(27)

"Sweetie." Naomi called, entering Jessica's house without bothering to knock.

"Hi babe," Elias smiled, "Jessie and Tommy aren't here."

"I know Jessie isn't because I've just left her at her office," she replied, "I gave her that money I borrowed back."

"You did! That's wonderful," he grinned. "I suppose that we should start planning the wedding."

No doubt when Jessie got home she'd tell him what had happened.

"Now I have a few ideas about that." she said.

"I'm sure you have." he replied. He could just imagine what sort of thing she had in mind. Still, as she'd been willing to give Jessie that money back he was prepared to give her more than a little leeway as far as the ceremony was concerned. As long as it wasn't anything too extreme.

She'd been crying, Daryl thought, when Taz finally came out of the girl's bathroom. He didn't like seeing her looking so sad.

"You know she's going to get what's coming to her." he said.

"When?" Taz asked, "Because I've had enough of her."

"Soon," he assured her, "So we're just going to have to try and stay away from her until then."

"Yeah right." she said.

"Taz, I mean it," Daryl said, "This is something you have to leave up to my dad."

"I'm not sure that I can do that," she admitted, "What if she does something first? There is no way

I'm just going to stand there and let her get away with it."

"Let me handle her then." he said. At least then Taz wouldn't get into trouble.

"How about I promise to try not to hit her." Taz suggested.

"Hitting her wouldn't do any good." he replied.

"You're right," she said, "She'd just have more plastic surgery to fix it." she said.

Talking to Jim about this wasn't going to be easy, Blair thought, entering the Bullpen. It would probably go a lot better if he said that Jess had said it wasn't his fault he'd acted the way he had.

Of course, Jim wasn't going to get off the lightly with him. Jess was the best thing that had happened to his friend relationship wise for a long time. And he wasn't just going to stand by and watch his friend blow it because he was too stubborn to admit that he was having a jealousy problem.

"Hey Chief," Jim said, "I thought you were spending the day with your mom." as Blair dumped his back pack by the side of his chair.

"She had some things to so," he replied, "Like giving Jess that money back."

"How did it go?" Jim asked.

"Not that good according to Jess," Blair said, "She told me about the roses. That she understood why you were upset."

"Upset." he snapped. That was an understatement if ever he'd heard one.

"Jim, you want to talk about it?" Blair asked.

"There's nothing to talk about." he replied. What was the point he couldn't change what he'd done.

"I think that there's something you need to know about Jess." Blair said.

"What?" he asked.

"She's never been one for dating," Blair said, "And she's certainly not interested in Walter. If you'd seen him you'd know that."

"I know." Jim said. Just like he knew that she had no idea why he'd sent her those roses. That didn't mean that he had to like it though. And what the hell did not one for dating mean?

"She said that you don't have to go to dinner tonight if you didn't want to." Blair said.

"I'm going." he growled. If only to tell Walter that if he went anywhere near Jess again, he was going to rip his balls off and ram them down his throat.

"If you're thinking of getting something, she likes chocolate," Blair grinned, "Plain not milk."

Staring at the graffiti covered walls of the holding cell that he was in, it was slowly dawning on Chief Warren that his friends weren't going to get him out of this. He'd wasted the one phone call he'd been permitted to call his wife, only to find that he was talking to the answering machine because she was either at one of those damn clubs she belonged to or she was shopping again.

God, he hoped that it wasn't the latter, because he had no way of paying off what she'd already run up never mind anymore that she added.

If it hadn't been for her and Melanie he might never have been tempted to step so far over the line. Not that he hadn't always played it close to the edge during his career because he had. It was just that the higher up he'd gotten in the ranks the more opportunities there had been to make some money on the side. He doubted that he was the only one doing it. Maybe if he threw a few names to Agent Morgan he could take some of the heat off himself. Even if he wasn't charged his career was over, who was going to trust him after this. After all, most people believed that there was no smoke without fire.

As soon as Rafe arrived he'd call him and Jim into his office, Simon thought. By two this afternoon Miss Melanie Warren would be in a holding cell right next to her father. Which was nothing less that she deserved for all the trouble she'd caused. Of course, he was going to have to deal with a very irate Mrs Warren. He'd only met the woman once, briefly, but it had been enough to know that underneath all that bleached blonde hair and thick layers of makeup there was a vicious nature just waiting to strike.

Arresting an eighteen year old girl at school, at lunch time in front of her friends might be considered by some people to be a little extreme. But he knew two people who would think that she'd got exactly what she deserved. He had to admit that with the exception of the video incident he was very proud of the way Daryl had handed everything so far. And maybe it was time that he
got to know Taz better as she was going to be a permanent and important part of Daryl's life.

(28)

She was certainly taking her time in calling him, Walter thought, pouring himself another drink. Still, he had put the time he'd been waiting to good use. It had cost him a lot of favors but Blair Jacob Sandburg now had a criminal record, on paper that was, that any self respecting criminal would be proud of. As soon as his angel found out about it she'd soon see sense and come back to work for him. When his angel was back where she belonged everything would be fine. His career would be back on track, there wouldn't be anymore talk about his taking early retirement.

If she hadn't left things wouldn't have fallen apart the way they had.

People who had been with the department were quitting. Before too long there wouldn't be anyone left. Which wasn't going to be good, especially for him.

"Naomi," Elias sighed, "Could we please just think about this for a moment."

"Sweetie, what's to think about?" she asked. What she'd suggested for a ceremony had been perfectly reasonable.

"I'd like all our children to be involved in the ceremony," he replied, "After all, this is the joining of two families."

"I just thought that Jessica might not feel comfortable taking part." she smiled. If she didn't then there was less chance that she would come up with some reason to object during the ceremony.

"Don't you think that you should give her the choice of whether she wants to or not." he suggested.

"Of course, you're right." she replied. That didn't mean that she had to like it or encourage Jessica to take part in the ceremony.

He'd been worried about nothing, Brian thought, entering the Bullpen. Tommy was right they should get to know each other first. That would probably save a lot of heartache in the long run.

He had to admit that there was a lot more involved in a relationship than just having sex with someone. It was what he'd always told Taz so maybe it was time that he started to take his
own advice.

The only problem he could see with his relationship with Tommy was if Taz didn't like him. She had to come first, just like she'd always done. Not matter how old she got he was always going to be responsible for her. And anyone he was involved with had to understand that. Damien never had, to him Taz had been an obstacle to them having fun.

"Ellison, Rafe, my office now." Simon bellowed from his office door when he saw the younger man. It was time to start getting people in place ready for arresting Melanie Warren, he thought.

He seriously doubted though that she would come quietly.

"You wanted to see us?" Jim said entering his office followed by Rafe.

"Close the door," he said, "I thought you'd both like to know that Dr. Angel's contacts have Chief Warren in a holding cell pending further questioning."

"They actually found something solid on him!" Rafe said in surprise.

"He's facing serious charges of corruption," Simon replied, "Which means this department can arrest his daughter at lunch time."

"It's about time." Jim growled.

"Until he was out of the way we didn't stand a chance of making any charges stick." he admitted.

He couldn't help but wonder how many times Warren had stopped charges from being pressed in the past. No doubt that would all come out in the investigation into his actions.

"Taz is going to be pleased that something's finally going to be done about her." Rafe said.

"She's not the only one," Simon said, "There's a family missing a son because of that young woman. As Dr. Angel helped to set events in motion I thought she might like to assist on the arrest. Without her none of this would have been possible." By the time it was over he was going to owe her several large favors.

She should have told Jim the truth, Jessica thought, reaching into the top drawer of her desk and taking out a large bar of chocolate. She seriously doubted though that it would have changed the way he'd reacted to Walter sending her those roses. Dinner tonight was going to be very tense.

Especially when she asked Walter about why he'd sent her those flowers. She didn't think that she'd done anything to encourage him to believe that they could ever be more than just friends and work colleagues. If she had then it had never been her intention to do so.

What she was really surprised at though was the fact nobody had ever said anything to her about Walter liking her. Did the people she'd worked with really think that she was doing what Naomi had accused her of, having an affair with him. What if Naomi carried out her threat and told Jim that she was, staying at the loft she'd certainly have plenty of chances to talk to him. Blair knew that it wasn't true though. So maybe the next time she saw Jim she should tell him what Naomi had said, convince him that it wasn't true. Because it wasn't.

Simon wanted Jess there so he was going to have to talk to her and ask her to be there, Jim thought, returning to his desk. Saying sorry wasn't something that was easy for him to do. Putting it off was only going to make it harder.

"I have to call Jess," he said sitting down when he saw the look on Blair's face, "Simon wants her at an arrest this afternoon."

"She's pretty forgiving, except when it comes to my mom." Blair said.

"I..." Jim began.

"Was a total jerk." Blair said, "If it makes it any easier she doesn't expect an apology."

"She doesn't." Jim said in surprise. He would have thought that she'd want him to make a huge fuss apologizing to her.

"No, but I know you'll feel a lot better if you do," he said, "In future try not to go all macho on her."

"He shouldn't have..." Jim growled.

"Jim, she's as pissed about it as you are," Blair assured him. "The only reason why she's still going to dinner with him tonight is so she can find out why he did it."

"It is." he said.

"Sure it is," Blair grinned, "I've known Jess a long time and the other night was the first time I've ever seen her make a real effort to dress up."

"So she didn't bother for anyone else?" Jim asked. If anyone would know about Jess's past then it would be Blair.

"There hasn't been anybody else." Blair admitted.

"You mean no-one serious." he said.

"No-one ever." Blair replied.

Brian was very insecure, Tommy thought, driving home. Obviously something had happened in his past to make him that way. Something that Brian didn't feel able or willing to tell him. Still, it couldn't have been easy for him raising his sister by himself. He hadn’t mentioned his parents so he had to assume that they were dead. It was obvious that Brian loved his sister and cared a great deal about what happened to her. There was such a thing as caring too much though. Brian still hadn't realized that he was no longer the most important person in his sister's life. When he did, it was going to come as one hell of a shock to him. He might be Jess's guide, but he had his own life as well.

She was tired of always being told soon when she asked when something was going to be done about Melanie Warren, Taz thought, doodling when she should have been paying attention to what was going on in class. If Melanie went ahead with what she'd been talking about in the hall her and Daryl weren't going to stand a chance. Maybe she should get in first, make the first move.

Not that standing up to Melanie earlier had done her much good. If anything it had made Melanie worse.

Daryl had been right to hold her back though, otherwise she would have lost it and hit Melanie, something that would have gotten her kicked out of school. With everyone on Melanie's side because they were too afraid to be anywhere else all it was going to take was a little thing and they'd be on her like a ton of bricks. Still, when Melanie finally got what she deserved she was going to openly gloat as much as she wanted to.

(29)

"So how's it going?" Henri asked, as Brian settled down to work next to him.

"Not bad," he replied, "Things are getting better for Taz." Once Melanie Warren had been arrested a lot of Taz's problems would be over with. That only left the sentinel thing to deal with.

She was doing fine with that, or at least she seemed to be.

"That's good," H grinned, "So had she decided whether she wants to have a party or not yet?"

"I don't think she wants one this year." Brian said. Taz hadn't mentioned wanting one to him. Still, if she did decide that she wanted one they could hold it then.

"If you want to go out I could look after Taz." H suggested.

"Thanks for the offer, but she's getting a bit old to have someone sitting with her." he replied.

Besides if she zoned while Henri was there she was likely to end up in hospital, he thought. "She hangs around with Daryl allot after school," he added, "they're just friends." when he saw the look on H's face.

"Still?" H asked.

"Yeah." Brian replied.

"Give it another month or so and she'll be seeing someone else." he said.

"Oh, you're here." Tommy said entering the living room and seeing Elias and Naomi sitting on the sofa.

"We were just talking about the wedding," Elias said, "The part you and Jessie can play in it."

"I'm not going to take part." Tommy said. He'd go but only because it was his dad getting married.

"Sweetie..." Naomi began.

"I'll be there but that's all." he said.

"It would mean a lot to me if you would take part in the ceremony," Elias said, "The wedding's supposed to be the joining of two families."

"In case you hadn't noticed we don't want her to be part of the family," Tommy said firmly,

"Blair's a different matter though."

"Don't take that attitude with me." Naomi frowned.

"Why not? It's the one you use with me and Jess." he replied.

"I have never done anything to your sister that she didn't bring on herself." she protested.

"You're saying that everything that's happened to her is her own fault?" Tommy snapped.

"Of course it is," Naomi replied, "Bad Karma..."

"Naomi, we've already talked about this," Elias warned her, "Jessie doesn't have bad karma."

"Only what she's inflicted on her." Tommy said. Nothing that had happened to Jess had been her fault. If anything she'd been let down by people she'd trusted to watch her back including him. Maybe if he'd paid more attention to what had been going on at the time she wouldn't have had to go through the hell she had.

"If she meditated more," Naomi said, "Found her spiritual center."

"You know damn well Jess doesn't believe in all that crap." Tommy snapped.

"Maybe if she believed in something bad things wouldn't happen to her." Naomi smiled.

"That's it I give in." Tommy said. No matter what Naomi said his dad just wasn't going to change his mind about marrying her. So what was the point in even trying to persuade him not to. He'd be much better off putting all his time and effort into his relationship with Brian.

"Sandburg, where's Jim?" Simon asked, coming out of his office and seeing the empty space next to Blair.

"He went to get Jess," Blair replied, "You wanted her at the arrest, right?"

"Couldn't she have driven herself there?" he asked.

"No car today." Blair grinned. Which gave Jim the perfect excuse to go see her in person and apologize.

"We're not making the arrest for another two hours." Simon said.

"He had a couple of things to do before picking her up." he said.

"Tell him I want to talk to him when he gets back." Simon said.

"I will." Blair promised. Knowing that at some point Simon would have to know what was going on between Jim and Jess. Not that there was anything going on at the moment. Still, with a little gentle nudging from him they'd hopefully stay on the right track to something more serious.

He knew that Blair hadn't been lying when he'd said that there had never been anyone else in Jess's life, Jim thought, walking towards her office. It was hard to believe though that she'd never said yes to anyone who'd asked her out in the past. She was bound to have had a lot of offers being as smart and beautiful as she was.

Maybe that was why Walter had sent her all those roses, she'd turned him down and it was some sort of attempt to get her to change her mind. He wasn't going to let her do that though. She was his mate, she belonged to him and no-one else.

"You can come in." Jessica said when she heard shuffling feet outside her office. She already knew who it was, just like he knew that she was alone.

"Hi," Jim said, entering her office, "I, er..."

"Came to apologize." she said.

"Yeah," he replied, thrusting several bars of chocolate at her, "Blair said you liked it."

"I do," she replied, taking them off him, "You don't have to apologize. I know that it wasn't your fault. What you did was based on pure instinct."

She'd done more than a few things purely on instinct in the past and usually regretted it afterwards.

"I have never..." he began.

"Jim, it's okay," Jessica assured him, "There was no harm done." It wasn't as if he'd gotten violent with her. She seriously doubted that he would either, after all, you didn't tend to damage something that you were trying to protect.

"I am sorry about the way I reacted," Jim said, "I can't even promise that it won't happen again. If you..."

"Obviously what Walter did set off the reaction so it might be better if you avoided meeting him." she suggested.

"I'm going to night," he growled, "You're..."

"Yours," she said, "I know that so you don't have to worry about it."

"Mine." he said putting a hand on her face.

"Yours." she smiled.

(30)

This wasn't good, Taz thought, when she found herself surrounded by Melanie and the rest of the Barbie clones in an otherwise empty classroom.

"What do you want?" she asked, wondering whether she could get away from them without having to hit anyone.

"An apology." Melanie replied.

"You're not getting one." Taz replied defiantly, "In fact you owe me one."

"I never apologize," Melanie sneered, "So you'd better..."

"Or what?" she asked, "There isn't anything you can do to make me." She certainly wasn't going to let herself stoop to Melanie's level because then she wouldn't be any better than her.

"Isn't there?" Melanie asked, as two of the Barbie clones behind Taz grabbed hold of her arms and forced them behind her back. "You're nothing do you know that," she spat, slapping Taz across the face, "You're never going to be anything either."

"I'm better than you'll ever be." Taz said biting back tears of pain. No matter what Melanie did she wasn't going to cry in front of her.

"You're scum, the lowest of the low," Melanie taunted, "People like that need to learn that and fast." as another of the Barbie clones handed her a pair of scissors.

"You'd better let me go," Taz screamed struggling to get free as Melanie grabbed hold of her hair, "You're not going to get away with it. I'll..."

"Apologize geek." Melanie snapped.

"Never." she shouted.

"Daryl won't find you so pretty with no hair." Melanie said, cutting off a chunk of Taz's hair.

"You slut." Taz shouted, forcing one of the Barbie clones holding her arms to let go. Trying to knock the scissors out of Melanie's hand the back of her hand connected with the side of Melanie's face.

"You hit me." Melanie screamed in total outrage.

"Tough." Taz growled. It had gone too far for her to back down now. Besides Melanie had started it, not that anyone but Daryl was going to believe her when she told them.

"Just you wait," Melanie shouted lashing out with the scissors she was still holding, "You'll go to prison for this."

"At least I'm not fucking the football team," she retorted, "How's it feel to be a porn star?" getting her other arm free as the Barbie clones decided that they should leave this to Melanie to handle.

"I'm..." Melanie began.

"Yes you are," Taz shouted, "I've seen the video." grabbing the scissors off Melanie and throwing them away. She had her on the run now, Melanie wasn't so brave when she didn't have her little gang to back her up.

"It's not true." Melanie protested.

"Is so," she replied, "Just like it's your fault that Harold's dead. I hope you like prison food because you're going to be eating a lot of it."

"Daddy'll see you're punished for this." Melanie screamed.

"In future stay away from me and Daryl or you'll be the one with no hair."

Pushing Melanie to one side and walking away with her head held high. That had told her, she thought. Hopefully from now on Melanie would think twice before she tried picking on her again.

"You were supposed to back me up," Melanie screamed glaring at the Barbie clones, "Because she's not one of us." How could they have just stood there and let someone like Taz Rafe get away with treating her like that especially after all she'd done for them. Without her they would have been nobodies and they would be nobodies again by the time she's finished with them.

Taz was really going to suffer for what she'd done. Daddy would make sure that she did. She'd be kicked out of school, reduced to eating trash. And there was no reason why Daryl shouldn't suffer the same fate as Taz. It was all his fault, if he'd gone out with her it wouldn't have had to go this far.

"You weren't suppose to..." one of them began hesitantly.

"Didn't you hear what I just said," Melanie screamed, "She's not one of us, never will be. We can do what we want to her. Nobody is going to believe her." She'd make sure that they didn't. After all, everyone had believed her when she'd said that Taz and Daryl had killed Harold. It wasn't as if they had friends to back them up. Unlike her, she had lots of friends because she was popular. Something that Taz Rafe would never be.

If Tommy didn't want to take part in the wedding ceremony then he couldn't really force him to, Elias though. He could only hope that Jessie would be more willing to. Naomi hadn't made matters any easier either talking all that nonsense about bad things happening to Jessie because of bad karma.

There was only one reason why Jessie had found herself in so much trouble and that was because of what her job had been. She was a teacher now though, a profession that Naomi should have approved of because that was what Blair was.

Unfortunately he had to admit that he couldn't see the truce that Jessie had declared lasting more than a few days at the most. When it did fall apart he knew who would be caught in the middle as usual. Maybe it was time to be firmer with everyone including Naomi. Make sure that they all knew that they were equally important to him, that he wasn't going to stand for anymore arguing between them.

"Jim, aren't they going to be missing you at the station?" Jessica asked.

"The station?" he grinned, "Yeah, right. Simon wants your help with an arrest."

"So where do you want me and when?" she said.

"If you're free now, or I could come back for you later." he replied.

"Now's fine with me," she said, "So who are we going to arrest?"

"Melanie Warren," Jim replied, "Her father's already in a holding cell."

"You know what I'm going to enjoy arresting her," Jessica smiled. "It'll certainly make life a lot easier for the kids." With her out of the way Taz would be able to concentrate on the more important task of learning to be a sentinel.

"Simon's going to owe you several favors for getting the Justice Department to investigate Chief Warren." he said.

"All I did was call... You know who I called." she said. It was probably better not to mention Walter in front of Jim in case he reacted again.

"He's still going to owe you them." he replied.

"What happened to you?" Daryl asked when a disheveled looking Taz joined him in the library.

"Melanie and the Barbie clones," she replied, sitting down next to him, "They cornered me in a classroom. She cut my hair."

"You hit her, didn't you." he said.

"Only by accident," Taz admitted, "I was trying to get the scissors off her."

"Taz, do you realize the trouble you've got yourself into?" Daryl asked, "We're in." when he saw the look on her face. For something like this they were both going to get kicked out of school. His dad was going to go ballistic when he found out. What if Melanie decided to come after Taz for having the guts to fight back when she'd been attacked.

"She won't do anything, because they didn't back her up," she replied confidently, "Once I'd got free of them holding me that was."

"They didn't!" he exclaimed. It was unheard of for the Barbie clones not to back Melanie up, they'd been in her circle of close friends since kindergarten.

"Yeah, you should have seen it. She was almost in tears," Taz smiled, "I could hear her screaming at them as I was walking down the corridor."

"You were supposed to leave her to my dad." he reminded her.

"If I had I wouldn't have any hair left," she replied, "Bri's not going to be happy that she cut it. I'm going to have to have the rest cut short so it doesn't look odd."

"How short?" he asked. It didn't look that bad to him, but what did he knew he was only a guy.

"Really short," Taz replied, "It's going to take years to grow back."

(31)

It looked as if Jim apologizing in person had done the trick, Blair thought when Jim entered the Bullpen with Jessica. He wasn't sure which of them looked happier. Jess was positively glowing, in fact he couldn't ever remember seeing her as happy as she was now.

"Hey Chief." Jim grinned.

"You two okay now?" Blair asked.

"Sure we are, bro." Jessica laughed.

"Bro?" he said.

"It's what you're going to be, right?" she said.

"Yeah, but I thought..." he began more than a little confused by the sudden change in her attitude towards his mom marrying Elias.

"Blair, he's going to marry her whether I want him to or not," she said, "I called a truce and I'm going to keep it."

"Jim, Simon wants to see you." Blair said.

"You going to be okay here?" Jim asked.

"Why wouldn't I be?" she smiled, "I'm just going to sit here and talk to Blair." sitting down next to Blair.

"Don't worry Jim, I'll keep an eye on her." Blair assured him. Maybe by talking to Jess when Jim wasn't there he could find out what was going on.

Because both of them weren't acting like themselves.

"I know you will, Chief." Jim said, heading towards Simon's office.

This was going to make people believe that Taz had attacked her first, Melanie thought, picking up the scissors from where they lay. With proof like this the Principal would have to kick Taz straight out of school. After checking that the coast was clear she began cutting her hair off until there
was a pile of bleached blonde locks on the floor.

Daddy would make sure that not only did Taz go to prison for a long time but that her brother would lose his job and wouldn't be able to get another one. Dropping the scissors onto the floor, she closed her eyes, then drew her nails sharply across her right cheek causing deep scratch marks in it.

Then she ran out of the classroom screaming that she'd been attacked.

"Jim." Simon said sharply when he realized that his friend's attention was focused on what was going on in the Bullpen rather than what he was saying to him.

"What?" he replied.

"Are you all right?" Simon asked.

"Couldn't be better." Jim grinned.

"I need your attention in here not out there," he said, "As I was saying I'm not expecting Miss Warren to come quietly. So I want this arrest to go by the book in case by some fluke her father s gets off." The last thing he wanted was Chief Warren, or god forbid Mrs Warren coming after him and his department.

"Don't worry it will be," Jim assured him, "She's not going to get away on a technicality." staring out into the Bullpen.

"Daryl's been asking me to talk to Dr. Angel about teaching Taz how to control her senses," Simon said, "He's worried that he won't know what to do if she has a problem."

"She's been working on lessons for them," Jim said, "We'll teach them what to do."

"We?" he asked, sensing that there was something more than friendship going on between his friend and Dr.Angel. He had to admit that he could see why his friend could be attracted to her, she was beautiful, smart and could probably stand her ground when Jim did his strong silent act.

"Jess had been doing this longer than me," Jim admitted, "All Blair's research is based on..."

"On what?" Simon said.

"Me." he replied.

"Warren, are you going to tell me the truth now?" Agent Morgan asked, standing in front of the holding cell that Chief Warren was sitting in.

"No comment." he replied smugly.

"How long do you think it's going to take your friends to find out that you're in here?" Morgan asked, "Before they decide that you've sung like a canary?"

"No comment." Warren said.

"You have a wife and daughter, aren't you concerned about what might happen to them?" he asked.

"Why should I?" Warren asked, "They don't know anything."

"One word from me and people will think that they do," Morgan warned him, "The people you're involved with wouldn't hesitate to go after your family if they though it would keep you quiet. I could stop that from happening."

"No comment." Warren smiled.

"Don't say I didn't warn you what might happen." Morgan said walking away from the cell. He wasn't going to get a damned thing out of Warren, he thought, not that they really needed him to start talking as they already had plenty of evidence against both him and the people he was working for.

"Melanie, take a deep breath and tell me what happened." the Principal said, handing the sobbing girl sitting opposite her a handkerchief.

"She attacked me," Melanie sobbed, "Then she cut off all my hair."

"Who did?" she asked.

"Taz Rafe," Melanie replied, "My beautiful hair, it'll never grow back."

She should get an Oscar for this performance, she thought. Of course, it helped that she'd gone running to the Principal with stories about Taz before. A few hours in the best beauty salon in town would soon sort her hair out.

"Don't worry, she will be dealt with. Severely." the Principal assured her.

"She's always picking on me," Melanie sobbed, "Just because I'm more popular than her."

"Well, you won't have to put up with that horrible girl anymore," she said, "This is the final straw as far as her behavior’s concerned."

"What are you going to do?" Melanie sniffed.

"Never you mind my dear," she replied, "Needless to say that she won't be attending this school anymore."

"Jess..." Blair began when he caught her staring at Simon's office.

"What?" she asked.

"You and Jim, what happened?" he asked.

"He apologized." Jessica replied.

"And?" he prompted, sensing that a lot more than an apology had taken place between them.

"I got chocolate," she said, "The expensive sort."

"So how are you going to handle dinner with Wal..." Blair started.

"Don't say his name," she snapped, "It upsets Jim a lot."

"Okay," he said, "You haven't explained about dinner tonight. What if Jim gets upset again." He'd seen Jim in his totally pissed off mood and it wasn't pleasant being on the receiving end of it.

"Tommy's going to be there," she replied, "As long as he doesn't do anything threatening Jim will be fine."

"Jess, Jim's ex military. He could do a lot of damage to him if he wanted to." Blair said. Things could get very ugly very fast, he thought, not that there was a great deal that he could do to try and stop Jim from going to dinner with Jess tonight. Still, if he didn't go then Jim would probably
feel even more threatened.

Now that they'd finally decided on what sort of wedding ceremony they wanted all they had to do now was decide on how they were going to break the wonderful news to their friends, Naomi thought. Of course, Elias didn't have any friends in Cascade, but she and Blair did and she was certain that they would all want to attend a pre-wedding celebration. Jessica would want her 'Friend' to be there, even though she did feel sorry for the way Jim was being treated. The poor man, she might not like Blair working with him, but that didn't mean that she had to just stand by and watch while Jessica mad a total fool out of him.

"Sweetie..." she began smiling at Elias.

(32)

"Detective Rafe's desk," Rafe said picking up the phone on his desk as soon as it rang, "She's what! Yes, of course, I'll come straight away." He then put the phone down. There was bound to be some reasonable explanation for what he'd just been told, he thought. Taz wasn't the sort of person who would just attack someone, even if that person had been pushing them for a long time.

Obviously he was going to have to tell Simon what had happened as they were due to go over to the school and arrest Melanie Warren. If Taz got thrown out of school it was going to ruin her whole life. The only thing worse than that would be her getting arrested. Getting up he walked over to Simon's office.

"We have a problem." he said, entering Simon's office without knocking.

"I have to get out of here." Taz said when she heard the overly shrill voice of the principal coming towards the library.

"Why?" Daryl asked.

"Because the Principal's coming for me," she replied, "You haven't seen me okay." She might be heading for serious trouble, but she'd do her best to stop Daryl from getting into it as well.

"Taz, I'm not sure that I can lie to her." he said.

"do your best." she replied, heading towards the fire exit. She knew that it would be impossible for her to hide out at school until the end of the day. The best that she could was try and avoid the Principal until Brian got there. Obviously, Melanie had something to do with this, but what? Not that it would really help her to know what it was. The Principal hadn't believed her when she'd said that she hadn't known anyone on the football team, never mind done stuff with them. No-one but Daryl was going to believe her when she protested that she hadn't done anything to Melanie.

