Hi! Recently got obsessed with this show. Couldn't get this idea out of my mind. Hopefully you enjoy it. Sorry about editing, I'll try my best to stay on top of it.

Chapter One - In the Morning

"Brother, o brother

What have I become?

In the morning I'll be with you

And if not then in the morning I'll be gone…"

- Branches

"Heya buddy, how you holding up?" Lili asked, her light green eyes turning to the passenger side of her parked sky blue beat up VW bug. It was a convertible and even though it was early September it had been hot as hell, despite that fact Lili had been over ruled about having the top down. She was aware of the sweat trickling down her neck, she had messily tied her wavy, long brown hair up in a bun and had put down all the windows she could but it wasn't much use. The car wasn't exactly the best model for air circulation.

She could still remember the day she had bought the thing two years ago. Her mother had warned her about keeping a lighter coloured car clean, but even with the dusting of brown perpetually covering the vehicle, Lili couldn't help but be proud. She had scraped together enough money working at the diner after school to buy the VW by the time she turned fifteen.

Heck! She had even managed to insure the beater for a whole year as well, before the money had to go elsewhere. She could still remember, her mom had been proud too regardless of where the money had been going.

'Had been...' a pang of sadness overwhelmed Lili for the briefest of moments before she shoved it back deep down inside herself. So much had happened since then that Lili could hardly remember what the girl she had been was like.

"There is no Denny's here." Lili was pulled out of her thoughts by the sound of her elder brother's voice. He hadn't replied to her question, but it was good enough for her.

"It doesn't look like it, Theo." She watched her brother carefully, his shoulders were hunched and he was distractedly looking down at one of the many piled up postcards in his lap. Though his voice had been calm, Lili could tell he was agitated. Years of watching and honing in on his tells had basically made her an expert in the field of body language. And right now her brother's was telling her that he was trying very hard to remember the rules and appropriate behaviours for dealing with things that did not go his way. She could help but beam at his progress.

"No Denny's." He repeated his voice a little more strained, his shaggy black hair falling further into his blue eyes as he leaned forward.

"Hey, Teddy." Lili spoke softly, desperately wanting to reach out and comfort him, but resisting the urge as she had learned to do over the years. She waited patiently for him to make eye contact, knowing what was expected of him the 20 year old eventually did. Lili smiled, each time he met her gaze she was reminded of how far he had come, "You remember what we discussed?"

He nodded his hands gripping his postcards. They were his tie to the familiar. Unconsciously Lili's fingers went up to the silver chain holding her mother's ring under her loose tank top. It was her own tie to the familiar.

"One small thing at a time..." he mumbled, his gaze nervously lifting to look outside.

Peeling a bit of the chain away from her sticky skin Lili's light eyes followed her brother's out to the the line of parked cars before her on this crowded street.

'Are small towns always so bustly?' she asked herself, with a resigned sigh.

"All right, I guess I'd better get some snacks. Who knows what state that place'll be in or if we'll have to stay at motel..."

"It's almost 5, Lilo." Her brother commented as though he had not heard her, he was looking at his postcards again.

"I know buddy." She sighed.

In away it was a blessing, this was a behaviour which actually helped to keep him in good shape physically and was positive for his overall mental health. To look at him one wouldn't even know that he was on the Autism Spectrum. 'To look...'

"At 5, I run. First to the park then..."

"We're not in Philadelphia anymore, Theodore." Lili let her weary head fall back against her seat.

"... then I go to..."

"Teddy, can you repeat what I said please?"

"We're not Philadelphia anymore" he responded coolly, his eyes never leaving the image he was examining. "I don't see why I can't run though."

"We don't know this area."

"I need to run at 5." He repeated simply.

Huffing out a breath, Lili relented, "Ok, we'll see once we get there. How about that?"

Turning his head to stare at her contemplatively, Theo replied, "Agreed," with a nod, before going back to his study and adding, "Don't forget my vanilla pudding." Indicating he had no desire to join her in the store.

Smiling with small shake of her head, Lili opened the driver side door. "Wouldn't dream of it." The bare skin of her skirt clad legs clung to the vinyl seat as she moved to step out of the car, "I'll be right back, just stay here buddy."

"It's a plan Stan." He answered, making her smile again.

She recalled how long it took for him to accept that 'Stan' wasn't a specific person. He used that saying a lot now, just as he used most of the skills that their mother had drilled into him to act as normal as possible.

'Normal...' Lili scoffed to herself, entering the relatively small grocery store. A blast of air conditioning hit her, causing goosebumps to pop up on her skin. Looking down at her chest, she groaned. 'Should have worn a thicker bra...' she considered going back to the car for a sweater. She wasn't really comfortable being exposed at all, even the clothes she was wearing now were a bit revealing for her. But it had been so hot that she couldn't handle anything more on her body. 'Stupid AC...' she sourly thought, crossing one of her arms over her chest and grabbing a shopping basket with the other.

