Emil woke up the next morning and, seeing Jackie cuddled up against him, smiled with contentment. She looked so peaceful and happy…Emil decided he would be perfectly satisfied to stay there with her forever. Except for one thing.

His arm was asleep. Because Jackie had used it as a pillow, his entire arm was now tingling, like someone was sticking pins and needles in it. He squeezed his hand into a fist and tried slowly moving his arm to get the feeling back into it, all the while trying not to scream in pain.

"Oyeee…" he whimpered softly, clenching his teeth. He'd forgotten how painful the experience was and tried to remind himself that he'd endure anything for Jackie, even having this happen every single day for the rest of his life.

His stirring woke Jackie and she looked at him curiously. "What's wrong?" she whispered, tilting her head up to look at him.

Emil unclenched his teeth and managed to grin through his pain. "Arm's asleep," he whispered back. "Hurts like hell."

Jackie laughed briefly and then leaned up to kiss him softly. "I'm sorry. I shouldn' use your arm as a pillow like dat…"

"Oh it's okay. I'd endure dis an' much more for as long as I live, jus' for you." Emil replied, returning the kiss. As they kissed, there was a sudden knock at the door.

They broke the kiss and Emil glared at the door. "What is it, Genard?" He asked with a deep sigh.

The door opened a bit and Genard poked his head inside the room with a sheepish grin. "Sorry, guys. I wouldn' have done dis under any normal circumstances, mais Jean-Luc jus' called. Dere's a Guild meetin' in half an hour. De Assassins're up to somet'ing."

"Ohhhhhh…" Jackie groaned. "Why now?"

Genard shrugged from the doorway. "I dunno. I'm jus' doin' like he asked me to an' lettin' you know."

When Genard left them so they could get ready in peace, Jackie asked, "Do we have to go?"

Emil raised an eyebrow. "What do you t'ink?"

"I t'ink I asked a dumb question…" Jackie replied, tying her sneakers up.

Emil laughed. "Not so dumb, really, you jus' woke up, after all," he replied as she headed for the door. He reached out and grabbed her arm, pulling her close to him. "Not so fast…" he whispered, kissing her deeply and tenderly. They remained that way until Genard knocked on the door again.

"C'mon, guys, we're goin' to be late!" he called through the door.

"Okay, Papa, dis had better be good," Jackie laughed as everyone took their places in the LeBeau living room.

Jean-Luc raised an eyebrow at her and Emil with a quirky smile. "Why? Did I interrupt somet'ing?"

The entire Guild looked at them with expectant looks on their faces. All of them except Genard, who already knew what had gone on the night before.

'Why, oh why did I say anyt'ing?' Jackie thought, not looking any of them in the eye. Emil slumped down in his seat beside her and said quietly,

"Jus' get on wit' dis, Jean-Luc."

As the others laughed lightly, Jean-Luc replied with a nod, "Point taken. Okay. I got a heads-up from Mattie earlier dat de Assassins are plannin' a hit on one of us in de near future."

"Any idea who?" Theoren asked, a look of concern on his face that was mirrored in the faces of the other Guild members.

Jean-Luc sighed. "Yeah…me."

"Why?" Zoe demanded, shocked. The others didn't share her feelings…they all knew how much Marius Boudreaux wanted Jean-Luc dead, even Jackie knew that.

"It doesn't matter, Zoe." Mercy replied. "De point is, dey're goin' to try an' kill him, an' it's our job to make sure dey don'."

"We can handle it," Claude said. " None of us leaves dis house unless you do. If you do, we follow. An' if dey attack, we fight. It's dat simple." The rest of the Guild nodded and murmured in agreement.

"Sounds like a plan." Jackie voiced the opinion of them all.

Jean-Luc shook his head, his ponytail swinging down his back. "Do you really t'ink I'd jeopardize you all like dat?"

"Why not, if it's our choice?" Theoren wanted to know. Theoren was Jean-Luc's right hand thief, the one who got to be in charge of the Guild if Jean-Luc left town for something.

"Would you do it?" Jean-Luc asked, facing Theoren directly, looking into his friend's eyes.

Theo looked down. "I…uh…" he stammered.

"You wouldn'. De point is, none of us would. We're a fam'ly, an' people don' go 'round puttin' de lives of deir fam'ly in danger." Jean-Luc pointed out.

"De other point is, people also don' jus' stand by an' watch if one of de people in deir fam'ly is in trouble. Especially a fam'ly like dis one." Emil replied. "I agree with dem. We're in dis together."

"Claude's plan stands, den." Theoren decided. "No one will ever be able to say de New Orleans T'ieves Guild didn' stick together when it counted."

"Dis is getting ridiculous, people." Jean-Luc complained. "I feel like I've got seven baby-sitters. I don' need even one of dose, let alone seven! I'm a grown man…hell, I'm older den all of you!"

The seven members of the Guild had been staying at the LeBeau mansion for five days, and it was starting to get to Jean-Luc. He appreciated the concern his thieves were showing for his life, but the idea that they refused to leave his house for even a second unless he was going out himself was a bit much.

"Papa, we've been over dis b'fore," Jackie reminded him. "We don' want de Assassins to succeed, so we all have to stay wit' you, not jus' me an' Mercy."

Jean-Luc sighed. "I know, ma fille, mais, it's a bit frustratin' for me."

"We know dat, Papa. We really do. We're jus' concerned. You can' blame us for dat, can you?"

