Six hours later

An exhausted Anna had long since stopped running, and was now alternating between a walk and short bursts of fear fuelled jogs. Having lost track of how long she had been running for Anna had never been more relieved in her life to spot an old farmhouse 500m down the road from her current position. Letting her guard down and using the last skerrick of energy she had left she moved onto the slightly more stable surface of the road and forced herself to run as fast as she could to get off the visible terrain.
Banging desperately on the front door she could hardly hide her relief when a lady in her mid-sixties opened it. The woman looked back at her in shock, the young woman in front of her now leaning against the frame of the door her hair and forehead covered in dried blood, her eyes sunken back into her skull.
"Please, Can I use your phone?" Anna begged without hesitating.
"Keith." The woman yelled for her husband. "Keith come here" she yelled again, moving forward to offer Anna the physical support needed to keep herself upright.
"I'm ok" Anna protested weakly, holding out until Keith reached the door, allowing herself to lean against him, cringing in pain as his arm bumped against her chest, letting him lead her into the house.
"I'll call an ambulance sweetheart" the wife assured her, already moving towards the lounge room.
Anna shook her head "Please, I need to call my friend first….I'm lost" she insisted hazily as Keith helped her onto the lounge, Anna gratefully taking the phone off Sarah and punching Josh's mobile number into the phone.
Still driving Josh took the call. "Hello?"
"Josh? Josh it's me. They found me! I got away. I don't know where I am…" she trailed off as she realised that she had no idea where she was, feeling her head start to spin again.
"Anna? GRACE? Where are you? What phone are you calling on? Are you OK? Are you hurt? Do you need an ambulance?"
"Mmmm" she mumbled, all the questions being a bit too much, passing the phone back to Sarah in a daze.
"Gracie don't hang up. Keep talking to me. Don't hang up Leon'll trace the number for us. "
"She hasn't. I'm Sarah and your friend, she's at our house. Poor thing's just stumbled in. I wanted to call an ambulance but she insisted on calling you first."
"That's ok Sarah. I'm Sergeant Joshua and I'm part of the Victorian Police. Anna, the woman with you, we've been looking for her for a few days. Is she alright?"
"Oh thank goodness you're the police. Are you very far away? She's not in a good way. Keith's just gone out the back to call an ambulance on his mobile. She's bleeding and I think she's broken some bones…her arms sticking out funny..." the stress of the sudden arrival getting to Sarah, talking very quickly, relieved that the police were already involved in the scene unfolding in front of her.
"Where are you located Sarah? We're just coming into Cohuna at the moment. Are you near Cohuna?"
"We're about 30minutes out of town" she gave him their address. Josh slamming the hand break on and turning around erratically. "We'll be there in 15minutes. I'm going to put you onto my colleague now. He's going to run you through some basic first aid." Josh tossed the phone at Lawson putting all his efforts into driving to the small property as quickly as possible.

13minutes later when they pulled up there was already a ute out the front. Josh was out of the vehicle in an instant, heading towards the house when Lawson called his name.
"Josh. Slow down." Calling him over to the back of the ute, showing him the blood on the tail gate. "That's blood…it could be the Emerys truck. We should wait for backup"
Josh shook his head at him incredulously. "I'm not waiting. You heard Sarah, She's not good Lawson! I'm not stuffing around waiting for bloody Hicksville backup while she's in there hurt!"
Lawson nodded drawing his weapon. "Just…be cautious. If they are in there and if she's still… if they've got weapons they're probably not going to hesitate Josh."
"Yep." He acknowledged, drawing his on gun and approaching the house.
The front door was wide open and the boys crept through to the lounge room. Josh putting his finger to his lips to gesture to Sarah to keep quiet as he caught her eye, the husband and wife clutching each other for dear life, huddled in the corner while Anna remained seated on the lounge, Brett holding the gun right to her head, Anna maintaining eye contact with him, not even blinking.
"Just do it" She whispered, weak and defeated. "I'm tired of running." She kept her eyes locked on his. "TR are on their way. They ARE coming and I guarantee you that sergeant Joshua is going to make you and every single member of your family pay for this. He's not going to give up you know… "
There was a click as he flicked the safety off. Anna's eyes finally shifting from his to the door where she saw Lawson in her peripheral vision. Seeing Bretts' focus shift briefly as her eyes moved from his Anna took her chance, moving her leg up to kick him as hard as she could in the testicles. Yelling in pain he pressed the trigger on the gun reactively, Sarah screaming as the bullet was launched, before Brett fell back dropping the gun as he clenched at his most private part, swearing at the top of his lungs like a man in agony. Josh and Lawson seized the opportunity, Lawson moving to Chris who now had his back to Sarah and Keith, his gun dropped slightly as he stared dumbstruck at his brother withering on the ground. Lawson quickly grabbed his weapon from him and restrained him as Anna used her last strength to secure Bretts weapon, sinking backwards against the base of the lounge, clutching her arm. Josh moved to cuff him, moving him well out of the way, leaving him with Lawson & Chris before going back to Anna who was now even paler than before.
"Thanks mate" she whispered as Josh crouched down in front of her, her right arm clutching her left bicep where the bullet had torn through seconds earlier.
"We've got 'em Gracie. The ambulance is on it's way, just a few more minutes" he promised, moving his hand over hers to take over the first aid. Annas good hand fell limply down at her side at the relief, her body following the lead of her arm, her eyes closing as she blacked out as the last 48 hours' worth of torture finally won out.

