Julia - Camping

[moonshadows]

The rock shifts under my foot at exactly the wrong time and I have just enough time to lament that I'm wearing shorts and a tee-shirt and thus, this is going to hurt, before the entire right side of my body slams into an landscape of even larger rocks. Thankfully, I didn't hit my head but that's the only good thing.

"Julia?" Duke calls warily. "You okay?"

It takes two short, sharp breaths before I can choke out, "No."

"Really, Duke?" Nathan spits out. "She's not okay, and you're not going to help her?"

"I'd say she's a big girl, but she's...well...tiny."

There's more bickering; Nathan is really angry, but I don't really pay attention because I'm trying to pick myself up. There's a shadow over my shoulder suddenly, just as I've levered myself up enough to see blood on the rock.

"DUKE, NO!"

The shadow retreats.

"Audrey," I whimper, "I need your help."

Tense silence. "How can I help?"

"Band-aids. In my fanny pack."

Hands fumble at my waist. Then there's a zip and paper rustling. "How many of these did you bring?" she asks in baffled awe.

I don't bother answering. "My shoulder," I tell her, hissing as I pull the sleeve up. "Bandage anything that looks like it might bleed." My left hand fared better; just some bruising.

Nathan comes forward to help peel the plastic strips out of their paper wrappers and smooth them over my right wrist, the side of my knee, and my calf. Finally they agree that everything's safely covered, and I nod jerkily. Duke practically knocks Nathan out of the way rushing to my side, long fingers smoothing hair away from my face so he can kiss it frantically, arms wrapping around me to both reassure himself that I'm in one piece and lift me to my feet. My left foot bears my weight without a problem, but I can't bite back the sharp cry when my right touches the ground.

"Is it broken?" Audrey asks worriedly.

"Doesn't matter." Duke turns carefully, still supporting me but urging me onto his back. "Her boot will keep it in place until we get back to the campsite." Once my arms are securely around his neck he reaches back to grab my thighs and stands carefully. "Let's go."

Nathan looks doubtful. "You're sure you can carry her back by yourself?"

"It's not like I'm carrying you. Kids in high school carry heavier backpacks."

"Duke..." Nathan takes a step forward, one hand half-reaching.

My mount shies away. "I've got her, Nathan. Hey, if he gets too close, kick him with your good leg," he says to me, turning his head slightly, but it hurts too much to respond past holding him a little tighter.

The rest of the trip back is quiet and tense. Every step jostles my right ankle, leaving me whimpering into Duke's hair, and I don't even bother trying to watch where we're going. A few times I feel Audrey's hand on my arm or back as she helps him over something that wouldn't be an issue if he weren't carrying a hundred pounds of injured girlfriend. It's late afternoon before we get back to our chosen campsite on the deserted beach, and Audrey sprints ahead to unfold the wooden frame of a low beach chair and settle it into the sand for me.

Nathan blocks Duke's path. "Let me help her down," he says, grim and solid as New England granite.

After a tense moment, Duke nods and turns. I feel strong hands gripping me around the waist and unwrap my arms and legs, and Nathan lowers me to the sand. Between the two of them, they support nearly all my weight and set me lightly in the chair. Audrey tries to bat Duke's hands away from my boots but he bats back and she retreats with a semi-rhetorical "Do we have any ace bandages?"

"Check the first aid kit," I call back, hands so tight around the arms of the chair that my knuckles are white.

He freezes when he glances up and sees that, one hand abandoning my foot to gently pry my hand off and bring it to his lips for a kiss. "I'm sorry," he murmurs. "It's going to hurt."

"I know." The words barely make it out, but I squeeze his hand briefly. Then I close my eyes so I can't make it worse by anticipating the pain.

Soft crunching heralds Audrey coming back, and I wonder where her partner went. "Found the first aid kit. Let's see if - holy crap, how many bandages did you cram in here?"

"As many as I could?"

"Were you expecting to star in a slasher film?" she jokes, rifling through sterile paper packets until she does find the ubiquitous ace bandage buried in the corner.

Carefully, I reach out and touch Duke's hair. He looks up briefly, and I smile through the pain at how concerned he is for me. "I don't take chances."

"Boot's ready to come off," he said softly. "Ready?"

I brace myself, eyes closed, trying to keep my leg as loose as possible, and nod.

It hurts. A lot.

The ace bandage is already around my ankle by the time the pain fades enough for me to open my eyes, and Duke offers me an apologetic smile and two shots of whiskey in a plastic cup.

"I was going to save this for later tonight, but after that you deserve something nicer than cheap painkillers."

"Take two and call you in the morning?" I take a sip. It's the good stuff.

"Naw, I was just hoping to get you drunk enough that you'd let me take you to bed."

Another sip to hide my smile and I dust off my cowlgirl act. "Aw, shucks. Lil' ol' me? Y'all think Ah'm purty?"

Duke freezes, then shakes his head ruefully. "See, now, that's just cruel. Here I am being a gentleman and fetching you a drink so you can lounge in style while I set up our tent, and you gotta go and tease me like that."

"Are you going to take your shirt off?" I ask shamelessly, sipping to mask my grin.

He gives me a considering look. "Now, see, that depends. I'm already doing all the work. What do I get out of that?"

"I'll make it worth your while. You won't even need to get me drunk."

