So I messed up. Oops. Alice did not run into herself. I honestly tried to find a way to incorporate that into the story somehow and make it all work but I couldn't find the way. I got confused. So that's been edited. Sozz for the anti-climax but thank you for you patience. The story continues.

Alice gaped at Chingachgook, the skin beneath his eyes beginning to sag as the lack of sleep began to catch him.

"I- I'm not a ghost!" Alice cried in dismay for Chingachgook's remark was so pointed it felt like a threat. Almost instantly though, he let go and she stumbled away. The hardness of his face slackened. He became an old man, wrinkled with the trials and tribulations life had given him.

"No, child," He answered kindly, "You're not. That's what has my mind on a wheel. I'm confused. We have met before, but when? Where?"

"I don't know," she told him a little too quickly. He chuckled, shaking his head disbelievingly,

"In that answer, girl, you tell me all. You know but you won't tell me. Why? You barely talk to me but you look at me almost as much as you do my son."

Alice felt herself blush, her eyes falling to the floor,

"Which one?"

Chingachgook laughed with a genuine haughtiness,

"Your spirit is as much as a challenge as your existence. Why does that make you shy? There's nothing to be ashamed of."

Alice was mortified and rubbed her arm in discomfort.

"Oh, Tatanka help me," He sighed, "My blessing is yours. Your siblings will be difficult. Magua, more so. But, I trust you to take care of my son besides, what can I do?"

He looked at her thoughtfully a moment, biting his lower lip,

"I dreamed you jumped after he fell from the mountain."

Alice looked up at him in bewilderment. It earned her a sad smile,

"Now I am left with questions. Will he die if you don't jump? Will you die if you do? Am I dreaming of my son simply taking flight with a woman? My greatest dream now my nightmare. Or am I dreaming of a time ahead? A time, perhaps, which you have seen..."

Alice gawked at him, unable to fathom what was happening. He took a tentative step towards her,

"I don't want you to tell me your answer. Just..." He started drifting away, a sorrow in his wake that made the air heavy, "I want you to keep him safe as only a man's woman can."

Alice felt herself sag, the tension she felt slackening as she realised Chingachgook didn't seek answers but rather accepted that which he didn't and probably would never understand.

She nodded,

"I can only promise you my best, Sir..." She told him quietly and she meant it. She wanted him to know that. He seemed to understand that much. He nodded his consent and raised a hand to stroke her cheek, smiling with a hint of melancholia,

"My new child," He huffed a small chuckle, "I should have guessed. You're stronger than your sister. I don't think you know that."

She didn't but was enjoying the intimacy of the moment. The overwhelming sense of security Chingachgook gave off of his person, the pillar of strength. She wanted to hug him, the desire almost irrepressible but she forced it down.

"Now, where are you sneaking off too? My son is sound asleep so it must not be to see him. I must stop you there."

"Oh," Alice smiled shyly, "No, it wasn't. Uh...Hayward has decided to ask Ma-Cora to marry him."

"That will cause strife between my white son and that one," Chingachgook frowned, "That man has worked on my last nerve for a long time. But you left?"

"He'll ask me next when she says no."

"You know this?"

"I do," Alice confirmed, "My sister and I overheard him talking to my father. He wants Duncan in the family, I'm the alternative..."

Though it shouldn't have mattered, the thought of being plan B made Alice feel inadequate and close to a nothing person. It made her simultaneously angry and sad.

"You'll have to refuse him too, I think. My son has not chosen an alternative. Neither have you, I hope..."

Alice looked up at the man who now gazed back at her with a knowing glint in his eye, his head bowed just so to give the hint of there being only one right answer. Before she could respond, a click of a door opening and closing drew their attention away. Hurried but loud footsteps coming their way alerted them to Duncan's angry dejection.

"Come," Chingachgook whispered, "We go."

She followed him around the corner and as Duncan's steps drew nearer, Alice found herself all but running to keep up with Chingachgook's long strides until they burst out into the night with the bonfire burning ahead, wisps of smoke and sparks wafting up to the sky before disappearing into the darkness.

A commotion just over yonder the edge of the light, sounds and shouts of protests, grunts of pain – all irked Alice as Chingachgook began moving around the fire to find the sauce of the problem.

Once they'd cleared the glare, Nathaniel was thrown to the ground by British soldiers, his face hitting the ground hard as blood began to seep from his nose.

Chingachgook froze,

"What are they doing?" He said quietly, watching as his son had his hands tied tightly behind his back by two soldiers while others stood with their muskets at the ready, keeping the protesters – including Uncas – back.

"What are you doing?" The Old Indian said more loudly, approaching the commotion with a firm hand.

"Stand back, Sir!" one man said, turning his musket on him, "This man is under arrest for being a participant in an act of treason!"

