It's day two of being awake, and V's adjusting. Poorly, but she's adjusting. Early SR2!

Many thanks to Autumnyte for helping me work out the kinks here, especially since the fic kept on getting longer and longer, and I didn't have the heart to stop it.

V wasn't sure what woke her first. The loud thump from the people above her, or the sensation of everything falling out from under her.

She hit the floor, and scrambled to get up, slamming her back against the wall. It was dark, almost black as her eyes adjusted, and when nothing happened – no guns, no heat, or pain – she choked down an unsteady breath.

Her attention shot to the ceiling when she heard another thump, and when her heart rate slowed she pressed her hands to her eyes. "Hotel. You're in a shitty hotel. ...You're fine. You're going to be fine."

She kept on chanting the words as she uncoiled herself from her spot against the wall, and climbed to her feet. Her limbs complained at the motion, and she took a moment to try and stretch them out. Her fingers twitched when they grazed the scars on her arms, and she gave up before long.

One look at the clock told her it was too damn early to be up. She should've been exhausted. After watching the news until her eyes refused to stay open, she'd given up and tried to sleep, but the rest she took was more of a glorified nap, and every inch of her was tense. Either ready for the next shock, or ready for the next attempt on her, who knew? What she did know was that she couldn't stay idle for long. Not with more of those Ronin out there fucking up their city.

Ronin, Samedi, Brotherhood, it's a regular party and you're late for it, she mused, brushing her hair out of her eyes. The shorter length still bugged the shit out of her, but at least it was manageable. She combed her fingers through it, and counted to ten before climbing to her feet. Might as well see who else's invitation got lost in the mail.

Taking a moment to pull over an ashtray – already littered with stubs she'd left last night – she lit a smoke, and pulled out her phone. There was a good chance that no one was even up right now, but threw herself onto the couch anyway.

The cheap thing wasn't going to last. V could already see that, and all she'd done was slap a screen protector on it and shove it in her pocket. Thankfully she was able to get her old number again, but the newer model looked strange in her hand. It rattled her as she sat there and considered it, but she shook off the light tremor as she scrawled down the few phone numbers she had memorized on a torn sheet of notebook paper.

It wouldn't do any good for her to try them all one by one and then forget the rest in the process. Her memory had been okay before, but a sliver of her wondered how it would fare now. If she lost a little more of herself during her coma than she realized.

Once she was done, she sucked in a breath and counted how many she'd recalled. Eleven. Not bad, she conceded, and slowly let the breath out. Now for the fun part. Checking which ones were good, and which weren't worth following up on.

The first number she knew she shouldn't bother with. She hesitated once she put the area code down, but jotted the rest in a furious swipe anyway. Troy's was a number she'd known by heart, even before they'd crossed the line in their relationship. But that number had to have been burned years ago – probably shortly after things went to shit - and she didn't have any business trying it now.

It didn't help that whenever she entertained the idea of talking to him, her mind stuttered and came to a complete halt. That made it hurt all the more.

"It's not a problem. We won't let it become one."

She stubbed her cigarette out in the ashtray, and drew a sharp line through the number, jumping straight to the one after it.

Dee's was second. V knew there was a chance she wouldn't pick up, but when the electronic voice on the other end told her the number was disconnected, she couldn't shake the disappointment. Trying to seek out Dee's place wasn't an option either. With the Row demolished, she wouldn't have lingered there, and she didn't know where the hell Luis used to live. He was often the one that picked up the phone if Dee wasn't able to get back to her, but now, he was…

"You remember him, don't you?"

"Who?"

"My brother, Luis. He always used to talk about you."

"…Luis? Of course I do. He was always there to save my ass in case I did something stupid. How's he doing?"

She placed her face in her hands and slowly breathed in and out. The moment her breathing evened out again, she went back to the sheet.

