Jake slowly took the magi-putty off his bedroom door. After this morning, he'd been reluctant to leave Rose – even if he was only going to be taking Fu out to a doctor's appointment for a few hours. But this morning had felt so perfect. It had felt as though things hadn't changed between them. He'd kissed her and she hadn't tasted bitter. He still felt betrayal on her skin but it was beginning to recede. The longer that they spent together, taking their time (excluding those few moments when everything overwhelmed the both of them and it was all they could do not to keep their hands off of each other … and most times, they couldn't), and getting to appreciate one another again, the better it was for the two of them.

He knew that there was no return to normal looming on the horizon for them. Hell, he didn't even know if they ever had a normal. All he knows was that this morning felt great and that he could stand to feel it again.

So when Jake opened the door, he was fully considering taking her in his arms again because it always felt great when he did it. When the door creaked open, Rose came flying at him. His first thought was the she must be really happy to see him. His second: moving that quickly wasn't good for her injury.

Before Jake could voice any of these thoughts, he realized something. She wasn't coming at him because she missed him or because she wanted to see him, but because she was attacking him. She was snarling, lips drawn back as her clawed fingers lunged for his face. Jake dropped at the last moment, leaning forward so that his shoulder connected with her abdomen. Though it must have hurt, Rose didn't even flinch. Jake tried to drape her over his back in order to gain control, but Rose clawed at him again, forcing herself out of his grasp and down to the floor.

Jake grabbed her by her long blonde hair, dragging her back into the room. She fought, kicking at him and attempting to wound him but she was at the disadvantage while he had her hair.

"What are you doing?" He yelled.

"Sickening dragon," she spat, saliva literally flying at him. "You're the root of all evil."

"You need to calm down," Jake seethed, wondering why he hadn't seen this coming.

She'd been brainwashed. Now that she had no concrete plan, no reason to keep silent on her engrained hatred of dragons. Right now, she probably thought that he was keeping her captive, just as he had done before. This logic, though, was all based on the assumption that this was a fluke; that something had triggered her descent into madness once again. He was assuming that her apologies weren't a mistake and that she hadn't been struggling to hide her hatred all this time and hadn't just come to the conclusion that it was a waste of time and she should go in for the kill now.

He wanted to believe in the trigger. If it turned out he was wrong, well, everyone would have to cross that bridge when they came to it. For now, he walked to the door backward, keeping Rose toward the inside of the room. He knew that she could move far faster than he ever could but all he needed was the right timing. He activated his dragon tail and it snaked out behind him, wrapping around the doorknob from the outside so that he could slam the door shut the moment he was clear. When he was in the right spot, he shoved Rose forward and threw himself backward. His tail slammed the door shut and he was on his knees in an instant, replacing the magi-putty that he had removed not too long before.

Inside the room, Rose howled.

"I'm sorry," Jake cried. "I'll come check on you later."

Inside his room, the storm that raged inside of Rose erupted into noisy antics. He wished he could go in, comfort her, but he knew that he couldn't. His presence would only make whatever this was worse, though he didn't know what had brought in on. He didn't know what could have brought on these thoughts again – he thought she'd been doing so well these past two and a half weeks – but he hated whatever had done it.

Knowing that she knew he was still there, Jake left the hallway, going to tend to Fu.

(-.-)

It was ten o'clock at night before Jake gathered the courage to head back toward his room. She hadn't made any noise – that he could hear – for a long time. He was slightly worried that she had gotten out but knew that it was impossible. There was no way for her to thwart the magi-putty.

Slowly, he cracked open the door and stuck his head inside. It was completely dark. He flicked the light switch, illuminating the bare space.

There was blood everywhere.

Suddenly, Rose's whimpers and screams of the past several hours seemed like less of a ploy and more like an actual cry for help. Now, she lay unconscious in the middle of a wet pool of crimson, which was leaking from her abdomen. The blood was smeared over her hands, which still hovered protectively on her stomach, trying to staunch the blood flow.

Jake raced to her side, checking for a heartbeat; checking for breath. Both were there – audible and perfect to his ears. The next thing he did was reached for his cell and call Kyle.

"Rose needs a doctor," Jake announced, skipping the greetings part of the conversation. "Can I take her to a Clan healer?"

"Yes; that's better. Bring her over immediately. We'll prepare for her."

Jake hung up his phone and dropped it into his pocket. With a quick shout to Fu that he was leaving, he threw open his window and transformed. He grabbed Rose's limp bodies in his arms and flew off into the night, trying not to draw parallels but it was so hard not to.

He knew that he must have caused this wound too. Whether it was when he shoved her, grabbed her … he didn't know. All he knew that he caused her to bleed again and, this time, he didn't think it was warranted. Last time, he'd thought a loved one was in danger because of her; he was protecting Haley. This time, all he'd been trying to do was protect Rose and he had ended up hurting her even more. If Rose was going to heal – if they were all going to heal – the last thing that they needed was more pain in their lives; the last thing she needed was a dragon causing her to hurt.

