Jacob woke up the next morning, still naked. He looked over and saw the Deputy in the same predicament, only she was still asleep. She was facing away from Jacob, her back the only thing still showing after being surrounded by the thin sheets. Even when he helped her get undressed when he first brought her to the cabin he avoided looking at her skin so he never realized how scarred she was until now. Now he was getting the chance to observe them.

     Scars littered her back, mostly from lash marks, but there were some bullet holes scattered around. Jacob quickly realized that all of the scars were in the places she'd always kept hidden from view. She always had some sort of glove on, and always wore long pants and a full length shirt. The only one she didn't try to hide most of the time was her Wrath 'tattoo'. Last night he got to see all of them.

     Her thighs were the worst scarred. Ugly lash scars and long scratches stretched across them, marking them permanently. There were a couple bullet wounds on her legs too but nothing in comparison to the scars Klaus had given her. If Jacob wasn't so used to violence he would have been shocked, and still he was shocked but just not so much at the fact that she had scars. No, he was more so shocked at the fact that those were inflicted on her by someone she thought she'd loved.

     Jacob had had plenty of experience with abuse, but he didn't ever think that his parents loved him. He thought that they tolerated him until he did something wrong, then they'd let their full rage out on the young boy. He's known his scars, he'd had them for pretty much his whole life. He knew that they changed the way people perceived him and that's why he understood why the Deputy would want to hide them.

     People think less of scarred people. It makes them think that you're somehow 'less than' them. Almost like you're not you, you're your scars. It makes them afraid of you, and if you let it, they'll make you scared of yourself too. The more he cracked into the Deputy's mind, the more he realized so many of her actions were out of fear. She was afraid people would judge her based on her past so she hides her scars. She was afraid Klaus would find her so she moved to Montana. She was afraid of getting trapped in another cycle of violence, that's why she fights the cult...

     Jacob hadn't thought of it like that but the epiphany came to him in a sudden brain rush. That's why she panicked when Jacob captured her the first time, she'd killed three of his men before they finally got their hands on her. That's why she fought John's confessions time and time again. That's why she tried to run from Faith's Bliss. Everything made sense now. She didn't hate the cult per se, she was terrified that she was going to walk into another Klaus situation. Maybe she hated them a little bit for hurting her friends but they were freeing them, they were training them to be strong and fight for their survival.

     The Deputy was so much more complicated than Jacob or even Joseph had ever imagined. That made her harder to try and turn to their side. Jacob had his work cut out for him.

     The Deputy let out a groan and shifted in her spot, pulling the covers up closer to her face. Jacob pulled the sheets up over her bare back and slid out of bed.

     He got up out of the bed and stretched, then he started looking for his clothes. When he was fully dressed he found a pouch of food instead of a can of it and heated some water up using the fire. He waited in his same chair for the Deputy to wake up, trying to figure out how he wanted to play this next situation.

     He had less time to figure it out than he thought because the Deputy wiggled in her sleep then sat up, almost quicker than her body wanted her to. She pulled the sheets up to her chest and looked around the cabin. She saw Jacob sitting on his chair, studying his hunting knife with his huge hands.

     He glanced up at her. "You're awake." He said, stating the obvious.

     "Yeah...yeah I'm awake." The Deputy said, a little awkward. She didn't know what to say or do, she'd never been in this sort of a situation before. She rubbed her eyes and brushed her hair out of her face. Jacob watched as she looked around the room, obviously trying to find her clothes.

     Jacob motioned to her clothes sitting on the edge of the bed. She leaned forward, keeping herself covered with the sheets, and grabbed her clothes. She shuffled through her pants and shirt, still not finding what she was looking for.

     "Jacob where are my-" The Deputy got cut off by Jacob holding her underwear out in front of him with the tip of his knife. "Can I have my underwear?" She asked and Jacob frowned.

     "You can come get them." He said simply.

     The Deputy huffed, folding her arms over the covers. "I can't, I'm naked."

     Jacob scoffed. "Why hide? I've already seen all of you."

      The Deputy gave him a glare and looked around the room. She tried to find something she could use to cover herself but was unsuccessful. If only that blanket was around here somewhere. "You're seriously going to make me stand up and walk over there to get my underwear when I'm naked?"

     "If you're afraid of being naked, then you need to be naked. It is how God made you." Jacob said with a sly grin.

     "Don't give me that." The Deputy spat. But she couldn't find a way around it so she got up and walked over to Jacob. She didn't cross her arms to hide herself the way she wanted too, she wanted to prove a point.

