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No matter what, Marco would be there to support her. He didn't want to leave her alone, with anyone, for too long. It was just his instinct. He saw how much it had bothered her, and how much it had taken to get her to release those fears. He smiled back at her when she turned to look up at him, and his fingers brushed her shoulder again, just touching softly. "Alright," he said softly. "Let's finish up whatever we have to do and then eat dinner. I'm hungry." He grinned.

His words broke the dead silence, and the tension, as Tisha started to chuckle, then laugh. After a couple minutes, she gasped out, "And you were saying, not that long ago, that you weren't hungry!" Stepping back, she looked into the smokehouse, then barred the door from outside, making sure that nothing could get into the large building to get at the smoking deer inside. "I think we're done for now, but in the morning, I need those hides brought up to the house. I want to get started on them. And I guess I was cooking again tonight?"

Both of the boys nodded at her guess and then grinned. Marco broke out into chuckles as well, and then they stepped back to let her shut the door. Now that the tension had been broken, they all turned and headed for the house. "Had I known I would be mashing brains this evening, I would have waited to wash until I was done." He grinned at the two of them, as they stepped up onto the porch and headed inside.

Tisha grinned at his statement, shaking her head. "But we were up there then, not after the brain-mashing. Besides, you rinsed off in that bucket. And you can wash off at the creek while the two of you get me some water. I need one bucket left empty all night, and tomorrow morning, I want the stove cleaned out of ashes into the dry bucket, before new wood gets put in and the fire for breakfast gets started. And since I'm cooking dinner tonight, one of you gets breakfast in the morning. And since Marco is usually up with me in the mornings, he can clean out the stove before I make coffee. Or it can get cleaned now."

Marco laughed at her and shook his head. She could certainly be a drill sergeant when she needed to be. He held up his hand and grinned, "I'm sleeping in tomorrow." Then stuck his tongue out, "I'll clean it after you make dinner tonight before we go to bed. Might as well do it and get the work done." He shrugged, then walked over to his pair of buckets and picked them up, "I'll be back." Black Elk picked up his pair as well and they carried the four of them down to the creek. Marco washed off like she had suggested and then they filled the buckets. They watered the horses then, before carrying the full buckets back to the house and setting them down for her.

Tisha shook her head at his antics, then sat down in the kitchen, rummaging through the wild vegetables they'd gathered today, and separating them into piles before pulling out a few cans of the vienna sausages, a few more of spam, and then started cutting the meat off the rabbits. They'd need to start culling the rabbit dens while rabbit was still good to eat. They'd need the meat at least until they could get herds of animals up here to raise for food.

The meat went into a pot, and as they returned with the full buckets, she poured part of one into the pot. The wild vegetables went into the remaining water so she could get the dirt off them before adding them to the pot for dinner. "The other buckets will be for dishes tonight. But I still need a dry bucket for the ashes. I need the ashes for tanning. That's the other reason I wanted them pulled out before we started a new fire in the stove. Once they get hot, it won't be easy to put them into the bucket until they cool off."

The sun was setting, and she picked up a couple of the oil lamps and lit them, giving the room a soft, warm glow as she worked on their dinner, while leaving the two of them to figure out how to get a dry bucket and clean the stove out before putting in fresh wood for the fire to cook dinner.

"D'oh!" Marco said with a laugh, hitting his head with the palm of his hand. "Stupid! I should have carried only half the load!" He grinned and shook his head. "Alright, let's see. I could dump it over Black Elk's head," he laughed. "Really though, I'll go give the garden some more water." He picked up one of the buckets and carried it back out the door, heading across the lawn to the garden and gently giving the new seedlings some much needed water. He returned a short while later with the empty bucket, "If we have a towel I'll dry it out....then I can clean the stove and we can start the new fire."

