"Zayn?" a muffled voice said.

Zayn, it's OK.

"I think he's waking up. Guys! C'mere!"

You'll be OK. I promise you.

"Quickly! I might need some help!"

I'll help you. Zayn, listen to me - listen to my voice.

He listened long and hard, not hearing the feminine voice with the slight accent that he had wished to hear. Instead, a male voice could be heard beside him. Opening his eyes was proving difficult, a blinding white light shining through his eyelids.

He groaned and turned his head to the side, away from the brightness. "Get ... that light out of my face," he grumbled, voice hoarse. The voice was relieved to hear him speaking, and the man let out a deep breath. His eyes remained shut.

"Zayn," said a worried voice. Louis, he wondered? "Zayn, mate? Are you alright? How are you feeling?"

"Who's that?" Zayn groaned, making sure he was correct. "Louis?"

"Yeah, it's me. The other guys are coming," Louis said. Zayn felt the bed dip beside him and he reluctantly - with difficulty - opened his eyes. The bright light above him was a low-hanging light. He looked round groggily, taking in the sight of the Medical Hall of the Association. He let out a deep sigh. He was in safe hands.

"Zayn!" called a voice from the doorway. Zayn groaned ever so slightly as he turned his head to see Liam's smiling face. Harry followed right behind him, wearing a low-buttoned, white shirt, his eyes wide. "Thank God."

"I'm not going that easily," Zayn laughed, his eyes slipping shut. As soon as his vision was turned to darkness, the events of that time on the train played back almost like a movie in his mind. Mila, Louis' injured foot, Harry on the roof, Tony McPherson, talk of his parents, Liam being beaten, Niall being a traitor, the bullet entering his chest. "What happened?" Zayn found himself asking.

"You don't remember?" Harry asked, pulling a chair up for himself and Liam to sit on.

Zayn shook his head absentmindedly. "Very vaguely. I was shot..." He instantly sat up, wincing at the slight stabbing in his chest. "Holy shit, I was shot." He unbuttoned the white pyjama-top he had been dressed in until it hung loosely, his eyes taking in the layers of bandages that had been wrapped around his chest. He slowly reached up and tapped the little, pink stain just below his left pectoral muscle. He winced a little.

"Just missed your lung," Liam said, smiling. "We were all so scared."

"Well, lucky me," Zayn murmured, pushing himself up against the headboard until he was sitting up fully. "What about McPherson? Did he get caught? Niall, what about him?"

"We got the documents back," Harry said. "We got Niall and Tony too. Turns out we were only a five minute ride away from London by the time you were shot. There were members of the Association waiting at the station and they were both caught. Liam knew they didn't know Niall was a traitor so he shot his leg so he couldn't leave."

"You must have caused a commotion," Zayn noted, a brow raised.

"We did - the station was cleared as soon as the gun shots went off, so the troops moved in and got Tony and his men before dragging Niall off afterwards. They're both being taken in for questioning. I still can't believe that Niall..." Liam trailed off, his eyes lowering. "He was my best friend and he was a traitor."

"Did you find out why he started working for them?"

"When they dragged him off, he began shouting something at me," Liam said, frowning. "Something about them taking his brother."

"He told me his family were safe back in Ireland..." Harry muttered, frowning.

"Apparently not," Liam said, with sad expression. "It seems he was blackmailed into working for them with his brother's life on the line."

"Looks like it," Louis said, shaking his head. "He should have told us - we could have helped him."

"It doesn't matter now, he made his choice," Zayn said, pulling the covers off his legs. He ignored the worried voices of his friends and staggered to his feet, stretching carefully sky-wards. "Did you find out what the documents were? What was on them?"

"Turns out McPherson wasn't lying about your parents being involved - they helped design a weapon, almost like a gun that could fire in every direction at the same time, able to kill more than one or two men at one point. They gave it to the Association before the left that life, but not after it was used several times on missions."

"Like Tony said - it was used to kill many of his men," Liam added.

Louis nodded and continued. "Tony wanted it for revenge - to use the Association's own weapon against them. That's why he ... killed your parents. It was to leave a message, that if you kill his men, he'll kill the Association's right back."

Zayn remained silent, taking in everything he was being told. "So the thing on the documents was all the paper work used for creating this weapon? From stage one to the final flourish?"

