Disclaimer: I don't own anything except for the thing you don't recognize! Song credit to All Time Low

Here is the chapter I'm sure quite a few of you have been waiting for. There are still some questions left, but they will all be answered in time. And just a warning…I was teary eyed when I wrote this. Thanks for the reviews!

"Give me therapy

I'm a walking travesty.

But I'm smiling in everything.

Therapy, you were never a friend to me

and you take back your misery."

Therapy

For a long time my sister and I had had to rely on each other. Mom was around and she saw to our basic needs, but for years she wasn't really around in the way Mom's needed to be. I never went to Mom when I failed my math test and Cady never went to her when she didn't feel good. We didn't want to bother her with our problems because in comparison they seemed significantly inferior. Even when Mom improved we stuck together, still not wanting to burden her with the troubles in our everyday lives.

That was why I was on my way to the hospital. Cady was only doing what we had done for each other for years. I knew that if I was in her position I would do the same thing. Sure it wasn't easy for me, but I knew that most of the time it was harder to watch someone you love be in pain than actually being in pain yourself.

Of course I hadn't gone to bed with my mind made up; I had been considering it but in my mind it wouldn't become a reality for a long time. However, my subconscious had a different plan for me. There was no sign of a thunderstorm when I went to sleep and the forecast called for cloudy with a chance of sun in the late afternoon tomorrow. So I was fairly certain I wouldn't be plagued with my memories, but I was wrong.

No one knew what I was doing today. I had asked Mom to watch Grace for me today, telling her I needed to work on Cady's wedding present. It wasn't a lie, but I knew she was thinking of china sets and bed sheets as opposed to what I was actually doing. Paul was also aware that I was gone today, but he only knew what I had told Mom.

Hunter seemed surprised when he looked up to see me walking into his office; his ten thirty appointment. He quickly masked his surprise and smiled gently at me as I sat down on the large couch situated across from what looked like a pretty comfortable easy chair.

"I know you're surprised to see me." I stated as he sat down across from me on the easy chair.

I had expected him to have a pad of paper and a pen in hand, but he was empty handed. Instead of jotting down notes, his eyes were assessing me. Despite the crappy quality of my sleep I looked pretty well put together, nothing out of the usual.

"I think it might be best if I'm only Hunter the doctor to you right now. Not Hunter, Grace's uncle." He stated.

"Yeah." I agreed.

"How are you today, Sadie?"

I knew this was his opening for me; he wasn't just going to come out and say 'what the hell happened to you', he was too professional for that. But I knew that was what he was thinking, I could see it in his eyes; maybe not so much right now but I had seen it before when he was encouraging me to talk to him.

"I had a dream last night, but it wasn't really a dream; it was a memory."

"Do you have these often?"

"Yeah, but it wasn't always like that." I answered. "After it first happened I did for years, but usually only when there was a storm at night. Then when I went away to college they stopped until recently. But last night there was no storm and instead of just dreaming a fragment, I watched it all again."

"Do you mind sharing what it was you dreamt?"

"For years I only dreamt one thing over and over again; the very beginning of my memory. But now it's more than that."

He nodded in understanding and waited for me to go on. This was it; the time for me to finally share what had happened. I had never talked about it openly with Cady or Mom because they had lived it as well, and I had certainly never told anyone else.

"Cady and I were seven at the time…"

It was a dark and gloomy day; the kind of day I was afraid of because it usually meant a thunderstorm was on its way. I knew my parents were sick of me joining them in bed when the thunder rolled and the lightning flashed, but not even my own sister could provide me enough comfort on a night like that.

I stared out the doors that led into our elementary school, George A. Benson Elementary, Cady at my side. She kept glancing at the clock on the wall and back to the little strip of parking lot where parents picked up their children. We were the last ones there; it was already three forty five and school had let out at three o' clock.

"Girls, I can't seem to get a hold of your Mother." Mrs. Jenkins, the nice secretary that always gave out suckers, told us from the front desk. "Is there someone else I can call?"

"No, we'll just go ahead and walk, Mrs. Jenkins." Cady replied.

I turned wide eyes on my sister. I didn't want to walk home with the chance of a thunderstorm hanging over our heads. We lived at least ten or more blocks away and I had a feeling that in those ten blocks it would start raining or worse… start storming.