Johnny's she didn't bother with since he'd been locked up, but with him staying at Aisha's at least she knew where to look if she needed him. Julius's and Dex's numbers were both disconnected, and the rest she meticulously went down the line with before she took her pen and crossed each of them out.

Carlos's was the only number entered in and kept, something that she made sure to do before they separated, because if plans were going to be in motion they needed to stay in contact. No point in losing the only person she had an actual lifeline to right off the bat.

But as her fingers itched to call him, she wondered just how much of a bad idea that was. It was still early, but…

Another thump sounded overhead, and V jolted. She scrambled to get to her feet, and whipped on the ratty jeans she'd discarded before turning in. She needed to get out. To move, to do anything. Because the alternative meant sitting here in the dark, alone, and she couldn't do it. Not anymore.

She shoved everything she owned into the small duffel bag she managed to pick up the other day and hurriedly checked out. The person at the front didn't ask, and she didn't tell. With that taken care of, she pushed her way outside, and sucked in an unsteady breath.

Then walked. She had to relearn the city step by step, road by road, and she wasn't going to do it in a day, but it was progress.

Still, even an aim like that left her restless. She stopped by old stores she used to frequent to see if they were open. She wandered through the drive-thru at Freckle Bitch's and somehow managed to score a free side of fries. She even found herself lingering by Apollo's, even if she booked it at the first sight of blue.

It hurt, but she wanted to know that some things hadn't changed. Not completely.

She was over by Tee 'N'Ay again when she pulled out her phone. It wasn't as early anymore, but with no real idea of Carlos's schedule she was still taking a chance by calling him. Her willpower eventually gave up the fight. She punched in his number, and waited, leaning over the railing.

Carlos's yawn sent a pang of guilt right through her, but he didn't hang up or sound pissed. Just sleepy like any person would've. "Hey," he said. "You got something planned, boss?"

She froze, but the title snapped her back to attention. "Not sure yet. And it's V, remember?"

"Oh. Uh, right. V." He chuckled, and went silent. She could still hear his phone shifting around, however, and she suspected he was finding a way to wake himself up. "You're up early."

"Not a morning person?"

"I can be. Just…" He yawned again, and V grinned. "Enjoying the fact that I'm not in that damn cell anymore."

"I hear you there. Loving the fact that you've got an actual mattress to sleep on? Maybe even a little too much?" His laugh was soft, and V clucked her tongue. "After that I bet it feels like heaven."

"Close. Way too close." Carlos cleared his throat. "So, what are you doing right now?"

"Just checking things out. You know, plotting old landmarks and the like. I knew I'd have to replot a few places, but this is fucking ridiculous."

She dug into her pocket for her pack of cigarettes, and kept the phone pressed to her ear while she slipped one between her lips. Half of the pack was gone already, and at this rate, she was going to smell of nothing but cinders and nicotine.

"Loving the new faces around here, by the way. You know anything about the guys with the flashy bikes?"

"Who?"

"You know," she started, flicking at her lighter, "the ones whipping samurai swords around?"

"Oh, the Ronin? You ran into them?"

"Yeah." She took a long puff of her cigarette and exhaled. "Met two in an alley, and they tried to put me down. Real friendly group." Carlos muttered something under his breath, and V had trouble picking it out. "Ringing a bell?"

"Well, they're one group that's gained a lot of influence over the years. There's at least two more that you need to worry about, but…they went right for you?"

"Yep. Knew who I was, and everything. I know news travels fast – doubly so if Jane's got a say in it – but man."

Her phone started buzzing, and she stared at the screen incredulously as an unknown number popped up. Not even a day in and she was getting calls? It struck her as weird on plenty of levels, and she chewed on her lip for a second before raising the cell back to her ear.

"Hey, let me put you on hold real quick. I've got a call coming in." Switching over to the mystery number, she tentatively said, "Hello?"

"V? That you?"

Her jaw dropped, and she stared at her phone as if it were a foreign object. "Johnny? How did you… How did you get this number?"

