Tough As Dragon Skin

Nat paced impatiently inside her assigned tent for someone to come tell her of Charlie's condition. When he'd passed out, Nat had been horrified that perhaps he was dying from his burns. 'And its all my fault,' her brain raged.

Suddenly in that moment, dragons and dinosaurs weren't so very important when compared to the idea that she might lose Charlie. Even now, Nat realized with some guilt, if it had been Samuel Hill injured in the course of some escapade, she would have only been annoyed with him for inconveniencing her. It had to be a rough gig to be partnered with Natalie Green.

Sitting on the small sofa, Nat began to cry. She'd spent her whole life avoiding emotional attachments, following her parents' lead, shunning such a thing as extra useless baggage that would interfere with her intellectual goals. Her mind scrolled through her achievment, ticking them off one by one next to the goals she'd set for herself at the age of twelve. She'd suceeded in them all but only until now did she see it...and what it cost her.

She also saw what she had done to herself and the people around her. Nat couldn't think of one person whom she could honestly call a friend. No one that she could implicitly rely on, who could make her laugh and who seemed to care about her.

Except Charlie.

There wasn't a time she could think where she spontaneously did anything, laughed at something or had a good time that wasn't forced or half-hearted. It never occured to her that it was something she was missing in her life.

Except with Charlie.

No friends, a cold family, no lover...'but what about Charlie?' her brain inserted mutinously.

"Charlie," she murmured dejectedly into the hands covering her face.

"Yeah?" Charlie's baritone slid over her nervous system like a shot of whiskey, warm and sensual, and Nat's head bounced up, eyes widening in surprise. He was lounging against the doorframe, still looking a bit singed but definitely less damaged, and more importantly, alive.

"Oh my God!" Nat sobbed as she ran to him. She pulled his head down to her, kissing him frantically. It seemed as if he was stunned a moment but he quickly caught on. The kiss deepened and Nat's brain shut down, her body moving on instinctual autopilot.

When Charlie came to in the medical tent to find both Marty and Tybalt hovering over him, looking exhausted, Charlie knew that he was going to be okay. Both wizards were trained as emergency medi-wizards and knew what they were about. Undoubtedly Charlie had been brought quickly to the camp to be healed. Tybalt was capping some bottles of potions while Marty finished bandaging Charlie's shoulder. Charlie knew it might have been worse and prepared for the lecture.

All he got was "No wonder you were an excellent Quidditch player, with reflexes like that," from Marty. From Tybalt he got, "You can be my knight in shining armor anytime, Weasley."

Charlie gave a relieved laugh. "Speaking of which, how's my damsel in distress?"

"Distressed," said Tybalt crisply and disapprovingly.

Marty shook his head. "You hit the ground and she went insane, screaming and crying. She doesn't do too well under pressure apparently."

Charlie though about her confrontation with the male Horntail and related it to the other two wizards, adding, "Actually I don't think she's ever had someone to care about before so she wigged out."

Marty and Tybalt just looked at each other and then at him. "I meant as a friend," Charlie added hastily.

"Maybe," Marty replied," but she's more than that, Charlie. You like this Muggle girl, a lot. Like her enough to get you, her, us and your family in a whole lot of trouble by bringing her here when you could get those photos a thousand other ways." Charlie stared at him in surprise. Marty leaned down into his face. "If you let her go, so help me, Weasley, I'll duel you til you drop. And considering the only thing that stopped me from being an auror was the personality test, I can pull it off."

So Charlie staggered to his feet and got back to Nat's tent, intent on giving her a chewing out for running off like that and then a huge hug and a nice long kiss. He was relieved to find her unhurt but was startled by her moroseness. Whatever introspection she was doing involved him for she murmured his name.

"Yeah?" he asked, more to make it known he was there than anything else.

Her head came up from its dejected position and she leaped to her feet. She reached him at a run, saying, "Oh my God," right before she pulled him into a kiss. A passionate, desperate kiss that startled him. He quickly caught on and deepened the contact. All thoughts of rebuke scattered from his brain; all that mattered was Natalie in his arms, more than happy to see him.

