I hope someone is still reading this I wrote this chapter years ago but never got around to putting it up.

Enjoy!

Mr. Tin Man by Miranda Lambert

XXX

Hey there, Mr. Tin Man
You don't know how lucky you are
You shouldn't spend your whole life wishin'
For something bound to fall apart
Every time you're feeling empty
Better thank your lucky stars
If you ever felt one breaking
You'd never want a heart

Hey there, Mr. Tin Man
You don't know how lucky you are
I've been on the road that you're on
It didn't get me very far

The honking of a car horn jolted me from my restless sleep, and I groaned as I nearly fell off the seat of the truck. For a moment I forgot why I was sleeping here, but then the past 2 weeks came back to me. If it wasn't for the fact that I'd been crying my way through those weeks, I probably would have burst into tears, but my eyes were dry and irritated from rubbing at them.

"This is fucked up." I grumbled to myself as I pushed myself up to look out the windshield. It was overcast, and from the looks of it, it had rained during the night.

With a sigh I pulled the map that I had bought in Tennessee out of the glover compartment. In reality, I had no idea where I was going. I'd spent the last 2 weeks taking so many different roads that I was all turned around and the only thing I knew was that I was in Pennsylvania. Every time I got to a new state, I ended up buying another map in addition to the ones I had bought when I had started this trip. These ones had more detail on what roads led to where, which resulted in a mess of them on the floor of the truck since whenever I got to the next state I just tossed the maps down.

"Where the hell am I supposed to go?" I stopped looking at the map to watch the cars go by. I had parked in the first empty parking lot I'd found when I crossed the state border. I'd been aimlessly driving for weeks, trying to think of where I could go.

When I had left Tulsa, the only thought on my mind had been getting away from Tim. That had been all I cared about, and now I was regretting it. Go figure, even miles away I'd be cursing his name. But that didn't solve my problem of having no where to go.

I reached over to my bag to grab my cigarette pack, but my hand brushed something metal and I froze. I'd forgotten about the gun Jessie had given me.

"Things are changing, and not for the better either." Jessie's words still hit me every time I looked at the gun, and now I knew why. What stumped me though, was how did she know? How could she have possibly known what was happening?

A strange sensation crawled up my back as I looked down at the gun, and then up at the road in front of me, and then over at the map. The inner state wasn't far from when I assumed I was, and if I got on it, I could be in New York within the day.

I folded up the map and stashed it all back in my bag before turning the key to start the truck up. As I pulled out onto the road, I watched an older couple walk hand in hand to a diner across the street from where I'd slept. Something about it triggered images in my mind and I had to take a moment before pulling out. It had been so long, I'd forgotten about them - which triggered guilt. Who knew if they were even still alive.

I finally managed to get myself out onto the road and headed for the inner state, and hopefully some answers.

XXX

It was dark when I crossed the border into New York, and for a moment I wanted to turn back around. The city was a place of bad memories, some of which I had no desire to remember. But in the end, they crawled into my mind and sent a chill down my spine.

I couldn't bring myself to sleep in the truck again, so I found the first motel and pulled in. It wasn't too sketchy looking, so I parked in front of the receptionist office and went to get myself a room. Once I had a key, I moved the truck over to the door and grabbed my stuff before locking it up. I didn't trust this place, no matter how un-sketchy it looked.

After I dropped my stuff on one of the two beds, I grabbed the phone book that was on the table and started to flip through it, looking for anyone with the last name Parker.

Back when Dally and I were here, we'd come up with an idea to get some extra food. We'd posed as siblings who had been orphaned, out on the street begging. It had been a last resort before winter set in, since we were already hungry and people were saying it was going to be a bad one. It had been one of those days that Mr. and Mrs. Parker had decided to go for one of their very rare walks through the park. It had started to snow the day before, and the weather wasn't looking like it would let up. When they'd seen Dally and I huddled together on a bench, our little makeshift sign propped up beside us, they didn't think twice about taking us back home with them. They'd fed us, given us warmer clothes, let us have hot showers, and made up beds for us to sleep in for the night. It had been the best thing to happen to us, even Dally had smiled and shown his gratitude - which was rare.

Within the initial 2 days we stayed with them, we spilled our whole story. I had thought that when they heard we'd been to jail and everything that they would put us right back out on the street, but instead they had said that their door was always open to us if we ever needed somewhere to stay.

I sighed as I paused in my search. They'd been so good to us, treated us like we were their own children. They never had kids, so we sort of were theirs for a time. But within the year before Dally and I left, we'd stopped going, and now I was feeling guilty about it. We'd never stayed in touch, and now I could only assume they thought we'd been killed.

