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Lori Grimes used to do Nadia's hair all the time. Before her mother was pregnant with her second child, Lori was in school to become a hairdresser, but sadly had to drop out to care for her growing family. Though her love of hair never vanished.

Making her daughter her canvas Lori perfected the child's hair every morning and made sure to never allow Nadia the same style two days in a row. In grade school the girl was considered a trendsetter due to Lori's elegant styling. It was no wonder why Nadia's cheer team practically begged the mother to become their personal stylist. Making her team place second in nationals in style.

Nadia could still feel Lori's tender fingers separating her brown locks into three sections as she perfected the braid, unaware that would be the last style she ever crafted before her sickening demise. The exact reason she always made sure her hair looked like that when she woke up.

It comforted the girl. Made her feel sane. If Nadia Grimes ever felt lost inside that literal prison she was forced to call home she would take the opportunity to construct her hair in the similar braid Lori gave her. Pretending her mother was the one doing it.

Yet as she now tried to do her hair now she felt nothing. Though the copious amounts of blood from her victims might have had something to do with it.

During the attack one of her targets was able to grab her by the hair. It was a vain attempt in taking her down, but the damage was already done. A few strands of her locks rested on the pavement, sticking to the blood of those who pulled it out.

Luckily it was just a small chunk taken from her, allowing the hair to still be braidable. Yet as she finally put her hair into the iconic design she had been known for, all she felt was nothing.

In a sudden fit Nadia glanced up at the dying fire before gripping her axe. Gritting her teeth the girl sawed away at her braid. The last of her faded blonde hair crumpled to ash as she placed it into the fire. Watching as the last defining piece of her teens burn away. 

And she still felt nothing.

Lincoln moved a little closer as Judith slept in his lap. Once he was sure she wouldn't wake back up he took the opportunity to take off his scarf and grabbed a bottle of their water. Nadia was so focused on the fire before her she didn't see what Lincoln was doing until his now wet scarf was in front of her.

She gave a small head shake, "We should save it."

Lincoln only moved it closer, "You don't know what that blood could be carrying. Trust me."

The bloody girl sighed, taking the damp cloth and started to clean herself. The brown fabric staining as she removed it from her face and neck. He watched as she cleaned her fingers before starting to pick the pieces of skin and cartilage from her braces.

"Was that your first time?"

Nadia glanced back at the bodies before her. Staring at the chopped up corpses that looked more like hamburger meat than human remains. Though she didn't say anything.

He gave a small sigh as his swords laid a few feet from them, covered in the flesh of their attackers as well, "I guess it was technically my first time..."

"I thought you said you killed three people?" she said, still in a state of shock. Making her voice rather bland and stoic.

The Smith boy let out a sigh as he was handed back his scarf, allowing him to clean himself as well, "Um... my killings were more of a technicality. My actions lead to their deaths. I've never actually... done this before."

Nadia gave a small hum as she stared down at her actions. After biting off that man's nose she blacked out, coming to holding Judith as the bodies of their attackers laid across the pavement. Crying of all things.

This wasn't the first time Nadia had done something like that either. When she went to retrieve Lori's body the poor girl was met with nothing but a bloated walker corpse. The last thing she remembered was Rick pulling her away from the body she completely mutilated. Screaming and crying about how it needed to be slaughtered more than it already was.

She let out an emotionless sigh as she refused to look anywhere else, "You will get used to it. You have to."

The boy gave a small frown, staring at the damage he was forced to help partake in, "But what if I don't want to?"

"Then you'll die."

"Oh..."

Nadia ran her nails through her scalp, trying desperately to feel something, "It sounds harsh, I know. But it's true. Kill or be killed."

Lincoln shook his head, "I think that's a sad way to look at things."

"If my dad had just killed one man when he had the chance my home would still be standing. But he tried to be civil and they all died," she paused as her eyes trailed to the baby in his arms. "Well... almost all died."

The boy glanced between her and Judith before giving a small nod, "I guess you have a point..." as he started to trail off the baby began to stir.

The pair watched as she let out a few noises before kicking her legs, as if she was uncomfortably. He quickly tried to fix it before Nadia reached forward and grabbed her. Bouncing Judith a few times to settle the babe down.

As she started to lure the one year-old back to sleep Nadia could feel Lincoln's suspicious eyes on her. She gave a small huff but refused to make eye contact, "I'm guessing you figured it out."

He gave a small cringe, "It's... it's kinda obvious. You two look a lot alike."

