No Way Out

Jax looked in the rear-view mirror of the stolen military jeep again. "I take it you have a plan to get us out of here alive?" Brenda hissed from the well of the other front seat in the jeep. There was another explosion and . Brenda screamed and hid lower in the well as tiny pieces of broken glass rained down on them.

When she finally put her head up again, she gave Jax a "Well?" look. He took his right hand off the wheel of the jeep to brush the glass out of her hair. "To answer your question --- Yes, I *do* have a plan, Brenda. And escaping alive is always preferred in my list of options."

She was about to give him a smart answer when Jax pushed her under the seat again. Brenda held on for dear life as the jeep rounded a corner on two wheels and she could hear angry shouts fading into the distance behind them. When she finally put her head out and looked up at him, Jax replied to her unspoken question. "Some of your boyfriend’s less than loyal subjects," Jax quipped sarcastically. When she didn’t answer him, he continued, "And you’re welcome."

"I assume that you’re referring to my lack of a proper thank-you since we left the palace," Brenda hissed.

"The thought had crossed my mind," Jax said, his eyes never leaving the road in front of him.

Brenda straightened her back as defiantly as she could in the crouched position. "Well, if you’re expecting me to march out a brass band in your honor, you can think again, Jax." Jax shook his head in disgust as she continued. "I mean, I’m happy you got me away from those zombie women, but I’m sure that once Rashid and I had a chance to sit down and discuss it rationally, I could have convinced him that I would be safer back in the States."

"And your engagement?" Jax’s voice was flat.

Brenda hesitated. {D*mn. I never would have married that pig Rashid but I can’t let Jax know that. All he needs is another excuse to trot out the "I told you so’s."} "I’m sure that after the political situation calmed down, Rashid and I could have worked something out....."

Brenda was thrown face-first against the seat of the jeep abruptly as Jax stomped on the brake pedal. "What the h*ll are you doing" she hissed. "Trying to give me a broken nose?"

Jax turned to face her, lazily resting the wrist of his left hand on the steering wheel. "Well, if your nose is as hard as the rest of your head, duchess, I think that would be bloody impossible!"

"Then why the bloody h*ll did you stop?" Brenda echoed.

"Because if you’re really so sure that you and Prince Fat-head can still work things out, I was just going to let you out here before we leave the city limits." Jax looked out into the distance. "I’m sure there’ll be some royal troops not too far from here who can give you an escort back to the palace." He turned his sarcastic gaze back to her. "And then his harem can get you all perfumed and pretty and hot for a romp in the sack with your new husband again!"

"His harem? Those women were his wives?" Brenda’s voice was suddenly small and weak.

Jax shook his head. "Brenda, I spent five years of my life learning Drakarian customs. I used to be able to speak the language like a native. I know more about Drakar than any other operative. Yes – those WERE his wives, and they WERE preparing you for a wedding night with Rashid. Why do you think they gave you that spiked punch and oiled you up like a greased pig?" Jax chuckled a little. "I swear, if they hadn’t put the powder on you, you might have slid right off my shoulder when I carried you down that rope."

Brenda put her fingers to the bridge of her nose and wrinkled her eyebrows with a frown. "Jax, I don’t remember a whole lot about what happened earlier tonight." She looked up at him. "I remember drinking some tea, and then everything is kind of fuzzy until you were helping me throw up in the garden."

Jax smiled wickedly. "That’s a shame, duchess. You gave me a real nice kiss hello when you still were under the effects of that aphrodisiac."

Brenda rolled her eyes and covered them with her hand. "Can we PLEASE just stop talking about earlier tonight and get out of here?" Brenda sputtered. She sat back in the well of the jeep, a pout on her face. "I don’t want to stay with Rashid." An explosion went off in the distance and she jumped. "I don’t want to stay in Drakar." She looked up at him again with a "you win" expression on her face. "So just put this bucket of bolts in gear and get us to the airport, OK?"

Jax put the jeep back in "drive" and roared off again, throwing Brenda against the front seat as he did. They drove in silence for a few minutes as Brenda endured bumps and jolts from the rough ride. "What did you do, decide to take every unpaved road in town?"

