It had become so few things were as important as being sure he made his appearance made at the bar at the same time on the name nights he knew Alystelle would be closing; not that he knew her schedule for certain, but it just seemed like she worked the same shifts. Though perhaps it was a moot point, as he made it every night that he watched the bar at close. So it came to be that even on a night like this, Danny would drag himself there just to make sure Alys was safe.

Instead of his normal perches and patterns he used along rooftops, Danny kept to alleys and off beaten paths. He moved slower than usual, one hand over his ribcage; his skin showing through the torn outfit. Though his mask covered his nose, it was crooked and blood was freely streaming down across his lips. He steadied himself as he staggered through the quiet and abandoned walkways, but never once did he consider stopping or turning himself around. He had come to the quick realization that Alystelle was more important than himself -- she was more important than almost anything besides his family, and it would take more than the injuries he?s sustained this evening to keep him from fulfilling his promise.

When he came to closer proximity to the bar, he heard the loud and boisterous voices of the last call crowd; some bemoaning their lack of luck with women, while others proclaiming what they were going to do with their conquests obtained in the last moments of desperation. Though slowed by the searing pain that wanted to make him double over and vomit, Danny was able to focus enough to put his mind at ease; channeling his chi and going to a place in his mind free from the physical cage of his body. A place of calm, filled with peace and images of beauty. He was not surprised Alys was there.

Alys worked every night of the week and had for nearly two years. She was blessed with a relatively strong immune system, so she wasn?t ill often, but even those times she had been ill she was still at work. The Makayen-Brooks situation was just that desperate. The girl probably could have used her teleportation power to elevate their impoverished status but to do that even for a loaf of bread or honey cake was too far off of the moral scale for her to even consider it seriously.

Wiping down the bar for the final time of the night, Alys called out to the last stragglers that were spread out across the sitting area. ?Last call, guys. Locking the doors in thirty. If you ain?t gone then you get to sleep in here with the cockroaches.? She grinned a toothy grin as she said this, indicating that she was just teasing.

Stepping away from the bar after no one ordered another drink, she moved to open the side door to let some air circulate. A chair was dragged along to prop the door open and she promptly plopped down into it and breathed in the crisp autumn air. Feet were kicked out and crossed at the ankles as she leaned her head back against the door. It had been a long night. After working a double and being on her feet for nearly sixteen hours, Alys was ready to call it quits for the night and crawl into her bed.

The view from the city blocks was different than his normal view, and that combined with his attempts to block the pain out disoriented him. His spatial awareness compromised, he had to rely on instinct and putting the image of the location in his mind -- it was similar to trying to solve a jigsaw puzzle upside down without a reference photograph.

Thus it should be no surprise that instead of the back alley, Danny ended up on the side alley instead. His movements were considerably slower, as was his awareness but he didn?t sense that anyone was around and no internal alarms were raised. Instead he kept the image of Alys at the forefront of his mind, closing his eyes as he continued to drag himself along, now leaning his arm against the cold brick wall.

That may be why he didn?t react when the door was opened and Alys placed herself in the chair outside. Though he was still injured and hardly attempting to be stealthy, Danny might still be able to sneak up on people without intending to. He wasn?t trying to hide himself from Alys -- he didn?t even know she was there -- but he still barely made any sound save for a few labored breaths and the sound of the fabric of his shirt scratching against the rough bricks of the building supporting him.. or least he wasn?t until a cough worked its way through, some blood following along which was spat from his mouth to the dirty sidewalk in front of him.

Alys had her head leaning back against the door and her eyes closed, listening to the jukebox crooning out some song about lost love. She had half a mind to take Tony?s bat to the damn thing but that would require getting up and she was certainly not feeling up to that. Thankfully she had most of the closing duties performed, all she had left to do was clean up after the last stragglers and then she could go drop into her bed and pretend the world didn?t exist for a few hours.

She was musing over that when she heard the sound of someone coughing. Eyelids flickered open as she sat up and looked to her left. Those pools of cerulean widened as she saw MM leaning against the wall not even a dozen feet away from her.

?Oh my Lord, Sam...what happened to you?? She was out of her chair and running over to where he leaned. At first she didn?t even touch him, too afraid to inflict more pain. Her gaze assessed him quickly, taking note of the angle of his nose as well as the blood trickling from it; the dribble of blood along his lips as well as on the ground near her feet; the way he favored his left side.