"Straight from your motherfucking mouth, if I remember it right. It's the same one you had five years back. Eesh told me to give it a shot when I mentioned wanting to get a hold of you."

"Jesus, and here I was thinking you did some serious sleuthing. Way to give me a heart attack, Gat. ….And I happen to like this number, you know. Easy to memorize and store."

"Yeah, yeah. Better it worked out like this, though, cause I wasn't about to hunt your ass down after you ran off yesterday."

"Ran off? So you're telling me you wanted me to stick around? When you were ready to all but bust Aisha's door down? Sure."

"You were gone by the time I touched the fucking knob."

"No. I call bullshit on that. I might have been backing up, but I wasn't gone."

In fact, she'd been struggling not to peel out of Aisha's driveway, her nerves still shot by the bomb Johnny dropped, but she kept that fact to herself. Just raised up the right amount of indignation to try and shoot him down, and tapped into that instead.

"Whatever. Come on by later today. We've got some things to go over."

He hung up, and she switched back over to Carlos. She put out her stub on the ground, and clenched her hand tight to keep from digging for the cigarette pack. "Hey. Sorry about the wait. Johnny was on the other end."

"Ah. How're you both doing? The report made it sound like a bloodbath in there."

V winced. "Yeah, the cops were pretty shit out of luck once Johnny snagged a gun. But he seemed to be in pretty good spirits for someone that was facing the chair." She heard Carlos shudder and didn't blame him one bit. "He actually wanted to meet up today, so I penciled him in."

"Because you already had a lot on your plate?"

Her lips quirked up. "Hey. Snagging a decent burger or fries is serious business. Anyway, I'll give you an update if anything important comes up. Talk to you later."

Leaning back against the bar, she gave up the fight and pulled out another cigarette. She didn't bother to light it, however. Just let it sit between her lips as the breeze rustled her hair.

But before the day was out, she'd light it. That, she knew without a doubt.

God, please don't let me smell like an ashtray. Please don't let me smell like an ash tray.

That thought had run through V's head for the last fifteen minutes straight, culminating in an impulse buy of an air freshener as she idly flicked at her lighter. The miniature Freckle Bitch's logo idly swung back and forth from her rear view mirror as she took the turn down what was supposed to be Aisha's road, and she crossed her fingers.

A familiar driveway came into view, and she angled the old Compton so that she could park there. It protested about as much as a car on its second to last legs would, but once the parking break was set, it stayed in place. There would be no chasing after errant cars today, and with the limited cash she had on her, she wasn't about to replace it anytime soon.

She climbed out, and quickly made her way to the front door. Her finger jabbed the doorbell before she could lose any more of her nerve, and she stood there, alternating between pacing around and lacing her fingers behind her head.

But the door opened, and everything V had planned in her head disappeared. Went poof like a puff of smoke. Johnny leaned out from behind the door – he'd ditched the suit for a tight purple shirt and pinstriped pants – and once he noticed it was her, opened the door further. She spent a good minute flapping her mouth as he looked at her expectantly, before settling on giving him an awkward wave.

"Hey, uh, I actually wasn't a hundred percent sure if this was Aisha's place," she said while moving her hands, unable to stay still. "It looked familiar, but most of the houses here look the same, and um... It'd suck if someone called the cops because of random hooligans swearing on their doorstep. Low profiles are good after prison breaks, and shooting up courthouses. ...And spinning out cars while shooting at cops, and all that other shit. You know."

V ran a hand through her hair as Johnny stood there, and when his eyebrows went up she clapped her mouth shut.

"Took you long enough, but you're at the right place."

Her nerves eased when she heard the amusement in his tone, and she let out the breath she'd been holding. "Good to hear."

Gat held out his hand, and she took it, letting him pull her into a half-hug.