Harry nodded. "Yeah, every piece of technology used, every level of completion. I think he wanted to make more than one and use them for himself."

"Well, I sure am glad he didn't get that far with his plan - I barely survived one bullet," Zayn said, looking around the Medical Hall. He was the only patient in there, his friends and himself the only people. "Where is everyone?"

"It's the weekend, no one is out on tasks this week after seeing the state you arrived in," Louis informed him. "We've been visiting over the last few days, so you've not been by yourself if you needed something."

Zayn frowned. Last few days? he thought, confused. "How long was I unconscious?"

"Three days," Harry told him. "You were heavily sedated so the bullet could be extracted without you feeling a thing. It was pretty deep."

"Mila." The name was the only thing Zayn said but they all gave him an apologetic look.

"She was brilliant, Zayn," Harry said with a smile. "She helped secure the bullet wound so you wouldn't lose anymore blood before it was removed. She helped us carry you to the van while shouting she was a nurse in training." Harry and Liam laughed quietly. "She wanted to say goodbye but rules are rules - the Association wouldn't bring her along. Louis helped her get safely from the train with her belongings and to a taxi."

"My foot's fine, by the way," Louis interjected. "Thanks for asking."

"Louis, you got a bullet through the foot. Zayn was shot in the chest," Harry scolded. Louis just rolled his eyes.

"Still, a little acknowledgement would have been nice," he said with a grin.

"So, she's home safe?" Zayn urged. "She's OK?"

Harry smiled at him. "Yeah."

I didn't get a chance to thank her, Zayn realized, looking down at his feet. She helped us so much in the end. She saved my life again. Zayn was completely oblivious to the smirks shared by his friends, Louis fiddling with a small scrap of paper between his fingers.

"Zayn?" Liam asked. "You alright?"

"I just ... I never got the chance to thank her," he admitted. "I wish I could have told her, is all."

Louis stood from his spot on the bed and sauntered over to Zayn, wrapping an arm over his shoulders. "Well," he began, making it obvious that he was playing with something in his hand by waving it back and forth in Zayn's face, "it's awfully handy that she happened to leave her number ... and her address. Isn't it?" Louis grinned at his friend.

Zayn looked at Louis incredulously before looking to Liam and Harry for confirmation. Was Louis being serious? He took the little piece of lined paper and unfolded it, a smile forming on his face. Louis patted him on the back just before he ran for the exit, ignoring the pain in his chest as he grabbed his leather jacket on the way out the door.

No one had said anything for five minutes. Mila knew she was partially to blame but so was Joanna and Eddie who she had walked in on during a heated moment just three days earlier. After everything that had happened with the spies, she was exhausted, in desperate need for rest, so walking in on her two friends having intercourse on their sofa had been quite a surprise.

"Control yourselves!" she'd screeched, utterly flustered before stomping through to her bedroom and slamming the door. Once in her room, she'd fallen onto her bed, happy to be home yet terribly emotional after witnessing Zayn being shot and carried away in a mysterious black van with a large, golden 'A' written across the side. The Association, she'd realized as the taxi pulled away from the station, her eyes on the van until she was no longer able to see it.

Mila was glad that neither of her friends had mentioned her torn clothing or wind-swept hair when she'd arrived. She'd simply brushed it off with a wave of her hand that meant 'I'll tell you later'.

Now, three days later, Mila, Eddie and Joanna sat around the dining table, eating the stir fry that had been promised by Mila at the beginning of her journey home.

"This is great, Mimi," Jo said, breaking the silence. "Best damn stir fry I've had in ages."

"Thanks," Mila mumbled, twirling a noodle around her fork. She couldn't' get the image of Zayn' being carried away out of her head. Is he OK? Is he still alive? she wondered, biting her lip. What if he's ... dead?

"Are you alright, Mila?" Eddie asked. "You've been quiet for the last few days. Is something up?"

Mila took a deep breath and looked up at her friends. She shook her head. "I'm fine. Just tired still. It was a long journey home."

Eddie pushed his glasses up his nose and looked over at Joanna who was eating, completely content. Mila had truthfully missed her friends since the day she had left for Glasgow but somehow, being in their presence didn't bring her the comfort she required. She needed reassurance. She needed to know that he was alive.

"I'm not that hungry," she finally announced after two forced mouthfuls. She couldn't eat anymore and she had found it difficult to eat due to the worry she felt deep down for Zayn - a man she hardly knew but wanted to know so much more about.

