Author's Note- Alright, here's the last chapter! I'm happy looking the story over that I separated it and made the first couple of chapters! Thank you SO much to Irbis and Mavelite5ever for your continued reviews! I loved hearing all the feedback! :D If you like this story I have a collection of one-shots for Birdy/Victor also that I'm always working on and Long Way from Home and it's sequels by Irbis are REALLY good Sabretooth fan fictions! I definitely suggest reading them. Please review this last chapter if you get the chance and let me know what you thought of the story! Thanks for reading!

Chapter 4

The bitter taste of the beer slid down her throat and Birdy continued to try and massage the back of her shoulder where she could reach. God damn Creed, she could feel her throat catch whenever she took too deep of a breath. She had a new problem, now, and not just because her newly found boss/kidnapper had nearly strangled her to death...

Now she felt bad... for him. How did anyone manage to do that? She could make an entire list of evil, despicable things she'd seen out of him in just the couple weeks she'd known him! Things that elicited the exact opposite of sadness for him.

The thing was... tonight was the first time she'd really seen into his head. That was the real, true problem with being a psychic. Seeing into someone's mind gave you their perspective. Completely honest and void of any bullshit or lies. Just their actual view on the world or a view on their memories. The stuff that made up their choices, actions, reasoning, and well, them.

Tonight she'd scratched the surface of his mind, hardly a swipe of a finger through a layer of dust, but it was enough. Enough to make her doubt her quick judgement of the guy, though she reminded herself it was healthily rational, judgement. It didn't deter the conflict she felt. After all, didn't she excuse her own life as a mercenaries on her upbringing? On the necessity life had thrown at her to push her into such things? If she condemned him and said it didn't matter what happened to him, then she had to do the same thing to herself. Birdy wasn't prepared to do that…

The longer she thought on it she decided the only real difference she could make out between Creed and her, besides the creepy pleasure he took in his work, was that he took any guilt that might come from bad choices and squashed it entirely. He just lived the life he'd chosen with no regrets. He didn't justify his actions like she did, he simply did what he pleased. Birdy took another swig of her beer.

Birdy personal believed he should regret a ton of shit in just the three or four weeks of his life she'd seen, much less a lifetime of who knew what that had lead him here. But there was something she could appreciate in that kind of confidence. Not just confident in yourself, but confident of your entire way of life, uncaring of every move made, free from any restraints or consequences.

If he wasn't such a violent, completely uncaring psycho she might find that kind of embrace of freedom beautiful in a way.

Birdy groaned at her conflicting thoughts and gave up on both massaging her shoulder and all her tries to figure out what the hell she thought of Victor Creed after that trip through his actual memories. She paid her tab and emptied the last few sips in her beer bottle. She should head back... Or maybe she'd just take a walk to clear her head, but the bar had been meant to do that. So a walk likely wouldn't do any good.

The cold night air made her pull her coat closer around her as she pushed the door open and decided that she'd just go and face the music. It was windy tonight in the middle of New York. She looked along the small buildings around her and sighed. She might as well get back, the other alternative was to run as far as she could and hope the guy wouldn't follow her.

A small part of her felt like that would be cruel... which she could recognize was insane to think after just being choked out. But he really was in a lot of pain, and Birdy had a way to fix his pain didn't she? Maybe she could help him in a way nobody else could. Birdy just wasn't sure if she really wanted to. It was just hard to write him off now that she'd seen a glimpse of the pain that was driving his vicious actions...

Birdy's breath left her as she felt somebody grab ahold of her waist and clap a small clammy hand around her mouth. Adrenaline rushed through her, her pulse pounded quickly in her wrist and she felt hyperaware of every small twitch in her body, of the jerk of her arm, her legs locking up as if she were going run, her neck strained and her sudden silenced gasp strained her throat more. She squirmed, and tried to shake the firm hand off her, but the person had too good a grip and pulled her out of the light of the streetlight.

"You're beautiful, you know that?" Came a chilling whisper near her ear.

