A/N: Thanks to my main beta, HedyLamarr, for your in-depth input! It was invaluable!

"I can't believe you took that thing out with a punch!"Alyx said, helping Gordon into the medic bay at the White Forest base.

"I just finished it off with a punch, it had already been weakened by the bullets we both shot at it," Gordon said, "and really, it was just instinct. The thing was bearing down on me; I panicked."He adjusted his glasses with his good arm by pushing the bridge up his nose with his middle finger in a practiced gesture.

"You're just too modest, you know that?"Alyx said. "I'm going to tell everyone you punched that thing into submission and there were no bullets involved."She grinned up at him with the characteristic smile that he had learned meant she was teasing him. She did it often—she had inherited her sense of humor from her father. He now knew it was a sign of affection, although he wondered if it was also a way of flirting with him—he was no good at telling that sort of thing.

They had been out scouting a mine, having been tipped off that there might be some escaped civilians from City 17 hiding there from the Combine, when a scouting party of Hunters had come upon them. Alyx was still terrified of Hunters after her recent run-in with one, but tried hard to ignore the feeling and had taken two of them out with her shotgun before unloading what was left of her shells at the only remaining one, after Gordon had taken out the third.

She had missed most of those shots and had to pump her handgun ammo into it, which was far less effective. Gordon had only his crowbar and the gravity gun left and was using both to good effect, but the damn thing just hadn't seemed to want to die. It had staggered around and knocked the crowbar out of Gordon's hand, then pinned him against a tree trunk with the upper portion of its body—Alyx's heart leapt into her throat—and to her surprise, Gordon had punched the cyborg creature, causing it to finally topple. When she ran to him and made sure he was okay, she had asked him why he had suddenly dropped the gravity gun and then used the crowbar in his left hand. Then she saw the flechette lodged in the armor of his right arm.

He insisted he was fine, and maybe that was true, but Alyx didn't trust him not to understate his injuries. They needed more ammo from the base anyway, so they'd hopped into the car and driven back to White Forest…only to find that the scouting party they had fought had been stragglers from a bigger attack that had wreaked havoc on some other rebels from the base.

They had reached the medic bay door by now and Alyx pressed the intercom button to get them in.

"Rodney, I've got Gordon here—"

"Again?"she was interrupted by the head medic.

"He took some damage from a Hunter just now, and I want to make sure he's okay,"Alyx continued, ignoring the head medic's exasperation.

"Alright, I got a bunch of people in right now from an ambush earlier this morning, so we've got our hands full, but come on in and we'll have a look."

The intercom's green transmission light went out as he finished speaking and was replaced by the orange one over the medic bay door and a buzzing that indicated the door was being opened for them. The medic bay was one of the more fortified sections of the base; if the base were attacked, they'd need to protect their medical supplies carefully in order to successfully hold off the intrusion. Therefore, the whole medic bay was enclosed by a series of automated doors that required various types of authorization to open.

The red-striped steel door slid open for them, and Alyx ushered Gordon inside, where they were met by Rodney, looking harried, and the smells and cries of a good dozen or so injured rebels from earlier this morning.

"What happened?"Alyx asked in alarm.

"While you two were dealing with that situation in the mines, a pack of Hunters snuck up on a scouting crew foraging for supplies on the other side of the valley. We had to send in reinforcements, and we got them all, but our guys took some damage too. No one was killed," he hurriedly added, seeing the question forming on Alyx's face, "but the Hunters seem to have developed some new kind of flechette and its torn these guys up pretty bad."

Alyx's eyes widened."Actually…"she pointed to Gordon's arm, where a flechette was still lodged. "This thing somehow got into his suit and we haven't been able to get it out. I thought maybe you and the medical staff would know how to remove it without causing him more damage."

"He's got one of these things too?"Rodney examined the thing more closely. "My God, it's gone through his suit! I thought that thing was nearly impenetrable!"

"Well,see,"said Gordon, speaking up, but only metaphorically, and Rodney had to lean in to hear his words—that was common when listening to Gordon speak—"it's gotten into one of the chinks where the armor plates of the suit join together. I had another one hit the plate on the back of my left leg, but it only went in a few millimeters and I was able to pull it out easily. It didn't get near my skin."

"Huh!"Rodney said, fascinated."So it was a lucky shot for the Hunter, not so much for you! Then again…"He examined the flechette closely; it was buried about an inch into the suit on the gap between armor plates on Gordon's right bicep. "…maybe you were lucky as well. It seems the flechettes couldn't make it through the rest of your armor and this one could only make it through an inch in!"

"Can you get it out?"Alyx asked, aware that the medical staff had more people to tend to and Rodney was busy marveling at Gordon's suit.

"Oh yes," said Rodney, straightening up and seeming to realize this as well. "We've gotten quite good today at removing these little , head through that door—Alyx, go with him—and sit on the examination table. The staff all know how to remove these by now, so I'll send someone in, but Alyx, I'm going to ask you to patch him up yourself if you can. I'm afraid I can't spare anyone for a minor injury right now."He held his hands palms-up to them both in apology, and then started calling out orders to the rest of the medical staff."Alicia, go grab some more surgical needles; Ben, I need you in Room A-1 to assist with a removal!"He waved Alyx and Gordon into the room.

