg was slung over his hip and her right leg was extended against his left, her arms tucked against his chest. They could have been in a sleeping bag they were so close together.

Her hair was covering part of her face, her breath blowing strands away for a moment, only to return a moment later. He could see her mouth, slightly open against his arm and her eyes danced beneath closed lids. He'd never realized she had such long eyelashes before and he wondered what she was dreaming about.

Carefully he lifted her hair off her face, the backs of his fingers lingering on her temple. Despite every logical thought screaming at him not to do it, Liam turned toward her, arched his neck, leaned down and kissed her on her cheek just below her eye. The kiss was barely as powerful as a whisper, but sent an unrelenting shudder down his spine.

Annie sighed softly in her sleep and moved her head more into his shoulder, turning her face upward toward his.

All of it, the bed, the night, them…all of it was wrong, wrong and enticing and…tempestuous, tempestuous like Annie herself always had been. He'd known it from the beginning, loved it from the beginning. Liam didn't want to hurt her, didn't want to put her through anything more than he already had, but he had to…had to feel her, taste her, just this once.

He looked at her face, her serene expression…like nothing bad had ever happened, like the last seven months had been a production she'd watched, not been a part of. He leaned toward her again, closed his eyes, his mouth a breath away from hers—

"Liam!"

He opened his eyes; saw her stormy amber eyes wide-awake, shocked and almost betrayed.

"What the hell?"

"I'm sorry. I was fucking freezing last night and you were all the way over on one side of the bed so I got in with you but I have no idea how we got here. We must have just…gravitated toward each other."

"I don't care about that, you moron!" She nearly screamed, sitting up and pushing herself against the headboard. You were gonna kiss me! God! What the hell is wrong with you?"

Liam stared at her, dumbfounded. She wasn't upset that she'd ended up in his arms because he'd snuck into her bed to be close to her, she was only pissed about the near kiss?

Before he had a chance to respond she got out of the bed, grabbed her snowboarding clothes and slammed the bathroom door. Liam got dressed quickly, not wanting to drag anything out. He shook his head violently; trying to rid himself of the image of her in his arms, escape from his desire somehow.

He had their stuff and was ready to go when she walked out of the bathroom, strangely calm. She took her purse from him and zipped up her jacket.

Looking up at Liam she said something, something that made her hurt so much to say she feared she wouldn't be able to say it at all.

"Look, Liam, we can't do this. We can't be this. Do you understand me? We can't."

"Why?"

"Because it won't last, not when faced with all the drama. We'll lose our friends, we'll be an island and eventually we'll resent each other and then it will be over. And I won't…I won't be able to get over you; you're too…everything." She looked at him, hard; right in the eyes, then shook her head and walked to the door.

She opened it and took a step, pausing but not looking back at him. "Look whatever you feel for me, don't. Just stop feeling it. Right now."

Annie walked away then, and Liam watched her, confused almost despondent. He looked down at his feet and walked toward the door.

"I can't Annie…and I won't." Liam said aloud to the empty room. Turning, he looked behind him at the mess of covers on the bed, clutching desperately to the hope that this was a beginning, not an end.