Thanks for the lively discussions you guys always have I really like reading them. I also try answering your questions if I don't feel as if it would spoil anything, so I don't mind the questions. Vote. comment. Thanks.

Shoura answered his door with hair askew and faint lines crisscrossing his cheeks. He rubbed his eyes with the heel of one hand while he leaned against the door and squinted down at her. "I was wondering when you were coming." He said groggily as he took a step back to give her room to enter.

Krissy bit back a smile at his appearance easily when she remembered what she had to tell him. "I didn't come to snuggle..." She joked lightly. He raised an eyebrow. "Kate...she had the baby." His other eyebrow went to join the other. "Bryce, he needs me. I'm going to see him and the baby."

Shoura seemed more awake now as he straightened out of his slouch. "And I'm guess you don't want me to tag along?"

She shook her head. "I think that's a really bad idea."

"Why? I like babies and babies love me." When she just frowned at him he let out a breath. "Okay, when do you think you'll be back?"

She shrugged. "It's already getting pretty late, so probably not until morning."

He opened his arms out wide and it took her a moment to realize he wanted a hug, she hesitated before complying, wrapping her arms around the man. He squeezed her in return. "Be careful," He whispered into her hair.

(MM)

The nurse looked at Bryce before she handed her the swaddled, little being with a soft smile. Krissy didn't really have any other choice but to take the child that was handed to her before she could refuse. Her whole body stiffened at the new weight in her arms, and she quickly looked back at Bryce.

"What are you doing?" She questioned voice shaky as she glanced down at the baby. He was pink and wrinkly, completely bald. She looked back up at the blank faced Bryce. "I...I...don't think Kate will like me holding her newborn without her permission, Bryce." She whispered harshly.

"Don't worry about that," he said without even an ounce of care. "I wanted the most important person in my life to meet my son. I..." He trailed off, seeming to just take in the sight of her holding the child awkwardly.

Krissy began to gracelessly rock when the baby made a sound she wasn't sure the meaning of in her arms, hoping he didn't start to cry. She looked back down at Bryce's son.

Bryce's son.

She bit her lip and swallowed, her forehead felt stiff. A rock in her stomach."He's beautiful." She commented, eyeing the perfect tiny hand that escaped the blue blanket. Her heart felt funny and she couldn't gaze down at the child for long because it felt as if the feeling was getting worse. It was a heavy feeling and she realized she didn't know how to feel or even what she was feeling. She looked back up at Bryce. "Have you... held him yet?"

When Krissy had arrived, picked up by Marcus from Shoura's, she had been led into the house and into a spare room on the second floor. There she shad found Bryce standing awkwardly near the door and a nurse checking over the baby on what seemed to be a scale.

Bryce continued to give her a funny look as he shook his head 'no'. "I haven't." He answered verbally.

So she was holding his son even before him. "Why?" She questioned, fearing she already knew the answer.

"I don't want too." He said honestly.

She frowned at him. "You have to feel something for him, right?" She worried Bryce didn't feel much of anything when it didn't come to her.

Bryce seemed to not know the answer to her question. His eyes dropped from her and to the ground, where they flickered around as if he was thinking deeply. He worked his jaw before he finally said, "I want to protect him." he finally said.

Krissy felt relieved but that was a far cry from what she wanted him to feel. He should love this child, right? New fathers loved their children, right? "That's good." She said. It would have to be enough for now. She stepped closer to him even though she was deathly afraid of moving with the child. What if she dropped him?

The child cooed softly as she moved him into Bryce's arms, careful not to touch the man. His eyes watched her the whole time, and remained on her even with the child now in his arms.

"He's kind of heavy for a little thing." She commented to break some of the tension.

Bryce's gaze finally dropped down slowly and landed on the child. "He was 9lbs 5ozs at birth." He spoke. He was as stiff as a statue as he stood there holding his son, not even a flicker of emotion on his face. Krissy bit the inside of her lip, eyes watering. "Krissy," Bryce suddenly spoke, tone odd.

"Yeah?" She asked softly, one of her hands rising to rub her neck.

"I...I don't feel anything." His tone was lost and he finally showed an emotion when he frowned. "I don't feel anything at all." He repeated sounding even more lost somehow.

Krissy sucked in a breath. "That's fine," she hoped, she hoped it was fine. "I'm sure you will later." she assured.

(MM)

He would have much preferred she stayed the night, but instead she left at two in the morning to go back to Shoura.

Back to Shoura.

He wanted to hit something, scream even, but he couldn't. He couldn't scream because he didn't feel he really had it in him and he couldn't hit anything, not with the weight of his son in his arms.

He looked down at the baby, who seemed to be looking up at him thru half lidded eyes as he suckled on his own knuckles. His son.

Bryce felt nothing, no overwhelming feeling of love or any great delight about holding his child in his arms. There was nothing and that concerned him. He didn't think on it for too long however as he continued his trek down the halls of his home, his mind returning to Krissy.

Shoura. He recalled the conversation he had with Shoura a few days after the Sucio Brothers attack on Krissy. He had been surprised when the Russian appeared at his home, that annoying smile stuck to his face.

