Mom won’t care if Danny dies. Mom won’t care… She’s just here to bring me back to Michigan before anything else happens. I can’t go until I know Danny’s going to be okay. I know that I often hate her, but she’s still my sister. She can’t die. It’s my fault she’s in this mess. She can’t die…

Erin shoots awake, immediately feeling her back ache from the hard plastic chairs in the hospital, where she’s been sitting for the last two hours. It had been three days since Daenerys had tried to kill herself. Shortly after Payton called 9-1-1, her unconscious body was rushed straight to the hospital, where she was in surgery for three hours. Luckily, she just barely missed a vital organ that otherwise would’ve killed her, had she plunged the knife just a bit deeper. She was now in a medically induced coma, but no one knew when she would wake up – if even at all.

Margaret wanted to pull the plug. It became quite clear to everyone that she didn’t care if she lost one of her daughters like this. It made Erin sick, and it made her feel even worse that she would be going back to live with her after this nightmare ends.

Zack, however, wasn’t having it. He wasn’t ready to give up on her yet. When Erin fell asleep a half-hour ago, she could hear them arguing about it in Daenerys’ room across the hall. They were still going at it, from what she could tell. It made her mad at how insensitive her mother was being – didn’t she care at all about what was going on?

Suddenly, the door is thrown open. Zack stops when he sees Erin is still sitting in the same position he left her in two hours ago. His eyes are red and puffy – they hadn’t changed since that night. His expression remains blank as he studies his daughter for a moment before stepping out of the doorway.

“Your mother wants to talk to you,” he says quietly, his voice hoarse from crying. Erin gets up, leaving her bag on her seat, before stepping into Daenerys’ room.

The white hospital walls send shivers down her spine. All those times Daenerys had to be sent to the hospital back in Michigan was more than enough – it had only recently become clear to her that all those times she had an “accident” was just another failed suicide attempt.

Erin chokes back a sob as this thought crosses her mind, gaining the attention of her mother, who is staring out the window.

“Ah, Erin,” she smiles widely when she sees her. It’s a perfectly normal smile – one no mother should have when their daughter is lying on a hospital bed in a coma. “I wanted to talk to you about your sister.”

No, “how are you”. No “I’ve missed you these last two weeks”… Two weeks. That’s how long it had been since they got here. A lot can change in two weeks, Erin realizes.

“What did you want to talk about?” she asks, sitting down at the edge of her sister’s bed. She doesn’t meet her mother’s eyes, instead choosing to look down at Daenerys’ lifeless hand that is rested on top of the bed sheet.

“I wanted your opinion on what to do about… her.” She nods towards Danny, her lip curling up at the thought of it.

“What do you mean?”

“Well,” she begins, leaning against the wall and folding her arms across her chest. “Your father wants to wait it out. He wants to see if she can pull through. I¸ however, think it would just be best to pull the plug on her. I mean, even if she did live, it’s not like there’s anyone in this world who would care.” Erin glares at her.

“Of course there is,” she growls, causing her mother to frown. “She has Zack, and Will… and she even has me.” A look of fury crosses Margaret’s face, but she tries to stay composed.

“I’m afraid the decision is not up to you, Erin.”

“It’s not up to you, either,” she snaps. “This is a human life we’re talking about. This is your daughter’s life we’re talking about.”

“Quiet!” Margaret shouts. “Do not be so insolent with me. Your sister was never much of a daughter, and you know that.”

“Only because you were never much of a mother to her, either.”

“That is quite enough, Erinyes!” Erin flinches, but stands up defiantly.

“You can’t pull the plug on her.” Margaret’s hand connects with her daughter’s cheek, leaving a burning red handprint. Still, she doesn’t back down. “Dad would never allow it. He’s not going to back down – and neither am I.”

The older woman’s face is full of nothing but shock – never had her and Erin argued over something so serious. In fact, the two rarely argued at all; Margaret always favored Erinyes over her twin sister to the point where Daenerys became next to nothing to her. But Erin was confident that Zack would come out on top – he almost never lost an argument against the girls’ mother, which is part of the reason why the girls were forced to stay with their mother in the first place when she left for Michigan.

Suddenly, Zack returns to the room, holding a foam cup of coffee. His eyes are filled with nothing but resentment for his ex-girlfriend. She glares right back at him, but Erin runs to him, wrapping her arms around him, careful not to make him spill his coffee.

“Daddy!” she cries, tears streaming down her face. “Daddy, you can’t let her pull the plug – you can’t!” She’s surprised when her father’s only free arm wraps itself tightly around her, though his eyes don’t leave Margaret’s.

“I won’t,” he promises quietly, venom lacing his words.

“Zachary,” Margaret speaks up. “This is ridiculous. You’ve never cared for Daenerys before – why should this be any different?” Zack pushes Erin away, handing her his coffee so his shaking hands won’t cause the boiling hot contents to spill out all over the hospital room floor.

“How could you say that?” he asks her; his voice is a kind of quiet that could send shivers down your spine. “How could you say I never cared?”

“All those times this happened before you never seemed to care. Why is that?” She looks pleased with herself, as if she knows that she’s stumped in.

