SNOWSWEPT

by CuddleFae

Dr. Lauren Lewis has been assigned to oversee the opening of a new hospital. Overwhelmed by all there is to know and learn in an unfamiliar land, she crosses paths with a mysterious woman with a dark past - a past that has caused her to live by one rule. Trust no one. Thrown into a desperate struggle, can they overcome the barriers between them in their fight to survive?

6. Chapter 6: Heart of a Champion

A/N: Slight trigger warning – some not so nice stuff from Bo's past comes up about her mom and dad. Nothing super explicit but might be an issue for some. Another long chapter. Thanks for taking the time to review after the long read. It's appreciated! The race is on! Let's get to it!

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Chapter 6: Heart of a Champion

"Haw! Haw!"

Bo rounded the corner, snow sweeping up from the banks on either side, stinging her face, but this was no place to let go of the sled handle – especially at this pace and in the middle of the Happy River Steps. She was off her pace by four minutes and had every intention of making it up. The first two checkpoints had been slower than expected. She thought she would be in and out in under a minute, but there was some confusion about the number of dogs she was running, so she had to wait for a call out. Lucky for her, Little Jon had showed up…

FLASHBACK to Checkpoint at Finger Lakes:

"Bo, we have only 12 dogs on your team. Where'd you pick up the other two?"

Bo was ready to blow. This was the third checkpoint since she's left Willow that had stopped her about her dogs being certified. How in the world was this happening?

"I've told every checkpoint this story and I'm about ready to demand a race official come out to this checkpoint. Something is going on – I'm being sabotaged or something. You all know my situation because it was announced to the world at the meeting we were all required to attend. So, I'm gonna say this one last time and I'm leaving it up to you…" Bo checked her volunteer credentials, "…Missy Hartwick to make sure the word gets around. I started with 14 dogs in Willow, not 12. I'm sure it's just a clerical error on your end and I'm sorry you're on the receiving end of my frustration when someone should have fixed this already, but we are permitted to have 14 dogs and I have 14 dogs. Now, can I go? Everyone knows it's best to hit Rainy pass in the morning, so you don't have to run it in darkness. With my situation this year, I'd especially not to run that pass in the dark where someone can take shots at me from above the canyon."

Missy appeared sympathetic as she shook her head, "I'm so sorry and I do understand. I've run the race myself, so understand the importance of keeping to your schedule, but we have only 12 Vet certified dogs on the checkpoint list for your team. We have to either do full checkups of the other two or you have to allow us to call in and verify the mistake."

"Fine. Make the call because the checkups will take too long, but please be sure I don't get held up at any other checkpoints for this. When you call, if you can, talk to Dr. Harrow or Dr. Lewis. They can verify. Two of my dogs had tumors… long story. They recommended I switched them out. I was going to run without them, but they gave me 2 hours to decide. I decided to add two rookie dogs in, so I guess they're the ones you're missing to make it a full 14-dog team."

"Okay, give me the names of the dogs on your line and I'll check in."

Bo inwardly groaned as she watched Mitch leave the checkpoint ahead of her. He was one of her toughest competitors. Jeffrey went by too and then Annie. Dammit, this wasn't good at all. She sighed,

"My leads are Nike and Diana, my swings are Jenna and Muk, my team dogs are Hera, Demeter, Nemesis, Artemis, Atalanta, and Persephone. Hestia and Iris were dropped and replaced by Elektra and Shadow. My wheel dogs are Gaea and Aphrodite."

"You're right. Elektra and Shadow are the ones I'm missing. I'll make the call right away. If you need any supplies…"

"I'm good. We just started, now please… hurry, Missy."

Bo watched as she nodded and walked away, "So, kids, we're waiting again for them to verify that the new kids on the line are official. Well, really, we're verifying that there is an incompetent ass in the race room who's going to keep me from winning this freakin' race."

She looked up at the sky and then at her watch, "We'll definitely be doing the pass in the dark with two rookie dogs – one who's afraid of his own shadow. Well, you can't say you weren't warned, Bo. Shit."

She dropped her ice hook and stomped it into the ground before taking the opportunity to go and check all of her rigging. She had lost a dog because of a chewed line in the past. With all of the idle time she'd spent at checkpoints so far, it was entirely possible that one of the dogs could have chewed on a line to pass the time. The last thing she needed was to lose a dog. Race rules dictated she would have to find it before she continued or be disqualified.

"Bo! Bo!"

Bo looked up to see Little Jon running full tilt into the checkpoint from the cabin.

"Little Jon! What the…"

"They sent the wrong lists out to the checkpoints. I'm running them all down with my snow machine as fast as I can… well, me, Uncle Mark, Little Jim and Kurt, that is. We'll get them all out, but… is that why you're still here?"

"Yes. Quick – go run that in to the woman calling home base. Hurry, Mark. Mitch, Jeff and Annie already moved ahead of me."

"Shit." He turned and ran straight away to the cabin, his footing giving way as he ran in the deep snow.

"Shit is right." Bo said, talking to her dogs. They would sense her foul mood and refuse to run, so she needed to get positive and fast, "Okay, kids. It's okay. This little delay won't hurt us at all. We're strong and we're smart and we're fast as lightning, right? We're all good!"

The race official yelled down from the cabin, "Burt! Change that log sheet and initial it, then have Bo sign. Get her out of here. It's our mistake! Sorry, Bo!"

Bo didn't wait for the man to make the change. She practically grabbed the clipboard from his hands, scribbled out her signature and handed him back the pen. She spoke as she readied herself to run,

"You're adding Elektra with a 'k' and Shadow to my team. Got it?"

She watched as he wrote the dog names and gave her a way, "Go! Go! Sorry!"

Bo gave a wave, resisting the urge to give him the finger as she lifted her ice hook and stepped on to the sled,

"Hike! Let's go, kids! We've got some time to make up!"

She looked over her shoulder and yelled out to Little Jon, "Don't leave until you're sure they correct the next checkpoint!"

"I've got it, Bo!"

As they went up the slight grade, she pedaled hard, trying to take some of the load off of her dogs as they were coming to a section of the course for which she wanted to have some momentum. The snow was already deeper than she had expected considering the weather reports. They were also entering the first area where she suspected Big Jim or his men might be waiting. Hopefully those sharpshooters were well-hidden and good at their job. They were, after all, going to be shooting with deadly force at a moving target, possibly in whiteout conditions.

END FLASHBACK

Bo loved this part of the course. It was deep powder, wooded on either side of the trail, and much like the thrill of riding a rollercoaster on a dog sled. There were other parts of the trail that were like this as well, but this was one of her favorites because of the speed. Sure, it was a challenge to keep the sled upright and, on the trail, but wasn't that the challenge of the race? If anyone could drive a sled for a thousand miles, everyone would do it.

She smiled at the wagging tails and pep on her team. The dogs looked like they were having a blast. They were in their element. This is what they were bred for and she was giving them free reign to do as they pleased unless it got dangerous for them.

"Gee! Gee!"

They made the right turn perfectly, Bo's eyes going wide for a moment as she realized how steep the next drop was,

"Hmph!" She landed, her breath being pressed from her body by the force of the impact of the sled hitting bottom, "Damn, this is a bit gnarly this year. Sorry, 'bout that kids! I wasn't counting the steps! I think that was number three? Dang, Bo – pay attention!"

She leaned in to the next turn,

"Haw! Haw!"

"Easy kids!" Bo said, stepping on the sled break to slow the dogs down just a bit as they entered a sharp serpentine section of the trail,

"Gee! Gee!"

"Hike, Nike! Hike Diana! Good girls!"

Bo smiled, watching Elektra and Shadow looking at each other, before they started biting at each other, "Elektra, Shadow! No bite! Play nice!"

They both turned their attention ahead again, as Gaea and Aphrodite barked loudly at the pair. Bo laughed, loving how her two veterans were working hard to keep the young rookies in line. So far, the two were holding their own. Jenna and Muk were running well, following the lead of Nike and Diana, just as she'd hoped. Her veteran team dogs Hera, Demeter, Nemesis and Artemis were running just as well as ever. Atalanta and Persephone had never run in this race and Bo had definitely had her doubts, but her idea of putting the two rookie pups behind them and well-trained adults in front of them seemed to clear any ideas they might have had of not falling in line with the others.

Of course, it was still early in the race, so only time would tell. The worst was still ahead, but Bo knew that both she and her team were still running as fresh as when the race began. She was focused and she felt… alive. Being in the open country like this was how she'd spent the first ten years of her life. The Alaska Range was home to her in many ways. She felt at one with the environment – it was in her blood. Best of all, no people and possibly – if the skies were clear and the mountain's weather cooperated, she'd see her old friend Denali. Maybe it was time for a climb again. She'd consider it if she could do it without having to be a guide. Everyone was an adventurer these days and she hated the fact that people were dying because they thought money could buy them a safe climb with guaranteed life at the end.

She saw the trail bend and cross Shirley Lake. It was dark now and she knew that once she reached Long Lake, she was about 11 miles from Rainy Pass Lodge. At that point, she would come to a steep mountainside on the south side of Happy River valley before the checkpoint. The last eight miles would be a gnarly hillside trail and that is where she worried Big Jim would be making his stand.

"Hike! Let's get moving, kids! I know it's dark, but Nike and Diana, you know this trail like you know your own paws! We can do this!"

She turned on her headlamp, thinking now would be a good time for her face to be shielded by the glare of a light. She had set traps through this entire canyon, so anyone who tried to come in on her from the sides would be strung up in the trees. Knowing she was behind schedule; they were likely already hanging and just about in federal custody since they now knew where all of her traps were. Soon, she would be clear of Big Jim and his men – at least for the rest of the night. There's no way he would drag his rickety old ass up and into Rainy Pass and Rohn. If they didn't come after her here or there was more than one place they tried to take her down, it would be the long stretches of open and barren land after Rohn. That area made Bo nervous, so she hoped she was right on his plan.

As she traveled the distance through the winding pass, she noticed the snow growing deeper and deeper by the minute. She'd heard that some of the top mushers were carrying firearms this year because the conditions would be more likely to bring moose, wolves, bear or other fuzzies onto the trail. Bo had never carried a firearm and she wasn't about to start now. Besides, there were apparently plenty of guns pointed at her right now by the feds… that was enough metal. Another point was that guns meant carrying ammo and all of that meant extra weight. Bo prided herself on a well-packed, well-balanced sled of her own design. It was light, maneuverable and slick enough to run faster than any other sled in the race. If it came down to a sprint, Bo was confident in her team, her skills and her equipment to get the job done.

She was now about eleven miles out. She had that sinking feeling in her stomach as she felt, strangely enough, that she was approaching Big Jim territory. But the truth is, if he wanted to kill her himself, he would send men out here to take her and her sled, not kill her. Could a group of men take her? Well, one thing was for sure, she wouldn't go quietly and she had better be more skilled than Bo on a sled if they wanted to get close enough to capture her.

"Whoa! Whoa!" Bo called to her team, stepping hard on the brake as a shot rang out through the mountains, "I hope that was someone hunting bear."

Another shot rang out and Bo heard a bullet ricochet off a nearby tree. The dogs started barking and jumping. They were too exposed here. She quickly looked around and saw what she had hoped to see,

"Hike! Hike!" Bo called out, moving her team down the trail as fast as they could go. She pedaled behind the sled, picking up as much speed as they possibly could, "Hike! Hike! Go Diana! Go Nike! Come on, kids! Go hard or we don't go home!"

Bo heard another shot ring out, hitting a rock behind her. A searing pain shot through her left thigh, causing her to lose her balance and fall from the rails. She pushed with her right leg, trying to stand, but her hands were slipping. In one last ditch attempt to stay with the sled, she threw her arm over the handle, hooking it with her elbow, allowing herself to be dragged behind the sled. She bent her right leg and managed to get it onto a skid, then pulled herself up to a stand. The sled wobbled and almost tipped, but she managed to keep her balance as another shot rang out, missing the target again. Her vision was blurring as the pain shot through her leg, forcing her teeth to clench. She looked up through watery eyes and managed to see the red eye painted on the tree to her left just in time to yell to her team,

"Haw! Haw! Haw!" The sled turned left, but veered back onto the trail once again, "Oh, come on! Please listen to me girls! I know you're scared. Diana, Haw! Haw, Diana!"

As the dog on the right, if Diana followed the command and turned left, she would force Nike to turn into the mountain side with her. As luck would have it, her veteran lead turned and shouldered up against Nike to force her to follow,

"Good girls! Haw! Haw! Go girls! Come on, kids! Faster! Faster!"

The dogs turned into the woods, just as another shot rang out behind Bo, again hitting a tree behind her. She saw the pile of tree branches up ahead and could only hope that Nike and Diana would obey her command,

"Hike! Hike! Hike! Come on, trust me, girls! Don't stop! Don't slow down. Please don't slow down. Hike! Hike!"

The dogs ducked down and ran right through the small opening. Bo watched as the green pine needles grew closer and closer. When the last dog was out of sight, she leaned back and ducked, shielding her face behind the basket and prayed. Snow sprayed into her face as she fell from the sled and skidded along tree roots and ice until she came to a stop against the hard rock surface of the cave wall.

She immediately worked to pull the riggings towards her, trying desperately to settle the dogs down, "Okay, girls and boys. It's okay. Not barking right now would be really great. Shhhh. Please, please. Shhhh. It's okay. Sit! Everyone sit!"

She turned on all four of the extra headlamps she kept mounted to her sled for night running and frowned. The rigging was tangled from the dogs running into the cave at top speed and having to stop short in a crowded space or hit a stone wall. The sled had managed to stop without running over the dogs, so they all looked to be without injury… just scared. She looked for Elektra and Shadow and found the two huddled together, the more emotional pup's eyes were wide with fear. She dragged herself along the cave wall until she was close enough to reach them.

Shadow was immediately on her lap, "Okay, kiddo. It's okay. We're fine, Shadow."

This is the type of incident that could ruin a dog and Bo knew it. She needed to get this team up and running again as soon as she could, or they might throw in the towel and their race would be over. Still, she could give them a few minutes to catch their breath and calm down. Chances were the dogs had no idea they were being shot at. Right now, all they knew is that the woman they trusted most in their world just drove them straight into a rock wall. Not good to lose the trust of your dogs in the middle of nowhere. Luckily, Bo knew how to survive if she had to, but without her dogs, she'd be dead. She was too far from life to walk out of here. The best she could hope for was a ride to the next checkpoint with another musher, but her dogs would die out here if they couldn't track them.

Bo looked around the cave at her other dogs. She had found this cave almost eight years ago in the middle of a bad storm. She'd slept here with her dogs, waiting out the worst of it until she could move on again. That was six of the dogs she currently had with her. The problem was, the cave was very short and not very deep.

"Lay down. Lay down, Nike. Lay down, Diana." Shadow was actually quivering. She continued stroking the heads of her two youngest dogs, "It's okay, kids. We're fine. We're just fine. You're going to stay here with the others while I figure out who's taking shots at us out there."

She turned to Gaea and Aphrodite who were the last ones in and therefore closest to the cave entrance where the sled had landed,

"Nobody leaves, you two. You hear? Nobody leaves. Stay. Stay."

She released the two pups, Shadow trying to follow, but she turned, "Stay. You're okay. Stay."

The youngster obeyed, so Bo dragged herself across the snowy cave floor to the sled and opened up the zipper pouch on the outside of the basket. She pulled out the freeze dried, frozen beef and pork sticks she had for a quick energy treat to give the dogs and tossed one to each of her runners. The salty, high protein snack was perfect for precisely this type of stop. It was chewy like a dog toy because of how thick it was, it was frozen in water and fat so gave them calories and hydration. But the best part right now was that it would keep them busy and distracted for a while.

Bo felt a searing pain shoot through her leg again, "Shit!"

She looked down and saw a long thin blood saturated tear in her white snow pants. Separating the cloth, she saw even more blood draining down her inner nylon layer, "Fuck."

She tore open the material further and pressed her finger into the wound, "Okay, so it's not a hole, but it's definitely a nice long gash. The bullet must have grazed me. At least it's not in there." She looked up at Nike who was staring back at her, "It's okay, girl - they missed. They missed again, girl… sort of… that's good thing."

She gathered up some snow from the cave floor and pushed it firmly into the wound, pulling the nylon inner layer up over the area, she pressed down hard again, "Ahhhrrghh."

Once the nausea and dizziness passed, she reached into the sled and pulled out her special Dr. Lewis first aid kit. She opened up the kit and grabbed gauze, alcohol and one of the compression bandages that Lauren had showed her how to use,

"Okay, so you were right. Thanks, Lauren. I'll owe you at least a dinner for this."

Now, all she had to do was clean, dry and press. She poured some alcohol onto the wound, biting down on her shirt sleeve as it entered the wound. She then opened a pack of sterile gauze and carefully blotted it dry, cringing at the pain caused by the contact. Finally, after wiping the tears from her eyes, she pressed the compression bandage tightly against the wound and pulled the corners tight.

"Hmmm. Check that out, Gaea. It worked! That Dr. Lewis is a smart one, huh? There's some chemical on the bandage that will stop the bleeding. They use it for people who are on blood thinners. Definitely a smart lady. Blood loss is not a good thing where we are."

Bo laughed when Gaea dropped her meat long enough to bark twice in favor of Dr. Lewis before going back to work on her treat.

"Well, hopefully Dr. Lauren will be at the next stop and she can patch it up if I didn't do it right." She reached out to put the supplies back and felt burning on her back, "My jacket came up on my stylish entrance into the cave. I have a feeling my skin is all cut up there, too, but unless one of you can handle performing first aid on me, that's going to have to wait until I have another set of human hands. Lauren is going to be pissed."

She sighed, taking a deep breath and focusing on the next task rather than the discomfort, "Now, let's go see about our company. I'd love to know where those federal agents and their sharpshooters are right now. But it's like they say, sometimes if you want something done, you have to do it yourself."

Bo reached into the side pouch of her sled and pulled out her small axe. Removing the cover, she flipped it over once, then twice in her hand, just to be sure she had a feel for the weight in case she had to use it. She pulled a knife from her left side pocket and then lowered herself to look beneath the branches. She took a deep breath and turned off her head lamp, then turned off the lamps on the sled. The dogs whimpered for a moment,

"Shhh. It's okay, kids. You're okay. Gaea, Aphrodite, stay."

The moon was full. It glanced off the snow and ice-covered trees and rock, reflecting light across the valley despite the late hour. There was no need for a headlamp once her eyes adjusted to the darkness. Her white snow suit would camouflage her to any visitors as long as the bandage held on her leg and didn't leave a trail of blood behind.

She slid on her belly beneath the bundle of branches that were suspended in a fishing line hammock Bo had constructed and mounted here almost a month ago. She slid beneath a massive pine tree and rolled onto her back, surveying the tree line above her. She rolled over, looking out to the trail and whispered to herself,

"Okay, so you were headed west, the shot clearly hit a rock to your left before hitting your left leg. The shot came from the north and definitely south of me."

She looked over in that direction and scanned the creek about fifty yards beyond the trail. It took a moment, but she finally spied a small sled team with a man standing by the handle.

"Hmmm. Both of your hands are on the handle, so you're not the one who fired the shot. So, were you giving Big Jim a ride?" She rolled onto her side and opened her jacket pocket, pulling out the compact binoculars she carried. Pushing the button, they popped open. She held them up in the direction of the creek, scanning the horizon before zooming in on the musher,

"Only six dogs. So, you didn't travel far, and you definitely didn't give anyone a ride. Not in this terrain. The dogs wouldn't be able to haul your two-hundred-pound man-frame in this. That means, you not only have a friend who fired the shot, but your friend as a sled as well."

Bo ducked as she heard another sled come flying down the trail.

"Two, four, six, eight." She tucked her head down, realizing it was another small team, "Iditarod teams have fourteen dogs this year, Sir. You must not have read your rules."

She gripped the axe hard, watching as the visitor anchored the sled then proceeded to walk towards her tracks.

"Shit, Bo. Cover your damn tracks. Stupid, stupid, stupid!" She whispered, slowly moving herself to a stand behind the tree. As he moved closer, she lowered herself, moving towards the hill to keep her white clothing against a backdrop of snow if he or the man below looked her way. She cinched up her hood tighter so none of her black hair would escape and kept her axe and knife behind her legs.

Finally, she heard him call out,

"Come on out, half-breed! I know you're in there! You been the bane of my existence for a long time, Ysabeau Dennis. Big Jim wants you alive so he can do you himself, but I've waited to long for this. I'll have to tell him you got the jump on me, so I had to take you out myself. Time to die, sweetie. You and all your precious little doggies." The voice rang out.

Bo's blood ran cold at the sound of the man's voice. It was not the first time she'd heard that threat from him, though it had been a very long time. She watched as he checked the load in his weapon before the sound of the safety clicking off echoed through the valley. Bo raised her axe to her ear and took a step forward, needing him to turn towards her to expose his chest,

"Hey asshole. Over here."

As he raised his weapon to shoot, a dog came flying through the air, landing squarely on his shoulders. The gun fired into the air, the sound causing an avalanche of snow to cascade down on the mushers head. As her vision cleared, she saw the man turn on the growling dog and called out,

"I warned you, Jacob!"

