Hey, I'm back and sorry I was kinda slow in the updates, I got distracted by pure mountains of coursework! Anyway just to point out that this is not valduggery and it isn't intending to be, sorry for the lovers out there, but in this Skul see's her as his second daughter, so no romance between the two.

ah well i hope you enjoy...

Skulduggery was sitting on a chair in the corner of valkyries room. He hadn't left since he'd spoken to the professor, he didn't want to leave her alone. His skull had healed and now he was meditating. Fletcher was sitting at the side of the bed, having been finally let in. He had his hand gently wrapped around valkyries and he was stroking the back with his thumb. He had his arms folded, resting on the bed with his chin resting on them. He was looking up at valkyries face. She looked just like she was sleeping; she was so peaceful and beautiful. Her face was so pale and she looked small and helpless in the bed, it seemed to swallow her in its mass of sheets, completley contradicting valkyrie as a person. She still had bandages wrapped around her arms and torso, and had one on her cheek, with another on he forehead. She was still bruised and the professor had said that he would fix that in an hour or so, but that for now she had to rest and the medicine had to do its work. Fletcher felt a tear work its way out of his eye, tickling his cheek as it fell from his face and on to his arm. He sighed and wiped the track from his face and then rested his head down again. He'd been sitting like this for at least an hour now, only slightly moving to readjust his seat, or wipe a stray and disobedient tear from his cheek. Val hadn't moved since he sat down, other than the occasional flutter of an eyelid.

Her hand twitched and then grasped fletchers tightly. He lifted his head quickly, "Val? Val can you hear me?" he said softly, rising from his seat. Her eyelids fluttered open.

"Where am I?" She asked, in a quiet and hoarse voice, she didn't look as if she quite believed it.

"Val, you're in Kenspeckles lab. Val can you hear me?" he asked again, worry worming its way into his voice.

"Fletch?" she turned to look at him, "is that really you?" she reached out a hand to his face and touched the cheek. He leaned forward and gently placed his forehead against hers. She closed her eyes and sighed, with a smile on her face. He kissed her softly on the lips and she reached an arm around his neck. He broke away and smiled. "Welcome back." He whispered.

She smiled but it faded and she began to look panicked again, she sat up quickly and looked around the room. When she saw skulduggery her eyes widened, "h- he is alive… isn't he?" she asked quietly, despair forming in her eyes.

Fletcher laughed at her and threw a pillow at skulduggery's head. He twitched, and tilted his skull, "Why must everyone insist on waking me up by hitting me, or throwing something at me?"

Valkyrie suddenly smiled and leaned back against the pillows, sighing at the same time. Skulduggery stood up and came to stand at the other side of the bed. He tilted his head again and chuckled, "what you actually thought you killed the amazing me? No my dear, overlooking the fact that I am already dead, you did not succeed in killing me." She smiled back at him; he lowered his voice and gently asked "how are you though?"

She lowered her eyes to the bandages on her arms and sighed, "Kenspeckle must have me on some sort of super painkiller because I can't feel anything, but by the looks of things they really went at me. How bad was I, or do I not want to know?" she said after looking around at Fletch, who looked at the ground and avoided her gaze, the sadness showing in his features. It was almost as if his hair drooped.

"You don't want to know." Skulduggery replied very quietly and she turned and looked into his empty eye sockets, she could see the pain on his emotionless face.

"Oh... that bad?" valkyrie said softly, looking at the two now silently trying to avoid her gaze, "Hey, well at least I'm okay-ish now!" she smiled warmly at them both, trying to reassure them that she was, in fact okay.

"Valkyrie... what do you remember?" skulduggery asked quietly, turning to face her again.

"Ah I wondered when this would come up..." Valkyrie turned her face away from skulduggery's. Fletcher looked between them both and took the hint that it was time to leave. He leant down and turned Valkyrie's head, kissing her softly on the lips trying not to break her already fragile body. "I think I'm gunna go and wait outside for a bit," he squeezed Valkyrie's hand and turned towards the door, "oh and Val, I love you."

