Timeline Notes: This story takes place directly afterwards my fanfic When Love Came Down. Author’s notes are at the end of the story. Warning: Again, this is self-edited J I’ve been having so much fun writing, that I want to post it NOW J Heehee.

by Chelsea

Twenty-two year old Trixie Belden sighed ecstatically in her just turned fiancé’s arms. When 26 year-old Jim Frayne had asked her to marry him, she had of course said yes. As she turned her head up to kiss her fiancé, Trixie noticed that the snow that had been falling softly was now come down faster and thicker.

"Jim," said Trixie, "Have you noticed the snow?"

Jim frowned. "It’s coming down a little too thick for my taste. I say that we need to be getting back to the clubhouse."

Trixie nodded. Holding hands, they started back down the trail that they had followed from the clubhouse. Within ten minutes, the snow was swirling down so thick that they could barely see.

"Jim," Trixie said over the howling wind, "I don’t know where we are."

"Gosh, Trix, to tell you the truth, neither do I," Jim sounded so dejected that Trixie’s heart broke.

"It’s okay, Jim," she said. "As long as we’re on the trail, we’ll end up somewhere eventually."

"Like maybe Kalamazoo," said Jim under his breath. It was a well-known fact that the Wheeler Preserve stretched out for miles and miles on any side of you, and people who didn’t know their way around the woods could get easily lost and not found for days.

After they had gone on for about ten more minutes, Jim finally stopped Trixie. "Trix," he said, "I don’t have a clue where we are. I don’t even think that we’re on the path anymore."

**************

 

Inside the clubhouse, the six other members of the BWGs were getting worried. Jim and Trixie had been gone for about 20 minutes, and it was starting to snow pretty heavily.

"What do you think is taking so long?" asked Brian concernedly.

"I don’t know," said Honey, "There’s no telling what might be taking them so long." She winked at Brian.

"Still though," said Dan. "They should have been back by now. Jim knows the woods well enough to know that you shouldn’t be in them after dark. Especially when it starts snowing."

"I’m sure they’re fine," said Di. "They’ll probably be back here in a few minutes. In the meantime, let’s dance some." She changed tracks on the CD player so it played "Rocking Around the Christmas Tree" and grabbed her husband, Mart, to start dancing with her. Soon, everyone was pleasantly occupied. That is, until the wind started howling.

"That’s it," said Dan. "I’m going out there to find them."

"Dan," said Cheyenne, "The only thing you could accomplish by going out there is to get lost yourself. Jim and Trixie are pretty smart people, I’m sure that they’ve found some source of shelter by now. The best thing for us to do is to sit here and wait out the storm. Then, when it stops, we can go out on and hunt for them."

"I guess you’re right," said Dan, "It’s just hard to sit here and wait, knowing that they’re out there in the middle of a blizzard."

"I know it is," said Cheyenne, "but the best thing we can do is to sit here and wait. Otherwise, they’ll probably be sending out a search team for us."

"Cheyenne’s right," said Brian. "There are probably some things that we can do in here though, like putting bright lights in all the windows. That way, if they are close by, maybe they can see the lights through the snow."

Everyone found this a good suggestion and they all set about putting kerosene lamps in front of all the windows. After they completed that task, they set down again.

"I can’t stand all this sitting and waiting," said Dan. It was well known that Dan Mangan was a man of action, not one who just sat down and waited.

"If worse comes to worse," said Mart, "we could tie a rope about our waist, and the other end around the doorknob, and you could go out like that. That way, if you get lost, we can reel you back in like a fish."

"But Mart," said Honey, "Remember when Brian, Jim, and Trixie were lost in that blizzard a few years back, they set Jim out on a rope and it broke." Quite a few years back, Jim, Brian, and Trixie had set out to find the Belden family dog, Reddy, who was missing. It started snowing after they had found the dog caught in a trap, and they found shelter in an abandoned schoolhouse on the Maypenny property. When Jim went out to find wood to build a fire, the rope that he was on broke. If Trixie hadn’t thought of ringing the old school bell, Jim might have been lost and frozen before they could have found him in the morning.

"It’s okay, Honey," said Brian with a small laugh. "I think that all the ropes that we have here are in pretty good condition."

