The Wings of Love

Chapter V

**********************

          Piper woke up with a start, without knowing exactly why, but with a fear gripping her insides. In spite of the early hour, she could not go back to sleep. Shook, she dressed up and went out of the cottage, stumbling on Leo, which had apparently not slept a wink. He looked haggard and worried. This did nothing to comfort Piper.

"Good morning," she said, without enthusiasm.

"You are up early," he replied, trying to sound more joyous than he felt.

"I couldn't sleep anymore. I had the most awful sensation…"

Leo grimaced in sympathy.

"Are you ok?"

"I'll be fine, but I'm worried about Phoebe. Do you think that they will make it alright?"

Leo looked toward the forest with a sigh:

"We have to hope so…"

         

          Phoebe thought that everything happened at once very fast and slow. One moment, the soldier was pulling her away; the next, his gun was at the ready, and she had no difficulties guessing toward whom. She had no idea where she pulled it from, but in that instant, she kicked the gun out of the soldier's hand. It was too late however to prevent him from shooting. The sound seemed to explode in her ears, while she imagined that Cole must have been hit. Then, almost simultaneously, another shot resounded, followed by a muffled scream. Again, without thinking, she pushed the soldier away from herself and turned toward Cole, relieved to see him only holding his arm, but still keeping his gun pointed at two of the soldiers. One of them had obviously been the one shot, as he lied on the forest floor, unmoving. In the semi-darkness, she could not tell if he was still alive. She anxiously reported her attention to Cole, only to see the first soldier getting to his feet and going after Cole.

Afterward, she would ask herself how she could have been so bold. However, in the moment, she never even doubted, as she dashed toward the soldier, passed Cole, who seemed transfixed by her reaction.  The German soldier obviously had not expected such resistance from a woman, because he stopped short at her advance, and barely defended himself as she kicked him in the groin, sending him back on the ground, almost folded in two and moaning in pain.

Cole finally reacted to this, and, still holding his arm, he signaled to the other soldier standing to join the first one. The gun barrel easily overcame the language barrier and this one did not hesitate to comply.

"Wow, lady, I would not have thought that you had it in you!" He exclaimed then.

Phoebe wanted to give him some smart reply, but now that the adrenaline was going back to a normal level, she could not find her voice. In fact, she thought that her legs were made of lead, and only her worry for Cole gave her the strength to move back toward him, intent on treating the wound.

"Don't worry about it," he said, as soon as she tried.

She was still trying to lift up his sleeve, but he pulled away.

"I said that I'd be fine," he uttered, suddenly irritated, "we have bigger problems than this scratch, if you know what I mean," he added, since she was getting upset.

Unfortunately, this little discussion had distracted him long enough for the first soldier to pull a knife out of his boot, as he was getting up. When Cole looked back, the man was already moving fast toward Phoebe. Seeing what his companion was doing, the second one was dashing for the gun left on the ground. Cole saw that he had no option and pushed Phoebe rudely aside, shooting both men quickly.

Phoebe screamed, at first frightened, and then horrified.

"What did you do?"

Cole was too shocked himself to answer right away. In the heat of the moment, he had not hesitated. However now, looking at the men lying on the ground, he felt noxious at what he had done. For the length of his army time, he had never seen a man dying by his hand. Yet, in these short instants, three men had. Granted, the first one had been mostly an accident in reaction, and he could claim self-defense for these two as well.  Nevertheless, this shook him to the core of his being, and Phoebe's reproaches did nothing to help.

"What kind of a monster are you? I should have known that all of you pilots are just stupid out of control cowboys."

Phoebe was very upset, and until then, she had only stared at the inert bodies of the soldiers. However, Cole's lack of response made her look back. He seemed transfixed, with the gun still pointed in the soldiers' direction. As she looked, he slowly let his arm fall to his side, unflinching, and Phoebe sensed that she might have gone too far in her reaction.

"Captain?"

He frowned slightly, but did not answer.

Nevertheless, when Phoebe tried to apologize for her outburst, he stopped her.

"We have to go," he said hoarsely.

As quickly as her anger had deflated, it came back.

"You want to leave them like this?"

Cole cleared his throat, obviously trying to contain himself:

"The shots will have been heard from far away, even possibly by their unit."

"Unit?"

"You did not think that those guys were alone around here, did you."

As he was saying this, he moved toward the field and looked out, expecting soldiers to be coming fast. Indeed, he saw something moving, but that was at the other end of the field.

