Sorry I didnt submit sooner. It appears the site was having problems with servers. Anyway, heres the next chapter.

After the intense battle that had taken place between Nina and the lone hit man, her young Chinese neighbor hauls her outside into the chilly damp hallway. The humid temperature from the cool air conditioner, which blew from the ventilation shafts, breezed up her short denim dress as she struggled to get the young assassin out the door. Nina staggered achingly across the hallway as Ling strived to keep her on her feet as best as she could, while going down to the 3rd floor of the apartment complex.

Frequent moaning was heard from the bruised assassin's faint lips as she struggled heavily to walk on both legs. There was hardly ever a time she could remember where she had been beaten up so badly since normally it was her foe walking away with the injured limbs.

With Ling eyeing her caringly, she could tell just by looking at the young assassin how banged up she was. Nina's arms continuously drooped to the floor with no strength to keep them elevated.

In the thighs of her legs she felt nothing but numbness, making it much harder for her to walk. Through the hall and down the steps, Nina limped the rest of the way.

When they finally reached Xiaoyu's room, the young Chinese schoolgirl brought Nina over to the couch to lie down, while she fetched the needed materials to fix her up. Ling then went over to the bathroom to look for a first aid kit. She wasn't a doctor of course, but she did know a thing or two about treating wounds.

Peering into the wooden cabinet, she discovered what looked to be a bunch of bandages placed neatly in a small white box. Luckily, they appeared to be just the right size for Nina's wounds.

In the kitchen Xiaoyu went to take a few ice cubes from the tray in the freezer and place them in a plastic bag. Back over on the large fluffy couch in the living room, Nina laid as if she was dying, staring up at the ceiling with her eyeballs nearly closed and large portions of sweat running down her slim frame. The suffering pain she felt from the battle increased as she tried to straighten her legs up on the sofa

Soon, Xiaoyu came back with a glass of water, a bag of ice, and some bandages taken from the bathroom in hand. It seemed she knew exactly what was needed.

Nina took hold of the bag of ice with her right hand and placed it gently on her throbbing forehead as she gulped down the cool refreshing liquid Xiaoyu had given her. After drinking the water, her throat felt completely replenished, enabling her to speak clearly.

Xiaoyu then placed the bandages on all her cuts and cleaned off some of the bruises with a wet washcloth. Watching her awkwardly, the Irish assassin could not understand as to why the young Chinese student was being so kind to her. It didn't seem to make much sense at all.

Why was Xiaoyu helping a mean, disrespectful woman who never seemed to like anybody?

Before Nina could ask the question herself, there was a thunderous loudknock heard at Xiaoyu's door. The noise caused a bit of a problem that forced her to take her attention off of Nina for a minor second.

Through the small peephole, Ling saw a tall, dark, cleanly shaven man wearing a black outfit similar to the one the assassin that came after Nina was wearing. Quickly startled by his appearance, she backed away from the door and dragged Nina out of the room in an attempt to hide her from the hit man that stood outside her door.

Losing his patience, the man violently kicked the door off its hinges and sent it flying across the room on to the nicely vacuumed carpet. He emerged from the outside inviting himself in, scanning the room thoroughly for any signs of life.

The place was strangely quiet without any signs of activity going on, and he knew he had heard something before he even came inside. The first area he decided to inspect was the kitchen, which seemed to be a really tidy area. He knocked over the tables and searched the cupboards wildly throwing out everything he saw in sight.

Not finding anything, he goes over into Xiaoyu's room after leaving her kitchen a complete mess. Examining the room while tearing everything apart, he doesn't manage to find anything.

There was nothing left but one more room…….the parents room. He viscously kicked the door down and searched under the beds of Xiaoyu's mother and father before flipping them over on their sides.

His eyesdarted towards the closet, which seemed to be the only remaining place left to hide now. Ripping the closet apart with his bare hands, he started plowing through all the clothes trying to see if anyone one was hiding inside, but to no avail.

Now he was completely stumped. There was nowhere left in the room to hide so where could the two have possibly gone? Deciding to check outside, he leaves the area and heads down the fire escape into the ally. Suddenly, Ling and Nina emerge from a secret door that happened to be hidden underneath a rug in the middle of the living room.

"Phew! That was a close one. I thought he'd find us for sure! Ling said wiping the sweat off her sweaty forehead.

Nina agreed with a slight grin. She had Xiaoyu to thank for her being alive right now. Who would have thought that a Chinese student would end up saving the life of a hunted assassin?

It was quite a funny thought, but Nina wasn't laughing. The whole thing didn't seem very hysterical to her. Instead she stared down at Xiaoyu in wonder, wondering why a young girl had gone so far to help her and even save her life. She knew if it weren't for this little girl, that assassin probably would have found and killed her right on the spot. That was apparent to her. Looking at Xiaoyu, she couldn't help but ask the question that had been plaguing her mind since she was dragged from her room.

"I don't understand. Why did you help me? Especially after the way I treated you."

The young teenager smiled innocently and wrapped her arms tightly around Nina's waist, hugging her.

"You might act like a mean person on the outside, but I think you're actually a really sweet person on the inside. I believe you just have a hard time showing affection, that's all," replied Xiaoyu, in an understanding tone of voice.

Nina wanted to shove Xiaoyu away and scold her, but couldn't go through with it. Ling's kind words were more than enough to justify the reason. It brought a warm feeling to the believed to be cold, icy heart of the Irish assassin. But despite how nice it sounded, Nina did not believe it. She thought after everything she's done in her life how could she possibly be considered nice? There was no clue as to why Xiaoyu thought that about her, except maybe it just being her own logic. Whatever the reason, Nina didn't worry about it for very long.

With the assassin's knowing the location of her home, Nina thought it would be best to leave the apartment and move somewhere else for the time being. Xiaoyu, not wanting her to go, pleaded the young assassin to stay. But begging was not going to make Nina change her mind one bit. Staying in the apartment could jeopardize both her life and Xiaoyu's. This was so unusual and quite an unexpected surprise as Nina was actually caring about another human other than herself.

"Please Nina, don't go! I wont let you!" Xiaoyu cried trying to force her into staying.

It was sad seeing the little teenager cry, but Nina had to move on despite how she felt. The area wasn't safe and her life would be in even more danger if she were to hang around any longer. To stop Xiaoyu from crying, Nina told her she wasn't moving after all and that she was going to stay. This was great news to Xiaoyu as she wiped the sobbing tears from her moist eyes feeling much better.

But she did not know that Nina was actually lying to her in order to stop her constant whining. She was really going to stay for one day and leave afterwards. After all, she had a date with Steve tomorrow and she did not want to just walk out on him without at least seeing his face one last time.

With the hit men gone for now, Nina headed back up to her room to relax and prepare for the next day. Looking through her closet, she searched for the most appropriate attire she could find to wear to dinner tomorrow. There really wasn't much of a large selection for her to choose from. At the end of the closet, she found a one-piece outfit that she hadn't worn in such a long time. Brushing some of the dust off of it, she threw in on and checked herself in the mirror.

"Not bad," she thought.

Later, she went to bed and goes straight to sleep, looking forward to having dinner with her son.