A Fire That Burns

by Kirsty-Anne Still

  It would be like nothing had ever changed between them. They would have some form of domesticated bliss surrounding them. It would be like she finally had the one thing she had sought out for six years.

  “You almost ready?” Jane asked as she came into the room and stopped her daughter from bending over to pick up her pajamas that were on the floor. “Well?”

  “I am more than ready, Mom,” Austin replied with a bright smile. “I just want to be home now.”

  “Your surprise is waiting,” Tom said as he stood with his hands flanked on the end of the bed. “Tyler’s gutted he’s going to miss it.”

  “Duty calls,” Austin pointed out and praised herself for hiding the disappointment that Tyler wasn’t going to be around for it. She knew it was selfish, but every moment she had with Tyler she wanted that to remain like it for an eternity, just so she could just have him with her that much longer. “So, this surprise?” she pushed on, trying in vain to get answers.

  “Needs this,” Tom said holding up a colorful scarf. “When we get to the car you’re getting blindfolded for the entire journey.”

  Austin’s mouth fell open, “Oh no! We are not blindfolding, Aussie!” Austin objected in the third person, “We know how that ended last time!”

  “You are not going to be taken advantage of,” Tom protested back, remembering the trick Dean and Daniel pulled at her thirteenth birthday.

  “I - don’t – care,” she stated, not allowing this to happen. After all, she couldn’t be forced into being blindfolded, especially with her parents here. “The last time you did that you set a clown on me!”

  “Discharge papers are signed and dated,” Nicolas said as he came into the room. “Kiddo you ready to go home?”

  “Without the blindfold, yes,” Austin chirped back happily as she finally saw her way out. She was left just standing there as her mother took over packing up the rest of her clothes.

  “Ahh, Kiddo, that blindfold is your only way out of this,” Nicolas told his daughter with a smirk, “But believe me, you will love what you’re getting.”

  For her parents to be pushing it, Austin knew this must be something worth the torture. Austin groaned as she relented, “Fine,” she groaned at them, “Can we just go home now?”

  “Course we can, Sweetheart,” Nicolas told her and stepped in taking her bag while Tom took his sister’s hand and pulled her out of the room.

  “Let’s go,” he teased her and watched her give him a daring glare. “Sorry, sis, but I’m going to enjoy this.” He continued as they walked behind their parents.

  “Payback is gonna be mine,” Austin muttered as she prepared herself for the unexpected.

  ***

  Once the journey home began, Austin found it particularly quiet and she had to admit it made her uncomfortable. Mostly on her part, as she was starting to feel the effects of her last round of intravenous drugs, but also because she couldn’t look out the windows and wondered what scrutiny she would get from the town. She just listened to the conversations between three of her family members as they occurred, and allowed herself to relax a little before her surprise was bestowed upon her.

  Putting one hand to her stomach, she fumbled with the other to find the button for the window so she could get a little air.

  “You okay, Austin?” her father asked as he continued to drive on.

  Nodding, she lavished the cool breeze, “Being a blind passenger is making me feel a little icky,” Austin alerted everyone in the car and scrunched her nose up, “And the blindfold’s a little tight.”

  “I said we should have gone with an elastic one but no one listened to me!” Tom exclaimed jokingly as he moved a little to reach around to the front to help make Austin comfortable. “I’ll loosen it for you, Aust.”

  “Thanks,” she said and felt a little bit of sunlight invade the moment between the blindfold loosening and then being tied up. “But can we just lose it altogether?”

  “And ruin the surprise?” Jane called out over her shoulder from the back seat. “Not likely.”

  Austin huffed as Tom fell back to his seat, “I hope you get pulled over for kidnapping.”

  “Seeing as we’re in Point Arena now, Aussie, the police know,” Nicolas told his daughter as he looked over to her from the driver’s seat. He had to laugh as he could see the shock wash over her entire face. “You didn’t think we wouldn’t make this plan full proof did you?”