Her lips went into a straight line. Running her fingers over the small blonde frizz Judith was growing, "I don't see it," she admitted. "My dad liked to say she's like a clone of me but I can't tell."

"Well they say it's a mental thing, you know?" He moved closer, "My mom said my little brother and I could pass for twins, but we never saw any resemblance either."

Nadia, thinking that would be the end of their conversation, focused her attention back into Judith. Looking her over in case of any possible injuries after one of the men tried to shake her. Not expecting Lincoln to then ask, "Do you wanna talk about it?"

She glanced at the Smith boy, "Excuse me?"

He meekly shrugged, "I don't know. I just thought maybe you'd like to talk about what happened. With what just happened... friend to friend?"

"Lincoln, no offence but why would I ever discuss my business with you?"

"Because we're friends?"

"What makes you think we are friends?" She raised a brow.

"Well," he glanced at the human remains. "You did just save me from those guys and allowed me to join you and Judith. What do you call that?"

"Being a human. I could hear you crying as I left," she said, flatly. "I didn't want your death on my hands."

He gave a small hum, "Seems friendly to me."

His words made the girl slightly glare as she continued to comfort the baby in her arms, "We're travelling companions. There's a difference. Once we reach Terminus we'll never see each other again."

He shook his head, "I don't really see a difference."

"There is."

"Not really," he shrugged. "I think you like me more than you let on. Just like you like her way more than you pretend you don't."

Nadia Grimes gave the boy a rather dead stare as the boy only pushed her buttons more, "Stare all you want but you know it's true. You've saved her more than a few times."

"Because I don't want her death on my hands either."

"If that's the case you could have let those men kill her. Hell they almost did. But instead you killed them to protect her," he explained. "Why pretend?"

She continued to stroke Judith's head, "I'm not pretending."

The boy seemed a little more than confused at this point. Lincoln had seen his fair share of strange things before the apocalypse. Unlike Nadia who grew up in a stable-ish household fitted with a white picket fence, his home had actual barbed wire.

Strange and unusual people were what he grew up around, yet he'd never seen a person in such denial before, "What happened?" He couldn't help but ask.

Nadia let out a small scoff, making him correct himself, "Nadia, why do you act like you hate her so much?"

Annoyed over the constant questions, Nadia Grimes grit her teeth. The moonlight reflected off her brackets as she finally said something she never had the strength to say, not even to her own father, "Because she killed my mother."

Her eyes suddenly widened as the words flowed out of her mouth. If she believed it, she thought about it in her head a billion times. She'd implied it to people, yet she never admitted it before.

It didn't taste well. 

A burn started to brew inside her throat as she coughed to hide her whimper, "It's... complicated."

Lincoln's curiosity morphed into a genuine concern, "I... I'm sorry. I shouldn't have pressed you."

"You shouldn't have," Nadia used her free hand to keep tears off her messy face. "But it's out in the open now."

He frowned, "Was it her crying? Did it alert them? You said she had colic."

Nadia let out a breathless laugh, "If only it were that simple," she shook her head. "No... she died way before that."

Lincoln shifted slightly, trying to avoid upsetting her, "I'm sorry. You shouldn't have to talk about it. I won't force you."

"It's fine," she cut him off. "Maybe explaining it would be better," she explained.

Her travel companion gave a small nod, "Whatever you'd like," he gestured her to talk.

So with a deep sigh she began, "Judith isn't... technically my full sister. We have different dads. It's complicated."

Nadia paused, trying to figure out exactly how to explain her rather dirty laundry to this boy, "You see, when the world collapsed my dad wasn't with us. He was injured at work and was in a coma. This man... Shane," it made her sick to even say his name. "His best friend. He told us that the hospital was massacred by the army and my father was dead. I believed him."

"But he survived?"

She nodded, "Yeah. I don't know how, neither did he in fact. He just woke up one morning and found his way back to us," Nadia closed her eyes for a moment as the memory of hugging her father for the first time in months clouded her head.

Watching as a rather exhausted man came out of a truck. She could still see Carl looking him in the eye as Rick shakenly pointed at them. Not long after Carl jumped into his arms she sprung forward as well. Clutching his hair as she sobbed into his side.

All while Shane watched from the sidelines.

