Grief is the last act of love we have to give to those who loved. Where there is deep grief, there was great love.

Anonymous

She felt like she was in a glass box.

People were talking and nothing seemed to reach her.

Daphne just felt... empty. She wondered if that was normal. She had no idea.

Was it normal that it felt like she had no emotions anymore? Her body seemed to be a separate entity from her mind. Her body went through the days, doing whatever she was told to do and her mind just shut off.

Feeling were nonexistent.

She just wasn't feeling anything.

Either bad or good.

It took them three days. Three days spent in two different foster families, until they got hold of her aunt. Daphne didn't know what made it take that long nor did she care to find out.

She existed in her vacuum.

They had sent her to a therapist once. That Therapist told her for two hours that every human reacted differently to grief and that there was no right or wrong way to feel.

Was it right to feel nothing though? Nothing at all?

When they finally found her aunt, Daphne got to talk to her for around 5 minutes.

"Daphne." Her aunt's voice was soft, tinny on the phone and a lot of other things. Daphne could hear the grief, could hear the pain and the sadness and she needed to close her eyes for a second, a stabbing pain in her chest suddenly.

"Aunt Caroline," she finally brought out, brokenly. That was a good description of how she felt.

Broken.

Shattered in a thousand different pieces, not even really human anymore. She didn't feel like a whole person.

"Oh honey, I am so, so sorry," her aunt apologised softly. "I am coming to get you on Monday. I would be there earlier but the flights were all booked up, I am sorry."

It felt like a punch to her stomach and at the same time, it felt like a huge boulder was lifted from her shoulders. She had somewhere to go.

"You are staying with Matthew, Ollie and me. We figure this out, honey, I promise you that," her aunt promised her, and now she couldn't help the tears from running over her cheeks.

She was getting to stay with her aunt and uncle. She had somewhere to go. She didn't need to stay here.

"Thank you," Daphne brought out, the words lacking for the amount of gratitude she felt.

"I see you on Monday, okay?" Her aunt told her softly and she nodded before she remembered that her aunt wouldn't be able to see her.

"Thank you," Daphne whispered again.

"Of course, Daphne. We love you. Take Care," Her aunt told her softly and then the phone call ended.

*****

The days until Monday seemed to melt together. They seemed to stretch on endless but also felt like just a blink of time had passed since her mother's death.

Most of the days, she laid on that bunk bed in the room that she shared with two other girls, not moving. She was left in peace most of the times, the sound of New York city filtering through the window.

Life went on regardless.

Life went on even when Daphne felt like everything had been ripped from her.

For the outside world, her mother's death wasn't as much as a blink. Nobody cared that she had died, besides Daphne and her aunt. No employer, not since her mother had gotten fired from the last job in a long line a few days ago. Maybe the guy from the liquor store. He probably would miss her. Or maybe her dealer.

The irony of that wasn't lost on Daphne.

She laid on that bunk bed, curled up on her side, her eyes closed, unmoving. She didn't want to stay here.

Another fight was breaking out, the foster father once again trying his best to hold his own against one of the girls that Daphne shared a room with. Her name was Nathalie. She had been wholly unimpressed of needing to share a room with Daphne and had the habit of losing her temper about every tiny thing.

Just like right now. Her shrill voice became louder and Daphne buried her head in the lumpy pillow.

She didn't want to stay there any longer.

Caroline promised to come and get her. Daphne was going to move to Fairbury, Maine.

Hopefully, there wouldn't be screaming.

Hopefully, it was going to be different.

It didn't have the MET, it wouldn't have any skyscrapers, the only thing that town had as far as Daphne could remember was a Diner and an ice cream parlour that also was an Italian restaurant.

But she would have somewhere to go, somewhere to sleep, maybe a room to close the door behind her and go hide in a corner. She could go to school and there would be no need to hide another bottle of whiskey somewhere her mother hopefully wouldn't find it.

The weekend passed slowly but finally, it was Monday Morning. She took the two garbage bags that held all her possessions and she waited for her aunt, her case worker from the social services at her side.

