Warning: Rated PG for strong language

Brenda froze in place for a minute, seeing Jax’s motionless body on the ground next to Jason’s smoldering motorcycle. Her first instinct was to scream out his name, but fortunately, she put her hand over her mouth before she could do something stupid. She knew that too much noise of any kind would alert the police to Jax’s location.

She moved Star back to within the shelter of the trees. If the motorcycle blew, she didn’t want the explosion to spook the horse before she and Jax got back to her. She quickly got down from Star and ran as silently as she could to where he lay. He was on his back about 5 feet from the motorcycle. She stooped down, but didn’t want to move him until she found out how serious his injuries were. She felt for a pulse, and let out a long sigh of relief when she felt a strong one in his wrist. Then, the fumes of the leaking gasoline commanded her attention, and she realized time was critical.

"Jax!" she whispered frantically. "Come on, Jax, wake up!" She leaned down close to his face, but there was no response. She looked around helplessly. She undid the strap of the motorcycle helmet and eased it off of his head. {So far, so good. No blood. Why didn’t I take those CPR classes when Sonny wanted me to? What do I do now?}

She looked into his face, trying to will his eyes to open. "Jax! Come on, they’re going to find us soon! You’ve got to wake up!" She looked around again, and became desperate. As she took her left hand and lightly tapped him on the cheek, she almost screamed when his right hand shot up and grabbed her by the wrist.

"Ow!" she said through grit teeth, but was rewarded by his beautiful blue eyes opening and trying to focus on her. "Jax! Let go of my hand! It’s me!"

Jax closed his eyes once, then opened them again as though he was trying to focus. "Hellcat….is that you?" he asked softly.

She smiled. She had never thought she would be so glad to hear the word "hellcat" again. "Yes, pig, it’s me," she said warmly. "Now let go of my hand!" His eyes opened wide again and she felt the grip on her hand relax. She pushed the stray hair off his forehead. "Are you hurt anywhere?"

Jax put his right hand to his forehead. "I’m not sure. All I know is that one minute I was riding along, and then I heard shots, and the bike’s front tire went flat and I was heading down into this ravine." He looked into her eyes. "How did you find me?"

"Long story," she said succinctly. She looked back at the motorcycle. It was still smoking. "Look, this is a real Kodak moment, but unless I get us out of here fast, that bike is gonna blow and we’re both gonna have a real bad hair day. Can you sit up?"

He let out a long breath and nodded faintly. But as Brenda went to put her right arm around his left side to help him sit up, he let out an excruciating cry of pain. As much as she hated to do it, she put her left hand up to his mouth so that the troopers would not be alerted to their position. She looked up at the top of the ravine and could still see search lights panning the night sky. Looking back into Jax’s face, she could see that beads of sweat had broken out on his forehead. She took the hand away from his mouth and stroked it up to his brow to wipe it gently.

The words came out as a whisper. "I think I’m hit… my left shoulder…" Brenda kept him in exactly the same position, not wanting to cause him any more pain. She carefully used her left hand to open the left side of the leather jacket a little, only to gasp when she saw a large blood stain and tiny hole in his shirt high on his left shoulder.

"Jax," she whispered shakily, "I think you got shot in the shoulder. But we need to get out of here because the bike’s leaking gas and it’s likely to explode. If I come around and help support you on the right, can you make it over to the bushes?" He opened his eyes and looked into hers and nodded, grimacing all the while.

Brenda let go of his left shoulder and scrambled around his back so that she could try to support some of his weight on the right. "OK, let’s try this again," she said purposefully. He was already half-sitting, and when she tried to rock his weight forward to his feet, she heard him take in a sharp breath and felt his entire body tense with pain. Tears began to run down her cheeks in sympathy for him. She finally was able to get him to a standing position, with his right arm around her shoulder, her left arm around his back, and her right hand against his chest to try to keep him upright. She looked up into his gray face, and he nodded that he thought he could make it now.

She never knew that such a short distance could seem to be an eternity away. Brenda tried to support as much of Jax’s weight as she could, but he was so much bigger than she was. Finally, she got him into the bushes near when she had tethered Star and got him to a large rock. "Come on, Jax, sit here on this rock. You’ll be OK now."

She maneuvered him over to the rock and finally got him positioned so that she didn’t think he would topple over. He nodded to her, and she let go of him and went around to crouch in front of him on her haunches. "Jax, I need to take the jacket off to see the wound. We’ve got to stop the bleeding." He nodded to her quietly, but she could see that he still was in a lot of pain. She slipped his right arm out of the jacket, and took a deep breath as she began to try to get his left arm out.

