A/N: Oh my God...I'm so happy. Edmunds hit a homer over the rights side wall in the bottom of the 12. If you don't know what I'm talking about I'll make it simpler! CARDINALS GOING TO GAME 7! YEAH BABY! With that out of my system I leave you alone and give you the next chapter.

Ch. 9 Instincts

'Over my dead body.' Sonny silently vowed at the thought of his employee, correction, his former employee completing his task.

He wouldn't let him, not without a fight. He would go down swinging before he'd let him lay a finger on Courtney. As soon as her name popped into his head his gaze traveled over to the make-shift bed she lay in. Vaguely he remembered that something woke him the night before, and she assured him it was nothing. But he couldn't help but wonder "what if the next time it wasn't nothing?"

After all, they were in foreign territory. Neither could be sure what was out there and now the added danger of Anders. Anything could happen, at anytime. He was desperately wishing for some kind of communication with the world.

Sure they had enough supplies for now. But they couldn't live forever on airline snacks and a few surviving water bottles.

Sonny ran his hands over his dirt smudged shirt and pants. He let out a small sigh, sure he had an endless amount of nice suits. But there were some that he liked more than others. Carly would probably find it very amusing if she he cared about his clothes almost as much as she did. Almost.

While tending to his suit, he heard her movements and looked back up in time to see her open her eyes. He noticed the momentary look of confusion quickly turn to one of recognition. The man was certain that he had the same expression on his own features earlier.

"How'd you sleep?"

"Fine." It wasn't a lie. After she passed out, she stayed out like a lamp. Technically it was sleep, though she didn't fee rested at all. As a matter of fact she felt more exhausted then she had before.

"Well, there's something you should know."

"What's that?" she asked keeping her words short and to the point in an attempt to avoid a replay of the previous night.

"Umm...Remirez is dead." he told her. "Just a few minutes ago. He said..." he quieted down when he heard a few coughs sound from her direction. As he gave her a look of concern, she motioned for him to continue. "He said that Anders, did this. He...uh...took the plane down on purpose."

He waited for her surprised response or even one of disbelief, but it didn't come. She wasn't even paying attention to him anymore.

"Did you hear what I said?"

Courtney concentrated on taking slow, easy breaths and prayed that any pained look on her face wouldn't be noticed. No such luck.

He felt worry stir up in him when he saw the occasional grimace that spread across her face, for no apparent reason that he could see other than she was simply sitting there breathing.

"What wrong? Tell me."

She wasn't sure why she felt he shouldn't know. Yes, she did. She was just too afraid to admit it. Because she knew he would try to help her when, it was seeming more and more like it was a lost cause. So she tried to play it off as his senseless worry.

"You worry too much." she said giving him what she hoped at least looked like a smile. Biting the inside of her cheek, she braced herself and painfully got to her feet. When she did, she felt like she was going to throw up. It hurt enough to bring her to tears, but she kept them back and in a way promised them they would be released once she was alone.

"Don't lie to me." he said.

"What were you saying? Something about the plane right?" she forced out trying to no avail to change the subject.

"Courtney." he warned and continued to eye her accusingly. She hated that now of all times a fury of coughs broke free. Immediately he came to her side.

"Why won't you tell me what's going on?"

She tried to tell him...she wasn't sure. Something. Anything. But couldn't catch a break. The woman felt her knees wobble beneath her and dropped to her knees. Feeling twenty times worse then she had the entire time they'd been there, she continued coughing into her hand. Courtney saw her brother kneel down next to her, fear written all on every inch of his face. Desperately willing it all to stop, she gasped for air and felt her chest catch on fire.

Continually forcing the gasps of air, down into her lungs, she began to see the same dark shadows creeping around the edge of her view. Everything was quickly blurring and she looked towards the man next to her.

"Sonny?" she whimpered to her panicking relative.

"Courtney. What do I do? I don't know wha-"

He didn't finish his sentence before he saw her eyes flutter and roll back in her head. Reaching out he felt his fingers graze her shirt as she fell the short distance remaining to the ground.

"Courtney? Courtney! Come on, you can't do this. Wake up. Courtney!"

Across the water, the man woke from a not so deep slumber. He had woken so suddenly he didn't have time to stop himself from tumbling off the couch which he snoozed.

Jason had been jolted from his sleep by a sudden sickening feeling in the pit of his stomach. Nausea swept over him and he pushed it back. Immediately, he knew what his instincts were telling him. He knew that somewhere, something was wrong. And he had to get to them, to her, before it was too late.