Irreplaceable

With one final nudge from the left shoulder, Kate managed to get the door open and she stepped inside. The first thing she did was put down her brown paper bag containing an egg sandwich and a partially eaten donut, then the coffee, and she could finally breathe a sigh of relief at having not dropped anything. She walked back and closed the door. But it wasn't until she turned back to get settled in that she noticed something very different about her boyfriend's living room.

Either it was a very large sex doll Cooper forgot to tell her he owned or some homeless woman had broken in and made themselves more than a little comfortable on his couch.

Kate stepped forward slowly, gradually getting a better look at her as she did. She was an attractive girl and the thin black dress that she was wearing left little about her appearance to the imagination. The possibility that Cooper may have been paying for sex makes her head spin more and more by the moment. Kate felt the next few moments would determine the future of her entire three-year relationship with her boyfriend. She leaned over to get a good look at the little harlot's face...

Ferah was awoken from her near-hibernation in a much different manner than she expected. As movie cliché as it sounded, she imagined Cooper lightly tapping her shoulder or shaking her leg. She would wake up to a full breakfast plate on the table that her loving big brother got up early to make for her. The two would try and get caught up on the last few years and it would feel like old times, with her happy to be in the gaze of the most handsome and genuine person she knew. The man she held as the gold standard for what she wanted in a man.

That fantasy was ripped away when she opened her eyes and saw another woman standing over her.

Both girls screamed, obviously.

The standard trope for this situation would be that Cooper comes running into the room like a bat out of hell, maybe holding something like a makeshift weapon to defend himself, probably in his underwear and a t-shirt only to realize there is no threat and they would both just stand there awkwardly staring at each other.

Imagine that except Cooper is completely naked. Yep.

Neither girl can ignore this fact as before he can cover himself, they both caught sight of his morning wood as it swung in front of him. No one said a word as Cooper quickly excused himself and threw on a pair of shorts and the first thing he could find that looked like a shirt, as both girls decided to keep their rather vulgar and lewd comments to themselves.

After dressing himself and returning to the living room, he made the necessary introductions only for neither girl to say anything. The two just stared daggers at each other. Desperate to break the tension, Cooper asked what the issue was.

Without breaking eye contact, Kate replied "You never told me you had a little sister, Cooper." Ferah immediately looked down, both embarrassed and hurt by her admission.

"Katie, I did tell you I had a sister. It's the only thing I've told you about my family." Cooper replied. Katie went quiet while Ferah chose to speak up,

"You, uh, never told me you had a girlfriend, Cooper."

"Ferah, you've been here for about eight hours. I let you in and went to bed five minutes later. It didn't seem like the time to give you a full autobiography. Seriously, what is going on right now?"

"It's nothing, Cooper." Kate said as she reached a hand out to Ferah, "It's nice to meet you, Ferah. I never thought I'd get to meet anyone from Cooper's family." Kate said, forcing a smile that in no way felt genuine.

"Nice to meet you too," Ferah said, returning the insincere gesture with one of her own. Cooper then did his best to change the subject, sensing the encounter had not gone well in any way. "Anyone want breakfast?"

---

"So how long exactly is she going to be staying with you?" Katie asked as she started up the car with Cooper in the passenger seat. After realizing that he didn't have time to cook anything, he just opted to leave some money for his sister and go in early for work with his girlfriend. He decided to try a more individual approach to this little dilemma of his.

"I don't know, Katie. I haven't even had a chance to figure out why she's here yet. I told you, this whole thing came up out of nowhere."

"You told me you had no contact with anyone in your family. How did she even find you?"

"I don't know, she said she looked me up or something. I honestly don't remember much from last night. It was late and we were both tired."

"I'm sure being up late wouldn't be an issue for someone like her..." Kate mumbled under her breath. Cooper just glanced over at her but didn't seem to hear her remark. She played it cool and he just looked ahead again. Thinking about what he relayed to her about the situation, something did not add up.

