Title: A Day of Firsts

Author: AnitaB

Author's Notes: This is a prequel of sorts to "Our Saturday Morning." I'd been wondering for a good long while about just how Jacob and Rachel got from where the series left them to a happy committed couple in love. Jacob finally decided to tell me at least part of it. Sometimes the only way to find out what you're missing is to realize it could all be gone without a moment's notice.

A Day of Firsts

By AnitaB

Chapter one: Reaction times

People had been telling him how quick his mind was for years. But never in all his life had his brain raced like it was right now. It was simply amazing how all the levels of unexplored emotions, the years of facts, and the present circumstances could boil down to a simple act and word. Every nerve, fiber, and cell in his entire body was in agreement and acted in concert.

"No!" Jacob Hood saw the gun in the instant before his body moved. His arms wrapped tight about Rachel's waist and dragged her hard against his chest, his back twisting to come between her body and the barrel of the gun. In that moment his nerves were running as fast as his brain. He could feel all of her small, warm body go tense against his ribs. He could also feel something even hotter burning its way into his back.

Weirdly enough, all he really felt was relief when the burning stopped deep in his shoulder but didn't make it all the way through to put Rachel at risk. Suddenly his knees gave way and he barely managed to keep her in his arms for the tumble to the ground. Any gunman good enough to make the shot would probably try for another. All he had to protect her with was his body as a shield. He'd already held her in his arms as she almost bled to death from a crossbow bolt to the thigh. Jacob would not, could not lose her again, would do anything to prevent it. No matter what it took.

The lights were fading, turning gray and hazy. Now he couldn't feel the wound in his back, but he could feel Rachel's small hands pushing at his chest. And then he couldn't feel anything at all.

"Jacob!"

//Rachel,\\

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People always said that time sped up during emergencies. But this was the first time Rachel had really had that experience. One second, they were talking to one of the responding officers, asking the normal thoughty questions. The next, Rachel was on the ground completely covered by Jacob's body and the smell of cordite was in the air.

It took her another second or two to feel something warm and wet dripping onto her neck from his shoulder. "Jacob!" He'd taken her bullet. Jacob Hood had seen it coming and had shielded her with every inch of his body. Jacob had done her job and taken her fucking bullet. If he died saving her, she was going to kill his ass.

Rachel pulled her gun and shoved at Jacob's chest enough to sit up. He slumped into her lap, making it hard to focus on the sights of her gun and the armed man on the other side of them. He could not be allowed to get off another shot. Once he was dead or handcuffed, then she could turn her full attention to the man bleeding in her lap. And if Jacob wasn't absolutely fine… there would be hell to pay. "If you don't want me to shoot you dead right now, get the fuck on the ground and don't even breathe while that officer handcuffs you. Do you understand me?"

Something in her face or her voice must have been as scary as she herself was feeling right now, because the man in front of her gun simply nodded silently and slowly, so slowly put down his gun and went flat on his stomach on the sidewalk. The officer waited for her nod before moving between her gun and the shooter to pull out his cuffs.

The dual metallic click freed her to focus on what really mattered. //Jacob, oh, god, Jacob.\\ Her breath caught and rushed in her throat as her fingers stumbled over his shirt buttons. She had to know how bad it was, had to see, had to stop the bleeding. "Somebody better get an ambulance here ASAP and I need a first aid kit." The entrance wound was very high in his back but there was no exit wound anywhere. Rachel hated the sight of his blood flowing over his skin, but at least it wasn't gushing. "Damnit, where's my first aid kit?" She wadded the cloth of his shirt against the hole in his shoulder, leaning on it with all her weight. "Jacob, if you die on me, I'm coming into the afterlife to kick your damn ass."

//Please, Jacob, please be okay.\\

000

He heard Dr. Hood yell before he heard the gunshot. Even then, Felix knew that only one thing could shove the man out of control that fast. Someone was shooting at Agent Young. He'd watched that scientist stay calm and logical through viral outbreaks, radiation scares, and god knew how many things that still didn't have a real explanation. But put Agent Young in even a little direct danger and the good doctor of reason lost his cool but damn quick. Felix sometimes wondered who was really bodyguarding whom in their little pax-de-deaux.

He was already moving across the parking lot towards the crisis when the next voice he heard cleared up the one question in his mind. "Jacob!"

They must've been trying for Agent Young, but that wasn't who caught the bullet. Felix passed the cop cars in time to watch the official FBI bodyguard raise her gun with her charge slumped across her lap, bleeding from a hole in his back. When he'd been standing, that point would be right about head height for the petite blonde with the gun.

Correction, for the scary as hell, violent blonde with the gun. "If you don't want me to shoot you dead right now, get the fuck on the ground and don't even breathe while that officer handcuffs you. Do you understand me?" Her gun hand was rock steady but the rest of her seemed to shake more with each drop of blood soaking into Jacob's shirt.

Felix wasn't at all surprised when the shooter nearly crapped his pants and followed her orders to the letter. The only man he'd ever seen who didn't cower before that look on her face was the one currently out cold in her arms.

Felix himself jumped to obey her, sprinting for the closest cop car and its first aid kit. When he got to her side, her gun was thrown to the ground and both her hands were putting pressure on the wound with what used to be the scientist's shirt.

He'd never seen her lose track of her weapon before. "The ambulance is on the way." He dropped to his knees and opened the kit. Agent Young didn't even look up when he handed her a big square of gauze and pulled the bloodied shirt from her grip. In a moment he realized why she wouldn't look up. A droplet of water fell to splatter against the blood on Dr. Hood's back. She was crying even as her hands moved smoothly and effectively fought to control the bleeding. "Agent Young." Her shoulders hitched and her fingers shook. But she still wouldn't look at him. "Rachel," Felix found his hand at her chin, tilting her face up as she bit her lip. "Rachel, he's going to be okay."

Her eyes flicked to his for just a moment before tracing the unconscious lines of Jacob's face pressed against her hip. "He better be, or I'm taking it out of his hide when he wakes up." He'd never heard her voice hold so much uncertainty or pain. "What the hell was he thinking, Felix, taking my bullet like that?"

"He'd do anything for you, Rachel. You know that." Felix brushed her hair behind her ear and rubbed a comforting hand over her back.

Her head dipped, her eyes trailing over the weirdly peaceful expression on Jacob's face. "Yeah, I know that." Rachel leaned down close to the man in her lap and cupped one hand along his jaw. "You listen up, Jacob, and listen good. We're not done here, you got that? You're not allowed to leave me like this, so you have to wake up. Full recovery, and I mean fast, Damnit."

In the distance, he heard the wail of the ambulance getting closer. Help was coming. And if Jacob knew what was good for him, he'd obey his little blonde's orders to the letter… just like everyone else did.

//Come on, man. She needs you now.\\

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