Chapter 25

History Repeats and We Change The Course

First, there was a soft crunching of leaves and twigs, the sound of something walking in the wilderness with practiced ease. Second, there was the stinging cold assaulting every inch of her skin, as if Jack Frost himself was leaving love bites all over her body. Last, it was the brightness of a setting sun blinding Emma's eyes through closed lids. She groaned and contorted away from the offensive light, sending new waves of pain from her legs and back. Déjà vu pricked at her skull, conversing with the panic of memories of another day all too similar. The debris of the wilderness poked at her legs, spurring her sensitive flesh into making screams tear from her throat. Something to her feet answered her with a sound low and dark, rumbling through the air like the beating of drums. Wet sounds followed; wet and crunching and fervent and tearing. Emma could hear the snuffling sound of a creature breathing through its nose, something big was being eaten by something bigger.

Emma chanced the strength of her stomach against the need of knowing what was happening around her. She had managed to maintain the rolled position on her left flank, and standing directly in her line of sight was a pack of dogs with all of their attention focused her way; their eager energy as tangible as the ground underneath her body. The chestnut and brindle of her dreams stood side by side, trying to inch their way closer; the brindle dancing on its front paws in barely held restraint. Frozen next to them was a larger golden colored dog, looking as if a mad scientist crossed a Labrador and a lion, with his matching golden eyes fixed on the big something eating away behind the curvature of her legs. There was movement in the trees she had nearly reached, creatures sliding to Emma's right through the shadows and into a flanking position. They stopped briefly, letting Emma see them; one with black and red coloring like a Rottweiler, the other a patchwork mutt design, and both far too large to be anything so remotely domestic. With a nod, the two moved back into the trees and Emma started to realize that these dogs were people she knew. Her eyes snapped back to the brindle and chestnut she knew so well from her dreams, if she had any chance of surviving, it would be with them. Emma reached out, grabbing earth, wanting to pull herself towards them. The attempt proved to be too much for the brindle who whimpered in time with Emma's movements.

Emma shouldn't have moved.

The big something (still eating the smaller something), alerted by the brindle's worry, came closer to Emma with a gurgling snarl. Emma fought to keep her breathing as even as she could, passing out wouldn't do her much good now. It moved along her body, snorting out sounds and keeping its frame low to her, the fur tickled where she still had feeling. Its body big enough to cocoon her torso and the majority of her curled legs; the soft undercoat close enough to share the collected body heat. The creature rode lower but shifted its attention to the other dogs just 100 yards off, silent and still.

"Mine" it was telling the others.

A foot landed in front of her face, silver fur darkened with new blood, and the best thing she had seen in weeks. She reached her hand and traced her finger where his two tones met, air finding her lungs in stuttered gasps. The big something staking claim over her body whipped its head down to her, blood and bits of whatever it had been eating clinging to the muzzle. She'd wretch some other time; Killian was here. She looked in his eyes, white as the melting patches of snow around them, stark against the violence left behind on his face. A voice sounded somewhere in her head about holding eye contact too long, one she ignored. He would forgive her; she had to let him know she was ok. Had to remind herself she was ok.

"Hey… what took you so long?" Her voice was thick and stuck in her throat like dry bread. He didn't make a move to show that he heard or recognized her, watching her as intensely as he had the other dogs, so she swallowed what little spit she had and tried again. "Killian? Zuul? Whichever of you is in running the show right now? Take me home and get this god forsaken baby powder smell off of me?"

A motor roared to life, pulling his attention away and his body into the low stance he had taken over her. Protecting her even as she was struggling to get him to recognize her. Not that the sound did much for her nerves either, the hand stroking the silvered leg gripped tight and her body coiled tighter under him.

"Emma! Easy Emma, its David. That was just an ATV. We have a trailer bed hooked up to it so you can lay down as we drive you out of here. I was the big gold dog you saw; Ruby and Graham are these wolves right next to me. Robin and his mate aren't too far off covering the perimeter making sure there aren't any more surprises. Tell me you can understand me."

She swallowed again, hoping she could manage more than a strangled whisper. "Yeah, I hear you. Come help me up? Walsh got to my legs this time and I think he just used me as a landing pad."

