Guts Over Fear ◇ NIKITA

Kick Rocks

Alys stood over Birkhoff and cleaned the wound on his head. Alicia had used a snowglobe to knock him out and it left a sizable mark on his cranium. He hissed when she pressed a gauze soaked in anti-bacterial to his head, stopping when he waved her off. With a sigh, Alys tossed the materials to the table before him, as if to say, 'You do it then,' and sat down on the sofa to his left. "Hey, computer guy," Owen spoke over the news brodcast on Mars.

"It's Birkhoff. Seymour Birkhoff," he sighed, unabashed about his exhaustion of people.

"Right, Seymour Birkhoff. Nikita says you know where the other Black Boxes are, that true?" Alys watched the exchange silently, almost forgetting about the Black Boxes entirely.

"I know where they were before Percy scattered the last three Guardians to the wind - Johannesburg, Tokyo, and Rio," Birkhoff informed.

"Is that where you're going next?" Nikita asked as she walked into the room. "Land of the Lambada, crystal waters, white sands - sounds nice."

"Yeah," Owen nodded as he stuffed his hands into his pockets. "First things first, I sent Alys everything on the regimen," -- Alys turned her head a bit, remembering what had happened before Alicia went drone -- "I pulled it off Mars' computer. Like Alys said, there's a way to chemically detox. It's, uh, it's the answers we've been looking for."

Alys couldn't help but feel like she didn't deserve part of the credit he was giving her, after Birkhoff came up empty handed and they couldn't pull anything from the London Guardian's laptop, she hadn't been putting much effort into looking - especially not after learning about Noah. "You know, it could take a while for all that to get out of your system. Maybe you could stay here," Nikita offered.

"Absolutely not," Birkhoff instantly contradicted as he stood and left the room.

"Alys offered help me off this stuff. I'm not allowed to go Black Box hunting until I've left her charge, so it's really up to her, I guess," Owen assured instead, able to bring a small smile to Nikita's lips.

"That sounds like her." Alys couldn't help the twitch of her lips, silently watching as Michael walked up to Owen, extending his hand for a friendly shake, the most civil she'd seen them act towards each other.

"Good luck," he offered when Owen took his hand.

"Yeah," Owen nodded, a small smile to his lips. When the contact was released, Michael followed Birkhoff out of the room and Owen stepped closer to Nikita, probably closer than Michael would have liked.

"Owen, if you ever need anything," Nikita sighed, unable to finish her drawn out thought as Owen stepped in.

"I'll be around," he assured with a slight nod. "Okay?"

"Okay," Nikita agreed. Giving her hand a gentle squeeze, Owen too left the room, leaving Nikita staring at Alys. "You doing okay?" she asked softly, kicking the foot left dangling over her knee.

"Yeah, still adjusting, I think," she mumbled honestly.

"You figure out where you and Owen are gunna stay?" Alys nodded, despite not having a clue. Her Division flat was compromised, and she wasn't like Birkhoff, with houses set up outside of Division knowledge. She didn't need Nikita worrying about that, though.

"Thanks for sending Owen to fetch me," she mumbled, a touch of warmth to her voice.

"What are you talking about? I didn't know you two were involved until the Eustice compound." Alys frowned but shook her head, saving a mental note for later. Owen had lied, not majorly, but his intentions were more self-motivated than she'd realized.

"Nothing," Alys shook her head, exhaling deeply as she stood.

"Don't be afraid to come home, Aly," Nikita sighed, holding a gentle grip on her wrist.

"I'm not," the blonde informed, giving her a soft, appreciative smile before following everyone out to the livingroom. She'd barely gotten past the doorway before Birkhoff intercepted her, an expecant look about him. With a deep breath, Alys shifted her footing and looked him in the eye, her expression apologetic. "I've neglected you, as well as everyone else, these past few months. I was being a selfish brat and I promise to be better to my best friend."

Birkhoff's whole face morphed as his attitude changed, rolling his eyes at her dramaticism. "You're allowed your space to grieve," he informed, as if admiting to his own portion of blame. Rolling his shoulders he held a flash drive between them, a grin beginning to pull on the Alys' lips. Though, it faultered some when he opened up his fist and a set of keys dangled on a loop. "You're terrible at planning ahead. Just, actually let me know when you get there, alright?"

Despite the minor faulter, Alys' grin grew further, wrapping her arms around his shoulders with a soft sigh. "I don't deserve you," she whispered, kissing his cheek and taking the key ring as she pulled away. Since she didn't bring more than necessities from London and she was currently dressed in Nikita's clothes, Alys didn't need to grab anything else before exitting the house.

Looking up as she shut the door, she watched Owen slickly slide his hand from his ear into his pocket, fiddling with the key ring for car keys as she looked all the way up and walked over. "Ready to hit the road?" she prompted, choosing to ignore his hastily ended phone call for now.

"Where're we headed?" he asked with a little half smirk. Alys flipped through the shaped metal until she found what she assumed to be a house key, an address taped in the wide part of the key in Birkhoff's unusually small handwriting.

"1459 Beauregard, Alexandria, Virgina," Alys read off, then flipped to the car key. "Let's go."