Okay sorry for the long wait, but you know... life and shit. The good news is the next chapter will be up pretty shortly!

Thanks for the follow xXFallen-Angel-Of-HyruleXx

Jasmine woke up to the sound of running water. Using all of her strength, she turned towards Samiras bed which was empty and neatly made. After the regular beatings she received it still hurt to move, hell- it hurt to even breathe.

Suddenly, her stomach made a very loud grumbling sound that kind of reminded her of a dying whale. Damn, I'd kill for some McDonalds right now.

Just then, the water turned off and Samira stepped out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around her. She smiled at her friend 'Morning sleepy head, how you feeling?'

'Hungry and exhausted.' She exhaled. 'What time is it anyway?'

'Half 12. I was actually about to get dressed and run to the McDonalds across the street to get us some lunch'

Jaz gave her friend a half hearted smile 'Omg you're a mind reader!'

'You can come with me if you want?'

She considered it for a second. 'I think I better clean up a bit before I go anywhere...'

'Oh thank god you noticed!' Sam giggled 'the smell was getting unbearable.'

In response to that, Jaz picked up her pillow and weakly threw it at her friend, missing completely. She let out a small wince of pain. Sam starred at the pillow for a second with a mixture of pity and amusement.

'Wow Jaz, are you okay? Do you need help getting up?' Sam said sympathetically.

'Nah, I'll be okay, honestly. Would love some chicken nuggets though.'

'On it!'

Sam got dressed and left the brunette alone in the room. She got up slowly, trying to ignore her aching muscles and made her way to the bathroom. It was filled with steam from Sam's shower and the mirror above the sink was completely submerged in it, making it impossible to look into. She sighed, and wiped away it with her palm but immediately regretted her decision. Just the sight of her reflection made her scream and stumble backwards. Her hand travelled to her face, as she traced the multiple number of cuts with her fingers. 'Oh my god... my face,' she muttered in utter shock. Her looks was always something she prided herself on and now her face looked like the epitome of horror.

Not wanting to look at her bruised face anymore, she tore away from the mirror and turned on the shower water.

Once Sam's back, I should call Ryder, he's probably worried sick. But then again, would he even want to look at mw once he sees what they've done to me?

The events of the past few days played in her mind over and over again. Tears formed in her eyes, making them sore all over again. She ignored the stinging sensation and stripped to shower.

The queue was long, much to Sam's annoyance. All morning she had been trying to escape from the dark thoughts cluttering her mind, impairing her ability to think clearly. Her life was never an easy one, from a young age she was forced to fend for herself, ever since she was a young girl and it became clear her parents didn't give a shit about her. And now when life suddenly started to settle down... when she found the one person who understood... everything had to go so wrong.

She shook her head. Stop thinking so much.

The queue moved up slightly.

Still, it feels like all of this was somewhat deliberate. They say everything happens for a reason, right? Maybe all of this is supposed to lead to something.

She was now nearly at the front of the queue, which provided her with some much needed relief.

What the hell was that yesterday anyway? Why would Willy Wonkas child save us like that? Did he really have a heart somewhere behind his tough guy disguise? She had to admit she found the entire ordeal quite touching.

The redhead mentally slapped herself, refusing to think about that again considering it kept her up most last of last night anyway. She was pretty sure she hated him and yet he occupied her thoughts for a longer amount of time than she liked to admit.

'Next!' the cashier yelled.

She stepped up and smiled politely. 'Hey, I'd like a large chicken nugget meal with a diet coke, a double cheeseburger, and two McFlurry's please.'

The cashier starred at her wide eyed for a second trying to stifle a laugh. She looked the tiny girl up and down.

Sam bit her lip in embarrassment, 'It's not all for me, I swear.'

'Whatever, would you like to supersize that for an extra 2 dollars?' Sam shook her head. 'Okay, that's $20.56 please.' The cashier finished in a rushed, impatient tone.

Sam handed her a hundred. Just then her phone rang, which made her jump. She searched her pockets desperately and fished it out. The top of the screen read 10%, the dial displayed Jasmines number. It's Matt. Why the hell is he calling me, I told him my phones dying!