"That’s true," said Honey, "but let’s wait a little while before we do anything that risky anyway. We have everything that we need here; food, heating, blankets. We can even bed down tonight on the chairs, sofa, and loveseat."

"Yeah," said Dan with a sigh. "But I really hate thinking that I get to go to bed on a full stomach, in a warm clubhouse, on a sofa, when Jim and Trixie are only God knows where, with none of that."

"We all fill that way," said Di, "but for right now we need to make the best of it and get ourselves something to eat. We’ll think more rationally on a full stomach, and maybe by then the storm would have stopped and we can go out there and look for them."

They had just gotten through eating, when Di’s cell phone rang, surprising them all. Mart looked at it in amazement.

"I didn’t remember that we had that," said Mart. He looked thoughtful for a minute, and then jumped up with a start. "Honey," he said, "Did Trixie have her cell phone with her when you guys left the house?"

"Of course," said Honey, not getting it. "She always takes it with her in case Mrs. Belden needs to get a hold of her. Oh! Oh!" she exclaimed. "I get it! If Trixie has her cell phone with her, we can call her and see how she’s doing!"

"Exactly," said Mart with a grin.

Cheyenne jumped up and hugged Mart. "Mart, you are a genius!" she exclaimed. Everyone agreed with her.

Since Mart had thought of the idea, he was the one who got to make the call. Getting his wife’s cell phone, he punched in a series of memorized numbers. After about six rings, he finally hung up.

"No answer," he said dejectedly. Suddenly, the phone in his hands rang. Mart visibly started, then answered the phone.

"Hello?" he asked.

"Mart?" asked a voice that sounded very far away.

"Trixie? Where are you?" Everyone gathered around Mart.

"We’re not sure," said Trixie faintly, with the wind howling, it was hard to hear her. "I’d forgotten about my cell until it rang. You should have seen Jim jump," Trixie let out a small giggle. "But we’re not really sure where we are. For awhile we thought that we were on the path, but now we’re just not sure."

"Are you two alright, though?"

"Yeah," said Trixie, "Cold, but otherwise alright."

"Good," said Mart with a sigh of relief. Dan than took the phone from him.

"Trix, where are you?"

Trixie sighed. "We don’t know Dan. All that we know is that we’re somewhere in the preserve."

"Trixie, you need to find some kind of shelter; a cave, or a really big tree or something."

Trixie said something to Jim and then giggled. "How about an abandoned school house?"

Dan had heard about Trixie, Jim, and Brian getting lost in a blizzard a few months before he came, so he knew about the schoolhouse. "Yeah, an abandoned building would be good right now. Just be careful, okay? We can’t stay on here too long, we don’t want to run your battery down."

Trixie looked down at her phone and frowned. "It is getting awfully low. I forgot to charge it last night."

Dan smiled. It was so like Trixie to forget to charge her battery. "Does Jim have his phone with him?"

Trixie relayed the message to Jim. A minute later Dan had his answer.

"No," she said. "He left it on his dresser at Manor House."

Dan banged his had against the wall in frustration. "Trixie, I’m going to get off here to save what battery you have left. I’ll call you again in an hour or so. Try to find some sort of shelter and please be careful."

"We will Dan. We’ll be waiting for your call."

"Bye Trix." And Dan ended the connection. It was time to call their parents and let them know what was going on.

******************

 

Jim and Trixie trudged on. They kept a lively conversation going, recalling the adventures that they had as teens, trying to distract themselves from the peril that was all around them.

"Remember when we were caught in a blizzard while looking for Reddy?" asked Trixie, the last words catching on a sob.

Jim looked over at Trixie with concern. "Yeah. I remember, we survived that one and we’ll survive this one." He wrapped Trixie in hug, frowning when he noticed how bad she was shivering.

"I’m tired Jim," Trixie said. This made Jim worry worse, he had to keep her going, she couldn’t go to sleep.

"You know what I liked best about when we were caught in that blizzard?" questioned Jim as they started walking again.

"What?" asked Trixie, curious.

"The way you called out for me when Brian and I fell. ‘Jim! Oh, he’s been killed!’" Jim said in a high-pitched voice.

