Hushed Hearts in Waters Unknown (3/4)
TITLE: Hushed Hearts in Waters Unknown
AUTHOR: merylandrebafan
CROSSOVER: The Devil Wears Prada/The River Wild
PAIRING: Miranda/Gail
RATING: Eventually M
DISCLAIMER: Don’t own them, wish I did!
A/N: I had this idea a while back while I was watching The River Wild. I have had the first part done for some time now but I have had no time to work on it so I did not post it. I now have time and hope to have the whole thing done rather soon. I'm still working on Killer Heels and Prada so not to worry!
A/N2: I have listed that this is 4 parts, it might be a little more, not certain yet.
A/N3: thanks to surena_13! She saved my ass by still having a copy of my first part after my computer crashed!
SUMMARY: Since her divorce from Stephan Miranda has gone through several boyfriends, none of them lasting long, with her latest boyfriend the twins con Miranda into a bet on how long the boyfriend will last. They win and Miranda gets stuck on a white water rafting trip with her very attractive female guide, Gail. They are both attracted to each other and have both kept their hearts out of harm’s way for a long time. They are both treading in unknown waters with this attraction, will they be able to face it and give in to what they so desire? Or will they keep their hearts pleas hushed?
I FORGOT TO MENTION THIS IN THE FIRST TWO POSTS BUT I’M OBVIOUSLY SCREWING AROUND MAJORLY WITH THE TIMELINES ON THIS SINCE THE RIVER WILD CAME OUT IN LIKE 1995.
PART 3
They came across their first rapids and as instructed the girls put their helmets on and Miranda watched as Gail navigated the boat with ease through the rapids. She looked over and saw her daughter’s faces filled with joy and Miranda smiled, loving the feel of moving through the rapids. Gail looked over and saw Miranda smiling and returned it. “Exhilarating isn’t it?” Gail asked “Yes, much more so than I remember.” Miranda replied. “You’ve been rafting before? I thought you looked awfully at ease with the water.” Gail commented. “Yes, once when I was a little girl my father took me, I loved it. This is the first time I have done this since then. He died when I was young and it was one of the last things we did together.” Miranda said and the caught herself. She had known this woman what? An hour and a half and she was already revealing more to her than any of her employees who worked with her for years knew. “I’m sorry to hear that. I grew up on the river; my father took me on trips quite often because we lived not too far from where the take off point is.” Gail said. Miranda nodded and turned her attention to her girls. They traveled along the river for another two hours when Gail pulled them over to her usual first stop. “We got a later start today, but tomorrow we will have an early start, so believe me when I say you young ladies are going to want to go right to sleep after we eat some dinner.” Miranda was surprised to see her girls nod their heads.
Dinner was a simple affair of fish and vegetables and Miranda became even more amazed by the fact that the twins ate it without complaints and really seemed to enjoy the food. The sun was just beginning fade when the twins were settled inside the tent with Miranda wishing them both sweet dreams. The twins were soon out like a light and Miranda walked back towards the fire where Gail was and sat down opposite her. “I have never seen them go to sleep that quickly.” Miranda said. “The same thing happened to my son the first time I took him down the river. He went out like a light. You are so excited when you are out on the river, and running through all those rapids and it has your adrenaline flowing. Then once you settle and things were down it’s sort of the equivalent of coming off and energy drink, you just sort of crash.” Gail explained and Miranda nodded her understanding. “Forgive me if this is crossing the line but my daughters’ said something about you taking your family out here for a vacation and being kidnapped? This was all explained to me very briefly after we got here, as I had no idea I was coming here.” Miranda said Gail was about to respond when she got a confused look on her face. “You didn’t know you were coming here?” she asked. “No, my girls wanted to go on a vacation, and I thought they had picked the Bahamas. They set it all up with my assistant, which should have been a red flag but I never considered this being something they would want to do, anyways they enlisted the help of one of my friends, and he got me the right kind of clothing, which is a good thing because I stepped off of that Jet in heels.” Miranda said and rolled her eyes and Gail laughed. “I had a feeling your daughter’s were smart and frankly when I saw you, you didn’t strike me as the type to plan a river rafting trip with your daughters.” Gail said and Miranda smiled.
