Chapter Eight: Looking out for Number One

[I hold a tender place in my heart for you

And you know it

I've never said it out loud

Guess I was too proud

To ever show it

We always thought some night

That we might get it right

But that ain't going to happen today

Ain't it just like you to leave

Ain't it just like me to let you walk away]
-Toby Keith, 'Ain't it Just Like You'

Yumi hit her knees next to the fallen bounty hunter. She cast a quick glance behind her, but the goons were no where in sight. They seemed to have retreated, but Yumi had no time to question why.

Blood was seeping from Ulrich's wound, which seemed to be on his arm. The blood was soaking through his jacket and pooling on the floor next to him. He raised himself up on one knee and felt at his left arm.

"Are you-"

"I'm fine. It's a flesh wound, no serious damage." Yumi personally considered anything that could knock Ulrich to the floor serious damage, but bit her tongue. It's not like I care about him or anything, she told herself resolutely. If she cared it might mean she had feelings for him, and no good would come of that.

"Where did the goons go," she whispered as he rose to his feet shakily.

"Vinnie's orders were to stop me, which they did. I never gave them many points for intelligence. We better move it though, once ol'Vincent figures out they didn't kill us he'll come personally to finish the job." Ulrich lurched towards the door clutching his arm to stop the flow as best he could.

"But, your arm," Yumi objected.

"Flesh wound," Ulrich repeated dryly. "We can worry about my arm once we are out of here. Right now our lives are in more danger than my arm."

-----

The Escalade pulled over to the curb once they were clear of the rough side of town.

"There's some bandages in the glove box," Ulrich told her. He had insisted upon driving dispite the hole in his left arm. Yumi reached into the compartment and pulled out a first aid kit.

"You are obvoiusly prepared for this kind of thing," she mused as she leafed through the items to find the gauze. "But you should still go and get that looked at by a doctor."

Ulrich smirked at her, shifting his body to allow her to reach his arm. She rolled up his jacket sleeve and began dabbing at the wound with a clean cloth she had also found in the kit. "Who are you, my mother," he joked lightly.

"No. Your mother would be spanking your sorry behind for getting yourself shot." The words were light, but Yumi's tone was dead serious. "You are going to get yourself killed out there, Ulrich!"

"And what business is it of yours," he answered.

"Well, at the moment we are partners. Therefore if you get killed it is my business. Not to mention the fact that if you get killed I will probably be killed along with you. It's not a nice thought." The idea of dying for a stupid jewel didn't appeal to Yumi in the slightest.

Ulrich scoffed. "Typical thief, always looking out for number one."

"Somebody has to. Maybe you should start looking out for yourself." Yumi's eyes were glued to her work on his arm. Her words were meant to sting, but she didn't want to see the look on his face as he recieved the.

"Who are you to lecture me," he snapped.

"Just a thief, and nothing more," she answered casually, her words reminicent of Poe. "The blood loss has made you irritable it seems." Ulrich had no response to that, so they lasped into silence as Yumi finished bandaging his wound.

"So what's our next move," Yumi asked once she had tucked the first aid kit back into the glove compartment. Ulrich was silent for a moment. He knew his answer wasn't the one she wanted to hear.

"You are going home, wherever your home is, to get some sleep. In the moring you can forget about finding the ruby." Ulrich kept his gaze firmly on the road dispite the fact that the engine wasn't even running. He seemed to prefere the vacant street to Yumi's shocked face. "I am going back out."

"You are doing no such thing, especially without me! We are in this together!" Yumi glared openly at him, white hot gaze seeming to pierce Ulrich. "I need that jewel!"

"Is it really worth your safety?" Yumi stopped glaring, her expression softening at Ulrich's words. "You almost got killed back there. If they had decided to shoot you....Not all the people I deal with follow their orders to the letter." His face was grim at the prospect

"If I don't find that ruby I will run just as high a risk of dying. Quite frankly I don't know what I'm dealing with here. My employer, if that's what you would choose to call him, is totally unknown to me."

"What are you, a thief for hire?" It was hard to tell if it was a joke or an insult. Yumi chose to take it as the latter.

Yumi glared yet again. "You don't have to put it like that. I simply work for whoever pays the best." She sniffed indignantly. "I don't come cheap."

"But it sounds as if you've gotten mixed up in something a little bigger than what you anticipated," Ulrich observed wryly. "Your new boss is a bit touchy?"

"Touchy doesn't even begin to describe it. Whoever they are gave me the options of get the ruby or die. I don't have the ruby by the end of the week, it's klllllick." Yumi drew her finger across her throat to show her meaning. The message she had recieved was very clear on that point: Get the ruby or face the consequences. And the consequences of failure were not ones Yumi was prepared to deal with. She would be safer letting Ulrich haul her off to court.

"And I have to have it back by Friday or the U.S. government goes ape on me. Life locked up in some FBI underground prison because I knew too much doesn't sound all that appealing either."

Yumi raised an eyeborw. "The FBI has secret underground prisons?" Her voice was laced with humor and sarcasm. She was internally pleased that Ulrich had developed more of a sense of humor over the past few years. Yumi couldn't help but wonder if their joking was a way to close the gap between them.

"Probably not, but I would rather not find out the hard way." Yumi laughed.

"Very true."

Ulrich's face took on a more serious look. "Well, we should get some sleep in any case. Do you want a lift back to your residence, wherever your residence would happen to be?" Yumi got the hint out of that statement.

Yumi thought a moment, then shook her head. "No. My car is in the lot at your place. And I would prefer you didn't know where I live at the moment."

"Scared of the big bad bounty hunter," Ulrich asked teasingly. It seemed strange to him how he and Yumi coul slip right back into the way they had behaved in school. It almost seemed like the rift between them was gone.

"Think of my place as the bat cave. You're not supposed to know where it is." The metaphor seemed oddly appropriate for her lifestyle. Normal girl by day, thief by night, dispite the fact that Batman was a good guy.

"So you're like Batgirl then?" The idea seemed to amuse Ulrich greatly, and the thief smiled back at him.

Yumi considered the idea, then smiled. "Sure. I'm Batgirl."

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In response to any reviewer who has asked me if this was inspired by other fics of a similar nature, the answer is yes and no. I have never actually sat down and read another fic like this. However, I am a Law and Order, CSI, Without a Trace, etc. fanatic, as well as a Janet Evanovich fan. If you have never read a Janet Evanovich novel, I command you to go to the library and check out One for the Money by Janet Evanovich. This fic will contain many Janet Evanovich elements. Yumi has become a very Ranger-esque character, for example( i.e. the Bat Cave, and a certain event that will take place next chapter).

Also, the lyrics used in chapter seven are by a duo called M2M, and the song is Mirror Mirror off their Shades of Purple cd (it sounds like something Odd would listen too, ne?)