The gesture was new for them. She'd barely touched him before, but the ease with which he drew her close now threw her for a second, and when she pulled back to look at him, she wasn't ready for how warm his grin was. It made her chew on the inside of her cheek as she drew back, and before long had to shift her eyes elsewhere.

He angled his chin towards the living room, and took a step inside. "Come on in."

Slipping past him, she tamped down on the urge to start whistling intermittently, and waited for Johnny to close the door behind them. In the meantime, V let her eyes travel from wall to wall, and the more she took it all in, the more she came to realize this was probably the neatest entryway she had ever been in.

Her gaze finally came to rest on the carpet. The all but pristine, beige carpet that she had already taken one too many steps onto, and noticed the scuff on it that was a shade darker than it was supposed to be.

"Fucking hell," she muttered, going for the laces of her shoes. "Couldn't you have warned me?"

"About what?"

"How clean this place is! I've been tromping around Stilwater all day, through alleys, Freckle Bitch's, and all kinds of shit. Might as well have asked me to dig in my heels to get a good scrape going."

"Forget the damn carpet. It'll get cleaned."

Grumbling to herself, she deposited her boots by the door, and trailed after him. The rest of the house proved to be just as immaculate, filled with modern paintings, tall ceilings, open rooms, and a leather furniture set. She trailed her fingers along the back of the couch as she admired it, and went rigid when she heard snickering behind her.

"You two need a moment?"

V aimed a pinched look at Gat when she turned to face him, but dropped it once she noticed the beer he was offering her. "Was that what we were having? A moment?"

"Fucking relax already," Johnny replied after she took the bottle. "You're acting like all of this is made of fine china. You're not going to break shit here just from looking at it."

She snorted as she watched him sit down the couch and immediately prop his feet up onto the coffee table. He did have a point, though. It wasn't like the place was shrink-wrapped or bubble-wrapped. It was simply neat, and she wasn't sure what her fear of wrecking it said about her as a person.

"All right, all right, but if I breathe and something gets fucked up, it's on you."

She popped the lid off of her beer, and took a swig of it before sitting down next to him.

"Johnny? You get the door?"

…And nearly spit it out all over Aisha's coffee table.

V tried like hell not to cough, keeping her hand firmly pressed to her mouth, only to hear Johnny's deep laughter. The finger she gave him didn't keep the blood from rushing to her cheeks, but she flashed it anyway. It was a matter of principle, dammit.

"Yeah, Eesh, I got it!" he yelled back, between laughs. "Though you might wanna come down and see who it is."

Peeking over the top of the couch, V watched as Aisha came down the stairs, and froze once her eyes swept V's way. "It's…" Her confusion quickly shifted into a warm smile, however, and she made her way over to them. "Is that actually you, V?"

"I'm roughly about ninety percent sure, yeah," V teased, once her voice came back. Dressed in a smart suit, with her hair cut short, Aisha put everything on her to shame, and V tried to choke down her nervousness before her foot went right into her mouth. She climbed up, and gave Aisha a half-hug over the couch. "God, it's nice to see a friendly face."

"I could say the same thing." Aisha drew back, and looked V over. "Let me guess. You did something with your hair?"

A hand went right to her hair – still so much shorter than it should've been – and V made a face. "Something's right. But I should be aiming that question right back at you. You look amazing."

"I do?" V started to backpedal on her statement, but Aisha laughed. "Well, thank you. I wasn't expecting any visitors, otherwise I would've dressed myself up more. I also would've planned out dinner better. Johnny and I were going light tonight."

"No need. We won't be sticking around for long." Johnny angled his bottle towards V, and she raised her eyebrows. "Got business to settle. Saints business."

"I had a feeling you were going to say that." V sighed, slumping back down onto the couch. "But you're right. You're so fucking right I don't even know where to start, but if we're going to get into any of that, we're going to need some purple backing us up."

The corner of his mouth curved up. "You serious?"

