AN: Special thanks as always to my beta gameovaries :)

Chapter 9: Pseudo Making It

Jordyn couldn't help but feel a sense of disbelief as, once again, she was staring out the windshield of Daryl's truck at the empty road up ahead. But it was different than before; now she was having a hard time believing that she was moving forward with her plan to find Marnie. And Atlanta was in her sights again.

If she'd had guessed which two people would have come with her had she asked, Daryl and Andrea would not have been candidates. Part of her felt guilty for not asking Glenn, but she knew that had she asked he would have agreed just because of who he was. And Jordyn didn't want anyone tagging along just to make sure she was okay.

But there they sat: an odd trio in a rundown truck with a motorcycle in the back. Daryl had suggested they take it with them should they need to wade through traffic again as they had back at the highway, and, with some convincing, Jordyn had managed to get Andrea's gun back from Dale. Dale felt safe returning it, presumably because it was still in pieces from when Shane had dismantled it and Andrea was still learning how to put it together.

Squeezed between her two comrades, Jordyn was becoming aware that she would have to put her Big Plan into action. Travelling there was the easy part.

"So... you got a plan here, J?" Daryl asked from behind the wheel as he steered them off a back road.

"I figure I stop by my place first." Jordyn was grateful that she'd at least made that decision.

"You live with your family?" Andrea asked, eyeing the rifle perched on Jordyn's knees.

"No, I have my own apartment just outside the city." Jordyn replied, slipping her gun down under her feet having not been comfortable setting it in the back with Daryl's crossbow.

"You said Jenner told you the military had evacuation plans," Andrea brought up. "You think that's true?"

Jordyn nodded. "He didn't have a reason to lie." Daryl made a noise under his breath. "But look at what happened at the CDC," She continued. "If that screwed up so bad imagine what it was like herding up thousands of panicking people."


The feeling that came over Jordyn when they pulled up to the front of her apartment building was one she hadn't felt before. It was her home, but she felt a strange feeling like she shouldn't go inside and disturb anything.

Daryl checked the rear view mirrors for Walkers before venturing out of the car to get his crossbow. Jordyn followed him, her heart banging against her ribcage as she got a good look of her cul-de-sac. This had been her home for six years and she had never seen it deserted as it was now. Normally there were children playing, dogs running around, and just the general hum of a suburban street. Now all Jordyn could hear was her own heartbeat against the wind. From the front pocket of her bag in the back of the truck she pulled out her set of house keys.

While quaint, her apartment building wasn't all that modern when it came to amenities. There was only enough parking spaces for half the residents, so everyone generally parked on the curb. Where Jordyn would normally see the Harris family van and Mrs. Connolly's ancient sedan, she saw knocked over garbage cans and fallen trees.

"One of these yours?" Daryl asked, scanning the vehicles through the sight of his crossbow as he surveyed the area.

"No," Jordyn held her rifle like a club; going into the confined apartment space meant keeping things as quiet as possible. "It's still at the bar."

The front doors were smashed through with glass littering the carpeted foyer. Rounding the staircase they came across their first band of Walkers. Dead. They were lining up the hallway like decaying dominos that had toppled over. Each of their heads was missing quite a sizable portion; someone had fought them back.

"What floor?" Daryl asked as they made their way in deeper.

"Twelfth."

Daryl swung around to the fire escape. "Guess we're walking."

It was on the stairs of the fifth floor where the trio came into contact with their first mobile Walkers. Two young women. Jordyn recognized them by their clothes; waitress uniforms from the burger joint two blocks over. The Speedle Sisters. Jordyn's neighbours.

Kacey, the eldest sister, was the more "put together" of the two of them. She still had all her limbs, but her jaw was missing. Tobie had suffered quite severely and was in pieces. One arm dangled off her elbow swinging like a leaf in the breeze. Her right leg was torn off at the kneecap and dripped oozing grey sludge in a puddle at her foot. The sight of her torso made Jordyn's stomach flip; it looked as though a shark had just bitten a half-circle from her body. As a result, Tobie was always slumped to the one side unable to right herself.

Daryl shot an arrow through Kacey's head without even pausing. Tobie growled, seeing them, and tried to make her way towards them. But every time she tried to step down she'd fall to the one side and tumble. Andrea almost flung herself off the edge avoiding one of Tobie's awkward rolls down the steps.

