Couldn't sleep last night (really nasty case of bronchitis) so I typed this out. A little late in the day but Merry Christmas everyone! Oh, and I must have been on Santa's naughty list because there wasn't a single Hillstrand, Fortner, Hansen, or Harris under my tree! Bah humbug!

Andy Hillstrand grabbed his duffel from his truck and slammed the door shut. Between Phil's death and their trouble with Discovery, it had been a rough year and what he needed was some time away from the hustle and bustle. His friend Chris had a cabin in the mountains of Colorado and had loaned it to him for the Christmas holiday. He was looking forward to some peace and quiet and hopefully a little skiing. A winter storm had made the drive up to the remote cabin treacherous, even for an Alaskan such as himself. Smoke curling from the chimney could be seen so who ever Chris has sent to stock the pantry for him must have built a fire as well. A little irresponsible but a nice gesture nonetheless.

Michelle had officially been divorced for a month and really didn't feel up to spending the holidays with her family. The majority of her "friends" had actually been their friends and were one of the things she had lost in the divorce. But, she still had friends from her college years, though they were now spread across the globe. Her old roommate Lisa had tried in vain to convince Michelle to spend the holidays with her family but Michelle insisted she'd rather be alone. Knowing Michelle's love of the wilderness Lisa offered the use of the cabin she and her husband Chris owned in Colorado. Michelle gratefully accepted and had arrived at the cabin the day before a major snowstorm was due in. Lisa had sent someone ahead with food and wood so Michelle was snug and toasty. With several movies and some books in case the power went out she was ready to wait out the storm. At present she was contentedly sipping a cup of hot tea and staring into the flames dancing in the fireplace. Her trance was broken when she heard a loud bang. Her first thought was that it was a car door but quickly assumed it was probably something loose on the roof of the outbuilding housing the snowmobile. Her gaze went back to the flames and she let her mind wander. Lost in her thoughts she didn't realize the door had been opened until the cold breeze caused her to flinch. Realizing there was a strange man standing in the doorway she let out a scream and jumped to her feet.

Andy stood looking at the woman dumbstruck. He was physically tired from the King crab season and mentally exhausted from everything else. He just didn't have it in him to be polite; John was the one with skill to deal with overeager fans. "What the hell!" he bellowed.

"Who-o are you and what d-do you want?" stuttered Michelle edging her way towards the fireplace. If she could just get to the poker, she would at least have something to fight off this intruder with.

"Who am I? Who are you?" countered Andy. "And why are you in my cabin?"

"Your cabin? This isn't your cabin," retorted Michelle.

"It isn't yours either." The two stared defiantly at one another until their silent battle was interrupted by the phone ringing. Michelle picked the phone up, "Hello?"

"Michelle! Good, I've caught you in time," began Lisa.

"In time for what?" asked Michelle in confusion.

"There seems to have been a mix up. Chris just old me that he had loaned the cabin to a friend but I…"

"Had already loaned it to me. What's this friend's name?"

"Andy Hillstrand."

Michelle looked at Andy, "Dude, what's your name?"

"Andy," he said shortly.

"Andy what?" she shot back.

"Hillstrand."

Michelle handed him the phone, "Here. Talk to Lisa."

"Hey Andy, I'm sorry about the misunderstanding. Michelle is my old college roommate. She's going through a tough time right now and I offered to let her stay at the cabin for the holidays. I didn't know Chris had done the same for you. We're both real sorry," Lisa apologized.

"It's okay Lisa. Your old roommate huh? Is the show going to be a problem?" questioned Andy.

"Absolutely not. Michelle isn't that kind of person," assured Lisa.

"A'ight then. Here's Michelle back." Andy passed the phone back to Michelle.

"Girl, I don't know how to fix this, but so you know, Andy is a great guy so don't worry about being safe."

"Good to know. We'll figure it out. Give the kids a kiss for me." Michelle hung up the phone and looked at Andy unsure of what to do next. "Sooo…" she hedged.

