A Peggie hunter slid into Jacob's room. "Sir! There's been an explosion down at the Armoury! You have to come quick!" He exclaimed and Jacob jumped to his feet.

   "What explosion?" He demanded.

    "I'm not sure, but our guys down there sounded pretty shaken up. They just called on the radio, they said that you would want to see this." The Peggie told him and stepped out of his way.

    "Take me there." Jacob insisted and the Peggie nodded. He turned to two of his guards. "You two stay here, guard the Deputy. Don't let anyone but the doctor in, you understand?"

    They quickly nodded and gripped their guns tighter. Jacob followed the Peggie hunter outside to his truck, pulling random Peggies to go with him to the Armoury.

    They hopped into two trucks and peeled away from the Veterans Centre, being quick to speed down the road. They were just about there at the Armoury when they got the call.

     "It's a diversion! They're getting the Deputy!" A guards voice crackled over the radio.

     Jacob grabbed it right off of another Peggies shirt. "What do you mean it's a diversion?" He shouted into the radio but there was no answer, only silence. Jacob cursed and tossed the radio to the ground. He leaned into the front seat and grabbed the shoulder of the driver.

     "Turn us around!" He ordered and the Peggie nodded. They quickly turned around, taking the other truck with them.

     "But sir, what about the Armoury?" One brave hunter asked.

      "There is no explosion, it was all a fake to get the goddamn Deputy right out from under our noses."
Jacob told him and shook his head, his rage growing by the second.

     Thankfully, the driver was driving at top speed so he didn't get yelled at, but by the time they slid back into the front road of the Centre it was too late. Dead bodies laid everywhere, the wall, the roof, the door. Jacob jumped out of the truck and ordered his men to check the bodies. He bounded up the front stairs and pushed his way through the already open door. Inside were more of his men's bodies, it was obvious they tried to fight back.

     He spotted a dead body laid over the radio system and knew that was the voice that told him it was a diversion. With rage (and a little panic) taking him over he ran downstairs to his office. The two guards that he'd posted outside the Deputy's room were dead and the door was hanging open. He checked and she wasn't there, only the mattress and a couple of blankets piled up in the corner.

     "God damn it!" Jacob shouted and punched the wall. He was furious, how could he have been so stupid as to leave when the Deputy was here? He should have made his men go check the Armoury. He hadn't even been gone that long, but it was enough time for the fucking Whitetail Militia to ruin everything.

     Two Peggies appeared at the entrance to Jacob's office. "Sir, it seems they let the others escape. The ones in conditioning." One of them said with a lump in his throat.

     Jacob walked out of the Deputy's room and over to his guards in a dangerously slow way. He got really close to the one that spoke's face. "Then find them! Put up twice as many roadblocks, send out more helicopters, I want every inch of this mountain visible to me by the morning." He ordered and turned back to his desk.

     The Peggies glanced at each other before promptly leaving. Jacob walked back over to his desk and leaned on his plans with the palms of his hands. He tried to take a few calming breaths like Joseph had showed him but he just got angrier and punched his desk, making a dent in the wood.

     "I should have just fucking killed that goddamn Deputy." He told himself and punched his desk again.

     Eli walked into a room where Marianne was holding up an IV. "How's she doin'?" He asked.

     Marianne turned to glance at him before hooking the IV up to its holder. "She's stable but her injuries...they're worse than I can handle. She needs to be moved to the clinic in Holland Valley, there she'd have a better chance of recovering." She said and stepped away from the bedside.

     The Deputy was still unconscious but because of the painkillers and oxygen her breathing wasn't as laboured as when she first got there. Her face swelling had been reduced thanks to Marianne's ice packs but the black bruises still festered across her face.

     "How soon can we transport her?" Eli folded his arms, taking his eyes off the Deputy to face Marianne.

     Marianne grabbed a fresh towel and dipped it into a bowl of water. "I'd say you'd have to move her tomorrow, I'll go with her to make sure the doctor knows about her condition." As she talked, Marianne carefully dabbed the towel across the Deputy's forehead.

