Thaaaanks to my beta...over and over again :-)
- flashback -
Barney Ross woke with a start, hot pain spreading immediately through his arm and head. Fighting reflexes kicked in before he had even opened his eyes.
His attacker backed off, knocking something over in the process, hands raised in a calming gesture.
„Hey, take it easy!"
Barney´s pulse raced, his head pounded. He felt immediately dizzy, but still made it to his feet.
He looked around, the adrenaline rush making him want to jump up and fight.
„Relax, okay?!"
He glanced at the woman still standing only a few feet away from him. He was somehow sure that it had been her touch making him regain consciousness, but she admittedly didn´t look very dangerous.
The dizziness grew. He sagged back down to the cot.
„Where am I?" he asked, realizing how hoarse his voice sounded.
„At a lodge close to the Chekaweea´s peak", she answered, still not moving.
„Shit", he mumbled, carefully stretching the muscles of his neck and shoulders. His head felt like exploding.
„You should lie back down", the woman suggested. „Your car doubled over ´cause of a rock-fall. You may have a concussion."
„How the hell did we get here?" he asked, trying to sort out if he could remember anything of what she had just told him. He glanced around, every turn of his head making the nausea grow again. They seemed to be alone. And the slender figure still standing right next to him wouldn´t have managed to even get him out of the car not to speak of taking him more than some feet away from it.
„You were still conscious and already out of the car when I got there. I had heard the car and then the rocks fallin´ a moment later so I went there to check."
„I made it here by myself ?"
He felt his pulse slowing down a little by now, but the paranoia coming with his job was not to be brought down that easily.
She nodded.
„The place is about three minutes away from here. You actually passed out on the door sill."
Barney felt suddenly sick. With no obvious threat in sight, he lay finally back.
XXX
It took him a minute to fight down the nausea.
The lodge looked rather shabby. The woman with him had obviously decided to grant him some space and busied herself with some kind of saddle bag over at a small table. The wind was howling around the house. It seemed to be raining heavily. Through the window he noticed the fading light.
„How long I´ve been out ?" he asked.
She returned to him and picked up his watch from the floor right next to the cot.
„About an hour", she said with a look at it.
„Little early for nightfall then", he mumbled.
„We have a bad thunderstorm out there", she told him. „We´ve been lucky to make it here before it really started."
Barney slid one hand over his burning left forearm and realized the reason for the stinging pain there belatedly. He glanced at the five neat stitches along a nasty gash there.
„You did that ?" he asked.
She turned her head, then nodded.
„Yeah."
„You´re a doctor ?"
„I´ve got an PhD", she answered lightly.
She returned to him and handed him a hip flask.
„Just not in human medicine", she added.
„But?" she asked.
This time, she chuckled.
„Veterinary medicine", she replied with a weak smile. „I specialize in treating horses."
„Horses, huh?" Barney mumbled.
„Look at the bright side", she told him. „It could have been cattle."
He took a sip of water out of the flask she handed him, suddenly realizing how thirsty he was.
„So where´s the good thing in that?" he asked after a moment.
She gave him a bright smile. „Horses are a clientele hard to please. They require a rather gentle treatment."
He only made an undeterminable throaty sound she interpreted as his version of a chuckle.
„Take it easy", she advised him then. „I guess we´ll be stuck here for a while."
XXX
A while later, the sound of the door woke him. His company had obviously just returned from outside, getting out of the leather jacket she had been wearing.
„Weather´s still getting worse out there", she mumbled, noticing that he was awake. Night had fallen by now.
„How are you ?" she asked, slipping out of her boots.
Barney didn´t feel much better than before. His head gave him hell and his right shoulder felt contused, the arm and hand slightly numb.
„Been better", he mumbled sluggishly.
He watched her fumbling with an old-fashioned coffee pot to heat some water. The lodge was equipped with a small but nevertheless effective stove she had obviously got going at some point. He watched the slender figure move in the dim light of two equally old-fashioned lanterns. She was in dark jeans and an outworn looking sweater and moved with some kind of a quiet determination.
