Here's the second and last chapter, I had fun writing, I hope you'll like it!

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The fight was quick and violent. I could see Jak wanted to end it quickly, and he probably would, there were only four of them after all. I don't know if they had forgotten about me or if they just didn't care, because they were obviously putting all their efforts on Jak. I winced as I saw the first one go down with the butt of Jak's gun in his face. It was hard not to feel a bit of sympathy, even though I knew they had done worse things to Jak. And would still do if they got the chance.

My own gun dangled uselessly from my hand, I didn't dare to use it. I knew with my aim I could just as well hit Jak. It was frustrating. And when seeing the big guy almost getting hit by a stray bullet I was starting to rethink my earlier statement about it being less nerve-wracking to tag alone than staying at home. Maybe this was worse for my nerves, my heart was beating like crazy. But I could still make a difference if I was here, that fact convinced me that I would rather be here than anywhere else.

I noticed that the fight had moved further away from me, so I decided to get a bit closer.

That's when I saw it. A Krimzon Guard had backed away a few steps from the actual fighting and was pointing his gun at Jak, who was busy fighting off the last two who had been forced to give up their guns at such close range. It wouldn't be a safe shot because he could still hit the remaining guards, but that didn't seem to be stopping him. Jak had his back to him and was making an excellent target.

I didn't think, I reacted.

I forgot the gun in my hand, or at least I forgot what it was used for. Because instead of taking aim, I rushed forward. It used to be my ottsel tactic, when I was too small for weapons, I used my body as one. It may sound like a poor one, but it was good for distraction. People never expected it. I've done it efficiently once before in a very similar situation. A Krimzon Guard had snuck up on Jak in the sewers with a gun aimed at his back, I had seen him coming and leaped from Jak's shoulder to cling at the guard's arm and bite every possible place I could get a hold off. It didn't do much damage, but it was enough to give Jak time to disarm him. It wasn't the best tactic safety wise, the guard had thrown me into a wall and left me groggy for the following two days. But it was worth it, so damn worth it, even if Jak had been furious with me.

I was not an ottsel any more but it was still a good tactic in my eyes. I flung myself at the guard and grabbed a hold of his arm, destroying his aim in the process. The shot went off and made my ears hurt but the bullet had missed its target. You see, I may not have much strength in my arms, but it's enough when people aren't expecting it. The tactic even proved to be more effective when I was in human size. This time the guard even stumbled slightly under the sudden weight hanging from his arm.

I didn't have any sharp teeth or claws but I still had the gun in my hand and I used that to smash it into the helmet clad face, hoping it would do some damage. It all went fairly well until a gloved hand shot out and grabbed my wrist, snapping it backward. I gasped when pain shot through my arm and the gun fell out of my limp grip. Then even worse pain exploded in my head when something hard and metallic hit the side of my face.

I think I might have blacked out for awhile, because when I woke up I was on the ground groaning from a splitting head ace. My ears rang, and I felt like I really needed to throw up. Still I managed to suppress the urge by swallowing thickly a couple of times. It felt like my right cheek was glued to the rough and filthy ground, or maybe my head was just too heavy to lift, whatever it was I took a moment of feeling absolutely miserable for myself. That's why it probably took me a few moments to notice, since I was so busy moaning and groaning.

The silence.

Everything was so quiet, no gunshots, no shouting. Sure you could hear some far away traffic in the background, but you always did that in Haven City. It got me a little worried; if the fight was over, shouldn't Jak be here right now?

My ears twitched when I finally did hear a faint sound. Rustling of fabric, and was that the sound of someone sniffing? Confused, I pried my eyes open and squinted at the world around me. You didn't see much when you had half of your face stuck to the ground, but I did manage to spot one thing. A clawed, greyish hand.

Oh, great.

This is a pretty deserted part of the city, right? I sure hoped so, because I knew Jakkie-boy wasn't up for any visitors at the moment. A low growl suddenly filled the air and confirmed my thoughts. Jak could definitely need some alone time.