"Be careful." Daryl said, knowing that Taz would be able to hear him.

As it looked as if she wasn't going to call him, he had no choice but to go see her, Walter thought, finishing his drink. She couldn't be allowed to get away with ignoring him like this. His Angel had to know how much she meant to him, how important she was to him. Without her working for him he would never have had the promotions or commendations he'd gotten, or been invited to the White house to meet the President. Not that his Angel knew about that side of things. She'd always been much more interested in the sharp end, going after the killers she'd profiled herself, and look where that had got her.

Of course, he knew that she wouldn't be able to go chasing after killers anymore. They'd made that perfectly clear to him at the hospital when he'd gone to visit her. It had all been his fault, he should have backed her up sooner than he had. By the time he'd realized what was going on she'd been grabbed. Maybe that was why she hadn't called him, she didn't want reminding on the past. But why then had she agreed to have dinner with him. It had to be some sort of mind game that she was playing, a test to see just how far he was prepared to go to get her back into his life. For her he would give up everything that he had.

"Listen up people," Simon announced coming out of his office followed by Jim and Rafe, "The arrest of Melanie Warren is going ahead now."

"I'm ready." Jessica said, taking out her gun and making sure that it was loaded.

"Have you got a concealed weapons permit for that?" he growled.

"Yeah," she smiled, reaching into one of her jeans pockets and taking out a permit, "I never leave home without it. Valid until for life. Mine that it."

"Why the hell would a professor need to carry a gun?" H asked.

"Because I still do consulting work for the FBI," she replied, "And I've put away some very sick people who still have friends and family on the outside."

"Put it away," Simon frowned, "I don't want any weapons drawn unless it is life or death is that clear."

"I know better than to wave a loaded gun around in front of people." she said.

"So have you ever actually shot anyone?" H asked.

"No," she admitted, "I was taught it's a last resort measure. Only to be used if someone's life is in danger." If she had to she would shoot to kill, but it was something that she'd rather not have to think about until she was actually faced with a situation like that.

"Mr Banks, if you don't tell me where Johanna Rafe is you'll be suspended is that clear." the Principal said glaring over her desk at Daryl.

"I don't know where Taz is," he replied, "The last time I saw her she was in the library." She could have gone anywhere after that, he thought.

"You're not helping yourself by lying for her." she snapped.

"I really don't know where she is," Daryl said, "What's she supposed to have done anyway."

"She attacked Melanie Warren," she replied, "Poor Melanie had..."

"Poor Melanie!" He exclaimed, "What about all the stuff she's done to Taz? She never gets punished for that." He wasn't just going to sit there and let her go on about poor Melanie and how horrible Taz had been to her. Especially when he knew that it wasn't true.

"Johanna Rafe is and always has been a troublemaker," the Principal retorted, "She is going to be expelled for this attack, In fact it wouldn't surprise me if she ended up just like her father."

She'd abandoned Daryl when she should have stayed and protected him, Taz thought, crouching down in a corner of a cubicle in the girl's bathroom. If things had been the other way round he would have stayed with her. Right now Daryl was probably being grilled by the Principal about where she was. It wasn't fair that he should get into trouble over something that she hadn't
even done.

Melanie was probably gloating herself sick over what'd she'd done. Well, she wasn't going to let her get away with it, even if it meant that she got kicked out of school. Brian wasn't going to be too happy about that, but Daryl had to come first because he was her guide.

"So what's made Simon up the time of the arrest?" Blair asked as he and Jessica got into Jim's truck.

"Taz attacked Melanie Warren." Jim replied.

"And?" Blair asked.

"Cut all her hair off." he said.

"Ouch." Blair said.

"You mean she just stood there and let her?" Jessica asked, "That's not very likely. I certainly wouldn't."

"No, it took four of them to hold you down," Blair said, "Even then they didn't manage to cut all that much off."

"Someone did it to you." Jim growled.

"Yeah, it was just some girls from a high school. They didn't like the fact that I was tutoring some guy in maths," she replied, "When it comes to bullying girls can be even more vicious than boys." She knew from bitter personal experience just how vicious they could be. Her teenage years had
been a total nightmare due to the way she'd been treated. Growing up wasn't easy, but when you were a Sentinel is was ten times harder.

"You can tell her it gets better, right." Blair said.

"Blair, it doesn't get better," Jessica said, "Why do you think I avoid school reunions like the plague. All those people who looked down on you doing the same thing five, ten years later. That's not good for anyone."

"I thought you went to your last one." Blair said.

"No, Tommy went, I stayed home and cleaned out the cupboards." she replied.


"Bri, try not to worry," H said, "We both know Taz isn't the sort of kid who'd go around attacking people. Unless..."

"Unless what?" Rafe demanded.

"You said that she'd been having some problems recently." he replied.

"H, this girl's been making Taz's life hell." Rafe said,

"So you're saying that it's possible Taz did attack her?" H asked.

"No, that's not what I'm saying," he protested, "Just that it's likely that this girl's made up this story about Taz to get her into trouble." He hoped to god that was the case because if Taz had attacked Melanie Warren she was going to be in serious trouble both at school and at home.

(33)

"Jess." Walter said, knocking on, then opening the door to her office only to find it empty. Maybe she hadn't come into today, he thought, but if she hadn't then what had happened to the roses he'd sent her. The florist's had promised him that they would be delivered first thing. Walking over to her desk he looked to see if she'd left a note to say where she'd gone. Spotting a small white card on her desk he picked it up. It was the one he'd dictated to the florists. So what had she done with the roses? Maybe that Blair had been jealous and gotten rid of them. It was just the sort of thing a man like that would do to try and keep hold of someone like his Angel.

What if things were serious between them? He wasn't sure that he could just stand there and watch while his Angel married some drugged up hippy. That would be a terrible waste of her life. And how could someone like that even start to understand the way his Angel thought. At the first sign of trouble he'd be running to the hills leaving her behind with a broken heart. He couldn't let that happen to her. It was time that he confronted her face to face about what Blair was really like, his long criminal record. She had to listen to reason after that. And if she didn't then he would have to take more direct action to put a stop to their relationship. Show her that there was someone a lot closer to her who was more suitable, someone who once his divorce had gone though would be free to marry her as soon as she set a date.

So this was what it felt like to walk into a lion's den, Taz thought, entering the Principal's outer office. She hadn't done anything wrong except accidentally hit Melanie while trying to stop her from cutting her hair. There was no way that could even be classed as a minor assault, if anything it was self defense. If Melanie hadn't ganged up on her with the Barbie clones she wouldn't have to be doing this now.

All of a sudden she could see Melanie's vision of her flipping burgers for a living coming true. Still, what sort of Sentinel would she have been if she hadn't come back to save her guide. She could only hope that she wasn't too late to save Daryl from the Principal's wrath. Not that it was going to save her from Brian's when he found out what had happened. Daryl's dad wasn't going to be too happy either. Still, there wasn't a great deal that she could do about it except maybe beg him not to punish Daryl because it wasn't his fault.

Knocking on the door to the Principal's office she waited to be told to go in.

"Oh my poor baby." Mrs Tiffany Warren squealed when she saw the state her daughter was in.

"Mommy," Melanie sobbed, "Look what she did to me."

"I know," she said, "Don't you worry about that horrible girl. Your father will take care of her."

"My hair." Melanie sniffed. She should have known that her mother would come to make sure that the Principal did kick Taz out of school.

"It'll be all right," Tiffany assured her daughter, "Jules at the salon will soon have you looking perfect again. Then we'll go shopping and buy you some new things to wear."

"What about my party? She's told everyone not to come." Melanie said. That would really upset her mom, especially after all the time and trouble she'd gone to making sure that she'd hired the best party organizers in the state.

"Melanie, my little princess, nobody is going to listen to someone like that," her mother assured her, "What surprises me is that they let her go to school with normal people. Especially when she's already killed someone.

Thank goodness you'll be away from this terrible place soon. I still don't know what your father was thinking of when he said that you had to attend public school.

Nobody was ever going to be allowed to hurt or threaten her again, Jim thought, pulling his truck up outside of Cascade High school. From now on anyone who tried to was going to have to deal with him first. If he couldn't protect her then she would soon change her mind about being him.

The possibility of losing her was something that he didn't even want to think about.

Having dinner with that man probably wasn't such a good idea because he wasn't sure that he could sit there and not lose his temper every time he spoke to her. He'd never felt with way about any woman before, not even his ex-wife. There was something about her that gave him hope that maybe this time it wouldn't all go wrong. For the first time in a long while he could actually see himself in a long term relationship with someone special, and Jessica was certainly that.

"I didn't do anything." Taz protested, struggling to get a word in edgeways as the Principal ranted on about how she was going to be expelled, that she was going to end up in prison for what she'd done.

"Don't try denying it," the Principal snapped, "You've been nothing but trouble since you came to this school."

"I haven't," she shouted, "Melanie's the troublemaker not me..."

"Miss Warren is an honor student, someone who can be trusted unlike you. Still considering your family background..." the Principal began.

"Well Miss Perfect's the star of a porn film," Taz said, "She cheats on her tests and sleeps with every guy she dates." As she was going to get kicked out anyway she wasn't going to go quietly. After all, there wasn't anything else that they could do to her.

"Your brother has been contacted and is on his way over," The Principal said, "I'm certain that Miss Warren will want to press charges."

"Yeah, well I want to press them against her," Taz said, "She cut my hair first, hide the note Harold left."

"If you insist on telling such outrageous lies Mr Banks will be expelled as well." the Principal warned her.

"You can't do that, it's not fair." she snapped.

"Life isn't supposed to be fair," the Principal smiled, "Especially not for people like you."

No doubt Daryl was involved somewhere, Simon thought, if only because Taz was. It seemed to him as if in their partnership that it was Taz who attracted trouble. Not that he could really blame her if she'd finally been pushed too far by Melanie Warren. He knew that his patience would have run out a long time ago as far as that young woman was concerned. At least she would be arrested and charged as an adult. The fact that she'd obstructed what was technically a federal case would go a long way to make sure that she did some time behind bars. With her out of the way life would get a lot easier for both his son and Taz. The lessons that they were supposed to be having might actually start then. Now if he could only work out what was going on between Jim and Dr Angel, on second thoughts it would probably be better to ask Sandburg. Somehow he didn't think that Jim would be too pleased having to answer questions about his personal life from him.


(34)

Jessie wasn't going to be too pleased that Naomi was going to invite her ex boss to pre-wedding dinner. She knew that she hadn't had much to do with the man since she'd got out of hospital. However that man had been in touch with him several times, wanting to know how she was doing and where she was.

Not that he'd told him anything apart from the fact that she was still recovering and would contact him if she wanted to. Personally he blamed him for what had happened to her. After all, he had been her boss at the time, the one ultimately responsible for her safety. She'd had enough to deal
with at the time without knowing that Walter was romantically interested in her. Not that his little Jessie would ever want to have anything to do with a married man. Despite what Naomi might think she did have morals.

And perhaps he shouldn't have said anything to Jim about Walter being over friendly with Jessie. Jim didn't strike him as the sort of man who would tolerate someone like Walter making a play for Jessie. He wasn't the sort of man he would have chosen for his daughter, but he made her smile. And it was nice to know that she wasn't the only one, that she had someone to talk to who understood what it was like to be different.

He might not be a Sentinel but even he could hear the roasting that Taz was getting off the Principal, Daryl thought. Half the school could probably hear the names Taz was being called. It just wasn't right that she was being treated like this. If anyone should be in there it should be Melanie, she was the one who was always doing stuff to Taz. Even since he'd known Taz, Melanie had had it in for her. Maybe it was the fact that Taz was a lot prettier and smarter than her that upset Melanie so much. Or it could have been the fact that he'd turned her down when she’d asked him out. After seeing what she'd been doing on that tape it had been the right thing to do.

There was no way that he could have respected someone like that, not as much as he respected Taz. It wasn't only because she was his Sentinel though. Even before any of that stuff had started he'd really liked Taz as more than just his best friend. Not that he'd ever told her, not until they'd got trapped in that cave. It was pretty weird knowing that Taz would die to protect him if it ever came to that. Which made listening to what she was being called hard to do. He had to though so that he could tell her brother and his dad what had happened. And it looked as if the trouble Taz
was in was just about to get a lot worse, he thought, when he saw Melanie and her mom coming towards him.

"Is that him?" Mrs Warren asked, glaring at Daryl.

"Yes," Melanie sniffed, "He's been spreading all these terrible lies about me." Daryl was about to learn the hard way that it didn't pay to mess with her. And to think that she'd wanted to go out with him. Obviously, he was below her socially, especially when he'd rather take sides with Taz Rafe.

"Who does he think he is?" Mrs Warren said, "He's just a jumped up..."

"Daddy will make sure that he's punished won't he?" Melanie asked.

"They'll both be lucky to get a job anywhere on this side of the country by the time he's finished with them," she replied, "You won't ever have to worry about them again."

"And they'll go to prison?" Melanie said.

"Of course they will," she assured her, "His father is finished in the force." walking past Daryl.

"Serves him right." Melanie gloated. It could all have been very different if he'd agreed to go out with her when she'd asked him, she thought, so all this was his fault.

"You're not going to get away with this." Daryl said.

"Whose going to stop us?" Mrs Warren asked, "My husband is the Chief of Police."

"Don't waste your time on him mom," Melanie said, "He's not worth it."

"You're right, I have to make sure that Rafe girl gets what she deserves," she replied, "The sooner she's locked up the better."

"It's Melanie whose going to be locked up," Daryl snapped, "Taz hasn't done anything wrong."

"Hasn't... Just look what she did to me." Melanie screamed at him.

"You cut hers first." he replied.

"Melanie, don't lower yourself to his level." her mother said, dragging her away from Daryl.

"You know we're going to have to work out how to play this." Jessica said walking down a corridor with the rest of Major Crimes.

"Play it? We go in there arrest her and get my sister the hell away from this place." Rafe snapped.

"Then what?" she asked, "She's going to have to comeback here. The way you react is going to affect how's she treated."

"She's right," Blair said, "My mom's had a few fights with my teachers in the past."

"She's probably slept with them as well." Jessica whispered which earnt her a grin from Jim.

"What?" Blair asked when he saw the amused look on his partner's face.

"Nothing Chief." Jim replied.

"So what do you suggest?" Simon growled.

"As she interfered in a federal case it's my jurisdiction." she smiled.

"How was it a federal case?" H asked.

"He murdered four FBI agents, that's why it's a federal case," Jessica replied, "I also know a judge who I can sweet talk into signing just about any legal document I want."

"What's he called?" H asked.

"Grandpa." she laughed.

"Jess, he's judges flower shows." Blair said.

"I never said the documents would be valid did I?" she asked, "Just threatening people with a judge makes them think twice. I'm just doing what my dad always taught me to do."

"What's that lie?" Rafe asked.

"No, use my brain," Jessica said, "Hell I've talked my way out of some really bad situations."

"You're not related to Hairboy are you?" H asked.

"Not yet, but I will be." she replied.

"Naomi's marrying her dad." Blair explained.

"He's going to be my big brother." Jessica smiled.

Taz's heart sank when she heard Melanie's high pitched whining. It was bad enough that she'd let herself be reduced to tears by the Principal without having the added humiliation of Melanie seeing her like this. And as much as she wanted to stand up and walk out she couldn't because she didn't have the strength to. Besides she got the feeling that the Principal would try and stop her. The only thing that she could do was hope that Brian would get here and soon. He was going to go ballistic when he found out what names the Principal had called her. Maybe he'd arrest her as well as Melanie, even if he did she wasn't ever going to come back to school. Right now flipping burgers for a living was starting to look a lot more attractive.

"So this is the little tramp who attacked you." Mrs Warren said, entering the Principal's office.

"Mrs Warren, I'm sorry that you couldn't be here under more pleasant circumstances." the Principal said.

"Well, what do you have to say for yourself?" Mrs Warren demanded.

"I didn't do anything." Taz said softly.

"You attacked me," Melanie screamed, "Cut off all my hair."

"I never did any such thing," she protested, "You're the..."

"How dare you answer my daughter back." Mrs Warren screamed, grabbing hold of a handful of Taz's hair and dragging her to her feet. "You're nothing but a cheap little slut and never will be." she said.

"I told you that you'd be punished." Melanie gloated. This was where she could really have some fun, she thought, and there wasn't going to be anyone rushing to help Taz.

"My brother's coming," Taz said defiantly, "He's going to arrest you for this."

"I don't think so," Mrs Warren sneered, "You see my husband's going to fire him. You're both going to end up on the streets."

"Am not." Taz protested, with fresh tears running down her face.

"You're so pathetic do you know that," Melanie sneered, "Just look at those clothes. What's the matter can't you afford anything better."

"Leave me alone, I have done anything," she said, "Not like you. You got Harold killed."

"I wasn't even there so how could I?" Melanie smiled, "Everyone knows that you and Daryl killed him. You're both going to Death Row for that. Daddy's going to make sure of that." punching Taz in the stomach forcing her to double over.

"Dad," Daryl said, rushing up to him, "Taz is in the Principal's office with Melanie and her mom. They've been calling her all sorts of names."

"It's going to be okay," Simon assured him, "I want you to stay out here with Detectives Brown and Rafe." This was going to stop here and now, he thought, even if he had to arrest more than just Melanie Warren. He didn't care who anyone was connected to, if they'd broken the law then they were going to be arrested.

"But..." Daryl began.

"Stay here we'll take care of it," Jessica said, "We can't afford to mess this up for Taz's sake."

"She didn't attack Melanie," he said, "It was the other way round. Melanie cut her hair."

"We know," she said, "So lets get in there and the cuffs on."

"By the book." Simon warned her.

"Of course," she smiled, "But there's no reason why we can't put the fear of god into them though." walking up to the door and turning the handle.

"Get out of my office." the Principal screamed when she saw a young woman standing the doorway.

"What the!" Jessica exclaimed when she saw Melanie Warren kicking Taz in the ribs. "Get the hell off her." she shouted, only to have a very angry Mrs Warren slap her across the face.

"You little slut," Mrs Warren screamed, hitting Jessica again, "I'll have you arrested for this."

"I think you've got that the wrong way round." Jim growled, stepping between Jessica and Mrs Warren.

"FBI, you're under arrest for assault," Jessica smiled, pushing past Jim and slamming Mrs Warren up against a wall before none too gently handcuffing her. "Will someone read this piece of trash it's rights and get it out of here?" she asked.

"It'll be my pleasure." Simon replied.

"And could you call an ambulance," she said, turning her attention to Melanie while Jim checked on Taz's condition. So this was the girl who'd made Taz's life so miserable, she thought, it was a pity that the only thing she could do at the moment was arrest her.

"You can't do this to me," Mrs Warren screamed as Simon dragged her kicking out of the Principal's office, "I'll have all your jobs for this. My husband..."

"You have the right to remain silent..." Simon began, reciting the memoranda.

"Melanie Warren, you're under arrest for obstructing a federal investigation," Jessica said, "As well as assaulting Taz Rafe."

"I want my daddy," Melanie shrieked, "He's..."

"Waiting for you in a holding cell," she smiled, "Now are you going to go with Captain Taggart quietly or do I have to knock you out?" She knew which she would prefer.

"There's been a terrible mistake," the Principal said, "Miss Warren would never..."

"I wouldn't say anything else if I were you," Jessica warned her, "Because you're under arrest as well."

"What for? I haven't done anything." the Principal protested as Jim stood up and cuffed her.

"Exactly," she smiled, "And I think that the local board of education are going to be very interested when they hear that you allowed a student and her mother to attack another student in your office while you just stood there and let them."

"That's not a crime," the Principal replied, "I'll be out as soon as I call my lawyer."

"You might get out but you won't be working as a teacher in this state again, or anywhere else for that matter," Jessica said confidently, "And I'm sure that Miss Rafe will make a civil claim against you."

"Oh my god!" Rafe said, rushing into the office once the doorway was clear. What they done to you?" he asked dropping to his knees by the side of Taz who was curled up in a ball.

"Nothing that she didn't deserve." Melanie sneered as she was led out of the room by Joel.

"And you're going to get a nice long prison sentence." Joel said.

"Daddy won't let them send me there." Melanie said confidently.

"Hate to break it to you Barbie, but daddy's going down as well," Jessica smiled, "for a very long time."

"Taz, it's Bri," he said, stroking her hair, "I'm sorry I didn't get here sooner." If he had then maybe he could have stopped this from happening.

Just what sort school was this where this sort of thing was allowed to go on. Somebody was going to pay big time for this.

"Dar..." Taz began.

"It's going to be okay," Brian assured her, "Don't try to move." God only knew what injuries they'd caused. One thing was certain though she wouldn't be coming back to this school.

"Are you okay?" Jim asked as the Principal had been taken away by a uniformed officer.

"My face is a bit sore but I'll live." Jessica replied, "My dad's going to kill me though for taking part in this." And there was no way that she could hide it from him, especially when she was going to have bruises on her face.

"I should have..." he began.

"It wasn't your fault," she assured him, "I should have been expecting it. Guess my reflexes are slower than I thought." Which only went to prove that she wasn't up to doing this sort of work anymore. From now on she was going to be just a teacher, which was what her dad wanted her to be. Even though it would mean having to give up her gun. Maybe that could be her wedding present to him and Naomi.

"Maybe I could help you get them back up to speed?" Jim suggested.

"Could I get back to you on that?" Jessica asked, "Only we have three people to be booked and Taz to check on."

"Sure." he grinned.

It had to be serious if his dad wouldn't let him see Taz, Daryl thought. He was her guide, she needed him. How could he do that if he couldn't see her.

What if Melanie and her mom had killed her? She couldn't be dead, wouldn't he knew if she was. Maybe he should have gone in there, tried to help her.

This was all his fault because he'd stood by and done nothing while they'd hurt her. Even if she was okay she wouldn't want him to be her guide anymore, not after he'd let her down so badly.

(35)

Brian was going to be in one hell of a state, Tommy thought, driving towards Cascade General. Once he'd got him calmed down he was going to have more than a few choice words to say to Jess. She'd promised both him and their dad that she wouldn't go running around on cases she worked. Still, he should have known that she probably wouldn't have kept her promise after what had happened last time. Getting involved with Jim might not turn out to be that good for her as he'd first thought it would.

He liked Jim, but right now he wasn't being a very good influence on Jess.

He'd thought that she'd finally reached the point where she'd accepted that she wasn't ever going to be the way she had been before. Obviously he'd been mistaken. Maybe he should ask Blair to talk to her in the hope that he would have more luck in getting her to see reason.

"Dad, is she..." Daryl began.

"Taz needs to go to hospital to be checked out," Simon replied, "I'm sure that she's going to be fine though." Not that he could make his son any solid promises about that being the case. And he dreaded to think what Joan would say when she found out that Daryl had been involved in this. She'd probably demand that Daryl went back to live with her, and that he stay as far away as possible from Taz Rafe. Not that this was either Taz or Daryl's fault, no the blame for this could be laid squarely on the shoulders of the Warren family. He would never have even allowed Daryl to start behaving the way Melanie Warren had.

"I have to see her, she might need me." Daryl said.

"I'll talk to Rafe and..." Simon began.

"She's my..." he began, "I've let her down, I should have done something. Gone in there, tried to..."

"Son, you can't blame yourself for this," Simon said, "If it hadn't happened here it would have happened somewhere else." Then Taz might not have been so lucky.

"Melanie attacked her first," he said, "Ever since Harold got killed they've had it in for Taz. A lot of people really believe that we killed him."

"Some people will believe anything," Simon said, "As long as you know the truth that's all that matters." Not that knowing the truth would have done them much good if the Warrens had had their way.

The only thing that she could be certain of was that Daryl was somewhere nearby, Taz thought. She knew that because she could hear his heartbeat. It was beating really fast though, so that mean that he was scared about something, but what? Opening her eyes all she could see was a blurry shape in front of her. Not Daryl though because it didn't smell like him, to her Daryl always smelt of hamburgers and cigars. She had to get up and make sure that he was okay, but if she did then Melanie and her mom might start hitting her again. And she didn't think that she could take much more of it.

Brian wasn't going to be too happy when he found out what they'd done. Not that there was a great deal that he could do about it as it would come down to their word against hers. Nobody was going to believe her , except for Daryl, after what Melanie had said about her. Maybe it would be better if she just let them finish what they'd started. At least, Daryl would be
relatively safe from them then. Protecting him was more important to her than saving her own life.

"Bri, she's going to be fine." H said.

"You can't know that," Brian snapped, "They could have killed her."

"They didn't though," he replied, "And they're going to go down for this."

He'd seen his partner in a state before, but never anything this bad. Brian losing it wasn't going to help Taz though. She was going to need Brian to be together emotionally to help her get over this.

Brian had always been very overprotective of her though. Still, considering what had happened to their parents it wasn't all that surprising he was.

What had always struck him as being strange though was that Taz never talked about them, hell there wasn't even a picture of them in the house as far as he knew.

"She's never done anything bad in her life." Brian said.

"I know." H said, placing a reassuring hand on one of his partner's shoulders, "Anything I can do to help I will." They were part of his family, so of course he was going to do everything that he could for them.

He'd let her be attacked, Jim thought, he should have stepped in the moment he'd sensed that she was in danger. Still, she had done a pretty good job of taking care of herself even if she had been hit twice. All she needed to do was get her reflexes back up to speed, something that he was more than willing to help her with. Not that he would let that stand in the way of him doing his best to protect her. Of course, he'd explain to Elias that she wasn't to blame for getting hit, that it was all his fault. That he should have stopped her from going into that office first. Someone had needed to stop them from doing that to Rafe's sister though. Maybe she'd gone in first because she 'd been there, knew what Taz was going through.

They'd been lying about daddy, Melanie thought, pouting as she was driven away in the back of a squad car. He wasn't in a holding cell and as soon as she got to the station he'd make sure that she was released and Taz was arrested. That horrible woman who'd arrested both her and her mom was going to end up just like Taz. Then she was going to go after Taz Rafe and make sure that she never put her through this sort of humiliation again. By the end of the day the whole school was going to know that she'd been arrested.

Without her there to maintain standards all sorts of geeks were suddenly going to be come popular. She couldn't allow that to happen because that wasn't the way real life was. In real life people like her went straight to the top so that they could make sure people like Taz Rafe never got a chance to.

She was certainly taking her time coming back to her office, Walter thought, rummaging through the drawers in Blair's desk. Maybe she wasn't going to, right now she could be in some seedy hotel room with him. The thought of his precious Angel and that hippy alone together made his stomach turn. Time was starting to run out for both him and his career. He needed to get her back where she belonged, working for him. One more week without her and he'd be on the scarp heap of early retirement. He couldn't afford to let that happen, even if he had to drag her kicking and screaming back to Quantico she was going to be there first thing Monday morning.

Failing to find anything incriminating in the drawers of Blair's desk he turned his attention to Jessica's. All he needed to do was find something, anything in her drawers that he could use in case she refused to listen to reason over Blair. Not that it was going to be easy to find anything, his Angel was always very careful about not leaving things laying around. It was her attention to the smallest detail in the cases she had worked that encouraged him to trust her with more and more complex cases until finally she'd been the backbone of his department. For trusting her surely he deserved her loyalty when he needed it the most. No-one else seemed to think that way though, no they were deserting the department like rats on a sinking ship. He wasn't going to let her do that though. For one brief moment he thought about calling her at home to see if she was there. But if her brother answered he'd be told that she wasn't there, that he didn't know when she would be back. Her family had done everything it could during the past two years to stop him from seeing or talking to her. Their interference wasn't something that was going to be tolerated in future.

"Taz." Daryl said as she was wheeled past him on a paramedics trolley. She looked so pale and fragile, he thought, that couldn't be good.

"Daryl, don't," Simon warned him, as his son started to follow the trolley, "You can't go with her."

"But..." he began protesting.

"As soon as I've finished her I'll take you to the hospital," Simon assured him, "Her brother will take good care of her.
"He's not going to let me see her is he?" he asked, If someone had let that happen to his sister, if he'd had one, he wouldn't want them going anywhere near her afterwards.

"I'll talk to him," Simon promised him, "But I can't guarantee anything."

"I just want to say sorry," Daryl said, "That I'll try to do better in future." Not that he could see them having much of a future as a team at the minute. How was she supposed to trust him when he'd let her down so badly.

"I'm sure that Taz knows it wasn't your fault," Simon assured him, "That there was nothing you could have done to stop them."

He knew exactly what Daryl was going through, Blair thought, when he saw the look of defeat on his face, because he went through it every time he thought he'd let Jim down. The only difference was that Jim was usually able to persuade him otherwise. They had a solid partnership to fall back on unlike Taz and Daryl. It was so unfair that they were having so many problems when they were just starting out. Not that things had been all that easy for him and Jim in the beginning. Maybe he should talk to Daryl, reassure him that things would get better with time. Once Taz knew how to control her senses they'd both feel a lot more comfortable about what was happening to them.