He turned towards her just as she threw her axe, another shot sounding causing her to drop to the snow as a reflex. She froze as the echo of the gun traveled beyond the mountains, returning silence to the valley amidst the loud barks of her dogs. She looked up to see the man collapsing in the snow, the moonlight showing the look of shock on his face as he looked down at his chest, his legs giving way leaving him face down in the snow. Another shot rang out, causing Bo to look down towards the creek where the other man held his hands over his head. She could recognize Dyson's frame even from here as he walked towards the man who knelt down before him.

The sound of the dog growling got her attention. She looked up to see the dog baring his teeth, ready to latch on to the man's neck,

"SHADOW! Come here, kiddo! Shadow! Come!"

The dog obeyed, running to Bo's embrace, "Good, girl. Good girl, Shadow."

Bo checked the dog for any wounds and found only a scratch on her nose. She grabbed some snow and rubbed it clean, checking to see how deep it was, relieved to see it was only superficial. She looked down at her own body, checking for a bullet wound, but found none. She looked back up at the man to see the white snow changing color before her eyes, reacting only when she heard the snap of a breaking branch. She drew her knife, pulling it to her ear, Shadow growling again but Bo stopped herself and the dog just in time at the sound of the friendly voice,

"Don't throw! Bo, it's me! It's Hale!"

She sat back in the snow, holding tight to Shadow as she looked up at the Deputy Sheriff, "I killed him. I… I killed him. He was going to kill my dogs. He…"

He felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up, "Hale, I…"

"Bo, you didn't kill him. I shot him before your axe hit his chest. Besides, he had you dead to rights – your dogs too. I witnessed the whole thing as I was making my way through the trees to get to you." He pointed behind the man at his sled, "I promise, you killed no one."

Bo blinked twice, "But…" Bo sat down, feeling the sting of the bullet wound as she bent her leg. Brushing the pain aside, she watched as Hale flipped the man over and pulled the axe from his chest. He wiped it clean in the snow and threw it into a nearby tree.

"I don't recognize this guy." He took a picture with his phone, pocketed the device and then looked back at Bo, "You're free to go… I mean… if you want to continue in the race."

Bo sat, blinking, her mind racing as she stared at the man's face. She turned on her headlamp and got up to her feet. Walking to the body, she looked down, illuminating his features. Her shoulders slumping as she looked down at the familiar face,

"His name is Jacob Turner." Bo's hand moved to her mouth, "I'm not sure where he's actually living now, but I know that he was First Nations… from the Yukon Territory in Canada. Ross River tribe, more specifically."

"How could you possibly know that?" Hale asked.

Bo's eyes moved slowly to Hale's, the moonlight reflecting the curiosity on his face. Bo shrugged, "Seline said my past would come back to me in its own time."

She turned and reached for the bundle of branches covering the cave entrance. She used her knife to cut the fishing line that attached it to a nearby tree, allowing the bundle to fall to the snow. She pulled the net towards her, covering the body completely,

"That should keep the wolves and the bears off of him long enough to get someone in here to recover the body. Don't wait too long or they will take him." Bo said, slipping her knife back into her side pocket.

"We have a sled for the body." Hale replied.

Bo stopped short of heading in to get her dogs, "You aren't seriously going to try to sled him across the Alaska Range, are you?"

"The Feds are."

"Hale, they cannot tow a body and you know it. It's too much weight for a team of dogs."

"We told them. In the end, it's not my call."

"They're not Alaskan's Hale. I wouldn't haul a body out of here and I've done that pass at least twenty times between the race and training. It's suicide for those guys. Use the Iditarod Air Force. They have helicopters for situations just like this. Another mile down the trail, there's a clearing. They can hoist the body and the feds out then."

"The feds aren't going anywhere and some of them are Alaskan's Bo. This thing isn't over. They're going to stay until the job is done. Now who is this guy?"

"I've got to go, Hale. I'm way behind schedule."

"Bo, stop! This is getting way out of hand. You have to scratch, Bo. You're gonna get yourself killed if you stay out here. Now who is this guy?"

"I'm not scratching. I'm racing. I haven't violated any race rules and you just told me I could leave."

"I didn't think you actually would." Hale said, moving towards the dogs, but Bo swept his legs and put him on his back, the sound of scraping metal echoing through the air as her cold blade left its sheath and landed at his neck,

"Touch those dogs and I will put you down. I am racing and that's the end of it. You guys are the ones that have made this situation unsafe. Bringing in all of these feds with guns. I can't imagine how the mushers feel out here. I know I'm worried they're going to shoot at a bad guy and hit me or my dogs. You didn't need to bring them into this. Exhibit A – look who took these guys out? You and Dyson. Where are the sharpshooters who are supposed to be in the canyon?"

Hale relaxed, "Fine. Can I have my neck back, please?"

Bo stood, "Hands off my dogs. Stay out of my way on the trail. I'm here to race, Hale and I'm going to race. If you guys didn't want me to race, then you should have pulled me out back in Anchorage or Willow."

"We tried."

"What?"

"Dyson and I, we tried. The feds decided they wanted to use you as bait. Once they heard all that Big Jim has done, they put him at the top of the most wanted list in our state."

"All that he's done?" Bo asked.

"He's wanted, Bo… in the Yukon Valley, up North, in Canada and in three states in the Lower 48. Big Jim has history that none of us knew about."

"His sons?"

Hale shook his head, "The feds started questioning family about his past just after you left the start line. That's why Little Jon was late getting the adjusted checkpoint information to them."

Hale looked down at the man buried beneath the branches, pointing the tip of his rifle in his direction as he spoke, "And that's why I asked how you know this guy. Now, please, Bo. Let me help you. Who is this guy."

Bo scowled, shaking her head, she relented and sat down on a rock,

"I'm not sure. Really. I know his name. I know I grew up with him and we have been crossing paths ever since. When I left home to find my mother, I headed east into Canada to try to find out about my Dad… you know, if I really was the half-breed everyone claimed I was since my mom never told me. While I was there, I decided I'd do the Yukon Crossing and some other trails because I'd decided I was going to do the Iditarod as soon as I was old enough."

"You said you grew up with him?"

"I think so, yes. I mean… it's vague, but I have a feeling I knew him when I was just a kid… that we played together. He's always seemed familiar to me, but he swore he'd never met me until Canada."

"Canada?"

Bo nodded, "I left home when my mom disappeared. and I got wind that she and my dad might still be alive, I set out on my own to find them… or find the truth. For years I thought Jacob was following me. He showed up in several places where I stopped in the Yukon – the Crossing, Carmacks and Ross River. He told me that was where he was born and raised. Now I'm not so sure."

"Now as in…"

"As in right now. I don't know why, but when he was calling out to me, the things he said… I just feel like I knew him when I was young. I can't explain it."

"Well, what the hell were you doing in Canada?"

"Following the rumor mill." Bo laughed, "I know it was idiotic, but I was alone, and I was a sixteen-year-old girl wo was desperate for answers. When nothing panned out, I eventually crossed over their southern border and headed to Navajo Country in Arizona. When I got there, Jacob was in town. I was stonewalled when I asked the elders about my father. I even searched the public records, but it was the same as Canada."

"What was that?"

"The problem with First Nations and Native American societies is that a lot of the history is passed on through stories and the spoken word. If you don't talk to the right people – or people who are willing to share – you can't learn anything about people."

Bo stood, stretching her legs and back. She decided that this was now going to count as a rest stop, so she let the dogs rest before the big climb over the pass. She pulled out her journal and began jotting notes, checking maps and recalculating her plan of attack. She'll have to tell Hale what she was changing since Kenzi would freak when she dropped off of her planned schedule.

"Bo?"

She looked up at Hale, "Sorry, I'm going to have to recalculate my race. Be sure to tell Kenzi that I'm taking a 90-minute rest here, so will be blowing through the checkpoint after the pass."

"And about Jacob?"

"Oh. Right. Well, after Arizona was a dead end, I headed back up into the Yukon to try a few more First Nations villages to see if anyone knew my father. I had an old picture that, oddly enough, Jacob took off of me in a drunken fit saying that man was not my father. I tried to ask him how he knew that, but he was so gone, there was no talking to him."

Bo folded up her maps, slipping them back into the waterproof sleeve before tucking her notebook back into her pocket,

"I ran into him again once at Ross River. I talked to some guys in a bar about him and they told me he was born there. I asked how he got up to Utqiaġvik and they said his Dad had met a woman up there. Jacob walked into the conversation and all hell broke loose between him and the guy talking to me. He called the guy a liar and eventually, we all quieted down and played some cards."

Bo sighed, "During the game, I was winning, he accused me of cheating and started a legit bar brawl. I won, he lost. Bar owner made him pay for damages. That was when I headed back up north. I was tired of traveling and was ready to go home."

Bo laughed, "But, the joke was on me because when I arrived back at my 'home', I found another family living there. The state had taken over, saying I'd abandoned the property. I fought to get it back. It was paid for and I still held the deed… that is, until I found my lockbox that I'd buried in our cache – empty. Someone stole the deed and I couldn't prove the guy living there hadn't bought the home from me for cash like he said. I had no bank account, so no written records of the transaction."

"You'd think you would have learned a lesson and opened a bank account by now."

Bo shrugged, "Still don't trust banks. They knew my Mom and they knew the house was paid off. They also knew she left the property to me. They stole my home from me and I'll never trust a bank again."

Hale sighed knowing that now was not the time to explain how bank records could have prevented the loss of her family home, "So you ran into Jacob again?"

Bo nodded, "He was back home when I got there, then was in Wainwright, Point Lay, Wevok and Point Hope. I didn't see him again until about a year later in Noorvik. He told the guys on a job I was working that I had cheated him at a card game. We fought, I won – left him lying on the bar floor and headed out of town the next day. I flew into Sitka about two years later to work on a construction job. Another coincidence – he was working on the same crew. It was late at night when I left a local bar. He was waiting outside, grabbed me and turned into a super perve. I grabbed his nuts and shoved them threw his skull, dropping him to the ground like a dead moose. I told him if he ever tried to lay a hand on me again, I'd kill him. Guess you did the favor for me."

"That's why you shouted you had warned him."

Bo nodded, staring down at the pile of branches. The moonlight glistened off the wet boots sticking out from beneath the boughs of pine,

"Why would he wear leather boots out here?" Bo asked in a whisper.

Hale looked down at the man's feet, "Unusual for sure. Especially if your account of his history is accurate."

Hale sighed, "Look, Bo, the guy was scum, that's for sure. He's got a rap sheet a mile long. Still shorter than Big Jim's but long nonetheless."

"So, what's going on that I don't know, Hale. Maybe if the feds leveled with me, I could help."

Hale sighed, knowing that she was right. No one knew this country the way Bo Dennis did – not even the village elders themselves. He looked up at Bo,

"Look, you didn't hear this from me, Bo but they think Big Jim went and found himself some out of state hired guns."

"Like assassins?"

"That's the type."

"Great."

Bo looked into the cave at her dogs. They were a tangled mess among the rigging, but they were all sound asleep in one big furry clump, Shadow half on top of and half between Gaea and Aphrodite. Their collective body heat would keep them all warm, despite the ground cover being snow.

"Look, Hale. I've got to get back on the trail. I've counted at least ten sleds pass me while we've been sitting here. Mitch has got a massive lead on me…"

"Actually, Mitch is out. I heard that at the last checkpoint."

"What? What happened?"

"His sled broke. There's no way for him to fix it. He bottomed out on a drop somewhere up in the pass, landed on a rock or trunk and busted a rail clean in half. They're working on fishing him out of there."

Bo nodded, "Good to know, I suppose."

"He's camped out and safe. I heard mushers were dropping supplies for him and his dogs, so anything you have to spare…"

"Absolutely. Thanks for the heads up. Looks like the ancestors may not favor the favorites this year."

Hale smiled, "Get back out there and figure it out, Bo. We all know you have what it takes to win even if you have to come from behind. You've done it before."

Bo nodded, heading into the cave, "Watch yourself out there, Hale."

He nodded, "Will do. We've got your back… just not through the pass."

"On my own, huh?" Bo laughed, untangling Jenna and Muk from the team so she could get to Elektra and figure out what Shadow had done to their part of the line to break free. Bo was pleasantly surprised by the instinct to protect, the courage and intelligence she had shown when she was under attack.

Hale shook his head, "Trust me when I say these guys can't handle what's waiting for them up there if they try to go after you, Bo."

Bo shook her head, "I saw one earlier just past the Happy River Steps. They didn't look too well hidden to me."

"Those were local police. The guys that are up there are military recruits and federal snipers."

Bo spun on Hale, her face filled with anger, leading him to take a few steps back, "What? What the hell have you gotten us into here, Hale? What are we, the expendable Alaskans? Why didn't they hunt this guy down when he was in the Lower 48? Why do it here where there are innocent men, women and dogs just trying to win or complete a challenge?"

Hale was quiet, telling Bo all she needed to know, "Oh, I get it. The half breed is expendable, and my team is just a bunch of dogs. In town are many valuable human lives. Out here, they may only hit a few dogs are one or two mushers. Acceptable losses, right? I saw it in a movie once."

"Bo…"

"No, Hale. You and Dyson made your choice. I knew that Tamsin coming back here was bad news."

"She was following orders, Bo."

"Right. You're all doing what you had to do." She stepped up close to Hale, putting her finger in his face, "Now, I'll do what I have to do and so help me God, you and Dyson better have my back when Big Jim and his men are all dead. If I go down for this, I'm taking all of you with me… the Morton sons included. Make sure they know it. Now, how do I identify these prized gunmen?"

Bo turned her back to Hale and continued pulling new lines from her bag for Shadow.

"Look for polar bears laying in the snow."

"What?" Bo asked, stopping what she was doing.

"They listened to you, Bo. They listened. They brought in military who have experience in these conditions. They're extreme athletes and snow country residents with a background in military search and rescue. Some are top secret military assets or intelligence. There's about one hundred of them through the pass and beyond. Once you're past them, they're air lifted out and placed further down the trail. You're covered to the end."

Bo laughed, cutting a piece of rope and then pointing her knife towards the body on the ground, "Covered, huh? Like I was when this guy tried to kill me and my dogs?"

"Like I said, Dyson and I were covering you through here."

"Well, thank God for small favors." She shook her head. There was no need for her to get nasty with Hale. He had just saved her life, after all, "Okay then. Hopefully they know not to shoot the good guys… or girls as it is."

"They know and they all know your team – especially your leads."

Bo looked at Nike and Diana, "Hear that, Ladies? You're famous!"

"They're smart is what they are. I never saw a team run blindly into a covered opening like that."

"Yea, well be impressed while you can. I don't know if they're going to trust me again after I almost ran them right into a stone wall."

Hale bent down and looked inside the opening, "I didn't know there was a cave here."

Bo nodded, "Found it a while back and decided to use it as a foxhole of sorts. Just in case."

"Good idea." Hale replied, "But then again, I guess that's why you've got the reputation you have."

Bo nodded, "Get out of here, Hale. Next thing you know, someone will be saying I got assistance in the race."

"Later Bo. Good luck going through the pass."

"Thanks."

Bo set back to the task of getting her dogs up and ready to go again. She hated that they'd gotten all comfy and cozy at this point in the race. They were likely to be tired from falling into a deep sleep and she needed them up and ready for the section of the course that would require the most effort from them,

"Okay, kids. Coming up next is a three-thousand-foot climb… three-thousand and a lot of change. Who wants to go run? Huh? Who wants to run? Are we gonna win, kids? Are we? Huh? Come on girls!" She looked at Muk, "Sorry… and boy. It's a habit."

She fluffed his head and laughed as all of the dogs seemed to be up and ready to go. Tails were wagging and eyes were surveying the land. It was time to find out if she'd done any permanent damage to their bond. She led them out of the cave and turned the sled around. It was no easy task considering her leg, the weight of the sled and the deep snow, but she managed.

She looked down at her thigh to check the bandage and noticed some blood had seeped through. Opening the first aid kid, she tore open two packs of gauze and another pressure bandage. She placed the gauze pads over the first bandage and then added the second one on top. For good measure, she took out a roll of duct tape and tore off a length. She dropped her outer pants and wrapped the duct tape around the entire leg, pulling the bandage tight with a groan.

While she was stripped down, she figured now was as good a time as any to empty her bladder, so she pulled out her urination device, positioned it and relieved herself. She double checked her sled gear, flipped it on its side and checked the runners to make sure they weren't damaged when she left the trail, then flipped it back upright and checked her personal gear. Realizing she had torn outer pants; she grabbed the duct tape again and patched her pants.

She flipped on her headlamp again before moving to talk to Nike and Diana at the head of the team,

"Okay, Ladies. The moon is full, so we're going to run silent and dark." She rubbed the muzzle of each dog, then rubbed behind their ears as she whispered in her native Athabascan tongue, "Run like the wind, my children. Run like the wind."

Spying her binoculars in the snow, she picked them up and brushed them off before pressing the two sides closed and slipping them back into her jacket pocket. She then remembered Hale had planted her axe in a tree, so she walked back to retrieve it, leaving it out of its sheath in the side pocket of the sled basket. She wanted it ready at a moment's notice.

Mounting the sled, she bent her knees and rocked it from side to side. She could feel the wound pulling beneath the bandage, but the duct tape seemed to be doing its job in not allowing it to tear further. She would just have to grit her teeth and bear the pain. After the climb was a steep descent that would allow her to rest her leg except for using the sled brake. It was time to see what she had left of her team. Hopefully, they would all cooperate and work together,

"Hike! Hike! Let's go kids. We're still playing catch up!"

For the first time in her life, she felt nervous on this trail. She had felt certain that the section through this pass would be safe for her. Now that she knew that Big Jim had hired guns waiting for her along just about any section of this course, she could no longer let down her guard. She would need to be vigilante the rest of the way. She also didn't want to get shot by any of the people who were also sent to 'save' her.

She thought for a moment of how easily Lauren was able to get race credentials just because she was a doctor. These hired hands may have done the same. She would have to be careful about any supplies she accepted at checkpoints as well. She would tell her team that at the next stop. The new security camera plan may help, but she wasn't sure if the cameras were being monitors all day and night.

She checked the sky to be sure they were headed in the right direction. It was easy to stray here at night. Most mushers admitted to having no idea where they were until they reached a checkpoint. As long as the trail was well-groomed, they just followed it. But this year, the wind had swept the snow across the trails, so despite the trails being cut for them, fresh powder was always going to make it difficult to navigate in the dark.

Still, Bo loved the quiet out here on the range. The hushed sound of the sled being pulled through the snow, the rhythmic breathing from a team of dogs working in unison, the occasional thunder of a strong wind across the material of your clothing and the sparkle of the white blanket beneath the full moon. This was why she loved her homeland. This was true beauty and she hoped that one day, she would be able to show this to Lauren. Maybe then she'd understand why there was nothing to fear. Maybe then she would understand why this was her home.

Out here, there was food, shelter and beauty. Growing up, she'd been taught that all that a person could need was provided by the land. Having lived in an area where there was no shelter unless you built it, the Alaska Range was like an east coast town to Bo. Most people would see a tree, boulder, river, cave and bear but Bo saw the trees as shelter, the boulders as tables, the river as holding both water and food, a cave as a hiding place and a bear as the Rockstar you watch from afar.

She smiled as she watched Gaea sniff at the air as she ran. The seven-year-old was known for her love of the sky at night. She was always looking up while the other dogs were looking out,

"The stars are very bright despite the full moon tonight, huh Gaea? Good scenery, good run, right? Let's hope so. Here we go, Nike! Diana! Hike! Hike! Let's climb this baby! We've got twelve hours to Rohn with a couple of water, snack and pee breaks in there. We've got this!"

Rohn Checkpoint – Two Hours Later

"What do you mean she was bleeding, Hale?" Lauren asked, her hands waving at the Deputy Sheriff.

"There was blood on the side of her leg. She had it bandaged. I don't know what happened – didn't ask. She was up and walking around on it, so she's obviously fine."

Lauren blew out a hard breath, "You do know we're talking about Bo Dennis, right? Bo 'feel no pain' Dennis? Bo 'a little infection won't hurt me' Dennis?"

"Bo 'grown ass adult' Dennis. Yes, I know who we're talking about, Dr. Lewis." Hale replied.

"Ugh." Lauren groaned, pushing back her hair and stepping back behind Kenzi, pacing.

"Look, Kenzi, Bo wanted me to tell you her schedule will be off now because of that little side trip into the cave and the hold ups at the checkpoints over the dogs."

"Little side trip?" Kenzi asked, "She was shot at, Hale! You shot and killed a man who was about to shoot and kill her!"

"Nah, Bo had it down, Kenz. She hit him square in the chest with her axe, I just happened to hit him with a bullet just before her axe landed."

"Hale!"

"What? Relax, 'lil Mama. The girl headed into the pass at full tilt. There's all sorts of traps and sharpshooters that can hit a target from 2500 yards out. Do you realize how far away they can be? That's some serious shootin'."

"Yea, but will they know who they're shooting? I want to know that they won't hit Bo or her dogs!"

