~_____~

Lay didn't know where to go from where he was. Which direction? To Suho and Chorong? Or to Donghae? Victoria? Or Eunhyuk? 

Weighing the possibilities sent him running back to where he'd lost Suho and Chorong. Eunhyuk wasn't his goal or his problem, his team mates were. Donghae could take care of himself, but Suho wasn't strong enough with the gun and him alone with Chorong as a duo wouldn't last long. 

Pausing at the exact spot he'd last seen them he twisted around with eyes scurrying around. The northernmost point from here...where was it?

Blindly walking up ahead he quickened his pace and paused by bus stops in hopes of finding a map. The area was as deserted as an abandoned park. Just keep heading north was all he could do at the moment. All was clear and not even a man with a gun crossed his path. 

Was it over? Already? 

Time was ticking and a large portion of his day had been spent in Yeongwol. Instead of surveying the back street of the brothel he was elsewhere trying to survive and regroup with his team. Lay had never imagined his day becoming something like this. 

After a stop sign stood a bleak abandoned building, chipped and toned down to its very grave. His eyes moved over to the sad sign washed away of life from rain, hail, and the sun. It was a nursing home, the only thing beyond this point. Was this the most northern point of this area? 

Lifting his head up he stared overhead at the sun beating down on the old panes scratched away by birds and the wind. Part of the door had been left open. Peering around again he clamped his hand around the gun just in case he could use it when time called for him to. With a final breath of the fresh air he entered.                                                  
                   
Darkness greeted him; nothing, but silence occupied every crooked corner. Part of him wanted to call out for life, another telling him not to. Yet, what if Suho and Chorong were inside? 

No, he'd find them. They'd somehow cross paths, he was sure of it.  

Remaining silent he continued on straight ahead. His spirit nearly jumped out of his solid being when he barely tripped over the body on the ground. Creeping back he stared down to realize that the man was dead. It was a sure sign that Suho and Chorong had come this way. 

Continuing forward with his back planted to the wall in case he was jumped by surprise he slowly stopped by every door, peeking in for any sign of life. There was nothing, no one. For a while he remained trapped in the dark, unsure whether he was making any progress in the building or not. Lay obviously didn't know where he was going and he couldn't tell if Suho and Chorong were still there. Even if they were he wouldn't expect them to make any noise. 

Dead end met with him every turn of the way and he was left to backtrack his ay around. He was sure he was lost before he finally arrived in a looming hallway. Confident that he hadn't yet entered through this way he went forth. He leaned into every room along the way and was suddenly certain that the nursery had been abandoned after Suho and Chorong's entrance, or else he would have been attacked already.

Lay was about to turn around, but stopped when instinct told him to search the ret of the hallway. Continuing forward he paused in step before poking is head into the room, grip on the gun strong. It nearly fell from his hand when he spotted the two bodies lying dismantled on the ground.
 
Racing forward he dropped onto his knees to observe both Victoria and Suho, who was lying face down. He looked like a clumped towel. Thick blood was seeping out the back of his head making his hair appear murky. A lopsided piece of wood, probably from outside, lay beside him. Gently reaching for his neck to check his pulse, relief flushed through him. It was still there. 

Moving forward he felt for Victoria's, it was till there as well, but if she didn't get immediate medical attention Lay couldn't tell how worse her condition could become. Then turning around he sought for Chorong, who he hadn't seen thus far. 

Where was she? 

Shock sent him into heaving panic, his hart racing. Immediately lifting his gun up he shifted toward the doorway ready to shoot. He first heard heavy panting before a black figure appeared in the doorway. He didn't do anything, but stand there leaving Lay in utter confusion. Quietness tensed as Lay traced his eyes over this person.

"Are you ok?" 

Lay's ears perked up and twitched before he recognized it as Donghae's voice. He suddenly wanted to collapse onto his knees for the sake of goodness. 

"Donghae," Lay dropped the gun to his side, relieved. 

Without saying much Donghae rushed inside, "We have to get out of here." 

Lay watched Donghae pull the unconscious Victoria up absurdly.   

"What are you doing?!" Lay shouted grabbing Donghae's arm. "We have to wait for paramedics! Don't you know that if we touched the injured we could hurt them even more?!" 

"There's no time!" Donghae turned to him. Like recently, his eyes were full of insane havoc, blind to only what it was that was running through his head. "The building is about to go up in flames. Get Suho, we need to leave." 

Flames?! The building was about to be burned?!