"You ready to go, Chief?" Jim asked.

"I thought I'd stay here for a while and keep Daryl company, Blair replied, "Try and explain a few things to him."

"He looks like he could use some advice right now." Jessica said.

"What about Rafe?" Jim asked.

"Hopefully Tommy'll be able to talk some sense into him at the hospital." she replied.

"When did you call him?" Blair asked.

"I didn't," she replied, "But he'll be waiting for them when they get to hospital."

"You used the link!" Blair exclaimed.

"Link?" Jim asked.

"I'll explain it later." Jessica said.

"Trust me, Jim, it exists." Blair assured him.

"It doesn't always work though." she said. At least not to the level she'd just used it.

"Don't tell me you can read minds." Jim said.

"If I could I wouldn't tell you." Jessica smiled.

Everything for the pre-wedding dinner was starting to take shape, Naomi thought, putting the phone down. She'd left a message for Jessica's 'Friend' to call her at the loft when he got back to his hotel. In fact she was rather looking forward to him and Jim meeting for the first time. Someone had to look after Jim's interests in this, as Blair didn't seem to be. She
would have thought that Elias would have had something to say about his precious Jessie being involved with a married man. She had been involved with a lot of men during her life, but never knowingly any that had been married. Contrary to what most people thought, she did have some morals. Not destroying families was one of them.

Of course, Jessica was free to make her own choices. She would never deny her that right. Although some of the choices she'd made had been highly suspect. A fact which she'd repeatedly pointed out to Elias, not that he had ever taken her concerns seriously. As far as he was concerned Jessica couldn't do anything wrong, even when it came to fighting with her. She wasn't going to let her spoil things for her and Elias anymore though. From now on Jessica wasn't going to be allowed to force her will on anyone else.

Seeing her laying there looking so pale and small was bringing back memories of that night he'd rather not remember, Brian thought, taking hold of one of Taz's hands and holding it in his. Memories that he'd tried to lock away for the past thirteen years. At least there wasn't any blood this time, last... It was better for her that she didn't remember anything about that night. Even if it meant that people who'd done it had escaped justice.

Telling her that there'd been a car crash had saved her so much pain, that he knew it had been the right thing to do.

He was even more determined now than he had been before that she wasn't going to become a cop. Because he didn't think that he could go through this every time she got hurt. Enhanced sense or not he wasn't going to allow her to put herself in danger on a daily basis. He had two more years before she could do what she wanted legally. The question was how was he going to stop her when the time came.

"How badly hurt is she?" Jessica asked as Jim drove them to the station.

"Nothing was broken," he replied, "She's going to be badly bruised though."

She'd been damned lucky that it hadn't been a lot worse than that.

"That's something I suppose," she said, "I was thinking that giving them some sort of self defense lessons would be a good idea."

"You want me to teach them?" he asked.

"Yeah," she smiled, "After all, you are a lot better qualified to than me."

"Wouldn't organized lessons be better?" Jim asked, "Because I'm not a teacher." For a start he didn't have the patience to be. It was going to be either his way or no way if he did teach them.

"Organized lessons would take too long, and if they were paired up she wouldn't be able to attack Daryl." she replied.
"So she can attack me instead." he said.

"Something like that," Jessica said, "Besides, there's a lot of macho bullshit going on in some classes."

"If I decide to teach them then I'd want you there as well." Jim said.

"I don't need to learn self defense." she replied.

"No, but you do need to get your reflexes back up to speed." he said. And he was going to make sure that she did. After all, she was the one who'd said that they should teach by example.

"I don't understand." Daryl said, after listening to Blair telling him that feeling bad because Taz had got hurt was perfectly natural.

"Understand what?" Blair asked.

"How Taz's dad could be in prison if he died in a car crash when she was two," he replied, "Melanie said they'd crashed the car on purpose, then the Principal said..."

"She said what?" Blair said.

"That Taz was going to end up just like her dad," Daryl said, "She was going on about Taz ending up in prison for what she'd done."

"What did Taz say?" Blair asked.

"She got really upset about what Melanie said," he replied, "I said that I'd help her to find out what really happened." Which probably wasn't going to turn out to be a car crash, he thought. Although the Principal could have just been trying to really hurt Taz by saying what she had. He hated it when people did that, because he never knew how to make her feel better.

"Why doesn't she just ask her brother?" Blair said.

"He's not very easy to talk to," he said, "I think it's got worse since this thing started."

"Not handling it too well then," Blair said, "You know it does take some adjusting to get used to. How's your dad doing?"

"A lot better since Taz made him listen to what we were trying to tell him," Daryl said, "She really let him have it."

"That's the protective instinct coming out." Blair grinned.

"So she's going to act like that every time someone gets between us?" he asked.

"Yeah." Blair replied.

(36)

"Bri..." Tommy began as he joined Rafe as Taz was wheeled into a cubicle in ER.

"They beat her up," Brian said with tears in his eyes, "She was supposed to be safe at school."

"It's going to be okay. I'm here for you," Tommy assured him, "Just let me handle the doctors." He'd have to give the doctors the severe allergy story that he always used when Jess got hurt. With no control over her senses anything they gave Taz could cause serious side effects. Even at the best of times Jess had to be very careful about what she took when she got sick.

"I don't think the insurance is going to cover this," Brian said, "I..."

"Don't worry about that." Tommy said, stroking his face. He was both more than capable of and willing to pay for whatever medical treatment Taz needed.

"But..." he began.

"Let me take care of it," Tommy said, "She's your main priority for the time being." Everything else could be sorted out when Taz had been take care of.

As soon as her husband found out what was going on the situation would rapidly change to one in her favor, Mrs. Warren thought, as she was dragged out of a the back of a squad car in front of the police station. Heads were definitely going to roll for this. Starting with that little slut who claimed she was an FBI agent. She'd met her type before, thought they were superior to everyone else just because they'd dragged themselves up from their low social background. Well, she knew just how to deal with people like that, one phone and Miss FBI would be very sorry that she'd ever dared to arrest her and her daughter.

Poor Melanie, this was going to ruin her chances of being crowned Prom Queen. Perhaps they could sue that dreadful Rafe girl and her brother for making false accusations against Melanie. After all, who were a jury going to believe, the wife of the Chief of Police or some murderer. With her connections they were bound to win any court case. The money would certainly come in useful as spending money for Melanie's trip to Europe after graduation. She was going to do something that her husband had never managed to do, put the fear of god into anyone who dared to mess with the Warrens.

"Naomi, don't you think that perhaps we've got enough guests coming to this pre-wedding dinner?" Elias asked when she got off the phone with someone else that he'd never even heard of.

"Sweetie, I just want all our friends to know that we're finally making a formal commitment to each other." she smiled.

"I don't even know most of the people you've invited." he said. He could understand her inviting the people Blair worked with at the police station, but who the hell were William and Stephen.

"Most of them are Blair's friends," she admitted, "But they've always been very nice to me when I've visited him."

"And William and Stephen are cops?" he asked.

"No, they're Jim's father and brother." Naomi replied.

"You've invited them because..." he began. Not sure whether he wanted to know the answer or not. It was obvious even to him that Naomi was trying to cause trouble between Jim and Jessica. Well, he was going to do whatever he could to try and put a stop to it.

"I thought that it would be all nice if we met socially." she smiled.

"Naomi, it's not going to work." Elias said.

"What?" she asked innocently.

"You can't have Walter and Jim at the dinner." he said.

"Why not? They both have so much in common," she replied, "Jessica for a start."

"Which is why you can't have them both at the dinner." Elias said.

"I really don't see what the problem is." Naomi smiled.

"The problem is that Walter is obsessed with Jessie," he replied, "And the feeling isn't mutual."

"He is, I thought. After all you've told me about what he's done for Jessica in the past..." Naomi began.

"Well, lets just say that he's always had an ulterior motive for doing things for her," he replied, "I've tried to shield Jessie from it as much as possible. Especially after she got hurt but..."

"I had no idea," she said, "Of course I'll cancel my invitation to him. I wouldn't want to do anything to upset either her or Jim."

"She's never going back to work for him so there's no need for him to be part of the wedding." Elias said relieved that he had averted what could have turned out to be a potential disaster.

"She's going to end up with a sore throat if she keep screaming like that." Jessica said when she heard Melanie screaming for her father.

"He can probably hear her in the holding cells." Jim grinned getting out of his truck.

"You know, if I was related to them I'd probably turn to a life of crime as well." she laughed.

"I don't know about that, but it's giving me a headache." he said.

"How about I interview her and you do the Principal, someone else can deal with her mother." Jessica suggested. Letting him interview the woman who'd hit her wasn't a very good idea, she thought, and she certainly didn't want to have to deal with her either as she wasn't sure that she'd be able to keep her temper if she had to.

"You know this could take a while." Jim said.

"Don't worry, I've done my fair share of long interrogations," she smiled, "I'll be fine."

"Actually I was thinking about dinner tonight." he admitted.

"If you want to cancel that's okay with me," she replied, "To be honest I'm not really looking forward to it either."

"Then why..." he began.

"To tell him that I'm never going back to working for him," Jessica said,

"From now I'm just a teacher."

"You're never going to be just anything." Jim said.

So that was the man his partner was seeing, H thought, when he saw Tommy coming out of a cubicle in ER and walking towards the admissions desk. He wasn't sure whether he should go over and talk to him or not. And if he did what he should say to him. After all, he was still getting used to the idea that Brian dated guys. Still, for him to have come because Taz was hurt it had to mean that he understood just how important she was to Brian.

No doubt he was going to feel just as awkward, especially when they were meeting for the first time under these circumstances. It was probably better if he just went over there, said hi and introduced himself. They already had one thing in common, Brian, so it wouldn't be that hard to find something to talk about. Besides, he wanted to know more about the man his partner was seeing. More importantly he wanted to know that both Brian and Taz were going to be safe with him, that he wasn't going to hurt them.

Talking to Blair seemed to have done Daryl some good, Simon thought. Being a guide was obviously a lot harder than he'd thought it was. Still, as long as his son realized that it wasn't his fault that Taz had been attacked that was the important thing. Not that he was really expecting Rafe to see things that way. If he decided that he didn't want Taz to see Daryl anymore there wouldn't be a great deal that he could do about it. If that happened then they could all be back to a situation where Taz was threatening to runaway.

Only this time there would be a real danger that Daryl might not be able to talk her out of it.

He had to admit that if she suddenly lost her enhanced senses he would be very grateful. But that wasn't going to happen though. So, the best thing that he could do was offer them as much support as he could. Not that it was going to be easy if Rafe objected. Hell, in the same situation he would want her as far away from his son as possible. And one day he might be.

"Jim, how are you doing?" Agent Morgan grinned when he saw Jim and Jessica entering the booking area.

"Fine," Jim replied, "Jess, this is Frankie Morgan, Frankie, Dr. Jessica Angel."

"You're Ginal's Angel!" Morgan said in surprise.

"Yeah." she blushed.

"Ginal's Angel?" Jim growled. He didn't like the sound of that at all.

"Robert Ginal, he's the head of profiling at Quantico," Morgan said, "All he ever talks about is his Angel. He never said that you were this beautiful though."

"I thought you worked for..." Jim began. He couldn't bring himself to say that man's name.

"That's his nickname," Jessica explained, "Because he..."

"Looks like Skinner off the X Files," Morgan said finishing her sentence for her, "I bet he's really glad you're back there on Monday. Things have really gone downhill recently."

"I'm not going back to profiling," she said, "I have a position at Rainier as a professor of criminology."

"But he's. You know what rumors are like." Morgan said.

"Jess, could you check on how the processing's going?" Jim asked. Something was going on if Frankie thought that Jess was going back to work at Quantico on Monday when she had no intention of doing so, and he intended to find out what.

"Sure, I'll see you around sometime Agent Morgan." Jessica smiled.

"Frankie." Morgan said.

"No wonder he ever mentioned how beautiful she was," Morgan said, watching Jess walking away, "Half the bureau would have been asking her out on dates."

"She's taken." Jim growled.

"You and her!" Morgan said in surprise, "Ginal is not going to like that."

"Why not?" he asked. The more he knew about his enemy the better prepared he would be for when he finally came face to face with him.

"Let's just say he doesn't like people getting between him and his Angel," Morgan replied, "I can't say I blame him, I mean if keeping my job was depending on getting her back on board then..."

"He's going to get fired if she doesn't go back!" Jim exclaimed.

"Early retirement," Morgan said, "Personally, I think it's the best thing that could happen to that department."

"You said it had been going down hill." he said.

"The words rats and sinking ships would be a better way to describe it," Morgan replied, "Even if he got her back there chances are she'd be running things again. Everyone knows he couldn't arrange an orgy in a brothel."

"Well, she's not going back," Jim said firmly, "If you see him you can tell him that."

"Don't worry I will," Morgan replied, "The man would be a damn fool to mess with you though."

She wasn't anybody's Angel, except for maybe Jim's, and that was only because she wanted to be, Jessica thought. When she saw Walter, he was going to have a hell of a lot of explaining to do. How dare he tell people that she was going back to working for him when he knew perfectly well that she wasn't. Jim hadn't looked at all happy, she just hoped that he didn't go all primal again. Dinner was looking more like it was going to turn into a battlezone than a civilized meal. Still, Walter had brought it on himself by acting the way he had.

Even if she'd been having doubts about whether or not to go back to work at Quantico they'd been banished by his recent actions. What if he didn't want to take no for an answer, things could really take a turn for the worst then. She'd seen him do some things in the past that had been bordering on illegal, although she'd never known him cross the line like some people had. If his job was really on the line like she'd heard then there was no telling how far he'd be prepared to go to keep it.

"Daryl." Taz said, struggling to sit up. He wasn't there, something had to have happened for him not to be there. Maybe this was her punishment for abandoning him.

"Taz, you have to stay laid down." Brian said.

"Where's Daryl?" she asked, "I want Daryl." She had to him to make sure that he was all right.

"He's not here." he replied, trying to get her to lay back down.

"I want Daryl," Taz said, "He can make it stop."

"Make what stop?" he asked.

"The pain." she replied. Everything would be fine when she had her guide with her. That's the way things were supposed to be, they weren't supposed to be apart. If people stopped trying to get between them they'd do a lot better.

"I don't think seeing Daryl is a good idea," Brian said, "This is..."

"It wasn't his fault," she said, "He couldn't have stopped them." If he'd tried to stop them he could have got really hurt. Besides, it was her job as a sentinel to protect him. Not that she'd done a very good job of it so far. At the rate she was going she would end up with no guide and six feet under.

"I broke a nail." Melanie whined as her fingerprints were taken. She was never going to get the ink off. As soon as daddy got her released she was going to have to go for a manicure. He was going to be very angry that she'd been treated like this. Anyone who'd had anything to do with her being arrested was going to get fired.

She couldn't wait to see the look on Taz Rafe's face when she was thrown into a cell with all sorts of low lifes. She wouldn't look so pretty once they'd finished with her. There wouldn't be a single thing that Taz's stupid brother could do to help her either. He'd have to sit there and watch while they strapped her into an electric chair and threw the switch. After that nobody would ever dare to stand up to her again, because they'd all be too afraid to.

(37)

"Daryl, let me talk to him first." Simon said when they entered Er and saw Rafe exiting a cubicle.

"Dad, what if he won't let me see her?" Darly asked.

"I don't know." Simon admitted.

"I'll talk to him as well." Blair said. He'd probably have a lot more luck persuading Rafe to let Darly see Taz than Simon would. Once he'd explained that keeping them apart wasn't going to do Taz any good he was bound to see sense.

"She's my responsibility," Daryl protested, "I'm the only one who can help her."

"Hey, chill," Blair said, "Losing your cool isn't going to help her." Daryl had a lot to learn about being a guide. Starting with the fact that patience was definitely a virtue when it came to dealing with your sentinel. Not that it was always easy to be patient when they wouldn't listen to what you were trying to tell them. He could think of more than a few occasions when he'd lost it with Jim. Still, he doubted that Taz was going to turn out to be as stubborn as Jim was. "There are going to be times when you can't handle something on by yourself," he said, "Asking for help isn't anything to be ashamed of."

"I want to do the right thing but I don't know what it is." Daryl admitted.

"For now it's being patient and listening to what you're told." Blair grinned.

She must have used an entire bottle of perfume to end up smelling like that, Jessica thought, dialing down her sense of smell as she entered the interview room Melanie Warren was sitting in. By the time she'd finished questioning her she'd knew how it felt to be intimidated and harassed.

Unfortunately she couldn't give her a good kicking in the ribs which was what she really deserved.

"Hello Barbie." she said,

"You're going to be in big trouble when daddy finds out about this." Melanie sneered.

"You're in enough trouble without making threats." Jessica warned her.

"I'm going to have you fired for this," Melanie snapped, "Daddy's..."

"Is looking at fifteen to twenty inside," she smiled, "You, you're looking at five for obstructing a federal case. With a serious assault on top I wouldn't make any plans for the next decade if I were you." If it were up to her though she'd lock her up and throw away the key to make sure that she never got out.

"I didn't do anything," Melanie protested, "It was all Taz's fault."

"So she just decided to lay on the floor and let you kick the shit out of her," she growled, "How about threatening her with Death Row? Was that her idea as well?"

"You can't prove anything," Melanie retorted, "It'll be my word against yours."

"There's more than enough forensic evidence to prove that you hid that note Harold Barclay left," Jessica said, "In fact I can even prove that you touched it after he did."

"There's no... That's impossible." Melanie snapped.

"Believe what you want, I can prove it though." she smiled. That had got her really worried, she thought, when she heard Melanie's heart rate go through the roof.

He didn't know Jim too well personally, but he knew his reputation for being a dangerous man to mess with, Morgan thought. Ginal was going to be in serious trouble if he tried messing with the Angel while Ellison was involved with her. Not that he was going to feel even the slightest bit sorry for Ginal if he did decide to go up against Ellison. It was about time that someone decided to take on Ginal head to head. He'd worked with him on a couple of cases and found out for himself the hard way that the man was totally useless when it came to profiling in the field. In fact it wouldn't come to any great surprise to him if all those commendations Ginal had got turned out to be the result of someone else's hard work. Namely the Angel's.

One thing was certain though he wasn't going to warn Ginal about Jim Ellison. It was just a pity that he wasn't going to be there when they met for the first time. His money would be definitely on Ellison to win that meeting.

No-one was watching him so they weren't going to notice if he slipped into Taz's cubicle for a few minutes, Daryl thought. She was probably wondering where he was, why he hadn't gone with her in the ambulance. He would have, only his dad had stopped him. From now on though things were going to be different, if his dad and her brother didn't like that then that was just tough. He and Taz were supposed to be a team, working this thing out together. They couldn't do that if other people kept telling them what to do. After what Melanie had done to her she probably needed a hug or something to make her feel better. He was also going to have to apologize for not being there when she really needed him. Apologizing was something that he seemed to be doing a lot of recently.

"Taz?" he said, slipping into the cubicle, not quite sure what he would find on the other side.

"Hi." she replied softly.

"How are you doing?" he asked. She didn't look too bad, though he could still see where Melanie had hit her across the face earlier.

"I hurt a lot," Taz replied, "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Daryl said, "Taz, I'm sorry that I..." Saying sorry for not helping her wasn't going to make the pain she was suffering go away. Nothing he did was going to do that.

"It wasn't your fault," she assured him, "You could have got hurt as well."

"I keep screwing things up," he said, "I don't mean to but..."

"You're not the only one who did," she admitted, "I'm going to be fine though."

"This time," he said, "What if next time..."

"There isn't going to be a next time," Taz said, "Now sit on the foot of this thing and tell me what happened to Melanie."

"It was way cool." Daryl said, sitting down on the foot on the trolled Taz was laid on, being careful not to sit on her legs. "Detective Ellison's girlfriend arrested all three of them. That was after she'd burst into the Principal's office." Okay so it hadn't happened exactly like that, but it was going to be a lot more exciting for Taz to listen to if he told it his way.

"The truth." she said.

"I didn't see that much of what happened," he admitted, "Just them being led out. Blair and my dad told me what happened on the way here. There were loads of people watching though. Melanie's finished, she won't be able to do anything to you when you go back."

"I'm not going back there." she said.

"But if you don't graduate..." he began.

"Daryl, I have enough credits to do that now," Taz explained, "How can I go back? She still has friends there."

"Have you talked to your brother about this?" Daryl asked. Because he wasn't going to be too happy when he found out about it.

"It's my choice to make not his," she replied, "If he doesn't like then I'll find somewhere else to live. I've had enough of people telling us what to do."

"I know what you mean, but leaving home's not going to solve anything." he said.

"We both know that as soon my lawyer gets here I'm going to be released because I haven't broken any law." the principal smiled as Jim paced up and down in front of her.

"How about we start with corruption of a minor," Jim said, "Encouraging an assault. You were shouting kill the little bitch weren't you."

"No comment." she replied.

"There's also a strong federal case against you, denial of civil rights," he said, "Harassment..."

"She deserved it," she said, "Someone with background shouldn't be allowed to attend school with normal children. It's just not safe for them."

"What background?" he asked. As far as he knew Rafe's sister was a good student, had never been in trouble before. Which had made what had happened to her so shocking.

"Come on detective, you work with her brother," she said, "So, you must know all about her parents and how they died."

"That has nothing to do with this case." Jim growled wondering what the hell she was talking about. He could easily imagine someone like this judging Jess because of her background, and writing her off as nothing more than a troublemaker when she was anything but. Jess was just amazing, he was damn lucky to have her agree to be his mate.

"Doesn't it?" the principal asked, "Bad blood does run in families you know. It wouldn't surprise me if that FBI person didn't have some in her..."

"You don't know a damn thing about Dr. Angel." he snapped. Nobody was going to say things about his mate and get away with it. This woman reminded him of the man who wanted to take Jess away from him. He could make sure that he never bothered her again by making him disappear, with his training and connects the body would never be found. At the minute the only person he trusted enough to watch over her when he couldn't be there was Blair. He should be with her now, making sure that nothing happened to her. Even though he could track her with both his hearing and sense of smell, he felt uneasy about nothing being able to see her.

It was pretty obvious that she wasn't coming back, Walter thought, leaving Jessica's office. He'd wasted hours that he could have used to make sure that she came back to work for him. Maybe it would have been better if he'd gone and confronted this Blair in person. Made it clear to him that he'd tell his Angel everything about his past if he didn't end his involvement with her at once. She couldn't afford to be emotionally involved with someone who was unstable, not in the line of work they were in. That was how mistakes were made, if she made a mistake now and decided that she wasn't going to go back to working for him he was going to make sure that she regretted it for the rest of her life.

He'd met people during his career, people who owed him a lot of favors. A few phone calls and... Well, his Angel would find herself in a very dangerous situation. It would only come down to that as a last resort though. When he'd exhausted all other avenues of getting her to do what he wanted. He'd given up everything that he had for her and he was going to make sure that she knew the price he'd paid.

"This isn't some sort of game," Jessica said, "You are in serious trouble." as Melanie stared at the wall behind her. When they'd been giving out brains she'd obviously been having her hair done, she thought. Hell, she'd had more stimulating conversation with her spirit guide. Hopefully Jim was having better luck interviewing the Principal than she was Melanie Warren.

"You can't talk to me like this," Melanie pouted, "I'm somebody in this town. My daddy knows a lot of important people."

"I don't give a damn who he knows," she snapped, "If you don't start talking I'll have you taken down to a holding cell until you're willing to.

Maybe if you're lucky they'll put up in one next to your daddy."

"I'm going to sue you." Melanie screamed.

"Try it," Jessica frowned, "You broke the law and now you've got to pay the price. Or didn't your parents ever teach you that there were consequences to your actions?" That had been one of the first things that her dad had taught both her and Tommy, a long with treat other people the way you wanted to be treated.

"You're a nobody," Melanie sneered, "You can't do anything to me."

"I'm sure that they'll find you a very nice cell." she said, leaving the interview room. It was a total waste of time trying to get anything out of her while she was in this frame of mind. Still, she was probably going to have to wait until hell froze over before that young woman was going to have a change in attitude.

"What are you..." Brian began when he entered the cubicle that Taz was in and saw Daryl sitting on the foot of the trolley she was laid on.

"We're just talking," Taz replied, "Daryl was just telling me what I missed out on."

"I'll go now." Daryl said.

"You can stay," Brian said, "It's important to Taz that you're here so..."

"Can I go home soon?" Taz asked. She was feeling allot better now that Daryl was with her.

"Taz, they might want to keep you in over night." Brian said.

"Bri, I want to go home," she said, "I'm fine now."

"Fine!" he snapped, "You were badly beaten, there could be all sorts of hidden injuries."

"I want go home, it smells bad here," Taz said, "Like death." She'd smelt something similar before but she couldn't remember where or when.

"If the doctor says you can go home then you can, otherwise you're going to have to stay here. At least for tonight." Brian said.

"They didn't break anything," she said, "I'd feel it if they had. So I'm going home okay." He might not like it but she was going home. Spending the night here surrounded by strange noises and smells was going to meant that she didn't get any sleep at all. Not that she'd been getting a lot recently.

Every time she tried to go to sleep she got a really strong feeling that there was something missing, something that would help her get to sleep.

"Taz, you should do what he says," Daryl said, "I'll visit you."

"You can do that at my place." she said. Nothing was going to make her stay here. If she had to she'd just walk out.

(38)

As Naomi was inviting total strangers to the pre-wedding dinner that meant that he was perfectly entitled to invite anyone he wanted including his father and brothers, Elias thought. It had been a long time since they'd all been together for a family celebration. The last time had been when Jessie had got out of hospital. They were going to be more than a little surprised
that Naomi had finally agreed to marry him. After all, he'd been asking her for the past thirty years. That was something that his children didn't know or really need to. Of course, he'd loved Sunflower, despite all her problems. But his soul had always belonged to Naomi.

If she'd yes the first time he'd asked her to marry him both their lives would have been very different, she hadn't though. And he had two wonderful children that he was very proud of, soon to be three. He'd always considered Blair to be part of the family though. Even when Jessie and Tommy had been small they'd thought of Blair as being their brother. Always made sure that they saved up enough to buy him a birthday present even if he wasn't there to open it. Naomi had always been a different matter though. They'd never really taken to her, not that she'd ever matters any easier for herself. It
was almost as if she enjoyed causing trouble for Jessie. It would probably be a good idea if he called Jessie and told her who Naomi had invited to this dinner thing of hers.

"We don't know a woman called Angel do we?" William Ellison asked, looking at his housekeeper Sally.

"No," she replied, "Why?"

"Some woman called Sandburg called while you were out, she was talking about a pre-wedding dinner for Jimmy and someone called Angel," he replied, "At least, I think that's what she said. Woman didn't stop talking from the
moment I picked up the phone."

"Jimmy's getting married?" Sally smiled.

"If he is you'd think that he'd at least have the decency to inform his family first." he frowned. Not that his son had done so the first time he'd got married. Still, they hadn't been talking back then, now they had a limited contact going on. Surely he had a right to at least meet his future daughter-in-law, the potential mother of his grandchildren before the big day took place.

"Why don't you call Jimmy and ask him what's going on?" Sally suggested, "Invite him and his fiancee to dinner."

"What sort of name is Angel though?" William asked, "She doesn't sound too reliable to me.

"I'm sure that Jimmy knows what he's doing." she assured him.

"I'll call him then and see what he's got himself into." he said. Although already he wasn't relishing the thought of welcoming some woman named Angel into the family. She was probably some blonde feckless thing who'd latched
onto his son because the Ellison name meant something in Cascade society. If that was the case he was going to put a stop to it before they got to the altar.

Her husband had got himself into serious trouble this time, Tiffany Warren thought, smiling politely at Agent Morgan. Not that it really had anything to do with her. Still, if it became public knowledge she could say goodbye to all those hard earned club memberships. She'd worked damn hard to cultivate the right image for both her and Melanie, now it looked as if that
image was about to shatter into a million pieces.

"I don't have anything to do with my husband's dealings." she said.

"Mrs Warren, I think it's only fair to warn you that your husband's assets have been frozen, and that any found to be gained through illegal activity will be ceased." Morgan said.

"You can't do that!" she exclaimed, "When my husband finds out about this..."

"As Chief of Police I'm sure that he's well aware of the law," he replied, "So perhaps you'll bear that in mind when I ask you a few questions."

"I want to call my lawyer." she said. She'd call him and get him to sort out this mess. After all, there wasn't anything that money and a few words to the right person couldn't solve.

"Are you aware what the penalty for assaulting an FBI agent is?" Morgan asked, "The courts deal with such cases very harshly because the tides turning against people like you."

"She grabbed me first." Tiffany Warren protested.

"So she could stop your daughter from carrying out a further assault on a Taz Rafe."

