I stopped and turned slowly and looked behind me; Buffy was coming out of the tree line. I stared at her, amazed at her appearance. I shook my head to make sure I wasn't dreaming. Then I thought, 'I must be unconscious, all this must be some fantasy!'

She trotted up to me, her parachute and E&E bag slung over one shoulder. I noticed that her parachute had not been used; it was still packed ready for a jump. I must be dreaming I thought - then she grinned at me, "Strange meeting you here."

I reached out and touched her arm, she was standing there, "Buffy… what the hell?!"

Buffy looked me up and down, "How are you, Barb?"

I shook my head, still not sure if this was a dream, "So-so, twisted my ankle pretty bad… but it seems I can walk on it after a fashion."

I looked her over, she was dirty and soot covered, her pants were ripped high up on the outside and I saw a glimpse of her thigh as the wind wafted the material. Her jacket was open and her shirt wasn't tucked in, the lower couple of buttons were also undone, "What about you?"

"Not bad, some scrapes and bruises… some minor shrapnel wounds in my side," her hand made a gesture toward her left side, "but not too bad and I can move okay."

A thought suddenly came to me, one that I wasn't happy with, "Did you follow me down?!"

Buffy looked up, startled, "Uh… well sort of… " I knew my expression hardened and she hastily went on, "Not by choice! I lost my engine, I saw someone going in, I didn't know who, and I saw your chute open at the last minute, boy you cut it close!"

"It wasn't by design!"

She nodded in understanding, "I tried to stay close; bellied her in a couple miles east of here. I could see the fire Barbie started so I decided to head this way. I didn't know it was you, Barb."

I looked at her hard; I wouldn't have put it past her to come after me. She returned my gaze and I decided to accept it, besides even if she had known it was me she could have just as easily decided it was just another sacrifice the PTBs were going to make her make. "What the hell happened? I never saw what got me!"

"I think it was some jets," she said casually.

"Jets?! What the hell are 'jets'?"

"Planes powered by jet engines, engines that just push, no propellers."

Vaguely I remembered reading something several years before about some English scientist who was developing a new kind of engine but I was having a tough time coming up with anything specific, but I thought he had referred to it as a 'turbojet'. "You think the Germans have them?"

She nodded reluctantly, "Yeah… I don't think they developed them this early in the war in my history, I think they were much more of a last gasp. But I got a glimpse of the one that got me as it went past, I'm sure it had twin jets, I could see the smoke trails as it pulled away."

"I take it jets are bad?"

"Real bad," she nodded, "they're a hell of a lot faster than we are. In my time line it was only about ten years or so and the jets were going supersonic," at the look of confusion on my face she clarified, "faster than the speed of sound."

"Jesus!"

"Yeah, the ones the Germans developed during the war, at least in my history, aren't that fast but they're a lot faster than our Mustangs."

"Crap! If they put up enough of them they're going to cut us to ribbons!"

Buffy nodded in agreement, "Yeah, they are." She looked around, "Where were you headed?"

"I thought I'd stay up high, less likely to get spotted and caught, I figure we're too far east for Switzerland to be south of us. I was planning on heading west until it was and then deciding whether or not I'd try to make it to Switzerland or continue into France and try to get out. Assuming the Germans didn't catch me first."

Buffy thought for a few moments, "Sounds like a good plan."

"Buffy, you go ahead, I'll do what I can but I know you can get away if you aren't tied down by me."

Buffy scowled as she looked up at me, "Barb! Like I'd abandon a wingman just so I could make it home? I don't think so!"

"Buffy, you're more important than that… what you can do makes it too important for you to risk getting captured!"

"If we get captured then I might think about breaking out and making it on my own, but that's only as a last resort!"

"Buffy!"

"Barb!"

We glared at each other for a few moments; then I relented. Asking Buffy to abandon me was just too much, and I know it didn't matter that it was me or anyone else. Buffy did not abandon her comrades. "Okay, but if we do get caught, or are about to get caught, I want you to go it on your own. Right?"

"Sure, Barb."

I knew she was holding back, "Promise me Buffy - you getting back is much more important than me. If you don't agree I'll… I'll march down this mountain and turn myself in right now."

She looked at me steadily for several moments, then nodded, this time I believed her, "Okay, Barb. But only as a last resort! I'm not abandoning my future wife to those damn Germans unless I absolutely have to!"

"I'm not your future wife, Buffy!"

She looked startled, "I… I thought you hadn't decided…"

"I haven't decided! So I'm not, I might…" I stopped myself; then steeled myself, "I'm still thinking about it!"

She smiled up at me, "Okay… You're still thinking about it… that's better than no."

I shook my head, crazy Slayer! A gust of wind brought the sharp smell of wood smoke; I looked behind Buffy and could see heavy smoke rolling skyward from the trees below and not too far behind us. Buffy must have smelled it to because she turned around and looked in the same direction, then turned back to me, "We better get a move on."

I nodded in agreement and we turned and headed west.

Several hours later and I was about spent, even with Buffy helping me a lot I was moving much slower than when we had started out. I couldn't take a step any longer without pain shooting up my leg. I leaned on Buffy a lot and sometimes she almost carried me but even her Slayer stamina was starting to run out. I didn't think the altitude was helping, we might spend a lot of time at high altitude in our planes but we were on oxygen, especially if we were doing anything strenuous like fighting our planes. We weren't acclimated to the altitude, if I remembered right we were somewhere above 11000, maybe 12000 feet.

