"So, what's the matter, dude? Why so upset?" Vincent finally asked. They'd gotten to the apartment that the other party of seven had been staying in and unloaded the laundry. At this point, they were getting ready to get back into the car.

"What do you mean?" Danny asked, beginning to avoid eye contact.

"I mean you've been quiet for the entire several hours I've known you, you're not making eye contact with me, and you're not even speaking to the friends you have in the living room that you've known for much longer than us." Vincent said, his hard tone forced Danny to make eye contact with him. Vincent was silent for a while, "It was a family member, wasn't it?" he asked after reading Danny's eyes for a while.

Danny looked back down. "Yeah."

Vincent nodded and began driving down the main street, quickly passing the Sonic that they'd revived Tucker in front of, and quickly passing several apartments after that. Vincent finally made a right at the intersection of Arizona Ave. and Ray Rd., driving down Arizona.

"Wh-where are we going?" Danny asked.

"I want to show you something." Vincent said, his tone was flat and his eyes were saddened. "What happened?"

"I- uh-" Danny shook his head, "I really don't want to talk about this…" he said.

Vincent nodded slightly, "Right…" he said and turned onto a street labeled 'Oakland', the opposite end of the street they had passed before. Vincent took a deep breath and pulled over in front of a house with a small dead tree up front.

Danny looked out the window. "Whose house was this?" he asked and opened the door.

"My brother's." Vincent said, "I lived in the back with my mom. There was a separate section of the house that was like a studio apartment." He explained and got out of the car. He then leaned on the passenger side of the hood of the car. Danny got out and leaned against the car next to him.

"I was leaving work when the apocalypse happened. I'd never heard from my friends since, so one would only assume. I got home from work before I realized what was happening. When I was leaving to meet Tacome at Sonic for when she got off, all hell broke loose." He said. "My mom hadn't been home all day. Turned out she was in the front part of the house visiting my brother." He cleared his throat and took a deep breath, "I heard screaming." He continued, "I had to see what was going on, because I got worried about them. I-" he shook his head and sighed, "After three years, I still have nightmares of what I saw in that house. In that room." He looked over at Danny, "My mom had turned." He said. "We didn't know she was sick… we didn't know there was something wrong with her, but before I knew it… she'd…" he swallowed hard, his eyes unfocused, "She'd killed my brother and his wife and she was staring at me. It wasn't her anymore. I gripped the sword that I'd brought with me, j-just in case…" he said, "Then she charged at me." He said shakily. "Charged at her youngest kid and she jumped on me. I dropped the sword and could only grab a lamp that fell off the table. Keeping her at bay with my arm I had to hit her with the lamp until…" he sighed, "Until she stopped trying to attack me. Until she stopped trying to do anything… until she was dead…" he looked down.

Danny sunk.

"I was an absolute wreck." He said, "I wasn't walking straight, I couldn't think… I couldn't even talk. Tacome tried getting something out of me, but I couldn't respond to her. No matter how much I wanted to, I couldn't." he looked back up at the house. "We drove to Mesa to try and get out of here, maybe even with her family, since that was the plan. But, after finding that there wasn't enough room for the both of us, we ended up stuck out here. Now she doesn't have her family with her either." He said. "We were about to leave when the Bulldozer flipped us." He said, "We were lucky to survive, let alone escape. She was really hurt and my leg was nearly broken. I had to carry her home." He shook his head, "Weeks down the line, I'm still depressed, she's worried about me- I-" he sighed, "I wanted to take on Saundra with my own hands. Then Tacome sat me down and hugged me. 'Don't keep it inside.' she said, 'Let it out. Otherwise, you'll only destroy yourself if you do.' She insisted that I let it out. And… I finally broke down." he said. "I couldn't keep it in anymore… I cried as hard as my body would let me." He took a deep breath and relaxed. "Thinking about my mom is always hard. But Tacome couldn't stand to see me the way I was anymore." He shook his head and finally made eye contact with Danny, "The moral of the story is, just let it out. We're all only human. Or- at least, mostly. I know you're worried about your ghost half, but your human half needs to let off steam too."