"It was self defense." she snapped. Any reasonable jury would see it as such and clear her without any trouble at all. Of course, the ladies in her social circle wouldn't be so forgiving about an accused person in their midst. A few generous donations to the right charities and all would soon be forgiven. That was the way life was in her social circle, and it was the way she'd been raised. Her parents despite all their efforts had never been able to break into the social circles she inhabited. They'd been very upset and disappointed when she'd told them that she was marrying a police officer.

However they'd soon changed their minds when she'd been invited to some of the more exclusive social events in Cascade. Melanie was going to go even higher socially, that was if this little trouble didn't spoil her chances.

"Mrs Warren, unless you have a lawyer on retainer you're going to have to wait for a public defender because you don't have any money." Morgan smiled.

A frown crossed Warren's lips when he saw his daughter being led to the holding cell next to his. His wife would be going frantic over this.

Especially, when she found that there wasn't a damn thing that he could do to help Melanie. Still, he was certain that she'd be able to sort it out on her own. After all, Tiffany was a very resourceful woman, a little too resourceful at times. It was all her fault that he was in this mess, she'd wanted more than he could provide moneywise. And to be honest he'd hated all that social climbing.

Maybe he should have married his high school sweet heart instead of Tiffany. At least, then he wouldn't have been sitting in a holding cell with a harridan of a daughter in the next cell. Considering what her mother was like, it was hardly surprising that Melanie had turned out the way she had.

He'd tried to put a stop to the excess when she'd been small but Tiffany had made it clear that he was only there to provide the money and the image of the perfect family. In the end he'd decided that it was better to just go a long with what she wanted for the sake of a quiet life. Only it hadn't turned out to be as quiet as he'd hoped. Still, being locked up he was safe
from his wife's wrath, as long as someone didn't decide to arrest her and put her in the same cell as him.

"If you want to leave you can," Henri said, looking at Tommy, "I mean you must have better things to do with your time than hanging around here."

"I'll leave if Brian wants me to," Tommy replied, "Until then I'm staying."

Brian needed him here to reassure him that everything was going to be okay with Taz. If he ran off now it would give him the impression that as soon as things got rough he'd leave. He'd got the impression that Brian had been let down so many times in the past that he didn't feel that he could ever really trust anyone to want to stay around for long.

"I'm apart of his family," H said, "Taz is like my own sister."

"Well I've been where he is now," he said, "Only it was a lot worse. Taz was lucky..."

"Lucky!" H snapped, "She was beaten up."

"And that's all that happened to her," Tommy said, "The bruises will heal and she'll get over this."

"You don't just get over something like that." H said.

"Guys, I think it's really cool that you both want to be here for Rafe, but the two of you fighting isn't going to make him feel any better. Or help Taz."

"You're right," Tommy sighed, "I guess hospitals just set me on edge. Have done ever since..." It was probably better if he didn't think about all the time Jess had spent in hospital.

"She was in for a long time?" H asked.

"Yeah, if you want to know anymore than that it's in her records." He replied. Although everything that had happened to her probably wasn't in them, knowing Jess she'd left something out to try and protect him and their dad. Which is what he would have done to spare the people he cared about any more pain.

She might be walking for now, but she'd be charged later, Jim thought, as the Principal was released. This was a part of the job he hated, still there wasn't a great deal that he could do about it. Rafe's sister deserved justice and she was going to get it if he had anything to do with it. She wouldn't have to wait long for it either, not like Jess. Jess had to wait a long time for hers, then she'd had to face pure evil to get it. He couldn't even begin to imagine how that must have felt. Yet she'd not done what a lot of people would have in the same circumstances. It must have taken a lot of strength not to aim higher and blow his brains out. But then she wasn't a murdered, never could be either.

If her interview had gone as badly as his had she could probably use a good cup of coffee about now. And as the only good coffee in the entire station was in Simon's office that was where he was going to get it from. She deserved the best and he intended to make sure that she got it. After all it was his duty to provide for his mate.

So, this was where that hippy hung out when he was seducing his angel, Walter thought, entering the police station. It couldn't be much of a department if they allowed him to work here. Still, the minute they found out about his criminal record they'd kick him out. Maybe the file he had could accidentally end up on the Dean of Rainier's desk, it could be very
interesting to see how he lied his way out of that. As long as his Angel did as he wanted there wouldn't be any need for any real unpleasantness to take place. Still, it was good to know that he had something to hold over the both of them in case Blair decided to try and contact her once she was working for him again.

From now on he was going to vet very carefully the sort of people she was allowed to come into contact with, even at work. As far as possible he'd make sure that she only worked with female agents. He wasn't going to take the risk that she might get attached to someone she worked with. He was going to be the only man she was allowed to get attached to. Once his divorce had gone through and a suitable length of time had passed they'd get married. Children, of course were totally out of the question because they would distract her from her work. Anything that did that wouldn't be allowed to be a part of her life from now on, that included her family. She'd soon realize that he was only doing it for her own good as she obviously wasn't capable of deciding it for herself any more.

"Robert, what a surprise," Morgan said, "I didn't realize that you'd been called in on a case."

"I haven't." Walter replied.

"So what are you doing here?" he asked. Although it wasn't too difficult to guess why. He was in for one hell of a shock when he came face to face with Jim Ellison.

"Just passing through," Walter said, "Thought I'd make sure that all the paperwork from my Angel's case was in order."

"I don't think you'll find any problems with it," Morgan smiled, "Jim Ellison is very thorough."

"Ellison? I was told that it someone called Sandburg who did all the paperwork." Walter frowned.

"He's Ellison's partner," he said, "I'm surprised that you haven't heard about Jim before though." Not as surprised as he was going to be when he found out that his Angel was seeing Jim.

"Is there any reason why I should have?" Walter asked, "I meet so many detectives."

"I thought that Jessica might have mentioned him that's all," Morgan said, "The two of them have just worked on their second case together." He could see from the look on Walter's face that he wasn't too happy about that.

"Don't worry she's fine," he assured him, "Jim's very resourceful. Still, I suppose that's got a lot to do with his military background." Hell, the man had connections that no-one else had.

"Well, she won't be working any more cases with him," Walter said confidently, "Monday she's starting back at Quantico."

"Not according to Jim she's not." Morgan smiled.

"We'll see about that." Walter snapped, marching off to find his Angel.

She really wished that the doctor would hurry up and tell her that she could go home, Taz thought. Not that all her problems were going to be over once she got home. Brian would be hovering over her constantly to make sure that she was okay. And somehow she had to get Daryl to stop this guilt trip he was on. At the moment though no matter what she said to him he wasn't going to feel any better about what had happened to her.

Obviously she wouldn't be able to go back to school for a couple of days which meant that she was going to miss "Going to Work day". The shame of it was that her and Daryl would have walked away with those VIP tickets now that Melanie was out of the way. Still, there were bound to be other competitions that they could enter and win. It just wasn't fair that Daryl
had to miss out because of her though. How long was Daryl going to put up with missing out on things because of her before he got tired of it and decided that he didn't want to be a, her guide any more. If that happened there wasn't anything that she could do about it.

"This has to be illegal," Tiffany Warren said glaring her lawyer, "They can't just arrest me for defending myself."

"Tiffany, you hit an FBI agent," Martin Bostwick said, "The courts don't take too kindly to people who do that."

"I swear that I didn't know what she was," she protested, "Couldn't I pay a fine, do some charity work to make up for it?" Because, she would never be able to live down the humiliation of being locked up in a cell for even a few hours.

"I'll do what I can, but it's not going to be easy to get them to reduce the charges." he said.

"You know, they arrested Melanie for attacking some little tramp," Tiffany said, "What's going to happen to her? Something like this could ruin her chances of getting into a good college. I will not let her life be ruined in this way."

"This isn't the first time Melanie's got herself into this sort of trouble is it?" he asked, "No, but she's never been charged before. And they certainly weren't her fault," she replied, "You know, how people are. If someone's popular they get jealous. This girl attacked Melanie first. What happened after that was her own fault." And she hadn't got half of what she deserved. Once she gout out of here she fully intended to see that the Rafe girl was locked up for what she'd done.

"Melanie's been charged as an adult, that means she'd likely to be sent to prison when, I mean if she's found guilty." Bostwick said.

"What do you mean it?" Tiffany demanded, "My daughter hasn't done anything wrong, but she's the one being blamed for everything. The other girl comes from a very disturbed background. No parental influence at all."

"That might give me something to work with," he said, "But I can't make any promises."

"What the hell am I paying you for then if you can't promise to get these ridiculous charges dropped." she snapped. If he couldn't do what she wanted then she would fire him and hire a lawyer who could.

(39)

Jim wouldn't mind if she sat at his desk for a while, Jessica thought. She really needed to think about what she was going to say to Walter at dinner.

If she'd had his hotel phone number with her she would have called and canceled dinner. Upsetting Jim by spending time with a man who seemed almost obsessed about getting her to work for him again just wasn't worth it. There wasn't a damn thing that Walter had to offer that she wanted.

Because, she was perfectly happy where she was.

After all, who in their right mind would even consider swapping Jim for someone whose only priority in life was making sure that she got the results he wanted. If she really thought about it she couldn't think of a single time when Walter had ever said thank you to her, or good work when she'd finished working on a difficult case. And he had certainly never brought her expensive chocolate like Jim had.

That man was around here somewhere, Jim thought, entering the Bullpen. He knew because he could smell him. His mate was safe for the time being and he was going to make sure that it stayed that way. He wasn't about to let anyone who posed a threat to her get anywhere near her. Protecting her was as important as protecting his guide. Without her there would only be emptiness where his heart should be. It was only now that he was realizing just what exactly had been missing from his life for so long.

"Coffee?" he asked walking over to his desk.

"That would be great," Jessica smiled, "Interview go badly?"

"She's just waiting to be released on bail," he replied, "But she's going to be broke paying it. You?"

"A total nightmare," she admitted, "I had her taken down to a holding cell to see if that'll make her more willing to talk because she has one hell of an attitude problem."

"Considering who her parents are that isn't any surprise." Jim said.

"You know, she actually had the nerve to call me a nobody," Jessica said, "I would never have dared to have that sort of attitude with my dad."

"Because he cares about you." he smiled.

"Something tells me he's not the only one." she said.

"He's not." Jim admitted. He wasn't the sort of man who was usually open about his feelings. He'd been raised not to, which was the exact opposite to how she'd been raised. To her feelings whether they were good or bad were to be shared. If something was bothering her then she was going to tell him.

"So, are you going to tell me what's bothering you?" she asked.

"What makes you think anything is?" he asked.

"You look like you're getting ready to hit someone," she replied, "So?"

"He's here." Jim growled.

"Oh," she said, "You want me to find him and tell him to leave and never comeback?"

"No." he snapped. If she did that he might try and take her away from him.

"Jim, calm down," Jessica said, "I'm not going anywhere okay. So, what do you want me to do? Because sooner or later he's going to come in here looking for me."

"Nothing, I'll deal with him." Jim replied. He'd make sure that he got the message loud and clear that she was not only taken but that she wouldn't ever be going back to work for him. Once he was taken care of he was going to call some of his contacts and ensure that Robert Ginal was persuaded to take early retirement.

"Jim, are you sure that's wise?" she asked, "Only..."

"Don't worry," he assured her, "I'm just going to talk to him."

"So, you're not going to hit him or anything right?" she asked.

"If I do it'll be his own fault." he replied.

Ellison, Walter thought, making his way through the double doors into the Bullpen, now why did that name ring a bell. He supposed that it would come to him eventually. Morgan had obviously been mistaken when he'd said that this man had told him that his Angel wouldn't be working for him again. She had to, so much depended on her being there first thing on Monday morning.

If he turned up without her then his career was over. Maybe if he explained his plans for their future together she'd see that he was willing to make a total commitment to her. She had to know how much he cared about her, that everything he'd done had been for her.

That had to be him, when he saw the tall muscular man standing in front of the desk his Angel was sitting behind. As far as he could see there wasn't anything special about him. And he certainly didn't look like the sort of man his Angel would want to get involved with. She needed someone who could keep her mind focused on her work, someone like him, not some muscle bound detective. He'd soon put this man straight about the plans his Angel had for the future, that they didn't include him.

"Angel," he smiled walking over to the desk she was sitting behind, "And you are?" studying Jim closely.

"Detective James Ellison." Jim growled.

"Well, if you've finished your little meeting we should be going." Walter said. The sooner he got her away from here and back to where she belonged the better.

"I'm not going anywhere." Jessica said.

"Honey, you're due back at Quantico first thing..." Walter began, only to find himself face to chest with a very enraged.

"She's not your honey," Jim growled, "She's mine."

"Walter, I quit two years ago." she said, standing up and moving round to the other side of the desk.

"You were confused at the time didn't mean it," he said, "Everything's been arranged."

"I did, and I suggest you leave because Jim is really pissed off and that is not a good thing." she said.

"Angel, I don't think you realize what sort of people you've gotten yourself involved with," Walter said, "Your 'Friend' Blair has a long criminal record. He is not a very nice person to be around."

"Blair is my partner." Jim growled pushing Walter in the chest.

"You really shouldn't have said that," Jessica said, "I'd get out of here before you make him any worse."

"Nobody pushes Robert Ginal about," Walter protested, "You can't tell me what to do. She's my Angel..."

"Mine." Jim roared pushing Walter so hard that he fell back and landed on the floor with a thud.

"Oh shit!" Jessica exclaimed, "Jim, I think he's got the message. So, why don't you let go." placing a hand on the middle of his back.

"Mine?" he asked, turning his head slightly to look at her.

"Yours," she reassured him, "As for you," glaring at Walter, "If you ever come anywhere near me again I'll let him finish what he started here."

"Angel..." Walter began. How could she treat him like this after everything he'd done for her. Without his backing she wouldn't have got anywhere. She was going to pay big time for her treachery.

"I don't think he's learnt anything." Jim growled glaring at a very pale Walter.

"He has, haven't you Walter?" she said, "If the answers no then..."

"Whatever you say." Walter replied. The important thing at the moment was to get out of this in one piece so that he could make her pay.

"She's mine, you stay away from her." Jim snapped as Walter scrambled to his feet and hurried out of the Bullpen.

It could have gone a lot worse that it had, but not much, Jessica thought.

Now all she had to do was try and calm Jim down before anyone came in and caught him acting like he was going to rip someone's head off if they looked at him in the wrong way. Doing that wasn't going to be easy though because he was really pumped up. She could smell the testorsone purring off him. The most obvious thing that she could do to try and calm him down was to get him away from where other people might be. Because, for the time being he was going to see everyone as a potential threat. There was no way that she could possibly get him down to his truck and then onto the loft without bumping into at least one person. Driving through traffic while he was in this mood was just wasn't a very good idea either, especially as he had his gun with him.

"Come on Jim," she said, taking hold of one of his arms and leading him towards Simon's office, "We're just going to go in here for a little while okay."

"I can go home right?" Taz asked when the doctor had finished looking at her x-rays. She'd certainly be glad to get out of here and home where she belonged. What would be even better though was if Brian would let Daryl stay with her for a couple of hours when she got home instead of making her go straight to bed like he usually did when she was sick.

"You have two cracked ribs and a concussion so I would like to keep you in overnight so that we can keep any eye on you." the doctor replied.

"My brother can do that," she replied, "I feel fine though."

"Taz, I really think that you should do as the doctor says," Brian said, "It's for your own good."

"I'd feel a lot more comfortable at home," she said, "And I'm tired of people telling me what to do." Now might not be the best time for her to make a stand, but she was still going to make it though.

"Maybe you should stay here," Daryl suggested, "There are plenty of doctors and stuff if you get sick."

"Daryl, I'm not going to get sick," Taz replied confidently, "I can go home if I really want to can't I?" looking at the doctor.

"Yes, however I wouldn't recommend it." he replied.

"Well, I want to go home," she said, "It's not as if I'm going to be doing anything when get there except watch TV." Mainly because that was all Brian was going to let her do.

If Daddy couldn't do anything to help her than her mother would, Melanie thought, sitting in the holding cell she'd been escorted to. Right now, her mother was phoning everyone she knew to get her out of this terrible place.

Any moment now the door was going to open and she was going to be released. If she was lucky she'd be able to get back to school before the end of the day so that she could start setting people straight about what had really happened. By the time that she'd finished everybody's sympathies would be with her.

Taz Rafe was going to be running as far and fast as she could to avoid arrest once she got out of this cell, and that brother of hers was going to end up in prison. As for Daryl Banks, maybe if he got on his knees and begged her to forgive him then she might just do that. Of course, he'd have to promise her that he'd never think of Taz Rafe again and that he'd do everything that she told him to from now on. She could have a lot of fun telling him what to do, get him into all sorts of trouble. And there wouldn't be a thing that he could do about it.

He wasn't going to judge Jimmy's fiancee until he'd met her, William Ellison thought, picking up the phone in his study. Not that it was going to be easy not to do so. His eldest son had gotten himself involved with some very unsavory people. You only had to look that room mate of his to know that. That young man was obviously using Jimmy for what he could get out of him, and this woman was probably going to be the same. Why his son couldn't have stayed to that nice Caroline he didn't know. From the photo he'd seen the paper she'd looked like the sort of woman who would have kept his son in line, would have put a stop to all this nonsense about him having enhanced senses.

After dialing the number for his son's cellphone he waited for him to answer it.

"It’s okay, it's just your phone." Jessica assured Jim when his cellphone began ringing and he scanned the room for where the noise was coming from.

"Give me the phone and I'll answer it." she said, stroking his face.

"No." he growled. He didn't want her talking to anyone until he'd made sure that they weren't a threat to her.

"Jim, it could be Blair," she said, "You'd like to talk to Blair wouldn't you?"

"Not Blair." he replied, looking at the phone. The number displayed on it belonged to his father, not someone he wanted to talk to at the moment. He had more important things to do like protecting his mate.

"I guess they'll call back if it's really important." she said, taking her hand off his face.

"Don't." he growled, grabbing hold of her wrist.

"You're hurting me." Jessica protested, feeling his fingers digging into her wrist.

"Still mine?" Jim asked softly, letting go of her wrist. He hadn't meant to hurt her, that was the last thing he wanted to do.

She'd stopped touching him though and he hadn't wanted her to.

"Of course, I am." she replied, "I don't like being grabbed, so don't do it again."

"Sorry," he said, "I didn't mean to."

"I know," she smiled, "If you want me to do something you're going to have to tell me okay."

"Get naked." he grinned.

"Except for that." she replied.

Taz was being stubborn again, Daryl though, watching her brother help her off the gurney that she'd been laid on. Being stubborn was okay sometimes, but not if it meant that you were going to make yourself sick. Blair had said that he had to be patient and listen to what he was being told. How was he supposed to do that when it wasn't going to do Taz any good.

He seriously doubted that even her brother knew what she could be like when she was in this mood. Still, she obviously thought that going home would be a lot better for her. He didn't like the smell of hospitals so it had to be at least ten time worse for her. As soon as she was well enough he was going to demand that Taz was given the lessons she needed to help her live a relatively normal life and that he was given all the information he needed to help her do that. So far they'd been lucky that she hadn't zoned out. All the stress she'd been under recently couldn't be good for her either. Maybe that was why she hadn't really been acting like her usual self today. Now that Melanie had been arrested things had to get a lot easier for them.

Though he still wasn't sure what Taz was going to do if she didn't go back to school. He was going to have to wait until the end of the term before he could graduate. And if she left now she wouldn't be able to go to the prom, not that he'd really been expecting her to want to go anyway.

(40)

"Dad, is it okay if I go home with Taz and her brother?" Daryl asked.

"She's going home!" Simon said in surprise.

"Let me guess she threatened to discharge herself." Tommy said.

"Yeah," he replied, "So, can I dad?"

"If Detective Rafe says you can it's fine with me," Simon said, "Just remember you have a seven thirty curfew."

"But dad..." Daryl began protesting. That was a little kids curfew, something that he hadn't been for a long time. What if Taz really needed him after his curfew, he could hardly say sorry he had to go home. It wasn't fair that she was paying the price because he'd screwed up over that video.

Especially not when she was hurt.

"I'm sure that she'll understand." Simon said.

"Yeah, right, sure she will," he said, "I screw up and she gets punished as well. That is so not fair."

"That's what life's like," Tommy said, "If this is all you have to complain about your doing pretty good."

Something had to be seriously wrong for neither of his children to be answering their cell phones. Jessica knew better than to switch hers off after what had happened to her. He just hoped that he wasn't going to get a phone call from a hospital or even worse the police. Even now he could still remember every single moment of the twelve days she'd been help by that
monster. At the time he'd tried getting hold of Naomi only to find that she was out of contact at one of her many spiritual retreats. Several times he'd thought about calling Blair to tell him what had happened, only to decide against it, knowing that Blair would drop everything he was doing to be there for him and Tommy. Maybe he should have because they could have found her a lot sooner with Jim's help.

He really did need to get in touch with Jessie though and tell her what Naomi had done. He didn't know what sort of relationship Jim had with his father, but he seriously doubted that anyone would be pleased to get a phone call out of the blue from a total stranger about a wedding of two people they didn't even know. Knowing Naomi she probably hadn't let the poor man get a word in edgeways. He supposed that he could call him and tell him that it wasn't compulsory for him to attend this pre wedding dinner thing. As for Walter, well, it was probably better if he left Jim to deal with him. And if
he couldn't then Jessie would have to think seriously about whether she really wanted to be involved with someone who couldn't protect her from a man like Walter.

"You're going straight to bed when we get home." Brian said, helping Taz get into the back of H's Car. And she was going to stay there if he had anything to do with it. He wasn't at all happy about the fact that she wasn't staying in over night so that the doctors could keep an eye on her.

At the first sign of her getting worse he was bringing her straight back.

"Does that mean I can have your TV in my room?" she asked.

"No," he replied, "And I will be keeping a close eye on you and Daryl."

Just because he was allowing Daryl to spend time with Taz it didn't mean that they were going to be allowed to do anything other than talk.

"As if we'd do anything else," she said, "Daryl isn't like that."

"Taz, I just don't want you doing something that you're going to regret later," he said, "I know you think that Daryl's not like that, but sometimes things happen even when you don't mean them to."

"Bri, we're still at the friends stage okay," Taz assured him, "There's too much else going on right now for us to go beyond that."

"It's just that you're too young to be getting too serious about anyone including Daryl." Brian said. Being a cop he saw all too often the consequences of what happened made errors of judgment. He didn't want her to end up being one of those people.

"I can take care of myself," she protested, "I'm not five anymore. You don't have to keep protecting me from everything. I know bad stuff happens."

"That doesn't mean I want it to happen to you though," he said, "Look at what happened to you at school."

"That wasn't your fault. Just like it wasn't Daryl's" she said, "So don't start blaming him okay."

"He should have..." he began.

"It would have been a lot worse for him if he had," Taz said, "He'd probably be sitting in a cell right now because of some story Melanie had made up about him."

No-one was ever going to take his mate away from him, Jim thought, stroking Jessica's face. He'd kill them before they got a chance to. He knew that Walter hadn't learnt his lesson, that he wasn't going to stay away from his mate, but he would deal with him properly when the time came. Next time though Jess wouldn't be around to stop him from finishing it once and for all. That man had been damned lucky she'd been there or right now he'd be laying on a slab in the morgue. He knew a lot of ways to kill someone so that it would look like an accident. Guys like Walter had heart attacks all the time. No-one would have suspected anything, and even if they had they wouldn't have been able to prove it.

"Feeling calmer now?" Jessica asked.

"You're so beautiful." he said.

"I'm not and you didn't answer my question." she said.

"You are and I'm fine." he replied. In fact he'd never felt better. This all felt so right, it was almost as if it was meant to be. Blair would have said that it was fate, he didn't care what he called it. All he knew was that his life was a lot better, more complete with her in it.

"So, who called you earlier?" she asked.

"My dad." Jim said.

"Shouldn't you find out what he wants?" Jessica said.

"No, it couldn't have been that important or he would have phoned again by now." he said.

"You switched your phone off," she reminded him, "And I'd better switch mine on, because my dad's going to have a major panic attack if he tries calling and doesn't get an answer."

"Why did you switch yours off?" he asked. Especially after what she'd just said.

"I felt safe enough to." she admitted.

"You felt safe." he grinned. Not exactly the answer he'd been expecting to hear from her. Still, it was good that she felt safe with him.

"Yeah," Jessica admitted, "I know that you would never let anything bad happen to me."

"You're right I wouldn't." he replied, slowly running a finger over her lips.

"Sandburg, about Jim..." Simon began as he drove them back to the station.

"What about him?" Blair asked.

"Is there anything going on with his senses that I need to know about?" he asked.

"Like what?" Blair said, "Oh, you mean because of Jess." when he saw the look on Simon's face.

"Something like that." he said.

"Not that I know of," Blair replied, "But then Jim doesn't always tell me what's going on. You know, he and Jess really seem to have hit it off."

"I'd noticed," Simon said, "He was staring out of my office window at her. I thought he'd zoned."

"Jess was the same," Blair admitted, "Still after what her ex boss did I'm not surprised that Jim's keeping a close eye on her."

"Who did what?" he asked.

"Jess worked for this guy called Walter, he sent her six dozens red roses," Blair said, "The guy is like totally obsessed with her. Wants her to go back to working for him."

"You mean for the FBI!" Simon said.

"His department, only Jess doesn't want to. She's a teacher now," Blair replied, "Jim was really pissed off about it. It's like he's got the major territory thing going on as far as Jess is concerned."

"In English Sandburg." Simon frowned.

"Jim is going to rip the head off anyone who messes with her," Blair said, "So I wouldn't advise shouting at her while he's around."

"What about her?" he asked.

"I don't know," Blair admitted, "All my research is based on Jim, I haven't had a chance to get either Jess or Rafe's sister into a lab for testing yet.

Nothing I've read even hints at what happens when Sentinels..."

"Fall in love." Simon said tactfully.

"Yeah, mate, bond, whatever you want to call it," Blair said, "You have to understand that if Burton ever did write anything down then his wife probably burnt it after his death."

"Burnt it." he snapped.

"Well, it was the Victorian era. They had different moral standards to us. We're just going to have to see how it goes" Blair said. It certainly wouldn't be the first time he'd flown blind as far as Jim's senses were concerned and every other time it had worked out just fine.

"See how it goes, I thought you were the expert on this?" Simon growled.

"I can know what I've already found out," Blair replied, "And this has never happened to Jim before. From what I've read they shouldn't even be able to be in the same room as each other without trying to kill each other."

"Would her brother know?" he asked.

"I seriously doubt it," Blair said, "I'm not even sure whether he's made any notes about Jess and how she reacts to things. You have to remember that she was raised totally differently to the way Jim was."

"Meaning?" Simon said.

"Her dad, that's Elias, he's always accepted that Jess is different. Made her feel comfortable with what she is. Encouraged her to explore all the possibilities." Blair said. If Jim's dad had done that he might not have had as many problems as he had accepting what he was. "It might be a good idea if you and Rafe talked to him. He's the only person who can tell you what to expect when it comes to handling Daryl and Rafe's sister.

All his plans for the future had been shot down for the time being by some muscle bound excuse of a detective, Walter thought, entering the first bat he came to. Well, he wasn't going to let it rest there. He knew people, people who would be able to find out every last detail of Detective James Ellison's life, all the little mistakes he'd made, the women he'd slept
with. By the time he'd finished he would be the world's greatest expert on the man who had dared to try and stop his Angel from coming back to him. She would come back to him, eventually, the life of an academic would soon prove to be less that fulfilling for someone who was used to life and death situations. She'd soon get tired of having to mark endless papers, only soon wasn't going to be soon enough for his purposes. He had four days to get her back or it was early retirement for him.

Early retirement would be the death of him, he had no friends, no family, nothing what so ever to fill in the long lonely hours between getting up and going to bed. He'd given everything up for his Angel, during the past two years it had only been the thought of her coming back to him that had kept him going when things had got difficult. To be rejected the way she'd done it, without so much as a real explanation. He had always treated her with the utmost respect, more than perhaps he should have given her considering the way both she and her family had treated him. Maybe it was time to call whomever had left that message for him, see what they wanted and whether they could help him to get his Angel back. But first he was going to have several stiff drinks.

Something weird was going on, H thought. B rights Taz should have been in hospital, or at the very least in a great deal of pain from her injuries.

Instead, she was acting like there was nothing wrong with her. Whatever was going on Brian wasn't going to tell him or he would have already done so. Still, that wasn't going to stop him from finding out for himself. His mother would never forgive him if Taz was involved with something dangerous and he didn't do everything that he could to try and help her.

He supposed that it was possible she was taking something she shouldn't be.

These days even the kids you thought were smart enough to know better got involved with drugs. But he also knew that there was no way in hell that Simon would let his son be anywhere near anyone who he even suspected of using drugs. So something else had to be going on, but what?

"Sweetie, have you talked to Jessica about taking part in the wedding yet?" Naomi asked.