He whimpered in pain as the jacket slid down the left arm, and she winced for him. Tears were beginning to run down her cheeks, but she wiped them away quickly with her hand. She needed to be strong for him. When she finally was able to slip the jacket off his hand, they both let out a sigh of relief. She threw it on the ground, and came around to his front to look at the wound again.

The bloodstain on his gray shirt was about 4 inches across and spread in a circle pattern from a tiny hole. She didn’t want to investigate the wound itself until she got back to the cottage and had some antiseptic and bandages ready at hand. But she knew she had to do something to stem the bleeding or he would never make it back to the cottage. She looked into Jax’s pale face, and his eyes were closed again. She looked around in frustration, and then finally looked down at herself. She stood and pulled her broadcloth shirt out of her pants. {Thank goodness I didn’t decide to change my clothes after all. Those knit shirts wouldn’t have been much help.} She unbuttoned the bottom few buttons of the shirt, and putting it up to her mouth, tore a rip in the placket with her teeth. Taking the ends in both hands, she gave a mighty pull, and a 3 inch strip of cloth began to separate from the bottom of the shirt.

Jax startled at the sound of the shirt ripping. He opened his eyes to see her standing there, tearing the bottom of her shirt off, her perfect abs glistening in the moonlight with the sweat of her efforts to save him. "Brenda, I really appreciate this, but I don’t think I have the strength right now to fool around…" he said with a pasty smile. His eyes closed again as she let out her breath in a huff.

She continued to pull, finally having to bite the strip again to separate it completely from her shirt. "This isn’t about sex, pig," she hissed at him as she pulled strings from the strip of cloth. "This is about trying to stop you from bleeding to death." With her now-much-shorter-shirt rippling in the night, she took the strip and wound it around each hand and moved behind him. She slipped it up underneath his arm gently, and then as she got it close to his armpit, she leaned down next to his left ear. "This is gonna hurt, Jax, but I’ve got to try to do this."

She pulled the strip up tightly under his arm, and she heard him inhale with pain. With the tears gathering in her eyes again, she took the two ends and formed a square knot, bringing it down onto his shoulder. She peeked over to the front of him, and saw that the knot was between his neck and the blood stain. Giving another big pull, she tied the strip into another knot. She was going to go back to the front of him, but first couldn’t resist and pulled his head back to rest on her breasts, wiping his damp brow with her right hand. "I’m going to get you out of this, Jax. I swear it."

As she went around and crouched back in the front of him, everything seemed to happen at once. She heard voices yelling about spotting some wreckage. Lights flashed, and she moved to carefully embrace Jax, thinking somehow her tiny frame could hide his large one. And finally, there was a popping noise from the motorcycle, and then a large explosion.

She cradled his head to her breasts and he wrapped his right arm around her waist as the gas tank on the bike blew. Their protected place in the bushes shielded them from flying debris, and Brenda pulled her head up to chance a glance at Star. Luckily, the horse was far enough into the woods so that she didn’t see most of the bright light from the blast.

Brenda’s breasts were heaving and she was breathing hard, but it was with relief that she had managed to get Jax away from the bike before it exploded. As she watched the flames shoot up into the air, she could hear the shouts from above. "That ought to slow them down a little," she murmured, and suddenly realized that his head was no longer buried against her. She looked down at him, and found his eyes burning into hers with a light that spoke volumes of gratitude and caring. She unconsciously stroked her fingers through his blonde, tousled hair.

As he was about to open his mouth to thank her somehow, her eyes lit with another idea. She pulled away from him, and reached down to his right wrist. "I’m going to take your watch," she said in explanation, and then slipped it off of him. Then, she steadied him on the rock, and leaned down and picked up Jason’s leather jacket. "Will you be all right here for just a minute?" He nodded, and she made her way carefully out of the bushes.

Holding the jacket and watch, she tried to make her way as close to the burning bike as possible. She put her arm up to shield her from the heat, and when she was about 15 feet away, she glanced up to make sure there were no troopers around yet. Then, she took the jacket and gave it a heave, throwing it into the fire. {YES!! I always did hate that thing, anyway!!} She did the same thing with the watch, and then stood there for a minute to make sure they had landed in the fire. Satisfied with the results, she ran back to where Jax was hidden.

"What did you do?" he whispered.

"I bought you a few days," she said quietly, looking around and trying to figure out how to get him on Star. Her hands were on her hips, and when she looked back at him, she could see his confusion. "I figure that if they find the remains of the jacket and the scorched watch, they might think you died in the explosion. If you’re dead, they won’t be looking for you anymore, right?"

