A/N Insert joke about this being all in one day and the disclaimer which I forgot earlier and call it a day.

Chapter 3 …and words…

"Yes, Samus," Peach spoke through her phone to a fellow worker. "The suspect did get away after attacking both of us... no, I'm fine... yeah, he's fine, too... heh, you're right, that's Falco. Don't know how he does it... yeah, so we could use some backup... Falco said this guy had some freaky moves...yeah. Meet us up at Stumptown Coffee... the one off Third Street... alright, thank you, Sam. Buh-bye."

She hung up her phone and set it gently down by her plate and glanced at Falco, who was just finishing guzzling down the last of his coffee. She grinned as she looked down at her plate, which held a donut, and English Muffin Egg sandwich, and a croissant, and over at Falco's single cup of coffee. Funny how things work out, she reminded herself.

Falco set his cup of coffee down, jarring Peach out of her thoughts and causing her to jump into an upright position. Falco grinned, this time more sheepish than fun-devious. "Sorry 'bout that."

Peach shook her head. "Nah, it's alright."

Falco laughed, but mid-laugh, he started coughing into his napkin. Not just coughing, but hacking up a lung. About 30 seconds later, he stopped, took a breath, and looked at his napkin, now dotted with blood. He frowned, crumpled it up, and took a glance at the trash bin. He moved his hand, did a quick second of measuring, and then tossed the dirty napkin overhand into its target. It flew through the air in a straight downward line. It nearly hit a young girl in the face, but it landed in the can nicely. Falco smiled and sighed in relief.

Peach looked over at him. He still had a bit of dried blood on his face but he didn't seem to care. "Man... I'm really sorry about what happened to you." she told him.

Falco smiled. "Naw, don't worry. This isn't that bad. I'm a cop, this happens to me a lot, y'know?"

"But still, I was right there," Peach's words started to stumble out her mouth before she could stop them. "I should have at least tried to do something instead of just sit there, I mean, I know I'm not as agile and strong and stuff as you are, but you're my partner, and I should always have your back, and-"

"Hold it, hold it, hold it!" Falco put his hands up in the air. "You're too damn hard on yourself. I mean, I'm alright, you're alright, and we're gonna get this guy. Seriously. You don't need to worry about me. Just like you don't want me to worry about you."

A few seconds passed before Falco blurted out "Besides, I'm supposed to be this kind of guy. I mean, people pretty much see me and they run. Considering that half the time I looked mad as hell, I just, you know, kind of fit the guy who chases people down and stuff. You know, people see me and they feel intimidated, like... that fast."

As soon as he finished, Falco had to wonder to himself what the hell he had just said. It was as if he just pulled out a few random nagging thoughts and just...barfed them out. Christ, he's never that… well, open about things that bug him. If something bugs him, he just squashes it.

Peach finished her last piece of egg and said "Well, that's cause they don't have a damned clue. I mean, I'm just one person, but what I see is a man who doesn't take any bullshit. A man who looks for the truth and wields it. A man ready to kick ass, but only for the right reasons. A man whose mean exterior hides a mind so insightful and intelligent." She stopped for a second and added "Besides, I thought you didn't give a damn, right?"

" Falco sighed. "I know… usually I don't… but thanks. It's nice to hear that, even though I wasn't expecting it."

Peach smiled and finished the conversation with "It's only the truth."

Falco turned a slight shade of red. He tried to hold it back, hoping somehow he could change his current facial color back to normal just by willing it. Peach's way with words were about as good as his way with action. Maybe better. Yeah, probably better. "You're a real smart girl, you know that?"

"Aw, thanks," Peach smiled and looked towards the door as it opened. Her eyes swiftly narrowed in shock when she saw the Scarved Man walk through, with an air of nonchalant. She turned her head away and hissed "Scarved Man at 8 o'clock!"

"8 o'clock? The hell direction is that?"

"Behind you! To your right!"

Falco gently looked behind him and saw Scarved Man nodding and grabbing a cup of coffee. You wouldn't have been able to recognize him were it not for the fact that he had a scarf on; and even then the scarf was a different color than the one at the wharf; this time green as the PSU sweatshirt he was wearing. But the eyes were what made him stand out, even though they seemed subtler than before, probably thanks to contacts.

"What the hell is he doing here?" he hissed back to Peach. "He just flipped a bitch trying to get away from us!"

Peach shushed him with "Listen."

Falco stopped to listen, but shrugged a bit into it. "He's having small talk. What does that mean?"

"It means that he doesn't know we're here," she explained, frustration in her whisper. "Now, when I give the symbol, we both apprehend him unawares."

Falco nodded. "Okay, gotcha." He followed this with a mumble of "All the damn coffee shops in the city and he picks this one to get some Joe at."

Resuming a façade of nonchalant, the two paid their attentions to their phones, not letting their peripherals off of the man. Then, Peach put hers away and quietly gave the signal. "Now!"

Right when the two prepared to get up, the Scarved Man reacted by picking up his coffee. The moment he grabbed it, he swiftly threw it at the server's face, causing him to scream in agony and fall to the ground.

