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A/N: THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE REVIEWS EVERYONE!! Thank you especially to nattylovesu, Deanna, Unknown x5, Winchester girl and Sandra for reviewing the last chapter!!

Ex Multus Familia

Chapter 23

When they arrived back at the house, Alec and Sidda were in no mood to provide lots of explanations to Dalton. The walk back to the house had been…well, hasty. And tense.

"We found a woman that will lead us to Hayden, go watch the house," Alec said roughly as he pulled Sidda toward the staircase. Sidda laughed at him and yanked back on his hand.

"We need to give him the address." She raised her eyebrows as Alec gave her an exasperated look, and then she slipped her hand from his. "Here, Dalton." She strode over to the counter and quickly scrawled the address on a pad of paper there.

Alec moved up behind her while she was writing, and before she could hand it to Dalton, Alec had snatched the paper out from under her hand and started waving it in front of Dalton's face. "Go, now."

Dalton wasn't moving; he had a slightly stunned look on his face. Alec rolled his eyes and lifted Dalton's hand for him, then crushed the paper into it.

"Out," Alec said. He turned Dalton around so that he was facing the door. "Door is that way."

"Wait, wait," Dalton sputtered, coming to life. He turned around and looked from Alec to Sidda, obviously confused, "You're giving me something to do? Something real?"

"Yes, yes, now go," Alec said, making shooing motions at the boy.

Sidda smirked at Alec. "Not effective." She looked back at Dalton. "Carlina is a geneticist in the lab where Hayden works. We want you to keep tabs on her house, and then follow her to work in the morning. Hopefully we can pick up Hayden from there. Oh, and you can riffle through her stuff while you're waiting if you want, just be careful."

"Oh! Ok!" Dalton brightened momentarily at the thought of getting assigned something so important, but then his face immediately clouded up again. "What are you guys doing then?"

"Sleeping," Sidda said quickly before Alec could say something stupid. "We need to catch up."

"Oh, um, yeah," Alec gave a huge, obviously fake yawn. "Really need lots of, um, sleep."

Dalton stared at them both for a moment, his eyes narrowing in suspicious. He shook his head. "You know what, I don't want to know."

Alec rubbed his hands together. "That's right, good boy."

Dalton's head snapped up. "But if you call me that…."

Sidda stepped in front of Alec. "Don't listen to him Dalton, please." She turned and glared at Alec, who raised his hands innocently. "He's being an idiot."

"Well, that's new," Dalton muttered. He grinned as Sidda stopped Alec from lunging around her.

"How long do you want to wait?" Sidda asked, quirking an eyebrow at Alec.

Alec blew air out between his teeth and put his hands behind his head for a second. Then he lowered his arms and shook them out a bit. "Ok. I'm good."

Dalton chuckled. "Give me a call when you're ready for me to come home."

"Or call us if anything important happens," Sidda said, ignoring the annoyed look Alec was giving her.

"Gotchya," Dalton said, "let me go pack some stuff…."

"Gah!" Alec glared at Sidda. Things were not going his way.

"I'll go pack you some food," Sidda called to Dalton as he headed upstairs. She smirked at Alec. "You can either help get him out faster or stand there and grumble like a baby."

In the end, Alec found himself in the kitchen, spreading peanut butter on four PB&J sandwiches.

"Do we even know if the kid likes peanut butter?" Alec asked. "What if he has peanut allergies?"

Sidda laughed. "Show's how much you've been paying attention. Dalton emptied our first peanut butter jar in a couple of days."

"Oh." Alec looked at the peanut butter jar. "I thought that was me." Sidda laughed and took the peanut butter jar from him. She peered into it, and then scooped out some with her finger. "I helped too," she said, slowly licking the peanut butter off of her finger. One side of her mouth twitched up in a smile at the pained look Alec was giving her.

"Dalton!" Alec yelled.

"Coming, coming…" Dalton walked into the kitchen, then stopped and stared wide-eyed at Sidda, who still had her partially peanut butter-covered finger in her mouth. "Ok, sandwiches," he said, grabbing the Ziploc bag. "I'll see you guys later."

They stood there until they heard the door close, and then suddenly both were blurring up the stairs.

