A/N

I don't think it helps that I'm writing this in my late grandpa's house :/

Also, this has beaten my record for longest chapter I've ever written with over 6,300 words!

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Levi walked with authority in front of Charlie as if he knew where he was going. He, in fact, did not for once in his life know where he was going. He didn't like the feeling of not knowing. It was something he tried to avoid.

"Do you even know where you're going?" Charlie asked from behind him. Levi felt like he was smirking, though he didn't turn around to check. Levi didn't answer.

"Charlie," Hanji interrupted him, "aren't you supposed to know where you're going? Because I'm pretty sure we're lost."

"It's not my fault! Levi decided to take the lead when he didn't know where the hell he even was!"

"Don't blame this on Levi!" Hanji yelled.

"Why not?" Levi asked Hanji, genuinely curious about her answer. She was suddenly defending him a lot lately.

"My ears hurt, that's all," she said defensively. "I don't want you assuming anything, shortie." She almost glared at him.

Levi raised his arms up in sarcastic surrender. "I don't know what you thought I was going to assume, but you were wrong."

She gasped. "I am NEVER wrong!" They both stopped walking and stood in place glaring at each other.

"Tch, yeah right. You were wrong about a few things on titan shifters which caused some people to die!" He suddenly yelled out. Hanji was taken aback. Did Levi really blame her for his squad's death?

"That was different," she almost whispered.

"Different?" He asked sounding exasperated. "Different how?" It sounded more like a statement than a question.

"We knew barely anything about titan shifters! How was I supposed to know that skill level varied from shifter to shifter?"

Levi had been glaring intensely at her, until he suddenly stopped and his gaze softened. "I don't blame you, Hanji," he said quietly, realizing that he was hurting Hanji's feelings. He looked down. "I blame myself," he admitted. He'd been hiding feelings for so long, it felt somewhat good to finally say that to an actual person instead of to himself within the confines of his mind.

Hanji stared at him in shock as he continued. "I blame myself. If only I never left them alone. Maybe if I'd given them different orders. Or maybe if I'd not given them orders at all!" Hanji continued to stare at him in shock as he met her gaze. Charlie suddenly felt as if he was intruding on some huge secret that nobody was supposed to know about, but things were just getting interesting so he didn't mind all that much.

Hanji finally said something. "I know you cared for everyone in your squad deeply, but you can't torture yourself with 'what if' questions," she said softly in a comforting tone.

The tone didn't work with Levi well. "I know I shouldn't be thinking like this, but I can't help it! When I close my eyes, I can see their dead bodies! I can hear their families crying when they found out! The memory of them is torturing me and I don't know how to get rid of it!" There was a short pause before he continued. "And now, when I read these journals, I think about all the other people that died. Not just my squad. I'm not the only only one grieving out there. I want to help those people, but I can't if I don't even know how to help myself!"

Hanji looked down so that she wouldn't have to look into Levi's tortured eyes. "I don't know what you want me to say, Levi." She was quite honest. How was she supposed to help him? She just now realized how little she knew about comforting people. "I can't help you."

He stayed staring at her for a couple of seconds, before he wiped the surprised and hurt look off his face. He started running away from them as quick as he could, to what Charlie assumed was the loading garage where he could get Kyle's address.

"Hey, wait up!" Charlie yelled. Levi still didn't know where he was going.

Levi stopped and turned around to look at them both. Hanji still wouldn't meet Levi's eyes; she was too ashamed. He was at the end of the practically empty street save for a few poor people sitting on the ground. He had his usual stoic expression back as he addressed them.

"You can come with," he stated addressing only Charlie. "But not her," he added on. You could hear Hanji jump a little bit as she heard that. "I don't feel like talking to her right now."

Hanji suddenly started to shake subtly, but Charlie was close enough that he could tell. She forced her head upwards, so that she was staring at Levi right in the eyes. Levi was unaffected by her intense stare that probably would've made Charlie feel extremely uncomfortable by then. Tears glistened in her eyes.

"Fine!" She yelled at his darkly outlined figure. "If you don't want to see me, then don't bother coming anywhere near me ever again!" She turned around on her heels and started walking the opposite direction, until she stopped a few feet away from her original position. "YOU ASSHOLE!" She shouted at him without looking. She took off running.

