Chapter One: One Tough Nurse

It was always the same thing with lex, recklessly doing his job and overworking himself until he passed out, getting sent back to magistrate headquarters for bed rest under the threat of expulsion if he did not comply, yet regardless of his injuries the second he was awake he was gone,

It had gotten to the point they'd started drafting their best troops to try forcing him to stay,

Torvald had tried his sternest look at the overworked and badly bruised enforcer, but lex ignored him and with a hand holding his cracked ribs left for work,

Corvus Had chained him to his bed and left him he'd returned eight hours later finding the limp chains unaware of how he'd escaped,

Skye leaned on the enforcer pressing her large bust to his chest, and aiming her crossbow at his head, "now now handsome, you'd better get some rest or I'll have to punish you,"

Lex himself aimed a gun at her head "do your worst, make it count,"

An odd noise the combination of Gunfire bolts hitting wood, and Skye's usual sexual teasing was heard throughout that wing of the H.Q

And it ended with lex limping out back to work,

Viktor had tried tiring him out, with rigorous training, practice, weapon shining, and even read lex his favourite bedtime story a massive law book, but ended falling asleep himself,

Terminus just watched as lex jumped out of the window,

Lian kicked him out of the headquarters in hopes she'd never get the job again,

Fernando had attempted to take lex out for a night on the town but had quickly lost track of him,

And Vivian knocked him out with carefully placed chloroform, placed several mines containing knockout gas inside his room, and had set up sleep dart traps outside his room,

Yet again somehow lex had disappeared,

Karne was losing hope of seeing lex ever recover, 'we lost more than a soldier when we lost Androxus, we lost the only person Lex listened to,' he thought remembering the tragic day lex had dragged himself back from his fight with his former partner, clutching his revolver in his hand before he passed out, and ever since then lex obsessively worked harder then anyone could keep up, new partners were assigned and left behind unable to keep up with the enforcer,

But soon Karne knew if lex didn't change they'd either fire him, or more likely bury him, he shut his eyes as he thought, about the situation he was in, Lex had returned from battle again and passed out, bullet wounds, fractured bones, burns, scrapes and cuts, and no one could watch over him while he healed, cause the second he woke up, he'd had enough rest, and Karne doubted Lex would listen to any of them anyway,

The silence Karne had become used to in his office was immediately disrupted As she walked in,

Well "walked" was rather generous considering she bashed down his door with her shoulder,

Ash stomped over to the Grandmaster and glared right at him, "Grand-bastard why am I still on leave?!," she demanded pounding his desk with her fists, "didn't I already apologise for whatever I was supposed to?,"

Karne blinked, no matter who explained it to her, or how they explained it ash didn't understand why she needed a break from work, she'd had a day off and had already done everything she'd set out for the month, "you didn't do anything-,"

"Then why am I being punished?," she bellowed so loud Karne was glad she didn't have her armor and cannon with her,

"It is a required holiday, you are required to take it," he said

She gritted her teeth and grabbed him shaking him violently "but I hate it, god damn it, can't you give me an assignment to do?, cause I'm going to go nuts if I have to clean my weapons and armour for the sixtieth time today,"

Suddenly an idea struck him, a way to make this someone else's problem,

"Ash I'll make you a deal, if you can get lex to rest, I'll cut your vacation time down, the longer he rests the less time you have here," he offered, ash dropped him and grinned,

"Ha easy, he'll have enough rest for an army to march on," she said leaving his office to Lex's room,

Karne pressed a button on his desk, "send a new door please, it was ash again,"

Meanwhile at Lex's room

The Hand of Justice had opened his eyes to see no one in his room preventing him from working, "perhaps Karne has accepted that I don't have time to wait dodging his baby sitters and just let me-"

His door imploded and lex shot out of bed and attempted to aim at the intruder, but his injuries brought him to his knees, barely able to even look at the intruder who'd smashed his door to pieces,

