The smugglers were wary and standoffish. While their settlement was little more than a scrap metal fence and dusty lean-tos, a surprisingly large amount of gun-power me the airship as it approached. An order was given over the radio for the airship to stop a few hundred meters away, and Silver had to negotiate with them not to be blown to kingdom come right there. In fact, despite knowing Silver, the smugglers seemed completely uninterested in anything the Forlorn had to say. Injured people and fugitives from the militia did nothing to stir their hearts, and Bo began to despair they would have to find somewhere else to hide as the sun began its ascent. But, just in time, they discovered the key to unlocking the smuggler's gates.

"I guarantee five hoppers, gasoline included," Mi said over the radio to the smuggler leader, glaring at Adam who nodded expectantly. "You can hold our injured until we can get someone to bring in the goods in a few days."

"Deal," the leader barked. A moment later, and the rifles and canons disappeared over the side of the scrap-metal fence, and the large gates opened to let the airship float in.

It took Silver a few minutes to land the airship in the tight confines of the wooden buildings, and the whole while Bo watched over the edge as the smugglers gathered on the ground with weapons and glares. None of the Forlorn even dared to start unpacking the injured, even as the airship settled onto the ground.

Silver and Adam were the first to leave the ship, climbing down the ladder on the side of the ship. Bo and Khan followed quickly after them, and they were in turn followed by Helga and Mi. When they all jumped onto the ground and gathered in a small group, a man stepped forward from the smugglers' ranks.

"We'll need the payment within a month, or else Forlorn secrets will start finding militia ears," the man said.

"We understand," Adam said.

"You can put the airship in the hangar, and the people can go in the bunker," the smuggler leader said. He jerked his chin toward two buildings next to each other, just visible in the growing light. One was a large building with only two walls, made of tin sheets nailed together and rusting to almost the same color as the sand and dust. Two ends were open and Bo could see through to some large vehicles the smugglers must have used in their operation. This was the hangar. And next to it was a strange building. It looked like it had been buried in the sand, where only the roof was visible. It was curved metal, and only came to about shin-height. Sandbags stacked over the metal, four deep. Bo assumed there were rooms underground, all safe from any kind of bombs that might be dropped from above.

"We'll take care of moving our own," Adam said. "Return to your business."

The leader nodded his head and raised a hand to signal to his people that they could disperse now. They all drifted off, but Bo noticed they still clung to the sides of buildings and watched the Forlorn offloading the injured in the blooming rosy glow of sunrise.

In order to keep everything orderly, they emptied all the injured and Forlorn outside of the airship, and then began to organize and plan who would go first into the bunker. They moved them in pairs of two, in order to make sure there was no crushing crowd. While it did mean they would still be outside and visible when the sun had fully risen, it meant that they didn't run the risk of making anyone's condition worse. It also made sure that Bo and Adam could keep an eye on the smugglers. While they didn't do much beyond stare, Bo wasn't sure she trusted them to keep away from something as valuable as an airship.

As Bo leaned against a pile of boxes and kept a subtle eye on the smugglers, Khan bounded up to her. He slid to stop by the boxes and crouched, his eyes sweeping from side to side before beckoning Bo to join him on the ground. Bo merely raised an eyebrow.

"What in the world are you doing?" she asked.

"Sh!" Khan hissed. "Just come down here."

"Yeah, no."

Khan grunted in frustration. "I need to tell you something."

Bo's eyes cut to the smugglers, and unease grew in the pit of her stomach. Did Khan notice something she hadn't? She slowly sunk to her haunches. "What is it?" she asked again, keeping her voice low.

"I need you to walk with me to the airship. Holding hands."

Bo blinked once. "I'm sorry, what?"

"Come on, please? Just this once?" Khan asked, clutching his hands in prayer in front of him. "Literally just from here to the airship."

"No, I understand what you want, but I'm kind of lacking the 'why' right now."

Khan shifted uncomfortably. "Okay, what about just with our arms linked?"

"Khan. You're going to need to tell me why."

Khan bit his lip and squirmed, like a child caught doing something wrong. "Well...."

Bo raised her eyebrows as she noticed his eyes staring at something over her shoulder. She slowly turned to follow his gaze.

By the airship, Esme's dark curls caught the glow of the sunrise as she pointed out which injured were to be prepared for mobilization. Bo and Khan were too far away to hear anything, but Bo could see the sudden confidence in the girl as she motioned to members of the Forlorn and ordered them around. The more time and distance put between Esme and the horrors of the compound, the more she was changing and morphing into the sort of person Bo would be proud to call a friend. And apparently the kind of person that caught Khan's attention.

Bo turned back to Khan, who was still staring at Esme's distant figure.

"Wow, I never thought I'd see someone actually think this stupid of a plan would work," she said.

