Hudayfah pushed Jenna out of the way as he helped his friend into the house, and Omar clung onto his arm, wincing as he stepped gingerly on his left leg.

"Hey Hud." He said hoarsely, and Hudayfah looked up at his wife.

"Jen, go get him some water please, then ask Rana to get down here with her bag." He exclaimed, and as Jenna dashed out of the room, Hudayfah helped Omar sit down.

"Omar! Habibi are you okay!? We've been so worried about you!" he exclaimed, and as Jenna came rushing back in with a glass, Omar took it gratefully, gulping it down before leaning against the couch.

"I escaped."

"How in the heck did you manage to get here looking the way you do?!" Hudayfah exclaimed, and Omar shook his head.

"It wasn't easy, but I finally convinced a cabbie to do it for triple his fair. I hope you don't mind, Rami is paying him now."

"No of course not." Hudayfah hurriedly said. "Omar where were you?!"

Omar groaned.

"Where do you think? Jamaal had his gang kidnap me the day after your wedding. They jumped me as I was unlocking my front door." He took another sip from his water. "He's pissed Hud. Pissed that you took Jenna." He shivered slightly. "And he took it out on me."

"He hurt you?" Hudayfah whispered, and Omar nodded.

"Yeah he banged me up pretty badly. He wanted information but I wouldn't give him anything."

"I would hug you if I didn't think it would hurt you."

Omar laughed, before wincing slightly.

"You know I'd do anything for you Hud."

Just then the front door banged open, and Rami appeared.

"I paid off that stupid cabbie. He wasn't satisfied until I gave him five hundred dollars."

"For a twenty minute drive!? Aw I'm sorry Hud." Omar said, and Hudayfah's eyes widened.

"Twenty minutes? Jamaal is twenty minutes away?"

Omar nodded.

"Yeah he is. And I should warn you, one of your men is a traitor.

Hudayfah sighed.

"Yeah we gathered as much."

Rami sat down on the couch, and folded his arms across his chest.

"Do you know who it is Omar?"

Omar shook his head.

"Nope. Understandably they didn't let the two of us be around one another."

"Then how did you know that there was a traitor?" Hudayfah asked.

"Because they rubbed it in my face." Omar said in disgust. "They had a code name for him. They called him 'the red snake' and bragged all the time about how he was betraying you Hud, and giving information back to Jamaal. I wish I knew who he was, I really do. But you have to be careful. I wouldn't let any of the men in the house anymore."

"Yeah but if he does that, then the traitor will know he is onto him." Rami pointed out, and Hudayfah ran a hand through his hair in frustration.

"Man this whole thing is just..." he trailed off, shaking his head.

"Okay wait a minute. How did you escape in the first place?" Rami asked holding up his hands. "Doesn't Jamaal have men like everywhere?!"

Omar nodded.

"Yes. But every three days they took off my handcuffs to let me take a shower. Jamaal's surprisingly a neat freak. He even got my size and made me change into clean clothes every day." He scoffed slightly. "As if that would make a difference. Take away my freedom sure, just as long as you give me clean underpants." He gave a bitter laugh. "Anyways, I guess they thought there was no way I could escape during the time I was taking a shower so they didn't have anyone watch me. So every time I went into the bathroom, I cut the screen on the window with a razor I found under the sink. It took forever to finally cut it enough where I could just pull it off, and I was constantly freaking out that someone would find where I had hidden it and get rid of it, but earlier today I cut off the last of it, wiggled out of the frame, and just ran." He gave a laugh. "I ran like hell."

"Aw man." Rami exclaimed, rubbing a hand over his jaw.

"We're so glad you're safe though." Hudayfah said putting a hand on Omar's shoulder.

"Hud, you know that we are going to have to hide him right?" Rami said.

"What do you mean?" Hudayfah asked.

"Jamaal is going to be searching for Omar. The first place he will look is with us, and he will have whoever the traitor is coming searching. Since we don't know who the traitor is, we need to really keep him hidden." He said, and Hud nodded.

"That's right. Is it safest to keep him here in the house or in a hotel? What do you think Omar?"

Omar shrugged, wincing slightly as he put a hand over his ribs.

"I don't know honestly. I just want a bed to sleep in. They made me sleep on the floor with a blanket that barely covered me."

