Ice (15 page)

“Alex, why did you let me use the alcohol if we had that?” Maggie said, her Scottish accent becoming very pronounced as her temper flared.

Shrugging her shoulders, Alex looked up. “There isn’t enough for both of us, and after what you’ve been through, there’s no way in hell I was going to use the other stuff on you. That shit really stings and I…I couldn’t do that to you.”

Unsure whether to thank Alex for her concern or scream at her for her stubbornness, Maggie remained silent. Taking a few deep breaths to curb her temper, she thought about the woman whom she had once described as hard and coarse. Maggie already knew that Alex had saved her life, and it was now more than obvious that she had done it while totally disregarding her own pain. Watching as Alex worked on redressing the wound, Maggie asked, “Have you always been gay?”

Laughing out loud, Alex said, “No. One morning I woke up…took a pill, and wham – I was gay!”

Chuckling at the stupidity of her own question, Maggie regrouped. “What I meant to say was, have you never been with…um…have you never been
interested
in men?”

“No, to
both
of your questions.”

“Why not?”

“Because I’m a lesbian,” Alex emphasized lightheartedly.

Smiling, Maggie said, “But how do you know? I mean, if you’ve never… um…if you’ve never
been
with a man, how can you be so sure?”

“Are you sure?”

“What?”

“I’m assuming that you’ve never been with a woman – yes?”

“Of course not!” Maggie blurted, immediately blushing at her quick response.

“Then how do you know you wouldn’t like it?”

“That’s not the same thing.”

“No? Do tell,” Alex said with mock surprise.

Her foot now firmly placed in her mouth, Maggie struggled to find a response. “I guess all I’m saying is that women are normally attracted to men, not other women.”

“So being a lesbian is not
normal
?”

“I didn’t say that.”

“It sounded like it to me.”

“That’s not what I meant,” Maggie said with a sigh, well aware that she was making a total tit of herself. “Alex, I don’t have a problem with you being gay or anyone being gay. It’s just that when I became old enough to date, girls dated boys, not other girls.”

“Oh, so you succumbed to peer pressure, did you?”

Pleased to hear the hint of amusement in Alex’s voice, Maggie grinned. “Maybe I did, who knows, but as far back as I can remember, I’ve only ever thought about men in that way.”

“That makes one of us.”

“But why?”

“I believe I just answered that.”

“No, I mean, why do you find men so offensive?”

“I never said I found them offensive,” Alex said with a chuckle. “I don’t see them as beasts or anything like that; I just don’t want them in my bed. I prefer someone a bit softer and with far less hair. I like curves and swells." Unable to resist, Alex quickly glanced at Maggie’s chest and when she raised her eyes to see Maggie’s wide-eyed look of shock, Alex added in a sultry tone, “And some of them are nothing less than perfect.”

“Are you flirting again?”

Maggie’s words took a moment to sink in and when they did, Alex’s shoulders fell. With a groan, she asked, “Please tell me that I wasn’t hitting on you when I was drunk?”

"You did, but just a little, and I’ve never been hit on by a woman before, so it was interesting.”

“Is it that different from when a man does it?”

“Actually, no it wasn’t.”

“Can I ask what I said, or more importantly, what I
did
?” Alex said cautiously.

Amused by the worried look on Alex’s face, Maggie said, “Nothing too terrible. I just said that I was straight, and you said that you could
bend
me, if given the chance.”

“Oh, Christ,” Alex moaned, a blush creeping across her cheeks. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay. I’m sure it was just the alcohol speaking – yes?”

“Well, I definitely don’t make a habit of hitting on straight women,” Alex said as she finished with the bandages and lowered Maggie’s shirt. “All better. It opened up a bit, but it looks okay. Just don’t do anymore heavy lifting, and you should be all right.”

Insisting that Maggie stay in bed, Alex made them dinner, and even though it was only chicken soup, they both agreed that it was the best they had ever tasted. Within minutes of finishing her dinner, Maggie rested her head on the pillow and fell asleep, and after quietly gathering the bowls, Alex crept from the room.

Having not yet discussed the sleeping arrangements, Alex was relieved that Maggie had fallen asleep before the subject came up. Returning to the sofa, she stretched out across the cushions and sighed. It was happening again.