"Son of a bitch." Falco growled. Before he could say more, he was thrown to the ground, his feet pulled from underneath him. He sat there, stunned, as he saw Peach fall to the ground herself, also surprised, but not before she could pull off the scarf from his face.

Actually, her face.

"Son of a bitch's cousin." Falco was a bit surprised but figured in the long run it didn't matter, as he went to get his gun and leap up. He stopped in his tracks as the Scarved Woman pulled out a knife and held it to his throat before he could even realize what had happened.

"Twice removed." he added; even with a knife to his throat he was spouting out witticisms. He looked at Peach, who looked back at him with anxiety and surprise.

Falco looked at the Scarved Woman and roared "You better let us the fuck go right now, or I swear to god there will be hell to pay!"

Scarved Woman glared at him, insanity in her eyes and hissed "Shut up. I have no problem ending things for you right now." Her bloodshot eyes narrowed as she finished with a menacing "Do you really wanna play with me, boy?"

Falco was speechless for the first time he could remember.

Peach looked at the whole scenario. Scarved Woman was holding Falco at knife-point. But she wasn't taking any money out of the register; she didn't seem to be making a move on killing Falco. Why the hell was she here?

All Peach knew for certain was that Falco was not going to die on her watch.

"Alright, Miss…" she started.

"Sheik," the woman spat back.

"Sheik, I'm Officer Peach Davidson, and I'm going to ask you to put the knife down." she started, hobbling to her feet.

"And why the hell would I do that? You think I'm gonna buy the whole bullshit about 'you're not gonna go to jail if you put the knife down and just walk out?' Anyone who's seen an episode of Law and Order knows that that's not gonna happen." Sheik replied, hate spewing from her words. But if Peach was correct, the hate didn't seem to be directed at them at all.

"I wasn't going to, ma'am." Peach replied, trying to keep her nerves steadily. "You're going to jail, one way or another. But are you really ready to go to jail for killing a cop? Are you really ready to face that?"

"I don't give a damn anymore!" Sheik's voice grew into a yell, blasting Falco's eardrums. "I've got not a damn thing on this Earth I care about, not a damn thing, and it doesn't give a damn about me either! I don't give a shit if I drag it all down to hell with me."

Peach looked at her eyes, and the pain that clouded out all the traces of hate and evil that she should have right about now. She saw, and she understood. "The whole Earth abandoned you, you say? I think I understand."

"Understand? How the hell do you understand?" was the response.

"I can see in your eyes. You don't hate anyone here. You're angry. You're hurt. You're upset. Maybe even betrayed."

"How… do you think you know that?" Sheik spat back at her, her voice returning to a hiss. Peach could tell that her resolve was shaking, though.

"I'm not just a shrink guessing. I'm empathizing more than anything," Peach said, trying to keep herself steady. "I know what it's like to be in so much pain that you want to throw it upon everyone."

"You?" Sheik sneered. "Don't make me laugh. I can tell how pampered you are in life. You look as soft and naïve as a rabbit. Don't tell me how hard shit is for you."

"Sometimes it's more than it seems," Peach glanced at the ground. "But, you're right. I'm not here to preach about myself or go 'oh poor me.' I just want you to tell me, honest to God, why are you here? Why do you have a knife to my partner's throat? This doesn't seem just like something you'd do for sport."

Sheik's grip tightened on the knife, and nicked Falco's skin slightly. He looked at Peach with pleading eyes. It pained him so much, to be the one praying for his life with Peach trying to defend herself alone.

God, he just wanted to be of some service!

"My brother," she sighed, and Peach could tell that there was a relief on those two words. The knife relaxed slightly from Falco's neck.

"Your brother?" Peach pressed.

"You killed my brother," she repeated, louder, angrier.

"Who killed your brother?" Bewilderment shone in Peach's reaction.

"You! Goddamn police officers! Police officers killed my brother!" Sheik was back to a yell.

Peach almost dropped her gun when she heard that. This was exactly what she worked against, why she was an officer in the first place. But her face betrayed no shock as she said "How did this happen?"

Sheik shook with anger with every sentence. "He was a homeless man. Lived out in Forest Park. I rarely was able to see him, because he moved around often. He was going mad there. Nothing… was ever working out right for him… he was losing his mind." Sheik's voice started to quiver, but she forced herself to keep it together.

"He ran into some police officers on one of the trails and asked for change. The officers just brushed him off, like he wasn't there. Ike… my brother was desperate. He picked up a stick, and swung it at one of the officers and demanded some change, knocking him down… Ike was always a strong man.

"Before the other officer even looked at the stick well enough, just… bam. Ike was dead. No effort, no attention, no thinking before he fired the fucking gun, just… bam. And all he wanted… all he wanted was some change… no, all he wanted was his fucking life back!" By now her voice had cracked measurably, but she was still standing steadily. "They killed him so thoughtlessly… he was all the family I had left here and they didn't give me anything more than a half-assed apology letter. And it's not even the first fucking time it's happened- they kill innocent people just like my brother all the fucking time!" She finished this expression back in a pained whisper.

