CHAPTER 1

Cher watched in horror as Mew Mew slipped from her hands, from the car seat, tumbling out of the car into the street. She screamed an agonized animal scream, and scrambled from the car, heedless to any lingering danger, her only thought to gain his side.

She dropped to her knees beside him, still screaming, this time articulating her despair. She screamed for help, she screamed for an ambulance, for the police, for anyone at all who would come.

Mew Mew lay on his back, his eyes open, staring. He looked dead. Her screams died in her throat, replaced by a wail of pain, of horror, of unfathomable loss...

"Don't die, Mew Gor! Don't die! Please don't leave me!" Cher's voice faded to a hoarse whisper, urgently spoken as she bent close to him, gathering his head and shoulders into her arms, pressing one hand, in seeming futility on his bleeding wound.

The change in position wrought a change--slight, almost not noticeable at first in her distress Mew Mew blinked his eyes, drew a sighing breath, sought her face. Cher watched spellbound, barely daring to breathe herself. He mumbled something, then his eyes closed, he went limp in her arms.

"I love you," he had said.

Cher bent her face over his own, feeling, to her immense relief, soft puffs of exhaled air against her cheek.

"Sister May" Cher breathed softly, conjuring the vision of Mew Mew's dead wife. She had seen the photograph of his late wife and son in the shrine in his common room. "Please protect him. Do not let him join you. If not for my sake--for Ka Ka's. She has already lost so much...."

Cher remembered, distractedly, the necklace that had come from around Mew Mew's neck as she had sought to stay his tumble out of the car. It was a woman's necklace, which instinctively she had shoved into her pocket for safe keeping.

Had it belonged to May, his wife? It must have. Cher was touched to her heart by Mew Mew's devotion, wearing the keepsake close to his heart. The tears already brimming in Cher's eyes spilled over, running down her cheeks. She sobbed disconsolately.

Sirens sounded, and Cher could sense the presence of people gathering around.

Someone bent down, offering assistance. Another ran up with a clean white towel and pressed it to Mew Mew's wound. Her hand now free, Cher cupped it to Mew Mew's cheek.

She could hear the sounds of voices reassuring her that an ambulance was on its way. She nodded in gratitude, not daring to take her eyes or her attention from the wounded man in her arms. She kept her face close to his, to feel the small warmth of his exhalations, and to murmur to him. Her words were soothing expressions of love and strength, entreaties to hold on just a little longer, to resist the temptation he must surely feel to cross over to be with his dead wife and son.

Cher knew she was bad luck for Mew Mew. In the short time they had known each other, he had already been beaten senseless by Hung's thugs, his police career nearly destroyed. They still did not know if he would be able to return to the force. And now this--shot by Hung's henchman, and again on her behalf as goods from her sister's antique store were being stolen. What he had said to her--just yesterday?--about being able to tell by her face that she brought good luck had not been true.

And yet for all that, he had said that he loved her. How was that possible? When he was in his right mind again, surely he would dismiss her from his life for all the trouble she had brought.

Yet, could it be that he would not? After so much heartache-- the betrayal of Ah Leung, the humiliation of being left behind for another woman who'd borne her husband's son--it was beyond Cher's ability to hope.

"I love you, Mew Mew," Cher breathed into his ear, hoping that somehow he would hear and know. It was true. Had been from nearly the first night of their acquaintance, as improbable as that seemed. For all his seeming ruthlessness, his short temper with her and her father, she had seen his tenderness with Ka Ka the night of Elaine's murder and been touched to the core of her soul. Her love for him had known its beginning that night and had only grown since.

Cher could not know if he heard, but she spoke on anyway.

Finally a siren sang so loudly, so near that she thought her ears would burst their drums. The noise subsided mercifully into a dying wail. She felt, rather than saw, the crowd around them disperse, noted from the corner of her eye the arrival of an ambulance crew, the paramedics already reaching for their patient.

"He is a Police Sergeant! Lau Chun Pong!" Cher's head whipped up to make eye contact with their saviors. She did not know, not being from the city, whether or not this information would grant him better treatment--but on the off chance that it did, she cried it aloud, over and over. "He's been shot. Please help him!"

The paramedics gave her quick nods, then proceeded to remove their charge from her arms, laying him on a gurney, beginning their protocols, radioing the nearest hospital. Cher relinquished her grip grudgingly, attempting to maintain some type of contact with him as they moved him into the ambulance and set to work stabilizing his condition.

One of the paramedics opened his mouth as though to say, Cher feared, that she would not be allowed to ride along in the ambulance. She put on her most determined expression, and reached to clasp the wheel of Mew Mew's gurney. The paramedic subsided, relenting enough to help her up into the back of the ambulance.

