Guts Over Fear ◇ NIKITA

This is Why We Don't Have Nice Things

Alys was unsettled by the whole idea of this mission, she didn't feel right seeing Nikita so strung out, makeup or not. They were gone for about a half hour before the laptop she'd been using sparked to life, details, formulas, all the research on the regimen, all that and more on the detoxing program. With a soft frown, Alys got up and walked out to the livingroom. "Hey, Birkhoff?" She jumped as the door shut and looked around the corner, finding Birkhoff unconcious in his spinny chair, an odd sound leaving his computer.

She ran over to his chair and propped him upright, gently slapping his cheeks until he came to. "Hey, hey, Seymour," she gently coaxed, his eyes fluttering as they opened and not focused on anything in particupar. "Hey, tell me what happened," she breathed.

"Alicia," he groaned turning off his computer and nodding towards the door. Keeping his arm linked through hers, Alys led him towards the door, watching a car pull quickly out of the driveway.

"Get in, I'll drive." Nodding, Birkhoff shuffled to the passenger side as quickly as possible, dropping into the seat as the engine revved to life. Alys hardly waited for the door to close before reversing out of the driveway and quickly following behind.

"Just ram me into the dashboard, why don't you?" Birkhoff groaned, falling back and sinking into his seat.

"Sorry," Alys sighed, focusing on the road. She didn't pay much attention as he pulled something out of his pocket, hardly hearing the dial tone as he put a call on speaker.

"Birkhoff?" Michael answered, a little out of breath.

"It's Alicia, she heard the tones at the clinic and got all zombified," Birkhoff informed, holding his phone between them. "She grabbed a gun and took off, we're tailing her right now but I'm not sure where she's headed."

"She's back on her original mission," Michael informed.

"God, I'm so stupid," he groaned, and Alys couldn't help but spare the dark bruise on his forehead a quick glance. "I should've remembered the tones!" She took a breath and shifted her grip on the wheel, unable to interject before Birkhoff stopped beating himself up for the moment. "She doesn't deserve to go out like this, Mike."

The call ended without a response, leaving Birkhoff to sigh heavily as he dropped his hand to his lap but kept his elbow on the middle console as Alys drove down the road. She was focused on the thrown up clouds of dust on the road, but she couldn't help but entertain the concern nagging at her. "She got you good, how's your head?"

"Pounding. Please, just drive," he groaned. With a soft sigh and another glance in his direction, Alys complied with what he asked. They were driving in silence for about twenty minutes before he picked up his phone again.

Nikita's voice quickly came through after a couple rings. "Where are you guys?"

"I was about to ask you the same question," he informed, looking out the windows as greenery flew past them. "Somewhere in back-ass country Greenwich, probably gunna lose my signal." As if patting him on the head for good forsight, Nikita's voice came through the phone all jumbled. "Hey, Nikita? Niki!" But the only response was a dropped call, travelling beyond celltowers now. "Damnit!" he hissed tossing his phone to the floorboards beneath him.

"It'll be okay, Birky," Alys lightly breathed, trying to provoke some humor in him. But he only sat back in the seat amd watched out the window, allowing Alys the room to focus on the road. Another five minutes went by before they pulled up to a fairly big house, Alicia out front firing a machine gun at the building.

Alys hadn't even put the car in park before Birkhoff was out of the passenger, yelling at the girl to stop. He turned his head as Alys got out of the car, holding a pistol at her hip. "Wait, stop!" he insisted, holding a hand out to either girl when Alys moved to draw and Alicia stopped firing. Alys hesitated as he had asked, watching as the redhead turned around, that same blank expression on her face from the dinner. "You don't know what you're doing."

Birkhoff now turned both hands to Alicia, her eyes skirting over Alys and her gun before resting on Birkhoff. "Listen, I know. I know what it's like to get orders that feel so strong, you think you're gunna die if you don't follow them. But deep down, there's a part of you that knows this isn't you, and that part of you can choose to stop." Her head tilted a bit and her gaze shot to Alys again a second before returning to Birkhoff, her whole body turning with the action. "Oh no," he breathed as Alicia leveled her gun at the two, Alys following suit and aiming for her head.

She didn't get to shoot, though, because as soon as Alicia cocked her gun, Birkhoff was pulling Alys behind the car. She kept her head below the windows as she released the safety and pulled back the slide, looking to where Birkhoff crouched beside her, flinching at the resoundings of the automatic weapon. Alys was prepping herself to stand and fire when a black car shot past them, braking beside Alicia as Nikita hopped out of the backseat and disarmed her with one kick, knocking her under with an elbow before Alicia could retaliate.

Birkhoff carefully peaked over the broken remnants of his windows as Alys stood with a deep breath. "You guys took your sweet time," he pointed out, finally letting his humor come out again.

"Birkhoff, if you want to be concious for the car ride home, shut up," Nikita ordered, causing a grin to pull on Alys' lips. When he looked at her, she just nodded him forward.

"I'll take care of the car." With a defeated sigh and his body sagging a bit, Birkhoff got into the backseat of the car, carefully laying Alicia's head in his lap as Nikita shut the door. "I'll meet you guys there," she assured when Nikita gave her a look. Alys looked up to the house where the targeted judge looked in shock through the window, giving the frightened woman an akward smile and a wave.

"Don't take long," Nikita pleaded, and Alys could only nod. Shrugging off her jacket, she wrapped the fabric around her hand, opening the blue door and letting bits of glass fall before beginning to wipe the glass out with her wrapped hand. The black car took off before she finished clearing what she needed, knocking out the remnants still clinging to the window before shutting the door and examining the extensive bullet holes it had gained.

Despite the heavy damage taken to the car, everything still looked functional, at least enough to get her back to Birkhoff's place. With the wind and engine blasting in her ears and the cold that bit at her skin because of that wind, her head was easily cleared and give her some personal space in her own mind, contemplating what she'd do with just herself for once.