MERRY CHRISTMAS EVE EVERYONE!

AND MERRY CHRISTMAS AS WELL!

Thank you to all my reviewers of Chapter 2: Ectofralamazoo, lelann37, fierynightangel, Paradox-Imagination, Live4StarWars, ZombieSmasher, MauMauKa, The-Ochraniacz, LaylaBinx and Enigmus.

~JP

Jensen grabbed Cougar before he hit the ground and placed him gently on his side of the bed, making sure that the damn feather didn't touch Cougar. He turned to face the others as Pooch reentered the room.

"Sorry J. Had to be done." Pooch looked as if he felt guilty for sedating Cougar.

Jensen shook his head. "No, I know Pooch. I know. I just wish to hell I knew what that fucking feather means to him."

"You ain't the only one kid." Roque was staring down at Cougar trying to hide his amazement and awe. "I've seen Cougar mean and rough and pissed…but I have never seen him like that. He was so…"

Clay rolled his eyes at Roque's obvious admiration of Cougar's behavior. "He reminded me of a feral animal protecting his mate." He looked from the sniper lying unconscious on the bed to Jensen.

Jensen could almost feel himself start to blush as Clay continued to stare at him as if he were a puzzle just waiting to be figured out.

"But why because of the feather and why against us?" Pooch sounded offended that Cougar had thought that any one of them could hurt Jensen. Then he looked at Roque, whose threats were only in good humor about ten percent of the time, and understood why he thought that Roque might. But why would Cougar believe that of him and Clay?

Jensen reached hesitantly for the feather. He nearly had a heart attack and jerked his hand back when an exasperated Clay yelled for him to, "Just pick up the damn feather Jensen!"

Amid Roque's obnoxious laughter, Jensen picked up the indigo feather. It was smooth and cool to the touch. No surprise considering it had been lying on the cool satin pillow that Jensen preferred sleeping on.

"It's obviously not a real feather…so it has to be pretty significant to Cougar for someone to leave it." Pooch mused out loud.

Clay just looked at Pooch for a few seconds before speaking. "Come on Pooch. Of course it has to be significant to Cougar for someone to break in just to leave it."

Pooch shook his head. "No Colonel. I mean, this isn't just some run of the mill craft feather. I mean, look at it."

Jensen nodded. "Pooch-man's right sir. Look at this thing." Jensen turned the feather around and around in his hand, admiring the damn near perfect coloring. "Look at this coloring…not a single blemish or uneven mark. This feather had to have been custom-dyed. And this color is definitely not a common color combination, even for regular indigo. It's too vibrant. Too…perfectly pure."

"Perfectly pure?" Roque scoffed at Jensen and the look on Pooch's face.

All talk stopped at the sounds that starting coming from the bed. The men all turned to watch as Cougar began twitching, showing signs that he was coming to.

Pooch shook his head. "Naw man. It's way too soon for him to be waking up. That dart should have kept him sedated for hours. It's not possible."

Clay watched Cougar speculatively. "It is possible if all that adrenaline in his system when you sedated him has already eaten up said sedative."

Roque looked at Clay with curiosity in his eyes. "'said sedative'?" Roque's eyes narrowed as he just had to ask, "How the hell would you know that Clay?"

Clay just shrugged and murmured, "Veronica."

Roque rolled his eyes and shook his head. "Damn fool." Roque mumbled beneath his breath and only Jensen heard what he had truly said. Then Roque sounded confused as he said, "That'd have to be a hell of a lot of adrenaline for him to already be stirring." Then his eyes widened as he had an idea. "Unless the dart wasn't full to begin with."

Clay looked at his second-in-command. "What do you mean?"

"Think about it. If whoever did this went to all this trouble just to leave a damn feather, they probably knew how he was gonna react. And since they knew that we wouldn't kill him, they knew we'd have to tranq him."

Pooch shook his head. "No, Roque. The closet wasn't touched when I went to get the tranq gun."

"Are you sure Pooch?" Clay had to know what the hell was going on.

"Hold on." Pooch ran to the closet and checked the weapons. He came back with a look of disbelief in his eyes. "All the darts were mostly empty. Some all the way, others had drops in them. I'm surprised he was even out for this long."

Jensen ignored the others as he watched as Cougar opened his eyes. He quickly hid the feather behind his back and studied Cougar.

Cougar seemed calm as he looked around at his surroundings. He couldn't understand why everyone was in his and Jensen's room while he slept. The sniper turned his head towards the hacker as he implored Jensen with his eyes for the meaning of the intrusion.

Jensen lowered his head at Cougar's look and started to speak. "Cougar…" When it seemed like Jensen, for once, wasn't able to find the words to say, Pooch jumped in and helped.

"Dude, you went mental and we had to knock your ass out." Pooch felt safe enough to tell Cougar this. After all, when Cougar opened his eyes they could all see that they were clear and focused, unlike before.

Cougar looked at Pooch as if he couldn't understand the language the mechanic was speaking. Then he looked at Clay and Roque and could see the truth of the words in their expressions, although he already knew that Pooch wouldn't lie to him. He just didn't understand what could have happened that caused him to…in Pooch's words, 'go mental'.

"What happened?" The uttered words fell from the sniper's mouth like venom as he sat up and waited to be told why he was shot down like a rabid dog. Except in this case, if he truly had gone a bit off the deep end, he guessed he was lucky it was a tranquilizer dart and not a true bullet.

Jensen looked uncertain as he wanted to tell Cougar everything but wasn't sure if showing and telling him would cause the same result as last time. He really didn't want that to happen once again. Especially since his body was already screaming in pain and it was taking all of his concentration not to pass out where he stood.

Clay watched the interaction between his men and grew tired of waiting. He just wanted to lie down and drink himself into a proper stupor and his men and their drama just wouldn't let him accomplish his goal. And it was making him a bit testy. "Oh for shit's sake Jensen, just show him already."

Jensen startled at Clay's outburst and jumped a little causing Cougar to start growling once again. The team all looked at Cougar surprised by his response; but not as surprised as Cougar himself was. He looked confused, as if he didn't know that he could make such a sound.

Jensen nodded at him. "Yeah, you did quite a bit of growling when you had your mental breakdown a little while ago." Jensen held fast and steady on his feet for the time being as the urge to pass out lessened and his worry for Cougar continued to grow. He attempted to rub his aching neck and grimaced in pain when he used muscles that were now stiff and sore after this morning's mission.

Cougar saw Jensen's grimace of pain and was up in a flash taking Jensen into his arms and setting him down upon the bed. He began inspecting Jensen once again in front of everyone and was reaching to take off Jensen's shirt when he spied the feather Jensen was attempting to hide from him. Failing to hide from him would be more accurate to say.

Cougar's eyes widened and he began growling once again. The others became tense and watched him closely but he didn't react like he did before, other than the growling. Which was good because Jensen was considering hurting himself even more by throwing himself back across the bed and onto the floor if Cougar thought for a second he was gonna push Jensen in a corner yet again. Cougar KNEW how much Jensen hated being stuck in a corner with no way out.

Clay kept his gaze trained on Cougar. "Cougar, what the hell does that thing mean to you?"

Cougar kept his eyes steady on Jensen as he replied to Clay's inquiry with deadly seriousness. "It's a warning."