Jess walked into the medical bay and saw Grace starting to fall asleep in her seat next to the Deputy's cot. Grace's head lulled down to her chest while she kept her eyes closed. The sound of Jess opening the squeaky doorway made Grace wake up and shift in her seat.

     "How is she?" Jess asked, motioning to the sleeping Deputy.

     "She's doing good, finally sleeping thanks to that medication Dr. Lindsay gave her." Grace informed Jess and motioned over to the Deputy.

     She looked like hell, but she was peaceful. Her chest had been bandaged but was hidden by a blanket that had been laid over her so she just looked like she was sleeping normally.

     Jess cleared her throat, trying to talk quietly around the Deputy. "I got that letter to Eli for you, about the treaty." She told Grace, who stood up from her chair. She walked with Jess over to the doorway so that they could talk away from the Deputy.

     "What did he say?" Grace asked, folding her arms over her chest.

     "He asked me if the Deputy lost her mind." Jess told her.

     "And what did you say?"

     "I told him that even if the Deputy was crazy, she'd already gotten Jacob to agree to a peace treaty and that had to mean something." Jess said and glanced back at the Deputy.

     Grace nodded. "Did he agree to a cease fire?" She pressed and Jess hesitantly nodded.

     "He said he'll give the cult one week of peace but then there has to be a meeting where both sides discuss options. I don't know about you but I don't think that meeting will end well."

     "I don't know if we'll be able to get the rest of the County on board with a peace treaty without the Deputy's help." Grace sounded worried and Jess agreed.

     "I don't know if we can either, but if we're gonna indulge the Deputy we might as well try." Jess went to leave but Grace stopped her.

     "Where are you going?" Grace asked.

     "I've got people to round up. We're gonna need all the help we can get to try and make peace." Just as Jess pushed the door open, a groan from the Deputy's cot made Grace and Jess both freeze. They looked back and saw the Deputy starting to open her eyes, waking up from her sleep.

Grace and Jess both walked over to her bedside as quickly as possible. "Hey Deputy, be careful." Grace said as the Deputy tried to sit up. Her bandaged chest stopped her, along with Grace's hand on her shoulder, easing her back into the cot.

     The Deputy looked around confused, still in a semi-delirious state from the drugs. "What happened?" She croaked and squeezed her eyes shut as if it would help her remember.

     "How much do you remember?" Grace asked her cautiously.

     "I remember...uh bits and pieces. I was talking to...Jacob? Then something happened..." Grace nodded, not that the Deputy could see her.

     "You got shot, but it's ok, we got you back to the Jail quick. You gave us quite the scare there, Deputy." Grace told her and the Deputy hesitantly nodded.

     "Yeah...sorry." She mumbled and brought a hand up to her buzzing head. She was struggling to piece together what happened. She remembered talking to Jacob, then she remembered something hitting her chest and dropping her to her knees but after that to got pretty fuzzy. She recognized some things, like she knew that she heard Jacob say something to her, or maybe to someone else? She didn't know. But she remembered the sound of a helicopter's engine and someone carrying her.

     "Don't be sorry, you didn't have any control over the situation." Jess told the Deputy, not doing very well at not sounding angry while doing so.

     Grace tossed Jess a look and turned back to the Deputy as she slowly opened her eyes. "It wasn't Jacob..." she said.

     "What did you say?" Grace asked and moved closer so that she could hear her better.

     "It wasn't him...this wasn't...his style."

     "I don't know it sounds pretty fucking spot on to me." Jess grumbled.

     "We had a deal...Jacob wouldn't go back...on his word." The Deputy sounded sure of herself even if Grace or Jess didn't believe her.

     "Well, just don't strain yourself ok? Get some rest, it'll help you heal." Grace said and motioned for Jess to follow her to a door out of earshot of the Deputy again. "Go get Sharky, Nick, even Hurk just get everybody down here, we need to come up with a game plan ok? I'll stay here with the Deputy, keep an eye on her." Grace instructed Jess and she nodded.

"What do I tell them happened to her?" Jess asked.

"Same thing I told Virgil, random sniper, now go, we only have a week to coordinate this whole county." Grace said, stressing the word 'whole'.

Jess gave Grace a final nod and left the room.

Grace walked back to the Deputy's cot. "How about you get some sleep now ok?" She asked the Deputy as she long blinked. The Deputy was so tired, like every muscle in her body was tied down to the bed and she couldn't move. She tried to nod and say something to Grace but she just closed her eyes and let out a groan instead.

