Pepperwood held the hankie to his leg, pushing down on the pain. His assistant was speaking with the desk asking yet again how long it was gonna take for them to get to her boss's leg.

"You don't understand, he is bleeding onto the floor. Look, there is actual blood spots under him."

Pepperwood cringed at the eyes he now felt looking at him with sympathy.

"He needs to see a doctor right now."

"Like I told you before, we are slammed right now from a chemical fire. If he is not in critical condition, he can wait with the others."

She turned in a huff and returned to her seat next to Pepperwood.

"Sorry boss, I guess you're gonna have to sit here a bit longer. Can I get you anything" she said looking up into his eyes with her giant blue orbs that sometimes scared him with their clarity.

"No doll, I'm good." Of course he was lying. He actually was feeling light headed and the blood on his hands and legs was starting to make him feel nauseous.

"You don't look so good. You are turning really pale. Here, let me see if I have something to eat in this bag of mine."

Pepperwood was all too familiar with Jessica's bag. She had often times saved the day by pulling out a roll of duct tape or sewing kit just when they needed it. Her bag deserved security clearance for all it could do for espionage around the world.

"Yeah, I remember now I packed us some lunch for the stakeout in case we couldn't get away."

In true form, she pulled out a small cooler from her bag the size of her actual torso. Inside was a sandwich for each of them, some grapes and homemade cookies.

"Now eat" she told him forcefully. He couldn't quite do it. He didn't want to touch the food with his bloody hands and he was feeling too tired to get up and wash them. He looked at her pleadingly from under his baseball cap.

"Come on dollface, help a guy out."

"OK, you big baby" perfectly understanding his puppy dog eyes as well as the dangerous situation she felt like he was now slipping into. She held up the sandwich to his mouth while he took a bite. "Now, you're gonna eat all of this food while we wait for the bozos that run this hospital to get their act together or I'm taking you home myself to stitch that leg up!"

Two hours had passed and Pepperwood was now resting on Jessica's shoulder. He had eaten his lunch and she gave him two Tylenol while he waited. She was worried about the swelling but the cut had stopped bleeding.

Finally fed up she made a decision. She was going to take Pepperwood home. She had worked in a vet office for a short time and had coerced the doctor to teach her how to stitch the dogs and cats. She practiced at home from time to time on raw chicken just to keep her skills in tip top shape in case of incidents such as this.

"Pepperwood" she shook him. It's time to get up. Come on, I'm taking you home.

Her apartment was small but neat. It smelled like baking and roses, just like she did every morning when she showed up for work. Pepperwood always envisioned her flying to France to mix her own perfumes using actual cookie extra in her hand made parfume.

His arm was around her neck as he hopped over to her couch. Before he sat he realized he was covered in blood and didn't want to get it all over the place. She saw his dilemma and went in the other room coming back with towels and blankets to lay on the couch.

"Lay down now. We are gonna need to see what you did here."

He laid down on her soft couch that enveloped his body like a hug. He was so very very tired for just sitting at the hospital all morning. He was dizzy as well and feeling really thirty.

Jessica seeing him lick his lips came back to the coffee table with a pitcher of water and a glass. "Here, whenever you need it. Now lie down."

"You are one bossy lady right now."

"You are one stupid man right now."

"Yeah, you got me on that one."

That morning they had been watching a cheating husband come out of his mistresses house. Jessica had been taking photos when the man got out of range. Pepperwood had grabbed the camera from her and run across the street before the man could see him. Hiding behind a tree he zoomed in on the guy just as he turned around and saw Pepperwood. He began to run.

He still didn't know why he did it. Maybe it was all that training on the force in Chicago but he started chasing him. The guy was in great shape. Pepperwood was no sloucher. He had ton ten situps just this morning. Not too shabby he thought.

Turning into an alley, the man hopped over a cyclone fence as if he was filming a parkour video. Pepperwood not to be out manned shimied up the fence as well and hopped over only to get caught on the metal teeth at the top. He felt them slide through his pants and rip down his upper thigh like a knife. The pain was ridiculous and the sound of the blood dripping out didn't help. Jessica came around and saw him hanging by his thigh and immediately swung into action getting him down within a minute. He muttered under his breath "I got this cupcake" the whole time. He swore she pulled a ladder out if her purse although his memory was a bit foggy.

Now he sat on her couch feeling like he might puke while also looking down the front of her dress while she examined his leg. Jessica Knight had a stellar rack. It could defy gravity as he had proven on several occasions where they had to climb under trucks or run after bad guys. Pepperwood had made it his mission in life to see if those boobies ever moved, or jiggled, or danced, or saluted at attention. The day they did, he would make sure he was there. He was pretty sure he could die a happy man after that.