I thanked the heavens for the full moon as I moved, its glowing rays illuminating the woods ahead of me. I was trying to move as quickly and quietly as possible, the element of surprise might be my only advantage against Delano if I …. no, when I found him. Letting Keller get hurt isn't an option I reminded myself. I paused for a second, listening to the woods around me like Penn had taught me on one of our hunting trips - what I wouldn't do for my bow right now.

A muffled cry caught my attention - it had to be Keller. I started moving in the direction of the cry, hyper aware of any dry branches or leaves in my way now. Voices became clearer as I moved in closer.

"No one will hear you scream," a voice taunted lowly. A shiver subconsciously ran down my spine, that was definitely Delano. I came up behind a tree, now only a matter of feet away from them. Keller was on the ground, her back against a tree while Delano stood over her. I glanced around the area, looking for anything that could help me gain the upperhand - nothing but trees and sticks. No one was ever convincing me to go somewhere unarmed ever again.

I took a deep breath and started to run through scenarios in my head. I needed to be smart about this if I wanted to get Keller and myself out unharmed.

Keller's scream pulled me from my plotting as Delano reached down and pulled her up by her hair. In a moment he had her pushed against the tree with his arm resting against her throat. She was trying to fight him but he just laughed, Keller was no warrior she didn't stand a chance against his strength. He leaned into her and bit the junction of her shoulder and neck as she struggled, his other hand roaming her body. Something in me snapped. The pain in my shoulder from where he had attacked me weeks ago felt fresh, bile rose in my throat and all I saw was red. Keller was not going to go through another attack again, not while I was around.

Throwing all hopes of a plan to the wind, I ran towards Delano. My only purpose to get him away from Keller and give her a chance to escape. I had fought against Delano before and dealt damage, and I was ten times as pissed now than I was before.

I grunted as my body made contact with his, sending us both tumbling to the ground. I quickly rolled away, putting myself between him and Keller.

"Cole?" Keller gasped from behind me, her voice shaking as her body trembled.

"Run Keller," I told her, glancing back for only a second before training my eyes back on Delano who was pushing himself off the ground.

"But.."

"No Keller, run. Just go. His fight's with me," I interrupted. I couldn't look out for her and myself against him, I was barely confident enough to protect myself. I heard her start to move behind me and take off, Delano lunged after her. Moving quickly I intercepted his path making him stop and face me.

"Let her go, it's me you want right?" I asked him, my voice coming out braver than I felt. Thank god for adrenaline.

"We had a deal little one," he taunted, settling into an offensive position and cracking his neck. "If you hadn't gone and talked to your little friend, none of this would have happened."

I felt a pang of guilt for a second, but as the moon reflected off his knife I pushed those feelings away. I wasn't going to let this rage slip.

"If you were a decent human being none of this would have happened," I responded. "And this stops now. I'm not going to let you hurt anyone I care about. I'm not going to let you threaten them."

Delano looked amused, a sinister smile forming across his face.

"The only one who should feel threatened right now is you, you're the one who is going to get hurt," he replied before swinging at me with his knife.

Ducking his arm I moved around him. Regaining his footing he turned and charged again, tackling me instead of giving me room to dodge. I wheezed as his weight forced the air out of my lungs and I instantly started to struggle against him. One of my knees caught him between his legs, causing him him to groan and lean back off of me for a moment. Taking advantage of the opening I grabbed the tree trunk above my head and pulled myself from underneath him, kicking him hard in the chest as I did so. He fell back and his knife went flying from his hands.

I looked towards the fallen weapon and back to the warrior, who now seemed to notice its absence as well. Not wanting to waste an opportunity I took off towards the knife. I was nearly at it when Delano's hand snaked around my ankle causing me to hit the ground hard again.

"Not so fast little one," he growled as he stood up, towering over my fallen form. Looking around frantically I grabbed the closest solid object and slammed it into his knee hoping to dislocate the joint. I almost smiled when I heard a popping noise as I made impact and watched him fall the ground next to me. I turned and pushed myself up, not even getting off my knees before his hand entangled itself in my hair and pulled me back towards him.

"You're going to pay for that," he said, the pain evident in his voice. That I did smile at.

I threw my elbow back knocking the wind out of his lungs, but his grip didn't release. Instead he pulled me back further, arching my back uncomfortably and twisted my offending arm behind my back until I cried out.

"Goddamn it," I cursed, feeling my muscles burn at the abuse. I tossed and turned but his hold on my arm kept me from doing any actual damage.

"I like it better when you fight back," he growled huskily in my ear. "I'm actually glad you interrupted. Keller's to weak to fight like you do, it wouldn't have been nearly as satisfying."

