Disclaimer: I've put one on every chapter before this...is another one really necessary?

Chapter 10.

(Logan)

We slept the rest of the night without incident if not dreamlessly, at least for me. At least I can be thankful it wasn't the usual dream. It was still a memory, but an entirely new one. Yeah, there'd been fighting and bloodshed, but it also had Angela and another piece of this puzzle fell into place. I was starting to understand her a little bit more and it felt like I was getting closer to something important about her, a revelation that would open up the rest of that time period for me. I lay there in a half-doze for a while, going back over the dream and gleaning whatever I could from it. It made me realize that part of me had wanted her for much longer than I originally thought. It also made me understand that she'd wanted me too, Christ only knows why.

Which only led me to wonder exactly why I hadn't made any moves on her before that day in the cabin after our escape. It's obvious the feeling was more than mutual. I had a vague impression that I used the old "business plus pleasure equals bad" argument on myself, but if the old Wolverine was anything like the current Wolverine, then it shouldn't have stopped me. For all its clarity, the memory felt very old, so I guessed that it happened well before her daughter died. After much internal debate, I came to the only answer that made sense.

The old Wolverine was a much different man than I was now. He'd still had enough control over the animal inside him that he could resist his primal urges, no matter how much pain it caused him personally. He knew that making his relationship with Hellcat personal would only make the job more difficult and they'd both been trained to believe that it was the job that mattered the most. Never mind that they kept her under control by keeping her daughter away from her. Never mind that they kept me under control with drugs or telepaths or whatever the fuck they did to me. Neither one of us were actually willing participants in their little games, but to be anything other than perfect killers for them would have meant a greater pain than denying ourselves the release of our most base instincts. They would have tested us to destruction, pulling out tortures that no one had ever conceived before in an attempt to see what they could do to us, how much we could actually take before we did actually die (and in her case, not come back). I'm sure it would have taken a very long time for them to get to that part; if nothing else, they would have made sure it did.

I also remembered back to a couple weeks ago when Angela told me about Stryker wanting us to "mate". Anger flared in me when I thought about it, that he would have tried to control the one thing that we'd both wanted that had nothing to do with his grand work. It sickened me to think how close he'd actually come to achieving that, had I not gone insane and killed all those people, had Angela not had the initiative to follow me out of there and get us to safety. So many things that could have been so much worse in their own way than just what they did to us. It made me glad once again that Stryker was fish food at the bottom of Alkali Lake.

I felt Angela stirring next to me and I opened my eyes. She rolled over and put her head on my shoulder, sliding her arm over my chest. I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her in close. "Good mornin' darlin'."

"Mmm, morning is never good." She replied sleepily. "It means I have to get out of bed and there just happens to be something in this bed that I don't want to get away from."

I chuckled. "Yeah, I know the feelin'. But we have to figure out what we're gonna do now." She groaned and buried her face in my neck. "Don't start that now, we have to keep movin' and you know it."

"Spoilsport." She moved up and kissed me before rolling over. "Who ever said you were allowed to make sense?"

"It happens from time to time."

She slapped me playfully, then stood up. "Well, I'm going to have a nice hot shower. Try not to miss me." She said over her shoulder as she went to the bathroom and closed the door firmly behind her. I sat up with a groan and ran my fingers through my hair. The previous day had been intense, so many things happened that it almost didn't seem real in the light of morning. And I'm not just talking about the action and adventure, but the more personal journey that had come from it for both of us. I still didn't feel like I was more man than animal, but it was starting to feel like it was something I could achieve. If I'd been there before, I could get there again.

Angela finally came out of the bathroom in a cloud of steam half an hour later, wrapped in a towel. I was sitting back watching television, just flipping channels to pass the time until I could get my shower. I thought back to the wondrous six-jet shower back in her apartment and sighed. Nothing would ever compare to that. I would miss it. She walked around to where she'd stashed her pack and I made a swipe for the towel. She easily avoided me, but threw the wet towel in my face after getting her clothes out. I tossed it back then stood up, stretching. "I hope you saved me some hot water."

She walked over and kissed me soundly. "You want hot water, you get up before I do." She replied with a smirk. I growled at her and went to the bathroom.

Just like I suspected, the shower sucked. The pressure was a quarter of the six-jet miracle and she really hadn't left me much hot water. I made a mental note to get revenge on her for this someday, maybe by tossing her in the reflecting pool back at the mansion. That was usually pretty cold and…wait.

