A/N: Thanks for reading my story, I really appreciate it.

Shoutouts to,

Annybelle, jan-rayne, Jeralee, and LittleGreenEyedGirl. Thanks for your reviews.

For the question posed by Jeralee,

Yes, I do plan on writing the Gyrocopter pilot into this story.

Chapter 12: The Canyon

I am woken when Max suddenly grabs my arm.

"Sapphire." He says to me tensely.

I blink the sleep out of my eyes and sit up quickly. I look around urgently. We're in some canyon. It's the middle of the night.

It's the second night we've been driving toward the citadel. Max has hardly slept at all in the past 48 hours. I can see the dark circles under his eyes as he looks at me. He must be exhausted, but ever since we found out my sister was in trouble he's been pushing himself to get us there in time. I know he's doing it for me. But I can tell he's worn down.

"What's happening?" I ask him urgently. Our car sits completely motionless in the canyon.

"Your sister and Liam. We've caught up to them."

"They're alive?" I ask, my voice full of shock. Hope flutters in my heart at his words.

He nods. "They're just ahead in the canyon. I scouted it out while you were asleep. They're awake now."

"We should go to them." I immediately say.

He nods in agreement, but hesitates a moment before he speaks again. "There's one more thing. The bikers, they're somewhere in the canyon. The tracks made their way in and vanished. If I had to guess, they're somewhere in here with us." The canyon was a maze of dried rivers and ledges a bike could easily climb up on.

"We have to tell them." I immediately insist. He starts the car, and drives further down the canyon. As we drive, I eventually see the glow of firelight.

We round the last curve, and there they are.

We pull up, and Max immediately cuts the headlights. Across the fire, I see the figure of my sister darting behind a man.

Max opened the car door slowly, and jumped out. I did the same. We walked toward the front of the vehicle, until we were in the glow of the firelight.

"They've found us." I heard Opal say.

Liam caught sight of Max, and I saw him take a step back. He swallowed nervously, but pulled his gun out and pointed it at Max anyway.

"You really want to do that, boy?" Was all Max had to say.

Liam hesitated, but lowered his weapon back down.

"We've come alone." Max stated.

"To convince me to come back?" Opal asks me.

"Yes. But right now that's not important." I tell her.

"There's a group of bikers after you. Six of them. They're in this canyon somewhere." Max told them. "We need to leave. Now."

"How do we know you're not just setting a trap for us?" Liam countered.

"A trap?" Max asked incredulously. "If I wanted to take her from you I would just do it."

Liam and Opal both began to argue, but I wasn't paying attention to them. My eyes were focused on Max, and where he was looking. I jumped my eyes to where he was staring, at the top of the cliff face. I squinted my eyes, and I could've sworn I saw a bit of movement. Perhaps it had been the shadow of the flames. But then I heard the rocks shift, and watched the pebbles fall.

I saw Max's eyes follow the pebbles down, and as they did he raised his hand that Liam and Opal should be silent too.

His eyes jumped to mine.

"Did you see him?" He asked me quietly.

I nodded.

"Get in the car with your sister. Lock the doors, get your gun. Don't come out for anything, you understand?" He told me.

I nodded.

"For nothing, Sapphire. Promise me."

"I promise." I told him. He surprised me when he grabbed my hand and yanked me roughly toward him. He kissed me quickly, and when he pulled away he met my eyes intensely. "I love you." He told me. "I love you too." I whispered back. He kissed my forehead before he pushed me away toward the car. I looked at my sister, and we made a run for the car at the same time. As soon as we ran, I heard the sound of several men hollering.

I heard the roar of the desert bikes as they tore into camp, and I yanked the door open to the car. My sister climbed in first, and I after her. I tried to shut it behind us, but a man suddenly appeared and grabbed ahold of the door. He was terrifying. His face was mutated, and he was covered from his bald head, to his bare chest in tattoos.

I tried to pull the door shut, but he was strong. I began to hear gunshots outside the vehicle.

I pulled harder on the door, but it wasn't enough. He was about to yank the door out of my hands when I suddenly heard a loud shot, close up.

My ears rang at the sound of the gunshot. I saw the man holding the door collapse to the ground, a hole in his chest. Max ran up seconds later and slammed the door shut. I locked it immediately.

