No Fury

Now: Forty Five

A/N: Just one update today, my darlings, but it's a longer one (for me).
Your votes & comments, messages & tweets make my day, they really do. Thank you!! ~Spark

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James can barely get close to me to stitch up my lip and my leg for the presence of Harry hovering, his hands reaching across his father in an attempt to get to me.

And I am useless where I lie prone on James' couch: breathing in gasping, jagged breaths and exhaling sobs each time. I cannot seem to calm down.

"Catie," James coos as he lifts my skirt to check my leg. "Shh, lass. Breathe. Shhh. I've got ye."

"Let me see the wound," Harry growls.

"Move, lad," James urges, shoving him gently aside. "Let me attend to her."

Harry steps away, eyes wide and pinned to me, and then turns, picking up a vase and launching it directly at the wall. It breaks with a deafening crash, but James barely blinks.

"Think that'll help then, son?"

"I am a sea of rage," Harry seethes. "Help me channel this, James, or I shall go mad thinking of everything they could have done to her."

I close my eyes, pressing my trembling hands to my face. The feel of the cloth over my head, the piercing of the knife into my throat, the way my captor's body jerked when the knife buried in his head, the sound of Harry's terrified roar . . . I can't stop reliving every second of it.

"They could have put a knife to her stomach," Harry says, voice choked. "She is obviously with child."

A sob wrenches free of my throat, and Harry curses under his breath, apologizing. I would have them cut my throat a hundred times before I would have them cut my babe.

"Aye," his father agrees, nodding as he cleans my chin of dried blood. "But they did not. Be useful, lad. Fetch me more water."

Harry pours into a clean bowl from a pitcher in the corner, spilling some as he storms closer. "They were going to take her, weren't they?"

"I believe so," James answers, calmly, taking the bowl from his son. "But how foolish to capture her on the trail to the cabin. Their information isn't very good, then, eh? Liam knew where she would be. You were headed toward her. They must have simply followed her."

"Do ye think they knew I would come?" Harry asks, pacing. "Do ye think they knew I would arrive and find her? If they're looking for a fight, I'll give them a right bloody battle."

"No one mentioned you in connection to me," I tell him, my words trembling. Harry bolts closer at the sound of my coherent voice. "Only Liam. They wanted me as bait for Liam." And then I pause, looking at him. "But how did you know to fetch Liam and Niall when you came?"

Harry gazes at me with pained eyes. "James signaled for it," he says.

"With them patrolling and few men stationed on this side of the land," James says, "we had to come up with a system. When I heard them yelling this morning, I sent up smoke."

"I saw it as soon as I left the castle, and ran to your home." He knees down near my head, running his hand over my hair. "You were already gone."

I stare up at him, trying to imagine Harry in my tiny cottage. I cannot. He seems too large even for this expansive room. He seems to make every space around him shrink.

"I am glad you made it in time." It is all I can think to say, and this makes him smile sympathetically. I know I am in shock, but I cannot yet control my arms, my mouth, even my thoughts.