Lisa hadn't noticed the nurse leaning on the desk watching her until she spoke. "She's awake if you want to go in." She tilted her head in the direction of the door Lisa kept staring at each time she pa.s.sed and grinned. "Contrary to popular belief, she really doesn't bite."

Lisa had jumped at the sound of the nurse's voice. "Uh, thanks." She finally took a deep breath, knocked on the closed door and entered.

Raven hit the pause b.u.t.ton for the game she was currently engaged in and Kris saved the file that she was working on. Both turned their attention to the fidgeting young woman but neither broke the strained silence that was growing.

"Um, can we talk?" Lisa said nervously. She watched the two women look at each other. "I promise to behave." She added looking at Kris who was definitely a lot more intimidating than she looked.

Raven stifled the grin that threatened to spread across her face as she watched her protector settle back into her chair. Kris made it clear that she obviously had no intention of leaving her companion unprotected. "Sure." Raven finally turned her attention to her sister.

"First of all I'd like to thank you." Lisa noticed she caught Kris by surprise. "Your questions made me remember things that I had conveniently forgotten. And I owe you an apology." She turned to her sister. "I normally don't let others make up my mind about someone for me. I usually wait to hear them out first then decide."

Kris hadn't told Raven what she had said to Lisa after she had pulled her from the room that day. Lisa explained to her sister what Kris had said that made her question the story she had been told by Philip and their mother all those years ago. She also told them of her plan. "If it was going to work, I think it would have by now." She sighed disappointedly.

"Lisa, I appreciate the thought but it wouldn't make any difference whether he admitted it or not, mother's not going to change her opinion of me. And as far as Philip goes, he knows he lied and has to live with the guilt."

"But I don't think he feels guilty at all and that's the problem, he should. Wait." She stopped Raven from interrupting. "Neither one of you are responsible for Derek's death. But he should've taken responsibility for those people being in the house. He should have told the truth." She paused to gather her thoughts. "I don't know what happened to you after you left home for good and I don't know, maybe you would've left anyway, I remember now that mother never treated you like the rest of us. I remember being mad at you for leaving and I think that made it easier for me to believe them." Her far away gaze returned to the present and she focused on the two women. "It may not make her change her opinion, but she will hear the truth and she will hear it from Philip." Lisa stated positively.

Raven felt some of the weight that she had been carrying around for the past twelve years disappear. "What if I said that having you believe me and having a chance for us to be sisters again was enough for me?"

"I don't know, Taz. I think she might be as stubborn as another Chandler I know." Kris shook her head. "I don't think I'd cross her if I were you." Kris could tell that having the truth come out was very important to Lisa.

Raven crossed her arms over her chest and rolled her eyes dramatically when Lisa started laughing. "You do know that in a few months time you have totally ruined the reputation it took me ten years to build?" The older woman pouted.

"Yes I do know that." Kris pinched Raven's cheek. "And that's a cute little pout but it doesn't work with me." Kris lied. She knew that cute little pout worked every time.

By this time, Lisa was laughing so hard she almost fell out of the chair she had collapsed into a few minutes ago. "Are...are you two always...like this?" She managed to ask between taking large gulps of air. "I haven't laughed this hard in a long time." She added once she'd caught her breath.

Raven thought. "Actually, I'd never been like this until I met Kris." She smiled at her partner. "She seems to bring out the best in me."

After a few minutes of comfortable silence, Lisa asked her sister what she'd been wondering about for the past two days. "What happened after you left? Where'd you go? And how did you end up working for the CIA?" She sat forward in her chair and rested her forearms on her knees.

"Um." Raven knew that was bound to come up and she also knew she would eventually tell her sister, but not today. "That is a long and serious story. Better left for a time when we won't be interrupted." She smiled at Lisa. "I'd rather hear about you." Raven asked even though she had secretly inquired about her sister when she was in school. What Lisa had never found out about and Raven didn't see any reason to bring it up, was that Raven had paid for her sister's schooling by letting her think she had won a scholarship from the university.

"Well that'll be pretty boring but okay." She sat back in her chair and thought about where to start. She told them about school and her friends. She blushed when she mentioned Andy. Raven and Kris glanced at each other knowingly. They talked about books and she and Kris talked about some of the movies they liked. Lisa was fascinated by the fact that Kris had sold some of her short stories and volunteered to be her guinea pig if she ever needed someone to proof her work.

"I guess I'd better go. They'll be bringing your dinner soon." She could tell that her sister was tired and probably missed her afternoon nap, not that the stubborn woman would admit to it.