Utter shock shook Lay's whole. How worse could things get?!

Doing as told he helped Suho onto his back as Donghae carried Victoria up. His heart was beating speedily, but because there was no time to waste his brain didn't seem to be responding well to what it was that he'd wanted to say. Following Donghae they scurried out of he nursery home. And exactly as Donghae proclaimed, a weak stream of gray smoke was fluttering into the air from he far left side of the building, near the exact room Lay had discovered Suho and Victoria. 

Fractured ribs and a light concussion was what he'd suffered from, as diagnosed by the doctor he'd visited. This was the first time in his life he'd made so many visits to the hospital on a job. 

"Rest," the doctor had directed, "is what you need. Looks like your head suffered a few injuries. Take a few days off from work and relax. Your body needs it."

But rest didn't seem like a plausible excuse to take time off to himself. Right now both Suho and Victoria were still unconscious and he didn't know how Namjoo was doing, or where Chorong was. Everything was a great big mess. 

Certainly there was a very big headache throbbing inside his head. 

The yellow bulbs in the ceiling reflected off the floor as he made his way down the hall, clutching onto his aching side. Well, there wasn't much he could do about his fractured ribs. They'd heal though, so he wasn't too worried about himself at the moment. 

Five doors down he saw that the door to where Victoria was being kept was open. Maybe she was awake. Quickening his pace he stepped into the room to see that the nurse was correcting the IV drip; Donghae sitting on a chair beside the bed. Along the way to the hospital in the ambulance with Victoria, he hadn't spoken a word nor told Lay how he knew about the fire. 

Did it have to do with something Hyukjae said to him? Or was he able to catch Hyukjae and talk to him at all? If so, what kind of things did they talk about? 

Donghae's team was still so suspicious. 

"What did the doctor say?" Donghae looked up. 

He looked tired too and was probably the only one free from injury. 

"Fractured ribs," Lay honestly replied. 

Empathy stole Donghae's face with a nod of his head, "You should go home. I'll take care of things here." 

"How is Victoria?" 

"There's only external injuries and a hit to the head. She'll wake up soon." He replied. "Is Suho awake?"                   

"I'm going to stay here," Lay informed, "I need to find out where Chorong is." 

Donghae seemingly stared at him and nodded. 

"I'll go see if Suho is up yet," he explained and walked out of the room. 

Far from Victoria, Suho was in another room a floor below. The sunlight was streaming in through the window not too far from the bed he was on. Upon pushing the door open Lay saw that there was a white gauze wrapped securely around Suho's head. There would probably be a scar at the back of his head, but his thick hair would hide it from sight. 

The few possibilities that Lay had come up with was that Chorong had been taken after Suho was knocked out; that was the worst. Lay was opting for the latter; that Chorong and Suho had split up and she'd gotten somewhere safely. Yet, that option didn't seem very reasonable or she would have been back at headquarters by now, but no one was currently at headquarters. 

Lay would have to wait until Suho woke up to find out about Chorong, and he was feeling anxious. The more time Suho spent sleeping, the more time he was losing to search for Chorong. 

~_____~

Namjoo felt her brows twitch before someone combed their hand across her forehead. Her eyes fluttered open to the distinct sounds of people talking before she woke up to find herself in the ER. 

"Rest some more," a voice urged. 

Turning, Namjoo caught sight of Tao sitting on a chair beside the bed. Somewhat bewildered and confused she glanced around once more to confirm her location. 

"What are you doing here?" She wondered after recalling how she'd left Lay and the others to save herself first. 

"Donghae called me," Tao notified. "You got hurt." 

Recalling how she'd bumped into the car and that vicious slap she'd received she turned away. "I'm ok."

"Really?" He asked objectively before holding up a bag of some bottles. 

Namjoo stared at the bag blankly. She'd never seen it before. 

"The doctor said you're putting strain on the baby and you're not consuming enough vitamins," Tao went on as if indirectly putting her at blame. "I was told the early stage of pregnancy is very important for the baby's growth." 

Enough with the baby, Namjoo wanted to say. 

Her eyes swerved to his when he grabbed her hand, "I'll take you home." 

Suddenly forgetting about the awful half of the day she rode the cab with Tao back to her apartment where he fought with her to carry her up.

"The doctor said you need rest," Tao emphasized over and over again. "I saw how you were limping earlier. Don't move for the rest of the day, you hear me? I'll do everything you need for you." 

And somehow Namjoo found herself on Tao's back from the first floor to the elevator then to her apartment where he set her down on the couch. 