"Nothing would make me happier than to get you off the cold ground and back home." The relief in his voice was nearly as palpable as Killian's leg in her hand. "But we have a problem. Killian isn't letting anyone near you, and we don't want to risk rushing him with you in the middle. You smell different and he might not know the difference fast enough."

"Killian won't hurt me no matter what I smell like. Neither will his wolf."

"That's not a gamble we want to take. We need you to come this way however you can, will get the trailer closer so it won't be far. Hopefully, Killian will only shadow you closely and nothing more than that. If he tries to stop you, do it, we don't want to push him."

Emma huffed, "And I thought he was dramatic. I'm telling you, he won't hurt me."

"You can't be sure of that."

"The hell I can't." Emma used her grip on his leg to regain the attention of the giant wolf over her. Stubborn man only twitched his ear in her direction as any form of acknowledgement. "Hey… look at me."

"Emma, don't use commands!"

She was losing patience fast, "He won't hurt me!"

She pulled on Killian's leg again. "Killian. Look at me…" Finally his head turned down to hers, but she wasn't there yet in his head, she was still just another wounded thing he was keeping for himself. "No. Not there, not my face. I need to you move and look at my legs. I'm hurt Killian. Walsh hurt me. I can't get up on my own, and I don't think I can walk out either." He did move, forcing her to relinquish her hold on him. His muzzle moved over her newer injuries, licking at the brand; trying to give comfort where he could. "I'm also very naked in front of everyone and its fucking cold out here. I'd really like to keep my toes and nipples after all this." He moved up her body again, his nose pushed against her skin and through her hair. "Let me up and let them help me get home. I didn't get out of there just to die out here."

His nose was wet (she was stoutly ignoring that it was anything other than a normal wet dog nose) as it pushed through her hair at the base of her skull, until it landed behind her ear, tucked right against the shell. His leg, once again clutched in her hand, shook as he whimpered out a sound utterly pitiful. The urge to comfort him was overwhelming, the soft murmurs and shushing sounds she made automatic. He bounced away, lying flat on the ground next to her rather than over her. His head shuffling under her arm and closer to her, encouraging her to climb on his back. He stood when she had a decent grip on his scruff, and though she couldn't use him like a pony to get to the trailer, she did use him to take all of her weight. There wasn't any going forward, but off the cold hard ground was a step up. David chose then to move forward, earning something wild and angry sounding from Killian –apparently he still wasn't ok with anyone else near her.

David's hands went up, but his wolf was still in his eyes. "She can't walk Killian. Someone should carry her to the trailer if you're letting her up off the ground."

Emma gripped Killian's scruff, "Killian, let him help. I want to go home."

There had to have been a cue passed between the men that she didn't see because David was walking fast to her and Killian wasn't protesting any further, though the tension in his body was still there under her fingers. David was at her side, a hand cradling her head and another brushing the forest debris from her face. She gave him a small smile, still not sure what to do with his level of affection. David bent low, arm going under her knees, carrying her the same way Killian was so fond of. But as he lifted her, the puckered skin of her burn brushed along his clothes causing her to hiss out in pain and flinch in his arms. His own hissing echoing hers as he stopped moving entirely.

"Emma, tell him you're ok."

"What?"

David nodded behind him, "His teeth are in my leg. Tell him I'm not hurting you intentionally."

David helped her twist enough to drop a hand lower without letting her fall, one hand gripping tight to David's sweatshirt. "Killian? Hey… I'm fine. It was an accident. David isn't trying to hurt me. Let go so he can let me lay down again, and then you can help keep me covered and safe."

A nose pushed into her hand and she guided it the rest of the way to scratch behind his ears. David moved forward again, steady and easy so she wouldn't bounce against the fabric. The group had obviously thought ahead, the trailer was loaded with enough spare sweat clothes for everyone, heavy blankets for padding, and two large chests –one clearly marked as first aid. David laid her down, covering her chest as quickly as he could, but left her legs exposed to clean the brand. He said nothing as he dug through the chest big enough to contain half a pharmacy within it, bringing up a myriad of wipes and bottles and bandages. The brindle came up then, snuggling down into the blankets in front of Emma. The wolf huffed out whimpers, eager for Emma's attention. She just wished she knew who this one was, only ever have seen the dog while she was sleeping. Obviously it was somebody Killian trusted, or they wouldn't have made it near the trailer to begin with. A tongue shot out, licking Emma's face, front paws still dancing in anxious excitement.

