Right this is technically the tenth story but at the same time it's a straight continuation from the previous story Explanations, so I've put it as the second chapter to that story. As for how long its been seen an update to the stories, well, its more or less down to just not having any motivation.

Work over Christmas was stressful, and I'm still recovering from an eye infection and on top of all this still looking for a full time job. So my motivation has been lacking of late. But that's changing so on to the next story and possibly the final chapter of this whole thing, I will say this is more of an Epilogue than anything huge.

Rock knew what he was meeting Balalaika for could be taken the wrong way if he said the wrong thing. The last couple of days he and Sawyer had been thinking long and hard about their next step, and with Isabelle in their lives, it just gave them another reason to decide.

"Rock. Sorry about the wait, as you can no doubt guess I have been rather busy dealing with our guests." she spoke as Rock stood across from her, "I can understand, but I won't take up much of your time." taking a moment to compose what he was going to say, he hoped things would go smoothly.

"As you may be aware Sawyer and I have been discussing leaving Roanapur until this has blown over. While we have been through some of the more colourful moments of this city over the last few years, but now we're a family with Isabelle…We think leaving would be the best choice for us." he explained. For what seemed like several minutes Balalaika did not say anything, more a moment he thought that she would tell him to get out or call him a coward for running.

"Let's hope you aren't away for too long Rock." she said with a small smile, "I understand that you are doing this to protect those you care about and with a child, it merely adjusts your priorities. And I must say I am rather fond of young Isabelle." Rock let out the breath he had been unknowingly holding in, "Thank you Balalaika, I have to admit I wasn't expecting you to be so understanding, given the situation.". She laughed dryly at the remark, "You are someone outside my organization that I can trust Rock, I would be a fool to drive you away. May I ask where your planning to go?".

"Sawyer suggested Canada and I couldn't think of anywhere else so we're heading there.", "I still find it amusing that you two have a family now, I don't think anyone would have seen that coming." Rock opened his mouth there was a low hiss followed by an explosion and everything going black.

Waking in a hospital room he drifted in and out as faces checked him over and spoke to him but he was too out of it.

He did not know how long it had been but things were clearer for him now, and the first person he saw was Sawyer, who had clearly been crying but was slumped over next to his bed asleep. Gently giving her a nudge he felt her stir as his throat was too sore to say anything.

"Rock?" she asked rubbing her eyes, which quickly filled with joy when she saw him smiling at her, "Rock!" wrapping him up in a hug she was overjoyed that he had finally woken up.

"What do you remember last?", "Talking with Balalaika…then something…" he said his throat dry and sore as Sawyer handed him a glass of water from the table, "Someone fired an RPG at her office if her walls weren't reinforced it would have been a lot worse. She got a few more scars and her right arm was broken in multiple places, there were some lacerations on her legs as well from shrapnel." she explained hoping that Rock would not remember too much of what had happened, the sheer destruction of the office was horrific.

"What happened to me?" he asked, still a little horse, "Concussion, shrapnel to your chest and head, broken arm and a skin craft to burns on your leg.", "I feel fine…besides a massive headache.", "It's been nearly a month Rock, Chang footed the hospital bills for you and made sure you had the best doctors and surgeons available.".

"Sorry." he said after taking a moment to take everything in, "Sorry? What for?", "Making you worry about me." Sawyer opened her mouth to say something but just tried to keep the tears at bay at she wrapped him up in a hug, glad that she no longer had to worry about him, that he was alright.

"Well, Rock I'm hoping your holiday is a pleasant one. Wish you had been able to go when you wanted but we'll be sure to clean up this mess as quickly as possible. We have been rather busy the last month. These fools target two of our own and that, well that just pisses us off." Chang said as he saw the trio off at the airport, the section was all but closed down and surrounded by his personal guards.

"You've done so much for us already . I can't thank you enough.", "Well tell you what, bring me back a souvenir and we'll call it even. You kids have fun." giving a little wave to the three he let them board their flight to Canada, he was sad to see them go but he knew they would be safest and would feel safest away from the city that they called their home. At least for the time being.

Rock was thankful for being able to use crutches instead of a wheelchair as he took the aisle seat next to Sawyer with Isabelle at the window seat. "I'm glad your alright Rock." she said for what seemed like the hundredth time since he woke up, "You don't need to say it Sawyer, I know. I was lucky, though, I'm not going to forget that." he reassured her as she rested her head on his shoulder.

He looked over at Isabelle who was sleeping soundly even as the plane began to taxi onto the runway, which he guessed the other passengers would be grateful for the silence but not that he would care what they thought of their daughter.

But as the plane finally took off he could not help but think back to the people they were leaving behind for the safety of another country, he wondered just how long they were going to have to stay away for.