"Well I guess we're stuck together for now. The road up was already getting bad when I came in. Neither of us are going anywhere until morning. We can sort things out in the then."

"All right, sounds like a plan. Unless you object I'll sleep out here on the couch, you can take the bed," offered Michelle.

"Thanks, I'll take you up on that offer. You sure you don't want the bedroom though? That way you can lock the door."

"I'm good. Lisa trusts you." She gestured to the quilt and pillow on the couch, "Besides, I'm all set."

"Good night then, I had a long flight." Andy made his way into the bedroom and threw his bag in the corner. He quickly stripped down to his boxers and quickly slid between the sheets. He jumped as the cold hit his skin and burrowed deeper under the quilts. He hoped Lisa was right and this friend of hers wouldn't cause him problems.

The next morning Andy woke to the smell of bacon and coffee. After throwing on his jeans and a flannel shirt he wandered into the kitchen. "Smells good," he said.

"Good morning!" beamed Michelle. "The potatoes are almost done, would you like eggs?"

"Uh, sure. You're awfully cheery for this early in the morning," yawned Andy.

Michelle shrugged, "I've always been a morning person. How would you like your eggs? Though I warn you I suck at sunny side up or over easy."

"Well done then." Andy poured himself a cup of coffee and took a sip. Michelle quickly fried a couple of eggs and then sat everything on the table. "No eggs for you?" he said.

"Nah, not really an egg fan. So you know that Lisa and I were college roommates. How do you know Chris?"

"I sold him a horse several years ago and we've become good friends since then."

"So you really are a cowboy?" grinned Michelle.

"Huh?"

She laughed, "You know, the old Conway Twitty song, "Don't call him a cowboy until you've seen him ride…I saw the hat last night and the song has been running through my head since then."

Andy whistled, "That's old school country."

"That's shit-kickin country."

Andy looked at her intently, "Do you not know who I am?"

"Lisa and Chris' friend?"

"Ever see the show Deadliest Catch?" prompted Andy.

"OH! That's the crab show on cable, right?" nodded Michelle.

"Right." "Great," thought Andy to himself, "Now the flirting begins." He really did not want to deal with a fan who would see more into this situation than was there. "Are you a fan?"

"Umm, I haven't really seen enough of the show to know," said Michelle honestly.

"How many episodes have you seen?"

"Three. Maybe. One may have been the same one twice. Never a whole episode."

"You didn't watch the whole thing?" Andy was a bit surprised.

"I haven't had cable in almost six years. I've seen bits of the show when my ex and I would go visit his grandmother for Easter."

"Which seasons were you watching?"

"There's more than one?" Michelle asked in surprise.

"Yes," he huffed. Now he was getting a little offended.

"Sorry. I mean the show looks interesting, but how do you make more than one season of a fishing show?"

"Yeah, we're a little surprised by the interest as well. We just started filming the seventh season by the way."

"Wow. I stand corrected."

"So can I offer you a ride back into town? I'm not sure how much snow we've got so far, but I'm guessing your car won't make it back down the mountain."

"Um, thanks, but I don't need anything from town."

"I meant to a hotel."

"I was here first, so you can go check in somewhere."

"I came to get away from people."

"So did I."

Michelle and Andy glared at each other, neither one willing to back down. "Well hell," they both muttered at the same time.

Michelle was the first to offer a compromise, "Look I came with the intention to spend most of my time out in the snow. So if you can handle being around another person just at meal times, we can make this work out."

"Huh, and if I don't want any chit chat?" Andy couldn't imagine a woman who wouldn't talk.

"Look, I'm really not a people person and prefer silence. If you want you can pretend I don't exist." Andy was really starting to irritate Michelle.

"And I can keep the bedroom?" Andy qualified.

"Yes, good lord, you're annoying you know that? Any thing else?"

"Nah. We'll give it a shot then."

