To her surprise, Tabitha woke up shortly after nine the next morning, and she yawned deeply as she stretched, working out the kinks that slept had created. Picking up her phone, she noticed that she had a few new messages from her father and Bruce, and she answered them before clambering out of bed and padding over to the window. Throwing open the curtains, she took a few pictures of the view before adding them to the family chat. It was a nice view, if a bit industrial, and she sighed happily as she stepped away from the windows to paw through her bag and find clean-ish clothes for the day.

Frowning a little, she went to the in room closet and looked to see if they had a laundry bag, grinning to find that they did, and she dumped every dirty item of clothing inside before following the directions on the attached paper to make certain that they would be ready for her by the time she returned later that day. That out of the way, she changed and packed up her purse before heading down to the lobby and finding the breakfast nook. She grinned to see that the buffet was both hot and cold, and she picked up a plate and filled it with eggs, bacon, and hashbrowns before claiming an empty table and setting the plate there before going back for fruit and juice.

After eating her fill, Tabitha pulled out her phone, scrolling through her emails and emptying her inbox before writing down Mister Miller's address on a scrap piece of paper. With that done, she gathered up her plates and glass, putting them in the bins before heading out to the front desk. There was an older woman there this time, and she smiled as she took a deep breath and approached her. "Good morning! Would it be possible for you to call me a taxi?"

"Of course! What's your name, and where do you need to go?"

She handed over the paper as she told the woman her name, listening as the woman made a few calls before she smiled at Tabitha, handing the slip back. "I know, it might be a bit out of the way, but I'm here to visit a friend."

"That's fine, your driver will be here in fifteen minutes, if you want to have a seat on the sofa there, he'll come inside and collect you when it's time."

Tabitha nodded and took a seat where told, pulling out her diary and starting her entry for the day, writing about how she hoped that this was the day that she finally met Alex Blake in person. She was so lost in her words that it took her driver saying her name a few times before she pulled her face out of the pages to smile up at him. "Sorry, I sometimes lose myself when writing."

"It's okay, miss. Are you ready to head out?"

She nodded and rose to her feet, following after him. The warm wetness of the air was a bit of a shock to her system, and she was glad that she had chosen light, airy, clothes to wear on this trip. Her driver opened the back door for her, which surprised her a little, and she slipped into the back, fastening her seatbelt as the driver got underway.

Tabitha followed along on her phone, tracking their movements while watching the scenery pass by. It was a lovely city, and she found herself smiling as she watched the office buildings and apartments gave way to homes. Within twenty minutes, they had arrived, and she used her debit card to pay the man before she got out and headed up to the door. Taking a deep breath, she reached out and knocked firmly, waiting for someone to answer.

A few moments later, the door opened, revealing an older man. She assumed that this was Damon Miller, and she sighed a little as she thought about how to tailor her greeting to him, rather than Alex. "May I help you?" he asked, staring at her intently. Tabitha felt a little unnerved by the scrutiny, and she gave him a small nod as she took a shallow breath.

"Mister Miller? I'm Tabitha Strauss…"

"Erin's girl?"

She nodded, feeling a little more at ease as a wide grin wreathed his features. "How…?"

"You look like her, or at least the pictures that I saw of you. Come in, come in! What brings you by?"

Tabitha allowed him to guide her into the house, leading her through to a back garden where they took a seat in a pair of lawn chairs. She instantly felt at home there, and relaxed into the chair as she stared up at the sky. "I guess you could say that I'm on a bit of a quest. I, I just graduated from high school, and decided that I wanted to spend a year getting to know my mother better. There are so many things that I don't know about her, because I never got the chance to ask, thanks to that bastard that murdered her. So, I'm trying to talk to the people who knew her best, to find out things I never knew."

"And how did you find out about me?"

She licked her lips nervously before looking over at him. "Doctor Blake told me that I might find Alex here, since he hasn't heard from her since their divorce."

Damon frowned a little as he shook his head, and in that moment, Tabitha knew that she had stumbled upon another dead end. "I wish that I had better news for you, hun, but I haven't heard from my daughter in the same amount of time. In fact, James was the one who reached out when he was served, to see if she had made it here yet, and she hadn't. He never called back to see if that had changed, which is probably why he sent you my way."

Tabitha's lower lip began to quiver as quick tears flooded her eyes. Looking away from him to stare back up at the sky, she allowed herself to cry, not knowing where else she could turn to find out more about her mother. "I see. I'll go back to my hotel then, and regroup, try to figure out what my next step might be. I'm sorry to have bothered you, Damon."

"It's no bother, and you don't have to leave right away. There are some stories that I can tell you about your mother, since I was lucky enough to meet her a few times, before my wife put an end to things between her and our Lexie."

A small flame of hope sprang to life in her chest as she nodded excitedly, sitting up a little straighter before turning her chair so that she could look at him better. "I would love to hear anything that you remember about her, Damon. Please?"

He nodded as he leaned forward, gazing into her eyes with a sad, wistful, look. "You look so much like your mother, when she was young. You have different eyes, but her face. But you must be told that a lot."

She shrugged. "Daddy's always told me that, but I don't really see it, I guess. But that makes me happy to hear."

"And if we had allowed Alex to stay with her, you wouldn't have been here. I should have stood up for their love, even if it would have caused a small scandal in our extended family. But you want to hear stories about your mother, not about the mistakes I made when I was younger. So, spring break of Alex's sophomore year, she invited us out to meet her friend, Erin. My wife didn't want to go, said that she didn't like the east coast, but I knew that if Alex was holding out this olive branch, your mother must have been quite special indeed. So I made the trek out to Virginia, since she was spending the time with your grandmother, and was instantly smitten with your mother."

"Really?"

"Oh, yes. She was brilliant, like Alex, and had such a commanding presence. But there was a softness to her whenever she looked at my daughter. She only wore that look when she thought no one else was watching, until she caught me watching her one day, towards the end of my trip."

Tabitha nodded, a few more tears breaking free with the move. "And how did she react?"

Damon reached out for her hand, clasping it tightly as he smiled at her. "She asked me to go for a walk with her, and I agreed. While we went along, she hesitantly told me that she was head over heels with my Lexie, and that she knew we didn't really approve of that. I tried to tell her that she had things wrong, but she shook her head and gave me a sad smile. In that moment, I could tell that she knew I would never be able to bend my wife's ear towards her, and that since Alex always favored her mother, it wouldn't have made much difference. She was wise beyond her years, my little bit, and knowing what I know now, I wish that I had been more forceful with my wife."

"Oh," she breathed out, blinking rapidly. "At least she knew that you were on her side, even if it wouldn't have changed things all that much. I guess that we all sometimes become haunted by the what ifs, don't we?"

Damon tightened his grip on her hand as he nodded. "Yeah, kiddo."

"But did you just call my mum, 'little bit'?"

He chuckled as he nodded. "She was shorter than Alex, and wore her hair in perm then, so she was my little bit of fluff, the little bit stuck. I really expected to have her as a daughter in law, based on the way Alex talked about her. She didn't talk, rather, used written words to communicate, so the frequency with which your mother's name came up was a signal to how deep her feelings ran." Tabitha nodded as she leaned back in her chair to stare up at the clouds. "But enough sad stories today. Let me tell you about the start of my visit, and how clumsily my introduction was…"