An: Short chapter, as it's Allie having her own thoughts. I like Allie being able to narrate the story and give her insights. I think it makes her more human. I promise the next chapter will be longer as we get into the discussions between Natalie and Allie.

Thanks Loveorpain, nice to see you back in my review list. I'm glad you like it.

Leyshla Gisel- Hmm...guess you'll have to find out eh?

I love hearing from my readers, so please take a minute and leave a little something in the box on your way out ok? If you have a plot bunny, a thought, whatever you got, I'd love to hear it.

Moving on...

I was shocked when I broke into Mr. Miller's house, finding it locked tight. No one had been there in a long time. I saw an old calendar in the kitchen, next to the phone on the wall with writing all over it. It was still set to last May, scribbled on the 20th, "Airport 5am-ATL to ANC". Mr. Miller must have went to visit his son stationed in Alaska, and never came back. Well, his loss, my gain. His house was a gold mine of food, bedding, not to mention the guns and ammo in the basement. I grabbed a box, filling it full with various stuff, before I headed back out to the Jeep. I needed mom to help me raid as much as we could, it would go quicker with two rather than me by myself. The wind in my hair felt awesome, it was a beautiful day outside. What would make it perfect was not running into any walkers today. My thoughts started drifting as I drove, I thought about Jake, mentally picturing him in my mind. He was over six foot tall, blue eyes, brown hair lightened by the sun, trim in the waist, nicely muscled from running and hunting as well as his job as a PJ in the Air Force. Mom told me on the flight from Berlin last year that my bio dad looked like Jake, then it dawned on me when I started putting the pieces together.

I stopped the Jeep, grabbing a can of soda out of the box from Mr. Miller's house, cracking the top. I took a long gulp as the soda hit the spot. Mom said she grew up in the same town with my bio dad, that he did odd jobs on the farm for Grandpa Roy. Then mom left for the military, came home, had a fling with my bio dad and married a guy who looked just like him. My mom was in love with my bio dad from when they were kids, and having the fling with him was her trying to get him out of her system before she married Jake. And Jake looked just like my bio dad, so Jake was her way of keeping my bio dad with her. Jesus Christ, I don't even know my bio dad's name, how sad is that? Why didn't my mom just have a relationship with my bio dad in the first place when they were kids? Why not after she came home on leave? She probably could have broke things off with Jake pretty easy then I'm sure. I started getting a bit dizzy thinking about the fucked up dynamics of it all. Mom and I needed to have a talk when I got back to the farm, that was freaking obvious as hell.

I put the Jeep back in drive, heading down the road. Of all the things to think about when driving, my thoughts ran to a man I had never met, but shared a genetic code with. I was half him, half my mother. I knew enough about medicine, genetics and the like from my mom and my Grandpa Roy. Grandpa had been an old country doctor after he came back from the war, he still made house calls around the county when I was a kid. Grandpa had been a doctor in the war, Grandma Jean was a nurse, mom was nurse, Jake was a PJ. I guess it was only natural I wanted to be a Physician's Assistant when I grew up. I read all the medical books Grandpa had, jumped at the chance to learn anything Jake or mom had to teach me. My hair color came from mom, that was apparent. But the striking blue eyes that stared back at me in the mirror? Those had to be my bio dad's. Mom has the most beautiful moss green eyes you've ever seen. Even with genes being recessive, blue eyes are dominant. I could see how mom and Jake passed me off as their own for so long. I wasn't going to fault my mom for sleeping around, we all do crazy shit in our lives. And I know she would know how to count back a pregnancy to figure out the date of conception. I doubt she was lying to me about Jake not being my dad, especially after their little kitchen blow up in Germany.

If I wanted one thing from my mom right now, it was his name. I wanted to see the look in her eyes as she said it, hear the inflection in her voice. If my hunch served me right, it wasn't just for Grandpa Roy we came back here. Mom claims it was only once that her and my bio dad had sex, I'll give her that one. But I'd lay a safe bet there was more to their history than just one summer night in the back of a pickup.

Mom has some serious explaining to do when I get back to the house, that's for sure.