"Beat you," Sidda said, laughing as she thunked into the door a second before Alec did.

"Now that just ruins my evening," Alec said, reaching behind her to open the doorknob. They tumbled into the room, and in the same instant Alec's lips were on Sidda's, and then on her face and neck…and Sidda's lips were all over his face as well. They were much less careful and controlled then they had been in the ballroom.

"Mmm, hold on a sec," Sidda said, pulling away from Alec's arms.

"Sidda, I'm always holding on a sec…"

"I was just closing the door," she said, pushing it shut. Sidda grinned as she returned and wrapped her arms around his torso, pulling herself close to his chest. "You're so impatient."

"On the contrary, I think I've been quite patient," Alec said before kissing her again.

Sidda smiled and didn't bother responding back. Words didn't really seem necessary anymore.

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The next morning, the sun pierced the bedroom windows and danced across Alec's face. He pried one eye open to glare at the open curtains before pulling Sidda closer and burying his face in the back of her neck, entirely unwilling to get up. He grinned, his lips brushing her neck, as she pressed her cheek into his arm and tightened her grip on his left hand. Wild and sarcastic while she was awake, she was actually sort of innocent in her sleep. His firecracker shortie with a peaceful side. Keyword: his.

He let her sleep as he breathed in the smell of her shampoo and drifted between awake and asleep. Lazily, he tapped his fingertips against her arms as if playing a lullaby on the piano. Truthfully he wouldn't mind spending the rest of the morning here…especially if Sidda woke up and felt the same way.

The sun climbed higher for at least fifteen minutes before Sidda stirred again. She must have decided the sun was annoying because she turned over and pressing herself against his chest. "Hmm, make it go away?"

Alec smirked and locked his arms around her. "Yeah, sure, I'll just tell the big ball of burning gas that you'd like it to back off. Would that make you happier?"

"Much," she murmured. Her lips were soft against his skin, and her short hair tickled his arms. Oh, yeah, he could definitely stay in bed for the rest of the day.

He rolled onto his back and pulled her with him so she was lying on his chest, her arms resting against him. She only mumbled something and nuzzled her face into the crook of his neck. Last night had been a long night.

They laid there peacefully for a few minutes before a cell phone started vibrating. Sidda opened one eye and glared accusingly at Alec. "That's your phone."

"Nuh-uh," he replied, refusing to move.

"Yes it is. My phone's vibrate is different."

"Can't we just ignore it?" Alec said. He played with the ends of her hair. "It's probably just Dalton, bored or something. Or Logan. We can definitely ignore Logan."

Sidda snickered into his chest. "No, lover, it's the nightingale, not the lark."

"What?"

"Shakespeare, summarized," she said, propping her elbows up on his chest. "Don't you read anything?"

"Street signs, sometimes. Oh, and food wrappers," he replied, smirking at her, "And sometimes, when the sound on the TV stops working, I read closed captioning."

"Well, that's quality literature right there," she said. "Good to know I sleep with illiterate men." She rolled over and hugged her pillow instead of him. "Go get the phone."

"Leave it. And I can read," he said. He drew his finger across her bare back, making her shiver. "I just don't see the point when there are other things to do."

"Reading can be quite satisfying," Sidda replied, but her sentence trailed off into a rough purr as she arched her back with pleasure. A bright red blush spread across her cheeks, and she put a hand to her mouth. "Oh. Didn't know I could do that."

"I did. I've heard you do it before. Last night."

"More than once?"

"More than once," he replied, grinning at her.

She whacked him in the shoulder. "The phone?"

"It can wait," he said, reaching for her even as she rolled away, "I wanna hear you purr again."

"Aleeccc." She propped herself up on her elbows and pouted at him. "Please? What if he's hurt?"

"And what if he wants another sandwich?" he replied, "He's a big boy, Sid, he can take care of himself."

"Fine, I'll go get the phone and save him from certain death." She slid out of the bed, taking the wrinkled silk sheet with her like a strapless gown. Alec smirked as she knelt down and riffled through the pockets on his discarded pants.

"Can't you wait until I'm in them again before doing that?" he asked.

She tossed the vibrating phone at his head and grinned. "Now that wouldn't be proper at all."