Danny nodded and thought for a while. "My mom turned too…" he finally said. "I came home from school and was going up to my room. On my way there, I heard my mom crying, so I went back down, told my dad… then I followed him back up to their room. He closed the door and tried talking to my mom. I don't know what happened, I guess he tried to hug her or something, but she screamed and-" he paused, "I phased through the door to see what happened, and… I could barely recognize him after she was through with him." He said, "I backed out, and my sister was behind me, I-I couldn't take the sight of it, I just threw up. He was just a pile of- of blood and bone, there wasn't anything left of him." He began trembling.

"You can stop whenever, you know." Vincent said.

Danny swallowed hard, "I know…" he took a deep, shaking breath, "Jazz and I left… We had to. We couldn't stay in there anymore. So… we went and found Sam and Tucker, which- it was Sam's birthday at the time-about two weeks ago… and… we went for the second closest Evac site we could find on the map."

"Which was…?" Vincent asked.

"Wisconsin." Danny said, "Hundreds of miles away from where we started. So- we finally get to the site, and the site is at the mansion of the man who was in love with my mom… turned out he went to check on everyone and let my mom out of her room. She chased after him all the way through the Ghost Zone. She hurt him… really bad. He died after we found him. Then we heard crying in the basement. She was downstairs. We just- stayed away from there. Only ghosts could in and out of there anyway, so we figured that we were safe." He sighed, "Well… then the horde attacked the mansion. I overshadowed a Tank and fought a Bulldozer. The Bulldozer threw me through the front wall and I crashed through the floor and into the lab in the basement. I got out, killed the Bulldozer… and…" he took a deep breath, "Mom got out of the basement." He said, "I was so scared that I froze. I couldn't move. Jazz was scared too and could only hug me. When mom ran at us… the only one to take action was Sam. She jumped in front of us and shot her with my rifle. Sam hasn't touched that rifle since." He said. "After that we went to the ghost zone through the portal at the mansion." He sighed shakily. He swallowed hard, "I still have nightmares about it."

Vincent pat his back. "You get what I'm saying though, right?"

Danny nodded, "Yeah."

"Alright then." Vincent nodded, "Let's get back. I'm sure your friends are worried about you." He got back in the car.

"What exactly was the purpose of this trip?" Danny asked.

"Just…" Vincent sighed, "Just trust me on this. You'll feel better before you know it."

"Feel bett-!" Danny groaned and crossed his arms, looking away in agitation, seeing that the trip had only made him feel worse.

"Trust me." Vincent said as he pulled into the driveway at the house.

Danny got out of the car before Vincent had the chance to put it in park. Before anyone had the chance to even say anything to Danny, he'd already crossed the house and closed himself into the room that Sam and Jazz stayed in. Tacome watched him go, then turned to look at Vincent, "What did you two do?" she asked.

"Danny?" Sam got up and went after him.

"I did for him what you did for me." Vincent said.

"What're you talking about?" Tacome asked.

"He needs to let it out." He said.

"Wait, what'd you do with my brother?" Jazz asked.

"You'll see." Vincent said.

Ellis, Rochelle and Coach exchanged confused glances and went back to their game of poker with Nick. Jayden sat with Tucker and played with a broken cell phone that was lying around. Tucker had grown silent. He wanted to go talk to Danny, but with how well he and Jazz knew him, they knew he didn't want any company when he was upset like this. He stood up, "Go see your mama, Jay." He started for the room.

"Danny, what happened?" Sam grabbed his shoulders and made him look up at her, his face red with aggravation.

"He tried making me feel better by getting me to talk about my mom." He growled and held the sides of his head, looking back down again. "I only feel worse…"

"That's… not something to get so pissed off about." Sam said, "He's trying to help you."

"Whose side are you on?" Danny asked.

"Yours." She said, "I'm tired of seeing you so serious and all beat-up like this." She said. "Vincent isn't a bad guy. He just wants to help you. He's been out here for three years. That's way longer than we've been out here for." She said and sat by him, "What did he tell you?" she asked.

