Work Text:
Louisa May Alcott was the first to step onto the ice that day. She tested it first, and then slid out across it. "Just fine," she called excitedly. Mary Shelley reluctantly followed. "Be careful, darling."
"Of course!"
"I think I will stay on ground," Fyodor Dostoevsky said doubtfully. "I do not want to break it."
"Are you coming, Ernest?" Mary Ann asked.
"No... I'll stay here with our old pal Fyodor." Said writer grinned at him.
"Suit yourself." She followed the other ladies. "Seems just fine."
Mary Shelley had caught up to Louisa May by then. "I don't think we should be on the ice," she fretted.
"It's thick enough," Louisa May reassured her, and then took a couple quick steps and slid across the ice. Mary Ann followed suit, and soon they were laughing and sliding back and forth. Louisa May clung to Mary Ann's arm after she nearly fell over, giggling. "Hemingway won't join?"
"Nope. His loss." Mary Ann looked at the man, now sitting comfortably on a rock just above the slope of the bank to the small lake. "Isn't it?"
He looked at her from talking to Fyodor. "What's that?"
"Your loss!"
"Sure, sure."
Mary Ann tilted her head back and laughed as she slid across the ice again. Her hair was gleaming, almost gold in the sun, and then she was gone.
Time stopped, and then Ernest jumped to his feet. He stared at the crack where she had disappeared, and now the piece of ice was floating away and then she broke the surface with a huge gasp. Fyodor rushed forwards. "Help with-" He was already getting low on the bank, reaching out a long, thick stick. Mary Ann grasped for it, missed, again, and she had a hold. Ernest ran to Fyodor's side and Louisa May and Mary joined them on the bank. Mary ran up towards the house.
Mary Ann clung tighter to the branch, but it was slipping from between her fingers. She scrabbled desperately, every instinct screaming at her, but she felt so heavy. And then she was pulled onto the ice, dragged to the shore, lifted onto the ridge above it. She gagged and retched up lake water.
"Mary Ann, Mary Ann, it's okay, you'll be okay, we're getting-"
"Ernest." His name came out wrong, jumbled and broken.
Fyodor slid off his jacket and wrapped it around her. "You do the same, she will not get as much chill."
Ernest nodded and took it off quickly. Fyodor snatched it from him and slid it under her.
It seemed like no time at all when Mary got back with Edgar. He paled - if that was possible - when he saw the shivering woman, and said, "Bring her back to the house, Lenore's calling a doctor."
Mary Ann was taken to the Yellow Room. It had yellow floral wallpaper - it's namesake - a large bed, and, importantly, a fireplace. Louisa May fixed up a roaring fire as Fyodor set Mary Ann down on the bed. She was shivering under three coats.
Lenore entered the room. "Doctor's coming." Her gaze fell to the woman on the bed. "What are you doing? Get her out of the wet clothes." She paused and looked around pointedly. Fyodor nodded. "Tell me if you need me for anything." He left.
Ernest moved to her and started pulling away and unbuttoning the coats. He got to her shirt, and Lenore cleared her throat. Ernest continued. "Trust me, she would not mind."
"I can-"
"Okay, ghosty lady? I've seen more than a bit of her bare skin, so buzz off."
"Okay," Lenore muttered. "Uh... they also recommended someone share body heat."
Ernest arched an eyebrow, pulled off her shirt, and then pants. He unbuttoned his shirt and let it fall, and got under the covers with Mary Ann. He curled around her - she was shivering and felt cold to touch. Her breath was slow and shallow, eyes closed. He pressed closer to her. "Sweetheart, you'll be okay. You'll be fine. You're safe here, you're safe." He didn't know if it was true.
Mary Ann mumbled something unintelligible. Ernest brushed back hair from her forehead and she turned in towards his body. Lenore raised her eyebrows but said nothing.
"Ernest." Her voice was little more than a rasp of a whisper.
"Yes, darling," he whispered back.
"Ernest."
He leaned over her - her eyes were still closed. She turned over slowly and then her beautiful brown eyes were staring into Ernest's hazel-brown.
"You're safe, darling. You're safe."
She reached up to his shoulders - her hands were cool but not cold. "Honey."
"My dear. I love you. Do you remember?"
"The lake." She nodded slowly. "I love you, too. You saved me."
"It was mostly the others," Ernest admitted. "I had no idea what to do. Fyodor. And Mary went to tell Lenore and the Raven Fetishist. And Lenore called the doctor."
Confusion clouded her eyes. "Did the doctor come?"
"Yes, but you were mostly unconscious, and then sleeping."
"I remember, Ernest. It was you. You saved me."
"I didn't, Mae. I wish I had, but I didn't. I felt so scared-" his voice trembled "-and helpless, darling."
"You were right there."
"I know I was. I didn't know what to do."
She smiled slowly. "You totally did."
"I didn't." He suddenly sniffed loudly, looked away, wiped his eyes.
Mary Ann sat up against the pillows. "What's wrong?"
"I didn't help! I was frozen and I didn't know what to do until other people told me, and you could have died and I didn't help and I'm so scared of losing you!" He snapped.
Mary Ann took his hand in both of hers. She traced his fingers lightly. "Then what are you doing in bed with me?"
"Sharing heat," he muttered, wiping his eyes again with his free hand.
"You helped with that, right?"
"I guess. The ghost told me to."
"But you're still here. What else did you do?"
"Nothing."
"There was something else."
"I guess... my jacket..."
"Yeah, see?"
"But-"
"But nothing. You helped save me. And I love you. I'm not going to die anytime soon."
"Okay. I just felt... weak," he confessed.
Mary Ann turned to sit on his lap. She took his face in her hands, her fingers curling against the slight stubble. "Ernest. You are not weak. You are the bravest, strongest man I know."
"But-"
"Shut up." She leaned in and kissed him lightly, and then slipped off his lap. "Now, I'm hungry."
He laughed. "I'll see what there is, Your Highness."
"See? You're helpful." She winked and he blushed a little, and both laughed lightly, and then Ernest went to find food for his girlfriend.