Hudayfah's face took on a pained expression, but at the sound of running feet, the three men looked up to see Jenna and Rana coming down the stairs, Rana carrying her doctor's bag. As she took in Omar, her mouth dropped, she gasped, and she rushed forward.

"Oh my God! Omar!"

"Salaam Rana." He nodded in Jenna's direction. "Mrs. Sulayman."

Hudayfah put an arm around Jenna.

"Jenna, you remember Omar from our wedding right?" he asked, and she nodded numbly, for the man was in bad shape, and Jenna didn't do well with blood. "Omar, you can call her Jenna."

Omar nodded.

"Nice to see you again Jenna."

"Omar what the heck happened to you!?" Rana asked as she snapped on her gloves and began to examine the cuts on his face.

Omar exchanged a glance with Hudayfah before his eyes flickered momentarily over Jenna.

"Just got into stuff."

She glanced up at him sharply, but didn't say anything else.

"What hurts?"

"My leg, I think one of my ribs are broken, and well you can see the outer damage."

Rana nodded, and began to pull out various bottles and supplies from her bag.

"Why don't you go get some tea ready?" Hudayfah said to Jenna softly because she looked like she was going to faint as one of Omar's cuts began to bleed again. She nodded, before hurrying into the kitchen.

Once she had gone, Rana began her examination and treatment, Omar hissing through his teeth every so often when she found a new lump or dabbed disinfectant on a cut.

"By the way did Muhsin get here okay?" he asked, closing his eyes against the pain.

Both Hudayfah and Rami's heads snapped up.

"What are you talking about?" Hudayfah asked sharply, and Omar's eyes widened.

"I assumed he got my ticket right? Is he safe?"

"Why would he need to be kept safe?" Hudayfah asked.

Omar shook his head.

"It's bad you guys. Jamaal's got this whole revenge plan against Muhsin and I don't think it is just about Jenna. There is something bigger going on. He's going to kill him. Yeah he is obsessed with Jenna, and it's kind of creepy," he winced as Rana dabbed at one of the cuts on his face, "'but I think in the beginning his threats against Jenna was just a way to get to Muhsin."

"How did you know he got your ticket?" Rami asked.

"They had my mail forwarded to Jamaal's house, and when they saw your name on the envelope, one of his men ripped it open, and when he saw it was a ticket, he demanded to know what it was for. I responded that you probably just wanted everyone there, and he warned me not to tell anyone that I had gotten that ticket and that we needed to get 'him' out of here. When I asked who 'he' was, he responded Muhsin, and left."

There was silence in the room, the only sound the occasional wince of pain from Omar, before Hudayfah sat forward.

"We will need to bring Muhsin back here then to keep an eye on him."

Both Rana and Rami groaned, and Hudayfah laughed.

"Yes well it's going to be hard for me to explain to Jenna why he's back."

"Just tell her the truth for once man." Rami said, and Hudayfah glared at him.

"Tell her that her brother's life is in danger?"

"It's not much worse than a deranged lunatic being after her." Rana added, rolling up Omar's pant leg and inspecting his leg. "Good news is it's not broken, but it is badly sprained. You'll have to stay off of it for a while. Lay down." She ordered, and as she started to probe his ribs, Jenna came back into the room carrying a tray of cookies and tea, but she almost dropped it as Omar let out a shout, and Rana nodded grimly. "Yup. A broken rib." She leaned back on her heels, reaching into her bag for tape. "I'm going to have to tape it up. Yallah shirt off." She ordered and Hudayfah pulled Jenna's hand.

"Come darling, let's go get some fresh air." He said pulling her out of the room, and once she had gone, Omar pulled off his shirt, and Rana began her work.

"There is one thing I don't understand?" Rami said.

"What's that?" Omar asked through clenched teeth.

"Why did someone working for Jamaal decide to help Muhsin?"

"I've been going over that in my head for days now." He shrugged. "I have no idea."

"What was his name? Hud knows Jamaal's men pretty well, maybe he will recognize his name?"

"His name was Laith."

***

As Hudayfah and Jenna walked out into the backyard, he took her hand, and after pressing his lips to it, he tucked it into his arm.

"So are you going to tell me what's going on?" she asked quietly, and he sighed, looking up at where the stars were just starting to appear in the sky.

