An Afternoon Alone with Barry the Chopper….Great….

"I am so incredibly bored." Barry moaned for the umpteenth time. "Is it really necessary for me to sit here and watch you repair useless junk?"

"Well I don't know, Barry. You could be helping instead of just sitting there. This is our only source of income now. Do you really want to starve to death? If you do, than by all means, I'll take you wherever your heart so desires to go." Kate snapped, her voice practically throwing the sarcasm at the man.

Barry smirked at Kate, shrugging off her irritation as if she were a child, which only set to irritate her more. As Kate revved up to yell at Barry before kicking him out, her instincts told her to take a moment to think. She studied Barry's expression, something that had become much easier to do over time, especially after she had given him a body; believe it or not, studying the expressions of a suit of armour was exceedingly difficult.

She took in his sadistic smile, his laid back pose, and quickly came to a realization: Barry was trying to instigate her. He knew that if he bothered her enough, Kate would simply throw him out of the little room she had been so diligently working in. Kate loved her work as the Reconstructing Alchemist, and it was obvious that she wouldn't want to be disturbed whilst doing something that she loved.

Well, two could play at this game. There was no way that she would let Barry beat her so easily.

"Well I was going to give you something fun to do if you were patient, but I guess it can't be helped." Kate said, trying to sound as nonchalant as possible. It took all of her willpower not to smirk as she said it. Now she would see how easily manipulated Barry could be.

"Look missy, I know you might think you're smart, but I know what you're doing. You won't get me that easily. I don't know if you've noticed, but you and I have very different definitions of the word fun, wouldn't 'ya say?" Barry tried to hide his interest behind his words, but Kate knew he was curious.

"Well that's really a shame. I thought for sure you liked cutting things up. I guess I'll just have to do the job myself then."

"A job? Cutting things up?" Barry was practically drooling at this point, all signs of his previous disinterest gone. In fact, his entire expression screamed bloodlust. Kate eyed Barry warily, suddenly afraid that she had taken her little game too far.

Quite suddenly, the door behind Barry's chair was flung open, startling Kate so much that she almost reconstructed the chair beneath her to use as a weapon. Barry was obviously startled as well; he had his knife at the stranger's throat before anyone even realized what was going on.

"Barry!" Kate yelled, very nearly shrieking. This was bad, really bad. The person Barry was nearly cutting open was probably another customer, looking for her to repair something. She and Barry had stopped on their way to Leor, and Kate had gotten so caught up with work in little towns along the way that the trip had already taken them three weeks. The reason they had left Central in the first place was to keep Barry on a low profile, and here he was, getting into trouble again. Good thing she was here to get him out of it, right?

"Barry, put the knife down. This man isn't here to hurt me."

"So what do I care if he's here to hurt you or not? HE'S MINE NOW! I'LL SHRED HIM!" Barry screamed, his usual madman hysteria coming in full force. Barry always got like this whenever they talked about his man slaughtering days, which had been cut short thanks to Kate.

This was because Kate had just recently saved Barry's life. She had even given him a human body again after he had been trapped as a suit of armour for goodness knows how long. After helping him, Kate had also forced him to give up killing people. Otherwise, Barry would just get thrown in jail and executed, making all her work to save him for nothing. Barry didn't like that he couldn't kill people anymore, which led Kate to constantly worry about whether or not he would eventually snap. She felt like her worst nightmare was coming true, but tried to keep her wits about her.

Kate recalled that she had once told Barry to be her body guard, mostly as an excuse to let him keep his knife without feeling guilty about it. Guilt was now trying to rush in on her to cloud her judgment, but she pushed it away. There wouldn't be anything to feel guilty about if she played her cards right. Kate was trying to keep up the pretense that Barry was her body guard, in order to keep Barry's hostage from realizing Barry's true intentions. So far, she didn't seem to be doing so well.

"Barry! You're here to protect me, remember? This man isn't here to hurt me." Kate tried to look Barry in the eye, but he was too busy staring at the shaking young man beneath his fingers.

Barry reached for the boy's throat with his free hand, feeling for his pulse. Kate guessed that the poor thing was only about 17. She didn't think she would be able to handle seeing him dead. Barry's eyes widened with delight upon feeling the boy's racing heart beneath his hands. Kate could only imagine what was going through his head right now.

"Barry, please." Kate begged, feeling something brush her nose.

Barry finally looked over at Kate, his eyes widening for a completely different reason.

"Are you…crying?" Barry asked, confusion written all over his face.

