(Considering the persuasion that I had went through with my on/offline friends, I had relented in writing this chapter. Please pardon me if it is mushy or Mary Sueish and understand that I had attempted to have Nny remain authentic. FYI-Maeve has been discovered by a government research facility and eventually escaped. She had to live a low-profile life over the years and managed to escape to England. After three months, she became a Hellsing agent by helping out inadvertantly. I do not own the Hellsing anime, Annie, or JtHM.)

Johnny C. had been been more pensive than usual recently. Throughout the years, he continued to stare at the couch. I wish that pleasant little girl will come back, would be the desire he thought of since the disappearance. Each time he had visited the 24/7; he could not look at gingersnaps, hotdogs, the strawberry brain freezies nor Sketti-os without frowning. Even the occasional appearance of the movie Annie while changing channels on his television had invoked tears from his eyes.

It was the eighth anniversary of their first meeting and it became ritualistic for Johnny to go to the park. Each year, he would wishfully hope that she would somehow magically appear from the ether, yet his scanty common sense always intervened. People can not just appear when you want them to. You are kidding yourself. There is the delicate issue if she would want you back in her life in the first place. he thought sensibly.

While standing in the grass on the very evening, he heard the sound of light footsteps trod from the other side of the field. His head turned to the source of the sound. A young spritely-looking woman came into his vision and walk to the swing-set. He peered closer to see the woman had shoulder-length auburn hair as soon as she walked by a street lamp. That can not be her...Can it? he thought, being puzzled.

She seemed to have been dressed in a yellow uniform that consisted of a mini skirt, a strong leather belt, knee high boots, and a coat of arms that displayed a red and black shield on her chest and left arm. The woman seems to belong to a type of group with a uniform like that he mentally commented. His curiosity compelled him to approach the stranger to confirm that she is the pleasant girl he longed for.

The woman seated herself upon a swing and released an exhausted sigh. She seemed to have heared him approach and lifted her silver blue-green eyes to his form. Each of them looked to each other with genuine shock and surprise. "Nny...Is that really you?" the woman managed to ask with widened eyes. "Yes...I have finally found, Maeve, " he replied with a small grin as his eyes scanned over her appearance, "You have changed so much."

"I should not have come here..." Maeve muttered to herself while looking down to the sand. "I don't blame you for having that reaction." he commented and proceeded to step closer to her. She returned her gaze to him and said coldly, "Don't come any closer!" Johnny felt as though he had driven an aggravated rattlesnake into a corner and her words were the fatal warning sound of its rattle. He had obeyed her command for the time being since he wanted to speak at a civil level with her.

"May...Please...Listen to me." he urged.

"Why should I?" she asked, displaying an icy glare.

"So you can hear my apology." he replied, confidently.

"Nny...You don't know what you are apologizing for." she said.

"You are right about that part, but I do believe that traumatizing you at that age was wrong." he said in his defense.

Maeve looked to him in a puzzled way and shook her head. "Did you ever stop and think that I wanted to reconcile with parents some time?" she asked.

"No." he answered, simply.

"That's right, you didn't. It was not your decision to make for me. I'm not same naïve little girl that you have known back then. At least I had learned that even adults are not as they think. What you did was extremely stupid!" she exclaimed.

"Yeah...I should have consulted you about it. I can not think on same level as you on what is right and what is wrong. My horrendous insanity stands in the way of that, it is never going to change. All I can say is that they have betrayed their own flesh and blood, and deserved to die. I did it to make you happy and seeing you upset disappointed me." he explained.

"So that was your own crazy way to say that you cared for me?" she asked. "Yes...It is weird for me to care about anyone. Now it is a little different." he replied. She looked to him curiously and asked, "Is it because I'm older?" "That has something to do with it." he answered. Her cheeks became tinged with a light pink and smiled sheepishly. "I...don't know what to say to that." she said slowly.

Nny softly snickered beneath his breath and said, "I have never known you to be the coy type." The comment seemed to have increased her blush. "I'm not perfect." she muttered. Her answer increased his snicker to a light chuckle. "May, I want it to be like it was. You brought me a little glimmer of hope and I want that back." he said softly. "I'm sorry, but the damage has already been done. There is no way of salvaging the bond we had. Not to mention that my group needs me." she replied. "Group?" he asked. "Yes, I belong to the Hellsing Organization. We terminate supernatural threats. I am waiting to be picked up by them right now." she answered.

"So...this is the last time I will see you again?" he asked.

"Maybe...It depends if there is any supernatural threat here again." she replied with a hint of melancholy in her tone and looked away.

"Maeve...look at me..." he said.

She obeyed while seeing his face hovering eight inches away from her own. His dark eyes bore sharply as his knives, piercing into her soul as the hands gripped the chains of her swing. She could smell the sugary cherry scent that flowed from his breath while continued to intensely stare. "What are you going to do?" she managed to ask after two minutes of silence had passed. The gestures influenced a mild anxiety to her senses and the heart beating violently against her ribs. He did not respond and gave her a thin smile. Johnny leaned closer to her face to where it was a centimeter across from her nose. "You shall see." he whispered, with the unrelenting stare. His face leaning slightly to his right and laid a gentle peck upon her lips.

Maeve's eyes widened from the gesture. She had a suspicion that this was Johnny's intent, but did not expect him to execute his plan. A homicidal maniac of all people to hiss her, it was a phenomenal and unbelievable concept that had been difficult to digest. She could have pushed him away from her, possibly burned him, yet her foolish hormones compelled her to remain immobile in the swing and return the kiss with her own lips against his warm and cracked ones. A moment to feel appreciated and loved out of all times she had been persecuted and feared seemed more valuable and Maeve did not want to squander it.

She pulled away from him by causing the swing's chains to cross each other and having her body face away from him. A large black van near the park had honked its horn in a peculiar sequence and Maeve knew that their loving moment ended quickly. "I have to go, Nny...And I..."she stammered and blurted out the last phrase, "I love you!" Before he could respond, she darted toward the van in park's lot.

He sighed and said softly, "I love you, too."