(A/N): We're back in 1966 with Vi and Evie.

January 16th, 1966

Vi

The pipes always whine and rattle whenever a large volume of water is consumed- Dad used to say the plumbers cut corners when the place was built in an attempt to make more of a profit, but Mum told us that was just the frustration talking- which meant that Evie and I tended to take as short a shower as possible, to limit the noise. Because of this phenomenon, those of us still downstairs all knew immediately when Evie shut the water off, and after giving her a few minutes to dry off and get changed, I made my way up the stairs and quietly knocked on her bedroom door. "Come in."

It took a second for the call to come, and I wasn't sure if it was because she'd hesitated because she didn't know which of us was on the other side of the door, or because she was trying to cover something up. I waited a moment to enter either way, and when I did, I saw that she hadn't gotten changed- in fact, she hadn't gotten dressed at all. She was wearing her dressing gown and she had her hair piled up in a towel on top of her head, but other than that she was clearly fresh from the shower, hovering indecisively by her dresser.

I stared at her for a long second, waiting for her to say something, but when she didn't turn around or even glance back at me over her shoulder, I asked, "Having trouble making a choice?" She jolted slightly, but I had the feeling it had less to do with her being surprised by me and more to do with her being affected by what I'd said... for whatever reason. She eyed the open drawer one last time, pulled out a selection of undergarments seemingly at random, then closed it and turned to face me.

"There," She said. "Choice made. Not so hard in the end, is it?" It sounded rhetorical, and I was glad- because I had no idea what I would say to that, if I'd been expected to come up with an answer. "Vi," She started, then hesitated, looking pained. "Is Hettie okay?" It wasn't really fair to say I softened at that, since I was pretty much always 'soft' when it came to Evie, but any desire I had to scold her for what she'd said melted away, thanks to the confirmation that she felt just as bad about it as I would've expected.

"Hettie's... predictably sore. She'll forgive you- of course she will- but... I mean... it was quite hurtful, what you said, and even though you apologised..." I trailed off because I knew she knew what I meant, and that an apology could only do so much.

She looked upset by this, but unsurprised- then, after a second, her eyebrows furrowed, and she stared at me somewhat oddly. "She told you what I said? That I apologised?" I don't know why she was surprised- we all typically told each other everything, and fights were no different. "Did she tell you..." She paused, hesitating, but I knew at least vaguely what she was alluding to, so I took pity on her and took charge.

"About her trying to set you up with Pip? Yeah, she might've mentioned it." She cringed, and honestly, I couldn't blame her. "Don't worry, we all had a conversation with her about that, Pip was very firm with her- well... as firm as Pip ever gets, anyway. Oh, by the way, judging by what he said while trying to convince Hettie that he only sees you as a sibling, too, I'm starting to think we were all wrong, and he never actually dated any of us." She blinked heavily.

"I mean... we all said we weren't the one that dated him, so I figured that had to be the case, but... are we any closer to finding out where he came from?" By 'where he came from', she really meant, 'how he met us, and it immediately felt like we'd known him our whole lives', but it was sort of the same thing.

I shook my head. "No, we were all too busy teasing him half to death by calling him 'little brother' or 'big brother'." Her face scrunched up. "Evie.. don't snap at me, okay?" Her expression turned wary. "I'm not... I'm not questioning you, I'm not going to pursue it, I just feel like I have to tell you, but I know when Hettie brought it up, you... Well, clearly it's a sore subject, so I'm going to do my best to tiptoe around it." She looked incredibly worried, now, and I took a deep breath before I said, "If you could explain to her why your romantic relationships- or lack thereof- are a sore subject for you, she might be inclined to forgive you sooner. Again, I don't care- I'm not asking, and I'm not going to ask, unless you make it clear that you want me to. I'm just... if you need to hear that advice, there it is. What you do with it- or don't- is up to you." It's always up to you.

A range of emotions flickered across her face- particularly a lot of panic and fear, oddly enough, along with a certain amount of pain, and something that read as if she was touched by my attempt to accommodate her feelings. She was quiet for a minute, the pain in her eyes slowly growing before she said, "I'll... I'll consider it, Vi." It didn't sound like that was the plan, but I stuck to my guns, and changed the subject.

