Michelle squirmed around on the gray, leather couch and clutched her burgundy throw closer to her wounded body while her eye lids struggled to stay open. After spending almost a week in the daunting clutches of the hospital, Dr. Almanza finally discharged Michelle and let her go home once she ensured the doctor that she wouldn't exert herself too much. Which, after recent events, she definitely wasn't planning on doing.

The low volume from the t.v. was the only sound emitted throughout the large house, until it went off completely, leaving Michelle with nothing but silence.

She glanced up towards her husband who rested on the couch that sat on the opposite side of the room, despite the surplus of space beside the brunette. He ran his fingers over the black buttons of the television remote while taking a deep breath.

Michell couldn't help but grimace at the coldness that lingered between the two for the last few days, the coldness that made their loss infinitely more painful.

"Why'd you turn of the t.v.?" she croaked.

"How is it that you make so much money every year?" Lincoln inquired once he finally mustered the courage to ask the question that rang through his head for quite some time.

Michelle sat up on the couch and shook her head, "I already told you. Where is this coming from?"

"Yeah, you said that your mother made some good investments back in the day. That's what you said, but is it true? I mean, sixty grand a year just from some good investments seems a little unlikely. How did she even know to make the investments? What did she invest in? You've never really told me, it doesn't make sense."

The brunette scoffed at the accusation that seemed to be laced in his questions, "you didn't question the money when it payed for almost the entirety your private practice."

She immediately slammed her eyes shut once the snarky comment crawled out of her mouth. She didn't mean it, she wasn't angry with her husband, she was angry with herself for letting things get so far. She knew that she should've taken out the overseer the second he made it clear that he would rip her family to shreds, but it was too late now. Much too late. Her world was already crashing in on her.

"God, Michelle are you even listening to yourself?" Lincoln stood to his feet. "You wanna fight about money, out of everything that's happened, that's what you wanna fight about, the one thing that isn't a problem? Okay, sure, you helped me create the business that I own today, thank you! I thought that that was the kind of stuff that husbands and wives did for one another but if you wanna turn this into some sort of obligatory game then there you go! Are you happy now? Did that solve anything? No, because that's not the problem at hand. The problem is that you're lying to me...and I let it happen. I let it happen because I let you tell me what you want to tell me and I let you run this marriage and that's why it's-."

"...That's why it's what, Lincoln, that's why it's what?"

"That's why...it's not gonna work. Not anymore, not like this," he uttered with his hands resting on his hips.

"What?"

"The way this marriage is going, the direction it's in, you keeping things from me...it's not working."

Michelle blinked her eyes repeatedly as she searched for something to say, "so...after years of marriage, suddenly, it's not working? I heard that the loss of a child can tear apart a relationship but in one week? Damn, Lincoln, that's got to be some sort of a record."

"I'm not necessarily saying that. You know that I love you more than anything, but-."

"No, you know what? If you wanna be done, if you wanna walk away and forget all of this, then please, by all means, be done. As a matter of fact, you can walk out that door right now. I don't give a shit, I have other things to deal with."

"See, this is what I'm talking about. This is the problem. This is what you do. Whenever I confront you about something, whenever I really want to talk, you shut down and brush me off like I'm nothing."

"...I don't do that," Michelle's statement came out as more of a question than an answer.

"Yes, you do. It's either that or you lie to my face, I know that's what you're doing. Almost every morning you leave this house for hours upon hours and you don't come back until nighttime. You don't work, so where the hell is it that you go?"

"The law firm, Lincoln," Michelle snapped, "I go to the firm." She simply couldn't stop with the lies, not now, she was in far too deep.

"There you go again, another bold face lie. You're keeping things from me, I know it."

"I'm sorry, I don't go to the firm?" she challenged sarcastically, "Then please, tell me, where have I been going for the last ten years?"

"I don't know, I was hoping you could fill me in on that! I mean, who the hell goes to a law firm several times a week for a decade! That doesn't even make sense!"

"You know what I do there, why I go," Michelle growled through gritted teeth. She ripped the fuzzy throw from her legs before rushing up from her seat in anger. The pain in her stomach immediately reminded her that swift movements were impossible for her right now. She instantly doubled over, clutching her flat stomach while holding back the tears that threatened to stream down her cheeks.

