“Damn!”

JC and Tony were doing a free, outdoor concert that evening. There weren’t enough police in Orlando to patrol every inch of the field! JC...he was wearing a bull’s-eye!

Frantically, she tried JC’s cellphone – off. His home – nothing. Tony’s cell – off. Finally, she got a hold of *NSYNC’s manager.

“Mr. Wright, James Deerfield. The stalker is loose. I need a security pass for tonight’s concert. Alert security what’s going down. I’m the only one who knows what she looks like. Got it? Thanks.”

Grabbing her handbag, she checked her pistol and located her keys. Darting out her door, she called to Kelli, “Call Kaplan. Stalker is loose and going after Chasez. Have him get to the concert at Tinker Field.”

“Yes, ma’am!”

Damn! The traffic. Nowhere to park so she pulled over and sprinted to the gate. Flashing her credentials, she grabbed her security pass and clipped it on her sweatshirt as she shoved through the disgruntled concertgoers. Choruses of ‘bitch’ and ‘hey, lady’ followed in her wake.

JC and Tony stood in front of the crowd with just their guitars.

“This next song we sang when we were doing the Mickey Mouse Club,” JC was saying. “It has special meaning for me now.” It had been three weeks since James had walked out of his parents’ home without a backward glance. She never took his calls, never returned his messages. From Kevin, he knew she had become very quiet and kept to herself. But Kevin refused to divulge where she lived. That, her friend said, was up to James. And James wasn’t budging. “This goes out to my Lady J.”

James was jolted to her toes when he began a song about waiting for a love to return. “When can my heart beat again...” It began. Unwanted tears gathered. No! She needed a clear focus now. No time for sentiment. JC’s life was at stake!

She made it to just the left of center stage and scanned the crowd. Too many blondes – and whose to say she hadn’t changed her hair color?

The hair prickled on the back of JC’s neck. Something was going to happen. The lovely note he’d gotten from the stalker said she was finished trying to make him see ‘the light’ as she put it. He didn’t know what that meant. But he understood when she said she needed to even the score with James. She was going for James – all he could do was warn Kevin...

A movement to the left of the stage caught his eye. James!

“No, baby, stay back!” he yelled.

“Interfering bitch!” A shrill female voice screeched.

“No!” JC heard a report of gunfire and a mere moment later James’ body jerked.

The crowd screamed and scattered as the dark-haired woman fell, blood covering the lower part of her sweatshirt.

“James!” JC jumped down and went to the fallen figure. Carefully, he lifted James into his arms as he knelt on the ground. “Hold on, baby. Don’t leave me, okay? I need you...” His tears fell unchecked, falling on her deathly pale cheek.

“JC!” Tony called in warning when he saw a blonde with a revolver step out of the melee. He was too far away to tackle her.

JC looked up to see a gun pointed at his head from less than six feet.

James felt JC’s tears. Opening her eyes, she saw the stalker taking aim at JC. With the last of her strength, she lifted her Glock pistol. “Not my man, you bitch,” she growled as she pulled the trigger.

The pain...James heard the voices of the paramedics, of Tony, of Kevin and mostly of JC as she drifted in and out. Her insides were on fire...

“Lost a lot of blood.”

“Easy, JC,” Tony said soothingly.

“Damn, I should’ve had Cali alert me!” Kevin was blaming himself.

“We’re losing her!”

“No! No, James, baby, stay with me now!” JC was begging.

Darkness pulled at her. Peaceful, quiet blackness. Nothingness. Then a light and Sadik greeted her.

“James, it’s not your time,” he told her.

“It hurts and I’m tired,” she told her first lover.

“Someone needs you, doesn’t he?”

“He doesn’t need me, Sadik.”

“Are you certain of that, little one? Listen to him, James.”

JC’s sobs and pleas filled the air.

“Go back, my love. Live.”

“Sadik...”

“Go back.”

Then he melted into the light as it faded. Once again there was the pain and the noise.

Wails of sirens, hushed panic of paramedics.

“That was close,” someone muttered.

And the firm grip of a hand around hers. JC...

Her eyes fluttered open to meet his tear washed blue gaze. “Hey,” she whispered.

“James! Baby!”

“Not like our first meeting.”

He tried to smile. “No.”

“Don’t cry, Joshua.”

“I promise I won’t if you stay.” He lifted her hand to his cheek, nuzzling and pressing little kisses against her palm. “James, promise me.”