Kris could also tell that Raven was tired but knew she didn't want Lisa to leave. "She gets to go home tomorrow. Why don't you stop by and have dinner with us? You could ask Andy, too." She suggested and received a smile from Raven for thinking of it. "Unless the two of you have plans for New Years Eve."

"I'd like to have dinner but Andy has to work a longer shift because of the holiday. He was going to stop by the apartment after work but we weren't going out or anything. I'll ask him if he could just stop by your place instead if that's okay?" Lisa explained. "I'd really like to spend more time getting to know my sister again."

"That sounds good. You could come by any time after work." Raven said.

"I'll write down the directions." Kris grabbed her purse looking for pen and paper.

"I'll give them to Andy and I'll take a bus or cab. I don't have a car." She explained.

"Here, give me your address and I'll pick you up." Kris suggested. "It's too far out to take a cab and I don't know if it's on a bus route or not."

Lisa finally agreed after Kris a.s.sured her it wouldn't be any trouble. She left the hospital with a smile on her face. She was in an especially good mood for a Thursday night. She had called her mother earlier and begged off dinner that night. She wasn't about to sit at the same table with Philip and pretend that everything was okay. She knew she would have to find a way to force him to come clean or she would have to invent a lot more excuses to avoid him. 'Of course that wouldn't be a bad thing.' She thought.

Chapter Twenty-One:.

Kris and Lisa completed their circuit and returned to the living room to find that Raven was still obediently stretched out on the couch. Kris had threatened her with sending her to her room if she moved while she was showing Lisa the house.

"This is a great place." Lisa stated as she stood by the large stone fireplace warming her hands. "Surrounded by all this land with the trees and the lake makes it seem like a secluded getaway." She rubbed her hands together and turned around to face them. "And I absolutely love this fireplace. It reminds me of the one at the ski lodge I visited."

"If you remember the fireplace so fondly, I'm betting you didn't do much skiing." Kris commented.

Lisa laughed. "That would be a safe bet."

"Okay, tell us the story." Raven grinned. "With that expression, it's bound to be a good one."

"Some friends were going skiing one weekend during Christmas break a couple of years ago and I conned them into taking me with them and teaching me. They had been talking about skiing for months and made it sound so great. You know, the feeling of flying down the slopes in the great outdoors, the crisp cool air flowing past you, the togetherness at the end of the day when you got to cuddle with your girlfriend or boyfriend. Well, I didn't have a boyfriend but I thought all that other stuff sounded fantastic so I begged and pleaded until they gave in." She paused to take a swallow of the hot cocoa that Kris had made for them. "Anyway, we get up to the resort about mid-morning and they think a lesson or two before lunch and by that afternoon I'd be on the beginner hill. Well, I get all the equipment on, skis, gloves, goggles, boots, grab my poles and carefully stand up." Lisa started laughing again. "I was on a slight slope and started moving forward when I stood. I moved a couple of inches before landing flat on my face in a snow bank."

"Oh no. Were you hurt?" Kris tried to ask without laughing but was only partially successful.

"No." Lisa a.s.sured them. "But I was so bundled up and had on all that stuff that I couldn't get up. It never occurred to me to reach back and release the skis, so I flopped around like a dying fish trying to roll over and sit up. And by this time everyone had gathered around and knew I wasn't hurt and they were laughing so hard they couldn't help me." Lisa paused to catch her breath. "Needless to say, I spent the rest of the time in the lodge in front of the fire drinking hot cocoa." She dried her eyes. "But I had a great time."

Kris and Lisa traded stories while Raven listened and dozed off periodically. Kris excused herself after a while to make sure she had everything ready for dinner. She really just wanted to give Raven and Lisa a chance to spend some time together.

"Anything I can do to help?" Lisa asked upon entering the kitchen. "I hate to just freeload and I'm fairly good in the kitchen."

"The salad is made, I've got the lasagna ready to put in the oven, and Granny is bringing the homemade Italian, piping hot just out of the oven, bread." She turned and opened the refrigerator door. "And the chocolate mousse is still here, by the hardest. I found out that your sister loves the stuff." She offered as an explanation. "Actually I do too." She grinned and turned back around. "I was just about to see if anyone wanted some hot apple cider."

"Raven's asleep. I thought she would rest better if I wasn't sitting in there staring at her." Lisa sat down at the table when Kris poured them some cider.

Kris knew something was bothering her by the way she nervously folded then straightened her napkin. She placed her hand over Lisa's, stopping the fidgeting and waited until she looked up. "What's wrong?" She asked, although she thought she had an idea.

