Note: Thank you for the nice reviews of chapter 5, I'm so glad everyone liked it. Now this chapter I came up with After hearing the song "Collide" by Howie Day. I hear it at least once a day at work and this chapter came about because of it. I should probably state that there is sexual content at the end of this chapter that I had meant to save until chapter 8 but after hearing this song, it got moved up a little. I wanted to do a fort scene where Alice and Uncas have one more encounter but I also wanted that encounter to be delayed by other events first. So this chapter is the result of all that. If you have "Collide", listen to it after you read this chapter and see what images it brings to mind for these two characters.

Enjoy everyone! .

Chapter 6

Collide

Alice's excursion into the night earned her another few days of bed rest. Her cough returned during the night and when the doctor was called, he chastised her for pushing herself so soon. Alice, however, wouldn't have given that night up for the world. If she closed her eyes, she could still feel the weight of his kiss, the feel of his hands running up and down her back. It was the most intimate moment of her life and no doctor, anywhere, would make her regret it.

The resurfacing of the illness did keep her from seeing Uncas, and by the second day of being confined to one room, she was restless. She had patched more of her fathers shirts and darned more of his socks than she could count. She had worked on her embroidery until her eyes hurt, and she had even finished the scarf she was knitting for her sisters birthday. Alice had done every domestic activity the small room could offer.

She sunk into a nearby chair with a sigh and took up her needlepoint, perhaps she could make something for Uncas? Then she laughed at the thought, what need would he have of a needlepoint design?

The door to the room opened and brought her amused thoughts to a halt. She looked up to see Cora come stomping into the room. The older girl slammed the door behind her then leaned against it with her hand over her face. She let out a strangled sob and half bent over with the force of her crying. Alice jumped to her feet, throwing her needlepoint to the floor as she went to her sister.

"Cora," She said softly and reached out for the hand covering her sisters face.

"Cora, what has happened?"

Cora turned her tear stained face toward her sister and mopped at her face with her other hand.

"Nathaniel," she answered raggedly. "He's been arrested."

Alice took a step back in surprise, shaking her head.

"No," She said, shaking her head. "It must be a mistake, it can't be our Nathaniel."

"There is no mistake!"

Cora snapped the last at her sister and pounded the door with an angry fist. Alice jumped, she had never seen her sister so upset before. Cora continued to talk, taking no notice of her sister startled expression.

"He encouraged the colonials to desert, to go back to their families."

Cora gave a bitter laugh as she turned back to face Alice. She was beautiful and she was fierce, but underneath it all was vulnerability. Under all the anger, her sister's heart was breaking.

"As if defending ones family is a crime."

Alice stepped forward and put an arm around her sister, she led her to the chair she herself had just deserted. Once Cora was comfortable, Alice sat on her knees before her, with one hand on her sisters knee. Cora clutched at that hand, the tears pouring down her face again.

"They are going to hang him." she whispered, burying her face into her hands and sobbing.

Alice's hand fell away from her sisters knee and hung limply at her side. Nathaniel, Uncas brother, was going to be hanged. He was going to be hanged for sending the men back to their families? Why would their father allow that?

"He won't be hanged, Cora," Alice told her sister with confidence. "Papa would never allow it."

Cora looked at her with exasperation.

"Alice, Papa is the one that ordered it. I tried to talk him out of it but he won't hear me."

Alice jumped to her feet and made for the door.

"I will speak with Duncan then, surely he can make Papa see reason."

"Duncan agrees with father, Alice. There nothing to be done."

Alice stopped at the door with her hand still on the handle, feeling as if her whole world were crumbling. That night with Uncas, everything had seemed so perfect. Now it was all turning to dust at her feet.

"I am not allowed to see him again, or the others." Cora said in a dull voice. "And neither are you."

Over the next few days, Alice moved about mechanically. She did her work, ate, and slept but her heart felt exposed for the world to see. In the beginning she had fought her father over his decision to keep them away from the men who saved them. For the first time in her life she had yelled at him, threatened to disobey him. It earned her nothing but a sharp, backhanded slap to the face. Then he told her that Uncas and his father were gone, that they had left the fort and Nathaniel to his fate. Then he sent her back to his private quarters and it was the end of the discussion.

Alice was a ghost of her former self after that. wandering the barracks, still not believing that he was gone. When her inquiries into his whereabouts received no further information she began to fade a little more each day. Cora noticed her sisters pale face and apathetic demeanor and thinking she was sick again sent for the doctor. The examination showed nothing, she was healthy. A little thinner than the doctor would have liked but she was healthy. He told Cora that it might be a matter of the heart and not the body that troubled her.

Alice noticed her sister sneaking out in the night and she knew where she was going. Cora was defying their father and going to Nathaniel's cell, night after night. Cora was in love with the american, just as Alice was in love with his brother. It showed in her movement, her face, her voice when she spoke his name. Cora had her love in whatever capacity she could get him. Alice was alone now, stuck in a world where Uncas was gone.

Soon, news came that her fathers army had surrendered to the french. The next morning they would be marching their people to Fort Edward. Alice heard the news but cared little about it. What was there to care about now?

