"Touch his mask one more time and you'll be worse off than those kids Freddy terrorized," Knightmare's voice faded in and out but the threat was clear. More shuffling echoed around.

Hijack blinked, momentarily confused by the darkness his eyes opened to. There was a light pressure across his face but when he tried to reach for it his arm refused to raise fully. It felt like weights had been embedded in every inch of his skin. As his awareness returned, so did the blinding pain in his side. He gasped and choked on the air as it funneled through his dry throat.

"How am I supposed to help if I can't touch him? He's been here since we got back and you think a gunshot wound is just going to go away on its own?" The voice was most definitely not Knightmare's, it was achingly shrill and angry.

"I'm not going to have you using his identity for blackmail," Knightmare warned. His hand was heavy on Hijack's shoulder. Heat radiated from every pore and the brief choking spell had dislodged the bandages from his side. They'd been badly done to begin with but they'd at least been a way to manage the bleeding. Now the blood was steadily coating the sheets of the bed he'd been laid out on.

The door slammed open and Cassandra ran in. She took one look around and turned an exasperated look on Knightmare. "I sent her up here to help, so let her help. He's going to lose too much blood at this rate and it won't matter who knows who he is," she reasoned.

Hijack managed to lift his arm on his uninjured side and tapped a hidden button on the side of his mask. The eyeholes lit up on his side, showing both a clean vision of the outside along with a digital readout of the environment. In minutes he had a vaguely accurate set of coordinates, the date and his pulse. The last one fluctuated with his panic but was noticeably lower than he knew it normally was.

"Did I get shot?" Hijack croaked.

"Yes, but don't worry, Gwen can get you back on your feet if you can call off your guard dog," Cassandra said. The tall woman at her side rolled her eyes. She had no first aid kit, not a stereotypical doctor's bag, not even a dinosaur bandage.

Knightmare bit his lip, noting the paleness he could see on Hijack's lower face. They'd managed to pull down the fabric that usually covered his mouth, insisting he needed clear breathing pathways. He hadn't seen the point in recovering it after they'd already seen half his face. "Fine, help him. One wrong move though..." he let the warning trail off.

The woman Cassandra had called Gwen hurried forward and pushed her rough calloused hands against his side. She ignored his whine of protest and pushed harder. "I won't be able to close it completely, he's not strong enough for it. This is going to hurt by the way."

The warning came a second too late and Hijack shouted as the pain in his side burned like a livewire. The burning raced along her nerves and up his spine. It was as if her hands had become hot needles. His vision blurred despite the enhanced image his mask gave him. Faintly he could hear Knightmare telling her to stop and Cassandra trying to quiet him.

"He's fine, the pain is normal. You can't force the body through the healing process at such an accelerated rate and not expect some drawbacks," Gwen explained. Her voice faded into nothingness.

Hijack took a deep shuddering breath and opened his eyes. Sunlight was streaming in through the sheer curtains, almost blinding him. The pain in his side had subsided and he was glad at least one thing seemed to be going well. He tried to speak and only a strained croak came out.

"It's about time you woke up," Knightmare muttered. He slipped a hand under Hijack's shoulders and sat him up. Even with the mask covering half his face, the exhaustion was glaringly obvious. "You've been out for two days, we need to go before we wear out our welcome any further."

Once Hijack was sitting on his own, Knightmare hurried across the room to a sleeping Cassandra. She woke with a start and a fist pulled back ready to punch. He calmed her down quickly enough and she ran across the room to the door.

"Alright buddy, better wake yourself up and get those legs working. We're going to need to move fast," Knightmare explained.

A woman Hijack recognized as a less blurry Gwen poked her head in the door. She was nearly half a foot taller than Cassandra but somehow less intimidating. The three of them followed close behind her down a wide hallway. Large windows lined the left wall, the thick green curtains drawn to keep the light out. They scurried like mice in a cat's home, though Hijack wasn't sure just who the cat was.

They reached a large staircase and took the steps two at a time. Hijack was quickly regaining his speed despite the growing ache in his side. Their footsteps echoed through the large entry room they walked into. Suddenly, Cassandra skidded to a stop and shoved the other three back while she stepped out. She clasped her hands behind her back and took a deep breath.