They kissed for several long minutes before Charlie bent down and swung her into his arms. She wrapped her arms around his neck, making soft noises of protest when their lips briefly lost contact. As he walked toward the bedroom, she began unbuttoning his shirt, pushing it away as her hands roamed his chest.

Charlie set her down gently on the bed, following her down and stretching out on top of her. Nat pulled the shirt from his pants and finished unbuttoning it, threading her fingers through crisp, fiery gold chest hair. He shrugged the shirt off and delved back into her arms.

Nat lost what little coherent thought she had left when she felt his lips on her neck and Charlie's brain completely went blank when Nat started to make soft little moans as he nibbled down her neck. The rest of the night was a passionate, demanding dream.

"Hey, Charlie, you in there?" Reggie's voice was distant and hesitant. "Wake up!"

"Mmm," came a contented sigh from the region of his right side. Smalls hands caressed his chest and then there was a giggle.

Roused more by the giggle than the continued shouting from Reggie, Charlie opened one eye and peered into Nat's face. She was still giggling. "What's so funny?"

She only looked toward the headboard of the bed and her giggling turned into a snort of laughter. Charlie craned his neck to see and burst into laughter himself. Their clothing was hanging not only all over the headboard but also on the bedside table. A shoe had busted the lamp.

"Did we do that?" she finally asked, now looking faintly amazed.

He hugged her and was getting ready to reply when Reggie shouted at them again, obviously from the living room area of Nat's tent. "We got an irate and stunned female dragon to move, so will you come on?"

"Give me five minutes," Charlie hollered back. To Nat, he smiled contentedly and whispered, "Get dressed quick, you'll want to see this." Nat nodded and slid out of bed, enchantingly nude.

She didn't face him as they dressed but he could tell she was blushing. While Charlie had little modesty (with the large family he had, especially with the twins, modesty and privacy both had been in short supply) he found Nat's morning after shyness wonderful. Before they left the bedroom, he grabbed her hand and pulled her toward him. "No regrets?"

"No," Nat answered shyly.

"Do it again tonight?" he asked with a roguish grin. Nat blushed to the roots of her hair but smiled and nodded. "Speak," he commanded playfully. "You being quiet is making me nervous."

"Go on then," Nat laughed, giving him a shove toward the door. "Relocate the female dragon and we'll discuss my studying tonight."

Charlie laughed as well and followed her out the bedroom door.

In a brief discussion with Charlie's coworkers, it was agreed that while they relocated the female dragon a safe distance from camp, Natalie should stay in her tent, in case more official wizards stopped by due to the accident report filed for Charlie's injuries. Plus Nat knew her stunt hadn't endeared her to the rest of the wizards and she was trying to show them she wasn't a complete idiot and could be reasonable.

Nat did, however, verify with them that it was okay to use her Muggle equipment, like her laptop computer and cellular phone. So leaving Natalie happily typing away, Charlie left with his companions to move a still stunned female Hungarian Horntail.

"Melissa Greene speaking." It was a chirpy voice that had never ceased irritating Natalie everytime she called her sister-in-law. Nat had never understood why Jeremy married Melissa. She was so cheerful and sugary sweet, it'd been irritating. That and he doted on her and praised Melissa to his family every chance he got. The most enthusiastic response he got was from his mother when she said, "That's nice, dear." Love had never been a priority in the Greene household. Intellect was everything and near as anyone could tell, Melissa had none.

Now though Natalie thought she understood why Jeremy married Melissa.

"Hello, Melissa," Nat began hesitantly.

"Oh there you are! We've been so worried. Sam calls us twice a day looking for you." Melissa's tone had gone from chirpy to lukewarm inviting, but there was undercurrent of worry there all the same. Melissa knew that Natalie never understood their marriage and the two women had always been cool to one another.

"I have more serious problems than Samual Hill," Nat answered. "Melissa, help me, I think I'm in love."

The silence over the phone was deafening. Melissa finally managed an answer. "You're what?"

"In love and I think I like it. Help me."

Melissa started laughing. "Well, that's a relief! I was beginning to think Jeremy was the only human in the bunch. Maybe the rest of you were automatons or Vulcans or something."

