My Sister’s Keeper

As Brian takes the stand, Sara looks at his face and thinks about the features of him that she still loves, even though he’s changed so much over the years. She gets up to question him but ends up reminiscing about bringing the kids on an aimless road trip until they ended up in a dark cabin. Brian joins in, talking about how they lit candles and stayed inside all week to avoid the flies; it was a terrible place and a wonderful experience. Sara asks if Anna would miss these experiences if Kate was gone, and Brian says that they all would. In an instant, Sara and Brian are on the same page again; she realizes that, though they’ve disagreed on the details, they’ve accomplished so much together. Sara finishes her cross-examination by asking Brian when he’s coming home.

During a recess, Sara goes to the courthouse basement to buy something from the vending machines. Brian comes down and recommends the Oreos, putting in the coins to buy them for her. The two of them sit down at a table, where Sara admits to him that she had no idea what to say to him on the stand. She then asks him if he thinks they’re good parents. Brian says he doesn’t know, wondering if anyone does. He puts an Oreo in her mouth and delicately brushes the crumbs from her lips.

That night, Brian and Anna move back home. Before returning to the hospital, Sara goes into Anna’s room to talk to her. She tells Anna that she’s not bad for wanting to be her own person, and that it’s okay to have turned out differently than the person everyone expected her to become. She gives the example of a kid who’s bullied at one school but is popular at a new one because nobody had any expectations of her. Anna says she’s not making much sense, and Sara says that what she’s trying to say is that Anna reminds her of herself.

Sara muses about how, when you’ve been with the same person for so long, they start to feel like a well-worn map—until one day, you find an unfamiliar turnoff that you wonder if you’ve missed all along. That night, Brian lies next to Sara in bed and begins to kiss her, then bites her lip hard enough to draw blood. He then licks it off, surprising her. He then puts his head on her belly, a familiar gesture he did when she was pregnant. The two start to have sex. At one point, Sara says, “We’re going to lose her,” not knowing if she’s talking about Anna or Kate. Brian kisses her and tells her to stop, and they don’t talk anymore.