Been pining for the days of one shots so I decided to take some time off LHCM and finished off this origins fic. Sorry, no Spock.

ALRIGHT! So it was brought to my attention that I didn't do a good job of warnings for this so I shall now: What the colt version of Blackbird is asked to do and performs at a young age is UNHEALTHY FOR YOUNG HORSES! If you can help it NEVER ask a young horse to perform the way the Blackbird does here, it can caused extreme and lasting health issues.

Summary: Native Sky Origins:Benjamin Chicalato gets a call over his radio for a domestic disturbance while off duty with Cody...

Blackbird's Wings

"Yea, he did fly upon the wings of the wind..."

-Psalm 18:10; The Bible

Country Road 13

Riverside, Washington County, Iowa

Stardate: 2240

August 23

1435 Hours

…

She wondered what cicadas sounded like.

Her brothers said they sounded like rattles and whistles, hums and chatters.

How was she supposed to know what those sounded like?

Ate said they'd figure it out eventually. That no matter how they explained it or described it it was never going to instill true understanding.

Sound was beyond her.

Though she couldn't hear them she knew by instinct and the way Blackbird and The Bird pricked their ears that they were singing. Out there clinging to bark and humming away. It was their season, the heat making them come out and rattle their wings.

Maybe she'd catch one and hold it until it sang, feel it make the noise.

That was her life.

Vibration. Movement. Aroma.

Touch. Sight. Scent.

Sometimes Ate and Ina mourned her hearing.

Cody didn't.

She knew nothing of sound. And it shaped her, designed her.

Made her better. Better at life. Better at her job.

She was the eldest, she was the protector, she was bound to it by duty and birthright.

A curse and a blessing but hers.

She would lay her life down for it.

Head constantly on a swivel, back always at a wall, catching scents on the wind, ever tense, ever strung, ever ready. She was the one that caught them, turned them back, shielded them, bore them up and paid out her soul to guard them at all turns. A life of eternal hypervigilance.

Sometimes they pitied her wasted nature, the force she would have been as a Marine.

It was a loss she shouldered, so long as she did not falter in her duty she was satisfied.

Even now, in the quiet hours that she took with Ate, those moments when she wasn't meant to be the protector, she was aware, extended beyond herself, ready to lunge to defense of her sire.

But it was still and even she was starting to feel a bit lazy, a bit slighted off by the heat. The air was charged, thick with the scent of electricity and moisture. There was a storm closing in, the corners of her eyes catch the ripples and flows of the wheat and wild long grass fields around the gravel and dirt pack road. Far off lonely trees jerked oddly before settling and waiting again for a short gust.

The vibration and rhythm of Blackbird's hooves seeped into her bones and timed her heart and breathing. The yearling buckskin's long slender legs keeping a sharper and faster pace than The Bird's, his youth and excitement getting the better of him that he bore up the thirteen year old several paces a head of their fathers, getting too far more than once and had to be pulled up or trotted around back along their path to reunite with the veteran Sheriff and aging black stud.

Ate and The Bird content to stroll casually long in the wake of the pair and watch with an expert eye when Blackbird would twitch and sidestep at a new scent or sight or sound and Cody reassured the yearling gently, already instilling in him confidence and courage. Her hands light and soothing on the reins and Blackbird's shoulder or fingering his mane, communicating deeply and securely without voice or command. Already since the casual ride had begun the colt's pace had settled, his tension eased and allowed himself a calm flatfoot walk, his blood only rising when a spook took him or boredom did.

Behind Cody's back she could feel Ate's indulgent smile and The Bird's billowing sighs. Masking their pride gracefully behind paternal teasing and correction.

Half a day was already gone and the heat was fluxing oddly.

A storm building on the horizon. The sky starting to shift in color to a slate gray and the once wisps of clouds were bloating and growing heavy. The air was ionized and thick with oxygen and moisture. The rolling wheat fields and wild meadows of feral grasses and native flowers rippled and pulsed as warm breezes made them breath and churn like waves.

Breathing.

Rising and falling in the same way that a creature's chest would. Proof of the Mother's life. The thirteen year old looked out over the waves of grain and grass and let her imagination wander, dreaming up clipper ships that sailed on breezes, land whales breeching and sinking under the wheat, schools of colored fish flitting like flocks of butterflies over the land in the ocean of grain.

Blackbird lurched slightly, skidding nervously. Cody felt his ribs and lungs vibrate in a nicker. She laid her hand on his shoulder, pressing down gently and the colt went still as Ate and The Bird skipped to a halt in front of them, barring the path. Cody blinked in surprise at the strained and sorrowful look on Ate's face. His tension and what was possibly fear bleeding into the black stud under his hand.

Cody narrowed her eyes, keeping herself calm and willing the buckskin colt below her to settle regardless of the sudden anxiousness of their elders.

Soothing him even when she knew from the tension wrought between Ate's shoulders that something was dangerously wrong.

How she had missed it? Had a moments time daydreaming caught up to her so quickly. She quickly glanced over Ate and The Bird. Neither seemed hurt in their distress, their pelts twitching in agitation. She did a quick sweep of the area, scenting and feeling the pulse of the air. There was a tightness but it centered from Ate and The Bird themselves, nor predators or close dangers, only the distant looming threat of the storm. Now more sinister than her earlier whimsy had conjured.

What? What's wrong?

His free hand flew, twitching sharply. Got a call on the radio, Cody. Domestic disturbance. It's close by. The Kirk place. We're close enough I can go and quiet things down until Joey can get there.

It was supposed to be their time, there were very few days that Ate could take for himself from the Department. He was the highest ranking officer in the small group of Sheriffs and Deputies that were stationed in Riverside, a town too small to merit it's own police force and relied on State law enforcement.

Ate was the virtual head of the Department.

And those few days that Ate took he took for himself, spent them with Ina and the Brotherhood... but very rarely was it her and Ate alone. They were too much alike, too much in the same position. Their loyalties the same, devoted completely to protecting those around them and to take them away at the same time, it left a kind of vulnerability to their respected charges. Ate to the city and Cody to the family.

She was reluctant to give it up but should Ate ever deny her the chance to help one of her brothers would be the day she turned her back on him.

Cody nodded sharply in agreement.

Ate smiled gently at her.

Good girl. Follow close.

