Author's Notes:

There is a mention of a major character dealing with Alzheimer's in this story. Although the story turns tragic midway, I have no intention of killing anyone, just letting life take a fall and getting up from there. I repeat, I will not go up to the point of killing anyone.

PRESENT.

In all the years that Alex had seen Maura, she hadn't truly seen her broken. She had seen her dejected and downhearted; remorseful and contrite; dismayed and afraid but the despair and the pain that slivered on her face was heart wrenching for her to even fathom. The decision Maura has taken this time was taking every bit of the strength within her to keep her even standing. Maura was breaking inside and Alex could see the pieces falling.

"You don't have to do this M. Stay. Please stay." Alex pleads.

Maura's voice cracks as she voices her words out loud. "No Alex, I cannot. You know that. I can't see her like that. I can't let her see me like that. She will be crushed. I cannot let her fall into pieces right in front of me." She turns away to hide the overwhelming surge of tears that is threatening to spill away.

"What about you? Don't you need her? Don't you need all of us?"

Maura turns back; her eyes welled up and almost glistening like the waters from the shores of a setting sun as she captures Alex's face in the blur. "Of course I do. But I also need to remember her like she is right now Alex. She is my best friend. I want her to be happy. I want every one of you to stay happy and have a happy and content life that you all deserve."

Alex takes a step towards Maura but Maura steps back pleadingly and she hesitates.

"You are my sister M. I love you and I can't see you like this." Alex eventually says.

"And you don't have to. Please."

Before Alex can say another word, Maura takes her hand and gives a gentle squeeze as if right in that moment she was fulfilling all her promises that she had ever made to her younger sister. Alex was not really her sister by blood. Maura was adopted into the family before Alex was even born but that had never made any difference in her love and adoration for her little angel. She cherished what beautiful memories she held with her and Alex knew that.

Maura looks one last time at Alex, with shreds of pain already tearing her apart and she moves out of the door way of the home that has been theirs for the past seven years but no more.

SEVEN YEARS BEFORE.

It was nine months into the year and the summers had already said their goodbyes. Everything around was enwrapped into a fainter shade of the autumn blue sky while the leaves on the trees were giving a final farewell to the branches they once clung to in the brightest colors they could possibly be in. Maura had always been in love with autumn after her eternal love for spring. She had always associated autumn with an end to a beginning and a beginning to an end simultaneously. She found it bittersweet every time she let the sweet breeze of autumn caress her tethered soul. There was no malice or regrets and she could hear the echoes of promises that life made there and then. It was a new beginning for her today in the city of Boston as she was about to join as the Chief Medical Examiner of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It had been a dream for her and it was finally coming true. However she was as much afraid as she was excited. She was never good with a change of place. She had moved here a few days back with her little sister Alex who was starting her first year in BCU. As much she loved the new views and the clear open skies here in Boston, she was afraid of people. People, the living kind specifically, made her nervous and anxious. She wasn't shy, but her social skills never met the appropriate standard for the people she met. She had seen too much dejection that came when people failed to appreciate her or even acknowledge her for who she was just because she held the world in a different light. She loved to learn. She never let anything else come in the way of her appreciation of everything. She cherished the awe she had for the life and things around her. It was this and her unblemished devotion that she was who she was today, a brilliant professional in her field. But in the most unusual ways this made her inept with people. With all the mockery and denunciation that was thrown along her way for her goofiness and sheer adoration for knowledge, she had learnt to adore things and fear people. As a result what people saw of her was always veiled and presented. The real Maura was lost somewhere in the depths of her own soul, safely tucked away only in Maura's reach. It was only for one person that she had ever opened up even the tiniest window to her soul and that was her little sister Alex; and Alex reciprocated all the love ten times over, doused in flirts and fights that only closest siblings could share. For Alex, her elder sister had always been her soul keeper and she never wanted to let that go, even if she never admitted to it.

"M, I am leaving, getting late. See you later." Alex said out loud towards the kitchen without even turning as she sped down the stairs towards the door.

"Hey, hey, hey! Wait right there little Miss Alex! Where do you think you are leaving without having breakfast?" Maura teasingly scolded, as she brought up Alex's lunch bag.

Alex winked and took the bag, pecked a kiss on Maura's cheek and then sped up as fast as she could, shouting as she moved in haste. "I had coffee! Good luck with your first day! Don't be afraid. You have me to torture you enough!"

Maura stood there chuckling endearingly as she watched her sister dashing away. She picked up her own lunch and bag and as she stepped outside locking the front door, she let her erratic heartbeat fall back into rhythm as she whispered to herself, "Here goes nothing."

Chapter End Notes: I am inspired to write a fully fledged multi-chapter story. If this first chapter sounds promising and good to you, please drop a review and I will continue. Favorites, follows and reviews are so much appreciated. Thank you for reading.