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"Everything all right?" I jumped when I heard the voice. I sat on the tiled floor Indian style, leaning up against a filing cabinet. My back slammed against said cabinet when Clay spoke up and scared me. He stared down at me now, eyeing the stacks of files that surrounded me in the dark office room, and then caught sight of the pained expression on my face.

"You're in pain again." He commented. My eyes narrowed and I looked down quickly, letting my hair fall in my face. I grimaced. The pain was partially his fault. The rest would probably be due to the fact I had been sitting in the same spot for 7 hours.

"I don't know what you're talking…."

"Don't worry about it. If you don't want my help, I won't force you to take it. I came to tell you that we're all back." He said with a smile in his voice.

"What do you mean?" I asked, looking back up at the older agent. "Hellboy wanted me to find you and tell you that we all made it back from the mission safely. He also wanted to talk to you. I don't know what's going on inside that thick head of his but he's definitely not focused these days. Something's bothering him. I'm pretty sure we all know what that 'something' is but he's not really willing to talk to any of us about it."

I sighed and stared at the files around me. It would take all night to finish the work. I couldn't just leave it. Manning would blow a fuse.

Clay noticed my dilemma and smiled. He offered to finish the work for me and I jumped at the offer. Anything to get out of this excruciatingly boring job was a blessing that I was not about to over look.

The door was ajar when I got to Hellboy's room. Not wanting to be rude, I knocked on the metal and waited for a reply before I entered. When I didn't receive one, I peeked into the room. Hellboy was lounging in his bed staring at a note pad in his hands. I watched him scribble something down and then furiously scratch it out with his pen.

I slid into the room and started towards him wondering what emotions were making him scrunch his face up like that. He wrote again but it didn't seem to please him. He tore the page, crumpled it, and tossed it to the floor. The paper joined dozens of other scrapped ideas on the floor. I accidentally kicked a pile of crumpled papers on my way towards him. He didn't even notice.

The expression on his face was looking more and more frustrated as I got closer to him. I waded through a few more piles of trash before planting myself right at the end of Hellboy's bed. He still didn't seem to notice me as I watched him start to write something.

"Everything ok?"

Hellboy's pen jerked down the page of his notepad and his head snapped up. I heard a sharp intake of breath and then: "Damn, kid!" A minute of silence went by before either of us moved. Hellboy seemed to suddenly remember where he was and who was standing in front of him. He sat upright quickly and chucked the note pad over the side of his bed. It landed with a 'thump' in a pile of scraps. I glanced at it curiously and then arched a questioning eyebrow at Hellboy.

"What do you need?" Hellboy asked. The question threw me for a moment and my head tilted to the side in confusion. I was hesitant to answer, wondering if Clay had sent me on a wild goose chase. "Clay… said you wanted to talk to me…right?"

"Right. Yeah… I did." Hellboy replied after another moment of silence. He stood up in the center of his bed and walked to the end of it. The pickup truck creaked beneath his weight and he jumped off of it. I stepped back as his feet hit the floor. "HB…." I wanted to ask him what was bothering him but I guessed that I already knew. If I asked and that guess was correct, this conversation could end up in a really messy place.

The red demon kicked some paper out of the way as he made his way across the room to a shelf and found an opened beer can that he quickly finished. The silence was taking over the atmosphere again. Maybe I needed to be the one to start this conversation after all. I opened my mouth to speak but he beat me to it.

"Can I ask you for some advice?" He asked quickly. The straight-forward question threw me off guard. I never expected those words from Hellboy and I would have never thought they'd be directed towards me.

"Is this about her?" I asked in reply. 'If it is, I'm the wrong person to ask,' I wanted to say. He didn't reply right away. "She usually stays longer." Subject change? Not a fun direction. He moved to sit on the arm of his armchair. His eyes locked onto the floor and his face scrunched up again.

"I care about her." He breathed out. It seemed hard for him to say. My heartbeat hiccuped and I stared down at my shoes. Of course you do.

"That's good," was my lame reply and I swore internally. If I was a third party in this conversation, I would have punched myself.

"I told her." He said. I froze. He what? I couldn't comprehend the question I had just asked myself. How did breathing work again? Was I supposed to do something? Hellboy wasn't speaking anymore. He was waiting for a reply. I struggled to breath and not make it sound like gasping.

"Oh." I choked out. Hellboy let out a haggard sigh and I glanced up at him. "Well, I didn't really tell her, but she knows. She knows and she left anyways." He muttered. He sounded so damn tired and he looked even worse.

"What did she say?" I asked, not really wanting to know but feeling that I needed to pretend for Hellboy's sake.

"She…she doesn't know how she feels. She said that she didn't have an answer for me yet." He said and finally, he made eye contact with me. "I'm really sorry." I said and I meant it. I didn't want to see Hellboy and Liz together but I didn't want to see Hellboy hurting either. I could see it in his eyes and hear it in his voice. He was confused and angry and upset. It wasn't right for me to be happy about this. Guilt chewed away at me as I tried to think of something else to say.

"I don't really know what to do." Hellboy admitted. He was frustrated with himself and the empty beer can still in his hand bore the full brunt of the frustration. It was smashed to death and tossed into a trash can nearby. I sighed this time and crossed the room. I settled down on the other arm of Hellboy's chair.

"You know what?" I asked. Hellboy glanced over at me. "I think that it's her loss."I gave him a small smile. He didn't return it. Instead, he pinched the bridge of his nose and grumbled. "Don't give me this crap. I'm not…"

"No, no. Hear me out." Hellboy rolled his eyes at me. He didn't look like he wanted my advice anymore. I wanted to lighten up the mood but he wasn't interested. I thought through my next words very carefully.

"I think you are pretty amazing." I said, this time completely serious. "And I think if somebody else can't see that, then they just aren't worth your time."

I waited for Hellboy to react. My words couldn't have been more honest. Would he think I was joking? Would he read too deeply into what I had said? I didn't know which was worse. Seconds of silence kept passing and I wondered what was going on inside that big head of his.

Hellboy let out a breath of air but it didn't really sound like a sigh. He had been holding his breath, possibly wondering if I would laugh and say "just kidding, you suck". I watched him stare at something across the room until finally he looked at me again. "Thanks." He said and offered me a smile. I returned it before pushing myself off of the armchair. Hellboy stood after I did and opened his mouth to say something. I waited but he just shut his mouth quickly and shook his head.

"Well, if that was all you wanted to talk about then I think I should go take back my pile of paperwork from Clay." I said, hoping that I could avoid anymore conversation and any chance of me completely embarrassing myself.

"Wait…" Hellboy called out to me as I started to walk towards his bedroom door. I turned around to face him.

"Do you want to…I don't know…Maybe we could get some ice cream or something? If you want to, that is…" He rubbed the back of his head nervously. Shock was my initial reaction. Did he just ask me out?

"I'd love to but Manning still has me on lock down. I'm grounded, remember." Damn you Manning. Hellboy nodded his head quickly. "Right, forgot about that. No problem, it was just a suggestion. I didn't want to get all serious and depressing and then just leave things that way, that's all." Hellboy explained. Of course, that made sense. He just didn't want things to be awkward and my inner thoughts made it awkward anyway. Way to go, Rai.

"Yeah, no worries, we're good. Maybe some other time?" I suggested. He nodded. I offered him a good night and he offered one to me in return before I made my way out of the room.

I waited until I was a few hallways away before I stopped and smacked my hand to my forehead. Why did I have to sound like an idiot?