For the next couple of days, Mary mopes around the house, trying to avoid all contact with her family members. She was succeeding in doing so, for the most part, except when it came to her father. Every chance he got he cornered her in a deep conversation. Mary could tell, though, that he had no idea what was going on. Their talks consisted of him jumping from one subject to another very frequently- from drugs, to working, to relationships- practically every topic a person could ever think of. Mary stayed tough, and never gave him any hints as to what was going on. Luckily for her, he only blatantly asked her about Wilson maybe once or twice, and she was able to quickly change the subject.

After yet another conversation with her father, and exhausted Mary goes upstairs to her bedroom and locks the door. Pleased that no one was in the room, Mary sits on the bed that they had set up for her just the other day. She curls up into a tight ball, bringing her knees to her chest and putting her head on top of them. She starts to sob uncontrollably as her mind races from Wilson to Billy to her family, then back again in a circular pattern.

She had been crying for at least five minutes when she felt a hand on her shoulder. Mary is startled- she thought she was alone up there. She turns and sees that it is Ruthie next to her, just the person she didn't want to see.

"Are you all right?" Ruthie asks sounding concerned.

Mary wipes her eyes quickly. "Yeah, I'm fine."

"Then why are you crying?"

"Because, OK?"

Ruthie rolls her eyes. "Fine. But you've been acting like this since you came home. Have you talked to anyone yet?" Mary doesn't answer her. "That's what I thought. You need to talk to someone."

"There's nothing to talk about," Mary says in complete denial. She pauses for a second, and then continues. "You know what, I'm going out."

"Good- some fresh air might help you. Where are you going?"

"No where," Mary says standing up and walking out of the door. As she walks down the attic stares, she passes Matt. He stop and stares at her, then continues walking up into the bedroom.

"Where is she going?" he asks Ruthie.

"Out."

"Good. Meeting downstairs, now."

"Family meeting?"

"More like sibling meeting." He says putting his hand behind Ruthie's back and pushing her in the direction of the door.

After I told Billy what happened, I made two phone calls. The first call was to the Colonel.

"I'm going to spend the night at Wilson's apartment with Billy. There really isn't anyone to watch him."

"Is that where you are now?"

"Yes."

"Ok Mary. But if you need me for anything, don't hesitate to call."

"I won't. Thanks Colonel."

Next, I searched through Wilson's things and found his parent's number. I knew it at one point, but had forgot it over the years. It felt so weird searching through Wilson's things. It felt so wrong, so evil. I felt that I shouldn't be disturbing any of his stuff, but I had to. I had to find out what I should do with Billy.

Once I got in contact with his parents, I volunteered to watch Billy for a couple of days, until they could figure out how they were going to get him. Little did I know he was going to end up flying back with me, but I'll get to that later.

Billy and I both slept on the couch that night. Well, he slept and I laid there. He cried himself to sleep, and held onto me so tightly. It broke my heart to see him like that. The only thing I kept thinking that night, as awful as it sounds, was that I'd hate to be him. I'm not as evil as I sound, really, but think about it. His life is so complicated and confusing already, and he's only five years old. And that's all my fault, too. If I just could have waited a week, a couple of days even, he would have a Daddy and a Mommy, instead of grandparents he hasn't seen in two years, and probably barely remembers.

Matt, Lucy, Simon, and Ruthie were all in the living room. The younger kids were sitting in the couches as Matt stood in front of the three of them.

"Wait," Ruthie says before they start. "Why isn't Robbie here?"

"He's not home. He's at the library studying." Lucy says.

Ruthie nods.

"Anyways," Matt says interrupting them, sounding slightly annoyed, "I wanted to talk to you all about Mary. I noticed she's been a little, well, off, since she came home. What about you guys?" Matt says.

"Yeah," Ruthie says, "She was just upstairs crying."

"So she was crying!" Lucy remarks. "I thought she was crying the other day when she first got here, but I shrugged it off."

"Yeah, she looks really upset," adds Simon.

"I agree." Matt says. "So what do you think is wrong? My money's on Wilson."

"Me too," says Ruthie.

"Me three," Simon chimes in.

"I hate to say it, but you guys are probably right." Lucy says.

"So what do you think happened with Wilson?" Matt asks. All three of them shrug. "OK, um, Luce, what was the last thing you found out about the two of them?"

"Well, I thought they were engaged, but I could be wrong."

"I know!" Ruthie cries suddenly. "We should call Wilson."

"I did," Matt admits, "But his phone had been disconnected. I thought that was odd."

"Way odd," Simon says.

"Well, I guess we'll just have to wait for Dad to drag it out of her then," Ruthie says. Everyone laughs.

"I guess. " Matt says. "Unless…"

"Unless what?" Lucy asks.

"Plan?"

"No plan. If she's crying she's obviously really upset and I'd rather have her mad at Dad than us."

"Good point," says Matt. "So our plan can be to leave her alone then. Got it?"

"But-" Ruthie says, but is silenced when everyone stared back at her. "Ok ok, geez."

The next morning, Wilson's parents called.

"How long can you watch Billy for?" His mother asked me.

I thought, and I really had no plans. Besides, I wanted to do whatever I could to help them out. "For as long as you need me to."

"Great. There's a flight out here in about two weeks, is that all right?"

Two weeks is a long time. "Uh, yeah that's fine."

"Great. I can't thank you enough."

I hung up the phone, and turned toward Billy. He looked so upset and so sad. I decided to take him out of the apartment.

"Want to go somewhere?" I asked him. He didn't answer me, he only shrugged. "Want to go to the park?" He shook his head. "Go get breakfast?"

"Not hungry." He mumbled.

"Me either."

"Who was on the phone before?"

"Oh, your Grandma and Grandpa. They said that in two weeks you're going to go back to GlenOak and live with them. Is that OK with you?"

"But what's going to happen to you?"

"Good question." I said to him. What was going to happen to me? Little did he know what I was going through right now- the moral battle with myself.

Mary gets out of her car, now parked at the GlenOak Memorial Park, and walks over to the graves. She stops in front of Wilson's, and kneels down. Mary uses all of her strength not to cry, and to try and sit there like a normal human being. She kneeled there for a while, not thinking of anything important, when her mind starts to take in her surrounding. It registers in her mind that Wilson is lying six feet underneath her. The idea of that really creeps her out, and she stands up.

"I'm sorry," she finally says out loud, "I'm being disrespectful. I'm just so ashamed of all of this. Look at me." Mary says throwing her hands up in the air. "I landed myself in the same position as you did." Tears start to roll down her face, and she can't stop them from coming. She sobs, harder than she has since that day at the hospital, as the brisk December air engulfs her. She succumbs to her emotions and falls back in front of Wilson's gravestone.