CHAPTER ELEVEN

That evening, Michaela went in search of the children to round them up for supper. Finding everyone but Brian, she had Colleen and Matthew check around for their brother.

Not finding him in the area, Michaela began to be concerned, as dozens of scenarios flashed in her mind. She and the others looked under the beds in case he was hiding, checked the garage and the back of the SUV in case he got in there and fell asleep. Then they went outside to begin searching toward the Sully property.

Not finding him anywhere, Michaela began to panic. "Where could he be?" she voiced aloud in general, wracking her brain for ideas. Just then Sully's pickup pulled into the drive and he spotted them, immediately noticing the stricken look on Michaela's face.

Pulling to a stop, he jumped out and went to her. "Dr. Mike? What's wrong?"

"Brian's gone! I can't find him anywhere!" she burst forth, putting a hand up to her forehead and looking around frantically.

"Gone? Wh...where would he go?"

"I don't know! I don't even know how long he's been gone!" Her voice rising and starting to catch with held back tears, she looked up at Sully in panic. "I thought he had been with Colleen all day, but he wasn't. I haven't seen him for hours!"

"Ok, calm down. He's around here somewhere, we'll find him." Sully assured her.

"I just can't imagine where he would go...," she fretted, glancing around anxiously, hoping he would magically appear.

Suddenly Matthew remembered Brian's question earlier and he swallowed hard. "Umm, Mom...I didn't think about it 'till now, but earlier, Brian asked me where Cheyenne Mountain was...and come to think of it, I haven't seen him since."

Michaela's eyes widened, "Cheyenne Mountain? Oh no... surely he wouldn't... he's just a little boy – and it's only two hours before dark and it's supposed to rain tonight! My God, we've got to find him!" she squeaked, putting a hand over her mouth to hold back the tears.

Sully hastened to try and calm her, "It'll be ok, Dr. Mike, we'll..."

"We've got to call the police! We've got to find him! There are wild animals out there!" Michaela continued, her panic increasing by the second, her eyes filled with tears.

Turning her to him, Sully took her by the arms and made her look into his eyes. "Dr. Mike, we'll find him. I promise you. I'll find him."

Michaela nodded, the blue eyes beginning to work their magic on her nerves. "Um, I guess we should take the Escalade and..." "No," Sully interrupted, "if he DID get to Cheyenne Mountain, the horses will be our best bet."

Taking charge, Sully quickly issued orders to the children to go to the homestead and stay with Hannah to wait for Cloud Dancing to return. They instantly obeyed. To Michaela, he instructed that she gather some blankets and dry clothing for her and Brian, as it gets cold on the mountain when the sun goes down, even in summer.

In less than ten minutes they were on their way. Michaela, though a fairly new rider, managed to keep up with Sully as they galloped toward the mountain. They had left instructions for Matthew to call Sully's cell phone with any news. Within fifteen minutes they were at the base of the mountain, slowly climbing and frantically calling Brian's name.

Michaela was extremely worried. Brian had never run away from home before, so she had not been paying attention today and missed the signs. Guilt flooded her as she remembered her impatience with him and his sweet little face when she told him to go find something else to do. When she had gone to his room to get his jacket, she had noticed that he had taken his favorite teddy bear with him. The thought almost made her lose it completely. Her mind tortured her with pictures of him, out there somewhere, hurt, maimed by some animal, crying for her...

Sully was riddled with guilt. As soon as he'd heard the words 'Cheyenne Mountain,' he knew Brian had gone looking for him. I should have taken him with me today! Why didn't I see this coming? I saw how dejected the poor little fellow looked, but I laughed it off. God! If anything happens to him... I'll feel the guilt for the rest of my life and Michaela will hate me! The thought of Michaela blaming him made him break out in a cold sweat and he redoubled his efforts to find the child, scanning the bushes and trees, yelling at the top of his voice Brian's name over and over...

An hour into their search, Sully's phone rang. Heart pounding, he quickly pulled his horse to a halt and answered, Michaela hanging on to every word. "Thank God!" Sully exclaimed, "he's home!" Putting a hand up to stop her as she started to bombard him with questions, he was about to ask who found him, but his phone went dead. Looking at it in disbelief, he reluctantly had to tell Michaela that the battery was completely down. She started to reach for her phone, but to her chagrin, remembered she had put it on the charger that morning. "But at least we know he's alright," he told her; relieved to see most of the tension of the last two hours leave her countenance.

Under the pressure of looking for Brian, neither of them had noticed the fast moving clouds quickly approaching their position. Now as they sat atop their horses half way up the mountain, the storm seemed to materialize all at once. The wind seemed to come out of nowhere and lightning flashed overhead, thunder quickly following.

Michaela turned frightened eyes toward Sully, immediately noticing his unrest.

"We need to get down off this mountain. Now." Sully said, turning his horse to head back down and motioning for Michaela to follow.

Picking their way through the tree limbs blowing in the wind, Sully turned in his saddle to yell something to Michaela just as lightning struck a tree in front of them. Both of their horses reared up in fright. Sully, being more experienced, was able to hold on to his mount, but Michaela wasn't so fortunate. When the horse rose up, she lost her grip and fell backward, landing awkwardly and painfully on her left side.

"Michaela!" Sully yelled over the noise of the storm and jumped down from his horse to go to her, being careful to keep hold of his reins and catch hers, too.

