A/N: Thanks to all who have been reading and reviewing. Your reviews are all much appreciated. I'm sorry for the delay but I've been rather ill recently and have had a bad few days. Hopefully it'll be back to a chapter a day soon. Please keep reading and reviewing and, if anyone is also reading "Is There A Place For Me?", I've also just posted a brand new chapter of that too.

Chapter 8

Lex kept one eye on the drink he was pouring and one eye on the guy in the corner: he had been sitting there nursing his drink with a scowl on his face that made a sick Ram seem like an angel of mercy! As soon as he finished serving the customer at the bar, Lex turned to the stranger.

"Something wrong with the drink, mate?" Lex called out across the short distance between them.

The stranger ignored him.

Lex frowned. He couldn't remember the guy coming into the bar, which meant that someone else had served him, probably Skye. He couldn't remember the guy ever saying anything either. In fact, he couldn't recall him even bothering to look up from his drink when a fight had broken out across the other side of the saloon. Lex looked around to check that Skye was still behind the bar, then walked over to the stranger's booth. He leant down and started wiping the table over with a bar cloth.

"Something bothering you, mate?"

The stranger watched Lex's profile as he cleaned the table, but said nothing. Lex turned to face him and the young man's faced creased in puzzlement, then slid into an expression of surprised recognition.

"I said, is something..." was all Lex managed to get out before the stranger jumped up and grabbed him into an enthusiastic hug.

Lex, startled and confused, but determined to keep his cool, grabbed the young man by the shoulders and pushed him off to arms length. Examining the stranger's face, he got the distinct feeling he knew the young man. He was a number of years younger than Lex, with light brown hair cut short and curling slightly.

As Lex tried to place him in his memory, the young man attempted to speak. His speech was slurred and at first Lex thought he was drunk, but the words did not sound like those of a drunken man and the stranger had only had the one drink, in fact, not even that. Lex's brow creased, then, with shock and joy, he managed to decipher what the young man had said.

"Paul?" Lex asked, looking the young man straight in the face to let him lip-read. "Paul, is it you?"

The young man nodded vehemently: he was Paul. Years had gone by since he had run away from the mall and his sister, but there he was, standing in the corner of the saloon in Liberty, confusing Lex.

"What, you know this guy?" Skye asked from the other side of the bar, where she had been watching the whole event with great interest.

"Yeah," Lex replied, turning to face her. "Paul was one of the original Mall Rats. He disappeared one day and we never saw him again. His sister, Patsy, was another of our originals: you might have heard us speak about her?"

"Only in passing. Why does he speak like that? He can't be drunk on what he's had here!"

"He's deaf!" Lex replied, defensively. "He can lip-read though, and he ain't stupid, so if you've got a question, ask him, not me!"

Skye shrugged her shoulders and went back to cleaning the bar. Lex sighed and turned back to Paul.

"Listen, mate, we really need to spend some time catching up, but first there's something you've got to know. It's about Patsy..."

****

Jack spent most of the morning in conference with Alkaia, Jewel and Morgaine. He was given food and water and his bonds were untied, but he still wasn't allowed to leave the room. Because of this, he was unaware that Jetta and Hope were only just outside the door, listening to every word he said as he recounted every detail of how he and Jetta met, in the Chosen laboratory, and what happened from then until he left to go back to the city; then how he kept almost leaving to go and find her, but always got pulled back by Ellie or Amber; then how the Techno's captured him and took him away; then how he found himself in Liberty, with Ebony, later to find Jetta again when he least expected to and with a daughter he had never known existed.

Jetta turned away from the door to Lana and Vicky, who had relieved Rialle and Charlie from their watch over the "prisoner" while another two Amazons had taken over the guarding of the valley entrance.

"He's determined, I'll give him that," Lana smirked.

"He's stubborn!" Jetta sighed.

"He wants to see his daughter: you can understand that, surely?"

"I know, but I want my daughter to be brought up here: as an Amazon, not a city kid!"

"From what we've heard so far, he's not just a "City Kid": he's a Mall Rat!"

"So?"

"So don't you know what that means? Haven't you heard of the Mall Rats?"

Jetta shook her head and shrugged.

"Should I have?"

