FLO SAT ON EMMETT'S BED, waiting for marcus to get out of the vault. he was getting his foot cleaned and wrapped.

she sat on the bed, and watched as emmett handed evelyn a bottle of whiskey and closing the door afterwards.

he set his timer and looked over at regan, who was looking at the papers on his desk. he approached her and grabbed a paper, glancing at it quickly. he then folded it up and placed it in his pocket.

he then turned to flo, "it may have been a long time," flo looked up at the man, "but i don't remember this family having another girl."

"i'm not..." flo sharply inhaled, "i'm florence."

"emmett." he replied, and then looked at her bag by her feet, "softball player?"

"y-yeah." she nodded.

"our team would've beat you." he sighed.

"i'm sure they would've." flo smiled up at him.

"what did you play?" he asked, approaching the vault door.

"first base." she said, as the timer went off, and he went to pull the door.

••••

FLO WAS SAT ON THE GROUND BY MARCUS, as she gently grazed her thumb over his knuckles. her hand was now wrapped with a clean bandage, which felt much better, but was already leaking through a bit.

regan was sitting in a chair by marcus, who adjusted some knobs on the radio she had. she then grabbed some headphones she had and placed them over his head, and continued adjusting the knobs.

flo used her other hand to look through and clean out her bag. she had two piles on the ground, keep and throw away. in the throw away, it mainly consisted of scraps and broken plates she had. in the keep, it was her old jersey and winter hats.

searching around in her bag, her hand grazed over something soft, and she knew exactly what it was. and it made her stomach drop.

it was rose's bunny rabbit.

deciding not to get it out of the bag, she went around it instead. but she felt something way worse.

the wildflowers rose had given her.

deciding she was done cleaning her bag, she tapped marcus's hand twice and let go of it, putting the things she wanted back into the bag and the things she didn't want into the bucket placed behind her.

grasping onto his hand again, she grazed her thumb over his knuckles, and he squeezed her hand in response.

about a minute of silence went by, before marcus' eyes shot open. the headphones were working, and they were playing a song. flo hear it too, and looked over at him.

he sat up, and evelyn rushed over to his side by flo.

"what is it?" she whispered.

"mus-music." marcus breathed out, as evelyn took off the headphones and placed them on her head.

"it's..."

"beyond the sea." emmett interrupted.

"have you heard this?" evelyn asked.

"yes."

marcus grabbed the headphones from his mom's hands and placed them on flo's head.

"if i could fly like birds on high,
then straight to her arms, i'd go sailing."

flo gently held the headphones as they played into her ears. she could almost cry. she had been wanting to hear music for so long.

"it's far beyond the stars
it's near beyond the moon
i know beyond a doubt
my heart will lead me there soon"

flo slowly leaned her side onto the bed, laying her head down on it as well. memories of her mom blasting music in the car just like this flooded her mind. she could just see rose smiling like a dork in the back seat, happy to see her mom dancing to the music.

marcus saw out of the corner of his eye flo starting to lay her head on the bed, and for once, instead of seeing the badass almost mother figure he usually saw in her, he saw a hopeless little girl, scared for her life, listening to any music she can get ahold of.

marcus slowly raised his hand to flo's head, and began rubbing her hair as the girl finally realized how much she missed her family.

"no more sailing
so long sailing
bye bye sailing"

••••

FLO HAD FALLEN ASLEEP ON THE FLOOR BY MARCUS' BED, her head resting on the mattress with the headphones half off her head turned off. marcus still had his hand resting in her hair, and he was sound asleep.

a source of light was approaching marcus, and a hand was soon placed over his mouth, stopping him from screaming.

turning his head slightly, he saw regan holding a candle.

she placed a finger over her lips, and nudged her head towards the vault.

marcus sat up and took his hand out of flo's hair, and gently moving her head aside so he could climb out of bed.

••••

AFTER MARCUS' LITTLE FIGHT WITH HIS SISTER, regan had left the vault and went back to bed, and marcus went over to his bed, where flo still slept.

shaking her back gently, flo stirred awake and looked at marcus, who grabbed her hand and lead her to the vault.

after climbing in, marcus set the clock and turned towards flo.

"regan...has this insane idea. about trying to find where the music is coming from. and leaving." marcus explained to flo, who rubbed her eyes from being woken up.

"she's gonna leave?"

"no...she's not gonna leave." marcus assured flo, who nodded, "she was thinking about leaving, though."

"really? that's not a good idea." flo said, "when rose was around, we left. it wasn't a good idea."

marcus looked away from the candle he was staring at, and looked at flo.

"rose?"

flo turned towards marcus, and sighed, "you really think i came here alone? i had a little sister."

"...was she blonde?"

flo looked at marcus with wide eyes, "...yes."

"was it the girl you were with?"

"the girl i was with?"

the two looked at each other, clearly confused, before the timer went off. marcus opened the door to let some more air inside, and started whispering to flo, "the girl you were with. at the baseball game."

flo's throat became dry, "avery?" she choked out.

marcus nodded, and closed the door, setting the timer once again, "avery was my friend. rose was my little sister. i was actually going to your place because i saw smoke. rose was not doing well, so i thought you could help her."

marcus nodded, as flo stared at the candle in front of her.

"we were about to cross the bridge. the...damn bridge. it was gonna be five more minutes, and then we would've been there." flo said, becoming teary-eyed, "she couldn't even last five more minutes."

marcus looked down at his lap, "where did you put her?"

"no where," flo whispered, as marcus turned to her again, "i ran to your house. i collapsed out of exhaustion, stress, shock, and anger. i couldn't bear to see her dead."

flo sniffled a bit, wiping her eyes, "it's traumatizing to see your sibling die."

"i know." marcus nodded, as flo turned to him, "my brother died. a while ago. and then my parents had another baby."

flo sighed, smiling downward at the boy, "we relate to each other in the weirdest ways."

that made marcus smile.

A/N: