Checkmate (Neighbor from Hell 3)

There was a short pause before they started bitching, but thank f**king god they did as they were asked. He looked back at Rory and even in the dim light cast off by the flashlight he could tell that she was pale. Her mouth was pinched tightly and he had no doubt that she was struggling not to scream or cry.

"Where does it hurt, Rory?" he asked quietly, trying to keep his tone soothing even though he was panicking on the inside. What the hell was he supposed to do? He didn't know jack shit about first aid. The one and only time he attended a class on first aid hadn't ended well.

Then again, if the instructor had read the memo the school gave her, she wouldn't have made the mistake of placing them in the same class. She certainly wouldn't have ignored the other students' pleas, shouts and warnings about placing them together in the same group. Of course, he could have said something and Rory sure as hell could have said something, but they'd both been more than eager for a little payback after the incident at the convenient store the night before. It really shouldn't have surprised anyone when a demonstration in the Heimlich maneuver turned into him on his back with Rory straddling his waist and trying to shove a fistful of gauze down his throat or him flipping her off of him and onto her stomach and hog tying her with medical tape.

He still wasn't sure why the principal kicked them out of the class or blamed them for the woman's meltdown. It's not like it took her an hour to spit up all the bits of gauze that Rory managed to shove down his throat. Curling up into the fetal position beneath the desk had been a bit much for something so minor. Clearly the woman had no business teaching kids if something like that would set her off into full blown panic attack that needed five teachers, four cops and the paramedics to get her to come out from beneath the desk.

Now he was regretting not taking that course they offered every year at the community center. After this incident he was going to damn well make sure he went and he'd make his men do it as well. It was stupid not to have all his men trained in first aid, he realized as he grabbed the flashlight and ran it over Rory's body, taking a closer look to make sure that there wasn't any other damage.

"I think my arm's broken," she said, sucking in a breath before she continued, "and a few ribs might be bruised."

"Well, then try not to move," he said lamely, feeling like an idiot.

"Yeah, I'll get right on that," she said dryly as she noticeably cringed.

Her smartass remark helped ease some of his worry, but that only made way for the anger that had been simmering in the background. Now he couldn't hold it back any longer. She'd scared the shit out of him when she disappeared through the floor. Then when she didn't answer him and he couldn't get to her fast enough he'd feared the worse.

"What the hell were you doing down here by yourself in the first place?" he demanded as he continued to look her over, ignoring the way his hands shook at the memory of her falling through the floor.

"My job," she said tightly as she sucked in another deep breath.

"You had no business being down here, Rory," he said, noting the way she shivered. He pulled his long sleeve shirt off and laid it over her, leaving him in a white tee shirt.

"McGill called up and asked me to look into making the wine storage room bigger," she explained with a tremor in her voice as she did her best to hold it together.

"Then you should have waited for me, Rory," he snapped, feeling like an ass**le yelling at an injured woman, but he couldn't help it. He knew he was taking it out on her, but god help him, he really just couldn't help it. He'd never been so frightened in his life.

"You were kind of tied up at the moment," she said, smiling weakly.

"And if you weren't interfering with my job, Rory, I would have been here!"

"Stop yelling at me, you insensitive bastard! You had it coming and you damn well know it," she said, forcing her eyes open to glare at him, then immediately winced and closed them right back up again as she assumed her grimace of pain.

"All I know is that better be the last time you pull a stunt like that, Rory. Whether you like it or not, this is my project and if you want to stick around then you're going to start doing things my way and that includes not taking bullshit chances," he bit through clenched teeth as he fought against the urge to pull the infuriating woman into his arms and comfort her.

"Doing my job is not taking chances and this is my project as well so you need to get the hell over-ow!" she cried out, turning her face towards the dirt floor as if she were trying to hide from the pain.

"Rory?" Brian yelled down the hole.

"She's fine!" Connor yelled back, never taking his eyes off her. Not knowing what else to do at the moment, he reached out and took her good hand into his and held it. He was surprised when she didn't try to pull her hand away, but instead gave his hand a squeeze.

"This is my project too, Connor, and if you can't accept that then we're going to have some serious problems," she said evenly after a minute as she continued to clasp onto his hand like a lifeline.

He sighed heavily. She was right of course. They were going to have problems.

* * * *

"I'm going to kick his ass," Craig said, earning approving nods from the rest of her brothers who were lounging around her bedroom.

"I told you," she said, sucking in a breath as sharp pain shot up her left arm and raced around her ribs as she slowly made her way from the bathroom to her bed, "he didn't do this."

Her brothers grumbled something, but quickly they let it go, which she would forever appreciate. Her head was pounding, her side hurt, she was starving and her arm was killing her. She couldn't wait to get into bed and take a few of the painkillers the doctor had given her.

As soon as she made it to the bed she let out a sigh of relief and proceeded to take her pills. She considered asking her brothers to get her something to eat, but that would mean having them stick around longer. Unfortunately for her, her brothers weren't exactly known for their domestic skills or their ability to be quiet and right now peace and quiet were the things that she craved more than anything.

Carefully, she laid down and closed her eyes, releasing another sigh of relief. Sleep, she just needed a little sleep and she'd be fine, she decided as she felt the first tendrils of sleep pull at her.

"Who's staying the night?" Sean asked, yanking her right back to reality, but since she was comfortable she decided not to bother with opening her eyes as she said, "No one is staying. Now get the hell out so that I can sleep," she mumbled around a loud yawn.