My Alaskan mountain man

Radio silence is broken

As promised, Robin is up at first light. After a quick look in at Cammie who is still sleeping after a restless night of her tossing and turning so much that it kept him awake most of the night. She seems to be sleeping better now so he decides to slink off without making a sound. He forgoes the coffee as that would wake the sheriff and doc up. Robin grabs his coat and heads straight out. It’s cold out and he shivers a little as he zips his coat up and pulls his hood up and over his head. Breathing out white clouds of puff into the cold, crisp morning air, he reaches into his coat pocket and pulls out his gloves. It’s still a little dark but the sun is peaking through the tree line and the sky is clear, not a cloud in sight. It looks like it’s going to be a bright sunny day today. Hopefully some of the snow will melt and things will start to get back to normal around here.

After some shovelling of snow to make a path to the shed, he struggles to pull the door open. Once in it’s still quite dark inside but he knows the shed like the back of his hand. He walks straight over to the work bench and grabs hold of his tool box, then he heads over to the shelf on the right near the window to find his soldering iron kit.

After he makes sure he has everything he’ll need to fix the radio, he heads straight back into the house. “The animals will have to wait.” He says aloud to himself.

Once inside, Robin finds Doc Willow in the kitchen area already brewing some coffee.

“Good morning Robin, would you like some coffee?”, she whispers.

Robin reply’s with a whisper, “yes thanks Doc.”

Robin sets himself and his tools up at the table where the radio is. He quietly opens his toolbox to find his mini screwdriver set and gets to work on repairing the radio.

Next to wake is the Sheriff, probably woken by all the commotion of the door going, the coffee brewing and the clatter of the toolbox.

Rubbing his eyes, he looks at Robin and enquires, “do ya know what’s wrong with it then?” His voice is a little gruffer then the other two’s due to having only just woke up.

Robin replies with a head nod and a, “yeah I saw a burnt out wire last night”.

Sheriff, “well good luck to ya fixin it, let me know once it’s working, if at all.” As he said it, Cammie walks into the living room holding her side. She looks pale as can be and Doc who is closest, rushes to her to give her an arm up, “you should have hollered, I would have helped you in, you’re still too weak to be doing this on your own Cammie.”

Doc motions for a chair and Robin jumps up immediately and takes her the desk chair he is sitting on as it’s the first he could find.

Doc waves her hand and says, “I think our girl would be more comfortable on the settee, give us a hand to get her over there Robin.

Robin walks straight up to Cammie, his big build stands tall and broad over both Cammie and Doc. Baring in mind doc is a tall woman of six foot she is of slim build, and Cammie, well Cammie is five foot six and has a tiny build.

When he gets to Cammie he reaches down behind her knees and scoops her up gently into his arms and carries her to the sofa as if she were as light as a feather.

Cammie protests, but she can’t do anything about it now as he has already carefully placed her on the sofa, “sorry I hope that didn’t hurt to much”, as he says this he looks Cammie dead in the eyes with a gives her a genuinely caring smile.

Doc Willow, “would you like some coffee dear?”

Cammie replies with a little gentle smile, “yes please.”

Robin returns to his work on the radio.

Cammie still looking at Robin asks, “have you managed to get the radio working yet?”

“Not yet, I’ve just opened it up, but it shouldn’t take long if I think I know what the problem is.” Robin replies.

Sheriff now, “if Rob can get that radio working we can get that rescue chopper up this way to take the three of us back down into town so you can get some medical treatment at the hospital and Willow and I can get back to our home. The weather is looking promising today, bright and sunny. It may even melt the snow enough for us to get back to town in our truck if Rob can’t fix the radio.”

Sheriff is careful not to mention that he’ll also need a full statement from Cammie as soon as they get back to town. He doesn’t want to get her all upset again unnecessarily until he is able to get things rolling down at the station. But he knows he will have to get that statement sooner rather then later. He’s itching to get on the case and catch these mother fuckers as soon as he can.

Cammie is quiet when Sheriff mentions the rescue chopper, in her mind all she cares about is getting the radio working so they can call in to find out if Callie has made it to safety. She sips her coffee and watches ever move that Robin makes, and as he’s working away at fixing the radio, Cammie tries to figure him out. He intrigues her. He’s a warm and charismatic guy but can be very quiet at times which makes her unsure of him. Although saying that, he has been nothing but gentle and kind to her this whole time, and not to mention, he has also saved her life.

Cammie notices that Robin let off a disgruntled groan when Sheriff mentioned the rescue chopper, I wonder what that’s all about?

Watching him now makes Cammie think back to a few min before when Robin picked her up and carried her to the sofa, Cammie got a whiff of a familiar smell, his smell and as she watches him she thinks back to the mountain. Flash backs come back to her now of when he found her. She vaguely remembers hearing someone shout out to her, then she remembers seeing his face pushed right into hers. He had a terrified look on his face and all Cammie can remember is how warm his coat felt on her when he put it over her. It was so warm from his body heat that it felt like it might burn through her skin, but after a while her cold body started to thaw and it felt more inviting and warm and she remembers as she lay lifeless over his shoulders, how the coat smelt of a combination of man sweat, saw dust and foresty nature smell. She’d never thought a sweaty man smelt good, but Robin’s man smell was the best most wonderful smell Cammie had ever smelt.

Kshshsh

The crackling from the radio snaps Cammie back to the here and now. “Is it working?”, she desperately cries out.

Robin twiddles the dial and speaks into the radio, “hello, anybody there?”

Kshshsh

“Hello, anybody there? This is Robin McRay over.”

Kshshsh

Cammie looks from Robin to the Sheriff, Sheriff shakes his head.

Kshshsh...”police line, this is superintendent Jeff Baker....over”

Everybody in the room instantly smiles and cheers with glee.

Kshshsh

Robin, “hold on Jeff, I’m passing you onto Sheriff now.” Robin gives the receiver over to the Sheriff.

Kshshsh “sheriff Penser is that you?”

Kshshsh, “Jeff, it’s me, Willow and I have been up at Rob’s cabin since the storm hit, we need an air lift out of here, over”

Kshshsh, “Sheriff it’s so darn good to hear your voice, everyone at the station has been wondering where the hell you’ve been. We’ve been worried sick. What the hell are you doing over on Denton Peak? Over”

Kshshsh, “we’re okay, we’ve been tending to a victim of .....”

Cammie interrupts now, “ask about Callie, ask about my sister Callie!”

Kshshsh, “Jeff, tell me has anyone reported a girl having been found? She may have been injured?”

Cammie’s heart in her throat now.

Kshshsh, “it’s been c*****e Sheriff, since this snow storm hit we’ve been inundated with calls for all sorts of emergencies. I will have to ask around and get back to you on that one. What’s her name Sheriff? ....also, I take it you’ll be needing a lift back into town then? Over”

Cammie hurriedly says, “Callie Ray, Callie Anne Ray.”

Kshshsh, “I would love a lift out of here and back to my home. I have a victim of a crime here, she’s in need of medical attention. Willow has done what she can for now, but it’s a pretty nasty wound we are talking about, so we would need the medics too. The girls name we are looking for is a Callie Anne Ray, Over.”

Kshshsh, “no problem Sheriff I will look into it and get back to you soon as I can. You know people in this town, everyone knows everyone else’s business. Someone will have some information somewhere along the grapevine. Give me a couple of hours to get the chopper ready. We seem to have a few call outs today now that the weather has cleared. How urgent is your air lift? Over”

Kshshsh, “we can wait, get to us when you can. Over”.