Title: Hey, soul sister
Fandom: The Parent Trap (1998)
Characters: Annie James, Hallie Parker
Rating: PG
Word Count: 872
"Sisters? Hallie,we're twins!" Annie and Hallie both reached out and wrapped their arms fiercely around each other.
"Oh, Annie, I mean, I've always wanted to find my mum, and now I've found both her and you, this is—"
"Unbelievable, I know," Annie cut her off. The two newfound sisters exchanged tenuous smiles. "Tell me more about what Dad's like!"
"You'll love him, he's like the coolest dad ever! We often go on camping trips and I can talk to him about almost anything, even though he has what he calls a "dad-mode"; he doesn't hesitate to ground me if he thinks I need it, which honestly I never do…" Annie sat back on her bed and leaned against the wall, amusedly listening to Hallie ramble on about the joys of having a father. Even with wildly different experiences they somehow or other had managed to end up with many similar mannerisms, and she found Hallie's speech rhythm familiar and soothing. "…You could even meet him, since we both want to?" Hallie finished, as enthusiastic as an exclamation mark.
"Wait, what?" Perhaps they were not so similar after all. Hallie's train of thought did not seem to follow any logical track.
"No really, we could do this! You'll be Hallie, and I'll be Annie so you can meet Dad and I can meet Mum! It's perfect, and we might even manage to get them back…" Hallie's voice died down as she caught Annie's expression.
"You don't want to." It was not a question, but Annie shook her head anyway.
"But... why! He's Dad! I mean… he's your father too, don't you want to at least see him, rather than just have some made-up memories based on an old and torn photo?" Hallie was not making this any easier, as Annie forced herself to say out loud what she'd privately admitted a long time ago.
She crossed the room and sat herself beside Hallie. To close the distance between them, she told herself. That this meant that she would not have to look directly at her was pure coincidence.
"You have to understand, Hallie," she began, feeling Hallie shift a little closer. "Mum designs wedding dresses. She's very successful, very happy, and we've both very close. We don't need Dad." Sensing Hallie's upcoming protest, she hurriedly continued. "I used to really want to meet Dad, of course I would. But then I thought—he's just one more person who I'd recognise but not really know, right? He probably has his own life if he hasn't tried to contact his daughter for 12 years."
"And then what really settled it was when I asked Mum about Dad." Annie looked down and watched her fingers fiddle with the bedsheets. "I've never seen her look so upset. Ever. It wasn't that she was sad, it was almost like she was lost in her own private box of memories that were chokingly overwhelming but at the same time…" She struggled to find the appropriate words.
"I do know," Hallie said, sighing. She reached for her pillow and sunk her chin into it. "Dad has the same expression when I try to talk about Mum." The two sat in silence for awhile. "I still want to see Mum," Hallie ventured.
Annie hesitated, but heck, if anyone were to understand, it'd be Hallie. "There're days when Mum and I quarrel, and all I feel like doing is hiding under the blanket with my picture of Dad and try to imagine what he'd say."
"There're days when I really want a mum to go shopping with, rather than trying to figure out what looks good and pulling my dad away from the stuff that doesn't." Annie managed a small laugh.
"If they know we've met, then they'd be forced to remember, which we don't want, but this also means…" Annie finally looked directly at Hallie and stopped short, trying to assimilate both waves of loss and relief crashing down on her. Hallie apparently understood, because she reached out to grasp her hand and led her over to exchange photos of their parents.
"Hallie?" Annie said quietly. "As someone who barely knows you and has spent most of my time here hating you, I feel stupid for saying this but it has to be—"
"I love you too," Hallie replied, and the two held each other, both softly shedding tears for the mother and father they'd never meet.
Annie would go back to her mum with cut hair and pierced ears because they both thought twins, even separated ones, should at the very least look alike. She would hug her just a little longer than usual, for the sister who would never get to. A few years down the road she'd enter university and not-so coincidentally meet Hallie there. Both parents would hear about their daughters' new best friends—Anna and Hale—but remain ignorant of the epic pillow fight that ensued when Hallie found out her mum thought she was a boy. They would, however, briefly entertain the fleeting notion that said best friend rather resembled a certain lost daughter, before determinedly throwing such thoughts into the cupboard in which they belonged, and getting on with their own, separate lives.