Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters from the CBS show Jericho. All OFCs are mine though. I do not earn anything from writing these stories, in fact the only thing you might get if you sue me would be my four troublesome kids and they are only worth something to me.

Timeline : 200x1129 Bombs 60

Warnings : Mild language and imagery.

Summary: At the moment I'm not sure how long this is going to go for or really what is going to happen. All I know is that I didn't want to tempt fate by either doing an H/J story or God forbid an E/J one. So I decided to bring in a totally different character, who will meet Jake and who knows what will happen… I do know that I'm paying Emily back for her disregard of Roger in this though! But that's just me; I'm an evil girl ;)

This is Alternate Universe with Alternate Characters, although I might touch on the canon version sometimes just to ground myself with the time line. I'm terrible at forgetting what I write!

Feedback : Yes please! The more the better!

Chapter 2

The rag tag group stumbled into Jericho one or two at a time. The group had tried to stay together for the last leg of the walk, but it was the promising thought of rest, food and water that had spurred some to stumble along faster than others.

Roger, Riss and Jessica were now walking in the middle of the crowd with the children when they came across the town square. Some of the townspeople had already run outside to help with the front of the crowd, and people were slowly being taken indoors.

Riss could feel her feet slowly giving up on her as she measured steps under her breath.

"One…Two…Three…" The counting went on, until she reached the well lit area outside of Baileys Tavern.

Beside her she felt Roger stop dead and Riss looked over at him to see what was going on. She saw him just staring at an extremely attractive blonde girl who was staring straight back at him like she had seen a ghost.

The blond girl was standing with a group of other people who looked as shocked as she did. Slowly but surely Roger started walking again and increased his pace until he was standing in front of the blond girl. Riss could only imagine from the photo he had shown her and from his descriptions along the way that this was Emily, his fiancée.

Riss just stood there, unsure of what to do or say, until she collapsed in a heap on the ground. She could hear Jessica's voice beside her calling for help, but it didn't really register. All she knew was that they had reached Jericho, the kids were with her, and Roger had found his fiancée. That's all that mattered.

Gail Green saw the girl carrying the skinny youngster collapse on the ground, and heard the cries of the girl standing next to her fallen friend calling for help. She didn't waste a minute in getting over there, bending down to check her pulse and handing the young girl in her arms off to the girl standing there.

"Eric…Eric!" Gail's call became a little more frantic as she called for her youngest son to come help her.

He ran up to them, knowing that these people needed help, water and food and they needed it now. This wasn't something that could wait.

"Eric, we need to get her to the hospital now. April needs to look at her. And we need to get these children some help too." Gail noticed the older girl standing at the side of her mother in a trance-like state.

"Honey, what's your name?" Gail didn't try more than one question at once; she knew that if she had, the girl probably would have been overloaded.

"My name is Jessica, can you help mummy? Her name is Narissa. Please help her!" The little girl gave Gail a pleading look; something Gail had seen in her own children's eyes when they really needed her help with something urgent.

"Of course sweetie, of course we can." Gail fought back the tears at the haunted look in this little girl's eyes and the downtrodden look of all these people. God knows how long they had been walking to get to Jericho.

Gail thought she had seen Roger in this crowd too, and looked around, then finally found him standing wrapped up with Emily and a little boy in his arms that she had seen him come in with. She noticed something straight away though, and it brought a slight frown to her forehead. Jake was walking one of the other refugee men towards the clinic, but his eyes were fixated on Emily and Roger.

She just shook her head at the scene; there would be time to talk to Jake later about the things she had seen going on with him and Emily lately. All she knew that Emily wasn't good for him, that was the way it was before he went away for all those years, and it was the same now he was back as far as Gail was concerned. Besides she had a fiancé, who had come back to her now, and God help her if she wasn't thankful for that after all the people who had lost loved ones.

Gail got up off her knees from beside the girl she now knew as Narissa and grabbed Jessica's little hand. Leading the way with Eric scooping Narissa up and following, she took the little parade to the clinic. Even though it was still packed in there with all the people getting help, Gail knew just where she could find a room.

Over the other side of the street Roger was talking to Emily. More to the point Roger was being hugged by Emily so tightly he didn't think he could breathe.

