Title: Love, War and Bruises
Chapter Four
Author: Stormhawk
Stevie ran from the black-clad incarnation of death. She had no phone and no gun, she should have accepted the ride home. She shouldn't have decided to walk it off.
She turned and saw him coming after her, he wasn't flying as fast as he could. She knew how fast he was. He was going to make her keep running until she couldn't run anymore. And then he was going to finish her off. Sadistic bastard.
She jumped over a chain link fence and ran around a corner - into a dead end. She tried to get out of the literal dead end but she slipped in a puddle.
As she scrambled to get her footing he landed in front of her with a soft swish of his long coat. "No one is going to save you this time," he whispered menacingly as he picked her up and threw her down the alley and into the wall.
He held out his hands and everything that wasn't nailed down in the alley started to move, he concentrated harder and it all flew at Stevie. She brought her arms up to cover her face but all of it pelted her anyway.
When the wind died down and all of the things stopped flying around she looked up and saw him walking toward her. He was going to kill her and there was nothing she could do about it.
He bent down and picked her up by her throat and slammed her into the wall behind her. She was bruised and bloodied from all of the alley junk and no problem for humanity's savior to take care of.
Stevie struggled and kicked as he squeezed the life out of her. As black dots flooded her vision and a dull roar filled her ears she started to panic, she realized there really wasn't anyone coming to save her.
I need to get loose. I need to get away. I need help. I need help. Someone help me! He's going to kill me! I need to hurt him! I need to make him let me go! I need something! I need a gun! A gun! I need to shoot him! I need a gun!
As her mind deteriorated she felt her fingers wrap around the handle of a gun. Probably wishful thinking. With her last coherent thoughts she reached for the trigger and pulled it.
The sound of a gunshot filled the alley.
It was much more than wishful thinking.
Anderson dropped her and stumbled back. He looked down at her in shock, she hadn't been carrying a gun - he would have seen it. He looked down at himself, he'd been shot. Thick red blood started to stain his coat.
He tilted his head back and pushed his right hand into his ribs, wincing in pain he brought his hand back out and dropped the bullet.
Stevie pointed the gun at him, she was shaking badly but knew she had enough strength to at least fire the rest of the rounds, "there's plenty more where that one came from, want to chance it Anderson?"
"That was a lucky shot at point-blank range. You won't get that lucky again."
Then Anderson crumpled and fell to the ground. Stevie looked up and saw Cray holding a chunk of metal. She glared at him, "what...are...you doing here?"
"I came to rescue you."
"I don't need your help," she said as she tried to push herself to her feet.
"Let me help you," Cray said as he ran over to help her to her feet.
She pushed him away, "I'd rather die than let you help me."
"And you will, he won't be out for that long. If he wakes up and you're still here you're dead."
"I'll take that chance," Stevie said as she stumbled.
"But I won't," Cray said as he put her arm over his shoulder and started to walk away.
Stevie woke up a little while later and found herself leaning on Cray. "Hey," he said with a smile.
She recoiled from him and looked at their surroundings. "Where the hell are we?"
"A rooftop, you kind of blacked out ten minutes ago and I thought you'd like to sleep for a while. Plus it's kind of dangerous to jump around when your passenger is unconscious."
"Whatever," she said as she stood and started to walk toward the edge of the building.
"Aren't you going to say thank you?"
"For what?" she snapped at him.
He shrugged, "I rescued you."
"No you didn't. I would have been fine by myself. I told you I never wanted to speak to you again."
"And I told you I needed to explain what you heard."
"You've said all I ever needed to hear from you," she said as she looked around the roof. "What did you do with my gun?"
Cray stood and pulled it from his waistband, he took the safety off. "If I give this to you you're just going to shoot me."
"Damn straight."
"Well I want to explain. Give me one minute, if you don't like what I've got to say then I'll give you your gun and you can shoot me."
"You promise?"
"I swear on my life. Literally."
"Your minute is counting down."
"I've tried to tell you a hundred times, you didn't hear me right," he started.
"Let me guess, the full version has even more insults in it and more comparisons of my father to figures of evil," she said spitefully.