?Hey, I?m gonna take you inside and get a better look at you. Can you walk or should I get some guys out here to carry you? Or do you just wanna go to the hospital?? She was so rattled at the moment that it didn?t occur to her that either option might be a bad one.

Finally she reached out to take his hand because that seemed to be the only part of his body, that she could decently touch, that wasn?t injured; she hoped, anyway.


Thanks to Danny

?I don?t think I?ve ever heard you yell at anyone but me before,? Danny said with a labored chuckle to Alys. He had already torn more of his shirt off near his ribcage, and his untaped hand was covering what appeared to be a large abrasion. ?Those people don?t know what a bat to the back of their heads feels like coming from you. I think it was worse than the people I fought with tonight.?

Though he attempted to keep a sense of humor and let levity fill the air, Danny was unable to contain another cough. At least he managed to cover his mouth before he sullied her floor any further than it already had been, using the unwrapped tape from his hand to absorb the hacked up blood. He knew he must have looked like a sorry sight, but he wasn?t worried at all about himself.

?You don?t have to worry about me, Alys,? he finally offered. ?I shouldn?t have come in, I?m sorry. I was just making sure that you were okay.?

Alys looked sheepish as she realized he had heard her while she was running off the customers. That look was soon replaced by one of worry, once again, as she watched him cough up more blood.

?Oh my Lord...you need to go to a hospital.? She rushed to his side and moved his hand to look at his ribs. ?Does it hurt when you breathe?? Her gaze shifted from the wound up to his face. ?When my big brother got trampled by a bull, it broke his ribs and one of them punctured his lung. He was coughing up blood and was having trouble breathin?...? she explained as she looked at his chest to see if he was having trouble.

?That?s probably what happened,? Danny conceded after a moment. She was likely spot on with her assessment. What was visible of his skin didn?t show much except some bruising and smaller cuts. Danny attempted to sit up straight, both to relieve the tension and to try to impress Alys since, well, she was staring right at his chest up close. Though that didn?t last long as another hacking cough forced him to slouch.

?I?ve had worse. I just need to get home and sleep,? he wheezed after a moment, picking some of the glass of the mirror from his eye and suddenly stopping short. He didn?t want to show off anymore of his face than was needed, and he was sure if his naked eye caught hers, she would undoubtedly see through the rest and see who he really was.

?So you are saying you can sleep off a punctured lung?? Forgive her for not noticing how well built he was; she was a bit more concerned with whether he would be falling over dead in front of her. Maybe next time she could stare at his chest to check it out, though.

When he started to hack again, she was almost wringing her hands. ?Oh don?t do whatever you just did that made you cough!? Then she was moving across the kitchen to get some clean dish cloths and a pan of warm water. Returning with it all, she set it upon the island next to him and stuck all of the cloths but one in the pan of water. That last cloth was handed to him so he could cough into it if he needed to.

A cloth was wrung out and she began to dab around his nose while her other hand was pressed to his jawline to help hold his head in place. ?You really need to be careful out there. What did this to you anyway?? Alys focused her nervous energy on cleaning him up so that she wouldn?t stand there and lecture him more.

?Yeah, I can sleep off anything,? he said, a little bit muffled by the wet cloth that fell over his mouth. ?You know, ancient techniques that I?ve honed to heal my body at an accelerated rate when it?s asleep and only using the bare minimum of my energy for the whole breathing and heartbeating thing. I might be asleep for a long time, but,? he trailed off, shrugging -- which he shouldn?t have, since that brought about another wince.

?And I might have bitten off a bit more than I can chew. It was a gang hideout... thought I knew the numbers but there were about double what I expected. So I took a few shots here and there,? he sounded a little miffed at himself for even admitting to making the mistakes. ?I really hate baseball bats now.?

(Thanks to Danny)

Still inspecting his hands, she murmured, ?You aren?t a burden at all but I do understand. Promise you will be alright, though. You?ll come back?? Her bottom lip was drawn beneath top teeth. Danny likely wouldn?t have any difficulty understanding what was going through her mind at that moment. She had already lost someone to death so it was natural for her to have the fear of the same thing happening again; he did have injuries that could prove fatal to most people without proper care.

As he lifted her chin, her gaze sought his -- it didn?t matter that she couldn?t see his eyes, it was almost as if she could see through that mask and straight into him. The moment was heavy with that feeling. Her whisper was all that broke the emotionally charged spell between them. ?Then don?t...? Leaning in, her lips brushed across his cheek in a feathery almost-imagined kiss.