"Em, I'm so glad to see you! I thought we were never going to get here!" He just stood back and looked at her. Apart from a few worry lines over her face she looked near perfect to him. He hadn't seen her for so long that the sight was like heaven to him.

"Oh Roger, I thought you weren't coming back!" Emily threw herself into his arms again and only then noticed the little toddler he was carrying.

A little suspiciously she looked at him.

"Whose toddler is that?" Emily looked at him expectantly, wanting him to answer her. He had just opened his mouth to speak when Jessica walked over to them.

"Roger! They have taken Riss off to the clinic here in town; I'll take Dominic off your hands now so you can get reacquainted with your fiancée." Jessica winked at him, gave him a quick kiss on the cheek and walked off with Dominic in her arms. Even she was feeling the pressure of walking for so long, but she wanted to get Dom taken care of before she could find rest herself.

Roger was glad they had Riss at the clinic and made a mental note to go and visit her later. He had a chuckle to himself as he thought 'Yeah, when I can walk by myself that is.'

Emily just raised her eyebrows at Roger and supported his weight as they walked slowly to the medical clinic. There would be time for questions later she thought. Right now she was just glad to have him back.

Riss woke up a few hours later; she could tell it was nowhere near dawn by the lack of light in the room. She took stock of herself, and then realized she was lying in a hospital bed. Looking down at her hand she saw an IV needle sticking out of it. 'Where the hell am I?' She thought long and hard for a moment and then as she moved her feet and legs the pain in them brought her back to the present with a hard yank.

She remembered coming into Jericho and then she remembered collapsing. Her next thought was for the kids. Riss shot bolt upright from laying down in one step and nearly fell off the bed with the dizziness that assailed her.

"Hey, take it easy honey." Gail rose up from the chair where she had been sitting in the corner of the darkened room. Riss hadn't noticed her there when she first woke up, and the effect of being spoken to out of the darkness caused a little scream to emit from her throat.

Gail rushed over to her. "Hey, it's ok…" She soothingly patted Riss's shoulder underneath the hospital issue gown. She was surprised at how thin the girl was, but then she couldn't expect much else after her walking for 8 weeks across Kansas.

"You are here at the clinic in Jericho sweetie. My name is Gail Green. I'm the mayor's wife; it was one of my sons, Eric and I that brought you in here when you collapsed on the street."

Riss just looked at her with a confused look on her face, which slowly gave way to a panicked one as she realized her babies weren't in the room with her.

"Where are my children? I came in with my son and two daughters. Mrs Green, please tell me where they are!" The look on Rissa's face developed into a horrified, haunted look that Gail hadn't seen on anyone's face for a long time.

"They are in the children's ward honey, they are fine. We are keeping the girls under observation and they have a drip on your little boy putting fluids and antibiotics into him at the moment. He is fine though; just a little overheated and dehydrated." Gail hoped that would pacify her for the moment, she knew that Narissa needed rest more than anything else to be there for her children when the time came.

Riss wasn't happy though, she needed to see her children. She started to swing her legs over the side of the bed and Gail protested at her moving.

"No, please, don't get out of bed. You need rest. I can assure you that your children are being looked after the best that we can. Your friend Jessica is up there sleeping in the same room as them if that helps you to feel better…" Gail was worried that Riss would get out of bed anyway. She didn't need to be up; in fact Gail couldn't guarantee that she would even be able to stand up on her own anyway.

Just as Riss was struggling to get out of bed, Jake came into the room.

"Mum… You know…" He started to say something but noticed Gail struggling to keep Riss in bed, and his words trailed off.

He rushed over to add his presence to his mothers and hopefully stop whatever was going on.

Putting his hands on Riss's shoulders he pushed her gently back on the bed. He could see that she was really upset and determined about something, but until he found out what it was, he wasn't taking any chances.

Riss was partly shocked and partly calmed by his sudden presence. She obediently lay back in the bed; there really wasn't much she could do with two people to hold her down. Riss had hoped that she could convince Gail to let her go to the children's ward and look at the kids, but something told her she should wait until this man had spoken to her first.

"Hey there." Jake spoke in a gentle voice to the girl, not wanting to scare her any further if that was what the matter with her was. "How are you doin'?

Riss was a little dumbstruck for a moment. Then she suddenly returned to her senses and spoke in a dull voice to Jake.