“Can’t...” Her eyes drifted shut as blood trickled out of the corner of her mouth.

“Damn!” A paramedic cursed. “Musta got the lung. Oxygen!”

This time JC knew the information to give for James even though Kevin arrived soon after the ambulance.

“Next of kin?” The admitting nurse asked.

“None. I’m her partner and POA.” Kevin announced.

“Living Will?”

“Yeah. I’ll have it faxed over.”

Again, JC thought he would be pushed aside.

“JC here is her fiancé. He needs to be with her.” Kevin lied easily.

“She is in surgery. It may be a while.” The nurse pointed to a lounge. The doctors will be out to update you when they can.”

“Thanks, dude,” JC said to Kevin when they’d been waiting for a while.

“As far as I’m concerned, you should be her fiancé.”

“I—I was going to propose to her that morning...”

“Yeah, she’s thick.”

They fell silent once more.

JC lost count of the cups of weak coffee he downed, hot, brown water.

“Party for Deerfield?” A mild-looking woman in scrubs entered the area.

“Us,” Kevin said as he and JC rose.

“She is still in surgery. The bullet entered through the abdomen and did some nasty ricocheting. She lost an ovary. It hit the small intestine, probably hit bone and bounced up to graze her right lung before it exited out the back.”

“My poor baby,” JC murmured.

“She seems to be a fighter.”

“Amen to that,” Kevin muttered.

More waiting.

Finally, the men were told that she as out of surgery and was going to intensive care.

“You take the first watch, JC,” Kevin told the weary man. “I’ll call land update Robert.”

“Thanks, man.”

She looked so small – was JC’s first thought when he took the chair beside James’ hospital bed. Surrounded by beeping and humming machines, the robust brunette looked frail and delicate. He was fairly certain she wouldn’t like that idea. James was made for active adjectives. Lively. Energetic. She was a spitfire. He took one cool hand between his two warm ones and willed her back to life.

“Hey, JC, why don’t you go call your parents and grab a bite to eat?” Kevin asked hours into the vigil.

JC shook his head. “I don’t want her to wake up and me not be here.”

“You won’t be any good to her half-dead yourself.”

“I won’t leave her.”

“JC...”

“I won’t leave her,” he repeated firmly.

Somehow she never thought of a choir of angels as being masculine. Weren’t heavenly choirs usually female? Or children? Leave it to her, a woman with a dismal track record with men, to be greeted at the Pearly Gates by men! But if this was Heaven, where was Sadik? Wouldn’t he have come to greet her?

Some of the haze lifted from her brain. No...pain...pain numbed by drugs that made her not want to open her eyes. The soft voice singing to her...not angels...one angel...JC...

“Joshua,” she whispered.

Had he really heard it? Or was it wishful thinking? JC leaned close to James stroking her hair tenderly. He pressed his lips to her forehead. “James, open your eyes for me,” he told her.

Black sweeps of eyelashes fluttered several times before dark brown eyes opened.

“Hey, baby girl,” he said softly. “Welcome back.”

With her nose and mouth covered with an oxygen mask, she couldn’t talk. Instead she raised a hand to his cheek, making sure he was all right, that the stalker hadn’t harmed him.

“I’m fine. You got her before she pulled the trigger on me.”

James nodded. Good.

“Do you remember what you said?”

A short negative motion.

“‘Not my man, you bitch.’ The last words she heard were you claiming me. I am so yours, James – and I want you to be mine.”

Tears trickled down her cheeks.

“No, baby, don’t cry. Be happy. We have each other!”

Not right for you, she wanted to tell him. Not a battle-weary warhorse.

JC wiped her tears away with his fingers. “I love you, Lady J – and I want to spend the rest of my life proving it to you.”

The drugs were pulling at her eyelids. “Tired,” she muttered in her mask.

“That’s right, baby. Rest. Get better. I’ll be here.”

For the next days, James drifted in and out of her drug-induced state. The oxygen mask was removed and the doctors said she was doing remarkably well. Each time she opened her eyes, she sought JC’s face and each time he was there. Even in the middle of the night, he could be found in a chair next to the bed asleep. He steadfastly refused to budge – almost as if he left her side he felt she would let go. Kevin brought him changes of clothes. He took quick showers in the room’s bathroom. Meals were brought in. He refused to leave her a second longer than he had to.

