Evelyn's black was slammed into a wall, something huge was holding her pinned to the wall, and something pressed against her lips, cutting off her air. Her tense muscles sagged. Goose broke the kiss as soon as she wasn't fighting anymore. He started talking quietly to her.

"Your name is Evelyn. WICKED calls you a Healing Witch. You have powers to heal the broken. You say you're wounded, we say your whole. Your power is destructive now. Your home was the Glade. There is no more Glade. You're home is where ever your friends are. You are an infected Crank with the rest of us. We're all dying. You said you're not scared of dying. It's forgetting that scares you.

Newt. Minho. Chuck. Nick. Sonny. Jeff. Tommy. Frypan. Tessa. Sonya. Jorge. Jaz. George. Jack. Gally. Alby. Clint. Winston.

These people are your happy thoughts when the crank becomes too much. Your friends. Your family. Your love. You home. You say them over and over; like a prayer. Trying to keep yourself sane; trying to hold on." 

"You forgot Noah." Evelyn whispered. The tears had started. "I'm sorry Noah. I'm sorry." 

"Don't be sorry. Life  is just about survival. Even the Munies understand it's about survival. We do what we have to." He rumbled quietly. His forehead was pressed into Evelyn's. 

"Did our guys get hurt?" She asked quietly, scared she hurt someone who she sort of counted as on her side. She knew turning on a friend wasn't out of the question for her, she already had. 

"No Kitten. We're all Fine." 

She just nodded. 

"Do you want me to put you down or just take you out of the room?" he asked rather gently. 

"...out..." She said quietly. 

Goose's chest rumbled as he hummed, holding her tightly, her legs wrapped around him, he carried her, like a child, away from the massacre in the room. He cried her back down the hall, and through the weird wiggling bodies and out in the fresh air of Central Zone. He placed her down finally. 

"Let's go back to The Circus." 

He took her hand and they walked back through the crowd, somehow Munies were back, they were intermingled with the Cranks again, breaking up fist fights. She saw all kinds of weirdness around her, but her eyes were glazed, she didn't see much, and she didn't hear much. For being well into the madness of the Flare, the cranks around them seemed to give Goose and Evelyn a wide berth. Her first time here with Newt- which was only yesterday- she was pushed and shoved, bumped and knocked into. Today Eyes followed where she went, or maybe it was followed where Goose went. They headed for the main Gate. Hatter took his hat off in a sweeping bow as they left. Goose nodded at him and continued down the path until he took a sharp turn down the dark alley.

Evelyn followed, feeling listless. She had such an empty heavy feeling inside of her. It felt like her entire insides were filled with weight and it was pulling her slowly down to the ground.  She had an overwhelming feeling to just melt into the ground and wallow in the sorrow. 

"Kitten, you look sad." 

"We are sad." She whispered, looking up at Goose with such bit sad puppy dog eyes. The pain hit her again, like a sharp pain, it was so painful she gasped, pulled her infected arm into her chest and bent double trying to catch her breath. It felt like there was shards of glass rattling around in her lungs. Her gasping for a breathing made it worse.

Goose turned towards her, worry written in his dark and broody face, he helped her lean against the wall, and then caught her as she slid down to sit crumpled on the cracked paved back alley road.

"I...I can't...I can't breathe!" She gasped, clawing at her own chest.

"Slow do Kitten, slow down."

"It-hurts!"

As she tried to take another breath in she started coughing. It was a dry hacking cough. She continued to cough,and claw at her chest. She ripped her head back try to open her air way.

Goose gently rubbed her arms crouching in front of her. Evelyn coughed and choked gasping for air, while her mind spun in a thousand different directions.

She was going to die. She was going to die as a wild crazy psycho former human. She was slipping faster. The crank episodes were longer and deeper to come back from. She was absolutely more violent, and reckless.

But what scared her even more...was she was going to die without Newt. Tears leaked down her cheeks.

"Fix...it!" Evelyn gasped.

"Fix what?" Goose's voice rumbled quietly.

"ME!" She tried to yell, but it just made her cough more. "Fix me! Please!"

"How Kitten?" He asked sadly, "if I could take it all away, I would."

"I...Goose, I need him! I can't...I can't do this without him!" She reached out grasping onto him, onto anything, one hand clenched his shirt tightly, the other hung into his wrist.

