I bit my thumb nail uneasily as I listened to the ring on Dimitri's phone, praying that the person I wanted to reach hadn't changed his number.

It had gone wrong, so wrong.

"Hello?"

I breathed a sign of relief. "Thank God. I need your help."

"Who is this?"

"C'mon. You gonna play that game with me Ivashkov? It's Little Push."

A deep chuckle emitted through the phone. "How is my favourite push doing?"

"I'm fine. But it's not me I'm worried about. Where are you?"

"Rose. What's wrong? Are you hurt?"

I pursed my lips and looked at Dimitri's sprawled body on the bed. "I'm fine. It's Dimitri."

Adrian sputtered over the phone. "What?! You found him?"

"He found me. That's beside the point. He's hurt, badly. I need your help."

Asking Adrian Ivashkov for help was a necessary evil. He was the only Stich I could trust, and even saying I trusted him was an exaggeration. Stitches were like psychic surgeons. They could reconnect cells with a touch of their hands, bringing a person back to their previously healthy state. But they could also break down those cells so quickly that they could kill them in a breath. And there was no warning, they touch you and you're dead if they want you to be.

"What did you do?" he asked slowly, his voice clear with concern.

"I tried to remove an extremely deep push. He promised that if it started to hurt, he'd tell me to stop. He didn't," I explained, "Adrian. I think I might have killed him."

"Where are you?"

"A motel an hour outside Don Muang. It got a big purple sign on the front. 38B."

Adrian was quiet on the other side for a moment but I could hear rustling. "I'm nearby. I can be there in twenty. Don't open the door unless I call you," Adrian said before hanging up, not waiting for a reply. I bit my lip and dropped the phone onto the dresser. I turned to look at Dimitri with knitted brows.

I started to work my push through, but I could tell something was off. Dimitri's grip on my waist started to loosen and when he started to limp, I knew that he wouldn't keep his word. He wanted me to remove the push, even if it killed him.

I went over to him and cradled his head, turning his face towards me. He had a bit of blood on his ear, but other than that I couldn't see any sign of injury. It just looked like he was in a deep sleep, but he was barely responsive.

It had to have been the longest twenty minutes of my life when the phone rang.

"Hello?"

There was a loud thump on the door. "Open up."

I hung up and picked up the gun Lissa gave me, clicking the hammer back slowly as I unbolted the door. I learned a long time ago not to answer the door without a gun in hand. I wrenched the door opened and aimed, revealing Adrian on the other side.

He regarded the gun with calm ease. "Put that thing away," he said dryly before stepping around me into the room. I unclicked the hammer and set the gun down on the bedside table. I watched Adrian set his duffle bag on the ground as he turned to look at me.

"You know I don't do charity, right?"

I nodded. "I don't have a lot on me right now. But I can get you more," I said as I went to where I kept the money from Lissa hidden, dropping the stack on the foot of the bed. Adrian looked at it before raising his gaze to me.

"Because of our history, I'm not charging you full price. I'm not an asshole. How long has he been down?" he said with a tight smile, moving to lean over Dimitri, turning his head from side to side as he inspected Dimitri.

"Forty-five minutes. I was hoping he'd come to on his own, then I called you," I said nervously twisting the ends of my hair over my fingers. I had only seen something like this happen once, and they didn't survive the neurological trauma.

Adrian nodded to himself and said something under his breath, muttering to himself as he got Dimitri into position. He rolled Dimitri onto his stomach and propped his head up so he could breathe.

"Are you sure you want to watch this?" Adrian asked, kneeling over Dimitri and placed his hands on either side of his head.

I nodded my head and sank down in the chair Dimitri had occupied earlier. Adrian sighed and nodded to himself before he took a deep breath. Adrian's hands flexed on Dimitri's head and Dimitri groaned, the first noise he'd made since.

I grimaced and pressed myself back in my seat. Regardless of what Adrian was doing, it was going to hurt. Reconnecting cells hurt like a bitch. I knew what it felt like first hand. It only took moments to reconnect the cells, but the sounds Dimitri was making made my stomach clench and my heart ache.

Dimitri's breathing levelled out and became even, but he made small groans of pain. I tried to relax and calm myself, but I wouldn't feel calm until he woke up.

"Thank you," I said quietly, letting my eyes move from Dimitri to Adrian. Adrian nodded and sat down on the floor at the foot of the bed. He looked a little tired but otherwise fine. He fished around in his pocket for a moment before pulling a pack of cigarettes out.

"No problem. Anything for family, right? Also, no bun in the oven?" he replied before gesturing to the smokes. I shook my head and he pulled one out of the pack and lit it, taking a few deep drags/

I scoffed a laugh and slumped down in my seat. "How long until he wakes up do you think?"

Adrian shrugged and ran his hand through his bronze curls. "I don't know. An hour? How long did it take for you to wake up?"

