"Right, so let's start this. Gabrielle Adeline Robinson?" the therapist looked at me over her white framed glasses. I rolled my eyes.
"It's Gabby, but yes, that's me" I said with barely veiled frustration
"And your parents won't be joining you?" she asked. I scoffed.
"They'll be about as absent as they have been the last sixteen years" I muttered. I was met with a blank stare, "that means no" I hissed. She looked back down at the file on her lap, ignoring my rudeness,
"So, Gabby. You've been receiving treatment for depression at the Moorebrook Centre in New York for the last year and are returning to Beacon Hills to live with family friends?"
"You just read that in the file in front of you, so obviously" I replied with disinterest,
"Why are you not going to live with your parents?"
"They live in Los Angeles"
"And?"
"And I don't want to live there"
"Why's that?"
"I hate Los Angeles and all my friends are in Beacon Hills"
"And you're keen to return to your friends?"
"Who wouldn't be?"
"Well for a lot of people, their relationships with friends are part of the causes for their depression"
"Not for me" I clenched my hands against the arms of the chair I was in, "honestly, can I please leave? I swear to God, you're the worst shrink I have ever had the most unfortunate experience of speaking to, and I have a new room to move into. We've talked for about ten minutes and I feel like it's been an hour, okay? Thanks, but no thanks. I've had damn near a year of sitting in a room with a therapist for two hours every single weekday. Tell my parents that they can send the money they're sending you, to Melissa, okay? Because being with her and Scott, and being back around Stiles is going to fix me more than this-" I gestured between her and I, "ever will. I'm leaving" I stood, grabbing my handbag from the floor and leaving the office. The receptionist looked at me with a questioning look as a swept past her, but I didn't care; I was sick and tired of having to deal with therapists.

I walked out to my car and sat in the driver's seat, resting my head on the steering wheel. I hadn't even gotten to Scott's yet; my car was still filled with boxes and bags, and my parents were already wearing me down, and they weren't even here. When my parents dragged me away to the east coast for treatment eight months ago, I had been in a bad place. I was practically living alone, with my parents always away on business, I was failing my classes and had been in a serious depression. Then "The Incident", as my parents referred to it as, happened; and I was whisked away from my friends with only a look from the back window of a car as a goodbye. It had been eight months and four days since then, and I wanted my life to begin again. I started the car and pointed myself in the direction of Scott's. I was finally back in Beacon Hills, I wasn't about to spend any more time away from the people who the reason I was back. I finally pulled up outside the familiar house and took the keys out of the ignition, stepping out the car. I saw a familiar mop of dark hair in the lounge window, turn and I saw his face break into a smile. I smiled back and ran up the path to the porch. The front door opened and I ran into Scott's wide open arms,
"Scotty!" I practically shrieked in his ears as his squeezed me tight, lifting me off the ground. I heard his sigh in my ear,
"Gabby. Oh my god" he murmured, his arms tight around me. He eventually put me down, his hands still resting on my shoulders, "it's so great to have you here". I looked behind him and saw his mom, Melissa smiling at me.
"Hi sweetheart, give us a hug" she said warmly, and I walked into her embrace. I had always felt close with Melissa. She felt more like a mother than the ice-cold witch that mine was. I stepped away and looked around the house, feeling like I really was at home. Scott was bouncing on his heels,
"Okay, your room is upstairs, the one with the bay window" he said excitedly. Melissa rubbed my arm,
"You don't have your own bathroom, you and I have to share, if that's okay?" she asked,
"Oh that's fine, really. I'm just glad to be here, and really keen to unpack" I replied, looking back at my little Suzuki Swift that was filled to the brim with boxes. Scott practically sprinted out to the car, opening the back door and grabbing as many boxes as he could. Melissa and I chuckled, going out and grabbing boxes and following Scott up to my room.

I walked inside and saw familiarity. My parents had sent my old furniture earlier, so my double bed sat under the bay window, my drawers against the wall behind the door, my desk at the bottom of the bed, atop it sat my new laptop; a guilt present from my parents. The wardrobe door was open and empty, and to the left of it was a corkboard, above my bookcase. Scott had put the boxes on top my bed and he took the ones from my arms and put them next to them,
"I can get all these, Gabby, you can start unpacking" he said before dashing from the room again. I chuckled. He wasn't making a secret of how excited he was to have me back in Beacon Hills. Eventually all the boxes were stacked around my room, with my suitcases and duffel bag sitting in the doorway. I pulled back my straw blonde hair into a scruffy ponytail and set to unpacking.