When Charlie glanced back at Levi, he still seemed unaffected by her shouting and name-calling. "Come, Charlie," he said tiredly, just loud enough that Charlie could make out his name. "We have people to help." Levi turned around and began to walk.

Charlie only nodded his head, even though Levi didn't see it, and began to walk after him.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

"Thank you," Levi said after a few moments of silence. Well, as silent as it was going to get on the busy road they were currently walking on. Charlie's legs began to grow tired as he wondered where Levi had left his horse, Chamberlain. Yes, he'd named his horse Chamberlain. It sounded pretty to Charlie and he liked it.

He looked up in surprise at Levi. Had this grouchy, unapproachable man that seemed to not take shit from anybody just apologized to him? It was too good to be true.

"You're welcome," he said uncertainly, so much so that it almost sounded like a question. Levi didn't say anything afterwards and after the fight Levi had had with Hanji, the atmosphere was becoming increasingly awkward with every passing second. "So..."

"So what?" He sounded annoyed again.

"Girlfriends, they're such a pain sometimes," Charlie joked.

Levi tensed a bit. "She's not my girlfriend."

"Sure she isn't."

"That's right; she isn't."

"Whatever you say, shortie."

Levi stopped walking and turned around to look at him. "What did you just call me?"

Charlie waved his hands in mock panic. He said in a shrill voice, "Oh, no! We pissed off the giant, angry Levi monster! AHHH! Run for your lives!"

Levi glared at him intensely before he said, "I'm going to give you five seconds to shut the hell up before I make you."

Charlie put his hands down. "You wouldn't do that!"

"Oh, really? And how do you know?"

"Because I'm your guide and you'd be lost without me!"

"I wouldn't be lost. I'd just ask for directions from Erwin and do this myself."

Charlie chuckled nervously. "Right."

Finally they reached the loading garage after all that drama happened. Charlie and Levi alike had gotten their fill of drama for an entire year. [Sadly though, Levi is in the actual anime so he can't escape the drama.] Upon reaching th loading garage, they were almost ambushed by Charlie's commander.

He angrily yelled, "Hogs!"

Charlie stopped in his tracks and saluted his commander. "Yes, sir!"

"Where the hell have you been? You were sent out to deliver late cadet Rubin's possessions over an hour ago! It's a less than half an hour job! What the hell were you doing?!"

Charlie began to say an explanation, but he was interrupted by Captain Levi. "Forgive him, Commander, but he was with me. I held him up." Charlie looked at Levi with surprise. Why was he covering for him? Then it clicked into place.

His commander looked suspicious, but didn't inquire further. He only said, "So you must be the famous Captain Levi of the Scouting Regiment, huh?"

Levi nodded. "Indeed."

"And what are you doing here distracting my soldiers from their duties?"

"A personal trip," he answered smoothly and coolly. "I'd rather not discuss."

His commander got all up in Levi's face and threateningly whispered, "Just because you're a captain does not mean that you can do whatever the hell you want with my soldiers."

"Funny," Levi said annoyingly. "Hogs here said the same thing." Levi backed up away from his face. He refrained from gagging, because he thought it would be rude and didn't feel like putting up with this commander's shitty attitude. He had horrible smelling breath. "Now if you'll excuse us," Levi continued as he started to pull Charlie away from him by his arm. Charlie let out a small squeak as he was dragged along. "Where are the addresses?" Levi said angrily. Apparently, the encounter with the commander had ticked him off to a degree.

"They're just over here," Charlie said as he started to grab out some papers with the addresses on it. "Who do you need again?" He asked as he continued to ruffle through the papers.

"A man named Kyle Gordon."

Charlie found it finally on the list. "Just let me grab Kyle's possessions while we're at it. It'll make this trip worth something."

"Are you saying that this trip doesn't mean anything now?"

"Oh, n-no! That's not what I meant. I just meant that I would be able to kill two birds with one stone!"

Levi glared at Charlie. "You better have."

Charlie turned away from Levi and grabbed a small box. "Let's just go," he said as he began to walk out of the garage followed by Levi.

They walked down the crowded street. Charlie was still a little bit curious as to where Levi had placed his horse, but he refrained from mentioning anything until later because Levi looked annoyed.

