a/n: It was written in an earlier chapter that Ambers step-father was named Callen McDaniel. It was changed to O'Hara, and is written as such in this chapter.

Les Leçons dans la Vie

Chapter Four

Wind

"You did well yesterday, but now, we should start with the real work." Darian stood facing away from her. He had been doing that all day, conveniently facing away from her.

They were back in the woods and were now facing the same tree Amber had spent much of her time the day before hating. There was a slight chill in the air and the wind was soft but steady. She wasn't sure, but Amber had a sense there might be a storm that day.

"But, I hit the target yesterday." The words came out in a snap that bit through the air. Amber knew she was being childish, but she was tired of being ignored by him.

"Yes, I know," he said slowly, the frustration becoming evident in his voice also. Condescension as well. Amber felt a fire at the bottom of her throat begin to heat up.

"But you hit it while standing still and you had to practice many times before you consistently hit it. So now, I am going to add more targets in and then when I say," he paused and looked at her for the first time all morning. She almost wished he hadn't, "you have to hit the tree I tell you to."

Amber felt an acidic burst against her throat; she threw a glare in his general direction, now making it her turn to not look him directly in the eye.

"I'll try."

"There's no such thing as try, you either do it, or you don't." The finality in his voice caused Amber to sink further into her immature state of mind. She knew she could not yell at him, but she refused to take the way he was treating her.

"Yah. Thanks for that, Master Yoda."

Darian turned and stared at her, as if she were crazy.

"You are a…" Darian paused, as if contemplating exactly what word to finish the sentence with. He knew he had to be careful. He could see she was close to exploding "…weird person."

He shook his head at her slowly and turned around, as if he was ashamed to even be in her company. He started walking towards the weapons; the tree they were lying under began to sway slightly as the wind picked up.

Amber wrapped her arms around her body to fight against the growing cold and felt a rush of something with the wind. Her reddish-brown hair whipped against her face, the sting seemed to spur her into action.

Here goes nothing.

"Yes."

She almost stopped talking. She almost let the word be blown away into the wind, but the nagging emotion kept building with the wind, and she finally raised her voice to be heard above it. "But I am an interesting weird person, a person whom you enjoy being around, someone who amuses you." Her voice strained, but Amber felt more confident. She almost felt warm now with the adrenaline that had flown into her system at this mild confrontation. She cocked an eyebrow at him. "Aren't I?"

Statement. Not question.

Darian studied her for a moment. His black hair blew into his eyes, but she swore there was a glint there that she hadn't seen before.

"Maybe." His cold blue eyes finally reached hers and he opened his mouth as if to continue his answer. Her cheeks were warm and she no longer held herself against the cold.

Before the words left his mouth, the atmosphere changed.

She looked around. The wind had abruptly stopped, but Amber felt the cold squeeze of a chill creeping up her back.

"What's going on?" Panic now replaced the adrenaline that had been there before. She could feel it. They were in the eye of the storm; it was going to get worse. But that wasn't all that was wrong. "Something's different."

The birds stopped. The air hung around them like stale breath. Nothing was moving. Darian looked around, and then he felt it. Something was wrong, very wrong.

"We need to get out of here," he said quietly. He was making her nervous. "Now."

"But why??" She needed to know what was going on. She needed him to stop looking worried. She knew, knew it in the pit of her stomach that if he looked worried, she should faint straight away from panic.

"Because something is near."

"What something?" Her voice was beginning to rise, just as the wind began to pick up again. "What something!" She repeated, but he had already pulled her out of the clearing and into the thickest part of the brush.

"What are we doing??" She hissed, "What are you doing!" Her heartbeat felt constant. Why was she so nervous? What did she feel that was so near?

He turned and looked at her coldly. He was shutting her off. Preparing. Amber felt a drop of rain hit her cheek. It rolled down as if a tear.

"We're hiding, and we're going to stay here until we can be sure whatever it is that's out there is gone." He turned away before saying harshly, "Be. Quiet."

So they waited.

He could tell she was petrified of being found… by him, or anyone that would take her back to him. He quickly glanced at her, feeling something akin to pity at her now soaking, shivering and petrified form. Darian had never seen her so weak and he was pretty sure that on top of all of her panic she felt disgust for such weakness. He could see it in her eyes.

He hadn't told her that he'd heard something earlier. Something that sounded to him like a gun shot in the distance. Why she hadn't heard it, he didn't know. It could have been just normal hunters, but he didn't want to take the chance. He knew Callen O'Hara would not be against finding this girl himself, by any means necessary.

Crack.

He pressed her even further into the bush as a twig snapped near the edge of the clearing. A horse and a dog came into view. He quickly realized his luck that it was raining and that any scent they left would be washed away. Then the figure of a man with a gun came into view. Darian pushed Amber to the ground, he on top of her, and pressed his hand firmly to her mouth to stifle her gasp. Her eyes went wide and she looked smaller and weaker than any child.