„Want some tea?" she asked a few minutes later.
Barney managed again to sit up, but sat back with a groan. The pain pulsing behind his eyes had annoyed him by now.
„Why not", he managed to answer.
„Jeez, you look bad", she said.
Barney accepted the tin cup she was handing him, only to set it down again, moving his hurting shoulder carefully.
„The side you crashed down on?" she asked. „Want me to have a look at it?"
Barney suppressed a groan. Then he tried to relax and let his back rest against the wall behind him.
„You know, don´t get me wrong", he mumbled, feeling that he was losing patience.
The woman in front of him raised her eyebrows, throwing him a curious look.
„But who the hell are you?" he asked.
XXX
„So, Amberly", Barney said. „What you´ve been doing out here ?"
„Well, I´ve been for a ride." Amber put a strand of hair behind her ear. „ I live close by. And usually, it´s just Amber."
„When you say for a ride..."
She smiled.
„Yeah, I mean on a horse then", she answered with a smile, pointing at something behind the wall Barney rested against. „Haven´t you heard her? Sparks likes the weather just as much as we do."
She laughed at the sight of him frowning.
„Yeah, and I was all on my own", she said relaxedly before he could actually ask the question.
„And you had no objections to take a complete stranger over here and stay with him in the middle of nowhere for the night ?"
Now she looked perplexed.
„You could have died in this accident", she answered indignantly. „I just wanted to help. Where I come from, that´s called common decency."
Then she narrowed her eyes, picturing his reaction after regaining consciousness again.
„Mind if I ask what you do for a living?"
„Actually, yeah."
Amber frowned at his brusque answer, but didn´t press the matter.
„You know, I spent ten years in the Australian outback", she said after a moment. „I think I can handle a ride on my own. But you´re probably right - you never know what you´re gonna be faced with."
Barney held her gaze.
„Didn´t mean to make you feel uncomfortable", he said after a moment.
She mustered him, taking her time to eye him up.
„Well, you just did a damn good job nevertheless", she told him then.
XXX
„So what about the car?" he asked, watching her rummaging through her saddle bags „Did it look bad ?"
„A total loss, I guess", she answered. „Looks like you´ve been damn lucky."
„Great", he mumbled. Tool would not be very happy to hear that.
„Was it new ?" she asked.
Finally, her fingers found what she had been looking for.
„No. But it´s a friend´s."
Amber grimaced.
„Hope he´s a good one", she commented.
„You don´t happen to have a cell with you, do you?"
She shook her head, then realized that he seemed to be looking for something.
„What you´re looking for?"
„Mine", he answered. „But I guess I had left it somewhere in the car."
„Wouldn´t work anyway. At my place, yes. But out here?"
Barney frowned, not telling her that he used a sat phone that usually worked almost everywhere. But with the storm and darkness outside and his head hurting the way it did, he was not up to march out to whatever was possibly left of the car.
„You know, if you´re shoulder is contused...", she said then, turning an unlabeled small pot in her fingers.
„What´s that?"
„Arnica ointment."
He frowned.
„I take it you usually use that on your patients?"
„It is a classic in both human and veterinarian medicine", she insisted, not able to suppress a grin. „I filled this up just today and I used it myself before", she added with a shrug.„Served its purpose."
„Well, damn, why not", he mumbled after a moment. There he was on what had been supposed to become a nice and quiet fishing trip, in the middle of nowhere with the car smashed and he himself hurting once again and the world coming down outside in addition.
So much for going fishing for a change of scenery.
„Want me to warm you some water ? To get rid of the dust and dirt ?"
He nodded again after another moment. He didn´t care much about getting dirty and mused that she, regarding her usual clientele, surely didn´t either. Still, it was the same with some hot water to wash off the dirt as with the first decent warm meal at home after a long and frustrating mission. It was a small thing with great comforting effect.
XXX
„Want me to help you ?" she asked a short while later, watching him getting out of his shirt and trying to get out of his t-shirt without causing too much pain.
She had just put the pot with the hot water down at the sink and walked over to give him a hand.
