Woot woot! Another chapter and considering I'm back in school that' pretty good! But I guess I shouldn't be too surprised, since school makes one want to daydream about anything but what you're learning, am I right?

I want to thank EVERYONE whose reviewed so far: ThruTheMoss, British Buffalo, AnimeRyRy and to JJBoadway for adding this story to their story alert!

I hope you all like this chapter, it might be kind of confusing because it skips forward to when they've already integrated into a gang, but maybe you'll still enjoy it eh? Well, we'll see I guess!

Quick Warning: SWEARING! But what do you expect with gang members?

And to make life that much easier: Trowa= Wolf/ Alex= Cecile (C)/ Tom = Radar/ Jennifer = Bullet.

There isn't much Tom or Jennifer yet in this chapter but I'll try to bring them in soon because I like those two

Remember to review!!!

***

Two and a half months later...

"C!"

"So...she found them. She's gone home then?" Her voice quivered, but she tried to hold it back. She wouldn't let herself show anything in front of them, not right now.

"Her sister was found in a hospital near the location of the attack. It seems she had an amnesiac response to the trauma, and has only recently started to remember things. When she mentioned your friend's name, they found her through the Preventers." Quatre hesitated briefly. This wasn't a subject he had wanted to open up with her, but everyone had agreed that she'd most likely take hearing it from him the best. He could be the most gentle and sympathetic of them all at the moment, and they figured that's what she would need.

Her lips twitched into an odd smile. "That's...good then. I didn't want her to be involved in this. Neither of us was meant to be here. I'm glad she found her family again."

"C! Get your ass out from under that piece of crap you and Radar call a car and come 'ere!"

Alex blinked as the raspy voice hit her ears. She rolled out from under a half built car frame and looked up at the fat balding man who had called her out. The memory she had found herself lost in had felt too close for comfort.

"What? Sorry, I was- Hey! It's not a piece of crap!" She hurled, wiping at an itch on her nose and smearing black grease over her face in the process.

The large man raised his bushy gray brow. "I don't know what the 'ell you're talking about, but that is a piece o' crap. Now come on over and 'elp me sort out the paperwork. You're one o' the few 'round 'ere 'oo can count worth a damn, and I'm not gonna let talent like that go to waste over blown fuses and fifty year ol' engines." He turned on his heel and led the way through a swinging door that looked about ready to fall off its hinges in to a small smoky office. There was a desk at the far end that was stacked with papers and wads beyond belief of cash.

"Whether you think it's a piece of crap or not, Radar is teaching me the basics of car maintenance. Something which I find highly interesting, and I'm sure will come in handy at least once in my life." She snubbed, giving the old man a glare.

He held back a chuckle and instead ordered her to wash off her hands before she handled his precious money.

"You're becoming a grease monkey - and that ain't something to be proud of. You're better off workin' in 'ere, the Big Boss will take a better shinning to ya if you can do somethin' useful – and you're keeping Radar from doing 'is job by 'oling 'im up in that piece of junk garage out there."

She sniffed as she sat across from him at the large desk and began piling things into a somewhat organized structure. "It's the only thing that keeps me sane around here. That and going out on pickups. Otherwise we're all stuck in this place, and you know I don't like hanging with the others, all they do is sit around and get pissed while those bitchy strippers grind all over them. And by the way Joe, I can't think with all this damned smoke!"

Joe laughed this time. He couldn't help it. The little girl in front of him who was now spouting off about the rest of the guys who were most likely sitting in the front of the joint, getting their piece of ass, had curled herself into a soft spot in his heart. From the moment her and her buddy boy Wolf had stepped through the threshold of small city crime to the big bad life of the mob, he knew he had found something special.

Wolf was something in his own right though. The name had suited him so well they hadn't bothered inducting him with a new one. All of the boys knew he was a keeper the moment he had unloaded his latest truck of supplies for them. They had taken him in as one of their own in a heartbeat, and he had proved more than once that he deserved their brotherhood. He was fast, quiet, smart as hell, and didn't give a rats ass about how dangerous a job could be. He had finished every single one off without breaking a sweat. Joe knew the Big Boss had already caught wind of him, and was one hundred percent sure that he'd take Wolf under his wing personally.

Cecile was another matter. She had come along under Wolf's arm, shy but stubborn. He had claimed to own her life as he had saved it a few years back when she was working labour for a junkie thug. The guys didn't think much of it, they just figured she was another piece of meat that they could screw around with when they were bored, but Wolf had quickly made it clear that she was his.

"I said: I own her. She's mine."

