MAIZE

The bounty hunter wanted nothing more than to return to her place and crash; the flight had been exhausting. Dealing with her two companions had been even more so—to the point where she had simply left them both at the luggage pickup and got a cab on her own back to Brooklyn. They hadn't been happy with her when they finally realized, and her phone had blown up because of it, but they did catch up eventually, not at all amused mind you, in their own separate modes of transportation from the airport.

New York night air had never felt so fresh, so missies, and so much of a relief to return to. Meeting up around the bend of the precinct—the 88th—the most generic reminder for her of home sweet home being back in the city.

That, and the face of the man standing just outside the entrance doors in his usual dress wear, waiting for them.

At least Ryder wasn't around for their little reunion—claiming the absolute last thing he wanted to be doing first thing after landing in the city was visit a police precinct. He and Kota were most likely off scouring the lesser crowded streets, perhaps getting himself that coffee he explained he so desperately needed.

Maize was glad for the sheer bit that it would allow her a break from having both him and the detective in the same twenty-foot range—since she had gotten her knives back, and once again, was not against using them to make a point if she had to.

Seeing the Captain again was a bigger relief than she initially thought it would be. Like seeing a lifeboat after being stranded in the ocean for days—or in their case; a wild mission for weeks. Even she couldn't find it within her to fight meeting the smile that spread across the chief of the precinct's face as he took them both in, tired and a little worn down, but the same nonetheless.

"Nice to see you both again," the Captain addressed with an acknowledging nod as his gaze passed over each of them. There was a faint hint of something like a knowing smirk as it came to a rest on Alec, "You survived each other."

"Indeed," Alec replied, his own breathy chuckle feeding into his words as he ducked in his shoulder in a way that could only be described as losing some kind of bet. She could only wonder.

"Kind of hard to focus on killing each other when there were already a bunch of people willing to do it for us. Had to improvise," Maize said in a tone of lightness rather than trouble, throwing the slightest smirk at the detective who managed to catch her eye.

Understatement of the century, his eyes seemed to retort, along with some more cunning and sly, hinting at something more they had yet to recall—that Maize ignored for the time being.

The Captain nodded, though a tad regretfully. "I heard."

"We would be dead without you, Chief, just so you know," she said in all honesty, recalling the agents telling them how he had been the one working on their side with the bureau to bring Azeal down.

The Captain shook his head. "On the contrary, I did not do much. You two owe it to yourselves to acknowledge that this was all you." There was a brief meaningful glance in her direction. "I'm just sorry it turned out the way it did." He meant Kishan—and everything that had to do with the fact that he wasn't with them the way they thought he would be by the end of their job.

"So are we," Maize replied.

Her statement was acknowledged with a low head nod from her superior, as well as a moment of respectful silence. It was as if the Captain just knew—perceptive of a man as he was—that there was much left unspoken, heaviness, that would remain unspoken.

"You don't mind keeping a secret for an alleged criminal?" Maize had recalled asking Alec when they had found themselves in a moment alone, prepared to return to the city.

"That depends, are you telling me to acknowledge you as one?"

"No."

"Then what the hell are you even asking for?"

Maize had smiled.

The Captain then blew out a breath of air. "So in any case, Detective, Maize, I don't suppose one of you might feel inclined to explain to me what in really happened these past few—long—weeks? God knows the bureau wouldn't say anything but the absolute minimal...had me damn worried too," he spoke tersely of the FBI.

Maize shared a look with Alec.

The detective sighed, "Let's go for a drink captain."

Their boss raised an eyebrow. "Are you implying I'll need one for this story?"

Alec shrugged. "Doesn't matter, I will."

Maize chuckled as the captain gave a small shake of his head, but made to follow nonetheless. There was a bar familiar to most of the cops in the area, just down a few corners from the precinct. Maize guessed if they were going anywhere, it would be there.

However, while the Captain had already begun walking down the street, Alec turned last minute to see that Maize hadn't moved from where she was standing comfortably.

"Not coming?" he asked with a slight tilt of his head, questioning.

She shook her head, albeit with a pulled-back smirk. "I'll catch you later."

The detective might have glanced back with a hint of disappointment, but the look in his eyes said he understood enough—enough to know that everything was still just a little too fresh for her to be ready to hear it all over again.

And knowing that, the look faded as quick as he flashed her a smirking grin.

"See ya later then, Maizey."

"Remember not to get drunk out of your mind, Detective."

An agonizing groan. "Damn it, and here I thought you would have forgotten that story."

