AN: So, if you're reading my Supernatural stuff, I know I'm supposed to be working on another story – and I am – but this just popped into my head and I had to write it. Anyway, like I said, this story kind of just popped into my head and I thought, hey, why don't I write this down and post it? So here it is. And let me just say I absolutely LOVE Ten Inch Hero. I can't count how many times I've watched it. Everything about it is just so amazing! Keep in mind, though. I've never written Priestly before and he's kind of a main character here, so if he's a little OOC I apologize.

Warnings: Possible language, mentions of past rape, mentions of past loss of a baby, brief mention of family drama (I do believe that deserves a warning), and I think that should be it.

Disclaimer: I think it should be obvious, but I don't own most of these incredible characters. Sucks for me. The quote isn't mine either. Bummer.

"Show me your scars," he said.

"But… Why?" she asked quizzically.

"I want to see how many times you needed me and I wasn't there," he whispered, a tear rolling down his cheek.

"Nope," stated the man behind the counter, whose name-tag said his name was Tyler.

"What do you mean, 'nope'? All I asked for was an application," Serena protested.

"I'm aware of that, but we have a policy against strange things… like blue hair. Come back when it goes back to whatever color it was when you were born."

Frustrated, Serena left the fifth place she'd been to in the last two days. Apparently dying her hair was going to have more of an impact than she'd planned. If she'd known it would keep that many people from hiring her, she wouldn't have done it. She had predicted that it would turn some businesses away, but not on this large of a scale.

Life was just frustrating right now. That was the only word Serena would allow herself to use. She'd been job searching for the last month, slowly working her way through each and every town she came to. So far, either she was genuinely unqualified for any of the job openings, or they had company policies against individuality. The big problem was that she was running out of money. She didn't have much of a place to stay – she had camped out in a motel room – and if she didn't find a job in this town soon she would have to move on. There are only so many opportunities in one town.

That was when she saw it. That beautiful, blessed sign. 'Help Wanted: "Normal" people need not apply.' She barely took the time to register what kind of place she was walking into – a Beach City Grill – before she was going in the door. "Who's in charge?" she asked.

"That would be me," said a guy who appeared to be in his fifties.

"I want a job," Serena stated. "What do I do?"

"Well, there's a brief interview," he said.

"Fire away," Serena answered.

"Name?"

"Serena, yours?"

"Trucker. Elvis: dead or alive?"

Serena had to smile at that. Her brother had a pretty solid argument on that one, and for his sake alone, she answered, "Alive."

"Alright, you pass. Now we take a vote."

"Wait a second," said a girl with blonde hair pulled back. Serena was pretty sure she worked there. "Everyone isn't in here."

"Well that's his fault," Trucker said. "All in favor of hiring Serena…?" Everyone's hand went up – even two of the customers voted. "Congratulations, you got the job," Trucker said. He then proceeded to introduce Serena to everyone, going from Jen to Piper to Tish, and finishing with the two customers who had voted, whose names were apparently Mr. Julius and Lucille. "We have another employee, but he's on break right now," Trucker said.

"Cool," Serena said, not sure what else to say. It was at that moment that the other employee walked in.

"I'm back," he called out, almost like he was coming home instead of back to work. That wasn't what got Serena's attention though. She was focusing on the fact that this was… her brother.

"Holy crap!" she yelled before she could hold it back.

Priestly had gone out back to have a conversation with Zo in private. She'd called, it turned out, to ask him for advice about what to get Trucker for his birthday. Honestly, Priestly thought it was the weirdest thing. Not only was it out of character for Zo to do that type of thing, but it was also a little odd for her to ask him instead of someone else, but he just went with it.

When he got back inside, he announced his arrival. He had not expected to hear someone yell, "Holy crap!" in a very familiar voice. He quickly looked in the direction it had come from, and he couldn't have been more shocked. There, looking like she was in the middle of tying an apron around her waist, was Serena, his sister. With blue hair. He'd never seen her with blue hair. Or anything weird going on with her hair at all. She'd always had a bold personality, and that had been enough. She'd never really gone for the crazy appearances like he did himself. The point, though, was that the sister he hadn't seen in years was standing a few feet away from him.

"Serena, what are you doing here?" he found himself asking. "No, don't answer that," he said immediately. "That was a stupid question. Let me start over." Instead of saying anything, though, he walked forward and wrapped his arms around her. He had missed her so much, and seeing her again made him want nothing more than to hold her. Besides, Serena had always been a hugger. Which was why Priestly was shocked when Serena tensed up immediately when he touched her. He was about to pull away to check on that when she relaxed into his arms and hugged him back. He decided then that he could ask about it later.

Serena had not expected her brother to walk in the doors of the little restaurant that was now home to her new job, and he apparently hadn't expected to find her there. Serena should have expected the hug, though. She didn't quite see it coming, though, so when she felt the arms of a man wrap around her, she had to force herself not to panic. After she reminded herself it was just her brother, who would probably rather die than hurt her, it was easy to be comfortable in the embrace.

