"I can do this..."  Gavin told himself and Isabella's breath quickened as if she'd run a marathon as their eyes met.  

Say it... just say it.  This doesn't have to happen!

Isabella didn't know if her thoughts were more for him, or for herself... but what she heard wasn't what she was waiting for.

"... just watch where you're aiming, huh Moose?"

Gavin gave her a wink, that boyish rogue, it was the best he could do - even now.

Baby steps.

She smiled back. The second he moved, she knew why she'd picked him, everything was more clear than it had been for the last four weeks of her life.  She raised her gun, teeth gnashing, a visceral roar coming from her gut out her mouth.  She and Will began laying cover fire for Gavin's ascent, a madman - a blood-drenched demon determined to assault the gates of heaven itself.

When he disappeared from her sight and the last of the gunfire died, Isabella found herself holding her breath.  She looked to William, unable to move until he moved first - as if she could just stay where she was, then nothing bad could be seen or be real. 

Any moment now, Gavin would peak over the banister and laugh.

He'd ask them what was taking them so long.

He'd have some horrible insult for Will...  Right?  

Gavin had made it to the top and then after the gunshots went silent William and Isabella stood motionless and looked at each other. Gavin was too damn stubborn to die. He'd always been too stubborn and too tricky, so why wasn't he popping back up? The look on Isabella's face mirrored his own thoughts and so much more and he realized that one of them had to go and see. He could be bleeding out waiting for help and if they both just stood here and let it happen....

William turned and started sprinting up the steps two at a time. He wanted to overcome Gavin, but not like this. Gavin was a brother and as much as he infuriated him, a good man. William shouldered through the barricade that still stood untended at the top of the stairs, pushing over the furniture as though it was a pile of so many toys. On the other side he saw the body of a man with a hole in his head and two forms lying atop one another a few steps beyond the wreckage of the barricade.

Gavin lay on top with a hole in the back of his chest pouring out blood. He was breathing, but barely, and it sounded ragged and strained. "No, no, NO! Don't do this to me." William pulled his suit jacket off and quickly pressed it to the gaping wound, trying desperately to staunch the blood flow from the wound as he turned Gavin's face and tried to wake him. His voice dropped to a whisper and he felt like he was on the verge of being sick. "Don't you do this to her you crazy fuck."

He turned and shouted down the stairs back to Isabella. "He's hit Angel! I need help!"

Isabella knew it before she heard the words.  She felt it as if someone had ripped into her chest and tore out her heart and she was sure that the feeling was an echo of what Gavin had truly experienced. 

As she came over the debris and saw Will trying to cover the hole in Gavin's chest every part of her was numb.  It was too much.  She was in the storm again.  The wolf trying to rip her face off, the skeleton dragging her down and the Moose... the Moose was disappearing on a dark horizon.  

She knelt down at Gavin's side, taking his hand. Will stood, warily watching the hallway on the second floor with his shotgun. 

Gavin's breathing was heavily labored, his chest rising and falling as ragged breaths fought their way through at least one punctured lung. Then- suddenly- the breathing stopped. His eyes opened. There were unspoken words in those eyes- but even more than those words was a single one: goodbye. 

As he closed his eyes, Bella seemed to realize what was happening and did the only two things that came to her desperate mind. She kissed Gavin with her eyes open- and she hit him in his already broken chest. 

At the moment of impact, she saw his blue eyes flash open again in pain. But the spark behind the eyes that had been fading before was now steady. She squeezed his hand and stood up, wiping a single drop of Gavin's blood from her lower lip.

Be the dragon.

She could hear Gavin's advice before they'd entered, it was his voice that made tear her eyes away from the dying form on the floor that she had to refuse was him.  She couldn't let Gavin go, not like this, not yet.

If you have a chance to take this guy out- take it.

She counted the bodies, looked at their remains to be sure and she knew... Garrett's still alive.

Isabella's voice felt like it came from someone else as she pulled her gun up to the ready and began walking away from Gavin, "Come on, Will. Garrett is right there. We need to finish this- fast- if Gavin has any hope of surviving."