"You remember the stories about a tribe of city kids who got rid of the Chosen? Who tried to restore some order to the city, just before the Technos arrived, then, eventually, got rid of them too?"

"Well, I hadn't heard all that, but I'd heard that it was one particular tribe who got rid of the Chosen."

"Yeah, well, that tribe was the Mall Rats!" Lana's eyes stood wide open in excited astonishment as she tried to get to grips with the fact that her friend had never heard of this prominent tribe. "News does filter through here sometimes, y'know? One of our newer recruits is even a Mall Rat! Well, I say new, she's been here almost a year now: we rescued her from a Techno work camp. She's on guard duty at the lake just now! You wouldn't believe the stuff she's told us about them; and from what we've heard, it's all true too! Plus, she's such a strong person: when we found her she was half crazy and next to death's door with what the Techno's put her through, but she's come right back from all of it! She's a real character too: you should meet her!"

"I will," Jetta replied in earnest, hoping to calm her old friend down before they were both discovered eavesdropping on their leader and her general's private conversation. "She'd probably like to know that a member of her old tribe is here too. What's her name?"

"Alice."

****

"How's she doing?" Ruby asked, timidly, afraid that speech alone may be enough to shatter Ebony's fragile grasp on life.

"She's still with us, that's the main thing," Slade replied, checking Ebony's pulse and breathing.

Ebony lay on the bed, her wrists bandaged heavily. The vastness of the four-poster served only to make her look even smaller as she slumbered. Occasionally, one of her two minders would check her vital signs, then make sure blood was still reaching her hands and her bandages did not need to be re-wrapped. For the past hour, Slade had undertaken this task alone, allowing Ruby some time to wash and change her bloodstained clothes before fetching Skye to help Lex in the bar.

Ruby stepped closer to the bed, sitting down next to Ebony's shoulder and facing Slade.

"Do you think she'll make it?"

"I don't know," Slade sighed. "All we can do is wait and see. She didn't cut any arteries or she'd be dead already: that much at least we can be thankful for."

Ruby nodded, silently, in reply.

"Hey, listen, Rubes," Slade put his hand on her arm, gently. "This is not your fault. Nobody ever thought Ebony would do anything like this: we all thought she was way too strong."

"But that's just it: she's not that strong anymore!" Ruby insisted. "Ever since she fell for Jack, he's been her strength: he was everything she lived for and now he's gone. I should have seen this coming."

"But he's not gone for good: he said he would be back and Jack's not the kinda guy to lie about that!"

"Maybe, but that's not how it would seem to Ebony. She loves him. With all her heart and soul. She let go of all the barriers she had put up and let herself fall for him and now he's gone! Just as she finally lets herself trust a guy with her heart, he ups and leaves with barely a word to her about where he's going or when he'll be back; and in this world, who's to say he will make it back, regardless of his intentions!"

"Sometimes there are just things a guy has got to do, Ruby, and he can't sit around here doing nothing when he's needed somewhere else! Besides, whatever happens, he's at least made it clear that wherever he is, his heart is here!"

"Sometimes that's not clear enough! Sometimes he doesn't realise that while he's off zooming around everywhere, people are sitting here, working their fingers to the bone to keep themselves going mad with worry about him!"

"Sometimes people don't realise just how much they're missed. How much the person they care about loves them and wishes they could be safe at home with them, but there are other people out there who need them much more desperately than the people they love! You're safe here: you've got a good supply of food and water; a roof over your head; a way to make a living; even some medicines and contact with the outside world through traders who stop in here. There are people out there relying on me to bring them news of what's happening in the cities: whether the Chosen are back; whether the Technos are really gone; if it's safe to travel to the city to trade. Others are sick and need medicines from the traders, or food, but they're isolated and are too scared to leave their farms because of the dangers of this world. My little brother did a lot of damage as Techno Leader after Ram and he's still out there, somewhere, with Java: it's my duty to find him and stop him!"

"And what? You didn't think you could tell me all this? You didn't think that maybe, just maybe, it would make the waiting a bit easier if I knew where you were going and what you were doing and how long you thought you would be? You thought it would be easier for me not to know anything? A quick kiss before you leave was all I needed to know that you cared and would be coming back for me one day? You really think that's enough?"