AN: A short fic on what possibly happened after Marni was killed. Feedback as always is greatly appreciated. Enjoy!

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Nathan fumbled with the doorknob before staggering inside, his helmet, the symbol of his new job, in one arm, with the other arm clutching desperately at Shilo. He shut the door with a soft snick and wearily leaned against it.

Unable to bear looking at it any longer, he cast the helmet into a dark corner. The loud thump woke up Shilo, who started whimpering, trying to wriggle out of Nathan's embrace.

"Shh, Shh, Shi. It's going to be all right, you'll see. Lets get you upstairs."

Nathan gently rocked his child while making his way upstairs, murmuring soothingly to her. Only a few hours old, and already she reminded him of…her. The same dark eyes, the same long fingers. Even the small tufts of hair on her head were reminders of his wife.

Nathan opened the door to his bedroom and, steeling himself, entered. He was still unprepared for what awaited him. He bedsheets were hanging off the bed, medicines were scattered, a glass of water lay broken on the floor, the liquid spreading across the wood. The monitor was cracked, the sensors like tendrils winding towards the door from where they had been ripped from Marni's body as Nathan had raced to bring her downstairs. Nathan, viewing the carnage, convulsively pulled Shilo's body closer to himself.

Taking a deep breath, he made his way across the room, gently setting Shilo into the waiting crib, an oasis amid all of this chaos. Nathan was torn: part of him wanted to stay with his precious baby girl, but another part couldn't get away fast enough. The memories were too fresh, he all but ran out of the room before collapsing against the wall outside.

Why was this happening to him? The question filled his head. He was torn with guilt and grief. Rotti had been so forgiving, but how could he? Nathan was a murderer. The word didn't seem strong enough to describe his heinous actions. He deserved to die. More than that, he deserved to suffer. Who was he to be sitting here when he should be doing penance for his crimes? Rotti had kept him from jail, but there had to be something he could do to atone for his sins. Even as he was thinking this, he realized that nothing he did could ever be enough. Marni – his beautiful Marni – had been killed by him: a light had been extinguished from his world.

Marni – was she still in the lab? He imagined her cold body laid out on the operating table, covered in blood, an expression of agony frozen on her too-still face. She didn't deserve that. If she had to be dead, the least he could do would be to clean her up and give her a burial in a tomb befitting a queen. She was his queen, after all.

He made his way down to the lab. Feeling as if he was retracing his footsteps of only a few hours but what felt like eternities ago, he opened the fireplace and descended. Upon entering his lab, he stopped in horror.

The lab was pristine. Every surface had been wiped, every instrument cleaned. The air smelled of bleach and the antiseptic smell of hospitals. Worse than this erasure of all that had happened was the fact that Marni's body was not there. Instead was what looked like a stack of papers.

In disbelief, Nathan crossed the room and picked up the stack. Repossession assignments. He looked at the first: a woman who had undergone assisted reproductive therapy was unable to pay for her treatment: her six-month-old fetus was due to be repossessed. On the bottom was stuck a handwritten not from Rotti:

A Reminder. I will be keeping Marni's body until I'm sure of your compliance. –Rotti

Nathan saw red. To give him this particular assignment, and to take Marni's body – it was unconscionable. Well, Nathan would show him. He would leave right now and do this repossession, and then he'd drop the baby's dead body on Rotti's desk and demand Marni in exchange. And then he'd never let her out of his sight.