Trixie made an indigent noise and scooped up a handful of snow and packed it into a snowball. She threw it and it hit Jim square in the face. She laughed at his look of surprise and started to run. She hadn’t gotten far though, when Jim tackled her to the ground.

"Hey!" cried Trixie as Jim threw snow into her face. What ever she was about to say was cut short though as Jim kissed her.

"On you," he said to Trixie when their kiss broke, "snow looks good. You should wear it more frequently. Especially on your eyelashes. Much more becoming than mascara."

Trixie giggled. "I remember that day. Ben was teasing me about my ring. I remember something else you said too."

"And what was that?"

"That ‘do you think that I’d get myself engaged to anybody as dumb as that?’" Trixie punctuated this remark with a fist full of snow down Jim’s back.

Jim gave a great start and started wriggling around, trying to rid himself of the ice down his back. Once most of the snow was melted and he could finally breath again, he had a remark of his own. "And do you know what I remember?" he asked with a twinkle in his eye.

"No, what?"

"You said that if I were the last man on earth you still wouldn’t marry me."

"Well, we were obviously both wrong," said Trixie with a giggle as Jim helped her stand up. The snow had cleared up a little bit, but it was still extremely difficult to see.

"Can you tell where we are at now?" asked Trixie.

"No," said Jim. "But think about it. This is my dad’s property, and there are practically a hundred abandoned buildings here and there on it. Surely we will run into one of them sooner or later."

"Hopefully," said Trixie. "I’m getting colder by the minute."

"We’ll try to find some sort of shelter soon," Jim promised. They had hiked about 20 more minutes when Trixie stumbled into something.

"Hey!" said Trixie. "Jim, look. It looks like a cave!"

"Great find, Trix! Let’s just hope that this one isn’t inhabited by a catamount!"

Trixie giggled, remember the two times she had run into catamounts by their caves. The first time was when Bobby fell down a hole looking for the "kitty". Thankfully, Dan came and helped Trixie get Bobby out of the hole, and Regan shot the catamount right before it attacked them. The second time was outside of a cave in the Ozarks. Trixie, and the rest of the BWG’s, minus Dan, had visited Uncle Andrew at his lodge in the Ozarks. They had gone fishing and it started raining. Finding a cave, they gathered inside of it, only to find that something else was inhabiting it. Thankfully, whatever it was wasn’t there. When Trixie went outside to see if the rain had stopped however, she ran right into the catamount. Mr. Moore had shot it midair as it leapt towards Trixie.

They entered the cave, and both Trixie and Jim were thankful to see that it showed no signs of being home to any type of animal.

"I guess we should call Mart and tell him that we’re out of the snow," said Jim as they settled down.

"Yeah," said Trixie distractedly. "You know, there’s something familiar about this cave."

"Really?"

"Yeah." Trixie walked over towards the back of the cave. Suddenly, she disappeared.

"Trixie! Trixie, where are you?"

"Down here," said Trixie. "I knew there was something familiar about this cave. It’s the same one that Bobby got caught in!"

"Well, come back up here before you get trapped in there!"

Trixie popped back up a second later, holding something gray and dingy in her hand.

"What is that?" asked Jim, "It looks like an over grown rat."

"It’s Bobby’s old shoe!" Trixie crowed. "It was still down there after all this time." Just then, her phone rang.

"Hello."

"Hey Trixie! How are you two faring out there?"

"Better," said Trixie. "We found a cave."

"Good," said Mart. "Do you think you could build a fire in there?"

"Jim’s trying," said Trixie. "I sure hope he can. It’s awfully cold."

"I’d say that it is," said Mart. "Do you have any clue now where you’re at?"

"Mart, It’s a blizzard. But yes, we do have some clue of where we’re at."

"Where’s that?"

"You remember that old cave Bobby was trapped in while looking for the ‘kitty’?"

"Yes," said Mart carefully.

"Well, that’s where we’re at. We’re in that cave."

"What?! Trixie are you demented? What if some new ‘kitty’ is calling that cave home now?"

"Chill, Mart. Nothing, to our best knowledge, is calling this cave home now. There’s not a sign that it’s been inhabited since that old catamount."

"Good." Mart breathed a sigh of relief. "Look, I’m gonna go so that we don’t run your battery down. I’ll call back again in an hour. Okay?"