"You've barely touched your food," Eddie noted, glancing at the food she had left.

She smiled at them both. "You can share it between you. I'm going to take a lie down. I just need to clear my head a little is all."

Jo and Ed shared a concerned glance before nodding, accepting Mila's request. She turned and left the room, heading down the hall to her bedroom. Once inside, she sat down on the edge of her bed and toed her shoes off, a smile coming to her lips when remembering her brave heel-toss at the man trying to kill Zayn.

"And men complain about women and their shoes," she laughed quietly to herself as she began to undress out of her work clothes. It was Monday, and walking into the hospital that morning had only upset her further, the sounds of patients coughing, dying and calling for help making her fear more for Zayn.

What if he's not as tough as he makes out to be? That bullet hit him in the chest, after all, she had pondered all morning and afternoon. Still, as she tugged off her shirt and trousers, her mind was thinking of that one spy in particular. From his womanly disguise to the moment he pulled a gun out of his jacket, she couldn't deny the smallest feel of affection deep in her heart.

She sympathized for him, loved his enthusiasm, feared for his life and desperately wanted some sort of sign to alert her that he had made it through the gun wound.

Mila pulled on her pyjamas and tugged the hair bauble from her locks as she prepared to jump into bed. She glanced at her phone, wondering if Louis had kept to his promise and given the note to Zayn.

All of the spies had been so kind to her as she'd left the train, helping them secure the bullet wound on Zayn's chest. Liam's nose was broken badly and she couldn't help but wonder if he had had it seen to yet. Louis' foot was still injured and in need of a clean. Harry had received a cut to his knee at one point that she hadn't noticed until he'd limped from the train after Liam. She prayed that they were all alright.

There was a knock on her door.

"Eddie, I said I'm fine," she sighed, folding her work clothes neatly. She could still feel the person lingering behind her and she turned to face the door. "Honestly, I'm..."

She trailed off, her eyes widening when a pair of familiar brown eyes met her's. Her heart began to race and an involuntary grin immediately formed on her lips. Before she could stop herself, she ran across the room and wrapped her arms around his neck, her shortness allowing her just able to reach. She buried her face in his chest, unable to believe that he was standing in her home - in her room, of all places.

"Hey, Karate Kid," Zayn laughed, embracing her just as gently, as if she were a china doll - fragile and breakable. "It's good to see you."

"Good to see me?" she laughed, pulling away to look up into his eyes. "Oh my God, I thought you were dead ... you wouldn't wake up. How's your chest? Are you feeling alright? Shouldn't you be at the Association resting? You must be exhausted-"

"Mila, Mila, Mila," Zayn laughed, cutting her off. "I'm perfectly alright. They managed to get the bullet out before it could get my lung. I'm lucky, I suppose."

"More than lucky," she said, beaming up at him. "I'm so glad you're alright. And the others? How are they? Is Louis' foot OK? Liam's nose? What about Niall?"

Zayn's gaze lowered at the mention of the traitor and Mila instantly felt bad.

"Niall and Tony are being questioned at the Association as we speak. No one knows I'm here apart from the lads. They're all great."

"Good, good," Mila said, clearing her throat. "It's been a long, stressful day."

"It sure has," the spy agreed, tucking a strand of hair behind Mila's ear. She felt her cheeks burning and she let out an awkward giggle.

He's alive! He's breathing and walking and talking and alive! She couldn't contain her grinning as the spy continued to look down at her. She noticed that his hair was sticking up in different directions and that there were dark shadows under his eyes. He looked exhausted.

"You look knackered," she observed. "You shouldn't be here, should you?"

Zayn shook his head. "It's against the rules to put innocent lives in danger. Me being here has you in danger right now ... but I had to see you."

"You did?" she asked, surprised.

"Mm-hm," Zayn mumbled, his gaze moving down to her lips for a brief second before meeting her eyes once again. "I had to..."

"Yeah?" Mila whispered as he lowered his face ever so slightly towards her's.

He cleared his throat. "I had to say thank you."

Mila frowned as he pulled away, disappointment surfacing within her.

"Thank me for...?" she asked, trying to keep her voice as calm as possible.

"For saving not just my life but for everyone's on that train. We were all in danger and the amount of times you helped was incredible. So, thank you."

