[dohtml]<center><div style="width: 450px; padding: 5px; padding-top: 15px; padding-bottom: 15px; background-color: d5d5d5; background-image: url(http://i25.tinypic.com/2dtyolj.jpg); font-family: arial; font-size: 9px; color: 464646; text-align: justify; line-height: 95%; border: 2px solid #c8c8c8; margin: 10px;"><center><div style="width: 400px; padding: 10px; background-color: f4f4f4;border-top: 2px solid #c8c8c8; border-bottom: 2px solid #c8c8c8; text-align: justify; font-size: 10px;">

<img src="http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb249/ImaginedMist/Characters/alexisb/abs.png" width="400">

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Abby wished that she were meeting her siblings under better circumstances; she and Ellie seemed finally to be at a stage where they were at least somewhat civil, and she was less afraid of her sibling’s anger than before, and it would have been nice if the three of them could just have hung out, gone for dinner or to see a film, something like that – something normal, something that could help them all to try and get close again. Well, she felt close to Ben, that wasn’t in question, but Abby wished that she could find a way to connect to her sister once more, to go back to being the big sister who was always there for her and who could be told anything. She missed being that. They’d figure it out, though, she hoped—and Abby had to have that hope, because she couldn’t bear the thought of never being able to talk to her sister again, of it always being this awkward, like they were strangers instead of siblings. She wanted things with Ellie to be as easy as they were with Ben, as comfortable, but Abby didn’t know what else she could do to make that a possibility. Things were how they were, and she was trying, she really was, to make things better, to talk to her sister regularly, to suggest that she come into the city and they do something...not that she really knew what Ellie liked, anymore. She was a different person now to when Abby had last seen her, last really known her, and the distance made her sad. But it was what she was, and Abby had accepted that as much as she might have wished to, it wasn’t something that she could just flip a switch and change. Hopefully she and Eleanor would be able to be close again, hopefully her sister would stop hating her. Hopefully neither of them would hate her for the news she had to impart; she was only the messenger, after all, thanks to a phone call at ridiculous o’clock that morning – but she could excuse her step-mother for not remembering the time difference, given the circumstances.<p>

And she needed to speak to her brother and sister in person about this, about the news she’d gotten; she could have done it over the phone, but it seemed callous and cruel, somehow. Instead, she’d arranged to meet them later that day, once their classes were over, at Ben’s dorm, because it seemed as good a place as any, and it was easier for her to go over there than it was for the both of them to come over to her place. She couldn’t exactly say that she was happy at the prospect of going over to Albany, knowing who lived there, and how easy it would have been to just accidentally bump into him on the street, but she planned to drive as close to the dorm as possible and not go anywhere else, and even if she didn’t have her boyfriend holding her hand, she’d have her brother there soon enough, and it seemed stupid, somehow, to rely on someone six years younger than she was to protect her, but Abby knew that Ben would make sure that she was alright; that was something that she trusted absolutely. The last time she had been here had been Thanksgiving, and she and Angel had spent the entire time at his parents’ house; this was different, but necessary, and with the news that she had to share, worrying about her ex-boyfriend wasn’t exactly top priority. It was always a worry that was there, but she still had the restraining order, and really, what was he going to be doing around the college campus? It was perfectly safe, and that was what Abby was telling herself as she pulled up, taking a deep breath before she got out of the car, finding her way to the right room and knocking on the door. It would all be fine. It had to be.




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French, wasn't as easy as it looked. There was no reason, for Eleanor to actually learn a language. There was no practical reason, beyond that she might one day wish to live there. Paris was such an attractive city, full of splendour, wealth and beauty. Perhaps Paris was her end goal, though Eleanor wasn't very good at making plans. She just did as she did, moved as she moved and made it up as she went along. Plans were so boring. She didn't like living her life to a set schedule, ticking off the boxes as she went. Who cared about that? She wanted chaos and fun, not structures and organisation. She could probably use a bit of A to B to C, but whatever. That was too much work, and would bore her to death. Besides, Eleanor wasn’t one for doing what she was told. So it was amazing she still had a job, really. But money was money. And she couldn’t have a good time without it. Well, not having dough made things a lot harder. Besides, Ellie had bills to pay and money did not grow on trees, or spring from the ground or flutter into your lap in giant floods of treat goodness.

