Author's Note: What was here priviosly turned out to be a lie, so it was removed. Updated13/2/18.

Chief POV:

God, my shoulder was killing me. It had been awhile since I've been hit like this. I'm getting soft. I'll probably go to a gym later, but my goal now is to get home, bandage my shoulder, and get some sleep.

I get a few stares on my way home, I would stare to if a man with a cut through their shirt and an obvious blood on the wound and shirt. Dried blood, but blood nonetheless.

I get to my home, or rather, the front door of the apartment building I live in. I walk in, heading straight to the elevator.

"Oh god, what happened to your shoulder?!" The one thing I forgot, the owner is almost always at the front desk. If I went to the stairs on the other side of the room, she wouldn't have noticed. "Don't ignore me!"

"It's fine, Victoria. Just a new job." I call for the elevator without even turning towards Victoria.

"John, that is not 'fine', you need medical attention!" She came up to me and pulled on my good arm, without any luck.

"I'm fine, really. I have a med-kit up in my room. I'm bandaging it up there."

She then proceeds to then hit the wound, causing me to visibly, and audibly, wince. "What was that for?!"

I finally look at her, well down at her. She's smaller, barely reaching my chest in height. She has long black hair and bright green eyes. She wore a black v-neck, purposely trying to show off her DD size cleavage, and tight skinny jeans. To most guys, she was a beautiful woman. She, however, never quite shown in interest in any.

"Proving my point. You need medical attention, the amount of blood on your shirt is a real tell."

"It wasn't that deep of a cut." The elevator is sure taking its sweet time.

"Stop acting tough, you're going to need more than some gauze for that."

"I have what I need for stitches. I am trained in self medical care."

"On the field maybe, but that has to be infected."

"I have disinfectant." I know what Victoria is going to do. She is just the kind of person to help people in what she believes they need.

"It's in a difficult to reach place, how will you even reach it to stitch?"

"If you want to help fix it up, be my guest. But I have no reason to go to a hospital. I really don't need doctors asking for previous medical history."

She almost tried to fight it more, but she realized what I said was true. Hospitals can get a little weird when it comes to Spartans as they can never be sure what to do. From dosage of medicines to how to go around the metal plates on the bones. It only gets worse if they're Spartan IIs as there is so little knowledge anywhere for them.

"Fine, but you are letting me deal with everything. No exceptions."

"Fine by me."

Victoria was a good friend, she truly was. She had been the one to suggest that I get a job. Sense I didn't do much, often I would come down here and just talk with her. Obviously I wasn't the first to start that through. When I first started living here, Victoria was very keen on learning about me. Not sure why, whether it was something she did with everyone or just me I couldn't tell you. Once I actually talked back to her, I realized it was a good feeling just to talk.

And Victoria liked to as well, as she even got a chair to sit right next to the front desk once she realized I had nothing better to do. She would have me help out around the apartment complex when it was required and just sit back and talk about anything when it wasn't. I was fine with it as I had literally nothing to do. She was also trying to get me to do different things all the time, to make my life, well, different. Somethings were nice, like when she forced me to try a pizza. I can't believe I had never had one. Other things were not so good, like when she pulled me into a yoga class. A man of my size doing yoga? That was a mess. Made it even worse was how much I stood out. The tallest, largest, and only guy there, stood out just a bit.

The elevator finally arrived, a few minutes of silence later. The door opens to be completely empty.

"What's wrong with the elevator? That took way too long." I asked as we went in.

"Beats me, haven't seen it take that long before." I click the number four and the door closes a few seconds later.

We sit in silence, which I find odd. Victoria normally would be asking about the job and what caused the shoulder. The elevator takes its normal amount of time, and stops on my level. The door, however, doesn't open.

"Your refusal to get a professional shows."

"I am all this place needs thank you very much. Help me open the door."

"I can open it myself you know."

"Best not put pressure on the wound. Wouldn't want blood in the elevator." I roll my eyes at that, and, using my good arm, pull on the door with Victoria. We pull it open with ease. The elevator was on my floor, not an inch off. We get off the elevator.

