Chapter 14:

A Trip to Detroit

AN: So, here's chapter 14! A super-long chapter for you guys! I hope you like it! I know that it's a little random, but oh, well... Have a great day! God Bless You, fellow writers! :)

"I already told you," Mary insisted, crossing her arms over her chest. "Everyone at school hates me. My brother hates me. Why do I have to keep repeating myself?"

She was sitting slumped on a couch, her therapist, Marcia Matthews, sitting on a chair across from her. It was Mary's first meeting with her, and needless to say, Mary was less than pleased.

"I know that you told me what the problem was, Mary," Marcia said gently. "But I want to know the why. Why did you feel that suicide was the answer?"

Mary looked away.

Marcia glanced at the wall clock. "I have to meet with my next patient now," she said softly. "But I'll schedule your next appointment in a few days, alright? We can talk more then." She opened the door, and let Mary head out first.

In the waiting room, Christina stood from the uncomfortable chair she was sitting in, and greeted her daughter with a small smile. Ravi was in the chair next to her. He had wanted to come for "moral support" as he called it.

While Christina spoke with the receptionist, Ravi and Mary headed outside. After a minute of standing against the car in silence, Mary turned to her brother. "Ravi, can I ask you something?" she said quietly.

Ravi met his sister's eyes. "Sure."

"When you got adopted, did you...did you ever feel...separate?"

Ravi looked confused. "What?"

"You got adopted when you were older. Did you ever feel that you...weren't one of them?"

Ravi looked away. "Sometimes, I guess. Why?"

"I just...I don't feel like I'm in a family. I feel like I'm under surveillance, and one wrong move's gonna get me sent back."

At that, Ravi turned to her. "Mary...they would never send you back. You have to know that."

At that moment, Christina came out of the door of the counseling office.

Mary turned away from her brother. "I don't know."

Morgan sighed as he hung up the phone with the movie studio manager. That man just didn't know how to run a business. As he turned back to his paperwork, a knock caught his attention.

"Come in," he called.

Luke timidly opened the door and stepped inside. He shut the door behind him.

"Hey, buddy, what's up?" Morgan asked.

Luke was hesitant. "I need you to take me somewhere," he asked.

"Where?"

Luke took a deep breath. "I need you to take me to Detroit."

For a moment, Morgan was silent. "Is this concerning your sister?"

Luke nodded.

Another moment of awkward silence. Morgan exhaled. "Alright. Go pack your suitcase."

"Wait wait wait wait wait," Bree said, interrupting Chase. "They actually kissed?!"

Chase nodded. The three siblings were in the kitchen of their home. Chase was sitting at the counter, Adam was playing a game on his tablet on the couch, and Bree was standing across from Chase.

"That's what they said."

Bree pressed. "Well, what was it like? What led up to it?"

"I don't know! Mary didn't want to talk about it, and if Ravi hadn't have shown up when he did, I think Zuri would have gone into greater detail."

Bree laid her hand over her heart. "Aw! It's so romantic!"

Adam turned to them. "How is it romantic if it was under such awkward circumstances?"

"Hello?!" Bree exclaimed. "The best movie romances are always under awkward circumstances. Just think of it: This could be a whole new start for them! They-"

"Bree," Chase interrupted. "If you start shipping their names, I'm leaving the room."

"But they could be...Maz! Or wait! Kary!"

Chase stood. "And I'm leaving now," he said, heading down towards the lab as Bree carried on.

Luke stood nervously outside the pizza parlor in Detroit. He and Morgan had left on the family's jet nearly two hours ago, telling the family that Morgan had some business to take care of, and he wanted Luke to observe. The business story wasn't a complete lie. There was a client of some sort that Morgan had been meaning to meet with, but hadn't had the time. Now, after landing and checking into a hotel room, Morgan had dropped Luke off here, and was returning to pick him up in a few hours.

Luke took a deep breath, and pushed the door open.

