Author's note. Written by me and Mrs Bumblebee.

Suggestions are welcome.

Enjoy and please review.

As morning came across the savannah, the sun slowly rose into the sky and warmed everything back up from its chilly night.

Back in the poacher's lair, McLeach was just waking up. He yawned real big and stretched before he pulled himself out of bed, leaving Joanna in the bed to continue sleeping, knowing it was never very easy for a reptile to wake up in the morning and needs to warm up more until they can.

He gave her a quick scratch behind her head, making her hiss and jerk slightly, no doubt dreaming of eggs. He chuckled before wondering about his little guest. The little brat probably hadn't had the best of nights and it was only the beginning. He was going to thoroughly punish the one who'd foiled his plans to get rich with that bird.

McLeach left his room to go to the kitchen and started frying up some bacon and sausage in a frying pan while he cracked open a couple of eggs and started scrambling them up while another pan preheated.

He knew the smell of eggs would encourage Joanna to get up but while she was warming up, he didn't have to worry about her sneaking any extra eggs. As he cut a small slice of butter to put into the heating pan, he considered what he should give his prisoner. Something meagre again or something a bit more substantial? It was a difficult question and he considered it as he shoved the butter into the hot pan, watching it sizzle and melt.

Once it was completely melted he poured the scrambled eggs into it, filling the air of cooking breakfast. McLeach smiled as he reached into a drawer to pull out a spatula and stirred the eggs around to help break them down.

One thing he'd get when he made it big was a massive chicken coop, guarded by plenty of barbed wire so that no critters could ever make off with his brood. He just loved eggs that much and he always had. McLeach whistled slightly as the eggs bubbled and slowly solidified even as he kept stirring so as not to create an omelette.

He added a bit of salt and pepper once it was finished cooking and poured the scrambled eggs onto a plate and then put the hot pan into the sink to soak. He then turned to his bacon and sausage, which had finished cooking and picked a couple pieces from the pan and put them on his plate.

After a moment's though, he divided the remaining breakfast between two plates, the bigger one for Joanna. The boy was left with a small pile of scrambled eggs, a piece of bacon and a small sausage. He then grabbed some bread, cut three slices and then buttered them. Two went onto his plate and the third onto the boy's plate, Joanna didn't care for bread.

McLeach looked back at the door to his room to see if his pet was up yet but he could clearly see through the door that she was still happily sleeping the day away. McLeach chuckled at this before he picked up the boys plate and headed to the back room.

Cody was curled up on the floor of his cage, shivering and only half asleep. It hadn't been a good night; he'd been too cold to fall properly to sleep and had simply dozed most of the night. At the sound of approaching footsteps, he dazedly opened his eyes and blinked sleepily at the blurry figure of McLeach.

"Breakfast boy," McLeach drawled as he opened the cage to shove the plate in.

Cody moaned in discomfort as he sat up and looked down at the bit of food that the man brought to him. Even though Cody hated the man with a passion he was raised to always be polite.

"Thank you," He groaned as he reached down and picked up the plate to start eating.

"No problem," McLeach said with a smirk before closing and locking the cage door again.

He headed back to the small kitchen and after grabbing his own plate, went to his chair and sat down with a groan. With the food still smelling great, he started to tuck in, idly wondering how long it would take for Joanna to come bounding in.

A couple minutes into enjoying his breakfast McLeach over heard a soft hissing and squeaks off the bed from the bedroom. He smirked as he watched his faithful pet crawl herself out of the bedroom and into the living room with him.

"So, you finally decided to join me," he teased the still dozy goanna. "I was thinking I was going to have to eat all your breakfast up."

She hissed, not seeing the humour in that and as he chuckled, made a beeline for her plate. McLeach chuckled at her before he went back to his own food and enjoyed the rest of it as he ate.

As he was wiping the last of the egg up with his bread, he thought on what he should do today. He wanted to lie low for a bit, the brat's disappearance would have been noted by now and the Rangers would be out looking for the boy. At the moment, they assumed he was dead and he wanted to keep it that way. Hopefully, they would think the kid really had had an accident this time and the best way of ensuring this happened was to keep out of sight.

That still didn't solve his problem of what he was going to do today. McLeach sighed as he slouched back in his chair and thought real hard.

"Hmm what to do, what to do?" he questioned himself out loud.

He supposed he could clear this place up a bit, it was always slightly disorganized. Maybe make sure all his tools were in good working order and perhaps sharpen them. He smiled as he had a wicked idea, why do all the work when he had a little prisoner to punish. Yeah, he could sort everything out and get a bit of joy out of it too.

He got up and headed to the back room. He unlocked it and stepped in and walked right up the boy's cage. McLeach found the plate he had given the boy earlier wiped clean and soon found the boy curled up in the very back of the cage.

"I hope you haven't fallen asleep on me," he said loudly, making the boy jump and stir.

"Not good to sleep during the day," McLeach told him evilly. "After all, how will you ever get to sleep at night?"

"It's safer to sleep during the day then night when you don't have any warmth," Cody croaked out.

