When Jamie walked back in, he had a mouthful of food, and, grabbing a bunch of grapes off of his plate, threw the plate down the stairs, to a chorus of laughter. He shut the door behind him, smirking, and then stood, cautiously looking at me.

"I don't suppose they're going to bed anytime soon, are they?" I asked, already knowing the answer.

"Well, no." Jamie admitted. "Not until they know we've made things official." He added the grapes to my plate of food, and took off his sword belt.

"I suppose I should be thankful they don't want to watch."

"Only Rupert," He smiled, and added: "and Angus."

I looked up at him, trying to force my face to withhold my smile, but it didn't work, I snorted in an unladylike fashion, and Jamie joined me in laughter. He stood, still beside his belt, clearly nervous about how to proceed. Join the club bud.

"Ye dinna need to be afraid of me. I wasna going to jump on ye."

"I didn't think you would," I laughed, spotting the bottles of alcohol behind him. "Perhaps a drink to get comfortable first?" I asked. We poured out two glasses of some kind of wine, and he raised a toast to me.

"To a lady of grace, a woman of strength, and a bride of unimaginable beauty." I blushed, and looked down at my feet, drinking shyly. Smooth as fuck. He'd literally made my brain go blank. Food. Food would help. I stood up, walking over to the armchairs by the fire with my plate of food.

"So what have you been up to today?" I asked, sitting as gracefully as I could manage, while simultaneously eating and balancing my plate. Jamie relaxed a little, coming to join me by the fire. He tugged off his boots, so he could sit cross legged like I was, and reached for my plate. I placed it between us, and studied him. He was very attractive. I wasn't generally the type to fantasize, but I'd seen his rippling muscles, and when he peered up at me from under his lashes... Perhaps tonight wouldn't be so bad after all.

"Well, I went and got myself married..." He started. I threw a grape at his head, smiling in spite of myself. "Ack, well... in the morning I was searching for Murtagh for a while. Sent Rupert to find him, then lost him as well."

"Sorry - that was my doing. I got talking." I chuckled.

"Aye. I heard."

"What did you need him for?" I asked.

"Well that's complicated." He answered, scrunching up his face. "I dinna really start at the beginning. What were you doing today?"

"Reading about the economic importance of barley to the highland clans, its cultivation, harvesting, storage and preparation for food."

Jamie looked at me with startled confusion and concern.

"Perhaps I didn't start at the beginning either." I smiled. And so I began my day, telling him idle things, like chatting with Murtagh during my bath, reading the boring book, all the way through to being "rudely awoken by two strange women who stuffed me cruelly into a silver tent, and hurried me out the door."

Jamie looked over at the dress, laying beautifully on the bed. "It's a fine dress. Suits ye, with yer history and all."

"I haven't the slightest idea where they found it." I mused.

"And that's where a bit of my evening, and day, comes in Sassenach." Jamie leaned back onto a chair. "It started yesterday when I agreed to marry you..."

"Why did you agree to marry me? Dougal didn't really give me much of a choice in the matter, but you..." I trailed off.

"Are ye gonna keep interruptin?" Jamie laughed. "I'll never reach the point."

"Sorry." I blushed, reclining myself.

"I dinna have much choice either." Jamie began his story again. He told me about how Ned and Dougal had presented my case, how Ned had been careful and clinical, while Dougal had been calculating and callous. Jamie did a very respectable impression of Dougal actually.

"She took a fair few blows at the hands of Randall and kept silent about it, which is more than I'd expect from any ordinary woman. But you know Randall, you know what he's capable of. What do ye think will happen if she falls into his hands again?" He mocked. "As I said yesterday Sassenach, what kind of protector would I be if I hadna married ye?"

"So you married me to keep me safe?"

"Aye. That's the gist of it." He looked at me with that strange, kingly intensity again. "You have my name, my clan, my family, and if necessary, the protection of my body as well. I summoned ye into this world, I'll damn well sure you're safe in it."

I could see the weight of that promise. Randall was right. The truth carried a weight that everyday speech did not. Jamie meant every word.

"I thought you perhaps just wanted to finish what we started in the stables." I smiled, meekly.

"I canna deny I'd not considered it." He chuckled, blushing. I looked down, at the ring on my hand. It was silver, strange, beautiful. I supposed that would be a part of his story too. It contrasted so much with the ring I had received from Frank. His was smooth, elegant, simple, whereas Jamie's was rough, and patterned, complicated like him.

"Tell me about yer husband."

My breath caught in my throat. I looked up at him, confused.

"Ye've been married before Sassenach, it would make sense that he'd be on yer mind today. Not to mention your face is an open book if ye know what ye're looking for."

