Rowan wandered over to the tailgate of the delivery truck later that night where Cambria was packing up their meager leftovers from the meal that they had just finished.

"There's something that I don't get," he said, leaning against the side of the truck.

"And what's that?" Cambria asked, more subdued then he had seen her since she had come out of her drug-induced stupor on that first day.

It was messing with all of their heads, knowing that they had a dying girl in their midst.

"Jolie had to have known that Zoe was already sick, so why did she tell us that Zoe was okay to travel?"

Cambria's mouth formed a thin line as she answered, having yet to look at him, "That's what they were arguing about when we came back from the pond last night. Zoe knew that it was important to you, Ella, and Ava to get back on the road and make it to Miami. She thought that she could make it there, since it's only one good day's travel to get there from here, but Jolie knew that if she was put under any strain at all – even getting back on the road – that she wouldn't be able to handle it. Zoe insisted that Jolie was wrong and made her promise to tell you that she would be okay, which Jolie did… even though she was obviously right."

"That's why Jolie was so upset when she talked to me about it," Rowan mused.

Cambria nodded. "Probably."

"I wish that there was something that we could do," Ella murmured, coming up on the very end of Rowan and Cambria's conversation.

"Yeah," Rowan confessed, shoving his hands into his pockets. "Me too."

"You could try going and talking to one of the two of them," Cambria suggested to both Ella and Rowan.

"One of which two?" Rowan asked. "Zoe's been fading in and out of consciousness all day."

"Jolie and Heidi."

Ella looked up towards the cab of the truck where they all knew that Jolie had once again holed herself up inside with Zoe, before she started in that direction, saying, "I think I'll go see if I can get Jolie to come out here and eat anything. "

"What's this about Heidi?" Rowan asked Cambria, searching for the fourteen year old's blonde braids in the gathering twilight. "Is she still shook up?"

Cambria sighed. "Yeah; I tried to cheer her up when we go here, but it didn't work. I don't know what to do with her. None of us do – or even if we should do anything at all. Have you really looked in her face since we got here? I don't know how to even explain it…"

Rowan finally caught sight of her at the edge of the clearing – one of the twin dark shadows that had settled beside a strand of trees. "I'll go see if I can get through to her."

"Thanks, Rowan," Cambria said gratefully, smiling wearily at him as he started towards the group's two youngest girls.

Only then did he notice that Frankie's furious screams had begun to echo throughout the area. Crouching down beside Lei and Heidi, who were both trying to comfort the infant, Rowan asked, "What's wrong with him?"

"He's hungry, and Zoe can't help him now…" Heidi explained. When she looked up at him, Rowan saw the tears streaming down her face.

Rowan swallowed, brows drawing together in thought before a new thought slowly dawned on him.

"Let me check into something," Rowan said, rising to his feet.

Lei stood as well and trotted to catch up with him as he started back towards the others.

"I think it changed her for good," Lei admitted softly when they reached the spot where they were far enough away from Heidi and from the others to be overheard by none of them. "I've stayed with her all day trying to cheer her up, and she's acting like… like she's old, or sleepy. I don't know if she has even seen me there with her. Her eyes… they look kind of… dead."

Could she be in shock? Rowan wondered.

"I just don't think that she's going to be the same again. It really messed her up when she realized that Zoe had passed out and fell over on her."

"Maybe she'll shake it off;"Rowan suggested vaguely. "Everybody has to grow up sometime. This might just be what it takes for Heidi."

"That's not fair."

"Neither is the rest of life," he muttered.

Lei scowled at him and stopped where she was, for which Rowan was grateful. It left him free to ask after his idea.

"Hey, Ava," he said softly, laying a hand on her shoulder as he reached the spot where she was sitting by the fire with Cambria. "Can I ask you a question?"

"Yeah?" Ava asked casually, looking over her shoulder at him.

"Can I ask you a question… in private?"

Her eyebrows drew together, but she stood up anyway, and followed him to a remote corner of their camp. "What's wrong?" she asked once Rowan stopped and she took that as he cue to do the same.

"You said that your last baby hasn't been gone long, right?"

She blinked, surprised at his bluntness, but shook her head slowly. "Just… only a little over two weeks."

He had been startled three days ago when she first told him that her child had died so recently. The way she had talked about it the first time that she had brought up her pregnancies, Rowan had assumed that it had been a year ago at least. But, then, that's what being so surrounded by death did to them – it hardened them to it.

"Why?"Ava asked.

"I…" Rowan stumbled over his words, glad that she probably couldn't make out the deep flush in his cheeks this far away from the fire. "Frankie needs to be fed, and I thought…"

Ava sucked air sharply into her lungs, realizing what she was being asked to do. "I could try it…"

Rowan swallowed, inwardly hoping beyond hope that it would work. After all, this was the only way that they could both keep Frankie with the group like Zoe wanted and also simply keep him alive.

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