     "Can we move her tonight? With all the heat from last nights raid I'm worried about moving her during the day."

     Marianne pulled the towel away from the Deputy's forehead. "I guess so. Can you get Mike ready to drive the van?" Marianne asked and Eli shook his head.

     "Jacob's upped his roadblocks we'd never get out. I'll call someone in a chopper."

     "Do you really think Adelaide can be quiet enough to get her out in time?" Marianne asked with disbelief in her voice.

     "She's the best damn helicopter pilot I've ever met, and she loves the Deputy. She's the best chance the Dep has of making it out of here." Eli said and Marianne unwillingly nodded.

     "Ok," she sighed, "I'll get her all ready to go." Eli thanked her then took one more glance at the Deputy before he turned and left the room.

*beep beep beep*

The Deputy's eye opened slowly, adjusting to the light of the room around her. She heard beeping coming from a machine next to her head. With a groan the Deputy pulled her arms over her abdomen, realizing she had an IV in her arm. She looked down at her arms, they were uncovered and laying on top of a blanket that someone had laid over her. She could feel that she wasn't wearing anything other than a hospital robe, but she was too tired to care. Besides, her legs and feet were covered by the blanket.

     "Hey, Shorty." A voice entered the room, causing the Deputy to look over at the door. Sharky walked in holding a beer.

     "...Sharky?" The Deputy's voice was weak and muffled through her swollen lip.

     Sharky's head whipped towards the Deputy, shock was evident on his face. "Dep, you're awake?" He shuffled over to her bedside. Sharky has volunteered to keep an eye on the Deputy while she was asleep. Eli said that it would be a good idea for someone to be there when she woke up and the doctor couldn't stay at the clinic the whole time.

     "Where...where am I?" Her speech was slurred due to her lip but Sharky could just barely make out what she was saying. But her left eye was still swollen shut, causing her depth perception to be thrown off balance.

     "You're at the Hope County Clinic, man am I glad you're awake! We were getting worried about you! But no worries, Sharky is here and he's gonna take extra special care of you. Now the doc gave me a list of questions to ask you when you woke up but don't worry if you don't know the answer, I don't know the answer to half of 'em myself." Sharky set down his beer and looked around for something.

     He finally found a clipboard and lifted it so that he could read it in the light. "Here we go. What is your name?" He asked and looked over at the Deputy expectantly.

   "Uh...the Deputy?" Sharky shrugged.

     "Works for me. Where are we right now?"

     "Montana."

     "Nice. What is the date?" Sharky paused as they both thought hard. "You know what, I don't even know the answer to that one. Next question: favorite colour?"

     "Is that really a question?" The Deputy asked.

     "Maybe it ain't but I'm trying to get to know you a little better! Favourite colour?" Sharky insisted.

     "Uh...green." It took quite a bit of energy to talk but since it was with Sharky it was a little easier.

   "Ok, count backwards from ten." Sharky lowered the clipboard and looked over at the Deputy, waiting for her to say something while taking a sip of his beer.

     "Ok...ten, nine, eight, six no seven, then six, five, four, three, two, one." With every word the Deputy got more and more exhausted and Sharky could see that. "Sharky, what happened? I know...I know I was at-"

     "Well after you were missing for a while Eli called us up and asked if we'd seen you. We hadn't and he started scrolling through his cameras and stuff and saw you getting chased by a butt ton of Peggies so we made a little diversion, an snuck inside ol' Jakey's Veterans Centre, and got you out! So now you can relax, besides you're in Holland Valley and Jake never crosses over into Johnny's territory. That'd be like a major major problem for John cause then he'd be upset and they'd start fighting but while they were fighting we could escape so maybe..." Sharky looked over at the Deputy who was fighting to stay awake and listen to him. "You know what? We'll deal with that if it happens. No worries Dep, I'm in charge and I'm a wonderful protector! Now I'm technically supposed to write down the answers to your questions so Imma go do that while you take a nap, how does that sound?" He asked and the Deputy nodded gently. Sharky gave her a quick pat on the shoulder and got up from his chair, mumbling something to himself about finding a pen.

