-NOTE- I know I normally leave notes at the end, but this chapter is the direct continuation from The Creature From The Black Lagoon. Just wanted to make that point. Enjoy!

By the time Rock and Revy got back to their apartment, Rock had already managed to lose both his shirt and tie. The shirt was long gone down in a gutter somewhere, thrown out the window by his crazy pregnant girlfriend on the drive home, but his tie had been stuffed down his girlfriends pants. Rock was still suffering from a mini heart-attack caused by Revy's driving, but managed to keep his feet moving as they climbed the stairs to their apartment. They had decided to move into Rock's apartment, since it had better AC and a lot less bullet holes, though Revy was working on remedying that little issue quite quickly.

"Come on Revy, you're gonna ruin that tie" He half-heartily wined, as they climbed the last few stairs. "You know how hard it is to get those out here"

"If you want it back dumb-ass, go get it" Revy challenged, a mischievous grin on her face.

Rock looked at her with a look that was both endearing and pissed. As they opened the door to the apartment, Rock pushed Revy against the wall, fully intent on getting his tie back. However, unlike how Revy predicted, he instead slipped his hands down the back of her pants, grabbed the tie, and slowly pulled in out over her ass. She moaned as he did this, relishing him touching her.

It had been too long, as far as she was concerned, since they had spent an evening romping in bed. After she began getting excessively sick during her seventh month of pregnancy, Rock had laid down the law, stating that he would do everything in his power to make sure she got through this pregnancy alive, along with the baby. This included not having sex with his smoking hot girlfriend. This had only served to further piss Revy off as she had only gotten hornier the longer she was pregnant.

The two continued to make out and feel each other up as they stumbled their way into the bedroom, kicking the door shut on the way by. A strong warning to anyone who might disturb them; should that door open, the one responsible would end up with a second asshole on their forehead. But as to who would fire the shot, that would be the real mystery,

Rock lay in the bed he shared with Revy, a tangled mess of sheets, limbs, and hair. Revy had long since fallen asleep once she had gotten her fix. However, Rock was still wide awake, despite his best efforts.

If someone had told him on the day he joined the Lagoon Company that in a few short years, the most dangerous gunslinger in the city of Roanapur would give up both drinking and smoking of her own accord, he'd have told them to lay off the cocaine. Add to that, Revy's decision was a result her being pregnant with Rock's child to boot, made Rock wonder if any of this was real, or if Revy had managed to shoot him that day in the market all those years ago, and he was living in some sort of purgatory.

By her own admission, Revy had been certain there was no chance of getting pregnant, thanks to a prison fight that had gotten out of hand. If one were to look closely at her stomach, they might be able to see the faint reminder of the shank forcibly impaled into her reproductive tract; not that anyone but Rock could ever get close enough to examine her. However, the human body is an amazing piece of biological mystery, and the wound had healed in such a way as to allow Revy to get pregnant. Which is how the current situation had arisen. At first, the crew had thought Revy caught a nasty bug, not uncommon in a city of filth. But as time went on, Rock, being the most experienced in knowledge at least of what the signs of pregnancy were, convinced Revy to take a pregnancy test. When it came back positive... well the men of Lagoon Company decided that it was time to redecorate the little room they called an office anyways.

After her panic attack, Revy made a complete 180, at least in some parts of her life. She immediately threw out all the booze she could find, both in the office and on the Boat. This resulted in Dutch hiding some cases in a fuel cell on the boat. He'd be burning in hell before he stopped drinking, just because his muscle was pregnant. Revy also quit smoking, and demanded that anyone around her also stop smoking, at gun point if they pushed the issue. This was how Benny ended up with a scar running across his forehead. He though he was far enough away from the crazy pregnant woman to light one up. Apparently not and she shot the nic-stick right out of his mouth, grazing his head in the process. After that, he never smoked within a mile of Revy, knowingly that is.

Some would think that it was wildly out of character for the one called Two Hands to give up her favorite vices. But Rock knew her much better than everyone else did, both inside and out. His suspicion, though not fully confirmed (and if he could get a straight answer out of his girlfriend, he would find out he was correct), was that Revy, whom obliviously hated her father since she had killed him herself, also held a deep resentment towards her mother for her not being there in her life. She changed her ways so that the child growing inside her wouldn't have to suffer the same fate/hatred she did.

