"All right, boys," 12 said as he stepped up to the oddly colored door. "Be vigilant, be smart, and be wary. We have no clue what safety measures or precautions Kean or her country pokey will have used to protect the house from any unwanted visitors."

He listened for sounds of life coming from within the house and from any of the murky places where some of those infected shits could be hiding. There was nothing beyond the slight twinkling of a set of wind chimes swinging lazily from the porch eaves.

His lips kicked up into a smirk as he studied the ten copper-colored tubes held by some sorta bluefin fish with a big, smart-ass grin on its face. It was just the sort of item he expected a woman trained by Batman to use to hide a small security alarm.

"Do you want me to set a charge?" Hunt asked as he stepped up beside him on the porch. "Take them by surprise?"

12 cast a look around the dark and deserted farm, a disdainful smirk twisting one corner of his fleshy lips. They would have managed to make the grab back at the first camp Kean had holed her little group up in but a bunch of them walking dead fucks had surprised them and necessitated the need to abandon their original plan.

It shouldn't be this difficult to snatch one snot-nosed twerp from his mother, he mused as he calculated how much of a charge they'd need to use to stun the occupants of the house without causing any harm to the boy.

It should have been easy enough for a group of trained men like themselves to outsmart some backward hick with a crossbow, a bumbling country sheriff, a female with skills fade, her two rug-rats, and one massively obnoxious white dog. However, it had proven more of a challenge than either he or the man who had sent them to retrieve the boy, had expected.

He glanced at the men flanking him. All of them stared at him with hot, hungry eyes. They would roll through that door like a tsunami, sweeping up the Kean woman and her children before they knew what hit them.

"Set the charge to the left of the door," he instructed Hunt. "The glass fragments will get blown towards the middle of the entrance hall and won't cause the Kent brat any harm."

"You think we should split up?" Hunt queried as he pulled a charge from the bag strapped to his back. "Have men breach from the back as well as the front?"

"Could catch them in a crossfire and make sure the bitch can't get away," another of the men piped up. "Not like she did the last time."

It was a good suggestion, 12 realized. A very good suggestion now that he took the time to think about it. Splitting up would give them a small, but crucial advantage. It would maximize their moves and limit the number of Kean's.

However, a quick inspection revealed debris and part of the roof itself blocked the way. The only way in from the back was through one of the boarded-up bedroom windows.

They couldn't control the situation or make sure that Kean or the sheriff wouldn't have rigged up something to slow down their progression. Going in through the roof was another possibility. A quick glance up revealed how that way would cost them their surprise advantage. The wind devices and other tin gadgets whoever had owned this house had installed would make just enough noise to give away their presence.

"No," he finally said. "We go in from the front."

"You think they're all huddled together in the living room then?"

"I think if the Kean woman is half as smart as the boss claims she is, she will have the kids sleeping in one of the bedrooms while she and that backwoods sheriff's deputy she's shacked up with take up guard positions in the front of the house."

Soft murmurs of agreement went up at that. Hunt attached the device to the door and pressed a button.

"Charge is set for ten minutes."

"Get ready," 12 told the others. "And have smoke grenades and flash bangs at the ready," he added as an afterthought. "We ain't taking no chances on Kean managing to make a getaway this time."

"Yes, sir," the men said.

"I really don't wanna do it," there was absolute regret in Christopher's voice, upon his face, "but we're gonna have to wake Mom. She really needs to know about the men outsi-"

"I'm already awake, Kai," his mother announced as she slowly sat up, stretching sleep stiff muscles while combing out the snarls and tangles in her dark hair. "What's going on?"

"Mom!" Christopher gulped. "You're awake!"

And likely been awake the entire time, Rick mused as he reached out to untangle one springy coil from where it had wrapped itself around one of the aquamarine stones hanging from one earlobe. He hid a smile as he turned to grab his shirt and shoes from where he tossed them before bedding down for the night.

"Yes, I'm awake," she drawled as she sent an easy smile over her shoulder at Rick. "People don't commonly talk while sleeping, after all. Not," she added as Christopher groaned, "coherently, at least."

Christopher rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah," he grumbled good-naturedly. "Yanno what I meant."

"Hey, you are the one who stated the obvious, kiddo," she joked. "Not me."

"Whatever."

