Disclaimer: I don't own ER or any of it's characters. Alana is mine though.

Author's Notes: Sorry for such a long time for the update. I've just been so busy.

Abby stared at the girl for about ten seconds in silence. Alana looked at Abby and then looked down at her feet, her fingers fiddling with the hem of her hoodie.

"You're related to me?" Abby asked, half excitedly. She only had a small family, and what she had weren't exactly perfect. Abby was almost happy at seeing this little girl stood in front of her.

"Yeah," Alana replied quietly, still looking at her shoes.

"How?" Abby asked smiling.

"Erm…well,erm… I'm your sister," Alana finally looked back up at Abby, whose face now showed a look of pure confusion. Susan suddenly felt very out of place and in the way, and decided to make herself scarce.

"I'm just gonna go…erm, check on…someone," Susan stuttered pathetically and walked away quickly.

"I'm sorry sweetheart, but I think you must have the wrong person. I don't have a sister, I just have a younger brother."

"You are Abigail Marjorie Lockhart right?" Alana asked, reading Abby's name from a crumpled piece of pink paper she had in her pocket.

"Yes," Abby answered croakily.

"Well then I think you do have a sister. And I'm her. We have the same father."

"You're my dad's daughter!" Abby exclaimed.

"Yeah," Alana replied, her expression one of sadness. "It was my dad who told me about you."

"I haven't spoken to my father for -"

"Seventeen years," Alana finished for Abby. "I know, he told me."

Abby sighed heavily, unable to speak for a moment.

"Well…why are you here?" Abby asked. Alana looked up at Abby who could see that the teenager was fighting back tears.

"My dad…he…erm, he…well he was sick and… he died, two days ago," Alana finished although her voice was mixed with sobs. Abby instinctively wrapped her arms around Alana's tiny, quivering frame and held her close, whispering "shh" sensitively. When Alana had calmed down a little, Abby pulled away and gave her a tissue.

"Where's your mom?" Abby asked.

"She left my dad when I was about three. I've never seen her since, and I don't want to. I don't remember her at all, to me she doesn't exist. My dad knew that he didn't have long left and then -"

"Listen, sweetheart, do you want to go into the locker room, it's a bit quieter in there?" Abby asked. Alana nodded in agreement. When Abby had led Alana in there, she continued to talk quickly. She seemed to want to get this all off her chest as quickly as possible.

"Then about a month ago, he pulled out a picture of a girl who looked about my age. He said that was my sister, but a long time ago. I had no idea I had a sister at all. He told me all about you, everything he knew. How beautiful you were, how you always made him laugh when you were little, and how proud he was of you for being so strong when you took care of your mother."

Abby felt tears forming in her eyes as she thought about what her father had said.

"He told me the last place he knew you'd worked was here. He wanted me to find you when he'd gone, he said he trusted you to take care of me."

"Wow." Abby replied. Alana smiled.

"How old are you?"

"I'm fifteen," Alana replied, "sixteen next month."

"You don't look a day over thirteen!" Abby replied, shocked.

"Yeah I know. Thanks for that," Alana replied sarcastically, but grinning.

"Oh you're definitely my sister, you've even got the sarcasm to go with it!"

Alana laughed happily. As Abby smiled back, Carter and Kem came into the locker room kissing each other's faces off. Alana turned round to see who had come in, and Abby stifled a grin as she saw Alana pull a disgusted face at the two lovebirds. But then Abby saw Carter and Kem look straight into each other's eyes and she felt a huge twang of jealousy in the pit of her stomach again.

"Oh, hey!" Carter said with a smile when he finally noticed them. "Who's this?" Carter asked, grinning at Alana.

"I'm Ab-"

"She's just looking for her mother who was brought in," Abby interrupted, "She was a little bit lost weren't you darling?"

"Erm, yeah…yeah, my mom came in this morning, and so I decided to look in the doctors' locker room for her," Alana said slowly, looking at Abby incredulously, before smiling at Kem and Carter and leaving the room.

"Cute kid," Carter said to Abby.

"Yeah," Abby replied. After a couple of seconds of awkward silence, Abby excused herself and left the locker room, expecting Alana to be outside waiting for her, but Alana was nowhere to be seen. Abby frowned in confusion. Where would she have gone? Abby looked out of the huge glass doors and could just see a golden head bouncing up and down across the road, walking away from the hospital.

"Luka, cover for me!" Abby shouted to the Croatian doctor stood behind the admin desk, and ran out of the hospital after Alana. Abby saw Alana start to speed up too, and she only eventually caught up with her four blocks away from the hospital. She grabbed the teenager's arm and turned her round to face her.

"Hey! What did you run off like that for?" Abby asked her.

"What do you care? You obviously don't want people to know about me for whatever reason, so I'll be out of your hair so fast you'll have forgotten I came within a week." Alana spat back at her, clearly furious.

"That's not true. I'm not ashamed of you!" Abby replied, grabbing hold of Alana's hands. "I just… I couldn't tell… I just didn't want that man and woman to know who you were okay?"

"Why!" Alana asked, narrowing her eyes.

"It's complicated. I'll explain everything, just not right now okay? Let me take you home and get you something to eat, and then we can sort out what we're going to do about all this? I've only known you twenty minutes or so, let's at least get to know each other first yeah?" Abby suggested. Alana looked at Abby expressionless, until after a few moments she heaved a heavy sigh.

"Okay," she replied, taking Abby's outstretched hand. They made their way back to the hospital in silence, both engrossed in their own thoughts. Abby was frightened; frightened of taking care of a child, a female teenager at that, frightened of telling the rest of the ER about Alana, frightened about telling Maggie about her father's death. Alana was frightened too; frightened about dealing with her grief over the death of her dad, frightened about living with her sister who she'd never met before, and frightened about where her life would go from here.

They returned into the ER, Abby still clinging tightly to Alana's hand, and went back into the lounge.

"My shift finishes in an hour, are you alright to stay here until then?" Abby asked Alana.

"Well, yeah, but what am I supposed to do if that man and woman come in again?" Alana replied, her arms folded across her chest.

"Just… tell them I told you to stay in here, I'll deal with the rest." Abby replied. "That book on the floor there is mine, you can read it if you want. It's quite good." Alana nodded and picked up the book on the floor, before stretching out on one of the sofas and making herself comfortably. Abby laughed silently at her little sister; they were so alike it was uncanny.

"I'll be back as soon as I can," Abby said as she opened the lounge door. Alana waved without looking up from the book. Abby left the room and made her way over to the admin desk, where Luka was still stood.

"Everything alright?" he asked her.

"Everything's great," Abby lied, smiling a fake smile at Luka and picking up a chart.

"Hey Abby, who was that little girl you - " Luka called after her, but Abby chose not to hear him. As she made her way to Exam 3 to check out the five-year-old with a marble lodged all the way up her left nostril, she saw Carter and Kem once again, now talking to Kerry. Abby sighed. She didn't know why she didn't want Carter to know about Alana, she just didn't want him feeling sorry for her, or feeling like she needed any help, because she didn't, and certainly not his help.

And her heart was broken into a thousand pieces, and upon each one was written his name.

It felt like every time Abby saw him with his arms around another woman, her heart broke all over again. She felt angry tears burning in her eyes and she quickly and roughly rubbed at her cheek, willing them to stay away. She finally managed to drag herself away from the scene in front of her, and entered the room where little Olivia Peters sat, cradled in the arms of her mother.

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