Disclaimer: I do not own Switched at Birth

This means point of view.

This means ASL.

"This means ASL and spoken English at the same time."

Toby

Bay and I were staring rather awkwardly at one another, neither one of us was exactly sure what to say. I had been shocked when Daphne told me about the mix up at the hospital and even more surprised by the solution our parents had devised: pretending it hadn't happened at all. But what really bothered me about the whole thing was something else entirely; when Daphne told me the other girl's name I felt as if I had been dunked into a vat of ice-cold water. I remember my parents telling me once that I had confused my imaginary friend with my sister, an imaginary friend I had called Bay.

Did I even really remember her? I knew her name, but I wasn't sure how much I could even trust my fuzzy memory. And how did I even talk to her, she had told me that speaking louder didn't make me any easier to understand and Daph had taught me only three words in ASL before she rushed out of the garage saying she had just remembered something and she wanted to go get it.

Bay shifted uncomfortably, smiling in a very forced way when she caught me looking.

"So," she said looking around the garage, "you like to play guitar?"

"Yeah," I said grasping at anything to make this situation less awkward.

"My friend Emmett plays the drums." Bay's face lights up when she mentions her friend.

"Cool, my band has a drummer but he's kind of flakey."

We lapsed back into silence.

Bay

Toby seemed nice enough, a little unsure of how to act but considering the situation that was to be expected. Dealing with deaf people for the first time was always awkward for hearing people, that compounded with our unorthodox history made the entire situation feel...weird. I mean I liked him I guess, but I didn't really know him.

The garage was filled with Toby's music gear and a whole host of sports paraphernalia. Never having been athletic myself I wondered how much time the Kenishes must play if they had so much stuff.

Daphne told me that she played basketball for her school's team but that she, Toby, and their Dad liked most sports and followed them with a passion I didn't understand.

I looked at Toby, he looked as if he wanted to say something but wasn't sure how. His head jerked around as the garage was filled with light as Daphne opened the door and came in holding a dark blue box.

Daphne

Bay and Toby looked relieved when I rejoined them, as if I was some sort of buffer for them. I wondered how long their relief would last when I showed them what was in the box.

Daphne.

"Daphne, what did you find?"

I lurched forward, my eagerness making me clumsy. "Look at this!" I was excited and nervous at the same time. I dropped to the floor and opened the box that was stuffed full of photographs, but they weren't of me or Toby, they were photos of Bay.

I watched as her big brown eyes opened wide in surprise, her head jerked up and she looked at me for an explanation.

"Where did you get these?" She sounded angry as well as scared. She picked up one picture in particular and brandished it in front of her. "I remember this, it was my eighth birthday. How did you get this?"

"I found it in a box my mom keeps in her closet, I remember her looking at them a few years ago, I didn't think anything of it until I met you."

Bay looked like she had been clubbed over the head with something heavy. She turned back to the photos scattered around her, skimming her fingers over them lightly as if they might break apart with the lightest touch. Suddenly her head shot up and there was a wild look in her eyes.

"What?!" I said wondering what she had thought of that bothered her so much.

"My mom has this old guitar case in our garage, but she doesn't play guitar, she never played guitar. One day my friend Emmett and I were using it to hold up part of out sheet fort, and when my mom saw she grabbed it told us not to touch the case again."

I suddenly saw where she was going with this.

"You think your parents have photos of me?"

"I think they would exchange photographs, I mean how else would your parents end up with these?" She gestured around her at the scattered pictures that went back to when she was very small, only a toddler. They weren't taken from a distance, if anything they felt intimate, something that would have been missed, unless they had been given to my parents. Suddenly it seemed entirely plausible that Bay's parents would have my pictures.

I jumped to my feet, "Do you think you could find the guitar case?"

Bay looked surprised. "I think so; do you really want to see it?"

She actually had to ask? "Of course I want to see it! If they have my pictures then it means they cared about even though I wasn't really theirs."

Bay gave me an uncomfortable smile but nodded her head. "I can understand that," she said sadly looking at the photo she still held in her hand. Her expression went from thoughtful to concerned in about half a second.

"Toby, are you alright?"

Toby was staring at a picture of Bay from when she was quite little, maybe only two years old. And Toby looked liked he was frozen staring at it.

Bay leaned forward and shook his shoulder. "Toby!"

"I remember you." His voice was so calm and quiet but there was an undercurrent of another emotion there. "I remember you Bay. Mom and dad told me I made you up but I didn't did I?" His eyes filled with tears, and the next words were so soft I almost missed them. "I'm sorry I forgot you."

Bay was still for a moment, then she threw herself at him and pulled him in for a hug.

I was surprised; Toby wasn't really a hugging kind of person and Bay didn't seem that way either, but seeing them together I understood. They had almost been siblings, in fact they had been siblings, if only for a short time.

I realized I was crying as well, crying for the family that could have been. I dashed forward and embraced them both.

What a mess we were, the lot of us.

Bay

Wow, I never realized what a mess our garage was. Two cars, twenty years of accumulated memorabilia, and four teenagers. How were we going to find one guitar case in all of this?

Whose idea was this? Emmett looked like he had been told he was going to be spending time in a hearing school when I had asked him to help me, Daphne, and Toby to find the guitar case that probably held Daphne's pictures.

Mine. Emmett its important to both of us to know if my parents have pictures of Daphne. Stop being so rude, they're actually nice.

Emmett just gave me a disbelieving look and went back to the shelf in front of him.

I just sighed. Emmett was still trying to protect me from the unkindness he knew the hearing world could come up with. But I knew that Daphne and I were going to be friends, good friends. Our lives had been twisted together when we were switched at birth and now that couldn't simply be undone; we were part of each other. Besides I actually did like her.

I pushed aside a stack of old magazines and became engulfed in a cloud of dust. Okay this is ridiculous, where is that guitar case?

Daphne

Shoved between the wall and a shelf filled with cookbooks was a slightly battered guitar case. We'd been looking for at least half an hour but now that I'd found it I was almost scared to open it. If when never opened it there would always be a chance it was filled with my pictures, but if we opened it and it didn't contain my photos then it would never have my photos.

What if we were wrong and Bay's parents didn't have pictures of me at all, what if they had given me up and never thought about me again? I didn't know why, but I so badly wanted them to miss me. Was that selfish? Probably, but this was an unusual situation, maybe I was allowed to be selfish.

"Daphne?"

My name snapped me out of my reverie and I turned to look at the others. Bay and Toby looked concerned, and Emmett looked like he thought there was something wrong with me; maybe there was.

"I found it." My voice was tight with nerves but I managed a smile as I pulled the case from where it had been hidden.

Bay

We placed the case on the floor in my studio, and without having to say a word Daphne and I each reached for one of the clasps and opened the lid.

Author's note: I am so sorry it has taken longer than a year for me to update. This chapter is for every single person who has given me encouragement over the last year, seriously you all have no idea how much just a few words mean to me. I have been battling some personal demons and have emerged victorious so you all can expect more to this story, and more to the second story I have written called Weeping Willow. As always I would love it if you would leave a response, even a few words can brighten someones day.