The girls and women quietly crept up to Mona's room to see what was going on. They hadn't seen Mona since she left after they had finished with her, and they were curious as to what happened since then.

The door was slightly ajar, so they opened it a little further, careful not to let it creak. When they looked inside, Mona and John were sleeping in the bed together and his arm was around her waist. They were both fully clothed, so it was evident they had not gone any farther than kissing. Some of them moved to let the others have a look too.

"I knew they liked each other," one of the women whispered in Chinese.

"Look at how close they are!" another added.

The girls and women began giggling which caused Mona to stir from her sleep. As she awoke, she looked towards the door and quietly laughed to herself as she saw all of the females scurrying away, having peeked in on their sleep.

She looked down and saw John's arm around her with her fingers intertwined into his. She had never felt so safe in so long. That was the most surprising thing of all. "John," she whispered. He made no movement. "John," she said a little louder. He finally stirred a little bit. She turned to him. "We have to get the women ready."

He groaned a little bit, but he knew she was right.

"You know, for what it's worth," she said as she turned her body to him, "that was the best sleep I've had in years."

She gently kissed him again, feeling his lips softly touch hers. Then she took the covers off and forced herself to get out of bed. Less than an hour had passed, and yet, she had never felt so refreshed.

Mona put her hair back up in a ponytail and changed back into her usual clothes. It wasn't that she didn't like what they did for her, but she needed to look the same for when the soldiers came by and there would be no time for her to change when that time came.

Mona went down to the cellar where the women were. The girls were nowhere in sight, so Mona assumed they must've gone to get some sleep, seeing as it was rather late and they had all had another emotionally exhausting day.

As soon as she showed her face, all the women began smiling and laughing. She rolled her eyes and smiled back at them, knowing they were teasing her about seeing her with John.

"Okay," she said as she appeared at the top of the stairs. "John's going to get started with making all of you look like the girls. Who's going be the brave first one?"

Mo translated for the women in Chinese what Mona had just said to them. "I will go first," she told Mona.

"Then come with me," Mona smiled.

The two women walked back up and when they got to the bottom of the stairs by her room, Mo stopped her. "Mona, we can't thank you enough for all you've done for us. You may not realize it, but you've changed a lot since our first day here."

"Really?"

"You are more accepting of us as people." There was a pause before she said, "Shu told me about what happened to your daughter. I'm very sorry."

Mona nodded, but didn't say anything. It was still extremely difficult for her to talk about Mei.

"You have also changed me," Mo continued. "Everyone is dealing with something, we just may not know what that is. But knowing that, we must treat everyone with respect."

Mona smiled lightly. "You're right, Mo. You know, you've…you've taught me a lot. I'm honored to be your friend."

The two women smiled at each other and walked up the stairs to Mona's room.

"Mo's agreed to be the first one," Mona smiled at John as they walked in.

"Fine with me," John laughed as he got all his tools ready.

"Is it alright if I sit on your bed?" Mo asked Mona.

"Of course," Mona answered.

John turned to look at Mo. "Mo, would…" He looked at her and laughed lightly. "You look so sweet. Would you mind…lying down? I'm just not used to…"

"People who can sit?" Mo finished.

"Right," John laughed. "People who can sit. Would you mind?"

"Mona, is it okay?"

Mona nodded and she was surprised about Mo asking for her permission to sit and lay on the bed. It showed great respect and character and Mo definitely had a lot of that.

Mo lied down on the bed and John sat down next to her. "So madam, what will it be?" he asked. "Fourteen years old?"

"How about thirteen? Until thirteen I was a good girl."

"Very good. Thirteen it is. So I'll straighten your hair, cut it in a bob. I have an idea, I think it'll be beautiful." He took a huge prosthetic nose out of his pile of tools and put it on her face. "This is what we need. It's perfect."

Mo slapped his hand away and the three of them laughed together when they realized his joke. It was nice to have this kind of laughter and fun given the complete horrors that had occurred over the course of the last few days.

"Okay," John said, playfully getting himself serious again. He looked over at her. "The way you are now is what I like the best."

"It's true," Mona said. "You are so beautiful, Mo. Inside and out. I'm glad we all got to see the real you."

Mo looked up at the couple. "I have seen the love you have for each other in both of your eyes. That itself is beautiful. Please don't ever lose that."

Mona and John looked at each other for a moment, and Mona realized that she was right. John did have love for her in his eyes. And though it surprised both of him, the love was reciprocated in hers.

John began cutting Mo's hair into a schoolgirl style. It didn't take too long and by the end of it, Mo was barely recognizable.

"John, that's amazing," Mona remarked.

They all went back down to the cellar to show the other women the new Mo. They all started squealing as they made comments on her hair and on John's skills.

"They all want you to give them a makeover," Mo said to John.

"My pleasure," John smiled. Then he added in Chinese, "Glad to serve you."

The women started giggling fiercely at his use of their native language.

"Do you just want to do the rest down here?" Mona asked him.

"That'd be easiest," he answered. He started putting crates along the floor in a line for the women to lie on.

"Here," he said.

Mo said something to them that made them all look kind of uncomfortable.

"Are they disturbed…by the way I work? I'm sorry."

Mo said something to the women again with a smile. Ling hopped up on the crates and someone passed her a coat for her to put her head on then she lied down on it. The rest of the girls formed a line that John could easily work down. They all looked pretty excited by the idea of someone like John working on their hair, which wasn't all that an unreasonable reaction.

"Mona, could you hold the lantern for me?" John asked her.

"Of course."

Mona grabbed a lantern hanging from the cellar ceiling and then got a chair so she could sit next to him and provide him the light.

"How long have you been doing this kind of thing?" Mona asked once they got started and the other women had fallen asleep on the crates while they waited for their turn.

"For five years," John answered.

"Well, I've got to hand it to you. You do a really good job with this. I mean, you've made Mo look almost exactly like one of the girls."

"It matters. It matters to me. Before my daughter died, she made me promise to make her beautiful again. That was the first time."

Mona was speechless for a few seconds. "You lost a daughter too?" she asked.

"Yeah, from pneumonia. She just got really sick and there wasn't anything the doctors could do."

"Well, what happened to the mother?"

"Died in childbirth."

"I'm so sorry."

"It's important. It's important work." He paused, then said tearfully, "She would have been twelve."

"So that's why you said you get drunk as much as you can. When you're drunk, you forget your pain."

"Yeah."

"Well, John, if you keep doing that, you're not only going to lose her. You're going to lose yourself."

"How did you deal with losing your daughter?"

"I'm still dealing with it. I only lost her a few weeks ago. All those memories are still so fresh in my mind. And I know they're never going away. But…in order to honor her, I don't want to lose those memories of her, even those bad ones. Because I only got a couple years with her, and I want to hold onto her as much as I possibly can."

"I think I need to start doing that for my little girl. I don't want to lose her."

"What was her name?"

"Alice. Yours?"

"Mei."

"I think they would've gotten along well."

"I think they would've too. They might've even been best friends."