I Won't Give Up

For the first few days after we started staying with the officer, Dawson was quiet. He talked when someone asked him something, or to keep Ameila out of something, but other than that, he never said a word. He looked morose, and it broke my heart.

One night after Ameila had gone to bed, I grabbed our jackets and walked over to him. "Come on," I said, just over a whisper. "Let's get some air."

"What about Ameila?" he asked, looking up at him, his blue eyes looking almost grey. I smiled a small smile, pressing a soft kiss to his cheek.

"Mrs. Mahoney is up. I also just talked with her, and she said she's more than glad to keep an eye on Ameila. Plus, with Max on guard duty, no one will get passed him easily," I said, gazing at the full-sized Rottweiler who propped his ears up at the sound of his name, otherwise ignored the two of us.

"Can we trust that dog with guarding our daughter? I mean, he does seem a bit vicious," Dawson said, looking at the dog with a look of caution.

"He's well-trained, and he grew up around children. When they got him, Peter was a baby. So, I'm sure Ameila will be just fine."

After a couple more reassurances, I was able to get him to go out and walk with me. Grabbing the spare keys on the table next to the door and walked out, locking the door behind us. Interlocking my hand with his, we made our way down the road, and I studied his face.

Dawson still looked lost, showing that he lost so much. It was almost as if he couldn't be pieced back together. "Why are we going this way?" he asked, causing me to realize that we were heading back to our old home.

"I don't know," I said, not stopping. "I guess I'm curious if they did anything with the ruins," I went on, making him start shaking his head.

"I don't want to go back," he said, pulling on me until I stopped and turned to face him. "It's too soon for me. We lost everything ... things we can't get back. I don't want to tear open that wound again just as it's starting to heal a little."

"I'm needing to know who may have done this. I know you're thinking it's Alex, but I have a feeling it wasn't. I know he's crazy, but I don't think he would go as far as burning our house down." I saw a look crossed between anger and sadness, knowing he was remembering when he was beaten by Alex a while back. "Look. If you want to go back to the Mahoney's place, go on. I'm just too curious to stay back any longer only to be told they couldn't find anything."

I stared down the road, knowing that just around the corner, there would be a mound of charred rubble, knowing that someone had purposefully brought it down. I had to know if they were trying to piss us off ... or kill us.