"Wait up, willya? What's gotten into you?"

"Nothing at all, sweetheart. I just want to see Dan'yar."

"Uh huh. Then why are you half-running? You've been ready to run over here
ever since you heard your brothers were visiting him. What's the problem?"

"Nothing." Lenna smiled, a little too sweetly. B'rand was immediately on
guard. They finally reached the medical center, Lenna opening the door onto
a suddenly silent room. B'rand followed her in.

"Lo Dani," she smiled brightly. "I can't believe you all are having 
a party and no one invited me."

"Twin of my heart, we would have..." Lonnie winked at her and shot 
a look at his patrol partner. "But we didn't want to...ah... disturb 
you if you were otherwise occupied with B'rand. If we'd known you 
were free, we wouldn't of dreamed of leaving you out."

"Not if you knew what was good for you, brother dear," she smiled 
sweetly. Lenna at her worst. "So! What did I miss out on? Did you 
guys come up with anything to tell us who might have done this to 
Dani?"

"Lenna...." Lonnie started, his eyes moved to send a quick glance 
Brisse's way before returning to her's, hoping she'd be smart enough 
to take the hint.

She shook off B'rand's hand on her arm and turn to face Brisse. 
"You'll have to forgive the men in our family Brisse," she smiled 
warmly at the girl. "It's long been inbreeded into them to act as 
self appointed protectors to each and every women on the planet."

"Lenna..." Farr'in said sternly, but she chose to ignore him.

"They seem to forget that just because we are women it doesn't mean 
that we're stupid or can't understand. I was sure I had cured them 
all of that fairytale."

"Lenna!!" Farr'in raised his voice. "That's enough!!"

"No Farr'in!! It's not enough! Brisse is apart of this as much as 
you or I," Lenna rounded on him. "You can't shut her out and try to 
protect her from all the bad things in the world. She already knows 
they are out there and won't thank any of you for pretending that 
they're not!!"

"Lenna let it go," B'rand reached out and took ahold of her arm. 
When she tried to pull away from him a second time, he refused to 
let her go. 

"Damn you Lenna," Dan'yar swore from the bed. "Can't you see how 
upset Bri is right now?"

"Oh I see find," she snapped. "It's the four of you who are blind. 
Brisse is a lot stronger than anyone gives her credit for. If only 
you'd give her a chance."

"Quiet, Lenna," the red-head standing next to her said. Even he 
could see the Jr. Queenrider was upset. "I think you've said 
enough."

"No..." The sound of Brisse's voice stopped Lenna from saying 
whatever it was she had been about to throw at her lover.

"Lenna is right. I want to know. You can't always be there to 
protect me and I will have to learn to stand up for myself 
sometime."

"Bri, you're sure you're all right?" Dan'yar's voice was full of 
love for the girl as he took her hand in his.

"I'm sure," she met his eyes and smiled warmly. "Maybe I can even 
help."

Dan'yar looked at her for a full minute before nodding his head in
acceptance. "All right, but only if you're sure you're okay with 
this. If you have any doubts I hope you'll tell me."

"I will."

"Fine..." he said and turned to look at his older brother. 
"Farr'in you take Lonnie and B'rand to look around my apartment 
to see if you can find anything that might tell us who was waiting 
for me last night. Bri..." he turned to look at the girl. "They'll 
tell you everything they find out but for now you need to get over 
to the Warrenlady's office for your lessons. Cynthia will be 
expecting you. You can tell her what happened and what if anything 
the others find. I'd also like for you to talk to D'ren about maybe
stationing a few men around our apartment. I don't think they'll 
come back... but I don't want to have to worry about the girls 
walking in and finding someone there."

He could tell by the looks around the room that no one had thought 
about that possibility. But it was better to be safe than sorry.

"I'm sure D'ren will help Dan'yar," the girl assured him. "And the 
twins won't mind. They've taken a shine to him."

"And what do you have planed for me, Dani Dear," Lenna asked, the 
sarcastic sweetness back in her voice. Her arm still stinging from 
where B'rand had gripped it.

"Why you sister dear," he turned to face her. "Have a patrol to fly 
this morning."

"Not by myself, brother dear," she quipped. "If you remember 
correctly my patrol partner is laying in a med bed with cracked 
ribs."

