Quick Author's Note: I fell behind on getting this out on time, but it will continue!

On the Sixth Day of Christmas, my I-Man gave to me...

Hobbes twiddled his thumbs as best he could. The rope around his wrists was chaffing with the movement, but Hobbes welcomed the irritation. He was growing more and more anxious, and of coarse the very fact that he could feel his pills in his pocket but couldn't get to them was a bit more than irritating.

The vehicle slowed and the crunch of tires over fresh snow caught Bobby's attention. He looked up quickly from his position in the back of the Bronco they'd thrown him in. It was big enough in the back that Bobby was currently sitting against the back door with his hands resting on his knees while Darien lay next to him. His hands were also tied, but they might as well not be, they'd kept Darien drugged unconscious for the last day.

Their guard, also attracted by the crunch of snow, glanced out the tinted windows. They were pulling up next to what was probably an outpost judging by the satellite on the roof, and the telephone booth outside. Those things seemed to be everywhere these days, Hobbes thought to himself. Yet it wasn't so unnatural to see it here, they'd passed signs for camping earlier, this place was probably well used during the summer and the phone companies always wanted the most they could get out of people. Unfortunately, the only person to walk out of the building was one of the Chrysalis agents after checking the place out.

Arnaud got out of the Jeep in front and walked back to talk with their driver. He was the one who'd shot Bobby and Darien with the darts and for the most part seemed to be the person in charge of the five Chrysali. Since he hadn't heard any use of names between any of them, Hobbes had nicknamed the guy One, his guard was Two, and the rest were Three, Four and Five respectively.

One, a tall brute of a man, rolled down the window so Arnaud could lean in.

"We can use this place for now. The compound I followed them to is about five miles from here, it's well hidden and well guarded so we'll have to wait till tonight to sneak in." Arnaud stated, a scowl crossing his artificial face.

"What about them?" One questioned nodding slightly to the back.

Arnaud pierced Bobby with a sinister gaze, smirking, "I could care less what happens to Hobbes here." It took all of Hobbes' effort to refrain from commenting. His hands were clenched and the ropes bit sharply into his wrists, but they were also doing something else, they were stretching apart from a knot loosening under the strain. Carefully, Hobbes relaxed his wrists so the ropes wouldn't fall off and reveal this sudden small advantage.

One was also regarding Hobbes with a steely gaze but stated to Arnaud, "You should call in to Stark."

Arnaud rolled his eyes. With a few words under his breath he pulled out his cell phone and dialed the number. After another growl he asked One for his phone, coming up with no success as they each came back as 'Out of Range.' Using some colorful language, the Swiss-German headed off to use the phone in the booth.

The hairs on Bobby's neck rose in alarm, somehow he didn't think Stark would feel all that different from Arnaud. Movement drew Bobby's gaze and he noticed his partner's face twitching, probably in response to the cold wind coming through the window.

Looking up and seeing Two only halfway paying attention, Bobby took a chance and twitched his foot against his partner's side. Darien breathed out with a barely audible moan, his eyelids fluttering slightly then slowly opening. Yet Hobbes could tell that Darien's eyes were still dilated, he wasn't likely to regain enough awareness to be able to do anything. But he could help cause a distraction, Bobby thought. He didn't want to leave his partner there, it was against all his instincts, but he could see the look on Arnaud's face as he was walking back, and Bobby Hobbes knew he wouldn't be any good to his partner dead!

Thinking quickly, Hobbes kicked Darien again, harder. Letting out another moan, Darien started shifting, visibly fighting to regain consciousness. Words mumbled incoherently through a thick tongue, Bobby thought he even heard his name being called and Darien fought even harder to wake up.

At the same time Arnaud had returned to window and had noticed Darien starting to come out of the drug induced sleep. "Idiot! You're supposed to watch for the first sign! Open the back!"

Leaning slightly forward, Bobby waited for the right moment when they'd be sure he wasn't going to try and interfere. The back of the Bronco came down and Three was there, but both he and Two were focusing more on Darien. Arnaud was working at filling a needle with the necessary drug. Bobby moved quickly, shifting his hands so the ropes fell then struck Three directly in the throat.

He kicked out at Two's hands, knocking the gun to the side and rolled back off the tail of the SUV. Four and Five were coming around the vehicle and Two was regaining his hold on his gun, Bobby didn't have much time, so he did the only thing he could do, he ran.

What they didn't know was that Bobby Hobbes was a fantastic runner, even Fawkes with his long legs had admitted that Bobby was good. So, hindered only slightly by the mass of snow, Bobby expertly broke through the line of trees, using the barest touch on passing trees to maintain balance as he sped away.

