Heroic Couplet

Sarah Falkner reveled in the feeling of stretching muscles as she lifted her leg to rise to almost touch her head as her hand steadied herself on the bar. She lowered it, and took a step to send her into a pirouette. Another step sent her across the room in a series of brisk twirls, ending with her leaning forward, leg stretched straight out.

She paused, enjoying the beautiful feeling of her body stretching and the sweat of her movements trailing down her taunt abs.

"How did I know you'd be here, love?" a female voice said, amused, from the doorway to the studio.

Sarah's eyes flew open, and she stumbled as her concentration was broken. She turned, tucking a honey brown curl back into place as she smiled at her sister.

"I wanted to be here one more time." Sarah said sheepishly, wrapping her arms around her middle and looking around the ballet studio. "I spent almost my whole childhood here."

"Yes, I know." Julia answered wryly. "Begging me to drive you to practice, hogging the washer to wash your sweaty leotards. Oh yeah, I remember."

Sarah laughed softly. "Yeah, a lot of time here." she said wistfully, taking a few well-measured steps in the room.

Julia checked her phone after a few moments of silence. "Well, come on then! I didn't fly here from America to just reminisce with you. You've got a whole new world waiting for you!"

Sarah glanced at the luggage she had piled in the corner. "I'm going to miss it here. London." she said quietly, blue eyes turning to study her sister. "Don't you miss it?"

The older sister shrugged. "Nah. I left five years ago with Luke and never looked back." she said easily, smiling. "Which reminds me, missy. Madison's waiting for you! Let's go, already!" Julia surged forward and took several of Sarah's bags in hand. Sarah threw on her sweats and a Doctor Who t-shirt, picking up the rest of her bags as she clumsily removed her ballet slippers, putting on comfy sneakers.

"Do you think there will be a ballet studio in New York?" Sarah asked as she followed her elder sister to the waiting car, driven by their mother's personal driver, Malcolm. She was too old to drive herself, so they paid for her to have her own driver. Their two brothers, Adam and Max, as well.

Julia gave her sister and incredulous look, then rolled her eyes. "Obviously. New York City is huge. And it's the best place for theater arts in the world, dear sister! You could make something of those skills."

Sarah smiled and shook her head. "No, you know it's only recreational. I didn't go to school for special education to be a ballet dancer, now did I?"

"No. You went to help Madison." Julia said affectionately, elbowing her sister lightly. "And she is so excited to see you."

Sarah smiled, blushing softly. She thought of her niece, who was born with autism. She would be about seven now. Sarah was eighteen when Julia had her, two years before she left with her husband to live in America.

Knowing that Madison would need extra help, Sarah decided to forego her dreams of becoming a professional ballet dancer, and headed to college to be a special education teacher. Now, seven years later, she was finally going to live with her sister to make use of her extensive schooling.

Sarah smiled at the memory of her last moments in England as she sat at dinner for the first time with her sister, brother in law, and niece.

"Auntie Sarah, will you help me with my homework?" Madison asked excitedly, scooping a pile of peas into her mouth as she smiled in undisguised glee at the arrival of her aunt.

"Of course." Sarah answered, voice equally as sweet. "What are you doing tonight?"

"We're doing the alphabet. I know the first twelve letters by heart!"

"That's wonderful, baby girl!" Sarah exclaimed, taking a sip of her Mountain Dew.

"Madison's doing wonderful in school right now." Luke said affectionately, grinning at his young daughter.

"Daddy can I go get my homework to show Auntie?" Madison asked, bouncing in her seat.

"Have you finished your dinner?"

"Yes! And I don't even want desert! Please!" she continued, smiling at her aunt and her parents with such infectious happiness.

"Okay, go ahead." Luke finally consented, and Madison ran off to get her backpack.

"No running!" Julia called, and then brought her eyes back to Sarah with a happy grin on her face. "Told you she was excited to see you."

"Sarah laughed softly. "I can tell." she said, amused by her young niece's excitement. It made her happy to know that Madison enjoyed her visits so much. But this time, it would be a much longer visit.

Julia smiled, and was about to answer when her phone went off. She pulled it out of her pocket, and answered.

The conversation was short, but the result was Julia getting rather irritated with the person on the other line. She hung up with a furious swipe of her finger.

"Amanda cancelled." she said to Luke, and it obviously had a sort of meaning to him. He sighed in irritation.

"For tomorrow? God that girl is unreliable." Luke growled, picking up his plate. "Anyone else able to take it?"

"No. Jean, Nicole, and Arthur already had to call off. I have eight people on the job but we'd need at least ten. Nine was pushing it already. We can't do this kind of party with eight people."

Julia and Luke owned a catering company, one that was actually very well-known in New York. They did a lot of high profile jobs. It sounded like this one was very important.

"I can help, if you want." Sarah offered. "I don't have my interview until next Tuesday. I have time."

Julia raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure? Can you handle the stress of a job like this?" she asked skeptically. "And you might have to serve alcohol. We know how you feel about that." she teased.

Sarah blushed softly. She was considered the 'goody goody' of her family. She never partied, never drank, and never snuck out. She was a straight A student, and never even had a boyfriend in her years of high school and college.

"I don't mind... if it would help you." she said quietly, grinning."I really do want to help."

Julia bit her lip. "I was going to ask if you could stay with Madison while we were on the job... but I suppose we can ask the sitter..." she mused, tapping a finger against her cheek in thought. "I mean... if you really want to help us..."

"Of course, Jules. It's not a problem."

Julia smiled. "Brilliant, then. Brilliant. I'll call the sitter now." she said as Madison's approaching feet sounded as she headed back with her homework.

"Who's this crazy-important party for, anyway?" Sarah asked, looking down at Madison's half-finish homework.

"Tony Stark! Can you believe it? I'm doing a benefit for Tony Stark and the Avengers!" Julia squealed as she dialed the phone number.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Hellllloooooo erryone!

If you're here because you've read Circuit Breaker, hello again! If you're reading me for the first time, hello as well! And read Circuit Breaker for some background on this world of mine!

So I know this was a boring first chapter, but the next chapter is the benefit mentioned in CB. And Sarah meets Steve.

And so you know, this is going to be a bit shorter than CB. Probs lik 15-25 chapters. A shorter project.

So review, let me know what you think of Sarah so far!

LOVE YOU ALL!

jess