     Relieved that she wasn't in Jacob's region the Deputy was this close to being able to breathe easier. If only her ribs weren't broken, then she'd actually be able to breathe easier. It was easy to fall asleep, especially with the rhythmic beeping in her ear.

     The sound of distant arguing made the Deputy stir in her sleep. Confused she woke up, although she wasn't fully awake she could tell what was happening around her. She heard Sharky arguing with someone, probably the doctor, but there was another person in her room. She had to turn her head since they were on the side with her swollen eye but then she saw Kim Rye setting up a flower arrangement on her bedside table.

     "...Kim?" The Deputy asked and Kim turned to her.

     "Hey Dep, how are you feeling?" She asked and reached out to hold the Deputy's hand.

     "Like shit." The Deputy said and Kim chuckled.

     The sound of Sharky yelling: "What do you mean fire in the Deputy's room will make it explode? Is there gas in it?" while the doctor desperately tried to explain to him that oxygen was the problem made the Deputy look towards the door.

     Kim made a face. "That Boshaw I'll tell you. Just give me one second and I'll go take care of that." Kim gave the Deputy a smile and a small hand squeeze before she walked out of the room. She was quiet but her words were obviously a hushed shout. She kicked Sharky out of clinic under the instructions of finding Nick and returned back to the Deputy's room with the doctor.

     "Hey Deputy, how are we feeling?" The doctor asked and picked up the clipboard at the end of her bed.

     "Everything's pretty fuzzy, but I'll get chunks of it here and there." The Deputy explained and the doctor nodded.

     "Well a little fuzziness can be expected with your concussion." The doctor said and grabbed a small flashlight out of her pocket. She walked over to the Deputy and held her good eye open, shining the flashlight into it.

     "What all is wrong?" The Deputy asked as Kim took a seat next to her.

     "Well, you have a lot going on. You've got two broken ribs, three cracked ribs, multiple bruised ribs, along with severe bruising and blood pooling in your abdomen, legs, and back. Your right rotator cuff is torn but that's pretty fixable, your face trauma is what I'm watching pretty closely right now." The doctor set down the clipboard and did some small muscle tests to check the Deputy's nerves.

     Kim stayed by the Deputy's side, literally holding her hand the whole time. Hearing the list of her injuries, which she knew that wasn't the full extent of them, was enough to get her pretty worried. She'd known that she was in bad shape but hearing a doctor tell her was scarier.

    "How long will it take her to recover?" Kim asked as if she could read the Deputy's mind.

     The doctor studied the Deputy and her chart. "I'm going to say around 6-8 weeks just to make sure everything's healing the way it's supposed to be."

     "Doc, I can't be here for 6-8 weeks. People need me." The Deputy tried to argue.

     "Sorry Deputy, but even you need to take a break sometimes. Besides, we can handle it for a little while while you recover, I'm sure everyone will understand that." The doctor was sincere but the Deputy hated it.

     What was she going to do if she couldn't fight the cult for 6-8 weeks? What was everyone like Eli and Wheaty, or Sheriff Whitehorse and Virgil, or Pastor Jerome and Mary May going to do with the Deputy down and out? The Deputy started thinking about what horrible things could happen to the Valley while she was sick.

     Kim gave her hand a reassuring squeeze. "It's ok Deputy, the time will fly by and you'll be better in no time." She said sweetly, her tone was comforting but still the Deputy was out of commission. That was a pretty terrifying idea for the Deputy to wrap her head around.

     Time was not flying by the way the Deputy hoped it would. It had been two and a half weeks already and the Deputy was barely feeling any better. Already Pastor Jerome has been over to the clinic to visit her, he wasn't supposed to tell her about what was happening but he did anyway when the doctor wasn't around. He gave her information about how they were keeping the cult pushed back with barricades and trucks, how because of her there were a lot more people that had been encouraged to pick up a gun and join the Resistance. It was all good news but still the Deputy was worried. She hated being in the clinic and was counting down the minutes until the doctor let her go.

