I know I promised Nick will come to Atlanta in this chapter, but I got caught up in writing it and things turned out a little differently than the initial plan.

Thanks for the reviews – keep them coming.

"How are you mom?" Amanda left the trolley by the door and closed the it behind her. The room looked so familiar, as if she'd never left.

"It hadn't been easy" she heard her mother's voice once the door was shut, she turned to look at her "something happens to your daddy and you're here, I should thank whoever killed him for making you visit"

"Mom" Amanda didn't expect anything else from her mom, she always talked about how Amanda preferred her dad even though he left.

Amanda walked over to her and gave her a kiss on her cheek "maybe we could have some tea? You could tell me about your plans for the funeral"

Amanda put on some hot water for tea. She took out two mugs from the cupboard placing them on the small table in the kitchen.

The kitchen didn't change as well, not since she was little. Her mother had always talked about redecorating, and after her father had left she sat Amanda and Kim on the couch and told them that things are going to be different from now on, they would change everything, color the walls, buy new furniture. Kim was excited and she started asking for all kind of things for their room, she wanted it to be a fairytale castle. But Amanda stayed quiet, she didn't want things to change and her mom got mad, telling her that her father left and that was it, it was the three of them from now on: Kim, Amanda and Louise.

But all the plans were scraped once her mom got busy with "dating". She would bring guys over and they didn't care how undecorated the house was. It took a long time for Kim's excitement to die down, and when they had breakfast with one of their mom's "friends" she would tell the guy all about the fairytale castle.

"Two spoons of sugar?" Amanda asked and her mom nodded. She handed her mother one of the mugs and sat on the chair in front of her.

"So what are you planning?"

"Just a small thing" Louise replied, he took a sip of the tea "I've already talked to the funeral home"

"You did?" Amanda looked down, her mom usually had ways to make others do things.

"Don't sound so surprised" Louise raised her voice "I swear, everything I do is not good enough for you"

"I didn't say that mom" Amanda said quietly, but it was useless, her mom wasn't going to let it go.

"You always think we all rely on you here" she said, her voice was judgmental, she loved blaming things on other people, and Amanda was an easy prey, she always tried to avoid arguing with her mother "I know you think you're some big shot, living in New York City, but you are just like the rest of us, you are nothing special Amanda"

Amanda bit down on her lip a little, she brought the mug to her mouth, just so she could keep herself occupied while her mother let it out.

"I don't know how you turned this way, I did not raise a selfish brat, but I guess you don't always get what you want"

The room was quiet for a while, both women finished drinking and Amanda took both mugs to the sink to wash them.

"They will release the body soon" she said, turning the water on "so we could have the funeral in a couple of days"

"That's good" Louise said "I don't want this to drag for long, I'm thinking about having a little get together after the funeral, something small here"

"Ok" Amanda turned the water off and dried the mugs, placing them back into the cupboard.

"Are you going to invite anyone?" she asked Amanda.

"Maybe a few, some people from the station" she said.

"That would be fine" she nodded "so we should get this place ready, maybe you could mow the lawn" she walked out of the kitchen but turned around "and if you could mop the floors, organize things, wouldn't want anyone thinking this place is a pigsty"

Amanda nodded, watching her mom go upstairs. She was so tired the only thing on her mind right now was sleeping. She turned off the light in the kitchen and grabbed her suitcase so she could carry it upstairs.

The room seemed so small. She'd shared a room with her sister since the day she was born. And when Kim was old enough they got a bunk bed. They begged their mom to get separate beds when they grew up, but she refused, she had so many excuses they got tired of asking. So Amanda slept on the top bunk until she left for college.

She didn't feel like climbing there now.

Amanda took out sheets from the closet and made the bed. She quickly put on her pajamas and fell asleep the moment her head hit the pillow.

They got a call from the funeral home the next day, they body had been released and they wanted to schedule the burial.

Thankfully, Louise wanted it to be over as soon as possible, so they managed to schedule it for the day after tomorrow, Thursday, at five PM.

"Invite whoever you want" her mom said "I've got to run get some things"

"Alright mom" she smiled at her.

Louise gave her a kiss before leaving.

Once the door was closed behind her Amanda had to sit down. It will all be over soon.

She texted Michaela and Sam the time of the funeral and they both answered pretty fast that they will be there.

She dialed Nick's number.