"And which one are you? Ruby or Graham?" The question caused the wolf to settle with a dramatic huff, visibly displeased with Emma's question –which is exactly what settled the matter.

Killian eased up onto the trailer then, greeting Ruby with a nuzzle and a nip to her neck before laying down slowly behind Emma. He managed to keep the bulk of his weight off of her while still covering up as much as he could. She thought of pushing him off for all of half a second for the intimacy the position called for, but he was warm and safe and she'd deal with it later. David gave a pat to Emma's calf signaling he was done before throwing a blanket over her lower half, cuing the ATV to head on out. Ruby whimpered in front of her, nose pushing at her hands. But Emma was losing her will to stay awake now that she was with her people again.

Still Emma smiled at her friend, "I always knew I'd get you to be the little spoon someday."

Ruby answered with a yip, rolling closer. Another blanket was thrown over her legs before the gate was closed at the foot of the bed. The ATV made a wide circle, Killian's and Ruby's weight helping to keep the bumpy ride less painful. The fire she had started in the house came into full view, fully engulfing the little home without even singeing the trees. Down in front, a dark woman stood with her hands raised to the flames, with the patchwork dog sitting at her feet. When her brain supplied the word "magic" as the reason the forest wasn't going down with the house, Emma didn't balk at it like she should have. Instead she blinked at the orange glow, letting the black take her again as she snuggled between her wolves.

First, there was the blinding light of the room. Even through Emma's eyelids, the place was drenched in it. Walsh never kept the room as bright before, and the possibilities of what he had in mind that included so much made her cringe. Well, made an attempt to cringe, the restraints at her hips caused the motion to resemble an abbreviated wriggle. Second, there was the stiff and scratchy texture to the bedsheets, not the soft and frilly sets Walsh insisted on. She didn't want to open her eyes; afraid he was there waiting again. And if he was, and he'd noticed her waking, it would only be more caning if she faked sleeping.

"It's lying Emma. Why would you want to lie to me? When I've been so good to you?"

Better off dead.

Emma's eyes flew open with the flood of memories. The burning of her skin, of the curtains, of his face… Killian racing in…

God, Killian…

Emma took in the room under labored breathing, forcing her brain into the current moment rather than getting lost in her rescue, or further back. Large open windows stretching from floor to ceiling took up and entire wall to her right, but all they offered from her position was endless clouds in the sky. She wasn't horizontal and flat on the bed, but angled upwards as much as she could be without actually being vertical. Medical machines were everywhere, hooked up to wall and to various body parts of her own, timing out a steady beep. Everything was colored in a disturbing shade of beige, though Emma thanked whatever deity had been listening to her that the walls and décor weren't done in institutional pastels. She was a little surprised there wasn't anyone sitting bedside; being alone wasn't an option she had considered. Not from Ruby or Graham, not even from Killian.

Unless that was Killian's own blood he had been soaked in…

Pangs of something hit Emma in her gut, very much needing to get up and find her missing… whatever he was. The tubes and wires work with the restraint over her hips and against her, making her struggle to be upright and have some general freedom of motion just more futile squirming. A loud buzzing sounds off from somewhere near her hip and Emma froze; worried she just called in God knows who with her erratic motions by way of some random button built into the bed. Moments pass and Emma breathes out in relief as she flops backwards on the bed when nothing happens, relieved that she didn't ring up for unknown company. She glared upwards as she brought her breathing back to normal, noting that the ceiling is the typical drop down panels with rust stains around the vents and water stains just about everywhere else, all colored in (surprise surprise) another variation of beige.

At least something is normal.

She laid there dozing, not asleep, but dreaming all the same. The beige becoming a screen for her mind to play movies against. Graham and Ruby would be sitting bedside, smiling and adjusting her hair or tubes to make things more comfortable. Granny would be pacing along the walls, complaining how bland everything looks. David and Snow would at Emma's feet telling her not to worry anymore, that it was all over. Killian would be on the other side of her bed, holding her hand as his smile reached his blue eyes, talking about all the things he wants to introduce her to. Happy thoughts to keep away reality; where she was alone on a bed for the third time in as many months.

