Ever at the storm's mercy

As Jess takes Axel’s hand, he tenses, caught completely off guard. He looks up at her quickly, but her eyes are focused on his hand. He’s tempted to swiftly end the unintentional interaction, but her gentle touch changes his mind, and he feels himself relax again.

Ultra sensitivity always came before the numbness, but Jess’ softness soothes it away, her motions almost hypnotic. Her fingers running over the scars send a tingle up his arm, but it’s not from the injury, and Axel can feel heat crawling up the back of his neck.

No one ever paid attention to the little things… but Jess had. She’d noticed, and had taken the initiative to help, bypassing questions to retain respect.

The pain in his hand starts to subside from Jess’ attention, and for a moment, Axel’s fingers start to wrap around her own.

But as if remembering his place, he slowly backs off, his finger running along her palm as he withdraws.

“Thank you,” he mentions quietly.

Though unusual for him not to know what to say, it takes him a moment before he clears his throat and regains complete composure. Flexing his fingers proves that Jess did help minimize the uncomfortable spell.

“It’s nerve damage,” he finally explains. Looking up again, he searches Jess’ eyes for a moment before going on.

He holds up his hand again, exposing the scar on both the top and palm. A wry grin seeps out. “I found out the hard way that flesh won’t stop a knife.”

Shaking his head, he gives a little sigh. “Didn’t have much trouble at first, but… these little episodes are happening more frequently now, and some get pretty intense. Feels like the knife is going through there all over again, then my hand just goes numb. Working it over seems to help get it going again.”

Axel pauses, taking a napkin to fidget with. As he resumes his explanation, his tone shifts slightly, intentionally void of emotion.

“At the increasing rate of frequency, by this time next year, I’ll be lucky if I have use of my hand at all.” Another grin is forced through. “Not such a great prospect for a guitarist and drummer. But… we’ll see what happens. There’s a chance it won’t get any worse than this.”

Cocking his head, his eyes fill with his piercing intensity as the wheels in his mind turn. His voice softens. “Ever at the storm’s mercy, a rainbow’s fate is never known. It can remain for an extended time, or fade in an instant.”


Scott can feel raw emotions boiling up inside of him as Dalton talks. He'd been friends with a few people around here, sure. He and Katie had been close and he'd been the next closest to Wyatt probably. But... to think that Dalton had such a high impression of him through what others were saying... He wondered if he did really deserve it. He'd always just been the blundering tech guy... what did people really care? But... apparently they did. And he couldn't help but feel a little bit of good from it.

"Um... ok." Standing lamely for a moment, Scott isn't quite sure what to do. But it looked like he at least had somewhere to come from now on. He had a job when he was ready.

"Scott?"

He whirls around and takes a step back, startled by Rick's sudden presence. "I was just coming back."

"It's okay," Rick assures. "I just didn't know where you were. You alright?"

"Yeah..." Scott gestures to Dalton. "He was just telling me that... that I still got a job here."

Rick's eyes widen and he glances over at Dalton. "Really?"

"I guess so."

"Well I'll be." A chuckle slips out and Rick shakes his head. He didn't know how it had happened, but somebody must have gotten the best of Austin. "Good. I'm glad."

A faint smile surfaces on Scott's face. "Me too."

Rick nods. "Come on. We need to talk about tomorrow."

Seeing Rick leave, Scott turns one more time to Dalton, the thanks in his eyes enough for now. He didn't need to say anything more. Looking down again, he turns around and trudges out of the office, following Rick back to the infirmary.


Luke's eyebrows raise a little bit, and he shifts his weight so he can see Angel's face. "You wanna go there, huh?" He gives a little shrug. He'd go along with her, but he'd been having enough trouble the way it was lately, and wasn't convinced that being away from home was such a great idea right now. But if Angel wanted to... he didn't really mind.

"That's alright I guess." He stops and thinks, a bit of the past creeping up on him. But things were different now... and he trusted his wife. Not only with how she conducted herself, but how she could handle herself in any situation. He didn't trust Austin at the moment, but Angel had a good head on her shoulders.

Luke gives her another squeeze, leaning down to offer a tender kiss. "If that's what you want. Just tell me when, so I know when I'm gonna cry, waving as you drive away." His grin signals he's teasing, and a light chuckle escapes. "Naw, it's good. Sounds like there's plenty of reason for you to go, and if you find anything out about Austin, that's reason enough right there."


Jason leans back in his truck seat, looking over the park. Just finishing lunch with Katie, they'd con separate ways for the rest of the day, but there was still something he needed to do. He wasn't sure how, but it was bugging him enough that he knew he should. He hadn't talked about it with Katie, or let her in on any of it today, but... it just didn't feel right to leave things as they were.

Fishing for his cell phone, he pulls it out and goes through the numbers until he comes to the one he wants. Dialing, he waits.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Mom."

"Jason!" Cindy smiles and eases down in the chair, Kaylee held in her other arm. Hope rises in her that this conversation would be better than the last. She hadn't liked not speaking to her son since harsh words had been exchanged. "How are you?"

"Oh..." Jason sighs. "I'm okay. I guess... I just..."

"It's okay." Cindy rocks Kaylee as she talks. "I'm sorry I gave you a hard time before. I heard from a couple other people and... you were right."

A bit of relief passes through Jason, and for a moment, he was willing to just let slide what he was going to say. But he brings himself back to task. "I'm sorry too. I shouldn't have yelled at you like I did. Guess I was just upset. Well... I'm still upset, but... it wasn't your fault."

"It's okay," Cindy repeats. "I worry about you."

"Don't... it'll all turn out in the end."

"But what about Austin? You said he helped put you in prison."

"I still think he did. And I'll deal with that later. For now, it's just TJY I'm worried about."

"What are you going to do?"

"Nothing until I get back in the office. I got a few ideas, but... for now I guess we're just gonna play things out. The law is watching him though, so at least that's good."

"Well... okay." Cindy isn't convinced that everything is quite as casual as her son now was making it sound. But she guessed she'd rather have him settled down about it than enraged as he had been before.

Jason gives a little smile. "I gotta go. But... I just wanted to give you a quick call."

"Thanks, Jase."

"Yeah. Tell Wes hi?"

"I will."

"Okay. Bye." Jason flips his phone shut and sits still for several moments.

Hero... when hate and anger turn to despair, what do you do?

He shakes his head.

I still hate Austin. But now that I've sat on it for a few days, it's almost like I'm numb. Like there won't ever be any feelings for him there at all again. And I wonder... is that all there is anymore?