"You bet I'm fucking serious." V drained her bottle and set it down. "Cause I've been awake all of a day and a half, and already dodged a shanking. I think we've got some fixing up to do around here."

"Fucking A. You don't gotta tell me twice."

Aisha cleared her throat. "You're both really going to do this now?"

"It's just the time, Eesh." He leaned forward with an eager grin on his face, and pointed towards V. "Sides, this one's been laid out long enough. She's gotta be rusty." That crack earned him a bottle cap to the chest. "The fuck was that for?"

"Being an asshole. Thought it'd be obvious," V said, rolling her eyes, "but he's right. We can't afford to be idle now."

Aisha crossed her arms. "Fine. But you're going to need a place to meet, and V, do you even have a stable place to stay yet?"

V bit her tongue, but Johnny spoke up before her mouth betrayed her. "Don't know about her, but I've got something in mind. Unless here's on the table."

Gat raised his eyebrows at Aisha, and received a firm, "No."

"No harm in trying," he said, and gave V a look before gesturing towards the door.

The door of the Compton slammed behind Johnny as he settled into the passenger seat. V had waited for him to ask for the keys before approaching the car, but he went straight for the passenger's side without even bothering to swipe the keys spinning around her index finger.

Once she was in the car, however, he couldn't stop smirking, and it took her way too long to connect it to the air freshener hanging in front of them. "Nice."

It spun in a circle as it stared down at them, and V tried hard not to blush. "Shut up," she muttered, and put the car in reverse. "Now, where the hell are we going to go if we want to kick this off again?"

"The church's fucking out. After all of the renovations Ultor made to the Row, you can barely even recognize it."

"That's putting it lightly." A chill ran through her, and she shook it off best as she could. "So, any other options?"

Gat thought it over, leaning back in his seat as a thoughtful expression settled on his face. "Could always go for the old mission."

"Mission?" He turned to meet her gaze, and she quickly parked her eyes back on the road. "All right. Where is it?"

"The Red Light District. Think it's around Bavogian Plaza."

"That's…kind of a weird spot for a mission."

"It was years back. The city actually wasn't anything like this before. There's a whole other layer to it that sank underground."

"Wait, what?"

"They built over it. Just let the rest of it go untouched, and that's one of the only places where I've heard you can get a good look. And that one leads into an abandoned hotel."

"How do you even know this shit?"

"You listen. Had plenty of time to do that."

She hummed in response as he flipped on the radio, and she tried not to snort when he settled for K12. Johnny had never been in her car long enough to toy around with the radio before, often letting whatever she had on keep on playing as he talked over it. She waited for him to get going again, to fill up the empty space with his opinions on things, but he stayed silent.

It almost made her want to call him on it. Almost. "You said it was abandoned, right?"

"Yeah, so?"

"What if it isn't?"

He gave a half-shrug, but V could already see the start of a smile. "Then we've got some cleaning to do."

Turned out she was right. Not that she needed to be proven right here – she would've been perfectly pleased if that hadn't been the case – but nope. It wasn't abandoned. Not even close to that, judging from how many Sons of Samedi members were firing their way.

At least that was what Johnny had called them before knocking the shit out of the first one that charged his way. The men and women wearing cargos and green tanks and tees kept on coming, and V couldn't believe the numbers they were throwing at them.

It didn't take long for her to get winded. She hopped behind a crumbled wall, gasping as she tried to right herself and fight against it. To tap into the adrenaline running through her, but she slipped. Slipped, of all things when she tried to poke her head out, and scrambled from the floor as she tagged the guy that tried to pick her off.

She was on her feet before Johnny caught her, but it was close. Too damn close, and she wasn't sure what to blame. Herself for being careless, or the bomb and subsequent coma that had left her this way.

Dust filled the air with every missed shot, and she kept on going for every discarded gun until it was only her and Gat left standing. Gulping down air, she swiped the back of her hand across her forehead, and felt ready to stake a year-long nap.