Tony chose that moment to step through the backdoor. He stood silently watching the two of them. He didn?t have the luxury of knowledge of the situation, though it wouldn?t have mattered. All he saw was a man sitting upon the island with his Alys standing between his knees, leaning in to kiss him and holding his hands. He saw red at that moment and reached to his lower back to withdraw his pistol from the back waistband of his pants. This could seem a little extreme except this was the way problems were dealt with in Tony?s world. People had died for less than touching Alystelle.

Just as that gun was withdrawn, Nikki walked in behind Tony. ?Yo, boss...?sup with th?gun??

Alys drew back from MM sharply as she heard the man?s voice. More importantly, his words. She saw murder in Tony?s face but luckily, his attention had been diverted, if only slightly. She inhaled deeply and held her breath for a moment, disentangling herself from that mostly misunderstood position even though she had been doing nothing wrong. Stepping back and then around so that she was leaning with her back against the island, but more importantly, her body was between Tony and Danny.

She whispered over her shoulder, ?Please go. I?ll be fine. Just go.?

Under any other circumstances, Danny would have heard the footsteps echoing through the alley or the idle chatter outside. He would have been out of sight and hiding from the people entering the door. He would have been prepared in case a gun was drawn and on top of Tony before he could have put his finger on the trigger. He would have been ready for almost anything, but...

Alys? whisper and the faintest touch of her lips to her cheek had his eyes closed and senses shut off to the world except for her. His fingers glided along her jawline and were prepared to curl themselves in her hair. Then suddenly she was out of his grasp, and he only recognized the word ?gun?. He attempted to move, but the pain returned in his ribcage that stopped him immediately. Before he could compensate, Alys had already placed herself in front of him and was telling him to go.

He silently debated. He didn?t want to go, and he didn?t want to leave this person, who he now recognized as her boss, standing... especially if he was pointing a gun at him or worse, at her. Then he recalled her words, about wanting to do something for him, and weighed the risks if his injuries slowed him by even a fraction of a second. It was too dangerous to attempt anything but a retreat. His jaw clenched as he quickly rolled from the island, and though he wasn?t his usual quick self, he was still out of the room faster than most people would be able to track. He escaped through the front room, and quickly ascended the bar to the rooftop where he crossed over to the side alley. Grunting as he held his left side, he crouched above the door to listen to the ensuing conversation; making himself ready in case he would have to return and confront Tony if he dared to threaten Alys.

Alys didn?t break the eye contact until she saw Danny, after what seemed like an entire lifetime in slow motion, finally roll from the island and run from the room. She breathed a huge sigh of relief before turning back towards Tony.


(Thanks to Danny)

Danny strained his ears as he tried to listen to the conversation through the open door, his hands on the ledge as he leaned over the rooftop. When he heard Tony scream at Alys to shut up, his fingers tightened on the cement and left an imprint of each digit. The muscles in his legs and arms tensed as he prepared himself to leap back down and re-enter through the still open side door; Tony and his goons would never see him coming.

A moment later he saw the two thugs roaming around the building, no doubt still in search of him. He relaxed his grip and backed away from the ledge to hide himself, just in time as a flashlight swept the area he just vacated. Danny suppressed a cough he felt build up, but he couldn?t stop the buildup of blood that accompanied it. The coppery taste filled his mouth, and Danny fell to a knee and one hand as he opened his mouth, letting the warm liquid spill on the surface beneath him.

He knew he had ignored his injuries for too long -- they were quickly reaching critical status and would likely soon turn fatal. The quiet below both worried and placated him, but he still wanted to go back in there and be sure Alys was safe. Danny felt his knee shake as he attempted to push himself back up, trying to will the crippling pain away again.

Instead he collapsed to the roof, spitting up another mouthful of blood. The difficulty in which he had to take every single breath now the only thing he could think about. Danny knew he had no other option; his eyes fell shut and his body went completely limp as he completed his mental chakra. Within seconds his body was in shutdown and repair mode, though to the naked eye one might mistake him for either being dead or in a coma. He would be fully healed whenever he woke, though there was no telling if that would be a few hours or an entire day.

Alys placated Tony by allowing him to drive her home. She had no intention of staying there, obviously, and when one could teleport wherever they wanted to go...going back to the bar wasn?t an issue. If she had insisted on going alone, it would have alerted him that something was up and she might not be able to perform her search.

