Me, Johnny and Dutch managed to get Tommy back to the bikes, supporting him between us. Tommy took a seat behind Dutch and we rolled slowly back to Dutch's apartment.

It took ages but we climbed the stairs of the apartment block to the fourth floor and Dutch opened the door and let himself in, followed by me. I turned around to join Johnny in helping Tommy (who couldn't see properly) over the threshold.

"You find him?" Came a shout from Bobby in the lounge.

"Yeah. We've got him." I called back, my voice still not back to normal from crying and the shock.

"Aw, man! Where were you? You've been gone hours." Came Bobby's voice as he walked into the tiny hall. He was smiling as he came to greet us but then he saw Tommy's face and his expression radically changed. "Fuck!" He shouted. "Who the fuck did that to you, man!?"

"Guess." Tommy said, simply, peering at Bobby with his good eye.

"Aw, man! I'm gonna kill that Barnes guy! He's dead fuckin' meat, man!" Bobby exploded. He whirled and punched the wall beside him with an enraged roar. A split second later he hissed. He'd cut his knuckles on the bare plaster.

"Tomorrow, we find him." Johnny snarled, slightly red in the face. "Right guys? Teach him to fuck around with us." Johnny's words seemed to trigger Bobby's memory of what Barnes himself had said the previous day. He rounded on me. He looked so fierce. Worse than Barnes had. I took a hasty step back.

"You! You did this! Tommy's all cut up because of you! You're the one that talked back to Barnes!" He snarled. My head dropped. As if I didn't feel bad enough about this already!

"What was I supposed to do, Bobby, huh? Fight him there and then, right in the middle of the street just after I'd got a new job?" I said, trying like hell to defend myself.

"You could have just said that, yes, you'd fight him, got a time and a place and not showed." Bobby argued.

"Oh talk sense, Bobby!" I countered, getting braver as adrenaline flooded me. "Don't you think Barnes would have set off on the warpath then anyway?"

"Guys, chill!" Johnny shouted at us both. "Look," he said, pausing before having to grudgingly admit, "Jac's right. It's Tommy's bad luck he bumped into 'em while he was alone." He ran a shaking hand through his hair. "If we'd been with him he'd have been fine. Jac had no choice but to back off the other day. If she'd promised him a fight and not showed we'd all be in trouble. OK, Bobby?" He finished with a threatening look at Bobby. Crumbling under his leader's stare, Bobby mumbled

"Right. Sorry." Johnny gave a curt not.

"Yeah, don't blame her, Bobby." Tommy said from the sofa. I looked over at him, still finding it hard to believe that this had happened. Shakily, I walked off in search of a cloth. I found a fairly tired looking facecloth in Dutch's bathroom and, after confirming with Dutch that it was clean, I soaked it and set about cleaning Tommy up a bit. Tommy winced as the cloth touched the cut under his eye but didn't react beyond that. It took me a few minutes but I soon had the cuts free of any dirt or dried blood. At least that might help a bit. The guys were all gathered in the kitchen, obviously all gunning for Barnes. I could hear them coming out with all manner of death threats occasionally punctuated by Johnny's arguing as I sat with Tommy on the sofa.

"You're not gonna fight him are you." Tommy said, breaking the silence. I looked at him and, almost apologetically, I shook my head. Tommy nodded. "Didn't think so. Good. You really hate violence, huh?" I considered.

"I do when there's no reason. It's not just that, though." I said, "Call me a geek but I know that Barnes's need to fight is some sort of shield against something that he's scared too face. Fighting him is just going to feed that hatred and fear and that's not going to help anyone."

"You are a geek." Tommy said, smiling. "That's OK. It saved my ass today. I didn't know how long I'd be there." I shrugged.

"It's just a technique I learned from a book." I said, modestly. "Fiction, come to that..."

"Survival guide? SAS?" Tommy asked, giggling, weakly. I had to smile too.

"No, although I do have one of those." I replied, remembering my mother's copy back in my own world from when she had been in the forces.

"Seriously? So do you, like, know how to pick locks and stuff?" Tommy said, his battered face lighting up. I nodded. I had studied that chapter closely. "Awesome! Could you show me?"

"I know how to do it but I've never done it for real before." I said.

"Doesn't matter. We'll try anyway. Always a first time, right?" Tommy said, laughing. I looked into his face. Even with the wounds cleaned, he still looked terrible but, already, he'd got his smile back. That was just Tommy. Always happy. So happy it broke my heart all over again. Crumbling I hugged him for the second time that night and, this time, he hugged back.

"I really am sorry, Tommy." I said.

"Ah, don't sweat it." Came Tommy's voice from somewhere near her left ear. "I'm just sorry I missed the movie." I smiled. In all the confusion I'd forgotten about that.

"Actually, you didn't. I felt too bad that you'd miss it so we put 'T2' on instead. We were going to watch 'Aliens' when you got back but, when you were still missing, we came to look for you."

"Really?" Tommy said.

"Mm hm." I replied.

"That's really nice of ya." Tommy said softly. "Thanks."

"Don't sweat it." I said as we released each other. It was then that the rest of the guys strode in. You had to hand it to them. They did look impressive when they did that.

"We're gonna find that guy, man!" Bobby said immediately. "First thing tomorrow, we'll find him! He's gonna pay for that!"

"No!" I said, panicked. "Weren't you listening to me earlier? That's only going to make things worse. You can't let him know he's got to you. That's as good as surrender in itself."

"Hey! You don't get an opinion this time!" Bobby shouted at me. I winced but managed not to lower my head. Johnny snarled and pushed Bobby roughly by the shoulder.

"Hey! Back off, man!" He shouted back at Bobby.

"You want this happening again!?" Bobby yelled in Johnny's face, gesturing to Tommy with a violent point. Johnny looked affronted and snarled again.

"I told you, it wasn't her fault so back the fuck off!"

"Bullshit, man!"

"What happened to that "sorry" that you puked up earlier, huh!?"

"I'm on Jac's side." Said a quiet voice, suddenly. Bobby and Johnny, who were both red in the face from yelling, turned to see Dutch, leaning against the door frame, his arms crossed and a glass bottle of beer in one hand just visible under his elbow. "Barnes would have picked a fight with any of us that he saw alone without Jac doing anything. He wants to feel he's fuckin' invincible, right?" Everyone was stunned into silence by this surprising turn of calm and knowledge. He was usually so loud, tough and opinionated; first to join the lions' den and set out for blood with fire in his eyes and "no mercy" seared across his heart. I looked at this new Dutch with a sudden, huge and instant surge of respect.

"Exactly." I said, quietly, amazed. "Thank you." I added. Dutch shrugged and took a swig of beer.

"Your geek disease is rubbing off on me." He said with a smirk.

Author's notes: Just a little fun fact for you. The book that Jac got that strategy from was 'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time'