Victoria's White Knight

“Please, give me another chance,” Dustin begged, his hand squeezing her thigh with an insistent pressure, but no so much that it was painful.

Victoria opened her mouth to reply but was interrupted by the opening of the shack door. A blonde woman, dressed in the grey and green Ranger uniform stepped through the frame, removing the flat hat from her head as she entered. She paused seeing the teens, specifically that Dustin had leapt up from his position on the bed, his face guilty and red as she placed him in her mind next to Victoria, bare legs exposed all the way up to her panties.

“Miss, is this boy bothering you?” She asked, glancing at Dustin was a quiet fury.

“No, no, not at all,” Victoria was quick to assure the ranger. “We know each other from school, or at least we did before he moved away. We were just catching up.”

“Very well,” she relented, closing the door and placing her hat on a nearby counter. “Though it’s still rather inappropriate of him to be sitting so close.”

“Sorry, Ma’am,” Dustin said to the ranger, and then to Victoria, “Sorry, Miss.”

“It’s really not an problem,” Victoria insisted, her need to be polite overpowering the unsettled feeling Dustin was giving her. “You must be Jennifer. Dustin told me that you found me.”

“Jennifer White,” She said, holding out her hand to the younger blonde. “It was sheer luck really. If Dustin and I hadn’t been in that cave trying to map the habitats of bats for the guided tour, we never would have known you were there.”

“Hopefully some of my friends would have come looking for me when I didn’t return,” Victoria replied, feeling much more comfortable now that someone else was in the shack, especially someone who seemed to confirm Dustin’s narrative of events. “I’m staying in the Ravers’ cabin for Spring Break. Do you know it?”

“Ravers? Yes, Heather use to come to the camp all the time back when I was in training. Her cousin volunteered like Dustin’s doing last year,” Jennifer replied, taking a seat on the stool and crossing her legs. “Do you know Kurt?”

“Not well. I only just met him this week,” Victoria admitted and then winching as a rogue bolt of pain ignited in her leg.

“Does it hurt?” Jennifer asked, leaning forward. “I brought water and painkillers, though I’d rather not give you any paracetamol until I’m sure you don’t have a concussion.”

“I’ll be fine, thanks,” Victoria said bravely. “I just keep forgetting I’m hurt and then any involuntary twitch at all cause me pain and I’m reminded.”

“At least keep the leg up on the bed and rest it,” Jennifer said, gently lifting her foot up onto the mattress, swinging the young teen length-ways along the bed before pulling a bottle of water from her jacket pocket. “And drink this.”

Victoria accepted the water graciously then twisted open the cap and thirstily drank down at least a third of the bottle. Water dripping from her lips and chin, she panted and asked, “Do you really think I hit my head that hard?”

“It’s hard to tell. I don’t think the bump itself knocked you out, I think that was just the shock of the fall, and you seem lucid enough,” Jennifer assured the younger woman. “But problems sometimes don’t present until several hours later, so I’d prefer if you just rested for now.”

“When will I be able to go back to my friends?” Victoria asked.

“I can take you back first thing tomorrow morning,” Jennifer suggested, and Victoria nodded, willing to accept that. At least the young blonde had already told Ashley her whereabouts, so no one would be too worried.

“How did you end up in that cave?” the Ranger asked, derailing Victoria’s train of thought.

“Oh, my friends and I were hiking through the forest, but I got separated from the others. And then I fell,” Victoria explained, blushing, sounding like a clumsy idiot who couldn’t even walk. “I rolled down a hill and through a hole into that cave.”

“Ah, that makes sense. Sometimes tectonic movement can cause fissures to open or cave-ins. They usually aren’t that big, nowhere near the size of an earthquake, but they can still cause small cracks like the one you fell into,” Jennifer realised. “but you shouldn’t have been out on the trail alone.”

“I know. I was with my boy…” Victoria’s eyes moved to Dustin and she corrected herself, “…sort-of boyfriend, but I went ahead. He never caught up to me though and then I fell into that hole. So, I hope he’s okay.”

“I’m sure he’s fine,” Dustin grumbled. “We didn’t see or hear anyone near the caves while we were transporting you here.”

“That doesn’t sound like he’s fine,” Victoria said with a frown. “What if he got mauled by a bear and never made it to the caves?”

Jennifer shook her head. “The Rangers would have been called in to deal with a bear attack and Emily would have mentioned it when I was talking to her a while ago. I think it’s much more likely your boyfriend also got turned around but ended up heading back to the cabin and therefore was more easily found by your friends. Besides, I know that Heather already called you in missing.”

“Huh?” Victoria said, looking up. “You do?”

“Emily told me when I checked in with her at the station. Said a young girl from the Ravers cabin reported that her blonde friend had gone missing," Jennifer revealed, smiling. "She was in the process of assembling a search and rescue team for the morning when I arrived and told her Dustin and I had already found you and brought you here.”

“Wow, so I was worried over nothing then,” Victoria replied happily.

The young blonde teen felt a wave of relief wash over her. She was, mostly, unharmed and safe and her friends wouldn’t need to be worried for her. Though, as she found herself comforted by the fact that everything had turned out well in the end, her bright green eyes fell upon Dustin and she was reminded of what he wanted. The two of them, together again. And then it seemed to Victoria had she hadn’t solved her problems at all, she’d simply traded them for new ones. Now she was struck with the same dilemma that she had imposed on Gavin; to start a new with her old boyfriend or refresh her relationship with her current one.

“You should get some rest,” Jennifer insisted, standing. “I brought some sleeping bags in the truck, so we can stay here with you tonight. Or, if you’d rather be alone…”

“There’s no need for both of us to be, Miss White,” Dustin cut in. “I could stay and keep her safe if you need to get going…”

“It would be better if I were at the Ranger Station in the morning. That Emily is a good worker but sometimes forgetful, and there is that scientist coming to assess the bat habitat tomorrow that we need to prepare for…” Jennifer pursed and looked from Victoria to Dustin and back. “But it seems rather inappropriate to leave the two of you together, unsupervised.”

“We’re both adults, you can trust us,” Dustin assured the Ranger, and then, putting Victoria on the spot, suggested, “Why don’t we let Victoria decide? Whoever she’s most comfortable with?”

They both looked to her and Victoria felt her face redden at having to choose. Dustin, Jennifer and Dustin or just herself, all alone, in this shack all night?