Don sat sprawled on the couch, coughing and wheezing occasionally as he waited for Roma to return from the bathroom where she collected items to patch up his wounds with.

Finally... Finally he was safe...

After weeks of running and dodging bullets from his enemies and police officers, he'd found the perfect sanctuary where he could rest up and care for himself properly in peace.

He let out a shuttered sigh as he glanced around her apartment, spotting the picture of Ramesh, Kamini and herself, Roma kept on the desk top where she placed her car keys and such upon entering the room. He smiled slightly at the silly expression on Ramesh's face and recalled a few times when he'd seen it for himself in public. Generally while he was completely drunk after they'd finished a deal and went out to celebrate.

One thing he had to hand to Ramesh, even after his betrayal, was he could surely entertain while he was smashed. Dancing, singing and God knows what else, every time he had one too many. What could be considered embarrassing about it to others was simply precious to Don. The times they spent together were so quickly wasted though when Ramesh decided to try and escape and run away without telling Don of his plans. No one makes a fool of Don... No one...

He discarded the memories as Roma approached and carefully sat himself up on the couch better. "Find what you needed?" He asked. She didn't answer him for a long moment as she set down what she had brought and looked his face over. He watched her with his torched brown-ish orange eyes and a small amused smile at her silent treatment. "I really like your apartment... Very nice homely colors." he added, rolling his head around on the back of the couch and catching a view of the rest of it quickly, chuckling.

"Listen...I want you to just... Relax, don't talk to me about anything concerning me, Okay? You just... Tell me what the hell happened to you and what you want from me and I'll do my best to get you fixed up." She said, nodding with her hands on her hips. That sounded like a plan but Don found it less exciting than asking her questions about herself since they'd been apart last. He was truly curious as to how she was holding up after being shot. From the looks of herself and the apartment... Probably rather well.

"Sure." He agreed, not minding the partial lie for now. "But uhm... I do have one question for you, before we begin." He pardoned himself with the pinch of his ear.

Roma huffed, disappearing behind the couch for a moment out of Don's line of sight, returning with a kitchen beeper/timer, clicking away at the minute button until the screen read 30 minutes and counting. She set it down on the knee-high coffee table in front of Don and sat next to it, smugly crossing her arms.

"Is that a no to the question asking? Because I'm very curious here and I think I'll cooperate better if I can get this settled quickly." He said, the silly and mocking tone still in his voice which was clearly causing Roma to get angry with him. But he liked that.

"ONE question! And you can ask it after you tell me what happened." Roma said, putting her raised pointer finger in his face. Don's eyes followed it until it was on his nose, causing his eyes to cross slightly. He smiled wider and turned his gaze up to her face. "Sure, sure." He agreed again, knowing he'd get more ground on her later as he did just now.

As she began unwrapping bandages so she could apply them, he sat back in the couch more comfortably and stared up at the roof, tapping his hands on the cushions under him as he gathered his words together in his head. Simply asking her how she was while he was gone was too obvious. It made it sound like he cared. Rather he did or not wasn't allowed to be questioned and he refused to make himself look like a fool by exposing himself/his feelings to her. On the flip side, getting all complicated and covering his inner motives in his question would just confuse her, or lead to her ignoring the question entirely. Neither of these things were an option, for one meant too much of himself and the other too little.

While he debated these facts in his head, he calmly sat there the way he always did as Roma reached forward and tugged lightly on his shirt before unbuttoning the last few buttons and sliding it open, revealing a bruised and bloody mess of flesh. She gasped and looked away for a second before turning her eyes back and examining it closer. Don hissed in pain as the clothes peeled away from his sensitive skin, squeezing his eyes shut.

"Who did this to you?" She asked, just barely above a whisper, scooting closer to him, her face filled with worry.

Don let out a stubborn sigh. "You remember Vardhaan... Don't you?" He asked with that mocking tone, sitting forward. Roma placed a hand on his chest, the soft, warm touch of her flesh against his reminding him of how much thinner he was as compared to before. Where there was once shape and build to his chest it was replaced with the showing of his collar and breast bones. In fact, his entire body appeared dried up and sucked empty of life. Nothing at all like the exterior of the Don he once was...

"Y-yes. I remember him." She answered, lowering her gaze to his waist line where she noticed his hip bones showing through. Don could see her struggling to act like nothing was wrong so she was not to interrupt him while he explained himself, or cause either of them to panic. She began cleaning out the scrapes and cuts on his stomach and upper torso, perhaps to keep her mind busy instead of wandering.

"Well, as you know, he has many valid reasons to want revenge against me for the times I've had him thrown behind bars, humiliated and utterly ruined. And Ayesha-..." He paused for a moment as the memory of her back stabbing him came to the surface of his wary conscious. After all the grand favors he did for her and the harsh trails they faced together, she so easily joined forces with his enemy and tried to take what was rightfully his away, claiming she did more work for it than he ever could.

