Author's note: Ok people, here's the deal. I wanted to go ahead and get part of the story posted so here is the first two chapters. I also wanted to let you know that my website is up and running, it's devoted to my Higher Ground fanfic, especially this series. There are some pictures and such over there, but like this story it's still a work in progress, but please check it out and let me know what you think. Also a few reviews might inspire me to get this story up faster.

http://www.angelfire.com/tv2/notanoriginal/Main.html


Brothers and Sisters

Part 1: Goodbyes

Sophie sat on the couch watching Peter as he walked around packing his bags. He stopped suddenly and turned to face her, his bag in hand. "Do I have everything?"
"You have your papers?"
Peter nodded as he glanced at the table to make sure he had grabbed them. "Yep." He sighed. "I wish you were coming with me. It would have been a great weekend."
Sophie stood walking over close to him. "You mean I could have helped you hide from Mark."
"Well that too." Peter said with a smile. He looked at her for a moment. "Are you sure that you and Roger can handle everything?"
Sophie threw him a look. "You were going to leave Roger in charge, but if I stay with him you don't think we can handle it."
"It's one of those polite type of questions." Peter said trying to talk his way out of this. "It's like asking how people's days are even though you don't want to hear about it."
"Oh." Sophie said with a sly smile. "So not only do you think I'm incapable of handling Horizon, but you don't listen to how my day has been. You're not making me miss you."
Peter leaned over and kissed her and then pulled the slightest away from her. "What if I said that I love you." He kissed her again. "That I will miss you terribly this weekend." He kissed her again. "And that if everything goes right, I hope to be back early so that you and I can celebrate Christmas, belatedly, but together."
Sophie kissed him back. "I'd say that would be the perfect end to a weekend away from you."
Peter smiled. "Well, then I should be going so that I'll see you Sunday." Sophie nodded and the two of them walked together to the door.
"Roger and I will take care of everything." Sophie said. "I'll see you on Sunday." She wrapped her arms around him and gave him one last long goodbye kiss.
"Keep that up and I may never leave." Peter said as she broke the kiss.
Sophie smiled. "Your taxi's here. Have a good weekend. And if you need me call."
Peter nodded and headed to the taxi waving goodbye. Before he closed the door, he called out, "Love you see you on Sunday." Sophie waved then stood on the porch and watched until the car was out of sight.
Walking back into the house she couldn't help but feel dissappointed. Kat had been supposed to stay at Horizon to counsel over Christmas, but last minute changes in her plans had meant Sophie had to stay and her weekend away with Peter had prematurely ended. "Well, those are the breaks Sophie." She said to herself. Guess I should head to Horizon, she thought to herself. Looking around one last time she made sure she hadn't forgotten anything, grabbed her keys and headed out the front door.

"It's not fair." Juliette said from where she laid on her bed in the dorm room.
"He's been gone for less then twenty four hours Jules and he'll be back in three days." Daisy said as she walked across the room carrying a hairbrush.
"She's right." Shelby said as her and Daisy crossed paths in front of Juliette's bed. Daisy kept walking, but Shelby stopped and turned ot Juliette. "Auggie hasn't been gone that wrong. At some point in time your going to have to learn to spend time away from him."
Juliette sat up. "If it were you and Scott - you would be laying her all depressed and upset too."
Shelby made a face. "Princess, Scott and I haven't been together for a while now. And we have had to spend time apart before."
"And you were both miserable." Juliette said. "I was here - I remember."
Shelby shook her head. "If that was a crack about my running away, you better watch your back."
"No." Juliette said quickly. "I just meant that I remember what it was like. Every time you and Scott had to be apart you were miserably. Your both still miserable sense you broke up."
"This is none of your business Juliette. Scott and I are doing what we have to do - which is not being together right now. At lease were both mature enough to not go whining about it to everyone that we see." Shelby sighed. "Sooner or later Jules - you'll realize that what you want and what you have are two different things entirely and when you learn to live with that you'll find that you don't whine nearly as ofter." With that Shelby turned and walked away.
Juliette sighed as she watched Shelby leave the dorm. "It's not even nine o'clock and you and Shelby are already arguing, that must be a record." Daisy said walking over.
"I don't know what her problem is." Juliette said. "We've actually been getting along these last few months."
Daisy sat down on the bed next to Jules. "You're a year younger then Shelby. You haven't been through nearly the same things as she has and you haven't even begun to fathom the kind of decisions that she has had to choose between in the last few months." She paused for a moment and looked Juliette right in the eyes. "She knows what she's talking about Juliette because she's been there. You need to know that you can be happy even when Auggie isn't here." With that Daisy stood, grabbed her jacket and left the dorm, leaving a confused Juliette sitting on the bed.

