Hey gang
. Am managing to get this up today. Depending on what happens with DS I hope to stick to a MWF posting schedule this week, but if we end up staying at the hospital it'll depend on whether they have wifi or not. I'll keep you guys posted [or have someone do it for me if I can't] in the DS thread in OT if possible
.
Anyway, here 'tis
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*****
Chapter 2
*****
Lucy spent the next several days in a haze. There was cake and ice cream for Lois' birthday on Sunday; Aunt Louise had insisted. The funeral wasn't until after the New Year, so she had to spend New Year's Eve with her Great Aunt, her sister and her sister's fiancé, with the engagement still unannounced. What was with that? Did Lois need permission? Or were they planning on running off to Vegas?
The third day of the new year found Lois and Clark missing somewhere during the morning hours, but the afternoon found all four of them in a judge's chambers with a social worker assigned to their case.
That was when Lucy discovered that she had a new brother-in-law. Well, at least Lois wouldn't be in foster care or the stuffy senior center.
Lucy sank deeper into the chair, sulking for all she was worth. How dare Lois abandon her like this? Hadn't she promised that she'd never leave her? The more she considered it, the more she realized it should have been expected. It was what their parents had done – looked out for themselves and left the kids to fend for themselves. Who could blame Lois for doing the same?
"We'd like Lucy to live with us."
Lucy's head jerked up when Lois spoke. What?
She saw the judge raise an eyebrow. "Really? You're newlyweds and you want a foster child?"
"She's not a foster child," Lois said. "She's my sister. Great Aunt Louise doesn't really want her – she hates kids and everyone knows it. I mean, she loves us in that we're family and she has to kind of way but given her preference, she would wait until we were about 40 to have a real relationship with us. And besides that, she lives 1300 miles away."
Lois and Clark wanted her to live with them? Were they planning on moving her to Kansas too? There was no way! She opened her mouth to speak when she realized the judge was talking about them continuing at Lincoln High and living in Metropolis. She was going to stay here? Clark was going to stay here?
Before she knew it, everyone was shuffling out of the room. She glared at Lois and stalked off to find the car.
Why hadn't Lois told her? Okay, she understood not telling their great aunt, but she'd spent the last few days thinking she was going to end up in foster care or with Aunt Louise. Even if Lucy hadn't known about the engagement and wondered if Kansas was an option, it was cruel of Lois to let her think those were the options.
Well, just because Lois hadn't technically deserted her, that didn't mean Lucy was going to be nice about it.
*****
Lucy lay on her bed and stared at the ceiling. Lois was married. She and Clark were gone. Aunt Louise had sent them to a nice hotel – Lucy wasn't sure which one – for a week. A whole week. Lois had left her here with grumpy old Aunt Louise. She sighed. It was only a week and she'd be moving in with Lois and Clark in a month or less.
She supposed it was the best option. The idea of foster care scared her. She didn't want to live with someone she didn't know. Her best friend in fourth grade was Emily. Emily's parents died in a plane crash and Lucy didn't see her again until eighth grade. She'd lived in six different homes by then and was only in Lucy's class for two months before she moved again – with no notice, which she'd said was the norm.
She didn't want to live with Aunt Louise. Lucy had been there for a few days a couple summers earlier. It was nice enough. They had a swimming pool and tennis courts, but it was a retirement community. She didn't even know if there was a school nearby.
She guessed another option was running away and trying to survive on her own, but that scared her. At 15, she was old enough to get a job, but knew that there were restrictions on when she could work and how much she could work and she knew – unless she was willing to do things that made her nauseous – that it wouldn't be nearly enough to live on. Not even close.
She had no friends she could call up and say 'hey can I live with you for the next three years?' She had friends, but not ones like that.
So that left Lois. And Clark. She grudgingly admitted that he seemed nice enough. She hadn't really spent any time alone with him – she'd spent most of her time sulking in her room – but he'd actually made them dinner two nights earlier and it was better than anything they'd had in years.
She sighed. Three and a half years until she was out of high school. Two and a half until she turned 18. Could she make it that long?
She didn't see that she had a choice.
A knock on her door startled her.
"What?" she asked irritably.
Louise Lane opened the door and came to sit on the edge of her bed. "How are you, dear?"
Lucy shrugged, continuing to face the wall and not looking at her aunt. "Fine."
"You were caught a bit off-guard, weren't you?" she asked gently.
"A little."
