Skyler walked through the door and walked into the darkened space beyond. As with the first door, the room beyond slowly lit and took shape after the door shut behind them.

She found herself in a small living room, and felt her gut clench. She recognized this place.

This was the home of the Coopers. Mr. and Mrs. Cooper and their three kids, to be exact. She'd been fourteen, and shuffled quickly into the foster care system after her mother's 'abandonment'.

It was all still as she remembered it. Framed family photos everywhere, with religious themed paintings and crosses tucked in any available space.

"Oh, god," She groaned.

"You recognize this place?" Nought asked.

"Yeah," she said softly. "I really wish I didn't."

There was a knock on the door to her left, and as Skyler was about to turn to face it, a familiar figure came hurrying from the hall leading deeper into the house.

Mrs. Cooper, her plump and friendly face flushed as she hurriedly patted her heavily hairsprayed hair to make sure it was all still in its place.

"Kids," she called in her nasal New Jersey accent.

"Moooooooom," came a long suffering female voice, "I'm already having to share my room with her, do I have to go out and pretend to like her, too?"

"Yes," she called back. "And get your brothers."

"Fiiiiiine," the voice whined.

Skyler winced. Caroline Cooper had been her first foster sister, and the Cooper's "natural born" daughter.

She'd also been her very own personal tormentor for nearly a year.

Caroline, age 13, came stomping into the living room, all pink ruffles and indignation.

Following closely behind was Rocky and Isaac Cooper, their sons. If Skyler remembered right, at this point, the boys were 15 and 17, respectively.

Mrs. Cooper hurried to open the door. "I am so sorry for the wait," she said, then looked at Skyler, "Oh, aren't you precious. Here," she said, taking the black trash bag from Skyler that held her possessions, "Let me take that. My," she let out a laugh, "this is heavy."

"Luckily," Frank Miller, Skyler's first social worker said with a jovial smile, "We were able to get into Skyler's house and reclaim many of her personal effects."

"That will save us some shopping," Mrs cooper said with a smile. "Issac," she said, motioning the eldest of the boys forward, "Would you take this to the girls' room for me?"

"Sure," Isaac said with a shrug, then took the bag effortlessly and taking it down the hall.

"There, now," Mrs Cooper said, turning back to the social worker and her new charge. "It's almost time for lunch. Are you hungry, dear?"

The much younger Skyler nodded shyly. She looked still very much in shock, and Skyler felt for the younger vision of herself. She'd spent the night in a group home, where it had been crowded and noisy, and still reeling from the events that had led her here.

"Well, this is where we part ways, young lady," Frank said, kneeling down to the shorter girl's height. "Now, you have my card, correct?"

Skyler nodded to the man. He'd come to visit her that morning, and tried his best to make the transition easier on her. He'd been friendly, and had even brought her a pair of breakfast sandwhiched from McDonalds that morning.

Not that she'd been able to eat.

Before getting in the car to come to this place, he'd handed her a card that had his name and contact information on it.

"Good," He said. "Now you call me if you need anything, and I'll keep in contact and let you know if and when we find any information on your family."

Skyler nodded again.

"Thank you, Frank," Mrs. Cooper said, all but escorting him to the door.

Frank gave Skyler a wave as he turned to walk back to his car.

Skyler lifted her hand in a half hearted wave as the door shut firmly behind him, cutting him off from Skyler's sight.

Once the door closed, the Cooper Kids disappeared down the hallway once more.

"Now then," Mrs Cooper said, hands on hips. "I have ham for sandwiches in the refrigerator whenever you are hungry. It's Wednesday, so we have church service in a few hours. Go ahead and unpack your things, and hopefully you have something nice to wear."

"Yes, ma'am," Skyler said softly. Her mother hadn't raised her in a religious household, so she didn't understand what was expected of her. "I have some dressy clothes."

"Good," she said. "Your room is the second door on the right. Go."

The younger Skyler nodded, and went down the hall.

Elder Skyler closed her eyes and gritted her teeth. She knew what happened next, and wanted very much to avoid seeing it in the third person, but she felt Nought's hand on her shoulder urging her to follow.