"What does the Roman blacksmith god have to do with anything?" asked Natalie in confusion.

Melissa's voice was dry as she responded, "Watch Star Trek sometime, girlfriend, you really need a life."

"I'll make a note of that, now about this love thing," Nat began, scribbling on a sheet of notebook paper Star Trek - watch soon - what is Vulcan?

"What about it? When do we meet him? He's not an abuser is he? Does your brother have to rough him up to make it clear we won't let you be roughed up?" Melissa's barrage of questions kept Nat busy for about five minutes before her sister-in-law ran out of steam. "Well, if he's such an upstanding citizen, what's the problem? Don't you want to be in love?"

Nat sighed heavily. "I honestly don't know. I mean, I like it, Melissa, but I don't know what to do with it."

Melissa sighed this time. "You don't do anything with it, Nat. You don't study it to death, you don't analyze it and you don't critique it. You enjoy the hell out of it and him, hopefully for the rest of your life. Do you mean you were with Sam Hill for how many years and never once loved him?"

Nat's nose wrinkled. "Love Samuel Hill? No, I think Mom was right, he was more habit than anything."

"Yes," Melissa answered dryly again, "like an comfortable pair of jeans or old slippers. Comfy and cozy, that's Sam."

"I could have done worse," Nat said defensively.

"Only if you married Jeffrey Dahmer. Listen, Nat, to Sam you were two things, a meal ticket and a prestigious name he could latch onto. Your family is well-respected in many intellectual circles and none of you were exactly poor either. He could easily cash in on all of that and none of you would have been the wiser or cared to boot."

"You make us sound -" Nat stopped.

"Blind as frickin' bats, yes, I do because you are and now you realize it. The man was a leech, Nat. I like the sound of this Charlie guy though. Description, details, I want it all. Got some pictures yet?"

Before Natalie was even aware of it, the two women were chattering like two teenage girlfriends, talking about boys, marriage, and dreams of the heart. When they hung up 45 minutes later, Nat was content and secure enough to phone Sam Hill to give him what for.

"Samuel Hill," came his terse voice.

"Sam, will you stop calling my family? We're through, I thought I made that clear." Nat put all her disapproval and distaste into that one statement, hoping he'd get the hint.

He did but didn't care, he had a weapon. "Well, see, Natty, it's like this, I got something that will be of extreme value to you. If not to you, then I'm sure there'll be someone more pressworthy that'd like to take a look at them. I found some photos on my spare laptop that I had analyzed. Seems there are dragons in Romania. Real. Live. Dragons. Now something about this whole situation is ringing some major bells with me and I know it has to do with you. So let's make a deal."

Nat began to shake with fury as the "deal" was outlined to her implicitly. There was no way out and no bargaining. Nat was being blackmailed and so was her family's good reputations. She was going to have to go back to America.

'Damn you, Sam Hill, damn you,' Natalie thought as she turned the phone off. 'Charlie was not going to like this.'

She frowned. 'But what Charlie didn't know, wouldn't hurt him.'

She gathered her things together, shoving them in the cases. Due to the fact that Nat couldn't ride a broom and Charlie couldn't apparate more than just himself, Natalie had driven a rented car and parked it as close as she could to the campsite location without attracting Romanian wizarding officials. An hour hike to the car and she'd be off to Budapest and the airport.

She hastily scribbled a note, explaining things.

Charlie -

There was an emergency and I had to return to America. I will be back in about a week, I promise. This has nothing to do with last night. In fact, I think I'm in love with you so don't go proving to me that love's the crock I've always thought it was and leave me, okay? When I get back, the photos are yours, all of them, no arguments, deal fulfilled. I think I've seen all the dragons I honestly want to. If something goes wrong, I'm leaving you my spare cellphone to call me. The number is 443-555-6587 and I'll leave it on. To work the phone press the button that says End for about ten seconds and the phone will turn on. Then punch in the number and then hit the Talk button. It will then dial to me. After we're done talking, punch the End button again to save on the batteries.

I love you.

Natalie