*** Brandi and Mary actually talk...without screaming at each other. Six years and a whole world apart. ***

I know the truth now
I know who you are
And I don't love you anymore

It never was and never will be
You don't know how you've betrayed me
And somehow you've got everybody fooled

It never was and never will be
You're not real and you can't save me
And somehow now you're everybody's fool

– Everybody's Fool, Evanescence

Brandi slid into Mary's dark room and stood quietly as her eyes adjusted. She heard a sniffle near the bed and stepped over the sit on the edge.

"Mary?"

Silence. Another sniffle, then, "Go away, Squish. I really don't want to talk right now and I'm pretty pissed at you."

Brandi hung her head. "I know. But I honestly didn't think-"

Mary cut her off. "That's the problem, isn't it? You don't think. You don't think about what having Scott here does to me. What all the stories about Daddy do to me. You're so wrapped up in this fantasy world of us all becoming some big, happy family that you don't think about me at all. I want nothing to do with them, Brandi."

"That's not fair, Mary," Brandi countered, ignoring her sister's snort. "Scott and Lauren didn't do anything to deserve your anger. They were born just like we were born and it's not their fault our father left us. They had no idea we even existed. I don't expect we'll all become friends or something, but I think I can decide if I want to know more about my father. You never tell me anything and Mom was too soaked in alcohol to have any reliable stories."

"Don't try to blame me in all this, Brandi," Mary warned. "You read the damn letters and you know as much as I do. I'm not keeping things from you."

"You tell me things that he did, but not what he was like." Brandi didn't know how to explain it. "Was he funny? Did he get mad? Did he yell? Was he happy to see us when he came home?"

Mary was still reeling from the effects of seeing that picture as Brandi's questions swirled through her head. The betrayal in living color. Every fantasy she had ever had of her father coming back through the door and swooping her up as he used to was dashed with the image of another little girl hoisted into the air. Replaced. Rejected.

"He didn't want us, Squish," she whispered. "Why do you want to know about a man who thought so little of you that he walked away knowing he put you in danger?"

Brandi wiped at the fresh tears on her cheek. She knew her quest was hurting her sister, but she just had to know. "Because it's a part of me that's always been missing, Mary. I can't go through life thinking all my qualities came from Mom. God, that's depressing. I've always seen you happy when you would think about him. When you were reading those letters to us your face just lit up. I just want to know more about the man who could make you feel that way. I know you've changed your mind about him somewhat in the last year or so…with all the Lauren and Scott stuff, but when you think back to before he left, you were happy, right?"

Mary nodded, then realized Brandi couldn't see her as she sat on the floor with her back against the bed. "I was happy. He was my life. I knew I could do no wrong in his eyes, and he would pick me up in his arms everyday and make me feel like the most important person in the world. He used to call me his Princess…" She couldn't keep talking.

"Oh, Mary," Brandi sighed, understanding dawning. "I didn't know that. God, I'm sorry…again. I'm such an idiot."

"I used to pretend he was dead, you know. That's what I told my teachers and the kids at school. That he had died in a car accident. I couldn't admit to anyone that he had just left. It would've been humiliating. I probably didn't tell anyone the real story until I was in high school. At that point it just didn't matter what people thought of me anymore." Mary's voice was softer than Brandi had remembered hearing it in a long time.

Brandi scooted over to slide down next to Mary, not touching, but close enough to feel her warmth. "I used to tell people he was a spy and worked as a secret agent. That's why he was never around. I'd say he worked for the President and couldn't let his face be seen by ordinary people." She laughed self consciously after admitting that. "It made me feel special for some reason."

Mary chuckled softly. "You would come up with some grand adventure, Squish. You were always good at that." Silent for moment. "Daddy was good at making me feel special. So good I believed it. I still believed it for a while after he left, reading that letter over and over again. I thought I could wish him home and he would come for me."

Brandi sniffled and Mary took a deep breath, loud in the quiet room. She spoke again, "I truly didn't doubt him until Lauren showed up. I couldn't believe it at first…wouldn't believe it. It was all lies. And then today…that picture." She wiped her eyes. "I was never special. Just another fool."

Brandi reached out to tentatively take Mary's hand, not sure of the reaction she would get. Mary didn't pull away, but she didn't grip back either. "You were good at making me feel special, Mary. I want you to know that I never worried about much growing up. I knew you'd take care of everything…even Mom. You even made sure I had fun during the not-so-fun times. I don't know what I would've done without you."

Mary teared up again with Brandi's admission. "I never would've abandoned you. I could never do what he did."

"I have to believe he loved us, Mary," Brandi whispered. "Even though he left us behind for whatever reason, I can't imagine he didn't care."

"He didn't care enough."

"He must've thought we'd be okay," Brandi was trying to convince herself as much as her sister.

"No, Squish, he knew we wouldn't be okay, and that's what's killing me. How could anyone think their seven year old and one year old would be okay if they left them with an alcoholic who couldn't support them? That's what I want to ask him if I ever see him again." Mary paused to clench her jaw and take a deep breath. "He watched us struggle and suffer and never stepped in to help. Only wrote pithy letters."

She gazed towards her closet where the letters resided. How could she have read those and thought they were written with love and affection? They were poor attempts at a sad man's need to assuage his own guilty conscience. Shaking her head, Mary laughed sadly.

"What?" asked Brandi.

"Maybe I'm glad you showed me that picture," Mary said. "I think it finally cleared up a lot of confusion. Answered a lot of whys. He left us to move on to something better. Cut his losses on a bad bet and chased the next big winner. It must've paid out a little longer, but his luck eventually ran out again, didn't it." Her voice was bitter by the end.

Brandi thought of Scott and twenty thousand dollars. Thought of lugging around a suitcase full of meth. Of Jinx trying out for show after show and lying under barstools. Lives filled with bad bets and too many chances. Thought of Peter most likely waiting for her in the living room.

"I need to tell Scott to go home," Brandi said quietly.

"Maybe," Mary replied, squeezing her sister's fingers. "He's really not the problem. But be careful, bad luck runs in the family, you know." She took a deep breath before her next words, voice shaky. "He looks just like Daddy did when he left. I thought I had seen a ghost when I walked in that day. It's hard to look at him."

Brandi didn't know what to say so she just sat. She thought of the conversation in the living room. "Mary," she asked, "what happened that night Robert got arrested?"

Mary's thoughts swirled back to that cold night. Brandi was just six years old. Too young to remember more than bits and pieces of events, and the overwhelming terror of the night surely erased more. Mary grimly smiled to herself as she rose and pulled her sister up with her. She wasn't going to abandon her now.

"He met a fitting end…at least with us. We survived." She hugged Squish and pointed her at the door. "Go. Get Peter and head back to his place. I want the house to myself for a while."

"But Marshall…" Brandi trailed off.

"Marshall's long gone by now," Mary interrupted. "He knows better than to stick around when I get like this."

***Well. That was sad. The picture just cemented it all for Mary. Good to see Brandi trying to understand her sister's side of things and think about this whole thing with some caution. I wonder if Marshall really left? Keep reading...oh, and REVIEW! ***