"What I was saying was what Commander Locke used to say when he got pissed off! He was the one who said that! Not me! I never believed it for a second, I was just thinking about it cause of what we were studying!" He took a deep breath, "I like the agents, at least some of them. And your dad might be a bit scary, but I'm getting used to him, and I don't believe what old Crabby used to say."
"You don't?" she asked him quietly.
"No, and I never even would have said it out loud if I had known that it was going to hurt you this much! I never wanted to hurt you...I don't think I could hurt you..." he stopped himself before he said anything more.
"Well what you said did hurt me. I felt betrayed."
"I will try and watch what I say from now on. Can you forgive me?" he walked over and held out her gun. "My minute is up."
She accepted it and smiled, "I forgive you."
"You're not going to shoot me?"
"If you ever say something like that again, I will kill you without hesitation. Other than that, I think you're safe."
"You want to go home now? You're kind of bleeding..."
"Oh yeah," she said with a nervous laugh. "Ander-snot just tried to kill me."
"Stevie, where did you get the gun? You left yours at home."
"I have no idea where it came from," she said honestly. "It just...appeared."
"That is both uber-freaky and cool."
"Agents do it all the time, they require stuff. Recruits too, but I'm neither."
"Maybe it was some kind of glitch or something."
"Yeah, maybe. I'll ask my non-fascist-dictator dad if he knows why something like that would happen."
"You wanna roof jump home or go call a taxi?"
"Taxi! Rana!"
"I totally forget, is your friend ok?"
"You know that silver goo stuff?"
"Yeah?"
"Well they were trying to use it to find out information instead of take her out of the Matrix."
"She would have died of hypothermia," Cray said as he shook his head. "That stuff is sub-zero."
"He's right," a voice said. They turned and saw Smith.
"Hey dad."
"Is Rana all right?"
"She's in the hospital. We've altered her memories, she believes she was in a car crash and her family has been informed. What happened here?"
"Can I give you the full story tomorrow?"
"Can you at least give me the short version tonight?"
"Evil scientist rebels wanted to use Rana to get information using the silver goo stuff without taking her into the real world. I followed them and...persuaded them not to. Then the nice taxi driver took Rana to the hospital. He was weird, he seemed to know what was going on...he mentioned 'the suits' which I guess is you guys."
"Perhaps he was an exile..." Smith muttered.
"A what?"
"It's nothing, continue."
"I was going to walk home, I needed to walk it off and then Ander-snot showed up."
"Anderson?" Smith took a good look at Stevie. "You're not all right, you're bleeding."
"I'm fine dad, I'm not a little girl anymore. Anyway, I was dead, I had no chance of getting out of there. He broke my cell phone! And stole the gun I stole from the guy I set on fire..."
"You set someone on fire?" Cray asked in awe.
"With a homemade flame thrower," she said with a grin. "And then he slams me into a wall and starts choking the life out of me," she paused and rubbed her throat. "And I kept thinking over and over that I needed help or a gun. I really needed a gun..."
"And?" Smith asked, intrigued as to how his daughter had survived an encounter with Anderson.
Stevie tossed him the gun, "this appeared in my hand. Out of nowhere."
"What?"
"Believe me, that's my reaction. You think a glitch or something?"
"I think that would be the only explanation, I'll ask Jones about it."
Stevie grinned, "I shot Anderson."
"Shot at him, you mean?"
"Nope, I shot him. He bled cause I shot him. There was a bullet in him. I really, really shot him!" Stevie's grin was as wide as it could get, and she was practically bouncing around.
"You shot him?"
"Are you proud of me dad?"
"Of course I am, I'm more glad that you're ok but yes I'm exceedingly proud of you. It's actually unprecedented since he's become 'the One.'"
"That's cool."
"Cool?" Cray asked. "Are you insane? Stevie that is the coolest thing ever. Everyone in Zion is going to hate your guts and we're going to throw you a party!"
"You two aren't fighting anymore?" Smith asked with a raised eyebrow.
"No, he was just saying Crabby used to say."
"Crabby?"
"Commander Locke, of the Zion fleet," Cray explained. "Everyone on Exy calls him Crabby."
"Ah."
Stevie smiled wryly, "so are you sure you don't think he's evil?"