Grace stayed next to the Deputy until her breathing evened out and she feel asleep again. Then she quietly stood up and walked out of the room to find the Sheriff.

Virgil checked in on the Deputy, finding her peacefully sleeping on her cot. He hated all of this violence, he hated watching good people suffer, but if that was the only way to end this fighting then he would stand by his Cougars till the end. He walked into his office and heard Grace Armstrong talking to Sheriff Whitehorse in the room next to his.

"The Deputy wanted to talk to Jacob?" Whitehorse asked, obviously very confused. Virgil couldn't really hear so he edged closer to the door.

"Yes but I didn't want to tell too many people until the Deputy can speak for herself, you know how this sort of thing would spiral out of control without anyone to stop it. I hated this plan, Jess hated this plan, but the Deputy was in control, this shocked all of us, even him." Grace explained and Virgil inched closer to the door. He tried to piece what they were saying together but when it stopped making much sense he just decided to ask them.

He knocked on the door and Grace shut her mouth. She was just about to say something else but Virgil's presence made her stop. "What are you two talking about? Is there a reason I'm not being included in this conversation?" Virgil asked and Whitehorse turned to look at him.

"Shut the door behind you please." He said, beckoning for Virgil to come inside. Virgil seemed a little surprised that the Sheriff was so quick to let him in but he was glad he didn't have to bicker with him about it and just shut the door.

"What's this about the Deputy and Jacob Seed?" Virgil asked and Grace glanced over at Whitehorse.

"Now Virgil, we have to keep this to ourselves for now, alright? Just until we get a game plan locked down we need you not to say anything to anyone else, got it?" Whitehorse instructed Virgil who nodded.

     "Just tell me what you're talking about please!" Virgil demanded.

     "Yesterday, the Deputy went to the Whitetail Mountains to talk to Jacob Seed about a peace treaty between the Peggies and the Resistance. But Grace was there, Jacob didn't shoot her."

     Virgil's mouth fell open in shock. "Wai-what? You let her go talk to Jacob Seed alone?!" Virgil tried to keep his voice hushed but he was obviously still processing the information.

     "Me and Jess were there, watching her back." Grace assured him, even if it didn't make her feel better.

     "But why would she try and talk to him about a peace treaty? He's the one that's most driven by war!"

     "Maybe she thought that if she talked to Jacob first and he agreed to a peace treaty then she'd be able to get the other Seed siblings to listen. Did she ever talk to you about wanting to make a peace treaty or anything like that?" Whitehorse asked Virgil who thought for a moment.

     "Now that you ask...it was just a couple days ago, she came by here for a gun said it was gonna be useful. Then she told me that she was going to stop this, no matter the cost. Do you think that's what she meant?"  Virgil asked and Whitehorse and Grace looked at each other.

      "It's sounds like it." Grace agreed with Whitehorse's expression.

     "Well? How'd it go? Did Jacob agree?" Virgil asked in the silence of the room.

     "Yes, Jacob agreed and the Whitetails gave him a week of a cease-fire agreement. Even though the Deputy is recovering, as she should be, we're still going to go ahead and set up a meeting with the Seeds. We are going to tell the public but we know that if we don't have a plan already in place for this meeting it will just turn into an angry mob trying to attack the Peggies." The door opened and Grace, Whitehorse, and Virgil all turned around to see who was interrupting their private conversation.

     Adelaide, Sharky, and Hurk burst through the door. "What happened?" "Is the Deputy hurt?" "Is she ok?" Questions came flying in with them from all directions, almost making Virgil trip over himself as he backed out of the way to make room for them to come in.

     "Please calm down!" Whitehorse raised his hands to try and calm down the panicking visitors. "The Deputy is recovering now, but she was shot." Whitehorse explained to them and sent Virgil a quick look that showed him that was what he was talking about just before they opened the door.

     Adelaide stepped forward. "Where is that son of a bitch who shot her? I'll get him with Tulip, just tell me who." She said but the Sheriff shook his head.

     "We need your help with something else. Grace, you take them to go see her I'll wait until the others get here to explain our situation." Whitehorse asked and Grace nodded.

     "She's in the medical bay but remember we have to be quiet, we're trying to let her rest." Grace said and walked them out the door. Virgil shut the door behind them and turned to Whitehorse.