The mansion. We didn't have anywhere else to go, not really. I didn't like the idea of aimlessly wandering until we found a place she liked. That in itself was a bit surprising, since aimless wandering had been the only thing I did for so long. But it was even less attractive with her along, because it would be so much harder to properly protect her. Not that she couldn't take care of herself, she was more than capable of that. But if I could convince her to come back to New York with me, we'd have a much better chance of avoiding capture.

The water started to get downright icy, so I turned it off and wrapped a towel around my waist. I went back out into the room and Angela was sitting on the edge of the bed watching a news program. She turned to look at me with a huge grin on her face. "Guess what?"

"You're going to molest me before I can get dressed?" I asked, an evil grin on my face.

She looked thoughtful for a minute then shook her head. "Nah, we have too much to do." She patted the bed next to her and I sat down. "Check it out, we made CNN!"

Sure enough, a report about her coming back from the dead was right there on the national news, along with interviews with an orderly ("Creepy Stan the necrophiliac" she told me), the guard who saw her climbing the wall and the cops we beat down to get out of the city. In a strange turn of events, none of the people who'd gotten a glimpse of me could remember anything other than "big, fast and scary". The cop who shot me said "I shot him in the chest and he just growled at me and I thought for sure I was a dead man. His eyes didn't even look human and they were all I could see. I don't know what they were on, but no one should be able to bullet like that and walk away". I chuckled. "Yeah well, I ain't just anyone, bub."

"No, you most certainly aren't." Angela agreed then leaned over and kissed me. I remembered I was only in a towel and in a flash I had her pinned down on the bed. Her hands slid up my chest and around my neck, pulling me in close to her. She grabbed a handful of my hair, a low moan in her throat and I started to work on the buttons on her jeans. With a gasp, she pulled back. "Logan, I want to, you know I do. But we have so much to do right now and all the time in the world for more of this."

I squeezed my eyes shut and pressed my forehead against hers. "I know, darlin'. But I've missed so much time with you."

"I know, hon, I really do. And I promise, I'll make it up to you later." She slid out from under me and went to her pack. She rummaged around for a bit then turned back to me. "Here, take this." She said and thrust a hundred dollar bill at me.

I raised an eyebrow. "Darlin', I ain't never had anyone pay me before and I'm not about to start with you."

She rolled her eyes. "I wouldn't pay you for that in a million years. I can get it free whenever I want. No, I need you to go down to that grocery store we passed on the way in and get me the blondest bleach they have, two bottles. And I'll need shampoo and conditioner too, something unscented but not the cheap crap."

"You're bleachin' your hair?" I asked, looking at the long brown and red curls she had now. "But I like it the way it is."

"That may be, but my new identity is a blond and it's better for both of us I actually look like her."

I scowled at her but took the money and got dressed. She just stood there with her arms crossed, tapping her foot impatiently. I put on my jacket and stalked out to the car, started it up and tore out of the parking lot. I could see her in my mind, rolling her eyes again, probably running her hand through her hair and sighing. Somehow, it calmed me down enough to play errand boy.

It only took about twenty minutes to get the stuff and get back, but most of that was spent in the hair aisle, looking at this impossible selection of products and feeling like the world's biggest asshole. I couldn't believe how much crap women had for just their hair. I had no idea what to get, it's not like I know anything about this shit. Eventually, another shopper, a girl of about nineteen, came over and asked if I needed help. I must have looked like I did when I turned to her because she just smiled and asked what I was looking for. I told her what I needed and that I had orders to not get the "cheap stuff" and she led me around until I had the required items. I still felt like an asshole.

I got back to our room and saw that Angela had straightened up a little, cleaned up as much of her blood from the carpeting as she could. Fortunately it was already a rusty brown color, so she didn't have to do too much. I handed her the bag and her change, which she slipped into her jeans pocket before stripping off her shirt and taking out the hair dye. I smiled in appreciation when I looked at her, but she just stuck her tongue out at me and started mixing the bleach. The reek of it immediately assaulted my nose; a harsh metallic smell that burned and made me gag. She turned to me and gasped.

"Oh Logan! I'm so sorry, I didn't think!" She apologized and I could tell she wanted to come over to me but didn't dare.

"It's ok, just get it over with, will you?" I went over and opened the window, which made it at least tolerable. She went as fast as she could, I know she did, but it's not a fast process from what I could tell. It took her about twenty minutes to get it all in and she informed me it would take another half an hour at least for it to get to the color she wanted. I scowled at her, but she did try to keep as far away from me as she could. After a few minutes, I cleared my throat and she looked up. "So, I was thinkin'…"

"Oh shit, this can't be good. You were thinking? Scary."