The buzzing sound returned, startling Emma from her waking dream into a yelp. A quick look reveals a blinking light above a button. Figuring it was the same she had accidentally pressed earlier; Emma pressed it again, opening the intercom to speak. "What?"

(She managed weeks of non-stop manners for someone she hated, whomever this was could call a lawyer and sue her for taking a break in them.)

But instead of the person sounding annoyed or put off by Emma's brash behavior, a chuckle filtered through. "Hello Emma. My name is Ruth. In the nightstand to your right, top drawer, is a .45 loaded with silver bullets. Why don't you pull it out and load the chamber?"

"I'm sorry… what?" Emma wasn't sure what she had been expecting the person on the other end of the intercom to say, but it certainly hadn't even been in the same hemisphere as that.

The woman's laugh came again, warm and rich, surprisingly without a trace of the mocking humor she had grown used to. "I'm a werewolf Emma. Given your recent ordeal, it was decided that a weapon of some variety placed with you might help you feel calmer and more in control of your surroundings. I was on my way in to check on you and noticed you were awake, I figured I should let you know what was entering your room and what you had available."

Emma snorted. "How thoughtful. How about you just let me out of here so I can go find my people?"

"They're here, eager to see you –some more than others. But visitors can make my job just a bit difficult, you can see them after. Now go on, grab the gun and cock it back. Don't hold it up to aim, your arm will tire out too quickly; just find a comfortable spot to shoot from the hip."

Worth a look anyway…

Emma leaned over as much as the restraint would allow, opening the small top drawer as directed. Sure enough, a Glock .45 lay with its clip loaded but out of the grip. For a minute, Emma believed she had never seen anything so beautiful as that gun. Still she pulled both gun and clip to her lap, thumbing out each bullet, counting as she went, and again as she replaced them. She slid the clip home into the frame, pulled the barrel and loaded her new little friend. For a minute, Emma hadn't heard anything as beautiful as those little clicks of that gun being loaded. Her smile couldn't be helped.

The voice came again, "Satisfied?"

"Sure. No idea if these bullets could actually kill you, but firing off a few rounds would be fun after the last few weeks I've had.

The woman laughed again, "Perfectly understandable. I'm coming in now."

The door buzzed and clicked as locks pulled away, making Emma frown again. Contained to a bed is one thing, locked inside a room is another. The woman came through, dressed in traditional gray scrubs, and carrying the old black bag doctor's would haul from house to house. The woman herself was non-descript, neither ugly nor beautiful in her face, her features too common to be pegged to one nationality or another. Her smile though, that was where she held out her power. It was warm and inclusive; never fading as the woman moved around the bed to Emma's right and landed the bag with a thump next to Emma's legs. Emma had taken the woman's advice, positioning the gun near her hip with the grip resting on the bed. She wondered about a person who had a gun trained on them –even this poorly– and didn't seem to care.

With a quick flick of her fingers, the woman calling herself Ruth opened the bag and dumped its contents all over Emma's legs. "Go on," she urged, "Take a moment to shuffle through everything I brought in with me."

But Emma's eyes, nor her new gun, weren't planning on deviating from the new person. "You said you were wolf, you don't need anything in that bag –or in this room– to hurt me. You're weapon enough."

The woman's eyes glinted and something very smug crossed her face. "Very good. However, you aren't as well equipped as I am even with that gun. Every new tool that you might have access to should always be considered even if it's in the possession of the enemy."

Emma smiled in return, "Sure, but I'm hooked up to some tubes pumping who knows what into my system. As far as I know, I can't even use my legs to get off this bed let alone out of this room –or building for that matter. The tools you brought would only piss you off with the surface damage."

Ruth's smug grin threatened to turn into a very real smile. "So tell me, if I can overpower you so easily, and your escape isn't guaranteed, how do you trust me not to kill you right now?"

