Gabrielle reeled back in horror. Had the weakling just hit her back? She raised her hand to defend herself and strike Isabella again, but Nathaniel cried out.

"Mum, no!"

Gabrielle looked at her young son's innocent eyes and couldn't go through with it. Another glance at the brooding, frighteningly powerful gray eyes of the Lady Isabella Roxton, and she turned and left.

Isabella collapsed as the adrenaline bled from her body. Her knee gave out and she crumpled to the floor.

"Bella? You okay?" Nathan inquired, shaking from the incident. He looked into Isabella's eyes with a worried look.

"I.I'm fine. Go get some clothes. Anything you want for a long trip. Hurry, Nathan-boy," Isabella managed, shooing Nathan along and trying to pull herself up.

Nathan ran out of her room and into his. Isabella stumbled through her room, grabbing the spare bag she always kept for occasions such as these. Minutes later, Nathan ran back in, an overstuffed pack on his back.

"Go tell Henry I need a horse. Just tell him that Bella needs a horse. Say those exact words, Nathan." "Bella needs a horse. Bella needs a horse," Nathaniel repeated to himself as he ran out of the room.

Isabella began to form the plan in her mind. She couldn't let little Nathan go through her pain. They had to get out of here....
~*~*~
"Nathan-boy, where are you going so quickly?" Layton laughed as he watched the boy run out to the Roxton stable.

"Horse for Bella," Nathan chirped, running along his way. Layton paused and grabbed his arm lightly.

"Wait, hold up. Why does Bella need a horse?"

Nathan shrugged. "She told me to get it and to pack for a big trip."

Layton sighed and let Nathan go because Henry was calling for him. The boy knew exactly what Isabella had in mind and hurried to his home to pack himself a bag.
~*~*~
Favoring her left leg, Isabella limped over to her saddled horse. His name was Riptide, a young gelding she'd seen raised from colt-hood. She finished adjusting the straps of the saddle and bridle, making sure her broad sword, a present from her visit to Camelot two years ago, was firmly attached and out of the way.

Nathan climbed the fence and struggled onto patient Riptide's back. Now came the hard part, somehow pulling herself onto the horse without admitting how much her dislocated knee was hurting her.

"Hold on, let me help you," said an all-too familiar voice from behind her.

"Layton." she sighed. "Please don't try to stop me."

She didn't even turn to look at him as he slid from off of his mount, his beloved mare Abby.

"I'm not going to stop you this time, Isabella," he said softly as he helped her onto Riptide in behind Nathan. "I just want to go with you and make sure you are safe."

Isabella looked down from her seat to his handsome, well-known face inset with blue, caring eyes and smiled in gratitude. "If you insist."

Layton nodded and returned her grin. "Anything to keep you safe."
~*~*~
The loud cracks of the fire blended with the chirping of insects as the night grew longer. Nathaniel Woods slept soundly at his Isabella's feet, curled in a small ball with a coarse blanket pulled up to cover all but his unruly strawberry blond hair and innocent face. Isabella stared into the fire as she sat on the leaf-covered ground wrapped in her Zanga blanket. Her knee was killing her and the bruises on her face and reopened wounds on her arms were throbbing in pain. Still, she repressed it. Isabella hated to show her pain. Her thoughts lingered on the note she'd received. Would her mother still be there? And what would she say if she were? Would her own mother even recognize her now?

"She hurt you badly this time. You walk with a limp," Layton commented, lowering himself into a cross-legged seat beside her and feeding kindling into the campfire.

"It isn't as bad as it seems."

Layton saw immediately through her lies and frowned in her direction. "Then why are you running away?"

"I'm not running away," Isabella said, a little icier than she'd have liked. "I'm saving him. Saving him from going through what I did."

Her best friend's eyes widened in realization and the horses' snorts and padding of the ground could be heard in his astonished silence.

"She hurt him?"

"Grabbed him, shook him, was going to hit him. It's all the same. Once she did it once, she'd do it again. I thought he was safe. He is her own son, for God's sake. And he's barely older than an infant."

"You've done the right thing," Layton assured her but she sensed the half-truth in his voice.

"Layton," she said.

"Yes?" He visibly perked at her call, turning to look directly in her eyes.

"My mother's going to be there when we reach Cobi's."

Layton's brows raised and under any other circumstances Isabella would've laughed at her friend's animated facial features. "How do you know?" he swallowed.

"Cobi and Assai sent a messenger with a note while I was gone."

"That's wonderful. You found her!" His smile reached from ear to ear to express his genuine excitement for her.

"Yes, but I'm scared. What if she doesn't like me?"

Layton laughed lightly. "Isabella Roxton, who doesn't like you?"

"Gabrielle," Isabella whispered.

"Who with an entire brain who isn't a psycho bitch? No one. Everyone loves you. And she's your mother. She loved you before and still loves you now."

"I'm not that little girl she left behind, Layton. I'm different."

"I know. I, of all people, know that you have grown up." He blushed slightly in the glow of the fire and turned from staring at her.

Layton Malone had a crush, and he was the only one around that campfire who knew it.

"Listen, Bella, you are a beautiful, amazing, kind person. Anyone who can't see that and can't love you incredibly for it, it just plain stupid."