They'd come this far and at so great a cost that there was no turning back. Especially now. Their target was separated from them by only a single door, and his list of wrongs against them had only grown today. Walking past the bodies of the fallen agents, and down a hall that had seen the laughter and playing of children, the pursuits of lovers, and now the blood of those on both sides of the law including a man dear to both of them, they resolved that Agent Garrett would face retribution for his deeds.

A hollow wooden door was the last barrier and Will grabbed the handle and nodded to Isabella to stand to one side in case of attack. Once she was in place he kicked the door open. Garrett had had time to hole up and after the silencing of the gunfire on the second floor he'd known they were coming. Which is why it was so surprising to find their target simply standing in the far right corner of the room, his back to them as he faced out the window, his hands in front of him.

He glanced at them over his shoulder, then returned his gaze to the window. Bella and Will both had their guns raised at Garrett as they walked into the room. 

He knew they were coming... why wasn't he at the barricade? Why wasn't he taking cover behind his desk and shooting at them?

They had their answer as they took another step into the room- the side door of the office burst open as Garrett's personal bodyguard leveled his pistol at them. Will moved faster than he thought he could, stepping in front of Isabella to protect her as he aimed his shotgun. Will grunted as the first bullet passed through his side, slightly above his hip- but his shotgun roared and sent the bodyguard flying back into the room.

As soon as Garrett heard his bodyguard attack, he swung around with the pistol he'd been hiding in front of him. Will's protective shove of Isabella had knocked her toward Garrett, and the two of them locked eyes as they leveled their guns at each other and fired. Isabella felt her left arm shatter above her elbow, but screamed through the pain as her vision blurred red and she continued to fire. A few moments later, her clip was empty- and Garrett was dead on the ground in front of her.

He'd moved on instinct and adrenaline and for a moment he thought he'd saved Isabella. The pain burning in his side was nothing compared to the fear of that moment, but when he turned and saw the flash of Garrett's pistol his fear returned full force. Her scream cut into him like a jagged knife and even as Garrett was falling to the ground he was reaching out for her to support her. Garrett had enough holes in him that there was no way he'd pulled through. Now the only thing that mattered was saving the woman he loved and the man who'd steal her in a heartbeat. His own wounds were secondary.

A thousand emotions had to be playing out in her mind even as she seemed to be in shock. "Angel, we need to get out. You and Gavin need doctors and we need to move before the cops get here. I can't fight them off and haul you both out at the same time." If the bullet had been any higher or lower he wasn't sure he'd have been able to do either of those things, but he'd been lucky. Why was it then that he felt so ashamed of that fact?

Cringing and throwing an arm around Bella's middle, he tried to pull her away and back to the bleeding man in the hall, hoping she'd come willingly even as he suspected she might have no more strength to give. He'd throw her over his shoulder or drag her if he had to.

Isabella and William were one hell of a pair coming down the stairs trying to hold themselves up and trying to keep Gavin from hitting the floor.  Once outside things only got harder as there were no walls to lean on and the ever-present knowledge that (at least until they got back to the car) the police were roaming the streets.  Suburbia was turned into a war zone and if they found the three of them, Gavin would surely die rather than get the medical attention he so badly needed.

She guessed by the noises when he drew breath, that his lung was hit - perhaps badly.  She was familiar with a rib shot, it was utterly agonizing and so she was thankful he was sleeping as they lugged him through the parking lot - stumbling as they did.

"Come on, Angel, just a bit further."

"I'm good... I'm good... he's just... so heavy and this arm is USELESS!" She scowled.  They pushed onward and came to the car, laying Gavin on the hood as she got the door open.  Together they muscled him in as gently as was possible considering and it was during all of this that Isabella finally noticed that William was hit too.

Gavin safely inside she grabbed hold of Will and looked at the wound.  "Oh my God... I'm driving!"  She said snatching the keys from his hands.

"I won't argue, Hot Rod."  He smiled at her, but he looked white as a sheet!  She helped him into the passenger side and ran around the car to the driver's door, her left arm hanging uselessly at her side.