"When the world went to shit it was Shane who got us to safety. I may hate him but that bastard had his uses. I won't lie and say he isn't part of why I'm alive today," she admitted to Lincoln. "Maybe he actually thought my dad was dead. Who knows? But once we got to safety he took on the responsibilities as leader of our refugee settlement... giving extra attention towards my family. Mostly my mom."

Her companion slightly turned his face as he was picking up what she was throwing down, "Ah..."

"I don't blame her to be honest," Nadia shrugged. "She was a wreck after my dad got injured. The last thing they ever did was fight. So... she was numb and she found a way to cope. But she broke it off the second my dad came home."

"I'm guessing Shane didn't like that?"

"No he did not," she shook her head. "He didn't take it well at all..." Nadia began to trail off as the painful memory of something she witnessed in the CDC pressed play before her eyes.

She could practically still hear the cries Lori let out as Shane drunkenly tried to slip his fingers into her mother's underwear, "Shane was anything but a good man. So my father put him down."

Nadia sighed as she went on, "My mom found out she was pregnant a little before he died. She claimed it would always be my father's child, he said it was his child, but I knew the truth. She had symptoms not even a week after dad came back."

Judith slightly fussed as Nadia fixed her hold on the babe. Not realising she was trying to make her comfortable. Too focused on talking out her problems.

"We spent a full winter trying to find a place to fortify and finally when she was close to popping we located a prison of all places. We were able to secure it, but the walkers still found a way in. They always find a way in..."

As she got closer to saying what had happened a few years finally pricked her vision. It was rather humorous really. Speaking of how her mother was killed with the murderer in her arms.

She started to chuckle, "It's funny actually. She birthed her killer... just me, my brother and my mom in a boiler room with a rusty knife."

It took a few moments for her words to click, but once Lincoln understood what she meant his face went to pity, "No..."

Nadia sucked in a breath to keep herself from screaming. Just thinking about the boiler room made her stomach start to dance. She had to swallow the bile building up in her throat, "Can you even call it delivering a baby if you carve it out?" She hesitantly asked.

She didn't know why she asked him that. She shouldn't have asked him that. It was a little too awkward of a question to bring up. Nadia's face slightly flushed as she tried to pretend she stayed quiet.

Though she wasn't expecting a hand to hold out his scarf once more. Nadia didn't even realise she was crying till she noticed how wet the fabric was now.

"Thank you," she whispered.

"It's okay," he said, softly.

For some reason Nadia decided to continue talking to Lincoln about her mother. Maybe it was because she slightly felt comfortable around him, but the more realistic reason was that she actually never got to talk about this before. The Grimes family never talked about this before.

"You know what the worst part was?" Nadia handed him back the scarf, "The aftermath."

"Did your dad blame you?"

She scoffed out a chuckle, "No. No, he did something much worse... he just stopped talking about her," just saying it made the teenager's teeth grind. "Ever."

Nadia then sighed, "Maybe it's because I'm so used to people dying left and right, but I don't see death the same way as others. If a person is remembered they can still have an impact on life. Shakespeare, Martin Luther King, Princess Diana," she listed. "If a person is still talked about their soul lives on. But a person no one remembers means nothing. That is real death. Being forgotten."

"And your mother was..."

"Being forgotten. All of them crowding around Judith while everyone acted as if my mother didn't exist. It was sickening," her lip quivered. "And when I finally snapped and confronted my dad..." she gritted her teeth as the memories came back.

She could still feel how raw her voice became after the massive screaming match she and Rick got into. See the rest of her family staring at her in shock and disbelief.

She remembered her shaking fingers rubbing against Lori's locket like a lifeline as she stomped away from the library after chewing out a girl she had once considered her best friend.

"Nadia!" Rick Grimes had shouted, storming after the teen, "You get your ass here now."

Nadia shook her head and kept walking, "Just leave me alone."

"That was not a request," he gripped his daughter's flannel and yanked her back. Nadia let out a grunt as he forced her to stop, "What the hell was that back there? What the hell would make you scream at Beth like that?"

The girl's brown eyes watered at the sight of the man. His complexion looked flushed, embarrassed by her actions, giving the teen his signature glare that almost seemed to be a default setting on his face.

Her breathing was staggered. Telling him the same thing she kept repeating inside the library where she screamed at Beth, "She washed my sheets."

He huffed, "I got that. What I'm asking is why a simple thing like that would make you scream at her to tears."

Nadia shook her head and was able to get out of his grip, "You wouldn't get it. I wouldn't expect you to either."

"It was just sheets," he slightly moved his arms around.