A fresh wave of anger coursed through my body at the mention of my friend's name. And as he released my hair to push me forward onto my hands and knees I reeled my head back to make contact with his face. The sudden headache was worth the pain when I heard his nose make a sickening crunch.

He let go of me altogether as his hands went to tend to his gushing nose. Not waiting for him to acclimate, I scrambled forward towards my original objective. Knife in hand I stood up, feeling powerful and still very pissed off. He wiped his hands against his shirt, smearing it with blood before standing up to face me.

"You think that changes anything?" he questioned, his voice sounding more guttural with his nasal passage blocked.

"I know it does," I answered, feeling the anger inside of me still burning strong. He stepped forward to swing at me, and like before I ducked under his arm and moved behind him. This time I let the knife cut across his shirt as I turned back to face him though. Hissing in pain he threw back his elbow hitting me in the face causing me to stumble. Feeling him behind me I swung out my arm, the knife slashing him across his face.

Enraged he ignored the streaming blood and tackled me to the ground, sending the knife flying out of my hand. Delano didn't even seem to notice as he straddled my waist and wrapped his hands around my throat. I tried to push his hands off of me, scratching and clawing where I could, but the blood dripping from his face made it nearly impossible for me to get a good grip on him.

Dots were clouding my vision, I needed air and fast. Hitting anything in reach, I was rewarded with fresh air when my fist made contact with his knee that I had attempted to dislocate earlier. He reached back and slapped me hard.

"Is it worth it?" he rasped out. "Is all this pain worth it? Are they all worth it?"

Looking at him dead on I narrowed my eyes.

"Yes," I answered, no uncertainty detectable in my voice. Feeling the blood pool in my mouth from his last blow, I spit it out at him. Angry once more he reached back to hit me again but was stopped by the spear point resting at his throat.

"Get. Up. Now," a voice commanded. Delano moved off of me, grumbling under his breath. As I caught mine I looked up at my savior.

"Never been happier to see you Indra," I told her, my voice raspy from the abuse. She said nothing, but kept her spear against Delano's throat. A second later I was being hoisted up - I hadn't even realized that others had arrived.

Jaxon held me at arm's length looking over my body. Behind him I could see Nyko standing protectively in front of Keller. Suddenly all the anger left my body - Keller was alright, everyone was okay. It was over.

Exhaustion caught up with me quickly, along with a dull throbbing across my entire body. Jaxon sensing the change tightened his grip to keep me standing. I was about to thank him but stopped when I looked up at him. His stormy eyes were raging with an anger that I had never seen before, and it wasn't directed at Delano but at me. I knitted my eyebrows together, what had I done?

"Take him to the prison Indra, I will meet you there shortly," Jaxon demanded, his voice leaving no room for objection. Without saying another word he bent down and scooped me up into his arms, denying my protests.

"I can walk you know," I told him, hoping to ease some of the tension. But his harsh glare shut me up immediately. He hadn't looked at me like that since I had first arrived on Earth.

It was a quiet and quick trip back to the healer's building. Jaxon set me down on one of the cots and stood silently at the end of the bed while Nyko came up to tend to me.

Nyko sighed as he kneeled down in front of me, taking in my disheveled appearance.

"I'm okay," I told him quietly. His quick glance down at the blood staining my dress and skin told me that he didn't believe me though.

"It's mostly Delano's blood," I explained, looking down for the first time at my dress too. It had been such a beautiful dress.

"Some bruising and a few cuts, that's all I promise," I told Nyko. The healer nodded and started to wash some of the blood off my face. Once he was done he looked me over once, content that I had been telling the truth and that most of the blood was in fact Delano's.

"See good as new," I joked weakly, earning me a glare from everyone still in the room.

"How can you be joking right now Cole?" Keller asked from beside Jaxon. Her eyes were red and swollen from crying, I instantly felt bad.

"He could have killed you," she continued, causing both Nyko and Jaxon to stand a little straighter. I sighed and shook my head.

"If I didn't do anything, he would have killed you. Or worse," I responded, my voice barely above a whisper. I couldn't hide anything from them anymore.

"Everyone get out," Jaxon ordered suddenly, his eyes not leaving my bed. I gulped at the harshness in his voice.

"Are you sure this is the time?" Nyko asked as he moved beside Jaxon.

"Out. Now."

He waited before everyone left before continuing, "When were you going to tell me?"

I didn't answer but just hung my head down, taking a sudden interest in my hands.

"You weren't going to were you?" He questioned. I wanted to tell him everything, about the attacks and the threats - but nothing came out.

"Were you!" he repeated, this time yelling angrily at me. His voice caused me to flinch, and after a moment I just shook my head softly.

"All this time we took care of you … I took care of you, and you just played us for fools," he accused. "You lied to us. You lied to me. We went out of our way to care for you, and this is how you repay us? By breaking our trust - by protecting the man who attacked you."