Mrs Jenkins was her name. She was nice, even when she was overworked and stared at her watch all the time.

Daphne just waited.

Again, Mrs Jenkins sighed, looking at her watch and Daphne didn't bother to look up, staring at her hands.

She was a package that was supposed to be given to the receiver and the receiver hadn't bothered to show up yet, which seemed to infuriate Mrs Jenkins. Mrs Jenkins continued to glare daggers at Daphne like she would be able to change it.

Still, the longer they waited, the bigger the pit in her stomach grew. What if her aunt and uncle had overthought the whole thing and decided that Daphne wasn't worth the hassle? What then?

Daphne leaned back in her chair gingerly, careful not to put too much pressure on it. Her back still hurt whenever she took a deep breath, the skin angry red, at least what she had seen that morning in the small mirror in the bathroom back at her foster home. There wasn't exactly a lot that she could do against it.

Normally, it would have already stopped hurting that much. Not this time.

Maybe it kept on hurting because these were the last scars her mother was ever going to give her.

And then finally, finally the door opened and her head snapped up. Her aunt entered the room, in all her blonde, blue-eyed glory. Once upon a time she and Michelle must have resembled each other. Now they didn't anymore.

On Michelle years of alcohol and drug use had taken their toll. Daphne's mother had used to look far older than she had actually been, something that she didn't like at all.

Caroline looked younger than she was, a carefree smile nearly always on her face, her bright blue eyes sparkling with life. She did look a bit older than the last time Daphne had seen her, but not much at all. Her blonde ponytail now had a few more silver hairs running through it, and maybe they were a few more wrinkles around her eyes.

"Daphne," That was the only thing her aunt said before suddenly Daphne was pulled in a hug, her whole body cramping up. She couldn't help it.

There was pain coursing through her back, but she couldn't find it in herself to care, because her aunt's hug was nearly maternal in a way. Daphne tucked her head against her neck and took a shuddering breath, her emotions wanting to overwhelm her.

The tears were biting in her eyes and she made a soft whimper as her aunt rubbed over her back.

"I am so, so sorry, honey," Her aunt whispered then and Daphne could just nod.

She wondered briefly how Caroline did this. Daphne had lost her mother but her aunt had also lost her sister. And still, Caroline was trying to comfort her.

Her aunt let her go then, turning to Mrs Jenkins.

Daphne could only listen with half an ear as her aunt signed whatever she needed to sign.

But then it was done. Mrs Jenkins rushing out of the room to her next appointment without so much as a goodbye and Daphne was left with her aunt.

Caroline just clucked her tongue at that, before she turned to Daphne again. "We are flying back to Maine this afternoon."

"I...I already arranged the transfer of...of your mom," she continued, stumbling over the words. Daphne just nodded.

Right. The body needed to be buried. That just seemed...unreal. But it made sense. They couldn't just...leave it here. It needed a place to rest.

"There will be a funeral next Saturday. She will have a place in the family plot," Caroline continued. "We'll...we'll take care of it."

She reached out to touch Daphne's head and she couldn't help but flinch at that. Her aunt stopped, letting her hand fall back to the side, but she put a smile on her face that Daphne knew was only for her benefit.

"Did you get everything you wanted from the apartment?" Caroline asked and Daphne bit her lip at that. Great.

"We...had an eviction notice at the door. I packed everything apart from...from the kitchen stuff. I took Michelle's things as well," she brought out hesitantly, expecting her aunt's anger but Caroline just looked at her and then hugged her tightly.

"God, honey, why didn't you say something?" Caroline whispered, hugging her tightly and Daphne couldn't help but soak up whatever attention she could get in that moment.

"Let's get your things packed up then, alright?" Caroline said and Daphne nodded her agreement as her aunt let her go

"I brought three suitcases with me, I hope that's enough. We can get the rest shipped though, that should be..." Her aunt trailed off when she caught the two black garbage bags that Daphne had leaned against the chair.

