I absolutely had to come over here to fangirl over Richelle's VA tv series announcement and I couldn't do that without bringing you a chapter now could I?

Trying not to get my hopes up too high just yet but *Michael Scott voice* I am ready to get hurt again. Sound off in the reviews or drop me a DM if you too are losing your shit.

This newfound fragile peace lasted right up until the week we were supposed to leave the station for the winter. The work was fulfilling and despite the unexpected company, I felt that was I was doing really mattered. I'd miss the research station and all its quirks when I went back to the States for the winter.

I'd just come back from lunch and was ready to get on with digitising the last of Art's notes when the lab door was thrown open. A paper stack blew over as an arctic breeze blustered in.

"What the fuck-" I turned to give the newcomer a piece of my mind, but stopped when I saw Mikhail's ashen face. My skin prickled even before the cold air got underneath my sweater. "What's happened?"

Mikhail's mouth worked for a moment before he found his words. "Sonya. I- she needs me to come home."

Mikhail had recently confided in me that Sonya had bipolar disorder, and the panic on his face was something I'd felt a hundred times before. I was out of my chair in a heartbeat. "What do you need?"

"I've got a flight out of Cherskiy this evening, but I need to leave now. I'm so sorry Rose, I was supposed to be your ride out on Friday."

"It doesn't matter. I'll find someone else." I waved him into my seat, ignoring the fact that most people had already left the station. I could worry about that later. "Have you booked your connecting flight yet?"

He shook his head. "I came straight here after speaking to the crew at Cherskiy."

"I'll get you a flight back to Lexington. Have you packed?" When he shook his head again, looking dazed, I pushed my lukewarm cup of hot chocolate into his hands then grabbed my phone. I might be able to keep my head in a crisis, but there was someone else whose efficiency would be even more helpful here. Fortunately, he picked up on the first ring. "Can you come to the lab?"

Dimitri arrived just as I confirmed the payment for the flight (thanks, Dr Shoenberg's credit card) and Mikhail was on the phone with a friend back home to ask for a ride from the airport. It was clear he'd run from whenever he'd been working. His face was flushed with exertion as well as the cold, and his hair was a mess.

He looked incredible.

Tearing my eyes from the unfairly gorgeous scientist and back to the distraught one, I hoped my voice didn't betray my sudden distraction. "Dimitri, Mikhail needs to get to the airport. Can you help him pack then give him a lift out there?"

"I can drive myself," Mikhail protested.

"And then who would bring the car back?" I snapped with a little more force than I had intended. Dimitri's dishevelled appearance had rattled me. After a deep breath and a reminder that my love life (or lack thereof) was not important here, I tried again. "You can drive there, and Dimitri can drive the truck back here once he's dropped you off. You'll save time." And if Dimitri's presence kept Mikhail from racing to the airport at breakneck speed, then all the better.

I sensed that Dimitri was trying to catch my eye, probably to get an idea of what exactly was going on, but I kept staring at Mikhail. He would have guessed the broad strokes of the matter by now, and if not, he'd have plenty of time to catch up with Mikhail in the car. I could practically feel his eyes slip from the back of my head as he decided to leave it be.

"Come on Misha," he said quietly, the gentle use of the nickname startling Mikhail into action. Dimitri freed the mug he still cradled in white fingers. He held it out to me, and I was tricked into looking away from Mikhail to take it. "Will you explain to Art?"

I would have agreed, but Mikhail interrupted me. "The samples! Art needed me to classify the communities before I left."

I risked a look at the stacked Petri dishes on Mikhail's desk. Honestly, there was more than a week's work there anyway. He'd have needed to stay up nights to identify all the microbial cultures before we left on Friday. I sent up a quick prayer to whoever was in charge of doling out karma before I spoke.

"Don't worry, I'll do it. I need to find a new ride anyway, so I'll stay on a little longer to finish both our work and leave with the last group."

Mikhail didn't look convinced. "But you're not a microbiologist…"

"Down to choice, not inability. I studied it at college; I just wanted to work with creatures I could see without a microscope."

"It's true. Top of her class, remember?" Dimitri smiled at me affectionately. I imagined an eagle swooping into my stomach to destroy the traitorous butterflies that fluttered in response. "I'm going to be one of the last ones to leave, so she can ride with me. I'll help with the workload too- paperwork, not bacteria. Leaning over the microscope makes my neck ache like you wouldn't believe."

With another small but heart-stopping smile, Dimitri escorted Mikhail from the lab. I was left with an empty mug and the oddest impression that Dimitri was actually pleased by the thought of spending time alone with me. Maybe staring at microscopic organisms for the next week would be good for me; humans were altogether too hard to make sense of.

