Fifteen

At the end of the sixth week he helped her change into her first set of jeans and a light summer tank top with a green, blue, and red checkered sweater. He slipped his own faded, gray sweater on and buttoned it up to his collar bone. With a smile she pulled on a pair of leather gloves that went halfway up her forearm and linked her left arm through his. The two stepped into the snow for a walk through the trees.

"Why don't you practice?" he asked her without looking.

She gave him a curious look, "practice what?"

He looked away to hide his smile and answered, "Fire."

A short series of rather rude suggestions toward him and his sexuality told him that she was firmly opposed to the thought of embracing her abilities. He laughed so hard at her response that he was forced to his knees.

She crossed her arms and scowled to hide her smile, "fuck you."

"so, you're just going to ignore your abilities until you need them, and then count entirely on your short temper to save your skin?" he asked.

"Yes." Was her solid response.

He dropped the topic figuring that it was best to ease her into the concept. The fire is a huge part of who she is; it won't just fade into the past and stay there. He didn't know her well, but he knew that her life had been decided so far by the fire, and it would decide so much more.

"Longer trail today?" he asked, gesturing through the cold winter morning.

She sighed, "yes, sir." And the two made their way through the snow.

Every day she assisted Ramirez with more and more household tasks until eventually she could do everything by herself. She knew as well as he did that, they could not stay at the cabin forever, and it was often a topic of discussion on their walks. They talked about possible routes, and emergency procedures but it was only that. Talk. The time would come when the past would catch up with them and when it did neither of them wanted it to cost them this place.

The cabin had become a symbol for them. A safe refuge. A place where they could go to despite anything they had going on in their lives. But in order to protect it, they had to limit their time there. They had already stayed for far too long. With her having survived and the excuse of tracking a deserter, Ramirez, they were surely well on their way to finding the two fugitives.

In the early morning hours, just as the sun was cresting above the tree line, amber was woken by a low, steady droning sound which seemed to be rolling across the valley. She sat up and slowly drew the blankets off her legs. With the sound of splitting wood Carlos burst through the door and began adding essential clothes to a large camouflage bag he held.

"Get up!" he shouted. "They're almost here. We gotta move!"

Deeply grateful for the time she had been allowed to heal she flew off the bed and panicked.

"What do we need? How long? Where do we go?!?" she screamed in quick succession.

Turning out her bedroom door he yelled "nothing. Leave it all."

She followed him down the hallway and the two slammed through the door. She took one quick look around and headed for the north-west trail at a dead run.

Carlos grabbed her wrist, "stop. Too slow." He said far too calmly than she expected.

"What?" she shouted through heaving breaths.

He hit a button on his stereo and the droning stopped. "Too slow." He told her. "If that was a real raid on the cabin, we'd be spending the night in the brig awaiting court martial."

She was furious.

"Amber calm down." He told her nervously.

"I am calm!" she shouted at him as a burst of flames shot from her mouth.

He ducked and rolled to the right avoiding the brunt of the fire. She froze in place, Shocked and horrified at herself.