Jo tilted her head back, basking in the feel of the cold air snap across her face as her friend spun them around countless times in tight circles across the bond. Everything appeared to her in sharp clarity in these fleeting moments when the warmth of Laurie's gloved hands gripped hers and the earth moved with them as one.

She was a selfish girl and she should rise above her childish anger with Amy.

Immediately her mind raced to find ways to make it up to her youngest sister and with such determination she missed the way Laurie's hands tightened. Laurie was watching her unbeknownst and imagining an entirely different set of situations than she. His eyes followed the flush of exertion in her cheeks, greedily catching the way her lips set tightly in thought, the whipped tendrils of hair that had escaped her cap. If he could only persuade her to see him as – well he had Jo in his hands this very moment and that would have to be enough. For now.

Jo opened her eyes to find Laurie's gaze darting away to the edge of the bank, a smile twitching its way across his face. Jo smiled back and tugged him towards the centre. Spinning out further into the middle of the pond Laurie instantly felt the change in texture beneath his skates, the different sound the scraping metal made as it carved into the ice. He pulled them short, dropping Jo's hands to listen carefully.

Not watching the boy's strange behaviour Jo continued to skate off, grinning at her cleverness. "Catch me if you can!" she called. Jo skated to the very middle eagerly, willing to bet Laurie was following until she looked over her shoulder. She found that not only was Laurie was not following her he was watching the ice with great concern.

"What? What is it?" asked Jo at the sudden change in gravity.

"Shh!" he hushed her quickly, pointing a finger about as he turned at the waist. There! There it was – a cracking sound. The sound of something deep against something fragile, splitting apart to pull them in. Laurie paled. He had not checked the ice in his eagerness to help Jo forget her troubles.

And there they were in the middle of a jolly great one.

"Jo – the ice," Laurie's eyes spoke his apology as he lifted them to meet hers across the ice. Jo looked back in confusion as his mitted hands made fists at his side. She fingered the sleeves of her coat feeling a sudden dread settle in the pit of her stomach.

"What about it?"

"Can you make it to the edge?" he asked ignoring her question.

"Can I –" There was a great crushing sound and Laurie watched horrified as the ice immediately behind Jo fell apart, dragging her with it into the frigid water.

"JO!"

Any sound of her scream was swallowed by Jo's immediate plunge into the icy depth of the pond. Laurie could hear his heart pounding and his mind raced to think what to do – Jo was under! He spun around in a panic looking for anything that would save her. Finally spying pieces of the broken fence leaning against the pines he raced to pick on up.

"Hold on!" he called over his shoulder, voice scratchy with fear not bothering to slow knowing how important it was that he pull her out as quickly as possible. Scooping up a particularly long piece of the rail he was distracted as the sudden impact of heavy footsteps kicked up the snow by his hands.

"Jo." A quiet voice spoke and he looked up to see little Amy in her red snood watching the black hole made in the pond.

"Amy!?" he gasped before the reality of the situation hit like a hard slap when Amy's frightened eyes met his. Forgetting about the younger sister he hauled the rail onto his shoulder and skated back across the ice, slowing to slide carefully closer to the hole. He felt his heart climb into his throat as his stomach went south at the sight of still water.

"Jo!" Laurie spoke with a voice he had never heard. Fear pulled at him every which way and he fell to his knees by the pole, sliding on his belly to the very edge of the broken ice. "Jo!" he called for her, peering into the dark abyss with such bated breath thinking he might, might have been too late. Too slow, too stupid - oh God in heaven it was all his fault! He should have known that so late in the season the ice would be thin, should have checked! Should have hurried faster, should have ignored any and all distractions – Amy oh where was Amy! She could help! God, she would hate him forever if Jo was dead. Oh god. If Jo was –

He swallowed just as the water rippled to life and struggling limbs stretched for the surface. Laurie plunged his arms into the freezing water without thought, grabbing hold to Jo with every inch of his tall, lean strength. Oh God – she was alive! Alive, Jo was clinging and she was alive! With one mighty tug he pulled her thin frame half out of the water and in the motion found her dripping ice-cold pond water across his shoulders and head whilst the water her legs were still caught in surged up under his chest.

Cold, it was so cold and yet he knew without a doubt Jo was suffering much worse and he barked, "Grab the rail!" beside them and shaking and shuddering Jo held onto that piece of wood for all her life. Without a blink of consideration for propriety or on the other side chivalry Laurie plunged his long arms back into the frosty water and grabbed Jo's legs by her petticoats and yanked the rest of her trembling body out of the pond. Jo pulled herself along the rail and fell to the side when at last not an inch of her was encased in that glassy coffin of winter.

