into her.

“St.. Steele,” he said. “Oh Jenna,” he said, look at her, look at what he did to her!”

Jenna looked and almost threw up. She swallowed it, for her friend’s sake.

“I know…” she said, tears coming to her own eyes.

“I.. I’m gonna kill him Jenna,” he said.

“Shh,” Jenna said, “it’s okay, everything will be just fine.”

He relaxed against her and soon, to Jenna’s surprise he fell asleep. She laid him gently on the ground. Then she looked at Gemeni, she couldn’t tell if her friend was alive or not. There was an awful lot of blood…

“What did I get you into?” Jenna thought, “this is my fault. I brought him here.”

” I’m sorry Gemeni,” Jenna said. Jack walked down from the loft.

“Is Gemeni back y…” he stopped as he saw Jenna.

“Gemeni?” He said he ran down the ramp. “What happened?” He asked Jenna.

“I don’t know, Jenna said, “Drake drug her in here, I guess Steele attacked her.

“Coward,” Jack said, as he looked around at Gemeni’s wounds with a practiced eye. “Reminds me of the old days,” he said.

“What?” Jenna said.

“Gemeni used to get in fights all the time, with anyone, for any reason. I’ve been with her for a while.”

“Are you two…” Jenna didn’t know quite how to put it.

“No,” Jake said smiling, “tried that once, didn’t work out, we’re too much like siblings. We fought all the time. We’re happier as friends. Anyway as I was saying, I used to patch her up all the time. The wolf side of her has gotten her out of a lot of fights, but it’s gotten her into plenty too.”

“Well?” Jenna said.

“She’s alive, “but I can’t do much for her,” Jake said, “She’s hurt pretty bad. See that wound there in her throat?” He said.

Jenna nodded.

“She’s gonna die, if we don’t get her help soon.”

“Doc,” Jenna said, quietly.

“What?” Jake asked.

“But we’ve got to get her there,” she mumbled

“What are you talking about Jenna?”

“The sled,” she said.

“What do you want with the sled?” Jake asked, now more confused than ever.

“Jake,” Jenna said, “wake the rest of the team.”

“What?”

“Tell them to get suited up.”

“Why? Jenna you’re not making much sense.”

“ JUST DO IT!” Jenna yelled. Jake took a step back, surprised at this outburst from Jenna. “she doesn’t have much time.”

Jake ran up the ramp. Jenna turned back to the bloody heap, that was her friend.

“Hold on,” Jenna said, “just hold on….”

Balto was starting to believe he’d never make it to Nome. He was so cold. He felt so tired…..

He stopped walking and fell over in the snow. He knew he couldn’t go to sleep, he wouldn’t wake up. He struggled to keep his eyes open.

“Jenna,” he said, incoherently. Suddenly he heard a wolf howl in front of him. Out of the snow stepped a beautiful white wolf. Balto only seemed to see her when he was in trouble.

“Well”, he thought, “fighting off freezing to death in the middle of nowhere is trouble isn’t it?”

His sluggish mind struggled to comprehend this. The wolf howled again and started to walk into the wall of snow. Balto struggled to his feet, and stumbled slowly after the wolf. The wolf stopped and looked back at him. Balto fell over again, unable to stand. He looked up from the snow. The wolf howled again and then it…. disappeared. Where it had been Balto spied a cave.

“Thanks mom,” he muttered as he got to his feet one more time and stumbled into the cave to wait out the night.

Back in Nome, Jake had the entire team up and in their harnesses.

“Now would you tell me what’s going through that head of yours,” Jack said.

“We’re going to pull Gemeni to Doc’s. If he can’t fix her nobody can.”

“We can’t do that,” Jack said. “We’re missing a dog, it won’t work.”

“Can you lead?” Jenna asked.

“Well…yeah,” Jake said, “but then we’re short a dog pulling and that sled is heavy.”

Jenna didn’t say anything; she just walked over to Gemeni’s empty harness on the floor. She ducked her head into it and stood up. Then she took Jack’s place beside Char.

“Jenna, can you do this?” he said. “It’s pretty hard..”

“I’ve done it before,” she said, hooking herself to the guideline.