I watched as Max sprinted to Pearl and Liam's war car to take cover. Our vehicle was heavily armored, and I knew the glass to the car was bulletproof, so as long as we were in here we would be safe. I grabbed my gun and held it in my shaking hands. My eyes were glued to the scene outside, where Max and Liam were now the only things standing between us and the bikers.

One.

Two.

Three.

Four.

Five.

I count five men who are about to die.

Liam and I find cover against his war car, and it is the only thing separating us from them. I would've liked to do this in the cars, but thanks to Liam and Opal we hadn't had time for that. But besides that, our attackers had motorcycles. They'd be able to get onto the cars easily, and with Sapphire with me I wasn't willing to risk that. This situation is not what I want at all. We're outnumbered two to one, I'm with a new blood officer as my only back up, I'm not in a car, we're completely cornered, I'm exhausted, and it's the middle of the night. Things aren't really in my favor right now, and I'll have to work hard to correct the odds.

I hear Jessie's voice in my head, but it's a distant echo. The sound of the motorcycles has reminded me of her death. But the very current fear of Sapphire's imminent death was keeping me sane enough to focus.

"Come out you fuckers!" I hear one of the bikers yell. He sprays his gun against the side of the vehicle, and I hear the sound of bullets meeting hard metal.

He'll be the next one to go.

I check my magazine is full before I lean around the side of the vehicle. I fire two shots in quick succession. The first misses. The second hits him in the thigh. I'm shooting with a .45. He collapses screaming.

The other men begin to shoot at us.

We begin a firefight. I give the double tap to the man I shot down, and have to cover quickly to dodge the slinging bullets.

This isn't good. The barrage of bullets is constant.

Next to me, Liam leans around the corner to take a shot, and I hear the sound of a bullet slamming into flesh. The boy falls back, and in the other car in front of me I can hear Opal screaming.

I glance over at his body, and I see the blood on his stomach, the open empty eyes, and the growing pool of blood underneath his body.

That's not good.

I glance up to see Opal banging against the door of the car, trying to unlock it. Sapphire is trying to restrain her.

If this teenager opens up that door so she can hug her dead boyfriend in the middle of a goddman firefight I swear I might shoot her.

I do my best to pick off the rest of them, but they outnumber me and push in closer. By the time they've reached the vehicle there are two left. They charge around the edge of the car at the same time, and I shoot one down. He has fired his gun at the same time, and I feel a dull thump in my stomach but my adrenaline numbs the hit. The other man hits me in the back of my head with his gun, and that one I feel fully. My head rings and my vision blurs, and I go down.

I feel the cool metal of my own gun slide from my fingers. I hear it hit the sand, and I lunge after it but my vision is blurry. I feel a hand grab my boot and pull me away from my gun. I struggle against him, and manage to kick his own gun out of his hand in the process. I want to hit him, but I'm still not right from when he hit my head.

He lunges down toward me, forgetting his weapon. He punches me hard across the face twice before his hands find my neck, and he locks down on me.

The realization that I'm going to die comes to me quickly.

I fight furiously but I can't see anything. I'm choking from lack of air, and the blood in my mouth tells me that even if I could gasp a breath I would choke even worse.

Why did it have to be in front of her?

I do hear her now. Over everything else. I hear her muffled screaming from inside of the car. She's screaming my name. I hear a sob.

She thinks I'm invincible. She's about to find out how wrong she is.

Suddenly, I hear gunshots and my attackers grip is released. I instantly roll away from him and choke and cough as I try to breathe. I spit the blood out of my mouth, and take in a sandy, iron flavored breath.

The world bounds back to me. I see Sapphire, standing just outside the car. Her gun is raised and she has it aimed at the man who had just been strangling me. She's shot him. My attacker. She was supposed to stay in the car.

My attacker is rolling on the ground, cursing profusely. I don't know how many times she hit him, but he's still alive. I turn and my eyes comb the surrounding area, and find my gun. It glints gently in the firelight.

I lunge toward it, grab the weapon, and flip over onto my back. I pointed my gun at the man and emptied what was left of the clip into him.

As he stills, my head falls back to the dirt.

Well fuck, that was almost really awful.

I feel really awful, actually.

"Max!" I hear her scream and hear her feet scrambling across the sand.

She lands on her hands and knees at my side.

