"Trust me, Cal. I was thorough, uncomfortable though it was." He settled in a chair, leaning forward as his arms rested on his legs. "Uncomfortable" happened to be Niko's euphemism for "excruciating," not that you would've known that from the way he sat tranquilly, his face impassive, and as unmoving as a statue.

Scooping some of the cream up in my gloved hand, I applied it to the chemical burn on his back. I used the lightest possible touch, but I could still feel him tense beneath my hand. Even so, his voice remained placid. "Did you dispose of my clothes?"

"Bagged them and tossed them into the incinerator," I confirmed. When Niko had been inside of Abbagor he must have been near a ruptured tendril or whatever passed as a blood vessel in the troll. The purple ichor had soaked through his coat and shirt, searing the skin beneath. And as agonizing as that must have been, I had to think it was probably not the worst part of being swallowed by Abbagor. But that was something that had to wait for the moment. We had to fix the outside before starting on the inside.

As I finished applying the cream to his back and then his shoulder and neck, I laid a light gauze bandage over the worst of the burns. "All done, Patches." I grinned faintly at the white dressings, stark against the olive tint of his skin. I might have the coloring of my father, but Niko was all Sophia. If it weren't for our eyes being the same, anyone would be hard-pressed to physically link us as brothers.

"Florence Nightingale had nothing on you, Cal, I'm sure." Niko straightened and that olive tone turned to white laced with green. He could school his face to the end of time, but even Niko wasn't master of his own complexion.

Stripping off the gloves and tossing them onto the table, I reached for a pill bottle I'd already retrieved from the cabinet. Shaking two into my hand, I held them out to him. "Take these. I'll get you some water."

He automatically balked. It wasn't anything that I hadn't expected. He was damn predictable in that respect. No alcohol, no drugs, nothing that would blunt the edge or dull the senses. Not even painkillers, no matter how much pain he might be in. "No problem," I said smoothly. "If the Grendels come tonight, you can just barf on them. Very ninja of you." I slapped the pills on the table in front of him. "Asshole. Suffer all you want."

Niko pursed his lips. "I'm not sure Nurse Nightingale had your bedside manner. But the point is taken." He picked up one pill and raised an eyebrow at me. "Compromise?"

Considering this was the hard stuff, definitely not over-the-counter, I knew enough to quit while I was ahead. "Compromise." I opened the refrigerator and handed him a bottle of water. Niko wouldn't touch tap water. I'd gotten rather used to the metallic taste myself. The delicate bouquet of chlorine and lead, what's not to like? "You had a tetanus shot about three years ago, right?"

He chased the pill with a swallow from the bottle. Aiming an assessing glance at me, he stated, "You're hovering, little brother." The gaze softened. "I am all right, Cal. I promise you."

I was hovering… some. There was no reason to. Niko was fine, in some pain, sure, but he wasn't going to be pushing up daisies anytime soon. Not from this, anyway. No, there was no reason to worry, no reason to consider this a grim reminder that without Niko I was alone in the world. There was no reason to dwell on the fact that without Niko there wasn't a single person alive that I could depend on. For that matter there wasn't a single one who even knew who I was, exactly what I was. Boggle knew and now Abbagor, but no one who had an untarnished soul. Except… except now there was Robin. But I'd managed to finish any trust there before it could even start.

"Of course you're okay," I said brusquely. "You're too damn pompous to die." Sweeping up the mess from the tabletop, I dumped it in the garbage. Grabbing my beer, I headed for the living room. "I'm going to watch the tube. Let me know if you need help dressing."

"If Goodfellow were here, I'm sure he would offer his help as well," Niko offered dryly as he eased himself to a standing position.

"I don't think that'll be a problem anytime in the near future." Turning on the TV with the remote, I surfed through several channels without actually registering them. Robin was as conceited as a male model, horny as a dog the day before it's neutered, and generally a pain in the ass, but he had tried to help us. And considering we had all but blackmailed him into it, it had to have been against his better judgment. Despite all of that, he'd stood his ground when Abbagor went on his homicidal rampage. At least he'd stood it until I gave him a nice big shove. Then he was just damn lucky not to end up buried in that same ground he'd made his stand on.

"I gathered that." Niko broke my train of thought and settled onto the couch beside me. He was careful to keep his back from resting against the threadbare cushion. The grooves bracketing his mouth said the pain medication hadn't even begun to kick in yet. "What happened while I was… unavailable? Did you tell him his shirt was so very last year?"

I snorted and gave a reluctant laugh. "That would've really gotten his goat, wouldn't it?" In my mind I could hear the faintest bubbling echo… Aupheling, little goat, come baaaaaaack. It sobered me instantly. "Yeah," I said absently. "Insulted his shirt. That's exactly what I did." I clicked the remote again.

"The man takes his wardrobe very seriously." Niko reached over and slid the remote from my hand and clicked the mute button. "But in spite of that, I think there may be more to the story."

"Too bad," I grunted, folding my arms and slouching bonelessly. "Because I'm not in the mood to tell any stories. Try channel fifteen. I think Charlie's Angels is on. All the martial arts your heart desires."

"Only in your perverse little mind would any of that pass for martial arts." A finger flicked the side of my head with a thump that connected hard enough to sting. "Then again, perhaps more perverted than perverse."

I gave him a glare and rubbed the spot with a knuckle. "My perversions are all that keep me going sometimes."

"That and a facile knack for changing the subject." Niko tapped the remote on his knee thoughtfully. "I could guess if you wanted. I'm rather good at that."

As if I didn't know. He was hell on wheels when it came to anything involving intellectual muscle flexing.

When we were kids he was busy dragging Colonel Mustard off to jail while I was still trying to figure out what the hell a conservatory was. What I'd found necessary to do to Robin wouldn't take many guesses on Niko's part. He was too goddamn smart and he knew me too well. "I needed a distraction." I shrugged. The gesture wasn't quite as careless as I wanted it to be. "I didn't have much to choose from. You survived. He survived. All's well that ends well, right?"

He grasped in an instant what had happened. For that matter, he may have known all along. Placing the remote on the table, Niko commented neutrally, "He's a good fighter. You saw that, and you had to know on some level that he could hold his own for the few moments you needed."

"Could probably hold his own" would've been a more accurate way to put it. And even though he'd chosen his words judiciously, Niko was as aware of that as I was. "It didn't matter whether he could or not, Nik," I said with bald honesty. "You know that."

He nodded slowly, eyes serious and calm. "I do. I also know I have a brother who would do anything to save my life. Anything at all. And that, Cal, is not such a bad thing to know." He stood, one hand using my shoulder for leverage. "You mind taking first watch? We're both going to need our rest for tomorrow. We still have a car to locate and I'm sure you haven't even begun to shovel your belongings in a pile for packing."