Again sorry for the long wait but hope you enjoy!

_XTHERESAX_

"Theresa . . .?"

"THERESA!"

I groaned as my brain pounded through my skull. Why did that person have to yell when I had a splitting headache? The voice kept shouting my name like I wasn't there.

"Can you keep it down?" I croaked my throat dry and hoarse. The shouting suddenly stopped and I heard a sharp intake of breath. Wait . . . wasn't that Jay's voice? Suddenly my eyes flew open only to be pierced by the setting sunlight. Wincing, I blinked a few times, letting the world fall back into focus. The first thing I became aware of was Jay looking anxiously over me. Unfortunately the second thing I noticed was the pain. I cried out as my legs began to burn and my side flare up in pain. Clenching my fist, I bit back another cry to focus my attention on Jay.

"Theresa, are you awake?" He sounded frantic. For a moment I looked up curiously at his distant gaze wondering why he couldn't see me. Then I remembered.

"It's okay Jay, I'm here," I said through clenched teeth. Jay sighed and reached down to grasp my shoulders.

"Thank goodness," he murmured in relief. I tilted my head to the side confused.

"What happened?" I asked. Jay's grip tightened on my shoulder as he sat down beside me.

"You blacked out as soon as we got here. I'm afraid I dropped you, sorry," he said sounding guilty. I blinked.

"How long was I out?"

"Around 15 minutes. I wasn't sure what happened to you since . . . well you know." He waved his hand in front of his blank stare.

"Yeah," I replied. Gently I tried to push myself up but I only ended up falling back, crying out as I landed hard against the stone floor. Jay froze, fingers digging into my shoulder.

"Theresa are you alright?" he shouted. Grimacing, I tried to ignore the pain.

"I'll be fine, how about you?" Sighing Jay pulled himself closer to my side.

"Theresa you possibly broke your ankle and it sounds like you're hurt else where, so don't lie to me!" Jay huffed. Looking up at him, I saw how worried he really was. His brown eyes born into mine just as if he could still see.

"Where are you injured?" He asked, trying to sound calm.

"Good question?" I answered, raising my head despite the pain. I had been so caught up in getting us here that I'd never paid attention to any other injuries besides my ankle. Looking closely now I could see dry blood crusted down my left side. There were several deep cuts on both my legs and arms. Worst of all, I could see fresh blood rising from my stomach.

"Lets just say your going to need a lot of band aids," I laughed humorously. I was beginning to feel light headed, though I don't know whether that was from seeing my blood or lacking it. Jay gritted his teeth and reached out behind him.

"Stay still," he ordered. I tried to look up curious, but froze when I saw the first aid kit. He couldn't be serious could he?

"I . . . I can do it," I stammered. Jay frowned.

"No offence Theresa but you can barley sit up. We don't have much of a choice and besides I can't see anything." It wasn't what he would see that made me nervous. Grabbing out the antiseptic he moved to kneel beside me. Gently he pulled my shirt back to reveal my side. Actually I was glad he couldn't see that, it made me feel queasy. Dry blood mixed with fresh blood though thankfully there wasn't any peeling skin. I cringed as the antiseptic cream came into contact with my body.

"Try to relax," Jay whispered soothingly. Squeezing my eyes shut, I counted backwards as he cleaned and bandaged my side and stomach. Every nerve cell in my body was concentrated on his touch as he moved to tend to my arm and leg. How he knew exactly where I'd been cut was beyond me. After a while he sat back and sighed.

"Sorry but I'm going to have to do you ankle now," he breathed. I groaned but kept still. Somehow he managed to get the remains of the sandals I was wearing off and gently supported my ankle in his hand. As he applied pressure to it, I couldn't help whimpering. After a bit more prodding, he tested my other ankle (which hurt a heck of a lot more). I swore as he grasped it, digging my nails into my palm to distract me. Carefully he lowered my ankle and came to sit beside me again.

"Sorry about that," he murmured grabbing my hand. When I didn't respond he continued.

"I think your left one's only sprained but the right is defiantly broken." I sighed.

"Great," I hissed. Jay coughed and reached for his bag.

"I can't do much but I'll bandage it anyway," he muttered. I looked up suddenly thoughtful.

"You don't happen to have any Panadol do you?" I asked hopefully. Jay looked pained but shook his head.

"I never thought too . . ." he started before I cut him off.

"It doesn't matter. What matters is you didn't answer my question before, are you okay?" my heart raced as I waited for the answer. Aside from one or two minor cuts I couldn't see anything physically wrong with him. A smile passed across his lips as he returned his gaze to me.

"I'm fine fortunately aside from my sight." I relaxed, slumping against the rocks.

"So what's the plan? Just wait it out here 'til morning?' My vision began to swim again but I ignored it. Jay shrugged not taking his gaze off me.

"Not much we can do besides that. Do you think you can make it through the night?"

