Welcome Home

Ty grumbled a bit as he strenched a kink out of his neck and padded tiredly down his staris. He had overselpt again, the sun was low in the sky.

He had gotten his life back together to the extent that he was no longer drinking himself to unconsiousness only to wake up and do it again. But his sleeping schedule still left something to be desired.

He dind't think running around like a wolf once a month was helping either.

Tyler yawned as he put coffee on; he was pouring a cereal in a bowl when he tilted his head. Thinking he heard something from outside.

"What in the lord's name," he drawled to himself, debating about going to invesitgate, but in the end shrugged and continued with his breakfast, figuring if it had to do with him, it would show up eventually.

Rebecca wrung her hands, her nerves causing a slight frown to sadden her usually bright, delicate features. She had thought her family was dead. Long gone. Torn away from her- so cruelly torn away from her- and they were so, so far away. So far away that no matter how hard she prayed, no matter how long the girl cried into the night for her Mama's hugs, her Pa's hand, her brother's laugh- she couldn't reach them.

Her dark green eyes stung with tears, recalling those lonely nights, locked in her bedroom, trying to talk to them all. It had been about 3 years since she had cried- properly cry.

And then, a month ago, in the middle of a street, she saw a small blonde boy. He looked about eleven, dark eyes sparkling with mischief. He had run past her in a hurry- playing tag with friends, she presumed and her heart...it just, just clenched so tightly Reb could barely breathe.

He looked just like Ty.

And that emotional dam that she had built- it crumbled, and she was drowned in that overwhelming, bitter sadness.

Reb had practically ran back to Louisiana, as fast as her feet would carry her. And it was there she found the article- the old article that said he had survived. He still laughed and smiled and ran around. She had been both overjoyed and furious- 12 years, it had taken her to find out. 12 years, separated from her brother- God, he was only eleven and-

Reb froze. 12 years for him to grow. To change. He could be someone completely different- she was relatively the same, but Ty? Shipped to England, then into an orphanage, as she had heard? He could be anyone to her, now. Her stomach twisted uneasily at the thought- had that cheeky, mischievous boy died after all?

Shaking her head frantically, and before Reb could give herself a chance to chicken out, she curled her hand into a tight fist and wrapped on the door of the address that had been given to her by their aunt.

"Ty?" she called out hesitantly, though her voice rung with a desperate kind of hope.

Ty jumped a bit at the knock on the door. Which he then laughed at himself for, since he had just thought he heard something outside hadn't he?

"Yer goin' mental Tyty," he mumbled to himself, not missing the irony of telling himself such a statement in third person, as he set his breakfast on the table wondering just who was at the door.

It wasn't going to be Karma, she never knocked - Rhys... wasn't coming around ever again, and besides that boy never knocked either.

"I'm comin'! I'm comin'!" he mumbled as he heard the knock. Freezing slightly, it sounded... familiar? He coudln't place it exactly but it was enough to make him stop...

Almost as if it would be...

He pulled open the door, and froze.

He blinked once.

And then twice.

He looked behind him, and then back at the girl, woman, standing on his porch. He couldn't believe it but it looked like...

But that was impossible - she was...

"Yer... Yer ... dead," he whispered slowly. ".. how...? ... Rebecca?"

Oh God, there he was.

His face was the same- but older, different- and how did he get to be so much taller than her and- God, he was there. In the flesh. Her little brother, he was still- he was right in front of her.

"TY!" she squealed loudly, flinging her arms around his neck, delighted tears streaming down her face. He was there. Safe right in her arms, right where she could see him. No one, not ever, was going to take that away from her again. She'd fight off anything for her family- and that was what he was. Reb laughed- this truly was the happiest moment of her life.

"Clearly I ain't dead, yeah big ol' idiot!" she breathed, pulling back away from him. Reb dabbed away her tears with her sleeve, face pink. She grinned up at him impishly through her joyful tears and shook her head incredulously.