"You sure you'll be ok going on your own?"
Kat turned and smiled at Hank. "Yea, I think I will be." She looked at the ground for a moment and then said, "I have to go back sometime. Holidays have never been a good time, but Shannon would want us to celebrate and be happy and she'd want us to do it together." She paused. "I'm almost nineteen and in my first year of college, there will not be that many more times that I can go home and celebrate with my parents."
Hank nodded, he remembered that feeling. "Well," he stepped closer to her. "I guess I'll see you during your next break."
"Yea." Kat said as she stepped into the embrace that he offered. His arms wrapped around her and she felt warm, safe and loved. "I miss you so much." She said softly. "It gets harder and harder to be away from you."
Hank nodded. "Long distance relationships are hard Kat. "But I love you and we've made it work so far."
"I know." Kat said as she snuggled closer ot him. "I wish you were coming with me."
"I have a job."
"I know."
Hank loosened his embrace and Kat stepped back so that the two could face each other. "You call me when you get there."
"I will." She promised. She hated this part of their trip. Now she was cutting thier time even shorted because she was going home for the rest of her break. "I love you and I'll see you as soon as I can."
Hank nodded and the two embraced one last time and exchanged a kiss.
Kat then pulled her keys from her pocket. "I'll see you next year." She joked and Hank nodded.
He walked her to the car and she climbed in and started the car, then closed the door. She watched him for a moment. "I love you." She mouthed one last time.
"I love you too." He said softly and then waved as she headed away.


Part II: Admissions and Guilt
Shelby walked into the Administrations building. "Hey Roger." She said as she walked up to the counter. "I was wondering if I've received any phone calls."
Roger looked up at her. "We'd notify you if you did."
Shelby sighed. "All right." She said and then turned to leave.
"Shelby." He waited until she turned around. "Is there anything you want to talk about?" Shelby thought for a moment and then said, "If you have a moment, I would take you up on that offer."
"I always have a moment." Roger said as he stood and began to walk with her out of the building. "So what's on your mind?" He asked as they walked towards the main part of campus.
Shelby took a deep breath. "You know about my little sister Jess, right?"
"Yea." Roger said with a nod.
"Well, I'm worried about her." Shelby said as she stopped walking and turned to him. "She's always managed to stay in school and do well, none of what happened seemed to bother her." She paused. "But that was before I ran away and before our father committed suicide."
Roger ran his hand through his hair. "I think that would throw anybody for loop. It can't be easy for her to deal with."
"I know." Shelby said. "But that's not the problem." She turned and they began to walk again. "She's been seeing a counselor to help her through all of this and it seems to be working for her, but she encourages her to talk to me about it."
"And you're not ready to do that."
Shelby shook her head. "It's not that - exactly." She stuffed her hands into her coat pockets as she walked. "I'm beginning to feel comfortable here again. And the safer I feel the more likely I am to talk about it."
"It's good that you realize that."
Shelby nodded. "But here, I have all these support systems and professionals. She has a counselor and my mom and only God knows what she's telling Jess."
"So you don't think she can handle what you have to say about it?'
"No I don't." Shelby said seriously turning to look him in the eye. Their eyes locked for a moment and Roger broke the hold first.
'Shelby, it can take months, even years, for someone to come to grips with the terms of loss. Some people don't ever fully recover and that's just when the death is natural. Talking about it would probably help both of you." He paused. "And I realize that she will probably ask you questions that you don't know the answers to, like why did he do it, and you'll just have to tell her that we'll never know what his reasons were." Shelby threw him a look. "You know why your father committed suicide." He said slowly as realization hit him. "So your not asking how to explain the reasons, your wanting to know if telling her why will make things worse."
Shelby nodded. "Bingo." She said. "I want to help Jess not hurt her. She's been through far too much in the last few months to have to deal with this too."
"She's not the only one who's been through a lot."
Shelby nodded. "I know. All of us have. Most of it's because of me though. Because I ran."
"Consequences Shelby."
"That's all I hear about. It was a stupid thing to do, but I did it."
"It wasn't stupid." Roger said. "It wasn't smart either, but what was smart is that you came back and when you did you came wanting help. Having been at Horizon almost sense the start, I can tell you that you were one of the lucky ones."
Shelby smiled slightly. "Good to know." She sighed and began to walk again. "So what do I do about Jess? Her counselor says talking about it will help her, but if she knew what I knew, who knows what would happen."
"Shelby I don't want to pry..."
"You're a Horizon counselor of course you want to pry." Shelby said sarcastically.
"No." Roger said. "I want to help you." He gave her a look. "And just remember who came to me."
"You offered."
"Ok, you have me on that one. And I don't want to pry, but without knowing what the reason was, it's hard to give you advice."
Shelby sighed. She had mentioned to Peter about what her father did to her. And it's not like he could do it anymore considering he was dead. She bit her lip as tears started to come to her eyes, and she swallowed hard.
Seeing that she was getting upset, Roger decided to give her an out. "If your not comfortable talking about it with me or if your not ready, all you have to do is say so."
Shelby shook her head. "I just... it's hard."
"I can understand that."
The two stood their for a few minutes in the quiet. And Shelby tried to think of a way to say it, but she couldn't get the words to come out of her mouth. It shouldn't be this hard, she thought to herself. After all she knew Roger and Peter already knew. But Roger didn't really know why she was here to begin with, or at least she didn't think he did.
"Do you know why I'm here?"
Roger looked at Shelby for a moment. "I know you used to run away a lot. That much is in your file."
Shelby gave a nod. "Well, I ran away because my step father was molesting me."
Roger looked at her for a moment, his face impassive and waited for her to continue.
Shelby waited a moment to make sure he wasn't going to say anything and that he beleived her before she continued, "Apparently my real father did the same thing."
Roger let out a low whistle. "Woah."
"Yea." Shelby said.
"Did you know that when he came or after he got here?" Roger asked. "I mean, he didn't hurt you here did he, that's not why you ran is it?"
"No, nothing like that." Shelby said, she walked over, climbed up onto a picnic table and sat down. Roger joined her. "After my trip to the streets, I began freaking out. I was having nightmares and when he showed up on campus they intensified, until finally I thought he was every where. I saw him in everyone, in everything. And I was sitting by myself one night and I remembered what he did."
Roger started to say something, but Shelby cut him off. "I remembered correctly. I know this because I confronted him in Peter's office that day." Shelby shuddered at the memory. "He didn't deny it. I think he even tried to apologize, but I refused to accept it." By now tears were running down her face. "I couldn't beleive it. No wonder he didn't want to help me when I went to him when I left Walt. He was afraid that I would remember. Afraid that I would accuse him and be right." She wiped her eyes. "I can't tell Jess that he did that. If he never touched her, I don't want to shatter the memory of him that she has."
Roger smiled sympathetically. "Don't you think that she would want to know what happened though. The truth. From what I've heard and seen in the last few months, she seems like a really devoted sister and she has always stuck by you, even when your mother hasn't. If you tell her the truth, she won't be mad at you. She might be mad at him, but not you."
Shelby looked at Roger. "I'm glad you started dating Alex. She seems to have improved your advice."
"Yea, well, she's a good person." Roger suddenly looked at Shelby, realizing that he hadn't told anyone they were dating.
"Sorry." Shelby said with a half smile. "But I just knew the two of you would end up together."
"Tell me we didn't go through all of that just so you could learn that I was with Alex." Roger joked.
"Come on Roger. I might be good, but Eric and Juliette are the two biggest actors here."
Roger smiled. "So are you feeling better or did my advice not help?"
"I do feel better, but I still don't know if I can tell her."
"Well, I'd say think about it for a few days. Maybe write in a journal about the different ways you think she might react and the reasons why you do and don't want to tell her and go from there."
Shelby sighed. "Everything leads to an assignment."
"At Horizon, it does." Roger said with a smile. He then stood. "If you need to talk anymore, you come find me, my door is always open."
"Thanks Roger." Shelby said as she watched him walk away.

