Title: Helpless
Author: Heather-Lass
Summary: Thoughts from Meg and Ben during a scene in ATQH
Disclaimer: All character property of Alliance.
Author's Note: Major ATQH (Season Two) spoilers obviously, since this story this story is from the perspectives of my favorite Mountie couple, Ben Fraser and Meg Thatcher, and takes place during ATQH when Bolt is unhooking the caboose from the rest of the train. AFTER the infamous rooftop kiss. And I don't exactly remember the dialogue and I'm too lazy to go find the DVD so I made it up. Sorry.
Helpless
Ben:
He dashed to the end of the train, Frobisher at his heels. His father, being a ghost, would like pop up where Benton ended up running to. He threw open the door that faced the caboose and stopped in his tracks, Frobisher running into him. That madman Bolt had Meg, HIS Meg, at gunpoint. His heart told him to leap to the rescue while his brain kept him motionless. As Frobisher grabbed his arm, he grudgingly let his brain win.
"It's too big a risk. Do you want to get us all killed?"
But Fraser only half heard. Just as he half heard Bolt detach the caboose from the rest of the chain, half heard Bolt's laughter, half heard his own breath stopping in terror as his heart was in his throat. All he could focus on was what he saw. Meg's dry but suspiciously bright eyes looking at him in a mixture of fear, love and bravery. "It's alright," she seemed to say. "I'm a Mountie same as you. Do your duty and I'll do mine."
Ben tore his eyes of her as the distance between them grew. He saw Bolt laughing and wanted to kill him, wanted to leap off the train and run after it, shouting his lover to her, anything but feel so helpless. But he knew that would incite Bolt and endanger her.
Briefly Ben was aware of a discussion behind him between Frobisher and his father. Then Frobisher cleared his throat, causing Ben to turn and look at him.
"You know Benton, there comes a time between men and women…when…things develop…feelings…well…enough said." Although 'enough said' was hardly the case.
Fraser looked at him, now totally composed. "She's my superior officer, sir, nothing more," he said, knowing full well that he was lying through his teeth.
Meg:
She mentally winced at the cold metal pressed to her temple but did not outwardly twitch a muscle. She was a Mountie, for god's sake, and a good one at that. She could only imagine Ben…er…Constable Fraser's reaction when he found her captive, which she knew was only a matter of time. After all, that's why Bolt was still out on the caboose balcony. He wanted to separate the cars while her friends looked on helplessly.
And they didn't have long to wait. The door slammed open and Fraser came out, stopping dead in his tracks, Frobisher crashing into him from behind. She would have laughed if not for the gun pointed at her head. Bolt cocked the trigger as she looked at Fraser and she saw his breath stop and his throat catch. She saw his hand grip the railing, one foot lift an inch as if he was going to jump over the railing to save her. She saw Frobisher grab Fraser's arm and the food touch the ground again. She looked into Fraser…no…Ben's eyes and lost herself in them. For all guards were dropped and she saw them for an instant as Ben and Meg, not as Fraser and Thatcher, Constable and Inspector. She saw such love in his eyes, and fear, not for himself but for her. For that brief moment, they could see into each other's souls, see what each other were thinking. And that idea terrified Meg. It made her feel vulnerable and she didn't like to feel vulnerable. On the other hand, it WAS Ben. The one man she trusted. The one man who never gave her reason to doubt his intentions as being anything less than 100 honorable.
She watched in sadness as the caboose she was in slowly pulled away. Bolt looked at her and laughed. Cruelly, but with a tinge of regret. "I knew there was something between you two. I'm so glad I got the spark started."
She looked at him with cold piercing eyes. "I'm his commanding officer, nothing more."
Later, Meg told Ben that what had happened to them on the train was a mistake and must never happen again. Ben said only, "Understood." But they both were lying and things between them were forever changed.