Ate whirled The Bird around on his heels and trotted quickly across the packed earth and down into the ditch along the side of the road. Cody urged and assured Blackbird to follow on his sire's heels. They slid into the ditch, wading slightly in the drainage, sinking into the muck before The Bird gracefully vaulted straight up the rise of the far side bank, cutting through the cat tails growing wild in the marsh earth. Blackbird nervously sidestepped before with gentle encouragement performed the same feat, lacking a great deal of his sire's grace but not his courage. Neat little hooves sliding slightly in the wet earth. Skipping forward a few steps through the cat tails before they turned into grasses and skidded up towards where Ate and The Bird were waiting patiently but anxiously in the long grass meadow.

She nodded, assuring Ate she was ready.

The Sheriff swung The Bird around and set his heels in. The black stud snorted and lunged into a long legged lope.

Blackbird nickered nervously, before breaking into a quick trot to follow. Cody coaxed and urged the buckskin colt gently until his long, spindly legs tripled into a short stride lope, catching up quickly to his sire and gaiting along as closely as he could.

The Bird fell into his namesake. He cut through the grass easily, long stride eating the earth up in a pace that preserved strength easily. His hooves nimble in the unseen and unsteady soil below the vegetation line. He moved fluidly, gracefully, each muscle coiling and springing perfectly in tune and time.

He truly flew.

Blackbird slowly gained confidence with Cody's gentle and firm encouragement and the steady presence of his sire. The colt lifted his head, smoothed his stride and looked out in front of him instead of trying to see the ground under his feet. His arched his back and breathed deeply. Within moments the buckskin colt had come even with The Bird and loped as an equal to the other horse, following dutifully in the dark stud's wake across the wild meadow.

Ate and The Bird led them passed rabbit warrens and fox dens. They flushed mourning doves and quail into the air with bursts of wings. In the near distance a thick line of trees rose up and they ducked in, loping single file down a narrow deer path, spooking the builders of the trail. They broke from the tree line and back into open land of a half grown wheat field. Where the gold wheat broke and met green again stood a metalwork building several stories tall. It was blocky, all harsh lines and rigid structure, completely unnatural in the wild rolling landscape.

The Bird quickened his pace marginally, his seek black pelt standing out brilliantly against the gold of wheat. Ate sitting tall in the saddle but there was a tension in his jaw and hardness in his eyes, molding himself into the mind that he would need to react to whatever situation he was coming onto. Cody mimicked him, steeling herself for whatever Ate would need of her. Lifting her head proudly and tightening her shoulders.

Below her Blackbird tightened up, curving himself in confidence and doubling his pace to take a led on his sire.

They broke from the wheat and bounded down into then up out of the field ditch and onto the hard packed earth of a road. Next to the main building was a smaller shed, the doors open and a sleek red frame of an antique Corvette rested in the shade. The earth around the building was barren and dusty, small heaps of rusting junk and scrap metal scattered here and there. Cody noticed a few cracked and faded toys left to their deaths in the sun. There was a heavy scent of grease and metal, heat and oil. There was a thickness to the air that had nothing to do with the coming storm.

Something was very wrong here, it turned her stomach and sank into her bones. The confidence that Blackbird had gained drained as quickly as it had gathered and the colt shifted nervously, choppily checking his pace and stumbling down to a walk. THe Bird slid to a halt next to them, Ate already swinging down from the saddle before the stud had truly stopped. The Bird shifted around and settled to stand calmly, turning his hoof back as he settled in to catch his breath and slow his heart.

Blackbird pranced in paced, tossing his head. Cody made to dismount but stalled at Ate's hand.

Sit tight.

She didn't like leaving him to himself. If he called for help how was she supposed to hear him? But he was armed and had a radio, he could call Joey or one of the deputies. And the horses, if something truly wrong the horses would react.

She didn't like it but Ate knew how to handle himself. And it was likely that Ate was probably thinking the same things about herself.

Cody nodded and settled back into the seat of her saddle and slackened her reins. Blackbird's chest filled then deflated smoothly in a sigh and the colt relaxed a little, playing with the bit between his teeth. She brushed her knuckles across his neck and watched Ate closely as he bounded up the steps of the narrow porch, one hand settled on he firearm holstered on his hip. He knocked sharply on the door once then let himself in. She watched his mouth move, calling a warning into the house.

Cody sat back in the saddle, rubbing her knuckles across Blackbird's slim throat and kept her head on a swivel as she counted the seconds. The wheat rippled and the air grew heavier, harsher, ions and electricity crackling and making her hair stand on end.

Her throat vibrated slightly, twitching and the way that The Bird and Blackbird's ears flicked at her she must have made a sound. A growl or something.

Cody ground her teeth together but the vibration of her throat didn't cease.

Her head jerked around as the door swung open violently, both horses jumping slightly at the noise she didn't catch and Ate scrambled down the stairs and rushed at her. Cody stiffened and eyes went wide with shock when she saw the reason for his rush.

A boy was cradled in his arms. Pale and limp in Ate's grip, head lolling lifelessly and wheat gold hair matted and streaked in blood. There were large blossoms of color, some sickly green and yellow, others red and purple, mottling his arms, neck and face. His blue shirt and jeans were stained in blood and his feet bare.

The boy couldn't more than six, weighted no more than forty pounds.

Ate rushed to her and haphazardly swung the lifeless child up and around into the saddle in front of Cody. The boy's frame slumped against her torso, head pillowed on her sternum. Eyes wide she snapped her attention back to Ate, his hands streaked with red. Blackbird danced nervously away and pinned his ears almost shaking.

In his rush Ate was speaking to her, forcing her to pay close attention to his lips as she instinctively wrapped an arm around the slack boy and pulled him closer. Feeling the faint flutter of his heart and lungs.

Alive.

"Take him to the hospital! Now! He's yours! Go! Fly girl! Fly!"

Ate was already turning and rushing back towards the house, one hand freeing his firearm and the other on the radio.

The buckskin colt lurched to the side, nervous and making vibrations in his chest that sure to make a series of small, bird-like noises.

Cody wheeled Blackbird around on his heels, she mentally pleaded and begged with the young horse to keep his head before she dug her knees and heels into his shoulder and barrel.

The buckskin colt pinned his ears, rearing up slightly before dropping down and breaking into full flight, slender legs and neat hooves crashing into the packed earth in a dead gallop.

