A/N: this chapter is super short and you're all gonna hate me for the cliffie at the end...

TRUTH BE TOLD

Chapter 11

I think I watched one too many horror movies when I was growing up or something because when I was a child I was deathly afraid of graveyards and would never go anywhere near one. My fear passed with time though and now I can't help but find them oddly fascinating in a dark depressing sort of way.

Absentmindedly reading the engraved inscriptions, I slowly made my way through the maze of grave sites. There were so many names, so many lost souls, so many graves. Row after row gravestones stood as mute testimony to those who slept below. I was walking in circles, aimlessly, not even sure what I was looking for. I didn't even have a full name to go after, just the initials, the last name and a general idea of the date of death…

It was like looking for a needle in a haystack. It probably would have taken me hours to find the right grave if I hadn't caught sight of Marian.

Actually, I heard her before I saw her. My ears picked up a murmuring, barely a vibration, but I recognized the pitch and the frequency, the cadence of the voice. Following the sound I walked around the corner of a hideously large obelisk and saw a familiar figure sitting in the grass, legs crossed, in front of a small heart-shaped stone of gray marble.

She didn't acknowledge me as I approached her. Her face was down, and her shoulders were drawn together and she was talking to herself …or more likely to the grave… Her voice low and soft, but not so low he could not hear it.

"…. Sorry that I didn't come sooner, but it's been a way busy week, Your daddy is in town. Hard to believe, but yep he is here…and he knows about you….. I have spent all morning wondering if it was something he needed to hear or just something I needed to say and I still don't have a good answer . But hey at least now he can visit you…"

Marian paused and I saw her gently run her hand over the words etched in the small stone in front of her, "Tilda Nicola-Fizwalter, she read aloud as her fingers traced the letters.

"Mommy loves you. I know that you're not coming back…. But I'm always going to be thinking about you. How could I not? You're a part of me, and we'll always have that connection, no matter wh-…"

Marian froze and trailed off mid sentence as she suddenly became aware of the strange shaped shadow on the grass in front of her. Moving her purse to cover the stone she slowly turned to face me.

"Robin." Her voice broke into a surprised crack, and began ratcheting up in pitch. "How long have you been standing there?

"Long enough…" I said softly, then paused to swallow a lump in my throat. "… Can I, uh, sit down?"

At her brief nod, I settled down across from her.

"Tell me about her, " I requested, sensing her need to share and remember.

She hesitated looking back down at her hands picking tufts of grass.. "What do you want to know?" she asked carefully.

"Everything… I want to know everything I missed out on, but first, I'd like to read the inscription… If you don't mind?!" I said, gesturing vaguely at the now only partly visible heart shaped grave stone between us.

"Oh, sorry," she whispered. My eyes followed her hands as she shakily pulled the purse off of the grave.

Curiously I moved closer to see what she had uncovered, and nearly stopped breathing.

"Marian?" I asked, in confusion.

"I'm so sorry Robin. You shouldn't have to find out this way…"

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