CHAPTER NINETEEN *Jess's POV*       I moved my arm and felt a groan rip through my throat. darn it all to hell, it hurt so bad. The bed I was so soft and comfortable. There was a deep indent as a cool body mass sat next to me. A light pair of lips touched my forehead and I opened my eyes to see Jeremiah's adam apple pulling away.

     "Morning sunshine," he whispered. I noticed the deep shadows in the corners of the room.

     "It's a bit dark to be morning, isn't it?" I asked, surprised at how hoarse my voice sounded.

     "That's because it's somewhere between 2 and 4 AM. You've been asleep for nearly two days," I saw the darkness underneath his eyes and shook my head slightly.

     "And you haven't slept at all for the past two days, or more," he smiled slightly at my remark.

     "I was worried. The doctors said that they'd never seen so much damage done on top of so much scar tissue," I lightly patted his close by hand.

     "You don't have to worry about me. I'll never die on you - I can't," I felt the ring on my finger and smiled. "I'm engaged to a man I know nothing about," I saw the worry creep into his face and faintly smiled again.

    "But a man that I completely trust and would die for," he smiled and yawned lightly.

     "You should get some sleep," I told him sternly. He smiled and stood up. I held his wrist.

     "There's more than enough room," I told him, not wanting him to leave my side. He hesitated, and then came onto the bed again. I moved towards the side to make room for him and waited for him to get situated.

     After a few moments he stopped moving and I laid halfway on him, resting my head over his unbeating heart. He wrapped his arm around me, very lightly rubbing my shoulder. I felt dirty with the dried blood still on me, but I felt so comfortable in his arm. Soon I drifted off to sleep again, comfy on my soon-to-be-husband. *******

     "I wanna see her Jer-Jer!" a young, whining, whimpering voice pleaded quietly.

      "You can't right now, she's sleeping," I felt Jeremiah's voice rumble in his chest. I felt a thin sheet move lightly over my face.

     "All you have to do is lift up the sheet," another voice butted in. This conversation was quickly annoying me. I moved my head very slightly on Jeremiah's chest so he would know that I was awake.

     "She moved! That means she's awake!" the young voice shrieked.

      "No, you're just giving her nightmares. Now leave so she can get back to a fitful-like sleep," the children groaned and I heard little footsteps leaving the room. The door shut and Jeremiah slid the sheet off of me.

     "Thanks for taking off my shoes," I told him, wiggling my toes against his legs. He smiled and kissed my forehead.

     "Anything for my wife," he ran his fingers gently down the curve of my body.

     I stretched up and kissed his jaw. I was starting to go down to my former position when he caught my chin. We stayed frozen in that position before he gently leaned down and kissed my lips.

     I felt the same longing and knowing that I felt before. I kissed him back, feeling his hunger for me. He slid his tongue into my mouth and I welcomed it. We were interrupted as a knock came at the door.

     "Who is it?" Jeremiah asked in a slightly husky voice.

     "A healer who is on an extremely tight schedule," came the brisk voice of a man. Jeremiah gently lifted me off him, deposited me softly back on the bed, and strode over to the door. He opened it to show a young, serious face with middle length silver spiked hair rimming it partially. I pushed myself up on the bed and greeted the visitor.

     "Hello, Uncle," I said cheerfully.

     "Uncle?" Jeremiah asked. At the same time, my old friend named "Uncle" asked:

     "Jess?"

     I nodded my head as Uncle launched himself into the room to next to the bed. Despite him looking old, he had few years under his belt and more energy than I could ever suspect. He was only nineteen. I smiled as his grey robes fluttered about him.

     "So you're now the wisest and strongest healer?" he nodded and sobered.

     "I learned from the best," I bowed my head as Jeremiah looked between us.

     "Uncle?" he asked again.

     "Oh, I go by Koi now, Jess," Uncle told me.

     "Well, I'll always call you Uncle," I splease don't use racial slursed. "I guess I'll have to call you Fishy Uncle now, though, or Uncle Fishy" we both smiled and Jeremiah still looked dumbfounded.

     "When I was down here, this young man's name was Uncle V. David," I explained to him.

     "Hey, I'm not that young, just three years younger than yourself," Uncle said offended.

     "Once younger, always younger," I told him.

     "Once immortal, always immortal," he murmured back and we both fell silent, remembering old times. Jeremiah came forward after a few moments.

     "Will you be able to heal her?" he asked, worry hinting in his voice.

     "Hmm?" Koi asked. "Oh, um. I can't rightly tell you. There's one person that's stronger than me. I'm wondering why she hasn't been healed by them yet," he looked at me and I glared back.

     "What are you talking about?" Jeremiah asked him.

     "When I was brought to the orphanage, there was an extremely skilled healer. I studied under her and since then I believe we've both grown," something snapped together in Jeremiah's head and he looked at me.

