It's short, but sweet. Hope you like!

Disclaimer: I don't own it. For realsies. Too bad, yeah?

Thanks always to libaka, even when I forget to say it.

Chapter 17. Baby

Before the kazoo, all Red could think of was her perfect family. The part she was really most excited about was her baby brother. When she finally found him, she would coo over him for hours, sometimes forgetting about Kitty and her new parents, and even the fact that she had to find Granny and the Doggy.

When the oldest Grimm sister found her, Red was afraid that she would take away her baby brother. More so than she was angry about the Beastie siblings being welcomed home.

But, after the kazoo, and after Red came to the Grimms for real, she wondered about her perfect family. She had loved her baby brother, but he never comforted her back and never wanted her to be there. He would cry so much that she would be afraid to hold him.

At the Grimm house, she didn't have a baby brother. She had an older brother. She had a big sister. She had a sort of the same age sister. But no baby brother.

She didn't really have time to mourn him. Daphne would color with her and tell her stories about before she came to them. Puck would play little pranks on her and would talk to her for hours about the different Grimms, mostly Sabrina. Red could totally see where Daphne was coming from: the two were meant to be.

But Sabrina was different. Sabrina would ask Red about her own life. She would ask about her life before the kazoo, about how much she wanted a family. Sabrina would ask about magic, and Red's first family. She asked about the things Red had seen in the Scarlet Hand.

The other Grimms would get angry at Sabrina at first, until Red said she didn't mind. They all thought that Sabrina was asking to get information. Red knew she wasn't. Sabrina asked because Sabrina understood. She understood the desperation of wanting family back, of needing them to come back. Sabrina understood the addiction to feeling powerful, to feeling as though you really can make a difference. As if you can bring them back, no matter what everyone else says. But Sabrina also understood the realization that they will never come back. That you can't do it alone.

And Red needed that. Before Sabrina started getting Uncle Jake to help with nightmares, Sabrina would hold her through the night, telling her that she wasn't alone anymore, that she was there. It was only once Red's nightmares turned to the Scarlet Hand's treatment, not to her lost family, that Sabrina got Uncle Jake. Sabrina had suffered under the foster system, but she didn't know the cruelty of magic. Not yet.

Over time, as Red's nightmares faded away to dim memories of horror and loneliness, she started thinking about her old dreams and her new reality.

She'd always dreamed of a younger brother. She would care for him and play for him for hours. Mommy and Daddy would be so proud of her for being a good older sister. They would let her babysit him and teach him everything about being a kid and about growing up. He would be her best friend.

Now, she didn't have a baby brother. She had a big sister who would take care of her, and hold her for hours during the night until she could see through her tears again. No one was proud of her big sister because no one realized the extent of her care. They wouldn't knowingly leave the two of them together for hours because they feared a fight, even though Red and Sabrina understood each other better than anyone else. Sabrina taught her about being a kid, not a monster, and about dealing with people and the mistakes you make along the way. They weren't best friends. They were sisters, kindred spirits.

Red knew now that it was true that what you wanted wasn't always what you needed. She'd wanted a baby brother for years and years. She'd got him, and had held his small body for hours and hours as he cried.

She'd needed a big sister. A friend, a comrade. She'd needed someone who would do her best to snap her out of her insanity, and Sabrina had. She'd needed someone who would give her the facts, and not make it pretty. Sabrina did, because both of them understood the need to know what damage they had caused. She needed someone who would understand her, and know her secrets, and stand by her anyway.

Red had always wanted a baby brother, but she had really needed a big sister all along.

I hope you enjoyed it! Please R&R,

Tam