Once inside, she made herself small, knowing that Mew Mew's salvation was in allowing these men--professional miracle workers who could snatch the wounded man back from the jaws of death-- to carry on with their jobs. The ambulance lurched forward and the siren started up again, muted by the now closed doors. Cher closed her eyes, and willed her own strength to Mew Mew.

She was startled when the ambulance lurched to a halt, seemingly after only a moment or two. Cher's eyes darted first to Mew Mew's prone figure-- reassuring herself that he still breathed--then to the faces of the paramedics. It was only as the door flew open and revealed an emergency team from the casualty ward that she realized they had arrived at the hospital.

Cher found herself scrambling to be free of the ambulance, to keep up with the hustling doctors and nurses.

Mew Mew's gurney burst through a set of doors and Cher encountered her first--and last--obstacle. Medical staff barred her from following as her love disappeared through the swinging doors of the casualty unit operating room. They were taking him immediately into surgery.

She stood, alone, bereft, watching as the doors swung for a moment then stilled. A cry of anguish bubbled in her throat.

Strong arms enclosed her in an embrace. Startled from her grief, she struggled, her overloaded sensibilities convincing her that Hung's men had somehow followed and were now trying to overpower her--to get to Mew Mew to finish the work they had started this night.

Cher spun, striking out. Only then did she recognize her attacker. He was not one of Hung's thugs after all, as she had immediately feared. He was Nam, Mew Mew's partner. The one that Ka Ka referred to as Ugly Uncle.

Her face must have reflected her inner horror at her reaction to the man's attempt to console and comfort her, for Nam immediately, his own worry plainly etched on his homely features, reasserted his embrace, murmuring soothing words as he drew her to his chest. She collapsed into the comfort of the strong arms -- powerless as her own fear and grief and worry overcame her. She cried as though her heart would break.

As if it had not already.

Nam looked down at the woman that his best friend loved, and tried to put aside his own worry for Mew Mew Lau long enough to comfort her. It would be what Sergeant Lau would expect of him, he could do nothing less. He'd been too late to help his friend in any other material way. He must honor him in this thing above all else.

Nam had been at the police station when the call had come of a robbery at an address he knew to be Elaine Lee's antique store warehouse. He'd overheard the radio chatter that established that the report had been called in -- via uniformed officers--by "Sergeant Lau".

His friend was not safe at the ballet academy with Ka ka, her grandfather and Cher as he had initially hoped. Frenzied reports of a ferocious gun battle and car chase soon followed. Nam had headed for his police cruiser and sped toward the warehouse district. The area was swarming with all available units, so Nam had set his goal on trying to find Mew Mew.

Coming upon the scene just as an ambulance had rolled away Nam had recognized the wreckage of Mew Mew's car. He stopped long enough to confer with an officer on scene and learned that not only had Mew Mew been shot, but that Cher had been with him the whole time. All he could do was radio that information in to Uncle Jim, their unit supervisor and follow the ambulance to the hospital.

Nam had arrived only a few minutes behind Mew Mew and Cher. Finding her standing beyond the ER examination rooms, in front of the casualty operating theater, he had called to her repeatedly and received no response. Her eyes, large and frightened were fixed on the operating room doors--blind to all else.

He had approached her carefully, slipping an arm around her shoulders as she started to weave, as though about to swoon. Nam had not been surprised when she had fought him, instinctively knowing that her only thought was to protect the wounded man beyond those doors. She could not be sure that Hung's grasp did not extend here and now.

Her collapse was overdue. Cher was one of the strongest women Nam had ever met, but had been through more trauma in a few weeks than most dealt with in a lifetime. Her tears not a sign of weakness, instead a needed release.

Nam guided Cher to the outer waiting room, easing her down on a bench not far from the ER nursing station. He left her alone for only a moment to speak with the charge nurse about Mew Mew, requesting information as it became available on his condition. Then he returned to Cher's side to encourage her to spend her fear and stress in cleansing tears.

Uncle Jim and the rest of the squad arrived in short order. Nam made eye contact with them as they entered the waiting room. Only after Cher's tears subsided somewhat did he feel it safe to leave her. He moved off, watching as she stared at her hands in her lap- still covered with Mew Mews blood.

He told his superior and his squad mates both what he knew, and what he had been able to piece together.

"Miss Lee was a witness?" Uncle Jim queried.

"Is she able to give a statement?" Nam glanced over to where Cher sat huddled on the bench near the water cooler. He shrugged. "She's rightly upset. She was with Mew Mew during the whole incident, saw him shot. But she's a strong woman. I believe she will be able to give a coherent account."

Uncle Jim nodded. "I'll send for a police stenographer to take her statement," he stated quietly. "What do we know about Lau?"

