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RPOV

Stephanie fell asleep on the armchair and I didn't have the heart to move her in case she woke up. I sat down against the wall next to the armchair. I thought about what went down today and if I could've done anything differently. There was no way to get her out of the situation alive than what I did. Anything less and she'd be dead.

I was standing behind Regan but he did not know. He was focused on my men in front of him. I saw the signal from Tank and I made my move. With a move that can only come with practice and precision, I knocked his hand away from my Babe and pushed her into Tank's arms. Regan, in an attempt to hurt me tried to slash me with the knife, but I was too fast. I used his own momentum against him to slash his neck. I felt a sick satisfaction overcome me as I heard the quiet crunch on his neck snapping as he fell to the ground. Tank had already grabbed my Babe and was waiting for me in the car. He transferred my precious bundle off to me and went back in to take care of business. I held onto my Babe as Hector drove us back. Babe seemed to be in shock as I handed her off to Bobby. She seemed frozen and hadn't uttered a single word. I passed her off to Bobby knowing that he'd take care of her before I went back to help my men clean up.

I drifted back to the present as I heard my Babe whimper in her sleep. Kneeling in front of her I could see her crying in her sleep. Unable to bare the distance between us any longer I picked her up into my lap and rocked her, hoping to break through her nightmare.

Her sharp blue eyes opened and she took in her surroundings. She didn't try to push me away, instead sat up in my lap.

"Do you think I'll go to hell when I die?" she whispered.

Her question broke me. How can she even imagine that she would ever end up in hell? How can she think so little of herself. She reached up to my cheek with her left hand and wiped off the tear I didn't know that I had shed with the pad of her thumb.

Suddenly, she launched herself into my chest and wrapped her arms around me. Her embrace was so tight that I could feel all bits of myself binding together.

She spoke once more, her voice barely above a whisper, "You had to take a life to save mine. I can't have to darkening your soul to protect me. I can't have that on my conscience Carlos."

"Stephanie, you know that these six months have been pure heaven for me. I will sell my soul to the devil if it means a lifetime with you." My voice was gravelly and I couldn't help but tighten my arms around her.

"You don't give yourself enough credit Carlos, you would be fine without me. I don't care that you murdered that man in cold blood, he was a terrible person. What I care about is who you turn into once you do take a life. You start thinking of yourself as a monster, a man with no soul. I have a problem with that."

I was stunned. I imagined that she was afraid of me, afraid that I'd hurt her or afraid of how much at ease I was with taking a life. Instead she was worried about me. She had somehow figured out my thoughts and cared enough to try to set me straight.

"I…" I didn't have any response to that.

She held onto me and she cried. She wept for all the lives I've had to take. She wept for all the innocents caught in the crossfire and she wept for me. In a way, her crying was a release for me. I could never shed those tears. I could never show so much emotion, it would leave me raw, so she did it for me.

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A/N: I hope this chapter explained everything. She isn't afraid of him. She's afraid for him. She's scared of what she saw on his face.