James woke and her eyes went to the figure slumped awkwardly in the bedside chair. JC was beginning to look kind of ragged and scruffy. His beard was nearly full-blown from not shaving. There were dark circles under his eyes from lack of restful sleep. His gorgeous cheekbones were even sharper, indicating he was not eating.

What a mess she was. She felt the drainage tube in her stomach. She knew she had a catheter. Being fed by IV meant her hair and skin were greasy. She vaguely wondered how many other scars she had picked up. In one case, she had gone from flawless to full of holes. All because of one man – the man who slept in the chair to be at her side.

“Joshua...” she croaked, her throat dry.

JC’s eyes blinked open. When he saw James focused on him, he gave her a sleepy smile. “Hey, baby.” Rising, he stretched before standing at the bedside. He stroked her hair, tired eyes brimming with love.

“You need to get some real rest.”

“I’m fine. I’ll rest when you can come home.”

The one hand not tied down by tubes or wires lifted to stroke his bristly cheek. “Gives you a rough, dangerous look.”

“You like it?” he mused.

“Mmm...maybe with shorter hair. I like your face just fine.”

JC turned his face to nuzzle her palm. “You’re really awake this time.”

“Yeah. I freaking hate morphine.”

“You were pretty shot up, Lady J. You needed rest to heal.”

“How shot up?”

“I think the doctors need to explain all that. The bullet bounced around some, I guess.” His hand covered hers, lacing their fingers together. “My beautiful cavalry.”

“Liar. Beautiful does not describe me now.”

“Beautiful always describes you.”

“Josh...did I kill her?” She had never taken another life before...

“I’m sorry, James. It was either her or me.”

“She sent me a note saying she planned to ‘take care of you’ that night.”

“I got one saying she as still after you.”

“She wanted us both there. She wanted a showdown.”

“And the best woman won.”

James sighed tiredly.

“Maybe you should try to get some more rest. It’s about 2:30 in the morning.”

“Joshua, please, go home for a few hours.”

“No, James...”

“I’m out of the woods. I’m lucid. I know what I’m saying. I want you to get some rest.”

“I’m okay.”

“No, you aren’t. Please.”

He stroked her hair back. “Baby, I’ve got you back. I don’t want to lose you...”

“I’m not going anywhere.”

Pressing his lips to her forehead, he felt her warm flesh. She felt alive again...but what if...

“I’ll make you a deal.”

“What kind of a deal?”

“You go home and rest. I’ll stay here and rest. You agree and we can seal it with a kiss – a real kiss.”

“A real kiss?”

“Lips, tongues, the whole deal.”

He grinned down at her. That sounded like the James he adored.

“Well, Chasez?” she challenged.

“Deal.”

JC bent his head to hers, capturing her mouth. Nothing had ever felt so good as the eager tangle of their tongues, their shared breath or her hand in his hair. His lips slashed across her cheek, whispering, “I love you, baby.”

“Now, go get some rest – or you’ll be no fun when I get outa this place!” James taunted.

JC returned later that morning to a much different room, room full of people. James, once awake, was making demands, talking to police and refusing reporters.

“Kevin, you handle the media, okay?”

“Have you seen the tabloids?” her partner asked.

She rolled her eyes. “Oh, yeah, some avenging angel I am!”

“Sure you are, baby,” JC said from the doorway.

She looked as if she had badgered someone into at least washing her hair and face.

James smiled. He looked better. The dark circles were faded. He’d shaved so she could see his lean, sharp features and wonderful lips. “Hey, Joshua.”

“Miss Deerfield, you can’t turn your hospital room into Grand Central Station,” a nurse scolded. “One visitor at a time.”

She laughed. “Only one?” James crooked her finger at JC. “I pick him.”

Kevin gave her a kiss and a wink, murmuring, “Later.”

The others followed his lead.

Then JC was alone with James. “Hey, Lady J.”

She wrinkled her nose. “No kiss?”

Sliding his hands beneath her hair, he tipped her face up and brought his lips down on hers in a tasting, sipping kiss.

“Mmm...more,” she purred as her hand reached up to pull his neck back down. “I want to taste all of you again.”

They claimed each other in the extended mating of their mouths. Their tongues danced and teased. His breath became hers and vice versa. She bit at his lips and tongue, inciting a rougher taking. When he finally lifted his head, he was gasping.