"Then I guess I'll have to find a way to keep you warm at night," McLeach said in an unconcerned way as he reached in and dragged Cody out.

Giving the sleepy boy a little shake, he said.

"Come on, you're helping me today."

"Huh what?" Cody questioned before he shook his head and looked up at McLeach.

"Help you with what? I'm not helping you kill or poach anything," Cody argued.

"I ain't asking you to," McLeach said impatiently as he dragged Cody out of the room. "But this place needs a bit of housekeeping and you're going to help keep it."

"What but...," Cody started to argue but McLeach shut him up before he could.

"No buts, now get cleaning," He snapped.

Cody shut up, partly because he was too tired and he didn't want to make the poacher really mad at him. So he allowed himself to be dragged to the sitting room and was handed a brush.

"You can start by sweeping up, too much damn dust," McLeach ordered.

Cody sighed in defeat started to sweeping the floors. While he swept McLeach picked up a duster and started dusting things off.

Joanna was lying near her plate, she wasn't fully awake yet. She seemed to enjoy the sight of Cody working but he ignored her, he wasn't going to get into a fight with the goanna. After a while, Joanna stretched and got up, moving over to Mcleach.

McLeach looked down at her and smirked.

"Ready to help out you lazy lizard?" He asked her.

She hissed in response before nodding. He chuckled before saying.

"You make sure there isn't any vermin about, if there is, you flush them out."

Joanna hissed again and then set out to hunt, ready to chase out any nusents and get rid of them for her master.

Cody watched her sadly; he hoped there weren't any little mice or rats about. He loved all animals and felt very fond towards mice after three had helped rescue him. But there wasn't anything he could do about it, he could never catch and stop Joanna.

Once Joanna was out of the room McLeach glanced over at Cody and watched him as he worked for a bit before he turned back to his own job.

The boy was working fine for now but he'd have to keep an eye on him. That brat would be looking for any opportunity to either undermine him or escape and he sure as hell wasn't going to allow that. He grabbed a box off a shelf and checked the contents; it was full of nuts and bolts, a little dirty with oil.

Cody glanced at McLeach now and then as he worked on getting the floor clean but the time he wasn't watching where the broom handle was going and accidently knocked it against a shelf right next to him which held a few of McLeach's favourite hunting knives.

Cody gasped when he realised what he did but it was too late when one knife fell from the shelf and hit him right in the arm, its sharp blade slicing right into his arm like it was nothing.

"Ahhhh!" Cody cried, stumbling backwards and clutching at his arm as blood poured from it.

"What?" McLeach exclaimed, turning as he thought the brat had stubbed his toe before freezing as he saw what had really happened.

"Shit," He yelled and dropped his dusted and ran over to the kid.

He picked him up and carried him to the bathroom where he sat him down on the toilet.

"Stay there," he instructed as he ran to the storage cabinet to get the first aid kit.

Cody swayed on the toilet, the pain slowly disappearing as his arm became numb. It was still bleeding heavily and the loss of blood and sleep was taking its toll on his young body. He started to slump forward; he could barely keep his eyes open. He tried to hold onto his arms but it was so slippery and it was so hard.

McLeach finally found what he was looking for and ran back to the bathroom and gasped when he saw the kid about to fall over.

"Wow hey come wake up, come on kid you got to keep your eyes open," McLeach said as he knelt down in front of him and gently slapped his face to wake him back up.

"Leave me alone," Cody slurred, barely feeling the slap as his pain filled eyes found McLeach's.

"Come on, you can sleep when I'm done," McLeach ordered as he set to work on Cody's arm, keeping him supported.

Cody whimpered in pain and swayed slightly as dizziness overcame his scents. McLeach worked carefully as he cleaned up the very deep cut, sadly finding sliced open flesh and muscle tissue. The kid wouldn't be using his arm for a long time till he healed completely.

He washed away the blood and managed to control the bleeding but it wasn't enough. He needed to close up this wound and the kid wasn't going to find it pleasant at all. From the first aid kit, he brought out a needle and threat, it was the only way. Thankfully, Cody hadn't noticed and after wrapping the bleeding arm in a clean towel, he lifted the boy up and carried him to the kitchen. Placing Cody in a chair, he quickly set to work boiling a kettle so that he could sterilise the needle.

Joanna came back from her hunt to find them this way and was very confused to what had happened. She looked around the room before she spotted a hunting knife stuck in the wooden floor with fresh blood blade and a discarded broom lying next to it.

Once she saw that she knew what had happened and slowly slipped into the kitchen and watch.

Cody was moaning in his chair, his whole body limp and unresponsive as McLeach bent over him. The kettle was slowly boiling and McLeach was saying.

"Don't you fall asleep now, I need you awake for this," he told the young boy sternly. "You can sleep as soon as I'm done."

Spotting Joanna, he said.

"You make sure he doesn't sleep, I need to get that needle ready."

Joanna nodded and sat down next to the injured boy. As she watched him, seeing how much pain and misery he was in se started to feel guilty and leant up and bean to nuzzled and purr at him comfortingly.

