Bad Romance Chapter 4

When Alexa had pondered her marriage the few times she'd thought about it back in her own time she'd envisioned the old Baptist Church back in her home town. A long white gown with a long white train with her hair pinned up. Her mom fussing with her before the wedding. A tall wedding cake and champagne afterwards at a reception that included most of her family and the local town and hopefully some of her college friends. Such are the dreams of a small town Wyoming ranch girl.

In reality Alexa's marriage happened in a small room that had been converted into a worship place for the gods. She was pleased to see that there were candles burning at what looked like an alter but she couldn't get over her jitters. She wasn't sure at all what to expect. Halfdan had given her a sword after all. She knew that in ancient Celtic ceremonies the bride and groom were expected to have each others hands cut and bound "blood of each others blood". She supposed she could stand it but the thought made her queasy.

Luckily, the ceremony didn't involve any cutting. In fact it seemed like there was more about fertility and blessings than anything. She supposed she didn't mind that but she hoped secretly that the fertility didn't take too soon. She was lost in another time with a man she barely knew yet, who was on what some would consider a death mission. The last thing she needed was a pregnancy. Plus, the whole pregnancy thing in this time period scared her. She hated to tell Halfdan just how much. There were no hospitals. No sanitized health care providers. Only the mid-wives and right now she wasn't sure he could even provide that for her, as he didn't even have a true home. What had she gotten herself into she wondered? But not for long as she looked up into his dark brown eyes. Halfdan was so beautiful in the candlelight. She could take him home and lose him easily. The women would be all over him in a second, not to mention the managers who'd want him for movies or for modeling agencies. He was truly that awesome to behold. She never imagined a man that magnificent would want her.

Halfdan himself was in another world beholding his bride. He decided that she looked like what a Valkyrie would look like in his mind under the candle light. They were the maidens who took you to heaven. Her dark hair flowing down over her shoulders and her red dress highlighting her dark skin. Her green eyes looked up at him in what he thought was admiration or maybe that was his hope? He wanted to lean down and kiss her horribly but the priestess hadn't yet pronounced them to be one yet. He truly wished she'd get on with it.

As he was thinking this, the door to the ceremony room was thrown open and four men strode in. They were all dressed in typical Viking garb, except for one, who was much larger than the rest. He was richly dressed in a wool tunic and dark brown cape tipped in fur. To Alexa's eyes he looked mean. Almost like one of the wrestlers she'd seen on television. She almost expected to hear entrance music behind him.

"I see the whelp has found himself a bitch to play with. Are you old enough for this? Technically I'm the lad's guardian you know. You should be getting my permission before going off and getting married Halfdan." he said.

Halfdan growled. Really growled. Alexa watched as he pulled his sword.

"I'll kill you Toke. Make no mistake about it. You knew that I would kill you for Harold's death, but to disrupt my wedding! No, I'll prolong your death."

"That's funny, you puny runt. You couldn't kill me to begin with and now you say you are going to prolong my death." this man who was evidently Toke laughed. "Take him," he nodded to the men on his side.

"Not here, outside, this is a ceremonial house," the priestess clamored to no effect. Just like saying 'no fighting in church' Alexa thought absently as she grabbed for Halfdan's sword. She had no idea how to use it, but she figured that if worse came to worse she could hit one of the bastards over the head with it.

She watched as her almost husband fought the first comer. He didn't last long. Halfdan had him down and wounded quickly. She then watched as the second guy tried his luck. He didn't manage much better.

"You idiots. You cannot handle a boy." Toke exclaimed, coming into the battle. He and Halfdan exchanged sword blows making Alexa's stomach churn. Toke was so much bigger than Halfdan. Blow for blow so much stronger, but Halfdan held his own, only going down once, causing her to gasp. Toke would parry low and then high and Halfdan would meet him each time.

"Hello, what do we have here?" Alexa gasped as one of the remaining men grabbed her from behind and pulled her against a wall. Halfdan's sword clattered to the ground. The smell of his body and breath was sickening and the feel of his hands on her body was worse. She was afraid to call out for help, afraid to distract Halfdan, but the man was touching her. Touching her! She felt his hand on her breast and vowed then that she'd never become distracted in a fight again. She would learn to use Halfdan's sword if it was the last thing she did. Which might be soon the way things were looking. To make things worse the jackass was now running his mouth along her neck. That was it, she couldn't be still any longer.

"Halfdan! Help!" God help her if she got him killed she thought to herself.

Thankfully, things worked out just the opposite. Halfdan glanced up at Alexa's call of distress to see the brigand fondling and kissing his wife. If he had seen red before and wanted Toke's blood, now he was in the closest thing to a berserk state he had ever known. He slashed at Toke, managing to cut his sword arm, causing him to drop his sword.

Toke looked up at him in surprise, recovering his sword but not his strength for the cut was deep and bleeding.

Halfdan quickly sent his sword through Toke's shoulder blade and Alexa heard the scream. Toke had made a mistake in not wearing his mail brynie armor and thinking he could easily take Halfdan. He got up still gasping for breath and groaning. He was holding his shoulder with his good arm, the remaining Vikings helping him recover. Halfdan went at them and they scattered like bugs taking Toke with them out the door. Halfdan would have dearly loved to follow but he had to liberate Alexa.