I told him. I told him all about Frank, and how different he was. I talked about how he resembled Black Jack, and the mental struggle I'd had to undergo to separate the two. I talked about how everything about Jamie was completely different to everything about Frank.

"I think it makes it easier, in some ways..." I trailed off. "I mean, it doesn't feel like I'm trying to replace him."

"You haven't got siblings." Jamie stated suddenly. "My father used to say that he didn't think there was any room left in his heart for another child, and that with each new bairn it felt like he'd gotten a whole new heart too. I'd imagine it's like that. Ye can probably care for one person, and another, without either affecting the other."

It was quite a wise argument.

"You're probably right." I smiled. "For a man of 23, you're quite well spoken."

"Aye." his thoughts drifted off for a moment, into a memory. "Can I ask something of you, before I go on with the tale of my day?"

"Of course."

"There are things that you canna tell me, and things that I canna tell you, at least not yet. I'll ask nothing of ye that ye canna give me. But what I would ask, is that when we do speak to each other, it is with honesty. We have nothing now between us save respect, and I think that respect has room for secrets, but not for lies."

He spread out his hand, palm up, towards mine. I took it with my good one, entangling my fingers shyly into his.

"I promise to be honest with you Jamie."

"And I, you." He smiled. "Anyway... I was telling ye about my day."

He wove a wondrous tale full of kind gestures and sweet words from the men. Ned had visited a brothel to find my dress, and as embarrassed as I was I knew that I would have paid to see that interaction. Rupert and Angus had taken a key from Jamie to get made into a wedding ring. Murtagh had traveled to a nearby town to fetch the 'Fraser' plaid for Jamie's outfit. It was humbling that they'd gone through it all, though Jamie hadn't given them much of a choice - they had been conditions on him accepting the marriage.

"Can I ask why Dougal let you set so many conditions, and went through all the effort of following them? I would have thought that after you'd demanded all that he'd just ask Rupert or something instead." I asked. He smiled seriously.

"Actually that has to do with who I am. Remember the Gathering? The allegiance I was asked to swear?"

"Yeah..." I said.

"Well, now that I'm married to a Sassenach, it wouldn't matter what Colum would prefer, his tennants wouldna want an English woman being their Laird's lady."

I swallowed in understanding. "So Dougal wasn't only asking you to solve my problem, he was trying to hit two birds with one stone."

"Exactly."

I felt shy, and ashamed. Our plate of food was only half finished but I was suddenly not hungry. I had potentially altered the course of this man's life in many more ways than one. "I hope I prove worth it."

"Ye already have Claire." Jamie assured me.

Suddenly, the door to my room burst open, and Angus and Rupert stumbled in. They were trying to be nosy, trying to be funny, I wasn't really sure, but I was instantly angry, rather than embarrassed as any decent lady probably should have been. I sprung up, grabbing the plate, tumbling the food inadvertently onto the floorboards. I whipped it like a frisbee, straight at the lead man - Angus's - stomach. He doubled over and the plate ricocheted back towards me. I bent to pick it up again.

"How dare you!?"

"Ooff. Ack woman! Dougal sent us up to see..." I whipped the plate again. Angus scooped out of the way and this time it hit Rupert's chest.

"Get out!"

"Christ! We're under orders, ye see!" Rupert yelled, and they both eyed me warily - my ammunition was safely out of my reach, but I was working towards it. Jamie rushed forward to my aid also, and the two of them scrambled out of the door almost as quickly as they'd entered.

Jamie and I took a long look at the door, and then each other. We both laughed at the intrusion. They weren't going to leave us alone until we did... well, finish, the wedding. I looked over to the bed.

"Perhaps we should..."

"Well first, you don't intend on sleeping in all that now do ye?" He motioned towards all my extra layers.

"No." I smiled shyly.

"I could help ye. With the laces and such." He, for all the king that he had looked earlier, looked shy now. I spun around, feeling a small bout of purpose. One step at a time.

"Skirts first." I said, helpfully.

He untangled the laces at the back, his hands trembling, and helped me step out of the first skirt. We untied the 'bum bag' as I'd gotten to calling it, next, then pulled off the laces to the corset I'd loosened earlier. As it fell I breathed deeply, and winced.

"Are ye still hurt from Randall?" Jamie asked, worried at my expression.

"I'll answer that in a second. Your turn." I smiled, and turned to tug on his belt. It was a surprisingly difficult item to get off, a kilt. Twelve feet of fabric, all wrapped up and complicated. When he was just in his shirt, and I just in my shift.