Charlie took the moments of silence to admire the architecture of the city and the prettiness of the day. It was around mid-afternoon and the sun was still visible from within the wall. He looked up at the sky and saw the white fluffy clouds floating around in the blueish soup. He wondered why the sky was blue. I mean, it's not like they were extremely advanced in science other than titanology and physics. The cobblestones shown brightly with an orange-yellow color. There was a slight breeze that was welcomed by their overly-hot bodies. Conversation and laughing could be heard, but there were so many people that you really couldn't tell whom it was coming from.

Suddenly, Levi pulled on the back of Charlie's uniform and brought him to an abrupt stop. He let out a small yelp as he was stopped. He looked down the street that he'd stopped in front of. It was full of shadows and it didn't look extremely welcoming. He looked up at the street sign and then looked back down at the paper. The streets matched.

"Oh," he said sheepishly. Levi didn't say anything as they entered the street and began to walk down it. It looked like a ghost town. The windows were dark and there wasn't a soul visible. It felt so cold. Charlie suddenly remembered all of the ghost stories that he'd ever been told and they made him shiver slightly.

"Man up, soldier," Levi scoffed at him. Charlie didn't do anything save nod and continue to look straight.

"This place looks deserted," Charlie remarked. "Have you been looking at the addresses?"

"Yes, because you certainly haven't."

"Woah," Charlie looked at a house at the end of the road. Levi had his head turned sideways looking at house addresses so he didn't see what Charlie saw.

"What is . . . it," he finished later as he saw the house he was staring at.

They saw it sitting on the end of the street. It brightly shown there with an almost heaven like glow. There were several sparkling wind chimes slightly swaying in the breeze. They were accompanied by a slight tinkling sound. Levi breathed in a deep breath of fresh air. The sound of the chimes was strangely calming. The house was filled with light that came from lanterns hanging from the roof of the porch mixed in with the wind chimes. It gave off a warm glow. The actual house was made up of dark wood and there was two windows on both sides of the almost perfectly symmetrical house. Nothing much was on the porch that they could see besides a small, wooden table with two matching wood chairs. There was something on the table that they couldn't identify.

"Well," Levi began, "it seems we have found our house."

"What?"

"Well, his address doesn't match up with any of the other houses around here. And this is the last house on the street. It's either that house or you screwed up and got the wrong address."

"It's that house then, because I didn't screw up."

"Whatever," he scoffed as they started to walk to the house.

Levi got into a happier mood as he got closer to the house. It just had this sort of calming nature about it. They could see more detail of the house as they got closer as well. Price tags were visible from the wind chimes and Levi groaned slightly, but not too loudly for he did not want to be thought of as a whining brat to Charlie. This was probably a store and not a house at all. They'd basically gotten excited over nothing. Still, they had to check it out.

They noticed that there was random flower vases lying everywhere over the porch. On their sides, standing upright, upside down, some with flowers in them, and some with not. They were both really confused. Why was there flower vases and wind chimes everywhere? It didn't make sense, unless Kyle's guardians were complete lunatics.

Charlie bumped an expensive looking flower vase with beautiful orchids in it, whereupon it fell over and smashed into pieces of different sizes. Levi and Charlie didn't have time to stare at the beautiful design on it, so all they caught was the overall color blue. Charlie looked worried.

"Shit!" He swore, which was very odd since swearing wasn't usually his style. He looked over at Levi. "Did you see the price tag? How much did that cost? I hope it isn't too expensive!"

"Doesn't matter, because you're paying for it either way."

Suddenly, their small conversation was interrupted by the front door swinging open forcefully. A rather tall lady was standing there with crazy black hair and extremely light eyes. Her skin looked tan and wrinkled. She was wearing a long-sleeved black and grey striped shirt and long dark jeans. How she managed to wear such long clothing in the heat, neither Levi or Charlie could figure out. By the state her hair was in, said that she wasn't all that great at personal hygiene. She smelled too of some sort of food, but it wasn't pleasant to the nose.

She spoke quickly and harshly. "I heard a crash!" She cocked her head between the two of them, but soon saw the broken vase filled with orchids. Her movements were similar to a bird of prey. "Which one of you boys broke my vase?!"

"He did it," Levi pointed at Charlie.

"Really, Levi?"

"Yes really! I don't want to be mistaken and have to pay for your stupidity. I already do that with my life when I have to watch the stupid brats all day, basically babysitting them."

