Nora woke up and turned her head, as slowly as she could, to look over at the other side of the bed. He was still there and, judging by the steady movement of his bare chest, he was still asleep.

She knew that she should be relieved. This was supposed to be a good thing. This was exactly what she had wanted and yet she still found a lump in her throat and she felt a pit in her gut that she had yet to feel during her job as a bounty hunter. Sure, she usually got nervous on the job, but this was different. Nora had never been hired to kill anyone before. Not until Miles Matheson.

If it weren't for Mia, there was no way that Nora ever would have taken this job. Even then, after she'd already gone through with the part which she had been initially dreading the most- showing up at the General's door in skimpy clothing and claiming to have been sent by one of his captains as a gift -she still wasn't sure she was going to be able to go through with it.

Several seconds passed before finally Nora knew that she couldn't wait any longer. She had already slept with him. She'd already screwed up once by letting herself fall asleep before he had. She couldn't afford to screw up again by waiting for him to wake up. He was dangerous and she knew that, if he was awake, she would never get the chance to properly get rid of him. And as much as the idea terrified her, she really did need to finish the job and get out of there. After all, Mia was counting on her and they needed the bounty to get by. Mia was Nora's responsibility and she would never forgive herself if her little sister were to starve because she was too weak to finish what she had started.

She moved as slowly and carefully as she could as she slid the sheets off of herself. She chanced a glance back at him to find that he still appeared to be in exactly the same condition as before, then gradually lowered her feet one at a time to the floor.

As she rose from the bed and it let out a soft creak, Nora flinched and looked back over her shoulder, but he still appeared to be sound asleep. She stood still for a few seconds to be sure before turning away from him and slowly tip-toeing across the room, towards the hook he had thrown his weapons belt over.

She knew that it was ridiculous, especially considering the earlier events of the night, but she found herself feeling vulnerable in her lack of clothing. Still, getting blood on the only clothes she had with her would not be a wise decision and neither would wasting time in order to get dressed.

She stopped in front of the hook and eyed the gun for a moment. It would be easier, quicker too, but it would also be a lot more likely to capture attention. She couldn't afford that. If she got caught, then no one would go back for Mia. No one would be there to look after her or make sure that she got food. So, with that thought steering her forwards, Nora slowly reached for his knife instead.

As she turned to walk back to the bed she couldn't be sure of how loudly she was moving. She attempted to creep forwards, but she couldn't quite be sure of how loud her footsteps were over the sound of her thumping heart as the adrenaline kicked in.

When she stopped before him, she saw that the shallow rise and fall of his chest was much slower than the pounding of her own heart within her ear drums. She tried to calm herself for a moment, but this was not a situation where calm was going to come.

Finally, she decided to just worry about the matter at hand. Namely, how she was going to make sure that he wouldn't survive this or wake up to be in any condition to fight back or call out for help. She wished she had considered this sooner. She might have brought her pillow with her then, to try to cover his face with. That would have been the smarter decision.

But there she was, standing over him with a knife, feeling like the pounding of her heart was going to wake him at any moment. If she wanted to get the pillow she would have to try to reach over him without waking him or go all the way back around the bed. She decided that would be a dumb risk, not only out of fear of waking him up in the process, but also out of fear of losing her determination. So instead, she ever so slowly reached out with her left hand to cover his mouth so that, if he woke up, he hopefully wouldn't be able to make a sound.

She moved the hand with the knife then, bringing it to his throat. Just as she was about to make a move to cut it, his eyes shot open and she froze in shock.

She only hesitated for a split second, but that was all that Miles needed to grab her roughly by the wrist. He twisted her wrist upwards, holding it painfully tight until she let out a small whimper and reluctantly dropped his knife onto the mattress.

She was expecting him to grab the knife, but he didn't. Instead he glared over at her as he loosened his grip, ever so slightly.

Suddenly, he let go of her altogether, flinging her wrist back towards her in the process, as he growled out, "Get dressed."

She blinked at him in confusion for a moment before turning to look for the skimpy dress she had come there in, only to become distracted by the gleam of metal coming from the hook where his gun still hung on his belt.

Apparently her gaze lingered there for a moment too long, since he warned her, "Don't even think about it. That's not a race you're going to win."

Nora still weighed her options for a second longer before deciding that there was no way that she was going to win a fight with General Matheson, especially one that he was starting with the advantage of a knife. So instead, she slowly turned and began to walk over to where her dress was lying on the floor, a few feet from the bed.

She pulled it on and didn't feel quite the relief at her body being covered once again that she had been expecting. Instead, she only felt her nerves on end as she crossed her arms over the low neckline of her dress.

She turned back around to find that he had gotten out of the bed and pulled a pair of pants on in the time it had taken her to dress herself. He grabbed the knife off of the bed and walked over to stick it back in his belt, which he carried with him and set down on top of his dresser.

She wasn't sure whether she should feel proud or disappointed that she apparently was perceived as a big enough threat to take both of his weapons with him. She supposed that carefulness might have something to do with the fact that he was still alive, despite the number of people who would quite literally pay to see him dead.

He grabbed a shirt out of his dresser and tossed it over to her before pulling out another for himself. She caught it and looked down at it confused for a moment before hesitantly pulling the sleeves over her arms.

As Nora buttoned the shirt up so that she was covered a fair bit more than she had been in just the dress, she told him, "Thanks."