Slightly annoyed, she retrieved her change, moved to the side and picked up. 'What.'

'And good morning to you too. I was just going to ask if you two would like to meet me in a cafe a little ways from the motel for lunch, my treat. You know, as kind of a sorry for everything you girls had to go trough at the hands of ol Mels.'

This made the redhead smiled. Maybe I judged him too quickly, he actually seems like a decent guy. In contrast to his best friend anyway. 'Matt... That's very nice of you but I actually just got some McDonalds. Plus, Mello... well he...' she didn't know quite how to describe it. He was still an asshole that much was true, but she didn't despise him as much as the time she stabbed him in the shoulder.

'So that's a no then?' he sounded surprisingly disappointed.

Sam considered for a moment. 'D'you know what? We'll be there. What's the place called?'

'Lace cafe.'

'Alright, just let me get Jaz.'

'Take your time. Maybe then we can talk about what you wanted to discuss last night.'

'Cool, I really have to go now though. My phone is literally about to die.' Wait. Are we actually becoming friends now?

They said their goodbyes just as the cashier came back with her order. Considering she'd eaten nothing but chocolate yesterday, maybe it wouldn't hurt to get 2 lunches especially if one of them was free.

When she returned back into their room, Jasmine was lying on her bed in silence wearing nothing but a towel. She didn't greet Sam as she walked in.

'Hey Jaz.' She held up the large McDonalds bag, 'Got you a chicken nugget meal, your favourite.'

Jasmine looked a lot cleaner than before, the dried blood on her face was gone and some of the swelling had gone down too. On top of that, the room no longer stank of mud and sweat. 'Thanks.' She mumbled unenthusiastically.

Sam set the bag down quietly.

A tear leaked down the brunettes cheek. 'Have you seen my face?'

Sam remained quiet unsure how to respond.

'Sam-when I looked at myself in the mirror... I just... I mean I knew I must have looked horrible after they... but I don't even look like myself.'

'Jaz...' her friend frowned. 'you know these bruises are only temporary, right? You're still beautiful in my eyes.' She gently brushed away some of Jasmines hair from her face.

'Sam?' she looked into her friends eyes. 'thank you for saving me. You have no idea how horrible it was with those disgusting excuses for human beings.'

'You would've done the same for me.' She shrugged, 'lets eat before it gets cold okay? A... friend.. I guess, of mine actually invited us to lunch as well.'

'Alright! I barely ate anything the past few days. Finally something positive.' She forced a weak smile onto her face. 'Does Ryder know I'm okay anyway?' she shuffled towards the bag and took out her box of chicken nuggets, digging in without hesitation.

Sam looked down at the floor and scratched her head. Shit. I haven't even thought about what I was going to tell her about that...

'He must be wondering how I am.' She added happily, mouth full of food. It was almost funny how quickly her mood changed once she had some chicken nuggets in her.

'Y-yeah.'

This was possibly the worst time to bring this up considering what kind of mood she was in when she just walked in. She needed to wait for the right moment before she could break the news.

'You know what? I lost my appetite.' Sam stood up and began pacing around the room.

Jasmine raised an eyebrow at her but decided not to question it. 'So who's this friend anyway?'

'Ehm... I wouldn't exactly call him a friend as such but-'

'Oooh a boyfriend then?' Jaz punched her on the shoulder lightly . 'what have you been up to these last few days apart from being a complete hero?'

Well at least she's in a good spirit again, her personality is certainly returning. 'No, nothing like that. Just someone I happened to run into who might be very helpful to us. So finish stuffing your face and get dressed.'

'Help us with what exactly? Also my clothes are covered in mildew by now.' She whined.

'We can talk about that on the way but I have nothing you could borrow with me... but maybe we can stop and buy a change of clothes on the way. I'll go down to reception and call us a taxi.'

Jasmine immediately beamed 'Sounds good.'