Thoughts of what would happen if her step dad found them went rushing through his mind. They would be done for; he couldn't protect himself or her against a high-powered rifle.

He did not like being in this kind of mess.

He glanced back at her once again and this time she was looking back. She looked up at him with sheer terror in her eyes, and he acknowledged it coolly. Ice. He shook his head slowly to indicate that she should stay where she was and not move. She nodded back, a bit more frantically, and seemed to grasp him a little tighter. Darian stiffened as he heard the dogs sniff coming steadily closer and was dismayed to find the horse seemed to sense they were there as well.

God Damnit, let the rain be enough.

The dog moved on, and even as the horse stood as a telltale sign, the rider walked straight through the clearing. Seemingly satisfied, he mounted the horse and began to ride in the opposite direction from whence he came.

Some scout he was.

Darian closed his eyes and let out a sigh of pure relief. He didn't notice as his hold on Amber subtly tightened as well.

Suddenly she pulled away from him and he turned at the loss of heat. Amber sat, hair plastered against her alabaster skin, mossy green eyes wide and wet, arms around her knees. She raised her gaze to his own icy stare, and matched it.

The wall had been remade.

Darian slowly made his way into the clearing. He turned towards her before walking on.

Walking back to the campsite.

"We've got to move." He exhaled slowly and turned to the ashen faced Amber.

"He's gone, and I don't think he knew we were there, but I do not want to be proven wrong."

Amber nodded mutely. Then she sat down heavily on the ground, and he knew that what she had told him about her stepfather was absolutely true.

x . x

"You were right after all," Amber whispered from behind him. He turned, just now realizing that she was standing very close behind him. She was staring through his eyes, the glazed appearance creating a shiver to slide down his spine. "Curiosity kills the cat."

He was mildly startled at the tone of her soft voice in his ear. The smoky alto of her voice told him nothing of what she was feeling, but he could sense her emotions in his chest, a constricting pull. Before he knew it, she had disappeared, walking away softly. She was soon halfway across the clearing, walking back towards the forest.

Damn it!

He wanted to know where the hell she was going now. He did not need her emotional break down to put them into any more danger.

He noticed the dirk in her hand and the worry abruptly eased, but it didn't disappear completely.

Let's see what she does with the dirk. See if she brings anything back, alive or dead, animal or human.

Darian squared his shoulders against the cold and walked stiffly to their campsite remains. He would move everything to a different location and come back to wait for her here, when she was done with her past.

He remembered their conversation about memories. About blocking them out. Amber had said that she had, that it was subconscious and automatic.

Apparently that block wasn't strong enough.

He wondered what could be so terrible in her past to make her think she needed to block it out. He bent down to pick up his bag and hers, and idly kicked at the rocks that had held their fire the night before. The ashes were scattered on their own, in the dying wind.

She had told him she had been raped by that man. It didn't surprise him that Callen O'Hara was capable of raping his step daughter, but for some reason, at the time he wasn't so quick to believe her story. At the time he had speculated on whether she had her heart broken terribly by someone she was close to, if someone had been murdered, arrested, committed suicide, if she hadn't had any friends at school or something of the like. All despicable things, but none so devastating as rape.

Maybe her blocks were strong enough; it was her strength and resolve that had caused his doubt in the first place.

He knew the amount of pain she must have gone through to have blocked out the memories. But he scoffed at her weakness as he ambled through the forest, for her pain couldn't match his and he hadn't been able to block his memories out.

If only he could.

His thoughts abruptly took a dark turn as he thought about… that night. About his father. And with a snarl of disgust and hesitation, he remembered his mother…

Anger suddenly built up in his chest, and for once, it was of fire. He threw down the bags he had been caring and crouched down against the wet soil, letting his head fall into his hand as his fingers raked and pulled at his hair. He felt anger at his father, anger at himself for not doing anything. Fire and heat and the creeping acid against his throat.

He couldn't let himself sink into this dark place. This anger was different than any of the ice he was accustomed to.

Maybe he had underestimated her strength once again. If she was made of this, if this fire was her element, it was a wonder how little she was burned. He got up; he had to figure out something to distract him from his thoughts of the past. He gathered up their belongings and ran. He ran fast and he ran hard and he ran away. He began to hear his pulse throbbing against his skull, he slowed and dropped his and Ambers bag into the dirt.

In a way, Amber had been right, the past was dead and gone, so why dwell on it? He knew that they both had to find a compromise, to remember the past, so as not to make the same mistakes in the future, but not to dwell on it and let it consume them, turn their lives to hell. He looked around him and realized that he had stopped in as good a place as any to make their new camp.

