It took Dale an hour to saddle all the horny horses required to transport the guests of the Rebel Army.  He eventually managed it though.  Since they had arrived, the clearing had filled with many more troops wearing similar knight like attire as Dor was.  They each had their own squires with woolen tunics, who rode behind them carrying their swords and looking hopeful that their patron would notice them and praise them.  It was one step on the path knighthood.  Most of them would have never had a hope of making it that far had they joined up with the Royal Army.  Besides that, time travel and teleportation were exciting prospects.

    Once Dor was seemingly satisfied that everything was settled, prisoners had been locked up in metal coaches much like the one the Royal Army had treated the time travelers to, and that all of his own troops were present and accounted for, he trotted his own horny horse up to the edge of the clearing where a small path led. 

    "Onward!"  He shouted, trumpeters on either side of him sounded out with a triumphant squeal and he led his army through the gap in the trees.

     Bertram had been wondering why they were traveling by horse when the planet obviously had the technology to use fossil fuels.  He would have asked one of the knights about it, but they rode, two by two, knight and squire, looking purposefully ahead.  Perhaps they still used wheels, Bertram thought.  No vehicle with wheels would have ever been able to traverse a foot path such as the one that they were on.  Jody was beside him, having trouble with her horse, and bouncing around in her saddle where everybody else had settled into the easy dawdling pace of the walk.  Her bouncing was agitating the creature who swung his head back and forth, occasionally clinking horns with Bertram's horse.  Then it would huff and dance sideways before settling down only to repeat the procedure over and over again.  Jody became increasingly frightened and only limply held on to the reins.

    "Are you okay, Jody?"  Bertram asked her.  She only shook her head and moaned in frustration.

   They came to a break in the woods then.  The group streamed out of the trees and were greeted by a wide open field covered in what could have been a golden colored grass.  It was hard to tell because of the slight bluish tint that the sun gave everything.  The time travelers were pleased that the thickest of the woods seemed to be past them.  They could see mountains far off on the horizon, the sun loomed low in the sky.

    It was then that a horny horse piled with creatures began galloping up from the hind end of the line.  They chirped pleasantly and playfully as their horse rode by.  They owed their lives to the strong knight leader, Dor, but they were happy to be free.  As they rode on, the one with the blue dread locks reached out and lightly slapped the shoulders of the other riders he was passing by.  He only wanted to share in his glee.  He hadn't meant any harm.

    The slap surprised Jody.  She gasped, yanked on the reins and dug he heels into the sides of the already skittish horny horse.  It instantly reared up and tried to buck her off its back, but she clung desperately to its neck and that was where she stayed as it took off across the field.  Bertram had little time to react and he tried to spur his own horse into action, but it only shook its head stubbornly and tried to sit down.  He ended up sliding backwards out of the saddle and into the tall grass.  He almost didn't notice two riders fly past him, nearly running him over in the process.

    "Fall off!" Phillip was shouting as best he could at Jody as they galloped at breakneck speed through the grass.  Several of the squires, John, and Jerry had also taken off after them, but they were far behind having gotten a later start.

    Jody did not have the good sense to let go of the horse and end her terrifying ride, and Phillip's shouted instructions could not be heard above the sound of thundering hooves bearing down on her.  The sense of being chased did not help to ease the spooked horse, and it only seemed to run faster in an attempt to escape.  The horse did, however, have enough sense to stop short when the grass ended and the unseen canyon began.  It skittered to a sudden halt kicking up a cloud of dust as it did so.  Jody was unable to hang on then.  She flew over the horse's bowed neck, barely missing being impaled by its horn, and slid a few feet.  She teetered on the edge of the cliff for a moment, but couldn't hold on and toppled over the edge.

    Phillip arrived first on the scene.  He practically jumped off the horse mid-stride and ran to the edge.  David followed quickly after and joined him, looking down at the river that wound through the canyon It must have been several miles below their feet.  Jody had landed on a small outcropping of rock a few feet below the lip of the crevice. 

    "Oh, thank god," David gasped.

    "I can reach her," Phillip said.  "Lower me down."

    "The others..."

    "Listen," Phillip grabbed David by his shoulders and leaned in to whisper in his ear.

    David could barely hear him for the sound of his own beating heart.

    "That ledge isn't going to hold.  Lower me down.  I'd offer to do the lowering, but I don't think I could support your weight."  He had seen the almost imperceptible crack in the ledge.  Jody wasn't going to be able to last long enough to search out a rope.  Phillip grabbed David's hands and placed them around his waist. 

    "Just don't let me fall," Phillip whispered one last instruction in his ear then led him backwards towards the ledge.

    David could do nothing but follow along with Phillip's plan.  His brain seemed to have stopped functioning completely as he was faced with the life and death situation.  He could barely hear Jody calling for help.

