Rush paced around his room like a caged tiger, unable to concentrate on anything let alone resting like the frantic nurses were trying to get him to do. His mind was buzzing with questions, which was preventing him from sleeping. It was preventing him from resting.

“God Rush will you cut that out? You’re making me dizzy just watching you.” In the cot next to his Daze was sitting up in bed with a book in his hands trying to read though finding it impossible with Rush’s constant movement as a distraction. “So Mousy yelled at you. What did you expect? You nearly killed her boyfriend.”

“What the hell makes you think he’s her boyfriend?!” Rush shouted turning to Daze only to see him raise an eyebrow over his reading glasses.

“You can’t be serious. I mean you only walked in on them making out on the damned bed what do you think they are?” he sighed and went back to his book, rather annoyed with the entire situation in general. While he didn’t really like the thought of Mousy being left alone with that guy, even if he was some sort of boyfriend, he knew there would be nothing they could do to prevent it. There was no way in hell they would let her interfere with any part of her life. She never had allowed it and probably never would.

“What makes you think that makes him her boyfriend? He could have forced himself on her!” Rush continued to make up scenario after scenario of what could have happened, all of them sounding like bad romance novels to the mage who was hardly paying attention.

“Look Rush if he had been forcing it upon her in any way you wouldn’t have needed to kick his ass. She would have already beaten you to the punch and even if he had gotten the better of her by some miracle she wouldn’t have pushed you off when you about killed him.” Daze spoke in a matter of fact tone that also said he was tired of listening to the others conspiracy theories. “Just relax. You know how Mousy is. She’s probably forgotten the entire thing has happened by now.”

“That was always the thing about her. She could be so pissed at you one moment that you were scared for your life yet the next she would be as gentle and kind as a lamb again. Rather annoying bit about her really, but oh well.” The two looked over in shock at the sound of a strange voice in their room. A voice that Rush recognized immediately.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing here?!” he hissed at Luke, balling his hands up into fists and preparing himself for a fight. From behind Luke came a low growl and the huge wolf appeared standing directly behind him in the hall. It hardly caused Rush to even glance back though Daze was looking extremely nervous with the giant creature that had spelled the gruesome and painful end for those soldiers only paces away from him.

“Mousy is asleep again. Not surprising though. The state she had been in could hardly be considered restful.” Luke allowed himself in the room, taking a seat on a chair across from the two beds. He carried on as if nothing had happened. As if him and the other two men were good friends, and that pissed Rush off even more. It was bad enough that he had been messing around with Mousy, but now he was acting as if nothing had happened.

“Answer me damnit!” Rush came at the other and lifted him out of the chair and pinned him to the wall high above his head. Luke didn’t even flinch, however, and merely smiled down casually at his attacker.

“What’s wrong Rush? I can’t come in to check on the two people that I saved?” his voice was mocking and cold and made the rangers blood boil even more, but something inside his mind clicked causing the anger to subside for a moment. Lowering him Rush stepped back enough that he could clearly look at him.

“People you saved?” he had known that the man had killed the guards who were about to kill them, but had he been the one to take them back to the hospital? Now that Rush thought about it, it had made sense. Who else would have? The High Council certainly wouldn’t, especially not after finding several of their finest guards lying torn apart in bloody heaps all over the floor.

“Well that explains the mystery of how we got here. Why didn’t we think to ask that before Rush?” the ranger shot Daze a dirty look saying he wasn’t in the mood for sarcasm or wit though that had hardly been his intention with the question. He genuinely felt stupid for not thinking of that sooner.

“It’s simple. After having to knock you out because you brashly attacked me I had to place you on Narltzi’s back.” The wolf snorted in indignity at the memory of being used as a pack mule “I carried you back here though it wasn’t very easy. I had to be careful what I said and did since the High Council would have had us all killed if I told them that I had halted their plan to steal Mousy and slay the rest of you. To bad they have so much power. I would have loved to see their faces when they found out straight from the horses mouth.” Luke’s smile upturned into a vicious smirk and while Rush still hated the man he had to agree. That would have been the highlight of his day.

“But why did they want Mousy? And what the hell happened to her?” Daze had placed his book down now and was paying very close attention to what was being said. Rush rolled his eyes at this, but was ignored by the other two.

“That is something that not even I’m sure of. I simply knew they had sent a fresh pack of hunters onto the ship which meant more would end up dead. I was tired of letting that pack of council dogs slaughter hunters needlessly so I decided to intervene. Just happened to be my luck that I got what they wanted first.”

“Let me ask you this though, what the hell were you doing all this for in the first place? To go against the Council in such ways would be sticking your own neck out for the ax to chop off. I think you know more then you’re letting on because otherwise you have no reason to do any of this and you don’t seem like the type of person who would just throw his own life away.” Luke raised his eyebrow before returning to his seat and leaning back in the chair.

“I have employers who are interested and that’s all you need to know.” The fighter spoke in such a matter of fact tone that even the ranger knew it would be pointless to try and dig information from him.

“Fine, but can you at least tell us more about who you are? We know about your damned mission, or as much as you’ll let us, but otherwise we know nothing about you.”

“That is something I can tell you. My name is Luke and as for my connection with Mousy well I think you can figure that part well enough on your own. And if she didn’t tell you details then neither will I.” Daze nodded understanding the reasoning behind it though he still didn’t like the fact that they knew so little about him. At least he seemed sincere in what he told them despite the fact that it wasn’t much. Rush, however, was not about to let things go so easily. Just as he was preparing to argue the door opened once again and in walked a rather sleepy, slightly confused and sloppy looking Mousy wearing a t-shirt and pajama bottoms.

“Hey everyone.” She said in a half sleeping voice suggesting she had just woken up. Of course the fact that her hair was a tangled mess of bed head also gave it away.

“You’re awake finally.” Daze joked smiling at her while Rush just glanced a bit worried in her direction. He wasn’t sure how she would react to him after everything that happened yesterday and was more then a little afraid of her wraith.

“Love.” Luke got up and gave her a light kiss which she returned rather distractedly, still not awake enough to really know what was going on.

“What are you all doing here?” she questioned in a sleepy voice, rubbing her eyes and taking a seat next to Luke in one of the chairs. Rush eyed them wearily while Daze couldn’t help, but smile at the two of them. This was probably the first time that he actually had seen Mousy so calm and relaxed. Usually she would have been up and in uniform by now ready for their next mission with little to no care as to her health. Now she seemed more natural and laid back then she had ever been. And all because of the appearance of this one man. It made him wonder just what kind of relationship they had and what caused them to separate for so long in the first place. And why hadn’t Mousy ever mentioned him? He knew that the ranger never really liked to talk about her personal life ( found that out the hard way when he insisted she tell him about her eye patch. He had walked bow legged for weeks after that little mess up. ), but she would mention things every now and again. About her family, friends, places she had been. Surely she would have said she had a boyfriend unless something serious had happened.

“We were just about to discuss a way of getting you guys off of here before the Council realizes you’re alive and comes back to finish what their lackeys couldn’t.” Luke’s voice broke the mages thoughts and caused him to snap back to reality.

“Well what do you plan we do then? After all you seem to be the one with all the answers.” Rush spoke, poison dripping from his voice with each word. Mousy was awake enough to shoot him a glare, but ignored it for the most part.

“If you think you can watch your tongue long enough to listen then yes, I do have one.” Luke smiled as all attention was turned to him.