I snorted. "Give me some credit, it's not like I've got any life threatening injuries."

"I hope not," Jay muttered under his breath. I pretended not to hear that last part.

"Thought any further past that?" I inquired but Jay just ignored that.

"Theresa I know you're tired and that but do you think you can give me sight just for a few minutes?" he asked looking guilty. I closed my eyes and exhaled.

"If you don't mind me passing out again then yeah I can," I replied watching as Jay looked away.

"Don't worry about it then," he breathed. Frowning I reached out and grabbed his arm.

"What do you need it for? Don't forget about it just because I'll pass out. That properly will happen anyway." Jay kept looking down, not meeting my gaze.

"I just wanted to see the layout of the cave," he whispered. I pursed my lips and nodded. It made sense.

"Well if we're going to do this I need you to lean down where I can reach you," I said and he complied. Positioning my fingers against his forehead, I let my mine flow into his. My world blurred and became blue tinged just like my visions. After a minute or so I felt Jay nodded and pull back. Breathing hard I collapsed back against the floor. I felt exhausted but was determined not to faint yet. Rolling onto my side I tried to get a better look at where Jay was. He was wearing his leader face, examining the cave and rubbing his chin thoughtfully. After a minute or two he sighed and pushed himself to his feet, leaning against the wall for guidance. I stared after him as he began to walk to the cave entrance. It took a moment for me to process everything, mainly the fact he was waltzing towards a sheer cliff face which he couldn't see!

"Jay where are you going?" I called after him, trying to keep the worry out of my voice. Jay paused mid step and looked back over his shoulder.

"There are some bushes just at the entrance here which we need if we're going to start a fire," he stated sounding annoyingly logical. Well sort of. I shook my head and groaned.

"Playing with fire when you can't see it will only get you killed," I hissed. Jay smiled playfully back at me.

"Well someone has to get it unless you want to be cold tonight?" he mused, suddenly disappearing from view. Outside the sky was painted an ever darkening blue as crickets began to chirp and wolves howl. I shivered, though whether it was from cold or the thought of what lurked out there I didn't know. Now I knew how people felt about camping near 'big foot', only ours was slightly less hairy, had a hundred arms and smelt ten times worse. (I think) In an attempt to calm my nerves I cast my mind out across the forests below us and to my relief didn't sense any hairy, smelly, 4000 year old creatures.

The sound of Jay's footsteps bought me back from my paranoia. In his hands, he gripped four small bushes which looked like they had been crudely ripped out of the ground. Dropping down to his knees, Jay began to reach out for me. Ignoring the pain ripping though my stomach, I stretched out and grabbed a hold of him, yanking him towards me harder than I meant to. Falling on his side, Jay looked up at me with a goofy grin.

"I properly don't want to see how that looked do I?" he asked voice light. I laughed and squeezed his hand.

"No, I'll keep it to myself," I said back smiling. Jay sat up, moving several meters back from me.

"Okay I'm going to need you to watch this in case I miss fire and set something alight." I cringed mentally at the phrase but nodded.

"Fine, just don't die." With a faux innocent look, Jay pulled out his PMR and pointed the antenna towards the branches. My eyes narrowed as I focused on the stones around us, using my mind to move them into a ring around the so to be fire. No harm in being over prepared just in case fate decided it would be funny to play with our fire. I held my breath as Jay got the PMR to spark and a little flame grew to life. Jay must have felt the heat because he fed the fire one bush and then moved back beside me as the small flame became a roaring fire. Satisfied Jay shifted to sit by my head.

"I take it nothings caught alight?" he murmured looking down at me.

"No," I whispered drowsily. My vision began to blur as darkness ate away at the edges. Jay seemed to notice and rested him warm hand on my shoulder.

"Get some sleep Theresa; it will save you being bored out of your mind!" It was nice to hear the humour in those last few words. One thing about us, no matter what we got thrown into some one managed to stay upbeat. (Jay and I had to substitute for Neil and Herry for obvious reasons.) That was pretty much my last thought as my world fell into blackness.

Sleep was almost impossible, though some how I managed. Well that was until it got really cold. Even still asleep, I could feel my body shivering. The cold defiantly didn't help with my throbbing side and ankles. In a futile attempt to get warm, I curled tighter into a ball, trying to block out the pain burning in my side as I moved. After a while I just gave up on sleep and just lay there with my eyes closed. In the back ground Jay was humming, though it wasn't a song I knew. With nothing better to do I just lay there and listened to him. Every now and then I felt him rub my shoulders or back in an attempt to warm me up. (It actually worked for a bit.) I let my mind go numb which was as close to actual sleep as I could get.

It had to be an hour at least I'd lain like that until I was awakened by a suddenly jolt.

"Crap," I hissed as something hit me in the side of the head. Rolling over my gaze met with Jay's sheepish one.

