Chapter 10

Jason Walsh was a complete and total idiot. He was running in eight inches of snow in snow boots and a parka. He was running along side a stream, in an overgrown area he had only traveled on a couple of times, and could very easily get lost in. He was running in rapidly dropping temperatures because a blizzard was coming in just a few hours He was running from a lodge with a fireplace, a warm bed, and a woman who he really wanted to explore the warmth of….if he wasn't such a complete and total idiot.

They had barely started on exploring each other, a kiss that had aroused him more than any sexual encounter he'd ever had before, and it was just a kiss. Barely touching, just a kiss, then there was the phone call from Brown.

A conversation between his chief and himself. The conversation that had doused his arousal faster than a few hundred gallons of ice water and a snow bank. They had found Casey's shirt from that night and apparently Lawson when he went to retrieve the knives had also taken the time to jerk off using Casey's shirt. How did they know it wasn't from three years ago? It was still sticky.

The bastards obsession with Casey had been disturbing him for a while now, the letters added a new layer of creepiness. This latest bit though, once again made him want to take Casey as far away as possible. Only her own reminder that there was no way the bastard could possibly know where they were was keeping him from doing just that. That and the fact that she would probably kick his ass this time, if he tried that stupidity again.

Damn Casey was getting to be a Grade A detective, short of catching Lawson she had practically solved this case. He had a funny feeling if she hadn't been kidnapped by Lawson and been recovering during the trial she probably would have solved it. It was too bad her parents would never know or at least never Tell Casey what a great cop Casey was. He wondered if they ever told her they were proud of her. She had tried to hide it, how much it hurt that her parents didn't acknowledge her chosen profession. She was a good actress but she still had a few tells.

Of course sobbing into her pillow for two hours last night because he had acted like a complete and total idiot and dick wasn't really a tell. It was a screaming banshee with a rusty spoon trying to carve his heart right out of his chest. The sharp pain in his side made him stop in his tracks gasping for breath. He bent over, his hands on his knees, as he pondered how in the hell he was going to make this right with Casey.

He decided to for once be completely honest with himself. Casey was hot. He had known that when he first met her. The outfit she had been wearing when they first met was something that still played in several of his favorite fantasies.

Casey was smart. This follow up to Lawson's case pretty much proved that. Casey had others doing a lot of the legwork, but she had solved it all on her own.

The fact that she had put both him and Lawson on their respective asses. Plus survived the murdering psychopaths attack proved that Casey was tough.

If it hadn't been for that damned phone call, he would have pursued that kiss. The kiss that had melted his last reservations about pursuing a relationship with Casey Schraeger.

Relationship hell, that kiss had proved without doubt, he was in love with Casey. He was also pretty sure that she was in love with him. He doubted very much you cried for two hours over someone you didn't love. Hell to his knowledge Casey had never cried over Davis, or any of her other recent love interests. She had whined, complained, and so on but never cried at least not in his presence.

Of course the crying brought him back to the part where he was a complete and total idiot. Yeah it bore repeating… a lot. Finally catching his breath and sighing he stood up and caught sight of a flash of purple in the distance.

Beside a pair of snowmobiles, a woman wearing a purple ski hat and gray ski suit with purple accents was talking to a blond male in a navy blue ski suit and white headband. Well talking actually looked more like arguing and you could tell that Headband was clearly getting annoyed, even with the sunglasses covering most of his face. Then he got in the woman's face and ripped off his sunglasses to make a point.

It couldn't be! Walsh moved forward to get a closer look, not remembering the iced over stream he had been running beside. He fell through the ice into the slushy water underneath. He caught his breath before he went under and that was all the thinking he had time for. Instinct took over as daggers of numbing cold stabbed into his body and his brain, threatening to steal his breath. His will to survive caused him to reach up to the half light and begin to kick sluggishly but with increasing desperation. Finally breaking through the thin ice and dragging himself up onto the bank. He looked over to where he vaguely remembered the pair being but they and their snowmobiles were gone.

He had to get warm and fast, shelter someplace. The store was probably closer but since he wasn't exactly sure where he was he had no way of knowing how to get there from here, he was screwed. He would have to try and get back to the lodge and hope that he might come across someone before he actually got back to the lodge.