"Oh, I do have one thing. I am not your mother, not your wife, and not your housekeeper so clean up your own mess." With that Michelle left the kitchen. She quickly dressed in several layers and grabbed her backpack and snowshoes. Outside she began strapping them on when Andy appeared in the doorway. "Where're you off to?" he asked.

Michelle gave him a harsh look, "Breakfast is over; the cone of silence is in place. None of your business." With that she set off into the woods.

Andy shook his head as he watched Michelle disappear into the forest. He figured he'd have to head out to look for her at some point; she was bound to get lost in the snow. Propping his feet up on the coffee table Andy settled in to watch whatever sports he could find on the TV. Lunchtime past and Michelle still had not returned. The four o'clock football game had just kicked off when Andy realized that Michelle had been gone for over eight hours. Daylight was fading fast and he was truly starting to get concerned. He had just decided to go out and look for her when he heard her stomping her boots on the porch. She quietly came inside and took off her outer layers. "Hi," she said quietly and headed into the bathroom to shower. When she was finished she threw on her favorite flannel jammies and some super ugly yet ultra warm fuzzy socks. For an instant she regretted the fact that she looked so frumpy but waved that thought away. She never appeared on men's radar screen so frumpy-ware wasn't going to matter anyways. Heading to the kitchen she found Andy at the stove already cooking. "I'm making tomato soup and grilled cheese. Do you want some?" he offered.

"Thanks, I'm starving." Michelle pulled her knees up to her chin and watched as he quickly put together dinner. He brought the food to the table and sat down across from her.

"So how was your hike?" he asked awkwardly.

"Cone of silence?" she replied archly.

Andy cracked a grin, "Lifted. It is a mealtime after all."

"'Kay. Good. I was able to get some great photos."

"Did you really hike the entire time you were gone? I mean, that's a lot of hard walking in snow like this." What he was really thinking was 'Great, she has a camera."

Michelle finished chewing the bite of sandwich she had just taken, "No. There's a deer stand about a mile and half west of here. I hiked there and waited to see what animals were about."

"You sat out in the cold? That's stupid." He said the words before he realized it.

His words stung, sounding a lot like her ex-husband. "To each their own," she said shortly. She quickly finished off her food, put her dishes in the dishwasher and retrieved a book. Curling up on the couch she began reading. Andy sat at the table uncomfortably before heading back in the other room to watch TV. Seeing her reading he quietly put the remote down. She glanced up over her book, "You're welcome turn it on. Won't bother me."

"You sure?" he asked.

"Positive. Jeff, my ex husband, always had the TV on. Had to learn to tune it out if I wanted any peace and quiet. Seriously, you won't bother me."

Andy flipped over to the National Finals Rodeo. After a few minutes he asked, "How long have you been divorced?"

"A month yesterday but I filed almost three years ago. Why?" Seeing the rodeo on the screen Michelle marked her page and put her book down.

"I can watch this in the bedroom if you want. I don't want to disturb you."

"I love the rodeo. Just don't get to see it much and the local ones back home are beyond bad."

"Where's home?"

"I've moved back to Kentucky from Indiana."

"Oh yeah? I just moved from Indiana to Arizona."

"That's a climate change. Although I don't blame you, Indiana is a weird state," she shook her head at an unspoken memory.

"Yeah. Is that why it took so long to get your divorce finalized?"

"I guess, that and the fact that the lawyer wasn't going make a dime on splitting debt. I'm positive this wasn't even near the top of his priority list."

"Probably so. Would you mind if I asked you why you left?"

Michelle always hated this question, "You really don't want to hear the story. And truly, you don't have to make small talk."

"I actually come from a loud chatty family, so the silence is kinda weird," admitted Andy.

Michelle chuckled, "Then you are stuck with the wrong person. Although, I do talk more than my dad. Drives my mom bonkers…she's from a loud chatty family too."

"So you take after your dad then."

Michelle sighed deeply, "In soo many ways. They were going to name me Rhonda, after my dad but changed their mind."