He landed in front of the Huntsquarters, where Nicholas was there to greet him. As Jake evolved back into a human, Nicholas blanched a little at the sight of Rose. Though he didn't ask what had happened to her; he just led Jake down to the Sick Bay. It was another parallel; Nicholas leading Jake down to that place. It was even the same Huntsdoctor that attended to them: Melinda.

"What happened?" The doctor asked as Rose was laid out before her. She went to work, clipping off Rose's shirt to get a better look at what she was dealing with.

"I don't know," Jake admitted. "I went to my room to check on her and I found her like this."

"Mmm," Melinda poked at Rose's stomach. "It appears as though her staples have come out. It should be an easy enough fix."

She hit a button on connected to an intercom. "Andrea, Greta, I need you immediately," she beckoned her Huntsnurses. "The Huntsmistress is hurt. Greta, come now. Andrea, find out her blood type and begin to locate some. She will need transfusions. She's lost a lot."

As Greta hurried into the room, Melinda pulled on the end of the bed. "Help me move the Huntsmistress to a more sterile environment," she ordered Greta.

Before Jake could say a word, they had all disappeared.

(-.-)

The first thing Rose was aware of this time was, once again, Jake. She could feel his presence in the room, though it didn't feel as cold and distant as the last time she was waking up from a deep unconsciousness. There was an actual coldness though, radiating from her wrists. She pulled at it limply, before she even opened her eyes. There was no give; she was chained down to the bed she was lying on. Her eyes flew open, panic rising into her. She pushed herself into a sitting position, attempting to force herself away from the mattress.

Immediately, Jake was at her side, murmuring to her in a low voice, his hand on her chest forcing her down again, relaxing into the pillows.

"It's all right. Don't panic about the cuffs. I just couldn't be sure if you would attack me again. You're at my house. You're okay."

"I attacked you?" Rose questioned breathlessly, taking in her surroundings. She was in Jake's bed, in his room, the place where she had been for so long now.

"You thought that I was dragon scum. It sounded like you were parroting something Theron probably said. What triggered that?"

"I don't remember you coming home," Rose confessed. "I think I decided to take a nap … Maybe it was a dream?"

"Maybe," Jake agreed, sinking on the bed next to her.

Rose held up her hands, as best as she could. In the horizontal position she was in, she couldn't get the very far past her hips. "Can you take these off now?"

Jake shook his head. "Sorry, not yet."

Rose shrugged and accepted her fate. As she studied the silver bracelets around her wrists, a twinkle came into her eye, laughing at some inner mirth. Finally, she said, "You know, me in handcuffs in your bed is kind of kinky."

Instead of blushing or laughing, like Rose fully expected him to do, Jake answered very seriously. "Why? Do you like kinky?"

It was Rose that laughed, giggles erupting from her throat. "I never thought you'd ask me that."

"You still haven't answered."

Rose considered. "I guess it would depend on what kinks you had in mind."

Jake finally chuckled, shaking his head. "You just think about that. I'm going to start supper. You've been asleep a long time."

As he moved from the bed, Rose felt a sliver of panic come into her. If he walked away now, it would feel like a closed door, one that she wouldn't be able to walk through again. This was the first conversation they'd had since her kidnapping that hadn't had the undertones of something being wrong with their world, even if he hadn't been aware of it. Since what she had done had come to light, this was the first time he'd really smiled at her like that; full, without a tinge of sadness.

"Jake," she blurted, getting him to turn around and look at her. "I'm really not all that hungry. Will you just stay here with me?"

He smiled at her and settled back on the bed. This time, he put his back against the wall and Rose tucked her legs up over his so that they were touching. He sat close to her and, though Rose couldn't believe it, he took her hand. She couldn't help tensing up as he wrapped his fingers around her, because it was so unexpected and it felt so great to be this close to him again.

"Can I see?" Jake asked quietly, nodding with his head toward her stomach. He'd never looked at it, not properly and now he wanted to look at the damage he'd caused her (with good reason, of course but it was still hard to think of it).

Rose nodded and arched herself, gently, off the bed so that he could roll up her shirt, her restraints not allowing her to help him. Jake let go of her hand and pushed her shirt up to just under her breasts. Then, he looked down.

He almost puked.

It was a horrifying mess; a cluster of stapled scars running horizontally from side to side. He curled his fingers to imitate his claws without actually bringing them out. He placed them against her stomach, though it didn't really fit as his claws would have. His human had was much too small, in comparison, to match perfectly. As for the stapling of the wounds themselves, it looked like something that would have been used on Frankenstein.

Jake couldn't look anymore.

He pulled her shirt down and leaned forward so that he was lying by her side. He dug the keys for her cuffs out of his pocket and undid one of her hands so that he wouldn't be lying on her arm. Rose curled around him best she could, while he curled around her.

"I'm really sorry," Jake whispered, gently brushing his fingers against her side.

"I'm really sorry too," Rose answered, because she would always be sorry and he would always know what she was sorry for.

Jake kissed her cheek and Rose turned her head toward him, catching his lips with her own. Though he knew she was fragile right now; that she was still overcoming the effects of her surgery late last night, he couldn't help but kiss her back. He kissed her softly, gently, because that's what they both needed right now: soft, gentle, and each other.

God, how he loved her.

I don't own anything recognizable.

~TLL~