What the fuck? She'd been expecting a ransom or questioning about Creed's location. She assumed it was some associate or enemy of Creed's! Instead Birdy was being pushed up against the side of a building, her mouth still covered by the strangers strong grip. She struggled again, but still couldn't get her arms free and the bastard had her legs pinned now.

A car drove past, and lit up the alleyway she'd been shoved into and she found she recognized the stranger who attacked her. It was the skeezeball who'd approached her yesterday when she'd first entered that bar. The one she'd brushed off. How did she not notice he was there tonight!? Was she so engrossed in her thoughts she hadn't paid a bit of attention to her surroundings at a bar in the dead of night?!

She had no time to be angry with herself, instead she made a raspy noise as he tried to go for her clothes. His face twitched confused as he opened her shirt and she realized she still had her pajama shirt underneath from her hasty escape from the hotel room. His shock wore off quickly but it was enough time for her to gather herself.

While her heart sped away in her ear Birdy lashed out mentally at the guy. She drove a blast straight through his consciousness, aimed only to hurt him quickly. He let out a pained cry and when he jerked his head back it loosened his grip enough that Birdy was able to shove hard against his chest and make him stumble away from her.

Birdy didn't give it another second to get worse, instead she launched herself out of the alleyway. She slipped on the uneven pavement before she set off in a dead run. If the guy was that far off his rocker he attacked her, well she wasn't going to stick around to see what happened next.

Her feet tingled with each hard thump to the pavement. She couldn't focus on anything but her feet that connected with the pavement in short leaps. Birdy had run into creeps before but it was different when she was stupidly caught off guard. Off guard… and honestly terrified.

"Umph," She groaned as she ran straight into somebody, and promptly bounced off their chest. They hadn't fallen back by her sudden impact like she had, instead they reached out swiftly and caught her around the waist soundly with an arm, her fall prevented. She swallowed painfully, and the stranger pulled her up straight with an uncanny ease.

She slowly raised her head, everything around her still moved like it was on fast forward, the cars in the distance sped on and even her own heartbeat seemed to race, but she couldn't seem to move herself to match the world's pace suddenly, caught by someone else.

But the hard, stubbled face she met made her blink up dumbfounded into the dark, reflective eyes of Victor Creed.

"Creed?" She swallowed, and then winced in pain as her throat constricted.

"It's Mr. Creed unless ya want ta lose that tongue o'yers," Creed said unamused, eyebrow raised in a question as he withdrew his arm from around her waist. Birdy quickly straightened herself out, and brushed her arms off, straightened the shirt that had been pulled open before.

Now that she knew it was Creed, she didn't look at him, instead focused on her breathes in and out evenly, to look in control of herself. She wasn't in any danger, well immediate danger, so she needed to take a second to compose herself.

"What are you doing here?" She asked, as she raised her chin up to meet his stony gaze.

"Ya see, I enjoy ta waste my time strollin' around this shit town," He deadpanned with a dismissive snort, the sarcasm thick on his tongue.

Right, dumb question. He came to look for her because she'd been gone too long. Birdy swallowed again, and reminded of why she was out late, she looked back over her shoulder. Though, honestly, if the guy did follow her, Creed was a very good person to be next to.

As Birdy finally returned her attention to Creed she found that he was gave her a strange look. His face twitched a few times oddly and Birdy felt uncomfortable under his inspecting gaze for whatever reason.

"What's wrong with ya?"

"What kind of question is that to ask a lady?" She bit back defensively, her voice a higher pitch. He replied with a low growl, and she jumped as he suddenly gripped her upper arm. Her skin crawled as his claws whispered against her bare arm.

"What were ya runnin' from girl?" He asked pointedly and cut off Birdy as she opened her mouth to dismiss what he said. "Don' give me no bullshit answer neither."

He shook her slightly, to emphasize his point evidently. It was so not necessary from the deadly look he'd pierced her with.