She hardened her expression once she felt Lincoln's hands instinctively wrap around her waist in attempts to keep her steady. Lincoln clenched his teeth after Michelle swatted his hands away and stood up right. "Me going there so often may not make sense but my mother getting killed didn't make sense either and that happened, so..."

"...Did it?" Lincoln quietly asked. "I'm starting to wonder if that's all make believe...bullshit."

Michelle's gaze flashed over to Lincoln, their eyes having a silent conversation. Lincoln immediately picked up on the hurt that soared through his wife and he instantaneously regretted his accusation, but it was far too late to go back now.

"All bullshit?" Michelle hissed, the pain that once caused her great discomfort instantly dispersed. "You think that my mother getting ran over by a car in front of a convenience store and being left for dead is all...bullshit?" she reiterated.

"Michelle-."

"No, is that what you're asking?" she demanded, "I need to know."

Lincoln let the silence linger between him. Although he slightly regretted opening the sensitive can of worms, it was crucial that he knew the truth.

"It's not. But, if you think that it is bullshit then you pack all of your shit and get the hell out of my house," Michelle assured before swiftly scurrying up the staircase, her husband following closely behind.

"Michelle, what are you doing?" he pondered. He caught a pair of shorts that Michelle threw towards him along with the other surplus of clothing that she ripped out of the closet and drawers.

"Here's your stuff, you can get out. It's for the best anyway, I should've known that this would never work." Her quiet words contrasted with her frantic actions.

"Wait, wait, wait, wait," Lincoln pulled on the brunette's arm to keep her stationary. He took a deep breath, cupped her cheeks to get a good look at her and thanked God that she didn't fight against his touch. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that, but I-," he cleared his throat to make his broken voice sound a bit more whole and strong, the type of strong that they both needed. "I know that you haven't been completely honest with me. You're secretive, you're gone all the time and sometimes you come home really late. I know that something's up with you and I know that it may have something to do with what happened to you a few days ago, what happened to us. I need you to tell me who do this so that I can make them suffer because they, whoever it was, they took from us. The both of us and in doing that, they proved that I couldn't take care of you or our baby, they proved to the world, they proved to me that I can't even protect my own family. And if a man can't protect his family, Michelle, he's nothing," he whispered. "So, what I need from you is for you to tell me what happened, who did this? Give me a name, please, I promise I'll handle it. Whatever it takes, I'll handle it."

Michelle's eyes softened at the sight of her husband's tears that matched her own. "Do you think that's gonna bring this baby back. You...handling it? It's not, it won't. You can't handle it because you can't fix it because some things...this thing, what happened...it can't be fixed. We can't go back, I can't go back...and you...can't protect me."

Lincoln swallowed thickly at the weight of Michelle's words, the tears still streaming freely down his face.

"Not from them, no one can," Michelle avowed, her gaze lowering. "No one can protect anyone from them and especially not from him. Believe me, I've tried...and look where it got us."

Michelle's silent tears transformed into sobs at the thought of her failure, not just over the past few weeks, but over the last ten years. She spent almost a third of her life and the entirety of her marriage lying and keeping secrets in attempts of protecting the ones she loved, but it wasn't until now that she realized that the lies and deceit only got people killed. She couldn't keep her family safe, she couldn't keep them alive. That was her job, the most important job, and she didn't do it, she couldn't do it. She was the failure, not her husband.  Despite her loyalty to the agency, they still destroyed her family. There was no use in doing it any longer, not if it meant that she'd lose the one person that she loved the most in this world.

"Michelle, who's him? Who is he, who are you talking about?" Lincoln begged, the pads of his thumbs wiping away the brunette's tears. "Please, sweetheart, just tell me his name."

"Not just him," she murmured in a shaky voice, "them."

"Them?" Lincoln implored, "them who?"

Michelle allowed her soft eyes to slowly travel upwards before finally settling on Lincoln's that pleaded with her. She let the words escape from the depths of her throat, not allowing herself to hold out on her husband for another minute "...Versa Vice Sensus."