Moving Mountains

by Alicia McKenzie

"It's raining," Domino said, and then flinched at how harshly the words came out. She'd meant it as an observation, nothing more, but it had sounded more like an accusation. Why did everything she said to him sound so testy? she wondered half-despairingly. She wasn't all THAT unhappy about being here.

Nathan, fortunately or unfortunately - she wasn't sure which - didn't seem bothered by her tone. He gave a soft laugh, and never looked up from checking the backpack sitting on the seat between them. "It's June in the Northwest Territories, Dom. We're lucky it's not snowing."

"Wouldn't that be a bitch." Scowling, Domino leaned closer to the rain-speckled window of the plane and stared out at the scenery. Which was more than easy on the eyes, she had to admit that much. The mountains were almost ghostly, shrouded by low-lying clouds, yet there was still a solidity, a grandeur to them that was undeniable. Boreal forest filled the valleys, broken here and there by mirror-like lakes and the silver ribbons of rivers.

It had been a long time since she'd been this far north. She'd forgotten how beautiful it was.

"Not to worry, folks," Derek, their pilot, said cheerfully from the front seat of the tiny floatplane. He'd been playing tour guide ever since they'd left Fort Simpson - part of the service, he claimed - and despite her uneasiness about this whole venture, Domino had been rather enjoying his pleasant chatter. Kept the atmosphere in the back seat from getting too tense. "Once weather like this breaks, you usually have a string of clear days."

"Good," Domino said, leaning back against the seat and giving Nathan a dirty look. He stared back at her calmly, almost smiling. Calm--he'd been so bloody calm ever since they'd hooked up in Calgary. Not just calm, really. Tranquil. Almost peaceful. The amazing thing was that it seemed real, not just a mask hiding something. She didn't know whether to be glad for him or suspicious. "I'd hate to come all this way and get stuck inside the tent for two weeks."

"Stuck in a tent with me," Nathan murmured, his voice barely audible over the roar of the plane's engines. But there was an almost mirthful edge to his words, and his mouth kept quirking upwards at the corner. "Wouldn't that be a bitch."

Oh, he was going to mock her now? Fine, then. She bared her teeth at him. "Given a choice, " she said sweetly, "I'd rather sleep in the rain."

In the front seat, Derek was laughing so hard that Domino hoped he wasn't about to crash them into the side of a mountain. She'd had enough of those moments in her life. "Hey--you two aren't going to, like, kill each other or anything if I drop you up there and leave you, are you?" the pilot asked as his laughter trailed off into the occasional snicker.

"I'm not making any promises," Domino pronounced. Nathan chuckled quietly beside her, and she squelched the urge to elbow him in the ribs. That would be overreacting, she told herself firmly. She was just suffering from a timely case of cold feet, that was all.

The problem was, she had no convenient excuses to hide behind. He hadn't had to talk her into this - she'd agreed almost on impulse, before she'd really realized what she was saying - and he'd even asked her on the phone, so she hadn't had to deal with the puppy-dog eyes, either.

She was just--shit, this is ridiculous. Spending a couple of weeks with Nathan wasn't going to kill her--well, spending a couple of weeks on VACATION with Nathan wasn't going to kill her. Probably not. Almost certainly not, although you could never quite rule out the possibility--

Anxiety. She was just anxious, that was all. It had been a hell of a long time since the two of them had done anything but fight, and she didn't know how to relax around him anymore. And that was really, really sad, she thought bleakly, turning her attention back to the window. When exactly had they lost that?

#Dom?#

She shivered at the sound of his voice in her mind. Somehow, hearing him like that felt both right and wrong. Wrong, because their psi-link was gone - stretched and strained and broken too many times, she figured - so all the strangeness of telepathic communication was back. But right, too, because--

Well, just because.

He was still staring at her, waiting for an answer. What? she thought back at him, feeling ridiculous.

#Relax a little, okay? We're here to have a good time. That's all.# His eye glowed for a moment behind the sunglasses. #Separate sleeping bags, remember?#

Almost despite herself, Domino smiled. And how long is THAT going to last? she shot back amusedly.

#Oh, I intend to be a perfect gentleman and keep my hands to myself,# he sent back, his 'voice' sparkling with silent laughter, like a golden waterfall inside her mind. #Why? Do you foresee a problem on your end?#

Oh, bite me, she sent with a tolerant mental snort. Separate sleeping bags. That was what had sold her on the idea when he'd first brought it up, she thought. There was no way in hell she'd have agreed to come up to the Northwest Territories with him just so that they could spend two weeks snarling at each other all day and fucking like rabbits in heat all night, deluding themselves that one somehow made up for the other. That old pattern was what had gotten them to this--impasse, and she was tired of it.

And she wasn't the only one, apparently. Let's just go, Nathan had suggested, oh-so-calmly. No complications we don't want. Separate sleeping bags. Let's just go have a completely mundane adventure, as friends. We are still that, right?

It was a challenge, no doubt about that, and she'd fallen for it. Hook, line, and sinker. Then again, she hadn't been particularly inclined to resist.

The truth was, she'd missed him. Domino smiled faintly, and then raised an eyebrow as the plane started to slowly descend. "There already, are we?" she asked.

"Yep," Derek said pleasantly. "The slightly-less-than-imaginatively named Glacier Lake."

Dull name or not, it was gorgeous. Domino smiled again, a little more easily this time, as the plane circled above the lake, heading in for a landing. Part of her was strangely eager to wave Derek and his plane goodbye. She hadn't realized how much she'd been craving a little time away from crowds and battlefields--hell, from people in general. However many years Junior had taken off her apparent age, she still felt--worn. As if she'd been running a race for so long that she'd lost track of the finish line.

She could do with an adventure. And this might be fun. Feeling Nathan's eyes on her, she looked up to find the son of a bitch smiling at her.

It was a nice smile. A warm smile. The sort of smile that had always provoked an entirely too fatuous answering smile on her part. She managed to resist, barely.

But it was nice to see that smile again.

***

"You don't really have to carry that, you know," Nathan's voice came from behind her as she scampered over a boggy spot, willing her boots not to sink into the damned mud. She was already cold and wet and increasingly grumpy, and she didn't really feel like dealing with mud-encrusted boots whenever they did stop tonight.

"You're carrying yours," Domino muttered, unable to quite keep the suspicion out of her voice. *This had better not been some damned chivalrous gesture on his part, or I'm going to kick him.*

"Because you're carrying yours." Oh, very reasonable. And far too meek, she thought balefully. But Nathan persisted, still using that 'listen to me, I'm making sense and you're just being stubborn' voice. "I could just float the two of them along behind us," he suggested. "Not a problem."