He turned and saw her standing there stiffly, clearly scared out of her wits as the lone Viking fondled her openly. In fact he seemed so into it he didn't see Halfdan come up behind him and stick him from behind with his sword. The man simply doubled over and was dead before he hit the ground.

Alexa could do nothing but stand there and tremble. She knew she needed to do better. She was a Viking warrior's wife and she knew she should be braver than this. Or was she his wife? They hadn't even finished the ceremony. Oh, God. She wanted to cry and cry hard. She thought she was having a panic attack and she didn't want Halfdan to see it so she did the only thing she could think of. She ran. She ran hard. She didn't even see where she was going. Outside the ceremonial building there was a copse of trees that led into a forest and Alexa ran into the forest blindly, scared by forces she didn't understand. Love, fear, uncertainty.

By the time her panic had subsided she was well and surely lost through and through and had no way of tracking her way back.

Stupid, stupid. How stupid can you be? Alexa thought to herself. You just ran from the man you love just because you didn't want him to see you cry. Now you are lost and you are not just lost you are lost from your own time period and you have no way back. What in the hell are you going to do? Worse, it was getting cold. The warmth of the day was wearing off and the chill of late October was setting in. All Alexa had on was the thin red wedding dress. She thought about the thick warm wool cloak that Halfdan had bought her that waited for her wrapped away packed up on Julia. If she hadn't been so stupid she could be sitting beside a fire right now wrapped inside of it and, even better, she could be wrapped up in Halfdan's arms. He wouldn't have been mad at her she thought to herself, but boy would he be now, if she ever saw him again, which was doubtful. And what if she ran in to Toke's gang again? She'd dropped her only means of protection. Oh, God, she thought, she didn't even have her sword with her.

She wondered what would be the best course of action? Would it be better to stop and hope he would try to track her or should she just keep going and hope she ended up somewhere else safe? She could always try to backtrack? That might be best. She was sleepy. She knew that. There was a log that looked somewhat inviting. Maybe she had hypothermia. What if she fell asleep and didn't wake up? There was no use for it though. She was so tired. She had simply cried herself out as she ran. She had to sleep. Without putting my deeper thought into it, Alexa sank down next to the log, letting the lethargy take her. She curled herself up into the log and her last thoughts were of Halfdan as she drifted off into a cold slumber.

Halfdan himself was in a murderous rage, but not at Alexa. If he had wanted to kill Toke before, his intents were nothing compared to what he felt now. Toke had taken everything away from him. His family, his brother, his lands and now his wife. He had scared her so badly that she had run away from him in wild eyed fear. He had seen it in her eyes. He'd seen that kind of fear in womens' eyes before. It was disgusting. He'd watched that nasty piece of nithing touch his wife in the way only he was allowed. He'd seen the vacant hollowness in her eyes as the man did it. She'd been so scared. It was the second time she'd been violated in the two days since coming into the his time period. No wonder she fled like a deer. He just prayed she didn't have one of those asthma attacks again. He held the white inhaler in his hand in wonder. He knew the medicine in his hand could possibly hold her life in the very balance. He wondered how much was left in the container. There was no way of getting any more of it since it was only produced in her own world. That scared him greatly. She said she only had the attacks monthly. He prayed to the gods that she didn't decide to have one while she was running away from him.

Halfdan let the tears run down his face as the cold wind lashed at him. He was trying to follow her path

on Julia through the forest but it was becoming tangled and soon he would have to tie up the mare and search on foot. Alexa didn't have her cloak and it was dark now. He could barely see one foot in front of the other, except for the rare bright full moon overhead. Without its glow he would be forced to give up thesearch. No, he thought. No, he wouldn't. He wouldn't leave her out here, unprotected. He had not protected her back at her own wedding and he had failed her. He wasn't even sure how he was going to ask for forgiveness as it was. He'd promised her that he would protect her and he had failed her so miserably. He was worthless as a husband. Come to think of it, that damn Toke had interrupted the ceremony and the priestess hadn't even gotten to finish pronouncing them man and wife. He didn't care though. As far as he was concerned she was his wife and until he could get the ceremony finished somehow some other place that was the way it would be. He didn't think they'd be welcome back in that particular theater to the gods anyway.

Halfdan kept pushing on, imagining Alexa huddled somewhere, cold and alone, scared and miserable. When he finally saw something red against the backdrop of a tree he began running for it, fear in his heart. She was lying there collapsed against a fallen log, her normally dark skin white against the murkish ground. Her hair was thrown in a crazy disarray around her and her tender lips were parted. He couldn't tell whether she was alive or dead from where he was and his heart nearly stopped beating.

Halfdan dropped down on both knees next to her. Thankfully, he'd remembered to bring her cloak with him in case he did find her, for he knew she'd be cold and need to be wrapped up. He knew that she'd need more heat soon, that is if she was even still alive.

He took her gently in his arms and she awoke with a start. Halfdan couldn't remember being much more thankful for anything. He pushed back her hair from her face, knocking leaves out of it.