She doesn't look so guarded, Rick thought as he listened to them trade quips back and forth. He liked her best at these times. Her face and voice were soft from sleep and her eyes didn't have that wary, haunted look to them. She was more approachable during these moments, more prone to engaging in teasing banter, and to displaying more of her warmth and affection.

She was also a lot less likely to either brood about things she had no control over, or worry herself sick over whatever; whoever it was she decided to fuss over. Like me. His lips kicked upwards at the corners as he shrugged into his shirt and buttoned it.

"Don't you whatever me."

"Or you'll, what?" The boy flashed a lopsided grin. "Exactly."

Rick choked on a laugh. The kid had his mother's smart mouth and attitude. He thought it a fitting bit of retribution. Rayaheard his amusement and flicked a look at him from over her shoulder, one eyebrow arched and a smirk twisting one corner of her mouth.

"Something amusing you there, Sheriff?"

"Just enjoying seeing you get a taste of your own medicine is all, ma'am."

She snorted a laugh. "Just you wait." A playful grin tugged at her lips and took the sting out of her warning tone. "You'll be getting the same treatment from your son just as soon as you find him."

Her reminder soured Rick's good mood.

"If I find him," he told her in a dark, moody tone. "That's the thing. I have to find him before he can give me as much grief as Chris does you."

"You will." She half-turned to lay a warm, comforting hand on his shoulder. "You will find Carl," she assured him in a voice that brimmed with a confidence he did not feel. "And once you do, he will sass you as much as my bratty son does me."

"I have to prepare myself for the truth, Raya."

Her head cocked to one side. "And what truth is it that you are preparing yourself for, Rick?"

"I have to prepare myself that I might not find Lori." He looked back at her with eyes that felt suspiciously wet. "Or Carl."

"It's good you are preparing yourself for that possibility," she admitted gently. "But I think it is a bit premature to be going down that road."

"Is it?" Emotion swirled now into his voice, his face. "Is it premature?"

"You have only just started your search." She slid her fingers down his arm, taking his and lightly squeezing. "Give it and yourself some time before you start thinking about those sorts of possibilities."

Rick looked down at the hand covering his own. Faith, compassion, and friendship trembled in the fingers laying quietly in his. "I'm not much of a believer," he told her. "I always put my faith in other things. Family mostly." He ran a thumb across the back of her hand, feeling the smoothness of her skin and taking comfort in it; in the realness, it offered. "Friends. My job." He sighed once, deeply. "I dunno if what I am doing is the right thing. You don't know how hard that is to know." He lifted his eyes to hers and saw sympathy and understanding swirling in those green depths. "Well, maybe, you do."

"I do know how hard it is." She gave a slight nod of her head. "I struggle with the same questions every day." Her sigh was as heavy as his own had been. "I believe that you will find Lori and Carl." Her lips curved. "And we will do our best to help you find them."

He swallowed back his guilt and agitation. "We've been over that."

"And it's still not up for debate."

His lips twitched. "You're a hard-headed woman, Dr. Kean."

"Yes, I am." She sobered. "Just don't give up on finding them, okay?"

"I won't," he promised with more confidence than he felt. "I won't stop until I either manage to find them or exhaust every option."

That seemed to satisfy her because she turned back to Christopher, who had remained silent throughout the exchange, and asked, "You said something about men outside?" At his nod, she made a face. "How many? Do you know?"

"I dunno how many there are," the teen admitted with a small grimace. "But it sounds like there's quite a few."

Raya made a low, speculative sounding "Mm," as she pulled on her boots.

"Mm?" Rick waited until she looked at him before adding, "Mm, what?"

"Mm, as in let's-get-our-shit-and-get-the-hell-outta-here," she replied as she reached for her bow and quiver of arrows. "And go before they try to take us by surprise with either a flashbang, smoke bomb or some other type of explosive device."

Rick's eyebrows shot up. "You think they will try some sorta breach?"

"I think they are desperate men pushed into doing whatever is necessary at this point to carry out what they are here to do." She slanted a look at him. Her eyes seemed ageless all of a sudden, filled with the torment of decades. "And I do mean that they will be willing to do whatever is necessary at this point to do what they have been sent here to do."

"Could these be friends of the men we dealt with earlier?" He questioned as he reached for his watch. "The ones in town?"

