Finally at home, Mary Anne went up to her room and lay on her bed. It had certainly been a long day. She lay in her bed and tried to process everything that had happened.

Watson wasn't in any way that man that she had always thought him to be. When she had heard that crash, she had never been so scared in her life, not even when she had to take Jenny Prezzioso to the hospital. Watson had crashed his brand new Mercedes into the garage. He had been driving drunk, which Mary Anne couldn't even comprehend. The ambulance came, and he had gone to the hospital to be checked out- he was at more risk because of his heart attack a few years ago. Also, a social worker wanted to talk to him, as well as Elizabeth. Nannie was going to stay at the house with all of the kids until things were settled down. Despite this, Mary Anne knew that it would be a long time before things were right at the Thomas-Brewer's.

Her thoughts drifted to David Michael, Karen, Andrew, and Emily Michelle. Those poor kids. If Charlie, Sam, and Kristy could hardly deal with what was going on, she could hardly imagine what the children thought of the situation. However, she had faith that between Kristy and Nannie, they would not fall through the cracks.

Even though it was only a little after nine on a Saturday night, Mary Anne soon drifted off into a dreamless sleep.

------------------

Mary Anne slept until eleven the next morning. Clearly, her body needed rest. After waking up she did some homework as well as some work around the house. Shortly after she made lunch she called Kristy. She just wanted to see how things were going, and if there was anything that she could do to help.

After the phone rang five times, the machine eventually picked up. Without leaving a message, she hung up and dialed the number of Kristy's cell phone.

"Hello," Kristy said.

"Hey Kristy, it's me. How is everything going over there today?"

"Better. Nannie took the kids to the zoo. Sam is in his room dong God knows what with Stacey. And I'm just hiding out here in my room trying to figure out how exactly all of this happened. I just don't understand it Mary Anne."

This did not sound like the Kristy Thomas that Mary Anne grew up with. That girl had faced every problem head on with full confidence. Some how life had broken Kristy to a point where she was just a shadow of her former self, without her even realizing it. Mary Ann wondered if people thought the same kinds of things about her.

"Even though yesterday was horrible," Kristy continued, "It may actually turn out to be a good thing. Nannie's back, though I'm not sure for how long. The kids really do so much better when she is around, especially Emily."

"What about your mom and Watson?" Mary Anne asked

A social worker talked to both of them at the hospital yesterday. Watson's going to be gong to a rehabilitation center for a few weeks. And when he comes back he is going to stay somewhere else, maybe in a hotel or something, until he and mom figure out what is going on. You want to know something?"

"Sure."

"I'm kind of glad that this happened. It's kind of nice to know that everything is pretty much out of my hands at this point."

"I don't blame you for that," Mary Anne responded.

"You know, when we were in eight grade, I really did believe that the Babysitter's Club could handle anything," Kristy continued. "It's really frustrating to actually feel less competent than I did at thirteen."

"I know what you mean. When I look back, I feel like we had our whole future planned out. Now I just try and make it through the day."

"I'm glad I'm not the only one that feels that way. Mary Anne?" Kristy asked.

"Yeah?"

"I'm sorry about everything."

"Don't worry about it," Mary Anne said.

Though the bond between the girls had been strained in the past year, they both knew each other well enough that no further explanations were needed.

"I'll see you in school tomorrow."

"Bye."

Mary Anne hung up the phone feeling better than she had in a very long time. It felt so good to help Kristy and feel needed again.

Throughout the rest of the night, whenever she thought about her renewed friendship with Kristy, she couldn't help but smile. At the same time, she knew that Kristy had a lot going on, and though she wanted to help in any way possible, this was a situation that was way over her head.

While Mary Anne was trying to think of things that she could do to cheer Kristy up, she saw her dad and Sharon walking in from the garage. She laughed to herself when she saw Sharon trying to open the front door with a Swiss army knife rather than her keys. She had already ruined the lock twice before doing that.

She didn't know how she would begin to tell them about the events of the last few days. Maybe she wouldn't. She doubted they would ask about her weekend anyway.

"Hi dad, hi Sharon," Mary Anne said. "How was your weekend?"

"Have you talked to Dawn at all lately?" asked Sharon, ignoring the question.

"No."

"So you don't have any idea what's going on with her?"

"No."

"This is just great," Sharon muttered, walking out of the room.

"What was that all about?" Mary Anne asked her father.

"Right as we were on our way back, Sharon received a call from Jack. Sharon hasn't talked to Dawn or Jeff in about a month, but it seems that things aren't going as well as we thought for her in California. She's been fighting with Carol quite frequently, and now she wants to try living out here again," Richard explained.

Mary Anne rolled her eyes. Dawn had a habit of 'coast-hopping,' per se, when things started to get difficult. She had never been one for sticking it out through tough situations. As much as she loved Dawn, it was somewhat ridiculous.

"So what is Dawn going to do? Are you going to let her come back here to stay?"

"I don't see how we can really say no. But whatever we do, we need to decide quickly. If Dawn were to come back we wouldn't want her to be any further behind in school than she has to be. What do you think about the situation?"

Mary Anne was taken momentarily aback by the fact that her father was asking her opinion about something. In fact, this was the longest conversation that she could remember having with him in the past several months.

She wasn't quite sure how to respond to his whole situation. She loved Dawn dearly, and they had been best friends at the time of their parent's marriage. And they did get along well when Dawn and Jeff visited for holidays and summers. But if Dawn had changed half as much as Mary Anne and all of their other friends had, she wasn't really sure what to expect. Furthermore, she wasn't even sure if Dawn knew what kind of situation she would be getting herself into. She would be returning to their house, but the home they had created lied in shambles.

After thinking the situation over Mary Anne realized that none of that mattered. It was almost as if her dreams were coming true. Just a week ago, she had been alone. Now she had Kristy, and possibly Dawn as well."

"I do miss Dawn a lot," Mary Anne said, grinning.

"That's what I thought. And I suppose if you had Dawn to keep you company, it would give Sharon and I more time to ourselves, which would certainly be nice. I doubt that two teenage girls would want their parents around very much."

"I guess," Mary Anne responded, doubtfully. It figured that her dad would use this to figure out a way to ignore her more than he did. But that didn't really matter. If Dawn were here, it wouldn't matter if her dad and Sharon ignored them. They would be just fine, together.

"I'm going to go talk to Sharon about this. We have a lot that we need to figure out. You should call Dawn."

"I think I will."

Just as Mary Anne was reaching for the receiver, the phone rang.

"Hello, Spier's," She said.

"Hey, Mary Anne? It's Dawn."

"We were just talking about you! Are you really thinking about coming back? What's going on out there?"

"Listen, Mary Anne, I need your help. I need to come to Connecticut. You need to do whatever you can to make sure that mom and Richard agree to this."

"Is Carol that hard to live with?" Mary Anne asked.

"Carol's so wrapped up with Gracie that she's hardly said a word to me in the last month. This has nothing to do with Carol."

"Then what's going on?" Mary Anne asked, confused by the whole situation.

"I can't tell you over the phone, someone could be listening. I just need to get out of here, and you need to help me."

Mary Anne had no idea what was going on with Dawn, but like always, she was loyal to a fault. If Dawn needed her help, she would do whatever she could.

"I'll work on it, but you have to promise me that you'll fill me in the second you get here."

"I promise. Oh Mary Anne, it's going to be so great to be home. I'll call you tomorrow, okay? Go work on mom and Richard!"

"I will, I promise. Bye."

Mary Anne hung up the phone. She didn't know what Dawn was running from, and without knowing that, she couldn't guess if what she was running to would be any better.