Tough As Dragon Skin

She was moved. She was happily beating the crap out of her mate. With any luck, the two of them wouldn't wander so close to the reservation line again.

Charlie was rapidly thinking luck was on his side. No wizarding officials had shown up to lecture them about safety. An owl delivered letter merely stating that the report had been filed and that they were pleased that Mr. Charles Weasley was not permanently maimed. The relocation of the female had been relatively easy, as if she'd known she was being removed from the vicinity of insane humans. Today wasn't so bad.

Charlie grinned. Tonight was going to be even better. It looked like a storm coming in and storms always made him...energetic.

He'd thought about Nat all day. She was smart, occasionally funny (though she didn't know it half the time), beautiful, talented, and oh so damned sexy when she moaned. Charlie quickened his pace to her tent at the recollection of those moans. He wondered if food was really necessary this evening or if they could skip to dessert.

"Hey Nat!" he called out eagerly as he shoved through the tent flap. A breeze blew in with him, ruffling his hair. "How hungry are you?" His cat ate the canary grin faded when there was no sign of Nat anywhere. Not only of Nat, but her computer, portable phone and paperwork. A quick look in the bedroom brought up the fact that there were no clothes of the female type anywhere.

Charlie looked at the table by the sofa. No keys. The keys to the automobile they'd rented to get her here was gone.

She'd run away.

It was as if someone had punched him in the gut. All the air blew straight out of him with a huff and he collapsed on the sofa, staring at the floor in disbelief. Questions pummelled his mind, causing his head to hurt. Was she scared of him? Was he that bad in bed? Didn't she love him? She acted like she loved him. Was she one of those women that like to use and run? That wasn't Natalie Greene, Charlie immediately told himself. Too much thinking ahead was required for that attitude. So she had to be running scared. But why? He didn't think he'd hurt her last night, though he admitted that they were a bit rough. She'd acted like she'd liked it, though.

'Acted,' the voice in his mind echoed. 'Maybe she didn't like it, Weasley.'

'But why didn't she say something?' he responded back.

'Maybe she thought you'd just magic her into liking it?' the voice replied back.

'That's ridiculous!' he thought in return, angry now.

The evidence was clear though. No note, no hint or clue this morning of her intention, nothing. Nat was gone. The question now was what was he going to do now? Go after her? Leave her alone? What? He deserved an explanation but...

His eye caught something on the far table by the kitchen. One of Nat's portable phones! Charlie lunged for it, scrambling around hoping for a clue as to why it got left behind, but there was nothing. No note.

Perplexed now beyond belief, Charlie's brain went into overdrive. Scenarios from kidnapping by DeathEaters to Nat just leaving it behind bombarded his mind. Needing some help to clarify the situation, Charlie headed back outside to where his co-workers and friends were gathering around a fire for some flame-broiled steaks and roasted corn cobs.

"Heck, Charlie, we figured you and the Muggle would be getting lofty by now," chortled Marty jokingly.

Tybalt looked up and noticed Charlie's perplexed expression. "What's up, Weasley?"

"Whatcha got there, Charlie?" asked Reggie, reaching for the cellular telephone. "It's one of those Muggle cellular phones! What'd she give you one of those for?"

"She's gone." Charlie's voice was flat and the other three gaped at him in surprise.

"You're kidding! She looked as satisfied as...um, never mind." Tybalt stopped his sentence at Reggie's dirty look.

"No note?" Charlie shook his head. "No hint this morning she was taking off?" Charlie again shook his head negatively. "Well, I'm damned."

"Yeah, ye are, so gimme th' contraption and watch a master at work." Amos Entwistle took the cellphone from Reggie and pushed the End button just long enough for the phone to turn on. A burst of chimes indicated it was powered up. "What's the gel's last name again?" he mumbled, pushing buttons and making it beep at an alarming rate.

"Greene," Charlie answered, watching Amos with the rest of them in abject fascination.

"No Natalie Greene here but there's a Jeremy Greene and a Melissa Greene, and these must be her folks. They go by their initials with the letters d.r. in from of them." Amos punched a button, held the phone to his ear, grunted and tossed it at Charlie. "Start talking when you hear someone say hello."

Charlie gaped at the phone and faintly heard, "Melissa Greene speaking."

He put the receiver to his ear and spoke. "Um, yes, you wouldn't happen to know how to get ahold of Dr. Natalie Greene would you?"

"Who is this?" The voice on the other end was instantly suspicious.

"Um, Charles Weasley. I'm a friend of Natalie's and she left her phone with me and I-"

"Oh so you're Charlie Weasley! Hey, Jeremy, Charlie Weasley is on the phone!" Charlie frowned, not sure how to follow that. "Is Nat there?"

"Um, no, that's what I was hoping you could help me with. We got back, me and my co-workers and she was gone."

"Gone? Gone where?" Melissa Greene sounded puzzled. "Aren't you guys in the middle of Romania?"

Charlie sighed, wondering how much Nat had told this woman. "Yes, we are, but do you know where she's at?"

"Well, if she's not there, then no. I just talked to her this morning. She needed a girl to chat with, we chatted, I told her that her scummy ex had been calling us and nagging about her whereabouts, we hung up and all's been quiet on the western front since then."

Charlie understood about a third of what Melissa was saying and quickly deciphered the rest. "Sam Hill is the ex, right?"

"That he is, now that you're in the picture." Melissa's voice was coy and Charlie blushed even though it was obvious the woman on the other end couldn't see him.

"What's the western front?"

"Turn of phrase, limey, now listen, if you've lost my sister, so help me -," a male voice irately spat out.

"Damn it, Jeremy, give me the phone back!" Melissa's voice quickly replaced the irate male voice. "Sorry, idiot husband of mine and Nat's idiot brother. Formerly considered the only human being in the family. I would suggest you hunt down Samuel Hill. She probably called him to give him a peice of her mind, not that he'd follow it anyway, and something screwy happened. Nat's gullible; she'll fall for anything. If I were you I'd head back for America."

'Damn,' thought Charlie but he replied, "Thanks, Melissa, and tell Jeremy I plan on taking care of his sister."

Melissa sounded amused. "I'll be sure to do that, after I bean him over the head with a pot from an Incan temple. Bye!"

The phone clicked in his ear and Charlie pulled it away. "Now what?"

"I'd say go after her if what I interpret from you're end of the conversation is correct," replied Tybalt.

"No I meant about the phone."

Amos only sighed, grabbed the phone, punched the End button until the power went off and tossed it back to Charlie. "You boys need an education," the old man muttered and went back to turning the steaks over the open-flame.