"Is that all?"

Daphne just nodded.

"Oh honey," her aunt breathed out, reaching out to tug a piece of Daphne's hair behind her ear, and Daphne let her.

She just wanted to go somewhere else. Anywhere else. Somewhere where she didn't need to explain her life to anybody, not even Caroline, not even when Caroline was so damn understanding about it all.

"You are probably going to need some new winter things, Fairbury gets cold in winter. We'll make a girls day out of it," her aunt decided. "We should get our first frost in a few weeks so we should do that soon. We'll...take care of that, alright?" Caroline babbled and Daphne just nodded her agreement.

They fit the two garbage bags easily into the luggage Caroline brought with room left over and then made their way to the airport.

She was bone tired and just wanted to curl herself up on a bed and sleep for 24 hours straight. For once, she felt like she actually would be able to sleep once she saw the next flat surface.

They had lunch at a small Italian restaurant and while it was the best thing Daphne could remember to have eaten in months, if not years, she couldn't enjoy it.

Daphne couldn't even remember she actually had a sit down meal with someone else.

Well, there was school lunch....but as she was mostly known as the weird girl that didn't have any friends and spent most of her time drawing, her classmates weren't that interested to spent time with her.

Caroline was doing her best to fill the silence with senseless chattering, about everything and anything. Daphne did her best to listen, but it seemed that every blinking of her eyes took too much effort.

"Ollie said he would show you around. You are in the same year at school so that shouldn't be much of a problem. And his...girlfriend and her brother are there as well. Their names are Grace and Luke," Caroline told her.

Great. Her cousin needed to play her babysitter. Daphne somehow didn't think that her cousin would enjoy that very much. And he would probably already hate her enough, without her trailing behind him like a puppy.

She had always liked Ollie, at least the few times they had met. He had been just as blonde as her, only a few months older, around two heads taller though and he had always laughed.

He had been pretty funny, at least as far as she could remember.

"I don't think you have met them before..." Her aunt continued. "And I am sure Ollie can introduce you to some other people as well. He knows pretty much everybody."

"Is he angry?" Daphne finally dared to ask.

She didn't want to make him angry. She had enough of anger.

"Who? Ollie?" Her aunt asked surprised and stared at her. "Daphne, why should he be angry?"

"Because he was always an only child, and now I am coming to live with you and I know it's not the same thing as a sibling at all, but..." she started to blubber but her aunt just shook her head.

"But nothing. Ollie is looking forward to it actually," her aunt cut her off gently. "It's nothing you need to worry about."

"Ollie, Luke and Grace went a bit crazy in your room over the weekend," Her aunt told her amused. "They just painted the walls white and we got you a bed and a dresser. You still need a desk, I think. You can change it up however you want though."

"Thank you," Daphne whispered, touched by that gesture. She had somewhere to come home to. A room to call her own.

"You look tired," her aunt commented and she could just shrug

"I haven't slept since..." Since her mother died. She couldn't bring the words over her lips though.

"It's a one and a half hour flight. We need to drive home for an hour but then you can go to take a nap if you want to," her aunt suggested and their flight was called. With the bags already checked in Daphne only kept hold of her school bag.

"Ollie should still at school, he has football practice," Caroline told her and Daphne filed that information away.

"Let me guess, he is the quarterback?" Daphne asked amusedly. That would hit every cliché.

"No, that's Luke," her aunt laughed. "His girlfriend is the head cheerleader though."

"Grace is looking forward to meeting you. She could use another girl to fight back against y-chromosome induced stupidity as she calls it."

*****

She didn't take a nap during the flight, even when she was tired. But alone the thought about needing to wake up again in just an hour or so was terrible.

She leaned back down gingerly against her seat, staring out of the window.

It was nearly too easy to leave New York behind. Daphne had grown up there, it was supposed to be home. And at that moment she just could just stare out of the window, completely and utterly exhausted.

Caroline took her hand, gently pressing it and Daphne looked over to her aunt, doing her best to put a smile on her face. It didn't work, not really, but at least she tried.