"I will fix that later, let's get your wound patched up."

"If you need to fix it, I can do this myself."

"Nope. You're getting the Victoria treatment whether you like or not."

We walk down the hall towards my apartment. "Victoria treatment? That sounds sketchy, like how you would try to sell a miracle medicine. 'Come receive the Victoria treatment, cures all illness and may reduce weight.'"

Victoria starts laughing at that as I pull out my key to open my front door. "You're right, I should start a business with that slogan. Might lose the weight reduction part, makes it to long."

I open the door into my apartment and walk through. "What would you sell? Last I checked, you don't exactly have a cure all medicine." Victoria follows me through.

My apartment isn't anything special, very bland as Victoria constantly says it is. A large, long main area, master just to the right of where you come in. A small couch and tv sit perpendicular to where you come in, both of which Victoria forced me to do.

A video game console sits just below the tv, a reminder of Victoria's failed attempt to get me into video games. Not that I was bad at them, just were too easy. I got bored very quick and Victoria didn't like being beaten by a 'noob' as she put it.

A fairly large kitchen with a large island sat on the opposite wall to the door, and a bathroom sat on the right wall by the kitchen. That was it, no painting, no tables, not even a coffee maker. It is completely blank.

"I don't know, maybe I'll…. Use Spartan pee!"

"Wait, now you're asking me for my pee? This proposal seems extremely sketchy."

"Just get the medkit, this took a wrong turn."

I chuckle at her poor attempt to change the topic. "Ok, but I'm not using your so called cure all." I could feel the stare she was giving me as I walked into the master.

The master was just like the rest of the apartment, only a king sized bed (I'm forced to sleep diagonally due to my height), a closet, and basic dresser.

Another door to the master bath is to the left, so I walk right in. From under the sink I grab the medkit. Pretty heavy duty one to. Had everything you would need in an emergency situation, and then some. Even had surgical tools. I'm pretty sure this is the type of thing people with nuclear bunkers use.

I get back in the main area to find Victoria face first in a sandwich. "You're about to attempt to stitch my shoulder, so you decided to make a sandwich? Peanut butter in a flesh wound doesn't seem healthy."

"Shut up, you get the good peanut butter. I can't help…" Her eyes see the medkit. "Jesus Christ, is that your medkit? That thing looks like you plan to operate."

"Well it does have surgical tools, as well as solutions to properly clean them."

"Where do you find one like that?"

"Costco."

"Damn, I really need a membership there. Would be so useful to buy in bulk." (Shameless Costco ad, and we don't even get any money for it.)

I place the kit on the island and started pulling out what we need. Victoria washed her hands in the sink. "So did you enjoy the security job? You know besides when you cut your shoulder."

"Yes, to the manager's surprise, I enjoyed it. Boring till about midnight, but the rest of the night is a rush."

She walked back towards the island as I finished pulling out everything from the disinfectant to the disintegrating thread. "Rush, at a closed children's pizzeria? Does it become a nightclub at night? Maybe a stripclub?" She wiggles her eyebrows suggestively when she said stripclub.

"I'm glad it isn't. That would have been boring. This is a different level of insanity."

I take my shirt off before asking, "Hey, have you done this before?" I throw the shirt into the trash can before looking at Victoria for an answer.

She was frozen, completely awestruck. Mouth agape and eyes open as wide as possible. Her eyes are darting all over my chest and abdomen, and I know exactly why.

"Victoria, earth to Victoria, are you hearing me?" She shook her head, snapping back into reality before returning her gaze to my face.

Face a bit red from embarrassment, she responds, "Sorry, just… didn't expect the…"

She spoke sounding flustered, so I threw her a bone to help her calm down. "Scars? Yes, I was a spartan. I have lots of scars."

"But, there are so many large ones. How are you alive?"

I look down at the scars in question. It is a good question. Burns from plasma, cuts from blades, dots where bullets penetrated the skin, and even a nice burned cut from an energy sword right along my chest. It's incredibly lucky that I am alive."Through skill and a whole lotta luck. Now, let me ask again, have you ever done this?"

