A silent and unseen enemy has entered Charles Ingalls' home. As the family falls prey to it, one after another, their little house falls silent. Will help come in time?

This fan fiction is based on Chapter Fifteen of the Laura Ingalls' Wilder book, Little House on the Prairie, as well as the autobiography of Laura called 'Pioneer Girl. The silent and unseen enemy was real. As Michael Landon did, I have moved the story from Kansas to Walnut Grove and embellished it to make it more dramatic.

This is dedicated to Questfan for her loyal support of my writing – and because she asked.

Walking Through Fire

ONE

Charles Ingalls looked down at himself. He was all dirt and sweat. He glanced up at the early September sun and winced. It had been a hot and humid summer, and September so far had proven little better. Still, it seemed fall was finally on its way with the cooler evenings they'd experienced the past week or so. The last so many months had been demanding, the days too short for the work that needed to be done and the nights, well, just plain difficult. Sleep, it seemed, came hard as money. It was all wearing him down, but there was nothing to be done about it. The crops had to be brought in before they dried up right before his eyes and the animals tended, the house made ready for winter, and wood and food laid in. At the moment he was standing in the middle of a field of sweet corn that needed tending. Unfortunately, he was spending more time swatting mosquitoes than pulling weeds.

They'd been like a Biblical plague this year.

He shook his head as he squashed another one on his exposed skin. Thank goodness the tiny pests only ate people! If they'd been locusts, there would have been nothing left of the crops, just like that year the tornado swept through and cleaned everything away.

As he stood there, leaning on the handle of his hoe, Charles heard the sound of a wagon approaching. He lifted a hand to shield his eyes from the mid-afternoon sun and waited until it came into view. Then with a smile curling his lips, he picked up the water bucket he'd brought with him into the field and headed for the road. After swatting a few more mosquitoes, he lifted a ladle full of water from the bucket and took a drink while waiting for the wagon to pull up.

"Good afternoon, Charles!" Doctor George Tane exclaimed, his deep voice booming across the fields. "You been competing with the pigs for the mud puddle?"

Charles grinned. He swore that sound had to roll around gaining strength in the Black doctor's barrel chest before exploding out, it was so big.

"No, just wrasslin' with the corn."

"You better take it easy." The big man looked up. "That sun'll bake a man's brains right quick."

"Oh, that's all right," he said with a wink. "Caroline tells me mine are baked already." Extending the ladle, he asked, "Water?"

"Don't mind if I do."

Charles handed the doctor a ladle full. While Tane drank, he asked, "You going out to see to the Indians?"

"Not this time," Tane answered with a shake of his head. "I'm heading to Sleepy Eye for supplies. I've got an order coming into Olesons, but I need some things Nels doesn't carry." As he handed the ladle back, he asked, "You need me to pick up anything for you while I'm there?"

"Need?"

"Want, then?"

He shook his head. "I don't have any money on me."

"Charles. What does the Good Book say about pride?" Dr. Tane shook his head. "I've been told there's no man more immovable about taking care of his own than Charles Ingalls."

Charles dropped the ladle in the bucket. "Guilty as charged."

Tane didn't miss a beat. "So what can I pick up for you, friend?"

He considered it. It was a simple, well, really a silly thing, but he knew he'd been thinking about it for some time and he knew what it would mean to Mary and Laura.

"Well, don't spend over a quarter, but if you can find me some little blue beads."

The Black doctor's eyebrows slid up his slick shiny pate. "Blue beads?"

Charles turned and glanced back at the house. There was no sign of Caroline or Laura yet. They were out picking blackberries and due back any time. "You know the old Indian camp, the one two or three miles from here that's been abandoned?"

The doctor nodded.

"I took the oldest girls up there the other day. They found some small blue beads. There weren't enough to make a necklace for each of them, so they put them all together into one necklace and instead of fighting over it, gave it to Carrie."

He sure was proud of them.

"So you'd like to get each of those sweet little girls enough beads to make a necklace?"

"Just enough to put with a ribbon that'll be long enough to tie around their necks." He knew he couldn't afford enough beads for two necklaces.

Doctor Tane was nodding. "I'll go to the mercantile first. If I don't find them there, I'll try the lady's dress shop."

"If it's too much trouble – "

"No trouble at all," the big man said. "I'll come by on my return. Two, maybe three days from now."

"Just be sure to see me," he grinned. "It's a surprise for Caroline too."

"I'll be sure to do that," the doctor said as he slapped the reins against the horses' rumps. "You take care, Charles. Don't work too hard!"