Eleanor, had called home. Yes she actually decided to bite the biscuit and take the first step. The shock in their voices, well, it was worth it, and also stabbed harsh irritation and disappointment into her gut. Well, she apparently had the reputation of an unruly bitch with her mother and father, who hadn’t expected her to call at all, despite the fact they had asked her to five times as she was leaving. If she was going to be friends with Abby again, then she might as wel do a lot of things slightly differently: like pretending she wanted her parents to scurry about her business. Oh, the questions. Are you settling lin well? How are you? Have you met any boys yet? You are behaving aren’t you? Have you seen your sister and brother? When will you visit? Have you started university already? Do you actually have a job? Be a good girl. And call us, won’t you? They had sounded so annoyingly hopeful that Ellie was rolling her eyes furiously as though that could possibly make them stop with the ickness already. They were never this sugar sweet to her when she was at home. She should stay away more often if it got them to be that nice to her. Of course, that hadn’t prevented them from attempting to give her a mini lecture an entire ocean away. Ellie, glad they couldn’t actually see her face, made one that would have melted their eyeballs and proceeded to ignore the next ten minutes, interjecting ‘of course’ in what she hoped was not a bored, dismissive tone. They hadn’t started to get louder, so Ellie assumed she had been successful.

She had been crashed out on the sofa, picking popcorn from a bowl on her belly three weeks later when Abby called. Thing weren’t great, but they were good enough that Ellie actually answered the phone. The were good enough that not only did she answer the phone she didn’t immediately say ‘what do you want’ in an accusatory tone. You see, Ellie knew about her sister’s problems now, and she was not so cold hearted and selfish that she wouldn’t cut the older woman some slack. So here she was, being nice. She even agreed to meet her, though hadn’t wanted to. She wasn’t that interested in talking to Abigail after all, but it was important, apparently, so go she must. Ellie practiced smiling in front of the mirror for half an hour before deciding that it looked fucking strained, why bother?

Ellie left the house and travelled to the agreed location, convincing herself whatever this was about, couldn’t be as bad as the feeling in her gut was telling her. For all she knew, it could be some weird, forced get together but Abby sounded more stressed and upset than anything. She hoped that Ex of hers hadnt’ been calling. Ellie would have to do him some permanent damage. Hmm.. She really wanted to regardless.

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If Abby was coming to Albany, Ben would have hoped that it would be under good circumstances. It would have been awesome if she came to visit and hang out, but from the same token Ben understood why she didn’t want to be in Albany. He didn’t blame her in the least bit. Not with the jackass that lived in the city. And although he wished that she didn’t have to be scared all of the time and hoped that eventually she could go wherever she wanted without having to worry that she was going to run into someone that would hurt her, he also knew that if it did happen, it would take time. Of course, after the meeting was setup, he couldn’t help but wonder what was going on. All day, throughout his classes, he kept coming back to it. She didn’t sound happy, that was for sure. But, if something bad had happened with her ex, he didn’t think that she would show up there of all places, but instead assumed she’d ask them to go to NYC to see her. And that thought was comforting at least, because he didn’t want to hear that she was being harassed again. He was always worried about that and he supposed that was never going to fade. He wanted his sister to be safe and it hurt to see her through everything she’d been through. So, the question remained what else it could be. It didn’t aid in his focus in class, but eventually, he wound up back at his dorm, crashed on his bed, music blaring and a bag of chips next to him. They should be there any time, he guessed and so it was a good reason to put off anything that resembled studying or homework.
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When he heard the knock though, Ben jumped up, switched off the radio and walked to the door. His dorm was a little chaotic, but he didn’t keep a completely neat place and probably never would. Tidiness was overrated, seriously. It had to be important, he reminded himself. She wouldn’t have been here if it wasn’t important and she probably wouldn’t have called both him and Ellie to the same place sounding as she had without telling them what was up on the phone. He hoped that everything was all right and that he was jumping the gun about anything being too wrong. Still, his mind seemed to race more as he approached the door. He didn’t like when it did that, feeling more paranoid than anything. But, Ben wasn’t stupid. He knew when to pick up that something might be the matter. He opened up the door when Abby arrived and then Ellie and nodded. “Hey.” He offered a smile, something that came pretty easily to him and he hoped it would stay that way. He wasn’t in a bad mood in the least bit. It’d been an all right day, except for the constant anxiety over what Abby needed to see them for. Ben’s life was pretty good right now. Honestly, he couldn’t often think of any huge problems that were weighing on his mind. He was going to school, having fun, and he had a lot of friends that he cared about. Not to mention both of his sisters were here and lately, he hadn’t really even been homesick like he had been last semester. Pulling the door open wider to let them come in, he stepped backwards. “So, what’s going on?” He thought that they might as well get down to it. And he really hoped his brain had just overacted and it wasn’t so bad at all. Maybe nothing was all that wrong.