I threw a pillow at her, but she dodged it easily. "Shut up, woman. You're not funny."

"Yes I am."

I scowled at her again. "Anyway. I was thinkin' that we should head to New York, talk to the Professor. He might be able to help you out."

She smiled at me. "I was wondering how long it would take before you mentioned that." She checked her hair in the mirror then turned back to me. "I don't really see many other options, really. I guess it's as good a plan as any." She stood there for a moment, lost in thought. "But he might be able to help me with something else, too."

"What's that?"

She told me about the conversation she'd had with Buzz about setting up some kind of network to help mutants. On the one hand, I could see how something like that would come in really handy, especially for kids who didn't have the necessary resources to make it for long on their own. On the other hand, it would mean trusting a lot of very sensitive information to a group of people (namely hackers) who weren't normally looked on as trustworthy. After all, they had fun breaking into secure computer systems just to see if they could. On yet still another hand, that meant they had the skills to remove information on mutants from computers all over. It was too many hands to consider on my own. Before I could answer her, the alarm on her watch went off.

"Oh, gotta wash now. Be right back." She disappeared into the bathroom and spent another twenty minutes in there. I was once again amazed at how a woman could take a simple process like bathing and make into a production. What do they do in there? Do I want know? Better yet, do I want to watch? Before I could go any further down that road, she came out of the bathroom toweling her hair. After about a minute, she tossed her hair back and smiled at me. "So, you like it?"

I frowned at her. "I liked it the other way."

"Yeah well, the new I.D. still says I'm a blond, so blond I shall be."

"As long as you don't act like it." She glared and threw her towel at me, but I dodged it, laughing. I walked over and ran my fingers through it, surprised at how soft it still was. "I guess I'll get used to it. Eventually."

She smiled again and gave me a quick kiss. "So, what do you think of Buzz's idea?"

"Well darlin', it sounds pretty good to me. But I ain't Xavier and you have no idea how uptight One-Eye is. I can almost guarantee that they'll both have problems with it."

"Then they're idiots. Even if one hacker gets caught, another will step up to take his place. These are people who live to fuck with the system in any way they can. Just think, if they used half the energy they expend sending out viruses to help mutants, then mutants would finally have a fighting chance."

"Look, you're preachin' to the choir here. I already told you I like it. I'm just sayin' it's gonna be a tough sell."

"Then I'll just have to keep trying until they agree with me."

She turned her back on me, ending the discussion and grabbed her pack. I got mine off the table and after giving the place a final once-over, we left. She made me stop at one of those storefront hair salonsand got her hair chopped to just below her shoulders. I scowled at her again, really not liking the way she kept changing it on me, but at least she'd left it long enough to give me something to grab on to. She told me it was "just hair, it'll grow back", but that didn't mean I had to like it. I grumbled at her and lit a cigar, just to have something to sink my teeth into. Back at the car, she insisted on driving the first leg of the trip, since I'd been driving since the day before. I decided it wasn't worth the argument and handed her the keys.

The only way to get to New York from here was to take the toll road. The ticket booth was crawling with state troopers, but we made it onto the highway without incident. We kept the radio tuned to a news station to keep up on our situation. It seems that they were now focusing on the part where we busted through that roadblock like paper, followed by serious speculation as to where we'd gone. The truck we stole at the airport hadn't been found yet and the cops from the roadblock hadn't had a chance to radio for backup before we disabled them, so no one really had any clue at all where we were. I felt like I could relax a little and actually dozed off for a while.

I woke up when I felt the car stop moving. I shook my head, trying to clear it and looked over at Angela. "Why are we stopped?"

"Sorry, but auto diagnostics didn't come with my mutant package. If I had to wager a guess, I'd say the car doesn't work."

"You're a genius, darlin'. Even I can see that." I got out and she popped the hood for me. I scowled at the mess of oil all over the engine; this car was done for. I stalked to her window with the scowl still firmly in place. "This heap ain't goin' anywhere."

"Fuck! Now what? I haven't walked anywhere in so long, I don't want to walk all the way to Westchester now."

I looked around at the surrounding area, noticing the very large forest that was at the side of the highway. This didn't look much like Ohio, now that I thought about it. "Where the hell are we?"

