CHAPTER 2
"So you, like, live out here?" Nikita asked, taking in the array of beautiful scenery. "It's really nice," she continued, standing up in the small boat.
"You might wanna sit," Le cautioned, "it's really easy to tip over, and the lake's cold."
"That's okay," Nikita answered mischievously. "Hey, have you ever been rock climbing? I've been wanting to, and I probably won't be here much longer."
"The mountains are pretty far away even though they don't look like it."
"They can't be that far," she disagreed, sliding off her sandals. "We can go tonight after dinner. I'll go get ready now." Her decision made, with or without Le's approval, she dove overboard, rocking the boat as she did so, and resurfaced several yards ahead. "See you back at the cabin," she yelled before disappearing beneath the water again.
\A/
"Le," a voice whispered in the darkness. "Le, come on."
Nikita, with a backpack and hiking boots sat at his feet.
"Are you coming or not?"
"What? It's the middle of the night."
"We're gong climbing, remember? Come on, Le, or I'm leaving without you."
"Fine," he agreed although not entirely sure it was a good idea. If Nikita got hurt or lost, no one would know where she was, and probably no one would think to go all the way out to mountains. If for no other reason, he had to go to keep her safe. It did sound like fun though anyway, so he had nothing to loose, right?
He picked up his boots and followed Nikita out the door.
"Bout time you got out here, come on, we've got a long way to go."
He followed Nikita through the winding pine straw covered trails toward the mountains as minutes turned into hours. Eventually they reached the tall rock wall of the mountain.
"How far you wanna go?"Niki asked, looking for a good place to stop. "I wish we could climb the whole think, but someone will probably come looking for us before then."
"How about that ledge up there?" Le suggested. The area he pointed to looked large enough the two of them could sit and eat an early breakfast after climbing for a while, watch the sunrise, and they could be back at the cabin in time for lunch.
"Looks good enough to me," Niki agreed, pulling a pair of gloves from her backpack.
"You brought rope, right?"
"What do you need rope for? I'm free climbing."
"Oh. Sounds great," Le murmured, thinking maybe a little too much of Lexa's daredevil I-can-do-anything attitude had rubbed off on her half sister.
\A/
"So how did yesterday go?"String asked, acting as if he knew more than he was letting on.
"What do you mean?"
"I'm guess Lexa's back – Dom said you left yesterday to pick up a motorcycle and disappeared for a couple hours."
"Oh yeah. We had lunch too."
"How is she?" he asked nonchalantly.
"Fine I guess, given the circumstances," Saint John replied casually, wondering why the topic of Lexa, usually the last person he wanted to talk about, had suddenly come up.
"And Nikita? I"m guessing you dropped her off too, she's always up before now."
"No, actually, I didn't. String?"
"Yeah?"
"Are you asking me if I'm dating Lexa?"
"Why would I be-"
"Because you never ask about her."
"No, I already told, if that's what you want, go for it, just no without a flak jacket."
"I"m not. We had lunch, that it. When she called, she asked for you first anyway. I'm not going to steal your girlfriend."
"My girlfriend? There's nothing like that between Lexa and I. If there was, and I'm not saying there was, it was over years ago."
"If you say so."
"I don't know why you would even think that."
"I'm just telling you what I see. I don't think you can make up your mind between her and Cait, and because that stupid curse idea you're going to push both of them away. The thing is, Lexa does subtle even worse than you."
"What is this, high school? What's with the sudden interest in my love life or lack thereof?"
"Nothing. I'm just saying, if you like Cait, you need to call her; she isn't going to wait forever. And if you really don't want to wake up and find yourself married to Lexa, think before you jump. I'm not saying you shouldn't help when she needs it, but you almost went to jail because of her, you take on missions because of her, and she's already asked you once to adopt Nikita."
"And I told her I didn't think it was a good idea."
"Yet Nikita's staying here."