Danny sighed, "He lost his mom too. She turned and tried to kill him after killing his brother and sister-in-law." He said. "He had to kill his mom." He said.

"And?"

"He… was a complete wreck." Danny said, "Depressed to the point where he wanted to fight that crazy Witch bare-handed. Then Tacome finally got him to cry." Danny said.

"And then?"

Danny's eyes watered, "I told him about my mom…" he squeezed his eyes shut and lowered his head.

Sam watched his shoulders begin to shake for a moment then hugged him. She understood what Vincent did and why he did it. Tacome had explained to her everything.

"Danny?" Tucker's voice called from behind the door, then he opened the door, seeing Sam hugging Danny who was crying in her arms. He nodded, "I'll leave you two alone." He whispered and closed the door. He walked back down the hall and sat by Jazz, who was now absent-mindedly playing with Jayden. "Danny's lost it." He said.

"What?" Jazz shook her head and looked at him.

"He's crying." He said.

Vincent and Tacome sat in the back patio with the back door open, "I think your House Therapy worked yet again." Tacome said.

"I just hope he feels better." Vincent said, "He can lead a team much better when he's relaxed."

"I know you can." Tacome said. "There was a huge difference between your performance before and after." She said.

Vincent nodded. "How's this pool doing?" he got up and checked.

"Three aces." Nick set three cards down in the middle of the table.

"Bullshit." Ellis said.

"Fine, take the cards." Nick gave him a look.

Ellis flipped the cards over, "Bullshit! Man, bullshit!"

"Hey!" Tacome snapped, "Watch your language around my son!" she snapped, "Ellis, I'm shocked that I don't have to yell at Nick most of the time."

Coach and Rochelle chuckled, "Just take the cards, Nick."

Nick grumbled, having only two cards left in his hand. Ellis' hand consisted of a good portion of the deck, while Coach and Rochelle were evenly matched.

"We ever figure out if that Ghost Kid was okay?" Coach asked.

"I'll ask him in a bit." Tucker said, only watching a little metal car skid on the plastic racetrack that Jayden was playing on. He flicked the car back.

"He'll be just fine." Rochelle said, "He'll be a lot happier here, I'll say that much."

"I know I was." Coach laughed.

About an hour and a half later, Tucker got back up to check on Danny again. He pressed an ear against the door and listened carefully, hearing nothing. He carefully opened the door and peeked inside, seeing Sam lying on her side, with Danny lying on his back and Sam's arm under the back of his neck, her other arm around his chest. Both sound asleep. Tucker nodded and walked back out to the living room, having closed the door behind him.

"How is he?" Ellis asked.

"They're asleep." Tucker said and sat down, continuing his turn at their game of Monopoly.

Tacome and Vincent walked in the front door, each with a cat in their arms. They'd left earlier to bring them over, considering there was no need for them when they were alone. They dropped the two cats, who'd sniffed their way to Jazz and Tucker.

"Key-key?" Jayden asked and began petting the small, black one, who was on Jazz's lap.

"Yeah, it's a kitty, huh?" Jazz asked, "How'd you find these two? Surely the infection would've claimed them a while ago."

Tacome picked the orange one back up after being pestered for her attention, "Thank god, no." she said, "They were still in this house when Vincent and I checked on it again. They'd been living off bugs and paper."

Tucker rose an eyebrow, "Paper?"

"Olive is weird." Tacome said, "And Buka would only eat half a roach." She scratched Buka's ear, "But I love them. This one was always my baby." She said and kissed the cat's head.

"How old?" Jazz asked.

"Buka here is… nine? And Olive is seven." Tacome said.

"Why do you keep them?" Tucker asked.

"They keep watch of zombies. They growl if a zombie gets too close, and they start barking when a human comes by, or meow." Vincent explained.

Tacome set Buka down, watching the cat make a straight beeline to the back bedroom.

"It's amazing they were still alive." Nick said, somewhat bitter about cats, always being a dog person himself.

The door to the bedroom opened and closed. As shuffling came down the hall, a drowsy Sam looked at everyone half-lidded. "Hey."