"Not yet," Elias replied, "I haven't been able to get hold of either her or Tommy."

"I'm sure that there's nothing for you to worry about." she said. He really wasn't doing himself any good by worrying when there was no need for him to.

Both his children were more than capable of taking care of themselves. It was Blair who he should be worried about, he was getting himself far too involved for her liking in things that he shouldn't be.

"You know Jessie, still won't give up her gun," he said, "Tommy said she hasn't been having any more nightmares..."

"Nightmares?" she asked.

"We've never really talked about what happened to Jessie have we?" he said.

"No," Naomi admitted, "If Jessica's having problems then perhaps some time at a retreat would help her." And get her out of the way so that she couldn't cause any more problems between her and Elias. "I know just the perfect place for her." she said.

"She doesn't need to go to a retreat," Elias said, "What she needs is for you to stop attacking her every chance you get."

"Elias, it's not all my fault," Naomi protested, "Jessica..."

"In this family we make allowances for Jessica, I'm asking you to do the same." he said.

"Why do you?" she asked.

"Because she's special," Elais replied, "She spent twelve days being held by a monster. I didn't recognize my baby when he'd finished with her."

"Oh sweetie," she said, wrapping her arms around him, "That must have been terrible for you."

"It was worse for Jessie," he said, "I know that you think I'm too over protective of her and Tommy, but I almost lost her. If it had happened to Blair wouldn't you worry all the time as well?"

"Blair would never get involved with anything like that." she replied. Of course, she worried about her son, but he was an adult now, no longer her responsibility. That was something that Elias hadn't come to understand yet, with her though he would.

"Jim, as much as I'd like to I can't stay here all day." Jessica said. If she'd been able to then she would have. Spending time with him like this was nice. There was no pressure on her to do anything other than let him stroke her face.

"Why not?" he grinned.

"Because, I have Melanie Warren to finish interviewing," she replied, "I'm sure that you can find something to keep you busy while I'm doing that."

"Can't think of anything, except..." Jim began.

"You have a problem then." she smiled. As much as she'd like to leave Melanie Warren in a holding cell indefinitely she couldn't do that without jeopardizing the case against her for attacking Taz.

"I could come with you." he suggested.

"I don't think so," she replied, "What if you lose your temper again. We can't afford to let that happen."

"It won't." he assured her.

"Jim, you can't know that for certain. It's better if you stay here," she said, "I won't be gone that long." Especially if Melanie Warren still had that attitude she'd had earlier.

"You're going to see him." he growled.

"I have an interview to finish," Jessica said firmly, "And I never want to see him again. Now if you'll excuse me." standing up.

"You're not going anywhere." he growled.

"Says who?" she snapped. If he wanted to act like Super Macho man again that was up to him, but it certainly didn't mean that she was going to put up with it.

"I do," Jim said, "You're mine..."

"We've already agreed that I am," she replied, "What we didn't agree on was that you'd put on this macho act when you can't get your own way. It's not going to work and it certainly doesn't impress me..." as Jim grabbed hold of one of her arms.

(41)

"You said that..." Simon began, as he and Blair entered the Bullpen and heard raised voices coming from his office.

"I know what I said okay." Blair replied.

"Well, it looks like you were right." he said. Two sentinels battling it out in his office wasn't something that he really wanted to have to deal with right now. With his background, Jim could do a lot of damage to her if he wanted to.

"I suppose that you want me to go in there and break it up." Blair said.

"He's your partner." Simon grinned. Jim was a hell of a lot less likely to try and rip Blair's head off than he was his. Of course, if things started getting thrown then he would step in.

"Like that is going to be easy." Blair said.

"Just stop them from shouting at each other." he said.

"Easier said than done. You don't know how stubborn Jess can be." Blair said.

"If you know her that well you should be able to get her to stop fighting with Jim." Simon said. After all, this was a police department, his department and he wasn't going to stand for having it disrupted.

"Simon, they've both got guns." Blair protested.

"All the more reason to stop them." he growled.

"Yeah, well, you can tell my mom that this was all your idea if it goes wrong." Blair said.

He could do this, Blair thought, walking towards Simon's office. He was Jim's guide, therefore, Jim wasn't likely to attack him. Unless he did something really stupid like getting in the way of him getting it on romantically with Jess. In that case anyone would be totally pissed. He supposed that he should have warned Simon that was a real possibility.

Still, there were some things that Simon didn't really need to know about the Sentinel thing. It would probably be a good idea though to ask Jess if she could talk to Rafe's sister about how feelings affected her senses. And at some point he was going to have to get them both into a lab for testing, so that he could work out a starting point for both her and Rafe sister's
senses. It would be pretty interesting to find out whether Jess's other four senses had compensated for the lose of one.

"Jim," he said, knocking on the door to Simon's office "Is it okay if I come in?" he said opening the door and entering the office when there was no reply. "You want to tell me what's going on here?" he asked looking at Jim who was standing in front of Jessica who was crouched in a corner of Simon's office.

"He won't let me leave," she said, "at least, not without him."

"Jim..." Blair began.

"She's mine." Jim growled.

"I have Melanie Warren to finish interviewing," she said, "I can't do that properly if I have to deal with his Super Macho man attitude at the same time."

"Come on, Big guy," Blair said, "you know she has a job to do. Let her do it then the two of you can talk about this."

"She's going to see him." he growled.

"Him?" Blair asked.

"My ex boss," Jessica said. "How many times do I have to tell you that I'm not."

"Jim, you have to know that she's telling you the truth," Blair said.

"Check her heartrate."

"She is." Jim admitted, reluctantly, moving out of the way so that Jessica could stand up and get past him.

"The next time you pull a stunt like this it's going to be the last time as far as I'm concerned." she said walking straight past him and out of Simon's office.

"What the hell do you think you're playing at pulling a stunt like this with her. I'm telling you that she is not going to stand taking this sort of crap from you for long," Blair snapped. "This is going to cost you more than a couple of bars of chocolate to sort out. A whole candy store might just start to make a dent in the damage you've done."

"He wants her." Jim growled. He'd smelled the desire for his mate coming off that man.

"He might but there is like no way Jess is even remotely interested in someone like that," Blair assured him. "The two of you have something pretty special going on. At least, I thought you did. If you want to screw it up then keep acting the way you are. You keep pushing her like this and she's going to walk straight back to Quantico."

"She will?" he asked. That was where that man was. She couldn't be allowed to go there.

"Sure she will, and then you're going to have every Angel in the entire country wanting to kick the crap out of you," Blair said, "including me because she's going to be my sister soon."

"I can't help it," Jim said, "she's mine. He won't accept it though." The only thing that man was going to accept that she wasn't available was if she was wearing a ring.

"You're going to have to apologize big time for this," Blair said, "and no more macho man act."

Her brother was only tolerating him because Taz needed him, Daryl thought, sitting on the sofa, waiting for Taz to come out her room. Not that he was going to let that stop him from doing his best to help her as much as he could. She had to come first; always would from now on. He didn't mind that, just as long as she listened to him when he told her not to go charging into something that could get her into serious trouble. The only reason she'd gone to the Principal's office instead of hiding out until her brother had got to school was because of him. She'd done it to protect him and he'd just stood outside of the office and done nothing while she'd been beaten up.

Everyone at school was going to know that he was a coward. Not that Taz would ever say he was, people would find out though. Still, it was a name that he deserved. He knew that his dad was really disappointed with him.

He'd been raised to stand up for what he believed in and to support his friends when they were right. Only he'd done neither of those things when it had come to the crunch. He'd try and make it up to her though. Maybe take her somewhere nice when they were allowed to go on their first real date. He'd have plenty of time to save up as Taz had put dating low on her list of priorities. Besides, it was going to be a while before either her brother or his dad would trust him enough to let him take her anywhere alone.

"Aren't you supposed to be in bed?" H frowned when Taz came out of her room wearing a bathrobe that was at least two sizes too big for her.

"I'm not sick," she replied. "Just a bit battered and bruised." She'd seen the way he'd been looking at her and Daryl. He had to at least suspect that something was going on. She really did want to tell him so that he'd stop worrying. But Dr. Angel had said that it could be dangerous to tell anyone else what she was. Besides she didn't have the right to reveal anyone else's
secret.

"Taz, we've always been able to talk about anything, haven't we?" he asked.

"Yeah, we have." she smiled.

"That I'm here for you if you ever have a problem you can't talk to Brian about." he said.

"I know that," Taz said, "but I don't have any problems." At least, none that he could help her with.

"You're sure about that?" H asked.

"I'm sure," she assured him. "There is nothing for you to worry about, okay."

"So you're not..." he began.

"Not what?" she asked.

"Taking anything you shouldn't be." he replied.

"H, I would never ever get involved with anything like that," she protested, "For a start you and Brian would kill me if I did."

He knew her almost as well as her brother did so how could he even think that she might have gotten involved with drugs. After, what he'd just said, it was a good thing that she hadn't zoned in front of him.

"Thank god for that," H sighed. "Then why..."

"Aren't I in pain." she said.

"Yeah." he replied.

"Bio feedback," Taz said. "It's something I read about on the net." She hated lying to H, probably more than she did when she lied to Brian. He had always treated her fairly, even taken her side in a couple of arguments she'd had with her brother.

"And it's safe?" he asked.

"Totally," she replied. "Anything else you want to know?"

"You and Daryl..." H began.

"We're strictly buddies for now," she said. "He's really cool to hang around with." And he was really cute. Most importantly though he was her best friend and had been since before this sentinel thing had started.

Blair was right, he was on the verge of totally blowing it with Jess, Jim thought sitting at his desk. He hadn't meant for his attitude to get so out of control. The more she'd tried to get away from him, the more determined he'd become to keep her with him. Normally, he wasn't possessive. It had to be connected to the fact that someone else was pursuing her. He knew that Jess had been telling him the truth when she'd said that she wasn't going to see that man. However, that didn't mean that he wasn't going to turn up to see her whenever he felt like it.

That man was obsessed with her, not that Jess seemed to be aware of it.

Then again she was probably used to the way he acted and ignored it so that she could get on with her job. He'd apologize to her for the way he'd acted in Simon's office, and hope that she accepted it. Of course, he was going to have to come up with a pretty spectacular present to go with it.

"If Jim sent you to apologize you can tell him he'd better come and do it in person." Jessica frowned.

"Actually, I came to see if you wanted to talk about what happened in Simon's office." Blair replied.

"He lost it, big time, that's what happened," she replied. "I understand that he has issues, he's insecure..."

"Very where you're concerned," he admitted. "Jess, you're the first woman he's felt so strongly about for a long time. Most of his dates end after the first one."

"I can see why," she said, "He doesn't make it easy for you."

"You really like Jim don't you?" he asked.

"Yeah, I do." she admitted.

"Even after what he did?" he said.

"Blair, until he lost it we were doing fine," Jessica said. "He's a great

guy, and fun to be with. But I don't take that sort of crap off anyone." Why should she? There was no need, because she was perfectly happy to be on her own. Being alone wasn't anything new to her, she always had been in the past, not through choice though.

"Think that the two of you can work it out?" Blair asked.

"If he apologizes then I guess so," she replied. "He's got to understand that he can't treat me like that again. He does and I'm gone."

"He knows that," he assured her. "You know, a lot of Jim's issues come from his childhood. He was raised to believe that men who showed their sensitive side were weak."

"He told me that he didn't get along with his dad." she said. Although didn't get along was probably an understatement.

"You've gotten him to open up to you a lot faster than I did." he grinned.

"Bri, what was mom's first name?" Tax asked, sitting on the sofa next to Daryl.

"Why do you want to know?" he asked.

"It's for a school project. For Social Studies, we have to do a family tree," she replied. "I'm going to need some photos of her and dad to put on it." Okay, so it probably wasn't the most convincing lie she'd ever told her brother, but hopefully it would get him to talk about their parents because she wasn't going to be fobbed off with the car crash story anymore.
"Photos!" Brian said, "I'm not sure that we have any. I think they got lost when we moved in here."

"What about my baby pictures then?" she asked. "Your academy graduation ones?" He couldn't have lost all those pictures as well, so there had to be some reason why he didn't want her to see them. All she had to do was find out why he didn't and she would find out the truth.

"They were all in the same box," he replied, "I'm sure that your teacher'll understand. Maybe they'd let you do H's family as well."

"I always do H's family," Taz frowned. "I really want to do ours this time.

You know I bet uncle Pietre's got some. I could e mail him, and ask him to send them to me." At the same time she could ask him some questions about her parents. "I need to know where they're buried as well." she added as the color drained from his face.

"Taz, I don't think that's such a good idea," Brian said. "It's only going to upset you."

"No, it won't," she replied. "We could take some flowers." He was going to say no no matter what she asked which meant that he had to be hiding something really bad from her.

"Why all the sudden interest in them?" he asked. "You've always been happy to do H's family tree in the past."

Because I want to know about them," she said, "which one of them I look like. I mean, I look nothing like you and..."

"And what?" he said.

"Melanie said that they deliberately crashed the car." Taz replied.

"That's not true," Brian said firmly. "It was a terrible accident that was nobody's fault."

"So dad didn't go to prison and end up on Death Row?" she asked.

"Whoever told you that was lying," he replied, "Now why don't you and Daryl watch TV for a while and I'll sort you something out to eat."

"I'm not hungry." she said. His heart rate had gone through the roof when she'd asked him about dad. That meant that he was really scared about something and that was probably her finding out the truth. She had a right to know what the truth was and nothing Brian said or did was going to stand in the way of her doing that.

"I'll give you a hand," H said. "Maybe make my famous hot chocolate." following Rafe out of the living room.

Taz had never talked about her parents not because she wanted to spare Brian's feelings but because she didn't know what the truth was, H thought watching Brian puttering around the kitchen.

"Bri..." he began.

"Don't start, okay," he replied. "Trust me, it's better that she thinks they died in a car crash."

"Better for who? You?" H asked. "Bri, she's a smart kid. How long do you think it's going to take before either she finds out the truth for herself or someone else does and tells her." If that happened Taz was going to hate Brian for the rest of her life. "She has a right to know the truth," he said. "You should have told her before now."

"How could I?" Brian asked. "She's had enough problems growing up without them; without finding out how they really died. What sort of life would she have had if she'd known.

"Don't you think that it's about time you started being honest with her about a few things," H said, "because when she finds out she's not going to thank you for keeping it from her." He knew that Brian had thought he was doing the right thing by not telling Taz the truth, but he was only going to end up seeing her hurt even more when she did find it out.

"You won't tell her, will you?" Brian asked.

"If she asks I'm not going to lie to her," he replied, "so you'd better tell her and soon."

She could use what Elias had told her, Naomi thought. Of course, she'd have to find out a lot more about just exactly what had happened to Jessica. The one person who would know was Jessica's "Friend". She was supposed to call him to uninvite him to the pre wedding dinner. Although she didn't really see why she should have to just because it might upset Jim. Maybe that wouldn't be such a bad thing. After all, he could end up asking Blair to move out. Then her son would be able to explore his spiritual potential instead of being held back.

Elias wouldn't be too happy when he found out that she hadn't canceled his invitation but she was perfectly entitled to invite who she wanted to her dinner. Besides she could always claim that it had slipped her mind with everything else that she had to organize for the wedding. Elias would soon forgive her, he always did. Well, except for that time when he didn't talk to her for seven years. The minute she'd needed help because Blair was sick he'd been there for them, and all had been forgiven.

(42)

"You're still a nobody," Melanie sneered from inside the holding cell she was in. "My lawyer says..."

"If you're not willing to be questioned then it's going to go against you when your case gets to court." Jessica said.

"It's not going to," Melanie said confidently. "Taz Rafe hasn't got the nerve to press charges."

"She doesn't need to," Jessica smiled, "so, I'd start talking if I were you. Do you know what happens to girls like you in prison?"

"You can't threaten me," Melanie snapped. "Mommy's going to make sure that I get bail."

"Hate to break it to you, Barbie, but mommy and daddy are broke." she said.

With all their assets frozen there was no way that they'd be able to come up enough bail for one of them considering the charges they were facing, never mind for all three of them.

"That's not true," Melanie protested. "When my mom's gotten through with you, you're going to be sorry."

"Sure I am." Jessica said walking away from the cell. She supposed that she should go back up to the Bullpen and talk to Jim. Listen to his apology...now that was going to be good. He had to know that she wasn't going to keep accepting apologies from him indefinitely. That there was going to be a cut off point after which she'd never talk to him again unless she really had to.

"What are they talking about?" Daryl asked. He knew that she was listening to what her brother and Detective Brown were saying in the kitchen.

"There wasn't a car crash." she replied.

"And..." he began.

"H knows the truth," she said, "If I ask him he'll tell me."

"Taz, are you really sure that you want to know what it is?" he asked.

Because he wasn't sure that her finding out was such a good idea. She could end up getting really hurt by what she found.

"Of course, I want to know," she snapped. "If you don't want to help me then I'll find out by myself."

"I'll help you," he sighed, "but I think that you should ask your brother about it instead of Detective Brown."

"He won't tell me," she said. "Daryl, this is something that I really need to know. I have a right to know what they looked like and what really happened to them."

"I guess so," Daryl admitted. "I just don't want to see you getting hurt by this." She was determined to go ahead and do this so nothing he said was going to change her mind. He was going to have to talk to his dad about what she was planning to do though, because he would have a lot better idea of how he could help her once she'd found out the truth about her parents.

From what he'd been able to find out from his contacts, Robert Ginal was little more than a pathetic loser who had been damned lucky to find a profiler of Jess's talents and get her to work for him. His career had certainly been advanced a great deal by the work that she had done for his department, only things hadn't been going so well for him during the previous two years. It was no wonder that he was so desperate to get Jess back. Well, he wasn't going to succeed if he had anything to do with it. Jess had made it perfectly clear to that man that she wasn't going to be returning to work for him, not that he could blame her, he certainly wouldn't want to work for someone who claimed all the glory for his hard work. He doubted that Ginal had even told her about the invitation to have dinner at the White House. If that man came sniffing around her again he'd put a stop to it once and for all. He was going to have to be very careful not to upset Jess in the process though. Maybe if he tried really hard to stay calm around her that would help matters.

Smiling when he saw her enter the Bullpen, he waited for her to come over to his desk. He wasn't quite sure what he was going to say to her when he apologized. Probably that he was very sorry, that he hadn't meant to get so angry when she'd tried to leave Simon's office. It wasn't going to be a very good apology, but it would be coming straight from his heart.

"Hi." he said, when she walked over to his desk.

"Hi." she replied.

"Look, I'm really sorry for what happened," Jim said, "I don't know why..."

"I'm prepared to forgive you... this time" Jessica said, "but I don't put up with that sort of attitude from anyone."

"You shouldn't have to," he admitted. "He didn't help matters though." That man had pushed it so of course he'd pushed back. What had she expected him to do, just stand there and say nothing.

"I know that," she replied, "but what you did didn't help matters either."

"He called you Honey." he growled.

"I'm nobody's Honey," she said firmly, "And I'm certainly not his Angel."

"Are you mine?" Jim asked, hoping that she would say yes.

"Jim, I don't like being regarded as a possession," Jessica said. "Just like I don't like being grabbed, or herded into a corner. That is something you're going to have to accept if we're going to be together."

"Could we discuss this somewhere else? Say over lunch." he suggested, aware that both Blair and Simon were taking a great deal of interest in what was happening at his desk.

"You mean away from prying eyes." she said.

"Something like that." he replied.

"As long as you don't try ripping the head off the waiter when he wants to take my order I don't see why not." Jessica said.

"I'll try not to." he grinned. He was going to have to be on his best behavior from now on. One more screw up on his part and it would be over between them.

"Jimmy, this is your father," William Ellison said, after hearing the beep on his son's answering machine. "I'm calling to invite you and your fiancee to dinner tonight. I'll be expecting you at seven." He then put the phone down. At the very least his son would have to call him to say that he wouldn't be coming to dinner. He could then ask him some very searching questions about this woman he was planning to marry. Of course, he would have someone look into her background to make sure that she was the type of woman he wanted to bear his grandchildren. If she wasn't then, well, he'd simply make her an offer she couldn't refuse. In his opinion money could solve a lot of problems.

Still, if she was suitable, he'd congratulate his son on finding such a good woman to stand by him. He'd never been fortunate enough to find such a woman. His ex-wife had been his choice, not that of his parents. Perhaps that was why his marriage had ended in such a bitter divorce. He certainly wasn't going to let that happen to his eldest son if he could help it.

"That is one lucky man." Blair said as he and Simon watched Jim leave the Bullpen with Jessica. But with the way Jim was pushing it his luck was going to run out soon if he wasn't careful.

"What happened in my office?" Simon asked.

"A territory thing." he replied, "Jim thought she was going to see her old boss. She wasn't but... Simon, he's insecure at the moment so he's pulling this huge macho act and that is really pissing her off."

"Sandburg, how long is this going to go on for?" Simon asked.

"Your guess is as good as mine." Blair admitted. It wasn't something that could be rushed or it'd end in total disaster. As it was, it was teetering on the brink at the moment, one wrong move by Jim and it would crash. He wasn't sure that Jim would be able to handle being rejected by Jess. It was pretty obvious that he'd decided that she was his mate and nothing was going to change that fact as far as Jim was concerned.

"So we have to let them sort it out." Simon said.

"Pretty much, yeah," he replied. "It might be a good idea if you had the desk sergeant downstairs call every time her ex boss enters the station. That way we can make sure he and Jim don't bump into each other." Hopefully, they'd be able to avoid a major disaster by doing that.

He'd just grab a few things from his natural medicine box then head over to Brian's, Tommy thought, entering his and Jess's house. Making sure that Taz hadn't been given anything at the hospital had been the right thing to do.

She was scared enough as it was without having to deal with spiking senses at the same time. In the past Jess had had some really bad reactions to prescribed drugs. These days she didn't take so much as an aspirin without checking with him first. Luckily, dad had contacts that he could use to get hold of just about any herbal remedy that he needed. Perhaps some of them weren't strictly legal, but that didn't stop him when it came to Jess's health. Of course, he was going to have to tell dad that she'd broken her promise not to get involved with any more cases. Still, he couldn't really blame her for wanting to get involved with this one. He just hoped that he wouldn't have to deal with the emotional fallout from it from Jess. She never had been very good at dealing with that side of things, preferring instead to keep things from him, things that sometimes he'd really needed to know.

H was wrong, Brian thought, Taz didn't need to know the truth about their parents. Knowing what had happened wouldn't change anything. It would only make things harder for her when she was already having a difficult time of things. All her life he'd done his best to protect her. He'd promised dad that he would and it was a promise that he intended to keep no matter what the cost. Sure, it had been hard raising her on his own, but their dad had been determined to make sure that neither of them suffered the stigma of being the children of a convicted murderer even though he knew that his dad could never have done the terrible thing he'd been accused of. Still, being a cop, he knew how easy it would be for someone to pull strings and make sure that an innocent man was convicted. In another six months he'd be up for parole and he was going to do everything that he could to make sure that he got it. Not that dad could ever really be part of their family again.
He'd be able to see how Taz was doing for himself though, instead of relying on the fornightly letters he wrote to him. From now on he was going to have to be very careful about the way he acted in front of Taz.

She was smart, but with no names or dates to go on, she wouldn't be able to find anything out even if she tried to. Not that she would even know how to start finding things like that out. If she tried looking for anything to help her in the house she was going to be very disappointed because every document and picture relating to their parents was locked away in a safety
deposit box in a bank outside of Cacasde. He had the only key and that was locked away in another safety deposit box in another bank. Even if by some fluke she found the first key she wouldn't be able to get access to the box without written permission from him, and that was something that he would never give her.

No waiters so there would be no chance of him trying to rip their heads off, Jim thought, pulling into the carpark next to Cascade's main park. At this time of day the park wouldn't be too crowded so they'd be able to find somewhere quiet to sit and talk. It was also neutral territory so that they shouldn't have any problems about the other one claiming it as theirs.
"Mr. Tube Steak, cool." Jessica said seeing the stall at the other end of the carpark.

"You like Mr. Tube Steak?" he asked.

"Sure I do," she smiled. "Believe it or not my grandfather used to bring me and Tommy here when we stayed with him as kids. He said that they were the best ones in the whole city."

"They are," he grinned, getting out of his truck. "Does he still live in Cascade?"

"No, he moved to Boston about fifteen years ago." she replied, "He was born here though."

"Whereabouts?" Jim asked.

"In the kitchen of some rich guy's house. His mom was a maid." Jessica said.

"A maid?" he said.

"It was a job," she said. "During the depression they were hard to find."

"Did I say that there was anything wrong with it?" he asked.

"No." she admitted.

"Jess, where you come from doesn't matter to me." he said. It would to some people though, especially his dad. Knowing his dad, as soon as he found out about Jess, he'd have her background looked into very closely to see if he could find any skeletons in it. No matter what he found though, he wasn't going to give her up because she was too important to him.
"Sorry," Jessica apologized. "It's just that people always judge others by where they come from. Tommy and I got looked down on a lot at school. We didn't always have the latest fashions or the coolest toys."

"They're not all they're made out to be." Jim admitted. He'd had all the material things that went with his background but not what had really mattered.

"Not falling asleep are you?" H asked, entering the living room and seeing Taz leaning against Daryl. Despite what Taz had said they were more than just friends, he thought. From where he was stood it looked like it was pretty serious between them, well, as serious as it could be at their age.

"Just thinking," Taz replied. "How long do you think she's going to get for what she did?"

"I don't know," he admitted. "It depends on a lot of things. You shouldn't worry about it though."

"I'm not," she assured him. "It's not as if I'm going to be seeing her around at school, right."

"I doubt it," H said. "So have you met Dr. Angel's brother yet?" With Daryl there he could hardly come out and ask whether she'd met her brother's boyfriend.

"You mean his boyfriend?" Taz said. "H, Daryl knows about Brian being gay." she said when she saw the look on his face.

"And you're okay with it?" he asked.

"As long as Bri's happy, I am," she replied. "It's about time he got a life."

"Sure is." H grinned. He felt a lot better about his friend and partner being involved with a man after having met him and finding out that Taz didn't have a problem with it. She was a hell of a lot smarter than Brian gave her credit for being. In fact, he wouldn't put it past her to try and find out what it was that he was hiding from her. Despite his warning Brian
that he would tell her if she asked, he wouldn't. Of course, he would be there for her when she found out but this was something that she needed to sort out with Brian.

"Sweetie, I'm just going out for a while." Naomi called, as she left the house. Elias wouldn't be too pleased if he found out where she was going and who she was going to see. There was no guarantee that the man would see her.

But, if he was as obsessed with Jessica as Elias said he was, then he would want to talk to her. Once she'd found out all the little details of what had happened to Jessica during those twelve days she'd have no option but to tell people. Jim would be very interested in what she'd found out. He didn't strike her as the sort of man who would put up with someone lying to him. It would certainly serve the spoiled brat right if she ended up alone. She might even leave Cascade. That would only leave Tommy for her to deal with but he didn't pose as big a threat to her relationship with Elias as Jessica did.

(43)

This was the Jim she liked most, Jessica thought, as he wiped a few stray crumbs from around her mouth with a paper napkin. The nice Jim, the Jim who made a fuss over her, which was strange because she didn't normally like people making a fuss about her. And somehow she doubted that normally Jim was the sort of guy who made a fuss over anyone... except maybe for Blair.

Still, if it made him happy then she wasn't going to complain or tell him not to make a fuss.

"I think you've got them all." she smiled.

"Just doing a thorough job." Jim grinned.

"Something tells me that you always do." she said. She supposed that she was flirting with him. Supposed because she'd never flirted with anyone before. Never really wanted to if she was being honest. It was different with Jim though. She felt like she had a real connection with him and not just because of the Sentinel thing.

"I do my best." he said.

"Jim, I understand that you have this territory thing going on," Jessica said, "but I really don't like being grabbed or pushed around. I never have."

"I'm sorry I did that," he said, "I'll try not to let it happen again."

"If you want me to go somewhere, ask," she said. "We have something that could be really special."

"Is," he corrected her. "Maybe that's why I'm overreacting all the time. I don't mean to but..."

"You're scared of what's happening." she said, finishing his sentence for him.

"How...?" he asked.

"Do you really think that you're the only one who is?" she asked. "Jim, I'm a total novice when it comes to relationships. I never thought I'd ever meet anyone I'd feel comfortable enough around to be me. Not having to hide what I am."

"So I make you feel safe and comfortable." Jim smiled.

"Yeah," she smiled back, "I haven't felt like that, well, since before."

"It's okay. I understand," he said, stroking her face. "Nothing like that is ever going to happen to you again because I won't let it."

As much as he was enjoying the fact that Taz was practically sitting in his lap he had to get her to move because it was starting to get uncomfortable, Daryl thought. He might be her guide, but he was also a guy. And right now he was reacting like any guy would. After all, Taz was beautiful and he still couldn't he believe that she would still want to have anything to do with him after ever thing that had happened today.