"Girls, I can't let you do that."

"We don't live that far; only a few blocks." Cady lied.

"Alright, I'll try your Mom again and try to let her know you guys are walking home." Mrs. Jenkins nodded. "Who was supposed to pick you guys up?"

"Our Dad." Cady replied.

We waited a few more minutes while Mrs. Jenkins tried to call Mom again, but she had no luck. Cady smiled at her and told her thank you before she grabbed my hand and pulled me out of the school into the windy April day.

"We could have waited for Mrs. Jenkins to offer to take us home!" I yelled once we were away from the front of the school.

"She's not allowed to without permission from our parents, Sadie."

We walked along in silence for what felt like a long time, cars passing us on the road paying no attention to two seven year olds walking home with purple backpacks strapped to their backs. Four blocks later the first raindrop fell on my nose.

"It's raining." I hissed.

Cady didn't reply, instead she made me turn around and pulled out the umbrella I kept in the front zippered portion of my back pack. Then she popped it open and handed it to me before she pulled out her own umbrella.

We were fine for four more blocks until the wind started to pick up and the first flash of lightning lit up the sky, followed by the far away sound of rolling thunder. My pace immediately picked up as I hurriedly pulled down my umbrella; we had to beat the storm home.

"Slow down, Sadie!"

"We're going to get struck by lightning!"

She rolled her eyes at me but kept pace with me anyway. The sound of thunder was getting closer and closer and I knew it was only a matter of time before the storm was right on top of us. We still had two blocks to go and my heart was racing with the thought that we might not make it in time.

Lightning ripped through the sky again followed by the loudest boom yet. I lost my footing, distracted by counting how long it had been in between the lightning and the thunder.

"Sadie!"

I had seen a lot of people fall in my seven years of life, mostly on the playground. Watching someone else fall… it all happened so fast. But as my feet came out from under me it seemed that time had slowed down as I came closer and closer to the hard cement of the cracked sidewalk. In that time I could hear Cady screaming my name and the sound of a car pulling alongside the road. But I didn't have a chance to see who it was before I made contact, my head exploding in pain before everything went black.

"Oh thank God you're awake!"

I felt really heavy, and just the act of opening my eyes was tiring. My Mom's face hovered above mine and behind her I saw a man standing there in a white coat. As soon as Mom backed away from me and the bed I was in, he moved forward and started checking the machines that were around me.

"Will she be alright?" Mom asked a bit nervously.

"We'll have to run some tests." He simply replied before he scribbled something down on the chart he was holding.

"Is it alright if I bring her sister in to see her for a few minutes?"

"Just a few minutes, she'll probably be back asleep before we know it; the poor thing."

I had no idea what they were talking about. It was obvious to me that this man was a doctor and judging by the looks of the room I was in I figured I was probably in the hospital. I had never been in the hospital before, but I had watched ER enough times with my Mom to recognize a hospital room.

A few minutes after the doctor left my Mom came back into the room, my sister trailing along behind her. I could tell she had been crying; her face was red and wet with tears. I still wasn't sure what exactly was going on but as soon as our eyes connected I remembered everything.

"Sadie, I should have listened to you!" Cady cried.

"What happened after I fell?" I asked, my voice coming out hoarse.

Mom immediately handed me some water and watched while I drank it before she moved away from the bed again. Cady moved closer and grabbed my hand as more tears slid from her eyes.

"When you fell there was blood; blood coming out of your head. Then a man pulled up; you know Mr. Donovan that works with- worked with Dad? He came to pick us up and when he didn't find us at school he came to find us. He saw what happened to you and immediately drove you here."

That's when I realized something was missing from this picture. Just to make sure I looked all around the room again, searching for my Father. But I found nothing, not even a sign that he had ever been here to see me.

"You were in a coma, honey. For three days." Mom said gently.

"What's a coma?" I asked innocently, still wondering where my Dad was and why he wasn't at Mom's side.

"That means you were alive and breathing, but you weren't functioning at all."

"Am I going to die?" I questioned desperately, feeling tears form in my eyes. "Where is Dad?!"

