***I'm so sorry this was so late. I had severe writer's you know what! The kind that had me scouring the ol' YT for some Slicker inspiration. When that didn't work I searched under JK and got the most jaw dropping scare of my life. It's seared into my brain like a brand, and every time I watch the show it pops back up into my subconscious like a guilty nightmare. Let this be a lesson to those that watch before you read the description. Hee hee!***

This sensation was familiar as Jake teetered on the brink of consciousness and wake. There was an odd numbness detaching him from his body and yet he continued to feel weighted down by its tether. Little by little as his aching body began to rein him back down into the physical world, Jake's head throbbed with a painful pulse. It cracked along the front of his forehead practically splitting his skullcap in half; or so, it felt. The racking pain jarred him down to his aching molars making every little movement agony. Yes, this felt like old times. Times when solace was found at the clear glass, amber dribbled bottom of a whiskey bottle. However as his tongue pushed up against the roof of his mouth sticking dryly about his teeth he knew he had kept true. There was no bitter tang or dwelling nausea anchoring him on his back. His lids twitched under the pressure of her practiced finger as she gently shoved his eyelid up. For a brief moment Jake's swimming eye captured her shape as a mere blur against the brightness of the room.

Jake's mind wandered back into the darkness of his memory, jolting something up from his breaking heart to the forefront of consciousness. Had it been a dream or had Teresa actually come home to him? The excitement of this prospect roused him, causing his eyes to flutter fitfully open. Slowly, her blurred form became much more refined, revealing a different sort of lovely creature. A creature on the verge of lecture.

"How are you feeling Jake?" Michaela's voice though laced with concern was also cautious. She reached her slender hand off to the side receiving a rung out linen in return. He waited until she plastered the cool fabric along his aching forehead.

"I-I wasn't drunk," he murmured clumsily.

Michaela jerked her head up with a start, her finely shaped eyebrow arching with incredulity. Her gaze wandered off to the side seeming to meet with another's mirrored expression. "Jake no one thought that."

Still feeling slightly disoriented, Jake reached up shakily pressing the moist linen against the shattering throbbing of his head. "What happened?"

Michaela sighed allowing her mouth to curve gently up to one side. "Well, more likely this is a case of exhaustion. Clearly, you haven't been sleeping and judging by the sallow coloring in your skin, I'd say you haven't been eating either." Once again, she cast her gaze just beyond Jake's view. "I should have come out to check on them…I'm sorry. I just didn't think it was my place…"

"You could not have known," her voice was like velvet, caressing his ear.

At the mere sound, Jake immediately set himself to trying to rise only to be met with two sturdy hands on his shoulders weighing him back down. He watched as both Michaela and Teresa exchanged seats, all the while a man's strong hands offered Jake support.

"Jake, please, you must calm yourself," Teresa laid her hand gently on his ribcage, settling him slightly.

"I'm sorry I hurt yah," he took hold of her hand cupping it close to his heart. "I thought you were her."

Teresa tilted her head in confusion, "Who?"

"Uh, Jake," Michaela broke in before he could answer. Unsure how to continue however, she nodded to Jake that she would corroborate his side of the story.

Jake took a breath as he held firmly to her hand. His eyes fixed themselves to her mahogany gems which watched his face, filled with love and unmitigated trust. There was nothing he could hide from her. Teresa knew his soul, his mind, and his heart. Together they had thrown off the shackles of their horrid pasts, and created beauty in their daughters. Jake had never known unconditional love until he met her, had never known the kind of happiness that came from being a whole man. Now as he looked up into his wife's kind and caring face, he began from the beginning.

As the words slipped from his lips, his gaze never wavered, locking her line of sight with his. When he was finished, she leaned back though her hand remained pressed into his chest. Teresa swallowed breaking from his face and turning to face Michaela. Michaela straightened with her hands resting in her lap, fully prepared to vouch for Jake. But Teresa smiled and softly shook her head. "That won't be necessary, Dr. Quinn," she turned back to Jake's confounded expression. "If it would have been so easy for you to stray from me, I would not have married you."

Michaela and Jake collectively relaxed, as Randall came around and slouched against the mantle of the fireplace. "This Celina," he began picking at his thumbnail, "She a pretty gal?"

Jake sat up pulling Teresa closer to him as Michaela sighed in response, "Yes, I'm afraid I must admit she is rather attractive. But I don't see what that has to do with anything. If what Jake has witnessed was indeed Celina in the house, she could be rather dangerous."

"Are you sayin it ain't safe for the girls tah be here?" Jake raised his brows, as Teresa replenished the linen cloth from Jake's forehead and gently pressed it against the back of his neck.

However, Randall intercepted with his ever-probing thoughts, "How did she gain your trust, if you weren't interested in her?"

Jake huffed wishing he were at full strength, "She…she picked up Izzy."

Teresa and Michaela exchanged awestruck glances, as Randall interjected again, "What does that mean; she picked up your kid?"

"Mr. McCoy," Michaela began still unaccustomed to the idea of this askew man. There was a hard slightly boyish air about him, yet one could definitely sense the danger of falling under his wrath. His appearance at their door this night had certainly set Sully on edge until he'd mentioned Teresa's plea for help. "Izzy can be rather… sensitive with strangers."

"More like the temperament of a banshee," Jake muttered under his breath before smiling warmly at his spark of an offspring.

"Then how'd she manage to pick her up?" Randall's voice remained even and tranquil.

"The rose oil," Jake took hold of Teresa's free hand and kissed her open palm. "She was makin' herself smell like Teresa."

Teresa inhaled pressing her lips into a subdued pout. Her calm was commencing to crack, at the thought of her child being tampered with. Had this woman attempted to usurp her? Her mind traveled back to the sight of her sleeping babies, warm and safe in their beds. After Randall had sped off and Jake seemed to lie thickly under his unconscious vale, she'd crept up to their rooms. It was agony to see them just within her reach, but she didn't dare go to them yet. She must return to Jake, should he wake once more. "How did she know what I…" she raised her brow awkwardly, feeling her face flush. "What I…smelled like?"

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Running her fingers along the softly knitted wool of Izzy's blanket, she nuzzled her finger up under her round chin. The child slept deep and serene, with her arms bent up to the sides of her vermilion petals of hair. The moonlight cast brightly across her face making Izzy's snowy complexion appear to glisten. Her long thick lashes crisscrossed with light strands of honey and the darkest mahogany and mocha.

A rustle of footsteps sounded from the parlor below, causing Izzy to stir stretching her small arms out into the darkness before her, then resting back down by her face. Celina sighed bending over the cradle, gently soothing Izzy's tiny chest. It had been a close call earlier, when the mother had returned and nearly discovered her laying Izzy back down into her cradle. Striking like an adder, Celina slithered up along the midnight shadows of the wall behind the door.

The woman did seem to be something of a sight, she'd thought observing the way her long onyx tresses formed fat lazy curls which bounced just below her cinched waist. Her oval face and round features were exquisite and as she bowed her head to watch her sleeping baby, Celina could see her long thick lashes. They fringed her round russet eyes that gave her face a very gentle yet fiery aura. Celina's emerald eyes fired with jealousy, from her place, cloaked within her alcove of shadows, as she had watched Teresa leave.

Now as Celina watched over Izzy she whispered softly, "I'm still here my darling. Don't you worry. Soon it will be just you, me, and your father." Like a spider creeping down from it's web, she bent over the cradle and lightly brushed her lips against the babes forehead. "Just us three."