He turned away fuming, his body shaking with rage. He hadn't changed from the feast, still dressed in only his low hanging cargo pants. But his body, painted with tribal designs that highlighted his muscles clenching in anger made him more terrifying than any set of treen clan armor I had seen yet.

"No," I responded shyly, causing him to turn back and face me. "I wasn't protecting him."

"Just lying then?" he snapped back.

I sighed, that was technically true. I ran my hand through my tangled hair, all the braids from earlier had fallen apart.

"It was the only way to protect you guys," I whispered.

"Protect us?" he asked unbelievingly.

"He said that if I told anyone that he would kill everyone I cared about until someone stopped him," I explained. "I didn't know what to do…"

"You should have told me," Jaxon argued.

"He might have killed you!" I replied, irritated that he wasn't understanding where I was coming from. Apparently that was still the wrong thing to say.

"You think so little of me that a warrior as unskilled as Delano would best me?" he asked, stepping closer to me, anger written across his face.

"No of course not!" I argued, wishing I could just literally put my foot in my mouth to end this discussion. "I just couldn't take a chance. Delano is sneaky and doesn't fight fair."

Jaxon scoffed at my explanation, clearly not convinced.

"You've protected me since I landed here," I told him, daring to meet his eyes for the first time tonight. "You all do so much for me … When he threatened you guys I wasn't thinking clearly I guess."

"Obviously," he interrupted. Sighing, I dropped my head down again.

"If I never mentioned it then no one would get hurt, that was the deal," I tried again. "By pretending like I didn't remember, it was the only way I could keep you guys safe. It was the only way I could protect you."

Jaxon just stared at me, saying nothing. He turned after a few minutes to walk towards the table in the center of the room and slammed his fists down hard against it. I jumped at the sound.

"I'm sorry," I muttered. Jaxon just shook his head, still hunched over the table.

"He could have killed you tonight," he responded, his voice void of anger but eerily calm instead. "You walked into the forest, alone, and unarmed like an idiot. If we hadn't followed you in, if Keller hadn't run into us in a panic … we may not have found you in time. You allowed your heart to make decisions instead of your head, and that made you weak. Your weakness put everyone in danger, not just yourself. You should realize that."

I stared at his back, soaking in what he said. Guilt rushed through my body in waves, each breaking me down a little more each time. I could feel tears burning down my cheeks.

"Uhm, am I interrupting something?" a hesitant voice called from the doorway. Lucas was looking back and forth between me and Jaxon, unsure of what he had just walked in on.

"No, I was just leaving," Jaxon answered, straightening himself. I wanted to stop him, make him stay. But I was paralyzed as I watched him walk out, never looking back at me once. Seconds later Nyko and Keller joined Lucas at my bedside.

I explained to them everything that had happened solemnly. Never looking directly at them. I told them of the threats, of how he sabotaged Lucas' horse, how he threatened Keller's son and of the deal we had made. I tried to explain why I hadn't told them, hoping they would be at least a little more understanding than Jaxon.

"You should have told us Cole," Nyko said gently, taking my chin in his hand so I would look at him. "But you had good intentions. And what you did tonight was brave."

Funny, I didn't feel brave. I might have earlier. But right now I just felt ashamed …. weak.

Keller hugged me and thanked me over and over before she left to check on her son, dragging Lucas out with her. I laid down on my side, tucking my arm underneath my head ignoring Nyko who was still sitting across from me.

"What is bothering you Cole?" he asked softly, his eyes boring into mine.

"Jaxon is furious," I answered quietly. "He wouldn't listen to me. He took everything as an insult, and he thinks I'm weak now."

"I imagine he would be pretty angry," Nyko replied, causing me to glare at him. Sighing, he ran a hand through his beard before continuing.

"He sees himself as your protector," he explained. "I imagine he's angry because he failed you. He let you get hurt again."

"But this isn't his fault, there's nothing he could have done," I argued.

"Jaxon is a proud man, he sees you not trusting him enough to tell him what happened as mark against him," Nyko said. "And because you didn't trust him, you got hurt. It is no stretch to see why his pride would be injured."

I let what Nyko said sink in. Jaxon wasn't responsible for this, he couldn't have protected me unless I had told him my secret. But that would have put him in danger.

"What happens now?" I asked solemnly.

"You go home and rest," Nyko told me. "Jaxon and Indra will deal with Delano."

At least he would get what he had coming to him. Neither Jaxon or Indra would let him off lightly.

