A/N: Hello again! Last update for a while as Marn is down til Sunday. It's our 6-month mark next Monday, see ^_^ To answer your questions: Becks, re-read the first chapter carefully, it does say (hint: "twenty-second year"). JKA: I'm really not planning on killing off Keira this time. That one's a cert. :D

Also, PLEASE go and see "127 Hours" if you haven't. It's fckuing brilliant. Unless you're faint-hearted. I'm not and I got lightheaded. ANYWAY, GO AND SEE IT but not before reading and reviewing this chapter. See y'all Sunday/ Monday. ~ Mika

WARNING: Implied...themes. I'll say no more, but don't say I didn't warn you.

The house was silent for once, the little one being fast asleep and his father not being home. That in itself was a laugh; the boy didn't know his father.

Or at least, it was silent until the doorbell rang, at which point Keira Hagai jumped out of her skin with a combination of surprise and terror. Heart pounding, she ran to the door, opening it to see a thin, tattooed face, light blue eyes staring straight through her.

"Torn?" she gasped.

"Is he home?" he said, speaking in a fast, low and urgent tone and looking around just in case the "he" in question was close.

"No, he won't be back til late. Come in quick, before someone sees you," she whispered in her usual slightly gravelly tone. Torn complied and the young woman clicked the door shut behind her inconspicuously. She leaned against it, uttering a long sigh of relief.

"How's Daniel?" Torn asked, shedding his coat. Keira took it before he dropped it on the floor as he usually did.

"He's good, he's asleep right now. How's being in the KG?"

Torn twisted his mouth in answer.

Keira's shoulders fell. "You should leave..."

"I'm about to. I was going to hand in my notice today," Torn replied. "Look, Keir...I don't know how much longer I can keep seeing you before Erol starts to get suspicious..."

"Why? It's not like I'm playing away," she said, tilting her chin in defiance. "Although the way he treats me, I might as well be whoring myself out to the entire male population of Haven." Unconsciously, she rubbed her exposed forearms.

The older man gave a dry chuckle. "You're saying I should leave and yet you...you're more his prisoner than Jak."

The mechanic's head shot up at the name. "Have you heard anything about – ?"

Torn bit the insides of his cheeks, wondering if he should answer.

"No, then." Her tone was disappointment wrapped up in a ribbon of bitterness. She pulled her shoulders in, folding her arms, her hands on her upper arms as if she was cold. It had been two whole years since Jak disappeared and every day, she was more and more convinced that his body was rotting in the stomach of a Metal Head. Or worse, getting eroded by the Wasteland sands. She was understandably anxious, but she couldn't voice those anxieties to Erol. Talking about Jak, well...let's just say it more than upset him.

"Keir, I'm sorry. If I knew anything about it, you'd be the first to know." The Commander's tone was uncharacteristically gentle.

"Then why did you come here?" Her tone was uncharacteristically cold, and the other man took a step back.

"To see how you and Daniel were? To see if you'd heard anything before me?"

"Thought you'd know more, given that the last time anyone saw me, he was fighting KGs," she snapped. Suddenly, she seemed to shudder, her face and body losing the hard language it had just spoken. "I..." She swallowed. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't be that...that w-way." She locked her jaw, saying no more. I'm turning into Erol.

Torn ran his tongue over his lips in a subtle manner. "I understand."

"Y-you'd better go. Before Erol gets back," she whispered, eyes lowered to the ground.

"Yeah," he replied thickly, voice hoarse. As hard as his exterior was, letting people down played on his slightly softer interior a great amount. He took his coat from Keira's hanging hand, his fingers accidentally brushing against hers. Her green eyes shifted to meet his paler ones and for just a moment, the world – and their breathing – stopped spinning. Breaking the gaze, Torn shouldered his coat and continued down the small hallway, opening the door and slamming it shut again.

A split second after that, Keira heard small footsteps above her, and she fled up the stairs to tend to her son. Somehow, he'd managed to unlock the door too, despite the fact the locks were higher than him. His mother shook her head and chuckled, scooping her toddler up in her arms and holding him close, bringing him out onto the landing.

"A troublemaker. Just like your father," she whispered in his ears. Daniel Hagai had never known his real father, having only known Erol as a dad. Keira had been taken in by the Captain when she herself didn't know she was pregnant, although Erol's untoward behaviour had already started in the following night. Somewhat amazingly, he had backed off through the pregnancy, but after Daniel was born it only got worse.

Several times Keira had vowed to escape, or tried to. Each time, he always caught her.

"I promise you, Daniel..." She squeezed her eyes shut, burying her face in his hair. "I promise you. Soon. As soon as I hear about – "

SLAM.

Diving back into Daniel's bedroom, Keira looked furtively at the clock. No. It can't be that time already, can it? Please Mar, don't let it be that time!

That last door slam rang like the chimes of doom in her ears.

Then she heard him yell.

"KEIRA! Where are you?"

"It's okay, Danny," she softly reassured her frightened son. "Just stay here, okay? I'll go and see what Daddy wants..."

"Are you in here? Get down here, you whore!"

She squeezed her son one last time, then walked out the room, closing the door behind her and trying to resign herself to what she knew was coming.