Blackbird's fear, nervousness and lacking confidence tore into him. He kicked his heels in mid stride, his balance off and weaving from one side to the other on the dirt packed road.

But Cody was too experienced and too determined to lose her seat even in the colt's wild sprint. She bore down and cradled the unconscious boy closer, trying to stop him from being jostled. She tried one handed to steer and assure and sooth the freightened colt, trying to calm him without breaking speed.

She begged him, coaxed him, prayed he would settle and ease. He couldn't be so afraid, he was needed, life depended on him.

She had gone to great lengths to ensure the buckskin colt's safety and comfort, now she needed him to return it.

Pilamaye, Blackbird. Pilamaye. Help us.

The buckskin felt the touch on his shoulder like a strike of lightening. She was just as afraid. as afraid for the stranger, for The Bird and her own sire left behind. Somewhere deep there was a fear for herself but Blackbird felt a large, grinding heat, a pool of fear specifically for the colt himself.

Afraid that in this desperate run he would hurt himself.

Blackbird's ears pinned. The Bird never faltered, never stumbled, never fell. His sire had never tossed a rider to the ground in play much less in desperation like this. His sire was a mountain, rooted deep into the earth.

The colt knew this, watched it and tried to mimic him in his presence. Tried to make the dark stud proud of his pale son.

The Bird wasn't here. It was him alone.

Blackbird.

The buckskin colt grit his jaw, snorted and tucked his nose into his chest.

He may never be a mountain but he could fly. Cody needed him and he could fly.

The colt straightened himself out, galloping straight down the center of the dirt packed road. is wild pace smoothed and he relaxed himself into a curved back and rolling, steady gait. He arched his neck and started to breath evenly with his his pacing.

The colt felt his stride and the easing in Cody's body. He was more comfortable, breathing easier. Being afraid was unpleasant and hard, this... this was almost a joy. Quieted down he found he had more strength and more room. His ears pricked forward and he tugged gently on the bit, telling Cody he was ready. He could take more, go faster, all she needed to do was ask.

Cody relaxed as she felt the colt settle into his stride, calming down and relaxing into the run. If Blackbird looked after himself she could focus on the boy. Her palm twitched when he pulled on the bit and reins and Cody nearly smiled and nodded to herself before pressing her knees into his shoulder and clicked her tongue, feeling the vibration of her teeth but not hearing the sound. It didn't matter as it was meant for the colt.

Her legs and knees vibrated when the colt whinnied in acknowledgement. Before shortening and doubling his pace, then pushed himself harder, doubling it again.

The fields and meadows, back woods and barren earth, fences and farm homes whirled by in blurred colors. Miles eaten up under the colt's hooves, they out distanced a teenage couple on a scooter and slid sideways as Deputy Joey Miccasco sped by with the cycle wailing.

Blackbird didn't flinch at the noise as he would before and Cody didn't turn when Joey's arm waved at her, she only hugged the blonde boy closer and urged Blackbird back to the middle of the road. They followed the road, galloping hard passed the small bar on the outskirts of town and sprinted around the edge of the Federation Ship Yard as she took a short cut through a soy bean field. They leapt from the low growth of soy beans onto paved road and rushed for the clustered of buildings and homes that made up Riverside.

Blackbird was breathing hard, sweat lathered up on his skin in the heat, his heart thundering faster than it should have but the colt didn't slow, only grit his teeth around the bit an actually sped up.

The colt galloped passed the welcoming sign and skidded around a corner building and into the slightly crowded streets of Riverside, people scattered as the buckskin broke hard through their lines, dancing around street lamps and automated newsstands, fire hydrants and stop signs.

Cody and Blackbird both lost their temper and patience for the clustered and sluggish civilians at the same time and the colt leap awkwardly over a public trash can and directly into traffic. Personal vehicles skidded and swerved avoiding the colt then each other.

Blackbird didn't even check his pace, galloping through traffic lights, leaping onto and off of sidewalks. somehow narrowly avoiding impacting with people and vehicles at every turn, side step and corner.

Cody kept her arm secure around the boy's back, pressing him deeper and more protectively into her chest and bracing his neck and head as she steered the colt passed the City Hall, streaking across the lawn and upsetting a group of Starfleet cadets lounging in the grass. The group of young humans and xeno species scattered. The horse snorted at them and cut towards the large, red and white stone building that stood as the hospital in the small Iowan town.

The structure was wider than it was tall, modern technology cutting the need for space exponentially. It wasn't necessarily a warm structure, retro design to reflect the Riverside centuries passed, with a wide sloping front lawn was a garden that long term patients were often brought to visit for rehabilitation reasons, to look on at flowers and insects and living fish in a small, central reflective pool. There were a few people bundled in plush, warm robes sitting on benches or in wheelchairs attended by orderlies or nurses in scrubs. The garden was enclosed by a waist high, cast iron fence that was more decorative than anything.

It was a tall jump for the untested colt but Blackbird grit his teeth, dropped his head and shortened his stride. He bunched up and launched himself off the sidewalk, sailed over the fence in a smooth arc, colliding with the ground his stride unbroken and terrifying patients relaxing in their cultivated nature.

Blackbird's hooves cracked against the paved walk and sent a shock of vibration rushing up his skeleton and into Cody, she grit her teeth to keep them from rattling with each stride. The cot danced around the reflecting pool and sideswiped an elderly woman in a wheelchair as they sprinted towards the front of the hospital.

The colt leaped onto the wide front steps, bounding up passed orderlies and interns lounging on the steps smoking or snacking on packed nibs.

In massive lurching bounds the buckskin charged up to the flat landing before the entrance but didn't slow.

He dropped his head towards his chest, instinctively protecting his eyes as he lunged towards the large metal and glass framed doors, Cody bending protectively over the boy and along the colt's neck, knowing that had she tried she probably wouldn't have been able to stop the horse's charge.

The glass shattered in a shower of large chunks and shards, the deafening sound lost o Cody but the vibration made her flinch and crouch closer to the colt.

Staff scattered as if a bomb had gone off, they dashed behind corners, ducked around the reception front desk and pulled patients out of the way.

Blackbird's hooves skidded, slipping on the highly polished floor and splinters of glass. he half reared, shaking himself and making anxious, sharp noises danced in place as Cody straightened and shook her head, scattering bits of debris and cradled the unconscious boy closer.

