This story is very sweet, no much excitement or drama so far. But I will make it up to you. I had no inspiration left to write more chapters...But somehow I suddenly picked up where I left...This chapter will be more exiting, I promise ;) Enjoy!
...
"Do you think we can make it before dark?"
Alex thought about it and waited before answering. "I'm not sure, we started out late."
She grinned. "Then what are we waiting for?" She quickly stood up from the grass. "Come on. Let's go cowboy."
Alex smiled very pleased. "I see your back is doing much better."
...
As always they were working very hard, but time went by very quickly. And unfortunately it started to rain...They stopped and looked at each other. Both of them felt disappointed, because they realised it would take them even longer to get home now. Stevie tried to hurry up. She felt the urge to make it on time, because she felt sorry for Alex and also thought about Drovers...Kate and Meg must be having a hard time too, managing the whole place together. Maybe she should have given Jodi her old job back, if she wouldn't be so stubborn.
"Hey, take it easy will ya!?" Alex yelled from a distance.
"Why? We can still make it, if we keep on going."
He rode up to her. "Stevie? What's the hurry?"
It was like he could read her mind. She sighed, tried to ignore him and kept on working, yelling at the cattle. He remained riding next to her, trying to make eye contact.
"Look, I'm sure they will manage. If not, they would've never let you go. We keep on going, but it's not a shame if we have to spend another night in the bush. Besides, they know we're doing this together."
"That's exactly the point Alex." She snapped and glanced at him. "Promise me we'll never do this again."
He laughed. "Why not?"
She tried to hide her smile. "I know we're having a good time together, but doing this with just the two of us is a little to much, don't you think?"
He now looked more serious. "You're right. But there's no need to do things in a hurry."
She nodded, but didn't really paid attention to what he just said, she kept on rushing. In fact she worked to fast, it was only a matter of time for her to make a mistake. She galloped after a few cows who were wondering of. The horse slipped because of the muddy ground and Stevie fell off. Alex got a scare when he suddenly heard her scream. At first he had trouble finding her, because it was pouring at that moment.
"Stevie!"
She was lying between some curious cows, on the cold and wet ground, obviously in pain. Alex jumped of his horse and helped her to get up. But Stevie was unable to stand on her feet and made a loud painful noise.
"It hurts like hell!" She looked at him with tears in her eyes. "Don't stop, help me get up. I need to get on the horse again."
He shook his head. "There's no way you're going to ride like that."
She couldn't believe him. "Don't be stupid, we have to!"
He shook his head again. "Stevie!? I won't let you ride like this, you hear me?"
She started to cry, not just because of the pain.."But Alex?!...Please, you have to help me. We have to make it, there's no food left, we are wet and it's getting cold and dark soon...We could freeze to death..."
A tiny smile appeared on his face when he came closer. "Women...They can be so dramatic sometimes." He kneeled down by her side. "Come on cowgirl, we'll be fine." And he gently lifted her of the ground and put her on his horse, which was a lot warmer and safer then lying on the ground. She tried to put her feet in, but she couldn't. She had to lean forward to hold on and hang on the horse like that. Alex led the horse to a more dryer place, but the rain didn't seem to stop.
When he'd tied the horse to a tree, he carefully touched Stevie's leg.
"We better take a look at your foot now."
She didn't wanted to, still had some hope left they could finish their job that day.
"Come on Stevie, it's already swelling. If we wait, we won't be able to get your boot off. You know all that." He decided not to look at her any more and just do it. She moaned when he took her boot off.
"I think I twisted my ankle..And perhaps some crazy cow stood on it."
"You think so, huh?"He made eyecontact, then he carefully pulled off her sock. "It could be broken, doesn't look very good to me." They both saw it was badly bruised and swollen.
Tears came up in to her eyes again, not being able to work was a very bad thing for her. But the timing was even worse!
"I guess you have to leave me behind." She sadly said.
"I'm not going all the way home to get help, if that's what you mean. That would be stupid and dangerous." He already felt stupid, not bringing his sack-phone this time.
Stevie suddenly got an idea. "Alex? You remember that old cottage? It shouldn't be far away..."
He sighed. "You mean that old little haunted house?" Stevie nodded, still leaning forward, hanging on the horse. He laughed, he had a few memories about that cottage and started to share.
"You knew Claire, right. Not scared of anything...But did you knew Claire was terrified of that old place? I used to hide in there, just to scare her."
Stevie chuckled. "Poor Claire, you must have scared her a few times."
"Somehow she loved it."
...
Alex got hold of Banjo very quickly again -who had escaped after Stevies fall- and left Stevie behind to see if he could find the old cottage. Stevie got colder by the minute, even more when twilight fell. She also got worried, because there was no sign of Alex yet and it felt like she'd been waiting for hours.
After a while she finally heard him. "Oi!" She was so relieved to see him. "It's about time you got back here."
"You were worried about me, huh?" He teased. He grabbed his horse with Stevie on it and rode of to the old cottage. He observed her every now and then. "How are ya mate?"
"I'm fine, just keep on going." She sighed. Stevie was a tough women, so hard on herself sometimes, Alex knew that. She was exhausted because of the hard work and the pain.
They finally managed to make it. "Now all we need is a fire." Alex said. There was an old blanket on the floor, where he carefully put her down. Then he started to clear out the old dusty fireplace a little bit and eventually managed to start up a fire.
"Where are the sleeping bags?" Stevie asked.
Alex jumped up, he looked a bit shocked. "Bloody hell, they must be still outside."
"You're kidding me, right?" She said, sounding disappointed in him. From the look on his face she could tell he wasn't joking. "Alex!?"