"You're supposed to eat your medicine with food," Tao explained walking toward her kitchen. "Is there anything you want to eat? I heard pregnant woman crave a variety of food." 

Exactly how much did he know about pregnancy that she didn't?

Swiping the thought away she said, "I'm ok, Tao. You should go home." 

"There's nothing to do at home anyway," he stubbornly refused as he searched through her fridge. "I'm bored by myself. I'm not really good at cooking and I don't want you to eat my awful food. Should I order some Chinese takeout for you?"

"Tao," Namjoo called again. "Really." 

He turned to look at her before heading toward her. Crouching down onto his knees he took her hands and smiled. Again, she thought about how different he'd become from the person he used to be. This soft-hearted Tao was world's apart from the rogue he was. Although it was nice, she wasn't accustomed to being treated like this. 

"I know you're tired," he said, "I'll leave after I get you something to eat. I promise." 

And when she looked into his face she could tell that he was really trying his all to be there for her. It made her feel guilty. 

What had she done for him to be like this?  

"I appreciate it, Tao." 

A blissful smile captured his face and he moved his hand up to touch her head affectionately, "That's why you have to be good to me."  

Getting up he searched for the remote, "Are you bored? Is there anything you want to watch?"  

She watched him flip through the TV channels and sat with her until the food he'd ordered arrived. And as promised, after he sorted the food onto a plate and brought it to her along with some water and the medicine, he left. To accept his effort she tried her best to finish the plate, but her appetite wasn't much and there was a feeling swirling up in her, unsatisfied.

For some reason she didn't want to be here in her own apartment. All of a sudden she missed Kris' playful remarks that annoyed her, because that was when she felt most normal, like herself. 

After engulfing the medication given to her she left. Recalling how her car was still in Yeongwol she hailed a cab and minutes later found herself knocking on the door of a home unfamiliar to her. When the door opened Kris stared back at her appalled. 

~_____~

Lay barely fell asleep in his chair when he heard a soft moan befall Suho. His eyes immediately opened and he leaned forward to watch Suho move on the bed, sore from the trip in Yeongwol. Lay's heart thrashed slightly when Suho finally opened his eyes and groaned in utter pain. 

With a breathless cuss Lay reached over to help the confused Suho up. 

"Hey," Lay greeted. 

Suho's lids, heavy from sleep, were barely open. 

"Where am I?" His voice croaked. 

"Hospital," Lay replied. "Do you remember what happened?" 

For a few minutes Suho sat there with his body arched forward. Lay patiently watched from him to regather himself. Grabbing the back of his neck Suho straightened up with a breathless gasp of pain.  

"Hell no," Suho muttered. "My body hurts."  

Lay smiled, relieved. "Do you remember what happened before you out? Or who hit you? Did you see?" 

Suho's brow curved as he fought to recapture the memory, but shook his head. "It was too dark to see. We were both hit. I can't tell."  

Both... 

"All right," Lay nodded, confident with the information gathering.

Without trying hard he knew how to piece the rest together. All he needed to know was if the two of them had been together or not.

Chorong was indeed missing.       

"You should go home and rest," Lay suggested. "It's late. We'll meet up tomorrow. You should get lots of sleep until then." 

Suho stared at him a little lost with what was actually going on. 

"Where's everyone else?" Suho wondered. "Are they ok?" 

Lay nodded kindly, "Since you were able to rescue Victoria in time, all is well. Donghae is currently with her." 

A relieved smile lit Suho's lips for the first time since waking up, "That's good news. I'm so relieved." 

Again, Lay smiled. 

"Is Namjoo and Chorong ok?" 

Lay nodded, unquestionably leaving Chorong out for now. Instigating Suho to fall into a dilemma right now was not his priority. If they were to take action, he first needed Suho to be well rested and at work with a working mindset. Obviously right now, if he knew he wouldn't be able to concentrate, but put himself at fault. And if he did that, Lay would just get utterly frustrated. 

He needed everyone to be in their right minds. 

"All right then," Suho nodded. "What about you?" 

"I'm," Lay began, "going to stay with Victoria and Donghae a little longer." 

"I guess you should," Suho nodded. "They might start fighting if she wakes up." 

Lay smiled again; the back of his head recalling that Donghae's team were hiding information from them. Yet, right now what was most important was creating a buffer zone between Donghae and Victoria before setting out in search of the missing Chorong. 

***Wise guy Lay :) It's all on him right now.