A/N Okay, I admit I did not like the soldier ghosts. Leo had survivors guilt but them blaming him for their circumstances and worse, killing innocents, (in the episode they killed his charge, the teacher,) to punish him for surviving when they didn't, pissed me off.

While I consider some of Leo's choices selfish, such as getting involved with Piper when he wasn't free to, the actions we see from him when his two friends died were not selfish. Their actions in attacking innocent people were cowardly, which of course, is my personal opinion, I'm not stopping anyone from having their own.

Rant over, back to the story.

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Maria had wanted to be a teacher for as long as she could remember, it was how she wanted to help people and that, she had always thought, was the ultimate goal of life, to help others. The handyman, Leo, had reminded her that her students encompassed more than just the one that scared her and he was right, if she was scared of him, than so were her students and she couldn't abandon them and be true to her beliefs.

Beliefs that were being challenged as Greg, the student, had broken into her apartment and was pointing a knife at her.

"I told you, lady, I told you. Don't sweat me!" Trying to sound tough Maria realized, but his voice and the hand holding the knife were both shaking.

"Greg, don't." Maria warned.

"You diss me, teach. Got me in a whole lotta trouble here, now somebody's gonna pay."

"You got yourself in trouble, Greg." Maria said firmly. "You dissed me, you brought a weapon into my classroom, mine! Did you expect me to let you get away with that? It's part of my job to protect my students from danger and you became the danger! I did what I had to, to protect them, you scared them."

"Shut up. Shut up. You're the one who should be afraid right about now."

"I am afraid, Greg." Maria assured him. "I'm terrified, I was then too, but that's not going to stop me. What's it going to take for you to stop being stupid?"

"Stupid. Is that what I am?"

"If you hurt me, you will be. It'll be the stupidest thing you've ever done and there won't be any coming back from it. Your life will be over. You'll go to jail and you'll never be the same again."

"My life is already over! I got suspended, because of you!"

"No, because of your choice, it wouldn't matter which classroom you brought a weapon to, that decision meant you would be suspended. But it's not over yet. It takes more courage to put down that knife than to use it, to face the consequences of your choices. Which consequence is it going to be, Greg, Juvenile Hall for threatening me or jail for hurting or killing me?" She held out her hand. "Give me the knife, Greg. I won't make you deal with your consequences alone, I promise."

"You'll call the police."

"I'll help you, if you let me, give me the knife, Greg. It's okay to be scared, I'm scared, but if you want a future, a chance at a future, then you need to give me the knife."

Greg let it drop from his shaking hand and tears shown in his eyes. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry." He sounded like a little boy now. And he was, he was no more then fifteen, a boy who thought he needed to be tough to be a man, but wasn't ready to be a man, tough or otherwise. Maria held him as he cried and vowed to find a way to help him. "I'm going to call someone, Greg. All I'm going to do is ask him some advice, that's all and we're going to figure out where you go from here. You can listen to the conversation, so you know I'm not trying to trick you."

"Okay." He sounded hollow, empty, overwhelmed. Maria called Leo and asked him for advice.

"My brother in law is a police officer." He told her. "It's his day off right now, he can come over and talk to the kid, explain his options."

"Okay, as long as he doesn't try to arrest Greg. Greg needs help and jail isn't the answer."

"I understand, Andy will be there in a little while." Leo assured her, before hanging up and calling Andy, who agreed to help.

Maria let Andy into her apartment about half an hour later, Prue had come with him since Daryl was at a family event. "I'm Inspector Andy Trudeau." He introduced himself. "And this is my wife, Prue Halliwell."

"I'm Maria and this is my student, Greg. I'm not pressing charges against him, Inspector, but I do want to get him help."

"Than let's figure out the best way to help him, one that hopefully means he never does something stupid again that will land him in prison." He crouched in front of the young teenager. "You understand me, Greg, you get one chance to turn this around. Next time you do something like this and I'll arrest you myself."

"I won't, but why does she care? No one else cares."

"Because she chooses to care." Prue answered. "We've chosen to care too." The moment he put down the knife he became an innocent and helping the innocent was part of their jobs.