     She stood in front of Jacob, her hand outstretched for her underwear and Jacob held the knife out of her reach behind him. The Deputy rolled her eyes and tried to grab them, leaning over Jacob while she did. Unsuccessful, she tried to walk around the chair to grab it but Jacob just tossed the knife into his other hand.

     "Can you stop? You're going to rip my underwear." The Deputy huffed, crossing her arms at Jacob. Jacob tried to suppress a smirk and handed her underwear back to her.

     "Fine, you passed."

     "Don't tell me that was another test." The Deputy rolled her eyes and quickly put on her underwear and clothes.

     "Everything's a test with me. But trust me, you've passed them all." Jacob leaned back in his chair, twisting his knife in his hands.

     The Deputy wanted to have more fire to fire back at him with but she was pretty tired from the night before. And she was cold and when the Deputy was cold she wasn't very witty. She sat back on the bed, facing the fire. She found her socks and slipped those on, they instantly helped warm up her feet.

     "I think I'm going to try and make it down the mountain today." She said and Jacob looked over at her.

     "You sure?" He asked, not in a particularly caring tone.

     "I think I can make it, I've been recovering for the past two days."

     "No what you've been doing is thinking that you're recovering when really you're making it worse by trying to exert yourself too soon. You should rest for at least one more day." Jacob walked over to the water he was heating up.

     "But I feel fine, and it's almost Christmas." The Deputy bantered.

     "Why does Christmas have anything to do with it?" Jacob asked, not turning to face her.

     "I've made promises to be places on Christmas." The Deputy said and Jacob shook his head.

     "Just give yourself a day of actual rest, nothing strenuous. And that includes sex." He made the point and the Deputy smirked.

     "You did kiss me." She said and Jacob whipped around, a judgmental look on his face. The Deputy raised her hands in surrender. "Ok I promise." She said and leaned into the couch cushions.

     Jacob walked over to the kitchen and grabbed another pouch of food, bringing it back over to his chair. He opened the pouch and poured some water into it, sealed it and set it down on the fireplace. He did that same thing with the other pouch. The Deputy watched him make what she assumed to be food.

     "Do you celebrate Christmas?" The Deputy asked, uncomfortable with the prolonged silence.

     Jacob shrugged. "I don't, but Joseph likes to prepare a special sermon for it. We don't celebrate the way you would celebrate it with the lights and Santa, we celebrate the more religious side of it. You know, Christmas is celebrating the birth of Christ and not just an excuse for grown adults to wear fake antlers." His tone was sarcastic but the Deputy only frowned.

     "I know what Christmas is about, it's just nice to celebrate it. Did you celebrate it when you were kids?" She asked and Jacob shook his head.

     The Deputy waited for him to say something else but he never did. "My mom didn't really celebrate Christmas, she wasn't sober enough to be able to find a tree or put up decorations so I tried to do it by myself." She wasn't sure why she was telling Jacob this. Maybe it's because she'd already worked through a lot of trauma from her childhood so it doesn't affect her as much. Still though, she should really be careful with how much she says.

      "Your mom was a drunk?" Jacob asked, surprisingly curious.

     "...Yeah, she was. But I made peace with it. I know that I couldn't have influenced her decisions, even if I tried." The room got quiet. Which it normally did when the Deputy brought up her mom. Maybe it was for the best, she'd already been really open with Jacob. Far more open than necessary.

     "My dad was a drunk. Miserable bastard." Jacob grumbled. The Deputy didn't say anything. She knew what she'd hated to hear anytime she talked about her mom. Things like, 'Oh that's terrible!' And 'Oh I'm so sorry for you!' All empty statements that never made anything better. 

     They waited in silence, eventually Jacob handed the Deputy her packet of food and they ate quietly. It was so quiet that it was hard for the Deputy to not feel tired. The wind had stopped hours ago, meaning any sound from inside the cabin felt amplified to her ears.

     It was a little strange but welcome for the Deputy to be sitting for so long. She was always running around Hope County, trying to get done with her massive to-do list before anyone got hurt. But she could hardly save everyone. She was just spread too thin, even with Eli, Sheriff Whitehorse, and Pastor Jerome's help, not to mention everybody like Wheaty, Tracy, Mary May, and Virgil doing little jobs here and there. If only she wasn't in this situation, then the Deputy could have used it as more of a mini vacation for her mind.

      Although, if she wasn't in this situation, the Deputy doubted the trip would have lasted longer than a night. In her head she was still running through her list, trying to figure out what everybody needed and when. Mary May told her that she should make an actual list and itemize it based on importance of job but to the Deputy they were all equally important. Every time she tried to make herself more efficient she just wound up right back on square one, her list jumbling in her mind any time she tried to think of more than two things at once.

