A/N: Hello there, thanks for reviews! And for the lingua-italiano messaggi, FES :D Any of you seen Tarantino's "Inglourious Basterds"? If so...I kinda borrowed from it. Read, review, enjoy. ~ Mika

10a.m.

Keira, Erol and Daniel ate at the table as always. Erol would never have it any other way, and if it was, he ensured Keira knew it was his way or she'd be on the streets. The mechanic kept her head down, avoiding Erol's intense gaze as she fed her son one bite at a time before turning to her own food. She also resisted the urge to press her glass of water to her face to tend to the large purple bruise Erol had painted on her face last night.

"So, Hagai, you never answered my question," he said quietly. "You've been avoiding my question for the best part of two years."

Keira began trembling. She knew what he was inferring.

"I assume you realise I'm talking about little Danny's father?" He leant back in his chair, staring at his fingers in a way that looked like he was looking at his nails. "No...you know, Keira. You know, don't you?"

She fought the urge to recoil at 'Danny'. Nobody called him that but her. Still, she continued feeding him, spooning dribbles into his mouth. His calm blue eyes gazed at her as if he was trying to read her inner thoughts. Just like his father, she thought, her heart twisting.

Erol sat back, tapping his spoon on the table. "Are you avoiding my question again?"

"No," she replied quietly, keeping her gaze on her son.

"Who is little Danny's father?" the Captain queried again. His voice was low and dangerous, preceding something only Keira knew. "I swear he looks like someone I know. Or rather, someone I knew..."

Keira kept her jaw clenched, her hands shaking hard as she continued feeding her son. It was mechanical more than necessary now. Silence screamed in her head like a high-pitched whistle permeating her long, sensitive ears; piercing her skull.

"His father disappeared before he was born, right?"

"Right," Keira echoed in that same raspy tone.

Erol leant forward, smiling maliciously. "And that was just before you came to me,"

"Yes," she replied shortly.

"Before you even knew you were expecting him,"

"Yes," she lied, hardly daring to breathe. Her heartbeat hummed in her ears, joining with the high-pitched whistle of silence. Daniel coughed and automatically, she wiped his mouth.

"So, the question remains..." Erol took a long, healthy draught of his drink, setting it down on the table. The hollow "thonk" that came from it hit Keira's head, causing it to hum with pain. Go, Erol. Just go out. Go and bully innocent civilians. Go and kill people. Just go...

"Who, Keira?"

His tone was soft, coaxing an answer.

"Who co-created this beautiful little boy, hmm? Who really brought him into the world?" He plastered a soft smile on his face, brushing one finger under the toddler's chin. The little boy's eyes grew to the size of dinner plates, frozen, like his mother, in abject fear. The blue-haired mechanic's body was rock. If you hit him, I'll kill you...

It seemed like an age before Erol's finger left Daniel's chin. He then turned his steely-eyed gaze upon his girlfriend – his prisoner, his slave – and narrowed his eyes, his tone becoming harsh.

"Who willingly fucked you and brought him into the world, eh?"

Her head shot up and she met his eyes. Two years. It's been too long.

He whistled in response, getting up and lazily winding around the table to stand behind her. "You're giving me the "bastard" look again, Keira. You're giving me that look. You know where that look gets you?" He slammed his hands down on her shoulders and squeezed them hard, causing her to stiffen up in pain. She kept on staring ahead whilst he lowered his head and hissed in her ear. "You know where that gets you, you whore,"

Beside them, Daniel began to cry.

Erol ignored him, sliding his hands slowly up her neck, her chin, her ears, up to her scalp. To the casual observer, it was almost seductive. He suddenly and violently knotted his rough, calloused hands deep in her hair until his nails were scratching her scalp. Slowly, he closed his hands, encasing fistfuls of hair. Keira heard and felt hairs being ripped from her scalp, and she fought the urge to wince and flinch in pain, or even move to comfort her son whilst he howled in obvious distress.

"I have to go now," he hissed, "but I'll deal with you later!" Suddenly releasing her long blue locks, he left the house, slamming the door after him.

The mechanic didn't move until she was sure he'd gone. She reached over to Daniel, held him in her arms and rocked him back and forth, trying to comfort him as he sobbed his little heart out.

"I know, Danny," she whispered, tears making tracks down her own pale face. Her scalp throbbed from where Erol's hands had just been. "I know...I know...It's now, darling. It has to be."

I'll die if I stay here.

She stood up and fled upstairs to her room, setting Daniel down on the bed and dragging out a suitcase. She opened all her drawers and flung everything of hers in it, not wishing to further contaminate them with Erol. She sobbed more as she emptied the house of everything that was hers and Daniel's, locking him into his stroller in the hall. She stood one final time, surveying the house, her prison for so long.

Despite the cold air of the house, she already felt the sunlight on her face.

"So long, Erol," she whispered, throwing the keys on the floor and opening the door, only to see Torn waiting in his Hellcat.

"Come on!" he yelled.

You've got some timing, Commander. Keira nodded ferverently, slamming the door hard behind her and running up the path to the waiting Hellcat. Opening the boot, she unlocked Daniel from the stroller, putting that and everything else in it before slamming it shut. She hopped into the passenger side, buckling herself and Daniel up.

"I quit today!" Torn yelled.

"You did?" Keira almost laughed in joy. "That's two of us who are free then!"

Torn nodded. "Anywhere else you need to go?"

The mechanic's green eyes widened in shock as she realised. "The garages! I need to get my tools."

"The Stadium?" he queried. Keira nodded. The new-former Commander stamped on the accelerator pedal and the Hellcat shot off, leaving behind nothing but bad memories and an entirely haunted two years.