"Oh," Mila mumbled, looking down. "You're welcome." She smiled.

Zayn nodded and cleared his throat again. "Well, I should... I'll be going now."

"Yeah, yeah you should go. It's gonna get colder in a bit," she said, crossing her arms over her chest. "I'll show you out."

Mila led the way from her bedroom and into the living room where Eddie and Joanna were still eating. Their eyes landed on Mila and Zayn.

"Leaving so soon?" Eddie called over to Zayn.

"Yeah, I just came to have a word, like I said," the spy answered before waving to Mila's friends. Mila jerked open the front door and stood aside to allow him to leave. Zayn thanked Ed and Jo for letting him in and when turning back to face Mila, there was no denying the sadness in his eyes. He held out his hand. "Thank you and good luck, Mila," he said as she slowly slipped her hand into his. He shook it before bringing it up to his mouth to leave a delicate kiss on her skin. Her hand tingled where his mouth had been and her cheeks turned even brighter.

"Bye, Zayn," Mila said with a small smile as he turned and left the house.

For a moment everything was silent, even the clanging of cutlery on plate from Joanna. Mila remained staring at the door with a frown. Eddie coughed, trying to get Mila's attention and she slowly turned to face him.

"Who's that, then?" Eddie asked, a brow raised. "He said he was a friend of yours?"

"Yeah," Mila laughed. "I met him on the train home."

"He's very handsome," Jo added, wiggling her eyebrows. "Why not get together with him?"

"Stop it, Jo," Mila sighed. "It's not like that. Besides, he leads a ... difficult life."

"Ah, business man, I'm guessing?" Eddie said.

"You could say that," Mila answered before shrugging to herself. "Whatever, he's gone now. I'm off to bed-"

The door was flung open and all three of the owners jumped as Zayn came sprinting back into the room, a wild look in his eyes. He looked only at Mila, a smile on his face.

"Did you forget something else?" she wondered, slightly shocked by his dramatic entrance.

He nodded curtly. "Yes. This," he said before closing the gap between them. He took her face between his hands, cupping her cheeks before lowering his lips to her's in a rough kiss. Mila responded instantly, moving her mouth against his, her lips forced apart by his tongue. Her hands gripped at the collar of his leather jacket, pulling him close to her.

They both pulled back for air at the same time, eyes locked. Neither of them said a word, they just simply stared at one another, lingering in the moment they both knew could never be repeated. Their lives were too different and Mila pressed one final kiss to his lips which he returned instantly, knowing that there was a slim chance they would ever meet again.

"That was why I came here," he told her and she chuckled at his words before taking his hands in her's and squeezing them gently. "Thank you."

"Thank you," Mila said. "I know what happens now - you leave and we both go back to living our lives like before but I just want to say that I think you're a lovely, genuine guy with an insanely crazy life."

"And you're a typical London lady trying to make her way in the world," Zayn teased. "With incredible karate skills, I may add."

When the pair of them had finished with their goodbyes, Mila turned to face her friends who both wore the same expression: shock and amusement. Jo's eyes were wide and Ed's mouth was open slightly.

"Friends you say?" he laughed. "Hell, you just met him a few days ago."

"Who cares?" Jo laughed. "Mila, if that's what you get after going up to Glasgow to see your parents, then you can take me with you next time."

Ed gave her an incredulous look. "I'm sitting right beside you."

Mila just laughed and touched her fingers absentmindedly to her mouth, the memory of Zayn's lips on her own making her smile.

*

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Yay, another story done! Some of you were wondering why everything happened the way it did and you were wondering this because the story was 'just starting' but before Wattpad fucked everything up, this story was in both Fanfiction AND Short Story - there was always going to be just 10 chapters! :)

IF YOU HAVE READ MY OTHER STORIES, 'INCOMPREHENSIBLE' AND 'LUCIFER' THEN YOU WILL REMEMBER MY F.A.Q AT THE END! IF YOU HAVE NOT READ THEM, PLEASE LEAVE ME QUESTIONS YOU WOULD LIKE ANSWERED ABOUT THE STORY OR THINGS YOU WOULD LIKE EXPLAINED A LITTLE BETTER AND I SHALL ANSWER THEM IN A FINAL AUTHOR'S NOTE THAT WILL BE POSTED SOON!

Thank you for reading! COMMENT! Comment your questions below! :D x

Cazza