In My Fugitive and Voice of a Silent Fugitive, a strong young woman frees a prisoner of war who's been brutally abused, and struggles to keep the two of them alive in a town occupied by his enemies.
If you haven't already read them, you can get either or both of the books here:
True, she does get repeatedly kidnapped during the course of the book, but even then, she is certainly not the one who's in distress. Most of the time.
I didn't actually mean to create this pattern. Sure, it's great to have a kickass female protagonist who doesn't fall into the 'helpless accessory' category, but it wasn't a priority while conceiving the books. (Besides, people who brag that they have a strong female character seem not to notice that that bandwagon's already so full that it's no longer anything special to brag about.)
But while I didn't plan for the 'girl rescuing the dude in distress' to become a running theme, it does seem to be playing out that way.
What do you think?