Those revelations had not been easy for Rock to get, or Revy to give. It wasn't too long after the disaster of the US Army coming after Roberta, that Rock had seriously considered leaving Roanapur. Everyone he had tried to help, never truly got saved. Yukio, the Yakuza boss from Japan, had killed herself right in front of Rock's eyes. And while Roberta was alive, she suffered massive physical damage, and most of the US soldiers whom were after her were dead. It had seemed that no matter how he tried, even stepping out of his twilight realm and into Revy's darkness, he couldn't save anyone. So he had thought it best he head somewhere else, lest he try and save one of his team. It didn't help he was confused by the actions of Revy. She always told him he wasn't cut out to live in Roanapur, that he was too soft for the life of a pirate. He knew this. He had tried to be tougher, by stepping into her world, with the mistaken idea that he could save the maid and the soldiers by playing in the darkness. And she had beat him up for that too. He couldn't win, no matter what rules he played by. So why play the game at all?

Rock and Revy personified the classic example told in the US about children with a lack of social skills. The tale of a little girl who likes a boy at school, but picks on him constantly; calling him names, making fun of him, just being an all around little shit. This can sometimes be explained by the fact that the little girl lacks the skill/knowledge to know that to get what she really wants, she should just ask the boy out, instead of hoping he will every time she bullies him. The little boy on the other hand, continues to interpret the actions of the girl as an abject hatred for him, seeing her as a terrible person whom he only desires to get away from. And thus, the girl keeps pushing the boy away as hard as she can, while desperately hoping he will get closer to her with every nasty word. Pushing people away was the only thing Revy knew how to do. Everyone in her life whom she had ever trusted had betrayed her at some point, with the exception of Dutch and Benny, but they were special cases; they were more like a makeshift family to her. The kind that always had your back no matter what. Rock on the other hand, was an even different case entirely. It all came to a head the night Revy found him sitting on the deck of the Lagoon, after a completed job several months after the Terminator Maid Incident (TMI) version 2.0, as Revy had named it.

Revy walked up the ladder onto the deck. She looked around before noticing Rock, sitting on the edge of the bow.

"Yo, Rock. What the hell are you doing out here? There's plenty of beer below deck. But you'll have to get it yourself. I ain't your damn maid"

Rock remained silent, not even bothering to turn around or acknowledge Revy's presence. This infuriated Revy. She hated being ignored, especially by Rock (for reasons she wouldn't admit just yet). She began walking towards him, fully intending to kick his ass overboard for being rude to her.

"Yo, captain dipshit. Didn't you hear what I said. There's beer. Now it might be like drinking piss but its a hell of a lot better than sitting up here like a goddamn-"

Revy stopped short when the moonlight glimmered off of something sitting next to Rock. She squinted her eyes to get a better look. They went wide when she realized what it was. Sitting on the deck, just to the side of Rock, was a handgun. She sucked in a small gasp, before opening her mouth.

"Hey Rock... What's going on?" Her voice was low and quiet, the voice typically used when someone was trying to talk another out of committing suicide. This surprised Revy, as she wasn't the type to try and talk someone down this way.

"Is everything alright?" She continued when he refused to answer or look at her.

"What does it matter?" Rock asked, his voice quivering on the brink of breaking down into full blown sobs. "What does any of it matter?"

"Because the pussy who is terrified of guns is sitting on the deck of a boat alone, in the middle of the night, with a gun at his side. That's why dumb-ass" Revy winced when she said this. Despite wanting to talk Rock out of whatever he needed that gun for, she still hadn't resisted insulting him once again.

Rock remained silent for a moment before he started laughing quietly.

"Dumb-ass. That seems appropriate. Everything I've ever done has been dumb. All I ever do is stupidly believe that I can save people. Yet everyone ends up worse off after I intervene. So why bother?"

He paused for a moment before continuing.