"Is he treasonous?" Chingachgook asked the young man, just older than a boy. He straightened, his face reddening,

"In the Name of Her Majesty the Queen, yes, Sir."

"Because your men were met with empty promises!"

Alice found herself amidst a situation she knew not how to handle. She knew what was happening, obviously Chingachgook did too only she had no part to play in it. She could only watch.

"Stand down, Sir!" the boy threatened again as Chingachgook started towards them.

"Father! Let them take me!" Nathaniel pleaded, "The actions were my own!"

Uncas appeared then, jogging round to his father who didn't bat an eyelid for him, placing a steadying hand on the old man's chest, stilling him.

"Where will you take him?" Chingachgook asked despairingly as Nathaniel was hauled to his feet not without pain and guided past and away from them, "Hawkeye!"

He bellowed something in Mohican that only Uncas reacted too. He was otherwise ignored.

Angrily, Chingachgook took hold of his remaining son's forearm.

"Who has done this?"

Uncas' eyes darted between his father and Alice, taken aback by the rage he was suddenly faced with,

"Major Hayward."

Alice gasped audibly though she should have known. Chingachgook threw her a pained look before marching away, shoving Uncas' arm back, grumbling in his native tongue that resounded with worry and anger.

Alice was left staring and being stared at by Uncas. Before either of them could broach the subject, Marie came sailing out to them with her hair awry and a rage not unlike Chingachgook's in full swing,

"Where is he?! How dare he do that and then propose! How would he expect me to accept! DAMN him!"

"Calm down," Alice tried to say softly but Marie was in such a state she didn't seem to know her right foot from her left. Alice simply watched as Marie's fire slowly burned out until she was staring back at Alice in a breathless stupor.

"What now, Alice?" she asked wearily. Alice cast a nervous glance towards Uncas who looked calm as ever though he appeared to have a nervous reflex in his right hand. A fist that would come and go in irregular succession like a peculiar glitch. Apparently Uncas was hit by the unforeseen circumstances just as hard as the rest of them.

Alice felt her resolve slowly slipping from her grasp now that it was clear that absolutely nobody had any ideas as to what was happening...

It was horribly eye-opening to realise that, despite the knowledge and resourcefulness of the people who one trusts the most with their lives – in Alice's case, her existence, people get lost. Even the ones who are more privy to knowledge than most.

Despite the constant comfort Alice took in pretending that because she had lived this life twice so had the Mohicans, it had to be dismissed. They had not lived it twice. They lived in déjà vu. They had no control over what was happening, could not anticipate the future and learned from a past that had been seen once in passing. Life was life; charming, chaotic and unpredictable. In this time and the next.

When Alice came out of her musings, Marie had gone and Uncas stood in front of her. His worried gaze roaming over her face in concern.

"Where'd you go?" He asked her curiously.

Alice took a step back, shaking her head.

"I don't know..." instinctively, she raised a hand to Uncas' face and felt his cheekbone sharp beneath the skin.

8888

Things seemed to have fallen apart over night as the next morning, they were woken at the crack of dawn and told that they had little over an hour to pack up and leave the Fort.

The runner had been caught and the Colonel had been granted mercy and told to leave with his honour intact, the wounded taken care of and the dead said farewell too. The terms were fair, the defeat was graceful.

Alice and Marie found themselves propped up on a horse near the front of their enormous procession. Marie kept glancing back over her shoulder,

"Ugh...God, I can't see him!"

"Who?" Alice asked irritably.

"Nathaniel, who do you think, Alice?"

"He'll be with Uncas and Chingachgook, don't worry."

"I do worry," Marie sighed, looking at her with a certain aging sense becoming apparent, "I worry more now than I've ever done, Alice."

Alice turned back herself, trying to spot them but in the sea of faces, none of them were the ones she was looking for.

The morning wore on and on until morning turned to noon and noon to afternoon. Suddenly Marie jerked into alertness,

"Oh my God."

"What?" Alice asked cautiously, fearing the worst when Marie turned a horrified gaze towards her.

"1757!"

"Oh sweet mother- please don't-"

"A massacre! Montcalm allows Munro to leave. The British enter a valley where they get attacked by Indians in one of the most notorious incidents in the history of the French-Indian wars!"

"Marie-"

Just so, like a horror movie, the troops entered a clearing that was heavily wooded on either side of them with long grass for most of the way.

"Marie," Alice tried again, feeling her breathing becoming rapid as she began looking around in growing terror, "It'll be fine. We should tell-"

"Who, our father? Try and convince him of a premonition?"

"We can make up a story...we saw something in the woods."

"Alice, one of the terms of mercy was that Munro gave up his damn weaponry. That's why it was a massacre!" she hissed over her shoulder.

"Did Montcalm plan this?" Alice asked incredulously but Marie shook her head,

"Not in the history books."

