Okay, this chapter speeds up the story a great deal because there's really no more build up left. If I did more than this, you'd stop reading because this would be the most boring fanfic in history.

Anyway, enjoy while you can, for the tale is almost complete. Than whatcha gonna read? Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows doesn't come out til July; God only knows when the next Eragon book is going to come out. Your lives will be terribly empty without my lovely story.

Yeah, and then I woke up, lol.

Disclaimer: I don't own Four Brothers. Duh. If you haven't figured that out yet then congratulations, your brain is the size of a peanut.

The next few months passed happily for Evy. School, hockey, friends, and family filled up a void in her life that Evy hadn't even noticed before. Somehow she missed her dad less now. All the energy that had focused on him, on holding on to every memory she could, was being redirected now. She had a life and she loved it.

After two months of careful manoeuvring, Chris had finally convinced Evy to go out with him. To make sure that she was comfortable, he'd gotten Amelia and her boyfriend Jason to double with them. Their first few dates were doubled and Evy fell for Chris in all his sweetness.

She realized suddenly just how smart she really was. When the school year ended, she was totally caught up and didn't have to do summer school. Amelia had helped her, as well as many of the teachers. Everyone marvelled at the quiet, polite Goth who managed to cause all sorts of trouble and never get caught. Evy had charmed everyone she met. It felt good to know that no one was looking at her and deciding she was a lost-cause just because of how she dressed and behaved.

Bobby was so happy with Evy around that he sometime disgusted himself. He watched happily as she gained weight and her body filled out to form a healthy, athletic girl in the place of the half-dead rat who had appeared on their doorstep in the middle of winter.

Hockey was a family event more than ever now. Amelia and Evy both helped coach Jake's team and it was nothing for the Mercer family to take up a whole section of bleachers at the games. Watching Evy and Amelia play brought a sad twinge to the brothers' hearts. They could remember far too many games where they had played together, where Jack had been their chief scorer because he was so much smaller and faster than the others. Even after hockey season was over and there were only practices to watch, the memories still surfaced at the sound of blades on ice.

My God Jackie, you'd be so proud of her. I wish you could be here, Bobby thought almost every day. He sometimes thought that he was losing his mind at games. Sometimes he could swear that he'd seen Jack sitting with them, that his baby brother's voice cheered and jeered along with the rest of them. He didn't realize it, but he wasn't the only one who felt Jack's presence.

Angel kept catching glimpses of Jack every time the family sat down for dinner or to watch a game. He'd here his brother laugh when someone told a joke. Once he could even swear that he heard Jack's voice when they were bawling out Amelia and Evy for coming home at three in the morning smelling like beer and cigarettes. It was hard for him to handle these powerful feelings of Jack. He had never really been the sentimental type, but this sort of thing scared the hell out of him and made him feel like crying until he couldn't breathe.

Evy felt it more than any of the others. Every night she woke up at the sound of Jack's voice, sometimes singing. A few times she even woke up and could have sworn that she heard him playing his guitar. It was hell for her and it never failed that she'd cry herself back to sleep. Possibly the hardest part was the feeling of someone sitting on her bed, his hand rubbing her back gently as she sobbed into her pillow. When Jack had just been 13-year-old memories, it had been hard, but nice to remember. Now that he was a constant presence, a shadow that seemed to follow her through classes and practice and meals, Evy felt like her heart would break with longing.

"It's just not fair," Evy had sobbed helplessly to Amelia on night. She'd called her cousin after waking up in the dead of night to the sound of her father singing a song he'd written for her. "I want him back, I miss him so much, but having his ghost like this is harder than not having him at all."

But nothing plagued Evy as much as the fact that she felt constantly ill. Sometimes she'd have to stop practice because she couldn't breathe correctly. She felt nauseous a lot, but she tried to hide it. Bobby and the others noticed that she was tired a lot, but she encouraged their belief that it was just the stress of everything she was doing.

Deep down, Evy knew there was something very wrong. She even had an idea of what it could be, but she didn't want to go to doctors and have them poke around and tell her that something was really wrong. After years of hell, she finally had a life that she didn't want to fuck up. She'd be damned if illness would bring her down.

Looking back, Evy really wished that she'd said something.

- - - -

Evy sighed and tossed her magazine on the floor. She was spending the night with Amelia, but it was so hot outside that they didn't even feel like going for a walk like they normally did. With barely two weeks before school started, Evy and Amelia were running dry on ideas to keep them occupied. Evy rubbed her eyes, cursing at the fatigue and the aches that made her feel so weak and the heat that made it worse.

"You okay, Evy?" Amelia asked, looking up at where her cousin lay on the bed. "You look really pale."

Evy shrugged. "Just a little tired and achy. Think I'm coming down with something."

"That sucks," Amelia said. She grinned wickedly. "I guess that means you're feeling really weak, huh?" she said innocently.

Evy glared at her cousin, her head hanging off the bed so that the whole room was upside down. "Weak is in the eye of the beholder," she growled.

"Really? I thought it was in the muscles."

With a wild squeal, Amelia dove onto the bed, tackling her cousin. Evy gasped and hefted Amelia up and onto the floor with a loud thud. They rolled around, wrestling like they did so many times. This time was different somehow though.

Evy couldn't breathe right and her vision was suddenly blurry. She tried to push Amelia away, but her arms were too tired. Pain seared through her ears as if someone was driving nails into them.

Amelia was shaking her, calling her name, but Evy couldn't focus. "Why do my ears hurt?" she mumbled.

The last thing she heard before she blacked out was Amelia screaming, "Daddy!"

Oooooo, cliff-hanger.

New chapter soon!

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