Charles nodded and waved. He watched the doctor's wagon roll away and then pivoted on his heel back toward the corn. Unexpectedly, he lost his balance. For a second the world swam about him. By the time the spell had passed, he'd kicked the water bucket over and spilled the remaining liquid.

"Must be that sun," he muttered to himself as he wiped his sleeve across his brow. Looking at the corn again, he thought a moment and then decided that it was time to head back to the barn. He'd done more than enough weeding for one day. There were plenty of other chores that needed doing and it was best he get to them.

Charles picked the empty bucket up and began to walk. He felt fine now.

Yeah. Must have been that sun.

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Laura! Laura?"

Where was that girl?

Caroline Ingalls undid the knot under her chin that kept her sun bonnet on her head and let the cap slip back onto her shoulders. The afternoon was hot and though removing it allowed the sun bake her head, she just had to leave it down for a minute or two. The breeze, though warm, felt good in her wet hair. After glancing at the bucket full of blackberries at her feet, she turned her attention to the little girl who was sitting beside it. Carrie's tiny fingers and mouth had been dyed purple by the dozen or more times she'd dipped into it. Using her apron, Caroline wiped off as much of the sweet juice as she could before shooing her youngest off to play. Then she turned toward the creek and called again.

"Laura!"

Her answer came a second later. "Coming, Ma."

"Make it now! It's time to get back. I need to start work on supper."

"Yes, Ma'am!"

As she waited for her middle child to break through the thick underbrush that edged Plum Creek, Caroline batted at the annoying mosquito that whined close to her ear. A second later it landed on her arm. She swatted at it.

And missed.

"I found more berries, Ma, in the tall grass by the creek. A whole bucket full!" Laura declared triumphantly as she emerged.

Caroline smiled. Laura's fingers were as purple as her sister's. "Wonderful! That's enough to use a portion now to make pies and still save some for winter!"

"Can we make jam too, Ma?" her daughter asked as she set the bucket down. Laura didn't notice when her sister Carrie toddled over and took up a whole handful of berries and smashed them against her mouth.

Caroline sighed. There would be multiple baths tonight.

When Laura saw what her sister was doing, she shouted, "Carrie! Those are for the pies!"

The blonde woman chuckled. "Let her alone, Laura. Her tummy has to be about full." She knelt down beside her youngest. "Isn't that right, Carrie?"

The little girl looked up, her tiny brows knit together. "My tummy hurts."

"Well, I'm not surprised!" Caroline caught her about the waist and lifted her up. "Can you carry both buckets, Laura?"

"Sure, I can, Ma." Laura picked them up and swayed with the weight. "Might just take me a little more time to get home than you and Carrie."

"I can have your sister walk."

"No, Ma'am, you go ahead. Mary will be waiting." Laura paused and then added, "Ma..."

"Yes?"

"I thought you should know. Mary said she was feeling kind of poorly this morning."

"Oh?" Caroline halted and looked back. Mary was not that far away from the surgery she had undergone to save her life after she had been kicked by a horse. "Why didn't she say anything to me?"

Laura looked instantly guilty. "She didn't want to worry you, Ma."

"While I appreciate that, I need to know if any of you girls are feeling unwell. Next time tell me immediately."

"Yes, Ma'am." Her middle daughter looked disheartened and then suddenly brightened. "Can I stop in the cornfield on the way home and see if Pa wants some berries?"

Caroline glanced at the sun, which was sliding down the sky toward the horizon. "I guess it wouldn't hurt. I'm sure your father would love some." She put Carrie on the ground and took her by the hand. "Give me one of the buckets, that way Mary can begin cleaning the berries."

"To make a pie for tonight?" Laura asked.

She cocked her head and gave her daughter one of those looks. "Take too long, young lady, and that pie will be made, cooked, and all eaten up before you or your pa get a piece!"

"I won't be long, Ma, I promise! Pa won't be either. You know how much he loves pie!" The child was running even as she spoke. Caroline noted by the trail left behind her that there would be a few less berries to put up for the winter, but then the joy the child experienced because she was doing something for her father more than made up for it. Charles' joy would too.

"Be careful!" she called after her.

"Be careful," Carrie echoed.

Caroline knelt down and pretended to twist the little girl's nose. "You just be careful too. No more berries for today!"

Carrie echoed that too. "No more berries."

With her youngest in one hand and the blackberry bucket in the other, Caroline Ingalls headed for home.

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Laura was still frowning when she came into the yard. She hadn't found Pa, but she'd found his hoe back aways, leaning against the fence. Pa hardly ever left his tools out. Thinking maybe he'd left it behind on his way, she'd looked for him in the cornfield first. Finding nothing, she'd decided to try the barn.

