**Author's Note** As I stated before, I'm not looking to put any type of lyrics into this story, but I found a great song to accompany Balto's internal struggles with his subconscious, and if you're interested, look up "I Have to Let You Go" by Nightwish on YouTube.

Steele awoke to a blustery morning, but to his delight he discovered that the snow had ceased falling. The sky was overcast; no sun was to be seen anywhere, but the conditions exhibited by the weather today were much more favorable than the preceding day, and he took a deep breath of the crisp, cold winter air. Staring down at the ground, the Siberian husky realized that he had quite a lot to contemplate—the sled driver was dead, and the remaining members of the team were nowhere to be found. He did not assume them to have suffered the same fate as the driver; they were strong-willed just as he was, and if they fell in the same general direction as Balto, then he was quite certain that they had survived. The reason that the driver was killed is because he had gashed his head on a boulder—Steele nodded his head and yawned.

Balto was still fast asleep beside him, and Steele found the head of the halfbreed resting lovingly on his side. Seizing the opportunity to enjoy the moment while Balto was unaware, he gave a smile—a real smile; something that he had not felt in a very long time. He was happy. After all this time, he was finally starting to feel the prelude to true happiness again. But his smile quickly turned to a look of uncertainty; Balto did not know about any of this. Now that the two were alone, Steele began to consider expressing his true feelings to the halfbreed—but not yet. No, now was too soon—right? Yes, yes of course it was. The two of them needed a few days to sort everything out. They would have to search for the other dogs, and that would consume quite a bit of time, so he figured that he could think about such matters later on—much, much later on. Steele gazed down at the peacefully-sleeping Balto and knew that his heart would eventually convince him otherwise.

The Siberian husky immediately turned his thoughts to something else when he felt his stomach begin to gurgle—food. They would need food, and they would need it soon. The wound on Balto's side was still healing, and the last thing he wanted was the halfbreed to get injured more than he already was. He examined the laceration and knew that it needed cleaned out, but that would require waking up Balto, and he looked so peaceful sleeping. But that wound needed cleaned, so he knew that he would have to wake his companion up—unless he licked the wound for him. No, if Balto were to wake up, he would know something was out of place. Would he, though? Could a fellow dog not clean wounds on his injured partner without suspicion of anything more than an act of kindness? Of course he could—right?

Balto felt a warm sensation on his side, and he slowly let his eyelids rise open, giving a yawn as soon as he was back to reality once more. He turned his head to find the source of the sensation, and his eyes widened when he saw that Steele was licking his wound clean. The halfbreed quickly turned his head back to facing forward and could feel himself blushing. Steele was taking care of him—the husky that he had an extremely heavy crush on was nursing his injured side. He closed his eyes and let Steele work—this was definitely not something he would be protesting.

"That ought to do it, halfbreed, at least for now, anyway," the Siberian husky walked toward the mouth of the cave, and then turned around to face Balto again, "Stay here, Balto. Don't go anywhere—that's an order. I'm still the sled team leader, remember. I'm going to get food—if you were in better shape, I'd have you come with me. But right now you need to relax and let that nasty gash heal."

Balto felt bad about the husky continually taking care of everything, and tried to stand up, "Steele, really, I'm okay. Please, let me come with you—"

Steele growled lightly, "Balto, lay down, keep quiet, and relax, alright? You're in no condition to hunt," the Siberian husky felt a lump in his throat form—he hated snapping at his crush like this, and once again, he could not conceal a quiver in his voice, "You're all I got now, mutt, and I just…need you around…" he gazed right at Balto with a stern expression, "Don't question it. Just listen to your pack leader, halfbreed."

Balto gave a soft nod and lay back down, deciding that the best course of action that he could take right now was to listen to and obey what Steele ordered him to do–no use fighting this great new attitude that he was exhibiting, right?

The husky smirked, and was glad that Balto was now taking his advice, "Not as dumb as I thought you were, mutt, now I'll be back in a little while. I gotta get us something to eat, and I'm going to see if I can find any of the others."

He took his leave, and ventured out into the snowy landscape. His legs sunk down into the snow about six inches–this was going to be quite a challenge. Giving a disgusted grumble, he began to trudge through the snow, sniffing the air to get any trace of life around them. He was really beginning to feel hungry, and he hoped that something would come along soon. It wasn't so much himself that he was fretting over; it was Balto. If the halfbreed was going to regain his strength and have the wound heal successfully, he was going to need nourishment to do so. The husky decided that he could do without food for a few days if needed, but he really hoped that fate did not bring the two to that situation. But then again, fate is a cruel mistress.

Meanwhile, Balto lay resting in the cave, watching the clouds roll by through the mouth of the cavern, contemplating everything that had happened since the accident. It was a tragedy that the sled driver had died, but his thoughts soon turned to Nikki, Star, and the rest of the dogs. He very much hoped that they had not suffered the same fate, despite the fact that they had ridiculed him over and over for his sexuality. The halfbreed had been hurt deeply by them, but he was not one to wish death upon anyone; not even Jenna. Yes, then there was Jenna.

He immediately remembered the nightmare that he had experienced the previous night, and began to think about what that manifestation of his inner turmoil wanted him to do. He could not deny it; he did indeed let his fear control him. His subconscious was correct in that observation, but he was unsure of how to resolve his current dilemma. Getting over his fear was something that he wanted to do badly, but correcting that presented a few problems. Telling Steele that he had feelings for him would most certainly not end well, at least, not in his mental scenarios. At the same time, though, he did not think that he could continue on living in absolute paranoia day in and day out. He had done so for years, though, so would continuing in his current mindset really hurt him much more? He shook his head, disgusted, knowing that he was just running around in circles; nothing was going to get solved in this manner. Perhaps he needed to converse with his subconscious again–yes, his nightmare had gotten him farther than he would have without its assistance. He lay his head down, and tried to drift back into sleep again.