Maybe, now that Melanie had been taken care of Taz would want them to get closer. They were supposed to be dating. Not that they'd done anything that people who dated normally did. He'd thought about it though, a lot, if he was being honest. It was still kind of weird to think that he and Taz were going to be together for the rest of their lives. That no matter how bad
things got she'd always be there for him and he'd be there for her. Most people his age didn't know who they were going to be with next week never mind in five or even ten years time. He knew though and it felt pretty good knowing that there was always going to be one person who'd never leave him.

"Taz, if you're tired you should go to bed." he suggested.

"But I'm comfy." she replied, snuggling closer to him.

"Your brother's not going to be happy if he sees this." he said. In fact, he'd probably jump to the wrong conclusion even though Detective Brown was there and they weren't doing anything remotely wrong. He had way too much respect for Taz to even think about treating her like some of his old friends had treated the girls they'd dated.

"Who cares?" Taz said.

"I do," Daryl replied. "You shouldn't go out of your way to upset him." She was only going to store up more problems for the future if she did. And as usual he'd get the blame for it.

She had no idea what this man looked like, Naomi thought, entering the lobby of the Cascade Hilton. But then she'd hardly been able to ask Elias for a description of him without arousing his suspicions. So, she was just going to have to sit there and wait for someone who looked like an FBI agent to walk through. After all, how hard could it be to spot an ultra pig? She'd certainly had a lot of practice spotting pigs at rallies in the past.

Taking a seat where she could see everyone who walked through the lobby she settled and waited for a likely looking person to either enter or leave it.

When a very disheveled man reeking of alcohol walked past where she was sitting she almost dismissed him as being a businessman who'd had too much to drink at a business lunch. It was only when she looked at him more closely that she realized that this could be the man she was waiting for. If he was then Jessica had very poor taste in men because she wouldn't have touched him with a barge pole. Still, there was only one way to find out whether it was him or not for certain and that was to go over and ask him.

"Excuse me, but I think you know a friend of mine." Naomi said, joining him at the reception desk.

"Who's that?" Walter asked.

"Jessica Angel." she smiled.

"What if I do?" he replied.

"Perhaps we could talk about her." she said. The state he was in it wouldn't take her long to find out everything she wanted to. Of course, she wouldn't mention the fact that he was no longer welcome as a guest at the dinner she was arranging.

"She's a bitch." Walter said, slurring his words more than a little.

"In that case, we have a great deal to talk about." Naomi said. It looked like Jessica and her 'Friend' had fallen out which made matters a lot better for her.

"Hi," Tommy said when Brian opened the front door, "Sorry I've been so long but I needed to pick up a few things from home that might help Taz."

"She's in the living room," Brian replied, "with Daryl."

"That's good," he smiled. "I mean he can help her to relax." Something was wrong and from the look on Brian's face and it was probably something to do with Taz, he thought. They were going to have to talk about the fact that Brian had just found out that he wasn't the most important person in his sister's life any more. He was starting to understand what that felt like himself because Jess seemed to be preoccupied with Jim at the moment.

"So, what did you bring for Taz?" Brian said stepping to one side to let him in.

"Some treatments I've used on Jess in the past," he replied. "Don't worry they're all perfectly safe and a lot better for her than what the doctor's could prescribe for her."

"She doesn't like taking medicine." Brian said, closing the front door.

"Actually, most of them are bath oils and salves," Tommy replied. "They should help with the bruises and to help her breathe easier." If they didn't do anything then she would really pay for it tomorrow, or as soon as she lost control of her senses which could be when Daryl left to go home. Jess had always found it difficult to control her response to pain when he wasn't around so he had to assume that it would be the same for Taz until he knew otherwise.

"What should I do?" Brian asked.

"Run her a warm bath, and make sure that there are plenty of warm soft towels ready for her when she gets out of it." he said. They were going to have to be very careful about what touched her skin for at least the next couple of days. Her sense of touch was going to be sensitive until all the bruises had come out.

"How long is it going to be before she's okay?" Brian asked.

"How long is a piece of string," Tommy replied, "She's going to heal at her own rate. This isn't something that you can put a time limit on. Even when the bruises have gone she's still going to be fragile emotionally." You didn't just get over something like this over night. Even now there were times when Jess would see or hear something that would remind her of what had happened. The worst part was never knowing what it was.

"You don't know Taz, she's tough." Brian said.

"I thought Jess was as well," Tommy said. "Just because they're special it doesn't mean that they're invincible." Even if, at times, Jess acted like she was.

He had to admit that he was more than a little put out that his brother hadn't called and told him the good news himself, Stephen Ellison thought, entering the Bullpen. They hadn't had a very good relationship in the past, but he'd thought that had changed. Receiving a phone call from his dad, the first he'd had in years, demanding to know what he knew about the woman his brother was going to marry had shown him that things were still the same between him and Jim. He hadn't had anything to tell his father so he'd decided that he should go and talk to the man who would know what was going on, Blair, because he couldn't really see his brother getting married without at least talking it over with his roommate first.

Whoever she was she was going to need the patience of a saint if she was marrying his brother. Jim wasn't the easiest of people to get along with. It was just about the only thing Jim and their father had in common. Of course, his dad would have her investigated and god help Jim if she didn't meet their dad's high standards. Seriously though, he doubted that any woman would ever meet those standards. Not that it would stop Jim from doing exactly what he wanted.

"Without my help she wouldn't have..." Walter began, as he waved around the glass he was holding, spilling most of it's contents onto the floor.

"She wouldn't what?" Naomi asked as patiently as she could. So far, all she'd found out was that he was a rambling drunk, someone who couldn't hold even a semi decent conversation when they were drinking. If he didn't give her something that she could use she had to leave because she couldn't afford to waste too much time on this.

"Gotten out of that house alive," he slurred. "He wasn't supposed to her hurt like that..."

"He wasn't!" she said in surprise. If he was saying what she thought he was then Elias might just forget that he was a pacifist. Not that that was going to be much use to her. If anything, it would only serve to make him even more protective of her than he already was.

"No," Walter replied. "She's everything to me." he said pouring himself another drink and missing the glass totally.

"Walter, what did he do to her?" she asked.

"Cut her up. Should have let him kill her. Doesn't care, she's going to get hers though." he said.

"I'm sure she will." Naomi assured him. In fact, she'd help to make sure that Jessica did. Elias had mentioned the fact that Jessica had scars. Well, that fact was going to play a huge part in what she chose for Jessica to wear at the wedding. And the best thing about it was that she couldn't refuse to wear it without making Elias think they were fighting again.

She seemed to have forgiven him, Jim thought as he and Jessica walked in the park. Although he hadn't apologized to her he doubted that she would accept one from him now. If he bought her a present that would hopefully make up for his lack of an apology but what could he get her that would be big enough to do that. Blair had been right bars of chocolate just weren't
going to cut it this time. The only problem was that he didn't have a clue what would. After all, he could hardly ask her what sort of apology gift she would like.

Feeling her take hold of one of his hands and squeeze it he couldn't help but grin. The grin turned into a look of puzzlement as he felt several minute scars on the palm of her hand. They had to be from what that monster had done to her.

"I'm sorry," Jessica said, taking her hand away from his, "I forgot that you could feel them."

"You have nothing to be sorry about." he assured her, taking hold of her hand and lightly brushing his fingers over it.

"They don't hurt any more," she said. "I don't even notice them most of the time. Guess I've gotten used to them being there."

"It's okay," he said. "I didn't even notice them before." Not that it would have made the slightest bit of difference to him. She was still beautiful to him, even more so, because she had such a strong spirit. He doubted that he would have been able to get over what had happened to her.

"Stephen," Blair said interrupting the smartly dressed man, "Jim is not getting married. If he was I'd be the first person he'd tell." At least he hoped that he would be.

"But this woman rang and said he was," Stephen protested. "Then dad called. He's not happy finding out about this from some stranger."

"That was probably my mom." he admitted.

"Jim is seeing someone called Angel though, isn't he?" Stephen asked.

"That's her surname," he said, "Her first name's Jessica."

"Then why the phone call?" Stephen said.

"My mom's marrying her dad. She sees Jim as being part of our family. She doesn't always think first before doing something." Blair replied. Which was a hell of a lot better explanation that his mom was trying to cause trouble for Jess.

"So what is this Jessica like?" Stephen asked.

"She's beautiful, very smart, funny," Blair said. "She and Jim really hit it off from the minute they met." Kaboom had happened just not in the way he'd expected it to.

"What about her background? Any skeletons..." Stephen began.

"Why all the questions?" he asked. He could understand that being Jim's brother he would be interested in who his brother was seeing.

"Blair, my dad's going to have her investigated." Stephen replied.

"Jim's a grown man. He can do what he wants." he said.

"That's not the way dad sees it." Stephen said.

"Look, Jess is a great person. Jim is not going to like anyone messing with her." he warned him. Jim's relationship with his dad wasn't that good to begin with. If he started threatening Jess then it was only going to make matters a lot worse.

"But I don't want a bath." Taz protested.

"Trust me you'll feel a lot better after you've had one," Tommy said, "These oils are what my sister used when her legs were hurting her."

"I feel fine." she said.

"For now," he said. "Tomorrow you're not going to be able to move if you don't have one." She was going to be just as stubborn as Jess was when it came to showing any sign of weakness, especially in front of her guide.

"Taz, I really think that you should listen to him," Daryl said. "It's okay to admit it hurts."

"But it doesn't." Taz frowned.

"You're having a bath," Brian snapped. "Then you're going straight to bed, so Daryl's going to have to go home."

"No," she said firmly. "He stays."

"Maybe you should let him stay," Tommy said. "He can keep her company."

Making Daryl leave wasn't going to do Taz any good at all. If anything it would make her lose the control she had over the pain she was feeling a lot faster.

"He's not going in her bedroom." Brian said.

"She can come back out here." Tommy said. The only thing Taz was going to feel up to doing after her bath would be crashing out on the sofa. Besides, Daryl didn't seem to him like the type of kid who would try and take advantage of anyone, especially his sentinel, while she was sick.

(44)

This was the perfect place for her to wait for Jim, Naomi thought, letting herself into the loft. After all, he had to come home sooner or later. When he did she was going to tell him everything that she'd found out from Jessica's "Friend", with a few embellishments to make it more interesting.

Of course, it would break them up and, naturally, Jessica would want to leave. Elias would still want her there at the wedding though so she'd be publicly humiliated. Jim would think that Blair had known all along what had happened to Jessica and ask him to leave the loft. So, it was win- win situation for her whichever way she looked at it. As for Jessica's
"Friend", well the man would just have to live with his conscience. How anyone could do something that terrible was beyond her. She supposed that she should call someone and report what he'd told her but if she did Elias would find out what she'd done. Upsetting him now wasn't a very good idea because, as usual, he'd take Jessica's side. That meant that if she was found out there was a real danger that he would call the wedding off.

After checking to see whether there were any messages on the answering machine she found that there was one. Listening to it to find out who it was from she smiled as she pressed the erase button.

It was never a good thing when his ex wife came to the station, Simon thought when he saw her walking through the Bullpen. No doubt she was here to insist that Daryl went back to living with her. Under the circumstances he couldn't blame her. Daryl wasn't going to be happy if he had to go back to living with his mother though and it would certainly have a big impact on Taz. There was no way that he could explain to her what was going on. Even if he could she probably wouldn't believe him and if she did then her first reaction would be to get Daryl as far away as possible from Taz.

"Joan," he smiled when she entered his office, "what can I do for you?"

"Daryl's school called me. They said that he'd been arrested," Joan snapped. "How could you let this happen?"

"He hasn't been arrested." he assured her.

"Then where is he?" she demanded.

"With Taz at her house," he replied. "Joan, she was beaten up by Chief Warren's daughter."

"Is she all right?" Joan asked, her mood softening slightly.

"I wouldn't call a couple of cracked ribs and serious bruising being all right," Simon said. "Daryl was the first person she asked for at the hospital." He didn't know whether she had or not but whenever Jim had gotten injured Blair was the first person he always asked for.

"Poor Daryl," she said, "He and Taz are very good friends."

"Joan, would it be all right if Daryl stayed living with me at least until Taz is feeling better," he said. "I'll understand if you really want him with you though."

"I was going to talk to you about that. I have a lot out of town business meetings coming up and..." she began, "Daryl can stay with you until the holidays but he will still be going to visit my parents during them."

"I was hoping to take Daryl away for a week..." Simon began.

"Simon, my parents are expecting him. He's going and that's final." Joan said.

Okay, so she was feeling a little better now that she was having a bath, Taz thought, but that didn't mean that she had to enjoy being told what to do. She was a sentinel, that was something special, so why did she have to do what people who weren't sentinels told her to. Sure, she'd listen to Daryl because he was her best friend and guide. But as for her brother from now on she wasn't going to listen to him. After all, how was she supposed to trust him when she knew for a fact that he'd lied to her about what had really happened to their parents. He didn't seem to realize that she could hear what he was saying anywhere in the house without really trying to, that she could tell when he was lying to her.

She didn't really need him any more. The only person she needed was Daryl because without him she'd probably have ended up in either a padded room or the morgue by now. She wasn't going to go back to school so she could get a job, save up and find somewhere for her and Daryl to live. Sure, Brian would freak out over her doing that but it was her life and she was entitled to live it any way she wanted to. It would be a lot better for him if he realized that now rather than later on. H was right. It was a good thing that Brian was finally getting a life of his own.

"This isn't the way back to the station." Jessica said sitting in the front passenger seat of Jim's truck.

"No, it's not." he replied.

"So where are you taking me?" she asked.

"Rafe's. We need to get a statement off both his sister and Daryl." He said.

"You know that could wait until she'd feeling up to it." she said.

"The sooner it's done the better," Jim said. "Maybe you could talk to her."

"You mean reassure her that she's going to be fine?" Jessica said. "I can't do that but I could give her some advice on how to deal with the pain."

She'd become quite the expert on that particular subject, not through choice though.

"Something like that," he replied. "There are going to be certain things that she'll feel more comfortable talking to a woman about."

"Girl stuff?" she asked.

"Yeah." Jim said.

"Jim, I've never done anything remotely like girl stuff in my life," she said. Why did he just assume that because she was a woman she had to have done that sort of thing.

"Never?" he asked, "No makeup..."

"I tried it once. I couldn't stand the feel of it on my face," she replied, "I wasn't your typical teenage girl. While everyone else was out enjoying themselves I was either studying or tutoring. As for guys... the only thing they were interested in was my brain and whether I could boost their grade point average."

"Their loss is my gain." Jim grinned.

"Maybe if I'd known that there was someone like you out there it might have made growing up easier for me." she said. Thinking that she was the only person like her in the whole world hadn't made it any easier. Still, she wasn't alone any more. There were three of them now, all in the same city.

That was a good thing, she thought, because they could help each other but she couldn't help thinking that maybe they'd been brought together for a reason. What she wasn't sure of but she supposed that at some point she would find out.

If the bath was supposed to help her then why did she look worse than she had before it, Daryl thought, when Taz entered the living room. He was her guide so surely he had some right about deciding what she did, especially when she was sick. After all, at some point in the future he was going to be the one who took care of her when she got sick.

"How are you feeling?" he asked.

"Tired and sore," Taz replied, sitting next to him on the sofa. "I'm not going to be very good company."

"That's okay," he assured her, "we'll just sit here and watch TV." He wasn't expecting her to be great company after what had happened. If she'd decided to go straight to bed after her bath he would have understood.

Instead she'd chosen to come and sit with him.

"I look a mess, don't I?" she asked.

"No, you don't." he replied. What was he supposed to say that she looked like she'd gone five rounds with Mike Tyson.

"Just wait until all the bruises come out and my hair's short," she said, "I'm not going to be very nice to look at."

"Taz, I don't care what you look like," Daryl said. "You always look beautiful to me."

"Well, you probably need glasses then," she said. "You're not going to want to be seen with me..."

"Of course I am," he reassured her, "and you're not the one who's going to get called a coward at school." That was something that he was never going to be able to live down no matter how hard he tried to.

"Coward?" Taz asked.

"Yeah, I could hear you and I didn't do anything to try and stop them," he said. "You deserve someone a lot better than me to be your..."

"Daryl, you're not a coward," Taz said firmly. "I choose to give myself up. If you'd gone in there to try and help me then right now you could have been sitting in a cell. What happened wasn't your fault."

"You wouldn't have given yourself up if it hadn't been for me." he said.

"Do you think that I could have just walked away when my best friend was in trouble?" she asked.

"No, but..." he began.

"Daryl, bad stuff happens. We both know that so no guilt tripping over this." she said.

She was just a selfish, worthless bitch, Walter thought, stumbling around his hotel room. Well, she was going to get hers and so was that muscle bound excuse for a detective. He knew people, people who would deal with them both in any way he asked and it could never be traced back to him. He'd given her everything and the only thing she'd given him in return was disloyalty and contempt. He should have know that it would be a mistake to let her family take care of her while she was recovering. They'd turned her against him,... fed her lies about him. If he could have done things differently he would
have. Starting with making sure that she had stayed with him while she recovered. Things would have turned out very differently if he had. By now she would have been the second Mrs. Robert Ginal, he would have already been called a legend in not only the field of profiling but in the history of the FBI. Instead he was being called a joke and a failure, not
only behind his back but to his face as well. All his years of hard work, his reputation meant nothing now, because she'd taken it all away from him. He'd get it all back though and make her pay the price for him having to do that. Even then he was never going to forgive her for what she'd done to him.

He really wished that it hadn't come to this, Elias thought, entering the Bullpen. But with neither of his children answering their cell phones he'd decided to go looking for them. Seeing Blair sitting at a desk didn't help to reassure him because he'd been fairly certain that one, if not both, would be there. Still, if either of them had been here, Blair would know and he would also know where they'd gone.

"Blair." he said, moving to the desk that Blair was sat behind.

"Elias," Blair grinned. "If you're looking for Jess she's not here."

"You've seen her? She's okay?" Elias asked.

"She seemed okay when she left with Jim," Blair replied, "Is something wrong?"

"She's not answering her cell phone," he said. "I need to talk to her about the wedding. Naomi wants her to play a part in it."

"What part?" Blair asked.

"I don't know. But knowing Naomi it could be anything." And it was probably going to be something that Jess wouldn't be too happy about doing.

"You know my mom, she gets an idea and... She called Jim's dad and brother about some dinner she's holding." Blair said.
"I was wondering who William and Stephen were," Elias admitted. "She invited Walter but I told her to uninvite him because I don't want that man anywhere near Jess." It was all that man's fault that Jess had been hurt like that. He even suspected that they could have found her a lot sooner if he hadn't kept interfering.

"Neither does Jim," Blair said. "He came here and he and Jim got into an altercation."

"Did he hurt her?" he asked.

"Who? Jim?" Blair asked.

"Walter." he said.

"No, and Jim won't let him," Blair replied. "Anyone even trying to mess with Jess is going to be faced with a very pissed off Jim."

"Including Naomi?" Elias asked.

"Yeah." Blair admitted.

"Good thing that Jess called a truce then." he said.

Experience had taught her that it was always good to have a backup plan, Naomi thought, opening the top drawer of the chest of drawers in Jim's room.

If Jim didn't believe what she told him about what had happened to Jessica then, perhaps, she could use Elias's protectiveness of her to her advantage.

After all, he wasn't going to want his precious Jessica involved with someone who wasn't going to treat her properly. A man like Jim had to have a little black book hidden somewhere and it was probably full of names. Names that she could casually mentioned to Jessica. If she then jumped to the wrong conclusion then it was hardly her fault.

Failing to find anything in the drawer she began searching through the rest of them, making sure that nothing was left out of place. Not that she really expected Jim to notice if there was. After all, who took much notice as to how things in their drawers were arranged.

"Jess, what are you doing here?" Tommy asked opening the front door of Rafe's house and seeing his sister standing there with Jim.

"We came to get statements off Daryl and Taz." Jim replied.

"I don't think that she's in any state to do that at the moment." he said.

"Tommy, we really do need to talk to her." Jessica said.

"That's up to Daryl," he said. "He's... You know." It was at times like these that it was up to the guide to decide what happened to their sentinel.

Daryl struck him as being smart enough to decide whether Taz should give a statement or not. Brian might have something to say about that but there was very little that he could do.

"This is a police matter," Jim frowned. "Daryl's had a rough day..."

"He is what he is rough day or not." Tommy said firmly. He'd been a lot younger when he'd started helping Jess and they'd been through some pretty rough times during those early days. At the time he hadn't had a clue what he was supposed to be doing, but he'd learned.

"Jim, don't mess with Daryl," Jessica said, "It's the fastest way to piss Taz off. She's been through enough today without you doing the macho act on her."

"Rafe's not going to like it." Jim said.

"Don't worry, I'll take care of Brian." Tommy replied. Not that he was really expecting him to like what he had to say. Handing over responsibility for someone you cared about wasn't easy. But Brian was going to have to do that if he didn't want to end up losing Taz altogether. She was only going to stand for him getting between her and Daryl for so long before she told him what he could do with his brotherly concern. He and Jess had been lucky because their dad had understood their need to try and work it out on their own. Of course, he'd been there to help them when they'd needed help. He'd always treated Jess the same way as he had before she'd become what she had.

If Brian could do that then he and Taz would be able to have a good relationship, but if he couldn't... Well, it was going to be his loss.

Jess had called a truce so she was going to stick to it, but that didn't mean that his mom would though, Blair thought. Jim wasn't going to be at all pleased if Naomi tried causing trouble for Jess. He was going to have to talk to his mom, find out just what exactly what she was up to because he couldn't just stand by and let her ruin what Jim and Jess had. They deserved a chance to get together without anyone messing it up for them. Although, at the moment, Jim seemed to be doing that himself. Jess had forgiven him though but unless he had a serious change in attitude she would end it and walk away. As Jim's best friend and guide he was going to do everything that he could to try and keep things going smoothly between them. It wasn't going to be easy though, both of them could be stubborn as hell when they wanted to be.

When most people looked at Jim all the they saw was a big man with an attitude problem. He'd never seen Jim as being only that though or just a body that housed enhanced senses. Once you got past the tough exterior there was a great guy underneath, one who had major problems when it came to dealing with his emotions. It was only after meeting Jim's dad that he'd really understood why Jim had problems doing that. To say that the man was cold would have been an understatement. Appearances mattered more than anything to Jim's dad so there was going to be some serious clashing going on when he met Jess for the first time.

(45)

Repercussions part 45

She looked so young, Jessica thought, on seeing Taz sitting on the sofa in the living room. Too young to have to be dealing with everything that had happened. She'd made a terrible mistake in thinking that she could delay giving her lessons on how to cope with being a sentinel. That was going to change from now on though. If she'd known she would stepped in and helped a lot sooner. Tommy had to have known so why the hell hadn't he said anything to her.

"Hi," she said, "How are the two of you doing?"

"Not too bad." Taz replied.

"The truth." Jessica said. She'd learned from an early age how to tell if someone was lying to her or not. Unfortunately, it had made for some pretty lousy Christmas’s as she could tell what she was getting just by asking a few simple questions.

"She's tired and sore." Daryl said.

"Been there, done that and got the T-shirt," she said, "It's not a very nice feeling is it?"

"No," Taz admitted, "I had a bath but..."

"It didn't help," Jessica said finishing her sentence for her. "Don't tell Tommy that or he'll make you pondwater tea." The main priority at the moment was to help her with the pain. She could do that, or rather she could talk Daryl through it so he could help Taz. Someone else was going to find out what they were though unless she could get Detective Brown out of the room that was.

"H, how about some coffee?" Jim asked on seeing the look on Jessica's face.

"Sure, if you tell me what's going on." H replied.

"It's FBI business," Jessica replied. "Shouldn't take long to sort out."

"Taz is a minor," he said. "She should have someone with her."

"All I'm going to do is ask her a few questions off the record," she replied, "I promise to keep it short and simple, okay." He wasn't going to let the matter drop until he knew the truth, she thought. Tommy would be the best person to explain it to him, that was if Taz wanted him to know, that way Jim wouldn't be exposed. Now that was something that had definite possibilities.

"H, you can trust her." Jim assure him, "I do."

"Five minutes." H said leading the way into the kitchen.

"Thanks." she said. It was going to have to be one very fast lesson, but she could do it.

"Daryl, I'm going to talk you through this okay. So, listen carefully."

Jessica said, once she was sure that H was in the kitchen with Jim.

"What do I have to do?" Daryl asked.

"You have to help Taz focus on one sense," she replied, "It's going to be hard at first, but with practice you'll be able to do it with no problems."

"Which one?" he asked.

"Pain," she replied, "I know it's not strictly a sense but we can control it. Taz, I want you to close your eyes and imagine a dial. It's numbered one to ten."

"I can see it." Taz said.

"What number is it at?" Jessica asked.

"Ten." Taz replied.

"Daryl, count slowly backwards from ten stop when you get to one," she said, "Taz, as Daryl counts the dial will be turned down, okay. By the time it reaches one you won't feel any pain."

"Ten, nine, eight..." Daryl began until he got to one.

"How are you feeling?" Jessica asked as Taz opened her eyes.

"A lot better." Taz replied.

"Good," she smiled. "I'm sorry that I've neglected you guys so far. That's going to change though."

"Brian doesn't understand," Taz said, "He won't listen and he treats me like I'm five." All she wanted from her brother was for him to treat her like an adult because that's what she was. He might not like it but there wasn't anything that he could do about it. It wasn't as if he could change her back to the way she'd been before she'd got trapped in that cave with Daryl.

ven if he'd been able to she wouldn't have let him.

"We'll talk to him," Jessica assured her, "make him understand."

"Could you talk to my dad as well?" Daryl asked. "I think he's really struggling with this whole thing."

"That's not a problem," she replied. "Just remember that your partnership is more important than what anyone else thinks."

"Jim, I know that something is going on," H said, "Taz is like my kid sister so I have a right to know what it is."

"H..." Jim began. What the hell was he supposed to tell him?

"Look if Taz is in some sort of trouble I want to help." he said.

"She's not," Jim assured him, "neither is Daryl. You know how complicated things can be with the Feds involved."

"Yeah," H admitted. "Still, if all the Feds we had to deal with looked like her I wouldn't mind things getting complicated."

"She's mine." Jim growled. Jess hadn't said that he couldn't warn people before they went too far, he thought. His mate deserved to be treated with respect and he was going to make sure that she was even if it meant that he upset a few people along the way.

"I have my own ladyfriend," H assured him, "You know Rafe's involved with someone. It's about time he got a life."

"Jess told me," Jim said. "She and her brother are close." He really wished that he was able to have that sort of relationship with his brother. His father had put a stop to any chance of that happening while they'd been growing up. Sure, he and Stephen talked from time to time but it was never going to be anything like what Jess had with her brother.

"Bri, we need to talk." Tommy said joining Rafe in the backyard. "What about?" Brian asked.

"Your sister and Daryl," he replied. "I know that you want to protect her, but that's Daryl's job now."

"He's just a kid," Brian snapped. "I'm the one who raised her, took care of her when she was sick." She was the only reason he'd kept going after their dad had been locked up.

"It's time to start letting go of her." Tommy said.

"What's going to happen to her? She's different..." he began.

"I know, she's also very special," Tommy said. "Anyone looking at her can see that you've done a good job as a parent but it's time to let someone else look after her."

"She's all I have," Brian said, "I can't lose her."

"You have me and you're not going to lose her," Tommy assured him. "You want her to be happy and have a normal life don't you?"

"How is she supposed to have one being what she is?" he asked. She'd had her whole life in front of her before getting trapped in that cave.

Everything he'd hoped for her to have had been taken away.

"Both Jim and Jess do," Tommy replied, "because Blair and I help them to."

"So she has to rely on someone else for the rest of her life?" he demanded.

That wasn't any sort of life for anyone, especially his little sister.

"They both will," Tommy said, "It's an equal partnership, one that you can't break up."

"She's my sister, I just want what's best for her." he said.

"Trust me, Daryl is what's best for her. Give him a chance to prove it,"

Tommy said, wrapping his arms around Brian and hugging him, "And try listening with your heart instead of your ears."

He wasn't really looking forward to this at all, Blair thought, entering the loft, but he had to talk to his mom.

"Sweetie," Naomi smiled, "is Jim with you?"

"No," he replied. "Mom, we need to talk."

"What about?" she asked.

"You and Jess." he replied.

"Sweetie, I've tried being nice to her," she said, "not that she's..."

"You can drop the act mom," Blair frowned. "You're not going to do anything to upset her, is that clear? That includes making her play a part in the wedding." It wasn't very often that he told his mother what to do but this time he had to in order to protect her from Jim.

"Blair, I thought it would help form a bond between us," Naomi said. "Of course, Jessica is perfectly entitled to turn down my offer if she wants to."

