After I had all of the shades drawn in the living room, I called out, "Fin?"

It took a few minutes, but I finally heard an anguished groan, followed up by a pitiful sounding, "Cora?"

"Yeah, it's me!" I replied as I searched the room with my eyes. "Fin? Where are you?"

"In here."

"Here?" I questioned more to myself than to the man I couldn't see. "Sorry Fin, I'm not trying to be dense, but I don't know where 'here' is."

Fin let out another loud, painfilled groan before he answered (through gritted teeth by the sounds of it), "Closet."

I nearly tripped over my feet to get to the closet. Its doors had slats on it, so I started to worry that he had been exposed to sunlight while I made my way over here. If he had, that would explain why he sounded like he was in so much pain.

DAMMIT!

My hand was shaking as I reached for the door knob I really didn't want to see how Fin would look with a sun burn, but I couldn't be a coward. He was my friend and he deserved better from me.

Once I had the opened wide, I opened my eyes (yeah, I'm not proud to admit that I had closed them). What surprised me even more was that I couldn't see Fin. I started pushing the jackets hanging in there to the side looking for him when I heard another deep moan.

"Fin?" I questioned in a high pitched squeaky voice. "Where are you?"

He didn't answer me. At least, not in words. Instead, he fell on the floor in front of me. Or maybe collapsed is a better way to describe it.

I fell to my knees and started to pull him into my lap, but he resisted.

"Sun… day…"

"It's okay," I replied as I continued to pull him out of the closet. "I've closed all of the blinds. You're safe. Where are you hurt?"

"How…? How…?"

I brushed his hair back off his forehead answering, "Squire, remember? I've learned a thing or tow about spotting the warning signs."

"Signs?" He sighed out.

"Yeah, signs," I repeated as I tried to make him more comfortable on the floor. "You're paler than usual and your skin's all clammy. Plus, you're having to force yourself not to pass out right now. So, before you have to sleep on the floor, tell me where you're hurt."

He attempted to laugh, but it turned into a cough. I grabbed a pillow from the chair closest to us and tried help him to settle in. And as comfortable as I could make him on a hardwood floor.

He caught my hand that as petting his head so that he could get my attention as he answered, "My leg."

I tuned my eyes to his feet and immediately noticed something sticking out of his left shin. With all of the shades down I couldn't really see what it was. I looked down at Fin's face and saw that his eyes were now closed and he appeared to be concentrating on his breathing. He had told me that anytime I was hurt and didn't want anyone to know by crying out, all I had to do was focus on keeping my breathing even. Thankfully I hadn't had to use any of his tips or tricks yet, but they seemed to be working for him.

After forcing myself to take my eyes off Fin's face, I started to stand up. While I was in an awkward crouch, I felt Fin grip my arm uncomfortably tight. I knew I'd be sporting some deep bruises for the next couple of days.

I leaned down and smoothed out some of the lines on his forehead and explained, "I need to turn on some lights, so I can see what's wrong. And then I have to go out to my truck and get my First Aid Kit. Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere, you're totally stuck with me today."

"Th-th-thank…"

I placed my fingers against his lips to silence him. "Save your strength, Faenus Psari." He tried to glare at me for using the name that hardly anyone had spoken in over two thousand years. "I promise, I'll be right back."

He let go of my arm and continued to do his breathing exercises. I watched him for a minute to reassure myself that he would be alright. When he didn't do anything that caused me to worry about him, I moved as quickly as I could manage in the blackened room to turn on some lights. I nearly knocked over the first lamp I found. After I had it turned on, it took no time to find the switch for the overhead light.

That put me closer to the front door than to Fin's side, so I decided to get my First Aid supplies before I inspected his wound. Thankfully he was deep enough in the room that he wouldn't be affected by the sunlight when I opened the front door.

While I walked out to my truck, I checked my phone and found a couple of messages from my mom and Acheron. I sent mom a short reply saying that I was on Squire duties and didn't know when I would be home. I didn't go into details because I knew I didn't need to say any more. Mom knew the variety of activities that fell under the umbrella of 'Squire duties' and that most of them were time sensitive. Plus, I could (and would) fill her in when I finally made it back home, hopefully some time tonight.

Since Acheron always seemed to know more than anyone else about the Dark-Hunters and what they were doing, I actually sat down on the back hatch of my truck to read his message. I really wasn't all that long or detailed. He basically just said to let him know if the shades in the bedrooms wouldn't be adequate or if there was anything else he could do to help. Since this was going to be Cody's new home, I reminded myself to double check the black out screens in all of the bedrooms upstairs before I crashed for the day.

But before I did that I had to make Fin as comfortable as I possibly could after tending to his wound.

When I got back to Fin's side, I checked his face before I inspected whatever it was that was imbedded in his shin. It still looked like his eyes were squeezed tightly closed while he concentrated on keeping his breathing even, so I figured that meant he was still awake. How he hadn't succumbed to the exhaustion he had to be feeling was beyond me.

"Alright Fin," I started in a soft voice. "I'm just going to… What the fuck!?"

"Wh-wh-what's wrong?" He croaked out.