Letting her friend gorge herself, Sam exited the room, and as soon as the door was locked collapsed onto the ground. She felt like kicking herself even though that was not technically physically possible. How can I bring myself to tell her?

Matt stared out the window of the corner booth of the cafe. This was a bit more than what he wanted to be involved in, however he couldn't help but take some responsibility for what Mello and his men had done. He had to admit that wherever Mello went, there was undeniably trouble and now he felt somewhat responsible for whatever amount of trauma the blonde had thrown onto the girls. Not that he felt bad for the ginger... she seemed to handle everything quite well. It became obvious though the girls had not much of a life left after Mello's posy was trough with them. Why else would they need his help? He had a pretty good idea what they were going to ask of him.

Just then he saw the said girls get out of a taxi that just pulled up to the place. The one he didn't recognise had a large hood covering half of her face. Her hands were in her pockets, and her shoulders were slouched forward. It seemed as though she had a bit of trouble walking. Her rude mouthed friend was walking in front of her, looking somewhat distraught though he thought he may have just imagined it.

They entered the coffee shop immediately to be greeted by the enthusiastic employee behind the counter who immediately started offering them about every item on their large menu. Both girls ignored him completely, the redhead scanning the shop for Matt.

He smiled and waved in her direction.

'Heyyyy' she said shyly as she approached him. 'This is Jasmine. The one Willy Wonka kidnapped.'

His eyes drifted onto the other girl who he could see a little clearer now. Dark locks slightly covered her heavily bruised face. Her lips were dry and cracked and she looked like the life had been sucked out of her. 'Matt,' he nodded at her. Jesus Mello... how could you let Rods gang do that to a girl... he thought to himself.

They took a seat across from him.

'So, what was so important that it couldn't wait until this morning?'

'Food first, talk after.' The brunette lowered her hood after looking around to make sure no one was looking in their direction.

He laughed a little at her comment. 'Okay okay, what can I get you?'

Sam looked at the lunch menu, 'I don't know my appetite is still not 100% buuuuut I guess I'll take the margarita pizza and a latte.'

Jasmine snatched the menu from her and carefully inspected it, 'Yeah, I'll have the pizza too, as well as a side of chips, onion rings, chicken nuggets-'

'You just had nuggets-'

'Ill also take a BLT, a large coke aaaaand...' she looked up to see both of her companions starring at her wide eyed. 'What? Can't a girl treat herself after a rough week?'

Matt and Sam exchanged glances. Sam gave him an apologetic smile.

'Ugh fine you don't have to pay for me, I'll pay myself.' Jasmine groaned.

'N-no it's quite alright...' Matt sighed in response.

Sam looked down at the ground in shame. Okay I was super wrong about him. She wondered if she should apologise and if so, how she should approach it. She decided to settle with an awkward 'Hey I guess I was too harsh on you Matt. You're a decent guy. Thank you so much for this!' she grinned awkwardly at him hoping this was decent.

He rubbed the back of his head sheepishly 'Yeah well.. I better go up and order.' With that he left the table.

'Wow, Sammo he's cute.' Jasmine beamed at her friend.

'Really?' Sam looked at the boy who was talking to the drugged up on Prozac employee, then back at the brunette 'I hadn't noticed really' she answered in what she considered was her most convincing voice. Not that it mattered much, she just wasn't interested in any kind of romance, especially not with someone as dangerous – especially after how Jasmines own romance had turned out.

'Sam I've known you for 2 years now and you've never been a good liar.' She winked. 'What's with the goggles though?'

'Noooo idea, but sure we aren't so stylish ourselves that we can criticise him.'

'True true. So how do you know him?'

Sam bit her lip. She was unsure how to tell her friend anything without bringing out the mafia (which she no doubt was very reluctant to talk about) or Ryder for that matter. 'Old.. friends...' she lied once again. She hated that she had to do this, but her friend wasn't ready to hear the truth yet.

Just at that moment, Matt had returned with two cups of coffee – one for himself and one for Sam. 'Your latte.' He placed it in front of her, 'He'll bring our food to the table.'