     This was information that she was actually going to keep to herself. She didn't need Jacob getting any ideas on how to make her life more difficult when they got off of the mountain, even though she feared she'd given him plenty of material thus far. She had no idea why she even said those things the night before. Or why she'd tell Jacob about Klaus. Or why she'd sleep with him. It was like somewhere inside her she forgot who Jacob was.

     She'd let her guard down, so far nothing particularly 'bad' had happened, but the Deputy didn't want to let herself get that comfortable again. She convinced herself to stay on her toes, not wanting to fall victim to any mind games Jacob would try to pull. It felt really good to be held the way he held her, but that didn't change a thing. At least, that's what she convinced herself to be true.

     It had already been a couple hours since they ate breakfast and to be fair they were both getting fidgety. The Deputy had made it her hobby to try and poke the pulls in the fabric of her base layers back through to make her sleeve smooth while Jacob just folded his arms over his chest and tried to get some sleep. They were both bored, but neither of them could take out the plans or check-lists they'd brought with them because neither of them wanted the other to see their plans.

     The Deputy eventually dozed off, happy to not be awake but still cautious of falling into a deep sleep. But it wasn't like she had very much control over her sleeping habits. Jacob woke up at some point and after looking at the wood crib decided it would be a good idea to get more wood. He hadn't gotten enough the first day and it was starting to become apparent so Jacob got all dressed in his snow clothes and left the cabin. He was almost up the hill when he stopped and turned around.

     The last time he did this, he assumed that the Deputy was too weak to be able to go anywhere but he had been semi-wrong. Now she was recovering her strength and even though she technically promised she wouldn't strain herself, Jacob didn't exactly trust her. She was too impulsive on her own.

     So, he walked back to the cabin and took a lock and key out of his pocket. He clicked the lock into place on the door and when he was satisfied that it would hold, he pocketed the key and grabbed his axe. He didn't go too far, but it was difficult to find a dead tree that would make for good firewood. When he did find a proper tree, he wasn't slow to chop it down and get it onto the small sled he used for the wood.

     The Deputy woke up alone. The fire had dwindled down to a heap of coals, not a very friendly sight to see. She sat up on the bed, trying to see where Jacob was. But she didn't see him or his snow clothes. She got up and looked around for a note, trying to see an explanation about where he was but she found nothing.

     Her mind was racing, where could he have gone? She figured he would be at least half decent and leave a note, but that wasn't really who Jacob was. She walked over to the door and put on her coat, hoping to block out some of the cold. She grabbed the handle of the door and tried to open it but it wouldn't budge. Confused, the Deputy tried it again. She could hear something rattling on the outside of the door, something metal. It sounded like he locked her in!

     "Oh god." The Deputy began to panic. He locked her in, but didn't tell her where he was going nor did he leave any of his stuff here. She couldn't even find his pack and gun. Why would he lock her in? It didn't even occur to her it would be because she'd try to leave. She assumed that he'd left her there with a dying fire and few supplies.

     She took off her jacket and began pacing across the floor. Her strength hadn't fully recovered yet but the Deputy ignored her body asking her to sit down. She was in crisis. Her mind raced to figure out what she could do. Of course she could try to break a window but they were too small for her to crawl out of. She could try to break the door down but it was too thick to go down without a grenade.

The Deputy was panicking but she knew she couldn't let fear control her. She didn't need to find a way to break out immediately, she would give herself time to come up with a smarter plan than blow up the door. She tried to take a few calming breaths, but they didn't help. Her legs felt weak so she went back to the bed and sat down. Her pulse was racing but she didn't know why. She had been starting to come up with a plan and began figuring out how to survive when her chest started feeling strange.

The room felt dark and it was like the walls were closing in. Her chest felt like it was collapsing, it was almost like she was having a heart attack but she knew that couldn't be the case, could it? Her fingers felt tingly and numb but her forehead was sweating. She felt light headed, as if she hadn't eaten in a few days. She brushed her arm across her forehead, wiping the sweat off as she felt her body shake. It wasn't crying, it was more like a shiver except she wasn't cold.

It almost felt like she'd gotten sick in the last minute and a half. Then it clicked. This was a panic attack. The Deputy has had panic attacks before but this one was pretty bad. Her hands felt clammy and she brought them to her neck, bringing her knees up to her chest. She was still terrified but she remembered trying to get rid of them in the past by doing this. She hooked her hands on either side of her shoulders almost right at her collarbone and squeezed as tightly as she could.

It didn't make it go away but it did help relieve some of the physical fear. Her hands were still shaking but the grip she had on herself was comforting, even if just a little bit. The Deputy squeezed her eyes shut, trying to block out all thoughts from her mind. If she stopped thinking about it, there's a chance it would go away right?

