It felt really strange; I was actually back on my feet for the first time in three months!

Mind you, from a totally 'boy' point of view, it was great to have two girls helping me as I took to my feet – I was a bit shaky at first and the floor felt cold. Mindy smiled up at me on my right, with Chloe on my left. I had to admit that Mindy felt warm and cuddly beneath my arm; she was also noticeably and remarkably strong too for an eight-year-old.

"Take it slowly, Dave... There is no need to rush," Dr Bennett said gently.

It would require a few of weeks of physiotherapy before I could leave the hospital, but I was at least on the road to recovery!

March 1st 2016
Tuesday

Chloe and Dr Bennett lived in a large house, in Brooklyn.

Dave left the hospital and we both saw our new home together. The property was spread over four floors and it was enormous! Chloe had her own bedroom on the fourth floor. Dave was given the other bedroom on the fourth floor, which was also the top floor of the property. I was to share with Chloe.

I did not mind, as long as she did not have any weird habits!

..._...

It felt a little weird too, being in a place like that – it was new to me and it was the fourth place that I had called home in eight years. I also had hard choices to make.

Since Dave had been injured, four months previously, I had not worn the costume – not once... Now that Dave was out of his coma, as well as out of the hospital and getting better, I had a question: should I go back out as Hit Girl? I was awkwardly aware that my going out as Hit Girl, all those weeks ago, was what had caused Dave to spend months in hospital in the first place...

..._...

I had decided to try to remain as Mindy Macready.

Only at the time, I had had no idea how hard that was going to be... I became a bitch rather quickly – some might say that I always was a bitch... I could not deny that, but not having Hit Girl as a way to alleviate my temper, was having an effect on me...

Over the first week, I was regularly being called out for my language, which Dr Bennett refused to tolerate. I had discovered that Chloe had a vocabulary almost as good as mine – I said almost; nobody swore better than Hit Girl!

I was doing my best to behave, but I needed an outlet – I had not even been back to the Safehouse in weeks.

Sunday

We had only been at our new home, Dave and me, for a little over a week.

We would talk a lot, Dave and Me – Chloe too. That morning, the three of us were sitting on the bed in Chloe's bedroom.

"I still can't understand how some total lowlife could actually stab a kid and then leave him to die!" Chloe exclaimed suddenly. "They are the scum of the earth and..."

I felt so fucking low as I listened to Chloe ranting on about Dave's attacker... Chloe really cared for Dave and me, and she would regularly go off on a rant about Dave being, almost, stabbed to death. Normally, I was able to just ignore it all and I sometimes joined in, but...

I could not do it anymore; I could not mask my emotions a moment longer.

I saw Mindy's face change and I had a distinct feeling that she was upset; I also had a feeling why.

Chloe stopped jabbering on and she turned to Mindy.

"What are you looking like that for?" She asked. "It's not like you stabbed Dave..."

Mindy looked up at Chloe; she looked wretched and ashamed.

"You have got to be kidding me?"

I shook my head and I felt the tears running down my cheeks.

"No – you couldn't have; you're Dave's friend..."

I began crying even harder.

"I shouldn't have been there..." Dave said quietly. "It was not Mindy's fault..."

It was time to come clean to my friends – the only friends I had in the entire world. I sucked back my sobs and struggled to contain my emotions, wiping away the tears.

"Chloe, we need to go for a ride – can you get your Mom to take us?"

"Of course..." Chloe said, a worried expression crossing her face.

"Mom!"

"Yes, Chloe – please don't shout like that in the house..." Dr Cathy Bennett replied.

"Can you take us into the City – please?" Chloe asked her mother.

I watched as Dr Bennett ran her eyes over her daughter, Mindy and then me. I saw suspicion in her eyes.

"Let's go..."

West 17th Street

We were back at the same set of recessed doors as before.

Mindy punched in a seven-digit code and the doors clicked open. She waved us all in, through the doors and then pushed them closed behind us. Mindy then waved us on, up some stairs.

"Second floor, door on the left," she growled.

Chloe and her mother looked very concerned.

"Mindy, what are you leading us into?" Dr Bennett asked. "Are we safe?"

Mindy thought about that as we climbed the stairs.

"To be honest? Maybe..."

..._...

We stopped at a large pair of steel, double doors.

"Cool!" Chloe exclaimed as Mindy touched the right hand door and a keypad was illuminated.

Mindy punched in another seven-digit code and the right-hand door clicked open.

"In!" She growled simply as she pulled it open.

We all complied and walked into the darkness.

Mindy vanished to the left and I heard the sound of something substantial clicking into place.

It must have been a circuit breaker, as lights began to come on over our heads, illuminating what seemed to be a small apartment. We passed through another doorway and over to our left was a small kitchen with a large rectangular table that had two chairs on one side – four more identical chairs were stacked, two deep, against the wall. To our right was a large 'L-shaped' couch with an equally large flat-screen TV before it.

Behind the TV was a doorway that led somewhere else. It all seemed very normal-ish. I noticed that Mindy seemed very apprehensive about being in the room.

"It's okay, Mindy – keep going," I said reassuringly and she smiled up at me.

Opposite the door where we had entered, was an archway and as we approached it, Mindy hit several light switches to the right of the archway and we were hit by the bright lights illuminating a lot of white before us.

..._...

Through the archway was a large room with white panelling on every wall. The whiteness reflected the bright lights set into the ceiling and illuminated a large exercise mat to the left and a small, but well-equipped workshop to the right. However, it was not the white panelling on the walls, which caught our attention; it was what the panelling supported.

"How many?" Chloe asked, mesmerised by the display before her.

"One hundred and twenty-two..." Mindy replied, seemingly automatically.

"Can I?" Chloe asked, pointing at the wall.

Mindy nodded with a smile as Chloe reached out and plucked a pistol off the rack and looked at it closely.

"Is it...?"

"No, it's not loaded – none of them are... It's a Glock 26, by the way..."

Dr Bennett seemed astonished by what she was witnessing.

"Mindy, what the hell are you into?" She breathed, surprising us all, as she never swore.