"Oh, Max."

I can hear her crying.

This is why I didn't want her to come.

I feel her hands shaking as she checks me for injuries. I feel one of her tears land on my face. I'm not worth her tears. But she sheds them for me anyway.

I feel her fingers run gently over my face. I flinch away from her touch as she reaches the place my attacker's knuckles have imprinted my head.

I can feel my mouth filling with blood again. I roll onto my side to spit out more blood.

Sapphire yells to Opal to bring water, and I hear the scampering of the girls feet. Sapphire takes the canteen from her and pours the water into my mouth.

The water stings painfully over the cuts in my mouth, but I swish it and spit the water out all the same. I repeat this process several times before I'm actually able to drink any of the water.

I suddenly hear Sapphire's voice more urgently. "Oh my god." She pulls up my shirt and touches a part of my stomach that has a steadily more painful ache.

"Max." I hear her say. "Max, you've been shot. Opal, he's been shot. Get the med kit from the car, now!"

Shot? Oh, that's not good. I feel her hand squeezing mine, and I hear her voice calling out my name. She puts pressure on my abdomen and the pain is almost blinding. Her voice is = a distant echo, now, that just fades further and further away.

The last thing I remember is seeing Sapphire's face swimming in front of mine.

When I wake up, I'm in a bed. My face aches, and I can feel a twinge in my abdomen. I blink quickly, and I see tan stone all around me.

"Hey."

I turn and I see Sapphire sitting at my bedside. She instantly grabs hold of my hand as I wake, and I feel her press her lips against my knuckle.

"How do you feel?" She asks me.

"Like shit." I mumble out.

She smiles sadly at me. "I know. I'm sorry, Max. I'm so sorry."

I want to tell her not to be sorry. But talking is a lot of effort right now. I don't get the chance to anyway. The door to the room opens and Furiosa walks in.

Furiosa.

I'm shocked as she walks in. She looks just as feisty and strong as I remembered. Her eyes meet mine, and as they do I feel my heart rate quicken just a little bit. I had forgotten what it was like to be in her presence. We've never done anything together. Well, we technically swapped bodily fluids. She is nothing like Sapphire. But she does something different to me.

Her eyes meet mine and it feels like when I walked away from her. Our gaze lingers longer than it should for a man that has a wife. And unfortunately, this doesn't go unnoticed by my wife. Her eyes flick from my face to Furiosa's and back again. Furiousa catches this as well, and as soon as she does she blinks and breaks my gaze before she speaks.

"You're lucky our patrol found you." She stated to me. "Although I can't believe you brought two gemstones out into the desert without any backup."

I don't need this shit from her right now.

"It's a long story." I mutter out.

"I bet it is." She replied. She looked like she wanted to say more, but she was interrupted by Sapphire.

"He needs rest." She stated firmly.

I glanced over at my wife, as Furiosa's eyes jump to her. Sapphire didn't back down. She doesn't look like starlight anymore. She looks like ice.

Furiosa lingered for a moment. "Of course." She finally stated. She walked out of the room quickly, and shut the door behind her.

So I was in the Citadel. And Sapphire and Furiosa had met without me. This was going to be interesting.

And although Sapphire had been short with Furiosa, I knew she was right about me needing rest. I felt exhausted. I shut my eyes again, and fell back to sleep.

As Max slept, my mind raced.

He would be ok now. I had done what I could for him in the canyon, but Furiosa was right. If the patrol from the Citadel hadn't found us Max would've died out there.

Max was not invincible. I had learned that in the hardest way possible.

I remember watching him get hit, watching him fall down. Watching him be strangled. I remember thinking that any second he was going to bounce back and knock his attacker away.

I don't know when exactly I realized he was about to die.

I'd screamed his name, cried, pounded on the glass for him to fight. But he just began to die in front of me.

I didn't care what he had told me. I got out of the damn car. I fired several shots, three of them hit. It was enough to frighten the man into letting go of Max and stun him for a moment. Just long enough of a moment for Max to kill him.

The Citadel patrol had found us, and when we got to the citadel I'd told the people to tell Furiosa that Max was here. Supposedly she knew him.

I hadn't been fully prepared when she walked into the room.

Tall, strong, and quite striking. When she walked into the room as Max lay sleeping I didn't know what to think of her at first.