"Just some guy who made an unpleasant go at me," She shrugged to try to pass it off. 'Make a go' wasn't quite attacked, but it wasn't something she wanted to go into. Advertise to Creed that she was so easily distracted. Not the plan at all. She needed to look on top of her game when she was around him.

Birdy didn't know whether he believed it or not, he didn't say anything. But he'd stopped his hard stare at her now. Instead of answering, he bent down towards her and Birdy felt her breath catch in her throat as he got much closer to her.

She blinked, and wonder what had gotten into him. His face was inches from the side of her head, his nose practically touching the side of her neck. It shouldn't be strange, because someone who did the things Creed did, anyone would expect the worst. But in the time she'd been with him, he'd never made a pass at her. Even if she'd thought he would at first, he never so much as felt her up.

Now he was very, very close to her. Birdy could smell the subtle fresh scent that clung to him, and she could see the small stubble that traveled up his sharp jawline distinctly and ran into his sideburns. Before she could do much more than stare, he'd straightened back up to tower over her again. His head was tilted up now and Birdy looked at him quizzically as she figured out it was his nose that twitched and not his whole face. He turned his head in the opposite direction they'd been standing and then they were off without another word.

"Hey! Do you mind telling me where we're going?" She shouted up to him as he dragged her along by her arm. But he ignored her, of course, and kept forward at a quick pace. "Hey!" She tried to shake his grip off.

"Shut up," He growled, the sound was different than his usual aggravated tone. It was a deep, rumbled sound that held none of the anger she'd started to associate with his growl. Birdy let out an exasperated sigh and resigned herself to being dragged off to who knew where. Creed knew where he was going, though, because he didn't pause in his steps.

It didn't take long, before Creed stopped in front of a gas station and opened the door. It was a small place, racks filled with anything you'd need to pick up, and a lottery machine just inside the door where they stepped in.

"Stay here," He ordered, and pushed her further into the store without so much as a glance.

"Where are you going!" Her shout went completely ignored and Creed was gone out the door before she could say anything else. She breathed in heavily, and finally as she stood still, Birdy found she was too exhausted to worry about where he was going. She'd just stay here until he showed up… which was probably the first time she'd actually listened to one of these types of orders.

Just as Birdy got around to wasting time in front of the coffee machine they had to calm her nerves, a huge crash had her and the attendant running towards the doors where they could see. Her gaze followed the other guys to the glass that was shattered alarmingly across the street.

Birdy stepped towards the window of the door to look at the sight in the streetlight clearly. There was something in the middle of the road, it had been hurled through the grocery store window across from the gas station. It was hard to see what it was from behind the gas pumps blocking her view.

Birdy stepped just out the door to investigate as she ignored the attendant's protests. Just as the door shut behind her, she saw something else fly from the large windows across the street. She walked out farther from the building and towards the street to make sure she saw it right. She was, though, there was no mistake there.

It was Creed.

She scowled and ran closer to see what the hell he was doing. What she saw in the middle of the road wasn't a chair or something that her mind had quickly imagined to piece the incident together. Instead the scene she saw was vastly different than she could have imagined. Right in the middle of the street was Creed, crouched over the sceezebag who'd attacked her! From the light of the streetlamp she could see the sickly points of his claws, long and deadly, poised threateningly over the guys face.

"Well… fuck me," She muttered to herself, and watched as Creed pulled the guy up by his shirt where he was on the ground.

She rushed forward to see more, stopping by the streetlamp on the sidewalk. There was red pooled around the man, it dripped from the cuts from the shattered glass as Creed put him up on his feet. From her new vantage point she could hear the man sob and Creed's deep, menacing voice.

"P-please..."

"Listen up, I'm gunna rip yer fingers off one by one an' shove 'em down yer fuckin' throat if ya don' get talkin' real soon ya piece o' shit," Creed thundered. With the man's silence Creed rammed the guy out of the street and into the building next to the gas station.

"I...I... didn' d-do noffin," The guy cried out.

