"She's a little emotionally vulnerable, Dad, so don't bring up anything about New York, OK?" Brian almost whispered into his cell phone, knowing that his sister was with Tyler, helping Lacey get him ready. As soon as Brian Sr had heard that Lizzy was back in town, he'd demanded to meet her, but hadn't mentioned the fact that he was now dating her old English teacher. The man could pick up any woman he wanted to- all he had to say was 'my son's Synyster Gates' and they'd be in his bed faster than a lot of women had been in his.

"I'm her father. It's my duty to prod into her personal life until she wants to slap me" Brian Sr said, but agreed to keep his mouth shut for one day. As he hung up, Tyler walked out into the hallway clutching Lizzy's hand tightly. She looked like she wanted to cry, but she was biting her lip, stopping herself from doing anything.
"You OK, Liz? Your bottom lips quivering a little" he asked and she nodded, smiling down at Tyler. He didn't understand all the emotions that were flying around right now, he just wanted everyone to be happy.

"I'm fine, Brian. Stop worrying about me"
"Yeah Brian. Your worse than Papa Gates when Lisa had her first date" Jimmy suddenly bounded in, picking Tyler up off the floor and holding up over his head like King Kong, laughing as the little boy shrieked happily.
"Lisa had her first date?! You people tell me nothing!" Lizzy cried, folding her arms over her chest and looking over at Brian, who shrugged.
"Don't ask me, I was on tour. And I have no idea why Jimmy knows more about our family than we do. She's thirteen, give her a break"

Lizzy rolled her eyes and followed Jimmy and Tyler out to Brian's big ass truck, just as Lacey walked in. He hadn't told anyone else, but they'd already started trying for baby number two, like he'd promised they were going to get eventually. Neither of them had bothered getting tests yet, like they'd been so cautious to do when Lacey was pregnant with Tyler. She wrapped her arms around his waist and kissed him lightly.
"You OK? What is it with the women in this house? You're all giving me mixed signals!" Brian complained and Lacey grinned.

"We're women, it's what we do. Now come on- your Dad will kill me if I make you late again"

***

Lisa had never quite met her sister properly. She saw Brian all the time, hell for the first four years of her life while her Dad got his act together, the man pretty much raised her. Not that she didn't love her old man, but having a rockstar for a father bought you a lot of brownie points at school. Having one for a half-brother was along the right track, but no one else her age had heard of Avenged Sevenfold, and if they had, it was because of their crazy ass teenage siblings who wanted to sleep with them.

But Lizzy? She'd spent the last years she could remember hearing about her, seeing her on a webcam and getting $50 from her every Christmas, $25 on her birthday. But the things her older sister had accomplished made Lisa want to be better than her, to prove that you don't have to go halfway across the country to be known by everyone who sees you on the street.

"THE MASTER HAS ARRIVED!"
That's Jimmy, her Godfather. The man's completely crazy, but she loves that he'll spoil her, slip her money when her Dad's not looking and he's already promised that when she's old enough, he'll buy her booze to impress her friends and sneak her out of the house- things neither her brother or her sister would do for her. She feels like a stranger sometimes, seeing as Brian and Lizzy are so close.

It's like her birth just let her barge into this family backwards, and they never quite embraced her. Brian and Lizzy had grown up together, and from what she'd been told, he practically raised Lizzy on his own, as their father was embracing the rockstar lifestyle he couldn't quite reach. She saw the way Brian looked when he talked about his sister, like she was the most precious thing in the world to him, even with a son and a wife.

She was in her bedroom, playing around with a pair of drumsticks in her hand. Lisa didn't want to go downstairs, because then she'd feel like she wasn't part of the family anymore. And having Lizzy back would just make things way more awkward.
"Lisa come on! Come down and socialise- you haven't seen your sister in three years!" Brian Sr hollered up the stairs, but she just ignored it, plugging her headphones into her iPod and letting the soothing words (or not) of Pantera float her troubles away.

Almost every day I see the same face, on broken picture tube, it fits the altitude

"LISA!"
Suddenly Jimmy was right in front of her, and in fright she almost jumped out of her skin, clutching her heart like she was having some sort of stroke.
"I know Fucking Hostile is a good song, but come on. Your family wanna see you" Jimmy said as she turned the machine off, slumping face first onto her bed. She wanted to hide in her room forever- because at least there, no one could judge her.

"Well what if I don't want to see them?"

Jimmy sighed, sitting on the edge of her bed. How he was going to cope if he ever had kids, he had no fucking clue, but for now, he had to play therapist to his god-daughter.
"Why don't you wanna see them, Lis? They're your family"
"But I don't feel like part of this family. Lizzy and Brian- they grew up together, they're brother and sister. I'm the half-sister, like the one everyone forgot" Lisa grumbled as she flipped over onto her stomach, pulling down the Metallica shirt she wore.

"Lisa, that's total bullshit. Brian and Lizzy care about you so much- in fact when Brian first found you, they were the two people who bent over backwards to keep you with us. They wouldn't let their own father near you until he'd cleaned himself up" Jimmy said and Lisa's eyes widened. Brian Sr had refused to tell her about her early years, telling her instead that her birth mom had left her on his doorstep and he'd taken her in like a fucking saint.
"What?"

The colour drained from Jimmy's face.
"You mean...Gates Sr never told you about how you got here?" he mumbled weakly, and Lisa shook her head, only for him to drop his head into his hands and growl frustratedly.
"Right" he muttered and picked her up off of the bed. Without listening to her protests at how she didn't want to go downstairs, he took her by the hand and dragged her down until the two of them were stood in the archway of the living room, where everyone else was sat.

No one said a word as Jimmy shot daggers at the other three members of the Haner clan.

"You three" he announced, pointing at Lizzy, Brian Jr and Brian Sr.

"You have a lot of explaining to do"