"Kenzi, her sled and clothes are tagged. She doesn't know it, but they are. They know exactly who she is, where she is, and they don't even need to see her. The dogs are chipped and they're tracking them as well."

"Wow. They really are using my best friend as bait!"

"Hale, we never would have agreed to this." Lauren said.

"Well, it's out of my hands, ladies. Bo knows, the choice was in her hands and she's running."

"Dammit Bo! When are you going to stop running!" Kenzi said, slamming her fists into her thighs.

Lauren took a deep breath, looking out across the snow-covered land. As bad as things were, she was sure Bo would only see the beauty of the land she called home. She loved the snow, trees and the sky whether sunny, cloudy or dark and filled with stars. To Bo, being out there was true freedom… only she wasn't free, and she knew it. She wouldn't be free until this part of her past was behind her,

"No, Kenzi. Bo isn't running. Well, not in the sense that most people usually think of Bo around here. She's not running away from her problems this time." Lauren looked out over the vast wilderness, "She's running right into the problem… head on." She looked back to Kenzi, "And she'll come back free of the problem or free of the world that created the problem no matter what. She's running from her past the only way she knows how – by doing whatever it takes to put it behind her so she can finally look ahead and see her future – a bright, exciting, future that is free of all that held her back in life until now. She's refusing to live her life the way she's been forced to live it – in constant fear of what he would do next. Bo will take back her life on her own terms…" She pointed to the wilderness, "…and on her own turf – out there where she feels most at home."

"But… I'm her home! She can't leave me!" Kenzi cried, her voice straining and eyes filling with tears.

Lauren smiled, placing a gentle hand on the younger woman's shoulder, "Bo's home lies in the heart of everyone she loves, Kenzi. She'll always be with you, no matter where she goes."

Kenzi nodded turning to Hale,

"Hale…"

"We'll talk. Later."

Hale walked away, tired of being verbally assaulted for choices that he'd had absolutely nothing to do with. What he had done was helped the committee to add security cameras to all 28 checkpoints this year. Sure, some people weren't happy about it, but mushers had accused people of drugging and sabotaging their dogs and more. The Great Race was meant to be an open space race with open access, but the world was changing and there was a lot a cash on the line for the top finishers. These days, there were bound to be people who wouldn't play fair…. or play dirty, at that.

What he would do now, was to go back to the job and do what he could to keep Bo safe. But first, he was going to get the secretaries back at the home office on a search for Jacob's family history and backstory. There had to be more to this guy, and it was sounding more and more like he was a key connection to Bo's past.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Finger Lake, Rainy Pass and Rohn were Bo's favorite spots along the Iditarod Trail because there was always a challenge, always strategy and always weather. You could always count on unpredictable weather and this year was no different. It was snowing and the fresh powder was deep, the trail fast. To Bo, it just added to the fun. To outsiders, it meant complaining to the race officials about how bad the trail is in various spots. Anyone that complained to Bo got her Mom's line,

"If you want perfectly predictable and groomed trails, find another race. There's a reason they call this the Last Great Race. If you can't handle the heat, get out of the kitchen."

Bo's Mom always wanted her to run the Iditarod, but she was never easy on her when it came to running a sled, training or bumps and bruises. When it came to the dogs, she always made sure that Bo took care of their needs before her own. Bo smiled as she thought of her Mom's words,

"You've got children of your own now, Ysabeau. That means you have to take care of all of their needs before your own. You need the money to feed, shelter and clothe them and you need to make sure they behave like proper ladies should… in the dog world."

Her Mom always gave her a hug and a tickle when she said that last part, reminding her that while talking back and being loud in the human world wasn't acceptable to the Elders, barking was perfectly acceptable in the dog world as long as their bark was always worse than their bite.

The narrow, snaking trail was tremendous fun to navigate. She loved the unpredictable nature of these sections of the race and the sense of adventure it provided for the team. The best part, though, was the six or seven thousand-foot peaks that surrounded them on both sides throughout much of this stretch. It was always a reminder of how much bigger the world is than the small problems she has in her life. Everyone has their struggles and she really needed to learn to live in the moment and move beyond her past.

As she looked up at the massive mountains, she realized how big they were in comparison to her tiny dog sled team. She always felt the power of their pull as they ran the trail and felt inspired by the will of her team… of any team, really. But looking up at those mountains, she saw real power… real inspiration. It was like the mountains were looking down at her and the dogs and cradling them in their hands. She suddenly remembered something her Mom had told her as a child,

"Ysabeau, when you feel too big for your britches, go to the mountains with your team. Run among them and listen to what they have to say. Listen to the stories they tell and the lessons they have for you to learn. Allow them to become a part of you and they will always show you the way."

She felt a cold sting on her cheeks and realized she was crying. She chuckled, "Now that's not good for the skin out here, is it, kids? I'll get frostbite for sure and go back to Lauren looking like the grim reaper."

She tugged her inner shirt collar up and wiped her cheeks, clearing her throat and refocusing on the task at hand.

What she hated about Rainy Pass was an area just before the checkpoint. All of the teams were still bunched up this early in the race and this particular spot was like a resort. Everyone stopped there and if she did, it would guarantee those awkward social moments that Bo loathed so much. If she continued on, people would say she wasn't taking proper care of her dogs, but it didn't mean she wasn't taking care of them. It just meant that she was choosing to do her 24-hour layover somewhere else… anywhere else. Still, she'd promised Lauren she would stop, so she was going to do what she had to so as not to make the doctor worry. She had enough patients to worry about. She didn't need to add herself to the pile.

It had taken her only three and a half hours to arrive at the summit. Now came the steep and twisting downhills that led to the Dalzell Gorge. She had maybe an hour to go, so she was ahead of the planned five hours the entire leg would take. She may even be able to knock some time off of that hour if the dogs kept up their pace. However, this was another of the course roller coasters, so she had to be careful. There was a lot of race left and safer places to make up time. The steep downhills where there was water on both sides could easily find her flipped over in some water. In addition, tree roots and bushes provided lots of challenges for the adventurous team for both dogs and human.

Bo grinned as even her rookies performed well through the downhill run into the gorge. They did the work while she watched the hills on either side for signs of trouble from humans. A glint of black steel caught her eye up ahead,

"Whoa. Whooooaaa, kids." She slowed until she realized that this was one of the marksmen that Hale had mentioned. She smiled, "Hike! Hike!"

She gave her team free rein again, looking to her right as she passed the fake mass of snow, "Peekaboo! I see you!"

"Wh-what?"

Bo looked back over her shoulder, "Do better, my sniper friend!"

She laughed, turning her gaze back to the trail where her dogs were hitting a section of ice along the river. She gripped the rail more tightly and prepared for the numerous skids that were likely to come over the next section of trail. It reminded her of those race car stunts she saw in movies that she watched with Kenzi in her hotel apartment. She had often wondered what it would be like to do a 360 on a dog sled, but alas with the dogs attached, it wouldn't be a safe thing to try. She'd never risk the safety of her dogs.

The sun was just skirting above the trees. The sky was clearing, so despite the snow falling around her from the trees, it looked like she might have a relatively calm day ahead of her. As she approached the Rainy Pass checkpoint, she eyed the crowd for anyone who looked the least bit out of place. Then, she saw Kenzi running towards the checkpoint. She rolled her eyes, hoping this wouldn't take long. She really didn't have time to hang out.

She felt her heart grow heavy when she saw Lauren. She hadn't even realized how much she missed her until right now. It would be such a relief to just throw herself into her arms and ask her to hold her, but she couldn't let those emotions out right now. That was stuff that would cost her the race. Instead, she stepped up to the checkpoint,

"Name?"

"Bo Dennis."

"Hi, Bo. Bib number?"

"Number one, Ma'am."

"Sign in here, please and are you staying or moving through?" The woman watched as Bo signed the clipboard.

"I'm moving through."

"How are your dogs?"

"One has a small cut on her nose that I would take someone to take a quick peek at, but otherwise, they're fine."

"And, how are you?"

Bo hesitated, but saw Lauren out of the corner of her eye, "I have a few scrapes, so would like to have those checked."

"We just happen to have a human doctor here as well as a Vet, so I'll let them know." The woman turned and waved Lauren and another vet down to the checkpoint area. A volunteer waved Bo forward clear of the check in and Bo dropped her ice hook, kicking it into the ground.

Lauren moved to Bo's side, but Bo was quick to start the conversation, "This has to be quick. I'm sure Hale already told you…"

"You're hurt, yes. I'll make it quick. Where is it?"

"Left thigh and my back."

Lauren nodded, "Kenzi, can you help me, please? I'll need some sort of shelter to do this."

"I'll stay with the sled. You guys should head into the lodge."

"Thanks, Kenzi. I'm okay, really. Don't worry, okay?"

"Right. You were just shot at and axed a guy, but I won't worry."

Bo walked gingerly up the hill with Lauren, trying not to let her mind stray to the incredibly sexy ass that was walking up the hill ahead of her. When they were finally inside, Bo dropped her outer pants and laid down on a sofa, pointing to the duct tape.

"Nice compression bandage. I thought I showed you how…"

"Under the duct tape, it's perfect, but there wasn't enough pressure. I could feel the wound opening up under the bandage."

When Lauren reached the bottom of the dressing, she cringed at all of the blood. She flooded the area with Normal Saline and then used a magnifier to check the wound for debris. She found several fibers of cloth, likely from Bo's clothing,

"You have fabric fibers in here and what looks like small slivers of… stone or rock?"

Bo sighed, knowing she needed to be honest, "Bullet ricocheted off a rock and grazed my leg."

Lauren dropped a bottle of solution, her eyes landing on Bo as she froze. They remained, eyes locked, for a long moment before Lauren went back to work in silence.

"I'm going to use glue and tape to hold this together. If I stitch it right now, it will just come apart. I mean, I'm assuming you're not dropping out of the race over this?"

"No way."

Lauren nodded, "As I thought. Okay, roll over and let me see your back."

Bo pulled off her coat and nylon jacket before laying back down. Lauren pulled up the shirt and gasped, "Geezus, Bo. It looks like someone took a giant cheese grater to your back. What happened?"

"I skidded across ice and my clothes came up, exposing my skin. Well, the ice was over rock, so I'm guessing I hit jagged ice and rock."

"But how did your clothing…"

"We were going really, really fast."

"You didn't brake?"

"Lauren, I'd really rather not discuss it right now. I need to get back out there. I'm almost two full hours off of the leader. I've got so much time to make up and every few minutes I'm here, they're covering another mile."

"Right. Shut up and play doctor." Lauren smiled tightly.

"I don't mean it like that, Lauren. I just…"

"It's okay, Bo. You have a job to do and I promised to be here to help you and the other mushers do that job."

Lauren finished cleaning all of the wounds, then covered each of them with compression dressings before pulling Bo's layers back down,

"You're good to go."

She stood up, removing her gloves and tossing them into the trash before pushing her hair behind her ears and shoving her hands into her pockets,

"Good luck."

Bo leaned in and gave Lauren a kiss on her cheek, "Thank you."

"You're welcome. Be safe."

"I'll do my best." Bo replied before turning and walking away. She gritted her teeth, willing herself not to turn and look back or she might run back and never leave. The feel of her gentle, caring touch on her body was a feeling she would savor until she saw her at the next checkpoint. She might even consider another injury.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The trip from Rohn to Nikolai was an eighty-mile leg and would take anywhere from ten to fifteen hours depending on wind and weather. The first twenty miles had some real rough patches and Bo needed to be vigilant. Those twenty included the South Fork section of Kuskokwim from Rohn to Farewell Lakes and then on to the infamous Farewell Burn. The burn really wasn't as bad as it had been a decade ago, but there was still areas of the forest floor that could do damage to the pads of her dogs, so it was just before the burn that Bo decided to stop and switch to the new booties that Lauren and Molly had made for them.

She laid down the emergency blankets for each pair of dogs to use and then began the fifteen-minute task of switching out the footwear while each dog worked on another snack. She then pulled out the paper bags of food that she had packed for each dog and laid them out in the snow. Next, she pulled out some Heet to melt some snow. When that was all finished, she poured a little water in each bag, gave it a shake and then folded down the sides to form a bowl. She slid a bag under each dog and then sat down to feed herself.

A bag of her homemade trail mix would give her carbs and healthy fats, then sixteen ounces of water would replenish some of what she'd lost in fluids. She would end her meal with the salmon and beef jerky she had made for a high protein addition to her trail diet.

With the booties changed, the dogs rested for about thirty minutes and everyone fed and watered, Bo began to pack everything up and continue on to the second leg of the Rohn to Nokolai trail. There would be another forty-five to sixty-minute rest in thirty-five miles when she reached the other side of the Burn at Sullivan Creek. Then another forty-five-minute rest after the twenty miles from Sullivan to Salmon River and on to Nikolai.

As expected, the first twenty miles had been a challenge. She was sure race officials would be receiving an earful for the poorly groomed trail and portions that were lacking snow all together. Honestly, she didn't know what was up with people. It wasn't like the race officials had a weather machine and this was, after all, the Alaska Range. It is well known that doing this section with a partner is advisable if you don't really know what you're doing, but unfortunately, a lot of people think they're better than they are. Those would be the people complaining or having to be rescued. Unfortunately, it was also a section where the Iditarod Air Force pilots did not want to fly.

She was happy to have made it out of the area without damage because the downriver winds in this section could reach forty miles an hour, making it very difficult to keep your team going in the right direction. Honestly, she admired the Iditarod Air Force pilots for even attempting to navigate a helicopter in this area. She would stick to flying planes. She'd learned from the best bush pilots when she's arrived in Point Siku. She needed money and there was plenty of jobs flying. But those whirlybirds were never her thing. She didn't trust them to stay in the air. When it came right down to it, this is how Bo preferred to travel… by adorable, fluffball express.

Now, Bo had just worked her way through the wind and snowswept banks along the South Fork of the Kuskokwim River. She dodged piles of tangled driftwood, while wary of sandbars buried beneath the frozen ground. She'd done a power slide over some ice and hit a scary section of overflow before the dogs pulled her right through some water-soaked shallows. It seemed that Diana and Nike were going to punish Bo for the incident on Rainy Pass. None of it was helping the pain in her leg. She looked down to see that she had bled through the bandage again.

While they were on a semi-flat surface, she wrapped her elbow over the handle and reached into her inside jacket pocket to pull out another stack of gauze. She ripped them open with her teeth and pulled them out, stacking them together and sticking the trash into her pocket. At the last stop, she had decided to go with two bungee cords wrapped around her leg. They were tight enough to add gauze and stay on her thigh, but not so tight that they were going to cut off her circulation. The last thing she needed was a numb foot while trying to steer or brake.

She reached into her pants and forced the stack of gauze under the first and then the second bungee cord before readjusting the spacing between the two. Satisfied that it would do the trick for now, she pulled her hand back out, adjusted her pants and jacket and pressed on down the trail,

"Gee! Gee!" The sharp right turn had her finding another piece of ice. She skidded left, catching the edge of the trail and tipping up onto a single rail of her sled, but her quick reaction leaning back right and lowering her center of gravity found her staying upright through the curve.

"Woohooooo! Let's go girls and boy! Hike!"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Two Hours Later in Nikolai, Municipal Building, Game Room

Little Jon and Kurt had just returned from Nome where they had dropped off the dogs at the animal hospital. Bo wouldn't be happy about paying boarding fees for the dogs that weren't sick and she'd be even less happy that they were being groomed by a professional, but Little Jon had picked up all of the costs but tapping a bit of money out of his college fund. The State covered his tuition, room and board if he went to Fairfield or Alaska, so it was really more of a slush fund. His Mom had insisted on it and had set up regular payments into the fund using his state stipends and his Dad had never stopped making his share of the payments.

Now that he knew what had happened between his Dad, Grandfather and Great Grandfather, he though just maybe his Dad was trying to make sure he wasn't put out on his own without a penny like he and his brother were by their Dad and Grandfather.

While he was at the animal hospital, he'd met Penny. She was an attractive blonde who was just accepted to the University of Alaska for Veterinary Medicine and Animal Behavior. She had lived with her Mom in Minnesota until she died of breast cancer, so now she was living full time with her Dad in Nome. For now, she had a job as a groomer at the hospital while finishing off high school. Her job gave her something to do since she didn't really have any friends here. She enjoyed grooming the dogs. It gave them comfort at the same time it gave her the companionship she'd lost when she'd left her friends and all she knew behind.

It wasn't that she didn't love her Dad – she did – she just only spent summers with him, so she was new to the cold and snow that stuck around for months. She'd grown accustomed to long summer daylight, but the winter darkness had been rough. She was already depressed about her Mom and without sunlight, things had been hard. Now that the sun was out again, she'd said she felt better and was looking forward to seeing the finish of the Iditarod.

They'd talked about Bo, one of Little Jon's favorite topics. Even better, he was able to tell her that two of his dogs that he had trained with Bo's help were actually out there running in the race right now. Penny had told him that she would give them a free groom if they won. Little Jon had invited her to dinner with the team if they won so she could meet a real Iditarod musher. At that invitation, Kenzi and Lauren had shared a glance, not too sure if Bo would be happy about that impromptu meet and greet, but they'd worry about that later.

Little Jon was so taken with her, he'd decided that since he had a whole bunch of dogs with him, if he got them groomed, he'd be able to spend more time with them. Besides, Bo would be gone another five days or so and their hair would grow out by then. Of course, he'd have to remove the ribbons and bow ties. She definitely wouldn't go for those although Kenzi thought it was adorable.

Right now, Lauren and Kenzi were worried about Bo's whereabouts. They hadn't been able to get to Rohn to meet her there, so they had been waiting in Nikolai. They knew it was a long run, but they also knew that since she blew through the Rohn checkpoint – something no one else did – that her rest periods would be in the area where Big Jim was expected to set his traps for her.

"Kenzi, all I'm saying is that there are federal agents everywhere out there. I think the chances of Big Jim or his men hurting her are slim to none. I'm more worried about the elements and her wounds. All of the reports about Rainy Pass through to here were severe weather and rough trail."

"And I'm telling you that those feds aren't worth the paper the government is paying them. Bo has run this race in subzero, thirty-degree slush and mush, ice, hail, snow and blizzards. The elements are not something we have to worry about, but guns? Guns are a whole different ball game. You do realize that the only thing Bo has in the case of a gun fight is a knife, right?"

"You forgot the axe." Lauren quipped, but Kenzi scowled back at the doctor.

"I'm going to get food."

"You've already eaten three times." Lauren reasoned.

Kenzi threw her hands up, "I'm stress eating! I'm just going to have a burger with a burger on top."

Lauren shook her head. She really hoped that Bo would come through soon if for no other reason than to prove to Kenzi she was still alive... something Lauren was hoping for as well.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

A few hours ago, Bo was dealing with exceptional winds and her dogs were getting blown towards the river. She could hear that their breathing had become labored. They were working hard, and Bo knew it. They weren't just pulling her and the sled, they were also fighting to move in a straight line against the strong gusts. So, for all of the times they'd put her in water and dragged her through rough terrain, she had to be forgiving. She thought they'd all had just about enough of ice, icy ravines and icy rivers so she was happy to be entering a section where they would be tackling some speed and skill runs for the next forty-mile stretch. This section would not disappoint. They could lay up in a bush cabin that was in this area to do a change of clothes, booties, get some water and food and a catch some Z's.

As she ran, she watched for the 'polar bears' lying flat in the snow. So far, she hadn't found any accept the one back before the checkpoint where she'd seen Lauren and Kenzi just before Rainy Pass. Either the sharpshooters were as good as Hale claimed or there weren't enough of them to cover the entire trail. Bo couldn't worry about that now, she just needed to run her race and let the feds deal with the threat.

She caught the marker on the tree and headed towards the bush cabin. A rest would be great right now,

"Gee! Gee!" She called, turning the team into the area in front of the cabin as close as they could get.

Bo stepped gingerly off the sled onto her left leg. It was stiff from the work, but she couldn't worry about that right now. The dogs had to come first. She set the sled's ice hook and added the snub line just to be sure the dogs couldn't take off without her, then pulled out the blankets that Lauren had given her and a baggie of treats. After handing them all out, she took a walk up behind the cabin and smiled when she found her old bucket there.

Heading back down to the dogs, she poured their food into the bucket, pulled some Heet from her sled and melted some snow. She sat down on the bench of her sled and took out some beef jerky for herself, biting a piece off before starting with replacing the dog's booties. They still had rough terrain ahead, so she stuck with the ones that Lauren and Molly had made. She checked Diana and Nike first and saw that their little socks had held up very well,

"Score one for the doctor! Great work, Lauren. You should really market these."

She moved from dog to dog, switching out booties and giving each one a little love and conversation. When she was finished, she dug into her bag and pulled out three t-shirts. One for Shadow, one for Elektra and one for Jenna. They all seemed to be on the chilly side, so she pulled out some of the extra hay she had grabbed at the last stop and tossed that down around them as well.

She then turned back to the bucket filled with food, opened a bag of frozen meat scraps, frozen fish scraps and pieces of whale blubber and added it to the bucket. She stirred for a few minutes before pulling out the dog's bowls and putting one in front of each dog. She then walked around with the bucket and scoop and gave each dog and equal amount with a little extra for Diana and Nike. She might as well try to make peace.