"Good morning, father. I thought you'd be down at the club this morning," Cassandra rambled on for a while about her morning and plans. She waved a hand at them, gesturing for them to stay put and keep low.

"Cassandra, do stop your prattling. I have a guest coming over today and I expect you to behave properly," Conrad Voss said. The ice in his voice could have started a premature winter on its own.

"Is it him again?" Cassandra groaned. The false interest on her face waned for a second, showing her annoyance.

Conrad smacked his hand against the table by the door, making all of them jump. "Did I ask for your opinion? You would do well to keep your opinions to yourself from now on," he warned her. The door opened, slamming behind him.

It was a while before Cassandra moved again. Her shoulders dropped from where they'd inched up towards her ears. "Let's get going, before he decides I need another lecture." She showed them to a side door that led into a garage. Rows of cars lined the sides. Each one could have covered Hijack's salary for a year. "Get going, Gwen will drop you off where we picked you up and come back here."

"You're being surprisingly helpful and useful," Hijack noted.

"Would you rather I shoot you here and let my father decide what to do with you?" she asked.

Knightmare gripped Hijack's shoulder deathly tight and shoved him towards the car Gwen had unlocked. Cassandra had already headed back inside before they'd closed the doors.

The ride was spent in awkward silence, most of it because Knightmare silenced Hijack every time he tried to speak. When the taillights were pinpricks in the distance, Knightmare dragged him behind a low wall and knelt down. He pulled his mask off and rubbed his face tiredly.

"Warren, what happened?" Jake asked as he joined him on the floor. Their legs stretched out ahead of them.

"You got shot, dumbass," Warren answered tiredly. He dug into his pockets and tossed Jake's phone to him. "I told Hannah we had to take a few extra days for the story and reception was shit. Actually, you told her because you definitely weren't hanging on by a thread for a while there."

Jake grabbed the phone, and scrolled through the notifications. Dozens of them were from Hannah asking how he was. A few were just catching him up on her day, asking when he would be back, telling him off for making him worry, and pictures of random parts of the city. He almost called her but the late hour made him pause. If he called now she would definitely be worried.

"She is persistent," Warren said.

"Let's go back to the part where I got shot. What happened after that?"

Warren sighed and crossed his legs at the ankles. "Well you fell, not that far thankfully but it was enough to knock you out I guess. We got you in the car and to the Voss estate. No way was I letting you in any city with Hannah when you had blood pouring out of you like that. She'd know and kill me, then you."

Jake laughed and glanced back at the pile of notifications. "Probably."

"Then Gwen got you healed up and you passed out again. I really thought you were done for then," he sighed. Warren dug through his pockets again and dangled Jake's keys under his nose. "Can you take me home now? Get Surge to pay out and tell her next time it's double whatever she offers."

The car ride into the city was mercifully uneventful and in no time Jake was pushing open the door to his apartment to drop his things inside. The empty silence crashed over him. He hadn't expected Hannah to be there but some part of him had been hoping she would appear. Any other time he hurt himself, even something as small as a paper cut, she'd been right there to see him through it.

The pain in his side was now only a dull ache, but some movements sent a stab of pain through his ribs. It was a good thing Gwen had been around. Hannah never would have believed the dozens of lies his mind had begun to concoct from the second the bullet had hit him. Mugging had been among the ideas but Warren had destroyed that idea almost immediately. Apparently that was too dramatic.

Jake dropped his suitcase at the foot of his bed and fell face first down onto the mattress. The springs groaned in protest. "And now my bed is calling me fat," he mumbled into the covers. A familiar scent wafted over him and he lifted his head. Only then did he remember the mess he'd left his room in.

The bed was neatly made now, the sheets tucked under the mattress and the pillows fluffed and arranged. He'd only done that twice in his memory and both were because Hannah had been planning on coming over. Jake dragged over the only pillow that looked used and found the origin of the scent. Coconut shampoo filled his nose as he pressed his nose to the fabric.

