A/N: I couldn't remember Susanna's boyfriend's name, (I couldn't remember if it was Tony or Toby, so if you review please put in the name if you know!)

Crossing Paths: A Girl, Interrupted Story

Chapter One: Meet Me in the Middle

It had been five lonely years since Susanna had been released from Claymoore. Nothing much had changed. Only her friends. Still, she felt no one could replace her old ones, and it was true.

Every morning as shewas unlocking the doors to the bookstore she had been working at, she would mull over each and every one of them- Of the people who had touchd her life back at Claymoore. She had seen most of them since. She had seen Polly and Janet both. She almost missed the place. Susanna had never been the kind of person who survived off of knowing she was crazy, in fact, she wasn't even sure that that was true. What is crazy anyway? But more of what she missed was the community. The family that she had formed there. The bond that was closer than a real family. It was something that had stayed with her all these years. She missed Lisa. Lisa. The one person who hadn't found her in all these years. The person, Susanna knew deep down, would never escape.

So, Susanna woke up one morning and went through her natural routine. She got dressed, fed Ruby. (Polly had given her back after she formed an allergy to her) and left for work, where she had the responsibility of getting there early to unlock, and staying late to lock up. And every day as she fumbled with the keys, hugging herself to keep warm from the cool morning air, she wondered the same thing. Will I ever see her?

So this morning, like any other morning, she unlocked the doors before sunrise. She walked to the back desk, next to the register, and she sat down and wrote in her journal. She was writing her first book. She already knew it was going to be published, but she didn't know why she knew.

She had been writing for nearly ten minutes when thee sound of the opening door and the ding that signaled the entrance of a customer interrupted her t

thoughts. She didn't look up at first. She stayed hunched over her papers, scribbling furiously on her notepad, but at the sound of the persons voice, she came too, and startled, looked up.

"Hey Suzie Q!" Came the familiar voice. "I was beginning to think I'd never see you again!"

Susanna had to think for a second. She had so much to take in. It was Lisa! "Lisa! Hey- I-." she cut herself off, embracing her friend.

"Hey! I missed you." Lisa said, sounding completely adaptive, off the bat. Susanna was so proud of her, just by looking at her, she could already see a world of difference.

Lisa sat down in Susanna's office chair and spun around in it.

"God, how have you been?" She asked, blonde hair chasing her frail body as the chair spun around and around.

"Great. I- I've been great." Susanna replied. "What about you? How long have you been-?"

"Um they let me out about two years ago. When I found out I was pregnant." Lisa said, stopping the movement of the chair and looking cautiously at Susanna. She felt the intensity of a thousand knives baring down on her at the touch of Susanna's stare.

"Oh. Oh- That's- That's great Lisa!" Susanna forced. She was so scared of how to react. She didn't want to be happy if Lisa was sad about it, and she didn't want to be sad about it if Lisa was happy.

"Um yeah. Little girl. Susan Abigail. Abby." Lisa replied further. She felt ashamed, and she hated that part of herself. The part of her that was ashamed of being a mother. She felt like she wasn't good enough. Maybe she was right. "But- But what about you. Are you still with whats-his-face?"

"Tony. We broke up two weeks go." Susanna replied, still concentrating on Lisa's daughter's name. The Susan was after her, she knew it immediately and it touched her.

"Oh. Oh- I'm sorry." Lisa replied, cautiously, mentally kicking herself. Good job, Lisa, you broke her heart about her boyfriend all over again. Shut up! Keep the conversation light! It's been five years!

"It was over before it started. We were just hurting eachother by staying together." Susanna explained. "So tell me about you? What have you been doing? It's been forever!"

"Uh- I…" Lisa began. She was trying so hard to stay off of those hard core subjects. Susanna took notice that Lisa appeared to be surpressing tears. Her lips puckered together, forming a circle around her mouth, outlines of pink painted her face and she closed her eyes to hide the tears. "Well, they're taking Abby away from me." She managed at last, voice highlighted with shakiness.

"What? Why?" Susanna asked.

"I uh- I was 'unfit'." She replied. "In other words, I couldn't afford her, or my house or my car or school, or daycare…" She finished, stabling herself.

"Oh my God! How could they-." She started.

"I'm uh- I'm going back to Claymoore, Suzie." Lisa said tearfully.

"What?" Susanna begged. "That's absurd! Why?"

"It's the only place I can go right now." She replied.

"No, no." Susanna said, shaking her head in denial. She never could have imagined Lisa leading this life. She just assumed she would have never gotten out to begin with.

"Yeah." Lisa said, but it came out as a whisper. She began to choke on her own pain, but she forced herself to regain composure.

"Why- Why don't you stay with me? Tony's moved out. You can even bring Abby!" Susanna suggested. Lisa looked at her in ridicule. She knew right away this was a bad idea.

"No, Susanna. I don't think that's a-." Lisa began to protest, but her words were cut off.

"I insist. Please Lisa." Susanna said, blinking back tears. She couldn't stand to see Lisa or even little Abby this way. She would do anything to fix it.

"Susanna, it's me and a one year old kid." Lisa almost scolded. "It's not a good idea."

Susanna stared at Lisa. Lisa stared at Susanna. Both girls' eyes narrowed with venom. Lisa rose from her seat.

"I should probably go." She said, turning and walking to the door.

"No, Lisa, wait." Susanna protested. Lisa's hand dropped from the door and she walked back over to Susanna.

"Are..You.. Sure?" She asked, forcing the tears away from her eyes.

"Yes, Lisa." Susanna replied.

"I'll stay with you a week, then we can talk about where we go from there." Lisa agreed, and then proceeded to leave.