Lyrics are from 'Young Blood' by Birdy. I don't own the song and make no money from this story so please don't sue me!

Chapter 36

Ali pirouetted gracefully across the wooden floor of the Centre de danse du Marais' rehearsal room. She spun out in a 'perfect string of pearls' to a song emanating from the horn of an ancient Victrola in the corner. If she hadn't been so caught up in the music she might have realized that the voice coming from the instrument was not as tinny or distant as it should have been. Maybe she would have also realized that there was nothing of substance beyond the windows that were letting in light along the north wall or that there was no other sound in the room except for the music.

But Ali was not paying attention to anything as she spun and leapt about the room. She heard only the sweet cadence of the singer's voice and the gentle swell of the chords as her toes carried her across the glossy floor. The song was as clear as a church bell on sunday, filling the room, and Ali, up with its music.

We lie beneath the stars at night, our hands gripping each other tight. You keep my secrets hope to die….Ladies and Gentlemen, we're about to arrive at Missoula International airport….Promises, swear them to the sky.

The overly chipper voice interrupting the flow of music made Ali to stumble in the middle of a spanish leap. She righted herself against a nearby barre and whirled to stare at the Victrola in confusion. Nothing about the instrument appeared amiss, the song was still playing along as though nothing out of the ordinary had happened. If the strange voice hadn't come from the Victrola then where had it come from, Ali wondered? It was early on a saturday, to the best of her knowledge she was the only one in the studio. Was it possible she was going loopy from the pressure of too many performances?

Shaking off her confusion, Ali tried to clear the incident from her mind. She took a deep breath and pushed back out into the room, trying to slide back into the meditative state she had maintained so easily before. She was just rediscovering it when the voice interrupted the song again:

The bittersweet between my teeth, trying to find the in-betweens...the temperature is a balmy -9 degrees Fahrenheit and…"

Grumbling in annoyance, Ali turned to glare at the offending instrument. Was it hell bent on ruining her concentration today? She was fully prepared to to exile the damn thing to the coat closet and use her Ipod if this was what she was going to have to deal with. She spun around, expecting to see the Victrola, but started when she found herself staring at the back of an airplane seat instead. Blinking and thinking she must be going crazy, Ali ground at her eyes with the heel of her palm.

When she emerged, she discovered that the tall bay windows were gone, replaced with rows upon rows of seats. The Centre de danse du Marais had been reduced to nothing more than the economy seating of Airtran flight 5014. Hell, even the Victrola had vanished, replaced by nothing more than the music playing through her earbuds.

Ali groaned and scrubbed at her face, reality crashing in around her. For a few blessed hours she had been able to forget that she was no longer the Prima Ballerina of a prestigious dance company. She had been able to forget that she had been let go and that would no longer spend her saturdays dancing to anything, let alone a song on her Ipod. Ali had been able to forget that everything she had worked for since childhood was all for naught...because the reality was that she would never dance again. Period.

"The damage to your knee is extensive," the doctor's voice intoned from where Ali had tried to bury it in her memories,"It will no longer tolerate the stress and rigorous motion of ballet."

"What exactly are you trying to tell me?" Past Ali would ask next.

I know this will come as a huge blow after so short a career and I'm sorry to be the one to tell you this but the best hope you have is to retire from Ballet altogether."

Ali had been informed of her 'situation' several days after her calamity on the stage. When she first woke up, the nurse had only told her that an orthopedic surgeon had been called in to snap her knee back in place and repair the damaged cartilage. It had all sounded so perfunctory that she assumed it wasn't as bad as she had originally thought, that she would be performing again after a few weeks of rest. God, how wrong she had been.

"But...surely there's something we can do?" Ali exclaimed, her voice taking on a pleading note. She forced her eyes to focus on the doctor's name tag, trying to see anything other than what she saw in his face. The stark black letters flashed the name 'Bertrand' back to her.

"Physical therapy," she continued, "or-"

"Physical therapy would only help your long term range of motion. " Dr. Bertrand Interrupted, speaking patiently and grappling for a way to make her understand.