When he'd walked through the door he'd been nearly dead on his feet but a wave of energy filled him now. He bolted out of bed, wobbling as the sudden movement pulled at stiff muscles. Curses fell from his mouth as he hurried around the apartment checking doors and windows and making sure his hiding places were untouched and secure.

Keys in hand, he dashed back down to his car and made the trip to Hannah's apartment. The rickety elevator was simultaneously comforting and unnerving, as always. He stopped at her door, chewing nervously at his lip. During the drive he hadn't thought about much more than getting to her, but now he was having a silent heart to heart with her door.

His heart was pounding against his rib cage in a frenzied drum beat. It would have been better to call her before he made the whole trip over. For all he knew she was working and he'd be standing here like an idiot until one of her neighbors looked out to give him a disapproving look. On the other hand, she could be home and refuse to talk to him. That would be worse than anything.

Jake finally raised his first and knocked softly. He heard her call out a question from inside but couldn't answer thanks to the dry throat that had overtaken him. A few minutes later the door swung open and she stood there with her jaw slowly dropping further and further. He hesitantly opened his arms and shrugged his shoulders.

Hannah flung herself at him, arms tightening around his shoulders at an awkward angle. "You're home," she sighed.

"Mmhm, are you going to let me in or should we stay out there in the hall?" Jake asked.

She laughed and dragged him inside by the collar. "Why didn't you call to tell me you were home? Why didn't you call me at all the last couple days?" Her excited smile faded away to a frown.

"Bad cell reception," he answered. It wasn't entirely a lie. Southside was known to have broken cell towers every which way. Even some of the calls he had managed to make had dropped or become nothing but static. Jake could have fixed it or found a way around it but there were some times he wanted to remain completely unseen. "And I just sort of figured you'd be here when I got back so I came straight over."

"You know I don't like surprises, Jake." Hannah fell onto the couch and tucked her legs under her. The frown was still there but it seemed less angry than when it had started.

"Well, that makes this a little awkward," Jake began. He pulled away from her and dug into his pocket.

Hannah clapped a hand over her mouth, her eyes widening. "You're not... you can't." Her voice dissolved into startled squeaks between shaky breaths. Even with her protests, she made no move to stop him in any way. "Do you know how many bets people have made about this?"

"What? How would they know about this?" Jake muttered. He pulled a small silver key from his pocket and held it out to her. "Am I that predictable?"

"Oh, it's not a ring," Hannah noted, sounding relieved. Her face had gone pale while she waited for what she'd assume would be something very different.

"Not just yet," he teased.

"So then why the key? Is it to your car? Your secret man lair?"

"Wrong on both counts," Jake said patiently. He held out the key more insistently. "It's to my apartment,"

"Have you finally decided to stop leaving a key under the doormat?" Hannah smirked and fiddled with the key. It felt so light in her hand, as if she could snap it in two. One scratch marred the top where it had been hurriedly pulled off of a key ring.

"It's your key," Jake explained. The silence was thick between them. "I don't think I'm doing this right. I thought I would be all romantic and suave and I think it's just awkward and confused. Hannah, I want you to move in with me."

"You what?" The key slipped from her fingers to drop to the couch between them. It bounced off the cushion and onto the floor. Hannah's mind came to a complete standstill and she stared into his hope filled brown eyes. She noted the beginnings of dark circles under his eyes and the way his nose looked red and raw from the cold. Each blink looked like it took a million years before he opened his eyes again.

"I am asking," Jake began, scooping the key off the floor, "you to move in with me." He handed it back to her and closed her fingers around it. With every passing moment of silence, his hope dropped away.

"Yes," Hannah finally answered. It was so quiet he almost missed it. In that moment she could have changed her mind and he would never have known. Thankfully she repeated her answer more clearly.

"Seriously?" Jake shouted and threw his arms around her in a hug. "This is going to be so amazing."

"I know! Now you'll never be able to get rid of me," Hannah cheered.

"I don't want to ever get rid of you," Jake promised. He leaned in and kissed her. The key in her hand pressed into his shirt where she grabbed hold, the warm metal soothing against his chest.