I rolled my eyes. He was right. Even after getting me to a hospital for an emergency extraction, and him putting me back together, it took a few hours to come to.

"How did you find him anyway? I thought he was MIA?"

I shook my head with a sigh. "He found me. He got locked up by Division. Which is why we are in this situation. I was trying to remove any pushes they may have put on him."

"And the push was so deep he started to unravel."

"Yep," I said dryly, "I'm pissed at him too."

Adrian snorted. "I guess I'm not the only one who will do that to you."

I gave him a glare. Not many people knew about Adrian and Dimitri's relation. I don't think Dimitri did; if he did, he never mentioned it to me. The two were cousins, related by their fathers. Adrian didn't know his very well, leaving shortly before Dimitri came to America.

"How much have you talked about?" Adrian asked curiously, his green eyes burning with a slight fever. He always felt a little unwell when he had to do what he considered a big job.

"Not a whole lot. The obvious," I said pointing to my stomach, "A little about how he got out. But not a whole lot. He spent a bit of time convincing me that he wasn't with Division."

Adrian smirked. "Let me guess; you tried to shoot him."

I genuinely laughed with a nod of my head. "Apparently I'm predictable."

Adrian cocked his head to the side and made a face. I tossed the pillow behind me at him and he laughed. I chuckled and sunk back into my seat, my eyes falling back to Dimitri. I got up and kneeled on the bed beside him, gently rolling him onto his back so he was more comfortable. I brushed my thumbs over his cheeks before leaning down and kissed his forehead.

"I'm starving," I groaned as I got up.

Adrian smirked. "There's a really good place a block from here. Killer shrimp noodles. My treat?"

I looked from Dimitri to Adrian before nodding. I through my bag and found my notebook and pen, scribbling down that I was going to get food and the name of the market. I sighed and pressed a kiss to his lips before getting up and grabbing my jacket.


I rubbed my chopsticks together and dug into the noodles, getting a mouthful between them and bringing them to my lips. After not eating for almost twenty-four hours, I was ravenous. And those were the best noodles I'd ever had.

Adrian laughed at me but didn't say anything, just ate his food in silence.

"How have you been doing? You know, since I found you in Shanghai?"

I furrowed my brows and swallowed my mouthful of food. "I don't like to think about it," I said honestly.

"You know that's not healthy right?"

"I do know that, but, I don't think I'd survive that. I just need to do everything one step at a time."

"You need to process losing a baby."

I glared at him, but he took it in stride. "I'm sorry, but you need to. How do you expect to be able to discuss this with Dimitri if you don't process it?"

I pushed my bowl away from me a bit and crossed my arms. "Maybe I have proceeded it, and I've just pushed it to the back of my mind? Maybe it's too hard to even think about it, or let it come to the surface."

I could fee his gaze on me for a few moments before he sighed and started eating. I let my eyes wander to anywhere but Adrian as I continued to eat. While I was a little irritated with the track of conversation Adrian had started, I had to admit he was right about one thing; this place did have the best shrimp noodles.

I set my chopsticks down when I felt the familiar pressure at the front of my forehead. I squeezed my eyes shut with a grimace as the flood of images played before my eyes.

A tattoo, a woman with a gun, a man pulling off his sunglasses and his pupils contracting to slits while opening his mouth. But I was looking up at him.

I sucked in a breath. "Shit."

"What?" Adrian murmured over his mouthful of food.

"They're here," I scrambled as I collected my stuff, "They're in the market."

"Who?" Adrian asked as he stood up, shoving the last of his food into his mouth and dropped money onto the table.

"Bleeders. We need to go!" I exclaimed, latching onto his arm as I pulled him along with me. My panic was rising exponentially. I had a run-in with these bleeders before, and they were pissed! Pissed that I didn't give them what they wanted last time, and probably pissed that I survived.

Adrian fisted his hand in my sleeve as we weaved through the crowd so we didn't get separated. I was trying to keep my mind clear of where I wanted to go so we couldn't be followed, but it seemed like they were too stuck on us.

Adrian rounded the corner into the fish market and I stumbled to a stop, causing Adrian to bump into me. There she was, standing a few feet away from me. Elena was tall and beautiful, but her eyes always made me shiver. Bleeders all have a ring of red around the iris, which was a dead giveaway on their gifts.

Another man came around the corner and I felt my heart plummet into my chest. I recognized him from Shanghai. The worst part of being a watcher was seeing what you've seen happy. It was the worst sensation of déjà vu ever. As his glasses came off and his pupils contracted, I wiggled out of Adrian's grip, and fastened mine onto his jacket and pulled him with me, trying to get out of range. But it was futile because they followed us. The market was one of the dangerous places for us right now because we were surrounded by glass and we didn't know the easiest way out.

