"My turn to test you" Rage declared as she scooped up the cards. She did not bother to revert the cards to their original order. Instead she began shuffling the cards immediately. Which meant that not only did Kai have to keep up with the barely visible movements of the cards changing their order. But he had to remember where every card had been in the deck he had shuffled, and apply this knowledge to the rapid movements of the card.

He did not dare blink as he examined the continuously changing order of the cards. His entire body was still, it was unnerving how much he could concentrate.

"I like your friends Kai" Rage said as she changed shuffling styles, trying to catch him off guard.

Humour glinted in Kai's expression, but his concentration wasn't broken. "You've barely met them," he pointed out, without removing his eyes from the cards.

"True" Rage remarked as she pulled a card randomly from the pack, she placed it face down between them. Then she continued to shuffle the cards.

"But I know that if their your friends then they must be special" she said as she placed two more cards face down between them.

Kai raised an eyebrow, not sure how to take that. "Is that good or bad?"

"Probably a bit of both" Rage shrugged before pointing at one of the cards between them. "Tell Me," she ordered.

"Four of clubs" he said without hesitation. It was turned over to reveal he had been right. She pointed to the next one.

"Five of hearts" Again he was right.

He smiled before he named the last card, "the ace of spades." Rage turned it over and gave a small nod when she saw that he had been correct.

"So," he said as she put the cards away. "Are you going to take my advice?"

She bit her lip nervously as she placed the cards back in the drawer. "If you help me then I will," she said finally.

"I could probably manage that" he confirmed, he looked around as if readying to leave. Then he halted suddenly.

"Kai? What is it?" Rage asked worriedly.

"I'm just…I'm really glad that you're here" Kai looked almost shy as he gave a half smile.

"Me too Kai" Rage looked down at her lap for a moment as she organised her thoughts. "I really missed you," she confessed awkwardly.

"Me too" Kai confirmed, they both avoided each other's gazes for a moment. Neither were used to confessing how they felt, hiding feelings had been a daily part of the abbey. Friendship had been one of those hidden things, the realisation that they could do something even as simple as smile at each other without getting punished was mind-blowing for both of them. It was Rage who finally broke the silence.

"Seeing as you're going to talk to the doctor people here. You can tell them that there is no way that I am spending the night here." Rage grimaced at the mere thought of that. She paused to think before she continued.

"And I need something to wear because I really, really hate these clothes."

Kai examined the shapeless white hospital gown she was wearing. "I can see why" he smiled; dodging the halfhearted punch she sent his way. He jumped off the bed and headed for the door, he felt happy. That seemed weird; he'd felt all right before, but not usually so happy that even his dark past didn't seem to spoil his mood. It felt kind of nice.

He walked up to the small crowd of which four were his team and the remaining two were the doctor Giles and Mr Dickinson. His smile slipped from his face as he remembered his duty to protect Rage. It would be hard to convince the adults to let her leave the hospital, but there was absolutely no way that she could bear to be in this place for a whole night. 'Might as well get straight to the point' he thought to himself.

"Rage isn't staying here tonight." Kai steadied himself, for the arguments.

"Don't you think that the doctor should decide that Kai?" Mr Dickinson tried reasoning with him.

"No" was the teen's deliberately cold response.

"Kai" Giles began, "I'm very sorry but with your friend being in the condition that she is…" Kai, who defiantly wasn't hiding his dislike for the doctor, cut him off.

"No I'm very sorry doctor" Kai said his voice dripping with sarcasm. "But there isn't a snowball's change in hell that she is going to stay in a place like this a second more than she needs to. And seeing as she can walk she's ready to leave now. So either you let her leave now, or she'll leave herself before morning comes."

"He's absolutely right," a female voice behind him confirmed, "Although I might have worded it a little less sarcastic."

Kai didn't have to look behind him to know that it was Rage. The dark haired girl stepped forward to stand next to him.

"Well I might perhaps be able to sort out a short term placement through social services." Mr Dickinson considered.

"No" Kai said firmly "She stays with me."

