Author's Note: OKay I'm not going to say to much because you all get a big surprise at the end. Thanks to reviewers, xxTunstall Chickxx and Sweet Sassy Sarah, you two are GREAT!!

I am not Tamora PIerce and don't forget to REVIEW!!

Kate slipped in and out of consciousness over the next two days; her body was slowly healing but the minds of those around her were just becoming more and more frantic. They soon enjoyed the company of the young girl that had some basic Gift in Healing and would check Kate as often as they asked. Unfortunately for Jarret though, he learned that she had a temper, and that no matter how slow it was, that he caught the blunt end of after asking her to check Kate for the fifth time that morning.

"Let her rest. She's fine," Caley snapped at Jarret.

The group relaxed after the thirteen year old scorned their leader for his lack of knowledge concerning healing with the Gift.

Kate's eyes finally fluttered open and she let out a small moan. They all rushed over to her side.

"Kate?" Caley asked.

"Ugh," was the only reply she was up for at the moment.

"Let her breathe," Caley told them and she ushered Vi away some, which surprisingly easy considering they were almost the same size. But Kate chuckled as the young girl pushed Xander back.

"Drink," Caley told her and took the cup Jarret offered so she could help Kate.

The water cleared and moistened her throat so she could talk. "What do you think you're doing?"

Caley glared down her sharp nose at Kate. "You need looking after by someone who has a little healing magic. So here I am."

"Fine, but why?" Kate asked again.

The girl rolled her eyes. "Just consider it me repaying you for the real healing you did on Lek."

Kate nodded and looked around the room at all her friends faces, her eyes narrowed on them; they were hiding something from her. "How bad am I?"

"You'll be completely healed in no time. In fact, the healers said that other than being sore you would be fine by today," Jarret supplied.

"The worst of it was the daggers in your chest and thigh," Xander told her. "A few scars but not to bad and a couple of burns from the raw power..." He trailed off as he caught the look Vi gave him.

She glared at them all. "What are you not saying?" She watched them all stay silent. "Tell me. Now."

Caley, Vi, and Xander all looked to Jarret. They seemed to be having a silent argument but Jarret finally gave in. "Part of your braid was burnt off in the fight."

Kate's face went pale and her breathing picked up. She ran a hand through her loose hair, starting at the top of her head, down the back, to the bottom of her neck where she felt the roughness of the singed ends. Her hair was almost as short as Vi's now.

"Hair grows back," Vi told her, seeing the rage in her eyes. "Look at the bright side, you won the fight."

Kate pulled her shaking hand away from the course strands. "Did I kill her?" she asked in a whisper.

"No," Jarret said slowly. "You forced Janelle to yield. She's resting in her room now."

"Good." Kate's voice was lethally calm. "Because I'm going to kill her now!" Her previous act was simply the calm before the storm. She lunged forward, teeth and fists clenched.

Xander and Jarret shoved her back down on her mattress, as she reached for her arms and legs where she usually held daggers in their sheaths. All her weapons had been removed.

"My hair!" she yelled at them. "She burned my hair off! By Mithros I swear she will pay!"

"I think we should get her out of here," Caley said over Kate.

Vi nodded in agreement. "Considering who she wants to kill is down the hall."

Jarret and Xander lifted her up off the floor, surprised at how much strength had been restored to her. Vi and Caley lead them out of the building, carrying her few possessions she kept around her bed.

"Where should we put her? " Xander asked and let out a small 'oomph' as her foot hit him in the stomach.

"Somewhere warm and enclosed."Caley held the door to the boys' building open for them.

"Let me down!" Kate demanded, but they ignored her.

"My room," Jarret told them.

They deposited Kate on his bed and stood back. She sat upright and glared at them all. The shock of it had subsided but she refused to let it go that easily. "Vi do you happen to have some shears so I can fix the ends?"

Vi nodded and left to get the desired tools.

Kate sat there and took in her surroundings. Caley sat at the end of the bed, watching her curiously, Xander leaned against the wall near the door, in case she tried to escape again to go kill Janelle, and Jarret had pulled his desk chair over to sit next to her. The room was plain; a clothes chest sat at the foot of the bed, a desk off to the side and a small table laden with maps and charts. It seemed to fit Jarret well, since he spent most his time traveling when he wasn't required here.