"Whatever you're planning, don't do it." he said.

"I'm not planning anything involving Jessica." she said.

"Then why did you phone Jim's dad and brother?" he asked. "Somehow they got the impression that this dinner of yours was because Jim and Jess were getting married."

"Did they?" she asked innocently. "Perhaps I didn't explain myself properly."

"Or maybe you wanted them to think that," Blair suggested, "Do you have any idea just how pissed off Jim is going to be when he finds out?" He didn't even want to be in the same state when that happened.

"I really don't see what the problem is?" Naomi said.

"The problem is that Jim doesn't like people interfering in his life," he snapped. "He's going to like you dragging Jess into this even less."

"But Sweetie..." she began.

"I'm not hearing you." Blair said.

"Blair Jacob Sandburg, don't you dare use that tone of voice with me." She snapped.

"Why not? It's the one you use when people don't do what you want them to." he retorted. "Jim is my best friend..."

"Then perhaps you should find a new one," she suggested. "Ever since you got involved with this police thing you've changed for the worst. Sweetie, I really think that you should meditate then we'll talk."

"You're the one who should meditate," Blair said, "While you are, you can think about how you're going to apologize to Jim for calling his dad." Not that he really expected her to. As far as his mom was concerned she hadn't done anything wrong.

She really was amazing, Jim thought, entering the living room and listening to what Jessica was saying. There were just some things that a guide couldn't understand no matter how they tried to. Like what it was like to meet your mate, to know that you weren't alone, that there was someone else who understood what it was like to be different.

"You should listen to her because she knows what she's talking about." He said.

"I don't have all the answers though," Jessica said, "No-one does."

"You've been doing this a lot longer than I have though," he grinned, "So you are the expert on this."

"Purely a practical one." she replied.

"How long have you been..." Taz began.

"I was four when I found out that I could tell if my dad was lying by listening to his heartbeat," she said, "I totally ruined Easter for Tommy. That Christmas I found out the truth about Santa Claus."

"That's sad." Taz said.

"The disadvantages outweigh the advantage sometimes," Jessica admitted, "I wouldn't change what I am for anything though."

"Smart, beautiful and very brave." Jim said.

"I'm not that smart really," she said blushing heavily. "As for the other two, you've obviously mistaken me for someone else."

"You shouldn't be so modest." he said. She had a lot to be very proud of, so did he because she was his mate. When he'd asked his contacts about her ex boss they'd also told him a lot about Jess. Not that he'd needed to know that she was on the level because every instinct he had had been telling him that from the moment he'd first seen her spirit guide. "And I could never mistake you for anyone else." he said leaning against the door frame.

Blair had no right to talk to her like that, Naomi thought, sitting cross legged on his bedroom floor. The sooner he got away from all this negative energy, the better. Her free spirited little boy had become a tool of authority. Elias might be perfect willing for his children be that but she wasn't. She had a good mind to tell Blair that if he carried on working with Jim she would never speak to him again. He'd soon see things her way if she did that. But her best bet would be to get Jim to throw him out of the loft.

hat way he'd have no alternative but to go with her and Elias when they left Cascade.

As for Jim, well, he was going to find out what happened when you messed with Naomi Sandburg. By the time she'd finished telling him about Jessica and that man she'd spent twelve days with he wouldn't want to have anything to do with her or anyone she knew ever again. After all, it was her word and that of Jessica's 'Friend' against Jessica's. She had the advantage because Jim knew her a lot better than Jessica.

He'd seen his sister in various moods over the years, but he'd never seen her as happy as this, Tommy thought, entering the living room with Brian and H. Maybe he'd been wrong in thinking that Jim was wrong for her. Anyone who could make her this happy couldn't be all bad. If anyone deserved to be happy it was Jess. The past two years had been really rough on her, there'd even been times when he'd thought that she'd never walk again. Things had really changed for the better recently. Ever since she'd helped to save Taz and Daryl she hadn't had any problems with her legs, at least none that he knew about.

Now if he could do something to stop their dad from marrying Naomi then everything would be perfect. He knew that, sooner or later, she was going to slip up and do something so bad that dad would change his mind and call the wedding off. Sure, their dad would be upset but he and Jess would be there for him. Maybe they could find him someone else to be involved with. After all, their dad had an entire library of little black books so there was bound to be someone in one of them who would not only be interested in getting to know their dad again but that would be acceptable to both him and Jess.

"You know it's a lousy idea and it won't work." Jessica said, looking at her brother.

"What is?" H asked.

"He knows what." she replied.

"But he didn't say anything." Taz said.

"He thought it." Jessica explained.

"You can read minds! That must be so cool." Daryl said.

"Only his, and it's impressions more than reading it." Jessica said.

"It's a twin thing." Tommy said on seeing the look on Taz's face.

"Is being an FBI agent like it is on the X Files?" Taz asked.

"Not really," Tommy replied, "For a start, Mulder and Scully have a lot nicer boss than we did. Ours couldn't profile a murderer even if he caught him red handed."

"What's it like working for Skinner." Jessica said. "He kept asking me that."

"Who did?" Jim asked.

"The guy we caught in the cave." she replied.

"So?" Tommy said.

"It's the same name as someone who kept calling him." she said.

"You never told me that," Tommy said. "You recognize who he was talking to?"

"No, but it sounded familiar. For all I know it could have been one of his friends," Jessica said. "You know, I can still remember what bets they made while I was...Sorry." Why the hell had she just remembered that now, she thought. Sure, she'd had flashbacks from time to time but usually when it was just her and Tommy.

"It's okay," Jim assured her wrapping an arm around her shoulders, "Nobody's going to hurt you again."

"I don't usually remember things about it around other people." she said, moving closer to Jim.

"At least you're out of that line of work now," Tommy said.

"Let's forget about this, okay?" she said. Thinking about it wasn't going to help anyone. All it would do would give her nightmares.

"Maybe I should take you back to Rainier," Jim suggested. "Simon's going to be wondering where I am."

"Yeah, I have a stack of papers to grade." Jessica said.


(46)

This was not happening, Tiffany Warren thought as she was escorted into the back of a police van where her husband and daughter were already seated. Any moment now she was going to wake up from this nightmare and find herself at home in bed.

"Mommy, you have to do something," Melanie whined. "They're talking about sending me to jail."

"That's not going to happen," Tiffany assured her, "We're going to get bail."

"You need money for bail." Chief Warren said.

"We have money," she said. There was always money when she needed it for the important things in life like club memberships.

"There's no money left because you spent it all." he replied.

"We're broke?" Melanie whined. "We can't be... everyone's going to laugh at me."

"Your father's joking." Tiffany said. He'd better be, otherwise they were all in serious trouble, she thought. How was she supposed to buy her way out of this if they didn't have any money both for the lawyer and to secure bail. She'd never been without money in her life and she wasn't about to start now.

"It's not a joke," he said, "I wish it was but it isn't."

"We'll borrow it then," she said. "We have rich friends." There was bound to be someone who would be willing to lend them the money until all this unpleasant business was over. When it was they were going to have to move away from Cascade because she was never going to be able to hold her head up in public again.

"Not anymore." he said.

"I can't go to jail," Melanie whined. "I'm going to be the prom queen."

"You should have thought about that before beating that girl up." Her father said.

"That little tramp deserved it," Tiffany snapped. "People like that need to be reminded who their betters are." How could he turn against his own flesh and blood like this. Didn't he understand that their daughter's whole future was at stake. With a criminal record she would never be accepted into an Ivy league college. Everything that she had worked so hard for was gone because of her stupid husband and that little tramp. Well, she wasn't going to take this laying down.

If he asked her about it she wasn't likely to tell him, Jim thought, driving towards Rainier. Still, he had to try because she was his mate and anything that upset her concerned him.

"Jess, about the voice..." he began.

"I wasn't really focusing on it at the time," she replied. "If I was going to remember I would have done by now."

"Blair has this way of getting me to use my sense memory to remember things," he said. "Maybe he could help you do the same."

"Tommy's my guide, not Blair." Jessica said firmly.

"I'm sure that Tommy wouldn't mind if Blair helped you with this," Jim said. "He could even teach him how to do it."

"And what if I do remember, what then?" she asked.

"Then we catch him and make sure he can't come back and hurt you again." He said. He personally would make sure that never happened. Nobody got away with upsetting his mate like this.

"With no solid evidence, nothing to connect them to the crime," she said, "It'd never even get past the DA."

"There are ways of dealing with that." he said. They weren't strictly legal but it wasn't as if there was any danger of an innocent person getting caught.

"If I did let Blair do this memory thing we stay within the law afterwards." Jessica said.

"But..." Jim began.

"It's that way or not at all," she said. "There'll be no macho crap either because you're going to be miles away if he does it."
"No." he growled. It wasn't that he didn't trust her to take care of his guide, it was that he wanted to be there so that he could find out what she'd been through so that he could help her.

"Jim, trust me, it's probably better that you don't know everything about those twelve days." Jessica said.

"There is nothing that I could find out that would change the way I feel about you." he assured her. She was his mate and nothing would ever change that fact.

Something really bad had to have happened to her, Taz thought, well pretty bad for her not to want to talk about it in front of her and Daryl. It wasn't as if they didn't know that it could be dangerous to be a Sentinel.

All those stories that Brian and H had told her about Detective Ellison and his partner made a lot more sense now. So, she was really going to have to watch Daryl's back from now on. That wasn't anything that she wasn't already doing, not that Daryl was likely to get into any serious trouble at the moment. At least they were going to get lessons and help with things from now on. Which meant that pretty soon she and Daryl would be able to start dating for real. The big question then would be where would they go for it.

Daryl had a curfew so that ruled out going to the movies, and with no car they were either going to have to get a lift or take a bus. Neither of them had much money, and it wouldn't really be fair of her to expect Daryl to pay for everything. She supposed that they could always order pizza and watch a video, but that was something that they did as friends. Dating was supposed to be something special. It meant that you were an adult, not that they'd be doing anything other than having a nice time because she wasn't sure that she was ready for any serious adult stuff yet. Not that Daryl would try and do anything like that. For a start, he wasn't like most of the other guys at school, he liked her for who she was as a person and not because he wanted something from her.

"Hadn't you better answer that?" Jessica asked when Jim's cell phone rang.

Maybe it would distract him from his idea that Blair helped her to remember whose voice she'd heard on the phone.

"It's just my dad." he replied after casting a quick glance at the number being displayed on the phone.

"So?" she said.

"I don't want to talk to him." he admitted.

"If you don't talk to him now he's just going to keep calling. The more times he has to call the more pissed off he's going to be when you do decide to talk to him." she said. She always liked talking to her dad, except when Naomi was there. Then it was impossible to say anything without it being the wrong thing.

"You don't know my dad," Jim frowned. "He's domineering, stubborn..."

"He's still your dad," Jessica said. "You know there have been times when I've said that Elias isn't my dad. It's hurt him but he's always forgiven me, and I've always known that he loves me."

"Jess, he's nothing like your dad..." he began.

"He probably doesn't know how to be," she said. "You could try and teach him but you can't do that if you don't talk to him." He'd stopped her from ruining the relationship that she had with her dad so the least that she could do in return was to try and make things a little easier between Jim and his dad. After all, an upset Jim was not a good thing for anyone.

"All right," he sighed, "but don't blame me when it goes wrong."

"I won't." she assured him.

"Jimmy," William Ellison said when he finally got through to his son, "Is there anything that your fiancee doesn't eat. There's no need to take that tone of voice with me." He'd asked a civil question and expected a civil answer in return. This certainly wasn't the way he'd raised either of his sons to behave. If this was the was sort of attitude his son's fiancee
encouraged then perhaps his son would be better off without her. "I would like you both to come to dinner. After all, as your father I think I have the right to meet the woman you're planning to marry." he said. Not that it meant that he was going to either approve or give his blessing. People of his social background had to be very careful about who they let become part of their family. There were certain obligations that wives, daughters and daughter in laws were expected to fulfill. Some how he seriously doubted that anyone Jimmy married would be up to the task. Still, he had to appear to be willing to meet this woman. "Dinner's at seven." He then put the phone down. It was up to Jimmy whether he turned up or not, either way dinner would be served at seven.

Skinner, Tommy thought, the only person he and Jess knew with that name was Walter. Hell, it had been his idea to give him that nickname in the first place but they'd only ever called him Walter. Maybe the guy who'd grabbed her had said it as a joke, but he doubted it. Whatever was going on Jess wasn't going to tell him unless he dragged it out of her. He really hated having to do that though because it made getting her to talk to him the next time a lot harder. He understood that she was just trying to protect him, but he had a right to protect her as well. Despite all his attempts to find out what had really happened to her during those twelve days he'd failed miserably. All he did know was that she'd had nightmares and she was likely to start having them again.

He just couldn't let this go though and he seriously doubted that Jim would be able to either. It was a good thing that their dad was a pacifist, although if Walter had had something to do with Jess being held by that monster he might just forget that he was. There'd always been something not quite right about the way Walter had always treated Jess, giving her special assignments, trying to isolate her from both her work colleagues and her family. Despite her former line of work Jess had always tried to see the good in people. Only when it came to Walter she had a blind spot, just like dad had with Naomi. At least now that Jess was a teacher she wouldn't have to have anything more to do with Walter. Although he certainly wouldn't put it past Walter to try and sweet talk her into going back to work for him, because he had too much to lose just letting her walk away.

They weren't going to dinner at his dad's Jim thought, escorting Jessica to the office she shared with Blair at Rainier. There was no way in hell that he was going to put her through that. He could just imagine the sort of questions his dad would ask her. Jess wasn't the sort of woman who would sit there politely answering personal questions all night. No, she'd probably
have a few questions of her own that she wanted to ask, and that wouldn't please his dad. Not that pleasing his dad had been high on his list of priorities for a long time. When he'd been growing up he'd done his best to, not that anything he'd done had been good enough for his dad.

If or rather when he had children he'd give them everything that his dad had failed to give him and Stephen. Before meeting Jess it had always been if, after all Caroline had never wanted kids and he hadn't been that interested in having them. Since meeting Jess though the thought had crept into his mind. He knew that it was still early days yet, but she seemed to be as serious about him as he was about her. And he could see her being a great mom.

"What?" Jessica asked when she saw the grin on Jim's face.

"I was just thinking." he replied.

"Do I want to know about what?" she asked.

"Kids." he admitted.

"Any ones in particular?" she said.

"No," Jim said, "How do you feel about them?"

"It depends," she replied, "On whose they are."

"So you've never thought about having any?" he asked.

"Not really," Jessica admitted. "But then, I never thought that I'd meet anyone to have them with."

"And now?" he asked.

"If this is your way of getting out of talking about dinner at your dad's it's not going to work." she replied.

"It's not." he assured her.

"So are we going or not?" she asked.

"Not," he growled. "You don't want to spend an evening with my dad." Not when there were a lot better ways of them spending it.

"Meaning he won't approve of me." she said.

"Meaning he shouldn't be inflicted on anyone, especially you." Jim replied.

She deserved better than that and he intended to make sure that she got it.

"Jim, I'm sure that I could handle him." she smiled.

He was going to have to tell Jess what his mom was up to Blair thought, because it was going to take the both of them to stop Jim from trying to rip Naomi's head off. Not that she didn't deserve it, and god only knew what else she'd been up to. Whatever it was it couldn't be good news. Just occasionally he really wished that she would stop trying to impose her ideals on other people because she never stayed around long enough to have to deal with the aftermath of her actions.

Elias was going to be really pissed off when he found out what she was up to. If it came to a choice between her and Jess he'd choose Jess. After all, Jess had been making an effort to get on with Naomi. Besides, Jess wasn't the one who'd called both Jim's dad and Stephen. He could just imagine what sort of reaction Jim's dad had had to being told by a total stranger that his son was getting married especially to someone like Jess. She wouldn't be the dutiful passive daughter in law he'd be hoping for. To be honest, Jess couldn't be passive even if her live depended on it. She'd never been able to just sit there doing nothing. If her body wasn't active then her mind was. It might be interesting he thought to see if there was any link between a Sentinel's senses and their IQ. After all, a stupid sentinel wouldn't have lasted long even if they'd had a smart guide. Jim wasn't by any means stupid, although he didn't always let on just how smart he was but when it came to genius level brains Jess was the outright winner.

(47)

"You should be in bed." Brian said seeing Taz yawning. She'd had a terrible day, he thought, and his attitude hadn't helped. A lot of what Tommy had said had made sense. All he wanted was the best possible life for her, if that included Daryl being an permanent part of it, then so be it. That didn't mean that he had to like it or be willing to hand over responsibility for her just yet.

"Not yet." Taz said, snuggling up closer to Daryl.

"Jess doesn't like being on her own when she's hurt." Tommy said.

"She ever get beaten up this bad?" H asked.

"She's had worse," he admitted. "It comes with the territory."

"You mean when she arrests people." Taz said.

"Yeah, but she always gets better." Tommy replied.

"Has she ever arrested anyone really famous?" Daryl asked.

"The guy who was after you," he said. "Thirty known victims including four FBI agents. We've always suspected that there were a lot more but couldn't prove it."

"Jesus." H said.

"I want to do that," Taz said, "Be a cop, profiler."

"No," Brian said firmly. "You're going to work in a nice safe office job."

She'd become a cop over his dead body. For at least the next two years he had the legal right to say no to any idea she had about becoming a cop, by which time she'd hopefully have changed her mind.

"That's what our dad said as well," Tommy said, "until he realized that Jess could help a lot more people by being a profiler than she ever could working as anything else."

"Is that why you became one as well?" Taz asked.

"Me, I'm not a profiler. I just deal with all the forensics in a case," he replied, "I don't have the brains to do what Jess does. You know it takes a very special type of person to think like the people we used to catch and not go nuts or burn out in a couple of years."

"All the more reason for you not to do it." Brian said. She was special, he knew that, but that didn't mean that he had to just standby and let her get involved with a career that would constantly put her in danger. Dad would never forgive him if he did. Besides, to become an FBI agent, you had to go through all sorts of background checks. Checks which she wouldn't be able to pass because their father was a convicted murderer. The fact that he was innocent wouldn't matter to them, they'd turn her down and she'd be heartbroken.

Maybe he could go over the case records again, recheck the evidence to see if there was anything that he'd overlooked. There had to be something that he could do to prove that he was innocent. Everything about the case had been purely circumstantial. Taz had been the only witness to what had happened that night, but she'd been too young and in too much shock to be able to say anything about it. He couldn't have put her though reliving the memory of that night then and now he couldn't ask her about it without admitting that he'd lied to her for the past thirteen years. After all this time she probably didn't remember anything about that night.

She was being totally humiliated and her parents weren't doing anything to stop it, Melanie thought as she was escorted into a courtroom. Still, once the judge had heard what she had to say about Taz Rafe, they'd let her go home. Then daddy would make sure that Taz was locked up forever. After all, Taz had been the one who'd started all this by refusing to stay in her
place, which was at the bottom of a very long ladder. People like her had every right to do what they wanted because they were at the top of the ladder. Life was like that, if you weren't at the top then you were a nobody and nobodies didn't count. Just look at all the people around her, they certainly proved that. She didn't belong with them, not even for a second.

Daddy had to have been joking about there being no more money. He'd always had money to give her before so it wasn't going to be any different this time. Looking around the courtroom she couldn't see the lawyer he'd used all those other times when she'd gotten into trouble. Nobody knew about that though so they wouldn't be able to use that against her. In fact, there wasn't anything that they could do to prove that she'd ever done anything wrong. Her school record was clean thanks to some very large checks from her father, and nobody at school would dare to say anything bad about her because they were all afraid of her and would be for a very long time to come.

Even she knew that three meals didn't constitute a relationship but her and Jim had formed one, Jessica thought. And for him to be asking how she felt about kids he obviously thought that things were going to get pretty serious between them. She hoped that they would, but that didn't mean that she was just going to jump blindly into anything, including his bed. A fortnight ago she wouldn't have even thought that she would ever be thinking about something like that. Now she had a whole new future to possibly look forward to. A lot better one than she could have imagined that she would have. There
was no need for them to rush it though. What they had was too important to ruin by some stupid misunderstanding.
A real future took planning, they were going to have to talk about it. Both Blair and Tommy were going to have to be involved in any plans because they were their guides and she couldn't really see Jim being willing to live apart from Blair anymore than she would be able to from Tommy. In her entire life she'd only ever spent twelve days apart from her brother. She was scared of what would happen if she had to spend any longer than that away from him. Sure, she'd still have the link with him, but it wasn't same. And the loft was a nice place, but it wasn't big enough for three people never
mind four. Besides she liked having her own space, and she had her own way of doing things. Ways that might annoy Jim.

"Ellison, my office now." Simon bellowed from the doorway to his office when Jim entered the Bullpen. Now that he was back he was going to remind him that although he was trying to understand the Sentinel thing this was still a police department and that he expected a certain standard of behavior from his officers. Then he was going to find out how Taz was doing, whether there was anything that he could do to help her and Daryl.

Maybe he could relax Daryl's curfew for the next couple of days, just until she was feeling better. After all, it wasn't fair that she should be punished because of something that Daryl had done.

"You wanted to see me?" Jim said, entering the office without knocking first.

"Close the door." Simon said. There was no need for anyone else to hear what he had to say, especially about the Sentinel side of things. "Blair explained about the territory thing you have gong on," he said, pouring himself a mug of coffee, "but I will not have any of my officers attacking anyone without a damned good reason is that clear."

"He was harassing her," Jim growled, "Nobody has the right to do that to my mate."

"Jim, I'm not saying that he has a right to," Simon assured him, "but he could file a complaint against you."

"I only pushed him." Jim said.

"Which is more than enough for him to file a complaint," he said, "However, if he is harassing Dr. Angel and she chooses to file a report, then it will be fully investigated." He did owe her several large favors for using her contacts to deal with Chief Warren and his family.

"He's obsessed with her," Jim snapped. "Everything the man has is due to her talent and hard work. He's not just going to let her walk away."

"Until a crime has been committed my hands are tied," Simon said. "That doesn't mean that you can provoke him into doing something." He knew Jim and what he was capable of if the mood took him. He didn't want to see his friend end up on the wrong side of the law.

"He touches her and he's a dead man." Jim said.

"You break the law and I'll personally arrest you," Simon warned him, "I'm sure that Dr. Angel is more than capable of taking care of herself if he bothers her again."

"It's my job to protect her." Jim said, pacing up and down in front of Simon's desk.

"Which you won't be able to do if you're behind bars," Simon said, "You won't be able to help Taz or Daryl either." He was hoping that Jim would realize that there were other people involved.

"Jess has already started," Jim replied. "She gave Taz a crash course in pain control."

"What can I do to help her and Daryl?" he asked.

"Listen to them," Jim said, "because Rafe is having a hard time accepting this."

So what if people were staring at him, Walter thought, stumbling out of a cab in front of Hargrove Hall before thrusting a handful of crumpled notes at the driver. He had a very important job to do and no selfish little bitch was going to stop him from doing it. This was her final chance to agree to work for him again. If she turned him down then she was going to be very sorry that she had. Hopefully, away from that detective, she'd see sense and realize that the only person she belonged with was him. Hadn't he always taken good care of her in the past. If she let him he would do that for the rest of their lives. She didn't need anyone else in her life because he would be everything that she needed.

It truly hadn't been his fault that she'd been so badly hurt during her last case. That son of a bitch had broken the agreement they'd come to. How was he supposed to have known that he had never intended to keep it. She'd only made it worse for herself by refusing to co-operate with him. He'd always told her that that stubborn streak she had would get her into serious
trouble one day and it had. Had she even attempted to apologize for all the trouble she'd caused him. Of course not.

Helping Taz was going to be a lot easier than he'd thought it would be, Daryl thought, now that he knew what he was supposed to do. He wasn't stupid enough to think that he knew everything there was to know about helping Taz after just one quick lesson. There was a whole lot more that they both had to learn about the whole sentinel thing, but at least now they'd made a start. Maybe now that they'd started sorting out her senses Taz would let him act like they were dating. After all, they were supposed to be, not that they'd had much chance to do so recently with everything that was going on.

With any luck he'd be able to persuade both his dad and her brother that he could be trusted to take her somewhere. The question was where because he didn't exactly have a lot of money at the moment and he couldn't really see his dad giving him an advance on his allowance. There was always his mom, she'd understand that Taz deserved to be taken somewhere nice. After hitting her for some cash he was going to ask whether he really had to go stay with his grandparents for the whole of the summer vacation because he didn't want to leave Taz to handle things on her own for that long. Besides what if she met some guy while he was away and decided that she wanted to go out with him instead. Not all guys were as nice as he was, she could zone and then anything could happen to her.

"Jessie, you know better than to switch your cell phone off." Elias said hearing his daughter's voice on the other end of the phone, "Of course I worry when you don't answer your phone. I even went to the station to see if you were there. Blair told me what happened between Jim and that man." He wasn't even going to call him by his name. After everything he'd put his baby through the only names he was willing to call him were obscene. And it was a damn good thing that he was a pacifist now or he would have shown him some of the ways he'd been taught to deal with the enemy because that's precisely what that man was. He was glad that Jim saw him that way as well.

While that man was in Cascade Jessie wasn't going to be able to go on with her life. "Babe, Naomi would like you to play some role in the wedding," he said, "If you don't want to I'll understand. As long as you're there that's all that really matters to me." If Naomi thought that she could cause trouble by asking Jessie to take part in the wedding and she refused to then
she was going to be disappointed. He'd had enough of them fighting over him.

If Naomi couldn't accept the fact that he could still love his children if he loved her then perhaps the time wasn't right for them to get married. It was a big commitment to make, something that Naomi had never really been that good at.

"So, how serious is it between you and Jim?" he asked, "Of course I like him. He's good for you. As long as you're happy who cares what anyone else thinks. Don't work too hard." He then put the phone down. She was happy, he thought, happier than she'd been for a long time. Unfortunately she wasn't going to stay that way for long if something wasn't done about that man.

(48)

"You shouldn't be here," Jessica said when a disheveled figure entered her office, "Jim..."

"Your detective friend's not here," Walter replied slurring his words, "So we can talk about your future."

"Walter, there's nothing to talk about. If you don't leave I'm going to call Jim." she warned him. She would if she had to and this time she wouldn't stop Jim if he did more than push him.

"Angel," he said leaning over her desk. "My beautiful Angel." Stretching out a hand to touch her face.

"Don't touch me." she said pushing her chair back. He smelled as if he'd bathed in whisky and he was upset which wasn't a good combination.

"Angel, I'm not going to hurt you. I would never hurt you," he assured her.

"I need you." he said moving around to the other side of the desk.

"You need to go away and sober up," she snapped, "Now you have ten seconds to get out of here before I call Jim." Although the state he was in she wasn't really expecting him to listen to reason. Not that he ever had done even when he was sober.

"Don't tell me what to do," he snapped, "You'd've been nothing without me. You owe me."

"I don't owe you a damn thing." Jessica replied. She'd gotten where she was because of her hard work and her senses. It wasn't her fault that nature had given her an advantage over other people. What was she supposed to have done? Ignore a big part of who she was? There'd only been one time in her life when she'd actually tried doing that. She'd lasted three days before realizing that the world was a lot brighter place to live if she used her senses.

"I've warned you about this attitude of yours," Walter said lunging forward and grabbing hold of her hair. "Just look at all the trouble it's gotten you into."

"You really don't want to do this." Jessica growled. He had no right to be doing this to her. She hadn't done anything wrong and as for Jim... Well, he was going to go totally ballistic when he found out about this. This time she seriously doubted that she'd be able to stop him from beating Walter to a pulp. Walter was going to find himself in very serious trouble if he didn't stop behaving like this.

"Shut up," he snapped. "From now on you're going to do what I tell you to.

First, I want you to call your detective friend."

"Make me." she said.

"You think I won't," Walter demanded reaching into one of his pockets with his free hand and pulling out a gun,. "Now this means I'm in charge here. So are you going to call him or am I going to have to use it?" he asked.

"I'll call him," she replied, "just don't hurt me." Hopefully, when she called Jim he'd work out from what she said that she wasn't alone and who was with her. Until then her best option was to play along with Walter as a drunk with a gun could be very unpredictable. There were other people around, people who could end up seriously hurt or even dead if Walter decided to take a little walk around the university.

"That's better," he smiled. "Finally you're being reasonable."

"Ellison," Jim snapped answering his phone as soon as it rang, "Jess, missing me already?" Something was very wrong, he thought, because she was lying about being alone. It had to be that son of a bitch with her because if it had been anyone else she would have just said who it was. "You okay? Don't worry I'll be right there." he said, he then put the phone down. This time he was going to make sure that that man was left in no state to ever bother her again. After checking that he had both his guns and spare clips of ammunition he left the Bullpen.

His mate had the right to feel safe in the place where she worked. Not to be harassed by some pathetic loser just because she used to work for him.