Trying to get his thoughts off of the past he wandered further into the forest, gather logs and rocks and bringing them back to the new clearing to make a fire. It took him a good 10 minutes to get a spark to light, the logs were wet and the ground still muddied. As he sat against the heat, Darian decided it was only fitting to take a page out of Amber's book. Maybe her solution would fix the fire he felt. He paced about the fire for a few minutes and then walked out into the forest, towards the town, deciding to see what he could find out about her disappearance from town.

x . x

Darain pushed against a splintered oak door as he made his way into one of the towns more disreputable taverns.

"Smith!"

Darian turned at the sound of his last name from the familiar tongue of the bartender. He had to stand against the wall for a moment, waiting for his pupils to dilate and let in the miniscule amount of light the tavern held.

"Hey, Wally!" Darian looked to the older man, one of his main informants, and one of the only people he trusted in the world.

The man stood up, only to come to Darian's chin.

"What are ye doing here, brother? I thought ye were headed down south?"

"I got a little delayed. How is it with you Wally?"

"It's alrigh', alrigh' indeed. The wife is naggin' at me again, says I spen' too much time 'ere, and not enough with her and the little 'ens."

Darian laughed; glad to see the familiar and happy face of what many would call his friend. He felt a rush of gratitude as the memories of the past and the fire in his stomach began to melt away with Wally's voice.

Darian thought back on Wally's' wife, Mary. She had been the prettiest girl in the town when they had met, and Wally had fallen head over heels in love with her. But with time, she had proved to be a shrew, and now, after 20 years of marriage and 3 kids, she was also a fat shrew, her looks gone.

Darian looked at Wally's life and knew that he could never let himself fall into the same trap. He felt sorry for the little man, and he did not want that for himself. He shook his head, remembering to focus solely on the present, and what Wally could tell him.

"So... What's new in town?" He asked, lowering his voice slightly.

Wally looked at him, studying him for a second, before saying, "O'Hara's step daughters gone missin', he was raising a 'uge fuss abou' it, blamin' it on all o' us poor folks who 'ang 'round in places like this. He all but named you as a suspect in her kidnappin', brother."

Kidnapping? Darian near growled at being the scapegoat once again. He should have known O'Hara would have used the town out cast as a means to shift attention from his own actions.

She'll love this.

He thought of her reaction, he knew it would irritate her also to hear what her step father was saying about her disappearance. Amber would be infuriated that when she went missing, people automatically thought someone had taken her, not that she had the strength to run away, and it would irk her even more that they had thought Darian had done it.

He smirked slightly, looking forward to the confrontation. He glanced up at Wally, only to notice that he was still studying him with a glint of suspicion in his eye.

"You know I didn't." Darian said, incredulous that his old friend would be so weary of him. Wally only looked at him more.

"Ye may not 'ave, but you ken more than any o' the rest of us where the lass is, I can tell that just by lookin' at ye."

Darian was stunned. Even with as long as he had known Wally, he was never prepared for how observant the old, jolly man was. He was amazed at his insight. Wally may not always be employed and did drink his fair share, but he had one of the keenest insights Darian had ever seen.

"I might. But I might not as well," he replied looking Wally straight in the eye. He felt childish giving such an answer, but even Wally couldn't be outright told that Amber was with him.

"Suit yerself," Wally sighed going back to his drink.

Darian groaned inwardly, this was a common ploy Wally used to let him know that an information exchange was mutual. A show me yours I'll show you mine kind of deal, and it was his turn.
He sat down at the bar next to Wally and ordered a whiskey, neat, added as an afterthought.

"Alright, I do know where she is, but I didn't take her, I just found her on my way out of town. She's not harmed and nobody took her. She left. Now did O'Hara give a reason somebody might want to kidnap her? What other rumors are goin' around?"

Wally looked slightly taken aback at the prospect that Darian had actually told him something.

"A rare occasion indeed the day that Darian Smith risks his neck for a wee lass. And one as much trouble as Amber Ayson at that."

Darian laughed harshly. Wally didn't know the half of how much trouble she was. He sobered at the thought of her collapsed on the ground that afternoon. He had been gone a long time now, he steered the conversation back to business.

"Right, well, words goin' 'round that she left on her own for some reason, which ye told me is true," Wally said quickly, noticing and wondering at the impatience in Darian's eye, "but the help 'as been talkin' how she left 'cause O'Hara raped 'er and beat 'er mother. 'ey say her Mother woul'nt leave with 'er, though."

Amber hadn't told him her mother had been beaten as well, but then he remembered her bitter comment about her mother being weak, and it made sense that she wouldn't want him to know.

Darian looked at Wally, shrewdly.

"Spread that around some more, see what happens," he got up and placed a bill on the table. "I'll meet you back here in a few days; see what else is going on." He started to walk towards the door.

"Right... but Dar... is it true?"

Darian turned around to look at Wally. He studied the little mans face for a moment, gave a solitary short nod and walked out the door.

x.x

a/n: There is no excuse for how late I was with this chapter. I can only promise to try not to do it again.

I love all the reviews I have gotten so far. You make me smile.