"You two know each other, I take it?" asked Tish, a little unsure why her boyfriend had his arms wrapped around some girl who looked like she couldn't be too far past being a teenager. She wasn't quite at the point of jealousy yet, though.

"Yeah, she's my sister," Priestly answered, letting go of Serena but still keeping a hand on her shoulder. Serena didn't even mind. They were both thinking it had been too long. "Listen, Trucker, do you mind if we have some time? There are a lot of things we need to catch up on."

"Sure, take all the time you need," Trucker said. He wanted to know why two people who seemed to care about each other so much seemed to have not seen each other in a long time, but he was sure he could get answers later.

As soon as the two were out the door, Jen said, mostly to herself, "Should have known…"

"Should have known what?" asked Piper.

"That Priestly's sister would have blue hair," Jen answered.

"So, what brings you to Santa Cruz?" Priestly asked once they had sat down at a picnic table on the beach.

"I just kinda wound up here, I guess," said Serena, unsure how she should go about explaining the train wreck that had been her life the past several months. "What about you?" she asked.

"I guess it's kinda like you said," Priestly said. "Although, when I was in high school I didn't make the brilliant grades and I didn't have an eidetic memory, so there was no chance of a scholarship, and after Mom and Dad essentially disowned me there was no way for me to get into college…" Serena gave him an accusing look, so he hurried to add, "I'm not judging you or anything like that. I'm just wondering why you, a genius at the age of 19, just got a job at a sandwich shop. God, that didn't sound good either. I'm trying to ask what happened to you, because I know something did, because I know you."

Serena smiled at him softly. "You really want to know? I should warn you, I know for a fact you won't like what you hear."

"I'm sure I won't, but I still want to know, if you don't mind talking about it," Priestly said.

"Well," Serena started, the smile no longer present on her features, "I'll start with when you turned 18. After Mom and Dad just up and left you, dragging me along, I realized they weren't everything I'd made them out to be in my head. You always said they were selfish and uncaring, but I never really saw that because I was too busy convincing myself I had the best parents in the world. Life always seems better when you create false realities in your head, until they get ripped apart of course...

"Anyway, after that I decided I was leaving as soon as I turned eighteen. Screw them, right? Well, I did leave. I applied for dozens of scholarships and got a full ride offer at a college in northern California. So I went three states away in the used car Mom and Dad bought me for my 16th birthday. The first year of college went great. I had beautiful grades and I wasn't even getting stressed about the whole being in college on my own thing. The only thing I was really having trouble with was finding you. I'd been trying to do that since we left and lost touch with you. Of course, I was 13 when I last saw you, so there wasn't much I could do about it at the time…

"Anyway, other than not having a clue where you were, life was going pretty normal. It was my first semester of my second year of college when everything fell apart. It started in September. I had a night class that started at 8. My usual parking lot was full, so I went to a different one that was a little farther from the building. It was full, so I figured it must be safe. The thing is, an hour and a half later, it was empty. Apparently, the people who had been parked there got out of class shortly after mine started. I knew it wasn't the safest thing, to be in a dark parking lot alone at night, but there wasn't much I could do about that. So I took my keys out so I'd be ready to get in my car when I got to it, and I could also use them as a weapon if worst came to worst. I tried to be aware, but this guy came up behind me without me hearing. Before I knew what was happening, a handkerchief was over my face and I was inhaling what I think might have been chloroform.

"When I woke up again, I was in an alley. Cliché, right? Well, putting that aside, the guy was on top of me, and it was kind of a delayed reaction I guess, but I realized eventually that my pants and my panties were gone and my shirt was ripped down the middle, and the guy wasn't just on top of me…" Serena stopped to take a breath, trying to keep herself from crying. She could do this. It had been months. She should be able to handle this, shouldn't she?

Priestly, meanwhile, was just trying to keep his cool. Somebody had touched his sister without her permission and he was far from ok with that.

"Anyway, I passed out sometime after that, before he was even done. I'm glad I did though. It's a relief not to have had to live through the whole thing. Apparently, when I didn't show up at my dorm, my roommate called campus police and convinced them to go looking for me, although I'm not sure how. I mean, I was a college student who was a few hours late, not some 5 year old who had last been seen climbing into a white van. However she did it, I woke up in a hospital and found out later that two police officers had brought me in. They asked if I had any family I'd like to contact, and I thought of you, but I didn't know how to find you, so I just said no.

"When I got out of the hospital after about a week, I felt like I was ready to go back to class. I had to, really, or at least I told myself as much. I knew if I didn't keep my grades up, my scholarship was out the window. So I went back to class, and as long as none of the guys got too close to me I did ok. I was doing a lot better after all this, a lot better than I ever would have expected anyway. I mean, I had some killer nightmares, and I still do sometimes to tell you the truth. And if a guy did got too close to me I would come pretty close to having a panic attack. And I was having trouble paying attention in class. But I told myself I was doing fine. I couldn't risk the alternative.

