"Hey kids!" Max called, strolling into Joshua's house, "Did you play nice while I was gone?"

"You're back," Joshua stated as he lumbered in from the kitchen holding a bowl of macaroni and cheese.

"Of course," she said with a smile.

"Everything okay?"

Joshua shook his head and grunted, "She won't eat."

"Maybe she's not hungry."

"No. I hear her stomach. She's hungry, but won't eat," he stated sadly.

"Do you think it's Joshua's cooking?" he asked concerned.

Max shook her head and hugged him.

"No way, Big Fella," she smiled, "I'll talk to her."

"Okay," he replied and went into the living room.

When Max walked into the kitchen, she saw Brin sitting at the table reading a worn and tattered copy of The Da Vinci Code. She was about ¾ of the way through it.

Max laughed, "You just start that when I left?"

"Yes," she replied from behind the book cover.

"This is the wrong place to be if you're not trying to eat. I thought pregnant women were supposed to be eating for two."

"That is a perpetual lie used as an excuse for people to neglect their health and explain their grossly obese figures," Brin stated, never looking up.

Max sighed in annoyance, "Whatever. Fact is, you need to eat and keep your strength up."

"I'll be fine."

"Brin…"

Finally, Brin looked at Max in the face, "I said I'm fine."

Max rolled her eyes and decided that she wasn't going to get anywhere so she decided to change her tactic.

"Has the baby started kicking yet?"

Brin smirked, "Yeah. I think it's trying to fight its way out of me."

Max laughed, "Kicking ass in the womb. I think I'm gonna like this kid."

"You want 'em, he's yours."

Max turned toward Brin, "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Don't worry about it," Brin replied and lifted up her book again.

"No." Max exclaimed and snatched the book away from Brin, "What the hell was that supposed to mean?"

"Give me that book back, little sister,"

"Answer the question."

Brin stood up, "Keep it. I need to stretch my legs anyway."

Brin turned to walk away and then Max grabbed her arm.

"Don't try to dump your kid on me. That's on you…sister."

"Like hell it is," Brin whispered ripping her arm away from Max's grasp.

"This is your fault," she stated gesturing to her swollen form.

"I don't want this baby. You just had to attack Manticore, didn't you? It's not bad enough that because of you, they got me pregnant. Then you had to destroy it completely so I have no place for this baby to live."

"You call what they made us do in there living? This is a chance give this child a family that we never had. He'll be born free," Max urged.

"Free? What is that supposed to mean, Max? The city is under martial law. Trangenics are being killed left and right. It's only a matter of time before this country erupts and you call this free. At Manticore, we had a place, a purpose and a reason for living."

"What? Mission. Duty. Discipline. Living and fighting for the country ignores us. Killing. Destroy lives. Is that what you call a purpose? A reason for living? That's pathetic."

"It's better than pretending to be something, I'm not. You're not one of them. You're a soldier. A warrior."

"You know who also said that to me?" Max said looking at Brin directly in the eye.

"Ben."

Brin's expression turned curious at the sound of Ben's name.

"Ben's dead."

"I know," Max said softly, "I killed him."

"You?"

"He asked me too. Lydecker was closing in on us and we wouldn't have been able to get out together. He didn't want to back there."

"He was crazy."

"But did they tell you what he did? He tried to recreate Manticore wherever he went. He reenacted that night in woods when we killed that death row inmate. You remember that don't you?"

"Yes," Brin replied softly.

"He relived his moments as a soldier, a warrior and killed innocent people in the process. Is that what you want? To be a warrior again? Your kid?"

"That's what we were made to for," Brin said sternly.

"Yeah, but they made a mistake along the way and gave us souls! And free will!"

Brin smirked, "Free will. Free will. Dammit, I don't want it. I don't want this kid. I don't want this responsibility. I don't want it at all. It was so much easier before at Manticore. They gave me and order and I'd follow it. No questions."

"And when it all went to hell, they start shooting at me and trying to kill me. I didn't want to go. But if I know if I stayed, I would die. I don't know how I did it, but somehow, I followed the same route I did the night we escaped. The past and present just melded together as I ran. I was weak," Brin concluded

"You were trying to survive."

"I should have stayed."

"And let them kill you?"

"A soldier accepts her fate without questions or hesitation," she replied.

Max stood up, put the book down and pushed a bowl of macaroni and cheese toward Brin, "Doesn't that prove that you are more than that?"

Max walked out the kitchen without another word. Brin looked from the bowl to the book and back again. She sighed and picked up her fork.

Next day

"I have good news," Sam started holding the results of Max and Logan's tests in his hands.

It was the next morning and Max and Logan were sitting in his office at Harbor Lights Medical Center in separate chairs.

"You both tested negative for any STD's" he stated.

"Told ya," Max commented.

"Another thing, Max," he said facing her, "There seems to be a lower concentration of the retrovirus in your system."

Max and Logan both looked at Sam with questioning eyes.

"What does that mean? Is my body fighting it or something?" Max asked.

"I don't know. You still could kill Logan with the amount of the virus that you have left, but it is a significantly less amount than what you started with."

"How did this happen, Sam?" Logan asked, leaning forward.

Sam shrugged his shoulders, "Again, I know just as much as you do."

"You have no idea?" Max pressed.

Sam sighed, hearing the desperation in Max's voice, "I do have one hypothesis."

"Let's hear it."

"I suppose its best if I'm frank," Sam took a deep breath.

"During intercourse, there is an exchange of bodily fluids, sweat, saliva…

"…we get the picture," Max interrupted.

"Yes. It is safe to assume that some of Logan's DNA ended up in your body while the virus was dormant."

"Once it was active again, it is possible that the virus attacked whatever was left of Logan's DNA in your system."

"Is that what made me sick?" she asked, connecting the dots in her head.

"Not exactly. Your immune system, I believe, responded to the virus as threat when it attacked Logan's DNA, as such, it expelled it from your body resulting in…

"Massive puking," replied Max.

"Exactly."

"Interesting theory, Sam," Logan said, "But then why isn't all gone."

Sam eyes went to Max for a moment and returned to Logan's face, "You guess is as good as mine"