Authors Note Thank you for your reveiws so far, I wasn't expecting to get any so I really apreciate it, thanks!! Also I'm sorry that this chapter isn't very good. Hopefully the next one will be an improvement!

The light was on in the cabin but I couldn't bring myself to knock. Behind the door I could hear Karen's voice, loud and full of laughter. Even the sudden flight of strength that my body was experiencing could not withstand that. I couldn't even think of the two of them sitting in our house together. Her lying on my bed, cooking in the kitchen where I used to wait for Jack to return home and her things lying on chairs and shelves, let alone see it. Instead I stood by the doghouse. Rover had been a good friend to me and fortunately he recognised my scent instantly and covered me with licks instead of barking, which would have almost certainly brought Jack out of the house. I shook at the thought of him finding me here with no particular reason to explain myself with.

I sobbed into Rover's caramel fur. My stomach hurt, my legs ached and my eyes itched. They longed to be closed, shut off from the pain of the world. He looked at me sympathetically when I rose my head and I sobbed harder. It must have been a funny sight, me sitting there with early darkness casting it's shadow over the farm buildings, sobbing my heart out on all fours like a lost child. You're being pathetic, Mary, absolutely pathetic. I tried to stop but the tears tumbled out faster, harder, running out of control.

"Mary...?" I was blanketed in darkness as someone stood over me, their shadow blocking out all of my light. I jumped up, my tongue fumbling around for excuses. To my surprise it was Gray's eyes and not Jack''s that looked at me so expectantly. A tool box was dangling from one of his hands and the other one was on his hip, portraying some sort of annoyance or slight embarrassment. When I looked at him properly he hid his eyes behind that cap of his and hunched up his shoulders.

"What are you doing here?" I asked, feeling my thudding heart slow down a little.

"Jack's lending me his mill for a while so I can work on some stuff without Granddad knowing." He explained, uneasily shifting from foot-to-foot. "... I... Uhm.. Didn't know who else to ask."

"That's okay." I smiled in the hope of reassuring him. "I really don't mind whose place you work at, Gray, it's nothing to do with me."

"Oh well... I just thought that you might think..." He struggled, even in the darkness and the way he hid himself I could see the tops of his cheeks colouring. Suddenly he stopped, sighed and looked at me straight in the face. "I hate Jack for what he's done to you, Mary. I wouldn't go anywhere near this god damn place if there was anywhere else I could be."

"Please don't judge him over what happened with Karen. You can't possibly hate anyone unless you know them fully."

"I know what he's done to you..."

"And you can't go on that because you don't know the full story. He let you use his place didn't he?"

"Yes but..."

"He's a nice guy, Gray, and don't deny yourself the chance to get to know him because of villiage gossip."

"You're right, I guess." He put his hands in his pockets and was about to slouch off when he stopped and looked at me again. "You deserve much better." He growled then ran off before I had a chance to say anything more.

I sighed the way I always do when a conversation with Gray ends in his usual abrupt way. I found it easy to talk to him maybe because we are so different and when you put yin and yang together they usually slot next to each other with ease. Gray was so angry with everything. He gave off the impression that he hated the world whereas I like to think out my feelings and that usually leads to anger wearing off. He liked to comment on everything while I kept my thoughts to myself, especially when it comes to other people. If someone is doing something that angers me I won't mention it to them. I may think things in my head but they never come out in speech. Some things, I believe, need to be kept in the privacy of your thoughts. Despite our differences, I like Gray. We also have some things in common and always find something to talk about. Once, when Gray first came to the villiage and didn't know that I was about to be married to Jack, he asked me to the flower goddess festival. I felt bad about saying no when he had obviously been so worked up about asking me but for a start I was with Jack and secondly I don't think I could ever feel about him in that way. We are friends and I care about him deeply but I don't feel the same passion that bound me to Jack.

I started to make my way back to the villiage and to the responsibilities that waited for me there. There would be no time for crying, no time for reminiscing about times gone by once I had Charlie in my arms again. He needed his Mum to be there for him, to tend to his every need. Not one who was just going to sob all over him.

I gathered myself as I walked past the orchard and the blacksmiths. I tried to prepare myself for wedding chatter and a session of Mum telling me how to bake a cake I had already cooked a thousand times but the truth is there is no preparing. You've only got to trust yourself to be strong and somehow that trust will pull you through. That's what I've learnt from the last month or so anyway.

I was surprised when I found Elli's place empty. The curtains open but all of the lights off. I walked around the house in case any hidden bedrooms were occupied but every single window showed an empty room. "She might have taken Charlie home already." I told myself and walked over to the little house next to the library which we owned.

My mouth dropped open when I saw all the people gathered in our living room and they all looked just as surprised to see me. There was Elli, Stu and the doctor, Mayor Thomas, Gotz and of course my parents. Mum rushed over to me, arms outstretched. "Where have you been?" She screeched as I pulled away from her hug. "Everyone's been looking for you."

I ignored her question. As if I could have announced to this assembly of people that I had been crying at Jack's farm. "Why? What's going on?" I asked, taking in everybody's worried faces.

"I'm so sorry." Elli came towards me, sobbing into a tight handkercheif. "It's all my fault."

"What's your fault?" I asked gently, feeling a blush creeping over my cheeks from the stares that were focused in my direction.

"I... I..." She broke down in tears and couldn't continue. The doctor appeared with a comforting arm around his fianc's waist.

"I'm sorry Mary but Charlie has gone missing." He informed me cautiously, holding on to Elli a little tighter.