"Screw it," Daryl said, abandoning his attempts to reload his crossbow. Instead he strode over to Tobie and kicked her head clean off with one swipe. "Easier." He jogged back up the stairs, pulling his arrow from Kacey's skull as he passed her.

"Did you know them?" Andrea asked as she and Jordyn sidestepped around the body.

"Yeah, a little." Jordyn said, quickly jogging through. "Come on."

Taking the lead, Jordyn lead them up the rest of the flights of stairs. They came across a half-dozen or so decapitated Walkers, but no more on their feet. Jordyn was panting by the time they reached the twelfth floor fire escape; she'd forgotten what a bitch those stairs were. Two summers before, the elevator had broken and she found the trek so hideous she camped out at her mother's for the weekend it took to get repaired.

Her heart lifted slightly when she saw her front door. 12F. And it was still shut. With relief she fished the key from her pocket and unlocked her home.

It was the smallest, and therefore cheapest, apartment on this floor. It was a one bedroom, but Jordyn preferred to keep her bed out in the studio and use the room as a study/storage/guest room. It took all of thirty seconds to confirm that not only was her place empty, but it hadn't been touched since she'd left it all those months ago.

Behind her, Jordyn heard both Andrea and Daryl exhale and lower their weapons as the tension among them immediately evaporated. At least for the moment, they were safe.

Optimistically, Jordyn hit the light switch to no avail. Electricity was out; but they had a couple of hours of daylight left and she had torches and candles somewhere. The reality that she'd be sleeping in her own bed for the first time in so long hit her with such a rush that she smiled.

"This is your family?" Andrea asked, plucking a family portrait from a hook on the wall by the bathroom door.

"Yeah," Jordyn's eyes glanced over the picture taken on a family holiday to the beach the year before. It was one of the few pictures Jordyn had of all of them together, normally her mother was behind the camera.

This was one of the few times they had managed to convince Olivia to flag down another beachgoer to take the photo of them. It was Jordyn's favourite. Her mother stood in the middle like the matriarch, Michael was on her left holding a laughing Connor upside down, and Jordyn was on the right holding Marnie on her hip, the pair of them wearing matching bright yellow and blue sunhats.

"Your mum is..."

"Young, I know." Jordyn finished for her. "She had me when she was sixteen. Michael's my stepfather, Connor and Marnie are their kids."

"Where's your father?" Daryl asked peering at the picture over Andrea's shoulder.

"He overdosed when I was a baby. He was young, too." Taking the picture from Andrea's hands, Jordyn set it back in place on the wall. "I was named after him." The door to the bathroom was slightly ajar, she pushed it all the way open feeling, for the first time since she'd lived there, like it was actually clean. "Shower should work. It'll be cold, but the pressure's good."

"Great, shotgun." Andrea volunteered herself.

"Use whatever you want," Jordyn told her. "There are towels under the sink, and I should have something you can wear."

"Thanks." Andrea smiled and retreated into the bathroom.

If Dale were here Jordyn imagined he'd ask her to keep the door open, but Jordyn didn't bother to bring it up. And she also didn't bother to tell Andrea the lock was broken.

Daryl was ransacking her kitchen cupboards when Jordyn went back to him, Andrea's gleeful squeal as she turned on the shower in the background. "I have no idea what I have." She admitted, sliding comfortably into her seat at her kitchen table.

"You have some good stuff." Daryl replied taking cans of powdered milk from the back of her pantry. "Don't remember the last time I had milk."

"Marnie likes it." Jordyn said vaguely, taking in the familiarity of her home. "More than regular milk. And you can't sneak it past her, she knows the taste." A sudden realization came over Jordyn as she remembered the reason she had stocked up on powdered milk was because Connor and Marnie were supposed to stay with her that night so long ago.

"Catch." Daryl threw a box at her.

Jordyn smiled. Her Pop Tarts had survived all this time. Suddenly she craved cold milk and hot, melted, toasted, sugar snacks. Her eyes fell on her fridge, illuminated with bright drawings from Marnie and her newly acquired paint set from her birthday earlier in the year.

"Do you have a bag or something to carry all this?"

"Ah, yeah," Jordyn hadn't been watching him but he'd accumulated a small pile of food from her cupboard. She lived alone, it was easier to by pre-packaged food than to cook for herself so she had a lot of snack foods that, although probably a little stale, would still taste good. "In the guest room." Daryl moved to leave the kitchen but Jordyn shot up and stopped him. "I'll get it."

