There really isn't an excuse for my lack of updating, but I'm not going to promise anything...in the words of George Clooney: "I've learned not to give definitive statements." The muse is the muse and I'm its bitch *shrugs* You can thank a Green Lantern trailer for this...there's something about Ryan Reynolds that really gets my muse pumping.

Anyway, this is a real plot mover, now I can finally get this story moving again! Yeah, I know that these last few chapters have been more filler chapters than anything, but YAY a move on! Anyway, I'm off to get more of one of my Batman Begins fics updated as a favour to another author..so toodles while I still am mused up!

Don't forget to review chickin' lickin's

Chapter Seventeen: Codeword: Hero

"Jimmy?"

...

"Jimmy, you gotta wake up..."

...

"Jimmy, it's the bad men, they're coming..."

...

"Please wake up Jimmy..."

"Did you get the information I asked for?" Stryker asked, stepping into the control room.

"Yes sir," a subordinate replied, handing him a thin envelope. "Contacts, texts, saved messages and call logs are all in the file, sir, there are even some pictures she has taken."

Stryker nodded, tugging at his short grey beard for a moment. "Good. Now I want you to figure out a way for us to call her using one of those numbers from here. It's about time for our little hero to come home."

Darcy let out a smile and a laugh as the men around her let out a roar of laughter. It was good, the fact they didn't dwell on the horrors that they saw when with Stryker, instead, focusing more and more on the fun times, the times where they felt like a team the most. It was stifled at the start, Zero and John afraid to bring up anything to do with Wade or Logan, but when Darcy regaled them with a tale featuring the two, they became more open.

They were different then what she remembered them being like, more serious, more sombre, but it was to be expected after being a prisoner for so long. There was no way she could deny that she felt better. Perhaps this was what she actually needed, a chance to face part of her past rather than run away from it.

Taking a sip of her wine, Darcy smiled at the two, glad for once that neither had their antagonistic attitudes towards each other and taking the time to enjoy their get together. She had tried to get Logan—Jimmy—to join them, but when faced with two who knew his past better than himself, he had run the opposite direction.

"So what have yuh b'n up ta, Darcy-doll?" John asked, discreetly letting out a burp from behind his hand.

"Well," she began a little shaky, "After travelling around with Logan, I finished my schooling and through Distance College, I got my degree in teaching. I, um, teach music." Zero smirked at her.

"Remember all the times she used to put on a concert for us after a mission, Wraith?" he snickered, "Jimmy and Wade looked forward to them most of all, proud of our little performer."

Hands slightly shaking, she tried to hide any affect from his words. "Yeah, well, I still perform. Occasionally there are some Indy concerts and a few bands that ask me every now and then to open for them."

"That's a great achievement," John said. "Knew ya were a talent'd girl."

Just as she was about to reply, Darcy's phone chirped. With an apologetic smile. She got up from the table and answered quickly. "What Logan? Couldn't you wait ten—" She froze, her eyes staring blankly into the beige walls of the room. The other two looked at her with growing confusion as they heard a man indistinctly talking to her from the other end.

The next few moments were nothing but a blur...

She turned...

The gun, hidden beneath Zero's coat zoomed into her hand...

BANG!

SMACK!

The phone clattered to the ground, the call disconnecting. Darcy blinked—once, twice—and then she started to scream. Zero's sightless eyes bored into her own. Wraith, unconscious on the floor near his friend, was bleeding horribly from a cut on his forehead. Her hands rose to cover her mouth and that was when she realised...the gun was still in her hands.

A window smashed the shattering glass so incredibly loud to her shocked senses. A form zoomed in and straightened. Wade. She stared at him, her mind completely unable to process.

"I...I don't know...w—what happened..." Darcy began to stutter out. "W—we were having dinner, I got a phone call...and...and...they were like t—this! And the gun in my hand!" A full out panic attack was in the works as he began to stalk towards her, no expression on his face. Pulling the gun from her whitened grip, he put the safety on and stuffed the thing into the back of his pants.

SMACK!

Darcy gasped, the throbbing pain from where he slapped her cheek brining her back to her senses. "I don't have time to deal with your hysterics, honey, we gotta jet." He pulled her back towards the window as the door to the dining room slammed open. Logan burst in, his metallic claws unsheathed.

"I didn't do it, Logan! You have to believe me!" Were her last words as Wade pulled them out into the night, disappearing without a word.