The Lake House Chapter 2, a criminal minds fanfic

Or maybe I'm completely lying and will post chapter two today. Who knows :D Sorry about the run-on at the end of the first chapter from the end of the story straight into the A/N; I did put a bunch of these little dudes ~ at the end but FF just deleted them for some reason (now fixed 03.10.14).

Criminal Minds characters and universe are not mine, but the original characters, storyline and wording are mine.

The Lake House

Chapter 02

All over her torso, which was far too thin like the rest of her, there were large bruises and welts, particularly her ribs and sternum, mostly boot shaped, while her throat was decorated with several dark corsages of bruises so deep they must have effected her ability to speak. Aaron ground his teeth at the sight. As he lifted the t-shirt over her head and slid it up her raised arms he noticed the partly healed ligature marks around her wrists. He felt white hot anger flash through him. So, she had escaped from the man who had been chasing her. He felt helpless fury over the fact that he hadn't been able to help her earlier, when she had been captive for who knows how long having god knows what done to her. He couldn't help but notice that she had large, exquisitely perfect breasts, but was horrified at the huge bruises on and between them. They had obviously been one of her captor's preferred targets. He had to compose himself for several seconds before he could bring himself to remove the too large jeans from her small frame.

Reaching out, he undid them quickly and eased the wet, unwieldy fabric down her hips and legs, not looking at her until they were lying in the heap of wet clothes next to them. Doing his best to ignore the obvious evidence of her femininity, he saw that there were more boot marks on one hip, some random bruising on both thighs, but that the hand or fingertip shaped bruises that he had been dreading were thankfully absent. He hadn't realised he'd been holding his breath, but the relief he felt in finding no evidence of anything other than pain having been inflicted was palpable. With some thought to the security of their current predicament, after all he couldn't know for certain if the man pursuing her had been her only captor, he locked and dead bolted the cabin door before returning to her.

He opened out the remaining blankets and draped them over her, settling her as close to the fire as he dared without risking her developing frostbite. He rubbed her hands briskly between his before putting them back under the blanket and wedging them under her armpits where they would get the most out of what body heat she had. Moving to her feet, he alternated between rubbing each one between his bare hands and then with the blanket wrapped around them. He pulled a pair of thick socks over them before tucking her feet back under the blanket. He moved back up to her head and towel dried as much of her long, thickly tangled hair as he could. It had an obvious curl and he thought it might be a dark blonde once dry.

Aaron stood up, stripping his own clothes off until he wore only his boxers and socks. He lifted the blankets from her and slid down next to her, pulling the blankets back over them both. He grabbed a cushion and eased half of it under her head before taking the other half himself. There really wasn't any comfortable way for two relative strangers to lay naked in front of a fire, so he pushed that part of the predicament to the back of his mind. Instead, he turned her body on its side, facing away from him, and arranged his body around and against her so that she received the maximum amount of his body heat possible. Even so, he couldn't help but groan under his breath as he brought her hips against his, tucking their bodies together like spoons. It took several breaths to prevent his body from reacting to her proximity. He wrapped one arm over her, splaying his hand against her belly to press her to him. He tucked his chin into the crook of her shoulder and lay there slowing his breathing and trying not to think about the intimacy of their situation. Eventually he drifted into a light sleep, aware of little and strangely comfortable.

He drifted back out of sleep some time later, perhaps half an hour or so. She was still completely motionless and he felt a pang of worry. Shouldn't something be happening by now? He moved his free hand and felt her, finding that most of her flesh that wasn't in direct contact with him was still frigid. He started to rub every inch of her he could reach, trying to stimulate her circulation and rekindle her nerve endings with the friction.

"Shiver, damn you." He muttered under his breath. With the entire county snowed in, there was no-one he could call for help. It was down to him whether she lived or died and he was desperate that it should not be the latter.

It took twenty minutes of brisk rubbing before he felt the first tiny tremor run through her. Within minutes her entire body was shaking violently. The relief he felt was indescribable. If she was shivering she was warm enough to feel the cold and her body was functioning well enough to try to remedy it. She still wasn't warm all the way through, though, so he gently turned her body towards him in tiny increments, rubbing and chafing her arms and hands as he did. When she was on her other side, facing him, he brought her closer again and pressed the length of her body against his, hooking one leg over hers and tucking her head under his chin.

She was still somewhere between sleep and unconsciousness, but her body was aware enough of his warmth to slowly move one arm around his ribs and cling onto him tightly. He took this as a very good sign. He let his mind wander and drift back off to sleep again. He had no idea how long it would take for her to warm up again completely and there was nothing either of them could do until then. His last thought as he fell asleep was that it felt good to hold someone and be held after such a long time.