I estimated we'd probably hiked three or four miles and gotten maybe two miles from where Barbie had crashed. I could still smell wood smoke in the air, not heavy enough to be a bother but it was there. We had rounded a shoulder of the mountain, a deep valley had appeared below us but we hadn't seen much of it. We were staying close or in the tree line so we wouldn't be seen, but that also meant we didn't get a clear view of the valley. The glimpses I'd gotten gave me the impression it was pretty well developed. I'm sure I'd seen a town toward the middle of it and I know I'd seen lots of fields, the patchwork quilt of farm land seen from altitude was pretty obvious.

It was getting late in the afternoon, the sun was off to our right now. I'd guess we'd have another couple of hours before it set and maybe half an hour of twilight after it set. We should start thinking about finding a place to spend the night pretty soon.

We came to a stop and I looked up, in front of us was a jumble of loose stone, large and small rocks in front of us and going up as far as I could see. I looked down the slope and saw a wide, fan shaped expanse of jumbled rock; there were no trees in it for at least half a mile down from us. Looking at the edges below us even where there were trees there were rocks mixed in with them.

"Oh, joy!" I said, trying to catch my breath.

I felt Buffy nod beside me, her arm was around my waist and I was leaning heavily on her. Then she pointed to a spot a little above where we were, it looked like there might actually be a path into the jumble of rock, I doubted if it went all the way across but it would be better than trying to get around the bottom of the slide area.

Buffy evidently thought so to, "Let's try up there first."

"Okay, Buffy."

We made our way up to the gap, I saw it was made by a ledge of rock, it looked like the slide had just gone over it leaving a gap anywhere from a couple of feet to a yard or two wide. "Barb, why don't you rest here, I'll go explore and see if we can get through."

I nodded in agreement, there was no need to haul me through there if we were only going to have to back track to get around the slide. Buffy helped me to the ground, it was a couple yards wide and almost level right here. A big boulder on the downslope side provided a convenient back rest. Buffy dumped our gear beside me; she'd been carrying both parachutes and the two E&E bags. I put the odds and ends I'd been carrying, helmets, goggles, my walking stick, next to the pile and leaned back against the rock. I sat there and tried to get my breath back while Buffy disappeared deeper into the mass of rocks.

A jagged protrusion from the rock I was leaning against was jabbing me in the back. Rather than trying to move to a more comfortable position I twisted around and just lay down and looked up at the blue sky. We were going to have to find someplace to stop for the night soon, maybe we could find a sheltered spot in the rocks to camp in. I started looking around; maybe right here would be a good place.

Opposite me, on the uphill side, a huge slab of rock slanted up at about a thirty degree angle. I pulled myself up the path another couple of feet to see if there was some kind of overhang we could use, I saw a black opening between it and the rock it seemed to be resting on. It was about three feet high and maybe four feet wide at the base but it was shaped like a right triangle, there was probably only room for one of us but I couldn't tell how deep it was. I crawled over closer to it and then stuck my head in but I still couldn't see the back of it, I hoped it wasn't some animals den.

I waited for a couple of minutes for my eyes to adjust to the darkness, I realized it wasn't completely black inside, light was coming in from somewhere. I wiggled my way in further and after about two feet the rock to my right disappeared, a good size room opened out under the slanting slab of rock I'd first noticed. Like the entrance it was shaped like a right triangle, the far wall to the right of the entrance was close to eight feet high. The titling rock lay on top of it and extended several feet further, but it didn't completely seal so light streamed in through the gaps between it and the rock holding it up. The space was about fifteen feet deep, about halfway back a flat shelf of rock jutted up several feet above the area of the entrance, forming a flat ledge that took up the back half of the space. Over it the ceiling rock was anywhere from a foot to five or six feet above it at the right wall. In front of the ledge the ground sloped toward the front wall, formed by the rock that I had crawled around.

Behind me I heard Buffy, "Barb!"

I wriggled my way back out of the opening and rolled over to look at her standing over me, "Buffy, I think I just found our camp site for the night."

She looked at me a little skeptically but I grinned up at her as I pointed into the hole. She got down on her belly and wriggled in. I heard a long, low whistle, a few moments later she wriggled back out, "Barb, that's beautiful!"

I grinned at her, "Looks pretty good."

She grinned back and nodded, "There's a small stream about twenty feet down the path; it's got good water, want some?"

We'd run across some other streams during our hike, little ones only a couple feet wide and presenting no difficulty getting across. We'd drunk our fill when we crossed them but it had been a while since the last one. I nodded my head and Buffy started to grab one of our helmets, while it would probably hold water, or at least not leak too fast, I didn't want to think about what the water would taste like. I caught her hand, "Look in my E&E bag, there's a mess kit in it."

She dug around in my E&E bag and soon came out with mess kit; she popped it open and took both the canteen and the cup. She was back a few minutes later and gave me the cup, full of clear cold water. I drank it, slowly so I didn't lose my breath. Besides it was so cold it almost froze my teeth. Once I finished she held out the canteen, I shook my head no, I'd had enough for now.

"Let's get our gear inside," she said.

I nodded in agreement, "You go in then turn around and I'll pass it through."

We didn't have any problem getting everything inside and then I crawled in after Buffy. She was up exploring the space, after a couple of minutes she came over to where I was sitting on the edge of the shelf leaning against the high wall. My eyes had adjusted to the gloom inside the cave and I could see pretty well. Buffy sat down on the shelf a couple of feet from me.

"I think we should make a fireplace down on the lower section, maybe about there?" She pointed to a place about equidistant from the high wall, the shelf edge we were on and the front rock, far enough from the entrance that it wouldn't interfere with getting in or out.

I nodded in agreement, "Yeah that looks like a good place."

