AN – was very remiss in not thanking Rachy Babes and kausingkayn for their reviews to chapter two. Than you, your encouragement really is always appreciated.
Seeing that more FF-ers are on Twitter now I am JuleeSand if you fancy a follow.
Jack had started moving forwards as soon as he had realised Jay's bullets were having no affect. By the time the bounty hunter pulled the trigger he was in front Jay and Ianto and he spun, wrapping an arm around them both. He pulled them close together in front of him, shielding them and took the full blast from the gun to his back. With a guttural scream his body arched as the pulse coursed through him.
Despite being protected from the worst of the pulse, Ianto and Jay were still blown out of his arms and both crashed to the ground.
The bounty hunter calmly surveyed the scene. The male Time Agent was definitely dead. The human was unconscious and wouldn't be going anywhere for a while. The female Time Agent was still alive though and would have to be dealt with.
Jay lay in a humming blackness. Something was nagging at the back of her mind. There was something happening. Something she should be remembering. Something important that she…
Her thoughts were cut off abruptly as she felt something close around her neck. She snapped back into consciousness as she felt her body being lifted by whatever it was that had a strangle hold on her throat.
She opened her eyes, forced them to focus, her hands rising instinctively to wrap around the thick wrist in front of her. Jay fought for breath as she was lifted up and up and up until her legs were dangling off the ground. She fought off the unconsciousness that was trying to claim her again, and lowered a hand to her holster, blindly groping for a gun that wasn't there.
"Looking for these?" sneered the bounty hunter. He kept her aloft in the air and leant over to pick up one of her fallen guns from the ground.
Still fighting the blackness that threatened to overwhelm her Jay noticed that his amour plated scales shifted slightly as he moved. She reached her hand down to her leg. If she could get her knife's blade between two of the scales she might be able to do enough damage to give them an edge.
"I don't think so." said the bounty hunter as he straightened.
Her hand was batted out of the way and she felt her knife being removed its sheath. She heard a slight thump as it hit the soft earth beneath them. She raised her arm to uselessly claw at the hand around her throat again. The bounty hunter was actually easing off the pressure now, squeezing hard enough to make her have to fight for breath, but not enough to allow her to pass out.
The bounty hunter pushed his face close to hers and leered. "I'm going to have some fun with you."
With a snap of his arm he flung Jay away from him. She landed heavily on the ground a few feet away. Her hands flew to her throat and she lay still, panting, trying to get breath back into her lungs and clear her head. In her dazed state she didn't notice that the bounty hunter was levelling her gun at her.
"Let's play target practice."
Jay barely had time for her slowed brain to register what he had said when she heard the rapport of the gun, a split second before she felt the searing heat of the bullet penetrating her side, just above the hip. She yelled out in agony and her hands flew to the wound. She looked up at the bounty hunter, her face contorted in anger.
"Why don't you just get on with it? Stop toying with me."
The bounty hunter smirked back at her. "Where would the fun in that be?"
"Don't you get paid by the kill rather than by the hour?" Jay sneered back at him.
"You're right. Maybe I should just get on with it then."
"No!" Ianto shouted. Suddenly he was standing between Jay and the bounty hunter. Focused on each other, neither of them had noticed Ianto come round and move close to them.
"Ianto, get out of the way." commanded Jay.
"No." said Ianto again, standing tall on still slightly shaky legs.
"Human, I have no quarrel with you and will not get paid for your kill. I am willing to let you live. But get in my way and I will not hesitate to dispatch you too."
"No." repeated Ianto, he voice low. He raised his arm, holding his gun out towards the bounty hunter, as useful as a toy now.
"Ianto get out of the fucking way!" shouted Jay. But Ianto stood defiantly in front of the bleeding woman, staring the bounty hunter in the eye.
"Very well human."
"Oh lookie." A familiar voice came from behind them. "My gun's bigger than yours."
Before Jay or Ianto could turn around, the bounty hunter exploded in a cloud of blood, flesh and gristle.
"Oh, that is disgusting." said Ianto.
They turned around to see John Hart standing behind them, huge gun cradled in his arms, and smirking at them.
