Recovery

Hope

Tim

When Tim had come out of his meeting with Alesky and returned to his office, his initial reaction had been panic. Urdu was gone, her scent still thick in the air. He couldn't have been gone more than thirty minutes, forty tops, but that was a lot of time for his broken and blind mate to wander into trouble.

Biting back his panic, he used his other senses, the ones he was still trying to come to terms with, the ones belonging to his god-side, Shamash. Employing his still-developing powers, Timothy felt Urdu's presence clearly. She was in the building, thank God, and Tim breathed a sigh of relief as he zeroed in on exactly where. She was-

"Tim!"

Alesky's words broke his concentration, and he opened his eyes to see the man standing there, holding a tablet displaying the security feed from one of the training rooms. Tim could swear the man looked angry, but his voice was calm.

Curiously, Tim looked at the feed, and what he saw took his breath away. It was Urdu, his Urdu, Sam's Urdu, elegantly beating the shit out of Ryker. She was rusty, for sure, but her movement was still skilled enough, graceful enough that he knew she could kill virtually anyone from this world.

Tim was so busy reveling in his joy at seeing her look so much like her old self that it didn't immediately dawn on him that Urdu had taken the upper hand in the battle and was handing it to Ryker... hard. Then, Car bit back a growl as she pinned Ryker on the mat, crushing his windpipe with her boot and jabbing her staff into his chest.

Without even waiting for an order, he wrapped both himself and Car in his power and reappeared in the training room, which was thick with the smell of sweat and Ryker's blood. Tim could sense the trainees looking on with awe, and beside him, Car made a choking noise as he saw the demon leaning over the assistant chief security officer who was pinned to the floor and wearing a pained expression Ryker seemed to be doing his best to conceal.

Urdu felt Tim's presence then and turned her eerily beautiful, unseeing eyes towards him and Alesky, wearing a dark smirk that made his heart stutter with joy.

She looked like... herself, like Lucifer's bloodthirsty general.

Car snarled, and Urdu's eyes narrowed on Alesky before Tim spoke, breaking the tension of the moment, "Urdu, love, you...you..."

He trailed off, unable to articulate his delight at seeing her be her again.

Realizing she still held a bleeding Ryker under her boot and was dangerously close to crushing his trachea, she quickly removed her foot and expertly twirled the staff before returning to a resting position.

Ryke's hand went to his neck, and he started coughing as he rolled onto his side, propping himself up on his elbow as he used his right hand to wipe at the blood pouring from his nose. With his eyes glued to Urdu, who was standing with her shoulders squared over her opponent, Tim sensed Car moving toward Ryker, who caught his eye and shook his head while saying. "I'm fine, Carbry."

Tim couldn't keep himself from walking over to Urdu, though. Her prideful smirk was fading, but she wasn't closing down like she had been doing since they'd rescued her from the bastards in her world.

When he saw that the haunted look hadn't returned to her face, Tim forgot everything, the trainees and Ryker and Car, as he took her free hand gently in his and pulled her close to him, wrapping her in a tight hug and kissing her beautiful forehead.

From the floor, Ryke snorted as he hefted himself slowly from the ground, limping as he found his footing. The man turned to address the trainees. "Teachable moment, kids, don't fuck with a demon."