Oooooooh mah gaw, I am SO sorry about the wait on this, I just...ugh. I've had a lot going on, so, yeah. Anyway, I had someone ask about the playlist, and since they were a guest reviewer, I can't PM them the songs, so what I'm going to do instead is just list them and their artists at the end of the chapter, and anyone who wants to can look at that list, and anyone who doesn't can just ignore it. Be aware that there are 55 songs on the list, though, so...yeah. Anyway, as usual, I own absolutely nothing, blah blah blah, you know the drill...

Also, see if you can find the Team Starkid reference in the first paragraph. It's a reference to one of my favorite songs from their musical "Starship," and the song is sung by the bad guy(s) and there's a reprise of it in the second act. Like I said, see if you catch it. :)

Graverobber and Shilo stayed away from the house the entire rest of the day, and even with all that time to cool off, Graverobber still didn't think he could go back after what had happened. So when the time came, they went and found a motel to stay in for the night. And it was while they were there, laying on the bed with their shoes off but still fully clothed and their hands wandering across each other's bodies while Graverobber planted kisses up and down her neck, that Shilo decided she was ready to kick things up a notch. When she said as much to Graverobber, he stared at her for a moment, then asked if she was sure, to which she replied that the only other thing she'd ever been so sure about in her life was that she loved him.

And so he made it absolutely fantastic for her.

When they woke up the next morning, neither one of them wanted to get out of bed, preferring to instead just lay there in each other's arms all day with Shilo's head resting on Graverobber's chest while he traced lazy patterns on her back. Unfortunately, though, it seemed that Graverobber's phone had other ideas, because they had only been awake for about ten or fifteen minutes before it started buzzing on the nightstand. He sighed heavily as he reached over and grabbed it, then groaned when he saw the name on the caller ID.

"God dammit," he said, "I should've known Natalie would call sooner or later. Stupid bitch just can't leave well enough alone, can she?"
"Oh, cut her some slack, dude," Shilo told him. "She's probably just worried because we never showed up at the house last night, that's all."

Graverobber sighed again, then hit accept.

"Hey, Na—" He never got the chance to finish.

"WHAT THE HELL, TERRANCE?! You can't just pull a stunt like that and expect everything to be fine! What was the big idea, tearing into Zack like that yesterday and then just storming out of the house?! And why didn't you ever come back, did you and Shilo take off or something?! I sure as hell hope not, 'cause you left all your shit here, and let me tell you somethin', pal, I ain't holdin' onto it for ya, I'll just throw it all out, including that stupid book that you love so much! Dammit, Terrance, it was fifteen years ago, get over yourself and move the hell on already! Where the hell are you right now?!"

"We're at a motel," Graverobber said, keeping his voice as calm as he could manage. "We didn't take off, we're still in town, I just didn't feel like going back to the house quite yet, I wasn't sure I could face everyone. Look, I'm sorry that I upset everyone, but I had to get all of that off my chest, alright? I've been carrying it around for the past fifteen years, I don't think I'd ever be able to move on if I hadn't done what I did."

"I'm not the one you should be apologizing to," Natalie said. "Now listen to me. I am going to hand the phone to our uncle, and you are going to tell him how sorry you are, and you had better be sincere about it, or—"
"Why should I apologize," Graverobber interrupted, "for something that I don't even regret doing?"

There was a long stretch of silence, and in his head, Graverobber could easily picture Natalie with her eyes closed as she took a deep breath and slowly released it through her nostrils while silently counting down from ten. It was something he knew she did sometimes when she was trying hard not to lose her temper, a trick she had learned by seeing their father do it when he was starting to lose his patience with one of them, or with Nick.

"Terrance," she said finally, "I am not asking, I am telling. You are going to apologize to Zack, and then you and Shilo are going to get both your asses back to this house before I hunt you down and drag you back kicking and screaming by the roots of your hair. Once you get back, we are all going to sit down and calmly discuss the issue like civilized adults without yelling at each other so we can try to sort things out. Do I make myself clear?"

"What's clear," Graverobber replied, pushing himself into a sitting position, "is that, for one, you aren't in charge of me and can't tell me what to do or where to go, and that, for another thing, I'm not about to let my girlfriend get sucked into all this crazy drama and shit when she's already had enough of that sort of thing to last her a lifetime, and she doesn't need anymore of it, especially not from our fucked up family, so leave her the hell out of this, you hear me? And thirdly, don't bother putting Zack on the phone, let's just skip that part and go straight to the next step, shall we? Be there in twenty, goodbye."

And without giving Natalie a chance to reply, he hung up, then flopped back onto the mattress with a heavy sigh.
Shilo turned over onto her stomach and raised herself up onto her elbows to look at him.

