Summary: Gotta stand still to catch rainbows. Sequel to "Chasing Shadows." Jimmy/Yves. Rated PG-13

Part Five

Stagle was sitting in one of the booths of the bar, a plate of
buffalo wings in front of him. He looked up as Yves slipped in
beside him and placed a small silver pistol against his arm.

His backbone stiffened and he said, "Haven't changed your weapon
of choice I see. Come to seek revenge?"

"I've come to seek justice, Stagle, nothing more."

"This is your brand of justice, killing me right here?"

"I've killed before, Stagle, I can do it again."

"And be no better than your father."

"Or you. But it's because of my father that we're here right now,
isn't it? Why did you do it?"

"He asked. It was the least I could do. He always realized that
eventually it would come to that. I was just following his
orders."

She said, her voice tight and on the edge of tears, "I never
wanted that for him."

"So the heartless child has a heart after all."

She leaned in close and hissed in his ear, "Not that you ever
cared." She sat back. "I'm not my father. You don't deserve his
fate."

"You think you can intimidate me?"

"Take a look around. There's no need. My father may have
intended for you to escape, but he didn't take me into account."

He gave her a questioning look. When her meaning sank in, he cast
a glance around, noticing for the first time the watching faces of
several men.

"What is this?" he demanded.

"Justice, Stagle."

He stood up violently, knocking over a glass of water. At the
same time, Agent Perkins and the other agents also jumped to their
feet.

Stagle stared at them, made a choice and ran for the door. In his
haste he slammed the door outward, encountering a brief
resistance. Stagle tore past the man, who stumbled back and
shouted after him, "Hey, watch where you're going!"

He turned his attention back to the inside of the bar, only to
find himself face to face with Yves.

She said, "Jimmy?"

He had no time to respond before she said, "We need him."

That was all it took for him to crash back outside into the
street. The sidewalk outside, at midday, was full of enough
people to make finding Stagle difficult.

Yves, who had followed closely after Jimmy, was the first to point
Stagle out.

"There!"

Stagle was barreling through the people on the sidewalk, leaving a
trail of cursing men and women.

Jimmy took after him, followed by Yves and the F.B.I. agents.
Stagle glanced behind him, saw them, and stumbled on a slick patch
of ice. Swiftly catching his balance again, he hurtled forward,
heading toward a pay for parking lot.

Stagle didn't look back again, concentrating on escaping. His
focus was on reaching his car, but the moment he skidded to a halt
in front of it, he was jerked around, coming face to face with
Jimmy.

Stagle said, "Who are you?"

From behind Jimmy came a shout from Yves.

"Don't let him go!"

Jimmy turned Stagle so that he faced the car and pinned him there,
holding Stagle's arms tightly together. Jimmy heard the clack of
Yves' steps on the concrete, closing the few feet remaining
between them. Agent Perkins was just a few steps behind, his
pistol drawn.

They stopped beside Jimmy. Jimmy ignored Stagle's attempts to
struggle loose, keeping him against the car. He asked, "What's
going on, Yves?"

She didn't get a chance to answer before Stagle twisted around,
jammed an elbow in Jimmy's side, drew a gun from his jacket and
pointed it at Yves.

Perkins leveled his own gun at Stagle, shouting, "Drop it!"

Yves said, "You don't want to add another count of murder to your
charge, do you?"

Stagle said, "What do I have to lose?" He tightened his finger on
the trigger.

Yves heard Jimmy shout, "No!" She saw a blur out of the corner of
her eye and then nothing, as an explosion of stars bloomed
brightly at the edges of her eyes.

The first thing she heard after the ringing in her ears and the
black fog at the corners of her vision faded away was Perkins
calling for an ambulance. There was an agent standing over her,
asking if she was all right. She stood up and when he offered her
a hand she latched onto it, feeling another black wave of
dizziness threaten to sweep her under. She closed her eyes for a
moment, trying not to succumb to it. When she opened them,
everything seemed brighter than before. She saw Perkins standing
over a prone Stagle.

She said, "Jimmy?" and then saw him. He was lying on the
pavement, an agent kneeling beside him, a hand pressed against
Jimmy's chest, red seeping out from between his fingers.

She didn't feel the agent catch her as she passed out.

*

Part Six

"Jimmy!" Yves gasped, opening her eyes to the brightness of early
morning sun. It filled all the corners of the white, pebbled
ceiling. She could smell the old, bitter scent of sterile
bandages and antiseptic and realized she was in a hospital.

She heard a woman's voice say, "He's okay."

She recognized that voice and tried to turn her head to it,
meeting resistance. She brought a hand up to feel the brace
encircling her neck. She whispered, "Jessica?" hardly believing
that she'd heard correctly.

Jess' face, green eyes turned hazel with concern, appeared over
Yves. "How are you feeling, Yves?" she asked.

Yves didn't even register the question, her focus on only one
thing. She asked, "Where's Jimmy?"

"I.C.U., but he'll be all right. His doctor says the bullet
passed clean through, but it'll take some time for him to
recover."

Yves tried to sit up and Jessica placed a hand on her shoulder,
keeping her down. She said, "You might not want to do that. You
were pretty severely concussed. We were afraid you might have a
head fracture."

"He saved my life."

"I know. Agent Perkins told me."

Yves looked away from Jess' honest face and the concern still
present there. She murmured, "I wouldn't blame you if you hated
me now."

"I don't hate you," Jess said, her voice soft and Yves looked back
to her, trying to see if Jess was lying. Jess continued, "I know
you love him, and I know you never meant for this to happen. You
were just trying to protect him, weren't you? I can't hate you
for something Jimmy chose to do, but I can't lie to you, either.
If he wasn't all right, I would."