“Oh! I’m sorry you asked a question, Yes, I was taking my son down the river for his birthday, my husband, well he my husband at the time, was with us and at the very beginning of the trip we ran into a couple of guys who seemed nice enough, turned out they had robbed a cattle auction and were looking for a getaway; anyways we headed down the river we saw them a couple other times then once they were waiting for us, their names were Wade and Terry, told us their guide had ditched them because their guide and Terry’s sister used to be married. I offered to help take them down river, because it was the polite thing to do and I really didn’t think they were bad people, shows what I know.” Gail said and paused. “Then things got a little weird, on the night of my son’s birthday they tried to give him two hundred dollars, which I thought was strange, because no one brings that kind of money with them on a rafting trip, We made Roark, my son, give them back the money. I went down further along the bank a little while later to bathe. It had started raining and our dog, Maggie was with me and all of a sudden she started growling, so I turned around and he was just leaned against a tree about 30 feet away staring at me, just watching me.
It frightened me and I told Tom and he agreed we needed to get away, only when we tried the next day they caught us and from then on took us hostage. At one point I thought they had killed Tom, but Wade missed him and Tom ended up hiding out and following us. I found out that their intention had been to run the gauntlet. It scared the hell out of me because I had it set in my mind that I couldn’t do it. I had done it once before but I was 18 years old with two other experience guides. After going through it I knew I never wanted to again. My plan was to flip the boat and catch the air pocket and let them be carried away by the tide. However that fell through when I realized that Tom was alive, it had been the night before when I thought he had been shot. He sent up a smoke signal to let me know he was alright. Something we learned from the Indians in this area. So with my son in the back of the boat I found new determination to make it through and I did, I made those assholes help me too. I told them their lives depended on them listening to me and I wasn’t bullshitting them when I did. After we made it through Tom had sat up a trap and he let me know by drawing pictures on an old log, something else learned from the Indians in this area, It escalated into a fight and I broke Terry’s arm with and oar and he ended up pinning Tom against a rock with a knife. I had managed to grab Wade’s gun, it had one bullet left in it and had gotten tossed into the water. I found it and took aim, I wasn’t going to shoot him, especially when he said I wasn’t like him, he was right. I went to fire it off into the air and nothing happened. Wade thought that there was no more bullets and told Terry to kill Tom. I quickly looked at the gun and found the bullet and cocked it into place, and then ……I did it. I shot and killed Wade. Terry pretty much left us alone and sulked after that.” Gail said and took a drink of water.
“You were very brave to do that for your family; only the one thing I don’t exactly comprehend is if you were a guide then why were you taking your family for a vacation on the river if you worked there all the time?” Miranda asked. “Oh! I was a guide, until I was 25 then I went to college and got a teaching degree, and I started teaching history in Boston at a school for the deaf. My father is deaf, so I wanted to help children with that disability learn.” Gail said. “When you say your name is Miranda, you mean THE Miranda Priestly don’t you?” Miranda smiled faintly “Yes that’s me, Dragon Lady, Snow Queen, The Devil in Prada, Satan’s fashionable spawn, you get the idea.” Miranda said and rolled her eyes. “I have heard of RUNWAY, but in my line of work I don’t have much use for fashion. I had never seen your picture before though, and I can tell you’re not at all what I expected.” Gail said thoughtfully. “What did you expect?” Miranda asked. Gail got up and moved over to Miranda’s side and sat down beside her. “Well you’re not the bitch I thought you were, you are kind, you are kind, and you are loving, I can see that by the way you take care of your children, and I expected you to be pretty, but that far surpassed my expectations as well. I also have theory.” Gail said ‘And this theory is?” Miranda asked raising an eyebrow. “My theory is that the bitch that you let everyone see is just an image, that way people don’t walk all over you and they know who’s boss. I think the real you is sitting here and talking to me, and I get the feeling that doesn’t happen very often so I am going to consider myself flattered.” Miranda smiled.