Tisha grinned and nodded. "Upstairs in the hallway. The linen closet has more towels than what I grabbed to bring up here. We always had a set each that we used to travel from the city to here with. But we kept three sets per person up here." Her hands were in the water, rinsing off the wild onions at the moment, before pulling them up from the water and looking them over in the dimming light. Putting them on the cutting board on the table, she cut the bulbs off, removing the tendril-like roots from them, then cut them up and put them into the pot before chopping the length up and adding the green shoots to the pot. Looking up at Black Elk, she said, "Grab me one can of carrots and two cans of diced potatoes, please."

Marco walked upstairs to the hall linen closet and grabbed one of the towels he saw folded up in there. He carried it back down and began to towel out the bucket. Black Elk headed to the pantry and pulled out the three cans that she asked for, then brought them back and got out the can opener as well, "Working in a kitchen." He said with a grin and a cluck of his tongue, "Who ever heard of the future chief of the Lakota working in a kitchen." He grinned. Marco laughed and took the now dry bucket over to the stove, "Do you have like a shovel or a scoop or something to use for this? I don't fancy getting my paws all sooty before dinner."

Tisha laughed at Black Elk's words. "It could be worse. You could be working in the kitchen scrubbing everything clean. Or you could be working the stables, shoveling shit." Her eyes drifted to Marco and she just watched the rippling of his fur over his muscles while he dried out the bucket. "Under the sink is where we keep the ash shovel. It's not that large, so you'll have to scoop and dump rather often, but it does have a hand, or - in your case - paw, guard. Of course, I won't be minding the view of you bending over or the view of your muscles rippling under your fur."

He laughed again and walked over to the sink, opening the door below it and taking out the small scooper that they had in there to get the ash out of the stove. He went over and knelt on the floor, opening the front of the wood stove and lifting the bucket to the lip of it. He reached in and scooped out a large pile of ash, dumping it into the bucket, then repeated, over and over.

Tisha kept to her word, her eyes never leaving Marco as he cleaned out the stove of the wood ashes. Their meeting, just at her lowest moment, was so crucial to her current state of sanity. She had no clue what she would have done had she not met him when she had. Rising to her feet, she took a step towards him, then leaned over him, and kissing his nose as he looked up at her. "I love you, Marco."

Marco smiled over at her as she came up to him. He raised his eyebrows and then smiled when she kissed his nose. "I love you too darling," he said warmly, reaching back in a moment later to scoop a couple more piles of soot out of the stove and into the bucket."I think you love my muscles, personally." He grinned, then stuck his tongue out at her and said, "This is almost finished."

Tisha laughed and grinned mischievously. "I could wax poetic on those muscles of yours, Marco, but you have a good head on your shoulders too, and a warm, caring heart." Moving back to the table, she finished chopping the items she needed for their dinner, then added the domestic, orange carrots, right along with the wild, white carrots. Finally, she added the potatoes and lifted the pot to the table. She waited for Marco to finish with the ashes, then looked to both of the males. "The ashes can go next to the door, and fresh wood added to the stove. Once we get a fire going, I'll get the pot on the stove and coffee started, then we can move things around for dirty water and clean water. We'll start recycling the dish water on the plants in the garden and the ones we still need to plant around the house."

Marco chuckled softly, but his heart beat a bit faster as she told him what she thought of him. He looked away and into the stove, digging about to finish with the last of the wood ashes that were there, before he pulled back and stood up. He put the shovel back under the sink, then carried the full bucket of ash to the door. He walked out onto the back porch then, and picked up several pieces of wood to bring back in and arrange in the stove.

Tisha knew she'd surprised Marco with her words, but she hoped it was in a good way. His silence wasn't helping her know how he felt about what she'd said, especially with how he'd turned back to the task at hand. Sighing softly, she sat down, waiting for the fire to get started up on the stove, then got up again, pulling out another pot for the water to heat for the dishes. That freed up one bucket to start draining the sinks into it, one at a time, so the cooler water could be added to the sinks before the hot water.

