"Hey, do you have an extra sweatshirt I can wear?" Lindsay asked, flopping down on Adam's bed. "I don't think the jean jacket is gonna cut it."

"Aw, but you look so cute in it," he replied, tossing her an old Element sweatshirt.

"I look cute in everything."

"Yeah, I know," he said, pulling his undershirt over his head. "Are you seriously going to lay there and watch me change?"

"What, are you 13?"

"You're creepy."

"Thanks."

He grabbed a long sleeved t-shirt out of his dresser drawer and put it on, then sat down on the bed to change his shoes.

"You're hyper today."

"Well I have been awake for a very long time."

"The early shift: a friend to us all."

"And then I had to wait around for hours until your shift ended. And I was tired so…"

"You had a Red Bull."

"Two little ones."

"Oh no."

"They taste good."

"You make me laugh," he said, leaning down to kiss her.

"Well at least I'm good for something."

"Hey, you're good for more than that," he said, standing up and holding his hand out to help her off the bed. "You're also nice to look at."

"Thanks, handsome."

He chuckled and pulled her out of the bedroom. She'd been talking about a corn maze and a bonfire for weeks, and they both finally had time to go. It was still two weeks until Halloween, so they were pretty sure they weren't going to run into groups of dressed up teenagers or a parade of screaming children. He loved doing these random things with her, so even if their night was ruined by other people, he wasn't going to do much complaining.

Satisfied that they were both dressed warmly enough for the crisp night, they went downstairs to her car and slid in.

"So how'd you find this place?" he asked, buckling his seatbelt before she started the car.

"Do you Yahoo?"

"I thought finding a farm in New York would be harder than finding a 'g' in Danny's accent."

"It's kind of a long drive, but it does exist."

"Fascinating. Think it will live up to your expectations?"

"I hope so. I miss the smell of a bonfire."

"You're such a country girl."

"Yeah, I know. I want to go home, just so I can go barefoot everywhere."

"Do that here and you'll end up with bubonic plague."

She giggled.

"That sounds like the theme of one of those mystery diagnosis shows."

"People who die from fungal foot infections, next on What's My Disease."

"I'm riveted."

He grinned and turned the radio up a little, not at all surprised when it was tuned to country. Three months ago he would have sighed and put up with it, but now he enjoyed it simply because it was so her. One twang and he saw her sitting on a porch swing, her hair bleached by the sun, a flannel shirt with the sleeves rolled up, a pair of cut-offs and some cowboy boots, a glass of lemonade or sweet tea sitting next to her. She sang along with the music and he saw her running through wheat fields, jumping in the creek, climbing trees and scaling the rafters in the barn. It was her element and he loved to picture her in it. He couldn't wait to see it for real.

"She had a sun-tan line and red lipstick, I worked so hard for that first kiss. And a heart don't forget somethin' like that."

They were both singing along with the radio by they time the arrived at the farm, grins from ear to ear, their hands together on the center console. She parked the car in the gravel lot and they both hopped out, breathing deeply.

"I love the fall," she said, closing her eyes for a moment. "The air turns crisp, everything smells good, the sun sits just at that magical spot in the sky where everything looks like it came out of a Norman Rockwell painting."

"Everything turns gold," he agreed, watching the way the lights of the sunset danced through her hair.

"It all seems right."

He smiled and wrapped his arm around her shoulder, pulling her close and kissing her temple.

"Plus there's candy corn."

"We mustn't forget the candy corn," she agreed with a nod.

They followed the small crowd of people and before long they were on a short hayride across the farm to the corn maze.

"So how do you wanna play this?" he asked as the trailer bumped along the dirt path.

"I don't know. Should we take a map?"

"Are we that wussy?"

"I don't think so."

The trailer stopped and he hopped down, then reached up for her. Her boots hit the ground in a cloud of dust as she looked at the corn field.

"It sure ain't wheat," she said, wiping her hands off on her jeans.

"This ain't Montana anymore, Toto."

"It's really weird to hear you use ain't."

"It's really weird to hear you slip into a southern accent even though you've never been to the south."

"It's a quirk," she said with a shrug as he pulled her into the maze.

"You're full of them. What's say we just go ahead and get ourselves lost?"

"I like that plan."

They walked for a long time, taking random turns, not sure where they were, but not really wanting to find out. They were just happy to be together, smiling and adventuring, as if nothing else in the world could touch them.

"We'd better find our way out of here. Getting dark soon," Adam said, pressing his hand against the corn stalks.

Lindsay chuckled and rolled her eyes.

"It's not a house of mirrors, babe."

"Same mystique," he answered, jumping up to see over the corn.

"Not gonna happen," she said, tugging him back down. "This stuff was way over knee high by the fourth of July. We're going to have to do this the old fashioned way."

"Me Lewis, you Clark?"

"Mmm," she started, a mischievous look coming into her eyes. "More like me Roadrunner, you Wile E. Coyote!"

She dropped his hand and took off running, disappearing around the corner before he could catch her. Laughing, he went after her trying hard to catch up, but not being able to anticipate her movements. She darted around corners and he had the sneaking suspicion that she had planned this. Finally he caught up with her at the end of the maze, his arms grabbing her waist and spinning her around. She laughed and held onto him, leaning up to kiss his cheek once he settled her onto the ground.

"Thanks for indulging my childish side."

"Anytime."

They got the last hayride back to the farm where a bonfire was well underway. He paid for two cups of cider and brought them back to the hay bale she was sitting on.

"When was the last time you were at a bonfire?" he asked as she sipped her cider.