"Well, look who we have here. You are the last person I expected to see. And Eye Candy! Knew you couldn't keep away from me."
"We've come to rescue you." said Jay through gritted teeth, still on the ground.
"Really? Looked more like I was rescuing you."
"Shut up." said Jay and moved to try to stand up. Seeing her wince in pain Ianto reholstered his gun and moved to hold out an arm to help her.
John looked over at Jack still sprawled on the floor. "He still doing the coming back to life thing?"
"Yes." answered Ianto, still holding Jay steady.
"Right-ho." John leaned down and hauled Jack over his shoulder in a fireman's lift with an ease that defied his slender frame. "Let's go back to mine until everyone's breathing again shall we?"
He turned and started walking towards the buildings they had been heading for.
Ianto released Jay for a second and making sure she was steady on her feet, stooped to pick up all the fallen weapons, including Jay's gun that was next to a sticky pile of ex-bounty hunter. He slipped Jack's Webley into his waist band and pocketed Jay's guns. Studying her knife in his hand for a second, he walked back to Jay and slid the blade back into its sheath on her thigh. He straightened up, his body close to hers, his hand on her back, supporting her.
Jay brought an arm across her body and wrapped her hand in the fabric at the front of his jacket, their faces almost level. Despite himself Ianto's breath caught in his throat momentarily, Jay's scent, that he had tried so hard to forget, filling his senses again; the heat of her body close to his. Jay tugged at his jacket, pulling him down so her mouth was level with his ear.
"Put yourself between a weapon and me again and I will kill you myself." she whispered, her voice low and threatening.
She released his jacket and pushed him roughly away from her. Her other hand still pressed firmly against her wound she followed John.
Taking a deep, shaky breath, Ianto followed.
********
John entered the larger of the small cluster of buildings that stood alone surrounded by the barren looking farm land. The windows were all boarded up as was usual when the inhabitants left for the Other Side. The interior of the dwelling was furnished basically, but oddly human in its style. Without much sympathy John threw Jack's body down onto a straw stuffed sofa and moved through the large room. As Jay walked in behind him, he pointed her over to a large wooden table at the other side of the room.
"Get up there."
Jay was in too much pain to argue and ignored all else to pull herself up onto the table.
Ianto entered the building and headed straight over to Jack. Pulling up Jack's body, he sat himself down and laid Jack's head and shoulders on his lap. Not for the first time he settled down to wait for him to wake up.
He watched as John picked up a canvas bag and walked over to Jay. John pulled out an unlabeled glass bottle of a clear liquid and passed it to Jay.
"For the pain."
Jay unstoppered the bottle and took a swig. The liquid was foul, she hadn't had a drink like this for a couple of galaxies, the sting of ethanol almost unbearable. It caught in her throat making her wince. Screwing her eyes up she gasped as she tried to swallow the foul stuff, her mouth burning.
While she was drinking John gently pulled the waist band of her trousers down.
"Oi, watch it."
"I'm just looking." John gave her a lecherous grin, but his tone was genuine. Jay lifted her head to peer at her wound too. The bullet was definitely still in there, but from the position shouldn't have hit anything too vital. And although she had certainly been losing blood, it wasn't heavy enough for any internal bleeding to be joining the party.
Jay made a sound of disgust at another bullet wound before leaning back again. Raising the bottle to her lips once more she took a longer drink. The foul liquid hit the back of her throat, again making her gasp and wince, her eyes shut tight.
Taking advantage of her distraction John produced the forceps that he had palmed from the bag and thrust them into Jay's wound. With a loud cry Jay's eyes shot open and her head jerked up. The bottle slammed onto the table and she shot out a hand and grasped John around the neck, squeezing and pulling her down towards him. Her other hand went to her knife and she pressed it against his face.
John smirked at her and held up the forceps between their bodies, the bloodied bullet held between the two prongs. Breathing heavily from the shock of the pain Jay looked from John's eyes to the bullet and back. Pushing him away from her she released John's neck. She lifted the bottle back to her lips and took another long pull of the liquid.
