Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters except those that I create.

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It had been two days since the funeral had taken place, and Carter was due to fly back to Chicago that night, with his sister, Katalina. Not knowing what to expect from her, or himself , he went to pick her up at a family friends house.

It was a dreary day, and the rain had not ceased. John pulled in the driveway, and walked in the front door. His sister, a stranger, was watching t.v.

"Hey whatcha watching", John said trying to sound interested.

"I dunno" she coldly replied.

~~~~~

The ride to the airport created extreme tension in the air. No one said much of anything. Carter turned on the radio to break the silence. Once on the plane John tried to talk to the young girl about her time spent in Europe. Most of her answers were one word, as she faced the window. Then after listening to her big brother ramble on for about 10 minutes, she turned to him and asked, "Why did you never come to see me or write me a letter". Carter was thrown off by the question and didn't have much of a good answer, except for the fact that his job didn't allow for much free time. The rest of the plane ride was not much different. John began to think that his sister was just in shock after her parent's death or by the sudden change from being a european student with no family to living in the city of Chicago with her older brother, that she barely knew. But that did not seem to be the case.

~~~~~~~

Carter's first shift started as soon as the two got off the plane, so Katalina had no time to go to her new home, which was in an upscale highrise apartement building on the East side of town. As the two hopped out of the taxi cab, Carter started to introduce his sister to everyone. After exchanging hellos, Kat went in the lounge to watch t.v.

Just then, Abbey walked into the E.R. to begin her shift, almost immediatley she ran over to Carter.

"Hey, how are you holding up?" she said

"umm ok, the funeral wasn't that bad, but my sister is going to live with me, and that should be fun". saying with a hint of sarcasim.

"Your sister?? I didn't even know you had a sister" Abbey replied

"Ya, she was living in Switzerland at a borading school, I hadn't seen her in years until now. She was an accident and my parents really did not want to deal with another kid after my brother died. She's in the lounge if you want to meet her, but she's not really doing that well," Carter mumbeled.

"OK I'll talk to you later to" Abbey said as she headed into the lounge.

Expecting to have to comfort the young girl, Abbey asked how she was doing very sympathetically.

"O I am pretty good actually" Kat said. Acting completly different that she had around her brother. In fact she seemed to be a funny outspoken cheery kid, despite the fact she had just lost her parents. Everyone loved her as if they had known her for years.

Malucci came out of the lounge howling and caught John in the hall. "Man your sister is a riot", was all he said as he continued down the hall laughing to himself. By the end of his shift the whole er seemed to know Katalina, even Dr. Romano was fond of her.

Guessing his sister was getting used to being in Chicago he expected to see the funny happy girl everyone had described. But she was just as quiet and cold around him as she had been at the funeral. Upset by the fact that his little sister seemed to greatly dislike her her big brother, Carter layed awake all night thinking of her. Confused at the girl's strange behavior he figured it was just a matter of adjusting to him, that would solve the problem. But weeks went by and nothing had change. In fact that seemed to have gotten worse. Now instead of trying to get Katalina to like him, Carter began to yell and get mad a lot. But most of the time he was no where to be found since er hours were not very flexible. One night after work John and abbey went out for a drink. Their conversation led to Katalina.

"I just don't know what to do about her, I know you don't see a problem but she truly hates me. I mean she acts so differently around you... she is nicer to Romano than me. What do I do", he cried.

"Why don't you guys go to a family counselor" Abbey said

"I know she won't go, she is so stubborn when it comes to me, I can't even get her to talk to me, we have lived together for almost a month and we are still strangers." was his response.

"Well John your the adult and you need to take control of this situation", she firmly replied.

After Carter had dropped Abbey off he went home to find Katalina down shooting pool with some of the other kids from the building in the game room on the first floor, well after 2 in the morning.

"What the hell are you doing", screamed Carter.

"ummm what does it look like", Katalina said.

"Well let's go now, it's a school night", John said harsly.

"You can't make me, what are you going to do." Kat replied in a smart tone.

Carter pulled her aside into the hall.

"If you don't get upstairs now I'll drag you up there, now let's go" he said in a harsher tone.

She reluctantly followed behind him.

Once in the apartment he told Katalina that she was going to see a couselor the next day. She refused and as usual got into a fight with Carter. ........

more to come soon