Generation 4, Chapter 8: It's a sad fact that we don't own a gun

Darcy was definitely not one happy camper as she finally realized who the person was that I had been carrying in my arms. "I'll go get a gun," she simply stated, making a turn for the door.

"We don't own a gun," I frowned, motioning for her to stay.

"Well, I could go paint one," she grumbled, crossing her arms tightly around her chest, glaring down at me.

"That's...a ridiculous idea," rolling my eyes, I turned my attention back to the girl lying unconscious on Jack's bed. As he was still on duty, and Darcy not ever going to accept the invitation to take over Jack's room, Vala now had a room to herself to recuperate in. The question one, recuperate from what? The details surrounding the bruises were still dodgy. The only conclusion we could come up with was that the people she worked for decided it was time that her contract would be terminated, and with that, her life as well.

"At least you could tie her up or something," Darcy persisted with her silly ideas. "She escaped from us once, she'll do it again."

"You don't get it, do you?" I sighed, close to giving up with arguing my point. "She isn't a prisoner of ours. She came here of free will, to get help. Let's just put her past aside, alright? We don't have to go report her to the authorities."

Darcy finally fell silent, and I could see the slight signs of shock and admiration on her face. I had taught her a valuable lesson that day, a lesson that she would cherish and practice as often as she could when I wasn't around to do it.

For another half hour, I stuck around, making sure Vala wasn't going to drown in her own spittle or something horrifying like that. She was peaceful for once, an incredibly spooky sight to witness.

With a quick flick, I turned the light off, and tread quietly to the door. I couldn't help but hesitate, and look at her over my shoulder. "Good night, Vala," i murmured, smirked at my own silliness and left the room to climb into my own bed.

~*~

"Good morning...," a rather hoarse voice croaked, making it hard to identify who was speaking. Opening my eyes to slits, the answer was clear.

"Vala...," I nearly groaned. "For someone that was lying unconscious in front of my door two days ago, you're acting pretty much the same way you usually do, which is a good sign, of course."

After wiping away the sleep from her eyes, she simply pulled up her shoulders. "Hey, why waste time feeling sorry for yourself?" she chuckled slightly, but with her voice sounding hoarse, it sounded like the cough of a person on his death bed. Judging by the face on her look, Vala must have realized that she shouldn't laugh, and quickly changed the subject. "Huh... Did you have fun taking my clothes off?" she wiggled her eyebrows, pointing at the pajamas she was wearing.

"I kept my eyes closed the entire time," I smirked. In truth, it was Darcy's idea, and she had been the one to execute her plan. Had I not intervened in the dressing-up idea, Vala might have lost some of her hair. Darcy just loved to experiment on strangers.

"What a gentleman...," she turned her head slightly to cough, and sat upright on the bed, balancing her weight on her knees. "But it would have been a lot more fun had I been awake."

I couldn't help but facepalm. If someone would only listen to her attitude, and not how her voice sounded, or look at the bruises on her face, they would agree that there was absolutely nothing wrong with her. "Vala, please, not that again. Could you tell me what you need help with, other than the obvious reason? Why did you run? And why did you come to me?"

Her somewhat cheeky grin faltered, and she turned her gaze to observe a small speck on the wall. "What's for breakfast? I'm starving," she expertly avoided the question.

Relenting, I turned towards the door. She might have avoided me that one time, but there was still plenty of time to confront her about her situation. With a snap of the fingers, Vala tried to catch my attention. "Hey...," she smiled slightly. "Thanks."

"I'd say 'anytime', but...," my voice trailed off. She nodded, understanding what I meant.

Downstairs, Darcy was hard at work at making breakfast, but none of that breakfast was for me or Vala. Even after her recent revelation, Darcy wasn't into the whole idea of helping her. It was understandable, after what had happened in France.

So it was definitely understandable when she refused to cook food for us.

"Jeez, Daniel. You're old enough to cook for yourself! Whip something up, won't you?"

