A/N: thanks for the lovely review and the favs & follows :)

Zaeed started awake at the sound of a crash coming from downstairs. He was still struggling to get out of bed when he heard footsteps thundering up the staircase. Bex ran into the room seconds later, holding the portable terminal that lived in the kitchen.

"Where's your – where's John?" he asked as she put the terminal in his lap and climbed up to sit beside him.

"He went to get b-breakfast," she said, her voice trembling. "It's not him."

Zaeed was about to ask what was wrong, when he glanced at the terminal and saw very well what. A vid-chat window was open and connected to a terminal at the warehouse. Noah and Vido were on the screen, one looking resolute but apologetic, the other sickeningly smug.

"Get out of there," Noah said, a note of urgency in his voice. "Take the kid and –"

Zaeed heard the soft pop of a silenced pistol being fired. Bex squeaked and dug her fingers into his arm while they watched the light fade from Noah's eyes as he dropped to the floor.

"His death is on you, Rebekah," Vido said, kicking Noah's body aside and leaning in so his face filled the screen. "He'd still be alive if you hadn't run off the other day. You might want to think about that before you get someone else killed. Oh wait, you already did."

Before either Zaeed or Bex could respond, the connection was severed and the screen went dark.

Zaeed slammed the terminal shut and threw it across the bed. "That goddamn worthless piece of –"

"He's right, isn't he?" Bex whispered. "It's all my fault."

He stopped mid-rant and pulled her into his lap. "No, he's not," he said firmly but gently. "If you'd stayed, you'd be dead, or worse."

"What d'you mean or worse?"

Zaeed hesitated, unsure exactly what he'd meant or how to explain it to a nine-year-old, and breathed a sigh of relief when John walked through the door just then.

"Are you two all right? What the hell happened in the kitchen?"

"We're fine, relatively speaking," Zaeed said. "But Noah's dead."

"Shit. How d'you know?"

"W-we saw it," Bex sobbed as she slid off Zaeed's lap and bolted from the room.

John frowned. "What the hell does she mean that you saw it?"

"No way to know for sure, but I'm assuming Vido caught him dialing up the vid-chat. Bex answered it, ran up here and about five seconds later, Vido shot Noah in the back of the head."

John's eyebrows shot up to his hairline. "On-screen?"

Zaeed nodded.

"Is Bex all right?"

"Not really." He told John what Vido had said to her.

"Goddamn him to hell!" John growled.

"Agreed. You know what this means, right? We need to move, quickly."

"Where are we going to go?"

"Anywhere that's not London. They'll be watching the spaceports, so nothing off-planet. Somewhere up north maybe?"

"Are you up to it?"

Zaeed brushed off the concern. "I'm fine, John. Worry about Bex. Vido's got to her and I'm not sure what's going to convince her he's wrong."

"Speaking of Bex…" John began pacing the room. "I want you to become her legal guardian if something happens to me."

Zaeed gawked at him. "You want me to what?"

"You heard."

"What I heard was you spouting goddamn insanity."

John raised an eyebrow. "Are you saying you don't want to do it?"

"Not at all. I'm just wondering if you've thought this through. You don't even know me, not anymore."

"Maybe not, but I trust you. That's the thing that matters."

Zaeed shook his head. "I don't know how you trust a man you just met, re-met, with your daughter's life."

John shrugged. "Bex trusts you, more than anyone in the world." What looked like a flash of jealousy passed over his face but was gone as quick as it had appeared. "From what Noah told me, that took awhile. He seemed to think she didn't quite trust him fully, and she certainly doesn't trust me, yet."

He wasn't wrong about Noah. If she'd fully trusted him, she'd have let him find another solution that didn't involve starving herself to avoid Vido.

"What's your point, John?"

"She doesn't have anyone else, Zaeed. And even if you think it's crazy, I know you'll do the right thing when the time comes."

Zaeed frowned. "Shouldn't that be if?"

"Vido's unhinged, that much is obvious. He seems to want Bex back and he'll do anything he thinks will make that happen." John shrugged again. "I figure he'll come after me first, save you for something special. And when that time comes, I'll be there protecting my daughter, knowing you'll be there to do the same when I'm gone."

"You're discounting the possibility that we get to him first," Zaeed said, though he couldn't really find any fault with John's logic. The deck seemed to be heavily stacked against them at the moment.

"Of course that's always a possibility. But –"

"But if things end up going south, of course I'll take care of Bex."

"Thank you." John frowned. "Is it just me or has it gone very quiet?"

The quiet was shattered a moment later by a second crash from the kitchen, followed by a piercing scream.

Zaeed tried to stand but fell back as a wave of dizziness overcame him. "I'm fine," he said again as John made to pull him to his feet. "Go check on your daughter."

John nodded and took off as Zaeed tried once again to stand up. Before he was halfway downstairs, he heard two gunshots followed by the twin dull thuds of two bodies hitting the floor. Heart racing, he went as fast as he could without falling down the stairs.

"You all right?" he called, half-expecting another gunshot.

"Fine," John replied, appearing at the bottom of the staircase. "Not hurt, anyway."

"Bex?"

"She's a little shaken, but–"

"Nonononononono!" The two men glanced at each other and this time, Zaeed didn't protest when John walked up to help him move more quickly.

When they got to the kitchen, they found Bex sitting on the floor beside the bodies of two of Vido's men, rocking back and forth with her arms wrapped around her knees and a datapad in one hand.

John gently pried the datapad from her grip and read the contents. He frowned as he handed the pad to Zaeed. "Who's Helen?"

Son of a bitch!