His mouth dropped, but she was already gone to get Star and bring the horse over to where he sat. She was crooning softly to the horse when she returned, trying to shield her eyes from the fire. She brought Star behind the rock where he sat, and then came around to face him again. Amazingly, she found him smiling at her. "What?" she said.

"Are you sure you didn’t work for the WSB in another life?" he chuckled. "That was sheer brilliance, Brenda." His eyes narrowed again and he grew serious. "I owe you my life. Somehow thank you seems…."

She rubbed her hands in her hair and stopped him. "Yeah, well, we’re not out of this yet, so don’t go throwing me a ticker-tape parade." She looked at him and then at Star. "Do you think you can get up on Star?"

He looked over his shoulder at the horse, and then down at the rock. "If I stand on the rock and mount from the right, I think I can make it." She rubbed her hands together and then held them out to him to help him stand.

It hurt her to see the pain etched on his face, but he somehow managed to climb up on the rock, holding her hands. He grabbed the pommel with his right hand and placed his right foot in the stirrup, and then as she held her breath, he swung his left leg over the horse. His face blanched with the effort, but she gave silent thanks to all of his guardian angels as she saw him finally sitting atop the horse. He didn’t look too steady, but he was up there.

She was about to mount the horse herself when Jax’s eyes flew open and he looked at her. "You just flunked Spy 101. Go back and take a branch or something and rub out our footprints. They won’t think I died if they find our footprints."

"Will you be OK up there if I do? I don’t want to come back here to find that you fell off the horse while I was gone," she explained.

He nodded, and she went quickly and did as he instructed. She ripped some branches off a nearby bush, and tried to retrace her steps as best she could, dragging it on the ground. Then, she returned and swept the ground around the rock carefully, since all of their maneuverings there had probably left a lot of prints.

She kept one cautious eye on Jax the whole time, but he stayed in a sitting position on Star, sometimes grasping the pommel of the saddle for support. When she had done all she could to erase any footprints, and even checked for prints that Star might have made in the soft earth, Brenda ran back, threw the branch into the flames from the motorcycle, and returned to Star and her precious cargo. She decided to mount from the right, not wanting to do anything to jostle Jax’s shoulder. But first, she climbed up on the rock, took the extra blanket from behind Jax, and shook it out.

"This might hurt a little, but I’ve got to wrap something around you to keep you warm," she said to him softly. She threw the blanket around Jax’s shoulders, and he grabbed one side of it with his right hand and snuggled into it. Still standing on the rock, she carefully mounted from the right side and threw her left leg over the pommel of the saddle.

Brenda could feel the warmth of his body behind her, and she picked up the reins. She moved Star away from the rock slowly, and then as she felt him wobble behind her, Brenda whispered back to Jax over her shoulder. "Put your arms around my waist and hold on tight." She felt his arms come around her like steel bands, and for a moment it took her breath away. She felt his body relax against her, and his head rested wearily against her right shoulder. Brenda muttered to the night, "I’ve got you, love. We’re going home."

She applied her heels to Star’s sides. "Come on, Star. Let’s get out of here." The horse gingerly picked her way back through the "back door" of the canyon, and once she was again on the outer road, taking him back to Brenda’s cottage and safety.

#~#~#~#

Brenda fumbled with the lock on the cottage door. She didn’t want to test Jax’s staying power any longer than necessary, so she had tethered Star to her front porch and gotten Jax down before he passed out again from the pain. She would handle Star later, once she had Jax inside on the couch.

She was still supporting him under his right arm, and he was semi-conscious. She got him inside, and then brought him to her couch, where he collapsed. The blanket was still around him, but it fell open when he lay on the couch, and she could see the blood stain on his shirt was spreading.

"You stay there, I’ll be back," she whispered to Jax, and then Brenda ran back out the front door to put Star in the stable. As she was taking the saddle off, she realized the stupidity of her comment. {Like he was going anywhere in his condition. Brenda, you are so dense sometimes.} She closed the stable door after giving Star a long drink of water and ran back to the cottage, locking the door behind her.

Jax was still on the couch, and his eyes were closed, his face deathly pale. Brenda ran to the kitchen and got a bottle of water. She washed her hands and then ran back to Jax on the couch.

His head was resting on the arm rest of the couch, and she raised it gently to put the bottle of water to his lips. He sipped a little, and then coughed and grimaced in pain. He opened his eyes and looked at his surroundings, and then back at Brenda. "Oh, God…I died and went to hell, and it’s Martha Stewart’s house!"

"Very funny, Jax," she groaned, and she saw just the hint of a smile on his face. "Come on, drink a little more if you can. You need fluids."

