Title: Lumberjack Lawyers - The AxSue Moments Never Shown On Screen

Sub Title: Lost Sister (The Telling)

Episode Prompt: "The Telling"

Author: PurpleOrchid85

Rating: PG-13 to T
Fandom: The Middle

Pairing: Axl/Sue (Heckcest, Axsue, Lumberjack Lawyers, whichever shipping name you prefer)
Canon/Non Canon Moment: an Heckcest 'Non-Canon moment' inside an Canon moment

Summary: Karma bites Sue's butt big time for the blackmailing she had done and she gets lost. Axl, growing guilty about abandoning Sue goes looking for her.

AN: Set after the scene where Axl pulls over and rings Frankie to confess and then leaves Sue on the sidewalk.

Word Count approx: 1, 140

Disclaimer:

Axl Heck & Sue Heck and every character that is mentioned in this Fanfiction in relation of The Middle are copyrighted by ABC and its creators/producers DeAnn Heline and Eileen Heisler.

Axl said with a black look upon his face "Get out."
Shocked, Sue nearly stuttered "What?"

He repeated anger tinging his tone "Get out."
Sue, who now was clambering out of the car said pointedly "Well, you're not gonna get away with this, Axl. You're gonna be in really big trouble."
Axl shoved his seat back in the original seating and sneeringly said "I'm already in trouble."
Sue said in a panicky tone "Well, you can't just leave me here alone." She looked around her surroundings, seeing a forest behind her, and a silent and lonely road in front of her. It certainly felt creepy.

Axl said mockingly "Better start walking. Don't want to get home too lake!" then he drove off, leaving Sue to stare at the dwindling taillights of Axl's Gran Torino in shock.

After an couple of minutes standing and staring in the darkness in hope that he was just playing a prank on her, she turned around in a 360° turn, taking in her surroundings and tried to figure out how far she was from home.

She let out a hopeless sigh as she realized that there were no recognizable landmarks or anything to signal how far she was from home. "Maybe cutting through in the woods might give me less time and I'd get home before Axl would?" Sue asked herself rhetorically. She made her way inside the woods, sticking to a narrow path but then the path began to fade and disappear, leaving Sue in the middle of a dense forest without no possible way out. She had accidentally left her cell at home, thinking she would just pop over to Carly's and get straight back. But that was before Axl had become a jerk and decided to desert her in the middle of nowhere. It has also got darker, and she wasn't sure if it was the woods themselves or if time had gotten away from her.

In her worrying, she hadn't noticed a thick jutting root from a tree and had instantly tripped it and fell down a slight slope and then it was like white had appeared in front of her eyes as she painfully hit her head against a hard surface, then she drifted into blessed darkness.

After a while, the sprinkling of rain woke her up. She groggily got up, grabbing ahold of a nearby tree branch. She felt the sprinkling rain turning into heavy drops, rapidly drenching her. She took a step but she collapsed, crying out in pain. Apparently she had sprained her ankle when she tripped.

She held onto her ankle and began to cry, her tears mingling with the heavy falling rain. "This is my fault. It's karma for blackmailing Axl." She cried even heavier after her admission, hugging her knees and trying to ignore the throbbing of her ankle.

Meanwhile, back at the Heck residence, Axl was shifting uncomfortably on the couch. He felt a strange prodding figure from behind his back. He leaned forwards and shoved a hand behind and fumbled around searchingly until his hand landed on it and pulled it in front of him and looked at it.

Shit.

Sue's phone.

He glanced outside to the heavy and pouring rain. He realized Mom was still at Ehlert Motors, possibly still cleaning up, and Dad and Brick was at Brick's Parent Teacher Night, he dimly remembered hearing his Dad telling Brick that he had to come with him, afraid that Brick would tattle to Mom.

He groaned and picked up his car keys and his jacket and on a whim, stuffed some towels and a blanket in a garbage bag and made sure the front door locked behind him and ran into the pouring rain to his car, and then he was driving back where he left Sue.

Of course, she wasn't even there.

He parked in the area where he deserted Sue. He ignored the heavy rain and began to loudly call out "Sue?!" after no response, and shivering heavily as the rain started to affect him, he muttered to himself "What Would Dork Do?" he scanned the area around him until his eyes landed onto the dense forest in front of him.

"She wouldn't be that stupid to wander off in the fucking forest, would she?" he muttered worriedly to himself, then reluctantly nodded to himself. He flipped open his cell phone and let the cellphone light his way inside the forest, while yelling out Sue's name and hoping for a voice to answer him. After some time stumbling around the forest and yelling for his sister, he was starting to slow down and get exhausted but he forced himself to keep going, repeatedly shouting Sue's name and pausing in between shouts to strain to listen if Sue had answered him. After some more walking in the drenching rain and shouting for Sue, he heard his name faintly. He bellowed with hope "Sue?!" then heard his name again, this time stronger. He followed the sound over to a large root, which he managed to avoid and stretched his arm with his cell phone and directed the light down the slope and found a shivering and dazed looking Sue who looked up and blinked dazedly at the light. Seeing blood on her temple, he panicked.

In his panic, he stumbled down the slope to reach her. When he got to her, he kneeled down, ignoring the mud and wrapped his arms around her "Oh, my God, Sue! I'm never leaving you on the sidewalk ever again. Never ever again, all right?"

Sue nodded tiredly into his shoulder then said in a tremulous tone "I'm sorry for blackmailing you. I'll never ever do it again." He let out a nervous bu relieved chuckle, then handed over his still lit cell and advised "Hold on to it." Then picked her up in the bridal carry, Sue lighting the way with one hand holding her cell phone, the other clutching at his drenched shirt.

Finally, they were out of the creepy forest, and in sight of his car. He carefully put her down and leaned her against the car and unlocked the car and shoved the front seat back and helped Sue get in and he climbed in after her and pulled out a towel and began to gently rub the dampness out of her clothes all the while saying "God, I'm so sorry for being a jerk. And leaving you here like that."

He realized that even though he was angry at her for blackmailing him, He shouldn't have just dumped her on the sidewalk in the middle of nowhere, especially if she was without a cell phone.

He pulled the blanket out from the garbage bag and wrapped her in it and kissed her forehead, making her smile.

In that exact moment, he knew he was forgiven.