I don't own Home Alone

A/N: Hello CrimsonCommander688! Thank you for your reviews! Robert may make an appearance later in the story and perhaps the next one too!

A/N #2: I would like to point out that some details in this chapter may be a trigger warning, especially in the italicized sections.

Enjoy!

Sunday had been very quiet day. Marv and Amy had decided not to go anywhere during the morning. The two helped one another around the apartment, taking care of the house and cleaning up for the upcoming holiday. Marv argued that it was too early to clean it, for there were five more days until Christmas, but Amy had insisted upon it. It had been quite the workout. Marv had hoped that he would relax on Sunday before he went back to work but he couldn't just leave Amy doing all the work. He looked over at the clock on the wall and saw that it was almost five in the afternoon. Geeze, they had been at this for over three hours now! At least they were almost done with the chores and Marv hoped that he would have the opportunity to get a nice long rest before tomorrow.

As he finished the last of his chores, his eyes caught sight of Amy who came out of the bedroom all clean and in a nice set of clothes. "Where're you goin'?" he asked as he looked up and down at her attire. She was wearing a black skirt with a white buttoned-down shirt and black shoes with a little heel on them.

She had a coat hung over her arm and slightly adjusted the collar of her shirt. "I was going to stop by the church tonight."

Marv had never been in a church before. It was one of the many places that he avoided due to his personal morals. Being a bandit, he felt that being in a place of worship would be an unwelcoming feeling and one where he would feel persecuted. What place that followed the right morals would allow someone with the wrong morals to be in there? He looked out the window and saw that it was dark outside. "At this time of the night?" he asked her, "how far away is this church?"

"Not too far," Amy said, "only a couple of blocks. I was only going to light a candle and come back."

There was no way he was going to let her go out at this time. He was certain that she had done it plenty of times before, after all these years of being on her own, but something in him pushed him to escort her to the church and back. "Wait for me," he said to her.

Amy was stunned upon his abrupt response. "Oh," was all that she could say for a mere second. "A-Are you sure?"

"Yes," Marv said, "I'll meet you downstairs."

A small smile came upon Amy's lips as she took her purse in her hand and headed down the stairs. Even though she had done this alone for the past six Christmases, it was very nice that she had someone to go with her. As she stepped out of the building, she immediately placed the coat over her shoulders and bundled it around her frame. It was cold enough for her to see her own breath disappearing into the air, but it least it was pleasant enough for a walk around the block. It wasn't long before Marv came down the stairs and joined her. Amy looked at the attire that he wore. It was decent enough, but the coat was something that he had for years, and it was time for a new one.

"You just can't part from this one can you?" Amy chuckled as she ran her hand over the brown jacket that he worn for years.

"What can I say?" Marv said as he fixed his jacket, "it's become a part of me."

It was interesting how a piece of clothing held its own history. Amy had many herself but ones that she couldn't part with were her wedding dress, a shirt with black polka dots on it, and that black dress that she had always worn on Christmas Eve. Perhaps the same thing was for Marv. "Here we are," Amy said when they suddenly came upon the church.

Marv looked up at the building. It was a decent size for a church, but he felt reluctant to enter inside. He saw Amy step forward but when he didn't react, she turned around and looked at him. "You're not coming in?" she asked.

"I…I don't think I can," Marv said to her.

Amy titled her head to the side. "How come?" she asked as she took a step down the stairs and looked at him.

"I don't feel I should be in there," Marv said to her. "I haven't been a good person to be in a place like this."

Not a good person! Amy was baffled to hear something like that. She hoped he wasn't feeling skeptical on how he had gotten ever since he came out of jail, but his reluctance said it all. Amy took another step close to him and grabbed his hands with hers. "You're not a bad person, Marv."

"And how would you know?" Marv asked and he hated how rude such a question had come out of him.

However, Amy was not at all fazed by the tone of his voice. "Because you've been staying with me for the past couple of weeks, not to mention when we took you in back in Chicago. I feel like I've known you long enough to make that judgement."

"And what about stealing houses?" Marv asked her, "you know nothing about that."

Amy took a deep breath. "I didn't appreciate the secrecy from either of you," she said to him. "But would you have done it anyway without Harry?"

She stumped him with that question. Without Harry, Marv didn't know if he would have been able to pull it off at all. He didn't know if he would be a bandit in the first place. He would have tried but even he knew he would've been caught much quickly.

When he didn't answer her question, Amy only nodded her head to his silence. "Just as I thought," she said to him. "I will say this once more, your heart is in the right place, but your mind wasn't. Now if you put your mind in the right place then you'd make good decisions." She gave him a gentle pull towards the stairs, and he found himself walking forward and stepping onto the first step.