She laughed, a genuine sound. "Not a chance."

* * *

The cold air was an aching relief as she walked down the street.

Her hands were in her jacket pockets, her breath came in easy faint clouds of misted air.

Closure.

A word, a meaning—one she hadn't known she had needed this whole time for what had once been. Who it had made her.

Her past was not resolved—by far was it forgotten. There was a piece of her that never would, would always remember that had she perhaps done things differently, Azeal might not have turned out as he did—neither of them would. All too late to change as of now. And yet...

The scar on her shoulder; her memoir, her reminder—seemed to weigh less heavily now, seemed to burden her a bit less. She could remember, she could recall, she could think of her past without feeling that phantom pain or the tremble of her limbs at the visions she had ones seen as nothing but horrors to never look back on. Azeal had done the one thing he always had—he had pushed her, and for that, she had learned to make herself stronger.

* * *

2 HOURS LATER

When Alec came out of the bar shortly after the Captain had retired for the night, Maize was outside across the street waiting for him. As soon as he recognized her, she could see the slight pull of a smirk that dawned on his face before he walked across the paved road to her side.

She was leaning her back with arms crossed against the side of some building, but when he came over she straightened ever so slightly, returning his playfully smirking expression.

"I thought you said you didn't want to come," he said as an opening line.

"I didn't," she replied. Before adding, "But that doesn't mean I didn't want to see you afterwards."

His eyes lit up a tad and Maize realized her mistake all too quickly.

"Oh so you wanted to see me," he purred as he bent down a little closer. Rolling her eyes, Maize didn't hesitate to shove him away by the chest.

"That just went straight to your head didn't it?" She muttered, already knowing the answer.

"Definitely," he chuckled as she shook her head in exasperation.

"Walk?" She asked.

He nodded, still grinning faintly.

The air was crisp with a cool breeze, but not uncomfortably cold as they walked down the street, side by side. Whether it was an unspoken agreement or not, they had both begun to head in the direction of Alec's apartment.

"I never did ask, how come you don't decorate much?" She asked as thoughts of his rather empty living space entered her mind. He arched an eyebrow, questioning what she meant, but she shot him a look. "There's no way you're that much of a minimalist—I've seen your work desk."

Alec laughed but shook his head with a shrug. "Force of habit, I guess. Moving around too much as I kid never really gave me time to really settle down much less bother to personalize anything. Even when I was taken in, I guess I just never picked up any desire to change that," he said before there was a pause and he looked slightly upwards as they walked. "But I'll tell you this though; it makes moving a hell of a lot easier."

Her eyebrows raised simultaneously at this. "You're moving? How come?"

He shot her a knowing look out of the corner of his eye. "I seem to remember someone telling me my current apartment had a 'shitty' lock," he replied.

"Could just buy a new lock," was her flat reply.

Alec smirked in a pulled-back manner, eyes glinting with something devilish. "Yeah, but where's the fun in that? At least this way, you'll have some fun trying to figure out where my next place will be before you decide to break in again."

Was that an invitation? She wondered as her expression became sly. "I thought we covered this already. It's not breaking in if it was easy."

He laughed. "Oh it is. It most definitely is..."

They walked on in a comfortable silence, occasionally glancing at one another and then up to the darkening sky. With the later night, fewer people were seen around walking down the streets.

Alec then sighed to break the quiet, a light chuckle to his tone, amongst other things. "Are we ever going to talk about that thing that happened before the crazy or are you content just to let it hang in the air forever?"

"What thing?" she asked, smirking. But his tone said it all, and her questioning voice meddled into something more—much more tantalizing.

Alec grinned down at her with a sly contemplating look. "Is this your way of trying to get me to remind you, Maizey?" he teased, subtly walking closer to her side enough to lean down and smirk in her face.

Maize allowed herself to pull back a deadly kind of smile. "That depends...do you want to?"

His eyes brows raised in surprise at her, but he masked it quickly, returning her look. "That depends."

"On what?"

"On when you're finally going to admit how hard you've fallen for me," he answered, grinning like the devil.

"You're insufferable," she muttered with exasperation, a slight shake of her head.

Alec laughed, "I'm a fanatic."

Got another word I could use, Maize thought with a list of insults and retorts already flicking to mind—'idiot' taking first priority.

"We could have had this discussion earlier you know," she pointed out, referring to the more private matters that had occurred between the two of them. That way, if they wanted a sort of...continuation afterward, they would already be alone.

