A/N

I apologise for the long wait with this chapter! It took a while for me to get it all written up but hopefully you like the outcome! There should be another chapter soon but thanks to every one who's read this far! :)

Victor spent much of the day in bed; the effects of his injury had become difficult to ignore, leaving him uncharacteristically tired and feeble. Since arriving at Maggie's, Victor had been unable to call his associates to inform them of his whereabouts – more importantly, to not come looking for him. Then there was the King of Gotham. It was undoubtable that he'd have questions regarding the success of his mission to take out the mayoral candidate, Randall Hobbs, but what was the hitman to say to him? It was rare for Victor to fail and it almost damaged his pride to acknowledge such a fact. Then there was the fact that he'd been spotted at the scene by Detective Gordon – and shot in the process. The whole incident had been a huge blip on Victor's typically perfect track record, and that truly frustrated him.

As Maggie was folding Victor's clothes, she couldn't help but think back to the gun she'd found in his jacket. As convincing as his story had been, it still unnerved her to have a firearm in the house; especially with her two younger brothers around.

She then heard Victor's mobile phone ringing and, when he didn't wake up at the sound, Maggie decided to answer the call on his behalf.

"Hello?"

"Who's this? Where's Zsasz?" A woman's voice answered, her tone quite brazen.

"My name is Maggie Shaw. Victor's with me. He's alright." She paused. "Sorry, can I ask who's calling?"

There was silence on the other end for a moment, before another female took the phone. "Could you remind Zsasz that we've got a job in an hour?"

Maggie shook her head as she glanced over at Victor's sleeping form. He looked exhausted from recent events; evidently unable to get out of bed, let alone work a job. "I don't think Victor will be able to work tonight. He was shot yesterday, he's sleeping it off."

"It's not like him to turn down a job. Wake him up and let us talk to him."

"I'm sorry, I really can't do that. He's been asleep all afternoon, he's not well and-"

Suddenly, Maggie felt the phone being snatched from her hands as Victor shot out of bed. Without a doubt, Maggie was surprised to have witnessed such a quick recovery; especially since he'd appeared to be asleep mere moments ago.

"No I haven't forgotten. I'll be there." Then, just like that, Victor hung up.

Maggie watched as her boyfriend grabbed his jacket from the edge of the bed and threw it on without so much as an explanation. But she wasn't about to let him walk out again. Instinctively, Maggie moved to stand in front of the door, her arms folded in an attempt to appear somewhat stern.

"What are you doing?"

"Where are you going?" Maggie countered, eyeing Victor closely. "You were shot less than 24 hours ago. You need to rest."

"This is important." Victor insisted, inhaling deeply as he attempted to conjure up the right words to help him reason with the blonde. "It's work. I'm helping people, like you said."

"I get that this is your livelihood but you could've died last night, Victor. How can you expect me to just let you run off into another dangerous situation?" Maggie met his steely eyes with a look of sadness. "What if something happens and I'm not there to help you?"

Victor reached for his gun and placed it in his holster. "You shouldn't concern yourself with such matters…" He muttered, an almost cold tone to his voice. He seemed indifferent, unsure of how to react to Maggie's concern for his safety. It wasn't like he was used to it, after all.

"Well I can't help it because I care about you." Maggie cried, genuinely hurt by his comment. "I don't want to lose you before whatever this is has even started."

A part of Victor was telling him to stop, to stay with his girlfriend instead of running off to yet another dangerous situation. But his work was his livelihood. His life.

"I'm sorry. I have to go." Victor insisted before he hurried out of the house; unable to look back at Maggie's heartbroken face.

She didn't know what was going on but she couldn't shake the feeling that Victor was keeping secrets from her.

Ever since her father's illness had struck him down, and her mother had walked out, Maggie had been forced to abandon any ambition and take on the role of the pillar holding the Shaw family together. In a way, such a task had brought out a truly maternal side to her; hence why Maggie tended to put the needs of those around her before her own. It caused Maggie to worry a little more than she should. Even though she hadn't known Victor for a long time, and had been in a relationship with him for even less time, Maggie felt attached to him and couldn't bear the thought of him getting hurt again.

But what Maggie didn't know was that Victor really was capable of looking out for himself on a job – in fact, he was typically the one to do the damage that she feared would happen to him. Of course Victor didn't intend to fill his girlfriend in on such a crucial detail though.

"This Maggie…she your girl?" One of Victor's henchwomen watched him closely as they waited for their target to arrive home. "She seems…nice."

"She is." Victor remained silent for a moment; not wanting to talk about Maggie while in the middle of a job – because he would essentially be bringing her into that dangerous world. He wanted to keep her as far away from all that as possible. She was too innocent, too good. She didn't deserve to get caught up in all that – in his real world.

"Does she know about all this?"

Victor shook his head, exhaling deeply as he thought of how abrupt he had been before walking out. Maggie deserved an explanation - the truth - but he just couldn't give it to her. Because he was too afraid of losing her.

"Zsasz? You okay?"

"Of course."

"Good. You need to go in there with a clear head. Forget about her for a while." She raised an eyebrow, studying Victor's expression carefully. Even with all the time Victor spent with his henchwomen, they were never able to really read what was going on in his mind. "Don't let her become some kind of distraction."