"Wouldn't that be cheating?" Domino asked a little snidely, adjusting the left shoulder strap on her pack and detouring around a fallen tree. She was a little tired, she had to admit. So far, it had been five hours of strenuous hiking along this semi-existent trail beside Britnell Creek, five hours since they'd lashed their canoe to a tree and cached their extra supplies beneath it, back at the lake. Once they were done climbing, they'd head back down and portage to the headwaters of the Nahanni River. Derek would pick them back up at Virginia Falls. She sort of liked that idea. She'd only ever seen pictures of the falls before, and a week on the river was a fair trade, as far as she was concerned.

Still, she was beginning to wonder why they'd hadn't hired a helicopter, which could have dropped them right at their first destination. In a month or so, this might be a very nice hike, but everything was so damned wet! There were still patches of snow, and judging by the amount of deadfall, it had been a bad winter. It really wasn't much of a trail. Maybe that's why they call it the Cirque of the Unclimbables. They're unclimbable because you can't GET to the damned things. But that didn't quite wash, did it? People had been climbing in the Cirque in hordes for the last couple of decades at least.

"Cheating?" Nathan glowered at her. He was looking a little sick of slogging, himself. Of course, he was also carrying the bulk of the supplies and climbing gear, an extra hundred pounds at least. His own stupid fault, though. She would have taken more if he'd asked her. "Are we hanging off the side of a rock face? No. So if we're not climbing, it's not cheating to use some telekinesis--"

"Oh, I get it," she said in a deliberately goading tone. "The rules are only rules when they suit you, is that right?"

"Never mind," Nathan muttered, and they continued through the forest. By the time the ground took on a distinctly upwards slope and the trees began to thin, it had also stopped raining--or almost, Domino corrected herself. It was still spitting. But she could live with that, she supposed, especially since the sun looked like it was trying very hard to break through the clouds.

"I'd love to see this place from the air," she murmured, a little awed at the size of the granite towers whose backside they were creeping up on. Mount Harrison-Smith wasn't the highest of the peaks in the Cirque, but the monumental granite ridge with its multiple summits was pretty damned impressive-looking anyway. Makes me feel like an ant, she thought, shielding her eyes from the occasional drops of rain as she looked upwards to the cloud-enshrouded summit. "Still lots of snow up there," she muttered as Nathan came up beside her.

"Yeah," he said a little grimly. "Makes me wonder whether Proboscis will be climbable at all."

Domino raised an eyebrow. "Oh, so we're not bowing to convention and doing Lotus Flower?" she teased. Lotus Flower Tower was the more picturesque face, certainly, slender and tower-like where Mount Proboscis was just a big wall in the most massive sense of the word, but Lotus Flower was also the most popular of the Cirque climbs. Even this early in the season, they might have company, and she really wasn't in the mood.

"Boring," Nathan pronounced, and slid off his sunglasses, tucking them away in the pocket of his coat. His eyes had that distant, yet strangely satisfied look in them again. It was the same look he always got at times like this. One of these days, she was going to figure out what psychological need climbing filled for him--and then tease him mercilessly about it, most likely. "If I'd want something I could climb in eleven hours flat, I wouldn't have come all this way."

"Masochist."

"You bet." He looked around, his gaze settling finally on a steep, rocky talus slope off to their left. "There," he pointed. "We follow that up, and then take a goat track down to Fairy Meadows."

"Fairy Meadows," she snorted. "Nice name." What was it about the Canadian North that had caused so many undoubtedly staid explorers and cartographers to give so many places such wild names?

But when they had gotten up the slope and then down the narrow track on the other side, she had to admit that the name did fit. The sub-arctic vegetation in the meadows seemed so--delicate, for lack of a better word. Such a sharp contrast to the mountains all around them.

Domino stopped for a moment to take a sip from her water bottle and watch Nathan as he slid his pack off and pulled the map out. He spread it on top of a relatively dry rock, and Domino pursed her lips as she saw him rub at his flesh and blood shoulder with a wince he didn't even try to cover.

"Sore?" she asked briskly, taking off her own pack. He nodded, not looking up from the map. Trying not to scowl, Domino strode over to him before she could change her mind. "Shouldn't have carried all the extra stuff, oaf," she scolded, reaching up and massaging the knotted muscles in his shoulder. He flinched as soon as she touched him, and she frowned. What had he done to himself? "I could have taken part of it."

"It's not that," he said, trying very hard to sidle away. "I dislocated it in--a while ago, and it's still not quite right."

Domino hesitated, and then glared at him. "And you invited me to go climbing? Idiot." She wondered what that mid-sentence hesitation had been about. Didn't sound like he'd said what he'd intended to say. She could ask him, she supposed--no, she wasn't going to ask him. He'd tell her in his own sweet time, or not at all, and she wasn't going to set the vacation off on a bad note by nagging him about it. "You sure you're up to this?" she asked instead, and got a very weird smile in return.

"I wouldn't have planned the trip if I wasn't," he said. If he'd been able to meet her eyes squarely, it would have been more convincing. "Don't worry about me."

"I wasn't worrying," she said waspishly.

"Sure you weren't." Nathan folded the map back up, and then gave her an appraising look. "We could camp in the meadow, or head to the base of Proboscis right now. It would let us get in a full day's climbing tomorrow if we did--"

"But it's a hike," she finished for him. The usual route up to Mount Proboscis, a glacial pass called 'What Notch', was, by all accounts, a worse hike than the one they'd just completed. It was for that particular stretch of the trip that Nate was carrying crampons and ice axes for both of them. "Why not?" she finally said with a shrug, noting the position of the sun. If the topographical map had been right, they should be able to get there by nightfall. "But use your telekinesis on the damned packs, this time," she said severely. "I don't want your shoulder giving out on you ten pitches up the damned wall, all right?"

Nathan gave her a tight smile. "Have a little faith, woman," he said.

"Oh, shut up."

***

Separate sleeping bags didn't mean much, Domino thought a little snippily. And a two-man tent wasn't particularly spacious when one of the occupants was Nathan Summers. I should have brought my OWN damned tent. Then she could have slept in peace, without him--snuggling up to her in his sleep. Not that it wasn't thoroughly cute. And kind of nice. But STILL--

He murmured something in his sleep, barely audible over the patter of the rain on the canvas roof, and Domino jumped as his arm slid around her waist. I could elbow him, she thought balefully as he hugged her, muttering something contentedly in Askani.

"Nate," she said, not loudly, but firmly. He would sometimes respond reasonably well to verbal commands when he was asleep. Of course, it depended on whether he was dreaming or not. "Nate, keep your hands to yourself, please. I am not your damned teddy bear."

