Evey Hammond dipped the piece of textile into the water bowl. Instantly when the material touched the surface the water got a light red color. This light red color was V's blood. Normally Evey was highly sensitive to blood and open skin. She barely could take care of herself when she cut her finger that it started to bleed. But here she just had to forget her fear for blood. If she'd not take care of V's wounds, they'd get infected, and she couldn't let that happen. V was lying flat on his back, with Evey playing doctor. She didn't know much about what to do with open wounds, but these weren't so deep, so there wouldn't be a huge problem. The only thing that annoyed Evey was that V insisted keeping his shirt on, which made it difficult for her to clean his wounds. She had to clean them as good as she could through the holes in his shirt.

"Are you ok, Evey? I know that you aren't that thrilled of blood." he said with his deep, male voice. He moved his head a little so that he could look at her. Evey didn't look back, she just continued cleaning the wounds with a half-scared expression on her face.

"I'll live…" she droned at last and dipped the tissue into the water again. The water now had a bright, scarlet red color. Evey pushed it lightly away and put some Vodka onto a cotton pad as desinfection. There wasn't a drop of normal, pharmaceutical desinfection in the entire Shadow Gallery. V groaned when he saw the alcohol drop onto the cotton pad.

"It's the finest from Moscow…"

For the first time Evey turned her head to her 'patient' and chuckled.

"If you'd had desinfection maybe I'd spare the Vodka!" she told him and pressed the soaked cotton pad against his wounds.

"Does it burn?" she asked.

"Mm-yeah…" V answered shortly, but Evey understood how he must have felt. Probably like being pierced by a bullet. Or at least something in that style. She knew that getting alcohol into a wound was like rubbing salt into one. For a moment she pitied V, but he just had to take it for a short moment. He'd feel so much better when they had healed. V didn't say much, probably because he knew he'd failed. Creedy had set him up completely and V couldn't do much except escape or getting killed. He chose to escape. For some stupid reason, he had said when coming back. Evey already guessed that he was so annoyed because he had to wait another year to blow up the Houses of Parliament. Everything had worked so perfect, until he had failed. What happened was that Creedy hadn't kept his part of the bargain, he had just shot V directly when he showed up in that tunnel. Sutler had still been underground, and lots of people had been arrested for being out after curfiew. V was physically badly hurt, and his pain was even worse because of the growing feeling of being guilty ate him. He thought he had betrayed all the people of London. He hoped to do things better, but he had only made them worse. Evey had tried to talk to him, but the only thing he had said that he was a total fool, set up by Creedy. 'I should never have trusted him bringing Sutler to me… Even if he had such a good reason…'

"You're done!" Evey said when she had put the last plaster on his wounds. "Can you stand up?"

V made an attempt to sit up, but bumped back again in pain.

"Dammit!" he groaned, very ungentleman-like.

"Where does it hurt?" Evey asked, trying to sound professional. She looked at V with fear in her eyes. If V was hurt as badly as he seemed to be, she had not the foggiest idea of how to take care of him then. He had got stabbed in the stomach by one of Creedy's sharper weapons, and that wound he had still somehow managed to put together himself. Evey was afraid that he was hurt inside.

"Um… Are you ok?" she asked him, biting her lip.

"Don't think so…" V said, laying back and sighing loudly. "That one was quite deep, wasn't it?"

Evey nodded. "I thought you had kinesthesia?"

"Limited." V told her. "Not everyone is perfect." He sighed again.

"Come on, I know it hurts, but you have to get to your room!"

Evey helped V to stand up, which went really slow. V was in very bad pain, but he didn't show it that much. Evey would've already cried a thousand times. That proved what a strong person V actually was. Even when he was an inch from death, he was calm and sensible. Evey would've given anything to be like V. She had never seen him in such a bad condition as this one, but it still proved the point. Getting stabbed half-way into the stomach was anything but pleasant. Evey carefully helped him into his bed and adjusted his pillows. She hoped that he wouldn't faint or anything from the pain. Because if he did, she would really get desperate.

"Can I get you anything?" she asked.

"No, thank you, Evey." V answered and sighed.