"He was taken directly into surgery. He was shot here," Nam pointed to his own midsection, to the general area of Mew Mew's injury as best he had been able to gather from Cher. "He's lost a great deal of blood--unknown if any internal organs were damaged. I've asked the nurse to update."

"Good work, Nam." Uncle Jim nodded and made a focussed study of the floor tiles, struggling not to show emotion over his subordinate's misfortune.

"Mew Mew is responsible for these arms smugglers being caught in the act. That should make some difference with the review board and his permanent status." Nam challenged after a moment.

Uncle Jim looked up, making eye contact with his subordinate.

"Yes, it should. And if I have anything to say about it, it will. Lau will be restored to duty," Uncle Jim asserted. A shadow of pain crossed his features. "If he survives."

Nam's own emotions nearly got the best of him. He broke eye contact with his superior, gazing down at the floor. He forced himself to contemplate the possibility that Mew Mew might not survive. It could not happen. Not now. Not just as his friend was learning to live again.

Uncle Jim turned and walked away, gesturing to Danny and dispatching him to summon a police stenographer, as well as uniformed officers to stand guard duty.

"Uncle Jim," Nam, raising his head, called out to his supervisor.

The older man turned to face Nam, his expression questioning and expectant.

"When Hung is arrested--I want to be the one to do it." Nam stated, a hint of challenge to his voice.

Uncle Jim nodded.

Cher sipped at the water Uncle Jim had given her. It had been so long since Mew Mew had been wheeled into surgery--what could take so long? Why didn't they know something by now?

In her heart she knew. He'd been shot in the lower chest--any number of vital organs could have been damaged by the bullet, blood vessels and arteries could be nicked or severed

He had bled so much, been so pale.

He could still die.

Cher purposefully pushed the possibility from her mind. In concentrating on not thinking of the worst regarding Mew Mew, another realization hit her.

"Ka ka! Ba!" Cher cried out instinctively, suddenly remembering that she and Mew Mew had left the pair at the ballet school, with a promise to return soon and go to dinner together She stood abruptly, dropping her water cup, and looked around in a fresh kind of panic. The uniformed policewoman who sat next to her, putting the final touches on Cher's statement, looked up in alarm. "Miss Lee?" she asked anxiously.

Nam, who had been sitting vigil across the room with Kee and Danny, was roused from his worried reverie by the sound of Cher's cry and immediately stood up and crossed the distance between himself and Mew Mew's woman.

"What is wrong Ah-Cher?" he asked, deeply concerned for her emotional state. The long wait for word of Lau was grating on the nerves of everyone--but Cher's stress included having witnessed the attack on Mew Mew and its immediate aftermath.

"Ka Ka and Ba! We left them at the ballet school promising to come back to go to dinner! My god!" Cher cried, glancing at the clock,"they must still be there! They don't know what has happened!"

Uncle Jim stepped up, having just returned from making a phone call to headquarters. He motioned to the police woman as he approached Cher and Nam.

"Don't be anxious, Miss Lee, I will send this officer to fetch them from the school."

Cher was not easily mollified, "But the school is closed by now. Where will they be?"

Nam reached out a hand and laid it gently on Cher's arm. "Your Ba came alone into Hong Kong today, looking for Mew Mew and Ka ka. Surely he will return home and wait to hear from you. Ka ka is safe with him, wherever they may be."

Cher looked at him, wide eyed. He could tell that the protectiveness she felt for Mew Gor was spilling over into incipient hysteria and paranoia for the safety of her family. What if the assassins next targeted the motherless child--the only witness to her sister's murder?

Uncle Jim stepped closer, "The policewoman and Kee will go to the ballet school. If it is closed they will proceed on to your home in the village and make sure your Ba and Ka Ka are all right. I promise you this," he said in level, reasonable tones. "They will handle everything." He gestured Kee to approach.

Cher seemed to collapse in on herself, sitting down again on the bench heavily, her head sinking again into her hands. Nam squatted down in front of her, patting her arm gently, hoping he was offering some measure of comfort.

Uncle Jim waved Kee and the policewoman off, with strict instructions to call as soon as the duo were located.

Uncle Jim stood looking at Cher Lee for a long moment, then once again approached the water cooler and dispensed a cup of water. Sitting down next to her, he held the cup out to her.

Cher accepted the proffered cup numbly, staring at it as though it were a foreign object. Uncle Jim put an awkward arm around her shoulders and drew her close. "All will be well, Miss Lee," Uncle Jim intoned in his best quietly authoritative voice. "Mew Mew is strong. He will come through this."

He was dismayed when Cher's only response was a fresh flood of tears.