"I don't. But if you wanted me dead, I would be. Monitoring my condition implies that you at last want to keep me for something, and I can play that until an opportunity arrives. Which it will if I'm not in friendly territory. If nothing else, I can fire off everything in this gun and piss off your wolf enough so you kill me quickly. I'm sure my next of kin will be grateful for it."

Ruth's eyes glittered with a familiar golden color, her smile finally breaking all the way through and beaming down at Emma. "Well my dear child, I'm not here to hurt you. No one is. Quite opposite in fact." She began gathering up the scattered things, mindlessly tossing them back in the bag before her hand paused in the air. "Emma… may I have the scalpel back please?"

Emma clenched her jaw, shaking her head in the negative. The woman had offered it up after all.

"I see. It's ok. Quick and quiet hands, I hadn't noticed you taking it at all. Practice that skill child, especially around your wolves. You never know when it'll help you." She reached into her front pocket, pulling out a penlight and blinding Emma with it. "Now when David found you, you were outside and naked. Do you remember how you got to that point?"

"Yes. I do."

Ruth waited for Emma to elaborate, but all Emma gave her was another stare down. Killian's voice reminding her about dominance somewhere in the back of her head once again, but Emma stopped giving a shit. As easily as the woman seemed to smile, her mouth turned down into a frown. Emma wasn't pleasing and Emma didn't care. Ruth's head tilted to the side, still waiting. It wasn't helping the electricity zipping up and down Emma's spine, the need to start slashing her way out of the bed and back into the open fields of endless sky clouding her vision.

Ruth leaned over side rail just enough to press the intercom button, "Lin? Why don't you bring David in here and give me a hand with these final tests?"

The mention of David's name helped fight back the fog filtering in Emma's head. As did the sound of the heavy door nearly coming off its hinges once the locks disengaged, David plowing through and rushing to Emma's side with a kiss to her forehead and a hand to cradle her skull. Still odd and unsettling in its own right, but Emma would take it a thousand times over just to erase one minute with Walsh. He didn't stop moving his free hand over her arms and legs, nor his eyes from looking over her from head to toe. She let him; nothing in his manner spoke of romantic intentions or sexual drives, just a basic need to make sure she was alright. A huge relief from what she had endured.

His eyes came to hers finally, his normal sky blue twinkling as he frowned in confusion. "You ok? What's wrong? Why does she need help?"

Emma waved her gun in the general direction of Ruth, "There is a lady I don't know asking me questions. I haven't had coffee in weeks. I'm stuck in a bed… again. The door that leads out has automatic locks. And my legs don't feel right. Take your pick David."

Ruth chuckled as she wandered to the far corner of the room to converse with the male nurse that had followed David in. David perched on the edge of the bed with his own amused smile. "That woman is Ruth, a very trusted wolf; you don't have to worry about her. I'm sorry you're caffeine deprived, but it stays that way until we know you're cleared medically to have some again. None of us wanted to strap you down after your time with Walsh. Graham let us in on how he treats his victims, and doing anything similar wasn't something we wanted to push on you. But you weren't healthy, and Ruby mentioned how bad the nightmares were from the first attack. We didn't want to risk you injuring yourself while you were out of it. We'd rather have you angry about being strapped down than have you hurt more. The door locks from the outside only; keeps any potential idiots out, but you're still able to get out if you need to. Your legs feel weird because Walsh did some serious bruising to them, so we have you on some decent pain meds. Did I miss anything?"

Emma nodded as he spoke, thankful for direct answers since this mess began. So she pressed for one more. "Where's Killian?"

David's face fell, "We really should get you checked out before we bring you up to speed…"

So much for direct answers…

Emma felt that fogginess return and the gun that was aimed at Ruth turned to point at David. "Where. Is. Killian? I remember him being wrong when you guys showed up. I want to see him, I can help."

David eyed the gun, then her, heaving a heavy sigh. "No, he wasn't ok. You disappearing and the capture took a toll on him. The Council has taken him for evaluation and questioning regarding his involvement. We only know the basics right now, I can't give you details I don't have… it's still early in the proceedings…"

"Proceedings? Why–"

Ruth chose that moment to rejoin the conversation and Emma's bedside. "A wolf as broken as he was needs to be evaluated to see if he can get back to normal. Risking an unstable wolf out on his own, even in a pack, can be dangerous. The rest, well that's a whole bunch of legalities regarding the case of Walsh Singe. He might need your help getting his buns out of that burner Emma, so let me check you over, get you cleared. Then you can rush in to his rescue."