"And here they are…" he said with a hint of fatality to his voice. Then, he added more firmly, "We still have time. Let's go!" This while turning back toward the woods, but again in the opposite direction to the cottage…

Phoebe stood unmoving, however.

"What are you waiting for?" Cole asked irritably when he realized that she was not following.

She was looking back at the body with obvious uncertainty. Exasperated, he called back to her:

"Hey, they will take care of them. We don't have time to worry about burials…"

The comment put an end to her hesitations.

"Shouldn't we return to the others before we get into more trouble?"

Firmly this time, he answered:

"I said that I would found out if we were going in the right direction, and I will not go back until I know…"

Phoebe bit her lips, tempted to get angry at his attitude. However, an idea had already formed in her mind in the event that he would say this.

"Then, maybe we should do something to be less conspicuous."

This took him by surprise:

"What the hell do you mean?" He asked, even if he suspected.

"When in Rome…"

"You cannot be serious," he said, looking back at the dead soldiers with an appalled expression.

"Do you have any idea what they do to military personal who do this sort of things? We would be summarily shot as spies, but not before they had tortured us…"

In spite of his alarmist comments, she decisively turned to the first soldier and bending over him, she began undoing his uniform, as she answered.

"Well, from the look of things earlier, I would say that we were not in a very good situation either. If we keep to ourselves, I am sure that we can stay out of trouble… After all," she added, "we are not after any big military secret…"

He sighed heavily, but since she was already doing it, he reluctantly came back and bent toward the second fallen soldier.

Even then, he hesitated still. He looked back, as she had almost removed the tunic from the other one already. She seemed so calm and composed.

"How do you do it?"

"Do what?" She asked, not slowing down her task.

"I thought that you would be a little more squeamish at this…"

"I am a nurse, and even if do not like it, I have seen dead people before…"

"I guess," he answered.

She felt that he was uncertain and looked up.

"You should hurry," she said then, "you told me yourself that we did not have much time."

When he was not reacting still, she added:

"Do not tell me that you cannot do that…"

He shrugged with a hint of embarrassment.

"I…Well, I cannot say that I have seen many dead people this close myself…"

Phoebe returned to her grim task, while pursuing:

"I knew that they pampered pilots but this is ridiculous…maybe the next time you shoot a plane down, you will realize that it was not only a machine or a game score…"

He was angry with her for this, but in truth, the thought had already crossed his mind. He simply did not like to hear it from her.

Still, he knew that time was not on their side and he surmounted his reluctance, undressing the second soldier as fast as he could.

Once they were done however, another thought hit him.

"You know, when they see those two half naked bodies, I do not think that it will take them long to figure out what happened…"

"Maybe so, but hopefully by then, we will have put some distance between them and us. Let's not lose any more time," she said again. This time she was the one in a hurry, and she did not turn back to see if he was behind her.
Cole gave one last look to the dead men, and then he followed her quickly.

 

          That afternoon, they found what they were looking for, even though they had spent the day constantly watching their back. Fortunately, no one followed them, and they found a road, running along the course of a wide river. About a mile down that road, they found a sign indicating that this river was the Rhine. This was the best bet that they had at finding a way out.

"If I am not mistaken," Cole said, "this river runs all the way toward Switzerland. There is not much combat on that border, and I am sure that we could cross it."

"Switzerland? Are we even sure how far this is?"

"A good way I would say, but maybe once the others are with us, we could try to steal a few vehicles…"

"Hum," Phoebe said dubiously.

He ignored her doubts, and signaled instead that they should go back.

On their way, they were even more wary, as they were coming too close for comfort to the site of the attack. Indeed, as night was falling, Cole stopped short at one point, lifting his hand to stop her as well. Phoebe took a deep breath, suddenly more worried.

Although, it seemed to be coming from a ways, they distinctly heard voices, and cracking sounds that echoed in the forest.

"Huh, huh," Cole uttered. "I think that we should find a place to hide, and quickly." Then, turning to her:

"Unless, you think that we can try our luck at fooling these guys?"

Phoebe shrugged, and he gave her a short but satisfied smile. This, even as he carefully moved toward the thicker part of the woods…

Whoever was coming did not make any effort to conceal their advance, and this served their purpose very well, as they most certainly would not hear Cole and Phoebe.

They had moved about a hundred feet painfully, as the woods were getting thicker for every step, when Cole stopped again. It was almost completely dark except for the moonlight, and Phoebe nearly bumped into him. She grunted irritably, but he ignored it.  Instead, he was looking down and to the side of them closely.

"What is it," she whispered, now more curious than irritated.

"Come with me," he answered shortly.