Evey sat down on his bed and looked at him. His white mask was slightly glowing in the half-dark room. The milky, white color was like a sharp edge against everything else here, that went by dark, earth tones. The sheets and covers were brown, the stone walls were covered with a sheet that aswell had a brownish color which was hard to describe and the curtains pure black. The room had a strange atmosphere, it was both frightening and cozy. But it was cold thanks to the stone walls. The Shadow Gallery was most of the time quite chilly, when V didn't put the heating on. Evey always wore clothes that were more on the warm side, she could never wear only a T-shirt. Often she froze lightly. V seemed never to be disturbed by the cold. He used to wander around the Shadow Gallery, never complaining about the temperature, which Evey mentioned 3 times a day. But V told her the paintings and sculptures wouldn't stand a too high temperature, so Evey learned to live with it. After all, V had a very good point. These objects in the gallery were worth to freeze for.

"Do you feel better?" Evey asked him to break the silence.

"I do, actually, but I won't be able to go anywhere for quite a good time."

"You mean, like go… Kill people?"

"Yes."

Evey shook her head. "I see."

"I'd go kill Creedy if I could." V said with a slight anger in his voice.

"But you can't!" Evey corrected him.

V cleaned his throat and looked up at Evey.

"That was what I wanted to talk to you about."

V looked at Evey and her frightened facial expression. He knew that what he would ask her to do wouldn't be the easiest thing for her to do, but he didn't have anyone else to ask. Evey just had to listen to what he had to say, think about it and make a decision. That was about it. V knew a thing or two about human anatomy, and according to the damage made to his body, he should stay passive for quite a while. Everyday he'd spend in his bed, would be another day that Creedy would run free. After what happened in the tunnel, V needed to get his revenge.

"Talk to me about what?" Evey asked, fixing her brown eyes on the masked man, worrying about the tone in his voice. She had gone through a lot, a lot of bad things, and she finally hoped that they'd stopped. She hoped that at last her long nightmare was over. But to judge the tone in V's voice, he seemed to have something planned for her.

V cleaned his throat again, trying to pick up the right words from his very large, sophisticated vocabulary. He looked up at Evey again.

"Evey," he started, trying to not sound too serious, for he had noticed he scared her. "As you can see, I am hurt quite badly, and I won't be able to… work for a certain period of time. I don't know for how long, but it will definitely take more than a few months. And I was wondering, for this little period of time, would you… care to take my place?"

Evey found herself staring at V, with her mouth slightly open, trying to understand what he was telling her. Slowly the words reached her consciousness and she understood what he had just told her, one by one.

"What?" she said in a whisper, almost breathing.

Without waiting for an answer, she swallowed hard and cleaned her throat.

"You want me to go and do the job for you?" Evey eventually asked. V nodded.

Evey stood up from the bed, still staring at the masked man, her body temperature rising and giving her a red shade on her cheeks. She was nervous, she didn't know what to say and how to react. She still couldn't understand how V wanted her to go and do his job for him. She had seen how he fought. He was so perfectly agile, so strong and precise. He knew how to use his knives, and he did it with beauty. Everytime his weapon left his hand, it was with such beauty and grace, that even the victim would get stunned shortly before dying. Evey just couldn't see herself in his place. She couldn't understand how V could ask her to do something like that. She wasn't agile, nor precise nor accurate. Trying to be like V would probably just look pathetic.

"V…" Evey started. "How exactly do you want me to that? If you mean playing your role as in killing and using weaponery… I can't do that!" Evey said, quite loudly.

V didn't move. His head was turned to her, and even though he was wearing a mask, Evey could sense that he asked her, begged her to do that. Evey burst out in tears and ran out of the room, heading towards her own. She collapsed onto the bed, crying. What was she up to? She'd do anything for V. Absolutely anything, but killing was really on the edge. Evey didn't want to kill. She didn't want to be a murderer. She was a freedom activist, but slaying another human being would really be too much for her to handle. She wiped her tears away, trying to pull herself together. What was she going to do? After all, the people she was so desperately fighting against killed her parents and her brother. Her family. Her only family. When that happened, she didn't have anything left. What did she have left now? She had V. She loved V. She'd do anything for him. For a moment Evey remembered that time when she was standing under the raining sky, newly released out of that cell V had put her in. She had felt new. Transformed somehow. Evey wasn't that scared little girl that used to work at the BTN, afraid of everyone and everything. She was different now. And if doing what V wanted her to do could help an entire country.

Evey stood up and walked through the room again, going back to V. She thought she'd never accept it, but if this'd really help. She was ready. Evey took a deep breath and knocked on V's door.