"Didn't go so well, I take it?" she said, though it was more of a statement than a question.
He let out a humorless laugh without opening his eyes. "One way to put it," he muttered. "We're being commanded to return."

"Then I guess we better get dressed, huh?"
"Unfortunately. Wish we didn't have to, though."
"Well, if it makes you feel any better, last night was..."

She trailed off, struggling to find the right words, and he opened his eyes as he lifted himself up to her eye level on his elbows, a devilish smirk on his face.

"You weren't so bad yourself, especially for a beginner," he said, his voice hitting one of its lower octaves.
"Well, I, um...Like I've mentioned before, I figured out how to get around the parental locks when I was ten," she replied as a slight blush crept onto her cheeks, looking down and not meeting his eyes.

"Hey, Shilo?" he said. She looked up at him with wide eyes, and he cocked an eyebrow, grinning at her crookedly as he shook his head. "Don't be embarrassed, kid. I think it's hot."

She blinked, and he chuckled, then cupped her face in his hands and kissed her. They stayed that way for a while, and might have kept it going longer if Graverobber's phone didn't decide to start buzzing again. When they pulled apart, their faces were flushed, and part of Shilo's bottom lip was a bit swollen where he'd lightly nipped at it. He looked at the phone with annoyance written all across his features, but that shifted into surprise when he saw who was calling.

"It's Jem," he said.
"Answer it," she replied.

So he did, and then he put it on speaker.

"Hey," he said. "This is...unexpected. What's up?"
"Nothing's 'up,' Ter," Jem said, "why does something have to be 'up' for me to call you guys? I can't just call for the sake of calling and saying hey? How's everything going so far, what's the mainland like?"

"Different," they said at the same time.

"Just...different," Shilo continued. "It's...It's kind of weird. You don't really see as many surgeries as you do on Sanitarium, or at least not as many obvious ones. The scarring must be really well hidden, or the SurGENS are better, or...something, I dunno. And you don't really see things like the exotic skin grafts and whacky corneas and shit that you see on the island. And it's...cleaner. I also haven't seen a single indoor graveyard the whole time we've been here."

"No bodies in the streets," Graverobber added, "so no need for the trucks. And I haven't really seen any propaganda posters, either. And as for your other question, well...Let's just say that I'm dealing with some demons from my past that have unexpectedly been brought to the surface after quite a long time."

There was a pause.

"You got kind of quiet there," Jem said finally. "Is everything okay? What demons are you talking about, how can you possibly be dealing with demons from your past when you're in a place where nobody knows either of you?"

Another pause.

"Jem," Graverobber said, "there's something I didn't tell you that I guess I should have quite a while ago. Something only Nick knew about. Natalie...she didn't actually disappear after the funerals. She ran off, then got in contact a while later, and we've been in communication on-and-off over the years. She settled on the mainland in a place called Cape Fear, got married, had two kids, and then her husband had something repossessed a while back. Anyway, we're staying with her. And...it turns out...she's also been in contact with Uncle Zack."

"You mean Uncle Zack who...?"
"Yeah. That Uncle Zack. And he came to visit, so he's also staying at the house, and...I let all my anger and resentment at him build up over the years, and it came out yesterday. I went on this tirade, told him off, told him he belongs in hell with the Largos, all kinds of things, and then I stormed out of the house with Shilo following me, and we spent last night at a motel, and now Natalie's pissed off at me, and...Things are just...I'm making a mess, Jem. Just like I always do, no matter where I go or what I do with myself. Because as we all know, fucking things up is all I'm good for."

"Oh, don't say that, Terrance! You're good for plenty of things! Like cracking stupid jokes and making bad puns, you're really good at that, you and Nicky both! And snarky comebacks, and sass, and sarcasm, and kicking ass, and all sorts of other things!"

Shilo wanted to agree with Jem, to say something reassuring and helpful, but she found herself unable to. Maybe because unlike Jem, she was actually sitting right next to the Graverobber, and could see the sad, hopeless look in his eyes. It made her think of a song that she'd heard once, a song that she realized now was so incredibly fitting for him, even though she wished otherwise. There was more than just sadness and a lack of hope in his eyes right then. There was also pain, confusion, and even fear and anger. It made him seem...vulnerable in a way she'd never seen before. In fact, it made her see him in almost a whole new light. It really drove home what he had said about everything being an act and how underneath the charade, he was at a total loss.

And it broke her heart.

Graverobber's shoulders rose and fell in a sigh. "Yeah," he said in response to something Jem had said. "Yeah, I'll keep that in mind. Listen, we've gotta go. I told Nat we'd be back at the house soon, and she's already angry enough as it is, so..."

