Dead in the Water

(Amanda's POV)

I opened the door to see my sister standing there as I knew she was. "You wouldn't believe what happened to me before I got here." She replied as she walked into my apartment.

"Oh, uh, I didn't know that you were expecting company." She said awkwardly when she saw Pete sitting on the couch.

"I asked both you and him here." I replied sitting down in a chair.

"Oh." She said sitting in a chair across from Pete.

"What happened to you before you got here?" I asked curiously.

"Well, I smelt something. It was a familiar scent. It was a cologne that..." She trailed off as I looked at Pete who recognized that she was talking about Micah.

"What did you do?" I asked.

"Nothing. I grabbed a cab and looked around but saw nothing. Whoever it was that was wearing that old cologne was far enough away from me for me to tell if it was a vampire or not. It was probably just a regular guy who happened to like that cologne. I mean I was in the entertainment district so there were lots of people out on dates." She said trying not to look at Pete because she felt awkward.

"Amanda, maybe you should..." Pete began to say.

"Elissa, I brought both you and Pete here to talk. I think you both need to talk about what happened and decide if you two want to stay together and work through your problems or just move on with your lives. Personally, I hope that you two work through them." I said eyeing Pete.

"Did you know she was going to do this?" Elissa said finally speaking to Pete.

"No. I didn't know until I arrived and she told me." Pete said. All of the care and concern he had towards Elissa was there. I could see it in his eyes.

"Pete, why don't you start with what is on your mind." I said hoping he would spill everything he told me in that hospital room the other night to Elissa.

"I don't even know where to begin." He said fidgeting.

"Pete, it is ok if you don't want to see me again. I accept it. Maybe I should just go." Elissa said getting up.

"No!" I yelled as they both jumped at my outburst.

"Elissa, as messed up as we are right now, I still love you. It really broke my heart seeing you lying there naked in Sisky's arms. I want to forgive you but..." He said before I interrupted him.

"Ahem." I said looking at Pete.

"I want to forgive you but I am afraid. How do I know that you won't do this again? Someone once told me that me and you are connected. Right now, we are not broken but cracked." He grinned a bit looking at me.

"I know that what I did was wrong. I do love you Pete. I really do. I want to fix this but I don't know how. I do know that I want to be better. You have helped me in being better. I just slipped which can never happen again. I know it is going to take awhile for you to trust me again and I want more than anything for you to regain that in me. I can't lose you. I have lost so much. I can say from all of this that even if I do lose you, I think I have finally found myself and who I want to be. I no longer want to live in my sister's shadow." Elissa said smiling at me as she remembered our heart to heart the other night.

"I want you in my life." Pete said.

"I want to be in your life." She said.

"Can we start over?" Pete asked.

"I would love that!" She said getting up as Pete did.

Both of them hugged each other for a long time. There was much more talking that needed to be done but that was between the two of them. My job was complete. Well, it was almost. Pete just needed to keep Elissa away from Micah.

"You know that I will always be here for you. With Ian in town, we are stronger together then alone." He said.

"I wasn't planning on running away this time from my problems." Elissa smiled. "This time, I want to face them head on." She said.