This wasn't going to be one of those times he listened to her, clearly. She nudged him gently with an elbow. "Nathan, move over." Still nothing, and she started to get irritated. "Nathan!" she snapped, much more loudly.

He sat bolt upright, so fast that his head nearly went through the roof of the tent. "What?" he said groggily. "What's wrong?"

His eye was lighting up the tent. Handy not to have to worry about a flashlight, she supposed with a sigh. "Nothing," Domino said somewhat repentantly, turning over to face him and patting his arm gently. "I didn't mean to wake you up. Lie back down."

"Okay," he murmured a little uncertainly, and did so. "Thought there was something wrong."

"No, just seeing if you were still on your toes," she joked a little weakly as she watched him shift around, clearly trying to get comfortable. "We should have brought a bigger tent."

"Probably," he said with a heavy sigh, staring up at the roof. "It's raining again."

"Obviously."

"Maybe we shouldn't climb tomorrow. The wall is liable to be a mess in the morning if this keeps up." He was silent for a long moment, the soft light from his eye pulsing in a regular pattern in the dark. "And I'm not--actually sure I'm up to it."

"Shoulder bothering you that much?" She got a half-shrug in return, and gave him a speculative look. "How did you dislocate it, anyway?" she asked more tentatively, not really expecting an answer.

"I--" Nathan trailed off, with a strange smile. "Apocalypse. Or maybe it was Scott, trying to goad me, I don't know. Scott did feel the need to apologize for it afterwards, at least."

Her turn to sit up. Domino stared down at him, speechless for a full five seconds or so before she found her voice.

"I--what? Scott's--"

Dead. Or something like that. She knew perfectly well what had happened at Akkaba, how Nathan's father had merged with Apocalypse, and--

Nathan stared up at her, that faint, almost--tremulous smile still playing on his lips. "Scott's alive," he said. Slowly, softly, as if he were savoring the words. "Apocalypse is--dead. For good. Jean separated them, and I killed him. I'm--having sort of a decent month, all things considered."

Domino stared at him. "I don't--believe it," she murmured, her voice trembling. "Scott's--all right? And Apocalypse is--" Dead. Dead, 'for good'. She didn't know--she couldn't quite process that. Apocalypse was dead? He'd always been--there, inescapable, like this horrible constant, haunting Nate - and by extension, everyone around him - and now he was gone?

Gone for good. And Nate--Nate had his life back? That tranquility, that--lightness she'd noticed in him since the beginning of the trip made perfect sense now.

Trust him to drop earth-shaking news like that in such a damned flippant way. Typical Nate. Absolutely typical. "How--" she started unevenly. "How did--this happen?"

"Does it really matter?" He sat up, moving a little more smoothly. Fully awake, now; watching her, judging her reaction. His smile grew a little steadier. "But I'll tell you, if you want."

Domino swallowed. "Maybe later," she said hoarsely, leaning forward and hugging him. Fiercely, because the explosion of relief and joy - yes, Dom, admit it, joy, - demanded it, but carefully, too, remembering his shoulder. His arms slid around her, hesitantly at first, but then with more conviction. "I'm so glad, Nathan," she whispered shakily, closing her eyes and holding onto him tightly. "I'm so glad."

***

"I'm not sure this is such a good idea," Domino said cautiously as she checked her climbing harness. Watching him study the rock as he coiled the rope, she reflected that this was probably the best approach to take. If she told him that she wasn't sure about climbing with him because she was a little nervous about his mental state (given the news he'd dropped on her last night) he would probably just laugh at her. If she mentioned his shoulder, she'd probably provoke an episode of machismo. Practicality was the best bet. "Look at how wet the rock is. What's it going to be like five pitches up?"

Nathan gave her a tolerant look. "Nice try."

"What?" she asked defensively, unable to help noticing that he was still favoring that shoulder as he worked. He was making a pretty good effort at covering it, but she knew him too well. "We could at least wait until tomorrow. Give it another day, see how things look."

"The sun's up," he pointed out, far too reasonably. And the sky was, in fact, completely cloudless. Domino made a mental note to congragulate Derek on his meteorological talents when he picked them up. "It feels like it's going to be a warm day," Nathan continued. "The rock'll probably dry quickly."

"That's being optimistic," she muttered. "I still think it's not worth the risk."

"There's no risk," he insisted, sliding the now-coiled rope off his shoulder, far too awkwardly. "And I'm fine, if that's what you're worrying about."

He had the rope on his other arm now, and Domino smiled thinly. "Really?" she said, and lifted the haul bag with the extra gear. "Catch, then," she said, and tossed it.

It froze in the air a foot away from him. "Very funny," he said balefully.

She arched an eyebrow. "Nice save," she said, a little mockingly, and then shook her head at him when he glared at her. "Okay, so it was a nasty trick. But come on, Summers. Look me in the eyes and tell me you could do one-armed push-ups on that shoulder." His mouth twisted as he looked away, and she snorted. "You can't, can you? And you expect me to climb one of the biggest walls on the continent with you? Get real."

"Okay, so I'm not a hundred percent," he growled, his eye flickering. The bag gently lowered itself to the ground. "Satisfied?"

She shook her head again. "Not hardly. What happened to 'I'm not sure I'm up to it'?" she asked a bit snappishly. "You were being reasonable about it last night--"

"That was last night--"

"Oh, and things are different this morning?" She folded her arms across her chest, set her jaw, and glared at him. "Why the hell would you even THINK of climbing on a bad shoulder, anyway?"

"Because I want to climb, stab your eyes!" he snarled, leaning over and picking up the haul bag. "Do you have any idea how confused I am right now? I thought it would be so--simple, afterwards. But Apocalypse is dead and suddenly I've got all these flonqing questions I have to answer! Who am I, what do I want, where am I going--" He rubbed at his eyes and laughed unevenly. "I just want to do something that lets me tune all that out for a while," he continued in a more moderate tone. "All the--noise. I want to climb, because it'll let me focus on the here and now and not worry about tomorrow. I want to stand on the flonqing summit with you and admire the view--and I don't care if it hurts a little along the way. Is that really THAT twisted of me?"

Domino stared at him, chewing on her lower lip. "Yes," she finally grumbled. "Yes, it is." She leaned over and picked up her rack, slinging it across her shoulders. Part of her couldn't believe she was agreeing to this, but the rest of her pleaded mitigating circumstances. He was giving her the puppy-dog stare of doom, and her resolve was evaporating. "So let's do it. Lout."

"Really?" he blurted, actually looking surprised.

"Really," she said, glaring at him. "Let's get going before I change my mind. I suppose you're going to insist on leading out, too."

Nathan recovered his composure, and gave her a mischievous smile. "You're a better belay."