"Pennsylvania for about the past half an hour." She replied. "I guess we should be happy that we got this far."

I nodded and considered the trees. The next exit was only eight miles away, but there was a chance a cop would come by and ask if we needed help. In the woods, however, we could travel in relative cover and we might come across a clearing both large enough and remote enough for someone to come pick us up. I looked back at her and raised my eyebrow. She sighed, took the keys out of the ignition and grabbed her backpack. I walked around to the other side and grabbed my own pack. I noticed that hers looked a lot bulkier than it did when we got on the toll road and asked her about it.

"Oh, this is actually the second time we stopped. I had to use the bathroom, so I pulled off and got us some provisions, just in case." She replied with a wink. I just nodded at her foresight and we climbed over the barrier and entered the woods. I could hear her grumbling to herself about having to walk for any length of time and I smiled to myself to hear it. It didn't scan with the Hellcat I'd seen in my few memories of her, which could only mean that she'd gotten soft in her days in Detroit. Well, if she decided to join the X-Men, she'd be in for a rude awakening, that's for sure. I hurried my steps a little to get as far into the trees as quickly as possible. Those trees were cover, which is something we desperately needed right now.

Once we made it there, I relaxed a little. This wasn't my definition of hostile territory, so I allowed myself the luxury of not being on full alert. It was nice in here, the temperature was noticeably cooler and the trees swallowed the sounds of the highway. An hour into the journey, I was actually enjoying myself. An hour after that, so was Angela.

We hiked on in silence, both lost in our own thoughts. The woods here were mostly pine and spruce, so it actually looked a lot like parts of Canada that been through over the years. Of course, there was more snow in some of the those parts, but it was still familiar in that way and we both liked it for our own reasons. I had no intention of striking out for any of the towns that were along the highway, which became apparent to my companion when it started to get dark. She made a few weak protests, but I insisted we keep moving for as long as we could and she finally agreed.

We pushed on well into the night, stopping only because I wasn't sure how much more forest lay ahead of us. We stumbled across the remains of another campfire, at least a few months old but enough to tell us that camping out here wasn't unheard of and would go unremarked if anyone came across us. I collected as much deadfall as we would need to keep a fire going all night while she pulled a virtual feast out of her backpack. It didn't seem like it could hold that much, but she put together a decent snack for both of us and couple of beers as well. If I wasn't already half in love with her, that would have been almost enough to convince me to start.

After cleaning up our mess, she sat down in front of me and snuggled into my chest. We sat there for a long time, just looking at the fire and enjoying being here all alone. I lowered my face to her hair, just breathing in her scent when I got another strong memory flash. I blinked my eyes, then breathed her in again. The memory came over me so strong I almost fell over.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Lightning cracked the sky followed by a boom of thunder so loud you were momentarily deafened. You peer through the curtain of rain, but you can't see Hellcat anywhere. Cursing to yourself, you quickly break for another bit of cover further down the road, trying to track her visually. In this mess, it's the only sense you have that you can count on. This op couldn't go more wrong if the earth were to open up and swallow you whole right now. It's bad enough that you have be out in this shit, but knowing that you may have to abort brings a sour taste to your mouth. Hell, at this point, you'd be lucky to get out of this without another "training session".

Once you're secure again, you move towards her last known position. This was supposed to be a simple assignment: find the base, kill everyone you saw, blow it up and leave. Just another day at the office, really. No stealth, no finesse, just mayhem and blood, just the way you like it. Of course, it's not like anyone had been paying attention to such things as weather reports when they planned it. On the other hand, this was the only time you'd be able to get the top three bigwigs in the same place at the same time. Fuck, this was really gonna go over badly.

Getting down on all fours, you scan the immediate area for tracks, but it's a vain attempt. She only leaves tracks when she wants to be tracked. And whenever she wants to be tracked, it always ends very badly for the tracker. Damn, she's probably in the trees anyway. You peer up, but the rain immediately obscures your vision and you mumble a curse. She's probably better than you at this. She's got tricks for staying invisible that you just can't pull off. She's so tiny that she can squeeze into some impossible places, her natural grace makes her silent to normal hearing, but she's also got this intensely focused vicious streak that's a thing of beauty to behold. Yet another reason to like the girl, as if the whole strong-willed, sexy and feral thing wasn't enough for you. God above, you really are an animal.