Once finished, she created her planned perimeter around the sled exactly as she had explained to the feds and headed inside. She ran the wires back to the sled and tucked the high-voltage machine into the sled. She turned to the team,

"Obey. Stay." She put out the flexible white markers around the sled, setting them low where the dogs could see them against the snow, but unsuspecting humans would not. Hopefully the feds all paid attention and didn't get dead trying to approach her dogs and sled. She knew Big Jim all too well. If he was out here, he would definitely go for her team not only to kill the dogs, but to strand her out here if she got away from him. He would bust her sled into a million people. If he wasn't out here, he would definitely have instructed his team to go after the sled. All bets were off if they tried. Bo was done playing nice. She was playing for her future.

She turned and headed inside, satisfied that the dogs were protected. She slid her sleeve back and set her watch for twenty-four hours. It was her turn to set a trap. The longer she stayed here, the more likelihood they would come to her. Hopefully, the feds were surrounding the house and her sled at this very moment, ready to take out whoever came.

She entered the cabin and closed the door, making sure the latch set in case a bear decided to come and check her out. When she turned to head for the sofa, she shook her head and laughed,

"Well, hello there. Fancy meeting you here."

"Well, I didn't want to be predictable, darlin'."

"I'm not your darlin'."

"No, you definitely are not and seeing as you're about to die, I suppose I can tell you that you're my biggest mistake… ever."

Bo stared into the dark eyes of the man who had made her life hell for almost a decade. He sat resting his gun hand on the side arm of the chair next to the sofa, his feet up as he chewed on a piece of bread,

"You know, carbs aren't really good for you. I'd think you'd be trying to watch your waistline at your age."

He laughed, "Don't you know that seventy is the new forty?"

Bo smirked, "Actually, I'd heard that forty is the new forty and seventy is where you start making dumb mistakes – like letting your past catch up with you."

"Darlin', my past caught up with me long ago. The problem is that I failed to put it down like I did her dogs."

Bo scowled, "You missed one."

"Well, don't worry. I'll take care of that Harper once I've taken care of you. I'll also make sure I take care of…" he pulled out a piece of paper that Bo happened to notice had the official race logo at the top, "… let's see… the wheels Gaea and Aphrodite, team Hera, Demeter, Nemesis, Artemis, Atalanta, Persephone, swing dogs Jenna and Muk and lead dogs, Nike and Diana… ooohhh, two of the champions."

Bo smirked, crossing her arms over her chest, her finger tips feeling for the knife she kept at her waist, "Actually, eight of them are champions."

"Scraping the bottom of the barrel using my great grandson's dogs." He read the list, "Let's see, I guess they're Elektra and Shadow." He laughed, "Well, Shadow won't be any great loss. No spunk, no strength, no speed and no courage."

Bo laughed, "Funny, because she took down your man up at the pass easy enough."

"I heard it was Bo, in the snow, with an axe."

"What? Are we playing clue now?"

"Why not?"

"Okay, I'll play. How about it's Bo, in the cabin, with a knife!" She side-armed the knife from her waist hitting Big Jim in the left side of his chest, leaving his gun hand free to move. He grabbed his chest, then extended his arm to shoot. Bo dove out of the way, scrambling out the back door of the cabin.

She stumbled down the tight hallway, grabbing the axe and the rake from the mount on the wall as she ran. She reached for the door, but it was locked. She tried to raise her leg, but her bad leg couldn't support her weight, so she took the axe to the door frame. It took three swings, but she busted the door open and headed into the woods.

She ignored the sound of screams coming from in front of the cabin. Hopefully she'd taken down everyone who had tried to get to her sled. She ran through the woods as fast as she could, her leg straining to do its best. Finally, she stopped, unable to stand the pain any longer. She looked around, quickly trying to get her bearings.

She gathered her thoughts. It would do not good to panic. She slowed her breathing, the scanned the landscape before her. She finally recognized north.

"Okay, tree line to the east…" she then at the trails and landscape, "… okay, we have three Dr. Lauren specials around the cabin and one each to the north, south and east of the cabin along the trees. We have four line-traps to each, the north, south and east. We have two pit traps and smoke cover behind me to the north and there are two illegal bear snares south and east." She looked over her shoulder, "There's nothing west because it's down the trail and may take out the other mushers."

She looked north, east and south, "Okay, so which one can my dead leg make it to?"

Bo heard a shot at the front of the cabin and cringed. A voice rang out,

"That's one of your dogs, dead, Bo! Come out or I'll kill them all!"

Bo's eyes welled with tears. One of her dogs was dead. He would pay. She settled her breathing and stilled her will. She thought about what he'd said. She was his biggest regret from his past. If he had her, maybe the dogs would be spared… at least Little Jon's dogs. Where the hell were the feds?

She called out, "How do I know you won't kill them all anyway?"

"You have my word."

Bo laughed out loud, "Your word? What good is your word to me? You've never kept your word to me!"

"That is true, but if you don't come out, they all die."

"Why kill champion dogs when you can sell the lot of them for an easy fifty grand?"

Big Jim laughed, "Forty grand now that you're down a dog."

Bo shook her head, her anger growing by the moment. She knew that the more she talked, the more any guys that were with him would be able to track her. She scanned the area and moved quickly to the cluster of trees to her east, then moved south behind the cabin again. She would get one shot at this, but if it worked, she would be able to pull their attention away from the sled and hopefully get out of dodge. At the very least, the feds would definitely know where she was and come running… finally.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Dyson and Hale had fallen behind on their schedule due to a strategy meeting with the team of agents. They had determined there were seven suspects in the group that had been hired after finally gaining access to Big Jim's phone records. That means five remained in addition to their prime suspect.

The feds had been zeroing in on their movements and had ordered everyone to the leg between Rainy Pass and Rohn. When they realized how big the search area was, they had called in Dyson and Hale to help them narrow down the possible locations. Bo was off of the planned schedule, so it put them all at a disadvantage. The icy trails had prevented the agents from keeping pace with her, so most were either too far ahead or too far behind to be of assistance.

This was the precise scenario that Bo had been concerned about. Now, she was out there on her own with six men tracking her – all armed with guns. Dyson and Hale had been held up in the meeting, so had switched to snow machines. Stealth was no longer a priority, though the federal agents felt differently. As they'd approached the marker for the bush cabin, they had heard gun shots but were still too far away to do much good with shotguns and sidearms. They could only hope that a sharpshooter was close enough to take out at least a few of the men to give Bo a better chance.

Hale cupped the microphone attached to his helmet so Dyson could hear him in the wind, "We need to take a chance here, Dyson. What do you say? A little off-roading?" Hale asked, turning on the headlamps of his snow machine, "It'll bring us through to the back entrance of the cabin."

"You think she's there?" Dyson asked.

Hale nodded, "She's been running too long, and she still hasn't taken her twenty-four hour. That's the first mandatory rest and this would be the perfect, out of the way place to take it. She's counting on fed sharpshooters and she's far enough away from the other mushers to protect them and their dogs, so…"

"You're right. That is how Bo would be thinking."

They turned off the groomed trail and made one of their own. They'd be there in three minutes going this direction, but the terrain was rough. Both men were very experienced riders, so they were handling it well enough. When they were about a minute out, a massive explosion rocked the cabin. It was so bright, that both men had to shield their eyes despite having face shields on their helmets.

They stopped their snow machines, both men ripping their helmets off,

"Gods, no." Dyson said, putting his helmet back on and driving towards the flames.

Hale followed, the two speeding forward, dismounting quickly with shotguns in hand and mounted to their cheeks as the approached.

"GEE!" Dyson called out, causing Hale to swing right and fire, taking down a man approaching. He quickly swung his head around when he heard Dyson fire, taking down another man.

On the ground, one man burned, rolling on the ground to put out the flames. The two men ran forward, kicking snow onto the man as he rolled. When the flames were finally out, they rolled him over just in time to watch him take three short gasps before closing his eyes. Dyson reached down and checked his carotid,

"No pulse. He's gone."

"That's three down of six."

They heard a rustle in bush to the left of the cabin and looked at each other. Dyson nodded for Hale to go right while he moved left. They walked forward slowly guns drawn until they found a man hiding in the middle of the dried out growth,

"Well, well, well. Look who we have here. Number four of six." Hale used his foot to roll the man onto his back, Dyson's rifle coming to bear on the man's face. The pair looked at each other and grinned before Dyson spoke,

"James P. Morton, by order of multiple law enforcement agencies, you are under arrest."

"I'm injured! I need a hospital!" Big Jim spat.

Hale laughed, looking at Dyson, "Yea, we'll get right on that, right, Dyson?"

"Right, Partner. I'll hurry up and grab my satellite phone, call the Iditarod Air Force and get them right out here for a pick up."

"Too bad he's not actually an Iditarod participant. The Air Force won't come out here to get him. We'll have to wait for one of our bush pilots to be available. Do you know who's on call?"

Hale smirked, "I guess we'll have to make some calls to find out. May take a while. I hope he doesn't get hypothermia while he's waiting."

"Yea, that would be a horrible way to go… kind of like his first wife, huh?" Dyson shook his head.

Hale nodded, "Or that nice young girl back in – what was it – 1958?"

Dyson cocked his head, "I think it was '62, right?"

"Right, that's it. The employee was in '58. Gosh, there's so many of them, it's hard to keep track."

"You saying I'm the criminal? That bitch Bo Dennis attacked me! I have the evidence right here!"

He pulled a knife from his jacket pocket, wrapped in a piece of cloth, blood up to the hilt. Dyson bent down and pulled back Jim's coat. Sure enough, he was bleeding badly, but not badly enough,

He looked up at Hale, "You know that Bo doesn't miss, right?"

Hale nodded, leaning over to whisper to Dyson, "She lost her nerve."

Dyson nodded, "You said when she thought she'd killed the guy back at the pass she lost it."

"She doesn't want to kill… not even this evil son of a bitch."

They turned back to Jim who was gripping his chest. Dyson asked Hale,

"So, what do we do with him?"

Hale aimed his rifle at Big Jim's head, "I say we give him a little good old-fashioned Alaska Range justice."

Dyson nodded raising his weapon as well, "I agree."

"You wouldn't dare! You're from the sheriff's office!"

"Yea, and our jail cells are filling up fast!" Hale laughed.

Dyson heard a snow machine coming in the distance. He turned and watched as a single rider came towards them. He raised his rifle, not knowing if it was one of the men who were still on the loose or not. A hand waved, so he held his fire until the machine came to a stop. The figure was clearly female, but that didn't mean it wasn't one of Jim's.

He smiled when he finally recognized the walk and lowered his weapon as she removed her helmet,

"I can't believe you guys ditched me!"

"Tamsin." Hale sighed in relief.

"So, you caught the Big Dildo?"

"Yup and three of his men are down."

"So, what's left?"

"Three if our count is accurate."

"We took down one who was trying to look like one of the race mushers. I guess he couldn't count to fourteen." Tamsin quipped, crossing her arms over her chest, "So what are we doin' with this guy?"

"Well, first we were thinking of two self-defense bullets to the chest would match nicely with the knife wound Bo put in his chest." Dyson said, raising his weapon to Jim once again.

"You can't let them do this! You're a Federal Agent! You're sworn to protect and serve the constitution!"

"Oh, so now you want federal and state protection? I thought you were all 'village law supersedes state and federal law' last week? What's the matter? Worried that the elders will no longer back your sorry ass? I think that the penalty for killing one of your own tribe is banishment, right?" She turned to Dyson, "So why not just do the banishing right here? We can get an elder out here and he can try to walk home from the Alaska Range. What do you think? Could he make it to Nikolai on foot with that parka and those boots while losing blood?"

Dyson poked his rifle into his stomach, "Of course, water could be a problem… not to mention he has no weapons and… well, let's face it… he's seventy and I don't see any of his lackies around anymore."

Tamsin looked over her shoulder, "Well, there are the two dead guys back there… and this toasty dude here. Maybe they could help?"

"I demand a…"

Tamsin walked forward, "Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!" She screamed, planting her foot firmly between his legs, her heel digging into the snow as she applied pressure until he begged for mercy, "Where's Bo?"

"I don't know. I swear!"

"Second chance, where. Is. Bo?" She pressed a little harder.

"I… don't… I… swear… I… don't… know." He groaned in agony as Hale now pressed the tip of his rifle into the, knife wound on his chest,

"You don't seem to get it. She dies, you die!"

"Okay! Okay! She took off on her sled. She set the explosion and came around. Before we knew it, she was off on her sled. They shot at her, I don't know if they hit her or not."

"How many?" Tamsin asked.

He shook his head and Hale pressed the tip of his weapon in deeper.

"How many of your men are after her!" Tamsin demanded.

"Uuggharrghh! One! One!"

"We took down one of your men at the pass, one after the explosion and these three. Besides the one chasing Bo, how many more are there and remember, your life depends on it." Tamsin said, pressing down harder with her foot.

"Aaarrrgghhh! God! Please!"

"God can't help you now, not that he ever would if there is a God! How many!"

"Just the one! The other one fell into the river back at South Fork."

"You sure?" Tamsin asked, easing up on the pressure so Jim could speak.

"Yes. It's his brother that's chasing Bo. He won't stop until she's dead."

"Why not?" Tamsin asked, but Big Jim only shook his head.

Tamsin jammed her foot into his crotch, "Last chance. Dyson shoot on three, that's an order. Three, two…"

"He's my son! Jacob…" he turned on Hale, "He was my son and you killed him, you bastard!"

"What does that have to do with the guy chasing Bo and the guy at South Fork?" Dyson asked.

But Big Jim didn't have to answer, "All three of them are his sons." He turned to Jim, "That's it, isn't it? Jacob was your son and the guys who drowned were his brothers. He was chasing down Bo just after where we got Jacob and went into the river. His name must be Murphy, right?"

All three turned to look at Hale, "After I killed Jacob, Bo gave me a little more background. I did some research about him and found out that Jacob had two brothers with the same mother - an Athabascan woman. The brothers were Murphy and Mike. I guess Murphy died in the river, so Mike is still out there looking for Bo."

Dyson looked at Hale who shook his head, not wanting to discuss the matter any further. Tamsin looked down at Big Jim,

"How do you give your orders?"

"It's no use. He won't stop. You killed his brothers and he's got a vendetta against Bo." Big Jim replied.

"Why? What did she ever do to him?" Tamsin asked.

When Jim didn't reply, Hale moved his rifle tip back towards the wound, "No! No, please no more! It was a long time ago. She was an embarrassment to all three of my sons!"

Tamsin laughed, "That's it? She embarrassed your sons, so they all try to kill her?"

Hale cleared his throat, "Bar fight with Jacob – three times. He tried to get… inappropriate so she told him she would kill him if he ever touched her again."

"So, those apples didn't fall far from his shitty tree." Tamsin said, kicking Big Jim squarely in the balls, "Just to make sure you can never reproduce again."

Tamsin walked back to her snow machine. Dyson turned, "Where are you going?"

"I'm going after the guy who's after Bo. I won't leave her alone."

Big Jim laughed, laying back in the snow, "I win."

Dyson turned to him, "Oh really? And how's that?"

"She's dragging a dead dog and she's been shot. She and her dogs have yet to have any significant rest. She'll never make it the forty miles to the next checkpoint." He laughed louder.

Tamsin lifted up her seat and pulled out a line of rope. She carried it over and wrapped it around his torso, then walked it back to her snow machine and tied it to the hitch. She then sat down and put on her helmet, but Dyson protested,

"Tamsin, you can't!"

She turned to him, raising her face shield, "This is for Bo. This is for Bo's dogs. This is for all of the other people he's killed. This is for Kyle."

"Tamsin!" Dyson called out, but Tamsin gunned the engine and took off down the trail, Big Jim screaming behind her.

"We'd better follow her." Dyson said to Hale who nodded.

It was three or four minutes before they caught up to her, both men shouting her name. They watched as she reached behind her with a knife and cut the rope, leaving Big Jim to toss and roll until he came to a stop in deep snow. The two men ran up to him, checking to see if he was still alive.

"He has a pulse." Dyson said.

"Unconscious." Hale added, "What do we do?"

"Call it in. Flip you for the wait?"

"Nah. I'll stay." Hale replied, "You're better at controlling that crazy ass chick than I am."

Dyson nodded, jogging back to his machine and heading off down the trail. Hale looked down at Jim, "What a cluster fuck."

He pulled out his radio and made the call.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

FLASHBACK…

Taking a page out of Big Jim's book, Bo had unbraided and cut a stretch of lead line, running it from the propane tank behind the cabin out to the side where she was hiding. Beneath the fuel tank at the end of the line she'd put At the end of the line beneath the fuel tank, she had used one of the bungee cords from her leg to bundle together every combustible item she'd had in her gear – a bottle of hand sanitizer, a bottle of rubbing alcohol and a bottle of cooking spray that she would use for her skids in an emergency. She could only hope they would create the explosion she needed. She'd managed to sneak back into the cabin and turn on the propane stove, placing a gas can and all but one container of Heet at the door.

Just to be sure, she'd run a streak of Heet down the hallway and out of the house, soaking the lead line all the way to the tree line. She lit the lead line and ran through the trees, back out to the trail where she'd driven in and waited…

"Come on… come on… please work… I need a break here… please work." She watched the small flame disappear around the cabin and pulled up her hood, cinching the draw string and pulling on her gloves. It might by her a few more seconds of invisibility.

"Remember to flip off the electricity, pick up the copper line and pick up the dog." Her eyes welled with tears which she quickly pushed back down. There would time to grieve for whoever it was later. For now, she needed to get down the mountain. If she was followed, it would be okay. She had a lot of traps set up in this section because it's where she thought Big Jim would be likely to try again after the pass. She never thought he would come up here. They must have come by snow machine. This trail was too difficult for him at his age…"

BOOOMMM!

The explosion almost knocked Bo off her feet. She was shocked to see all of the men go down, "Shit! It worked!"

She ran for the sled, staying as low as she could. She followed her footprints into the gap in the electrical current, reached down and flipped the switch to turn off the electric. She wound the copper wire around a side rail so it would come with her and then ducked down behind the sled to cut her dog free. It was Muk. Poor boy. She carefully grabbed him under the front shoulders and pulled him back on top of her, then peeked around the sled to see Big Jim yelling at to the three men that he was on fire.

The sound of snow machines could be heard in the distance. Bo didn't want to stick around long enough to see who it was. It could be more of Big Jim's hired guns, so she wasn't taking any chances. While they were all distracted, she reached up and unzipped the basket completely, then tucked Muk inside. When she went to zip the basket shut, she heard a soft whimper.

"Geezus! You're alive! Ohmagosh, you're alive! Good boy. Stay quiet, Muk. I'll get you out of here."

There was no time to check him now. She zipped the bag shut and took another peek. Big Jim was down and hurt. She should put a knife right through his skull, but if she missed, he'd alert them to her escape. Instead, she slid quietly onto the back of the sled in a squat, hanging off to the left side where Nike was. When she was a pup, Bo used to whisper to her. She hoped it would work now,

"Pssst. Pssst."

Nike looked back to see Bo who whispered, "Line out. Line out, Girl. Line out."

The lead dog stood and stepped forward, causing the other dogs to do the same. Bo reached around the sled and tapped Gaea's hind quarters, drawing her attention as well. As luck would have it, Hera looked back as well and Bo whispered, "Hike! Hike!"

The dogs pulled, the others resisting, so Bo swung to the other side, pain shooting down her leg as she shifted her weight to the other side and whispered, "Hike! Hike!"

Finally, the sled moved, Bo leaning back out to the left to shield herself until she needed to stand to stay on the sled. She heard Big Jim call out to the three men and seconds later, a flurry of shots rang out. Bo felt the searing pain she'd felt before only this time it was her right side. She let go with her right arm for a moment, but managed to hold on with her left, pulling herself back on and hooking her arm around the handle,

"Hike! Hike! Go girls! Go!"

Thankfully, they were on a steep descent and the sled quickly picked up speed. Bo looked back to see the men running from the woods towards Big Jim, but no signs of the snow machines yet. Big Jim was waving in her direction, so she knew it was only a matter of time before they would have a team up and running, though the teams weren't in front of the cabin, so they would have to run to where they had hidden them. Of course, if they were on snow machines, Bo would be out of luck.

Still, if she didn't stop and Muk was bleeding, she would lose him before they got to help. She needed to check on him. She could tuck off to the side right now. They would not expect her to stop right after she started to run, but then again, there might be more of them nearby.

"Decision made. We run. We run tired, but we run. Just a little while longer." Bo whispered, "Hike! Go girls! Haw! Haw!"

She followed the curve of the trail to the left, leaning into the turn, but suddenly feeling a sharp pain on her right side.

"Geezus, what now?" She reached down and felt her side, her hand coming up red, "Shit. I don't have time for this!"

She looked over her shoulder and saw that no one was behind her. A quick stop to check on Muk. If she had time, she'd deal with herself.

"Whoa! Whoa!" She applied the foot break and dropped the ice hook. Peeking into the basket, she saw Muk turn his head, looking up at her. She opened the basket fully and turned on her headlamp so she could examine the dog more closely. There was a bullet wound through his torso on the right, so Bo would have to put a compression bandage on it and get him to the next checkpoint as soon as possible. She went to open the first aid kit when she saw blood on her left hand. How was there blood on her left hand?

