One, Maybe Two, Ways Out

Tipping the chair as far back as it would allow, Damon plastered his tongue to the top of his mouth. The TV was playing mindlessly in the corner of the room. Such a small room. Hit a few walls out... Would need a hammer. He glanced at the door, raising an eyebrow with a unconcerned sigh. "Too far." He mumbled, resting his head back as he waited another second. His leather jacket rested over his black shoes, in which were propped up onto the desk table. The dark blue t-shirt was tight, as usual. The black jeans were also a usual. But this wasn't even his office. Of course it wasn't. In records, Damon Ryes didn't exist. Dead. Though UNIT and so many other federal groups didn't believe it. Glancing at the desk, Damon picked up a single wrapped Starburst, popping it into his mouth before leaning back in the chair. It was a good hideout from the previous threat. The key reason was to handle the large, deep cut moving down the whole length of his left arm, but he hadn't gotten to it. He threw the wrapper across the desk, watching it float to the floor as he stood from the chair. Pounding was audible from the hall, meaning there was no way he was staying here. Dragging on the jacket, he spun to survey the room. One exit: the window. Smirking, Damon jogged to the window, curling his fingers around the handle before jerking it up. With only one leg over the ledge, Damon paused, waiting patiently for the door to creak open. Instead, it was tossed off its hinges, flying across the room with such force it blew away everything in its path. "You're paying for that!" Damon yelled, saluting the shadowed figure before ducking out. It was the third story of the building, but jumping wasn't really in his thoughts as he had climbed out.

Turning to face the street, Damon pressed his back to the wall. Checking the manipulator for how many cheats of death he had left would've been the good idea. Maybe using it to go somewhere else really fast would be a good option too... Damon grinned, holding the ledge of the window frame as he bent down, narrowing his eyes on the first car he saw, parked against the side of a building, awaiting the arrival of its owner. Damon sighed, grinding his teeth together as he pushed away from the building. A quick slam, sharp and painful, cutting the jacket and possibly his flesh and shirt. But the destination was reached; landing directly onto the car. "That's gonna hurt in the morning." He mumbled, pushing himself up into a sitting position as he eyed the car. Broken and dented... Oh well. Not his.

Squinting against the light of the oncoming day, Damon cocked his head, trying to see straight out of the alley and onto the street. He still heard loud protesting from the room he had vacated, though that was far from his mind as his eyes wandered from face to face as they moved in the dim light of the work day.

A sudden loud crash echoed from an alleyway as Sonya passed by, causing her to freeze on the sidewalk and squint into the shadows, searching for the source of the noise. It sounded like someone hitting a dumpster with a bat, but she couldn't shake the fact she was trying to explain something off that bothered her.
Taking a step into the alleyway, she shaded her eyes from the sun above her and eyed the ruined car a few feet away from her before spotting the figure on top. Sucking in a deep breath, she blew it out in frustration, her hands dropping to her sides and planting onto her hips out of habit as she eyed Damon with a frown. "Your going to end up killing yourself doing stunts like that you know." Sonya finally called to him quietly, her eyes flicking upwards to the only open window on the wall. "Break your neck or shatter some bone in your spine. End up in a wheelchair and all that wonderful junk."
She shook her head with a laugh and walked over next to the car, looking up at Damon in amusement written on her face as her eyes roamed over his form, looking for any damage besides his clothing. "What, might I ask, prompted the thought that jumping out of a third story window would be a good idea anyway?"

Damon groaned upon hearing Sonya's voice, resting his head back onto the car once more. "I thought it was a really, really good idea, okay? No, I was busy. Something was following me. Or someone. I don't pay attention." He mumbled, rubbing his forehead as he grinded his teeth together. He sat up quickly, his blue eyes locking onto her with a smile. "Good to see you too, Sonya. Yes, I've been good. No, I'm okay. How 'bout you? Fine. That's wonderful." He rambled, slipping off the car onto the wet alley ground. His knees buckled and he fell directly into the wall of the next office building. "Anyway, third story isn't too bad." Using the wall as support, he tugged off the leather jacket, checking the deep cut before glancing back at Sonya. "What are you even doing here? Or is this just some random coincidence again? I'm getting sick of those things."

"Might as well get used to them, I've learned to after a while. I run into you, I run into the Doctor or some other random person nearly every day. I get maybe a week where I don't run into anyone then it's back into 'Oh hey, didn't see you there' city." Sonya shrugged, her eyes darting down to the now-covered cut on his arm with a raised eyebrow. "Care to tell the story behind that one? Or is it another 'Not sure, I didn't know I had it until a few days ago' stories? Because if it is, save it." Tucking her hands into her pants pockets, she smiled suddenly, her eyes locking onto his as she did. "I am glad to see you though. I've been wondering where you vanished to since we last saw each other."

