-PERCEPTION-

Jake rescues Sam and realizes a few things in the aftermath. Rather Jake-centric this chapter. Characters belong to Terry Farley. Will be Sam/Jake. Thank you for the reviews! They are greatly appreciated. Sorry if Jake's OOC, not used to my characters beingquiet, in fact I'm quite used to the opposite.

There you are, wild and free

Reaching out like you needed me

A helping hand to make things right

I am holding you all through the night

Chapter 3: Problems

"Jake, would you mind staying with Sam until we get back from the convention in Vegas?" she heard Brynna ask.

Sam was confused. What convention? When did Brynna get here? When did her hospital room turn into her bedroom? How long had she been home? Questions raced through her mind as she waited for Jake's reply.

She could picture him rubbing the back of his neck, nodding in answer. The "'Course," that was his verbal reply only backed up her thoughts.

Her father's voice was the next thing she heard as she eavesdropped on the conversation. "I'm gonna talk to Sue about sending her back to San Francisco for a while…" She could tell by his voice that he really didn't want to do that, but he would if he thought she'd be safer there.

She heard Jake protest the idea but failed to make out what he was saying as he and Wyatt walked away from the door.

"I want to stay here…" she mumbled into her pillow, spinning the silver horsehair bracelet on her wrist several times before succumbing to the effects of the accident, falling back to sleep.

When she woke up this time she was on the sofa in the living room, a blanket wrapped around her pajama clad body. "What's going on?" she yawned, looking around the room to find it empty. Jake was supposed to be here, wasn't he? "Jake?"

She heard the soft mew from Cougar who sat at her feet, staring up at her. She patted the space on the blanket in front of her, petting the cat that now lay contently on his back in her lap.

"Sam?" Jake's voice at the front door got her attention. "You're awake."

She nodded as he sat down next to her. "Where were you?"

"I fed the horses and checked in on Tempest for you."

"I don't want to go back to San Francisco," she said, staring intently at the floor in front of her, absent mindedly stroking Cougar's belly in her trance. She tried to stand up but both Jake and Cougar protested.

"You'll pull out your stitches," He reminded her. "You're not supposed to move around much."

Sam looked to her shoulder, surprised to see a large bandage covering the wound, a red trail where the blood had dried showing her where the cut was. "Stitches?"

Jake nodded. "Yeah, only 22 of them…" he said, a note of sarcasm evident in his voice. "I have to change the bandage."

He reached over, gently pulling the large piece of gauze away as he quickly cleaned the wound, the peroxide stinging her wound, causing her to flinch at his touch. She pulled her knees up to her chest, effectively displacing Cougar from his spot. "This isn't fun…"

"I wouldn't expect it to be," he commented, putting the antibiotic cream on the cut before redressing it, glad the hospital had explained to him how to do it, and that he had already seen the wound before now.

She yawned as she swallowed the two pain pills he gave her, handing her a glass of water as well. "Thanks," she smiled weakly at him before she leaned her head over, resting it on his shoulder, cuddling against his warm body, the fatigue setting in again.

Jake didn't reply, simply watching her like a hawk, like he had after her cougar encounter. Why did he always have to be the one to find her in these situations? That was her last coherent thought as she drifted off to sleep yet again.

Jake smiled as well, as he wrapped his arm around her, falling to sleep for the first time since he'd found her after pressing a gentle kiss to the top of her head.

Okay… so very eventful, but I'm still trying to figure out where I'm going with this, I scraped my original idea so now I'm trying to get some form of plot bunny formed. Reviews are gretly appreciated. Lyrics at the beginning belong to the Backstreet Boys…