“Damn, baby! Are you sure you must came out of a semi-coma?”

“You didn’t like?” She pouted prettily.

“You know damn well I ‘liked’ plenty. But you are in no condition to do what that kiss promised.”

She sank back into the pillows, suddenly solemn.

Gingerly, JC sat on the edge of the bed and took her hand. “Talk to me, James.”

“I am like the Bride of Frankenstein now. All sewn together and full of holes...”

“So? I don’t care...”

“I...I didn’t think I was vain, but the scars...” And then she began to cry…

JC had never seen her so vulnerable, so in need of him for once! “Shh...” He held her carefully. “James, each stitch is a testament to your bravery, to your love. You are nothing but beautiful to me, sweetheart.”

“She took an ovary,” she sobbed.

“That leaves one.”

“It’ll be harder to get pregnant – you want kids.”

His voice was laced with humor. “We’ll just have to make love twice as often.”

This produced a watery giggle in James. “We’re already like fucking rabbits.”

“That’s my baby.” JC laughed.

“We’ve got a small problem.”

“Which is?”

She gazed up at his dear face. “How old fashioned are you?”

“Not terribly.”

“Oh...”

“Oh? Why?”

“Well, I believe a child’s parents should be married...”

“I’m all for that.”

“You are?”

“Hell, yeah.” He pulled a ring from his jeans’ pocket. “James, do me the honor of becoming my wife.”

The diamond was modest but perfect – and James began to cry again.

“Baby?” He was confused as she wept into his shirtfront. “Is that a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’?”

“Yes.” Her answer was muffled against his chest but audible enough to bring a smile to his face.

“I love you, Lady J.”

Pulling herself together, James lay back on the pillows. “Sorry. The doc said loss of the ovary might cause mood swings, hormones and all that.”

“I’ll deal.”

“I’m incredibly weepy and horny.”

JC wasn’t successful at hiding a smile.

“Smartass,” she grumbled. “Guess what? A drought for me means a drought for you,” she reminded him.

He brushed a kiss over her lips. “Like I said, I’ll deal.”

James touched his face, tracing his brow, his cheek, his lips – and then she said the words he needed to hear, “I love you, Joshua.”

JC’s smile warmed every part of her that had ever been cold.

The road to recovery was not a fast one – and James was not particularly patient! In taking her first food, she balked at the clear broths and Jell-O – and later the soft bland food. When the catheter was taken out, she was disgusted when every ounce of fluid in her had to be measured. In taking her first steps, it was JC who held her so she wouldn’t topple. He was the one who assisted her up and down the hall until she was steady. He lent his calm understanding when she was irritable.

“That tears it!”

JC ducked when a box of tissue came flying at his head when he entered the room. “Um…good afternoon, James.”

“Do you believe it? Of all the asinine...”

“Wanna tell me?” he asked as he approached the bed.

“They will not let me go home until I shit, for pity’s sake!”

His lips twitched in effort not to laugh. The doctors had discussed this with him. “Baby, they have to make sure everything is-uh-functioning properly.”

“Quit laughing at me, Chasez, or I swear I’ll do you some damage.”

He climbed on the bed, stretching out beside her so he could hold her. Now that she as no longer attached to machines, tubes, or whatever, he could put his arms around her. “I know it seems stupid, James. I want you home too, but they have to know you’re okay.”

“I—I can’t,” she whispered helplessly.

“Don’t stress it. Be patient. It’ll happen.”

“I wanna go home. I’m tired of being poked, prodded, and woke up to take a fucking pill.”

He kissed her hair. “Shh...you’re okay, baby. I promise, I’ll take you home soon.”

She turned her face against his neck and that soon she was asleep. Settling her close, his own eyes drifted shut.

“Shouldn’t you wait until you take her home before you sleep with her?” Kevin’s amused voice brought JC out of slumber.

JC put a finger to his lips to hush their friend and eased from James.

“Josh?” she mumbled.

“Right here, baby,” he assured her, stroking her hair.

“Okay...” she sighed and remained asleep.

“What a difference a bullet makes,” Kevin remarked quietly. “She used to be your security blanket. Now you’re hers.”

“I don’t mind in the least that James seems to need me.”

“Betcha never knew it could happen.”

“It’s only till she recovers.”

“You think so?”

JC smiled at the sleeping woman. “And if it lasts the rest of our lives, I’ll deal with it – gladly.”