(*Author's note: Well, here is chapter 4.

Some orders of business to be taken care of. Firstly, I'd like to thank my beta reader GoldAngel2 for looking over this chapter. Secondly, I'd like to thank the people who reviewed my last chapter: Kris, GoldAngel2 and Wolfwood11. Thirdly, I'd like to thank the Academy for this prestigious awa -

Ooops, forgot what I was doing there for a second :) Anyway, there's nothing in this chapter that really needs any discussion, so there's really no reason for me to blather on.

So, sit back; relax and enjoy the chapter. *)

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Since it seemed like they didn't really have any other options, Cathy and Jet agreed that the girl's idea was a good one - provided they could get out of there. As it turned out, it had been just as easy to sneak out of the hospital with the wheelchair as the girl said it would be. Unfortunately, it got a little tougher once they got through the door.

The chair was very cheap and it soon became apparent that it had not been designed to be steered by the person sitting in it and it hadn't been intended for outside use. The wheels caught on every piece of uneven cement and Jet couldn't really control where the chair went when it did move. Of course, Jet had been determined to be stubborn about it and it took until he nearly tipped the chair over after trying to get over a rock for him to agree to let Cathy push.

Then there was the argument about where Jet was going to spend the night. Jet, predictably, wanted to be stupid about it. "I can take care of myself!"

He sounded so much like Jimmy when he was having a tantrum that Cathy almost laughed. She managed to rein the impulse but it had been a close thing. "Jet, I am not letting you stay by yourself in your condition," she said evenly in a tone she thought broached no argument.

But then, it was Jet she was arguing with. "I can take care of myself," he repeated and, although he said it with less conviction, his expression told her that he wasn't willing to admit being wrong about this.

Cathy fought the temptation to roll her eyes. Even with the new layers she'd seen to Jet, he was still easily the most frustrating person she'd ever met. He was obviously one of those men who wouldn't know what was good for him is it came up and shook his hand. Well, she had no intention of letting him get away with this kind foolishness!

Still, it had been a rough night for both of them (to say the least) and she figured that it'd be better to settle this with out having a shouting match - and since she was the adult here, the responsibility fell on her to find a way of doing that.

Summoning up her most commanding voice, she tried again. "Look Jet, you are coming home with me and that's that." Judging by the look on his face, this did not impress him. A different tactic was needed and she knew just the one to use. "It'll make me sleep better to know that you're not all alone and that help's there if you need it, all right?"

As soon as she saw his expression soften, she knew she'd gotten him. While a part of her felt guilty at manipulating him that way, she was mostly pleased that she'd found an easy solution to the problem.

"Okay, I'll stay with you," he said at last. Probably thinking that he'd given in too easily, he added, "but only for tonight!"

Cathy smiled. 'What do you know, Jet Link can be reasoned with!' She almost wanted to pet him on the head. She settled for a quick pat on the shoulder as she started pushing the chair down the sidewalk.

While the hospital wasn't too far from their apartment building*, it was still far enough away that the trip wasn't as short as either of them would have liked it to be. For Jet's part, he felt like an invalid, a bother, useless. It didn't help that Cathy (who'd just been in a hospital for smoke inhalation) was not only pushing him all the way back to her apartment but insisting on making him stay there.

He'd never been comfortable being on the receiving end of charity and it was bad enough that he needed any in the first place. It didn't help to know that the only reason Cathy was offering him any was because he'd saved her life. He wasn't sure whether is was guilt or gratitude making her do this, but he was certain that they were her only motivations.

He didn't know why this thought should bother him so much, but it did. Jet tried not to think about it too much, but there wasn't too much else to do. Cathy obviously wasn't in the mood for chit-chat and he didn't know what he'd say to her if she was.

For Cathy's part, she didn't mind pushing Jet. Trying to maneuver him around the rocks and cracks in the pavement distracted her from thinking about the fact that they were easy prey for any number of people who would find a lone woman and a cripple to be an irresistible target. She felt jumpy and, while she would have liked to think that she was just being paranoid, she knew that she had ample reason to be jumpy. It was a fact that women were not safe on the streets at night. Especially in this neighborhood.