She did her best to keep a straight face the moment he finally managed to pull the shirt over his head. It had become obvious before that he was fit on their way from the car over to the lodge. She had realized that there were some muscles beneath his clothes while trying to support him on their way to the lodge. Still, she hadn´t been prepared for the sight of his heavily tattood torso. She wondered not for the first time that day what kind of guy she had stumbled into accidentally that afternoon.
She backed down then.
„I´ll get us some more logs", she mumbled, getting ready to leave the shelter of the lodge again. „There´s a small supply outside."
„Sure that you don´t want to leave that to me ?" he asked despite noticing that she was obviously up to grant him some privacy to wash up. The lodge offered no bathroom.
„Sure", she said with a smile. „I´ll manage."
XXX
Amber rubbed her hands to get them a little bit warmer.
„Let´s see", she mumbled. „Where does it hurt?"
She had sat down on the cot right next to him, trying to make out any details in the dim light of the lantern.
He twitched the moment she touched him and made her jump as well.
„Alright, there, I guess", she said with a small sigh. The tattoos made it impossible to see if there was some kind of bruise building.
„Must have been a painful thing to get those", she commented, referring to the tattoos.
„Well, they haven´t been done all at once."
„What happened to your hand ?" she asked, pointing at the leather splint he was wearing.
„An old battlefield injury."
She reached past him for the pot containing the ointment. He tilted his head.
„What happened to yours?" he asked back, referring to the long scar along her wrist.
„The same", she answered.
Barney craned his neck to throw her a surprised look.
„You´ve been to war?" he asked, obviously doubting it.
Amber laughed quietly, a warm and relaxed sound.
„I´ve been married. Does that count ?"
„Not sure", he mumbled.
She shrugged, giving a small sound of amusement.
„Well, there´s no medal of honor if you survive", she said, matter of factly.
„Done", she added then, wiping her hands unceremoniously on her jeans.
„Thanks."
„You´re welcome."
They both seemed kind of relieved to have gotten that over with.
„We only have hard tack for dinner, I´m afraid", she informed him.
„Well, that´s better than nothin´, isn´t it ?"
She nodded silent agreement.
„We should probably try to get some sleep", she suggested, handing him some. „Sparks won´t take me anywhere as long as the weather doesn´t change and it´s an one hour march by foot even in daylight over to my place. So we´re stuck here for tonight. If things look better tomorrow morning, I´ll go home and get help."
„I´ll have a look at the car then", he mused. „Have to see what it takes to get it out of that ditch."
Amber waved a hand.
„Don´t worry."
He threw her an amused and at the same time questioning look.
„You own a tow truck?" he asked drily.
She smiled.
„This is the countryside, city slicker! People know each other, people help each other. It´s not the first car we have to get out of a ditch."
„Take the cot", he offered. It was the only sleeping accommodation the lodge was equipped with.
She shook her head.
„I´ll take the armchair. It´s alright."
XXX
Later that night, when he returned from outside, he crossed the room to put another log on the fire.
Amber had fallen asleep in the large armchair, curled up in a rather uncomfortable looking position. The delicate long fingers of the years ago injured hand rested close to her face on the threadbare blanket which had slipped half down to the floor by now. He reached out to pull it over her again.
Doing so, his gaze fell on the saddlebags resting right next to her chair on the floor. Something he could only see partly but what looked very familiar peeked out of one of them. He lifted the bag´s lid a little, only to found his suspicion confirmed. He let the lid sink back in place, only to find in surprise that his discovery left him somewhat contented. He couldn´t approve of her falling asleep with a stranger like him around in a godforsaken place like this. It indicated some kind of naive belief in the good of mankind he had given up on long ago. But the fact that she actually did carry a weapon with her while roaming the solitude out there made him think that she had some common sense in the end. He suddenly found himself wondering if it had also been the ten years in the Australian outback or rather the obviously violent ex husband who had made her learn how to use a gun.
It came as another surprise for him to find that she was definitely not the kind of person he would like to see being hurt.
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