There was a quiet knock on the doorframe of the room and without waiting for an answer, Kangin walked in.

“Hey, brother.” He said.

“Hey.”

“How is she?” The younger man asked. Leeteuk didn’t answer. He merely looked at the woman in front of him. Kangin didn’t push the subject any further.

“Well, I took care of Geng like you said. Headquarters has him in custody and your files have been removed from the target list. You’re free to go back to the way life was before all of this.” He handed his brother a file that was the certification of their return to the headquarters, stating that they could have their previous jobs back and nothing would be affected.

“Everyone is preparing to move back wherever you two go.”

Leeteuk sighed. Would they want to go back to the way things were? The secrecy of their jobs had become too much to bear for them. That was one reason why they were willing to go into hiding when they did. At this point, Leeteuk didn’t want any affiliation with anything of their past.

“Tell them thank you but no. I don’t know what Heechul wants to do but I doubt either of us will want to go back. You all are more than welcome to though. Don’t turn this down just because of us.” Leeteuk insisted.

“Believe us. We have no intention of doing that.” Kangin took the seat next to his brother. “I do have one question though.”

“And what’s that?”

“What started this whole thing?” Leeteuk looked at him strangely. “Like, how did you two end up on the black list? What made Geng pull what he did? What did he have against you two?” The older man sighed, unwilling to say what all had happened to set Hangeng off the deep end.

“We were sent on an assignment that ended up wiping out an entire branch. His family was apparently killed in the fire that was started as a result of us getting rid of one of the computers. We didn’t realize it would start what it did. The three of us were the only ones that survived it.” Leeteuk’s expression was pained as he gave the reason everyone’s lives had been put in danger, some even taken.

“You can’t blame yourself for all of this, Jungsoo. You didn’t realize all of this was going to happen. You were just doing what you were told to do.” Leeteuk nodded, too tired to argue. “You need sleep, man. You look as bad she does.” Kangin tried joking, wanting desperately to lighten the mood in the dark room. The left side of Leeteuk’s mouth turned up, showing only a portion of the small indentation on his cheek. Kangin reached up and poked it with a smirk.

“Get some sleep.” He insisted. Leeteuk opened his mouth to protest. “I’ll stay here and wake you if anything changes. I promise.”

“Thank you.” With that, Leeteuk stretched out on the couch behind him and fell asleep once again. He felt better about it this time since his brother was there to take his place and keep an eye on Heechul. Because of that, he was able to have a more restful sleep than he had in over two weeks.

Heechul looked down the hallway to see if the coast was clear. There was no one coming as they made their way around the corner and into their target room. The computer they were looking for took up half of the wall across from them. Jungsoo came in behind her and shut the door tightly.

“Okay, so how are we going to do this?” Heechul asked.

“We’re supposed to destroy the information that’s in it.”

“Well, I know that! But how? This thing is huge!” They were whispering back and forth.

“Destroy the hard drive apparently. Sungmin sent me a bunch of instructions on how to do it. It’s pretty self-explanatory.” Jungsoo took out a sheet of paper that bore the younger man’s handwriting and they set to work. Once they had done everything on the list, wires had been replaced with other devices and the memory cards had been reworked so that they would be fried as soon as someone the computer.

“Now, let’s plug it back in and get out of here. This place is creeping me out. It’s too dark.” Heechul said, a chill running up her spine.

“Oh you’re such a baby.” Jungsoo said as he bent down the plug in the wall outlet. When he did though, a loud pop and a cascade of sparks threw him back a few feet into a desk, knocking over a bunch of paper. The two watched in horror as the files that had fallen got in the way of the sparks immediately catching them on fire.

“Run.” Jungsoo said as he grabbed Heechul’s hand and they sprinted out of the room and down the hallways, finding their escape route within seconds. They were thrown off of their path though when an explosion destroyed the walls behind them. They kept running in whatever direction they saw would possibly lead out of the building as the walls and ceiling began to fall in around them. They dodged the rubble and were able to make it out of the building. But not without injuries. Jungsoo had been badly burned and was bleeding profusely from his arm. Heechul had received multiple glass shards in her back and legs when a second explosion had blown out a wall of windows right next to her. One final blast sent them flying into a gate and into their own darkness.

Leeteuk woke with a start. He looked around and realized that his brother was nowhere to be found. He was going to kill the younger man as soon as he saw him again. The nap he had received hadn’t been enough to make him feel any better. While it was still restful, he was still exhausted and it had been enough to make him that much more tired. But he knew he wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep at this point. He decided to move back to his previous spot in the chair beside Heechul’s bed. He spent the next hour watching her and the monitors around her. The sound of the beeping had him mesmerized. He had zoned out from the world when something in the atmosphere changed.

