Okay, uni has been busy so I haven't posted but what the hell?! I tried to copy and paste this chapter(as you do) and it came out in a huge block with no gaps anywhere. I had to go through and push enter about a hundred times. Does anyone know what is going on? I don't really have time to format everything twice.

Rant over. Apologies. Enjoy.

They alternate, cutting a 'v' on either side. This tree is considerably more robust than last year so it'll hurt if it falls on them – the last thing he needs is for them all to be hobbling through Christmas.

"This isn't going to fit in the holder we bought last year," Jim puffs, leaning back to wait his turn.

"I know," Rick grunts as his blade hits home. "I guess it'll have to go in a bucket with some stones or something to pack it." Jim swings.

"Let's just get it home first." Rick puts a bit more force behind it and is rewarded with a crack. "Watch out!" he warns the other three.

"We're clear!" Johanna calls back.

"One more for the road?" Jim grins.

"After you."

Jim drives it home and the tree sways.

He hears Alexis call out "Timber!"

… Every step jars her leg.

They swing pendulously aside his, weighed down by the sodden summer boots she's decided she hates. Every few steps her ankle collides with his thigh when they swing back and each time her nerves thrill all the way down her back as she represses the urge to jerk it away again. As it is, the constant fiery pain is making her nauseous.

As loathe as she is to admit it, she can admit privately that there was no way she was going to be able to make it back to the car under own steam. Not that she's sure how far away that is; she's been so focused on not moving her foot and not crying out that she's lost hold of her mental map.

Her view is obscured by the back of Rick's head as well. At first her gaze had jumped around a lot seeking distraction from the stabbing pain that got worse the more the cold receded- she almost wishes she could still be walking so that the slush could return the joint to frozen. But more and more her attention is returning to the man piggybacking her through the farm.

His neck is clean. He must visit a barber religiously to keep the hairs there perfect. But as she considers the crisp expensive cologne she can smell on him, she's sure he probably visits a more exclusive salon for his nice cut. He strides easily, following his family.

Johanna and Jim are dragging the tree back together using the bottom branches for grip. Even Alexis is pitching in, her gloved hands wrapped around a tip over to the side and she tugs on it every now and again adding her steering expertise to the procession.

She just can't believe that she's been relegated to the role of damsel in distress, slung across a man's back, rescued by someone she's still annoyed with.

When he first slid his hands under her hamstrings and wrapped her legs around him, she was tempted to band her forearms around his neck and keep squeezing. The way he barked at her still irks, that and his all-knowing arrogance. The fact he was right only made it worse. He may have just been trying to help…but he has no idea how hard it is for her to admit she needs help. She's been through enough therapy to know that's why she was so stubborn about accepting help in the first place – which in turn must have pushed her lawyer's buttons.

She glances over one side at her foot, dangling uselessly and glares. Stupid ankle. All your fault.

Under her she feels his jacket slide and betray the shift of his muscles. Sure enough he rolls one shoulder back, rearing his head within breathing – or spitting- distance. "Why don't you just get whatever it is off your chest?" he asks.

"If only that was possible," she mutters more to herself than anything.

"Excuse me?"

"Well at the moment what is on my chest is you but since you're so set on carting me all the way to the car I can't get you off my chest," she snipes, her resentment towards her offending limb making itself known.

She feels immature and regrets it the second she says it, but damn it, why can't he just leave her alone for a few seconds? If she could just get her head back on straight she might have even managed to be gracious about the whole thing. But no. He has to push and she was off balance enough to let it mess with her.

"I'm not on your chest; you're on my back."

"Which was your idea." He shrugs and the sudden movement tilts her backwards leaving her scrambling to stay put, her arms closing around his neck convulsively and her legs snaking around his middle and cutting him off mid-stride. He totters, trying to regain balance and she can't help but hold on tighter, tighter than she thought she was capable of. That all goes out the window when the pain in her ankle goes from muttering under its breath to imminent homerun exuberance. She almost clotheslines Rick, barely stopping slipping both arms away to grab at her leg. It takes her breath away and makes her stomach tremble.

"Sorry," he chokes. "Sorry."

She can't reply yet, doesn't want to risk opening her mouth yet because she can't trust what'll come out of it so she buries her head in between his shoulder blades and tries to mug it all down. Inside her head obscenities light up the inside of her eyelids with each ragged pulse of pain. She knows it was instinctual but God, she was so stupid. She feels a trickle of sweat roll down her neck.

"Just hold on," he tells her. "We're almost to the car."

She's so grateful to hear that she nods against his spine, signalling him to move again when all she wants to do is sit down and bury her leg in snow to take away the burn. "Just hold on," he repeats, caressing her legs with his thumbs as he walks. She focuses on those small, comforting circuits on the skin just above her knees, even starts to match her breath to the rhythm and the pain fades.

His hands don't stop.

… "Wow."

The word is lucky to pop into Jim's brain let alone make it out of his mouth.

No one else seems to know what to say. He's been working as a criminal lawyer for forty years – has seen a lot of things, but he's pretty sure he's got holes in his palms from where his nails dug in and that was just when he watched them try and get the boot off Katherine's foot.