Cray took a long look at Smith then turned back to her, "he's less evil than Barney."
"But Barney is the ultimate evil."
"Ok," Cray said as he rolled his eyes. "I hereby announce that I don't think Agent Smith is evil. Happy?" Smith growled and Cray covered his face with his hands. "Please don't kill me!" Stevie started laughing so hard she sank to her knees.
"Do you two want to go home or do you want to walk?"
"No dad, we'll take the lift."
"Oh!" Cray said and held his hand up like he was in class.
"Yes?"
"There's a red bike like three blocks that way, could we bring that with us? I kind of...borrowed...it from our neighbor but it ran out of gas."
"You stole Dylan's red bike?"
"Borrowed, I borrowed it."
"I just hope there aren't cops at the mansion when we get back there."
"Darth was there, he would have explained it. Plus it was to rescue you."
"A white horse is more traditional."
"You're no princess," Cray said as the found themselves standing in the living room of the mansion.
"I'm not?" she asked in mock horror.
"Seriously, have any of you people heard of a freaking phone?" Darth asked as he got off the couch. "I ought to throttle both of you."
"Both of us?" Stevie asked.
"Yes both," he said as he shook his head. "You should not go off rescuing friends without backup, and you shouldn't steal a bike and not take me with you. Stevie, you didn't take you gun. Cray, you didn't phone. And I haven't heard one word until now. You both could have been dead!"
"He's not blinking," Cray said in a whisper.
"You're alive, you have no broken limbs, you're laughing and you're not mad at each other. I love you guys," he said as he pulled them into a group hug.
"Ow!" Stevie muttered, "I have big scratches everywhere, and my throat hurts. Ow, stop hugging me."
"Sorry," Darth said and let them go. "I swear if you guys do that again I will lock you in your rooms and bar your windows."
"Chill!" Cray said. "Relax please. We're fine, go hack something."
"I'm sorry, I've been worried. When I'm worried I consume sugar which makes me hyper which makes me even more stressed than what I was to begin with." He sighed, "it's a viscous circle."
"I'll order pizza," Cray said and then looked at Stevie, "I think you need to get those scratches cleaned up and Lord Vader, just go sit down, you don't need to worry anymore."
"You need the phone?" Darth asked as he crashed on the couch.
"No need," Cray said as he turned to Smith. "One Hawaiian, one supreme, one meat lovers and four garlic breads. Please?"
"My dad is not a pizza machine," Stevie said from halfway up the stairs.
"I don't mind, go have a shower or those scratches are going to get infected." He turned to Cray and handed him the pizzas and garlic bread. "Would you like ice cream?" Smith asked with a smile.
"Hey Darth do we have any ice cream left?"
"No, I ran out of donuts and you guys were gone for ages."
"Yes, we'd like some ice cream sir."
"You don't have to call me sir, you're not under my command. And you're not the only one who has come to a realization."
"A good one or a bad one?"
"I realized that you aren't a waste of time ex-rebel. You put yourself in danger to help Stevie, that's highly commendable and I thank you very much for it."
"Any time," Cray said with a smile.
"And for the record, I am not going to kill you."
"I can sleep a lot easier knowing that."
After a long hot shower, Stevie put on her fluffy robe and slippers, wrapping a towel around her head she walked to the top of the stairs. "Guys?"
"Yeah?" an extremely tired-sounding Darth called back from the couch.
"Where did Niq put the bandages?"
"They were in the linen closet for some reason. I put them in the spare bathroom."
"Thanks!"
"Anytime."
"Why don't you go to bed?"
"Too many stairs."
"You want a blanket?"
"I have an empty pizza box."
She smiled, "I'll bring you a blanket."
"Thank you."
She turned and saw Cray holding the bandages and wearing a white coat and stethoscope. "I am Doctor Cray, I will fix you up."
"Well in that case let me get dressed first, I'm only wearing a robe."
"I don't mind," he said with a wry grin.
"Pervert!" she said and slapped him lightly in the side of the head.
"Ow..."
"I didn't hit you hard," she said as rolled her eyes and walked into her room to get changed.
"Can I come in now?" Cray asked after a few minutes.
"Yes, I'm decent now."
