Since I had SOMEONE complain that the last chapter was too short (*eyes aszecsei*), I wrote a longer one this go around. Hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer: Defiance does not belong to me.

…

Stabbing

Nolan turned to face her, his expression perplexed. In his hand was the set of throwing knives. "Where did you get these?"

For a second time that night, Irisa averted her eyes.

...

He supposed he should have blamed himself for the whole situation, but how was he to know that something like this would happen? He hadn't really left her that long, but apparently that's all it took. Granted, he should have known something was up when she started pressuring him to leave (with more fervor than usual) the very moment he'd emerged from the back room, but he'd been so high on his own manly prowess after his last very lovely encounter that he'd just agreed to leave without even bothering to ask what had gotten the girl into such a tizzy. (But really, could you blame him? The woman he'd been with had had legs for days and the way she practically purred his name... well... let's just say he hadn't quite been able to focus when it had all been said and done.)

Then that night after they'd left Harkness, Irisa had suddenly been standing there with a bloody hand and a set of throwing knives. Not just any set, either, a really nice set. It had taken some coaxing, but he'd finally gotten her to admit that she'd... "liberated" them from some drunk patron in the cantina they'd been in. No wonder she hadn't wanted to stay in town. She hadn't wanted to get caught.

"We don't steal things, Irisa..." He paused a moment, frowning slightly. Hrmm, well, that wasn't entirely true. "Unless it's for a really good reason." He held up a finger when he noticed her mouth opening, halting her argument. "And just wanting them isn't a good enough reason."

She gave him a look and his brow furrowed even deeper. "Ok, fine, but that only works in some instances!" He scratched his forehead. This really wasn't going well.

"When?" she asked, crossing her arms.

"When... when... um..." He narrowed an eye at her. "When... When it's something we actually need." He nodded, looking rather pleased with himself. "And I'm pretty sure you didn't need these."

"You have weapons," she pointed out, "You need them, right?"

"Yes, but that's different."

"How?"

"Because, Irisa," he sighed, "we live out in the Badlands and this isn't a friendly place. I need my weapons to protect us."

"And I need to be able to protect us, too," she said adamantly.

"No, kiddo, that's what you've got me for."

The girl's wolf-like eyes narrowed at him. "Well, you're not always with me. What am I supposed to do then?"

"I, uh..." Dammit, she'd gotten him there. "Having a weapon makes you a target," he said, avoiding her question. "Having a weapon you don't know how to use makes you a dead target."

"So teach me."

"Kiddo..."

"What? Teach me."

Nolan shook his head and walked a few paces away. He stood there staring out at the darkness, rubbing at the sudden tension in the back of his neck.

"Nolan..."

"I can't, Irisa," he said, tone flat.

"But—"

He turned back to face her, his eyes strangely haunted. He shook his head again. "I can't," he repeated. "I won't teach you to kill."

Irisa frowned. "I wasn't asking you to. I was just saying—"

"No, Irisa," he said firmly. He took the knives and tucked them deep into his pack. "You're too young. You've got me to protect you and for now that's gonna have to be good enough."

Irisa's eyes flashed angrily and she flopped down onto her bedroll, flipping over onto her side in a huff, facing away from the man.

Nolan stared at the girl's back for a few moments then sighed. Logically he knew that eventually he was going to need to teach her to defend herself, that they lead too dangerous of lives not to, but he couldn't just yet. She was still so young, so fragile. He hadn't been lying to her when he said having a weapon made you a target and the last thing he wanted was to put Irisa in any added danger. She'd already been through too much.

…

The next couple of days were spent in relative silence. The girl could hold a grudge, that was for sure. Nolan had tried to engage her in conversation, but she was still clearly hurt by his refusal to teach her and thus had returned to the same mute impression she had been doing when he'd first rescued her.

The situation was also exacerbated by the fact that Irisa seemed strangely fixated on the knives she had stolen and was quite intent on getting them back. Nolan had caught her several times trying to sneak them out of his pack. He had no idea why she was so obsessed, no idea what she had seen to make her not only steal them, but to want them so badly even now. Of course, every time he caught her trying to once again liberate them, he had to tell her off and then they were right back at the same unhappy emotional starting point all over again. After the sixth attempt, Nolan decided just to keep the knives on him.