He sipped some water and then lay back again. He tried to look down at his shoulder, but he dropped his head back on the armrest. "Can you pull the shirt back? Let’s see how bad this is."

She looked at him seriously. "I can if you can." She began to unbutton his shirt, and willed her fingers not to tremble at the thoughts that began racing through her mind. "OK," she said softly, "I’m going to begin to pull the left side of the shirt back now." She took a deep breath. {Please don’t let me pass out if there’s a lot of blood.}

The only thing that seemed to be going their way so far that night was that the shirt didn’t stick to the wound. She caught her breath when she had the shirt open. If the trooper’s aim had been just a hair to the left, the bullet would have missed him completely. As it was, there was an entrance wound in the fleshy part of his shoulder. The arm was grossly swollen and bruised, and still oozing blood.

"How bad is it?" he asked hoarsely.

"It looks like the bullet just barely caught your shoulder, but it’s still in there. It must be pretty close to the surface because it’s all swollen and bruised. I don’t think it hit a bone or anything – it doesn’t look like it’s that far down beneath your skin."

Jax nodded. "I can feel it in there when I move." His eyes took hold of Brenda’s. "The bullet’s got to come out, you know. Can you do it?"

Brenda took a deep breath. "Oh, Jax…." She pulled his shirt back over his bare chest so as not to be distracted. She took his right hand in her hands and held it as she spoke. "Before tonight, if anyone would have told me I would have gone and rescued a wanted criminal, and then gotten him back to my cottage, I would have told them they were nuts." Her eyes got soft and she stroked his hand gently. "But you’re asking me to put you through excruciating pain. I don’t know the first thing about any of this. I’m lucky I remembered enough to fix a fairly adequate tourniquet for you tonight." Her eyes began to mist. "But I’m betting you won’t go to a hospital, and if I don’t do this for you…"

He could see that she was being torn up inside. He stopped her before she went any further. "Brenda, it’s OK. You’ve already saved my life several times over tonight." He looked down at her hands. "But you’re right about the hospital, and the bullet DOES need to come out. And I think there’s a way."

He shifted on the couch. "What are you doing?"

He reached his right hand over, but then fell back with pain at the effort. "There’s a card in my wallet. People I can call if there’s an extreme emergency. I normally wouldn’t get them involved, but since it’s life and death…"

"Family?" she asked.

Jax smiled to himself. "You might say that. But my wallet’s in my back pocket on the left side, and I can’t reach …."

Brenda looked down at his hip on the couch. {OK, girl, if you are too much of a wimp to dig a bullet out of the man’s shoulder, you should at least be able to dig out his wallet. And feel his well-muscled butt.} She shook her head to rid it of the images of his body in the shower. "OK, I’ll try," she said grudgingly, "but I swear, if I go groping your behind and then you REMEMBER that it’s in your right pocket, I’ll kill you myself!"

He flashed a dimpled smile at her, and she began to think that he might live through this after all. "Brenda, I swear that if there were to be any groping going on, I would wait until I could fully participate and enjoy it." He rolled onto his right side slightly. "Now just get the d*mn wallet out."

She could see that it was taking a lot of effort for him, and so she tried to reach his back pocket as quickly as she could. She found the wallet, and pulled it out successfully. He felt the pressure release on his back pocket and rolled back onto his back with a sigh. She had already begun leafing through the wallet, and he tried to take it with his right hand. "I can do it," she said defensively, but then realized that she didn’t know what she was looking for. He closed his eyes for a minute, and then opened them again and felt in the section that normally held the paper money. Behind a hidden flap, he found the card and pulled it out and handed it to her.

It was a plain white card, with just a phone number and the name of the organization. "Worldwide Society of Birdwatchers? This is your family?" she said in disgust.

He took a deep breath, and she reminded herself to shut her mouth unless spoken to. He took her hand that held the card in his and spoke slowly. "Now listen, Brenda. You need to repeat my exact words." He thought about it for a minute. "Maybe I’d better do it." But then, his face turned pale and Brenda saw a darker ring on the blood stain.

"I can do this, Jax. I’m listening."

He closed his eyes as the pain passed, and then after she gave him another sip of water, he spoke again. "Call the number on the card. When they answer, tell them you have a J3 emergency. Tell them that you have a downed falcon. They should understand and get our location and send help." His words became fainter and he drifted out of consciousness as he finished.

Brenda felt his hand go limp and she gasped softly. Her hands shaking, she felt for his pulse, and once she was assured that it was still beating, she put his hand on his chest and ran to get the cordless phone out of the bedroom. She wanted to stay in the room with him to watch him in case he accidentally rolled off the couch.