She sat on the end of her bed and showed Cray her scratched, "do you think I'll live doctor?"
"You'd better or I'll lose my job."
He unraveled the bandages and pulled some disinfectant cream from one of the coat pockets. "Hold out your arm," he said and she did.
He gently rubbed some cream over the first scratch and then wound the bandage around, tight enough but not so tight that it hurt. She smiled at him, "you do know what you're doing."
"I'm not a complete idiot, and I have basic first aid in my head."
"I never thought you were an idiot."
"Sure you did. Especially the last couple of days."
"Well, that was just a misunderstanding."
"I don't like misunderstandings," he said as he wrapped the next scratch.
"Neither do I," she said quietly.
He finished dressing her scratches, and put the things back in his pocket. "One other thing?"
"What?"
He sat down beside her, "I was really worried when you disappeared. I was worried you'd get hurt or that you would die. I didn't want you to die still thinking I was an idiot cause of a misunderstanding..."
"That's worked out now."
"Let me finish. And I didn't want you to die before I told you how I felt about you."
"Feel about me?" she questioned, "what do you feel?"
He leant forward and kissed her, "I feel that about you Stevie." A single tear rolled down his face, "I care about you, I really care about you Stevie, so don't disappear again ok?"
She kissed the tear away and then leant in close, "I promise. And I'll keep my promise cause I care about you too."
"You do?" he said with a grin.
"Yeah, I do."
"Goodnight," he said as he stood up.
"Goodnight. I'll see you in the morning." Cray smiled and went to his room. Stevie grabbed a spare blanket from the hall cupboard and walked down the stairs. She found Darth dumping the pizza boxes in the bin.
"I thought you were tired."
"I don't get that tired. I'm emotionally tired, physically I'm on a sugar high so it's kind of evened out."
"Then you carry this back up," she said as she tossed the blanket to him.
"Night," Darth said as he headed for his staircase.
"Night," Stevie said as she walked over to Cray's door. She knocked on it.
"It's open."
She pushed it open, "thank you for coming to rescue me."
He grinned, "I promise I'll use a white horse next time."
The End.
Author: Stormhawk
Stevie ran from the black-clad incarnation of death. She had no phone and no gun, she should have accepted the ride home. She shouldn't have decided to walk it off.
She turned and saw him coming after her, he wasn't flying as fast as he could. She knew how fast he was. He was going to make her keep running until she couldn't run anymore. And then he was going to finish her off. Sadistic bastard.
She jumped over a chain link fence and ran around a corner - into a dead end. She tried to get out of the literal dead end but she slipped in a puddle.
As she scrambled to get her footing he landed in front of her with a soft swish of his long coat. "No one is going to save you this time," he whispered menacingly as he picked her up and threw her down the alley and into the wall.
He held out his hands and everything that wasn't nailed down in the alley started to move, he concentrated harder and it all flew at Stevie. She brought her arms up to cover her face but all of it pelted her anyway.
When the wind died down and all of the things stopped flying around she looked up and saw him walking toward her. He was going to kill her and there was nothing she could do about it.
He bent down and picked her up by her throat and slammed her into the wall behind her. She was bruised and bloodied from all of the alley junk and no problem for humanity's savior to take care of.
Stevie struggled and kicked as he squeezed the life out of her. As black dots flooded her vision and a dull roar filled her ears she started to panic, she realized there really wasn't anyone coming to save her.
I need to get loose. I need to get away. I need help. I need help. Someone help me! He's going to kill me! I need to hurt him! I need to make him let me go! I need something! I need a gun! A gun! I need to shoot him! I need a gun!
As her mind deteriorated she felt her fingers wrap around the handle of a gun. Probably wishful thinking. With her last coherent thoughts she reached for the trigger and pulled it.
The sound of a gunshot filled the alley.
It was much more than wishful thinking.
Anderson dropped her and stumbled back. He looked down at her in shock, she hadn't been carrying a gun - he would have seen it. He looked down at himself, he'd been shot. Thick red blood started to stain his coat.
He tilted his head back and pushed his right hand into his ribs, wincing in pain he brought his hand back out and dropped the bullet.
