A/N This is the last chapter, except for the epilogue. I am going to post the Epilogue here in just a little bit and then have a beer. Trying to tie 3 stories together without help of a pre-reader or a beta or even a sane mind has been enormously stressful, but I feel like I managed to do it without screwing it up too much. I write as part of my healing process and sometimes it dredges up some dark shit that sends me off smoking cigarettes and blasting out the rest of my hearing with the music I love a lot. This story was one of those that did that more than a few times.

I managed to avoid both talking to J.D. and Emmetts ire for the greater part of a week. Things around the office had been insanely busy with the press in and out looking for an announcement from the sheriff about whether or not he was running again, the Border issue was heating up, and we had a whole new crop of rookies to get situated. I had responded to one of J.D.s texts rather tersely that I was, "Up to my ass in alligators and standing in quicksand." and then ignored the rest of his texts for the rest of the day, hoping that he would assume I was really too busy to talk, but the truth of the matter was, I missed him so damn bad it was ripping me apart. I was frustrated that the sheriff hadn't made the announcement yet, and I didn't even know if I wanted him to anymore. He finally stopped by my office one afternoon and walking in without saying anything, shut the door behind him.

" Ed, you know who all is running this election don't you?" I nodded. "Its going to be a tight field and probably a lot of dirty pool. Anything and everything about you will be fair game, including your personal life. Are you ready for the world to know? Are you ready for that to be what might cost you the election? You know I support you, but this is a town of military, elderly and grouchy old bastards. They are narrow minded, suspicious and they hate anything that isn't like them. You remember that gay fella that ran for city council about 5 years ago? Not only did he lose the election by a landslide, his business failed shortly thereafter, his home was vandalized and he was harassed until he left town. I know your private life is just that, private, but it wont be once you start running. You have enemies in the department, you know that and they will do what they can to hurt you, including exposing everything about you. Just be sure you are ready for that and let me know, because if not, I can give it another term and I have some ideas on how to do some house cleaning." he walked over to my desk and laid an envelope on it, and then swiftly turned and left.

Opening the envelope my heart stopped cold, there were a series of pictures of J.D., obviously captured at the concert he had attended in San Francisco.

I caught up with the sheriff before he reached his truck and asked, Where the hell did these come from?

"Gunny threw them on my desk this morning. He didn't say where he had gotten them, didn't say how he knew or anything else, but I think you and me both know what that means. I had suspected he was alive ever since the Feds showed up in town and you and McCarty started disappearing all the time. Ed, look. I know you want revenge. Hell, I want revenge for him too, he was a damn good cop and whatever happened to him was probably horrible, but if you run for sheriff, this is going to come out and Gunny is going to go after him if he hasn't already. Come out to the house this evening and talk to me, bring that Fed you have been working with and lets see what we can come up with."

I walked back into the office on shaky legs, terrified that J.D. was already in danger. The only bright side to the whole picture situation was that it was in San Francisco and not Portland, so I had hope that they didn't know where he was for sure. I called my Fed connection and told him what had occurred and he was much calmer than I was , he arranged to have a security detail look in on J.D. and make sure that all was well, and then he agreed to meet with me and the sheriff later that evening. I bit the bullet and called Emmett, stopping him before he could get started taking another bite out of my ass, telling him about the pictures and the meeting. He was just as horrified as I was and the fear grew even greater when as I walked up to my truck I saw an envelope on the windshield, just like a ticket would be placed. I picked it up and opened it, finding inside pictures of me and JD. ,from when I kissed him before he left San Diego. They weren't even long range shots. Whomever had got them had been well within range to have double-tapped the both of us with no problem and been gone before the sound of the shots had even stopped echoing. The last shot was of me at the boarding gate of a flight to Portland.

As I was standing there, my heart in my hands, my phone began to ring. I answered it, not checking to see who it was or even caring at that point.

"You get the hint now boy? Yeah, we know your lil queer is alive, and if you want him to stay that way you will do what the hell you are told, because if you don't, you will be getting pieces of him as presents for the next few months."

With that the call ended. I looked at my phone, trying to see where the call had come from, but the number had been blocked. I didn't even recognize the voice. It felt like the world was falling down around me and I had no idea how to hold it up or what to hold onto.

I drove to my place and looked around, realizing it no longer felt like home or a refuge from the stress of the day, it felt like a fortress as I went from room to room checking locks and making sure all was secure. My dog was dead, I had sold off all but one of my horses, and I was considering giving him to Emmett because I never had time to ride anymore and I never wanted to. The barn held too many memories that haunted me, as did each and every room of the house. I was wandering from room to room, in a daze, trying to figure out what the hell to do when I heard a familiar sound approaching. A rattlingly loud set of truck pipes that I would have known anywhere. Racing to the door with my weapon in had I looked out into the dusk and the dust of my driveway to see J.D. headed towards me.

What the fuck? That was the first thought that crossed my mind. The second was, How in the hell had he gotten all the way to my place without anyone noticing he was missing?

"Running for sheriff? Really? Is that how you were going to fix things? Is that how you were going to solve the case and get them? Tell me Edward, were you ever coming to Portland or were you going back to leading your pathetic life in the closet now that I was out of sight and out of mind?"

He was stomping towards me with a full on mad on, and he had gotten healthier and a lot bigger and bulkier. I could tell I was about to end up with my arms full of a very pissed of J.D. and it wasn't for a hug. Sure enough he waded in swinging and caught me with a right cross that left me seeing stars. Before I could even collect myself from that he was bracketing me with punches left and right as my phone began to ring. I tried to block him, but he was all over me and I had no choice, I managed to get a clear shot and I popped him in the jaw, dropping him like a sack of potatoes. I scooped him up and carried him into the house, cuffing him by one wrist to my bed as I went out and moved his truck into my barn and out of sight.

