I am so sorry about this. I got such a bad case of writers block for this story and then I got into my other ones. I'm trying not to abandon this one, I promise.

Sue rubbed at her eyes blearily and sat up. She and Reed had fallen asleep on the couch the night before. She smiled a little as she watched him sleeping before carefully getting up so she wouldn't wake him.

She went to Johnny's door, intending to just check on him, and eased it open. When she saw his empty bed, though, for a moment she panicked. She opened his door wider, looking around but the room was empty.

"No." Sue felt her breathing pick up and for a moment she imagined that it was all a dream that she had never found him again. A hand on her shoulder made her spin and she stared up into her brothers eyes. Panic was replaced by relief so great that her knees almost buckled and she threw her arms around him, hugging him fiercely.

"I thought you'd gone away again." She whispered. To her surprise, he reached up to rub her back hesitantly. When she pulled back, he still seemed an uncomfortable and a little scared but he did manage to give her a weak smile before going over to his bed and sitting down. Sue walked over a little hesitantly.

"You're probably still tired." She said quietly. "I'll just…we can talk in the morning. You know, if you want to." She reached out a hand but pulled back at the last second before she touched him. "I'll be in the other room if you need me."

Sue stopped in the hallway after closing Johnny's door and leaned against the wall, trying to recover from her latest freak out. She was going to have to learn not to panic every time he wasn't where she expected him to be.

She was just terrified of losing him again. She had spent a year not knowing where he was or if he was even alive and her first reaction had been that he was gone again. A year ago, Johnny would have been highly irritated at that.

Sue flashed back to when they were kids, to when Johnny was nine, just after their mother had died. For a while afterwards, Johnny had attached himself to her. It hadn't taken long for her to figure out that it was because he'd been afraid that she would go away like their mother did.

She thought about what happened with the surfer and Victor before he had vanished. Victor had killed her, really. Johnny had been the same then as well. Spending more time with her than he had since they were kids, always letting her know when he was going somewhere, even canceling some of the more dangerous outings he'd planned when she'd asked him to.

She knew how he felt, and this wasn't the first time for her either. She remembered when he had first gotten into motocross and how badly he had injured himself once doing it. She'd been so angry, and terrified.

Johnny had plenty of injuries growing up. It never seemed to scare him, though, only motivate him even more.

"You're going what?" Sue asked, staring at her brother like he was crazy.

"Base jumping."

"Are you nuts?! Do you have any idea how dangerous that is?" Johnny simply rolled his eyes.

"That is the point, Sue." She gave a frustrated sigh.

"Why can't you just jump out of plane like a normal person?" He grinned at her.

"Already did that. You freaked out then too, remember? Now you want me to do it?" She closed her eyes, rubbing her temples and muttered under her breath. "What are you doing?" He asked.

"Trying to accept the fact that my brother is insane." She said, opening her eyes. He only grinned wider at her.

Sue smiled slightly at the memory. She'd been terrified when he told her what he wanted to do. She'd read all the statistics on it, she knew how dangerous it was. Now, she couldn't believe that what she wanted her brother to come bouncing out of that room with a new and even more dangerous idea that he wanted to try out.

Johnny watched her go before he settled back into the bed and leaned against the headboard. He didn't understand why she had freaked out so badly. Even if she was telling the truth and she was his family, all he did was go to the bathroom. He frowned as he thought about her reaction.

"Mom's not coming back, is she?"

"No, Johnny. She's not coming back."

"Are…are you going to leave too?"

"No. I'm not leaving, I promise. I'll take care of you."

Johnny's frown deepened as the voices played out in his head and he got an image of a small blonde girl with sad, concerned eyes.

Sue was sitting in the kitchen not really doing anything and trying not to worry too much when Johnny came to her the next morning. She looked up at him surprised. He fidgeted a little and wouldn't quite meet her eyes.

"Is something wrong?" She asked, standing up. "Are you okay?" He frowned, and she thought he was debating with himself for a moment before he opened his mouth and spoke to her for the second time since he had been back.

"I…I want to know." He said, finally meeting her gaze. She could still see the fear there.

"Know?" She said. He nodded, looking down. "Know what Johnny?" He hesitated for a moment before finally shaking his head, refusing to talk again and starting out of the room.

"You used to like to fix cars." She blurted out before he could get out of the room. He stopped, turning to her with another frown. "Even after…you always loved cars."

"Sue, I did it!"

"Did what?" She asked, frowning at her brother as he came rushing into the room.

"I fixed your car!" He said excitedly. "Come see. Please, Sue." She sighed, giving in at the look in his eyes and followed him outside. Her car had broken down the day before and she hadn't had the money to go to a mechanic yet.

"Alright, I'm coming."

"Told you." He said, grinning widely when she got outside and started her car.

"I think it was one of your safer hobbies." Sue said, watching her brother. He nodded after a moment but didn't say anything.

Over the next couple of days, Sue spent a lot of time just talking to Johnny about their childhood. She kept to the good memories, and found herself thinking of all the things, good and bad, that they had been through together. She was grateful that Johnny was listening to her, even if he never really said anything.

"What were you thinking?" She asked, tilting her brothers head back slightly so she could get a good look at his face. His lip was split and he had a bruise forming on his cheek.

"He deserved it." Johnny said angrily.

"No matter what he did, you can't get into fights at school, Johnny. Tell me what happened."

"It doesn't matter." He said, getting up. She sighed.

"This was about Dad, isn't it? Your principal told me he said something about Dad. Johnny, what did he say?" He crossed his arms, glaring at her.

"Oh, come on, Sue. Everyone knows where Dad is, and why. He thought it was so funny that Dad's in jail."

"I'm sorry, Johnny." She said softly. He shrugged, but when he met her gaze again, for a moment he looked nine again.

"Dad left too." He said softly.

"I know." She said, smiling sadly. "But I'm not going anywhere."

Reed was noticing the changes in Johnny. He was sticking closer to Sue now. He knew that Sue was talking to Johnny, trying to jog his memory. Johnny still wasn't talking, and he was still wary around Reed and Ben, but he seemed to be warming up a little to Sue at least.

Sue had gained some of her confidence back. She had talked excitedly for an hour after the first night that Johnny had come to her, telling him how Johnny had spoken to her, even if it was barely even one sentence, about how he had wanted to know who he was.

Johnny still wasn't anywhere close to being completely okay, but he was happy to see that he was at least making small steps towards that direction now.

"I'll see you in the morning." She said, starting out of Johnny's room. Before she could leave, though, he reached out and grabbed her hand. Surprised, she turned back to him. He hesitated for a moment before he got the words out.

"You stayed." He said quietly. Sue's eyes widened and then she smiled, squeezing his hand.

"Yeah. I'm not going anywhere. I promise."

Okay, this chapter turned out so incredibly sappy. Once again, I'm sorry for the long wait.