"Ice?" I whispered, not sure if what I was seeing was real.

"Angel." Her voice was rough and harsh and cracked, as if it hadn't seen use in a century, or maybe two.

Anything more that might have been said was lost as a large guard came up from behind her and pulled his nightstick tight across her neck, jerking her backward. Her hands released their grip on mine quickly so as not to pull me along with her. Just as quickly, I was grabbed from behind and pulled away.

"No!" I yelled, trying to reach her with the very tips of my fingers as the distance between us grew.

Across from me, Ice mirrored my attempts, stretching her long, strong hands out to the limits of her chains. The very tips of our fingers brushed together for the tiniest of seconds before slipping away once again.

"No!" I screamed once again, trying every trick I knew to squirm out of the death grip my captor had imposed upon me. A low, rumbling grunt told me I was on the right track, and, encouraged, I redoubled my efforts, fighting for all I was worth to escape the guard's hold.

A nightstick found its way against my windpipe then, blocking my breathing for an agonizing moment. My panic reflex kicked in and I gasped for air that just wasn't there anymore. My arms came up quickly to try to pluck the club away long enough to gasp in a breath, but I might as well have been trying to pull a bolder from a mountain, for all the good the effort did me.

A roar that I first took for oxygen-starved blood pounding a desperate riff against my eardrums started out low, then gained strength and volume until the entire world seemed full of its primal, agonized rage.

Though I'm sure the guard's only thought at that moment was for my safety, as well as his own, he had managed to do the one thing that would guarantee him a death warrant as valid as if the governor himself had signed it.

He had touched me against my will.

And if my partner had anything to do with it, by the look in her eyes and the sound of her howl, it would be the last thing he ever touched.

Fighting against every instinctual response within me, I forced myself to go completely limp in his arms. No doubt surprised by this unexpected action, the guard let go.

It was the only thing that saved his life.

Blindly stepping forward while gasping for badly needed breath, I ran into Ice's onrushing form. Somehow, even in the state she was in, she must have recognized me because I felt her still-cuffed hands latch once again onto the front of my shirt and pull me close against her tightly coiled body. I threw my arms around her and hugged her for all I was worth, my lungs still heaving, and my sinuses filled with her wonderful, heady and desperately missed scent.

Four guards hit us a bare second later; the American justice system's version of a goal-line stand, with me as the football and Ice as the halfback.

This is getting to be a very bad habit, I thought as my legs buckled under me once again.

Her stance compromised by the manacles on her ankles, Ice couldn't stop me from falling this time, but she managed to cover me with her body as we were both borne to the ground under the weight of the guards. Her long form protected me completely, her bound hands landing in a place where, had this been anywhere other than a judge's chambers, I would have been enjoying myself immensely. A soft grunt of air was the only indication I had that the guards were doing more to Ice than just trying to pull her off me.

Which, of course, started me seeing red once again.

Before I could do anything with my anger, however, Ice's body was once again separated from mine and she was hauled back to her feet, the nightstick making an unwelcome reappearance against her throat. I scrambled back to my feet, a stream of invectives raunchy enough to make an entire whorehouse blush dancing on my tongue.

The door chose that moment to fly open and the judge ran in, followed closely behind by the prosecutor. At the sight of her, everyone froze as if she were the principle and we all had lit cigarettes in our hands.

"What's going on here?" the judge demanded, hands on her hips.

"Prisoner was attacking that woman," one of the guards supplied, jerking his nightstick against Ice's throat for good measure, though she obviously wasn't trying to get away.

"Do that again and you'll be standing on a street corner begging for quarters," Donita warned, pinning the guard with an angry glare.

Contrite, the guard loosened his hold. Which was a very good thing for him, because if he had maintained it just one second longer, he would have been wishing that Ice had killed him. I quickly turned to the judge. "That's not what happened."

One eyebrow appeared from behind the protective shield of her glasses. "Then would you mind explaining just what did happen, Ms. Moore?"

"I... um... I slapped her."

I've never seen anyone's eyes go quite that large, my mind helpfully supplied as I watched the judge look from me, to Ice, and back to me again. "Ok, so I admit it wasn't the smartest thing to do."

The judge smiled slightly. "Has anyone ever told you you have the gift of understatement, Ms. Moore?"