"Is your boyfriend okay?" Coach asked.

"He's asleep. He- kinda passed out while he was crying."

Vincent nodded, remembering that he had done that when Tacome got him to cry.

Sam took a moment to see the little black cat in Jazz's arms, "Who's this?" she knelt by and started petting the cat.

"That's Olive. You should've seen Buka on your way out." Tacome said.

"She's so cute!" Sam cooed and scratched the top of the cat's head. She paused for a moment, "Sorry about Danny's… frustration… earlier." She said, trying to figure out what to call it. "I saw what you were doing. And… I thank you." She said. "I just hope Danny sees it too and appreciates the help."

"And if he doesn't?" Nick asked.

"I'll slap some sense into him." Sam said flatly.

Vincent chuckled, "No problem, Sam. I totally get it. Teenage boy, zombie apocalypse, hormones, it happens. He's gonna have his own drama." He said, "I'm the proud father of an adorable little boy, I'm gonna face this eventually." His tone was serious, but he wasn't taking himself too seriously.

"Sam, Jazz, when did you last change your bandages?" Tacome asked, knowing that it had been too long.

The two girls looked at each other, "Um… the night before we met you, I think." Jazz said.

"Get up." Tacome said, "We're changing them right now."

"Oh- um, alright." Sam stood up.

"Jazz, drop the cat, let's go." Tacome looked over at Tucker, "Do you need bandages to be changed?" she asked.

"N-not really?" Tucker said in confusion.

"Not really?" Tacome rose an eyebrow.

"I don't have any bandages on me right now." He said.

"Okay, so no. Sam, Jazz, come on." Tacome motioned them to follow her. Then she paused and turned to look at Jazz, who was still cradling the cat. "Drop the damn cat!" she snapped.

Jazz immediately put the black queen down and quickly followed Tacome into the back bedroom. Sam snickered at Jazz's reaction of being yelled at by Tacome.

"Shut up." Jazz nudged Sam with her elbow, only causing Sam to laugh harder.

Tacome had them sit on a bed in the master bedroom, opposite of the room that they had stayed in the night before. She then dug around in the small bathroom and searched for more bandages. She finally stopped and looked up, "We're out." She said.

"What?" Jazz asked.

"We're out of bandages." Tacome repeated. She stood up and faced them. "We need to change those before you two get infected."

Sam and Jazz looked at each other nervously.

"Not turn to a zombie- thank god." Tacome rolled her eyes, "Wait- you guys are immune, right?" she asked.

"Yeah, we're immune." Sam nodded, "We've made it this far, right?"

Tacome looked down, "You guys have been out here two weeks, right?

"Right." Jazz nodded.

"That doesn't mean anything…" Tacome said sadly and sat down next to them. "About… two months after the outbreak, Vincent and I had found another survivor. He was handy. Great shot, fast, great scavenger, until… there was a Twister. The Twister had gone beyond throwing stuff and went after him without warning. By the time Vincent and I finally reached him, Trevor was covered in blood. His ear was missing, his shoulder was shredded beyond repair, and his eye was… I don't even know, he looked like he didn't even have it anymore. His entire right side was ruined. Vincent went and killed the Twister while I dragged him home. Then we patched him out, he only seemed to be getting worse. He'd been with us maybe about a week. We saved him from a Hunter, who'd already sliced up his arm. He- he was just fine." Tacome said, "He was then… after that Twister attacked him, his breathing was getting worse, he said he was losing his vision, he soon became unable to speak, move, unable to do anything. We thought he died. But when we went back to the living room, where he was, we instead found a Smoker. The Smoker was wearing Trevor's clothes and shared the same face. It was probably one of the hardest things to see." Tacome finally shook her head, "After Trevor constricted me, Vincent had to get over the shock and shoot him." She sighed heavily, "We hoped to never have to do that again. It put Vincent back into a dark place that was hard to get him out of."

Sam looked down and pat Tacome's back, "We're immune, Tacome. We promise."

Tacome took a deep breath, "I'll go out and find some bandages for you guys. Should probably grab a lot more anyway…" she said and walked off.