The rain created a thick, gray sheet coming down from the sky as Spot and Gabby stood at the lodging house doorway. For a couple of moments they stood, contemplating what they should do: stay or brave the weather. When Gabby asked Spot, he had told her, with an adorably sweet face, that he just wanted to spend time alone and away from all of this. She couldn't resist the innocence of his face and agreed to leave, turning on her best charm. The umbrella popped open and he held her close so she wouldn't get wet.

"You are quite the gentlemen, Spot," Gabby said as they strolled along the streets quickly as not to be hit with lightning.

"Thank you very much," Spot smiled proudly and lifted his chin as though to bask in her compliment.

Gabby laughed and nudged him playfully. "So, are you okay now? Is everything all right?"

Spot thought for a moment. "Yeah, things are fine. We put some things together and…" He stopped and looked into her eager eyes.

Come on, my little toy, 'fess up, thought Gabby. "Yeah?"

Instead, Spot smiled and wrapped his arm around her shoulder dearly to hold her close to his side while twirling the umbrella above them with his other hand. "Let's just enjoy the walk."

Gabby smiled reluctantly and looked back down to the puddle-covered ground. It was strange what she was feeling; she felt incredibly safe in Spot's arms, that he was so good to her unconditionally. She quickly pushed those thoughts aside and counted how much longer she had to dodge them until they reached her apartment.

Not long after, Gabby had made them a dinner of warm soup and they retired to her bedroom. Like a settled couple, Spot sat on his usual side of the bed reading a newspaper and Gabby was on the right side with Huckleberry Finn open to a random page. The silence was quite comfortable to her. It was pleasant and innocent, at least on his part; all Gabby could think of was her job. Somehow she needed to get the next information from Spot, be it from talking to him or going in again. Ace was no help; he was just there to give Spot a hard time to get him to come to her, and also to pick up on news. She was the one doing all the dirty work. With a sigh, she closed her eyes stressfully. How did she get here?

"I think I know somethin' that could get ya on yer feet, Gabs. I owe a friend 'a mine a favor."

"No, Ace, I'm really not in the mood to talk about this stuff. Can you be a little more supportive at least? My parents are gone and I have nowhere to go…"

"Time to move on, Gabby. That's what I did."

His friend was Tyce Nichols. They had met right after Ace ran from the war. He was very good-looking, Gabby remembered; silvery eyes, firmly sculpted muscles, dark brown hair, and a way of alluring her close. And he also needed a favor. He named the terms politely to make the cause sound just. He was friendly. Friendly and polite and handsome. At the time.

"You in, Gabs? We can get this Conlon guy. If we do it, Tyce said he'll take care of us aftaword. He'll set up a place for us in Queens."

"I don't know, Ace. It's pretty sneaky."

Gabby tightened her grip on the book's covers as she further recalled that night.

"Still thirsty, Gabrielle?"

Her head was spinning and she was drinking alcohol without a care in the world. Tyce was cute. He was gorgeous. "Sure…" The golden-colored liquid filled her glass once more and poured down her throat. It made her eyes water.

Gabby put one hand to her throat gently, remembering the burning feeling.

He ran his hand through her hair tenderly as she thought she was about to cry. "C'mere, Gabrielle. It's okay. Just gimme a simple answer: you in or out?"

Tears watered her eyes weakly and she found herself wrapped in Tyce's arms safely. Why was he being so nice to her? He was asking her to ultimately betray this guy, Spot Conlon. He wanted to kill Spot Conlon and he needed her to help him do it. His hands rubbed her back gently and traveled up to message the tension out of her shoulders as if working out an answer with his fingers.

"You all right?" Spot asked worriedly, bring her back to reality.

Gabby found that she had bent her knees close to her chest and her head bowed down while she reminisced. She looked up. Spot was staring at her with confused eyes. It was still pouring down outside as thunder rumbled angrily.

"Y-Yeah," she stuttered as she sat up to her normal position, her ribs jolting painfully and causing her to cringe.