He's not sure what he expected, but somewhere along the way he let himself believe that it couldn't really be that bad. Surely it couldn't when Katherine was so quiet about the whole thing. He hadn't caught a since grimace in any of the times he looked in the rear-view mirror or over his shoulder on the drive back. She had just sat propped against the door with her leg stretched out over Alexis and Richard's lap. Jim thinks it is to his son's credit that he worked and loosened the laces of her boot during the drive. Sure, it took some of the compression off, but he's not sure they would have had the heart to take the boot off if it had been any tighter – as it was the actress had almost bitten through her lip when they got her to the sofa and slipped it off.

Peeling the sock off was even worse, sliding back inch by inch to reveal more colour and distortion. He kept well clear and left the removal to Jo, but he was sure that from where he stood feeling a little sick to the stomach that he could feel the heat coming off it. The elastic was putting up a decent fight. When it caught on her heel and jostled it, Katherine's hand shot out. Richard took it and Jim briefly pitied the father of her children as under her grip, Richard's skin was instantly white and his knuckles strained and scrunched out of position.

They all breathed a sigh of relief when her foot was naked. But it was only then that they began to see the extent of the damage. Then there was no relief. He can't stop staring at it. Even now after they've been staring at it for almost half a minute. Obviously he didn't give her enough credit….this was bad.

Screaming bad.

He drags his eyes away from her ankle to her face, trying to reconcile her ability to keep quiet and focused. Right now she looks as surprised as everyone else, a little bemused even.

"We've got to get this checked," Jo manages. Kate blinks. Looks from her foot to Jo and then slides almost glassy eyes over all of them.

"Look at it," Alexis breathes.

"Lex," Rick pushes away from them and jogs to get an icepack from the freezer.

"How did you not feel that?" Jim can't corral the question fast enough.

Kate shrugs. "I wasn't feeling a whole lot of anything."

"Then who knows how bad it is," Jo's hands flutter a little until she accepted the ice pack from her son and laid it softly over the swollen joint. Kate almost scoots right off the couch. "And the pain is only getting worse. With this much swelling you could have done tendon or ligament damage."

Kate's chest is heaving a little and Jim watches, horrified as she fights not to pant, sweat at the temples. "Think I would have noticed that," she speaks with careful measure. "Besides soft tissue injury, the first rule is RICE."

"RICE?" Alexis asks, confused and still anxiously holding onto Kate's jacket.

"Rest Ice Compression and Elevation," Kate tells her.

"That's for a sprain or a twist," Richard objects.

"And this is a sprain," she shoots back.

"A really, really good one."

They all stare at her incredulously.

"I'll be fine," she tries to convince them. For just a second Jim can see why Richard got so angry with her back at the farm, trying to help someone who refuses despite being clearly not alright. "My boyfriend is a doctor."

"The one you were going to stay with?" Richard asks.

Kate nods. "I told him I'd be there when he got back from work today. He can take a look at it."

"You have to rest," Johanna asserts.

"Take it easy here for a few hours if you're not going to go and get it seen to. You shouldn't be thinking about going anywhere."

"Mrs Beckett…"

"Johanna."

"Johanna," Kate allows. "You've all been very kind, but I should go. We have no idea how long this situation with my stepfather is going to last and I'm not going to put you out."

"You're not putting us out at all. Rick told us and we understand you might not be comfortable staying with us while you're in the city, but just another night shouldn't make much of a difference. Just give your ankle some time to settle down."

Kate just looks pained, exhausted. Jim feels torn to witness how uncomfortable she is denying his wife, even if he agrees with her and wonders if this how doctors work when a patient wants to check out against medical advice. Kate looks entreatingly to Richard who's standing at the end of the couch, arms crossed, observing, thinking.

"You don't like asking for help," he sighs. "I get that. So I'm just going to ask you once if this is what you really want. If you want to leave then I'll take you, but if you're doing this because you think it's polite or less hassle, you're wrong." The room is ominously silent as they stare each other down. Jim's not sure what is happening with either of them until he sees the moment his son gives up. Both sets of shoulders release, his first then Kate's. "At least take some Codeine and some anti-inflammatory," Rick sighs.

She looks at him in thanks. "Okay," she agrees quietly.

Alexis shakes Kate's jacket to get her attention. "You're leaving?"

Kate drops a hand onto her head and brushes at the red bangs. "Yeah. But it's not for work; I'm just going home."

"Are you coming back?" Jim hates to see his granddaughter so hesitant, her eye line nowhere near the older woman's. If it wasn't clear that Alexis was already attached enough to miss her, Jim might have found his silver lining in Kate leaving the day after they met. But since it was too late, Jim could only hope that Kate would let the girl down gently.

"If it's okay with your family, I'd love to come back and see your tree all set up."

Alexis' chin comes back up, daring to look at the woman offering her a white flag. "Really?"

"Really."

"Okay," Alexis wraps herself around as much of the actress as she can.

Rick returns with Kate's suitcase in one hand and a glass of water in the other. "I'm a lousy packer," he informs Kate. "But I think I got everything." He hands off the glass of water to reveal small tablets cushioned into the palm of his hand. "Here, it should help. Dad, I'm borrowing the car."

"Sure," Jim agrees quietly, not sure how he feels about the actress leaving. "Just let me get the tree off the top first."