Chapter 10

It was a struggle not to fall asleep now that she was warm and comfortable from eating but they still had to make it out of the gates. Altaïr had been right his cooking would never have compared to the food she had just eaten

"Keep up," Altaïr would snap every time she fell, even the slightest behind. They turned the nearest corner when they say the massive number of guard on each side of the gate.

"What would you suggest?" She asked.

"Going over."

She never had a chance to reply as she watched him swing up onto the nearest ladder.

Tired and achy she didn't want to climb but Altaïr still didn't seem to be in a good mood from this morning, that was assuming he could be in a good mood at all, so she climbed after him anyways. When she reached the top Altaïr stood near the edge of the three story building, being oddly patient. He looked from her to the gates and she followed his gaze and understood what he meant by going over.

"That's convenient." Altaïr only "hmmm"ed quietly to himself. He stepped back and launched himself to the building across to run up the city wall and grab a wooden perch. Adel took a deep breath and took off after him, landing lightly on the opposite roof, easily running up the wall to grab the perch. It was then though that she noticed the pain in her side. She almost cried out but she couldn't attract the notice of the guards. Slowly, with much difficulty, she pulled herself up. Altaïr was watching her warily from in front of the gate, sitting on his haunches.

"Are you going to be able to make it?" She judged the distance between each perch; she wouldn't need her arms anymore to pull herself up. She nodded and jumped from perch to perch until the one Altaïr was on was next. He gazed at her, judgingly, trying to decide for himself if she was alright. Finally having passed judgment, he turned and walked down the perch to a long railing that reached to either end of the gate way he stopped again and looked at her, "That last support there is too far to just jump, you'd have to catch it."

"I think I can manage; thanks." He turned around and continued on his way till he had one more and jumped, grabbing and pulling himself up easily. She looked ahead to her next spot and jumped, and followed Altaïr's trail through the support. There was a perch off the last support railing and he slowly backed up onto it, eyes on her the whole time. His sudden caution was making her more worried than was safe for her sanity. She jumped and reached to grab the worn wood and she swung forward and used the momentum to bring herself up, just as she always had, just as she had been trained, but what she hadn't expected was her stitches to tear. The surprising new pain made her eyes go wide and she fell forward to see the earth and guards below. With his serpent like speed, Altaïr caught her around the middle and pulled her up in front of him, she scrambled her legs to the perch for support.

Finally stable, she looked down. No one had noticed their fiasco. Behind her she heard Altaïr sigh, "You've ripped your stitches."

"Yes, I noticed." Her voice was ruff and coarse from swallowing the pain.

"No, you're bleeding through your robes."

Adel looked down at her side and cursed vehemently.

"Let's hurry, I need to fix it. Can you handle it?"

Can she handle it? Of course she could but why in the seven seas was he asking? He was not one to care for such things. His latest expedition was tell-tale of it. "Uh, yeah."

Even with her reply he did not move from behind or make any sort of attempt to move.

"I'm bleeding out, perhaps you should let go." She said gently. His arm holding fast to her middle fell loose and came to her back and pushed her up into a sitting position. He held onto her until he was sure was balanced before he hopped to the next railing. He looked behind to her and moved forward to the next before he turned around completely. She breathed the pain away and jumped, she motioned with her hand for him to move it. He turned and jumped in one fluid movement down the gradually descending rails. She took a deep breath, allowing the sharp needles to dull to nothing but an ache. She jumped successfully, just as she was taught, work through the pain. Altaïr seeing this, turned and continued all the way to the earth. He whistled his horse to the secluded corner. Having been feeding, the horse jerked its head up, ears perked excitedly forward, Aasifa looked up beside Nader with a little more grace and both came swiftly over when orders were understood. Altaïr turned around just in time to see Adel hop down to the last perch. He cursed under his breath as her blood was becoming more noticeable on her white robes.

Aasifa the ever observant horse wandered past Altaïr and stopped beneath Adel and looked up expectantly. A small smile graced Adel's mouth as she swung down and unto her Aasifa's back. When she looked up to Altaïr he was already mounted and about to turn away, "with all haste, please."

Adel leaned over to whisper in Aasifa's ear, "Did you hear that? He said, 'please.'" She whinnied quietly in retort and followed after Altaïr's quickly retreating form.

After having slipped past the guards on the trail and going down the path a safe amount of time, Altaïr surged quickly off the path and into dense foliage. Aasifa stopped on her own, and both watched as Nader blundered through making a mess of a trail. "Do you think he expects us to follow?" And as if he heard Altaïr turned.

"Why are you standing there like an idiot?"

"Why are you destroying the forest for a path like an idiot when there's already one here?" she replied, waving her arm in show of the hard to miss trail.

"Hurry up!" he roared. Aasifa again needed no more a prompting then that and took after Nader quickly.

It didn't take rider or steed long to realize that Nader was dangerous to be behind in the unkept woods. Projectiles were often coming their way so they kept a respectable distance. Adel let Aasifa pick her way around the trail that had been bludgeoned by a blundering horse not wanting to trip her up. She knew her footing better than Adel did so it only made sense. Adel looked up worriedly from the ground when Altaïr started mumbling angrily. She thought she picked up a "where" but wasn't quite sure-

"Is there somewhere specific you were looking for?" she yelled over his loud horse, it was odd, the horse seemed to be having way too much fun with what he was doing.