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It might have been easier to do this over the phone, rather than coming all the way to a city that she could barely stand to be in, just the knowledge that he lived here making it hard for her; if she wanted to see her siblings, she'd invite them to NYC, or suggest they meet in some town outside of Albany, and it seemed so dumb, but yes, she was afraid that she just might bump into Christian one day, completely out of nowhere. The last time that had happened, he had decided to confess everything to her, as if she didn't already know everything that he had done, and she had spent a long time trying to recover from that; she didn't want it to happen again, especially since she seemed incapable of just walking away when he was near her. She froze, for some reason, got stuck and couldn't move, and Abby didn't want that to happen – it was why she had gone straight to Ben's dorm room, instead of getting a coffee first, and it was why she would head straight back home afterwards, not sticking around for even a second. At least she knew that it was extremely unlikely that Christian would be on campus; he had no reason to be here, he didn't have siblings here, his girlfriend wasn't a student (and Abby's feelings on that were ones that she didn't particularly want to explore – she was scared for the woman, that he might hurt her too, and hurt that she didn't seem to give a crap about what he had done to Abby, and frustrated that she could so easily brush over the fact that Chris was an abusive bastard who'd almost raped Abby and had completely ruined her life), and so she wasn't all that worried about being here. It would have taken a hell of a lot of bad luck—although that was something that Abby was certain she had. Bad luck in bounds.<p>

She had long since become used to the fact that life just was not fair, and she had stopped trying to understand why things seemed to happen to her in particular; they just did, and that was that, ultimately. Maybe she'd had too much good luck early in her life; she was smart, she'd gotten into the university that she'd wanted, she got to go abroad to study, she had the best best friend she could have asked for, she'd gotten a fellowship that only four people a year got, she worked for the fucking New York Times, of all papers. She'd done so well, so maybe it was just fair that her boyfriend had beaten her, her little sister had hated her, and her life had been destroyed. Karma, or balance, or whatever the hell someone wanted to call it, and all that. Maybe it was just how things were, and there was nothing she could do to change it, after all. It was how it was, and yes, it sucked a whole load, but c'est la vie, and all that. She had to work with what she got—it just would have been nice if things had been a bit happier, if she was hanging out with her siblings for fun, because she wanted to make things better, because she thought that they might want to do things as a family. Maybe they should do that more often; she'd pay for them to get the train down to New York, and they could go up the Empire State Building or go to Rockefeller Center or the Hard Rock Café or something. Family time would be good, she thought; the three of them were finally in the same country again, after all. Instead, they got this, and Abby smiled faintly at Ben as she went inside his room, taking a seat on the edge of the bed as she waited for Ellie to come inside too. God, she hated being the bearer of bad news. She looked up at them both, and then back down at her hands. “It's Dad,” she said quietly, sombre. “He's in hospital. They don't know exactly what's wrong, but...they think he might only have a few weeks.”



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The last time the Winters siblings had met it had been Christmas. A Tense atmosphere had settled upon the house and everyone had blamed her. Of course it usually was her fault when Abigail was around. She and Abby had not got along for some time now. That had mainly been her fault but to the entire world Ellie claimed this dispute had more shades than just one. in her mind Abby was partly to blame though Ellie had definitely perpetuated the entire ordeal. Her big sister was better off not knowing her anyway. Ellie's blood always began to boil when she thought or came across her sister. she had left her alone with parents who tried to improve her with constant comparisons to her big sister. Well, her parents claimed they didn't do it all that much but Eleanor begged to differ.

But Eleanor had promised to try and now that she knew why her big sister had been so distant over the past few years she was trying to let the anger go. It was hard to believe but Eleanor had instantly forgiven Abigail for a lot of the slights she felt. Her sister had been gravely hurt and the very thought of the man who had done it do her made her want to kick, scream and pull her hair out. she wanted to find him and beat him to a pulp so that he had to be fed through a fucking straw. She couldn't help but feel that asshole had used and abused her sister and then got away with it. And Abby had been afraid of her when she had told her.Things Ellie had been aware of that. She hated that her sister was frightened of her. Her family had nothing to fear from her, except from her mouth, which often came away with mean and nasty words. Sometimes she meant them. Sometimes it was just sounds that meant something and it was all just crap.

Things were uneasy still with her and Abigail. So much had been said, or left unsaid that the pain just couldn't be washed away with a couple of 'sorry's and 'forgive me'. Their hearts pinched at the thought and sight of each other. The pain was there. There was too much for it to simply vanish over night. Ellie didn't expect it too. She had some work ahead of her but there was nothing wrong with being friends with Abby right? She was still good friends with Benjy who appeared to be friends with just about everyone in Albany. But Ben was like that. He was impossible to dislike. No matter how hard you tried...Ben was just that endearing. Sometimes Ellie swore he was supposed to be girl.

Ellie felt her heart drop out her stomach. "What?" she asked, the bag she was holding in her hand dropping to the floor. She wanted to accuse her that it was some sick joke but she knew she wouldn't do that to Ben. Ellie shook her head. She shouldn't have left home. Why had she done that? "But he was fine," Ellie said adamantly. Fine when she left. Why wasn't he fine now?