Jax kept his eyes on the road. "Normally there aren’t a whole lot of paved roads once you leave Muwai, duchess."

Brenda sat up straight at his words and climbed up half-way onto the seat. "What do you mean -- leave Muwai? The airport is in the center of the city!"

"I never said we were going to the airport, Brenda. YOU did."

Brenda’s mouth dropped open and she climbed all the way up into the seat. She croaked a few times as she took in her surroundings. They were in the Drakarian countryside. The moon reflected off a lake in the distance, and the road began a steep incline as they were heading into the mountains. She looked at Jax in shock. "Jax, where are we going?"

"Out of Drakar, Brenda. I told you that."

"Yes, but I thought you would be flying us out," she replied in a strangled voice. "You were in the Air Force before you joined the Bureau. You fly all the time." She looked around, noticing the desolation of several villages that had been bombed by the rebels. "Just how did you plan on getting us out of Drakar?"

Jax slowed the jeep and finally drove into a small clearing among some trees. He shut off the engine and turned to look at her seriously. "Brenda, while you were whistling the soundtrack to "Kismet," your fiancé was cutting off diplomatic relations with the Western World. There hasn’t been a commercial flight in or out of Drakar in a week."

"Then how did you....." Brenda’s face grew pale.

"I pulled some strings down at the Bureau and managed to get a flight into Lontak." Jax got out of the jeep and put his hands on his hips. "And that’s how we’re going to have to get out of here. By land. Across the Lontakian border and back into friendly territory."

Brenda jumped out of the jeep. "By land??!! That’s your plan?" She walked around the jeep to stand in front of Jax. "Jax, getting to the border will take us at least five days!"

Jax nodded. "True." He smiled at her. "So, we’d better get going, don’t you think?"

{I have to put up with his conceited pig for five days? Five days.....and five nights? Sleeping right next to him? Sh*t.}

Jax walked away from her and into a wooded area. Brenda stayed in the clearing, watching his back. "Jax," she wheedled, "If we have to get to the Lontakian border, how are we going to do it in this jeep? Those mountain roads are in pretty bad shape. They’re barely cleared, much less paved. And we’ll draw a lot of attention in this military jeep. What if there are some rebels still around who think we’re loyal to Rashid?"

{There. That should do it. Now he’ll realize how stupid his plan sounds and confess that he was pulling my leg all along and there’s a helicopter just beyond these trees.}

But to Brenda’s horror, there was no helicopter. Jax had a superior smirk on his face when he emerged from the trees leading two horses. "Oh, no, Jax…….not on horseback!"

"Brenda, you said yourself that the mountain roads weren’t fit for the jeep. These horses can travel the rough terrain much better than the jeep could." He had the reins for the two horses in one hand and held two backpacks in the other. After setting the packs down next to a tree stump, Jax wrapped the reins around a low tree branch. "Now, let’s get you set for a ride, duchess."

Brenda was shivering, but she couldn’t tell if it was from the colder air at the higher elevation or her long-standing fear of horses. She rubbed the sides of her arms, trying to warm them. "Jax," she pleaded, "you know how I hate horses. Ever since that horse threw me when I was a kid, I couldn’t even stand the pony rides at the circus!"

Jax walked slowly towards her carrying a parka. "Brenda," he said gently, putting the parka around her shoulders, "these horses aren’t going to give you a problem." He turned to look at them over his shoulder and snorted in disgust. "I’ll bet the farmer that sold me these two nags is still laughing his way to some bank." He tipped her face up to his as he turned to look at her again. "These two should have been sent to the glue factory a LONG time ago."

Brenda slipped her arms in the sleeves of the coat gratefully as Jax went back and got some heavy hiking boots and socks. "Now," he said, setting them by the stump, "put these on and let’s get going." He returned to the backpacks and pulled out a heavy parka for himself. Brenda noticed for the first time that night that he was wearing a black T-shirt and jeans – good camouflage to blend into the darkness of the Drakarian countryside. She moved towards the stump to put on the boots, but then realized that once she did, she’d have to mount her horse.