"Hold on boys... just hold on." She put the keys into the ignition and generously applied the accelerator, driving one-handed.  Finally, something she had no doubts about her skill in.

———————❖———————

Isabella parked behind Alward's Meat Market on Lakeview Drive.  Alward was a retired army medic, a man her father utilized to save the lives of many Made Men in their time here in Detroit, including her own.  The man had pulled her out of the icy grip of Death's bony hand and she was desperate to see him make another miracle happen - this time for Gavin.

She ran to the door, leaving the car running.  Will climbed out, painfully slow and was attempting to get to Gavin when Alward opened the door and instantly tried to usher her inside.  "It's nothing!"  She snapped at the kindly old man.  "The man in the car... he's dying."

Alward came out to the car and put a hand on Will's shoulder.  "Take this man inside."  He told Isabella.  Here was the one place where a butcher outranked a Don - when he was the doctor. 

Isabella nodded and put her good arm around Will.  "Come on, my Wolf, let's get you into a nice chair with some whiskey to dull your senses a bit."

Alward took a sharp intake of breath when he saw Gavin's body.  "Tell that no-account son of mine to come out here, I'll need help moving this one - and you MIGHT call a priest!"

"Lose that one and it'll be on you to explain it to my father!"  She called out from under Will's arm.  "He's someone very dear to my family.  Treat him as you would me... if you bury him, you might dig yourself a hole too, Alward!"

"I need miracles,"  Alward complained, fussing over looking at Gavin's wounds.  "Save him or die, Alward!  No pressure."

Isabella took Will inside and put him into a chair and hollered at Brian to go out to his father and help.  While Alward and his son worked to stabilize Gavin, Isabella began tenderly doing first aide  Will's wound, one-handed though she was.  She cut open his shirt and began cleaning the area around his wound.  She could tell that Will was feeling woozy and distracted by the series of events, maybe more than her - which was something of a shock.

"He's gonna be okay.  I won't let him not be... you either."  She tried to sound certain.  "I think that's about all I can do."

"Let me help with yours."  Will said, "It's gonna be a while before we're a priority."

Isabella looked at her upper arm and cringed.  "We'll cut the sleeve off."  She handed the scissors to Will who worked slowly to make sure he didn't stab Isabella with the sharp blades.  Arm exposed she could now see the extent of the damage.  

"It's the bone I think."  She said.  "I don't think you can do too much."

"I'm no doctor, but I think you'll need a cast or something... Angel, I'm so sorry."

"You saved my life."  She protested.  "Don't ever apologize for letting me get winged when you were taking bullets meant to be kill shots.  You and Gavin... what you did for my family today... I promise it won't ever be forgotten.  My father will reward you both.  I'm sure of it."

"I like a good reward as much as the next man, but knowing that you're alive - that Gavin is gonna pull through to finish this fight fairly with me, that's all that matters right now."

Isabella looked out to where the doctor was opening up Gavin's chest - on the same table he cut sides of beef.  She shuddered.  "He might not."  She darkly admitted.  

"Don't talk that way, Angel!"  Will was as serious as she'd ever seen him.  He wasn't just trying to encourage her to be hopeful, he literally didn't want to hear a single word about Gavin's possible death.

Isabella nodded, she understood exactly how he felt.  "I need to call Tara.  You should rest."

"I'll call her."

Isabella shook her head, no.  "No being hero this time, Will.  This is political now.  Deeply so.  Gavin didn't take bullets for me and you; he took them for the Godfather.  Garrett was his enemy.  My father would have my ass if I didn't make this call personally being that I tapped both of you for this reckless endeavor.  I'll tell her you're hurt, resting, but going to be okay.  I know she'll want to see you when she gets here."

Without another word, Isabella made her way past Gavin on the table - open wide and the doctor up to his elbows in Gavin's chest cavity.  Isabella averted her eyes.  She couldn't bear to watch such a grizzly thing happening to someone she ... loved.  The word was coming easier now.

At the front of the store, she found the phone, called Jewel at the Tower and got Tara's number from her contacts book.  Steeling herself for the most difficult call of her life, she dialed and waited for Tara to answer.