***

Okay, so she'd been a little pessimistic. It was a beautiful day, and the sun was drying the rock quite nicely--although the first couple of pitches had been a little dicey. She'd found herself relaxing, beginning to enjoy herself.

Nathan had had a point, in his little impassioned outburst down at the base. It was surprisingly easy to lose yourself in climbing. She'd forgotten that. Oh, it required a great deal of focus and concentration, as much when you were on belay as if you were leading out, but there was a strange, somehow simple joy about defying gravity and hauling yourself up the side of a rock face that would defy even a mountain goat.

And she'd forgotten what it was like to climb with him. For someone his size, he was very good at this. He'd never been the type to go for the fast and loose approach; he took his time, choosing each move carefully and expending as little energy as possible. His climbing style, for lack of a better word, was elegant.

It was when that elegance started to fade, in the middle of the eleventh pitch, that she realized there was something wrong.

"Be careful," she called up, frowning as she watched him trying to navigate a difficult left traverse. He was nearly at the top end of the rope, but even from here she could see how much more slowly he was moving--how hesitant he seemed, all of a sudden.

"Just a little tricky," his reply came down, his voice sounding strained.

"Well, back off and we'll try a different route," she replied, beginning to get worried.

"We're almost to the bivouac ledge," he said. She watched him reach for his next hold. "I'll be fine. I just need to--"

It was a cliche to say that pivotal moments happened in slow motion. Like a lot of cliches, though, it was true. As he fell, she seemed to have time to notice every detail, no matter how tiny. The patter of rock fragments down the wall as whatever hold he'd just grabbed gave way; a curse of pain as he tried to catch himself and found no purchase, followed by his sharp cry of "Falling!"; the sound of the rope snapping taut and then the rasp of a pair of cams pulling out of the wall, adding another twenty metres and a dangerous spin to his fall.

She did what she could, pulling down with her brake hand to lock off her belay device. The jolt as the rope snapped taut for the second time was incredible, but she barely registered it. Her eyes were on Nathan, and she winced as he swung at the end of the rope, slamming hard into the rock before he could straighten out and take the impact on his legs.

Shit, that had to hurt--

"Nathan!" she called out as he twisted at the end of the rope, trying to get back facing upright so he could reach the wall again. Her gaze shot immediately to the next bit of protection. Another pair of cams, well-placed in a good crack, and they were staying put, thankfully. Taking a deep, shaky breath, she looked back up at him. "Nate, take it easy! You're okay--just settle down and anchor yourself back in."

He managed to straighten himself out and grab the wall again. Barely fifteen metres above her now, he was close enough for her to see how badly he was shaking--and she could FEEL how rattled he was, too. Either he was projecting, or the psi-link was firing back up, she wasn't sure which--

And he wasn't moving to anchor himself back in. "Shit! Nathan? Nate, come on, talk to me." She was already reinforcing the belay as she spoke, getting ready to climb up to him. The rope was almost certainly damaged after a fall of that length - especially given how much Nathan weighed - but she couldn't just wait down here at the belay and hoped he calmed down enough to get himself back down here. "Nate, I'm coming up, okay? Just stay put, I'll be right there."

In the end she had to go off the rope completely. She wasn't particularly fond of free climbing, to put it mildly, but he was too far to her left, and she had no choice. It was a nervous few minutes before she got to the tiny little ledge he'd somehow managed to reach, and could clip back onto the rope. Not exactly the recommended technique, but it would have to do.

"Nice rope," she muttered, setting up another anchor as quickly as she could. "Good rope. Don't you go snapping on Mother now--" Nathan made a noise that might have been a laugh, and Domino leaned closer, sliding an arm around him and hugging him tightly. "You okay?" she murmured more gently.

"Don't know," he muttered shakily. "Which way is up?"

Domino decided she was going to take that as a joke. "You up to lowering us down telekinetically?" she asked, as it sank in that they were twelve hundred metres above the ground on a rope that had to be considered unreliable. "And don't give me any bullshit about that being against the rules," she went on before he could say anything. Not that he looked like he had any intention of protesting. "You've broken them before, when you had to. I've heard the Denali story from G.W."

She could feel him beginning--just beginning to relax. He still had a death-grip on the rock, but his breathing was growing more regular again, which was good. Having him hyperventilate up here would not be good. "I don't think I could have stopped myself," he said raggedly. He was still trembling, just not as obviously. "If the rope had snapped. It just happened too fast."

"It's okay," she said soothingly. "No harm done. Besides, 'you climb, you fall'. Isn't that what you used to tell me?"

Nathan made that noise again. It sounded marginally more like a laugh this time. "Bet I was on solid ground when I said that."

Domino chuckled. *Okay, sense of humor definitely returning. This is good.* "Probably," she said gently. "So, are you going to play elevator here? I don't think we should rappel on this rope."

"Yeah. Sure. In a couple of minutes," he muttered, leaning his forehead against the rock in front of him and breathing deeply. "Oath, my shoulder hurts. Suppose it was better to hit the rock with that rather than my head, but SHIT! I think I tried to catch myself with that arm, too--"

"Hard to think clearly when you're falling," Domino said as dryly as she could. Reaction was starting to set in, and her knees were feeling a little wobbly. They'd had close calls before, climbing, but she'd never quite mastered the trick of being blase about them.

"Wasn't--thinking clearly, period," Nathan said unevenly. "You were right."

"Nate, that doesn't matter--"

"No, it does." He laughed again, and the sound was almost despairing. "I don't know what I'm doing, Dom, I really don't know what the fuck I'm doing--"

"It's okay," she murmured. "Easy, Nate." More at work here than the fall, clearly, but it would be much better to deal with it on the ground. "Just calm down and focus. We can talk about this in a little while."

He nodded jerkily. "Okay," he said very softly, and went back to whatever breathing exercise he'd been doing a moment ago.

It was still nearly ten minutes before he'd settled down enough to levitate them down.

***

Domino grimaced. "Shit," she muttered in distress, probing gently at Nathan's shoulder. He paled a little further and looked away, but that was all the reaction she got. "You really did it, I think."

"It's not dislocated again, is it?" he asked hoarsely, managing a wobbly smile as he looked back and met her eyes. "That'd be just my luck."

"No. Separated, I think. And the collarbone's broken, from the look of it." Domino shook her head. "Why do you have to do these things when we're in the middle of nowhere?" she asked, trying to put a little humor into the question.

"Bad timing?"

"Yeah, you can say that again." She sighed and straightened. "Anything else?"

"Just bruises." He tried to move his arm and grunted in pain, doubling over and holding his arm against his chest. "Shit," he said unevenly, breathing heavily. "I don't think I'm going to be able to get my shirt back on."