The following day

Anna's eyes flickered open slowly, letting out a soft moan as she discovered that her entire body ached. As her eyes slowly focused in on her surroundings she saw a familiar head resting on the bed just beside her hand, which was embraced tightly by the owner of said head. Opening her mouth to try and speak her voice faltered slightly, only making a raspy sound, frustrated she tried again managing this time to get the word she was after out.
"Josh" she croaked. His name was barely recognisable but the sound made him sit up quickly, turning to look at her.
She forced a smile squeezing his hand back gently. "You need a shave," she murmured.
He laughed a little leaning closer to her brushing her hair out of her eyes and kissing her lightly on her cheek. "You wake up after a 14 hour sleep and that's the first thing you can think of to say?" Leaving his thumb resting on her cheek he perched on the edge of her bed. "You OK?" he checked.
She nodded. "A bit sore..but I might just live" she whispered.
He stroked her cheek tenderly, taking her hand again with his free hand. "You had me…all of us, a bit worried for a while there" he whispered back, tears welling in his eyes in a rare display of emotion.
At the sight of Josh's watery eyes Anna felt herself tearing up, unable to hold back a whimper. "Me too" she admitted, using her good arm to push herself into a seated position.
"Hey, take it easy. Don't do too much at once" Josh fussed, putting his hand on her back to support her as he propped pillows up behind her.
As he moved to sit back she grabbed his arm pulling him closer and wrapping her thin arms around him tightly. That was all the encouragement Josh needed and he pulled her into his embrace being careful not to aggravate any of her injuries but holding her firmly enough to offer his reassurance and love to the pale brunette.
"Grace?"
"I'm ok" her whispered muffled as she spoke into his neck.
"I'm coming with you. Wherever you go… I don't care. I love ya Gracie. I just want to be with you…whatever you're called…whatever I'm called.. even if I have to wear a hideous wig or dye my hair red, wherever you are… I just want to be with you" he replied his voice as soft as hers so that no passer-by could hear them.
She pulled back from the hug a little but enough so that she could see his face. "I..I love you too Josh. But it's a big call. TR, Lawson, you're life in Melbourne…you'll be leaving it all behind. You need to think this through... 6 months time if things don't work out, when you start to get bored and you'll start to resent me!"
He shook his head. "I've thought this through Gracie. It's all I've been thinking about since we pulled you out of that car. I lost you once…I'm not loosing you again. Please?"
That was all it took to push Anna over the edge, the tears flowing down her cheeks like raindrops on a window, her tiny frame shaking with her sobs.
Josh pulled her back into his embrace, rubbing her back gently. "You know, this is becoming a habit. The last time I told a girl I loved her she collapsed on me, now she's bawling" he teased gently, pressing his lips to her neck soothingly.
"Shut up" she protested taking a deep breath to compose herself, pausing after the inhalation and grimacing. "Ow" she complained as she discovered the sharp pain in her broken ribs. "That was your fault." She protested, resting her head on his shoulder."
"Then say yes" he pushed gently, refusing to let her change the subject this time.
She nodded her head in the affirmative into his shoulder. "OK. Alright. I'm not going to stop you if you're sure it's what you want. You can come with me…you're not turning Ranga on me though" she added as an afterthought.
For the first time in four days Josh grinned pulling the woman in front of him even closer; The now former sergeant knew the road ahead would not be smooth but for now he was content just to hold the one person whom he'd always loved but thought he'd lost tightly in his arms offering her the support he knew she would need over the months ahead.
Now that he knew she wasn't going to disappear from his life so suddenly, the kiss he so desperately wanted to plant on her lips could wait until the woman he'd always loved felt more up to it.

Fin.

Well what did you think? I did have a sequel in mind but that was several months ago and I'm not sure that I can pick it up again. I have a couple of other stories in mind but I'm not sure whether people still want to read Josh & Grace fic..