If it'd been her who'd left that hoe out, she'd be in for a tongue lickin' at the very least.

Holding the blackberry bucket, she used her free hand to push open the barn door. The animals inside were restless. They were mooing and bleating, and kicking their legs while their tales swished 'cause of the mosquitoes. Not wanting to walk into a swarm, she called out before entering, "Pa? Pa, you in here?"

"Hey, Half-pint."

Laura scowled. Pa didn't sound like Pa. As she rounded the door, she found him sitting by his workbench. His hands and a short piece of wood dangled between his knees.

"You okay, Pa?" she asked as she crossed over to him.

"I imagine I am," he said. "Just tired, that's all."

She put the bucket down and placed a hand on his shoulder. "It's sure a shame you have to work so hard, Pa."

He smiled and reached out, pulling her into the circle of his arm. "You know, Half-pint, it says in the Good Book that the sleep of a working man is pleasant whether he eats little or much."

"That's Proverbs, ain't it?"

He laughed. "Ecclesiastes."

"Oh, yeah..."

Pa stood up and looked down at her. "I won't tell your Ma, but you need to spend more time studying your Bible instead of playing with Jack."

"Yes, sir," she said. Picking up the bucket, she held it out. "I thought you might want some blackberries. Ma and I picked two whole buckets today."

"Are they sweet?" Pa asked.

She looked puzzled. "How would I know?"

"Well, I figured your Ma won't let you paint your lips purple, so that must be berry juice."

Her fingers went to her mouth. "I might have sampled one or two," she said with a grin.

"Or a whole bucket!" he snorted as he placed the piece of wood on the table.

She laughed too. "Carrie ate more than me. She's got a belly ache."

Pa reached over and cupped his hand around the lantern and blew the flame out, plunging the interior of the barn into early evening darkness. He held out his hand for her to take. "If that's so, we better go check on her, don't you think?"

As Laura took his hand, she asked, "You don't want any berries?"

He shook his head. "I got a bit of a belly ache myself. Maybe tomorrow."

"Ma will have a pie baked by then."

He made that 'mm-mm' sound he did and Pa's eyes lit up. "Now, you're talkin'."

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Caroline's head came up as Charles and Laura entered the house. She forced a smile and then let her eyes roll over to her oldest. Charles picked up on her intent instantly.

"Half-pint?" he said.

"Yes, sir?"

"Here, let me take that bucket. You go sit with Carrie. I can hear her makin' little noises. Sounds like she's hurting."

"Sure thing, Pa!"

As Laura skipped away to Carrie's room, Caroline watched Charles put the berry bucket down on the table and then cross to Mary where she stood by the stove.

"What're you cookin' up?" he asked her.

Their oldest turned her beautiful face toward him. "Blackberry filling. What else?"

Charles leaned over her shoulder and took in a deep whiff. "Mm-mm," he declared. "Nothin' better!" Then he asked, "You okay by yourself if I take your ma outside for a minute?"

Mary glanced at her and then asked in a conspiratorial whisper. "You gonna kiss her?"

"Maybe," her ornery husband replied. "That okay with you?"

Caroline delighted in Mary's giggle. Her oldest was always so serious, it did her heart good to hear her laugh.

"Mrs. Ingalls," Charles said as he approached her, "might I have the pleasure of your company?"

Two could play at this.

"Why, most gallant sir," she answered, "I do believe I would have to ask our daughter first." With a smile, she turned to Mary. "Is it all right if your Pa takes me outside?"

"Just don't keep her out too long," their oldest said, her voice mock stern.

Charles linked her arm over his. "I promise we'll be back in two..." he glanced at her "...better make it three shakes of a mare's tail. Your ma's mighty pretty."

They left the house to the sound of their child's laughter.

Once outside her handsome husband led her to the stump by the door they often occupied after supper. He seated her first and then took a place beside her.

"Well?" Charles asked as he circled her waist with his arm.

"I'm worried about Mary."

He nodded. They'd both been worried a good deal about Mary since her surgery.

"Something new?"

She looked at the house. "I'm not sure. She just... Well, she doesn't seem herself."

"How's that?"

"You know Mary. She never forgets anything I've told her. I had to correct her twice about cooking the berries. First she tried to put in salt, and then she put in too much sugar."

Charles pursed his lips in that way he had when he felt something was serious. "I don't know, Mrs. Ingalls," he said at last, "that you can have too much sugar."

She smacked him. Probably for the thousandth time since they'd met. "Ornery."

He squeezed her waist and pulled her in tight. Then he leaned over and planted a kiss on the nape of her neck. "And you love it."