Her heart was thundering as she looked desperately around the emptied lobby space, most of the staff staying well out of sight as if afraid it was some terrorist attack.

Blackbird sidestepped and blew loudly through his nose, gasping after the hard run on his young lungs. He shivered hard and his hooves dancing on the broken glass. Cody quickly urged the colt off the debris, onto the slick, waxed floor.

He skidded nervously, his chest vibrating violently with all the noise he was making.

Cody whistled shrilly, trying to control the and assure the quickly spiraling colt and keep the boy settled against her sternum.

Slowly a few of the scrub clad staffers emerged, most of them pale and shocked to see the horse clattering around their lobby. One nurse, a sender, curly haired black woman recovered first. Flustered she puffed herself up, squared her shouldered and marched towards Cody and Blackbird with enough violence in her steps that Cody felt the vibrations shock up Blackbird's legs, through the saddle and into her pelvis.

Cody knew that had circumstances been different the woman would have bodily torn her from the saddle but Cody caught the woman's eye, pleading silently and gently tipped the child against the chest until his battered face was cast in the sterile white light of the lobby.

The woman staggered to a stop, paling significantly and immediately started screaming over her shoulder, barking orders and in a matter of seconds the once cowering nurses, tech, orderlies and physicians snapped into well practiced action and they rushed forwards.

Blackbird spooked, rearing up and Cody leaned forwards, trying to forced the colt's hooves back onto the earth and a tech reached out and grabbed hold of the bridle, tugging the colt's head roughly down.

As the staff descended on Cody, she suddenly had the urge to bundle the boy away, turn and fly from this place and keep the child well away from so many rushing and aggressive people. Keep him with her, where he was safe.

Logic won out and she allowed the slender black nurse to pull the child from her grip and drape him onto a gurney, handing him gently and rushing to administer oxygen and steroids and any number of odd concoctions to save the boy's life, screaming at one another as they swept him away, leaving cody only with the front of her shirt streaked in dust and the boy's blood.

She watched the by well until he was pulled away out of sight and into surgery.

She felt her breath coming to quickly, lost and terrified that the boy was out of her sight.

Blackbird lurched suddenly under her when the tech tried to force the colt around. Cody whipped around and bared her teeth at the tech, growling silently. The tech leapt back and Cody narrowed her eyes at him and quickly swung down and caught the reins of the colt. She gave the tech one last glare before gently turning the buckskin around and tugged him gently after her and with her head tilted unapologetically up she led the colt back across the shattered glass and lightly stepped over the frame and through the gaping hole left in the wake of the destroyed window.

They stood on the landing before the entrance, the stares of the many upset people they had passed looking up at them with the remainder of shock and beginnings of anger.

Blackbird side stepped and hid nervously behind Cody, his ears swayed and a soft nicker in his throat. Cody felt the vibration across her lower back and she reached around to gently stroke his nostrils and assure him before leading him slowly down towards the gardens, the colt taking the staggered steps awkwardly and slowly, still catching his breath.

Cody refused to meet anyone's eyes and led the colt down into the shrubbery and grass and across to the reflecting pool.

Blackbird agave a grateful groan and sucked water in heavy draws, rushing himself enough that he stopped, coughed a few times before continuing on in his drinking. Cody stepped up to his side and loosened the girth and Quarter Horse strap, loosening the saddle and blanket enough that air could flow under and cool the colt slowly after his hard ride. Cody bent and gently lifted each of his feet, inspecting the soles of his hooves for any lodged pieces of glass and brushed away and small chips sticking to the underside of horn and flesh.

The teenager waited next to the buckskin, letting him get his fill of the water while her tension slowly climbed and knotted over on itself the longer she was away from the boy. She soothed herself, stroking the colts neck and tangling her fingers in the coarse black mane.

The colt slowly drew away from the pool of water and gave a single, massive sigh and a little shake. Cody caught the reins and pulled the colt around and over towards a large, unplanted stretch of grass along the cat iron fencing. She lightly slipped the bridle off over the halter and lopped the bridle and reins over the saddle horn as she untangled the lead rope and deftly tied the colt to the fencing with enough lead to graze minimally and stand under the shade of a nearby oak.

She assured him gently, the colt nudging her hip and nosing her hand before she stepped away and jogging quickly back across the garden and rushed up the steps. She trotted across the broken glass, already in the process of being cleaned up by a few staff members.

She ducked passed the staff and followed the hall and around the corner that they had taken the boy.

Cody jogged along the line of double doors that led into rooms for light examinations and emergency care and quickly became operating theaters. She dashed passed another lobby of sorts, this one the intake for the ER and other critical arrivals, the doors leading directly out into a circular drive that ambulances and medical units could practically drive into the area. She continued, starting to feel more frantic as the signs and labeling on rooms and halls started to read Intensive Care Unit and Emergency Surgery.

Things start to get drastic when the first three operating theaters are either empty or busy with things like heart valves being replaced or shattered limbs being knit back together.

The fourth has the boy and it's only the doors being locked securely that kept Cody out.

Her breath started to come harshly as a delayed sense of panic threatened to swallow her.

She dug her fingers into her hair and stood shaking hard, breath coming harsh pants, trying to keep her throat and mouth moist but her saliva was quickly drying out and her blood starting to flush with a stress induced fever.

She took a few jerky, unsteady paces before stepping away from the doors and her back was pressed against the cool stone of the opposing wall and she slid down to the floor, slumping against the wall and settling her hands slack into her lap and waited.

Waited for an immeasurable amount of time. So long that she allowed an irrational fear of Blackbird's life overrun the more appropriate anxiety that centered around the boy and her absent Ate.

She knew that Ate had others with him, that he wasn't alone and far from helpless. That Blackbird would put more of a fight than most humans would if someone tried anything with the colt, that the buckskin was probably busy with the grass and low tree leaves that he forgot where he was entirely.

But it was better to fret and worry over them than it was the boy.

Cody curled up against the wall, drawing knees up to her chest and folding her arms over them, she buried her face up to her nose in her forearm but kept sharp grey eyes locked on the shut door, vigilant and still she waited.

It wasn't unlike her to be focused but it was out of character to be so engrossed that she didn't notice Ate until her sire had lighted a hand on her shoulder.

She lurched back, skull connecting with the wall and she drew back her lips in a silent, warning hiss before Cody realized it was he own father. She slumped against the wall again and shamefully dropped her eyes down towards her boots.