She permitted him to walk her up the two flights of stairs, finding it comical that someone who thought so highly of himself was in a run down place such as her apartment building. Once the key turned in the lock she was pushing through the door and turning around so that her body blocked the entrance. It took a great deal of finesse to accomplish this without further aggravating the man.

Leaning out of the doorway to place a chaste kiss to his cheek, as was expected, Alys tried to stop herself from visibly cringing. Being in close proximity to Tony had always made her skin crawl; she assumed it was a sixth sense of some sort, borne of years of abuse, that made her more aware of predators than the average person. Sometimes she just knew someone was bad simply by being in close proximity to them.

?Thanks for getting me home safe, Tone. Once again you are my white knight.? Yet more lies of necessity. She could stroke the man?s ego and get whatever she wanted. She used this power merely to get rid of him; to placate him so he wouldn?t dwell on the earlier happenings.

?I would do so much more for you, Alystelle. You know you would always be safe with me; no one would dare to even look at you wrong if you were mine. You wouldn?t need some cowardly vigilante that hides behind a mask because you would have a real man that could take care of business.?

He looked so self satisfied as he spoke those words that it was all Alys could do not to slap the look off of his face. Instead, she feigned a heavy yawn then smiled a little sheepishly. ?Thanks again, Tony but I am so worn out from such a long night at work and then the attempted robbery. It really shook me up.?

He nodded, because she was such a delicate thing and her being shook up was exactly what he had assumed she would be. Tony smiled indulgently at Alys before turning to walk down the stairs and back out to his car.

?Goodnight, Flower.?

?Goodnight, Tony.? She breathed a sigh of relief as she closed the door and turned the three locks and deadbolt.

While waiting for a few minutes, she tidied up the place, then closed her eyes and visualized the back alley. Immediately upon opening her eyes she was searching the ground for a blood trail, knowing there was no way he wouldn?t be coughing up large amounts of blood by this time. She knew he said he could make it home but the fact that he had actually left when she told him to clued her in to how serious his injuries really were, despite what he told her.

Failing to find him around the back of the bar, she teleported to the side alley close to the building. There wasn?t time for Tony to get back, if he was even coming back to the bar, so she felt fairly safe that she wouldn?t be caught here. Unable to find MM in this alley either, she remembered how much he ran along the rooftops and opted to start with the roof of the bar.

Arriving there only moments later, she walked around and then saw him lying there. Alys rushed to his side and placed a hand to his chest to be sure he was still breathing. Once she was certain that he was, she made an impulsive decision born of desperation and grasped both of his hands. Closing her eyes, she imagined her own bed and once she opened them, they were there. She slid from the bed and turned on the light to take a closer look at his eerily still form.

He appeared dead and this made her lean down to place her ear to his chest to check for a heartbeat. It was faint but she could hear it and breathed a sigh of relief. She couldn?t figure out how to remove his shirt to tend to his wounds without his mask coming off, so she settled on pulling it up. Keeping her promise to not unmask him was more important at this point. She wanted him to trust her but more so, at this moment, she wanted to trust him and what he told her about his ability to heal.

?Please don?t die. I need you to be okay.?

Her hand lifted from the hem of his shirt to brush across his cheek. Alys had no idea why she was having such a strong reaction to MM, they hadn?t known one another for all that long but the things they had already endured added a degree of intensity to the odd relationship that they had with one another. She felt it every time he was close to her and now that he was lying so still, so injured...she felt an overwhelming need to protect him. He had mentioned how vulnerable he was when he went to sleep to heal and she couldn?t help but stand vigil over him just to be sure he was safe. Like he had been making sure she was safe. You?re just repaying the favor, that is all. No need to get all freaked out and try to make this somethin? it isn?t, Alys. Yet it was something more than reciprocating kindness.

Alys dragged a chair over from Mara?s desk and sat down. It wasn?t long before she was slumped forward, with her head resting upon his arm, sleeping.


(Thanks to Danny)

Danny offered a smile as his hands dropped back down. He glanced at his clothing and adjusted it as necessary, although the tears really made it so there wasn?t much to straighten or fix. Green eyes turned back up to catch her grin and the blushing fit, and though he knew he shouldn?t linger, as usual he couldn?t help himself around her. ?And thanks for not touching the mask, though I wouldn?t have minded if you did anything to my unconscious body.? There was a beat as an internal debate raged on the next words in his head and if he should say them. It was a bad idea, so of course he did. ?Well, so long as you would do it again when I was conscious.? Oh, you?re just a regular Casanova, you dope.

