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<<...>> denotes a flashback ***** It started out routinely enough.

<<"What do you need this time?" She entered the familiar apartment and waited expectantly for his answer, not all together very patient about it.

"A relatively easy one tonight. Show up at this address. It's an old abandoned factory." He handed over to her, a small white piece of paper.

"And?"

"And you get all files that have anything to do with the city water supply. I suspect that the major's cutting corners on water sanitation."

"Easy, consider it done.">>

But it wasn't easy. One tiny unexpected glitch caused the whole thing to snowball.

She arrived at the specified destination on time, only to find a small gathering of three people standing in the alleyway, next to the building. She heard yelling, cursing, and crying. Maintaining her distance, she held back and watched in darkness, hidden about fifty yards away.

The dim streetlight illuminated a tear stricken mother clutching tightly to her small little boy. Bobby was no older than six. His face reflected a hazy confusion, he didn't understand why his mommy was weeping and yelling at his daddy, and he didn't understand why daddy was yelling back.

His daddy leaned over threatening and shouted into his mommy's ear. He was holding her arm rather tightly, so tight that she cried out in pain. He kept screaming at her, over and over again.

"Do you hear me Carol? Do you hear me you dirty slut? He's mine!"

"No...no..." She stuttered through her tears. They were choking her, constricting her face and throat, but she forced out the words anyways. She held on tightly to her little boy. "You can't take him!" She forced her baby boy behind her. She didn't want him accidentally hurt with a stray blow.

"The hell I can't! He doesn't need to put up with you fucking every damn asshole you come in contact with. He doesn't need to be to be in the next room, listening to all the shit you do!"

"Paul...stop! You're hurting me!" Bobby's mommy tried unsuccessfully to get away from the digging blunt nails of his daddy's hand. He stood, frightened, behind his mommy's back, grasping on to the material of her thin wool coat tightly. He wanted the yelling to stop. He wanted both of them to stop, before daddy hits his mommy again. He squirmed uncomfortably and squeezed his eyes tight, hoping that it was all a dream. He forced his mind to ignore what was happening. It's not true, his daddy isn't shouting at his mommy and his mommy is not crying.

"You will never bother us again, bitch! He's *my* son, all you've ever done is fuck up everything!"

"Paul!" Bobby's mom cried harder and his daddy raised his other hand to her face.

"No, Daddy! Don't hurt Mommy!" Bobby's small, childlike voice rang out from behind her trembling figure.

But his daddy didn't listen. He slapped her across the face anyways, hard. His mommy flinched and crouched over Bobby. Bobby held on tighter to her, his small arms reached around and hugged her midsection.

"Are you okay, Mommy?"

Her sobs subsided into soft little hiccups as she nodded and opened her puffy red eyes to look at his worried innocent face. Her check was a crimson color from where daddy had hit her. Bobby wanted to cry. His mommy was hurt.

Max held back. She couldn't decide if it was her place to interfere. All she could do was watch in anguish as that bastard hit his wife. She watched as the little boy cried out and held on to his mother tightly.

Max was torn. She stood the, poised and ready to run towards them and batter the man that struck his wife. But some unknown force stopped her.

It's not like it would make a difference if she interfered or not. The world would still be broken in the morning. She had done it many other times before, turned the other check while someone else suffered.

But it never affected her as much as it did now. Was she gaining more 'sentimentality'? Was she started to care too much? What she did know for sure was that she had never wanted to interfere with something more than she wanted to interfere with that.

But still, something held her back.

Bobby cried helplessly as his daddy grabbed a hold of his arm. "No! Daddy! I don't want to go! I want to stay with Mommy!" Despite his loud protests, his daddy didn't hear one word of it. His dark eyes concentrated on pulling the small boy away from his mother.

"Don't, Paul! Please..." Bobby saw his mommy clutch desperately at his daddy's sleeve. She only managed to make him madder. He slapped her again.

"Don't you ever touch me again, you whore."

"Paul!" His mommy wouldn't let go. Fresh tears slid down her flushed cheeks. She tugged at his daddy's arm and tried to urgently free him from his daddy's grip. "Please! Please don't take him away! He's all I have."

"Well you should've thought of that before you screwed around!" He shoved her aside. Bobby saw his mommy fall to the ground and his small face pouted and wet tears spilled down his face.

"Daddy...stop." He pleaded quietly.

"Shut up, Bobby. You're too young to understand." Bobby lower lip quivered as he watched his mommy's motionless body, her breathing was ragged.

"Daddy..."

"I said SHUT UP!"

Bobby snapped his mouth shut but he couldn't stop his body from shaking. His large green eyes stared at his daddy's face in horror.

"Is Mommy okay?"

His daddy scowled. "She's gonna be fine!"

"Are you sure?"

"Yes!" His gruff tremor scared Bobby. He didn't want to go with his daddy. He wanted his mommy.

"I want Mommy."

"You're coming with me."

"Noooo...." The tears started coming again. Bobby sobbed quietly and tried to frantically escape his daddy's hold.

"Stay still!"

"Mommy!! Wake up! Mommy!"

Bobby wished as hard as he could for his mommy to wake up and be safe. He wished that he daddy wouldn't hurt her anymore. Then, he saw his mommy carefully stand up. Her legs were a bit wobbly, but she managed to maintain her balance.

"Honey, I'm here. I won't let him take you." She spoke softly and reassuringly.