"Everything you did last night wasn't proper," he replied, frowning down at the phone. Yep, Dalton's number. The kid was doing everything he could to get on Alec's bad side. He ignored the phone as Sidda crawled back into bed, still holding the sheet bunched in her fist.

"And you enjoyed it, didn't you?" she said, lying down next to him. "Now, answer the phone, honeybunch, pookie-pie, pumpkin-face."

"Woman…" He flipping the phone open and watched Sidda cuddle the pillow. Why couldn't he be the pillow?

"Hello, Alec? You there, man?"

"Dalton, if you're not dying or about to be in such a state of being, I'm hanging up."

"No, dude, it's important!"

----------------------------------------

Alec sighed; he hated rooftop-crouching more than anything. No matter how precisely Manticore had made his body, nothing stopped his legs from falling asleep or having cramps.

"We could just leave Dalton here again." Alec said, looking at Sidda hopefully. This morning Dalton had called them when Carlina had left for work. Alec had tried to persuade Sidda that they didn't need to join up with Dalton to simply tail a non-target, but Sidda had insisted. She wanted to grab Hayden the first chance they had and get back to Terminal City. Alec wasn't sure he liked that plan so much; Italy had recently turned out to be a lot nicer than he had expected it to be.

"No, we can't just leave Dalton," Sidda said, rolling her eyes. She shifted so that her legs were splayed out in front of her. "We don't want to botch this."

"I like how you guys assume I can't do this alone," Dalton muttered. He glared at Sidda. "This guy is just a normal human, you know."

"Yeah, a normal human who probably knows about every strength and weakness we might have and has probably guarded himself for years against Manticore coming after him." Sidda shook her head. "No, thank you. I'd rather not take my chances with him."

"What time is it again?" Alec asked. He leaned back against the wall of the building behind them and closed his eyes. If they had an hour or two before the normal time most people finished work, he could definitely catch a nap.

"What, they didn't build you with an internal clock?" Sidda asked.

"Too lazy to use it," he replied, grinning. His eyes were still closed, but he heard the hand coming. He laughed and caught it before it hit his shoulder. "Calm down. I know sitting on a rooftop ruins people's moods, but still…"

Sidda sighed and relaxed her hand. "It's four," she said, settling back into the shade next to Alec.

"We better hope this guy isn't a workaholic," Dalton said glumly, propping his chin on his knees. "It would suck if he was one of those people that sleeps in the lab or something."

"Well, in that case we'll just go in after everyone else leaves," Alec said with a shrug. "Their security system can't be that hard to crack."

Dalton suddenly sat up right, and he pushed Alec's shoulder.

"Dalton, what the—"

"Look guys!" Dalton scooted over to the edge of the roof, suddenly making Sidda nervous. Even though Dalton was transgenic, she wasn't sure she entirely trusted him on roof edges. After all, he didn't have as much cat DNA as the X5 series.

Sidda moved over next to Dalton, discreetly grabbing a bit of his coat, just in case. "What?" she asked, scanning the building.

Dalton pointed to a nondescript door. "There's someone coming out, and it's a guy…" Dalton looked at Sidda hopefully. "Is that our guy? Maybe he's not a workaholic?"

Sidda was startled. The badge he was wearing did identify him as Hayden, but his looks…

"Sidda, that's not Hayden, is it?" Alec was looking at her, just as confused as she was. "Isn't that the guy from the photos at the farm?"

"Barker…" Sidda whipped around, forgetting that she had a hold on Dalton's jacket. She almost accidentally shoved him off the roof, but luckily Dalton was more stable than she had thought. He grabbed her arm and shifted his body so that she could pull him back to safety.

"Sorry about that," she muttered.

Dalton shook his head and pulled her hand from his jacket. "Thanks, Sidda, but next time let me know when you're trying to look after me by killing me, ok?"

Sidda grinned. "Got it." She looked at Alec. "It all makes sense now though."

"I'm glad it makes sense to somebody, 'cause I sure don't get it yet."

"The postcard," Sidda said impatiently. "Barker is Hayden… he faked his own death and went to Italy. Manticore probably tracked him down and put him in their target records as Hayden and didn't bother to put any explanations about past identities in there with it."