You start running down the barely visible path when another streak of lightning forks across the sky. You're blinded by the brightness and the immediate crash of thunder that follows was close enough to make all your hair stand on end. You crouch down as low as you can and wait for your senses to return to normal before you continue your search for your partner. You try really hard not to think about the part where all she was wearing when you headed out was fatigues and a white tank top. Now that she's soaked, that top will be transparent. You mentally slap yourself, remembering that she's your partner and you shouldn't be thinking about her like that. It'll only cloud the issues at hand. Another bolt of lightning strikes even closer than the first, you can feel the thunder rattling your bones. As your vision clears, you catch something out of the corner of your eye and you're horrified by what you see.

There's an SUV parked in the road in front of you, a body lying half-propped on the back bumper and still twitching. What has you so freaked out is the smaller body lying against a tree, smoking. A body wearing a white tank top.

"Oh shit, Hellcat? 'Cat! Answer me!" You run over and crouch down, feeling for a pulse. You curse when you can't find one. "Fuck! Don't you die on me, you hear me? Not on my watch!" You pull her away from the tree and lay her flat on the forest floor. You tilt her head back and cover her mouth with your own, breathing into her but there's no reaction. You try again, and then place your hands on her chest to start the CPR compressions that will hopefully bring her back. You repeat the process for several minutes, but nothing changes. Lightning flashes again and a feeling of absolute despair comes over you. You clutch the sides of your head in frustration, letting out a roar of pure anguish. You're also inexplicably angry and you ball up your fist and bring it down in the middle of her chest. Suddenly, she gasps and starts coughing, her limbs shivering uncontrollably. The relief that floods through you is enough to take your breath away.

"'Cat, are you all right? Can you hear me?" You ask, a slight tremor in your voice.

She nods weakly. "Yeah. Fuck, that hurt. Remind me not to get struck by lightning again, ok?" She whispers and your eyes widen in shock. "What?"

"You were struck by lightning? Just now?"

"Well, I'm not sure how long ago it was. It might have felt longer that it really was. Either way, it sucked major balls."

You look down and take a deep breath, trying to gain control of your emotions. "Come on, we gotta get outta here and get back to camp. We can't do shit in this weather." You help her to her feet, but she still seems unsteady even though she's insisting she can make it. You start walking down the path, but after the third time she stumbles, you scoop her up and carry her the rest of the way. She's a lot heavier than she looks, but you vaguely remember her telling you something about some procedure they did to augment her skeleton with metal. The camp is only five miles away, but you would carry her all the way back to Alkali Lake if you had to. Once there, you put her on her feet and keep her steady while you open the tent.

She manages to get inside before her legs give out again. You close the tent behind you and sit next to her. She starts shivering violently and it occurs to you that she's probably in severe shock. Without thinking, you gather her into your arms. You stay there for several minutes, but her shivering doesn't stop. You decide it's best to get her out of her wet clothes and cross to the other side of the tent to retrieve a blanket.

"You're in shock. Get out of those wet clothes and wrap up in this." You say, handing her the blanket, but it just falls from her hands as though they're numb. You look at her softly, then kneel in front of her and very gently get her stripped to the skin, finally wrapping the blanket around her. She opens her mouth as though to speak, but closes it and suddenly looks like she's going to cry. You understand that what's just happened to her is intense and you pull her back into your arms. You try not to think about how good she feels, especially given the condition she's in. You need to distract yourself, so you start talking.

"Look, I know I ain't the best person for this, but I'm all you got. I'm sorry I wasn't there when this happened, but you were supposed to hold position til I came back, ya know." You look down at her with a scowl, but she's unfazed by it. "I should be angry with you, but I s'pose gettin' struck by lightning is punishment enough." She smiles weakly, a promising sign, so you continue. "Ah well, I s'pose this mission is screwed for good. I don't think this rain is gonna stop for a couple days. Looks like we're stuck here. But it really could be worse, you know."

She finally finds her voice and it scares you how weak she sounds. "How's that?"

"Well, Stryker could be here with us."

She shudders. "You have a point."

You shift position so you can look at her. Your eyes scan her face, but you tell yourself it's just to assess her condition. In reality, you're marveling at how beautiful she really is, so small yet so tough. You're trying really hard to forget that she's naked under that blanket, just that thin piece of wool hiding her from your sight. You take a deep breath and start to look away, but she moves forward suddenly and kisses you.

You pull away in shock. "Whoa, wait a minute…"

"No, please don't."

"'Cat, look. You're in no condition to know what you're doin'. You're in shock, you almost died. It makes people do things they wouldn't normally do."