"Speaking of clothing," I began, but Evie perked up unexpectedly, and before I could react, she quickly fled back to the bathroom. "...Evie?" For a second, I was worried that I'd said the wrong thing- hurt her somehow, or triggered a bad memory- but when she swung back out of the bathroom that connected our bedrooms, she was carrying my blue dress in her arms. Well, her blue dress, now. The dress she'd been wearing last night, in any case.

"I know you said I could keep it, but- I mean, it's clean. It's been washed. And it wasn't- there wasn't that much blood to begin with; not even enough to soak through-"

I cut her off, shaking my head even as I grabbed one of her hands in mine. "That's what I wanted to talk to you about, Evie- you know I don't care about the dress. It's mine, it's yours- it's Hettie's, Lou's, and Pip's, just like everything else. We share everything we own anyway, so it doesn't matter whose closet it ends up in, because it's only ever going to be just down the hall." She seemed oddly sad about this- maybe she was feeling the pressure to have her life together, and thought still being single and living with her sister in her childhood home was some sort of evidence of failure in that regard? That wasn't something I was going to comment on, in case it set her off again- especially not right now. "You said you borrowed some clothes from- them. What did you borrow?"

She gave me another odd look, but at least this time, it leaned more toward befuddlement rather than sadness. "What-?" She shook her head absently, slowly, as though she didn't even realise she was doing it, and it was purely a symptom of her confusion. "Vi- I told you all, I slept the night. They gave me some pajamas and some extra blankets, and left me in one of the guest bedrooms until the morning- when they woke me up with the breakfast they bought." I blinked, then felt my entire being relax at that, at least a little- because if she was telling the truth and they had set her up in a guest bedroom, then they probably hadn't had much of an opportunity to mess with her. Wait...

"'One of' the guest bedrooms?" I asked, eyebrows raised. "I didn't know being a wanted criminal paid so well." Something flickered behind her eyes- like she realised she'd made a mistake but rushed to cover it with a level of finesse I wouldn't have thought her capable of.

"Not their house," She said quickly, which made me cock an eyebrow at her suspiciously before she amended herself. "It's- their friend. Their friend's house. They're- they needed somewhere safe to take me, and the friend is... Well, we were safe there." Hmm... apparently. Evie seemed to take note of my continued skepticism and rolled her eyes at me in a way I knew was purposely light, but was still surprising nonetheless, in the fact that it came from her. "She wouldn't have tolerated anyone trying to hurt me, Vi- not even them." She? She. The friend they'd gone to stay with was a woman? ...well, that made me feel a little better, at least.

I gave her a wry look, and did what older siblings do best- teasing their younger sibling. "So, they're not rich, but their friend is?" It was a joke- obviously, I didn't care one iota whether any of these people had money or not- but Evie's shake of the head was something that could only possibly be born out of instinct. I knew it must have been instinctual, too, when she said,

"I think they're all kind of rich- but that's not the point. The point is, they're good people- Friends. And like I told Hettie, I take care of my friends- although... I've been making a right mess of that lately, especially with her."

But that was the problem, wasn't it? Evie was so focused on taking care of the people around her- of taking care of me- that she'd never had the opportunity- nor obligation- to focus on herself. On what she wanted. Well, starting today I was going to make sure taking care of me was removed from her chore list- even if I knew she didn't see it as such. It should never have been Evie's job to have to take care of me, but for a long time, we'd both let that be the case- and starting today, that was going to change. Starting today, I was going to change. Everything was going to change.

(A/N): Hm, Evie being weird about having trouble making a choice? Wonder what that could be about? Better ignore it, Vi... it's probably not important.

So, this wasn't based on the lyrics of 'Not Afraid' by Eminem, it just sort of turned out to be a bit of a happy accident (I kept singing 'starting today' in my head but had to look up where I was remembering that from, and it happened to be the same song that inspired Evie's chapter 'Not Alone'), and I thought the section of lyrics that line is part of was really fitting of Evie and her conundrum, right now.

'And I just can't keep living this way
So starting today
I'm breaking out of this cage
I'm standing up, I'mma face my demons
I'm manning up, I'mma hold my ground
I've had enough, now I'm so fed up
Time to put my life back together right now (now)'