And then Maize cursed herself for even going as far as to think about that so soon after he had reminded her what an annoying, teasing, insufferable asshole he was after simply hinting at it once.

"We could have—" Alec started, and stated flatly, "but then somebody decided to run off to try and play bait."

Maize shot him a glare. "Tried. Until some other idiot decided to crash the party."

Alec only chuckled. She rolled her eyes.

But going forth they shared an easy quiet, listening to the sounds of the calm nightly street. Their elbows brushed frequently as they walked, nearly as close as possible in the comfortable air of one another. When once being even remotely near the other would have been a source of agitation or loathing, was now a beckon of relaxation—for the most part—and ease.

But it ended too quickly.

One minute the air was light, the next, everything seemed to screech to a halt when they heard the unmistakable sound that they recognized behind them.

The gun clicked.

"Turn around."

They did. To see Silan standing a few feet away, holding a single gun at them.

Alec stiffened at her side. Maize felt her eyes widened and her hand instinctively twitch for the blades concealed in her clothes—but the sight of the gun held her still.

Silan looked at them with the eyes of a feral beast, frigid venomous hatred as if she meant to poison and have them drop dead from her stare alone. "I want to see your faces when you die."

Maize's body was tense. She remembered...

They hadn't caught her. They hadn't caught her. They hadn't caught her.

And now she was here. She had followed them.

Alec and Maize shot one another the briefest of looks—alarm, warning, it was all there. Ever so slight she began to feel the blade slip from the sleeves of her jacket into her palm—just as Alec was simultaneously inching his hand behind him to grab the gun concealed on his belt. Never breaking eye contact. Until Silan caught on to their movements—having been through them one too many times. She whipped the gun to Maize, her finger tightened on the trigger.

It all happened so fast.

Alec shoved Maize to the side as Silan fired. Her knife skittered out of her jacket and away onto the paved road. Alec also lost ahold of his gun with the frantic movement, and it fell clattering beside her.

She whipped herself upright on one knee and saw Silan with the barrel now aimed at the standing detective's chest, spewing a speech about how this was for her brother while her eyes lit with wild gleaming hatred and satisfaction.

And this time, without hesitation—

Maize grabbed the gun—and fired.

She fired the gun.

It almost didn't register in her mind that her finger hand pulled the trigger, that then end barrel was slightly smoking, or that the reverberation had rocked through her—until the assassin before them fell to the ground, a circle of red in the direct centre of her shirt.

The gun clattered to the ground for the second time.

A cold shadier of breath escaped her chest as Maize dropped her arms that suddenly felt as if they were made of led. She didn't know how to suddenly feel—she had fired the gun.

But she didn't have time to think about it.

She immediately threw her gaze over to Alec, looking him over in relief that he was still standing.

The detective was still, and then suddenly...he staggered back, his eyes squinting in something like pain as he slowly raised a hand that did not quite reach up to touch his chest.

That's when Maize noticed the bloom of red that had already begun to soak through the front of his shirt.

The shot...he pushed her out of the way...but it didn't miss...

Maize opened her mouth in a breathless gasp, and for a moment it seemed as if the whole world was still. Unmoving. And then Alec suddenly fell back and Maize was rushing to catch him before his head smacked on the pavement.

She lowered his head into her lap and sat at his side as she felt the fear course through her.

"No no no, shit! Alec can you hear me?" Her heart was racing in a way she had felt once before—the day a man had come to her young self's door to give her news of her mentor—and told herself she never wanted to relive. No. No. No. No. "Alec, listen to me, you're going to be fine...okay? You're going to be fine," she stated.

The blood was pooling in her hands as she forced pressure onto the wound, trying not to wince at Alec's tight-eyed grimace and keep a lid on the panic that threatened to consume her at the sight.

"You're going to be ok...you have to be...you'll be fine...Just hold on..."

His eyes were gazing up at her, but his focus was dwindling, the light behind his eyes fading. He raised a hand slowly and placed it on top of her own, both sodden with his blood.

She looked at him in fear and puzzlement and he smiled slightly before his eyelids began to flicker with loss.

"Alec stay with me! Please!" Maize screamed, holding the sides of his face to get him to focus on her, begging him to stay awake. He just needed to hold on a little longer...

Just a little longer.

The sirens of the ambulance could be heard approaching around the corner—people who had been around to see what had happened and had called, but by that point, the detective's eyes were already beginning to flicker closed. Maize could feel her fear pulse through her as she screamed his name.

*hides behind Ryder and Kota* Don't kill me.