Damon paused, shrugging gently as he studied Sonya in turn. Dropping his arms to his sides, he moved away from the wall and approached her soundlessly. "Not sure what to say. You told me to save it." He whispered against her cheek once he got too close for comfort. Testing his limits. He smirked, running a hand through his short hair before his eyes shot over to the busy street. Without another look in Sonya's direction, he slipped passed her, holding his jacket in one hand as he walked. "I want a burger. Think McDonalds is close by? Never mind. Dumb question. Middle of a city," he muttered, glancing over his shoulder at her before turning to walk down the sidewalk.

Sonya rolled her eyes skyward and turned around to follow Damon as he walked along. "You are difficult to follow, you know that? One second you act angry at me, then your right next to me testing to see if it bothers me." She stated once her pace matched his. Her eyes roamed from his face and back to the sidewalk in front of them in silence for a moment before looking back over at Damon again. "I just don't get you. She spoke about you a lot, well, she wrote about you a lot. Some brave, thick-headed guy that defied death without a single thought for himself. Yet here you are, thick-headed and I have yet to see any proof of the other details." Sonya fell silent again, her thoughts turning inward while they navigated the busy sidewalk. She bit down on her lower lip before looking back up and staring in front of her before bumping her shoulder against his playfully with a small smile. "Oh come on, lighten up."

"Well, how can I be thick-headed and selfless at the same time? I can only do so much." Damon joked, playfully returning the bump with a smirk. "Besides, don't spend too much time trying to figure me out. I bet there's a lot of people in your life that are much more of a puzzle." He stuffed his free hand in the pocket of his black jeans, the other still gripping his jacket. "And quit basing me off someone else's journal entries. What else did she write? 'Dear diary, I met a squirrel today... He asked me my name. I told him it was Joe. That lie will haunt me forever.'" Damon glanced at her out of the corner of his eye, raising an eyebrow in question. "Can't be that entertaining, can it?"

Sonya managed another small smile, a sad look coming over her eyes as she looked back over at him. "It was her entire life. From the moment she was left alone to the day she died. Everything written down and preserved. I know she fancied you, still did for a long time." She looked back down at the sidewalk with a low chuckle working from her. "Its the only thing I have that can help me figure out how life is like here. I didn't know half of the things she wrote about until I read them. And by the way, she didn't meet a squirrel, she met a snake, and she named him George." She added, flashing a wide smile up at Damon before stretching her arms over her head with a yawn. "Ugh, it's been a long day full of boring until I find a suicidal man leaping out of a window. Now it's a day full of boring and slightly crazy talk."

"Not my fault you have a boring life." Damon mumbled, turning to look over his shoulder at the building he was trying to get a large distance from. The window he had taken a dive out of had been shut, the curtains pulled over to hide the view. His eyes trailed down to the entrance, the doors swinging open as a figure stepped through. Blended into the surroundings, Damon couldn't make out an appearance. Groaning, he swerved back around, grabbing Sonya's hand as he tugged her into another alley. "See, its not my fault you have had a boring day, but its also not my fault that I may or may have not ruined your boring afternoon. I blame whoever invented the villain." He whispered, peaking over the wall to see the figure approaching. Damon sighed, shifting back to look at Sonya. "Or blame me. Whatever."

Sonya frowned up at him before leaning around him to look out of the alleyway then leaned back against the wall. "I don't blame you for something that isn't technically your fault." She replied softly, her eyes closing for a moment before opening them back up to stare at the wall across from them. "And I don't think anyone invented the villain, I just think bad people come around by nature. Think about it, if someone wasn't bad and everyone did good things all the time, we'd take life for granted." Flashing him a grin, she shrugged her shoulder next to him slightly and leaned her head back against the wall. "Do you even know why this... 'Villain' is following you anyway? What did you steal from him?"

Damon frowned, spinning so he was standing directly in front of her. His eyebrows arched, his head cocking slightly. "Why do you automatically think I stole something?" He insisted, slipping his jacket on before digging through one of the pockets. He pulled out a single sheet of paper. "I think I had a right to take it anyway. Its the warrant for my death. Isn't it usually 'warrant for arrest'? It changes so often, I don't keep up." He placed his hand beside her head against the wall, leaning on it as he smiled softly. "They want my head on a platter, I want to find out where the McDonalds is." He shrugged, pulled away from Sonya and peaked over the wall again. The figure wasn't in sight, which only rattled his nerves even more.