"Not a big deal," she said, and the humor came more easily this time as she grinned at him. "I like you with your shirt off. Even if you're in the process of turning black and blue."

He laughed softly. "Red light, Dom."

"What, I can't even flirt?" She helped him get his shirt back on, trying to ignore the strange, twisting sensation in her chest as she saw the pain on his face. "It needs to be in a sling, at least," she said as crisply as she could. "I'd prefer to splint it--"

"A sling'll be fine. A little aspirin would be nice, too," he said tiredly. Not surprisingly, getting them back to solid ground had taken a lot out of him. She'd just about had to carry him back to the tent, although he seemed to be reviving a little. "Should be something like that in the first-aid kit."

She went over and checked. The first-aid kit she'd retrieved from the tent once they'd gotten back was more like one of their old field med-kits than something she'd have expected on a camping trip, but at the moment, she wasn't complaining. "Better," she said with a faint grin, taking out the bottle and shaking it at him. "Vicodin, even."

"Ooh, codeine," he murmured, a flicker of weary amusement in his voice.

"Not quite, but close enough," Domino said, taking a triangular bandage out of the kit. Just the right size for a sling. She got his arm bound up and helped him into the tent before she gave him a couple of the Vicodin tablets. "You're not going to be much company," she said dryly, watching him wash them down with a little water and then lie down. "Even with your metabolism, that stuff's going to make you drowsy."

"I know," he muttered restlessly. "I'm sorry. You were right, it was a bad idea."

Domino gave a weary chuckle and stretched out beside him. "Did I just hear you apologize? Have to remember to mark this day on the calendar." She'd tied open the door of the tent - she'd never been much for the whole canvas cocoon effect - and the breeze from outside was nice--fresh and warm and spring-like. Checking her watch, she shook her head in bemusement. After eight PM, and the sun was still up. Just an example of how far north they really were, she supposed.

Nathan still looked unhappy. "I really am sorry--"

"Nate, it's okay. No real harm done--except to your shoulder, I guess." She pursed her lips and brushed the silver hair back away from his forehead, tracing the furrow between his eyes with a finger. His eyes slid away from hers, and she sighed. "Besides, what happened to 'sorry has no meaning'?" she chided gently.

"It never made sense to begin with, and it makes less now," Nathan said heavily. He tried to shift and winced. "Oath, I can't believe I was this stupid!"

"It's okay," she insisted, a little bemused. He'd never been much for second-guessing himself after the fact, but he seemed good and determined to wallow in it now. She couldn't help but wonder why. "You were just a little overambitious, that was all--"

"No, I wasn't thinking. I haven't been thinking, lately. I don't know what the hell I'm doing." Nathan stared up at her, his eyes suspiciously bright, and Domino bit her lip. "I used to think that 'sorry has no meaning' meant you were letting go of regrets. But I'm sick of pretending."

Domino sat up, mostly so that she didn't have to meet his eyes. "I thought we weren't going to do this," she muttered, fumbling in her pack for her water bottle.

"We're not doing 'this'." Nathan's voice was softer, full of a pain she knew had nothing to do with his shoulder. "It's just--I've got my life back, suddenly, and I'm only now realizing what a mess I've made of it. How many mistakes I've made."

She found the water bottle, and took a long sip, still avoiding his eyes. "I don't think I want to hear this," she said in as neutral a voice as she could manage. If the next words out of his mouth were any combination of 'let's try again', she was going to hit him. He'd promised, damn it, and--

"I'm just--so sorry that I ever hurt you, Dom. That I made you lose whatever trust you had in me."

She waited for it. And waited. But it didn't come. "That's all?" she muttered. Hardly able to believe he was going to leave it at that and not--pressure her for more. The thought made her close her eyes for a moment and writhe inwardly with self-disgust. What was the matter with her? She couldn't drop the cynicism and take him seriously, without searching for ulterior motives?

It had just been so long since conversations like this had been--safe. Safe, she thought disgustedly, and shoved that fearful, wary part of her to arm's length. That was the problem. She'd fallen back into old habits, rebuilt the old shell around herself. That was why she was so afraid of Nathan. Because he'd cracked it in the first place, all those years ago, and she knew he could do it again if she gave him the opportunity.

Part of her wanted to hide from the very idea. Another part of her wanted to throw herself at him and tell him to have at it--okay, bad image. Have I been celibate too long or something?

"Sort of, I guess," he said, the words almost hesitant. Opening her eyes, she finally looked back down at him, and a faint smile crept across her features before she could help herself. She didn't think she'd ever seen quite that level of--earnestness in his eyes before. "Except that I want to fix it, too."

He WAS being rather unutterably sweet. "Just like that, huh?" she asked softly, stretching out beside him again. Intrigued, despite herself, by the direction the conversation had taken--and a little wary at her own reaction. This was still dangerous territory, even if they were managing to skirt the edge of it so far.

"No--I know it doesn't work that way." Nathan sighed and reached out for her hand. She let him take it, and squeezed back gently. "I just--feel like I drove you away, Dom. Because I asked too much, or we weren't ready, or maybe it was never supposed to be anything more than what we already had. But I pushed too hard, or didn't push enough--I don't know." He gave a strained little laugh. "I screwed up. Royally. Maybe that's the best way to put it."

"You weren't the only one." It stung a bit to admit, but it was the truth. She took a deep breath, and smiled at him a little uncertainly. "So, what do you want to do about it?"

"Don't know. Something--" He sighed again. "All I know is that I miss you, I'm tired of missing you, and I want to do whatever it takes to make you feel like you can trust me again. Or at least feel comfortable around me."

Domino gave a slightly less than convincing chuckle. "Tell me something," she said, and squeezed his hand a little more tightly.

"What?"

"That this isn't just you saying what I want to hear. Or at least," she continued, a little more dryly, "that it's not the painkillers talking."

"The painkillers haven't quite kicked in yet. Trust me." His voice was droll, the look in his eyes anything but.

"And the other?"

"I don't know. Partly, maybe. I'm not trying to read your mind, but I sense things whether I want to or not. I can't say that I'm not reacting to that."

Domino bit her lip. "You're either really playing me," she muttered, "or being so honest that the thought of you being this honest blows my mind."

"Both, maybe," he murmured wryly. "But words don't mean much. Give me a chance to prove it?"

"What?"

"That I'm serious. Or not serious." He blinked up at the roof of the tent, looking confused. "I'm not sure which."

Domino couldn't help it. She snickered, and buried her face against the sleeping bag for a moment to stifle a louder laugh, in case one slipped out. "Painkillers kicking in?" she finally asked, as steadily as she could when she trusted herself to look back up at him.