Nyko walked me home in silence. The village quiet now, a shell of the feast that was raging only hours ago. Once we reached my home Nyko bid me goodnight before heading home as well - it had been a long night for everyone. But even as my body screamed in exhaustion I couldn't find sleep. Eventually I stopped trying. Gathering the bear skin blanket Jaxon had gifted me I walked outside. I was surprised when I saw him sitting against a tree just ten feet from my door. He didn't acknowledge my presence as I came up slowly next to him, but didn't protest when I sat down a foot away from him.

"Delano?" I asked quietly. Jaxon's rage from earlier had seemed to disappear, and I wondered if that meant that my attacker was now dead.

"He's being dealt with - jus drein jus daun," he replied. I nodded, recognizing the phrase.

"You're still angry with me aren't you?" I asked hesitantly. His posture was rigid and he had yet to even look at me, clear giveaways.

"Yes," he answered, his tone neutral.

"I'm sorry you know," I told him, turning myself towards him trying to catch his eyes. He turn his eyes away though and just grunted in response.

"Jaxon, will you look at me please?" I begged, unnerved by his cold treatment. He kept his gaze fixed on something in the distance though. Taking a deep breath I made a decision.

"Jaxon, I need you to look at me and listen, actually listen to me," I said as I dropped my blanket and moved myself so I was straddling his lap. His eyes snapped to mine at my sudden movement, his hands automatically going to my waist to push me off.

"Stop, just stop," I told him unwavering. "I need you to hear me out. You can go back to hating me and ignoring me after, but just listen to me for a second."

He seemed to deliberate his choices for a moment before he relaxed back against the tree, his hands not leaving my waist, but no longer trying to push me off either.

"You need to know that I am sorry, really and truly sorry," I told him not breaking eye contact. "I am sorry for lying to you, for always being such a pain, for not thinking things through, for making you think I didn't trust you, for being weak…. I'm sorry for a lot of things Jaxon. But the one thing I am not sorry for is trying to protect you and everyone else. Even if it was wrong, even if I did it in the stupidest way possible, I'm not sorry for it. I would do anything to protect the people I care about. I would do anything to protect you, even if that meant putting myself in danger. That may make me stupid or weak, but I don't care."

Jaxon cut me off by wrapping his hand behind my neck and pulling me into him. For a moment when his lips met mine my mind went blank. I barely registered he was kissing me before he pulled away from me. His hands dropped back to my waist before he looked away.

"I do not hate you, and I was wrong when I called you weak," he admitted, still not looking at me. "You are infuriating, stubborn, and impulsive. But not stupid, and not weak."

The tension between us seemed to fade. Being as brave as I dared, I raised my hand to his cheek and turned his head so he was looking at me once again.

"I'll take it," I said with a small smile, before leaning in to kiss him like I had meant to the first time. As I crashed my lips against his passionately, his hands gripped my back and pulled me closer to him. Tangling my hands in his shaggy mohawk cut style and the braids that ran down his back, he groaned and held me tighter. It wasn't until I was sure we were both about to pass out from lack of oxygen that we pulled part.

"Does that mean I'm forgiven?" I asked hopefully as he rested his forehead against mine gently. He sighed and rolled his eyes, causing me to smile.

"For tonight I suppose," he answered. Content with his answer I cuddled up against him, trying to ignore how cold it had gotten without my blanket. Feeling me shiver Jaxon laughed slightly, before standing up with me in his arms. He picked up my bear blanket and draped it over me as he carried me back into my house.

"Promise me something," he asked, as he knelt down on my pallet of furs and blankets dropping me softly in the middle. I nodded as I curled back into my bed, the plush furs calling me to sleep.

"Promise you won't keep anything from me in the future?" he asked. "Let me be the one to protect you, not the other way around."

"I promise," I told him as I yawned, making him smile down at me. "You be the brains, I'll be the heart."

He nodded and pulled the blanket over me, making sure I was covered completely, "good, now sleep."

Sleep sounded great. Jaxon went to stand up and before my mind could register what was happening I reached out and stopped him.

"Stay?" I asked sleepily. "Please?"

He nodded and I released his hand. I rolled onto my side so that he would have enough room beside me and access to the blankets. I felt him crawl into my bed behind me, almost hesitantly laying against me. I snuggled back against him and he reached to pull the blankets around himself before resting his arm over my waist holding me close.

"Thank you for staying," I mumbled to him, my words slurred as I started to sink into a slumber. Before I passed out though I thought I heard him respond.

"You're welcome, my heart."

But then again, it could have just been my imagination. With his warmth surrounding me either way I didn't care. I felt safe and happy in his arms.

The cat's out of the bag in this one, but don't worry - for those of you who hate Delano - he still has what he deserves coming to him. So please continue to review/message/favorite/follow/etc... Definitely starting to get more Jaxon interaction going on as well, which I'm enjoying writing immensely. So again, leave me your thoughts and comments - I adore them.

Grounder language:

jus drein jus daun - Blood must have blood