psl: jamie (past scotland)

[electro_kinetic]

She'd gone back, through the stones this time, to a place she hoped had changed enough for her to live, and stayed the same enough for Jamie to like it still. It was weird, the sensation of traveling that way was like nothing she'd ever experienced before: it was like feeling the whole of your body squished like a toothpaste tube, and then nothing. And then waking up in the same place, but wildly different.

When she lifted her head, she didn't see Jamie anywhere, and wondered if the things had to recharge or something. But it hadn't happened when she'd taken him back with her to New York for all those months. Still, she had clutched the backpack with the clothes she'd gotten to help her blend in (help, not insure, to Jamie's chagrin she still hated wearing stays) and...maybe she'd have to wait outside the ring? Neither of them were really read up on how these things worked.

But half an hour turned to an hour and then two, then three, and the sun was going down before Jamie came through.

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[hatesredcoats]

Jamie had been looking around the stones, taking in the ring as he tried to figure out what the best course of action was. He had stopped watching Nori, for the moment, and that was his downfall.

Turning back to her, he watched her get closer. "Nori... Nori no, wait."

And then she was gone. Jamie frowned. He was going to suggest she get changed first. And he had a map he was going to pull out. He'd had a plan, damnit.

Growling, he moved over to the stones and touched them as well. The wind whistled and he felt the world spinning around him, before he landed in a heap on the ground. Pulling himself to his feet, he brushed off his knees and adjusted his kilt.

His eyes narrowed. It was dark. "Nori?" His hand gripped his sword and he pulled it out of the scabbard, looking left and right. "Nori?!"

[electro_kinetic]

Being in the dark had never been a source of fright for Noriko: she could expend light whenever she wanted to, assuming she wasn't passed out. And she'd had the good sense to change clothes before she started off in what she thought was the direction for the castle. It would be a place to stay out of the weather, at the very least, and hopefully she'd find Jamie somewhere.

The forest only made things somewhat slower going: she wasn't as familiar with these paths and trails as she had been with the roads they'd taken to get to the stone circle, which were different.

Fewer English deserters trying to prey on whoever came across them, for one. She spotted the movement through the trees, but the colors were hard to see and she didn't want to risk them shooting her on sight believing she was a witch. Noriko wasn't that stupid, whatever Jamie liked to tease her with. The first one was easy to take down: a few hundred volts had him basically stunned, and he wasn't going to get up anytime soon. But the second of the pair was faster than she anticipated, and caught her good over one eye when she didn't duck in time. She traded blows, dodging around the man, until a shot went off behind her--thankfully missing her and the musket ball burying itself harmlessly in a tree--with a noise that broke the silence of the night like shattering glass.

[hatesredcoats]

Jamie had been trying to track her. At night, in the dark, it wasn't that easy, but he didn't want to rest and put more ground between them. He knew she was stubborn enough that she would keep going.

Shaking his head, he grumbled about her as he moved, muttering something about impatient witches.

The gunshot sound echoed around him and Jamie froze. "No," he cried out, running in the direction of it. If something happened to her, if she was hurt in any way, he would never forgive himself. Finding medical attention out here, in the dark and the middle of nowhere would not be easy.

It wasn't long before Jamie caught up to her. Running up from behind, he bashed the man in the back of the head with the hilt of his sword. "Nori," he cried out, ducking just in time to miss another man trying to hit him. Jamie moved fast, swinging his arm to one side, then the other, finally catching him on his shoulder with the sword. More fighting, more give and take, before Jamie finally ran him through.

"Nori, are you hurt?"

[electro_kinetic]

Nori had gone down on her butt when Jamie had arrived--yay, cavalry--and pushed her aside in his hurry to get to the two English officers. And for once in her life she stayed down, cradling her head against any heavy boots that decided to come near, only uncurling when she heard Jamie ask about her.

"I'm gonna have a hell of a headache in the morning," she muttered, getting up and dusting herself off. "One of them had a great right hook. He punched me in the face." And now her face was hurting, a lot. The cool from the metal of her gauntlets helped, but not enough.

[hatesredcoats]

Jamie frowned. "Can't leave you alone for a bloody minute," he muttered. "Can't follow the plan. Can't stay together. Noooo, you have to go explorin' the place." Shaking his head, he grabbed her by the hand and yanked her away before the men started to decided they needed to follow.

"We'll need to get ya somethin' cool, but first we need to make camp. Somewhere with a good visual." He pulled up to higher ground, moving among the trees slowly. "I'll set up a fire and then I'll take the first watch." He gazed over at her in the dark, daring her to argue with him.

"I'm glad you're okay."