Lisa looked into green eyes that overwhelmed her with their maturity, warmth and kindness. She had to remind herself that Kris was a few years younger than she was. "I remember reading her chart...Raven's chart that first morning before I knew who she was. I remember wondering if the patient would even live through my shift." She paused and stared at the tabletop without really seeing it. "What if I had said those horrible things to her and she...she died thinking that I hated her?" She looked at Kris with a regretful almost terrified look in her eyes.

Kris was aware of the fact that Lisa was practically pleading with her to say it was all right and that she could forgive herself. "Lisa, I won't lie to you. What you said hurt your sister, badly, but she knew what stories and lies you had been told all your life. What's important now is that the two of you put the past behind you and rebuild your love and the trust that should be between two sisters. I know that you two can become a family again. She wants very much to be a part of your life." She squeezed Lisa's hand and smiled rea.s.suringly before leaning back in her chair.

"I want that too." Lisa stated as she took a shaky breath. "How do you deal with the danger she goes through? Or was this an exception?"

"I've only known her for three months." Kris grinned at Lisa's surprise. "But I would venture to say that this is par for the course, unfortunately." By the time Kris finished the story of how they met, Raven was awake and leaning against the doorframe. "What are you doing up?" She crossed her arms in front of her chest and glared at the patient.

"I woke up and everybody was gone." Raven looked a little sheepish at her uneasiness of waking up alone. "Besides, I'm hungry." She changed the subject trying to cover up her unaccustomed insecurity.

Kris decided not to question her partner's unusual behavior. "I just put the lasagna in the oven, Taz. We'll eat about 7:00 but if you can't wait I can fix you something now."

Lisa laughed. "I love that nickname. It just seems to fit her so perfectly."

"Hey, just keep laughing, missy and I'll think of one for you." Raven warned her sister as she joined them at the table. "And I can wait until it's ready if I can have some potato chips or cookies or crackers." She pouted more with each suggestion knowing it almost always got her what she wanted.

Kris rolled her eyes and Lisa laughed harder. "You are not going to eat garbage before dinner." Kris refused to look at her, knowing she was pouting, trying to get her way. "How about some oatmeal? I'll put some sugar and cinammon in it and I'll even throw in a few raisins." Besides, Kris didn't want to admit that she had eaten the rest of the cookies earlier that day.

"Okay." Raven thought she better not push her luck.

"So, does Kris have a nickname?" Lisa propped her chin in her hand and rested her elbow on the table.

"Yes she does." Raven replied. "Sagira." She explained to Lisa what it meant then stared at Kris. "Some of us were kind and thinking of the other when we chose them."

"Yes, honey, I know." She placed Raven's bowl of oatmeal on the table in front of her and sat down. "Of course she had to explain that to me, I thought she was calling me short." She told Lisa.

Lisa followed the interaction between the two women but couldn't quite figure them out. They seemed so close to only have known each other a few months. Then it dawned on her and without thinking she suddenly declared, "You're lovers." She slapped her hand over her mouth but it was too late to stop the comment.

Raven and Kris looked at each other in the silence that followed Lisa's outburst. "Yes we are. Does that bother you?" Kris asked in a neutral voice. She didn't want to a.s.sume the worst but she was being cautious none-the-less.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to blurt that out. But you can relax; I think you two make a cute couple. I'm surprised I didn't see it before. Although mother is gonna pitch a fit." Lisa said the last part more to herself.

"What's she got to do with anything?" Raven inquired between bites, her hearing having picked up the mumble.

"I still want her to hear the truth about Philip, from his own mouth and I was hoping she would apologize to you for driving you away and to me for forcing my sister out of my life." Lisa explained resolutely.

Raven finished her last spoonful of oatmeal. "Lisa, I hope you're not going to be too disappointed when that doesn't happen." She leaned back in her chair and regarded her sister seriously.

"Which, Philip admitting it or mother apologizing?" Lisa asked.

"Both actually." Raven clarified.

Lisa leaned back and crossed her arms, observing both women. She could tell that Raven believed what she said but she also thought she could detect a small glimmer of hope in those piercing blue eyes. In some ways she thought Kris was an easier read than Raven and this was one of them. The green eyes were leery and Lisa knew from first hand experience that Kris would do everything in her power to keep her friend from being hurt again especially by the two people that had hurt her the most.

"I've got another idea about how to get Philip to confess, but I'll need your help and your work connections." She looked at her sister. Lisa had convinced herself that the CIA would have all the right contraptions to execute her plan. "I got this idea from watching an old movie last night. It was about this rich older woman's relatives trying to drive her crazy in order to gain control of her money." She noticed Raven's raised eyebrow and took it as a sign of impatience and hurried along. "To make a long story short, I thought we could somehow use projectors and speakers to make Philip think he was being haunted." She finished in a rush and suddenly wondered if the idea seemed as silly as it sounded.