The moment he placed his foot on the first step, he feared that something was going to push him out of it. As Amy motioned for him to follow her, he took the last couple of steps until they were inside the church. The moment that Marv entered inside, a feeling of calm and peacefulness washed over him. He felt that there was no sense of judgement as to why he was inside, after doing such terrible deeds many years ago.

"Are you okay?" Amy said as she reached over and placed a hand over his arm, "it's not so bad, is it?"

Marv's detached his eyes from the iconographs and looked down at Amy. "No," he managed to say.

"I won't be too long," Amy said as she headed over to the votive stand where a group of candles were burning brightly.

Marv looked over as she took an unlit candle and used the flame of the other to light the wick. She gently placed the candle back in its original spot and stood there for a good minute, allowing whatever thoughts came in her mind to remain with her until she was good to proceed.

Amy slowly turned around and walked over to Marv, a slight sniffle escaping from her as she looked up at him. "I'm all set," she said to him, "ready to go?"

Before Marv answered, his ears perked up when he heard a harmonious hymn coming from the church choir.

O holy night, the stars are brightly shining
It is the night of our dear Savior's birth

Long lay the world, in sin and error pining
Till He appeared, and the soul felt its worth
A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn

Amy looked over at the direction where Marv was looking at. Even she hadn't stayed long enough at church to hear the choir sing when she came here. "Do you want to stay for a little bit?" she asked.

"Yeah," Marv answered, and they took the liberty of sitting at one of the pews at the back of the church. Marv felt being the way back of the church was the safest. No one would be looking at him and wonder what a man like him was doing in a place like this. He leaned over his seat and rested his elbows on the pew in front of him. Why did this song have to sound melancholic to him? As he sat there and heard the church choir, it was as if a wave of memories washed over him. Memories that he wished he could be a part of again, live in them again, and not take anything for granted like he had done before.

Fall on your knees
O hear the angel voices
O night divine
O night when Christ was born
O night, O holy night
O night divine

He felt his throat beginning to tighten when he heard that verse. He couldn't take back what had happened to him or the person that he had become in the past. What had happened, happened and there was no turning back. Being in here made him realize that he had been living a life of sin. If being in prison the first time hadn't been a lesson, the second time was enough to make him change his mind about his life. Many years wasted away of living a dishonest life and spending most of it in jail…and for what? The thrill of getting away with it?

So led by light of a star sweetly gleaming
Here come the wise men from Orient land
The King of Kings lay thus in lowly manger;
In all our trials born to be our friend

Amy was touched by the words from this song. It had the power to put her mind at ease but enough to make her heartache on what she was missing. She turned her head and looked over at Marv and was shocked that he was silently crying. "Marv?" she whispered as she placed a hand on his arm, breaking him out from whatever thoughts he was having. "Are you okay?" she asked him.

No he wanted to say to her but didn't answer.

Upon his silence, Amy grabbed her purse and stood on her feet. "Come on," she said as she gently grabbed his arm, "let's get out of here."

Fall on your knees
O hear the angel voices
O night divine
O night when Christ was born
O night, O holy night
O night divine

Marv was glad that they didn't go home right away. After their visitation to the church, Amy had taken him to a nearby café. The two sat at a table by the window facing each other with two cups of coffee in front of them. After all of that, he felt he could use a little bit of caffeine to pull himself together.

"That was quite the song," Amy commented as she picked up cup of coffee and took a sip. "I'm very sorry. I didn't know that being in church would cause you to feel that way."

"It's not your fault," Marv said as he pulled his coffee cup close to him and allowed the warmth to seep into his fingers. "I didn't think I wanted to be in there in the first place…but I'm glad that I decided to do it. It wasn't too bad, but it made me realize how much I have taken things for granted in my life."

"Such as?" Amy asked.

A light scoff escaped from his lips as he looked down at his mug. "I had everything I could have when I was a kid. An okay family, a good house, even a dog. I just hung out with the wrong crowd."

"But what happened?" Amy asked.

"Do you really want to know?" he asked her.

Amy looked at him for a minute before slowly nodding her head. "You were crying in there," she pointed out to him, "it must have been a tragedy."

"Believe me it was," Marv said as he took a sip of his coffee before he began on his story. "And it's insane how quickly years fly by. Twenty-four years."

For Marv, life had been easy when he was a kid but that changed during his teen years. His mother had died unexpectedly, and it was only his father and him living a decent sized home. Due to his mother's death, his father's mind had slowly begun to deteriorate. Whether it was due to condition that was left untreated or upon his wife's death, Marv hadn't known at the time. Whenever he got home from playing hooky from school, Marv would spend most of the day playing with his dog, Max, and attend to what his father wanted. There had been both good days and bad days, though the bad days were the ones where Marv wished that he wasn't at home. His father had so many demands, to the point where Marv couldn't finish them all and it would result in a fight breaking out between them. Upon those fights, Marv always stormed out of the house and kept himself occupied in the backyard with Max. There was one day where Marv had enough of his father that he had just exploded onto him.