'Tell me Matt, are you British?' Jaz leaned forward and placed her chin onto her hands which made Sam raise an eyebrow at her.

'Not originally no, although I grew up in England.'

'Really? That's cool. Why'd you move-'

'Jaz, really, that's not what we came here for. Quit giving him the third degree.' Sam rolled her eyes at her friend which made her pout. 'Matt, what we actually wanted to talk to you about is... well... okay here it goes.'

He leaned back in his seat and placed an arm around the back of the chair. 'I'm all ears.' He mused.

Jasmine was looking at her friend with just as much anticipation as the gamer across from them.

Sam cleared her throat nervously. 'Okay here's the deal. What you and Mel... mste, your mate, are doing, I' she paused '- WE want in' she corrected herself.

Matt remained silent for a second then let out a sarcastic laugh. 'Do you even know what we're doing?'

Jasmines eyes quickly darted from the boy to her friend and back again in confusion. 'Sam no disrespect but what the fuck for?'

'Jaz... I'll explain everything soon okay. And Matt, well I think you know why I'm asking.' She motionned for him to get closer and almost whispered. 'You're going after Kira, right?'

Jasmine gasped in shock and fell back in her chair.

'Jaz, can you give me a minute to talk to Matt? I promise you I will explain everything but I just need a minute to talk to him first, okay?' Sam placed her hand on her friends shoulder and smiled. She felt horrible about having to do this, but she knew she couldn't have Jaz hear the rest without bringing up Ryders death.

She narrowed her eyes at the redhead 'Sam, what the hell is this?'

'Please Jaz...' her friend pleaded looking longingly into her eyes.

Jasmine sighed and weakly stood up from the table, barely able to balance herself. 'Okay. But I want to know what this is about when I'm back.'

Just as the brunette left the table, the waiter arrived with a massive tray full of food, mainly belonging to her, which made her groan loudly in annoyance on her way outside and swear loudly. The pair at the table thanked the waiter sheepishly who responded with a brief and awkward 'no problem' and slinking back behind the counter.

The two turned their attention back to each other. 'So I guess this means she doesn't know about her boyfriend.' Matt stated between bites of his sandwich

'Please don't refer to him as that.' Sam said sourly looking at the ground. 'but no, she doesn't. I have no idea how I'm going to tell her. You should've seen how broken she was this morning, I just... I couldn't bring myself to talk about it.'

Matt nodded in an understanding manner. 'Still, she has to find out especially if you are actually serious about helping me catch Kira.'

'I know but not right now. I need to give her time to recover from the last few days before doing anything.'

'That's fair enough.'

Sam starred at her untouched pizza. Her stomach was rumbling loudly, begging her to take a bite but her mind was screaming at her to get back on point. 'Matt, what's Mello usually like? As a person I mean.'

The boy raised an eyebrow at her 'What does this have to do with anything?'

She shook her head and began to fiddle with her hair nervously 'Nothing, it doesn't matter. The point is, now that our associates are dead, we have nowhere to go, nothing to with our lives. Ryder wasn't exactly the best of people, but if there's one thing I know is that Jasmine was completely in love with him and if she knew what happened... she would want to catch Kira too.'

Matt considered for a moment. 'Okay. Okay you and Jasmine can help me on two conditions.' He took a sip of his coffee and smirked at the girl. 'Number one- you let me discuss this with Mello first. This is actually his thing and I'm just helping out.'

'Okay but I don't think he'd appreciate his mafia rivals working with him.'

'I thought you said yourself on our way to the dealership yesterday that you hated all of the others on your gang and were only staying with them for Jasmine's sake?'

'Yeah but Mello doesn't know that as far as he's concerned we're still enemies... I think.' She shrugged.

Matt rolled his eyes, 'look I can't do anything without talking to Mello first. Give him some credit, he's pretty smart. He most likely figured it out anyway.'

Sam picked at her pizza and muttered 'okay, bottom gimp' just quiet enough so that her companion wouldn't hear.