Raven stared at the ceiling for a minute or two before meeting her sister's somewhat hopeful expression. "Let me get this straight. You want to use electronic equipment to make Philip think he's seeing and hearing...Derek."

Lisa nodded her head. "I really don't think Derek would mind if we borrowed him to get at the truth."

"Is that possible?" Kris questioned. "Are there gadgets that can do stuff like that?" She really hoped so; deep down she wanted the coward to come clean.

"That's not my field of expertise but a 3-D image projector and something like a surround sound speaker system would probably be a start." Raven saw the gleam in Lisa's eyes. "This means a lot to you, doesn't it?" 'Maybe seeing Philip squirm a little wasn't such a bad idea.' Raven thought.

"Yes it does." Lisa answered her sister's question. "And I thought that since you worked for the CIA that you'd have access to that kind of stuff." She looked from one to the other. "So is this something we could try?"

Raven glanced at Kris, both thinking the same thing, that Lisa should be told the truth about Raven's work. Raven didn't want to start a new relationship with her sister by lying to her. But anymore discussion on the matter was set aside for later when Granny knocked on the door. Dinner was not the format for revealing what the captain did for a living.

"How is the patient doing?" Granny directed her question at Kris as she put the bread in the second smaller oven, turning it on warm, then joining the other women at the table.

"She, surprisingly behaved herself today. She stayed on the couch until a little while ago, napped a few times this afternoon and has been a good girl and eaten what I've fixed for her without too many complaints." Kris recapped their day so far.

"Good. Food and rest are the best things for her right now." Granny stated.

"You know, you could ask me, I am sitting right here." Raven grumbled.

"Yes, but you wouldn't tell me the truth." Granny shook her finger at the complaining woman in a scolding manner. "Who was it that didn't tell me she had a concussion and couldn't remember what day it was without looking at her watch?" She paused dramatically. "Mmm? Or what about the time?"

"All right, you made your point." Raven interjected.

"When was this?" Kris asked.

"I don't recall." Raven looked at them with a straight face.

"Very funny." Granny said as Lisa rolled her eyes.

"I was only kidding." Raven said to a serious Kris.

"I realize that. But you better never pull that stoic routine with me and not tell me when you're hurt." The young woman grabbed the front of Raven's shirt and leaned forward until they were nose to nose and green eyes were boring into blue ones. "Understand?"

"I understand, love." Raven stole a not so quick kiss and grinned when she heard Kris sigh.

"Sometimes you really frustrate me, Taz." Kris let go of the crumpled shirt and ran her hands over it, trying to smooth it out.

"I'm sorry about that but I really don't think I can do anything about that now since we have company. But if you see me later..." She left the sentence hanging.

"That's not what I mean and you know it." Kris turned red when she realized where her hands were rubbing and the chuckles from the other two women confirmed that they had noticed also.

"Would you like us to give the two of you some privacy, dear?" Granny asked.

"I'm so embarra.s.sed." Kris hid her face in Raven's shirt. Luckily she was saved any further torment by the buzzer on the stove. "Dinner's ready." She jumped up and shooed everyone into the dining room.

After dinner, Granny insisted on clearing the table and cleaning the kitchen. The others made themselves comfortable in the living room.

"Lisa, I need to explain something to you about my work." Raven thought she should spill the beans before their other guest arrived.

But just as she started the doorbell rang and Lisa jumped up. "That's probably Andy, you want me to get it?"

"Be my guest." Kris was content to stay comfortable snuggled next to Raven on the couch.

Lisa quickly headed for the door; she wanted to talk to Andy before he met her sister and Kris. She wasn't sure how he felt about same s.e.x relationships but she was going to make sure he wouldn't stick his foot in his mouth or worse when she introduced them as partners.

"I look at it this way." He explained. "I get to see more than my fare share of hate and violence so when two people love each other, I don't care what combination they come in, I consider it a blessing."

Lisa kissed him on the cheek and led him into the living room. "Andy, this is..."

"Lieutenant Chandler?" Andy grinned and stuck his hand out to her. "You don't remember me, do you?" Still shaking her hand, he addressed Lisa. "You didn't tell me she was your sister." He turned back to Raven.

"I'm sorry but no, I'm afraid I don't remember you." Raven stood as the grinning man still held her hand hostage.

"How do you know my sister and she's a Captain now." Lisa stated rather proudly then realized that Kris was patiently waiting on an introduction. "And this is Kris, Raven's partner. Kris, this is Andy a friend of mine."