The crazy lady started to sob quietly, then grew louder as she continued to look at the vase. "Oh! Oh my beautiful vase!" She turned to look at Charlie. "You better be careful when my son gets home! He's in the military and he can definitely teach you a lesson!" She looked down at it with longing. "It's his favorite vase . . . he's going to be so upset with you."

Levi's expression softened. A son who's in the military, huh?

Charlie asked, "What's your son's name, Miss?"

"His name's Kyle. I'm his mother Stacey, but you can call me ma'am," she said with authority. Levi found this a bit annoying as he was used to be the one with authority.

"Is your last name Gordon?" Levi asked.

She ran up to him quickly and bent down to look him straight in the eyes. "How did you know that?! Are you psychic or something?! Can you tell me my future! Oh, please, please, please, please! I'll pay anything you want!" She spoke extremely fast. So much so that you could understand her, but with difficulty.

This lady is absolutely insane, Levi thought as he backed up from her. He only stopped when he was as far as he could go without falling off. Charlie softened from his gruff and defensive self when he was around Levi, to the kind thing he was when talking to normal human beings. Time to go into kindness mode. "Miss?" He shifted the box of possessions in his hands from in front to his side.

She turned her beady eyes to him now. "I thought I told you to call me ma'am!"

"Oh, right, ma'am," he said correctly.

"That's better. Now, what do you want?" She glared at him. Apparently, she hadn't forgotten that he was the one who broke her precious Kyle's vase.

"Did you know tha-"

"No, Charlie!" Levi yelled at him, interrupting. He'd noticed that Stacey wasn't in her right mind. They had no way of knowing if she had constant mood swings meaning that she might be all smiley now, but she could turn into a sadistic jerk. She could even be prone to violence. Basically, they needed to take this slowly otherwise bad things would happen.

"What is it, Levi?" Charlie asked.

"Nothing it's just. . . Can we come in?" He tried to smile at Stacey and seem as friendly as possible. It wasn't working.

She narrowed her eyes at him. She turned to Charlie. "You may come in." Levi started to follow them, but she held up her hand at him. "No, no, no, Levi! You don't look happy enough to come inside!"

Levi was taken aback. What did happiness have to do with any of this? He countered, "What? Charlie's the one who broke Kyle's favorite vase!"

She turned her glare that was close to surpassing Levi's intensest glare. She said dangerously, "That's right! Then you both have to stay out here!" She grabbed the box out of Charlie's hands and stomped inside her home. She stuck her tongue out at the both of them and spat as she slammed the door with her foot. That's when they noticed that she wasn't wearing any shoes.

A sign hanging on the door that said: Home is where the heart is! was swaying from the force of the slam. The slight jingling of the wind chimes could be heard in the background along with the slight buzzing of an unknown insect.

Charlie breathed in deeply through his nose before saying, "Good going, Levi! Now we're both locked out of the house." Levi felt the heaviness of the journal in his hands. Charlie continued, "I guess it doesn't matter, anyways. We gave her Kyle's possessions, we don't have anymore business with her."

Levi held up Kyle's journal. "Ahem, aren't you forgetting something?"

"Why can't you just leave it outside by the door? She'll eventually see it."

"That's just it, she won't."

"What?"

Levi rolled his eyes, surprised and annoyed. "You didn't notice it? Her feet were bare which means she hadn't gone outside recently. Also," he said cutting Charlie off who had begun to say something. "Also, she didn't seem like the cleanliest person you'd ever met did you? Meaning she doesn't go out in public much."

"I thought you said you were a captain not a detective."

"I'm the captive of the private investigators though," he said trying to sound as serious as possible. "I'm just kidding," he said once he saw Charlie surprised and believing face. "Don't be so gullible. It'll help you in the long run, kid."

"I'm not a kid."

"You are to me. I base people off of experience. You have so little it's funny."

"What do you mean? How old are you?"

"Don't you know it's rude to ask people about their age?"

"You're not a lady, are you? So just answer the question."

Levi got a sad look in his eyes. "Older than you think. My experience age, anyways."

Charlie groaned, "Are you always this cryptic?"

Levi was about to answer when the door suddenly slammed open again making Levi and Charlie jump a little bit. It was Stacey again. She had her head down with her tangled hair covering her face. She was shaking slightly.