[electro_kinetic]

"You didn't tell me there was a plan in the first place!" she shot back, just as much of a hothead as he was. "And I'm not the one who decided to take their own sweet time going through." She didn't pull away from Jamie as they walked, though, and once he decided to stop and try and make camp she just rolled her eyes.

But she didn't argue. For once.

"I'm glad you found me," she said in reply, setting down the backpack that had the rest of her clothes, modern and not, and a few staple supplies. She had had no idea exactly where the stones were going to put them out: the last time she'd done any time-traveling locations were kind of iffy. "Here. I brought a matchbook."

[hatesredcoats]

Jamie grumbled. Yes, he had told her about the plan, wondering if she ever listened to him at all. "Do not give me that. I stepped through right after you. Time works differently through the stones. Aye, I told you that." He sighed, shaking his head. He had jumped through the minute he noticed she had gone. The stones were the one who delayed him, not him.

Taking the matchbook from her, he nodded his head in thanks and started to build a fire with kindling. He'd made sure to pick an area that had enough around them that he could make a small one. He didn't want too much light in the dark.

"I'm glad I found ye too, lass." He looked over at her. "Don't... Just don't wander off, please. This world is different than back home, remember that."

[electro_kinetic]

"I'm not going to go haring off without you without a good reason, Jamie," she said. "I agreed to come back with you knowing what this world meant." But he'd been palpably unhappy in New York, and Noriko couldn't ignore that.

She leaned against him in a way that kept them both more or less upright; she was smaller than him but had enough bulk to keep him from toppling her over. It meant she could rest while he paid attention to the woods around them for a while. "But you know I can take care of myself in a fistfight." He'd had the experience of seeing her in a scuffle before they came through the stones, though it hadn't lasted long. She'd come unmarked out of that one, and though she black eye would hurt it certainly wasn't the worst injury she'd ever sustained. It would heal alright.

"Sure you're okay taking first watch?"

[hatesredcoats]

"I'm glad." He nodded his head and looked down at her. While she said she understood, he didn't think she did. Not really. Little things, like skirts and other issues, were things she would not easily put aside. And if she didn't, she would stick out.

Jamie wrapped an arm around her and pulled her close. "This isn't back home, Nori. Not saying you can't take care of yourself, but keep thought to what's happening around you if you do." He sighed. She wouldn't listen until something happened and she was accused of witchcraft or worse.

And he'd die for her if he had to.

"I don't mind. Get some rest. We'll move in the morning."

[electro_kinetic]

Noriko shifted closer to Jamie and let her head rest on his shoulder; she could and would pick her battles as it pertained to her safety, certainly. But she didn't intend for a moment to acquiesce to something stupid that would impede her being useful and productive, especially if there was no good reason for the rule. That Jamie seemed to think she was somehow foolish or unthinking for that stung a little, but there as no benefit arguing with him right now about it.

The woods in the middle of the night without knowing where exactly they were was not a place to entertain any argument, as far as she cared. Not until something was an actual threat to them. "Don't worry so much," she murmured, reaching to link her fingers with his and press a kiss to the back of his hand. She didn't need to sleep, specifically, but resting and letting her body reabsorb the rush of adrenaline would help, so she kept quiet and still as much as she was able, listening to him breathing and the dull rustling of leaves and underbrush that never quieted.

Morning came soon enough and by the hours nearest dawn Noriko had managed a few snatches of sleep, waking quietly and stock-still until she oriented herself. They weren't in New York in Central Park, this was an entirely different landscape. And a different feel from the earth too, the way the electromagnetic pulse hummed and changed from place to place. "Jamie. Are you awake?"

[hatesredcoats]

While she rested, Jamie stayed awake. He needed rest as well, but he would get it when they get back to his home. He kept his arm around her, hoping to keep her warm. At least this time of the year, it wasn't that cold yet. Soon, it would be getting even colder still.

He stayed awake, staring into the fire and listening to the forest around them. His shoulders tensed as he listened for each little snap of twig. Unless it was a big noise, he chalked it up to an animal, but he had to be on his guard for both of them.

The night was quiet, slowly slipping into the dawn. He could tell when she was starting to wake up, feeling her body move against him. He was awake, but barely, exhaustion almost overtaking him. "Yes, lass, aye. How ya faring?" Glancing down at her, he leaned in to kiss the top of her head.

[electro_kinetic]

"Alive, awake," she said, reaching up to gently prod the extent of the bruise around her eye. "Little sore. But I'm fine short of looking like someone hit me." With luck, no one would think it was Jamie's handiwork, though if they did Noriko was more than capable of dissuading them.

She rolled her shoulders and sat up fully, tolerating the kiss to her head with a little half-smile. "You should have told me when you needed to sleep," Nori chided gently, brushing the leaves and such out of his hair that neither of them had paid attention to the night previous.