When I woke up, I knew something wasn't right. For a moment, I passed it off as the oddity of having a room to myself. Serena had left a couple days ago, and I hadn't quite got used to it yet. Then my brain woke itself up with a jolt.

Silence. That was what was wrong.

The Arctic wind is loud. The hum of diesel generators is loud. Twelve people sharing a single living area is loud. Yet I could hear none of those things.

The lack of people made sense- there were only four of us still at the station. But I could find no explanation for the rest of it.

A knock at my door broke the eerie silence and almost gave me a heart attack. With my blankets cocooned around me, I rolled out of bed and shuffled across the room.

Dimitri stood on the other side of the door wearing his warmest coat. He looked anxious. It was the same expression he'd worn when we broke up.

"There's a storm coming in. I'm sorry, Rose. The last flight out of Cherskiy left this morning. They've closed the airport for the season."

"Wait. So, I'm going to be stuck here alone all winter?" Could I still be asleep? I willed myself to wake up.

But no, this was a waking nightmare. I wasn't convinced we even had enough food to survive the season.

Oh, God. I wasn't going to be stuck here all winter, we were. Me, Dimitri, and the two staff whose jobs it was to keep the station running. At least they were from Cherskiy; they'd be working two weeks on; two weeks off shifts. Dimitri and I couldn't stay in the town- we didn't have permits. I would be stuck here for months, and the only other person that spoke reasonable English was my ex-boyfriend.

I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

Dimitri saw me start to spiral and put on his most reassuring voice. "I've spoken to Art. He thinks we can drive to Yakutsk before the snow closes that airport, too."

Art, who had left yesterday. Art, who had offered me his plane ticket. I'd refused, knowing that the plane ride home was the last few hours he'd get to spend with Tamara until the spring.

Art, who'd clearly let heartbreak go to his head.

"Dimitri, there are no roads out of this fucking place. Not even you can drive cross-country over the mountains."

"Not mountains. Art told me that the rivers should have frozen over by now. Trucks use them to bring in supplies from Yakutsk, so there's no reason we can't use them too."

"Have you actually gone mad? We can't drive on rivers."

"Frozen rivers," Dimitri repeated, as if that made all the difference, though I saw his calm façade crack just a little.

"Oh my god. You're serious." I pulled my duvet tighter around myself.

As crazy as this scheme sounded, I was beginning to realise that we didn't have another choice. We could hypothetically stay here if we rationed the food and got lucky with the weather, but there was an equal chance of the generator failing or the supplies failing to get through.

"Rose." Dimitri placed a hand on my blanket-swaddled arm. I shuddered and hoped the thick duvet disguised it. "Do you trust me?"

I looked into those dark brown eyes and felt the years fall away. "Yeah. I do."

"Are you sure? Because we can't do this if not. I won't do this."

"Dimitri, I trust you. I know you wouldn't try this if you didn't think it was safe." I also knew that there wasn't another person on the planet that could convince me to drive across frozen rivers.

His hand tightened on my shoulder, and in a moment of weakness, I let myself fall into him. His free arm came around me in a hesitant hug before he drew me closer.

He was freezing, but I didn't pull away. Right now, so far from home and facing such uncertainty, I needed this comfort. He reminded me of summer days and a time when anything had been possible.

"It'll take about a week to reach Yakutsk. Pack light, but make sure you've got enough warm clothes. And blankets." Dimitri's breath stirred my hair, reminding me that it probably looked like some small animal were nesting in it. I pulled back and ducked quickly inside my wardrobe, face flushed.

"Yeah, I've seen Ice Road Truckers. Are we taking the Tank?" That was what we affectionately named the huge yellow ATV the station kept for extended expeditions and emergencies. It was seriously old, possibly Soviet, but still chugged along like an armoured version of the rusty trucks back in Montana.

A single silver lining appeared, and I dared to look back at Dimitri to gauge his reaction. "Are you going to let me drive it?"

I could see him struggling to keep a smile in check. "If we're going to make it home sometime this year, then yes, we'll have to drive in shifts."

We might die on his journey, but hey, at least I'd get to drive.

I regretted my insistence on driving within minutes of being behind the wheel.

Don't get me wrong, I love to drive. The freedom of knowing you can go wherever you want, the undeniable right to be in charge of music as the driver, it all made me happy, even when driving my shitty truck back home.

This was not a shitty truck. It was possibly the coolest vehicle I had ever seen, let alone sat in, and also the most enormous.