"Yeah, no, I understand. Alright, well...I'll let you go, then. I love you guys."
"We love you, too, Jem. We'll call you back later once things have calmed down for us a bit."

"Okay. Bye, guys."
"Bye, Jem," they chorused.

Graverobber let out another sigh as he ended the call. "Alright, kid," he said, "let's get this over with, shall we?"

When they got back to the house, the kids were already at school. Graverobber and Zack went upstairs to talk in private while Natalie and Shilo stayed downstairs in the living room. As soon as they were no longer able to see either of the men or hear their footsteps on the stairs, Natalie looked at Shilo. "Why?" she asked. Shilo turned to look at the older woman and gave a shrug.

"Why what?" she replied.
"Why did you follow him out yesterday?"

"Why wouldn't I?"
"He was acting like a child."

Shilo frowned.

"Okay, first of all," she said, "he's my boyfriend, and I don't have to agree with his choices to support them. And second, even if he didn't handle it in the most mature way, my understanding is that he had every right to be pissed at Zack."

"You don't even know what the history is between them."
"Yeah, actually, I do. He told me. And forgive my bluntness here, but honestly, I can't help but wonder how it is that you don't also have some resentment for your uncle. What I took away from the story is that he was a pretty big part of your lives, and then he just...vanished. How could that not upset you?"
"You think it didn't? First of all, I was always better at hiding my emotions than Allan. Second, there's this thing that people do called getting over it and moving on. Maybe that idiot boyfriend of yours should give it a try sometime, because I did it years ago, and guess what? It made my life a shitton better."

Shilo stood there smirking, arms crossed.

"What?" Natalie demanded. "What the hell are you looking at me like that for?"
"Wow," Shilo said. "He wasn't fucking around with me. You really are a heartless bitch, aren't you?"

"Okay, no. You are not going to come into my house and call me names like that, do you understand me?"
"He says you used to deliberately throw him down the stairs, is that true? Or what about that thing where you apparently tried to convince him that his first chest hair meant he was turning into a sasquatch?"

"You don't have any siblings, Shilo, you wouldn't—"
"Don't try to feed me that bullshit, alright, he said himself that what was between you went beyond sibling rivalry. God, do you not have any remorse, are you seriously just that uncaring about your own brother?"

"Stop trying to guilt-trip me, dammit! Look, you might think you're really close and know him really well, but guess what? You're not, and you don't. You've known each other for what, a month? Two? You don't know the first damn thing about him or what his life was like growing up! You can pretend like you do all you want, but you don't, okay? The long and short of it is that you just fucking don't. Maybe come talk to me again after you've known him for ten, fifteen years, once you actually know him. And really, what does he actually know about you, for that matter?"

"Excuse me?"

"Yeah. I mean, for all he knows, you're just going to use him for God-knows-what, then leave him once you're done with him."

"I would never—"

"What? Leave him for another man? Like your mom left Rotti for your dad?"
That brought Shilo up short. She tried to speak, but the sound got caught in her throat.

I am not my mother, she thought numbly. I am not my mother. I am not my mother. I am NOT my mother.
Finally, she was able to force her locked joints back into functionality, turning and walking briskly towards the front door.
"If you leave now," Natalie said, "don't bother coming back. You won't be welcome anymore, not after you had the nerve to call me a bitch in my own home."

But Shilo was deaf to everything, completely unaware of the world around her as she pulled the door open and went outside, heading down the street without looking back.

A few minutes later, Graverobber and Zack came back downstairs to find Natalie sitting in the living room with a glass of wine in her hand and music playing softly. Graverobber frowned as he looked around. "Where's Shilo?" he asked.

"She left," Natalie replied, "and she's not coming back."

"...What?"
"I'm sorry, Allan. Trust me, though, it's for the best."

"You don't get to make that call," Graverobber said firmly, struggling not to let his emotions get the better of him so that he wouldn't end up having a total break down in front of his sister, because the last thing he wanted was for her to see him in a moment of weakness and vulnerability.

"You can do better," Natalie said without looking at him.

His nostrils flared as he inhaled sharply through his nose. Next thing she knew, he was right in front of her, his hands on the arms of her chair, keeping her trapped there as he leaned in so close that the tips of their noses nearly touched, his blue eyes practically doubled in size and burning with fury.

"No, I can't," he said darkly, "and even if I could, I don't fucking want better. Now I don't know what the fuck happened down here while we weren't around, but I know that you had something to do with her leaving. I don't want the details, I don't need 'em to know it was your fault, I just want her back, and you're gonna tell me where she went so I can go and get her, you understand what I'm saying, Evil Queen?"