"Did you really think Lois was going to leave you?"
Lucy shrugged again.
Aunt Louise moved a hand to Lucy's shoulder. "She loves you, dear. She wouldn't leave you."
"My parents always did," Lucy mumbled.
"She's not your parents."
Lucy shrugged again. "Do I have to go to school tomorrow?" she asked suddenly.
"Only if you want to. Otherwise, you don't have to go back until Monday."
"I think I want to sleep in."
"Okay, then. I won't wake you up in the morning."
"Thanks," Lucy said, still without looking at her great-aunt.
Louise squeezed her shoulder gently. "Good night, dear."
"Night."
*****
Lucy poked at the spaghetti on her plate. Aunt Louise had ordered Italian for dinner. It was her favorite restaurant and it normally she loved it, but not tonight. Lois and Clark had come by earlier. He'd needed to do laundry – it made sense; he'd been there a week already – but she'd actually had conversation with him. Not a long one, but they'd talked for a few minutes – mostly about school. She said she was having problems with geometry and he offered to help her once everything settled down. She thought that was nice of him, but she'd believe it when she saw it.
But now they were gone and it was just her and Great Aunt Louise again. She admitted to herself that the last relative she and Lois had wasn't as bad as she'd once thought, but she still had no desire to go live in Texas.
Lois and Clark had found an apartment earlier that day, but wouldn't let them come see it until they'd done some work to it. Lois had told her she'd have a loft area to herself – it wasn't big, but it would be her area.
*****
Two weeks later, Lucy was in her new home. Lois was right; the loft was small. There was enough room for her twin bed – she wondered why her dad hadn't ever felt guilty enough to buy her a nice bedroom set like he had Lois – a dresser and a small nightstand. Her desk was in the nook directly below her loft area. It was open completely on one side with only a red wrought iron railing and circular staircase to separate her from her sister and new brother-in-law.
She rolled over and closed her eyes, trying to shut out the sounds of her *guardians* talking downstairs. With a sudden stroke of inspiration, she dug around in her side table drawer and pulled out the earplugs she'd bought a year or so earlier. She'd taken to putting them in when her parents had a big fight because she knew they'd be making up before long. Now, she'd continue to put them to good use. If there was one thing she really didn't need it was to hear *that*. She shuddered slightly. Maybe they'd at least be more considerate than her parents had been and keep the volume down.
Tomorrow was a school day and her new routine would begin. She wasn't exactly sure what it would be like – did they all three need to share the lone bathroom at about the same time in the mornings? – but she was sure it wasn't going to be much fun. The alarm would ring entirely too early.
It was still dark outside when she heard her sister calling for her.
"LUCY!"
"What?!" she called back irritably.
"Get up! We have to leave in 45 minutes."
"You don't have to yell," she said as she swung her feet to the side of the bed.
"You've turned your alarm off three times and I've been yelling at you for 10 minutes."
She descended the stairs carefully. No sense in falling down them her first morning here. "You still don't have to yell."
"Sorry," Lois said more quietly. "I didn't have time to go up there and wake up more sedately."
Lucy rubbed her eyes. "Where's Clark?"
"He left over an hour ago to deliver papers."
"Oh." He did? She knew he was interning at the Metropolis Star and delivering pizzas at night. He had a paper route too? "I'm going to take a shower."
Lois nodded. "I'm going to need in there in a minute, if that's okay. Clark put up a curtain in there over the shower doors."
"Fine," she groused. "We shared at home; we can share here." She called back over her shoulder as she walked towards the bathroom. "But don't expect me to let Clark in while I'm in there."
"Don't worry, Lu. He wouldn't ask."
An hour later, they were halfway to school. Lucy stared out the window. Normally, she'd have been getting in the shower right about now, but with all the changes... Lois had to be at school earlier than she did because of her newspaper duties and since Lois was her ride... Maybe she'd get some study time in. Oh, who was she kidding? She'd sleep in the newsroom and Lois would wake her up to go to her first class.
"I'm sorry, Lucy."
Lucy looked at Lois in surprise. "For what?"
"That I didn't tell you what the plan was sooner."
"What plan?"
"To marry Clark so we wouldn't have to go to Texas or into foster care."
"Oh."
"I wanted to. And I thought about it and talked to Clark about it, but we decided to keep it to ourselves until after we were actually married because we didn't want anyone to stick their nose in our business."
"And you think I would have told?"