Kneeling next to her, he asked, "Are you alright?"

Holding her left arm with tears in her eyes, she shook her head and tried to sit up. "Is it broke?" Sully asked, helping her to sit.

"I...I'm not sure. I don't think so," she stammered, wiping her hair back from her face with the back of her right hand.

"Do you think you can ride?"

Michaela nodded and tried to stand, but winced when she felt a sharp pain in her ankle. "Oh no, I think I sprained my ankle, too!" She gasped, almost falling, but Sully caught her.

Sully looked around anxiously, trying to figure the best course of action and kicking himself for getting Dr. Mike into this situation. "Well, we can't stay here and get soaked. There's a cave not too far from here, we could take shelter there."

"But how can I...?"

"I'll carry you," Sully offered, wrapping the two horses' reins around his hand and scooping her up before she could protest. "Hang on, it's not too far."

Too tired and in too much pain to argue, Michaela settled herself in Sully's arms, hiding her face against his neck for protection from the wind. It felt so nice to just let him take care of her and be in charge. She felt so safe with him, like she could trust him with her life. In spite of the pain, she felt that now-familiar tingle his touch produced in her, enjoying the masculine scent of his neck and hair. She found herself fighting the urge to press her lips to the spot just below his ear, her mind playing images of herself sighing, "Oh, Sully..."

Sully trudged on in the wind, squinting his eyes against flying debris as he made his way to the small cave he had found once on a hunting trip. Several times he saw small branches flying toward them and turned around just in time, taking the full brunt of the assault with his own back to save Michaela from harm. Finally he spotted the cave about twenty yards ahead. Holding her close, he murmured in her ear, "There it is, just a little further."

She nodded and clutched him tighter as he shifted her up in his arms.

Reaching the cave, he saw that it was a little smaller than he remembered, having a low ceiling only about four feet high. The cave measured about eight feet wide and went about six feet deep, narrowing to a point at the back. Sully bent low and carried her inside, carefully setting her down.

"I'll be right back, gotta take care of the horses," he told her, already backing out before she could answer.

Looking around as she settled herself the best she could, she momentarily thanked God that Sully knew about this little cave, already feeling better just being out of the wind. Reaching her good hand up to feel how wild her hair had gotten in the wind, she was glad, at least, that she had put it back in a braid that morning.

Rain started to come down as Sully struggled to remove the saddles from the horses and bring in their blankets and other things. Quickly he deposited one saddle at the other end of the cave from Michaela, then went back to get the other and do the same. He had tied the horses' reins securely to a low branch near the cave, hoping the storm didn't last too long.

Crouching down, he tossed the blankets and coats inside next to her, "One more thing I wanna do," he told her before she could ask. Taking the tomahawk that always hung in a loop attached to his saddle, he quickly cut several bushy branches from hereby trees and lay them at the mouth of the cave as a windbreak.

"Sully, come inside!" Michaela called out to him.

"I will, just wanna cut a few more of these," he yelled back.

"We have enough, come on in! Don't be stubborn!" she returned.

Grinning, he placed the last one at the entrance, then crawled around them to the inside, pulling the branches up securely. Inside the cave was quite dark, they could barely see each other, but at least it was a little quieter. "It's an old habit," he joked in response to her last statement.

She chuckled softly. "Give it up."

"Yes, ma'am," he murmured, suddenly very conscious of their close proximity. "How' ya feeling?" he asked reaching out to carefully touch her arm.

"Dull ache," she replied, wincing a little as she tried to get into a more comfortable position. "Thank you for carrying me all that way. It seems so foolish now that we did all this only to learn that Brian was already found."

"Well, we sure didn't know that when we started out, and if he was up here, he'd be scared to death in this storm."

"Yes. I can't imagine for the life of me why he would do such a thing. He's never run away before."

At that, Sully felt a pang of guilt. "Um, Dr. Mike, it might be my fault."

"You're fault? And by the way...you may call me Michaela...you did it once before..."

"I did?"

"Yes, out there, after I fell from the horse, don't you remember?" she teased him.

He grinned and shook his head, "Oh yeah, so I did...do you mind?"

She laughed softly. "Of course not. I should have told you to before this. And what do you mean, your fault."

"Well...I shoulda taken better notice of how he was acting this morning when he said he wanted to go with me. Seems he's taken quite a shine to hanging around with me," he answered humbly.

"Yes, he has. I hope you don't mind...David was never a father to him, so he's had no real male attention his whole life. I'm afraid you've become his hero. He idolizes you, Sully."

"Well...he's a great kid. I don't mind him feelin' like that...I just don't see myself as the hero type," he added.

They sat quietly for a few moments, then Sully offered, "Well, I think we need to see about making ourselves more comfortable, we don't know how long this storm will last. Could be here all night," he added, visions of that prospect flashing in his mind, but he tamped them down.

He then set about spreading blankets and getting her settled. Also, he helped her check her arm and ankle, both relieved that they were only sprained.

"If you look in the bag I brought along, you'll find an ACE bandage in there. We can cut it in half and wrap the parts around my arm and ankle...if you'll help me," she added shyly.

"Sure."

After taking care of her injuries, they settled down near each other to try and wait out the storm, each wondering what they would do if they ended up having to spend the night alone out there...and what would people think?