Author's Note: Sorry about the massive delay in posting. Having to rewrite the entire story plot line along with a chapter inbetween tests and 12 hour works shifts...bleh. Time consuming. Anyways, hope you enjoy and as always read and review :D

Chapter 6

Recover

Days passed as Kerrigan and Raynor both healed from their various injuries and worked on changing their appearance so as to not be quite so recognizable. Kerrigan looked at her naked self in the mirror and at the various Zerg tentacles still attached to her skull and sighed. Jim had already gotten his own shave and a haircut so now it was her turn so she picked up the scissors and began removing the remaining signs of Zerg infestation. As the various tentacle like objects fell away her hair began to look more like what it used to, red strands filling up the gaps where the tentacles used to be. She ran a hand through her hair and grimaced. It was thin in the spots where she had just cut out the tentacles but the base of red hair was there. With her hair so short she was limited with what she could do so she gave up on having her usual ponytail for a bit and instead trimmed all her longer strands down to even it out with the rest.

As she placed the scissors on the edge of the sink the floor was covered in short red strands of hair but her head was covered quite nicely by a nice layer of hair as much in a pixie cut as she could make it by herself. The door to her and Jim's room slid open and Jim himself walked into the bathroom, wrapping his arms around her naked waist and pulling her into his embrace. She leaned her head back and looked at Raynor's clean-shave face, smiling. "Well don't you look different," she said as she ran a hand over his smooth jaw and chin.

"Different? Couldn't you have at least said handsome?" Raynor joked as he kissed the top of her head. She let out a rather girlish giggle and wiggled out of his arms, flaunting her nudity as she made her way back into the main part of the room that Yohan had set up for them in the laboratory. Instead of the usual medical equipment Yohan had brought in a doublewide bed, a dresser and change of clothes, and a nightstand with a lamp. She flopped down on the bed, crossing her legs and stretching her thin body out luxuriously, every curve accentuated in the low lighting of the room. Raynor stepped over to the doorway of the adjoining bathroom and simply enjoyed the view as Kerrigan laid there.

With a sigh Kerrigan sat back up and locked eyes with Raynor. "Alright Mr. Handsome, what do you say about my new hair?" she asked. Raynor walked over and sat down behind her on the bed, letting her lean back against his chest as he kissed her on the top of the head.

"You look beautiful, darling. Always have always will," he said.

Kerrigan snorted. "You woulda said that if I had just shaved it all off too, wouldn't you?"

"Of course. What else do you tell a woman who can rip you apart with her mind?" Raynor joked. Kerrigan reached behind her and smacked the side of his head with her hand. Raynor just laughed again as he started to stand back up but was stopped half way by a hand on his leg. Kerrigan looked up at Raynor through long eye lashes, her breasts practically brushing his hand resting on the bed. The last few days the two of them had spent in a love infused fog as their bodies slowly recovered enough to fill their physical desires for each other. Raynor remembered that for the most part Kerrigan had had to do most of the work since his body hadn't fully recovered yet and he was amazed at the things that lithe body could do and was eager to return the favor. "Hmm? Something you want, missy?" he asked playfully.

Kerrigan climbed her way on top of him until he laid down on the bed, her breasts brushing his chest as she straddled him. Kerrigan suddenly squealed as Raynor flipped the two of them over so that he was on top and she looked at him in surprise. Raynor's only response was to grin as he began to kiss down her neck and between her breasts, a low moan coming from her throat as he continued his way down her stomach. She eagerly began to tug at his shirt until he removed it along with his pants before the two of them lost themselves in the fog once again.

Some time later the two of them laid not moving on the bed, Raynor still on top but both of them out of breath. Kerrigan recovered first and muttered into his ear. "Well that was something new. Where'd that energy come from? Don't tell me I've been doing all the work for nothing these past few days."

Raynor chuckled through heavy breathing. "Trust me darling, that's nothing compared to what I can do when I'm not a cripple."

"I look forward to it then. You're amazing already so I can't wait to see what you can do when you're back to your old self." Raynor lifted himself off of Kerrigan with his arms and rolled over onto his back, still recovering from the exertion. Kerrigan scooted over and rested her head on his chest, feeling the strength she was so used to return with almost every breath he took. After a few minutes Raynor rolled off the bed and began to get dressed again as Kerrigan began to get her own clothes from the dresser to put them on. Raynor put his usual white shirt, brown vest, and blue jeans back on and stamped his feet into his boots before he headed for the doorway as Kerrigan finished pulling on one of the shirts Yohan had provided for her. A white T-shirt with a rose starting at her left breast with the stem wrapping around to end at the bottom right of her shirt. Raynor turned to look at his girl appreciatively and could only shake his head at the wonder that a gal like that would fall for a washed up soldier like him. Kerrigan noticed him looking and gave him a short dance before heading over to join him at the door. "Ready?"

