A/N: You KNOW Ben wasn't going to do it once he saw Charlie Jr. You know he couldn't.
Summary: He has a weak spot for kids.
Kids.
He has a weak spot for kids. Where it comes from, he's not sure. But it's there because when he looks at that little boy, he can't shoot his mother anymore. No matter what. Because when he sees that little boy, he sees himself, thirty-some odd years younger, struggling to stay silent while his father rages to no one in the living room. Taking the beatings. Feeling the bruises. He is young again, meeting her for the first time.
He has a weak spot for kids. It must have been the day his innocence died. The day they took it to save him. A strange day, bizarre, to say the least. It was a blur. He can't even say he remembers it. Just the temple. Vague flashes of rocks and fire. Of voices. And then nothing. Whatever happened to him, he can't recall. And maybe he's better off for it, but he's feeling like the whole world is punishing him for it.
He has a weak spot for kids. Annie could be the reason. Because his earliest memories of her are ones of her only a few years older than this woman's child. And he knows he can't kill her.
But it doesn't matter. He lowers his gun. Desmond lunges at him. He deserves this.
He has a weak spot for kids.
And he killed his child.
It just wouldn't be right to do it all over again.