Stevie pointed the gun at him, she was shaking badly but knew she had enough strength to at least fire the rest of the rounds, "there's plenty more where that one came from, want to chance it Anderson?"
"That was a lucky shot at point-blank range. You won't get that lucky again."
Then Anderson crumpled and fell to the ground. Stevie looked up and saw Cray holding a chunk of metal. She glared at him, "what...are...you doing here?"
"I came to rescue you."
"I don't need your help," she said as she tried to push herself to her feet.
"Let me help you," Cray said as he ran over to help her to her feet.
She pushed him away, "I'd rather die than let you help me."
"And you will, he won't be out for that long. If he wakes up and you're still here you're dead."
"I'll take that chance," Stevie said as she stumbled.
"But I won't," Cray said as he put her arm over his shoulder and started to walk away.
Stevie woke up a little while later and found herself leaning on Cray. "Hey," he said with a smile.
She recoiled from him and looked at their surroundings. "Where the hell are we?"
"A rooftop, you kind of blacked out ten minutes ago and I thought you'd like to sleep for a while. Plus it's kind of dangerous to jump around when your passenger is unconscious."
"Whatever," she said as she stood and started to walk toward the edge of the building.
"Aren't you going to say thank you?"
"For what?" she snapped at him.
He shrugged, "I rescued you."
"No you didn't. I would have been fine by myself. I told you I never wanted to speak to you again."
"And I told you I needed to explain what you heard."
"You've said all I ever needed to hear from you," she said as she looked around the roof. "What did you do with my gun?"
Cray stood and pulled it from his waistband, he took the safety off. "If I give this to you you're just going to shoot me."
"Damn straight."
"Well I want to explain. Give me one minute, if you don't like what I've got to say then I'll give you your gun and you can shoot me."
"You promise?"
"I swear on my life. Literally."
"Your minute is counting down."
"I've tried to tell you a hundred times, you didn't hear me right," he started.
"Let me guess, the full version has even more insults in it and more comparisons of my father to figures of evil," she said spitefully.
"What I was saying was what Commander Locke used to say when he got pissed off! He was the one who said that! Not me! I never believed it for a second, I was just thinking about it cause of what we were studying!" He took a deep breath, "I like the agents, at least some of them. And your dad might be a bit scary, but I'm getting used to him, and I don't believe what old Crabby used to say."
"You don't?" she asked him quietly.
"No, and I never even would have said it out loud if I had known that it was going to hurt you this much! I never wanted to hurt you...I don't think I could hurt you..." he stopped himself before he said anything more.
"Well what you said did hurt me. I felt betrayed."
"I will try and watch what I say from now on. Can you forgive me?" he walked over and held out her gun. "My minute is up."
She accepted it and smiled, "I forgive you."
"You're not going to shoot me?"
"If you ever say something like that again, I will kill you without hesitation. Other than that, I think you're safe."
"You want to go home now? You're kind of bleeding..."
"Oh yeah," she said with a nervous laugh. "Ander-snot just tried to kill me."
"Stevie, where did you get the gun? You left yours at home."
"I have no idea where it came from," she said honestly. "It just...appeared."
"That is both uber-freaky and cool."
"Agents do it all the time, they require stuff. Recruits too, but I'm neither."
"Maybe it was some kind of glitch or something."
"Yeah, maybe. I'll ask my non-fascist-dictator dad if he knows why something like that would happen."
"You wanna roof jump home or go call a taxi?"
"Taxi! Rana!"
"I totally forget, is your friend ok?"
"You know that silver goo stuff?"
"Yeah?"
"Well they were trying to use it to find out information instead of take her out of the Matrix."
"She would have died of hypothermia," Cray said as he shook his head. "That stuff is sub-zero."
"He's right," a voice said. They turned and saw Smith.
"Hey dad."
"Is Rana all right?"
"She's in the hospital. We've altered her memories, she believes she was in a car crash and her family has been informed. What happened here?"
"Can I give you the full story tomorrow?"
"Can you at least give me the short version tonight?"
"Evil scientist rebels wanted to use Rana to get information using the silver goo stuff without taking her into the real world. I followed them and...persuaded them not to. Then the nice taxi driver took Rana to the hospital. He was weird, he seemed to know what was going on...he mentioned 'the suits' which I guess is you guys."