     "Why haven't you healed yourself yet, then? And if you could heal yourself before, why do you have all those god-damned scars,"

     "Because I put most of my powers away when I left here. I haven’t healed myself from this yet because the wards I put on myself are so strong there's only two ways that I'd reopen them. One: gently and efficiently open them with my smaller powers which have blown to bits, reassembled and blended too many times within the past three days.

     "The second way is to have someone who knows me and knows exactly what they have to do to pry open my reserves. That way takes too long, takes too much power from the person, and leaves me with a dangerous appetite,"

     "I'm guessing that Koi is the only one that knows how to do it?" Jeremiah asked, sitting by my feet and gently rubbing the top of them.

     "He's the only one with the skill to find out," I told him, wiggling my toes. Koi sat in the chair next to the bed.

     "What does he mean by scars?" Koi asked protectively.

     "They're nothing of importance," I started to tell him, but Jeremiah butted in.

     "I don't know why she has them, but they're all over her body," I pulled the thin sheet further up my neck as Koi looked at me.

     "Let me see them," he told me sternly. I shook my head "no" and he stood. As he towered over me, he growled.

     "I am the one to heal you and I will see your condition before I do so," I glared up at him.

     "For what you're going to do, you don't need to," I told him back just as sternly. Before I could say anything else, Jeremiah tugged the sheet off of me. I gasped, crossed my arms and looked at the empty side of the bed as Koi surveyed my body.

     "My god, Jessi, why didn't you do anything about this?" he asked me. I gritted my teeth and stayed looking at the interesting wall pattern. Koi's gentle warm hand touched my arm and I tensed up. He got a stern, angry look on his face and sat on the bed, right next to me.

     "I'm not going to do anything or go anywhere until you tell me," he said. I took a deep breath and winced.

     "I'll tell you if you get the bullets out of me first," I was getting agitated from his silvery gaze being on me.

     "Fine. Jeremiah, will you get me warm water in a medium sized bowl," Koi asked as he unbuttoned the only button on the top of his robes. Inside of his robes was full of carefully proportioned medications, wrapped for their individual safety. Carefully he set it over the chair, taking out three bottles.

     "Lay down completely please," he asked in a very professional manner. I did as I was told, stretching out completely on the big bed.

     "Won't the blood stain the sheets?" I asked Jeremiah as he entered.

     "Your blood's already on it," he calmly told me back. I nodded and hissed as Koi put something on my side to clean the cut.

     "Sorry. You were going to tell me about how you got all those scars," he mumbled, bringing up the chair and pulling the sheets under me until I was at the edge of the bed.

     "Well, there's not really much behind them; people tried to get me, I fought back and got hurt," my body jerked in pain when he took off the thin scab.

     "I think you're going to have to hold her down, highness," Koi told Jeremiah. Jeremiah, in turn, knelt on the bed on my opposite side and gently put one hand on my shoulder and the other on my upper thighs.

     Koi nodded at Jere, who nodded back and steeled his grip. Then he looked at my cut, his eyes becoming foggy. Without warning, he plunged the tiny tongs into the entry wound. While he opened them up to get the bullet, I held my breath and tried to fight the urge to curl up. I was glad that Jeremiah's strong arms were there to help hold me down.

     When Koi pulled the bullet, there was a large amount (of bullet and tongs) coming out of a small hole. I screamed shortly and arched my back.

     "You need to keep her down!" Koi said quickly. Jeremiah thought for a split second and pressed his head into the good part of my stomach, forcing my back to straighten with the force of it. I grunted with his sudden force and gritted my teeth again. Koi pulled the bullet, and this time, got it out.

     "Keep holding her," Koi warned Jeremiah. As he turned back to his robes, Jeremiah took his head off of my stomach. Slowly he moved and kissed my cheek. Koi quickly sewed up the hole and put a small gauze pad on it.

     "You can let go of her now," he told Jeremiah, who let go immediately. Koi was silent as he jumped on the bed and sat on my stomach, pinning my arms with his legs and facing the bullet in my leg.

     "Lovely techniques Uncle," I muttered.

     "Thank you very much," he told me just as sarcastically. "Highness, will you sit on her shins so she doesn’t kick," Jeremiah gladly sat on my legs as Koi opened up the scab.

     "You two are mean, and rude," I growled at them as the tongs were put in.

     "That's not what you used to say," Koi said teasingly.

     "You're right--" I groaned as the tongs gripped the bullet. "I used to call you "annoying little twerp! Get out of my face and go die-ahh," I groaned again as he pulled out the bullet.

     "That was only when the director was around. Otherwise you were helping me out and telling me right from wrong. You were the big sister I never had," Koi got off me and I joked.

     "I can breathe again! I had no clue that a scrawny looking thing like  you could be so heavy," I did a sit up and looked into Jeremiah's deep blue eyes.

     "You can get off now," I told him. He shook his head and I growled at him. "You're making my cuts open up," I laughed as he practically flew off of the bed. Koi got a serious face and sat on the chair.

     "You need to tell me how to access your powers," I looked at him and his seriousness wiped the smile from my face.

     "We'll need to get everything set up first."