A/N: This has been happening to me a lot these days. I'll write a first draft of a chapter, read it over a few times and ultimately decide to do a complete rewrite. That's what happened to the last chapter and again with this one.

So technically, this is Chapter 4, final draft.

Such is the life for a writer; you don't always have the right idea when you start hammering those keys.

Jade pulled onto the dangling cord from the ceiling and a wooden staircase came down to the floor.

"I didn't know you guys even had an attic," the goth said.

"Whatever you do, stay away from the old wardrobe," quipped Trina as she ascended the shaky steps.

The older sister pulled herself into the cold, dark space. It was so dark that if there was a light switch up here, she couldn't find it.

"Hey, Jade? Light!"

Her sister's girlfriend threw up the little flashlight and Trina caught it.

"That's better!" she grinned as the shaft of amber penetrated the abyss.

The much-needed illumination revealed boxes upon boxes. And here and there some oddities like an armless mannequin for dressmaking, a couple of old steamer trunks, and a creepy-looking Frosty that would decorate the front lawn around Christmas.

"What am I looking for again?" asked Trina toward the downstairs.

"Tori said the box should say Summer 2002," replied Jade.

Trina sighed and became resigned to the fact that she would have to get all up in there and look around.

"It's so dusty up here!" she coughed. "I swear to God if I see a mouse, you're coming up here West!"

She let the light show her the way as she walked through the memories of the Vega family. And not just their own mementos but legions of whatnot from extended family going back decades. Who knows what lies up here?

(When mom and dad go, I am turning those "American Pickers" guys loose up here and they can just write me a check when they're done!)

"Ah-ha!"

Trina stopped when she saw it. She happily picked up the medium-sized cardboard box labelled with magic marker.

"Good, now I can get the hell out of here!"

Tori waited in her bedroom, unable to process how everything around her was bigger than usual.

"If this is what an acid trip is like, I am not having fun."

"Hey!"

She turned to see Jade standing in the doorway.

"How you holding up?" she asked.

"Oh, I'm doing great," Tori chortled. "Just coming to terms about how Alice in Wonderland was really a horror book."

Jade smiled but her eyes were still sympathetic. She appreciated Tori adopting her tendency to use gallows humor during a difficult situation. Shows how much she was rubbing off on Tori.

She walked over and sat next to Tori on her bed. The stark height difference was so strange, especially when they both looked in the mirror across the room.

"What if they don't fix this?" Tori said shakily. "I mean what if they can't do anything?"

Jade put her arm around her girlfriend and pulled her in close, kissing her on the head. The Latina didn't object because that was a normal thing she would have done if she was over her in some way.

"I'm not gonna lie, Vega" she sighed. "This shit is beyond me but they're gonna figure something out. In the meantime, we will do what we can."

Trina then entered.

"Starting with..."

BOOM!

Trina rubbed years of dust off her hands.

"...clothes."

Tori groaned as Jade opened up the box.

She pulled out a powder blue t-shirt made for a child with a picture of an alligator rowing a little wooden boat with a sunset behind him.

"What's this?" asked Jade.

"Read the bottom," smirked Trina.

Jade saw that underneath the picture was: Camp Arawak, 2002.

Trina snatched the shirt from Jade's grasp and threw it at her baby sister.

"Go ahead, Tori" she mildly teased. "Put it on."

Tori rolled her eyes and slid off the bed, which was a bit further of a drop than normal. So now she had a hurt bottom to contend with.

"We'll leave you alone," Jade said.

After giving Tori some space for a few minutes, Jade knocked on the door.

"What?" moaned Tori.

"You ready?" Jade asked.

"Yes," she responded with a dead-panned tone.

Jade opened the door and there stood her girlfriend, just under four feet tall with her shirt and light brown kakis from summer camp.

The goth pressed her lips hard, trying her best not to so much as smile. It was very difficult; she was too cute.

Tori sensed what was on Jade's mind and crossed her arms with a frown.

Her tall girlfriend fell to her knees and then collapsed on her back, full on belly laughing.

"It's not funny!" Tori stomped.

"Stop!" Jade tried to say while the air in her lungs were busy. "Just stop..."

Jade couldn't articulate it at the moment, but the more grumpy and "childlike" Tori acted, the funnier the sight.

"SMILE!"

Tori looked up, confused when she saw a flash of light. Rubbing the blobs away from her eyes, she saw Trina holding her phone.

"I FUCKING HATE YOU!" she yelled at her sister and stormed away.

Jade rolled over and got herself back up, feeling bad. An equally contrite Trina looked at her and sighed before deleting the picture.

"We suck," Jade sighed.

"Come on," said Trina. "Let's go make it up to her."

The pair came down into the living room.

They followed the soft sobs to locate Tori.

She was leaning against the back of the couch, head in hands.

"Hey, baby?"

Tori didn't look up at her girlfriend.

"What do you want?"

Jade felt like such an asshole and got to her knees and hugged Tori. She resisted at first but ultimately gave in. Trina was tearing up and knelled beside them.

"Tori, I'm so sorry. That was crossing a line," Trina admitted.

Her sister sniffed and looked over to her.

"Yes," she said.

"I deleted the picture."

"She did," Jade added. "I saw her."

"We're both really sorry," Trina said, getting in on the hug.

The three of them were a mess of tears for a while.

Tori noticed she wasn't the only one to blame for the waterworks.

"You're crying too?" she asked.

"Of course, we are," Jade replied. "Because we hurt you."

"It's just I'm so scared right now," Tori sobbed. "I don't know...I just don't know!"

"We're scared too," Trina offered. "And I didn't want you to see that. I didn't want to admit that I didn't have the answers. But how could I? Even when we were kids, you looked up to me."

Tori wiped her eyes.

"And now," she sniffed. "I'm looking up to everybody."

Trina and Jade exchanged looks when Tori burst out laughing.

They both nervously joined in, and sad trio had morphed into a pile of unbridled insane cackling.

Jade kissed her girlfriend on the cheek.

"Okay, so only Tori makes the short jokes."

"Agreed," nodded Trina.