Gabe was in the toilets when he got jumped. Washing his hands, he caught a quick movement behind him in the reflection of the mirror before he felt a sharp pain slice through his back.

He and Etienne had gone for drinks and gumdrops. They couldn’t exactly catch up on old times, but they compared work environments. Etienne had never really explained to Gabe how he came to be in the employ of Mr. Xero, but he had been doing it for a while. He was predictably appalled when Gabe told him about their less than formal working relationship.

“You call him what?” Etienne sputtered over his drink.

“Xero. Calling him ‘Mister Xero’ every time is such a trial and ‘boss’ was never going to happen.” Gabe explained, waving a hand dismissively and drinking a large gulp of his beer.

“Does he call you princess?” Etienne joked, still amazed.

Gabe scrunched his nose up in a sneer. “He only gets to do that if he buys me nice things.”

Etienne laughed his high pitched cackle, and it should have been embarrassing the way people’s stares hooked on them, but Gabe was beyond caring. Turned out, he and Etienne could be friends after all.

“I don’t know how you get away with it, man.” Etienne said, shaking his head. “People have been kneecapped for less.” Gabe shrugged and drank his beer. Honestly, he didn’t know either. Gabe was always pushing just a little more, a little more, and instead of pushing back, or simply outright chucking him under a bus, Xero usually gave in.

“And he does buy you pretty things. Those clothes look very nice.” Etienne winked, and it was just as perverse as it always had been. Gabe made a face at him.

“Work uniform doesn’t count. I have to dress like this.”

“You don’t like it?”

“The collar itches.”

“Whatever man.” He’d said and went to get them another round, and that was when Gabe took the chance to go to the bathroom. Where he very suddenly got stabbed.

Turning around and clutching at his back, he felt the familiar wetness of blood. People had this idea that blood was thick. It wasn’t really, but it was slick and got sticky when drying. A fucking mission to get out of clothes.

It was Richardson's bodyguard. He didn’t look quite so cool headed now, holding a bloodied knife and mouth openly panting. He stood like he was waiting for Gabe to attack, arms akimbo and legs apart, while his eyes travelled over his body, looking for another weak point. The pain in his back was severe. Gabe suspected his kidney had been hit.

“You won’t get another shot, asshole.” Gabe said to him, leaning against the sink and trying to grit his teeth past the pain. Adrenaline, which was usually on his side, only made the blood loss faster.

Another lunge, and Gabe dodged it in time and brought his bloodied hand around to grab the taller man’s neck. The intention had been to smack his head into the mirror, but the blood gave him the means to slip out of Gabe’s grip. Staggering, Gabe was ashamed of himself for being so weak, for letting himself be jumped.

The door crashed open, smacking into his attacker and sending him off balance for a moment. Etienne came roaring in, and Gabe had a brief moment of amused relief before he slid to the floor. The edges of his vision were going white.

He could hear the noises but they were getting distant, and his line of sight slipped down to the bathroom floor.

What was it about him and dying on fucking filthy, fucking bathroom floors?

-8-

The sound of beeping was annoying enough for Gabe to pry open his eyes. He had been trying to do it for ages but finally succeeded in letting a slit of light in.

He was in a hospital.

Grrrrrrreat.

It was a while longer before his body listened to him again enough to move his arm weakly. He probably went in and out of consciousness a few times in the process.

Eventually, he had enough control to say. “Shit.”

Immediately, his very limited vision was filled with the very recognisable, shocking face of Etienne.

“He’s awake.” Etienne said with what sounded like relief.

Gabe blinked. “Can you turn that fucking beeping off?” he croaked.

“Only if your hearts stops, asshole.” Etienne retorted. “It’s your heart monitor.”

Gabe tried to say that he knew, but his throat was drier than a dessert. “Water.”

A straw was pressed to his lips and he drank as fast as he could. He didn’t get very far, because even that was exhausting. Fucking ridiculous.

“What happened?” he asked. Etienne came round from the other side this time.

“You awake again? You passed out just now.”

Gabe frowned at himself, trying to keep it together and not slide effortlessly into unconsciousness the whole time. He tried to sit up, but there was a huge tight, rod of pain that lanced up his back and made him gasp in surprise.

“Fuck.” He panted, clenching his eyes shut. “Me.”

“Yeah. It’s pretty bad.” Etienne confirmed for him.

Gabe lolled his head to look at him more directly. “Tell me.”

Etiene shrugged but it was tight. “Richardson found out who you were, that you were working for Mr. Xero. He sent his monkey. I got the call, like, maybe two seconds before I came to find you.”

“Call?”

“From Mr. Xero.”

Gabe was still trying to control his breathing through the aftershocks of pain in his back. “And then?”

Etienne hesitated. “He got your right kidney, you lost a lot of blood before the ambulance got you to the hospital…they had to do a transfusion. And surgery. You have massive cut-“

“I meant the monkey.” Gabe interrupted shooting Etienne an annoyed glance.

“He got away. I tried to keep him there, but you were dying on the floor. Priorities.” Etienne said, with a half grin.

Gabe grinned back, though it was a weak thing. “Priorities.”

“Yeah, can’t let Mr. Xero’s favourite check-out before he says so.”

“And here I thought you liked me.”

“You’re not pretty anymore remember?”

They shared a laugh, which Gabe regretted instantly and he hissed in pain instead.

He turned his head back, feeling like he was all pain and the few parts that weren’t pain were cotton and jelly.

“You died, man.” He heard Etienne say distantly. “You were gone.”

No I wasn’t, Gabe thought before vanishing again.