I closed my eyes and wondered what would be my best move next, dark and creepy seemed relative calm at the moment. Maybe I should just wait him out, pretend that I was still unconscious. Any sudden movements seemed like a good idea to avoid. And my head pounded something awful, I wouldn't mind just resting for a bit, though it would have been nice to lay on something softer and cleaner. But at least the cool asphalt felt kind of nice against my cheek. I felt my eyes starting to close again.

However, my eyes flew open just as fast and I almost squeaked in surprise when I suddenly felt a light push at my shoulder, like someone was urging me to get up. I groaned. Then another push, a bit more insistent this time, followed by another low growl that almost ended up in a whine. Obviously dark thing wasn't too happy about me just laying there.

So I tried to get up. It made my head hurt even worse, and the nausea rose in volume but I did manage to get up in a sitting position without puking all over myself. I put down my right hand to the ground in an attempt to support my wobbly self but soon discovered that it was a bad idea when pain exploded through my apparently injured wrist. I gasped in pain and grabbed my throbbing wrist to press it against my chest, hoping to ease the throbbing. A deep growl was heard from behind me.

I froze.

In my struggle to get up I had almost forgotten. I slowly glanced over my shoulder.

"Jak?"

And there he was, carefully crouching behind me. Still watchful and sniffing the air intensely for any signs of danger. The long black talons scratched into the asphalt in agitated movements. Instead of Jak's beautiful blue eyes I met coal black ones, and in the now white long hair I could see curved horns.

"Hi there, big guy. So you went all dark and creepy, huh?"

Jak cocked his head to the side, staring at me with those pitch black eyes. Dark Jak never was much of a talker.

He seemed pretty calm though, so I waited another moment to see if my Jak was planning to return to the surface any time soon. When nothing happened, I sighed. I didn't really feel up to the task of taking care of Darkie with my head pounding as it was, but it turned out Jak was obviously still uneasy enough to contain his dark form.

He seemed anxious by me just sitting there, and what had been random growls at first had now turned in to a non stop growling and whining. The sounds were making my headache even worse. I gingerly rubbed my hurting temple with a grimace.

"Jak, I think anyone nearby is officially scared by now, so would you please stop with the growling macho thing you got going."

I wasn't too sure how much he understood when he was like this. Jak usually said he only had vague memories of it when he came to again, but to my relief Dark Jak made one last long growl before he shut the hell up.

I started to look around, wondering if it actually was anyone left to scare. At first the place seemed deserted, but when looking over Jak's shoulder I spotted the first body. Luckily, all in all it was just two of them, the other two guards must have been able to escape. The one that first caught my eyes was the guard that hit me in the face, at least I thought it was him since he was laying pretty much on the same spot as he been in when I lost consciousness. He was still in one piece, but with blood all over his clothes. It wasn't that noticeable at first, since his clothes was already red to start with, but the blood had a darker shade and when you looked closer you could see the stains on his clothes and the dark pool spreading from under his body. Not far away I spotted the second body but I choose not to look closer; he was still, that's all the information I needed. I looked down but instead my eyes caught Jak's clawed hand resting on the ground. The black talons still had blood spattered on them. I felt sick to my stomach.

Jak must have spotted my discomfort, because suddenly he was whining. I looked up to see him creeping closer, talons clicking on the ground. When he came closer I noticed the gash marring his pale face. Instinctively I reached out for him.

"Look at you big guy, you're hurt." I gingerly touched the wound running over Jak's cheek; he made a deep growl in his throat which practically sounded like a purr. Then he leaned into my hand, almost like a cat who wanted to be petted. I complied and scratched behind his long ears. The purr grew louder and he rubbed his head against my palm.

"You just big softie, aren't you?" I smiled and scratched harder. "I will have fun teasing you for this later."

Jak didn't seem to register anything I was saying. Instead, like a love sick puppy he butted his head into my chest, and in the process almost poked my eye out with the sharp tip of his horn.

"Hey big guy, watch it with those things. You almost poked my eye out."

Darkie didn't take much notice of my protests; he just rammed his head harder into my chest and almost pushed my unsteady form over with his intense pushing.

