No notes except: read, enjoy, and review.

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Before Shalimar had time to react, the snake looked as if some unseen force struck it. It flew back into the grass and just laid there like a piece of string. Shalimar turned to Emma with a questioning look on her face. Emma, in return, flashed her a half-smile and pointed to her head.

"You used your psi-blast?"

Emma nodded. "Well, I couldn't let that hideous thing bite you or anything."

"Wait a minute! What about the other two?" Shalimar turned her attention back to the other snakes and was surprised to see them both in the same condition as the first one. She looked at Emma again, who just nodded.

"I dealt with those two before the little incident. You should be glad I'm here, otherwise, you'd be on the ground right now as snake meat."

"So I'm guessing you put them into some sort of deep slumber?"

Emma nodded. "Yeah. This power always comes in handy."

"Thank God. Which is another reason why I like having you around."

Emma grinned slowly. "So what are the other reasons you like having me around? I'm dying to know."

Shalimar looked at Emma with a blush in her cheeks. She couldn't very well tell Emma that she was beginning to develop a crush on her. Staring at her all the time like some lovesick little boy. Ruining a perfectly good friendship was something that Shalimar never wanted to encounter. Besides, even if she did tell Emma, what would her reaction be? One full of disgust? Anger? She didn't want to take that chance so she told Emma, "You know. Girl talk, shopping, the usual things we always do." And left it at that.

Emma could sense there was something else on Shalimar's mind but didn't pry any farther. When Shalimar was ready to say what was bugging her, she would do so. She didn't want to invade Shalimar's thoughts, but the temptation of doing so to see what was wrong was bugging the hell out of her. That's when she remembered the promise she made to her other teammates about staying out of their heads for their own personal privacy. And she didn't intend to break that promise. Not now, not ever. So she let Shalimar be.

"Hey, Em. You in there?" Shalimar waved her hand in front of Emma's face, trying to break her out of her reverie. She was asking Emma a question but the redhead showed no sign of paying any kind of attention to her.

Emma snapped out of her thoughts. "Huh? Yeah, of course I'm here. Why do you ask?"

"Well, I was asking you something and you seemed lost in your own thoughts. Not to mention the fact that you didn't answer me for the fifth time. Are you feeling okay?" Shalimar put her hand up to Emma's forehead and felt for a temperature. "You feel okay."

Emma gently grabbed Shalimar's hand that was on her forehead. "That's because I am okay. Just…thinking. About personal things." She looked down and realized she was still holding Shalimar's hand in her own and chickened out, quickly letting go. She blushed and turned away from Shalimar, blocking the sun that seemed to come out of nowhere from her eyes. "So how long is it to the next town? Since we don't know the number we might of as well hike."

"To tell you the truth, I really don't know either. Maybe we can ask for a ride." She turned to the road and searched for any sign of a vehicle that could give them a ride to the next town over. She spotted one coming and got ready to hold out her hand. When the car was in seeing distance, she held her hand out as high as she could. The car, on the other hand, sped by, ignoring her and splashing little specks of mud all over her black outfit.

This infuriated Shalimar and she felt like running after the idiot who was in the car to show them who was boss. She was stopped by Emma, who quietly told her to forget them since they had bigger problems to worry about. Shalimar took one look at Emma and her mood softened. How can I stay mad when I see such a gorgeous face as that one? She seems to be the only one who can tame me.

Shalimar smiled at that thought and faced Emma. "Well, let's see you do any better, Miss Let's-Forget-Them-Since-We-Have-Bigger-Problems. Think you can do better?" She raised her eyebrows in a challenge and smiled inwardly as she saw Emma take the bait.

"I do believe I can do better than that, Miss Let-Me-Pound-That-Idiot-Into-Mush. Stand aside and let the true master do her work." Emma then stepped past Shalimar and looked into the road for another sign of an upcoming vehicle. She spotted a big truck coming their way and held out her hand to signal for the driver to stop.

Much to both of their surprise, it did stop. Emma composed her shocked face and turned it into a smirk before spinning around to face Shalimar. "See? All you had to do was ask me and we'd probably be on our merry way to the next town in search of a tow truck. Next time, let me handle this kind of situation."

They both turned when they heard the door open and peeked inside to see who their savior was. They were met with the sight of a fat, bald man sitting in the driver's seat. He looked to be in his late thirties and was wearing a dirty pair of torn, blue jeans with a beige-colored long-sleeve shirt covering his potbelly of a stomach. He had on a pair of red snakeskin boots and wore silver rings on all of his fingers. Around his neck hung a chain with a silver pendant of a cross hanging from it. He greeted them with a somewhat friendly smile. "You two need a ride somewhere? I'd be happy to give one to you." He eyed them with a glance and grunted before turning his view to the road.

Emma smiled sweetly at him. "Yes, we do. Just give us a moment to get our things from the trunk."

Shalimar faced her. "Why do we need our things? We'll be back in a couple of hours." Shalimar eyed Emma questioningly.

"Cause I have a feeling we won't be coming back. Just follow my lead."

Shalimar nodded and took the keys out of her pocket, jogging to the car and opening the trunk. She pulled out the two small luggage bags and shut the trunk, locking it before turning around and heading back to Emma. "Okay, Einstein. What do we do now?"

"Just follow my lead." Emma took one bag and pushed it into the truck, climbing up behind it and moving towards the back. Shalimar followed her lead and did the same, shutting the door behind her. She sat in the front seat and the man put the truck out of park and into gear, checking for traffic and pulling the monstrous vehicle back onto the road.