"Dammit Carol, you know you can't give him a proper life. Let him go before you fuck him up even further!"

"No!!" Mommy's desperate cries started to sound more determined. "I won't let a bastard like you take him away from me!"

Max watched as the situation turned fatal.

The women pulled out a gun.

She pointed it at her husband.

That did it. Max started towards them in a rapid sprint. She pushed her body harder, willing it to go faster.

Bobby stood and watched in horror as his mommy pulled a gun out of her coat. She pointed it at his daddy. Oh my God...she was going to shoot--"

"Mommy, no!"

Bobby threw his body at his mommy and a shot rang out.

Something exploded inside Max as she heard the gun go off. She watched in dread as the little boy launched himself at his mother. The man took one look at the two fallen, bloodied figure, and he immediately rushed over to them.

She was too late.

When she reached the two bodies, she her heart leapt to her throat as she saw a trail off thick blood ooze from in between the mother and son.

"Oh God!" She heard the man wail from below. "Miss, you've got to help them!"

All hostility towards the man was gone momentarily as she knelt down and examined the two figures. Max gingerly grasped the back of the little boys neck and used her other hand to roll him into her arms.

A large stain of blood marked his chest.

His childish face was marred by streaks of crimson.

But there was no bullet wound.

Her eyes gazed over to the woman. She examined the slow rise and fall of her chest. She moved over closer to the woman. "Where are you shot?" She asked gently.

The woman barely registered what she said, but manage to make out words in restricted breaths. "My stomach, it hurts."

"Okay."

Max focused her attention to the grief-stricken man next to her. "Call an ambulance." When she saw that he wasn't going to reply, she repeated her words, "Go call a fuckin' ambulance!"

His eyes snapped to her attention and he nodded rapidly, scrambling off to find a payphone.

Max returned her attention to the woman in pain. "Help is on the way."

"Please, Miss, make sure my son's safe."

Max held the small figure in her arms tighter. He was unconscious; perhaps he fainted from the shock. "Don't talk like that, you'll be up and about, making sure he's safe in no time." Max flashed her a hesitant smile.

"Please..."

Max understood what she was trying to say. There was a very big possibility that she might not make it. "I will."

"Thank you."

The woman laid back and closed her eyes.

*****

The waiting room was cold, sterile. People rushed in and out, paying no heed to Max or the small child in her arms. He had woken up but was wary of letting her go, not that she minded, she just held on to him tighter.

"Is she gonna be okay, Max?"

Max looked pained. She swallowed the lump in her throat and managed a reply. "I hope so, honey."

"For sure?"

She watched the trusting innocent boy and she really wanted to reassure him that his mommy was going to be fine. But she wasn't sure.

"I don't know, sweetie."

Amazingly, he accepted that as best as he could. He silently buried his head in her neck and quietly let the tears fall onto her shoulder. It broke her heart to see him hurt so badly. She circled her arms around his small body and stoked his back.

"Where's my daddy, Max?"

"He's talking to the police right now."

"What's gonna happen to him?"

"I don't know, hon."

Bobby held back little sniffles and continued to let Max rock him back and forth.

"You know, Bobby, you are a *very* brave little boy."

He shook his head in against the crook of her neck. "No I'm not, I'm scared. Brave people aren't supposed to cry."

"That's not true. Brave people are often scared, and they cry too. They just do what they have to because it's the right thing to do."

Bobby was silent for a while. "Max? Are you scared sometimes?"

She let out a bittersweet smile. "I'm scared a lot of the times. I pretend I'm not affected, but inside, I am."

"Do you cry?"

That was a tougher question. She took a deep breath and answered him cautiously. "I cry mostly on the inside, sweetie."

"I think that you should cry on the outside sometimes, too."

Max smiled into his hair. For such a little guy, he sure was smart. He was right. Maybe she should let the feelings show a little bit more. "I think that's a good idea."

After that, they sat in silence. It gave Max time to think. She wondered why she didn't react sooner. What compelled her to hold back? She demanded answers from herself, and the only on she got was that she 'wasn't sure'. Initially, she didn't want to get sucked into the 'phony sentimentality'. Something held her back, and that something was because she wasn't supposed to care.

But she did.

Max regretted that she didn't react sooner. Her hesitation could have very well taken Bobby's mom. It was all her fault. She could've prevented the whole thing, but something stopped her.

'Damn Lydecker and his fuckin' programming.'

He screwed her up, almost succeeding in making her a machine. Of course, all the blame couldn't be placed on him. She fought Logan's idealism, she denied herself from doing what was right for so long.

But that wasn't going to happen anymore.

The boy dozing off in her arms made sure of that.

"Ms. Guevara?"

Max looked up at the doctor and tried to figure out the news, but his face gave away nothing. "Yes?"

"We have the results of Carol Landry's surgery."

Her breathing started to become rapid, she tensed up. However, Max tried extremely hard not to wake the slumbering boy in her arms.

"She is going to make a full recovery."

Max's distressed face broke out into a full-fledged grin. It felt like a huge weight had been lifted off her shoulders. She thanked the doctor and he walked away, returning her smile.

She gently shook Bobby's tiny frame.

"Hon, wake up. I have something to tell you."

He blinked several times, coaxing himself out of unconsciousness. "Huh?"

"Your mommy's gonna be all right."

***** 
End