Short, but it doesn't feel right to me to change it. I've been meaning to write this for a while now, so I'm glad to have finally got there. Set just after Spencer watched the video.

She stared blindly at the screen as the video once again concluded, her sister's voice fading into the silence.

"I love you."

They'd said it all the time when they were kids and hadn't really known what it meant, but it had been years. Years of conflict and resentment. Years where their entire relationship had been based on a deep hostility that neither of them, as smart as they were, really understood. Spencer was so used to seeing Melissa as her enemy, that she had completely disregarded their familial link. That connection that would always bind them together.

She reached up, wiping the tears from her eyes as she pressed play on the video again, her breath catching as the confession repeated. Her sister had killed someone. For her. The sister that she had put so much energy into hating, that she had treated so awfully over the past couple of years, had risked everything to protect her.

"I'm sorry." She whispered, the room once again falling into silence.

And she was. If she hadn't have behaved the way she had that summer, if she hadn't been taking the drugs, if she had communicated with her sister instead of argued about things that didn't really matter, then maybe Melissa would have known it wasn't her. Maybe then she wouldn't have done what she had. Maybe then she wouldn't be living with the guilt of unknowingly taking someone else's life.

If she had taken just one moment to step back, and realise that her sister was still the same person she always had been, maybe things would have been different between them. Maybe things would never have gotten so messy, and they'd still be the kind of sisters that helped each other with speeches and shopped together.

She looked up as the door opened, and watched as her mother breezed by, barely acknowledging her as she quickly made an excuse and headed up the stairs.

Her mother.

Wasn't it her job to protect her kids? Spencer couldn't recall ever really feeling protected by her parents prior to Alison's disappearance. She'd learned when she was quite young that her family was different to others. That her parents weren't like her friends parents. She never really went to them for help, she went to... Melissa.

"Melissa?"

"Yes."

"My legs hurt."

"Did you fall over?"

Spencer nodded, pulling up the leg of her trousers to show her sister the bruise that had formed. "It hurts."

"Did you fall backwards?" Melissa stood up, heading over to the kitchen. "Because it looks like someone hit you with a jump rope."

"Don't tell Mommy."

She opened the freezer pulling out some ice before wrapping it in a towel. "Mom could sort it out, you know."

"She has to work."

"Okay, I won't tell her." She watched as Melissa headed back over to her, handing her the ice. "Put this where it hurts, it usually helps."

Spencer pulled up the other leg, following her sister's instructions and placing the ice over the bruises.

"Spence, who was it?"

"Kendra."

"Kendra? Isn't she two grades above you?"

"She doesn't like me."

"Why not?"

"I don't know."

"Don't worry about her, okay?" Melissa decided. "I'll sort it."

That day was as clear to her now as it had been then, and she'd never forget the look on her mother's face when she was called into the school because Melissa had been 'threatening the younger kids'. She'd stayed true to her word. She didn't tell Veronica why she had really done it, and Kendra had stayed away from Spencer from that day forward.

She wasn't sure what had gone wrong. Sure they had fights, all siblings did, but how things had got as bad as they did was a mystery to her. Despite their rivalry, they always had each other's backs. She guessed that hadn't changed for her sister when, for some reason, it had for her.

It had always been Melissa, when she was bullied, when she had nightmares, when she'd got stuck in a tree at the age of six. Their parents had missed almost everything back then. Everything but the conflict. They'd always liked to deal with that themselves.

She hit play again, this time careful to put her headphones in to avoid her mother hearing. She wasn't sure how much she knew.

"I thought I was protecting you... I love you."

She hesitated as the video ended, before pulling out the headphones and picking up her cell, dialling her sister's number, and patiently waiting for a response.

"You're reached Melissa Hastings. Sorry I can't pick up right now, leave a message and I'll get back to you."

Her words were simple, but she knew that her short message may be the most important thing she had said in a while.

"I love you too."