She turned to the shelf, "I think we should set up our bed there," she pointed to a place in the shelf, a couple feet from the high wall, where a small ledge about six inches high ran parallel to the high wall for almost its full length, tapering to nothing toward the back. It was almost flat for about four or four and a half feet and then curved up for a couple of inches; it formed a wide shallow flat-bottomed trough about seven feet long.

"Buffy, it sounds like you're planning to set up a long term camp?"

She looked at me, "Yeah, for a while, until you ankle gets considerably better."

I shook my head no, "We need to keep moving, or you need to if I can't."

"No, Barb, I need to rest also." She pointed to her side, "We're going to have to deal with this."

"Buffy, how bad are you hurt?!"

"It's not too bad, but it will need some tending to."

"Buffy?!"

She shook her head, "Later, it will wait for now."

I looked at her in disgust but then looked at the fading light getting into our cave and nodded. "So what's your plan?"

"I'll get fire wood, I have no idea how cold it's going to get up here tonight. Can you collect some rocks and build us a decent fire place?"

"Sure, plenty of rock outside and I can crawl around okay."

An hour later Buffy must have made seven or eight foraging trips, a huge pile of firewood, much of it branches much too large to burn as they were but Buffy assured me she could break them up. She'd also made a couple of trips with my chute after cutting off all but a half dozen of the shrouds, she came back with it full of pine needles and had me spread them out to make our 'bed'. I'd gone through them and picked out as many pine cones and branches as I could find and added them to our firewood stash. I folded my chute over on itself a half dozen times and laid it over the pine needles. Then I'd popped her chute and cut off the shrouds and made a second covering out of it.

It was getting gloomy inside although I could see from the light high up that the sun hadn't set yet but we were starting to get into shadow. I had the makings of a fire ready to go when I heard Buffy call from the outside, "Barb, can you come help? And bring your knife!"

I yelled out, "Sure!" and grabbed my knife and slipped it back into its sheath and made my way out of the entrance.

Buffy was waiting for me, looking even more disheveled than the last time I'd seen her, "What's up?"

"Come on," she said, offering me her hand. I grabbed it and she pulled me to my feet, well foot since I was keeping the injured one off the ground. She handed me my walking stick and then offered me her shoulder to lean on.

"What's going on?"

"You'll see, it's just inside the tree line."

It took us a couple of minutes to make our way down, as we stepped into the trees she came to a stop. I looked around but didn't see anything, then she pointed at the ground a couple feet in front of us and I looked down.

A small red deer, well relatively small, I didn't think it was more than 200 pounds, lay on the ground in front of me, its head twisted oddly, "Where the hell did you find that?"

Buffy looked up at me, sorrow in her eyes, "I didn't find it… I killed it."

"Buffy?!"

She shook her head, "I don't like killing Bambi… but we've got to eat…"

I turned back to the deer, half under my breath I mumbled, "Jesus! Buffy where did you find it?"

She gestured down slope, "There was a whole group of them… I think they must have gotten spooked by the fire. I was going for one of the big ones, one with all the horns, but I must have brushed against something because suddenly they were taking off and this one was the closest."

I looked closer at the deer, I couldn't see any wounds, only the head was at an odd angle. I looked at Buffy, I thought I knew what she had done but I had to be sure, "How did you kill it?"

She looked at the ground, embarrassed a little, "Uh… well I sort of jumped on its back and broke its neck…"

"Jesus Buffy! And you were planning on doing that to a stag? You're going to get yourself killed!" She shook her head but didn't respond. "Buffy, would you please promise me do try to be a little careful out here?"

She nodded her head; then looked at me, "Barb? Can you… can you butcher it? I… I don't have any idea of how to…"

I nodded my head and looked up at the sky, the sun was going to be down soon and we needed to do this quick, "Is that why you didn't field dress it?"

She looked at me in confusion, "Field dress? What is 'field dressing'?"

"Gut it? Take out its guts so you aren't hauling all that extra weight around?"

She looked a little squeamish, then swallowed and shook her head, "I don't know anything about butchering animals."

I looked at the deer lying on the ground and then at the trees around us, it would be a lot easier if we didn't have to do it on the ground. There was a dead pine a little ways down; knocked partially over by a rock slide it looked like, "You have any rope with you?"

Buffy pulled up her shirt a little and I saw several parachute shrouds coiled around her waist, "I've got three or four shroud lines."

"Can you haul it over to that dead tree?"

She looked at the tree I was pointing at and nodded; then she grabbed the deer's rear legs and hauled it around and started dragging it, "It's easier to drag unless I have to go far, too much hassle to get it up on my shoulder."

I shook my head as I limped after her. I directed her to a point where the tree was about ten feet off the ground. I had her throw two of the parachute shrouds over the tree, and then tie one to each of the deer's rear legs. The shrouds went over the dead tree with a couple of branches in between so they were spread apart. We had to lengthen them by tying more shrouds to the ends; then they were long enough to reach another tree off to the side. I sat on the ground by it with the two ropes looped around the tree. "Buffy, you lift the deer while I haul on these until we get it hanging clear of the ground."

"Got it Barb."

A minute later we had the deer hanging upside down from its rear legs. "Buffy, can you clear out the pine needles in this area?" I said as I pointed to the area under and around the hanging deer.

She cleared the area, brushing the needles and other debris into a pile upslope from where I was going to do the butchering. I slit the deer's throat with my knife to drain the carcass of as much blood as I could. Buffy looked at the blood flowing out of the deer and dripping to the ground, "We're going to create something of a mess aren't we?"

I looked at her, "Yeah, that's what happens when you butcher an animal, especially one this size."

She nodded her head, "You need any help right now?"

I shook my head, "Not for a while."

She disappeared into to the rocks and I started working on gutting the deer. A couple of minutes later she was back, "I think I've found a place we can dump whatever we don't want, there's a deep crevice a little way in there, too deep to see what's at the bottom. Even if the Germans spot it they wouldn't know what was in it."

