The silence was almost unbearable as they drove home. It was almost three o'clock in the morning and there was nothing Nick wanted to do more than get to bed and fall asleep.

Beside her the two siblings had already fallen asleep, as was Liz, who was snoring softly in the front seat. Only Ed was still awake, along with her, for he was driving the car.

Nick glanced up, her eyes catching Ed's in the rear view mirror. Their eyes stayed locked for a moment before she averted them, her lower lip starting to tremble slightly as she fixed her gaze back at the picture Will gave her that was in her lap.

She had been staring at it for so long she couldn't even think about it anymore, at this point she just wanted one of Ed's hugs, to cry her eyes out and to let go of all of these thought and thing she wanted to say to him.

"Ed, I..." She started, her voice trailing off as she couldn't get any words out of her mouth. So many things went through her head, but she had a hard time grabbing the silver lining.

Their eyes met again the the mirror. "It's okay, we can talk when we've gotten a moment to collect our thoughts." He said, giving her a reassuring smile.

Nick held his gaze, giving him back an almost tearful smile as she felt her chest tighten and her heart skipping beats. "Why do you care so much?" She asked.

"Because you're family."

"But-..."

"For all of us to completely trust you again is going to take a little while," He started, cutting her sentence short. "But we never stopped loving you." He said earnestly.

Nick shook her head lightly, tears clouding her vision. "But there's so much you don't know, about me, about the things I did." Her lower lip quivered as she spoke and she tried her best to stop the sob forcing it's way up her throat.

Ed seemed to think for a moment. "Well.. you can tell us, whenever you're ready, whatever you feel like telling us, okay?"

She nodded a bit in understanding of his words. Ed's words has a way of soothing her, making her feel more okay. The guilt was still nagging at her, but she felt a bit less pressured.

The rest of the ride home continued in silence, as Nick was about to fall asleep when the drove into their drive way.

She felt Molly stirring awake beside her and within no time the rest of the family had woken up and started pouring out of the car.

Nick opened the back of the car to grab her bags. When she closed it again she saw Ed standing at the door, waiting for her so he could lock up the car, she thought. But when started walking to the entrance he stayed.

Only when she was close enough he opened his arm for her to wrap her into a hug.

She clung tightly to him for a moment, a wave of relaxation went over her as she realised that this was fine, or at least it was all going to be. "Thank you so much." She said.

Just a quick (took me like multiple hours to write because procastination) draft. No idea if im going to polish this up or continue this. I just really had to get this out of my head for now.