Emma looked back to David; he gave her arm a squeeze with a nod. "Fine, David stays and I'll answer anything you like."

Ruth's smile returned then, "When David found you, you were outside and naked. Do you remember how you got to there?"

Emma nodded, "Walsh strung me up from some kinky pipe setup, used a hot iron to brand my leg, let me down in front of the fire to go make dinner, talking the whole time."

"He didn't chain you back up or restrain you in any way?"

"No, I don't know why exactly. But I'm going to assume he thought the branding and caning had wounded me enough that escape wasn't possible. Or he thought that he had broken me with the nightly bathing having advanced into intimate touches. For my own safety, I was compliant as I could be and just that morning had remained in the house when he un-cuffed my leg. I stress the words 'Compliant for my own safety'. I was in no way willing. And until I knew the layout of the house, or if there were others there too, I wasn't going to make a break for it and screw things up."

David was emitting a low rumbling sound from somewhere deep in his chest, and a quick look showed his eyes had burned into a molten gold.

"Boy, if you can't handle this, I will remove you." Ruth's tone was that of a parent more than a superior. Still worked as David's growling stopped; his eyes remained.

Emma did probably the stupidest thing to a wolf to date, and booped him right on the tip of his nose. Sure he looked good and scary, downright intimidating. Emma just didn't get the fight or flight response around him. "He's fine, not like he's scaring anyone."

(She would never know how many times his heart broke apart and rebuilt itself in that moment.)

Ruth snickered, "No, I suppose he isn't. Continue then, Walsh got cocky and left you on the floor unbound."

Emma hummed. "I struggled up on my feet while he was chattering on, crawled my way to a dining chair and used that to get up. I grabbed the gloves he had used for the hot iron, set the iron to the drapes –which went up really fast– stood next to the kitchen door and waited for him to come out. When he did, I pushed the hot part into his face and neck area, idiot reached up and grabbed the iron, melting the skin on his hands to it. I hobbled my way out the front door."

Ruth had shifted through taking vitals as Emma spoke, raising an eyebrow at every other point. "Walked? Your legs couldn't withstand the weight of your own clothes right now and David told us that you couldn't get off the ground when they got there. How did you manage to walk out of there?"

Emma shrugged, "Well when David got there, I had become a landing pad for a pissed off Walsh after the damage to my legs. Before that it was all adrenaline. Literally. He had given me a shot of something right before he branded me, said he wanted me awake for it."

The male nurse took a few steps forward, "There were traces of Norepinephrine in her system when we ran the Tox Screen. Wasn't much by the time she got here, her body had burned through most of it by then, but it would back her claim."

Ruth nodded, seemingly satisfied with it. "You mentioned being worried about running into other people in the house. Had you seen anybody there besides Walsh?"

Emma shook her head. "No, not since Grandmother left earlier in the week."

David tensed at her side and Ruth grew very still, "Granny was there?"

"What? No! Not Granny. If Granny had been there, he would have been dead that first hour and I would have missed all the fun of burning flesh. No, this lady insisted on being called Grandmother by both Walsh and myself. Prim and proper type, even dressed in the corset and bustle get up."

Ruth's eyes flickered, but showed nothing else by way of interest. "Something to look into then."

Emma continued on, "Walsh sought her approval on everything he did. Even what he did to me. Those first two weeks were forcing specific manners on me because she didn't like the ones I had. If he had been working alone, I might not be alive right now; he escalated rapidly as soon as she was satisfied. He delayed his gratification to please her."

Ruth shifted in place, "Could it be possible she was helping you? Buying you time for someone to rescue you?"

Emma shook her head again. "Doesn't track. She was happy to see me there. Like I said, Walsh was out to please that woman. If she had told him to let me go, he would have with a full parade of seventy-six trombones."

David squeezed Emma's arm again, "We should do the rest now."

Emma looked at him, "Rest of what?"