"More than once, Your Honor."

"Mm. And then she attacked you?"

"She didn't attack me. After I realized what I'd done, I sort of... collapsed. She just kept me from falling. Then the guards tried to separate us and... well... you walked in on the end of what happened after that."

The judge eyed each of the guards in turn. "Is she speaking the truth?"

"Looked like she was bein' attacked to me," a guard mumbled.

"And the rest of you?"

The remaining guards seemed to be suddenly afflicted with cases of spontaneous laryngitis.

"I see. Do you wish to press charges?"

"She didn't attack me, Your Honor!!"

"I wasn't speaking to you, Ms. Moore."

"No." The answer came from Ice, and there was just a hint of humor coloring the low, liquid melody of her words. "I believe I'll live."

A gentle knock sounded, and a bailiff's head appeared through the opened doorway. "They're ready for you, Your Honor."

"I'll be right there, Mr. James." Walking back to the table, she hefted the thick plea agreement. "While you children were busy playing, the prosecutor filled me in on some of the background on this case. While highly irregular, he is correct in saying that it fits within the bounds of the law. That being the case, if there are no objections from either party, I'll sign off on this agreement and you can all be on your way."

"No objections, Your Honor," the prosecutor said.

"No objections," Donita added quickly, obviously afraid I might say something to squelch the deal at the twelfth hour.

Biting my tongue, I turned my head to look Ice square in the eyes. The dazzling blue threatened to swallow me whole. Trust me, Angel, her eyes said simply.

And though it killed me to do so, knowing exactly what that trust entailed, in the end, I simply had no choice. "No objections," I whispered.

The look in her eyes made everything I'd gone through in the past three months fade silently away as the strength and power of her undying love filled me once again, leaving me almost giddy with its return.

Donita's sigh of relief was audible as the judge bent over the table and, with a flourish of the President signing a detente between two warring third-world countries, inked her Jane Hancock on the document that would send my lover back down into darkness.

Though no more words passed between us, the look of utter and undying love remained in Ice's brilliant eyes as the guards, more gently this time, led her out of the room, closing the door behind them.

"What happens now?" I asked Donita after a few moments spent staring at the door in the hopes that it would reopen again and Ice would come back to me.

Closing her briefcase with an authoritative snap, Donita put her arm around my shoulders and gently led me from the room. "That's something we need to talk about."

"Why don't I think I'm going to like hearing what you have to say?"

"Most likely because you won't," she answered honestly.

Together, we walked down the hallway, out of the courthouse and back to the sheltered table out on the lawn, the silence growing pregnant between us.

After we both claimed seats, Donita reached out and grasped my hand. She smiled slightly. "As part of the plea agreement, the prosecution wanted you placed in the Witness Protection Program," she began.

"What? Why?"

"For starters, you're the only one who can identify Cavallo as Ice's shooter back in the Bog. And we're gonna need every shred of evidence we can dig up just to make sure he's convicted on charges that won't be overturned somewhere down the line."

"Surely you've got more than that one shooting to pin on him."

"Yes, but he's a snake, and he has an even bigger snake for a lawyer. That man could get Satan off if he wanted to." I thought I heard a grudging admiration in her tone, but when I looked up, her eyes were filled with nothing but revulsion.

"Well, I hope you and everyone else knows that I'm not going to go for that."

She smiled. "No, I know you won't. It took a bit of doing, but I managed to convince the prosecutor to release you, as it were, into my custody."

"Which means?"

"Which means that it's my responsibility to make sure you don't decide to take another midnight stroll over the border, Angel."

I could feel my back stiffen and my teeth clench at her words. "The last time I checked, Donita, I was still an American citizen," I began, my tone as frosty as my lover's name. "Has something changed that I'm not aware of?"

"No."

"Then why am I under house arrest?"

Donita sighed. "You're not under house arrest, Angel. If you recall, I'm trying to keep that from happening here."

"How, Donita? And more importantly, why? Since I seem to be the cornerstone upon which this entire house of cards is being built, don't you think I deserve to know?"

"Angel, I've told you about all I can tell you. I'm operating under some pretty severe constraints here. Lawyer-client privilege being the smallest among them."

