Chapter Twenty-Six: Disaster on Ice

January 4, 2552 1100 hours

North America

Laura, Angela, and the twins were out for a good round of ice-skating, shortly after Christmas time. While Angela supervised the twins with getting into their skates, Laura was up and gliding gracefully. She leapt and spun in the air, pirouetted on the ice, and skated easily across the surface of the pond. Alex and Katrina skated in a wobbly manner, until their mother helped them out a little. Even so, they fell on their butts a few times. Laura smiled as she skated over, stopping smoothly beside them.

"Don't feel bad; my first time out my butt was on the ice more often than my skates were. You'll get the hang of it." It helps that they have those roller blades for the summer that they've been using all year, she thought with a smile. In a little while they did get the hang of it, and Laura skated off by herself, pretending she was dancing on the ice for…no, don't think of that, don't even think of thinking of that, she told herself. It's not worth the heartache. She had had to be cold to him to save his life. Now she was sure he hated her, and it was enough, but her heart still ached. She was so wrapped up in her thoughts that by the time she turned to look back, it was almost too late.

Katrina had skated off by herself, trying to skate as smoothly as her aunt. She was far away from her mother and her twin when she began to hear the cracking and popping. Looking down, she saw the cracks in the ice and barely had time to yell before it broke, sending her straight down into freezing waters.

Laura and Angela turned in time to see Katrina scream. The Spartan moved quickly, stripping off her parka even as she skated past her sister-in-law. She didn't dare think about her own fate in the frigid air; all she could see was her niece, the closest thing to a daughter she would ever have, who now was threatened with an icy, watery grave. No, I can't let it happen. She was a few feet away from Katrina when the ice gave way beneath her, sending her into the water. Spluttering, she came up and swam to her niece, who had almost stopped trying to keep her head above water.

"Katrina, look at me, look at me. I'm here, I'll get you out. Understand?" The girl nodded, feeling colder than she ever had in her life. Laura picked her up and threw her out of the water; she landed perfectly on top of a nearby snowdrift. While her mother skated over and wrapped her in Laura's discarded parka, Laura swam to the edge of the ice and pulled herself up. Angela was busy trying to rub the life back into her daughter. Katrina was still breathing, but her skin was starting to turn blue; Laura recognized the beginning stages of hypothermia.

"Angie, there's no time. You can't help her, but I can. If I run at top speed I can get back to my bunk before she freezes to death. I'll get her there." Angela nodded, and Laura kicked out of her skates and picked up the bundle. She took off like a shot, remembering all the races she'd run with a family friend's horses to build her endurance, only this race was much more important. Her wet hair streamed out behind her as she ran for the base, and she could feel the cold keenly as the beginnings of hypothermia and frostbite started to set in. I don't care what happens to me, but let her be ok. Please, let her be ok. She ran as quickly as she could, not bothering with the secret gate she'd made; it would take too long, and she needed speed. The main gate was closest; she ran for it, running faster than she ever had before. The MPs saw her coming, saw she was dripping wet, and saw that the bundle she was carrying was a child wrapped up in Blade's own parka; guessing the situation, they opened the gate quickly, and the Spartan they thought they hated so much shot through, a look of fear on her face they'd never seen before.

Laura made it to her door, paused long enough to unlock and open it, and hightailed it into the bathroom. There was a bathtub in this particular bunkhouse, thank goodness, and she dumped her niece in it, clothes and all; spinning the dial on the wall, she started running water at a borderline warm-hot temperature. Katrina wasn't moving, she didn't even react when the warm water started creeping up around her waist.

"Katie, Katie, wake up honey! Come on, babycakes, wake up!" Laura was nearly frantic by now. "Come on, Katrina Elaine Morisson, don't you dare give up on me now! Come on!" She noticed the girl beginning to move, and her sharp ears caught a few whispered words: "cold, so cold."

"It's ok, Katie, I'll get you warm," Laura murmured soothingly as she stuck her feet and her hands in the warm stream still pouring into the tub. As much as she wanted to turn the temperature up higher, she knew Katrina wouldn't be able to stand it. All she could do now was wait, try and rub some circulation back into her niece's limbs, and reassure the child she would be all right.

"Hey, babycakes, I'm gonna shift out of these wet things," Laura said after about ten minutes of sitting with her feet in the warm water. She turned the stream off and smiled at her niece. "You just sit and soak and splash. I'll dry off and get some dry clothes on, and then your mom is coming to pick you up. You just stay here, ok?" Katrina nodded and started playing in the water, which would help the blood circulate through her limbs and warm her faster, while Laura took a towel and dripped her way into her room. Peeling off her wet clothes, she dried off vigorously and wrapped the towel around her body, then began searching for warm, dry clothes and blankets. While she was searching, she heard movement behind her, and turned to find several Marines standing behind her; she'd been so concerned about tending to her niece, she hadn't even shut the door, and they'd just walked right in.

