A/N: I'd just like to make a small note that this chapter contains a little bit of coarse language in this chapter. Just a note, since there hasn't been a lot up till this point.

Hannah had dedicated this weekend to cleaning her room and not thinking about her father. She turned up the radio to keep thought from flowing through her head but it only served as background noise to all her feelings.

She picked up a few items from her dresser and her jewelry box fell to the floor, spilling its contents all over the floor.

"Crap."

She knelt down to brush them all inside. She picked up a few clips, the locket that her father had bought her for her fifth birthday, and a few pieces of paper. As she closed the box, she noticed the top item. Reopening it, she took the small strip of glossy paper gently in her hand. It was the photo booth photos Bright and she had taken at the fair on the fourth of July.

Tears began to well up behind her eyes and the memories came bounding back.
----

"Are you taking my job away from me already?" She had asked, cutting carrots.

"No, it's just I feel bad. You had to do this stuff for your parents all the time, just doesn't seem right that you should have to do it for ours too." He replied biting into a carrot quarter.

"Seems right to me, I mean you guys have been like my family this whole year."
----
The Abbot's really had been. She rarely felt at home here anymore even if it was her home.

Wiping a tear which began to roll down her face, she replaced the pictures to where they had come from, only to discover a note. She unfolded it and realized that it was from him. The one letter he had written her after she had left. A few more tears dripped down and stained the page. She sniffled back a few more, but it was useless. She was gone, back to memories made five months ago.

----
"For a brief second, you saw it"


"Saw what?" She had asked.


"The future, or you know, the possibility of one. And damn, you called me on my crap which honestly no girl has ever done before. Which means you are way stronger and cooler than you think, which means you can't let this not knowing thing stop you from living your life, because God Hannah, your life is gonna rock!" He smiled.


"You think so?"


"Hell yeah, and this Topher thing, I don't know. Go out with him, don't go out with him, I don't know. But live your life out. Because you never know, ya know? I mean none of us know how long we're gonna be here. You've gotta treat every moment,"


"Like a gift?"


"Yeah, you can't give it up and you can't give it back because God Hannah, you are too good for that. Okay?"


"Okay." She agreed.


"Oh and ah, one more thing, don't ever say that it's unlikely that someone is gonna fall in love with you. Because they will, they will see all the things I see, and more. And unlike me they'll actually deserve you."

----

She had to get outside, to get away from these memories. It was time for a break from her cleaning. She bounded down the stairs and out the front door, grabbing a jean jacket on the way out.

She straightened up a few college forms and leaned back in her chair, taking a deep breath. She wasn't really ready for that life. She was glad that she had decided to take the year off to be with her mother. Feeling a bit hungry, and somehow like she was being urged to go downstairs, she did.

Upon entering the living room, she found Bright sitting on his butt as he had been for the past few weeks each day since he Hannah had broken up with him. She rolled her eyes and sighed. Grabbing a Coke from the fridge she stood beside him.

She found a solid spot in the park to sit down on, near the edge of her favorite walking trail. The outdoors always helped her calm herself down, make sense of things.

The sun shone down on Hannah's auburn locks as she sat, butt on the hard pavement, staring at the ground. With her right hand, she fiddled with a stick she had found letting it make circles in the dirt. She noticed a small ant hill and the urge to put the stick in their and mush it all around surged over her. But she realized that that was the meanest thing she could ever do. Those poor ants hadn't done anything. They had only tried to live their lives, and she in her awesome size and power had contemplated changing their lives forever. They would have scattered, those that survived, and never found each other again. These little insignificant ants worked together. They needed each other, supported one another as they worked toward a common purpose; building a life.

She sighed, realizing she'd made a mistake, a big one. She had no right to play God. She wasn't him. He'd brought Bright into her life to support her, to help her build a life after all the trials she had gone through with her own disease and with her Dad's. Who was she to push him away, to tell him that she didn't need him? She did. What was she thinking?

She stood up straight and jogged back towards her house as fast as she could. Her hands shook as she picked up the phone and dialed the numbers that she knew so well, implanted in her mind and heart forever.

"Hey," Amy whispered sitting down next to him on the couch. He held the remote for the T.V. in his hand, a glazed over countenance. He was a wreck. "Bright!" She snapped in his ear.

"Oh, hey Ame," He weakly offered. He flipped the channel a few times.

"Bright, what the hell is wrong with you? You are like the biggest player ever. Why are you not out scamming on some random girl? This is not the big brother I have come to know and love. Normally I don't approve of your sleazy attitude toward women but you have gotta stop this crap, seriously." She crossed her arms and stared straight at the T.V., looking like she could kill a few hundred baby puppies at the drop of a hat.

"That's just it Amy, I don't know. I should be out at a party somewhere hitting on the next girl in the line of hot, blonde things that I have. Telling her how beautiful her eyes are and how softer her skin is so I can get some action."

"I can't believe I'm advocating this-God, but why are you not?" She turned back to him, fixing her icy cold stare back at him.

"I told you, I don't know. Hannah did something to me. She made me defective or something." He got up and went into the kitchen to make a sandwich.

"Defective, Bright?"

"Yeah, like I don't wanna go find some random girl. It doesn't really appeal to me anymore just to go find some bimbo to get laid by. I'm such a pussy."

"It's called love Bright." Amy smiled, her face breaking from anger.

"What?" He asked.

"You are in love with Hannah. You care about more than just the physical appearance now and what you really want is the emotional connection, the familiarity that she brings." Amy laughed, sipping her Coke. "You've finally been domesticated."

"Christ, I know Amy but now she doesn't want to talk to me and I don't know any other girls well enough to have that with them."

"Well, that's life. Sometimes it fucking hurts." She lounged back now, almost amused by the situation.

"How can you quote when I'm in a situation like this?" He snapped.

"It's true." She mumbled picking up the remote and switching it to something else. The phone rang, Bright continued to make his sandwich. It rang again, and again. "Are you gonna get that?" She asked looking up.

He walked over to the telephone on the kitchen wall and picked it up. Without too much enthusiasm he answered.

"Hello, Abbot's, this is Bright."