“It’s not that I didn’t care,” he explains, his voice cracking slightly. “It’s that I was scared. I know that it wasn’t fair to her, but I didn’t know what to do; I didn’t know how to handle it. The last thing I wanted was for my baby girl to turn out like… like this.” He gestures to the hospital bed. “So I just convinced myself that it wasn’t real – that it was all you made it out to be: an accident. But now I know that was never the case.” Tears are streaming down his face freely now. “I fucked up. I really, really fucked up. I should’ve listened to Brian… I should’ve…” He begins to sob.

“Oh, for Christ’s sake!” Margaret exclaims. “You are pathetic.” Erin resists the urge to launch herself at her. One of the very few things that are preventing her from doing so, is the fact that she knew her mother was much stronger than her. And that it would do nothing to solve the problem at hand.

“You know what?” she continues. “Fine. You win. You can keep her alive for as long as you want. And as for Erin.” She turns towards Erinyes with a look of pure anger and disgust. “Unless you let her go willingly, I will be filing for her soul custody when we get back to Michigan. And I don’t want you to be a part of her life anymore, either.” Zack nods sadly, choking back anther sob.

“At least let me say goodbye to her first…” Margaret rolls her eyes.

“You have ten minutes. I’ll be waiting in the car.” She marches past them, almost knocking Erin over as she does so.

The two stand in complete silence for a moment. Erin looks over at him, allowing herself to study him as much as she could, knowing this would quite possibly be the last time she’d ever see him. She feels so much guilt for everything she ever did – all those times she used her father’s wealth to her advantage. Whenever she asked for something that she didn’t need; when she and Liberty threw the party at his house while he and Danny were in San Francisco.

“What happened in San Francisco?” she asks, causing him to look up at her, his once bright-green eyes now grey and dull.

“What do you mean?”

“Before you guys left,” she says, trying to keep her voice from shaking too much. “She was her usual, smart-ass self. But when she came back, she was… different. More vulnerable. Like she had given up. What happened?” Zack looks back over at Daenerys.

“I don’t know,” he whispers. “I wish I did, but I don’t.”

“Dad?” He returns his gaze to her. “I’m really, really sorry.” He frowns.

“What for?”

“I… I’m such a terrible daughter. I always used you to get things, and I never showed you that I cared. And I can’t help but feel responsible for what happened. Maybe if I had been a better daughter – a better sister – then this wouldn’t have happened.” She takes a deep breath; Zack watches patiently as she tries to compose herself. “When we first got to California, I acted like the whole world revolved around me – like this whole trip was about me. And for a little while, I even believed that I could make it about me. But now I see what that’s done… And I’m really fucking sorry.” His eyes widen considerably, having never heard Erin swear before, but he nods understandingly.

“We all have done shit that we’re not proud of.” He laughs humorlessly, shaking his head. “But very few of us have the guts to admit those things. I’m proud of you, Erinyes. And I’m going to miss you like hell.”

Tears fill her eyes; she felt a huge weight be lifted off her shoulders – all her secrets felt like they were out in the open – except for one.

She throws herself into his arms, forgetting about the coffee cup that was still in her hands. It falls, spilling all over the floor, but neither of them care. Zack wraps his tattooed arms around his daughter’s body tightly, savoring every last moment he had with her.

After what feels like forever, she pulls away from him, brushing a few stray tears off her cheek. Zack kisses her forehead gently. Suddenly, Erin’s eyes widen, having remembered something important.

“Wait!” she exclaims. “I have something for you!”

She runs out of the room to where her bag is still, by some miracle, waiting for her on the chair where she left it. She digs through its contents frantically, smiling to herself when she finally pulls it out. Quickly, she runs back to the hospital room, where her father is waiting, with a slightly confused expression.

“Here,” she breathes, placing the torn up composition notebook in his hands. “I know I probably shouldn’t have been digging through her stuff, but I wanted to see if she left something… And, well, I thought you should read this.” Zack raises a skeptical eyebrow, flipping through the pages filled with Daenerys’ messy handwriting before closing it with one hand.

“I’ll have to take a look at it,” he tells her.

“Dad,” she says, speaking as seriously as she can. “You really need to read it. There’s something in there… something important – something bad. I think it may have something to do with why Daenerys was like the way she was.” Zack blinks at her.

“I-I’ll try to do that as soon as possible, then,” he mutters. Erin nods, knowing that was as good as it was going to get.

“I should go. Before Margaret does something,” she announces, and Zack nods sadly before bringing her in for another hug.

“I love you, Erin,” he whispers, tears falling from his cheeks into her blonde hair.

“I love you, too, Daddy,” she whispers back, before pulling out of his embrace for the last time. She smiles sadly at her father, tears falling freely from both of their faces.

“Be good, Erin.”

Notes

A/N: I know I was supposed to have this up five hours ago, per usual. But I lost my USB, which is a problem, since I usually update from school. Luckily, I have this entire story backed up on file so I am able to update - late, but oh well.

I might post the epilogue this weekend since it's actually rather short, so look forward to that.

As always, thanks for reading and I hope you all enjoyed =)

~WOLFY~