Crossing Borders

Chapter One

Love, S.M.

"Samantha! Samantha! SAM!" Samantha Manson, a.k.a. Sam, stirred restlessly at the persistent whisper above her right ear. She swatted at the annoying, would-be fly and rolled over. She failed to hear the indignant huff through the pillow she placed over her head, but felt a tug and cold air hitting her bare feet as her covers were snatched away.

Sam only groaned before curling in a ball and trying to go back to sleep. She had been having a fantastic dream of freedom, and peace, and a black-haired, blue-eyed stranger reaching toward her with love in his eyes. But she was yet again stirred out of her light doze by the sound of scuffling feet. She looked up blearily, but only in time to see a large, silver bucket full of―

'Splash!!!'

…Ice cold water.

Sam sputtered, wiping her eyes. "There. Now you'll wake up!" Sam groaned at her cheerful best friend Valerie Gray's voice and opened her eyes, sending a death glare over to the girl. Valerie just grinned, however, and unconsciously adjusted her maid's cap, drawing Sam's gaze with her movement.

The latter girl 'thunked' her head back down on her pillow, disappointed. "So it was a dream then." She knew she should have realized it. They were in the middle of the Civil War, for heaven's sake! But she couldn't help wishing that she was on the other side with the Union, where the blacks were free and she didn't have to guard every other word that she said to Valerie. But she did, and they weren't. "And I'll probably never see him…"

"Who?" Sam looked up sharply at her friend as she realized she had just been musing aloud. She blushed, shaking the image of bright blue eyes sparkling under a green Union cap out of her head.

"No one…" Valerie shot her a disbelieving look, and Sam hurried to change the subject, trying to distract the girl. "What did you want, Val?" The black sent her an obvious look that had 'we'll talk again later, young missy' all over her face, but answered the question.

"Her Highness sent me to wake you up with the message that your wonderful fiancé is coming to visit today. She also said to 'wear that gorgeous pink parlor dress with the lace-up front. Oh, and yes, wear it tight, darling, you know Dashie loves your assets!'" Valerie giggled at the murderous glare Sam had on her face and went over to the bureau before Sam could clobber her on the head with the pillow she currently had raised in her arms.

Sam put down her pillow and thumped back down on it, exasperated and annoyed as she rolled her eyes. "Why, oh why didn't I go with Tucker!?" She covered her mouth with her hand abruptly, stunned at what had escaped. She jumped out of the four-poster bed and ran over to Val, who seemed frozen, arms upheld with the monstrosity of a dress clutched in white-knuckled hands. "I'm sooo sorry, Val. It slipped, I'm sorry, I…"

"Its alright… I wish I had gone with him too. But it's not like either of us could have stopped him, much less convince him to let us go with him, huh? He was determined to join the Union army, and he didn't want us hu-hurt." Sam took the girl in her arms at the sound of her sob, wishing with all her heart that she could do something for her friend.

"Oh Val…" The black continued to cry for a minute more before pulling back, wiping her eyes on the edge of her black skirt and taking deep breaths.

"I'm alright." She said with determination and held up the dress, previously forgotten, for Sam to see. "Now let's get this horrendous thing on you, shall we?" Sam laughed somewhat bitterly before turning around and walking over to the chamber pot and changing screen. Valerie trailed after her, one last fleeting thought floating through her mind. 'I just wish I knew where he was…'

Forever, D.F.

"Ready?"

"Ready!"

"Now!"

Danny Fenton sat up quickly as a brigade of freezing lake water was poured on his head, blinking his eyes and coughing up water.

"What do you think you're doing?!" He shouted, trying to murder the grinning black in Union uniform and the blue-clad nurse with his eyes. They just laughed, unfazed by the bright blue orbs currently sparked with green flecks.

"Just wishing you a happy birthday, my dear brother. It's not every day that a boy turns seventeen!" Said the nurse, flipping her red hair over her shoulder and smiling, eyes the same color of his own twinkling back at him.