Instead, she watched him moving away for about ten feet and seemingly disappear…

She was so surprised that she almost called to him. She stopped herself just in time. Then, she watched the spot where he had vanished in bewilderment, until she saw him again, almost jumping out of her skin.

He gestured impatiently for her to follow, and this time, she cautiously did.

Once she got closer, she saw what had happened, but she was amazed that he might have found this in the dark.

"How did you...?" she asked, while contemplating the mouth of a cavern with an entrance barely large enough to let them in.

"It looked darker than the rest," he simply answered, pulling her toward the cave.

Phoebe did not like this very much, but it was still better than staying in the open at the mercy of a search party.

Cole could not really tell her that he had felt an irresistible pull toward this cave. He had not even really seen it, but had known of it almost instinctively. The situation again kept him from dwelling on this strange event. As they entered the cave, they found it to be cramped and damp. There was just enough room for them to sit and wait however.

Phoebe then watched the opening of the cave anxiously.

"You should try to get some sleep," Cole said, "I will watch out for them…"

Phoebe could not help the crack:

"Like you did this morning?"

The cave was darker than the surrounding, but he still thought that he saw a little smile floating on her lips, and simply kept the offended reply to himself.

"Anyway," she pursued, "I might as well take the first watch. I am too nervous to sleep…"

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. I will wake you up in a few hours." Then, as an afterthought, "and don't worry, I will not fall asleep on the job…"

This time, he distinctly heard the mocking tone, but even if it was a little hard on his pride, he refrained from reacting to it. As he settled down, he could not help touching her, as there was very little room to maneuver in this place. For a moment, he had an almost irresistible urge to pull her toward him, particularly that he thought he felt her reacting at his touch. However, she kept her eyes toward the cave entrance, and he decided that he must have imagined it. Even as he felt himself drifting into sleep, he could not help being disappointed by this.

Phoebe had felt a pleasant chill at his touch but she tried her best to quash the urge to turn to him.  It reminded her with a little discomfort of the awkward moment this morning when they had changed into the German uniforms.

He had acted as a gentleman by turning his back to her while she changed, surprising her. However, she had not been too certain that he would keep his promise and watched him herself.

In spite of her, she had admired his strong body, his muscles rippling as he was changing, and only when he had called to know if she was done, had she managed to pull herself away from the contemplation. Before answering, she had quickly finished changing, looking away. However, the red coloring of her cheeks was still very much obvious when he turned to her.

The amused smile that had formed on his lips at that moment told Phoebe that he had noticed and it only increased her embarrassment, as she avoided his stare and moved away without a word. For a long time afterward, she had felt very self-conscious, but to her relief, he had not said anything about it. Even now, Phoebe could feel her cheeks warming up at the thought, and she did not know what she would have done if he had insisted.

The sounds of a group of people approaching noisily grew rapidly louder, and this interrupted her train of thought. She distinctly heard them beating the bushes, no doubt searching for anyone lying there in hiding. Silently, she thanked Cole and their luck for this cave, as the search party moved away. Only then did she allow herself to breathe normally. She had been tempted to shake Cole awake, but had feared that if he uttered a sound, it might have alerted the soldiers.

She listened intently for a long moment still, but no one else came, and at last, she let herself relax.  In the returning quiet, she could hear Cole' steady breathing, telling her that he had slept through. For a short moment, she felt irritation at this, but she knew that like her, he must have been exhausted. Only nerves were keeping her awake at this point.

Again, she concentrated on the forest's noises, and almost jumped when Cole's arm came to rest around her waist. She almost protested, but saw that he was still sound asleep. If at first, she felt uncomfortable at this, she soon realized that she felt good in his arms, and she almost pulled away, ashamed at her own reaction. The night was very cold however, and at last, she rationalized that they would keep each other warm this way.

         

          A few hours later, Cole woke up slowly, feeling the hard floor of the cave and wondering where he was for a moment. His arm was still wrapped around Phoebe. When he became aware of this, he also remembered where he was, and almost pulling away.  Nevertheless, it felt so right that he simply prolonged the moment, still pretending to be asleep and enjoying her proximity, even if with a little remorse at his trickery. He could recall her expression of the morning, and how he had let himself think for a moment that she might be interested. Even now, holding her, he wondered why this should matter so much to him…

Phoebe was fighting sleep and had been about to wake him, but it did not take her long to notice the change in his breathing. She knew that he was already awake, yet she did nothing to show it at first. After the awkwardness of the first few minutes, she had felt safe in his arms, and she was not ready to let it go. She knew that the moment she acknowledged him, she would try to deny this feeling.  She was almost tempted to let herself fall asleep in turn instead, but her pride would not let her, as he would surely have mocked her about it.