Alyx groaned, and Gordon sighed; Ben was the medical attendant nobody liked. He had never seemed to really learn appropriate social skills and was a little too blunt; people going into the medic bay were never happy to see him when they were already hurt or sick and then had to deal with his attitude. He was known for spending all his time playing an ancient Gameboy from the 1980s and loudly resenting being interrupted from it. People tried not to do so, because he was always rude whenever one did interact with him.

Furthermore, the two had their own reasons for not wanting to see Ben. Because Alyx was the only person who argued in his favor, he had decided she was hot for him and run away with it. Gordon knew Alyx disliked Ben about as much as everyone else, but couldn't help being compassionate towards him, and she tried to politely deflect Ben's clumsy and obnoxious attempts at flirting. But Ben remained convinced that Alyx Vance, renown rebel fighter and the hottest woman on the base, couldn't resist him.

Gordon, on the other hand, was somebody Ben seemed to reserve special reserves of his poor social skills for. He seemed to think Gordon was a big-headed hotshot who fancied himself an action hero, and let Gordon and everyone else know it, although nothing could be farther from the truth. Gordon wasn't looking forward to this interaction, and he already knew how it would play out; Ben would flirt incessantly with Alyx, who would consistently deflect his advances in a way anyone else would take as a clear "not interested" message, but she wouldn't be unkind enough to put Ben in his place, and so would have to bite her tongue and ride it out. Meanwhile, Ben would be dropping constant insinuations about Gordon's supposed ego and trying to puncture it, and Gordon would be too mild-mannered to shut him up and would hope that his continued forced politeness to Ben would change Ben's mind—which it never did. The three's interactions always resulted in Alyx spending the whole time both fending off Ben's advances while trying not to bite his head off and having to defend Gordon from Ben without making Ben jealous. It was never pretty and always exhausting for both of them.

Gordon gave Alyx a look as they entered the room that acknowledged their shared anticipation of an unpleasant encounter.

"Oh come on, Gordon,"Alyx teased, "aren't you looking forward to seeing our charismatic friend too?"She winked at him, and he chuckled under his breath, then muttered, "If you like him so much, why don't you date him?"Alyx punched his good arm good-naturedly and sat down in the one chair in the room, while Gordon hopped up on the examination table.

Ben pushed the door open and entered the room, immediately greeting them with, "Well, if it isn't …again. And the lovely Alyx."He winked at Alyx in what he clearly thought was a roguish way, and Gordon saw that she already had her set, carefully polite face on that she always wore around Ben.

"Hi, Ben," she smiled in a fake, strained way.

"So what is it this time, hot-shot? Doing something reckless again and got a boo-boo?"

"One of those modified flechettes the Hunters are using now got into a chink in his armor. It's not in very deep, but we just need you to take it out. Rodney said only the medical staff knows how to remove them, but that he couldn't spare anyone to actually clean and bandage the wound, so I'm supposed to do that while you get back to the others out there,"Alyx explained.

Ben clicked his tongue in fake sympathy. "Aww, poor Doctor Freeman needs someone else's help to remove the big scary flechette, huh? What were you doing when you got this, big guy? Doing something heroic again?"

Ben was examining the flechette and Gordon was resisting the urge to treat Ben the same way he'd treated the Hunter earlier—by giving him a good punch to the chin.

"You know we use up so much of our supplies on you, Doc?I don't know if you think this is your own personal health spa, but you get yourself hurt so often and so badly, we go through half our morphine stock on you. Rodney's always complaining about keeping a separate supply of bandages and surgical thread on hand just for you."

"I'm sure that's an overstatement, Ben,"Alyx growled understatedly. "And I remember how happy Rodney was when Gordon found that working refrigerator for Rodney to keep serums and samples in."

Ben snorted,"Yeah, well—"

"And how he praised Gordon for being selfless because Gordon always offers to go scavenging for supplies for the medic bay,"Alyx said before Ben could get any further.

"Well—"

"And how he said that the way Gordon had suggested he re-organize the space in the main room had opened up room for three more beds at a time."Alyx's eyes were narrowed now.

Ben was sour now.

"All I'm saying is, if he wasn't so reckless, trying to be a hero all the time, he wouldn't get hurt so much!"

"Gordon is bold, but not enough to be called reckless. If you'd ever fought with him, you'd know that. He's fearless…although maybe a little too much for his own good."She ended this with a small smile in Gordon's direction.

Gordon looked downward to avert his eyes and smiled sheepishly. He was glad to have Alyx around; she knew the comment about using up the medical supplies had gotten to him, and had shoved the truth right in Ben's face.

She knows I worry—too much probably—about being a burden to the base. She has my insecurities down pat.