She did. But she would never admit it. "Charles...Mary?"

"Did she say she felt bad?"

"Well. No."

"Mary's not the type to keep it from you, Caroline, you know that. Especially since...the surgery."

She heard it in his voice. The fear they'd both felt, the helplessness.

"I know, but..."

He stood and took her hand. "No 'buts'. I'm sure she's all right. Now, it's time we go back inside."

Charles was standing so the moonlight struck him. She looked at him, admiring his strong muscular frame and that mass of curly brown hair. Then she really looked at him.

Before he could stop her, her hand shot out and landed on his forehead.

"What's that for?" he asked.

"I thought you might have fever. You look...odd."

He snorted. Then he pulled a face. "Like this?" he asked, opening his mouth wide and rolling his eyes back in his head.

A thousand and one.

She smacked him harder this time. "Try that tonight in bed and see how far it gets you," she said deadpan.

She made him sputter.

"Mrs. Ingalls, I do believe someone has been a bad influence on you."

She anchored her hands on her hips. "Oh? And just who would that be?"

Before she could stop him, Charles picked her up from the ground. Holding her in his arms, he kissed her.

"Me!"

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Laura was sitting at the table when their ma and pa came back into the house. Pa was carrying Ma and she was laughing. Pa was laughing too, but it was a kind of quiet sound with a lot of wind in it – something like the wind that was howling outside the house right now. It was kind of loud but it was keeping most of the mosquitoes away, so she wouldn't complain. Still, a few of the tiny bugs blew in with them and one landed on her nose.

It made her mad. Pa couldn't even play his fiddle for them landing on it and distracting him.

Pa put Ma down and Ma went straight to Mary and the pot of blackberriesgthat was cooking and making the room smell like Heaven.

Pa came to the table.

Catching hold of the back of the chair with his hand, he asked, "You been studyin' like I told you, Half-pint?"

"Yes, sir." She indicated the page under her hand. "Ecclesiastes five-twelve, but I like this one better." Laura moved her finger along the thin paper to the passage she was hunting. "Live joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest all the days of the life of thy vanity, which He hath given thee under the sun."

Pa came over and kissed the top of her head and then went and hugged Ma. "Nothin' prettier or better under that sun than Caroline Quiner Ingalls."

Laura loved it. Ma blushed right up to her eyebrows.

"Charles," she protested.

But she didn't mean it.

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Later that night as she lay in bed with her sister, Laura got a powerful thirst. She was careful how she threw the coverlet off so she wouldn't wake Mary, and then she descended the ladder and went into the kitchen to get a drink from the bucket of water Ma kept there. The house was quiet, but outside the horses' were nickering. The cows were noisy too. Probably still fightin' skeeters. At least she had hands. She couldn't imagine trying to keep those pesky things away if she had only a tail to do it with. Pa had left the fire going since the night had turned cold. He said he hoped it would keep the bugs away too. After she got her drink – but before she headed back up the ladder – Laura paused by the entry to her parents' room.

Pa was making small noises, like he was dreaming and maybe the dream wasn't too nice.

She thought about waking him, but then that would mean he would know she was out of bed in the middle of the night and he'd get sore. One thing he wouldn't bend on was them getting their sleep. That time back before they went hunting together, he was right mad that she was up.

Laura shivered. That trip wasn't something she wanted to think about. She still saw that gun falling and Pa falling with it, his side all covered with blood. She'd had plenty of nightmares about it. She'd seen her Ma sick and that was scary enough. But Pa... Pa was strong as a mountain. Seeing him hurt – maybe dying – well, that just wasn't something she was gonna forget for the rest of her life.

"Laura?"

Mary's soft voice drifted down the stairs.

"Shh!" she called back.

"What're you doing?"

"I was gettin' a drink," she answered as she placed her hand on the bottom rung.

"Well, get back up here. It's cold!"

Orders. Orders.

Everyone was always giving her orders.

"Yes, Ma'am," she whispered slightly annoyed.

When she got to the bed Mary was already hunkered down under the covers. Her sister held the coverlet up and then let it drop as Laura took her place. A second later Mary caught hold of her and pulled her in close.

Mary was shivering.

Laura rolled over to look at her. "You okay?"

"I'm just cold. Now, be quiet. I want to sleep."

Orders first.

Now she was a hot brick wrapped in cloth.

Laura scooted back so her sister could put her arms around her better. Really, she did like it. She just pretended she didn't. Wrapped in Mary's embrace, she turned her face into the pillow, realizing as she did that her sister was right.

It was pretty cold.

A moment later she started shivering too.