Her voice sounded shaky. "I looked in the box," she said gingerly. "Kyle's things were in it." She looked up at both of them, and there were tears in her almost white eyes. "What were you doing with Kyle's stuff?"

"We- we were-," Charlie began speak only to be cut off by Levi again.

"Can we tell you inside?" He asked sincerely.

Her lips quivered, but she was now able to keep her voice steady. She said, "Come inside."

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

The tea felt warm in Levi's hands as he looked around the quaint building Stacy called a home. The insides were painted azure with brown-colored nature designs of birds, trees, and flowers. Most of the furniture were dark colors, except for this exceptionally bright yellow couch sitting in front of the fireplace.

Stacey was up and standing in front of the fireplace. In fact, it wasn't too far away from the kitchen table which they were sitting at. Quaint described the home perfectly.

"Thank you for the tea," Levi said.

"No problem," she said quietly. It was the quietest she'd been since Levi and Charlie had met her. Charlie was sitting on the yellow couch behind her, staring into the darkness of the fireplace. They were all looking different directions, but they still somehow managed to drink their teas in complete unison.

"You never answered my question," Stacey remarked as she turned around and stared at Levi and Charlie in turn.

"What?" Charlie asked, and then he remembered. "Oh, yeah. Levi, care to explain since you're always interrupting me whenever I try to?"

Levi only glanced at Charlie as he continued. "I'll answer your question if you answer my questions."

"Oh, please no," she cried. "He said they would stop asking me."

That got Levi curious. "Who told you that? Stacey?" He added on once she didn't acknowledge that he'd talked. "Stacey, did you hear me?"

She nodded as she breathed in as if she was holding in tears. "I heard you," she said shakily. "I just-"

"Don't say anything if you don't want to," Charlie assured her. "We're not official or anything, just curious."

"Then why do you come asking question with a box full of my son's private possessions?"

Levi was going to try a different approach. "Stacey, when was the last time you saw Kyle?"

She stared off into space a little longer before answering. "He doesn't come out of his room often. Kyle was always a very quiet person who kept to himself. He was so. . .odd. He kept his room extremely clean, and he got upset at me when I wasn't giving him enough chores. I always thought that was odd. I talked about it quite a lot with Haley." Levi gave her a face that told her to explain.

"Haley was my best friend for a while, until I found out she slept with my husband and that he was cheating on me. Hard times for our family, especially Kyle. That's when he grew especially quiet and locked himself up in the room. That was when he was around ten years old. Then. . .one day he said he was leaving." Her voice started shaking. "I was so surprised. I never thought. . ." she started crying. Charlie got up and hugged her.

"Shh," he whispered to her. "It's okay, it's okay. Just take it easy." Levi kept a straight face throughout the little scene.

Levi decided he had to tell her. "Stacey," she looked up at him as he called her name. "Kyle Gordon, member of Squad Six, is dead." She had a surprised look on her face. It seemed her face stopped working. She stopped crying, she stopped shaking, and her mouth was open in an O shape. Levi continued, "He died in the line of battle during the course of the 57th Expedition outside the walls. He died protecting me and my squad."

Levi was going to say more honorable things about Kyle, but was interrupted by Stacey's pleading. "Please, stop! Stop lying to me! Why are you saying Kyle is dead? Why are you lying to me?"

"Oh," is all he said. Levi understood now. He was about to say something else when they heard a door open up and heavy footsteps come from down the hallway.

They all heard a deep man's voice shout across the one-story cabin, "What is going on? Stacey? Why are you shou. . .ting?" he paused in between because he had made it into the room and seen Charlie hugging Stacey and Levi sitting at the kitchen table. "Who are you?" He asked.

The man looked only the tiniest bit younger than Stacey did with the same tan skin, but less wrinkles. He was as tall as Stacey was and Levi suddenly felt conscious of his height, being the shortest person in the room at 5'3. He was wearing a green shirt with shorts, clothing that actually fit the weather. He had the same dark hair, but his eyes were a sort of hazel. He also had a very visible jaw line and a square shaped head. Stacey and him oddly resembled each other, so Levi and Charlie made the assumption that they were family.

"I am Captain Levi of the Scouting Legion and this is," he referred to Charlie still hugging Stacey, "Charlie."