"So, where're you headed?"

"The next town would be just fine. If that's not too much trouble." Shalimar eyed the man suspiciously before looking back at Emma with a curious glance. The man, in turn, nodded and put his concentration back onto the road ahead of them.

For the rest of that time, all three occupants remained silent. There was no pressure to break the silence and no one seemed to want to speak. That is, until Shalimar noticed that the man had turned onto a narrow, dirt road and was calmly hobbling his way along like nothing was happening. Shalimar quickly looked outside and realized that they were in the middle of nowhere, heading to God knows where. She turned to the man and confronted him about this.

"Where the hell are we going? This isn't the next town. Where are you taking us?" The man just looked at her with an evil glint in his eye but didn't answer. Which got Shalimar angrier. "I want to know where the hell you're taking us and why! Answer me or I'll beat the living shit out of you!"

This caused a laugh to erupt from the man. "Or what? You going to beat me to death with your bare hands? I'd love to see that!" He let out another laugh and finally pulled the big truck to a stop with a screeching halt.

Shalimar flashed her golden-yellow eyes at him for a second before muttering in a low voice, "You may get your wish sooner than you think, buddy." Before she could do real damage, however, the man shut the door in her face. She turned to Emma, who had a scared look on her face, and decided that violence wouldn't be the way to go, at least not until the time presented itself. Before she could give thought to the matter, the door on her side opened and the man roughly grabbed her arm and pulled her out.

"Tell your little friend to get out here as well. I want to present the both of you with a little reward for being such wonderful little gals."

Emma climbed out before Shalimar could call for her and walked slowly towards them. The man let go of Shalimar and grabbed Emma instead. "I think I'll start with this one here."

He pushed Emma back against the truck and leaned in to kiss her. Emma yelled and unsuccessfully pushed at the man, trying to get him to back off. He just laughed and held her hands down even tighter, forcing his body to pin her between him and the truck.

Shalimar, meanwhile, watched this with a look that was far from angry. He is going too far! No one, and I mean NO ONE, touches Emma like that! I believe now's the time to use that violence. She ran over to the struggling people and tapped the man on the shoulder.

"What? You want a piece of me too?" He let go of Emma and turned around, finding his jaw being connected with Shalimar's fist. His head snapped back with the impact and he went flying, landing hard against the truck and slumping to the ground, unconscious.

Shalimar then turned to Emma, who was preoccupied with the fallen man on the ground, a scared and pale look on her face. Shalimar cupped her cheek with one hand and gently turned Emma's face towards her own, out of the sight of her attempted raper. "Emma, sweetie? Look at me. It's going to be okay. He won't hurt you ever again. I won't let him."

Emma looked at Shalimar with tears in her eyes. "Oh, my gosh, Shal! I was scared! I really thought he was going to do it! I didn't know what to do!"

Her body started racking into sobs and Shalimar put her arms around the stricken woman, hugging her with as much sympathy as she could muster. Emma's legs gave way and she fell to her knees, pulling Shalimar down with her. For a long time, hours it seemed when it was really minutes, they stayed in that position, not talking. Just staying in the comfort of each other's arms.

Shalimar, however, knew the man would wake up anytime soon, so she gently pulled back from the embrace and grabbed Emma by the shoulders. "We should get out of here. He might wake up soon and it looks like night is going to fall in just a few more hours. Are you up to it?"

Emma nodded and wiped the trail of wetness on her face that her tears had left behind. Shalimar gave her a sympathetic smile and went inside the truck to retrieve their luggage. She came back out and an idea formed in her head. She wasn't sure if Emma would be up to it though. She decided to give it a try anyway.

"Emma, I know you're not going to like this idea, but with the situation we're in, I don't see we have any choice. Ready to hear it?" She waited for Emma to nod before continuing. "Since we don't know how to drive this hunk of metal and since we're so far out of town, I think we should hitch a ride with someone." She saw Emma with a horrified look on her face and about to protest when she cut her off.

"Wait. Just hear me out. I'll make sure that this time, we're going in the right direction and we won't take for any kind of big truck. I'll make sure that they stop the car with any sign of a difference and I'll be right there to stop them if they try anything weird. You do trust me, right? You do know I wouldn't have suggested this if we weren't in this mess, right? If you don't agree and just want to hike, I'll perfectly understand that. So what do you say?"

Shalimar looked at Emma and hoped that she would agree. Shalimar knew that those were sorry-ass reasons but she didn't want to stay outside hiking in the dark with all kinds of lurkers out there, especially with Emma there to encounter it all. She looked at the expression on Emma's face, which was unreadable, and prayed that she would agree with her.

After what seemed like a long time, Emma answered, "Sure. I don't want to be out here in the dark anyway. Not after what happened." She shuddered and squeaked at the thought of what would have happened if Shalimar hadn't been there.

Shalimar half-smiled at her and grabbed her bag. "Well, let's hit the road then!" She waited for Emma to gather her things before heading back down the dirt road to the main one, both of them silent as they walked shoulder-to-shoulder to head to their next destination.

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GRRR!!! That stupid man!! Would I give anything to just jump in there and beat the living crap out of him! Whew… Excuse me. I just got caught up in that moment there and had to speak my mind. Anyway, please review. I'm dying to know what you all thought of this chapter. All comments welcome, including flames.