Rewrite Redemption (43 page)

He grabbed the hoodie and handed it to me. “Here, put this on. You’re shivering.”

I pulled it on. It felt like an old friend. I held up the bloody pajama top. “So much for
SpongeBob.
”

“
SpongeBob
rocks,” he said, with a weak smile. He nodded at Hosa, who was watching us intently. “No insult to your powers, A.J., but I’m assuming Hosa did the deed.”

I shuddered, glancing over at Joe’s dead body. “Hosa saved us twice. You know that saying ‘in the nick of time?’ Well, I
so
know what that phrase means now. Our time was up…my God. I was crouching over you, pressing on your chest, trying to keep you from bleeding to death. Joe was whacking out, jerking around like a lunatic. He was shooting the ground around us trying to psyche me out. I was petrified. And you…you were freakin
dying
. And I was just waiting for the next boom, you know, the one that would….”

I bit my lip, trying to stop the tears as the images flooded my brain: the gun and the blood and the dead guy. Constantine almost dying. The smell of gunpowder was still strong and there was blood everywhere.

To say nothing of a dead guy.

I closed my eyes and wrapped my arms around myself, determined not to start crying like a baby. What a mental case! One minute, I’m happy just to be alive. The next, I’m falling apart. I took a ragged breath and wiped my eyes. I didn’t know if I was shaking from the cold, or the adrenaline, or some kind of post-traumatic stress thing, but I—

Just when I thought I was totally going break, I felt a hand on my shoulder. Seconds later, a wave of calm wrapped around me like a blanket: soft, smooth and warm. It was lighter than usual, but strong and familiar. I let myself bathe in it, shoving the scary pictures out of my mind. They didn’t matter. We were alive! And we were together.

“You okay?” he asked.

I nodded. “I am now.”

“Good,” he said. “We’ll talk about it later. Right now, we need to vacate before the other dude shows up. Hosa should leave too. We owe him big, but he should get the heck out outta Dodge.”

Hosa, listening to us, put his fingers to his mouth. A shrill whistle pierced the air and the stallion came trotting up. “Knife,” Hosa said, looking at me, and then at Joe’s body lying face down in the dirt.

Gritting my teeth, I walked over and kicked the body tentatively. It didn’t move. I kicked it over, tossing my bloody pajama top over the face, so I wouldn’t have to look at it. The knife released with a sucking sound along with a river of blood. I wiped it off on his shirt. I couldn’t believe I was actually yanking a knife out of a dead body; I mean, talk about bizarre.

I cut off his money pouch…no sense letting it go to waste. There was a bulge in his vest pocket…bullets. I gathered those up and picked up the pistol. They seemed to be the only things of value. I struggled to focus on things rather than the fact that there was a dead guy lying at my feet. I guess the fact that he tried to rape me and kill us all, kept me from a total meltdown, you know, about the dead part.

Con called to me, “Cut a few branches from one of the big trees. I want to take them back in case we ever want to return here.”

I cut some branches and gave them to Constantine. Grabbing the backpack, I loaded it with the stuff I’d taken off Joe. Then I helped Hosa up so he could lean on his horse. He clicked his tongue, and the horse knelt down. He stood on his good leg, and I helped him lift the hurt leg over the horses back. The horse got up, whinnying. Hosa patted him and looked down at me.

“Thank you, my friend, Hosa,” I said, handing him the backpack. “Be careful with that leg for a few days. Stay off it as much as you can.”

He nodded. “Thank you, my friend, Aaajaay,” he said, solemnly.

I patted his horse and smiled up at him. Then I returned to Constantine. “You ready?” I asked.

“Absolutely.” Wincing, he held his good arm out. “Sit down between my legs and lean back against me…careful. I’m still pretty sore. We need as much body contact as we can. Lean your head back on my shoulder…yeah, the good one. Reach your arms behind me and touch the tree trunk. Remember what I told you earlier?”

“Yeah, I’m there,” I said. “I’m linked in.” I was. It was simple at that point. I was so connected to the grove, that I found it instantly.

