Blue Fire. A Gabriel Brown Alaskan Bush People story.

Chapter 4

Waking with a jolt, you felt the heavy arm lying across your chest and horrific memories of Brady flooded your mind.

"Nooo!" You shrieked and your heart slammed into your throat.

Flailing your arms wildly you struggled to throw him off, your breath coming in short gasps. Shoving hard on his chest, he was propelled away from you and off of the bed.

THUD!

"Ow!" The shout from the floor was familiar, but it wasn't Brady. Your mind finally registered where you were and your eyes flew open wide.

"Oh no! Gabriel, I'm sorry." You swung your head over the edge of the bed and peered down at him, lying flat on this back on the hard wooden floor.

"Uhhhhh." He groaned and held his hands folded over his chest like a dying man.

Slipping quickly from the bed, you landed yourself softly on top of Gabriel and pressed your head under his chin, praying he wasn't badly hurt. "I'm so sorry. I thought you were Brady."

"It's ok." He puffed and his arms slid around you gently and held you to him. "You were having a bad dream and I only got in with you to try to help." His lips moved in your hair and you felt a tingling in your scalp as he spoke. "I was going to get back out but you asked me to stay."

With your eyes closed, you felt Gabriel slowly moving his hands up and down your back with a calmness and a softness you had long craved from a man. You finally remembered your dream of the night before and you remembered waking up with a scream in the small room. You even remembered Gabriel leaping from his place on the floor to reach out and shake the least personal place on your body – your feet. When your tortured brain had recognized him, tears had flooded your eyes and you had called out to him in the dark.
"Help me. Please."

After pushing poor Gabriel from the bed in your panic, you hadn't felt anything odd about how you now lay on his chest except the desire to make sure he was alright. Using your body with Brady was always the way you could calm down his anger so you instinctively did the same with Gabriel.

"Are you ok?" You asked without raising your head.

"Uhhhhh." He groaned again and you felt his chest begin to heave with his laughter.

Knowing he was ok and just messing with you, you slapped him lightly on the chest and rolled off to lie beside him on the floor. Glancing back at him you were struck with how handsome he was when he laughed. But your mind shut down any thoughts like that even before they were fully formed. You couldn't let yourself think that way.

"Thanks for rescuing me from the bad dream." You smiled and caught his eye.

"No problem." He grinned. "Except for this broken back I'll be just fine."

He completely deserved the next slap that you gave him.

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Brown Town was busier than a bustling city. Everywhere you looked there was someone building something or hauling something or burning something. Sitting on the log bench in front of the fire, it made you tired watching them.

Five minutes later – or it could have been three hours later, you saw Gabriel walking toward you and you stood up, waving. Time seemed to have no real meaning in Brown Town. It was so different from any place you had ever been and your heart ached knowing you would soon have to leave.

Swaying slightly on your feet, you blinked, confused as a swarm of black gnats suddenly rushed toward your face. You swatted at them and wondered why they didn't move away. Before you could wonder anymore about the strange pests, you swayed once more from front to back and then tipped backward, falling heavily over the log bench, your vision snapping to black in an instant.