Most of her department thought that she disliked Maggie Campbell because of her penchant for strictly following the rules, but that was far from the truth. Alex had worked with several partners over the years, and all had different views on how to perform their job. She had worked with men and women, and she had worked with good cops and bad, but she had never worked with anyone as beautiful as Maggie Campbell, and it turned her head around. She couldn’t keep her eyes off the attractive Scottish woman with the lyrical accent and the hazel-green eyes. She noticed every detail about her: how she drank her tea, how she unconsciously tucked her auburn hair behind her ear, how she walked, and even how she smelled. The simple fact of the matter was whenever Maggie was around Alex found it impossible to control her hormones. It infuriated her then, and it infuriated her now. The woman was not her type, the woman normally wouldn’t give her the time of day,
and
the woman was straight.

As she lay there staring at the fire, Alex ran her fingers through her hair and let out another long breath. It had taken three years to get Maggie Campbell out of her head
and
out of her dreams, but she knew when sleep finally came, Maggie would appear once again.

***

Hearing a log being dropped on the fire, Alex opened one eye and saw Maggie leaning over the hearth.

“I told you,
no
heavy lifting,” she mumbled sleepily.

Turning, Maggie smiled. “It was a small log, I swear. How’s your leg?”

“It’s fine,” Alex said as she rolled to her side, but the pain etched on her face was telling different story. Noticing the first-aid kit on the coffee table, Alex paled. “Why’s that there?”

“Because you and I both know that the bandages need to be changed.”

“Can I at least use the loo and get some bloody coffee first?” Alex grumbled. Standing, she limped to the bathroom with a scowl on her face.

Sleep had eluded Alex for most of the night. Unable to stop her mind from conjuring up images of Maggie in positions mostly of the horizontal variety, she had tossed and turned on the sofa for hours. Finally, well after midnight, she had fallen asleep only to be awoken less than an hour later by a dull throbbing in her leg. Numbing it with the help of some scotch, she drifted off to sleep, knowing that when she awoke, Maggie would mostly likely have to drain out what remained of the infection.

Alex’s mood had not improved by the time she walked from the bathroom. With sweatpants in hand, she shuffled to the kitchen with a frown on her face. Taking the cup of coffee Maggie was offering her, Alex quietly said, “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome,” Maggie said, eyeing the woman suspiciously. “Are you okay?”

“Just peachy,” Alex said flatly, placing the cup on the counter. “Let’s get this over with, shall we?”

Without saying another word, Alex limped to the lounge, and lying across the sofa, waited dutifully to be told what she already knew.

Although curious as to why Alex had woken up on the wrong side of the couch, Maggie knew what it was like to suffer through morning doldrums. After spending months waking up alongside Glenn Shaw, climbing out of bed with a frown on her face had been a daily occurrence. However, remembering that Glenn was no longer sleeping in her bed brought a smile to Maggie’s face, and cheerily she padded into the lounge and sat down opposite her crabby patient.

Carefully cutting away the bandage on Alex’s thigh, the smile on Maggie’s face disappeared. The gash was red and swollen again. Leaning closer, when Maggie saw a small pocket of pus just under the skin, her heart sank. “Shit.”

“It’s still infected,” Alex said matter-of-factly.

“You knew?”

“Yeah, it bothered me most of the night.”

“Why the hell didn’t you say something?”

“You were asleep, and I figured that it could wait.”

Holding on to her temper, Maggie looked at the wound again. “Alex, I’m sorry, but we’re going to have to use more compresses to get the rest of this infection out.”

“More alcohol, too, I suppose,” Alex said with a heavy sigh.

“I can use the cream—”

“No! That’s for you.”

“Alex—”

“Maggie, just heat the bloody water!”

During the time it had taken her to apply and re-apply several hot washcloths to the back of Alex’s leg, Maggie had both pleaded and threatened Alex, trying her best to make her reveal the location of the antiseptic cream, but Alex remained stubbornly mute. Reduced to cleaning the wound with isopropyl alcohol again, while the cut was no longer gaping, the astringent’s sting was still as strong.

