Holly sat between the thick stalks, her heartbeat picking up speed again when she heard Eddie call her name. Did she dare go back? After walking what felt like a long way through the dark field, she'd circled around, staying at the perimeter distance she'd set in a half-circle until she was behind the plane. Or she thought she was, anyway - it was impossible to tell in the dark. It was risky, she knew, but there was no way she could go farther in the soft loam. Her leg just wasn't up to it yet.

She had to warn Eddie about Sean. Be brave, she thought as she used her good leg and a corn plant to steady her as she rose. You can do this.

One step and then another, she moved in the direction of the shouts, emerging into the clearing to see the truck idling just under the nose of the plane, and Eddie jogging through the headlights, looking for something. Her, maybe. She started to call out, but stopped when a shadow slipped out of the darkness and into the cab.

Sean.

Holly watched helplessly as the engine revved and the truck started rolling toward Eddie, who jumped aside at the last minute before he would have been run down. She yelled then, but her words were drowned out by the loud motor as Sean floored the truck and drove off into the field. She strained to see in the dark, looking for Eddie near where he'd jumped, but he wasn't there. He'd been so close...why had he left the clearing?

The noise from the engine faded, and she decided to risk revealing her position. It was better than sitting in the dark by herself. Maybe Eddie was still within earshot.

"Eddie?" She hobbled to the slide and tried not to think about what would happen if he got hurt. "Eddie! Where are you?"

"Here."

She turned around, joy swelling at the sound of his voice from somewhere behind her. "Thank God. I thought you'd gone again."

He came striding out of the black night holding out his arms, and she went to him, throwing her arms around his neck as he pulled her tight against his chest.

"I'm so glad you're okay," he whispered in her ear as he held her tight. "Who was that in the plane? I thought it was you, but--"

"Sean," she said, pulling back slightly. "Sean survived, somehow, and he got free while I was waiting for you to come back. He got a gun when he went into the pantry, and I had to get away from him. I deflated the slide, but he came down anyways and I hid in the corn..." She stopped for a breath, and he pulled her close again. His strong arms around her were a haven, and while she knew they had to find a way home, she felt safe for the moment.

"What are we going to do now?" she asked, raising her head just enough to look up at him. He closed the distance between their lips and kissed her, slow and soft. It reminded her of that first night in the bar, when he'd kissed her merely to make a point. It all seemed so long ago, like another lifetime, really.

"I suppose," he said after one last kiss. "We should find a place to settle in for the night. You can't walk out on that leg, and with the truck gone, we're stuck until it's light at least. Once the sun comes up we'll figure something out." 

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Eddie followed the highway until he saw the blanket bundle he'd abandoned earlier. Turning onto the dirt road, he stopped long enough to retrieve his supplies and then continued into the corn field, the dim headlights illuminating only a few feet in front of him at a time. He knew he needed to turn off into the field soon, but the truck was old, and he wasn't confident that it would be able to navigate the soft topsoil while mowing down six foot stalks. At least he'd be driving with the rows, instead of across them.

Moving as slow as he dared, he watched the right shoulder for a shallow pitch into the field. When he found it, he turned the wheel sharply and guided the truck into the corn, hitting the gas hard enough to give it a push, but not so much it would dig the rear tires in. Still, his forward momentum slowed to nearly nothing, and he fought the urge to gun the engine, switching into a lower gear instead.

Slowly the vehicle inched forward, and he carefully gave it a little more gas, letting the tires shift until they found a path. Finally they settled between the rows where the dirt was slightly more compact, and he put his foot down, mowing down a two-row path through the corn.

The headlights were nearly useless, blocked by the crops, but a beam of light shining taller than the field caught his eye as it moved slowly back and forth. It had to be coming from the plane - it was too close to be another farm, and too low to be an aircraft in flight. But why would Holly be drawing attention to herself?

He pushed the truck as hard as he dared, watching as the light stopped moving briefly, and then plummeted to the ground.

"No," he whispered, pushing harder on the gas. "It couldn't have been her. She just dropped the light, is all. It wasn't her." He gripped the steering wheel tighter, all of his muscles contracting as he tried to convince himself that everything was okay.

But why had she been holding the light in the first place?

The trip felt like hours, though he knew it wasn't. When he finally saw the slide lit up in front of him and hanging limp directly below the hatch, he thought his heart would stop.

Leaving the engine running, he got out of the truck.

"Holly!" He ran to the slide, checking every side and covering as much ground as he could. "Holly? Holly, answer me! Where are you?"

He couldn't find her, but there was no answer from overhead either, and his pulse pounded with fear. Widening his circle, he peered as far as he could in the dark down each corn row, scanning the ground for footprints or anything that might give him a clue for where she was. Surely if she'd fallen, she'd be near the plane...it was a small piece of hope, but a motivating one.

On the tail side of the plane, he found scuff marks and smaller footprints in the soil, and he ran back toward the truck, positive they had to be hers. She couldn't have gone too far with her leg, but if she was moving across the rows rather than with them, it would make everything much harder.

