"I tell myself I have to build defenses
'Cause once you are in love, you are defenseless
Everything was easy when it meant less
But once you are in love, you are defenseless."

Askjell - To Be Loved ft. AURORA

#8 of the Defenseless Series

"Next time, don't get stabbed."

"It wasn't exactly the plan."

"Clearly," Higgins scoffed, "because you never have a plan."

Magnum frowned. Higgins had been particularly cranky since he'd gotten stabbed and their quarry had escaped capture. "Are you mad that I got stabbed or mad that you didn't get stabbed?"

Higgins rolled her eyes. "Don't be preposterous," she said indignantly, "I wouldn't have been stabbed."

Magnum huffed out an incredulous laugh. "Your hands were tied behind your back!"

"I have won many a fight with my hands tied behind my back," she told him primly.

He squinted his eyes at her and cocked his head slightly to the side as if he wasn't quite sure what to do with that information. "Uh… huh."

Higgins blew out an exasperated huff and then reached over, lifting his shirt and pressing her fingers to the gauze he was holding against his side.

"Hey!" he exclaimed as his wound smarted with pain. "Can you not shove your fingers into my gaping wound?"

"I'm just checking. Besides, it's hardly gaping, Magnum. It's a flesh wound."

"That's not what you said when I tried to get into the driver seat. I believe your exact words were, and I quote, 'Under no circumstances is the man bleeding out from the knife wound to his abdomen going to drive this car.'"

"Your English accent is appalling," she deadpanned.

"Be that as it may, that is what you said. So either I'm bleeding out or it's a flesh wound. It can't be both."

She just frowned in clear irritation at the road ahead.

Magnum sighed. He got it, he was frustrated that Granson had gotten away, too. It had taken them the better part of 5 weeks to track down the hitman-for-hire and it had taken them less than 20 minutes to lose him again. "Look, we'll get him, okay?" he said, trying to ease the tension. "We found him once, we'll find him again."

There was a strain to her voice when she replied, "And how many more people will he kill before we finally catch him?"

Magnum frowned slightly, looking over at her to study her face. He noted the tight set of her jaw and the tension around her eyes. Was that guilt?

He opened his mouth to ask, but before he could, she pulled them into the hospital parking lot and said, "And here we are, your home away from home."

"What is that supposed to mean?" he asked, cocking an eyebrow.

She pulled into a spot close to the emergency room entrance and got out of the Ferrari. She waited for him to get out, too, and for them to make it to the sliding doors before she said, "I mean that you always seem to end up here. They practically have a bed with your name on it."

Magnum frowned, feeling a bit indignant. "That's ridiculous."

"Welcome back, Mister Magnum," called one of the nurses from the triage desk.

He winced at her absolutely terrible timing, then offered a half-hearted wave. "Thanks, Cheryl."

Higgins looked far too smug as she said, "I rest my case."

Magnum sat on the emergency room bed, curtains drawn around him, and waited for his doctor to return with his release papers. Higgins had been right. It had been a flesh wound. A couple of stitches and some ibuprofen, that is all he thankfully needed.

"Again, allow me to reiterate - gray hairs," a familiar voice said as the curtain was pulled back to reveal two equally concerned faces. "You're giving me gray hairs, Thomas."

Magnum smirked at Rick. "Sorry, man, I just can't help it."

T.C. crossed his arms and shook his head. "We thought with Higgy getting more involved, she'd keep you out of trouble, but here you are again."

"I feel we should know by now that no one will ever be able to keep Thomas Magnum out of trouble, and yet we continue fruitlessly to hope." Rick shook his head as well.

Thomas laughed softly. "Speaking of Higgins, have you seen her? She stepped away to make a call, but then never came back."

"The call was to us," T.C. said.

"And we saw her in the waiting room when we first came in. She said she'd be back in a few minutes," Rick filled in. He glanced at T.C. and they had some sort of silent exchange before they returned their attention to Magnum.

"What's up…?" Magnum asked.

"She seemed… out of sorts?" Rick offered.

Magnum squinted an eye at him. "What? Out of sorts in what way?"

T.C. glanced at Rick one more time before replying, "I think she's mad at herself."

"No," Magnum disagreed, "she's mad at me." But then he remembered the guilt he'd seen on her face. "Or…" He frowned, unsure.

"She said something, man," Rick began, "about how you shouldn't have been here again. That if she had just…"

"Just what?" Magnum asked.

Rick shrugged.

"We don't know. She didn't finish her sentence," T.C. said.

Magnum frowned at that, but before they could say more, the subject of their discussion appeared from around the corner and made her way over to them. "Gentlemen," she greeted, "and Magnum."

He squinted at her and a hint of a smile lit her face.

"How are you feeling?" she asked.

"Peachy," Magnum replied. "Just a couple of stitches. Doc says I'll be right as rain in a week or so. He's getting the release papers all ready."

"Yes, that much I know," she said. "I spoke to him before returning."

The three men all glanced at each other before T.C. uncrossed his arms and said, "Alright, well, it looks like you're in good hands."

Rick nodded. "Yep. We'll catch you guys later."

"Thanks for checking on me," Magnum told them.

"Always, brother," T.C. replied before he and Rick retreated and disappeared down the hallway.

Higgins laced her fingers together in front of her and glanced at the ceiling. Magnum could tell that she had something on her mind and he had a pretty good idea what it was.

"It's not your fault, you know," he told her.

Higgins' eyes shot back down to meet his and he held her gaze, determined not to back down.

"Of course it is, Magnum," she said with an exasperated breath. "You were stabbed throwing yourself in front of me and he got away because you were stabbed."

"Seems more like my fault than yours then…?"

She broke eye contact, staring up in the air again, and shook her head. "But you wouldn't have needed to do that if I hadn't gotten caught in the first place. I should have known he had a sensor on that door. A man like him doesn't stay hidden for so long without taking a lot of precautions."

"We all make mistakes, Higgins," Magnum said. "God knows I've made my share of them."

He expected her to make a quip about just how many mistakes he'd made, but instead she met his gaze again and somberly replied, "Mistakes cost lives." She said it as if she knew that fact all too well. "It almost cost you yours."

"But it didn't."

She chewed the inside of her bottom lip for a moment before quietly saying, "You shouldn't have risked it."

"That's what partners do, what friends do. If I had to do it again, I would, one-hundred percent." He thought for a moment before narrowing his eyes at her. "Didn't we have a conversation like this once before? Except the roles were reversed."

Higgins sighed. She clearly remembered what he was talking about. "That's different. I knew I had a bulletproof vest on."

"You still could have been killed taking those bullets for me," he countered. "So, would you take those broken ribs you got protecting me back or would you do it again?"

She breathed out once more, but this time her sigh was a begrudging huff. "I would do it again."

Magnum nodded, a sudden warmth flaring in his chest. He knew what her answer would be, but it was still something else to hear it out loud, to really know that she valued him as much as he did her. "Exactly," he said. "We protect each other. It's just what we do."

END

Author's Note: Oh, these babies, just throwing themselves in front of harm to protect the other. My heart just can't handle it!