John went back up to the bedroom and gathered up his tools. Mona went to go wash all the blood off her hands. As she scrubbed them clean, she felt a few tears prick her eyes as memories from before her time at the church came back to her once more.

Once she and John were emotionally ready, she helped him prepare both of the girls and he dressed them up so they looked as if they could be sleeping had they not been so pale. He tied pieces of fabric around their heads to shield the wounds they had received.

John carried out one of the girls while Mona carried out the other. They set the bodies down in a hole George had dug while John had fixed them up.

The girls gathered around to pay their respects and they began crying even more for the girls they once called their friends. John took both of the girls' hands and placed them over one another.

"I hope you will not be lonely buried together," he said softly.

Mona put her arm around Shu as tears fell down the girl's face. She felt so bad for these poor girls and just wanted to shield them all from the horrors that were happening outside the cathedral walls.

"Come on," she said softly. Mona began to lead the girls back into the cathedral while John took off his priest robes and he and George prepared to bury the two girls.

"Father John," Shu said as she turned around. John turned to look at her. "You won't leave us, will you?"

John looked at her, and it seemed like he was searching for something to say, but no words came.

"Come on," Mona said again. She followed behind all of the girls and they went back inside where they were met by all of the women. They said things to all the girls that Mona couldn't understand, but all of them looked miserable for the poor younger ones so they were probably saying apologies.

Mona returned to her room and crashed on the bed. Then she just began to cry into one of the pillows. She cried softly, not wanting any of the girls or women to worry about her, but she cried for a while. When she heard heavy footsteps, she quickly dried her eyes before anyone saw her. John came into the room with George behind him. They were both dirty from burying the girls and they looked both looked exhausted physically and emotionally.

John sat down on the couch as Mona slowly got up from the bed and walked over to where she was standing behind the couch. Her hair must've looked absolutely terrible from all the running around, so she took out her bun and tied her hair up into a ponytail. Again, some of it fell out of the hair tie.

"Why not answer Shu?" George asked.

"She called me Father John," John answered.

"We all need you."

"I'm a mortician."

"You are priest."

"No."

"If we have a priest, maybe Japanese not dare…You are priest!"

"George, I'm not. I'm not a priest. I'm not!"

"I'm not a priest's wife," Mona said to John. "But I will be if it helps the girls."

"No, I can't. I stayed here because I was looking for your cash. And because this is the nicest place that I've slept in in years even though I'm sleeping on a couch. I didn't get there. But is that like a priest? I'm not a priest! I'm not. I took catechism lessons as a kid. Sometimes I remember that when I'm drunk, which I am as often as I can be."

George looked at him. "You not be priest, tell girls yourself."

He looked at the picture on the mantle and turned it back around. John made no move to stop him. Mona looked at George and nodded a little to which he nodded back.

"You little twit!" John said as he laughed drunkenly. "You are!"

Mona looked at George sadly as he left. Her jaw clenched as she looked back over at John. She stormed over to him and grabbed the bottle he was drinking from and chucked it out the window where it fell with a satisfying smash below. Then she walked back over to him and slapped him hard on the face.

"God forgive me because I just did that in a church, but I am sick and tired of your inappropriate behavior!" she yelled. "Just when I think that maybe you have a heart, you go and say those things. George has done nothing to you and you have no right to call him names after what he just went through. And so what if Shu called you Father John? You are probably the first ray of light these girls have seen since this whole mess started. You're the way they can get out of here and away from the awful things happening." She took a seat next to him on the couch. "I saw the way you reacted to what those soldiers were doing. And I saw the tears you shed for that poor girl. It's okay to let people see that you actually care." She stood back up to face him, and crossed her arms over her chest. "But if you're going to leave, do it now. Do not get these girls' hopes up."

John looked at her and said nothing. He just left the room and went down below to sit on the pews. Mona stayed in the room and thought about those girls in the room not far from where she was. At their age, she was a carefree child with a loving mother and father. These girls were scared to death trying not to get raped by soldiers. It was revolting to her.

Hours passed and John remained on one of the pews. When Mona looked out at him, he was passed out, probably from all the drink he had consumed earlier. He didn't look like he was in a very comfortable position and it was late, so she went downstairs to wake him and get him to the couch in her room. She may not have wanted him there, but she wanted to show that she still had some decency in her.

She heard the click of heels behind her and turned to find Mo walking up to her and John.

"Hi," Mona said quietly.

Mo paused a little before saying, "We've heard about what happen today."

She spoke loud enough for John to snap out of his drunken state and sit up onto the pew.

"Welcome back," Mona muttered.

"So you're staying?" Mo asked him.

"Yeah," John answered.

"Even though were a drunk brute last night, what you both did today makes you heroes."

Mona looked at her sadly. "We couldn't save all of them."

There was a bit of silence between them all as they thought back over the unfortunate incidents that had occurred.

"I'm sorry about last night," John finally said. "I can't leave them by themselves. And that little…"

John looked over at Mona and saw her glaring fiercely at him, daring him to finish that sentence.

"…boy," he finished cautiously, "and this lady here have a way of just…You know."

Mona smiled a little as she realized that her outburst earlier had actually worked on him.

"What do you think the Japanese are up to?" Mo asked. "Are they really here to protect the students?"

The silence that followed gave them the answer they already knew.

"We were counting on having you help us leave Nanking, but I guess now you'll have to
stay here and be a priest and a priest's wife."

"Yeah, right," John mumbled. "Priest."

"Actually, I came to tell you, our offer is still good. We still want you to help us escape. As soon as the Japanese guards are gone. Just now the ladies were having a bet. They said that hero or no hero, you don't stand a chance when you're up against a beauty like me."

"Don't flatter yourself."

"We'll see."

Mo walked away and John blew a puff of air out through his cheeks as he thought about what to do next.

"You know," Mona said softly. "You can come back up and sleep on the couch. You don't have to sleep on these hard benches."

"I guess I just thought that after today, you'd want me out."

"Believe me, if that was the case, I would've kicked you out the second you stepped into that room." She slowly took a seat next to him. "Priest's wife, huh?" she sighed.

John laughed a little. "Didn't see that coming, did you?"

"I know you probably weren't expecting that, but I thought that if the Japanese believed I was a priest's wife, they wouldn't touch me, and in turn, I could keep them from touching the girls."

"That was…really brave, what you did earlier. Going out and shoving that soldier and punching the other one."

"That was brave of you to come out and yell at all of them. But I have to say I was scared to death of what they were going to do to me. If you hadn't come in to save the day, I can't say what would've happened. So I guess…thank you."

"What was that?" he asked putting his hand to his ear.

Mona rolled her eyes and smiled. "I said thank you."

"Now was that so hard?"

"Don't push it. Now come on. We both need to get some well-earned sleep."

Mona and John headed back upstairs to Mona's room and crashed down to finally rest after a very emotionally traumatizing day.