“You’re right, about everything.” Miranda said. Miranda realized they were getting closer together and knew she needed to act quickly “So how did you end up as a river guide again?” Miranda asked “Well, after the whole incident I went back home and my husband and I continued to try to patch together our failing marriage, however he proved he didn’t give a damn and after it ended I found myself wanting to get away from the city, so I moved back down here, I teach during the school year, and I’m a guide during the summer months.” Gail said. “My children spend the school year down here with me, and get part of the summer with their father.” Gail said Miranda nodded “I know how that goes, thankfully my ex husband and I both live in Manhattan so the girls actually get two weeks with me and two with him, and so on, and we alternate holidays.” Miranda said Gail looked down at her watch and her eyes went wide. “It’s 8 p.m., I didn’t realize it was getting this late, you’re going to want to head on to bed, we have to get up early.” Gail said. Miranda nodded. She was beginning to feel the effects of the day. Miranda got up and so did Gail When Miranda realized how close they were standing her breathe caught in her throat. They couldn’t seem to pull away from her. She barely knew her, and yet the attraction she felt was becoming stronger. Gail looked at her with her shining blue eyes and bright smile and Miranda couldn’t help it. She leaned in and before she knew it she was kissing Gail. To her shock Gail did not pull away, she instead wrapped her arms around Miranda and pulled her closer. Miranda ran her tongue along Gail’s lower lip and shivered when her mouth parted to let her tongue in. When Miranda’s tongue touched Gail’s she felt her knees go weak and then it was over Gail pulled away realizing what she had done. “I’m sorry Miranda that should not have happened good night.” Gail put out the fire and took off to her tent.
Miranda lay in hers in between the twins and cursed herself “You stupid fool, she doesn’t want you! How could you do that? You’re such an idiot!” she thought and managed to fall into a fitful sleep. Meanwhile Gail was in her tent crying herself to sleep “She will be like everyone else, she will leave you, you can’t like her, no worse you can NOT fall for Miranda Priestly.” Gail said to herself through her tears.
The next morning they were up early and as they sat around eating breakfast the twins noticed there was something off, with the way the adults were acting. “Mom did you sleep alright?” Caroline asked. “Yes Bobbsie, I did.” Miranda said and took a sip of her coffee. Had she had a good night’s sleep? No, she couldn’t get the thought of kissing Gail out of her head, she kept reliving it and every time she did her stomach fluttered. She looked over at Gail and saw her blush and turn her head away. “All right guys, let’s get everything packed up and get going shall we?” The girls jumped up and ran into the tent to finish packing their things. Miranda turned to speak to Gail, but found she had already headed towards her tent.
Gail had rushed to her tent to take it down, anything to get her mind off of Miranda Priestly, who looked stunning in a pair of shorts and a bikini top. Her stomach was toned, and flat, showing no evidence that she had ever given birth to her twins. Everything about her was perfect and Gail’s mouth watered looking at her. “What the hell are you doing? You are straight; you are not a lesbian, or even a bisexual!” She cursed to herself and worked feverishly to get her tent down.
Twenty minutes later the tents were packed and they were on the river. Gail expertly navigated the boat through the rapids and watched the excitement on the twin’s faces and smiled. They were good kids, she could tell. After a couple of hours out on the river Gail turned to see Miranda rubbing the girls down with sunscreen, as well as herself again. Despite all of Miranda’s sunscreen, her skin was starting to show a hint sun. “With being out in the sun as much as we are I don’t think even SPF 500 is going to keep your skin from getting sun kissed Miranda.” Gail said and Miranda smiled. “I guess not, I would prefer not to have tan lines but it looks like there’s no avoiding it, looks like I’m going to have to stick with the lower cut swim suits that way when I get back to work I can do my best to hide the lines until the tan fades.” Miranda said. Gail smiled and said “All right guys the rapid we are coming up on is a 4 so I want all of you to take a secure seat, and girls put your helmets on. Cassidy did as she was told, but Caroline was hesitant. “Do I have to wear this? It makes my head feel kind of itchy.” “Yes Caroline you do, I’m sorry that’s one of the rules when riding with me, all children must wear helmets.” Caroline looked at her stunned that she had gotten he name right and Miranda looked shocked as well.””What?” Gail asked upon seeing their faces. “Mom and Nigel have always been the only ones who can tell us apart! Even our Dad gets us confused!” Cassidy said. “Oh” Gail said and smiled. “Anyways here we go!” Gail said as she started navigating them through the rapids and all four of them delighted in the feel of their stomachs flying.
