~

His hands were frozen.

Letting the quilt take care of his shivering body, she pulled the chilled fingers close to her lips and exhaled warm breath across them. Not as efficient as the heater would have been, but with their rental having puttered out its final gasp fifteen minutes ago, there were few other options.

“Mm... th-th-th-thanks-s.”

Shivering just as badly, Juliet snuggled as close to Shawn as possible, grateful for the lack of a center console as their bodies shared what little heat they had. Arms wrapped her body – putting cold fingers out of reach but allowing her to lay her head close to Shawn's throat. She felt another shiver go through him as she breathed across his bared skin.

“H-h-how m-much long-longer b-before they g-get here?”

Juliet checked the time on her phone. “Ab-bout twenty m-minutes.”

She'd called for help over half an hour ago. The blizzard had struck with little warning. Neither one of them accustomed to winter driving, the little car had skidded and slid while Shawn had hunched around the wheel. He'd been trying so hard to get them back to the hotel; so focused he hadn't spoken the entire time. His first vocalization had been an ear splitting scream when the tires had lost traction and the car had gone into a spin.

Both hands gripped around her seatbelt, Juliet had closed her eyes and prayed.

Time so slow when they'd hit the ice... A whole life lived from childhood to rocking chair.

When metal had warped and glass had burst around them, it had stopped completely.

Panic with blundering awareness, her head had wobbled left, losing a lungful with a hard whoosh until she'd seen the lift and fall of Shawn's chest. Thank God!

No blood, though spidered cracks in a circular spread across the windshield clued that his skull had met glass. A check of his eyes and response time suggested more than the glass had fractured, but his level of alertness was good. For now.

“How... h-how much longer b-before they g-get here?”

Okay, maybe not so good.

“Shawn, you j-just asked m-me that.”

One eyebrow went up in a self evaluating sorta way. Shawn swallowed. “Oh.”

He glanced at her after a moment of just staring in a wandering sort of way. Half a smirk pulled up one side of his face and he seemed to be trying very hard to leer. “You w-wanna..?”

He was adorable when he was ignoring a head injury to be filthy. It wasn't even the first time.

Juliet bunched her eyebrows. “Shawn, we have to stay w-warm.”

He nodded and winced at the same time. “That's w-what I was s-saying!”