A/N: Sooo...here is, at long last, an update for all you lovely people that believed I would return. Once again, I'm sorry that it took me so long. As well, a rather evil face will be making an appearance. Anyway, I won't keep you from the story much longer; here goes the REAL chapter eight.

Disclaimer - Don't own. Wish I did though. Anyone you don't recognize...is probably mine and I claim them.

-X-X-X-X-

Brea yawned and looked around her room, blinking as her eyes came into contact with bright, blinding sunlight. Then the sneezing attack hit and she sneezed seven times in a row before stopping.

"Stupid rain." She grumbled, tossing the blanket back so she could get up and dress for the day. "Made me sick." Just as she was gathering up clothes, her mother bustled into the room and stared at Brea, hands on her hips.

"Just what do you think your doing?" Rhiannon demanded, raising an eyebrow.

"Uh...getting ready to bathe, so I don't smell when I go out to the field to practice. We may get dirty, but we do notice each others stench." Brea responded, sniffling.

"I don't think so, get back in bed. Your sick." Rhiannon said, forcefully dragging her daughter back to bad.

"Mother." She whined, not taking lightly to being shoved into bed like a two year-old. "I'll be fine."

"You will not, your sick and plus, I've already talked to Buri and the queen about it." Rhiannon began folding the discarded clothes. "They do not want you around the field until your better, you could get the rest of the Riders sick and that wouldn't do."

"I'm not even contagious." Brea grumbled, crossing her arms over her chest and pouting.

"Just get some rest, i'll be back in a little bit." Rhiannon kissed Brea's forehead, before bustling from the room. Her mother's cheery mood annoyed her; Raoul had just died and she was happy go lucky already. Some mourning period that had been.

"She annoys me." Brea muttered, pulling the blankets over her head and drifting into sleep again.

---

As weight was being pressed on her legs, Brea was roused from sleep and peaked out from underneath her cocoon to see who the person sitting on her was. Dom.

"Afternoon." He greeted cheerfully, smiling.

"You do realize your sitting on my legs, right?" Brea asked, sitting up and looking at him; she silently cursed him for not even coughing and then cursed the rainstorm again.

"You were sleeping like a rock, I had to get you up somehow." Dom responded with a shrug, moving off of her legs.

"You have twisted logic."

"I know."

"So, why did you wake me up?" She asked, leaning against the headboard.

"No reason. Since their deciding on a new commander, we have nothing else to do, so I've been stuck with Meathead and Kel all day." Dom wiggled his arm in its brace, having been forced back into it by Neal and Duke Baird; it was a bothersome thing and annoyed him...alot.

"Well doesn't that make me feel special." Brea grumbled. "I'm just some last resort then."

"Yeah."

"Hey!" Brea leaned forward and punched Dom's good arm, and rather viscously too.

"Ow. That hurt." Dom tried to rub his arm, but was unsuccessful. "But I love my last resort."

"You better." Brea said, accepting a kiss from Dom.

"How about you get changed and then we go get lunch. You have to be hungry from being asleep all day."

"I'm not allowed to leave my room." Brea stood up anyway and grabbed the clothes and towels she was going to use earlier.

"Why not?"

"Because, sitting out in the rain two days ago, made me sick."

"Well then, I'll just have to bring our lunch back here." Dom stood up from the bed and hugged Brea to him.

"Thanks Dom."

"No problem." They kissed again, and then Dom departed from the room, while Brea went into the privy to bathe and change.

-X-X-X-X-

Brea was forced to stay in bed for three days, because she apparently had a fever and wasn't allowed to leave her room. Then her mother proceeded to shove weird vials of things down her throat.

"Ack! Mother! Just leave me be, I'll be fine." Brea snapped, crossing her arms over her chest and glaring at the vial with a red substance in it.

"I don't care, this will make you better. I promise." Rhiannon said and held the red substance out to her.

"No, i'm not taking that stuff anymore, it's disgusting." Brea argued, pushing her mother's hand away. Anthony entered to see his wife and daughter arguing.

"Rhian, leave her be, she will be fine. It's nothing but a little cold, she does not need all of this." Anthony said, taking the vial away and smelling it. A rather putrid smell reached his nostrils and he gagged, nearly dropping it. "Why would you give her this? It smells like death."

"The healers said it work." Rhiannon then stood, snatched the vial from her husband and stalked out of the room. Shaking his head, Anthony sat on the bed.

"How are you feeling?"

"I feel fine, my nose is a little stuffed up and my throat hurts, but i'm fine."

"I'm not taking physically, Breanna."

"Oh. Well...i'm dealing with it..." She fidgeted with the edge of the blanket, not meeting her father's fierce gaze.

"Dealing with it? You 'dealt' with Caiden's death too, and don't think I don't remember what happened." Anthony sighed and remembered the various times Brea ran away from both Goldenlake and the palace and how hard she had taken her brothers death. They didn't think she would be the same again.

"Father, I will be fine, you don't have to worry about me."

"That's the thing, m'dear, I do have to worry about you. You are my daughter and I your father, it's part of what I have to do." Brea smiled at that and leaned forward to kiss her father's cheek, then hugged him.