They went all day stopping briefly for lunch, and then as the sun started to dip they pulled up into the spot where Gail always camped and set up. Dinner was quickly eaten and as soon as the tents were up the twins had collapsed and Miranda chuckled. “I could get used to them falling asleep like that.” Miranda said and turned to Gail who was headed towards her tent. “Yea, well I’m turning in early, I’m beat Good Night.” As Gail started to enter the tent Miranda came up behind her. “Gail there is a conversation you and I are in desperate need of having.” Miranda said and Gail turned around to face Miranda. “Miranda, I’m sorry about last night, I should not have done that, and that’s all there is to it.” Gail said. “Really, That’s all?” Miranda said in her RUNWAY tone and Gail immediately knew Miranda wasn’t fooled. “It’s my job to pay attention to detail Gail. I might not have paid any attention yesterday, but I certainly did today. I’ve seen you staring at me when you thought I wasn’t looking, and then when I wasn’t I could feel your eyes on me. “I know that you are attracted to me.” Gail tried to pull away but Miranda grasped her arm tighter.
“You need to hear this, I barely know you, yet I feel connected to you, from the moment I first saw you I was attracted, when your hand touched mind a bolt of electricity shot through my body that is something I have never felt before in my entire life. I have never had these feelings for a woman before, and you should know that I never let down my walls and let someone in as easily as I have you. I did it without knowing I had and by the time I realized it, it was too late. “Miranda said and loosened her grip on Gail’s arm. “I don’t know if I can trust you Miranda, you work hard, just as much as my ex husband does, how do I know you are different from him? That you will be there for all of the important things? Having to cancel a dinner I can understand, I can understand the coming home late and getting up early, your job demands that from you. But what I can’t handle is missing Birthdays, anniversaries, games, or anything else important.” Miranda let go completely and closed her eyes. “How did we go from talking about a confession to lifelong plans? Why am I okay with that? And why does it break my heart to know that what she says is true?” Miranda thought and turned around to her tent. Unaware of the fact that the twins had heard the entire conversation.
“So that’s why those two are acting so weird.” Cassidy said and Caroline nodded. “I think we should help them don’t you?” Caroline said getting a glint in her eye. Cassidy grinned and shook her head, then they quickly laid down and pretended to be asleep when Miranda got into the tent. The twins waited until they knew Miranda was sound asleep, and then they snuck out of their tent and over to Gail’s, and silently entered it. “Gail” they whispered and shook her gently. “Gail opened her eyes to see Cassidy and Caroline crouched down next to her and she immediately shot up. “Girls is everything all right?!” “Shhh!” “Everything is fine!” Caroline said “We wanted to talk to you.” Cassidy said and Gail looked confused. “We heard the conversation you had with our Mom.” Cassidy said and Gail’s eyes widened. “Listen, we don’t care, we have never heard Mom open up like that to anybody, and we see that she likes you and that you like her.” Caroline said. “What you said about Mom is true, she leaves early in the morning and sometimes comes home late, but on most nights she makes it home for dinner. She rarely ever misses any of our events, and never a birthday, The one time Mom missed one of our recitals is because a freak hurricane switched it’s course and ended up in Florida where my Mom was shooting and so her flight got canceled. She did everything she could to get back in time, and ended up just missing it.” Cassidy said. “She puts us ahead of work, if one of us is sick she goes home for the day to take care of us, she loves us. She even tried to spend time with Stephen but he would get so mad when she canceled a dinner, she never missed anything important with him either but that wasn’t enough for him. So if all that crap you said about not caring about the regular work schedule is true then you should have no problems with our Mom. She does the best she can and if you care about her than you realize it’s more than enough.” Caroline said. “We are sorry for waking you.” Cassidy said and then the two headed out of the tent and Gail was left shocked. She had never expected THAT to happen. What Miranda had said was true, she had feelings for her. “I cannot deny that I feel something for her, I just don’t want to get hurt again.” Gail said to herself and slipped off into sleep, dreaming of white hair and ice blue eyes.
