Butch marched into the emergency room still dressed in the combat clothes finding there Mannelo just as he expected - standing in his white coat and big dark circles under his eyes in front of the woman in her early twenties, dressing the sewed wound on her arm into a bandage. The both of them looked up to him.
"Hey," he said, trying for the smile. The woman shyly returned the gesture of sympathy, moving her eyes again on what was happening to her body.
"The last one?"
Mannelo nodded not even looking at him.
"Only flesh wounds, nothing serious from a physical point of view. They´ll be okay." Psychological side? Not so sure…
"V?"
"He is in the next room," Manello´s eyes met his for a few seconds, "with a girl."

The woman turned her face to Butch, her expression mirroring the same dark thoughts he´s being seeing on every victim who survived something horrible during his years working in the police department. Looking tough on outside, but broken under the surface. He knew only one cure for that.
"You´re gonna by alright. We´re takin´ you to your family as soon as the doctor is done." He felt better after saying this and truly hoped the woman understood she is no longer in her nightmare.
"It´s almost over, you go for Vishous," addressed him Mannelo calmly waking him up from his own thoughts.

"Yeah…" he murmured, moving away from the scene. He intended to enter the room, where V and the girl was in an instant, not wasting any more time, but something about the sounds coming from there made him stop before he could fully open the door. He looked in via small space between it and the door frame.

He couldn´t find the girl at first, her presence confirmed only by a quiet giggling, but then he realized that the thing Vishous was holding had to be her hand. The minimum area let Butch only saw him sitting in a Turkish way sticking colored band-aids on a girl´s skin with the same determination as he would make a tattoo. He pushed the door… and in the same time the little girl – maybe 10 years old? looked up and jumped from her place hiding behind the brother´s huge shoulders.
"Hey, hey, it´s ok. I won´t hurt you. I´m Butch, remember me?"
She was shaking her head, which was a thing hardly recognizable with just her brown curly hair and sea blue eyes visible.

"I´m… eh…" Butch started to talk, but then recognized the mistake he was about to do. Don´t remind the place, where she met you, idiot!
"He´s a friend." V´s voice put the escalated atmosphere at least a little bit towards the calm state as the girl´s whole head appeared with her hands still resting on his shoulders in a defense grip.
"A friend?" she confirmed.
"Yeah." The girl remained, where she was, her clever eyes scanning Butch from head to toe. Then she had to come to a conclusion, it´s safe to sit again.
"What´s your name?"
"Sayha," answered the girl moving her small fingers on V´s gloved hand in the meantime. Hell, he couldn´t quite understand how she managed to do that with brother looking so fucking fine with the touching like this. He sat there in a complete peace.
"Sayha, that´s a beautiful name."
She grimaced. "Yours not." Well, you haven´t heard the other one, that´s even better!

Cop saw Vishous smile before his face changed into previous neutral mask and he immediately remembered the last time they were together, alone, in Commodore. It seemed to him like a hundred years just passed from that moment. Ok, just don´t think about it now.
"We are about to leave, do you want to go home?"
The girl´s face enlightened with cheer. "Really?" She turned her attention towards V, who slowly lifted his head, so their eyes could meet.
"Can you go with us? I want my papa to meet you."

He gave her a generous smile, which just make him whole look like an angel. Really dark, fucked up, but still an angel.
"I have a work to do."
"Saving someone?"
"Yes."
"Like me?"
He nodded playing with her on her childish curiosity.
"I want to save people too," she raised her hand to his cheek brushing it slightly and for that moment, Butch just saw in that gesture more than it actually showed "I want to become like you."

V didn´t flinch, but it was obvious, what just stormed through his mind. You shouldn´t want this – it screamed from his features – I´m not so good as you think.
"If you´re old enough you can try."
Butch first thought was that the momentary situation in glymera predicted the idea a minimal success. He didn´t say it out loud however.
"And you will teach me."
"It will be an honor."

The girl looked satisfied with an answer. She jumped from the bed, said her goodbye and for the last time she whispered something to V´s ear. Watching her go with the woman Mannelo treated back then, Butch had to notice how brave the girl was. She was acting like he has just returned from a holiday, not a fucking lesser camp, which left the scratches and black bruises on her pale skin and more on her innocent soul. She could once make for a good fighter if the circumstances weren´t so strict and old fashioned.
"Who is taking them?" V´s question interrupter Butch´s inner monolog.
"Phury with Marry and Beth," cop sighted uneasy, "Zsadist, Rhage and Lethre went back on the farm searching for the three remaining girls." Or their bodies. "They are on the phone, returning before sunrise."
Vishous looked surprised and… mad?
"Why didn´t they wait for us?" Something in his sharp stare made Butch feel guilty even when he did nothing wrong. "Did you tell something to Wrath?" The words came out sounding demanding. "About me?" Fuck.

Cop knew very well to what conclusion he came to.
"No, I didn´t say anything, man. What do you think of me? What should I tell anyway? It´s not like I know what is happening with you. I´m perhaps not so important that I deserve to know."
"That´s not true."
"Isn´t it?"
Butch remained standing in front of the hospital bed looking in V´s crazy colored eyes trying not to drown in their deep – that wouldn´t help at all. Suddenly he saw him with a gun pointed at his heart back in the street with fucking closed eyes and painful expression on his face just like he was there once again holding the life of his dear friend in his trembling hands. Shit. The memory brought him a dose of familiar desperation consuming his sanity for breakfast.
"I don´t want you to worry." Oh. Too late for that.
"We´re not talking about me here." The bastard you are, you should care more about yourself. "Tell me what´s wrong. I want to help you. I know it´s not just a headache."