Jess stopped there, closing her mouth tightly, as if she were
afraid of what she might say next. Her lower lip trembled and she
looked away from Yves, toward the window.

Yves said, "It's going to take some time to come to peace with
you, isn't it?"

Jess nodded. She drew a deep breath and let it out. She said, "I
should let you get your rest."

She started to walk toward the door, but Yves said, "Jess, wait."

Jess stopped, looking back at Yves.

Yves said, "I'm sorry."

Jess' eyelids flickered. She nodded, then said, "Try to sleep,
you really do need your rest. I'll let you know of any more
news."

"Jess?"

"What?"

"Could you stay? Talk to me?"

"What about?"

Yves answered, "Everything I never asked about?"

*

"Just sign here," said the nurse. Yves took the clipboard from
him and signed her release papers.

The nurse said, "Thank you," took the clipboard from Yves, and
left the room, brushing past Jessica.

Jessica looked back at the nurse and then to Yves. She said,
"That was just--"

Yves nodded. "Seems they don't want me anymore."

"You weren't going to leave without finding me first, were you?"

"No, of course not."

"You better not have been. If I recall, you made me a promise not
to leave until this was settled, no matter what."

"I don't break my promises, Jessica."

"Good. I came to tell you--Jimmy's awake. I was just talking to
him. He wants to talk to you now. So, come on, I'll show you
where he is."

Jessica started to walk on, but stopped when she realized Yves
wasn't following her.

"Yves?"

"What if--"

"Now is not the time for doubts, Yves. Just come with me."

This time Yves followed her.

Jessica left her at the door to his room and Yves stood hesitantly
at the entrance. Jimmy had his head turned, gazing out of the
window and Yves had a moment to observe him. His skin was so
pale, the ashen color of severe trauma.

He turned his head and saw her. He said, "Hey, Yves," and that
was all, but it undid her. All the memories of the times she'd
been the cause of harm to him, however indirectly, and this last,
almost fatal incident, combined to cause tears to well in her
eyes.

She said, her voice unsteady, "I am so sorry, Jimmy, so very
sorry." She swallowed hard, trying to regain control, succeeding
in some small measure. She blinked, determined not to allow the
tears to overwhelm her.

She heard him say, "I'm not."

When she focused her eyes back on him, he said, "You might have
been right, but I'm not sorry at all."

"You should be sorry, Jimmy."

"I could never be, when will you start believing that?"

She looked down, unable to meet his probing gaze. She didn't want
to say, didn't want to admit that the past few days had taught her
to believe, to accept that he really did mean everything he said
to her. Yet, no matter how she tried to evade it, the one truth
was that Jess was right--he would love her forever.

"I do, Jimmy, how can I not?" The admission came easier than she
had expected, but she still couldn't look him in the eyes, those
infinitely caring eyes. "You've proved it to me, over and over
again, but I still don't understand." She looked up at him, her
courage returning, wanting to see if he would answer this one
question with all the candor she'd come to depend on. "How can
you love me?"

And he answered it. "Because I just do, Yves. Because you need
to be."

She felt a tear fall and wiped it away.

She said, fighting around the lump in her throat, "I don't know if
I can take what you're offering me."

"What's to keep you from taking it?"

"Nothing. Nothing at all. I have no excuses left. You wanted
this to be over and it's over and...I don't know what to do."

"Start over," he said, as if that was all it would take.

She laughed, a choked, agonized laugh. "That simply, Jimmy?
Forgive and forget?"

"Why not? We have before, remember? Pax, Yves?"

"One word isn't going change everything, Jimmy. It takes time."

"I have time, do you?"

It was such a simple question on the surface, but Yves knew how
much it really meant. She knew he'd been avoiding asking it,
because it meant that she had the power to completely alter their
lives.

She walked to the side of his bed, sitting down beside him, as
close as she could. She reached out, taking his hand from its
resting place at his side, and clasped her fingers through his,
careful not to disturb the I.V. attached there. She said, "This
is the second time you've saved my life, Jimmy, you realize that?"

"And I'd do it again."

The image of him, lying on the ground, his shirt soaked in blood,
flashed through her mind. She said, "You almost died, Jimmy." Her
voice cracked, unexpectedly, and she looked down, at their joined
hands.

"You would have," he said, with an intensity that let her know,
more than anything else, that he wouldn't have cared if he lived
or died, as long as she was safe.

She said, with an eerie calm that widened his eyes, "If you had
died, Jimmy, I wouldn't have been able to live with it."

"What are you saying, Yves?" he asked, agitation clear in his
voice.

"I don't know what I would have done, Jimmy. Without you...I
would have been left with nothing." She held his stricken gaze,
saying slowly, "I've had too much time to think about it,
wondering...." She closed her eyes, and heard him say, "You're
scaring me, Yves."

She opened her eyes. "I'm sorry, Jimmy. I just want you to
understand how much, how much you really mean to me. I didn't
know, Jimmy, how much I cared for you until--" Her breath caught
in her throat. Her mouth trembled a little, but she continued,
"Until I saw your life seeping away. In that instant, I knew. I
need you. More than anything. It's taken me too long to admit
that. I've wasted so much time, Jimmy."

He separated his hand from hers and reached out, touching her
cheek. She could see the pain that effort caused him in the way
he clenched his jaw, but he fought past it.

He asked, "But that's all in the past, right?" and she could hear
an edge of desperation in his voice.

She reached up to grasp his hand and brought it to her lips,
giving it a soft kiss. She said, "Yes, Jimmy, it's all in the
past."

End.