Daisy headed into the cafeteria and immediatly spotted David. "Hey Daisy." He said as she walked up to the table he was sitting at. "I saved you a seat."
Daisy nodded her appreciation and said, "Thanks. Let me get my tray."
"I got one for you." David said indicating the tray across form his.
"Thanks." Daisy said with a strange look on her face. David never gets her food for her. She sat down. She was about to begin eating when she noticed that he was staring at her. "Do you have a problem?"
"No." David said quickly. "I just... well, look at what I did with the syrup to your pancakes."
Daisy looked down at her food and on the pancakes were the happy tragic faces. She smiled. "Ezra did that for me once, onyl he used bacon."
"I can get bacon and change it for you if you like." David said.
She looked at him and shook her head. "No, but what I would like is for you to explain why your acting this way. Does this have to do with that phone call to your dad?' David flinched at the mention of it. "Ever sense then you have been doing all this stuff for me, it's really beginning to creep me out."
David scoffed. "So my doing nice things for the girl that I'm... well whatever you are to me... creeps her out. That's nice." He said and with that he stood to leave.
"Wait." Daisy said and grabbed his arm before he could leave.
"Let go of me." He said and pulled away from her.
"Sorry." Daisy said removing her hand. "But I didn't mean that the way it sounded. It's just not you. You're normally so... I don't know - just not the way you have been this last week."
David shook his head. "No I'm sorry." He put one hand on his neck and began to massage it. "It's just between the Holidays and the phone call to my dad; I'm just kind of on edge."
"I can tell." Daisy said softly and then asked, "But I thought the phone call went well."
David nodded, not knowing what else to do. He really liked Daisy, had sense the first day, but if he told her now that he had lied to her, she'd never give him another chance.
"It did." David lied. "But I don't know, it's still a little odd."
Daisy nodded. "I know what you mean. Things with me and my dad aren't great at the moment either."
"Anything you want to talk about?" David asked suddenly concerned.
"No, not really." She said. "I talked to Shelby about it earlier this week and I feel better about not going home for Christmas, but I still wish I could be there."
David nodded, but he was glad that he wasn't going to be at home for the Holidays, this year his dad would have to find someone else.