John reached back into the bag and pulled out a canister of second skin which he sprayed onto the wound. Jay looked down and watched as the spray melded with her own skin, smoothing over as if the bullet had never been there.
"Thank you." she said quietly.
"Thank you for coming for me." John looked up at her as he straightened her clothes, his face was serious.
"Well, I'm glad you're not dead yet."
John held her eye for a moment before he straightened, the familiar half smirk once again settling on his face.
"Captain John Hart."
"Professor Jay Hunter." replied Jay to his unspoken question.
"Professor?"
Jay smiled. "I was always the clever one."
John's retort was cut off by a gasp coming from the sofa.
Jay and John looked over to see the life flooding back into Jack as he held on tightly to Ianto.
"He always has to steal the show doesn't he?" Jay grinned back at John's comment.
Ianto looked down at Jack, his brow furrowed with concern. "You okay?"
"Yeah. Bit tingly, but fine."
Ianto glanced over towards Jay and John who had inexplicably found something else to start bickering about.
"So what's the story with them? Were they partnered together too?"
Jack chuckled. "Only once. They're too similar. Nearly killed each other before they got anywhere near their mark."
Jay was now trying to get off the table protesting that she felt fine, but John was insisting that she lay still and let him examine her for any further injuries. Jack leapt in, fearing it was about to come to blows.
"Oi. You two. We need to decide what to do next. The bounty hunters probably know we're here too now and next time it won't just be one coming after us."
"So, can we get out of here? Do your wrist straps still work?" Ianto asked.
Jay studied hers, pressing buttons experimentally and pulled a face of disgust.
"No. It's being blocked. Jack?"
"No, mine too. They definitely know we're here then."
"What about the one the bounty hunter had?" asked Ianto
Jay and Jack looked at each other aghast. How had they forgotten that?
"You're right Ianto," said Jack, leaping up, "he teleported in so they can't all be blocked. We just need to retrieve it from the body."
"I'll go." said Ianto, "We at least know that they won't just shoot me on sight."
"We can't let you go out there Ianto." said Jay.
"Yes you can." insisted Ianto. "I'll be back in two minutes."
Ianto walked to the door ignoring the arguments coming from behind him. Opening the door he peeked outside, then stepped into the sunshine. Abruptly, he took a step backwards into the dwelling again and shut the door.
"So there are no other inhabitants on this side of the planet right?"
"Right."
"Okay, so a dust cloud that looks like it's made by approaching vehicles isn't a good thing?"
Jack ran over to the door and looked out. "No. No, that is not good."
"Another welcoming committee. Lovely." said Jay. She turned to John. "Do we have anyway of getting away from here?"
"There's two bikes in the barn and two prairie horses in the paddock behind. There's only a few fields now between us and a forest. If we can make it to the cover of the trees on the bikes and horses we can outrun the vehicles and get to the town on the other side of the forest."
"Right. Jay and John, you're smaller and lighter than us so you'll be able to get more speed out of the horses. Ianto and I will take the bikes."
"Ah. I've never driven a bike. I don't know how." The three Time Agents looked at Ianto.
"Never? Shame you'd look good in leather." said John
"Have I never shown you? Why didn't Jay teach you? She likes bikes." asked Jack.
"I just always assumed you just preferred holding on to me." She looked at the questioning look Jack was giving her. "What? I'm good to hold onto."
"The holding on was good." said Ianto in a deadpan voice "but it doesn't help our immediate situation."
"Well, have you ever ridden a horse?"
"Only once, but I from what I remember they don't have gears and a clutch. They're a bit more stop and go. I think I'll be better on a horse."
"Right." said Jay. "Ianto and I will take the horses and…"
"No," Jack interrupted. "I'll go on the horses with Ianto. You and John take the bikes." He gave Jay a look that said he wasn't to be argued with.
John had been watching this exchange with some interest, he was clearly missing something, but this was not the time.
"As fun as this is, shouldn't we be escaping now?" he said.
Jay and Jack broke their deadlock gaze and muttered agreement.
"You just look after him." Jay gave Jack a parting shot as they moved to run out of the back of the building towards the outhouse that stored their only means of escape.