Christmas in the Wilds

It's been a couple of months since Buck Thompson with Rescue Services for Wayne Forest and geologist Jessica Alaway met and fell in love while they escaped a raging forest fire together. Although Buck's work never allows him truly to plan, the two are hoping to spend Thanksgiving and Christmas together, their first, both with Buck's family, who all work in the Wayne Forest ranger service, and alone just the two of them, before they all reconvene on Christmas Day when Buck's now deceased father, Walt, will be formally memorialized for his service to the community. Jessica is nervous if only because she isn't sure where she fits within their family in she trying to come to grips with their very strong holiday family traditions, which matriarch Janine has fostered even more since Walt's death, and within their life of service in Wayne Forest. Their Thanksgiving is interrupted when Buck is called away to Avalon County to assist with an avalanche rescue. What was anticipated to be a short emergency gets extended first by days then weeks when Buck agrees, on the urging of his old friend Meg Rogers with Avalon Search and Rescue, to stay and assist with proactive maintenance on what Meg anticipates will be a difficult avalanche season. But Buck and Jessica are determined to spend some alone time before Christmas before the memorial, something that is made all the more difficult due to the natural circumstances of winter, and by something that Jessica eventually discovers through osmosis, namely that Meg was once more to Buck than just a friend and work colleague. Meanwhile, Janine has to deal with a situation in her role on the Wayne Forest detail in discovering Christmas tree poachers. And Buck's single sister Roma, a cat person who is reluctantly looking after Jessica's faithful dog Charlie, can't help but think about a lost past at this special time of year in she having told no one of that past. Written by Huggo