Skyler reluctantly followed her younger self into the pink and frills nightmare that was the room she shared with Caroline. The pink walled room had probably been clean before she'd gotten there, but young Skyler entered to find her belongings strewn around on every available surface.

"What…" Young Skyler began as Caroline tossed another shirt over her shoulder so that it landed on top of a large wooden dollhouse.

Caroline snarled. "You don't even have anything here that I would wear," she said haughtily. "It's all just junk."

Young Skyler was stunned. No, she didn't have name brand clothes, and quite a bit had been from thrift stores, but it wasn't junk. And if something had happened to her mother, then these things were the last that she had to remember her by.

Caroline pushed herself to her feet and rolled her eyes. "I can't believe I have to share a room with you and have to look at this stuff." With that, she flounced out the door leaving young Skyler standing in the midst of her belongings. She began to gather the items that, until that moment, had been carefully folded or rolled into the one bag she'd been allowed to take. Unsure of where to put the items, she folded them once more and placed them on the plain white covered bed, assuming that the pink lace covered one belonged to Caroline.

The walls of the room were covered in framed photographs of a smiling and almost angelic looking Caroline. As young Skyler looked around, she took note of the sashes and tiaras from beauty pageants.

"You're going to be late," a voice came from the doorway.

Young Skyler whirled to find Isaac, the boy who'd hauled her bag into the room earlier. "Late?" she asked.

"For church," Isaac said, rolling his eyes. "Mrs Cooper is really big on her church services and hates to be late."

"Oh," Young Skyler said, reaching into the newly folded stack of clothing for one of her fancier dresses. "Okay. I'll be there in a minute." She hurried into the small attached bathroom and changed quickly. As she re-entered the bedroom, she saw that Isaac was still in the doorway looking bored.

"Why do you call her Mrs. Cooper?" She asked.

"That's how she prefers it," Isaac said, with a put-upon sigh. He straightened and looked at her with something akin to pity. "Look, I have less than six months left here before I turn eighteen and I'm free to leave and never look back. I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Mommy's Little Princess," he jerked his thumb towards the direction that Caroline had gone, "She's the only one of the Cooper's Bio kids."

"Bio kids?"

"Yeah. Rocky and I? We're foster kids like you. As long as we stay out of trouble, they could care less about us." Isaac sent her a look. "The Coopers get a paycheck for every one of us that stay here, and those paychecks go to pay for the Little Princess's Pageant hobby," he waved a hand at the wall covered in awards. "We're just a paycheck, girl. Don't forget that. They don't care, and if you piss off the Little Princess, you're going to be back wherever you were before you came here. Maybe not," He shrugged. "Maybe they'll get you into another home pretty quick, but I've been in a lot myself and with as crappy as it is here, there are a lot worse out there. At least they feed us regular here. So," he said with a nod in her direction, "Keep your head down, follow the rules and try not to irritate Miss Priss here, and you can probably just ride your time out here."

"Okay," Skyler said softly.

"Hurry and finish getting ready," He said, seemingly irritated that he had felt the need to give her advice. "Mrs. Cooper hates being late."

Young Skyler nodded and reached into the black bag for her one pair of black flats that were hopefully nice enough to pass inspection. She didn't have any tights or dress stockings, so she slipped them onto her bare feet and hurried to join the rest of the family.

Nought frowned at the young version of his daughter as the scene faded once more to black and the doorway to return them to his home appeared.

"I had forgotten about that," Skyler said softly. "I forgot that Isaac had been nice to me once."

"Once?" Nought asked.

"After that," Skyler shrugged and reached for the doorknob, "Well, Caroline didn't like to share her room and really hated not being the only girl in the house. She raised such a fuss over it all that three months later, I was back in a group home."

Skyler tried to give an indifferent shrug, but knew she failed when Nought frowned at her.

"Well," Skyler said, forcing a smile and a lighthearted tone that she didn't actually feel, "Let's see what's next."

Determinedly, she reached for the next door.