She approached the house slowly, giggling to herself, lighting her features in a most attractive way. How surprised Mom and Dad would be when they saw her. How she'd grown since she'd seen them last. How wonderful it would be to be a family again. She giggled again, almost embarrassed by her girlish thoughts. She was a woman now and she looked every one of her twenty years. True, she was a bit too small in the chest and hips, but she had a petite waist and frame and she certainly seemed desireable enough. For that, at least, she was thankful. Her lithe body allowed for her to be a most exciting bed partner - not that she would ever explain to her parents exactly how she knew that. She was, however, rather surprised at the way she had turned out. Blonde hair, blue eyes, and as thin as a twig. Her parents were dark and handsome, filled out and well proportioned. She seemed comely in comparision.

But she was not concerned with her looks at the moment. Far from it. Instead, she was concerned with making her family truely a family - forever. She knew her duty and she knew she wanted to stay with them - damn the consequences. They had made her feel more loved than a lifetime with her mother, father, Fiona, Landon and Giles could have done. With a flourish, she pushed her white-blond hair, now streaked with black from her last dye attempt from her face and stepped onto the porch, raising her hand to knock. The sun was almost up, but she had become quiet fond of drama lately and she, of course, had planned her enterance for this time.

However, her fist never landed on the door and her knuckles never rapped a tune to draw attention. Instead, the door was flung open and her father, the whole bulging mass of him was flung outward and wrapped around her. "Tabby, my Tabby." He murmured in her ear and she felt chills coursing up at down her spine. With an erruption of laughter, she wiggled away from him, crossing her arms over her chest and fluttering the fake lashes she had applied.

"The name's Sariel now."