"There are a few surgeries we could do to repair the remaining damage but I'm going to level with you here, Ms. Munro," he paused long enough to take a breath before leaning back against the dresser in her hospital room,"the surgeries are expensive and the rest period between them is long; you would only pull a few more performances, if any, out of that knee before you ended up back on my operating table. All you would have to show for it would be a crippled knee and a mountain of debt."

Ali's heart jumped into her throat and her hands began to tremble. She forced them into stillness by gripping the blanket that was laying over her legs.

"Crippled-" she choked out before covering her mouth with one hand, "No, no, no, no, there must be some third option here!"

"I wish there were," Dr. Bertrand replied kindly, "and you are welcome to get a second opinion but I believe anyone you talk to will tell you the same thing. You should retire now or risk irreparable injury.

Ali couldn't speak, she could barely breathe through the enormity of what he was telling her. She wanted to deny his prognosis, bury her head in the sand and pretend that it wasn't true but she had known from the moment that her knee popped out of joint that this was it. She had allowed herself to hope that she was wrong but Dr. Bertrand was leaving no room for argument or denials. He was being kind and patient but he wasn't going to sugarcoat the situation for her.

"So that's it?" Ali whispered when she finally got her vocal chords to work again. "Everything i've worked for, the years of training and preparing...its just...over."

"You're still young," the doctor told her reassuringly, giving her a sympathetic smile, "The whole world is still open for you. You'll be surprised at how quickly you find a new dream."

"What if dancing was the only dream I ever had," she choked out, tears falling like two hot river down her cheeks, "what if I gave up everything for it? Where am I going to find your so called 'new dream' now?

Dr. Bertrand had no answer for her.

Now here she was, 3 weeks later on an airplane bound for the States, trying to figure out what to do with the rest of her life. Of course Ali had sought a second, third, and even a fourth opinion but the answers were always the same: Pay out the nose for surgeries that would never truely repair the damage or end up crippled. In the end she was forced to admit defeat, call her sister, and buy a plane ticket home.

Oh, she tried to bury herself in grief and hide from the world. She even achieved it for a while before Phillip cut her off completely. The minute she was released from the hospital and he was told she couldn't dance anymore he wasted no time replacing her. Ali would never forget that visit he made to her hotel room, the way he looked her in the face and told her he was letting her go. She had only had enough money to keep her afloat in Paris for a few months before she would have had to find some other form of employment. Who would want to hire a girl with a bum leg and a Visa that would soon expire?

Ali's thoughts were cut short by pilot making jokes over the intercom system; something about how ungodly cold it was in Montana. Nobody was listening to him, they were too busy taking their seats and adjusting their belts to pay any attention to the man's feeble attempts at humor.

Ali leaned her head against the window and sighed to see the snow blowing about on the landscape below. Her bad knee gave a preparatory twinge in its brace at the thought of going out in that cold weather. If the weather on the reservation was anything like the weather at the airport, she feared no one would be able to come get her. She certainly didn't expect anyone to be waiting for her as her flight had been rerouted several times due to fueling issues.

It wouldn't have bothered her if she had any other way to get home, Ali knew she wasn't good company for anyone right now, let alone herself. Still, she would have to find someone to come get her. She couldn't drive and taking a Taxi out to the reservation would cost a fortune.

The planes descent was rougher than she expected and the landing was bumpy; The thump of the wheels on the runway made Ali grit her teeth and give a yelp of pain as the plane bounced and skidded on the snow and ice. When it finally came to a stop, Ali heaved a sigh of relief to be done with what had turned into a 24 hour flight. Unfortunately, she still had to wait for most of the passengers to clear out before a flight attendant could bring her her crutches.

"We can call for a wheelchair if you like?" the young woman offered as she made her way down the aisle. Ali struggled to her feet and pulled a backpack out of the overhead compartment. The pretty stewardess came to a stop next her and waited patiently while she pulled on her pack.

"No, thank you," Ali said politely as she reached out for the crutches, "I'll manage, I can't be an invalid schoolgirl."

"Is there anyone meeting you?" The flight attendant inquired, concerned.

"No," Ali muttered, "there's no one waiting for me."