?Um!? Quickly interjecting, as if that would erase the last words from her memory. ?Thanks again, but I really have to go before... my dog makes a mess inside the apartment.? Danny blinked at the excuse, which was actually the truth even if it sounded completely made up. He then sucked on his front teeth before nodding, committing to the truth. With a quick glance around, Danny spotted the window and started toward it to make his exit.

Alys shook her head and offered a hint of a smile. ?You don?t owe me. You check up on me all the time and you did take a bat to the head for me.? Conveniently, she didn?t add the part about her swinging it.

Eyes widened regarding what he thought she might do to his unconscious body. ?Nono...that isn?t what I meant. Not at all. I?m sorry that it sounded that way!? Her face was even more aflame than when she caught herself saying those words in the first place. ?I...I said I wouldn?t touch the mask...now you can t-trust me.? That old stutter she had worked so hard to tame came back as it occasionally did when she was really nervous. Waking up in bed with a man when she didn?t remember even getting into the bed...that made her nervous. The man mistaking her words for something far less innocent made her doubly so.

In normal circumstances she would have remembered her manners and offered breakfast to the person she had been taking care of, but right now good manners really slipped her mind. ?Uhh yeah, don?t want a mess to clean up. Nope. So uh...yeah.? Then she blinked. ?Wait...why are you going out the window? It is broad daylight and in this neighborhood somebody will call the Watch if a weird guy in a mask is climbing out windows. Are you worried about my reputation or something?? Because he was obviously a gentleman that would worry over something such as that, right? ?My roomates are at work and school so you can just go out the front door? Like a normal person...wearing a mask. Yeaaah maybe not so normal, but you can still use the front door.?

?It would look much worse if a guy in a masked walked right out the front,? Danny chuckled as he stopped short of the window. ?Nobody ever looks at windows, anyway. If I went out the front they might think I broke in and attacked or something.? As he lifted the window, he frowned at how different they were from his; he had made it easier at his home to get in and out and had forgotten most people don?t use windows as the normal method of entering and leaving a residence.

He bent over, but despite his thoughts yelling at him to leave before anyone returned, he turned his eyes back to Alys and saw her face burning. And he made her stammer? He hadn?t done that in years. Maybe he should just be sure that she?s okay before he leaves. Yes, that?s exactly what he should do. A light smile spread his mouth, corners of his lips upturned. ?I do trust you, Alys.
And nevermind that joke about the body thing. I know you didn?t mean it that way. You took care of me, and you put yourself in a bad spot to do it. I won?t forget that. I?ll make it up to you.?

He knew he should just leave it at that; that if he kept speaking eventually his mouth would overtake his mind and something would spill out. However, knowing something and acting on it are two entirely different things. ?I slept really well, too. And waking up beside you was about the best thing that?s happened to me in years. So... thank you.?

It was one of the most sincere statements he could have said, and it wasn?t even anything he realized was true until he said it aloud. Spending the night with her was the best thing that had happened to him in quite a long time; even if it was just the two of them sleeping beside each other was an accident due to exhaustion, it made him so content and placed him in a serene peace he had forgotten existed. As that thought made itself clear in his mind, Danny tipped an imaginary cap to Alys and exited through the window before he could reconsider leaving.

He left with one final sentence; said before he leaped outside: ?See you later tonight, Alystelle.?

Her momentary embarrassment was forgotten once he said he trusted her. A genuine smile lit up her features; for some reason she couldn?t fathom, it warmed her to know this. ?I wasn?t in a bad spot. It wasn?t anything I couldn?t handle. No need to make it up to me...I owed you anyway.? You could spend more than a few minutes with me...that would be good payment. She almost covered her mouth in shock as she thought that; sure she had just spoken it out loud. Oh my Lord, you dummy. What in the world are you thinking?!

Blinking repeatedly, she shook herself from her mental dialogue with cheeks even more red than before. ?I..I?m glad you slept well. It...I...you?re welcome,? she rushed out. You are, by far, the most comfortable pillow EVER. Alys almost giggled like some schoolgirl with a crush; which wouldn?t be far from the truth.

Watching him leap from the window, she walked over to lean against the wall to watch his descent. A hand lifted to rest against the upper pane of glass as she whispered, ?Yes, I will see you tonight.?

He was gone and the day would now be much like every other day spent in drudgery until the wee hours. Finally, some excitement in the form of a masked hero would present itself to brighten her otherwise dreary night.


(Thanks to Danny)