She reached into the basket again and checked Muk's left side and saw another bullet hole.

"Okay, so you were either shot twice or the bullet went all the way through. Let's get you bandaged up and back to the Vets, huh?"

Bo pulled out the razor in the first aid kit, shaved the two areas cleaned, swabbed the two areas clean and put compression bandages over them before wrapping roller gauze all the way around his torso, applying as much pressure as possible. She waited a moment to be sure that Muk could still breath, then rearranged the contents of the basket to put her own sleep sac beneath the dog to make the ride softer. She moved the emergency blankets and her extra clothes on either side of him and then laid him down on the slats. She zipped the basket closed leaving it open enough for air to flow freely and then mounted the sled and headed out.

Looking over her shoulder, she didn't see anyone coming, but she knew it was only a matter of time. She'd heard Big Jim yell to some guy named Mike to go after her. She thought back to Jacob and the man down by the creek. She hadn't seen a snow machine yet and their sled teams were only six dogs. If they stuck true to form, he wouldn't be as fast, but he would be able to maneuver more freely… until they hit the ice. She had traps set from Post River to Nikolai. A lot of traps. If she could manage to lure anyone who was chasing her into one of those, she could finally focus on the race.

The dogs had been watered and fed, booties changed, but they were in desperate need of sleep. Bo was running on a few bites of jerky and an hour of sleep. Pushing them this hard at this moment was dangerous – for all of them. Their health was crucial, but if they stopped, their lives could be in jeopardy. They'd already shot one of her dogs. No, she decided, she had to keep running. She had to at least make it to Egypt Mountain and the Buffalo Chutes. She could lose any tail there and then hopefully make camp at Farewell Lake Lodge. It was closed during the winter, but there was a caretaker there. Hopefully, she could make camp on the property.

For now, she just needed to stay ahead of Big Jim's men. She heard a voice and knew she was running out of time,

"Hike! Hike!"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Tamsin knew a snow machine on this trail was a bad idea… a very, very bad idea. If she didn't catch this guy before Post River, she would be driving a snow machine across a major river and then continuing on water-covered ice. There was a quick left turn that went uphill and if she missed that turn, she'd be in trouble.

Finally, she saw a back blow of snow coming in her direction. That was a fast-moving dog sled. She picked up the speed, thinking it must be Mike. She heard another snow machine behind her and looked back. They weren't visible yet, but hopefully it was Dyson or Hale and not another one of Big Jim's goons. She was about over this whole mess and was ready to put this case to bed.

Looking up, she saw a man on a sled. She looked closely, shotgun slung over his shoulder, small gear bag, no seat on the sled. This was not a musher. It must be Mike. Tamsin watched as he pulled his gun from behind him, bringing it to his side. She moved to the left to look around him and saw the all-white gear of Bo. He was almost in range to fire and she had no room to move left or right.

They were at an area called Post River Glacier and it was known to be a quarter mile of pure horror even if the weather was good. Things didn't get much better beyond this either, so even if Bo made it through this section, his smaller team and greater maneuverability would put her at a disadvantage. She needed to take this guy down now, or Bo was in big trouble.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Bo looked over her shoulder to see the man behind her trying to shoulder a shot gun. She smiled, snickering to herself as she entered the worst of this section.

"Ignore the pain, drive the sled. Ignore the pain, drive the sled. You can whine later. Right now, your dogs are counting on you to stay alive and not flip this sled."

If this guy wasn't behind her and she was rested, this would actually be a fun challenge. Most people complained about the next mile – it was dangerous, they'd say. To Bo, it was just another nature challenge and Mother Nature sure did know how to build the adventure into this race.

As suspected, she heard the man behind her yelling 'whoa' to his team followed by a long string of expletives. She looked back, seeing the man on his side, his sled tipped over. Behind him, he saw the snow machine skidding sideways as it tried to slow down to avoid hitting the sled. The sled was upright and moving quickly with the snow machine close behind.

For a moment, Bo thought to herself, 'Maybe I should pull over and let these two duke it out?'

"Gee! Gee! Hard, Girls! Gee!" A shot rang out just as Bo cut the sharp right turn. She could hear the bullet whiz by her head, "That was way too close. Shit just got real, girls."

Bo went up the icy ravine, taking the opportunity to look down at the sled, the throwing the gun over his shoulder as he made the turn. A shot rang out. Bo looked down to see the person on the snow machine had fired two shots at the man, missing both.

"Okay, so you're on my side, but it would be really nice if you would hit the damn target!" Looking ahead, Bo saw the spot where one of her traps was set. This wouldn't be pretty, but it was him or her. If he had the skills, he would survive. If not, Alaska would claim him for daring to run her trails.

She came to the crest of the hill, a large ice expanse the size of a football field in the canyon below. A cascade of ice hung from the ravine on the other side flanked by sharp rock on both sides. This was the downhill Bo had to navigate. She would make the turn at the very last second and with any luck, get him going too fast to stop. If he did make the turn, she would spring her trap. She pulled out her ski poles, knowing that she never had a chance to put on her sharp spikes to pedal this section.

She navigated the steep decline, making the sharp right turn at the bottom and avoiding the icy ravine on the far side of the pass. The near-vertical fifty foot climb up the ice began almost immediately,

"Hike! Hike! Go girls! Go!" She called out as she pushed hard with her ski poles, her side screaming at her to stop, but she pushed through it, keeping the pace. Just before the left turn at the top, she leaned down and pulled out her axe from the side and looked back over her shoulder. The timing had to be perfect,

"Whoa, whoa…" the dogs slowed, allowing Bo to pull the man in closer, then…

"Hike! Hike!" The sled came back up to speed as she raced her sled across the crest of the hill, narrowly staying on the trail as she pulled back her axe and threw, severing the fishing line. She ducked as a hammock of firewood was released onto the trail behind her just as the man reached the ridge.

"Whoa! Whoa!"

She watched as his sled skidded out to the side, the rails hanging out over the edge of the ravine. Pulling out her knife, she carefully eyed her target and threw. It felt like days before the knife landed, severing the tow line from the sled. The dogs felt forward as the sled slid over crest and down into wall of ice and rock. She watched the man reach and grab, desperately trying to grip onto anything that would prevent his demise, but the only thing he had to grab was ice and a sled that was headed into the depths of the chasm.

The snow machine turned the corner just as the second rail lost its hold on solid ground. The rider dismounted followed by the arrival of a second snow machine. Bo pulled her larger axe from her sled pocket, pulling it to her ear before she heard Dyson call out,

"Bo! Stop! It's me!"

Heaving a sigh of relief, Bo set the ice hook on her sled and turned to her team, "Sit! Sit! Stay!"

Bo moved forward and cautiously approached the dogs from the other sled, holding onto their towline. She called out to Dyson,

"I don't suppose you have a picket or snub line under that seat, do you?"

Dyson smiled, "Actually, I do since I've been switching between machine and sled."

He opened the seat and pulled out the line. Tamsin removed her helmet and looked up at Bo.

"Tamsin? How are you out of the hospital?"

"Nice to see you too."

"No, believe me. I'm grateful for the pressure you put on him to go faster. That wouldn't have happened if he wasn't going as fast as he was."

Tamsin shrugged, "People should know better than to try to chase down Bo Dennis on a sled."

Bo lifted her arm revealing her side, "Yea, well apparently Bo Dennis isn't quick enough."

"My gosh, Bo! You need to…"

"Get back on my sled and continue the race?" Bo asked, pointing to the other man's dogs, "You guys will have to handle these convicts." She looked down at the dogs, "Shame on you all for helping murderers do their job."

"Speaking of job, where the hell were the snipers?" Tamsin asked.

Bo shrugged, "Dunno. Haven't seen one this entire leg of the race."

"Well, they are camouflaged." Dyson defended.

"Right. They suck. Period. Our tax dollars at work, eh?"

The pair of officers laughed.

"Bo, are you sure you can continue?" Dyson asked.

She nodded, "Do I still have people chasing me?"

Dyson shook his head, "We'll see you through until the end of the race, but no, you shouldn't. We think we have everyone."

Bo sighed, "Okay then. I'm going to head straight into Nikolai then. I'll need a Vet and Lauren there. Muk's been shot. He's in the basket."

Bo lifted her shirt and looked down at her side. It wasn't as deep as the gash on her side, but it was definitely a bullet graze. Tamsin came around and looked,

"Look, don't touch. You're not permitted to help me."

"Just a flesh wound. A nasty one, but a flesh wound." Tamsin diagnosed.

Dyson asked, "We can't even Muk?"

Bo shrugged, "I have to give him up at a checkpoint. She's bandaged and seems to be holding his own. You guys are on snow machines, so if you go ahead and give them a heads up, if it's okay they can send a chopper down for him."

The pair nodded, "Okay. I've gotta go. We have to make Nikolai as soon as possible. We all need sleep."

"Okay. Be safe."

"That will be at the top of our list now." Bo replied.

Tamsin added, "I'll be right nearby the rest of the trip. The feds lost you and that's not cool. I'm not trusting your well-being to anyone else."

Bo wasn't sure why Tamsin was suddenly being so nice to her, but she wasn't going to question it right now. She needed to get to Nikolai, plain and simple.

"Thanks, T."

"You bet. Now go on, get a head start. I'll be right behind you and you'll be in my sights." Tamsin said, holding up her binoculars.

Bo smiled, stepping onto her sled and pulling out her ice hook, "Line out! Hike! Hike!"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Nikolai Checkpoint…

"DOC! We need a doctor over here!"

Lauren got up out of her chair and switched on her headlamp, running to the checkpoint officials.

"Anyone know who this is?" The official asked.

Lauren's hands went to her mouth, "Yes. That's Bo Dennis, Bib #1."

"Do you know how many dogs she had?"

"Yes… uh, 14."

"Are you sure?"

Lauren replied, "Yes. I'm sure."

They recounted the dogs, but when Lauren saw the odd pair, she knew, "Muk. Muk's missing."

"Check the basket." The race official told the volunteer who unzipped the compartment, "We need a Vet. WE NEED A VET HERE!"

Lauren turned around, "Dr. Harrow!"

The Vet came running to tend to Muk as Lauren reached out to handle Bo. Little Jon and Kenzi came rushing to the checkpoint,

"Whoa. Whoa, girls." Little Jon said, holding the team steady.

"Bo?" Lauren said, tapping Bo on the shoulder, "Bo?"

The musher opened her eyes, looking at the blonde, "Lauren?"

"Yes, Bo. It's me."

"Where are we?"

"You just got to Nikolai, Bo. We were so worried."

Bo sat up, "Dyson. Tamsin. Did they talk to you?"

Lauren nodded, "Yes."

"Muk. He was shot. Big Jim…"

"We know, Bo. The Director is here waiting to talk to you."

"I've gotta finish."

"They're going to let you finish, Bo, but they're demanding you do your 24-hour rest here."

"No arguments there. We're cooked."

Lauren smiled.

"Lauren?"

"Yes, Bo?"

"I got shot again,"

"What?"

Bo pointed to her right side, "But he missed again, too."

"Bo."

"I'm gonna pass out now."

Bo fell into Lauren's chest, her breathing quiet and even. Lauren shook her head, grateful Big Jim and his men were either in custody or dead.

"A little help here?" Lauren called out.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

TWELVE HOURS LATER… NIKOLAI

Bo sat up with a groan, her side reminding her that she'd been shot. She looked down, pulling up her… wait… how did she get into a long-sleeved T-shirt? Whose shirt was this? She looked at her side and saw a nice, neat bandage. She was wearing loose fitting sweat pants and thick wool socks. She didn't remember changing, but then again, the last thing she remembered was the look on that assassins' face as he went over the ravine.

She stood, taking a moment to let a slight dizzy spell last. Finally, she recognized this place. It was the village public works building. She stood and made her way down to the boiler room. Sure enough, her clothes were all laying out to dry. She decided to stick with what she had on for now. She needed food. She needed to feed her dogs. Shit! Her dogs! Where were her dogs! Muk!

She ran through the building, stopping at every human she saw who might be able to tell her anything, but no one knew anything. She left the building and headed to the school. Rushing through the doors, she immediately saw Lauren standing vigil over Muk who was laying on his side, an I.V. in his leg and a large bandage wrapped around his midsection.

She moved to his side across from Lauren, "Is he…"

"He's alive, Bo. The bullet went right through, but it hit his liver and nicked his lung." She ran her hand through his thick fur, scratching behind his ear.

Bo smiled at the love and care the Lauren always showed her dogs, "So I take it he'll be out for a little longer, then?"

Lauren nodded, "A little bit. You look tired."

"I'm fine. Where are my dogs?"

Lauren smiled, "Being cared for by your most trusted and prized student."

Nodding, Bo smiled, "Little Jon. How's he doing with all of this?"

The doctor shrugged, "Angry, sad, betrayed, then angry again. His great grandfather tried to kill the woman he admires most in the world next to his deceased mother. He's confused, Bo and doing everything he can for you to try to make amends for his family."

"He doesn't…" Bo began, but Lauren shook her head and waved her off,

"He knows he doesn't have to, Bo… not for you. He knows you don't think he owes you anything, but in his heart, as a member of the Morton family and your village, his conscience is telling him something completely different."

Bo nodded, "Yea, a conscience is a terrible thing and a good thing."

"You're feeling guilty? That man was going to kill you, Bo. He tried to kill you and Tamsin said he was about to fire the shot that would have killed you, but his sled skidding made him drop his shot gun."

Bo smiled, "I guess I'm glad it worked, but… never mind." She looked up at Lauren, "You look tired. I take it they've been keeping you busy around here?"

"Yea, well I had a late-night patient come in who needed two wounds stitched. It was the craziest thing. She was running in the Iditarod and apparently got shot by a rock and a tree."

"Oh really?" Bo asked.

Lauren laughed, "When I was removing debris from your wounds, I found tiny pieces of gravel in the one on your leg and even smaller pieces of wood on the one on your torso. Apparently both bullets rebounded before they hit you."

"Lucky me." Bo said, sarcastically, "But… thank you, for taking care of me when I felt like the whole world was against me. Those federal agents that were so concerned about protecting me? It turns out they were using me as bait. Oh, and then there's the news flash that Big Jim had three illegitimate sons up north with some Athabascan woman. I wonder if my Mom knew. I wonder if my Mom knew Big Jim and that's why he's been after me all this time. Maybe something happened between them like it did between me and his son Jacob."

Lauren shrugged, her eyes moving back to Muk as she continued to stroke his fur "Tamsin told us what happened out there, and Hale filled in the details about Big Jim's history."

Everyone was looking to Lauren to give Bo all of the news about what they'd learned, but was it the right thing to do? To tell her now while she was in the middle of this race and injured?

The door opened, revealing Dyson and Hale. It was the Deputy Sheriff who spoke first, "Good Afternoon, Ladies."

Bo looked at Lauren, "Afternoon?"

Lauren nodded, "You rolled in at two a.m., it's twelve-thirty now."

Bo ran her hand over her stomach, "Wow. Good sleep. So, I haven't eaten anything since lunch yesterday except a few bites of jerky just before my run in with Big Jim. That's why I'm starving." She looked up at the two men, "So what happened with Big Jim? Is he alive?"

Hale laughed, "Alive, but hurtin' for certain. He won't be making anymore babies, that's for sure."

Dyson laughed along with him, the two covering their mouths to keep their voices down amidst the sleeping Muk and a few other race officials and volunteers.

"What am I missing?" Bo asked, her eyes surveying the room, all eyes turning to Lauren who turned back to Muk.

"Lauren?" Bo asked.

She looked up at Hale and Dyson, deciding to leave the big news until later. She hoped the two men would understand that she didn't think it was the appropriate time and not open any new wounds while Bo still had a race to run,

"Apparently, Tamsin used a… unique… method of questioning to find out where you were." Lauren smiled, looking up at Bo, "As a doctor, I believe it's a bit extreme, but as a member of your team, I wish I had been there to see it." She cocked her head, closing her eyes, "Actually, that's not true." She corrected, "I wish it had been my boot applying the pressure to get the answers."

Hale laughed, "Applying pressure. Good one, Doc."

She smiled as Bo looked at the two laughing men, still not understanding what had happened, they all turned as the door opened and Tamsin walked in,

"What uuup!"

Bo looked at Tamsin, "Okay, since I'm getting nothing but cryptic here, what exactly did you do to Big Jim?"

Tamsin hopped up on the table next to Muk and started stroking his fur. Bo scowled. Tamsin never bet her dogs before. Hell, Tamsin never pet anyone's dogs before. She was not exactly the warm and fuzzy type, but Bo was all ears as the blonde explained,

"I laid a little Boot-ist philosophy on him."

"And that philosophy is?" Bo asked.

"Man who hides secrets of his past usually hides them in his balls. Back then he had them, now he don't." She popped a Swedish Fish into her mouth, offering one to Bo.

"No thanks. I still don't get it."

Tamsin hopped off the table, "Damn girl, do I have to spell it out for you? He had information that we needed. I couldn't just shoot him in cold blood – although I think the boys here might have done just that had I not rolled up when I did…"

"Too bad." Bo mumbled.

"I applied pressure to his ball sac until he talked. Oh, and Hale helped by reminding him of that nice little knife wound you gave him."

Bo smiled, "I should have put it right through his rotten heart. I lost my nerve."

They all went silent, knowing that is exactly what had happened.

"Well, it held the tip of Hale's rifle perfectly."

Bo looked at Hale, "Good one."

"I got skills." Hale smirked, "Anyway, that man sung like a bird. Told us his whole life story and he's still singing now."

"Why?" Bo asked.

"What do you mean, why?" Hale asked.

"Why is he talking now? What does he have to gain?" Bo asked.

The three law enforcement officials looked at each other, suddenly silent. Finally, Hale and Dyson were looking to Tamsin to break the news. She was, after all, FBI.

"Tamsin?" Bo asked, "What does he have to gain by talking?"

"The elders went in to meet with the FBI… well, two of them. The feds listed his crimes and asked how he would be punished. They explained village banishment. So, the feds offered him a deal. In exchange for a full confession, he would be punished by the state and federal laws."

Bo n down, "Life in prison with the possibility of parole."

Tamsin nodded, but Bo was already throwing things around the room. Those who were asleep, woke up, some grumbling, some just leaving the room to find quiet elsewhere.

"Bo, he'll never get parole. He'll die before then. He'll have at least two consecutive life sentences. I can't imagine him getting anything less."

Bo turned on Tamsin, slamming her palm into her chest and pushing her back, "You can't imagine! You can't imagine? Well, I couldn't imagine the federal government using me as bait for ten men who were trying to kill me! Where were they, Tamsin? Where were the sharpshooters out there? HE ALMOST KILLED ME! Do you know how close he came? Do you have any idea how close he came in that cabin?"

"Bo, I understand…"

"You understand, NOTHING about my life, Tamsin! You understand absolutely nothing! You have NEVER been willing to listen! You were NEVER willing to intervene! There has to be evidence, Bo! Dyson had the evidence and you and the rest of the feds said it wasn't enough!"

She turned, pulling the stray hairs back off of her face, she stared out the window into the forest below, "That man has done things to me that you can only imagine! You live in your perfect little legal world where there are rules. Out here, there are no rules – only Big Jim's rules. He owns everything!" She turned to face Tamsin, a twisted smile on her face as she leaned back against the windowsill,

"Tell me, Tamsin? Have you ever had a rope tied around your neck? Were you ever bound and gagged and left to watch, helpless, as a man shot every dog you owned?" Tears flowed freely down Bo's face as the memory that had long haunted her was set free, "He said each name, then fired into their head. He loaded one bullet at a time. He made it as slow and torturous as possible. Then he came to Harper. She was all that I had left of my Mom. He held the gun to her head and then told me he needed a good working dog. He took her for his own and they threw me in jail."

Bo turned sideways, her shoulder against the window, unable to look at the group anymore, "Every day the Sheriff let him come into my cell with a whip or stick in hand. When he left, the Sheriff would hand me a wet rag and tell me to clean myself up."

She looked up at Dyson, "Thank you. I'd probably already be dead if you hadn't come to town."

Dyson smiled, "Just doing my job."

Bo sat in the chair by the window. She looked up at Tamsin, "There's nothing you can say that will make this alright. I am way out of the loop on all of the evidence you have found, but I know that he took life and so he should sacrifice a life according to the village law that he brought to Point Siku."

Tamsin sighed, quietly dropping another truth from the investigation, "Well, apparently the village elders have agreed to return to the traditional laws of their native roots."

Bo laughed, "Of course they are."

She stood, heading for the door, but Lauren called out to her, "Bo."

The brunette gripped the door handle, "I'm going to head down to the boiler room. I saw my clothes there earlier. I just want to go out and check on the dogs and get some food out of the sled." She turned and looked at the blonde, "You'll let me know if he wakes up?"

Lauren nodded, smiled, "Of course."

Bo smiled, "Thanks. I'll be back with my lunch."

"I'll be here."

Bo turned back to the door, but Tamsin's voice stopped her, "Bo, they want to interview you about what happened."

"You were there. You saw the whole thing."