Cody could barely feel her but he could hear her and he stirred as he heard those comforting noises. He whimpered and tried to reach out to her, in this state he couldn't really recognise her but she nuzzled him down. She didn't want him moving, just not falling asleep until her master was finished. This wasn't meant to happen, they wanted to torment the boy a bit but not injure him like this.

McLeach watched them over his shoulder while he worked with the needle. He almost smirked at watching this but quickly corrected himself before he could.

The kettle was starting to whistle loudly and before it could finish, he'd yanked it off and poured some into a bowl. The bowl had the needle in it and he waited for a few moments and then poured the water back into the kettle before putting a glove on. He lifted up the very hot needle and wiped it off before threading some thread through it.

"It's time kid," he said softly, knowing this wasn't going to be easy. At least he was good at stitching things up.

Cody whimpered as he looked up at him threw his eye lashes, only able to see burrs moving around in front of him. He could hear them trying to talk to him but he couldn't hear a word they were saying.

"Kid, listen," McLeach said, giving him a small shake. "I've got to sew this arm of yours up and it will hurt. But you've got to do your best to keep still and it'll be over quicker. Got that?"

"Mmm," Cody mumbled, only half hearing him. McLeach knew he'd just have to go ahead and do it.

McLeach looked down at Joanna who stared back at her worriedly.

"You hold him for me, I doubt he'll be able to stay completely still," he ordered her.

She nodded and crawled up into that boys chair and coiled herself around him.

Once she had a firm grip on him, he took hold of the boy's arm and began to insert the needle into the torn flesh. Cody immediately jerked and whimpered, he didn't like the sensation of the needle but it had to be done now rather than later. The flesh had to be stitched together to allow it to heal easier and make it less likely to scar.

"Just bare with me kid," McLeach said to him as he punched the needle back in threw flesh and pulled.

"Nnh...no...hurts," Cody croaked, his body shuddering despite the fact Joanna was holding him in place.

"I won't be long, just a few more stitches," McLeach replied. "Then you can have something for the pain and sleep, alright?"

Cody whimpered and wiggled around in protest but Joanna continued to hold him still, not letting him wiggle around at all. She leaned up and issued and purred comfortingly to him, leaning up and nuzzled his cheek.

"Whazz that," Cody slurred, staring at her with dull eyes. She purred again and gave him another nuzzle as he seemed to be stiller when looking at her face. Her tongue flicked in and out and the injured boy watched it with fascination.

Mcleach smirked at this and worked a bit faster.

"At a girl, keep him distracted." He praised her as he pulled the thread tight.

Joanna leaned a little closer, giving Cody's nose a little nudge and he giggled slightly. He didn't seem to notice his arm being sewed up at all now and McLeach was very grateful for this. He was almost done; he just needed to be some neater work on the smaller part of the wound. With a sigh of relief, he finally finished pulling the needle through and could tie off the end of the stitch.

McLeach then pulled out an ointment out of the first aid kit and carefully smeared it over the stitched up skin.

"This will help numb the pain and help keep infection away," Mcleach explained to Cody when he lightly flinched from the cold cream being up on him.

"Ehhh," Cody mumbled, his eyes drooping heavily.

McLeach now wrapped a light bandage around the wound so to protect it from dirt but also to give it a bit of air. As Joanna unwound herself from the boy, he lifted him into his arms and took him to his bedroom. Laying him on the bed, he took the boots off and said.

"There, you can sleep now, kid."

Cody moaned groggily before he closed his eyes and fell asleep instantly. Mcleach and Joanna watched him fall asleep before Mcleach sighed in frustration and left the room to let the boy sleep in peace.

"Damn it," he muttered as he grabbed a bottle filled with he didn't care right now and collapsed into his chair.

Joanna followed him and curled up at his feet, looking up at him anxiously.

"Damn it Joanna, what is happening?" he asked her as he stared at the wall.

"It was so easy yesterday; we grab him, make his life hell and then chuck him when we got bored. Why do I care if he's going to be alright?" he demanded of his loyal lizard who didn't have an answer.

Joanna whined worriedly up at him, understand how confused he was. She was confused by her feels towards the boy too.

"He'll probably end up catching a fever or something," McLeach continued. "And who's going to look after him? Me, that's who and that wasn't meant to happen. He won't be good for anything for the next while."

Joanna whined again before she laid her head down on her master's lap, trying to give him some comfort. McLeach sighed again as he reached down and pet her head.

"I suppose we'll just have to muddle on, can't do anything to him while he's too dozy to notice. Can't put him back in that cage, I'll have to make him up a proper bed for when he's ill, I can't sleep in this chair, it'll put my back out," he muttered as Joanna nodded, her master made a good point.

He glanced over the place where Cody had been hurt and muttered.

"Need to clean that up later."

She hissed his agreement before she decided to go finish her little hunt for mice and rats before all of this had happened.

McLeach watched her go, still brooding over the boy. He had no idea what he was going to do and he didn't like it. Things were normally so clear; he never had any difficulties with doing things or knowing where he stood. But now...he definitely had no idea what was going to happen.

Author's note. How does Cody fare with his wound? What does McLeach do about it? Find out next time, until then.