    Jody herself almost didn't register Phillip calling out to her from the ledge himself after a moment.  She glanced up at him, clearly terrified.

    "Okay," Phillip said once she had noticed him.  "You're gonna need to stand up...slowly."

    "I can't," she said, her voice wavering in fear.  "I think I hurt my foot."

    Phillip turned to David.  "You're going to have to lower me down by the ankles."

    "Are you kidding me?"  David hissed.  It was one thing to only have the upper half of ones body dangling over the edge of a precipice, but to be dangling from one's ankles was another thing entirely.

    "Just do it," Phillip replied.  "The crack is getting wider...if she notices she's going to freak out..."

    Phillip reappeared to her then, smiling assuredly. 

    "David's going to lower me down," he said.  "I want you to reach out and grab my hands and we'll pull you up.  It's gonna be okay, alright?  On three?"

    Jody nodded, and Phillip counted off.

    The procedure went off exactly according to plan.   As soon as Phillips fingertips were within her reach from her seated position, Jody grabbed hold of his hands.  On his mark, David slowly dragged him back up on to level ground.  He moved his grasp from Phillip's ankles to his waist as soon as he was in a more stable position.  From there, David was able to lift them both to safety.  He was thankful for his part time landscaping job in that moment.  And his father thought lifting paving stones on a regular basis never did anybody any good.

    As soon as Jody could she scrambled away from Phillip's grasp and hobbled a few feet away only to be greeted with the entire Rebel scouting party on horseback. 

    "It's okay," she waved and smiled brightly at them.  They looked on skeptically as she hobbled back towards the boys who had rescued her.

    Phillip's heart was hammering in his chest.  His back was to David, but only because his partner had a vice grip on his hips, hard enough to cause discomfort, and he showed no signs of letting go.

    "David?  Can you?"  Phillip pushed futilely at David's hands.  "You're kind of hurting me."

    David only let go long enough to turn Phillip around to face him though.  As soon as their eyes met, Phillip, in what he would only moments later chalk up to adrenaline fueled insanity, reached up, pulled David's lips to his and kissed him hard.  It was only then that David's hands released their grip.  He was unsure of what to do with them, but eventually decided to reach up, cradle Phillip's head in a reciprocal gesture and...kiss him back.  That bliss only lasted for a moment, however.  David, as if a switch had been turned on in his brain, broke the embrace and pushed Phillip away harshly.

    "Why did you do have to do that?" he screamed at him.

    "Well, you didn't seem to mind!"  Phillip screamed right back.

    "Fuck this!" David shook his head harshly and swiped his hand through the air in a dismissive gesture before stalking angrily away.

    He stood there looking heartbroken.  He wanted to go to David, who hadn't made it that far, being stopped by a wall of Rebel soldiers headed by Dor himself.  He wanted to apologize.  He wanted to make things right.

  So Phillip took one step forward and was immediately greeted by Jody, who collapsed into his arms, shaking like a leaf.  He could do nothing but hold her as she sobbed out thank yous for saving her life.

*****

 They both received a sound dressing down from Dor for their reckless, yet effective attempt at a rescue later on that evening.  Phillip stood tall during the lecture about how the army carried ropes for just such occasions and how they were far safer for everybody involved.  When Phillip naturally protested due to the time and unstable outcropping issues, Dor simply told him that they could have unclipped the horse's reins from the bit and used those instead of putting his own life and David's life in danger. 

  Phillip was then suitably humbled, because he hadn't thought of it himself and Dor was right.  He was young and inexperienced in other worldy adventures, and he was a mathematician at heart.  Math afforded him all the time in the world.  Equations were always there waiting to be solved, and theorems waiting to be proven.  As it turned out making split second decisions on how to save a life was not something he was particularly good at.  He made no more attempts to justify his decision, not even the fact that nobody had actually died.  It didn't change the fact that he had once again endangered the people he wanted to call friends.

    David was there too.  He stood, tight lipped in the corner with a scowl on his face.  They were eventually allowed to return to their group and Phillip tried to apologize, but David was intent on ignoring him until they came within sight of the others.  They sat in a circle that had been cleared in the grass, quietly chatting with one another.  Bertram was pacing back and forth waiting for Jody to return from the field medic.

    "I knew I should never have listened to your dumb idea," David spoke up.

    "I'm sorry," Phillip replied morosely.  He had been saying it at an ever increasing frequency as they had walked along, but it was having no impact on David.

    "Look, we're switching partners," David said as he stared at the ground.

    "Wha...what?  Why?"  Phillip sputtered.  "Because I kissed you?"

    "My reasons are my reasons," David muttered.  "You're with John now, and I'm with Jerry and Cath, and Ned's with Jason again."

    "Like that doesn't sound homosexual," Phillip rolled his eyes.

