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*Hey Maegan this one is for you! Sorry about the cliffie hehehe no pun intended*

I struggled to break free from Kevin as he held his hand over my mouth. Even though I knew he would never hurt me. It was just a reaction. Who likes to be restrained? All my wiggling was making it hard for him to keep a hold on me "Nick, stop moving or Jim will find us" He whispered. That's when I stopped, but started to breath fast and deep. I think I may have been hyperventilating. The thought of Jim finding us and bringing us back to that Jeremy guy was totally terrifying me. He had almost strangled Kevin, Lord knows what he would have done to me.

"Alright kids, listen, I know you don't like being stuck out here against your will but hiding in the forrest is dangerous. There are bears and wolves" He was walking really close to where we were hiding. I heard the dry leaves crunching under his weight.

"Did you hear that Nick? Big hungry bears and wolves" That made me struggle a little bit more.

"He's just trying to scare us. Hush and stop moving" If he was trying to scare us, it was working. At least on me. Suddenly the thought of going back to the cabin and enduring the wrath of Jeremy wasn't as bad as picturing me being eaten by a pack of hungry wolves. They'd eat Kevin first, but eventually they'd get to me.

"Dammit! Come on guys, I know you are out here. I saw you running. Come out. I promise not to hurt you. You have my word, besides this is just business remember?"

Kevin looked down at me with a stern look. It's as if he knew I wanted to say something, and I really did want to say something. I wanted to say to that stupid ass, that if all we were was business he could take his business and shove it right up his butt! "He's leaving" I Stopped moving and nodded at Kevin as he let go of my mouth and relaxed his posture a bit. The fading footsteps made me relax.

"He'll be back won't he?" Kevin nodded and helped me to sit up.

"Are you alright?" He asked holding my face with both of his hands.

"Yeah, I'm fine"

"Because I could swear you passed out on me while I was carrying you" I stood up and brushed away a few stray leaves that had found a new home in my hair. "Nah, I must have just fallen asleep" I decided to sit on the fallen tree that we were hiding under. "So, what are we gonna do now?"

Kevin walked over and sat next to me, "I guess we need to find our way back to the road" He was looking all around, like he would find a giant arrow in the air pointing us towards the right direction.

"Maybe the other guys have found help by now" I hardly believed my own words.

"We better go, he will be back" Kevin said standing and reaching out his hand to help me up. I refused it and got up all by myself. I wanted to show him he didn't have to take care of me. "Fine, suit yourself" He shrugged at me and then set off away from the cabin farther into the woods.

"Uh...Kev, don't you think we are just going farther away from where we need to go?"

He stopped. His face told me he would rather be eaten by bears then to have to be lost in the woods with me. "I know Nick, but I think Jim will be hanging around close to the cabin. We are going to have to go up and around, hope you're up for it since you refuse my help" Kevin made me so mad sometimes. It's almost like he wanted me to say 'Yes Kevin, I can't do anything without you' I found a burst of energy and decided to run past him and take the lead, "Well come on old man what are you waiting for. I just hope you can keep up with me" He shook his head and rolled his eyes. I ignored him and started towards the big line of trees, trying my best to ignore my pounding headache.

~*~*~*~*~

I'm not sure how long we walked but I can tell you it felt like forever. It was awful, there was absolutely no way to even get our bearings out here. All I saw were trees trees and more trees. I was getting incredibly tired too. My feet were killing me and I had a really hard time keeping pace with Kevin's gigantic steps. Of course he managed to reclaim the lead after only a few minutes and kept walking about ten steps ahead of me. There were so many times I wanted to yell at him to slow down or to stop so we could rest, but I was stubborn. I decided I was going to win this little power struggle.

He would occasionally stop and look back at me, "You okay? Need me to slow down?"

"No, I'm good, keep going" I could be so stubborn sometimes that it boarded on being stupid. I think my dad would call it no common sense. He said the smartest people in the world had little common sense. I'm not sure if he said those things because he thought I was stupid and was trying to make me feel better about it, or that I was smart but had NO common sense. I have to ask him the next time I see him. If I ever get to see him again.

Obviously since I was so busy having an internal dialogue, I didn't notice that Kevin had stopped to wait for me, until I slammed right into him. "Jesus Nick, watch where you're going!"

"Sorry" I don't know why exactly, but I suddenly found myself angry at Kevin. Blaming him for all of this. I wanted to slap him, or punch him or something.

"You need to pay attention Nick, this isn't a game. What if you were just about to walk off the edge of a cliff?"

"Well I didn't did I?" I screamed it at him. I couldn't help it. Maybe it was exhaustion, maybe it was hunger or anxiety, but I lost it and shoved him out of my way. He barely moved, so my shoving didn't do much but him mad.

"What the hell are you yelling at me for?" He yelled that at me.

"Just leave me alone"

"Oh...sure...right. Leave you alone. Don't get all moody with me kid! I'll leave your ass here so fast that you will be begging me to come back"

"Doubtful!"

"Don't tempt me" He was fuming mad. We both were but I highly doubt, looking back on it now, that we were really mad at each other.