Raynor took her hand in his and walked out the door as they headed towards the main part of the lab where Yohan spent most of his time. As the two arrived they saw Yohan working at a console with a new arrival, a young blond man with a slender figure and wearing a lab coat similar to Yohan's over a civilian Dominion uniform. "Who's this, Doc?" Raynor asked as they approached.

Yohan looked up from his work and blinked a few times behind his glasses. "Oh, this is Tom Barkley. He's my assistant. He's actually the one who kept an eye on you while hooked up to the machines the first night and made sure your body didn't give in to the side effects."

"Ah. Well then I owe you a debt of gratitude, friend. My name is Jim Janeswell, pleasure to meet you." Raynor said as he put his hand out for a handshake that Barkley took hesitantly.

"I just followed the doctor's orders. Really it was that suit of yours that kept you alive for the most part. Marvelous feat of engineering that was. Whatever happened to that suit?" Barkely asked, in an accent that almost painted him as directly from Korhal, as he turned towards Yohan.

The doctor blinked before responding. "Well, I recycled it. We had to crack it open to get him out of it so it wasn't exactly salvageable you know?" Barkley thoughtfully nodded as Raynor looked askance at Yohan, wishing he'd been able to prevent his suit from being destroyed.

"Well, thank you for working so hard to keep Jim around, Mr. Barkley. It means a lot," Kerrigan said as she stepped forward to grab Raynor's hand again. "Now if you'll excuse us, we thought we'd explore the lab for a bit and keep this tub of lard from getting soft." Kerrigan playfully slapped Raynor's hard stomach, the solid thump her hand made on contact belaying her words.

"Ah! Actually I have something I would like to show you. Tom, if you'll be ok here I'll show our guests around for a bit." Yohan said. Barkley nodded and Yohan led Raynor and Kerrigan away into the interior of the lab. Once out of earshot he began talking again, "As you two must have figured out, Tom is a good man but he's not exactly on your side. He's quite taken in with the ideals our Emperor has been known to espouse and sees anything that goes against the Dominion almost as a holy enemy including the two of you. So if he ever finds out just who you are we might be in trouble."

Kerrigan nodded, "I heard the accent. It sounds like he was practically indoctrinated on Korhal. Might have been in fact. Wouldn't be the first time Mensk has neurally resocialized someone non-military."

Yohan blinked as he pondered what she had said. "You know, I had never thought about that but you could be correct. He showed up almost straight from Korhal on assignment to help one of the local research centers but he wasn't there long. He fairly quickly began moving from independent researcher to researcher helping in various aspects. Can't fault his work, that's for sure but you do have a point there. That might have been his purpose all along. Keep tabs on us scholarly types."

Raynor voiced his agreement, "It's you types that normally see through his smoke screen of media coverage after all." Yohan blinked a few times before sadly nodding in agreement as he led them down the hallway. After reaching a seemingly unused storage room with a key code lock once again, Yohan began entering key presses so fast that Kerrigan was unable to track the numbers pressed but she estimated that it was a ten digit number. She looked at him in surprise considering the lock that had been on their own door earlier. Just what was in here? As the door slid open Kerrigan felt out with her psionic powers but didn't sense anything out of the ordinary inhabiting the room and it wasn't until the lights flickered on that she realized what was in there. Storage upon storage container lined the walls, many with markers signifying military grade munitions as well as biochemical items.

"What the hell?" Raynor asks as he looked around at the storage area. "You planning a war or something, doc?"

Yohan shook his head. "Nothing like that. For the most part these are all items that were already here and simply surplus. Well…not here here but around the various research facilities. I simply…acquired them by adding them to various shipments of regular equipment." Yohan walked over to a container marked as filled with weapons and flipped it open, revealing a selection of outdated weapons and other equipment. Raynor approached and ran an eye over the equipment before releasing a low whistle.

"These things were outdated 10 years ago. You'd be lucky to find ammunition for half the weapons in here, much less the replacement parts I'm sure they'd need by now. What exactly were you planning on doing with these things?" Raynor asked Yohan, pulling an older model C-14 from the box and pulling back the slide.

Yohan shrugged. "Nothing in particular, just wanted them to not be in reach of someone with an itchy trigger finger." Kerrigan looked over at Yohan and almost thought she saw a smile play across his face but dismissed it as a catch of the light. "Besides you said it yourself, chances of being able to use these any time soon is nearly zero. But anyways that's not what I wanted to show you. It's this way." Yohan continued on towards the back and pulled open an unmarked crate. Inside was Kerrigan's hostile environment suit and combat knife along with Raynor's trusty side arm with its belt holster.

"Well I'll be damned. Thought this stuff was gone for good." Raynor said as he pulled out the pistol and dumped the empty shells out from the revolver. Kerrigan reached in and pulled out the suit, the familiar fabric feeling like a missing part of her. The two turned towards Yohan and thanked him as he nervously adjusted his glasses.