"Wait!" Brenda shrieked as Jax pointed to the boots again. She shifted uncomfortably from one foot to the other. "Jax…..I ….uh…..before we get going here…..I need to……"

Jax grimaced. "Go to the bathroom?" He gestured towards the bushes. "Just like Ally McBeal, Bren. Unisex bathrooms. Help yourself."

Brenda’s face fell. "You’re kidding, right?"

Jax put his hands on his hips. "Do you see a friendly Amoco station anywhere around here, Brenda? NO, I’m not kidding. Now if you need to go, do it and let’s get this show on the road." He looked back towards the glow that the city lights in Muwai cast in the night sky. "The more distance I can put between us and your former fiancé tonight, the better."

Brenda walked towards an area where the trees were closer together. "You sure you won’t peek or leave me or anything?"

"Do you want me to come along and help?" Jax asked sarcastically.

"Never mind!" Brenda replied with a stomp for emphasis, and spun around and walked deep into the trees. Jax watched her for a minute and then turned back to the horses.

{This is going to be tougher than I thought. Why did she have to kiss me like that back at the palace? Now I have to spend five nights or more, sharing a sleeping bag with her, remembering how sweet she tastes and how good it feels when she ……. D*mn.}

Brenda returned from the woods about five minutes later, still straightening her borrowed sweat pants and muttering under her breath. Jax glanced over at her and smiled mischievously. "What’s the matter, duchess? Did they run out of pre-moistened towelettes just as you got up to the sink?"

"Blow it out your ear, Jax!" Brenda returned, and then went over to the stump and started pulling on her heavy socks and boots. As she did, she stole glances at Jax, who was tightening the cinch on the saddle of one of the horses and checking the gear. {He did save your life, Brenda. Even riding a horse isn’t *that* bad compared to a lifetime of enduring Rashid’s amorous advances.} She stared up at the stars. {Now….if we can just get to the Lontakian border alive……and if I can just forget the way his butt felt when he was bringing me down that rope…..}

The sound of Jax’s voice startled her back into reality. "Brenda! Come on! Are you ready to go?" Brenda pushed the hair back out of her eyes and rose from the tree stump. She nodded, but then walked cautiously over to the other horse.

"Wait…Brenda….let me.." Jax put his hand out towards the horse Brenda assumed was hers.

"I’ll be alright, Jax," Brenda said with attempted confidence. "You don’t need to help me into the saddle." Jax gave her an odd grin, but then held up both hands in a "Go for it" gesture. She put her left foot into the stirrup and whispered in a low voice to the horse. "Now be a good horsie and don’t move, OK?" Brenda took a deep breath and then swung all her weight up and over the horse’s back.

The only problem was that the horse didn’t move – Brenda did. The saddle slid to the side and almost under the horse’s belly as Brenda clutched the pommel and gave a strangled shriek.

Jax walked over to where Brenda hung upside down, still in the saddle. "I was going to tell you, Brenda, that you should let me tighten the cinch on your saddle before you mount, too," Jax said, barely holding back a laugh.

"Would you stop being so d*mned smug and get me out of this thing!" Brenda felt Jax’s hands support her weight as she eased out of the stirrups. As Jax set her on her feet next to the horse, he finally gave way to the belly-laugh that had been bubbling below the surface ever since she tried to mount. She brushed her thighs with her hands, trying desperately to preserve some form of dignity.

Jax was still smiling as he tightened the cinch. "OK. Now you should be all set." He extended his hand to Brenda. "Want me to help you mount this time?"

"I can manage perfectly well myself, thank you," Brenda replied haughtily. "Besides, I wouldn’t want you to hurt yourself any more than you already did carrying me up and down the rope back at the palace."

As she stood next to him in the moonlight, Brenda felt like electric sparks were arcing between them. Just as she wondered if Jax was feeling it too, he answered her question. "Yeah – I didn’t realize that I should have packed some Slim Fast in the backpack for the trip."

Brenda sputtered in indignation as Jax laughed again and went over to his own horse. He swung up into the saddle with ease and grasped the reins in one hand, clucking softly to the horse. As she tried to get her own horse to turn and follow him, Brenda couldn’t resist getting in the last word. "Jax….you can go straight to ……."