Ruth answered for him, "Well, physically you're ok other than the obvious damage. And that stuff will heal; no funny long-term limping or any such thing. But we need to test for other things. Magic, Fae influence… anything medicine can't see."

"So get on it."

Ruth smiled at her, "I don't have those abilities. They'll have to be done by a witch; will you be ok with that?"

"If David stays."

Ruth nodded. "That's just fine. I suspect I wouldn't be able to remove him now that he's in here anyway. I'll leave after care instructions and your prescriptions for pain at the main desk. David? I expect to see you there tonight. And take care of this girl, don't go losing her again."

David stared the woman down, an unspoken conversation passing in front of Emma. Somehow (and Emma planned to press for just how), Ruth won out. David dropped his eyes and tilted his head. "Yes Mother."

Emma's jaw dropped and ready to ask the obvious question, but the woman was gone out the door before words had properly formed. It might be why he had relented, but this posed a whole new set of questions. She shot a look to David, hoping he would simply fill in the blanks, but the nurse that had been playing wallflower this whole time chose to finally step to the bed. Lean in his scrubs, his steps careful as he approached Emma's right. His brows knitted in concern and his hands holding each other as if he was afraid to reach out and touch. But when those dark eyes met Emma's, there was a wave of calm that swept through her. His lips quirked to one side as Emma's shoulders slacked for the first time since the dance at Brookside, letting go of the weight they carried under the mantle of nothing wrong. Killian was the only other one she had such a similar reaction to.

Which was the idea that put her shoulders back and her spine straight. She was not willing to have these reactions to unknown people.

He must have seen her shoulders do their little dance because his hands came up in surrender. "Easy Emma. I'm just here to make sure there isn't any magical hocus pocus done to you. And if there is, I'm here to make it go away. You can call me Lin."

Emma eyed him, the gun still in hand turning slightly his way. "I can. I can also call you by your real name."

He smirked and Emma hated how much of Killian she saw in it. "Names have power, especially for those in our world that are very old. Like your Killian, he is sometimes addressed as 'The Captain'… and for a time, a more colorful moniker."

Emma wasn't buying it. His secrets were too easy to see, even if she didn't know what she was looking at. "After the time I've had, I'm not in the mood to play the name game with a guy that rides a broomstick to work."

Lin smiled wider, "No, I suppose not. Problem is that I've collected many names in my time. And I've lived long enough that more than a few have garnered their own pull, so I'm afraid that 'Lin' is the best I can give you for now."

Emma spun her head back to David, "Who is this guy? Did I wake up in another realm or something?"

Lin answered first with a bounce on the balls of his feet. "Well this is Chicago."

"I'm where?"

David tugged her arm, "We're in Chicago. It's been two days since we found you. We kept you under at first to give you a good once over and make sure nothing was horribly wrong or broken, and then long enough so that you'd sleep through the travel here. But the last thirty-six hours or so was just you sleeping on your own. Had us worried you weren't planning on waking up. Walsh is dead and the house burned to the ground. You are set to stand trial to prove that it was a life and death situation, that your actions and those taken by us for your sake were justified. Should be easy enough to prove with everything we have."

Emma breathed through her nose, already unhappy with the coming answer. "And Killian?"

David sighed, "That's where it gets complicated, and better left for when you are better." She raised her eyebrows and he crumbled. "His handler is testifying a different story than his. The Council has said there never was a capture order on Walsh, that he should have been killed on sight the first time Killian came across him. Her reports reflect this, but Killian's don't. Her reports also don't show anything about you other than Walsh's most recent victim. The Council only knows as much as they do about you because I make my reports to Ruth, who is our Council representative."

Emma blanked a bit. "They can just look at his paperwork then. He had boxes of stuff… photos, credit reports, M.E. reports. He showed me all of it so if I got caught, I would know what to expect from Walsh."

David nodded. "That's the problem. It's a colossal game of 'He-Said-She-Said'."

Emma shifted in place, "So what do we do?"

David gripped her arm, "We do nothing. Graham, Ruby, and I are all set to testify on his behalf. Granny even offered up her testimony should The Council want it. You need to heal, your life after the trial will be hectic enough."