"Thank you for worrying, but i'm going to be okay...soon enough." Brea said, smiling and laying back down in bed.

"Good, i'm glad to hear that." Anthony said with a nod and stood up. "Well, I might as well let you rest, get well soon, m'dear." He kissed Brea on the head and then strode from the room.

-X-X-X-X-

The following morning, Brea felt good as new and was up and dressed before her mother even had a chance to enter the room and yell at her. As Brea was crossing the sitting room, Rhiannon stood up and placed herself in front of the door.

"Where do you think your going?" Rhiannon demanded, narrowing her eyes at Brea.

"Um...to the fields.." Brea said, reaching for the door knob. "I feel fine mother, I think I'm okay to go back to training now."

"I will be the judge of that."

"Just let me leave, it's not like i'm going to keel over on the field or anything."

"Fine, leave." Rhiannon stood aside from the door and Brea slipped from the room before her mother had a chance to change her mind. Shaking her head, Brea started down the hall, wondering why her mother was acting so...weird. Shrugging it off, she picked up her pace, as she was almost certain practice had already started.

"Brea! Your back!" Shouted Buri, running to hug the younger girl. "Feeling better?"

"Much." Brea nodded her head and looked around; most of the groups were already practicing, but the people in hers, rushed over to her to hug her.

"Before you get out there, we have to talk." Buri then put her arm around the girls shoulders and steered her away from listening ears.

"Alright. Talk." Brea instructed, having a bad feeling that this had something to do with Raoul. Obviously, the whole palace was still in mourning, and there were masses of blacks, grays, and other mourning colors on the field.

"I've been talking with Thayet lately, and she seems to think that your getting restless. Being in the group that is more based at the castle, not out patrolling." Buri started, not sure how Brea would take the news. "So we've decided to move you to...Group Twelve."

"Really! That's..." Brea trailed off, mentally going over the people in the group, finally stopping at the leader. Julianna. "Buri! No way! I would rather sit on my ass, here at the castle, than be under her command."

"I know. I know." Buri sighed, running a hand through her hair. "Look, it's the best we can do for now. I know how you feel about Julianna, but she is a good leader."

"Buri...please, don't do this. Put me in group sixteen, they see lots of action too. Please. Anything but her group." Brea practically begged and if it weren't for the fact that her knee was hurting, she would've gotten down on her knees and begged.

"I'm sorry Brea, but this situation is just temporary, I promise. You start practice with Julianna's group tomorrow." Buri put a hand on Brea's shoulder and smiled, before starting away.

Brea sighed and leaned back against the fence; tomorrow she would be under command of the person who was partly responsible for what happened between her and Dom. As if Julianna knew Brea was silently stabbing her with her mind, she made her way over and smiled.

"Can I help you?" Brea asked, not bothering to keep the rudeness out of her voice.

"Firstly, we need to lay down some rules." Julianna flipped red strands of hair over her shoulder. "I am your superior, you will speak to me with respect. Follow that and we will get along just fine."

"Yes ma'am." Brea drawled sarcastically, making sure to add emphasis on the word ma'am.

"And everything that happened between me and Dom, just forget about it. It never happened. Got it?" Julianna asked, narrowing her eyes at Brea, as if almost daring her to say something.

"Got it." Brea growled and stalked past Julianna, heading for the stables.

-X-X-X-X-

"I hate her. I hate her. I hate her." Brea growled for the thirteenth time in the past four days. "She is so annoying and..."

"You want to knock her off her horse." Dom finished sleepily, bunching his pillow underneath his head. "You want to dangle from the rope on the Tower until it snaps and she falls. And my personal favorite, you want to shave all of her hair off and make her bald. I know baby, you do not like Julianna." It was times like these, when Brea went into her 'I hate Julianna' rants, that Dom started to regret suggesting them sharing his room.

"It's not that I just don't like, she is so annoying and bossy and I just want to..." Brea gave a frustrated sigh and punched her pillow for emphasis on what exactly she wanted to do to Julianna's face. "Oh! And did I tell you what she said to me?"

"Yes, three ti...ti...times." A yawn interrupted Dom's sentence; he sighed and rolled over, gathering Brea in his arms. "I know you don't like her and you would do anything short of kissing Lord Wyldon's feet to get out of being in Julianna's group. Buri promised this would be only temporary and she isn't one to go back on promises. So, grit your teeth and bare it."

"But Dom." Again Brea's sentence was interrupted, except this time it was by a kiss Dom planted squarely on her lips.

"Please, I'm begging you sweetie, go to bed and forget about Julianna." Dom kissed Brea again and held her against him and soon they both drifted into peaceful sleep.

-X-X-X-X-

A/N: Okay, that's the end of that chapter...and I added in the last part, because it reminded me of a conversation I had with my exabout a girl I didn't like...except he wasn't trying to fall asleep, just tell me something. So, hope you enjoyed this chapter. Tomorrow the packers are coming to box our stuff up and then Wednesday they move it to Mississippi. I'll probably have an update to you sometime next week or after that.