Re: Say the Words - ch.38 -- The Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman Fan Exchange

[ Show ]

Support VoyForums

[ Shrink ]

VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, 2, 3, [4], 5, 6 ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 07:49:45 03/26/03 Wed
Author: dqfan
Subject: Re: Say the Words - ch.38
In reply to: dqfan 's message, "Re: Say the Words - ch.37" on 07:46:12 03/26/03 Wed

CHAPTER THIRTY EIGHT

The mountain air was fresh and the expanse of green grass and rugged cliffs unfolded breathtakingly against the clear Canadian sky. The view was rendered all the more stunning by the unseasonable warmth of that early April day.

"This is still one of my favorite places to jump," Sophie rhapsodized sentimentally from the back of Peter's motorcycle. Carefully, Peter parked the bike in almost the exact same spot he had two years ago.

"As long as I jump outdoors this time," Peter grouched, lifting their picnic basket from the rear storage compartment.

"If it weren't for my cast, I'd jump with you." Sophie was counting the days now until she was rid of the unflattering, uncomfortable, and undeniably cumbersome appendage.

"We could tandem," she commented with a wry smile.

"Tandem?" Peter was curious.

"Another training exercise," Sophie explained. "The student 'docks on' - attaches to the front of the instructor - and they both descend under a single large parachute."

"Which swallows them up whole and they live happily ever after�" Peter finished his fairy tale version of Sophie's definition.

"I promise that won't happen again," Sophie laughed at Peter's wounded pride.

"There's plenty of room out here so you'll be able to keep the chute behind as you land," she reassured him.

Peter observed the tall precipice and sighed. "Plenty of room to fall, too," he noted nervously.

"Peter, you don't have to do this, you know," Sophie felt a sudden pang of guilt that Peter might be forcing himself to enjoy the sport just for her.

"No, no, I want to, Soph, really," he nodded, still glancing warily at the massive rock above.

Peter thrived on challenges but this was a big one, even for him. He was used to heights...he was used to man against nature. But somehow, man against thin air rattled him more than he expected when he volunteered for Alexander's temporary crew assignment.

The warehouse jump had been easy, a safe landing guaranteed. Out here, everything was different. There were trees and jagged edges, clouds and open sky, and, finally, nothing but the hard ground on which to land. Peter took a deep breath and a painful gulp as he imagined himself falling from such a distance.

Falling�. Maybe that was it? Maybe it was the sensation of falling that most frightened him? To fall was to lose control and losing control was something Peter knew far too much about. The alcohol, the drugs - they were all symptoms of his lost control. Could he disassociate himself from that connotation? Could he truly embrace and enjoy the sensation? Peter was about to find out.

With a determined look in his eye, Peter gave Sophie a quick, but passion-filled kiss. Then, before he could change his mind, Peter broke away, turning toward his bike.

"See you soon�" he promised, as much for his own benefit as Sophie's.

Sophie waved and smiled brightly, refusing to let him see her worry as she optimistically began setting up their celebratory picnic lunch.

Sophie had brought the works� Red checkered tablecloth, fried chicken, potato salad and chocolate chip cookies - nice and gooey on the inside - just the way Peter liked them. Busily, she tried to keep her mind off her nerves. But, in less than ten minutes, she heard it - the sound of Peter's horn from above, signaling his readiness to jump. Sophie held her breath and waited, praying she had taught him well.

Peter was everything he had boasted to Alexander - athletic, fit, conscientious and a good student. But he was also human and, even though she couldn't even see him, Sophie could feel Peter's heart pounding right now - just as strongly as she felt her own.

Had it really been two years since she parachuted into his arms in this very spot? They had come so far, yet Sophie knew their biggest challenge still loomed ahead. Marriage... No amount of training could prepare either of them for that. It would be a leap of faith higher than the highest parachute jump.

Sophie's eyes were peeled to the sky. She could barely see anything and then, suddenly, she saw him - arms outstretched, perfect form - Peter was freefalling toward her. Seconds later, his parachute unfurled perfectly and Sophie finally allowed herself to exhale. A huge grin spread across her face as she watched Peter descend and land at running speed, the chute billowing out behind him. The look of amazement and relief on his face was palpable as Sophie raced towards him, throwing her arms around his neck.

"You did it!" she exclaimed, covering his face in a thousand tiny little kisses.

"Wow�" Peter replied, still stunned by the experience.

"I knew you could�" Sophie's voice filled with pride and relief, though her praise was muffled slightly by her continued affectionate congratulations.

But, oddly enough, Peter wasn't responding to Sophie's kisses. He was much too busy trying to recapture and memorize each second, each sensation, of his first real freefall.

Initially a terrifying threat to his need for control, it had been an incredible experience to feel that free, that helpless, that open to the moment. In a bolt of unexpected enlightenment, the comparison dawned on him. The only time Peter allowed himself to feel those emotions - ever - was when he was loving Sophie. With Sophie everything seemed possible. She had given him that gift and it was one he would honor and cherish for the rest of his life.

A faraway look overtook him and Peter chuckled slightly in awe. Where had he heard that before? The familiar phrase popped into Peter's head with the overpowering force of a Mack truck. "To love, honor and cherish 'til death do us part�" Suddenly Peter became cognizant of what his subconscious had just revealed to him. Peter's heart had spoken his marriage vows even before his lips could say the words.