"It wasn't just sheets, dad. It was everything. Everything I owned was washed," the girl hastily explained, trying to make him understand.

But that only made him more confused, "Is that supposed to make me go on your side? You made Beth cry in front of the entire prison because she washed your clothes?"

Her eyes clenched together as she ran a hand through her coarse scalp to relieve some of her anguish, "They weren't just clothes, dad."

"Then what were they? Was this some privacy thing? Why the hell would you say those things to a girl who has been nothing but kind to you?!"

As he yelled at his daughter, the former cheerleader couldn't help but remember the seething anguish she was now experiencing, "Because they don't smell like her anymore!"

Rick's glare immediately vanished as the girl screamed at him, "They were my mom's. Mom's sheets and now they smell like fucking faux lavender chemicals and not what they are supposed to!" Her dull nails dug into Nadia's palms as she scowled at the surprised man.

The teen remembers that being when a few more members of her family started to trickle around Rick as she struggled to go back to composed. Wiping away the never ending tears, "Nevermind. You don't get it. You never get it," she cried.

His face shifted, "Nadia-"

"I don't expect you to get it. Especially with how you acted towards her since we left the farm," she suddenly snapped.

"What's that supposed to mean?" He asked in a mixture of hurt and frustration.

"You know damn well what it means. Don't act stupid," she sneered before shaking her head.

"No. No, I don't know what you mean," Rick shook his head, getting equally as mad.

"Really? You don't?" Nadia actually laughed, which probably looked very terrifying with the tears still burning down. "How about the fact you never gave a flying fuck about your wife, huh?"

"Excuse me?"

Nadia laughed, brokenly, "Should we bring up the copious amounts of times you ignored her? Shrugged her off? Acted as if she wasn't even there?"

Rick's nostrils flared as she snarled at him. Looking back, the teenager never remembered ever seeing him so angry at her before, "Don't you say that. I loved her."

"Loved her?" Nadia raised a brow, "So never being there is love?"

"How dare you say something like that," Rick looked actually hurt by those words she spewed. "I was trying to find us a place to survive."

"And a great job you did," the words left her mouth without time to even think about the consequences. Saying something she regretted even to this day, "Sometimes I wonder if you even cared about her at all."

Her father, as well as the others watching, just stared at the teenager. She could tell that she crossed the line with that comment, but she was too upset to care. She had been feeling so empty for so long it was time they felt it as well.

Rick closed his eyes and proceeded to try and calm himself down, "You are going to go to your room and we will discuss this when we both are cooled down-"

But Nadia was done being nice and kept on spewing hateful comments, "Oh I am doing just fine."

"No. No you are not."

"No, I think you just don't want to talk about her. You never want to talk about her. You never even wanted to talk to her," she sneered.

Nadia could still feel the way her vocal cords shook once she screamed at Rick, shouting, "You had two kids with her. Two. Yet you shit on her memory as if she meant nothing."

That's when she watched her father go quiet. His blue eyes pressed against his eyelids as he tried to remain calm, unlike his unruly teen. She wasn't expecting the next words out of his mouth to be so calm, "Three."

"Excuse me?"

"Three," he repeated. "She gave me three kids and yet for some reason you only ever talk about you and Carl. Hell I don't even think I have ever seen you hold your sister."

"She's not my sister," her words were quick. Rehearsed. Something she'd silently told herself since Judith let out her first gasp of air.

His, as well as the others watching, all stared at her in disbelief, "What did you just say?"

The girl looked between them, as if she was in the right, "What? She's not."

Rick's glare slightly staggered, showing a hint of emotion no child should ever inflict on their parent, "Judith's mine," a tear was visible.

The girl scoffed as she watched her friend Daryl grip Rick's shoulder. Keeping him in place as well as steady.

"Not biologically," and with that she stomped away.

As she sat next to Lincoln Nadia couldn't help but cringe at her actions. Just the memory alone of how she and her father started to scream at each other after that statement was sickening.

"I was the problem," Nadia told the boy. "I was... pretty bad."

More and more memories of the prison started to come back to her. All the bickering with her brother, the loud fights with Rick, how parents pulled their children away from her path... and how when Nadia decided to move out of Cellblock C to get away from her father all other cells happened to be unavailable, leaving the girl to have to sleep alone on death row.

"You can say it, you know."

Lincoln's head tilted, "What?"

She sighed, "Just say it. I'm a bitch. I'm insane. Cruel. Monster for hating a child. I have a list of names I've been called if you want more options."