"My dear Layton Malone, I do believe you're blushing," she teased to hide her own reddening of cheeks.

"Yeah, well," he shrugged with a casual grin, hiding his nervousness. Ever so slowly he leaned into her, working up the courage to do what he'd wanted to do for months now. She, too, felt herself being drawn in, no matter how she fought it.

Suddenly, though, there was a loud crack from the fire, spoiling the moment and bringing Isabella back to her senses. She pulled away.

"I, I, I should get some rest. Will you take first watch?"

Layton hid the momentary flash of disappointment, smiled and nodded. "Of course."

"Promise to wake me?"

"I swear."

"Thank you, Layton," Isabella whispered and she pulled him close for a hug, much like the ones they'd exchanged often in their lives, but with something strangely different involved.

"Of course, Bella."

~*~*~
Isabella slipped off the horse with the help of a Zanga man. She grabbed her sword and strapped it firmly around her waist, letting the other bags stay on the horse two Zanga boys were leading away for water. Nathaniel stood to her left and as they walked to the "main square" of the village she kept a hand on his shoulder for support. Layton noticed her limp and quickly traded spots with Nathan.

"What happened?" Assai asked, rushing to them.

"Gab." Layton started.

"It's not important," Isabella cut him off. "Is she still here?"

Assai cast a worried glance at the girl but nodded. "In there."

"Bella-sa!" Cobi called, emerging from a group of young men. "Are you all right?"

"Fine," Bella grimaced, mis-stepping on her left.

"Stop lying," Cobi admonished, looking to her knee. "Gabrielle?"

Isabella nodded, annoyed. "It doesn't matter. Take me to her." She urged Layton forward, but Cobi stood in front of them, imposing with his broad, tan shoulders and midnight hair pulled to the nape of his neck.

"You aren't walking anymore than you need to." There was a bit of a devilish twinkle in his eyes and he smiled knowingly at Layton. Understanding, Layton ducked from underneath Bella's arm as Cobi scooped her up.

"Jacobi!" Isabella protested, "Put me down!"

Cobi laughed and Nathan giggled as he followed them. Cobi spun Isabella around and her cries of objection made the entire village chuckle.

"Cobi! Careful!" Isabella warned.

In the commotion, Assai slipped into a nearby hut. She came back with a protesting woman in tow.

"Assai! What is that ruckuss?"

"Relax, Isabella, you're safe," Cobi was saying.

"Bella," Layton laughed, "Stop worrying."

"Oh, this from Layton Malone!" Isabella retorted over the din.

The woman's gray eyes widened and her face paled.

"Why did you send for her?" she asked Assai. "I can't face her."

"Cobi, enough!" Assai called to her son in Zanga, then said to her companion, "I sent for her because she's spent the last five years looking for you. She's in trouble and she needs her mother."

"No. She needs A mother. And a good one. Like you. What trouble is she in? Roxton can take care of her."

"No," Assai hissed, "He can't. Look at her. In every movement, every feature, he sees you! The pain of losing you paralyzes him. He can't help her."

"Mother?" Isabella cried as the world stopped turning. "Cobi, put me down this instant!"

Instead, Cobi carried her to her mother's feet and gently set her down. She staggered a few steps before the pain made her face twist and she nearly collapsed. Layton and Cobi caught her and supported her.

Marguerite looked her over in surprise. Her white blouse was soiled with dirt smudges and a hint of dried blood. Her khaki skirt was similar. The sword seemed out of place in her ensemble, low on her waist. Her long, brunette curls were held back in a ponytail, revealing a cut and bruised face, a nasty contusion under her eye. The parts of her arms visible were laced with healing bruises as well.

"What's wrong?" she whispered.

"Just my knee," Isabella smiled bravely. "Got it dislocated... maybe strained a few ligaments."

"Bella," Assai said comfortingly.

Isabella's cheeks flushed with anger and embarrassment.

"I think my mum did it," Nathan said softly from behind Layton.

"Nathan-boy," Bella sighed, "Don't worry your young head about it."

"But she hurt you, Bella!" Nathan cried.

Marguerite gasped. "What does he mean? Who is his mother?"

"Gabrielle Woods. Uncle John's fiancée," Layton answered.

Isabella couldn't meet her mother's eyes.

"She has a long history of this," Cobi added.

Bella shot him a look with menace in it.

"It's the truth, Isabella, and it needs to come out," Layton scolded, "She beats you, regularly."

"Does your father know?" Marguerite asked.

"No, he wouldn't believe me if I told him. I'm just an over-dramatic kid to them."

"What are you talking about? You're the Lady Roxton, a respectable member of society from a respectable background," Layton protested.

"It is well know that I hold no amity for Gabrielle. Why wouldn't I make it up to try to get her out of my life? It doesn't matter anymore. We come to save Nathan-boy that pain. And to see if the elusive one will escape again."

Her eyes rested on Marguerite and in the presence of this broken girl, her betrayed teenage daughter, she felt two inches tall.

"We have much to catch up on, Mother," Isabella finished softly, relaxing back into the support of her friends.

"Perhaps dinner is in order," Cobi offered.
Author's Note: Wow. Was that reunion good enough? What do y'all think? Review please!