"Cooper, you were basically locked up for five years. There's no discernable way she got any of your records from where you were. Does it not bother you that she just turned up like that out of thin air?" Katie said, sounding increasingly annoyed as the two approached the highway.

"Why are you so fixated on this? I know you guys didn't exactly hit it off this morning, but what was I supposed to do? She's my sister. I wasn't just going to leave her out there." Cooper said, now confused and annoyed at the tone of the conversation.

"Oh, so I'm supposed to be okay with walking into my boyfriend's apartment at eight in the morning and seeing some random girl that you have been avoiding for years on his couch?" Katie blurted out, and almost immediately regretted it.

Cooper just glared ahead, going completely silent. Katie tried to apologize but in his mind, the discussion was now done. They rode in silence for the rest of the trip. He spent the next several hours doing his best to take his frustrations and put them into his work. It didn't go too well and he opted to get a Lyft home, texting Katie to enjoy her night before he left.

---

Cooper arrived home to find his sister passed out on the couch, the TV remote lying on the floor behind her while a reality show played at half volume. He looked around and could see she had kept herself busy, as it looked like every surface in his apartment had been thoroughly cleaned, including his fridge and even his bathroom.

Ferah put a stamp on this place, which was the most positive thought he had all day.

He changed in his room before plopping himself down at the foot of the couch in the little area between the arm and his sleeping sister. He put one of her feet in his lap, fighting the urge to look any higher. His sister had changed into a plain tank top and one of his pairs of boxers. As far as the skill of the subtle allure, she was winning. He now found himself having to fight the attraction that came with seeing what his sister had grown into. Putting his dirty mind aside, he lifted his sister's foot and spread the area between her big toe and the toe next to it. He lightly scratched the soft area between the two, only for Ferah to nearly take his head off as her leg shot forward. She jumped up with a giggle and had he not reached forward and grabbed her arm, she would have fallen off the couch.

"Don't! You know I've always hated that, Coop," she said with a pout.

"Sorry. Just wanted to see if it still worked," he replied with a half-smile on his face. Just looking at him, she could see he wasn't feeling like himself.

"It's okay. A better question is, what's up with you?" she asked as she somewhat straightened herself out as she sat next to him.

He let out a sigh, "Nothing. I've had a long day, let's just leave it at that." Cooper replied, deciding against mentioning anything that happened after he and Katie left earlier that day. "That being said, I remember saying we needed to talk. Now would probably be a good time."

"You sure you want to do this now?"

"I'm fine. I just want to get it all out there today. I need to know what's going down, but I can't do that until we talk."

Ferah was still concerned but relented in his request and agreed to talk. The two walked to the table and sat on opposite ends of each other. She felt an intense pressure being directly under his gaze with everything that has happened between them and the thoughts swimming through her mind, so she took a moment to herself before she opened up.

Ferah Ferguson had been living in a nightmare for the last several years.

vi

There also needs to be something established about their parents.

Wilma and George Ferguson were regarded as two of the country's psychological experts. What put them on the map quickly amongst scholars was a six-year study the two had independently funded that led to a major discovery in the understanding of the brain of early children. Their work is seen as the pinnacle of independent science in the last twenty years and the two were financially successful but also highly regarded within the Las Vegas community. They had it all.

Cooper and Ferah were the subjects of their parents' experiment. That study is their early childhood. But the questions stayed with the two for a very long time after the books were sold and their parents were somewhat famous: Were we their kids or their Guinea pigs?

As they aged, they began to catch on to their parents referring to their research a lot when it came to dealing with them. They were put through IQ tests to 'better improve their cognitive abilities and generally didn't spend much quality time with them. They were never able to determine if their parents gave a damn about them, so the two heavily leaned on each other for everything.

That is until he was sent to a specialized mental facility for brutally attacking his best friend.