"Couldn't tell you even if I wanted to, baby bro," she said, "she was out the door without a word. Didn't even look at me."

Graverobber narrowed his eyes, then jerked away suddenly, turning and heading for the door.

"You'll never figure out which way she went," Natalie called, but she was ignored.

The Graverobber was on a mission, and he wouldn't rest until he got what he wanted.

Okay, a few things about some of these songs/artists. First of all, anything with the name Madilyn Bailey next to it is not the original version, it is her cover of it, and they're pretty much all acoustic. I have Radioactive on here twice, the original version first and then later on there is a cover version of it, and the reason they're both on there is because they have different tones, one being wilder and more aggressive and the other being calmer and more tame, and I think both versions fit well for different reasons. Also, you will notice that yes, there are quite a few Adam Lambert songs on here, and that is simply because he is my favorite artist and I am very familiar with his work and I often find myself making connections between his lyrics and my various pairing ships, and Grilo is no exception to this.

And another thing, several songs up at the beginning of the list are from the various Twilight movie soundtracks, starting with the fourth song on the list down to the ninth. Just because they were on the Twilight soundtracks doesn't mean they aren't good songs, and it doesn't mean that I'm not able to connect them with things outside of Twilight, case in point being that this is a Grilo playlist. And yes, there are a couple of Sarah Brightman songs on here, which I felt was appropriate for a couple different reasons, one of which I'm sure is quite obvious. Also, yes, the Creature Feature song that you'll find towards the bottom of the list is supposed to be a stupid joke, that is the exact reason that I included it.

And while the first three songs on the list should need no explanation, if you have any questions about my reasons behind including a specific song, then please, feel free to ask me about it, and I'll be happy to explain it as best as I can. :)

So, anyway, here's the playlist:

"Needle Through a Bug," Terrance Zdunich & Alexa Vega
"In All My Dreams I Drown," Terrance Zdunich & Jessica Lowndes
"Grace for Sale," Terrance Zdunich
"Leave Out All the Rest," Linkin Park
"Everything and Nothing," The Boom Circuits
"All I've Ever Needed," Paul McDonald & Nikki Reed
"Cover Your Tracks," A Boy and His Kite
"The Forgotten," Green Day
"Where I Come From," Passion Pit
"Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again," Sarah Brightman (POTO OBC soundtrack, can be switched with the Sierra Boggess 25th anniversary version and/or the Emmy Rossum movie version if desired)
"King of Anything," Sara Bareilles
"I Stand," Idina Menzel
"Wide Awake," Katy Perry
"I'm Not Dead," Pink
"Pearl," Katy Perry
"Underneath," Adam Lambert
"Learn to be Lonely," Minnie Driver (POTO movie soundtrack, song that plays during the credits)
"Lightweight," Demi Lovato
"Scars," Anna Nalick
"Heavy In Your Arms," Florence + The Machine
"Carry On Wayward Son," Kansas
"Trespassing," Adam Lambert
"Unnatural Selection," Muse
"The Only Exception," Paramore
"I Did it for You," David Cook
"Right Here, With You," David Cook
"No Boundaries," Adam Lambert
"There Comes a Time," Celine Dion
"Just The Way It Is," Adam Lambert
"Climb," Adam Lambert
"Better Than I Know Myself," Adam Lambert
"Radioactive," Imagine Dragons
"A World to Believe In," Celine Dion
"Angel," Sarah Brightman
"Black Is The Colour," Celtic Woman
"Somewhere," Celtic Woman
"You Raise Me Up," Josh Groban
"Gorgeous," Idina Menzel
"Brown Eyed Girl," Van Morrison
"Demons," Imagine Dragons
"human," Christina Perri
"Just Give Me a Reason," Pink & Nate Reuss
"Home," Make This Place Your
"I Won't Give Up," Madilyn Bailey
"Radioactive," Madilyn Bailey
"Wake Me Up," Madilyn Bailey
"Behind Blue Eyes," Limp Bizkit
"Grave Robber at Large," Creature Feature
"Marry the Night, Glee Cast Version," Adam Lambert (though technically it's the Glee cast)
"Mad World—Live at Glam Nation," Adam Lambert
"One Day Like This," Sarah Brightman
"Take Me to Church," Hozier
"Titanium," Madilyn Bailey
"For Your Entertainment," Adam Lambert
"Second Chance," Shinedown

Hope you're able to gather all of these songs together in one spot (I recommend doing so on Spotify, which is where I have it saved), and more importantly, I hope you enjoy listening to it. :)