"Okay, Mart."

"Be careful, Trix. I love you."

"I love you too, Mart." Click.

***************

 

Jim finally got a fire going, after several miss-attempts, which Trixie teased him for mercilessly.

"And you call yourself a Bob-White," she teased. "You can’t even start a fire!"

"And I suppose that you can do any better?" asked Jim as he rubbed two sticks together. "From now on, I’m carrying a lighter in my pocket."

"It’s okay," Trixie said, coming up behind Jim and wrapping her arms around him. "We’re pretty well sheltered here, so it doesn’t really matter if we have a fire."

"I think it does matter too, Trixie. Without a fire, we’re liable to freeze to death in here!" Jim turned around and wrapped her in a strong hug, drawing strength from her small frame. With a frown, he noticed that she was shivering. That gave him all the more determination to get a fire started.

Finally, he had one started. They both huddle close to it, glad of its warmth.

"After we get Mart’s phone call, we might as well settle down for the night. It’ll be morning at least before we can leave here," Jim said.

"Okay," said Trixie. "What time is it anyway?"

"11:30," said Jim. "It’s getting pretty late. Hopefully, those at the clubhouse will sleep too, instead of worrying about us."

"I hope so," said Trixie, stifling a yawn. About twenty minutes later, her phone started ringing, but it wasn’t Mart calling.

"Hello," said Trixie.

"Trixie? Baby, are you okay?"

"Moms? Jim and I are fine. We’re in a cave."

"What?! Are you sure you’re okay? There isn’t anything else living in this cave, is there? Because you have a pretty bad history with caves."

"Moms. I’m okay. Jim is okay. The cave is perfectly fine. In fact, I even know this cave pretty well."

"You do?"

"Yep. It’s the same one that Bobby got trapped in."

Mrs. Belden did not take that news well at all. Finally, Mr. Belden wrestled the phone from his wife and started talking to Trixie.

"Trixie, are you sure that that’s the one that Bobby got stuck in?"

"Positive, Dad. I pulled his shoe out of the hole."

Mr. Belden groaned in frustration. Somehow, Trixie always managed to make a bad situation worse.

"Trixie, is there anything still living in that cave?"

"No, Dad. I’m absolutely positive that there is nothing else living in the cave. Yes, Jim is too. Here Jim, talk to my father and assure him that there is absolutely nothing living in this cave."

Jim talked to Mr. Belden for several minutes. Finally, Mr. Belden was assured that there was nothing in the cave, and if they even suspected that something might come back, that they were to get out of it immediately.

Almost as soon as they disconnected the call with Mr. Belden, the phone rang again in Jim’s hands. Instead of Mart calling though, it was Honey.

"Hey big brother," said Honey in the soft voice of hers. "How are you guys doing?"

"Good," said Jim. "How are you guys making out over there at the clubhouse?"

"We’re doing good actually, much better then you too are. At least we have blankets, couches, a fire, and food."

Jim groaned. "Please don’t mention food," he said. "This time we don’t even have birdseed to eat. I don’t know what gave me the bright idea to go out before we ate."

"Oh Jim!" said Honey, sounding as if she were about to cry.

"Shhh, Honey, don’t get yourself upset, we really are making out pretty good. I even finally got a fire going."

"Well, Dan’s all ready to tie a rope to his waist and go out there and find you two."

"Put Dan on the phone please, Honey."

"Sure," said Honey, and passed the phone to Dan.

"Hey, Jim," said Dan as he got on the phone. "Do you guys want me to try to find you?"

"No," said Jim, "Absolutely not. There is no way that either Trixie or I want you out in this blizzard. You just stay put. Now in the morning, if the snow has stopped falling, I wouldn’t mind you bringing some of that wonderful lasagna that your wife makes so well."

Dan chuckled. "I may do that. Anyway, you’ll probably be seeing me in the morning."

"Okay, bye, Dan."

"Bye."

****************

 

Trixie and Jim went to sleep not long after Dan’s call. They both awoke at around three in the morning, to a strange noise.

"Hey, what’s that?" asked Trixie as she leaned up.

"I don’t know," said Jim uneasily. "Something doesn’t sound right."