"….don’t even bother saying it, duchess," Jax interrupted her. He moved his horse over to hers and gave it a gentle kick with his foot, moving it into line with his horse. "I have a feeling that before the next five days is over, we’ll both feel like h*ll would be an improvement over Drakar."

*^*^*^*

{I don’t like horses. I don’t like Drakar. I’m cold, and I’m hungry, and I’m sleepy.} Brenda was not a happy camper as she and Jax made their way higher into the mountains and closer to the still-distant Lontakian border. They had been riding in relative silence, only occasionally broken by the sound of distant gunfire or the call of a bird of prey.

Finally, she couldn’t take it any longer. "Jax. I’m hungry. Can we stop soon?"

She heard Jax’s sigh and saw his shoulders move up and down. He slowed his horse so that hers came alongside. When he reached inside his jacket, Brenda’s jaw dropped when she saw what he pulled from his pocket. "Here. You can eat this now."

Brenda grabbed at it as though it were the finest gold or diamonds. "A Kit-Kat bar! Jax -- I LOVE Kit-Kat bars!" She tore at the wrapper eagerly, but then stopped as realization dawned in her eyes. She had to fight to keep the tears from forming. "You remembered," she marveled quietly.

Jax smiled briefly and stared down at the ground. "How could I forget, Brenda? You used to inhale those things......when we were together," Jax said with halting agony.

Brenda remembered too. Jax couldn’t believe her passion for the crunchy candy bar. He used to come back from WSB missions with his pockets stuffed to overflowing with Kit Kat bars, which she happily relieved him of……along with the rest of his clothing. "Do you .....want some?" she asked quietly.

"That’s OK. You enjoy this one. You always were a bottomless pit," Jax replied, nudging his horse forward with his knees. He grabbed the reins of her horse and led it as she relished her candy bar and tried to bury her memories.

They rode on in silence for at least another hour before Jax halted his horse and rose a little in the saddle to look around. "We might as well stop here for the night. There’s a stream nearby for fresh water."

Brenda swallowed hard. "We’re stopping here – sleeping *here* for the night? Out in the open?"

Jax clucked and made a grim face. "Yeah, duchess. Wouldn’t you know? –I don’t have enough cash to cover the room at the Motel 6 and they won’t take my American Express card."

Brenda got off the horse as quickly as she could and stuck her tongue out at Jax. "Nobody likes a smart @ss, Jax," she replied. She looked around her and shivered, but not all from the cold. "Well, at least once we get a fire going it might not be too bad."

Jax took the backpack from his horse and dropped it without ceremony on the ground near a large hollow log. "Wrong again, Brenda. No fire. Not tonight." He glanced back in the direction of Muwai. "We’re still too close to Fat-head’s palace for comfort."

"Would you *please* stop calling him that?" Brenda said angrily. She flounced down on the hollow log as Jax began rummaging through the backpack. "I don’t suppose you’ve got any steak tartar with parslied new potatoes and Caesar salad in there, do you?"

Jax grinned and shook his head. "How about a nice granola bar instead?" He pulled one from the pack and tossed it to her. Brenda caught it with a frown and eagerly began unwrapping it.

As she began to munch slowly on her snack bar, trying to make it last as long as possible, she looked carefully at Jax. He had pulled a granola bar from the pack for himself and was eating it, his eyes searching the woods the entire time for any sign they had been followed. As he settled himself on a log opposite Brenda’s, they heard the faint sound of an explosion in the distance. Brenda turned around and saw the glow of oranges and reds that lit the night sky.

She turned back to Jax. "Jax…..What’ll happen if the rebels manage to get past the palace guard and get to Rashid?"

Jax never looked up from his granola bar. "They’ll kill him, most likely." He heard Brenda take a shaky breath and silence descended between them again. Finally, he looked up to see the faint glimmer of tears in Brenda’s downcast eyes. "How can you still care about him, Brenda? After what he was going to do to you?" She looked up at him and Jax saw her uncertainty. "Did you love him that much?"

"I’m not really sure, Jax," she replied after taking a long breath. {Ever since we broke up, I’m not sure I remember what love really is.} "I know that after I….after you….."

"You can say it….after you left me," Jax muttered bitterly.