Keep your core warm the rest will take care of itself, a voice in his head said. Wrapping his arms around his middle he started slogging back the way he had come. Luckily the wind hadn't picked up too much so he could follow the tracks he had made without much trouble. Everything was burning almost, stinging needles over his entire body. He tried running to get his circulation moving a little faster. He figured he had gotten a hundred yards or so when the numbness in his feet caused him to stumble and go down hard in the snow. Winded he lay there for a few minutes, another voice less practical but just as insistent, said "Get up you ass, Casey is waiting on you. You damn well owe her an apology, and you will deliver." Getting up was hard his clothes in those few moments had frozen stiff on him. He beat himself to break the ice and to try and start his blood pumping.

He didn't try running again, at least not full out. He would jog for a bit and then walk. Jason was aware enough to became concerned when he noticed he was starting to loose the trail. At first he thought the wind was covering it but he backtracked and stumbled across it, he then noticed it was a lot dimmer than he remembered it being when he had left. He started walking again and felt his heart rate increase a little from sudden fear. Was it that late, had he been running for that long? He looked up to see if he could determine how late it was, and realized what was going on. The clouds were stacked up and moving in very fast, the blizzard was moving in and earlier than had been predicted.

Determined Walsh pushed himself, he couldn't jog anymore, he tried but his body continued to stagger along at the same pace. Then the snow began to fall, he could feel the fat, wet flakes as they hit the top of his head. Walsh ignored it following the trail of his own footprints. An odd scent was tickling his nose, making him want to sneeze, before his increasingly sluggish mind registered what he was smelling. Wood smoke! His eyes rose to see the roof of the lodge through the trees.

He pushed himself forward, he had to get to the lodge…had to get warm and dry…had to…what did he have to do…he couldn't remember…it had something to do with Casey…what was it….apologize…yeah wait was that it…

He followed the wall, leaning against it for support, till it came to the steps to the porch. Lifting his legs to climb the steps was an agony of acid and needles. Trying to grip the railing to help pull himself up was useless, his hands wouldn't work. He fell tripping on the second to the top step and crawled from there to the door, he tried to knock or pound on the door but couldn't put the force behind it. Pushing himself up the door was more painful but less difficult than any of the other options. Using both hands and his last five functioning brain cells Walsh managed to twist the door knob and nearly fell in the door he had been leaning against. Walsh managed to stay upright just barely.

He heard Casey moving around behind the curtain in the kitchen, she was saying something. Magda…blizzard….dinner…door…JASON!

Xxxxxxxxx

Casey walked out of her room in her pajama bottoms, thick wool socks, tank and robe. "Walsh, we need to talk," she said to the curtain, "weren't you gonna take this down." When there was no answer Casey flipped the curtain aside. The kitchen was spotless, everything was in its place. Everything that is except Walsh and the curtain/ She stepped further into the kitchen and checked for a note on the fridge or something, but there was nothing. There had been nothing on her night stand like there had been the day before. Maybe he's still in his room, she turned on her heel and walked back out to head down to his room. Jason's door was open and when she knocked on it, it creaked open to reveal his empty unmade bed. She glance around to see if a note was maybe left in here, nope no note.

She supposed it was possible he had gone to the store again to stock up for the blizzard. Though Casey imagined that with the supplies they had stored they'd be fine for a couple of weeks.

Casey shrugged and went back to the kitchen and started a pot of coffee. She had overslept, and woke with a splitting headache. As the coffeemaker dripped she went back to her room and retrieved two of the pain relievers. She dry swallowed the pills and started her morning rituals. Coming back out wearing a cowl neck sweater, jeans and carrying her boots. Setting the boots by the loveseat, Casey started mixing the batter for pancakes. She got some butter, syrup and juice out of the fridge. Quickly she made herself a cup of coffee, and a glass of juice before she flipped the pancakes, then grabbed a plate and served herself. Taking the pan off the burner, she decided to wait till Jason got back to try and make his breakfast or to take the curtain back down.