It took me about two hours, but I eventually had all my books, CDs and DVDs in my bookcase in alphabetical order, and most of my clothes unpacked. I heard a tapping on the open door and turned and saw Scott standing there, dominating the doorway. I smiled,
"What's up Scott?"
"Nothing . I just can't believe you're back" he replied, walking into my room and sitting at the wheelie chair at my desk. I smiled again, returning to the suitcase full of my printed t-shirts,
"Stiles is coming over later. He wants to celebrate the beginning of summer with his best friends" he said, absent-mindedly fiddling with the edges of the desk. It was amazing at how well we slotted back into the friends thing again. The whole flight back to the west coast and the subsequent drive from Los Angeles I had worried about arriving in Beacon Hills to find Scott cold and confused about what I had been through. I knew for a fact that his mom had told him what happened with me, and why I left, I was pretty sure Sheriff Stilinski had told Stiles. We had been sitting in a companionable silence, me still unpacking my print t-shirts into my drawers, when a loud, mechanical rattling made us both turn to the windows above my bed,
"That'll be Stiles" Scott said, standing and looking out the window, me standing behind to see a beat up, old, blue Jeep,
"The kid drives?"
"He's good too. You're allowed to be surprised" Scott replied with a laugh when he was met with my doubting face, "Come on, let's go downstairs before he gets to the door" he said, reaching for my hand to take me downstairs. I took hold and we went down and sat in the living room, nestling right into the corner of the sofa, Scott sitting next to me. I looked down at myself. Did I still look like me? I had on a pair of jean shorts that stopped just above my knees and my old Beatles t-shirt I'd had since I was about fourteen and my stripy ankle socks. I still felt like me (well, as me as I could feel nowadays). I was about find out as I heard footsteps on the porch and the door opening,
"Hello?" Stiles called out. I heard him cuss and stumble as he caught his foot on the rug,
"Living room, dude!" Scott called out and I saw Stiles finally appear, tripping yet again. Our eyes met and I saw a plethora of emotions cross his face, before finally settling on happiness, and he practically screamed at me,
"Gabby! Oh my GOD, Gabby!" he practically screamed, running toward me as I stood up and be pulled into a crushing hug. I squeezed around him just as tight,
"Hey Stiles, I missed you too" I said around a laugh, as Stiles pulled away, still looking at me,
"I'm just…wow. I'm just so happy to see you here again" Stiles said, tripping over his words. I smiled at him again before looking away, letting my scruffy bangs fall over my eyes,
"Well, now we're all back together, what are we going to do?" Stiles asked excitedly,
"Dude, I still have unpacking to do before we can even think of going out and doing fun stuff" I replied, throwing him one of my old looks that I used to use to tell him he was being stupid. I saw Scott laugh at the familiarity and stand up,
"Well let's go get this finished then" he said, shoving us back upstairs. For the next couple of hours as I continued unpacking clothes and my general stuff out of cases and boxes, I let the boys use their distinct height advantage to pin my film posters on the blank walls. Soon I had my room feeling familiar and homely as we flattened boxes and put them out to be recycled. As we stood outside, I turned to Stiles,
"Okay then, Twitchy, now you can celebrate a summer with your best friends ahead of you" I said, as he broke out in one of his dorky grins,
"Really?!"
"Yes, now let me get my wallet and shoes and we can go" I said, dashing back inside, returning quickly and slinging my arms around Stiles and Scott's shoulders,
"Come on dorks, I'm feeling like burgers and curly fries" I said, making Stiles grin widely.


After piling into Stiles' Jeep we took the ten minute drive to the closest fast food restaurant for burgers. We each ordered, making sure I had my own lot of curly fries to keep them away from Stiles, we were sat down in the old booth we had been sitting in since we were kids coming here with our families. The conversation was light, keeping to topics about Scott and Stiles and the gossip I had missed out on in the last few months and talking about lacrosse. It wasn't until we were nearly finished that I decided to tell them everything,
"Okay you guys. I know you're trying to keep the conversation away from what I've had to deal with the last eight months, but I need to set the record straight or I'm going to go nuts. You know how I went missing for three days? Well, I don't actually know what happened to me, okay? All I know is that I had a massive panic attack breakdown, and then I blank for three days until Sheriff Stilinski found me in the preserve with my arms all scratched raw by my own nails. Mom and dad shipped me off to New York to get me help, and to get me into therapy to figure out what happened to me" I looked up at them and saw their confused and concerned faces, "I got help with my depression and self-harm, but I still have no idea what happened for those three days" I explained in a quieter voice, twisting my hands together on my lap. Scott and Stiles shared a look. I sighed,
"Come on guys, can we just not make it weird? I just wanted to be honest. What did my parents tell you guys?" Stiles cleared his throat,
"Um, we kind of never got told the full story. I mean…we were out looking for you those three days. We weren't supposed to, dad told us to stay at home but we did anyway. Then you were found in the preserve and taken to the hospital and uh…well, your parents didn't let us see you. That's why when you left, we were all…frantic or whatever to see you" he stuttered out. I felt my jaw drop slightly and close. Mom and dad had told me that they had kept them in the loop,
"So…did you get any news about me this past eight months?" I asked. Scott shook his head,
"Nothing really, other than where you were. We didn't know anything else until your mom came and asked my mom if you could live with us". I fell back against the backrest of my seat. I felt like I should be angry, but I couldn't pretend like something like this was a surprise. My parents had always been absent, and in recent years had made no secret about wanting me to find new friends who weren't Scott and Stiles. But if they didn't want them knowing how I was recovering, why send me to live with Scott? I sighed again, running my hand over my face,
"Well I am not going to pretend that this is surprizing. Their stellar parenting strikes again" I scoffed, managing to get a smile out of the two, "look dorks, I'm still Gabby, okay? Except not with the depression and all that. I just want to get back to normal here, guys; and hopefully not be plagued by rumours that I was pregnant or some bullshit like that" I said, trying to get back to a more neutral conversation. I saw them both crack a smile, and I relaxed. I hadn't made it awkward. We finished off our food, Stiles practically bouncing with happiness when I gave him the last of my curly fries.


