Part I

4 Weeks Later

Determination. Anger. Power. That's all her mind could register as punch after punch came at her. She raised her sore and bruised arms to block the incoming fists. She blocked another and swung out with her right striking the figure in front of her in the gut. The figure doubled over and took another hit to the jaw that sent her flying back.

Her feet carried her over to the fallen opponent; slowly and deliberately she placed a foot over their throat. She applied very light pressure.

"Do you yield?" The smirk playing on her lips got bigger as the woman below her foot nodded. She removed the foot and offered a gloved hand to her; she took it and she lifted her to her feet.

"You're getting better at this," Rain smiled and rubbed her sore jaw, "Think you actually might have bruised it. If you'd stop holding back I might have a broken jaw. I'm proud of you."

With a smile Max pulled her against her; Rain laughed and kissed the woman with vigor. Adrenaline from their 'battle' still raged inside them. They kissed each other with bruising force; both determined to have dominance over the other.

Rain grinned as she tore Max's shirt off of her body; Max growled in response and popped the button off Rain's torn jeans. She ripped the zipper right off its track and Rain laughed.

"Usted no va a ganar esta batalla, mi dulce Loca."

"English woman," Max pulled at Rain's shirt before Rain knocked her to the floor; she pinned her arms to the floor with one arm and teased her body with the other. Rain slipped a hand into Max's jeans and touched her softly. Max bucked her hips and let out a whimper.

The door burst open and Kaplan, with his titanium leg, barged in.

"Hate to stop you two, but Umbrella caught up to us," he rushed across the room and grabbed the packed bags they had. Rain stood up and pulled her pants up as best they could go with no button or zipper.

They got up and got dressed as fast as they could with their torn and damaged clothes. Max was biting her lip in absolute frustration and Rain was glaring daggers at everyone and everything (minus Max who she hadn't brought herself to look at). They grabbed the gear they'd had and rushed out of the abandoned building and into the militarized Humvee. With a spray of dirt, sand, and rocks they shot out of the drive.

-7 Weeks Previously-

A bruised and battered Rain had carried a near lifeless Max down the mountain while Carlos and Jill (whom, along with Angela, had been miraculously unhurt) assisted in helping Kaplan down the mountain along side her.

She'd lost a lot of blood and they weren't sure that she was going to make it. Rain would stop every few minutes or so to be sure that her Max was breathing. The worry and fear she felt was clearly evident on her face. It took them a couple of hours to make it down the mountain; it led them into a small mountain town that actually had a (small) but efficient hospital.

They had brought in Max under the story of a bad vehicle accident on the roads. Rain paced the hall and waved off all nurses and doctors trying to check her for wounds. Kaplan and Max were both in emergency surgery. They were trying to safely remove the helicopter chunk from Max's abdomen; they were trying to stop the blood flow from Kaplan's leg.

A doctor emerged from the room and walked out toward them, "Are you here for Chad?"

They only nodded in response before waiting, "He's going to be fine. Minus the leg. He's had a couple of blood transfusions and he's going to be out of it for a little while. He's got enough pain meds in him to knock out a small elephant."

"What about Max?" His head turned and he shook his head.

"It's touch and go; she lost more blood than he did and the bleeding won't stop, we're doing everything we can but there's a good chance she won't pull through."

Rain punched the wall and sat down; her fist hurt but she ignored it. The doctor tried to speak to her again but she ignored him as well. Nothing anyone could say or do would get through to her.

An hour or so later she was literally shaken out of her thoughts by Carlos. "Hey, Chad wants to see you."

With a nod she got up and stretched out her sore and numb limbs. Her feet carried her into the hospital room; Kaplan lay in the bed, a number of machines connected to him and an oxygen mask rested over his mouth. He pulled up his sheet and pointed at his leg.

"Did you tell them they took the wrong one?" Rain shook her head and let out a slight laugh before sitting in the seat next to his bed.

"Nope, they didn't believe me. But I can get an awesome titanium leg," Rain nodded along as he spoke about the titanium leg he could get.

"...they can rebuild me, they have the technology," Rain looked up at him and raised an eyebrow. He burst into laughter and shook his head.

"Anyway. Any word on Max?" The room went death silent.

