Justin had always hated hospitals.

There was nothing good about them in his life, to begin with. He had lost everything he ever valued in his life in these places. He never understood why they called these people who work here good.

Everyone he had loved was lost to the ineptitude of the workers in a hospital.

But that was not on his mind right now.

He was more concerned with the girl who lay in the bed beside where he sat. Even in sleep, Gwen was easily the most beautiful being he knew. She looked so much like her old self now that she had been cleared of all that rubbish that was obscuring it.

The doctors had said it was lucky she had been brought to the hospital in time. The alternative of that was unfathomable to Justin so he had chosen to forget it as soon as the old man had spoken it.

It didn't matter much to him anyway. His flower was going to make a full recovery in a few days. All he had to do was to make sure no one was ever going to hurt her again.

He was still admiring his angel when his phone buzzed to life. He didn't need to look at the caller ID to know who would be calling him at this time. It was nearly nine in the evening after all.

"Where the hell are you?"

"Are you worried about me, Monica? I'm touched."

"You colossal idiot! If anything happens to Julia when I get back home I will tear you apart."

The line went dead the very moment he realized why the person on the other end was so upset with him. He had been so absorbed with Gwen that he had forgotten to handle his other responsibilities in life.

He had to leave his delicate flower in the hands of someone he was sure would care for her. Justin walked to the waiting room and his eyes scanned the area until he found the one he was sure would never leave Gwen's side.

"I need to get back home. You can stay here longer and make sure Gwen is ok right?"

"Of course. Don't worry about it."

Justin nodded his appreciation. It was a good thing he had paid enough attention to the blonde girl to make sure she would do anything for him. Right now he was sure she would not leave this hospital until he came back, no matter the time.

But that was at the back of his mind as he made his way home. Even without Monica's threat, he would have felt very terrible if their mother did something to Julia.

To his relief, the woman was not yet at home. That was both a blessing and a curse. It meant that the baby sitter had been there for more hours than her pay warranted.

"Oh, I don't mind. Juju is such a darling," the redhead baby sitter spoke as she rose from the couch that she and a seven-year-old girl were watching a mindless sitcom from.

Justin had to cover the extra hours from his own pocket as he thanked the girl again for her help. He was not so sure about this, but the look the girl always gave him when they parted ways at the door made him think she was here for more than just baby-sitting Julia.

"Yeeee! Justin's home!" Justin only had a moment to react when the child launched herself straight at him from the couch.

He had expressed so many times to the girl that her age and weight were contributing to that task being too demanding to his back.

"But you are strong! Strong like Superman!"

Justin sighed at the careless enthusiasm the girl had and sat her back down on the couch. All seven years of experience he had of dealing with Julia demanded that her enthusiasm be curbed before it reached critical levels.

"How was school today?"

"Nothing much happened. Jessica Peirce and I built a sand castle!"

"And did you eat already?"

"Uh-huh. Brandy already made supper. There's some for you, Monica and Mommy in the oven."

Justin didn't want to tell her that no one would be eating that food. He was in no mood for any. Monica would be working till tomorrow and that woman that Julia called their mother would be too incoherent to ever pass food down her mouth when she came back to the house.

"Well, then up to bed."

It took him almost a full hour to get the girl in bed. She always viewed sleeping time as unnecessary when either Justin or Monica was home. In truth, the girl never saw any of her family that much.

Justin was at school. Monica was at work.

And Jenna was out drinking somewhere.

"But I wanna stay up with you?" Julia whined for the umpteenth time as Justin was tucking her in with her favorite stuffed bear, Jolly.

"Maybe another day, Juju. Get some sleep now."

"I'm not even tired." Justin would have believed it if she had not tried and failed to stifle a yawn. It looked like all the day's running about was finally catching up to her.

"I know. But if you want to be a princess like Sleeping Beauty, you need to sleep?"

"Monica never sleeps."

"And look at how she turned out."

The two laughed silently at Justin's humor. It was the only thing that Justin found Monica good for in his life.

"Does Mommy sleep?"

Justin didn't know how to maneuver through these waters. Every time his small sister brought up Jenna, it only filled his mind with fury. And that was the last thing he wanted to show the girl who had already been through so much at her age.

"I'll ask her as soon as she gets home. Now tuck in, princess. You need your beauty sleep."

He kissed her goodnight and left her. He was sure that it wouldn't be long before she fell asleep. The child never slept without one of her family members in the house.

Family members, Justin marveled at the thought as he went to grab the Mac and cheese in the oven. He was no more related to Julia and Monica than a cat was to a dog.

But he did have a family once. He had a father who loved him immensely and a mother who cared for him to the ends of this world. His younger brother and sister he cherished with everything his heart had to offer.
And they were all taken from him when he was only six years old.

That accident was the worst thing to ever happen to him. They had been coming from a night out as a family. Just a regular day in their lives. He was arguing about something with his siblings that years and fear of the incident had obscured from his memory.