"Perhaps he was an exile..." Smith muttered.
"A what?"
"It's nothing, continue."
"I was going to walk home, I needed to walk it off and then Ander-snot showed up."
"Anderson?" Smith took a good look at Stevie. "You're not all right, you're bleeding."
"I'm fine dad, I'm not a little girl anymore. Anyway, I was dead, I had no chance of getting out of there. He broke my cell phone! And stole the gun I stole from the guy I set on fire..."
"You set someone on fire?" Cray asked in awe.
"With a homemade flame thrower," she said with a grin. "And then he slams me into a wall and starts choking the life out of me," she paused and rubbed her throat. "And I kept thinking over and over that I needed help or a gun. I really needed a gun..."
"And?" Smith asked, intrigued as to how his daughter had survived an encounter with Anderson.
Stevie tossed him the gun, "this appeared in my hand. Out of nowhere."
"What?"
"Believe me, that's my reaction. You think a glitch or something?"
"I think that would be the only explanation, I'll ask Jones about it."
Stevie grinned, "I shot Anderson."
"Shot at him, you mean?"
"Nope, I shot him. He bled cause I shot him. There was a bullet in him. I really, really shot him!" Stevie's grin was as wide as it could get, and she was practically bouncing around.
"You shot him?"
"Are you proud of me dad?"
"Of course I am, I'm more glad that you're ok but yes I'm exceedingly proud of you. It's actually unprecedented since he's become 'the One.'"
"That's cool."
"Cool?" Cray asked. "Are you insane? Stevie that is the coolest thing ever. Everyone in Zion is going to hate your guts and we're going to throw you a party!"
"You two aren't fighting anymore?" Smith asked with a raised eyebrow.
"No, he was just saying Crabby used to say."
"Crabby?"
"Commander Locke, of the Zion fleet," Cray explained. "Everyone on Exy calls him Crabby."
"Ah."
Stevie smiled wryly, "so are you sure you don't think he's evil?"
Cray took a long look at Smith then turned back to her, "he's less evil than Barney."
"But Barney is the ultimate evil."
"Ok," Cray said as he rolled his eyes. "I hereby announce that I don't think Agent Smith is evil. Happy?" Smith growled and Cray covered his face with his hands. "Please don't kill me!" Stevie started laughing so hard she sank to her knees.
"Do you two want to go home or do you want to walk?"
"No dad, we'll take the lift."
"Oh!" Cray said and held his hand up like he was in class.
"Yes?"
"There's a red bike like three blocks that way, could we bring that with us? I kind of...borrowed...it from our neighbor but it ran out of gas."
"You stole Dylan's red bike?"
"Borrowed, I borrowed it."
"I just hope there aren't cops at the mansion when we get back there."
"Darth was there, he would have explained it. Plus it was to rescue you."
"A white horse is more traditional."
"You're no princess," Cray said as the found themselves standing in the living room of the mansion.
"I'm not?" she asked in mock horror.
"Seriously, have any of you people heard of a freaking phone?" Darth asked as he got off the couch. "I ought to throttle both of you."
"Both of us?" Stevie asked.
"Yes both," he said as he shook his head. "You should not go off rescuing friends without backup, and you shouldn't steal a bike and not take me with you. Stevie, you didn't take you gun. Cray, you didn't phone. And I haven't heard one word until now. You both could have been dead!"
"He's not blinking," Cray said in a whisper.
"You're alive, you have no broken limbs, you're laughing and you're not mad at each other. I love you guys," he said as he pulled them into a group hug.
"Ow!" Stevie muttered, "I have big scratches everywhere, and my throat hurts. Ow, stop hugging me."
"Sorry," Darth said and let them go. "I swear if you guys do that again I will lock you in your rooms and bar your windows."
"Chill!" Cray said. "Relax please. We're fine, go hack something."
"I'm sorry, I've been worried. When I'm worried I consume sugar which makes me hyper which makes me even more stressed than what I was to begin with." He sighed, "it's a viscous circle."