As she ate Casey made a plan of action, a) check the stock see if there was anything they needed, b) if there was pick it up when they went to dinner with the Klum's and Nikolai. She decided she would wait to take the curtain until Walsh got back, c)firewood would have to be brought up and in. d) she should probably start a fire too. Even with the central heat and air it was becoming rather chilly in the lodge. After that well they still had the dinner tonight so they'd have to see.

As Casey went through her tasks of things to do, and the hours went by Casey began to get concerned.

She figured that Walsh had gone out running, it was his thing when he needed to think, unwind, or clear his head. She didn't know how running could do all of those things, but for Jason it did. Once during one of their many conversations at the Stage, she had called it Jason's Zen thing. When he had asked her what her Zen thing was, she admitted that she didn't have a Zen thing yet.

She carried the wood in off the porch, stacking it by the fireplace, next to the kindling and then went out to the shed to get more firewood to stack on the porch. On her fifth trip to the shed she had the strangest sensation of someone watching her. She hoped Walsh wasn't being funny, trying to spook her but when she looked around she didn't see anyone. She did notice that the formerly cloudy day Had now started to darken noticeably. So she moved a little faster to get as much of the firewood as she could closer to the house. She had just finished piling a stack of firewood as high as she could reach, when she heard her phone ring. Finally maybe Jason had finally decided to call.

Closing the door behind her she scooted into the kitchen forgetting to take her boots off by the door. She answered the phone and began unzipping the boots at the same time.

"Hello?" she said into the phone as she struggled with her wet boots.

"Casey?" It is Magda, I am afraid the storm is moving in much faster than was predicted. We shall have to postpone our dinner til later in the week perhaps. Gregor and Nikolai wanted me to ask if you and Jason are set for firewood and supplies?"

A frisson of real fear went down Casey's spine, Casey had assumed that Walsh had gone to the store and possibly gotten caught up in a chess game with Gregor. Now she knew he wasn't there and hadn't been there today from the sounds of it.

"Casey did you hear me?" the older woman repeated with concern.

"Yes we should be fine, I just bought the firewood up and we have enough supplies laid in we should be good for a couple of weeks." Casey replied.

"Oh I hope not that long but I am glad you are set liebchien. I will call regularly to check on the two of you. Nikolai will be staying with us since we have the generator and he has his snow cat here if something happens."

They chatted for a few more minutes as Casey put her boots by the door, cleaned up the mess she had made going to the kitchen. As she clicked the phone off she went to the kitchen to make a fresh pot of coffee. Trying as she did not to worry about Jason, then she heard the tapping at the window as the snow started to fall and the panic started setting in.

She caught herself staring at the coffee maker again a few minutes later. Then she heard the front door slam open and relief flooded her before she remembered she was angry with Walsh. "Magda called and said the blizzard is coming in earlier then predicted obviously. So they wanted to postpone dinner." When he still hadn't answered her or closed the front door Casey finally turned away from the coffee pot and walked toward the curtain and living room beyond. "Hey are you gonna close the door or what?" Then she got sight of the wet frozen form just as it fell to the living room floor. "JASON!

Casey ran to the fallen man, skidding the last couple of feet in her thick woolen socks before landing on her knees, at his side. She turned Jason on his back, shocked at his frozen clothes and the ice crystals in his hair. She wasn't sure he could hear her but she spoke to him anyway, as she determinedly began to strip him out of his wet and frozen clothes. "What did you do you idiot?" Removing his jacket caused her to break out in a sweat of effort as she manhandled him out of the sleeves. She realized she was crying again and oh lord was she ever going to stop doing that in front of this man? "Walsh we're going to have to talk about how you get these arms in those skinny sleeves."

Casey unlaced his boots, growling in frustration with the saturated and icy laces, luckily the sodden socks nearly came off with them. She realized the door was still standing open and ran to push it closed before dropping the boots and sodden socks beside it. It had taken her far too long to get just his jacket and boots off, and he was still filly clothed except for his socks. Then she remembered something and ran back to the kitchen, nearly ripping the makeshift curtain down in her haste.