But Joe had seen the glint in her eyes that day, and knew she was made of some tough stuff. He hadn't figured her for much use though until he had made her chew through some of the small finances. She had a knack for it. In her first week under his eyes she had come across some small...discrepancies which had led to the sudden disappearance of one fishy little fellow no one cared to remember. The rest is, as they say, history. She had been working with him on the major bills for the past two months now, and he was more than pleased with her.

"You mad that your dog of a lover boy is out there with one of 'em chickies instead of you?"

Her green eyes glared as she set the papers down. She had already finished that week's count and logged it in the book.

"He's not my...lover boy. I work for him, that's it."

Joe leaned back in his chair and lit a new cigarette, blowing the smoke out towards Alexandra in jest, knowing it would peeve her off.

"Mmm, I don't know. That's what you say and all C, but 'ee certainly makes it clear that 'ee at least thinks you're more than 'is employee. Especially since you've been spending so much time with Radar."

Yeah well, Tom hasn't done a complete 360 with his personality for this mission. Trowa just scares the hell out of me these days.

"Wolf and I are not doing each other. I don't care if he has a hooker rub her ass in his face, I just don't like hanging around with any of those boys when they're busy with crap like that."

Joe winked at her. "I knew I liked you for a reason kid. Now go on and get the 'ell outta 'ere. I 'ave some big boy stuff I need to do before tomorrow."

He watched as her coverall wearing figure left him in quiet peace and pulled some papers out from a drawer in his desk. One of the pages contained several snapshots of what looked to be an abandoned set of warehouses, but there were small figures dotted here and there. There was a red circle drawn around one of the buildings where most of the figures seemed to congregate. It was approaching fast.

***

The coloured lights reflected dizzyingly around the room. The smoke was so thick one could hardly see who or what was inside of it, but the blaring bass gave way to easy understanding.

Alex rolled her eyes as she passed by the closed door, hearing the shouts and laughter from the men within. She had known beforehand that the extent to which she would like or respect any one member from this group would be minimal, but she hadn't been expecting her most hated feature of the gang to be their lewd behaviour. They were constantly drinking, taking drugs, and worst of all, being all-around sexist pigs. If it hadn't been for Trowa's decision to 'claim her' as his own, she had the disturbing feeling that she would have been 'made' someone else's by now – whether she wanted it or not.

She was still an easy target though, unlike Jennifer who had quickly managed to assert her independence, and her skill: with a gun. Jenny's new name had quickly become Bullet, which was suitable enough since she had put three in the first and last idiot who had tried to get a good time out of her. Alex wondered if she'd even be able to stave off a creep, god forbid she ever got the chance to try.

But as she started going over the simple moves that the recent new men in her life had been teaching her, a voice cut through her thoughts. It was dark and cold and so familiar and unfriendly that she wanted to scream at the bearer to stop being such a good actor.

His green eyes bore into her so fiercely that she thought he might cut her into little bits right there and then.

"Where have you been?"

"... With Joe..." She bit her lip.

Trowa closed the door behind him and stood in front of it menacingly, arms crossed over his broad chest in a very controlling manner.

"Obviously that's not the only place. You have grease all over your face." And he moved towards her so quickly, and brought up his hand like a knife, that she couldn't help but shut her eyes in panic and freeze, rooted in her spot.

A second later they opened again in surprise. The feeling of his hand against her cheek, with his thumb rubbing over her nose gently to clean off the dark stains, was so completely at odds with his demeanour that she was left utterly confused.

He leaned his head down to her level and looked her in the eyes.

"Don't be silly. My act goes as far as my words. I would never hit you." He murmured quietly.

The moment was lost as a smash against the door brought them both back to the reality of darkly lit hallways and boozed up gang bangers.

"Show her whose boss Wolf! Why don't you just do her right now? Give us a show! We wanna see why she's your precious little jewel!" A slurred and rough voice called at them from behind the thin sheet of metal. There were several hoots and hollers, but no one dared come out. Trowa still may have been a newbie, but they had learned quickly enough that he wasn't to be messed with.

His head turned away from the voice and back to 'his' woman.

"Go back to the apartment now. Lock the door." He dropped his hand which had stayed against her skin until then. "I'll knock before I come in."

When she was out of his sight, he sighed before returning to his new found family. Having to act as one of them was becoming increasingly tiring, even for him. It was wearing him thin to have to pretend to enjoy their company, the work that he did for them, and to ignore their constant verbal attacks against Alex – and the more than occasional questions about the sexual tricks she must have up her sleeve to have him keep such a tight hold on her.

Before the door had even finished closing, they were on him instantly.

"Wolf man! You gotta give us something one of these days! All this mystery is making us hungry." A thin man with a long face and high cheeks bones yelled, licking his lips and swinging his eighth bottle of beer around in the air.

