Not Expecting to Collide (COMPLETE) - ABP Fanfiction

Chapter 23 - Bewitched

Bam was angry. For the third day in a row, Matt's carelessness had caused someone to get hurt. Yesterday it was Noah. The day before it had been Bear. This time, Matt's knife had slipped and went hurtling through the air.

If Bam hadn't been quick enough to put his hand out to stop it, Rainy would have been sporting a few less teeth. Instead the blade had sliced deeply straight across Bam's palm.

To make matters worse, it had all been caught on camera because the Discovery Channel film crew had returned to Browntown for a week to film a Christmas Special. Bam knew that he had come to be known as "the grouchy brother" to fans of the show. And now he had chewed Matt out for yet another grievance. He was sure that it would be included in the show and edited to make him look his very worst. He thought perhaps the editors had it in for him.

Don't they understand that he's just trying to keep them safe for his own sake? He thought back to what August had said about being overprotective of October. 'Its really just my own self preservation.' Bam understood exactly what August had meant.

He stomped through the trees towards camp and away from the chaos of filming. Muttering under his breath, he entered the main cabin to clean off the blood at the sink and then wrapped a length of clean gauze around it. A few minutes later he returned outside to sit on one of the benches near the fire-pit and scrubbed his good hand across his face. He heard footsteps crunching on the snow behind him. He didn't bother to turn around. He could recognize his mother's careful gait anywhere. She rested a hand on his shoulder and immediately he felt like a petulant child who had just thrown a tantrum.

"Are you all right?" Ami asked softly.

He nodded. "Let me see." She commanded gently but left no room for argument. She took a seat beside him and removed her mittens. He held his injured hand out to her and she took it in her lap. Already the gauze was coloured bright red from his blood seeping through in large blotches.

"It's just a cut. I'm fine, Ma." He protested. Ami unwrapped the bandages and took a closer look at the wound.

"You'll need stitches." She clucked her tongue. Bam groaned. "No complaining. Come into the house." She again commanded firmly. Wordlessly he followed her into the house and sat at the table while she set a pot of water to boil.

"You were very hard on Matt." She stated as she gathered her needle and thread from the overhead cupboard.

Bam sighed loudly. "I know." It was no use denying it. He regretted his harsh words as soon as they had flown out of his mouth. "I was angry." He said quietly, not that that excused it. He watched two chickadees jump from branch to branch in a tree outside the window.

"She'll be here in a week."

Bam's gaze snapped back to his mother. "Eleven days is a lot more than a week." He corrected sternly. "And she has nothing to do with this." With her back turned to him, Ami smiled to herself but didn't admonish him for snapping at her.

"You haven't been yourself since you came back from Alberta. It couldn't have been all bad or she wouldn't be coming here for Christmas. Do you want to tell me about it?"

The four weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas were proving to be torture. October occupied his every thought, just as he promised she would. Every day was one more day without her sweet laughter, her gentle smile, her warm touch. And when she finally did get there, it was only for a mere week and then she would be gone again. Back to her home and he still in his. What then? Nothing could subside the ever-present ache in his heart when her body was not close to his. She had bewitched him, just as Mr. Darcy had accused of Miss Bennett. Pertinent classics indeed, Bam thought with a derisive laugh.

"It was amazing, Ma." Bam turned away from her and closed his eyes. "And at the same time, it was terrifying." His voice dropped to a whisper at his last word. He hadn't breathed a word about the night of the art show to any of them. Knowing how excruciatingly private October was, he was sure she wouldn't want the rest of his family knowing about Jaime and the damage he had inflicted upon her.

Ami brought a basin of hot water and clean linens to the table. After she cleaned the curved needle and a measure of thread in the water, she held her hand out to Bam. "Give it." She demanded, knowing how much Bam disliked stitches. Reluctantly Bam relinquished his injured paw. "That's the way love goes sometimes." Ami removed the gauze and cleaned the new blood away with a cloth. "Amazing and terrifying, all at once." She didn't pry for details. It wasn't her way.

Bam watched his mother rinse the cloth in the basin and return it to his hand to blot the last of the blood.

"I didn't say anything about love."

Ami ceased her ministrations and glanced up at him. "You didn't need to, Bam." Bam ducked his head and hid his smile. Ami sat down in the chair across from him to thread the needle. "Do you think I don't know my own children?" She looked at him pointedly. Bam shook his head and turned to watch the chickadees again. He hissed when the needle punctured his skin. Ami gripped his fingers when he instinctively tried to pull away. "And does she feel the same?"

Bam watched the needle pull the thread through his flesh and close up the wound.

"I don't know. We haven't exactly said...things."

"Some people don't need words." Ami reminded patiently.

"But when we are away from each other, words are all we have. And after she's been here, I don't want to think about being without her again."

Ami expertly tied a knot and bit off the end of the thread with her teeth. Bam glanced out the window to see that the chickadees had flown away. He flexed his hand open and closed while he studied the stitches. Ami gathered her things and carried them back over to the sink. "You'll figure it out." Bam swung his gaze over to his mother.

"What did you just say?" Remembering exactly where he had heard those words before.

Ami shrugged as she poured the water from the basin down the sink and put the needle and thread away. "Love will find a way, Bam. It always does."

Bam pondered her words for a moment before he stood and pulled his jacket over his shoulders. He walked over to where Ami stood and gave her a hug. "Thanks, Ma." He said as he kissed her cheek. "You're welcome, son. Now go find your older brother and apologize."

"Yes, ma'am." Bam replied before stepping through the door and down the steps.