Author's Note: Another week, another chapter. A lot of adorable and tender sisterly bonding happens between Catherine and Heather in this chapter.

Enjoy!

Last Time on "Indomitable Hope":

"Thank you, Ms. Chandler. I do believe that your sister wants to resume the option of having visitors come and see her. I would advise that maybe you should go in first by yourself. I don't think she knew the true identity of the person who donated blood for her operation. I don't know how she will respond that the blood she recieved wasn't from you because your blood types weren't a complete match."

Heather just nodded to confirm the doctor's words as she began to walk in the direction of her sister's room, ignoring the chubby professor's confused expression of needing more information on the situation unravelling before him.

Heather turned the doorknob slowly, frowning at the need to tell Catherine the truth. The younger Chandler found out this little secret before her father died from a mysterious accident near Time Squares that happened at the same time of Vincent's disappearance. A desperate move to save Thomas Chandler's life, the doctors collected blood from Catherine in hopes that her blood could save him. Unfortunately, their blood types didn't match, making her sister's blood useless, something that one of the nurses told Heather when she visited her father's hospital bedside hours before he died.

This revelation haunted Heather ever since that day because she didn't know how to clearly identify her relationship with Catherine Chandler now. What words could exactly describe it? Ever since she could remember, Catherine was the best sister anyone could ask for as she was always there for Heather, took care of the younger Chandler, and protected her from danger. But, now knowing, thanks to genetic tests, that Catherine and her didn't share the same father made Heather confused. Despite the unclarity, the perky young lady decided that she had to bite the bullet and tell Catherine everything with hopes that the wise woman had a well-thought out approach to this dilemma.

Building up her inner courage, Heather firmly gripped the doorknob even more than before as she opened the door and entered the room. She noticed that Catherine kept on staring at the beautiful yet odd flower arrangement that was in the center of the table with flowers and gifts from well-wishers. The shorter woman noticed that the arrangement had a new addition to the mixture; Gabe's red roses. The younger Chandler sister ignored the small yet pesky detail as she boldly walked up towards her sister's bedside as she placed her tiny hands on top of Catherine's.

It was now or never, Heather thought as she began the dreaded explanation with a truthful yet upbeat direction.

"Catherine, I want to know that you will always be the best big sister I ever had even though things might be difficult after this moment," the short-haired woman reaffirmed her love for the older woman. However, Catherine looked at her sister with a confused expression written all over her face as she couldn't tell where in the hell did all this come from.

Ignoring her older sister's facial expression, the younger sister breath deeply to build up some courage. Heather continued to speak, thoughtfully choosing the right words, "I will always love you and hopefully you will continue to do so. Ever since I was a little, I always wanted us to be upfront and honest to each other no matter what the situation may be. Sometimes, even in all honesty, our words have hurt each other to the point that we couldn't talk to each for a couple days in order to let things boil down between the two of us. Nevertheless, we could never stop talking to each other for an eternity because we loved each other too much to really hate each other. Eventually, we forgive and forget the words or incidents that made us mad at each other. Today is no different because you might be mad at me after telling you the truth. But understand that it is necessary. Yet, I don't our relationship to fully fall apart after this moment."

Heather's eyes began to water as her voice cracked at times when she started to approach those fateful words.

"You are probably thinking about who in the hell gave you those uniquely beautiful flowers over there. I can tell you that I know who it is; they were from your real father and the only possible person who could save your life by donating their blood," Heather continued to explain as the tears began to roll down even faster and in greater sizes, "You might be saying in that pretty little head of yours that I must be crazy, only Thomas Chandler is your father and he couldn't possibly gave you any of his blood because he is dead. However, in truth, Thomas Chandler wasn't your real father. I found this out last spring when the doctors were trying to save dad's life with your blood. However, they couldn't use it because the hemoglobins in yours didn't match dad's. The doctor showed me the the results and explained it further to me, proving that you couldn't be Thomas Chandler's biological daughter.

I wanted to tell you last spring when dad died. However, I couldn't gather the courage to confess this as you were suffering at the same time. Everyday, I would see you fluctuate from different moods; you would be all depressed and moody one day and in a craze mood the next. I feared that I could add more pain to the emotional turbulence that you already were experiencing with Vincent's disappearance.

However, this doesn't mean the end of our relationship, right? I still consider you to be my big sister even if you don't. To me, you have gone up and above the standard duties of being a sister. You comforted me when Darius died, you taught me how to live life, and you shielded me from danger. I will always greatly value for what you did for me."