It was a long while before the man finally replied, "Yes, here." Nader broke through the last bit of foliage to a small clearing of grass wildly long. She couldn't emphasize how small it was. They trekked for about an hour through the trees and the fact Altaïr found this as a place he remembered for Allah knows when was beyond her. It was comfortable with all of them but she was impressed.

She took in her surroundings, the grass came to the middle Altaïr's thighs; she knew this as he had just dismounted, and was a vibrant green and smelled sweet. Quickly she removed herself from her stir ups and swung her leg over her steed's rump, which was a bad mistake. Her vision went white and her ears started to ring, her head spun dizzily. For dear life she clung to the side of the saddle awkwardly as it wasn't made for resting on part of the way up or down. Arms gently surrounded her and coaxed her fingers to relax from their death grip.

Altaïr carefully put the girl in the grass, wary of her wounds. "Open your eyes."

Ever obedient, her eyes flickered open, allowing tears to run down the side of her face. Quickly he checked her pupils and they were obscenely wide.

Adel tried to see Altaïr as he swore a string of curses she were in more than just his own language, "what?"

"I said you're going into shock."

"oh." She replied, feeling really slow, "isn't it a little late for shock?"

"It's a delayed shock reaction; you suppressed it for too long."

"I thought it was because I moved too quickly."

"Could be that, too."

"So you don't know?" she asked, opening her eyes not having realized she had closed them, Altaïr was in front of her, blurry, but she could start to see once more.

"I'm not a doctor, can you see yet?" Adel lifted her hand and swatted, smacking him. He snarled a yell.

"Was that your face?"

"Yes." He growled out through gritted teeth.

"Then yeah, I can see just fine." Adel chuckled as he vibrated with annoyance. Altaïr got up and left to rummage through his pack leaving Adel to blink her eyes into clarity. "You know, this place reminds me of my little glade back home."

"There's not as much color here, though." Altaïr replied to his pack. Adel pushed herself up with her elbows trying to locate him from within the tall grass.

"You know where I'm talking about?"

Altaïr turned and looked at her, "of course I do, lie back down." Adel's mouth shifted to the side with annoyance but did as she was told.

"What do you mean 'of course'?"

"I have known it was there for years."

"How do you get there then?"

"Same as you, to the back of the garden, through the kitchen, downstairs to the pantry to the secret exit that's in the third nook in the wall, outside to the breach in the fortress wall and a ten minute walk northeast." Adel took a deep breath, thoroughly frustrated.

"You have been following me?" Altaïr turned again to look at her through narrowed eyes but with his needed supplies in hand and slowly approached her kneeling. Her voice had been too close to a snap. The fact she was restraining herself at all meant she was clearly angry.

"I have been watching you for years." Came his slow reply. The answer made her look at him with suspicion; a look really did not appreciate to see.

"Why?"

His reply was slower than his last, "because your father asked it of me."

Adel's world came to halt, "Why would my father ask you?"

"Let me fix you up. It's been long enough." He reached to her belt but she grabbed his wrist.

"What do you know?" She sat up, feeling panicked.

"Let me just-"

"WHAT DO YOU KNOW?" She roared. It was hard for Altaïr to ignore the horror in her eyes, didn't she trust him? "You promised you'd tell me."

"I did but my promise won't be worth keeping if you're dead." He waited patiently for her to remove her hand from his wrist. Once she lay back down, he got back to work fixing her back up, again. With surprising great care to her he removed the layers carefully. She had been knocked out last time he had done this but now her nervousness grew especially as he came to her shirt. He lifted it part way before letting it go, "I need you to sit up for this part, if you would." Gingerly, she sat herself up swallowing her nausea and tried to help remove her shirt but he would just swat her hands out of her way. When he took it away she got a good look at how much she had bled out. He tossed her shirt on the pile of accumulating clothing and reached back to her and started to unwind her wrap that started at her ribs. "To think you bled though all this." He murmured quietly. Finally the rest of the cloth fell away to reveal bloody bandages and brassiere; with practiced ease he sliced through her bandages with his dagger, "lie back down." He said quickly helping her lay on her uninjured side. Quickly he placed a cloth to her side to stop the oozing blood. "your wound appears to be clotting on its own now. By Allah, Adel, you have completely torn your stitches apart." A quiet sorry was all he got from here. He shook his head and got to work cleaning the mess up and removing the old stitches.

Adel had a hard time not chewing on her cheek from the pain as Altaïr aggravated it by cleaning it. She stifled a gasp when he poured cold alcohol on her side but it didn't go unnoticed by him. He tried to work hastily without losing quality, wanting her to be done with the pain.

Once the pain finally numbed she could feel the pull of him giving her knew stitches. "How bad it is?"