For some reason she couldn't identify, she didn't want Daryl in that room. Or Andrea. Or anyone. It wasn't rational, and considering they were all sleeping there that night Jordyn knew she'd have to get over it, but at least for the first time she wanted to go in there alone.

The bed was ready for Connor and Marnie to curl up on like they did all the time. Their favourite pillows were in place, their favourite blanket was folded on the cushion, and a stack of their favourite books and games were on the bedside table. It was a normal Saturday night for when Jordyn babysat. It always went the same way, the kids would come over and play. They'd order take out, play some more and fall asleep watching a movie. Lately Marnie had been having trouble sleeping, so she'd crawl in with Jordyn and beg for a story.

Jordyn's breath caught in her throat when she wondered if, wherever Marnie was, she was able to sleep. And if not, was she with someone who would read to her?

Biting down on her trembling lip, Jordyn searched the cupboard and found an old duffle bag that Michael had given her when she moved in filled with random household stuff like a wooden spoon and a colander. He maintained that it was a better option than bothering with boxes.

"Here," She handed the bag to Daryl back in the kitchen. "That work?"

Daryl gave her a strange look as he took the bag. "What?" He asked, immediately tensing up.

"Nothing," Jordyn assured him, he seemed ready to grab his crossbow. "It's just weird being here again." She managed to smile despite her clenched jaw.

"You're lucky you get to go home." He started packing the bag with supplies. "Even if it is just for a night."

Now, Jordyn tensed. She didn't want to leave. Of course, she had to, but she didn't want to. Something about being home again made her feel like everything else would go back to normal soon enough. She was in her home, never mind the fact it was with two people she didn't know that well and Walker's lined the halls, it was her home and it was in one piece. Her heart ached to think of leaving it again.

Andrea was as happy as Jordyn could remember seeing her in a long time when she emerged clean from the bathroom. Handing over a pair of cotton sweatpants and a blue t-shirt, Jordyn left Andrea to settle in the guest room and then retreated for her shower.

It felt like forever ago that she had stared at herself in the mirror of the CDC building. Her appearance wasn't as shocking as it had been to her then, but she still had trouble believing who she saw was Jordyn Emery. Her reflection looked like a vague shell of who she thought she was.

Annoyed with her self-deprecation, Jordyn removed her clothes and hopped into the shower. The water wasn't freezing, but it sure as hell wasn't warm either. Still, she got immense comfort from just being in her own shower with her shampoo and conditioner, her loofah, her razor, her soap, even the missing HOT label off one of the taps calmed her.

Making a mental note to collect all the soap, toilet paper, tampons, and everything of use in her bathroom cupboards, Jordyn stepped from her shower and wrapped a towel around her body. Her reflection seemed happier, or maybe it was just the layer of grime she'd managed to scrub from her skin.

Emerging from the bathroom Jordyn stumbled into Daryl. "Crap, what?" She asked.

"No, nothing." He said briefly eying her up and down. "Just locking the front door, checking that its locked."

"Oh." Jordyn stood aside. "You can use it now." As she headed for the guest room she didn't see him sneak a second look at her walking away.

"Do you sleep in here?" Andrea asked as she sleepily watched Jordyn select clothes.

"No, I sleep out in the main room. I just keep my stuff in here." She grabbed a pair of long pyjama pants and a white t-shirt. "You can sleep here, it's fine." By the time she turned, Andrea's eyes were already closed.

Doubting that Daryl would share a bed with Andrea, or rather that Andrea would share one with him, Jordyn took a spare blanket and pillow from her cupboard and carried them out to the couch. Having fallen asleep on it a few times herself she knew it was just as comfortable as her bed, so Daryl would be pleased.

Taking her Pop Tarts to her bed, Jordyn sat staring at her TV and eating the slightly stale, uncooked chocolate. Her body was still cold from her shower and the room had a faint smell of bad milk and too much dust, but it felt like home again.


A freezing gust of wind shocked Jordyn out of a deep sleep. Sitting bolt upright in her bed she stared around in the dark, wondering where the hell she was.

"What?" A gruff voice grunted from her right.

The wind furled her familiar cream curtains reminding Jordyn that she was in her apartment. "The windows open."