  “No, but I’d hoped for a loop hole!” Austin almost shouted as she felt like a lost cause for a moment. She hated it when everyone was in on something and she wasn’t allowed in on it, and this moment was a clear reminder of surprise parties and surprises her father had done when he went away on business.

  She settled into the silence, she knew she was moments away from getting home and away from the half-light the blindfold offered her. However, she didn’t expect to doze off between that last conversation and the current one, only to be woken up when the car pulled to a stop and her brother spoke loudly from behind her.

  “We’re here!” Tom said, and the moment he did that, Dean was at Austin’s door opening it ready to pull her out.

  “Welcome home, Aussie Mozzie!” Dean said excitedly as he guided her out. He watched her giggle at the nickname he had always used on her annoyingly when she was little, “I see they managed to get you to keep the blindfold on?” He teased her, “And without using a muzzle as well!”

  “Hey!” Austin exclaimed and hit him hard, then smirked at him. “I might be blind, but I still have four other senses and a foot I can kick you with!”

  “We could’ve just given you dad’s reading glasses and had the same effect,” he continued to tease and laughed as she lashed out again playfully. “Don’t hurt yourself, sis.”

  “Stop teasing your poor sister and guide her!” James called out and had to laugh as Austin’s expression cast more confusion than before.

  Putting her hands to her eyes, Austin felt the blindfold and felt her nerves gather in her system. Was this a surprise party? She sure hoped it was anything but that! She didn’t want to deal with the masses of Point Arena. Hell, had Tyler gone and fast tracked their blossoming romance? Sure, she wanted to recapture her life with him, but she wanted to heal and find her independence again before she handed it over to co-share with Tyler’s.

  “Ready, Sunny?” Tyler’s voice drifted into her ear as he stood directly behind her, his hand on her good shoulder. He had had to leave the hospital and rush to work; she wasn’t expecting him here, so his presence surprised her enough to make her jump.

  “Been ready since we left the hospital grounds, Hot Stuff,” Austin chirped back with a smile knowing she could ask questions later. “Now take this blindfold off before I do it for you.”

  “Okay, okay,” he said and began to untie it. He pulled it away and stepped around to her side to watch her expression.

  Blinking a few times, Austin felt the brightness of the afternoon sun overwhelm her senses. Then, as if all at once, reality caught up with her senses and knocked her for a loop.

  Austin felt herself physically weaken as she looked to where she expected burnt remains or a clean plane of space. Gone were the memories, the old the structure of the house; now sat the new framework of a house that was destined to be far grander, and more memorable, than any other that sat around it.

  “Whoa!” Tyler exclaimed as he felt her falter a little, “Easy there, Sweetheart.”

  “First, you’re supposed to be at work,” Austin said confused as she turned from the wooden framework to face him. It was almost like she had forgotten he was here. “And secondly, that was-” she paused exasperatedly, “That burnt down-” she looked around at everyone. “How the-”

  “Let me explain,” Tyler said and took her hand and led her towards the house. “When we weren’t at the hospital, we all pulled together to get it cleaned up, sorted the insurance payout, and using my share of it, we started to rebuild.”

  “What about my half
? Why not just use that?” Austin asked as she was taken up the steps to the decking that formed the foundation for the new house. “I mean, there’s enough.”

  “You put a lot of your money into this, Aus. I respected that, and took advantage, so I wanted to give you it back,” Tyler told her honestly. “I earned a lot from the renovations I’ve done before and I just put that money into this.”

  “Tyler,” Austin stopped him, her hand dropping from the wooden framework so she could face him. “I don’t care about the money. I put all that money, and all that time, into that house, because for six years, it was the house that was in my dreams.” She looked away for a moment, “It was our house.”

  “It will be our house again,” Tyler vowed to her and lifted her head to look up at him. “This time it’s going to match your wildest dreams entirely.”