"Hey, stop that."

Thoughtless as I was I instinctively caught myself with my right hand to keep from falling. This time it hurt even worse than the first time and I howled out my pain, and cursed my stupidity. A heartbeat later I found myself jostled by a big weight and abruptly I was caught in a fierce hug that almost pressed the breath out of my lungs. I heard a loud growling by my right ear. Jak's firm chest was pressed up at my back and his arms were wrapped tightly around me.

I took a couple of deep breaths to steady my voice before I tried to reassure the snarling creature huddling over me.

"It's alright, I'm ok buddy."

The arms tightened around me and the pressure over my chest was making it hard to breath. I pushed at the arms insistently.

"Come on big guy, loosen up, you're choking me."

To my relief the pressure over my chest eased a bit. Now that I could move more easily I snaked my uninjured hand from Jak's grip and petted his forearm comfortingly.

"It's alright, no nasty Krimzon Guards left, just you and me buddy."

Jak answered me with a growl but I could feel his body relax behind me. I yelped when a nose pushed itself into the crook of my neck and started to sniff loudly. I hunched my shoulder in attempt to ward the insistent nose off.

"God, that tickles Jak, stop it!"

Yes, that's my weakness, and Jak knows it very well. I'm ticklish as hell everywhere. Usually he's kind enough to not use it against me, at least not too much. I don't think he was doing it on purpose at the moment though, but it still didn't take away the fact that his sniffing was making my whole body squirm, my neck is sensitive dammit!

When the verbal protest didn't work I settled for violence and smacked him in the forehead to make him back off.

Jak grunted, but backed off with a whine.

"You have yourself to blame, buddy."

I did my best to look over my shoulder so I could scowl at him. He blinked at me.

"Don't give me that kicked-dog look. You know I'm ticklish, and what's up with the whole sniffing thing anyway?"

He just kept staring at me, so I gave up and threw myself back against his chest again with a huff. My head ached and my wrist throbbed, I just wanted to get home instead on sitting on the cold ground in some godforsaken part of Haven City with a sniffing Jak hanging over me. But with a damaged wrist and blurry vision I knew driving home was not an option. Besides, Jak still hadn't had much time to show me how the zoomer worked, even though I had nagged him about it. Consequently I just had to patiently wait for Jak to return to his old self so he could drive us home. I sighed, this could take awhile. I glanced up at the sky, it was already getting dark, just my luck.

The cold from the ground was starting to seep into my body, and the chilling breeze made me shiver. Jak growled and pulled me closer. We were sitting out in the open and even though it was a fairly deserted part of the City it didn't seem like a wise place to be. We were perfect targets to anyone that happened to walk by and the cold didn't make the situation any better. I looked around, as good as I could with Jak hovering over me, and I spotted some old buildings a bit ahead. If you sat in the shadows of those you would be hard to spot and have good protection against the cold wind. Perfect. I wiggled my way out of Jak's loose embrace.

"Come on, we're getting up."

I started to rise but one growl later I was caught and yanked by my arm into Jak's hold again, my head slammed against his chest. Oww. The restricting arms around my chest were back once more.

"Damn it Jak, that hurt!" I whined. "I'm not going anywhere, we're just moving. No danger, just moving."

I pushed myself up from his chest then stared into his eyes.

"We're going to walk to those buildings over there." I pointed them out. "Then we're going to wait there until you come back to your senses, and you're NOT going to toss me around like a ragdoll anymore, got it?" I emphasized it with a jabbing a finger into his chest. Sometimes you just got to be tough.

To my satisfaction Dark Jak looked subdued and whined low in his throat.

"It's alright buddy, just don't toss me around like that." I stroked his head, and he seemed pleased. He pushed harder into the hand.

Another cold wind made me shiver and I wrapped my jacket tighter around me.

"Come on, let's go before I freeze my ass off."

This time when I tried to get up, no clawed hand tried to stop me, instead Jak got up with me. He pressed up beside me with one arm around me and scanned our surroundings. I took a moment to lean against him while the dizzy spell that assaulted me passed. I really needed to lie down soon.

