"... I'd give up forever to touch you,
'cause I know that you feel me somehow.
You're the closest to heaven that I've ever been,
and I don't want to go home right now.

...And I don't want the world to see me,
'cause I don't think that they'd understand.
When everything's made to be broken,
I just want you to know who I am."

-Goo Goo Dolls

Lizzie woke in the morning to find Fred still sleeping in her embrace, his head resting in her lap and one arm wound around her waist. She ran her fingers through his hair, then sighed and lifted him up enough for her to move out from under him and lowered him gently to the ground. She picked up her pack and left, walking down the path that lead to the stream.

Fred didn't wake until after she'd already gone. He lay semi-conscious, feeling the world slowly filter in around him. Something was different. The first thing was that he actually felt good, like he'd slept more than his usual two or three hours – his back wasn't even stiff from the rocks. The second thing he didn't notice until he sat up and ran his hand through his hair - his wrists were unbound. That little sneak! Apparently he'd been sleeping deep enough for her not to wake him. He hated it when he missed things, especially when it had something to do with him. It was also slightly unnerving to know she'd been watching him sleep (never mind that he'd done that to her more than once).

He saw her pack was gone and figured she must have gone down towards the water. As he stirred the fire, he wondered if he could come up with a good enough excuse why they shouldn't make any headway towards their goal today. It wasn't as if they were late, their short cut through the door meant that they were still ahead of where they should have been by now. He smirked - thinking of Torineil in terms of a rental car, they still had four days before they had to turn him in.

Even so, he decided to give Lizzie a hard time about untying him just for good measure. He saw her coming back up the trail, she must have washed her hair, it was wet as it fell over her shoulders. She was still wearing the same green dress she had on yesterday, and he mused that if she dressed like that in her world instead of the dreary frocks that her mother approved of, she'd have guys beating down her door. He spent a moment watching her, tucking another memory away for the future. He doubted he would ever manage to gather enough of them, but anything would be better than nothing after she'd left. Right now, on their journey, she was his in a way. There was no one else to lay claim to her attention, no one else to make her smile...no one else to tie him up at night...no, no – wrong train of thought.
She had almost reached him now, so he ducked behind a tree and waited. He grabbed her as she passed by, startling her as he pulled her back against him and held her fast with one arm around her waist and the other pining her arms to her sides.

"Someone untied me last night," he whispered in her ear. If she thought this was a game he was playing, she should know better than to think he'd play fair.

"Really?" she asked, a blush staining her cheeks. She tried to think of something witty to say, but her brain didn't seem to be working correctly, focused as it was on the feeling of Fred's arms tight around her.

"Really... Apparently I'm a deep sleeper."

"I'm afraid I don't know what you're talking about. Perhaps it was the mice. I saw one chewing at your pack."

Ignoring her reply, he released her and turned her to face him. "Lizzie, you can't do that! Quit feeling sorry for me, I'm not going to fall apart just because..." He stopped as she pushed him up against the tree and stared him down.

"If it's for my protection, then it's up to me when I want to be protected and when I think you need a good night's sleep..." She leaned towards him, her hands still on his chest where she held him against the tree, and whispered in his ear. "Understand?"

She gave him a meaningful look before she turned away and went over to their supplies to look for something to eat, leaving Fred to wonder what had just happened. Obviously he'd missed something... Following her, he decided he'd file Lizzie's behavior away for later when he had a proper chance to think (daydream) about it.

"Hey, I was thinking," he started. "Since we're so far ahead of schedule, we should have some fun today!"

She looked up at him suspiciously. "What kind of fun? If I recall, yours and my versions of fun are sometimes quite different."

"Whatever," he said, unperturbed. "Let's go exploring. Come on, it'll be great!"

Lizzie fought the urge to laugh. He must have slept well she thought wryly, he sounded more like himself again. She'd missed him like this. It wasn't a good enough reason not to tease him a little though. He'd have to do better than that.

"I don't know..."

"Ple..," he stopped when he saw her try unsuccessfully to hide her grin. "You're just messing with me! Come on." He grabbed her hand and pulled her after him down the trail towards the stream.

"Where are we going?"

"You'll see."

