Chapter 7

Elliot peeked over the top of the couch and noted that Olivia still slept. He hadn't been on the phone all that long so her still sleeping didn't surprise him. He wanted to take her skiing but right now he just had to get out of the house to think. Walking over to the kitchen he found a tablet and pen in a drawer and wrote a note. He tore the paper off the tablet, folded it and went back to the couch, leaning down to set it on the coffee table. Hesitating a moment, he turned and actually sat on the table. Propping his elbows on his knees and clasping his hands together around the note, he leaned his chin against his hands and just looked at Olivia as she slept.

Maybe Maureen is right. I've definitely got a lot to think about, he mused. On the couch, Olivia shifted and turned to face the back of the couch more fully in her sleep. That brought Elliot out of his thoughts and he leaned forward to pull up the afghan that had slipped down as she shifted. "Elliot--" she mumbled and he smiled. He rose and propped the note on the coffee table. Taking a step, he bent over and softly kissed the top of her head and then walked to the mudroom.

Inside the spacious and warm storage area he found a rack of different sizes of ski pants, jackets and boots. Glad that he'd left his sweats on since he didn't have any thermals, he searched through the pants until he found a pair that would fit reasonably well. Walking to the ski rack he chose what he hoped were an appropriate pair of backcountry skis. It'd been awhile and he was sort of unsure of the equation anymore. Something about measuring from wrist to ground. On the off chance that Olivia would ski too when she awoke he went ahead and set aside a pair for her also. Checking the boots next he eventually found a pair that fit well and he suited up. Grabbing a stocking cap, goggles and gloves, he picked up the skis and poles and the full camelbak he had pulled from the small refrigerator under the shelf and slipped out the door to the garage.

Setting down the skis and sliding his boots one at a time into the bindings, he fixed his goggles and pushed off towards the front of the house. There was a tree line that he intended to follow for the time being. He knew that you should always ski with a buddy, but he needed this time to think about his future. Breaking a path was hard work and he soon got into a slow, steady rhythm. The quiet out here was amazing; all he could hear were the birds, his skis on the snow and his breathing. Blocking everything else out of his mind other than his pace for a while, he concentrated on his breathing.

About fifteen minutes later, he slowed down. That's what I get for being a Detective, he thought as he skied along. I'm out of shape because I'm not out on the street. Another fifteen minutes and my lungs will mutiny. He slowed his pace down even more. He wasn't sure why he was even in a hurry. It wasn't like he had a particular destination in mind. All he wanted to do was clear his head and think. But, knowing he had decisions to make made him not want to think because those same decisions were going to change a lot of things in his life. First of all, lay out the all the issues you know of. One. Maureen said that Kathy has already contacted her lawyer. Two. Am I going to try and talk her out of it. Three. The kids want to stay with me which means contesting Kathy for their custody. And four. Is Maureen right and I'm in love with Olivia. His mind skittered quickly away from that last one. Deal with the other three first because that last one would be a ball-buster.

At this point, he understood that he loved his wife, but was also beginning to wonder if it was a love out of habit and necessity. They'd been together nearly 20 years and now almost everything seemed to be done out of habit. Maybe they truly hadn't been in love when they'd first married. He thought they had been. Hell, they had three more children after Maureen so it couldn't have just been the sex. But even that had slowed down in the past couple of years and obviously not just because they'd gotten older. He used to think they'd take every advantage of the empty house when the kids were elsewhere. He thought as he glided along. How long had it been? He almost stopped when he realized that it had been nearly two, almost three months since he and Kathy had made love. Funny, he mused. I'm surprised I'd have forgotten something like that. Maybe it's just been my schedule. He thought back over the past cases of those months and came to an alarming yet stunning conclusion. Yes, there'd been some nasty caseloads during that time, but even during the worst of those he didn't stay in the crib. He cringed. He'd crashed at Olivia's. Oh, boy, he thought. Guess I'm going to deal with question four sooner than I thought.

Looking ahead to the path he was cutting, he saw a large set of boulders at the edge of what he thought was a lake. Catching a glimpse of water through the trees he skied along the edge until coming along side of them. This looked to be a good place to take a break. He glanced at his watch and realized that he'd been gone for nearly 45 minutes. Another 45 minutes back and his legs would be ready to disown him. Maybe Liv would let him steal the Jacuzzi for the evening. He slid to a stop and used a pole to punch down on the latch to the one ski and kicked back his boot to release it. He did the same to the other and then planted both poles. Taking another sip from the camelbak, he walked around for a bit before walking around the boulders and finding a perfect one to sit on. Decision time, he thought and sighed deeply. The still wilderness surrounding him was a perfect backdrop to the brooding man sitting propped up on the top of a large rock.