"After *we* broke up," she amended, "Rashid filled a big empty hole that I had inside me." She stared up at the sky and smiled wanly. "He sent me flowers, he took me to shows, he called and just listened to me talk for hours…."

{Why didn’t you talk to *me*, Brenda? *I* was hurting too.}

She lowered her head again. "Anyway, he became such a big part of my life, what was left of it. It just seemed natural that we should get married. I mean, we’ve known each other since we were kids. Kind of like babies that are betrothed at birth, ‘ya know?"

As Brenda finally looked back at Jax, she saw the hurt and confusion in his eyes. {Don’t do this again, Jax. Talk to me. Tell me why you never came after me. Don’t shut down and try to hide your pain.} "But I never slept with him, Jax," she added softly. Jax’s head shot up and his eyes glittered at her in the dark. "There’s never been anyone else but you."

Brenda began to feel uncomfortable with the way Jax was looking at her – like another job that nobody else in the Bureau could manage to pull off. An impossible mission. His specialty.

She sighed aloud and shrugged her shoulders. "But then after I was living here for a while and the political situation got so bad, Rashid seemed to change. He became colder and more distant." She shook her head at herself. "I always thought we had a chance because he seemed to be so much different than his family. His customs were more Western. He would only take one wife, and that would be me." She finally looked into Jax’s eyes again. "I guess that little group of welcome wagon cuties you rescued me from just shows how wrong I was, huh?"

Jax shrugged his shoulders in reply. "Well, I guess a coup d’etat can make anyone go back to his roots." He gave her a crooked smile. "Kind of puts a strain on the old relationship. Isn’t that what those articles in those magazines you used to read would say – 25 Things that Can Send Your Engagement down the Toilet?"

Brenda laughed out loud and stared down at the ground. "Yeah….I guess you’re right." She kicked at the dust with the toe of her boot. "I know," she added, looking back into his eyes again and smirking. "The only reason you really lived with me for that long was to sneak peeks at my Cosmopolitan magazines."

But to her surprise, Jax’s eyes lost their teasing glint and began to glow with a different kind of fire. "No, Brenda. That wasn’t the reason." There was an uncomfortable thirty seconds of silence, and then Jax shocked her. "There’s never been anyone else for me either, duchess. Nobody but you."

The air between them was charged with tension and wanting. Then, to Brenda’s relief, Jax exhaled loudly and slapped his thighs. "Well, we’d better get to bed. It’s going to be a long day tomorrow."

Brenda nodded silently. There had been more communication between them in the last ten minutes than there had been during the last two months they lived together. {Maybe cause we’re older? What’s that they always say – hindsight is 20/20?} She watched as Jax walked slowly to his horse and took the bedroll off the back. He brought it back to where they were sitting and began shaking out the sleeping bags. Then, to her dismay, Jax began to zip the two bags together into one large one.

"We’re…..we’re *both* sleeping in the same bag tonight?" she stammered, her mouth going dry.

Jax raised his eyes to hers, but they were totally devoid of passion. "Yeah, Brenda. It’s cold up here. We’re out in the open and we can’t risk building a fire. Our one advantage is to share our body heat." He sighed in frustration. "Brenda, it’s not a big deal, OK? We always used to share a bed all the time – when we were together," he added awkwardly.

Brenda nodded. "Right. Share body heat. Yeah, that’s probably the smart thing to do." She rose and stretched. "Well, you were right about that being tired thing. I’m sure I’ll be out like a light as soon as I’m in the old sack, so to speak." She laughed aloud, but it rang hollow to Jax, much like her laughter when she had been drugged.

Jax finished zipping the bags together and then lay them on the ground, folding back the opening flap. He straightened up and began to take off his parka. Brenda’s eyes got wider and wider, and when his hands went to the hem of his T-shirt and he began to pull it over his head, she cleared her throat loudly. "Uhhhh…..Jax……what are you doing?"

Jax looked around him and then back at her as though she were a two-year old. "What does it look like? I’m taking my clothes off." Brenda still didn’t move, so Jax froze where he was with his T-shirt clutched in his hands and his bare abs glistening in the moonlight. "So, come on, duchess. Take your clothes off, too, so we can go to bed."

To be continued…..