I nodded; "Sounds like a plan." I looked at the deer; the flow of blood from its neck was down to an occasional drip. I had the cut around its anus and split the belly and was getting ready to get the guts out. We wouldn't need the head and I would have to separate the wind pipe and esophagus to get some of the organs out. I leaned down to cut off the head and almost staggered into the bloody carcass when I put pressure on my bad leg. Buffy's hand snapped out and grabbed my arm and steadied me.

"You know, these are the only clothes we've got, maybe we should be a little careful about getting them dirty?"

It was chilly but I'd been working hard so I was reasonably warm. I took off my leather jacket and put it on a nearby rock. Buffy was stripping off her jacket but she didn't stop with it, I stared at her as she took off her blouse, long underwear and bra, leaving her naked from the waist up except for the bandage on her side with the ties wrapped around her waist holding it in place. Reluctantly I took off my shirt and the long underwear top below it, then reached behind me and unhooked my bra and put it with the rest of my clothes. It felt strange standing outside with the cool wind blowing over my bare skin, a shiver went through me.

Buffy was sitting on a rock untying her boots; she stepped out of them and then unbuttoned and unzipped her pants and let them drop. She pulled down her long underwear and panties and added them to her pile of clothes and then stepped back into her boots. She looked at me, "Come on, Barb, you don't want to get your pants messed up."

I shook my head no, "I think I'll keep them on."

"Barb, it's no time to get all modest."

"Buffy, it's not modesty. If I take off my boot I'm not going to get it back on, and I'm not going to try to get these pants off over the boots! I'll be careful. Besides, you're going to have the messy job of hauling all the stuff away."

I was right. Twenty minutes later I had the innards out and was starting to work on skinning the deer. Buffy had hauled everything away and was sitting on a rock near me, far from our clothes, her body streaked with drying blood. I looked at her as I cut the skin along the legs and peeled it carefully back, "You look like a regular little savage, Buffy."

She looked up and stuck her tongue out at me but didn't say anything. I finally got the skin free and it fell to the ground. Buffy came over and picked up a corner of it and started to wipe some of the blood off of her hands and arms with the fur, "Buffy, I wouldn't do that."

She looked up at me, "Why not?"

"Fleas, ticks… you don't know what's living in there."

She dropped the skin with a jerk and jumped back, "Crap!"

She looked at her hands and arms; brushing at them to make sure nothing was on them. Then she looked at the skin with disgust for a minute, finally she took it and carefully folded and rolled it into a bundle and then gingerly picked it up, keeping her arms extended she headed back to her dump site with it held in front of herself. By the time she came back I had the front legs separated from the carcass and was working on splitting the body in half where the ribs ended. "What were you planning on doing with all this? It's not going to keep all that long."

"There's a pretty deep patch of snow a little above the cave, I thought we'd bury most of it in the snow, I think it will freeze and should be okay for a while."

"Sounds like a plan, I'll be finished in a couple of minutes if you want to start to move it."

By the time I had finished with the last of the butchering she had stashed three of the pieces, the two forelegs with a good bit of the shoulder attached to each and the upper section of ribs and back. The two rear legs were hanging from the ropes that had held the carcass off the ground. The lower back section, I wasn't sure how much meat we'd get off it but there looked to be some decent pieces, was on the ground where I'd put the other pieces when I'd finished them. "Barb, there's a little stream about fifty feet that way," she said as she pointed away from the rock pile beside us, "if you want I can give you hand and you can get cleaned up."

"I can make it, you get the rest of this stashed. Why don't you put one of the haunches in the cave, as cool as it is it will last several days."

She nodded in agreement and started untying one of the legs while I made my way in the direction she had pointed out. I found the stream and lowered myself to the ground beside it. I dipped my hands into the water and jerked them out, it was ice cold! What did I expect? It was snow melt and just barely at that! I stuck my hands back in and scrubbed them clean, then washed myself off, cupping my hands to splash freezing water on my skin and then rubbing off the dried blood and other grime I'd collected. By the time I was done I was shivering, the cool breeze turning to an icy wind as it slowly dried me. I made my way back to the butchering site and found Buffy waiting for me.

She was sitting on a rock, still nude except for her boots, the last haunch of the deer sitting on the rock next to her along with the coiled ropes we'd been using. The area where I'd done the butchering was covered in pine needles again; I could hardly tell I'd done anything there. Buffy looked at me as I came limping up, "Can you get my clothes? I'd rather not handle them as messy as I am."

I nodded, "Toss me one of those ropes." I caught the coiled rope she threw to me and tied her clothes in a bundle. I put on my shirt and jacket, the wind had finally dried me but I was feeling chilled. I didn't bother with my long underwear or bra but just stuffed them in with Buffy's clothes. I slung the bundle over my shoulder and grabbed my walking stick and we slowly started to make our way up the hill; Buffy walked beside me, ready to help if I needed it but trying to stay clear since she was still covered with blood and dirt.

When we reached the entrance of the cave Buffy turned to me, "Barb, would you get out my shirt and jacket?"

"What do you want them for?"

"They've got blood on them," she replied, "I want to try to get it out before it sets."

"Blood?"

She glanced down at the bandage on her side, "My blood."

I nodded in understanding and untied the bundle. I pulled out her jacket and looked at it, examining it closely I found two small holes in the leather, inside there was a section of the sheepskin lining stained dark with her blood. Her shirt had a couple of holes in the center of a large patch stiff with dried blood. I looked at her pants but there was only a couple small smears of blood on the waist band, I could clean those in the cave. Her long underwear was another story, the top and absorbed a lot of her blood and the upper part of the pants was badly stained also, "You better take these too."

