I think that this chapter is where it really hit me that I wasn't always going to be the one writing this story, that sometimes these girls were just going to tell me who they were and what they were going to do. That happened in the last chapter with Jolie, who I really had pegged as just a pretty Goth girl - but no; instead she gets up and turns herself into Florence Nightingale! And it happens later too - I have like NO control over Cambria at all, and she's not turning out to be who I wanted her to. I had no idea about what Cambria says about Lei in the next chapter either, just so you know, nor was(SPOILER ALERT) Heidi supposed to turn out the way she eventually does in later chapters. Each of these girls really seem to be their own person, and they surprise me as much as they do anyone else. But I really am enjoying getting to know them all. Alright I'll step away from my podium and let you read the story now.:)

"Life's funny like that, huh?" Ava asked, swinging their intertwined hands between them as they walked towards the park.

"What do you mean?" Rowan asked, looking over at the fifteen year old as she looked at the ground.

"Well, my mother had three girls without a problem while she was working in a brothel. Then, later, when I got pregnant, I lost my babies both times."

Rowan stopped in his tracks, repeating, "You've been pregnant?"

"Twice," Ava shrugged, looking at her feet. "It's an occupational hazard. I miscarried once, and the other was born too early to survive for more than a week."

"Oh, wow… Ava…"

She shook her head, warding off whatever he had been going to say to her. "Sometimes," she murmured. "I think that it was better for them that way, to not have to live in…" she lifted her head to scan the gray horizon with dull eyes. "This."

Rowan took a deep breath, blinking rapidly as he and Ava started walking again, still hand in hand, although he sensed that she no longer needed the comfort for her nerves. "Yeah," he whispered. "Maybe so…"

But for the first time since his parents' death, he thought maybe not.

"There's a pond!" Lei squealed when Rowan and Ava reached them, and then asked him, "Can we go swimming?"

Rowan surveyed the murky water, deciding that while he wouldn't have dared to drink out of it, swimming in it might not be that bad, and it really was a remarkably warm day. "I guess so."

With happy screams, Lei and Heidi jumped right in.

"Are you going to join them?" Rowan asked, smiling lightly at the brunette at his side.

She shook her head. "I don't know how to swim."

"So, you won't race, you won't swim, and you'll barely talk," Rowan teased her, hoping to lighten her mood. "What will you do?"

Ava shrugged.

"I bet you'll float," Rowan said on impulse.

Ava looked up at him in confusion. She didn't understand what he meant until he scooped her up into his arms and darted into the cool water, dropping her straight into the middle of the pond as she became very vocal, screaming how awful he was, how much she hated him. She floundered for a minute as Rowan backed away from her flailing limbs and instructed her to kick her feet and arms appropriately.

"See, you're doing it," he said at length, grinning like he couldn't remember having done in awhile. "Now, there's one more thing that you need to do."

"What?" Ava asked, treading water.

"Stand up."

"Stand up?" she repeated.

Rowan nodded, raising his eyebrows. So she did, looking none too impressed when she realized that the water wasn't even two feet deep.

"Rowan Ellery," she said.

"Yes?" he asked merrily.

"I hate you."

He grinned, "Sure you do."

"I thought I was going to drown!"

"Drown?" Heidi repeated. "Did someone say that they wanted to drown?"

"N-"

Rowan was cut off as Lei dove underneath the water and knocked his feet out from under him. He fell into the water and then resurfaced, finding that he was slightly amused by the sound of three giggling girls.

"You are all horrible people," he sputtered. "I hate every one of you."

The three girls looked at each other before they turned back to him, saying in sync, "Sure you do."

A few of hours later, the sun was starting to set and the water in the pond was starting to cool, so they all got out. They already had a newborn baby being added to their group; the last thing they needed was four sick teenagers. Heidi and Lei headed straight for a rusty swing set, their clothes still dripping wet behind them. Ava lay back on the grass beside the edge of the pond, and Rowan settled cross-legged on the grass at her head, looking at her upside down.

He plucked a blade of grass from the ground, inserting it between his teeth as Ava laughed under her breath, presumably from the way that he looked upside down in the fading light of evening. Rowan impulsively leaned down over her and tickling her nose with the top of the weed in his mouth. She laughed again, batting it away, and he obligingly sat up, leaning against his arms as he planted his palms into the dampening ground while a slight smile fought to spread across his mouth.

"You like my sister a lot, don't you?" Ava asked after a minute of silence, breaking the comfortable silence that had grown between them.

Rowan rolled the stem of the weed around on his tongue as he considered his answer. "I don't know," he answered honestly. "It just seems a little futile to like someone that way considering how little time we have, doesn't it?"

"I don't know," Ava mused, lacing her hands behind her head as she stared up at the stars coming into the sky. "Everyone dies eventually, even first generations. Better to die young then young and alone, I would think."

"Isn't that why we're looking for our sisters?" Rowan asked. "So we don't have to be alone?"

"But that's different," she pointed out. "Sisters are the best, but to have a husband and kids? That would be better."

"Even if you knew that those children were going to be left orphans, and your husband was going to spend five years a lonely widower?"

Ava sighed deeply, "What if there's an antidote out there somewhere?"

Rowan snorted, biting back the impulse to tell her about his parents. "If there is, no one's found it yet, and they've been looking for so long."

"You don't think they'll find one?" Ava asked, rolling her hazel eyes back in her head to look at him.

He frowned at her, debating his answer. She was so small that she brought out his protective instincts, but something told her that she had the maturity to handle whatever life threw at her when she wanted to. So he was honest with her.

"No. I don't." He paused before asking, "Do you?"

"I don't know." She looked back towards the stars, saying, "I used to, but then… when I lost my last baby, I just started thinking 'do I really even want to bring a child into this world? And if not, do I even want to stay here any longer than I have to?'" She shrugged. "I guess I just don't care anymore."

"It's your life, Ava," he objected, sliding down to lie in the grass beside her. "Everyone cares to live their life."

"For as long as they can," she added.

"Yeah," Rowan agreed softly, his heterochromic gaze meeting her hazel one as he repeated, "For as long as they can."

He felt something squeeze his hand, and looked to the grass, seeing that their fingers were intertwined again. This time, though, he got the feeling that she was the one comforting him.

Hopefully you enjoyed this! Reviews make my day, if you feel so inclined to drop me one! Thanks!:)