A soft snort. "That would be great. If it were possible. Which we know it isn't."

"Hey!" I didn't know whether to be indignant or embarrassed.

She hugged me close briefly before loosening her arms. "You could be quiet as a churchmouse, Angel, and we'd still have a problem."

"Oh yeah? And what might that be?"

I felt her stomach muscles clench beneath my thigh, then she bounced several times on the mattress.

The room was filled with the sounds of protesting bedsprings squeaking their displeasure.

"Oh," I said again, feeling my face heat. "That's not a good thing."

"Well," she replied, sounding as if she were reconsidering the offer, "I wouldn't have a problem with it. It is your room, after all."

She bounced again, slowly, rhythmically, then steadily picking up speed until I was ready to just fall through floor in embarrassment.

I put a hand on her firm belly and pushed down. "Stop. Just stop."

Squeak. Squeak.

"Please?"

Squeak-squeak-squeak.

"Ice!"

Silence.

Absolute, total and blessed silence.

Groaning, I plopped my head back down on her chest. "You're an evil woman, Morgan Steele. Truly, heartlessly, evil."

Her long body stretched beneath me before settling back once again. "That's what they tell me." She sounded quite, quite pleased with herself.

The payback list was getting longer.

I awoke to bright sunshine streaming through the window, putting a smile on my face before I even opened my eyes. The bed was empty and I spared a brief moment of wondering if the events of the night before had been just a dream when Ice's scent came to me from the pillow I'd cradled in lieu of her body.

My smile broadened as I treated myself to a healthy stretch, my muscles complaining only mildly over having shared sleeping quarters with a woman half again my size. The rest of me was just a happy puddle.

The tantalizing smells of breakfast cooking wafted gently into my awakening senses and I rolled over onto my back, finally thinking to open my eyes and take in the newly dawning day.

Well, perhaps dawning wasn't the best word for it. From the looks of things, the sun had been up for a good while, rising slowly in the sky as I slept on, blissfully unaware.

That thought gave me a moment's pause. For more than five years, I'd awoken at five thirty every morning to the sounds of guards' shouts, bells ringing, and batons sliding against metal bars. The habit was so ingrained within me that even after I'd left the Bog for good, not a morning had passed where I hadn't awoken in the dark, coming to my feet before my body even realized that my mind had given it a command.

Until today.

"Well, whadda ya know," I said to the patiently waiting ceiling. "Maybe there's hope for me yet, huh?"

After another healthy stretch and a good, long yawn, I rolled out of bed and briefly debated pulling some clothes on. Tossing out that thought like yesterday's bathwater, I shrugged into Ruby's comfortable robe and padded silently through the room, reaching out to touch a tiny figurine of a unicorn that had always enchanted me as a child. "For luck," I whispered before opening the door and letting myself out of the room, which in itself was a wonderful feeling, let me tell you.

I walked quickly down the stairs, the scents of breakfast leading me on like those smoky fingers you see on Saturday morning cartoons hooked through some character's nostrils.

Ruby turned from her place at the stove as she spied me coming into the kitchen. A wide smile of welcome creased her almost unlined face. "I thought this might tempt you into waking up. Good to see I haven't lost my touch."

"Oh, you most definitely haven't," I replied, walking over to help her with the plates.

"Just sit yourself down at the table, Tyler. I've got this all taken care of."

"Are you sure?"

"Positive. Just go sit down."

Resisting the urge to snap off a salute, I pulled out a chair and sat down at the table. Within seconds, a steaming plate piled high with food was placed in front of me. My mouth watering, I dug in without a second's pause.

Ruby joined me at the table, cupping a coffee mug in her hands and taking small sips from it as she smiled at my talent for laying waste to vast armies of food, a trait I'd had since I was a small child. "Your friend is certainly the industrious sort."

My fork paused halfway to my mouth. I shot her a questioning look, wondering whether I had cause to be nervous or not.

She gestured with her coffee mug toward the kitchen window, and I found myself slowly rising to my feet, curiosity pulling at me like a fish lure.

"Wow," was all I could say as I looked down at the scene laid out before me. The walk had been shoveled and salted, as had the long, winding driveway that led out to the main road. Snow drifts which had covered the first floor windows were completely cleared away, down to the grass. Trees near the house which had almost been bent double with the weight of the snow now were free of their chilly burden and standing straight and proud once again. "Unbelievable." My breath fogged the window as I spoke, misting the icy clarity of the incredible scene outside.

"I agree. Is she always like this?"

Turning back toward the table, I gave my host a smile. "Pretty much, yeah."

"Quite handy to have around then, I'd say. Where did you meet her?"

I paused again, my thoughts running rapidly, if uselessly, through my brain. "It's a long story."

Which it was. Five years long, to be exact. Just not a story I was comfortable telling to the woman who was housing us, for obvious reasons.

The smile she gave me brought to mind pictures of dinosaurs I'd seen in textbooks when I was in school. A predator's grin, full of slashing teeth, topped by beady brown eyes.

Or maybe it was the way the light hit her face.

"I'm an old woman, Tyler. Time is one thing I have plenty of."

Strike one.

I smiled, weakly. "You're not that old."

The grin widened, recognizing, no doubt, my pitiful delaying tactic. "Old enough."

Strike two!

I took in a deep breath, the breakfast I'd consumed sitting like a leaden ball in my stomach. My fingers were pressed white against the polished wood of the table top.

As I opened my mouth to speak, there was a brisk rapping on the front door, followed by a "Yoo hoo! Ruby! Are you home, dear?"

Yes!

