Guts Over Fear ◇ NIKITA

Count Your Losses

"Hold still," Alys instructed as Michael hissed in pain. She gently dabbed his bullet wound with disinfectant, her tight stitch only slightly slowing her down. "Since it went all the way through you'll have to take it easy, takes longer to heal." She carefully pressed down the guaze guarding the hole and taped it in place. She moved to one of the cabinets and allowed him to pull his shirt back on. "I'm putting you in a sling."

"Sounds fair," he grunted, adjusting his shirt over his shoulder. Alys came over and helped him into the sleeve, pulling the strap around his neck and lifting his arm to connect the pieces of the sling.

"How was she?" she asked after a moment, stepping back so Michael could stand.

"Nikita?" Alys nodded and watched his expression pull back, almost in nostalgia. "Angry." The blonde chuckled and folded her arms.

"Understandably so," she replied. Michael gave her a hard look, one that she had grown accustomed to. He had been the one to catch Alys and Nikita's relationship, but, since he didn't want either girl to get cancelled, he kept it to himself. And Alys knew he held it against her, but she wasn't sure why. "You're good to go. Send Thom in, please." Michael nodded and grabbed his jacket from the back of the chair and a bottle of pain killers from her before leaving.

She didn't dream Nikita would take her suggestion of going after Michael, she was only joking, but it was clear Niki wasn't trying to kill him. Niki didn't want to hurt him - Alys knew that. She also knew deep down and past all the stubborness, that no matter how hard she wanted it to not be true, she knew Nikita cared deeply for Michael. She would even go as far as saying that the girl loved Michael.

Her heart felt constricted inside her chest at the mere thought of Nikita loving another person. However, her mind wasn't allowed to travel much more on those thoughts as Thom shuffled into the medbay, holding an icepack to his forehead. "Did you at least hit her back?" Alys chuckled, helping him over to the examination chair.

"I got a few good hits in," he chuckled, removing the icepack. Alys smirked as she studied the slowly forming bruise and gently ran her fingers finding a spot.

"How do you feel?" she asked as she watched Thom wince. There was a slight dent in his skull, with a straight, slightly diaginal line, but nothing felt broken.

"I've been sick to my stomach since I woke up, a little dizzy," Thom explained, not focusing on anything in particular. Alys grabbed a small flashlight and held it in front of his face before clicking it on, taking note of his pupil's hesitancy to contract.

"Well, you haven't seen the end of the tunnel yet," she informed with a soft sigh. "You have a mild concussion. Try and keep the food light and don't fall asleep for twenty-four hours, you may not wake up again." She set down the flashlight and stepped back, watching him carefully stand. "The ice should reduce the swelling and help with the pain."

"Thanks," Thom sighed as he slowly stood.

A couple hours went by as she checked out some of the remaining agents, the medical station clear of people seeking treatment. Maybe she could go home to Noah after all...

Alys looked up from putting away the tools she had used, frowning when she saw Birkhoff being dragged down the corridor by a much taller agent. Being Assistant Head Medic, it was odd that she wasn't alerted of his presence. She quickly stepped over to the door and stuck her head out. "Hey!" The guard stopped and jerked Birkhoff to stop as well, giving Alys a hard glare. "Where are you taking him?"

"I'm fine, thanks for asking," Birkhoff pointed out sarastically.

"Amanda wants you to prep an FMRI brain scan for lie detection. He's going for a full body cavity search," the guard spoke, his deep voice resonating through Alys's body and giving her lungs a good rattle. Seymour visibly paled at that and the blonde frowned further in sympathy. She could have spared him some pain by sharing what she knew, but she didn't need that kind of suspicion, especially if Percy decided to go on a mole hunt.

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Alys sat in her car and released a deep sigh. Birkhoff had been cleared and the transmitter in his molar was removed, giving her and other agents clearance to the outside world again. She didn't bother to start the car yet, instead opting to call Noah first. It went to voicemail, which didn't surprise her, so she took a moment to listen to his prerecorded message.

Alys looked up from Noah's stomach with a wide smile. "Your voicemail's boring, reset it."

"Why should I?" he questioned with one brow raised.

"Because I already pressed all the buttons," she giggled, laying his phone on his chest and kissing his stomach. A small beep sounded between them, causing Noah to sigh. "If I didn't answer, it's because I'm defending a point and it inevitably ended in sex. Try again later." Just as quickly as she had procured it, she took the phone again and saved the clip, grinning widely when Noah quickly sat up. "Don't set it as that, Aly!"

"You're the one who said it," she giggled, tossing his phone behind her and kissing him. "Ready to defend your point?"

Alys snapped out of the memory when the dull ring met her ears, smiling to herself as she took a deep breath. "Hey, I thought you might be sleeping, it is three in the morning. I just got off and I'm headed home. Come see me when you get this." She hesitated a moment before hanging up, unable to bring herself to reciprocate his 'I love you,' from earlier.

From Division, it was a relatively short drive home, and with each passing minute, the more she wanted to be with him, distracted from the tremors following in the wake of Nikita.

But when she pulled up to her apartment complex, the police and ambluance lights that welcomed her set a heavy stone in her stomach. She didn't bother much with her parking spot, just turning off the car and jogging over to the police tape. "Ma'am," one of the officers interjected, trying to keep her back.

"I live here," she informed quickly, shaking off his light hold and trying to keep her breathing in check. Noah hadn't returned Alys's call, and if he was here theres no way that light-sleeper would be clonked out during all this. Hell, he was a light enough sleeper that Alys's rigid breathing woke him up often. He tended to keep a good watch on her through the night because of this.

The ping of the elevator doors opening set her focus straight and sparked new thoughts. There were a few cops on the ground floor, keeping the fort held down, and Alys pressed the button for the third floor with an urgency she didn't recognize, the seconds spent in the ascending elevator passing with agony of not knowing.

The next ping turned that stone in her chest into a bomb, erraticating the insides and leaving her hollow, when the doors opened to reveal her floor was swarmed with cops. From the tape on the third door to her left, she knew nothing good was coming of this. As her timing seemed to work out, Alys arrived before the corener had, but she was just in time to watch a couple of paramedics wheel out a black body bag. "Noah?" she whispered in horror, walking over to the gurney and fighting off the cops holding her back.

They quickly released the crazed, huffing blonde, and she carefully unzipped the bag, tears stinging the back of her eyes and falling down her cheeks as she stared down at Noah, a small line of blood on his lip and his eyes closed. "No..." Alys gently touched his face, making herself memorize the details, before a cop more carefully pulled her back a step and held her as the paramedics wheeled Noah onto the elevator and out of sight.

"Do you live here?" the cop asked, and by the irritated look on his face she could tell he had asked more than once. Alys could only nod, her hands covering her mouth and occasionally wiping her eyes. The cop led her under the tape on her door and pointed her to a detective, but all she could focus on was the mess her apartment was left in.

The coffee table had a big crack down the middle of it and a large red stain, Alys could only assume that's where Noah had died. The nicknacks that had once been on said coffee table had been scattered across the livingroom, the spare inhaler she kept there now in the kitchen. All the drawers had been gone through, she could see through the bedroom door that some people taking pictures of her things.

Her heart felt like it would beat out of her chest, but then again, she wondered if she still had a heart - Noah was dead.

She decided that if he was dead then so was she.