V lifted his head looking at the ceiling for few seconds letting it slip down with a breath taking in.
"I know I scared you back there. I´m sorry."
Well… this was the one part of what Butch wanted to hear and Vishous seemed to be aware of it, so he continued: "I was thinking that it will pass, when I get my visions back."
"But they aren´t coming back, are they?" Butch ended the sentence for him.
"No," he admitted, "the more time it takes, the worse it gets, that´s how it works."
"Can we do something?"

He seriously didn´t want to see V in any more pain, much more, when he was like this, playing all hero, so Butch couldn´t find out how bad it really was.
"Not really. I mean… hell, I don´t know," he nervously rubbed his forehead, "it happened only twice. Once when I´ve seen Rhage´s death and once with Wrath."
The air around Butch had to cooled some degrees down, when the realization crushed into his skull. Yeah, it wasn´t like he didn´t know V could see this kind of stuff, but hearing with his own ears how he speaks about their brother´s deaths? Their friends? Family? It didn´t looked like a god given gift to him at all. More like a hella of punishment.

And he talked resignedly, like those things were normal. They weren´t. He shouldn´t be experiencing any of this.
"And after you got the vision, the headaches stopped?"
He nodded looking at Butch letting out a sigh of relief. Good. That´s some starting point.
"Maybe you are blocked. What about some kind of therapy? Have you tried?"
"Eh, believe me, that wouldn´t be a good idea." He smiled, but behind that smile was something Butch didn´t want to see.
"What about painkillers?"
"They don´t work anymore."

He was still there sitting on the same spot, answering cop´s questions because Butch used a good emotional blackmail, but for how long will it last? He quickly tried his next shot.
"Your mother? Can´t she help?" at least it made a sense to him, "I mean, she is the one you inherited that shit from."
"No. Even if she could do something, she doesn´t care so much." And I won´t ask her for anything.
It was already a time for Butch to sit down.
"So what are the other options?"
"I have one, but you won´t like it."
"I´m listening."

Vishous met his eyes with collected confidence. "I want to buy something from Rehvenge."
"What?!" Ok, he couldn´t just heard what he thought he heard. "Are you out of your mind? That man is a death trader."
V´s words interrupted him without any more playing on the polite conversation. "He has what I need."
"Yeah?" asked Butch ironically rolling his eyes, "what is that miracle then?"
"It´s opium… And shut up for a while! Let me talk," he hushed him, "it´s not like I´m going to become a drug addict. There are more ingredients in the product. And I know how to use it properly. In small doses it will suppress the pain and maybe produce hallucinations or in my case visions. Name it as you want."

Butch wasn´t saying anything for a while, only blindly staring at him.
"You´re crazy."
"What a surprise, cop."
"No, like really crazy."
He laughed. His gloved hand moving on Butch´s chin pulling him forward so he stared right to his eyes. Fuck, not fair.

"You are manipulating my judgment," protested the former police officer.
"I´m making you see my point."
"Damn, there´s no point in trying any drug. You forgot, I worked with these things. Do you think that those strongly addicted people weren´t just like you or me at the beginning?"
"I will have a control upon it."

Butch shook his head with a false smile. "No, V, you only think, you have the control. Trust me in this. Look at Phury, he almost killed himself. And he wasn´t in any state like you. The pain is a whore. You would want to feel good and the feeling will overpower you."
"So what should I do, Butch? You´ve seen me there in the street." His face lines hardened. "It felt like it was going to rip my head to hundred pieces, I couldn´t see anything, I couldn´t move. How can I go out like that? Endanger anyone of you."
"We´ll find another way."

V smirked, turning his head, in his eyes no less determination than before. Butch ran for his neck, making him face him.
"I´ll find the way. Give me some time."
There was no definite answer, only a definite look at the moment when Vishous understood Butch´s fear completely.
"Hurry up," he murmured into his lips connecting them briefly before Butch could held his breath or supplied his lungs with some oxygen to think straight. His gloved hand grabbin cop´s hair on the side of his head and the other one finding place on his cheek, where Butch´s hand landed too. Feeling the bandage under his touch, he only slightly connected his fingers, absorbing a butterfly feeling in his stomach.

Jesus, what was that man doing to him…
This was always the best part of arguing so far.

Butch got lost in the moment altogether. Forgetting the reason why he came, the content of the conversation before, even the place, where he was. And that was the biggest mistake of all. Because in the next second the door of the room flew open following by pretty familiar deep breathing, Bruno Banani smell and human heartbeat.
"Hey, I wanted to ask yo… ou… damn…" Mannelo got frozen in the place watching the two of them broke off from the kiss in an instant with V turning his face on the right leaving his hand fall down from cop´s neck.

Butch looked at the disturber shocked face, clearly realizing that there was no way the doctor didn´t see, what was going on here. Fuck. He had to be red like a potato.
"I… we…" he babbled, when Mannelo awkwardly joined in.
"It´s okey. I can come later. Sorry."
Butch didn´t get a chance to tell anything more, the doctor disappeared like a fog.
"He should learn how to knock."
"That´s not funny, V!"
For fuck´s sake that wasn´t fun at all. He wasn´t prepared to let anyone know. He was still confused with himself enough for a lifetime.
"I´ll talk to him."
"What?"
"I said, I´ll talk to him." Vishous leaned forward to place a one gently kiss on his lips leaving Butch motionless and unresponsive.
"You better wait for me in the Pit. So we can gain something from getting me hard at least."
Bastard.