Tamsin nodded, "They need you to confirm my statement."

"Consider it confirmed."

"None of us are witness to what happened in the cabin. A man has a knife wound in his chest and a cabin blew up, burning several men."

"I stopped at the cabin to sleep. I set up my dogs, set the sled just as I'd told you all. I walked into the cabin to sleep on the sofa, but Big Jim was sitting in the chair next to it holding a gun on me. We chatted, he explained why he was going to kill me and my dogs, he turned away for a second and I threw the knife, aiming for his chest just to the right of his heart so I wouldn't kill him. I just needed him distracted long enough to run. I hit my mark, I ran. I heard a group of men come to his aid and him shouting at them to find me and kill me. I ran as far as I could, but the leg I'd been shot in earlier was making it tough to run. I got to the trees, planning to lead them through a series of traps, but he told me to come out or he would shoot my dogs."

She looked at Muk, "He's a man of his word. He got quiet, barking orders at his men to try to flank me or something, but by then I was back inside the cabin gathering supplies to create a big enough distraction to make it to my sled and down the trail. I was outnumbered. My best chance was to outrun them. I found everything explosive I could think of in the cabin, used some lead line from the supply closest to make a wick that I coated with Heet. Slid out through the back door and into the woods on the east side, then set the fire. The cabin blew, I grabbed Muk, cut his line, threw him in the basket and ran. You know the rest. I'm done. They want to hear more from me, they can arrest me, but not until after the race or I will go public with how they used me as bait. They don't want that trouble."

She turned to leave but stopped. She turned and looked back to Tamsin, "You know, I actually thought you had changed. I guess it's like they say. In times like these, you learn who your real friends are."

She left the room, leaving the group silent behind her.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"So, how are my girls?" Bo asked Little Jon who was playing with Shadow.

He stood up, Shadow biting down on his glove and ripping it from his hand before running as far as his lead would allow. Little Jon called out,

"Shadow! Come!"

Jon knew she wasn't actually a puppy in any way other than sled dog terms, but she still acted like one every day. He called her again, but she continued to hold the glove, now using it as a chew toy.

Bo laughed, from her place to the left of the young dog and yelled, "Shadow, Haw!"

The dog turned to Bo and ran right to her arms, dropping the glove and licking her face. Bo picked up the glove and tossed it to Little Jon who pouted,

"Traitor."

Bo laughed, "Good girl. Good girl."

The pup cried out as Bo hit her rib cage, "Whoa. What's the matter, girl?"

"Doc says it's bruised ribs." Little Jon replied.

"How did she get bruised ribs?" Bo asked, checking the area more closely.

Jon shrugged, "I was hoping you would know."

Bo thought about it for a moment, then looked up at Jon, "Big Jim or one of his guys."

Little Jon shook his head, "Of course."

"Sorry, Jon. He was alone with my team for about three or four minutes. Did they find bruises on the others?"

He nodded, "Hera, Diana and Nike."

"That must have been the sharp cries I heard. I thought they were crying over Muk."

"You thought he was dead."

Bo hung her head, "I did."

"He can't hurt us anymore, Bo."

She looked out down the trail, "We'll see about that."

"I guess you weren't too happy about the news."

"That he's not dead?" Bo pouted, "No, I wasn't."

Shit.

"Jon, I'm sorry. He's your Great Grandfather. I shouldn't say that in front of you."

Jon shrugged, "He's your blood too." He looked out across the snow, "Guess we're just going to have to be the better part of our family."

Bo laughed, "He's not…" pausing, she started to connect the dots, "He's what?"

"You said they told you." Little Jon said, suddenly nervous.

"Told me what, Jon?" Bo's eyes grew dark, her brow angry.

"I… I can't… They want Lauren to…"

"They want Lauren to what?"

"I… Bo, please. I'm not supposed to tell."

Bo stood, walking to the younger man, gripping his jacket at the collar, "I'm going to ask you want more time, then I start making things painful."

"You know, you look like him… when you get like that."

Bo dropped Little Jon, turning to face his Dad, "Look like who?"

Big Jon looked at his son, "Run inside and get the rest… 'specially Dr. Lauren. Go."

Little Jon took off running to gather the rest, his Dad stepping closer to Bo,

"Our Father."

"Our…Our what?" Bo asked, her face twisting with confusion.

"Our Father. Yours and mine."

Bo stumbled back as the realization hit her. She spun around, suddenly unable to breathe. She ran a few feet before dropping to her knees as the memories came rushing back.

FLASHBACK…

Utqiaġvik, Alaska

"Bo, your Daddy's back. Go and help him with the dogs. Tell him dinner's ready."

Bo ran out to the barn, excited to help with the dogs, "Daddy! Daddy! Mommy told me to help you with the dogs! What do I do? What do I do? Do I brush their fur?"

The large man turned and looked down at his young daughter, groaning, "Your brothers will handle the dogs. Get out from under my feet. Go cook dinner with your Ma."

"But I wanna help you, Daddy."

"YSABEAU! Mind me or you'll get a whoopin'!"

The young girl lowered her head, her bottom lip quivering as she turned and ran back inside, hearing his words as she ran,

"Good for nothin' half breed. Murphy, go help Jacob and Mike mix the feed for the dogs. Send them in here when they're fed."

Bo ran into the house, "Mommy! Daddy doesn't want me to help."

"Well, you can just help me then."

"But I wanna help. I always help when Daddy's away. I do good with the dogs, don't I?"

"You are amazing with the dogs, Ysabeau. One day, you are going to be a great sled dog racer."

"And I'll run the Iditarod, right, Mommy? Just like Daddy."

"You'll be a legend, Ysabeau. There's something special about your connection with those dogs. You're going to do great things together."

"Mommy, what's a half-breed?"

The Mother turned to her daughter, shocked, "Where did you hear that word, Ysabeau?"

"Daddy said I'm a half-breed."

She pulled her daughter into her arms, "You're no such thing. You never mind your Daddy. He's grumpy after a long run."

Bo ran behind her Mom's back as her Dad came into the house, "Dinner ready?"

Her Mom replied, "On the stove. You scared her again."

He shrugged.

"You gotta stop calling her a half-breed. I won't have it."

He laughed, "Okay, how 'bout I call her my bastard offspring?"

"Don't you dare."

He stood, gripping Bo's Mom by the hair, "I'll do what I want, woman or you won't have a penny to your name."

"Jim, you're hurting me."

He released her hair, "Builds character. Woman has to learn her place."

"And a Man should learn more about how to treat a woman properly."

His hand was so quick, she never saw it coming.

"Mommy!" Bo ran to her Mom, laying over her, "Don't you hurt my Mommy!"

"I'll do worse than that." He laughed, walking to the cabinet and pulling out a tin box. He opened it, pulling out all of the cash.

"That money is MINE!" Bo's Mom snapped, standing up and trying to take it from him, but he pushed her to the floor.

"Mommy!"

"You touch me again and I beat the girl." He warned.

The woman pulled Bo behind her, watching as the man took a sack from the bottom drawer of the stove. He threw it on the table. Bo could tell that whatever was inside was heavy and loud. She watched as he inhaled deeply from the cloth bag,

"Mmmm. The smell of gold nuggets. I can start my own town with this."

He moved through the house, taking clothes, boots and papers before moving to the refrigerator and practically clearing it out,

"I see you, you die. I'm taking the boys."

"NOOOOO! You cannot have my sons!" She screamed.

He laughed, "You gonna stop me?"

She sat, holding tightly to Bo, looking around for anything she could use to stop him. Finally, she spied the shot gun on the mantle above the fire. She went to move, but in two of his long steps, Big Jim had it in his hand. He held the double barrel beneath her chin, lifting her to his feet with it,

"Now, look in these eyes so you know I'm serious. You ever come looking for me. You ever tell anyone I'm here. You ever tell anyone she's my blood, I kill you and her. You understand?"

She nodded, slowly before he released her. She watched as he turned and walked away. With Bo holding tightly to her hip, she looked out the window, watching as the boys argued with their dad. Each one earned a smack before they each turned to look their Mother. Their heads turned towards their Dad before they all came running inside.

Murphy was first to speak, "Mom! Where is he taking us?"

She gathered all three of her teenage sons into her arms, her hand going to Jacob's face. He was her youngest and barely fourteen,

"I don't know, and I can't stop him. I just know that I'm not allowed to contact you and I'm not permitted to tell him Bo's his blood. You've got to go with him, boys. I'm afraid of what he'll do to us all if you don't. Go, mind your father. Remember I taught you right from wrong. Stay out of trouble and when you're old enough, go out on your own and find your way. I'll be here waiting for you. I'll always wait for you."

"Me too." Bo said, her eyes red and swollen from crying.

Jacob looked down at Bo, "I'll come back for you."

"You promise?"

"I promise."

End Flashback

"He never came back." Bo whispered, swaying back and forth.

"Bo!"

She heard a voice.

"Bo! Look at me."

She felt a hand on her chin, then eyes… concerned eyes. She saw lips moving.

"Bo! It's me, Lauren. Come back to me."

"Huh?" Bo said, the doctors' face coming into view.

"Bo, It's Lauren. Can you see me?"

"Lauren?" She asked, confused.

"Bo, please say something."

The musher looked around seeing snow everywhere.

"Utqiaġvik. I'm home."

Lauren shook her head, "No, no, no. Bo, You're not home. You're here with me. You're in Nikolai, running the Iditarod. Bo!"

"Lauren?"

"Yes, Bo. You're in Nikolai at your 24-hour rest stop."

"Right." She looked at the dogs, "Are the dogs okay?"

"A few bruised ribs on a few, but all okay."

"Muk."

"Muk had surgery. He's out for the rest of the race."

Bo nodded, "Thirteen dogs. I've gotta go. We'll run slower now."

Lauren shook her head, gripping Bo's face in her mittens, "You're not allowed to leave yet, Bo. The rules. You have to stay for 24 hours. You can't leave until two in the morning."

Lauren decided to let Bo lead the conversation. She was truly concerned for her mind right now. While she would love to scold Little Jon for letting this slip and his father for breaking the news the way he did, this was bound to happen sooner or later. Bo was never going to be able to accept this information.

"What time is it now?" Bo asked, looking down at her wrist, but seeing no watch, "My watch? Where's my watch? My watch?"

Lauren turned to Little Jon who waved her off and was already running for the watch,

"Little Jon is getting it. The band was wet, so we set it out to dry. You'll have your watch in a moment."

Bo sat rubbing her wrist as she looked around, seeing all of the familiar faces. She singled out Kurt, "How's Kyle? She was badly burned, right?"

Kurt smiled, "She's still alive, Bo. She's getting proper care in Seattle."

"Good. That's good. Good." She looked down at her wrist, then back up at the group, "Molly, those booties you and Lauren made were great. They were great, right?" She looked at Lauren, "The dogs? Their feet are good?"

Lauren smiled, "Not a scratch."

"You two should go into business." She looked at Kurt, "You could see them at Kyle's store."

Kurt hesitated, but after a nudge from Kenzi, went along with the conversation, "Good idea, Bo. We can do that if they want to make them."

"Kenzi! Kenzi, you wouldn't believe the race I've had. There are people out there shooting guns and going over cliffs. It's like the wild, wild west out there… only we're in Alaska. We're in Alaska, right?"

Kenzi nodded, "No place like home, BoBo."

The young girl walked up to her friend, "You all right, sweet cheeks?"

"Super." Bo replied, "I think maybe I should sleep some more. I'm kind of hungry. I haven't eaten in a really long time."

"Sure thing, BoBo."

The brunette stood and walked to her sled. She stared down at the contents, her eyes traveling along the outer cover until it saw blood on the rail,

"Mark, do you have anything to clean the blood off of my sled? All I need is an animal catching that scent. Am I right?"

"You're absolutely right, Bo. Anything else I can do to help?"

Bo kept her eyes down, "The cops should probably leave. They're making me uncomfortable."

Tamsin stepped forward, "Bo, I'm sorry."

"They should leave now." Bo said to Lauren, nervously rubbing at her wrist.

Little Jon came running out and gave Bo her watch, "Here ya go, Bo. It's still ticking."

Bo took the watch and wrapped it over her wrist, fastening it tightly. She stared down at it for a long moment before she looked up at Jon,

"My Mom gave me this."

He smiled, "I know."

She pulled on a piece of his long hair, "You need a haircut."

Laughing, he nodded, "Whenever you're ready."

Lauren laughed, "You cut hair?"

Bo smiled, "Only Jon's. He's special."

She looked at Jon, "You've always been special to me."

"We're special to each other, Bo."

She hung her head, "You always stick for me – even when the rest of the world seem to be against me – even though I'm the one that should be sticking up for you." She twisted the hair and moved her hand to cover his heart, "You're the little brother I never had. I love you, Jon."

The young man's eyes welled with tears and he covered Bo's hand, "And I love you, Bo. You've always been the big sister I never had – even when I forced you to be my mother because I was being an idiot."

Bo laughed, "You do have your moments."

"So do you." Little Jon laughed, looking at Lauren, "We're blood, Bo. No matter where we came from, no one can ever change that."

Bo stood staring at him for a moment, her eyes traveling to Lauren who smiled and nodded before she looked at Jon again,

"You're my great nephew."

He nodded, "I guess that's why we always had this connection."

She smiled, "I guess so."

She looked past Little Jon to see the rest of the Morton men, "So, you're my…"

Mark stepped forward, "Much older nephew, yes." His eyes welled with tears, "We didn't know, Bo."

Bo nodded, her eyes moving back to Lauren, "This is a whole lot to process."

Lauren moved forward, wrapping her arms around Bo, "The beauty of it all is that you don't have to process it all right now."

She pulled back, keeping her hands firmly planted on Bo's shoulders, "You can take little pieces of information and process it a little bit at a time."

Bo smiled, "Kind of like the way you eat a pizza?"

"Hey! Picking on my pizza eating habits is of limits, remember?"

Bo laughed, "I'm sorry, but you must be the only person in the world who eats the pepperoni off the pizza slice before you actually eat the slice."

"It is pretty weird, Doc." Kenzi said, adding her two sense.

"I can't believe you're taking her side." Lauren said.

"She's my best friend!" Kenzi countered.

"But you eat the toppings off of your pizza too!"

"But that's only until the cheese cools."

"You still eat the toppings first." Lauren smirked, leading Kenzi to mouth the words the doctor had just spoken.

Bo suddenly realized, "Okay, I still haven't eaten. No more talk about pizza until we're back home and can actually have pizza!"

She moved back to her sled, again seeing the blood, "I really have to clean the blood off of my sled. Any critters get a whiff of that on the trail and my dogs will become their breakfast, lunch, dinner and dessert."

"I've got it, Bo." Mark said, pulling a rag out of his back pocket, "Little Jon, when are the dogs due for some food and water again?"

"About thirty more minutes if Bo is planning to leave at two in the morning." Jon replied, looking at Bo.

"Sounds good to me. Most of the remaining stages are just long and boring. Doesn't much matter if I run in the dark or daylight. It's just going to be long, cold, windy and wet."

Lauren laughed, "Sounds like fun."

Bo shook her head, "The fun was Willow to Nikolai. Of course, I would have done without the extracurriculars."

"I'm sure." Lauren replied, watching Bo's eyes go down again. She waited her out, watching as she stuck a piece of jerky in her mouth and chewed, seemingly without thought. Finally, she raised her eyes to Lauren again,

"I threw an axe into my brother Jacob's chest."

Lauren nodded and waited, giving Bo a moment to process the memory. The brunette nodded, "I have this memory of when we were young. The day Big Jim took them away from us, he let them say goodbye. Jacob promised me he would come back for me. I don't remember him ever coming back for me."

She looked at Little Jon, "We were best friends growing up. We used to play with the pups when they were born… take care of them until they were able to pull a log for a mile by themselves." Bo smiled, "I didn't see him again until I went looking for my Dad, the Navajo Indian." Bo laughed, "Jim made all of that up so no one would know he had a whole other family out there… to draw the attention to me rather than to himself."

"I guess that's why he was always so nasty to you." Little Jon suggested.

Bo shook her head, "That started from the time I was born. He had no use for a daughter. It's more likely that I had something to prove. That a daughter could do everything a brother could do. I just never knew my motivation… until now. I just wish I knew what happened with Jacob. Why he never came back. Why he never told me who he was when I saw him as a teenager in Canada. Why he followed me. Was he trying to reconnect with me? Did Big Jim give him a kill order? If so, why didn't he do it?"

Lauren sighed, "Bo, you're going to have to find a way to accept that you may never know."

Nodding, Bo walked to the sled and took a seat on the bench, patting the space next to her for Lauren to sit. She then reached into the baggie and pulled out a separate bag of her special trail mix. She popped it in her mouth and chewed,

"I really love this stuff." Bo smiled, holding the bag out towards Lauren, "Want to try my secret recipe trail mix?"

Little Jon laughed, "Don't let her fool you. The secret in the recipe is pieces of dark chocolate."

Big Jon walked up to Bo, hands deep in his jacket pockets, "Bo… uh… look… I'm sorry for dropping that bomb like that. It's just that…"

"I had my hands on your son and you were right… I'm sure I looked exactly like Big Jim. I now know where I saw that look before. I saw it when he would hit my Mom." Bo grew quiet for a moment before coming back to the moment with her nephew, "That's why I'm promising you right here, right now, that I'm going to get counseling as soon as the race is over."

"Bo, I'm not saying you have to…"

He began, but Bo waved him off and Lauren spoke on her behalf, "She'd already discussed it with me before the race began, Jon."

Bo smiled, "I do find it ironic that no one trusted me with Little Jon all those years because Big Jim projected the image of himself on to me within the community. He was everything he accused me of being."

She shook her head, "Well, I guess we'll all have plenty of time to process all of this after the race."

Everyone shook their heads in agreement. She looked up at Mark and Jon, "Did you tell Pops yet?"

Jon laughed, "Tell him what? That his Dad fathered a child with another woman? That he cheated on his Mom? That we might have to worry if there's even more siblings out there?"

"Wait, what?" Bo asked,

Big Jon shrugged, "Would it surprise you after all of this?"

Bo chuckled, "Guess not."

Silence overcame the conversation until Mark spoke, "Snow's melted. Okay I clean this sled now?"

Bo nodded, "We'll talk later."

She looked at Lauren, "Shall we?"

Lauren nodded, sliding out of the seat and moving towards the school.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

School Hallway – 6pm

Bo strolled the hallways of the school, wanting to get her legs moving again. As she walked, she admired everything from the Kindergarten art that was hanging in the elementary school wing to the high school poems hanging outside of the English classrooms. Bo's educational experience was limited to age sixteen. She had always enjoyed school as a young child, but when her mother disappeared, her priorities changed. She set out to find her, assuming she would come back in a matter of months to find her. Little did she know that when she finally returned home, that everything she'd had would be gone.

She was stuck on the memory of Big Jim taking all of the cash and gold that her mother had stashed in their house. For some reason, it kept playing over and over again in her head. She was focused on age. Why had her mom taken up with such an old coot? Sure, maybe her memories of her mom were a bit distorted. She was her hero. But still, Bo could remember her long black hair, her soft skin and her kind eyes, but she didn't remember her as old. As a matter of fact, she was quite young.

Bo had never thought herself to born of a loving marriage. Rumors that her dad was a Navajo native who ran off and left them alone were engrained in her memory by the other members of the village. It was a mark of shame that she'd always carried. None of that screamed love. But she had the love of her mother. They had been inseparable as a child. Bo remembered that most of all. She just couldn't shake the image of their family of four and a father who was always away on long trips by sled or by plane. When he took the plane, he almost always took the dogs and sled.

Bo rounded the corner and saw musical symbols in the hallway. She smiled when she saw a massive tuba. It triggered another memory of a time with her mom,

"Mommy! Mommy!"

Young Ysabeau ran into the kitchen, throwing her arms around her mother's waist.

"My Ysabeau! How are you sweetie?" the woman smiled, "Go grab your snack and sit at the table while I clean the rest of the salmon for dinner. You can tell me all about your day."

Bo did as she was told. She always did as she was told. She opened the cookie jar and pulled out an oatmeal raisin cookie. Her mom baked them fresh on Wednesdays. Bo loved Wednesdays because she loved her mom's fresh baked cookies. She sat down and pulled her school bag up on the table. She opened the snap and pulled out all of her work from the day.

"Start your homework, Ysabeau."

"Yes, Mommy." She pulled out her math. She loved math. She loved solving problems. They were learning fractions now and she was very good as fractions.

"Mommy, did you know that if you bake a pie and cut it into eight pieces and I eat one, that I ate one eighth of a pie?"

Her mom laughed, "I did! And what do you have left if I eat a slice of the pie too?"

"Ummm…" Bo took out her pencil and a piece of paper, setting to the task of figuring out the answer to her mom's questions while her mom finished up with the salmon.

"We ate two eighths, so there's still six eighths left. Six eighths are reduced to… uh… mmmm… three-fourths! Right, Mommy?"

Bo's Mom turned and wrapped her arms around her daughter, "That's right! You are so smart!"

She wiped her hands dry on her apron and sat down next to the young girl, "Tell me all about your day. Don't leave anything out!"