She pushed past the helpful woman and made her way out of the plane as quickly as possible. She didn't want to see the pity in the flight attendants eyes. She didn't want to accept her help. She just wanted to get wherever she was going to end up and sleep until the end of time. Was that so much to ask?

Thankfully, the line for customs moved quickly. It gave Ali time to stop off at a restroom and brush her teeth, relieve herself, and see if her phone would work. Since her SIM card was still a french one it would be useless in the states, so It looked like the next order of business was going to be retrieving her luggage and finding a payphone.

Once she finished in the bathroom, she made a slow, plodding path to the turnstile where her suitcase would arrive. She had packed very little to bring back with her so her suitcase was going to look pitifully small next to all the larger ones that spun like a merry-go-round in front of her. Ali watched the endless parade of luggage as it meandered around the carousel, hers taking its sweet time in appearing. There were only two or three passengers left when she finally saw and hauled it off the turnstile.

Pulling the handle up, she tried to grasp it and the hand rest on her crutch before hobbling her way over to the row of payphones lining the back wall. Digging into her backpack for some quarters, Ali punched Cora's number into the payphone from memory. Thankfully, her sister hadn't changed her number in the past 2 years.

"Hello?" Cora's familiar voice greeted after a couple of rings.

"Hey, Cor, it's me." Ali greeted, trying to sound cheerier than she actually felt.

"Alice!" her sister exclaimed, sounding surprised. "Did they actually manage to land in this white shitstorm?"

"Yeah, though it took some doing," Ali laughed, happy to hear her sister's foul language for once, "I was rerouted more times than I can count."

"Bollocks, I'll have to call around and see if I can find someone to come get you. Nate and I are snowed in here. Are there any Taxi's running?"

Ali glanced toward the doors that led out of the airport. Mostly all she saw was blowing snow.

"I don't see any but I don't think I could afford fare even if they are." Ali replied glumly, there was only forty dollars in her wallet.

"Well, sit tight, I'll see if I can get ahold of Andi or Paul." Cora said and then paused. "How are you holding up by the way?"

This question was asked cautiously, as though Ali would shatter like glass at the mere reminder of everything that had happened in the last month. By this point the whole ordeal just made her tired. She wanted it to be a year from now, hopefully by then she would feel more functional and not like the the barely contained wreck she currently was.

"I'm managing." Ali answered resignedly.

"Yeah." Cora sighed back. Ali could almost hear her sister shutting her eyes and rubbing the bridge between them. "Ok, I'm gonna get off here and try to find someone to come get you. Let me know if you can manage a cab."

Then Cora was gone and Ali was back to waiting. She made her way to receiving to ask about cabs but as she suspected, none were available and even if they had been they were way out of her price range. It looked like she would have to sit tight for a while.

Ali checked her watch, the numbers 8:00am glowed cheerily back at her. It was dinner time back in Paris, the rest of the company was probably just getting out of rehearsals and heading to Le Coutume cafe for some 'after practice' carbs. Ali pictured their red, smiling faces as they strolled down Rue de Babylone, probably poking fun at Phillip's nasally tenor and salty manner. Maybe Gage was with them; after all, he was only on suspension for concealing his shoulder injury, not fired like her.

"Only suspended." Ali muttered bitterly before trying to squash the rising resentment.

It was hard when she thought about Phillip coming to tell her she was out of the company. Oh, he had been aggrieved, putting all that dramatic french flair of his into his apology. How could he afford to keep her on, he had said, when she could no longer dance?

Gage, however, got to stay. Oh, he wouldn't get to dance for a month or so but at least he would get to try again. Meanwhile, Ali had to find a 'new dream'. She felt guilty then, for harboring such negative feelings toward Gage. The man had been as apologetic as humanly possible, even staying in the hospital with her for the first few days.

He blamed himself for the loss of her career. Ali knew Gage wished that Phillip had fired him instead, she knew he had said harsh words to him after his last visit to her hotel room. The fact remained though that Gage was still part of the company. He felt bad about his part in her situation but he had to look out for himself first. He couldn't quit the company to stand in solidarity with her, no matter how guilty he felt.