Ate crouched next to her and assuringly swept a hand through her hair , straightening it and encouraging the deaf teenager to look up at him.

Cody lifted tired grey eyes. Ate smiled weakly at her, his clothes as rumpled and blood streaked as her own and behind him stood Deputy Joey. The younger man kept glancing towards the operating theater and shifted his weight. Nervous and unsettled he fidgeted his hands over his holstered fire arm. Joey was blonde and blue eyed, his kin tawnied by a young life outdoors and a few minor scars that all humans earned in their youth.

Joey glanced at her and gave a lopsided, angular grin that was too large to his slim face.

She twitched her lips slightly.

"Ya done good girl." Ate rumbled, his voice vibrating in the air and Cody reading his lips, twisting the words around in her mind before giving a reluctant nod.

"Go on home, Cody-"

The teenager straightened and gave a sharp jerk of her head. No

Ate huffed, sighing as if he'd clearly expected this and narrowed his gaze down at her.

"Cody, get home-"

No

"Girl-" By the sharpness in Ate's eyes and the twist of a frown sewn across her sire's mouth Cody knew that he was losing his patience and expected to be obeyed. Cody had long been trained to take commands from authority and was nearly flawless in her reciprocation.

But it had been another lesson to stand her ground and dig in.

Ate. You gave him to me. He's mine.

She pointed towards the sealed doors.

Nothing is going to make me leave him.

Ate's heaved out a massive breath and dropped his head. Cody lifted her head and straightened up. She looked sure and calm but internally she was terrified. Terrified of taking on the boy, terrified of having to fix him, rebuild him... terrified to be denied her claim on the boy.

Be denied her boy.

She relaxed slightly when she saw the twist of Ate's face, muscles pulling into a sympathetic smile.

"Then Heaven help him."

Cody glared at her father as the man rose to his feet, stroking a hand through her hair again. She snorted through her nose at him and settled back against the wall.

"We're going to head back to the station. Son of a bitch claims the boy fell down a flight of stairs. Have to wait for the docs' reckoning and the boy to come 'round to find out for sure, see if we can find his momma, ya send word over if ya need me, ya understand?"

Yes sir

"Ya say he's yers then ya watch him close girl."

Yes sir

Ate's chest expanded and contracted again in one of his heavy sighs before nudging Joey around and lead the deputy back down the hall, passed the intake for emergency and further on until they were out of sight around the corner.

Cody settled back into her place against the wall, finding her old position, not entirely comfortable but well designed for her vigil.

Eyes steady on the door she went still and set to waiting again.

She was unaware of time, only that as her wait lengthened for her boy the artificial lighting of the hall became brighter and harsher as the natural bled away.

She stiffened and straightened up when the doors unsealed and rushed open with a puff of air that smelled sterile and sharp. Cody resisted sneezing and quickly scrambled to her feet.

The slender black nurse from before and another nurse in similar scrubs were carting her boy away.

There was no blood now, only paled skin, his hair slicked down and darkened with seat and bundled in a child sized hospital gown. Small, crumbled and weak but alive.

Cody started after them but a surgeon in scrubs blocked her paths. His hands and arms and good part of his chest was spattered with blood clearly not his own.

She looked worriedly after her boy, but paused and waited for the doctor to start speaking.

His words were large and hard to read on his lips. The surgeon spoke rapidly and gestured so sharply with his hands that Cody was more than sure that some of the boy's blood was spattered on her already stained shirt.

She caught a few words along the lines of 'broken bones' and 'internal bleeding' and 'flooded brain'. She just nodded passively and continued to look in the direction they had wheeled her boy.

The surgeon finished his report so suddenly Cody was unaware of it until the man had turned on his heel and marched away with a final burst of speech abut paperwork and medical records that Cody could have cared less over. She turned and sprinted after her boy. The deaf teenager skidded to the end of the hall and looked down both directions and noticed a flicker of movement ducking into one of the large turbolifts that looked oddly like the pale pink scrubs the black nurse had been wearing.

Cody sprinted down towards the lifts and skidded to a stop before the one that had just shut. She waited a few moments impatiently until it returned and she ducked in.

She quickly typed in the code to repeat it's last trip and in a few seconds the lift doors slide back to the pediatric wards. The walls painted soft, warm colors and decorated with dinosaurs. The furniture lining the halls were plush and multicolored and the tiling on the floor was also a series of soft colored squares. Cody stepped out and looked around before taking off as a dead sprint when she spotted the two nurses carting on her boy.

She checked her pace when the the slim black nurse must have heard her rushing and narrowed her eyes at Cody. The teenager instantly fell into a sheepish and docile walk close behind them.

The hall they walked were all private rooms, the barriers between the open hall and the dorms were thick plexi-glass that closed off for privacy with colored curtains or were pulled back to observe in, a few glass planes were occupied by tacked up drawings or pictures or cards.

After a few more yards the black nurse stepped around and keyed open a private recovery room and pulled while the other nurse pushed the gurney into the room, Cody followed closely. The curtains drawn over the glass wall were a pale yellow. The other three walls were painted a similar butter color. There was a series of wooden shelves that were stocked with containers filled to the brim with well loved plastic toys, more dinosaurs, a stack of data pads that were loaded down with children's stories, a few extra folded sheets and a final container stocked with old fashioned wooden blocks. Each container and data pad was yellow and marked with a label 'Yellow Room Three". There were two over stuffed chairs of butter colored fabric set in open corners of the room.

There was a large, plush biobed also dressed up in yellow and white with overstuffed pillows. The suspended monitor screens were blank and quiet and only when the nurses gingerly lifted her boy and settled him onto the biobed did they light up and fill with reading of vitals and balances of systems and the general all round health of her boy.

Even to Cody's inexperienced and unsure eyes they did not look good.

Her boy crumpled against the the mattress, unaware of the comfort and near dead to the world. Her looked smaller, thinner than he had only moments before on the gurney, his skin a sickly milk color against the warm of the bedding. Shadows smudged under his eyes and down his cheeks, sweating heavily and turning his hair dark and small tremors rippled through the boy's frame.

Once left alone the boy instinctively, even in his weakened state curled himself up around his core, protecting himself in a damaged ball.

Cody was torn, most of her wanted to say, curl up around her boy, fortify him until he could stand on his own.

The rest of her wanted blood.