The flight didn't take long and soon they touched down in Augusta, Maine.

As soon as Daphne stepped out of the plane, she felt the difference.

The air was bitingly cold and a lot more rural than what she was used to. No smog from a big town was there. The air was far cleaner.

And a small part of Daphne...that calmed down as soon as she breathed in air. It felt like coming home in a weird way.

The exhaustion set in when she was sitting in the warmth of Caroline's Jeep that she had needed to nearly climb into. Apparently, a 4 wheel drive was needed around these parts.

She couldn't help but nod off, startling awake because Caroline hit a pothole and a sharp pain run down her spine.

Daphne had learned a long time ago to be quiet.

The pain only resulted in a slight hitch in her breath as she blinked open her eyes and then saw a big red house.

"We are there," Caroline told her with a wry smile and Daphne could just smile back. "We moved a few years ago...We wanted something nearer to the beach," Caroline told her, as they got out of the car and as Daphne listened she could hear the waves.

Where was there a beach?

"You can't see it, it's around the back of the house," Caroline said like she had read her mind. "Our next neighbours are the Schuyler's, Cecilia and Stephen to the left and to the right, you get to the main street after a few minutes."

Daphne got two of her suitcases, her back protesting and Caroline got the third one.

Two steps lead up to the front door and Daphne followed Caroline, who opened the big door, letting her keys fall into a bowl on top of a dresser.

"Kitchen, Living Room, Dining Room are all downstairs...my office as well, Matthew's is upstairs," her aunt explained. "Let's go to your room," her aunt said and then started to climb up the staircase.

The house was old, Daphne could see that in all the wood that had been lovingly refinished.

The walls were creamy yellow in the hallways and she followed her aunt upstairs, lovingly touching the satiny feeling wood on the stair railing.

Her aunt went to one of the old wood doors leading to the back of the house and held it open for Daphne.

The room was bigger than any of her rooms in New York City had been. Most of the time it had been a lucky shot if she actually got her own room. She could still remember the time when she had slept in the closet for over six months. The last apartment thankfully had a small room for her, but it wasn't big enough to fit anything but her bed.

Across from the door, was a huge window, out to the back of the property. It showed the back garden and behind the back garden, was the beach. Daphne could see the waves slowly lapping at the sand and hear the sound of the waves breaking at the shore. It was relaxing, a stark contrast to the sound of cars and people screaming.

The room itself was painted in a bright white, clinically. Daphne couldn't care less though. A big bed stood next to the door, a night table next to it. There was an antique chest of drawers with a just as antique silver mirror above it, which was absolutely beautiful.

And the best part: It was hers.

"You can change it to however you want it, honey," her aunt told her, sounding worried. "We can visit the hardware store tomorrow."

"I love it. Thank you," Daphne brought out. She wanted to say something else, wanted to say something that was going to make it obvious how thankful she was about this, but she couldn't.

"Of course," her aunt said with a smile. "Why don't you take a shower and a nap and I come get you when Matthew and Ollie have come home?"

Her aunt left her alone in her room, and Daphne went in search of the bathroom. There were three doors going off her room, one to the closet, one to the hall, and the third was to her bathroom.

Daphne had her own bathroom. That was...weird.

It had everything she could possibly want, shampoo and soap already in the shower and a toothbrush and toothpaste waiting for.

She took a shower, biting her teeth as the water burned her back and the blood went down the drain. Had it split open again?

There wasn't much what she could do against it. She dried off, managing to not get blood all over the towels and then put on a tank top underneath a long-sleeved top, knowing that the extra layer of fabric would soak up most of the blood without it showing on the outside.

The bed was calling to her then and she slipped in the bed, curling up on her side. It was soft and warm and it took less than thirty seconds for her to fall asleep.

She was safe.

***

Daphne woke up with the sound of the door opening. She still was tired, her brain felt sluggish and she looked up to her aunt that came to sit at the edge of her bed