*****

A log cracking in the fireplace woke Olivia. Rolling to her back, she took a deep breath and reached her arms behind her head to stretch. Blinking her eyes to get rid of the sleepy feeling, she rolled over to her right side and stared at the fire. Seeing that Elliot was no longer at the other end of the couch, she figured that she'd slept much longer than she intended. Not, of course, that she had intended to fall asleep in the first place. It's just that she'd been so contented. It was warm due to the fire and being tucked under an afghan, she'd been able to do some reading and Elliot was there. She closed her eyes and listened. Not hearing anything, she rose to a sitting position and pushed off her cover. There in front of her on the table was a folded note with her name on it. She leaned forward and picked it up to read:

2:15

Hey, Sleeping Beauty—

Called Maureen. Don't worry.

I'm out thinking...

Look for the breadcrumbs.

--E

Answers that question, she thought. Glancing up at the clock she saw that he'd only been gone about 30 minutes. She stood and walked to the large window and looked out. Over by the tree line she could make out the faint trail left by skis. After making a short stop in the powder room, she opened the door to the mudroom and smiled. There sat a pair of skis. Picking through the ski pants, jackets and boots, she was soon suited up and ready to go. Readjusting the other camelbak that Elliot had left out for her and a small bag of trailmix that she found in another cupboard, she grabbed the skis and headed outside.

Guessing that it probably wouldn't take all that long to catch up with Elliot since she was using his trail, she took a few minutes to stretch her leg muscles. As much as she was in love with that Jacuzzi upstairs, she wanted to avoid knotting herself up while on the skis. She couldn't even count how many years it had been since she'd been on a set of skis. Probably college, and that had been downhill. Grabbing her poles, she kicked into the bindings and pushed off after readjusting her stocking cap.

As she headed for the trees, a flock of birds broke out of the cover. Moving along she also saw animal tracks. Not that she could really identify them, but she thought they might be from rabbits. Hearing the chattering of another bird she looked up and saw a couple of bright red male cardinals sitting high on a branch as she passed underneath. Definitely don't see this everyday in New York, she thought. It's so quiet. Moving through Elliot's tracks made her way easy going, so after many minutes she came over a rise and caught a glimpse of a lake on her left. Staying in the trail, she lifted her poles and slid down over the rise. Passing a stand of trees she came around to see a group of rocks and a pair of bright yellow skis sitting in the snow. Figuring that Elliot was nearby, she came to a stop and stepped from the skis. Stretching her arms high above her head, she took a deep breath and let out the tension that had gathered in her shoulders. So far, her legs didn't feel too bad.

Walking around the edge of the rocks, she found her partner staring off over the lake. Unnoticed by him, she took stock of his expression. Knees drawn up with his arms looped around them. The expression on his face was almost haunted, and she seriously thought about turning around, grabbing her skis and returning to the house so as not to disturb him. But then she thought about his note. He wanted her to follow. Well, she was here, might as well announce herself.

Stepping forward, her boots crunched on the snow and Elliot's head jerked around in surprise. "Hey, partner," she said as she walked up to him.

He grinned slightly. "About time, Sleeping Beauty," he teased.

"I'll have you know I made good time. Thanks to you for breaking the trail." Sobering, she asked, "How are you doing?"

"Okay. Just thinking and making some decisions. Want to sit?" He brushed off the rest of the rock next to him and put out a hand to her.

She took the offered hand and levered herself up to sit next to him. "If you open the zipper compartment on the camelbak, I brought a treat," she said, leaning forward.

Elliot reached around her to unzip the pouch and pulled out the bag of trailmix. Sitting back, he held out the bag. "I should have known," he smiled.

"What?" she asked as she opened the bag and took a few pieces. Elliot did the same.

"Only you could find a bunch of trailmix that is nearly 50% chocolate."

"Hey! It's a well-proven fact that chocolate cures all ills. At least in the world of women it does," she grinned at him as she ate the chocolate pieces.

Elliot looked down at the bag. "Maybe you should have found one that was complete chocolate then for me."

"Well, there was a bag of M&Ms in there, but I'm hoarding those for in front of the fire tonight after dinner. I'm willing to share, though. Plus, I'm not too sure if the chocolate theory works for guys." She leaned over and nudged him with her shoulder. "I'm pretty sure your tactics require beating the crap out of something."

He leaned back into her. "Don't knock it, Liv. I've seen you on some days when the chocolate doesn't work and you look like you're ready to beat the crap out of me."