It was many hours before he awoke again, opening his eyes with the realisation that the body wrapped around him was now warm and breathing evenly. He sighed in relief and looked down at the woman. He'd been right about her hair, it was a dark honey blonde. But it, and the rest of her, looked like they could use a long shower. The light coming through the window told him that it was about six or seven in the morning. The sun wouldn't rise properly for another hour or two and, even then, the blizzards and cloud cover would keep most of it hidden. The floor beneath him was hard and he could feel that parts of him would take a little time to wake up.

He shifted slowly, becoming more and more aware of his stiff joints and aching limbs. He would have to get up soon, and while he probably could do that without waking his guest, he thought it might be a good idea to wake her so that he could check she was completely OK. He carefully propped himself up on one arm. This put a little distance between them and he felt something in his chest clench tightly at the little whimper that escaped her lips. She tried to snuggle closer to him again and it was incredibly difficult to put one hand on her shoulder to stop her. He shook her gently.

"Hey." No response. He smoothed her hair away from her face and shook her again. "Hey, wake up."

He could see the slow progression of consciousness across her face, until her eyes opened slowly. This time, though, she simply looked sleepy instead of half dead. Her eyes searched a little before finding his face, which they moved over slowly before meeting his eyes, still only semi-awake. She looked a little awed and a little puzzled.

"Are you an angel?" she asked softly.

"No." he chuckled, shaking his head slightly. Her brow furrowed slightly and he felt fingers touch his cheek lightly.

"Are you sure?" she asked, as if it were entirely possible that he could be mistaken.

"I'm pretty sure." he answered soberly.

"OK." She said quietly, patting his cheek lightly and laying her head back down on the cushion.

"Do you know where you are?" he asked. She shook her head. "You're in my cabin in Montana. I saw you running across the lake. You were being chased. Do you remember?"

She did. He could see in her eyes the moment the memories came back full force. She opened her mouth to speak but no words came out. She started shaking and he quickly pulled her close again.

"Ssh ssh. You're OK. He's gone and you're safe now, I promise. Uh, kinda naked, but safe." He was relieved to hear a small laugh. She was still shaking, though, and he stroked her back until she calmed again.

"Can you tell me what happened?" he whispered into her hair. "Are you able to talk about it?" She pulled back and lay on her side with her eyes cast down.

"He ah I was travelling with a truck driver who found me when my car broke down. He…he seemed so nice." She said with a sob. Aaron held her hand and stroked his thumb across the back of it gently. "After I fell asleep, I woke up and I was tied up in the back of his cab. He didn't say another word to me after that. He'd just come back and kick or punch me every once in a while. A friend joined him later and did pretty much the same."

Aaron growled at that, a very deep and profound wish to hurt the man who had hurt her suffusing every part of him. He knew his next question was a difficult one, but he had to ask it.

"Did he, did they. I mean, they obviously hurt you but did they…?" his voice trailed off, unable to say the word.

"Oh." He saw understanding in her eyes. She shook her head slightly, holding his gaze. "No. They uh…they didn't touch me like that. I heard one talking later. He was…he was talking about taking me into the woods and setting me on fire." Her voice broke and huge tears spilled down both cheeks as she trembled uncontrollably.

"Motherfucker." He exclaimed under his breath, his eyes tight closed as he struggled to stay in control. He was by nature a gentle man, but he thought that he would be capable of something else if he were faced with the two men who had taken her. He felt her hand against his cheek again and it had an instant calming effect on him. He opened his eyes to find her looking at him with worry. She searched his eyes for a second before she was satisfied that he was OK.

"Thank you. For what you did. For making him leave me alone and for saving me." Her smile was tentative but beautiful.

"You're welcome. I guess that's the right response; I've never saved someone's life so directly before." He chuckled. "How OK do you feel?"

"Sore. Very sore. But warm. You have no idea how wonderful it feels to be warm again." She stifled a yawn then and Aaron could only watch, mesmerised, as she turned on her back, sank beneath the blankets a little and stretched her entire body, her back arching and something between a sigh and a squeak escaping her. It was a good thing that her action had put some more distance between them because the noise coupled with the sight of her arching body and the look of ecstasy on her face were enough to make him instantly hard. And not just hard, but aching with need. He did his best not to let what he was feeling show on his face as he shuffled up out of the blankets a little. His bedroom was behind him and if he could get out from under the blankets without her noticing his current state, he would be able to walk away from their impromptu bed undetected.

"I'm going to get dressed and see if I can find you something to wear. Then I can get some food together while you have a shower and dress." He smiled.

"That sounds great." Her wide, delighted smile made his heart skip a couple of beats. She was still laying on her back under the blankets, her hair mussed and shoulders bare. She looked for all the world as if they had just spent an entirely different kind of night in front of the fire together. He was pleasantly surprised at just how very, very much he liked the idea of that.

Well I hope my so far two avid readers enjoyed the next instalment. More soon.

~Sin~