"That's Omar. He's one of my friends, and he's been missing since our wedding. Jamaal had him, and he just managed to escape."

She winced slightly.

"This guy is pretty bad huh?"

"Yeah, he is." He pulled her into his arms. ""Darling look up at the sky."

She let out a breath before looking upwards.

"Okay I am looking."

"What do you see?"

"I see the stars."

He trailed a hand down her arm.

"How many?"

He smiled as he heard her trying to count under her breath, before she shrugged her shoulders.

"Too many to count."

"How would you describe them darling?"

"Beautiful." She whispered, and he tightened his hold on her, leaning forward so he was speaking directly into her ear.

"When I was younger, I used to climb up onto my window seat, and stare at the night sky. It used to astound me at how bright and beautiful they were, and after many failed attempts I came to realize that there were too many to count. I would hope and pray that one day I would be able to reach into the sky, and capture a star. I couldn't imagine anything else that could be as valuable as one of those sparkling diamonds. But do you know what I never could have predicted?"

"What?" she whispered, smiling in anticipation of what was to come.

"That one day I would be the one who was captured by something much more valuable and beautiful than the entire night sky."

She turned in his arms, and wrapped them around his neck, and he leaned his forehead against hers.

"And what might that be?"

He leaned forward to kiss her forehead.

"You."

"Oh Hudayfah." She whispered, and he brought his arms around her.

"I look back on where we were when we first got married to where we are now, and it makes my heart soar. I just want you to know that nothing in this entire world is more important to me than you are, and no matter what happens I will do everything I can to protect you."

She frowned slightly.

"Are you expecting something to happen?"

"I'm hoping nothing will. But life is unpredictable, and your brother has managed to get himself in quite some trouble. I am afraid we will have to bring him back to the house."

She closed her eyes, trying to keep her composure, and when she reopened them, she found him staring at her intently.

"Darling?" he asked, and she nodded.

"If we need to, we need to."

He smiled, and gently kissed her wrist

"You are the best, kindest, most amazing woman in the entire universe." he kissed the palm of her other one.

Jenna stifled a shiver at the sensations that were coursing through her. She didn't know if it was due to him kissing her or the startling realization that his eyes held such adoration for her like she had never seen before.

Perhaps it was a combination of both.

"I hope you know," he murmured softly, "that you make me," he paused to place another kiss on the back of her right hand, "the happiest," he kissed the palm of her left hand, "man in the entire universe."

She swallowed hard as he kissed her wrist again, that seemed to be the most sensitive area, before clearing her throat. At the noise his eyes flickered back to her face, yet when she didn't show any signs of wanting him to stop, he kissed the tip of each finger on her right hand, before pulling her tightly against his chest.

The phrase 'I love you' was on the tip of his tongue. He was so close to saying it, but he was scared. Scared she wouldn't say it back. Scared she would reject him.

So he said nothing, just enjoying the feel of her in his arms.

***

He turned his face away from where Hudayfah was kissing Jenna, feeling like he was intruding on too intimate of a moment, and stared into the house again. He could see Omar laying on the couch, Rana attending to his wounds wincing slightly. He hadn't realized the state Omar had been in, they had kept them apart of course, and his guilt was mounting severely in his stomach.

The moment Jamaal had found out that Omar was gone, his fury has been so horrible that no one was safe, and he was seriously debating whether or not to tell him where Omar was.

He could lie.

He could say he went to the house and Omar wasn't there.

No doubt they were planning on hiding Omar out once Rana finished fixing him up, and he would be safe.

He had already caused so much hurt to those that considered him family and friends, and while he couldn't get out of it, Jamaal would kill him if he did, he could try to minimize exactly how much damage was caused.

He turned another quick glance at Hudayfah and Jenna, where they were locked in an embrace, and he couldn't help but smile. If anyone deserved happiness, it was Hudayfah.

He quickly backed away from the fence, and made his way towards the hotel Hudayfah had them staying at. He hadn't seen Muhsin in the house which worried him. He wasn't in the high ranks with Jamaal as of yet, but he just knew that Jamaal was planning something sinister for Muhsin, and he couldn't help but wonder what it was, and why.

As he unlocked the hotel room and stepped inside, he was greeted by everyone, and he felt a pang in his heart. Here was a room full of men who saw him and treated him as their brother.



And he was betraying each and every one of them.