A/N: This idea just came to me last night, and I had to post it. I hope you all like it. Please feel free to review!
Ellie sat silently in Ms. Suave's office. It had been weeks, but she still wasn't comfortable with therapy. She could talk about events, but not emotions. She wasn't ready for that yet.
"So, your Dad is still gone?"
Ellie nodded slightly and fidgeted with her braids. "In Kabul. Four more months until he's home."
"How do you feel when he's away?"
She continued playing with her braids, and stared out the window. What kind of question was that? What did it matter how she felt? It didn't change anything. Her dad would still be gone whether she liked it or not. She would still be left alone with her mother, and her mother would still be drinking. Life would go on, and it would be chaotic.
"Ellie?"
She was lost in her thoughts again. Every counseling session seemed to play out in the same way. Ellie was always a million miles away, but, somehow, still right there stuck in her own painful world.
Ms. Sauve glanced at the clock and put down her notebook and pen. "That's all the time we have for today. We can continue this next week, okay?"
Ellie stood up and absentmindedly nodded. She grabbed her bag and headed out into the hallway. She was glad to be out of there, but as she stared down the empty hallway, she realized that she had no where to go. She sighed. She felt so alone these days. As much as she cared for Ashley, she just couldn't be there for her right now. There was too much going on in her life. And Marco was always too busy being with Dylan to take notice that anything was wrong. Paige had shown compassion, but she wasn't a friend, not really.
Deciding that she didn't want to go home yet, she started toward the Dot. At least she could get started on her homework without having to listen to her mom get sick in the bathroom.
Ellie chose a table in the far corner, away from the noise of the other students. She almost wished she could be one of them for a change. They didn't seem to have any worries or problems. Of course she knew that wasn't true, but why did they seem so happy all of the time?
She had just pulled out her History book when Spinner approached the table. "Hey, Ellie, what can I get for you?" he asked while laying down a set of silverware.
She shook her head. "Just a water."
As Spinner walked off mumbling something about never getting any tips, Ellie noticed Sean sitting at a table near by with Jay and Towerz. She could not understand why he hung out with those guys. They were such jerks, always giving Marco and Dylan a hard time. She thought that Sean was better than that. He had dated Emma after all, and she didn't seem the type to date a lowlife.
She sighed and turned back to her History homework. She had three chapters to read, and she wanted to get as much done as possible before she went home.
*****
It was dark when Ellie left the Dot. She had left Spinner a nice tip for his trouble, not that he had been that great of a waiter, but whatever. As she approached her house she paused. All of the lights were out.
'Great,' she thought, 'guess she's passed out again.'
Ellie opened the front door and turned on the lights. "Mom? Are you here?" She walked over to the living room couch where her mom had passed out, liquor bottles at her side. "Just what I thought," she muttered.
She was cleaning up the bottles when the phone rang. Not wanting the noise to wake her mom, she ran to answer it. "Hello?"
"Is this the Nash Residence?"
"Yah, who's this?"
"This is Brigadier-General Joseph Schwartz. I'm looking for Mrs. Nash."
Ellie glanced at her mother, unconscious on the couch. She cleared her throat. "This is," she lied.
"Mrs. Nash, I'm sorry to inform you of this," he paused, not wanting to say the words, "but your husband was fatally wounded during-"
"What?" Ellie was screaming, not caring if she woke her mother. "No! He was on a peacekeeping mission! That's not possible!" There had to be some mistake. They must have called the wrong house. It was someone else's dad, not hers. No, her dad was coming home. He promised her.
"Ma'am, I'm sorry. There was a suicide bomb that went off not far from where he was patrolling." He waited for her response, but there was only silence on the other end of the phone. "Ma'am? Ma'am are you still there?"
Ellie reached up and put the phone back on the receiver. She couldn't believe what she had just heard. Her dad, her escape, the one steady, normalizing force in her life, was gone. He wasn't coming back. She had just talked to him, and now she'd never hear his voice or see his face or be wrapped up in one of his bear hugs ever again. She ran up the stairs as fast as she could, as the tears began to fall, and barely made it to the bathroom before she threw up.