"I opened it." Daryl promptly rolled over and fell back to sleep.

Chest heaving, Jordyn's eyes adjusted to the moonlit room. She could see the silhouette of her body on her bed and the vague shadow of shirtless Daryl asleep on her couch. Flopping back into her pillows, Jordyn took a deep breath. She hadn't even realized she'd fallen asleep. What was left of her Pop Tarts had fallen on the floor and her wet hair had dampened her pillow, that plus the added wind sent a chill over her skin making her curl up in a ball with her blankets tight at her neck.

It had been so long since she'd slept like that, just fallen dead asleep from exhaustion. No dreaming, no tiredness, just lying down and blacking out. It unnerved her; like her body was running its own show.

Blinking at the blackness of her apartment, Jordyn's mind started to think to the next day. They would be passing Ted's Bar to check for supplies if nothing more; and then to her parents home. Chances were they weren't going to be there, there was a good chance nothing would be there, but it would be a step forward, a mark to check off on her list.

A sudden thought crossed her mind; should she be asking Daryl and Andrea if they wanted to check out their homes for families? Andrea had been travelling with Amy to college so Jordyn was pretty sure she didn't live nearby, Daryl, however, she wasn't sure. Glancing over at him as he slept, Jordyn wondered if he was out here looking for Merle more than looking for Marnie. They were back in the same city he'd lost his brother, it would make sense that he had another reason for being out here other than just helping her out.

Closing her eyes, Jordyn put it out of her mind for the moment. It was their first day on the road, and her goal was to find her sister. That had to be at the forefront of her mind, not what her friend's agendas may or may not be. Peering out one eye at Daryl again, she felt bad for not having found him something to wear to bed like she had Andrea, she knew she had some male clothes somewhere in her cupboard, but Daryl seemed quite comfortable sleeping shirtless. He didn't have reason to cover anything up, even in the dark Jordyn could see that.


Leaving her apartment in the morning was much more difficult than Jordyn had imagined, and not just because she didn't want to leave. Apparently, the night off that the trio had all enjoyed had given the Walkers time to converge in the street.

Andrea, Jordyn and Daryl each had their arms full when they arrived at the bottom of the fire escape stairs. Jordyn had locked up her apartment, hoping she would be able to come back to it at again. But just in case they didn't get the chance, she had packed up a bunch of her clothes that she had particularly missed, some photo albums and documents like her birth certificate, just in case. Daryl carried his bag of food from her cupboard, and Andrea was carting a duffle bag full of bathroom paraphernalia.

It had seemed silly to leave this stuff behind, but staring out at the sea of Walkers ambling just a few feet from Daryl's truck, it seemed silly to have bothered with the extra baggage.

"We could go one at a time?" Andrea suggested. "I'll take the bags, you two cover me?"

"Can't we just run for it?" Jordyn asked. "Bags in the back, us in the front seat, drive off? No matter what we do, the second we start up the engine they're gonna hear us, I figure the faster we get in the car the better."

"I'm with you." Daryl said, adjusting his grip in his crossbow. "On three?"

Jordyn nodded. "Three." She ordered, leaping from her spot and sprinting to the truck. She could hear Daryl and Andrea right behind her.

Up ahead, they were noticed. Two Walkers bumped into each other, and when turning around they noticed the trio piling into the car and let out hungry grunts of frustration. That alerted the army of Walkers stumbling around in the street who all immediately turned in their direction.

"Go!" Andrea yelled, locking her door.

To her surprise Jordyn found herself behind the wheel. "Keys, keys, keys," She smacked Daryl as he searched his pockets. "If you left them inside I'll kill you-"

"Here, here!" Daryl found them in his back pocket and shoved them into the ignition as a Walker growled at the driver's side window.

"Shit!" Jordyn swore, turning over the engine and yanking the gear into reverse. She'd driven the truck before, but never in such a dire situation so she didn't know how much power it could wield until she backed directly into a group of Walkers and still kept reversing.

Spinning the wheel, Jordyn heard the wet crunch of bodies under the wheel, but she was distracted by the swarm now directly in front of her. Slamming the gear into drive, Jordyn floored the pedal and burned rubber circling the curb up the street. Walker's groaned and reached for the car as she drove by but the car soon sped up way ahead leaving them behind.

"Jesus, Jordyn!" Andrea gasped as they dodged more Walkers again to get onto the main road.

