"Zach, can I come in?" she said knocking softly on his door. They hadn't really talked properly since the webcam thing.

"Yeah." She opened the door and he looked up from his books.

"you alright?" he asked sitting up and making room for her to sit down. She shrugged curling up on the end of his bed. "Things are still a little crazy out there right."

"Yes. It'll be weird when they finally get office space."

"Where were you yesterday? I thought I was driving you home."

"Oh I finished early so i got the bus."

"So what's up?" He studied his sister.

"Do you want Mom and Dad to get back together?" she just said it straight out. He was stunned.

"I..." he frowned and put his books down altogether. "No."

"why?"

"I want them to be happy." He shrugged. "Do you want them back together?"

"No" she shook her head. He raised an eyebrow.

"Even though divorce is a sin?"

"Yes. I've thought about it and well they tried. We can't say they didn't." He just looked at her. "I think maybe it's time we all moved on." She knew she'd shocked her brother. But they needed to get these things out in the open.

"What brought this on?" he asked, still not getting anything from her expression.

"I dunno I was just thinking. Wanted to see what you were thinking."

"I think they need to give up trying to make it work." He shrugged.

"So you wouldn't be mad it they started seeing other people?"

"what have you heard?" he bolted upright.

"No no nothing!" she shook her head waving her hands in front of her. "it was just something I was thinking about and we haven't really discussed… it in a while."

"Since Kalinda you mean." She bit the inside of her lip.

"Yes." She avoided his gaze. "That."

"I think that was the final straw for mom" he said more hushed. "But she did do the same"

"That's not fair."

"Grace we're being honest here. You and I both know something happened with Will."

"You're really mad at her for that"

"I'm more surprised you're not."

"I think dad betrayed her too badly. She fell out of love with him completely." She suddenly found her watch very interesting.

"And that makes it ok?"

"I don't think anyone knows the answer to that."

/ / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / /

When her mother and father had started sharing a room again they had turned the maids room back into storage. Now that Peter was gone there was even more storage in there. Stuff waiting for him to collect. She had helped with the moving and knew exactly where she needed to look. Pushing aside a rail of clothes and dodging a falling rug she finally reached what she wanted.

Georgetown

She pulled out the box and settled in on the floor with it. The box was taped shut, but that was clearly a recent addition as she could see the old tape sticking out here and there underneath it. Someone else had been in this box recently. She pulled the tape back quietly and listened out to see if anyone was coming she was alone in the apartment for the first time in weeks and she was taking full advantage. Opening up the box she sighed. Of course the first thing she'd come across would be books. That was so like her mother. Lifting them out she made a pile beside her, fully expecting to add more to it soon. Essays came next, top grades across the top of them all. Another eye roll as they joined the pile. Next there was an old t-shirt. Way too big to belong to her mother. It was grey with Georgetown written across it in faded writing. It was ratty and well worn, it even had a large ink stain along the bottom, she couldn't understand why her mother would keep it. Next was a college flag and some leaflets. Her mother really kept everything didn't she. Next came what she was looking for. A brown envelope full to the brim of pictures. Pictures she guessed her mother didn't quite what her almost college age children to see. She stretched her legs and then emptied the contents onto her lap. There was a huge mismatch of sizes and shapes in pictures, some had been cut out, a few had tape still stuck to them and only one or two had writing on the back. She picked up a few and started flicking through, her mother was like a different person in the pictures. There wasn't one where she wasn't beaming from ear to ear. She hadn't seen her mother that happy in a long time. She started recognising a few faces that showed up over and over again but it was all women until she hit a big group one. There was about twenty of them, very near to Zach's age gathered with envelopes in their hands. She turned it over to see her mothers neat writing.

First Exam Results

It took her a second to find her mother, up the back beaming again, and then she spotted him. Will was standing in the front row, arm around a blonde with a grin on his face. They weren't even near each other.

The next few pictures were groups too smaller and smaller groups. And a lot more drunken pictures it seemed. She couldn't help but laugh at a few here and there loving seeing her mother so relaxed. Then came one of the bigger ones, it was black and white and it was pretty stunning. It was just her mother sitting in a large Victorian window with sun streaming in, a book on her lap and a pen in her hand. She was turning smiling at the camera her hair falling down over her face. She'd never seen her mother look so naturally stunning. She turned the picture over and her heart lept as she saw the familiar handwriting.

Gardner doing anything not to study!

It was like a floodgate opened after that, every second picture had the two of them in it. Usually with others but aways standing together. Always hugging or touching in some was almost like the pictures were in chronological order. The journey of their friendship. Everything she seemed to find just made her more and more aware of what her mother had missed out on. What she was denying herself.