A/N: Fall semester for my college starts in the next couple of days and unfortunately for me I am indeed an academic weapon who craves academic validation like no other so I've gotta lock in. I'll try my best to keep my upload schedule but just know if there's a late chapter here or there I'm most likely drowning :). Enjoy!

P.S. Sorry this chapter is shorter it's just the way the flow worked out.

The tree branch creaked as I swung back and forth. I glanced up nervously, grateful the tire only had to hold my weight alone. I've gotten pretty used to playing by myself these days. Mom says if I want to bring a friend over it has to be someone from church, but I don't want to be friends with anyone from church. James was mean, Billy smelled weird, and Thomas wouldn't stop talking about his dad's stupid new car. I liked my school friends fine enough, but Mom says if they don't go to church they're not welcome in our house. So I continued to swing alone.

I hear shouting coming from inside the house. I can't make out the words from this far away, nor do I want to. My parents shout at each other a lot, and for a long time, I figured that's just what parents do. That is until I mentioned it to Thomas from church. He said his parents almost never yelled at each other, and he didn't know any parents who did. I asked Maggie about it, she said all parents fight sometimes. But I'm starting to think mine do it the most.

The sound of a plate crashing causes me to tense up. Yelling wasn't uncommon, but throwing things was a newer development. I heard the familiar squeak of the back door and watched the house fearfully, hoping neither of my parents decided to take their frustrations out on me; Mom with her harsh words, Dad with his belt. I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw it was only Maggie, coming to rescue me as she usually does.

My sister Maggie is my best friend. But she's thirteen, a teenager, and I'm only eight. So she's got all sorts of school activities and friends and other teenager-y things to do. She always says she's sorry she's not home more, but I tell her it's okay. She's still my best friend. When she's not around I choose to busy myself with things like reading or drawing. I like to pretend I live in other worlds, whether they are written for me or I choose to write them myself. Dad is always trying to get me to like sports or hunting. I figure if I had a son I'd want him to like the same things I do, so sometimes I pretend to like them more than I actually do.

"C'mon Mikey," my sister says, pulling me up from the tire swing. Sometimes escaping through a book isn't enough, sometimes you really have to get away.

Maggie leads me to the forest that frames our backyard. All of the land belongs to us, but my parents never bothered with the forest. Which made it a perfect hiding spot for Maggie and me. We made our way to what we called our cove, a small clearing surrounded by trees. I still remember when we first found this place years ago, hiding from the storm that seemed to constantly rage in our home. Sometimes Maggie would read me stories here, other times we'd sit and talk for hours, and sometimes, like today, we sat in complete silence.

"Have they been going at it for a while?" Maggie asked, breaking the silence.

I simply nodded, switching from hugging my knees to my chest to lying down on my sister's lap. She began stroking my hair as we watched the sun dip below the trees, eventually disappearing altogether.

"Stay with me, Maggie?" I asked, sounding younger than I'd like to. I liked to think that being eight made me pretty big, though even I knew how small I sounded at that moment. It matched how I felt.

"Of course I will, I'm your family. Do you know what that means? It means I'll never leave, no matter what. We'll always have each other, no matter what," my sister reassured.

I smiled at Maggie's words, truly believing them. There may be a storm raging back at our house, but the sounds of the forest were just loud enough to drown it out. Maggie continued stroking my hair, quieting my worries, and I slowly drifted off to sleep.

— — — — — — — — — —

I threw my car into drive and peeled it out of there as fast as I could. What was I thinking, showing up unannounced like this? I don't know why I expected any different reaction after all this time. Then again, I had hoped my sister would be there. My sister. Dead. She would've been what, 39 when she died? How did it happen? And it took Darrel's life too? I hoped, no prayed, that she didn't suffer.

I spent the early years of my childhood letting her rescue me from all of life's problems, and the later years foolishly hoping she would come back to save me one last time. That child-like foolish hope faded as I approached adulthood, morphing into something that more so resembled anger and resentment. I knew now that I had no one to blame but myself. I had plenty of chances to reach out and reconnect, though my selfish pride held me back.

*BEEP*

I flinched at the sound, glancing in my rearview mirror to find the face of a frustrated driver staring back at me. I raised a hand as a half-hearted apology, realizing that I had been stopped at a stop sign for goodness knows how long. Now that I thought about it, I didn't have a clue where I was. In my rush to flee the scene of my crime, I hadn't exactly paid attention to where I was going. I also hadn't paid attention to my gas gauge, which now read dangerously close to empty. Just my luck, I thought. My car wasn't going to last long driving around aimlessly, running on fumes. I breathed a sigh of relief as what appeared to be a gas station came into view. The large, diamond-shaped sign out front read 'DX.' I quickly pulled into the parking lot and drove up to the pump, knowing my car wouldn't have made it much longer. Just my luck.

A gas station attendant quickly ran out to my car and began the process of filling her up. He was covered from head-to-toe in grease, his forehead glistening with sweat. I watched him carefully, making sure he didn't scratch or dent my car. I wondered if he knew what he was doing.

He seemed to notice me studying him. "You from out of town?" he asked.

"How could you tell?" I chuckled.

The worker smiled. "Lucky guess. Most people with a car this nice don't bother with this side of town, though. Unless of course they're interested in some of our better-looking employees, but those are usually girls from the high school."

I laughed at his comment, my previous worries about his credibility gone. "You're right, I'm just here for a fill-up. My name's Michael, by the way," I said, raising my hand to offer a handshake.

"No shit, me too!" he exclaimed, pointing to his name tag before giving my hand a firm shake. "What are the odds, we're both named Michael! You gonna be in town for a while?"

Well I was, but that may be changing now. "Honestly, I'm not sure yet," I answered. "But if I stick around long enough I'll be sure to come here for a fill-up," I reassured.

Michael smiled at that, giving me a friendly slap on the back before taking my payment and jogging back into the station.

After returning to the driver's seat of my car I was faced with the unfortunate decision of what to do next. The primary goal of my journey here had been to reconnect with my sister, which was now proven to be impossible. Any hope of connecting with my nephew seemed to be, too, as his feelings toward me had already been made abundantly clear. At what point do I stop pushing to be some semblance of an involved uncle and leave him and whatever other family he may have in peace? Maggie would know what to do. Maggie always knew what to do. So what would Maggie do?

"I'm your family. Do you know what that means? It means I'll never leave, no matter what. We'll always have each other, no matter what."

Maggie wouldn't give up, and I knew that I couldn't either. Not that easily. My sister had simultaneously been my anchor and my life preserver, and I owed it to her to try and be that for whatever family I may have left. No matter what.

A/N: Thank you to all those who have read, favorited, or reviewed so far. Please keep them coming, it all means the world to me!