"Hi," Charlie said as he let go of Stacey. "I'm Charlie Hogs from the Military Police."

The man looked like he wanted to ask some questions, but was cut off by Stacey's crying. "They said he was dead!" She sobbed. "They said Kyle was dead, Callum!"

"Oh, here, here," he said soothingly. He walked over to Stacey and wrapped his arms around her. "Don't worry, he was only lying. He was messing with you."

Levi almost immediately hated Callum. Levi was lying? Was he calling him a liar? Something had to be done about this man's ignorance. Levi cleared his throat loudly so that Callum turned his head towards Levi.

"I wasn't lying actually," he did his best to keep his tone calm and gentle, even though he felt like semi-shouting it at Callum. "Kyle died about a day ago. We were dropping off his stuff."

Callum ignored him as he continued to comfort Stacey. "Here, follow me. Let's go lay down and forget, okay?" He told her as she was led down the hall to another room presumably. They disappeared for a few moments which were filled with Stacey's sobbing and Callum's words of comfort. Callum came back a few minutes later after they heard a door shut.

"So," he began, "why is the military in my house?"

"I'll answer your question if you answer mine," Levi stated coldly.

"Oh, so you're one of those people. Look, I've already told you everything I know so please leave us alone," he said in a desperate and pleading voice.

Charlie thought he'd heard that before. "Stacey mentioned something else about people asking questions. Care to explain?"

Callum looked at Charlie and Levi in turn before saying, "Prove it." When they responded with confused and exasperated looks he said, "Prove you're not one of them."

Levi was basically done with this crap. He didn't have to prove anything. "Fine. You want us to prove it? Here's the proof: we have no idea what the hell you and Stacey are talking about and we only came to drop off a few things, but ended up staying longer because I saw that Stacey wasn't in her right mind and she needed to be warmed up to the idea. Now, I feel somewhat bad for her seeing that she might be insane or have some sort of disorder, and I'm trying to help her. I also don't appreciate being called a liar right in front of me." Levi glared at Callum who only gulped in response.

Charlie said in a much kinder voice than Levi, "That basically explains it. We only want to help and we're curious. So, if you please?"

Callum sighed and walked over to the yellow couch and sat down. "Well, it all started with Harry. This might take a while so please take a seat." He motioned for Levi and Charlie to sit on the couch besides him.

They sat down and got comfortable before Charlie said, "Well we've got some time."

"In case she didn't tell you, she used to be married to somebody who basically gave her a child and left after he cheated on her with her best friend Haley. Her old husband's name was Harry, and he wasn't extremely nice. He ordered her around and she did what he said because she didn't know any better and was under the pretense that it was love. I felt so bad for her, but she wouldn't listen to me for the longest time until she found out about his affair. She found out in an awful way, too. She came home one day early from a trip she'd told him she was taking. She actually had gone to visit me in Wall Sina. I'm her brother by the way.

"She found them in her own bed doing it and Kyle was next to her (she'd taken Kyle with her). She got extremely upset when she saw Haley that she'd started to beat her up you could say. Haley was on the brink of death when she left the house, brought home by Harry. She got charged with assault and after that she wasn't okay in her head anymore. She's always been a bit uh," he made a crazy motion with his fingers, "but she was always a capable person who could take care of herself. Personally, I never worried about her; she was always fine whenever she came to visit which was close to once a month.

"After this happened, Kyle became distant. He always looked up to his father and to find out just how horrible he really was probably hurt him a lot and broke some of his spirit. He had to take care of his mother of course, so he didn't really do much with his days.

"Stacey loves wind chimes so she decided to turn their front porch into a wind chime store. Here's the thing though, she wouldn't let anybody buy anything. She never sold anything. Kyle sent for me soon after the wind chime shop failed and I moved down here to live with them. Kyle was such a strong boy. He liked to enjoy life as much as he could. He would get so upset when he saw wrong being done to others. He hated it! Quite astounding really how brave this boy was. It was awful when we heard the news.

Levi cut in, "Why have you been lying to her, Callum?" Callum seemed confused. "You keep telling her that Kyle is alive."

He put his head down, possibly in shame. "Her condition would worsen if I told her the truth. She was so proud of Kyle. So proud that he'd gotten in the top 10 in his class, and so proud that he was a brave and strong soldier. She always said that she couldn't have wished for a better son. I mean, did you see how she reacted when you told her just then?"

