Between a Bear and a Hard Place(26)

Hacking with laughter, Fury doubled over. He braced himself with his hands on his knees, his entire body trembling. When he finally stood back up, his face was purple, tears were running down either side of his face.

“You want another one?” Claire was a little red-faced still, but was smiling just the same. She wheeled back like she was about to plant another one in the bear’s gut, but instead she stumbled over a stick that was resting near her feet.

Fury caught her in his muscled arms, cradling her as easily as a grown man would cradle a newborn. The way he stared, the way his eyes caught the afternoon light, Claire couldn’t help staring back at them and feeling the quailing in her chest.

Unconsciously, she arched her back against those huge forearms, and felt her nipples pucker against the soft cotton of her ancient tee. “Maybe,” she whispered, “I do need a break.”

Stone tromped over, nearer to where Claire and Fury were staring at each other. He crouched, and brushed a fallen tendril of hair away from Claire’s slightly-puffy cheeks. After the hair was moved, she flicked her eyes in Stone’s direction, and stared at him instead. “How is this real?” she asked. The words trickled from her lips the same way laughter had slid off Fury’s lips like honey only moments before.

“It always has been,” the serious bear intoned, with his usual gravity. “I think... before you were born, before we were born, this was already real.”

She tilted her head to one side, clearly not knowing what he meant. In answer, Stone lifted his arm and snatched Claire’s hand. He flattened it against his considerably muscular side, the ripples reminding her of the way muscles were drawn on Superman. “What’s...?”

“You’re not the only one with that mark,” Stone said softly. He ran his fingertips down the sides of Claire’s face, watching the freckles on her cheeks as the skin dimpled under his fingertips. The way the light bounced off his eyes, the way it shadowed the lines that framed his cheekbones, it made her look away for fear of losing control of herself again.

Of course, looking over at Fury didn’t do a whole lot of good in the whole ‘keeping her cool’ department.

The breath burned hot in Claire’s lungs, but something in Fury’s eyes took her out of the moment. “What is it?” she asked, when she sensed he was distracted; distant. “What’s wrong?”

He didn’t respond, and neither did Stone, although his oppositely-colored eyes took on the same narrowed gaze. Stone gave away a bit more though, when he cocked his head and looked to the tree-line, obviously hearing something outside of Claire’s human earshot.

She twisted her head around, worked her way out of Fury’s arms, and closed her eyes, concentrating. She could hear something, but it wasn’t the helicopter chopping she had grown used to hearing. It wasn’t the sound of wind whipping through blades, or of gas being chugged through an ancient and amazingly inefficient engine.

But there was something.

A hum – a buzz – something.

“What is that?” Claire asked again. “I... what’s that noise?”

Stone closed his eyes. Fury’s were still narrowed as he studied the impending darkness. Fury shook his head, his long, brown curls tossing back and forth. “Not sure,” he said. “But I get the distinct feeling that sitting around and kissing probably isn’t going to be the best course of action right now.”

“What is?” Claire asked, as the buzzing grew closer, the humming more obvious by the second.

“Running,” Stone said, standing up, grabbing her hand and yanking Claire to her feet.

“Now,” Fury finished.

Before she could take a breath – before she could understand what was happening, what was going on, she felt her feet moving underneath herself. She felt the leaves crunching, the breath burning in her chest.

She was running.

From what? Claire had no idea. But if it spooked these two bears that much? She could deal with some sweaty pits, some aching feet, and some side stitches, and a little wheezing. But the inhaler in her back pocket would take care of the wheezing, and she had faith that something else would take care of whatever else came along.

*

“Is that them?” Rogue stuck his head out the window of the Cessna before realizing that maybe the reason they’d taken night vision cameras was to effectively see in the dark. “It’s dark.”

“Right,” Jill said. “Good, I’m glad you’ve mastered light versus dark. Let’s get you into college.”

King snorted a laugh at Rogue’s expense – something that hadn’t happened in quite a while, and something that made Jill smile. As they skimmed the trees, and then began to circle slowly, she started to think back about the past few months. Everything had changed – everything – but at the same time, there was a very comforting sense of sameness. After all, Jill’s life had been chaotic to different degrees since she started working for her present employer. The fact that her boss knew about shape-shifting bear people, and knew about the GlasCorp conspiracy hadn’t even surprised her when it all came out.