She wasn't going to have to put up with being treated like this for much longer though. From now on he was going to make sure that she was safe at all times, that anyone who didn't respect her soon regretted the fact that they hadn't. The first thing he was going to do after he'd dealt with that man was to get her out of that dump she was living in. He knew that she was supposed to be moving into a new home soon but until she did he was going to make sure that she stayed somewhere a lot safer. She'd probably have a lot of objections to him doing that. It was for her own good though. He'd feel a hell of a lot happier knowing that there was a proper security system between her and anyone who tried to break in. She had a gun but he suspected that she wouldn't use it unless there were no other options open to her.

She was either dreaming or hallucinating, Taz thought when she saw a large white jaguar being backed into a corner of the living room by a hyena. The last time she'd seen the cat it had been when her and Daryl had been trapped in that cave. Then it had been a good thing. She doubted that it was this time though. From the way the animals she was seeing were behaving it looked as if Dr. Angel was in some sort of trouble. She wanted to do something to help but she didn't know how. If she suddenly started talking about seeing animals that nobody else could see it was really going to freak her brother out. Then H would start asking all sorts of questions that she wouldn't be able to answer.

"Daryl," she said softly hoping that only he would be able to hear her, "could you do something for me?"

"What?" he asked.

"Phone Detective Ellison and tell him that Dr. Angel's in trouble." She replied. He'd know what to do and she'd feel a lot better for having done something to try and help.

"Why?" Daryl said, "How do you know she is?"

"Trust me, I do." she replied. She trusted him to help her with her senses so he was just going to have to trust her when she said that she knew something was wrong. Their whole partnership was going to be based on trust so they might as well start now.

"Okay. I'll call him but I don't think that he's going to believe me." He said.

"You'll find a way to convince him." she assured him.

Blair had to have thought about the way he'd spoken to her by now, Naomi thought coming out of his bedroom. If he had then they could talk about it. If not then she was going to have to insist that he meditated about it. This sort of behavior just wasn't like him at all. Until recently they'd always been so close, able to talk about anything.

"Sweetie," she said, "we need to talk. I understand that you've gotten attached to Jim, that you think that he sees you as a friend."

"I am." Blair replied.

"Blair, people like Jim use people like us," she said. "As soon as they've gotten what they want they dump us." She hated to be so blunt but it would save him a lot of heartache in the long run. Anyone could see that Jim was only using him to get to Jessica, something that her 'Friend' wasn't going to be at all pleased about.

"Mom, trust me, Jim's not like that," he protested, "and if you were that worried you would have said something before now."

"I didn't want to upset you," Naomi lied. So, she'd changed her mind about Jim. She was perfectly entitled to if she wanted to.

"What about Jessica?" he asked.

"Sweetie, I hate to say it but she's having an affair with her ex boss," she replied. "He told me all about it. What really happened during those twelve days she spent with that man."

"You talked to him!" Blair exclaimed, "How could you do that? Mom, the guy is like totally obsessed with her."

"Blair, it was about time that someone found out the truth," she said.

"What he told me was very enlightening."

"I bet it was," he muttered, "Mom, I know that you think that Jess's still a government tool but she really is a teacher now. That guy will say anything to get her to work for him again."

"He would?" she asked. He hadn't mentioned that particular fact to her.

Still, she supposed that he wouldn't if he wanted her to do his dirty work for him. That didn't mean that she wasn't still intending to tell Jim what she'd been told.

"Whatever he told you is a pack of lies," Blair said. "The man's going to lose his job. Elias doesn't like him..."

"Well, if Elias doesn't like him..." she began.

"Mom, what he told you keep it to yourself," he said, "and stay out of other people's lives from now on."

"But, Sweetie." Naomi protested.

"If you don't, I'm going to tell Elias what you've been up to," Blair warned her. "The choice is yours."

"Daryl," Simon said answering his phone, "how's Taz doing? That's good.

He's not here. Why do you want to talk to him?" He looked out of his office window at Jim's empty desk. "I know that she wouldn't lie. If I see him I'll tell him. Don't worry about getting home. I'll pick you up when I leave work." He then put the phone down. If Taz said that Dr. Angel was in some sort of trouble then he had to believe that she was because Taz wasn't the sort of kid who'd lie.

Jim wasn't going to be too happy when he found out that she could be in trouble. Especially not after what had happened earlier. He was going to have to call Blair and tell him what might be going on. If her ex boss was involved somehow he sure as hell wouldn't like to be in his shoes. The only person he'd seen Jim so protective about before was Blair. From where he was stood it looked like a certain detective could be in love. She'd certainly stayed a round a lot longer than any of Jim's other dates. And it was about time that his friend's love life stopped looking like a series of train wrecks.

(49)

Finally she was seeing sense and doing what he wanted, Walter thought, it was just a pity that it had taken him pulling a gun on her to make it happen. Still, in the future, he would know how to deal with any attitude problems that she gave him. If he'd known that it was so easy to get her to cooperate he would have done it a long time ago.

"See how much better things are when you cooperate," he said. "All that pain could have been avoided if you'd just done what he'd wanted."

"You! It as you he was talking to," Jessica exclaimed, the color draining from her face. "How could you... All those victims. You could have stopped him."

"Don't be so naive," he snapped. "He would have killed them anyway. Besides it was your job to catch him, not mine." He wasn't going to take the blame, not when he could unload it on her, use it to keep her in line.

"I never stood a chance, not with you interfering all the time," she snapped. "You told him everything didn't you."

"So what if I did," he asked. "Nobody's going to believe you." As far as she was concerned he still had his reputation intact. So there was very little chance of her finding the truth out until it was too late.

"You won't get away with this." Jessica warned him.

"Who's going to stop me. Your detective friend? He's not going to charge to the rescue after what you said to him," Walter sneered. "So from now on it's just going to be the two of us."

"Jim's not going to be put off by anything I said," she replied. "He's going to be really pissed off when he gets here so you might as well surrender now."

"Some petty little detective doesn't worry me." he said. He'd dealt with Ellison's type before, all muscle and no brains. Men like that didn't get very far in life and they certainly weren't any sort of threat to him.

"Believe what you want but he's coming." she warned him.

He couldn't just charge in there, Jim thought, running towards Jessica's office. If he did that she could end up injured or dead. There was no doubt at all in his mind that her ex boss wouldn't hesitate to use a gun if he had one. In cases like these it was always safer to assume that the criminal had one. Hearing what was being said in her office didn't do anything to
reassure him that this could be settled reasonably. He'd do his best to arrest him but if it came to it Jessica's life and safety came first. His mate was the only one who truly understood what it was like to be a sentinel. She was the one who would bear his children, teach them how to live in a world that no longer believed in Sentinels. In times of danger she would fight by his side and protect his guide when he was unable to.

Cautiously, Jim opened the door in front of him praying that it wouldn't creak. Sliding his muscular frame through the gap he crept up behind the man who was standing in front of Jessica's desk. He had a gun and it was pointed at his mate. Drawing his weapon he pressed the barrel to the back of Walter's head.

"Drop it." he growled, tightening his finger on the trigger. One false move and he'd pull the trigger. In fact, right now he was tempted to even if he dropped the gun. That would put a stop to him ever harassing her again.

"I'd do what he says if I were you," Jessica smiled, "because he really doesn't like being called a petty little detective."

"I can pull the trigger faster than he can." Walter boasted.

"You sure about that?" she asked. "After all, it's two against one." She added, bringing up her left hand to reveal the gun she was holding in it.

"You little..." Walter began.

"You know me Walter, always prepared for the worst," she said, "unless I'm set up."

"We can do this the easy way or the hard way.," Jim growled. He really hoped that the man standing in front of him would choose the hard way so that he could teach him a lesson that he would never forget.

"I know people," Walter said, "I'll walk away from this."

"Not if I have anything to do with it." Jim said. If he had his way this man would never walk away again, would never be able to take another breath.

For someone claiming to love his mate he had absolutely no respect for her.

If you loved someone you did everything you could to protect them, make them happy, This man had done neither of those things. If anything he'd caused her a great deal of pain, taken something away from her, something that she would never be able to get back.

"You're a pathetic loser," Jessica said. "You won't be able to walk away from this because nobody is going to put themselves out for you once they've found out what you've done."

"Angel, you can't prove anything," Walter said, "It'll be your word against mine."

"Now whose being naive?" she asked. "He'll talk, by the time he's finished you'll be lucky not to be in a cell right next to him on Death Row."

Walter lowered his gun realizing that maybe it wouldn't be such a good idea to see who could pull the trigger faster after all.

"She's not your Angel," Jim growled spinning Walter round so that he faced him. "She's a person not an object and you don't deserve someone like her."

He didn't deserve to breath the same air as her, walk on the same ground.

Right now he should be on his knees begging her forgiveness.

"I'm not going to stop you in you want to hit him." Jessica said.

"He wouldn't." Walter said. He then found himself bent double in agony after Jim's fist connected heavily with his stomach.

"He would." she said.

This was bad, really, really bad, Blair thought, using one hand to dial a number on his cell phone while driving to Rainier. Jim would kill Walter if Jess was in trouble and then...

"Tommy, you need to get to Jess's office now," he said. "No, I don't know what's going on... just that she might be in trouble." All he knew was what Simon had told him which hadn't been much. Just that Jim had gotten a phone call then left in a hurry. Then there'd been the phone call Simon had gotten from Daryl. It was possible that there was some sort of link between the three sentinels. There had to have been times in the past when different tribes would have joined together to fight off a bigger threat. Then their sentinels would have had to work together. Of course, this was all just theory but it would be pretty amazing if it was true.

"Yeah, I'm still here," he said. "Your dad. I think that would be a good idea." He then closed his cell phone and dropped it onto the seat next to him. Elias was going to want to be there if Jess was in trouble and he had a right to know what was going on. For the time being though he wasn't going to tell his mom because she'd start going on about how it was Jess's own fault. Nothing that had happened to Jess had been her fault.

"I've got to go," Tommy said. "Jess's in trouble." Their dad was going to go through the roof with him if she was. It wasn't fair because he couldn't keep his eye on her twenty four seven. Besides, she was in her office so how bad could it be? Jim wouldn't let anything happen to her, at least, he hoped that he wouldn't.

"What sort?" Brian asked.

"I don't know," he admitted. "Blair just wants me to get over to her office now."

"Bri, I think that you and H should go with him," Taz said, "just in case."

"And leave you and Daryl here alone," Brian said, "I don't think so."

"Bri, I think that you can trust them." H said.

"Don't worry. I'll take good care of Taz." Daryl said.

"If you're coming we have to go now." Tommy said. He'd call his dad while he was on the way, not that he would be able to tell him much about what was going on.

"We're coming." H said.

"If you have any problems, call me." Brian said.

"We won't," Taz assured him. "We're just going to sit here and watch TV."

"Get something to eat as well." he said.

"I'll make sure that she does." Daryl said.

"Just go." Taz said.

Maybe she should at least tell Jim to stop, Jessica thought, because Walter was taking a real beating. Then again, if she did Jim wouldn't be too happy and she didn't want to find herself on the receiving end of his anger.

Walter had brought this on himself but it was going to be Jim who got into serious trouble. There was no way that they could pass it off as Walter resisting arrest.

"Jim," she said, "I think he's had enough. So maybe you should let him go."

She'd asked nicely so it was now up to him whether he did or not.

"You think?" Jim growled.

"Yeah," she replied. "I mean look at him. He's not going to cause anyone any trouble." In fact, Walter could barely stand up straight. The only place he would be going was hospital.

"I could make him disappear." he growled.

"No," she said. "There'd be too many questions asked. As it is, we're going to have a hard time explaining how he got into this state."

"Let me worry about that," Jim replied. "I have contacts who'll take care of it." he said letting go of the front of Walter's now blood stained shirt.

"You know what you've done is probably illegal," Jessica said, "I mean..."

"He threatened you with a gun, confessed to feeding information to a serial killer," Jim growled. "He took one of your senses away."

"I know but I've never done anything illegal before," she said. "Still, who's going to believe him." Nobody but that didn't make what Jim had done right. Understandable, yes, but not right. She wasn't sure that she'd be able to lie very well if anyone asked her what had happened. Tommy was bound to realize that whatever story they came up with wasn't the truth.

"Trust me, everything's going to be fine," he assured her while cuffing Walter's hands behind his back. "It's not as if I killed him." he added.

"I suppose that's something." she admitted. Although if she hadn't told him to stop he might have done just that. If Jim said that he had contacts who would take care of this then he did. She just hoped that they'd take care of it before anyone started to ask her questions that she didn't feel able to answer.

This was his chance to prove to her brother that he could take good care of Taz, Daryl thought. He couldn't afford to mess this up because if he did he'd have so many rules imposed on him that he wouldn't be able to help Taz.

"What do you want to eat?" he asked, "Nothing, I'm not hungry." Taz replied.

"Your brother said that you had to have something to eat," he reminded her, "Don't worry I'll cook if you want something hot."

"You can't cook." she said.

"I know how to heat things up." he replied.

"Daryl, that's not the same as cooking," Taz said, "Hasn't your mom taught you how to cook yet?"

"No," Daryl admitted, "You know my mom, she eats out a lot." That was when she was in Cascade. A lot of the time she was on business trips.

"You're going to learn right?" she asked.

"Why? You're good at it so I don't really need to." he said.

"Daryl, I'm not going to be doing all the cooking when we're married," she said firmly, "Or all the housework."

"You're not!" Daryl said.

"No, I'm not," she replied, "This is a partnership so you're going to have to do your fair share of the chores."

"I am." he said. He wasn't sure that he liked the sound of that. His mom didn't make him do all that many chores because she had someone to come in and do all the cleaning and laundry.

"Yes you are," Taz said, "Because I'm not going to be picking up after you all the time."

"Jim," Blair said pushing open the door to the office he shared with Jessica, "Jess, are you guys okay? Oh man what happened?" he added on seeing Walter laying on the floor.

"He didn't stay away like I told him to." Jim growled. From now on he would because he'd be behind bars. His mate was never going to be bothered like this again, and he wouldn't have to worry about him coming back to try and take her away from him. Not there'd been any real danger that she would leave him for her ex boss.

"Blair, he was drunk and pointing a gun at me," Jessica said, "There was no way that he was going to listen to reason."

"Chief, it was him or her," Jim said, "I didn't have any choice." His mate had to come first, her safety and well being had to come before that of anyone else except for his guide.

"Simon's never going to believe that." Blair said.

"He will once he's heard the whole story." she said.

"Which is?" Blair asked.

"FBI agent colludes with Serial killer," she replied, "He was feeding him information. I never even stood a chance of catching that sick bastard. What did I ever do to be treated like this? Maybe Naomi was right I attract bad karma."

"Jess, that's not true," Blair assured her, "Besides you don't believe in karma."

"Maybe it believes in me though." she said.

"You're not responsible for what he did," Jim growled, "You're the victim here." How could she think that it was her fault? There was nothing that she could have done to deserve what had happened to her. Convincing her of that fact wasn't going to be easy though.

(50)

"Please don't let it be like last time." Elais said out aloud, getting out of his car in front of Hargrove Hall. He didn't think that any one of them, especially Jessie, could go through that again. For a while afterwards he'd thought that he was going to lose her. The light in her eyes had dimmed and she'd looked so old and tired. She'd only just gotten back to being herself
again and now this had to happen. Just about all Jessica's problems had been caused by that man. The pain she'd suffered, the nightmares, they could all be blamed on Walter. He wasn't a profiler or a cop but even he could have found her a lot faster than Walter had been able to. There'd always been something about that whole investigation that just hadn't seemed right compared to all the others she'd worked on. He knew that there were things that she hadn't told him or Tommy, things that had happened to her during those twelve days. He'd always been able to tell when either of his children were trying to keep something from him. Whatever Jess was keeping from him had to be serious.

All he'd ever wanted was for his children to be happy and not carry guns.

Unfortunately, Jess did still carry hers, although he understood her need for a safety blanket after what had happened to her. She'd always needed something that she could carry around with her, something to reassure her that she was safe. When she'd been small it had been a teddy bear that had belonged to Sunflower. Of the two of them he suspected that it was Jessie who'd missed having in a mother's influence most. Not all the women he'd had in his life had understood just how emotionally fragile she was.

One day in the none too distant future he could be rushing to save his sister from some trouble that she'd gotten herself into and couldn't get out of on her own, Brian thought, pulling up outside of Hargrove Hall. What if he didn't get there in time and he lost her. Taz was too precious to lose.

Until recently she'd been the sole reason he'd kept going. Now, there was Tommy as well. So far he'd been able to avoid talking to him about his and Taz's parents. Presumably Tommy thought that they were dead. Their mother was, she'd died that night. Had been dead for hours when he'd gotten home.

He'd found Taz cowering in a corner covered in blood. His dad hadn't even been at home at the time so he couldn't possibly have done it.

"Bri, you okay?" H asked.

"Yeah," he replied. "Just thinking about Taz."

"Don't worry she'll soon change her mind about being a cop," H assured him, "Besides you have two years before they'll let her got to the Academy. A lot can happen in two years."

"You know how stubborn she can be." Brian said. If Taz wanted to do something that she knew he wouldn't approve of she'd find a way. She always had done in the past. Only this time she could find herself in serious trouble.

"And smart," H said. "You have to trust her more. It's not as if she's ever been the sort of kid whose constantly gotten into trouble."

"I know. It's just that she seems to be growing up so fast now." Brian replied. Maybe it was time for them to have another talk about relationships now that she was dating Daryl.

Something was going on for Blair to have rushed off like that, Naomi thought, getting into a cab outside of the loft. All she knew was that he'd gotten a phone call from Captain Banks and that her son had rushed off to Rainier. Jim had to be involved, as did Jessica, why else would he have just taken off like that. Despite what he'd said she was still convinced that
Jessica had been having some sort of relationship with her ex boss. What if Jim had found out about that? That would really put Jessica in serious trouble not only with Jim but with Elias as well. After all, Elias believed in total honesty when it came to relationships. Her pre wedding dinner was going to be a very interesting time.

"Where do you want to go?" the cab driver asked.

"Rainier, Hargrove Hall." she replied. Jessica was finally going to get her comeuppance for all those times she'd interfered in her relationship with Elias. She wanted to be there to see the moment when Elias finally realized that his daughter wasn't the little Miss Innocent he thought she was. Of course, Jim would be upset, maybe upset enough to blame Blair for introducing him to Jessica. She wouldn't be able to openly gloat without upsetting Elias but it would be something that she'd be able to use against Jessica in the future.

"Babe," Elias said entering Jessica's office, "I should have known that you would be involved." looking at Walter who was now sitting slumped against Jessica's desk.

"Dad, I can explain this..." Jessica began. Not very well though. How could she even begin to explain that Jim had totally lost it.

"There's nothing to explain," he assured her. "Now the question is how do we resolve this."

"He's being arrested and charged." Jim growled. He'd already said that he would take care of it so there was nothing to resolve as far as he was concerned. With the contacts he had in various agencies when the shit hit the fan he'd be well clear as would Jess. None of this would touch her.

After a little digging he was sure that his friends would be able to find more than enough evidence to put him away for a very long time.

"Elias, Jim has it all under control." Blair assured him.

"Well, if you need any help you only have to ask," Elias said, "I know some very good lawyers."

"I'll be fine." Jim assured him.

"As long as you're sure," he said, turning his attention to Walter. "Just who the hell do you think you are? Putting my baby's life in danger."

"Dad, Jim's dealt with him so it's over. Let it go, okay."

"I'll try but I'm not sure that I can," Elias admitted. "Not after seeing the hell you went through. I didn't spend night's walking the floor when you were a baby for that son of a bitch to take you away from me."

"I'm still in one piece," she said. "I won, he lost, end of story." She wasn't going to let what Walter had done ruin her life. There were too many good things going on in her life. He had no right to do that. Just like he'd had no right to let her walk straight into an ambush. Two of the agents who had died had been friends with Tommy. She'd never been allowed to make
friends with the other agents in the department. Now she understood why. How could she have been so naive and blind not to have seen what Walter had been up to before now. "You lousy rotten bastard, you've been planning this right from the beginning haven't you," she demanded moving to stand over Walter, "I trusted you and you left me with the monster." She punctuated each word with a vicious kick to his ribs.

"What?" Daryl asked when he saw the huge grin on Taz's face.

"The cat strikes back," she replied. "Dr. Angel's not in trouble anymore."

If anything it was the other way round, she thought. She certainly wouldn't want to be the person who was the hyena right now.

"Is this something I'm not going to understand?" he asked.

"Probably," she admitted, "but then, I'm not sure that I do either." Maybe there were going to be things that they weren't supposed to understand. She wasn't even sure why she'd become one. After all, she'd been trapped in a cave before and hadn't.

"So have I got one of these invisible animals?" Daryl asked.

"Yeah, it's a wolf cub," Taz replied. "It's really cute, sort of reminds me of you."

"You think I'm cute?" he said.

"Sure I do," she smiled. "That's not the only reason why I like you though. You're smart, funny, kind." He had a lot of great qualities. If he'd just been cute they wouldn't have stayed friends for very long because some girl like Melanie Warren would have taken him away from her. Even now it was possible that that could happen. If it did then it could mean her losing her
guide and she didn't want that to happen.

"I'm not as smart as you." he said.

"You are in your own way," she assured him, "and your dad is way cooler than Brian is about this whole sentinel thing. I mean he's willing to listen to us."

"Only because you stood up to him," Daryl reminded her. "Not many people do that."

"I only did it because I had to." she said. If she hadn't stood up to his dad things wouldn't have gotten any better.

"What happened to him?" Tommy asked seeing Walter on the floor when he entered Jessica's office with Brian and H.

"He resisted arrested." Elias replied.

"He's under arrest." Jessica said.

"On what charges?" H asked.

"Accessory to multiple homicides, perverting the course of justice, aiding and abetting," she replied, "and that's just for starters."

"Someone like that would resist arrest." H said. There was a lot more going on than just this guy resisting arrest, he thought, but he'd learned that it was better not to ask questions where Ellison was concerned. As far as he knew all he'd seen was a suspect in handcuffs.

"You have read him his rights haven't you?" Brian asked.

"Yes," Jim snapped. "Now could you get this piece of trash out of here."

"Sure, no problem," H said. "I guess we'll see you at the station." Simon would have something to say about this but that was Jim's problem not his.

"If he gives you any trouble shoot him." Elias said. "What?" he added when he saw the look on his children's faces.

"Dad, you hate violence." Tommy said.

"After what he did I'm prepared to forget," Elias said, "I don't like people deliberately hurting my baby's. Never have, never will."

(51)

Someone had a lot of explaining to do, Naomi thought when a very bruised and battered Walter was led past her by Rafe and H with Tommy following behind. The poor man had obviously been beaten. She'd always known that Jim was violent. With his background he couldn't be anything else. Considering what he'd done to that poor man Blair wasn't safe around him any longer.

Elias was going to have to be told about this so that he could get Jessica away from him. Who knew how long it would be before Jim turned violent towards her. If anyone should be led away in handcuffs in her opinion, it should be Jim Ellison, not Jessica's friend. Spotting Elias and Blair she rushed over to them.

"Where's Jessica?" she asked in mock concern. "He hasn't hurt her, has he?"

"No, Jim stopped him before he could." Elias replied.

"Jim..." she began. "That man couldn't possibly do anything to hurt Jessica."

"Mom, he was holding her at gunpoint." Blair said.

"I'm sure that it was just some silly misunderstanding," Naomi said dismissively. "They'll make up and things will be back to normal."

"Naomi?!? What are you talking about?" Elias asked.

"Jessica and her friend," she replied. "You mean that you don't know about their affair. I thought that Jessica told you everything."

"She does," he replied. "She would have told me if there was anything going on between her and that man."

"It's poor Jim I feel sorry for." she said.

"Naomi, you're not making much sense," Elias frowned. "Why do you feel sorry for Jim?"

"Because he's going to find out all about Jessica and that man," she replied. "You don't suppose that's why he beat him, do you?"

"Walter resisted arrest," Blair said. "Jim had no choice. The man had a gun and he was drunk."

"Sweetie, that's no excuse for violence." she said.

"How about the fact that that man is responsible for all the pain Jessica went through?" Elias asked. "He's also responsible for a lot of murders."

She should have known that Naomi would turn up, Jessica thought, leaving Hargrove Hall with Jim. That woman had no right saying what she was and she was going to put her straight. The truce she'd called stopped here and now.

She'd tried her best but if Naomi didn't want to abide by it then she wasn't going to either.

"Jim, let me deal with her," she said, placing a restraining hand on one of his arms, "because Blair's not going to be too happy with you if you hurt his mom." Not to mention the fact that Naomi was likely to file a complaint against him if he so much as laid a finger on her.

"Fine," he said, "Give me your gun."

"Do I have to?" she asked. Her gun was a part of who she was. It wasn't as if she was going to shoot Naomi because her dad would never forgive her if she did... Blair, either.

"If you trust me you'll give me it." Jim said.

"I do but..." Jessica began.

"I'm here. I won't let anything happen to you," he assured her. "I took care of him, didn't I?"

"You sure did." she smiled.

"So give me your gun because you don't need it anymore." he said.

"I guess not." she admitted as she hesitantly handed it over to him. At least, at the moment she didn't. There were going to be times when she would need one though. So she would have to get it back off him at some point.

Right now she was going to go over there and have it out with Naomi.

"Well, if it isn't Saint Naomi," Jessica said. "Here to preach against the evils of violence no doubt."

"Obviously you need to learn that violence isn't the answer," Naomi said, "Your friend..."

"He's never been my friend," she corrected. "In fact, he's a very dangerous man."

"Elias, I don't think that you should allow her to be involved with Jim any longer. The man's obviously unstable." Naomi said.

"There's nothing wrong with Jim," Elias replied. "And how did you know who that man was?"

"Well..." Naomi began, "I'm not the one who beat him."

"He resisted arrest." Blair said. His mom had gotten herself into this mess and she could get herself out of it as far as he was concerned.

"What would you rather Jim do? Let a dangerous drunk wander around freely?" Jessica asked.

"His civil rights have been violated." Naomi protested.

"What about the rights of the students here? Don't they have the right not be shot?" she asked. "If you feel that strongly about it I suggest you find a hotel to stay in. After all, you might get infected with my negative energy."

"Elias, are you just going to just stand there and let her talk to me like that?" Naomi demanded.

"Babe, this had nothing to do with you," Elias replied. "Jessie was in danger and you're more bothered about some stranger's rights. People like him don't deserve any."

"Mom, Jim did what he had to," Blair said. "Jess had already told this guy to leave her alone." He could hardly tell her that Jim had already had a go at him for harassing Jess. No matter what any of them said it wasn't going to make any difference to his mom.

"So, how did you know that guy was Walter?" Jessica asked. "And do you have any idea how much trouble you've caused by calling Jim's dad? Who gave you the right to do that?"

"I thought that it would be nice if we all got together." Naomi replied.

"Nice!" Jessica exclaimed. "You know what would be really nice? My punching your lights out. Only... I'm not going to because then I'd be sinking down to your level."

"You can't talk to me like that." Naomi protested.

"Yes, I can," she replied. "I want your crap out of my house and you out of my life." She then began walking away only to have Naomi grab hold of one of her arms.

"This isn't over..." Naomi began.

"It is now," Jessica replied spinning round and hitting Naomi in the face with her free hand. "Next time, maybe, you'll think twice about interfering in other peoples lives."

"Naomi, until you've meditated on this I think we should postpone the wedding." Elias said.

"Blair, Sweetie, I need somewhere to stay." Naomi sniffed.

"I think it would be better if you stayed at a hotel," Blair said, "Jim's not in a very hospitable mood at the moment." Which was a total understatement. Right now he wouldn't guarantee his mom's safety if she stepped foot in the loft. He supposed that he should consider Naomi lucky for getting off so lightly. If Jim had decided to get involved things could have turned out a lot nastier.

Eventually, Elias would forgive his mom for what she'd done. But neither Jim or Jess would be able to. Still, even after what had happened, he seriously doubted that his mom would think twice in the future before she started interfering in other people's lives.

"You know, I've always wanted to do that," Jessica said strolling towards where Jim's truck was parked. "Only I always thought that it would upset my dad.

"He didn't seem all that upset to me," Jim replied. Not that he could have been after what Naomi had said. "So how long were you holding that gun for?" he asked.

"From when he made me phone you," she replied. "I just didn't let him know that I had it. He really didn't believe me when I said that you'd come no matter what I told you."

"I knew that there was something wrong as soon as I heard your voice." He admitted. From that moment it had just been a matter of working out what was wrong. He'd quickly taken care of the problem once he'd known what it was; not to the extent he would have liked though. Still, that man would never be bothering anyone, let alone his mate, again. If he'd been allowed to deal with him properly the first time they'd met then the whole incident in her office would never have taken place. It was over and done with now though. So from now on they could concentrate on their relationship.

END