A book could fill up the whispers she heard about her character inside the prison. Though back then she pretended to be above them all. Embracing the title of "Bitch of the Prison".

"I'm not doing that."

She scoffed out a chuckle, "Why not? It's not like I haven't been a bitch to you these last few days. Don't lie."

"No you have," Lincoln nodded. "I just don't think you're the bitch you assume you are."

Nadia fixed her hold on Judith as she refused to look at Lincoln. Her memories of people she believed were dead haunted her like a curse to an amulet. The people she supposedly loved being the ones she hurt over and over again. The same people who laid dead in the grass as she was alive and well.

She wasn't a good person, she knew that, "I'm a monster, Lincoln."

He shook his head, "You're not a monster, you're just broken."

She wiped her eyes as he glanced down at the baby she was trying so hard to keep comfortable, "You know it wasn't her fault, right?"

"Yeah, I know," she whispered.

"So why take it out on her?"

The dying fire completely went out as Nadia Grimes released a long breath. Glossy eyes staring at the charred embers near her victims. Slowly telling him, "Because if I don't blame her... I have to blame myself."

The short haired girl sniffled, "It's all my fault," she admitted. "I could have done so much yet I didn't. I'm the one who led my mother away from our doctor when the walkers broke in. I thought our cellblock would be safe, it wasn't. I'm the one who accepted her pregnancy. I should have shoved those damn pills down her throat when I had the chance. I knew she was sleeping with Shane and just... fucking sat back and let it happen. I have to blame her because if I don't I have to look in the mirror."

"Or... you could blame no one."

Nadia blinked, "Excuse me?"

The boy she barely knew let out a staggered sigh. She watched him rub the back of his neck as he debated on whether he should continue to speak or not, "I've been in a very similar situation," but he decided there was no reason to keep it in. He may as well get some sins off his chest as well.

"Remember how I said I killed three people?" Nadia nodded. "Well... I technically killed my entire family."

The boy ran his hand down his face as he started to remember his own mistakes, "My mom was really sick before the fall. Pancreatic cancer, late stage."

Her eyes widened, "Oh my god." She knew how hard it was for her family having a pregnancy to worry about, but Nadia could only imagine the struggles of having an almost incurable disease during a time like this.

"Yeah, it was pretty bad," he sighed. "The doctors gave us the tools to help with her chemo and even though I was self taught I won't lie, I was pretty good. Had her treatment in our fridge."

"You had electricity?"

He used his hand to motion a so-so motion, "A generator. During the day we had the treatment on ice in the freezer and in the cold fridge every night. It was my job to protect."

The girl frowned as she could see where this was going as Lincoln sighed, "Then one day after a run my dad found a nice stash, claiming it could be good for my mom's nausea. She invited my brother and I to take a hit and then... we woke to a leaking freezer."

Her stomach tightened as she watched the boy who was usually all sunshine and rainbows looking so stoic.

"I don't know why but they never blamed me. Maybe it was because my dad was so focused on finding a way to get more... but the only one crying was me," he huffed and Nadia noticed the way he started to rub a pair of rings on his bracelet.

"And your mom...?"

He sighed, "She was ready to go. Looking back she was ready to go the first time we came across a dead one. I think she only stayed because of my brother and I."

He continued to play with his rings as if they were a lifeline, "My dad knew a place that could possibly have more treatment and took my brother with him," he paused, clearly trying to ignore the pain. "I guess it wasn't there because I never saw them again."

Nadia slowly nodded as she started to feel an overwhelming amount of pity for what Lincoln had gone through. She may have not known much about cancer but she knew how important and exhausting chemo was. Especially how stopping treatment was very dangerous and harmful.

He could tell what she was thinking and smacked his lips apart, "She made it a good few weeks after that."

"I'm sorry for you."

Lincoln shook his head, "It's okay. She went on her own terms. I thankfully didn't have to see it," he scratched his nose.

She watched him continue to fiddle with the rings. Looking closer she could see a very small diamond placed on the top of the thinner of the pair. Nadia didn't need to ask to know why those rings were so important to him.

"It wasn't your fault, Lincoln. It was just an accident."

"I never said it was," he shrugged. "Look. Yeah, I do always wonder what would have happened if I didn't smoke that weed or if I begged my dad to let my brother stay behind or even just didn't go on a run my mom requested me to. But I can't. Because you can't change the past."