But he could never forget the headlights that flashed to his left side and the car plunging down the river. There were five people in the car. But only he was saved by the hospital. The rest of his family had too much damage to recover from. What kind of a person tells that to a six-year-old?

Monsters.

That's what Justin believed. The next few years would find him in an orphanage. That was where he met with Monica. To say that they hated each other would be an understatement. They constantly bickered over everything. And when words failed to fully express their feelings for each other, they resorted to fists.

It didn't help Justin that Monica was bigger and taller than him. He would suffer a beating by her hands almost every week before the Sisters were done with the troublesome pair.

That was when the two met Jenna and her husband. At the time, Jenna was not this deplorable woman Justin now knew. She had enough love in her heart to take the two kids off the streets and care for them. They had Julia shortly afterward and life was looking up for Justin.

That was until Jenna's husband passed away.

Everything changed. Jenna was never home anymore and when she was, it was to yell to them all. Monica was colder to Justin than ever before. It seemed the only reason she never left the house once she had turned eighteen was because of Julia.

Julia was the glue that held everything together in this house. Justin didn't know what he would have done without the young girl. She was the only person he had loved that hadn't left him. The one that he was determined to protect from all evils of this world.

Most of his peers knew nothing about his life outside school. How could they when he had made it a mission to never make it known? Most of the girls called his mysterious nature attractive and alluring. He saw it as a means of convenience so he could live his life in peace.

He was just about finished with his dinner when he heard the familiar sound of the front door being unlocked. He glanced at the clock and a puzzled look crossed his face. The two occupants not in this house would never be seen in it if it was not in the wee hours of the morning.

But with the absence of loud banging sounds and a strong smell of liquor in the air, he deduced that Monica was back long before the girl walked into the kitchen.

Monica looked nothing like her age of twenty-three. She was always burdened with problems that many girls her age would never consider relevant. Right now she was still in her waitress uniform, her hands holding grocery bags and her handbag slung awkwardly across her shoulder.

She glanced Justin's way and flared her nostrils before she set her luggage on the counter. Justin had known Monica for years. Whenever she did that, it meant an argument was about to ensue.

"Any left?"

He stared at her for a long while until he was sure that she wasn't being rhetorical. That was when he motioned to the oven and the girl went about serving herself some of the food. Justin heard Monica curse under her breath and he immediately knew why. He had done the very same thing when he came to eat the concoction mostly made of just cheese.

"Looks like Julia got to her."

"Idiot," Monica slung her favorite cursing at no one in particular as she went about scooping the excess cheese into a bowl and placing it in the fridge. That was food that would be needed when money became hard to find.

"You're home early."

"Unlike some of us."

"You need to relax more in your life, Monica."

"Where were you?"

"Ok. I'm really, really sorry."

The girl rolled her eyes and went back to her meal. Justin knew it was not wise to antagonize the girl. She was exhausted from her work. She'd get no more than six hours of sleep before she would need to be up again. Maybe that was the reason she was always grumpy.

"Listen, idiot. I don't care what you do with your life outside this house. But if your lifestyle interferes with Julia's wellbeing, then you'd better find somewhere else to go."

Justin felt his anger simmer behind his composure. Monica really knew how to push his buttons well. As if he would ever do anything to put Julia in any kind of harm.

"Now, I'll ask you again... where were you?"

"Fine... I'll tell you," Justin spoke and got up from the counter to place his plate in the sink, "As soon as you tell me why you're home early."

There would never be a moment in both their lives that was not a competition of dominance. They both eyed each other for a long while before Monica flared her nose and went back to her plate. Justin knew he was never going to get a reply from her. She was more tightly wound than he was when it came to commitments. They lied to each other constantly. That would never have been a problem if the two didn't know each other very well.

"I got fired."

Not even as children had Monica ever admitted to being inferior in anything she did. Being vulnerable was a weakness that she was not in a position to show as a foster child. Justin knew this to be true because he had been through that hell with her.

"What are we going to do?"

"I'm going to sleep," Monica spoke as she stood to deposit her plate in the sink, "you are going to get your ass back to school tomorrow."

The temper Justin had been keeping in check since he spoke to his foster sister exploded. He could never understand why the girl denied him the right to contribute to their livelihood. He knew practically everything there was to teach in school. There were way more important things he could have been doing to earn money instead of sitting in an institution that held nothing of benefit to Julia's life.

"I'm not going back there."

Monica indulged in many of Justin's complaints. She had clearly told him that he would never follow the life of servitude she was in just to make ends meet. That was a life she would wish on no one, not even Justin.

"Not this again. I am too tired to indulge your stupidity tonight."

"Why do you keep making me go to that stupid place and learn things that you know I am already good at?"

Monica turned back around to stare at the emotional teenager. It irked her more than anything to see how similar she and this brat were. How even with the life they were living in, he still did not understand why she made sure that both he and Julia never failed to study. She knew that Justin was a brilliant kid. But he was still a mask who knew nothing about how the real world worked.

"If you don't even know the answer to that then there's no use arguing about it with you."