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sure the signal is getting out either, but once the storm clears we should be able to use the phone and figure out where we are.”

“That’s the best news I’ve had all night.” She winced and rubbed her knee.

“Sit down.” Cat ordered and moved to help her. “How bad is it?”

“It’s okay, just a little twisted.”

“No bullshit, Dylan. I’m not in the mood.”

The coach nodded. “Yeah, yeah, I hurt it.”

“Shit.” Cat began to look around the cabin for something she could use to stabilize the knee.

“Look in my bag,” Norton half yelled. “I’ve got a few splints in there. It’s the orange one.”

Cat dug in the requisite bag and came out with a long knee brace that had Velcro straps to hold it together. “This one?”

“Yeah, that’ll work. Strap it on tight or it’ll just make things work.”

Going back to Dylan she knelt down and wrapped the knee, placing the bandage over the tan pants that seemed to have a bit of blood splatter on them.

“Are you hurt some place else you’re not telling me about?”

“No. I think that’s your blood.”

“Sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it.” She jumped a bit when Cat tightened the splint.

“Too tight?”

“No it’s just right, thanks.”

Cat sat back on the floor and wiped her eyes. It was all she could do to keep from crying. “Damn.” She looked up, “Are you sure we’re going to be okay?”

“I promised didn’t I?”

“Yeah.”

Dylan grasped Cat’s hand and smiled. “C’mon,” she said, hauling herself back to her feet. “Let’s get the hell outta here.”

After about ten minutes of pushing and banging on the crumpled cabin door, they finally pushed it open. The night air was cold and wet, the rain was

steady but not hard. The sky was dark and the clouds kept most of the natural light of the moon from shining through.

Cat pushed the steps over the side, and they hung in a jumbled mess halfway to the ground. Luckilly, the plane had taken a belly landing and the ground

wasn’t that far below. Cat jumped down easily. Dylan bit back a groan of pain as her injured leg briefly bore her whole body’s weight.

Both turned as one to see the wreckage the crash had wrought.

The nose had been all but ripped off, as were both wings. The tail section was crushed and torn away from the plane but not ripped completely off.

“We’re screwed,” Cat said, then sneezed, a gentle reminder she was still sick as hell.

Dylan silently shook her head. “Okay, first things first. I don’t know where we are, but Horace isn’t gonna make it if we just sit here on our asses waiting

for a rescue that we don’t even know is coming. We need to get moving.”

As Dylan hobbled away, Cat caught up to her and stopped her with a hand to her arm. “Dylan, wait.”

The coach stopped and turned to Cat, eyebrow raised. “Yes?”

“I think it might be better if we made some sort of shelter here and waited. No wait, hear me out,” she continued quickly as Dylan looked prepared to

argue. “You’re right when you say that we don’t know where we are. For all we know, we could take three steps in any direction and blunder off the side of

a mountain somewhere. It’s dark, it’s raining, and we’re lost.”

“And Horace Johnson is dying,” Dylan replied, voice tight. “I might not like the bastard, but I can’t sit by and do nothing while it happens.”

“But the satt phone….”

“You said yourself that you didn’t know if the signal would penetrate the storm. I can’t risk it, Cat. Much as I’d rather just sit here and wait, there’s no way

of knowing when, or even if, we’d be rescued. We need to move.” Her lips turned up in a wry smile. “Hell, this is America. I remember reading somewhere

that there isn’t a place in this whole country that doesn’t have a maintained road within several miles.”

“But you’re hurt….”

“So are you. And so is Kelly. But none of us is hurt as badly as he is.” Dylan’s eyes softened and she grabbed Cat’s hand in her own, squeezing it gently. “I

have to try, Cat. I can’t just sit around waiting. Not when someone’s life is on the line. I just can’t.”

After a long moment, Cat sighed and nodded. “Do you promise to take it easy, and stop if it gets to be too much for any one of us?”

“I promise.”

Smiling, Cat stood up on tiptoe and kissed a stunned Dylan softly on the lips. “I believe you. Now let’s go take care of business.”

With that, Cat trotted off, back toward the plane, leaving a wide-eyed Dylan behind.

Dylan, Cat, and Kelly, despite their various injuries, made quick work of salvaging the wreckage of anything that would be of use, and strapping Johnson to

a backboard stretcher that had come through the crash miraculously unharmed. Of the secretary, who Cat discovered had the totally fitting name of Tawny,

there was little effort to help, as her constant whining had forced the doc to dope her up with some potent antianxiety medication that had her huddled off

to one side, humming to herself and grinning idiotically at nothing.

“Well, we won’t starve,” Dylan commented as she tossed the gear out the door.

“Got a Big Mac in your pocket?” Cat teased as she picked up a couple cushions they decided would make good pillows.