"Then I guess there isn't anything else to talk about, is there?" I said, well aware that I was being churlish and not caring one little bit. Standing up, I looked down at her without smiling. "Thanks. I'll be going now. And don't worry about me leaving the country. Canada holds nothing for me now."

"Angel, wait," she called before I had gotten more than four steps away.

I stopped, but didn't turn around.

A bare moment later, her warm presence filled the space at my side. "I'm sorry. I know this hasn't been easy on you."

"You're right. It hasn't." After deliberating for a second, I turned to her. "Donita, I watched the woman I love more than I love anything in this world taken from our home in chains. I've spent three months realizing that I never knew what true Hell was until I found myself actually living in it. Every avenue I've tried has been a dead end. Every call for help I've made has resulted in yet another door being slammed in my face. And then, when I finally think I'm going to get some answers, I find out that not only isn't the journey going to end, it's only just beginning. I'm sure you'll forgive me if that makes me sound a little bitter. I just can't seem to help myself."

She laid a tentative hand on my shoulder, her eyes warm with compassion. "You have every reason to be bitter, Angel. In fact, I'm surprised that you aren't taking this worse than you are."

"Well, I'll admit that buying a gun and going down to the Bog to break Ice out has a certain appeal right now," I admitted.

She laughed softly. "I'm sure it does. Truth be known, it holds a certain amount of appeal for me as well. Even if it isn't a realistic solution."

"Then what is?"

Her shoulders slumped. "None of it, Angel. We're all between a rock and a hard place here. There's more going on with Cavallo than you know. Suffice it to say that he has some friends in some very high places and those friends have a vested interest in making sure he doesn't get caught."

I felt myself relaxing a little, knowing that she was trying her best to tell me things she shouldn't in the only way she could. "Why Ice, though? Her 'special skills' aside, she's one woman. What can she do that the police, or whoever, can't?"

"She can get the job done. She knows how he thinks, how he acts, what he'll do. She's been where he is and she knows his weaknesses. She's the best person for the job, to put it as simply as I can."

After thinking on her words for a moment, I nodded. "Can you answer me one more question, though?"

"If I can, Angel."

"Why didn't you fight it?" I held up a hand as she opened up her mouth to speak. "I know that, no matter how strong of a case you have, there's always a possibility that the verdict could come back against you. Believe me, no one knows that better. But... even if it did, and even if I was charged and convicted, as horrible as this may sound to you, I'd be happier in prison with her than free without her."

She smiled. "It doesn't sound horrible, Angel. But it just wouldn't happen."

"What do you mean?"

Looking down at the ground, she looked to be preparing her words carefully. "Since Ice has been recaptured, Angel, she's spent twenty-three hours a day in the Hole. Not because she's done anything wrong, but because she's considered a huge escape risk."

"That's inhuman! They can't just keep her there forever!" I could feel my whole body go numb with the thought of what that would do to her, my mind going back to the last time she'd been kept in the Hole, and the shell of a woman she'd become because of it.

"No, they can't. If they tried, I'd have so many protestors outside the Bog the warden would think that what happened with Corinne was a little pep rally in comparison." She laid a hand on my arm. "He knows it, too. That's why, as soon as the trial is over, he wants her transferred out."

"So, even if I was convicted, we wouldn't be together." When the thought sunk in, I began to realize just why it was that Ice had agreed to the plea bargain. It also helped to explain the returned letters and the rest I'd been suffering through for the past three months.

"I'm afraid not."

"When will I get to see her?"

"I don't know. Probably not for quite some time." Though her words rang true to my ears, there was some sort of knowledge hidden deep within her eyes that, try as I might, I just couldn't decipher. And I also knew that she could tell I saw it there. Those same eyes begged me not to ask the question she couldn't answer.

With a sigh, I relented somewhat. "So, I'll ask again. What happens now?"

"The most important thing is for you to be kept safe during all this." Her smile was slightly lopsided. "The prosecution may have to answer to the people who want Cavallo's ass, but I have to answer to Ice. And personally, if something were to go wrong, I'd rather be them than me. They only run the risk of being fired..."

As her voice trailed off, I couldn't help laughing a little, knowing her words for truth though some small part of me resented the hell out of the implication that I couldn't keep myself safe. The rest of me, however, well remembered my last run in with Cavallo's men and wasn't too proud to accept help when it was offered.