"Hey" he answered pretty fast "you ok? I was hoping to hear from you yesterday"

"Sorry I didn't call" Amanda forgot she'd promised to call him "must have slipped my mind, I was exhausted"

"It's alright, I'm glad you called, how are you doing?" she could hear the concern in his voice.

"Fine" it was her fake fine, but Nick decided to let it go for now, there was not much he could do over the phone.

"So the funeral is on Thursday" Amanda was about to tell him that he didn't have to come, that she would be ok, but when she opened her mouth she realized how untrue it was. She really wanted to see him "five PM" she let him know.

"So I'm gonna talk to Liv and get a ticket, but I think they can spare me just for the day, we're pretty swamped, is that alright?"

"Of course" she answered "I know how it is"

"I will call you when I buy the ticket" she heard someone calling him, it sounded like Fin so she didn't keep him on the line.

"Ok" she said "thanks Nick"

She started getting things ready for the gathering her mother had planned. She wanted everyone to come to the house after the burial.

Amanda didn't like the idea but wasn't going to argue. Her mom loved attention, and playing the devoted widow to a husband who'd left her years ago, was one way to get it.

Her mother was out for a long time, when she finally got home she was unhappy with Amanda's progress on the cleaning.

"Darling, people are going to go inside the house" she said "the yard looks terrible"

"I didn't get to it yet" Amanda spent the last couple of hours washing the kitchen. Her mother never liked cleaning, Amanda wasn't the biggest fan of that herself, especially since it was one of her jobs at home. Her mother tried to sweet talk her into it, saying she was the only one who could do it. But Amanda knew better, she knew her mother didn't want to clean, or cook, or take care of her and Kim, and her mother way too many times.

So she tried to handle all of that.

"While you were here" Louise continued "I took care of the food"

"Alright mom" Amanda smiled at her "I'm gonna go mow the lawn now"

"Good" Louise nodded "I will go rest now, it's going to be a long day tomorrow and we still have a lot to do"

The lawnmower was old. They've had it for years and it never worked very well. Amanda used to mow the lawn since she was a kid, it took her hours, that thing was heavy and she struggled with it. But at some point she got used to it became easier.

Much like many things in Amanda's life, it was hard at first but then she got used to it.

She got tired after a few hours outside. At least she made some progress, almost half of the yard looked better.

She left the lawnmower outside, no one in their right mind was going to steal it. Amanda made herself something to eat and took a shower.

It was actually her favorite room in the house. It was the one place where she had privacy, and the one place where, if you turned the faucet all the way, the sound of the water muffled everything else. And it gave her some peace of mind.

But it didn't work this time.

Amanda got dressed and walked downstairs. She figured her mom took something to help her sleep so she decided to drive to Atlanta.

Marlow hadn't called, and she wondered if he had anything new. Amanda didn't want to be a hassle, but she really wanted to know if they found anything. Maybe he could shed some light about where he'd been all these years. It was probably bad, she figured he wasn't on some charity expedition, but Amanda needed to know who he was.

Marlow was surprised to see her at the station and accepted her apology for showing up like that.

"I hear the funeral is on Thursday" he said.

"It is, probably going to be something short" she told him and then asked the question that was on her mind "you got anything new?"

Marlow looked at her "I'm afraid not" he always thought that detectives were like doctors in a way. Doctors were terrible patients and detectives were terrible relatives, whenever he had an investigation involving someone close to a detective they would ask questions and stick their noses in his work. Marlow really hated that. He tried to be sympathetic, he knew how hard it was to lose someone, but he wanted to be focused on the investigation and not on a fellow officer who had to meddle.

Detective Rollins didn't really bug him, this was the first time she initiated the conversation about the case. Still, he knew the type, she was expecting him to give her all the answers, more then just who killed the man. And he didn't have any.

"I'm sorry" he said "but we still have nothing, we looked through a lot of footage from the area but couldn't find him, there are many blind spots there"

"I get it" she was disappointed, she already knew they had no witnesses, and no evidence that could lead them anywhere. It was possible they would never find out who killed her dad.

"I will call you if I find anything" he assured her.

So she might never know.

It bothered her so much, she felt so angry. But what could she do?

Just wait? There weren't any other options. But she felt like she had to do something, she couldn't go back to the house. She couldn't just stay by the station.

It was like she wanted something she couldn't explain.

But then it hit her, she recognized the feeling, that need.

Amanda got back to her car. She took out her phone, there has to be a place she could go to, she just had to find it.