"What are you doing in here? Have you no respect for privacy?" she snapped, tugging the towel tighter around her frame.

"Have you no respect for other people's children?" one of them replied coldly.

"My niece is recovering from a bout of hypothermia, and her mother will be along to collect her shortly. You still haven't answered my question, though: what are you doing in here?"

"We came to get the kid," another Marine sneered.

"Well, yeah, there's the kid, but that's just on the side, really," a third one replied, an evil look on his face.

"Really? And dare I ask what you were planning to do after you take my niece out of here?" Laura asked coldly, glad she'd shut the door to the bathroom.

"Take her back to her mom, of course," the leader grinned evilly; she didn't trust that grin in the least.

Laura quickly considered her options: she could try to break past them, grab Katrina and run; she could stay and try to fight them; she could try keeping them occupied with words until Angela showed up; or she could let them kill her and take her niece to who-knows-where, thereby taking the coward's way out. Getting past them would only result in her niece getting hurt, and letting them kill her wasn't an option. She certainly was in no condition to fight, though she would if pressed. That left only one course of action: stall until Angela arrived.

"And if I turned Katrina over to you, how do I know you'd return her to her family? Why should I trust my niece to your care?"

"Because you have no choice," one of them grinned. "You're not going to put up much of a fight, meat."

"Oh really?" she sneered, dark eyes flicking around the room as she searched for her knives and checked the area for more threats. Dammit, can't they let it go for just one day, even? And I can't fight them all and keep Katie safe. She still had to try. "I may go down, but I won't let you take my niece while I still have breath in my body."

The Marines snickered, expecting an easy fight, especially when one of them held up her knives. Oh, no! How long have they been in here? Calling up what strength she had, she kicked out, trying to defend in spite of feeling like an iceblock.

"You bitch!" one of the Marines cursed as she caught him in the balls. Laura pulled her arm back for a punch, but another Marine grabbed her wrist and pulled back; she stumbled, regaining her footing and trying to assume a defensive posture.

"This the best you can do?" one sneered.

"Try me in a fair fight, and you'll see," she muttered, but she knew she was probably dead.

"Yeah, right, Blade," the leader taunted. "You're dead, anyway, traitor." Laura tried to keep from moving as they closed in, hoping to surprise them and take them off-guard. As they advanced, though, a cold voice behind them caused the Marines to stop.

"Get away from her." Four people stood behind the Marines, furious looks on their pale faces. Laura thought she'd faint with relief; she'd never been so happy to see the Spartans in her quarters. Fred and Will were tensed, ready for a fight, Linda was scowling in such a way you almost wished she had the sniper rifle rather than face her in close quarters, and John had a look on his face that Laura imagined could have made even a Hunter quail. As he walked into the room, Laura sensed the anger radiating from him.

"If you're smart, you'll get out of here and not come back. Otherwise, you'll leave this room…in bodybags." There was a definite threat to his words, and the Marines practically scrambled to get past them. Laura watched them go, and collapsed into shivers as soon as they were gone; she was cold, exhausted, scared for her niece, and unable to look John in the eye after the words she'd said to him on Christmas Eve. Linda walked over and began checking her for any wounds. She certainly looked like she was in bad shape: her dark hair was wet and limp, she was shaking badly, and her eyes darted nervously in every direction.

"No need, Linda, I'm not hurt. I'm just trying to recover from hypothermia." She looked around quickly, suddenly worried for her young niece. "Katrina, did they get to my niece?" Will shook his head.

"Door's still closed the way you left it."

"Thank goodness. I doubt I could have kept them away from her in the state I'm in." She felt her legs beginning to give out, and sat down on the edge of her bed, yanking the blanket off and wrapping it snugly around her. "Thanks for dropping in. If you hadn't come when you did…" she stopped, imagining how much worse things could have gotten.

"We heard you and your family were skating, so we decided to keep an eye on things," Fred smirked. Of course, he would find it amusing that I couldn't fight them off. "Why didn't you just take her to the base hospital?" If I didn't know better, I'd say he was concerned.

"Too far away. I knew I only had a little time before Katrina froze to death. My parka would only have prolonged the timeframe a little while, even though it was dry. This was the closest place I could think of, and I knew enough shortcuts to get here as soon as I could." She felt a bit of warmth in her legs and decided to try standing again; she managed to stand up, and grinned a little sheepishly.