They were on their way to Tennant's Rise, a medium-sized outpost right in the middle of the Storm Divide and just about the only settlement for four hundred miles in any direction. It had originally been built as a beacon of hope out in the desolation, a place of warmth and hospitality, but as everything did out there, it had turned into a hard and unforgiving place and was now a way station filled with any number of dangerous and unsavory sorts. Nolan didn't like bringing Irisa there (hell, he didn't like going there himself), but despite its rather dubious atmosphere, it was also one of the best places to fuel up and to find work if you needed it. As the pair was running a little low on scrip and there hadn't been any recent arkfall to salvage, their business there was primarily the latter.

Nolan slowed the roller to a crawl as he maneuvered through the congested streets looking for a spot to park. He glanced over at Irisa to see her staring out the window with a dark expression on her face. She clearly wanted to be there about as much as he did... Well, that or she was just brooding still.

"Alright, stay in the roller. I won't be long," he said as he pulled the vehicle down an alley and parked. She didn't argue. In fact, she didn't say anything at all. Pursing his lips, Nolan nodded and grabbed the door handle. "Righty then." He got out and headed back out the alley.

…

He'd been longer than he'd wanted, but then negotiating terms with one as unscrupulous as Taine Vuhl was always time-consuming. The trick was to pretend you weren't there actually looking for a job and then when the subject was brought up (as it inevitably would be since Vuhl was never a man who could keep his mouth shut for long), it was all about being inconvenienced enough to get a worthwhile fee for your efforts, but not overdoing it so to tip your hand. Eventually though Nolan had managed to finagle his way into a decent deal. Still though, he really hadn't liked leaving Irisa as long as he had.

He slipped out the back door of the bar into the alley and started toward the roller, but then he saw her and paused. He frowned slightly. "I thought I told you to stay in the roller, kid," he said in gentle exasperation. He supposed he couldn't blame her. She'd already been sitting in it for hours just to get to Tennant's Rise. "I'm sorry I took so long," he continued, "Vuhl was a bit more suspicious than usual, no doubt because of last time." Last time being when they'd taken the cache of Vo-tech weapons they'd acquired, sold them to the Earth Republic instead of bringing them back to Vuhl, and then blamed it on one of their rivals. "We got everything sorted out though."

Irisa didn't reply, not that he'd been expecting her to, but the moment he stepped toward her, he noticed something different about her, something in her eyes. They were wide, alarmed, but before he could ask what was wrong, a shadow rounded the roller, coming up behind the girl. Nolan understood immediately.

"You really shouldn't leave your pet alone, Nolan." It was Achan Shaw, that particular rival that they'd blamed for the Vo-tech weapons scam... after they'd stolen the weapons from him in the first place. "Anything could happen to her." Shaw grabbed Irisa by the back of her neck and pressed his gun to the side of her throat.

Nolan felt his blood boil. "Shaw," he ground out, "just let her go."

"And why would I do that?"

"Because you want me, not her."

Shaw looked skyward for a beat and nodded once. "True, true," he said, "bu-uuut if I have the little savage, you won't do anything stupid."

Irisa snorted.

Shaw tightened his grip on the back of her neck, making her wince.

Grinding his teeth, Nolan resisted the urge to charge across the distance between them and beat the living hell out of the other man. If it had been just them, he might have risked it, but he didn't dare with Irisa in the middle. "What do you want, Shaw?"

"Oh, I don't know, Nolan," the other man said flippantly, "maybe for starters, the scrip you stole from me." The last few words came out in an angry snarl and more pressure was added to Irisa's neck, drawing a small mewl of pain out of her.

Nolan's hand instinctively crept closer to the Po-tech pistol strapped to his thigh. "How did you even know we'd be here?" he decided to ask. Maybe if he could keep Shaw talking there would be an opening, a moment for him to pull his pistol and blast the worthless piece of shtako to kingdom come.

Shaw shrugged. "I figured you had to show up sooner or later."

Nolan smirked. He just couldn't help it. "You've been sitting in this hell hole, just waiting, on off chance that you might run into me again? That seems a real solid plan."

