AN: I'M SORRY! I know I told everyone that it would only be a few days/weeks before I updated and it's been months. Time got away from me, along with inspiration. But it's back all thanks to m best friend. So here's the next chapter. It's kinda short but it's all I could really think about, so for now this will have to do.

It was a cold windy morning when Taryn was finally given the leave to return to her farm with Jackson. Per the healers orders she was not to lift anything for the next six weeks or so giving her shoulder a chance to heal, nor was she to do any heavy riding or training. So she settled with supervising Jackson with the rest of the training.

Waking up after being told Mark was dead had Taryn feeling like she was in a nightmare. She couldn't stop thinking about the shooting and why she survived and not Mark. Aidan decided that before he sent her home he was going to give her something to deal with the stress and guilt.

"Taryn? Are you ready to go?" Jackson asked softly from the door to her room.

Taryn didn't reply she was to busy thinking about what the day held. Today was the burial of Mark. They had held off on the funeral until she was well enough and could be there. The town also had to wait on a Ranger to come take care of one of their own men.

Jackson crossed the room to sit on her bed beside her. Putting his hand gently on her arm he asked again. "Taryn, we need to get going. They aren't going to wait all day."

Taryn turned and looking at him with sad eyes, she nodded before moving to stand.

She really didn't feel up to going to a funeral but felt like she needed to say one last goodbye to Mark. He deserved better. He shouldn't have been killed.

Jackson who seemed to be reading her mind gripped her arms and turned her to face him and said in a stern voice. "Now you listen! I didn't come into this room to see my best friend wallowing in self-pity. You need to pull yourself together. Do you think that Ranger Mark would want to see you acting like this? No he would want you to be able to appreciate his memory and live the rest of your life."

Taryn finally spoke. "Jackson if I hadn't been to the Gathering, Mark would still be alive. If I had just said no to Ranger Crowley about the training, and stayed at the farm and continued with you, he would still be here."

Looking down as she said this, her posture told Jackson that she truly believed this that she thought that she was the one to blame. Taking her chin and lifting her head till their eyes met, he said "Taryn, I know you think that you're to blame for Marks death. But your not! The men who attacked you are. They are the ones who planed on attacking you two; They are the ones who fired the arrows at you and Mark, not me, not you, Them. There wasn't anything you could have done for Mark. Aidan tells me that he died only a few minutes after he was hit. He didn't suffer long especially with the poison that was coating the arrows. Aidan said that the place where he was hit would have gone numb almost instantly. He wouldn't have felt it for very long."

By the time Jackson had finished telling her this, tears where rolling down her cheeks. Taking his thumb and whipping them away he gathered her in his arms and let her continued crying. All the while muttering soft words of comfort to her through her hair.

"I just feel so guilty of the fact that I'm still alive and he's not. What will his family think of me? Here is the person that was with their son on the day he died and she's still here and their son is not." Taryn mumbled into her best friends chest. Clinching her fists on his back into his shirt as she clung to him.

"I don't know Tar, I don't have all the answers, but I can tell you this. I will always be here for you. I'm not going anywhere." He said as he let her cry on his best shirt. But what she didn't know was that he knew why she and Mark were attacked. And he knew why she was left alive instead of Mark.

AN: I may write more today or on Monday or Tuesday, but for now cliffy! I hope to have more of Gilan in the next chapter, so see you soon! (Hopefully not in two/three months, once again I'm sorry for the long wait)