Lois shrugged. "I don't know. I don't think so, but we didn't want to run that risk at all. That Aunt Louise would overhear or whatever."
"So instead you let me think I was going to end up in Texas or foster care?"
"For like four days. I almost told you a couple of times, but... I just couldn't."
"Do you love him?"
"What?" Lois sounded incensed.
"Do you love him? It's a pretty common question for people who get married. Do you love him or did you get married just to keep us out of foster care?"
Lois sighed. "I do love Clark. And we *had* talked in our letters about getting married someday, but the timing... That was to keep us out of foster care."
"He's Prince Charlie King, isn't he?"
"What are you talking about?"
"In the stories you used to tell me. When you came back from camp, Princess Lois' prince's name changed to Charlie King." Lois had told her one of those stories not more than two weeks ago, but she doubted she'd ever hear another one.
Lois thought about that for a minute. "I guess. It wasn't intentional but I guess he was."
Lucy rolled her eyes. Not intentional. Sure.
"I don't think I'm going to see you much," her sister said quietly.
"Why not?" They were living in an apartment with no real walls. Why wouldn't they see each other?
"I'm going to be working three or four nights a week and most of the day on either Saturdays or Sundays."
"So I'll be home alone?" Maybe this did have possibilities. So she didn't have a boyfriend now, surely she would eventually right?
Lois shook her head. "No. Clark will be there most nights that I'm not to make sure you do your homework since I won't be able to."
"Great. Another task master. Just what I wanted." She rested her forehead against the window again.
"Give him a chance, Luce. Please. For me."
Lucy said nothing.
"He's a great guy and he's really smart. Let him help you if you need it."
"Fine." She was grateful that they were pulling into the senior parking lot.
Minutes later, she was slinging her backpack over her shoulder and stalking off.
*****
"So, what's he like?"
"Who?" Lucy tried to play dumb. She'd managed to put off telling her friends about her new brother-in-law by saying that since she didn't live with them yet, there was really nothing to know.
"Emilio Estevez. Who do you think?" Lisa glared at her.
"He's... nice, I guess. I still haven't really spent any time with him or anything. We spent most of the weekend packing up the house and moving a bunch of stuff to storage and then moving the rest of everything into the apartment. They moved in last week after he got back from Kansas, but my stuff and some of the living room furniture and other stuff was moved in yesterday."
"How cute is he?"
"I told you he was cute, but he's my brother-in-law."
Lisa sighed. "On a ten point scale... how cute is he?"
Lucy shrugged. "Eight. Nine. Something like that."
"And Emilio?"
Why did she keep asking these things? "Seven. Eight. I guess. Emilio's really not my type."
"So, my point is that he's cute, right?"
"Yeah. And my brother-in-law."
"And nice?"
"I guess so. Give me a couple weeks. Apparently, he's my new homework slave driver."
"What?"
"Lois is working most nights so I'll be home with Clark and he's going to make sure I do my homework," Lucy said glumly.
"I guess there are worse things in life."
Lucy nodded. "Yeah. Like listening to my parents fight, or even worse, make up."
Lisa shuddered. "Do you share a wall with your sister too?"
She shook her head. "Nope. No wall. Open air."
"WHAT?!"
"Yeah. It's this sort of open floor plan. The living room, dining area and kitchen on one side and the bedroom, alcove-y thing and loft on the other. I'm in the loft. They're right down the circular staircase in the bedroom. No wall."
"Great."
"You're telling me."
The buzzer signaling lunch was over interrupted their conversation.
*****
Lucy watched as Lois left the apartment. This was it. Her first evening alone with Clark. And she had tons of homework, too. Half of it was geometry. She'd gotten behind with everything that had happened the last couple of weeks and her teachers had been understanding, but much more would push the limits. Lois had made her start on her homework as soon as they got home while she got ready for work.
So here it was. She had her papers all over the small kitchen table. There was nowhere for him to work in here – maybe he'd take the desk under her loft and she wouldn't have to be near him.
Oh, sure he was probably nice enough, but she still didn't have to like him. Even though she was living with them, he'd still taken her sister away. There would be no more stories about princesses and the handsome princes that rode off into the sunset with them. No more late night gab sessions about nothing in particular.
And, she reminded herself, if the dinner he'd made that first week was indication, no more peanut butter sandwiches.
Well, that was something.
Clark walked out of the bedroom and dropped his backpack onto the couch. "Have you eaten yet?"