He could hear the crackle of the Chrysali smashing through branches in their haste to follow. And they call themselves professionals, Bobby scorned, but he quickly realized they had a major advantage. The previously untouched snow was leaving his trail wide open and even if they themselves weren't as fast, their guns were.

As if encouraged by the thought, a sharp twang struck a tree only inches from his head. Hobbes pushed himself further, the cold air beginning to burn his throat with the effort. More twangs began to chase after him, the shots careless and searching for a lucky hit.

Hobbes wasn't sure how long he'd run, or what direction he was headed in, wondering idly if he should try heading for the road. Then at last ill luck struck and one of the random bullets the Chrysali were shooting off burned a hole right through Bobby's left thigh. He clenched his teeth again the sudden pain, the force of the blow tripping him as he crested a small hill sending him rolling down the uncut path.

This is it, Bobby thought to himself, but when he slid to a stop he found himself at the feet of the most unlikely pair. Rena and Pierre were staring at Hobbes in deep confusion. Then the five Chrysali crested the hill and immediately opened fire on the two foreign spies.

"Aw crap!" Hobbes muttered and frantically pulled himself back out of the fray. The spies also reacted quickly, pulling back to use trees for protection while they pulled out their own guns and a fire fight quickly ensued.

Hobbes was actually quite grateful for their interruption, and took full advantage of it to get as far away as possible. His injured leg didn't want to support him and the pain intensified with every minute, but Hobbes determinedly kept going leaving a glistening trail of red as he went.

Finding the road while both groups were distracted would be quite helpful, but regrettably, Hobbes realized now he was probably no where near it. What he needed to do first was stop the blood from leaking out of his leg and giving him away. Figuring he was far enough to avoid an immediate search, he spotted a cavity in a group of rocks. Hobbes limped over and sank to the frozen ground. This spot wasn't actually so bad, and gave quite a bit of cover. It would work for now.

He examined his bloodied leg, prodding the wound to see just how bad it was. A quick examination told him the bone was spared, and despite the amount of blood pouring out both the entry and exit wounds, it wasn't enough to indicate the artery was hit. He got lucky. Mind you, if he did nothing he was still liable to bleed to death. Hobbes pulled off his jacket and the sweater underneath, shivering as the cold wind blew against his bare chest. Quickly putting the jacket back on, but already noticing how much heat had been lost in just that short amount of time, he went ahead and tied the entire sweater firmly around his leg, the edges of the thick cloth bleeding red.

Breathing deep against the pain, Hobbes leaned back, just letting his leg throb for a few minutes. After a thought, Hobbes reached into his pocket and pulled out his pills, gratefully dry swallowing two. He wasn't sure if they'd ease the pain at all, but it was worth taking them anyway.

"Can't stay here, Bobby, my friend," he murmured to himself and twisted to try and rise to his feet again, but the crack of a twig caused him to stop. Bobby quickly looked around for anything he could use as a weapon. Any loose rocks were buried under a foot of snow and the branches were too green to yank off quietly.

Grabbing a handful of snow and ignoring the numbing cold he quickly packed it into a tight ball until he had four of them. Then he listened, straining his ears for further sounds that they had found him. There wasn't much, but the small crunch of feet walking on snow was enough.

Grinding his teeth, he pulled the one good leg under him, sitting in an awkward crouch but able to stay hidden while he waited till the crunching came close enough. Then, with deadly accuracy, Hobbes swung the packed balls of snow at his assailant one right after the other. He took off immediately in the other direction, sheer will enabling him to ignore the shoots of pain stretching up through his body.

"Bobby!" A familiar voice complained behind him. Surprised, Bobby turned, all awareness coming back as he fell back into the snow when momentum refused to turn with him. Alex quickly ran up to him, snow still dripping from her hair and jacket from Bobby's assault. "Hobbes, you okay?"

Bobby looked at her still shocked. "Monroe. What are you doing here?"

Alex smirked, brushed the rest of the snow off and stated, "From the looks of it saving your ass. What happened? Where's Fawkes?"

"Arnaud has him," Bobby told her darkly. He grimaced as Alex helped him up, but couldn't hold back the small cry as he accidentally put his weight on his left leg. The short sprint had been far more than he should have done.

Frowning with concern, Alex quietly asked, "How bad is it?"

"I'll live," Hobbes stated hoarsely, then asked, as much to distract her from worry as himself, "How'd you find me?"

Once again Alex smirked. "I am an expert tracker you know."

"Ya ya..."

