I was spending way too much time on the ground lately.

I had a really good view of the ceiling, though. It wasn't a bad ceiling. There were some of those lights here and there, the kind that swing in interrogation rooms. The roof, if you could call it that, was rippled metal. Not the usual kind, the kind that looked like someone had hit it really hard with a fist and it had bunched up like fabric on all sides. Beneath the metal were a bunch of steel girders and the framework for an actual roof that had never been built. The walls around the edges were dusty brick, and that was about all I could get without moving. I didn't want to move right now.

I was in a warehouse. My stomach was on fire. Again. I was also spending way too much time bleeding out of new holes in my body. I value the structural integrity of my body; it's the only one I've got.

I wasn't dying. I couldn't be, because my life wasn't flashing before my eyes. Usually it did that when I was dying, or at least, if I thought I was dying. Time slowed down (in one case it had slowed down with a little help from a friend) and I got a good up-close look at everything that had happened in the last few days or weeks. I got to examine what I'd done or failed to do, all the mistakes I'd made and even some of the things I'd done right, if I was lucky.

There was none of that right now. Just a fistful of pain jammed into a hole in my stomach. So, chances were good I wasn't dying.

I really hoped that was the case.

When I opened my eyes again there were two gorgeous blondes staring down at me. They had identical looks of concern and irritation. I needed to stop getting on the bad side of badass women. Once they were done making sure I was okay I wondered if they were going to beat me up. I didn't think Elaine would, she had that Reiki glow on her hands if I looked at her sideways, not quite with the Sight, but almost. Murphy might. She was pissed.

"You're not dead," she told me, poking my ribs with her toe. Her toe had a thick leather boot on it. That hurt. "In case you were wondering."

"I did manage to figure that out all by myself. On account of you just kicked me in the ribs."

"I did not."

"Children." But Elaine made it gentle when she said it. "Why don't we get out of here first and argue about whose fault it is later?"

She was right. Which was probably the only thing that stopped Murphy from unleashing that comment I knew she wanted to make. We beat feet for the car, stopping only so that I could almost fall over and heave up what was left of my lunch, which wasn't much.

"Burger King? Still?" I couldn't tell if Elaine was wrinkling her nose at the smell or the fact that I was still eating Burger King. I burped. Everyone grimaced. Especially me. You know how bad vomit tastes when you burp afterwards?

Murphy took my other arm and ducked under it, making me very lopsided. "Keep moving. Argue later." With a sort of pointed-slash-triumphant look at Elaine. I agreed with her, so I kept moving. It had nothing whatsoever to do with avoiding a confrontation between the two of them.

Don't get me wrong, they did get along most of the time. From the last time she had been in town and helped take down a rogue Skavis preying on marginalized women, Elaine had made it into Murphy's good books pretty quick. But the tension was getting to everyone, I think. We were all getting snappish and trying to needle each other when we should have been working together.

"Sit down." Murphy let Elaine dump me onto the seat of the jeep. I still didn't know where she'd gotten it, although police impound was looking more and more likely. "Let me look at you."

"Murph, I didn't know you were into me that way."

"Shut up, Harry."

While she glared at me and looked me over Elaine clambered around behind me, rubbing her hands against each other. Warming them, I hoped. "Your head's fine. We'll need to get you somewhere to check that bullet hole, but I think you're going to be fine there, too. Just a through and through, didn't hit any major organs."

"Just a couple minor ones?"

"Lie back."

I lay back. Elaine hadn't said much; she was shutting up and concentrating on whatever it was that was keeping me mobile and from losing too much blood. Murphy was cracking wise because that was what she did under pressure, and when she was worried about people she didn't want to admit to caring for. I was somewhere in the middle of that. She could admit that she cared about me by now, but it was rare, and it was hard, and there were still things she wasn't saying. I knew that much. I also didn't ask. It was a respect thing.

Murphy got around to the driver's side while Elaine did her thing. "Don't forget to keep pressure on that," she pointed over her shoulder and between the front seats. As though I was going to forget to keep pressing on the thing that was holding my blood and guts inside my body.

Maybe not guts. Murphy had said that she didn't think it hit many major organs, and lately she'd seen enough sucking chest wounds to know. I trusted her judgment.

I wasn't sure I trusted the jeep to get us there in one piece, but that was a whole other issue. "Jeez, Murph. Are you trying to hit every bump on the road..." At least, I think that's what came out. I was a little pressed for air and trying to keep from throwing up all over Elaine's hands.

"You wanna come up here and drive, Mister Orange?"

"Ha ha." I grumbled. "I even got that one."

Only because there had been a Tarantino double feature at the drive through one weekend when Molly had done exceptionally well on her studies.

Elaine was muttering something as she worked, something I hadn't caught because I was too busy trying not to squirm and keeping up my end of the banter with Murphy. I wasn't up for much in the way of wit, but banter I could do. I thought. Maybe.

"Lie still."

I didn't think I'd been moving. The car kept bouncing up and down, it wasn't the best thing for a guy with a hole in his gut. Witty banter, what witty banter? Now it was all I could do to keep the bile in the back of my throat and not choke on it, to keep from writhing around on the back seat or doing anything to upset the delicate balances of energies that my beautiful Elaine was trying to hold onto. She was trying, at least. It wasn't working, and I didn't know why it wasn't working now because it had worked wonders before, but everything still hurt just the same as it had five minutes ago. Three minutes ago.

"Almost there," Murph said, terse, and I realized we hadn't been talking for longer than I'd thought. Had I passed out?

Elaine gave up on the Reiki and just reached down her hands to mine. I wrapped my fingers around hers and squeezed.

"You sure I'm not dying?" I squinted up at her. "Because you two are acting an awful lot like I'm dying."

"You're not dying," Elaine told me, smacking my shoulder lightly with the flats of her fingers. "Murphy's just worried about you because you got yourself into a fight with Cowl."

"No," Murphy said, and it was the kind of tone that made me want to sit up. Elaine's hands pressed me back to the backseat of the jeep as the car stopped. Did I mention I tried to avoid arguing with beautiful, wickedly smart women? "No, Murphy's just worried because you survived a fight with Cowl. Don't get me wrong, I want to see you kick his ass as much as the next girl, but ... that's the third time you've been that lucky. So what's going on?"

Go to the top! For you have reached the bottom.