Thanks again to everyone for the reviews and suggestions. As per Dessert Maniac's request, this is a bit of Jane and Gunther interacting - though mostly from Gunther's POV.

As always, don't own.

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What would Jane do?

Those four little words have been his mantra for this entire mission. Well, at least since the totally unexpected turn of events for the mission unfolded. Still, the words haunt him, like a lyric he cannot get out of his mind: What would Jane do?

Obviously, when encountered with the destruction of Fena, Kippernia's town on the very border of the kingdom, Jane would do the most honorable. And the most impossible. Jane would rescue all twelve of the town's surviving women and children. There are two women, an old woman and her daughter who has a newborn of her own. The rest are very young, ranging from 12 to 3, an oddly even mixture of boys and girls.

Dragon of course, does whatever Jane does, and Gunther follows suit, wanting both to please Jane (though he is loathe to admit that point) and make as little conflict with the big green lizard as possible. He supposes too, it is honorable, though not exactly their orders, as he'd reminded Jane the day of the rescue.

"Orders? Gunther, who cares about orders? People have died. We can't leave what's left of their families here in this burning village. They haven't got a thing to eat. "

"But our mission was to scout Tunaria, to see what they were up to, what their strength and numbers looked like."

"Its obvious that what they're up to is raiding the outskirts. Obviously they have impressive numbers and strength to blow though a whole town."

"But-"

"We're sworn to protect the kingdom. That means the people in it. Everyone else has abandoned them. We can't do that too."

"Jane's right of course," Dragon piped up, nonchalantly scratching himself. "You two are-" his ears twitched. "Do you hear that?"

"Hear what?"

"It's - here, hop on a sec, both of you. Something we should all probably see."

Dragon flew them up to the side of a nearby mountain where the peered around a corner into a ravine filled with ants. Gunther shook his head, not ants, the place was full to the brim with helmeted men, everywhere, bearing the colors of Tunaria. There-

"There must be thousands of them," Gunther murmured.

Jane had simply nodded.

"We- you were right, Jane. We have to get them to the castle, they'll be safe there. And then we can tell the king what we saw."

Jane nodded again, still staring down, obviously disturbed.

What would she do? He'd thought.

She'd try to comfort him, because that was Jane for you, he knew. She always wanted to be there for her friends, and oddly enough, after all the bickering, all the rivalry, they'd somehow become friends.

What would she do? He's not sure if taking her hand is the right answer, but it feels right.

She seems to take comfort from the action too, after what appears to first be surprise. She grips his hand firmly and nods, to herself mostly.

The rescue is a delicate operation. Its nearly nightfall, so no one wishes to travel now, but both Jane and Gunther are insistant that Fena is a terrible place to try to defend. So they take the survivors to a cave in that same mountain where they hole up for the night. Dragon sleeps with his back to the entrance, and Jane is curled in one of his scaley armpitts, a little townsgirl of five who bears a striking resemblance to the princess lavinia at that age, sleeps next to her.

He smiles and glances back to jane, who's eyes meet his. She smiles a bit at him, but the expression is uncertain, shy even. A sliver of moonlight shines on her hair and he wonders, before closing his eyes and drifting off to sleep, "what would Jane do... if I kissed her?"

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Reviews are greatly appreciated!