The broken girl finally made eye contact with the equally broken boy. Brown on green locking together, "How do you do it?"

"Do what?" Lincoln asked.

"This. Survive," she sighed. "After all of that you just kept going. Why?" Nadia couldn't help but wonder as the only reason she was still here was because of Judith.

Lincoln didn't have that. He had nothing yet he was doing much better than her it seemed, "I just did. I don't know. Did I ever consider checking out of earth early? Hell yeah. Of course I did, but I kept chickening out," he admitted. "So I'm still alive."

"Do you blame yourself?" Nadia couldn't help but ask.

Her travel just shook his head, "No."

He could sense she was about to say some and beat her to it, "It's strange I know but... I don't see a point. Things happen and it's not like I can do anything about it. Like you said, it was an accident," he then gave a small smile.

"So you just don't blame yourself anymore, then who?"

He shrugged, "No one."

Nadia let out a small laugh, "You just don't blame anyone. You seriously don't blame anything?"

"No, not anything," he explained. "I've been on my own for a while and I was so angry and frustrated and guilty to the point I never thought I could come back... but I did. And I did when I finally let go of those feelings."

She blinked, "Seriously?"

"There's an art in letting go."

Nadia only stared at him as the sun was now further up in the sky. The boy before her slapped his hands on his knees before rising to his feet, "I should probably get these bodies moved before the walkers smell 'em."

"We could just leave if you want. Get some progress while the sun is up," She went to stand but he stopped her.

"No. You need to rest a bit and so do I," he kicked the closest body. "I can handle it."

She frowned, "You sure?"

"Naddie you've had it worse last night," he grabbed the only attached limb to the corpse. "Take a rest in the car and I'll take first watch."

The girl, knowing she couldn't fight him, gave a small nod. Standing up she and Judith went inside the abandoned car.

Laying back she did her best to get comfortable as Judith started to fuss in her arms. She quickly did her best to sooth her as the baby cried. Her small arms flailed around crying, "Dada."

Nadia couldn't help but remember the first time Judith spoke. She had just moved out of the cellblock around the same time and was keeping her distance from anyone who annoyed her. So everyone.

She was just retrieving a few items she had left in her old cell and was walking past her fathers. Curiosity had gotten the best of her and at the dark hour, where she thought everyone would be asleep. The teen glanced inside Rick's room seeing him sitting on his bed as Judith sat on his lap. Carl was right next to him as they played with the baby.

Watching as they egged her on, trying to get her to speak with a variety of words. Eventually having her say, "Dada," Rick's name.

She could still hear the excitement coming from the trio inside that small cell. See Judith squealing as Rick kissed her cheek. Feel her own teeth grinding against one another as she stomped away from her happy family.

Happy family. That was the problem. Nadia Grimes was part of a happy family yet she was the only one keeping herself from enjoying it.

For the last year alone she was the one to exclude herself from everything. Ignoring her brother, fighting with her father, causing fights and pissing off all who looked at her.

Her mother may have died believing her husband and son hated her, but Nadia had survived knowing her father and brother died hating her. And she had no one to blame for it other than herself. Her anger.

Maybe Lincoln was on to something, she sighed. Maybe he had a point in letting go.

Maybe if she let go of her anger the last few months with her family would have been better. Maybe she could have laughed with Carl, hunted with Daryl, farmed with her father or joined Carol and Beth helping out the other kids inside the prison.

But she couldn't. That was in the past.

"Shush," Nadia rocked the baby in her arms, calming her down. The past was completely, but the future was within her grasp.

Maybe letting go was the right thing to do.

"I know you miss dad... I do as well," she admitted to the baby.

With a sigh Nadia wiped away Judith's small tears, "I know you'd rather have been stuck with him or Carl, and you don't really know me that well but we're stuck together. I'm sorry."

The small pair of brown stared up at the larger pair as both their lips quivered, proving their biological relations, "I couldn't protect them. I couldn't save them and I'm sorry. I'm sorry for a lot of things actually... and I hope you can forgive me one day," Nadia sniffled. "I know I'm not dad or Carl, and I might not be the best at this but I'm going to try, okay? Are you okay with that?"

The blonde haired infant just stared at the brunette. Leaning into the warm touch Nadia gave her cheek.

"I don't even think I introduced myself to you, have I?" She hummed and finally did something she never thought possible. "My name is Nadia... and I'm your sister."

Nadia Grimes let go of her anger.

•••