A/N: Thanks so much to everyone's who's reading - I'm so grateful to you all! Extra thanks go out to BlueDragonIsAwesome and ToHellAndBack777 for their wonderful insights and fun talks!

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"Where the hell have you been?"

Soul stopped in his tracks, startled by the hysteria-tinged animosity in his partner's voice. Her frown was so furious that he took an involuntary step back toward the swinging door that separated the Steins' living space from the lab.

"I...uh…well..."

Under normal circumstances, her usually-calm partner's stammering confusion would have raised Maka's suspicions. That he looked like a wreck wouldn't have helped. Luckily for Soul, the circumstances were decidedly not normal. He still approached the bench outside of Stein's surgery warily, concentrating on walking a straight line.

"We've been looking for you!" Maka snapped, "While you've been goofing around at that concert my entire life went to shit."

The anger suddenly drained from her, and she wilted, white-faced and exhausted. Soul shot Spirit a worried glance, but Maka's father wasn't any help. In fact, he looked worse than she did. Taking a seat between the two, Soul slid his arm around his partner, and she turned her face into his shoulder. She didn't even notice the smell of the alcohol that was making it so hard for Soul to concentrate.

"Lord Death gave me the basics," he said, "What can I do?"

"Nothing," Maka muttered, "Dr. Stein's in there right now with some other doctors that showed up, but I don't know what's going on," Her voice rose in anguish, and she clutched the back of his wrinkled shirt, "I don't even know who they are. Soul, what am I gonna do if my mama dies?"

"She's not going to. At least not today," Dr. Stein promised, popping through the surgery door as if he'd been waiting for an appropriately dramatic entrance cue. Knowing Stein, that was entirely possible. Spirit jumped up, and Maka followed, letting go of Soul so abruptly that she almost knocked him over.

"She's not in critical condition," Stein said, eliciting relieved sighs from all three of his listeners.

"Thank god. Oh, thank god," Spirit said in a terrible, shaky voice. Relief took the strength from his legs, and he dropped onto the bench like a marionette whose strings had snapped.

"I want to see her. Can I go in?" Maka asked.

Stein remembered her asking the same question of him years ago after Soul nearly died trying to protect her. She was even more upset now than she had been then and Stein's heart went out to his favorite student. Her soul was in terrible condition. Its wavelength completely unstable, and for some reason, Maka was repressing the Reaper bond inside it as though her continued existence depended on it. She needed some time and space to calm down and get her head together. Sitting in a hospital staring at her battered mother wasn't going to make that happen.

"She's sedated right now. You can see her tomorrow," Stein promised, patting her head gently, "I want you to go and get some rest too, okay?"

"No! I want to stay here. What if she wakes up and wonders where I am? What if she needs me?"

"She won't," Stein said firmly, "She'll be out for a long time, and if she needs anything, it'll be medical care that you can't give her. Soul, can you take her home?"

Soul nodded, "Yeah. Sitting here all night won't do you or your mom any good, Maka. You want to be in decent shape when you see her tomorrow, don't you? If she saw you right now, she'd be worried as hell. You're totally freaked out, and you look awful."

"You aren't going to win any beauty prizes yourself," Maka replied, but there wasn't much bite to her words. Soul and Doctor Stein were right; she had to pull herself together. She'd been crying on and off for hours, and her finger and head were throbbing like a bitch. She wasn't even wearing shoes for god's sake. She couldn't let her mother see her like this.

"Thank you for helping her, Professor Stein," she said, and embraced her teacher, taking some comfort in the smell of cigarette smoke that always clung to him. Not usually a scent she liked, but right now any familiar constant was a blessing.

"Yeah, thank you," Spirit echoed as he slumped in a combination of relief and defeat. Maka studied him, thinking hard. Her father was Lord Death's personal weapon; his right hand. He'd only been following the orders given to him by Lord Death and Kami, and in all fairness, Maka didn't think she'd be able to disobey both of them at the same time either. In spite of the things he'd done to break up his marriage, Spirit still loved his ex-wife, and his distress at the thought of losing her was something Maka could understand. Soul was obviously thinking along the same lines, and he nudged her shoulder with his, pushing her toward her father.

"Papa…."

She didn't know what to say next. Spirit grabbed the hesitant hand she placed on his shoulder and spoke instead.

"Don't worry, sweetie, Mama will be fine. I promise. I'm so sorry you had to find out like this. I'm sorry I couldn't tell you. I know that can't help the way you feel right now, but I'm so, so sorry."

Fresh tears stung Maka's eyes, and for the second time that night she willingly embraced her father. Cheating asshole or not, she knew he'd do anything for her, and she understood what it must have cost him to deceive her for so long. She couldn't be angry at him for doing his job; she wasn't that unfair.

Her hug and the forgiveness that went with it were lifelines to Spirit's wounded heart and soul. He told her he loved her and promised to stay with Kami and call Maka the minute her mother was ready to see her. Then he gently turned her toward her partner and repeated Stein's order for home and rest.

"Come on," Soul said, taking her hand.

Maka swiped at her eyes and asked Stein if she could use his living room mirror to open up a portal to her apartment.

"No need," he replied, "Lord Death has a car waiting outside for you. The driver will take you home. You don't have enough experience with that Reaper power yet. Using it when you're this upset could have unpredictable outcomes.

"Besides," he said knowingly, "it doesn't seem like you want to use it right now anyway."

Soul took it as a bad sign that Maka didn't even argue. She had to be more fucked up than he'd thought if she'd take a slam like that on her abilities without a word of protest. She followed him mutely toward the door at the opposite end of the hall, pausing when they got halfway.

"I...I should check on Kid," she said flatly. She felt awful about the scene they'd had earlier. Now that her anger had cooled, she was able to understand that no matter how upset she was, Kid had to feel a thousand times worse. She knew he hadn't meant to hurt her and she couldn't leave him alone at a time like this. They were each other' solace. She'd bring him back to the apartment for the night; the Gallows was too full of Sophie and the trauma her departure had inflicted on him. They'd have tea and talk things out. Later they'd curl up together in her bed. It was a tight fit, but spooning so close that she could feel his heartbeat against her back was exactly what she needed. They'd be okay. As long as they had each other, they'd always be okay. Leaving Soul in the hall, she peeked around Sophie's doorway hesitantly, afraid of setting her off again.

She needn't have worried. There was a spell so strong surrounding Kid's mother that Maka's fingertips itched from the residual magic in the room. Sophie lay quietly, looking ethereal in her trance. Kid sat with Liz' arm around him, holding one of his mother's limp fingers. He was carefully cleaning the blood from beneath her nail, and Liz was telling him that he didn't need to.

"Somebody else can do that, Kid,"

"I have to do something," Kid told her, clutching Sophie's hand, "I'm terrified that she won't stay with me. What'll I do if she won't, Liz? I don't care what happens as long as she doesn't leave me. She's the only thing that really matters to me now."

Every painful thing she'd experienced combined had nothing on what his words did to Maka. The entire world wobbled, or maybe it was just her knees. She didn't matter anymore? They didn't matter anymore? One of the two things she'd thought she could always count on was gone, ripped away from her so suddenly that her heart physically hurt. Not only hurt, betrayed. When Maka felt hurt, she got angry, but betrayal made her furious.

She burst through the door, scaring Liz and Kid out of their wits when she screamed, "Fine!" at the top of her lungs. She seared Kid with a blazing glare that haunted him for the rest of his life, and then she was gone. Maybe for good.