He might not have really known how to respond to compliments like that. No woman had ever told him anything like that before. He took the time while he was out getting the wood to clear his thoughts, and once he came back inside and got the fire going, he watched her working on the pots and pans that they needed to do all the various chores that evening. When she had her back turned to him, he walked up behind her and put his hands on her waist, whispering, "Thank you..."

She leaned back against him, rubbing herself against his soft pelt before tilting her head to the side and pressing her lips against his. As she kissed him, she whispered back, "You're more than welcome, love. But I did nothing more than speak the truth." One thing she had noticed was that when she and Marco were in a loving mood, everyone else... well, since they really got caught up in the love they felt, everyone else meant just Black Elk... faded into the background. It wasn't something they did on purpose, and she knew her friend knew that. Giving Marco a wry smile, she gave him another quick kiss, then looked at Black Elk as he put their dinner and the coffee pot on the stove. "The dish water can wait. But hungry folks need food first," he said with a chuckle.

Marco's paws rubbed against her sides, up and down along her ribs as she pushed back into him and looked up at his face. He leaned over and brushed his tongue over her lips and then they met. He nodded, "I know, but still, I thank you. No one has ever told me anything like that before." He held her close a moment, concentrating on the only thing that he could at that moment, her. Then, when the moment passed, he was able to pull away and let her get back to work, "Yes, as they say, never stand between a hungry man and his dinner."

"Yeah, well, this lady doesn't eat like a bird. Not with just the three of us running this place for now. It might get easier when the tribe and Aunt Melanie and Brielle and Theron and all get here, but at the same time, it will get harder, since we have to feed more people. It's one reason we need the deer meat now. Smoke it and it lasts longer, so when everyone gets here and starts chipping in, we can truly make the meals community meals," Tisha said, a little peeved at the old adage that a woman was supposed to eat like a bird. Though, if she had to live by that saying, she's eat like an eagle. Full meals, not little tiny bites.

Marco laughed and shook his head, sending the fur around his face and head rippling. He grinned and nodded at her as he spoke, "No, I don't imagine you eating like a bird..." He chuckled as he moved over to sit at one of the chairs by the table and rest one leg over the other. "I personally think that if we can have lots of hunters getting food it will ease the burden on the individuals...not that I mind hunting down food for us at all." He smiled and turned to lean an elbow on the table and his chin atop his hand.

Tisha grinned as she heard Black Elk speak up for the first time in a while. "That's what communal living is all about. Everyone helping each other out. The garden that you planted will help everyone who lives here, and most houses on the property will end up with a small plot they tend to. Once we get some herd animals in here, we'll find out who is best suited to take care of them, and that will be their job, while others will hunt, cook, clean, tan and tend garden. Anyone not doing their share of the work will either have to leave or not get fed or something along those lines. In the old days, as my father would say, if someone didn't pull their weight, the tribe shunned them. They were given no communal food. They had to do everything themselves. And no one would talk to them. They normally left the tribe quickly, or died in the winter."

Tisha gave a slight shake of her head. "We can't do that immediately, Black Elk. Most likely, we'll have older people who have a hard time walking around or bending down. So we have to find out the why of things before just kicking them out of the village. But this is all in supposition that more than just tribal members and family members are coming here. We don't know if we're going to have anyone else here or not yet."

Marco listened to both of them voicing their opinions on what he had brought up. He understood what Black Elk was saying, it was like what John Smith had said on the founding of Jamestown: 'if you didn't work, you didn't eat'. It made sense. But, then again, so did Tisha's point of view. He looked between them, "I see what both of you are saying. I don't plan to leave anyone behind that looks like they need help. That means women and children that we come across, who are alone, will come without question. Men with families, I could see us taking if they need help...single men....I will be very wary of. Once they get up here we can teach them all how to do the work we need."

Tisha gave a slight shudder at the thought of more men around, but she knew she needed to get past the past and work on the present and future. "Triply wary of single men, Marco, but what about a gay couple? We can't just turn them down because you think they're just single men. They are their own family, after all." She gave a wry smile, then shook her head slightly. "Don't get me wrong, I don't think we're not going to run across a lot of them, but in this day and age, it is common enough to happen."

