[center][h1] [color=00aeef]Matthew Hyatt[/color] [/h1][/center]
[center][img]http://i128.photobucket.com/albums/p185/ladythang19/tumblr_m85eur5BQY1qfx6p6_zpst9sieylr.jpg[/img][/center]

Matt lay there with Gracie and Sasha as they slept. He smiled at how Sasha had cuddled up to Grace. Her maternal instincts were good. Grace had fallen asleep and rolled to Sasha out of habit of having done it with Kat all her short life. This both made Matt a little happy that Grace would eventually have no memory of what happened and sad that she would have no memories of her mother. 

He took his wallet out of his pocket and pulled a picture out and stared at it. He could barely see the outlines of the people in it in the dark. However, in his mind he remembered it like it was yesterday. They had not met til she was in Vegas and he went there on a trip with some friends. Once he had seen her dealing blackjack he spent the entire night playing blackjack and talking to her. That was it, he fell in love just like that. They spent the weekend together and when he went home and tried to call her he realized she had given him the wrong number.

In hindsight he understood that. At the time he hadn't. About six months later he had gone back and found her six months pregnant with his baby. Matt had been furious that she hadn't told him. He had moved down there temporarily and stayed near her until the baby was born. At that time he convinced her to move to California so they could be closer to his family, who would be very supportive and helpful. Nikki instantly loved her and Grace and they had gotten along famously. Nikki would hang out with her and Grace as much as possible.

He put the picture back in his wallet. Every time he dozed off he would be back in the school hearing Gracie crying. He would jump the distance and get to her before anything else happened to her and he would see Kat, pinned under rubble. He saw one of her shoes about 5 feet away. He could only see the beams that had landed on her from a little above her knees down. Her legs had been crushed. There was a large piece of iron rebar sticking through her chest. As he looked at her he would see her change and come back as a walker. Matt would wake up at this point, his face wet from crying in his sleep and finally he stopped trying to sleep and sat up. Gracie had curled up with Sasha so he left the room after turning his pillow so the baby wouldn't roll off the bed just in case.

When he went downstairs he found that he was not the only one who couldn't sleep. 

[@Alexfangtalon] [@caits][@dabombjk][@josephb][@meowgoeskat]