"I hate to ask, but would you mind turning while I get myself semi-presentable?" They turned around, and Laura pulled on the first pair of warm sweats she could find. She then went into the bathroom and checked on her niece. Katrina was a little scared, but seemed reassured that everything was all right. Laura decided to leave her in there; she'd be happier that way, and it would give her time to talk to the Spartans in some comfort. She led them to her kitchen area, where she had managed to squeeze in a small, portable kitchen range and a microwave.

"Would you like a hot drink? I know I could use some hot tea or something." Laura smiled at the sight of four Spartans shaking their heads in unison, and filled a ceramic mug with water. She stuck it in the microwave, waited while it heated, and steeped a teabag into the steaming water when it was finished heating; the scent of chamomile filled the room, relaxing everyone who smelled it. Sipping the transparent yellow brew, Laura closed her eyes and felt the warmth pour through her entire body, a pleasant feeling after the icy pond. The chamomile also had a soothing effect on her nerves, and she felt the tension from earlier begin to unwind.

"Are you sure you don't want anything? I have other things besides chamomile and hot chocolate to offer." She swore she saw the shadow of a smile on a few faces.

"No thank you. Are you sure it's wise to leave your niece alone?" Fred remarked pointedly.

"I'm never alone in here. I thought Nicole introduced you to my constant companion." Her eyebrow arched up in amusement at their faces. "We have no secrets, Nick and I. Besides, Lorienna would have told me if Nicole hadn't. Now that I'm getting some functionality back into my limbs, I'll be ready for trouble if Lorienna sees anything out of place."

"Besides us being in here?" John muttered, trying hard to seem indifferent, with his voice coming out unnecessarily harsh and earning him a sharp look from Linda.

"Yeah, besides that, obviously," Laura replied dryly. "If you were going to kill me you would have done it long before now, or you would have let those Marines do the job." A faint smile appeared on her face. "You're never going to believe this, but each time I went up against one of you in close combat, I came close to losing." They stared at her in amazement, and she nodded. "I don't like having to use methods others don't know during a fair fight, but I had no choice, especially with the bullet hole I had in my shoulder when I was facing off with Fred. As it was, if all of you had come after me, I would most definitely have lost."

"Bullet hole?" Linda asked, remembering shooting at a sniper as he faded away into the trees.

"Your accuracy isn't confined to the sniper rifle, Linda. You hit me as I made my escape, and it hurt like hell for weeks afterwards. If you had aimed any lower, we wouldn't be having this conversation." A dark look passed in front of her eyes. "And you wondered why I was so paranoid? Now you pretty much know it all."

A knock on the door brought the conversation a much-needed reprieve, as Laura got up to answer the door.

"Hey Angela. We got her here in time."

"Where is she?"

"Back in the bathroom, soaking and splashing worse than I did at her age."

"From what I've heard that's no great achievement." Laura laughed at that, the lilting sound carrying back to the Spartans' ears and surprising them. Each remembered something Nicole had said to them, shortly before they'd saved her life the first time: I've heard her real laughter, It's so much different than this; it has more music to it. As Laura preceded her sister-in-law to the bathroom, they saw a broad smile spread to every corner of her mouth. A few moments later, she and her relatives reappeared, the little girl wrapped in several towels and blankets.

"Drive home safely, Angie."

"Always, Laura. Take care."

Laura returned to her guests, the shadow of a smile still lingering on her face. It's so much more attractive when she smiled, John thought privately to himself. He kept his voice carefully controlled as he looked at Laura.

"Why didn't your AI tell you the intruders were here?"

"Probably because I was busy keeping ONI out of Laura's files," a disembodied voice replied as a small figure in blue and silver swirled into place near a computer terminal. "Ackerson is getting more curious of late, especially now that you've perfected the portable shield generators. It's actually a bit creepy the way he's trying to get into your files."

"What's the bastard up to now?" Laura muttered darkly, her voice containing undeniable hate and anger.

"He managed to sneak into your journal using piggybacked signals, child's play really, but I got preoccupied with a file and didn't catch it in time. Once he realized the encryption, he tried to insert a virus into my systems; fortunately I was able to catch that one before it did any damage."

"Oh really? Tell me, Lorienna," Laura's voice was thick with disapproval, "what was so engrossing that you let down your guard?" A stream of runic text scrolled across the terminal, Laura reading it like it was plain English; the Spartans recognized it as the encryption on her private files. "Ah, I see. This does bear looking into." She turned to her guests.

"I'm afraid I'll have to cut this short. There's something that I need to check on." They caught her meaning and got ready to leave. She seemed to hesitate for a moment, then spoke in a more contrite voice than they'd ever heard from her. "Thank you for saving me."

"Not everyone can take care of themselves," John spoke brusquely. She seemed a bit taken aback by his words, but returned them with equal brusqueness.