She nodded in agreement, "You head on in and I'll hand you the meat; can you handle it inside?"

I nodded, "Yeah, I can deal with it."

I crawled in taking the rest of the clothes with me and put them up on the ledge; then turned around and took the hind leg of the deer from Buffy, "Back in a while," she called in before she disappeared from the entrance.

Half an hour later I had the fire going and a good sized chunk of meat roasting over it, it was starting to smell good in the cave. I'd found a couple of branches about the same size with forks near the end and trimmed them down and planted them in the ground on either side of the fireplace to form supports for my cooking rod. Id found another branch, cleared it of twigs and spitted the roast on it and put it over the fire. I kept turning it every couple of minutes and using my scarf soaked in water to wet it down, hoping I could get the meat to cook without burning through my roasting stick. So far it was working. I'd taken the remainder of the deer leg and hung it from a branch I wedged into a crack in the back wall, if it started attracting flies I'd have Buffy stow it in the snow outside.

I'd cleaned Buffy's pants, the cold water taking the dried blood out of the waist band without too much trouble. The fine wool of our heavy flying clothes seemed to repeal most things, one of the advantages of spending the extra money to get good uniforms. Any stains that remained were well hidden in the dark green of the wool pants. I hoped she could get the stains out of her shirt, they would be much more apparent in the khaki cloth. While I waited for her return I got the sewing kit I had in my E&E bag out and sewed up the rip I'd noticed in her pants earlier, she must have caught them on something since it almost seemed like a slice rather than a tear. The material came together nicely and I was able to do a reasonably neat job using s scrap of parachute silk as a backing to sew to.

I had just finished and hung the pants up on a branch to dry when I heard rustling at the entrance and looked over; Buffy came crawling in holding a mass of clothing in front of her. As she stood up I could see her entire body shiver with chills, her lips looked blue! "Buffy, what the hell have you done?"

"I…" another shiver came over her, "I took a bath… and washed the clothes…" She was by the fire and crouching down close to it, "Oh… God… warmth!"

She was crouched so close to the fire I was afraid she was going to fall in, I grabbed her shoulder to pull her back; her skin was like ice under my fingers. I held her, not pulling her back, letting her get as close to the fire as she wanted. She was still clutching the wad of clothes to her chest, I took hold of them and gently tugged them away from her; they were almost frozen they were so cold!

I put the damp clothes up on the ledge behind me, then realized her jacket was missing, "Where's your jacket?" I looked down at her feet, they were bare, "and your shoes?"

She looked slowly at me, then down, "Uh… I must have forgotten them…" she started to rise and I held her shoulder down, stopping her, she turned her head toward me, "I'll go get them."

"Buffy no! You stay here and get warm!"

She nodded her head in agreement, "Okay, Barb."

"Buffy, are you okay? You aren't going to fall into the fire are you?"

She shook her head, "I'll be fine - I just need a couple of minutes."

I looked at her; she was squatting by the fire; her legs spread wide and crouching over it, absorbing as much heat as she could. I had been sitting on the ledge close to the fire until I'd moved to be beside her. I'd been using one of the parachute packs as a seat cushion, I grabbed it off the ledge and put it on the ground behind her, then tugged her back, "Buffy, move back just a little, sit on this."

"Want to be close," she hissed as she resisted my tugs.

"Buffy, you're liable to burn something if you stay that close. And even if you don't you're going to end up bald."

Her hand went up to her hair, wet and straggly as it hung around her face, "Bald?"

"Not there, down below," I said.

Her hand went to her crotch and she cupped herself, evidently feeling the warmth she scooted back and sat on the pack, "Jesus! Wouldn't want to burn that!"

I grinned at her and shook my head, "No, I don't think that would be at all comfortable. Are you going to be okay?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine."

"Okay, be right back."

"Barb, wait a little, I'll go get them when I get warm."

"No, I'll get them now. I don't want to risk anything happening to them, you'd be hard pressed if some animal came along and took them or chewed them up."

Buffy nodded in agreement, "Thanks, I don't know what I was thinking."

"You weren't, hypothermia was getting you." She nodded in agreement, "I'll be back soon, turn the meat every couple of minutes, okay?"

"Got it, Barb."

I grabbed the canteen and cup before I left. It took me about five minute to work my way out and up to the little stream. It was fast flowing but there was a natural pool, about six feet around and a couple of feet deep just down from where it came over the ledge in a little water fall. Buffy's boots were next to the pool and her jacket was spread out on a rock above it, the lining scrubbed clean until the blood stain was almost completely gone.

The sun was below the horizon and it was getting dark. I quickly filled the canteen and the cup. Clumsily I tied the laces of Buffy's boots together; the cold water had numbed my hands just in the time it had taken to fill the canteen. I slung the boots around my neck and tucked the canteen into my shirt, shivering as the chilled aluminum hit my skin - Buffy had taken a bath in that water? Damn crazy Slayer!

When I crawled back into the cave Buffy was standing by the fire, slowly turning as if roasting herself, "Getting any warmer?" I asked.

She nodded, "Yeah, not feeling to bad right now."

I put the water cup and canteen down on a little shelf on the side of the ledge; it held them easily and seemed a good place to store them. While I was up I grabbed the damp clothes Buffy had washed and limped to the far side of the fire where I had wedged a couple of branches in some fissures in the rock. I hung the clothes on the branches, the heat of the fire should help them dry but as cold as it was I didn't know how long it would take, "Your clothes are wet but I don't know how long it will take them to dry."

Buffy nodded, "Don't need clothes, fire nice and toasty," she giggled at the end of her statement.