Reluctantly, she pulled his arm off her, knowing that he was only letting her. She worried that he would try something more, but he continued the pretense, as she then uttered:

"Hey, it's your turn."

He gave a very good show of waking up, and then:

"Well, and there I thought that I would catch you sleeping…"

She should have been upset with him for this little trick. Nevertheless, she could not…

Half-heartedly, she bantered:

"Now we know who is the most reliable here…"

He knew that she had not really meant it this time. There was a quality about her voice, something different. He almost asked her about it, but already, she was lying back, and closed her eyes in turn. Until then, he had ostensibly looked away, apparently already concentrating on the watch, but as soon as he thought that she was asleep, he turned toward her. She had taken off the glasses, and in the beam of moonlight that came in through the cave's entrance, he could see the soft features that had struck him only two days earlier at the crash site. She was so beautiful. He still could not believe that he had not seen it before.

Even so, he wondered if his appreciation of her appearance was truly because of her beauty or simply because of what he had felt even before he knew.

He had been aware from the start that there was a connection of sort between them, which had not gone well with him. He was accustomed to be able to choose, as he had never had any problems getting any girl to like him. So why, he had asked himself, would I want anything to do with an ugly duckling like this woman? Ever since he had found her to be a swan, he had felt an increasing shame at his own superficial judgment. Even more so when he had realized that Clay, of all people, saw what he would not, and went for her. Until he had awakened with her in his arms, he had still believed that she would never let him close. She would have had every right, considering the way he had treated her. He did not really know why he reacted so badly toward her, but only knew that every single reproach she gave him, however small, were almost physically painful to him.

In her sleep, she smiled softly and he felt the intense desire that this smile be for him alone. Without thinking, he slowly bent toward her. However, before he could touch her lips, the strange shimmering began again.

He found himself strangely hiding behind a tree, from where he observed the same girl he had seen at the farm earlier, with the man called Clint. He had no idea who they really were, but as they embraced, he became almost physically ill with jealousy.

He saw the other man from the farm coming toward them, obviously just as angry. Leo was close behind him trying to restrain him.

"Richard, calm down!"

"Calm down," he questioned angrily, turning halfway toward him still walking fast,  "this bastard is putting ideas in her head and stealing her from me!"

"Richard, he was not the one who put Daisy in your arms last night!"

"You know perfectly well that she came to me, not the reverse."

Leo tried his best to keep his voice down, as they were closing in on the couple.

"Nevertheless, that is not what it looked like to Amelia…"

Richard stopped short:

"I could have explained it to her if Clint had not taken her away. He filled her head with lies about me…"

Leo could not help showing his dubiousness:

"Richard…Were you not the same man who told me only a week ago that you did not need love in your life?"

Richard shrugged angrily, but still turned back toward the couple.

He began calling:

"Amelia! Please Amelia, you have to listen to me!"

The girl turned toward him with obvious anger in her eyes.

"There is nothing more to say. Clint warned me about you, but I did not want to hear it."

Richard seemed desperate:

"I swear to you, it was not what it looked like."

"So, you are saying that it was not you with this…this girl," she spat, "kissing her like there was no tomorrow."

The shameful expression that appeared on his face apparently sufficed to convince Amelia.

"I know that until we are out of this mess, I have no choice but to see you. However, I do not want you to touch me or talk to me ever again. When we escaped this accursed country," she continued harshly, "you will never try to see me again."

Before Richard could ad a thing, she turned resolutely toward Clint:

"Please, let's go…"

"Amelia," Richard tried again painfully. Nevertheless, she turned her back to him. Then, her and Clint were coming toward Cole, who still had very conflicted emotions about this scene. He felt that this was connected to him somehow. Yet, until the last moment, he did not understand why. That is when he looked at the girl named Amelia again. His eyes rounded in surprise when he realized that it was not the same girl anymore. In her place, Phoebe was leaning on the one named Clint, but this one now looked like his copilot, Clay…

As the shimmering started again, he caught a glimpse of Richard, still unmoving. In front of his eyes, the man morphed into his own image, and then he was back in the cave, astounded and clueless as to what had just happened…

It had seemed to last a long moment, but he found himself still bending toward Phoebe, and this one moaned in her sleep. He hesitated, but the temptation was too great and he moved closer still. However, as their lips were about to meet, he stopped in dismay when she uttered:

"Clay…"