It didn't take long to find what she needed, living with Theo gave her a pretty standard list of things to buy that didn't need cooking. She was relieved to see that prices weren't too bad either... still though, Lili chanted internally as she watched the debit machine to process her payment, 'Please, please, please...' impatiently waiting for the approved message to come up. Letting go of a breath when it finally did, Lili gathered up her bags and moved towards the door. She moved quickly, as with her hands full she could no longer cross her arms.

Approaching her car Lili squinted, at first sure that it was simply a trick of the light on the windshield. But as she got closer she saw that the passenger side seat was indeed empty.

Her stomach twisted, she dropped the groceries on the sidewalk by the abandoned car. It was fairly typical for him to wander around when things caught his eye. He was much better about it now than he had been as a child, but from time to time he'd still forget to let someone know he was heading off somewhere. In short Lili was used to it, but as she scanned around the street and couldn't see him anywhere, the panic in her began to rise. This was a new place, he didn't know any landmarks and who knew where and when he could be triggered with her too far away to help.

Squeezing her eyes closed Lili tried to shake out the familiar high pitched buzzing noise that had started in her head. Just as she was about to begin shouting for him when another, decidedly more rough, voice beat her to yelling.

"I TOLD YOU TO GET AWAY FROM MY CAR, RETARD!"

Without a second thought Lili followed the angry voice up the road a few car spaces.

"I-I-I..." there he was, her big brother. He stood 6 feet tall but looked so much smaller especially with his shoulders curling in and his eyes looking away. Lili could see that he was twitching his head repetitively. He hadn't ever responded well to angry yelling, she was thankful that he hadn't hit himself yet, but he was getting there. Getting there thanks to some pompous looking asshole standing next to a cherry red vintage convertible that daddy must have flipped the bill for.

Lili felt the rage simmering inside of her, before she knew it she was standing defensively in front of her brother.

"What did you just say to him?" She demanded, her hands on her hips and her chin jutting forward as she glared up at the stranger.

She hadn't realized this guy was quite so tall, but at the moment Lili couldn't care less.

It took a second for the surprise to wear off and his buggy eyes to catch up to what was happening, but once they did she could see a sense of entitled defiance in them. Before he even opened his mouth, she knew that an apology was the furthest thing from this guy's mind. Leaning in a little to be level with her 5' 5'' height he repeated slowly, quietly and with his fat lips barely moving. "I said 'get away from my car, retard'."

The way he was looking at her was as though he was practically daring her to do something.

"Lilo..." her brother's voice cut in from behind her. Theo had never been one for confrontations, unless it involved one of his routines and even then it was usually involuntary. In truth she wasn't a fan of them either, but this was a special circumstance.

"Lilo." The aggravating boy before her mocked in saccharine voice as he straightened out to his full height, his cold blue eyes darting down to her chest with a smug smirk on his face.

Crossing her arms Lili loudly began to speak to the imperious guy. "Listen, you arrogant prick, you better apologize to him right now, or..."

"Or?" A new voice, tinged with a thick British accent, entered the scene. Lili shifted her light gaze to her left to see an elegant dark haired woman, dressed all in white approaching them. The young girl could feel the woman's dark eyes scanning over her, sizing her up and ultimately deeming both she and her brother to be less than. "May I ask what's going on here Roman?" The older woman asked the jerk.

"Nothing mom. I got it." The boy huffed. The woman skeptically took another barely veiled, repulsed look at Lili.

This time Lili felt the urge to bite back, so she did. "That's right mommy," she snapped, returning her burning green glower to the tall kid "... your little boy's got it all handled." Lili quipped.

Judging by the sneer the boy gave her, Lili knew that she had been correct in guessing that this guy didn't like being referred to as a kid. Lili went on to address the woman, though she couldn't make her ivy eyes move off of the tall prick in front of her. She wanted him to be burned by the full weight of what she had to say.

"And although I imagine it must be hard raising someone with his own head shoved so far up his ass, I'd suggest you teach him some manners, even us lowly folk know how to use those. Come on Theo." Lili quickly hooked her pinky finger on to her brother's when she turned on her heel. Thankfully he understood that it was time to go and he followed her as she stormed off. Even though it was only a small amount of touching, there was always a 50/50 chance he could react badly.

"I beg your par..." the woman had started to chortle behind them.

"Actually I beg yours." Lili spoke over her shoulder without breaking her stride.

After heavy pause of nothing but the shuffling sound of walking, her brother's timid voice piped up "Lilo..."

"Keep walking Theo," she muttered under her breath, only for her brother to hear.

"Everyone's staring."

"Let them." She stated, unable to focus on anything other than getting she and her brother out of there as fast as possible.

As he got into the car, Lili picked up the groceries where she had dropped them. Shoving them into the backseat, she wasted no time starting her car and pulling out of the parking space. As she drove up the street she resisted the pull to look to her right as she passed the cherry red car. She didn't need to see, she could feel two pairs of scorching eyes following her well after she had driven past them.

"Why'd you do that Liliana?" She could see Theo's dark blue eyes watching her out of the corner of her eye. He wanted to be serious so he used her full name like their mother had done so many times before.