"What's so funny?"

She snickered again, "I'm starting to sound like cave Buffy."

"Cave Buffy?"

"Yeah, some guys brewed up some magical beer one time. The stuff was so good I didn't watch what I was drinking and I turned into some kind of cavewoman, started ripping off my clothes. From what Willow said I was ready to do anything as long as they gave me more beer."

I shook my head, Buffy didn't talk a lot about her past, "You must have had an interesting time growing up."

She nodded, "You could say that!"

I finished getting the clothes hung up and headed back for my seat on the ledge. The meat seemed to be cooking well but it was taking its time, I thought I'd give it at least another half hour. I started scrounging through my E&E bag to see what we could have without breaking into the issue rations; I didn't want to use them unless we had to. I knew there wasn't going to be anything but I wanted to make sure. "Buffy, you have anything in your E&E to supplement dinner with?"

She thought for a moment, "Uh… nothing but some nuts."

I opened her bag and right on top I found a couple of big bags of shelled nuts, almonds and peanuts, "So that's where you stash your snacks!"

Buffy looked chagrinned, "Uh… long flights can make me awfully hungry."

I grinned at her, "Thought I heard you trying to talk around something a couple of times!"

"Damn radio calls in the middle of my snack time!"

"I don't think these will be great to supplement our venison, Buffy."

She shrugged her shoulder, "That's all I've got except for the emergency rations; a handful of nuts might help a little."

"Not much, we're going to need some greens or fruits of some kind."

"I saw some berries on some bushes while I was out, but I have no idea if they're edible or not."

"We can check them tomorrow."

"You mean I can check them tomorrow, you're going to be laid up."

I thought for a moment, "Buffy, what are you planning?"

"I think we should stay here at least a week, make sure your ankle is good and healed. We've got plenty of food and the Germans aren't going to find us in here no matter how long they search. Besides, after a couple of days they'll figure we're dead or have gotten off the mountain and they won't be looking up here anymore."

I thought about it for a minute, "I think it might be a good plan. But, you could escape easily right now; I'll stay here until I'm healed up and then make my own way."

"Barb, you don't listen too well sometimes. So listen up now – I am NOT going to leave you!"

I looked at her but gave up, she wasn't going to leave no matter what I said, "Okay Buffy. Damn stubborn Slayer!"

She looked at me, "Yeah, and don't forget it!"

I glared at her for a moment and she glared right back, then my expression changed as I saw her bandaged side come into view again as she slowly rotated by the fire, "Buffy, what about your wound?"

She looked down at her side for a moment and then back at me, "Yeah, I guess we should deal with it before too much longer or we won't be able to at all; how long until dinner?"

I was taken back a little by the change of subject, "About half an hour, I guess."

She nodded, "Then let's see if we can't deal with this wound of mine."

Buffy came over to ledge and started to sit down, "Hold on Buffy, that rock is not comfortable." I grabbed the parachute pack that was by the fire and put it on the edge of the ledge and then got the other one from the gear stash I'd made between the sleeping area and the right wall. I spread it out next to the first one and Buffy laid down on her side with her back toward the fire and with the injured side up.

I untied the cloth ties that were holding the bandage in place and pulled them out from under her, then slowly peeled the bandage off. Blood started seeping slowly out of two holes in her back; one was at the narrowest section of her waist and the other a couple inches further up toward her ribs. In the flickering light of the fire I couldn't see a whole lot, "Hold on Buffy."

I went over to my E&E bag and got out the flashlight I had in it, I also got out the first aid kit I had, there were some bandages and some morphine but not a whole lot else. "Buffy, you have any first aid stuff in your E&E?"

"Yeah, pretty good supply… I learned some after the last time I got shot down."

I went over to her bag and opened it up; inside I found half of it was taken up by a pouch labeled with a white circle with a big red cross. I opened it up and saw it contained a lot of stainless steel instruments in small pouches and all kinds of bandages and other stuff, "What the hell is this?"

Buffy looked a little sheepish, "It's a combat medic's kit."

"Where the hell did you get… never mind! I don't want to know!"

She shrugged at me, "I tried to requisition one for every plane but they're in short supply, besides the idiots in supply said we wouldn't know how to use the stuff even if we had it. I got that one from doc, he was able to get a couple to have in the crash jeeps and I had him get some spares."

I brought it and the flash light over to Buffy and started to examine her more closely; I used the old bandage to wipe off the blood that had dribbled down her back while I'd been getting the supplies. With the light I could see the two holes were a little bigger than my finger but they appeared to be starting to close up already. I looked around some more and saw a streak of blood on her front, I looked at it and there was another hole there. It looked like it lined up with the upper hole in her side, "Buffy, it looks like the one piece of shrapnel went clear through you."

"Yeah, I found it in my shirt when I was getting the bandage on."

I nodded, "The other one must still be in you."

"That's what I thought; you need to get it out."

"Buffy?!"

"Barb, you need to get it out!"

"But why?"

"If we leave it in then when we get back the Army is going to insist on going in and digging it out. Then they're going to wonder how the hell it healed up in a day or two, and then I'll get to spend the rest of my life in some cage as a guinea pig."

"Buffy, I don't know about this…"

"Barb… just give it a try."

I thought for a moment and then nodded, "How do you think I should go about it?"

"See if you can reach it with your finger, if you can touch it you can probably reach it with one of those clamp doohickeys, forceps I think they call them, in the medical kit."