"Yeah! What she said!" The black smirked as he picked up his Union cap, placing it on his head backwards. "That and the fact that General Lancer wants to talk to all the soldiers in about five minutes, and you're not even dressed yet!"

"What?!" Danny scrambled off his makeshift bed, hitting his ebony-haired head on the tent pole as he went. "When were you planning on telling me this, Tucker? After it was over so I could do even more drills?" Tucker chuckled softly as he watched his best friend struggle to get his leg through the green uniform coat sleeve. He glanced at the older girl, Jazz (Danny's only sister), out of the corner of his eye. He had been forced to pick up the habit when he was enslaved to the Mansons, and never got out of using it to look at 'whites' unknowingly.

Tuck's previously good mood vanished briefly as he thought of his old life, remembering vividly the horrid times. He had fled as soon as he could to find some way to join the Union, fleeing by night only eight months ago. The only thing he regretted was leaving Valerie behind, the personal maid to the only decent Manson and his friend, Sam. Tuck had planned on asking Valerie to marry him before he had gone, but had wanted to give her a chance of freedom before he did.

So Tucker had left in the middle of the night 231 days ago following the Underground Railroad, passing through Virginia and into the state of West Virginia. It was on the edge of said state that the Fentons found him, passed out on a bale of hay in their fields. Luckily, they were supporters of freeing blacks, and they obtained papers for him; now he was a free man.

Danny and his father, Jack, taught him the bare necessities of shouting a musket and ride a horse; Jazz and her mother, Madeline, had just begun teaching him the basics of reading, writing, and math when Danny happened to mention that he and Jazz would be joining the Union. Tucker jumped at the chance of joining, and they had been assigned to the 21st regiment and General Lancer led them out of West Virginia two months later.

Tucker couldn't help remembering how they had almost declined his admission because of his race, but he had just barely been allowed to come along because of Jack. He and Lancer went a long way back, and had been neighbors in their early years before Lancer joined the military.

Jack had pulled a favor out of Lancer to let Tuck join, but the elderly general could now say that he owed one to Jack once again. The boy may sing them deaf, and he couldn't cook worth bull, but he picked up on how to work a gun with flying colors. He had save the whole brigade with his fast shooting more than once, and he never asked for special treatment.

Tucker was pulled out of his reverie by Danny's muttering, the blue-eyed boy still going on about the drills he would receive, and had just started on a list of colorful, slow, and painful ways to kill Tucker when the man decided to interrupt. "I don't think anyone's going to have time for drills any time soon, Dan. General Lancer told me and a few other boys last night that we're moving to a new location. Said we're going to be walking for a looonnnggg time." Danny had finally gotten his coat on his arms and his pants on his legs and was listening to him quietly, head cocked to the side. He finally shrugged and shoved his hat over his head, the three walking out of the tent with Jazz leading the way.

"Did he say where we're headed, Tuck?" Jazz asked over her shoulder, raising her hand every once in a while to some of the other blue and green-clad medical workers.

"No, I suppose that's what the meeting is for. He did say once we got to our new station, though, that we might be joined by another W.V. regiment."

"Wonderful. More boys to crowd the tents!" She said, glancing back at her silent sibling. "No offense, of course, Danny." He didn't answer, too busy staring at a field of lilacs that they were walking by.

"Thinking like a girly-man, Danny? Are you going to stick them in your hair and prance around for us?" Tucker teased, following Danny's gaze. The other boy didn't answer for a moment, just staring, unfocused, at the flowers.

"No." He said finally, as if barely registering the question. "They just remind me of her…"

"Who?" Jazz asked, slowing down to walk beside the two. She giggled, thinking that it was a girl back home that had her brother so enthralled.

"I don't know. It's just this girl's face, staring at me in my dreams. I think she's talking to me, but the only thing I remember when I wake up is the most beautiful lilac eyes." Tucker and Jazz exchanged looks, clearly bewildered. Tucker hadn't stayed in the Fentons' hometown long, but even he knew that there wasn't a girl with lilac eyes anywhere around there. In fact, he could only remember ever seen that color of eyes once before, but for the life of him he couldn't picture on whom.