"Very well could be, yes," she admitted with a small, tight smile. "Men like that don't tend to take having their asses handed to them by a woman, a country sheriff, and two kids all that well. Tends to make 'em a wee bit pissed off."

Rick felt a chill creep down his spine at those calmly spoken words. He didn't have to think hard about what those sorts of men would do to get even. Clearly, though, Raya, as well as Christopher, had a working knowledge about these men and what they were capable of. He decided it was beyond time that they shared what they knew with him.

"Who are these men?" He kept his tone light, but firm. "And what do they want with Christopher?"

Raya shifted from side to side, and a strange look came over her face.

"They are," she finally said in a somber tone, "the hired men of a man who does not know how to take no for an answer."

"Lex Luthor, you mean."

Raya's face betrayed nothing. However, Rick saw her eyes flicker with something. Fear? He wondered. Fear about what? It was gone less than a second later. For a moment, Rick wondered if he had seen anything at all on that pale face. I know I saw it, he thought, his brow puckering.

I know she's afraid. She has been even more on edge ever since that first group of men showed up to attack us. Getting her to admit it, though, would be harder than pulling the teeth out of the mouth of a crocodile.

"Well, I can see that somebody..." Raya cut a look over at Christopher that had the boy squirming. "Has been explaining a few things to you when you were alone."

"Yuh, uh," he stammered. "'Bout that." He looked down at his feet. "See, ah, I-"

"Don't go and blame him," Rick cut in. "I made him tell me the truth. Something you," he chastised gently, "should have told me after those men tried to get the drop on us."

"Maybe," she allowed. "But-"

"How can I help protect you if I don't know what it is you need protecting from?"

"You shouldn't even be involved in this…" she started to say but he cut off whatever line of pretty bullshit she was about to feed him with a simple question.

"What's going on?"

"Rick—"

"Raya, what is going on?"

"I don't want you involved in this any more than you already are."

"Tough," he told her curtly. "I am involved. I have been since the night you and your family found me out on that old highway and offered me help."

"You have your own family-"

"I am still a police officer." He stood and tucked his shirt into his pants. "It's my job to protect you."

"Rick, I am quite capable of handling these bastards on my own."

He sent her an amused look. "What you are used to being is in charge."

"I am-"

"…not willing to delegate responsibilities or accept help." He nodded as he offered her hand. "Yeah, I can see that."

She made a low sound, almost a growl, deep in her throat. "Look, god-"

"I am not one of your children or your brothers."

She set one hand in his and allowed him to pull her to her feet before saying, "I know you are not one of my brothers. Or my children." Her fingers trembled in his. "That doesn't mean-"

"That you can snap your fingers and expect that I will sit at your side and wait for your command. I'm not a dog and I won't be treated like one."

He saw a tidal wave of emotion swirl across her face.

"You-" she held up a hand, more to stop herself than to keep him silent. It was more proof of how different she was from Lori. Rather than say something that she could end up regretting later, she chose to step back and let her anger cool before speaking. "You do not need to get involved in my problems. You don't need to risk your life. Not when you have a family of your own that is out there and needs you."

"I am not abandoning you when you have bad people trying to hurt you," he told her firmly. "Just ain't gonna happen, Raya."

"You can't stand between me and them."

"Yes." He nodded. "I can. And," he added before she could reply, "I will."

Raya muttered a few unsavory things beneath her breath that had Rick choking on a laugh. I wonder where she learned that language? He wondered as she heaved a disgusted sigh.

"And what exactly do you expect me to do?" She demanded. "Hide behind you and wring my hands? Act like some damned damsel in distress?"

"Raya." His lips twitched. "You don't have a clue about how to be the damsel in distress."

The look she gave him would have fried an egg.

"You are not my shield or my protector, Rick. I don't need a hero to ride in on his white steed and rescue me from the big bad guy."

"That's not what Mr. Grimes is saying, Mom."

Even as Christopher spoke, the keen edge of her gaze cut to him, raked over his face. Recognizing how his mother was ready to bite off anyone's head at that moment, Christopher wisely held up both hands and took a seat on one of the chairs. Rick was officially on his own. Just stay out of it, he silently told the teen. Let me deal with Miss Cantankerous.

"I just want to help," he said to her. "What's so wrong about that?"