Driving a veritable tank along a frozen river was also difficult and absolutely fucking terrifying.

Dimitri had offered me the first shift behind the wheel, which I'd thought was him being nice to me to compensate for the awkwardness of us being stuck in a confined space. I soon realised it was because he'd known I'd freak out, and wanted us to still have the option to turn back.

"We could try and wait out the winter at the station," he said for the third time in as many minutes. "You don't have to do this."

"Yeah, I do, because I want to go home." I flinched as I felt something crunch beneath the giant tyres. When I checked my mirror, I saw it was just a stick, not a massive crack in the ice about to send us to a watery grave.

"I can take over the driving if you'd like."

"How is that going to help? I'm worried about the ice breaking, and you driving won't change that. The Tank is still just as heavy, and the ice just as thin!"

Dimitri raised his hands in surrender, and I realised I'd been shouting. Jesus. We'd been on the road for under half an hour and we were already fighting. I closed my eyes for a millisecond and forced myself to breathe.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to yell. If I just had something to distract me, I'd chill out a bit." Something other than my blindingly gorgeous ex, that is. "I don't suppose there's a CD player in here?" There was no chance of an aux cord, and it wasn't like there was local radio. Playing music from my phone would be an irresponsible waste of battery.

"I think this thing was built before CDs. I did find the stereo in the back when I was packing, but it only had one tape in it."

"Which was?"

"The Buggles." He smirked at my blank stare. "Video Killed the Radiostar?"

I let my head drop onto the steering wheel. "You'd have to kill me first."

"How about a game?"

"Like what, I Spy? The only options for that are snow and ice."

"There are about a hundred words for snow in Russian. That could kill some time."

"I know exactly one of those words. We'll have to think of something else."

Three hours later, we were both singing Video Killed the Radiostar at the top of our lungs. I'd caved and suggested it because I thought it might break the tension, but my plan had one flaw. Despite expressing my hatred of the song earlier, that was more to do with old music in general, not the song itself. I'd never really listened to the lyrics, and I sort of wished I had. They were a little too on the nose. In my mind and in my car, we can't rewind, we've gone too far.

Okay, so the song wasn't literally about a breakup, but it sure sounded like it. If I'd known, I would have thrown the damn tape out the window.

The gods of music must have been on my side, for after the tenth time or so Dimitri attempted to rewind the tape, it got jammed up. Despite whipping out a pencil and trying to coax the reel back into its proper place, the tape was dead.

"If video killed the radio star, who are we blaming for the untimely demise of the cassette?" I joked.

"I think it died of natural causes."

"I suppose it did reach a ripe old age. We'll hold a funeral for it once we're back on terra firma."

We stopped for lunch and to stretch our legs, then Dimitri switched into the driver's seat and I grasped the opportunity to take a nap. I couldn't feel so uncomfortable if I were unconscious, right?

By the time we switched back again, it was dark (like it is for most of the day when heading into an arctic winter), and obviously Dimitri's turn to sleep. He didn't, though. He insisted on staying up for another hour or so to make sure I felt confident driving in the darkness. I was kind of touched by the gesture, so of course I had to make a big deal out of it.

"So, what, you don't trust me to drive at night?"

He looked at me like I was crazy. "Of course not. You were nervous earlier, so I thought you might be now. I was trying to be nice."

"I don't need you to be nice. I need you to treat me like a capable adult."

He didn't bother fighting anymore, instead resting his head on a balled-up sweater and pretending to go to sleep. I knew he wouldn't, though. He'd stay awake even though I was being a bitch, just so he'd be there if I needed him.

It was things like this that meant I had to keep pushing him away. Since working at the station, even while doing my best to avoid him, I knew I was in serious danger of falling for him all over again. Maybe Adrian was right, and I'd never really stopped.

With that stupid song still stuck on repeat in my head and nothing but an endless swath of white illuminated by the Tank's headlights, there was nothing to distract me from traitorous thoughts. Instead of fighting them, I pretended that Lissa was here to talk through my feelings with me. Even that came with a wave of guilt, though. Lately I had been cutting short or totally dodging our weekly phone calls to avoid her questions about Dimitri.

If I died out here, she was going to find a way to bring me back to life just so she could kill me herself.

Please excuse any typos, I have an injured hand and I can't type properly but I just HAD to get a chapter out.

I'm interested to hear who you'd like to see cast in the series assuming all goes ahead. My original fancasts are now too old (not that Henry Cavill wouldn't still make an excellent Dimitri) and I need new possibilities to obsess over. Let the madness begin (again).