A/N: Just a short-ish, sweet-ish, sad-ish chapter. Enjoy.


Jade closed the front door quietly behind her, hoping her parents and Evie wouldn't hear her come in. It had been two weeks since the family had returned from Orlando, and while her dates with Beck were fun, they didn't have the magic of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. And though spending time in Beck's RV playing video games against what were probably twelve-year-old girls in Japan was nice, it wasn't a rollercoaster at Hogwarts.

Coming out of her reverie, Jade realized that Evie was still awake and making a lot of noise. From the living room came a series of Evie's usual sounds – the Vest compressor, the nebulizer, the ventilator, the pulse oximeter, and coughing – and one very unusual Evie sound – sobbing.

Jade hurried into the living room. Seemingly oblivious to the beeping alarms surrounding her, Evie sat cross-legged on the couch, strapped into her Vest system, sobbing as hard as Jade had ever seen her. Tears rolled down her pale cheeks and into the hollow beneath her chin, dripping down to her trach ties; each sob seemed to cause her chest to cave in on itself.

Evie was oblivious to Jade's presence; her face was buried in her hands.

Quickly Jade crossed the room and propped Evie up, ripping off the Vest and flicking off the compressor and the nebulizer as she did so. "Easy, easy," Jade murmured, and held Evie. "Shh, shh, it's okay. Tell me what's going on."

Evie looked up at Jade, but her eyes were unseeing and full of unhappiness as she sobbed and coughed. Her face was streaked with tears and snot, and more globby mucus leaked out from around her trach tube every time she breathed.

"Shh, sweetheart," Jade said, adjusting her grip on Evie to hold her sister upright by the elbows. She could feel pressure rising in her chest, and panic welled up around her like iron bands clamped to her ribs. "Please, Evie, tell me what's wrong."

Evie smeared one hand across her face and hiccuped, and then coughed harder. The ventilator whooped a warning and Evie retched.

Jade reached for the suction machine and took out a clean suction catheter. With practiced hands she undid the ventilator tubes from Evie's trach and suctioned out the trach tube. For a moment Evie sobbed noiselessly as mucus slurped down the suction catheter and into the canister.

It was as though the suctioning had calmed Evie down, because when Jade turned the machine off, Evie had grown quieter, her sobs dissipating into little gasps.

"Hi, Jadey," she whimpered softly, wiping her face with the back of her hand.

"Hi, Evie-kins," Jade said.

"I'm ready for bed now," Evie said.

"Would you like to tell me what all this was about?" Jade asked as she reset the alarms on the ventilator and the pulse oximeter.

"No."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes." Evie brought up one hand to tuck her hair behind her ear. The silver Patronus bracelet on her wrist glinted in the lamplight.

"Where are Mom and Dad?"

"They went out to the movies," Evie replied. She pulled the collar of her shirt up and wiped the goo from around her trach tube. "I just…"

"You just what?"

"Never mind," Evie said.

"I'm listening," Jade said.

"And that's the problem." Evie sighed. "I'm going to bed. Will you help me up the stairs with all this?"

"No, Evie, talk to me," Jade prodded. "Please just tell me what's wrong."

Evie stared up at her sister. Jade's eyes were serious and dark, and for a moment Evie worried that Jade would start crying herself. Emotions had been running so high in the West house – everyone had been crying more than usual.

"I don't want to talk about it," Evie said. "I can't talk about it. Now, help me upstairs or I'll do it myself."

Jade sighed and did as Evie had asked. Once Evie was settled in her bed, wearing clean pajamas and hooked up to all the right machines, Jade padded down the hall to her own room. She flicked the overhead lights off and sat cross-legged on the bed with her laptop in front of her. With a few clicks she opened up the video chat program and scanned for Beck's user-name. In another click his image was up on the screen.

"What's up? Have you been crying?"

"No," Jade said, even though she felt dangerously close to bursting into tears.

"What's going on?"

He sounded so calm and collected that Jade wished she was back with him in the RV, playing video games and laughing. Everything had seemed so simple only an hour ago. "I came home, and Evie…"

"Is she okay?" Beck asked immediately.

"Yeah, she's fine now," Jade said. "But I got home, and she was… she was sobbing. Like she'd been stabbed, like she lost her best friend, like somebody killed a cat in front of… well, Cat."

"Did she tell you what was wrong?"

"No, she wouldn't say. Just demanded that I help her upstairs so she could go to bed. And it was... it was scary, Beck. She couldn't breathe, she was choking… My parents went to the movies and she was alone here, and what if… what if she had…" Jade buried her head in her hands and bit down hard on her tongue.

"Do you want me to come over?"

That was exactly what Jade wanted, but she couldn't figure out how to say it. "No, that's okay. We have school tomorrow, and…"

"Do you want me to come over?" Beck repeated.

"Yes," Jade whispered.

In twenty minutes Beck was at the Wests' front door, and in another five minutes Jade was sitting next to her boyfriend on the couch, his arms wrapped around her. She was feeling slightly more balanced, but her head was still ringing from Evie's sobs.

"Tell me something," Jade said.

"I once beat Cat's uncle in a poker game," Beck murmured into her hair.

"No, tell me something true."

"That was true."

"About Evie. Tell me something true about Evie."

"Evie is the prettiest, funniest, sweetest West sister."

"Beck…"

"Evie is a beautiful, talented girl and she has truly the best of both worlds – parents who adore her and a sister who would do anything for her," Beck said, and kissed Jade on the cheek.

Jade felt her heartbeat slow, and the panicked feeling in her chest lessened a bit.

"And would you like to know something else that's true?"

"Sure," Jade murmured.

"No matter what happens, that sister of Evie's has a guy who's going to stick by both of the West sisters. No matter what."

"You're just saying that," Jade said, but she felt a slow smile cross her face.

"No matter what," Beck whispered, and wrapped his arms around her tighter.

They were still sitting that way, so close, their foreheads touching, when Annie and Kent arrived home from the movies, and they were still sitting that way when the grandfather clock in the corner struck midnight.

And as Jade's heartbeat returned to normal, she felt like she could sit there forever, just knowing that someone loved her, knowing that she didn't have to face whatever was coming all by herself.