Rage unconsciously moved a little closer to Kai, horrified at the thought of being split up from him. Kai's reaction was the same.

"I'm really not sure about this Mr Dickinson." Doctor Giles cautioned the older man.

"Mr Dickinson?" Rage whispered quietly to herself.

"You're really slow if you've only just recognised him." Kai commented with a tone of amusement in his voice.

"Hey!" Rage growled giving him a small shove. "I haven't seen him in like six years, give me a break!"

"So did he think that you were dead too?" Kai asked, confused at how she had seemingly been hidden for the last six years. It looked like no one had seen her for the last six years, or at least, himself and Mr Dickinson hadn't.

"Dunno" Rage shrugged, "But he is standing right there, so you could just ask him you know."

Kai rolled his eyes before turning his attention to Mr Dickinson. The old man looked completely confused, apparently he didn't recognise Rage either.

"Mr Dickinson" Kai began knowing that he would have to remind the BBA director if he was going to get any answers.

"Rage was Kay Hunter, or Schild depending on whether you use her mother's or father's last name. You saw her at you're visits to the abbey."

"Only I hate that name now, so I only use the name Rage." Rage added firmly.

Mr Dickinson's eyes widened as astonishment covered his expression. He looked back and forth between Rage and Kai with his mouth opening and closing. At last he managed to splutter out a word.

"Oh my goodness."

Flashback

"Kai" Voltaire said, kneeling down till he was eye level with the young boy. "This is Mr Dickinson, a associate of mine. Why don't you introduce yourself to him while I show some of his colleges around? Does that sound good to you?"

It wasn't really a question but the five year old nodded anyway. He stared at the moustached man with open curiosity as his grandfather and the other men walked away. The small boy still had his arm in a sling from where his grandfather had broken it. That had been roughly a week ago.

"Hello to you Kai" Mr Dickinson said with a wide smile, he'd been looking forward to meeting Voltaire's grandson ever since his old friend had mentioned having one. Children were so innocent and carefree that Mr Dickinson had always regretted never having any of his own, but he had been married to his job so sadly his time had passed.

The small slate haired boy remained silent, his eyes wide as he gazed up at the stranger. So Mr Dickinson decided on a different approach.

"How did you do that?" he asked pointing to the bandage wrapping the boy's right arm.

"I fell" Kai answered immediately. The sadness in the child's voice struck an alarm inside of the older man. But he dismissed it as normal, after all the child had just lost his parents only less than a year before.

"Hey Kai!" came a searching yell. The boy looked around expectantly as a small girl just a little younger than him came running up.

"Where you been Kai?" the aqua eyed girl asked curiously, "I been lookin' everywhere."

Her long sheet of jet-black hair flowed across her back as she tilted her head inquisitively. Suddenly she noticed the adult, "Who's he?" she said with wide eyes.

"Hello there" Mr Dickinson said kindly as he kneeled down with the help of his cane so that he was eye level with the young children.

"Hi" the little girl said as she opened and closed her hand in a small wave of greeting. Then her astonished expression melted into a huge smile.

"My name's Kay" she said with a grin, "what's yours?"

"My name is Mr Dickinson," he said in a friendly voice. She was positively adorable and seemed to talk enough for both Kai and her, which might explain why he was so quiet.

Her blue green eyes widened again as she took in his appearance. His greying moustache and balding head must seem so odd to one so young. He was proven right by her next comment.

"Are you really, really old?" she asked, her gleaming eyes as wide as saucers.

"Not as old as you'd think" he chuckled at her expression; she was the picture of innocence.

"So are you two friends?" he questioned them companionly. Surprisingly, it was Kai who answered.

"Yeah" the slate haired child answered with a cautious smile. "Kay's my bestest friend" he said softly as he instinctively slipped his hand into her's.

End Flashback

As Mr Dickinson had continued to visit the abbey every year he had watched them grow. But they had always remained together; with each passing year that he had visited his suspicions had grown. Both of them had become paler and more reserved, and almost always they had one wound or another. Whenever he asked them about it they always claimed that they had fell. But their expressions and the amount of wounds they had would arise suspicions in them. The lack of proof had always frustrated him, it seemed that the proof had arrived a little too late.

