I know it's short, but I think it's a little better than the last one, at least. If you didn't notice, Michelle never went to Seattle, so no, I didn't forget about that, I just couldn't fit it into my story. Also, I don't know what the real timeline is here or how much time passed between each season, so I'm really just doing my own thing. Please don't hate me. Sorry for the long author's note.
Tony came home two and a half months before Ellie graduated. Michelle would always count his homecoming as one of the happiest days of her life, but in the months that followed, she felt everything falling apart, like life was slipping through her fingers.
On one hand, Michelle didn't want this for her sister. She didn't want her in a house with... that. The drinking, mostly. Michelle knew that Ellie heard her cry, and really wanted to help, but Michelle felt herself pushing Ellie away as much as she was being pushed away by her husband. She knew that this wasn't working, but she couldn't kick Tony out. He needed her. She knew he did. And she couldn't leave her sister- that was never even an option. And most of all, she knew that leaving Tony would have to be her decision, for her, not for Ellie.
So she decided to wait until graduation, then see from there. It wasn't much of a decision, she knew that, but she took comfort in it somehow. Wait. Just wait.
She was walking in from the garage after work one night and overheard yelling from the family room. It didn't take her long to figure it out- Ellie was yelling at Tony for the way he was treating Michelle, and Tony was insisting that it was none of her business.
"She doesn't need you to take care of her!" Tony said. He didn't slur his words, but Michelle could tell that he had been drinking. Again.
"How would you know?" Ellie retorted. "You haven't been taking care of her. She's been taking care of me since I was born. Maybe, right now, she does need me."
Ellie turned away from Tony, trying to hide the tears she was willing not to come, but as she turned her head, she saw Michelle, standing still in the hallway. She opened her mouth to say something, but no words came.
Michelle walked into the family room. Tony looked up at her from the couch, and Ellie glanced at her, arms folded and standing on the other side of the room. She could feel it- whether they knew it or not, they were waiting for her to pick a side.
Michelle looked at Ellie. She loved Ellie. She would always love Ellie. She was her sister. She wasn't sure whether or not she needed Ellie. She supposed that she did. But Ellie didn't really need her so much. Ellie had grown up. She used to be the twelve-year-old, curls hiding her face, but now she was eighteen. Ready to move out, ready to move on, standing across the room, arms folded across her chest, curls pulled back, away from her eyes.
And then she looked at Tony. Her Tony. He'd always be her Tony. And right now, he needed her.
She sat down next to Tony on the couch. She put one arm around him, rubbed his back, held his hand. "How was your day?" she said softly.
She didn't look up, but was fully aware of the moment Ellie turned around and walked back up the stairs.