"You know what?!" Marv yelled as he towered over his father who was calmly sitting on the chair, "I've had enough of this! I ain't your servant. You have your own two feet and hands to get yourself a glass of water. Damn it, everyday it's do this or do that or you're not good enough! Or you should've done it faster. Sometimes I wish it was you that was gone and not mom!"

He had stormed out of the house that day and didn't return until the next morning. During the night, he and his friends had been up to mischief stealing snacks from grocery stores and escaping without being caught. Sometimes the best things in life were to be free and in that teenager mindset, he didn't mind having to steal a small package of Oreos. The morning when he decided to return home, he heard sirens driving by the neighborhood and stopping by the house. Marv feared that the police car was for him. Someone in the group must've ratted him out for stealing that snack! There was rat in every group and Marv couldn't believe that it had happened to him.

Marv considered turning back and making a run for it but then he saw the fire truck speeding down the road and towards his home. "No," Marv said as his eyes followed the truck, and he ran after it. The moment that he reached his home he saw nothing but the place being engulfed with fire and the firefighters doing everything that they could to stop the fire from spreading. He looked from person to person and couldn't see his father nor his dog!

Marv was about to head towards the house when one of the police officers stopped him. "Whoa there son," he said as he held an arm out in front of him, "you can't go in there."

"But-But my dad is in there!" he shouted and pointed towards the house.

"I can't let you go in there," the policeman said, "they're doing everything they can to get them out. Stay put."

Though the moment that the policeman turned around, the roof fell into the walls of the house causing the flames to get bigger.

Amy placed a hand over her mouth as Marv reiterated his story to her. "You can probably guess what happened," he said as he let out a sigh and rubbed his eyes from the memory that overtook his mind. "My dad had forgotten something in the oven. He didn't know how to use the damn thing, only mom did. I regretted everything I had said to him. That day I lost everything. I was bounced from foster home to foster home until I was able to be out on my own. It was a hard life but…I managed to pull through until I met Harry. Then the rest…well you know, you were there for it."

Amy took a deep breath and slowly let it out. This was the first time that she had heard Marv's backstory and she couldn't believe that he had suffered through such a tragedy. Losing a family through such a horrific event and then going from one family to another was not only a hard adjustment, but difficult for his state of mind. The details of him meeting Harry didn't make her curious to know. She wanted to forget that part of her existed ever being with him, but he permanently part of her history. "My God," she finally managed to say as she looked at Marv, "I don't know what to say."

Marv shrugged his shoulders. "There's nothing to say. You can't change the past. I just didn't think everything would come to me in that church."

Amy took the last sip of her coffee as she set down the cup and looked at Marv. "Church is not only for prayer but also for reflection. The past couple times I've been in there, its helped me cope with what I've been through and how to move on from it."

Marv recalled that after she light that candle, she looked forlorn. "How did it help you?" Marv asked her.

"I went to confession," Amy replied to him. "I had my own share of sins that I wanted to talk to someone. One of the priests that heard them told me what to do and say and after doing those, I felt relieved to continue and move on from what had happened to me."

"But have you really moved on?" Marv asked her, "I saw that you were crying when you lit that candle."

Amy looked down at her hands on the table. "There are just some things that are difficult to forget."

"Which are?" Marv asked.

"I don't think it's necessary for me to share something so personal," she said.

"I shared something personal with you," Marv pointed out to her. "And I wanted to because I trust you and…"

Upon his pause, Amy looked at him expectantly.

"…and you're my friend," Marv finished.

What he said was fair but was it worth relieving those memories again? Marv had to relive his as he willingly told her his story, so why couldn't she do the same? The fact that he still considered her as a friend touched her. "Alright," she said to him, thinking that if she was to talk about her past, that it would help her. "You are right. This is one of the things that I don't think I could ever get over."

Amy and Harry had been fighting that afternoon. Constantly, he had been coming home very late and Amy was curious to know of his whereabouts. The conversation had gone from a simple question to an outrageous accusation that had caused Amy to storm out of the house. She grabbed the car keys and walked down the steps of the apartment and into the cold air. As she walked down the road, her shoe slipped on a sheet of ice. She found herself for mere second in the air before crashing to the ground on her abdomen. She hadn't heard herself scream from losing her footing, but it must have been a loud one because Harry was next to her and helping her on her feet.

She seethed as she tried to stand on her foot. "I think I twisted my ankle," she said as she leaned closer to Harry for support.

"Just take it easy," he said as he had her arm around his shoulders and his hand around her waist to help her towards the apartment. "I'm sorry for yelling at ya."