"You can't be here unless you're family."

Cody course did not hear the nurse as she pressed closer to the bed, fighting herself hard not to climb right with her boy.

"Ma'am. You can't stay unless you're family."

A touch on her elbow made Cody look around into the slim black nurse's face. She cocked her head in confusion.

"Didn't you hear me?" The nurse asked sharply.

Cody knew that look and grit of teeth well. The woman, already frazzled, must have been speaking to her directly for some time.

Cody tried to look apologetic and shook her head in a negative.

The woman looked surprised. "You didn't?"

Cody lifted a hand and touched one ear before mouthing 'I can't hear'.

The black nurse mimicked Cody's earlier look of confusion. The deaf rancher glanced around and spied what she wanted and scooped up and over large data pad from a shelf. The kind that were designed specifically for children with a durable, over large screen and stylus. They acted like a kind of writing pad, could be scribbled on for hours then swiped clean with a pass of the hand.

Cody quickly wrote in small neat lettering at the top DEAF and turned it around to show the nurse.

The woman's confusion turned to shock and looked disbelieving at Cody. "Really?"

The teenager nodded and the woman narrowed her eyes.

"But you understand me?"

READING LIPS

The nurse seemed to accept this and straightened her pale pink scrub shirt. "Alright, well, are you family?"

SISTER Cody presented without hesitation.

"Where you present for the incident?"

Cody shook her head and the nurse responded with a nod.

"Well, he's recovering, we don't think there will be any lasting damage. We want to keep him a few days just to make sure."

Cody nodded eagerly but knew by the look in the woman's eyes that Cody wasn't getting the entire story. She didn't expect it, what was only thirteen, not a proven relative much less an adult or parent.

"If you need anything you can buzz-" She motioned towards the communications unit mounted on the wall. "- or go down to the nurses' station at the other end of the hall next to the gift shop. The cafeteria is one more floor up and it closes at eight but there is coffee in the waiting room."

Cody nodded and stood perfectly still in her spot until the two nurses had left her and her boy alone. Cody set the pad aside and gingerly reached out to skate her fingertips over the boy's temple and into his sweat slicked hair.

He jerked slightly, flinching in his unconscious state. Cody couldn't call it sleep. Sleep was restful and healthy. This was her boy escaping for a while.

Cody felt her throat vibrating, a low growl that if it made noise she was unaware. He stepped back reluctantly, tugging up the thick yellow blanket over his frame before taking up the data pad again and quickly left the room, she jogged through the brightly colored halls until she found the nurses station and next to it the glass walled space that was the pediatric gift shop.

Cody stepped inside and a slender young man behind the counter and credit reader glanced up from a data pad possibly reading for a class or a popular tabloid.

"Let me know if there's anything I can help you with." He mumbled absently with a false smile and words so jumbled that Cody had a hard time reading them. She nodded in response before wandering idly around the small shop.

The displays were mostly made up of vases of flowers, containers full of candies and assorted toys, trinkets and stuffed animals. Another wall filled from floor to ceiling of folded squares hat made up colorful blankets and patterned sleepwear. Almost everything was reflective of Terran culture but being so close to the Shipyard some of it was xeno in design. Comforting treats that were more ideal for other Federation species, some of the plants and flowers were nothing like what Cody had seen before or would have called pretty and some of the toys were either depictions of animals species from beyond earth or games that had been adapted from those other cultures.

Cody wandered through the assortment but none of it struck her as what her boy might need.

She walked long the wall of pajamas and blankets, thinking of the thin hospital gown her boy was wearing now. She searched through them before pulling out a pair of dark blue sleep pants and a paler blue shirt that sported the image of a cartoonish palomino pony in a blue bandana around its neck. It was probably meant for a girl but nothing in the design gave it away. Cody rooted around until she found a larger sized russet colored tee shirt to replace her blood stained one.

Bundling up the pajamas Cody crossed to the clerk, who looked up disinterestedly as she set them on the counter then lifted a hand to stop him from ringing them up. The young man narrowed his eyes and watched as Cody cleared the data pad in her hand and quickly wrote across it then presented it to him.

'I'M DEAF. DO YOU HAVE A REPLICATOR I CAN ORDER FROM?'

The clerk blinked in surprise before nodding and turning towards the large mounted replicator system on the wall behind him and pulled down a data pad synced into the system with a catalog.

"Costs a little more." He said, his words slurred together again that Cody would have suspected he was drunk if she had caught any scent of alcohol. The young man just must have had poor speech habits. Cody shrugged a shoulder in response and quickly started searching through the catalog. It was a few minutes before she settled on a few things and sent the order to the replicator.

The machine flickered to life and in a matter of seconds produced what Cody was asked for.

A large stuffed buckskin horse, brown legs, pale gold fur and a dark mane and tail made up of coils of soft, thick brown yarn. She'd ordered it customized to look much like one of the hand made toys that Ate's mother made for new babies. Large black button eyes and thick stitching and pin joints.

The other item was a antique style, hard backed picture book. Thin, barely a inch, but large and glossy pages filled to the edges with brilliantly colored illustrations and a sleek outer jacket sported a blue background with a center illustration of a freckled boy in a white hat and green shirt surrounded by horses. The title arched across the top in red letters When Wishes Were Horses.

The clerk gave her an odd look as he passed them over and rung up the collective price. Cody dug into a jeans pocket and pulled out a credit and swiped it, waiting for the transaction to go through before bundling everything together against her chest and quickly stalking out without waiting for a bag or anything. Cody jogged back through the halls and ducked into Yellow Room Three. She breathed out a sigh of relief at the sight of her boy still huddled in the middle of the bed. Cody gently set her cache on the end of the bed and made sure the door was secured.

Stepping over to the curtain she quickly stripped out of her ruined shirt and replaced it with the russet tee. She dumped the shirt into a biohazard disposal unit then sorted through her purchase. She set the toy horse and book into the seat of a chair and shook out the pajamas. Reluctant to expose her boy to a chill for long Cody put into well practiced skills of undressing and redressing a near sleeping child that she had used more than once on each of her four young brothers.

She pulled away the thin hospital gown and let it drop to the floor forgotten. He shivered and tried to curl up around his core but Cody smoothed his shivers with a feather light pass of her fingers. The doctors had done a fair job of healing him. His skin still pink and flushed from being freshly regenerated but Cody knew that skin should have been a terrible art work of mottled blossoms of bruises and abrasions. His flesh was hot to the touch, a fever setting in but not enough to alert a response from the monitoring nurses.