"Shushh. It's me. I'm here love." Halfdan whispered, emotion evident in his voice. He took the cloak and covered her up with her still cradled in his arms.

"Halfdan?" she murmured disjointedly.

"Umn Hum. I'm here. Don't be afraid." he began rocking her unconsciously. Halfdan felt her cling to him, shaking.

"So cold. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to run." She gasped throatily.

"It's all fine now. I've got you now. You just got scared. It's my fault. I promised to protect you and I didn't. I'm so sorry. I failed you again didn't I? I pray you will forgive me my wife."

"It wasn't your fault. I failed you. I'm supposed to be a warrior's wife and I got sick and ran. I was so scared Toke was going to kill you. And then that other guy had his hands all over me." He felt her shiver.

"It won't happen again. I'll die before I let another man touch you."

"Don't say that. NO!" he felt her come awake then with the vehemence in her voice.

"I'll not have another man touch my wife. That was agony for me." Halfdan chocked out stroking her hair. "I killed him and I'll kill any other man who tries it. You are everything to me Alexa and do not ever forget it."

Alexa tried a weak smile, but all she could do was bury her face in his chest. It felt so good to have him with her. He had found her! She was saved! The relief was literally tangible. She wanted to hold onto him forever.

"Shush! It's okay." When he spoke, only then did she realize she was crying. Halfdan began kissing away her tears. Slowly working down her cheeks til he reached her lips gently teasing them.

"We aren't married are we?" She asked confirming his worst fears.

"I'm not sure, but as far as I'm concerned we are. As soon as we get somewhere that there is another priestess we'll try the ceremony again, if only to ease your mind, but I believe that we are married."

"Maybe the gods didn't want us married or something."

"How can you say that Alexa?" he cried, his soul tortured. What if she didn't want him after all?

"I don't know? I'm scared, that's how. I thought I'd lost you for sure. You don't know what it was like watching Toke chop at you and thinking that with ever stroke he could kill you and I'd lose everything that means anything to me anymore. I never knew how my whole world could suddenly revolve around one person. You."

Halfdan continued to stroke her hair and face alternately. He tried to piece his words together just right.

"I do know the feeling. When I saw that nithing of a Dane touch you I felt was like an explosion in my chest. My whole world revolves around you as well, Alexa Hrorikson."

Alexa ran her hands along Halfdan's face and traced the lines of worry she saw there. She was still freezing but it wasn't as bad with his warm body against hers. There was something warming just in hearing him refer to her by his own infrequently used last name. From what she gathered most of the men just refered to him as Halfdan Strongbow, even though she hadn't had opportunity to see evidence of his abilities with his bow yet. Only stories.

"I'm going to start a fire, if I don't you are going to catch a draft and get sick on me," he said. The firewood was plentiful and the fire started easily using the flint and steel that he kept with him.

The two of them sat next to the warm fire and talked until Alexa drowsily fell asleep in Halfdan's arms again. Halfdan couldn't help but dwell on the day he'd 'd almost made it completely through a wedding to the woman he considered his soul mate. He'd almost killed Toke, but at the same time he'd almost lost the most precious possession that he could imagine having. Way too many almosts for one man have in one days time. What would be the ultimate price for this blood debt, he wondered? Would it be too high for him to pay?

The next morning Alexa woke up snuggled warmly in Halfdan's arms in her cloak beside the dying embers of the fire of the night before. Halfdan clearly hadn't slept for he was still awake.

"You're awake," she said quickly.

"I never slept." he replied.

"Why?"

"Simple. Someone had to watch out for us. I told you, I'm gonna protect you no matter what from now on. I've done a pathetic job so far."

"No, you've not. Last night was my fault. I'm the one who freaked out on you."

"Only because it's the second time a man has taken advantage of you in the last two days and I'm the one who has this issue with Toke, not you. It's not your fault."

"Well, then let's just agree that it was neither of our faults then. It just happened. Let's forgive each other. Thank you for coming for me though."

"Like I wouldn't? I can't live without you Alexa. I know that now." Halfdan sighed. He kissed her cheek softly.

"I don't think I could live without you anymore Halfdan." Alexa reached up and kissed him on the mouth slowly. The passion was simmering under the surface bubbling up slowly. Halfdan was afraid of scaring Alexa after what happened to her the night before. He didn't want any bad memories resurfacing and any associations made between the man who tried to rape her and himself. He wanted to be tender and soft with her, but he found it sometimes hard because his own passion could get in the way.

"Tell me if I'm doing anything wrong, love." he whispered.

"No," she gulped at him. "I love you Halfdan, you wouldn't do anything to hurt me ever. I know that."

"Thank you for your trust."

Just like that she breathed "Make love to me Halfdan,"

It startled him a bit after what she'd experienced the night before, and they were after all in the middle of nowhere.

"Are you sure?"

"More than sure." she replied looking up trustingly into his silky chocolate eyes.

As the cold grey dawn approached them, there sheltered under the log, he proceeded to do just what she asked for in the privacy of their own wooded seclusion.