"I think so. Starting to lose track of which way's up again." Nathan muttered a curse and closed his eyes. "Just when I was starting to make some sense, too."

"Were you?"

"Don't tease me."

"I can't help it," Domino said, only somewhat pentitently, and reacted to the sudden surge of warmth she felt for him by leaning over and kissing him lightly. "We'll talk about it later," she said softly, stroking the side of his face gently. "Whether you were serious, I mean."

***

"I still cannot believe I let you talk me into this."

"What?"

Domino opened her eyes, just a crack, and yelped as the canoe plunged through the next set of rapids, sticking unerringly to the safe course and avoiding the rocks neatly. "This!"

"What's wrong with this? I haven't run us aground yet, have I?" Nathan asked from behind her, sounding almost aggrieved

"You're supposed to PADDLE when you're in a canoe!" That was it. Her fundamental sense of the appropriate was offended. Oh, sure--

"Whatever. You just don't trust my navigational abilities," he said somewhat snappishly, and used his telekinesis to nudge the bow of the canoe slightly to the left. They were moving down the river at an appalling speed, really. She was expecting to die at any moment now. "Besides, how am I supposed to paddle with only one good arm?"

"Oh, sure, be practical about it--NATE!"

"I see it," he grumbled, and steered them around the large boulder. "See? We're out of the rapids. You can stop clinging to the sides of the canoe and cringing, now--"

"I was NOT cringing," Domino growled, looking back over her shoulder at him and glaring. Nathan was looking far too pleased with himself, she decided. Just because he'd taken them fifty kilometres in about half the usual time--she could smack him, really.

But he was right on one score. They HAD hit another smooth patch. Domino sighed, releasing her death-grip and forcing herself to admit that yes, the scenery was nothing short of incredible. This part of the South Nahanni River was called the Rock Gardens, but all the rocks were clustered in or at the edges of the river. Lush green meadows stretched away from the water on both sides. The occasional tree stood here and there, like sentinels at their posts, and in the distance were low mountains, regal-looking despite the cloak of iron-gray clouds.

"It's pretty, isn't it?"

"Yeah," she muttered. "Nice to slow down and actually enjoy it." Part of her did appreciate not having to do any work on this leg of the trip, but she wasn't sure it was worth the experience of sitting in a canoe while Nate telekinetically propelled it down the river. Maybe she was just getting old, and didn't appreciate the adrenalin rush anymore. "You realize we're going to make it to Virginia Falls way ahead of schedule if we keep going at this rate?" she asked him.

"It would be a problem if we were late," he pointed out patiently, "but so what if we're a couple of days early? We could camp at the falls, hike out to Sunblood Mountain--"

"No more climbing," Domino said forcefully.

Nathan laughed. "Do I look that stupid?" he asked dryly.

They'd actually had a not-bad couple of days in the Cirque, despite the change in plans. Mostly, they'd done a lot of talking, but they'd managed a little hiking, too, once he'd felt up to it. Even on the ground, there'd been plenty of views to appreciate. She'd even permitted herself to be coaxed into letting him levitate them to the top of Lotus Flower Tower so that they could watch the sunset on their last night before heading back down to Glacier Lake.

He hadn't even suggested they watch it from the summit of Proboscis. Domino smirked. She strongly suspected that he was already planning another crack at that particular wall, it having had the temerity to defeat him and all.

She'd wound up having to immobilize his shoulder in the end, though, and he'd been as cranky as hell since. Which was probably part of the reason she'd agreed to this somewhat unorthodox way of traveling downriver. I'm such a pushover sometimes--

"Let's play a game," Nathan said abruptly.

"I beg your pardon?" she asked doubtfully, looking back over her shoulder at him again. A joke? No, he looked completely serious. "Don't we have another set of rapids coming up?"

"Not for a while. Besides, I'm bored."

"Not this again. Since when did you develop the attention span of a hyperactive three year-old?" Domino asked balefully. She'd been noticing his lack of focus, his--fuzziness, these last few days, and it was very un-Nathan-ly. Endearing in a flaky sort of way, but she really didn't know how to deal with it.

"Come on, Dom."

"Fine," she sighed. "What game?"

"Twenty questions," he said, far too brightly.

"You've GOT to be kidding me."

"With special rules," he said persistently. The canoe drifted down the river, much more slowly now. "We take turns, and we have to ask a serious question for every frivolous one."

"What are you up to?" she asked suspiciously.

"Nothing!"

"Right." Chewing on her lower lip as she watched the water part around the bow of the canoe, she abruptly gave in. He obviously wanted to know something, something he didn't want to just come out and ask. She supposed she could play along. Besides, it would give her a chance to satisfy her own curiosity. "What's the last movie you saw?" she said, opting for 'frivolous' first.

A silence that seemed almost embarrassed was her only reply for a moment. "'Chocolat'," he finally said, in an undertone.

Domino snorted, swiveling around in the canoe so she could sit facing him. She ignored how alarmingly it rocked in the water; she had faith that he wasn't going to let them capsize. "You're kidding me! Who dragged you to see that?"

Nathan flushed. "Who says I didn't go and see it by myself?" he muttered, almost defiantly.

"Well, first of all, you don't GO to movies on your own," she pointed out, her mouth twitching despite her best efforts to stifle the grin. "Secondly, I'd believe that Nick Fury was a closet transvestite before I believed that you went to see 'Chocolat' of your own free will. Now, who was it? Jean?" A nasty thought occurred to her, and she bared her teeth at him. "Ororo?"

"Hank," Nathan admitted.

"HANK?"

"He thought I needed to lighten up a little."

Domino grinned. "Did you like it?"

Nathan's mouth quirked. "Maybe."

"You DID!" Domino laughed again, and then made a show of studying him intently. He arched an eyebrow, and she continued to grin at him madly. "I'm looking for signs that you're a pod person. The Nate I knew would never have managed to sit through that movie."

"I answered the question," he said, narrowing his eyes at her. He wasn't really annoyed, though, just playing at it. "My turn."

"Frivolous question, right?"

"Right. What's the most unusual thing you've had to eat in the last month?"

Well, that was fairly safe. Domino pursed her lips. "Um--that would be the sea urchin sushi the last time I was in New York."

Nathan blinked. "Any good?"

"Odd. Not bad, but odd." Off to their left, a Dall sheep stopped and eyed the passing canoe for a moment, then went back to eating. Domino stared at it for a moment, trying to decide what she wanted to ask him next. A serious question--well, she had tons of serious things she'd like to know, some of which she'd been saving up for twenty years. The problem was settling on one.

So many possible questions. Something reckless surged deep inside her, and she decided to try one of the 'biggies'. "In the time I've known you," she said slowly, not entirely sure how he was going to react, "have you ever been actively suicidal?"

