Each second felt like an eternity. The girls and the women had gone about the cathedral, but Mona stayed by the door, pacing back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. She bit her nails repeatedly until there was nothing left to bite.

She could feel eyes on her and she knew that several of the girls and the women were watching her nervous state. But she couldn't focus on that because as more time passed, she became more and more worried.

Finally, the doors opened and John and George walked in.

"John!" Mona gasped. She ran over to him and threw her arms around his neck. Both of them were surprised by her reaction, but neither said anything about it. "George!" she said as she hugged the young boy. "You're both okay! Where are the women?"

It was then she finally noticed the grim expressions on both of their faces. John said nothing to her and her heart broke as she realized that those women would not ever return to the cathedral.

Mona followed John to the kitchen where the remaining women were anxiously awaiting for his return. They walked in and the women all ran up to them to hear what had happened. When they did not see Dou or Lan, it became clear to them that only bad news was coming.

John held out his hand and Mona saw the pipa strings that they had been going to retrieve. They were covered in blood.

"They were on their way back," he said sadly.

Mo took the bloody strings from John with shaking hands.

"It was a stray bullet or…maybe…I don't know," John explained. "I don't think they suffered. I don't think so."

"Is that true?" Mo choked out.

"Yes."

Mo explained to the other women in Chinese what John had told her. They all began sobbing and crying for their friends.

Mona went up to Mo and hugged her tightly. She looked at the others reassuringly and tried to silently let them know that she was there for them in this dark time.

Eventually, Mona went back up to her room and John came in soon after.

Mona looked up at him with tears pooling in her eyes. "It wasn't a stray bullet, was it?" she asked softly.

John looked and her and put his head down, avoiding her eyes. "No," he admitted.

"They did suffer, didn't they?"

He slowly nodded his head, still refusing to look at her. "Mona…" he finally said.

"What?"

"I saw a guy I knew from the refuge while I was looking for the women. Terry."

Mona looked at him, wondering where he was going with this.

"He was leaving Nanking. He told me there was a boat waiting for them. He told me to come with him. And for a minute…I thought about it and I almost did. I wanted to get on that boat with him and leave Nanking and all the nightmares with it. I didn't want to have to be responsible for all these lives anymore. I just wanted to get out and leave with him."

Mona went over to him and she was quite surprised that he wore such a guilty expression on his face. She gently put her hand on his. "But you didn't."

John looked over at her encouraging face. She really had been nothing but helpful this whole time they were trapped in the church.

"You didn't leave, and you came back to the cathedral."

There was an awkward silence that followed her words. Neither could think of anything else to say.

John poured himself a drink and began to gulp it down. Under normal circumstances, Mona would've taken it away from him, but she thought about the horrors he must have seen out on the streets and could only imagine the state he had found those girls in. So this one time, she decided to let it slide.

He was leaning on the end of the bed with his hand on his head trying to block out the awful images when a knock sounded on the door.

"Come in," John called. No one came through the door. "George. Come in. George."

The door opened and Shu's father stepped through. "It's me," he said quietly. He looked over at Mona. "Who are you?"

She walked over to him and shook his hand. "I'm Mona. I'm…" She looked over at John, deciding what to tell him. "…his wife," she finished. This man may be Chinese, but he was still working for the Japanese, and the more people who believed she was a priest's wife, the better.

John stood up to face him.

"I only have two minutes," the man said quickly. "The guards finally let me in." He reached into his jacket and pulled out all kinds of tools that John needed. "These tools you need."

"Thank you," John whispered.

"Now, listen to me." He pulled out a piece of cloth with Japanese writing on it. "This permit was for my daughter."

"Right."

"But I can't carry out my plan. You are my only hope now. The Japanese don't trust me anymore. You are a Westerner. You can help her. My daughter wouldn't leave without her classmates. Please think of a way to get her out of Nanking. The permit is only good for a short time. When you manage to leave the church, remember, head west. There's a way out of the city there. I have to go." He headed for the door.

"Thank you, Mr. Meng. Mr. Meng, thank you. Mr. Meng, with your connections, is there anything else you can do for us?"

"No, no, sorry. John, Mona, I'm handing my daughter over to you. I have promised her mother, I'll take good care of her."

"Okay."

"Please."

"She's in good hands here," Mona told him gently. "We'll look after her, I promise. She reminds me of…" Mona stopped, and pondered telling him the truth. But it wasn't the right time. "…someone I used to know and love. I'll take care of her."

Mr. Meng nodded towards her in appreciation.

"Mr. Meng, thank you," John said. "Thank you for this. You are a good man."

"In the eyes of my daughter, I'm a bad man, a traitor."

"I explained to her your actions," Mona said. "She may understand a little better now. And no matter what, you are still her father and she loves you."

"Thank you," John said again. He shut the door behind him as he left. John went over to the table and looked at all the tools.

"Will it be enough?" Mona asked coming to stand next to him.

"It has to be. Come on, help me carry these out and then you and George can help fix the truck."

He and Mona carried all the tools outside and with George's help, they began fixing up the truck so they could drive away. They had to work in complete silence because of the Japanese soldiers standing guard outside the cathedral walls. If they heard anything, they might come inside and if they saw them fixing the truck, things would not go very well for them.

When Mona headed back inside, she saw Shu standing by the window, evidently having watched them work.

"Shu, you really need to get some sleep," Mona said gently.

"Sleep is hard."

"I know, but just try. I'm going to go get some sleep myself."

"Okay."

Mona parted with the girl and collapsed into her bed, exhausted from working on the truck for hours. It didn't take long for her to fall into a deep sleep.

She was awoken some time later by the sound of someone saying her name. When she opened her eyes, she saw Shu standing next to her bed.

"Shu," she said, sitting up a little. "Is everything okay?"

"I had…bad dream."

"Oh," Mona said sympathetically. "Come on."

Mona lifted up the blankets and scooted over a little. Shu came into the bed and lied down next to her. Mona put the blanket over her and started gently rubbing her hair with her hands.

"Think of nice things," she whispered to the girl.

John came into the room not long after, doing his best to be quiet as he knew that Mona was asleep. When he looked over at the bed, he smiled at the sight of Shu in the bed with her, Mona's arm wrapped protectively around her. They looked so peaceful, like mother and daughter. He knew that Shu had a hard time sleeping, so seeing her like that was a beautiful sight to him.