Alyssa brushed a hand over Lucy's dark mess of hair, her little body wedged against hers on the couch with her school book splayed open on her lap. 

"Good," Alyssa encouraged as she carefully outlined the letters, tracing the shapes and repeating the pattern over and over. "Much better. But we still need to work on your R's and Y's." 

"Those are hard," she whined, tipping her head back with a pout. 

"I know, Gummy Bear. I sucked at those ones, too." Smiling, she kissed Lucy's cheek, softening her scowl. "How many more lines do you have to do?" 

"Mrs. Chiu says we only these two," Lucy said, wiggling the two mostly complete pages they'd laboured over for the last forty-five minutes. They'd enjoyed an early evening together after school while Eva had to work late at the gallery on putting together a few prints. She'd been surprised to see that Out of Focus had its own dark room hitched at the back where Eva developed most of her own stuff. She'd even helped with a couple, marvelling at the way the solution washed over the blank pages and slowly—almost as if by magic—the images appeared.

She'd swished the pictures in basins of solution, rinsed them, strung them up to dry. The entire process, though tedious at times, was oddly soothing in its predictable monotony. And there was something to be said to see the birthing of Eva's artwork manifesting slowly before her eyes. To have a hand in its creation. More than once Alyssa would gaze deep into those pictures and puzzle over the mysteries ensconced within. 

As if, like those colours and contours and textures, the secrets themselves would be revealed in those swishing basins of chemicals and water. 

"Alright, finish up that line and you're free to watch Monster High with Payton upstairs." 

Perking up at the incentive, tongue poking between her lips, Lucy wielded her pencil with determined strokes as Alyssa rose to answer her ringing cellphone. 

"Indy," she smiled in greeting, crossing the room to the sliding glass doors overlooking the back yard. 

"Hey," Indira's voice sang out. "Sorry, I've been swamped the last week. The firm's taking on--never mind, I've just had a twelve hour day and don't want to talk about work. How are you? I miss having my partner in crime around." 

Alyssa smiled and her heart clutched with emotion. "I miss you too." 

"I met with Paulette for lunch two days ago. To get the low down on what happened behind closed doors when you were pushed out. She told me that the decision with the board wasn't unanimous." 

"Seriously?" Surprised by that bit of news, Alyssa opened the glass door, shivered at the burst of cold as she stepped out on to the back deck. Though the days were still balmy and warm the nights dropped lower and lower with each passing day. Here, surrounded by the water, Haven's climate carried with it a damp chill. A chill her blood wasn't thick enough to accommodate as of yet.  

"As a judge. One or two of the directors spoke up in your defence, but were out voted in the final ruling.  Don't know who for sure, but Paulette thinks it may have been George Wyatt and Harvey Class who stood by you." 

Warmed by the thought, Alyssa no longer noticed that she was standing outside in the cold. "I always liked George, Harvey too but George especially." He'd been the latest acquisition to the directors almost two years ago, a former CEO of Iconic Communications and now stood as it's majority shareholder. He now filled up his time sitting on various boards for a diverse range of companies. He was a stocky man with kind eyes and a booming laugh; Alyssa had liked him instantly. 

"I thought I would share that with you, put a smile back on your glum face." 

"Thank you, I appreciate it though I wish you'd stop digging around. Paulette could get in trouble talking about confidential board meetings with you, and she's a wonderful woman who could lose her job if she isn't careful." 

"She's the longest running EA in the company and everyone knows assistants are gatekeepers to the real dirt in any organization. They see all, hear all and usually have cc'd copies of everything." 

"Leave it alone, Indy. There's no going back, even if I wanted to." 

"Maybe not, but I'm still going to squeeze their balls and make them sing. There's a thread I'm pulling on, I'll let you know more as it unravels, but for now--nothing worth getting in to. Tell me about Haven. Your sister. What have you been up to?" 

Unsure what to say in answer to that, exhaling heavily, Alyssa brushed a hand over her hair. "There's not much to talk about," she finally managed. "We've been pretty busy with—"

Indira's ragged sigh interrupted what would have been a carefully thought out lie. "Cut the bullshit. Do you know who you're talking to? You've been there for two weeks, Alyssa. And you're telling me you still haven't sat down and talked to you sister?"

"It's not that easy."

"Yes, it is. You get in a room, sit down and open your mouth. Words usually come out. Just make sure they're the right ones and not the kind of crap you're trying to pull with me right now."

Alyssa turned at a rapping knock against glass to see Lucy bouncing where she stood, wiggling her finished homework for Alyssa to see. Smiling, she gave Lucy a thumbs up and watched as she gleefully bounded down the hall and out of sight for the stairs leading up to Eva's bedroom where the Payton and Hailey were watching television.

Just as Eva herself was walking through the front door. Her timing couldn't have been more hilariously timed.  

"I'll get to it," Alyssa murmured, lowering her voice as if Eva would somehow manage to hear her at this distance and through the glass. 