"Why'd you think Theodore?" The young girl puffed out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding.

"Because you love me and I don't deserve to be hurt," he parroted the words that she had said so often while they were growing up. She may have changed throughout the years but that sentiment remained the same deep inside of her, no matter what. She saw his knee move up and down a remnant of 'if you're happy and you know it stomp your feet...' she knew it made him feel good to have her be there for him, nevertheless he went on, "Mom said that we shouldn't pick fights."

Lili felt a twinge of remorse for her behaviours. She had been short and rude with the woman, and with the boy... with the boy she had met fire with fire which was never a good way to solve anything, no matter if the prick had it coming to him or not.

"I know what Mom said. And you know I'm not a fan of scenes and being noticed. It's just I can't handle... I don't like it when..." she wanted to say that she hated it when he was scared, but scared was different to hurt and she knew that he wouldn't take it well, so instead she asked, "what were you doing there anyway?" She had been in such a rage it was all a blur now, she could hardly remember how it had all come to happen.

"Didn't you see the car, Lilo?"

Shaking her head she questioned, "Did you touch it?" though it didn't excuse the behaviour of the asshole, Lili wanted to know if her brother had done anything other than looking in order to provoke the guy.

"I was just looking up close. Didn't you see it, Lilo?" He asked once more.

Lili shook her head yet again, other than noting its colour and the fact that it was clearly a restored vintage car she hadn't really looked it over properly. Still, without any more information she knew precisely why her brother had gone over there. Next to postcards Theo was thoroughly enamoured with cars. He knew practically everything about them, except how to drive one.

"It was Jaguar XK 150 Drophead Coupe. 1957 I'd say. It was in mint condition..."

Lili couldn't help the grin that spread across her face, his enthusiasm was infectious as he carried on rambling. He kept on talking right through as they drove down a shady wooded road and neared the spot Lili's mapped out directions had told her to go to. Getting out of her car once she had stopped by the lonely mailbox that marked their destination, Lili peered around for the place she was meant to searching for.

'This must be it...' Lili tried not to look as deflated as she felt while her light eyes took in the sight before her. Her gaze had fallen down to the bottom of a series of steps on a steep hill leading past a muddy pond to a dilapidated looking white and blue shack covered in a thick layer of leaves.

Hearing the passenger side door to her car creak open, Lili spoke, "One thing at a time, buddy." She attempted to sound reassuring as she smiled over her shoulder at a worried looking Theo. "Guess getting down these stairs is first."

Making it down wasn't too bad, Theo didn't take too much time, only requiring three assurances of safety from Lili on the way down.

'Beggars can't be chosers...' she tried to make the best of it as she absorbed more of what she was seeing around her. But still, as Lili dug around in her purse for the key she had been given, she found herself praying that she had the wrong place.

'Don't fit. Don't fit. Don't fit. Don't...' she squeezed her eyes shut and let out a heavy exhale through her nose when the key slid into place in the door and easily turned the lock. "Damn..." she mumbled.

That sound of a rattly engine and the crunch of tires coming to a stop made Lili pivot away from the door before she could open it. There were two creaks then two slams as the car's doors were opened.

From this distance Lili could make out a dark haired boy and brown haired woman standing at the top of the stairs. "Can we help you?" The woman called, unmoving from her high perch.

"I don't know." Lili called back, stepping off the front steps of the residence and towards the steps leading up the hill. "Do you live here?" The pair at the top of the stairs began making their way down as well.

"Yeah." The boy replied this time, causing Lili to frown and look down at the key in her hand.

"I think I might be lost then..." she recalled the name on the mailbox, causing her to realize that she wasn't. "Except I don't think I am. This is where Vincent Rumancek used to live, right?"

The woman's brow furrowed as she reached the bottom of the steps, she looked between Lili and Theo. "Who are you again?"

"Hello, my name is Theodore!" Theo blurted out, charging towards the eclectically dressed woman with his hand held out. He had been taught to do so by their mother, but usually he wasn't so edgy. Travelling, moving, being yelled at, new people and places was a lot for him to handle. His anxiety had made him jumpy.

The boy who had previously been standing off to the side made a protective move towards the woman as Theo neared.

"No he's jus..." Lili had started to explain when the woman waved in a gesture for her young acquaintance to stay where he was and for Lili to relax.

"It's lovely to meet you Theodore," the woman smiled kindly, taking Theo's hand for what it was worth. As per usual he dropped her hand as soon as there was a little contact. "I'm Lynda and that..." she nodded over her shoulder "... is my son, Peter. Vince was my brother."

"Oh..." Clearing her throat and suddenly feeling anxious Lili replied "... well, I'm Liliana, and that's my older brother Theodore and um... Vince was our father."

The woman and boy looked at one another, both wearing the same dumbstruck expressions. The woman turned back to Lili, raising her arms with a humourous scoff before declaring, "Well, fuck me."

Hope you like it so far. Let me know what you think. I'd really appreciate any feedback. Thanks :)