The next morning, Alex leaned against the elevator bank while waiting for Winn and Johnson, the agent who was tasked with keeping Winn safe between his living quarters and the DEO. As the elevator dinged for the umpteenth time, she looked over her shoulder to check who was exiting, and upon seeing her friend, she straightened up and called his name.

Winn looked around, spotted her, and limped over, Johnson not far behind him. Thankfully, Winn was still wearing his knee brace and sling. He hadn't chosen to reattach the gauze on his cheek, but the cuts seemed small and closed enough that that wasn't necessary. Other than that, he seemed in relatively good spirits considering what had happened to him last night.

"How are you doing this morning?" she asked, as she pulled him into a gentle hug.

"I feel old," he mumbled into her shoulder.

"Did you take your meds?"

"Yes, mom. All four sets of 'em." With a sigh, he pulled away. "You can call James if you don't believe me."

"No need," she said. "I trust you."

Winn smiled lopsidedly at her, then asked, "Did you find anything at my place?"

Alex shook her head, which caused Winn's eyebrows to rise in shock.

"Nothing at all?"

"No." She went on to reiterate what Stoller, Pace and Barnes, their superior, had discovered at Winn's apartment. Or, more accurately, what they hadn't.

"Well I might be imagining my stuff being out of place, but there's no way I imagined getting beat-up in a dark alley. That's too Steve Rogers-y for me."

"We'll keep at it, okay?" Alex said, rubbing her hand up and down his sling-less arm. "If you say there was someone there, there was. It's just a matter of finding out how they got in."

"Okay," Winn responded, but his mood seemed rather dampened by her news.

"Did you eat this morning?" she asked, partially because she knew he had a habit of skipping meals when he was stressed, but also for a long overdue change of topic.

"Yeah. We stopped for breakfast burritos outside of James' place. Speaking of," he looked over his shoulder to where Agent Johnson was standing and held out his hand. Johnson pursed his lips unhappily but handed over the paper bag he was carrying. "We got one for you and Papa Bear." Winn then looked over Alex's shoulder and scanned the floor. "Where is the boss man anyway?"

"I got it from here, Johnson." Alex rested her hand on Winn's shoulder and the two started walking down the mezzanine toward the offices and labs. "J'onn is in his office. And based on the morning so far, he could probably really use that."

"That bad, huh?"

"You know he doesn't do well when members of his team are hurt." That was perhaps the understatement of the day. Alex had only been at work for an hour, but in that time, J'onn's responses had been shorter and curter than she had ever heard them.

Winn winced, which caused Alex to gently swat his uninjured shoulder.

"Don't make that face. It wasn't your fault."

"You could have said that without the slapping," Winn grumbled as he rubbed at the part of his shoulder his slinged arm could reach. "That was the only part of me that didn't hurt."

Before Alex could determine if he was serious, Winn spoke up again. "I assume you guys started running down connections to my dad?"

"Yup. His old friends and associates, Chester Dunholtz, everyone who was at Toycon. We're also looking at cases you've worked since starting at the DEO. It's possible someone is out for revenge and is using the Toyman bit to throw us off the case."

"That's quite the list. I can—"

This was the part Alex had been dreading all morning, ever since J'onn had put out the mandate during the morning sync. "You'll do nothing, unfortunately."

Winn stopped in his tracks, causing Alex, who was still holding onto his shoulder, to do the same. "You're kidding me, right?"

Alex shook her head. "If it turns out this case is purely personal, we can't have you in the chain of evidence."

"That's…" he struggled to find the right word.

"Wrong, I know. But it's SOP when—"

"I was going to say bullshit," Winn interjected, "but 'wrong' works too." He shifted so he was facing her fully. "So what am I supposed to do? Stay with James and twiddle my thumbs while you guys find the guy who's after me?"

"No. You can continue to work our current cases, which will free up resources to investigate yours."

The vein in Winn's jaw throbbed visibly and Alex began bracing herself for a more serious confrontation. But then, Winn's shoulders slumped and he shook his head while cursing under his breath. "Fine," he said softly. "If that's what I need to do."

"I'm as unhappy about it as you—" Alex tried, but Winn shook his head.

"I know. It's protocol. You don't need to explain." He shoved the bag of burritos at her. "Look, I got a lot of work to do. Would you mind giving that to J'onn?"

Without waiting for a reply, he turned on his heel and began walking back toward the elevator.

"Winn, wait."

Her friend turned around and smiled sadly. "I get it, Alex, don't worry. Doesn't mean I have to like it." Then, he shrugged his uninjured shoulder. "Let me know what you come up with?"

"You know that I will."

"How did he take it?" J'onn asked as Alex entered his office. He seemed to be in a marginally better mood than he had been this morning, but Alex knew it was temporary at best, until they had some real answers about Winn's case.

