For the past few days Nick had regarded the almost comatose girl as a burden he didn't really want.  He knew she had undoubtably suffered greatly, but so had others.  He had made promises to the dead.  Promises he intended to keep and the broken girl slowed him down.  He didn't make half his usual distance escorting her and she had no concept whatsoever of moving silently<br/><br/>Then she sang.<br/><br/>She sang of lost love with a voice that was as lovely as her words were haunting.  They touched him.  His heart wept.  He was frozen in rapt attention unable to move until she was done.  Ghosts better left dead danced in his memories.  They were not restful ghosts and he had long filled himself with nothing but hate and vengence.  She'd sowed something else, but he also felt the need for vengence more strongly than he had in months.  He had no where to direct that violence.  No where but the girl and it wasn't aimed at her.<br/><br/>It took a while before he could speak.  He took in how the girl was acting.  She did not look normal.  There was something off about her presentation, but even when her song was done she had an alertness to her that she'd lacked the past few days.<br/><br/>"Welcome back to the land of the living.  That was a beautiful song.  I've never heard anything like it."<br/><br/>That was all truth.  There had been music once, before WWIII, but he'd taken it for granted.  Her song had been magical.