Stiles then drove us home, and I found myself dozing off as I sat in the backseat, listening to Scott and Stiles chat about summer plans and video games. We finally pulled up outside home and I jolted myself awake. I climbed out and staggered slightly as I stood on the sidewalk. Stiles practically leapt over to help me, but I swatted him away,
"Stiles. I'm fine, I just need to go take my meds and go to bed. I'm exhausted – oh balls, I forgot to make up my bed!" I groaned, thinking of the bare double bed,
"I can do that!" Stiles offered as we walked inside, "Scott and I will make your bed up, and you go take your pills and get ready for bed" he continued, Scott nodding in agreement beside him,
"Ugh, okay fine. Just let me get pajamas first" I said, slogging up the stairs to my room and fishing out my blue pajama shorts and R2D2 t-shirt,
"Away you go" I called down the stairs as I went in to the bathroom to change. I quickly put on my pajamas and took off my makeup. I looked at my bare face in the mirror. I was surprized with how well the day had gone. I expected Scott and Stiles to be angry with me for leaving, regardless of how excited I was to be moving back. There had been a large part of me that expected hostility and that I'd have to re-earn their friendship; but that obviously wasn't the case at all. I heard a disagreement down the hall, as Stiles tried and failed to show Scott how to tuck in bed sheets properly. I laughed and left the bathroom and went down to the kitchen to get my meds. I had agreed to keep my pills in the kitchen, and have someone around when I took them to make sure I did. I popped out the various capsules from their foil packets, lining them up on the kitchen counter. I went and filled up a glass of water and waited for Scott and Stiles to finish their argument and come downstairs. About ten minutes later, after hearing about ten different insults hurled at each other, Scott and Stiles came back down and into the kitchen. Stiles came and sat next to me at the breakfast bar, with Scott resting his hands on the counter in front of me,
"Sorry if the left side is poorly tucked in, that was someone else's side" Stiles said, throwing a glare at Scott,
"Oh my god, Stiles! It's Gabby! She sleeps like a damn starfish anyway! Do you not remember the countless sleepovers when she's kicked you in her sleep?!" he retorted, gesturing at me. I just laughed and started swallowing my meds. Stiles glared again,
"Not the point, Scotty-boy. I won't accept crappy workmanship" he shot back. I finished taking all my pills and got up to put the now-empty glass in the dishwasher,
"Stiles, Scott has a point. But as a point of interest, I don't really toss and turn anymore, I stopped that a few months ago" I said as I started wandering back towards the hall, "look, if you're gonna play Halo or something, don't wake me up. Parts of my sleeping patterns may have change, but I am still a nasty piece of work if I get woken up when I don't want to be. Goodnight, dorks" I said, waving at them and going up to my room. I climbed beneath my bedcovers; one side noticeably less tucked in than the other, and snuggled down. I usually lay a while and thought about my day, and what I wanted to happen the next, but I was asleep in moments.

Author's Note: Okay woah this is a thing now. Yeah so, that's my first chapter of "Somewhere Between Happy". This is my first multi-chapter fic I've actually had the guts to post. I will try to keep to a two week between chapters schedule, but if that changes, I'll post on tumblr (which is linked in my profiles, but my ff name is the same as my tumblr url). Review to let me know what you think, or send me a tumblr ask. See you in two weeks (or earlier if the next chapter writing goes as well as it is at the moment)

- Alice