"Shh, you're not going to die." Mom soothed me, her own eyes glossing over with unshed tears. "But you need to sleep now. Cady and I will be back later."

"But where's Dad?" I cried.

She didn't answer me; instead she reached towards a machine and pressed a button before she grabbed Cady's hand. My eyes felt so heavy and even though I wanted my answer I let myself drift away into a dreamless sleep.

Two days after I woke up the doctors decided I could be released the next day. They had told me that despite the small scar on my head I was perfectly fine and my hair would grow in after a while to hide it. I was happy about that; I didn't want people to make fun of me for the scar on my head, like they made fun of Andrew Miller's.

I was eating some jell-o when Mom walked into the room with Cady following quietly behind her. They both looked so sad; like they thought I was dying or something.

"I'm alright guys! They're letting me leave tomorrow." I quickly assured them, and then wrinkled my brow when my declaration made no impact on them at all.

"Where's Dad? Why hasn't he come seen me yet?"

Cady's eyes met mine and I knew that for as long as I lived, even at the age of seven, that I would never forget the look in her eyes. She was heartbroken, truly heartbroken and scared and worried all at the same time. And when I looked into my Mom's eyes hers held almost the same thing, except there was a trace of hopelessness mixed in with all the rest.

"He's gone." Mom whispered.

"What do you mean he's gone?" I asked confused.

"He's not coming back, Sadie."

"Cady and I didn't learn the truth behind it all until we stumbled across a few letters in our Mom's room when we were sixteen. The first one was from the same day I had my accident; the day he left."

"Cady, look at this."

We knew that we weren't supposed to be in her room without her permission, but for some reason after she left to go grocery shopping we decided we needed to find her hair curlers ASAP. We had been giggling and laughing about how springy our hair would look when we were done but as soon as I found the box under the bed my laughter died.

"What is it?"

"A letter from Dad, dated April 16; the same day as my accident."

Caroline,

All I can ask is that you take good care of our girls, and I hope that one day you understand why I did what I did.

Fondly,

Adam

"Our girls?" Cady hissed. "Why the hell did he leave if he 'cared' for us?"

"Look, there's another one from our last birthday."

Caroline,

Today the girls are sixteen and now I am confident that they are ready to know the reasons why I left. I can only hope that you will share this letter with them. You may hate me but don't let your opinions rule theirs.

I left because I couldn't stand it anymore. I couldn't stand the little perfect world you tried to make us live in. At first I didn't notice it and I won't lie and say I didn't enjoy the obsessive baking at the holidays or the fanatic cleaning that went on around the house. But I should have drawn the line the day the girls were born, when you branded them with those names. I wanted to name them after our Grandmothers Evelyn and Julia, but you threw such a fit that I gave in to you.

If you think I left for another woman you are wrong, but I won't lie and say that I didn't find another woman because I did; two years after our divorce was final. We have a son, Caleb, and he reminds me so much of the girls that I almost regret what I did.

Girls if you are reading this, I hope that one day you can forgive me.

Fondly,

Adam

"How did you feel about those letters at the time?" Hunter asked.

"Disgusted. In fact for a while I continued to feel the same. But after a while I started to remember the things he mentioned about the cookie cutter image of our house. Since he had gone it was no longer the same, but before it definitely was. Cady and I didn't notice it then because we were only children; we thought it was normal."

"How do you feel about the letters now?"

"Still a little disgusted. I understand his feelings towards my Mom, but the way he handled things…If he truly loved and cared about Cady and I he wouldn't have left and started a new family."

"Do you think that you could ever forgive him?"

"I think Cady has, but…" I sucked in a deep breath trying to hold back the rush of tears I could feel. I had gone on so long without shedding one tear, but now it felt like the dam was about to break. "He wasn't there and I could have died!"

I had finally admitted it all out loud and there was no stopping the tears that followed. All these years I had been plagued with the thought that if I had died he wouldn't have been there. And I felt that he probably wouldn't have cared anyway. Who could just leave their children just because they didn't love their Mother anymore?

Hunter grabbed the box of tissues before he moved to sit next to me on the couch. I knew that what he was doing wasn't exactly professional, but I let him pull me into his arms anyway as I cried for what had happened to me over a decade ago.