"It was all the two of you had left when you arrived, outside of the suits, and I'm afraid I really did salvage yours, Mr. Raynor. That black suit was simply too obviously the infamous Jim Raynor's and on a Dominion world that's just asking for trouble. Miss Kerrigan's suit there and that sidearm were relatively easy to conceal away and I figured you'd like to have them back at some point," Yohan said as he closed the container back after they had retrieved their gear.

"I appreciate it doc. If we're lucky I'll be able to scrounge up some shells for my gun here and we'll be back in business. Ain't a law around here saying no guns, is there?" Raynor asked as he fastened the holster around his waist.

Yohan shook his head. "Not likely with Dominion barracks sitting around all over like we have.'

"Good. Well, let's get ourselves set up and finish planning our rendezvous with the Hyperion." The three of them headed back out of the room with Yohan sealing the door behind them as the lights powered back off.

The next few days passed relatively uneventfully. Raynor managed to acquire a few boxes of shells for his gun from a local supply depot using Yohan's clearance while Yohan and Kerrigan fleshed out their plans for getting access onto the Hercules class transport that was coming soon. The plan they currently had was fairly simple. Get to the spaceport, line up for entrance, and take a seat. But Kerrigan knew things never went according to plan and she began to hash out contingencies with the doctor. Surprisingly the doctor was a step ahead of her on a few points and had a few contingencies of his own to describe and Kerrigan was impressed with his advice involving her own plans. She quite quickly began to realize the doctor wasn't simply a back country medic and started wondering just what was going on in that head of his.

The day before the planned escape she decided to take a peek at what was going on, hopefully without being noticed. As she reached out towards the doctor's mind she was surprised at just how easily she got inside, but once there she quickly withdrew. Inside his head was something she had never felt before: nothing. A human mind always had stray thoughts floating through but inside Yohan's there was simply…nothing. No thoughts, no emotions, simply emptiness and that terrified her. She quickly released her psionic powers just before Yohan turned to look over at her and smile, seemingly none the wiser as to him just having had his mind probed. Kerrigan nervously smiled back and left, heading back to her and Raynor's room to finish packing, thoughts swirling through her own head.

The next day Raynor and Kerrigan woke up early to prepare. Raynor unloaded, cleaned, and reloaded his gun before even getting dressed as Kerrigan zipped up her hostile environment suit before putting on her layers of warm clothing provided by Yohan. As Raynor pulled on his clothes she walked over behind him and wrapped her arms around his chest, feeling his warmth through the back of his vest. "Nervous, darling?" he asked as he placed a few shells into the slots designed for them on his vest.

"No…yes…well, a little of both. I'm nervous about something going wrong but I'm not nervous about us being able to handle it. The two of us make a hell of a team after all," she replied.

"That we do. Now let's go check on the good doctor." Raynor pulled on his own warm jacket and they walked out the door, almost running into Yohan who appeared about to knock.

The old man took a step back and blinked behind his glasses. "Ah. Good. You're already up and ready. Well then, shall we?" he asked and gestured towards the front entrance of the lab. They made their way past the main control room and out into the waiting area where they stopped at the site of Barkley nervously standing off to the side of the room, hopping from foot to foot apparently unable to stay still. "Tom? What are you doing here so early?" Yohan asked the younger man.

Kerrigan sensed danger before it came and began moving before Raynor or Yohan had a chance to react, pulling the two of them back down the hallway as the front door exploded off its hinges, spraying the room with a blast of cold and steel as fragments rained down. Red suited marines began rushing in through the gap, the commanders barked orders with a slender blonde woman in the lead. "Team 2, main entrance secured. Proceed as planned."

By now both Yohan and Raynor had recovered and were running full tilt behind Kerrigan, Yohan surprising all of them by matching pace and even taking the lead. "There's a back exit down this way, follow me!" he called as he took a side hallway, Raynor and Kerrigan right on his heels. As they approached another hatchway it suddenly blasted in as well, sending another wave of cold and metal shards flying through the air. Yohan skidded to a halt but Raynor charged past, pulling his revolver from its holster and blasting the first marine through the door, dropping him with a neat hole in the visor.

"Keep moving!" he bellowed as Kerrigan suddenly appeared at his side, her long combat knife reaching for and sliding home under an armored arm and into the marine inside the suit, eliciting a yell as the soldier dropped his rifle. Raynor blasted and bullied his way through the squad as Kerrigan slipped through like a cat, blasting soldiers out of her way with kinetic force whenever their path seemed to almost close. Yohan followed in their wake, marveling at the destructive power the duo had until they burst out into the snow, the disorganized and demoralized squad left behind in the lab. Without looking back Yohan, Raynor, and Kerrigan sprinted off into the snow, bullets whizzing past their heads until they were lost to sight.