He nodded and shrugged, "They're still men...but I can't discriminate. If they're willing to work and not going to try and push their lifestyle on anyone, then I can't stop them." He smiled at her, thinking about how she thought of the feelings of others. He was thinking from the standpoint of safety, of wanting to make sure she didn't get hurt by anyone ever again. He licked his lips and teeth and then settled back in his chair.

Tisha grinned at his words, and gave him a quick kiss. "Well, at least there's one thing you don't have to worry about with gay guys around me. They won't be attracted to me, so less chance of them raping me like those thugs did." She leaned against him, snuggling herself against his side, drawing comfort from his nearness, and her eyes sought out Black Elk's. "I still need to learn to defend myself with a knife and barehanded, Marco. Just in case this happens again. I don't ever want to feel helpless like that again!"

Marco glanced up at Black Elk, then back at her as she pressed herself into his side and snuggled there. He slipped an arm around her waist and drew her into his lap for a moment, "I don't know about the Lakota or other ways of fighting, but I do know how I was trained, and I can teach you what I know." He wasn't very informative about HOW or who he had been trained by. If she asked he would tell, but it wasn't something he normally broadcast.

She lay her head on his shoulder as she sat in his lap, enjoying the moment of peace and comfort, then looked at Marco. "Where'd you get trained, Marco? Was it the military, or the police force?" Unlike a typical teen, she didn't say 'police force' with any attitude against them, but rather, with a restrained respect for the duties of the law enforcement officials that had kept the city safe. And from the sound of it, it wasn't a new respect after what happened to her, but rather a long lasting one.

Marco's eyes darkened a bit as she asked him that question, and he took a moment to reply, before speaking quietly, "You don't get some of the skills that I had by being in the police." He looked at the ceiling for a moment, thinking how to phrase his next words. "I was a... contractor." He looked back at her. "Not the kind of contractor that you'll think of. I contracted out for missions that were too dangerous or off the record to send troops into. I was trained by a man that I only ever knew as 'Scorpion'. He trained me... us..." He closed his eyes as the memory came back. "Before that, I started out on a swat team. It went well for two years until shit hit the fan and a mission we were on got botched. Some civvies got killed. I left, started doing private security, then, one thing led to another. Anyway...."

Reaching over to him, Tisha slid her fingers into his hair and pulled him down for a kiss. "Well, I'm glad you have the training you have. Otherwise, we'd never have met and my life would be looking a lot worse than it is now. I kinda hope my brothers were at work when things went bad. At least then, I'd know they're both safe. Well, relatively safe." She gave a slight shake of her head, sighing into Marco's shoulder as the familiar sadness started to fill her. "We'll just have to wait and see if they show up. Both of them were due for some time off."

Marco smiled and rubbed her back and shoulder, "I'm glad I had it too. I did some things I'm not proud of when I was younger. I hope that I can make it back now." He kissed her on the cheek. "I don't think your brothers have to worry about getting time off from their bosses now." He laughed. "Don't worry about them. If they are anything like you, they'll make it up here alright."

Tisha snuggled into his chest as Black Elk spoke up, "Take Tisha at her strongest that you've seen so far, and multiply it by ten. That's Tristam, or Tris as most of us call him. Multiply it by a hundred and you have Ian. Tris is in the police force and Ian is military." Tisha nodded, then a soft gasp slipped from her. "Ian was supposed to be on a flight the night before..." Her words trailed off, the implication of her rape hanging over them.

He slowly nodded his head at the information they gave him, "Well in that case I'm sure they will be fine and trying their damndest to get up here." He heard the fear in Tisha's voice as she mentioned that her elder brother, Ian, was in the military and was supposed to be on a plane the night before the crash. "But that was the night before. I'm sure the plane landed safely and he's on the ground." He smiled and rubbed her side a bit more.