Ch 2



Ranger Sydney Cooke had met her partner, Ranger Francis Gage (everyone called him Gage) at the diner near his apartment, for breakfast. This had become a new tradition for the two, meeting for breakfast several day a week. However this time they were interrupted halfway through the meal. They received a call about a possible assault with a weapon at a farmhouse outside of Dallas. It had been called in, by people who had been hiking past, that a man was seen chasing a screaming woman and brandishing a knife. But when Sydney and Gage got there they discovered it was a husband and wife team of amateur actors who were rehersing for a play. After the embarrassed two promised to reherse more quietly, the two rangers left. They were driving back into Dallas, passing a thick wood when Sydney suddenly yelled.

"Gage! Stop the car!"

"Why?! What's wrong?! Are you OK? Do you want to go to a hospital? I am taking you to a hospital." Gage reacted to Sydney's outburst with concern showing clearly in his eyes and voice, as the car screeched to a halt.

"No, no. I am fine, but I saw something in the woods, it looked like a person." As she spoke Sydney got out of the car and began quickly walking towards the woods.

"Syd, wait! We don't know what it is, or how many people there may be. Please let's call backup."

Sydney was going to protest but when she looked into her partners eyes and saw the deep concern (and something else maybe?), she just agreed. "Fine, fine. Call Walker and Trivette."

At that moment Walker was driving Alex to the courthouse after dropping Angela off at the HOPE Centre.

"Walker. Hey Gage, what can I do for you? OK. Where are you guys? Fine. I have Alex with me so I will stop by Jimmy's and pick him up, unless Alex has to be at court early. She is shaking her head, so call Jimmy and tell him I will be at his place in 5 minutes. Bye."

"Walker, what was that all about?"

"Sydney and Gage were driving back to Dallas after a call and Syd saw something in the woods. Gage wouldn't let her check it out without backup. When do you have to be at court?"

"Not until tomorrow. I was just going to do some paperwork today so I will stick with you for awhile. OK?

"Sounds good to me but we do have to pick Jimmy up first"

Sydney and Gage were wainting anxiously for Walker, Alex and Trivette to show up. Sydney kept trying to convince Gage to let her check it out before it got away. "Come on Gage. I just want to see what it is. You didn't really need to call for backup, it looked too small to be anything but a child. Actually it is probably an injured animal. Let me go in just a little and look at it. OK?"

"Fine Syd. But I am going with you, got it?!"

"Yup let's go!" And with that they began to walk very cautiously to the woods.

"OK Syd, where was it? I don't see a thing!"

"Right over here. Now stay back a little, we don't want to scare it by showing your ugly mug."

"AWWW! Come on Syd. You know you love to look at my face everyday. Heck you probably even dream about it!"

"Yeah, in my nightmares. Now back up!" Well he had been told so Gage stayed back a little (but not too much in case he had to save his partner). Sydney slowly crawled forward toward the curled up ball of... whatever.

"Oh my God Gage, I think it is girl." Just as Sydney reached down to see if the girl was alive, her eyes popped open and she tried to jump up and away from the two rangers. She now stood cowering next to the rocks she had curled under.

"Wait! It's OK. We aren't going to hurt you." cooed Sydney. "We are Rangers, we're going to help you. What's your name?" All Sydney got for a reply was a blank stare but in the back of her eye Sydney could see absolute horror and fear of the two rangers.

"Gage go and see if Walker, Alex and Jimmy are here yet. And move slowly. She looks like she is about to bolt anyways and quick movement would only give here an additional reason for fear.

"Got it Syd" Gage slowly crept backwards but always kept his eye on his partner and the girl.

"OK Sweetie. What is your name?"

At the sound of Sydney's voice the girl fliched and raised her hands to protect her face and chest. Syd tried to reach towards her to see how badly she was hurt but for every step Syd took forward the girl took 3 backwards. Syd also noticed how, except for the first brief second the girl had never looked Sydney or Gage in the face, always keeping her eyes at their waist so she would always know where they were.