"I talked to your sister. She told me about the compound that's up here, said she figured that's where you and Fawkes headed." Alex added.

Hobbes looked at her sharply. "Rachel knew about the compound?"

Alex was startled. "I thought you would have mentioned it to her." Bobby didn't answer, and from the darkening look on his face it'd be a delicate question so she continued with the immediate concern. "We have to get you out of here."

"No." Bobby stated, his attention also turning to the immediate problem. "We can't leave Fawkes. I don't know what Arnaud plans to do with him or what his deal is with the FQM, but they were talking about sneaking into the compound tonight."

Alex shook her head. "It's not going to happen. Not tonight anyway. I've seen the compound, security's tight, and thanks to the fire fight I heard, I'm sure it's even tighter now than before. So come on, first things first, we need to get you help."

Hobbes made to protest, but she pushed him into a walk and the protest turned into a grunt. Resigning, he asked, "Where's your car?"

"Ah..." Alex paused, her face clouding over with thought as she looked around, then pointing in one direction stated, "about five miles that-a-way." Hobbes grunted again.

They made their way slowly in the direction Alex had pointed. She'd worried they'd be followed, but every time she'd backtracked or scouted around, there was no sign of any pursuit.

"Maybe they all killed each other," Hobbes suggested hopefully after she came back for the third time.

Alex just made a face of discernment, then frowned deeper as she regarded Hobbes. He was leaning tiredly against the tree, balanced solely on his good leg. From an outside perspective it looked like he was standing on both legs, but the truth of the matter was that he'd lost all feeling now in his left leg, the pain that should have been in his thigh was instead reaching up his side and clenching under his ribs. If he moved, he could feel his leg again, but he'd really rather not.

"You can't keep this up." Alex simply stated.

"Bobby Hobbes has made it through a lot worse, my friend," Bobby bit out annoyed. "Let's go Monroe."

Her lips thinned, but she didn't say anything and putting his arm around her shoulders lead him in a new direction. Bobby was just tired enough that he didn't notice. Not longer after they came to a small clearing and another cavity almost big enough to be a cave. Alex led him over to it. "We can rest here," She stated softly.

Hobbes nodded. He realized suddenly this was planned and knew what she intended. If it didn't make more sense he would have continued to protest, but instead let himself be lowered to the ground. An overhanging bank of rock formed the cavity and also kept most of the snow from blowing in so it was a slight bit warmer.

Alex crouched down in front of him, pulling off her mini black backpack and handing it to him. "I'll be right back." He just nodded.

She returned a few minutes later, dragging a few torn branches from a pine tree with their needles still attached. She set them up next to the cavity, giving it that much more protection from the wind as well as an amateur cover.

Meanwhile, Hobbes had taken to investigating the contents the backpack. There was her phone, which he tried with no success as it kept coming back 'Out of Range', a pair of binoculars, a night scope, waterproof matches, lighter fluid, extra clip and a zip lock bag with six oatmeal cookies. "What's this?"

"The back pack Fawkes gave me for Christmas, remember?" Alex replied.

"No, what's this?" He held up the bag of cookies.

"Oh, I forgot those were in there," Alex replied looking properly abashed.

"Forgot?" Hobbes had the bag open and was munching hungrily away in the next second. It didn't take him long to finish all six.

Walking up with a slight smile, Alex asked him, "So, what did you think?"

"'Bout what?" He questioned searching the bag for crumbs.

"The cookies."

"Don't know."

"You don't know? You just scarfed down the whole bag!" Alex complained sounding a bit hurt.

"I was eating them, not tasting them!" Hobbes replied in defense, then looked up at her surprised, "Monroe, did you make these?"

"Forget it," Alex stated with a grimace, and more seriously told him. "I think you should stay here. I can get to my car a lot faster if I travel alone. Once I get back to town I can get help, we'd be back up for you and Fawkes by tomorrow morning, I promise."

Hobbes thought about it, but he'd already decided the second he'd realized what she planned. Bobby nodded. "Don't worry about me. Just get people up here to get Fawkes back." She didn't bother arguing with him, but before she could leave, Bobby called out. "Hey Monroe. I don't know if Arnaud will have counteragent, but Fawkes was real close."

Alex nodded then simply disappeared back onto the trees. Hobbes sighed, shifting with a small gasp as he curled up tighter against the protecting rock. He shivered and wrapped his arms around his chest trying to conserve as much heat as possible. Tonight was going to be one long night.

...Six Oatmeal Cookies
Five Chrysali
Four Balls of Snow
Three Missing Disks
Two Foreign Spies
And Arnaud in a Telephone Booth