The next couple of days, Amy felt so much pain on her stomach that were sharp enough to stop her breathing. Amy realized that from the impact that she suffered, the pain was going to do its thing before it completely went away. She just couldn't believe how big of a bruise she was going to have.

However, the pain didn't go away. One night, the pain was unbearable that she had woken up from her sleep. The other side of her bed was empty. Typical that Harry wasn't there. She placed her hand on her stomach and seethed through her teeth when she felt that pain again. She threw the covers off her and froze when she noticed the sight of blood on covers.

"No…" she whispered as she looked at her hand soaked in blood, "no! No, no, no, no! NO! HARRY!" She was yelling his name without any thought; he was nowhere in the apartment. She panicked and did the one thing that came into her mind. She called the ambulance.

She must've blacked out before she woke up and found herself on a hospital bed. Her blood-soaked nightgown had been changed into the hospitals gowns and she was covered with a warm blanket. She had an immense headache and tried to piece together what had happened that got her here in the first place. As she was about to get up from the bed, she felt a gentle hand upon her shoulder. She gasped as she turned around to see whom it was.

"Lie down honey," Harry said as he stood over her, "you need to rest."

Amy was confused as to why Harry was here. "Harry…what happened?" she asked him.

"They're trying to figure that out," he said. "I'm just relieved you're alright. I didn't think I'd come home to a bed soaked in blood and the police swarming the place."

She didn't know how much time had passed until the doctor came into the room. Harry quickly got up from his seat and walked over to him. "She's restin'," Harry said to him, "I'm her husband so you can tell me what happened."

"I'm sorry to inform that your wife had a miscarriage," the doctor said to him.

Harry furrowed his eyebrows at that. "She had a what?" he asked him.

"She lost the baby. She was seven weeks," the doctor said to him.

"Hold on a minute," Harry said to the doctor, "you mean to tell me that my wife was pregnant?"

Now this was a conversation that should be left to them. "I am sorry," he said as he was about to step out of the room, "I will be back once she wakes up to discuss the next steps."

Once the doctor was gone, Harry turned around and looked over at Amy who looked like she was trying to sleep. As he approached her bed, she opened her eyes and looked at him. "Was that the doctor?" she asked him. "What did he say?"

Harry let out a sigh and sat down on the chair. Should he be direct with her question or let the doctor tell her what had happened, but that wasn't the first thing that was in his mind. "Amy, did you know that you were you pregnant?" he asked her.

She didn't answer him right away. Why did it feel so hard to say it now like it did when she was about to? Taking a deep breath, she bit her lip and refused to let the tears spill from her eyes. "Yes," she answered him. "I was going to tell you…but I couldn't find the right time. We've always been fighting."

"Damn," was all Marv could say when Amy told him her side of the story. Though the other thing that surprised him the most was how cold Harry seemed through it all. Wasn't fatherhood supposed to be the greatest feeling for any man? Of course, he wouldn't know that for he never had kids himself, but to be that cold was just unimaginable.

"It made me feel like it was all my fault for losing the baby," Amy said. "I know it wasn't his intention but that's how I felt. Sometimes I even tell myself maybe it was meant to be that way. That this child didn't deserve to have a father like Harry."

"But it wasn't your fault," Marv said to her, "Harry is the type of person who hates being told what to do."

"Oh I know," Amy said.

"And it's his own fault for doing that," Marv said, "I guess he just didn't see that he had the greatest thing in front of him this whole time."

Amy looked down at her folded hands and blushed upon those words. A secret smile came upon her lips before she looked up at Marv.

"Did you try again?" he asked her.

"No," Amy said, "I couldn't get over what happened. I was in a very dark place that I couldn't get myself out of. Harry told me to get some help and…I eventually did. It helped me get through it, but I never forgot it." There was sniffle that he heard before she said, "my little baby would've been sixteen now."

Marv slowly reached forward and grabbed her hand with his. "Hey," he said to her, "these are things that happen out of our control and it ain't your fault. For me, I didn't know I was going to come back to a burning house. I blamed myself a long time for it until I realized that it was out of my control."

Amy understood what he was trying to say, but it was a different story coming from a first-time mother who had tried her best to do everything right the moment that she found out she was expecting. It was something that she coped with, but it was never going to go away. "Thank you," she said as she gently squeezed Marv's hand. "Wow, I didn't expect that we would be here this long. But thank you for hearing my past."

"And the same to you," Marv said smiled gently towards her. He saw as she reached into her purse for money, but he stopped her. "I'll take care of it." He threw whatever cash he had on the table and Amy chuckled.

"That may cover the tip," she said as she threw her share of the money.

Tips! Marv yelled in his head. He had to make up for Anne's tips and he was going to do so eventually.