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IN SAFE HANDS

By: Anime Angel ~^0^

Gene woke up with a start, darting his eyes quickly around the room. He had heard something...but what? Then it hit him: it was Jim again.

"NO!" the boy's voice flooded into his room, high and shrill.

Oh great...he thought, rising out of bed. Letting out a tired yawn, the red head grabbed a shirt and slipped it on over his head. It was going to be another long night; he could tell just by how loud his younger partner yelled.

"NO DON'T! PLEASE!"

The outlaw sighed and made his way into the hall, his large feet tiptoeing quietly over the cold linoleum flooring. As he neared Jim's room, the familiar sounds of the boy tossing and turning reached his ears.

"Aw dammit," he whispered, swinging the door open as quietly as he could. Sure enough, the boy was turning over and over in his bed, mumbling, murmuring, and every once in a while letting out a scream or two. Gene just stood there for a moment, in the doorway, listening and watching the distressed kid.

"No..." Jim moaned, thrashing once or twice in the sweaty sheets.

"Hey...hey buddy come on." Gene whispered, finally making his way over to the bed and pushing the blond over on his back. With the sudden movement, Jim began to screech.

"DON'T TOUCH ME! NO ANIKI HELP!" the boy screamed, causing the outlaw to cover his ears. He was glad that the girls had gone out for the night....especially since Suzuka was such a light sleeper. Besides, Aisha would never let Jim hear the end of it if she learned that he was having 'bad dreams'.

Gene's train of thought was cut off as the boy next to him kicked him as hard as he could, causing him to double over in pain.

"JIM! IT'S ME!" For a moment Gene's words seemed to calm the blond, but after a second he was right back to swinging his small arms wildly about. "Jim!"

"STOP! PLEASE!?"

"JIM! WAKE......UP!"

"No..."

Gene was puzzled; why wasn't his younger partner awake yet? It had never been this hard before...and it was then that the outlaw noticed that Jim's breathing was becoming irregular. Instead of slow and steady, the boy was gasping, and once or twice his intakes of air stopped all together.

"C'mon buddy, wake up...you always do it ta me, now it's my turn..." Gene shook his younger partner hard, and suddenly the blond's eyes flew open. For a moment the outlaw thought that he really wasn't breathing, but after a moment the boy let out a small, ragged breath, followed by another.

"It's okay kid, you were just having another nightmare is all."

"Aniki..." Jim gasped, his body freezing in the outlaw's arms. He stared straight at Gene, never even turning to look around.

"Hey, you okay?" Gene ventured, lowering Jim back down into his pillow. His words were met with a shaky sigh.

"Aniki it happened again," Jim murmured, shaking slightly and still staring. "I...I didn't want...it to...."

The outlaw watched as the boy's eyes began to tear over, but Jim forced them away before Gene could see him cry. After a moment of ackward silence, Jim looked back up at his older partner. The fright seemed to have receded some...

"I'm sorry, Aniki," he mumbled, suddenly calm. "I...you can go back to bed now. I'm...I'm fine."

Yeah right. "Uh-uh, I don't believe ya kid. I am NOT leaving until you tell me what is going on! What are those nightmares about, huh?"

Jim simpy closed his eyes. "Nothing," he murmured. "Don't worry--"

"WORRY?!" Gene was mad now. It was a little too late for him NOT to be worrying. "Jim, tell me."

"No!" Jim snapped. After a moment, the frustrated look in his eyes disappeared. "Just go back to bed, Aniki."

The outlaw was about to say something more, and make Jim 'fess up, but the boy turned over and shut his eyes tightly closed.

Fine, you wanna be that way kid? Okay with me. Just don't come crying when I don't come and wake ya up.

But no matter how many times the outlaw told himself that he would just stay in bed next time, the memory of Jim's labored breathing crept back into his mind. Gene had a feeling that he was going to be back in the boy's room the next night, and the night after that, if something wasn't done...and quick.

It was much later the next afternoon when Jim got up enough courage to ask one of the girls about his nightmares. He wasn't sure why, but he felt so ackward about the whole situation. It was as if him having nightmares was....wrong. Like, he wasn't supposed to have bad dreams at his age, OR maturity level. In fact, he was a little embarrassed that Gene kept having to wake him up and hoped the outlaw wasn't beginning to think of him like a baby.

"Hey Suzu, have you ever had re-accuring dreams?"

Suzuka looked over at Jim, who had long since ceased typing on his computer, and was looking at the assassin intently. The two were sitting in the 'dining room', both occupying themselves with some daily task.

"No, I can't say as I have, Jim. Why...have you?" Her question was met with a cringe.

"Well, sort of....but...I just don't know what brought them all on. It's like, they appeared outta no where." Jim's blue eyes were filled with worry. "I don't know what to do, Suzuka. I keep waking Gene up, and then he gets all frustrated with me."

"Have you told him that you've been having the same one over and over?"

"No..." Jim sighed. "I can't. He'd think I was stupid or something." The boy let his lips curl into a frown. "Knowing him he'll think I was just a little baby."

Suzuka searched the young blond's eyes for a moment with her own, brushing her dark hair back and trying to pick up something -- anything -- that would give her some clue as to what the nightmares were about. She didn't really want to ask directly, but when he refused to make eye contact, she did.

"Well, what are your dreams about, hm?"

Jim's head snapped up, as if he had known that the words would come.

"Oh...well...just jumbled up stuff really," he said quickly, turning away. She knew right away he was lying.

"Jim, what are they about?"

"Oh come on Suzu! I already told you--"

"First of all, my name is Suzuka," the assassin said, smiling at the use of her nickname. She actually enjoyed it when the crew called her by that -- it meant that they really thought of her as part of their band -- but of course she would have never let on about her feelings. Aisha would only then abuse the use of 'Suzu', so it was her best bet to let on that she didn't like it. "And second of all, I am a master at detecting lies.....and your's is most definately a lie."

Jim sighed, knowing that it was no use to continue the argument with Suzuka.

"So...?" The assassin waited expectantly.

"Aw man! You're just like Gene!" And with that Jim got up and promptly exited the room, leaving Suzuka to wonder if his last comment was to be taken seriously.

Jim stared into the mirror of the business' dirty bathroom, his thoughts a mix of worry and frustration. Looking at himself now, he noticed for the first time that his eyes were bloodshot, and rimmed with dark circles -- the kind that meant you weren't getting enough sleep.

"Damn, what the hell is wrong with me now?" The other half of Starwind and Hawking began to twirl a piece of his dirty blond hair, still gazing dreamily into the mirror. What IS wrong with me? he thought again. I mean, Aniki and I haven't picked up a job in weeks, so it couldn't be stress. And we haven't had THAT much trouble with money since we payed Fred back most of our debt. So what could it be? Jim began to run all the possible causes through his mind, scratching off each one as he came up for another reason. Stress, insomnia, Tv -- they all seemed a little off, like they couldn't be the cause of his terrifying dreams. So then what -- or who -- was causing them?

"The only possible answer left is..." Jim swallowed as confusion began to knot in his stomach. That couldn't be the answer...could it? "The only answer is that it .... it really happened...but how?"

To be continued...

*Dum dum DUMB that was. Nevermind... *sigh* I am really tired and having some problems so it might take a while before I write anything on this or anything else. Hope you like it, even though it is sort of short and...not the best one I have done....*sorry* Feel free to drop me a line! anime_angel95052@yahoo.com or you can review or something. Thanks to DJ LA for posting my fanfics at Hawking Enterprises , and Hanmyo and Air Hound for sendin' me nice e-mails. See ya folks later! ^_^