Steele, meanwhile, was having his own challenges set for him. He lay crouched down in the snow, eyeing a white rabbit that was about fifty or sixty feet away from him. For an animal that was generally quite small, this one was definitely an exception. He could easily see two meals coming from it; one for him, and one for his healing partner–or, rather, soon-to-be partner; at least he hoped so. The husky licked his lips quietly and prepared to make his move; surely this was going to be an easy kill. Positioning his legs so that he would propel forward, he made the jump, landing right on top of the animal. But, to his dismay, the snow beneath the two provided enough room for the rabbit to jump out from under him through a hole in the white blanket, and it began to quickly hop away from him. Steele was not one to give up so easily, though, and immediately took off after it, ignoring the pain in his leg as much as he could.

The little animal hopped for its life, trying desperately to keep away from the powerful jaws of the captor that was slowly closing in on it. Steele chuckled to himself as he sped up, and eventually cornered the rabbit, snapped his jaws down, and had a meal for Balto and himself. For having an aching leg, he believed that he did not do too bad, and started back toward the cave. He had searched for the other dogs before beginning his hunt, but could not find any trace of them. The sled was even gone; there were no clues to the accident except the body of the sled driver, and it was now buried in the snow. It was as if the other dogs had completely vanished–he would look again tomorrow, though, as he could see more dark clouds coming, and snowflakes were beginning to fall again.

That expansive ice field surrounded Balto once more. He was alone, and he was in his subconscious, waiting for that Jenna-like manifestation to greet him again. The general atmosphere of the barren landscape was much colder than before. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes whilst he mentally prepared for the confrontation that he hoped for yet dreaded simultaneously. Opening his eyes, she was laying across from him, staring him down with her grey eyes that pierced his inner self like a pair of the sharpest harpoons that could possibly be crafted.

"I knew you'd return, Balto."

He averted his gaze and stared at the ice-covered ground, "I–I'm not afraid of you."

"Then look at me."

He felt his heart skip a beat, and he prepared himself to look at her. He did not understand why he was fearing her; she was his fear. She encompassed every single one of his terrors, yet he was afraid of her. So, logically, it made absolutely no sense to fear the being that encompassed all of his fears, did it?

He brought his face up to stare at her with a confident, smirking expression written across it, "It makes no sense to fear the embodiment of my fears, does it? You encompass all of my fears, so logically I can't have any outer ones, can I? Is that the truth you want me to come to terms with?"

The manifestation let a mischeivous grin overtake its face, and it began to chuckle, and then laugh, and then, finally, cackle. It immediately ceased and stared at Balto with its piercing eyes, appearing as still as a granite statue, "You still let me control you, mutt. What you don't realize is that the fear you have for me is being caused by me. I told you, Balto, I control your mind. I am not a seperate entity from you; I am part of you! Using logic to define me is not going to defeat me, Balto. Until you come to terms with what you must do to take back your sanity, you will continue to spiral down in this whirlwind of fear and darkness. If there is anything you should fear, mutt, it should be the fact that your paranoia complex is dominating your mind."

The wind was picking up just as it did last time, and clouds were rolling in behind the Jenna-like figure; black, large, menacing clouds threatening to strike with deadly lightning, dump incredible amounts of snow, or unleash whatever unholy fate that they held back. His gaze drifted back to the manifestation, and it too was changing.

The creature began grow larger, and appear more fierce and menacing than before. Its teeth elongated, its claws became razor-sharp, and it became nearly three times as tall and long as Balto. Its eyes fixated on the halbreed, it ran up and knocked him on his side again.

"I will continue to grow. I will continue to dominate. And I will continue to rip any trace of sanity you might have left unless you come to terms with what you need to do. I pray that it's soon, mutt, because I am days away from breaking you apart."

And he found himself in the cave again, awakened by the sound of a rabbit corpse being dropped by Steele in front of him. He shook his head and looked up to the husky, seeing some red stained around his maw. He could not help but smile, despite the nightmare.

"You got quite a catch. When I'm able, let me pay you back for it."

Steele plopped down, clearly tired from the day's searching, hunting, and trudging through the deep, freezing snow. He gave Balto a smirk, "Like you could hunt like me."

Balto returned the husky's smirk with that of his own, "Hey now, when you live on your own, hunting is the only way to get food. I'm sure you'd be quite surprised by what I can do."

"Just eat your half, mutt, and you'd better leave an equal part for me after I wake up. I'm going to take a nap."

While the husky curled up to take a rest, Balto watched him with a warm smile. He made the halfbreed feel so secure and safe, and despite the past, he was honestly beginning to wonder if a friendship with Steele was something that was able to be accomplished with time. What struck him oddly, though, was that the husky had not once ridiculed, or even mentioned his sexuality. He still could not comprehend that Steele had defneded him while the others lashed out with verbal attack after attack. What had made Steele suddenly change his behavior? It was as if the fact that the halfbreed had come out had triggered this change. But, why, he wondered, would that of all things initiate this new, improved attitude? Could the husky actually possess a warm-hearted understanding and acceptance of the members of the non-straight community? If so, why would a dog like Steele feel as such? It went against all outward expression of personality that the husky had continually exhibited in the past. And then an idea struck him, and his eyes went wide accompanied by a wide-open jaw.

He stared at the sleeping Steele and whispered to himself, "Him? No, no it can't be true–c-can it?"

The halfbreed blushed and began to eat the meal that the husky had caught for him.