***

Worn out from the pain of having the wound drained again, Alex fell asleep shortly after having a small breakfast of tea and canned fruit, and with nothing but time on her hands, Maggie decided to investigate the larder. Oil lamp in hand, she descended the ladder and her eyes opened wide at the sight of the shelves stocked with food. For the next hour, she happily read every package of the freeze-dried assortment, and convinced more than ever that they could easily last until spring if need be, she was about to return upstairs when she noticed a variety of toiletries on a shelf. Grabbing a few, she made her way up the ladder, and quietly closing the bathroom door behind her, she sat on the edge of the tub and stared down at the water that was once snow.

Removing a small piece of gauze still floating in the tub, she reached in, pulled the plug, and watched as the dirty water circled down the drain. While she had never used one herself, she was familiar with the concept of pitcher pumps, so grabbing hold of the cast-iron handle attached to the tub, Maggie began working the pump. After ten minutes, she was about to give up when she heard a gurgle, followed by a belch of air, and with one more push of the handle, a gush of rusty water spewed into the tub.

Smiling at her success, Maggie continued until the water ran clear, and replacing the drain plug, filled the tub with several inches of cold, clean water. Quietly returning to the front room to retrieve the cast-iron kettle hanging over the fire, Maggie dumped the heated water into the bathtub and then left the room in search of clean clothes. Returning a few minutes later, she quickly stripped and immersed herself into the lukewarm water, and while it was far from the temperature she preferred, it was still a bath, and it felt bloody marvelous.

Maggie loved long baths. She adored soaking in a tub filled with steaming water and overflowing with bubbles that would quietly pop and snap as they disappeared, but tepid water makes for a quick bath. Less than ten minutes later, as a shiver ran down her spine, Maggie hastily climbed out of the tub and looked around for her towel…and then she looked again.

Tickled by her own stupidity, Maggie began to giggle. “Oh, you’ve got to be kidding,” she said, glancing around the room for the third time. More concerned with returning to the tub before the water had cooled, than thinking through her list of things to bring, she had remembered clean clothes, shampoo and even a razor, but a towel apparently had slipped her mind. Soaking wet and covered in goose bumps, when she saw the closet in the corner, she rushed over and opened the door. Grinning as she spied a towel on the top shelf, she quickly pulled it down and when she did, her grin transformed into a wide smile. Out of the folds fell the tube of antibiotic cream which Alex had been hiding from her.

Feeling more human than she had in quite a while, Maggie took her time getting dressed, adoring the feel of the clean clothes on her skin and the fact her hair was shining and knot-free. It wasn’t until it came time to remove the soggy bandage still taped to her side, when she hesitated for a moment. Having never seen the wound before, Maggie held her breath as she carefully removed the tape, and then let it out just as quickly, seeing that the cut was almost entirely healed over. Deciding that it no longer needed a bandage, she dabbed a bit of cream over the thin, red welt and buttoned her shirt. Gathering her dirty clothes, she went to the kitchen, dropped them on the floor and then crept to the hearth. Without giving it a second thought, she tossed the soggy bandage into the fire.

The immediate hiss from the waterlogged gauze caused Alex to stir, and taking a long, deep breath, she rolled to her side and opened her eyes. As Maggie came into focus, Alex noticed her wet hair and immediately went ballistic.

“
What the fuck do you think you’re doing
!” she yelled, struggling to sit up.

Startled by the unprovoked outburst, Maggie asked, “What?”

“Are you insane?” Alex shouted. “You just got over having a fever that almost
killed
you, and you went
outside
! Are you crazy?”

Chuckling at the assumption, Maggie grinned and calmly explained, “I didn’t go outside. I took a bath.”

“What?”

“I took a bath.”

“You took a bath?”

“Yes.”

“In that freezing, dirty water…you took a bath?”

“No, I took one in clean, semi-warm water, and I highly recommend that you do the same.”

“I’m confused,” Alex sighed, running her fingers through her hair.

“I got the pump to work.”

“You got the pump to work?”

Laughing out loud, Maggie said, “This is going to be a very boring co-existence if you keep repeating everything I say.”

Taking a deep breath, Alex relaxed against the sofa and stared at the woman smiling back at her. “Sorry, I guess I’m still a bit fuzzy, but a bath sounds really nice.”