Her clear laugh rang out. "Elliot, that happens at least once a week. Twice, if Munch is being a pain in the ass." He chuckled and took some more trailmix.

"Thanks for leaving the note, Elliot. I know you needed time to yourself and probably weren't thinking I'd follow so soon, but I'll admit that I was concerned." She looked away out over the lake as she spoke.

"Thanks, Olivia." She just nodded and continued to look out over the water.

Minutes passed as they both munched quietly on the trailmix and took sips of water from the camelbaks. Neither felt the need to talk so they just sat and let the foreign sounds of nature surround them. City life was so different from this quiet solitude. For one, New York never stopped. Even in the middle of the night, there was this entire different world out there. Out here, Mother Nature ruled with an iron fist. If the creatures weren't ready for when she signaled Father Winter, no amount of scrounging would put together enough food stores for the season.

Elliot caught movement out of the corner of his right eye and slowly moved his head around. Surprise filled his eyes at the sight. "Olivia," he whispered as he slowly scooted backwards.

"What?" she asked in return just as quietly.

"Look over there," he whispered back while slowly raising his hand to point back past his shoulder.

"What is it, Elliot? I can't see past you and that big rock."

"It's a deer and her baby. Hang on," he said. Slowly he turned at the waist to face her, and by slipping an arm around her waist and the other under her knees, he easily picked her up and shifted her until he could just sit her across his lap. "Now can you see them?"

"Yeah," she said excitedly as she leaned out to see better. She looked back at him with pure excitement in her eyes. "That's an awfully big baby, Elliot. Probably from this year?"

"I'm guessing. Don't know much about them except that we don't see them in the city. Kind of cool, isn't it?"

"It's wonderful. Almost makes this whole trip worth..." She looked at him in horror at the slip of her words. "Oh, Elliot. I'm sorry! I didn't mean--"

"Olivia, don't worry about it. I know what you meant and what you didn't. Just enjoy this, will you? For me?"

Olivia leaned her head forward to meet his. "I'm still sorry," she whispered.

"I know. So am I," he whispered back and then hugged her. Looking back to the deer, they both saw that another two does and yearling had joined the first now. All of a sudden they could see tree branches moving further down and out stepped a large, fit buck from the cover, his rack looking majestic in the sunlight. As he turned his head they could count the many points.

"Wow," breathed Elliot. "He's beautiful." The small group now stood about 100 feet away and they slowly made their way to the edge of the lake to take turns drinking their fill. The buck stood to the back guarding them. Olivia and Elliot saw the buck spot them and they both froze as he did. The deer slowly made his way to the does while keeping an eye on the two of them sitting huddled together on the large boulder. The larger of the does finished drinking and walked back to stand with the buck. She saw them and continued to stare at them and flick her ears as the buck now made his way to the water's edge for his turn.

Elliot and Olivia sat very still throughout this little slice of life nature show, barely breathing so as not to appear as it they were moving. Elliot's arms tightened around her just as her arm snugged around his neck to hold him close. Minutes passed as the buck returned to his original position, and at some unseen signal, they all turned as one and bounded away across the snow with tails flagging.

Letting out their breath they looked at each other and grinned. Olivia hugged him again. "Oh my God, that was wonderful! I can't believe that we got to see something like that."

"A definite first for me, Liv. As Dickie would say, that was 'wicked cool.'" Olivia laughed and leaned her shoulder back into him. They were quiet for a few minutes as they thought about what they'd seen.

Olivia straightened and then looked down to push her sleeve back and glance at her watch. "Well, if you're about ready to head back, it's going to be dark by the time we get to the house. Then we can warm up, grab showers and start on dinner. What do you say?"

"I say we're not going anywhere until you decide to move, Liv."

She laughed at him. "Well, it is pretty comfortable here, and at least my butt isn't cold."

"Move your ass, honey, because mine is."

Olivia turned to step down on the other rock and then to the ground. "Slavedriver," she muttered.

"For that, you're helping with dinner," said Elliot as he stood beside her.

"Okay," she agreed and shrugged her shoulders.

They both stepped into their skis and Elliot took the trail first. Staying only a few feet behind him, they stayed together as they glided along on the trail. Birds were flying everywhere as they tried to find that one branch that would keep them hidden from the elements. They even saw a couple of squirrels making a mad dash across the snow from one tree to another. They pointed these things out as they saw them and laughed at the animals hurrying about. What they didn't know was the reason the animals were so busy. The creatures knew something that they didn't. Mother Nature was going to be stopping by again that night and all of the animals wanted to be in their homes before she arrived. Luckily, by that time, Olivia and Elliot would be none the wiser, as they'd be tucked back in at the cabin.

*****