"She just walked in didn't she?" 

Alyssa's scowl deepened. "Do you have super powers I need to know about?" 

Indy giggled. "Go, on. Grow some balls and get it over with. You'll feel better once you do." She blew a couple of noisy kisses before hanging up, leaving Alyssa alone to finally face the music. Stepping back into the house, she closed the sliding glass doors behind her and switched on the lock. Inside was 

"Hey," Eva smiled at her before scrubbing hands over her exhausted face. "Thanks for helping out tonight." 

"Happy to," Alyssa banded arms across her chest to hide her anxious hands, otherwise she was liable to fidget as she often did when tense. "Did you get a lot done?" 

Eva nodded as she crossed to the kitchen cabinets and plucked out a new bottle of wine. "Everything on my carefully itemized 'to-do' from Jen." Sighing, she angled her neck left and right, cracking the bones. "So that should make her happy and keep her off my back for a week. And this," she gestured to the bottle, "is well-deserved for both of us. Care for a glass?"  

"Sure." Booze would certainly smooth over the nerves. "Where's Marshall?" Alyssa asked, moving to the cabinets to pull out a couple of glasses while Eva hunted down the corkscrew.

"He stopped off at his parents. Had to help them with hauling out the generator from the shed. One of the joys of island living during the cooler months," Eva smiled, popping off the cork. "We'll need to stock up on propane here, too. Our first winter here was brutal. Ice storm wiped out the electrical lines, took almost two weeks to get them up and running again. Thankfully most older homes have their own gen's and propane tanks handy for such events. Lavender Cottage included though I didn't have the faintest idea how to work one until Lottie showed me." 

Accepting the glass Eva poured out for her, Alyssa took a long, bracing sip of the crisp white. A chardonnay should have been chilled but she wasn't about to nit-pick at the moment. Since the events of the holiday long weekend, she had kept a cool distance from Eva, immersing herself in the work and the long days either behind the computer or within the dark room. Classic avoidance, to be sure, though it wasn't hard to avoid someone who was hardly around. Her sister was busier and busier of late. And even whenever they'd managed to string together a few moments alone together, 

Alyssa latched on to the excuse that the timing had just never been quite right. In truth, she'd been stalling and avoiding this painful area of conversation. But it couldn't be avoided and she couldn't go on pretending. Not anymore.

Indy was right. Time to open up. Starting with this.

"You alright?" Eva asked, assessing her over the rim of her own glass, leaning casually against the counter. 

Nodding, Alyssa took another bracing gulp. "Can we sit down a sec?" she nodded towards the dining room table, still scattered with the scraps of paper left over from the girl's homework session. "There's something we need to talk about."

"Sure." Following her to the table, Eva pulled out a chair, the legs scrapping over ceramic tiles. Sitting down, she set her glass in front of her before folding her hands in her lap. "What's up?"

Taking a moment, Alyssa drew in a calming breath, held it. There was no easy way to say what had to be said, and every possible lead in she could think sounded weak and pointless, even to her own ears. So, she abandoned any attempts to gloss over the subject, and went straight for the devastating truth. Lifting her eyes to Eva, she let it all come out. "It's mom. I'm sorry I waited so long but, you should know that she died. About a year after you left. It was quick. She didn't suffer. Doctor's said she had a heart attack in her sleep. It was likely she'd had a smaller one earlier in the year and either didn't give it any notice, or chose to ignore it."

They sat there for a moment, locked in still silence. With the subtle pinging of drops in the kitchen sink to punctuate that quiet. After an indeterminable length, Alyssa watched as her sister sat back in her seat, her eyes widening a degree before they lowered to the table, processing. Absorbing. "Knowing mom, she'd ignored it." Eva brushed a hand over her short hair, shook her head. "She always was a stubborn old bird. Stubborn to the very end."

A steady hand reached for her wine, and Eva brought her glass to her lips, sipped. Alyssa waited a beat, confused. 

"You don't seem very upset. It doesn't bother you? That she's gone?" 

"Course it does. We fought—didn't necessarily see eye to eye on a lot of things, but she was still my mom." A lick of heat snapped in amber depths, but soon as it was sparked it was gone. And replaced with hollow weariness. "It's hard to know I'll never get the chance to mend some things. But what's done is done. Can't go back even if I wanted to."

No. There was no going back, Alyssa realized. A little dazed, she sat there as Eva rose, her gait unsteady--or maybe she was the one who was unsteady, Alyssa thought. She'd braced herself for a variety of scenarios when breaking the painful news to her sister. Anger. Grief. Guilt. 

All to be expected, even under the strained circumstances of her sister's relationship with their mother, but this? This cold and dismissive indifference? This was something new. Something she'd hadn't seen or prepared for. For all their mother's faults, for all their differences, she had still been their mother--their family and blood, and that loss should be felt, mourned--grieved. But it grew more apparent, the longer Alyssa sat there, soaking it all in, that life and everything before 'Eva', before Haven, simply didn't matter. 