"I guess so." Alec looked at the man again, who seemed to be taking a smoking break. "Manticore always was bad about sharing out info."

"Let's grab him now!" Dalton urged them. He was practically rocking with impatience. "We don't know when we'll get another chance!"

"Dalton, we can't. They would figure out pretty soon…" Sidda trailed off. Well, there was no point in waiting anymore. Barker/Hayden had heard Dalton and was looking directly at them. Damn, they were stupid.

"Come on," Sidda said, noticing Hayden reaching into his jacket pocket. She quickly jumped off the roof without waiting for a response, landing in a graceful half-crouch. Maybe she could disarm Hayden before he got to whatever he carried in his jacket for self-defense.

Hayden was faster than she expected for an old scientists. Sidda had to dodge two bullets before she reached him. As she tore the gun out of his hand, she heard Alec cursing.

"Damn it, I can't jump and dodge at the same time," Alec muttered, coming up to help Sidda. She was busy holding Hayden's arms with one hand and stuffing cloth into his mouth with the other. He relieved her of Hayden's arms, and she glanced over at him. The bullet had grazed his bicep; he'd almost missed it.

Dalton picked up the gun and admired it. "Wow, silencer and everything." He gave Hayden a sympathetic look. "Too bad. If it had made a sound, maybe someone would've come to help you."

Sidda rolled her eyes. It was a good thing for them that Hayden had a silencer on the gun.

Hayden glared at Dalton, but he knew better than to fight the transgenics. At least they wouldn't have to deal with that. "Dalton, can you go steal a car?" Alec asked.

"I'm not allowed to drive."

"Dalton!" Sidda turned and gave him an exasperated look, "When have we ever cared about the law? Just make sure you don't steal one with a car alarm."

"Maybe you better go with him," Alec suggested.

"No, I don't need you," Dalton said, edging away, "I can drive…"

"Yeah, but how many times have you stolen a car without having any tools for it?" Sidda made sure Alec had a secure hold of Hayden, then caught up with Dalton. "Come on, I have a feeling we're going to have to search a bit to find that car." She ruffled his hair. 'We can split up for that part at least."

"Oh, thanks for making me feel like a big boy," Dalton said dryly.

Sidda grinned at him. "Always welcome."

When they returned twenty minutes later with a four-door nondescript red car, they found Alec sitting on Hayden.

"He apparently thought he could overpower one transgenic," Alec said, glancing down at the geneticist whose face was turning a strange purple-red color. "I got tired of putting up with his struggling. This was much easier."

"You're lucky no one came along," Sidda said, helping Alec to bundle Hayden into the car. She sat in the back with the geneticist and then let Dalton sit up front with Alec. As soon as his arms were secured, Sidda turned to him.

"I'm going to take your gag out in a minute, but I wanted to talk to you first so we don't have to deal with a bunch of useless yelling. We're from Manticore, yes, but we're not with Manticore anymore. Manticore's been destroyed, so you're safe from them. But we need your help. We're bringing you back simply to help us on a project, and then we'll let you go. If you cooperate. If you don't….well, I'm sure you can imagine what will happen. We really aren't in the mood for taking 'no' for an answer."

From up front, Alec whistled. "Damn, Sidda."

Sidda grinned at him. "Just telling him what's what." She pulled the gag out of Hayden's mouth and he choked and sputtered a bit in a slightly overdramatic way.

"Good now?" Sidda asked, leaning back in the seat.

He glared at her. "Well, obviously I don't have much of a choice about that, do I?"

"Nope, not really," Dalton said cheerfully. He had turned around in his seat so that he could see Hayden better. "Sidda's right. You won't like her when she's mad." He glanced at her. "It sorta sucks. I know."

"Of course it sucks." Hayden shifted a bit, trying to make himself comfortable in the car. He was kind of sad to look at. Past middle age, he was mostly bald except for some wispy brown-gray hair at the back of his head. He wore thick-framed glasses as if he'd never got the memo about contacts. He was slightly on the pudgy side, and his shirt was clinging to him with sweat. He was obviously nervous, despite his attempted air of calm. He looked at Sidda out of the corner of his eyes. "We didn't exactly create you guys to be diplomatic."

