McDonald walked to Maria's with an eager step. He didn't care that Kevin would kill him for it – he had to see her, and tell her of what he'd heard. How scared and vulnerable Vidic had looked while they watched the CCTV. He wanted to tell her everything, and he wanted to make her smile.

He wasn't disappointed. When she opened a door a minute after he knocked, she cried out and threw her arms around him gleefully. He stepped back a little in surprise, his ribs protesting the impact after the beating he'd had from Kevin, but after a moment's adjusting threw his arms around her too, lifting her off her feet and laughing.

'Did you see the news?'

'Maria, I've seen everything! All of the footage from the archives!'

'You have?'

'You should have seen it! The Doctor and Leonardo – they were legging it and Ezio fought them off like a fucking ninja!' McDonald laughed. 'It was the best bloody thing I've ever seen!'

Maria near screamed with laughter, hugging McDonald close again. He wrapped his arms around her waist and held her to him, suddenly realising how good it felt. How good she felt. Her warmth went straight through his coat and wrapped itself around the butterflies that were rising in his stomach.

They probably would have stayed there forever had someone in Maria's flat not cleared his throat. McDonald lifted his head from where he'd rested it against the top of Maria's, and saw Kevin leaning in the doorway of her kitchen, glaring at him with a look of pure venom. He jumped away from Maria immediately, coughing awkwardly as he sought out to put as much space between her and him as possible. Maria frowned at him before looking in the direction McDonald was avoiding. 'Oh. Kevin,' she sounded a little disappointed. 'Didn't hear you come in.'

'Came through the window.' Kevin replied shortly, still giving McDonald a look full of spite. Maria eyed them both suspiciously, before walking away from McDonald and past her brother into the kitchen, no doubt to put on the kettle. McDonald hadn't told her where the bruises and the livid cut under his eye had really come from, having settled with telling her he'd had some trouble escorting an Animus worker off of the Abstergo premises. It wasn't a lie – it was just half of what had happened. He wasn't sure if she'd believed him had he told her it was actually her brother, and he didn't want to find out, either.

The two men didn't say anything in Maria's absence, one avoiding the gaze of the other, and nothing was said until Maria came back out of the kitchen, carrying mugs and biscuits on a tray. She stood in the doorway, looking from Kevin to McDonald, frowning.

'Is everything alright?'

'Yeah. Fine.' Kevin snapped, shooting McDonald one last glare before he lifted himself from the doorway and sauntered into the living space. Maria looked questioningly at McDonald, who shrugged without meeting her eye as he shrugged off his coat. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw her linger, but then he heard her sigh softly before she turned away and followed her brother to the sofa.

Something in his heart was hurting.

When Kevin decided to stay the night, he didn't ask. He would just arrange himself on Maria's sofa meaningfully, propping his feet up on one end, folding his arms behind his head and watching late night television before he inevitably fell asleep. He never even asked for a blanket, and was gone before morning light, often leaving Maria cold toast with jam as a silent thank you.

But tonight was different.

Something was bothering Maria, and she wanted to know what. The feeling had been there since that tense moment in her hallway when Darren had come over, and it had intensified when he had shuffled out of her door a few hours later with no more than a mumbled goodbye, not even meeting her eye.

And she knew it was something to do with Kevin.

In the doorway of her bedroom, she watched her brother watch television. She knew that he knew she was there, but he wasn't saying anything. Avoiding talking. But she'd have it out of him if it was the last thing she'd ever do.

'Darren's bruises weren't from a worker, were they?' She stated. Kevin stilled for a moment, and then she saw his big shoulders shrug.

'Nothing to do with me,' he muttered.

'Don't lie to me, Kevin.'

Silence. Maria knew her brother. He couldn't lie to her – so he'd say nothing at all until she gave up and went away. But this time, she was incensed. Something in her wanted justice for Darren and for herself, and she wasn't about to drop it.

'Kevin!'

'He's bad news!' Kevin shouted, scrambling off of the sofa and jumping to his feet, gesturing wildly with his hands. 'What the hell are you doing with him? Playing Happy Spies, is that it?'

'How dare you!' Maria shouted back. 'What the hell I choose to do with the missions I've been assigned is none of your business! I couldn't have got half the information I have without him – '

'How about under him?' Kevin sneered. 'Could you have got it then?'

There was a silence, and Maria found herself horrified to find that she was crying.

'Get out.'

Kevin's look softened. 'Maria, I –'

Maria cut him off by raising a hand to her window, and pointing. 'Get out.'

For a moment, she thought Kevin wasn't going to move. But then his look hardened, and he stooped angrily by the window to get his shoes. He pulled them on in silence, and then looked at his sister. He was waiting desperately for her to change her mind, to tell him to stay, but she only glared.

'Fine,' he hissed. 'Don't say I didn't warn you.'

And then he was gone – out of the window and out over Glasgow.

Maria stood there a moment before she started crying. She couldn't remember the last time she cried. Wasn't it when dad died? She couldn't be sure, but she fell down on the floor anyway, curling up against the back of the sofa and gaping uselessly as she shoved a knuckle into her mouth. She could feel tears, and the ache of loss in her chest. She stayed there for a good ten minutes, sobbing silently before common sense told her to get out her mobile from the pocket of her dressing gown and call someone who could help. She pressed the phone against her ear, her sobs dying into hiccups as the phone began to ring.

And then a mobile rang, right outside her front door.

Onward!