"Non, chere, I can'. But I have to go get groceries today, an' are all seven of you goin' to come wit' me?"

"Probably." Jackie replied. "De group can' protect you if de group ain' dere."

"What if not'ing happens?" Jean-Luc asked.

"Don' play what if, Papa. We can' take chances."

"I know. Get de others. We may as well get dis over wit'."

Jean-Luc, Jackie and Mercy went into the grocery store, while the rest of the Guild hung around in the shadows outside the store, keeping an eye open for trouble. They watched and waited, but nothing unusual occurred until the three LeBeau's were coming outside the store.

Out of the corner of her eye, Zoe saw something that didn't look right. She knew the exact position of her fellow Guild-members, and this shadow didn't represent any of them. She whistled softly so that the guys would hear her and when they looked, she nodded in the direction of the suspicious shadow. They sat and waited, unsure of what was going to happen. Emil got Jackie's attention and gave her a heads-up on the new shadow.

Mercy started the car while Jean-Luc and Jackie loaded the groceries into the trunk. When Jean-Luc closed the trunk, chaos ensued. A loud shot rang out from the area of where the other shadow was, directly towards Jean-Luc. Jackie, because she was aware of what was going on, pushed her father out of the way, but not quickly enough. The bullet caught Jean-Luc's right shoulder and he stumbled.

As this went on, the thieves sprung into action. Mercy and Jackie took care of Jean-Luc, while Zoe and the four guys moved to go after the shooter. The shooter, before taking off, saw that Jean-Luc hadn't been hurt badly and took another shot at him, but this time, in his hurry, he missed his intended target. Instead, the bullet struck Jackie in the lower side, causing her to fall to the ground in pain.

The five thieves raced after the shooter in hot pursuit. Because there were five of them and only one of him, they were able to overtake him quickly, a few blocks from the store.

"Questa!" Claude yelled at the sight of the assassin.

Seeing himself surrounded by five angry thieves, Questa weighed his options and after wasting the rest of his bullets trying to shoot them all, he just stood there. There really wasn't much else he could do.

"Marius put you up to dat?" Theoren demanded, his tone cold.

"What do you t'ink, Marceaux? Marius wants Jean-Luc dead. You all know dat as well as I do." Questa replied.

"Give us three good reasons why we shouldn't beat de crap outta you, den." Genard commented.

"I don' have any."

"Dat's what we t'ought." Claude replied with a grin.

The thieves weren't violent people. They didn't like hurting others, and they took every chance they got not to. But the assassins were their enemies, and had been for a very long time. They didn't see the assassins as normal people, they saw them as people who had killed many of the people they loved over the years. With that in mind, knowing that if a message wasn't sent to Marius to back off, they attacked Questa and gave him a beating he wouldn't soon forget.

When it was over, Theoren said, "You go back to Marius an' de rest of dem an' make sure dey understand dat dey're not to try dis 'gain. We won' put up wit' it."

When the five thieves got back to the grocery store parking lot, they found Jean-Luc's arm bandaged up with the sleeve of Mercy's shirt. Jackie was still on the ground, and Mercy was alternately trying to keep her calm and stop the bleeding.

"It was Questa," Theoren told Jean-Luc as they walked over. Before Jean-Luc had a chance to reply, Emil saw Jackie on the ground and, understandably, panicked.

"Jackie!" He exclaimed in horror, kneeling down beside his girlfriend. "Merce, what happened?"

Mercy looked grim. "De second shot missed Jean-Luc and hit Jackie. I don' t'ink it's as bad as it seems, mais, I can' really tell, b'cause she's bleedin' pretty bad. I can' get it to stop. We need to get dem both to Tante Mattie, as soon as possible."

"I'll drive," Claude said as Emil and Theoren helped Jackie up and into the car. Jackie passed out from the pain and the stress and ended up spending the entire drive home to the LeBeau mansion leaning against Emil, who continually smoothed her hair and whispered for her to hang on. Theoren spent the drive ripping up every piece of fabric he could get his hands on in an attempt to stop the bleeding from Jackie's side.

"Take her into her bedroom," Tante Mattie instructed. Genard had called her from the car's cell phone to tell her what had happened and to ask her to meet them all at the mansion. She was waiting for them when they arrived, with the front door opened. Emil and Theoren did as they were told, while Mattie took a quick look at Jean-Luc's arm.

"Dis will be fine…I will look at it later, right now I have to take care of de petite." She told him. Jean-Luc nodded.

"We can' get de bleedin' to stop, Tante." Theoren said. Emil sat by the side of the bed in silence, holding Jackie's hand. He was worried beyond all measure.

"I should be able to." Mattie responded. "All of you, out. Except for Emil, of course. De rest of you please go keep Jean-Luc comp'ny until I get Jackie out of danger."

Emil looked up at Tante Mattie from his seat, an expression of fear and worry in his blue eyes. Behind that, though, there was hope. Emil knew how good a healer she was, he knew if anyone could help Jackie, it was Mattie. So he had hope that she would succeed and that Jackie would be okay in the end.

"I'll do everyt'ing in my power an' maybe a little more to make her better, chil'. I promise." Mattie said quietly. She glanced at him quickly and saw that his hands, holding Jackie's hand between them, were shaking and as he closed his eyes and bent his head in prayer, she silently went to work on taking care of Jackie, knowing that God was there to help her. To help them.