I could feel the pressure building in my head as more images passed through my head. I could see us running past a large aquarium tank and seeing it burst. I blinked out of the vision only to realize it was too late. We were heading right to it.

I didn't have time to warn Adrian before the high pitch ringing met up and the tank exploded. The force of the water coming out of the tank hit us and we went down. I gasped as we slid along the tile, the putrid water carrying up. When we came to a stop there was slapping of shoes against water. I turned my head to see Adrian a few feet away from me, soaked like I was. Looking to my other side, I found trouble in the form of three bleeders.

I took a shaky breath and sealed my hands over my ears, hoping that Adrian had time to do the same.

This is exactly what I saw, the slit eyes, the glasses coming off. I just didn't understand the angle until now.

I hadn't forgotten what their screams sounded like, but it still made me flinch. The ringing in my ears was almost unbearable. I screamed out, but it was pointless. I felt a sharp, invisible tug and I was pulled away from Adrian, sliding across the floor away from the bleeders. I came to a stop at someone's feet and looked away from where Adrian was withering on the floor.

Familiar hands gripped my shoulders and pulled me to my feet. I looked up to see Dimitri with a furious expression on his face as he pulled me away.

"Wait! We can't leave him!"

Dimitri's grip was almost bruising on my arm as he moved me into another room, giving me a firm look to stay put. I huffed but stayed put. I felt like I couldn't stop pacing in the small room, well it was more like a closet. I couldn't keep still knowing that both Adrian and Dimitri were too close to a group of bleeders.

A few minutes later the door opened, and Dimitri gestured for me to come out. I came out and found Adrian standing a few feet away, looking exhausted with a fresh cigarette stuffed in his mouth.

"Are you okay?"

Adrian nodded and pulled the smoke from his mouth with a shaking hand. "I'll be fine. I've never had a run-in with them before," he explained quietly before looking at Dimitri, "Thanks by the way."

Dimitri didn't say anything before latching onto my arm again and started pulling me down the hall and into the alleyway. I struggled against his grip before I was able to stumble out of it.

"What the fuck, Dimitri?"

"What the fuck? Rose, what the fuck were you thinking?!" Dimitri snapped as he spun around to face me. I flinched back at the abruptness of his voice.

"What are you talking about?"

Dimitri shook his head, pointing his finger towards where we came from, towards Adrian. "Him! What were you thinking of contacting him?! He is on just as many watch lists as we are, and he does actually work with Division!"

I scoffed and placed my hands on my hips, narrowing my eyes at him dangerously. "What is he doing here? I asked him to come because you DIDN'T KEEP YOUR PROMISE!" I screamed, getting up in his face.

"If you had kept your promise, you would have been fine! Instead, you didn't tell me when you started to feel pain and I almost fucking killed you!"

I was shaking in anger and so was he. I couldn't exactly pinpoint why he was so angry, but I knew mine was justifiable.

"And! Adrian would never turn me in! If we wanted to, he could have done it two years ago after he found me in the middle of miscarrying! But no! He took me to a fucking hospital instead and made sure I got back on my feet. So, I don't know what's up your ass about Adrian, but you need to take that stick out. Right. Now," I growled, his face so close to mine that they were almost touching.

"You should be showing him the slightest bit of gratitude. He's the only reason I'm not dead right now," I breathed out, tipping my head up to look at him better. There were so many emotions on his face. Anger, sadness, desperation, agitation, relief. They all ran clear across his face as he looked down at me.

He didn't say anything though, he just bore down at me. I stared up at him too. My anger was still there but it was slowly dissipating.

I don't know who moved first, but it was almost like the anger didn't matter anymore, all that mattered now was that we were together. And safe. I cupped his cheeks and pulled him down to me, pressing my lips to his gently. It was almost a hesitant kiss, but that hesitancy was squashed when Dimitri's hands settled on my hips and pulled me closer, his grip still bruising.

"Don't do that to me again," Dimitri groaned against my lips, sliding his hands up to cup my cheeks too. I nodded even though I didn't know what I was agreeing to. As long as I was with him, I'd agree.

Dimitri's hands held my cheeks before sliding down to rest on my neck, running his nose against mine.

"Please don't scare me like that again. Seeing you on the ground like that, them standing over you. I can't," he said as the anger left him too, vulnerability seeping through. I nodded and let his forehead rest on mine, holding him close.

"Well, this is touching, but we should probably go."

I pulled away and looked to see Adrian standing at the mouth of the ally, cigarette in his mouth. "C'mon. Let's get going. I want to get as far away from the bleeders as I can. We should head back to Hong Kong. Re-group. We're stronger in numbers."

I rolled my eyes. "We can't exactly do that. We can't make a decision like that consciously, Adrian. We will need more help first."

Adrian shrugged as he pulled another drag. "Don't worry. I know someone who could help us."


From here on out, it will all be fresh chapters! :)