The night before they left there was a horrible storm. Thunder snaked across the sky and rain came to pour onto the barracks. Alice was laying on her side when she felt Cora shift near her and get up, going once again to Nathaniel. She moved quietly about the room and snuck out the door, closing it silently behind her. Alice lay there in the dark room, watching light dance across the walls and found herself getting up as well. There was no reason for it but she found that she couldn't bear to stay in that room any longer. She made her way to the door in her night dress and padded out of the room on bare feet. She moved as if in a dream, out into the storm. In the back of her mind was a voice telling her that she was being foolish, She would not find Uncas in the fort. She ignored the voice, she had to look one last time.

Alice wandered the barracks in the rain, moving listlessly. She was soon soaked through, and quite chilled. She found, to her vague surprise, that she didn't care. Alice walked the areas she thought he would walk, never thinking that she wouldn't find him in this weather of all times. Thunder sounded above, louder than the cannons had been but she didn't hear it. She heard nothing, saw nothing, except and image of his face in her mind.

Ahead of her, she saw the flickering of small camp fires under make shift lean-twos. The rain buffeted her as she walked slowly toward those fires, looking like a ghost in her white night shirt. She pulled her arms around her for warmth and continued through. Men looked out at her walking in the rain, a few called out. She ignored them, they were not who she was looking for. Near another lean-two she thought someone said her name, but she didn't stop to see who. There was a muffled commotion behind her when she didn't answer, voices talking at once.

"What's Miss Alice doing in this storm," She thought she heard, then there was nothing. Her feet were getting numb from the cold rain. If she collapsed out her, what would happen then? Would she die in this weather? Did she even care?

"Alice," A familiar voice some feet behind her brought her head up. She turned very slowly to look behind her, pushing her wet hair from her face. Through the rain she could see him. Or what she thought might be him. It couldn't be though, her father told her he was gone. She squinted through the rain. The man looked like Uncas, even with his black hair plastered to his face by the rain.

"Uncas," She said stupidly, her voice a whisper. He came toward her slowly through the rain and she sunk to her knees in the dirt. She started to cry, bowing her head forward while her hands clung to her upper arms. Uncas knelt in front of her and lifted her face up, he brushed the wet hair out of her face while she cried.

"He told me you were gone, that you had left the fort." She whispered, covering his hands with hers where they rested on her face.

"I searched for you everywhere," She couldn't finish, she threw her arms around him and sobbed.

"We were told to stay away from you," He told her, holding her head against his neck.

"I tried to see you but there was always someone there. I never expected to find you in this weather."

He looked around them after he said it, seeming to search for some drier place to talk. After a moment, he pulled her to her feet and with one arm around her waist, led her to the ammunition barrack. Uncas pulled her in out of the rain and shut the door. Alice was shivering in her drenched night clothes and her teeth were chattering. Uncas pulled a blanket off the crates in one corner and threw it around her. Then they lay against a wall together and tried to dry off. Alice removed the wet night shirt and left it to dry on some nearby crates. The dusty blanket was enough to cover her nudity.

"I was foolish to go out in this," she said, tracing patterns in the dusty floor with her finger. Uncas said nothing but she could feel his eyes on her. She realized her father had lied to her to keep her from going to see him. Did her father realize she was in love with Uncas? Did her feelings show so clearly on her face?

"Nothing seemed to matter without you," she told him boldly.

She turned her eyes up to his and he wore and unreadable expression.

"I told you I loved you that night, it wasn't a lie."

She might have gone on except that he grabbed her and pulled her over to him. The movement was so quick that the blanket fell away, revealing her nakedness in the moonlight. His mouth found hers and soon he was kissing her deeply. Alice was strewn across his lap as he pulled her in against him. The heat from his body was warming her cold skin as his tongue danced over hers. Soon they were lost in the kiss, their hands wandering to all the places they hadn't touched the first night. She moaned when his hand covered her naked breast and pulled his head down for another deep kiss.

Alice trailed her hand down to his thigh and felt him through the loincloth. He grunted when her hand touched him and she reached underneath to trail her fingers up and down him. He gasped at her touch and stopped what he was doing, looking into her eyes for confirmation that this was what she wanted. Alice nodded, cupping him in her hand gently. Soon, his clothes were gone and his body met hers on the dusty floor. They kept their eyes locked when he slipped inside her, their eyes locked as they found that instinctual rhythm all people seemed to know. There was pain but Alice welcomed it and clung to him as they rode that pleasure together. When he came he cried out and carried her over the edge with him. Then it was quiet, except for the rain pounding overhead.

"I love you," he whispered from where his head rested on her chest. She hugged him to her and brushed the sweaty hair out of his face.

"I know," She whispered back.

"What happens now? We leave the fort tomorrow. what will become of us?"

Uncas lifted himself up to look down at her face, trailing one finger over her cheekbone and nose.

"When this whole thing is over, come with us to Can-tuck-kee. Come with me?"

Alice smiled at him in the half light.

"Why Sir, i think you just asked me to marry you?"

He smiled back at her joke and rested his chin on her chest, staring into her eyes from that vantage point.

"Was that a yes?"

Alice ran her fingers through his hair and nodded.

"That's a yes."