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I immediately damned myself. The grin I had managed to get from her was gone and a shadow clouded her eyes. She looked down again and felt silent, then I saw a single tear falling down her cheek.

"Hey, F...Fran, what's wrong?" I got up from my chair and sat next to her, to my surprise, she hugged me and hid her face in my neck, she wasn't sobbing but I could feel my shirt getting wet. I put my arms around her and hugged her tight. It felt so good; her body in my arms, I could smell her hair, I just wished the situation was different.

After some minutes she separated from me, and I couldn't believe how much it hurt me not perceiving her heat any more. She got a napkin and cleaned her eyes and nose, then she whispered her sorry. I put my hand over hers and squeezed it, reassuring her.

"Why are you like this? What is happening? Please tell me," I begged. She looked at me and then her sight got lost at some spot in the wall behind me. We stayed like that for a minute and I started to think that she wouldn't talk to me at all, but finally she spoke.

"I always thought I'd be one."

"One what?" I asked confused, she looked down again.

"A mother."

The answer left me with even more questions than before but I decided to keep silent and listen. Francoise gave a sigh and a last tear drop escaped her eyes. She continued.

"Professor Gilmore confirmed it for me today, he wasn't sure, because he had nothing to do with that procedure, but I should have known already, after all... What for does a cyborg need an uterus?"

I felt cold from head to top, her words echoing in my head... I understood now her mood, her desire to feel more like a human; like Fran, and less like 003, the cyborg.

"You mean, you can't..."

She shook her head. "We keep many human organs, but apparently they thought I wouldn't need some of them, so they took them out. Of course... I noticed some changes, like the lack of my period, but deep in me I had hopes, that whatever was done to me could be reversed, that I could some day have a normal life again, that I could have children, I always wanted to have them, but now... one more dream is gone... and I feel like there is not much left to fight for."

I always wanted to get closer to Francoise, and now there we were, talking about a theme so private to her, so intimate. I didn't know what to think, or say. A dull pain nested in my chest and I felt like if I couldn't breath properly. I hated them all in that moment, I hated black ghost, I hated his organization, I hated any one who had to do with her present pain, and all I wanted to do was to make them pay. Make them suffer.

But I tried to let go those feelings, they were of no use for me, or her. All that occurred to me was offer her my arm again and to my surprise she let herself rest in my chest. I caressed her hair and gave her a kiss on the top of her head.

"There is plenty to fight for Fran, maybe you will not have the family you dreamed of, but you have us, we are your family now, we love you, and when everything is over with black ghost we will be able to start a new life"

"We will go in different ways probably. Why staying together if there is really the chance to start our lives again? I might start over, but there will be no family for me Joe."

"I would never leave you." The words were out of my mouth even before I realized it, my heart started beating fast, so fast that it should have been impossible for Francoise's super hearing senses not to notice it.

She rose and looked at me, she seemed surprised, but not mad. She took my hand then, I was blushing again, I could feel it. She asked me with trembling voice, "Really?"

Really? I asked myself. Did I say those words sincerely? I looked inside of me and the answer was as clear as water. I had always known, but I didn't realize it until that moment. I rose as well.

"Really."

Her eyes started to water again, but this time a smile was forming in her lips. I cupped her face in my hands and got closer. I couldn't resist it, I had to kiss her.

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