Creed snarled and with a scream that pierced through even Birdy, the guy started to sob louder as Creed tossed something over his shoulder. Birdy swallowed, no doubt in her mind that Creed followed through on his threats.

"Y-y-you... you... m-m-my... I-I-I," The guy wailed.

"Pathetic like the rest," She barely heard Creed grumble.

The guy went on with his blubber of words and it only made Creed toss him into an alleyway and dart after him. Birdy looked around and saw the shocked attendant who had scrambled outside and joined a group that had come from the grocery store. Her first step was damage control. She reached out with her mind to try and calm them, block their initial reaction.

The gut wrenching scream that came from that alleyway had her give up her task to dart into it. With so many people it was a useless plan when there was more to interrupt what she was trying to nudge them not to pay attention to. As she rounded the corner, Creed wordlessly, dropped the guy to the ground.

Birdy couldn't feel his mind there, just Creed's….

She swallowed, looked at Creed and expected to find him to move on and lash out at something. Instead Creed was still as he inspected the dead body. He stepped around it and then after a moment he acknowledged her in the mouth of the alley.

"I told ya ta wait inside. Ya deaf now, or just too stupid ta listen?" He asked with no hint at any of his rage or sudden anger.

She blinked at the blonde as he turned his back to her and picked up the body and tossed him into a dumpster further down the alleyway. He came back and picked up something, his, erm, leg? She gagged a little.

"Wh-what..." She barley got out as Creed wiped his hands off on his pants and approached her.

"That the guy who attacked ya?" He asked seamlessly.

"Yeah..." She looked at the dumpster and blinked, shouldn't be have asked that before he tore the guy to pieces. What if it hadn't been that guy? It had been the guy, but how Creed knew was beyond her!

Creed only nodded at her answer and tucked his hands into his pockets to walk from the alleyway. She looked between the dumpster and his back.

"Get a move on, girl, sirens are a comin' this way."

Birdy darted after him, but she wasn't about to let this drop. She just had no wish to be here when the cops showed up to investigate the crime. Especially not with a group of witnesses and Creed who hadn't tried to be even a little discreet. He threw the guy through a freakin window before he made a scene in the middle of the street!

"Victor, you didn't even..." She didn't finish her thought, caught off guard. Birds had called him by his first name without thinking. The man looked over his shoulder a second before he paused their tracks for a moment.

"Don' get no stupid ideas frail," Creed looked down at her with narrowed eyes, his voice dropped into a low rumble. "That had nothin' ta do with ya."

"Oh no?" She challenged, eyebrows raised. It sure looked like it from where she stood. It seemed like someone attacked her and Victor went and defended her. That's how it looked to her, so what else could he say?

"Yer mine now," He snarled shortly. "Ya belongs ta me." He growled down to her now, but she still called bullshit. "An' nobody is gonna fuck with whats I own. That's all."

Birdy wanted to respond with something smart-assed, pick his shitty defense apart. But she couldn't find the words and just followed behind him quietly. She hadn't even said the guy attacked her... well, it came off obvious, but she didn't expect him to go off and... well, protect her. In whatever twisted sort of way.

She was a means to an end right? A way to sort his head and calm him down. He'd nearly killed her back at the hotel... and then he goes and puts a quick end to some guy who attacked her? That logic didn't add together. She couldn't help herself, Birdy couldn't fully believe all his bluster about it not being to defend her.

Birdy glanced up to look at his profile as they got closer to the hotel again. It wasn't like she would have been that bothered by it after the initial scare, she'd had to deal with all sorts of stuff like this, with nobody to look after her growing up, and never since then. A few crappy relationships, but no one who took such offense to something like this.

Sure, she should probably be more bothered that he'd just tossed this guy through a window and torn his limbs off... but she just couldn't right now. He gave her a last look before he turned and continued down some back alleys towards the hotel.

Tonight was just full of surprises. So what was she to think? She knew what she should think, Birdy just also couldn't make herself believe that line of rational thinking at the moment.

All she was saying was that maybe there was someone worth helping under all that pain after all.