"Hello�anybody home?" Sophie asked playfully, waving her hand back and forth in front of Peter. He had the strangest, softest, smile on his face Sophie had ever seen.

"What's so funny?" she wondered as she gently traced his smile with her fingertips.

"Nuthin'�" Peter grinned, snapping out of his revelry to wrap his arm protectively around Sophie. "I just love you�"

Sophie was both surprised and touched by Peter's impulsive confession. Although she wasn't sure exactly why Peter's first parachute jump had elicited such a powerful sense of fulfillment in him; nevertheless, Sophie knew better than to ask her Mountain Man to divulge all his secrets.

"I love you, too," Sophie settled upon a simple, honest statement of fact.

"Hungry?" Cheerfully, she helped Peter off with his parachute.

"Starved�" he winked mischievously, stealing a kiss for his first course.

^^^^^^^^^^

The sun felt warm on Peter's face as he lay contentedly with his head in Sophie's lap, looking up at the sky and the cliff from which he'd made his quite miraculous debut - to him at least - into the sport of skydiving.

A sizeable stack of chicken bones was piled beside them, along with a few leftover bites of potato salad, still in the container.

Leaning back against the tree that supported her, Sophie absent-mindedly took note of the shape and size of each cloud passing by.

"I could stay here all day�" she mused dreamily, stroking Peter's hairline, across his forehead and around his ears.

"No can do, Sweetheart�" Peter reminded her, "I still have to hike back up and get my bike, and then it's back to the warehouse to stow our gear."

"Besides�" Peter brushed a blade of grass accusingly back and forth across Sophie's chin. "I am NOT earning any more demerits in your father's eyes today�"

"Oh, he loves you," Sophie laughed, feeding Peter a bite of chocolate chip cookie, which he snatched eagerly with his teeth.

"He thinks all I wanna do is make out with his daughter," Peter grumbled with his mouth full.

"He's waiting for you to make an honest woman out of me," Sophie teased, pulling back a second bite of cookie in mock-offense.

In reply, Peter lifted himself up and held her outstretched wrist, ignoring the cookie in favor of a long, lingering kiss. "Soon�very, very soon," he answered huskily.

"He really does like you, you know," Sophie smiled and urged Peter to nestle into her, the back of his head resting against her chest.

"I like him, too," Peter confided thoughtfully, gazing at the sky from which he'd just fallen. "He seems a little preoccupied, today, though."

"I know�He can get like that sometimes before a big jump�It used to frighten me," Sophie explained, remembering what it was like when she was a child. Alexander would stay outside in the backyard for hours the day before a jump, just staring into space, and no amount of cajoling from his favorite little girl could prompt him to play.

"He'll feel better when his squadron gets here. I'm sure of it," Sophie leaned her head comfortably atop Peter's.

"Thank you for caring about him," she added with a gentle kiss to Peter's forehead.

Sighing blissfully, Sophie took a look around the magnificient landscape.

"The view here is almost as good as the one from the homestead front porch," she reminisced fondly.

Though at times it seemed like a dream to Sophie that they had even been there at all, she thought of the homestead often and harbored precious hopes that someday she and Peter could return. Sometimes she even made plans in her mind.

"I was thinking maybe we could put a swing on the giant oak this summer," she daydreamed out loud.

The more Sophie spoke of the homestead, the more Peter wanted her. How he longed to recapture their time there.

"Come home, Soph," Peter blurted unexpectedly, looking up into her eyes. "I miss you so much."

The need in Peter's voice was almost more than Sophie could refuse. "I miss you, too, Peter�but, Michaela�"

"Michaela, Shmaela, Soph," Peter scoffed with a small shake of his head.

Unswayed and unappreciative of his grandmother's counsel, he reminded her emphatically, "We're not them and they're not us."

"But we can learn from them," Sophie countered, hoping to make him see her reasoning. "Trust�patience�"

"Anticipation�" she added seductively, hoping it would help ease the pain for both of them.

"I just really think we should wait. It's not that much longer," she soothed gently.

"Besides, Gracie needs me," Sophie was enjoying teasing him now. "I have to help her through the trauma of being used by an older man."

"Which reminds me�" Breezily, Sophie continued, before Peter could object to her harsh depiction of his partnership with the little girl, "I'm waiting�"

"Waiting?" Peter decided to play hard-to-get and pretended not to know what she was talking about.

"For what, exactly?" his blue eyes held hers provocatively. After all, he was being forced to endure his fair share of waiting these days, too.

"For my present." Anxiously, Sophie sat up totally straight against the tree. Her shift in position jolted Peter's head unceremoniously from its cushy spot against her breast.

"Present?" Though startled, Peter was quick enough to continue the charade.

"Peter," Sophie's voice was growing more demanding. "I am still missing Athena and Chuang-Mu. I would like them returned, please."

"They will be�." He riddled with a smirk. "When the time is right�"

Already prepared for Sophie's protest, Peter cut her off at the pass, jumping up and concluding their picnic as he readied for his hike back up the cliff to retrieve their transportation. Leaving her temporarily, Peter couldn't resist using Sophie's own words in rebuttal.

With a quick kiss goodbye, he reminded her slyly, "Patience, remember�"

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Replies:

Re: Say the Words - ch.39 -- dqfan, 07:53:38 03/26/03 Wed
- Re: Say the Words - ch.40 -- dqfan, 07:57:55 03/26/03 Wed