"Mr. Sharp," Bovril chirped happily. Alek opened his eyes groggily, staring straight back at the tiny loris on his chest. In last night's escape from the Germans, he had nearly forgotten that the beastie was with them.

He sat up; throwing the thin blanket that had covered him in sleep onto the wooden floor. "No, it's Miss Sharp now, Bov." Alek shook his head, still not understanding. But his confusion was quickly forgotten as remembered Dylan's side wound.

Now standing up, Alek moved from the plush couch he slept on to Dylan's bedside. He put a cautious hand to her forehead. Normal. The Clanker sighed in relief, glad that his friend wasn't sick as well as shot.

Dylan stirred in his sleep, muttering about a hot air balloon. Startled, the boy quickly withdrew his hand from his friend's forehead and moved the sheets of the bed to check on the girl's wound. The blood had stopped, leaving the gauze which Alek had used the night before to wrap the wound in a dark brown.

The volume of her mutterings increased, the words now audible, "Da! It's on fire! What do I do?" Alek looked around wildly, searching for something to silence his friend's shrieks of terror. Eventually, he decided that waking up Dylan was the best solution.

"A-Alek? What happened? Where are we?"

There was a brief pause as Alek stopped to recollect his thoughts. "Last night, after you got…wounded, we came down into the streets. Then, we were wandering about for a bit before I found this hotel for us. You were pretty lucky, the bullet passed right through you, but I don't know if it hit anything important." he said, gesturing to the stand next to the bed where the bullet lay, crusted with the girl's blood.

"Was I conscious during any of this? Because I don't remember anything…" Dylan trailed off, suddenly looking very tired.

"I…I don't think you were conscious. Because after a few minutes of wandering the streets, I was practically carrying you. You're surprisingly light, you know."

"Oh." Dylan uttered that single word before realizing there was a bigger problem at hand. "My wound is wrapped; and you said the bullet is out, aye? So you saw what was beneath…when you did."

Alek looked up at Dylan now, and saw the light of determination in her blue eyes before replying. "Yes, I admit that I was a bit…shocked. But it all makes sense now, I suppose." His face reflected puzzlement as he continued, "But why did you do it, Dylan? War is no place for women. You could have died."

"What are you blithering about, Alek? I've proved myself to be a useful component of the Royal Air Force more than twice over!" Dylan's initial anger to Alek's view of women gave way to sadness. "But, you also wanted to know why I joined. It's…a long story, but I joined because I needed to fly again; feel the whoosh of air through my hair, my body. I couldn't help it…the sky's my home."

The prince blinked in surprise. But of course, this was Dylan he was talking about. He couldn't help but admire her tenacity to pursue her dreams. Dylan, crazy but brilliant at the same time. "So, is your real name Dylan or…?" Alek asked, embarrassed that he didn't even know his best friend's name.

She smiled, "As a lass, I go by Deryn. Deryn Sharp."

"Deryn. That's a beautiful name." Alek replied, and then blushed furiously. What was he doing? She was a commoner, blast it! He couldn't afford to harbor any feelings for her! "I-I mean, it's fitting. For you, with your, um, personality and…all."

Deryn raised an intuitive eyebrow. "Thanks." She then sat up, groaning, but shot an I-can-get-up-on-my-own look at Alek when he tried to help. "Aye, so now that the niceties have been exchanged, what's next?"

Alek moved onto the bed, sitting on the side. "For now, we have to wait for you to get better. We can get by with this for the time being." he said, producing the small lump that was left of the gold bar.

He handed the gold to Deryn, who traced her finger over the Hapsburg symbol engraved onto the now coin-shaped lump. "I wonder if Klopp and Bauer made it back to the Leviathan all right."

"They probably did. I imagine that they'll be kept under close watch now that Mr. Malone has published my interview."

"Aye, that's right! Barking spiders, the whole world knows what you look like now!"

"That's true, but if the Committee won the battle last night, then the sultan will be rounding up the Germans to send them out of Istanbul."

Deryn pondered this for a moment before she answered. "Then hopefully there won't be anyone chasing us here. But for now, I'm starving, let's order some potatoes."

Bovril, who had been silent up until this point, clambered up onto Deryn's shoulder. "Potatoes!" the beastie exclaimed, then swiped his tongue over his mouth.

I present you with chapter two. I hope you enjoyed it! There was a lot of dialogue…anyways, I managed to get potatoes into this one, WOOP. Please review!