Lucy's head jerked up. She hadn't expected him to talk to her. "What?"
He walked to the fridge. "Have you eaten?"
She shook her head. "No. All Lois knows how to make is peanut butter sandwiches and I'm over those, thank you."
"I see." He looked at her for a minute. "Do you like chicken salad?"
She shrugged. "I guess."
"Chicken salad sandwiches it is then."
She watched for a minute as he took leftover fried chicken out of the fridge and gathered a few other things to go with it. He moved to the counter and started to work.
He was going to make her dinner? On a school night when Lois wasn't home? What was his angle? Get in good with the sister so he could get some of the insurance money? Was that it? Was that why he'd married Lois? Her eyes narrowed. Surely not. That only happened on soap operas, right?
She turned back to her geometry and managed to get three whole problems done before he spoke again.
"Here." He held a plate out to her with a sandwich and some chips on it. "All we've got is water and tea. Which one would you like?"
She shrugged as she took the plate. "Either one is fine."
He poured them both a glass of tea and cleared a space off across the table from her. They ate in silence for a few minutes and, as she finished her sandwich, he restarted the conversation.
"I feel like we've gotten off on the wrong foot."
She shrugged again. She didn't really care what he felt.
"We probably should have told you either the night I got here or the next day, but we wanted to keep this all as quiet as possible until it was a done deal."
"That's what Lois said this morning." She took a sip of her drink. "What if the judge hadn't given you custody? What then?"
He thought for a minute. "I don't know. I guess Lois and I would be here and you'd be wherever the judge placed you, but I'm glad you don't have to go through that."
"Go through what?"
"Either packing up and going to Texas or bouncing from family to family. It's no fun, believe me."
"My best friend in fourth grade was put in foster care. She was in at least 7 homes by the time I saw her again four years later."
"It wasn't quite that bad in Smallville, but by the time I moved in with the Langs, I'd seen my share of moving boxes."
"Was Lana your girlfriend?" she asked suddenly.
He looked up at her. "What?"
"You mentioned that their daughter begged them to take you in. I wondered if she was your girlfriend."
He shrugged. "We went out a few times. She wanted to be my girlfriend, but I've always known I was going to marry your sister someday so getting seriously involved with anyone else seemed counterproductive and would only end with someone getting hurt."
"Ah." So Lanette was Lana. Figured. He probably just went out with her so he'd have a few notches on his bedpost before settling down. Typical guy after all.
"What about you?" he asked.
"What about me?" she asked back.
"Do you have a boyfriend?"
"I'm not allowed to date until I’m sixteen. That's not until August," she pointed out.
"So? Just because you can't date doesn't mean you don't have a boyfriend." His eyes twinkled. "Trust me on that one."
"Did you have a girlfriend who wasn't old enough to date?"
"No, not me personally, but most of my friends did. Lana and my best friend, Pete, were a thing for a while when we were fifteen. Neither one of them were allowed to date until sixteen. My parents were long gone by then, of course, but they weren't going to let me date until then either. It's pretty standard in Smallville, but everyone knows it doesn't mean there aren't any relationships before then either. We even a few girls in high school get pregnant before they were sixteen so..."
"Smart."
He looked at her intently. "One of them was another friend's little sister. Rachel..."
"Rachel? Was she another girlfriend?" Lucy couldn't help but interrupt.
He furrowed his brows at her. "Rachel? No. We went to senior prom together, but we'd had a pact to do that since we were eight. We never actually dated. Why?"
"Just wondering." Rachel. Raquel. Lois must have thought something was going on.
"Anyway, Rachel's little sister got pregnant at fifteen last year. Rachel told me that Mary and her seventeen year old boyfriend had..."
Good grief! Was he actually going to give her some kind of sex ed lecture? Apparently, he thought better of it, because he stopped there.
"Anyway, getting pregnant unexpectedly doesn't necessarily have anything to do with intelligence. And having a boyfriend doesn't necessarily have anything to do with dating and being sixteen." He cocked one eyebrow at her. "So, do you have a boyfriend?"
Lucy sighed. "No. No boyfriend. No potential boyfriends. No guy who is remotely interested in asking me out. Happy?"
He smiled at her. She grudgingly admitted that he had a very nice smile.
"Yep. You're my little sister now and I have to look out for you."
She rolled her eyes. "Just what I need. An over protective big brother. Thanks, but no thanks."