"Darcy...," I grumbled. "You know that when it comes to cooking and I, I-"

"-set the kitchen on fire, I know," she completed my sentence. "But is it really that hard following a recipe to the letter?" With her chuckle reverberating through the room, I was left to sweat it out by myself.

It was a terrifying experience, anxiously waiting for the clocks to count down till the time was right to take the waffles out, or checking if the temperature of the oven was at a correct setting. Cooking was afraid of me, and I was afraid of it.

Instead of taking the food all the way to her, Vala had argued that she had enough strength to make it downstairs to come and eat. It seemed she mostly needed a lot of sleep to recover.

"Is that maple syrup I smell? On waffles?" her eyes perked at the prospect.

"Sure is! But eh, I don't know if they'll taste as good as they smell..."

"I'll take my chances," she winked," coming to stand behind me. Gingerly, I handed her a plate, and pointed to the outside dining table.

"So...not feeling queasy yet? No allergic reaction? No black tongue?" I curiously asked, keeping an eye for the symptoms. It was the first time I was eating food that I had prepared myself, but also the first time that someone else was eating it. Sure, I had cooked many times before, but the food was at a point were it was burned to a crisp. No one was prepared to eat it.

She nodded with a smile, chewing thoroughly before swallowing to open her mouth to speak. "Your sister warned me you were a horrible cook. I have to disagree with her... It's pretty good. Obviously not something they'd serve in a restaurant, but totally okay for apartment food."

"Apartment food?" I raised an eyebrow. "That's a rather interesting-yet-apt description. Does this mean you'd be willing to be a test subject and taste some of my dishes?"

"Whoa! Hold your horses there, buddy! Maybe one day, if we share the same bed, I'd be willing to test that for you...," she chuckled, taking a big bite out of her waffle.

Silence was all that followed. The idea of her living with me...was terrifying. She would drive me insane the very first day. "Uh...um...," I cleared my throat, grasping at straws in my mind, desperately searching for a better conversation topic. "Y-you still haven't told me why you're in Bridgeport, or what happened to your face."

Yet again, the atmosphere between us changed. She seemed a lot more hostile, secretive as always. If only she could see that I could be trusted. "I don't want to talk about that now, Daniel," she said quietly, her eyes pinned on her fork playing around with the last bits of waffle on her plate. "Please, just drop it."

"But-"

"I said 'drop it'!" her fist slammed into the table, rattling the plates. She leaned back, inhaling deep breaths through her mouth. She pinched the bridge of her nose with her thumb and index finger, while her head hung low. "I'm sorry..., she sighed," it's just...I really don't want to think about that right now. I want to go out and have some fun while I'm here."

With that statement as her exit cue, Vala pushed herself out of her chair, quickly walking inside and cornering poor Darcy, who had awful timing to find Vala in her current mood. However, instead of exploding as I expected her to, she calmly spoke to Darcy, even smiling at some point.

That only meant trouble, and lots of it.

I often wondered if I must be psychic. I had a knack for knowing when something is going to have a horrible outcome, but unfortunately, I could do nothing to prevent it.

"Come on!" Vala had ushered me outside, wearing a short dress that emphasized all the "right" parts, something that my sister had given her permission to wear. "The clubs are opening by now! We should go before they're too full."

I would have to make a mental note to severely harm Darcy sometime later, if I survived the night.

~♥~

Hey there, and thanks for reading the latest chapter!

I've finally made a decision, regarding the last post I posted about the opinions needed...I expect some mixed reactions about this. *takes a breath* Here goes nothing. Alright, so, the votes were in favor of incorporating supernaturals, but after thinking really hard, I've decided not to add them. Instead, I'm going to be doing a story on the side with supernaturals, so that if someone wants to read something like that, they have the option to. More info about this story will be given at a later date.

I would never abandon this legacy and throw my full weight behind something else, but I have wanted to do another story for a very long time, and I finally have the chance to do it. :D

So anyways, thanks again, an have a great day!