This may or may not be a one-shot. I'm not sure which.

And by the way, if I were the one to own all these characters, I'd probably not need to have a boyfriend pay for my copy of Terrier.

Pain shook her vision, making everything look wobbly and off balance. Her breathing was shallow and painful. It felt as if someone's claws had been raked across her stomach and chest. She thought she was going to be sick.

Her hands clutched the sheets as she fought against crying out. For a moment, she was lost. She couldn't remember what had happened to make her feel like this. Then it flashed back on her.

Tunstall and Goodwin were walking ahead of her. Something had come up in front of them. It was one man, a very large Bazhir man. He plowed through them, intent on taking them all out. Beka could smell the hot blood wine on him.

He knocked Tunstall out with a meaty fist to the back of the head. Goodwin was blowing furiously on her whistle, but they were at the edges of their district, no one would come soon. The man had what looked like four connected rings in his hand. There were spikes on the outside, which were what had dug into her stomach and chest. She had done her best to fight back, but a man that strong, inhibitions gone for the wine, easily overpowered her. He had punched her often before the other Dogs showed up and dragged him off.

Her world went black. When she opened her eyes again, she saw Ahuda looking at her, Goodwin in her peripheral vision. Tunstall was staring with bleary eyes at the ceiling, but he seemed alright for the most part. She was the one crying. The sheets she rested on were wet, and for a moment she wondered why anyone would have poured water on her. She lifted her hand to her face and it was coated in blood.

"The healer has done all she…" Her lucidity was gone.

The next time she opened her eyes, she was in her room at the boarding house. She was coherent enough to have water thrust upon her and she drank greedily, even as she was supported by some male at her back and holding her head up. Kora came over to give her a potion, all the while mumbling about drunks. Apparently the man had been caught and put in the cages. She was released from duty for four days. Even with intense healing, Beka was still unable to sit up, much less do her rounds. She fell back into a deep sleep, comforted by the heartbeat under her head.

The pain was not something she remembered from the other times she had woken up. Her heart was beating so loud in her ears, she didn't realize she was whimpering loudly. There was no comforting heartbeat or reassuring strength behind her. She sat on her bed by herself.

The door swung open violently and a man in only a pair of trousers stood in her door, looking wildly about the room. His white blond hair was slightly mussed but it was his eyes that drew attention. They scanned the room until finally settled on Beka, crying and trying not to move on her bed.

He ran to her, and when he was beside her, he tried everything he could think of to calm her. The potion that Kora had made was still in the room, so he gave her some of that. When her whimpering stopped and she was calm, he sat on the bed next to her.

Beka fell asleep to him laying beside her, looking at her. He was holding his hand and his eyes looked too moist.

I decided. This is not going to be a one-shot.