Hello again!

So, this is more of a slow chapter, but I hope you'll like it anyway.

Enjoy your reading,

Pavs.

Chapter Three: Sinner's Prayer

[Alice]

I didn't realize that I was holding Barney in my arms until I felt him holding me back hesitantly. Then he held me tighter, and I couldn't help the words that had come out of my mouth. But if anyone was to find a way out of this, it would be him, right? After a few seconds, I felt him relax before he let me go slowly. I looked at him straight in the eyes and saw a mix of confusion and gratitude.

''Don't mention it,'' I half-whispered awkwardly, and he nodded with an almost imperceptible smile. ''So, um, I hope that this wasn't because of me. I mean, the whole mess I guess came up while I was upstairs?''

''No, but you need to hear about it,'' said Barney with a sigh, and I felt my heart skip a beat.

''Ok,'' I replied in a very small voice, and Barney started to explain the situation to me.

The more he talked, the more I could hear this small, high-pitched noise in my ears that was becoming louder and louder until I almost couldn't understand anything that was said to me.

''So, we'll help you the best we can…I am sorry about this,'' Barney concluded, and I snapped back to reality.

''Sorry about what?'' I asked, confused; then it dawned on me. ''No. No. You have nothing to be sorry for. This isn't on you, whether you believe it or not. I know we don't know each other like that, but from what I've seen…none of these deaths are on you. Stonebanks made his choice a long time ago.''

''Alice, you don't know what you're talking about,'' Barney said with so much pain in his eyes that I was left speechless. ''You just don't. I'll see you in the morning.''

There was nothing left to say as I watched him get on his bike and leave.

[Tool's]

Tool watched the sadness in the girl's eyes as Barney left suddenly and frowned.

''How much do you know about him?'' Tool asked, and he saw worry flash briefly in her eyes. ''Something's going to happen, isn't it?''

''Yes,'' she admitted, and he felt a chill running down his spine. ''I just don't know what. On the last day on set, the actor playing him said that this had been his last day as Barney Ross. He didn't clarify. I actually talked about it with a very dear friend of mine who I met on fanfiction. She's an amazing writer and is very kind too. You'd love her. Hell, I wish she could be here to meet you. We both love you guys and have been pretty excited about this new movie coming up with you in it…''

[Alice]

''Fanfiction?'' asked Toll, and I blushed.

''Yeah, um, you know…when you like a story…or a movie and you…um…'' I tried to explained as my brain left me once again, ''write or read about your favorite characters in …different…scenarios, or endings…''

''Scenarios?'' asked Gunnar, clearly amused, and I looked at the floor as I heard him chuckle. ''What's going on, love?''

I looked at him by reflex and instantly felt my hormones beating the fuck out of my judgment as he gave me the most suggestive look over I had ever had seen.

''No-nothing…'' I replied while trying to get a grip of myself.

I could see Tool barely hiding his amusement as Doc was shaking his head with a small smile.

''Anyway,'' I added while exhaling loudly. ''I don't have any more info to give you. I just hope to fuck that he'll be alright. That you'll all be alright.''

''Thanks, love. You should get some rest. We'll figure the rest tomorrow,'' Tool said, and I nodded at him before I left to go to my room.

[Barney]

It was about three in the morning when he went back to Tool's. He saw the light on and let out a relieved sigh, knowing that he wasn't the only one that was unable to sleep. He entered the parlor and did a double take as he saw Lee with Tool.

''Barns, don't you ever sleep?'' Tool asked as usual, and Barney raised an eyebrow.

''I don't see you two snoring,'' Barney retorted back, and Tool nodded.

''How are you?'' Tool asked carefully as Lee waited for his answer.

''Fucked up,'' Barney replied honestly.

''You know she had a point earlier, don't you?'' Lee said, and Barney stole Tool's beer and emptied it in one chug.

''Don't do that Barney,'' Tool reprimanded him, and Barney swore under his breath.

''How can I not?'' Barney replied. ''He's always fucking with me!''

''You talk like you're alone in this!'' Lee exclaimed. ''I've told you many times that I am here for your demented arse! I signed up for the whole ride. We all did. Bloody fucking Alice did too, and she looks alright, all things considered.''

''So, you trust her?'' Barney asked Christmas, perplexed as he knew Lee's trust wasn't gained easily.

''No, but she makes me feel like I eventually could, which you know coming from me means a lot. I do trust her words and feelings though,'' Lee said, and Barney suddenly felt calmer.

''And I trust her, to some extent.'' Tool added before he remembered Doc's comment when Alice had left for the night. ''Even without the evidence, which we do have, the way she looked at us…Barns you let her touch you while you were enraged. You know deep down that you believe her too.''

Barney felt like he'd just taken a very sudden ice-cold shower. He did let her touch him. Hell, he'd cried in her arms. What the fuck was happening to him?

''Get up there and get some rest too,'' Tool advised Barney. ''We're right behind you.''

Barney sighed before he walked toward the elevator, and both Tool and Lee followed him. They got to the second floor, and Barney looked at the doors before Tool turned to Barney.

''She's in the spare apartment next to yours. Try not to bother her,'' Tool said, and Barney scoffed before he headed to the loft Tool somehow always kept for him at the parlor despite the fact that he did have a home of his own.

He went in it and closed the door, not noticing the worried looks on Tool and Lee's faces.

.

He woke up about an hour later on high alert as he heard a scream of terror coming from Alice's room. He ran to her door with his gun and forced it open with a kick of his foot before he saw her trashing around in her bed. He still looked in the small bathroom and checked the windows before he put his gun on the bedside table.