A rustle in the woods, a disembodied whoop whistled in from the hills.

"Nathaniel!" Marie whispered frantically, glancing back before making a decision.

"Right. Alice, get off the horse."

"A horse would make for a faster escape!" Alice protested, silently disgusted at her own cowardice. Marie looked disgusted too, shaking her head,

"You'd surely go to hell for that! You know just as well as I do that you're not leaving Uncas anymore than I'm leaving Nathaniel. Besides!"

Alice hopped down from the horse in shame, knowing full well that Marie was correct. She looked up at Marie,

"Staying here was your stupid, bloody plan!"

Marie began to move hurriedly past the masses who seemed irritated by her presence. She stopped abruptly when Alice held her wrist fast and pulled her back,

"What about our apparent father? Nathaniel told you to stay close to him, didn't he?"

Marie stared at Marie, considering her words heavily, going so far as to take a step towards Munro's ever retreating form. Another whoop rang out and from behind them, someone screamed which caused a stir in the crowds. Munro looked back at them and looked confused but made no move to halt the procession or to enquire as to what it was. Alice wondered whether perhaps he thought he had imagined it.

"No, say goodbye, Alice. His end isn't one we should do anything about without changing history..."

"He dies?!" Alice started, halting Marie once more, "Marie!"

"Alice, for God's sake!"

She shook herself free from Alice's grasp and moved off as Alice bit her bottom lip, feeling a strange attachment to a man she barely knew, a father that wasn't truly hers.

Marie was gone, though. Alice was alone amidst a chaos that waited in the wings. Suddenly the woods came alive in a chorus of war cries and Alice was alone.

As terror gripped her, she froze. She shut her eyes and listened in horror as things began to go very wrong. People began to scream, shots and arrows sailed in from the darkness on either side. Panic took hold and rippled through the masses as violence exploded from the woodland edge.

People started running in all directions trying and failing to escape. When Alice turned to find the Colonel, he was no longer in sight.

With nothing to lose and instinct finally taking over, Alice bolted. She ran as best she could in her little white dress that was more of an undergarment than anything else. It clung to her body and restricted her movement.

Smoke and dust whirled into the air and Alice ran through the smog calling for her companion. Occasionally falling over a body that fell at her feet. Scalped men, women and children with stab wounds and cut throats and eyes open in shock but lifeless.

She gagged, the smell and sight of death was more appalling than anything she could have imagined.

"Marie!" she cracked as she fell to her knees once again, her lungs constricting against the smell of gunpowder and blood.

"Help!" she breathed, more to her frantic self than anyone else. She stuck close to the ground, deciding that the ground was a safer option. No one looked down in war time, anyway. She crawled on but regretted it. The ground was wet but she dared not find out white kind of wet. It had been a dewy morning but morning had gone.

She crawled past many a dead body, some scalped, others taking their last breath. Horrified, Alice crawled on to God knew where. Just away. She crawled with her eyes closed a while only to put her hand on a grimy something. Alice pulled her hand away with a yelp and brushed blood down her white dress smearing it in a crimson disaster.

She stood up abruptly, done with the ground.

Around her was carnage. Only screams and the smell of death and blood were immediately recognised – a foul thing. Then every once in a while, the smog would clear and Alice caught a glimpse of what was happening. A numbing chill ran down her spine and Alice found she was no longer able to comprehend what was happening.

Somewhere in the horror, Alice heard her name being called. It grew louder and more had a greater resemblance to a scream with each passing moment until Alice found her face being cupped gruffly, her cheeks forced to scrunch. Despite the roughness of it, the commanding turn of her head was gentle but the face she found herself looking at was not kind.

War paint, simultaneously fierce and beautiful covered a sharp featured and hard eyed Huron.

Alice might have said something but she no longer felt as if her existence was real. So she waited as the warrior raised his tomahawk, his eyes never leaving hers.

Then he was collided with and went tumbling down still clutching Alice's face. She was on her knees with Marie scrambling towards her,

"JESUS CHRIST!" she was screaming, completely thrown by her own actions, "Alice!"

She grabbed Alice by her hand and shouldered through a hoard of everything and nothing. Before them, Chingachgook arrived with his tomahawk out and dropping. Nathaniel was a close second, grabbing Marie furiously,

"What do you think you were doing?"

All the while, Marie was clutching Alice's hand with a grip as tight as a mothers hold. She said nothing. From behind, Uncas slipped his hand into Alice's and cupped her chin gently when she looked around.

"No time for this!" Chingachgook grabbed both his sons, then pointing at Nathaniel, "You will get no other chance beside this one!"