Kate was confused too for a moment, but when she brushed her hand across her freckled face, she really did find it to be wet. Now how could crying possibly help her at this moment? Crying wouldn't fix anything!

The serial killer stared at Kate, utterly perplexed. In fact, he was so absorbed by Kate's reaction, that the terrified young man in his grasp felt that he had a chance to escape at that moment.

With Barry's attention fixed on Kate, the hostage took that invaluable moment to elbow his attacker, squirm away from the very sharp knife at his throat, and then used his palm to hit Barry in the face before making a dash for the hallway.

Everything happened so quickly. One moment, Barry was staring at her, the next, he was on the floor with a broken nose. Kate rushed over to his side as he groaned with his hands over his face.

"Barry. Barry listen."

But he would have none of that. He pushed her away, trying to stand himself up.

"Barry….. Barry!"

Still trying to fight her, the hurt man flailed uselessly after finding that he didn't have the ability to stand anymore.

"Would you HOLD STILL!" Kate shouted. Without even thinking about it, she had used alchemy to pin him down. Barry struggled even harder, with blood getting everywhere. "I can make the pain stop if you would just calm down."

For some reason, Barry hadn't said anything, which kind of worried Kate. He was normally so talkative, even in odd/painful situations like this.

After pinning him down, Kate was suddenly reminded of the last time that she had him pinned like this. She had been forced to retrace his blood seal with his own knife. She shivered, trying not to feel so revolted. She wasn't here to hurt him this time; she was going to fix him.

"Alright, now just relax." Kate held her hands over Barry's face, making sure to fully concentrate. The last thing she wanted was to mess up his breathing. Barry watched as Kate's palms lit with a bright blue light, and the pain that he was in suddenly disappeared.

Moments later, the restraints were gone, and Kate was helping him to his feet.

"Are you alright?" Kate asked, worry clouding her usually clear eyes.

He pushed her away again, and went to sulk in a corner.

"You know, most people would say thank you after someone fixes their broken nose!" Kate snapped. She immediately felt guilty afterwards, realizing that Barry was probably in a fragile state at the moment.

Kate walked over and gently pulled up a chair beside him. She watched him with a tender smile on her face, which appeared there somewhat against her will.

"You know, I've never let someone get away like that. When I set my sights on someone, I always get them." Barry whispered. As typical to any man, Kate found that he was trying to hold onto what little dignity he felt he had left. Despite growing up with her brother, Kate never felt that she would have a full understanding of the other gender.

"Barry, it was right for you to let him go." She didn't know why she was phrasing it like he had actually let the poor boy live on purpose, but she supposed it would make her feel better about the whole thing.

"I just wanted to see what his insides looked like!" he nearly shouted.

"You know you can't do that! You know you scared the crap out of me back there. I really thought you were going to lose it." Kate couldn't bring herself to look Barry in the eye as she said it, but it was true.

"Is that why you were crying?" he asked, an almost smug expression back on his face. Now that was the Barry she knew.

"What are you so smug about?" Kate almost hated to ask.

"I didn't know I had such a hold on you, Mrs. Steele. Would you miss me if I decided to run off on you?" A huge grin was now on his face.

"Unfortunately, I'll never get the opportunity to miss you, since I'm stuck with you forever. And don't you dare even think you can run away. I'll be right on your heels until I can drag you back home." They both knew that was an empty promise, but Barry still chuckled anyway.

"Of course, but would you be willing to hurt me in order to bring me back?"

Why did Barry always want to bring up the tough questions? Maybe it was to get the heat off of himself, since Kate was always trying to interrogate him on something or another. Or maybe he was trying to make her forget that she was meant to be utterly pissed at him. Because of what he had done today, they would have to skip town before the story got around that the alchemist's bodyguard was insane.

"C'mon Barry, we have to pack up."

"You mean we can finally do something exciting! I didn't think I could handle watching you repair one more stupid thing!" Barry exclaimed, hopping out of his chair with a renewed vigor.

Kate restrained herself from hitting the overexcited serial killer over the head.

"Apparently trying to kill an innocent man isn't enough excitement for you for one day." Kate mumbled to herself. Somehow, Barry still managed to over hear her.

"Maybe I'll just practice my cutting skills on you along the way!" Barry mocked.

"Over your dead body," Kate seethed.

"That's an empty threat, and you know it." Barry laughed as he began packing his things.

Kate sighed. He was still incredibly good at skirting around his own issues, but someday, Kate would figure out a way to fix him. He'll see. In the meantime though, Barry was sure to give her a heart attack before they even made it to Leor.