Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters from A Walk to Remember; I just love them very dearly.

Dedication: This dedication goes to Roxanne Barnett. Roxie is one of my best friends at school and she is a really great writer. She is probably the most unique people that you will ever meet, but she isn't boring in no way shape or form. Roxie, I know that I can get aggravated at you and you with me, but I would never trade a single moment that I have spent getting to know you. I know at times you hated me, and I won't lie, I didn't like you much either, but you are truly a wonderful person when someone gets to know you.

Landon woke the same way he had the previous night. Elisha had seen the strange woman and was too scared to stay in her own room. Landon sat in the cold kitchen quietly sipping his hot coffee. He massaged his eyes to try and get the sleep out of them. Landon wanted nothing more than to climb back into his bed, but he knew if he lay back down, he would definitely never be able to awaken. So Landon stared around the kitchen that was steadily getting brighter as the sun came up. Finally he gathered the energy to stand and go take a shower. He stumbled into the tiny bathroom that rest in the hall of the small house. Without even thinking he retrieved Elisha's towel that had every Disney princess on it and set it on the toilet along with his clothes. He slipped the long flanel pants that he wore to bed off and stepped into his shower. He let the warm water cover him so he could fully wake. Then he quickly cleaned himself. He turned the warm water off and then reached out of the curtain and took the towel and wrapped it around his waist. He dressed and finished getting ready. When he looked at the clock he saw it was time to wake Elisha so she could go to school.

"Baby?" he said nudging her softly. "It's time to get up."

Elisha turned around and buried herself deeper into her covers, as if hiding from the loud voice that was pulling her from the place where she was a pink mermaid.

"I'm not kidding. It's time to get up," Landon said, now in a much harsher voice. He started to shake the girl a little more forcefully.

Elisha tried to run away from her father, but he kept a firm grip on her, but she still did not open her eyes.

"Elisha if you don't get out of the bed by the time I get to five I'm going to have to spank you," Landon said finally letting the girl go. "1...2...3..."

Elisha quickly kicked and pulled the covers from her, but quickly got stuck in them, to the point where she couldn't get out. Landon couldn't help but laugh and he helped the girl out and went to make her breakfast as she put on the clothes he had set out for her. Their morning routine went the same as it did every morning, breakfast, hair, and teeth. Elisha ran into the old car that had always rested outside of the house she had always been in and sat in the front seat, waiting for her father.

Landon placed his books in the back seat, put the car in gear, pulled out of the driveway, and drove to the elementary that Elisha attended.

Landon ran into his classroom and took his regular seat, next to the new girl and his friend, Eric Adams. Eric was tall and skinny boy, who was extremely confident about the who he was and what he was going to be. His red hair showed obvious signs of Irish heritage, as well as his temper did on a bad day. Landon had become instant friends with the man when Jamie had introduced them. Jamie had met him at the library, he was studying autism for a paper and Jamie invited him to dinner.

"Hey," Eric said as Landon pulled his book out.

"Hey," Landon said smiling at his friend.

"How's Elisha?"

"Fine, spoiled rotten, but she's fine," Landon said smiling.

"Yeah, it's all my fault. Last time she was at my house I bought her everything she asked for. Which reminds me, Elisha left her pony at my house, I was wondering if you could pick it up soon. She's eating all of my grass," Eric said smiling.

Landon laughed and then turned to the page in their book that the board instructed them to go to. Landon turned to the blonde girl on his right and smiled widely at her. "How has your morning been so far?"

Samantha smiled and turned to him, "It's been okay. How about yours?"

"Well, I was woken up at four this morning by my daughter, but other than that it was fine," Landon said. He had never been secretive about his daughter; he loved her more than he ever thought he could love someone. It wasn't the same kind of love as with Jamie, it was a fatherly love. One were he felt constantly worried that something could happen to her, but he never wanted her to be left out of anything.

"You have a daughter?" Samantha said with wide eyes. "Are you married?"

Landon's smile weakened a little when Jamie was mentioned. "I was. She was my high school sweetheart, if you could call it that, because she was so much more than that. She changed my life."

