A Sister’s Prerogative
Rated PG
by Becky

Amy stretched lazily, a tired sigh escaping her mouth.

Laura and Lesley were in the same lethargic mood. All three women were lying around Laura’s living room, snuggled in the soft cushions of Laura’s couches.

“So is the latest crisis at General Hospital over?” Laura asked.

“Yes, and thank God,” Amy answered. “I have enough with a so-called normal day.” She paused, once again thinking of the young girl that she had kept company today, while the girl waited to hear the results of her HIV test. She had been raped, and that haunted look had still been present in her brown eyes. “He should be castrated,” she murmured fiercely, thinking of the faceless rapist.

“What?” Laura and Lesley both asked.

Amy blinked, realizing she had spoken out loud. “Oh, sorry… I was just thinking of this girl at GH today…”

“You want to talk about it?” her sister asked.

Amy shrugged. “It’s not a nice story. She was being tested for HIV. She was raped.” She saw Laura wince, a look of pain passing through her blue eyes almost imperceptibly. Amy immediately regretted her thoughtlessness. “I’m sorry, Laura…”

“For what?” Laura tried to shrug it off. “How is the girl holding up?”

Amy hesitated. “As well as can be expected, I guess. I don’t know if she’d feel better if she could send him to jail, but I know I would… I guess you know how that feels,” she said softly.

“What do you mean?” Laura asked.

“Not knowing who… who…” Amy couldn’t continue.

Laura turned away, not able to stand the look of sadness in her sister’s face.

“Maybe we should change the subject,” Lesley suggested.

Amy nodded. “Yeah, I didn’t mean to bring up the past. You don’t need to be reminded of that, I’m sorry, Laura.”

Laura reached over and gently squeezed Amy’s hand. “It’s okay,” she whispered.

Amy frowned, seeing a tear falling down Laura’s cheek, even though she was still not looking at her. She scooted closer, and hugged her close.

Lesley watched silently, a sick feeling forming in the pit of her stomach. She hadn’t seen Laura like this since after… she realized she and Laura had never really talked about it since then. Not even when Lucky had found out. She’d believed, or maybe made herself believe, that Laura had gotten past it. But now, doubts were creeping into her mind.

Laura got up from the couch, discreetly wiping away the tears. “I’ll go get some cookies,” she said to no one in particular.

Amy turned to Lesley once Laura was in the kitchen. “It just gets to me, you know? She’s my sister. The thought of anyone hurting her…” She bit her lip.

“Things aren’t always that simple, Amy,” Lesley said, though her words sounded hollow even to her now.

Amy frowned, looking strangely at Lesley. “Oh, come on. Are you telling me if you had known who… hurt Laura, you wouldn’t have felt like killing him?”

Guilt overwhelmed Lesley, leaving her silent.

“Lesley?”

“Amy, drop it.”

Amy’s eyes widened, and grew furious in a way that Lesley had never seen. All superficiality and schoolgirl antics were gone, with a voice to match. “You know who it was.” It wasn’t a question.

Lesley said nothing.

“Who?”

Lesley still remained quiet.

“WHO?” Amy asked with such force, that Lesley backed away, and uttered the name, before even thinking of the consequences.

~*~

“All right, we’ve got chocolate chips cookies with cold milk. Who wants some?” Laura asked cheerfully.

Lesley quickly got up and took the tray from her.

Laura looked at her mother’s stricken face, and felt dread entering her body. “What’s wrong?” Lesley was avoiding her gaze, so she looked at Amy. “Amy? Are you all right, you look pale.”

Amy stood up, silently, staring at her sister. “I don’t understand,” she began, “I don’t understand how you could…”

Laura frowned, not understanding. “How I could what?”

“Marry him, Laura! He… God!” Amy grabbed her head, trying to make sense of everything. But all she could do was feel, not think. “That -- that LOWLIFE!” she seethed, angry tears blurring her vision.

Suddenly Laura knew what she was talking about, and she felt the breath being knocked out of her. She swallowed, trying to keep calm. “It’s not your place to judge, Amy,” she said quietly.

Amy stopped and looked at Laura. Her big sister. All she could see was the girl whom she’d grown up with. The girl she’d shared her secrets with, been jealous of, looked up to. “You’re my sister,” she said.

“Please, Amy. Just let this go.”

“How can I when you obviously haven’t?” Amy’s voice broke, fresh tears wetting her face.

Laura’s face crumbled. “I can’t… I can’t keep coming back to this. Don’t make me.” Her legs failed her, and she fell to the floor, quietly sobbing.

Amy walked over to her and fell to her knees. She cradled her sister in her arms, and gently stroked her hair.

~*~

“Amy! Do you know where Mrs. Dawson’s file is?” Bobbie asked, as the blonde woman walked by the Nurses’ Station.

“Yeah, I’ll get it to you in just a second, I just have to get some papers signed by Mr. McAllister.”

Amy felt that familiar tightening in her stomach muscles. The same feeling she had had the past several weeks every time she ran into Bobbie, which was often.

After doing her job, she walked back to the Nurses’ Station. She stopped a few meters away and contemplated the picture before her. Luke had arrived and he and Bobbie were laughing about something. She found she hated them for it. And she knew, things would never be the same.

She continued onwards, hoping to get that file to Bobbie and leave as quickly as possible.

“Hey, how’s my favorite ex-sister-in-law?” Luke smiled as he saw her.

Amy stopped in front of him, his good mood seeming the greatest insult. She felt the anger bubbling to the surface. Not like it had been the first few days after she had learned the truth. That had been almost unbearable, and she hated to think of what would have happened if she had seen him then.

Still, her anger was strong. Almost without knowing it, her fist connected squarely with Luke’s jaw, knocking him to the ground.

She was vaguely aware of Bobbie shrieking and rushing out of the Nurses’ Station to tend to her brother.

“Those self-defense classes really pay off,” Amy commented to herself, flexing her hand to numb the pain.

“What did you do that for?!” Bobbie demanded, as she wiped the blood from a dazed Luke’s mouth.

Amy smiled thinly. “Let’s just call it a sister’s prerogative.”

~The End~