I looked at my hands, they looked pretty clean but I didn't think they were clean enough. I took the tin cup and carried it over to the fire. When I built the fire I put a nice flat rock in the fire pit, offset a little from the center. I took a stick and brushed the coals that were on it gently to the side and then slipped the tin cup onto it and pushed the coals back until they were surrounding it again. I went back to Buffy and covered the wounds with the old bandage while I got things organized. It only took a couple of minutes for the water to start boiling; I used the mess kit handle to get the cup out of the fire and then carefully placed it back on the ledge. I couldn't think of anything else so I decided to use one of the bandages, I tore it open and dipped it in the hot water and started scrubbing my hands.

Once my hands were clean I used some of the water to wipe off the instruments I'd laid out. I peeled the bandage back again and saw a little more blood had oozed out, "You ready, Buffy?"

"As ready as I ever will."

I put the tip of my little finger at the entrance of the lower wound, then as gently as I could I started pushing it into her, feeling for anything hard. As my finger slipped in past the first knuckle I heard Buffy gasp harshly, I stopped moving but she whispered quietly, "Keep going, Barb."

The further my finger went in the harder it got, I put my hand oh Buffy's stomach so I could apply more pressure, "God, Buffy, I never imagined I'd be shoving my finger in a hole in your body."

She gasped in pain and then snickered, "Barb, I've imagined you shoving your finger into a hole in my body lots times… just not that hole."

I froze for a moment as what she'd said sunk in, "Buffy, I don't think now is a good to be making jokes."

"Barb, I wasn't joking."

I thought for a moment, "Well, just imagine it now, it will take your mind off what's happening."

"Not going to happen, that is not a thought I'm going to associate with pain."

I snorted and then started to apply more pressure, trying to be as gentle as I could. Buffy hissed softly, "Relax Buffy, I can't fight against your muscles."

I felt her relax under my hands and then I felt a hard lump, but it wasn't with my finger. I could feel it under my hand pressing on her stomach, "I can feel it!"

"Good, now get it out!"

"Buffy, I can't! I'm feeling it through your front."

"Shit!"

I pulled my finger out of her side and held the old bandage over it as the blood started to flow more heavily, "I'll patch you up as best I can."

After a moment I saw her shake her head, "No, you're going to have to cut it out."

"Buffy! I'm not going to cut into you… especially when it's not necessary."

She turned her head and looked up at me, "Barb, it is necessary. Please get it out of me?"

I looked down at her and saw how serious she was. I felt her abdomen; I could just barely feel it under the bands of muscle, "Relax, Buffy."

I felt her muscles relax under my hand and I could feel the hard lump more easily. It didn't feel that deep in her, I felt up her side but quickly lost it. I'd have to go in through her front, "Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I'm sure."

"I'll have to get my knife and get it sterilized."

"Use my Fairbairn, it's a lot sharper." Buffy's Fairbairn, actually it was a 'Baby Fairbairn', a couple inches shorter than the standard issue English commando knife. She wore it in a sheath strapped to her forearm on combat missions; I'd seen it earlier in with her clothes that I'd brought in, along with her regular knife and both of our 45s.

I got a morphine syrette out of the first aid kit, "Buffy, I'm going to give you some morphine to ease the pain."

She glanced back at me, "Save it…" She stopped when I looked hard at her, "…Okay, thanks."

I pulled off the plastic cover and removed the wire guard; then slid the needle under the skin of her butt, she hissed as the needle went in. I squeezed the tube of morphine between my fingers, forcing the pain killer into her. I started to look for a place to pin the empty syrette to her as we had been trained, then realized that was sort of ridiculous, I wasn't going to forget how much morphine I had given her, besides, she wasn't wearing anything to pin it to.

While we waited for the morphine to take effect I got the things organized I thought I would need. I found several packets of sutures in the medic's bag; I got one out and carefully opened it to find a thin curved needle with a long thread attached. I poked around the instruments and found scissors and a couple of different clamp things, forceps I think they are called.

I got the Fairbairn out of its sheath and took it to the fire and held the blade in the flames, watching whiffs of smoke from the light coating of oil Buffy kept on the blade, from behind me I heard Buffy, "Hey, don't get it to hot, you'll ruin the temper!"

I held it in the fire for a couple seconds longer and then hopped back and sat down next to her, "I'm not going to hurt your precious knife."

She stuck her tongue out at me but didn't respond, her eyes looked a little lost, "How are you feeling?"

"Dreamy…"

I pinched her skin where I would be cutting, "Feel that?"

She shook her head, "Just some pressure, it doesn't hurt."

I rested the flashlight on the ground behind her where it lit up her abdomen and leaned over her. The tops of her thighs were pressed into my side and I put some of my weight on her hips to help hold her still, "Buffy, this is still probably going to hurt like the blazes… are you sure?"

"Don't remind me, and yes I'm sure!"

I felt her stomach, "Buffy, you need to relax!"

Her muscles eased under my fingers and I could feel the hard lump. I thought the muscles mostly ran vertically in that area and decided to cut in that direction, I'd rather cut with the muscle than across it. I wiped the blade of the knife with the bandage dipped in the hot water, then steeled myself.

I pressed the razor sharp blade against her skin and drew it slowly up, the skin parted under the blade and blood welled up from her, I could feel her body tense and then relax under me. I used the damp bandage to wipe away the blood and saw I had cut through the skin and the thin layer of fat under it, using one hand I spread the cut open and at the same time felt the location of the shrapnel. I took the knife and slowly slid the point in until I hit the shrapnel, and then cut up and down trying not to drive the chunk of metal deeper into her. I put the knife down and wiped the blood away again and got a glimpse of something dark amid all the red of her muscle and blood. I took a pair of forceps with a long pointed end and slipped them in, it took a couple tries before I felt I had a grip on the shrapnel. I pulled gently and drew out a jagged chunk of metal, roughly rectangular about an inch long and a quarter by a half inch in cross section. I breathed a sigh of relief as it came free.