'Condition number 2.' Matt continued. 'You do whatever the two of us tell you. From now on we basically own you.'

Taken aback by that statement, the girl slammed her hand against the table loudly enough to make everyone else in the cafe turn their heads and stare at her in surprise. 'What do you mean you own me?' she narrowed her eyes at him which made him put his hands up defensively.

'Only on a professional level...' he retorted making her roll her eyes.

'Fine.'

'Tell me, how did you figure out that we were going after Kira anyway?'

Just then, a soft knock on the window startled both of them. It was Jasmine, who pouted pleadingly at the pair, pointing at her food. Sam waved for her to come back inside approvingly. 'Wasn't easy. At first I thought you guys may have been in a secret relationship or something,' this made Matt huff 'but then i but I couldn't fall asleep yesterday and I had time to think and I considered how is it that you weren't on the mafia and yet had to urgently travel all the way to LA to help Mello with something that was so important that all your stolen computers had to be wiped of all information? Then it just sort of dawned on me which is why I called you. We'll do what you say on a "professional level". Now I just have to think about how I'm going to explain this to Jaz...'

Just then, said girl sat back down at the table with an irritated expression on her face.

'Jaz, eat your lunch quickly, we're going back with Matt.'

'Matt, I know you have a weak spot for girls but are you FUCKING kidding me?'

'Man, I know how crazy this sounds but just hear me out here,' Matt responded to his clearly pissed off friend. He glanced down at his bed where the two girls were currently residing, one of them knocked out as if she was in a coma, while the other aggressively pressed the buttons on his brand new DS, without breaking her focus. 'They want to help, they can be really useful considering both already know how to use a gun and carry out hands on missions.'

'I. Don't. Care.' The blonde on the other end spoke. 'Do you know what Rod would do to me if he found out I was working with our rivals?'

'He won't find out.'

He heard his friend sigh on the other end. 'I already said, absolutely no. I can't believe you'd even consider asking me that. When I arrive next, both of them better be gone.'

Matt once again glanced at the girls, blissfully unaware of what his friend was telling him at that moment. A mix of pity and disappointment made their way onto his face but he brushed them off not wanting the redhead who was still awake to notice. He left the room briskly before continuing the conversation on the second floor balcony. 'Remember why I agreed to help you in the first place?'

'Yes.'

'Because I trust you man, I trust you're making the right decision by getting involved with such a dangerous group of people and I trust that both of us will be able to bring Kira to justice. I trusted you were doing this for the right reasons and not just to beat Near.'

'Never bring his name up.' Mello bellowed on the other end.

'Fine. But Mello, I have a lot of trust in you, why can't you just trust me on this? They're not trying to get revenge on you, they just. Wanna. Help!' he articulated. 'Can you at least consider it?'

'Why do you want them around so bad all of a sudden?'

Matt sighed. 'Because man, I feel sorry for them. Especially for Jasmine.'

'They brought it upon themselves. You know the ginger stabbed me, right?'

Matt glanced back at the room wide-eyed. 'No, that never came up...'

'I already told you my stance on this. I'm sorry man, but simply cannot risk Rod or any of the other finding out about this.' He finished.

Matt remained silent.

'Have you finished hacking into the task force database like I asked?'

'I though we were a team man, I'm not just your sidekick or your employee. Can't you just trust me to make a decision on something for once?' He said sadly before hanging up in annoyance.

He opened the door to the room quietly, only to stumble backwards slightly. The redhead was right in front of the door jumping up and down excitedly. 'Well what'd he say?' she beamed at him.

'Did you actually stab Mello?'

'Well it was a choice between that or letting his goons tackle me.' She shrugged. 'Weeeeeelll? Are we helping you or not?'

Matt looked down at the ground briefly before making eye contact with the girl before him once again. 'Yeah, he's cool with it.'

With that, the girl excitedly leaped onto Matt, embracing him into an uncomfortably tight hug which almost made him fall on his butt. 'Thanks so much for everything Matt!' she squealed.

He awkwardly embraced her back and smiled to himself. Well shit.