Being shot in the arm hurt. A lot. Not so much the first day, or even directly after. But apparently it stung like a bitch when it’s been poorly bandaged with napkins and scotch tape and unattended to otherwise. Add that to fighting to get Aki out of this place and I think I can say ‘Ow’ without any snickers. Speaking of Aki, the psycho isn’t exactly jumping to get anywhere, either. I dodged the fist of a guard, hearing my friends fighting behind me. Even Neil could’ve gotten me face down, unconscious on the floor at the moment, since I wasn’t exactly feeling up-to-par. I swung hard as I could at the guard’s head, my fist connecting with his face and then my knee with his stomach. He fell to the ground, and, feeling a tad more upbeat, I moved to stand before Aki, with Ryan and Neil on either side of me.

"Puppy doesn’t look good." She pouted, walking up to me. I felt feverish, and tried to ignore the fact that her cool hands felt good on my forehead. Neil snapped me out of it by touching my arm, and I brought it up, knocking the girl out. I wobbled, and Neil grabbed me, holding me steady as Ryan picked up Aki. We stumbled by all of the unconscious bodies, falling in and out of consciousness myself on the way to the jeep. Neil got in the back with me, Aki laid out on the side, still out cold as he held me tightly.

"Jane? Jane look at me… Stay awake, all right? You’ll be fine, babe…" he said quietly. I nodded stupidly before passing out.

When I came to, I didn’t hurt. That didn’t surprise me much, since I figured Aki had gotten some medical supplies and drugged me, because a feeling of sleepy euphoria was dancing about me. I opened my eyes slowly, flinching at the bright lights that seemed to glow even more with the help of the drug. Apparently, we’d found a safe hospital. I’d hoped, anyway, because if they had me paralyzed for some cruel and unusual torture… I twitched my fingers, moving my hand. Going with option A, then. A bead of sweat rolled down my forehead and I grimaced. I couldn’t feel it, but apparently I either had the fever still, or it had closed in on me fiercely while I was sleeping. I touched the soaked covers before bringing the back of my right hand up to wipe off my forehead. My hand felt like rubber, and I groaned, wiggling my toes to check if my whole body was numb. Aki walked in, smiling apologetically. I noted that she was out of the Psycho Princess garb by now.

"Hi, Jane." She said shyly. I nodded, trying to work up some spit to get my mouth wet enough to talk without my throat hurting.

"Where-?" I started, but cut myself off when the soreness in my throat grew.

"A military hospital." Aki replied. "We’re safe here, for now…" She added, as an afterthought. I blinked at her eerie, knowing look. I vaguely remembered Neil once telling me it was creepy how I could sense things, or predict what a person would do by their actions. Now I know what that’s like, I guess.

"N-" I coughed, realizing talking was bad.

"Neil and Ryan are outside… you’ve been out about six hours, I just got Neil to leave." I made a small noise. "Thank you… for everything you’ve done." I swallowed.

"It’s nothing." I insisted. She shook her head.

"It’s a lot. And I’m sorry for having to make you do all that, having to save me…" Glad for a new conversation opportunity, I cut in,

"How did that go?"

"It was the necklace, like you three thought. When they took it off, I was fine." She bit her lip nervously. "They’re worried, you know… do you want to see them?" I glanced over at her, nodding slowly. She walked out of the room without another word. A second later, the door opened and Neil walked in, alone. He knelt by the side of my bed, running his fingers along my hand.

"Hey." he said. I blinked weakly.

"Hey." I replied, my voice cracking. Neil wiped a lock of hair from my forehead.

"You’re not as warm as before…" He stated randomly, probably just to say something. He was looking around nervously.

"I’m fine, Neil." I insisted.

"Funny, you said that when you got shot, too… you lost a lotta blood, Jane, if we didn’t get here in time…"

"Neil. I’m really all right now… whatever they gave me, works." I smirked, but he wasn’t amused.

"They thought you’d die." he said quietly after a brief pause.

"Well I didn’t." I replied. He kissed my forehead gently and I closed my eyes.

"Thank God." He said in return. "Get some rest." He ordered, and I nodded, already feeling the waves of sleep washing over me. Tomorrow… Tomorrow would be better.

I fell in and out of sleep randomly over the next few days. I barely remember a few times when Aki, Ryan, and Neil came in. Ryan and I managed to have a conversation, but I couldn’t even remember how long ago that had been. I took a breath, noting the stale air around me. I coughed, blinking my eyes open cautiously, but the bright lights I’d expected weren’t there. I shifted, and Neil was at my side in an instant.

"Hey." He said, smiling slightly at me. "You’re up." Obviously…

"Where are we?"

"In hiding?"

