It’s not until after everyone has left, that Amy is able to face Jane. She tells Austin she’ll be home soon, but it’s well into the early hours of the next morning before Amy speaks. She just sits and watches her baby sister sleep. She hadn’t done this often. Usually it was Jane still awake, coming to Amy because she couldn’t sleep. The kid had the worst sleeping problems, and it used to drive Amy mad that Jane always came to her first.

Now that it’s turned around, she’s thinking of all those other times. And as much as she wanted to put all the blame on Sarah, Amy knows she's at fault, and probably more. Jane always ignored Amy. She could forgive Sarah or Olivia at the drop of a hat, but the second Amy hurt her, Jane gave her the silent treatment. It had never been quite as long as three weeks, though. Amy knows she should’ve talked to Jane, but there were things in her life now that were more important.

When Amy finally looks up, Jane is watching her. “Oh,” Amy says, surprised. Jane keeps quiet.

“Still giving me the silent treatment?”

Now Jane is the guilty one. “No.” she whispers.

“Look, I get why you’re mad. And maybe I knew, but I was caught up in my plans. And they’re plans I shouldn’t feel guilty about, Jane. And that’s what I don’t get. What’s really bothering you about me getting married? You love Austin.”

Jane keeps her eyes on the ceiling. “I know you and Austin want your own life together. But I just didn’t want you to forget about us. Meredith kept telling me you wouldn’t, but I didn’t believe her. Especially when you didn’t seem to care that I was mad at you.” Jane crosses her arms in an attempt to keep from crying, something she’d done since she was little.

“Jane, you didn’t really think that, did you? That I'd forget about you, or just leave? And our family? Do you remember when I first brought Austin home, and all of you thought the same thing?”

“No, that was different,” Jane says stubbornly.

“How?”

“Cuz it wasn’t forever.”

“And what’s wrong with that?”

“Everything,” Jane mumbles under her breath, her chin hitting her chest. She gives up on trying not to cry. She knew she sounded like a brat, but what she felt hurt, and when it was spoken out loud, it seemed so stupid. Frustrated, Amy gets up.

“Jane, seriously. Act your age. Either tell me what’s bothering you or stop with the pouting. I can’t play this game with you forever.”

“I don’t want to do this right now.” Jane turns away from her.

“Too bad. Things go to shit when you keep it all in.” Amy settles herself on Jane’s bed, her head at Jane’s feet, her own feet resting on Jane’s pillow. When Jane keeps ignoring her, Amy lightly traces her finger on Jane’s bare foot. She jerks so hard her foot connects with Amy’s face.

“Don’t do that-sorry!”

“Ow, damn!”

Amy takes in Jane’s wide eyes and can’t help laughing. She laughs hard, the kind that comes when you can finally let go and breathe. Jane glares at her sister, but she can’t for long.

“Shut up!” she finally yells, laughing, too. Amy calms down, putting a hand to her cheek. There was already a nice mark.

“I guess I deserved that.”

“You did.”

Amy rolls her eyes as she shifts to lie down beside Jane. Silently, they settle into each other, forgiveness and acceptance loud and clear.

They may not have had to live the lives they'd started with, but Amy, Olivia, Sarah, and Jane never took this for granted. Still, they never thought anything bad or life changing could happen anymore because they’d already been through it. So when Sarah answers the door one day, she doesn’t think twice about the man asking for her. Not until he says something that burns her ears.

“Hi.” He says, and it seems like he’s trying to remember what he wants to say. He just keeps staring at her. “I’m sorry. Are you Sarah? I’m looking for Sarah Leevey.”

It only takes a second. She’d been Sarah Cullen for twelve years now. Nobody knew her as Sarah Leevey.

“Uh, who’s asking-looking for her?” Sarah stutters, her face hot. She doesn’t feel right.

“I wasn’t sure if this was the right house, but…well, are you-I’m her-“ he clears his voice. “I’m your father.”

“I don’t have a father.” She blurts out. She doesn’t say it to be mean, it’s just a fact. Meredith had raised them all on her own. There was no one to give credit to but her. But this man, the one who has the same dark eyes and freckles, he isn’t anything to her. She'd never known a father and barely remembered a mother. So why does Sarah feel bad about the hurt on this man’s face?

He doesn’t seem to know how to respond. “Well, I…” he trails off again while looking in his pocket. He pulls out a piece of paper, smiles the smile she has and hands it to her. He turns and leaves without another word.