  Austin bit her lip, wanting to kiss him for making her one of the happiest women ever, but instead, she ended up crying as the emotions all rivaled within her. “God, I knew there was a reason I loved you enough to come back to this pokey little town.”

  “Destiny, Baby,” Tyler prompted her with a wink and then took her hand, “Now, would you like a tour?”

  Looking around at her family she smiled, “Lead the way, Stud.”

  “I do need help for this,” Tyler told her as he called all of her brothers over. He saw her confused look gather across her features and he chuckled, “Dean and Tom laid the blueprints down from what I told them. The rest of us set about building the framework together.”

  “So while I was lying in a hospital bed, you all started this?” Austin asked as she felt herself lose control and her eyes watered, “For me?”

  Tom saw his sister’s demise and was amused by her emotional side and how vulnerable it had made her in the last few months. “Show her the house before she cries a river!”

  Laughing, Austin let her brother’s and Tyler’s enthusiasm douse her with their plans for the future of this house. Now she finally felt like this house was going to be the start of something amazing, as long as problems didn’t arise.

  Chapter Forty-Seven

  THE following day, Austin sat in her parent’s living room with Tyler and the three newcomers. Tyler had just arrived and Jane was outside in the garden while the others worked at the house. Tyler had gone there, but they had forced him to leave and told him to take a break.

  “So when do you go back?” Austin asked and yawned. She was tired of being tired, ironically.

  “We got two weeks,” Emma commented, “Somehow we managed to get away for that long.”

  “Can the other teams cope without you for that long?” Austin teased them, knowing how the FBI ran.

  “It’s you that we’re all failing without,” Emma teased her back. “It’s nothing to do with us.”

  Jessica finished her drink and agreed, “It’s weird how no other tech seems to be able to meet up to the expectation you’ve set.”

  “I wasn’t that great. I mean, I can’t profile like you guys, I can’t even hold a gun without feeling I’m committing a sin,” Austin told them with a nervous laugh, and then felt the room somehow begin to close in on her. The idea of going back scared her, the idea of leaving Point Arena and leaving Tyler terrified her. She felt stuck between a rock and a hard place and she knew that whatever she chose, she would let people down. “I need a drink,” Austin mentioned and started to get up, but Tyler stopped her from moving. “I’ve got it, Handsome,” she told him, but he defied her immediately.

  “Anyone else want a drink?” Tyler asked as he ignored her. Standing up, he listened to everyone confirm before he maneuvred around the couch to walk passed Emma. “There’s a cab outside,” Tyler pointed out as he headed off to go grab everyone’s drinks.

  “Seems Liam and Michael didn’t hang around,” Emma commented as she looked out of the window. “They find out, not even a day ago, that they can take a vacation and here they are.”

  Jessica stretched to look out as Emma went for the door. “Ooh! Michael actually came!” Jessica exclaimed as she jumped up from her seat. “I didn’t think he would come along. Especially after your little argument with him, Aussie.”

  Austin sat up a little straighter at that, her eyes looking straight for the window, “Michael’s here?” Austin asked and got up as Jessica disappeared with Emma. She looked to Archie, her eyes a little wide. “Aren’t you going, Arch?” she asked him, and saw him stand and look over to her. “I’m fine,” she told him with a smile.

  “Sure?” he asked her as Tyler came into the room from the doorway.

  “Positive,” Austin told him with a smile, “I’ll be out in a moment. I just need to turn off Tyler’s alpha side.”

  Walking up to her, Tyler cocked a brow at her and pulled a questioning look. “Little argument?” Tyler asked as he looked out to the strangers getting out of the cab. “What happened there?”

  “Something that shouldn’t have,” Austin admitted and looked up at Tyler with a smile. “It’s nothing to worry about. He just didn’t like my work efforts, and when he found out I was leaving, he tried to stop me.”

  “He knew what an asset you were, Sunny,” Tyler told her with a bright smile. “I know there’s more to it, y’know?”