Heather took a pause to let Catherine digest the information comfortably and in a timely fashion. Heather could noticed that Catherine's emotions changed while the short-haired woman talked. From a mouth partially opened from being shocked to tiny droplets of tears formed on the brows to represent the pain and sadness the older woman felt, the younger sister tried her best to carefully planned her words to match her sister's emotions.

"Come here and give me a hug," Catherine quietly murmured at the end of Heather's long speech. Not quite hearing what the woman in the hospital bed said, Heather leaned forward to ask.

"Hm, what did you say?"

Catherine repeated the words again but with a boisterous volume full of love and affection, "I said, Come here and give me a hug".

At that moment, the older sister grabbed Heather's arm with fierceness and yanked her down, enveloping her beloved sister in a huge hug. During the embrace, Catherine spoke with such love and admiration of her younger sister's strength.

"Heather, Heather," the older woman simply spoke as she pat the back of her sister's head, "Thank you for telling me this. It was difficult for you to speak about this ordeal. It even made you afraid of what would the future look like between the two of us. I really do appreciate that you came out and told me the truth with such bravery.

This is a lot to take in because it changes the way how I look at life," the long haired woman went on with such calamity, "However, I will ALWAYS, repeat, ALWAYS think of you as my sister. To me, family means much more than sharing the same blood or DNA. I learned this when mom died ten years ago. I cannot forget how important you are to me. You have taught me so much, protected me, and had my back when I got in trouble, especially recently. And for that, I want to apologize because I didn't tell you everything because of my fears that you would run out and tell the world about Vincent."

The younger woman retorted back, "Don't be sorry. You were only protecting me and Vincent from dangers untold. You were right, I could of got into serious trouble if I knew your relationship. Just look at the stuff you got yourself into!" At that end of that statement, Heather laughed a little as she tried to steer the conversation into a lighthearted direction. "Nevertheless," she continued, "Don't forgot that I would never abandon you or ever tell someone else the secrets you hold. I can never turn my back on you just because of dumb reasons. Just trust me wholeheartedly, ok?"

Catherine smiled at her sister's bold promise, "I will. I learned now that you will never ever turn your back and tell the secrets that I hold because family doesn't do that. I should of trust you back than when I first met Vincent. But, what is the past is the past. Let's now focus on the promises of tomorrow by trusting each other more often."

With that promise, the detective held out a pinky from the other hand and brought to Heather's eye level to signal to physically promise to kept their words. Heather caught sight of the motion and raised her head as she lifted and latched her pinky on to her sister's softly, smiling at their new hopes for the future.

Once finished, the older sister nodded and then retreated her hand back to her side when it felt ok to end the pinky swearing. She then looked at the wild arrangement of flowers near her bedside and started to wondered.

"I wonder who is my real father then?"

Cat began to think about the fact that Thomas Chandler, someone who she regarded as an important father figure in her life, wasn't her real biological father. She always thought her mom was a person of virtue as anyone in the field of science would be honest and mature about their work and maybe their social life. Nevertheless, she deliberated internally if her father was the person who gave her the beautiful yet odd flowers.

"I don't know who it is, to be honest," Heather replied faintly, "I mean, I was here about a hour after the hospital called me to tell about how you got into a nasty accident. However, I heard that someone donated their blood when you were on the operating table as you lost a lot of it during the attack. The doctor told me that the guy came quickly, gave his blood, and then left immediately after the doctor told him he was finished. I bet you that we can find his name somewhere on your medical charts. I wonder where I can find this information?"

The younger woman started to snope around the room in order to find any clues about the mysterious man. It was a difficult search, she thought, as a lot of medical files today are now store digitally on computers that required a series of secure logins.

Maybe, just maybe she could find something laying around in the room.

She continued to search high and low for anything. When Heather reached a small desk by one of the big windows near the doorway, she noticed that there were some sort of notes and paperwork scattered across the desk.

"Hey Cat, I think I found something," Heather exclaimed as she examined the papers for any red flags. She noticed that on a yellow post-it note attached to a paper about blood donation there was a name and phone number. It read:

"IF THE PATIENT NEEDS MORE BLOOD, PLEASE CALL ROBERT REYNOLDS at 301-5643."

She took a minute to realized that this "Robert Reynolds" might be Cat's dad. She then turned around and asked the older woman about this guy.

"Hey Cat, do you know a Robert Reynolds? He might be your father."