Despite her worries, they hadn't met anyone on the streets. Still silent sidewalks were eerie and she was very glad when their apartment building came into sight. As soon as she saw it, she realized that they had another problem; the building was old and it had been built before people thought putting things like ramps in a building were very important.

This meant that she'd have to drag Jet up the stairs.

She smiled a little to herself. At least the only stairs they had to climb were the stoop steps. It was one of the few times in her life that she was happy about having a ground floor apartment. Jet seemed to have recovered a little by then because the walk up the stairs wasn't quite as difficult as she thought it would be - she still had to support most of his weight and he was tired out again by the time they got into her apartment, but Jet had been able to stay upright by himself and he had been able to help with the actual walking.

Leading him to her couch, she sat him down. She had to find something to prop his leg up with; she'd seen enough movies to know that was one of the things you were supposed to do to stop bleeding. From the looks of her apron, Jet had been bleeding quite a bit. After a moment hesitation, she put his injured leg on her coffee table (it was one of the only good pieces of furniture she owned). He hissed when his leg was moved but said nothing.

"Are you okay, Jet?"

He looked at her and smirked. "I'm not dying."

Cathy smiled at him, shaking her head. "I'll be right back." She decided, as she went to get some water and a wash cloth, that she really had two choices as far as Jet's attitude was concerned: she could either be annoyed or be amused. Considering what sort of night they both had been having (and the fact that Jet had saved her life), she decided to cut him a little slack and go with amused. Besides, she owed him some slack for all the times when she hadn't bothered to be understanding . . .

She shook her head. Now wasn't the time; she had work to do right now. She returned to the living room with a towel, a pot of water and a cloth. Kneeling on the floor so she'd have better access to his wound, she started to untie the apron.

"What are you doing!" He sounded angry. She looked up at his face, feeling confused by the rage she saw there. When she found her voice, she couldn't stop herself from sounding defensive. "I'm trying to clean your wound out."

"Well don't!"

She was frankly shocked at his vehemence. After all they'd been though, why was he doing this? "What's wrong with you? I'm just trying to help!" She felt a bit hurt and she didn't bother hiding it from her voice.

For a second, Jet looked like he was going to apologize before looking angry again. "The only thing that's wrong with me is you! Who asked you to help me, anyway!" He bent down and retied the apron strings, almost snapping them with the force he used.

As she watched him do that, she realized what was wrong with him. Well, the only thing she could think of that would make him act that way - although, it wasn't like she knew Jet all that well; it really could have been any number of things. But she was almost sure . . .

"I've already seen it, Jet." She spoke softly, trying not to make him any more angry, any more defensive. "I know what you are."

As soon as she saw the look on his face, she knew that she had nailed it. She reached for his hand and he let her take it. "You're the guy who saved my life."

Jet smiled, it was shaky and embarrassed, but genuine. He gave her hand a squeeze and while he didn't say it, she saw the apology in his face. She let go of his hand and turned her attention back to the apron strings.

After removing the apron, she winced. The wound looked terrible and she was almost afraid to touch it. One reason was that she knew it was going to really hurt Jet no matter how careful she was. The other reason was that she wasn't really sure if pouring water over those wires was such a good idea after all.

"Is it all right to . . ." She trailed off, not really sure how to word the question.

He seemed to understand it anyway. "As long it isn't dripping, it should be okay." When she hesitated, he added. "You won't get shocked."

That wasn't what she'd been worried about. Dipping the wash cloth into the water and making sure to wring out as much water as she could, she stared to clean. As she worked on getting as much dirt as she could out of wound, she was impressed that Jet was staying so quiet. She knew, if she was in his position, she'd be swearing up a storm. She wondered if he could deal with the pain so well because he was a cyborg or because he was just the strong and silent type.