Gordon was somewhat neurotic about his sense of responsibility, as Alyx had gently pointed out to him. What he liked about her was that she was practical enough to see the reality of a given situation and complimented him anyway. He was hard enough on himself; having someone as pragmatic as Alyx, who knew when to mollify his insecurity and when to tell him to grow up, was just what he needed.

Ben was still looking sour, however. His arms were folded and he had a scowl on his face. "Well let's see if Mr. Superhero can stand his little boo-boo, shall we?"he said crossly. "Gordon, I need you to remove that armor section. Your suit comes off in pieces, right?"Gordon nodded, and unlatched the lambda breastplate on his front. Underneath it were the power button and charging vents that he used to refill the HEV suit's energy and his own health, along with a tiny compartment, no more than a few cubic inches, really, where he sometimes stowed small things he needed to carry.

Now he shut off the suit's power, and it cooed at him, "Shutting down…Have a nice day."

"We need to remove the armor piece along with the flechette first, since it's lodged in there so tight," Ben explained, his face betraying that he was still cross from Alyx's defense of Gordon. "After we get the armor off, I can pry the flechette out and you can fix his arm."

Gordon used his left hand to remove the suit piece on his right arm. The piece connected firmly to the torso piece by cable locks on his shoulder, so he flipped those open and then did the same with the ones on his elbow and wrist. The entire arm had to come off to get the upper arm section off so it took a minute for him to completely expose his right arm. He did so by gently, gently lifting the upper arm piece away from his arm so he could take the flechette out of his skin with it, and when he did, he handed the armor over to Ben, wondering if he really needed the medic's help for this, and Alyx came over to inspect his arm. Blood was seeping out of it slowly, with the flechette removed, but it was nothing major at all, although it did look a little purple around the edges.

Ben, who had already removed the flechette, moved over to join Alyx in looking at Gordon's arm.

"Yeah, that barely went in at all, you were lucky," the medic said—looking sulky that the damage was so minor, Gordon noticed. "But the important thing is that these new flechettes use nanotechnology. They have what we're calling micro-blades on them."

"Those are those little things?"Alyx pointed at the flechette in Ben's gloved hand, careful not to touch it.

"Actually, no," Ben said. She had been pointing to the tiny, millimeter-long protrusions that looked like fishhooks on the blade. "Those, we're calling mini-blades. The micro-blades are on them. Basically, the Combine have found a way to—how do I say this—purposely degrade metal while manufacturing it. These flechettes are essentially rusty, but without the orange growth that comes from oxidization, just the degradation of the metal. Which means the edge of the blades are ragged on a microscopic level. It creates more tissue damage that way, and if hero-boy here hadn't had his magical suit—which, by the way, this arm of it is going to need to be repaired—he'd be in some serious pain right now. Some of the guys outside got these things buried in their muscle tissue. One even has one penetrating his lung."

Alyx put her hands to her face in a wince of horror. Gordon couldn't believe how lucky he'd been. The blade had basically just poked his skin, and had probably only pierced it because of the structure of the blade.

"Fortunately, they're not coated in anything or secreting any chemicals, like some the Combine have tried out; they just tear you up. We've come up with a way of dealing with it this morning."He went to a cabinet in the room from whence he pulled down three different bottles, and then extracted a fistful of cotton balls and a swab from his own apron pockets.

"Alyx, you need to first stop his bleeding by putting this on him. It's just ordinary peroxide. Then I want you to put this mixture on it. We'd been using it to repair tissue and cellular damage from energy pellet shots, but we've found it works well on these wounds too at repairing the damage. Give him a generous swab of that and let it sink into the tissue for about five minutes. After that, just swab this iodine on his arm, and get it all over the wound. Then bandage him up. Bandages are in that drawer—what he hasn't used up already."He handed the three bottles to Alyx and pointed at the relevant drawer.

"So peroxide, this stuff, then iodine and a bandage, right?"Alyx double-checked.

"You got it, sweet stuff," he replied giving her a wink. Alyx resisted rolling her eyes. He said to Gordon, "By the way, I'll drop this arm off in the workshop to get it worked on. No need to thank me, and I'm sure no one will. Your suit'll need to be charged up, though. Try not to forget that."Turning to Alyx again, he said, "Take care, I know you've got the situation in hand," and exited the room, adding, "…if Captain Science over there doesn't try to stop you to add to his collection of trophy-scars. Bet you think the ladies love that, dontcha?"he smirked with a sarcastic look at Gordon. Gordon gently pushed his glasses up his nose again, this time holding his middle finger a little more prominently than usual."Bye, Ben," he said.

Ben poked his head back in the door as if he'd forgotten something. "By the way, Alyx, you doing anything Friday night? I just scrounged a copy of Mortal Kombat for my Sega Genesis."He laid a slight emphasis on the last two words as if they were guaranteed woman-bait.

"No thanks, Ben,"Alyx smiled tolerantly.

Ben sighed dramatically."When are you going to stop playing hard-to-get on me?"He seemed to mean it, and Gordon bit his tongue to hold back his snort; he knew Alyx to definitely NOT be a person who played hard-to-get, in his personal experience.

Alyx sighed and smiled, "Someday, Ben!"