For a few moments. He regained consciousness in a matter of minutes. His mind cleared as he felt his shoulders being tugged at. His head rolled back and his neck felt exposed to the cool night air. Daniel had removed his coat and scarf, and had started unbuttoning his jacket. He was being exposed, treated by this traitor. Unacceptable.... Rorschach's eyes shot open as he instinctively flailed his arms out to free himself. "Shit," he heard Daniel mutter.

Plop.

Pain. Burning. More lifting...

Daniel was there again, hovering over the limp body lying before him, blood pool expanding.

"D-damn you, traitorous SCUM!! Go away, I don't need you!" He now backed against one of the other bodies. His hand got caught in the loose coat, sending him falling back.

Daniel watched helplessly as his partner tried to get away. He knew he couldn't, but that's not what worried him. The biggest threat wasn't hurt-felt words from Rorschach, but the excitement it was causing. His body couldn't take it, the way he was yelling and thrashing. He'd blackout for good next....

"Enough playing around, I'm getting you to the ship and sewing you up." Daniel headed towards Rorschach.

"'m warning you-"

Whack!

Daniel sat there staring at Rorschach. Did he really just slap... Rorschach across the face? Rorschach seemed just as surprised as he did. Daniel smiled to himself. Who's in control now? Catching Rorschach in his stare, he calmly said, "I didn't betray you. I don't care about whores more than you being shot. Now, you are going to come to the ship with me, go back to the base, and get cleaned up. You understand me?"

For a few moments, all they did was stare at each other. Finally, Rorschach nodded. Dan smiled, stood, and walked to his side. He began to wrap an arm around his shoulders and legs, but again, Rorschach pushed away.

"What are you doing?"

"Well, surly you don't expect to climb that building back to the ship, do you?"

"Hnn I can walk. Just help me up...."

Smiling to himself, Daniel offered a hand. Rorschach reached up, weakly grasping the offered help. Pulling himself up was like a signal for all the fuzziness to come swarming back. The lightheadedness and tingling feet caused him to nearly fall forward, but Daniel helped stabilize him. Rorschach stood for a few minutes to collect himself.

"You've never had a problem letting me help you before."

"That was before I knew."

"Dammit, I don't like whores any more than you do. It was just procedure."

"If you say so."

Rorschach side-stepped on rubber legs now, stumbling with each attempt to move. Daniel knew he wouldn't openly admit to needing help, especially after thinking that he cared more about the prostitute. At the pace Rorschach was going, however, it'd take all night to reach the ship. Maybe hurting his pride would help. Straightening his back, kicking his boot into the ground in a 'look what I can do' fashion, Nite Owl strode past the limping man. His steps strong, chest out, it was like walking on water in front of a stump-man. He even made sure to step extra heavily on the grimy concrete as Rorschach was forced to push for each step.

Daniel made it to the end of the ally in no time. He could hear sluggish feet and grunts following him. Humoring himself, Daniel turned around and shouted, "C'mon Rorschach, don't you wanna get back to the ship? We really don't have all night."

"Hnn..." He now stopped to lean against the wall, catching his breath. Looking up, he saw Daniel's silhouette tapping it's foot waiting for him.

"Know what you're doing, Dan. Not stupid yet."

Daniel laughed to himself. "Well if you'd let me carry you, we'd be at the ship in no time."

Rorschach didn't even bother responding. It'd be to humiliating being carried like a child, especially by his partner who was currently teasing him. He could do it, he'd been in worse situation and had gotten out of them without help. Maybe. Possibly. None that he could think of at the moment, but he was sure there'd been a time.

As he watched the infamous Rorschach limping towards him, Daniel couldn't help be feel a bad for him. Not to doubt his enjoyment watching, just that taking advantage of his friend like this was a bit mean. Perhaps. Nah, Rorschach can learn to live with it. But they really did need to get back to the ship, seeing as how Rorschach was shot and bleeding. Maybe Daniel should be more assertive in forcing the stubborn vigilante to work with him.

Taking in the joyful moment one last time, Daniel finally decided to grab his friend.

"No more playing around, I really do need to tend to your wounds."

Wether he was slowed down by blood-lose, or he was finally accepting defeat, Rorschach let Daniel help. At least a little bit. They were able to agree on Daniel lending his shoulder to Rorschach, with nothing more than an arm around the waist.

"We can go the back way so no one will see you." Daniel suggested. Rorschach simply nodded. Slowly, but at a quicker pace than before, the duo headed for the back of the ally. Daniel paused briefly at the corpses. "We'll let the police find them in the morning." He continued to step forward.

"My coat...," Rorschach mumbled.

"Oh, right. Let me get those." Having Rorschach stand on his own for a bit, Daniel knelt down and picked up the scarf and coat. He never could figure out how Rorschach's hat managed to stay on so well.

They quickly moved on, but despite having a shoulder to lean on, there was no doubt that Rorschach was definitely struggling to keep up. Daniel sighed. He stopped walking and had his partner stand still. He obeyed, having about as much wit to him as a zombie.

"Sorry about this, but I'm sure you'll learn to forgive me in the future." Weaving an arm between his shoulders and hooking another behind his knees, Daniel swept Rorschach off his feet. The shorter man was a lot heavier than he expected.

"Forgive w-when... stop being a whore." He managed to rasp, words slurred.

"I'm not a whore, you know that." Daniel replied, hardly taking offense at the delirious words.

"Dirty, sshmelly, worthless, scummm-lovin', rotten... wwwhore,"

"Yes yes, I am a whore." Daniel agreed, hopefully shutting up his friend.

"Yaa-you are. Talkin' to women, give into sin, don't care... shhot...disssgusting,"

"Wow, I never realized how much of a whore I've been."

"... foolish to l-let help, stupidd..."

"Rorschach-"

"DIRTY!! 'S wrong! Carr'd by a whore... nnnnngg...." His head rolled back as unintelligent words continued to stream from his lips.

"You really do need to stop talking, you need to conserve your energy. Besides, we're almost to the ship. Once we're there, you won't need to be carried by this dirty-disgusting-whore anymore."

Rorschach didn't say anything. He just pulled his head back up and drifted off.

"Least he can rest a bit. I can't imagine how he'll react to the cleaning... ah, oh-well." Daniel reached the foot of the building and looked up. There was a fire escape about 5 feet off the ground, that'd be hard to reach though. Well, he could go inside and use the stairs. Of course, the doors were locked, and he'd probably hafta walk by bystanders wondering at the strange site they'd be seeing.

Only one other option. He leaned Rorschach against a few boxes stacked against the building and searched his waist for the grappling gun. Daniel studied his gift to Rorschach, trying to remember it's weight capacity. As the only reasonable option, Daniel again picked up Rorschach, holding him tightly to his side, and pointed the gun towards the sky.

"Well Rorschach, let's hope this works."