On her way back into the small, one room building that had become her and Mia's temporary living conditions, Nora was stopped by the woman who they were renting the former shed from. She winced a little to herself before stopping and turning around as she admitted, "I don't have it yet."

"You told me that you would have the money by today at the latest," the woman insisted. "You know I can't let you and your sister keep staying here if you aren't going to pay your rent. You aren't the only ones who are going through tough times and I can't afford to take care of anyone else."

"I know," Nora responded as she pleaded with her eyes. "Just please. Give me one more week. I promise I'll have it."

The other woman let out a sigh and debated with herself for a moment before she finally gave in. "Fine. One week. Count tonight as night one. If I don't have the money by night seven, then I'm throwing you and your sister out. No exceptions."

A smile formed on Nora's lips as she told her, "Thank you. I promise I'll have it."

"You'd better."

"You can't seriously be considering this, Nora," Mia insisted.

"We need the money. We're already lucky that we haven't gotten thrown out of here yet and, in case you haven't noticed, we're running out of food," Nora argued.

"You tried to kill him and he let you go," her sister pointed out. "Don't be stupid enough to go back there."

"I don't have a choice, Mia," she insisted. "Look, it's an easy job. I'm going after someone for tax evasion, not a murderer. The most difficult part is going to be trying to get there and back within a week so that we can stay here. I don't like it either, but I'll only be gone for a few days. I'll be back in time to pay the rent. I promise, okay?"

Although Matheson had seemed insistent that they could use her as bounty hunter, he had given her a job that she knew was a test to see if she had any skill whatsoever more than it was an urgent bounty. She didn't mind. She was more than happy collecting an easy bounty as long as it meant that she and Mia could get by.

Her sister was still clearly not impressed with the idea of her working for the militia, but she stopped arguing then and clenched her jaw shut. Mia didn't speak again until Nora had finished changing and grabbed her bag to take with her. "Be careful, Nora."

"You too."

Nora stepped outside and closed the door behind her for a moment as she leaned with her weight back against the door and shut her eyes. She wasn't overly worried about her own task, but she hated leaving her sister alone. It had been difficult enough the night before when she had been expecting to be back right away and this time she was going to be gone for even longer.

"She's never coming back. You do realize that, right?" Bass questioned. "You never should have let her go. What the hell were you thinking?"

"She's not a threat," Miles pointed out. "She's not going to try to kill me."

"What makes you so damn sure?" Bass demanded. "The fact that she's nice to look at doesn't change the fact that there's still a bounty on your head."

"There's probably more than one, Bass," Miles countered. "I'd call that lucky if the bounty she was after is the only one on my head. We can give her better pay and pay her more often. Don't you think that'll sway her? Besides, I think I could stop her if she was stupid enough to try something again."

"And what if you can't? Don't be stupid, Miles. Don't underestimate someone that's already tried to kill you once," Bass argued. "I know you know better than that."

"Even if she did succeed, do you really think she'd stand a chance of getting out of here without someone finding out first?" Miles questioned. "I'm not asking you to trust her. Just trust me. I've got a good feeling about her."

"She's an amateur and the only feeling you have about her is coming from inside your pants," Bass retorted.

"She's tough," Miles argued. "She didn't crack while she was defenseless in a room with us, even though I'm sure she was expecting something a lot worse after trying to kill me in my sleep."

Something in the way she had glared back at him instead of quivering in fear had given him a sort of confidence in her. He had become pretty skilled at picking out who would be useful and who wouldn't as the head of the militia. He wasn't used to his friend not trusting that judgement.

"She should have gotten worse for that," Bass insisted incredulously. "She's hiding something. That's why she didn't crack."

"What do you have to worry about, Bass?" Miles challenged as a smug look crossed his features. "I thought there was no chance of her coming back anyways."

Bass still did not look impressed, but he decided to drop the subject for the time being.

A/N: Please read and review!