His expression went totally blank for a moment, so much so that she wondered if she'd shocked him THAT badly. "Interesting choice of questions," he murmured, his eyes drifting to the Dall sheep. He was silent for so long that she started to think he wasn't going to answer. "I suppose it means what you mean by 'actively'," he finally said, stiffly. "There've been lots of times where I was so damned--tired of it all that I seriously considered not getting out of the way when someone was shooting at me. But if you're looking for a time when I was actually out to kill myself, I'd have to say only once."

Her stomach tried to tie itself into a knot. "Really?" she asked, her voice coming out a little too high-pitched. "When?"

Nathan gave her a tolerant look, apparently regaining some of his composure. "That's two questions."

Domino glowered at him. "Come on, you can't expect me to leave it there."

"I guess not." His gaze turned inward for a moment. "After Akkaba, the first time," he said quietly. "Well, a few weeks afterwards, actually. After we all got our powers back and I got out of the T-O cocoon." Nathan gave her a faint smile. "I wandered around Europe and Asia for a few months. I just--couldn't handle things, after Scott--well, after we thought Scott had died."

Resting her elbows on her knees and her chin on her hands, Domino watched him. "I'd wondered, you know," she said softly. She'd--even thought of looking for him, back when the news had trickled down to X-Force, but she'd stifled the urge, telling herself that it wouldn't help. It had seemed like good sense at the time. Now, she was wondering if it hadn't been--cowardice, really.

"Yeah. Anyhow, I tried a few times--just by taking risks I shouldn't have taken, mostly." He smiled thinly. "Swallowing a bullet would have been the easy way out. Part of me did, very badly, want to die, but I also wanted it to hurt." She sucked in a breath, distressed by his casual tone, and his smile turned dry. "You did ask."

"I guess I did," she sighed. "Your turn."

"When you showed up at the Hell's Kitchen safehouse, that time after Zero Tolerance--" He hesitated for a moment. "Why--were you so angry with me?"

*He just HAD to bring that up, didn't he?* Domino sighed, remembering that particular argument. It wasn't a fond memory. She wasn't particularly proud of how she'd handled the situation, and the recollection wasn't improved by knowing how stupid and careless she'd been, storming out of the safehouse and right into Blockade's ambush. She was lucky the assassin hadn't killed her--and come to think of it, she'd never thanked Nathan for what he'd done in getting rid of the bastard, had she?

"I--" Hadn't expected him to arrive back that early? Had switched over into bitch-mode when he'd called Blaquesmith's name? Had been suffering PMS to beat all PMS?

"I wanted you to ask me to stay," she heard herself say, and could have torn out her own tongue. "To tell me that you needed me." So that she could worry about fixing his problems for him, rather than focusing on her own. The thought was strangely cathartic, and the words kept spilling out, almost of their own accord. "I--I wanted that so badly. But part of me was angry that I wanted that, so I took it out on you. Then when you didn't ask me to stay, I sort of--lost it." The surprise in his eyes made her laugh. "What, you never figured that out? Imagine where we might be right now if you had."

"What is, is," he said almost automatically, and she scowled at him. He raised a defensive hand, looking apologetic. "Okay, forget I said that." His smile was a little shaky, but more or less convincing. "Umm--next question, I guess. Your turn."

Domino forced herself to relax. "Okay." Frivolous question, again. She could do that. Setting her jaw, she let the old pain and anger over that particular incident fall away, fade as it should have done ages ago. Weird how good it had felt to admit it to him, though. "What would it take to get you in a tuxedo again?"

"What is it with you and me in a tuxedo?" he asked, sounding almost exasperated.

Domino felt her grin returning, and let it. "Indulge me. What would it take?"

His jaw set in a mutinous line and he glared at her for a long moment. Then, abruptly, he grinned back. "Come climbing with me again. When my shoulder's healed up, I mean."

Domino looked at him warily. *Well, I did ask. I have no one but myself to blame.* "Where?" she asked, playing along. "And if you say Everest, I'm going to hit you."

"Been there, done that. K2?"

"No fucking way, Summers."

"Annapurna?" He gave her that wide-eyed, innocent look. It was definitely a cosmic injustice that he was so good at that look. "It's such a NICE peak, Dom--"

"No, and I don't care."

"The Vinson Massif?"

"The WHAT?"

"In Antarctica. One of the Seven Summits." Nathan looked thoughtful. "I've never even TRIED to climb that one before--"

"Absolutely NOT. You are NOT dragging me to Antarctica." She bit her lip. "The Eiger," she said firmly. "That's my final offer."

Nathan looked absolutely delighted. "Are you serious?"

"I said so, didn't I?" I can't believe I just agreed to climb the Eiger with him, Domino thought with an inward sigh. I'm going soft in my old age.

"But we're not old anymore." Domino scowled at him, but Nathan shrugged. "You were thinking a little loudly," he said almost hurriedly. "But it's true, you know. We're not old anymore, Dom. However bizarre it is that we both got de-aged at roughly at the same time, we've got time back that we never expected to have."

He sounded so very solemn. It was kind of alarming. "What's your point?" she asked as his gaze strayed to the river in front of them. She was NOT going to ask if they were coming up on another set of rapids. She really didn't want to know.

"We don't have to stop with the Eiger, do we? We could--go other places."

Oh, delightful. Now she was getting some sort of boyish, 'wouldn't this be fun, Dom, wouldn't it?' enthusiastic look. "I am not wandering around the world with you, climbing whatever strikes your fancy," Domino said firmly. The idea was frightening. After a lot of years and a lot of bitching about it, she'd grown to like climbing. A little. At least in moderation. Nate's 'that mountain thinks it's so tough--let's stand on the summit and laugh at it!' approach wasn't quite her cup of tea.

"We don't have to climb, necessarily," Nathan said. Almost diffidently, now. "Not that I'd object if you wanted to, but--I just meant we could spend a little more time together."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, oh. Why not?"

"Don't you have--committments? To the X-Men?" I can't believe I just said that. His choice to join up with the X-Men in the first place had been one of the single most unbelievable things he'd done in all the years she'd known him - as if everyone and their uncle doesn't know that the only reason he did it was because he was feeling guilty about Scott! - and as far as she was concerned, if he'd gotten it out of his system, so much the better.

"Not anymore." His tone was firm, quite unmistakably definite, and she reflected on the fact that he'd just given her the fodder for her next 'serious' question. "Why, do you have something you can't leave behind for a month or two? Or a year?"

"I guess not," she said, without really thinking, and then blinked at him. "Wait a minute. A year?"