God, how she wished she could just blame him for everything but there would always be that voice at the back of her mind that whispered: You ignored the doctors advise, you pushed yourself when you knew your knee was hanging on by a thread. Gage may have been the straw that broke the camel's back but you set it all in motion!

No, she couldn't blame Gage, not completely, and that was perhaps the most bitter pill she had to swallow. She had flaunted doctors recommendations for the last two years, assuming she knew better than they did what she could and could not handle. Now she was paying the price and it was a hefty one indeed.

Ali pushed the sullen thoughts away and swallowed any angry, self pitying tears that tried to rise. No, she was stronger than this, she wouldn't start wallowing in it now. Hauling her little suitcase over to the nearest airport cafe, she ordered a coffee and tried not to think about any of the events that had led her to this point. It was hard because she didn't have much else to think about these days.

Instead she tried to decide what she would do with herself from this point onward. She knew that the Camerons would hire her again if she asked. The problem was she didn't know if she could go back to being a waitress after all this time? She supposed she could always ask Julia and David if she could teach, that would make her more money than waiting tables, and they had said she would always have a place at the Company if she wanted it.

And then there's Uncas, a little voice piped up at the back of her thoughts.

No, Ali told herself and squashed that thought before it could do anymore than whisper to her. She wasn't going to go there. Not in her mind and not in her actions either. She hadn't spoken to Uncas in over a year and she certainly wasn't going to show up at his door now and say "Well, dancing didn't work out, wanna start over?"

For all she knew, he had already moved on with someone else. Maybe a girl from the reservation who wouldn't get him in trouble with the Tribal Council. Neither Andi or Cora had mentioned anything like that, of course, but they both knew better than to tell her anything about his life. She didn't want to know, it was too painful. Now it would be even more so, knowing she had given him up for a career that had flopped in only two years.

No, Uncas couldn't be an option right now. She couldn't put that on him. What if he thought she was treating him as only second best? If she met up with him down the line and it was conceivable then they would talk but she refused to run to him for moral support now.

Ali munched on a croissant and drank her coffee but as time wore on she grew bored with sitting in the little cafe. She wandered the bookstore and gift shop for a while and finally ended up falling asleep on one of the benches. It wasn't very good sleep, interrupted frequently by people walking by and announcements on the intercom. She thought she had finally dozed off and started to dream again when she heard a familiar voice call her name.

"Ali," Uncas voice spoke gently from somewhere above her, "hey, wake up, baby!"

She felt herself smiling at the deep cadence of his voice, it had been so long since she had heard it.

"Ali!" The voice that couldn't be his called again.

Just a little longer, she prayed, not wanting this semi-dream to end just yet, just let me hold onto him for a little while longer.

"Ali," she heard again and this time, she felt a hand gently jostle her shoulder, "wake up!"

Her eyes popped open and she found herself staring up into a familiar brown face. Uncas Blackstone was looking down at her, his features somewhat strained, but no less handsome than the first day she had met him. He was even wearing the same ancient coat and a similar pair of worn out jeans.

"Oh!" Ali gasped, shooting up in her seat and upsetting her crutches in the process. They fell to the floor with an ungodly clatter.

"Easy!" Uncas said as he leaned down to gather them up. "I didn't mean to startle you."

"Oh god," her heart moaned, "ohgodohgodohgod! we're not ready for this! Retreat, run away before you embarrass both of us!"

But she couldn't retreat, not without looking like an idiot, or even worse, a coward. Besides, where was she going to go on crutches in a snowstorm?

"Um," she said, shaking her head and rubbing her eyes as she tried to find a voice that wasn't nervous and cracked, "I'm sorry, I was tired and I fell asleep...what are you…?

"Cora called me," Uncas rushed to explain, "She couldn't dig the car out. Andi is in the hospital and Paul didn't want to leave her so I offered-

"Wait, wait, wait!" Ali cut him off as the words 'Andi' and 'hospital' sunk in. "What do you mean Andi is in the hospital? What happened, is she alright?"

"Oh, crap! you've been stuck on a plane and haven't heard yet." he groaned, standing up with her crutches clutched in his long fingers. "Look, please don't let on that I told you before she had a chance because I'm about 90% sure Andi kill me but...she's pregnant! She collapsed early this morning and Paul took her to the hospital. I was there checking in when Cora called Andi's cell."