"That's why you're going to be taking Nelar with you and showing 
her the area," he pointed to the girl who'd been standing quietly 
in the back of the room. "She's my replacement until J'errid 
assigns her to someone else."

The blond raised her chin up and squared her shoulders as if 
getting read to protest again, but B'rand chose that moment to 
grab her arm and turn to pull them both towards the door.

"We'll be back in a moment," he threw over his shoulder to those 
in the room, then hauled her out into the hall after him.

"Let me go!!" Lenna shook her arm out of B'rand's grip. "How dare you drag
me outside as if I was some backwards child?! I've got half a mind to-"

"Half a mind is right!" B'rand retorted, his face close to hers. "What the 
hell are you thinking? You say that we consider women stupid or can't 
understand, then you try to pull Brisse into finding Dan'yar's attackers!"

Lenna set her jaw. "Of course I did! She deserves to know. You're treating
her as if she can't handle the truth, simply because she's a girl!"

"No! Not because she's a girl, because she's Brisse! Don't you understand 
why we can't drag her into this?" B'rand ticked off his fingers. "One. She's
a queenrider, and we can't risk her being hurt. Two, she's green. What if she
listens to you and goes looking for them by herself? What if she finds them?
They can't afford to be exposed, so they'll have to find some way to keep her
quiet...and I know you can imagine what they could do. Third, I've got some
suspicions, myself, and I don't want her in the way when I go looking."

"You do?" Lenna's eyes widened before she smiled a nasty smile. "Who?"

"Why tell you now? It's just a suspicion. It would poison your thinking, with
no proof at all. Let me ask around first."

"So then, let me help you."

"Uh uh. They'll be looking for you-I've got less of a chance of raising
waves. You want to help, I need you to act like normal. Put them off guard.
I swear Lenna, if you screw this up, I won't have a chance to find out who
did it. What would you rather do, find the people who attacked him, or let
Brisse know what's going on?"

"Allright." Lenna looked at him. "I'll give you your chance. Once. But if
you're putting me off..."

"Then you can go right ahead and try to find them yourself. With my blessing."
They turned and reentered the room. 

The brothers, with the exception of Lonnie, (who had a big grin 
on his face) were surprised when Lenna didn't say anything, 
accept to turned to Nelar and asked if she was ready to go.

When the two women had left, Farr'in turned to B'rand and held out
his hand. "I don't know what it was but I want to know what ever  
you just said or did to her to make her back down so quickly!!"

B'rand just smiled. "Teach me how to beat her during our sword 
fight and maybe I will."

"You got yourself a deal," the older man laughed. "It'll be worth 
it, believe me. Lets go."

Together the three men headed off towards Dan'yar's apartment 
hoping to find something there to help them figure out what 
happened last night. Or better yet... Who had been waiting for 
him to come home.

******************

B'rand squatted down next to the opening, looking intently at the dust on 
the ledge. They had spent a long time inside looking for clues, but all they
found was the signs of a struggle. Finally, he wandered outside, where 
something had caught his eye...

He thought as he searched. He was right in not telling Lenna, he wasn't sure
yet. But wasn't it strange that My'kel was the only one who didn't visit
Dan'yar. He had asked around before he joined the brothers at the apartment;
My'kel didn't appear to have a girl to keep him busy, although several of
the new riders had mentioned that he was getting chummy with one in particular.

Brisse.

What he looked at was even more disturbing. There were several boot-prints
visible in the dust on the ledge, that wasn't strange...but several of them
showed a broken place in the boot heel. He had seen that on one of the 
new riders, everybody called him Frog...Fr'ougth, that was it. Wasn't it
also a hell of a coincidence that he hung around My'kel. 

"I'll have to go, gentlemen," B'rand called into the apartment. "I forgot I
need to do something...I'll be right back."

"Don't forget your practice later," Farr'in warned.

"I'll be there," B'rand said. In the meantime, and after the practice, perhaps
following Frog around might be worth the trouble...

==========================

Tag, Barb!

B'rand and Rook


Allen Veazey
wolf@dbtech.net
	
	"I'm not really bad, I'm just drawn that way."
			--Jessica Rabbit