"In late October, I started feeling sick, so I went to the doctor and found out I was pregnant. That was hard to get used to. I mean, I didn't know whether to be excited about carrying a life inside of me and being a mommy, or whether to be appalled that some rapist put his child inside of me. I decided to figure it out later. I wasn't planning on telling anyone about the baby – not that I had any friends the way school took up all my time. So no one except the doctors ever knew I was pregnant.

"Then, as if things weren't bad enough, in early November some idiot ran a stop sign and plowed his pick-up into my car. I made it out ok, but Charlie didn't. Charlie was the baby. I still don't know if it was a boy or a girl. I had always like the name Charlie, though, and Charlie can be a boy or a girl, so I named the baby Charlie. And the baby died. According to the doctors, I'll never be able to get pregnant again. It wasn't a hit and run though, so they caught the truck driver, unlike the rapist, who is still out there. Nobody even knows what he looked like because he was wearing a mask. I got lucky though, because I didn't get any STDs, right?" At that point, Serena had to stop. She'd held it all together until now, but she couldn't anymore. Two rivers were making their ways down her cheeks as she silently shook. Priestly just held her, letting her tears soak his T-shirt. He really didn't know what to say. He'd just had a bombshell dropped on him. He knew he should have some kind of helpful, all-knowing statement he could make, but he was at a loss. His sister had been hurt in the worst way possible, she'd gotten pregnant because of it, and had in turn lost the baby.

After an amount of time unknown to either one of them, Serena collected herself again and picked up with her story. "Anyway, I never could force myself to go back to school after that, so my scholarship is nonexistent now. I didn't leave campus until I knew for sure though. But anyway, my car was totaled, so I got all my money together and left on a bus. The first thing I did, if you can believe it, was dye my hair. My world felt like it was coming undone, and all I really wanted was to see you, not to guilt you or anything. I mean, none of this was even slightly your fault. But anyway, since I couldn't see you, I decided to do something to remind myself of you, so I dyed my hair blue. Of course, I didn't realize that would cause as much trouble as it did. I must have been through about 5 different towns trying to find a decent job that would allow me to keep my hair as it is before I finally came here. I thought about just letting my hair go back natural, but then I decided that I was too stubborn for that, and I'm so glad I did. You don't know how happy I am that I found you. Even if I wasn't trying to at the moment. So, yeah, that's about it."

"Look, Serena, I'm so sorry about what happened to you."

"It's ok."

"No, it's not. But it's going to be, because now you got me," Priestly said with a squeeze to her shoulder.

"Right, so how's life treating you these days? Got a girlfriend? Boyfriend?"

"Yeah, I do actually. The girl in there named Tish – she's mine. She just moved in with me a month ago. We've been dating for… six months now I think."

"That's good, I'm happy for you," Serena said with a grin.

"By the way," Priestly said, "where are you planning on spending the night?"

"Well, I checked into a motel yesterday. It's actually not bad. I was planning on buying a more permanent place after I got some more money," Serena said.

"Well, listen, why don't you move in with me and Tish? There's a spare bedroom. I know I'd feel better if you did," Priestly said. He wasn't comfortable with his sister being alone. Not only was she slightly more in danger, but she had been alone for far too long, it seemed. Plus, there was the part where Priestly missed his sister.

"You're sure you don't mind?" asked Serena, who really did want with all she had to move in with her brother. "You don't think Tish will mind either?"

"Of course not. How about after work we get all your stuff over there?"

"Sounds good," Serena said.

When the two returned to the restaurant, they hadn't missed anything. The help wanted sign was gone, but that was the only real change that had taken place. Apparently, Jen had taken over cooking in Priestly's absence. "You two get caught up?" Trucker asked.

"Yeah," Priestly said. "All caught up." He looked over to Tish and, seeing she wasn't occupied, he pulled her aside. In a lowered tone, he said, "Hey, my sister, she's been through a rough patch lately and I invited her to move into our guest bedroom. That's cool with you, right?"

"Well, of course," Tish said.

"Great," Priestly said.

"Hey, it's Serena, right?" Tish said, walking over to the younger girl.

"Yeah, and you're Tish?"

"Yep. Priestly told me you were moving in with us, and I just wanted to tell you I'm looking forward to it. It'll be nice to have another girl in the house. And just in case you're ever interested, I'm all for some girl talk."

Serena had to smile. She liked this girl her brother was dating. "Sounds good to me," she said, although she wasn't sure when she would be ready to open up to this girl who, for now, was a stranger.

"Can I come too?" Priestly asked.

"No," came the immediate response.

"Oh, come on," Priestly said. "You can't do stuff in my apartment and not include me."

"Fine," Tish said. "If you want to hear all about which products are better to control the flow—"

"Enough," Priestly said, making a disgusted face. "Point taken. Just have fun without me."

AN: Two more chapters and then we're done! Yay! Leave a review if you have a couple of seconds!