As Ruby slowly moved to her feet, the look she gave me let me know in no uncertain terms that this conversation was far from being over.

Oh, well. I'd take a rain delay any day.

I walked outside, feeling the warmth of the sun on my face and smiling into the perfect blue sky. The snow the night before seemed a sort of harbinger of spring and the temperature rose to lend strength to my supposition. The air was filled with the sounds of overburdened trees and rooftops dropping their heavy loads to the ground. Birdsong wove its way intermittently through the low percussion of the falling mounds of snow, and when I looked up, I spied a sizable flock of ducks circling the lake and looking for a nice, wet place to land.

My grin broadened as I walked down the shoveled path, my boots crunching the salt beneath my feet. It was a glorious day. The kind that made you believe in God, if you didn't already. And right then, I most certainly did.

Looking down the small hill that led to the lake, I saw Ice standing on the little green dock on our beach, looking out over the frozen water, her dark hair blown off her brow by a gentle spring breeze. Her posture was attentive, alert, but relaxed in a way I didn't often get to see.

I stopped, taken by the sight.

At that moment, I wished I were a painter so I could capture the beauty of what my eyes were seeing.

Because I wasn't, and still am not, I settled for a long, comfortable stare, capturing in my mind what my hands refused to render.

As if feeling my eyes upon her, she turned and her welcoming smile brightened up an already fabulous day. She lifted a hand in a casual wave. I waved back and resumed my trek toward her, stepping carefully around the shoveled square that had brought back to the surface the foundation of what had once been the cabin.

Quickly joining her on the dock, I slipped an arm around her waist and leaned into her body as I, too, looked across the frozen expanse of the lake, watching as the ducks finally found a patch of melted ice in which to land. "Beautiful day," I murmured quietly, unwilling to break the peaceful silence with too much idle chatter.

"Mm."

We stood there in companionable silence, enjoying each other and the day, for quite awhile before my attention was captured by a young boy and his dog who were coming toward us from the right. The boy threw a stick, and the dog, with a volley of barks that echoed across the lake, ran to retrieve it.

His attention was diverted, apparently, by the ducks which, alarmed by his barks, rose to take flight and he headed out after them, his paws slipping on the ice.

"King!" the boy shouted, running after his fleeing dog, "Come back!" His feet slipped on the slick surface and he fell, hitting his head a good one against the ice, but he was quickly back up and running again.

Suddenly, I heard a loud crack and the ice opened up to swallow the scrambling dog, who yelped and tried desperately to get back up out of the water.

Seeing what had happened, the boy tried to stop, but the ice's slickness, combined with his forward momentum, caused him to follow his friend into the water's icy depths.

Ice was out of my arms and running before I even thought to blink. "Ice! No!" Like the dog's yelps, and the boy's screams, my words echoed over the lake, damning me repeatedly with their sheer impotence.

Her feet were slipping and sliding in the worn boots she'd donned, but she managed to keep her footing and continue forward, ignoring my cry. "Get help!" she shouted, not even looking at me as she headed for the hole in the ice which had claimed two victims in a moment's short time.

I couldn't move. Couldn't respond to her tersely voiced order. My body condemned me to stand and watch as the boy's head disappeared beneath the ice and my lover, not hesitating for even a second, gathered up her strength and dove into the water.

"Ice!!"

My rebellious body moved quickly then, though still not in the direction my partner had ordered. I was out on the ice before my feet even realized it, which caused me to fall after a single step. My head hit hard against the edge of the dock, causing stars to float tantalizingly before my eyes as I lay dazed for a moment, staring up into the sky and wondering what my name was.

It came back to me in a flash, though, and I tried to regain my footing, only to fall once again. "Damnit!! Ice!!!"

A strong hand hauled me back to my feet and pulled me easily onto the dock. I spun to take in the heavily bearded face of a large man who was looking at me with wide eyes. "What happened?"

Shaking my head, I tried to jerk from his grasp, my need to get out on that lake paramount. But he held me easily in his grip, shaking me as one would a rag doll. "What happened?" he asked again.

"A dog ...a boy ...chased the dog into the water! My friend went to help. Let me go!!"

"No! It's too dangerous. You can't go out there."

"Like hell I can't!" Raising my leg, I stamped down hard on his foot, wrenching away at the same time. I would have toppled back onto the ice for a second time if he hadn't reached out and grabbed me, pulling me to him once again.

"Listen to me. People are coming to help. People who are used to this kind of thing. You need to stay here. You'll only get in the way. Do you understand?" He spoke to me as if speaking to an infant, his words slow and clearly enunciated.

"You don't understand! That's my friend out there! She needs help!!"

"And that's exactly what she's gonna get. Now just stay here and let us do our jobs, alright?"

After a moment, I relaxed and nodded, convinced by the sincerity in both his voice and eyes.

He smiled. "Good."

Releasing me, he turned his head, and I followed his gaze to where a group of men were hurrying down the small hill and onto the ice, armed with hooks and nylon ropes, looking for all the world like an army of industrious ants after a discarded candy wrapper.

"Where'd they all come from so quickly?" I asked, not aware I was speaking aloud until the man turned his smile back on me.

"Well, you hear a dog yelp, a boy scream, and a woman yell 'ice', and you get the picture pretty quick, Ma'am."

The mention of my lover's name, though not intended, caused my attention to snap back to the lake and its unfolding drama. I could just see Ice's dark head bobbing above the tilted sheets of ice which had fractured even more with the struggling of three living beings trapped within its confines. I could also see, and hear, the crazed struggling of the dog, but of the boy, there was nothing.

Ice took in a deep breath, and then she too disappeared into the black and hungry water.