  “I swear you should actually be in the FBI the way you read me,” Austin replied with a simple eye roll.

  “I can only read you because I know you through and through,” Tyler responded and finished the statement with a kiss. “Now go see your friends. I’ll call your mom in and tell her they’re here.”

  “Thanks, Handsome,” She said and watched him walk towards the back door. Before heading out to greet the other members of her team, Austin took a deep, soothing breath. Walking out onto the porch, she looked at the two men as they walked up the pavement - her boss and Michael.

  Her third world now collided. She’d had her family accept her for who she really was, she had the Armstrong’s welcome her back in, now she had to have her FBI family accept her for her and accept her decisions in equal amounts of grace. She knew whatever she decided; someone was going to get hurt.

  Austin felt Tyler lace his arm around her waist gently as the men approached. He was acting like a doting husband, proud of his wife, interested in her achievements and her friends. However, Austin’s heart only raced faster and faster as the nerves rushed through her veins.

  “Let’s go meet the rest of your team eh, Baby?” Tyler asked almost excitedly and guided her down the steps to meet the men half way. “This Michael sounds like my kind of guy.”

  All Austin could do was nod her head and gulp back her nerves. How did she introduce two men that loved her wholeheartedly to one another? Especially when she knew she would break one of their hearts?

  Chapter Forty-Eight

  I am capable!” Austin snapped at Michael, she felt like he was following her through the house. They were the last two to go outside and Michael had literally shadowed her. She took the tray from him and placed it on the counter top. “I am not a cripple, Michael, so for God sake’s stop treating me like one!”

  “Sorry,” he murmured to her, his eyes apologetically surveying her. Since seeing her injuries as a result of the fire, he was racked with worry and felt the need to not let her out of his sights. She was hurt and that scared him beyond any imaginable lengths. “I just worry.”

  “Yeah, I know that,” Austin scoffed disbelievingly. “You do not need to make up anything to me, so stop walking around with that groveling look.”

  “I do owe you though,” he told her sorrowfully. He might have been in this town for a day, but since he arrived he had watched Austin in the arms of Tyler and it was making him bend and break. He watched her look at him and he knew he didn’t stand a chance, that he had broken the tie between them. “I’ve missed you.” Michael said as he pushed her against a wall and stopped her from leaving him entirely without clearing the air between them. “That’s all. I miss what we had. The intensity, the chemistry, A
ustin, I miss you so, so much.”

  Austin looked up into Michael’s crystal blue eyes and felt mesmerized in the intensity of his irises. It was almost as if their last encounter wasn’t so bitter. His payback for her decision still stung, especially considering she had allowed their relationship to intensify and develop. Austin had every reason to run back home and the person she had grown closest to had made her feel like she didn’t have that right. He had made her feel selfish for deciding what she needed to do to make herself happiest.

  That was why everything that came from his lips wasn’t setting her heart on fire anymore, nor did it make her see a promising future. That was why all she saw was lies and a player as he tried to grab a saving grace and rekindle a relationship he had trampled on.

  It was that very reason that she realized again that no man would ever take over Tyler’s hold on her heart.

  As he spoke, she had to close her eyes and shake her head. She was just hoping that no one came in, or that her mother didn’t come back downstairs. She didn’t want to have to explain this just yet. She didn’t want to have to explain her way out of a situation that was dead as done between her and this man.

  “I love you, Aus,” he told her honestly, trying to open her eyes. His hand came up to brush her hair back behind her ear and he lavished the feel of her soft skin against his. “I’ve missed you so much it hurts, Babe. So much. I regret everything. It’s you I love.”

  Austin pushed him away with a huff and went for the back door, “Things have changed, Mike. People change,” she admitted warningly and began to head outside to the sanctuary of knowing that Michael would not tell her this when they were outside. “You sure showed how much you love me the moment you hooked up with several girls, right in front of my eyes, and decided you were going to show me what I was missing out on.”