He grinned at her again. "Too bad. You're stuck with me."
She glared at him and stood to put her plate and glass in the sink. Not even a dishwasher in this place. Next thing she knew, they'd be having her do chores too. She plopped back down in her seat and pulled her geometry book back in front of her, determined to ignore him.
"Are you still having problems with that?"
"Yeah," she admitted grudgingly. "It's a little better, but I haven't really been concentrating the last couple weeks."
He wiped his mouth on his napkin and put his own dishes in the sink. "Let's see if I can help you."
"Don’t you have your own homework to do?"
He shrugged. "I'll do it later."
Later. Sure. Just what she needed; him helping her and making her feel like an idiot because she couldn't get it herself.
*****
March 1985
*****
Lucy had spent more time with Clark since she'd moved in than she had Lois. She drove to and from school with her sister, but that was about it. Clark was home with her almost every night and they did homework together. Well, Clark did his homework and helped her do her own and kept his own grades up at the same time.
She missed Lois more than she thought she would. They usually had a few minutes to chat before bed, but that was it. On the way to school, Lucy was typically still fighting sleep and barely coherent. On the way home, Lois was trying to beat traffic back to their part of the city so she grab a few minutes of study time before heading to work and Lucy was griping about Lois' choice of music. Oh, they'd talk about school and who was dating whom and such, but nothing serious. The thirty minute drive just wasn't a good time for the kinds of talks they used to have sitting on one of their beds trying to ignore whatever was going on in the rest of the house.
And Lois hadn't told her *one* story since she'd moved in.
Okay, to be honest, Lucy knew she was getting a bit old for them and Lois had lots of other things on her mind, but still... And she was sure Lois wouldn't want Clark to hear her telling stories about Tiny Town and Charlie King and Lanette and Raquel.
She went down the stairs and tried not to look at the bed her sister and brother-in-law shared. It kinda creeped her out that she had to walk through their bedroom all the time. Clark was making dinner for the two of them. Offering to help was the least she could do. Or something.
"What can I do?" she asked, sitting in one of the chairs around the table.
Clark smiled at her. "You're no better in the kitchen than your sister is. You can keep me company though."
"Well, what if I want to be better in the kitchen than she is? I'd like to be able to make more than toast."
"You burn toast."
She gave an exasperated sigh. "Yeah, I know. But I don't want to. I want to learn how to cook."
"Okay. I'll teach you some stuff, but not tonight. I'm cooking and you can keep me company."
"Fine."
"So, besides doing better in geometry, how's school going?"
She shrugged. "Fine, I guess. I don't get to hang out with Lisa very often, but maybe next year I'll be able to."
"Why next year?"
"Well, I'll be old enough to drive and Lois won't be at school with me. I know we hadn't talked about it, but I figured I'd probably have to drive myself."
Clark thought about that as he set the pot of water on the stove. "I hadn't really thought about that. You're probably right though." He leaned against the counter and looked at her. "I don't know that we'll be able to get you a car though."
"What about the money from my folks? Can't we use that for a car? Aunt Louise would let us."
"I know, but Lois is adamant that all of the money goes towards your college education, so no money for a car there."
"She is no fun. She ruins everything," Lucy pouted. Maybe, if she could Clark on her side, they could convince Lois. Or maybe she'd just go straight to Aunt Louise.
"Now, Lucy, be nice. She loves you and doesn't want you to have to work your way through college like I am and like she's going to. And there really isn't that much money there compared to tuition costs."
She really didn't need – or want – another dad and he was sounding an awful lot like one. "Will I have to live here with you guys still? Or are you moving when you're done with school?"
Clark shrugged. "Don't know yet. We want to work at the Planet someday but we may have to pay our dues somewhere else first. As long as we're here though, you're welcome."
Lucy shook her head. "I think I'll try to get a place on campus at that point. No offense, but I really don't want to live right above you guys' bedroom forever."
Clark got an odd look on his face then tried to cover it with a smile. What was that about? "I'm sure you don’t." He changed the subject. "So, still not sixteen, but are there any guys I need to be looking out for?"
She rolled her eyes. "No. And I really don't need a big brother looking out for me."
He raised a brow. "Well, I'm not really your brother, though I'd gladly take on that role if you'd let me, but I'm married to your sister and am one of your guardians. And I hope I'm your friend. As all of those things, part of my job is to look out for you and I take that seriously." He shrugged. "That's just the way it is."