He was so thin and pale it made Cody ill. She smoothed back her boys hair before threading thin arms into the palomino pony shirt and tugged it over his head. Then slid the dark blue sleep pants up to his thin hips. It was no hard task, the clothes were two sizes too large and Cody had to pull the drawstring tight into a bow to keep them in place.

Cody gently rolled her boy over onto his side, letting him curl back up around his core, she quickly grabbed the stuffed buckskin and tucked it into his stomach. After a long second her boy instinctively hugged it into his narrow chest.

Cody stroke his hair again and dragged up the sheets and blanket, folding them over and doubling their thickness before bundling them around his curved form.

The deaf teenager reached around and dragged the nearest plush chair over until Cody would have an easy time folding her arms and resting her head on the biobed next to her boy. She set the book aside and eased into the seat, letting out a low tired puff of air, exhaustion settling low into her muscles and bones. She was long passed the time of losing it to trauma and shock. She'd seen herself through it against the wall outside the operating theater.

Cody leaned forwards, folding her arms and resting her cheek against her folded forearms. Watching the shallow but assuring rise and fall of her boy's sides. She sniffed, trying to catch his scent under the layered on layers of sterility and administered medications. There was the sourness of his sweat and the bitterness of his fever and flushed blood.

But there was a faint sweetness with a light bite. Like spiced honey... it tangled with a smooth, rich aroma was reminded her of fresh milk.

Honey and milk.

Purely innocent.

She shifted closer, as if intending to nose at the blankets wrapped around her boy's back. She watched him for what felt like hours before her body warmth seeped deeply enough into the mattress that her boy shifted, rolled over and curled towards her, hugging the toy tightly. Cody breathed out heavily, washing her boy's face in her breath. He groan and sucked in, drawing Cody's exhaled air in before breathing out, sharing his own breath with her.

Cody felt their lives twisting around each other and bond arching up into existence.

Cody shifted a little closer to her boy, only a fraction of an inch from touching him.

Her boy shifted around and one arm unwrapped from stuffed toy dropping and tangling accidentally into Cody's hair. He clutched at the fine, cinnamon strands and breathed out softly.

Cody relaxed as her boy's unconscious escape shifted into sleep.

Some long hours later it was pain that drew Cody out of her own sleep, the feeling of her hair being pulled viciously but not maliciously. She let out a rush of pained air and rubbed hard at her scalp. The room was slightly darkened and glance over at the corner she noticed Ate, slumped into the other chair, head thrown back and jaw slack. The way his throat and chest shivered Cody was sure he was snoring.

The deaf teenager glanced around at her surroundings before looking towards her boy.

He'd woken and sat up, pulling away from Cody's near and strange presence and pulling her hair in the process.

He stared at her through the dim light, eyes large, tired and luminous pools of cerulean blue. His narrow chest was heaving in choked breath.

Slowly Cody sat up and pulled back giving her boy a little space. He breathed out and relaxed some.

"Who're you?" He asked quietly, Cody just catching the words. She reached around to pick up the data pad, swiped the surface clean before writing down CODY.

She handed it to him and the six year old read it.

"Why'd you write it? Can't you talk?" Her boy asked.

Cody shook her head and motioned him to tip the data pad and she wrote 'I CAN'T HEAR EITHER'.

He blinked and narrowed his eyes at her. "But you know what I'm saying..."

'I CAN READ YOU LIPS'.

Her boy made a face at her that clearly said he didn't believe her and Cody only smiled gently back before writing on the pad.

'DO YOU FEEL BETTER?'

"My head hurts..." Her boy admitted. "I... I,uh... don't remember what happened..."

'I DON'T CARE WHAT HAPPENED, JUST IF YOU'RE OKAY'.

Her boy blinked, surprised and it made Cody's stomach roll sickly.

"'M in the hospital aren't I?"

Cody nodded.

"Did you bring me here?"

Cody nodded again before writing 'ME AND BLACKBIRD'.

His eyes narrowed. "Blackbird... is that him?"

Her boy pointed over towards Ate. Cody smiled and shook her head. 'THAT'S ATE. MY DAD. BLACKBIRD IS MY HORSE.'

"Horse?" Her boy straightened up a bit and looked at her curiously. "You have a horse? You brought me here on a horse?"

Cody nodded again, 'HE HELPED ME HELP YOU... SAVED YOUR LIFE'

Her boy ducked his head and fidgeted at the hem of his shirt, pulling it out and looking at the print of the palomino pony, noticing it for the first time. He let it spring back and wrung his hands in his lap.

"My house is so far from town... is he okay?"

Cody paused. she wasn't positive. She was sure that if something had happened to the colt that Ate would have alerted her, she glanced at the clock, suddenly desperate to get to the young horse and reassure herself of his health and safety.

'TIRED' She wrote with a slight smile, hiding her distress. 'BUT HE SEEMED FINE WHEN I LEFT HIM OUTSIDE'.

"Outside? He's here?" Her boy straightened up a little bit more,

'IN THE GARDEN OUT FRONT'.

Her boy paused for a long moment, fiddling with the edge of the data pad. "Can... I see him?"

Cody hesitated, glancing at Ate then back at her boy. t wasn't wise to pull him away from the safety of Yellow Room Three, he was sickly and weak and exhausted from his ordeal. The need to see her colt tugged at her but not enough to put her boy in danger.

And her boy was already looking down in defeat, expected to be denied.

Cody nudged him gently, he looked up at her, his eyes slightly dulled in color. She smiled gently and jerked her head towards the door.

Her boy blinked in shock, staring at her as Cody pushed herself up out of the chair and stood back. When he didn't move Cody waved him on.

Her boy didn't waste another second and scrambled to the edge of the bed and gingerly slid down, her winced when his feet hit the floor but shook it off and stiffly stood. Cody offered her hand, he flinched and eyed the hand warily for a moment, just long enough for Cody to make a plan to slaughter whatever she found in the blocky, tall building that her boy came out off.

She waited, letting him make his own decision before her boy gently tangled his much small, slimmer hand into her tanned leather and calloused one. She squeezed gently and gave a light tug towards the door.