Nathaniel agreed, nodding at his brother who had let go of Alice and was now making headway without looking back. Chingachgook followed last, bringing up the rear with Alice stumbling along ahead. Marie kept turning back to look at her and Alice tried to appear calm and focused. In truth, her own breathing was thunder, her hearing had become hypersensitive and were Chingachgook not there to guide her, she would have strayed.

Through the fray they surged to where Uncas was launching canoes, low and behold, into the water with no one in them save for three.

Hayward had somehow appeared with a dishevelment such as only a soldier caught off guard could bare. One other soldier was with him and them two all but fell into the boat Uncas had ready for them, launching them aggressively.

"I'll have you hanged!" Duncan yelled as they set off while Nathaniel arrived to assist his brother. He ignored Hayward, waving him off without courtesy.

Nathaniel turned back to them, glancing at his brother,

"Get in!" He told Marie first and foremost, ushering her into the canoe while Uncas held it steady. Nathaniel then abandoned post and got the canoe ready to launch while Chingachgook guided Alice into the canoe Uncas continued to hold steady. He layed a hand on his son's shoulder, climbing in between Marie and Alice.

"Get in, brother, I'll do it!" Nathaniel called to Uncas who was bracing himself against the nose of the canoe. He nodded, climbing in in front of Alice, his knee brushing her fingers. Instinctively she closed her fingers around the remaining feel of him.

"Alice?" she heard Marie ask her from behind Chingachgook, "Are you alright?"

"Yeah." Apart from the obvious and apart from the fact that for the first time since having found herself here, she actually felt like a ghost – a memory.

She barely felt the canoe move as it glided into the Hudson. The drops from the paddle as Uncas drove it into the water and back out again caught Alice in her eyes and she blinked them away, slowly becoming aware that the amount of water being blinked from her eyes did not match the amount being put there in the first place.

From behind her, Marie screamed, Nathaniel yelled,

"Get down!"

Alice was pushed down from behind,

"Stay down, child," Chingachgook said more calmly, "Uncas!"

Alice didn't hear or see anything as to what father said to son but Uncas disappeared over the edge of the boat before she could think to find out.

He reappeared moments later just ahead of Duncan and his soldier's canoe, swimming tirelessly against the tide so that Duncan's canoe would reach him sooner.

A shot hit the water near his face and water exploded about him. Alice gasped, life flooding her veins at the prospect of Uncas having been shot. She lost sight of him behind the shattered water.

"Uncas!"

The water cleared and Alice realised she was looking at the wrong spot. Uncas had lost head way and had drifted down the river, further from Duncan.

Chingachgook cursed and Nathaniel called for Duncan to paddle harder,

"We're only two men!" Hayward protested, "One wounded, damn you!"

"Paddle faster for only a minute and you might not have that problem anymore, Major!" Nathaniel quipped easily.

"God, please shut up..." Marie said hoarsely with her head between her knees, "Just get us out of this."

Alice watched in agony as Uncas ploughed on against the current, enduring the shots fired at him, his luck hanging on by the skin of its teeth.

"Down, child," Chingachgook said again, pushing her down gently but Alice resisted,

"No! Uncas!"

"I know!"

Just then, water blew up in her face, the cutting shards of water dug into her skin and she screamed both from fright and pain.

Uncas stopped immediately and lost headway again as he searched for any harm that might have come to Alice. Eventually, having resumed his efforts, Duncan and Co. Managed to catch up with him and he was promptly hauled from the water into the canoe.

On they went, with Uncas' able bodied strength, Duncan's canoe surged forward with Uncas steering it from behind.

"We're goin' over the falls!" Nathaniel informed them all and the second canoe. Uncas responded but nobody knew what he said.

"Hold on, Miss Alice!" Chingachgook told her, grabbing her arm as a fall-back plan.

It was an easier ride than she had anticipated. A bit rough and tumble but the fall meant they outdid their pursuers, whoever they might have been.

Nathaniel pulled their boat over and all but pulled Alice and Marie out.

Alice stumbled into her friend's arms who gathered her up fiercely,

"Thank fuck for our lives..." She whispered into Alice's ear breathlessly. Alice said nothing, clutching Marie in an embrace meant for bears, her eyes screwed up tight and face buried into the crook of Marie's neck, trying desperately to block out the trauma.

In the blackness of memory, Marie pulled away from Alice. The cold that broke the warmth brought Alice too. The voices of Hayward and Nathaniel became apparent but Marie was gazing blankly at the boat before shifting it to the falls.

Alice didn't miss what Marie had spotted; a blood smear where it seemed someone had tried and failed to hold on.

She looked around and appeared not to find what she was looking for.

To Hayward, who had found her at last, she whispered hoarsely,

"You're missing someone..."

Hope it was worth the wait. The next chapter's on the go. I lost the rhythm for a while but I got this. See you on the flipsyd! Oh and don't forget to leave a review :)