"Because you normally get into trouble because you either One: Stole something, or Two: Bothered someone. And since your not running constantly, and it's only one person following you, I had to make an educated guess and say you stole something." Sonya said with a grin up at him before glancing out of the alleyway once more beside him. "The McDonalds is just down the road from here. Take a left and it's right across the road." She added, glancing up at Damon for a second before looking back at the busy sidewalk once more. "I don't see anyone with murderous intent in their eyes. Are you sure you aren't imagining things?"

Damon rolled his eyes, abandoning her in the alley to roam back onto the sidewalk. "I've imagined a lot of things. A lot. But no, this is not one of them." He muttered, glancing at Sonya before picking up speed. It was a fast walk to the McDonalds, even if he had no money. He had a Sonya. That could work. He made a sharp left turn, dodging several people on the way, only managing to bump into one person. Damon winced, curling a hand around his arm as he sharply inhaled. Probably more on the edge than usual. He pushed the McDonalds door open, sauntering in and heading directly to the counter. "I'd like a burger. Any kind. Surprise me. Oh, and when a girl comes in here about..." He motioned with his hand to show Sonya's height, "that height, ask her to pay." He explained, shrugged and ducked into a curved booth, facing away from the door.

Sonya groaned under her breath and followed Damon the best she could with the busy sidewalk. Finally managing to get to the front doors, she spotted him sitting in a booth near the back. She pushed the doors open and wandered towards him only to be stopped by a cashier at the counter. "He said you'd pay for this..." She said hesitantly, gesturing towards Damon before looking back at Sonya with an awkward smile. "I don't know if its a joke or something, but the food he ordered is real..."
Sonya let out a huff of air and dug a couple of pound notes from her pocket and handed them over to the girl before walking over to the booth and slid in across from Damon with a frown. "You know, I don't mind paying, but next time warn me you're going to have me pay for your food."

Damon shrugged, leaning back as he shut his eyes. "What was I supposed to do? Flirt with the cashier? I don't have money and you were too distracted trying to figure out if I was hallucinating or not." He said softly, peeling off his jacket and setting it beside him in the booth. He crossed his arms, falling silent as he lingered between a much needed nap and the craving of wanting a burger. "Besides, the way I'm going, I'll be dead in a few days. So don't expect me to pay you back." Just as he uttered it, the food was nearly being begged to be eaten. He had almost forgotten about it. Opening his eyes, he picked up the burger, smiled at Sonya, and took a large bite.

Sonya let out a low breath of air and leaned back in her seat, staring at Damon as he bit into his burger with a frown. "Your manipulator, it has some weird cheating death thing, doesn't it? I mean, you won't really be dead for long." She finally said quietly, not wanting to accept one of her first friends since coming to this universe would vanish from her life forever. He had become a constant reminder to her that she wasn't a replacement. She was someone completely different and he accepted it without question. "Why do they even want to kill you anyway? What did you do to even make them send that order out?"

Damon lifted his eyes, but refused to move his head an inch. He sighed, set the burger down and tapped his fingers against the table. "Does it matter what I did to get the order sent out? Or just that it is sent out? I have a price on my head, that's it." He muttered, shutting his eyes. "Now, talk about rhinos and bears or something. I'm eating." His fingers slipped around the burger again, a smirk on his face as he was about to bite down, then froze and shook his head. "Never mind, bears kind of suck." He said after a moment, resting back against the booth. "Anything else on your mind besides the current situation?"

"About a million things, but nothing you want to hear about while your eating." Sonya sighed and leaned back in the seat again, her eyes drifting over the other customers then back over to her friend with a frown. "You've been a hard man to get a hold of, and I was starting to think you had been killed." She added quietly, looking down at her hands as she spoke, refusing to look up at him. "You were my first friend here. I don't know what I'd do if you just up and died on me, your the only person that seems to understand the problem that I'm in and accept it. Everyone else things I'm the other Sonya's recent regeneration and no matter what I say, they still won't let it go." She let out a low groan and rested her forehead on the table, staring down at her shoes for a moment before closing her eyes. "Why do you have to be so damn reckless, Damon?"

"Well..." Damon breathed out, setting the burger down with a grimace. "Not entirely hungry anymore. Just sore." He mumbled, glancing at his arm before looking back at Sonya. "And recklessness is a new way of living. Kind of. And the whole cheating death thing? Not that easy. I might need that extra save soon, but I might not use it." He said softly, rubbing his temple with his thumb. "Should be dead by now, right? Dying might be the way out." Clearing his throat, Damon shrugged, wincing in the process. The fall left him bruised and cut, and he wasn't doing his best at ignoring it. "You suck at subject changers."