Before I got a chance to start walking I felt my world tilting and suddenly found myself in Jak's arms.

"Hey! This qualifies as ragdoll handling, put me down!"

This time my protests fell on deaf ears. When I started to struggle he tightened his grip and even had the nerve to growl at me. A bit unnerved by the fangs I spotted I fell quiet. At least he was going in the right direction; I guess I could let myself be carried if that would please him.

When Jak seemed satisfied with the wind-free and protected spot he found he sniffed the air a couple of times, searching for danger, then gracefully sank to the ground, with me still in his arms. He gently propped my head against his chest, then wrapped his arms around me and purred.

Getting off the cold ground and getting away from the chilly wind while being wrapped by your own personal radiator definitely felt kind of nice I must admit.

"Told you this was a good spot," I mumbled into his chest.

Jak just purred louder. He stroked his hands over my arms, careful to keep the deadly talons away from my skin. Something wet and warm touched my left temple, making my wound sting.

I swatted him away. "Hey, hey, none of that. No licking. We can wash it later, with water, like normal people do."

Jak complied and instead I felt his nose bury itself into my hair, ah that was better. My body still ached in some places but this was nice, warm and safe. I pushed myself deeper into his warm chest, Jak's loud purring vibrated into my ear. I could feel my body starting to relax and getting heavier with every second. With a content smile on my face I finally let sleep overtake my weary body.

The next time I woke I was luxuriously warm and I was resting on something soft, even softer than Jak's body. I stretched lazily, feeling content. A warm hand landed on my head and I could feel fingers playing with my tresses, which was nice. I loved it when someone played with my hair.

"Are you going to return to the world of living anytime soon?" an amused voice asked.

My eyes snapped open and I found myself staring into Jak's blue ones. I shot up in bed, and regretted it the moment after when my head started to pound. The hand that had been on my head helped steady me. I squinted up at Jak.

"Hey, you're not dark and creepy anymore."

His hair was once again green and blond, and greyish pale colour had disappeared from his face. The only thing marring his prefect feature was a small gash on his right cheek. I looked around and realised that Jak wasn't just back from his darkie trip, we were also back in our apartment. We had even changed clothes. Jak was now wearing a grey washed-out t-shirt and a pair of baggy pants. I spotted his armour hanging over a chair by the wall, it was cleaned from any evidence of blood and dirt. Looking down at myself I realised I was wearing my favourite sleeping wear, one of Jak's too big t-shirts that I had hogged for myself. That's when I also noticed the white bandage, neatly tied around my wrist. The cut on the side of my forehead felt clean and didn't sting as much as it did before either. Jak must have played nurse again, while I was out of it.

"I changed back a while after you fell asleep. We got back about two hours ago, you've been asleep the whole time. I was starting to wonder if you were going to sleep forever."

"Well, it is tiring taking care of your ass," I said with a grin.

Jak face grew serious. "Yeah, thanks for that, Dax." He paused before he continued. "I didn't hurt you, did I?"

"Naah, you were a bit bossy but besides that you were friendly as a puppy." As an afterthought I added, "Who liked a good head scratch."

I laughed, and was glad to see that my teasing had the desired effect when Jak's serious expression turned into a grin.

"Well, I seem to recall a certain ottsel who loves a good petting."

"That's so not the same thing, Jak," I huffed.

Then he got that look in his eyes. A look I knew couldn't be trusted. I started to back away when I saw him creep closer on the bed.

"And a certain red-head who is impossibly ticklish."

"You wouldn't dare." My eyes darted for an escape way when Jak's grin turned wider and he continued to move closer.

When I felt my back hit the headboard of the bed, I knew I was out of options. "Keep away from me, I'm injured, you can't attack someone who is injured, it's not fair game."

That's when Jak jumped me and pressed me down into the bed, easily keeping me subdued under him. Then he leaned over me with a smirk on his face, his breath hitting my face.

"Who said anything about it being fair?"

"Jaak!"

The End

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