He shook his head in disbelief, even now, unable to quite comprehend why she did what she did. He'd never treated her unfairly and took her from a simple nothing on the streets, outside a whore, drunk, junkie and beggar, she bared no name. She thought she was some kind of star merely because she had money to her last name, but certainly not to her mouth. Her rich family had abandoned her at the age of 23 when she showed disgraceful signs of disregard for human life and their important, royal name. She was left with nothing and no one to care for her and shelter her... Until Don found her.

However, all the kindness he showed her wasn't ever out of pity, she might have been pathetic and desperate but would never admit it to anyone. He respected this and because of her usefulness to him and what he had planned in the future, he made her one of his own. Her betrayal wouldn't go unnoticed and now that she decided to attempt at twisting fate on her own, hers was now sealed. Her usefulness had come to a screeching halt.

Roma's confused look brought him back to reality and he continued speaking. "You don't know her, but she was one of my trusted workers for the longest time, providing her assistance here and there in my... endeavors. That is, until she chose to take more than was deserved. She and Vardhaan devised a plan to kill me, yet again, which failed... Again." He paused once more to catch up on his breathing while Roma cleaned out his cuts.

"Much to my own embarrassment... I never saw it coming. I was too busy relaxing and enjoying life freely with all the money I could dream of having after Berlin, where we all went our separate ways. Vardhaan went to prison, as you well know, and Ayesha traveled along with me... Under the radar of the police of the country he was imprisoned in, as well as my own, she helped him escape into the vast wilderness where no one would dare to search for him, and gathered some kind of pathetic excuse of an empire out there, consisting of older thugs with terrible reputations and armatures with no real name or threat- Agh!" He suddenly stopped and grabbed her hand roughly, with the same speed and agility as before, when she pressed her fingers too deeply into his sensitive stomach. "That hurts..." He muttered through his closed, crooked teeth.

Roma swallowed loudly, watching as that dangerous wicked side to him crept back into his eyes, clouding them over with hate like smoke. "I'm sorry." She said very quietly.

He panted lightly and stared into her eyes weakly, dropping his shoulders as he relaxed again and got a grip on his temper. The sudden rush of adrenaline left him feeling feverish and chilled all over as it passed. She was also causing the pain to worsen, momentarily, while she tried to make it better.

Don had a high tolerance for pain but no love for it. He could handle bullet wounds, knife wounds, burns, scrapes, you name it, but despite his mind rising above the oppression, he hated the feeling.

As he stared into her anxious eyes helplessly, he felt himself slipping deliriously back into that fateful night in Berlin.

Only his strong will to accomplish his tasks got him through...It was freezing and he could hardly stand after all the trauma his body had faced over the course of the evening. He hadn't nourished his bodily needs in hours and was bleeding globs from his bullet wound. After he fought two men who were both much larger than him, he was bruised and beaten from head to toe, much like he was now, but at the sight of Roma... Laying there still and peaceful on the floor with no one to care for her well-being, Don let down his defenses and put himself aside for the final time that night.

She hadn't accepted his offer to shoot him and go on living as he wished she had, for her own sake, so in the simplest way to understand and explain to one without revealing too much of his inner emotions and feelings... He was thanking her by taking her in his tired arms and carrying her to safety. He collapsed twice on his way to the doors outside, his legs giving way under him, but he always slammed his shoulders against the nearest wall to keep her from absorbing any of the impact. What awful things that happened to her were ultimately because of him... And he wanted her suffering to end.

Even if just for a few moments, he wanted to be the cause of something good in her life.

"R-roma..." His voice broke as he tried to speak, sweat forming all over his body as he shuttered slightly from the chills. He somehow gained a sick kind of comfort from the mere sound of her name, in any way it was set, it always made him forget what was in front of him and focus on her and what he loved about her...

"It's okay..." She said quietly, reaching her hand up and stroked back his messy hair from his watery eyes, instinctively knowing he needed support. He turned his eyes up to meet her own, his lips parted and lower teeth showing as if he was ready to speak again but he closed his mouth and shifted his gaze back to his lap, releasing her hand slowly. "Continue." He said with a grunt, plastering his tough-face back on. Roma didn't argue and went back to cleaning out his infected wounds.

"You were saying?" She said after a few minutes in utter silence between them. Don huffed some and smiled once more, looking at her. "I've nothing more to say as of late about what happened. You are filled in on the details." He replied, looking over his shoulder.

"You didn't tell me who did this to you and... How." She said, forcing out the last part, given her disbelief that someone such as Don who got through everything untouched could have wound up being so beaten and abused.

The most awkward part about this was, Ayesha had personally tricked Don. Taking him aside after he'd had one too many and pretended to be seducing him when she knocked him out cold. When he came to he was bound and she... Had her way with him, with permission from Vardhaan himself. They both tortured him senseless, wanting one truth from him... Where was the plate?