Disclaimer – I own nothing. Sorry about the wait, been pretty busy with school and life in general. This chapter takes place about two weeks after last chapter, and is very Ben and Hal with a little Hal and Maggie. Enjoy and please review, I would love to know your thoughts! Song used is Concrete Angel by Christina Novelli.

Chapter 7

Concrete Angel

If you keep building these walls, brick by brick towers so tall, soon I won't see you at all, till the concrete angel falls

Hal was lying down on the street, it was cold and dark. He slowly stood up and looked around. Suddenly, a bright, blue light was shone right into his eyes. Hal blinked many times, trying to see clearly, and what he saw made the blood in his veins turn to ice.

A mech stood on the street, behind a line of children, many only around 10 years old. Without any warning, the mech lifted its metal arm, pointed it at the children, and started firing.

Hal screamed as he watched the kids start falling down to the ground. He turned around and there, standing behind him blocking his path, was the Overlord that had captured and tortured him.

*Knock Knock*

Hal awoke with a start. He wasn't in the street, he was lying on his cot in the room he had been sharing with Tector, as there was not enough room for everyone to get their own room. Ben was with Matt, his Dad was with Anne, and Maggie was with Deni.

"You okay man?" The oldest Mason turned his head to the other side of the cot to face the doorway, where Tector was standing with his fist on the door.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Hal's answer was automatic, had been for some time actually. Hal sat up as the painful throb in his head made its self known. Hal lifted up his hand and rubbed his temples, trying to dull it.

"Still getting those headaches?" Tector asked, watching the young man rub his head, something that had become a very regular thing since he had woken up.

"Nothing I can't handle." Hal said, getting up off the cot.

"Hal, no one would blame you if you wanted to sit this one out."

"That's all I've been doing for the last two weeks. Trust me. I can do this." Hal stated, grabbing his coat off the dresser and putting his shoes on. Tector nodded, knowing exactly what Hal was feeling and thinking, as he had been in the same spot not long ago, so he kept his mouth shut and together they left the room.

FSFSFSFSFSFSFSFSFSFSFS

As Hal headed towards the vehicles, he saw Anthony, Deni, Maggie and Ben waiting for them. It was a simple mission, one group, which will be Maggie, Tector and Deni, will distract some skitters guarding a huge store, while the other group, Ben, Hal, and Anthony will get as much food out as possible. And when finished, or if plan fails, blow the entire thing up and rid themselves of more skitters.

"You sure you're okay to do this?" Maggie asked as he came to the truck, her voice quiet enough that only Hal could hear.

"For the hundredth time, yes." Hal replied, not hiding his frustration at all. After answering the question constantly over the last two weeks, Hal was sick of it. If Maggie didn't believe him, she was smart enough not to say so. In fact, she dropped the matter entirely, and the group made ready to leave.

FSFSFSFSFSFSFSFSFSFSFS

As Ben expected, the mission did not go exactly has planned, as if it ever does. The skitters had seen the group enter the building and attacked. They managed to kill them all, or at least, Hal did. The minute Hal had seen the skitters charging, it was like he became another person.

He had never seen Hal so angry. It was as though any emotion that Hal had disappeared. It reminded him of what he was like, back before he met the rebel skitters. Ben knew that it was because of what had happened when Hal was captured. Now though, they were going through the food and filling up the trucks.

Ben looked over at his brother though Hal didn't seem to notice. Whether or not Hal was purposely ignoring him was another matter entirely. Hal hadn't really been giving Ben much attention unless he had to after what happened with Maggie, not that Ben really blamed him. If Hal did what he did, he wouldn't be giving Hal any attention unless it was necessary either.

He was getting very worried about his brother. It had only been about 2 weeks since Hal had been found, and they still knew nothing about what happened, but whatever it was, Ben could see it had a major effect on his big brother.

All his cuts and bruises from the car crash had started healing. The needle marks were no longer visible, in fact, the only evidence of Hal's capture was the still healing chafed skin around his neck and wrists. Everyone knew though, that there were more than physical wounds that needed healing, but they also knew that would take something very big to finally get Hal to open up about what happened.