REVIEWS?!?!?!
AUTHOR: merylandrebafan
CROSSOVER: The Devil Wears Prada/The River Wild
PAIRING: Miranda/Gail
RATING: Eventually M
DISCLAIMER: Don’t own them, wish I did!
A/N: I had this idea a while back while I was watching The River Wild. I have had the first part done for some time now but I have had no time to work on it so I did not post it. I now have time and hope to have the whole thing done rather soon. I'm still working on Killer Heels and Prada so not to worry!
A/N2: I have listed that this is 4 parts, it might be a little more, not certain yet.
A/N3: thanks to surena_13! She saved my ass by still having a copy of my first part after my computer crashed!
SUMMARY: Since her divorce from Stephan Miranda has gone through several boyfriends, none of them lasting long, with her latest boyfriend the twins con Miranda into a bet on how long the boyfriend will last. They win and Miranda gets stuck on a white water rafting trip with her very attractive female guide, Gail. They are both attracted to each other and have both kept their hearts out of harm’s way for a long time. They are both treading in unknown waters with this attraction, will they be able to face it and give in to what they so desire? Or will they keep their hearts pleas hushed?
I FORGOT TO MENTION THIS IN THE FIRST TWO POSTS BUT I’M OBVIOUSLY SCREWING AROUND MAJORLY WITH THE TIMELINES ON THIS SINCE THE RIVER WILD CAME OUT IN LIKE 1995.
PART 3
They came across their first rapids and as instructed the girls put their helmets on and Miranda watched as Gail navigated the boat with ease through the rapids. She looked over and saw her daughter’s faces filled with joy and Miranda smiled, loving the feel of moving through the rapids. Gail looked over and saw Miranda smiling and returned it. “Exhilarating isn’t it?” Gail asked “Yes, much more so than I remember.” Miranda replied. “You’ve been rafting before? I thought you looked awfully at ease with the water.” Gail commented. “Yes, once when I was a little girl my father took me, I loved it. This is the first time I have done this since then. He died when I was young and it was one of the last things we did together.” Miranda said and the caught herself. She had known this woman what? An hour and a half and she was already revealing more to her than any of her employees who worked with her for years knew. “I’m sorry to hear that. I grew up on the river; my father took me on trips quite often because we lived not too far from where the take off point is.” Gail said. Miranda nodded and turned her attention to her girls. They traveled along the river for another two hours when Gail pulled them over to her usual first stop. “We got a later start today, but tomorrow we will have an early start, so believe me when I say you young ladies are going to want to go right to sleep after we eat some dinner.” Miranda was surprised to see her girls nod their heads.
Dinner was a simple affair of fish and vegetables and Miranda became even more amazed by the fact that the twins ate it without complaints and really seemed to enjoy the food. The sun was just beginning fade when the twins were settled inside the tent with Miranda wishing them both sweet dreams. The twins were soon out like a light and Miranda walked back towards the fire where Gail was and sat down opposite her. “I have never seen them go to sleep that quickly.” Miranda said. “The same thing happened to my son the first time I took him down the river. He went out like a light. You are so excited when you are out on the river, and running through all those rapids and it has your adrenaline flowing. Then once you settle and things were down it’s sort of the equivalent of coming off and energy drink, you just sort of crash.” Gail explained and Miranda nodded her understanding. “Forgive me if this is crossing the line but my daughters’ said something about you taking your family out here for a vacation and being kidnapped? This was all explained to me very briefly after we got here, as I had no idea I was coming here.” Miranda said Gail was about to respond when she got a confused look on her face. “You didn’t know you were coming here?” she asked. “No, my girls wanted to go on a vacation, and I thought they had picked the Bahamas. They set it all up with my assistant, which should have been a red flag but I never considered this being something they would want to do, anyways they enlisted the help of one of my friends, and he got me the right kind of clothing, which is a good thing because I stepped off of that Jet in heels.” Miranda said and rolled her eyes and Gail laughed. “I had a feeling your daughter’s were smart and frankly when I saw you, you didn’t strike me as the type to plan a river rafting trip with your daughters.” Gail said and Miranda smiled.