“Good. When I give you the signal, flow your power into the tree and me.”

Then he looked across at Hosa. “Thank you, friend,” he said. Hosa nodded and raised his hand in the Indian-movie peace signal that both Constantine and I had used before. I didn’t know if that was authentic, or if he was doing it because we had, but it meant something just the same.

I raised my fingers in a V and said, “peace.”

Hosa mimicked me, splitting his fingers.

“Now,” said Constantine, wrapping his arms tight around me.

I pulsed my energy into him, feeling the tingle rippling down my body.

As the aspen grove faded out, I heard Hosa chanting. “Peace, Great Spirits of the Sky.”

“Peace.”

 “Ohmygod, ohmygod! A.J.! Is
she
all right? Are
you
all right? What happened? Whose blood is this? Oh. My. God!” Lex crouched over us, frantically assessing our blood covered bodies, touching the pulse at A.J.’s neck.

“It’s okay, Lex,” I reassured her. “Chill. She’s fine. Ignore the blood.”

“
Ignore
the blood? Where did you go?” she growled, not giving me a chance to answer. “I thought you were going to pull A.J. home, not freaking vaporize! The hell?” She sat back on her heels with her hand over her mouth.

A.J. was still unconscious, lying back against my bloody shirt. I felt the warmth of her body sending healing energy into mine.

“Give me a minute,” I begged wearily. “A.J.’s fine. A.J.’s…amazing. She pulled me to
her
time. I couldn’t stop it. I didn’t know that was going to happen. I’m so sorry, Lex.” I was so wiped out that I could hardly speak. Plus, my chest was killing me.

She glared at me, petting A.J.’s knee. “I was really freaked—”

“I know. My bad. I couldn’t stop it. She’s incredibly powerful.”

“Yeah,” Lex said. “Okay, then. Well, thanks for bringing her home. I didn’t mean to rip your head off. I just—”

“No problem.” I shoved my hair out of my eyes and took a ragged breath. “Just give us a second to acclimate.”

“Okay,” she said, taking A.J.’s hand. “I can wait for details, but this blood…whose is it?”

My chest felt on fire and I struggled not to moan out loud. “Mine,” I said, grimacing.

“Oh, thank God!” She exhaled loudly and sat flat on the floor.

“Wow, thanks for the concern.”

“Sorry. Didn’t mean—”

“Don’t worry about it,” I said, straightening out my leg.

“It’s not still…flowing, is it?”

“No. Your girl here, she’s incredible. You should have seen her. I was shot—”

“You were shot?” Her eyes were huge, and I could tell that she was squeezing A.J.’s hand a little too tight. “With a
gun
? Shut the front door! With a
gun
?”

I nodded and gently pulled their hands apart.

“Oh. My. God! Wait! Don’t tell me anymore. I need a minute—a gun? Were they shooting at A.J.?”

“Well—” I decided not to tell her about the bullet that had grazed A.J.’s shoulder.

“Wait, wait, don’t tell me. I need to see A.J.’s eyes, see that she’s really okay first before I can handle this. A gun?”

“There was—”

“Ehhh! No talking!” She held her hand up at me in a stop sign. Then she knelt in front of A.J., leaning over her, waiting for her to regain consciousness. Her patience was brief. She reached out and gently patted A.J.’s cheek, “Wake up, Sweetie, wake up…”

I started to say something, but she shot me a look, and I held back.

“I
need
her to wake up,” she said, forcefully, giving me a look that told me not to mess with her. She continued patting and A.J.’s eyes opened slowly.

“Lex!” she cried happily, leaning forward to hug her friend.

The sudden loss of her body heat gave me a chill. But the ecstatic expression, in Lex’s tear-filled eyes, warmed me right back up.

“Thank you,” she whispered, smiling at me over A.J.’s shoulder. She didn’t try to hold the tears back this time. They flowed freely down her face.

“My pleasure,” I whispered back.