"Yeah grew, Ty." she laughed- any nervous doubt about his changed character had vanished. There wasn't any room in her heart for doubt- it was too filled with happiness. "And- God, Ty- yeah still in yer PJs?" Reb laughed again, rubbing at her face.

Ty froze as her arms went around him. Slowly, he wrapped his shaking arms around the girl that was supposed to be dead.

She was supposed to be...

"You ain't dead," he breathed slowly, the word seeming to unlock something in him as he held the girl tighter and his voice breaking a bit, "Rebecca - you ain't dead - you ain't!"

He pulled back for a moment, his hands shook. He laughed.

"'Course I grew - it been... years, Lordy its been years," he shook again. He couldn't believe it. He just couldn't... "Well I just go up; yeah interrupted my breakfast - yeah wanna come in?"

Rebecca smiled sadly at her little brother. Heck- not so little anymore. He looked so much like Pa, now.

"I ain't dead, Ty." she said softly. It had been easier for her- she had already gotten over the shock at the news of his survival -most of it, anyway- but for Ty, this must feel like seeing a ghost on your porch. Reb took his shaking hands in hers, feeling fresh tears beginning to leak.

"And yeah ain't dead either, huh?" she croaked with a faint ghost of a smile.

Reb shook her head. "But yeah grew taller than me, darlin'." She paused, frowning. "I can still be calling yeah that, right Ty? Yeah bein' all grown up now 'n' all." She grinned. It was what she had first called him when Mama brought the baby home.

"Yer breakfast?!" she exclaimed. "Well, I'm awfully sorry for intrudin' on yer breakfast. But heck, a girl's gotta get her little brother outta bed."

Ty just continued to give her a grin that was as much dazed as it was estatic. He was dreaming - he had to be dreaming.

How many times had he done this? Dreamt it all away, only to wake up and find that everything was still the same. He was still alone. He was still....

But she felt so real, and sounded... and- and...

She looked older. The dreams never made her look older.

"Yepp, I'm steal here; they can't seem ta get rid o' me," he gave a shakey laugh, pulling her through the door and closing it.

He smiled at her familiar words, phrases, things he thought he'd never hear again, "Course yeah can - I still yer baby brother... even if I am taller than yeah now."

He gave another laugh. He still couldn't believe it.

"Though I ain't gunna say I'm all that grown up; just look it."

He blinked a couple times before shaking his head, and turning to go back to the kitchen waving for her to follow.

"Yeah didn't wake me up - I told yeah, I was havin' breakfast. Completely different thangs."

Shaking her head at his grin, though still smiling herself, Reb entered the house. Her eyes looked around curiously.

"Now, who'd be wantin' ta get ridda my Ty? They'd 'ave to ta get through his big sis, first." she said, flashing a cheeky smile at him.

"Yeah get yerself a nice place, Ty." she murmured in approval, tracing a hand on the wall, then laughed a bit. "My little darlin's gotta house?! With..." She craned her neck round. "With stairs. Little Ty's got a house with stairs and a porch. Lord Almighty." Reb said under her breath, knowing full well she looked insane. Must have been a Marks thing.

"Ty, yeah got a house. Lordy- yeah more grown up than me!" she exclaimed, hands flying in the air.

"Mama'd thump yeah round the head, Ty." she said, a sad smile playing at her lips.

"Well then, they'll have sumtin' truely terrifyin' to go through then," he flashed her an impish grin as he grabbed his cereal bowl up once more and jumped onto coutner. "I'd hate ta see an angry Reb."

Ty snorted, and shook his head, "It ain't that nice; just a place. Yeah lucky yeah weren't hear 'bout a month ago. I really let it get to be a dump then."

He shook his head and laughed a little.

"Nah, I was too cute to thump," he laughed, before shoveling some more food into his mouth. "Yeah Want something - food, coffeee, I got coffee."