The call had been the Feds, they had noticed he was missing finally. I called them back and went off on them like I had just been gone off on.

No fucking kidding he's missing you fucking idiots, he's right here! He just showed up at my place in his fucking truck that sticks out like a sore thumb and kicked my ass. I've got him under control at the moment but you people need to get your shit dialed in, and get us some security out here!

They hemmed and hawed and finally said that a couple guys would be out to keep watch until he could be picked up in the morning and shipped back up North, without his truck which was going to only slow him down a little and make him even angrier, so I told them to just provide the security for the night and be prepared to escort him after it got dark. I called the sheriff and told him that I had to cancel the meeting that something urgent had come up, and then I got ahold of Emmett and told him that I had a visitor. After he got done cursing, he agreed to meet up with a couple of other guys he knew and trusted,(who had also suffered Gunnys ire), and they would keep an eye on Gunny and his remaining cronies until we could get J.D. shipped back out of town. Once I had everything handled, I grabbed a couple beers and ice packs and headed back to the bedroom to face him.

He was still out, slumped over on my bed, with a rapidly darkening lump on his jaw. I knew I looked like I had lost ten rounds with a grizzly bear, but I felt worse looking at him. His hair touched his shoulders now, and he had taken to wearing it in a pony tail most of the time, except when he was playing his guitar or wearing that goofy hat. I smoothed his hair back out of his face and gently applied the ice pack, causing him to wake up. He glared at me balefully.

"Why the fuck am I cuffed to your bed?" He jerked on the cuff, causing it to cut into his wrist.

Stop it! We cant have you running loose around here. Do you have any idea how much danger you put yourself in coming here? They found out! Look! I showed him the pictures that I had gotten that day. He looked stunned.

"How? How did they find out?"

Jas, I have no idea, but its gotten really ugly around here really quick and I have to say you have shit timing! I was on my way to a meeting with the sheriff and the Feds tonight to try and figure out what direction we were going to go with this. As best we can tell, they know you are in Portland, but they don't know where, or at least they didn't. I don't know what they fuck they may know now.

"I got a call a few days ago, they said you were running for sheriff and that unless I wanted you to get the same treatment I got, I better change your mind." I was angry to hear you were running for sheriff, I felt like it was the last nail in the coffin of us, but I was also afraid for you. You wouldn't answer my calls and I had no other way to reach you, so I figured I would just face it, face what came at me and handle it once and for all."

Were you trying to get yourself killed? Was that what you wanted? Because that is what could have happened!

" I don't know. I do know I am tired of being left up there wondering what the hell is going on. Are you or aren't you? Am I on my own, do you or did you ever love me or was I just a piece of ass to you that kept you entertained while you bided your time and waited for the sheriff to retire? And now that I'm fucked up and ugly, you don't want to be bothered with me anymore, I would sully your perfect world and ruin your chances of finally being the big dog."

He was yelling again and fighting the cuff again, so I reached out and grabbed his wrist, finally just deciding to release him before he did more damage to himself. I figured inside the house I at least had him contained and I had hidden his truck keys so he wasn't going anywhere anytime soon.

He swung at me again and we ended up tumbling to the floor, spilling beer all over hell and gone and knocking over my bedside table. He was putting up a hell of a fight, cussing me and calling me every name in the book as he did his damndest to kick my ass, but I had a considerable size advantage over him so I managed to flip him over and I straddled him, holding his wrists above his head as I sat on him.

"Let me go."

No, you wont stop trying to kick my ass.

"You deserve to have your ass kicked. You lied to me. You dumped me off up in the middle of fucking frozen nowhere, away from everyone and everything I knew and you abandoned me! You weren't even man enough to tell me straight up that you were dumping me, you just left me sitting there, waiting for a day that was never going to fucking come!"

Look, I don't know what I am going to do. A whole bunch of new information came to light today and it throws everything up in the air. I do know that you are still in danger and that they are still after us. PLEASE! You cant be here. You cant do this. You need to go home and stay safe. Let me deal with this as best I know how. I do love you, very much, and if that means losing you to keep you alive, I will do what I have to do. Listen to me! I told you, good things come in time and I mean that, but now is not the time. You have to go back home and stay hidden while I sort this out.

"Just come with me. Leave here and come to Portland. If you aren't here, he will lose interest in us and that will be the end of it. I know it's the cowards way out, but I have suffered enough. Don't make me lose you as part of this whole mess." He had stopped fighting and was laying there, looking at me like I was holding the last rope tying him to the world.

You don't mean that. You know if we don't stop him now, he will kill again.

Angry tears were rolling out of his eyes and I wanted nothing more than to make them stop, but I had to make him understand, I couldn't just walk away from everything. I climbed off of him and pulled him into a hug, and sitting there in the destruction and the beer, and we talked. I told him everything, faced his anger and his recriminations, his rage and his resentment, but the hardest to face was the defeat and resignation I saw in his face when he finally stopped fighting me and listened. We were stuck in a no win situation and we saw no way out. I loved him. He knew I did, but my sense of duty and my drive wouldn't allow me to just chuck it all and quit, so we spent one last, sad evening in each others arms, pouring everything we felt for each other into every kiss, every touch, every moment, and when full dark came, I went and got his truck out of the barn and called the Feds to escort him back home. And feeling like my world was ending, I stood inside my empty house watching from behind a curtain like a coward as he backed out of the yard and drove away.