Well I'm back, if you missed me. I've been busy with other projects like Light Chronicles and trying to write a song. Here's the next chapter in any case. (I used some things from one of my one-shots for the beginning. It's called My Child if anyone wants to check it out.)

A woman trudged slowly down a dirt road with a small bundle clutched tightly in her arms. She staggered and swayed as she walked, and squinted her eyes in pain. A tall young man with messy brown hair ran to her and took her by the arm. The woman shrugged him off and shielded the bundle from him.

"I don't need your help, or your pity. Not from you or anyone else."

"I won't hurt you." The young man protested. The woman only shook her head.

"No one ever wanted to help me before, so why does someone bother now of all times. Now, when I've already given life to the thing that they shunned me for."

"Why would they shun you?" He asked. The woman gave a bitter laugh.

"He doesn't have a father." She replied, and began her unsteady stride once more.

"Wait-"

"If I don't need your help what makes you think I want it?" she snapped, not looking back, "Let me go and have my last few moments with my child in peace. My child…My baby boy…" Her voice trailed off as she lifted her head to stare up at the night sky. The young man looked passed her at the building that she was slowly but surely approaching. Stone steps led up to heavy wooden doors with crosses carved into each one. As the woman came closer and closer to the stairs, one of the doors flung open and a priest ran out to her. She collapsed onto the cold staircase breathing heavily. The young man stayed back not daring to move. The priest knelt down in front of the woman and took the newborn baby from her. She struggled to speak to the priest and finally laid her head down on a step and became forever silent in a sorrowful death. Quiet tears trailed down the young man's face as the priest held rose and gently cradled the baby. He looked up and his eyes stared out into the shadows and rested right on the man. The young man hurriedly turned and ran back toward the distant forest…

Joe's eyes flew open and he quickly sat up in bed. He sighed and rubbed his eyes, salty tears smearing across his fingers. He wiped them on the bed sheets which he pushed away. He walked over to the dresser and got dressed, staring into the mirror propped against the wall when he was done. He smoothed his hair back with his hands, not bother to locate a brush. The view from his window told him it was early in the morning. Joe sat down in a chair near the clear glass to watch the sunrise. His dream still played through his mind again and again. The same dream had come every night for the past three days, and it was beginning to worry him. Memories about his mother were hard enough to accept, he didn't know if he could stand one more night of such a heart-wrenching scene. He tried to focus on happier thoughts but not many came to mind. It seemed like nothing could overshadow the vision of his mother.

"That or I don't have very many happy memories," he sighed. Light poured in through his window forcing him to squint his tired eyes. A knock came at his door and he sat up in surprise. 'I must have been sitting here longer than I thought.' Joe quickly got up and stretched his tired limbs, calmly walking to the door and opening it. 003 stood before him with a friendly smile.

"It's our turn to make breakfast remember?" 009 gave her a blank, confused look then shook his head roughly to wake himself up from the trance his thoughts had put him in. He gave her a weak smile and closed the door behind him as he exited.

"Let's go."

"Are you alright? You look like you didn't sleep at all."

"Close to it."

"What do you mean?"

"I didn't have very nice dreams let's just leave it at that." 003 said nothing more on the matter as they entered the kitchen and tied an apron around her waist. They had hardly begun to cook when 006 waddled into the room and narrowed his eyes. He had taken up a habit of observing whoever had breakfast duty. In fact it wasn't a recently acquired habit at all.

"003 you are holding that pan all wrong! It will be much easier if you tilt it slightly." 003 only nodded patiently and did as he said. He smiled with satisfaction and went on to 009. "Goodness my boy! How ever did you learn to hold a knife like that!" 009 grimaced and held his tongue as the portly Chinese chef gave his criticism. Instead of just giving one and leaving as he usually did, 006 went on and on about how "absolutely atrocious!" his cooking skills were until 009 had had enough.

"You know what 006, if you don't like how I cook why don't you just do it yourself." He tossed the knife on the counter and threw his apron on top. 003 turned in surprise at his rudeness.

"009?"

"I'm sick of this!" he continued, ignoring her. I'm sick of you telling me how wrong I am, and I sick of running your errands and being sent back god-knows how many times!" He stalked out of the kitchen leaving a very baffled 006 and a surprised 003 behind. 002 had the misfortune of running into 009 and cracking a joke during his hasty departure from the kitchen.

"Hahaha what happened to you? You look like your still recovering from a hangover! I bet it was a nice bar because you must have stayed there a while!" 009 grasped him by the shoulders and glared into his eyes.

"Have you ever known me to drink? Because I don't, unlike some one I know." With that he shoved 002 out of his way and left the house. He walked over to a neat table with comfortable garden chairs set around it and sat in one of them. Not long after he felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked around to see 003 again.

"What?" he sighed.

"What is the matter with you?" she exclaimed. 009 didn't reply. "You are acting very oddly, and very awful to people who care about you."

"I'm sorry 003 I just have a lot on my mind." She gave a short sarcastic laugh.

"Why are you apologizing to me? You haven't yelled at me yet now have you?"

"Would you like me to?" he snapped back, turning in his seat to face her. Her eyes threw daggers at him.

"You could but it wouldn't do any good. All it would get you is another angry friend, one I hope you don't want to lose. Now I don't know what's going through your head, no one does, but one would think you could at least-"

"I watched my mother die." She stood there completely taken aback for a moment, then pulled up a chair closer to him and sat.

"Tell me." She said.

"I tried to help her in the dream but she just dismissed me. She said she didn't need me."

"I don't think she knew it was you. After all it was a dream and not really her. I'm sure your mother loves you Joe, and always will."

"I know. The thing that bothers me the most though, is that I just let her go. I didn't insist on assisting her. All I did was stand there and watch as she bled to death on the steps of the church."

"If that was really you I'm sure you wouldn't have just stood there. Don't think on it any more Joe. Besides, you can't possibly have been there anyway."

"But what if I could be there? What if that dream was more real than I think?"

"I don't know what else to tell you. All I can say for sure is that it was just a dream." 009 rested his chin in the palm of his hand and sighed with fatigue. 003 reached over and smoothed his hair away from his eyes.

"Why don't you go and get some real sleep 009? You'll feel much better." She suggested. He nodded and yawned as a few locks of hair that refused to be tamed covered one of his eyes yet again. They rose and walked back inside together. 009 made his way towards the hallway of bedrooms.

"Sweet dreams." 003 whispered as he left her side. He just smiled at her and nodded as he walked down the hallway and she back to the kitchen. He laid down on his bed once more and sank into a peaceful sleep, his head filled with images of Françoise.

I'm very sorry for the late update. Admittedly I had lost the will or desire to write anything, but here I am. I'm finding it's different using the name 'Françoise' for 003 because that is also my name. Ok technically my name is Frances but my friends like to say "Françoise!" when they see me. Anyways I hope you liked this chapter.