She smiled at him and he left. Once Fletcher had gone Valkyrie was met with a bone crushing hug as skulduggery's arms wrapped around her shoulders and squeezed, like he was afraid she was going to disappear again.

"I nearly lost you." Skulduggery whispered when he pulled back, he sat down on the chair beside the bed and rested his head in his hands.

"Hey, I'm alright now though, skul, look at me! I'm perfectly fine, well fine-ish, but I'll heal... it's alright, I'm still here." She knew he saw her almost the same as his daughter and remembered the pain shown on his skull when he thought about the injuries she'd had. This must have killed him. He looked up into her eyes and tilted his head into a slight smile; she reached out and took his hand.

"Valkyrie, what do you remember of your..." he struggled to find the right word for the situation, "... experience?"

She blushed slightly and then looked away from him, removing her hand from his in the process. Should she tell him about the hallucinations? About the amount of times she had seen everyone? How much it had hurt her to hear him say that he was disappointed? No. She buried them thoughts down deep, and willed herself to never let them resurface.

"I remember waking up there... and being suspended, and I remember Macabre talking about how he wanted to use Darquesse as a weapon against the world, and I was telling him it couldn't be done, but he never listened. Then he left me with... them, a-and t-they, well they..." she couldn't bring herself to think back on those torturous hours.

"It's okay Val, just what happened after that?"Skulduggery spoke gently, trying to soothe her.

"I passed out, and woke up to see you," a tear worked its way down her cheek, carving a glistening path down her face and dropping softly onto the bed. "And then I woke up again in your arms, and the pain in your voice and on your face..." another tear, but this time skulduggery caught it on his finger before it could reach her cheek, "I could feel her playing at the sides of my mind trying to break free, but I fought her down. Then it was just like I knew, like I knew what was going to happen but not how, and then I remember darkness and nothing. I woke up here again." She didn't tell him that it was the sight of him being tortured that had surfaced Darquesse, or that she didn't know whether or not the thing that happened was going to kill him or not. She was shaking her head slowly, not looking at skulduggery and shivering slightly from the memories playing across her mind. Of the feeling of Darquesse trying to escape, the last time she was Darquesse and the hideous things she had done, of the look on skulduggery's face. She shuddered and tried to shake them away. She felt a weight lay gently on her shoulder and turned to see skulduggery's hand there.

"It's okay, you fought her off. Val, you felt Darquesse and you kept her hidden. Do you know how much strength that takes? You stayed under control, and most importantly, you stayed you! You saved all of our lives and you did it as you. Valkyrie Cain, and no one else."

She looked to him and a small smile played across her lips, "thank you," she whispered, almost inaudible.

"It's what I'm here for." He said gently back.

They were silent for a few moments but then Valkyrie's quiet voice spoke up again, "skul?"

"Hmm?"

"What if I can't stop it or control it next time? What happens then? I don't want to become her, but what if I'm not strong enough to not become her?" Valkyrie's voice broke on the last line, she was trying to keep herself together but it wasn't working out for her.

"Valkyrie," skulduggery's voice was almost at a whisper now, "the fact that you've already tried to fight her down twice now, is enough to prove that you are getting stronger and stronger, and if we keep working on that, then when the time comes you will be able to fight her off, I know you will. And Valkyrie I'm always going to be here, me, Fletcher, Ghastly and Tanith. We aren't going to leave you, and we won't let this happen to you. Val I mean it."

"Thank you." Her voice less than a whisper, as she reached for skulduggery's out stretched hand, as he squeezed gently, reassuring her that his words were true.

They sat like this for a while until Kenspeckle came back in with Fletcher at his heels.

"Valkyrie, so glad to see you awake again." He gave her a reassuring smile, and turned to Skulduggery, "now if you and the witless wonder would care to leave, I have to conduct some tests to check on our dear Valkyrie here." And he ushered both of the men out of the medical bay, whilst being met with many a grumble.

VVVVVVVVV

(go on! you know you want to)