But when she turned to look at Falco, rage returned to her voice. "And you! You were just going to fire right off at me and kill me just like that! You're just like them! I'm going to make all of you suffer a loss just like mine! Maybe when you lose one of yours like I lost mine, you'll finally wake up!" She was at a full on shriek by now as she drew the knife towards his throat, ready to make a kill move.

Peach gasped. "Ma'am, please. Put… the knife down."

"Hurts, doesn't it?" was the reply, manic.

"Ma'am! Just look at me!"

The force in Peach's tone was enough to surprise the knife-wielding woman into looking up at her. To the surprise of all the unfortunate people present (the few customers who were bleakly entranced by the standoff) Peach's face wore an expression of sorrow, yet determination. She didn't look to be full on sobbing, but you could tell in her eyes the empathy promised earlier; the feeling of desperation. Her tone betrayed none of that, though, as she made her final argument at a rapid word speed.

"Ma'am, please, I know how horrible this is, I do, I truly do. It pains me to see how much this has hurt you, because this is exactly what I fight to stop. Just trust me when I saw that this has turned you into a monster of yourself; I know you wouldn't really shoot a police officer if this hadn't happened. But if you kill this man right now, you're not going to get anything out of it; no one is. It's just gonna get worse; we'll just be jumping the gun more often. You're only going to hurt everyone if you do this."

She took a breath and finished with Just… please, I can tell you, that just because you're a monster now doesn't mean it's always going to be this way. These people turned you into one but you can turn yourself back. You've just got to fight the demons of the past, of what happened, of what turned you, and then you start fresh, and you create whatever you want for yourself. I… I'm not here to preach to you, I want so badly to help you, but I can't help you as much as you can yourself." At the last sentence, her voice cracked and she stopped, with pleading, forceful eyes.

Falco gasped even with a knife to his throat. She actually used his words. And she actually said them better than he did. He felt a pang of pride. He put in a short "Listen, ma'am, I know what it's like to lose someone the way you did. That's exactly why I jumped you so fast… we can see how well that went, right?" He attempted a nervous chuckle that came out more like a gasp.

The woman stood there, motionless, like a Grecian statue. The crowd, Peach and Falco stood there for sixty painful seconds, not sure what direction the knife was going to go and having no further ability to do anything about it.

Then the room jumped at the sound of metal clattering. Everyone's eyes darted towards the woman, who had dropped the knife at Falco's feet. None were more surprised than Falco himself, who got up hesitantly.

Peach took this opportunity to walk over to Sheik, who made no attempts to resist; trying to hold strong and steady but not being able to prevent a few stray tears as Peach cuffed her.

"You're going to be heading to jail now, it seems. But take this as a chance. Use this to fight your demons and become your vision. And despite what Lawyers may spit at you on the stand and what people who hear of this may say of you, you are not going to be a monster anymore."

The moment Peach whispered gently as they walked out the door "Live for your brother… in some way… you've got so much potential…" was when Sheik finally started to break down. Peach squeezed her hand gently, comfortingly as they walked to the cruiser.

Right around there was when their requested backup arrived. Falco rolled his eyes and, attempting a joke, said "About damn time. Always arrive after the fight, don't they?" No one laughed, so he stopped trying to put up a front and opened the door, letting the cold wind let him sober up to what happened, letting it wash over him and alert him out of this surreal daze. He made no efforts to walk out, though. Peach was already heading back inside.

He held the door open, but she didn't take more than a step in as the crowds cleared out.

Without looking over at him, she said "Her name was Sheik Levinson. She was the one who mugged Red. Looks like she'll get a plea deal and we'll get Red his stuff back."She blinked a bit and added "And Sam told me our shift's about over. So we can head home now."

Falco nodded and stood in front of her. "Peach… thanks. For everything. I owe you one."

"No, don't mention it. It's just my job," she tried saying the words he had told her earlier, but with little conviction.

"You know, when you told her what I told you, something I hadn't quite pieced together myself, I felt so proud of you," he admitted, grabbing her hand. "It was nice to know you remembered."

Before she could respond, he continued with "But you know, and I know, that saying that 'it's just your job' is utter bullshit. You put yourself out there… that's one of the bravest things I've seen. And I know, right now, you're starting to feel-"

He hadn't finished his sentence before she fell into him shakily, breaking down into sobs. Damnit, she hated being the one to break out into sobs. Especially since it was over her duties as a police officer that had broken her down; it made her feel weak, like this wasn't the job for her. But Falco, someone that even she had to admit was brave, had told her how brave she was. Was she doing things right?

She didn't say a word, and he didn't ask her to. She just stood there, relieving her burden, letting it splash in little bits unceremoniously onto the floor. And he held her there the entire time.

She didn't notice the small, sparse tears on her shoulder that didn't belong to her.

A/N Now we wrap to a conclusion! Chapter 4 next!

MoD