She laid her eyes on my husband, and as she found him I saw her gaze soften.

She definitely knew him, alright.

It then occurred to me that it was possible she had been his lover. I had never thought to ask Max about who else he may have had sex with. I just assumed he hadn't at all in a long time.

Maybe I'd been wrong?

Jealousy was a foreign emotion to me. I wasn't sure what to do as I felt it rear its ugly head in my chest.

The way she looked at him made me certain she cared for him, and that he had once cared for her too. My jealousy was unwarranted right now, I needed her to get him well. But I couldn't help the uncomfortable pounding that was reverberating in my chest.

Furiosa was everything I wasn't. We couldn't be more opposite. Had Max ever loved her? Is she what he really wanted?

I was being foolish and petty. I needed to stop all of this.

Furiosa had looked over at me when she walked into the room, and had glanced at my sister who was asleep in another hospital bed.

"Who are you?" She asked me.

"Sapphire." I told her. "My name is Sapphire."

She looked between me and Max, and then to my sister again. "Her?" She asked.

"Opal." I replied.

"Are you-?" She asked confusedly, looking between my sister and I. I could see her face examining us, the way we looked, our clothing. "Are you from the Stone City?"

"Yes." I replied. "We're two of the gemstones."

"Why are you with him?" She asked me, pointing to Max with her good arm.

"He's my husband." I answered immediately.

She looked completely shocked by my response. She didn't say anything else, she just walked out.

Max had slept all day, and then had woken up the next day. Just in time for a visit from Furiosa. When he laid eyes on her and I saw his expression, I knew I had been right. He did care for her.

I didn't mean to snap at her. But I couldn't help it. I didn't know her at all, and my husband was looking at her in a way that he normally reserved for me. I hated it. But she was currently the only reason he was alive.

He woke again a few hours later, after Furiosa had left. This time he seemed more coherent.

"Hey." I told him as he woke.

"Hey." He replied hoarsely. "You got out of the car."

I smile slightly. Of course that's what he was worried about.

"Thank you." He told me.

I was surprised by his statement. I had expected a chastising.

"You're welcome." I whispered back.

He turned his palm up, and I immediately took his hand. I looked at him a few more moments, and as I looked at his battered body I couldn't help the tears that welled to my eyes.

"No." I heard him immediately say. "Don't cry any more."

"I'm sorry." I whispered out as I wiped my tears away with the back of my hand. "I thought you were going to die. I thought you were going to die out there in my arms."

"I did too." He told me.

I couldn't hold them back any more after that. I let my tears fall freely from my face.

"Please stop that." I hear him tell me. "Please, Sapphire."

I can't stop though. The events that had played out over the past couple of days had shaken me deeply. I had never seen raw human violence like that before. I'd seen men be shot, I'd seen my husband nearly killed, I'd seen my own husband kill and mutilate other people. He'd nearly died in my arms. The world had lost a lot of its glimmer for me in the past few days.

"It's all fucked, isn't it?" I finally whisper out. "Everything out here." I don't know that I've ever cursed before.

"No." He answered. "If I've learned anything from you, it's that not everything is."

I sniffle and wipe more of my tears away.

"Come lay with me." He orders me.

I've never wanted anything more than to be pressed against him. I instantly nod, and walk around to the other side of the bed. I crawl into it, and immediately snuggle against his bare chest. I'm careful not to agitate the wound on his abdomen. I feel his fingers find my hair, and he winds a few strands in his fingers.

"We're gonna make it." He says. I don't know if he's telling me or himself.

I nod into his chest and bury my head against him. The tears fall freely from my face, and I feel them dampening his bare chest. But he doesn't tell me not to cry again. He just gently tugs on my hair. As he does, I suddenly find myself very tired. I haven't slept since we arrived at the citadel. He'd gone into surgery almost immediately upon our arrival, and I'd stayed by his bedside since. I had been terrified that each breath he took might be his last.

My eyes fluttered shut, and I tried to fight the sleep that was overtaking me. I felt his voice rumbling in his chest as he spoke.

"Go to sleep, love." He told me softly as he gently pulled his fingers through my hair.

I didn't fight it anymore, and as soon as I shut my eyes I fell into nothing.

A/N: Thanks for reading please leave me a review!