Meanwhile at the road, Walker, Alex and Trivette had arrived and Gage was filling them in on what they had found. "I don't know guys. She is small, looks like an 11 year old but that could be from the obvious malnourishment. The only clothes she's wearing barely cover her body. I could count all of her ribs and her fingers, nose, ears, toes and legs are all tinged with blue. She had been out here for a while. But the worst was her eyes. She was scared of us! Utterly terrified! She won't look us in the eye, every time we speak she flinches like we will hurt her and she hasn't spoken a word yet. This girl has lived through some really rough times. I don't even know if we will be able to get her to a hospital."

After hearing this Walker and Trivetter both looked concerned for the girl and full of rage for whoever did this to her and what she had to have gone through, probably alone. Alex looked like she was going to cry.

"Sydney is talking to her right now but I don't think it was going too well."

"Well let's go find out, but go slowly."

As the group approached Sydney they could see she was talking to the girl and trying to step towards her but the girl kept backing away. It would have almost seemed humourous had it not been for the look of terror on the girls face. Once the entire group reached Sydney, the girls eyes seemed to get even largeer and the ycould tell she was shaking and trembling in fear. The next thing they knew she had turn around and was attempting to run. But her legs were too weak so she fell and began to crawl away. Walker was the first to reah herr so he reached out and gently touched her shoulder. The girl cried out, curled int oa ball and for the first time spoke. "Just hurry up, get it over with." Her voice was hoarse as thought she hadn't spoken for awhile and she seemed ready to accept wahatever it was she expected. "OH God! I am sorry! I spoke out of turn, Oh God, never again, I swear!"

The Rangers and Alex all seemed shocked at this outburst, not only the voice and words but the clear fright behind the words. "No,no. It is Ok. We won't hurt you, we're Rangers." Walker received no reply only a stare filled with fear. More fear than he had ever seen, even in Vietnam, because there at least the men had known they could rely on each other. Here, this girl seemed to be all alone.

"Will you let me pick you up and take you to a hospital to get cleaned up, at least?" That seemed to scare her even more, she was know trying frantically to get away from the 5 adults. But Walker noticed she kept looking at Sydney, just every now and then and not for very long.

"Syd," Walker spoke very softly, no more than a whisper,. "Syd come here and try to talk to her. I think she may like you. But be careful." Walkrr very slowly crept back now, never moving quickly and never standing up. Sydney crept forward until she was right in front of the trembling girl.

"It will be Ok" She softly whispered, "You can trust us, we won't hurt you." At that the girl started to shake even harder and began to cry softly. Sydney was confused by this. She didn't know what had happened or how to continue. But she tried. "Would you like me to take you to the hospital?" A frantic shaking of the head was all the answer she got. "I am sorry but we have to. Your skin is blue from cold and you are injured. So how about just I take you?" Suddenly the girl tried to jump up, pressumably to run away, but instead she slipped on the wet leaves, fell and hit her head on one of the rocks. Sydney immediately checked to see if she was ok and was relieved to find a pulse, albeit very weak.

"She is alive. But most likely has a concussion to go with the rest of the injuries now. *We should move her quickly while she is unconcious, luckily the nearest hospital is 5 minutes away it will be faster for us to take her. Gage carry her to the car and we will take her there. But be careful! We don't want her to wake up while you are holding her. I have a feeling she really doesn't like men."

"Got it Syd." With that Gage leaned down and carfully lifted up the small girl. "God Syd, she weighs less than a feather. I bet I could circle her waist with one hand!"

"Yeah Gage, I know. Let's hurry and get her to the hospital."

Suddenly Walker spoke up. " Ok you guys take her to the hospital and Trivette and I will start looking through missing person reports."

"Walker I am going to go with them."

"Why Alex?"

"Just in case she wants to talk when she wakes up"

By this time they had reached the cars. "Ok Alex, but keep us updated please?""Sure thing Honey."

With that the two senior rangers drove away leaving the others to figure out the seating arrangements. "Gage you drive. Alex why don't you sit in the front. I would prefer to sit back here with her in case she wakes up OK?"

"Yeah Syd. That would probably be best any way. She seem to have connected with you. Or at least more with you than the rest of us."

So with that figured out they piled in and headed out.







*I know, I know. You shouldn't move someone when they are injured but for the purpose of the story it was neccessary.