"Lord knows that an angry Reb is a dangerous one, eh Ty?" she laughed, running a hand through her hair. He was...the same, almost. Though there was something a bit off about him, somehow. Like something had damaged his aura. Reb held a firm belief in the existence of auras and the spiritual world that lived alongside and in harmony with their own.

"Good thang yeah tidied it all on up before yer sis came." Reb remarked, before jumping up to sit on the counter opposite her brother, feeling quite at home.

"Too cute ta thump?!" she shook her head in disagreement. "I think yeah'll find that Mama didn't hesitate ta give yeah a good ol' thump when yeah needed one, all "cuteness" " she made a quotation gesture with her hands "aside."

She tilted her head thoughtfully. "Yeah got milk, Ty?"

Ty snorted and shook his head, "I think dangerous is a under statement. I still get nightmeres thinking about angry Reb."

He gave her an impish smile and shook his head, setting his bowl down to pick up his coffee.

"A darn good thang," he grinned watching her, still stunded that this was happening. "Now I can pretend that I'm actually a good house keeper."

Ty rubbed the back of his head as he remembered it, a grin pulling at his lips.

"Yeah, well - none of yeah appriciated my infectious personality," he countered. "Yeah just thought I needed ta be controlled."

He laughed.

"Check the fridge," he nodded his head in that direction, "I should."

Rebecca paused for a long moment. Had he dreamed of their family as she had done over the years? Spent long, agonizing nights trying to recall fading memories? It was all good and well for them to hug and laugh but- God, didn't he have questions? She knew that she did.

"Hey, Ty." Reb said quietly, frowning at him. "Yeah alright in this big ol' city here in the UK?" she asked. Might as well start somewhere with these questions.

"A good housekeeper? I wouldn' have guessed it ta be so, ta be honest with yeah Ty." Reb grinned, shrugging. Hopping off the counter, she opened the fridge and spoke as she peered around in it for the milk;

"Yeah needed to be tamed, not just controlled." she murmured. "Yeah were a real wild thang, Ty." she laughed quietly, finally finding the milk. Reb paused again and looked around the kitchen- no glasses in sight.

Shrugging, she unscrewed the bottle cap and tipped it to her lips, drinking straight from the bottle instead.

Ty tilted his head, looking at her as she paused. He still couldn't believe it.... not really. He had thought it impossible, when it had, he had....

But as he looked back he was slowly realizing her didn't remember much about that day, that horrible, horrible day... Rebecca could have....

"Yeah... yeah I think I am," he said softly. "I mean, I ain't always so charmin' but... I've managed to make it work."

He shook his head and snorted as she drunk from the cartoon, "And yeah say I'm the one that needs ta be tamed."

"Rebecca," he paused, "How-how.... did you-are you- how?"

"So yeah good then, Ty? Got a job, or..." Reb trailed off. She didn't enjoy asking these questions- though the curiosity was eating her alive- it made her feel like a stranger to him. That she had even the slightest right to make sure that he was still in line after years of leaving him to fend for himself at such a young age. She was the older sibling, she was meant to protect him. But what did she do?

She ran away.

Reb scowled at him teasingly and very pointedly continued to drink from the carton, but rested it down when he asked his question. Of course, she'd been expecting it. Planned the answer carefully- but it all seemed pointless now.

"Ty, yeah 'ave to understand. I was scared and I was young." she said softly, holding his gaze determinedly. She would look him in the eye when she told him this.

He nodded his head, "Yeah I thank I am. Yeah know - got me a house, and yeah I gots job. Work the bar at a local place. They like me there." The boy neglected to add that he had started the job to work off a tab from more than one evening of over drinking.

She didn't need to know about any of that - it would only worry her. It was in the past anyway. She also didn't need to know that once a month he...

That wasn't in the past, but Reb could just.

He returned her gaze solemnly, nodding his head.

"Reb you ain't gotta..." he gave her a small reassuring smile.