"What are you doing here?," he asked, gritting his teeth already knowing the answer,

Ash walked inside, "You listen here, I know you like to get back to work, but right now that mindset is gone, you're going to get back into bed, and go to sleep, or I'm going to play jump chump with ya,"

Lex blinked, "jump chump?,"

Ash walked over to him and picked him up, "it's where I use someone as a jumprope but intentionally land on them every time I jump, the game ends when I miss, with a back breaker,"

Lex groaned placing one of his guns against her temple, "don't think that just cause I'm in pain I wouldn't beat you if we were to fight,"

She threw his covers off his bed "please even if you were at your best and I was at my worst with no armor or weapons you still wouldn't be able to beat me," she said dropping him onto it,

"GAHHH," Lex cried feeling his bones scraping each other, "what's wrong with you?!, your supposed to make sure I don't leave, not break me in half,"

She smiled sweetly at him "don't get out of bed and I won't snap you in two,"

"You ain't gonna stop me," he warned,

"Yeah your busted body seems to be doing most of the work for me," she said turning away from him,

"So that's it?," he asked, "toss me around like a damn salad then leave?," inwardly he smirked 'your making this too easy,'

She walked out of the room and turned left, disappearing behind the wall her footsteps echoing down the hallway,

Lex had already found his courage and was preparing to run to one of his hideout for a change of clothes, the second he couldn't hear her anymore he threw the covers off of himself and slid out of bed,

He immediately fell to his knees in pure agony, but Androxus appeared in his minds eye killing and hurting others as he wished, hunting down whatever gods were left and devouring them,

And the pain numbed, standing as tall as he could Lex holstered his remaining gun on his chest holster and pulled it on, out of habit he checked it, both guns? check, will to fight? check, concern about what that girl will do to him when she realises he didn't listen to her? Not on his life,

Gingerly lex took a small step forward, pain shot through his nerves, it was nature's way of saying "stop idiot you'll never walk again If you keep this up!" He could live with that, he'd already planned it out, disgraced from the magistrate for insubordination, unable to move without falling, he'd get a wheelchair and roll wherever he wanted to go, he'd finally see the realm through the eyes of a traveler, maybe he'd even take M- that Tigran thief up on her offer to move in together,

At that point he wouldn't have anything left to lose,

He took another step but his knee buckled and he barely caught the wall to stop himself from falling,

He shook his head, turning his gaze to the door, "just a few more steps," his words were punctuated with haggard breaths drawn shakily from bruised lungs,

Slowly he continued, leaning onto the wall for support, when he finally made it out of the room,

Suddenly he heard a scraping noise from down the corridor, turning his head he saw the person from before dragging something behind her as she walked towards him, "sh-" in shock his arm fell off the door frame and he fell backwards onto his rough back, "SHIT!," he cried,

The scraping sound stopped, then seemed to get closer faster, Lex tried to crawl back towards his bed but didn't make it in time,

"So ya tried escaping didn't ya?," she asked,

"Can you blame me?," he fired back,

She shrugged helping him onto his feet, and forced him to lean on her, she used one of her feet to push his bed further away from the door, before setting him into it, then she dragged inside. . .

A bed, with a chest of drawers on top of it, she pulled both inside and set them in, she turned to him, "top left is my underwear draw so I'd better not catch you in there, top right is tools, if you need something feel free to borrow it as long as you put it back," she said placing it against the wall, and retrieving a screwdriver which she then used to fix the doors hinges, "incase you're super dumb, I'm your new roommate until I know you ain't trying to leave, the names Ash,"

She covered him over and looked him in the eyes, "and for the record, no I can't blame you."

And so Ash moved in, and Lex realised three very important things, one she was as tough as steel, two she was as stubborn as an old mule, and three she was definitely female,

And he knew those three facts were going to make his resting period hell.

But nevertheless the two somehow found sleep came easy to them, easier than it usually did for either.