After Cooper was taken from her she became heavily depressed, blaming herself for him being sent away. For several months after, she ate little and talked even less. She also refused any counseling their parents tried to push on her, fighting tooth and nail with them to just be left alone, only seeming to care about the next time she would see him. They then settled on an ultimatum: either she would do what they asked of her or she would be forbidden to go with them.

She chose the option to go to their good friend, another psychologist within the field who was unable to get anything out of her either despite months of digging. By that time, their parents broke the agreement by cutting off direct contact with Cooper after he refused to take part in an extensive psychological study the two of them approved.

That had been the last straw for her. With just a week to go before her eighteenth birthday, Ferah skipped her mandated session and ran away from home.

She left behind much of her belongings and had little money to her name and only enough clothes to last her a few days max. None of that mattered to her. She was going to find her brother, no matter what. Before leaving, she had gone through at least a hundred of her parents' private files until she found the documents they had been keeping on Cooper. They stopped interacting with him but had no problem with collecting his data from the counselors. Finding his whereabouts had proven difficult, but with luck, she was able to get her brother's address.

Ferah spent the next several weeks hitchhiking through most of Nevada and Utah before running out of steam by the time she crossed into Colorado. By this point, she was out of money, most of her clothes had been lost after a trucker in Salt Lake drove off with one of her three duffle bags and she was running out of steam.

Her luck changed when she befriended a barista who offered her a job helping out around the bar. The middle-aged woman owned the place and allowed Ferah to sleep nights in the employee area as long as she had it all cleared out by the next day when the bar opened.

She worked exclusively for several months as a waitress, slowly getting into the habit of drinking by starting with coworkers after the bar closed and ending with her needing a light buzz to get through work. Before long, she had gone through more than half her savings and was getting worried that she would never reach her brother at the rate she was going. She had taken her eyes off the prize.

Ferah decided then and there to get sober and get herself back on track. Cooper was waiting for her. On the final night before her sobriety would begin, she agreed to one last session with her friends from the bar and town.

An hour and several drinks in, a man offered her $500 to have sex with him. With nothing but the amount of money in her mind and lacking the sense to tell him she was not interested, she agreed with enough dirty dancing and pills passed on the dance floor between sex-crazed young adults. To avoid anyone finding out, he agreed to go to a nearby motel after the bar closed and she would just let herself in through the back door once they were done and she left.

Unfortunately, it then became a habit of hers to sell herself and down the memory with alcohol and pills. This went on for a few months, by which time she was severely depressed for the second time and developed a hopeless attitude that the owner eventually took notice of.

Faced with the idea of losing what little life she had managed to build for herself and losing all hope of seeing her brother she quit drinking again, this time committing her focus to why she was doing all this.

A now sober and smarter Ferah used the money to buy a few small things for herself such as some clothes and a cheap cellphone as well as a functioning car from a lot near the bar. Not long after her nineteenth birthday she packed up what little she had and made it to Indianapolis before the car broke down. Ferah used the rest of her money to pay for a bus ticket to Toledo, hopeful the address was accurate and that she would finally see her brother for the first time in years. Once there, it was as simple as asking for directions before she found him again.

Cooper didn't know what to say. Had she put herself through all of that just to find him? The idea itself made Cooper emotional as his eyes started to well up.

"You okay, Coop?" Ferah asked him.

"Uh, yeah..." Cooper said as he wiped his eyes, "I'm just really glad you made it here. I can't believe you did all that just to find me. You just up and left home."

She chuckled. "Leaving was the easiest part. I just got tired of their mind games, Coop. It didn't even feel like leaving home when I left. Maybe it was because you weren't there with me but by the time the idea came around, it felt more like planning a prison break than running away, which I imagine means we have that in common." Cooper just nodded as he thought to himself for a few moments.

Finally, he settled on what would happen next. "Ferah, you're staying with me."

