"I love you too." Lin said, stroking the back of my hair, "I love you more than you know." He detached from the hug, and set his hands on my shoulders. "Now, I have to go to rehearsal, lay down, try and take a nap." I smiled a little, and laid down on the couch. "Go to bed, get better, someone will be here in about an hour." He bent down and kissed my forehead, and got up to leave the room.

"Thanks Lin." I smiled at him, as I was drifting off, I looked up to see him smile at me, somewhat sadly.

"You're welcome Niñita." With that he left and locked the door behind him.

•••

"Abigail?" My caseworker Becca knocked on my bedroom door, "babe time to go." I sighed and stood up from the grey bed in my room with my suitcase. I took one last look around the room, the opened the door. "You ready?"

"Yeah." I said softly. I followed her out of the apartment, trying to ignore the eyes of the family who was giving me up. Who hated me. Sure they said 'not the right fit', no, their kids hated me, and I'm not quite sure why. It's not like I did anything wrong. I was thinking about my next family as I sat in the front seat of Becca's Range Rover.

"This family should be great, they're very excited, they have a son, he's, I think just a bit older than you. They've fostered before as well, they really are great." She smiled, as she turned to drive out of the city. She pulled into the driveway of a small house. I slowly got out of the car, holding on to my suitcase tightly. It was all I had. Becca took my free hand and walked with me up to the front door. "You nervous?" She asked.

"Yeah." I said, my voice barely above a whisper.

"You have nothing to be nervous about." She said smiling, as she knocked on the door. I heard movement in the house, before the door opened, revealing a middle aged blonde.

"Rebecca!" She exclaimed, her voice sweet. "This must be Abigail." She turned her attention towards me, "oh, sweetheart, aren't you just darling?" She put her hands on my shoulders, then pulled me into a hug. "I'm Katherine, or Kathy, you can call me whatever you want, Katherine, Kathy, Kath, Mrs. Walter, mom, anything." She said, pulling away from the hug.

"See Abigail, no need to be nervous." Becca patted my back.

I flashed forward to sitting on the bed in my new bedroom with a boy who looked about my age. My new 'parents' were downstairs talking with Becca.

"Your names Abigail?" He asked.

"Yeah." I smiled, he seemed nice.

"Ever go by Abi?" He continued.

"No, never got close enough with anyone for a nickname." I admitted.

"Well, um, Abigail, I hope we get close enough so that I can call you Abi." He smiled at me.

"You're Nick." I said, trying to clarify, but it came out as more of a statement.

"Yeah, Nick Walter." He looked at me, "soon you'll be Abigail Walter."

"Really?" I asked, does this mean they were thinking of adopting? Was I going to have a family? Is this boy really going to be my brother, that woman, she was so sweet, so pretty, was she going to be my mom?

"Yeah." He looked at me, smiling softly, "you're really gorgeous." He tucked my hair behind my ear. I blushed and looked at my lap.

"Thanks Nick." I said.

"I'll leave you to get unpacked, unless you want some help." He added at the end.

"I'll be fine, thanks Nick." I smiled.

"Nice meeting you Abigail." He said, and closed the door behind him as he left.

I opened the suitcase that sat on my bed. On top of the small pile inside sat my cell phone. My last family got it for me. They were trying to make the family seem fair to my social workers. Although, I still paid for the service. I had a job working at a small grocery store in the city. I carefully set that aside, and pulled out a pile of clothes. Becca bought me most of them. They weren't nice, I owned a couple nice shirts and shoes, I bought myself a couple, the other few nice things I had were donations. Like, you buy a shirt that a teenage girl would like and its distributed randomly to one of the girls in the system.

I put my clothes in my closet, then pulled out a couple books that I had collected since I left my birth parents home. I grabbed the notebook that I kept, and looked for a place to hide it. I ended up going with the general place, under my mattress.

I flashed forward again. This time I was meeting my new dad.

"Abigail." He said, "nice name." His voice was gruff. He took a swig of the bottle of beer he was holding.

"Thanks." I smiled. I just sat on the couch next to him, neither of us saying anything. I began to get worried when he finished his third bottle.

"Get me another Melissa." He said, looking at me.

"Uh, Mr. Walter, I uh, I don't know where it is."
I said.

"Get me another." When he said that he flung the empty bottle at my head. It smashed against my forehead, the blood started to drip into my eye, and in that moment I realized this family wasn't going to be any different.

Anthony's POV

I fumbled a bit with the lock on Lins dressing room door, I was supposed to be checking up on her. I finally got the door opened, and stepped inside carefully.

The room was warm, she was definitely very sick. I peeked through the curtain Groff set up when he was in the show, to see her on Lins couch. She was curled over on her left side, under a blanket. She was shaking, shivering. I walked over to the bed to fix the blanket on her, before I even touched the fabric she flipped over quickly.

"I don't know... Beer... I'm sorry... Please." She whimpered out bits and pieces of a sentence.

"Kid, wake up, you're dreaming." I said, I was told not to wake her, but, she gets nightmares.

"Please... Dad." As soon as she said dad her body jolted to the side kind of like she was kicked.

"Abigail." I yelled, grabbing her waist, and pulling her up. Her eyes opened groggily.

"Anthony?" She asked, her voice raspy.

"I was supposed to check up on you. You were dreaming." I said, sitting down on her bed. "If you don't mind my asking, what about?"

"It was like, a flashback, to when I first moved in with the Walters."

"I'm sorry babe." I said, wrapping my arms around her warm frail body. "I'm sorry."

Abi's POV

The rest of the day went by smoothly, no one batted an eye when I refused food. I just said that I couldn't stomach it right now, and no one questioned it.

"Mija, vamanos." Lin said swinging his backpack on. I stood up from bed, and slipped my slipper boots on. "Niñita, you okay?" Lin asked leading me towards the stage door.

"Yeah. I'm nervous, that's all." I looked up at him.

"I know. I know." He wrapped his arm tightly around my waist. "I'll try and make this quick." He opened the door, to the mass of screaming fans. He signed playbills and photos and books and shirts, never once letting his arm leave my waist. He finally escaped the barricades and called us a cab.

•••

Hola. To those who stayed up for this: I love you. You're the best. Seriously. Slay.

11:54 pm

Thanks for reading!

- Abi