"Well..." she paused. "Will you tell Lois?"
"I don't know. If it's something I think she needs to know, I will, but I can't keep secrets from her – it wouldn't be good for our relationship. But, that doesn't mean I would necessarily tell her everything."
"Give me a for instance."
"You tell me you think a guy is cute, I don't necessarily have to tell her. Nice guy at school, no. Notorious criminal or someone she's told me about that has a reputation or whatever, probably. You tell me you're planning on sleeping with a guy, I tell her."
"So somewhere in between is a maybe?"
"Yeah."
"I think a guy is cute and hope he asks me out next year?"
"As long as it's not someone she's told me is a creep or a player, probably not. But if she asks me anything directly, I won't lie either."
Lucy took a deep breath. "Okay, there is a guy I think is cute and would like to go out with next year, unless I can convince you guys to let me go to a dance with someone this year."
"Probably not, but nice try." He winked at her before turning back to the stove to put noodles in the water. "What's his name?"
"His name is Jaxon and he's a computer whiz."
"Really?"
"Yeah. I mean, he has a modem and everything."
"Wow. I have no idea what that is, but..." Clark shrugged. "What's he like?"
"He's very nice."
"Does he like you?"
Lucy shrugged. "I don't know. We have the same lunch and we eat together sometimes. He's the cousin of one of my friends."
"Which friend?"
"Jill."
"I don't think I've heard you talk about her."
"Well, friend may be a bit of an overstatement. We were in the same class in 2nd grade and we have a class together now, right before lunch, so we eat together sometimes. He's joined us a few times."
"Is he cute?"
"I guess." She sighed again. "I shouldn't have told you. And it doesn't matter, because I can't go out with him anyway so... By next year, he'll probably have a girlfriend and won't even know who I am."
*****
May 1985
*****
"So, Clark, am I going to be able to spend the night at Lisa's soon?" Lucy had asked him about it the night before and he'd said he'd talk to Lois about it.
He grinned at her. "How about next weekend?"
"Why not this weekend?"
"Next weekend is the prom and Aunt Louise wanted to make sure we were able to go so, you get to go to Lisa's house while we go to prom."
Her eyes narrowed. They were going to prom? "Did I tell you Jaxon asked me to go to the Junior Prom the weekend after that?"
Clark raised a brow at her. "And?"
"And I told him I'd have to talk to you guys."
"You already know the answer," he said gently.
"Yeah, I know," she grumbled. "It's not fair. You guys get to go to prom."
"Lucy, we're both over sixteen, we're married and Lois is a senior. It's *her* prom." He smiled at her. "I'll make sure you get to go to your prom, even if I have to swing for all of it myself."
"Thanks, Clark, but it's still not fair."
"Nothing's fair when you're fifteen. I remember."
Lucy turned on her heel and stalked off to her loft. She stared out the skylight. Were they ever going to let her grow up?
*****
Lucy sat with Aunt Louise and Clark as Lois walked up to the stage to get her diploma. Her sister was a high school graduate. Just one more thing in the sea of change her life had been since the beginning of the year. At least they'd decided they were going to try to buy a car so that she could drive herself to and from school next year.
She sighed. Lois was done with high school. Married to a great guy. Yes, she admitted to herself, Clark was a great guy, even if he was a bit over-protective. Lisa's parents had let her go to Junior Prom with Darren even though she wasn't sixteen yet. Jaxon hadn't spoken to her since she told him that she couldn't go with him. With her luck, he probably wouldn't talk to her again anytime soon.
And now she had all summer to look forward to. She'd probably see Lois more than she had the last few months, if only because she wasn't in school. She knew Lois was taking summer courses at UNT Met, but surely she'd be home sometimes, wouldn't she? Or would she just fill those non-school hours with more work?
She didn't listen as the speakers droned on. She was finally able to put words to the feeling she'd had since she moved in with Lois and Clark.
Lois had left.
As surely as her parents had.
Oh, she was still there physically, but she was gone. Lucy couldn't remember the last time she'd had a long conversation with her sister. Or really, even a short conversation that wasn't in the car on the way to or from school. And those conversations had never amounted to much – more gossip than anything, if that much. Usually, Lois was quiet, engrossed in driving or deep thoughts or something.
Lucy missed her – a lot – but that didn't change the fact that Lois had left her just like everyone else had.
*****
TBC