“Oh! I’m sorry you asked a question, Yes, I was taking my son down the river for his birthday, my husband, well he my husband at the time, was with us and at the very beginning of the trip we ran into a couple of guys who seemed nice enough, turned out they had robbed a cattle auction and were looking for a getaway; anyways we headed down the river we saw them a couple other times then once they were waiting for us, their names were Wade and Terry, told us their guide had ditched them because their guide and Terry’s sister used to be married. I offered to help take them down river, because it was the polite thing to do and I really didn’t think they were bad people, shows what I know.” Gail said and paused. “Then things got a little weird, on the night of my son’s birthday they tried to give him two hundred dollars, which I thought was strange, because no one brings that kind of money with them on a rafting trip, We made Roark, my son, give them back the money. I went down further along the bank a little while later to bathe. It had started raining and our dog, Maggie was with me and all of a sudden she started growling, so I turned around and he was just leaned against a tree about 30 feet away staring at me, just watching me.
It frightened me and I told Tom and he agreed we needed to get away, only when we tried the next day they caught us and from then on took us hostage. At one point I thought they had killed Tom, but Wade missed him and Tom ended up hiding out and following us. I found out that their intention had been to run the gauntlet. It scared the hell out of me because I had it set in my mind that I couldn’t do it. I had done it once before but I was 18 years old with two other experience guides. After going through it I knew I never wanted to again. My plan was to flip the boat and catch the air pocket and let them be carried away by the tide. However that fell through when I realized that Tom was alive, it had been the night before when I thought he had been shot. He sent up a smoke signal to let me know he was alright. Something we learned from the Indians in this area. So with my son in the back of the boat I found new determination to make it through and I did, I made those assholes help me too. I told them their lives depended on them listening to me and I wasn’t bullshitting them when I did. After we made it through Tom had sat up a trap and he let me know by drawing pictures on an old log, something else learned from the Indians in this area, It escalated into a fight and I broke Terry’s arm with and oar and he ended up pinning Tom against a rock with a knife. I had managed to grab Wade’s gun, it had one bullet left in it and had gotten tossed into the water. I found it and took aim, I wasn’t going to shoot him, especially when he said I wasn’t like him, he was right. I went to fire it off into the air and nothing happened. Wade thought that there was no more bullets and told Terry to kill Tom. I quickly looked at the gun and found the bullet and cocked it into place, and then ……I did it. I shot and killed Wade. Terry pretty much left us alone and sulked after that.” Gail said and took a drink of water.
“You were very brave to do that for your family; only the one thing I don’t exactly comprehend is if you were a guide then why were you taking your family for a vacation on the river if you worked there all the time?” Miranda asked. “Oh! I was a guide, until I was 25 then I went to college and got a teaching degree, and I started teaching history in Boston at a school for the deaf. My father is deaf, so I wanted to help children with that disability learn.” Gail said. “When you say your name is Miranda, you mean THE Miranda Priestly don’t you?” Miranda smiled faintly “Yes that’s me, Dragon Lady, Snow Queen, The Devil in Prada, Satan’s fashionable spawn, you get the idea.” Miranda said and rolled her eyes. “I have heard of RUNWAY, but in my line of work I don’t have much use for fashion. I had never seen your picture before though, and I can tell you’re not at all what I expected.” Gail said thoughtfully. “What did you expect?” Miranda asked. Gail got up and moved over to Miranda’s side and sat down beside her. “Well you’re not the bitch I thought you were, you are kind, you are kind, and you are loving, I can see that by the way you take care of your children, and I expected you to be pretty, but that far surpassed my expectations as well. I also have theory.” Gail said ‘And this theory is?” Miranda asked raising an eyebrow. “My theory is that the bitch that you let everyone see is just an image, that way people don’t walk all over you and they know who’s boss. I think the real you is sitting here and talking to me, and I get the feeling that doesn’t happen very often so I am going to consider myself flattered.” Miranda smiled.
