Streamlight, rushing, wet and cool...
Shiny water-worn pebbles, smooth as liquid glass...
The gentle rasp of serrated leaves against his skin...
Light, fading. Fading...the sun appeared smaller until it hovered overhead, a mere speck, then collapsed into empty darkness.
"Where am I?" he wondered. "And where is this?"
No one seemed about to answer the question. A shout rose to his lips, ingrained challenge. But he couldn't utter it. Something shushed him. Was it his own beating heart, the pulsing tempo in his ears, or the holy stillness that made him hesitate. To find out...
"Oh, God. Oh, God. Dad. Dad!"
Nathan crawled over his father's prostrate figure, fingers shaking as they tugged at the tiny spot of crimson staining Dan's shirt. As if he could wipe it away.
"Nate-slow down. Slow down."
Lucas searched the trees for any sign of his captor, but the only sound was a few birds rapidly taking flight beyond the small clearing.
Hobbs on the run?
"Untie me. Nathan! Untie me!" Lucas frantically strained at the rough bindings.
"He's dead! He's gonna die and I killed him!"
"He's not dead, yet." Lucas cast a calm eye over the prone figure. "He's breathing. Press down."
"What? Breathing? He's br-"
"Nathan, shut up and listen to me!"
"What the crap is going on?"
"Jake! Untie me, will you?"
"Sure. Nate, get off him. What did you do? Who shot him?"
"Long story." Lucas shook his hands free of the restraining rope and brushed Nathan aside. "Okay, I'm going to try and slow the bleeding here, but we need some first aid stuff."
"Doesn't look bad."
"It's a flesh wound. Just the top of his shoulder."
"What? It's not bad?"
"You're dad'll be fine, Nate. Unfortunately." Jake sighed.
Lucas' eyes widened.
"He could've used a slightly larger warning, but I'll take it as it comes." The basket ball player unzipped his knap sack, drawing out a small white box. "Let's get to work. Nate-see if you can pick up your dad's stuff. He probably left his gear somewhere back in that brush."
Lucas stared a moment, in disbelief, as his half brother, still somewhat dazed, stumbled off through the brambles. "Luke? You ready to do this?"
Amazing. The blonde Scott tiredly shook his head, but a tiny smile tugged at the corners of his generous mouth. What was it about Jake?
Lucas paused to wipe a trickle of sweat from his forehead. The iodine pads had left patches of lighter skin on his dirt ingrained fingers.
"You want me to finish here?"
Jake met his gaze, kneeling on the opposite side of Dan Scott.
"It's about done."
He stuffed the dirty gauze into their respective wrappers, trying to keep his grip steady.
"Well, you going to need any of that stuff?"
"I'm okay."
"You don't look so good."
Jake reached across and plucked at a fragment of Lucas' shirt. "Least ways, I'd switch brands. This thing's fallen apart."
Lucas almost laughed, but ducked his head instead. It had been so long, in the woods, solitary and silent, and now everything was different. He wondered if the oddity lie in himself or his companions.
Jakes's grip moved from the shirt to Luke's arm, squeezing it in reassurance.
"What the heck-Nathan-"
Dan's eyesight, blurred, fell full upon Lucas' face. And there they rested...
Far too wary, shadowed, deep smudging casting his eyes under tendrils of damp, light hair. Lucas.
"Nate-"
Whether accurate or not, the older Scott Boy could pinpoint the exact moment of recognition, long before his dad's stiff grin fell on Jake's downturned features.
"Thanks, Jagielski ."
Lucas swallowed. That was it, then. He stood, stiffly, trying to ignore the countless little aches plagueing his body. Tried to stop shaking, adreniline abating.
"Sit down."
This time it was Nathan. He slung an arm about his half brother's shoulders. "You stick with me. I bet you'd like some cocoa."
Was it mere days, the beginning of the journey, that first morning beside the campfire?
Lucas sank against the tree he'd rested against so recently, not even caring what a picture he made.
Nathan had been the one who really came for him. And Jake.
He wasn't fool enough to think that Dan's heroic dash at Luke's captor had been for anyone other than Nathan.
And sleep.