He trusted Chang and Balalaika would not drag their feet in dealing with the organization trying to wrestle control of Roanapur from them, another reason was that Rock would rather not be near the Russian mob boss when she started one of her wars again.

Chang sighed as he looked over the report that had come from his people on the streets, their enemies had been resorting to more hit and run attacks on their territories and it had been causing a lot of people to loose a lot of sleep. Himself included.

"Boss…a word?" one of his guards asked poking his head in his office, "Yes Shen?", "One of our cars got shot up, drivers dead and the passenger is on the operation table as we speak." Chang took off his shades and rubbed his eyes, "Third attack this week…these folks are beginning to annoy me now. And I'm getting flak for not removing the problem from back home.".

"Shen…I'm putting out a bounty. Five hundred thousand for the location of these bastards, let everyone in the city know. We'll either force them into more direct action or we get lucky and find them before they hit us again." Shen nodded off and made the notifications for the bounty hunters as Chang picked up his phone to contact the other bosses for a meeting.

Revy was busy cleaning her guns while sitting with Eda in the Church, she had temporarily moved in while Dutch and Benny had taken off like Rock for a prolonged fishing trip until everything blew over.

She had already told Chang that she was ready to help whenever they were ready, but until she heard back all she could do was stay focused. Which was difficult considering her drinking partner sitting opposite her. "Come on have a drink Revy, not going to do much cleaning your guns.", "You do realise Eda that all hell is about to break loose?" she looked up briefly from cleaning the slide and gave her a look as if to ask 'are you stupid?'.

"Let that's never happened before…you had the Bloodhound, those twins, Greenback and let's not forget the Bloodhound, again…If there is a gateway to hell Revy this city is smack bang on top of it." both fell silent for a moment as they thought about it, and both silently came to the conclusion that maybe Rock and Sawyer had the right idea.

Chang had waited three days for the good news he had been waiting for. "Three miles outside the city limits…they've been hiding so damn close to us." he said looking over a map of the area where they had been found.
"So when will we move in?" Boris asked from across the table, "As soon as everyone is ready. I don't know about the rest of you but I want these fools away from my city for good. Burial is up to them." Balalaika smiled as she pointed to a small clearing nearby, "I already have moved some men into position before we move in they will mortar they're positions and confuse them." Chang nodded in agreement, "Once everyone is ready then we will begin.".

By the time the sun had begun to set groups of Russian soldiers and Triad enforcers had gathered by the side of the road leading to the encampment. "This will be a clean sweep. Leave no survivors, let this serve as a warning that this is our city." Balalaika ordered and got nods from everyone, "They have killed and wounded our people, our comrades and we will not show mercy.".

The encampment looked quiet as sentries patrolled the grounds, completely unaware of what was fast approaching. Several thuds in the distance were heard as several explosions in the camp followed, sending men and equipment flying as the high explosive rounds impacted time after time.

Before they could recover and mount any sort of defence rounds from light machine guns and assault rifles tore through the camp from the undergrowth, within moments Russians and Triad swarmed through the camp, dispatching any who stood in their way. Any people who were able to fight back were instantly cut down with both guns and grenades.

"Secure the area!" Balalaika ordered her coat swaying gently in the evening breeze, "If anyone is still breathing end them!" for a moment she pondered her words before changing it, "Actually bring me one, alive!". It did not take long for a man to be dragged in front of her with a gunshot wound to the leg, "You won't…" he did not get the chance to finish as she backhanded him across the face, "Shut up! You are going to listen to me you little shit. You and your masters picked the wrong city to try and rule. And now you are going to pay dearly for it.".

Grabbing the man by his hair she drove her thumb into his right eye, ignoring the man's screaming she wiped her hand clean and pushed him to the ground, "Consider your choice of words carefully…you are going to return to you masters and tell them this. For every time they attack us, we shall strike back at them tenfold!". Both she and Chang watched the man get dragged away, "Do you think they'll take the warning seriously?" Chang asked, "That remains to be seen but regardless we will deal with them sound they ever decide to return. And if things persist then we will hunt them down and wipe them off the face of the earth.".

Sawyer smiled warmly as Rock carried Isabelle in his arms through the streets, it had been over a week since their arrival and they had spent a lot of time simply enjoying the sights and each other's company. Montreal was a wonderful change of scenery for them and they could not be happier.

"Can't believe its only been a week since we arrived." he thought aloud as Sawyer nodded happily next to him, but she seemed to be happier making a fuss of Isabelle, while they had gotten a number of odd looks during their visit, mainly because of how Sawyer was dressed they merely ignored it.