After rummaging through a couple of kitchen drawers, nearly yanking one out in frustration she finally pulled out a set of kitchen shears in triumph. Then she went to the curtains and with a fierce yank she snapped the cord they were hanging across and dragged the sheets with her back into the living room.

"So you know I was thinking after this little disaster, we are definitely going to have to go on another shopping trip." She said conversationally as she cut off the sweater and then the long sleeved tee he had been wearing under the jacket. Turning him on his side she yanked the wet material out from under him, only to begin rubbing his chest briskly with the sheet. "You're thrilled yeah I know. You love being my G.I. Joe, complete with tattoos and scars." She said tracing her hand gently over the areas in question and noticing the continued iciness in the skin. She stopped exploring and took up the shears again. Cutting the jeans and long underwear off first. "Wow should have known you'd have nice legs too. Baseball and everything. How come you never play with the department team, or would that be kind of cheating, you having been a pro and all." She continued talking as she once more rolled Walsh to get the thawing but still soaked material out from under his lower body. Briskly she started rubbing his legs with the sheets, knowing she should cut off his boxers next. She continued what she hoped was a blood stimulating scrubbing of the sheet over Walsh's torso and legs for a few more minutes before she decided she cared and respected her partner a little too much to remove the boxers. If they were going to go anywhere from that kiss, and right now that was a mighty big if, then they were going to do it when they were both sober, both awake and neither was wounded, rebounding, or potentially dying.

"Ok enough with the moralizing and on to the saving from frostbite and hypothermia." She said before she wrapped him up securely in the sheet and then dragged the cocoon wrapped Walsh towards her parents room. Their bathroom had a spa tub, heated floors and a heating rack for towels.

Turning on the heated floor, and towel racks, Casey was tempted to turn on the heated water full blast, especially since she had gotten pretty drenched herself just getting Jason undressed. She remembered something about frozen plasma crystals cutting up red blood cells and capillaries and veins when the blood was heated up too quickly though. So she pulled Jason into the tub, removing the sodden sheet as they went, Yanking her parents terry cloth robes out of the closet, she brought them into the bathroom and laid her fathers out on the floor. She ran back to both of their bedrooms, got a clean set of undies and pajamas for herself, and another set of boxers, a pair of sweats and a long sleeved t-shirt and woolen socks for Walsh. She stripped down to her own underwear, tossing her own damp clothes in a corner, before turning on the lukewarm water in the tub. She climbed into the tub with Jason. While the water began to fill the tub she started examining his skin, although still uncomfortably chilly she didn't see any obviously waxy sections that indicated that frost bite had set in. Of course, never having seen frostbite first hand she wasn't certain she would know it if she saw it.

Sighing she said rather sadly, "I'm glad you can't see this right now. You'd probably be convinced I was trying to drown you." Carefully she lifted his head and placed it on her lap, before realizing rather quickly that his hair still had ice crystals in it. Grabbing shampoo and a large metal pitcher from the side of the tub. She quickly wet his hair with the warm water that was continuing to flow into the tub, and then massaged the shampoo into his hair and scalp. "Ok you are seriously starting to piss me off here Jason. You usually would have made some lewd suggestion now about how we're both in this tub almost naked and me taking care of you like this, instead you're just lying there like a lump with your beauti…your eyes closed…and I still want to know how you got this way. Seriously, who knew you were such a klutz in the snow." She rinsed his hair as she talked

Unable to reach the sponge or body wash with Walsh situated in her lap the way he was, she instead opted for the soap and her hands. Working a lather up in her hands she started rubbing his chest, neck, and shoulders and as much of his back as she could reach, "Come on Jason, I need you to wake up, please wake up."

Maneuvering Jason to a sitting position was challenging but she needed to try and get the circulation going through as much of his body as possible. When she had him situated where she didn't fear for his sliding down and drowning she started to scrub his legs and feet and began to notice there was a little more color to his skin. She also felt the water beginning to cool, finally she poured a pitcher of water over his boxer clad nether regions. "I'm a bad person Jason, but I'm not that bad." said Casey, as she turned with a shiver to let the water out of the tub.

"T…too ba…d, I think I am," came a raspy voice from behind her as a single cold finger traced across her hip.