"I'll order pizza," Cray said and then looked at Stevie, "I think you need to get those scratches cleaned up and Lord Vader, just go sit down, you don't need to worry anymore."
"You need the phone?" Darth asked as he crashed on the couch.
"No need," Cray said as he turned to Smith. "One Hawaiian, one supreme, one meat lovers and four garlic breads. Please?"
"My dad is not a pizza machine," Stevie said from halfway up the stairs.
"I don't mind, go have a shower or those scratches are going to get infected." He turned to Cray and handed him the pizzas and garlic bread. "Would you like ice cream?" Smith asked with a smile.
"Hey Darth do we have any ice cream left?"
"No, I ran out of donuts and you guys were gone for ages."
"Yes, we'd like some ice cream sir."
"You don't have to call me sir, you're not under my command. And you're not the only one who has come to a realization."
"A good one or a bad one?"
"I realized that you aren't a waste of time ex-rebel. You put yourself in danger to help Stevie, that's highly commendable and I thank you very much for it."
"Any time," Cray said with a smile.
"And for the record, I am not going to kill you."
"I can sleep a lot easier knowing that."
After a long hot shower, Stevie put on her fluffy robe and slippers, wrapping a towel around her head she walked to the top of the stairs. "Guys?"
"Yeah?" an extremely tired-sounding Darth called back from the couch.
"Where did Niq put the bandages?"
"They were in the linen closet for some reason. I put them in the spare bathroom."
"Thanks!"
"Anytime."
"Why don't you go to bed?"
"Too many stairs."
"You want a blanket?"
"I have an empty pizza box."
She smiled, "I'll bring you a blanket."
"Thank you."
She turned and saw Cray holding the bandages and wearing a white coat and stethoscope. "I am Doctor Cray, I will fix you up."
"Well in that case let me get dressed first, I'm only wearing a robe."
"I don't mind," he said with a wry grin.
"Pervert!" she said and slapped him lightly in the side of the head.
"Ow..."
"I didn't hit you hard," she said as rolled her eyes and walked into her room to get changed.
"Can I come in now?" Cray asked after a few minutes.
"Yes, I'm decent now."
She sat on the end of her bed and showed Cray her scratched, "do you think I'll live doctor?"
"You'd better or I'll lose my job."
He unraveled the bandages and pulled some disinfectant cream from one of the coat pockets. "Hold out your arm," he said and she did.
He gently rubbed some cream over the first scratch and then wound the bandage around, tight enough but not so tight that it hurt. She smiled at him, "you do know what you're doing."
"I'm not a complete idiot, and I have basic first aid in my head."
"I never thought you were an idiot."
"Sure you did. Especially the last couple of days."
"Well, that was just a misunderstanding."
"I don't like misunderstandings," he said as he wrapped the next scratch.
"Neither do I," she said quietly.
He finished dressing her scratches, and put the things back in his pocket. "One other thing?"
"What?"
He sat down beside her, "I was really worried when you disappeared. I was worried you'd get hurt or that you would die. I didn't want you to die still thinking I was an idiot cause of a misunderstanding..."
"That's worked out now."
"Let me finish. And I didn't want you to die before I told you how I felt about you."
"Feel about me?" she questioned, "what do you feel?"
He leant forward and kissed her, "I feel that about you Stevie." A single tear rolled down his face, "I care about you, I really care about you Stevie, so don't disappear again ok?"
She kissed the tear away and then leant in close, "I promise. And I'll keep my promise cause I care about you too."
"You do?" he said with a grin.
"Yeah, I do."
"Goodnight," he said as he stood up.
"Goodnight. I'll see you in the morning." Cray smiled and went to his room. Stevie grabbed a spare blanket from the hall cupboard and walked down the stairs. She found Darth dumping the pizza boxes in the bin.
"I thought you were tired."
"I don't get that tired. I'm emotionally tired, physically I'm on a sugar high so it's kind of evened out."
"Then you carry this back up," she said as she tossed the blanket to him.
"Night," Darth said as he headed for his staircase.
"Night," Stevie said as she walked over to Cray's door. She knocked on it.
"It's open."
She pushed it open, "thank you for coming to rescue me."
He grinned, "I promise I'll use a white horse next time."
The End.