"The cut is clean luckily, but it's deep and extends from your hip to the middle of your ribs. It shouldn't take too long for it to heal as long as you don't do anything stupid again." Adel rolled her eyes, he had gone from being gentle to insulting. She guessed his reservoir of kindness had to run dry sooner or later. Nonetheless she was surprised it lasted it at all. She just closed her eyes and allowed him to finish his work in peace. It bugged her though how much she enjoyed being touched by him. She wiped the thought clear from her mind. It wasn't him; it was just the touching in general she liked. She wasn't very close to anyone at all but she didn't take the close contact for granted. "I have finished, don't do anything foolish."

Carefully he helped her sit back up and wrap a fresh bandage around her middle. Once done she tried to reach to her pile of clothing but fell sideways into Altaïr. "This isn't going to work." He sat her up straight before reaching for her and grabbed her shirt but grimaced.

"It's filthy; you'll have to wash it first."

Adel looked at it dully, "Those were my fresh set of garments."

Altaïr sighed loudly, getting the hint, as if she were the biggest trouble in the world. Adel shivered, and her eyes drooped. That was enough to convince him to get up and do something about it. A wad of fabric hitting her face startled her awake. She looked around confused until she saw the white shirt in her lap. She lifted and examined the massive white shirt, definitely not hers. Altaïr was considerably wider than she was. Shivering again she didn't give a second care if she was putting on his shirt. Warm hands helped her when she was in an awkward position of trying not to stress her stitches. When her head finally popped out, she murmured her gratitude.

"You're done, what do you know?" She looked up at him, his face hard, eyes distance. He was quiet awhile as he collected his memories.

"You were young; I remember you were with your father, clinging to his leg as he spoke to Sa'eed. I had been sneaking out of the citadel and hearing him sound so desperate. He was asking Sa'eed to look after you. As to why he wanted you as part of the brotherhood you would have to tell me."

"Well how did he actually come to ask you?"

"Your father used to be an assassin. He knew I was there, called me over. I thought he was going to beat me senseless but he just asked me if I would look after you."

Adel closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose trying to focus, to recall. She had been there according to his story.

"Your hair was a lot longer then, too."

Adel smirked and looked at Altaïr, "I don't remember."

"You were only three. Why was your father wanting you to be apart of the creed?"

"I had a twin brother, and he passed away. The caravan had come to the town and too many weren't paying attention and he was run over. Doctor did what he could but it wasn't enough. Father had already put in a good portion of money for his training and mother was too old to have another kid, another boy."

Altaïr nodded, finally understanding; "only men can inherit. You died, and your brother went to school."

"Yes, so Sa'eed has known all this time?"

"If you asked me he was too close but it wasn't so surprising since Sa'eed and your father are close friends. It only made sense for him to be close."

"You weren't very close at all."

"I didn't want to draw attention."

"Did you actually have to do anything?"

Altaïr shook his head, "Not really. You have taken care of yourself pretty well. It was when you were younger. When you were really little, three or four, you had this doll you insisted on having. Having private quarters it wasn't such a problem until there were inspections, I, on more than one occasion was in your room picking your girlish toys up and taking them."

Adel's eyes went wide, "That was you?" she chuckled, "I would be so confused to find my room clean but half my toys gone but would find them were they were supposed to be in the morning." Adel couldn't help but smile, "I can't believe that was you. But I can, I remember you coming down the hallway as I was coming from my room and you saw I had my doll with me, it was my free day so I was headed outside to play, you took my doll and told me-"

"Toys stay in your room. You got so angry."

Adel blushed; she remembered she had almost started to cry, "You couldn't have been more than ten." Altaïr nodded in reply, "Does Sa'eed know you know."

"No, and he won't ever." He said, giving her a stony glare.

"Wouldn't it be easier? He would know I'm safe with you, he wouldn't have to worry and you wouldn't have to put up with the crap he gives you."

"No, he would worry anyway; he has been all over you since your mother passed."

Adel raised a brow, Altaïr looked back a little confused until he realized, "That's not what I meant, little perv child."

Adel laughed, "And he doesn't trust me."

"Well for good reason, but he doesn't truly know you does he?"

"I suppose." Silence fell between them and it was surprisingly comfortable, "you should get some sleep." Altaïr said, standing up. He walked to her horse and easily removed her sleeping pack. He set it down next to her, "sleep for now, I'll wake you for dinner." As he got up, she grabbed his wrist.

"Altaïr?" He paused before looking at her, "thank you. For everything." He removed his arm from his grasp and took her hand and kissed her knuckles.

"It has been my pleasure." He said with surprising gentleness.

Adel was taken aback and stored the memory carefully; analyzing everything, so she wouldn't forget, forget that the Altaïr infamous for his hard head and cold ways could be kind, that he could be very kind.

"Sleep."

A/N: forgive me for taking so long. Hopefully it's long enough to sustain you. Just an FYI, I have two new AC stories I'm going to put up. One staring Malik, the other Ezio. So, hopefully you'll be seeing those soon I'd like to dedicate this chapter though to animechick113. She beta read my halo story. May your spirit ever reside with god. If you'd like to give your condolences to her sister, she goes by syria13.