Maybe it was a little bit of both. Cathy tried to keep the uneasiness she was feeling as she worked off of her face. There was the part of her, a very small part of her, that was just afraid. She wasn't proud of it but she couldn't deny that it was there, prodding her with visions of killer robots like in those movies that Jimmy always begged her to let him see . . .

Forcing it out of her mind, she thought about the hospital, when Jet had held her in his arms - she hadn't been afraid then, had she? She had felt safe. She had felt -

- well, she wasn't really sure what else she'd felt and decided that, considering what she was doing, it was too distracting to think about now. There would be plenty of time to figure everything out later . . . if there was actually anything that needed to be figured out.

She worked on the wound for almost a half an hour before she stopped cleaning and wrapped the towel over it (the wound was still bleeding a little and she wanted to keep it from getting more dirt in it). While she didn't think it looked much better, she decided that Jet had probably had enough stress on his leg for one night. Besides, if she stayed that way too much longer, she would have found it a bit harder to stand up again. She wasn't very old but she was hardly a teenager anymore.

"All done."

"Good." He sounded like he meant it.

Cathy looked up at his face. It seemed like she hadn't stopped a moment too soon; he looked much paler than he had before she'd started and he was trembling. She quelled her annoyance at him for not telling her that it was affecting him this much, deciding that the last thing Jet needed was to be yelled at. She also knew that he probably wouldn't appreciate being asked it he was all right. It was obvious he wasn't.

She stood and stretched before picking up the pot and heading back to the kitchen. After dumping the pink tinted water down the sink and washing her hands, she returned to find Jet looking around her apartment. Cathy felt irrationally glad that she'd been able to clean it before she went to work - not that she thought he particularly cared about the cleanliness of her apartment; it was just that she didn't like to have a messy house when she had company.

But it seemed like Jet was looking for something. "Is there anything you need?"

He looked startled, obviously not noticing that she had come back. "I need a phone."

"A phone? Who are you going to call this time of night?" She looked at her watch. It wasn't really night anymore; it was almost one o'clock in the morning. Still, she couldn't imagine who he could be thinking of calling so early in the morning.

Jet ran a hand through his hair. "I have to call Doctor Gilmore."

"Doctor Gilmore?" Something about the name seemed familiar but she couldn't think of where she knew it from. "Who's that?" It occurred to her, as the question left her mouth, that it wasn't really any of her business.

"He's a friend." He faltered a little on the last word, as if that wasn't really the word he wanted. He thought about it a moment longer before shrugging. "It's a little complicated."

She got the feeling that everything was complicated when it came to Jet. And, while she couldn't deny she was a bit curious about this Doctor Gilmore of his, she decided not to press. After what he'd done for her tonight, the least she owed him was a little privacy.

"That's okay," Cathy said as she went to the last place she'd seen her phone. She didn't really have many friends and she couldn't remember the last time she'd used it. After a bit of digging, she found it and, after plugging it back in, she carefully brought the phone to the coffee table. She was relieved to find that the phone cord was long enough to reach.

Handing him the receiver, she gave him a smile. "I'll be out in the kitchen if you need me."

He nodded. "Thanks."

"Your welcome," she said as she walked to the kitchen. Closing the door behind her, she allowed herself a sigh as she looked around the room. There were a few dishes in the sink and, while the floor didn't look dirty, she figured it would survive being swept. At least it would give her something to do.

It wasn't too long before these chores were finished. Making sure that there was nothing else to be done, she sat at the kitchen table and flipped through yesterday's newspaper, trying her best not to listen too closely to the muffled voice coming from the other room.

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To be continued . . .

* In 'Of Moths and Flames,' I'd said that Cathy and Jet lived at different apartment buildings; however, re-watching the episode I realized that they probably lived at the same one - that scene where Jet meets Cathy one her way to work, it looked like Jet was trying to go in as Cathy was coming out. Besides, Jimmy's night time visit makes more sense if he didn't have to go to far from home.