"Never claimed to be a master at it." Sonya griped then glanced up with a small grin on her face. "You know... The best way to avoid being so sore all the time would be to stop jumping out of windows." She added as she spotted several small cuts on his arms and face from his fall. A low laugh slipped from her as she leaned across and examined one of the ones on his face closer. "You'll have a matching scar for your other eyebrow now, see? Same side and everything. Well at least you'll be even until the next time you decide to try and be a stuntman anyway." Glancing out the window beside them, Sonya watched several cars pass by before letting out a groan. "I'm bored and need something to do. You have any suggestions? And please don't say jumping out of windows because I might have to cream you myself-" She cut off suddenly and frowned at a figure standing across the street, staring in their direction without bothering to be discreet about it. "That guy that you ran from. What did he look like again?"

Damon raised an eyebrow, turning his head an inch to peak out the window. "Yeah, definitely no longer hungry." He muttered, slipping out of the booth as he grabbed his jacket. Slipping it on, he bent down and grabbed Sonya's hand, pulling her with him. His footing wasn't exactly accurate, stumbling over tables and pushing people out of the way. "Why do McDonalds' have to be so crowded?" He grumbled, heading to the back of the restaurant rather than the front. The front would be more obvious, hopefully. Ignoring complaints and shouts, Damon proceeded into the kitchen, loosening his grip on Sonya's hand once the crowd of workers thinned. "And I don't remember waking up this morning wanting to jump from a window. It just happened, okay? No need to bring it up." He called over his shoulder, placing a hand on a swinging door leading back to whatever extra rooms they had in this place. He wasn't going to check. He wandered in, his pace slower than before as he looked around at the new found space. Extra tables, more people. "Well, you failed to say the McDonalds was connected to a mall." He said gently, glancing at Sonya after a moment or two.

Sonya blinked then shook her head as she tried to focus on what he was saying. "You're the one that  came here if you remember correctly, and you never asked either so don't be putting that on me." She stated quickly, shooting a glance over her shoulder then heading towards the exit on the other side of the mall. "Come on, for whatever reason you don't want to be around him, fine, but we can't stand around in the center court and hope not to be noticed." She called over her shoulder and hesitated outside of one of the stores, looking over at Damon expectantly. "Come on then, get a move on. He probably saw us heading to the back of the restaurant anyway, so it wouldn't be long before he came in after us." She added with a nervous glance at the door they just came through, making sure the figure didn't barge through them. "Either we can stand around and hope he'll mistake us for being mannikins, or we can leave. Your choice, but make it fast."

"I don't like choices." Damon replied, following after her towards the exit. He smacked his hands together, glanced over his shoulder, and sucked in a sharp breath. "For whatever reason? Sonya, he wants me dead. Some assassin though, giving me enough time to jump out of a window." Damon paused, looking back over his shoulder again, his blue eyes wild with confused thoughts. "I don't even know what or who it is. Just that I'm the target and I didn't even get to finish my burger." He whined, jumping lightly on his heels.

"Stop complaining." Sonya grumbled, pushing him through the store amid the startled looks of women as they were pushed aside by them. "At least you had enough time to eat. Not to mention it was a free meal, so no whining." She added as they came to the exit and shoved the door open, pushing him outside and stopping for a moment to examine their surroundings. "We're four blocks away from my flat, two blocks from the window you jumped from and I have no idea how far that guy is behind us, so if you don't want to meet him, we keep moving, come on." She shoved her hands into her pockets and started making her way down the sidewalk quickly, keeping an eye out for whoever it was that had the order to kill Damon.

Damon frowned, already distracted by the people he moved around. "Fine, don't wanna meet him. But moving is really... Tiresome." He mumbled, turning his head back in the direction Sonya was walking off in. He picked up his pace, rushing after her with a sigh. "Who said I wanted your help anyway?" He asked in a way too sarcastic tone, running a hand through his raven black, short hair. His eyes were wandering again, hardly stopping on Sonya's face as he looked around. "I just wanted a burger. And I didn't get most of it." With more difficulty than usual, Damon focused his eyes on the sidewalk ahead of them. There were still many people to squirm around, or push in Sonya's case. He shoved his hands into the pockets of his jacket. "Besides, walking in the opposite direction the whole time isn't going to fix this. Shouldn't you have an idea or something?"