My Alaskan mountain man

An intimate moment

Cammie is sat in the living room on the sofa where she can see out of the kitchen window and watch the helicopter take flight.

After giving her statement to the Sheriff all she can do is replay the last moments from when she and Callie got separated. The moment when Callie stopped running and begged for us to take a break. How our legs ached and how our feet bled from the rough terrain we were running over, and how the blood on our feet made it slick and slippery which made it even harder to run. How she can still hear the terror in Callie’s voice and their heavy breathing as they try to catch their breath. Callie’s face in the light of the moon shone and how her face was stricken with fear. All Cammie can think of is, if Callie is dead, how awful and scary her final moments must have been, “dear Lord, please let her be alive and safe, please Lord, let her be alive and safe.”

As Cammie is praying out loud, Robin comes in from outside, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to disturb your prayer.”

Cammie laugh-cries, “I’m not religious, but if there is a God I hope he’s listening”. Cammie puts her face in her hands and begins to sob uncontrollably. As if all of her emotions had been locked away in a tight little box that was bursting at the seams and now that there are fewer people around, it’s like the emotions can’t be contained in their little tight box anymore.

Robin, not sure of what to do, the last time he had to console a woman who was crying was when his ex Mindy was breaking up with him to go off and be with his brother. She was crying so much anyone would have thought he was the one breaking her heart and not the other way around. The difference between that time and now is that Mindy felt sorry for herself because she was forced to be the bad guy and break the news to him and she always liked to pretend like she was a good person. This time though, the crying is for a valid reason. For the possibility that someone has lost someone dear to them. The uncertainty of not knowing, coupled with the instinctive hopeless feeling that when Callie is found, it’s not going to be a happy occasion.

Robin walks over to Cammie and sits down beside her. He has no words that will help her feel better, so he does the next best thing, he puts his arm around her shoulders and pulls her into him and holds her tight against his chest so she can cry it out.

It feels like this is the right thing to do. Whenever he had pent up anger or sadness as a kid, which was often after his mother passed away, his father would do the same for him and he would always say, “that’s it son, there’s no shame in crying, it’s better out then in!” And his dad would just hold him until he was done, no matter if it took five minutes or two hours. Afterward, his father would always kiss him on the head and hug him hard and he would say, “I love you son!”

A good thirty-five minutes of Cammie sobbing into his shirt, she eventually comes up for air. Her eyes are swollen and her nose is red and running. Wiping at her eyes she says, “I’m sorry! I don’t normally cry, or hug people, but thank you.” Robin looks her in the eyes and pulls her close again, he kisses her head and says, “there now, sleep!”

Cammie lays her head on Robins tear soaked chest, his embrace is warm and inviting and she can hear his heart beating to a slow and steady rhythm. She closes her eyes and drifts off into a clam sleep.

Robin sits quietly and holds her as she lays on him, relishing in her closeness and in the intimate moment they are sharing.

***

Some time later, Cammie wakes to find she is laying in Robins arms as he sleeps. He is holding her tight and his arms feel like lead weights draped over her shoulders. Her eyes still feel heavy after all the crying and she can feel her cheeks are stiff and tear stained. She feels a little embarrassed about how she carried on.

Cammie is not someone who cries! When life gets hard and Callie cries, Cammie is the tough one, the rock! She’s the strong one, and she has always felt pride in the fact that even though she was the younger one of the two, she was the one who would push through the tough times and would save the day for them. It’s funny, all of a sudden Cammie feels weak, her super powers don’t seem to work when Callie isn’t around for her to save. Being the strong independent young woman that she is, the last thing Cammie would ever have done would be to go to a man for support and to cry into his shirt, but right now, she is so thankful to have Robin holding her as she cries.

Not really wanting to move and wake him, Cammie lays for a few minutes and watches as the sun goes down outside. It’s started to snow heavily again and it looks like the storm is back, just like the paramedics had warned them. Jenifer told them that it was at their own risk, if Cammie was to stay and that, if the wound were to fester, the rescue chopper wouldn’t be able to come back up for the next foreseeable few days because the storm was doubling back on itself and coming back over again. For an agonising minute, Cammie did think Robin might change his mind about her staying, but to her relief he held to his word.

The angle at which Cammie is laying coupled with the dead weight of Robins muscular arms is starting to cause Cammie pain where the arrow pierced through her abdomen. Unable to stay still any longer, Cammie tries to leave the warm and tight embrace of Robins arms with as little disturbance as possible.

As soon as she makes the first gentle movement, Robin wakes.

He wakes with a jerk and Cammie feels his entire body tense up and he grabs her even tighter then before.

Once he realises where he is, he relaxes again and let’s go of his hold on Cammie. As he yawns and stretches his arms out above his head, he gives Cammie a smile, “I don’t know about you, but that’s the best sleep I’ve had all week.”

Hiding an inner smile, Cammie can feel as her cheeks blush red as the blood rushes to her face. In a shy tone she reply’s, “it was nice, thank you” before getting up slowly. It seems that even though she slept like a baby, the angle she was laying at, has made her all stiff and now that she’e moving, it seems to hurt a lot more then before.

Robin notices Cammie walking slowly and carefully, “are you okay?”

“Yep, all good, think it’s just time for some more painkillers that’s all. It’s been a while since I’ve sat up for that amount of time.”

Robin immediately gets up and walks to where Cammie is slowly walking toward the kitchen. He grabs her around her waist on the good side, making sure to be careful, “I’ll get you some pain killers once I’ve helped you to bed. Doc Willow said you need to take it slow and easy”, he says with concern in his voice.

Cammie wants to moan, but the second she looks up at him she knows it’s futile, he has a dogged determined look on his face. At least he isn’t carrying her again, she thinks to herself with a little under the breath giggle.