"I can't remember. Probably high school. My parents used to go on these weekend trips to Great Falls and my brothers would have these huge parties and not invite me. I'd sit up on the back deck and watch them though. They were pyros, so lots of things went in the fire that probably shouldn't have."

"Anybody ever get injured?"

"Nah, they launched stuff from a safe distance. Load up the cow pie sling shot and spend a few hours… what?"

"Cow pie sling shot?"

"Summers were long and mom was always telling us to get out of the house."

He smiled as he watched the firelight play over her hair and flicker in her eyes. There was something special about this time of night, when the darkness was taking over. It was still and peaceful and it caused everyone enveloped by it to feel the same. He slid his arm around her shoulders and she leaned against him with a light sigh.

"So how about you? Last bonfire?"

"High school also. I had this group of friends that were pretty stupid, and we went on this camping trip after graduation once."

"Science geeks on a camping trip can only lead to the emergency room."

"Nah, we'd learned our lesson the year before."

"Are you going to tell me that story next?"

"We haven't been dating nearly long enough for that one."

"Okay. Continue."

"It was around midnight and everyone was still up. The other campsites were still awake too, but it was pretty quiet out. Anyway, I left to go to the bathroom and when I was coming back, I thought I would go around the back of the campsite and jump out and scare everyone. I walked really slowly and carefully so I wouldn't step on a stick and alert everyone to my presence. I waited in the bushes for a while until the perfect moment arrived. I jumped out of the bushes and assumed the most menacing stance I could conjure up. A fierce growl emanated from my lips, the likes of which I had never heard outside a Bigfoot documentary. And as the cry pierced the night I suddenly realized that I had breached the wrong campsite and had startled some unfortunate octogenarians."

Lindsay laughed as she pictured the scene in her head, probably a lot more exaggerated than it had actually been.

"What did you do?"

"I sheepishly walked back to my campsite… much to the amusement of my friends who had seen the entire episode. They didn't stop talking about it for months."

"Oh Adam. I bet you never tried to scare anyone again."

"Nope. That night cured me of any scare tactics I may have had."

"Tell me another story."

"I have to think of one first."

"Okay."

"Do you want another embarrassing one?"

"Not necessarily, though they are pretty funny. What else do you have?"

"Did I ever tell you about the time I got stuck in a Barbie nightgown?"

"What?"

"I think that's pretty self explanatory."

"No it's not!"

"Okay, it involved a video scavenger hunt and the challenge to go into a store and try on the ugliest outfit you could find. Hence the Barbie nightgown, hence me getting stuck in it, and begging Chris to shut the camera off. I may or may not have popped a seam in the armpit."

"You mean there's video of this somewhere?"

"It may have been sabotaged."

"Adam, you're too much."

"I know. Okay, now you have to tell me a story."

"I wet my pants in third grade during a spelling test."

"Oh come on, that's not a story it's a statement!"

"Okay, in second grade we went on this skiing field trip. There was a girl in my class named Megan and everyone hated her because she was a whiny wuss fart. She had a My Little Pony lunch bag that she wore like a purse and refused to leave in the lodge because she was sure someone would steal it. And she had these nasty coke bottle glasses that made Paul Pfeiffer look hip. She was so annoying. Her voice was all nasally and she would tattle on us for the dumbest things. I hated that girl."

"No kidding."

"Anyway, we were going down this hill and you had to turn at one point because if you didn't, you would pretty much shoot off the side of the mountain and die. There was a group of four or five of us and our teacher Mr. Penny was in front of us and Megan was behind us. Se we all take the corner and a few seconds later, we hear this blood curdling scream and then silence. Certain she had fallen to her death, we all went over to the side and looked down."

She started to giggle at this point, giggle so hard she could barely get the words out.

"That stupid lunch bag had caught on a tree branch and she was clutching it for dear life, one ski still on, neither one of her poles anywhere in sight. She had snow caked all over her glasses and she was bawling like a maniac. Mr. Penny had to crawl out on his stomach and rescue her and then he had to carry her back to the lodge because she was in hysterics. And so were the rest of us, but for totally different reasons."

"She almost died and you were laughing at her?" he asked, feeling slightly guilty, but laughing himself.

"Of course! I hated her!"

Adam chuckled and hugged her.

"You were a mean kid."

"My brothers taught me to be a bully and I didn't want to disappoint them by fallin' down on the job."

"I don't think you could ever disappoint anyone, Linds."

"That," she said softly, "is another discussion for another day. But thank you anyway."

"Ready to go home?"

"Not particularly, but I suppose we should."

He helped her up from the hay bale and they made their way back to the car, where she handed him her keys and got into the passenger seat.

"So, your favorite fall time activity. Was it everything you had hoped?"

"Well it wasn't at home and there weren't candy apples, but you were there, so I think this one tops them all."

"Aw, thanks Linds."

"Thanks for coming with me."

"Anytime. Wanna go get some pumpkin pie?"

"Yes I do."

Night found them crawling into their separate beds, phones pressed to their ears, voices low as they bid each other goodnight. They were simple words wishing sweet dreams, conveying love in the best way they could, promises to see each other in the morning. It was a nightly occurrence, one that they were both sure they couldn't sleep without. It wasn't that they were co-dependent as much as they had become each other's habit.

She slid under the covers, still wearing his sweatshirt that smelled of bonfire and him. Pulling the pillow under her head, she sighed and said goodnight one last time before turning the phone off. She still had the nightmares occasionally, but more often than not her dreams were filled with their days together, and sleep was no longer something to be dreaded.