Andy laughed, "Why'd they pick Michelle?"

"Who knows," she muttered. "If they were anyone else but my fuddy duddy parents I would swear they were smokin' something. They had a Chihuahua named Michelle when I was born."

Andy doubled over in laughter, "You were named after the dog?"

"Don't laugh," scolded Michelle playfully. "It's very traumatic."

"I can imagine, though would Rhonda have been much better?"

"Meh, you have a point."

Michelle and Andy chatted off and on as the sun dipped lower in the sky. Andy quickly picked up on the fact that Michelle was used to acquaintances overlooking her and worked hard to draw her into the conversation. She seemed genuinely surprised that anyone was interested in learning more about her and her questions directed to him were insightful but not prying.

~DC~

The next morning Michelle was in the shower when Lisa called to check on the situation. "It's all good," he told her then chuckled, "We set some boundaries and have worked out a truce. Michelle's a very interesting person to talk to once you get her to talk."

"Michelle? Are we talking about the same person? I mean, sure she's eccentric, but interesting is not a word I would choose to describe her," remarked Lisa.

"She's very private, but deep. Got a question for you though. Do you know why she split with her ex? She avoids answering any questions on that subject."

"If you've gotten her talk enough to think she's interesting then you probably know more than me. All she ever told anyone was he that he treated her like shit. She never elaborates."

Andy grew thoughtful for a moment, Michelle was quite a mystery. "Well Lisa, I'll tell her you called."

After her shower Michelle decided she was going to get out and do some cross country skiing. Andy saw her layering up and asked what she was getting into today. Realizing it would be rude not to extend an invitation to join her Michelle did, not really expecting him to accept. While Andy searched out some appropriate clothing Michelle added some additional food to the pack she always took with her when she was out adventuring.

Andy and Michelle trekked for hours, making several stops as Michelle snapped photos of birds huddled in bushes or deer across the meadow. They paused for lunch beside a cascading waterfall that was frozen in time until the spring thaw. Her interest in the natural world around her spoke to his own deep outdoor roots. Once she realized that he wouldn't take offense to her questions she learned a great deal about what he did for a living. She'd never been on boat other than a ferry and couldn't imagine being on water as deep as the Bering Sea. Just thinking about it made her shiver.

When they made it back to the cabin Andy sent her off to shower first saying that he would start dinner. When she finished the aroma of chili con carne greeted her. She peered into the bubbling pot to get a better smell and her eyes teared up. Andy chuckled, "I got a little heavy with chilies."

"I'll say. Good thing I like my food extra spicy. I bet there's a two foot radius of no snow around the cabin."

Watching the snow fall outside the cabin window Michelle suddenly laughed, "I see a pattern here."

"What pattern?" asked Andy confused.

She pointed at the chili, "First the tomato soup then this. You can't cook anything that you can't boil can you?"

Andy huffed pretending to be offended, "Ah hell. I won't even lie and say I can. Not on the list of prerequisites for being a fisherman."

"That's not a fisherman's skill, that's a life skill."

"Well I didn't take home ec in school, Ms. Betty Crocker," he snarked.

"Maybe you should have hmm?" she threw back.

"Yeah, like you ever took shop class."

"Actually I did, thank you very much. The school system I was in the few years we lived in Pennsylvania required that everyone take two years of metal shop, wood shop, and home ec."

"Really. So can you take a motor apart?"

"Anybody can take it apart. It's getting back together that's the tricky part."

Andy chuckled, "Did your engine run?"

"It did, no thanks to my useless prissy partner. She was too worried about getting grease under her nails. I will admit that I couldn't have done it with out the assembly manual. My brain just doesn't work that way," she added ruefully.

"Don't feel bad, I don't have the attention span to keep from toasting dinner," Andy laughed.