I turned back to the phone book and flipped another couple pages until I found the Parkers, and then I started to look down the list until I saw their names, Jane and Samuel Parker. I felt my chest tighten up as I reached for the phone. What was I going to say?

I dialled and listened to it ring, my heart pounding viciously in my chest. I was about to hang up when a man's voice came over the line.

"Hello, this is Samuel Parker." I sat there in shock, and nearly dropped the phone. This didn't feel real. "Hello?"

"Hi." I managed to get out, and then shook myself to clear my head. "Hi, Mr. Parker. I- I realize you probably won't remember me, but, umm, it's Mia Baker..." I trailed off, unsure of what else to say. Tears were forming in my eyes as I waited for a response. This man had been more of a father to me than my biological one had been.

"Oh my god." I started to open my mouth to say something, but closed it. "Mia? Mia is it really you?" I nodded, realizing he couldn't see me.

"Yes," I choked out, tears trailing down my cheeks. "Yeah, it's me."

"Oh sweet lord. Jane! Jane, darling come here!" Mr. Parker had pulled away from the phone and was calling into the house. I could hear a muffled voice in the background, which quickly got louder, and then she was on the phone.

"Hello? Who is this?" I sobbed, covering my mouth. I couldn't believe this was happening.

"It's- it's Mia Baker." For a minute I thought she'd hung up the phone.

"Oh! Oh my god, Mia! Oh darling I can't believe it's you! We- we thought! Oh we thought the worst!"

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry." I sobbed as I fell back on the bed. Hearing their voices was bringing back good memories, and those thoughts were making it hard to think about the shit that had brought me back up here.

"Oh sweetie it's OK, it's fine. Where are you? Are you in the city?" I told them where I was at, and before I could argue they were saying they would be over to pick me up. After we hung up, I stared at the phone for a long time, wondering what it was going to be like to see them again.

XXX

It was about 20 minutes later that there was a knock on my door, and I walked over to look through the peep hole. There was an older couple standing there, and even though it had been years, they looked the same to me.

I opened the door, and for a moment we all just stood there staring at each other before I was engulfed in hugs. I took a deep breath and rested my head against Mr. Parker's shoulder, trying not to cry as I felt more love from them then I'd felt from anyone in a long time.

"Oh Mia dear!" Mrs. Parker cried as she pulled back. "We thought you and Dally..." She paused as she looked behind me into the room. "Where is Dally?" I bowed my head, trying to fight back the tears. It was like the pain of his death was new.

"He, umm, he got shot." I said as I looked back up at them. They were looking at me with wide eyes, clearly not believing what I was saying. "A friend of ours died and he just couldn't take it, and-" I sucked in a deep breath. "He robbed a store and then the cops shot him. He'd pulled a gun on them but it wasn't loaded but... Yeah that was 3 almost 4 years ago."

"Oh dear. Mia I'm so sorry, I know how much he meant to you. We always assumed if you guys managed to get out of trouble you'd ended up together..." Mrs. Parker pierced her lips together, apparently feeling like she had said too much.

"We actually did. We were dating when he died. It's been rough, but we made some really good friends when we got to Tulsa-"

"You got down to Tulsa?" Mr. Parker asked and I nodded. "Well, sounds like you've had quite the life the past number of years. Let's get you back to the house and we can get all caught up. Here I'll put your stuff in the car." He took the stuff off the bed and headed back out the door.

"Is this you're truck?" Mrs. Parker asked as we stepped out of the room.

"Uh yeah." I didn't know what to say about it, since everything to do with the truck brought back thoughts of Tim, and that was what I was trying to avoid.

"Well, do you want to drive it over to the house or leave it here? I'm sure it'll be fine if you park it out of the way." I looked at it and shook my head.

"Naw, I'll just leave it. It's an old truck anyway, I might just put a for sale sign on it. I don't think it liked the trip up here." I smiled as she laughed softly and I walked over to the truck to move it off to the side of the parking lot. As I walked away I turned back and it was like seeing it for the first time. I saw it through Tim's bedroom window, when everything was fine- well. When I thought it was fine.

I turned back to where Mr. and Mrs. Parker were waiting by their car and smiled as I slide into the backseat.

You ain't missing nothing
'Cause love is so damn hard
Take it from me, darling
You don't want a heart

Hey there, Mr. Tin Man
I'm glad we talked this out
You can take mine if you want it
It's in pieces now
By the way there, Mr. Tin Man
If you don't mind the scars
You give me your armor
And you can have my heart