Disclaimer: I wish I owned Terrier, or any Tamora Pierce books. Sadly, I don't.

Beka's POV

It all happened so fast. I was scanning the outer courtyard as I walked behind my Lord Provost. A flicker of movement caught my eye. Looking up swiftly, I saw a cove crouched on the edge of a rooftop. A closer look revealed a bow grasped tightly in his hands, an arrow already strung. As if it was slow motion, I saw him take aim and fire.

I shouted something incoherent, knowing I couldn't warn my dogs in time. I could guess who the target was, so I stumbled forward, hitting my Lord Gershom out of the way. A sharp pain bit deep into my shoulder, and my eyes swam from pain. I staggered forward, telling myself over and over, "Stay awake. My Lord is still in danger…still in…danger…."

I saw Tunstall's face in front of my own, asking me if I was alright. I tried to answer, I really did, but my tongue felt too heavy. Someone hit my side, and finally I gave in to the darkness.

"Did you see who shot her?"

"Yes. We have a full description written out at the kennel."

"Let me see it."

"No! We can just let a rogue look through our descriptions!"

I smiled, recognizing Goodwin's voice through the haze enveloping me. My smile widened as I heard the predicted answer from Rosto; "I'm not just a rogue, I'm the Rogue. With a capital R!"

I opened my eyes to see Rosto leaning over me, to talk to Goodwin on my other side. I was in my room, on my own bed in the lodging house. Goodwin saw my eyes open, and shouted, "Tunstall, get in here! Our Puppy's finally awake!"

At hearing her words, Rosto quickly looked down at me. For once, his eyes weren't mocking or unreadable. I could almost swear I saw concern in them as he watched me, before they returned to being inscrutable.

Tunstall ran in, practically knocking my door off its hinges. As soon as he saw me, he said, "Now, how's our Puppy doing?"

I grimaced in response as a fresh wave of pain shot through my shoulder. Seeing my expression, Tunstall answered with, "That well? We better get Kora to take a look at you again."

As he walked back out, Goodwin explained, "We got a professional healer to look at it first, but Kora's been checking on you more frequently then the healer would've done. You've got a nasty wound. That arrow sliced right through the muscles near your shoulder, and almost shattered the bone. The healer patched it up pretty well, but you'll have a hard time moving that shoulder for a while."

Kora came rushing in, Tunstall following behind her. She smiled when she saw I was awake, and took a seat beside me. She mouthed something, and put a hand on my shoulder. I felt a strange tingling sensation pass through my shoulder, before it disappeared abruptly. Kora smiled, saying out loud, "It's doing fine right now. You should stay on your bed for awhile yet, though. I really need to make you a protection charm."

"It's not like I got stabbed or anything," I said, blushing slightly at all the eyes on me. "I'll be fine in no time. How's my Lord?"

"He's more concerned about how you're doing then the assassin, really. But he has hired a team to find out who it was and who they were working for." Tunstall watched me as he said this, and then smiled and ruffled my hair. "Good work, Puppy. We didn't even see the threat. It'd be better if you hadn't gotten hurt, but you can't have everything."

"Well," said Goodwin, "it's 'bout time for our watch. Let's go, Tunstall." He nodded, turning to leave with Goodwin. I started to make a noise of protest, before I sighed in defeat. I knew I wouldn't be able to join them tonight, I would only be a burden. Kora got up to follow them, explaining about a new job opening as an assistant to a herbalist.

Rosto pulled up a chair beside my bed, sitting down moodily. Briefly, I wondered why he had been so quiet, excluding the conversation when I was waking up. We sat in silence for a while, before I finally asked, "Don't you have business as the Rouge?"

"Why?" he asked, eyes searching my face. "Do you really want me gone that badly?" He said it almost jokingly, but I sensed he was dead serious.

I looked down, whispering, "No." Well, it wasn't like I could say yes. He was my friend.

He smiled slightly, before saying abruptly, "We will find him." His eyes were coal black as he stared at my face, his face somber.

"Who?" I asked, already knowing the answer.

"That assassin," he snarled, voice cold. "No one gets away with hurting you. No one."

"I'm touched, really, but you don't have to—"

Before I could say anything else, he leaned down and kissed me tenderly. I thought of punching him, like I'd promised myself, but then I decided I shouldn't risk it with my shoulder. Or something like that. And besides, this sensation of feeling like my stomach just dropped through the floor is actually quite pleasant.

When he pulled away, he whispered in my ear, "Yes, I do."

He smiled at me as I looked up at him, before standing to leave the room. I called out to him, saying, "Wait!"

He turned towards me, eyebrows raised. I looked down, slightly embarrassed. Finally I muttered, "Thanks."

Author's Note:

I'm writing this story in protest. I mean, out of 200 some pages of Tamora Pierce stories, only about 6 of them are for Terrier, and about 2 of those are Rosto/Beka. So, I just randomly started writing this. I'm not sure if it's that good, but I like it.

Should it be a oneshot or not? I'm not really sure how to continue it, so I need some feedback please!

Thanks for reading my story, I hope you liked it!

Padfoot