"Nope." Sidda grinned widely, knowing that at the moment she probably looked like a hungry tiger to him. "I hope you're okay with flying."

Hayden sighed. "Back to the US… so which city you kids living in? LA? Seattle?"

Sidda glanced at Alec through the rear-view mirror. He shrugged. "Doesn't matter," he said. "If he really wanted to know, it wouldn't be that hard to find out." Alec looked over his shoulder. "I can tell you've been keeping up with the times. Most of us are in Seattle now."

Hayden shrugged. "I didn't exactly want to keep up connections with my old life, if you know what I mean. Staying away from you people was at the top of my list."

"Oh yeah, because pretending something doesn't exist is going to make it go away." Alec shook his head and muttered something that sounded like "idiot."

"Well, pretending I didn't exist helped," Hayden said.

"Not really." Sidda sighed; scientists could have so little common sense sometimes. "Manticore had you on their list. They just never got around to you before they were taken out. You just got lucky."

Hayden blinked, then turned and looked out the window. "So you're going to drag me through the airport with my hands behind my back?" he asked.

"Of course not," Sidda said. "You're going to come along with us nicely and be our dear uncle Bobby."

"Always wanted nieces and nephews," Hayden said sarcastically.

"Glad to know we're making your wishes come true," Alec said.

----------------------------------------

As they approached the van at a run, Syl flung open the back door to let them in. "Hurry!" she snapped as Krit launched himself past her and went straight for the driver's seat. "They're already turning Reds out onto the streets."

Seth helped Marie into the van by picking her up and thrusting her inside. She tossed him an amused look when he climbed in after her. "I'm quite capable of getting into a van by myself, you know."

He chose not to answer her and instead turned back toward Robin. Her right arm was soaked in blood, but she still had an ecstatic smile on her face. It twisted his stomach to see her so happy about getting shot. He reached out to help her into the van, but she sprang up beside him and grinned.

"Don't look so worried, Seth," she told him, tsking, "It makes your nose crinkle up."

"Robin…" he started but he could tell that it would be useless to argue with her in this state. Damn Manticore. Before he could even take a good look at her wound, she bounced over to Taylor's carrier and started cooing to the baby.

"Seth, get the door, let's go!" Krit said. Seth slammed the door shut and off they went at a steady pace so as not to draw suspicion.

"This is a little unorthodox," Maria said as she settled down into the space behind the driver's seat.

Syl tossed her a look from the passenger's seat. "You're the objective? Seriously?"

"Disappointed?" Maria asked, "I would think that my husband would have warned you that I'm not much to look at." She smiled as if she had just told a joke. Syl gave Krit an incredulous look and started to tell Maria about how the last time she had seen Maria's husband was when he was on the TV with his brains blown out, but then she saw Krit shake his head. Maria didn't know, and that's how it was going to stay for now. Syl nodded and then slumped back into the passenger seat, her arms crossed over her chest.

Seth stepped over to Robin and crouched down beside her. "Robin, can I take a look at your arm?"

"Yeah, sure, but I feel fine, great, really," she said, grinning brightly at him, "Here, look all you want." She leaned toward him as he pressed his fingertips gently against the edge of the wound. The bullet had done some substantial tissue damage, and the wound was still bleeding. Not to mention the damn bullet was still in there somewhere.

"I need to get the bullet out, but I can't really do that in the van," Seth said, looking up at Robin, "I'll do it when we get to the airport, all right?"

"Whatever you say, Seth. You're cute, you know," she said with a girlish giggle.

"Robin…" Seth shook his head. The Robin he knew was hidden somewhere behind a wall of hardened Manticore training that had been reinforced over a lifetime. Sighing, he reached into Taylor's diaper bag and pulled out one of her baby blankets. Taylor gurgled and reached out one chubby hand toward the blanket as Seth ripped it into strips to wrap around Robin's arm.

------------------------------------------

"Dump the van, dump the van…" Krit tore through the van, tearing out wires and smashing computers, "Syl, check the CD drives, will you? I might have left a few."