"But that's half the fun," he protests, leaning in to kiss me tenderly.

"Oh, fine. Have it your way." My voice is the opposite of grumpy.

He's grinning shamelessly as he stands. "You may regret that," he warns, but then he takes his shirt off and drops it on me. "Keep that out of the sand for me, will you?"

I finish my drink and writhe into his shirt. "No problem, Boss."

There isn't anything even remotely subtle about the way I ogle him as he and Nathan set up the tents and start the fire. Audrey sets up a second beach chair and joins me about halfway through.

“It’s really cute how much he cares about you,” she says quietly, sipping a beer she snitched from the drinks cooler. “Of course, you’re wearing his shirt, which is just adorable.”

Between being cushioned on the sand and the whiskey, my ankle’s content enough that I feel less like the tiny fragile girlfriend and more like the wickedest wench in the west. Duke’s shirt – and the lack of him wearing it – helps. Audrey’s right, of course, but that doesn’t mean I’m about to admit to anything. “So, how badly did I hurt myself?” I ask instead.

“Just a sprain,” she assures me, but her attention is on where Nathan is messing around the woodpile. “Nathan, you’re bleeding!”

Across the campsite, at the cooler full of meat and veggies, Duke stiffens.

“Put a band-aid on it!” I fish in my fanny pack, not sure where Audrey put the first-aid kit, and pull out two or three.

“It’s just a scratch,” he calls back after inspecting it. “I don’t need-”

Duke flinches.

“IT’S NOT FOR YOU,” I shout, suddenly furious. “PUT A BAND-AID ON IT.”

Nathan looks at me like a dog being shouted at, then over where his childhood antagonist-friend is almost cowering behind the lid of the cooler, and I can see him draw the line and connect the dots. “Audrey,” he says in that utterly unflappable tone he uses, “could you bring me a band-aid?”

She takes the few I’m holding and hands me the beer in exchange before hurrying over to seal the wound with waterproof plastic strips. Duke keeps his head down, fiddling with things in the cooler until Audrey reclaims her beer, and then reaches into the back of his truck for a tube of Pringles and a bottle of water.

“I figure we’ll start the grill a little later,” he says as he sits beside me, opening the can and offering it to me. “In the meantime, you could probably use a snack.”

I take a small stack and nibble one. “Did you want your shirt back, Boss?”

“Nah.” He grins, either at me or Audrey or both. “Looks better on you.”

I feed him a chip for that.

“That has got to be the weirdest pet name I’ve ever heard,” she remarks, gesturing for the tube.

Duke pouts, making like he’s going to protect the it with his body, but then hands it over.

“What pet name?” Nathan asks as he sits on Audrey’s other side, accepting a stack of Pringles before the can is passed back to Duke.

“She calls him Boss.”

Nathan looks at me. I look back, daring him to comment, and feed Duke another chip.

“I can see that,” he says noncommittally.

Audrey mock-glares at all of us equally. “Really? Am I really the only one who thinks it’s weird?”

“You wouldn’t if you’d grown up in Haven.”

She focuses her not-glare on Nathan. “Are you going to actually explain this time, or just not discuss it?”

Nathan looks at Duke, who is quite interested at the answer, then at me. My eyebrows go up as if to ask, What are you going to do? and I reach for the bottle of water.

It’s not open.

Before I can do more than look at the sealed cap, Duke’s taken it and twisted it open. I accept the now-capless bottle and take a drink. Strong, brown fingers twist the cap back on for me and I watch Nathan’s expression with undisguised amusement.

“I can’t,” he says finally. “It’s not mine to explain.”

“I’ve called him that since we were teenagers,” I say before Audrey can ask. A chip crunches between my teeth as I shrug. “It stuck.”

She looks back and forth between us, and Duke’s got an expression that means he knows there’s something I’m not telling but he’s not going to ask until we’re alone. “Okay, there’s more to it than that.”

“It was a bit of a scandal.” My hand tightens reassuringly around Duke’s. “Skinny little Carr girl, dark disreputable Crocker boy, town would’ve brought out torches and pitchforks if he’d ever so much as leered at me.”

Audrey leans back in surprise. “No!”

“Mother told me almost weekly that she’d cut his balls off with Grandma Carr’s antique pinking shears if he ever laid a hand on me.”

She looks around, but Nathan’s nodding in a grim lack of surprise and Duke’s wearing a self-depreciating smile. “No. Eleanor? No.”

“I can see it,” says Nathan blandly, making me shove my mouth full of chips before I burst out laughing.

“Duke?”

“I was a bad boy,” says with an unrepentant, roguish smile. Then he nods at me. “Except with her. Pitchfork allergy,” he adds solemnly. “That’s why I never became a farmer.”

Duke unscrews the water bottle again and hands it over at my gesture. “I kept the pinking shears,” I say once I’ve washed the chips down. “Just for laughs.”

Audrey laughs. Nathan looks strained. Duke looks like he really, really wants to know. I feed him a chip.

“Well,” he says after taking a drink of water. “Is it hot out here, or is it just the ladies? Come on, Nathan, give Audrey something to look at while I get the grill set up.”

She looks vaguely alarmed. “He’ll burn.”

“Then you’ll just have to help him put on sunscreen,” Duke says pleasantly.

Nathan blushes.