"I'll keep that in mind. Good day." As she shut the door, she wondered why it hurt her so to have him say that. He hates me now. Good. That will keep him safe. So why did it hurt so much?

Linda looked shrewdly at the Master Chief as they left Blade's quarters. Something's not right, she thought. He was never this brittle on Reach, and once he got here, he was fine. What's changed? An answer seemed to come up out of nowhere, an answer that seemed ridiculous but fit the facts. Impossible, but in this case likely, she thought. I'll need to ask him one of these days.

January 10, 2552 1600 hours

UNSC Reserve Base Camp Hayes

North America

Some time later, Nicole found herself wandering through the base looking for the Master Chief. Laura's on a mission right now, so this is the perfect time to do this. She didn't find the Chief, but she did find Linda. Just as good.

"Ma'am, I was wondering if I could have a word with you later," she asked, sounding more hesitant than she would have liked.

"What about?" Linda seemed skeptical. Nicole looked around, made sure that no one else was in hearing range, and lowered her voice to make doubly sure only Linda heard.

"It's about…it's about Laura, and the Master Chief too, in a way. I can't say more here."

She looked around one more time, and muttered, "Meet me at my place in two hours, or as close to it as you can. It's important." Looking around one more time, Nicole left the room, scared by what she was doing but knowing it was the right thing to do.

Mitchell Residence 1827 hours

North America

Two hours later, both women were sitting in front of a computer terminal as Nicole entered commands. Thank goodness she left Lorienna behind on this one, she thought to herself as the files finally opened. Scrolling down to Shrieking Eagles, Nicole opened it, decrypted it, and scrolled down to a fairly new entry, dated December 26th.

'Well, I suppose there are worse ways to spend Christmas, but at this point I can safely say that this was my worst Christmas yet. I went out at midnight Christmas Day to put a centerpiece together for the morning, and the Master Chief was awake. We exchanged a few words, and then I don't know what happened next. Somehow I wound up in his arms, for all intents and purposes, even though neither of us had any intention of doing that. He kissed me, and what's even worse, I kissed him! By the time I realized what was going on, I had to put a stop to it. Neither of us could take back the kiss, but I did what I could to make him hate me. I can't let him care about me. At this point, it's fairly clear he feels something, but by now I think I've altered that. I broke away and spoke coldly to him, trying to make him hate me. I think it worked; at any rate he gave me the cold shoulder from that point on. This is good: his hating me will protect him from ONI, which will make it all worthwhile. I just wish it didn't hurt so much. Anyway, on a brighter note, Katrina loved the flute I carved her for Christmas. Now I'll have to teach her how to play; this should be interesting.'

"I don't understand," Linda muttered as she finished reading the journal entry. "Why would she intentionally try to push someone away?"

"My creator cares too much about the people she loves," Lorienna spoke up. "When she loves or cares about anything, she does so completely; when Laura loves anyone, she loves with all her heart. If she thinks distancing herself from others will protect them, she will do it without hesitation. You may recall a similar circumstance a couple months ago, when ONI tried to use her family as blackmail. However, I think there is something more in this instance."

"More? What do you mean, Lorienna?" Nicole was puzzled, trying to figure out what she had missed.

"Fear, perhaps?"

"Good point." Nicole stared off into space for a long period of time, thinking. "Do you think she's afraid of loving him, or afraid to love and lose?"

"Perhaps a bit of both. Of course, the best way would be to ask her when she returns."

"No, not yet." Nicole turned to the Spartan sitting next to her.

"This is why I was looking for the Master Chief earlier. I felt he deserved to know, especially after I figured out what exactly had happened. Lorienna saw the whole thing, since she keeps her eyes open all the time. I'm not going to show you, but I just thought he should know. Since I couldn't find him, well, you were the only one around, so I came to you."

"What do you want me to do?" Linda asked quietly. Having seen part of what Laura was going through, and now connecting her journal entry with the incident in her bunkhouse a while back, she understood now why John had been so cold with her, and why she'd returned his coldness.

"At this point, nothing. I had intended to tell the Master Chief, but after thinking it over I realize that might be a bad idea. If he finds out, it might make him angry. If there was anything I could do to assist them, I would, but that can't be done, at least not by me. Besides, Laura really hates it when people try to play Cupid." She smiled, recalling all the times she had tried to pair Laura with her older brother.

"You should probably be going," Lorienna interrupted. "It would do you no good to be caught outside of the base. Keep on your toes as well: ONI can be very sneaky."

"I'll keep that in mind," Linda muttered as she walked out the door. So that's what's going on, she thought. Better not tell the others just yet, but I'll keep an eye on John, see if he really does feel something, and see whether or not Laura managed to root everything out. Something tells me she may not have been successful, but we'll see.