"What's wrong?" Spot sat up straight and tossed his newspaper to the floor.

"Oh, I just," Gabby started with a pause, "I just hurt my ribs pretty badly."

Spot looked to where her hands clutched the side of her stomach tightly. He let his hand to where hers were, locating the pain and playing doctor by asking "Does it hurt here? Here? How did you even get this…?"

"Ow, yeah right there hurts," she whined in response. I was spying on you and I tripped up the stairs. Sorry.

"Mind if I take a look?" Spot inquired seriously.

Gabby looked at him as if she had just called his bluff.

"For medical purposes, Gabby," he assured her, keeping a straight face for all of five seconds.

"Fine, fine, go ahead," Gabby sighed in defeat. She unbuttoned just the bottom two buttons of her light blue blouse to reveal a still reddened scrape along her skin that covered a nasty forming bruise.

Spot winced as if he knew her pain. His fingers rubbed along her smooth skin gently with care. Gabby jerked only a little at the least bit of pain. Spot then got up to the window, stuck his fingers out to dampen them with rain, and sat back down beside her. Placing one hand on her back firmly, he carefully ran his fingers over the injury.

Gabby fought the shudder that threatened to rake through her whole body. She could feel goosebumps on her stomach as Spot treated her injury by rubbing it softly and cleaning it up. The only thing she could think of was Tyce doing something like this to her against her non-fighting will, only Tyce would have entirely different intentions. But with Spot she could handle this. She could deal with him treating her tummy. She did not mind at all, actually.

Spot finished stroking her stomach gently and Gabby bit her lower lip as he then proceeded to softly blow against her beaten skin with care. Oh, god, Gabby thought, I'm enjoying being taken care of way too much. He continued to smooth out the pain of her scrape, though he could not heal the bruising. And just like that, her ribs did not hurt as badly; though, she was not sure if it was real or just psychological. With a final stroke of his thumb, Spot sealed his work with a kiss just beneath the wound. This could last for longer. Really, I wouldn't mind.

"I'm not entirely sure that was part of the procedure, Dr. Spot," Gabby teased with a smile.

He looked up at her from her abdomen with his big, beautiful eyes. "You gonna fire me?"

The memory of Tyce's similarly colored eyes shot back to her and she immediately shot it back down. She sighed and looked to her side like she was too offended to even answer. Through her pressed lips, a smile grew out of her will. Spot placed a hand to either side of her as he leaned up and kissed her on the cheek.

"Ya know ya can't reject me," he told her in quiet voice.

True, in more ways than one. Gabby weakened a bit as his soft lips pecked slowly at her cheek until they reached her willing lips with a seductive kiss. As if her body had more control than her conscience telling her not to, her hands slowly came up and pushed down the straps of his suspenders quickly.

"Make sure he don't get tired with you," she heard Tyce in her mind. "You'll just be another one 'a his whores."

But before she could let her hands do anything else, Spot was holding the nape of her neck with one hand and unbuttoning the rest of her blouse while their lips were locked firmly together. Gabby opened her eyes and looked to the side as she could not bear to close them sincerely in the kiss. As they parted, he touched his forehead against hers.

"If ya're dyin' to know, we're goin' afta Harlem," he said suddenly.

Gabby's breath caught with her and nestled into a ball into her throat. "Oh?" was all she said. She knew she needed to find that out, but just not like this.

"Ya said ya wanted to know. And it was strange not tellin' ya," he breathed a laugh. "I tell you everythin', it seems."

"Oh. Yeah," she giggled forcibly.

Spot smirked quickly and kissed her once more.

As the Brooklyn leader pressed his lips against hers and traveled down her neck, Gabby stared up at the ceiling. She had to be honest with herself, and the truth was that she could no longer kiss him with closed eyes if she needed to complete her job. Her loyalties lay with Tyce; not kissing Spot. But, although she did not want to admit it to herself, for all along she had denied it, the first real and true emotion came to surface; the burning, stinging pain of guilt.