Xanda woke up and stretched and was surprised to hear that the house was quiet. She settled back into her bed but quickly became alarmed when she remembered that she had left Brian downstairs. She quietly stepped out of bed and tip-toed to the door. She suddenly stopped and looked down at her feet before deeply exhaling. "What the hell am I doing?" She questioned herself with a laugh. "He's not here. I knew he couldn't be nice long enough to stick around. Damn, and just when I was beginning to see him as human." She joked as she walked out of her room and down the stairs.

***

AJ listened to Brian as he summed up the last 20 minutes. "I know what's going on." AJ said after he thought about the situation.

"Ya want to run it by me 'cause I'm kinda confused here." Brian requested.

"Bri, did you read those papers?" AJ asked.

"Yeah. They were birth and death certificates. But I didn't really read them. They were smeared pretty bad." Brian noted.

"Yeah, from her crying over them." AJ mumbled. "The dates, Bri. The dates. Put two and two together."

"They had the same date. November 4th which is today. She's grieving, but over who?" Brian still couldn't make the connection and AJ was losing his patience. He was hoping Brian would guess correctly. If and when Xanda found out that Brian knew and that AJ had told him then all hell would break lose.

"You don't get it, do you, Bri?" AJ asked.

"No, that's why I'm callin' you."

"Fine. But I didn't tell you! Those are birth and death certificates for the same day, the same person. God, he wasn't even a person yet. He was just a baby..." AJ trailed off.

"A bay...baby?" Brian coughed out.

"That dude John? Her ex? He was married. But, he didn't bother telling her that until after she was 5 months pregnant." AJ said in a monotonous voice.

"What a prick." Brian mumbled with a shiver as the cold autumn air started to blow.

"She had the baby a month early and he ended up dying the same day, two years ago today. That's why she's so angry and upset." AJ finished explaining.

"That fuckin' prick!  How can he call himself a man?" Brian said aloud, mostly to himself.

"I don't know but he manages somehow."

Brian was about to say something back to AJ when he turned around and saw Xanda wondering around the living room, staring out the front window. "Hey Bone, she's back downstairs. I'm gonna go check on her before heading home."

"Hey Rok, do me a favor and don't leave until you know she's okay. I can't imagine what she's going through. I helped her paint that room figuring it would help her and maybe give her some sort of closure. Anyway, thanks for watching her." AJ said.

"No problem. I'll call you tomorrow. C-ya." Brian quickly said before hanging up.

****

Brian quietly opened the sliding glass door and slipped inside the house in just enough time to hear Xanda replaying her answering machine. When he heard the message from John, he, without thinking, walked into the living room and hit 'erase'. Xanda stared at Brian with a stunned look on her face. "What are you doing?" She asked quietly.