"What makes you think I wouldn't normally do this?"

You open your mouth to speak, but stop, thinking She does have a valid point, you don't know for sure. "Well, you've never tried it before now, have ya?"

Now it's her turn to think it over. "It doesn't mean I haven't considered it."

"The last thing we need to do is complicate this mission any further. You almost died because of me, because I wasn't there. I'm s'posed to be your backup and I failed you." You give a short, bitter laugh. "Hell, they'll probably never send me out again with you after this. So no, don't start somethin' we'll never have a chance to finish."

She looks at you incredulously. "Wolverine, you do realize that we are the only mutants in this whole outfit who've survived their 'training', don't you? They have no one else to send with me. We're partners for life."

"Yeah, exactly. We're 'partners'. And we're gonna stay that way. Anythin' else will just complicate things and that's not good for our line of work."

"Don't you fucking dare! I've seen the way you look at me. Gods only know what I look like when I look at you. I'm not asking for marriage, I'm asking for a decent fuck."

"Oh yeah? Is that all ya want me for? You don't get enough mayhem outta me already, so you gotta try and push me a little more?" You slide away from her to your side of tent. "This is somethin' they put you up to, isn't it? Make me even more likely to ensure your safety by gettin' me all attached or somethin'? Sorry, darlin', but it ain't gonna work. I'm not completely stupid." That was the absolute worst thing you could have said. You know this because her hand shoots out so fast you can't see it and she claws you across the face. Your eyes widen in shock at what she did even as the cuts close.

"You unbelievable bastard. Those monsters have taken away everything I ever had. My daughter, my life, my freedom, and you have the gall to think they control that part of me too? Yes, you are completely stupid if you really believe that." She wraps the blanket around her and flops down on her sleeping bag with her back to you. After a few minutes, you whisper her name and put your hand gently on her shoulder. "Don't touch me unless you mean it."

"'Cat, I'm sorry. It's just…they're strippin' away my mind bit by bit and I don't know who I can trust anymore."

She rolls back over and glares at you. "I put my life in your hands every time we go out. I don't even think twice about it because I know I can trust you completely. If that's not enough for you, that's not my problem. Now, either you take your hand off me or do something useful with it. Otherwise, I'll cut it off."

You slowly remove your hand and she rolls back over. The silence between you is uncomfortable and you try to say something to her, but the words die in your throat. Eventually you lay down on your bedroll. You close your eyes, silently berating yourself. Damn it, why couldn't you have just said yes? Why didn't you notice sooner? The fact is, you did notice sooner, way back at the mission with the senator, you've just been trying to tell yourself that it was just adrenaline or moonlight or something. You've been lying to yourself all this time and now, it might be too late to go back and make it right. Your last thought is how to go about doing just that before you finally fall asleep.

You never noticed when she rolled back over, tears streaming down her face as she watched you sleep for the rest of the night.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

When it passed, I breathed her in again. I must have done it five or six times and each time, more memories came flooding back to me. She finally turned to say something, but stopped. I have no idea what kind of look I had on my face, but the look on hers was one of hope. She turned and knelt in front of me.

"Logan, what is it? What do you see?"

"I-I don't believe this. I don't believe this at all."

"What? What's happening? C'mon, tough guy, you're scaring me."

"I'm scarin' myself." I sat there for a moment, absolutely still, then grabbed her by her arms and pulled her close to me, burying my face in her neck and inhaling deeply. I lifted my face, holding my breath and concentrating. I know I'd been around for weeks now, smelling her whenever she was in the same room with me, but this was a completely different scent. It was still her, but she also had all these other scents clinging to her yet complimenting her at the same time. It was these scents combined with her own that was the missing piece of the puzzle. "Angela, I remember."

"Remember what?"

I felt like I could cry, but I really don't remember how. I took a deep breath and looked down at her. "You, darlin'. I just remembered you."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

AN: Ha ha! Another cliffie:) Thanks to those who reviewed...they keep me happy...:) Special thanks to Zac and Turiel Tincdaniel, beta readers extraordinnaire for their hard work, dedication and inspiration...Extra Special Thanks to Da Big Kitty (tm) for keeping me on my toes...For those who are interested, my mom is doing much better, she's off the ventilator and will be out of ICU within the next few days...so, again as celebration for my happy thing, i updated my story for you guys...Don't forget about that little thingy down there what says "review"...they make me feel all warm and fuzzy...and there's even a little dance that happens when i get one!