Bree closed her eyes as she turned her face up toward the sky. The sun wasn't warm, nor even particularly bright this time of year. But it was one of those rare, cloudless skies one finds on occasion in the Pacific Northwest, that simply must be savored because they are gone far, far too soon. She hadn't really looked forward to returning to the area, to this part of the country. There were some moments in time she still couldn't exorcise from her thoughts, the scenes playing in her mind's eye: a man stepping from a 15-story roof top and walking away; an impossible leap from pier to ship, aided it seemed by the ocean itself; a leisurely stroll from a jail cell...

She shook her head angrily, wincing as if in pain for a moment as she pulled her knees to her chest. Wrapping her arms protectively around her legs, Bree's forehead dropped to her knees for a moment, catching her breath, forcing it to slow, and then slower still and deeper, deliberately calming the pounding of her heart in her chest. 

It wasn't that nobody believed her. In the absence of any other explanation for Ethan's inexplicable escape from the Seattle PD and now just walking off the roof a Chicago high-rise, there was no other explanation to be had. But that explanation meant that something deeply, profoundly impossible had traipsed through the world, and Bree's logical, orderly, disciplined mind fought that knowledge with every ounce of her indomitable willpower.

And she was falling apart. The disintegration was slow, granted, but Bree could feel it sapping at the edges of her strength, the constant pull of that impossible thing, as unstoppable and undeniable as the relentless force of the tides on the seashore, wearing it all away.

So when Jarod - kind, concerned, unfailingly decent Jarod - suggested he take her home, to his home, to come explore the wilds with him and his brothers, do some rafting, some hiking? Oh sure, there'd been a split-second of genuine terror, that things were going way too fast, that no way should she be meeting his family after only some weeks time.

It was mostly a measure of how worn she'd become, how tired and stretched paper-thin she'd become, that she was here now, that Bree was willing to allow someone else to help carry her burdens in some small way. Not that she'd admit this thing though. Not aloud at least. Not ever.

But here at this rocky riverbank, Bree could almost let the water's roar drown out all those thoughts that shouldn't be, and simply... Not think. She'd left Jarod and his brothers, Josh and Matt about a mile upstream, getting everything ready for their ride today. 'Quiet Matt' she'd taken to calling him in her head, his silence at first a little... Disquieting, she supposed, especially compared to Jarod and Josh - but then something just clicked in her head... Well, it was simply him after all, and he meant no harm, just had his own peculiar ways of doing things (like that whole "no airplanes" thing, driving all the way from Ohio to Bend, Oregon). 

Jarod took his cue from Matt it seemed, and didn't question Bree when she said she wanted to go check out the river, only nodded, smiled, said they'd be ready in a couple hours and gave her a quick kiss good-bye as she promised to be back soon, soon enough...