Vão sat in a patch of warm sunshine. He'd opened the windows earlier; the sounds and sights of the party below on the street provided the distraction he needed. The doctors had tried to ease him off the drugs, but his muscles still ached, restless and cramping at odd moments. Right now, everything felt tentative, blurred, out-of-focus; Vão was scared to move, scared to breathe, for fear of triggering the pain again.

Grandma had been in; they hadn't allowed Papa back at all. Vão was tired of her, Alma, and a single heavily-shielded nurse being his only visitors; he was even more tired of what passed for food here. There were shields on the room, but right beyond them, Vão could still sense a low hum of mental activity: pain, grief, drugged-up minds, drunken revelers…

He shoved up from the bed, staggered as his body tensed against expected pain that didn't happen, and went to stare down through the window.

Another hum of thought, behind him — he turned, then relaxed in relief. Rafe…and Kris.

"Is it okay to come in?" Kris said.

Vão sat on the bed. "Please."

They sat on either side of him; the silence stretched, warm, comfortable. He didn't need to say anything. Just them being there was enough.

"You're being moved," Kris said. "We're getting you out of here. Me and Josh've spent the last couple days clearing out Alma's guest room." Vão lifted an eyebrow at her cast; Kris sighed. "Okay. Get picky about it. Josh cleared the room and I got to boss him around, for a change. And you, mister,are going to get me, Josh, and Alma in your face for the next week or so until your shields are solid."

"They were solid before." The thought of spending another week in New Orleans did not appeal at all, even if it was with Kris. Vão wanted to go home.

"They were." Quiet, tired, from the door, Joshua, so tightly shielded that Vão felt nothing from him. "Up until you touched that photo. We even saw it, lure and attack. And we got diverted from following up on it. One of the folks here checked you over and caught it. Hey, Vão, you look a lot better."

"Diverted?" Rafe said. "And no one caught it?"

"The bastards were slick about it," Kris said, thick rage in her voice; she paused a moment and Vão felt her clamp it down. "That woman got into your guards. Claire. Mar even pointed her out, remember?"

"She was the one that grabbed me," Vão whispered.

Joshua sighed. "And we didn't check her, because we assumed Mar or the others had. Mar didn't check her, because she'd supposedly been sent from NOLA, and the others from NOLA thought she was from Bay Area." Joshua glanced at Kris. "NOLA's person was ID'd this morning. They found her in one of the barrels."

"That's how," Rafe said. "So that's why —"

"Yeah," Kris said bitterly. "She was right in there, subverting every thing we did."

Vão shoved to his feet. He still felt Claire's touch crawling over him in his nightmares, and the nightmares had been constant, the last few days.

"I have some news, too," Joshua said, watching Vão. "They upgraded Nathaniel to stable and fair this morning. The sets on his hands are holding."

"Gracias, Dios, por su misericordia," Rafe whispered.

Vão looked away, uncomfortable, sick. The killers had been all over Nathaniel. Claire had made it very clear that Vão would've been next for her…until they'd caught that other, Joe.

Joshua leaned against the wall. "Mar's stepping down as Blade commander. She says she's too old, if Claire got past her. And we're off your tour. If you still have one, that is."

"What?" Simultaneous, from Vão and Rafe. Vão stared. They couldn't. Bay Area wouldn't do that.

"Cy's call. I don't blame him. We screwed up major." Joshua wasn't looking at any of them. "If we've gotten that…that lazy, that cocky —" He sighed. "Don't worry. You guys won't be left unguarded. But we need some major shaking up before we trust ourselves again."

"You're taking over," Kris said.

"Yeah." Joshua still wasn't looking at them. "I should be proud. It's what I've been working towards. Instead, it's just another beat-down. Like those bastards really won, after all."

"They didn't," Vão said. "Not if you're stepping up."

"A-effin'-men, camarada," Rafe said.

Joshua didn't answer for a long moment. "Thanks for the vote. Kris, when you're done here, I need you to run interference. Fenton's pulling Frank and Joe home, as soon as he can get a flight. I want to talk to them before he does."

"Sure," Kris said, as Joshua left.

Silence fell in the room. Somewhere below, on the street outside, a jazz band passed by, the trumpets painfully off-key, enough that both Vão and Rafe winced.

"I'd better go," Kris said, pushing from her seat on the bed. "I'll be back after." She wasn't looking at them, either. "Josh's right. It only feels like another beat-down."

"Caro," Vão said.

She stopped at the corner of the doorway, leaning on her arm, head bowed.

There was so much he wanted to say, couldn't, aware of Rafe right there. "I thought you were dead," Vão said instead. Low. Tight. Controlled. "They grabbed me. I thought they'd taken you out, that there was no way they could've if you'd still been alive." He stopped, got control of himself; the memory of what had happened in the van nearly broke him again. "I didn't care. Not after that. I wanted them to kill me, too. To just get it over with. Then…then they dragged that guy in. Joe. And he said you were alive. That you were okay."

"He's a horrible singer," Rafe said.

There was one of those pauses they usually had in any conversation with Rafe. Kris looked back over her shoulder; Vão just gave Rafe his best glare.

Rafe only came over, pulled them both into an embrace, and for once, Kris didn't pull away.

The closeness, the touch threatened to overwhelm Vão: it was Rafe and Kris, not…those others. Tension, pain, sudden tears, all in Vão's chest, his voice. "Kris — I knew I had to hang on. Then you tapped in…and then I saw you…"

Now Kris was looking at him. Suddenly she pulled him in, tight and shaking, and Vão returned it, hard.

"I know what you want," she whispered. "I know what you guys want. I can't. I'm not the one who can give it to you."

"Shhh." Vão let her rest against him, his chin on her head. "It's okay. We'll talk, later. Go help Josh." He met Rafe's gaze. "We got time."