BETH POV

I woke up to the sound of Brian's wailing. Even with Mom being a drunk she normally would be up in the mornings to feed Brian and herself. I stumbled out of bed groggily successfully cracking my skull on Emilie's bed. I muttered a few curses I'd learned from my Dad and made my way over to the cracked mirror on the desk.

There was light bruise coming on my forehead but it didn't even compare to the knot on the back of my head and the cuts scattering around my face. I slowly reached a hand up to tap one of the scratches running from the corner of my eye to my mouth. Suddenly another screech floated through the walls to my ears.

"Look, Beth I'm not allowed to feed the baby. Go get it." Emilie sleepily ordered. I smiled slightly before rubbing the sleep out of my eyes and going to Brian's room.

Inside he lay twisting and turning on the bed in a puddle of his own urine and poop. I held my breath and reached in to grab him and carry his sopping body to the bathroom. He slowed his cries as I changed him softly singing him the lullaby Angela came up with.

"I'm right here, there's nothing to fear. Hush little baby everything will be all right, stay quiet through the night. Though you can't see it now, things will get better somehow," I pulled his sodden body against me and finished, "lay down your little head, on your little bed. Have sweet dreams, filled with happy things."

I placed him in the baby tub as I filled it with lukewarm water. He gurgled and splashed around with the water. I smiled down at him and stopped the water before it hit his bent knees. He frowned, but quickly went back to playing around at I washed his body.

I pulled him out and wiped his clean body off with one of the towels. He kept cooing and singing to himself as I carried downstairs by my mother's room. I looked in to see what the hold up was. She lay facedown in her bed like a plank. I shrugged and called for Emilie to come down and help me make breakfast.

I placed Brian in his highchair and went to get a bottle for him. When I turned around Emilie was perched at the table talking to Brian. I handed her the bottle and she started feeding him. I leaned over the gas stove and started making eggs in the skillet. Emilie crept up beside me after awhile and washed out the empty bottle, before turning to me.

"Beth when I was coming down I checked on Mom. She wasn't moving at all, not her chest or eyes." I dropped the pan and turned to her aghast. She nodded the slightest bit and I ran up the stairs two at a time.

I flung open the door until it slammed the wall and leapt to her bedside. With my head at this level I could smell the puke. She died the same way my father did, smothering themselves in their own puke. I pushed her onto her back and pulled the blankets over her petite frame.

I went downstairs not really registering what had happened. Emilie was in the kitchen eating her half of the eggs out of the skillet. I smiled softy at her and walked out the door. I slammed the door like always, only that time it seemed much louder. I looked back at the door expecting something else, but instead I found Emilie with Brian on her hip closing the door.

"I wanna see Angela too." She leaned against the doorframe knowing I wouldn't leave her alone with the baby and a corpse. I frowned and nodded at her to follow me.

TIME LASP

I raised my hand to knock on the Curtis' door, but Emilie just waltz in. She cheerfully called, "'Ello is anyone home at this hour of the day?"

Everyone came running in from all around the house. Emilie ran forward to Soda and deposited Brian to him before running to play with Pony and Brayden. I turned to face Angela, Darry, Pony, Brayden, Jarrod, Soda, Steve, and Two-Bit. Oh great, they're all here, I thought.

"Angie, it's M-" Before I could even tell her she burst into tears and incoherent words. I threw myself to her wilting frame and squeezed letting my tears mix with hers.

"I knew it. I knew the moment I ran from the house. She wouldn't live without me. You knew it too, you told her." She said before more sobs racked her body. I held her fiercely and tried to calm her and myself at the same time. I felt the tears dry up and pulled back from her iron grip. Angela wiped away the last of my tears before dragging Darry to the couch.

They both hugged each other and she kept crying for an hour or so. I quietly cleared my throat and wrapped my arms around my knees.

"We need a plan. She's still in the bedroom of our house."

"Soda called she's not the cops got her. We can start planning a funeral. I don't think we'll need an autopsy, she died in her own vomit." Angela shuddered.

With that we, being Angela, Darry, Soda, Pony, Brayden, Emilie, and I, sat in a circle on the ground and started planning the funeral for a misunderstood woman. It seemed like we had no heart moving on this fast, but we knew this was coming.