He frowned as he got closer to the truck, thinking he must be more tired than he'd originally thought. It seemed like the headlights were moving toward him, but that couldn't be...or could it?
Thinking back, he remembered getting out of the truck, but leaving it running for the light. A quick pat of his pockets told him he didn't have the keys.

The engine revved, leaving no room for doubt. But if Holly had gone the other way...who was behind the wheel?

The truck was coming fast, and Eddie dove to the side, scrambling around the back-side of the slide just in time. Gaining his feet again, he sprinted toward the tail end of the plane and the rows where he'd seen Holly's footprints. He had to get to her before whoever was in that truck did.

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I've no idea why it had to be Dr. Quinn this time...except I was craving romance, and doing my nails, and decided to load up the pilot "for old time's sake" one Saturday night. I'm not going to tell you how many weeks it's been...I've been trying to overdose myself so I can move on, but sometimes you just have to go with it until it burns out, you know? 

Anyways...I realized something fairly early on - I never actually watched all six seasons of the show back when it was popular. As a matter of fact, I stopped fairly soon after the wedding episode. This was a "thing" with me in my younger years - I figured after the two main characters got married, the story was over. Nothing else to see here, move along to the next romance. Because what could possibly be romantic about being married? 

*Ahem* Yeah, I know. Needless to say, I hadn't gotten married yet.  

In any case, now that I've been married for quite a few years, I have a slightly different outlook on married life, and romance in general. And now that I've watched past the point of the wedding in Dr. Quinn and I'm watching episodes I missed out on before due to my general naivete, I'm wondering why there aren't more romance novels that deal with what happens *after* the happily ever after. 

Heck, for that matter, I'm wondering just why TV writers in general can't keep a storyline going after main characters decide they like each other on a weekly show. I mean, relationships are so layered, so complex, and yet so simple at their very core...there's plenty of area to explore and delve into from that first look all the way through the various stages that follow. Why doesn't romance encompass more of what it means to be in love long-term? 

I know for me, the romance didn't end when I got married - in fact, it's as strong now, if not stronger, than it ever was. Maybe that's not true for all couples, but in fiction, we can make it so. So why don't we? 

Needless to say, I have some new ideas percolating...

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She'd jumped too far out.

Time slowed, like in the movies as she felt gravity pulling her down, the slide's angle too steep for her momentum. Flailing, she stabbed desperately with the knife, knowing the only way to slow her fall was to penetrate the thick layer of rubber and create friction. Time was running out quick, and each stabbing motion brought her closer to the plastic material, but not close enough.

Swinging her arm out to the side, she pushed the serrated edge into the seam where the side bolsters met the bottom, and dragged it hard and pushed her other shoulder into the rubber bottom, finally anchored just as her feet hit the bottom barrier. She bounced back up, the uneven angle of the inflated side throwing her off balance as she was catapaulted out to land in the dirt ten yards away.

"Ow," she said, keeping her voice low and curling up into a fetal position. Every part of her body hurt, and as some of the initial hurt dulled, she forced herself to wiggle her toes and fingers. Satisfied that they were okay, she tested her larger joints. Luckily it didn't feel like she'd broken anything.

"You never were very graceful, were you Holly?"

Sean's voice floated at her from somewhere above. He hadn't left the plane yet. That meant there was still time, if she could find her way back to the slide in the dark.

Bright light swept over the ground just inches from her position. The damn flashlight. If she could just avoid it and get to the bolsters from behind, she might be able to do some damage. The plastic knife had gone flying when she'd bounced off the bottom edge, but something sharp was poking into her hip. Moving carefully, she rolled over and felt the ground with her fingers. The pointed edge of a small rock pressed into her palm, and she picked it up - a far more effective weapon than plastic utensils.

"Come out, come out, whereever you are!" Sean's taunt sent shivers down her back as the beam of light moved closer. He was sweeping the ground with it, going side to side in a steady motion, to his detriment. She waited until it reached the farthest point away from her, then pushed to her feet and ran toward the plane, using the point where the flashlight was for reference. Unable to see, her knees hit the end of the slide and she fell, unable to hold back a grunt of pain as she scrambled around to the other side. Bent over with her hands on her knees, she breathed for a moment, safe from the light, at least. Then she turned and jammed the pointed rock into one of the inflated edges as hard as she could and pulled down, relieved to hear a small ripping sound followed by the hiss of air escaping. She ran to the other edge and did the same thing, the slide already beginning to fall toward her.

Slipping the rock into her pocket just in case, she tried to remember which way Eddie had gone earlier. She had to hide - the deflated slide would only slow Sean down, not stop him. But if she went the wrong way, she could easily get lost in the corn field. The highway was a nearly straight shot from the center of the plane, but that would be too obvious. She took a few deep breaths, shoved the pain to the back of her mind and started walking as fast as she could in a straight line through the tall stalks under the plane's nose. 

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