"Not well. But I don't think you expected it to." Without being invited, she sat down across from him and opened the brown paper bag. Two burritos and matching sides of salsa sat there, each labelled with their filling's ingredients. Of course, Winn had gotten her favorite, which made the news she'd just dropped even worse.

She handed over J'onn's food and rolled the top of the bag closed. Despite having not eaten this morning, she wasn't very hungry.

"It's protocol, Alex."

She stared at him, watching as he unwrapped his burrito—rather nonchalantly, all things considered. "And yet I get the sense you don't really expect him to stay out of it."

"I'd give it an hour, max," J'onn replied, before digging into his food. "But if he can hide his trail and attribute any work to someone else, we have the chain of evidence we'd need to take whoever did this to a fair trial."

Alex wanted to reply that J'onn should have just told Winn that, but she knew that then the situation wouldn't be totally above-board for a potential trial. It had had to play out just as it had with Winn not being the wiser. Though, he was a genius; she was sure he suspected. Or if he didn't now, he would soon. It wasn't like they'd gone out of their way to remove his access to any of the files...

"Have there been any updates since the sync-up?" she then asked.

"Not yet. While there are many people who have spoken out against Toyman, very few have expressed intent to hurt his family as well. We're sorting through Senior's prison correspondences, as well as any available data with a Toyman reference. But it's slow going."

"Anything on the cases Winn has worked since becoming an agent?"

"I was hoping you could take point on that," J'onn replied. "I have a call with the President in a few minutes."

"Absolutely."

When J'onn didn't offer anything else, Alex took that as her cue to leave. On her way out of his office, she pulled out her phone and began assembling a team to run down anyone who had a grudge against Winn.

Around eleven, Alex texted Winn to ask him to stop by the medbay over lunch. There was a treatment she wanted to try, which done daily, should reduce the swelling in his knee and hopefully accelerate his recovery.

Given the way they'd left things this morning, she wouldn't have been surprised if he'd ignored her, but not long after she'd send the message, she received a single letter reply: k .

Better than nothing.

Around noon, she was eating a slightly soggy cafeteria sandwich when Winn limped in, sans sling.

She knew she shouldn't say anything, since, really, she expected him to shed it at some point, but her morning spent tracking down anyone who would want to hurt Winn had been less than fruitful, and the frustration at that situation caused the following words to slip out before she could stop them: "You couldn't have left the sling on a little bit longer?"

Winn frowned and his eyes flitted back toward the door, as if reconsidering his plan to show up. But then he took a measured breath and asked, thinly, "Is that why you wanted to see me?"

"No. Sorry." Alex wiped her hands on a napkin then stood up. "I want you to try The Tube," a device he had helped her calibrate last winter that, when used daily, had great results accelerating healing of injured bones and joints, "on your knee. And now I guess your shoulder too."

Winn's posture relaxed. Slightly.

"Okay," he said. His tone was still a little tense, but it was drastically different than before.

Progress.

"Change into these," she said, holding out a pair of loose-legged scrubs, "so I can take another look at your knee."

After Winn had shuffled to the adjacent bathroom, changed, and hopped onto the exam table with only minor difficulty, Alex unstrapped the knee brace and slid it off his leg.

"How is it feeling?"

"Stiff, sore, a little unsteady."

"Pain?"

"A little."

She then rested her hands on the side of his knee and moved it around as gently as she could before she lowered his foot to the exam table. "Doesn't seem any worse than yesterday."

"Told you," Winn retorted, which lifted Alex's spirit ever so slightly.

She pushed up the leg of the scrubs to get a better look. "You got some nice swelling going on there," she commented as she palpated it a bit more.

Winn shrugged, then slipped his phone out of his pocket and began typing away while she worked.

When she was finished with her exam, she slid his leg into The Tube and closed the top half over it. "We'll start with fifteen minutes today, then hit your shoulder for about five after."

"Okay," Winn said before laying his head back against the pillow, dropping his phone against his chest, crossing his arms with a slight wince, and closing his eyes.

Now that he was situated, Alex allowed her gaze to travel over her friend. His cheek was looking better, but the bags around his eyes had deepened since this morning at the elevator bank, and his complexion was trending toward peaky.

"Did you get any sleep last night?"

"A little," Winn said with a half-hearted shrug, eyes still closed. "James was up too, so we ended up watching this new Christmas movie—"

"Don't tell me it was Holly and Ivy. I've been wanting to see that one."

Winn's eyes flew open and he propped himself up on his uninjured side, levelling Alex with an overacted look of betrayal. "Not you too."

"What, you don't like Christmas either?"

"Christmas is fine. In December. In July, when it's eleventy billion degrees out, not so much."

"Oh come on. That's what makes it so fun."

Winn shook his head, his expression deadly serious. "If you celebrate for six months, when the day comes around, it's not special. It need to be contained." He gestured by pulling the tips of his fingers together.