He lead her down to the water, but then turned upstream to walk along the bank, the opposite direction she had gone to bathe and wash up. They walked single file, Lizzie following behind Fred, wondering how he could have gotten this far off course in the short time he'd been down here the day before. Perhaps he was just wandering around hoping to find something. After about 10 minutes of walking, she began hearing a noise that she couldn't identify. It was quiet, almost like static on a radio turned down very low. As they continued on, it became louder and louder until she realized that the sound could only be that of an immense waterfall. Another five minutes and they reached his goal. Before them stood a face of rock, easily 100 feet tall. From the top the water ran over and down until it crashed into the rocks below. They stood for a moment, looking up. Fred turned to her to say something, but she couldn't hear him over the sound of the water. He shook his head, grabbed her hand and pulled her around to the rock face behind the waterfall. There was a shelf of rock about three feet wide running along the edge and disappearing behind it. Fred leaned closer so she could hear him.

"You'll have to get a little wet, but it's worth it," he shouted.

Lizzie nodded and watched as Fred ducked quickly under the water to the other side. She followed him through. Behind the waterfall, the ledge of rock stretched back to become the floor of a large cave surrounding a deep pool of crystal clear water. The sunlight coming through the waterfall threw dancing rainbows onto the walls and the pool shimmered with an unearthly glow as the light filtered in.

"Fred, how do you find these places?" Her words echoed loudly in the cavern. He seemed to have a knack for it she thought, remembering the canyon.

He flashed her a grin, "You just have to keep your eyes open."

She looked over the ledge of rock they were standing on. The water was only about six inches below them. It didn't look as deep as it had when they came in, about four feet maybe, with a smooth sandy bottom. Fred was squatting at the edge, looking over, balancing precariously on the balls of his feet. Later, Lizzie could never quite say what came over her to do such a thing...without thinking, she walked behind him and knocked him off his feet, sending him headfirst into the water below. He surfaced, sputtering.

"What did you do that for?"

Lizzie couldn't help but to laugh. With all the pranks he'd pulled on everyone else, he never seemed to expect it when it happened to him. "I'm sorry," she managed to choke out.

"You're gonna be sorry..." He jumped out of the water and was back over the ledge before she even thought about running. She screamed and tried to make it out of the cave, but he caught her first and carried her over to the water where he unceremoniously dumped her in. He jumped in after her.

"Oh my gosh, it's cold in here!" she screamed.

"That didn't seem to bother you when you knocked me in," he said, laughing. She splashed water up in his face.

"You're asking for trouble..." He grabbed her shoulders and dunked her head under the water. "I warned you," he said when she came back up coughing. Lizzie didn't say a word, just pulled herself out to stand on the ledge.

"Chicken," mocked Fred, thinking she was giving up the fight.

Instead, she aimed straight at Fred and jumped, wrapping her arms around him as she landed and dragging him under the water with her. They emerged, tangled in each others arms, laughing.

"Who's a chicken?" asked Lizzie, still holding onto him.

"Not you, Lizzie, never you," he replied, trying valiantly to focus on anything but her lips that were so close to his.

Ever since she'd read his journal, Lizzie had felt a strange sense of wild abandon around him. She knew something about him he didn't know she knew. It made her feel like she was flying as she realized all the feelings she'd felt for Fred that she had tried to push aside or call something else were mirrored by him. She could feel the warmth of his body against hers in the cold water. She raised her hand and brushed the water from his face.

Fred had been trying ever since they left camp to get a read on Lizzie's strange behavior. It was as if their roles were reversed and she'd been doing everything she could to provoke him. He couldn't figure out what she was up to, but she was making it extremely hard to appear indifferent – hell, that was putting it mildly. Now here she was, her body warming his, their arms around each other, and the only thing he could decipher was that she was happy. He knew she would turn away and laugh, bringing their moment to an end, and he braced himself against the disappointment of letting her go. Instead, she reached up and brushed the water gently from his cheek. He closed his eyes, turning towards her hand as it caressed his face. She brought her other hand up, running her fingers through his wet hair and down the back of his neck. He could hear his blood rushing in his ears - how badly he wanted her to touch him, how much he wanted to touch her.

"Lizzie," he managed to whisper, "you shouldn't..." She leaned closer to him, and he felt their breath mingle together.

