She may have only needed to be repaired once before, but XJ9 knew it shouldn't be like this. When her arm was getting fixed, she wasn't nearly this tense or worked up. Even with the Skyway Patrol officers being gone, the atmosphere from before seemed to linger over her. For some reason, she couldn't seem to relax, and even though it was only her and her mom, the feeling of a threat loomed over her head. Her tilted head anyways. She was currently holding her head still and facing forward as her mom dug through a drawer to find a piece for her.

After a minute or two, Wakeman came back and told her not to move at all. She could feel the metal slot in her neck open up to which little snaps and clicks were heard. She tried to watch, to the best of her ability, what her mom was doing without moving her head. One final loud click rang out in her head, and Wakeman closed up the little opening.

"That should do it. Put your hands down and nod for me."

XJ9 slowly let go of her head and lowered her hands down to rest on her lap. She nodded to her mom and let out a little sigh of relief when her head didn't start spinning around again.

"Glad, that's fixed. It would be pretty bad if your head fell off. Although, I suppose if a threat was strong enough to knock it off, it might be best to include a precaution for that."

Wakeman rubbed her chin as she seemed to get absorbed in her train of thought, and XJ9 smiled a little watching her mom think. It soon left her face, though, as she stared at her lap and her hands. She rolled her wrist a little and flinched at the pain that shot up her arm from it. It was tense, and as she looked at her hand, all she could think of was his. How his finger had twitched ever so slightly, and how his hand shook. Then just as suddenly, his finger was still, and so was his hand as it gripped the gun.

The weapon had triggered something in her, something in her mind that had made her worry. His gun wasn't the only thing, no, his eyes were the other. His eyes weren't like her mom's, not one bit alike. His eyes held fear.

"XJ9."

So much fear in those eyes and with it was a feeling of no hesitation. That he wouldn't waste a second when drawing that gun and shooting his target.

"XJ9."

He must've been afraid of his target, she guessed. What she couldn't guess is what his target was, and that scared her.

"Are you okay?

What if it was bad? What if the target hurt someone? What if it hurt her? What if it hurt her mom? NO! NO, she wouldn't allow that to happen. NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!

"XJ9!"

Suddenly, something grabbed her hand, and she snapped out of her thoughts. Her mom's hand was holding hers, and the woman was worried.

"It's okay, just take a second and let's try to calm down."

Calm down? Why would she need to calm down? She was fine-Everything suddenly slammed into her harder than when she fell down the stairs. XJ9 was breathing harshly as her cooling systems were trying to keep her from overheating. The heat radiating off of her along with the cooling pipes made it seem like she was sweating as condensation occurred on her metal skin.

Her eyes couldn't seem to focus on anything at the moment as they darted around the room. What if the threat was still here? What if the target lurked in the shadows and was coming for them? What was she going to do? Panic pooled over her trembling body. Trembling, oh, she was trembling. Her whole body shook with such a force she could see it.

"You need to calm down and focus on me."

She didn't bother looking at her mom. Focus, focus, how could she not focus on the bigger threat at hand? What was her mom thinking? Didn't she know-Her mom was rubbing her hand. She snapped over onto the small woman so fast she didn't know how she didn't break them like she did her neck.

"That's it. Just focus on me right now."

She could feel her trigger finger twitching violently under her mom's hands, and part of her wanted to rip her hand away. But the other part of her kept it there. The woman gently rubbed her hand and knuckles to try and work out the tension there seemingly.

"That man really worried you, didn't he."

She numbly nodded and didn't take her eyes off her shaking hand.

"When he put his hand on that weapon, you were scared, I bet."

Scared, was that the awful feeling that swallowed her whole?

"All of this has been stressful enough for you. Waking up, getting used to moving around, and now with these Skyway Patrol officers breathing down our necks you were bound to get worked up. It certainly doesn't help that they're triggering your defense mechanisms."

She didn't mean to be like this really. She didn't mean to. She was probably only making things harder on her mom. Little tears ran down her face as her body's shaking started to die down.

"Oh XJ9, it's alright."

No, it wasn't. Nothing felt right.

"Stay right here, I'm going to go get you a treat."

No, no, don't leave. XJ9 reached out for the woman, but she had already stepped out of her grasp. Immediately, her body began to tighten up again as she watched the lady walk away from her. Come back. She let out a wine. It didn't even cross her mind to get up and go after her as she watched her walk farther and farther away.

She let out a quiet scream like sound that made her throat started burning and tingling familiarly. Her mom was opening something on the other side of the room and didn't hear it. Her throat felt like it was pounding as she let more unrecognizable noises. She didn't want a dumb treat right now. She didn't want it. She wanted her-suddenly a loud wail came out of her mouth-

"MOM!"

Suddenly, everything seemed to go quiet. Wakeman froze for a second and, with wide eyes, stared at her. XJ9's own eyes must've been the size of dinner plates for all she knew, but she didn't care. She had finally said it, and now that it was out there.

"MOM! Mom! Mom!"

She kept screaming the word as loud as her aching voice box would allow her too. Her words were full of voice cracks and most likely sounded more like shrieking, but she paid it no mind. XJ9 stopped yelling when her mom came back and hugged her. She repeated the word under the little breath she had as the woman rubbed her back, trying to soothe her. The oil would later do wonders on her throat, and her mom would tell her how proud she was, but for now, the hug was enough.

Author's Note- Hey everyone I know it's been about a month now since I updated. I just finished my college midterms and I'm already starting on my college finals, so I decided to try and get another chapter out here before more stuff keeps piling up. Thanks for reading, and please leave a review. Reviews are great and really help me.