Speechless.

“Mia,”

“Yeah babe?”

The two were walking through the bus parking lot, the least congested part of Warped Tour.

“Matt told me something…” She trailed off, pulling her lip between her teeth.

Sensing something was wrong Mia stopped walking and turned to the little girl. She eyed her for a moment before kneeling down to eye level.

“What’s the matter?”

“Matt said he was my uncle.” She stated hesitantly, not quite looking at Mia. “I don’t—I don’t understand that.”

Mia closed her eyes. In her pursuit to make things right with everyone, tell everyone who needed to know the truth about Mickey, she’d forgotten to talk to the most important person in the equation—Mickey.

“Come here,” She mumbled. She took Mickey by the hand and guided her to the near by curb beside a retention pond. Mia was quiet for a long moment as she tried to figure out the right words to say to the five year old. She couldn’t very well tell her that the woman who she’d assumed was her mother had taken her from Mia when she was a baby and raised her as her own. “Matt, Uncle Matt, he shouldn’t have—well yes, I suppose he should have…” She trailed off, not knowing what to say. “Yes,” She closed her eyes trying to clear her mind and began again. “Matt is your uncle…So is Alex.”

Mia’s eyes widened for a moment but then she nodded silently, taking in the information.

“When you were a baby…” Mia sighed, she was trying to start anew and tell the truth of things…not lies—that included telling the truth to Mickey. “When you were a baby I was…sick, I didn’t want you to grow up in the Tunnels. Candy was a good friend of mine then, I wanted her to find you a good home Mickey.” She couldn’t bear to look at the little girl then and she didn’t care if she’d be labeled a coward for it. “I wanted you to have the perfect life you deserved because you were so perfect. I wanted you to grow up in a nice house with a mommy and daddy who could love you. I wanted you to have a dog, a lawn, white picket fences. I wanted you to do dance, or soccer, or whatever it is you loved. I wanted you to have those things because I loved you and I couldn’t give them to you. I thought—I thought for a long time Candy had found you a nice home. But Candy…her baby was very sick, she was the same age as you. Candy’s baby, you see, she died and instead of finding you a good home she took you for herself.”

Amelia didn’t realize that tears were streaming down her face until softly, Mickey’s small hands reached up and wiped the stray moisture from her cheek.

“You’re…you’re not going to find me a different home now are you?”

A sob left Mia’s lips as she stared at Mickey, the little girl who had been born into a bad situation, developed her own wisdom, and understood things years beyond her age. She was beautiful, her caramel eyes, silky brunette hair, and dimples when she smiled didn’t even begin to cover the beauty Mia found in her. It was in her laughter, her hugs, her ability to sit for hours scouring the night sky for a shooting start. It was how instead of squishing a bug where it didn’t belong she’d release it, it was how she’d been raised around Viper and in the tunnels, yet still believed in the good in people and saw light instead of darkness.

Mia wrapped the girl in her arms and held her close, breathing in the strawberry smoothie scented shampoo in her hair.

“Oh baby of course not.” She cried. “I will never, ever let you go.”

Mickey was silent as Mia cried, her arms wrapped around her mother’s neck, not knowing what else to do. When Mia had finally stopped her tears Mickey whispered, “You know what? I always loved you more than Candy.”

And then Mia was crying again.

_______________________________________________________________________
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Somehow in a silent tango of avoidance and ignoring Mia, Alex had managed to get himself alone with Mickey. He wasn’t sure how he felt, about having a niece that is, it was harder than he ever thought it’d be to digest.

Logan’s death had sent Alex’s life into a million different directions. He hadn’t just lost his brother that day, he’d lost the blissful bubble he lived in, he’d lost friends, lost the love of his life, he had damn near almost lost the band. Alex dreams were coming true, he was amazed each and every day that he was blessed with the ability to sing for a living and have fans that truly cared, not just about their music, but for them as people. But Alex lived on rocky waters—he had everything he’d ever wanted but nothing that he truly needed. He’d never been able to have one without somehow ending up without the other. He’d wanted the band but he needed his ex-girlfriend (who’d he’d never admit to still caring for), he’d hoped for fame but now he prayed only to feel a fraction of how he felt before Logan’s death. Alex pre Logan’s death and Alex post Logan’s death were two very different people; two different types of happy, two different types of sad. But as Alex watched Mickey sitting cross legged on the pavement with every sticker from every merch booth she could find, Alex felt like maybe there wasn’t two different sides of him—but just one, whole and still healing.

Mickey pulled her lower lip between her teeth, contemplating something in her mind and Alex’s heart pinged painfully, Mia’s words echoing in his mind:

“Jesus Christ,” she mumbled in near disbelief.

“What?”

“Logan used to do that exact move, lower lip between his teeth and all—so does Mickey.”

It hurt more than Alex could imagine, looking at Mickey with eyes that spotted each and every bit of his brother within this innocent, amazing, little stranger. He saw Logan in her left handed-ness, he saw Logan in how she observed the world in relative silence. Alex saw his brother in her smile, in her eyes, in the freckles on her arm, Logan was so predominant in everything Mickey was it became a wonder to Alex how he never noticed it before.