Trowa suppressed a shudder of anger at the thought of this man's 'hunger' and moved forwards to take a seat at one of the grimy square tables.

"I don't like to share, Comet." Was all he said in reply.

Another man, a very large and bulky one with a buzzed cut of blonde hair, passed Trowa an unopened bottle.

"You better watch out for Comet there Wolf. He's the type to take things that don't belong to him."

"Oh our little Teddy Bear – still mad about that time eh? Well, you shouldn't be. Your sister had a grand ol' time with me. I don't think I've ever heard a bitch moan so lou-" Comet stopped and scrambled away as the man named Teddy lunged at him. He was held back by some others who had been sitting with them, muttering to him that Comet wasn't worth the price he'd pay for his death.

Trowa watched silently as he took a sip of his now open beer. He knew in that moment that Comet was going to be a problem. If he had no quarries about taking Teddy's sister's body as his own, then Alex's relationship with Trowa probably wouldn't deter him at all either.

"Stupid fucking idiot. I swear to God if I could smash his skeevy little head between my hands I would do it no problem." Teddy ran a hand through his short hair and grabbed his bottle of liquor rather fiercely; half of its contents sloshing onto the floor.

"He took her by force." It wasn't a question. Trowa didn't believe Comet would get a woman to sleep with unless it was unwilling on their part – or he paid a grand sum beforehand.

"She hasn't been the same since. He totally messed up her head – she had a future too you know. She was going off to college and everything...now she's in the hospital. Won't tell anyone what happened. But I know it was him."

This was alarming. Trowa was seriously starting to consider keeping Alex physically by his side at all times if this was the danger that threatened her.

However an image of Alex strapped to his back like a baby vanished quickly from his mind as Teddy began calling him back to reality.

"Hey Wolf, we haven't told you about the plan yet have we? I think Joe was thinking about sending you in for this one – stealth operation. You'd be the best for it, and the Big Boss would get a real kick out of a newbie completing something like that."

Trowa was all ears as he leaned in towards the hulking mass of man in front of him.

"The plan?" He asked, raising an eyebrow with a look of slight disinterest – it was best not to seem too eager about any of the information he could get his hands on here, lest they become suspicious.

Teddy gave a curt nod. "Yeah. We've been watching this factory for a while now, a few months at the least... They have something that we've been commissioned to attain."

"Commissioned?" His surprise was written on his face for only a second, but Teddy caught it.

"Yeah, we do commissions too – only for good money though. And this, this is good money. That's why Joe wants to send you in, because Big Boss'll be ecstatic if it gets done nice and quick you see?"

Another sip of now warm beer entered Trowa's mouth and he took his time in swallowing it.

"What are we stealing?"

That's when Comet, who had perhaps figured Teddy's earlier bout of rage had simmered down enough that it was safe to wander back over, popped up beside them, a devilishly maniacal grin on his mouth.

"That my friends," He placed his arms around the two men, "is something known as a Hydrogen bomb. Isn't this going to be fun?"

Fuck it, it was going to be anything but fun.

***

New Port City, though generally quite safe for a large and industrious capital, still had its dirt and grime hidden away in the best unnoticeable corners one could find. The black market was alive and well here as it was anywhere else in the world and the colonies; which is why as Alexandra walked briskly 'home' she couldn't help but keep her ears perked for any fishy footsteps.

Aside from passing the occasional creepy gang of men who stared at her longer than they needed to, she made it back safe and sound to her and Trowa's little dinky apartment they had gotten a hold of for the mission. It was cramped, and the lighting sucked so much that there may as well have been none in the first place, but it had a kitchen and a bathroom and one bedroom large enough to house a decently comfortable queen sized bed.

Alexandra had been a bit wary about sharing a bed with Trowa at first, mainly because she liked to take up as much space as possible when she was sleeping. However Trowa had pointed out that if the place was watched, they would need to maintain their facade of a relationship as much as was possible. He usually stayed out in the living/kitchen area during the night going over plans and what not anyway, so it wasn't much of a problem.

She locked the doors automatically as soon as she stepped in, let her coat drop to the floor and took two steps to the kitchen before she screamed.

Trowa was sitting quietly at the table staring up at her intensely as she gaped at him and covered her heart with a hand.

"Holy shit Trowa!" She hissed, glaring down at him before taking a seat and trying to calm herself.

Had he been an intruder, the look he was giving her now would surely have only meant something very, very bad.

She cocked her head to the side and furrowed her brows with worry.

"What's the matter?"

"You didn't pick your coat up from the floor." He said blankly, then his countenance crumbled and he burrowed his face into his hands with a defeated sigh.

"This is never going to end is it? After everything we've done, people just keep wanting to fight."