"Sorry Theresa did I wake you?" Jay asked smiling apologetically. It took me a moment to process exactly what was gong on. I found my head resting in Jay's lap, my flame coloured hair spilling over his leg. It had been his knee that collided with my head a moment earlier. Groaning, and trying to hide my blush I proper myself up on my elbow. Jay's hand rested on my side, supporting me.

"Don't worry it wasn't so much sleeping as just lying there for the sake of lying there," I muttered back rubbing my head. This earned me a smile that made my heart skip a beat. Weird how love and hormones decide to play up at the strangest moments?

"So what time is it?" I asked yawing. Jay tilted his wrist to show me the red flashing numbers of his watch.

"What only 10 o'clock!" I shouted slumping back into Jay's lap. He didn't seem to mind so I stayed there.

"Yep we've got another 8-10 hours to kill," he said sarcastically. Rolling my eyes I tried to suppress another shiver.

"Fate hates us," I hissed. Jay paused to look down at me.

"You keep shaking Theresa, hear take this." Removing his hand from my side he shrugged off his jacket and draped it over me like a blanket. Now I was pretty sure my face was bright red.

"You don't need to do that, don't you need it?" I squeaked as I caught his scent on the fabric. It was still warm from where he had worn it.

"I'm not the one who's wearing a halter neck top that leaves her back exposed," Jay smirked resting his hand on my head.

"That wasn't my fault! Blame Hermes for abducting me and Neil before we had a chance to change!" I complained. Jay just smiled.

"I wonder what became of your car and Neil's shopping. If we don't find it we'll never hear the end of it when we get back." Wincing at the thought of Neil's tantrums, I directed my anger at Hermes.

"Never mind that, I want to know why he tried to kill us by driving into a wall." Jay looked sceptical but shrugged.

"I've never see Hermes drive but all the guys say he's a maniac. Apparently he drove into a brick wall to get them to the underworld." I tried to imagine Hermes driving full speed into a wall with Neil and Odie screaming behind. Jay seem to be thinking along the same lines and we burst out laughing.

"Tomorrow we're going to have a lot to answer for," he grinned.

"Yep I don't want to think about what Atlanta would do to me for leaving her alone with the boys all night," I giggled and winced both at the same time. Shaking his head Jay rested his head against the side of the cave.

"I was more worried about how much crap the guys will give us for this," he said gesturing around the cave. I'm blaming blood lose but it took me a minute to work out what he meant.

"No, I mean I'm lame and you're blind! How could we . . ." I banished the thoughts that were starting to form from my mind.

Jay's hand stopped rubbing my shoulder and dropped to the side.

"I . . ." he began to stutter but I cut him off.

"Let just say boys, testosterone and over active imaginations and leave it at that for both our sakes," I added, earning a thankful smile.

"Yeah," Jay breathed, playing absent mindedly with my hair. We fell into silence for a while, talking occasionally but mostly just enjoying being close to each other despite the circumstances. I stared out at the fire, watching the flames dance and slowly die away into glowing embers. My eyelids began to feel heavy as the warmth faded gradually from the cave. The full moon hung low in the sky looking almost yellow and casting it's cool silvery light through out the cave. The night was silent and peaceful, inviting my exhaustion (and possibly lack of blood) to kick in.

Yawning, I snuggled closer to Jay's body and sighed. His arms automatically wrapped around me brushing my cheek lightly. We were far beyond the awkward stage now, this was just nice. It was like those rare nights on the brownstone roof where we could let go of the whole leader and fighter thing and just enjoy being with each other minus awkwardness. At these times we were in sync, almost reading each other's thoughts.

"Get some sleep Theresa," Jay whispered in my ear. Fighting against my protesting eyelid I looked up at him, smiling softly.

"And so should you." He was about to say something else but I cut him off (again).

"Stop playing tough and get some rest. I may be injured slightly more than you, but that doesn't mean I need you to baby me." I said sternly. Jay snorted and then sighed.

"I guess I can't argue that. Even bleeding and broke you can still kick my butt," he laughed. I nodded.

"Yep defiantly!" Still smiling Jay pushed me gently out of his lap and stretched out beside me. Without thinking I moved closer to him, resting my head against his chest and pulling him closer. Jay's arms draped around me and hugged me back. Out of the corner of my eye I saw the watch's LCD screen flash 1 am.

"Close your eyes," Jay whispered, resting his chin on my head. Already I felt warmer in his embrace than lying by the fire. Some how this just felt natural, no awkwardness at all.

"See you later then," I whispered drowsily. Smiling, Jay leaned down and kissed my fore head.

"Yep," he whispered back as my eyes closed and the night disappeared.

Well there you go, I tried to make it light rather than dark and depressing. Whether it works I don't know. Next chpt will properly be the last one coz I want to wrap this story up (along with Home for Xmas). Feel free to review!

Plz'n'thnx luv Aussie Heroine!