"Why the hell not? I've been totaling up all the years I've spent dancing to someone else's tune, and I'm tired of it. I want some Me-time. I NEED a break." His voice turned softer. "And the things I'm hearing even though I'm not trying to read you are suggesting to me that you might need a break, too."

"I'll--think about it," Domino muttered, not wanting to think about how right he was. It had been a bad several months. In terms of pent-up tension, she had enough that she really did need more than a couple of weeks to unwind.

And it wouldn't be too terrible a thing to spend some more time with him, would it? She'd been--enjoying herself to a surprising degree on this trip. Oh, there'd been a few awkward moments, but she'd forgotten how much fun he could be. How much she still--cared about him, despite the mess their relationship had become.

Add to that the fact that he seemed to be absolutely straightforward about breaking some of his old bad habits and turning over a new leaf--

Didn't she owe him the same?

"Good," Nathan said, sounding far too pleased with himself. "You do that. And you might want to get facing forward again, too."

Domino snorted and folded her arms across her chest. "Rapids?"

"Yeah."

"I don't want to see."

"That won't last long." He grinned at her. "Face it, Dom, you've never been able to resist a challenge."

***

"The pictures really didn't do it justice," Domino said softly. "It's incredible."

They'd set up the tent on the rocky beach a short distance downstream from Virginia Falls, and the view was postcard-quality. The entire Nahanni River cascaded in a white fury over the falls, framed by soaring granite cliffs. In the background, Sunblood Mountain rose into the clearing sky. There was even a rainbow at the base of the falls. It was a perfect view. Absolutely perfect.

"Mmm," Nathan said from where he was sitting beside her, rummaging through their supplies. One-armed or not, it was his turn to make lunch. "Granola bar?"

She looked sideways at him, and grinned. "Does it have chocolate chips in it?"

He gave her a pained look. "Dom, the whole point of a granola bar is that it's HEALTHY--"

"If it doesn't have chocolate chips in it, I don't want it."

"Fine," he muttered, and leaned back with a wince.

Domino frowned slightly. "Splint need tightening?" she asked briskly, and leaned back, reaching out to check. He jerked away from her with a baleful look, and she sighed. "Nate, either you let me check the damned splint or I hike up there to the campground, get on the sat phone, and call Derek to come pick us up two days early."

He bristled at her, but didn't try to duck her this time. She tightened the figure-of-eight splint, and grimaced as she checked his shoulder. "Should've kept up with the snow packs a while long than we did," she muttered. There was still some swelling, and a fair bit of bruising, even after a week. Still, he was better off than most people would have been a week after an injury like that. There were benefits to having a whacked-out mutant metabolism.

"Less snow down here," he pointed out with a faint smile.

"True," she said with a snort, shaking her head at him. "I bet that gang of college kids we passed above the falls probably has some ice in their beer cooler. I could go ask?"

Nathan shrugged with his good shoulder. "I'll be fine," he said.

"Sure." She leaned back and shook her head at him again. "At least we're away from the good samaritans." Once they'd gotten down closer to the falls, one of the more 'crowded' - comparatively - parts of the park, she'd had to do some quick talking to convince the other campers and canoers they'd passed that Nathan was all right and they didn't really need any help. She'd had to sit in the stern and pretend to paddle while he kept propelling them telekinetically down the river. It had been interesting, to put it mildly.

"They meant well."

"Yeah, they're just not equipped to deal with the idea that someone hurt enough to wind up with only one good arm would pick up and happily continue with his wilderness vacation," Domino said dryly.

"Are you calling me stubborn?" Nathan asked with a subdued grin.

"No, because that would be like calling water wet, Summers."

He chuckled, and leaned back over the food pack. "Beef jerky?"

"Ick." He made a rude gesture at her, but she ignored it and watched him thoughtfully. "So when Derek does pick us up--"

"I'll corral the first doctor I can find in Fort Simpson and have him take a look at my shoulder," Nathan said patiently. "Come on, Dom, I'm not THAT unreasonable."

She felt her mouth quirk, but smoothed out her expression. "That's not what I meant."

"No? You'll have to forgive me, given that you've been bringing it up hourly since we got off the river."

"Stop being such a bastard," Domino said threateningly. "Or I'll change my mind."

He looked up from the food pack, blinking at her. "Change your mind?" he said uncertainly. She just stared at him, and he kept blinking at her. "Cookie?" he finally asked, tentatively, and offered her a box of Oreos.

She seized it happily. "You've been holding out on me," she accused, and opened the box. Just because she was feeling particularly sadistic, she made him wait until she'd eaten half the first cookie before she answered. "I meant, where are we going after we get back to Fort Simpson, and you see a doctor about that poor banged-up shoulder of yours?"

He blinked at her for a moment longer, until a slow smile grew on his lips. "Tease."

"You know it, pal." She finished off the rest of the cookie, set the box aside, and shifted position, planting herself happily on his lap before he could protest. "What?" she asked with a grin as he gave her a bemused look. "I don't bite."

"Really? When did you break that particular bad habit?" he muttered, sounding disgruntled. Just an act, though. She would have been able to tell that, even if she hadn't been nearly nose-to-nose with him and able to see the delight in his eyes. "So your answer's yes, then?" he asked, almost awkwardly.

"Yeah. And I think I've decided that I'd prefer it if you weren't serious," she said, letting some of the warmth she felt creep into her voice. "I think we've both been a little too serious these last few years. Time to be frivolous."

"What did you have in mind?" Nathan asked, sliding his good arm around her.

She grinned. "I don't know. Displays of public lewdness atop the Eiffel Tower?"

"Been done," he said with a perfectly straight face. "How about going to Istanbul, getting ridiculously drunk on kimiz and staying up all night watching the ships on the Bosphorus?"

Domino shook her head at him. "I knew I should have never let you try that stuff, Nate. It's fermented mare's milk, for pity's sake--"

"It's good!"

"I'm not liking the mental image," she pronounced, waving dismissively. "Try this one on for size. German beer. Lots of German beer." She giggled, part of her appalled at the sound. "And Black Forest cake."

"Switzerland," he countered. "Not Germany." He grinned. "You're rather unbelievably sexy when you yodel, you know--ow!"

"That was your techno-organic shoulder, jackass." She smiled suddenly and nestled closer to him, careful of his bad shoulder. "But since you brought it up," she murmured, casting a sly look up at him, "we COULD dispense with the separate sleeping bags, you know."

"Oh, no," Nathan said firmly. "I am going to resist temptation. Chivalrous. That's going to be the word you think of when you think of me." His mouth was twitching suspiciously, though, and he put his good around her, drawing her closer. "This trip is going to be all about good, clean fun--"

"I love it when you play hard to get," she said mischievously.

And kissed him soundly, as Virginia Falls roared in approval.

fin

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