Laurie took a moment to catch his breath as Jo stared into the sun. Pushing himself up from the edge he shuffled over to where she lay and instantly begun checking her over, not caring where his hands should fall or if she would hit him away. Jo found herself too exhausted from shock to even notice if he was holding her wrist too tightly or running his hands down her cold legs. She could breathe and every breath was like fire, air and life all in one and she gulped it down eagerly.

Finally satisfied that limb and body were in one piece and the right colour he leaned back on his heels, taking Jo's hands in his. "Oh, Jo." Was all Laurie could manage and he found his eyes could not help the one or two manly drops that escaped to hit his chilly cheeks.

Jo struggled a moment to smile before something caught her eye and Laurie turned to find Amy standing a little away from them, unsure if she should approach. Feeling something he recognised as possessive flare in his belly Laurie quickly turned away from the girl back to Jo, lifting her head from the ice to peel the layers of soaked clothes off her still-shuddering body.

"Mm," was the only little sound of protest Jo was able to muster before Laurie had already removed her coat. Her head felt as though it weighed a tonne and Jo struggled to hold it upright as it lolled to her shoulders.

"Jo," she could hear the begging note in Laurie's sharp voice as he finally ripped the buttons of her dress open and stripped the thick saturated material from her. "Amy!" he called over his shoulder as Jo began to go limp in his arms, "quickly! Your hands are dry – pull your gloves off and hold her face!" Laurie's hands were shaking as he pulled Jo's boots off and tugged both her socks off with one hand, the other busy with rubbing her back. Friction, he prayed, would make her feel a little warmer. The littlest of littles would have to do until he removed all her wet clothes.

As soon as Amy found the courage to take Jo's face in her pink hands Laurie scurried to encase Jo's feet in his large hands, rubbing them so fiercely he was sure he was hurting her. It wasn't enough to see her skin turn a raw red and he quickly set to pulling his own skates off. As soon as Laurie had stripped off his socks he was tugging them only Jo's twitching feet, rubbing them for good measure. He pulled Jo's wet ones onto his own feet and with a stern look to Amy he hooked his fingers around Jo's top petticoat and pulled it off too. The crinoline was next and his eyes never left Amy's as her hands ran across her sister's face and neck.

"Rub her chest," he said in a monotone, finally freeing Jo's waist from the wired net before he pulled her from it, even further from the hole he could almost feel in his periphery. "Do it!" he told her, ignoring the way his demand verged on the fringe of hysteria. Jo's skin was looking more grey than cream and he couldn't bare to lose – no he wouldn't think it.

Amy's hands slipped under Jo's wet white camisole and Laurie watched with knitted brow at the flushed pink of Amy's small hands as they rubbed noticeably under the see-through material. Jo was so ghostly pale from the cold he had not known her top had turned so. Laurie's eyes darted back to Jo's face where her eyes were quickly losing the battle to stay open and he clasped her head desperately.

"Jo!" the roughness of his voice seemed to catch her attention before her lids drooped again. "Jo," he repeated a little calmer as he tugged her to his own body, praying he was warm enough for the both of them. "We'll get you home. Don't worry, It'll be ok, just keep your eyes open a little longer." His hand ran soothingly across her back as he felt Amy's between them. "Take off your coat," Laurie directed softly, using the opportunity of Amy's distraction to embrace Jo tightly. Kissing her wet hair he tightened his arms around her smaller frame. As much body contact as possible would keep her warm, wasn't that what he had read?

Amy passed her small coat to him and he frowned even as he tugged Jo's much larger limbs into the sleeves. It would have to do – his own was wet from pulling her out. There was no regret for that. Amy had taken her sister's hands and was blowing hot air onto them as she rubbed them in her small grip. Laurie spared a moment to smile at the tender image before he pulled all three of them to their feet.

"We have to get her home – grab her things, I can carry her." Without waiting to see if Amy had obeyed him Laurie pulled Jo into his arms and tried not to picture a distant wedding day with much the same positions if not warmer constitutions. Not thinking of his increasingly wet pair of Jo's socks on his feet as the only barrier between him and the wintery earth Laurie strode off for Orchard House, another little pair of feet behind him following in double time.

A/N: I hope that's what you do when someone falls into an icy pond. I've no idea but then I'm assuming Laurie wouldn't know either. I can't believe how long it's taken me to write this. sozzz