"I'm always focused." He insisted, holding his gun tightly. "There is no distraction."

After Victor had completed the job, his target having been killed, he decided to return to the Shaw house in case Maggie was still awake. He hated how he'd ran off, leaving her in such a distraught state, but Victor held his career in too high regard to just skip a mission. It would've cost him a tally mark too after all. For Victor, the assassin job was his livelihood...his life.

When Victor walked up the front steps, he noticed that the light was still on and decided to knock on the door, all while being careful not to wake Maggie's family. "Maggie, it's me…" Victor paused, unsure of what to say. He didn't believe he owed any apology, nor was he quite sure of how Maggie would react to his spontaneous reappearance at…2am?!

Maggie peered around the door, fiddling with the catch until she was able to let Victor inside. "I didn't think you'd be coming back." She whispered, closing the door behind him before she headed back through to the kitchen. "You'll have to excuse the mess." She nodded towards the stacked crockery on the kitchen counters. "I'm in the middle of cleaning."

"Are you aware that it's 2am?"

"Yes, are you?" Maggie sighed, "you were out there for hours, Victor. I was afraid that something had happened to you. I couldn't sleep so I…I decided to tidy the kitchen, to take my mind off things."

Victor smirked, acknowledging how Maggie had her own bizarre quirks – much like him. Although, granted, hers were far less…destructive than his. "You should go to sleep now." He insisted, watching his girlfriend closely as she began to dry each individual plate with her dishcloth before stacking it neatly away.

"Are we not going to talk about it?"

"About what?"

"How you ran off like that." Maggie turned around to face him, leaning against the counter. "I get that you're a workaholic – I'm the same – but I was worried about you because you were shot yesterday. You could've been hurt again."

Victor smiled reassuringly at Maggie, yet he was unable to understand the extent of her concern. "I'm perfectly fine, see?"

"I grew up watching my dad leave the house every day in his uniform, wondering if that'd be the last time I saw him. He was like you; always running headfirst into a dangerous situation. That was why he…" Maggie took a deep breath to steady her emotions. "That's why he was injured. I almost lost him that day and even now, he's not the man he used to be. Not even close."

Victor listened closely as the pain in Maggie's voice became clear.

"I'm scared because I don't want to see the same thing happen to you. I don't want the bad people in this world to take your life from you, like they did to him. I don't think I could go through that again."

"Well you won't have to." Victor pulled Maggie close against his chest. "See, I'm here. I won't leave you. Ever."

Maggie nuzzled against him, wrapping her arms around his back. "I might just hold you to that."

"That's fine by me." Victor smirked before he scooped the blonde up in his arms and carried her to her bedroom.

She squirmed in his arms, giggling quietly so as not to wake her family. "What about the dishes?"

"They won't go anywhere. Now get some rest." He carefully placed Maggie on the bed. Smiling, she nodded and freed her blonde hair from its ponytail before she moved to the drawers to get her pyjamas. Realising that it would be inappropriate to watch, Victor turned his back while Maggie changed out of her sweater and into a t-shirt and bottoms.

She pulled out a spare blanket from the drawer and moved towards the door. However, Victor stopped her, gently taking her arm. "Where are you going?"

"I'm going to sleep on the sofa. You need to rest properly, your shoulder is—"

"Stay with me." Victor insisted, nodding towards the bed. "There's enough room."

However, Maggie shook her head; evidently anxious at the prospect of sleeping so close to her new boyfriend, even if she secretly wanted to. "I can't."

"I won't do anything to make you uncomfortable, if that's what worries you?" Victor said, smiling reassuringly at her. "Besides, I thought I was your patient?"

"Okay…" Maggie nodded reluctantly and watched as Victor climbed into bed and patted the space beside him. She turned off the lamp and carefully slipped under the covers beside him, being careful not to lie too close to Victor in case she hurt his shoulder. However, Victor wrapped his arm around the blonde; pulling her close against his bare chest.

"You're alright with this, aren't you?" Victor asked, feeling Maggie's body tense up slightly.

"It's not that, Victor..." She held him close, before her fingers carefully traced up his arm, to where the scars were present. "I didn't want to say anything before but when I patched you up, I noticed these scars and…they're self-inflicted aren't they?"

Victor didn't know why he was so surprised by Maggie's deduction; it was obvious that she was eventually going to notice them, and know that they meant something.

"It's just…they look so painful, Victor." She glanced over her shoulder at him. "Why would you do that to yourself?" Again, she touched them carefully but stopped when she noticed the change. Victor had been out on a job that night after all. "This one's new, isn't it? Did you do this after you left here earlier?"

"Maggie, it's not important…" He mumbled, still holding her close. "Let's just go to sleep."

"You can talk to me, you know." Maggie whispered. "You can tell me anything and I won't judge you, Victor. I promise."

While that moment seemed like an ideal opportunity for Victor to open up about his dangerous career, the huge secret he'd been keeping from her, the hitman decided not to say another word. Instead he drifted off to sleep, leaving Maggie to wonder how honest her boyfriend was being with her.