Syl grinned over at Krit; ditching the surveillance vehicle was always one of her favorite parts, and one of Krit's most painful. He moaned and muttered the whole time he was destroying evidence while Syl gleefully broke and tore through the only true rival she had for Krit's affections. Not that machinery really was any sort of rival. But she certainly spent a lot more time with it than she liked to because of Krit, and she never minding having her vengeance on those awful pieces of equipment that seemed determined to crash as soon as Krit left the area.

While they were destroying the van, Seth was inside the airport buying tickets on the first plane to leave the airport. He wasn't very happy at the moment: Robin was still in ecstasy over her fairly serious wound, Taylor was starting to get a little fussy and they weren't even on the plane yet, and who knew what was going on with Syl and Krit. They could've been attacked by Reds already. To make matters worse, the first plane out of Cape Town was going to Johannesburg. Still in South Africa and definitely not far enough away.

"When's the next one that leaves the country?" Seth asked anxiously, glancing at Robin again. He really needed to get that bullet out…

"Well…" the man frowned down at his computer, "There's one to London in an hour, but you won't be able to have your whole party sit together."

"I'll take it," Seth said quickly, sliding one of his credit cards across the desk.

Poor credit card company; they wouldn't be happy with him later.

"Got the tickets," Seth said when he returned to Robin, Marie, and Taylor. He glanced at Robin. "We have about an hour; I need to get that bullet out of you before we get on the plane."

"I'll watch the baby," Marie said brightly. "We can wait for Syl and Krit here while you take care of Robin."

Seth was uneasy about leaving the baby with Marie, but Robin was all for it in her current bubbly state, and he had to take advantage of that. The pain would be a lot easier on her right now.

"Ok, we'll be right back," Seth promised, looking Marie sternly in the eye. He didn't want her to get any ideas about trying to leave.

"What if someone comes after her?" Robin suddenly asked worriedly, "What if I'm not here to protect her?"

Before Seth could say anything, Marie answered for herself. "I'll be fine, I promise. They wouldn't come after me in such a public place."

"Oh, yes, they would," Robin said, folding her arms. She wasn't budging anymore. "We'll wait until Syl and Krit get here," she told Seth firmly.

Seth sighed and pulled out the second-to-last disposable cell phone. He might as well text them, it was about time they finish up.

But just then the two walked in the door, Krit dragging and looking rather depressed, Syl practically bouncing as she walked.

Both groups waved at each other across the ticketing area and they started heading toward the security check.

"Here're your tickets," Seth passed them out. "As soon as we get through security I'm going to leave you two to watch Marie while I clean up Robin's would. If you guys don't mind."

"Nope, not at all," Syl said. She glanced at Krit and then elbowed him.

"Um, yeah, sure, fine," Krit said.

Robin smiled at Krit. "At least it wasn't really great equipment Krit. Your stuff at TC is much nicer."

"I know, but it was like they were my babies," Krit said, shoving the toe of his shoe against the carpet. "I raised them from nothing, turned them into something useful, and then I murdered them. It was so cruel…"

"Oh, get over it," Syl said. She grabbed his elbow and pulled him toward the baggage check. "You have your life, you have your home back in the States, your friends…and you have me. And that better be enough." Her eyes flashed dangerously as she said the latter.

"Well yeah," Krit said, pulling out of his momentary depression, "But do you have any idea what—" Their fussing continued as they took off their shoes and went through security.

Marie looked confused. "Why is she fighting with him like that? The poor boy, that's no way to make him feel better."

"Yeah, it is," Seth said, "You know things are good with them when those two are bickering." He took off his shoes and then picked up Taylor from her baby carrier so that it could go through the X-ray.

"Yup," Robin agreed happily. She pushed Marie ahead of her in line so that she could keep her eye on her. "We're more worried when they're not arguing. It's actually kind of fun."

"Oh." Marie didn't seem very convinced, but there was no more time for explanations. The farther into the airport they got, the less likely the Reds would be able to catch them. And Seth still needed time to see if he could take care of Robin's bullet. Hopefully it wouldn't turn out to be buried too deep.

----------------------------------

After passing through security and customs, Seth convinced Robin to leave Marie and Taylor with Syl and Krit by swearing that they wouldn't let Marie out of their sight. Robin followed him with a dreamy, half-aware look to a staff bathroom that was hidden down one of the many obscure corridors in the airport.