"They don't think she's gonna make it, they won't let any of us in to see her," he nodded slowly.

"When she wakes up," Rain tried to correct him by saying 'if' but he held up a hand, "when, she wakes up. We're going to have to tell her this whole hospital thing every other week shit? It's gotta stop."

Rain actually let out a whole-hearted laugh and shook her head; Kaplan knew how to make her feel a little lighter, a little happier.

The door opened behind them and Angela walked in with a smile on her face, she touched Rain's arm and began to drag her out of the room. She looked back at Kaplan in confusion and he just smirked at her. She flipped him the bird before the door closed behind them.

"Where are you taking me Angela?"

Before Angie could respond there was a needle flying through the air and it imbedded itself into the wall not to far from them.

"Don't stick that fuckin' thing in me!" Any other time, this might be comical. Especially to a person with a dirty mind. Such as Rain.

The nurse flew out of the room in hysterics, clearly she wasn't used to being treated this way. Carlos rushed out behind her with a nice busted lip; he wandered over to Rain.

"Your girlfriend really doesn't like needles," he wiped the blood from his lip and stuck a tissue to it.

"What?" Rain frowned in confusion and looked at Angie who, despite all that had happened, still had it in her to laugh.

"Max woke up, and Max woke up mad," Rain blinked in even more confusion.

"Apparently, she woke up just after surgery, yelling about how she hated hospitals and needles. They tried to sedate her and well, I think you get what happened," as Carlos spoke two security guards ran into what she now knew was Max's room. Both Carlos and Rain looked at each other than hurried into the room where Max was throwing a fit. One of the security guards grabbed her and she hit him in the face with her elbow, then she grabbed the other guards hat and started to beat him with it.

"GET OFF OF ME!" Rain stood in shock before laughing her ass off. Carlos tried to get the hat away from her and she beat him with it instead.

Jill ran in and stopped at the sight, the doctor not far behind her.

"What the FUCK is going on here?" They all stopped and turned to look at the elderly nurse who'd followed the doctor in. Everyone went silent as she walked over to Max, took the hat, whacked her with it, gave it to the security guard and motioned for them both to get out.

It was only a few short minutes that Max was calmed down enough to just sit there and the others were all standing around awkwardly.

"Well now that we're all calm as can be," the elderly woman started, "despite our advice and warnings, she seems dead-set on leaving. And to keep our security guards from losing all dignity, we're going to let her. And please, leave soon."

Max smirked victoriously before being smacked upside the head by the elderly nurse again. They snickered at her before the nurse turned on them; it was instant silence and they prepared for them to leave.

Max, still very weak but also very pissed off, took the wheelchair the nurse had brought in for her and began to wheel toward the door.

"No no, I got that," Carlos got behind her and began to push the wheelchair. Kaplan was already waiting for them near the exit in his own wheelchair with Angela and Jill by his side. They had loaded him up with bandages, medication, crutches, amongst other medical supplies for tending to his leg.

As they made their way out to the parking lot, the nurse yelled at them about their not being a lawsuit or she'd whip some ass. They all laughed a little before realizing they didn't have a ride.

"Fuck me," Jill muttered and she looked at everyone, "Anyone got any money?"

Carlos pulled out a wallet from his pocket; he handed her the five dollar bill with a shrug.

LJ came running out from the hospital with a rather accomplished look on his face.

"Where the hell have you been?" Carlos stared at him waiting for his response.

"I got some tail, ya'll ready to go or what?" Max was pissed. Of course someone else would get laid before she could!

"We don't have a car-" Before Jill could complete her sentence LJ whipped out a set of keys and let them to an ambulance.

"You did not," Max scoffed and forgot all about being angry at LJ.

"I did. But we got to hurry, before-"

"LLOYD JEFFERSON WADE!" They all turned to see a very angry-looking black woman yelling and running after them.

"Ah hell," Carlos, Rain, and Jill managed to get the two cripples into the back and onto the gurney in a moment's time before pulling Angela in and slamming the bay doors shut. LJ started the ambulance and locked the doors just in time for the woman to pound on the side of the door.

"Get the hell out of my ambulance!"

"Sorry Betty!" He turned on the sirens and motioned that he couldn't hear her; he took off at high-speed.