The heart rate on the screen in front of him began to speed up as did the oxygen intake. It took a while for Leeteuk to notice this, his heart jumping into his throat from fear. He was about to jump up and run to get a doctor but was stopped when he felt weak fingers wrap around his wrist. His eyes widened when he looked down and saw bright feverish eyes looking back at him with a spark of their original fire growing once again in them. Tears filled his own eyes and fell down his cheeks at the sight. He fell back into his chair and sobbed, his hand running through Heechul’s hair and over what part of her face was untouched by the oxygen mask, unsure if any of this was real. It became more real to him when she said something that was muffled behind the mask then slowly fell back into the drugged darkness.

Doctors were in and out of the room that day and night, keeping an even closer eye on the young woman to make sure that she didn’t fall back into the same state that she had been in. Heechul spent most of the time still asleep due to the pain killers they were pumping into her body to keep her from having to feel the effects of the wound sight and the procedures they had to do to fix it. She had also broken a leg and shattered her opposite ankle in the avalanche of iron materials. Needless to say, it would be a while before she would be able to walk again.

She would wake up on occasion and complain that she was hungry and that the food’s sole purpose was to keep her in the hospital longer. Leeteuk couldn’t say that he didn’t agree. Because of this, he tried to sneak a hamburger to her from the diner across the road. She had been about to take the first bite when a nurse walked in, saw it and confiscated from her. Heechul pouted for the next day and a half and made sure the nurse knew how upset she was to which the woman just laughed.

They constantly had visitors once Heechul was able to be without her oxygen mask and had enough strength to sit up. The entire unit set up days that they would come to see her and let her know that they were happy she was okay. They had all been filled in on what had happened. Heechul was assured that she was now safe and was shown the papers that headquarters had sent, stating that they had their jobs back. These, Heechul vehemently refused, throwing them across the room in an attempt to hit the trashcan. 

Donghae and Eunhyuk were in the room every day. Eunhyuk watched with an ecstatic smile on his face at the sight of his leader finally recovering. Donghae had burst into tears when she walked in the afternoon Heechul had woken up and saw her with her eyes open. The first day Heechul was able to sit up, Donghae climbed into the hospital bed, making sure to stay away from the wounded side, and curled up beside her. She fell asleep like that not a moment later. A doctor had to come in and tell her to leave so that Heechul could get some rest herself. She did as she was told with a sleepy expression, promising to come back the next day. Heechul nodded her agreement as the couple walked out of the door.

The rest of the unit came by later that month to see their leaders, each on their assigned day. Sungmin and Kyuhyun were the first to come. It took all Sungmin had in him not to run and embrace his best friend. Instead he settled for kissing her forehead, shooting Leeteuk an apology glance. Kyuhyun had brought her extra Playstation and set it up for Heechul to have something to do while she was sitting in the hospital recovering, to which the older woman was more than grateful. Kibum and Yesung were still grieving from their losses but were more than happy to let Heechul know that they were ecstatic that she was doing better. Shindong came bringing something to eat with him that Heechul was able to sneak a few plates of while the nurse that was on duty was locked out thanks to the large man leaning against the door. Shindong was searched every time he came to the hospital for a visit after that. Even Kangin came by and, after facing a strict scolding from his brother about breaking his promise and leaving – ‘but you looked so peaceful and I couldn’t bear to wake you’ – he ruffled the older woman’s hair.

“Still think you’re better looking?” he jabbed.

“Oh heck yeah! Nothing happened to my face.” She stuck her tongue out at him, looking like a little child.

Jae came in one day unannounced.

“Hey Chul, how’s it going?” he asked. Heechul shrugged.

“It’s going. What’s up with you?” Apparently, all was forgiven between them. Leeteuk sat on the other side of the bed from Jae and watched him carefully.

“Nothing. I was just bringing by some information I thought you would be interested in hearing.” He put a folder on her lap. She opened it and looked through its contents. It was the files from Hangeng’s case.

“We found out who all was involved in your… situation. Apparently this young woman, Victoria was his accomplice. She was taken into custody last week when he confessed. Everything is set for you to come back with your real name and your old job if you’d like. We didn’t hear from you after the first offer.” Jae explained.

“Thank you, Jae. But I don’t think we can go back to that life. It was too much for us. I kind of just want a normal life now. Maybe settle down. Start a family.” She squeezed Leeteuk’s hand and smiled. Jae nodded his head in understanding.

“Well, then we can promise you protection. Should anything happen or you change your mind, just let us know and we’ll be right there.”

“Thank you. We will.” She answered with a nod. The three friends exchanged casual conversation and caught up just on everyday life until Jae received a call and had to leave.

It was another few weeks before Heechul was able to leave the hospital but when she did, she was more than grateful. Leeteuk drove them back to their apartment and helped her into her own bed.

“Leeteuk.” She said as he started out the door after making sure she was snug under the blankets. He turned around.

“Yeah?” He noticed the fire in her eyes was back. She had returned to the fierce woman she had been earlier in life, just with more scars.

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. And thank you.” He turned off the light and shut the door behind him, ready to keep living right along with her.