"This says staff. Are we supposed to be back here?" she asked as he opened the door and ushered her inside and locked the door behind them.

"No, but I don't exactly want to perform minor surgery in a public restroom," Seth replied. He was starting to wonder when exactly this euphoric state was going to wear off; for now it was a good thing since hopefully it would take away most of the pain, but he was starting to miss clear-headed, normal Robin.

"Good idea," Robin said, flashing him a smile.

Seth walked over to the sink and started running hot water. He had been surprised when the bullet hadn't set off the metal detectors, but then again, it was a small piece of metal and it was buried behind layers of skin.

"So, how do we get the bullet out?" Robin asked, "You don't have a knife, do you?"

"Actually, yeah, I do," Seth said. He reached down and pulled something short and compact out of his boot. He pressed a nearly invisible switch on the side, and a thin blade flicked out. He handed it to Robin. "Be careful, it's razor sharp. Run it under the hot water, please."

"What's it made out of?" she asked as she stepped toward the sink.

"Extremely hard plastic," he replied, "Manticore created these just before we broke out. I guess your unit hadn't gotten them yet." He walked over and pulled a handful of paper towels out of the dispenser. Robin's wound had stopped bleeding but having to slice into her shoulder to get the bullet out was going to make it start again. He put some towels down on the counter before turning back to Robin.

"Never seen one, but it's really cool," Robin said as she ran it under the hot water.

A half-smile scrawled across Seth's face. "Maybe we can find you one back at TC."

Robin turned her head and grinned at him. "I might like that."

"I'll ask around when we get back." He held out his hand, and she gave him the knife. Taking a deep breath, he looked her in the eyes, dark blue against light blue. "Are you ready?"

"Yeah, sure, go ahead, Seth," Robin said, tossing her ponytail. She pulled off her shirt to give him easier access to the wound and smirked at him. "I know you've done this a hundred times, so go for it."

"It's going to hurt," he said. The knife hovered over her bare skin, and he put his hand on her shoulder. "You know that, right?"

"Yeah, but when I'm like this, I won't feel it," she said. She winked at him. "So don't worry about it, love. Just get it over with before the high wears off. I've been through this before."

Seth gritted his teeth. He didn't want to think about that. "All right, hold still." She gripped the edge of sink and became statuesque as the knife glided through the edges of the wound, widening it for easier access to the bullet. Seth expected her to at least shudder as the tip of the knife hit the bullet, but she didn't move. A thin rivulet of blood slid down from the wound and over her arm.

"Find it yet?" she asked, her voice breathy but still amused.

"Yeah," he said, "It's lodged in pretty deep." The knife twisted around the bullet as Seth tried to dig it out. "Sorry."

"Can't really feel it," Robin replied, "Extra endorphins and everything, you know?"

"Must be nice," Seth muttered. He maneuvered the knife around the bullet and tried to avoid damaging Robin's muscles or bones. She would heal, of course, but he would be damned before he negligently did more damage than what had already been done. Slippery with blood, the bullet popped out of Robin's shoulder and landed in the sink. Seth snatched up a handful of paper towels and pressed them to her shoulder. "I had to leave the med-kit in the luggage or I would sew this up."

"It's okay," Robin said. She leaned against him, her bare skin pressed against his chest. "Thanks, Seth. You're amazing."

"I'm just the strategist," he said, shaking his head, "You're the one doing things like jumping in front of bullets."

"That's stupidity and conditioning, love," she said. She rested her head against his shoulder and pressed her lips against his neck in a gentle kiss.

"And that's all I am too," he said, laying his cheek against her hair. "And we're going to work on your need to guard others by getting yourself killed, okay?"

"Mhmm," Robin said, half-sleepy as her forehead rested in the crook of his neck. He guessed that the adrenalin she had been running on for the past few hours had finally worn off. Sighing, he kissed her forehead and held her for a few moments, his right hand threaded in her hair while the other wrapped around her waist. Eventually he reluctantly handing her her shirt. Boarding for the flight to England was in about fifteen minutes, and he wanted to make sure they made it to the terminal on time. Maybe Robin would sleep the whole way there. He would get her proper medical attention when they got back to the States.