Alice had stopped screaming for a while by then but was now crying in her sleep. Barney wondered briefly why he was the only one hearing this before he remembered that the others had their apartments on the third floor. Only the spares were on the second. He went back to close the door as best as he could before he went back to her.

''Alice,'' he tried to say softly, and she began trashing around again.

''Alice!'' he said more firmly, and she suddenly woke up and looked at him with frightened eyes. ''It's ok, it's me. You…um…had a nightmare.''

She looked around, trying to get in touch with her new reality before she saw his favorite gun on her bedside table. Then she saw the busted door and looked at him again.

''I am so sorry,'' Alice said while sitting up, and she started crying again as Barney was looking at her, unsure of what to do.

Then he remembered what he felt when she hugged him and moved to sit beside her. He tentatively put an arm around her, and she hugged him again as he felt a warm feeling spread in his chest. She truly, completely trusted him, he realized.

He didn't dare think about it too much.

''Don't be. We all get them from time to time,'' Barney replied, and she nodded.

''Would you…um…mind staying a little?'' she asked, and Barney felt his heart skip a beat as another kind of warmth spread through his body. ''Shit, sorry. Forget it…''

''I can stay,'' Barney found himself saying as he swore against himself mentally.

What the hell was wrong with him?

He made his way to the small couch beside the bed and turned the TV on with low volume to reveal an old western playing. Alice saw him trying to get as comfortable as possible and got up to offer him one of her blankets and a pillow. He took them silently, and she went back to sleep. He heard her snore softly a couple of minutes later and found himself falling asleep as well.

[Alice]

I woke up drowning in my own sweat as I recalled the same nightmare that had woke me up the first time around. This time, though, I didn't scream. I looked around until I spotted Barney's sleeping form on the couch, and I sighed in relief.

He'd stayed. I looked at the busted door and felt the shame coming back tenfold. I looked at my phone as a reflex, as if Clark would have texted...nothing.

This world was so similar, yet so different. My Clark would have known that me going to my family was weird. My family, who was still united and still loving. Who was so close to what they'd been yet so different. Where, in my world, there had been coldness and distance, here they were warm and supportive.

It was as if I was living in one of my wildest, most beautiful dream. I felt like an intruder, and it confused me so much.

I saw Barney moving in his sleep as I heard Lee, Gunnar, and Toll in the elevator.

"What the fuck?" I heard Gunnar say, and I realized.

The door.

I ran to the door and opened it to face Gunnar's Desert eagle barrel.

No matter how badass I wanted to be, in that very moment, I absolutely, and thankfully metaphorically, shit myself.

"I had a nightmare?" I said in an uneven, terrified high pitched voice.

"Gunnar drop it," Toll ordered Gunnar with a concerned look as I was shaking like a leaf.

"Thank you," I said while turning to him, and the man nodded with a small smile as I heard Barney walking behind me.

"No need to scare her more than necessary. I can't keep waking up like that," Barney said, and I turned to him with every intention of telling how sorry I was before I saw him actually smirk.

"Fucker," I said before I went past them to get to the elevator, and they joined me while barely containing their amusement.

"Well, if it's any consolation, you're not the only one jumping out of your skin because you saw Jensen first thing in the morning," Toll said, and we all chuckled before Gunnar frowned.

"Wait, what the hell is that supposed to mean?" Gunnar finally replied, and I laughed out loud with the others as we reached the first floor.

I was about to go out the elevator when I stopped dead in my tracks.

"Well, you didn't tell me it was pajama day," Trench said with a smile as I suddenly realized just how little I was actually wearing. "I would have dressed accordingly."

I laughed a little then, excited to finally meet the infamous Trench Mauser. Yin Yang was also with him.

"What do you want?" snapped Barney, somehow annoyed at Alice's enthusiasm and Trench's contemplative smile.

''I've got news about Stonebanks. He's still in the parallel universe where your girlfriend came from. Booker went to help Drummer retrieve the kids, and we're supposed to join them in a safe house in the middle of nowhere,'' Trench explained as Gunnar laughed.

''Well, if you're his girlfriend, that makes me what?'' Gunnar said to me with an amused smile as Barney groaned.

Trench looked confused as Lee rolled his eyes. Both Toll and Hale shared an amused look.

''An asshole,'' I retorted back without thinking seconds before I realized what I'd just said with what I believed to be a horrified expression on my face.

Gunnar looked at me seriously for a second before he burst out laughing as the others were chuckling to themselves.

''I'll have to punish you for that,'' Gunnar then said as he winked at me, and I turned to Trench.

''So when will we be leaving?'' I asked him, and the man laughed a little.

''I'll send the details to Barney; he'll see to that with you,'' Trench replied before he stopped and smiled. ''Well, unless you wanted to fly with me and Yang instead. I do have a bathroom on my plane; it's a 12 hours flight after all.''

''I have one too,'' Barney replied defensively. ''On Santa 2.0.''

''Well, it's about time,'' Trench said while looking Barney over with an amused smile before he began to walk out, followed by Yang. ''I leave tomorrow morning at 6.00. You can bring your pajamas.''

[Barney]

He sent a dark look at Trench's back before he turned to face both Tool and Lee's inquisitive raised eyebrows. He sighed before he turned to Alice.

''Your call,'' Barney said, and she smiled.

''What time is Santa distributing gifts?'' she asked, and he snorted a little while trying to ignored the relief her response had given him.

''5.30,'' Barney replied, and she giggled.

''Can't let him arrive first, eh?'' she retorted back, and Tool chuckled as Barney's smile grew bigger.

''He'd like that way too much,'' Barney confirmed.

"Well, make it 5:00," she said. "Just to make sure." Then she nodded before she went back to get ready for the day.

And what a day it was going to be.