Note: Well, I finally made it to the waterfall scene. I went up and down about how to approach this scene and finally settled on what you're about to read. I think I'm pretty happy with it. I wanted them to actually have a sexual encounter under the falls and I wanted it to fit in with the movie scene. So heres my little Valentines day treat to everyone. Read and enjoy.

Chapter 8

Beneath The Falls

The small band made their way under the towering cascade of water. Alice walked in front of Cora, Duncan and Nathaniel were at the back helping the wounded soldiers. Alice looked at the ground as she walked, memorizing the fabric of her shoes as they thudded on the wet stone. She felt hollow inside, as if everything she had ever felt had been ripped away from her. Someone helped her down an incline, she didn't see who. There was conversation around her, Duncan sounded angry. She paid it no attention, her eyes were now fixed on the curtain of water before her. Through it she could see the oncoming of night, there was a star-field in that water. A hand on her shoulder brought her around. She looked up into Uncas silent face.

"Are you all right," he asked, speaking loudly over the falls. If she had been able to, Alice might have laughed at the question. She didn't know if she would ever be all right again. She didn't answer, she turned back to look at the stars in the water. He turned her face back to his with the smooth palm of his hand.

"Alice, talk to me," He asked softly, the pleading in his voice almost bringing a spark of emotion to her stony surface. She might have answered him if Nathaniel hadn't called for him. He looked at his brother, then back at her, trying to decide who needed him more. In the end he gave her an apologetic look and headed up the fissure.

Alice stared at the water until she heard her sister talking, she was asking about their father. Something painful twisted in Alice's chest.

"Our Father," Cora yelled "Did you see our father?"

Nathaniel was quiet for a moment before Alice heard his reluctant response.

"From a distance."

Alice didn't stay to hear what Nathaniel said, she knew he was dead. She didn't want to know anymore about what that man had done to her father. She made her way up the fissure they had come in through, not knowing where she was going. As she went, images of the massacre flashed before her eyes. The bodies bleeding in the road, the whooping war cries of the indians. She shook her head, but they kept coming. The man with the knife, running at her. It was so real that she cried out, throwing up her arms to keep him away. She turned to run, trying to see her way through the smoke when hands grabbed her from behind.

"Get back," A voice hissed as she was drawn down against a stone wall. with a gasp, Alice's vision cleared. The battlefield was gone, there was only the waterfall. She realized where she was and clung to the figure that held her. Her hands clenched the broad shoulders like claws, while her breathing became hard and quick. With a slightly jerky movement, she looked at the man who held her. Uncas looked back at her worriedly and Alice felt her body begin to shake. It was a small tremble that started in her hands and worked it's way down her arms. She clenched and unclenched her hands on his shoulders as she felt the sob working it's way up her throat. There as too much happening at once and Alice knew she was about to break down.

"What happened out there," Uncas asked, touching the cut on her head. Alice found her voice but didn't recognize it when she spoke.

"I killed him," she mumbled, ducking her head as the tears came to burn her eyes.

"What," He asked trying to see her face.

"With a musket," She mumbled back, "I killed...I hit..."

The sobs came then, loud racking sobs that shook her body and made her chest hurt. She collapsed against him, clutching him to her as if her life depended on it. He had to shift his position to hold her comfortably. They ended up with her straddled in his lap, with his cheek resting against the top of her head. He let her cry, running his hands through her wet hair and rocking with her. Alice cried so hard that soon it became hard to breathe. Her chest shuddered with the need for air but she couldn't still her crying long enough to take a breath. Uncas took her face between his hands and made her look up at him when he felt her start to struggle to breathe.

"Alice, you have to calm down," He told her, "You have to breathe"

She heard him but she couldn't make her body cooperate. Her chest was burning, she felt a little lightheaded. What Uncas did next startled her but was nonetheless effective. He kissed her. It was soft but firm, a touching of lips that stilled the sobs in her chest. How funny that he could fight battles, save her countless times, but when it came to hysteria all he could do was kiss her. Alice went still in his arms, her heart beating hard against her chest. He pulled back and she sucked in a huge gulp of air, and another as her pulse slowed. As she got her breath back, he lay his forehead against hers and all the could be heard was their breathing in the darkness.

After a moment had passed, their eyes met in the dark and the two became very aware of the position they were in. Alice's legs were spread on either side of his and she was pressed very hard against the front of him. When they had started in the position it had been because Uncas needed a decent way to hold her in a small space. Now that she was clam, it seemed very intimate.

Their faces were very close in the darkness, Alice could almost see herself in the brown of his eyes.

" Uncas," She said his name oddly. Just speaking it, there was no question or reason for it. He said her name back in the same way, his voice a bit tight. There was something awkward happening between them that Alice couldn't explain. They had been intimate before this night, but yet it was still different.

Something twisted in her and before she knew what she was doing, her lips covered his. She wrapped her arms around his neck as the kiss became passionate. He responded to her lips with equal fervor, drinking her in. She felt his hands slid down her back to her behind. With two hands he pulled her in tight against him and she gasped against his mouth.

Alice wanted him to drive the days images from her mind, she didn't want to remember seeing her father die. she didn't want to remember the man she had killed. She just wanted to be in his arms, feeling him move inside her. Of their own accord, her hands went between them and found the front of his loin cloth. She reached inside for that hard male part of him, and pulled it out. He let out a moaning sigh when she closed her fingers around him.

"Please," she pleaded into his ear when she felt him grind into her hand. She felt his hands move up under her skirts as he fought to remove the undergarments. she helped him slide them off and then his fingers slid between her legs. She moaned out his name when she felt him slide a finger into her, and then two. He maneuvered her hips up and over him and then slid inside. They both gasped at the sensation, then held onto each other as they began to move. Soon, all that could be heard was he sound of falling water and little whimpers in the night. There were whispered words uttered between kisses as they moved faster and faster in the dark.

"Say you love me," Alice pleaded between gasps.

"I love you," He responded breathlessly. He buried his face in her hair as she rode him, feeling a tightness growing between his legs.

"Say you'll stay with me," He asked her when he could speak. She tightened her hold on him.

"I will," She answered. Then her body tightened around him, they came with muffled screams. Each had their faces buried in the neck of the other.

When their hearts stopped racing there was a sense of calm in cavern. First their had been panic, then passion, now there was only silence. They held each other in that silence while Uncas twisted a strand of her hair in his fingers.

"Will we survive," Alice asked, breaking the silence. Her head was against his chest and she could hear his heart thumping in her ear.

"I don't know," He answered quietly.

Alice traced the tattoo that ran across his chest with her finger, running it back and forth like a nervous gesture. She wanted so badly to have a life with him but she wondered if they would live long enough to try it. In all the danger they had faced so far, she wondered how much more they could survive. She snuggled into his chest and tried not to think about it. Even if they died, even if it all ended, she had this moment. For now, that was enough.