"That is not a thing in the Danvers household. Kara listens to Christmas music year round. She probably has a fake tree up already."

"Color me surprised," Winn deadpanned.

Alex snorted then said, "If you can't sleep again tonight, they're airing another one with Broadway star Taron Aveit, who, objectively, is fine."

"No!" Winn wiped his flat hand horizontally to emphasize his point. "No more Christmas until December. Sci-fi and drama only until the big day."

"Whatever you say, Winn." Still grinning, Alex turned her attention back to the displays on top of The Tube. "Readouts are looking good. How's it feel?"

"Warm. Tingly. But it doesn't hurt if that's what you're after."

"Good. I'll set a timer for another ten minutes, then we'll move it to your shoulder."

Seeing Winn nod, Alex stood to give him this time alone, but to her surprise, he caught her arm. "Thanks for believing me," he said softly. "About my apartment."

"Always." She rested her free hand on Winn's and squeezed gently. "We'll find whoever did this. I promise."

Winn nodded again, though his expression told a different story. Regardless, he released his grip on Alex's arm and closed his eyes again.

Alex stared at him for another moment, her brain rattling with things unsaid, before she headed off to the other side of the lab to give him some space.

Winn wasn't very hungry but Alex had freed him from The Tube early enough that he had time to grab a sandwich from the cafeteria on his way back to his desk. He wasn't an idiot; he knew his body needed calories to heal. Mostly though, he didn't feel like incurring Kara's wrath, which would inevitably happen if she found out he'd skipped lunch. He'd already recovered from being on shaky ground with one Danvers' sister today, and he hadn't enjoyed a single second of it. There was no need for a repeat performance.

As he limped back to his desk, sandwich in hand, he had to admit that either The Tube was one helluva placebo or his shoulder and knee were actually feeling a bit better. It hadn't hurt quite so much to put weight on his knee, and as he got back to work, he discovered typing hurt slightly less, especially reaching out to tap the escape key to switch out of vi's insert mode.

As the afternoon wore on, he easily lost himself in running down his share of the bank robbery suspects, as well as triaging other possible issues that arose over the course of his workday. And if he occasionally checked on the progress on his own case by pinging his request of Vasquez' computer, no one was the wiser.

Unfortunately, they were making about as much progress as he was. No relations to the people his father had killed had moved anywhere close to National City, or travelled here in the last few days. Winn had wanted more information, but had backed out on the files when he thought his activity was drawing attention.

By the end of the shift, he and the rest of the analysts had eliminated almost all of the Doxans, Pieranese, and Knoxtecs across the United States as suspects for the bank robbery, and had moved on to tracing the list of items reported missing, now that NCPD had interviewed the owners of the boxes that had been opened. In addition to cash, there were missing bonds, stock certificates, jewelry, and a lot of sentimental objects, none of which had turned up in any search so far.

Just as Winn had logged out and was preparing to leave for the day, J'onn walked into the command center and stood next to his workstation.

"Hey, boss man," Winn said, with the feeling that whatever came next was not going to be good.

J'onn however smiled warmly. "How are you feeling today?"

"Good as can be expected," Winn replied, still waiting for the proverbial shoe to drop. "Alex did some mojo on me over lunch and I'm on my way back to normal."

J'onn didn't look convinced but he nodded anyway. "I assume you'll be staying by James again tonight?"

"Well, actually, since they didn't find anything at my place and you're going to have Johnson stay with me anyway, I was hoping I could stay at my place." When J'onn's expression drifted toward a frown, Winn was quick to add, "My security system is better, and I was going to pick up some cameras on the way home. Plus, it's more familiar to me, in case something does happen." Not that he wasn't grateful to James for putting him up, but the unfamiliarity of the guest bedroom had stressed him out more than he'd cared to admit. When he inevitably woke up in a panic, he wanted to be at his own place, in his own room, with his own security system he'd poured a lot of time and effort into perfecting.

J'onn was quiet for a long moment. "I strongly advise against it, but I suspect we're never going to agree. So we will compromise. There will be a car outside your building, and Johnson will set-up outside your door, in addition to those cameras you're purchasing."

That was as good as Winn could have hoped. "Yes, sir."

J'onn nodded. "Good. Now, try to get some sleep tonight," he said as he gently rested a hand on Winn's injured shoulder. "We need you at your best tomorrow."

Winn nodded quickly, then hurried from the command center before J'onn could change his mind.

He was met at the elevator bank by Agent Johnson.

"I heard we're stopping at an electronics store," was all the agent said, before calling the elevator.

"It'll be quick," Winn promised. "Just need to get some security cameras for my apartment."

Johnson nodded, and they rode the elevator silently down to the garage, where they were met by another agent, who was leaning against a black SUV.