"Like hell! I–"

David hissed when she jerked away from his touch, a red line of blood now drawn on his arm and her stolen scalpel coming out of its hiding spot. "We all figured you would want to be up there for him. But The Council decided against it. I'm sorry Emma, but the choice has been made."

She glared at him. "Nightingale Syndrome? Really?"

David winced again, "More like Stockholm."

She held up her shiny new gun, "If I shoot them with this, will it work the way I want it to?" The quiet nurse named Lin decided she was funny and laughed. Emma almost shot him for it just on principle.

David seemed to find it amusing too as a grin fought its way over his mouth. "Not all of them, no."

"I have to be there, even if I have to sit silent in a corner. It'll help him if he knows I'm there and I'm ok."

Lin the nurse turned to her, brows furrowed in more than just general curiosity. "If I might ask, why would it help him to know you're there?"

She blinked at him, not sure why he needed to know, but followed her gut to tell him anyway. "He's calmer when I'm around. When he found me, he was out of it, like only half of him was there at a time. If that is what he was like because I was missing, then not knowing how I am after will make him unfit for a trial. And I'm taking a wild guess here, but I'm going to assume that this Council won't give a flying squat about that particular detail. His best chance is if I'm there."

Lin tilted his head, "And that's the only reason; to keep him calm and level headed?"

"Not that it's really any of your business," His mouth quirked again, and she missed Killian more for it. "He came for me; he didn't abandon me. So I don't plan on doing that to him. Even if I can't say anything on his behalf or actively help in any way, he needs to see that I'm ok and on his side. I owe him at least that."

Lin shook his head, "It doesn't sound like you owe him anything at all. It sounded like you got yourself out of that house and he only rushed in after."

She narrowed her eyes at him. "Seriously, why do you care?"

Lin ducked his head and began fiddling with his magic items with a slight shrug. "Just curious. Thought that I could help with perspective; outside opinion and all. From what I overheard, you only got caught because of a weak link in the guard duties, and when you saw an opportunity, you escaped captivity. Don't really see how you owe him in any of that."

"Killian went over the case files with me, in case the worst happened. What habits manifest when, motives, possible triggers… if he hadn't given me that information, I wouldn't have survived those weeks with Walsh. There, he saved my ass. And when he rushed in after I got myself out? It was because I had only damaged Walsh and pissed him off. Killian killed the bastard and saved me again from being chow."

Lin hummed; suddenly clearing up bits and pieces that did lord knows what. "You're all clear. Nothing done to you other than Granny's healing trinket she used on your first attack. Still working in fact, though on its last resources; I refueled it so you might feel better sooner than you normally should."

Emma dropped the gun and grabbed his arm as he moved to leave. "You're not just some nurse are you?"

He gave her hands a pat and threw her a cheeky smile. "Are any of us 'just' anything? Rest Emma, heal." His face was serious once again when he moved through the door.

David was eyeing it as much as she was, muscles bunching with what Emma was identifying as a protective flinch. "I get the feeling that all of that was more than just a test for bad juju."

Emma shook her head, trying to clear the reactions nurse Lin drew from her. "I need to be in there David. It's his best chance."

He looked back to her, eyes sad and face grim. "We'll see what we can do. We aren't sacrificing him, not after everything he's done. But we can't go in guns blazing either. Be patient?"

A/N: I could have ended with Emma's rescue. Left all y'all to assume everyone lived happily ever after. But the shit storm doesn't end because the bad guy is caught or the person rescued. There's always a fallout. Which is the phase we enter now. Robin and OQ live strong in my world, and we haven't seen the last of them. For the record: the healing trinket Granny had used in the beginning was surgically placed within Emma's back to help heal her faster. As it was never removed, its been the thing helping her endure the amount of pain she would have been subjected to.

Potterfreak2: I posted my general reaction to your last review on my Tumblr. Cause holy crap.

Killiansbutt: (heehee... butt...) In order of your questions: spoiler, spoiler, spoiler, spoiler, no Walsh didn't forget anything, spoiler about Regina's and David's pow-wow, no Gold hasn't been mentioned yet, re-reading isn't something I encourage only because this story isn't THAT good.