The moment Johnny caught V's eye, however, her posture straightened. He'd been whistling while reloading his shotgun, and flashed her a wicked grin. "I needed that."

She laughed, the sound almost a harsh bark. "Okay. Good to know that your form of stress relief hasn't changed much over the years."

"I'm easy to please. Just give me a gun, and some motherfuckers to shoot at and it's all good."

They stood there for a few minutes, listening for anything over the sounds of the fires the Samedi had set up in their makeshift hideout, but nothing else came. Even when V lost her patience and yelled, "Hello?" as loud as she could muster.

She wandered back into the main area of the mission with Johnny close behind her. There was no hint of the underbrush here, and she leaned against the edge of the stone stairwell as she studied the rest of the room. In a way, she couldn't help but think of parts of the church. How it had always been on the edge of falling apart, until you swung around a corner and stepped into Julius's office. His space was always neat, always in order, no matter how much damage the building weathered.

"So, what do you think?"

Staring across the rubble on the floor, she shrugged a shoulder, and kicked a small rock away. "I'm not complaining, but…it's kind of a shithole. It's got potential sure, but we've got our work cut out for us." The stone she was leaning against gave, and she yelped as she fell. "Speaking of which..."

"Yeah, we can clear some of this out. Won't do us too well if we need a pickaxe to get to the shit we need. But we ain't cleaning all of this up."

"We're not?" V dusted off her jeans, and gave him a wry look. "Not your bag, Gat?"

"Fuck no. You wanna dust up this place and make it look pretty, fine, but we got better things to do like recruiting."

"Right. Cause you can run a gang, sure, but it's tough to get anything done without people."

"What angle do you want to go for?"

"Not like we can just start hanging up banners everywhere. The cops are going to be after us when the other gangs aren't, but it's not all bad. With the recent news, our name's out there again. All we'd need to do is point anyone thinking to join us the right way, and we could see about formally drafting them."

She mulled it over for a few seconds, until her eyes settled on an old tag on a nearby wall. The swirling snake was done up in green, but had started to fade at the edges.

"You think tags could work?"

Johnny followed her gaze, and made an approving sound. "It's one way. If you want to stay low-key about things."

"For now, yes. Once we've got the people backing us up, then we can play things more fast and loose, but…a little paint'll go a long way. We used to have some the best art around. Time to remind people of that. "

"And after that?"

V canted her head. "…And after that, what?"

"What do you want to do after that?"

"Uh, general gang-related shit?" Her arm flopped down by her side as she aimed a puzzled look at him. "Swift kicking of the Ronin in a really painful place? I don't know. You've got ideas. Throw them out there."

"I have."

"So throw more out! I just don't…" Her voice trailed off when she finally caught it. The almost expectant way Johnny was looking at her, and it made her stop cold. "Stop doing that."

"Hm? Doing what?"

"Looking at me like I know what the hell I'm doing."

Johnny's confusion went straight to a harsh glance that had her stumbling. "You want this?"

"This?"

"The Saints. The people, the name, what we used to be. You want that?" V hesitated, and that made Johnny swear loudly. "Look, we can't do this shit halfway. You're either in or out."

"Yes. Yes, I want this." Her voice trembled as she spoke, but she shook it off as her volume rose. "I want this so fucking bad I can't even think straight, but you know what you're asking me to do, right? How ever since I've woken up, people have been turning and looking to me to be Julius!"

"Fuck that. I sure as hell don't want you to be Julius."

"But Julius knew this. He knew what to do. What to say! He wouldn't just send you all out in the hopes that things would go right when they could go horribly wrong! My home's a ruin, my friends are either dead or gone, and you're all I have left. I'm not…I can't throw that away on a fucking whim."

The words kept on coming, not wanting to stop, but as she stared up at him, she saw his jaw clench.

That was when she remembered just who she was talking to. That made her want to clap her mouth shut instantly, but it was too late. She'd let it out, and the frustration made angry tears well in her eyes.