She got back in seconds and, fingers shaking, punched the numbers on the phone that she saw on the card. After three rings, a woman with a low, honeyed voice answered the phone.

"Worldwide Society of Birdwatchers. How may I help you?"

Brenda’s mind went blank. "Uh….I’ve got a wounded bird! I need help!"

"Are you a member of the local Audubon Society, sweetie?" the woman’s voice came back. "Because this is the after-hours operator for the Society and unless there’s an emergency…."

Brenda tried to stay calm. "Yes, it is an emergency. I’ve got…" she put the phone up to her head and tried to remember. "…a wounded falcon, yes, that’s it, a wounded falcon."

There was silence at the other end for a moment. "Do you live in the Washington area?"

Now she was getting somewhere. "No, I live in New York. My address is…"

The voice came back. "Well, sweetie, then you’d better call the New York Audubon Society affiliate. Would you like me to give you their number?"

Brenda practically dropped the phone. "No, lady, and don’t call me that one more time because I’m certainly not your sweetie!" Brenda took a deep breath to calm herself and then began to mutter. "This isn’t at all the way this is supposed to be working. I’m supposed to tell you that I have a hurt falcon and you’re supposed to ask me where I live…"

"What’s your name….Miss?" the woman asked hesitantly.

Just as Brenda was about to tell her where to go, Jax roused on the couch. "Is that Blue?" Brenda looked confused, but apparently he had heard the conversation so far. "Ask if that’s Miss Blue you’re speaking to," he said weakly, and then drifted out again.

There was a deathly silence on the other end of the line. "What was that?" the voice said softly.

"Is this Miss Blue?" Brenda asked. "Am I speaking to Miss Blue?"

The voice was suddenly intense. "How did you know my name?"

Brenda almost hit the roof. "BECAUSE THE D*MN FALCON HAD A PARROT FOR A MOTHER AND HE TOLD ME! How else do you think I would know it!"

Miss Blue’s voice immediately became deliberate. "I’m sorry, but you must realize that we have to be very careful. There are many very rare and valuable BIRDS in this world, and there are a lot of people out there who want to hurt them. POACHERS who might try anything just to find out where a wounded bird is."

{I get it. Jax is a wanted man. The authorities might have the line bugged since they would think he would check in.}

Miss Blue continued. "Now, Miss, try very hard to remember what it is you want to tell me."

Brenda took a deep breath and Jax’s words came back to her. "I have a J3 emergency. I have a downed falcon." She heard Miss Blue gasp.

"A downed falcon? How serious is it?"

Brenda looked over at him, and then remembered to choose her words carefully. "Some hunters winged him pretty seriously, and I don’t think I can take care of him by myself. I thought maybe you could send someone to help me."

Miss Blue’s voice became Brenda’s rock. "Right away. Now tell me where you are." Brenda gave her the directions, and was relieved to hear that help would be on the way. "Now until help gets there, just keep him warm and try to give him some fluids, do you understand?"

Brenda nodded, tears beginning to flow again. "Do you know how soon it will be?"

"I’ll be sending emergency personnel out as quickly as possible. I’ve just paged someone who will probably want to handle the situation. The important thing is for you to stay calm," Miss Blue’s voice soothed.

"I understand," Brenda breathed. "Can I call you again if there’s any change before help gets here?"

"Of course, Miss," Miss Blue answered. "And….take good care of him for me, will you? I’m quite fond of ….falcons." Her voice broke as she ended the sentence.

Brenda smiled into the receiver. "I will." She looked over at Jax warmly. She could still see his chest rising and falling slowly but steadily. She hung up the phone and cradled it to her chest. "I’ll take very good care of him."

#~#~#~#

Brenda stayed at Jax’s side for what seemed like hours, trying to get him to drink some more of the water. Finally, about an hour after her call, Brenda saw headlights reflected in her front windows and heard the slam of a car door. She cautiously peeked out the front curtains, and saw it wasn’t a police car.

She jumped at the knock at her door, although she expected it. She went to the door and opened it a crack. "I understand you have a J3 – downed falcon," a deep voice said.

Brenda opened the door to a distinguished-looking tall man with sandy-colored hair and a friendly smile. "He’s in here," she said, and then closed the door behind him. She led the man into her living room after carefully locking the door.

The man stood before the couch and looked at Jax, gently bending down to pull back his shirt. Before he could touch the shirt though, Jax’s hand shot up and grabbed the man’s wrist. Jax’s eyes opened wide, and then he cracked a grin.

"D*mn, I must be in worse shape than I thought! Since when does the head of the WSB come out to make house calls?" The man smiled back at Jax, who continued, "Sean Donnelly, you old dog, how are you?"

To be continued…