"Please I just want to see my kids. I want to know they are ok. I haven't been parted from them in so long." The tears started to appear in her eyes, and to her surprise she saw an answering sympathy in the man's eyes as he looked down at her.

"I'm Jake, Gail here is my mom and I can totally assure you that the kids are doing fine. You need to rest though, it's important you do, after what you have been through." He gave her a small what he hoped was a reassuring smile, but it turned out to be more a tilt of one side of his mouth.

"I'm Rissa. I don't…You don't… "She started to cry in earnest to her embarrassment.

'Both of them will think I'm nuts' Riss thought to herself... Pulling herself together was a major achievement especially with the two sets of eyes, one set blue like her own, and the other set dark brown.

'His eyes are nearly black.' She thought to herself and then shook herself mentally at her frivolous thoughts as she struggled for breath in between her sobs. Riss could feel the empathy in both the gaze of Gail and Jake as her words started to fall out on top of themselves.

"I…. What…." Riss started to speak again and even as she did, found it too hard to try to get the words out. Jake gently grabbed her hand and held it for reassurance.

Riss took a deep breath before she started to speak. "What I saw out there, what we had to do to survive, and the people we lost. All this makes it all the more important that my kids are ok. I know it seemed like nothing to everyone before the bombs went off, because life was simple then, but love and family now are the two most important things to me at the moment. And if they aren't to everyone else too, then they should be. I just want you to know where I'm coming from and why I really want to see my kids." Another deep breath was needed after all that. And she wasn't sure if it had come out sounding too hard, as she saw tears rising in Gail's eyes.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry… I didn't mean for that to come out sounding like that, it's just that… I'm in a strange place with people I don't know, and I feel a little off kilter." Riss spoke again in a hurried voice hoping that she hadn't offended anyone.

Gail came back over towards her side and smoothed her hair back from her forehead. Somehow just the simple gesture served to make Riss feel more at peace. It was like Gail's touch was the mother's touch that she had never known herself, and that she was determined her kids would have forever.

"It's really ok, I understand. I know what it's like out there. I know what it's like to send my boys out to scout the roads wondering if they will ever come back again…" Gail stopped and Riss watched as her and Jake shared a meaningful look…

"All I ask is that you trust us, put a little trust in the fact that I know what it's like to have a mother's love towards her children , and I will try and do the best I can to help you…" Riss and Gail just looked at each other and a silent understanding was struck then and there. Neither of them knew how much it would mean in the future though, but for the moment and for Riss it was reassurance enough for her.

Settling back in the bed, with her qualms at rest for just a little while, Riss realized how tired she really was. Gail took a look at Jake and motioned him outside as Riss fell asleep again, lulled into a sense of safety for the first time in weeks.

Gail and Jake stood outside the hospital room door. She was trying not to show her worry about this young mother above all the rest of the other refugees that had came in that night.

"Jake, I think we need to do something here. I know her friend Jessica is over with the children in the ward there, so really we have to make sure she doesn't try to get out of bed again and go to visit them without help. I don't want her to be alone either when she wakes again, so I think we need to do something about sitting with her. I know April doesn't have time for that stuff, and I guess until Bonnie and a few of the other volunteers come in tomorrow it's you and I that have to do it." Gail looked closely at Jake, monitoring his reaction. She knew he was a good man, who would do his best for anyone, but she also knew that he might not have any interest in sitting with a refugee that was going to put added strain on the town's supplies.

"Hey mom, that's ok. You take the first shift and I will come in about 3 or 4am and take the next one. Just try to get some sleep ok? I don't want you wearing yourself out." Jake pressed a kiss to the top of his moms head, casting his eyes back to the slight figure sleeping in the bed in the dark hospital room. Somehow he didn't mind the idea of sitting with her and chasing away some of the demons as much as he thought he would.

Watching his mother go back into the room with Narissa he exited the corridor into the brisk night outside to head to Baileys where the rest of the refugees were being looked at. He knew he would find his dad there, and probably Eric too, sorting out the rest of them. They all needed places to stay, food, water and other supplies, and he had a moment of panic worrying about where it was all going to come from.

Jake shook himself mentally before he entered Baileys and reminded himself not to jump the gun on worrying about these things. One thing at a time…

To be continued.