"Smith," Johnson had said, by way of introduction, before motioning for Winn to get in the backseat of the SUV.

A Matrix reference immediately popped into Winn's brain, but he bit it back as it seemed in poor taste to insult the man who was responsible for keeping him safe that night. Instead, he gave the address of the electronics shop, then sat back and watched National City go back from the safety of tinted, bullet-resistant windows.

True to his word, once they entered the store, Winn had made his way to the exact aisle and picked his choice of cameras in under a minute. At checkout, Barry, the cashier, tried to strike up their usual conversation, but his enthusiasm waned when Winn didn't respond in kind.

"You okay?" he asked, shooting Johnson a pointed look.

"Yeah. Just work stuff." Winn gave Barry the most winning smile he could muster. "I'll stop by next week and tell ya all about it."

Barry nodded as he handed Winn the receipt. "I'll hold you to that."

They stopped for take-out on the way home, with Johnson going in to pick it up and Winn staying in the car with Smith, who after being asked, revealed he'd been at the DEO for almost ten years.

"Why haven't I ever seen you around before?" Sure Winn had been there only a year, but he'd run into most agents, even off-duty ones, at some point or another.

Smith just continued looking out the windshield. "I am very good at what I do," he said, with a pointed glance back at Winn.

"So no sneaking out my window tonight," he muttered to himself in jest. "Got it."

The look Smith fixed him with was almost enough for Winn to consider deploying his Matrix reference.

Back at Winn's apartment complex, they divvied up the food, then Johnson escorted Winn up to his apartment. After clearing the hallway, he made Winn wait there while he entered the apartment, disarmed the alarm (and ugh, Winn was going to have to change the code, again) and cleared it.

Once Winn was allowed in, Johnson excused himself to the hallway, where he'd placed a folding chair he'd brought up from the car.

"Are you sure you don't want something else to sit on?" Winn asked, feeling uneasy that the man was going to be so uncomfortable all night, or at least until his shift was over. "You can have one of my armchairs."

"I will be just fine, Agent Schott. Now, go inside, set up your cameras, and lock your door."

Realizing he wasn't going to win, Winn thanked Johnson, then closed and locked his door.

He had intended on setting up the cameras first, but his stomach chose that moment to growl noisily. Instead, he sat down at his small breakfast table and unpacked his containers of Thai food. Though his right shoulder was feeling better much better than it had been this morning, it still twinged unhappily when Winn tried to bring food from the container to his mouth. With Alex's voice running through his head and warning him not to aggravate his shoulder, he then attempted to eat with his left hand. That lasted about a minute before he brought the container up to his mouth, moved the fork to his right hand and just shoveled it in with as small motions as possible.

When he was done, he began unboxing the security cameras and, with some difficulty, placing them around his apartment. He almost called in Agent Johnson when his shoulder refused to reach all the way up to the ceiling to place the final one in the main room, but in the end, he decided against it and placed it as high as he could reach. If someone could get in undetected through that last foot, they had bigger problems.

After checking the system thoroughly, Winn looked out the window and spotted the SUV parked right outside the entrance to the apartment complex. As if sensing he was being watched, Agent Smith looked up from the driver's seat and made eye contact with Winn, who waved before pulling his curtains closed and headed to his bedroom to start his nighttime routine.

With all the stress of the day, and how poorly he'd slept last night, he crashed not long after.

Beep.

"Noooo," Winn groaned as he was cruelly thrust back into consciousness. He fumbled with his nightstand, searching for his phone to snooze his alarm, when he heard the sound again. He was awake enough this time to realize it hadn't come from his room.

It sounded like… his microwave?

But he was the only person in his apartment.

Which meant only one thing: a bomb!

Winn tumbled out of bed, not crashing to the floor in a tangle of limbs but it was a close thing. His knee was stubbornly stiff after not being moved all night, but Winn didn't have time to search for the brace. In fact, in the space of a second, he considered trying to find the bomb, but decided he didn't have time for that either. He had no idea how long it had been beeping before he woke up. His only priority was getting out of the apartment ASAP.

On his way out of the room, he grabbed his watch then popped open the face and punched the button to alert Kara while he hobble-sprinted his way across his apartment.

As he passed his desk, he swept up two of his laptops without stopping, and cursed the fact that was he was leaving his fully-customized, self-built desktops.

That was when he saw his microwave lit up and heating something on the turntable—something Winn hadn't put there—and picked up his pace.

Someone had been in his apartment. Had put a bomb in his microwave. And his security system hadn't gone off.

Winn made it to the door where he yanked at the various locks and threw himself into the hallway. Since he hadn't disarmed his security system first, it began blaring loudly.

Johnson was on his feet in an instant, gun out and ready. Winn barely found the breath to tell him, "Bomb," before Johnson had thrown himself over Winn, somehow yanking the fire alarm in the process, and the two braced themselves for the explosion.