"Wh...at?" The blonde could only blink at the tall brunette before her as her brain tried to process what he had said.

He didn't reply, just kept his head in his hands as they gripped at his hair, and as she gently placed one of her own over his, she could feel them clenching at the strands with anger.

She then decided very quickly that she'd have to be firm with him now in order to get any answers from him. He needed to be brought back to his world of soldierly order before he vanished into the turmoil of his own emotions – she wasn't sure she'd be able to deal with that. Trowa kept himself so composed and closed off that if ever he let loose, she'd be at a loss of what to do and thought it would probably involve a lot of property damage: physical and mental. And just whose property, she didn't want to find out.

"Trowa... What happened? What's going on?" Her voice was steady calm, and it swayed him from his thoughts until he found himself back at the little dinner table, the white hot rage receding to the corners of his vision until only green orbs reflected in his own emerald eyes.

"Alex..." He suddenly noticed the hand he was holding and stared down at it, perplexed as to how it got there. He looked back up at her and found her giving him a small smile.

"Are you okay? Tell me what happened."

He forgot about her hand as the past few hours came rushing back to him.

"I found out what the big job is that everyone has been muttering about the past few weeks. It won't be going down for a while though, it's going to require a lot of planning to make sure it doesn't get fucked up."

Alex could only blink at his use of the swear, since he only ever spoke like that when he was in his Wolf persona. But she let him continue, sensing he needed to release some pent up emotion.

"And the best part of it all is that I'm going to be a major player in all of this... I can't believe I have to help them get it."

"You don't really believe you're helping them do you? You may be acting for them right now, but it's all for what we call 'the-greater-good'." She tilted her head at him and squeezed his hand.

"They're working this job for another organization."

She sighed and rolled her eyes, "Great, more people to track down. This whole thing is turning into a big game of chase the fox isn't it?"

His expression remained bleak.

"Do you know who they are? Is it big?"

"I don't know who they are, but it is big. They've commissioned us to steal an H-bomb for them."

The colour in Alexandra's face drained so quickly that Trowa wouldn't have been surprised if she had fallen from her chair and burst into a cloud of dust. But her suddenly jumping from her chair and slamming her fists down onto the hard wooden table were not at all expected.

"WHAT!? You've GOT to be fucking KIDDING ME!!!" She swivelled on her heels, picked up her coat and was millimetres from the door before she decided to yell again.

"I'm going to fucking KILL those bastards MYSELF!!!"

But her hand didn't make it to the door knob as Trowa was instantly in front of her, blocking her way. He grabbed her by her shoulders and resisted the urge to shake some sense in to her. Oddly enough, he was also trying to resist the urge the laugh. Obviously the situation was no laughing matter, but her sudden outburst seemed too comical for him to take seriously.

Her fuming stopped as she got a look at his face. His mouth was twitching over to the right and his jaw muscles kept clenching; not to mention there was an odd sparkle in his eyes.

She crinkled her nose up at him, clearly annoyed.

"What the hell are you finding so funny?!" She demanded.

"How'd you know I was finding anything funny?" He was startled that she had been able to read him so easily.

"It's not hard to figure out when you're doing a really bad job at keeping it off your face – this isn't the time to laugh anyway! We need to do something about this! It's a friggin' H-BOMB for God's sake!"

She tried to wriggle from his grasp but he held her steady.

"What exactly do you think you're going to do? Storm in to the club and open fire? We haven't even had a chance to train you on any firearms yet." A major misstep on my part at that, we should have started that months ago.

There was a sudden thick silence between them before she burst into giggles, prompting a grin from the man before her. Neither of the two had any idea what on earth they were finding so funny, but the laughter was bubbling from them both now as though someone had opened a shaken bottle of pop.

Before long, Alex's stomach muscles were beginning to hurt so she slid down to the floor as ungracefully as possible. Trowa followed suit and stretched his long legs before him, leaning his head back against the door with a light thud.

"Why were we laughing about something so serious? I feel guilty about it now..."

Trowa looked at his mission mate as she sat there tiredly, a rosy glow on her cheeks and heavy lids falling over her eyes.

"It's a defence mechanism. Don't feel bad about it, because if anything, it made us feel better didn't it? Duo always told me laughter was the cure for any ailment. Guess he can be right sometimes."

She chuckled a little at his comment, "Duo's a good guy. I'm surprised how he is actually, compared to the rest of you. Even Quatre loses his casual happiness when he thinks no one's looking... It's sad."

Trowa nodded. "You're right, it is sad." Then he said something he'd had on his mind for years.

"We all had our lives stolen from us, and now it may be too late to get them back."

"But it's not too late to create new ones." She replied matter-of-fact, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. And then he realised it was.