"Hey ease up will you? I'll check them out and let them dry by the fire."
Stevie sighed and took her frustrations out on him when he returned with the sleeping bags. "It's one of the most important things to have on you when things like this happen, how could you forget?" He kept quiet and just gave her a look, totally not amused by her comments.
She wasn't feeling comfortable and her leg was very painful. She couldn't do anything and felt useless and stupid. The reason they were there was because of her.
"Now we have to wait for hours, or they'll be no use at all if they won't totally dry."
Alex turned to look at her again. "What's your problem Stevie? We're fine now, aren't we? We've got heat, a place to shelter and we've got each other. What more do you want?"
She responded cool. "My sleeping bag."
He didn't hesitated and grabbed Stevie's sleeping bag from where he just put it. "There! Now you're satisfied?" He threw it right in front of her, it was soaking wet.
"I believe I'm not the only one with a problem here." She sarcastically said.
"Oh come on Stevie, just get the damn sleeping bag!"
She now got mad too, they were so good at that, fighting. "Don't you yell at me!"
"And why not? Huh? You don't have to take all your frustrations out on me, you're the one who started this."
Her eyes widened a bit. "What?! I didn't start anything!"
He walked from the fireplace to her and looked straight at her. "You let me believe I'm the one who's responsible for the sleeping bags, but we're in this together, right? You've injured your foot, not you head Stevie." Then he turned to check the fire again.
That made her shut up. She knew he was so right. It got quiet for a long time, every now and then he looked up from the fireplace to check up on her. Stevie just stared in front of her.
After a while he stood up to sit next to her. She felt relieved when he did.
"You're shivering." He softly said with a worried sound in his voice.
She nodded and just stared at him. He moved a little closer towards her and started to stroke her hair. "Still wet, that doesn't warm you up either."
She cleared her throat and softly responded. "Thick curly red hair takes a while to get dry." She smiled.
Sometimes she could be so vulnerable. He stared into her eyes for a moment, he was worried about her. The way she looked at him made him look in another direction. Alex Ryan was not a shy type of guy, but Stevie could really touch him on the inside. And Stevie Hall was more of an independent woman, but at this time she had to rely on him more then ever and that made her feel vulnerable. Which wasn't a bad thing, she loved the feeling of a man being there for her, protecting her, comforting her.
"Alex. I'm sorry."
He looked at her again and saw she was still shivering. "It's ok. You're freezing, come here." He moved closer and put his arms around her, pressed her against his strong body. She embraced him and peacefully let her head rest on his chest. He took the blanket that was on their feet and pulled it, so it covered them both. "Yeah that's better, that will warm you up."
She looked up for a moment. "Thanks Alex." She said, feeling so safe and even more vulnerable lying in his arms, but she knew she had to give up struggling her injury. When she did, she finally felt how exhausted she was, just like he was. They both fell asleep.
...
In the middle of the night they both woke up, feeling terrified, because it was very cold and dark around them. The fire got out somehow. They were still in each other's arms and Alex pressed her a little more against his chest. "How did this happen?" He stood up, feeling angry. "Stupid old fireplace! Stupid muster and stupid old man! Now what do we do?"
Stevie could barely see him, only because of a little moonlight shining through the small window. "Alex sit down. You get cold by just standing there."
He did exactly what she said and as it was the most normal thing to do, they curled up under the blanket again, finding themselves a few seconds later in a warm embrace.
"Maybe you're right. Maybe this house is really haunted and the ghost doesn't want us to be here." She said, a little scared.
He thought it was a stupid thought. "Crap, no way. But what do we do now Stevie?"
"We just stay here and keep each other warm until the first light." She sounded very sure.
Alex shook his head. "Right o, you have any idea what time it is? No. Me neither. If we have to sit here like this for 5 or 6 hours, nothing will keep us warm any more." He stated.
She sighed. "We will make it till the morning, I mean, we have to, right?" She got even more scared now and realised the risk to get hypothermia was very high now.
He thought she made a stupid remark and snapped. "There's no guarantee we will. Listen, I'm not gambling my life here, it's bloody dangerous without a fire."
Stevie laughed. "You're starting to sound like me. I'm the one who should be freaking out now. Why don't we try and start the fire again."
"We? You're unable to stand on your feet mate."
"So..You do it." She said a little teasing and tickled him a bit to get him on his feet.
"Yeah yeah, I'm on to it." He walked towards the fireplace and looked back at her, laughing. "You know? You're going to miss me when we get home...Being this cosy and all..."
She shook her head, rolling her eyes. "You know? You should stop being so full of yourself Alex Ryan, and start the stupid old fireplace."
...
He tried and tried, but nothing seemed to get the fire started again. He got cold, Stevie tried to stay warm inside the blanket. He mumbled and sighed, feeling irritated. Suddenly they heard a growling noise nearby.
"Tell me that was you." Stevie nervously said.
"Sssh.."
Stevie thought it was a stupid joke and sarcastically responded. "Alex, stop scarring me, it's not working."
"Shut up! Not a word." He sounded very serious. And he was.
They were shocked when they heard the cattle outside started to get very restless.
"This is not good Alex." Stevie said, Alex kept quiet to try to hear what went on outside.
"Alex? Don't leave me and promise me you won't go outside." She started to freak out, but he was still there and walked up to her.
"Ssshh...I'm not going anywhere." He whispered while he embraced her. "Just be quiet, we're not very safe in here, without a fire."
"You mean there's a chance 'he' would enter the house?"
"He might, now let's be quiet, so 'he' won't get curious."