"I should," was the last thing he heard before her lips met his.

All he'd ever wanted, all he'd ever needed, was here in his arms. With Lizzie he was real, he was whole and healed. Even without a past, she was his future - his life, his breath, his reason for waking in the morning, his angel of peace in the darkness. He found himself lost in their kiss, unable to tell where his own longing ended and hers began.

A small, quiet voice inside his head told him to stop, now, before it was too late. Didn't she deserve to know who he was first? Didn't he? 'Stop!' it begged as he continued to kiss her. 'Stop! Stop! Stop!' Until it was screaming inside his head.

"..op..." he murmured, finally releasing her. "Stop," he tried again.

Lizzie finally heard him. "I don't want to stop," she said and recaptured his lips with her own.

Fred reluctantly broke the kiss again. He ran his hand through her hair, his blue eyes intense. "You deserve to know who I am first...I have to know who I am."

Her eyes met his as she considered his words. "I know who you are, Fred. That's enough for me."

He cupped her face in his hands, and kissed her again, this time softly and slowly with so much tenderness, Lizzie felt her eyes filling with tears.

"Now you know my secret," he said after a moment.

"I already knew," she answered smugly.

Fred leaned back to look at her. "What do you mean?" he asked, suspicious.

"Um...well, I sort of..." Her guilty smile told him all he needed to know.

"You read my journal, didn't you...you naughty girl?"

"I learned from the best..."

"I wondered what was wrong with you this morning. You could have just asked."

"And you would have let me read it?" she asked, disbelief evident in her voice.

Fred grinned. "Well I would have if I'd known you were so crazy about me." She punched his arm while he laughed at her. He clambered out of the water, then turned to help Lizzie. "Come on, I'm freezing."

They returned to camp hand in hand.

"Just change in there." Fred motioned to the cave. Lizzie looked doubtfully at him. "I promise I won't look...unless you need some help," he added. He grinned at her blush as she grabbed her pack and ducked into the cave. Fred grabbed his own clothes and changed as fast as he could, sitting his boots in the sun to dry, and sat down against the rocks. It was only mid-day. Now that he had a chance to sit, his mind raced through all that had happened, and he found himself in something very close to a state of shock. Lizzie...Lizzie... The scent and taste and feel of Lizzie still permeated his senses. She came out in dry clothes and sat down beside him.

She nudged him gently with her shoulder. "What'cha doin'?"

"Recovering."

She laughed. "Sorry about that."

Fred turned to her, an amused expression on his face, "You'd better not be."

"No, not really." She rested her head on his chest as he put his arms around her. So this was what it felt like when everything was perfect, she mused. She thought back to when her mother had set her up with Charles, how naive she had been to think that she'd ever loved him (or that he'd loved her for that matter). Whatever she had felt for him was like a stone skipping over a lake compared with the depth of love she felt for Fred. Love that had been there from her childhood until now - growing, changing, evolving.

"I love you, Fred."

He kissed the top of her head. "I love you, too, Lizzie."

In a tree beside the cave, a raven clicked his beak and ruffled his feathers before taking flight, disappearing into the western horizon.

They dismounted outside the mouth of the cavern. Fred looked up at the opening as if facing down an invisible foe. Lizzie took his hand as he took a deep breath and they entered the cave. Apparently, there was a reason that it was called Crystal Cavern. The walls glittered as though were made of millions of diamonds as the light from their torch shone over them.

"Where are we supposed to go?" asked Lizzie.

Fred shrugged. "Beats me. Maybe it's one of those 'you'll know it when you come to it' places."

They knew it when they came to it. The cavern itself wasn't very deep, but at the end of it, in the last chamber, was a wall that seemed to be made of silver glass with narrow veins of black rock running through it.. It stretched as far up as they could see from the torchlight and across the entire distance of that side of the room. Their reflections looked out at them from the natural mirror.

"I think this is it," said Fred. In his hand, he held the vial that he'd taken from his pack.

"Fred, wait." Lizzie took his face in her hands. "No matter what happens, I'm not leaving you...ever."

Fred put his arms around her and pulled her close. "As long as I live - as long as you'll have me, Lizzie, I'm yours."

The last kiss they shared before he remembered would haunt Lizzie for the rest of her life.