Ali's brain came to a screeching halt. Her jetlagged brain tried to make sense of the fact that her best friend was not only in the hospital but also expecting a child. What else had she missed in the 24 hours, were Cora and Nate going to be married already? Was Sinopa going to be a circus performer instead of a doctor now?

"H-how...how does that even happen?" Ali stammered. Uncas gave her his blank face.

"Uh, I'm pretty sure you know babies are made," he replied, voice deadpan, "Please don't make me explain it using Andi and Paul's sex life as an example."

"Of course I know how they're made," she said with a humorless laugh, " what I meant is that all of the Easton dancers have IUDs. You can't really get pregnant with an IUD, thats kind of the point."

"oh, that." Uncas replied and looked to the side as he tried to remember whatever he had been told. "It was my understanding that the IUD was irritating an Ovarian Cyst so Andi had to have it removed. I guess she wasn't very good about taking the pill at the same time everyday so they ended up pregnant."

"Wow," Ali replied, still trying to wrap her mind around the concept of Andi and Paul as parents "A baby. Andi and Paul are having a baby."

"I know!" Uncas agreed, laughing. "The thought of Paul as a father is terrifying to me but I think Andi's DNA will help level that kid out."

Ali couldn't help but laugh as well and before she knew it they were joking around as though nothing had changed, as though the past two years hadn't happened. Ali felt the laughter drying up in her throat when the sobering reality hit her that everything was different. She knew that this moment of connectedness was only going to last long enough for one of them to speak again and then everything would change.

If she could just hold onto it a little bit longer, she could pretend they were the same people who had laughed and loved not so long ago. She could pretend he was going to lean down and kiss her, then she would ask him what he wanted for dinner and he was going to answer 'you' and give her that look that always melted her into a puddle on the floor. She had to try and remember that he wasn't hers. Not anymore.

"Anyway," Uncas said, ending the moment as he handed her the crutches, "I told Cora I would pick you up. The roads are a mess but, thankfully, I have snow tires."

"uh-huh." she replied as she took them from him, wishing she had something more eloquent to say.

"Have you been waiting long?" He continued as she pulled the crutches up under her armpits and he reached down for her suitcase. She was glad he wasn't looking at her face, it gave her time to school her expression into one of neutrality. She was glad of the excuse to glance at her watch and she gasped to see that 4 hours had elapsed since she called her sister.

"Wow, I fell asleep and completely lost track of time," Ali answered, giving a short laugh, "looks like I've been here for quite a while."

"Yeah, sorry about that, it's pretty snowed under. The only reason I was able to get here at all was because I was already nearby."

Ali studied him as he spoke and she couldn't believe he was standing in front of her. She was so engrossed in drinking in every angle and curve of his face that she didn't hear a word he was saying. she thought her heart would break at the familiarity of his face. Ali's eyes drank in the sight of him, she roved her eyes over the tall dark beauty that her heart remembered but her mind had tried so unsuccessfully to repress. She ached to reach out and touch him, to mold herself against him and never let go.

"I missed you." she whispered without thinking. Uncas stopped speaking and gave her a questioning look.

"I'm sorry, did you say something?" He asked. Thankfully the airport was loud enough that he hadn't heard her confession clearly.

"No," she lied, clearing her throat for show, "just clearing some travel crud from my throat. Shall we?"

They made their way toward the exit and the minute that Ali stepped outside anything else she might have wanted to say was lost in the blisteringly cold wind that blew into her face.

"Holy christ on a cracker!" She cursed as the wind stabbed straight through her as though she were naked and not, in fact, covered by a heavy winter coat.

"You alright back there?" Uncas called over the wind and sounds of traffic.

She nodded, not wanting to try and speak as snow blew into her face from what felt like all sides. She hobbled numbly after him, heaving a huge sigh of relief when they finally made it to the parking garage.

"I forgot how cold it gets here!" Ali gasped as her knee gave a jolt of intense pain from the cold. She gritted her teeth as they made their way toward his truck and wished she had some Motrin. The Doctors had wanted to give her a prescription for Vicodin but she reacted badly to Opiates, motrin was about all she could handle.