“You’re right, about everything.” Miranda said. Miranda realized they were getting closer together and knew she needed to act quickly “So how did you end up as a river guide again?” Miranda asked “Well, after the whole incident I went back home and my husband and I continued to try to patch together our failing marriage, however he proved he didn’t give a damn and after it ended I found myself wanting to get away from the city, so I moved back down here, I teach during the school year, and I’m a guide during the summer months.” Gail said. “My children spend the school year down here with me, and get part of the summer with their father.” Gail said Miranda nodded “I know how that goes, thankfully my ex husband and I both live in Manhattan so the girls actually get two weeks with me and two with him, and so on, and we alternate holidays.” Miranda said Gail looked down at her watch and her eyes went wide. “It’s 8 p.m., I didn’t realize it was getting this late, you’re going to want to head on to bed, we have to get up early.” Gail said. Miranda nodded. She was beginning to feel the effects of the day. Miranda got up and so did Gail When Miranda realized how close they were standing her breathe caught in her throat. They couldn’t seem to pull away from her. She barely knew her, and yet the attraction she felt was becoming stronger. Gail looked at her with her shining blue eyes and bright smile and Miranda couldn’t help it. She leaned in and before she knew it she was kissing Gail. To her shock Gail did not pull away, she instead wrapped her arms around Miranda and pulled her closer. Miranda ran her tongue along Gail’s lower lip and shivered when her mouth parted to let her tongue in. When Miranda’s tongue touched Gail’s she felt her knees go weak and then it was over Gail pulled away realizing what she had done. “I’m sorry Miranda that should not have happened good night.” Gail put out the fire and took off to her tent.
Miranda lay in hers in between the twins and cursed herself “You stupid fool, she doesn’t want you! How could you do that? You’re such an idiot!” she thought and managed to fall into a fitful sleep. Meanwhile Gail was in her tent crying herself to sleep “She will be like everyone else, she will leave you, you can’t like her, no worse you can NOT fall for Miranda Priestly.” Gail said to herself through her tears.
The next morning they were up early and as they sat around eating breakfast the twins noticed there was something off, with the way the adults were acting. “Mom did you sleep alright?” Caroline asked. “Yes Bobbsie, I did.” Miranda said and took a sip of her coffee. Had she had a good night’s sleep? No, she couldn’t get the thought of kissing Gail out of her head, she kept reliving it and every time she did her stomach fluttered. She looked over at Gail and saw her blush and turn her head away. “All right guys, let’s get everything packed up and get going shall we?” The girls jumped up and ran into the tent to finish packing their things. Miranda turned to speak to Gail, but found she had already headed towards her tent.
Gail had rushed to her tent to take it down, anything to get her mind off of Miranda Priestly, who looked stunning in a pair of shorts and a bikini top. Her stomach was toned, and flat, showing no evidence that she had ever given birth to her twins. Everything about her was perfect and Gail’s mouth watered looking at her. “What the hell are you doing? You are straight; you are not a lesbian, or even a bisexual!” She cursed to herself and worked feverishly to get her tent down.
Twenty minutes later the tents were packed and they were on the river. Gail expertly navigated the boat through the rapids and watched the excitement on the twin’s faces and smiled. They were good kids, she could tell. After a couple of hours out on the river Gail turned to see Miranda rubbing the girls down with sunscreen, as well as herself again. Despite all of Miranda’s sunscreen, her skin was starting to show a hint sun. “With being out in the sun as much as we are I don’t think even SPF 500 is going to keep your skin from getting sun kissed Miranda.” Gail said and Miranda smiled. “I guess not, I would prefer not to have tan lines but it looks like there’s no avoiding it, looks like I’m going to have to stick with the lower cut swim suits that way when I get back to work I can do my best to hide the lines until the tan fades.” Miranda said. Gail smiled and said “All right guys the rapid we are coming up on is a 4 so I want all of you to take a secure seat, and girls put your helmets on. Cassidy did as she was told, but Caroline was hesitant. “Do I have to wear this? It makes my head feel kind of itchy.” “Yes Caroline you do, I’m sorry that’s one of the rules when riding with me, all children must wear helmets.” Caroline looked at her stunned that she had gotten he name right and Miranda looked shocked as well.””What?” Gail asked upon seeing their faces. “Mom and Nigel have always been the only ones who can tell us apart! Even our Dad gets us confused!” Cassidy said. “Oh” Gail said and smiled. “Anyways here we go!” Gail said as she started navigating them through the rapids and all four of them delighted in the feel of their stomachs flying.