"I need him!" She gasped again, "I need Newt! I need him! I can't do this alone!"

The sharp pain in her chest was subsisting now that she wasn't coughing so hard, but her lungs hurt, her head was throbbing.

"Okay Kitten." His eyes looked sad, almost disappointed. But when he blinked it was gone and Evelyn wasn't sure it was there at all. "Okay...come on, back to the office, and I'll get someone to find him. I'll bring him kicking and screaming if I have to."

Evelyn relaxed her tight hold on him, cradling her infected arm. Goose frowned slightly.

"Your veins spread slightly." This time she saw the sadness in his eyes. It didn't go away when he blinked. He ran a hand down his face, "can you stand?"

She nodded. He helped her up and they slowly made their way down the alley to The Circus. He lead her passed the door, she gave him a curious look. He winked and kept walking. A few doors down he knocked on the door. They waited. Nothing happened, and Goose growled. This time he slammed his fist into the door. This time a small slit of the door slid open, revealing a set of eyes.

"Boss!" A muffled voice sounded from behind the door. Evelyn heard a few locks being undone and then the door swung open.

"Princess!"

"Zip, I don't pay you to sit and fool around with a Blissed out chick." Goose snarled.

Evelyn looked around and in the gloomy shadows a half naked woman sat in a chair, her eyes vacant, her head rolled and a wild smile on her face.

"Sorry Boss. Sorry Princess." He bobbed his head. "Sorry! Sorry!"

Goose slammed the door closed and locked it again with a growl. He then placed a hand on Evelyn's back and steared her passed the door man crank and his blissed out girl towards the back seat of stairs.

"Fucken cranks! Can't ever trust them." Goose muttered.

"We're all Cranks, Goose." Evelyn sighed.

He glanced at her. "Exactly."

"Are you saying I shouldn't trust you?" She asked wearily as they walked up the stairs, she whispered to herself, "Squid went splat."

Goose eyed her again. Something passed over his face, but she was too busy giggling over the sing song she made up, 'Squid went splat'.

"No, Kitten, I'm still mostly sane."

Her sing song cut off and she stopped, frozen in her spot. She tipped her head to the side. There was something that he said that brought a fuzzy memory to the surface of her mind. Her head twitched.

"Say that again." She demanded.

"I said I'm still mostly sane."

"Mary said that...Mary said it..."

"Mary?" Goose frowned,

"Yes!" Evelyn suddenly cried. An urgency in her voice. She turned on the stairs to face Goose. She was a few steps higher, so they were finally the same hight. She grabbed his shoulders, her eyes wide. Goose had to understand. She had to make him understand.

"Goose! Mary said it too!"

"Kitten... Evelyn, your not making sense."

"Mary...the doctor who worked for them but doesn't anymore. She said...said..." Evelyn frowned closing her eyes and thrashed her head.

"She said the Flare works differently in each person. 'Cause each person is different... it...it...DAMMIT!" she finally cried, trying desperately to remember what Marg had said back in the Right Arm camp.

"Slow down Kitten, don't over do it!" He tried to sooth.

"NO!" She screamed. "Goose! You gotta understand!"

"Okay, Kitten, I'm listening...I'm listening."

She. Clamped her hands around her head, holding her hair tight in her hands she also closed her eyes to get and consintrat.

"She said...Mary was the doctor at..who worked for them, but left. She did her own research... She found...that each person reacts to the Flare differently. Each... person has different... Levels? Different degrees of immunity. That's why I'm bat shit crazy and your mostly sane. That's why... Your sister went past the Gone faster than you! You've been infected longer than me...and yet I'm loonier than you. You have...better immunity to this shucked up virus!"

"Okay...? Why is this important Kitten?"

"Because! She...she made a...made a... medicine that helps! It helped...what's her name..it helped one of the girls. It helped me. Not very long, but it helped for a bit."

"Bliss?"

"NO!!" Evelyn screamed. Shaking her head violently. "Not Bliss. This one...this one helps! Like...like a... vacation. It helps fight the Flare."

"Okay..." Goose said slowly.

"If...if you can...get to her...it would...it would pay better than Bliss."

"Are you suggesting a black market for this...vaccination serum?"

"It works better than Bliss." Evelyn opened her eyes, "Bliss masks the symptoms, this... one from Mary, it helps fight the virus."

"Okay...I understand what you're saying."