Levi nodded, "I did, but she still deserves to know. You can't keep her in the dark forever, she'll have to find out some time."

"I know she will, but I'm afraid I just can't do it," he said with sincere concern in his voice. "She could hurt herself."

"I'm with Levi on this one," Charlie remarked. "Your not telling her is doing more harm than good."

Stacey suddenly was behind them on the couch. "I believe I can take care of myself, thank you very much." Callum, Levi, and Charlie had all jumped and made some small noises of surprise when she'd said that.

Callum said nervously, "Stacey! Why- why are you out of bed?"

"I wasn't tired," she said plainly, almost copying Levi's usual attitude perfectly. She smiled as she stared at Levi. "Wow I had no idea I could sound that plain and unemotional! Thank you for teaching me Levi!" She seemed to be back to her normal and chipper self.

"Well, you're welcome, Stacey," he said uncertainly. "How long have you been there by the way? How much of the conversation did you hear?"

"Not much really," I just heard you guys talking about how someone was harming me and I wanted to let you know that I could take care of myself, that's all."

"Okay that's good," Callum breathed. "Do you want me to get you some tea?"

"No thank you," she said perkily. "I can do it myself." The three men watched her as she prepared the tea and walked outside.

As she was going she said, "Get a portrait it'll last longer!" She laughed as she shut the front door behind her.

Levi turned back to the sadly smiling Callum who still had his eyes on the front door. He said, "You still need to tell her."

Callum stared at him seriously. "I can't do that."

Levi stood up. "If you really had her best interests in mind then you would tell her! But since you don't, I will."

Callum did nothing to stop him as he got up and walked towards the door and Charlie scrambled after him. When they got outside, they saw Stacey with her eyes closed and sipping tea while sitting in one of the chairs. She seemed to be listening to something.

Levi began, "Stacey I-"

"Shh," she cut him off. "Both of you need to stop and listen to the sound of the wind."

There was silence as Levi stared out onto the deserted street as he and Charlie listened to the wind. It smelled like fresh grass and you could hear the subtle tinkling of the wind chimes. Their beautiful melodies played across his ears, succeeding in making Levi feel calmer than he did just a few seconds ago. Some leaves could be seen blowing across the street, though none of them saw that because they now all had their eyes closed.

Stacey broke the silence. "I love the sound of wind chimes." Levi opened his eyes and turned to her. "Their sound reminds me of. . . Kyle. That's what his laugh sounded like. He would laugh rarely when I was around him, but when he did. . .it sounded magical. His laugh makes me think of fairies for some reason. Their small tinkling." She had a peaceful look with a small smile on his face.

Levi understood now why Callum hadn't been able to tell her. He didn't use to be this soft, but he felt so bad for this woman. He felt guilty that he was partly the reason for his death.

"Charlie," Levi began as he turned his head to Charlie, "I think we need to go."

"But what about-"

"No. Never mind. I'm sure Callum will take good care of her. But Stacey, I have one more thing I need to give you." Levi held up Kyle's journal that he'd been carrying around. "Kyle left this at headquarters and I thought you'd be the best person to return this to him. Here," he handed her the journal. "Take care of it. I think you should read it." Levi turned away from Stacey's surprised face to grab Charlie's arm and drag him off the porch. "Come, Charlie. We should leave her alone."

"Levi," he said but then trailed off once he saw the look in Levi's eyes. He nodded his head as he followed Levi down the street and pulled his arm away from his grip.

They had walked down the street for a while before they heard the front door of the house open again. Charlie and Levi turned around to see Callum come out with tea in his hand and sit down in the other chair. The sun had started to set and the gentle glow of the lanterns made it seem like a beacon of hope.

They heard Callum begin, "Stacey, I'm going to tell you a story."

She said, "Okay. What's it about?"

"It's about a young man named Kyle. And this is his story from life to death."

Levi stopped walking and listened for a few moments before he turned around and left Callum to it. He thought about Stacey's reaction to the story and how she would act when she found out he was talking about her Kyle. He was saddened a little bit, because in the end he thought it best for her to continue to live in ignorance. He felt like Stacey needed to be told sometime at the same time, though. Grief was the emotion that endlessly haunted him, and now he'd doomed Stacey to have the same fate.