There was a suspicious sheen to her eyes that told Rick that her reticence was about something more than her giving up control or having to concede that she needed help. A ripple of a long-buried pain rippled in her voice.

"It could get you killed."

So, that's the burr in her saddle, he thought with a pang. She's afraid that I could end up getting killed same as Chris's father did. It was a subtle reminder that with this woman came a lot of baggage. A lot of which he had long come to suspect that tended to manifest itself inside a deep well of self-doubts and an endless amount of guilt and self-blame.

"I almost got killed answering a routine request for backup."

"And that's why you shouldn't be getting involved in this mess," she replied in a flat tone. "This isn't a routine backup call. These men will think nothing of killing you. And," her voice caught on a shaky breath that hurt him to hear. "I couldn't bear that. I couldn't bear if I got you killed, too."

"I'm not going to get killed."

"Yeah?" He heard the bitterness same as she did. He tried to get her to look at him but she stubbornly refused to meet his gaze. "Conner didn't think he was going to get killed, either. Guess what? He did."

"Hey." He kept his tone gentle. "Look at me." He waited until she did before saying, "I'm not him."

"I kn—"

"And you are the one who could just as easily be killed here."

"But it wouldn't be you."

Yes, this is a good woman, he realized as he stared down into her eyes. One who treated loyalty like a religion and who put everyone else, and their needs, above hers. Well, he thought as he released a shuddering breath. Someone needs to remind her that her life matters, too.

"What about your life?"

A puzzled expression flitted over her face. "What about it?"

"Why is your life worth less than mine?" He paused. "Why is it less important?"

"It's not," she scoffed. "Don't be ridiculous."

"I'm not being ridiculous."

"Then why ask if your life is worth more than mine?"

"Because I am trying to get you to see reason."

"I can see just fine," she informed him pertly. "And my answer stands. I don't want you risking your life."

"Why is it okay for you to risk your life, but not okay for me to risk mine?"

"Because," she said with a sigh. "I chose this life. I chose the repercussions. You just got drug into it by a series of unfortunate circumstances."

Krypto let out a soft whuff then that drew their attention. They heard something messing with the door and waited for whatever was going to happen next. Rick didn't breathe again until silence again fell. However, he knew the reprieve wasn't going to last long. Least of all when Christopher spoke up.

"The men are right outside the door."

"Speaking of these men…" He bent a look upon her that would have had Carl spilling secrets. This woman? She didn't even flinch. "Why don't you explain to me about why this Luthor fella wants Christopher?"

Raya released a shaky breath. "Rick, we don't really have tim-"

"Make time, Raya." He softened his brusque tone. "I deserve some answers at this point. Don't you agree?"

The look that Raya gave him could have melted stone. Rick suspected she was quite accustomed to people backing down beneath the weight of that glare. Not him. He met it without flinching and with the same amount of heat. She harrumphed and looked away.

"Look, I really don't have the time to explain everything that you'd need to be told to understand what is going on here. So, can we just drop it? Please?"

The woman had quite a knack for coaching commands as subtle requests. Every inch of her tone sang with compulsion and echoed with authority. Rick was sure that there were many people, the boy lurking by the entrance to the kitchen among them, who had cringed when they heard that tone. Not him. He was from much stronger stock.

"Make time," he repeated, more firmly this time. "What does he want with Chris?"

"Suffice it to say that the man who wants my son, only wants him because he's tied to him, very loosely, by blood and believes that he has a right, as well as a say in how my son not only is raised but kept safe."

"Chris says it is because the man wants to use him to create some sort of super soldier type of army."

"Yes." She nodded. "He wants to do that, too."

"Why?"

She pushed to her feet before answering. "Why else would a man with the name of Lex Luthor want to create an army of super-soldiers, Rick?" Raya didn't growl it. No, she just sounded… resigned. "Because it would make him the most powerful man in the world."

"Yeah?" He said as he rolled to his feet. "Well, guess what? It'll happen over my dead body."

She sent a long look at him from over her shoulder. "That's what I'm afraid of."

He knew it was what she feared. There was nothing he could do about it, but exactly what he was planning to do. He cupped her elbow. "C'mon, let's get the hell outta here before they manage to break in."

She nodded and followed without another word of protest.


A/N: Hello, all! Hope the week has been good to you!

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