"Are you sure, Cooper? Even after all I told you? You're not disgusted by me? I wouldn't blame you if you were. Just thinking about it-"

Her thoughts were interrupted by Cooper's embrace as he took a hold of her hand and pulled her up before bringing her in for a firm yet comforting hug. She melted into his arms, allowing herself to cry softly into his shoulder. He didn't mind the wetness slowly soaking the side of his shirt, all that mattered to him was making sure his little sister was all right.

"I love you, Ferah. Please stay." Cooper said to her. That seemingly broke the damn she had built over the last few years as she began to cling to him as if one of them were dying. The tears began to fall pretty heavily now but he stood strong and held her up the whole time.

"Welcome home, Ferah."

The two spent the night huddled together on the couch. Cooper sat straight with Ferah snuggled into his side fast asleep, a smile on her face that felt genuine for the first time in years. It may have been only two days, but she knew this is where she wanted to be. The same could be said for the person she was with, but for now, she was just happy with what she had.

---

That night proved to be a turning point in their relationship. Ferah sought a root to establish in the area outside of Cooper as well as a way to show her gratitude, and she was in luck. She took up a job at a market in town about two weeks after she first arrived after the elderly man posted a help wanted sign while she and Cooper had been walking by. The pay was fair by modern standards, and it meant she and Cooper arrived home around the same time every day. It also gave her time to adjust to being back around him while she worked up the nerve to have an even bigger conversation.

Cooper quickly began to relish her company. It helped that she shared several similar interests to him, mostly things Kate had always rejected like comics and alternative music. It was clear that their bond had not diminished in their years away from each other. It only grew stronger after Cooper managed to give Ferah the biggest surprise of her life nearly a month after she arrived back into his life.

Cooper didn't own a car. He had been allowed to use the car of an elderly neighbor who took a liking to him after he helped search for his granddaughter's dog when the puppy went missing for three days. It helped that the puppy ended up in Cooper's basement. The old man became a friend to him and gave him rights to the car as long as he ran errands for him when he needed things.

He knew the rules and protocols because one of his classmates from Saint Rita's owned an updated Driver's Ed manual and with little contact with the outside world, he took the manual as something to occupy his time. He aced his driving test and got a license just a month after being dismissed. This set the stage for Cooper's big reveal. On the day in question, Cooper had lied to Ferah about having to work and took his neighbor, Mr. Dawkins, on a little road trip.

The two were gone the whole day, leaving Ferah confused when she got home and he wasn't there and worried when she couldn't reach him. Around eight that night, Cooper called and asked her to come outside. She was shocked to see her brother sitting on the hood of the car she was forced to leave in Indianapolis after it shut down and she couldn't pay to fix it. Cooper managed to track down the car in an alley in Indy and paid to have it towed and repaired, with a small piece of debris lodged within the engine being the main issue with the vehicle. He called a week in advance and waited until it was ready to go and collect it.

Ferah tackled Cooper again, but this time he was strong enough to stay on his feet. She cried into his shoulder as hard as she could, causing Cooper to panic at the idea that maybe he had gotten the wrong car or something. She looked up and he saw the beautiful smile on her face and felt his heart jump. With her vehicle she aptly named Redeem, she became his official chauffeur to and from work, and anywhere else they wanted to go. He was glad to see her adjusting as well as she was, while she was waging a war in her mind over her feelings for him.

While the two of them seemed to get closer and closer by the day, the same could not be said for Cooper and Kate. The two didn't break up, but it became clear to his girlfriend that she was quickly being replaced as Cooper's top priority. Interactions at work had become both brief and awkward, and he rarely talked to her outside of the office after telling her he needed some space during a phone call maybe a week after their little conversation. This only intensified after she found out she had been driving him around in her absence.

One day at work while he was on break, she pulled him aside and lashed out at him for essentially ghosting her. He argued that he told her he needed space and she shouldn't read so much into it.

Kate did not respond well to this. She tried to cause a scene but he promised her he would talk outside of work if she just let the rest of the day play out.