"What?"

"Seriously, Khan. You want to make her jealous?"

"Not jealous," Khan said, defensive. "I just want her to notice that I'm around."

"By linking arms with me?"

"Have you seen Helga when Mi is anywhere even vaguely near another girl? It's like he turns into the only man on the entire planet."

Bo rolled her eyes. "You've clearly not thought this through. One, Mi isn't purposefully trying to get Helga's attention. Two, Esme already knows that I'm with Adam."

Khan frowned. "Oh, yeah, I forgot. Well, you can still just walk with me. Show that I have some skills with women."

Bo snorted. "What are you, like five?"

"Come on, Bo. Please?" Khan whined. "Just this once?" He held up one finger and batted his eyelashes.

"You're so annoying," Bo said. "But fine. If it will guarantee that you won't bug me to do weird things like this again."

Khan nodded vigorously. "Promise."

Bo stood up, Khan following her. She turned toward the airship and thread her arm through his.

They walked toward where Esme was, talking about whatever they could think of. Bo laughed softly as they drew up level to Khan's target, but not even this clear sign of Khan's prowess over females caught her attention. She busily continued organizing the movement of the injured, not even glancing at Bo and Khan even as they reached the airship and had to stop.

Khan sighed in frustration and dropped Bo's arm. "It didn't work."

"I already told you. It was a stupid idea," Bo replied.

Khan didn't seem to be listening to her. He stared at Esme with his eyes narrowed. "Maybe she'd look if it was Helga with me..." he muttered.

"Hey!" Bo protested, but Khan had already zipped off to locate Helga.

"What an idiot," Bo muttered to herself, as she turned to head back to what she had been doing before Khan interrupted her. She hadn't taken more than a few steps, before her path was blocked. She slammed into a hard chest, and stumbled backward.

"Hey, what-" she began, before looking up and seeing it was Adam. "If I broke my nose, I'm blaming your perfect physique." She narrowed her eyes and pointed to her nose.

"What was going on there?" Adam asked, jerking his chin at the spot where she'd been standing with Khan.

Bo rolled her eyes. "It's too stupid," she replied. "You wouldn't want to hear it."

Adam didn't break a smile or move an inch. His face was stern as he looked down at her. "No, I think I very much would like to know."

Bo raised her eyebrows. There was a hint of an edge to Adam's voice, which meant...

"Oh lord, Khan's net actually did catch something."

Adam frowned. "What?" He sighed and crossed his arms. "I just want to know what you and Khan were doing over there whispering."

Bo bust out laughing. "I can't believe you fell for it," she gasped.

"Fine, if you won't tell me then I'll just go find Khan-"

Bo lurched forward to grab Adam's arm. "No, no! There's no need to murder your second in command," she said through her laughter.

Adam pulled away. "I'm thinking maybe there is. You two looked awful friendly."

Bo shook her head. "He was trying to get Esme's attention. I was only a prop, and one he threw away in favor of a prettier one the first chance he got." She grinned. "But it looks like maybe he did me a favor."

Adam huffed. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"I have to admit that it does feel pretty good," Bo said, sighing happily.

"What feels good."

"Knowing that someone loves you enough to be cautious of good looking people coming too close."

Adam narrowed his eyes. "You think Khan's good looking?"

Bo laughed and leaned forward on her tiptoes to kiss him. "No. I only think you are." She fell back on her heels. "You can put away your fists, Cowboy. I'm safe from Khan's seductive ways."

Adam finally relaxed, letting his arms fall at his sides. "Good to know," he said. "I might have had to go and teach Khan—"

"Nope, I'm totally yours," Bo said, smiling sweetly.

"Wait. Did you say he said you weren't pretty?" He started to walk toward where Khan was now talking with Helga. "I might have to still teach him that lesson."

"Oh my gosh, stop being so macho!" Bo laughed, smacking his arm. "Don't force me to fight you again. You know how annoyingly persistent I can be."

"Fine, I'll leave him for now. But I don't want any more of this jealousy stuff." He pointed his finger at Bo. "I've gone through too much for a kid with long hair to snatch away the only thing that's good in this world."

"Pfft. As if you have anything to talk about, Goldilocks," Bo said, flipping a lock of his long hair over his shoulder.

"Mine looks better," Adam said, turning away and stalking ahead of Bo.

"Aw, don't be upset. I still think you're the prettiest!" Bo yelled, running after him.

Adam still pretended to ignore her, but slowed his pace just enough that she could catch up with him and grab his hand in hers. She leaned close to kiss his arm and walked with him as he went to make sure that everything was in order as they moved the last few of the injured into the safety of the bunker.

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A/N: I couldn't update last week, so I wrote a longer chapter for you guys this week. Also, I deliver on my promise of jealous Adam! :P