"I gotta tell you. The best thing today was we all got to pick an instrument in music! There are so many!"

"Really? How many are there?"

Bo thought for a moment, then looked at her mom and smiled, "I dunno! But there were trumpets and violins and flutes and clarinets and sexy phones."

"I think you mean saxophones."

"That's what I said! But do you know what I picked?"

"The flute?" Her mom asked.

"Uh-uh. Nope! Guess again!" Bo said, excitedly.

"The trumpet?"

"Nope! I picked the tuba!"

"Oh, Ysabeau! The tuba? It's bigger than you are!"

"I know! So, I can't carry it home. You'll have to come see me play it at school! Will you come? Huh? Will you come? My teacher said no one ever picks the tuba! She's so excited that I picked it! It makes my lips tickle when I play it! But Suzie Gordon says I'm weird for wanting to play the tuba and Beth Light called me a freak."

Bo's Mom waved if off, "Oh, Ysabeau! Forget those horrible girls. Your teacher told you no one ever picks the tuba. She's happy that you picked it. That makes you very, very special. You are so special, my darling!"

She wrapped her arms around the little girl, holding her tight.

Hugs. Bo remember hugs. Lots and lots of hugs and… when her father wasn't around… love. There was so much love. She wished she could remember how things were with her brothers when her Dad wasn't home but sadly, those memories were still lost to her.

She ran her fingers over the metal of the instrument, smiling. She missed her mother every day. Having Lauren in her life now helped. Mark, Molly and Little Jon had always felt like family to her, now they actually were. Big Jon had always looked out for her and advised her. Their relationship had never been as relaxed, but then again, her interactions with him had always been… supervised… by Big Jim. He was always in the store when Bo came in, even though her visits were always random.

Then there was Pops. A man who always felt like a father-figure to her was actually her brother. She guessed that he would have been having kids of his own when she and her siblings were born. He was old enough to be her father by adult standards. He was her brother and Big Jim was her father. How had she never seen it? Honestly, it made her sick to her stomach. Even more, it made her feel dirty.

Her eyes filled with tears at the thought of what that man had done to her mother. Right now, she could only remember the incident of the day he'd left. How many other times had she been hit? Her mind flashed to the times he would come into her jail cell with a whip. Had her mom suffered that as well? All that he had done and yet he had been free to continue living his life a free man.

She was sure there was more to the story. She was sure there was more that the feds had dug up on him. She was sure that Hale knew. She could see it in his eyes. The problem was, Hale was a good man and he would not be telling Bo anything until after the race. When he did tell her, it would be in a quiet room with Kenzi present. He would tell her slowly, giving her all of the facts. He would use that kind, mellow, calm and pleasant voice of his, his caring eyes set on hers the entire time. Then, he would answer her questions to the best of his ability and hold her while she cried.

Bo hung her head, the tears falling freely once more. She hadn't cried this much since she'd woken up to find her mother gone from her life. The day she'd left home was the day she had decided to put on a tough exterior… to focus on the fight to find the truth behind her mother's disappearance. She wasn't dead. She couldn't be dead. Bo cried harder. She cried for all that she'd lost, and she cried for the blood that would forever flow through her veins as a reminder of the cruel man that was a part of her.

Even if they handed him off to the elders and they banished him to the Alaska Range to die in the cold, he would always be alive inside of her. She would never escape him.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Public Works Building

"Hey, Doc. What's up?"

Lauren looked down at the young woman, "You're eating again?"

"This food ain't gonna eat itself!"

The doctor shook her head, "Have you seen Bo?"

Kenzi shrugged, "I had dinner with her and then I had dinner with Hale. She left sometime during Hale's dinner…. Said she needed to start using her legs again or she would cramp on the sled."

Lauren nodded, "Muk's awake. She'll want to know."

Kenzi held up a finger, "I'll tell her if I see her."

"Thank you, Kenzi." Lauren said, rolling her eyes. She'd hoped that Kenzi would help her to find Bo, but she guessed she was on her own.

She left the building, pulling her parka closed and lifting the hood. The weather had taken a turn, so it looked like Bo would be exiting the checkpoint into a snowy night run. She'd been told that it was largely lakes and swamps, but because of the winds, there would likely be snow drifts. She had been worried about clearing Bo to race after her slight mental break, but then she had her map lesson.

Flashback, School Gymnasium

"I want to review my maps. Want to hang with me?"

Lauren smiled, "So you're saying I could get a map reading lesson from the legendary musher, Bo Dennis?"

Grinning, Bo replied, "If you promise sexual favors later."

Lauren slapped the woman on the shoulder, "Shhh… someone will hear you."

Bo looked around, "Are you worried that someone will learn about our horrid affair?"

"Affair?"

"Relationship?" Bo offered.

"Are you saying this is a relationship?" Lauren asked.

Bo smiled, "I certainly hope so… one for the record books, if I'm lucky."

"If you're lucky?" Lauren asked.

"Well, you could get lucky too, if you'd let me."

Bo leaned in playfully, but Lauren palmed her face and pushed her away, "Map reading."

"You're no fun." Bo pouted, "Okay, map reading 101."

"Wow. Taking me to college level map reading so fast?"

Bo smiled, "Oh, honey. Didn't you hear? I skipped high school and went right to college."

"Oh? And what college was that?"

"The University of the Alaska Range. You've never heard of it?" Bo laughed.

"I'm sure it was a fine college."

Bo nodded, "It really was. I got my Bachelorette of Environmental Sciences there."

Lauren laughed until tears were streaming down her face. Bo just watched. She loved making Lauren laughed. She loved it even more when they were laughing together. Her heart pounded in her chest. God, she loved this woman. She only hoped that she could strain the Big Jim from her soul so that she would never, ever be like him.

She pulled her topographical map from its waterproof plastic pouch. Of course, waterproof only worked if the map itself wasn't snowed on or her gloves weren't wet when she was handling it. Neither of those were likely when racing the Iditarod, so Kenzi always laminated her updated maps before the race.

"Now, this is a topographical map. Down here is the key. So, can you use the key to show me an example of each of these?"

Lauren smiled, "I've actually seen a topographical map before."

"Really? Why would you use one of these?" Bo asked, nodding towards the map.

"Afghanistan?"

Bo nodded, "Right. Sorry. I guess I just imagined you in a tent standing over broken bodies with blood everywhere."

Lauren gave a slight cock of the head with a tight smile, "There was a lot of that, too. But when I first started out, I didn't have my license. I was a medic with a forward unit in the mountains. I did some time with search and rescue."

"Wow. That must have been…"

"The past." Lauren sighed, wiping her hands back and forth on her thighs, "So, show me your route."

Lauren paid close attention as Bo mapped out the mostly flat route with the occasional river, swamp and forested areas. It was nothing like the roller coaster trails she'd described thus far in the race. There was one spot that Bo said she was always concerned about because if she missed the turn, the trail would take her all the way back to Rohn.

Lauren noticed her face light up, the old Bo coming back when she talked about her search for the light atop the Air Force radar station that would signal Tatalina Mountain.

"The mountain is about 3200 feet. It's no Denali, but it's beautiful and signals another milestone in the race." Bo pointed at the map, "This is Guitar Lake. It's about two miles wide and I usually see a Moose or Bear around there. It's always cool to see wildlife."

"Cool? I saw a polar bear and it was terrifying." Lauren replied.

"We don't bug them, they don't bug us. Sneak up on them like you guys did that day, they tend to get aggressive. I mean, how do you feel about uninvited guests who just show up before you have a chance to get cleaned up?"

"What? Polar bears have bow ties?"

Bo laughed, "Funny."

"Yes, I am." Lauren replied.

"And beautiful." Bo said, leaning in and kissing Lauren on the cheek. She pulled back, sharing a moment with the blonde before turning back to the map, "Wow. You are a total distraction to my map review sessions."

"I can go." Lauren suggested.

"Oh no you don't. Class isn't dismissed yet."

"Of course, Dr. Dennis." Lauren smiled.

"I'm Ms. Dennis. While I was pursuing my doctorate, I never actually finished. Duty called on the Iditarod Trail, so I had to drop out."

"Tragic."

"Totally." Bo laughed, "But I did receive an honorary doctorate…" Bo pointed to the map, "… from the University of Nome at the Buried Arch."

They laughed together before Bo continued, "Okay. Now, get serious, Lewis. This is important prep. I'll be leaving in a few hours."

"Right. Serious."

Bo laughed at Lauren as she crossed her eyes and stuck out her tongue.

"The key to this section is all mental. When I get to Guitar Lake, I'm half way to Big River which is half way to the check point at McGrath. So, I mark each of these little landmarks on the map so that if I start feeling like I'll never get to the next check point, I can reverse that in my head and make it so that I feel I'm closer. Does that make any sense?"

Lauren chuckled, "I feel like that little kid in the back of the car on vacation saying 'are we there yet'."

Bo looked confused, "What?"

It took as second, but then Lauren realized that Bo had never had a backseat vacation experience. Her life had been about the day to day task of surviving. There were no cars in her young life up north. Only sleds, snow shoes and snow machines,

"Nothing. I get it."

Bo nodded, "Right. So, after Big River, I mark the Kuskokwim, the old Big River Roadhouse, the cross-country shortcut through the woods and the spot on the river where the shortcut ends. That puts me six miles from a cabin that I can stop in if I need to at that point." She tapped the map at the cabin, "At that point, I'm just thirteen miles from McGrath. But the trick is to not get too excited."

Bo adjusted the map, putting it on the floor and leaning forward onto her elbows,

"This is the Stewart Bend cutoff area. This is a rough stretch including a very steep climb up a wooded ridge. The downhill is an easy descent compared to the other ones on the trail. Then, you rejoin the main river again and you follow along this river about three miles, then you see this bank, 'HAW! HAW!' you go up the left bank, shortcut, 'GEE! GEE!' four miles across another big oxbow sweeping north across the swamps, sloughs, beaver dams and up narrow creek channels. You hit this crop of trees, 'Haw!', ten, nine, eight, seven, 'Gee!', five, four, 'Haw! Haw!', one and breathe. Get cocky and you get ditches on those turns. Pay attention. Stay focused…"

Lauren could see the brunette go into full musher mode. It was amazing, really. She was actually doing the run in her mind. It was incredible to watch her process. It was the first time Lauren had seen anything like it. Her body leaning into each turn, closing her eyes to count out the straightaways through the course, timing each turn to the count.

It was in this moment that all of Lauren's fears fell away. This race course was a part of Bo Dennis and Bo Dennis, a part of this course. For as terrifying as the map was to Lauren due to her fear of the unknown, it was just one more challenge to Bo, much like the challenge of fixing something inside a patient was to Lauren. Bo used a sled to take on her challenge, Lauren used a scalpel.

"By now I'm pretty much bored out of my freakin' skull and completely over rivers of any kind, let along the bendy ones. But I still have 150 miles on the Yukon after I get to Anvik. As soon as the river bends northwest, I'll see McGrath on the left bank. The checkpoint is on a twenty-foot-high bank and the parking is super crowded, so I have to let the checkers know right away if I'm staying or going."

She looked up at Lauren, "I usually stop here because McGrath is a 500-person town. It's a major hub. I can get near-boiling water there and they have some well-stocked stores where I can pick up stuff I've forgotten or fix my sled. The people of the town will help you with everything from a home-cooked meal to sled repairs before you crash in one of their sleeping rooms. There's a coin-operated shower in the laundromat in the municipal building which I usually use because by now, even my dogs are offended by my smell."

Bo took a deep breath, "But, since I'm taking my 24-hour stop here, I won't be taking advantage of the kindness of McGrath this year. Of course, this is where Mark shipped my back up sled, so if I have any problems or concerns with my number one sled, I'll switch to the backup sled in McGrath as well."

She frowned, "Besides, word is probably out about what happened and I'm sure the feds have released an arrest report, so I'd like to blow right past the media."

"We can handle the media for you, Bo."

"Oh really? And how will you do that?" Bo asked.

"Uh, you have met Evony, haven't you? We can fly her into McGrath, explain everything and she'll handle them. Bo, she has a vested interest in both you and me. I've seen her survive many a scandal. She can do this."

Bo shrugged, "Fine. Let her take a shot at them. She can't make it any worse than it's been being shunned from the community my entire life."

Lauren nodded, "So how did Mark and Little Jon become your handlers for the Iditarod?"

"Well, Mark was working for another team. He handled all of their equipment and supplies. That team switched to Kyle's company, so Mark was sort of out of the race for a while. When Little Jon decided he wanted to start training to race, his Dad asked me to train him. I think it was just to get to Big Jim, but it was his call. I needed the money, so I agreed to train him."

"So, becoming a handler was part of his training?"

Bo nodded, "You have to know the inner workings of the race. You have to know the officials, the rules, the mandatory stuff and the optional stuff. He needed to see and meet the mushers, learn their language and how they live." She lowered her eyes, "He needed to see the tragedies as well as the triumphs. You don't see the bad stuff at the finish line. You see if on the course. He needed to know that it wasn't all glory."

"Reality check."

Bo nodded, "Exactly. Plus, he needed to see how the mood of the dogs changed throughout the race. He needed to learn how to handle those changes not to mention general care, health checks and preparation. For example, from here to probably the end, most of the dogs will be wearing T-shirts or coats."

"Really?"

Bo nodded, "Nike and Diana are in the front, so despite them being mixed Siberian Husky breeds, they take all of the snow and essentially shield the team from the worst of it in some spots. I made them waterproof rain jackets a few years back and they seem to like them."

"I've heard that a lot of dogs go down during this stretch."

"It's cold, windy and wet. Perfect conditions for pneumonia considering how hard they're breathing from exertion." Bo nodded, "I've only ever lost one dog because of that and I'd like for that to never happen again."

"I'm sorry to hear that. We'll keep a close eye on your dogs, Bo. Promise." Lauren smiled, "Speaking of, I'd better go check on your little boy, Muk."

Bo nodded, "This little surgery you had to perform, does it change the outcome?"

Lauren shook her head, "I swear, Bo. It was just a minor infection on the exit side of the wound. There was likely internal debris, but now that is all cleared out. He's on antibiotics, I.V. fluids and a nutrient drip. His fever is down, so that's a good sign as well. He'll be awake again soon."

"Okay."

"I'm going to head over. Are you coming?"

Shaking her head, Bo smiled, "I'm going to stretch my legs. I'll be cramping like crazy on the sled if I don't get some exercise in before I leave. I'll walk, eat, check on the dogs, take a nap and then head out."

"Okay. Stop by and you can check on Muk before you leave."

Lauren gave her a kiss on the cheek and then headed out of the gym, leaving Bo behind.

END FLASHBACK

Lauren had checked everywhere for Bo, but there was no sign of her. With all other options exhausted, she decided to go back to the school to see if she was still walking to loosen her legs. She's never driven a sled for hundreds of miles, but she did know that staying in that position for extended periods of time during her lessons with Kyle had definitely made her legs and core tighten up.

She walked through the gymnasium and, not seeing any signs of her there, continued out into the hallway,

"Okay, so right or left?"

She decided on a right and began her journey. Lauren had learned that schools in Alaska were often used as community meeting places for large events since it allowed for everyone in a village or town to gather in one place with plenty of room to move.

She smiled, seeing the hallways and classrooms decorated with the work of the children. Lauren loved school growing up and at one time even contemplated becoming a teacher. Her college professors had begged her to consider education, telling her that if her tutoring skills were any indication, she would be an excellent biology professor.

When she rounded the next corner, she heard a woman crying. She paused for a moment, wondering if there was another way around. She didn't want to interrupt anyone's personal time, but… well, she was a doctor and she did have some psych courses, so she should probably at least offer some support.

She slowly walked to the turn and stepped gingerly around the corner, stopping short when she saw that it was Bo. Her heart broke seeing her weeping uncontrollably, but Bo was a proud woman. She wasn't sure if her company would be welcome. She stepped back around the corner and waited for a moment until she just couldn't take it anymore. With a deep breath, she stepped towards Bo once more,

"Bo? Sweetie, what's the matter?"

The brunette looked up at Lauren, her eyes swollen, her cheeks stained with tears,

"I'm just like him, Lauren. All these years… people are afraid of me, just like they're afraid of him. I pushed people away from me just like he pushed everyone away from him. I'm angry and impulsive just like him. I… I've put my hands on you in anger, yelled at you in anger… just like he did to me and my Mom… just like he did with his sons, his grandsons and his great grandsons. I'm a monster… just like him. Even though he didn't raise me, I turned out just like him. His blood is evil and it's in my veins."

Lauren watched as she looked down at her arms, rubbing at the skin. She ran to Bo's side, kneeling in front of her and grabbing her hands,

"Those veins also have the blood of the most wonderful, supportive, beautiful and caring woman you've ever known, Bo. Your mother. You're her blood too, Bo."

The tears stopped as Bo stared down at the veins while Lauren wrapped her arms around the musher and pulled her towards her, holding her tight,

"You've lived a life of solitude, Bo. That wasn't because of Big Jim. It was because every person you've ever trusted… let in… has let you down. You're working hard to change that by slowly, but surely, letting in all of the wonderful people who have been part of your life here. I've seen such an amazing change in your relationship with Little Jon. Who's growing and maturing and that is because of your example, Bo."

Lauren lowered eyes, pushing a strand of hair behind her ear, "You know, if it were twenty years ago, I would be sitting here like you just because I left a classroom to go to the bathroom. I was bullied for being smart – for being a geek. When I went to college, I wasn't the only geek anymore. It was cool to be smart and I found my groove, but it was still very hard for me to stand up for myself if it wasn't in a classroom. The military was where I learned to toughen up. I gained confidence, I found myself and came to accept my sexuality. When I got out and met Nadia, she fell in love with that confident, strong, intelligent Marine Captain."

Lauren chuckled, "But after we married, she changed. It was like the ring gave her permission to be someone else… I suppose the someone she was all along but never let me see until she felt she could let down her guard. I tried… boy, did I try… to please her, but it was never good enough. Slowly, she chipped away at my confidence because I allowed myself to believe all of the nonsense she spewed at me."

She smiled, looking up at Bo, "Believe it or not, I'm grateful for Evony. She didn't allow me to have a pity party for myself. She forced me to look at who I had become and when I finally stood up for myself, I realized that Nadia was never going to accept me for who I truly was… she was never going to be satisfied with me if I wasn't meeting her needs and to hell with her meeting any of mine. So I ended it. I became who I am today. I make my own choices and I never let fear hold me back."

She cupped Bo's face, "I see and admire that same courage in you. A courage that your mother taught you. When you saved Little Jon all of those years ago, you showed compassion. Something Big Jim has never shown according to the stories that I've heard. You could have run from the fire that Big Jim had set, despite knowing full well that people may have blamed you for bringing his wrath down upon the town, but you didn't run. You came back and helped in every way you could. I know that you will work your ass off to rebuild everything that was lost."

Lauren leaned in and placed a soft kiss on her lips, "Don't you see, Bo? You are everything the stories of your mother embodied and none of what Big Jim represents. Sure, you have your moments of anger, but it's anger that is because of what was done to you, not because of what's inside of you. Tell me something… do you ever recall a time when you saw your mother angry?"

Bo shook her head, "Never. Even when she was upset with me, she never yelled or hit… not like him."

Lauren nodded, "Do you remember being angry when you were young?"

She shrugged, "I never had reason to be. I was either happy because I was with my mom or sad and afraid when my dad was around."

"You see, anger is a foreign emotion to you. Because you had no adult role model to show you a proper way to release anger, you regress to what you learned. Your dad, bar fights and what you've seen in your travels."

Bo nodded, "I never thought of it that way."

"Bo, please be patient with yourself. Big Jim is a vengeful, spiteful, angry, greedy, manipulative human being. Please don't label yourself or compare yourself to him just because you happen to share some of his DNA. You are nothing like him. You've become all that you despite who your father is, Bo."

Lauren paused, cupping Bo's face once again and thumbing away her tears. She leaned in and kissed her gently on the lips, pouring all of the love she could convey into the gesture. When she pulled back, she smiled,

"Now, what do you say you go show everyone out there what Bo Dennis is made of?"

Bo smiled, "I'll try."

Lauren shrugged, "I know you'll do great. Once you get out there in the middle of the land you love, you'll do great things. I believe in you, Bo Dennis."

Bo nodded, taking Lauren's hand and getting to her feet. They walked quietly back to the gymnasium, Bo now ready to move forward on the path that lay ahead for her.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Bo had been moving along at a good clip through the last three checkpoints. Now she was working her way through the ghost town of Iditarod. It was a full ninety miles of the loneliest country there was in the United States. The trail always seemed endless to the mushers and Bo was no exception.

Year after year, she had worked her way through this section of the race, encountering every imaginable form of terrain Alaska had to offer. She always made it through… always. As she had told Lauren, it was miles and miles of nothing but nothing... it was boring as hell. She usually handled it with her word a day calendar or singing a song over and over again. This year was different. This year, she was having a very difficult time turning off her past. For every memory that resurfaced, more questions came to mind.

So now, she had taken to writing down all of the questions she had during each stop. She'd done one of her required 8-hour stops during this leg and had one more to do. She was going to do the second one after this stretch. It looked like she was on target to do this section in about thirteen hours… one hour behind her time from last year.