"Well, it worked, didn't it?" he growled.

"Hmmm, that it did," Nolan conceded lightly, nodding. "And I've got to say, it was pretty ballsy of you to not only come back to, but stay in a town run by a guy who quite literally wanted those balls in a basket."

"Because of you!" Shaw shrieked, eyes flashing furiously. "You stole that weapons cache from me and then told Vuhl I had sold it to the E-Reps! I showed back up here and he tried to lynch me!"

"And yet you're looking quite well," Nolan quipped.

"Shut up, Nolan! Just shut up!" He tightened his grip further in his fury and Irisa cried out in pain.

Nolan threw up a hand to stay the other man's anger. "Okay!" he exclaimed. "Okay. Just... just let her—"

Shaw shook his head wildly. "No!" he shouted, flying spittle punctuating each of his raging words. "No! You have no idea what I had to go through to get back in Vuhl's good graces, no idea what I had to do! It's your fault! It's your fault and you will pay!"

Things seemed to suddenly slow down. Shaw ripped his gun upward from Irisa to point it Nolan. Nolan reached for his own gun, but something told him that he wasn't going to get it out of its holster in time. He met Irisa's eyes, hoping to convey a last look that would say that he was both sorry and that he loved her, but then he saw something on her face that startled and momentarily confused him. Her eyes shone with fear, but also with resolve and perhaps just a little bit of... glee? She tucked her bottom lip between her teeth in clear determination and in that split second before Shaw could pull the trigger, something slipped into her hand from out of her sleeve and she drove it as hard as she could into the man's thigh.

Shaw shrieked in pain and his shot went wild, missing Nolan completely. "You little—!" He didn't bother to continue the thought. He just swung Irisa around and threw her into the wall before whipping his gun back up to shoot Nolan. Before he could even fire off a single round though, one of Nolan's found a very precise spot through his shoulder and he went down hard.

Nolan darted across the distance between them and kicked Shaw's gun away from him. The look on the downed man's face was one of shock. "Don't move," Nolan said, keeping his weapon trained on Shaw as he rounded him and moved to Irisa. He crouched beside her. "Hey, hey kiddo, you okay?" He reached over with his free hand and helped her up into a sitting position. She groaned slightly, pressing her hand to her head. "Here, let me see," he said, pushing her hair back out of her face so he could get a better look. There was a big knot on her forehead that would undoubtedly bruise later. "Just sit still a minute."

He turned and crossed back to Shaw, dropping to a knee beside the man. He shoved the muzzle of his gun into the bullet hole in Shaw's shoulder, making the man writhe in pain. He leaned forward to whisper in the man's ear. "If you ever," Nolan growled out, "ever touch my kid again, I will do so much more than just put a bullet through your shoulder, you hear me?" When Shaw didn't answer, he added even more pressure to the wound. "Do. You. Hear. Me?"

Shaw nodded quickly, gasping out, "Yes! Yes!"

Nolan straightened back up and nodded in return. "Good." He yanked his arm back and then brought it back down, pistol whipping Shaw across the face just about as hard as he could, knocking the man out cold. He blew out a breath and then wiped the blood on his gun off on Shaw's shirt.

Turning his attention back to Irisa, he saw that the girl was already climbing unsteadily back to her feet. "Woah! Slow up, kid," he said as he hurried back to her side and caught her by the arm when she stumbled, keeping her upright.

She raised her head to look at him, blinked dazedly, and then grinned. "I guess this would be an example as to why stealing from people is probably bad?" she said.

Nolan smirked and shook his head. "C'mon."

He helped her up into the roller and stood before her, checking her eyes for any signs of a concussion. He was no doctor, but he'd seen (and had) enough of them over the years to have a general idea of when someone had or didn't have one. "Maybe we should get you to a doctor," he said after a minute or so.

She caught his arm and shook her head. "No. I'm okay," she said. "Just give me a minute."

He drummed his fingers on her leg. "At the very least we should get something for the swelling."

"I'm okay," she repeated.

"That thing is going to blow up to the size of a newly-hatched skitterling if we don't. It's seriously going to look like you have two heads."