Danny finally looked at them, a sheepish smile sprawled across his face. "Stupid, huh?" Tuck was about to answer with how strange it was, but Jazz spoke before he could.

"It's not stupid at all. I think it's really romantic; don't you Kitrina?" The two men looked over at the newest arrival to their group, a blonde-haired, green eyed young woman around Jazz's age that was dressed in a green nurse's uniform.

"Absolutely. What am I agreeing to again?" She linked arms with Jazz, and the continued on.

"Just that Danny here is seeing a beautiful girl with dazzling lilac eyes in his dreams, Kitty." Jazz giggled again, glancing over at Danny as he blushed.

"Oh, how magical! It sounds like true love to me, Jazzie." The girls giggled. "Just think; our little Danny is all grown up and falling in love!" The girls giggled again, and Danny decided he had had enough. He interrupted, blushing the color of strawberries.

"Alright, alright. I get it! Now can you please shush? We're almost to the General's Ground, and I don't want the boys to hear." Kitty and Jazz trilled one more time before they fell silent, and they remained comfortably so until they reached the thicket where General Lancer's quarters were, as well as the giant fire where the meetings on progress took place each night. Then the two young ladies split from the boys, sashaying over to where the nurses and doctors were chatting, leaving Danny and Tucker to sit with the other soldiers. There was general hubbub for the few minutes of relaxation, and then everyone fell silent as Lancer stepped out of his tent.

"Gentlemen, Ladies, good morning to you all. I have good news.

"For six months now we have trained here to sharpen our skills and broaden our knowledge of the enemy. We have improved greatly and learned much. Many of you," he looked at Jazz, Kitty, and the rest of the medical staff, "have found out that being in battle means being in pain. Our experts have now fully evolved to handle that pain. Some of you," he looked to Tucker and a few others, "have become our main firing power. You can dispatch a person faster than I have ever seen for youth your age. And a small number of you," here he looked at Danny and two or three others, "have learned the art of disguise. You can turn invisible to the naked eye, or configure yourselves to fit that of whom you must become to fool the enemy. You have learned how to shot, how to hide, how to deceive, how to survive. You are the closest thing to a spy, the most important key to winning this war, that I have ever seen without specific training.

"Yet this is not enough. To me, this is kiddy play. And that is why we are finally relocating.

"One of each from the three groups that I just listed will go on as scouts each day. At nightfall, you will return and give your progress report, which we as a regiment will then use as we follow the path you have depicted the day before. These people are the best of the best. The medical leader, however, will stay behind. I will explain why in a moment. In her place will be her second; the choice to choose who that will be has been handed over to her.

"Tucker will go as gunman.

"You have all seen the black wonder wander around this camp freely for the past six months. He has saved all of your lives in the small battles we have been in at least once. And while some of you may object, it is too late. It is decided."

Lancer began to talk to Tucker alone, trying to reassure the trembling youth. "It is your duty to kill those who may hinder your journey each day. I have watched you come here, barely able to lift a musket, to being able to load and fire five shots in under three seconds. You are the best man at technology I have ever seen. You will do fine." Tucker stuttered a 'thank you' and Lancer went back to speaking to everyone.

"The medical leader, Jasmine Fenton, though only a nurse, has approached me with the offer of scouting ahead. I cannot allow this even if I wanted to. The President himself has stated that we are to inform every battle plan, every move in location, every decision made to the head of medicine to make sure they know what we are getting into. If they have insufficient supplies to prevent as many deaths as possible, we do nothing.

"As such, Jasmine will be staying with the regiment. She has informed me, however, that she has decided that her second-in-command, Kitrina Goodman, will be taking her place as scout doctor. I support this decision in its whole.

