A/N I do not own John McBain or any of the other OLTL characters. All others are my own creation. Please don't sue cause I am broke and have nothing to be sued for anyway.

Chapter 13

Shelly pulled back from their increasingly passionate kisses breathing heavily and flushed. "Rex..." She said trying to get her breathing under control.

"I know. This isn't the time." Rex said also breathing heavy. Looking at Shelly he didn't think he had ever seen a more beautiful sight, but he knew that this wasn't the time or the place. He needed to keep a clear head in order to find Natalie. "Or the place." He said remembering where they were.

Shelly nodded and looked at Rex, "Do you know anything else about this hit on me?" Getting back to business and not on what had just transpired between them.

He shook his head no, "I wish I did. Every time I come in the room they stop talking about it and ask me if I know where you are." Looking down he said, " I couldn't tell them anything. I'm so sorry I lied to you."

Shelly was taken aback by the abrupt change in subject. Taking her hand and placing it under his chin she forced him to look at her, "I forgive you. I understand why you did what you did. But you need to know I told John what happened. Or what I thought happened. If he sees you he'll arrest you."

"John? Your brother? He's a cop? You won't tell him what I just told you, will you? He wouldn't believe it and even if he did cops getting involved could get Natalie killed." Rex asked her, concerned at first then curious. He didn't understand how this guy could be her brother. "What's up with that anyway? How is he your brother?"

"It's a long story. I really don't have time to go into detail." Looking at her watch she noticed that it had been 25 minutes since John had left. He would be back soon if he wasn't already. "John is well... he is FBI that's really all I can say. Look I need to get back before he misses me... I won't tell him anything unless he asks. And I won't tell him about your sister. I promise."

Rex nodded; he knew she would keep her word and that she had to get back. He didn't want to let her go but some things were more important then how he felt about her. He really did like her a lot but he needed to find Natalie before anything happened to her, if it hadn't already. "I need to get back too. I have to find Natalie." He said intensely. "Be careful, remember what I said. Someone close to you can't be trusted."

"Well until 20 minutes ago I thought that person was you. But now I know different. What am I supposed to do? Hide from everyone? Herb... Rex I just don't know who to trust anymore." Shelly said on a sigh. Shaking her head she glanced back at the motel and knew she needed to hurry back. Stepping closer to him she brushed a kiss across his lips and murmured, "You be careful too. I hope you find your sister." With that she hurried back down the path and to the motel.

John headed back to the motel grumbling to himself. That meeting had been a waste of time. He hadn't learned anything new and he was still off the kidnapping case. What they didn't know was that he had a copy of all his files with him. He planed to at least look over the case for something he might have overlooked the first time.

Maybe he would have Shelly look at it. A fresh pair of eyes couldn't hurt, and well it would be a way for her to see whether she really wanted to be a FBI agent. Being cooped up in a dingy motel room with a wounded teenager wasn't his idea of a pleasant time, even if that teenager acted more like an adult and was his sister. 'He loved Shelly, but uggh' he thought 'her music alone would drive him into an early grave. He didn't know how many times she could play Nine Inch Nails' Head Like a Hole before he tossed the CD outside and ran over it with the car!'

Glancing at his watch he realized that he had left he alone at the motel for over a half an hour. Getting out of the borrowed car he hurried to the room. Bracing himself for what ever god awful music she was playing now he was stunned to find her, laying with her head at the foot of the bed, reading a book. Usually she blasted music while she read but it appeared that this time he was going to get a short reprieve. "What are you reading?" He asked her.

"The Fine Art of Pressure Points. I want to learn how to disable someone with out using fatal blows. I know some Karate but I want to learn pressure points too." Shelly answered. She had wanted to read this book for a while now, and with this new information Rex told her she figured what better time to learn. She knew that John wasn't the one that had betrayed her cause up until a short time ago they hadn't even known each other but whoever had betrayed her probably knew what her skills were and would have warned whoever was coming after her about them. So now was the perfect time to learn a new skill.

"You know Karate?" John asked curiously, "how come you didn't put that on your application to the FBI?"

"Its not a big deal." She shrugged, "It helps me focus and keeps me in shape. Besides I find it fun. I'm not all that great."

"What color belt do you have?" He asked looking at her strangely. She was acting like it wasn't a big deal but he could tell that this was something that she was proud of. "How long have you been studying karate?"

"About a year and a half. I have been paying for my lessons with the money I got from my job." Looking embarrassed she finally said, "I'm a 4th degree brown belt."

"You're a brown belt after only a year and a half? That's impressive. But why hide it?"

"I don't know. I guess I just didn't want anyone to make a big deal of it. You know how people can be. They look at me funny when they find out I am only 16 and graduating high school this year. If they found out that well I excel at karate too I don't know... I guess I just wanted to be normal for once." Or as normal as she could get when she got visions of the future. "So how did your meeting go?" Purposely changing the subject to a less personal subject. She didn't want to get into secrets right now. Cause she was keeping a big one from him and she didn't think she could hid it from him forever. Sooner or later a vision would come that she couldn't explain away and she knew she would have to tell him everything.

"A bust. Nothing new." John replied smiling at her change in subject. Deciding to follow her obvious desire to change the topic he took out some files and looked at her. "Want to get into some real FBI work?"

"Hell yes!" Shelly said forgetting for a moment at least everything else that was troubling her.

After a while of looking over the files Shelly looked up at John and asked abruptly, "What if Herbie wasn't the one who put a hit out on me? What if it was someone else, someone close to me?"

John stared at her intently trying to gage her, to find out what was going on in her head. "Why do you ask that? Our contacts tell us that it was the Carpelli family and since you saw him murder someone in cold blood who else would it be."

Looking down so he wouldn't see the guilt on her face, "What if Herbie didn't have a choice except to shoot that man? What if he didn't even know I was there?"

Looking at Shelly suspiciously John narrowed his eyes at her, taking in her bowed head and hearing her words. Why would you ask that Shelly? Where is this coming from? Is it because you were involved with him? Sometimes our hearts don't always make the best decisions. Sometimes it causes us not to see the truth."

Shelly shook her head, "No that's not it. I just think there is more to this that meets the eye."

There was something in her voice that made John suspicious, "Just what were you doing while I was out? You called him didn't you? You talked to him and he gave you some sob story so you would tell him where you were?" John just about shouted that last question. Taking hold of her upper arms John held her and looked her straight in the eye, momentarily forgetting that she had been shot just a week ago. "Did you call him Michelle?" he demanded.

Shelly was stunned at his roughness and let out a soft whimper as his actions sent a shaft of pain through her wound. "No I swear John I didn't call him!"

John let her go quickly after he heard her whimper and backed off a step. His sigh of relief turning into a curse when she said, "He came talk to me."