None of it. 

And that was the most devastating truth. To know that her sister could brush them all aside...

"It's getting late. Why don't I get the girls ready for bed and we can finish this bottle and watch a movie or something?" 

Eager to get out of there, to get away, Alyssa swung on her jacket, flicked her hair over the collar. "No, it's okay. I've got somewhere I need to be."

Eva watched her hurried movements, her features falling into an expression of disappointment. "Come on, Lys. I want us to hang out. We've barely spent any time together." 

And that, that right there, was the final blow to crack a hole in her emotional walls. Beyond which so much venom bubbled and brewed. So much feeling. 

"Oh, you noticed that too, did you?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Just what it implies. And you're only now aware of that little detail? That's rich considering you're the one always making time for everything and anything but me. It's been weeks, Eva," Alyssa snapped, drawing particular, furious, emphasis to her sister's new name. Hating her, in this moment, hating this stranger who looked at her from behind her sister's face. This unknown person who stood in place of the one she'd loved and lost and so desperately wanted back.

"It's not like that," Eva whispered.

"Yes it is. Expansion plans. Book tours. Everything is always so important. So pressing. But me? No worries. I'll always be there, right? Dependable, reliable Alyssa. Just put me on a shelf and pluck me up when you're ready. Fuck what I think or feel." Furious, her temper and hurt a genie she couldn't stuff back in the bottle, Alyssa advanced on her sister. Flames in her eyes and fury burning in her blood. "You sit in your perfect house with your gorgeous fiancé and worry about your thriving business—it's all so pristine and wonderful when here I thought you'd actually might have missed me. Needed me." 

"You think I've had it so easy? This hasn't been a picnic, Lys."

"Oh no? You fuck everything up and presto-change-o, new life. New everything and all your problems get dumped on someone else's doorstep. Do you have any idea what I've gone through?"Eva's spine snapped straight, and the pale mask of hurt bled away into one of burgeoning anger. Good, Alyssa wanted a fight. Was spoiling for one. 

"No, Lys, I don't. So why don't you quit jumping down my throat and talk to me? Or better yet, why don't you ask what I've been through instead of making assumptions? The truth might surprise you."

"Forget it." As Alyssa stormed off, she caught the sound of Eva's strangled sob.

"Who are you?"

Halting at the door, Alyssa reached for the knob. Gripped it. "I don't know anymore," she whispered. And took off.

#

Chief Ethan Davies...two days after his chat with his predecessor and the offer of promotion wasn't any easier to swallow. It still churned in his guts, tying them up into a tangled, overwhelmed mess. 

He'd never considered himself the ambitious type. Or a man who needed more. He'd been content with his quiet life. The simplicity of it. He'd happily sat at the desk with the understanding that the role and responsibility it came with was temporary and short-lived. The thought of being that guy, the one everyone looked to. Making all the hard calls and finalizing the decisions. It was a massive responsibility, and made him question whether or not he was good enough. Worthy.

Still reeling like he'd been mule-kicked in the head, Ethan had come to the bar for a quiet beer to burn away a Saturday night. ordinarily he'd have avoided the packed bar when the crowd was thick and hopping on a weekend, but he needed the distraction where the quiet of home would only leave him to brood. 

The nightlife had kicked up a notch in the last year and a half since the events of that chaotic summer. Drawing the slick urbanites and trendy mainlanders to enjoy a weekend getaway. Haven had some pretty exceptional restaurants that were only too happy to capitalize on the expansion to their client base, opening up with a dinner and dancing type of atmosphere.

Ethan knew he should have been happy to see his home community thriving. Eva had brought them out of a downward spiral, where many of the local families were facing some very serious concerns about having to pack up and move to the mainland. But the interest in her art had created a very real interest in Haven as a whole.

She'd put them on the map. Gave them hope for a future. 

Pulling his beer, Ethan's eyes were drawn by movement--how or why, he couldn't say, only that he felt her the second she entered the place. Alyssa had an energy about her, palpable as a snap of electricity over his skin. In a sea of people she stood out, commanded attention, even without trying. 

Dressed in jeans and fitted white shirt. Simple and plain, but Jesus her body did things to that shirt that made a man's mouth water. And when she turned around, sliding up to the bar, Ethan got a good hard look at the back end of her and dammit, it was just as perfect.

He'd seen his sister-in-law in something not all that dissimilar but Eva's body didn't do all the kinds of things that Alyssa's did and then some. And because his mouth had gone a little dry, Ethan brought his beer to his lips and swallowed. Long and deep.

Only then realizing that a duo perched at the bar, judging their expressions, had mistaken his obvious appraisal of Alyssa as interest for them.

Now they were headed his way.

Ethan lowered his beer. Shit.