"Well?" Kate looked at them.

"Well what?" Jarret asked, confused.

"Who is going to tell me everything that happened?"

Xander grinned and jumped at the chance to tell the story. "Well it started off like we expected with her striking first, but then you just blew up and charged her like nothin'..." Xander continued his story about what a magnificent show they put on and only stopped to take another breath and when Vi came back she joined him, saying, "Janelle didn't have a chance after you two had lost so much blood."

Jarret sat quietly as Vi and Caley remarked how it was amazing and almost inhuman for Kate to be able to stand after what had happened.

Kate shrugged and let it go. Once they had calmed down and eaten their lunch Kate sat in a chair and allowed Vi to clip away the charred hair. She winced as if every snip brought physical pain.

They finally left after Kate had convinced them she was fine and proved it by checking herself with her Gift and allowing Caley to do so as well.

As they were leaving, Caley and Vi joking about how bad Janelle would feel the next couple of days and Xander shaking his head at them. Jarret bent over at the foot of his bed digging through the chest.

"Jarret," Kate said to get his attention.

He looked up. "I'm just getting a few things, I'll be out of here in a moment."

"No, don't go. We need to talk first." She wasn't meeting his eyes so he thought he knew what she was thinking.

Jarret moved so he was sitting next to her on his bed. "What would you like to say first?" His calm tone balanced out the confusion of her emotions that were all coming out in her own voice.

"I don't know," she said honestly. "I have no clue where to start."

"Then I will." Jarret picked up her hand and held it tightly in his own. "I can only hope you can understand how much I care for you. The essence connection we share tells us that we do care for each other but it's a matter of acceptance from both parties. If you want to be with me now, then I will be a very happy man. And if you choose to try to push us apart again, then I will be happy to keep my distance so long as it's what you want." He swallowed hard and looked up into her eyes. "No matter what, you are my sweet, and I will do anything within my power to keep you near me so long as it makes you happy."

Kate listened intently to every word he said. She did want to be with him; she never wanted to admit it to herself but now she had no choice. She wanted him and nothing more. She was knew that she was very passionate about anything she did, she learned her letters and numbers faster than most children so she could say that she did, she spent months learning how to ride a horse even though her sister was a natural at it, and just recently she left everything behind so she could pursue her dream of training with the best assassins known.

And now, her passion didn't push her to gain something for herself but gain acceptance of something she already had. She had to say it to herself and to him otherwise she might back out of it and throw herself into a world of emotional chaos.

She looked up and met Jarret's intense emerald gaze with her own green-hazel eyes. "Jarret, I love you."

She expected almost any reaction from him other than what she got. She expected him turn and run, to deny everything he had said, and she expected him to laugh in her face. But she couldn't believe what he did do.

His smile spread across his face, his real smile with the boyish dimple on his cheek. "As I love you my sweet." He kissed her hand, then her wrist, and slowly worked his way up to her lips.

She pulled him closer to her as they kissed, her hands moving their way across his solid chest to his muscled back that she had once admired from a roof top. She could care less at this point about any of the other assassins or circumstances that brought her here though, right now all she wanted was him.

Her hands moved back to the front of his shirt and she began to undo lacings.

He stopped her with a hand wrapping around her own. "Kate, are you sure?" His voice rumbled from deep within his chest and he kissed her again.

"I'm more sure about this than anything." She pressed herself even closer to him as his lips moved their way down her neck.

"But a charm?" he asked.

She pulled his mouth back up to hers and smiled as she kissed him. "That slave ship was good for something." She reached into one of the bags near the bed that were brought over and pulled a small charm on a thin cord out of the bag and slipped it over head.

He nodded before moving off the bed, well aware of the green hazel eyes that followed him trying to judge what he was doing. He locked the door and returned to her welcoming embrace on his bed.

She pulled him down to her as soon as he was in arms reach, enjoying the feeling of skin on skin as they melted into each other, into senselessness.

That enticing voice kept her mind and body tied to his as the night engulfed them and he murmured to her, "I love you, Kate."

FINALLY, I've been waiting forever to write the offiacial "They went at eachother and woke up the next morning naked" chapter.

so please review and tell if you hate it or not :D

excerpt(and get another with reviewing):

Vi turned to look at Jarret, "Milord is back early. He wants to see Kate back in the table building at first light."