Her boy took a step and stumbled. Cody gently held him steady, pulling him back up with his hand. Her boy puffed and stood gingerly before taking another step and stumbling down to his knees. Cody instantly dropped down next to him, keeping her hand wrapped around his.

His back heaved and he looked sadly up at her, the brightness already fading from his eyes.

"I can't walk."

Cody nodded and her boy dropped his eyes back to the floor, Cody hesitated before smoothing a hand through his hair, he jumped and looked up at her. Cody gently tugged the boy up until he was standing then easily and lightly lifted him up and balanced him against her hip. He was was small for his age, barely six, but it was still an awkward balance as Cody was only thirteen. He was tense shifted as far away from her as he possibly could before Cody shifted him closer to her side, wrapping an arm tightly around his back and hooked the other under her boy's knee and tugged him closer and more securely onto her flank.

Hey boy hesitated for a moment before carefully winding his arms around her neck. When Cody only stood firmly and calmly still her boy crumbled against her and pressed his face into her throat and hair. He breathed in her scent and sighed against her throat, the bond born between them tightened and strengthened.

Cody cast a glance at Ate before silently slipping out of the room.

As the door slid shut Benjamin Chicalato slit one eye open and smiled slightly to himself before shutting his eye and shifting down further into his chair.

Cody carried her boy silently through the darkened ward, she assumed it was stiller and quieter than it had been earlier in the day, the windows showed it was near dusk outside. The pediatric ward would settle down first. Cody watched the halls, knowing all to well that if a nurse or orderly caught them they'd be reprimanded and sent back to Yellow Room Three.

They padded down to the turbolift and Cody tilted her boy down until he could reach the controls and pointed to each one until Cody indicated which one he was supposed to use.

The narrow space vibrated smoothly, humming around them before the door slid back to the ground floor and lobby. Cody glanced around, noting where the were and which way they were going.

She felt her boy tense against her side and she pet his ribs assuringly, squeezing his knee before she tried to relax and walked calmly but quickly along the wall towards the lobby, she slipped passed a nurses' station and a reception desk before slipping out the unlocked front entrance, the glass she'd destroyed earlier cleaned away and replaced with temporary wood panels.

Cody nudged them open with her free hip then shoulder and stepped out onto the landing. She felt her boy suck in a large breath and relax, dropping his head onto her shoulder. Cody started down the steps as quickly as she could without over balancing. She gave a low, soft whistle and from the way her boy pricked up and turned she knew that Blackbird was still tied where she'd left him.

He was probably due up for a drink at the reflecting pool.

She stepped down onto the abandoned pathways and crossed towards the colt's shape in the failing light, she breathed a silent sigh of relief at the sight of her colt.

She noticed on Blackbird's far side was the large, pitch black shape of the colt's sire, The Bird. Both horses had been untacked and cooled, ted by haltered and lead ropes with half a bale of hay and a large steel tub full of water between them. On the other side of the fence was Ate's old work pick up truck, their saddles probably secured in the cab and stocked with any needs the comfortable horses would need. Ate had taken good care of the horses while she had been busy with her boy.

Blackbird twisted his head around towards them, nostrils and sides vibrating as he nickered or whinnied at them. She felt her boy press tighter into her side and throat, suddenly shy before the horse as Cody closed the distance and stood next to Blackbird.

The colt nickered warmly again and Cody offered one hand, keeping the other hooked around and under her boy to keep him from slipping.

The colt nudged and snuffled in her hand, mouthing her fingers affectionately. Slowly, encouraged by the display and offered his own hand, mimicking Cody's open palm.

Blackbird laved attention on his small hand, sniffing and warming and actually licking her boy's fingers and palm.

His face brightened in a smile as Blackbird reached up and snuffled at his ear and hair, making him squeak and press his ear into his shoulder to keep from being tickled.

Blackbird was calmed and tired and far more gentle than her would have been fresh in the morning or with any of Cody's young siblings.

She stepped closer to let her boy stroke his hand lightly over the side of the colt's arched neck. He played in the dark mane and ruffled the honey colored fur in both directions.

There was a look of pure wonder and awe on her boy's face, every wary edge softened or shaken off altogether as he soaked in the warmth of the young buckskin.

Cody stepped back and felt a small vibration of sorrow ripple through him before he yelp in surprise when she lightly swung him around until he was perched straddling the colt's shoulder.

Every muscle her boy had locked, frozen and terrified, gip white knuckled in Blackbird's mane as he sat rigid in his place.

Cody stepped closer, draping one arm across the colt's spine behind her boy's seat, pressing her forearm against the small of his back and pressed the other assuringly over his knee. When Blackbird stayed still and relaxed, almost disinterested in her boy perched on his back, her boy started to relax and stroke his hands through the the long back mane and over pale gold fur.

Her boy relaxed, calming until a glazed look of near bliss crossed his eyes and he dropped forwards, lying on his belly and chest along Blackbird's neck, fingers digging lightly into gilded skin and fur and buried his face into the dark mane.

Cody smiled and settled her hand soothingly and assuringly between his shoulder blades, making clear she would not let him fall.

His back rose and fell in deep pulls of breath as he nuzzled into Blackbird's mane and soaked in his scent.

When he looked up at her his eyes were brilliant pools of silver, flickering in the dying light.

Cody hesitated before touching her chest with her free hand. His eyebrows arched up and Cody touched her sternum again and mouthed the word 'me'.

"You... Cody...."

When he said her name she nodded then reached out and touched his shoulder.

"Me?" He tightened his grip on the colt's neck when Blackbird shifted, something dawned in his now silver eyes. "Jim."

Cody tipped her head and reluctantly her boy lifted his face away from the colt's dark mane.

"My name is Jim."

The second he'd given over his name clearly be buried his face back into the horses' neck, the strands of the colt's man flickering like feathers against Jim's pale skin.

A/N: And so it starts...

When Wishes Were Horses is a great children's book by Sharon Hart Addy and illustrated by Brad Sneed that I adore and think it a great book for all those little cowgirls and cowboys out there the just can't go to sleep. What happens is that a boy named Zeb wishes over and over and suddenly he finds out that every time he says 'I wish' a different horse appears by magic and the first one is a buckskin cow pony.

And yes, that stuffed horse is the same one that appears in Chapter Eleven of LHCM.

Music:

Good Lord Willing by Little big Town

Blackbird originally by The Beatles, performed by Sara McLachlan