Evelyn deflated, having communicated what she wanted.

"Come one, Kitten, we can figure this out in the office."

_______________________

Evelyn was sitting on the desk, Goose in the chair, there was all kinds of maps and lists of names that worked for Goose and the gang, Cranks and Munies alike.

"So...if you can talk to your Munies, and they can figure out where the Right Arm is, someone there might be able to get a trade route set up. If these crazy shanks can pay, then we split the profit with the Right Arm which would also help fund their reasurch...which would help you."

"And...how would you convince them?"

Evelyn frowned, trying to think when there was a sharp knock at the door.

"What?!" Goose barked.

"Boss?" The door creaked open. "Sorry Boss, Princess, didn't mean to disturb you."

"What is it Spider? This better be good."

"We have eyes. And Hatter has made contact."

Goose looked up sharply, "send Jonesy. Now."

"He's already on his way."

Goose nodded. "Good. Thank you."

Evelyn frowned between the two men. She smiled at Spider regardless. He was big and scary, he was ruthless, but he wasn't really. He said he was a grade 7 teacher before the Flare took his wife and WICKED took his kid- Evelyn didn't know who he was.

She had no idea what was going on, but there were all kinds of "business" going on, and she shook her head and looked back to Goose who had a mask on his face. She couldn't tell what he was thinking, good or bad. Shaking her head she was quiet for a moment thinking and waiting for Goose.

He shook himself from his stupor, got up and went to his cupboard, and pulled out some drinks. Handing one to Evelyn he sat back down and propped his feet up on the desk.

"Okay Kitten continue. How would we convince the Right Arm to sell us their dru"

"Well...with any kind of medical breakthrough...you need test subjects, ya?"

Goose nodded. Evelyn went on.

"Tell them...tell them these cranks here, are willing to be monitored. See what works and what doesn't."

"Human test subjects?"

"Mary is fucken better than THEY are." She spat. "I had the drug from Mary and it helped lo her than whatever shucked up klunk Janson gave me. And the only reason I stayed sane long enough after I was captured, was because it was constantly in my IV."

"Damn Kitten. You really are settling into the gang and Mafia life." Goose chuckle. "That's genius!"

She grinned at him. "Someone's gotta be the brains around here!"

"True!" He chuckled.

Goose called in a few of his trusted higher ups and then sat around the table trying to figure out how to get this message to the Right Arm without drawing suspicin from WICKED and other Munies. Evelyn had to explain part of her story so these Cranks understood what she was saying.

"So...what your saying, Princess, is that if we can get our hands on this we could live like a Munie?" Ruffio asked, his eyes wide.

"Yes."

She liked Ruffio. He was young, and eager, but had a good head on his shoulders and was loayal. If they all had access to proper showers, he would be quite handsome. He had dark golden skin and black hair that would make Minho jealous, and when the Crank was gone, he had dark brown eyes that would make a girl swoon.

Evelyn had got up and was passing the length of the room, as she was explaining. She turned and made it back to the desk and sunk down onto the arm rest of Goose's big fancy desk chair. He slid an arm around her hips.

"Wow. That's the dream!"

"Indeed."  Evelyn smiled fondly at the Crank. She picked up her drink again. Her fingers were feeling fidgited and shaky. There was an unsettling feeling in her chest. The huge cranks were all giving her a look of great awe and wonder.

There was a knock on the door. Every head looked in the direction of the door. Each guy stood up and circled around Goose and Evelyn. There was an abundance of weapons that made a sudden appearance. Goose sat straight up in his desk chair, Evelyn on the arm rest, her hatchet laying on her lap.

"What?" Goose growled.

"Boss?"

Evelyn recognized the voice as Jonsey.

"Yeah. Come in."

The door slowly opened standing in the door was was Jonsey and to Evelyn's complete shock was Newt.

Evelyn dropped her bottle and it shattered all over the floor.

"Newt" She whispered, "Is that you?

"Lee?" He looked shocked, his eyes flicking around the room, taking in the scene.

"Welcome Newt." Goose rumbled, a smirk on his face and amusement in his voice.

"The shuck? Goose?"

He included his head.

"You're this bloody mysterious Boss everyone keeps talking about?!"

"Welcome to Crank City and The Circus Newt." He smirked.

"Newt?!" Evelyn whispered again.

The had only taken a few staggering before Evelyn had thrown herself into his arms.