     She'd been visited by the majority of her friends, even Adelaide and Xander stopped by to drop off some stuff to help with the pain. It was most definitely pot and as soon as they left the doctor threw it out but it was the thought that counted. Nick and Kim visited her the most, sometimes they'd bring Carmina but most times one would stay home with the baby.

     Kim would talk to the Deputy for hours about her garden and how big Carmina was getting. It was nice to hear about simple stuff like how her rutabagas were growing or how Nick had to put a child lock on his beer cooler and locked himself out of it.

     Hurk and Sharky visited a lot too, mostly to tell the Deputy about whatever crazy things they were doing like trying to play tag with real guns (Sharky spent some time in the clinic with the Deputy) or how they were going to get Hurk Sr. to love Hurk Jr. more. They would eventually get kicked out by the doctor for being too loud or trying to touch all the medical equipment but they promised to come back whenever they could.

     The doctor agreed to let the Deputy walk around the clinic to get some light exercise as long as she didn't try to leave, which the Deputy was grateful for. It was painful to sit up but the act of walking was freeing. After being tethered to the bed for weeks the Deputy was so thankful to be able to walk that she over did it and wound up collapsing halfway down the hallway. It gave Kim a real good scare and she lectured the Deputy about being more careful when she woke up. The doctor checked her out and was happy to tell her that she hadn't done more damage to her ribs but warned her against exerting herself more than necessary.  

     The Deputy tried to convince Kim not to spend so much time with her. "You should be spending this time with your family, not in some clinic with me." The Deputy tried to reason with her but Kim just pulled out a card game from her bag with a smile.

     "Listen, Nick has Carmina and they're spending some quality time together so I have plenty of free time. So, Go Fish?" She asked and the Deputy sighed.

     She did love to play Go Fish with Kim so she agreed to play until she got tired and had to take a nap. With all of the sleep the Deputy had been getting she was amazed she hadn't been having many nightmares. Maybe it was the painkillers, maybe they did something to mess with her head and make her sleep peacefully.

     Maybe she'd spoken too soon.

     After a long day of walking and resting and walking and resting the Deputy was sleeping peacefully. Until she had a dream.

     It was a nice dream, the Deputy was walking through the forest in the Whitetail mountains, no gun, no Peggies, just her in nature enjoying herself. She walked around for a while, past some small lakes with fish jumping for flies above the water. She saw some deer grazing along open fields in the hills. The Deputy decided to go visit the Wolf's Den, since she'd been gone for so long.

     It took her a little while to get up there but she got to the front door of the Wolf's Den and climbed in. She walked down the stairs and felt the air get cooler. No worries though, it's always chilly in the bunker. It was suspicious that she hadn't seen anybody yet but she just assumed they were having a meeting so she let herself in.

     When she turned a corner she saw a Militia man dead against the wall. The Deputy hurried to check his pulse but found nothing. She grabbed his knife and ran deeper into the bunker. After every twist and turn she found more dead Resistance members strewn across the place. Then she saw Tammy bloody on the ground, then Wheaty, and the Deputy could hear someone breathing around the corner of the room she was hiding in.

     She jumped around the corner of the doorway and saw Eli dead on the floor, his head caved in with a pipe. Standing over him was a bloody figure, holding a gun in one hand and a pipe in the other. He turned around to reveal his face. It was Jacob Seed. He had blood coating the left side of his face, his breaths came out in exerted pants. He saw the Deputy standing there with a small knife and grinned that haunting grin.

     "Do you really think I can't find you?" He asked, tilting his head to the side.

     The Deputy couldn't say anything, she couldn't speak, she couldn't move, all she could do was stand there in terror and watch. Jacob raised his pipe with a single arm and with a disturbing laugh swung firmly, suddenly standing a foot away from the Deputy. The pipe swung right for the Deputy's face causing her to lurch.