"Did you divorce?"

Landon laughed, he could have never imagined divorcing Jamie, and the thought baffled him. "No, she died."

Samantha got quiet and she looked at her pen for a while. "I'm so sorry. How long ago was this?"

"About four years ago. We married when I was still in high school. I would have never taken that back though. I would have married her in kindergarten if I had known what she meant to me," Landon said as his eyes started to tear up. He was saying this more to himself than he was to the girl, but he was still thankful for her listening.

"Wow, she must have been really special. How did she die?" Samantha was curious about the man with all the secrets. He seemed so normal and happy to have such a sad past.

"Leukemia," Landon got quiet as he thought of what took his only love.

Samantha got quiet too. She had heard of the disease and it's affects on people. She knew that it was terrible, and her heart went out to him. She shuddered to think of what he had been going through. "Would you want to get coffee later?"

"I'm sorry, I have to get home to my daughter after school, but thank you anyway," Landon said.

"Well bring your daughter along and we could go to the park or something. I'll bring my own coffee," Samantha said. She found the man extremely interesting and wanted to find out more about him.

Landon thought about it, and knew that Elisha would enjoy getting out of the house after being cooped up in it for so long. "Sure, how about around five o'clock?"

"Great!"

Landon quickly put Elisha into a jacket and tried to put her hair into a ponytail. He was running late, as he normally did since he had a child to worry about. Landon trued to ignore the shrieks that came from Elisha as he tightly wrapped her thick blonde hair into the small elastic band.

"Daddy!" she said loudly stomping her feet. "It's too hard!"

"It won't stay up if I don't do it this way," Landon said finally looping the hair one last time and then tightening the band even further.

Elisha held her head for a while and then tied her shoes, something she had recently learned to do at school. Landon grabbed the keys for the car off the wall and called for Elisha to follow him. Elisha did the final swoop and followed her father's lead by sitting on the front seat. Landon loved the fact that Elisha had potty trained so early. It gave him less to carry, worry about, and lose. Landon turned the car down David Circle, leaving Green Street and slowly inched toward the park. Elisha played with bits of the side of the door that were peeling off from old age and hard use, as Landon turned the radio up to hear the news. What he heard was shocking.

Landon's hand shook as he slowly placed it back on the wheel.

"Today, in Dallas, Texas, President Kennedy was shot. The public does not know his condition yet, but it isn't looking good. The assassin is believed to be a man by the name of Lee Harvey Oswald," the radio announcer said, his voice shaking as much as Landon's hand.

Landon slowly pulled the car over. Elisha looked up to see her father's face pale and pasty. "What's wrong Daddy?"

But Landon couldn't hear her. His mind was lost in the news. Landon couldn't sit for a while he waited for more news, but the announcer just repeated the same thing over and over. Landon finally remembered why he was on the road, and quickly went to go meet Samantha, all the time, Landon's mind thinking of the president.

Samantha sat on a bench in the empty park, waiting for Landon. She had yet to hear the devastating news, and she sat clueless waiting for him to arrive. She heard the approach of a vehicle and turned to find Landon pulling into a parking lot. A smile spread widely, but when she saw the man step out her smile slowly faded. Landon looked as if he had just seen a ghost. His eyes were blurred with tears and a look of confusion was seen across his face. She saw where tears had fallen that his body was shaking, making it hard for him to walk.

"Are you alright?" she said walking over to him, gently pressing her hand on his arm.

Landon shook his head. He didn't know what it was he felt, but he knew it wasn't "alright". Elisha had gotten herself out of the car and was now running through the playground sitting on an abandoned swing.

"What's wrong?"

"You haven't heard?" Landon held tightly to the bench and sat down before he fell to the ground. When Samantha shook her head, Landon told her what he heard on the radio.

Samantha placed her hand on her mouth as silent tears fell across his face. "Well, do they know if he's going to die or not? I mean he could make it."

Landon didn't know what to say, but more tears fell silently across his face. And so they sat in silence, as did the rest of America, waiting for the fate of the country to be told.