~DC~

Andy woke once again to the smell of breakfast cooking. Stretching languidly in the bed he realized this was something he could definitely get used to. Michelle was bustling around the kitchen whipping up French toast and Canadian bacon. Honestly she loved to cook but hated to go through all the trouble for just herself. It was nice to have someone to share her meals with. Actually she was glad to have someone talk to who was interested in her part of the conversation instead of just their own. That thought really surprised her. Typically she was loner and shied away from extended interactions but with Andy it seemed so natural.

"Sweetheart, you are going to make me fat. Not that I'm complaining, mind you. I'll lose it during opis," said Andy helping himself to his second plate of French toast.

"Hmm, maybe I need to change professions then. I was blessed with the metabolism of a snail." Weight was a sore point for Michelle. She was one of those people who just always, no matter what they did had a little extra around the middle, a plague during her adolescence and the bane of her adult life.

Andy shrugged, "Curves are nice."

Michelle shot him a hateful look, "Yeah whatever."

"Hey, not everyone likes skin and bone blonds," he defended.

Michelle ignored the comment and changed the topic. "Anywhoo, what's on the agenda for today?"

"How about snowmobiling? Weather is perfect for it."

"Absolutely. I have always wanted to try it, just never had the opportunity," was her enthusiastic reply.

"No snowmobiles in Kentucky?"

"Not enough snow. We rarely get more than a few inches at a time. Occasionally the mountains will get closer to a foot, but it never lasts longer than a week. Hell the creeks and rivers rarely freeze over completely anymore."

Andy deftly maneuvered the machine over hills and down valleys. Michelle was seated snuggly behind him and he found he really liked the feel of her arms around his waist. When they would gain air or take a curve too fast Michelle would tighten her grip and gasp softly in his ear before laughing like a loon. Michelle loved the exhilaration and the rush of the wind against her face. The warm body she had her arms locked around wasn't too bad either. She smiled and leaned her face against Andy's shoulder. He'd been nothing but a perfect gentleman, but she found herself wishing he wouldn't be. Then she shook her head to clear the thought. Who was she kidding?

They crested a mountain and in the distance they could see another winter storm bearing down on the valley. "Hold on tight!" Andy yelled over his shoulder and opened the engine up full throttle. Michelle tucked herself tightly behind him and held on for all she was worth. They barely made it to cabin before the first icy blast hit. They bounded inside and Andy had to put his full weight against the door in order to shut it. He looked at Michelle, "This is gonna be a doozy."

"No joke!" agreed Michelle.

In no time the electricity was out and temperature inside the cabin began to plummet. Even with the roaring fire they were both uncomfortably cold. Andy disappeared into the bedroom and after a lot of scuffling reappeared dragging the mattress with him. "Move the table would ya?"

Michelle moved the table, "Umm hello?"

"It's too cold to sleep in the bedroom. You can take the bed closer to the fire and I'll sleep on the couch," answered Andy practically.

"You won't fit on the couch Einstein. Good idea though. The mattress will offer you some insulation against the floor." Michelle added another layer of sweats over her flannels and wrapped up in an extra quilt and snuggled into the couch. Late that night she was still awake shivering in the firelight. Andy had barely fallen asleep when the chattering of Michelle's teeth woke him up. He sat up and pulled her off the couch, "Get down here. I can't sleep with the noise and you can't either." Michelle was too cold to argue and cuddled up against the sea captains back. The cocoon of warmth under the quilts quickly lulled her to sleep. Andy lay on his back staring at the shadows dancing on the ceiling. It had been quite a while since his last girlfriend, serious or otherwise. Unlike his brother he had grown tired of the groupies. He rolled over on his side and inhaled the sweet smell of her hair, desire shot through his body. He groaned and rolled on his other side seeking some relief. Much, much later he finally drifted off to sleep.

As was her usual routine Michelle woke with first light even though the storm outside kept the room dark. As she became aware of her surroundings she realized that there was a strong arm around her waist and she was cuddled against a very male form. Andy's subconscious felt her move and he pulled her tighter against him then began nuzzling her neck. It had been so long since she had been with anyone and it was so easy to fall under his spell.