All of a sudden, Trixie realized what sounded so weird. "The wind! It’s stopped! The snow has too, I bet!"

"You’re right, Trixie. Let’s go check, maybe we can leave."

"That would be good," said Trixie slowly as they started out the cave door, "except for one thing. It’s three in the morning Jim Frayne, we won’t be able to see our hands in front of our faces."

"I think that we’ll be able to," said Jim with a grin.

"Did snow fog your brain when I got you with that snowball? It’s going to be pitch black out there!" But Trixie was contradicted when she walked out the door. A large, beautiful full moon was shining brightly in the sky, casting a beautiful glow over the woods.

"Oh," breathed Trixie in awe, "it’s so beautiful."

Jim smiled down at her. "It is," he said, "and this way, we’ll be able to see our way almost perfectly back to the clubhouse."

They started out at a sedate pace, partly to enjoy the beauty shining down upon them, and partly because the snow was almost two feet deep, and was almost impossible to walk through. Poor five foot, 2 inch Trixie had to wade through it, until Jim finally picked her up and carried her.

A few hours later, they finally made it to the clubhouse. Jim sat Trixie down as he quietly opened the door. He and Trixie peeked in, finding everyone asleep, everyone that is, except Dan.

"Holy…." Dan said as the door opened. He looked on in amazement as two of his best friends entered the doors. "How did you guys get here? You should have spent the night in the cave, I was just about to come looking for you."

"Well," said Jim as he embraced his friend in a hug, "we thought that we would save you the trouble."

"Man," said Dan, "I don’t know how you guys got through that. How deep is it out there anyway?"

"About to my knees," said Trixie as she shook snow off of her pant legs. "Jim carried me most of the way."

"Yeah, and you got pretty heavy after awhile," Jim teased.

While Trixie shook snow off her pants, Dan caught the glint of something shiny on her finger.

"Hey, what’s that?" he asked as he caught her hand.

Trixie grinned at him. "That is the ring that was worth going through a blizzard, and two foot snow for. That is my engagement ring."

Dan whistled. "She sure is a beauty. You’re a lucky man, Jim."

Jim grinned. "That I am, my friend, that I am."

*****************

 

Cheyenne Mangan awoke to something that nearly startled the wits out of her. On the floor, coming out from many layers of blankets, poked a red head and a blond head. Cheyenne shrieked and stood up, waking up many of the other sleeping occupants of the clubhouse as well.

"Trixie! Jim! You guys are back! When did you get back? How did you get here?"

Trixie sleepily raised her head and looked at her sister. "Jim and I got back sometime around 5 this morning…" Anything else that Trixie was about to say was cut off when about 5 different people bear-piled onto the couple.

"I’m so glad that you’re back!"

"We were so worried!"

"Where did that ring come from!?"

This last comment was from Honey, who had immediately noticed the ring on Trixie’s finger.

"That, is my new engagement ring," Trixie said with a smile.

"Don’t tell me that my big brother finally got up enough guts to finally pop the question!" said Honey happily as she embraced her friend.

"Yep!" said Trixie happily, "and you saw what happened when he did. Any time our relationship progresses, a deadly experience happens. Jim and I have decided that we’re not even going to have a wedding, we’re going to run off to Vegas and get married in a drive-through chapel."

Everyone burst out laughing. When Diana could finally speak, she said, "Trixie Belden! I would never forgive you if you didn’t give us all a chance to plan you the perfect wedding. Plus, Moms and Mrs. Wheeler probably wouldn’t forgive you either!"

"Maybe not," said Trixie, wiping her streaming eyes, "but be warned now, Jim and I will not be responsible for any major catastrophe that happens during, or thereafter."

"Fair enough," said Brian as he hugged his sister. "We’ll have the entire police force present during the wedding."

"Plus the fire department," said Mart.

"Plus the Navy," laughed Dan.

"Plus the Marines," said Cheyenne with a laugh, "You never know what might happen when Trixie’s involved!"

Jim just smiled and pulled his special girl closer to him, as a special song came on the radio, one, in the later years, would become their song.

 The End

Authors Notes: The title of the story, and the lyrics come from the song "See Me Through" by Kenny Rogers and can be found on the album "Across My Heart", a very wonderful album J

TBH Main