"I want to apologize, husband," I said, trying to work the nervousness out of my voice. "But today you've purchased some damaged goods." I unlaced the front of my shift with one tug, letting it slide down my arms, and crumple to the floor. Jamie's throat bobbed with a swallow. His hands came gently up, resting on my arms first, tracing inwards to the bruise left on my ribs.

"You needn't be sorry. I've never seen anything so beautiful in my life."

I tugged at his shirt, and he unfastened the sleeves, yanking it over his head. This time it was my throat that swallowed. He was a truly handsome man, and seeing him in all his glory reminded me of marble carvings, muscular details etched into his skin.

We took time exploring each other. My hands traced his body, as I walked around my new husband, studying him. And then his hands traced mine. He pressed me firmly to him suddenly, and I could feel that he was more than ready to get on with the business at hand. I was ready too. In fact, I wanted him quite badly. I pulled him down, crawling backward onto the bed. He gingerly kissed me, leaning on his elbows at first, remembering my rib. Suddenly he stood up, and attempted to turn me around. I shook my head.

"Oh no, not this time. I want to be close to you." I said, keeping my position underneath, and facing him. I put my hands behind his neck and pulled him down on top of me. I ignored my ribcage for a moment - Jamie had other, pressing concerns right now, and hardly needed a lecture. I guided him to the slippery cleft between my legs.

"Holy God," said James Fraser, who never took the name of his Lord in vain. He pushed into me, more and more of his weight on top.

"Jamie, you're crushing me." I managed to whisper. He got back up onto his elbows, but kept most of himself as attached to me as possible. I returned in kind, raising my own body to meet his, to the best of my ability. Our first episode was short, but I had half expected that. It's not that I had the most amazing body or technique - I'd hardly done anything - but Jamie's inexperience. I didn't begrudge him for it. This was a learning process for both of us. Frank had been smooth, sophisticated, practiced. I had never felt like I was missing anything. Jamie had given me all of himself in that moment. His own mother could have walked into the room and he wouldn't have noticed. He had immersed himself in me, physically and emotionally, and that... that was incredible.

We lay, side by side on the bed afterward. He opened his mouth to say something, and then didn't. He opened it again, and then stopped.

"Unless your post-sex ritual is goldfish charades I think you have something you want to say?" I asked. He shook his head, staring shyly at the ceiling.

"Was it like you thought it would be?" I asked curiously. He chuckled, and looked at me briefly, before looking away again.

"Almost; I had thought—nay, never mind."

"No, tell me. What did you think?"

"I'm no goin' to tell ye; ye'll laugh at me."

"I promise not to laugh. Tell me." He looked over at me, and caressed my hair, smoothing the curls back from my ear.

"Oh, all right. I didna realize that ye did it face to face. I thought ye must do it the back way, like; like horses, ye know."

Almost as soon as all the words were out of his mouth, I was burying my face into a pillow, giggling. "I'm sorry. I said I wouldn't laugh."

"I know that sounds silly," he said defensively, smiling. "It's just…well, ye know how you get ideas in your head when you're young, and then somehow they just stick there?"

"Did I squash you?" he asked, a little anxiously, touching my bruise, gingerly.

"Not much, I'm a brave girl."

"I want to ask ye something," he said, running a hand down the length of my back.

"Mmm?"

"Did ye like it?" he said, a little shyly.

"Yes, I did," I said, quite honestly. "I did very much."

"Oh. I thought ye did, though Murtagh told me that women generally do not care for it, so I should finish as soon as I could."

"What would Murtagh know about it?" I said indignantly. "The slower the better, as far as most women are concerned."

Jamie chuckled again. "Well, you'd know better than Murtagh. I had considerable good advice offered me on the subject last night, from Murtagh and Rupert and Ned. A good bit of it sounded verra unlikely to me, though, so I thought I'd best use my own judgment."

"Advice? What kind of advice did they give you?" His skin was a ruddy gold in the candlelight; to my amusement, it grew still redder in embarrassment.

"I could no repeat most of it. As I said, I think it's likely wrong, anyway. I've seen a good many kinds of animals mate with each other, and most seem to manage it without any advice at all. I would suppose people could do the same."

We talked for a little, about the animals he'd seen mate, and I talked about some of the unusual 'deflowering' ceremonies or rituals I had seen through my travels. Suddenly he reached forward, slowly to meet my lips again.

"I know once is enough to make it legal, but…" He paused shyly.

"You want to do it again?"

"Would ye mind verra much?" I didn't laugh this time, but I felt my ribs creak under the strain.

"No," I tried to say gravely. "I wouldn't mind."