Abby kept her eyes down. "Your right... but what if she is using you to get to me? What if she is using your injuries to pull me down and make me focus on you more than my surroundings?"

Ryker closed his eyes a moment. "I hope you haven't forgotten who you're talking to. I'll get to the bottom of this before she has a chance to even look at you." There was a new edge to his voice, a slight hint of anger but mostly protectiveness. Ryker stood and disappeared into the bedroom, coming out with a plain black t shirt on. "Just stay here, please?" He asked before vanishing outside. Quickly striding across the lawn he went to the barn, coming out looking no different. He went straight to the woods and was gone. If Adelle really did want to hurt Abby, she would do it when Abby was alone, so Ryker would pretend to disappear and actually be right here.

Abby gulped as Ryker spoke. "Your leaving me..? " she watched as he disappeared then came out. "I'll... I'll stay" her eyes followed him until she couldn't see him anymore. Abby walked around the house before deciding to clean a little bit. She picked up the rags and put them away before doing the dishes. After a while the entire house was picked pretty much clean.

Ryker crouched in the bushes. Someone had walked here. He ran his finger in the dirt before standing and stalking forward. Adelle had gone too far this time. He found a tree where he could see the house and the barn, hauling himself into it and not moving. Less than 30 minutes later there was a rustle, and sure enough Adelle crept towards the house. Ryker dropped out of the tree and snuck around back, slipping into the house almost just as Adelle did. He saw Abby, and he saw something else. He should've been more careful. This was all his fault. He launched forward with a yell of anger as Adelle pulled out a gun. Ryker shoved Abby out of the way. There was a loud Crack, a gunshot, and pain ripped through his leg. All he could think was - Abby was safe! Adelle shrieked as she saw she had accidentally shot Ryker. She dropped the gun and stumbled back before fainting. Ryker landed on the ground with a grunt. "That felt peachy..." his words already slurred from pain, his vision tunneling, but he pushed himself up from the ground and staggered over to Adelle to make sure she was down. "I'll be fine... just give me... a second.." He mumbled, toppling over as the world went black.

Abby jumped when she saw Adelle. Just then, Ryker shoved her over and she screeched. When a gunshot sounded, she jumped up to see Ryker was staggering to the girl on the ground. "RYKER!" She yelled when he fell. "Ryker! Ryker are you ok?" She saw the bullet in his leg. "Oh no. Oh no no no" her voice hardened and her fists clenched. She stood over Adelle. "You... you messed with the wrong woman" she kicked the girl with a wince. "You DONT mess with MY husband!" She reached down and grabbed her shirt, pulling her up. With a quick, fluid motion, she punched Adelle straight in the face. "Ouch! That hurts" she cried as she dropped Adelle and cradled her hand. "Oww" Abby murmered before falling to the ground beside Ryker. "Ryker. Ryker. Can you hear me?" Her voice was full of fear

Light shined almost through his eyelids. He blinked a couple times with a heavy groan as the pain came flooding back. It had felt like hours but it had only been a couple minutes. Ryker laid there for a moment before slowly pushing his upper body up to lean against the wall. "I'll be fine... I'll be fine.." He mumbled, as if on cue, his eyes glazed over slightly as he stared at the wall and tried to wrap his head around what happened. He then turned to Abby, fear flashing across his face. "Are you okay? Did she hurt you? What happened? Did I miss anything? I'm so sorry for leaving I never thought she'd take it that far! I just wanted to catch her in the mo-" he was cut off as pain throbbed through his leg again, causing him to double over and grit his teeth. "Okay, that didn't feel good." He hissed through his teeth.

"I'm ok. She didn't hurt me, but I think I hurt her... I punched and kicked her. It's ok but you're not!" Abby grabbed his arm and draped it over her shoulders. "She's going to be there for a while. You are coming inside with me. Do you need a doctor?" She asked as she slowly started leading him to the couch.

Ryker's eyebrows shot up, almost off the top of his head at her words. "Probably wasn't neccesary." He grunted, definitely agreeing with her on the not okay thing. He was NOT okay, but he would be. He dragged himself to his feet with a pained hiss, limping heavily. "No, I don't need a doctor yet." He shuddered a little. His only memories of doctors were horrible. "The bullet went all the way through, and only on the side. I was actually really lucky. If it doesn't get infected, I just have to rest a LOT, and it should heal up fine." He sounded a tiny bit doubtful at that. The bullet had gone through a lot of muscle, which was hard to regrow completely. He ... well, he might be limping forever. It didn't matter though. "I'm sorry.. I'm sorry I put you through this. I should've been more careful." He grimaced as he sat down heavily on the couch, more of a collapse really.

"Ryker. Don't tell yourself it was your fault. I'm not hurt. It's Adelles fault. You did your part and saved me. If you hadn't have gotten her, I would've been dead. You know that" Abby grabbed his head in her hands. Her knuckles were bleeding but she didn't care.

Ryker glanced at Abby, then her hands. "How HARD did you punch her?" He asked with a half smile half wince. "That must hurt. But I'm pretty sure I can't argue enough to make you treat it before my wound, so here we go " He leaned over and grabbed the first aid kit, which was still out. "Maybe it's time for that vacation to Vegas now?" He half-joked, although his face portrayed he was still in a lot of pain. He needed to stop the bleeding first. He disinfected the wound quickly before praying he didn't need a tourniquet- he didn't want his leg to fall off. He wrapped gauze around the wound, then pulled it tight, gritting his teeth together with pain and squeezing his eyes shut. He sucked in a breath before wrapping even more stuff around it and waiting to make sure nothing seeped through.