He refused to say anything to anyone about what he had been through, what he was thinking, and what he was feeling. He would just push it down and try to move on, just like, just like their Mother actually. There have been times lately where Ben had noticed a change in Hal, that he had somewhat become a little bit like their Dad, but it was at times like this where he was reminded even more so that Hal was their Mom's son.

Ben had always known that Hal looked like Rebecca, that much was obvious to anyone who had ever seen her picture and compared her to Hal, but at times, he had forgotten how much like her Hal was. It made Ben miss her all the more. If only she was here, she could get through to Hal, she always knew what to do and what to say to get him to open up.

Maybe he should talk to Maggie, see if she could get Hal to open up a little. He knew that despite everything, they did still care for each other a lot. If anyone could get Hal to do anything, it would probably be Maggie.

For now, though, they had no choice but to wait until Hal was ready to talk, and considering how pig headed his older brother could be, it was going to be a very long wait.

"Why are you staring at me?" Ben was shaken out of his thoughts by Hal's voice, and realized he had been staring at his brother the entire time.

"No reason. Sorry." Ben said. Hal just shook his head and went back to work, which Ben decided he should be doing as well, he'd leave everything else alone, for now.

FSFSFSFSFSFSFSFSFSFSFSFS

Maggie watched as Hal jumped out of the truck. She wasn't an idiot, she knew that Hal was struggling with what had happened. Ben confirmed it when he told her what Hal had done during the fight.

She wasn't sure if she should approach him, given the situation that they had somehow found themselves in. He had said he was fine with them taking a break, as long as they could still be friends, but it was still very awkward. Maggie wanted to help him, but he wasn't a very open person to begin with, she doubted he would be now.

Despite knowing that, Maggie was still very worried about him, so she put down her gun and walked over to Hal, who was staring to help Tector unload the boxes.

"Hey." She said, smiling at him. He turned to look at her and said, "Hey," then turned back to unpacking the truck.

"How's it going?" She asked, watching him.

"It's going good." He replied, completely focused on his task.

"Could we talk?" Hal finally turned and looked at her then. He stared at her for a few minutes then nodded, and together they walked away from the group.

"So, what's up?" He wondered, after a good 10 minutes of silence.

"I don't know, you tell me." Maggie responded. Hal immediately stopped walking causing Maggie to stop as well. She turned around and looked at him.

"Is this another way of asking if I'm okay and what happened?" Hal all but accused.

"Maybe. Okay yes." Hal turned around and started walking back to the 2nd Mass. Maggie ran to him and grabbed his arm, stopping him from leaving.

"You can't keep ignoring it Hal. You went through a lot, I can tell. You can't just bottle it in and hope it goes away. It doesn't work like that. Sooner or later, it's gonna come out." Maggie told him.

"I don't want to talk about this." Hal said, then tried to move away, but with Maggie's new strength due to her spikes, he couldn't get out of her grip.

"Well too bad. You have to."

"Why?"

"Because we don't want to lose you to this! I've been there, losing yourself to those feelings of anger and fear. Your family can't lose you. I can't lose you." Maggie admitted.

"You mean just like I couldn't lose?" Hal inquired, which confused Maggie.

"What are you talking about?" Maggie questioned. Hal finally turned back to face her.

"You were dying Maggie. You were dying, and I couldn't take it, I couldn't lose you okay. So I did what it took to save you. Even if Anne saved you, you still would've been paralyzed. You might've been able to handle it for a while, but I knew, soon you'd start hating yourself for not being able to help, and you'd start feeling like nothing more than a burden and I couldn't let that happen to you. And if you think that I didn't have the right to make that decision, then you don't have the right to make me do something I don't want to do either using the same argument." After saying his piece, Hal walked away, back to the 2nd Mass, and this time Maggie didn't stop him.

FSFSFSFSFSFSFSFSFSFS

Hal walked right past the two trucks that Ben, Anthony, Deni and Tector were still unloading and right back to his room. His headache that had left not long after they headed out and since returned, feeling at least 10 times worse.

Hal walked over to his cot, but before he could lie down, the pain increased. His temples pounding and he fell to his knees at the side of the cot. It was as though someone was pounding a nail into his brain with a mallet. It was only when the pain went up another notch, did Hal pass out by his bed.

Till the concrete angel falls

Author's Note – And this concludes chapter 7. Next chapter should be up soon. Please review, I would love to know your thoughts. See you soon!