The bell tingled lightly. The parlor wasn't honestly busy. A few customers were scattered here and there, and the front counter was vacant of the public and employees. Luke stepped up to the counter and shivered slightly, despite the warmth that the pizza ovens gave off.

Footsteps sounded, and a girl flew out from behind the ovens, hurrying to meet the supposed customer. She stopped.

Sabrina was definetly taller than when Luke had last seen her. Her red hair was pulled back into a messy bun, and her apron was dirty. She tentatively stepped forward.

"I, um...I take it you're not here to place and order, are you?" she said quietly.

Luke shook his head. "No."

Sabrina exhaled. "Bennett," she called, turning towards the kitchen. "I'm gonna leave now. Watch the front, okay?"

Not waiting for a reply, she slipped off her apron, tossed it somewhere, and led Luke outside.

Once the doors had closed behind them, she turned to him. "How did she try to do it?"

Luke was confused. "What?"

"She tried to kill herself, didn't she?"

"Who told you?!"

"I'm not stupid. When Mary goes 10 full days without answering any of my texts, I know something's up." She paused. "I'm also on Facebook," she added quietly.

For a moment, Luke was silent. "She hates me, Sabrina," he said. "I know she's got a good reason to, but I don't know how to fix it." He met her eyes. "You know her best. You've got to help me."

The teenager sighed. "Come with me," she said, pulling him down the sidewalk.

Once they were on their way, Sabrina continued. "What did she try to do?"

Luke swallowed. "Overdose."

"How far did she get?"

Luke shook his head. "Our cousins stopped her. She didn't get to take anything."

Sabrina scoffed. "Well, at least that's better than last time."

Luke stopped dead in his tracks. "Last time?! You mean this isn't the first time?!"

"You mean she didn't tell you?" Sabrina asked quietly.

Luke shook his head in disbelief.

Sabrina didn't meet his eyes. "She...she tried to once before. But she got pretty far before any of us figured it out. Marco found her. She had already," Sabrina got a little choked up. "Already taken them. He called for help, and she was fine afterwards. But she almost..."

For a moment, both were silent. Luke was in complete and utter shock, wondering how on earth Mary couldn't have told him or Morgan and Christina in the time that she had been with them.

"You know how Mary got hurt, right?" Sabrina asked.

Luke nodded. Of course, he knew the REAL reason behind Mary's limp, which was a mishap with her bionics when Donald created the chips years ago, but he didn't think Sabrina needed to know that. "Yeah. The car crash."

Sabrina looked slightly confused. "That's all she told you?" she asked.

Luke nodded.

Sabrina sighed. "Come on."

After another eight or so minutes of walking, the two teenagers reached a destination that made Luke stop.

Before them was the Olsens' old house. And if it had been run down before, than that was nothing compared to this. Parts of the siding were falling off, while the roof was almost completely shattered. The front screen door was hanging haphazardly by a single hinge, and two of the windows were broken.

Luke was uneasy, but seeing as Sabrina walked right inside, he followed.

Ignoring the dust and smell of dampness in the house, Luke trailed Sabrina up the stairs, and into the twins' old bedroom. The room hadn't changed much, except for Mary's few possessions that she had taken with her were missing.

Sabrina pulled open the sliding closet door, and dropped down to her knees. Luke followed suit.

"She never showed you anything in here, did she?" Sabrina asked doubtingly.

Luke shook his head.

Sabrina reached inside the dark closet, and pulled out a large cardboard box that was covered by an old, beige blanket.

"These," Sabrina said, pushing the box over to Luke. "Belong to your sister." And with that, she yanked the blanket off.

Luke was met with a fresh breath of dust, but that wasn't what caught his attention. The box was full of awards. Trophies, medals, plaques...all kinds of awards centered around dance. Some had just the year and rank that Mary had placed. Some had her name engraved. Almost all of them said "1st."

Luke shook his head. "I don't understand," he said. "Mary said she quit after the crash, and these...they go from '05 all the way up to '13."