"Oh? Aki told me the hospital was safe." He brushed my hair from my face.

"Keyword: Was…" He muttered. "Anyway, we’re at the lowest form of hiding you can be at." He stated, waving his hand around. I looked at the place, noting the high ceilings and statues of random religious figures. As I craned my neck, I realized I was on two pews that had been pushed together, then had hospital blankets tossed over them.

"A church." I mused. "That’s original…"

"We weren’t goin’ for points in originality, and it was harder to run with you half looped on morphine."

"Oh… I don’t remember running."

"Didn’t think you would." He smirked. I pushed myself up, even though he protested. I saw Aki and Ryan over on the other side of the church, muttering to each other about something I couldn’t hear or see. I blinked over at Neil.

"What are they up to?"

"Ah… tryin’ to get the Ca--…Gray un-possessed."

"…And… How are we supposed to do that?" I questioned.

"Books… and connections."

"… … We have connections?" Wow. That was news to me.

"Seline Matthews does." Uh…

"… … … Who?"

"The chick in the necklace." Oh.

"We’re taking her out of it?"

"No, but Aki was possessed by her, so not everyone will know she’s herself again."

"They’ll know when we’re out there trying to get that guy out of Gray. Whoever he is."

"Ah… Mark Matthews… he was the old Deep Eyes squad Captain, before the four of us were recruited. Crazy guy, too, apparently." Apparently? I’d say so. "His wife, Seline… Aki says she basically kept him from doing things, but when the phantoms came to Jersey, after the barrier fell…" He sucked in a breath, shaking his head in a form of pity. "She was in one of the Quatros, apparently Mark told her to stay there and he’d be back. So she waited. Ran the barrier the whole time, watching people fall to the ground suddenly for no good reason. Took away a good part of her sanity, like it would to any person… Then the barrier on the Quatro went out." I closed my eyes, shaking my head. "You remember the story? It was on the news, in the papers… They had us recognize the day for a few years, then I think nearly everyone forgot about it." I nodded.

"I think so… I forgot it, but now that you talk about it…"

"I forgot too… It makes me feel lousy forgetting, but so many people died anyway in that city…" I pulled my hair back in a ponytail.

"She tried to run, right? She got about a foot from the vehicle, and was killed?" I questioned. He nodded.

"Yeah."

"Yeah, I remember. Then this Mark guy, he came back for her, somehow dodged all the phantoms on the way… Tried to save the city with his bare hands?" I pulled on my boots. "He felt guilty for letting the whole city die, then came back and found his wife dead. So he sat there." I nearly shivered, remembering the footage they had played over and over on air, from the surveillance cameras in the area.

"And waited, until the Phantoms took him." Neil finished. "No one’s sure if he died from the Phantoms or hunger… I’d say the latter, but who knows?" I stood, with Neil helping me up before walking me over to the two. "And besides, we only need the supplies…" He said as we approached them. "Hey, guys, look who’s up." He grinned. Ryan looked up, smiling at me.

"Hey, Jane… feeling better?"

"Well I’m conscious and can focus…" I smirked at the older man, and he stood, enveloping me in a hug, which I returned.

"We were worried." I smiled slightly.

"Eh… can’t get rid of me that easy." I tried to ignore the glare Neil was aiming at us as Ryan sat down.

"You should try not to get shot again." Aki stated. It was my turn to glare at her. What, did she think I was TRYING to get hurt? "Their bullets are coated in poison." She finished. I softened my glare smoothly, so no one noticed my mistake. I swallowed a thank you and an apology and simply muttered,

"Figures." I stood next to Ryan, where there were some books spread out. "What’s the plan?"

"I know some passwords, ways around. And they don’t know you removed the necklace, so, to them… I’m Seline." Aki explained. I nodded slowly.

"How long do you think it’ll take?" I asked, hoping my stomach wasn’t as loud as it seemed.

"Long enough for you to get some food…" Neil smirked. "C’mon, sleeping beauty, I can make a really mean… sand…wich…" I matched his smirk, following him to the lower half of the church. It looked like an old abandoned Bingo hall/soup kitchen.

"So…" I pulled myself up on one of the metal counters, testing my arm. "Anything interesti--" Neil’s lips met mine, for an urgent kiss. It took a minute or two for me to snap out of it. (By that time, though, he’d pulled away himself.)

"Neil?" I questioned, blinking at him. My eyes met his, and I couldn’t believe how sad they looked.

"They said that you wouldn’t make it… And if you did, you’d never wake up." He started crying, and I touched his cheek, feeling a slight numbness inside of me. I hated seeing him like this. "I can’t lose you, Jane…" he told me, squeezing my hand.

"And you’re not going to." I assured him.