After a few minutes, the racing heartbeat slowed down, her chest still ached but it didn't feel collapsed anymore. She tried to breath through shaky lips, her equally shaky hands pushed her hair back away from her face. She looked over at the gun laying on the bed, she didn't even realize she'd brought over when she sat down. She also realized that she'd been crying while she panicked, evident by her wet cheeks and sleeve.

She tried to hide the evidence by drying off her face with her sleeve, though she didn't know why. It's not like there was anyone for miles to see her cry. She was beginning to stabilize when she heard a sound outside the cabin that made her heart rate skyrocket again.

Quickly she grabbed her gun off of the bed, she got into her knees, readying herself with her gun cocked and loaded. Another thing she'd done when she was bored, unjamming her gun.

The noise outside sounded like an animal, it was scrapping at the door. The Deputy knew it couldn't be a bear because they were hibernating, but she also knew that it could have been a wolf because she would have heard the howl. The only other option she came to was a cougar. But she didn't know why it'd be all the way up here. Then it occurred to her that it could be another hunter trying to get in.

Despite the fact that she had no idea what was outside, she didn't want to risk going to the window and get seen. The idea of another hunter was conflicting. Because on the one hand it could be someone from the Resistance that's willing to help her, but on the other hand it could be someone for Eden's Gate that would shoot her on sight, or knock her out and drag her down the mountain, or torture her. She tried to suppress her panic as she waited, her finger itching closer to the trigger.

She didn't know how to play this. Should she try and say something and make herself known? Maybe if it was an animal it would get discouraged and go away? If it was a person then that was a little more tricky. She knows that if she was trying to break into a cabin in the mountains she'd probably be pretty easy to frighten and the last thing she needed right now was to get shot.

Time was ticking by almost too slow, the Deputy decided to go with the quiet presence, waiting until whatever it was either walked away or opened the door to say something. She heard the lock break loudly, the chilling sound of broken metal clattering together. Her breath hitched in her throat, waiting in fearful anticipation of what was to come.

It didn't sound like an animal so the Deputy was pretty quick to jump to the human conclusion. She shifted her hands on her gun and was preparing herself to say something when the door opened.

The Deputy let out a loud sigh and her tense body thanked her. The 'thing' that was trying to get in was really Jacob. He walked through the door, the expression on his face showed plain shock at what he walked into. The Deputy lowered her gun, her relief quickly turning into anger.

"What the hell, Jacob?" She shouted. Jacob was a bit taken aback by her tone. He brought in the wood sled and closed the door behind him.

"I got wood." He said. His tone was unbothered, as if the Deputy wasn't just aiming a rifle at his chest.

"Why the fuck would you lock me in here?" She demanded, getting up off the bed. That was too fast for her too move. Her body swayed as her head struggled to keep up with her pace, annoyingly undermining her angry stature. She put one hand on the couch and walked around it, coming closer to Jacob.

"Last time I didn't and I found you surrounded by wolves, I know better."

"But why did you lock me in?" The Deputy asked, her tone rapidly changing from angry to scared. "I promised I wouldn't leave, but then you left without a damn word and made me think I was stuck here alone!" Her voice shook and she turned away from Jacob, not wanting him to see her so shaken up. It also occurred to her that she probably looked like hell from the panic attack too.

Jacob realized that whatever happened while he was gone, it must have been pretty bad. "What happened?" He asked and the Deputy wiped her cheeks aggressively before turning back to him.

"No, you answer my goddamn question first! Why did you lock me in?"

Jacob pulled his jacket off. "I didn't want you getting any dumb ideas and trying to act on them, so I locked the door. But I lost the damn key so I had to break it off, is that what got you so worked up?" He didn't sound angry, just using his normal, gravelly tone.

The Deputy whipped around to face him, her face growing red with anger. "No! What got me 'worked up' was thinking that you just left me here to die after everything I've said and everything we've done!" She could tell her emotions were getting out of control and she couldn't let that happen. She rubbed her eyes and brushed her hair back out of her face.

Jacob watched her with a strange expression, like he didn't know how to react to what was happening.

The Deputy took a breath and looked away, over at the couch. "You know what, just forget about it, thank you for getting more wood." She said, not in the most energetic tone, and walked back over to the bed. She got to the corner of the couch and paused, looking back at Jacob who stood in silence. "You know, if you're going to continue to be my enemy, you're going to have to know that I always keep my word, always." She said hoping that it came with at least a hint of a threat.

Jacob studied her and nodded cautiously. "Understood."