"You, Kitrina, will be in charge of doctoring the other two scouts. Should they gain even the slightest cold, we are all put in danger. Even the smallest noise can alert the Confederate Army that we are on their battlefield, and they can summon soldiers to them far faster than we can flee. Your part is essential; play it well." Kitty nodded, clutching Jazz's hand in thanks and nervousness. General Lancer sent her a returning nod and continued on.

"That leaves only the intellect. And I will be blunt with you, and tell you that there is only on man for the job: Daniel Fenton.

"Daniel, when he came here, was not someone that I though would live a week in war; he was a klutz and clueless about anything that dealt in military life, not something very encouraging. Yet he has grown not so much physically as mentally strong. He knows how to strategize, and can pick out a friend from an enemy by just one sentence; something that not even a top spy can do till ten years into their career. He takes the time to think, yet knows how to do so swiftly." Lancer began looking directly at Danny, though he seemed to talk to everyone.

"He can hide his emotions, disguise his thoughts, and though he has been rather dazed frequently of late," Danny inwardly blushed, thinking of the lilacs from earlier, even as on the outside he kept a calm air around him. "he has a clear state of mind. He will lead the other two, giving orders and making decisions. His job is essential, as it will decide the trail we as a regiment take. He is the only man worthy of the job." Danny gave no sign of his feelings, but sent a short, jerky nod to the general. Lancer paused, and then went on.

"Soldiers, start packing. Leave no trace that we were here." The troops scurried off, but Lancer motioned for Danny and Tucker to stay. "Jasmine?"

Jazz turned as she heard her name, silently indicating that the medical workers were to follow her as she stood and nodded to Lancer before heading off. Danny, Tucker, and Kitrina, who had assumed that Lancer wanted to talk to all three of them, followed the general into his tent. General Lancer led them over to a table that was covered with a giant map and started to speak.

"I said out there that you were to go and come back each day to report. What I failed to mention was that only Daniel will be returning. He is the fastest, as well as able to shift into his surroundings far better than either of you could. You two will stay at whatever camp Daniel designates each night, to mark where you are stopped so we shall know your trial." Lancer sat down on one of the wooden chairs around the table, waving his hand to the others to get them to sit down before starting again.

"You shall take as little supplies as possible; a gun, gun powder, and other weapons for Tucker. Medical supplies and traveling cakes with Kitrina. A disguise for Danny and a sling. You will all carry one extra set of clothes and any money you might need when you finally reach your destination. Nothing else.

"You are not to fire your gun unless to hinder anyone who may try to prevent you from reaching the final point of destination, or to stop someone who may harm you. Use the sling to gather fowl or small animals, though only one at a time. It would be suspicious for prey to suddenly start dying off unnaturally. Always throw the remains to the wolves or other predators; leave no trace of human kill. Wash the stones you sling of blood if you have to.

"Stay near water or at least a spring; you and the regiment both will need water, and we can cross over to lose any trackers. Other than that, travel decisions are up to Daniel." General Lancer paused, grabbing on of the marking pins for the map and twirling it as Tucker and Kitrina looked over at Danny. He set his jaw and nodded once, which Lancer took as a sign to continue. "When you reach your destination, I want you to take up posts. Act in disguise as a traveling family―"

"And servant." Tucker put in, sticking his hand out as if to remind the general of his race.

"And servant. Danny will report to me one last time, and then return to you; you'll have to make up a story to cover that. Then we as a brigade will wait a few days before coming to the edge of the forest; I hope not to let people know we are there at all, but even if there are other militias around the region, it would still seem suspicious of a Union regiment to show up the day after a new family moves to town."

"If you don't mind, sir…" Lancer gestured for Kitrina to continue. "you seem to be skirting around the name of the town itself. Where is it? What is our destination?" Lancer sighed as he stopped the motion of the pin in his hand and leaned forward.

"Amity Town, North Carolina." And he stuck the pin on the location according to the map.

"WWWHHHAAATTT?!?!?!"