"Nolan." The exasperation in her voice interrupted his train of thought and he returned his focus to her actual words. "I'm okay." She patted his shoulder. "Can we please just go?" she asked. "Before he wakes up."

"Right." He nodded. "Okay." He made sure she was settled before he moved around to the other side of the roller and climbed in.

Once they were out of the town limits, Nolan glanced thoughtfully over at the girl next to him. "Smart not stabbing him while he had the gun pointed at you. He may have pulled the trigger."

She frowned and cocked her head to the side slightly, studying him. "I didn't even think of that. I stabbed him because he was going to shoot you," she told him.

Slowing the roller just a bit, Nolan turned his head to look at her fully. After a contemplative beat, he smiled. "Thanks, kiddo," he said sincerely. "You saved my life."

"I figured I owed you one," she said, smirking.

Nolan laughed and shook his head.

…

Later that night after they'd set up camp, something occurred to Nolan that he hadn't really thought about during the whole ordeal in town. "What'd you stab Shaw with anyway?" he asked. He still had the throwing knives with him.

The girl reached up into her sleeve and pulled out a makeshift knife. It still had Shaw's blood on it, though it was dried by now.

"Where'd you get that thing?"

"I made it."

"Out of what?"

She shrugged. "Piece of glass and some cloth. You were inside and I got bored."

He nodded and then held out his hand. "Hand it over."

Irisa looked up at Nolan. He raised an eyebrow and made a "Give it" motion with his hand. Her expression darkened and it took just about everything he had not to smile. "C'mon."

Clenching her jaw, the girl walked over to him and slapped it in his hand with more force than was really necessary before turning to leave.

"Uh-uh! Wait."

She stopped, but didn't turn back to face him. He could tell by the sudden heaving of her shoulders that she frustrated to the point of tears and he almost felt bad. It was clear that she thought they'd returned to their previous argument. "I'm not done yet," he continued. "While I commend you on your creativity, I'm not gonna have you running around with a piece of jagged glass... for two reasons, actually. One, because you could hurt yourself— "

"Fine," she spat, again making move to leave.

"Still not done, Irisa," he said firmly, halting her retreat once more.

She sighed and this time he couldn't help the smirk. "And two," he said, pausing for a dramatic breath, "because you won't need it. You'll have these instead." He held out her set of throwing knives to her.

Irisa slowly turned toward him and upon seeing the knives, snapped her head up to look at him again, eyes wide. "Really?" she asked in disbelief.

He nodded. "Yeah. I figure you were probably right."

"Probably?"

He gave her a look and then continued on with what he was saying. "Knowing how to defend yourself would be a good thing and knives are a bit more inconspicuous than a gun, so they won't draw as much attention. But," he snatched the knives back before she could take them from him, "but these aren't toys, okay?" She nodded fervently. "And you're going to learn to use them properly. No just frolicking about stabbing things."

It was her turn to give him a look. "Frolicking?"

He paused a beat. Irisa was probably one of the least frolicsome people he actually knew. "Bad choice of words, but you know what I mean."

"Right."

"And Irisa, these are tools, so you have to be sure to maintain them. A poorly maintained weapon could mean your life."

She nodded again in understanding.

"And—"

"Nolan," she interrupted. He shut his mouth and looked at her. "I get it. Be smart, be safe," she said. "Can I just have them now?"

Smirking, Nolan shook his head in amusement and handed them over. "Alright, but first the lesson starts now. How to hold a knife properly."

"I know how to hold one."

He raised an eyebrow at her and she deflated slightly. "Sorry. You were saying?" she said.

"That's what I thought." Nolan smirked again and then launched into the first of many lessons to come.

…

(Author's Notes: Hmmm, so there's another one. I was planning on writing one thing for the next chapter, but after watching the last episode and experiencing ALL OF THE FEELS [Oh, how I just wanted to huggle Irisa so much!], I think chapter 5 might end up having something to do with the episode! I'm also thinking of writing the next chapter from Irisa's POV instead of Nolan's, but we'll see what the muses have in store for me when I start writing it. My ideas and their plans don't always correspond. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this one!)