Sarah slams the door the second he’s off the porch. Her heart is racing, and suddenly she feels the urge to pee. When she pulls her pants down she drops the piece of paper. She shoves it back into her pocket, her face heating up again. She barely makes it to her bed before she’s crying uncontrollably. She doesn’t understand why this has her so shaken. She’s 21, she’s safe.

Nobody's going to take her away from Meredith. She’s lived with this fear since day one, they all did, though it was unspoken. It seemed that nothing, not even being a legal adult, was going to lessen this fear. Sarah is suddenly painfully aware of this. She knows she needs to call Olivia, but she can’t get control of herself. She manages to find her phone and send a desperate text.

Where are you? I need you.

Seconds later she gets Olivia’s reply.

On my way. Where are u?

Sarah answers with shaking hands. Her racing mind matches her racing heart, and the distraction allows her to lose time so that it seems like Olivia appears out of nowhere. Sarah immediately throws herself at her sister, her sobs shaking them both.

“Whoa, Sarah. What? What happened?” Olivia wraps her arms around her, pulling her tighter as she shakes against her. In her mind, she’s going through the millions of things that could be wrong.

But this one she doesn't see coming.

“How was school?”

“Mooooooom.” Jane whines. As part of her grounding, Meredith picks her up from school. The stupid questions are the one thing Jane complains about. Meredith just smiles, sure that if one of her sisters were asking these questions, Jane would talk their ear off.

“Fine. But I’m not driving home in silence.” Meredith says.

“Ok, then. How was work?”

Meredith has to laugh. “You're a brat, aren’t you?”

Jane laughs, too. “Hang on,” Meredith says when her phone rings. “I’m going to bore you with every detail of my day.” After saying hello, Jane catches how Meredith suddenly brightens, even though she was already laughing. Jane can't hear anything, just that it’s a guy, and Meredith is happy talking to him. When she hangs up, Jane waits for her mother to say something.

“Mom."

“Janey.”

“Who was that?”

“Hmm?” Jane rolls her eyes at this.

“Who put that look on your face?”

“Um, nobody, Olivia.” Meredith shoots back. Olivia was forever trying to play matchmaker, and she wasn’t very good at it.

“Yeah. That’s why you’re smiling like an idiot.”

They stop at a light, giving Meredith an opportunity to reach over and grab Jane's thigh, her most ticklish spot. After Jane shrieks, she lets go.

“If you must know, that was James, calling about some files I needed.” The light turns green. “And we might go out for drinks.”

“Drinks? Now you sound like Olivia.”

“I said might. Please don’t make this a big deal. You know how involved your sisters like to get.”

“I think the word you’re looking for is obsessed.”

“Exactly.”

“We should give Olivia a taste of her own medicine. Like, set her up with the most boring, dull guy.” Jane looks excitedly at her mother.

“Kid, that wouldn't work. She'd find a way to get him in trouble with the law before he could even figure out what was happening.”

“This is true.” Jane sighs.

“Oh, look. Speak of the devil herself.” Meredith pulls up beside Olivia’s car in the driveway. Jane bolts from the car, Meredith yelling after her, “Straight to homework!” Jane takes the kitchen stairs two at a time. When she sees Sarah’s bedroom door is closed, she forgets about Meredith's date.

Besides, her internet hadn't been taken away, and that’s all Jane had been thinking about all day. Even before she types the words to search, Jane feels the relief, which she has always found odd. It’s not like she stressed about this all day, it was simply on her mind. Still, she always feels relief.

Like she’s finally able to see someone she’s been missing for so long.

When she types in the words she always expects different results. There never are, but it doesn’t bother her, as long as the fourth link on the page shows up. There's always a slight panic mixed in with the relief.

Jane exhales as she opens the page, revealing the bold headline. Her breath catches when the photo appears, set beside an article that told anyone who cared enough to read. A family who left behind a little girl who walked away from a tragedy. Jane’s vision only lets her see what’s on the screen. Those people she'd been missing for so long.

Her mother and father. She had been a teacher, he owned his own company.

Her two older brothers, they loved baseball. And her baby sister, she was just learning to walk.

A knock sends Jane into a slight hysteria as she fumbles to close out the page.

“Yeah!” she yells too loud. Amy’s face appears, and Jane swallows hard, trying to calm down.

“You ok?” Amy asks, stepping into her room, but she suddenly stops. Jane spins her chair around so fast her elbow knocks into the corner of the desk. She doesn’t even feel the blood, not once she realizes what's still on the screen.

“Janey,” Amy says quietly, in that stupid fucking voice, making Jane burst into tears. Nobody has used that voice with her in a long time, and she never wants to hear it again.