     "Now I see what you mean." He said and Whitehorse nodded tiredly, rubbing a hand over his face.

     Grace led Adelaide, Sharky, and Hurk down the hall to the medical bay, motioning for them to be quiet before she opened the door. They crept inside and looked over at the sleeping Deputy's cot. The curtain had been pulled around it so they couldn't see her but Grace gave the fabric a gentle tug and slid it back.

     Adelaide, Sharky, and Hurk just stood there staring at the Deputy. They'd all seen her in the clinic after she got abused by Jacob's men but there was something off about this time seeing her. She was asleep and her hands were laid on top of her blanket, she actually looked pretty peaceful aside from the gauntness of her face.

     Sharky was the first to creep closer, kneeling down next to her cot. "Man...You don't realize how much weight she's lost 'till you see her like this." He said quietly and looked over her face with concern.

     Adelaide walked around the cot to the other side, placing a hand on the crown of the Deputy's head. "It's ok, Dep, we can take it from here." She assured her quietly and Hurk nodded.

     "Yeah amigos, you don't gotta worry none of that fightin' no more, we'll be the Deputy! Yeah we've already got the Sheriff right here, we'll all become deputies!" Hurk tried to sound excited for the Deputy but it quickly died in the silent room.

     Grace watched them from the doorway, not wanting to interrupt their time with the Deputy. Adelaide pulled away from the Deputy first and marched right over to Grace, a determined look on her face. "You tell me who, Grace, tell me who did this and that son-of-a-bitch won't be breathing by dark." She wagged a finger at Grace, the tone of her voice was more serious than Grace had even imagined her voice could be.

     "We've got a different job to do, we just have to wait until Nick gets here and then we'll discuss a plan." She explained vaguely and Adelaide gave her head a small shake.

     She looked back at Sharky and Hurk around the Deputy and then back at Grace. "They can't just get away easy with this Grace."

      "And they won't, but that's not what we can focus on right now. Believe me, we need all hands on deck right now." Grace assured Adelaide, looking over her shoulder at the injured Deputy.

     Adelaide didn't like the thought of waiting around the jail for Nick to show up but she couldn't get anyone to tell her who did this to the Deputy so she couldn't exactly go on a war path. Even though she really, really wanted to. Adelaide walked back over to the Deputy's bedside and sat down in the foldable chair Grace had set up next to the cot.

     The wait for Nick to get there felt like it lasted a lifetime although it couldn't have been more than a couple hours. Adelaide was dozing off in the foldable chair while Sharky and Hurk sat next to the Deputy, the latter telling her all sorts of crazy stories about his travels. Hurk talked about tropical islands and distant countries, all with their own problems but all beautiful, although the majority of his stories were centred around women and beer.

     Grace has left within the first hour to go talk to Whitehorse and Virgil, leaving Adelaide, Sharky, and Hurk by themselves with the Deputy. Dr. Lindsay appeared to check the Deputy's vitals before he left them alone again.

     They were getting antsy when the door opened. They expected it to be someone like Grace or Dr. Lindsay but weren't expecting Kim Rye to march through the door. Her walking in cut Hurk's story short but it was ok, it was just about to get pretty graphic anyway.

     "Kim? What are you doing here?" Adelaide asked while straightening up in her chair.

     "Jess Black came to the house and said they needed Nick to come here and that it was an emergency so I came too. Is she ok? What happened?" She asked and walked over to the Deputy's bedside.

     "It was a sniper but Dr. Lindsay came in flashing around some fancy pants words about her recovery that I just didn't understand so...maybe. She's been sleeping like a rock since we got here." Adelaide explained and Kim felt the Deputy's cheek.

     "When will she stop getting herself in trouble?" Kim asked sadly, her tone wasn't condescending, it wasn't angry, it was just sad.

     "She just don't know the meaning of the word quit." Adelaide said and stood up. "Let's go see if someone will finally tell us what's going on." She motioned for Hurk and Sharky to follow her out of the room.

     They all left Kim alone with the Deputy and found the Sheriff's office again, along with Virgil, Grace, Jess, and Nick. "Alright is somebody gonna tell me what the hell is going on here?" Adelaide demanded and Whitehorse nodded.

     "There's something you all must know. The Deputy spoke with Jacob Seed." 

Author's note: Sorry for the short chapter, I got stuck again on this one but hopefully the next one will be longer!