Finally, they broke apart. “I have so much to tell you,” A.J. said. She crawled to the sofa and sat, leaning against it. “You’d be so proud of me, Lex. You won’t believe what I did. I fought a cowboy, kicked him twenty feet across a campsite. He’s dead now. It was horrible—” 

“Dead?” Lex looked horrified. “
You
killed a cowboy?”

“No, no, I didn’t kill him, the Indian did—”

“Oh. My. God!” Lex hugged A.J. again, getting blood all over her shirt. “Where the hell were you…or I guess, when? No, I don’t care. It doesn’t matter. You’re home and you’re okay. That’s all I—”

“Where’s Ipod?” A.J. interrupted, scanning the room.

Lex glanced at me, eyebrows raised, “You didn’t tell her?”

“Tell me what?” A.J. demanded, looking at Lex and then at me. “Guys, you’re scaring me. It’s late. He’s not here. Where is he?”

“Here’s the thing,” I said, wincing. “Sorry, Lex…my bad. There was so much going on, and it was all so dangerous, we didn’t really get around to Ipod. Besides, I didn’t want to stress A.J. out even more. There was so much to explain…you know, about me, and her, why she disappears. We had enough on our minds just getting out of there—”

“Pause!” Lex interrupted, holding her finger up. Then she turned to A.J. and spoke in a softer tone, “Okay, this sucks, but it’s only temporary. The Hammer showed up here at the tree house, knocked Ipod around a little, and then shipped him off to military school. There was nothing I could do. Believe me—I tried. But it’s going to be okay. New Guy and I have a plan to get him back.”

“Military school?” A.J. asked. “Why would—”

“The Wicked Bitch…long story,” Lex interrupted. “I’ll handle it, I promise.”

“He won’t last long there,” A.J. said, her eyes welling up with tears. “Have you heard from him at all?”

“He’s off the grid,” Lex said, with a sigh. “We’re gonna get him back. We have a plan.
Right
, New Guy?” She looked at me, nodding her head towards A.J. “Right?”

“Right,” I said. “We have it all figured out.” I’d get him back for her, but I didn’t have to like it.

“See? It’s all going to be fine,” Lex said. “You just need a good night’s sleep. We’ll deal with it tomorrow.” She jumped up and grabbed a towel from a cupboard. She spread it on the sofa, pulled A.J. up off the floor, and gently helped her down on it. “You need a hand?” she asked me.

I nodded. She pulled me to my feet, using my good arm. I staggered over and dropped down beside A.J., wincing as I hit the sofa.

“We need food,” I told Lex, “especially A.J. She’s totally tapped out. Maybe—”

“I’m on it!” She ran to the fridge. “Soup…we have a fresh batch from Whole Foods. I’ll heat it up.” She pulled out a quart container and poured the contents in a pot, setting it on the stove. “Three minutes,” she said, grabbing a couple of waters. She started to toss one to me and then apparently thought better of it. She opened it and brought it to me.

I took it with my good arm and drained the entire bottle. “Thanks.”

She opened the other one and handed it to A.J. “Drink the whole thing,” she said. “All you need to do now is eat, shower, and sleep. Tomorrow we’ll rescue Ipod.”

“I need to finish Constantine,” argued A.J. weakly. “He’s in pain and he’s lost a lot of blood. I didn’t have time to take him all the way. There was Hosa and we had to hurry.”

“I’m okay,” I protested, trying to be stoic.

A.J. seemed in pretty bad shape, and I knew she was freaked about Ipod. She turned and pressed her hand against my cheek. “You were shot by a psycho. With a
gun
. It was inches from your heart. You had a punctured lung, a cracked rib, torn muscle. It was horrible. I thought you were going to die!” She burst into tears—aftershock.  

Before I could react, Lex was there, kneeling in front of A.J. She took her face in her hands. “You’re okay now,” she said firmly, wiping away A.J.’s tears. “You’re home. This is a psycho-free zone. We’re going to get Ipod back and it will all be as it was before. Soup. You need soup and a shower, and then you’ll be just fine. New Guy, put your arm around her,” she ordered. “Man up. Do some comforting. I’ll get the soup.”