He finished putting his belt on and turned to shoot her a confused look. She couldn't really blame him. As soon as she had said it, she'd realized just how stupid it had been. She had tried to kill him, she knew what that meant. An example was going to be made of her. She was going to be killed, probably tortured first. The best she could possibly hope for was simply rotting in a prison cell, but she knew that wasn't likely. And yet she had just been stupid enough to show weakness by thanking her executor for loaning her a shirt that he would probably take back off of her dead body.

Nora had been expecting to be taken to some kind of cell or an interrogation room to await her fate. Instead, Miles had led her past several guards and into a room with a relatively small dining table. As the door shut behind her, she realized that he was leaving her there alone. She knew from the guards she'd seen in the hallway not to bother trying to escape, but that still didn't make waiting there any easier.

She remained standing, just inside the door, as she let a whole new kind of fear wash over. Now that her life wasn't in any immediate danger she found herself able to worry about what would happen to Mia without her. It wasn't any cheerier of a thought so she decided she needed to focus on something else.

Nora took a couple steps further into the room and looked around, but found nothing of real interest to her and nothing that would help her. Unless she could figure out how to use a heavy wooden table and a bunch of chairs to launch her great escape, she was out of luck. So instead, she settled for sitting down.

Miles walked back into the room, only moments after Nora had sat down. He was carrying two large plates with him, one of which he set in front of her as he set the other across the table from her. He walked over to the other side of the table and stood with his palms pressing down onto the back of the chair, but made no move to sit down.

Nora looked down at the plate for a moment to find that it was completely covered in delicious looking food. She hadn't eaten anything that had looked even remotely close to the quality of this meal since before the blackout. She knew it had to be a ploy. That made her more uncomfortable than if he would have just told her what was going on.

"Eat." He told her in a gruff voice, although he hadn't so much as looked at his own plate since he had entered the room.

Instead, Nora stared up at him defiantly with her arms crossed over her chest as she questioned, "Why did you bring me here?"

He ignored her question and instead stood in silence as time dragged on until, finally, he asked, "What's your real name?"

"I told you last night," she responded without hesitation.

He cracked a small smirk at that. "Sarah, huh?"

She nodded her head as she hoped that she was succeeding at keeping her expression hardened to try to mask her fear.

"Really?" He asked as he quirked an eyebrow up at her. "See, if I was going to try to take out someone as important as the general of the militia, I probably wouldn't use my real name around him."

"I guess ideas like that are what sets you apart as a general," she retorted, although it was clear to both of them that Sarah was not her real name.

"Just give me your first name," he insisted. "All I want is something I can call you that isn't made up."

There was a short pause before she finally told him, "Nora."

She knew that she could just as easily have given him any other made up first name, but instead she had opted for the truth. Her first name couldn't really be that important of information. Besides, she wasn't a fan of having to remember that she was supposed to be going by an alias anyways.

He nodded his head thoughtfully, but before Nora found out where he was planning on going with that, the door opened behind him.

"What's with the girl?" A voice behind her asked.

Miles' expression cracked into a wide grin as he insisted, "Don't you recognize her, Captain Baker? After all, you did send her over to me last night. Didn't you?"

"I what?" Jeremy asked in a confused tone as he stepped further into the room with his own breakfast in hand.

Nora glared over at the general, who was clearly finding this whole situation to be irritably entertaining. They both knew that someone had told her to say that Captain Baker had sent her and yet he felt the need to keep up the charade to see if he could make her squirm.

Miles didn't explain and instead remained smirking smugly over at Nora as the pair remained at a stalemate. Before the captain had the chance to ask any follow-up questions or either of them had the chance to give first in their little stand-off, they were once again distracted by the sound of the heavy double doors.

"What's with the girl?" Another voice asked.

"That's what I said," Jeremy insisted as he looked between Miles and the man who had just entered the room.

Miles smirked over at her for a moment longer before his gaze focused onto the man behind her as he introduced her with, "This is Nora. She tried to kill me this morning."

"She tried to kill you?" Bass asked in a tone of disbelief that grated on Nora's nerves. She would have threatened to make him next on her list if her situation was a little less dire.

Instead, she focused on the general before her as she coldly told him, "Nothing personal. I could just really use the bounty that's on your head."

"She's a bounty hunter?" Bass questioned in a tone just as skeptical as his previous question had come out.

"Not just any bounty hunter," Miles corrected. "She's our new bounty hunter."

If Nora had chosen to eat the breakfast he'd offered her, then she was sure she would have choked on it at that. As it was, she struggled to try to conceal her surprise at the statement.

Meanwhile, Jeremy didn't seem to be having the same struggle as a smirk crossed his lips and he commented, "She must be something else in bed."

Nora shot a glare in his direction as General Monroe asked, "What the hell makes you think we can trust her, Miles? She just tried to kill you, I doubt she's looking to do us any favours."

"She's a bounty hunter, not some die-hard rebel. It's not like she's loyal to them. She'll go wherever the better money is," Miles pointed out before his gaze flickered back over to meet hers. "Besides, she could use the bounty. "

"Still, you think she's going to be any good?" Bass demanded. "Look at her. Besides, her record isn't looking very good so far. 0 for 1."

"She's exactly what we could use," Miles countered. "Someone that doesn't want to get caught is bound to be looking for tough guys who pay them a little too much attention. They're not going to be suspicious of her. Hiring her isn't exactly that risky, Bass. Either she's worth the money or she doesn't come back and we don't pay her."

A/N: Please read and review! I know I have a starting new stories problem, but hopefully I will be able to have updates up for everything fairly regularly...