"What? it doesn't snow in Paris?" Uncas joked, shooting a grin over his shoulder.

"Ha ha, you're funny!" she replied with a snort.

Uncas smiled as he loaded her suitcase into the bed of his truck. After he pulled the cover down over top of it he walked around to open the passenger side door for her. Ali hobbled over and hoped the discomfort didn't show on her face. Uncas looked at the distance from ground to seat and them at Ali's knee in its brace before nodding his head.

"Ok, then!" he said to himself. Without a word, he took her crutches and leaned them against the vehicle before hauling her up into his arms like a baby.

"Uuuuuuuuuuh, what are you doing?" she squeaked as her heart hammered in her chest at the sudden closeness. The familiar smell of him threatened to short circuit her brain. Even after all this time he still smelled of summer and sunshine and earth after the rain. He was familiarity and home all mixed into one.

"Well, unless you want me to strap you to the hood like a dead deer, this is the only way to get you into the truck." He told her as he climbed into the vehicle with her.

"right," Ali said as he deposited her in the seat, "Yeah, inside is preferable."

Uncas gave a chuckle before walking back to put her crutches in with her suitcase. while he was doing that Ali made a show of searching for her seatbelt.

Don't think about all the things we used to do in this truck, she told herself firmly, just let him get you to wherever he's taking you.

Don't think about that time you tried to have sex in here but ended up settling off the horn instead.

Don't think about the time he drove you to the clinic because you were having an asthma attack.

Don't think about-

"Where are we going to go if the reservation is snowed under?" she asked, cutting off the memories off all the things they had done in the truck. He was just climbing in and securing his own seatbelt as she fired the question at him.

"Well, for now we're heading back to the hospital. I'm under strict orders from Andi to bring you there and to not, how did she put it, 'get us both killed in snowmageddon'."

"What happens if we can't make it back to the hospital?" Ali asked, nervousness making her voice hoarse.

"Then I guess you and I get to shack up together until the storm passes." Uncas replied before jamming the key into the ignition and firing up the engine.

He had no idea how very dangerous that prospect was for her right now.

Authors note:

What was only supposed to be this chapter, another one, and an epilogue left to write has now turned into another couple of chapters. The end of this story is just changing all over the place for me! XD I really planned to wrap all this up quickly but then Andi and Paul had to go and demand their little side story here. Stupid characters and their need for page time! Oh well!

Ok, so I know I said this chapter was going to be up quicker than the last one and I really intended for that to be true but that was before I TRIED, and then FAILED, to write this one several times. Seriously, I planned to get this thing up back in October but then Uncas and Ali flat out refused to let it go the way I wanted it to. If I had given them their way, they would have had sex in the airport terminal next to the baggage claim.

Then I had to take a rather lengthy break from the story just to come up with something that didn't sound like it had out of my ass. Then christmas came...and my grandfather died...and then depression hit. Also I'm living several thousands miles away from the place that i spent the last 33 years of my life so theres been an adjustment period there.

The good news is that our house might finally be getting sold, which will be a HUGE relief if it works out. We're also starting to make some friends here which helps us feel a little more connected to the area.

Even with all the drama I broke through the writers block and have gotten the ball rolling on this thing again. I'm not going to make promises I can't keep about how quickly updates will happen but now that things are a little calmer I should be able to get moving on finishing this.

Again, thank you for sticking it out with me. i know its been a long wait. I hope you all stick around for me to finish this thing. This story has been my baby for almost...2 years i think... I'm not about to abandon it now. Happy reading and I will see you at the next update!

Songs to mention:

Young love-Birdy: makes me think of Ali and Uncas, very pretty little song.

I heard your voice in a dream-SMASH: Uncas song about missing Ali. i love this song so damn much.

A thousand and one Nights-SMASH: This is basically an everybody song. I can see all the characters singing parts of this. Its a very fun, bollywood style number.

Shut up and Dance-Walk the Moon: the most perfect song for Andi and Paul that i've ever heard. Seriously, go listen to it. It'll be stuck in your head for days.