After her last pee stop, she decided she would pass some of the time going through this town by telling the dogs its history,

"You know, steamboats used to be docked right in front of these old buildings during the summers in 1909 and 1910. The history books say this place was rocking back then – about ten thousand people lived here. Can you believe that? The boats would come in here after spending weeks traveling from the Bering Sea, up the Yukon, the Innoko and finally the Iditarod River."

She pointed at a structure to the east, "That's one of the old cabins that's still standing today. Okay, so it's not really standing… more like… leaning… barely, but it's a cabin, nonetheless. There's an old house near the checkpoint. A trapper used to use it until not too long ago. That's right, the town went from 10,000 people to just one." Bo smiled, "One of these days, we'll have a new house in the woods outside of Talkeetna with a new kennel for all of you. A kennel that has fire escape routes for every one of you."

She smiled, "Would you ladies like Lauren to come and live with us?" Diana barked twice, "That a girl. You know a good one when you see her. Of course, I'm not so sure she'll be able to give up that city life of hers, but maybe she'll come and see us once in a while."

The thought of Lauren leaving tugged at Bo's heart. She looked around, realizing that even this barren trail would be hard for her to give up in favor of a city home in the Lower 48. What would happen when Lauren's year was up?

"Okay, that type of thinking isn't going to help me win this race. What were we talking about before?" Bo asked, the dogs, "Oh, right. The trapper. Well, no one except him has lived in Iditarod since the 1930's. They had electricity, telephones, newspapers, banks, and even hotels. Fortunes were made here… and I'm sure those same fortunes were lost here! I'm sure there were a lot of saloons and card games back then. Now, just broken-down buildings and a lot of wolves. They never have a problem telling you that you're sleeping in their bed if you stay here. Damn wolves howl all night long."

Bo's eyes scanned her surroundings, "Can you imagine living out here all by yourself? I mean, I've always considered myself a loner, but this gives that term a whole different meaning. Even out trail running on our own like we have, we were always going to a town that had people. We were always out searching for clues about my mom."

She smiled, "Well, there is the bustling metropolis of Flat about eight miles away. They have a population of about six or so. Oh, and they have a runway, too. There's not much of a road to get to it, but if you can get there, you can hop a flight."

Bo reached into her pocket and pulled out her small calendar, "Okay, let's get the word of the day." She flipped through the calendar to find March seventh, "Our word, Ladies, is 'insatiable'. It means 'impossible to satisfy'. A sample sentence is 'Sam had an insatiable demand for old buildings to restore'."

Bo put the calendar away and smiled, "I guess Sam worked in construction like me, only Bo Dennis also has an insatiable demand for trapping as well… and my dogs… and mushing… and Lauren Lewis." Bo laughed, "I have an insatiable need for Lauren Lewis."

She thought about the doctor for a long while, an ache surging through her chest as she thought about the last time they'd shared a bed together. It had been much too long. She missed her terribly. It had been a shock to realize that she actually enjoyed cuddling with her in the morning. All of the chaos had interfered with their time together and it felt like their relationship had been put on hold. But still, in some ways, they were continuing to learn more and more about each other.

Sighing, Bo returned to her word for the day. While she had an insatiable need to finish this leg to Iditarod and move on to the next boring leg of sixty-five miles to Shageluk, she needed the distraction for her mind.

"George had an insatiable need for chocolate ice cream. Nike had an insatiable need to run the Iditarod…"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Checkpoint at Shageluk

"Welcome to Shageluk. Name please?"

"Bo Dennis."

"Big number?"

"Number one."

"How are the dogs?"

"I'd like the vet to look at my girl, Hera, please."

"We can take care of that. How are you?"

Bo nodded, "Happy to be out of spooky town, thank you."

The woman laughed, "Yea, that forest fire years ago did change the landscape out there."

"It sure did."

"Okay, is your handler here?"

"I'm here, Bo!"

Bo smiled, "Apparently he is."

"He can follow Ned to a parking place, and we'll send the vet right over."

Bo nodded and rode the sled over to the stop. As promised the Vet came down quickly. Shortly after he arrived, Kenzi and Lauren arrived as well,

"Hey, BoBo. Whas up, bestie?"

Bo smiled, "Oh, hey Kenz. Hera was limping, so I'm having the Vet check her out."

Kenzi nodded while Lauren told Bo she would go talk to the Vet. Bo watched as the blonde walked away. She wanted nothing more than to hold her. But she couldn't. She needed to get cleaned up, take a quick nap and head out again,

"So, where do I stand?" Bo asked Kenzi.

"You're moving up quick, BoBo. Just Mitch, Pete and Jeff in front of you."

"How far?" Bo asked.

"They both have mandatory eights left to do, just like you."

"Where are they now?"

Kenzi threw a thumb over her shoulder, "Inside. They're not saying, but I think they're taking their eights now. What's your plan?"

"Do they know I'm here?"

Kenzi shook her head, "Nope. Lauren and I snuck out the side door."

Bo looked down the trail into the darkness as she spoke, "Anvik is only two hours if we haul ass. I tried something a little different over the long stretches. We ran three hours, rested thirty minutes for twelve hours then rested for four hours before getting back into the routine. I thought was behind, but I actually made up two and a half hours doing that. The dogs are still pretty fresh, but now I may be down another dog."

"Well, Mitch and Jeff are both down two. Pete is down one, maybe two so you're still good." Kenzi replied.

Bo nodded, "Thanks for the intel. I need to jump ahead while I can. It's my only shot considering I still have another eight to do. I'd rather they think I'm still way behind them. What's the report?"

"Village had out the snow machines, so the trail is well groomed."

"Perfect. I'm hauling out then."

Kenzi pulled out a tin foil package, "Hot towel?"

"Oh yes! I love you so much right now."

"You love me all the time." Kenzi smirked, watching Bo open the towel and wipe down as much of her face and body as she could.

Moments later, Lauren came over, "How are you?"

"Better now that's I've wiped off with a hot towel. Kenzi will fill you in. What's the news on Hera?"

"She's good to go. If you have any problems, the Vet said…"

"Put her in the basket. Got it. Okay, Ladies, I'm gonna need a decoy. What do you say we plan to meet at Eagle Island three checkpoints from now? I've got three hours tops to Anvik, about two and a half hours tops to Grayling and, depending on the wind, it'll be six to eight hours to Eagle Island. I'll sandwich my final mandatory eight-hour rest in there somewhere, so I should see you at Eagle Island in about twenty-one hours."

Lauren asked, "I'm not questioning your wisdom here, but are you sure you don't need to rest longer here?"

Bo smiled, leaning in and giving the blonde a kiss on the cheek, "I promise you I'm okay. Kenzi will explain. I'm using a new rest strategy and it seems to be working."

Lauren nodded, "Okay. Good luck. Stay safe."

"Will do. Let's get these dogs watered and fed so I can get out of here before those guys see me."

Kenzi motioned towards Little Jon, "Looks like your lead handler is already on top of it."

"I love that boy. Let me take a few minutes with each of my dogs then before we go. Thanks, Ladies."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Eagle Island Checkpoint, 20 hours later

Bo pulled in and ran the usual checkpoint drill with the officials. She had begun rotating the dogs into the basket to keep fresh legs through the rest of the race. She'd rested Diana and Nike first and was now rearranging the dogs again to put her two best dogs back in the lead together.

Little Jon arrived moments after Bo, "Hey, Bo. You're early!"

Bo smiled, "The dogs are running well and the wind wasn't bad at all. How am I doing?"

"Pete is right on your heels with Mitch not far behind. Jeff has dropped way back. He's running on twelve dogs, but two of them are fighting. I think he might be done."

"Wow, that's a switch."

Little Jon nodded, "You stayin' or goin'?"

"I'm heading out as soon as we water and feed these little Ladies. How's Muk?"

"He's doing alright, Bo. They shipped him off to Nome this morning."

"Good, good." Bo replied, pulling out the bucket to mix her food.

"We're good on supplies. How's everything else?"

"I want to change out my sled rails."

"Okay, let's get that done after we feed the dogs."

Bo nodded, "Are Kenzi and Lauren on their way?"

"Actually, Lauren got called to a medical emergency… of the human kind. One of the rookie mushers got dumped into one of the lakes. He was hypothermic when he arrived in Anvik with four frostbitten toes and three frostbitten fingers. He was barely responsive to questions."

"Well that doesn't sound good." Bo replied, "Is he trained?"

Little Jon shrugged, "I don't really know."

Bo nodded, "Okay, let's get this done. Let's go over my next plan so you have it just in case I'm gone before one of them gets here."

"Okay."

"I've got six to nine hours to Kaltag, ten to thirteen to Unalakleet as long as the weather holds so listen for reports. If the weather turns to shit, I'll need eighteen to twenty hours. Let's see… then, I need four to five hours to Shaktoolik – again with bad weather, add an hour or two. So, let's plan on thirty-two hours."

"Then the stretch to Koyuk."

"What do you remember about it?" Bo asked.

Little Jon smiled, "It's all run on sea ice, so it's fast unless the wind is blowing."

Bo nodded, "That's pretty much the case for every leg from here to Nome."

"Got it. So, what is your thinking?"

"I'll probably be running all out until the end now. A few half-hour stops to close my eyes, but I'll keep rotating dogs into the basket for sleep."

"Sounds like a plan."

"Okay, let's finish this up and get you out of here."

"I'm with you there."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Checkpoint at Kovuk

Lauren and Kenzi ran down the hill to Little Jon who was cleaning up the trash from Bo's last stop.

"Where are they?" Lauren asked.

Little Jon smiled, "She blew right through the checkpoint on her way to Elim. She just threw all of her trash at me. She's a woman of her word, you can't say she's not."

Lauren sighed, "Well, okay then. On to Elim."

Kenzi shook her head, "Let's just wait and see where the competition is before we go. She's going to ask and that will allow us to give her the most accurate report."

Little Jon nodded, "Good plan."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Checkpoint at Elim

"Bo, Pete is about an hour behind you and Mitch about twenty minutes behind him. Jeff is running on eight dogs, so he's dropping back big time."

"Okay, same routine. I feel good, dogs are running well. Water, food, moving on for each of the last stops. This rotation is working well. I think I can finish this."

"Okay, I'll get you going." Little Jon said, starting on the feed mixture.

"What's next?" Lauren asked.

Bo looked down the trail, "Golovin. What's the report on the sea ice here?"

Kenzi replied, "You've got water down there. Go overland on the Old Elim Mail Trail."

Bo nodded, "We've got some hard grades here with the final summit to Little McKinley before Golovin. Time to put our game faces on, girls!" Bo called out to the dogs before turning back to her team, "Should be there in three hours and White Mountain in another two."

Kenzi nodded, "Got it. Let's get these dogs ready to go." Kenzi handed Bo a towel pack and some liquid soap, "Do yourself a favor and wipe things down a bit."

Bo laughed, "That bad, huh?"

Kenzi smirked, "I wasn't going to say anything, but then I smelled you and threw up in my mouth."

"Thanks, Kenz."

"No, really… thank you for cleaning up!"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

White Mountain Checkpoint

Lauren, Kenzi, Little Jon and Mark stood watching from behind the checkpoint waiting for Bo. She was overdue and they were getting nervous. Finally, Little Jon had waited enough. He moved down to the checkpoint officials,

"Excuse me. We think Bo Dennis might be having some problems. We haven't seen her come through yet and it's not like her to get off schedule. Can you…"

"Bo Dennis already went through." A man said from behind the group.

"What?" Little Jon asked, turning from the checker to the man.

"She went through." He took the clipboard, "See? She came through here about ninety minutes ago."

Little Jon shook his head, "Thank you."

He walked back up the hill, "You guys, she went through here ninety minutes ago."

"What?" Kenzi asked.

"Do you really need me to repeat that or is that just your misbelief talking?''

"The last one and why would she not rest before the ride to Safety?" Kenzi asked.

Lauren was confused, "She's doing her rotation schedule, right?"

Kenzi nodded, "Yes, but White Mountain to Safety is known as the most dangerous stretch of the race. If the weather is good, it's an easy five to eight hour run, but if it's bad, the trail can literally be impassable. There are permanent markers on this section because of the blizzard conditions. Sometimes the markers get blown over."

Mark shrugged, "I think it was a smart move. If she waits, she'll be running that section in the dark. This way, she's going into Nome in the dark."

They all shrugged, "So where are we going?"

Little Jon smiled "We have no choice. We go to Nome and wait under the arch."

They watched as Pete went through the checkpoint with Mitch close behind. They all smiled as Kenzi said,

"They didn't ask if they were first again."

Little Jon laughed, "They think the race is between the two of them."

Lauren frowned, "They'll be each other's motivation. Bo will only have the motivation of getting out of a blizzard."

The smiles turned to frowns as the doctors' point hit home with the group.

"Let's get to the snow machines." Mark said, leading the group to their transportation back to the trucks.

Hopefully, Bo would meet them in Nome at the Buried Arch finish line… victorious.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Safety to Nome Trail

Bo had her ski poles out, pressing the pace and helping as much as she could to take some of the sled weight off of the dogs. The barren stretch along the ocean was brutal… more brutal than she'd remembered. She'd been on the trail for two hours, completely exposed to the elements. Only the 'Nome National Forest', which was nothing but a pile of discarded Christmas Trees would provide cover.

Now, she was on the descent to the Nome River just south of the road bridge. She was a little more than three miles from the arch and she could hear dogs behind her in the distance,

"Radio towers." Bo said, catching sight of the red lights in the sky.

"Fort Davis Roadhouse." Bo again called out a landmark for herself, "Hike! Hike! Come on, kids! We've run too hard to lose this now! We've got a tail on us! Give me all you've got!"

Bo said, putting her poles away and patting Hera on the head. She'd been in the basket for most of this leg. She was limping and Bo wasn't going to take any chances with her health. Cringing before she even took a step, the musher knew it was time for her to pedal. She needed to help the dogs move the sled the rest of the way. They were all tired, but she could see the police escort up ahead.

"Half mile to go, Bo. You can pedal for half a mile. Suck it up. Stitches can be replaced. This win can't." She gritted her teeth and put her leg down, pushing off to help the team. She looked over her shoulder and saw Pete behind her with Mitch almost directly next to him.

"Hike! Hike!" she called to her dogs as the moved closer to the police cars. She didn't have to look. She knew it was Pete who was moving closer. She'd recognize his voice anywhere.

The noise of the crowd could be heard, but barely seen in the darkness. The snow coming down sideways, making visibility almost zero. But still, the dogs knew the way. She had to trust them now more than ever.

She jumped off the sled and began to run, pushing the sled to ease the load on her team, continuing to call out encouragement,

"Hike! Hike! Come on, Diana! Come on Nike! I know you're tired, but we've got this! Come on my Goddesses, Hera, Demeter, Nemesis, Artemis, Atalanta and Persephone! Go Elektra and Shadow! You're going to be champion pups! Go Jenna! Do it for Muk! Gaea, Aphrodite, push them girls! We've got this! Give me all you've got, Ladies! Don't let those flashing red and blue lights bother you. It's the officer friendlies here to make sure you're safe. Come on, girls!"

She could hear Kenzi screaming in the distance. The crowd now louder. She finally looked over her shoulder, seeing Pete about fifty yards away. Then she saw something unexpected. Mitch was with him… gaining on him. In their desperate sprint to beat each other the might just overtake Bo. She pushed harder,

"Hike! Hike!" she could feel her sled slow when she hit the warm street snow that proved slushy and thin. Running harder, she ignored the pain in her side, trying to stand a bit more upright as she gripped the sled and pushed. She entered the fenced in chute for the last couple of feet, "Hike!"

She looked back and saw Pete's lead dogs almost at her sled and Mitch's dogs coming alongside Pete,

"Hike! Hike!"

Bo watched for the Arch overhead counting down the seconds before her lead dogs would cross under the symbolic finish line. Finally, it happened,

"Yes! Yes! Yes!" Bo said, pumping her fists in the air. Her sled was immediately surrounded by officials who stopped her sled. A Vet moved to her dogs while Little Jon ran out to control the team. Local TV camera lights were in her face as the crowd cheered and called out her name.

"Name?"

"Bo Dennis."

"Bib number?"

Bo sighed and spoke for the last time, "Number one."

"Your dogs okay?"

Bo smiled, "Nothing that a long nap in front of a warm fire and a meal of huge steaks won't fix."

The official smiled, "Are you okay?"

Bo gripped her side, "I'm good."

"Okay then, basket check." The official said.

Bo dismounted from the sled and opened the zipper. The officials counted the dogs, then allowed Bo to lift Hera out of the sled. She put the dog down and she ran immediately to Demeter's side, wagging her tail and looking back at Bo.

The brunette laughed, "Jon, can you hook her to the line? I think she's embarrassed that she didn't cross the finish line on all fours like the rest of the team."

Jon smiled down at the excited dog and nodded, "Let's save face here, young lady." He ruffled her ears, "You did great!"

Bo's attention was pulled back to the official, "Mandatory Items…"

She nodded, watching as the official checked for her axe and other mandatory items. She was distracted for a moment by the blood still on the handle… the blood of her brother. Her throat tightened with emotion until she was pulled from the memory by the Race Director,

"Congratulations on another amazing run, Bo. I'm glad you're safe."

Bo nodded, shaking the man's hand before she said, "I have to ask… did you know what the feds were doing?"

He shook his head, "I swear on my wife's grave, Bo. I had no idea until after I heard about the incident up on the pass. I never would have agreed to their presence on this course if I'd known."

Bo nodded, "I believe you."

"Thank you for that trust. I know it doesn't come easy."

Bo nodded, "Yea, well I'm learning to do that trust thing a little bit more."

They were quiet for a moment before he leaned closer and softly whispered, "You're nothing like him, Bo. Nothing. You are, however, a whole lot more. Thank you for being the perfect mix of grit and kindness. You have the heart of a champion. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise."

He patted her on the back and then reconvened the final confirmations with the other judges and the veterinary team. Finally, he gave her a thumbs up and the announcer made the official broadcast. Bo moved quickly to Lauren and Kenzi, wrapping them both in her arms as she sobbed with relief amidst the cheers and gloved applause from the spectators that lined Front Street,

She pulled back, "My dogs. I have to congratulate and thank my dogs."

She turned and moved back to her dogs, wanting to congratulate and thank each of them personally. The press moved in, cameras in her face. Race officials stepped in pushed the media back,

"Give them space, please. Let her check her dogs." The official said.

Lauren and Kenzi stepped forward in front of one camera man to create some space for Bo as reporters started yelling out questions,

"Bo! Bo! How do you feel?"

"Bo! What happened out there? We heard you were shot!"

"Bo, we heard one of your dogs was killed. Is there any truth to that rumor?"

"Bo! We heard Big Jim is your Dad! Was this whole story orchestrated between the two of you from the start?"

Lauren watched as anger rushed across every feature of Bo's face at the question. The brunette turned, her eyes black with rage, ready to fire back until she felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned and saw Lauren's kind eyes staring back at her. The blonde smiled,

"They'll be time to deal with them later. Right now, you have to get to the hospital. They need you."

Bo's eyes brimmed with tears, "And I need you."

Lauren smiled, "I'm here and I'm not going anywhere. I love you, Bo Dennis."

Bo placed her hand on Lauren's and turned back to the reporters, "I cannot comment on the rumors as I do not have all of the facts. I am sure the FBI will be releasing a statement that will answer your questions." Bo smirked, "You'll want to contact Special Agent Tamsin Sorensen."

A reporter asked, "You mean the Denali guide?"

"One and the same." Bo replied with a chuckle, "Now, if you don't mind. These little ladies have been working very hard and need my full attention. Please, respect my responsibility to give them all of the care they need." Bo nodded and turned back towards the officials who gave her a thumbs up on the final review of her dogs, sled and gear.

Mark and Little Jon pushed their way through the crowd. Bo threw her arms around the two men,

"I couldn't have done this without the two of you. Thank you so much. Thank you so very much."

Little Jon smiled proudly, "Think nothing of it, Bo. You gave my little rookies a chance to become champions and look at them! They look like they're still ready to run!"

Bo laughed, "Don't let them fool you, Jon. They're just looking all cute for the cameras, hoping people will throw them food or treats."

They all laughed, "Let's get these guys into cool down mode… walk to the trailer so we can load them all up for the trip to the animal hospital. I want to check on the other dogs and get these gals checked as well." Bo smiled, "I've got money to pay for absolutely anything they need now."

Mark smiled, "Yes you do, Bo. What are you getting them first?"

Bo smiled, "A new home. One that's plenty spacious and plenty safe."

Little Jon smiled, "That sounds perfect."

The two men moved to Nike and Diana, leading them down Front Street to where the trailer was parked. Kenzi hopped on the back of the sled while Bo and Lauren hooked arms and followed behind the group.

"So you love me, huh?"

Lauren laughed, "I'm afraid so."

"You should be, Dr. Lewis. I'm quite a handful."

"So I've heard." Lauren laughed, "I'm happy you're home safe and sound.:

Bo laughed, "I'm not home, Lauren. I'm Nome." Bo laughed, "Get it? Not home? Nome?"

"I get it, Bo. I get it."