They went all day stopping briefly for lunch, and then as the sun started to dip they pulled up into the spot where Gail always camped and set up. Dinner was quickly eaten and as soon as the tents were up the twins had collapsed and Miranda chuckled. “I could get used to them falling asleep like that.” Miranda said and turned to Gail who was headed towards her tent. “Yea, well I’m turning in early, I’m beat Good Night.” As Gail started to enter the tent Miranda came up behind her. “Gail there is a conversation you and I are in desperate need of having.” Miranda said and Gail turned around to face Miranda. “Miranda, I’m sorry about last night, I should not have done that, and that’s all there is to it.” Gail said. “Really, That’s all?” Miranda said in her RUNWAY tone and Gail immediately knew Miranda wasn’t fooled. “It’s my job to pay attention to detail Gail. I might not have paid any attention yesterday, but I certainly did today. I’ve seen you staring at me when you thought I wasn’t looking, and then when I wasn’t I could feel your eyes on me. “I know that you are attracted to me.” Gail tried to pull away but Miranda grasped her arm tighter.
“You need to hear this, I barely know you, yet I feel connected to you, from the moment I first saw you I was attracted, when your hand touched mind a bolt of electricity shot through my body that is something I have never felt before in my entire life. I have never had these feelings for a woman before, and you should know that I never let down my walls and let someone in as easily as I have you. I did it without knowing I had and by the time I realized it, it was too late. “Miranda said and loosened her grip on Gail’s arm. “I don’t know if I can trust you Miranda, you work hard, just as much as my ex husband does, how do I know you are different from him? That you will be there for all of the important things? Having to cancel a dinner I can understand, I can understand the coming home late and getting up early, your job demands that from you. But what I can’t handle is missing Birthdays, anniversaries, games, or anything else important.” Miranda let go completely and closed her eyes. “How did we go from talking about a confession to lifelong plans? Why am I okay with that? And why does it break my heart to know that what she says is true?” Miranda thought and turned around to her tent. Unaware of the fact that the twins had heard the entire conversation.
“So that’s why those two are acting so weird.” Cassidy said and Caroline nodded. “I think we should help them don’t you?” Caroline said getting a glint in her eye. Cassidy grinned and shook her head, then they quickly laid down and pretended to be asleep when Miranda got into the tent. The twins waited until they knew Miranda was sound asleep, and then they snuck out of their tent and over to Gail’s, and silently entered it. “Gail” they whispered and shook her gently. “Gail opened her eyes to see Cassidy and Caroline crouched down next to her and she immediately shot up. “Girls is everything all right?!” “Shhh!” “Everything is fine!” Caroline said “We wanted to talk to you.” Cassidy said and Gail looked confused. “We heard the conversation you had with our Mom.” Cassidy said and Gail’s eyes widened. “Listen, we don’t care, we have never heard Mom open up like that to anybody, and we see that she likes you and that you like her.” Caroline said. “What you said about Mom is true, she leaves early in the morning and sometimes comes home late, but on most nights she makes it home for dinner. She rarely ever misses any of our events, and never a birthday, The one time Mom missed one of our recitals is because a freak hurricane switched it’s course and ended up in Florida where my Mom was shooting and so her flight got canceled. She did everything she could to get back in time, and ended up just missing it.” Cassidy said. “She puts us ahead of work, if one of us is sick she goes home for the day to take care of us, she loves us. She even tried to spend time with Stephen but he would get so mad when she canceled a dinner, she never missed anything important with him either but that wasn’t enough for him. So if all that crap you said about not caring about the regular work schedule is true then you should have no problems with our Mom. She does the best she can and if you care about her than you realize it’s more than enough.” Caroline said. “We are sorry for waking you.” Cassidy said and then the two headed out of the tent and Gail was left shocked. She had never expected THAT to happen. What Miranda had said was true, she had feelings for her. “I cannot deny that I feel something for her, I just don’t want to get hurt again.” Gail said to herself and slipped off into sleep, dreaming of white hair and ice blue eyes.
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