"What?" Jordyn gripped the steering wheel so tight her knuckles drained of colour. "What happened?"

"You drive like a maniac!"

Jordyn relaxed off the pedal. "Sorry..." She said, loosening her grip on the wheel. "I haven't mowed down Walkers before."

"Coulda fooled me." Daryl nodded in approval.

"What if there's one in the back?" Jordyn was panicking. "Or on the roof? Or under the car?"

"They're not, they can't hang on that long." Daryl assured her, but he looked over his shoulder out the back window to check anyway.

But Jordyn was convinced they must have an extra on board so she slammed the breaks and they skidded to a stop right in the middle of the street. It took both Andrea and Daryl off guard, both just catching themselves before colliding with the windscreen.

"Sonuvabitch, what are you doing?" Daryl snapped.

"There's one on the roof, I know it!" Jordyn said, jumping out of the car without bothering to turn off the engine. She dropped right to her feet to check underneath the car.

"There's nothing, would you get back in?" Daryl followed her out of the car and pulled her to her feet.

"No, no, check!" Jordyn cried, frantically checking the back even though there was no room for a Walker with the motorbike and all their bags.

"Look!" Daryl pointed behind her.

Jordyn's heart dropped. A dozen Walkers were heading in their direction from the alley two houses down.

"Let's go." He grabbed her forearm and shoved her in beside Andrea who put her arm around Jordyn's shoulders.

Without a look at the gang of the undead marching towards them, Daryl drove ahead.

Jordyn was shaking and she wasn't sure why. Adrenaline, or maybe panic was just sending her crazy. The further away they drove from danger, the more she felt like a hysterical idiot. If it had been Andrea or Lori making them stop she would have told wanted to tell them to shut up and get on with it, but it was troublesome to her that she couldn't seem to follow that rule herself.


By the time they were back in the city, Jordyn had calmed right down and felt completely foolish about her outburst. She was grateful that neither of her passengers made a mention of it; and she hoped that they were just forgetting it like she intended to do.

Ted's Bar was on the outskirts of the city and was empty at the best of times. This area of town had been decimated by Walkers already, Jordyn assumed it was one of the first areas they hit coming in from the outer suburbs. Not that there weren't Walkers, there were. But most of them were dead or in pieces scattered along the street, or in rough piles against the sidewalk as though someone had come through in an attempt to clean up but then realized what a pointless waste of effort that was.

Rifle tight in her hands, Jordyn lead the way towards the entrance of the bar, scanning the street for her car which wasn't where she'd left it, parked out the front of business. "Where's my car?" She muttered. Then her eyes fell on deep skid marks across the sidewalk ending in her navy blue hatchback crushed against the brick wall of the alley. "There it is..."

"Damn." Daryl said letting out a low whistle.

"Oh, no," Jordyn shook her head as she approached what remained of her car. As vehicles go, she loved this one. It was compact and relatively cheap to maintain. To see it slammed against a wall, folded in on itself, all windows smashed and wheels missing was quite devastating. "Oh, no."

"Let's move inside, shall we?" Daryl said backing away from the street. A couple of Walkers at the streetlights were beginning to drift towards them. "Quietly?"

Andrea had to pull Jordyn away from her ruined vehicle and through the wide open front door of the bar. Daryl shut and locked it after they were all inside, but it wasn't going to have much of an effect seeing as the glass window that looked out into the street had been annihilated.

Keeping her rifle up like a club, Jordyn stepped carefully into the bar. Sprawled bodies of Walkers littered the floor, many more than she had seen the day Shane had picked her up. She wondered if people had come in seeking refuge and instead faced a horde of the bloodthirsty undead; or if perhaps it was the Walkers who had ventured in looking for food.

"Where's this water you mentioned before?" Andrea asked.

"The basement." Jordyn replied, suddenly overcome with horror that she would have to go down there again.

"I'll keep watch, you two go." Daryl instructed, flinging open the basement door and carefully inspecting the Walkers bodies to make sure they weren't about to reanimate.

Following Andrea, Jordyn made it halfway down the staircase before she had to stop. Her eyes were drawn to the frail, crumpled little body of her infected brother. But with a shock she realized that he wasn't where she had left him all those weeks ago. Connor, along with the White Dress wearing Walker Jordyn who had been Jordyn's first kill, had been shifted up against the wall and each covered with a blanket.