"Honestly, I get it now. You told me that if I spent too much time in Roanapur, I would become infected by the filth of the city. But its not how I originally thought. My infection from Roanapur isn't that I step into the darkness, its the mistaken belief that I can step into the light. This cold, manipulative person, is what I've always been; a man living in the darkness, it just took a while to see it. If I had kept climbing the corporate ladder in Japan, I would've eventually turned into my bosses; the very people I claimed to despise. I am one in the same with them, nothing more than a wolf wearing sheep's clothing, pretending I can be something I'm not"

Revy was riveted to her spot on deck by Rocks words. How could he believe the crap he was spewing. Revy desperately wanted to help him, to say something to make him feel better so she could feel better. But she didn't know how, or why she even cared. All she knew to do was pull out her Cutlasses and shot... and that was exactly what she did. She drew a Cutlass and cocked the hammer, aiming the gun at Rock's head.

"Shut up damn it" She hissed, her shaky voice betraying her rage. "Just shut the fuck up"

Rock sighed as once again Revy had pulled a gun on him. This was old news by this point. How many times had she threatened to kill him and hadn't?

"You gonna finally show me the color of my brain Revy?" He deadpanned, turning around to look at Revy, his face a mixture of anguish, self loathing, rage, and a smile.

"Will you just fuck off Rock?" Revy replied, this time with more anger in her voice. Despite Revy's limited critical thinking skills, she was desperately trying to resolve this situation and return things to how they had always been, with her berating him while he stupidly apologized to her. The simple life as far as the pair went.

"And why should I? Isn't this what you've always said? You said I should be tougher if I wanted to survive in this line of work. So I step into your world; the darkness, to be more like you; more able to survive. But as soon as I'm there, you tell me I've been corrupted by the city and should leave. So what is it then? By your most recent actions, you want me to leave, yet you follow me around like a goddamn child who you think needs constant parental supervision. I thought you wanted every excuse to be rid of me!"

"You were never cut out for this life Rock. You need all the help you can get. Why else would I risk my own hide by pulling a gun on Balalaika when you decided to open your damn mouth and try to tell her what to do? You weren't even smart enough to know when you should keep your fucking mouth shut. How you talked your way out of that fucking mess still amazes me" Revy spat back at him

"And why do you care? I am... was... just an extortion payment when I joined. Declared dead by anyone who I could remotely consider as close to me, all to cover up the mistakes of others. I try to help people, to fill that void in my life with a hobby and it has never worked. Not once! So what value does my life have? You've always threatened to kill me, but for some reason have never followed through! And yet you have the nerve to tell me I'm too soft?! Well maybe it's time one of us grew some balls instead of being cowards!" Rock screamed, grabbing the gun at his side and pointing it at his head.

"You motherfucking asshole!" Revy screamed, raising her gun up higher, now squarely aimed right between Rock's eyes. "What do you know about anything?!"

"Apparently a lot less than the Great Two Hands, as you keep reminding me. So tell me, oh wise one, why shouldn't I pull the trigger? Then you'd finally be rid of me. You'll no longer have to listen to me complain about every person I fail to save. And on top of all that, you won't have to deal with the wrath of Dutch for putting a bullet in my head! You'll finally get everything you wanted! SO WHY SHOUDN'T I PULL THE DAM TRIGGER?!"

Revy's hand was beginning to shake as she tried to hold the gun aimed at Rock. She knew the reason, deep down anyways, in the little part of her that still held a shred of humanity and compassion. But words were not a weapon Revy was used to wielding. She had no idea how to explain it to Rock, and even if she did, there was another part of her that couldn't allow her to be seen as weak by anyone. Tears were starting to streak down her face as the emotional roller coaster inside her body was deciding on where it wanted to end. The decision was made however, when Rock cocked the hammer back on the gun in his hand.

A/N: And here we are, some good ole Rock and Revy interaction. I know that someone will probably complain that I didn't write more for the sex scene between the two. My response is that I'm not E.L. James (not that I've read any of her work, I'm just aware of it). I prefer to leave it up to the reader to imagine that. Plus, there is a ton of Black Lagoon smut on the site already; go read one of those if that's what you were looking for. I want to explore the depth of these characters, to unravel their minds and see where their breaking point is. I think I can post chapters 4 and 5 today as well. I have been writing this story for a month already so they are fairly polished already. Hope you enoyed!

-NightSteed Out