“Really?” Jake said. “You didn’t tell me about it.”

“You never asked,” Jenna said. “Sure,” Jenna thought,” I left out the fact that it was just little Rosie on a sled smaller than I was, but I can do it.”

Jake pulled Gemeni onto the sled as gently as

he could. Drake, who’d woken up enough to climb on the sled, laid down nest to her. Then Jack clipped himself to the guideline.

“It’s been a while,” he said. “Alright you mutts…. and lady,” he added as he remembered Jenna. “Mush!”

The team took off, headed for Doc’s, hoping they weren’t too late.

The team wasn’t getting anywhere fast. Everyone was working their hardest to help their injured leader… and friend.

“We’re not going to make it,” Jack thought. He didn’t know which way to go. Jenna had to tell him at each turn. He signaled the team to stop. He unclipped himself from the guideline and walked back to Jenna.

“DO YOU KNOW WHERE WE’RE GOING?” He yelled over the wind.

She nodded her head yes.

He unclipped her from the guideline and clipped himself on the first string, beside Char. Jenna looked confused.

“YOU CAN DO IT,” Jack said. Jenna looked at the vacant leader position, then it hit her. She shook her head.

“JENNA,” He yelled, trying to get louder than the wind, “WE’LL NEVER MAKE IT IN TIME WITH ME STOPPING FOR DIRECTIONS ALL THE TIME, HER ONLY CHANCE IS FOR YOU TO LEAD US THERE.”

Jenna looked at the vacant position, uncertainly.

“DON’T WORRY,” Jake yelled, “IT’S IN YOUR BLOOD!”

She walked up and clipped herself to the guideline. It felt strange. “I feel… at home here,” she thuoght. The weight of the team settled across her shoulders. The one she had injured in her confrontation with Steele started to burn, but she could make it, “I have to,” she thought.

“Alright team,” she said…”Mush?” Nothing happened and she realized she’d been too quiet. “ALRIGHT TEAM,” She yelled “…MUSH!” The team leapt forward then and they were underway.

It hadn't taken the team long to get to Doc's. Doc had taken one look at the blood soaked… whatever she was and took her inside. Jenna couldn't believe she'd pulled a sled, and done it well. Jack said she was a natural.

"I should be," she thought. "It is in my blood after all." The rest of the team was sitting nearby, with the sled. Jenna was tired. She laid down and was just getting sleepy when Char walked up to her.

"Hey you got a minute?" She said. Jenna yawned and really wanted to go to sleep, but she didn't.

"Sure," she said.

"Great," Char responded, "I..uh," she stuttered, "I was thinking about what we were talking about earlier in the shed, about the pups… thing."

"What is it?" Jenna asked.

"Well.." Char began, "I'd like to know a little bit more about what it was like?"

What what was like?" Jenna asked.

“Having pups,” Char said.

“Oh,” Jenna said, “you mean the actual process…”

“No, no,” Char said, looking at the ground, a little embarrassed. “I can figure that out.”

“I mean what you were talking about, watching them grow and…stuff.”

“Well,” Jenna said. “It’s hard work, and sometimes the hours are long, but I think being a mother is the best job in the world.” At first they don’t do a whole lot, they just eat and sleep and cry a lot…”

“Sounds like a blast,” Char said skeptically. “Well let me finish,” Jenna said. “Those first

few days are a lot of work, believe me you’ll be tired before you even begin, and they can’t even move yet, well much anyway. They do crawl all over you, but mostly they eat and sleep…and cry. Then they start exploring, which means to them that they walk about a foot away and run back to mommy, crying again. Keep in mind they’re still blind,” she said. Jenna chuckled. “It’s s funny to watch them run into things. But they’re pretty smart. In a few days they remember where stuff is, and they start going around it. They still don’t venture far yet. In fact I don’t think that Dash and Melody, that’s my last two,” she said by way of explanation. “I don’t think that they left the little box we were in. They’re so small they’ll get cold really easy. So they spend a lot of time all snuggled up against mom. At this stage they still don’t know what to think about dad. Some of them will like him, other’s won’t. I don’t know why really. I guess it’s just that all they know is mom and dad is huge to them, so maybe they