"What's wrong…?" I nearly screeched until I looked down into his now opened eyes. I took in a deep breath the added in a much more subdued tone, "Fin. You have an arrow… and honest to the gods fucking arrow in your leg! What in Hades realm happened?"

He coughed out another laugh. "He got lucky for the last time."

Last time. Wow. So, Fin was stabbed in the left shin with a silver tipped arrow and he still made it back here. How did he do it? I mean all of his cars were still at his house, so…? Shit! He must have dragged himself here. At least I hoped that was the worst-case scenario.

I moved so that I was sitting beside his injured leg. I lifted my hands up more times than I cared to admit before I turned to look at his face and explain, "I'm sorry Fin, but I don't even know where to start."

"Taking it out of me would be a good place."

"Yeah, I know, but…" I looked at his leg and then his face and continued, "But I've seen the arrow heads you use… won't it hurt you more?"

"Cora… you're…" He took in a deep breath and his voice became more strained with every word spoken. "You're my only hope. I can't go to anyone else because the sun's up. I can't fall asleep with it in me. Please, Cora, please…"

"Okay… okay… enough flattery, I'll do it, but…"

"Cut off the end and push it through."

I stared at him in awe for a second because he had read my mind. But he was right, I had to get to work so he could sleep and heal. I said a silent prayer to the gods on Olympus asking them for the strength to get through this without wussing out. Fin deserved better than that from me.

"Fin?" I called out quietly, hoping that my uneasiness couldn't be heard. He opened his eyes and his pain-filled gaze almost stole the rest of my words. Almost. "Did…? Did you want me to grab you something for the pain?"

He managed a weak smile as he shook his head. "Just get it out of me, please?"

"Okay. But, I'm sorry…"

"Don't," he interrupted. "Just do what you have to, Cher."

I turned to look at him again but swallowed my reply when I saw him with his eyes once again squeezed closed. Right, no more words, just action. I then lifted his injured leg and gasped out a breath. Not only had he been stabbed by the arrow, it had actually been impaled through his leg. How had it made it back here? How was he still conscious?

Questions for another time! I yelled silently to myself as I pushed the arrow the rest of the way through his flesh. I almost thought that he had finally passed out from the pain, but then he let out the softest noise of discomfort that froze me in my place. If I hadn't been listening for it, I would have missed it and couldn't help but stare at him in complete awe. I hadn't been this severely injured before, but I was sure that here was no way that I would ever be so stoic or quiet. I amazed me that he was still so composed and had actually be trying to keep me calm during all of this.

"Alright Fin, I've go you all taped up, so let's get you to bed then you can sleep it off," I announced as I finished wrapping the tape over the gauze on his lower leg.

He immediately waved me off and replied in a groggy voice, "I'm fine here. Thanks Cora."

"You're…?" I stared down at him from where I stood by his head. "FIN! You are not sleeping on the hardwood floor!"

"Stairs… too… far…"

He rolled over onto his side and started to curl into the fetal position. I felt my lips pull back into a smile as a quiet laugh escaped. I not only looked beyond cute, he actually looked comfortable too. But the floor was not a place for a Dark-Hunter to sleep, unless it was a last resort.

He was not going to wake up with a kink in his neck, not on my watch.

I knelt down and shook his shoulder in the hopes that he hadn't reached the land of Morpheus yet. He swatted at my hands and mumbled out a few curses in Ancient Greek that made me laugh softly.

"Fin come on. If not a bed, at least move op to the couch. It's right here. And big and comfy. Come on, please?"

I think the last please and the pleading tone I used actually worked because he rolled onto his knees and started to crawl to the couch. Even thought I wasn't really helping him, I did stick close to his side just in case. Luckily, I did because once his torso was on the cushions he seemed to have difficulties lifting his legs, so I immediately picked them up and placed them on the couch.

He quickly settled on the couch, so I ran upstairs to grab a blanket for him and a proper pillow. He looked like he was dead asleep (had I not seen he rise and fall of his chest I would have thought he was just dead) and thankfully now on his back. That made lifting his head and shoulders much easier in order to slip the pillow under them.

Fin didn't seem to have noticed me placing the pillow behind his head, so I did jump when I felt his hand touch the side of my head while I tucked the blanket in around his body. When I turned my face to look at his, I was surprised to see he had his eyes open. I opened my mouth to admonish him, but he placed two fingers over my lips to keep me silent.

"Merci, mon amie," he whispered. "Les dieux m'ont béni avec ton amitié."

"Fin," I replied as tears started to gather in my eyes. "Go back to sleep."

He had already closed his eyes and appeared to be completely unconscious again. I knew that Dark-Hunters were supped to lose complete consciousness when they were injured, so his current state didn't bother me. What did worry me was that he some home kept waking up to talk to me. I wasn't sure if that was usual or just something unique to Fin.

As such, I remained by his side longer than I probably needed to and watched him sleep. After five minutes of him doing nothing more than breathing deeply, I walked over to his side, leaned down and kissed his head before whispering, "Faites de beaux rêves."

As I walked up the stairs, I quickly typed out a text to Acheron saying, "The blackout shades are more than adequate."