She ran a hand through her hair and muttered, "Never mind. Just…I'm working on it. It's not easy, you know."

It took a moment, but Johnny nodded. "Yeah, I know."

"But I'm here. A hundred and ten percent for you and the Saints. I…I won't let anything shake that. I promise." The stare he gave her made her want to squirm under it, but once the corner of his mouth curved up, she relaxed. "But it's kinda hard to get things rolling without people. And before we tackle anything else, we need to fix that."

"We got that covered. Soon as we officially get the word out, Canonizations'll be back on in no time."

"That'll be fun times for everyone." She winced, and let her fingers brush against the bridge of her nose. "You know I almost broke this during mine? It was sore for a week."

"Eh, it didn't look too bad."

"I had blood all over my face, man. It was pretty damn bad." He shrugged, but the minute V caught his growing smile, she couldn't help but laugh. "Blood was everywhere. If I didn't wear so much red, it would've stood out like a sore thumb. And I was lucky enough that Troy-"

Troy gave her a wry look and put his papers down as he continued to examine her. When he reached out to touch the bridge of her nose she nearly jumped. It was a light touch, one that was meant to keep from hurting her, and she watched the cigarette in his mouth move as he focused on her.

"Troy, um…" Her mouth went dry, and she let the sentence drop. "Anyway, recruits are one thing, but we need people with experience too." Johnny studied her as she kept her hands moving, and the longer he did, the more she shifted under his gaze. "You got anyone? Any contacts from prison?"

He gave her a quick nod. "Yeah. I got a few people."

"Good. Call them. Get them here, arrange a meet, whatever. I'll take it. In the meantime, I'm clearing some of this shit out."

She kicked over a nearby log, sending it crashing to the ground, and stared at it before bending over to pick it up. It wasn't heavy. Shouldn't have been, but picking it up put a strain on her that made her grit her teeth in frustration.

"Yo, V."

She pivoted in place, and adjusted her grip to keep the log from flying out of her hands. "Yeah?"

"Don't go too hard. Fresh blood's gotta have something to do."

His phone went to his ear after that, and V sucked in a breath before chucking the wood towards the small bonfire.

Only a few minutes passed before he let out a sharp whistle, and she glanced back at him. The phone was still by his ear, but he didn't seem concerned with it. She wiped her gloved hands off on her jeans, and tilted her chin up. "What's up?"

"You find a place yet?"

"A place? What, to stay?"

"Yeah, to fucking stay. You didn't answer Eesh earlier when she mentioned it." V held her hand in front of her and teetered it back and forth. "Thought so. She's got a guest room you can use."

"Whoa, wait a sec. I'm not staying with you!"

He lowered his phone, and the level look he aimed at her made her response die in her throat. "Why the hell not?"

"Because…because, no. You don't want me shuffling around Aisha's place with you two. You'd barely make it through a night with me before tossing me out. I'll probably spill something, or start a fire in the bathroom, shit like that."

"You're not going to wreck the place. And she wouldn't have brought it up if either of us had a problem with it."

"What if someone tails me? This shit isn't the kind of thing you want following you home, and I've already had people try to kill me."

"So?"

"You did not just say 'so'."

His lip curled. "It's the same shit I deal with every day, V. The same kind from the exact same source. I know."

"Johnny-"

"I know. I fucking know, and I don't know how many times you want me to spell it out to you. I got you."

It wasn't a promise, per se, but she could almost take it as one. And the relief it brought nearly made her throat close up. "Are you sure?"

"Am I stuttering over here?" he asked, annoyance edging into his tone. "Or do I need to cut the speed and go even slower?"

"Okay, fine!" She threw her hands up. "Fine, you've twisted my arm into it. But only for a day or two. Just until I can snag a place of my own. Got it?"

Johnny grinned, and raised the phone to his ear again. "Whatever you say, boss."