Blood started flowing more freely from Buffy and I put the bandage over the wound and pressed down hard for a few moments, she hissed in pain but held still. I ripped open a package of sulfa powder and sprinkled it in and around the incision I had made. I squeezed the incision closed with my fingers and picked up the suture needle with the forceps and started sewing up the slit. It wasn't easy but I finally got a dozen or so stitches in and the bleeding slowed considerably.

I opened a new bandage and put it over the wound, "Buffy, can you hold this?"

"Huh… what?"

I picked up her hand and put it on the bandage, "Hold that, okay?"

She seemed to come back a little from her dreamy state, "Got it, Barb," she said softly.

I looked at the two wounds in her back, I wiped them clean and dusted them with more sulfa powder and put half a dozen stitches into each of them. I was getting better as I figured out how to manipulate the needle and tie the knots. I shifted the bandage and Buffy's hand so I could get to the last wound, the exit wound in her side up near her ribs. I dosed it with sulfa powder and stitched it closed. Then I opened another packet of sulfa powder and sprinkled it over the entire area. I got the largest bandage in the medic's bag and found it would cover all four wounds. I put it over them and worked the ties under Buffy and over the bandage a couple of times to hold it securely in place.

I sat back and looked at my handiwork and then at Buffy, she was watching me and smiled feebly, "How are you doing?"

"A lot better now that I'm not being used as an experimental pin cushion."

"I'm sorry, Buffy…"

"Shush, thank you… you did beautiful."

I nodded, it had gone better than I had thought it would, "Rest for a bit."

I cleaned up and checked on the roast, it had gotten a little over done on one side while I'd been distracted taking care of Buffy but the rest was okay. I gave it a couple of more turns while I cleaned up and put away the medical gear. When I had finished I turned to Buffy, "Ready for some dinner?"

"Starved!"

She gingerly sat up, wincing as she moved, "Are you in pain?"

"Yeah, what did you expect?"

"I'll get you some more morphine."

"Don't bother, it feels good but it just makes me loopy and then wears off. I'll be fine in a couple of hours, just let it run its course."

"Are you sure?"

"Barb, you're probably in more pain from that ankle of yours than I am. Do you want some morphine?"

I shook my head, "No thanks."

I got the roast onto the mess plate and brought it over along with our knives and we sat companionably together while we ate the meat. We each had a handful of peanuts to go along with the venison, not much of a meal but better than nothing. After we were done I cleaned the plate and knives with the last of the water from the cup and we each had a good drink from the canteen.

Buffy got to her feet slowly, "What do you think you are doing?"

"Checking to see if any of my clothes are dry."

She walked slowly over to the clothes hanging on the far side of the fire pit. After checking them she pulled down her long underwear and slowly got into them. She came back over to me and picked up the canteen and took another long drink and then offered it to me, "Finish it off, I'll go get more for tonight."

"Buffy, do you think you should be moving around that much?"

"I'll be fine; I'm taking it slow and careful."

While I drank the last of the water from the canteen she scrounged around the pile of gear until she found her scarf. We always wore silk scarves when we were flying, they kept our necks from being rubbed raw by the collars of our jackets as we swiveled our heads constantly looking for enemy planes. She wrapped her scarf around her neck and headed for the cave entrance, "I'll be back shortly."

"Take care." I said as I watched her wriggle through the entrance.

Ten minutes later Buffy was back with a full canteen and cup of water and something packed in her scarf which was in her hands and not around her neck anymore. She came over to me and knelt down in front of me and looked up, "Time for you to get a little medical treatment."

Reluctantly I nodded in agreement, "Yeah, I guess so."

She gently untied my boot, taking the laces nearly all the way out and then pulled steadily on it until my foot came out. The pain shot through me and I couldn't stop the gasp that came from me, she glanced up, "Sorry…"

I shook my head, "Go on…"

She manipulated my foot and ankle and I winced as the pain shot through me but it wasn't too bad, not like if there had been any broken bones. As much as I'd been on it, despite the pain, I was almost positive nothing was broken. She eased off the heavy wool sock and the silk sock under it; I saw my foot and ankle were almost solid blue/black from bruising. Buffy gently set my foot down and quickly untied and pulled off the other boot, "That one is fine."

She looked up at me, "I know, I just want to get you undressed before I bandage your foot."

"Undressed?"

"You aren't going to want to be sleeping in your uniform; plus we need to keep them in as decent shape as we can!"

I nodded in understanding and started unbuttoning and unzipping my trousers. She got my other boot off and I slipped off the pants. Buffy folded my long underwear back on itself, clearing it from my sprained ankle, "Is that too tight or should you take them off also?"

I shook my head no, "They're fine."

She took her scarf and worked with it for a minute, then she started wrapping it around my foot and ankle. I gasped as she put it on my skin, it was ice cold! "What the hell?"

"I've got snow packed in it, it'll probably melt pretty fast but I'll go get more when it does." Buffy got up and started digging through the pile of clothes I'd brought back and soon had my long underwear top out, "Put this on and I'll hang up your uniform."

I took off the uniform shirt I was wearing and put on the long underwear; she took my shirt and pants and hung them up neatly on the branches on the far side of the fire. She checked her uniform and evidently it was dry, she folded them neatly and hung them over the branches.

Buffy put some more wood on the fire and then came over to me, "I'm about ready for bed, are you?"

I nodded in agreement, after the day we'd had and then the full meal I was feeling the weariness spread over me. I crawled back to the bed I'd made earlier and got under the top parachute; Buffy followed me in and carefully pulled the chute over both of us, "Night Barb."

"Night, Buffy."