She's a little surprised at the question, but suddenly becomes both embarrassed and nervous, pushing both her pointer fingers together as she answers,"No…"

I should have known this would happen. Victoria has a tendency to saying she will do something that she has no idea how to do. "Ever stitch a stuffed animal? It's the same deal, just instead of white stuffing it's red."

She lit up almost instantly. "Yes! it's been awhile, but it should be fine."

"Well then, knock yourself out. Not literally, of course. Hate to explain to the cops why a passed out girl in my apartment while my shirt is off. Paints a bad image."

"Why would the cops come here in the first place? What did you do? Take kids to the 'special' show room at the pizzeria?"

I couldn't help but laugh at that. "You wish. You would be the one with the camera."

She walks around the table to get to my back. "Hey, it was only one time…"

I pass her the disinfectant cream. "Yes and that 'one time' got you arrested."

"That's not fair and you know it. You get paid three grand to hold a camera, you hold the camera." She starts rubbing the disinfectant into the wound, chilling the area around it. This cream is so much better than the shit medics would give you. That stuff burned worse than plasma.

"Besides, I was cleared of most of the charges. How was I supposed to know she was fifteen?"

"You wouldn't have to worry about it if you said no…"

"You are getting too far off topic, what happened at your job?"

"To be fair, you're really the one who went off topic."

"Answer the question. Also hand me the thread."

I pass the thread and needle to her. "Well, it wasn't what I was expecting."

I then told what happened from the lackluster greeting to the phone message before she stopped me. "What? The animatronics move by themselves? That sounds like a terrible prank."

She Finished up the stitches before sitting on another chair. "I thought that too, but they don't play around."

"Your kidding, right?"

"No, the old foxy animatronic was what got my shoulder. Those things seriously don't play around."

"But, how? Are they just, corrupt programming? I mean, they're old. That might have something to do with it."

"According to the manager, they basically have been like this forever. Some old files have information on other night guards who either died or quit on the first day close to a century ago."

Her hands were massaging her temples, and eyes glued to her knees. She was thinking, probably trying to think about what would cause this.

"Don't push your mind too hard, you're going to need it to fix the elevator."

"Are you going back?"

The question caught me off guard. I already told the manager I would, but

based on Victoria's tone, she probably wants me to say no. "I'm not sure yet. I told the manager I would, but I don't want to run to a decision quite yet."

"Well, if you are, then bring that medkit down to the lobby. You're not going to try to hide your injuries from me."

I get what she's doing. "What makes you say that's my only medkit?"

She looks up to me in the most serious face I think I've ever seen her use. "John, do you even realize that you can die? That you are not invincible?" She looked straight into my eyes, as though she was pulling the answer through them.

Sure, I realized that I could die. I knew that every time I went out on the field, every time I fought. But, I never truly thought about it. Why think about what might happen, when you could think about was happening? I thought how was I going to win, how we were going to win. I considered the lives of others, putting them before myself in every situation. But this is different. The only one at risk here is me. No civilians, no soldiers, and no friends are at risk this time, just me. When was the last time I put myself at risk for no reason? For just me? I honestly don't know. How should I answer the question?

"No." A simple answer, but the only answer I could think of.

"Of course you don't. 'Spartans never die, they are just missing in action.' They must drill that line into your skull." She quickly reverted back to her old self. "Well, I should let you get some sleep, must have been a rough night, and you probably got another one tonight. I also need to fix that damn elevator." She was definitely quick to leave.

"Maybe hire a professional this time?"

"In your dreams." She was already at the door. "Please just don't get yourself killed, it was hard enough to get a tenet for this place the first time."

"Hey, why would you doubt me?"

"I'm not doubting you, I just really don't want to go through that again. Get some sleep, I'll see you later."

"See you too." And with that she was out the door.

Author's Note: Edits on old chapters? If you caught them and you know my pattern, then you know chapter 4 is almost out. Hopefully. Maybe. Night 2 is coming, I promise.