"Time sure has flown, but I was thinking…do you fancy catching a hockey game while we're here? There is one tonight, maybe we could get some tickets?", "Don't see why not, would be interesting to watch. Do you think Isabelle would mind the loud noises, though?" Rock smiled softly, "She slept through Roanapur nights, I think I hockey match wouldn't bother her much if at all.".

His mind wondered back to their home and wondered if everyone was alright but seeing Sawyer smile at him made his thoughts wonder away from the cities problems and back to his family. Heading back to their hotel they decided to see if they could find a place to buy tickets from, the city was so large that they still spent time asking for directions.

But as much as Rock would have liked to spend some time with Sawyer in their hotel room he was still recovering from his injuries and was ordered not to strain himself, of course he did not like the whole idea of being on a prolonged holiday with his wife and being unable to have any personal time alone in the bedroom.

Of course, all this had the added benefit of him not being forced to deal with Revy's questions about his love life, which frankly had become rather too personal of late, her latest question was if they used ropes at all. He had just shaken his head, knowing that Sawyer would cut him off if he ever did start discussing their sex life.

Arriving back at their hotel the desk clerk called them over, saying that they had gotten a message while they were out. Taking the piece of paper it simply said 'Infestation removed. Come home when your ready. ' with a little smiley face next to his signature. Silently showing it to Sawyer she gave him a small grin, "We've got at least another week here, don't you think?" she asked, "No doubt about that. Besides still all that clean up work they'll have to do, would you like to go back to all that madness?", "Nope, we've got a hockey game to go watch.".

Returning to Roanapur a week later Rock and Sawyer went straight back to their apartment and settled back in. While it was late in the evening and they were expecting the jetlag to stop them from getting to sleep. But the moment their heads hit the pillows they fell asleep.

They awoke late in the morning with Isabelle crying softly, and Sawyer draped across Rock and the sun shining through their window. "Well…nice to see things are back to normal…" Rock chuckled as he pushed himself out of bed to check on Isabelle.

Later on, after they had all woken up, Rock and Sawyer checked in on Balalaika, Chang and the rest of the Lagoon Company. Though Revy was a little irate as she had been unable to shoot anyone during the cleanup operation and had been stuck sitting with Eda for the whole day listening to her complaining about everything about her life.

Rock was happy that everyone was alright and that the city had pretty much already recovered from the attacks by The Collective and everything was almost back to normal.

Mora was overjoyed when she saw Sawyer wearing a hockey jersey she had gotten after their night at the hockey ring, she said she looked adorable wearing something so different than her usual gothic attire but considering the temperature the loose fitted jersey was rather comfortable than her gothic dresses but then again she did prefer them.

Rocks mother eventually called him explaining that regardless of his connections she would always be there for him, she wasn't about to go back on her promise to him to act more like a mother. Of course, she said she would be more than happy if they visited her rather than her always visiting Roanapur, as while the people she met were nice she still did not feel comfortable being around so many criminals.

"Sawyer! I'm back!" Rock called out as he walked into their apartment, "Got dinner on the way back from the office!" walking into the living room he was met by the cold glare by Sawyer, sitting on their sofa wearing her oversized hockey jersey. "Is everything alright?" he asked wondering why she was giving him such an angry look, "I promised if you did it again I would cut them off with a spoon…here's the spoon." she said holding up a tablespoon, with a menacing look in her eyes.

It took him a moment to get the reference but then he realised what she was talking about, "Your…pregnant?", "Got it in one genius. Now come here and take it like a man." instead Rock held his ground and shook his head, deciding to use his ace, "You and I both know you wouldn't cut them off…" walking over he sat down next to her, "Don't you want another kid?" Sawyer's expression became one of shock as the words left his mouth.

"I never said that!" she cried, "It's… I just wasn't expecting this!" she said pointing to her stomach, "I mean… I only had Isabelle less than a year ago…I'm worried that's all.", "About what Sawyer? We'll always be together on this, I promise." Sawyer blushed and looked away, as if the answer would be a joke, "I'm worried that you won't find me attractive anymore." she said trying not to cry, only for Rock to wrap his arms around her and pull her into a hug.

"Never going to happen, Sawyer, we're married and your stuck with me." he chuckled, "Besides I could never find you unattractive.", "Really?" she felt him nod, "I never told you this but when I used the shelf to stop your chainsaw back when you were hunting Jane I was actually really turned on.", "Your lying.", "Nope honest to god. If you weren't trying to kill me I would likely have asked you out or something." he chuckled as he felt Sawyer relax.

"You have to tell that story to our kids when get older. Preferably when they are old enough to be embarrassed by it." Sawyer said leaning up to kiss Rock on the lips, "Oh you can count on it.".

Well this is the last story for now. I may or may not continue it at a later date if I think up some more ideas but for now, I think its run its course for the moment. Hope you like it and enjoyed the little saga of the these two.