Their 'meeting' had been brief but memorable from his stand point. Shoura, the bold bastard, had stood in his face and told him he couldn't give Krissy what she needed. The blonde had told him what Krissy needed and said it wasn't Bryce, claimed she needed someone who could love her completely and every way she needed. Claimed she needed someone who could touch her.

They only reason Shoura lived to walk out of his front doors that day was of the truth in his words. He hadn't wondered too deeply on how he figured out his...inability when it came to touching Krissy, and assumed Krissy had told him. That meant she trusted him. It meant Krissy placed more trust then he would have liked into someone other then himself. He guessed it was those two things that kept Shoura alive when he came boldly into his home telling him what was best for Krissy. He already hurt Krissy enough as it stood, he couldn't kill someone she seemed to like for no 'good' reason, for one. Second, once again, Shoura wasn't wrong.

He cannot touch Krissy. He cannot hold her or comfort her. That had never bothered him more than the day she was attacked. She had looked afraid and small after fighting for her life, just sitting alone on blood drenched dirt, and he could do nothing but flutter around her uselessly, wanting to touch her but unable too. Then she had said she wanted to go home. It tore him up completely, because for him, she was home. But he had taken her, because he couldn't comfort her in any other way, and when they got there he had to watch her in the arms of another man. A man who could touch her, hug her, and give her comfort in a way he was incapable of.

Bryce hated himself, he truly did.

So he tortured himself by allowing his very reason for breathing to remain with a mercifully still breathing Shoura, because he couldn't give her what she needed... but Shoura could.

Bryce hated those who hurt Krissy most, himself included. That was why he mutilated the Sucio Brother's bodies and sent them packaged nicely back to their families and had the older of the twin's son's dog's head placed in the nine year old's bed.

Speaking of the Sucio brothers...

He pushed open the door of Kate's room. She looked at him with a still sweaty, flushed face, wet, blonde curls plastered to her for head. She was a bit shocked at first to see him standing there holding their son, but a bright smile appeared on her face a second later. Her joy was understandable considering he had refused to even touch the child when he was first born.

"Bryce..." She breathed. "I'm so happy...I mean, I knew you would."

He continued forward until he was standing over her. He took his eyes off the child to look at her with a small smile. She looked completely awe struck by it, as her eyes widened and her mouth fell open. "I think he's hungry, Kate."

She pulled herself up straighter on the bed. "Of course, of course," she said quickly. She held her arms out for the child and he placed him into her arms. He watched silently as she struggled to breast feed how the midwife had showed her. She kept shooting him nervous smiles. "It's more complicated then I thought it would be." She laughed. She finally got the baby latched and feeding, she smiled up at him, eyes bright.

Bryce's smile had long since faded. He brushed sweaty strands of hair from her shoulder, with a finger gently before beginning to run his hands thorough her hair lightly.

"Bryce?" She said with unsure hope. "I'm glad you're happy with him. I was worried you wo-" Kate gasped when the hand that had been gently petting her without warning tightened around the strands and were nearly yanked from her scalp. His nose bumped into her cheek as he placed a rough kiss there and whispered.

"This is exactly what it is you want, isn't it, Kate?" He asked deadly calm. "This perfect family. You, the wife of the Don, our son, and me. You wanted this picture perfect scene so badly you were willing to kill for it, right? That was smart of you, I have to admit." The hold on her hair tightened, making her whimper in pain. "Have a known enemy of mine take a crack at it in hopes that no one would even think of digging deeper, but I did Kate..." His laugh was empty. "You're confused." He stated like an afterthought. "You're confused because you seem to not to be able to wrap your curly little head around this, but I'll explain it once again. That woman you tried to kill so you could have all of me is everything too me and always will be, dead or alive. There was never any room for you, Kate. You never had a piece of me at all or the hope to even assume so."

"I...I have your son!" She yelled out, emotional and stupid.

Bryce's fingers twisted more into her hair and his blunt nails dug into her scalp and she cried out in pain and sobbed. His lips were nearly inside of her ear. "That is the one reason you're still alive, Kate." He sang emptily.

She panted harshly and moaned in pain. "W-When did you find out?"

"I've known for months." He released her and took a step back as if nothing happened. His gaze on her was dark. "You will be sent off to where I won't have to see you or think of you...with the child."

"You're abandoning him! You're abandoning your own flesh and blood for her! You're... You're..."

He took a step towards her and she flinched. He smiled a cruel smile. "I will see my son when I feel like it. Don't give me that enraged look," he said calmly, straightening his jacket, "don't, not when you chose to have a child with me knowing I have no love to give to anyone."

She shook and eyed him with fear and hatred, their child still nursing from her in her arms. "No one but her." She said bitterly. "Where is she, Bryce. Huh? Where is the woman you're throwing your son away for? I can tell you! Falling into bed with another man!"

Bryce didn't think her statement deserved a response. It wasn't any of her business and maybe after everything he's put her through...maybe it wasn't any of his. He left the room after that, feeling just as empty as when he had entered.