    "We're done," David replied.  He walked away then.

    Phillip had thought his life could never have gotten more disastrous after he'd dropped out of school and became a rent boy, but, as recent events had proven...once the bottom of the barrel had been hit, there was always the chance of there being another barrel waiting.

*****

    They had decided to make camp at their location.  Jody had been dismayed to have to stay anywhere near the canyon and became even more upset when she was informed that their path of travel was along side it, followed  by a steep decent into it on a path only wide enough  for the carts to pass.  She had returned to Bertram's side with crutches and her ankle in wrapped and splinted.

    "Is it broken?"  He asked.

    She shook her head at him.

    "It's only sprained."

    He then led her away from the group to where a tent had been set up.

    "One for each of us," he said.
    
    "Oh?"  She sounded disappointed at that.

    "Well, for each...uh partnership. I've set you up with Catherine for tonight."  He looked upon her, pleased that he had been able to arrange it.  Ned and Jason were happy to partner up again, and finally David and Phillip had split on their own and were not insisting on staying together.  The Time Detective felt a bit more at ease knowing that the mathematician was safe in custody rather than riding around attempting ill advised rescues.  Still, he was grateful that Jody was okay.

    "I don't want to be with Cath," Jody pouted at him.  "I want to stay with you."

    "You know we can't do that," Bertram replied.  "It's against the rules."

    "Yeah," Jody said disappointedly.  "You and your rules.  Are you making me go to bed now?"

    "Aren't you tired?"  He cocked his head curiously at her.

    "Not if it means I'm not going to see you for a while."  She glanced up at him shyly from where she was balanced precariously on her crutches.

    "Jody," he sighed at her.  "Wait right here."

    He was gone a long time, and Jody was just beginning he'd ditched her in front of the tent she had been ordered to spend the night in with Catherine.  He hadn't.  He returned to her with a cot in hand and set it outside the tent flap, then sat her down upon it and offered her a canteen.

    "It's water.  Can't have you getting drunk again, can we?"

    "Ugh, no." Jody frowned.  "You don't happen to have magical hangover cures in the future."

    "Unfortunately not," Bertram spat bitterly.  He sat down down beside her.  "People in the future are still as self destructive and stupid as they are in your time.  There are new rules, but there are new drugs...and the old ones never go away, even though we'd love to have a hangover pill, I'm sure.  Always the easy way out, the human race."

    "Are you okay?" She asked and ran a comforting hand down his arm.  He shivered.

    "Yeah," he said.  "My dad..."   He left the sentence go unfinished.  His dad was a drunk who had abandoned his mother and him.  It wasn't information he'd freely traded with strangers...or friends for that matter.  Not that he had many friends.  John was the only one he could truly count on and that was only because they were partners.  He had no idea if John thought of him in a friendly manner at all.  They never discussed their personal affairs, and if John did happen to ask, Bertram made well sure that he had his nose buried in his computer pretending to be busily working a case.  Maybe, he thought, he was afraid of friendship of any kind.  Relationships were out of the question.  Jody's sudden attentions had been unexpected and unwanted at first, but he was warming to the idea.  And he knew it was wrong, because they were from different times.  She had to return to hers, and he to his.

     "I'm sorry, Bertram," she said in reply. "My mom is sick," she said, feeling as if she had to share something of herself with him as well.  "She has Alzheimer's, and she's going downhill fast.  I know Phillip said that you can put us back right when we left, but I can't help but worry.  She can't really function on her own.  Keeps forgetting things, y'know.  Do they have a cure for that in the future?"  She looked up at him hopefully, but he only shook his head. 

    There wasn't, but he knew that if there was he wouldn't be able to give it to her; not even for one person.  It was a shame, but those were the rules.  They couldn't swoop in to the past and save everybody, so they weren't allowed to save anybody.  That was his job.  That was why he had become a Time Cop.  It wasn't fair, he knew, but life rarely was.  The road to hell was paved with good intentions after all.  Unleashing a cure for something several years before it would be invented could cause untold chaos in time.  Who knew what displacing only five people in time had done.  His computer showed that time was still rippling the after affects of the fissure. It was growing out all over the place in directions it shouldn't have been.  The damage that would be caused by millions of people being cured and living their lives would be catastrophic.

    "You're a sweet guy, you know that, Bertram?"  She said, and she leaned against him, looking up at the sun.  It was slowly starting to make it's way towards the horizon.  It would be dark again in a few hours.

    He shrugged at her. 

    "It's better to be nice than...well, than to be John, I guess.  I mean, he's not bad.  Just a little brash, but...I dunno.  I like being shy.  It suits me."

    "I think so," she agreed. "Do you think we'll ever get home?"

    Bertram nodded solemnly and reassuringly squeezed her shoulder.  "Absolutely," he said with conviction, though he wasn't sure at all.