"You've grown up" Mr Dickinson exclaimed, "the last time I saw you, you were looking forward to your ninth birthday. When you weren't there the next year when I checked the abbey, they told me that you'd gone to live with your mother."

Kai felt Rage tense beside him and he knew what was going through her head. She always acted this way when her mother was mentioned, she always avoided the subject. Memories like that were raw in both their hearts, it hurt to think of the past and Rage's mother brought up particularly sore memories for her. Instinctively his hand folded over one of her's, giving it a reassuring squeeze.

"They lied" she remarked softly, her eyes fixed on the floor as she squeezed his hand gratefully.

"So" Kai said, his expression giving away nothing. "Can she stay with me?"

"I could never split you two up" Mr Dickinson said, his eyes twinkling with the memories of them growing up together. The year after Rage had left, Kai had seemed so lonely and angry at everything. Now that they were back together, it just seemed right somehow.

"Although, Kai, are you sure that you can manage? She is quite wounded."

Kai shrugged, "I've done it before, I can manage." Kai tensed slightly as he realised what he had just said. His team looked at him with expressions of confusion and pity. He felt angry because of that, he hated it when people pitied him.

"I can set up police to guard the hotel tonight" Mr Dickinson reasoned, "but I'll need you two to talk to the police soon so that we can sort this out, is that alright?"

Kai turned slightly to capture Rage's aqua gaze with his fiery one, he saw things hidden in her eyes that most people would miss. Pain, exhaustion and fear, as well as a determination that was probably one of the only things keeping her on her feet at the moment.

"In the morning" Kai confirmed, knowing that it would be too hard on her to sort this out tonight.

Mr Dickinson nodded and went over all the emergency contact numbers with Kai while the nurse who had successfully injected Rage went to get some clothes for her.

Ten minutes later Rage emerged from her room wearing a baggy blue t-shirt. A pair of jeans that was a little too big for her, but which she held up with a red belt. A red hoody with a comfortable large front pocket in which she was currently storing her blade, cards and the few other small possessions she owned. And a pair of black trainers that bore a vast amount of mysterious scraping on them. The fact that they were all from the recently deceased didn't bother her; there were more important things to worry about.

"I'm tired," she said, sleepily rubbing her eyes. Suddenly her eyes widened as she looked suspiciously at the people waiting in the hallway.

"I am allowed to be tired, aren't I?" she asked, concerned.

"Yeah, don't worry." Kai answered reassuringly. He remembered the times when so much as a yawn would earn a punishment. Anything that could indicate weakness was punished.

"Why would you think that you weren't allowed to be tired?" Tyson asked curiously.

"Why wouldn't I?" Rage answered evenly.

"Um" Ray interrupted the interesting standoff. "It's getting dark, we should head back to the hotel."

"I've got the bus waiting outside" Mr Dickinson said, "Your match tomorrow isn't until the afternoon. So I'll come around at about nine-tomorrow morning with the police."

The others walked off, although Rage hesitated for a moment. "Nice to see you again Mr Dickinson" she said with a glimmer of a smile, before catching up with Kai.

"You too my child" Mr Dickinson replied. He would make sure that she stayed safe. The BBA director smiled as Rage shyly slipped her hand into Kai's. The slate haired teen leaned close to the girl to hear something she whispered in his ear. It was as if they'd never been apart, only now it was even better. As if they were free of something that had been scaring them when they were children. Now they were free, and together, and Mr Dickinson would try his hardest to make it stay that way.

My sisters are watching charmed in the background and i can't really concentrate, so tell me if i've made any major errors with this. Anyhow, theres another chapter. Please review.

Pishcules: Thank you so much for your reviews.

MsKai: Thanks for your review. I made up the scars, but as you so rightly said he doesn't take his top off in the show. So as far as we know, he could be hiding scars underneath it like he is in my fic.