     She jumped and was suddenly sitting on the clinic bed, her hands gripping the blanket over her. She looked around as quickly as she could but the stiffness in her neck made that difficult. "Where's Eli? Wheaty? Tammy? Where are you?" She called out in a panic.

     "Deputy, calm down it was just a nightmare." A soothing deep voice got closer to her. The Deputy whipped her head to the voice and saw Grace standing there with her hands up, being careful not to get too close.

     "Grace?" The Deputy asked and slowly made herself more aware of her surroundings. She was sitting in the clinic, not walking through the Whitetail mountains. She raised a hand to her head that was now pounding.

     "You were having a nightmare, I was just about to wake you up." Grace said and got closer to her.

     "Thanks, when'd you get here?"

     "A couple hours ago, what was that dream about? You were mumbling in your sleep about Eli?" Grace asked her and the Deputy leaned back into her pillows.

     "It was nothing, just a bad dream." She told her, hoping that Grace would leave it alone.

     "Ok..." Grace sat down in the chair next to the Deputy's bed. "So how long have you got left in here?" She asked and the Deputy rubbed her eyes.

     "I'm a few days out of 6 weeks, but I'm feeling much better so I'm hoping the doctor won't keep me stuck in here for much longer."

     She looked way better now than she did when she first got there. Her eye wasn't swollen shut anymore and the bruise had been reduced to a yellowish tint around her eyes. The gash from the pipe that stretched across the right side of her face was healing but it would definitely scar. The doctor kept an ointment on it and a bandage over it to help it heal. Her right arm (the one with the torn rotator cuff) was in a shoulder sling to help it heal properly. Her face still looked like hell but she was coming out of it.

     Grace could tell the beating had a lasting effect on her. She didn't have that sort of lighthearted laugh to her voice when she spoke and her eyes were dark. She spent a lot of time thinking, not that the Deputy wasn't quiet before but now it took Grace a couple times of saying the Deputy's name before she realized she was being spoken to. It was obvious she was getting antsy with being stuck inside the clinic, she'd been convincing the doctor to let her do her walking outside the clinic.

     After days of wearing her down, the doctor agreed to let her walk around outside as long as she had someone there with her at all times and she didn't go farther than the driveway.

     Grace wasn't great at helping the Deputy walk around. She just didn't have that side to her, she was more gruff and stoic than a caretaker should be. Jess was even worse. But the Deputy enjoyed having their spunk around her, it helped her feel like she was out in the field again.

     Jess would sit on the stone marker that marked the driveway and wait for the Deputy to hobble over to her. She spent the majority of her time focusing on her bow and arrows, pretending that the Deputy walking wasn't such a big deal. It was really because she hated seeing the Deputy like that. She hated watching her stumble around on shaky legs, just trying to make it somewhere she could sit down.

     Every time Jess looked at the Deputy she was filled with rage. That rage made her want to go hunt Jacob Seed down and torture him the way he'd tortured so many other people, including her. But she couldn't, she couldn't just go in and try to kill everyone the way she wanted to so bad.

     "I feel like a goddamn drunk." The Deputy sighed as she lowered herself down to the stone marker Jess sat on.

     "You sure look like it." Jess replied and the Deputy gave her an entertained huff.

     "You know, when you get to be my age," the Deputy sat up straighter to relieve the pressure on her ribs, "you get a sort of clarity about a lot of things."

     "You know I'm 27 right?" Jess interrupted and the Deputy looked over at her.

     "Holy shit, you're not like, 18?" She asked and Jess shook her head.

     "No you just look old." Jess bantered back and the Deputy chuckled.

     "Well damn, I didn't know that." The Deputy said and winced as she adjusted herself on the stone marker.

     Jess stayed quiet for a minute. "How are you going to get Jacob back for this?" She asked, motioning to her sling with an arrow.

     The Deputy sighed. "I don't know Jess, I don't know." She said and neither of them said anything else, even if they wanted to.