"I plopped down on the hard ground, deciding that I needed to stop and rest. If he wanted to go on without me, good for him. "Nick let's go"

"No" I folded my arms across my chest in a move of defiance.

"God, I should have knocked YOU the hell out after I knocked Jeremy out and carried your ass. It would have been soo much quieter then"

"Excuse me? I am the one who knocked Jeremy out. You were the one being strangled by him" Kevin ran his hands through his hair and then smiled, "You know what? Fine..You are right. Thank you. Now can we get going before you have to knock Jeremy out again?"

"I'm hungry" Yup I whined.

"I am too lil man, but we don't have time to do much about that right now" Kevin's tone lightened up a bit, which calmed me down.

"You think the other's are okay?" I asked him now going from wanting to kill him to wanting to cry on his shoulder.

"I think they're fine but the sooner we get to the road, the sooner we will know that for sure" He placed a comforting hand on my shoulder and I nodded. As tired and hungry and sleepy as I was, Kevin was right. I reluctantly stood up and stretched.

"My plan is we, keep heading north, back towards the cabin but far enough away from it, so Jim and Jeremy can't see us, then we can continue on to the road"

"Are we gonna make it before night falls?" I actually gulped when I asked that question.

"I hope so kiddo, if not we have each other...okay?" I felt sick but I managed to give him a small smile in return.

"Okay so let's continue down this way" He said stepping over some bushes and making his way farther into the woods. I started following him.

"My guess is..." And that's all he got out before he fell from my eyesight. It's like he disappeared, "Kevin?" I called to him.

"Uh...a little help please" He sounded like he was off in the distance. I ran towards his voice and stopped short of falling of the edge of a cliff. the same cliff Kevin was dangling off of now. He was holding onto a tree branch for dear life, looking up at me with a sense of panic and urgency on his face.

I quickly ran around, my eyes searching for anything I could find to help him get out of there. "Nick! Hurry, I'm slipping"

"I'm coming...hang on Kev" Not finding anything to help I headed back towards Kevin. "Kevin you still there?"

"Yeah, but hurry" I sat down on my butt and scooted as close to the edge as I could without falling of the side. "Where on earth did this incline come from?"

"Nick, let's not worry about that right now" I didn't realize I had said that out loud and despite the situation, I felt embarrassed. I took a deep breath and held onto the trunk of the tree that was attached to the branch which Kevin was holding onto for dear life. The tree was bent, half fallen. I figured out if I could situate myself on the log and brace myself I could grab a hold of his hand and pull with all my might.

I got onto the trunk and slid all the way to the end, so I was directly above the dangling form of Kevin. I held onto a branch with my right hand and wrapped my legs around the trunk as best I could and turned my face towards the right as if that would give me more strength, before extending my hand down to Kevin.

"Grab my hand" I yelled down to him.

Kevin tried grabbing for my hand, but he was barely able to reach the tips of my fingers, "I can't reach you" I looked back towards him. I nodded and leaned a bit more to try to reach down to him. I extended my hand again only to have to bring it right back up because I felt myself loosing my balance.

"Don't fall" He said, wow thanks for the advice.

I regained my balance and my grip on the tree and once again placed my hand down as far as it could go. This time I felt Kevin's palm in my own. I braced myself for the added weight I would feel at any minute. He began to pull himself up with the help of my hand. His weight had my face pinned right next to the trunk. I smelled the sickly sweet scent of the pine on the bark. And felt ants crawling under my cheek. He groaned as he pulled himself up out of danger and onto the trunk. Getting a firm hold onto my shirt now and using that to pull himself up and onto the dirt.

Once the excess weight was lifted off of my body I fell off the trunk onto the other side in a pile of dirt. I laid on one side of the tree, on my back panting and Kevin laid on the other side of the tree.

I laid there starring up at the beautiful clouds. One of them was shaped like a hot air balloon. The shadow of Kevin standing over me made me blink.

"You're bleeding" He said as he sat next to me and pulled me up to a sitting position.

"I am?"

"Yeah" Then I tasted the blood making it's way into my mouth from my cheek. "I must have cut it when I was pinned against the wood" I said using my sleeve to wipe it away.

Kevin grabbed a tissue out of his pocket and wiped at my cheek. "We need to keep it clean. We don't want you to get an infection" It stung as he wiped but I didn't say anything. I figured we did enough arguing today. Besides, I was just glad he was still alive to boss me around.

"Hey, thanks" He said winking at me.

"No problem" Then out of nowhere I started laughing. Hysterically.

"There was nothing even close to funny about what just happened Nick Carter"

"I know, sorry Kev, but...." I took a few deep breathes to continue to speak, trying my best to not snort, "You had just said, What if you were to fall off a cliff.." I mocked his Kentucky drawl bringing a smile to his face, "And YOU were the one that fell off a cliff" I couldn't control my laughing anymore, I let it go. Kevin also began to laugh uncontrollably. I think we both needed that.

The clash of thunder and a streak of lightening in the sky made our laughter die down.

"Oh, great!" I said just as the rain began to pummel on us in one huge downpour.