"Jordyn?" Andrea was standing at the bottom of the stairs with a case of water in her arms. "Is everything..." Her eyes followed Jordyn's state across the room. "Oh, God." She set the water down and ran up the stairs, pulling Jordyn along. "I'm sorry, I didn't even think." She pushed Jordyn out of the basement.

"What?" Daryl asked, alarmed.

"Nothing." Andrea said quickly pulling the door half-closed and jogged back down the stairs.

"My brother's down there." Jordyn told Daryl.

"Oh..." He looked at his feet. "Sorry."

"Someone moved him."

"Huh?"

"Someone moved him." Jordyn repeated. "And there was this other Walker, this girl who attacked me; someone moved her, too."

"Maybe the cops came in here?"

"And left all of these people?" Jordyn swung her hand at the field of Walkers in front of them. "And nothing else down there was missing, no water or food."

Daryl shrugged. "Maybe someone started clearing them up and got bit?"

"Yeah..." Briefly, Jordyn considered that maybe Ted had come back to check out the damage to his bar. Maybe he was one of these bodies that lay before her.

"Let's go," Andrea came up from the basement with three pallets of water towering in her arms. "Walkers coming, I heard 'em."

Taking two stacks of water, Jordyn waded through Walkers with Andrea behind Daryl as he and his crossbow lead them back out into the street and back to the truck. Much calmer than she had been before, Jordyn managed to place the water in the back of the truck, wedging it against the wheel of the bike.

Andrea offloaded her pallet of water to Jordyn and climbed into the car beside Daryl behind the wheel. Jordyn secured the third pallet of water so it wouldn't knock around and even had time to look back and see the Walkers stumbling towards her. It wasn't smart just to stop and stare, but she wanted them to know she wasn't afraid. That she could stare at them and they wouldn't frighten her. Not again.

At Andrea's insistence, Jordyn climbed into the passenger's side and slammed the door shut. The truck sped off around the corner leaving the wandering Walkers to wander about on their own. With renewed energy, Jordyn took up the role of navigator and directed Daryl to her mother's home.


The family car was missing, giving Jordyn hope that maybe her mother had managed to drive it out of town with her baby sister in tow. Sprinting up the porch she burst through the front door without bothering to be quiet. "Mum!" She called down the halls.

"SSH!" Andrea hissed from behind her.

"Check upstairs." Jordyn instructed her as she started weaving through the house.

It had that same, musty smell that her home did but this one was in much worse shape than her apartment. It had been looted, repeatedly. All of the electronics were gone, someone had stolen all the food from the fridge and it was tipped on its side, the cupboards had been ransacked, even the linen closet had been stripped.

"Christ." Jordyn cursed when she noticed even most of the cups and plates were gone. "Why would they take all this?"

"People go crazy, do crazy things." Daryl said simply, peering out the window into the backyard.

"Jordyn?" From upstairs, Andrea's voice was strained.

Sharing a look of worry, Daryl and Jordyn took off flying up the stairs two at a time, gripping their weapons, in preparation to take down the Walker they expected to see.

Only when Jordyn rushed into her parent's room, she didn't see Walkers. And for the first time since all this had started, she wished she did.

On the bed tucked in and holding one another, were her the bodies of her mother and stepfather. The smell of decay was overpowering and signalled that they had been dead for weeks. Their skin was a sickly, yellowish grey and clung tightly to the bones in their faces. Their hair had started to fall out and they were so skinny they barely looked like themselves. One thing Jordyn was sure of as she stared at her parents lifeless faces was that they hadn't been touched by the infection, there were none of the Walker signs. Even the fact that they were pleasantly lying in a bed was an anomaly.

"Ma...?" Jordyn voiced uselessly as she edged towards her mother, expecting her to wake up and immediately morph back into the Olivia she so desperately wanted. Her watering eyes fell on the nightstand. It was littered with a handful of pill bottles and two empty wine glasses with red wine residue pooled at the bottom.

Feeling lightheaded, Jordyn noticed a white note folded by her mother's head. Reaching for it, she carefully unfolded it and saw that it was a photo, a copy of the same one Jordyn had framed back at her apartment by the bathroom door. Only this one was frameless and had something written on the back. It was a note penned in her mother's delicate scrawl.

We can all be together now.

xxx