"That's partly true. She quit for a little while after the crash. Just until her leg healed. But she went back to it."

Luke was still confused. "But...then why does she limp? She couldn't have won all these with a limp like that."

Sabrina was hesistant. "It's a long story."

Luke shrugged.

Sabrina sighed. "Mary's thing's always been hip-hop. She did a little bit of modern and lyrical, but...she was crazy good at hip-hop. Your mom was a dancer. She taught, too. After everything with the crash, I guess...I guess Mary felt she couldn't view dance as a hobby. It had to be her career. She felt like she had to please your mom." Sabrina exhaled. "She was always pretty hard on herself. Everything had to be perfect. When we were about 9, I...I convinced her to do ballet. She'd never done it before, but she was pretty flexible, and she'd always done stunts, so...she did it. And she was good, too."

"So, what happened?" Luke asked.

"We didn't have the nicest teacher. She agreed to let Mary take the class on scholarship if she competed. Mary didn't really want to, but she didn't exactly have a choice. Mrs. Alvarez, that was her name, she...she always made Mary do things that...were a little too advanced for her. There were moves that she did that even I didn't do, and I started ballet when I was four." Sabrina swallowed, hoping she wouldn't have to continue, but the look Luke was giving her told her otherwise.

"In September, 2013, Mary went to regionals, and she won. She got first place. And that meant she was going to state. About a week later, we were in the studio, and we were practicing. She had to do a modern routine for states, and part of it was she did a triple turn, and then went into a diving front walkover. We didn't really think it was safe, but...Mrs. Alvarez liked it, so she did it. Well, when she was practicing...Mary did really good, and really fast turns. She built up too much momentum. She turned, and when she did the walkover, she didn't land. She was going too fast, so instead of landing on her feet, she landed right on her left knee."

Luke winced.

"She brushed it off, thought. And Marco and me didn't really think anything of it." Sabrina looked anywhere but at Luke. "About two days later, which was five days before states, she started to complain that her knee was hurting. There wasn't any swelling or anything. She just said it hurt. I asked her if it felt like it was pain in the bone or the muscle, but she ignored me. She didn't care. She iced it, and did everything she was supposed to do. But she wouldn't let anyone look at it. Well, she went to states. And she did her routine."

"And what happened?"

"I'm not sure, exactly. The funny thing about the whole situation was that Mary was always really OCD about her landings and her executions. They always had to be perfect. She went to do something...I'm not even sure what it was. It was two back handsprings into a double turn in the air, I think. I don't know. But...when she went to launch into the turn, she must've been off balance. She came down crooked." Sabrina grew quiet. "She hit the ground pretty hard. I think I've only seen Mary cry, like, five times in the past nine years. But when she fell...she sobbed. I've never heard someone cry like that."

For a moment, both were silent. Then Sabrina turned to Luke.

"Please don't tell her I told you," she begged. "I just...I thought you should know."

Luke nodded. "So, what do I do?" he asked.

Sabrina shook her head. "Just be honest with her. I won't ask you your side of the story. That's your business, not mine. But I know this: Mary doesn't trust a lot of people, but I think she trusts you more than anyone else. And I don't think she'll stay mad at you if you're honest with her."

"You think so?"

Sabrina nodded. "And one more thing." She reached inside the box, and pulled out a dust-covered DVD. "I knew she'd still have this," she muttered to herself.

She handed the DVD to Luke, who wiped it off on his sleeve. "Watch this. Wait till you're home, and alone. But watch it."

Luke looked uneasy. "Um...I'm kinda grounded right now."

"I don't think they'd mind you breaking rules for that. Just promise me you'll watch it."

Luke nodded. "I promise," he said quietly.

AN: So, what'd ya think? Please review! :) I hope you liked it! So, yeah, might have been a little depressing, but I just got the idea, and was like, hey? Why not? Have a great day! God Bless You, fellow writers! :)